Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Comienzo del Viaje ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: The last time I checked the only thing I own is an empty waller.

CHAPTER 2:

LET"S GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE!!!

Morning came quickly. I woke up to the sound of Riku throwing rocks at my window. I sat up in my bed and tried to reorganize my thoughts. Of course! I quickly shot up, got dressed and gathered up my backpack and other necessities. Thankfully I had packed the night before. As I headed out of my room I grabbed my wallet off of my dresser and checked to make sure I had enough cash, then ran outside to meet him.

Riku stood alone, all of his stuff crammed into a large duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder. "Let's go get the others."

"Why did you come here first? It's going to take us longer now! We'll have to walk over to Kairi's, then double back and get Sora on the way to the docks!" I exclaimed. Of course, I wasn't stupid. I knew exactly why he had come alone.

"Do you still want to come or not?" Riku asked me. I hated it when he got that irritated sound in his voice.
I nodded and began to walk along the beach towards Kairi's house. Letting my aggravation go, I decided to take everything in. The gold and pink glow of the sky, the waves gently lapping at the cold sand, birds beginning to sing and call. It was a typical island morning, but this one seemed more special than the others.

Riku gently bumped into my side. "What?" I asked, looking up to see him staring straight ahead, a small smirk giving his thoughts away.

I rolled my eyes and looked back towards the slowly rising sun, and tried not to breath too loud so I could hear everything. Riku bumped into my side again, this time a little harder.

"What do you want?!" I almost laughed. I tried to harden myself. There was no way in the world I was going to give into this guy. In fact, Riku hadn't starting flirting directly with me until only yesterday, and already it was driving me nuts!

Riku still wore his smirk, although now it was bigger. He gave me one final bump and I pushed him back, making him stagger sideways. I couldn't help but enjoy it. I would repent for it later. It was too early in the day to start feeling guilty.

Riku rejoined my side and we walked in near-perfect silence to Kairi's house. Riku suddenly placed his arm over my shoulder, letting his hand casually dangle over my shoulder, close to my face. He drew his face close to mine, and the breeze made strands of his silver-blue hair tickle my cheeks. He put his mouth up to my ear, the feel of his hot breath making my stomach twist, visions of the previous night coming back to haunt me. "Akirame…" he gently whispered.

"What?" I gently asked. What was I thinking?!

"Last night, on the beach, when you and I were together."

"Yes?" Like I'd forgotten.

"You still owe me a confession."

"Over my dead body!" I finally said. I felt proud of myself for finally fighting back. I'd have to practice resistance more often.

Riku smiled, a smile of confidence. Either that or he was trying to hold in a laugh. I was disgusted. He would never take me inlove! I mean, alive! Flustered, I looked ahead and saw Kairi's house quickly coming into view. As we approached Riku finally withdrew his arm and then switched back into cool-mannered-Riku-in-public mode. The only one that everyone else in the world except recently for me and maybe my mom thought existed.

I politely walked up the wooden steps to the door and knocked, trying to shake off the jitters that suddenly formed in my stomach, making it hard to breath normally. When there was no response, Riku took a small rock and threw it at the window. So much for social grace. We were completely surprised when Sora's head came into view, looking drowsy, still wearing his black pajama T-shirt, his hair a mess. When he spotted us, his eyes grew large and he quickly ducked out of sight. A moment later he ran out to meet us, followed by Kairi. Sora looked a little sheepish, like we had caught him sneaking cookies during school.

"And what, may I ask, were you doing at Kairi's house?" Riku asked as they joined us.

"I spent the night, so you wouldn't have to walk all the way clear to my house, to save time." Sora tried to explain.

"Whatever." Riku replied.

"So, let's go already!" Kairi eagerly said, shifting the pack she carried.

We then carried on in silence as we headed back towards the direction of the dock. Time seemed to speed up as the sun slowly rose, bringing out deep blues in the sky, streaked with white clouds. Finally Kairi broke the silence.

"This is such a beautiful morning. It reminds me of the day Riku arrived."

Of course, it did all of us. Riku was technically an orphan, as no one ever found out who his parents was, but he never really seemed to fit the description.

The day he had arrived seemed impossibly long ago. I was only 6, but the memory remained clear in my mind. It was the same day that we all met and made friends. He never remembered how he had ended up unconscious on the old wooden dock, wrapped in an old, brown blanket, but it was believed that he had been abandoned by someone. There had been a great commotion that day when my mother had found him there.

I could still remember the first time I looked at his face, his expressionless face framed by shoulder-length, brown hair, the ends fading into silver. Those unnatural, lucid aqua eyes seemed to stare straight into my soul, measuring me.

Just moments later a young, bright, cheerful girl with chin-length reddish-brown hair and bright blue eyes walked up and introduced herself as Kairi. Shortly later Sora met us as well. We had stood there, waiting for the reason we were there to speak.

"What's your name?" I had asked.

"Riku." He had simply said.

I sighed and woke up from my reminiscing. After all these years, I could still hardly believe the pain Riku had gone through. I had looked up his name one day in a Japanese dictionary out of curiosity, and found that his name had two meanings, one of which I knew I would never forget. "The agony of seperation." I muttered under my breath.

Riku looked at me. "Did you say something?" He asked.

"No, I was just thinking."

"Hmm."

We were all deep in thought, thinking about all the things we had done here on this little island when we were interrupted by a voice. "Wait for me!"

We turned to see Jerdania running towards us, carrying a neatly packed backpack. She wore her usual get-up, a somewhat tight black T shirt, tan capris and her hiking boots. I secretly envied her beauty. Her lightly tanned, athletic body, the honey eyes and crimson hair. Ugh.

She quickly joined up with us. "Boy am I glad I caught you guys! There for a minute I was afraid you had forgotten me." Oops. So we had.

The docks came into sight all too soon. There was a small group of people moving things onto one of the medium-sized house boats. The people were about our age, in their late teens.

One of them, a tall, somewhat skinny man in a cowboy hat spotted us and turned to tell the others. They were obviously expecting us. "Riku!" He called out in a smooth, slightly high voice that was pleasant and friendly.

As we approached I could see that the man was… well… charming. He had reddish-gold hair pulled back in a pony tail down his shoulders, some wavy strands hanging out from under his hat, framing his face…perfectly, going down just to his ears. His left ear, as I noticed later, had an earring hanging from it. He wore, under a long, reddish-tan trench coat, a white T shirt and simple black jeans. As he stepped forward to greet us, his forest-green eyes mischievously sparkled as he offered a gloved hand to Jerdania. Well, at least that's what she would be repeatedly telling me later.

Jerdania smiled, already won over by his charm. "Hello there, I'm Irvine Kinneas." He said with a Texan twang, "What's your name pretty?"

I rolled my eyes as Jerdania smiled and gave a small giggle. "I'm Jerdania."

"Jerdania, eh? A unique name for such a beauty." Irvine sweetly said.

I was getting nauseous. Irvine slowly put an arm around Jerdania's shoulder and looked at us. "And your names are?"

"I'm Akirame, the girl is Kairi and he's Sora. I think you already know Sora." I somewhat hastily said.

"Cool. Well, I'll take your bags, Miss Jerdania, and let ya'll board the boat. We're all ready to go." Irvine said, taking her backpack and letting us carry our own stuff.

The boat was typical, and too boring to really describe, so I'll cut that short. The reality of what we were doing didn't really hit us until we heard the sound of the boat's motor, felt the gentle rocking of the waves beneath us and watched the island slowly slipping away. We didn't stop staring at it until it was out of sight. I felt almost like crying. What was I doing?!

I leaned against the metal railing of the small-second level deck and sighed, trying to get my thoughts together. Riku joined me, leaning his arms against the rail, his eyes focused on something we couldn't see anymore. "I can't believe it. We actually left." Riku softly said beneath his breath, folding his hands together.

"I know. Its scary." I said.

Riku turned to look at me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just…I don't know. I feel so unsure about everything."

"I know. I've always felt that way. But know, I know that we're going to discover something that will change everything. We'll have lots of challenges along the way, but I know that somehow, no matter where we go or what we see, we'll always be able to go back. I think we're going to really find something."

I looked up at Riku. He had a look of anticipation and confidence in his eyes. I could see the smile beginning to form in the corners of his lips. Somehow, I knew he was right.