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The morning after the meteor shower, Riku's back itches. It's the space between his shoulder blades, just noticable enough to be irritating. He doesn't think much of it, at the time - it's just the start of a sunburn, or maybe some salt from the ocean that he hadn't properly cleaned off his skin. When the itch fades over the course of the next day, he doesn't think about it again for quite some time.
-
The next time it happens, they're on the beach. The tide is out, and Kairi has never seen a sea star before. Scampering over stones and sand, they look for the best tide pools to show to their new friend.
Riku is pointing out a small purple urchin to Kairi when he hears Sora fall with a clatter of rocks.
"It's okay! I'm fine!" Sora insists as they run up to him. He gives them a short wave, but his hand comes up red.
"You're bleeding!" Kairi exclaims, reaching for him.
"You must have scraped it on the barnacles-" Riku starts, but is cut off by a sudden, insistent itch springing up across his back. It focuses on his shoulder blades until it concentrates into pain, dull but insistent. Riku bites down on his lip and tries to ignore it. He has more important things to do right now.
He bends down and offers a hand to his friend. Sora takes it, smearing blood across their palms. Riku ignores that too, offering his other hand to Kairi. He leads them back to their parents, carefully picking his way along a trail of stable rocks.
When they arrive, Sora's mom treats the scrape, covering it with a bandage and sealing it with a kiss. The pain in Riku's back doesn't subside until all of the blood has been washed away and the injury is hidden from view.
"You did the right thing, Riku." Sora's mom tells him as she tucks supplies back into the first aid kit. "Thank you for keeping my son safe."
Riku's chest burns with pride. It curls up in his rib cage and makes a home there, deep in his bones.
-
Something has changed between Sora and Kairi. Which of course means that something has changed between Sora, Kairi and Riku. It isn't blatant, not right away, but Riku picks up on it just the same. The way that Sora looks at her when he thinks that no one can see. The way his cheeks dust with pink when she smiles at him.
Even their games have changed: they used to play pirates, all three of them. Most days started with a swordfight to determine who was captain for that sailing; Kairi always came up with the best adventures when she took the helm. Now, they have traded the seas for castles. Now, they don't fight over roles: Sora wants to be a knight, and the knight needs a princess to save and a dragon to slay.
Riku sometimes wonders how Kairi feels about giving up her sword; he wonders if she feels like he does, giving up the role of the hero.
When Riku loses, the knight and the princess escape together to live happily ever after, and the dragon is left bleeding along the castle walls to rot. So Riku fights, and he wins, and he tries not to think about it very much.
-
By the time Riku's 15th birthday rolls around, his back and shoulders bother him on an almost daily basis. His mom chalks it up to growing pains and puberty. Riku wishes puberty would give him a fucking break already.
He has lined his back with thin scars by the constant scratching, and no cream he applies seemed to help. Sometimes, the ache in his muscles sharpens into raw pain and he feels sure his skin was going to tear apart.
As if that wasn't making him miserable enough, the Sora and Kairi situation has just gotten worse. Sora is clearly smitten but just refuses to do a damn thing about it.
When it's just the two of them, Sora fills their conversations with Kairi. Every time, it fills Riku with an emotion he can't quite identify. He knows it by its effects: a small tremor in his fingers, and a sour twist in his stomach. A split second later, guilt swoops in to join them, because how could he react like that to hearing about his other best friend? He has no right to feel this way. He likes talking about Kairi too, in fact: he has bragged about her on many occasions, eager to let everyone know how great she was. It was just something about hearing Sora say it, constantly, with pure adoration ringing clear in his voice. That was enough to set Riku so off course like this.
But today is not one of those days. Today, it's just the two of them - Kairi has student council meetings on Tuesdays - but the conversation hasn't yet drifted toward her. Instead, Sora is recounting his most recent victory over Tidus.
"- and then I finished with this cool twisting thing," Sora gestures with both hands, mimicking the action, "and it knocked the sword right of his hand. It was so cool Riku!" Sora turns to him, eyes bright with excitement. "I bet I could probably even beat you now."
"Oh, you're on," Riku retorts, smirk rising in return to Sora's grin. He starts running, then calls back over his shoulder, "Race you there first!"
"R-riku! That's cheating!" Sora splutters for a moment, but quickly recovers and gives chase.
They don't have far to run; they had just been walking up the beach. But Riku can't lose after that, so he sprints with all he's got. He slams his hand into the bark of the paopu tree just a moment before Sora. He's breathing heavy and honestly his hand kind of hurts, but it's worth it for the pout that Sora gives him.
"No fair Riku! You didn't warn me."
"If you want to be a knight, you always have to be prepared," Riku replies easily. He grabs the swords from their usual spot, stabbed into the ground near the base of the tree, and hands one off to Sora.
Sora grumbles in response, but once the blade is in his hands the excited shine returns to his eyes. "I'll show you who's the knight, here, dragon!" He shouts in an exaggerated voice.
Riku rolls his eyes. "I've got a sword this time too, you doofus." He settles into a fighting pose, feet firmly planted in sand and sword raised.
Sora charges toward him head on, so it's easy for Riku to parry the attack. He retaliates with a wide sweep of his sword, but Sora leaps back out of the way.
"Don't tell me you're giving up already," Riku taunts, and Sora rushes back in response. Sora lifts his sword high, then brings it down quickly with all his might. Riku catches the blade on his own, but it's not quite enough; the force of it still knocks him to the ground. Sora stands over him a moment, shocked into inaction, but Riku recovers quickly. He launches himself back up again, throwing his body into Sora rather than his sword. Now their positions are reversed; Sora flat on the sand and Riku towering above him.
Sora doesn't get back up immediately. Instead, he's looking at his arm, wincing. Guilt is instantly back in Riku's gut.
"What's wrong?" Riku asks, moving to get a closer look.
"I think I landed on it funny," Sora replies. "It hurts."
Riku doesn't notice the sudden burn on his back. The guilt is much louder, right now. "I'm sorry," he blurts out. "Can I help you up?" Normally he'd have already grabbed Sora by this point, but right now he doesn't feel like he should touch the other boy.
Sora doesn't pick up on that, however. He just reaches for Riku's hand with his own (uninjured) one, and pulls himself to his feet.
"It's okay! You didn't mean to," Sora says with a smile, but he holds the arm tense at his side.
"I'll row us back to the mainland so your mom can take a look, okay?" Riku drops Sora's hand like it burns and starts moving toward the boats. Sora follows immediately, and Riku thinks he might be crushed under the weight of Sora's trust.
He rows as quickly as he can, until the burn in his muscles masks any other aches.
-
Sora's mom doesn't commend him this time. She does say that it's a sprained wrist and not a broken arm, which is at least somewhat comforting.
Sora is confined to his house for the rest of the day with an ice pack on his wrist. He tries to get Riku to stick around for a while, maybe read some comics together. Riku makes some excuse and heads back to his own home as quickly as possible, unable to meet Sora's eyes.
By the time he arrives, he's having trouble walking from the pain in his back. It's never been this bad before. Maybe he hit something when Sora knocked him to the ground?
He locks himself in the bathroom, then peals his shirt off with a shaking hand. Then he cranes his neck, trying to see his back in the mirror.
Most times when he looked, he didn't see anything beyond the marks he'd left trying to address the itch. This is not one of those times.
His back is awash with colour. It's glowing like a sunset, gold and pink light spilling into the room. There's a symbol there, lines where the light is the brightest, but he can't quite make it out.
As he squints into the mirror, the pain suddenly stops and the light flickers out. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they do, he sees that the symbol has been reduced to a pale white outline.
He also sees a pair of small wings stretching out from between his shoulder blades. They're leathery, and stained a dark, inky purple. Maybe a foot long, each, ending in sharp tips. He tentatively tries to move them, and finds they respond with perfect ease, fluttering and flexing at his slightest thought.
He feels sick to his stomach once more, and this time, he lets it take over. He really is a monster now, isn't he?
He feels a desperate need to tell Sora and Kairi, but he doesn't know how to do it. They wouldn't believe him unless they saw him, and even if they did, what would he say? "Hey I'm literally the worst and now there's physical proof"?
Instead, he spends his time pacing around his room. He experiments with hiding the wings. They're small, and he can tuck them in tight. With a shirt on top, they're barely noticable.
He's not sure if it's enough, but it'll have to do for now.
He falls asleep on his stomach, wings delicately folded on his back.
-
When he wakes, there are a few blissful seconds where he doesn't remember yesterday's events.
Then he rolls over, and pins one of the wings underneath him. Right.
He goes about his morning routine, wings clasped tight against his back. He can do this.
-
They day actually goes fairly smoothly. There's only one close call. It's between classes, and Riku is sharing that after the last test, he's once again at the top of his grade. Kairi smiles, and Sora tries to pat Riku on the back in celebration. He shifts out of the way just in time, causing Sora's hand to fall on his arm instead. He plays it cool and hopes desperately that his friends haven't noticed a thing.
He misses the split second when Sora's grin falters.
-
Riku is used to his back being sore at the end of each day, but this is different. The itching hasn't come back since the wings showed up. Now, it's the wings themselves that are the problem. It's only when he gets home and hides in his room that he realizes just how sore they are from being held so tight all day. He stretches them out, lets them just sit in the air for a bit. He tucks them away again when his mom calls him down to dinner, and he doesn't know how to feel about it.
-
It's a couple months later, and Riku is at his limit. He found the islands stifling before, but they have become unbearable. He's bored of the same scene every day. He's tired of having to hide, constantly. Tired of people trying to touch him and having to shy away, lest they find out everything that's wrong with him.
He makes a plan, and he shares half of it with Sora and Kairi.
He tells them he wants to run away. He wants to build a raft, and set out on the ocean, go wherever it takes him. He wants them to come with him, leave the islands together.
Sora wants an adventure, and Kairi wants knowledge of her past, so they agree readily. Kairi starts planning their rations while Sora starts sketching their boat.
Once they're out on the ocean, just them, he'll show them his wings. They might hate him for it, but he doesn't think he can hide it from them any longer. If it's the three of them, together, away from everything else, they'll be okay.
-
It's clearly not a conversation he's meant to hear, but Riku listens in anyways.
"Sora, let's take the raft and go! Just the two of us," Kairi offers, kicking her feet over side of the dock.
Riku doesn't hear the rest of it, head full of white noise. He sets the log he'd been carrying down in the sand, quietly, then stumbles away from the beach. He's not sure where he's going until he ends up in the secret place.
Then he sees the drawing, etched into the wall. Just the two of them.
When something calls to him from beyond the door, he opens it without hesitation.
-
After the islands are swallowed up, Riku wakes up on a small rock, surrounded by water. The water is cascading upwards, ignoring gravity entirely. He must have succeeded and ended up in another world after all.
Now he just has to find Sora and Kairi. He doesn't see them nearby; it's just more water and rocks. Maybe it he gets up to the surface he'll be able to spot them.
The rocks form a path that ambles upwards, but the gaps between them are wide. Riku considers the distance for a moment before unfurling his wings.
He makes a running leap for the next rock, beating his wings at the apex of his jump. It gives him just enough of a boost, and his fingers catch on the edge of the rock. He pulls himself up, finds the next rock in the path, and repeats the process.
It's only when he reaches the top that he realizes he's being watched. He tucks his wings back instantly, even though he knows it's far too late.
"My boy, that's no way for a dragon to fly," the woman says. Then she unfurls wings of her own, black and purple and large enough to blot out the morning sun.
-
Bit by bit, Maleficent teaches him how to fly.
His wings are still too small to hold his weight, but with the help of some wind magic he is able to glide, and lift himself just a touch above the ground.
It feels strange to walk around with his wings on full display, to feel the sun on the leather. He's not sure he'll ever truly get rid of the impulse to hide, but it is nice to ignore it for a little while.
-
Riku gives into the impulse when he goes to Traverse Town, tucks the wings away and hides them under clothing. Maleficent gives him a disappointed look for it.
But he knows what he's doing. He's going to find Sora today, and he doesn't want the wings to be the first thing that Sora sees.
-
Sora has replaced him, and it burns worse than anything he's felt before. At least with Kairi, he knew he could always carve out some kind of space in Sora's life, even if it wasn't the one he wanted.
He resolves then and there that the next they meet, he doesn't need to hide. If Sora doesn't care about him any longer, he doesn't need to care about what Sora thinks of him. Wings and all.
-
As it happens, he next meets Sora in the belly of a whale. Not quite what he was expecting from this journey, but honestly, it's not like anything else has gone to plan so far.
He unfurls his wings when they fight a heartless together. If Sora reacts, Riku doesn't hear it - he's too busy flying into the monster's face and striking it with Soul Eater. With Sora, Donald and Goofy getting in hits where they can, they make short work of the heartless.
Sora doesn't bring it up until they're fighting over the body of a puppet without a heart.
"Riku, can't you see? You're on the wrong side!" Sora cries, gesturing with the keyblade. "That sword, those wings - you're letting the darkness take over, Riku!"
"I'm not afraid of the darkness!" Riku shouts back, "If it can help me save Kairi, then I'll embrace it. I'll become a monster if I have to!"
Another heartless appears and cuts the conversation short. While Sora is distracted, he summons a dark corridor. As he casts the spell, he noticed darkness pooling over his fingertips. It looks almost like long claws extending from his hands. He flicks the darkness off, steps through the portal, and escapes.
He meant what he said.
-
When Ansem steals his body, he realizes that Sora might have been onto something.
-
When Riku meets his replica in Castle Oblivion, the thing that surprises him the most is the lack of wings.
The replica seems to be a pretty good double in other respects; same appearance, same scent of darkness clinging to him, almost the same memories. But no wings.
He's curious, but that doesn't stop him from pressing this advantage. His wings are larger now; about equal with the span of his arms. He uses them, along with wind and darkness, to weave through the air of the battlefield. The fight with the faker is done almost before it begins.
-
The cloak might protect him from darkness, but it makes Riku feel like his wings are being crushed. The material hangs heavy, and the claws on the tips constant catch.
Mickey is the one who proposes it, actually. Riku hadn't bothered to hide them from the king; Mickey had already seen the worst of him, after all. It still catches him by surprise when the king proposes cutting holes to expose his wings. Riku had assumed that everyone disliked looking at them just as much as he did.
"They're part of you, aren't they?" The king asks. "You shouldn't be uncomfortable if we can fix it!"
In the end, the king convinces him to cut two long slits into the back of the cloak. It's still a bit of a pain to take on and off, but he can stretch out and his shoulders feel lighter than they have in days.
-
Roxas is strong, and even with the advantage of flight Riku is still pushed to his limit. When he finally embraces the darkness to get the strength he needs, it has an unexpected consequence. In Ansem's form, he no longer has his wings.
Riku doesn't know how to feel about it. He might have hated them, but they would have been something familiar to hold onto.
He didn't expect to feel tethered to the ground without them. He feels heavy.
-
Sora cries when they are reunited, and Riku doesn't know how his heart can feel so many things at once.
-
The explosion of light burns off the excess darkness from his form, and Riku finds himself back in his regular body.
Sora is at his side before he's able to push himself upright, calling his name. Riku turns toward Sora's voice, and he doesn't miss the mix of worry and joy in it.
He takes his blindfold off first, blinks, and takes in the sight of his friends for the first time in a very long while. Then, slowly, he lets his wings slip out the back of the cloak. King Mickey doesn't react, but he's the only one. Donald and Goofy both shout. Kairi gasps, then immediately runs over and starts poking at them. It tickles slightly.
Sora spends a good moment just staring at him before he reacts.
"You... Still have those?" Sora asks, voice quiet. He circles around Riku, taking in the wings in full.
"They part of me," Riku acknowledges, catching the king's eye. Mickey nods, encouraging him on. "For better or worse."
"Huh," Sora finishes his inspection with a nod. "You know what? They're actually kind of cool!"
"Sure, Sora," Riku rolls his eyes, but he can't keep the small smile off his lips.
-
"Riku," Sora starts, uncharacteristically hesitant. "I'm sorry. About what I said, back in the whale."
Sora is doodling abstract shapes into the grey sand of the Dark Margin, eyes downcast. Riku is laying beside him, flat on his back. When Riku glaces over, Sora doesn't meet his gaze.
"About the wings?" Riku asks, voice quiet. There's no need to whisper here; it's just the two of them, now. But the apology is intimate, and he feels like he should respond in turn.
"You remember it, huh?" Shame is an emotion Riku knows well, and he picks up on it when it seeps into Sora's voice. The abstract shapes get sharper and more erratic.
"Honestly, I thought the same thing back then," Riku replies. He gives up on trying to catch Sora's eyes and instead looks up at the stars above them. "I thought they were there because there was something wrong with me. Something rotten in my heart that manifested on my back. The colour scheme definitely looks dark enough." He chuckles.
"Riku!" Sora exclaims, and it seems that was enough to get him to finally look up. "How could you think that?"
"My heart was full of a lot of negative emotions back then. I was angry. I was-" the words catch in his throat, but this is important, so he pushes on, "I was jealous. So, to some part of me, it all made sense." He lifts a hand into the air and inspects it in the strange, cool light of this place. "I know that's not the case now, though."
"What are they, then?" Sora asks. Most of the shame and shock has drained from his face. Riku can't help the small smile that appears in response.
"I don't know. I just know it's not that. They've got some other purpose, other than making me look like a big monster bat." Riku shrugs.
"You're not a monster," Sora insists, voice soft. "They look kinda scary, sure, but in a good way. Like you could wrap someone up in them and protect them," he muses.
Sora goes quiet for a moment, attention back on his drawings. After a short silence, he waves at Riku. "Here, look."
Riku rolls onto his uninjured side and stares down at the sand. Sora's drawing is clumsy, but it gets the point across well enough. He's drawn Riku, keyblade in hand, scaring off a wave of approaching heartless. Sheltered behind Riku's wings are Sora and Kairi.
"Sora..." Riku mumbles, taking it all in. Something he can't quite name yet has taken up residence in his throat, and it's making it hard to talk. He scrambles for what to say for a moment, before finally deciding on, "I'll keep that in mind."
"Good!" Sora nods. Satisfied with his drawings, he clasps his hands behind his head and falls back into the sand.
They're laying like that, side by side, when a bottle washes onshore.
-
After all that King Mickey had raved about Yen Sid's magical prowess, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The old master had no theories about the nature of Riku's condition, and even less of an interest is figuring it out. His only focus, it seemed, was running Sora and Riku through some all important test.
Riku doesn't understand how Sora literally saving the world multiple times doesn't count as evidence, but he keeps his mouth shut. When he thinks about it, a way to prove that he has moved past the darkness that once consumed him sounds... Really appealing, actually.
Once he expresses that aloud, Sora is immediately onboard with the test after all. The support warms him, and he gives Sora an openly fond look before he can think too much about it. Sora catches his eye and starts a little. Sora turns away to ask Yen Sid another question. Riku doesn't hear it, as he's much too focused on the blush spreading over Sora's cheeks.
-
With Joshua's help, Riku creates a Komory Bat. As soon as she pops into existence, she gives a happy trill and jitters around his head. She settles into his arm and looks up at him, expectant.
"You'll probably want to give her a name," Joshua says with detached amusement. "Should make it easier to command her in battle. And it'll help people tell you apart."
Joshua laughs at his own joke, Riku ignores him outright. He turns to the bat, giving her a good look.
"Hmm. What is your name, then?" He asks, absentminded.
He's not really prepared when the bat responds directly. "Kiro!" she trills, dancing on his arm. "Call me Kiro."
"Kiro it is," Riku nods. He turns to ask Joshua about this unexpected development, but they are interrupted when a boy in a skull cap starts yelling at Joshua. When the boy summons a dream eater of his own to fight them, it completely slips his mind.
-
The first time Bean shows up, she barrels into him and sends him sprawling onto the ground.
She's a Meow-Wow, and she appears after he wakes up, Traverse Town's cobblestones making an imprint on his face. He doesn't remember falling asleep.
"Sora named me Bean," she tells him happily, once he manages to get her off of his chest and into introduction mode.
"Wait, you know Sora? Where is he? Is he okay?" He knows he's bombarding her with questions, but he has to know.
"Yes, we're also Sora's dream eaters," she replies easily. "He's here, but not here. When you sleep, we are with him. When he sleeps, we are with you." She totters from one side to the other, driving her point home. "He is okay. After all, we are here to protect him!"
Kiro joins in at that, dancing through the air.
"Thanks for letting me know," Riku smiles, and pats her head gently. She tilts her whole body up into the palm of his hand, exposing a symbol on her chest.
There's something familiar about it, but Riku can't quite place it.
-
When the dream eaters lend him their power, something about it just feels so natural. He strikes with claws cut from darkness, flies higher and faster than his wings would normally take him, and it all feels right.
-
The piece of Ansem that had stowed away in the darkness of Riku's heart stands before him. He's explaining like he just discovered some great hidden knowledge, as if Riku hadn't figured this out for himself ages ago.
"Despite everything, I could not quite figure out just want you were. Not until you arrived here, in Sora's dreams. You've been his dream eater for quite some time, it seems. How did you manage that?" Ansem asks.
Riku doesn't dignify it with a response. He knows now, but he desire to share that particular piece of information. Instead, he raises his keyblade and prepares to fight.
-
Things get very busy very quickly, after Riku is named a master. There's so much to be done to thwart Xehanort, and it all needs to be done now. Still, Riku manages to find them a narrow slice of time. It may not be enough to say everything he needs to say, but they'll make it work.
He and Sora are sitting outside the tower, legs dangling out over the abyss of stars.
"Do you remember the night I gave you that necklace?" Riku starts. He wants to jump right to the heart of things, but he isn't brave enough. Not yet.
"Huh? Yeah, of course. You stood there with a sword, yelling at the whole sky to stay away from me." Sora laughs. "It's a great memory. The meteors didn't scare me as much after that."
"That's why I'm like this," Riku stretches out his wings wide to demonstrate. They're almost as long as he is tall, now. He curls the wings around the two of them, blocking out the tower, the world, everything else. "I swore an oath that I would protect you, and that turned me into your dream eater."
"But I wasn't asleep," Sora objects. "And I'm not asleep now."
"I don't understand how it happened either," Riku admits, "I don't know if it was magic from the stars, or the strength of the oath... but I know it's true."
Sora is quiet for a moment. He fiddles with the necklace, running his fingertips over the points of the crown. "Riku... You. You thought this was something bad, you hated it, you hated yo-" he cuts himself off. "You suffered a lot, and it was all my fault."
Riku shakes his head. "It was my choice, Sora. And I don't regret it." On an impulse, he grabs one of Sora's hands. "I'd do anything to protect you. I would swear that same oath, live this same life, a thousand times if it kept you safe."
"But why?" Sora asks with a sob.
Riku thinks about the blush before the exam, so long ago now, and decides that it's time to be brave.
Riku leans in and kisses him.
Sora doesn't react at first, but before Riku can go into a full panic, he relaxes into it and returns the kiss. Riku feels like something in him has finally, properly, slotted into place.
He pulls back, just slightly, and leaves his hands threaded in Sora's hair. "That's why," Riku whispers against chapped lips. "I love you. I probably always have."
"Riku..." Sora stares at him. His eyes are bright and tears are spilling over the edges. "I'm not worth all this."
"You are," he replies instantly and seals it with a kiss for emphasis. "You are, you are, you are."
They remain there, at the edge of the cliff and hidden from the world, until the mission can't wait any longer.
-
"So, Riku," Kairi starts, and she's wearing a mischievous grin, so he knows he's in trouble. "Are the colour changing eyes a recent development, or did I just not notice before?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Kairi," Riku responds easily, meeting her gaze evenly.
"Riku, you piece of shit, your eyes are purple right now," Kairi jams a finger into his chest. "And I know the instant you look at Sora they'll turn bright pink, so don't you play games with me."
Riku laughs. Sora, who is sitting beside him, pouts at Kairi.
"I dunno, Kai," Riku replies, "like the king said, my eyes can't lie." He looks over at Sora and gives him a soft smile.
The ensuing blush that splashes over Sora's full face is about the same shade.
-
They summon their combined keyblade, this time with no sleep to separate them, and all Riku can hear is their heart song.
-
When Sora uses the power of waking to chase after Kairi, Riku feels like a piece of himself has gone along for the ride. There's a hollow in his chest, a space that he'd chiseled into perfect Sora-shape, and it aches when he is gone.
Still, he believes in Sora. He knows Sora will return home with Kairi, just as promised. He tries not to let anxiety gnaw at him. He keeps as busy as he can, and gets to know the their other friends, both new and old.
He's hesitant to approach the hoard of people who had briefly taken up residence in Sora's heart. They were so close knit, and were mourning for Sora in their own unique way.
Xion is actually the first to reach out to him. He doesn't deserve her forgiveness, but she gives it all the same. It gets easier to talk to the others, after that. On some days, he and Roxas can even manage a civil conversation.
While Riku might have been hesitant to reach out to them, it seems Terra has been afraid to reach out to him. Riku often spots him staring, but the older man looks away as soon as he knows he's been caught.
"I feel like I passed on a curse, when I passed the keyblade onto you," Terra admits after Riku has finally cornered him into talking. "I didn't mean for you to have to go through all... This."
"I don't blame you," Riku reassures him. "I actually wanted to thank you. I couldn't have done any of this without your help back then. The good and the bad," Riku admits, "but, honestly, I think the good outweighs it."
Terra gaps at him, but Riku isn't looking at him any longer. He feels a tug in his heart that draws his eyes towards the setting sun and the silhouette of the paopu tree.
He blinks, and in that moment, Kairi and Sora appear. He starts running toward his friends with shout of joy. Then he realizes that the sand is slowing his steps, and he has better options. With one powerful sweep of his wings, he's in the air and sailing toward his closest friends.
Kairi turns to face him, but Sora does not. Sora actually doesn't move at all. He just begins to fade; tiny flecks of light appear over his body, the sunset pouring through him. He comes apart, bit by bit, until the untouched sunset is all that remains.
Kairi flings herself into Riku's arms as soon as he touches down.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Riku-" she wails, face buried into his chest, fists balled in his shirt. "He got me back but it was too much, he couldn't- he didn't-" she cuts herself off with a broken sob.
Riku rubs circles into her back, murmurs against her hair, "It's okay, it's going to be okay, Kai." He keeps her distracted, doesn't let her see the light starting to pour through him, too. "I'm so glad you're safe."
He holds her until he can't any longer, until he, too, is scattered to the gentle ocean breeze. He knows it will be scary for the friends he leaves behind, but he faces it calmly. This doesn't surprise him, after all.
Where Sora goes, his dream eater will follow.