Title: 100 Steps To Somewhere

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Claim: Cloud/Riku

Theme:050. Night

Word Count: 1,950

Rating: M

Summary: Riku needs to follow his instincts. Cloud can't stop watching.

Musical Inspiration: Kingdom Hearts II OST – 'Riku'

Disclaimer: I wish, okay? It's all lies. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, I don't know anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts, and I am not affiliated with anyone who is affiliated with anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts. I think that about covers it.

Step Fifty: On The Outside

Cloud sat on the bed, Buster Sword in hand. His fingers trembled around the hilt. He gripped tighter, increasing the pressure in hopes to steady his weapon, but it only shook stronger and more visibly. Cloud took a series of deep breaths and closed his eyes. The anxiety boiled within him, and Cloud could practically feel it rushing through his veins. His heart beat fast, his breath quickened, and the thumping that turned his stomach traveled up to settle in his head. His brain felt ready to implode.

As thick and heavy as the tension was within him, it failed to compare with the strain hanging in the room. After all the lengthy talks and introspection, after all the promises that things would work out, he thought it would be easier to keep hope alive. This sensation wasn't nagging; it weighed on his entire body, crushing his lungs. The feeling of loss and the suggestion that things were about to change clawed at his skin. Pain and fear seized his limbs.

Cloud hadn't slept since last night. He spent the day in bed thinking more than he should, arms wrapped around Riku's body, whispering prayers to anyone that might listen. His fingers raked through Riku's hair, he touched the planes of Riku's face, kissed Riku's eyelids . . . anything to memorize every detail. His bangs were so long now, covering his eyes almost as much as the blindfold. His face had matured. He'd grown so much taller. So much had changed. It would be a year next month.

They'd changed as people, too. Cloud had always thought he'd been open with Riku. Was concerned about him since the day they met, but it was so much more now. More worries, more problems, and though Riku had become so much stronger than that boy he met at Maleficent's castle, the darkness was still there. The form had changed, his vision cleared, and perhaps even his priorities were worked out, but Riku continued to fight for redemption. He still sought for peace with himself.

Cloud stared at the floor, unable to lift his head and watch as Riku pulled on the Organization cloak. A clang sounded as Riku grabbed the Way to the Dawn and strapped it to his side. The cloak fell forward, concealing its presence.

"You're going to cover for me, right?" said Riku. "Make sure no one else gets involved?"

Cloud nodded.

"Yeah."

"And once Roxas shows up, I want you to leave. Come back here, okay? I don't want you to see what might happen."

Cloud closed his eyes and took a breath.

"Riku . . ."

"Please. I don't . . . I don't want you to see me like that. I don't want this to be a memory you have to associate with me. This pre-battle stuff is bad enough."

"What if you need help? What if someone else comes along?"

Riku sighed. Cloud opened his eyes and lifted his head. He caught Riku's gaze, and his heartbeat quickened. Riku's eyes were firm and unyielding no matter how much hesitation and fear swam behind it. Even orange, Riku was there, peering back at him. Cloud rubbed the back of his neck.

"You can't help me," said Riku. "This is my battle. I don't want you to have to watch me get hurt."

"You're not going to . . ."

"I am. Roxas is tough, okay? I don't want to put you through that. I actually think it might be worse than you sitting here and not knowing."

"I don't know about that."

"Please. For me."

Cloud nodded.

"Okay."

"I'll come back for you once I've got Roxas, okay? Then you can show me the way to Twilight Town, get your Gummi, and set off. You're going back to Hollow Bastion, right?"

". . . Yeah."

"Tell everyone I said hi."

"I will."

Riku grabbed the blindfold from the table and wrung it in his hands.

"I'm going to miss you."

"I'm not leaving yet."

"I know. It's just . . ."

"I know."

Riku inhaled, nodded, and walked over to Cloud. He pried one hand away from the Buster Sword and placed the blindfold in his palm. Riku turned away and kneeled. Cloud hesitated, and then leaned his sword against the bed; he strung the material across Riku's eyes.

"You ready?" said Cloud.

"As ready as I'm going to get considering the circumstances."

"That's all you can hope for, I guess." Cloud finished tying the knot and patted Riku on the shoulder. "All set."

"All right." Riku stood and turned his face toward the door. The hesitant aura radiating from him started to diminish. Riku lifted his head. "Let's do this."

Cloud continued to sit on the bed. He watched Riku stride forward, a newfound resolve in place as he found the doorknob without issued and left the room. Taking a moment, Cloud ran his hands through his hair one more time. He grabbed his sword, took one last look around the room, and left, closing the door behind him.

Riku hung by the exit at the bottom of the stairs. He turned his face toward Cloud at the creaking of the stairs. When Cloud reached the bottom, he flung open the door. Riku stepped through, paused just outside, and turned right, walking down the alleyway and away from Cloud toward the Organization's stronghold. Cloud followed, stopping at the end of the alley. Riku turned to him.

"You stay here, then."

"Yep. Where are you going?"

Riku moved his head back and forth as if looking for a good place, but as he couldn't see, Cloud assumed he was sniffing the area out. He paused, frowning, and then pointed up.

"There."

Cloud followed his motion. His eyes widened.

"You mean the top of that very large skyscraper-type building?"

Riku bit his lip.

"Uh huh. Yeah."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Something just tells me that that's where I'm supposed to be. I'm not going to question that. I need all the vibes I can get."

"How are you going to get up there?"

"I don't know."

"It's awfully high up. Don't you think Roxas is going to be down here instead? He probably doesn't make it a habit of climbing extremely tall skyscraper-type buildings."

"Just how high is high?"

"Really high."

Riku bit his lip, paused, and turned the material up, catching his bangs in the fold. He blinked a few times, readjusting his vision to the small amount of light. He, too, followed where his finger pointed and swallowed.

"It's a good vantage point for a lookout."

"You sure about this?"

"I have to trust my instincts. I just need to figure out how to get up there."

Cloud huffed and looked away.

"This is getting insane."

"Relax. I'm going to be fine. My gut says that I need to be on the lookout from up there, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Just promise me you won't try it blindfolded."

Riku raised an eyebrow.

"Try what? It's not like I'm going to climb the thing."

"How are you going to look for Roxas with the blindfold on?"

"I'm going to sniff him out."

"Can't you do that from down here?"

"Sure, but if I do it from down here, he might notice my presence, too. That's something I really don't want. I need the advantage here. If I come at him from up there, at least I'll have the element of surprise on my side."

"What do you mean by 'come at him from up there'? What are you going to do? Throw yourself off the building?"

"It's not that big of a fall. Sora could do it. I can do it."

"It's a pretty big fall."

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"Oh, do you now?"

"Yeah. I do."

Riku winked, smiled, and pulled the material back over his eyes. "Wish me luck," he said, and then he disappeared in a cloud of black-purple smoke.

Cloud stared at the empty space, blinked, and then looked to the top of the large building. The smoke reappeared on top, and then Riku was there. He walked to the ledge and stared down. Wind whipped his hair around his face, and like this, standing up there, Cloud thought that Riku looked both melancholy and yet somewhat formidable. Cloud brought his hand up, dug under his shirt's collar, and gripped the pendant Riku gave him for Christmas. He brought it to his face and pressed his lips to the cool metal.

"Good luck."

-----0-----

Hours passed without any sign of life other than the occasional swarm of Heartless. Roxas made no appearance, nor did any of the Organization members. Cloud sat crouched at the end of the alleyway and surveyed the open space. He took a moment every now and then to glance up to Riku, hardly a pinprick from this distance, crouched by the ledge.

It started to rain about an hour ago. It wasn't heavy, just a light mist for most of the time, but the occasional drizzle spread across the World That Never Was and collected in puddles on the ground. After five minutes Cloud saw Riku pull the cloak's hood up and duck his head. Cloud shook his, sighed, and flexed his fingers around the Buster Sword's hilt.

About three hours after they left the small, dingy house, footsteps other than his and Riku's own sounded through the open space. The rain continued to fall as storm clouds filled the sky. Water splashed from the puddles as heavy steps pounded through them. The figure stepped into view, decked out in the standard black Organization robe. His hood was up; blond fringe hung across the only visible part of his face.

Cloud skirted farther back into the alley and out of sight. He glanced up to the building. Riku had noticed, too. He stood to full height and stepped closer to the edge.

Tension built in Cloud's heart as the Organization member stopped in the middle of his field of vision. Time seemed to slow, and then the wind picked up. Bright, yellow orbs started to emerge from the ground; shadows and neoshadows covered the field. A metallic cling echoed, and Roxas pulled two Keyblades from beneath his cloak. Atop the building, Riku's hair whipped about his face as he turned his head down. If it weren't for the blindfold, Cloud would've sworn Riku was watching him.

He was good. Cloud felt his heart seize, knew he should turn back now and let Riku handle things, but he couldn't tear his eyes from Roxas. The way he wielded the Keyblades was effortless and graceful. They were extensions of his body; the only other person he'd ever seen fight with such fluidity was Sephiroth. He whipped the Keyblade away, and it cut down several heartless before Roxas would intercept to catch it again. His body never stayed in one place; he moved around the arena with the same kind of speed and theatrics that Sephiroth was so skilled at.

Just as Cloud began to become truly entranced with the display before him, Roxas jumped away from the battle. He landed on the building's front steps and paused. Slowly, he turned his face up.

It took almost half a second to register, and then Cloud's breath caught in his throat. He knew he should run back now more than before, needed to if he wanted to honor Riku's request, but his feet were rooted. A few more Heartless died at Roxas's hands, and then his feet were actually on the side of the building. He was running up. Riku stepped closer to the edge.

So there are several things I can say at this juncture, and being the wordy person that I am, of course you all know that I will say them.

First off, let me be the first to comment on this chapter number. Fifty. Fifty out of one-hundred, and it's only now that I'm starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere (no pun intended). Because, yes, now I can say only 50 to go!

::sigh::

But really, the number will be getting smaller than what I've already written from here, and for that along I have a rejuvenated sense of excitement for this journey Cloud and Riku are taking together.

The second thing I'd like to touch upon is that, yes, we're in Deep Dive right now. And I'm sure you all might hate me for letting you hang on Deep Dive while Cloud is watching the whole scenario. Let me just say, however, that Square Enix is evil, because there are seriously more places than needed that Square stuck pieces of this scene. I've referenced Another Side, Another Story, Deep Dive, Twilight Town Day 6, and that extra scene from KHII: FM for this and the next chapter. Many times.

Do yourself all a favor, though. After this or after the next chapter (sure it doesn't matter which) go sit and actually watch these scenes again. I knew what happens and what poor Riku was getting himself into, but I went, sat down, and put on Deep Dive. The second Riku came on I said, "There's our boy." And this sudden, profound sadness I wasn't expecting to feel just washed over me. Then again, Riku tributes on YouTube can really depress me, so maybe I'm being overdramatic about it.

Lastly, I'll also be the first to say that I technically didn't post a day later as it is, technically, Thursday instead of Wednesday. But I am still awake on the day after I posted the last two chapters, so it also technically counts. Hm...

Anyway, a brief note to the reviewers and I'm off again. I have a Deep Dive segment to finish.

Jediempress: Why was I not surprised when you were the first to review? Ah, yes. Because you are always online. That's right. Which, you know, is a good thing for me because I so enjoy our correspondance. Anyway, yeah, I did bring up the wing. I had to. Eventually. I was trying to avoid it, because it's just weird and I don't really understand why it's there in the first place but goes missing for the second game, but you mentioned it so I just had to.

Riku-Rocks: I've tried to make their relationship as realistic as possible, so showing off all their sides was really important. Plus I also wanted to highlight them actually growing together as a couple and as people, so yeah . . . Looks like I'm doing all right. Let me know if I start to screw it all up.

The Glass Slipper: Glad to hear from you again. Yeah, I don't know where Cloud's commitment talk came from. That was all him. I just wrote it out. One second they were bantering as per usual and then all of a sudden Cloud wanted to talk about commitment so I rolled with it. Glad I did. Best chapter ever is hard to top, but I will continue to try.

Kasai: I'm happy to be back as well. I just don't really understand because Riku takes off the blindfold, and then when he changes back, it's on again. But sure. I'll just roll with that.

Koji Inari: ADD is fun. Yes, I saw Dirge was completed. I read it in between finishing chapter 49 and writing chapter 50. I knew it was going to be depressing. It wasn't as depressing as I expected from you, but it left me sad all the same. You're evil, but it's your story, and the ending is appropriate. I'll give you that much. I also feared you would tell me that VD will take a long time to update because I find myself thinking about it a lot, but once again, I have no room to talk considering how long I tend to take at times.

Soul Writer of Dark Truth: Yay! Another double update! WOOT! WOOT!

Lady Karai: Yeah, my dialogue . . . I've been trying to write more prose lately, which of course leads me to excesses of introspection, but I really need to work on it because dialogue has always been my strong point. At least that's what they said when I was in school, and I continue to hear it from my reviewers. Just the other night a friend of mine was reading the prologue for an upcoming story that I'm working on and she just laughed and told me she has no idea where I come up with this dialogue. So, yeah. If you notice more prose, it's because I'm trying to work on it. And as far as realism, that's just me going, "If Riku's blindfolded, how the hell does he know where he's going?" Because I overanalyze. So that's really just a fluke. I'll take credit for it, though. Go me.

Deinde: Oh, dear. I don't think I could ever nitpick a chapter for three months. I hate editting, and if I was reworking it so long I think I would just erase everything and start over. We all work in our own ways, I suppose. You're welcome for thanking me for writing this story. It's been a lot of hard work, but I'm having a good time so I guess it's worth it. I'm glad you're enjoying.

Once again, big thank you to everyone--reviews and non-reviewers, the people on alert and favorite lists, and anyone who has actually read 50 chapters of this so far. Here's to fifty more.

Cheers.