On a day seemingly like any other, the peaceful life within the world of Radiant Garden continues uninterrupted. The world's residents go about their daily routines, accompanied by the sounds of the water spouting out from the fountains and running through the aqueducts.
Unbeknownst to them, however, is the discussion that is occurring below Radiant Garden's Castle, faintly echoing through the maze-like hallways leading to the sterile coldness that is Ansem's Study. The humming of the study's electrical lamps and the semi-constant beeping of computers are the only things that can be heard after Kairi, one of the Keyblade Wielders who helped save the Worlds, has made a proposal regarding her future.
"Kairi, are you sure about this?"
The silence after Kairi's words is interrupted by Riku's uncertain question. The background noise only serves to make things feel more uncomfortable.
"Yes, Riku. If there are any clues as to Sora's whereabouts, I'm determined to do anything. I don't mind." Kairi replies without looking him in the eye.
"It's not about you minding or not, who knows how long it'll take. I don't want you to lose so much time-"
"It's my decision. He saved me, and now I have to do the same for him-"
"Kairi, we have no idea how long it could take, you could lose days, weeks, months-"
"Riku, really, it's alright-"
"You could lose years!"
After Riku's loud interruption, one of Ansem's students, Ienzo, moves to try and calm both of them down. However, he is quickly dismissed by Even, "We'd only be making it worse, it's not our place."
After a few moments of silence, Riku begins to plead, "In the worst case, where you don't find anything, it'd be around a year of time that you'll have missing from your life-"
"You were gone from the islands just as long!" Kairi suddenly retorts.
A thought crosses Riku's mind. She's right.
Meeting his eyes, Kairi continues, "Every day I thought about you and Sora, who I couldn't even remember the name of at the time! You vanished so suddenly, I thought I did something wrong or something horrible had happened!" The suddenness of her words stuns everyone else into silence.
Her voice, now wobbly, pierces the quiet once more. "Some people even thought you were gone. Every time I mentioned the two of you, I'd get strange looks. I was the only one back home who remembered Sora! I thought something was wrong with me!" She crumples into herself slightly, and begins to sniffle.
"I wish- I wish you at least came back to the Islands for a bit, just so I knew it wasn't all in my head!"
"I... I'm sorry, Kairi, I just- It was too dangerous for me to go back home-"
"I know. I know. Just- let me do this." As she finishes, Kairi turns around, facing away from Riku completely.
"Fine." After a moment, he fixes his gaze on Ienzo and Even. "Take care of her. Don't let her get hurt, please."
Ienzo, slightly stumbling, replies, "O-of course!" When Riku makes his exit, he hears Even's voice. "Ienzo, call for Ansem the Wise, we'll need his expertise. Are you ready to begin preparations, young Kairi?"
While Riku doesn't hear her response, she must've said yes if the noises from nearby machinery are anything to go by. I could've handled that better. Ugh, I'm such an idiot, the boy thinks to himself as he makes his way out through the corridors and into the stairs heading to the central plaza.
Feeling angry, probably at himself, he finds himself looking for a way to get rid of the pent-up energy. He figures some manual labor would get his mind off of things, and so he decides to check in on the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee to see if he can help with anything. Alas, it was late in the day, and all work had already been distributed.
The early winter sun was setting quickly, and it was getting colder by the minute. A quick jog would have to do.
Utterly exhausted after overexerting himself, Riku makes his way to his temporary living space— a quaint little house near Merlin's residence. Only bothering with a quick shower and a snack beforehand, Riku collapses into his bed. While his jog (later turned into a full-on sprint) didn't help distract him from his thoughts, it did tire him out to the point where he fell asleep immediately.
Riku wakes up with a start. Ever since his Mark of Mastery, he hasn't been dreaming much, if at all. But that night, he actually dreamed! Though he finds himself unable to remember anything else aside from the fact that he actually had a dream. Stuck at an impasse, Riku gets out of bed and decides to have an early morning.
I barely ate anything last night, he thinks to himself as his stomach rumbles.
Barely managing to keep his eyes open, he sets about making coffee for himself while snacking on a cereal bar, promising himself that he'd make something more substantial to eat after fully waking up. "Deciding" (grabbing what was closest) on a couple of slices of buttered toast and some nuts, Riku quickly eats his breakfast, eager to get away from the awkward silence of his home.
Riku is greeted by the early morning sun when he exits into the Borough. The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee's efforts bustle with noise in the distance as flowers are replanted, homes rebuilt, and defenses shored up. Though Master Xehanort has been defeated, the people of Radiant Garden have to stay vigilant, with Villain's Vale still looming in the background of their lives like a shadow. Despite the Garden being a Realm of Light, the experiments performed in the past by Ansem the Wise and his disciples have placed this world in a unique position: the Heartless are never too far, and one can never be too safe.
Riku makes his way through the Borough and into Merlin's house, intent on not letting the opportunity go to waste this time.
"Oh! Good morning, Riku!" greets Aerith as she looks up from her planner — its numerous pages no doubt full of jobs and requests for the Committee.
"Good morning," Riku replies, looking around the house and finding some of the Committee's members already inside; namely Leon and Yuffie. The latter quickly runs up to the boy, greeting him and bombarding him with questions, "Hey Riku! What's up? How've you been? You here to help us today?" The fact that it's early in the morning seems to have no effect on her.
"Wh- Morning, Yuffie. I've been alright, I actually came here to ask if there was anything I could do to help," Riku does his best to respond, surprised.
"Nice!" Yuffie excitedly turns to one of the chairs placed at the far end of the house. "Hey, Leon! Tell Riku about the Bailey assignment!" When a grunt is all she gets in response, Yuffie quickly steps back and adds, "On second thought, maybe later."
Watching the scene play out, Aerith warmly interjects, "Hehe, you know Leon doesn't do mornings well." She closes her planner. "Don't worry, Riku, I'll tell you all about it."
"We plan on repairing the walls around the Bailey and blocking off the Ravine Trail. This would cut off another entry point for the remaining Heartless! The job entails guarding and patrolling the area, which would allow the repair workers to do their jobs without being interrupted," she explains.
"Oh, I'd be glad to help. That would eliminate the threat completely, right?" Riku asks.
"Kind of. Some Heartless could still appear from within the depths of the Castle, from the ruins of Hollow Bastion, but Dilan, Aeleus, and the others are skilled enough that these aren't a concern," replies Aerith.
Almost interrupting her, Yuffie frustratedly blurts out, "Ugh! If they're so skilled, why don't they lend us a hand!? We're kinda short-staffed here!" Before she can say anything else, however, Leon once again makes his presence known with a grunt.
"Oops, sorry, Leon..." Yuffie apologizes, "I kinda... forgot you were here."
Aerith chuckles. "Anyway, it'd be you, Yuffie, and Leon doing most of the patrolling, while I take care of any injuries that might happen and support you all from long-range. We had asked the Gullwings to serve as lookouts, but they're a bit hard to reach."
Glad to have something to do, Riku asks with a slight impatience in his tone, "Sounds like a plan, when do we start?"
"At noon, it'll be warmer, and Leon will be, uhh... fully aware...?" Aerith hums, trying not to offend the semi-unconscious Gunblade wielder. "In the meantime, maybe you and Yuffie could get started transporting the materials and doing some warm-ups?"
"Aw yeah, sparring with Riku!" Yuffie sort of whispers to herself with a flourish. "Let's go, come on!"
What did I get myself into now...? Riku thinks to himself. "Alright, alright, but no promises on the sparring."
"Party pooper, parade rainer, killjoy, wet blanket, stick-in-the-mud-"
"I get it, I get it, alright, fine," Riku interrupts, knowing that Yuffie could continue for a long time. "We'll meet you two later."
"Wait, it's cold out; don't forget to bundle up," Aerith warns.
Yuffie, just about ready to leave in her shorts, suddenly stops. "Man, what are you, my mother?"
"Not at all! I just don't want to deal with you when you catch a cold."
"Fine, I'll change."
"Be safe!" Aerith waves and laughs to herself, while Yuffie steps out of the house and Riku closes the door behind the two of them.
"So, where are we headed to?"
"The Moogles'! Cid had them prepare the stuff a couple days ago, it should all be ready," Yuffie explains as she walks backwards, not needing to look where she's going — she knows this World like the back of her hand, after all. "You're carrying the heavy stuff, while I'll carry the annoying stuff!"
"Annoying stuff...? Hey, wait, what am I, a pack mule?"
"Yup! You sure are!" she laughs. "Anyway, the annoying stuff is whatever's awkwardly packaged and fragile. I have an amazing sense of balance if I do say so myself, so if I carry that, we'll end up with fewer trips, since I can just stack 'em and keep 'em balanced on top of each other!"
"Somehow, I still think that I got the short end of the stick," Riku sighs.
"Come on, keep up the pace! I can already see the crates you're gonna have to carry!" Yuffie exclaims as she runs off, and Riku is left trying to catch up to her.
After showing her Restoration Committee ID Card to one of the Moogles, Yuffie calls Riku over and points at the heaviest looking crate. "Okay, we're all set, now pick that one up!"
"Fine, hold on." Riku moves to pick it up, carefully distributing his weight as to avoid straining his muscles or losing his balance, and successfully lifts it off the ground. "Yuffie, I can't see anything like this."
"That's no problem, just follow my voice or move your head to the side, you'll be fine," she replies, seemingly uncaring, as she lifts another crate. Rather than holding onto it, she places it on top of Riku's already heavy load instead.
"He-Hey! What are you doing!?" Riku protests with a start.
"Relax, silly. Just making the number of trips smaller is all. You can do one more, right?"
"I don't kn-"
"Of course you can!" Yuffie interrupts and places the final crate, looking proud of herself. "My turn now!"
Yuffie grabs a couple of packages, stacking them up high, and, with her arms busy, she kicks some more up, adding to her seemingly unstable tower of mismatched boxes; some of them end up being balanced on her head. "To the Bailey!"
Riku tiredly follows Yuffie, completely oblivious to the various dolly carts also left out by the Moogles.
After a couple of trips back and forth, Riku and Yuffie finish carrying the materials to the Bailey. Seeking a much deserved break, the both of them walk to the Central Square and sit beside one of the new flower planters.
"Man, I'm all stiff," groans Yuffie, cycling through various stretches.
"You don't even want to know how my arms feel right now," Riku replies, following along with her exercise.
"At least it made for good strength and balance training, right?" The girl beams, clearly looking to find the bright side in the endeavor.
"I mean, I guess."
"What do you mean you guess!? Come on Riku, work with me here!" She sighs. After listening to the sounds of the birds and fountains for a while, Yuffie turns to Riku.
"Hey, Riku?"
"Yeah?" he replies, his eyes closed, trying to focus on the nature surrounding him.
"Thanks for helping us out. It means a lot. With Cloud gone and Tifa looking for him, we really are short-staffed."
"Hm? Oh. It's no problem, I understand. I'm happy to help, really." Riku opens his eyes and turns to face the ninja.
Yuffie pauses before speaking up again, "Uh... Listen. I- uh, I heard about Kairi. If you want to go check on how she's doing, I wouldn't mind, you know, waiting. Just know that I know how you feel, I guess, sorta. You can count on the Committee, remember that."
Riku deflates almost immediately. "Word spread that fast, huh? Thanks, Yuffie, I appreciate it. Would you mind waiting here?"
"I just said that I wouldn't mind, dummy! Now get in there! You must be worried," she chirps and cheerfully claps him on the shoulder. "I'll get us some lunch in the meantime!"
Riku gets up and jogs off towards the Castle, casting one last glance to Yuffie as she waves at him with a big smile.
Riku sneakily makes his way back into Ansem's Study, not willing to interact with Ansem the Wise and his disciples more than is strictly necessary. Though a lot of time has passed since the incidents in Castle Oblivion and Data Twilight Town, just being around them still brings him a sense of discomfort — especially Ansem.
Once he finally makes it through the maze-like corridors, he finds Kairi in the exact same room as when he saw her last. However, instead of being awake and aware, she’s lying down completely still on a reclining chair bed with machines monitoring her vitals, eerily reminiscent of a hospital room.
"Looks like they've already begun, huh? They work fast..." Riku thinks aloud as he sits down on a chair next to Kairi.
"Kairi... I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm really sorry for how I acted yesterday. I know we haven't been the closest of friends since I caused the islands to fall to Darkness, and I... I really messed things up..."
Despite being aware that Kairi can't hear him right now, let alone reply to his words, he desperately waits for a response.
"...I know I should've tried to reach out during the time Sora was asleep. I was just... afraid, I guess. I had changed, and you had changed. We've both changed." Riku lets out a sigh before continuing. "At one point, I started thinking that the only reason you remained my friend was because of Sora. But only now, after hearing what you said yesterday, I realized it must've been the same from your point of view, too."
Kairi remains unmoving. The only sound Riku hears in response is the electronic beeping coming from the machine next to her.
"I'm, I'm sorry. I should've been a better friend to you, I could've been a better friend to you." Riku lowers his head in his hands. "I really should've told you all of this while you were still awake."
It's like, without Sora, it all falls apart.
Taking a deep breath, the boy steels himself. "I promise to properly apologize to you once you wake up."
Seconds, then minutes, pass by. Riku finally speaks up again.
"I've been trying to make myself useful while everyone else is trying to find Sora. I've got a job with the Restoration Committee today, actually. I don't know if you've met them. Maybe you did when you were a kid, but I don't know if you remember them. Anyway, one of the members, Yuffie, reminds me of you a lot, from before the islands fell."
Riku lets a small smile light his features before sighing again.
"You used to wear your Heart on your sleeve, and liked pulling my leg quite a lot, just like she's doing now. But at some point, you shut yourself off like I did... I can't believe it's taken me this long to notice. Some friend, huh? I should've been there for you, maybe then you wouldn't feel like you had to bottle up your emotions. I know it probably doesn't mean much coming from me, I really don't follow my own advice. I've been... unfairly distant from you. To be fair, I've been a horrible friend-"
"That's not true."
A thin, quiet voice somewhere from behind him interrupts Riku's ramblings. Startled, he hurriedly turns to look towards its source and-
"Naminé!?"
"You haven't been a horrible friend to her. Even if you think that way, it wasn't something that was completely your fault. The Heartless, the Organization, even Ansem the Wise, they all messed with us and used us," the blonde girl continues with a far-off look on her face.
"I..." Unsure of how to respond, Riku eloquently greets her, "H-Hi, Naminé. Sorry, you're right."
"Hello, Riku." Naminé walks closer and pulls up a nearby chair to sit next to him. "This is a familiar state of affairs, isn't it?"
After a few moments of silence, Riku speaks up again, "It... really is, huh? At least we don't have DiZ breathing down our necks. How- uh, how have you been, Naminé?"
"I've been alright. They've been performing tests on me, to make sure of my compatibility with the Replica I was gifted. I was the last one to be brought back, after all," Naminé answers, her gaze still away from Riku.
"How's that been going?"
"It's okay. No problems so far."
"Um... Where have you been staying?"
"I've been given a room here. I don't really have anywhere else to go."
"Ah... Sorry."
"It's fine."
Despite going through so much together in the year Sora was sleeping, the fact that Naminé heard what he had been saying has made the encounter extremely awkward and difficult to navigate. Silence has settled between the two of them once again.
"Riku, don't you need to go back to the Committee?"
"O-Oh! You're right. I need to apologize to Yuffie for keeping her waiting."
"It was nice seeing you, sorry for barging in on you like that. Can I go to the Square with you?"
Riku turns to Naminé and notices that the only thing she's wearing aside from her usual short white dress is a seemingly second-hand lab coat. Unsure, he asks, "Will you be okay? With the cold, I mean."
"Oh, I'll be fine. I'd really like to get some air."
"Alright."
Before leaving, Riku turns to Kairi and says "I swear I'll come visit again soon." After a brief pause, he faces Naminé. "Ready?"
"Yes. Lead the way, Riku."
Riku and Naminé step into the bright outdoors, the light briefly stunning them. Before they can even get their bearings, a loud voice rushes towards them.
"Jeez! There you are! Way to make a girl wait-" Yuffie complains and then quickly interrupts herself once she notices that Riku is not alone. "Oh! You must be Naminé! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee! Great to meet you!" she chirrups and extends a hand towards Naminé.
"Oh. Yes, I'm Naminé. Pleased to meet you, too." The girl accepts the handshake.
"Man, aren't you cold?" Without waiting for an answer, Yuffie removes her white hooded cloak and hands it to Naminé. "Here, put it on!"
"Oh, ah, thank you? Won't you get cold, though?" replies Naminé, somewhat taken aback.
"You're very welcome! And nah, I won't be needing it. If you haven't heard, Riku owes me a sparring match! You're welcome to watch!" Marching to the beat of her own drum, Yuffie rapidly switches between topics, not even waiting for a response from Riku before settling into a battle stance.
"Um, sure, I'll stay and watch... Is this a Moogle...?" Naminé mumbles to herself while examining the cloak she's now holding.
"Yuffie I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting for so long-"
"No-no-no-no-no. Nuh-uh. Don't care. Sparring time. Consider it payback for waiting if it makes you feel better. Now shut up and get ready!" Yuffie cuts him off, unable to stay in place for too long.
"Alright, alright. No magic, first one to touch the other with their weapon wins?" Riku relents and settles into his own battle stance, summoning his Keyblade.
"Yessir! Naminé'll be our ref!"
"Huh? Okay? What should I do?"
"Just say 'stop' or whatever when I poke Riku or Riku pokes me. Oh, and give us a countdown to start."
"Got it!" affirms Naminé, deciding to take her assignment as referee very seriously. "Ready? Three, two, one... Go!"
Riku immediately jumps into action with a vertical slash, determined to catch Yuffie off-guard as quickly as possible. After all, he did hear from Sora that she was an extremely agile fighter.
"Oh no you don't!" With an amazingly swift reaction time, Yuffie dodges to the side and back-flips away, seeking to create distance between herself and Riku. In a blink, she then sends her Shuriken flying at him. Knowing he's now at an instant disadvantage, Riku clicks his tongue and prepares to block the oncoming blade.
The echo of metal upon metal reverberates throughout the Square, drawing in a small crowd of residents. The Shuriken falls to the ground with a heavy clang once Riku's Keyblade breaks its trajectory.
From the corner of his vision, Riku catches Yuffie dash towards him and turns his block into a quick horizontal slash. Yuffie narrowly avoids it by ducking below him and retrieves her Shuriken. "W-Woah! You almost got me!" she exclaims.
With the purpose of not letting her create distance between them again, Riku throws all of his strength into another slash and forces her to block.
"Ugh! You know you have the strength advantage!" Yuffie squints at him with a pout, as if she's waiting for a response. Clearly not wanting for the match to end too quickly, she trips him up and makes him lose his footing with a nimble sweep at his legs.
Annoyed with an easy victory getting wrestled from his grasp, Riku huffs, "That wasn't very fair."
"Come on, Riku, you know there's no such thing as fair in a fight!"
"This is a sparring match!"
"Same difference, now come on!"
Frustrated, Riku thrusts his Keyblade forwards. Only for Yuffie to leap onto it, then effortlessly hop off and let the momentum carry her to land right behind him. "Oh crap." Riku whips around to block her Shuriken, assuming she would strike his side.
He is met with one of her Kunai pressed against his neck instead.
"Stop!" Naminé speaks up, thus ending the match.
"Yes! I win!" Yuffie jumps and skips around the Square, so absorbed in her own triumph that she loses her balance and falls backwards, right on top of one of the flower beds. "Oof!"
"Oh no!"
"Yuffie..."
Naminé and Riku rush towards the victorious ninja, the boy then offers his hand to help Yuffie up once he reaches her.
"Haha, thanks Riku. You too, Naminé, you make an amazing ref!"
"Oh uh, I really didn't do much, but thank you. Ah, before I forget! Here's your cloak back-"
"Nah, keep it. I'll be fine!"
"Are you su-"
"Yup. Got loads of 'em."
With the brightest smile Riku has ever seen from her, Naminé offers Yuffie a heartfelt "Thank you."
Before any of them can say anything else, however, Naminé's gaze wanders, only to suddenly freeze, as if she's spotted someone. "Sorry, I need to go back to the Castle. It was nice meeting you."
Riku glances towards her and quietly asks, "More tests?"
Naminé nods.
"Goodbye." Naminé offers a small smile, turns away, and begins walking towards the Castle.
"Hey Naminé! You should totally come visit us at the Restoration Committee! We're mostly at Merlin's House!" Yuffie yells out.
Riku nods and adds, "They could probably get you somewhere to stay at, too."
Naminé briefly faces them and shouts back, "I will! Thank you," before disappearing back into the Castle.
"That was fun! Thanks for sparring with me," Yuffie says, once they're both seated on one of the benches in the Central Square.
"Hm? Of course. I did say I would, after all."
"Yeah, but still!" Yuffie moves to lean backwards on the bench before she shoots up straight, remembering something. "Oh! While you were in the castle, Aerith dropped by and gave me some lunch bags. No idea what's in 'em, but it's probably something good!"
"We'll have to thank her later."
"Later is later, food is now, so come on, dig in already!"
After having their lunch, which consisted of simple but energy-boosting food, Riku and Yuffie make their way to the Bailey to do the latter half of their assignment, and meet up with Leon and Aerith.
Yuffie calls out a bit suddenly, "Hey, Riku."
"Yeah?"
"Is something on your mind? I mean, yeah, of course there is, but do you need to talk about it?"
"Why do you ask?"
"The sparring match."
"Huh? What does that have to do with it?"
"It was the reason why you lost. Something heavy is on your mind, and you don't know what to do about it, so it's distracting you. I was told you tend to be a bit of a trash-talker during sparring matches, but I saw none of that. No trash-talking at all! Reminded me too much of Leon."
But before Riku can even process what Yuffie's said, she spots Leon and Aerith and runs off to greet them. "Hey, Leon! Hey, Aerith! Riku and I are here and ready to go! Where do you need us?"
"Just in time. Over here." Leon motions for Riku and Yuffie to move in closer, and points at a narrow chokepoint within the Ravine Trail, not too far away from where the repairs have been taking place. "I need you in the front with me, while Yuffie covers us from the back. Aerith will support us from the walls."
"We figured that if we concentrated our attention on one spot all the Heartless would need to pass through, it would eliminate the need for us to spread out! So we can all watch out for one another," adds Aerith.
"We go in fifteen minutes," Leon says matter-of-factly before walking off. Yuffie immediately goes to trail after him, unwittingly announcing her departure with a sneeze.
"Is Leon alright? He's even quieter than usual," Riku inquires as he approaches Aerith. "Thanks for the lunch, by the way."
"Oh, him? He just feels shy because of the state you saw him in this morning. It was no problem, by the way," she reassures him. "What happened to Yuffie's cloak, also? I heard that sneeze."
"Oh yeah, she gave it to my friend who is staying at the Castle. Her name is Naminé, I don't know if you know her, but she didn't have anything warm of her own."
"That's sweet of her. She was warned about catching a cold, though. Anyway, ready to go?"
"Yeah."
The Heartless within the Ravine Trail don't pose much of a threat. The vast majority of them are picked off by Riku, Leon, and Yuffie, with the occasional spells from Aerith. It seems like the Heartless are at their strongest while being close to Villain's Vale, so the ones that have made it all the way to the choke point are fairly weak.
Aerith looks over at the repair workers, who signal that they're all done for the day. With a nod, she then casts three Thundaga spells in a row. Once the familiar resounding signal reaches Riku, Leon and Yuffie's ears (perhaps too successfully), the group knows they're good to go back home — just as they have done numerous times before.
"Good job today, everyone! Let me see..." Aerith moves to inspect her friends for any injuries when they meet up. "Not even a scrape on Leon, and- Wow, Yuffie! No scrapes on you either!"
"Hehe, I'm awesome, I know." Yuffie peacocks a little and proudly itches her nose.
"Hm... Oh, Riku, you've got a nasty bruise on your arm, let me help you," Aerith points out while already casting Cure.
"I didn't even notice. Thank you, Aerith."
"It's no problem, but please take care of yourself."
"Aw, come on, lay off him, he's probably tired from the butt-kicking I gave him earlier!" Yuffie pipes up when she hears the exchange. "Enough fooling around. We completed the first day of our assignment so we've gotta celebrate right? Right?"
"Celebrate as in...?" Riku asks, carefully.
"Food, duh! Come on over after you get the dirt off of you."
"Okay, okay. I'll see you all then."
Aerith and Yuffie wave goodbye to Riku, while Leon nods in acknowledgement. For now, the group part ways.
The celebration was a simple affair. Leon had brought over some food while Aerith made tea. Yuffie brought one of her favorite snacks to share, but she was the only one who could actually eat them (they appeared to be a type of extremely hard bean). Even Cid dropped by to greet everyone, but couldn't stay for long; explaining that he was busy getting some files from Ansem the Wise's computer.
Riku's newly established routine continued with very few deviations for the next few weeks. He'd wake up and have breakfast, head on over to the Committee to see if they had any jobs for him, pass the time with said jobs or stay with Kairi and sometimes Naminé until noon, meet up with everyone for the Bailey Assignment, and then head home. Though actually, there was a shift in his routine once. At some point, Yuffie ended up catching a cold and couldn't participate in the Assignment for about a week. Riku found this out after being woken up by his Gummiphone at 4 in the morning, the notifications going off nonstop due to Yuffie sending him barely coherent messages consisting of "ughhgghgh," "rikuuuhelp meee," or "ifeel like.im stew." She had insisted he exchange numbers with everyone in the Committee, but since they mostly conducted their meetings in person, his Gummiphone notifications quickly turned into daily status report messages from Aerith and the barely coherent ones from Yuffie. Leon seemed to barely use the thing.
Eventually, Yuffie got better, and everything returned to how it had been. Until Riku heard several knocks on his door one night.
About to go to bed, Riku heads to open his door. Thinking maybe it was one of the Committee members, he's instead greeted by Naminé.
"N-Naminé? What are y- Wait hold on, it's cold. Come in, we'll talk inside."
Naminé nods and steps inside. She seems shaken, not even looking him in the eye.
"I think I have some tea Aerith gave me? I'll make you some, give me one second." Riku ushers her to sit on his couch and hands her a blanket, then speeds off to get the tea kettle ready. A few minutes later, he returns with two cups of tea in hand and gives one to Naminé. "I don't remember what it's called, but apparently it's supposed to calm you down or help you sleep or something. Anyway, did something happen? What's wrong?"
Naminé sits still, unmoving, for a few seconds, then grabs her tea cup. She takes a couple of sips and tries to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. "I just. I just couldn't stay in there anymore. It was like being in Castle Oblivion or the Old Mansion again. Especially with DiZ- I mean- Ansem the Wise and his apprentices there."
Riku's stomach drops, "Trust me, I understand. The Castle, it makes me uncomfortable too. I know they regret what they've done, but still. Especially with Ansem the Wise, he was horrible to you."
Naminé goes quiet again, then asks, "Is that why you stay here?"
"Yeah, actually. The Castle building itself also just makes me... Feel bad."
"Because of what you did when it was Hollow Bastion?"
"Yeah..."
"I understand."
The two of them sit in silence as they finish their tea.
"So... What do you plan on doing next, Naminé?"
"I don't know. I don't even know how I managed to find you, really. I only caught glimpses of you and the others when I went outside, I never stayed out much, and I was too afraid to keep my promise to Yuffie..."
"It's okay, she won't mind. You can still go, you know?"
"I guess so..." Naminé trails off, as if mulling something over. "Hey, Riku?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you have room for one more in here? I think. No, I know that I'd rather stay there than in the Castle."
"Wh- Of course I do, you're welcome to stay here until you figure out what you want to do. Come on, you can take the bed, I'm pretty sure I have a futon somewhere... Or I could stay on the couch..."
"No, no, I'll take the futon or the couch, it's okay."
"Naminé, I insist. You look exhausted, please, take the bed."
"Okay, okay. But can I ask you a favor?"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Could you take the futon instead of the couch? I'd like to... See what a sleepover feels like. Like the ones you used to have with Sora and Kairi."
"Oh! Um. Sure, yeah. Is that all? You sure you don't need anything else?"
"I'm sure."
Riku and Naminé got onto the futon and the bed, respectively. Noticing that Naminé had nothing to change into, Riku told her that she could probably borrow clothes from Yuffie or Aerith. It wasn't much of a genuine sleepover like the ones he had as a kid, especially considering that one of them was exhausted and rattled, but the two of them decide to stay awake for a little bit longer regardless.
"I mean, seriously, was a lab coat the best thing they could give you? It's winter."
"I don't think it even crossed their minds, really. Maybe they thought my Replica body couldn't feel it? But it can, and it is cold."
"Aren't they supposed to be smart? Considering they're scientists and all?"
"I don't think Di- Ansem. Ansem knows much about Nobodies."
The room falls silent after Naminé's last remark. Riku assumes her to be asleep, so he shifts to lay on his side and prepares to drift off as well.
The silence is interrupted with a quiet "Thank you, Riku."
"Of course. 'Night, Naminé."
"Goodnight."