Disclaimer: No.

Titles: The Mystery of the Ceiling-prone Trainer

Summary: Potential sunburn is the least of Riku's worries. He's got to convince Shiki that he needs back his ceiling-stalking trainer which has also become her art project. Naturally, as is often the case with Shiki, it's easier said than done.

Characters: Riku, Shiki, mentions of others.

A/N: A prompt that was meant for Final Fantasy XIII, but quickly took on its own RiShiki twist. Hehe. Also particularly inspired by the awful sunburn I got from playing basketball all day. It's completely covered my arms and face. XD

Prompt: "It's still hanging from my ceiling fan. Please let me keep it there."

"Hey, Shiki?" We were sprawled out on a school bench, basking in the relentless sunlight shining overhead. I considered taking off my vest-top, as I could practically feel the sweat tickling my back mockingly, but then a swamp of girls (and boys) would ambush me. Sighing, I glanced down to my friend. Shiki had her legs kicked over the steel railings, her messy hair brushing against my thigh as she played with Mr. Mew's paws. Both of our classes had been cancelled (mine biology, hers music) because of the extreme weather, and, I quote Mr. Black; "the pupils were doing jack-all anyway". So the teachers kicked us outside. In hindsight, not the best decision, since I would definitely have a serious case of facial sunburn in a few hours, but I couldn't bring myself to move. Besides, the spot that Shiki had dragged me to was surprisingly empty, save for a small huddle of kids in the shade of the netball courts. They sent us occasional glances, but nothing more. "Shiki?" I asked again.

She looked up at me, then squinted. From the blaring sun, no doubt. "Yeah?"

"I was at your house yesterday, when your mum was out."

"Yep." She grinned, teeth gleaming. I smiled back. "You left your WildKat trainer on my ceiling fan.

"Yeah, about that... I'd, uh, I need it back."

Shiki bolted up, turning around on her knees to face me. She yanked my blue hoodie from around my knees – it was meant to be raining! - and slapped it underneath her. "You do?"

"It's my best trainer."

"Wait, so the left foot is magically better than the right foot?"

How did she know what foot it went on? I didn't know that! "Yes – no, but... but does it really matter?"

She peered closer to my feet. "Well, your right foot's slightly larger than your left, by, like, a fraction."

"Some fractions can be massive," I shot back, defensive. "Nine tenths is definitely larger than one tenth."

Plopping her arms down to her sides, Shiki gave me an irritated sigh through her grin. "Jeez, show-off, calm your Pythagoras' theorems down."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was Pythagoras' theorem, no plural involved. "I am in the top set of maths."

"Please." She crossed her arms. "I hammer you at music, little pathetic pentatonic. Such a small scale."

"That's a serious case of alliteration you have there, Shiki."

"BUT getting back to the topic at hand-" I allowed myself to smirk, knowing that I'd won this particular argument. That didn't happen too much; she was just so stubborn that I gave up after a while. "No, you're not getting back the trainer. Only if you come over again."

"So... I can get it back?"

She squirmed on her knees, then knocked them tightly against her waist, lowering herself down so that she was directly touching the bench. She was cute when she looked uncomfortable- w-wait, what? "Of course you can't!" Shiki's nervous answer snapped my thoughts away. I glanced up, then away to the group of awkward kids as I noticed her staring at me. "I-I mean, it's mine now, and I'm... uh, I'm drawing it for my art project."

I raised my eyebrows. Weird thing to draw, my shoe. What, was it colourful or something (which it wasn't really)? "That's for the 'draw an unusual household object', ain't it? Not exactly yours."

"You left it behind!" Shiki insisted. "If you hadn't been kicking your legs about and showing off, then you wouldn't have lost it."

But how had I been showing off? She'd asked me to... ugh, Kairi was never this confusing. Or Naminé. Hell, Aqua just spoke the complete truth. "How about you finish up the project tonight, and I'll hang round 'til I can collect it. That sound alright? Your mum's out at that business meeting. It'll be fine. Aqua's gotta finish her history essay with Axel, so she'll be out, and Kairi doesn't mind."

"Y-yeah, sure, cool." The bell blared overhead. Shiki leapt off the bench with surprising grace and swept up her satchel in one movement. I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my shoulder. Physics now. Yay. "Meet up at the usual spot?" she asked, playing with the torn labels of her skirt shyly. She looked so- ugh, stop it!

"Of course." I saw Sora scrambling towards me. He jumped over the brick wall nearby easily, Kairi following behind at just an eager pace as he was. "Uh-oh. Here comes the interrogation duo."

Shiki laughed loudly. "Then I'll make a break for it!" Suddenly, she flinged me a slippery white bottle. I struggled to catch it. "It's after sun! I think you'll be needing it!" She was sniggering as she jogged away.

I glanced down to my arms, spotting the bright red marks seared across them. "Oh."

Sunburnt, huh? Almost as bad as kicking a trainer onto a ceiling fan.

"Riiikkkkuuuuuu!" Sora called as he bounced over, then I saw him wince. "Ouch! You okay?"

Kairi came up after him, her face softly frowning in concern. I smiled. "That looks sore."

I shook my head. "Nah, I've got aftersun. C'mon; we've got games now, right?"

"Yep!" Sora nodded. "You sure you can do it? You're gonna get even more sunburnt..."

"I'll just use Kairi as shade. She's red enough for it."

"Hey!"