Written for a prompt entitled "It's like speaking a different language"

Set at the beginning of KH1, after Riku and Sora are seperated, but before Riku is corrupted by Maleficent.

Riku tapped the stick he had been carrying idly against the stone beneath him. It was a shady dark blue filled with cracks that should have been replaced years upon years ago, and sadly reflected the town in itself.

He sighed, slumping his back against the wall and resting his head on the empty barrel beside him, reflecting.

Maleficent would be expecting him back soon, he had merely been out to do a quick overview of this world for her, after all, but he found himself oddly attracted to the cold stone and the small familiarity of a town, versus the bitter gargoyles of Castle Oblivion where he had been seeking shelter.

He closed his eyes and tried to drown out the voices that had begun to rise on the other side of the wall, growing increasingly irritated that he could make out their intense volumes, but not any distinguishable words. He wrapped his jacket further around himself and sunk as deep into the shadow of the building as he could get and tried to clear his mind.

A door opened to his left, however, and he immediately refocused his attention as a small girl stepped out, looking no more than seven or eight. Her feet were bare as she hopped cautiously out of the doorway, glancing around as her gentle, auburn hair swished and swayed with her movements.

She tensed as she spotted Riku, and reflectively gripped the door to step back into the safety of the bright lights and warmth. Riku, both proud of her wariness of strangers and hurt by the fact that he seemed malicious, instantly pulled off his hood.

"It's okay," he reassured her, changing positions to sit cross-legged as he tucked his feet beneath him. "You have no reason to fear me."

She didn't look skeptical at his words, but rather at warnings he was sure her guardians had always set upon her. Still, something more powerful drove her away from the door yet again, and she paused only slightly before tentatively shutting it behind her.

Riku suddenly realized what her desire to escape must be from.

"Are you those your parents?" he asked softly, tilting his head towards the wall where the shouting match continued, interrupted frequently with hissing insults and outlandish demands. She nodded softly and looked down, rolling her weight from her heels to her toes. Riku felt his heart sink.

"You can sit down, if you'd like."

She bit her lip. "I'm not supposed to be outside without someone."

"Well I'm someone," he offered, and motioned her over towards him, "It's alright. I won't let anyone hurt you, especially me."

He thought savagely that she seemed more prone to getting hurt inside her house with her parents there, rather than outside it with no one anyway, but hid his scowl. She seemed to take his reasoning and sat down beside him, hugging her legs to her chest. He noticed her clothes weren't ratty, but well-worn, as children like to do with favourite possessions, which meant she couldn't have come from a poverty-infested home.

This was one of those seemed-happy-faked-happy cases that Riku hadn't come across too much at home. But he'd definitely heard about them.

"Do they fight much?" he asked delicately, not sure what to say to her.

She pushed a stand of hair behind her ear and shook her head. "No. Something happened. I don't know what. It didn't seem like anything before it turned into something."

She sighed audibly as the strand fell in her face again. After a moment she blew it carelessly and it flew to join the others, freeing her face to the night's chill. Riku slipped off his jacket and gently draped it over her, noticing that, however nice her clothes were, they didn't offer much protection in weather like this.

"I know they're happy," she said quietly, after blushing slightly but adjusting the jacket around her nonetheless, "But I don't know why they fight sometimes."

Riku smiled, the first genuine smile he had given in days. "That's how people are when they're in love," he stated, moving to rest his arms on his legs as he began once again to trace patterns in the stone with the blunt stick. "They're fools."

"Love?" she asked blandly, looking slightly bewildered. "How can love cause fights?"

"I just told you," he teased lightly. "When people are in love, they become absolute fools. They do ridiculous things for ridiculous reasons," he smiled, dragging the stick through crack after crack and leaning his head on his hand. His voice became softer then, but he continued, "But to them, all that matters is that they get the attention they want from the person they want; whatever they do they do it to gain any sort of reaction, and it's always, always, a good reason for them."

She pulled the jacket closer to her as she listened, the wind was blowing softly around them as he spoke, giving a beautiful, haunting quality to his tone.

"They do childish things to put all eyes on them. They say things they wouldn't normally, and act in a way they may not when they're by themselves, just to see the smile on that persons face."His eyes glazed a bit, and the stick stilled against the stone. "They... They do all sorts of crazy things. They go along with every little whim that person asks of them, and dedicate every speck of time they don't need to comforting that person, to talking to them, to playing with them and pandering to every need and want they have. They…well, they love them. Unconditionally. And sometimes, when they feel an emotion, especially such a strong one, is unrequited or unnoticed, well… It tends to cloud their judgment."

She 'hmm'ed lightly and gazed at him with an inquisitive state, innocent and curious as only a child could be, and asked him softly.

"Who is she?"

Riku looked back at her, but blinked questioningly at her words. "Who is… who?"

"The girl you're talking about. I can tell from the way you talk that you know how it feels to fall in love."

Riku paused. The question had thrown him off balance. Truth be told, he had merely been rambling about emotions and the beginnings to all those fairy-tale endings he had heard, just to comfort the child, but now that he thought about it, there had been honesty behind his words. Something he had never quite taken into serious account. With a jolt of realization, he wound it around and around in his head, letting the longing and penetrating grief melt into his heart and mind, devouring him as he re-evaluated what he had been missing this whole time.

Hewanted to see new worlds. Any of them. All of them.

But he hadn't wanted to do it alone.

Given the choice, he would have given up all this lonely traveling if he could still be back on his island with--

"Sora." He replied, and though the name slipped past his lips as easily as it always had, it was pieced together now not with laughter, but with a yearning. A shame. A bitter hopelessness. "Her name is Sora."

"So-ra," the girl muttered, and Riku felt his heart crack like the stone beneath him, and a sudden urge to cry welled up inside him. He took a deep breath and swallowed it, flustered over by not only his emotions and his honesty, but by the simple intoxication this small girl now held over him. How much she reminded him of home, of simple life, of the best friend he lost.

"We got separated," Riku supplied weakly. "She was… she was my best friend. We did everything together and now that I'm alone, I don't know where I'm going. I was always the leader, but it's so different if he's not following me. I can't tell which path is right."

"Where is she now?" the girl asked, her innocent inquiry so overwhelming to Riku in that moment that he was forced to bite his lip as he gave his answer, to avoid his voice shuddering.

"…I don't know."

A silence followed his words, and together they watched a small bird fly down in front of them, picking up crumbs from between the barrels, chirping softly, like the birds at home did. Riku imagined he could feel the sea breeze, tainted only slightly with the thick smell of industrialization that surrounded them. He imagined the water, lusciously blue, peaceful and calm as Sora dragged him down the sand, begging for a rematch. His hands were warm, and the small, imagined sensation of that memory that now tingled through Riku's fingers matched the very real burning in his eyes.

"You'll find her, you know," the little girl spoke, sucking him back into this twisted reality, where he had begun to linger in self-doubt and helplessness.

"How do you know?" he asked quietly, unashamed as he heard his own voice crack.

"The two of you, you speak the same language," she murmured, and her sweet voice was so soft against the wind he felt closer to home at that moment than he ever did. She turned towards him and smiled. "I don't really know what you're talking about, but I'm sure she'd know exactly what you're saying, because…well, she loves you. And you love her. I guess that's why I don't really get it," she laughed lightly and hummed. "You don't even need words to understand each other."

"It's a fools language," he smiled sadly, but she countered him before he could let his bitterness show.

"And you're a fool in love."

"Sweetie! Oh, there you are!"

Both of them turned to the open doorway, where a flustered looking woman began to rush towards them. The little girl quickly stood up.

"I'm okay, momma."

"How long have you been out here? You must be freezing!"

It was then the woman arrived to where they had been sitting and saw them in full light, taking in the jacket draped around her daughters shoulders and a slightly shivering Riku. She peeled the jacket off and handed it back to Riku, looking at him suspiciously as she clutched her daughter rather protectively against her chest.

"Should I be thanking you, or shooing you away?"

"Actually," Riku replied, standing up and dusting off his pants, "I'm about to shoo myself away, so it's your daughter you should probably apologize to."

Instant anger flashed over the mother's face, but it quickly softened as she gazed down at her daughter, who was looking up at her nervously, as if she hadn't quite been prepared for this.

"You're right," the mom said quietly. "I'm so sorry sweetheart. Your father and I are done fighting. For good this time." She paused, tucking that unruly piece of hair behind the sweet child's ear, meeting her eyes and speaking honestly. "We'll never do that to you again."

"It's okay momma," the girl smiled, instantly forgiving her mother, as all well behaved children are prone to do. Then, with a teasing air she continued with shining eyes, "I understand everything."

The mother laughed softly, a hint of amusement in her tone as she kissed the top of the girl's head. "Wonderful. Let's all go in and have dinner. Whatever you want tonight. We can even have ice cream!"

The girl grinned, and after a moment her eyes lit up. "Can my friend come inside and--?"But when she looked at that darkened corner, Riku had already vanished.

---

Riku heard them go inside not long after that, remaining hidden in the shadows around the wall; and when the door shut and the sound of the lock penetrated his dim and lonely silence, he bowed his head and wept.

But as his body shook with sorrow, he could never imagine that somewhere, on the distant world of Traverse Town, a small boy was hugging a key blade to his chest in the darkness of twilight, his cheeks wet with tears as he whispered Riku's name to the emptiness around him.

And somewhere out there, he knew Riku had heard him.