Title: Meeting at Sunrise
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Characters/Pairings: Riku, Xion; phantom-limb!RikuShi
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoilers for the last bit of Riku's gameplay in KH3D.
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney, and Tetsuya Nomura. I own the stories I write.
Summary: She's not who Riku's expecting.
Word Count: 528
Submitted: 19 August 2013

Dedicated to Kight-Dawn and Amatus. Knight-Dawn for being the only one to vote for "phantom-limb!RikuShi" way back when. And Amatus as a big HUGE thanks for being amazing and helpful and keeping my love for RikuShi alive despite my distance from the KH fandom. This story would not have had it's current title were it not for you, sweetie. THANK YOU!

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Riku hesitates when he spots a figure in the distance sitting on Sora's customary perch on the bent Paopu fruit tree. Something nudges him from the far recesses of his mind, but the name Riku calls out is Sora's. Who else would sit there but the spiky haired brunet? He doesn't let doubt slow his sprint down the beach and into the Sea Shore Shack. In fact, Riku finds his spirits rising terribly high as he exits the Sea Shore Shack and catches sight of black on the tree.

There's a part of him that knows this can't be what he expects, but another part keeps him running because he knows that whatever is waiting for him on the other side of the bridge is something he wants.

When he arrives, a girl with Kairi's and Naminé's face, but none of their coloring is there in Sora's stead. Her presence causes the smile on Riku's face to fall. The smile falls not because of disappointment, but because of the confusion at the fact that he's not disappointed at all.

Something inside Riku aches at the sight of her, especially at how she shows no indication that she is aware of him, her eyes focused on the rising sun.

"Who are you?"

The words taste bitter on his tongue and fall without solidity or truth to his ears. He knows this is the question he should ask, but they are not the words that are bubbling up from his chest and pushing at the seam of his lips.

And without turning to him, without ever looking at him, she addresses him.

"Riku."

She know who he is. The ache in him burns at the ease his name rolls off her tongue, just as easily as her question.

"What do you wish?"

"More questions…" He says this and takes a thinking pose in an attempt at humor rather than in actual seriousness—doesn't even know why he tries, but it feels right to try and coax a smile out of her down-turned expression. He knows, just knows that she deserves something to smile about. But from his periphery he sees he's failed to draw her attention, much less her gaze, away from the sunrise.

"All right…" He straightens up and takes his usual place against the trunk of the Paopu tree.

He crosses his arms and closes his eyes against distraction. That's what she is, a distraction—her and the aching burning. Regardless, she asked him a question in a dream of Sora's sleeping heart—a sleeping heart housing an unknown number of others, and hers no doubt struggling to have her voice heard above the rest. Riku intends to give her an answer worthy of her time, her effort, her drive to be recognized.

He opens his eyes and smiles in the wake of the burning ache in his chest.

"I wish…"

He doesn't turn from the view of the sunrise. He doesn't dare look away because he knows the moment he does that she'll be fading from his sight, leaving no trace that she ever existed other than an ache for something he didn't know he was missing.

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If you pay close attention to the sun during the dream-dream!Destiny Islands sequence, you'll see that the sun actually rises in the sky. I only noticed it while I was re-watching the that part for this fic.

Whew! This went through several revisions and I'm still not quite satisfied with it. Oh well. That's usually how it goes. I'm a bit rusty on the creative writing front, so I hope that I did well enough to appease my loyal readers who have been waiting over a year for this baby (sorry guys) and to please those reading my stuff for the first time (welcome folks).

Ever since I first saw this scene I couldn't stop thinking about it. With Roxas and Venus, Riku just answered their questions and not much else. But with Xion, he actually tried to be friendly-he voluntarily decreases the distance between them and is relaxed enough around her to just chill and lean back on the Paopu tree. That always stuck with me. I wanted to expand more on the "bubbling" I mentioned in this piece, but I could never get it out right-I defaulted back on the ache/burn out of frustration, not that I don't like the ache/burn.

There's a line of the original draft had that I really wanted to use, but it didn't fit with the where I was going with the story. Maybe I'll write another interpretation of this scene if only to use that line. Maybe. At least I was able to sneak in that bit about Kairi and Naminé.

I'm actually very busy nowadays with real life, so I won't be updating on a regular basis. However, I WILL be writing. I'm trying to get back into writing for both fandom and myself, but it's not easy with my schedule and obligations.

Amule Misty, thank you so much for taking the time to read through all the one-shots in addition for following them and adding them to your favorites. You are dear and I'm so happy you enjoyed reading this collection of mine. "Unexplainable" (the one you couldn't remember the title of) is one of my favorites, too. Hopefully, the wait for another installment wasn't too burdensome and this one-shot isn't too bad.

SJ, thanks so much for reviewing. Oliver and Company is a great movie with some very good songs-I just couldn't pass up a chance to reference it in a story.

Guest, thanks for taking the time to write a review. I'm glad my collection has been able to fill your RikuShi void. I'm very sorry that you had to wait for over a year for a new chapter to come out. I truly hope you enjoyed this installment.

RoseOfADifferentColor, thank you! You always say such nice things.

Espionage147, thank you so much! You're making me blush. Did I regress in writing skills since I last updated? I feel like I did.

Knight-Dawn, you sweetie you. Thank you bunches. I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this out. I know you wanted phantom-limb!RikuShi, and I feel so bad that you had to wait over a year for this fic.

Thank you kippusan, CrystalRose123, Nozomi Illuminated, and HazukiSama for adding SL&IT to your favorites. I'd also like to thank TUNSEM for following SL&IT, too! You're all appreciated.

Next Time: My RikuShi/Kingdom Hearts muse is very silent nowadays, so I'm going to focus on writing other stories for other fandoms. When I DO write another RikuShi fic, it's probably going to be a fill of a request from way back when or another phantom-limb!RikuShi story.