Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine, and neither are Riku, Sora, and Kairi.

Let me just say this.

Just one thing.

I HATE YOU SO BAD, RIKU.

I'm gonna go clean my brain with zombies.


Remembrance

This was... a dream, wasn't it?

He stares at the darkness before him, somehow feeling rays of this intense light on his back. Like he was standing in the twilight, between sunrise and the darkest of night. He feels her back pressed against his, as if she was facing the light. He had the darkness, she the light.

That's the way it had always been between them, her being a strange gentle light to him. As for himself, Riku always thought that he was the darkness. The blackest heart, the monster between the two of them. She was the pure maiden, untainted by everything or anything... That's what he always had felt.

They were never meant to be together, were they?

Riku smiles as he looks into the darkness before he turns to the young girl beside him. She looks back with an oddly solemn expression, as if waiting for him to say something. Compelled by her silence, he finds himself stumbling over his words. "You'll always be there... won't you, Kairi? No matter what?" He asks softly, looking at her with a strange sort of curiosity. He was wondering, just what had happened between them? He had turned against his friends... the girl he loved... his family... and for what? What had he wanted?

Those dark blue eyes only blink once before she smiles at him. She nods and takes his hand, gently pulling it into her own. Her fingers were warm, almost soothingly warm. He felt like he was being submerged in light; it was almost suffocating. But he holds her hand anyway and he looks toward the darkness, knowing that it was his own heart. His own black, miserable heart. He turns to the light and smiles. He turns to Kairi and watches as she raises her hand, waving to something in the distance. Without even looking, he knew who it was.

"Sora..." he whispers softly to himself, maybe to the princess. He smiles, knowing just what he had been looking for all along. He looks at the light, knowing what lay in it, just what he had left behind in the beginning of his journey for strength.

Maybe, just maybe, he'd had what he had been looking for all along.

"Is any of this for real... or not? I don't really care anyway. … I won't let anyone hurt you." He promises softly as he crushes her fingers into his, raising his head for the first time in months. After months of being Maleficent's... and later Ansem's... toy, he finally found the strength to decide.

"No. You won't use me for this!"


I STILL HATE YOU, RIKU.

I've never written Riku fluff, much less KairiXRiku fluff!

... I almost feel dirty.

-Forbidden

PS: Thanks for catching my mistake, it's all fixed up now.