[silence hanging like that makes the atmosphere all but comfortable, but riku'll take it to being told off immediately. not getting told off period pleasantly surprises him. he deserves it. hell, he deserves a punch to the face and then some. maybe the lack of it means things between them could improve bit by bit in time. hah, nah, that's wishful thinking. this isn't sora who would pursue a friendship even with someone as shitty as himself while not taking a no for an answer. this is roxas, someone who may be part of sora but is not sora. friendship won't happen. riku's fine with that.

what gets said is a not so subtle push to moving on to chatting about something else. topic change happily accepted. riku looks back toward roxas, not hesitating in giving a blunt response.]

Tons.

[a pause comes before he speaks again.]

But instead of throwing more stuff at you, why don't you throw stuff at me.

[no one ever got around to explaining things to roxas properly. good chance that he needs some things cleared up and riku doesn't mind having a q&a session right now. they can chat about more intense things as they come or a different time. adding any more super heavy stuff unnecessarily when the kid's at his limit feels too dick a move.]

I'll answer whatever questions you need cleared up.

[straight answers, no dodging around them. consider it the first small step in making things up to roxas.]