As some of you may know, Peanut and I are crazy about Roleplaying, and it's clear, since this is the second one on this site that belongs to us. And we aren't even done with the first one! Regardless, that won't stop us from starting this new roleplay, Rude Awakening!

 

Kinda dark and mysterious title, eh?

 

As stated in the title, this RP is one on one, no exceptions. Please refrain from posting in the RP. Instead, follow us on this new journey!

 

Peanut, my amazing friend, let's begin!

You should stop doing that, Lightning thought silently, though she didn't verbalize the words. "I'm more worried about you," she said quietly, finally looking over at him. He was avoiding her for days. His eyes were red even before crying, his skin pale, hair disheveled...He looked awful.

Riku closed his eyes at the words, smiling bitterly. "I know...and I'm sorry," he said lowly, turning his head and looking up at the girl he sat beside. He was happy to see her eyes again, to actually look at them and not have to fight the urge to look away. Right now, that didn't matter. She did.

Once Lightning met Riku's eyes, she couldn't look away. "Are you better?" she asked quietly. Maybe it was too much to ask if he was okay, so she at least wanted to know if he felt a little better than he had earlier or he had in the past few days. 

"A little," Riku said, leaning his head against the bookshelf as he looked up at Lightning. She was taller than him when he sat on the ground like this, but that was alright. The last few times he'd seen her, he'd been looking down on her. He didn't want to do that anymore. "...I'm tired, but I'll get over it." He was tired physically and mentally. The video... It took a lot out of him. To actually experience it like Lightning did, though... Riku couldn't imagine.

Lightning nodded slightly. "You should get some sleep," she suggested. He looked absolutely exhausted and all of his mannerisms screamed the same. For him to actually sit on the ground during a conversation, she figured he must have been pretty tired. What was making him lose sleep though? The Darkness? 

"I can't," Riku said, frowning slightly as he looked away, but only for a moment. His eyes returned to Lightning a few seconds later. "I haven't been able to sleep since I watched the video." The last few nights consisted of four hour sessions of Lightning's torture, something Riku put himself through so he could relate to Lightning during this time in her life. Something he was partially responsible for. 

Lightning didn't understand, so she started thinking aloud. "The video..." Yes, the one that Cedric thought of the torture session. "The one we saw at the gym." That was several days ago that he saw that, and it was only an hour of it. He was that distraught over an hour of it? 

Riku nodded faintly, though he realized Lightning didn't completely understand. "The past few nights..." he began, then sighing as he thought about it. "The past few nights I've watched the whole thing. I just...I couldn't watch it all at once, so every night I..." Riku looked away, closing his eyes as he leaned the back of his head against the bookshelf. Riku didn't even like thinking about it. It was terrible.

Lightning's eyes widened as she looked down at Riku. He not only had a hold of the footage, but he was watching it. "What are you insane?!" she hissed, more than just disbelief and anger behind her tone. She was...horrified that he sat through that. "Why would you do that?!" Why would he make himself suffer like that? Why didn't he just destroy the recording?

Riku's eyebrows furrowed at the scolding, and he opened his eyes to see Lightning. "I wanted to understand," he said lowly. "I wanted to know and understand everything you went through so I could help you." Jihl set them up to watch it, but Riku couldn't at the time. Half of it was because he was scared, but the other half was because Lightning would have had to experience it all over. "Besides, you were mad I didn't sit through it the first time."

"I was mad because of everything with jail!" Lightning exclaimed. Why would he even think she wanted him to watch it? "And I don't want you to be able to relate to...that!" What she went through was very cruel and harsh and painful. Whatever pain she felt, she didn't want Riku to experience it too. Now she was beginning to understand why he really avoided her...It was because of that video. 

"Relate to it?" Riku sat up, resting an elbow on his knee. "Lightning, it was my fault." He let her leave. He practically handed her over to Cedric. So what if they were tricked at the time? It didn't matter. Riku was smart. He was quick. He should have thought of something to stall, or at least struck Cedric down when he had the chance. This could have been avoided completely.

"Are you kidding?" Lightning said as she gave him a look. "That was nowhere near your fault. Cedric tricked us. I separated on my own will and got myself into that mess. The part where I left you and after that...That's all on me." It was clear as day to her. Whatever Riku felt responsible for, it was surely not his. 

"I let you go," Riku said, images of the room in the old castle flashing before his eyes. "I should have said no... I should have stalled." He should have done something other than stood there. Some kind of Master he was, being the enemy's pawn. Maybe Yen Sid was right. Making him a Master was a mistake.

"I didn't give you a choice," Lightning said with furrowed eyebrows. "Do you know what I would have done if you said no? I would have knocked you out. I thought Serah was in trouble and I would have attacked you. Whether  you "let" me go or not, the end result would have been the same." Yeah, she was being bold, but she generally was. And it was the truth, so there was no point sugar-coating it. 

Riku looked away, not wanting to acknowledge those words. It couldn't have been that easy...but maybe Lightning was right. When she was desperate, she did stupid things. Knocking him out would have been one of them, especially to save Serah. Riku sighed and rested his elbows on his knees, putting his hands in his hair. He hated the last few weeks. There was so much bad and so little good.

"I forced you to go and seek out Serah," Lightning reminded him. "Not that it did much good, but you went and found out the truth. And then you found me. I wasn't prepared for that. I thought I'd have to fight away from him myself, but you--" She bit her lip, looking down at her lap. "You saved me from something worse than him. You saved me from myself." He came in when she was at the peak of her fear. She was so certain that Cedric would kill her and that she had to kill him first, so she did. She killed him over and over again with that huge knife...

Edited March 13, 201411 yr by Peanut

Riku closed his eyes at the memory that appeared, and he released another heavy breath. "...You were...so scared," he told her softly. It had been terrifying to see her that way. Riku never wanted to experience that again, but he saw it on the tape. It was all there. 

Lightning turned her face away, looking at another bookshelf. "I won't talk about that." She was fine telling him how his actions helped saved the day even if her pride and even her self-esteem suffered because of her helplessness. But she wasn't going to relive that fear by trying to express it through words. Just thinking about it sent chills down her spine. 

Edited March 13, 201411 yr by Peanut

Riku lowered his hands and looked over at Lightning, having the sudden urge to touch her upon seeing her expression. "...I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner," he said softly. He knew she didn't want to talk about it, but he at least had to say that.

"You got there as soon as you could," Lightning said simply. "And I shouldn't have been so useless in the first place." She mumbled the latter sentence, knowing that Riku wouldn't be happy to hear such words. She worked hard to train and made considerable progress during the short time she could focus on training. But in the end, it wasn't good enough. She wasn't good enough.

"I won't let you talk about that," Riku said, hearing the self-pity in Lightning's mumble. He wouldn't listen to that, ever. The last time she said such a thing, he told her to shut up, and he meant it. Riku was tired of hearing Lightning put herself down. She was far from useless. At the time, she didn't have a choice on what happened; Cedric tricked her and drugged her. There was nothing she could have done.

Edited March 13, 201411 yr by Forever Love

"Yeah," Lightning muttered. "Right." She'd just leave it at that, then. This talk was about helping Riku anyway--she wasn't going to tackle any of her demons today. She shouldn't have uttered that stupid phrase in the first place; now the conversation was probably going to focus on her, which she didn't want.

Riku let his eyes focus forward as he allowed a silence to set in. It wasn't awkward, but it was heavy, which made it uncomfortable. Riku didn't hear anything but his and Lightning's breathing, and when he grew tired of the quiet, he spoke. "...So now you know," he began, voice low. "...Why I was avoiding you. I couldn't see you after everything I watched." It had been really hard to even be in the same room.

And again, it's back to me, Lightning thought. Riku didn't realize that there were two conflicting options in her mind of why he was avoiding her, and both involved the video. She had to ask him the real reason... "...Because my weakness disgusted you?" she asked quietly. Him seeing the video...Did the weakness she displayed that day disgust him so much that he couldn't look at her?