Fork in the Road

Riku smiled to himself as he followed Hikari down the road by the beach. She would run ahead only to stop and wait for her father to catch up.

When they came to a fork in the road, though, her brow furrowed in thought as she glanced up at him.

"Which way, Daddy?"

A thousand thoughts ran through Riku's mind in that moment, but one was more prominent than the others.

The way to dawn.

"Daddy?" Hikari asked again.

Riku smiled, messing up her hair. "Whichever way you want, kiddo."

I know you'll find the right one.

Author: Cause Riku would know. ;) (The journey to the right place can lead through some dark places, but he has faith that Hikari won't make the same mistakes he did... And even if she does make mistakes, they don't have to be permanent.)

And I can't help but smile a little at both little Hikari and fatherly!Riku in this chapter.^^

To my reviewers:

XIIIXV: I agree.^^ It's called RoXion or RokuShi-and I used to prefer it over RikuShi to be honest... I always felt that there was something off about Roxas/Namine but couldn't figure out what until I realized that Xion was really the first girl Roxas loved, not Namine. But somewhere along the way of writing a couple RikuShi one-shots and reading more RikuShi fics I got converted hard. LOL. Mainly for the reason you voiced: Riku misses her, whether he knows it or not. It's the reason he was so distant in KHII-I dunno if you've read Sakura Scout's story "Shadowed Land and Imaginary Tide," but one of its chapters dealing with phantomlimb!RikuShi made me cry. It was about ice cream, of all things. Specifically, why in an actual cutscene in KHII Riku doesn't respond to Diz when he says, "we could always buy some sea-salt ice cream." Yeah, Riku never really forgot her.

vanitas1776: Yeah, that happens to me a lot too. I don't always understand why a certain story or image will make me feel the way it does. In fact, as you say, sometimes happy looking pictures will give me an unexplainable sad or lonely feeling and sad or lonely looking pictures will give me uplifting feelings of hope and promise. Makes no sense, but that's how it is.

DMGSilverAirHead03: XD, good, I'm glad you think so. And that's sad about 3D... But it might be a while before I get a chance, either. I'm so excited for it though! At least once it's out we can find out the plot of it, anyway.^^ I mean, I've never beaten any of the games besides the GBA version of COM and Days. XD. I'm working my way through the others...

Thank you for your reviews, and see you next time!^^