Does Axel really 'get it'? Does he know the pain of actions taken – or actions failed? Maybe he does, Riku acknowledges… maybe not just concerning his own home, but concerning his closest of friends too.

('It's my friends--they need me.' Xion had said, and though Riku had advised her to think, to consider who needed her more, her true place in the world… looking at Axel now, maybe she was right… he does need her in his life, the same way that Riku needs Sora and Kairi.

In the end, it matters very little though… with Xion gone, and even less with the worlds between destroyed and threatened by the Storm.)

"I'm not sure I believe in fate… at least not if it's used as a convenient excuse for people that can't bear the consequences of their own actions."

Losing the Keyblade to Sora… a weaker person would have called that fate, but Riku knows better. It was the result of his own weakness. In any case…

"The things we decide to do… or not to do… that's what matters most."

It has to, Riku thinks – because the idea of someone pulling his strings all along, some invisible fate leading to his downfall into darkness rather than his own stupidity… yea, he doesn't like that thought at all. Either way, he can't help but smile as the subject change and think of Sora and Kairi, and the time when they had been kids… he and Sora competing by looking for the best seashell with Kairi judging their findings by size and by holding it close to her ear to listen to the waves.

(Unlike Axel though, Riku had dispelled the magic as soon as he had known better – ever the oldest and the smartest, and oh so certain about the mysteries of life.)

"Yea… I know what you mean."

The feeling and also the reference… though he still wonders. Would someone who really doesn't have a heart keep on denying it so fiercely?