Categories > Games > Kingdom Hearts > How to Do Dishes, Riku-Style
Blitzball Forever, Best Friend
3 reviews"It's okay, Sora. It's okay. The ball didn't hit you that hard."
0Ambiance
Blitzball Forever, Best Friend
Time don't stop for nothing.
In reality especially time doesn't stop for pain, grey areas, or homesickness, all of which Riku has experienced over and over again.
Neither does Sora, raging into the hallway after a failed blitzball game with blood streaming from his nose and wet clothes.
Riku listens sympathetically with Kairi by his side and then pats Sora on the shoulder (even though he is cheering madly inside).
"It's okay, Sora," he says calmly. "It's okay. The ball didn't hit you that hard."
"I'm not talking about the ball," Sora splashes, bloody nose dripping some strange sort of... slime.
Riku hopes it's blood, hopes to god that it's blood because if it isn't it's brain/, and... /ewwww...
"I'm talking about when Tidus swam up to GET the ball and he kicked me in the face!"
"Go. Tidus." Riku cheers solemnly. Inwardly he feels some sort of viscious triumph that Sora got his.
Kairi laughs and scolds him, "Riku!"
"I bet you weren't even paying attention," Riku counters, sliding past Kairi's comment easily.
"I was!"
"You what?"
"I. Was." Sora jabs Riku in the chest with one finger before stalking off fuming. "Get away from me, Riku, I don't want to talk to you anymore."
"Aw, come on!" He follows Sora semi-helplessly and goes on, "Sora, man, I'm sorry--"
"Hey! Guys!"
Tidus, the tall blonde athletic super-tanned young blitzball star is running after them with enough ease to make Riku envious. Sora turns away from him as well.
Obviously he's not done with his hissy fit. Kairi looks at Riku concernedly and then digs in her backpack for a tissue-the hallway is spotted with red.
"Go away, Tidus-"
"No no no-hang on!" Tidus skids to a halt in front of Sora and then says quickly, "I-I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. For kicking you in the face." He shoulders the blitzball momentarily and then flips it into his hand like it's a great party trick and holds it out to Sora. "Here. You keep it."
"That's just a plain old blitzball," Sora scoffs.
Riku eyes it warily and wonders if it's really a bomb or a Heartless in disguise. Although Tidus isn't that surly-Riku would be surprised if Tidus did that even if he got kicked in the face.
"Not just any old blitzball," Tidus counters. "My //dad's old blitzball. Winners keep it for luck, we said. And I feel bad for you, so let's pretend that never happened and you won. Yeah?"
"...Well..." Sora tries to make a show of thinking this over, but he's really rather pleased. Riku can tell. "Okay..."
He takes the blitzball, appeased for the moment.
Sora can't stay mad at anyone, least of all his mirror-image Tidus, best friend in the world. (Besides Riku and Kairi.)
Best blitzball friend.
Forever.
BBFF.
"Great! Thanks!" Tidus races off through several odd looks and skids over the blood. Riku looks at Kairi, expecting to see her clean Sora up with that tissue she was searching for, and is surprised to find her staring after Tidus with a mild, dreamy expression on his face.
As expected: "He's dreamy..."
So Kairi likes blondes, huh? Riku thinks, and feels something squeal to a screeching halt in his stomach. He ignores the feeling as they cart Sora home to his crying mother and Kairi bids him goodbye on the way to her house.
...
Riku goes home alone and... picks up a scissors.
He wonders if he should cut his hair and style it just like Tidus', but his fingers can't get around the scissors tight enough to actually cut. His bones are jelly now...
It feels... disturbing when he brings it up to his face.
...
After five minutes of staring at himself in the mirror, about to savage his hair but not really, Riku frowns and puts it down.
Maybe the scissors are stuck, he tells himself. He goes down to get a piece of paper, then goes upstairs again and tries them out.
Mysteriously, they are healed and cut through with little to no resistance. Like butter.
He tries it on his hair again.
No luck. (/Dammit./)
Riku tries it on the same piece of paper until his bedroom is littered with confetti and his mom will kill him in the morning and still-no silver strands arrested in their growth lie among them.
He throws the scissors at the wall and walks away, fuming.
I can't pull off a tan anyway, Riku thinks, at the same time blocking out an image of Ansem-who not only had long silver hair but a decent tan as well. The silver hair is what makes me RIKU. Why was I even thinking about this--
Wait a second.
Eyes.
Riku skids over to the mirror, tripping and sliding over paper, then pulls to about an inch away from the mirror and stares himself in the face.
Eyes.
Eyes.
How many people does he know in this world that have perfect turquoise eyes, like he does?
No one.
Even if he botches this job up beyond repair, he will still have his eyes. (Unless a stray Heartless manages to gouge them out in a battle, but that's not really what Riku wants to think about.)
So...
Riku picks up the scissors and it is the damn /hardest thing he has ever had to do/, but he--
...
"...Take this, sweetie. It was your father's."
"...Thanks, Mom..."
...
"Yo, Riku--why are you wearing that freaky hat?"
Kairi's eyes widen. With one arm she presses a hand to her mouth, and with the other she whips the hat off, leaving Riku feeling dreadfully exposed to the weather. And to the eyes of everyone in the hallway as well.
His hair blows in the wind, faint silver strands chopped off abruptly around his shoulders, and...
And... there's a collective gasp.
Shock.
Both. Jaws. Drop.
Movement in the hallway stops as schoolgirls faint everywhere and Kairi makes a sound somewhere between a terrified gasp and a scream.
The silence inexorably forces the blood to Riku's face.
Everyone is staring at him.
"...What?" he grits uncomfortably, in the hollow silence encasing them all. It snaps like a twig under his voice.
Everyone is staring at him.
Blink.
Blink.
Riku has the space of one more eyeblink to wonder if he really should have done this at all.
...Blink--
"RIKU WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?!?!"
---
"I will love you if you cut your hair, and I will love you if you cut someone else's."
-Lemony Snicket in The Beatrice Letters
---
...Snip.
Snip.
Kairi's careful incisions are much neater than Riku's broadsword hacks. As the tablecloth she's tied around his neck itches, she turns him around and around on the stool to get him from every angle possible until the end result is much... nicer... than Riku would have (or could have) done himself.
She smiles at him weakly and ruffles his hair, sending a shower of silver down his shoulders. "There." The redhead reaches behind Riku's neck (which is no longer hidden by his mane of silver hair) to untie the linen tablecloth. "How do you like it?"
"..." Riku surveys himself in the mirror neutrally. Scrutinizing...
It's a normal haircut. His hair is not like Sora's hair--it doesn't get all spiky.
It's not like Tidus', either, to sweep back in sunbleached layers.
...It looks kind of like Leon's hair. But Riku's silver colour makes it...
Riku tilts his head to test the weight which was somehow mysteriously ripped off his shoulders as Kairi shakes the tablecloth free of all debris and then folds it behind him.
The reason Sora isn't here is because Sora is downstairs, snickering, and probably calling every single person he knows.
"..." Riku sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair, feeling strange when the hair just stops abruptly. "It feels... strange..."
"You'd think so... wouldn't you?" Kairi puts the scissors on the desk and leans her elbows on his shoulder, entering the mirror frame with her shock of red hair.
"You're feeling chipper today," Riku quips.
"Why'd you do it, though?" Kairi asks. "Your hair... it's so..."
"..."
She sighs and corrects herself. "It was so..."
Riku rambles on after her, droning, "Long and silvery and..."
"Perfect," Kairi sighs.
"Hm." Riku tilts his head, the other way this time--because Kairi's on his right.
"Why'd you do it?"
"Why'd I do it?"
Riku thinks and then says carefully:
"I was sick... of being mistaken... for a girl."
"That never used to bother you before."
Kairi looks down at her feet, drawing his gaze with her. The cut scraps around her feet shimmer down and it's like she's standing ankle deep in soft grey water.
This feels familiar even though he's never done it before.
This feeling of something heavy torn away...
It feels like he's falling asleep and he's never coming back.
"So how many people do you think Sora's told," Riku quips, and it's not a question.
"Just about everyone he knows." Kairi sniffs, and it's not like she's got a cold.
"Are you mourning the loss of my hair?" Riku asks. "You've been moping around all day."
"No..." Kairi shakes her hands free of the light silver strands that are like dust on her fingers, and she runs the same hands through her own hair before Riku says something.
He might as well say this now, while Sora is ruining his reputation on the phone and entirely too busy to do something about it. He has already made this new startling change... so why not?
"...Kairi?"
"What?"
But somehow he knows in his bones that now is not the time, after a new haircut. He feels loose in his own skin and the words would come out rigid and stale. They'd rattle out of his mouth without the ring of truth to them.
It would feel like a leftover from old Riku.
So he goes in the other direction.
"Thank you... for cutting my hair. Again."
Kairi smiles and nods solemnly.
"No problem." She sticks her fingers in his hair again and ruffles it, firmly. More silver strands fall softly like snow or drops of rain onto the floor.
They'll sweep it up later.
"I... kind of like it better this way, anyway." She takes her hand back and stares at it before adding, somewhat plaintively, "It's so soft... even now I can feel every single strand under my fingers."
Kairi tells him to take a shower.
Then she ruffles his hair again.
....
...
He doesn't want anyone to know, but...
It makes him feel dirty when she does that.
Time don't stop for nothing.
In reality especially time doesn't stop for pain, grey areas, or homesickness, all of which Riku has experienced over and over again.
Neither does Sora, raging into the hallway after a failed blitzball game with blood streaming from his nose and wet clothes.
Riku listens sympathetically with Kairi by his side and then pats Sora on the shoulder (even though he is cheering madly inside).
"It's okay, Sora," he says calmly. "It's okay. The ball didn't hit you that hard."
"I'm not talking about the ball," Sora splashes, bloody nose dripping some strange sort of... slime.
Riku hopes it's blood, hopes to god that it's blood because if it isn't it's brain/, and... /ewwww...
"I'm talking about when Tidus swam up to GET the ball and he kicked me in the face!"
"Go. Tidus." Riku cheers solemnly. Inwardly he feels some sort of viscious triumph that Sora got his.
Kairi laughs and scolds him, "Riku!"
"I bet you weren't even paying attention," Riku counters, sliding past Kairi's comment easily.
"I was!"
"You what?"
"I. Was." Sora jabs Riku in the chest with one finger before stalking off fuming. "Get away from me, Riku, I don't want to talk to you anymore."
"Aw, come on!" He follows Sora semi-helplessly and goes on, "Sora, man, I'm sorry--"
"Hey! Guys!"
Tidus, the tall blonde athletic super-tanned young blitzball star is running after them with enough ease to make Riku envious. Sora turns away from him as well.
Obviously he's not done with his hissy fit. Kairi looks at Riku concernedly and then digs in her backpack for a tissue-the hallway is spotted with red.
"Go away, Tidus-"
"No no no-hang on!" Tidus skids to a halt in front of Sora and then says quickly, "I-I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. For kicking you in the face." He shoulders the blitzball momentarily and then flips it into his hand like it's a great party trick and holds it out to Sora. "Here. You keep it."
"That's just a plain old blitzball," Sora scoffs.
Riku eyes it warily and wonders if it's really a bomb or a Heartless in disguise. Although Tidus isn't that surly-Riku would be surprised if Tidus did that even if he got kicked in the face.
"Not just any old blitzball," Tidus counters. "My //dad's old blitzball. Winners keep it for luck, we said. And I feel bad for you, so let's pretend that never happened and you won. Yeah?"
"...Well..." Sora tries to make a show of thinking this over, but he's really rather pleased. Riku can tell. "Okay..."
He takes the blitzball, appeased for the moment.
Sora can't stay mad at anyone, least of all his mirror-image Tidus, best friend in the world. (Besides Riku and Kairi.)
Best blitzball friend.
Forever.
BBFF.
"Great! Thanks!" Tidus races off through several odd looks and skids over the blood. Riku looks at Kairi, expecting to see her clean Sora up with that tissue she was searching for, and is surprised to find her staring after Tidus with a mild, dreamy expression on his face.
As expected: "He's dreamy..."
So Kairi likes blondes, huh? Riku thinks, and feels something squeal to a screeching halt in his stomach. He ignores the feeling as they cart Sora home to his crying mother and Kairi bids him goodbye on the way to her house.
...
Riku goes home alone and... picks up a scissors.
He wonders if he should cut his hair and style it just like Tidus', but his fingers can't get around the scissors tight enough to actually cut. His bones are jelly now...
It feels... disturbing when he brings it up to his face.
...
After five minutes of staring at himself in the mirror, about to savage his hair but not really, Riku frowns and puts it down.
Maybe the scissors are stuck, he tells himself. He goes down to get a piece of paper, then goes upstairs again and tries them out.
Mysteriously, they are healed and cut through with little to no resistance. Like butter.
He tries it on his hair again.
No luck. (/Dammit./)
Riku tries it on the same piece of paper until his bedroom is littered with confetti and his mom will kill him in the morning and still-no silver strands arrested in their growth lie among them.
He throws the scissors at the wall and walks away, fuming.
I can't pull off a tan anyway, Riku thinks, at the same time blocking out an image of Ansem-who not only had long silver hair but a decent tan as well. The silver hair is what makes me RIKU. Why was I even thinking about this--
Wait a second.
Eyes.
Riku skids over to the mirror, tripping and sliding over paper, then pulls to about an inch away from the mirror and stares himself in the face.
Eyes.
Eyes.
How many people does he know in this world that have perfect turquoise eyes, like he does?
No one.
Even if he botches this job up beyond repair, he will still have his eyes. (Unless a stray Heartless manages to gouge them out in a battle, but that's not really what Riku wants to think about.)
So...
Riku picks up the scissors and it is the damn /hardest thing he has ever had to do/, but he--
...
"...Take this, sweetie. It was your father's."
"...Thanks, Mom..."
...
"Yo, Riku--why are you wearing that freaky hat?"
Kairi's eyes widen. With one arm she presses a hand to her mouth, and with the other she whips the hat off, leaving Riku feeling dreadfully exposed to the weather. And to the eyes of everyone in the hallway as well.
His hair blows in the wind, faint silver strands chopped off abruptly around his shoulders, and...
And... there's a collective gasp.
Shock.
Both. Jaws. Drop.
Movement in the hallway stops as schoolgirls faint everywhere and Kairi makes a sound somewhere between a terrified gasp and a scream.
The silence inexorably forces the blood to Riku's face.
Everyone is staring at him.
"...What?" he grits uncomfortably, in the hollow silence encasing them all. It snaps like a twig under his voice.
Everyone is staring at him.
Blink.
Blink.
Riku has the space of one more eyeblink to wonder if he really should have done this at all.
...Blink--
"RIKU WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?!?!"
---
"I will love you if you cut your hair, and I will love you if you cut someone else's."
-Lemony Snicket in The Beatrice Letters
---
...Snip.
Snip.
Kairi's careful incisions are much neater than Riku's broadsword hacks. As the tablecloth she's tied around his neck itches, she turns him around and around on the stool to get him from every angle possible until the end result is much... nicer... than Riku would have (or could have) done himself.
She smiles at him weakly and ruffles his hair, sending a shower of silver down his shoulders. "There." The redhead reaches behind Riku's neck (which is no longer hidden by his mane of silver hair) to untie the linen tablecloth. "How do you like it?"
"..." Riku surveys himself in the mirror neutrally. Scrutinizing...
It's a normal haircut. His hair is not like Sora's hair--it doesn't get all spiky.
It's not like Tidus', either, to sweep back in sunbleached layers.
...It looks kind of like Leon's hair. But Riku's silver colour makes it...
Riku tilts his head to test the weight which was somehow mysteriously ripped off his shoulders as Kairi shakes the tablecloth free of all debris and then folds it behind him.
The reason Sora isn't here is because Sora is downstairs, snickering, and probably calling every single person he knows.
"..." Riku sighs heavily and runs a hand through his hair, feeling strange when the hair just stops abruptly. "It feels... strange..."
"You'd think so... wouldn't you?" Kairi puts the scissors on the desk and leans her elbows on his shoulder, entering the mirror frame with her shock of red hair.
"You're feeling chipper today," Riku quips.
"Why'd you do it, though?" Kairi asks. "Your hair... it's so..."
"..."
She sighs and corrects herself. "It was so..."
Riku rambles on after her, droning, "Long and silvery and..."
"Perfect," Kairi sighs.
"Hm." Riku tilts his head, the other way this time--because Kairi's on his right.
"Why'd you do it?"
"Why'd I do it?"
Riku thinks and then says carefully:
"I was sick... of being mistaken... for a girl."
"That never used to bother you before."
Kairi looks down at her feet, drawing his gaze with her. The cut scraps around her feet shimmer down and it's like she's standing ankle deep in soft grey water.
This feels familiar even though he's never done it before.
This feeling of something heavy torn away...
It feels like he's falling asleep and he's never coming back.
"So how many people do you think Sora's told," Riku quips, and it's not a question.
"Just about everyone he knows." Kairi sniffs, and it's not like she's got a cold.
"Are you mourning the loss of my hair?" Riku asks. "You've been moping around all day."
"No..." Kairi shakes her hands free of the light silver strands that are like dust on her fingers, and she runs the same hands through her own hair before Riku says something.
He might as well say this now, while Sora is ruining his reputation on the phone and entirely too busy to do something about it. He has already made this new startling change... so why not?
"...Kairi?"
"What?"
But somehow he knows in his bones that now is not the time, after a new haircut. He feels loose in his own skin and the words would come out rigid and stale. They'd rattle out of his mouth without the ring of truth to them.
It would feel like a leftover from old Riku.
So he goes in the other direction.
"Thank you... for cutting my hair. Again."
Kairi smiles and nods solemnly.
"No problem." She sticks her fingers in his hair again and ruffles it, firmly. More silver strands fall softly like snow or drops of rain onto the floor.
They'll sweep it up later.
"I... kind of like it better this way, anyway." She takes her hand back and stares at it before adding, somewhat plaintively, "It's so soft... even now I can feel every single strand under my fingers."
Kairi tells him to take a shower.
Then she ruffles his hair again.
....
...
He doesn't want anyone to know, but...
It makes him feel dirty when she does that.
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