The Devil Went Down to Georgia [Closed]

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Character(s): Riku, Kairi
Content: Riku arrives at Haja o Que Houver
Setting: Paixao railway, Niflheim station to Vanaheim
Time: Time Warp from late Morning - Evening, first day
Warnings: Frozen boy!nipples


People were staring at him. He needed to get out of here in a bad way.

Not far away, Riku heard the rattle and bang of large machinery. He turned a corner, and suddenly there was a train, just pulling out of the station.

Perfect.

Even better, there seemed to be some kind of small open air market near the station. Riku helped himself to a loaf of bread as he sprinted for the train. There were angry shouts from behind him, but they faded quickly as he leapt onto the rear ladder of the caboose and the train picked up speed.

He climbed up on top of the car and sat down to wolf the food he’d stolen, making sure to secure Soul Eater to his back, first. He was never putting his sword down again.

His fingers were still bleeding from where that creature had bitten him, but he had no compelling urge to slice up his jeans for more bandages, so he just let it bleed, trying to keep the blood off of his bread, as he ate.

Ansem had gone oddly silent within him. It was probably a bad sign, but Riku was just relieved to have a few moments’ peace. When he came back, Riku would be ready for him.

With his belly full, he noticed the wind of the train’s motion was really cold on the bare skin of his upper body. He walked along the train until he found a car where he could hear no noise of passengers below. It was a baggage car, and he climbed down and managed to haul the door open just enough to leap in.

In the dark, he crawled behind several large trunks and closed his eyes, falling into an exhausted sleep almost immediately.

~

Hours later, the baggage car was unloaded, and a dirty, bloody, half-naked boy discovered sleeping all the way in the back. He was promptly removed.

Riku shrugged off the “helping hands” and stumbled off the platform, exhausted in spite of the hours of much-needed sleep. He was hungry again; bread only went so far in a starving adolescent stomach.

And had no idea where he was now. But a lot of time must have passed when he was asleep on the train, because it was dark outside now.

The sounds of music filled the street, and drifting toward him on the breeze was the unmistakable smell of food. He had no idea how he was going to get any, but Riku followed the scent all the same.

As bad a day as this had been already, he fully expected to find babies roasting on a spit at the end of his journey. But he was past the point of caring.

And somehow...he felt he needed to go in this direction. As if he were being subtly pulled, a tiny connection he had all but forgotten about in the last few weeks he had become a prisoner inside his own body.

The scent and the thread pulling his heart led him to the doors of a bustling, if not exactly high class hotel. Great. They should have decent water here for him to bathe and rebandage his wounds, too.

Once more, people began to stare as the shirtless, filthy boy, his left hand and bandages on his right arm still oozing blood, stepped into the lobby. Two women screamed. One man fled up the stairs of the hotel, yelling something about the devil. Riku ignored it all and walked over to the check-in desk.

“I’d like some food,” he said, tempering his voice to sound calm, reasonable, and adult as possible.

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Riku would recognise that voice anywhere.

And suddenly, he understood what had been pulling him here.

Sort of.

He didn't really believe in all that romantic crap about their hearts being connected. If that were true, Sora and Kairi were in big trouble being connected to him.

But he couldn't deny the fact that he'd ended up here completely at random from gods know where, and...

He closed his eyes as the desk clerk continued to gape at him. After everything he'd put Kairi through, he wasn't sure he could face her.

Sure, he could blame Ansem for what had happened, but then Ansem wasn't gone. Maybe it would serve her better if he just got as far away from her as possible.

But he found he couldn't just leave.

Riku was tired, he was banged up, in pain, he was hungry, and suddenly he'd found a little piece of home in this awful place. He couldn't just throw that away. Again.

Slowly, he turned around to face that dear voice, looking uncharacteristically apprehensive of what she would have to say to him after everything that had happened.

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Riku was incredibly moved by the relief and forgiveness he saw in Kairi's eyes. She started to cry, and he put his good hand on her shoulder, saying gently, "Don't cry."

The last thing he'd wanted to do was make her cry.

She started to babble out her relief at finding him, when a sudden look of horror crossed her face.

" .. what's .. wrong with your eyes? "

My eyes? he thought. What--?

And then, he knew. He knew exactly what was wrong with his eyes, and why that man had yelled about the devil walking into the hotel.

Riku hurriedly looked down and shielded his eyes from Kairi with his bloody hand, feeling ashamed and angry. Would he never be rid of that bastard?

"Kairi! Don't...don't look!" he stammered.

He could never let Sora see him like this.

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Riku knew it was stupid. But he felt like, somehow, if he could shield his unnaturally-coloured eyes from Kairi, it was one small step in protecting her from Ansem.

But he couldn't explain that. He didn't even want to talk about it. Because then he might have to admit WHY his eyes were the orange-gold of those of a bird of prey.

She took his hand and Riku followed blindly, still unwilling to look up. He trusted Kairi, wherever she was taking him. And getting cleaned up was a good idea. He'd be lucky if none of his injuries got infected, after the day he'd spent.

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Riku recognised the tiled floor of a restroom and the sickly-sweet scent of artificial air freshener. A suspiciously floral scent.

When Kairi told him to sit down, Riku cast a quick glance around the room, careful not to let her see his eyes.

There was a row of stalls on the opposite wall and...no urinals.

"Kairi..." Riku started to laugh. It was a startling sound, somewhat breathless and rusty from disuse. "Did you drag me into the ladies' room?"

He looked up at her, forgetting about his eyes for a moment.

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Riku figured what the hell? It wasn't as if he'd never been in a women's room before. Besides, it would be a great story to tease Sora with later.

Sora...

Riku winced as Kairi started to clean his chewed-up fingers.

"Kairi...have you seen Sora? I told him to take care of you..."

That slacker. Figures he'd manage to lose his best girl in this stupid place. Sora had some serious noogies coming to him when they found him again.

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Riku smiled and shook his head when Kairi worried that she was being too rough. "It doesn't hurt."

The look on her face when he mentioned Sora spoke for an emotion Riku could relate to. Not that he was going to admit it.

Kairi wouldn't lie. Of course she hadn't seen Sora.

Riku's expression darkened, and he shook his head. "I saw him earlier, but..." His shoulders slumped a little. "I lost him."

He looked up at her and flashed a confident smile.

"But don't worry; we'll find him again. Together."

With his injured hand, he gave hers a reassuring squeeze.

"Just leave everything to me."

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" you know how crazy sora is .. always getting out of our grasp .. "

Riku huffed a laugh at that. That made it sound like Sora was intentionally avoiding them. Which was a distinct possibility in his case, but sure as hell wasn't in hers.

" if we're gonna look for him together, how can i leave everything to you? "

He smiled when she stuck out her tongue at him, but said nothing further. Riku was the one in charge, no matter what. He knew Kairi wasn't helpless, but still. It was his duty to take care of things. As the eldest and the strongest, that had always been his job. And it was even moreso now that he was literally responsible for landing them all in this.

Riku was certain they never would have ended up in this place (along with all the others) if he hadn't opened himself to Ansem that fateful night before they'd been supposed to set out on the raft. He regretted that mistake every day.

" but don't worry .. i trust you to find him .. no matter what. "

Riku's stomach flip-flopped, but he did his best not to show it. What did she mean by that?

This was the first time they'd spoken since they'd had The Conversation that night. In many ways, Riku hoped Kairi'd forgotten about what was said then.

In case the conversation was going there, he decided to change the subject.

"So...are you staying here?"

While he waited for her to answer, Riku peeled off the glove of his right hand with his teeth and shoved it in his pocket with the tattered one from his left, which had probably saved him losing a finger or two to that glowing beast earlier.

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Riku raised an eyebrow when, without a second thought, Kairi reached down and ripped off the hem of her skirt to use as a bandage. At least she had on that mini-skort underneath. But oh, he was going to have a ball teasing Sora with this.

He thought, amused, it was a good thing he hadn't sustained any more injuries today, given their bandaging methods, or they both might be standing here in their skivvies by now.

Kairi started to freak out when he asked if she was staying at the hotel.

"Whoa, hold on. It's all right.
Who's Namine?"

Trust Kairi to have made a new friend already. He just hoped she'd shown good judgment. If Namine was some big burly man with ideas, well. Riku was sadly going to have to kick his ass.

"you can stay with us, most likely. "

"Wait. You're sharing a room?"

An ass-kicking was looking more and more likely.

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Riku was relieved to hear that Namine was a girl. His eyes began to glaze over as Kairi shifted into girl-talk mode and she started to tell him all about her adventures of the day.

Man, he was really hungry. He didn't like the idea of mooching off of Kairi, but she had to have munny of some kind if she was staying here. And Riku was used to sucking up his pride when it came to food. A growing boy needed a lot of it, and they'd never seemed to have enough at home. Sora was his usual victim for food-snatching, but he'd made exceptions in the past.

Riku blinked and came back to the present as Kairi finished bandaging him up.

" there! now .. we need to get you a shirt or .. something .. "

She cast around as if she might find something suitable in the vicinity. Not wanting to get stuck wearing a shirt made out of toilet seat covers, Riku cut in.

"A shirt shouldn't be too hard..."

He turned and wandered back out to the lobby, where the mass of people he'd first seen upon entering seemed to have reconvened. Riku took a careful look around. Why the hell were all these people wearing white? Was there a wake being held in the hotel or something?

"You!" Riku pointed at a man behind the desk who was about his size, and did his best to look imposing (which was pretty good for a 15-year-old). "Give me your jacket."

The man paused in the midst of loading a luggage cart with bags - apparently he was a bellhop - and hurriedly removed his military-looking jacket, glancing nervously from Riku to the rows of buttons he was fumbling with, as if he expected the orange-eyed boy to draw Soul Eater. That was probably because Riku had conspiciously put his hand back on the handle, though.

"Here!" the man tossed his jacket over the counter and fled through a doorway behind the desk.

Riku grinned as he walked over to pick it up and tugged the jacket on.

"See?" he turned to Kairi, leaving the jacket open and unbuttoned, for now. "No problem."

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Riku wasn't sure whether Kairi's little half-gasp was because he'd just mugged a guy for clothing or because the jacket looked good on him. Because he could, he chose to believe the latter.

When she smiled up at him, Riku flashed her his flirtatious bad-boy grin.

" i would have given you my shirt, but .. you know, i don't tihnk that would have turned out very good. "

Riku smirked and rested a protective hand on her back. "Yeah, I'm thinking I'd have to kill a few people if you decided to go wandering around here in your bra. So let's not and say we did.
Besides, lavender really isn't my colour." He winked down at her.

When Kairi offered to introduce him to her friends, Riku's eyes narrowed slightly. "Gojyo, huh?" That must be the guy she'd been babbling about. "Yeah, why don't you introduce me?"

After the day he'd had, Riku wouldn't mind being called on to kick some ass before dinner.

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Oh man. No one would look at her if she was walking around in just her bra? How did Riku get stuck with two best friends who were so naive?

It was stuff like this that just reminded him all the more how perfect Sora and Kairi were for one another. He shoved aside his own feelings on the matter before the pang of heartache and envy got hold.

And Riku held his peace at her assertion, not saying what he thought about Kairi's ability to beat people up, either.

" oh, come on .. you know you wanna give it a try! you'll look perfect. "

He grinned. "You may be able to convince Sora to try on your clothes now and then, but you're barking up the wrong tree here."

Kairi knew him too well, but her lecture wasn't going to squelch his protective streak. Riku threw up his hands in mock-defeat. "Hey. So long as he behaves himself, there won't be any problems."

Making women cry wasn't exactly an avid hobby of his, but Riku was a man, and as such had a pretty good idea what sort of thoughts a man might be having left alone with two young ladies he'd just met.

Of course, he wasn't alone with them anymore...

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" ah .. he did look good in that red dress that one time .. "

Riku did not blush, remembering the incident.
He did not blush, because manly guys like him just didn't do things like that.
Even when they were thinking about their favourite boys in drag, and the way the white lace underneath had looked against the dark skin of Sora's thigh...

And if anyone saw his pale cheeks darken a smidge at the memory, well. It was just their imagination.

"so you're saying that if she had no clothes on, you'd rather run aroud naked than wear my clothes? "

Riku flashed a cocky grin. "Me being naked is just my gift to the world, Kairi." He winked. "It's not personal."

He held his peace as Kairi defended this guy Gojyo yet again. Hitting on some random woman in front of the two girls he was with? Wow, this guy sounded classy. But, clearly, he had something going for him if he'd won over Kairi already.

Well, that was fine. Riku could just pull him aside later and have a little "chat" with him in private.

He didn't know this Namine girl; she was on her own, but if Gojyo thought he was going to try anything with Kairi, he had another think coming.

When she paused in her lecture, Riku nodded as if he'd been listening the whole time. "All right; you're the expert.
Now why don't we go meet your friends so that we can go grab some food? I'm starving."

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When Kairi's stomach growled, Riku sniggered. "Very lady-like," he teased.

Pancakes? Did they even have normal food like that here? He was still half-expecting to be served a plate of roast baby.

Riku allowed himself to be dragged toward pancakes, baby, or whatever food he could find, at this point.

Kairi was acting like she was about to go into hyper mode...it looked like this eveing was about to get a lot more interesting.


[ooc: Why don't you make a brand new thread-post for when they return to the table?]

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