The sun rises again on the World of Radiant Garden, its rays hitting Riku's face and waking him up. It takes him a while to register his surroundings, as he realizes he's not on his bed, but rather on his futon. He runs his hand over his face in an attempt to wake himself up fully, and he wonders if Naminé is still asleep. The thought is interrupted by her soft snoring.

Well, someone's exhausted.

Not wanting to wake her, he quickly grabs his day clothes and makes his way out of his room, changing in the bathroom. After washing his face and teeth, he goes to the combined kitchen-living room area and checks the clock, which reads 08:11, a bit later than what he's used to waking up around.

He puts a kettle full of water on the stove-top for coffee, and while he waits for it to heat up, he quietly goes back into his room again and opens up a journal he keeps stored on his bedside table. He opens it up, and quickly writes down the day's date, as well as "NO DREAMS." After he's done, he puts it back in his place and grabs his Gummiphone which he forgot by his futon, double-checking that his alarms remain off so as not to wake Naminé.

Back in the kitchen area, he sees steam come out of the kettle and takes it off the stove top before the kettle gets the chance to go off.

As he's putting the kettle back in its place on the now unlit stove top after he's finished making his coffee, the silence is interrupted by last night's surprise guest.

“You... drink your coffee black?” murmurs an extremely groggy Naminé.

“Ah! Naminé! Good morning!” replies Riku, startled by her. She could give Yuffie a run for her munny and probably win, too.

“Good morning... Can I have some?” she says, practically stumbling towards the countertop.

"Yeah, sure, but it's the instant kind. Sugar's in there," Riku points out a mason jar, "and there's milk in the fridge," ending his statement by handing Naminé a mug after putting a couple spoon's worth of coffee in it.

Riku struggles to stifle a chuckle as he sees Naminé pour in an obscene amount of sugar into her mug, enough to fill a third with it, and milk filling up another third, water making up whatever space is left.

Almost as if she senses the question coming her way, she tells Riku, "All everyone drinks... in the Castle is this... really bad..." Naminé interrupts her own sentence by taking a sip of her 'coffee' "really bad coffee. With powdered milk and... some sort of sweetener, it tastes disgusting, so whenever they give me some" another sip, "I just try to cover up the taste as much as I can." Lucidity returns to her with every sip.

But as she wakes up fully, she gasps a bit and blurts out, "Oh! Thank you for the coffee, Riku! And for letting me stay."

With a small laugh, he tells her, "No problem, it looked like you needed it," not specifying what he's referring to.

"Also, I don't really drink my coffee black; I actually think it tastes disgusting, but it's the only thing that wakes me up in the morning. I... like to drink it with cream, and also sugar, but not nearly as much as you," Riku continues, before downing his entire cup in one gulp, gripping the counter as if he were trying not to throw it back up.

With a clear noise of disgust, however, he tells Naminé, "I do think that whatever they had you drink at the Castle would make me throw up. That sounds disgusting." which prompts a quiet giggle from Naminé.

Walking around the kitchen, Riku says, "I don't have much food in here, but help yourself to anything. I usually eat cereal, but I think I have some eggs in the fridge-"

"You don't. I saw while grabbing the milk," Naminé interrupts.

"Oh. I guess I just have cereal then. I'll go grocery shopping after checking in with the Committee," Riku replies, already grabbing and pouring the remaining cereal into two bowls.

"Right..." Naminé mumbles as she begins to eat her serving, the conversation fizzling out into uncomfortable silence.


CONTINUE



https://files.catbox.moe/xpkegz.mp3