Lashed by wind and rain, a trio united by a common cause struggled through the unsteady terrain in the dark, slogging through stony paths choked with tangling undergrowth. Riku's shout smothered by the rain lashing the tree branches, "Answer me!"
The only sound that came back to greet them was the occasional threatening growl of thunder as the ground became ever more treacherous. Stones and brush gave way to soil softened and soggy with rain. It quickly became a sticky slurry of mud that tried to pull the boots from their feet.
They're cold, drenched, and facing the prospect of wading through shin-deep flows as the flash flooding begins. They are no closer to locating Sora or Kairi than when they started. Riku stops, taking a long look at Dawn, at the heavy slope of his shoulders, his own fists curled at his sides.
"Let's stop a minute," he says.
Riku was probably one of the least likely to request a break, present company excluded. Maybe he does it because he knows Dawn won't request it. Because Vanitas is driven like a man possessed (or obsessed), and the three of them are already ragged.
Vanitas very nearly left to do this on his own; and he would have, if he didn't know what was in these woods. More of them means more eyes, and in the end, it means they might be able to find Sora faster— before any of those things get him. He can still feel him, a long tether stretched between his own heart and Sora's, like a far off distant heartbeat, his anguish wrapped into Vanitas' own. As long as he feels that, he's sure Sora is still there, and alive.
But if what these guys said was true, he'd feel it in more than one way, if Sora was killed.
He keeps slogging forward, and only stops when Riku speaks up. Vanitas whirls on him, baring his teeth. It's true that they're all soaked to the bone and exhausted, but Vanitas has been pushed to this brink countless times before— and the real truth is that he doesn't know how to stop. Pointed in a direction, he's like a missile, almost impossible to deflect, right up to the point of self destruction.
"You said we would keep going until we found him."
He expects it, just like Riku knows it's his own instinct to rise to the implied challenge as Vanitas bares his teeth. It would be easy, to burn up his own energy butting heads with Vanitas, it would even feel good to have something to vent his anger and frustration on. But that's not going to help them, it won't have them finding Sora any faster, and it's who he is anymore, picking fights like there's something to prove.
"And we will," Riku can't keep the edge out of his voice, hard and stubborn, "After we take a break."
He's frustrated, too.
"A short one," he compromises, shrugging out of the straps of his soggy backpack to fish for one of those cans he and Dawn collected from the boathouse before they left. "Eat something, we need to keep up our strength."
It's possible Vanitas won't be easily convinced, Riku probably won't try to force him, either, but if they're not going to rest then they at least need to fuel themselves somehow. There's nowhere that's dry - and it makes him ache, thinking about Kairi and Sora out in this, probably freezing, definitely hungry by now.
He won't hope that they somehow found each other. Vanitas and his agitation suggests to him that maybe Sora's distress is contributing to that, and if Sora had been successful in finding Kairi, surely he would have returned to Beacon.
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9 - 10-ish August, sometime during the thunderstorm and flash flooding.
Lashed by wind and rain, a trio united by a common cause struggled through the unsteady terrain in the dark, slogging through stony paths choked with tangling undergrowth. Riku's shout smothered by the rain lashing the tree branches, "Answer me!"
The only sound that came back to greet them was the occasional threatening growl of thunder as the ground became ever more treacherous. Stones and brush gave way to soil softened and soggy with rain. It quickly became a sticky slurry of mud that tried to pull the boots from their feet.
They're cold, drenched, and facing the prospect of wading through shin-deep flows as the flash flooding begins. They are no closer to locating Sora or Kairi than when they started. Riku stops, taking a long look at Dawn, at the heavy slope of his shoulders, his own fists curled at his sides.
"Let's stop a minute," he says.
Riku was probably one of the least likely to request a break, present company excluded. Maybe he does it because he knows Dawn won't request it. Because Vanitas is driven like a man possessed (or obsessed), and the three of them are already ragged.
no subject
But if what these guys said was true, he'd feel it in more than one way, if Sora was killed.
He keeps slogging forward, and only stops when Riku speaks up. Vanitas whirls on him, baring his teeth. It's true that they're all soaked to the bone and exhausted, but Vanitas has been pushed to this brink countless times before— and the real truth is that he doesn't know how to stop. Pointed in a direction, he's like a missile, almost impossible to deflect, right up to the point of self destruction.
"You said we would keep going until we found him."
no subject
"And we will," Riku can't keep the edge out of his voice, hard and stubborn, "After we take a break."
He's frustrated, too.
"A short one," he compromises, shrugging out of the straps of his soggy backpack to fish for one of those cans he and Dawn collected from the boathouse before they left. "Eat something, we need to keep up our strength."
It's possible Vanitas won't be easily convinced, Riku probably won't try to force him, either, but if they're not going to rest then they at least need to fuel themselves somehow. There's nowhere that's dry - and it makes him ache, thinking about Kairi and Sora out in this, probably freezing, definitely hungry by now.
He won't hope that they somehow found each other. Vanitas and his agitation suggests to him that maybe Sora's distress is contributing to that, and if Sora had been successful in finding Kairi, surely he would have returned to Beacon.