Eterna {Kingdom Hearts 2013 Watty Award} {Romance, Semi-OC}

Chapter 2: Selfishness Or Selflessness

*I’m pretty sure that Kingdom Hearts doesn't mention anything about Riku’s parents, so please go along with this one. I’m making it fit my storyline.*

 oooOooo

It was turning out to be… quite the morning.

When he and Sora headed down for breakfast, after having fallen asleep again, Kairi was nowhere to be found. She left a message with Sora’s mom, saying that her dad had called on urgent matters.

“Did she say what it was?”

“No, dear, she just told me that while sprinting out of the house.”

Riku hoped against all hope that this didn’t have anything to do with the King. Sora still didn’t know anything, and he certainly wasn’t about to be the one to explain it to him.

After they ate and Sora’s mom went to buy some groceries they sat on the sofa and stared at nothing, spoke of nothing.  For a while they just sat there, each lost in their thoughts. It was a comfortable moment, one they hadn’t shared in a long time.

Sora, of course, had to ruin it by asking what Riku was dreading to answer. “So, can you tell me all about your dream now?”

He sighed. So much to tell, yet no words came out. He was afraid to tell his best friend, to be honest. He knew he could trust Sora, and he certainly remembered what his friend had once said: “You’re not alone. You don’t need to do everything by yourself.” He cherished those words more than anyone knew. But he still felt unsure of how to tell his friend that he still needed help, how to feel fine while feeling dirty on the inside. How to hide? But then, how to scream I surrender? It was on the tip of his tongue to give a nasty retort to Sora, yet something stopped him.

He’s the only one who knows who I am, and has accepted me just like that. Do I want to lose that? Do I want to lose him?

It was then that he decided to tell his friend about his dream. Sighing, he opened his mouth to begin his tale. As soon as he did, though, he heard a sigh, a blissful whisper murmuring sweet things in his ear, a wonderful melody passing through his ears. ‘I see nothing, I hear nothing, I speak nothing.’ He didn’t know what the words meant, but he found himself uttering nonsense that his heart knew to be a lie. And suddenly, his half-truth became the truth.

“I… saw Ansem, in the Dark Realm. He was trying to control me again, trying to tangle me into his plans. He was looking for someone…” a girl… Wait, was there a girl in his dream? No, just him and Ansem, right? “I really can’t say who, just that he needed my help. But I denied him entrance to my heart, to my mind, to my soul. So he set free a new kind of…” heartless? But they didn’t look like them… Weren’t they demons of some kind? Suddenly, a powerful headache took hold of him, making him swallow the rest of his words. Sora mistook his pain and started a totally unneeded, but wanted, speech.

“Riku, Ansem is gone. He won’t be able to hurt you anymore. And if he ever found a way to come back we beat the crap out of him, just like last time. We’ve defeated him again and again.  What’s to say that we couldn’t take him on if he walked right through that door?”

Hushed words escaped his lips before he could stop them. “My weak self.”

Sora heard him, but he stayed quiet for a while. What could one possibly say to that? Riku felt him move, felt him sit down right next to him. Then Sora said, “Hell, man, you aren’t weak. A weak man lets himself be carried away by what’s drowning him instead of fighting against the current. You fought, and you succeeded. And if you think that having darkness inside of you counts as a weakness, well, then stop thinking that way. Darkness is a part of you just as Light is. And if you ever feel like this again, you can come to me. I’ve told you this before, and I’ll say it again. You are not alone.”