[Oh, good, so there won't be any Keyblades embedded in his skull the first time they meet up again (probably), but that does still leave the issue of the headshaving threat. Well, hopefully there's still time.
[Riku's comment evokes an eyeroll though.]
There you go again. [He gives him a look that says he at least knows you well enough to know that's a load of bull.] It's easy to be by yourself when you don't have anything to compare it to, stupid. Before Roxas joined the Organization I didn't really have anybody to talk to. [Because Saïx had stopped listening a long time ago... and Isa had been gone even longer.] So it didn't really bug me, you know? But... after he and Xion showed up?
[He chuckles softly then, rubbing the back of his neck.] Those dumb kids completely ruined me.
[It's surprisingly candid, really, especially coming from him. There's a thread of solidarity here with Riku, though, that he doesn't have with anybody else: they both know how it feels to be the odd one out in the trio. The one who takes the bullets and bears the weight of the stuff they don't want breaking the shoulders of the smaller ones. Riku knows how it feels to be alone among friends, and he sure as hell knows the difference between being alone because you haven't found anybody yet, versus being alone because everyone left.
[And it makes all the difference. Kairi's departure is still obviously a fresh wound, given his posture. He knows that feel, bro.]
It doesn't have to be okay. [He doesn't look at him now, his hands in his pockets and his eyes just focused on the corridor in front of them.] You don't always have to be okay. [And then he gives him a stern, if brief, look.] Kay?
[He's pretty sure they've both already learned the hard way that pretending nothing's wrong doesn't actually make nothing wrong. In fact it makes everything worse.]
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[Riku's comment evokes an eyeroll though.]
There you go again. [He gives him a look that says he at least knows you well enough to know that's a load of bull.] It's easy to be by yourself when you don't have anything to compare it to, stupid. Before Roxas joined the Organization I didn't really have anybody to talk to. [Because Saïx had stopped listening a long time ago... and Isa had been gone even longer.] So it didn't really bug me, you know? But... after he and Xion showed up?
[He chuckles softly then, rubbing the back of his neck.] Those dumb kids completely ruined me.
[It's surprisingly candid, really, especially coming from him. There's a thread of solidarity here with Riku, though, that he doesn't have with anybody else: they both know how it feels to be the odd one out in the trio. The one who takes the bullets and bears the weight of the stuff they don't want breaking the shoulders of the smaller ones. Riku knows how it feels to be alone among friends, and he sure as hell knows the difference between being alone because you haven't found anybody yet, versus being alone because everyone left.
[And it makes all the difference. Kairi's departure is still obviously a fresh wound, given his posture. He knows that feel, bro.]
It doesn't have to be okay. [He doesn't look at him now, his hands in his pockets and his eyes just focused on the corridor in front of them.] You don't always have to be okay. [And then he gives him a stern, if brief, look.] Kay?
[He's pretty sure they've both already learned the hard way that pretending nothing's wrong doesn't actually make nothing wrong. In fact it makes everything worse.]