Too. Much. Dialogue. 'dies'

A Black Rose

...

Yet again he tried to take a step that direction and yet again he failed.

Sending a glare toward the impossible flower, knowing he was powerless, knowing he was being defeated over and over again, Riku gathered himself up the foggy floor. He didn't want the easy bounty, the red roses ('scarlet' had gone quickly to simply 'red'), he wanted the unreachable. Yet, every time he tried to go closer, he failed, he tripped down on the uneven stones. He had scrapped his knees quite a few times but he never noticed anything in the real world so it was okay.

No. correction. It wasn't okay. Nothing was okay.

He wanted to reach that stupid rose and just get done with that. but noo, apparently it had decided to be annoying and pig-headed and be unreachable and everything. Simply to annoy him.

After trying for the n-th time and falling down again, Riku stubbornly decided to stay on the ground and glare at the rose. Over the few, hmm dreams it seemed that the distance between them was different. At times, it'd come closer, as if concerned what was happening to him, at other times, it'd shy away as if afraid that something had happened to him and he had become scary.

It was acting strange. Even given the fact that this was a dream. Especially with that fact.

Great, now he was talking about that biologically-impossible rose as if it were a human with emotions and a heart and stuff. Oh, dear light and darkness.

Deciding that laying back was sort of uneventful, Riku stood up and tried once again, this time grasping the roses. Their thorns.

It was sick how symbolic that sounded.

Feeling a drop of blood fall from his hand, followed by another and another, he lifted his leg. The motion was rather graceful, nothing hindering the movement. No problem for now…

'Riku!'

The call was rather feminine even though it was obvious the caller wasn't a female. Just a little too shrilly.

Dreading what may lay in front of him, Riku slowly opened his eyes. And almost shrieked himself. In from of his very eyes, stood the most terrific nightmare, come alive. Moreover, it was straddling him and its eyes were burning wide with darkness.

He blinked. Some orange hair came out.

Ah, it was just Wakka.

Which was a nightmare. What was he doing? On top of him?

Summoning his powers, stiff from sleeping, Riku tried to push the stupid guy from his bed. Seriously, who was this dumb and dense to straddle someone from the same gender, he thought irritated as he threw the idiot away from him. Too bad he couldn't somehow cut the idiot's most prized possession – the bang that he simply loved and probably cemented everyday to make it look the way it was.

Wanting to mutter a few choice words, the sleepy teen rose from his comfortable nest to glare at the idiot who was now stupidly watching him, a dumb look in his eyes. And not only was he not alone, the idiots Sora and Tidus were looking at him too, from safe distances. Apparently Wakka had been the biggest idiot to try to wake him up.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized he was overusing 'idiot' and its synonyms. Too bad the idiots deserved it. Off, there he went again…

Regardless of being an idiot, the guy had managed to wake him up. Which wasn't good. Riku could feel the dark aura start to radiate from him.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty has woken up," Sora tried to lighten up the atmosphere, but failed with an epic undertone.

"Shut up," Riku said with the tone of a PMS-ing Sleeping Beauty. With a grumpy expression plastered on his face, he stood up from his nice, comfy bed and went on the boring chore of dressing himself. He vaguely wondered who had let three guys into the house, then stopped himself; it was probably his mother.

"And why are you here?" he asked, still grumpy, putting on a random shirt, found somewhere in his room. He vaguely thought that he hadn't tidied his normally perfect room for quite some time now. Noticing that the shirt on him was dirty, he tossed it away and renewed his search for something to put on.

The idiots did nothing but watch him as he looked over stuff, tumbled on piles of things and searched through clothing.

"Riku, you've definitely changed," Sora once again tried to take the lead on a conversation; too bad he wasn't especially brilliant at doing this. While he certainly could cheer up even the biggest emo, it was rather Kairi whose words could reach him and make him react to them.

His mind shuddered because of the reason why she was able to do that. Or rather, used to be able to do. Now, he was a new person and he was more open and nice guy on the whole. He listened people more and was more accepting of others' opinions. He was open for new friendships and was happier that he had the friends he had now.

"It's called progress," Riku grinned at his best friend and pulled over a clean t-shirt, but noticed that it was a really embarrassing shade of pink and green so he took it off and started over again. "It's better than staying the same person. Everyone gets different with time."

The three other boys looked at him strangely, mouths agape, eyes bigger than usual and Riku was forced to take back his last statement. Those three would always be the lovable idiots they were. Simple, harmless, fun.

Unlike that stupid rose.

"Who are you and what have you done to Riku?" Sora asked jokingly but the question wasn't for laughing. With a smile in his voice, he was saying that the other Riku, the cockier and the more withdrawn one was gone, deleted from the face of Destiny Island and every other world out there.

He was replaced by a perfected replica. A replica that had everything the old Riku was good at and excelled at everything the old Riku was bad at.

And the same time the replica was yet again obsessing over a challenge. He was supposed to have gotten over that.

"I've just gotten older and smarter," he smirked, carefully building up the façade of a just woken up teenager who went overboard with cynicism and sarcasm.

The others grinned. Really, they were just too easy to be fooled. At least Kairi posed something of a challenge. He finally found a suitable t-shirt.

"Today we're taking you out," came to him the cheerful voice of Tidus.

Surprised like hell, Riku looked at the gold-haired boy through the hole that was actually meant for his left arm. After rolling in bed for an unmarked amount of time (though he was sure that the others in his room in the moment knew exactly how long he had been slacking off) it was sort of unsettling to go see the outside world.

"C'mon, buddy, ya haven't gone out for almost a month now," Wakka added in, eyes somehow downcast and sad. He was probably sad that his play buddy was gone now.

"When you closed yourself from the world, we got really worried," suddenly Sora caught his attention, "It's good that I couldn't contact Kairi, because she'd have gone nuts. You should really be more considerate."

And yet another lecture on what he should be. But Sora wasn't Kairi and his words had no effect on his conscience, unlike hers. If she were here, he'd already be apologizing to everyone, wearing a true smile. But no, now he was a hypocritical bastard who pretended for his friends' sake.

"I'm sorry I worried you," a faked smile, shrug of his shoulders and everything was fine "I just had some issues to clear up. Everything's fine now," that was a lie. He hadn't cleared up any issues – just the already known fact that he was a sore loser.

He had gambled his friends on a game, that he had had to win, but had failed with his usual grace. While this game was nothing of the caliber of the other time when he almost lost his friends, they still could have left him. This new game: it wasn't something very enourmous, just him and a blue rose, something unreachable, in a duet, in a lone rose garden, surrounded by fog. The only danger present was him getting obsessed with it yet again and giving his everything yet again. He would make the same mistake once again and he was probably doing it at the moment.

He was both a sore loser and a hard learner.

"We're not accepting a 'no'," Sora grinned playfully and Riku found himself grinning without any problem. He had to stop being the way he was if he wanted to deserve the wonderful friends he had. Friends who still hadn't left him.

"That's a great idea, actually," he smiled again, this time to the other two boys. He found out it was harder to smile at them. Regardless he beamed.

On the way out, he paid attention to talk just enough even at subjects that didn't particularly interest him or for which he had no particular opinion.

"Did you see him? It's Riku! He's finally here! I finally see him"

"Yeah…"

"I heard from Selphie that he hasn't gone out for a month!"

"Well, he should've stayed in his home more…"

"Why-yy? He's a nice guy."

"When I went up to him to say hi and chat a little, he acted all cold and stuff…"

"Aww, he just needs some candy and chocolate to sweeten up his life!"

"Go on and try to give him. He's just a grumpy, bored guy…"

It was noisy. Too noisy.

The three idiots had taken him first to get some ice-cream. As they sat and licked the dripping sweet stuff, they talked about all kinds of things and Riku learned that after a few minutes their ceaseless chatter became somehow soothing to the ear and he found himself looking far away in the distance, daydreaming. Daydreaming about a rose garden. He wondered what sort of progress he could make as he was in the waking world. He could search for roses on the islands but he doubted he'd find anything: here, it was too hot for roses.

The actual appearance of the roses in his dream was something strange. A rose symbolized something feminine, while there was nothing feminine in him. He was sure he pulled off the long hair very nice – masculine looking and all.

He was interrupted in his mental musings as Sora decided that he had been silent enough and added him to the conversation, which was about – bleh – girls. Riku was quick to change the subject.

Then on they went by the sea to do whatever came to mind. Tidus did try to make them go diving but his request was quickly refused, the most heated answer coming from Riku who didn't want another pearl and new nightmares. He had enough. There they started making the rules of the game Wakka and Tidus were developing and spent the majority of the afternoon trying to find the perfect name.

And, in the evening, they had found themselves attending a party. Tidus had gotten himself drunk and was now moping in one of the corners that he was never going to get a girlfriend, few girls swooning anxiously in a rhythm around him.

Riku could only laugh at their antics and try to find Sora who'd understand that he needed salvation from the girl who had invaded his personal space (which had become more personal a month or so ago when he'd found the pearl). The girl's name was Mizu and apparently she was obsessed with stories because in the short time they were together talking, she'd managed to tell him a dozen or so local (and not-so local) legends. Problem was, while she didn't lack enthusiasm, her way recounting was very, very boring and Riku was dozing off the third second she started a new story. The only thing he did to encourage her was nod from time to time but obviously it was enough for her.

However after she finished the story about the squid which hiccupped, a new story wasn't started. Riku, who by that moment was used with her talking, looked up to stare in her eyes. She was ogling him, a giggle on her lips.

"Aren't there more?" he simply asked, preferring to have her talking, rather than the meaningless chatter around her. "I'd like to hear more."

Another giggle. Tidus was better, even if he was dead-drunk by now. Riku threw a glance his direction and saw he was in the same place. Good.

But seriously, that girl was getting on his nerves.

"A few days ago, I heard a pretty nice story," she grinned as he sent her yet another false smile, to encourage her "You know the guy who sells ice-creams, right?"

"Yeah," he nodded off, not quite wondering what not about him.

"Well, he told me this story," Mizu giggled yet again and he vaguely wondered why he was doing that: yeah, she was better than nothing, "You know the cave on the kid's island, right?"

He nodded once more time: there lied the imprint, the evidence of Sora and Kairi's love.

"Where kids scribble?"

"Yeah," she smiled at his taking a more active part of the conversation and continued on "There, he told me, sometimes, on special occasions, an old, wooden door can be found."

"Yess. Go on," he knew about the door, he'd gone through it after all. But if someone did that too, it would be the end of him. Ah well, Riku decided. It's not like there weren't people on these islands that needed to be gone. Wiped from the face of the worlds. He wouldn't care less if they were consumed by Heartless (Heartless continued to exist even after their quest but Mickey said that was normal). He was fed up with having to care about everyone, as he had had to do during his journey to find the light.

"And he told me something quite interesting," she raised a finger, looking really stupid doing that "he told me that if you went through the door it would take you to a specific bay. I asked the man which bay it was," was she a myth-gatherer or something? "And he took me there. You know the second one to the south when you come out of the main entrance of the cave, right?"

Riku nodded somehow drowsy as he listened to directions and merely registered them to his mind for later use, not even trying to picture what she was talking about.

"That, he pointed at it, is the one. Poor guy, he probably missed a lot buyers of ice-cream, while taking me there" she grinned and with little to no giggle ended her story and no so peaceful silence descended on the duo, Riku refusing to say anything, she pensive.

Islanders were so stupid: why did they insist on making legends and stories and tales for every bay and creek and hill and everything? Didn't they anything else to do? That was just plain stupid.

"You know something," he'd have preferred it a lot more if she stayed silent but that wouldn't be Mizu's style "There's yet another story connected to the same bay. Which is why I find it very puzzling," even though she never said she was confused about something "Usually there's just one myth for a place. Thousands variations, yes, but never two completely different stories," she thought a little more.

Riku wedged the two possibilities in front of him: to ask her what the story was and endure yet another badly-told tale or endure her musings. He decided to go with the former.

"And what's that other story, you speak of?" he was really curious, yes. Really, really curious. So curious, the worlds stopped spinning in order to examine the curiosity of a Keyblade wielder. Ah, the beauties of sarcasm…

Her eyes lit up.

"Well, there's this old, old story," she started with eagerness "About a fisher who one day caught a fish," wow, a fisher caught a fish. Who saw that coming? "However, after it was cooked and given to his child, the kid ate it and a pearl lodged in his throat," his ears heard the word 'pearl' and suddenly he was on edge, "The boy died, of course. Hating the fact that he and the pearl were the cause of the death, the now crazy fisher tore the pearl from his child's throat and threw it back in the sea, cursing it with nightmares for the one who found it again," she finished, giggling again.

A few seconds passed with her looking at him expectantly. He had mind-blinked out.

That was… incredible, he reasoned with himself. Too incredible to be true. The story was most probably a fiction, a fairytale, something that the people thought up for their kids to scare them into the 'right path'. Even if it was true, would the grief of a simple man have had such an influence on a thing? Even if it were true, the pearl would have descended on the bottom of the ocean, and then it would have been covered by the millions layers of sand. There was no sure fact that the pearl form the story and his pearl would be the same, no matter how similar they sounded (plus, how can a pearl last a few centuries?)

… right?

It wasn't his problem that the pieces fell too easily into their place, like parts of mosaic in the trained hands of a professional. He could almost see it in his mind's eye, each scintillating glass put in the right place, to create a grotesque picture. Because when it came to his mind games and past wrongdoings, nothing was pretty. Not at all.

In the back of his mind, Riku was sure he'd gone nuts if he believed the words of a total stranger and let them go and cut straight into his heart. In the front of his mind, he decided it wouldn't hurt if he asked a question or so.

And stop with the metaphors. Especially that.

"That sounds more like a ghost story, one that should be told in front of the fire," he laughed and, just to amuse himself, smiled more broadly at her. That'd change the boring routine even if for just a second.

"Don't you think?"

He got a giggle as a response. That almost destroyed his fun and made him drop every charade. Almost.

"Well, it does seem poetic and all," she chuckled and then continued on "The strangest thing is that this story is regarded as true. Divers go on and search for the pearl even if that will place the curse upon them, according to the myth. You should know – don't you practise diving too?"

"While I do practise it, no I don't know about any myth-connected pearl-hunting," he hadn't heard about such a thing actually, "Usually, I dive alone."

He quickly shut off any part of his mind that told him the last sentence was symbolic. He… was just not in the mood for arguing with himself.

"Aha," she grinned, "I know that there used to be rumors that it had been found."

He looked up. And smiled slowly, flirtously.

"Really?"

She nodded, blushing slightly "A year or so ago, there was this 'caboom'," she illustrated by throwing her arms in the air, "Everyone knew and talked about it, but now I dunno how you don't know about it. Probably you've been somewhere else," she shrugged, "Everyоne was talking about that. And then, out of a sudden, everyone quieted. Now it's just a superstition."

It was a superstition. It was surely a superstition. Mickey had never told him about the darkness in people's hearts being able to place curses on inanimate objects. It seemed logical that there were no such things; otherwise they'd be stumbling upon cursed things every second.

Or maybe the strongest, the darkest, the most powerful, the most unrepentant darkness was able to do so. Maybe the sheer hatred that came with lurking within the darkness was able to go into objects and rest there and try to corrupt people. That was one probability.

No, the boy who'd lied within the shadows for enough, reasoned with himself. No one around him was cursed: after all his darkness was a part of him, his weapon, his acquaintance. He had to grow his darkness, to make it more powerful, like a patient gardener waiting for the small, ugly, brown seed to bloom completely into the scarlet brilliance that was a rose.

Riku was waiting for a black rose to bloom and spread its perfume in the air. Black, breath-taking in beauty, hiding perfection between its petals. Still not fully blossomed, he had to water it so it was able to grow up into something amazing. And amazing would it be.

Somewhere in his mind he registered that he'd used the girl's fangirly behaviour in order to find out more and another part blamed him for that. He wasn't used to such guilt.

"That's very strange," Riku echoed, noticing Sora moving through the crowd, at least a little drunk too.

Excusing himself and going to help his friend, Riku found he was rather happy that the spiky-haired Keyblade wielder was alcohol intolerant and crashed after the first glass of… whichever alcohol. He wouldn't have endured another story of Mizu's even though the last legend had been really interesting, even though he felt guilty. There was a fascination with pearls going on with the invisible forces of this island, apparently.

Gently, he helped his friend to his home, tolerating his ramblings of a drunkard for once and cursing himself that he'd let him get drunk. Kairi would so totally kill him.

The only good thing was that Sora was a happy drunk – he never stood up to pick fights, to badmouth people. The worst thing he sometimes did was some… rather embarrassing songs.

But the usual thing he did was angst about something overly stupid like "I didn't say 'hi' to Selphie today. She'll be upset with me." During such times, not only was he mopey, but he was also very stubborn and only Kairi could slap him back in reality. Too bad she wasn't close by.

But, damn it was he a dead weight.

"Hey, Riku."

"Be quiet, for once," mentioned boy growled, muscles tense from almost carrying him. He was out of shape: he used to be able to carry a drunk Sora.

"Did somethin' happen? Afta ya came back, somethin' changed in ya," of course something happened but he wasn't telling anything, "I knowl that by now ya've gotten tired of people tellin' tha', but I wana knowl. Afta all, ain't I your closest friend? Ya can always tell me and Kairi. Righ'?"

No. He couldn't.

The only thing he did was turn off his mind, lock it up, seal it, making sure nobody was able to get to what he was thinking. It was creepy how much Sora and his offsprings could drill into his brain.

Sora always hit the sorest spots in his conscience, as did Roxas. Both of them held equal amounts of the world's salt and had an instinct to put it right in his wounds and left him to lick them, merely hoping that that would suffice to heal them up but never succeeding. That stupid, stupid guilt.

Xion made him think and wonder about his decisions – in a more feminine, elegant way, she'd been able to change him.

Riku took his friend to his house and did everything he always did – help him to the toilet, stay by his side while he vomited and everything else, all the while musing why that sort of routine which was usually sort of calming (because, hey, who didn't like vomiting people?) had become so bland. Usually he'd laugh his ass off at his drunken antics (the thing with the oyster and the flag still had him rolling on the floor from laughing) and poke harmless fun at his helplessness above the toilet.

Now he was disgusted during the time spent in the bathroom and thought of the ramblings as stupid (which they were – what was funny about a pineapple and a lampshade?). He waited for him to fall asleep impatiently, randomly musing about changes and a rose blossoming into a full beauty.

After the boy had fallen asleep, to chase a certain skirt in his dreams, Riku silently gathered himself up, and with haste, unknown before ran home to fall into Morpheus's sweet embrace. He wanted to go into the garden, to search for a way, to go and stumble and fall toward the blue rose.

He dreamt of nothing that night.

Isn't it fun to stereotypy characters? xDxD 'does epic fail on humor'

I want to point something out – in this chapter Riku's much more depressed than the first one. The dreams aren't a good influence ^.^

There was this story, about the three idiots… I've read it as a fairytale/folklore tale~ As seen now there'll be a fairytale hint here and there apparently. xD

Seriously, in my region (very mountainous) there's a legend for every frickin' turn. Here a bride had committed a suicide, there in a haunted house the lamps flicker on and off from time to time etcetera, etcetera. Wtf?

So-oo how's this chappie? Am I moving too fast? Too slow?