The Songs in Our Hearts Book One: Reaching Out

Chapter Eighteen: Opening Up

Today was a nightmare, Harmonia thought to herself as she walked down the hallway to her new bedroom. It was one thing to be stranded in a world without any means of getting back home, but it was another thing getting stuck with a crazed witch in her castle. The girl let out a sigh as she pondered how she would escape. The water way had looked promising at first, but there was no exit at the end. Swimming didn't seem like a good option either. Looking up from the floor, Harmonia saw Riku at the door to his room, and she immediately looked down again to avoid eye contact.

Safety was just within her reach as she began to turn the door's handle until she heard Riku say, "That song you played was really nice." She flinched as he started talking and remained silent and frozen in place. "Hey," the silver-haired teen started. "Is there something wrong with me?" he asked.

"Look, I'm bad at this, okay?" Harmonia told him bluntly. "So just drop it." The brunette peeked to see if he would leave, but Riku walked a little closer to her.

"I get that you're shy, so you start whenever you feel like you're ready," Riku spoke in a calm, soothing tone. Harmonia's eyes widened at this. He wasn't like Coda's friends who asked her all the questions at once; Riku was letting her take control of the conversation.

Seeing that he was about to turn to head into his room, Harmonia asked, "What's your favorite color...?" Her hand clenched into a fist when Riku started laughing at her horrible excuse for a conversation starter.

"I never gave it much thought, but yellow and blue are nice colors," he answered when he was done laughing. Harmonia looked up shyly. There was a soft-yet-bold grin on Riku's face, and Harmonia marveled at how confident he was. He was everything she wanted to be. "What about you?" he asked, snapping Harmonia back into reality.

"Purple, I guess," she answered, composing herself a little bit more. "It is the color of my timbre after all."

"What's timbre?" Riku inquired.

"Oh, right. You're not an instrumage," she recalled, causing the look of confusion on Riku's face to grow. Harmonia pulled her hands to her chest as she thought of how to explain what a timbre is. "Um, it's like an aura that allows people to cast spells using music, and each color comes with some perks," she explained.

"So what can you do with a purple timbre?" he asked, crossing his arms. Harmonia grimaced at the question.

"Actually, purple and gray timbres aren't that special— they're useless," she muttered, moving to hold her arm. A silence loomed over the two. And just when things were starting to work out, she inwardly complained.

"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Riku tried to break the silence.

"What was your home world like?" Harmonia inquired, curious to know what kind of world he had come from.

Riku paused to think before answering, "I'm from this small group of tropical islands. It's..." There was another silent interlude as the teen thought of what to say. "It's mostly just quiet and boring there," he finished, rolling his eyes. Harmonia's lips parted slightly in wonder.

"Wow, that's very different from my world," she gasped. "So you actually live near a beach, right?"

"They're called the Destiny Islands for a reason," he retorted, making them both laugh. The brunette found herself shocked as she realized that she was laughing with someone she hardly knew. She smiled to herself, proud that she was able to make friends with someone on her own. "What about you?" Riku asked. "Why'd you ask about the beach?" Harmonia turned to face him better and fixed her posture.

"Northpointe's shore is rough," she began to explain. "There's a lot of rocks in the sand, and the whole cliff is surrounded by pointed stones. The water's really cold too." Riku gave her a slight nod as he listened to her answer.