KH 2: I'm Home

Riku stood at the door, wondering why he was hesitating so badly. Sure, he had been gone a year (a little over maybe), but this old, old mansion was still his home. He vaguely wondered if his family had missed him at all. He admitted, guiltily, that he had barely gave a moment’s thought about them while he had been away, so that might be the reason why he didn’t just reach out and turn the doorknob.

He sucked in a breath. “Riku, you can do this…” he told himself firmly. He had faced down countless Heartless, vicious Nobodies and a variety of other dangers and yet, he was afraid to open the door. Then again—with all the aforementioned things that had happened to him—no one can blame him.

Shaking his head, he finally came to the decision of chickening out for another hour or so. Maybe he could go over to Sora’s and call his house via phone and tell his family that he was okay? Yes, that was a good plan. But before he could put this ingenious plan into action, the young silver haired man found that the door was opening of its own accord. Through over a year’s worth of conditioning, he summoned his keyblade (the Road to Dawn) into his hands…

…only to be surrounded by his three older brothers: Loz, Yazoo and Kadaj.

All three fussed, clung and generally smothered him for a good five minutes. Loz, his eldest brother, was bawling his eyes out like a little baby, babbling on and on about how much he missed him. Kadaj held onto him possessively, chastising him for worrying the entire family—especially their poor, sick mother. Yazoo (who happened to be the only sane one at the time) just beamed in content, happy that his darling little brother had returned.

Thinking he should say something to his worried siblings, he said, “…I’m home.”

There came a silence as the elder Shinra brothers (for that was their collective last name), beheld Riku and stood in awe of his rather deepened voice. Loz started sniffling again.

“YOU.” He said, pulling the young man into a bear hug before being snatched away by Yazoo.

“Riku!” he said, joyously.

“Our ADORABLE LITTLE BROTHER is back.” Kadaj declared, starting to get misty-eyed himself.

Riku sighed as he was being fussed over again, but he smiled. And he came to realize once again how much he really missed everybody…

Loz grabbed him roughly and pinched his cheeks. “Look how big he’s gotten! He’s even taller than you, Kadaj!” he said, earning himself a smack upside the head from the second youngest. In return, he punched him back. Riku watched in horror as Kadaj tried to give a swift jab in return, only to hit Yazoo by accident. The second eldest glared at the shortest of their number and moved to pummel them both.

“How dare you punch me!”

“My beautiful face!”

“Ah! I’m telling mom!”

“Oh, that’s really mature!”

“What’s going on here?!”

The fighting between Yazoo, Kadaj and Loz did not stop as their father came out from his study to inspect the noise that had been interrupting his reading. Flipping silky silver hair out of his face, the man of the house stepped outside to forcibly separate his three oldest sons. The man may be dainty looking (alright, really girly looking, considering that he willingly wore a metal thong everywhere he went) and just a bit on the small side, but there was no doubt that Kuja could kick anyone’s butt ten times till Sunday.

“Explain yourselves, boys!” Kuja demanded, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. His sons looked rather sheepish as they explained about how they started fighting on account of Loz mentioning how short Kadaj was compared to Riku. The trio started fighting again as Kuja regarded his youngest son with a bit of surprise. Riku met his father’s gaze and nodded in greeting. The man gave a tiny smile as he went inside (flaunting his rather scantily clad backside as he did and no amount of therapy will ever erase that memory from Riku’s already heavily scarred mind).

“It’s not my fault you inherited dad’s ‘short genes’.” Loz said, running around in a circle in hopes of deterring Kadaj’s barrage of punches and kicks.

“Shut-up!!” Kadaj yelled.

Riku sighed.

He was also reminded of the very reason why he wanted to leave home in the first place. His family was nuts.

And then he was held in yet another hug, but instead of being held by some manly man or a short guy or a girly dude, he was held in the soft embrace of a woman. The warmth of someone he probably missed the most when he had been away…the one he had replaced with Maleficant, because he couldn’t be with her.

He was just as tall as his mother now—maybe taller. He could just barely see the top of her black haired head as she held onto him. A little slowly, he raised his arms and wrapped them around her, hugging her back.

“Welcome home, Riku.” She said to him.

He wondered why he had hesitated when he had approached the door. He wondered why he had been so scared as to see what awaited on the other side. And rather vaguely, as his mother kissed his face over and over again, tears falling down her cheeks, he pondered over the reasons why he had left at all.

Riku sniffled.

“Hi, mom.”

Boy, was he glad to be home again.