tall_dark_and | absences and distractions ; the witch's tower

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absences and distractions ; the witch's tower

Riku's been away from the tower for far too long. He can't spend every day there, as much as he would like to - there's debts that he has to pay back, and goals that he has to achieve.

The last mission, so to speak, has taken him a few weeks. It feels like much longer, with each day longer than the last. He never thought he'd get so attached to someone - at least not in a capacity other than frend. He certainly never thought someone would get this attached to him.

He's more than a little tired. He's been up for twenty-five hours or so, and he's about ready to crash.... or at least, he should be. But despite the fact DiZ had taken one look at him and promptly ordered him straight to bed, he can't seem to sleep. All he does is toss and turn. He thinks he knows the cure - if only he can manage to sneak out.

But why couldn't he sneak out, anyway? It's not as if DiZ was his father.

He casts an apprehensive glance at the door, and then raises his hand to call a darkpath. And when there's no sound of someone coming to interrupt him, he jumps up from the bed, and hops through it, before anyone can possibly try to stop him.

...too bad he didn't take the time to check himself out before hopping through, because he kind of ends up hitting the ground of Namine's tower in his bedclothes. But boxers and a tshirt was... totally suitable visiting gear.

Honestly.

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"Because you're awful?" she asks, eyes widening a bit. Then she laughs softly, shaking her head a bit. "I don't love you because you're awful."

She takes a step to where she left her sketchpad sitting on the table. She flips it open to one of the very first sketches she did of Riku, in the library that day. She told him that only when she finished her sketch, would she show him.

Today appears to be that day.

"Despite of?" Riku queries, and follows her steps. He peers over her shoulder at the sketchpad, and blinks.

"When did you draw this?" he queries.

"I just love you," she replies a little matter-of-factly, then smiles at the drawing.

"Remember when I dropped my pencil above you? In the library a long time ago?"

"I remember," Riku says, smiling at the memory. "So this is what you were doing?"

He rests his chin on her shoulder, as he studies the picture.

"I wish I knew how to do this," he says, almost absently. "I've never been any good at it."

She nods a little, still smiling. She hadn't forgotten about the drawing, and worked on it until it was perfect.

"I could teach you," she offers, "if you want."

"Could you?" Riku sounds a little surprised at this offer. "I'm kind of hopeless."

People have tried. They've... failed. Usually by giving up with shouts of frustration.

She giggles. "Well, we won't know until we've tried," she says, holding her sketchpad out to him. "And I won't give up on you."

There are a couple of pencils on the table. She goes to the table to grab one, gesturing for him to take a seat.

"Don't feel bad if you've gotta take that back later," Riku says, and sits down in the chair. He picks one of the pencils, and gives it a sort of odd look.

"So you just want me to.... draw. Something."

She takes the seat to his right, picking up a pencil for herself.

"Try basic shapes first," she instructs, bringing her free hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. "Draw a circle."

He blinks, and draws a circle. Or at least something that... may have meant to be one. It sort of looks like it got drunk on the way through the circle-making machine.

Er.

...

"Um..."

She clears her throat to excuse the giggle. "All right...try a square instead."

...yeah, sure.

It looks kinda squished. Did you want a squished square, Namine?

It's a very good squished square!

"Well...that's a start," she encourages, smiling. "Concentrate a little harder, this time. Try to make each of the four lines as even as you can."

She pulls a sheet of paper towards her. "Like this." She demonstrates a rather perfect square.

Hey. She's had a lot of practice.

He's ind of lost interest in drawing squares already. So he gets a little ahead of himself, and tries to draw one of the presents he spotted in Christmas Town, once.

It kind of... doesn't work. (http://outpost.mellyn.org/milli-kh/riku/box.jpg) He's also pressing down waaay too had with the pencil.

"Uh--Riku?" She glances over to his page to find a rather...ominous looking ...shape staring up from what once was blankness.

...

Well, this certainly is a little harder than she expected. But no matter. She isn't ready to give up yet!

She nudges him in the arm. "Come on, Riku! Concentrate!"

"I'm not sure why everything has to be so straight," Riku complains. "Some people make paintings that are all.. random splotches. And that's art, too!"

"Yes, but we're drawing straight lines...that's the purpose. You have to learn these things before you can get to doing art like that," she explains patiently, trying hard not to smile.

"Try it again."

He tries again. The line actually starts pretty straight, but... uh. To put it lightly, he sort of gets bored of lines pretty quicky (http://outpost.mellyn.org/milli-kh/riku/line.jpg).

"Riku!" she scolds, letting out an exasperated sigh. "You're not very interested in this, are you?"

She frowns.

All right. So the basics obviously aren't working. Maybe...something more interesting?

"Try...drawing what you see. Draw what...interests you in this room; pick an object."

He kind of misses the part of 'picking an object', and just plain goes for drawing the room (http://outpost.mellyn.org/milli-kh/riku/room.jpg). Maybe because if he were to draw what interests him about the room, he'd make a really bad rendition of her, and he wasn't willing to do that.

Heh.

Here, Riku. Have some more ...'s

...

...

...

Naminé doesn't want to give up. She really doesn't. But...well, Riku isn't exactly making it easy for her, is he? She blinks at him.

"Well..." That isn't exactly what she had in mind.

"Lemme try something else," Riku says, and tilts the sketchpad away from her. He draws on it for a few seconds, biting on his tongue as if it's something he really has to concentrate on.

Then he turns the sketchpad towards her. (http://outpost.mellyn.org/milli-kh/riku/boring.jpg)

She really thought he had something fantastic to show her. But...

Well. Not exactly.

Still, it makes her laugh. She places her pencil down in front of her and turns to him.

"I guess drawing really isn't your talent, is it?" she asks with a smile. Oh, well.

"I have many other talents," Riku says, as if he really needs to defend that fact. "I just never got the hang of it."

Or maybe he just had too much fun giving the drawing teachers problems, that he never learned to get past the basics.

"I just wanna draw stuff. I don't want to spend all this time on 'laying foundations', or whatever it is you're supposed to do."

It was boring and really really dumb! Who cared about straight lines, anyway? Was there some sort of cop that went around, arresting those with the slightly crooked lines?

She shakes her head. "Sometimes foundations are important. When you learn the simple things, you can build on them without making mistakes the first time."

She picks up her pencil again, and draws a simple box. Then she begins to elaborate on it, giving it dimensions, then adding things to it until slowly the square begins to take another form all together.

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