Beautiful Things

Author's Note: It's short. I really like this one, though. If there are mistakes, please tell me. I'm running on coffee.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Get off my back. D:

Warning: -shrugs- Disturbing image?

xxx

Growth

Riku looks back on the years spent away from the island and the sudden return, back in that past life, sometimes. The old life. The bad life. He remembers how odd it had been to grow up knowing you had killed, you were responsible for the death of other beings.

Even now it's not any better.

Now it's odd to remember growing up knowing you had killed, you were responsible for the deaths of other beings, and watching others grow up around you when you already feel a hundred years old.

Riku still feels old, no matter what age he is. Not in the physical sense, but rather the fact that his heart has felt things a twenty year old shouldn't. He has seen things a normal twenty year old hasn't - death, Heartless gathering around a man much like you would gather around the table at Thanksgiving, and magic. He looks at Sora sometimes and sees that child-like innocence shining through, and Riku wishes he could be that way too. But he's not, and he looks back on the years spent away from the island and the sudden return, back in that past life, and his eyes darken. His college roommate (despite his wishes, he still didn't end up with Sora) looks at him and tells him, "Dude, you've got that look in your eyes again. What are you thinking about?"

Riku wants to tell him, "The darkness."

But he doesn't. Because this twenty year old roommate has not seen things that the twenty year old Riku remembers seeing. It's been this way his whole life, actually, and only Sora (and Axel and Roxas to an extent) seem to understand. Riku grew up knowing what death smelled like, what it sounds like to have a heart ripped from a chest and eaten, and knows what it looks like to watch somebody fade in front of your very eyes. Riku's has not even reached his full growth yet (he's only twenty, remember?), but he knows what it feels like to get arthritis for god's sake.

And that, in Riku's opinion, is just sad. And it makes his hand hurt just thinking about it.

xxx

Author's Note: SHORT. I told you.