Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 16

SLIGHT TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER. SEE CENSORED VERSION BELOW DOUBLE LINES.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

I threw my hands up in the air in defeat as the tip of Riku's sword neared my face. "I surrender!" I huffed. "Don't shoot!"

Dropping his weapon-bearing arm to his side, Riku smirked. "What happened? It's not like you to let me knock your Keyblade out of your hand."

"I know." I stripped off one of the fingerless gloves that he had given me at the very beginning of training to keep my palms from getting blistered. "My hand got too sweaty, I guess."

It had been about two weeks since we had seen Xion, which meant that I had been training for a month. I felt like I was getting better and better each day. My thin, gangly arms were starting to become more visibly toned, and I wasn't out of breath nearly as easily anymore. Riku still managed to knock me over on occasion, and he still won every fight. But now I could at least make him work for it, and if I did get knocked down I could often make it back to my feet.

"Understandable," Riku conceded. "Ready to call it a day?"

"Yep." My stomach growled, and I had a sudden craving, accompanied by an idea. "Hey, do you wanna do lunch together before we leave?"

"Sure," Riku replied. "Did you have something in mind?"

I grinned mischievously. "Yeah. I'll be back in a few."

I jogged towards the mansion, leaving a confused Riku behind. Making my way to my bedroom, I opened a desk drawer and grabbed the rest of the money that I had found with my stuff from my apartment. Then I crossed to the mirror and put my hands on it, focusing on my destination.

When I stepped through the portal that I had created, I was in the back parking lot of the Taco Bell down the street from my apartment. Glancing around to make sure no one had seen my entrance, I grinned and headed to the door. It had been just over a week ago when it had first occurred to me that I could make portals to pretty much anywhere, as long as I could picture it in my mind. My first trip back after that was to the local drugstore to pick up a box of hair dye, since my roots had begun showing pretty badly. Now, I was standing at the counter of Taco Bell, ordering a giant bag of food for the two of us. My mistake the first trip had been not planning for a way to make it back to the mansion, and I ended up walking all the way back to the apartment to use the mirror there. Thankfully my spare key was still where I had always hidden it. This time I lucked out, and there was a full-length mirror in the ladies' restroom.

It didn't take long before I was strolling back down the hall of the mansion with the food in hand. Riku gave me a funny look and sniffed the air when I came back out to the training arena.

"What is that? Where did you go?"

"Tacos," I laughed, taking a seat on a stone bench up against the back wall of the mansion. "I...kinda made a trip back to my universe."

"For tacos?" Riku shook his head, but he had a smile on his face as he sat next to me.

"So, you do know what tacos are, then?"

"Yeah, we have those here." He reached into the bag and pulled out what was on top. "Does it matter which one I eat? Feels like there's a ton of them in there."

"I didn't really know what you would want, so...I kinda got two of everything," I explained sheepishly. "In other words, no, eat what you want. Just as long as you save some for me!" I poked him playfully in the side, and he jumped. I stared at him in shock for a second. "Wait...are you ticklish?"