Step.

Step.

Step.

Riku wakes up to the sound of walking outside his door. For a moment he wonders if it's Roxas, and then he decides it isn't; the walking is too calm, and Axel hasn't gotten anything dropped on him. Axel is the last of them to wake up anyway, so it's not like he'd be going around getting ready at... what time is it?

A glance at the clock to his left: 2:02PM. He buries his head under his pillow; it's way too early for ghost stuff. "Shut up, whoever's-"

The voice and whatever it says first is muffled, but somehow he recognizes the next part instantly through the pillow. "Rikhard?"

He shoves himself up, so suddenly awake that his eyes hurt-barely anyone uses his full name. Kairi and Sora went six years not knowing that Riku was just his nickname, and even his mom and dad only used 'Rikhard' when they were mad at him or if they needed to get his attention. He scans the room with bleary eyes, rubs them a few seconds just to make sure; nothing is there besides shadows.

"Aukusti?" He stares at the door, and he's not sure whether he's feeling hopeful or terrified about whether it's going to open or not. Can Aku even do that, or is it only his voice that's left? "You shouldn't be here."

In more ways than one. Aku wasn't shot by Axel, meaning he wasn't murdered, meaning he should be in the cemetery or at home if he ever came back from whatever afterlife he went to.

A fluttering shadow at the window sends adrenaline shooting through his system, and he sees a raven perched awkwardly on the edge. Aku believed in the Celtic gods, and he would always count crows or say hi to them because of some good-luck superstition. One for sorrow, two for...

"Are you that death goddess he worshipped?" Riku asks the raven. He glares at it, and it stares balefully at him in return. "This has nothing to do with my religion and everything to do with reminding me that my twin brother fucking died ten years ago. Sorry if I'm not polite like I usually am-now go away."

The raven croaks at him.

"...Go away, ma'am."

"Nice try." She is a tall, black-haired beauty whose dress is covered in blood and grime. Her face is long and severe, and green eyes shine out of it like the sea at dawn. "I don't like this any more than you do, but I can't let him get stuck like that other boy."

"Roxas?"

"Whatever."

He decides to avoid telling her that she sounds uncomfortably like Roxas right now. "You take people's spirits to the afterlife, right?"

"Generally."

"Does that mean you can take Roxas, too?"

"No."

"But-but you're a god!" He is through with trying to stay quiet, and he strides over to argue his case only to realize that she's exactly the same height as him.

"And even gods have limits," she tells him, frowning. "All these feelings mucking things up-there's a reason getting rid of ghosts is complicated no matter what religion you follow."

He huffs and crosses his arms. Of all goddamn things to stay the same between cultures...

"Well, everyone dies; you just have to make sure they go to the right place."

Riku backs up out of some irrational instinct (she has heard his thoughts) then coughs to get his voice working again. "So, where's Aku now?"

"He's been gone since you answered him," she admits.

"That's..." he swallows the sudden lump in his throat down. "Fine..."

She pats his shoulder awkwardly, and her hand feels like the warm drip of blood. If Riku were less disappointed, he would have shivered at the feeling. "He's glad you kept it, though."

He puts a hand to his neck and lifts a chain with a claddagh ring out of his shirt. The ring is tarnished from years of wear and tear, but the weight of it gives away pure silver. Aku gave it to Naminé, but then he died and she gave it to Riku.

"It's just weird," she apologizes. "I keep needing to remind myself that he's gone, and..."

"I'm sorry." He gives her a hug and puts the ring in his pocket, where it lies as heavily as his voice.

When he goes to the cemetery, he explains it to Aku. The ring dangles from his fingers a few inches above the grass, but somehow he can't make himself let go. This is the only thing he has left of his brother-his room feels too big, the house is too empty, and his parents have stopped looking at the pictures on the shelves.

He goes to a shop and puts the ring on a chain around his neck, and he never tells Naminé.

I shall never be without sorrow, full of regret as I am; as I am since you died,

So shall it be with me as long as I live.