#kairi LOVES coconut though.

[robotsafari]

ok. im actually trying to think about what riku’s favorite type of pastelito would be

[vannahfanfics]

Re:Connect

Category: Romance

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Characters: Sora, Kairi

Hi, everyone! I am super happy to present the story I wrote for the @sokaizine​! It was an honor to write for this beautiful zine, it really did turn out gorgeous!

A melody—the gentle ebb and flow of the waves sloshing upon a shore of pristine white sand, gracing Sora’s ears for what seemed to be the first time in decades. He stood with his toes wiggling in the slush beneath the sloshing water. The salt stuck to his skin with every gush of the water around his calves. His nerves echoed the chime of “home, home, home sweet home” that had been resounding in his heart since his plummet from the World of Darkness several days ago.

Yet Sora stood there, head tipped back to allow the sunshine to kiss his face while breathing in the salty breeze because some part of him still couldn’t believe that he was home. Part of him feared that when he’d open his eyes, he’d be standing not on Destiny Islands but on one of the many other worlds he’d traversed. Part of him feared the waves and wind in his ears—the melody he’d so sorely missed—had been a figment of his imagination. 

Eventually, Sora’s neck grew cramped for being craned for so long, forcing him to drop his chin to his chest and open his eyes. He felt a little silly for the flood of relief that washed over him when they beheld the horizon line between the sapphire sea and the aquamarine sky. Since when did I worry about things like this? he thought, the corners of his smile sagging down. By now, he thought he’d be back to himself—running along the beach laughing without care, playing games with his friends. 

He was beginning to think that Sora was gone entirely, replaced by the brooding imposter he was now. 

Groaning, Sora tucked his fist under his chin and stared thoughtfully at the waves splashing around his bare legs. He’d rolled up his pants, but the tucked hems still darkened with water as the seafoam and salty droplets flew up with the coursing currents surging up the shoreline. His eyes reflected the ribbon-like white patterns of the froth lapping at his shin and streaming around him to dissolve into the saline solution. He wondered if he too was dissolving away, bits and pieces of him joining the ocean to be carried away with the tide... never to return. 

“Sora?” 

Ah. Another melody he’d sorely missed. 

Sora turned around with raised eyebrows to see Kairi standing just out of reach of the flowing water. Her long auburn hair rippled in the sea breeze, as did the fabric of her pleated skirt and white button-up. 

“What are you doing?” she inquired cutely, in that innocent, non-judgy way she always did. “I half expected to find you napping, you sleepyhead.” 

The corners of Sora’s mouth twitched, and he cast his gaze down to the expanse of white sand beside her. He could envision his younger self lying there, stretched out like a lazy cat in the sun snoozing the day away. When did he lose that urge, that childish ability to fling his cares into the breeze to be spirited away into the great unknown? 

“Heh. Yeah,” Sora chuckled weakly and turned back to the horizon. He slipped his hands in his pockets as his eyes became lidded. “Guess I’m not that sleepy,” was all he responded with. 

“Sora? What’s wrong? You seem… sad.” 

He tensed at the confusion that bled into her voice this time. He should have known better than to be evasive; Kairi knew him better than anyone, after all. She could hone in on his mood changes with the precision of a hawk. 

Instead of inventing an excuse for his obviously odd behavior, Sora breathed a heavy sigh and removed one hand from his pocket to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck. 

“You promise not to laugh?” he asked Kairi quietly as he peeked over his shoulder at her. Honestly, he felt so silly standing there sulking on the beach because of some twisted identity crisis. Kairi’s face melted into a sweet, sincere smile, and though she hadn’t even said anything yet, Sora relaxed. 

“You know I would never.” 

“Well...” Sora sighed vexatiously, “I’m feeling a bit… disconnected.” He returned his gaze to the ocean stretched out before him to watch the sunlight refract against the curling waves to make them sparkle like blue diamonds. He dropped his arm down, clenching and unclenching his fist as he struggled to verbalize his perplexing emotions. “Like I just… Like I’m a different person now.” 

“Of course you’re a different person.” When he looked back to her, she was slipping out of her flats and socks so she could step into the surf and stand beside him. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward, flashing him that bright smile that kept him going through many, many dark days and nights. “It’s been almost two years, hasn’t it? Of course you aren’t the same as you were back then, but that’s not a bad thing.” 

Sora poked his lips out in a little pout, not entirely convinced. Before he could refute her, Kairi giggled and splashed around to step in front of him. Still smiling that toothy smile that seemed to shine with the moon and stars themselves, Kairi gently grabbed his wrists to hold them out. Her fingers slowly slipped across the surfaces of his palms, roughened from bearing his Keyblade, to loosely link their fingers. 

“You’re different in some ways, but you’re still the Sora I know,” Kairi consoled him confidently. 

“Are you sure?” Sora whispered, admittedly growing a little frightened. How could she be so assured that he had not lost everything that made him Sora? Funny faces, minor pranks, boundless optimism, emboldened courage, adventurous dreams… Right now, Sora felt as if he couldn’t summon those personality traits no matter how hard he tried. Right now, all he felt was doubt. 

“I’m positive.” She waded backward in the waves, pulling him along until the water lapped at their upper thighs. “I’ll prove it to you.” 

“How?” 

Of all the answers, Sora did not expect it to be him on the receiving end of a face full of seawater. 

“Kairiiiiii!” he whined as he hunched to the side, spitting the disgusting briny water off his tongue and blinking away tears that streamed from his red eyes burning from the salt. Kairi laughed and splashed him again, this time dousing his spiky brown hair. He contemplated what to do for a split second, but then buried memories burst forth, guiding his body into action. With a small growl, he side-eyed her with vengeful determination. “All right, you get over here!” 

Kairi squealed as he lunged toward her. She just managed to skip out of his grasp, retaliating with another splash in his face. Sora spat out water again, but this time he felt something oddly slimy on his face. When he cross-eyed his vision, he could just barely see the wispy fronds of some green seaweed decorating his upper lip like a kelpy mustache. Kairi howled with laughter, pointing at the leafy addition to his visage. 

“Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” Sora grinned as he pulled the seaweed from his face and flung it away. He wiggled his fingers threateningly while he crept towards her. “I don’t think you’ll find it very funny when I give you a whole seaweed beard, Kairi!” 

“I bet I can pull it off better than you could,” she teased, sticking out her tongue and flashing him a wink. Sora’s grin darkened, and his eyes narrowed with determination. 

“That’s it, Kairi! I’m gonna getcha!” 

Kairi’s screeching laughter bounded across the sand, rustling the fan-like palm leaves and shaking the fuzzy coconuts as Sora surged forward. His motion created waves of its own, colliding with the others to surround the two teenagers with froth and bubbles. The water hampered Kairi’s movement as she attempted to sprint away, and Sora used his larger frame to his advantage as he jumped forward to wrap his arms around her waist. 

“Ahh! Sorry, no, I’m sorry! Please don’t give me a seaweed beard!” Kairi giggled and swatted at him over her shoulder. Sora easily dodged her half-hearted slaps while weaving one arm around her waist to pin her left arm and used his other to snatch her right wrist. 

“Can’t escape now,” Sora grinned widely. As he held her there, preparing to dunk her head in an oncoming wave, Kairi craned her head with that brilliant smile once more gracing her face. Her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed rose in exhilaration, while her chest heaved in breathless exertion. 

“You see?” she said warmly. “You’re still my Sora.” 

As soon as the words “my Sora” passed her pretty pink lips, Sora’s jaw became unhinged. It swung stupidly, leaving his mouth gaping wide as he stood utterly stupefied. My Sora. My Sora, her words chimed in his head like the bells of Twilight Town, over and over to signal to the oncoming sunset. As the diamonds on the water filled with gold to turn them into gleaming topazes, Kairi slipped her hand from his slackened grip to adoringly cup his cheek. Her sky blue eyes flooded with the sunset, mirroring the red-orange-gold of the sky blazing above their heads. 

“My Sora,” she echoed, just a feather of a breath whisked away by the breeze no sooner than he’d heard it. If he hadn’t seen her lips moved, he would’ve sworn he imagined it. His eyes filled with tears, and he reached up, overlaying his large hand over her much daintier one. 

“Am I dreaming?” The question came out as a choked sob, the fear cracking his voice like shattering granite. “Is any of this for real, or not?” 

“Of course it’s real, silly,” Kairi laughed, but not a chuckle of derision; it was filled with so much warmth, so much love, that Sora couldn’t feel the sun on his skin anymore because her glow basked him entirely in its light. “The wind in your hair… The sound of the waves… My hand on your cheek…” She punctuated the last statement by gently caressing his cheekbone, sweeping away his streaming tears with her thumb. “It’s all real. You’re home, Sora.” 

Sora didn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything. His throat had constricted impossibly tight, preventing him from nearly breathing, let alone talking. So instead, he leaned forward to press his forehead into hers. The water slicked her skin, making him slide a little, but he didn’t mind. Finally, that sharp-toothed beast of doubt and delusion that had been gnawing at him for days had been vanquished with Kairi’s soft words. 

This was his home. This was his Kairi. 

“Thank you,” he finally managed to murmur. Kairi hummed in satisfaction. She allowed him to continue to hold her, to osmose her presence that he’d been deprived of for so long. From the blissful expression on her face, she was doing the same with Sora. 

The sunset coated them in its dying light, casting them in gold. They stood like bronze statues in the water, a monument of innocent past and uncertain future. When Sora finally convinced himself to pull away from her, they waded together back to the beach, where several Thalassa shells had washed up into the sand. 

“Not feeling disconnected anymore, are you?” she asked as they lazily meandered alongside the delineation between wet and dry sand. They stood close, close enough for her shoulder to bump against his bicep with every stride. 

“Nah,” he said with a peaceful smile. “I feel like myself again.” 

All Sora had needed was for someone to reconnect him. 

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[mimiplaysgames]

Terraqua Week Day 7 (Night Sky)

Summary: They don’t know it’s called love. Terra and Aqua dare a night out in a storm. || Word Count: 4,511

Read on AO3

A/N: @terraquaweek AAAAAAA it’s over!! It’s been a wild ride. This particular fic I feel is my weakest of the collection - I literally ran out of time to make this one special in my eyes. It’s just a soft and tender fic. I’m sorry I couldn’t give a stronger conclusion, but I hope you take something you like out this one regardless!

~~~~~~~~~~*

Wayfinding

The sky over Destiny Islands is beautiful. Like the mountains in the Land of Departure, we’re isolated here, an audience to pinpricks of light blinking down at us with secrets from far away. 

Kairi’s been begging us to visit for a couple of nights to stargaze with her and her friends. She says we’ll be blown away. Tonight, storm clouds blot the sky in clumps, leaving us breaks in between to guess constellations. I do believe you could see stars from Destiny Islands you can’t see anywhere else, even though we all share the same sky. It’s special.

Ven points to a nebula, millions of miles away. “Hold on, is that—” 

“The star system of Montressor, yep.” Terra takes a swish of water.

“It’s so much closer here.”

“What’s Montressor?” Sora crushes melted marshmallow onto chocolate, his fingers coated. 

We’re sharing a fire, camping out on the beach and listening to the waves crashing. The beach overwhelms the senses in a way that grounds you. I can’t see the ocean through the darkness, but I can smell it. I can feel it by the humidity that drapes over my skin. There’s no mistaking where I am. The beach in the Realm of Darkness smelled like nothing. 

And yet, if I walked into the water, I’d walk forever. The horizon vanishes at night.

The cloudy weather lately has made it difficult for us to see everything, so Terra has asked if we could stay longer. This is our third night.

“It’s a cluster of its own stars, like a galaxy.” Terra denies chocolate with his s’more. “The people there travel between different planets with their skyships.”

Kairi snorts. “The adults told us that a god sneezed millions of years ago and that’s his celestial booger smear.”

Sora gapes. “That sounds cool, I’ve never been.”

“You’re missing out,” Riku says, smirking as he chews.

“Wait, when did you go?”

Kairi plucks a marshmallow from the basket. “We can schedule a trip together. It will be fun.”

Terra cocks an eyebrow. “If you enjoy getting mugged by sky pirates.”

Sora leans forward, eyes wide at Terra’s nose. “Sky pirates? There’s such a thing? Oh, I’m in.”

They’re lovely kids, self-trained and their technique shows it. I take a sip of water out of a straw from a coconut that Riku had broken in half by smashing it against a boulder. 

Terra eyes me from across the fire, holding my gaze as he drinks. We chose not to sit next to each other—no one else needs to know—but I admit that from this angle, I get to enjoy the way he looks at me. It was only last night that he held my hand and brushed his lips against mine, tucked behind a palm tree where no one saw us. I came back to the hut with fire on my cheeks. I still feel it in my stomach.

I can’t help my smile. I want to look at him longer but I don’t, so I cross my legs. 

Paopu fruits hang on the trees nearby. Ven has mentioned (in front of everyone else) that Terra and I should share one. I told him to shut up, and he hasn’t brought it up again since. 

“If we’re lucky,” Sora says, “we could see a meteor shower.”

I choke on my drink but keep my lips sealed.

Ven opens his mouth to reply but Terra hands him a warning glare.

Every star in the sky is a world. When worlds fall, the sphere that holds them together breaks into pieces, like the glass that shatters when the lantern is dropped. That is a meteor shower, but I wouldn’t want to break anyone’s heart if they believe otherwise.

“Don’t you wish upon them?” I ask, forcing myself to swallow. The thought of wishing upon the harm of others, even unintentionally, churns me. “Is that the tradition?”

“You mean you don’t?” Kairi asks. 

I shrug, desperate for an answer. “We… don’t wish upon much. There’s little use for it when you’re training for the Keyblade.”

Terra turns away to hide a smirk.

“That’s so depressing,” Sora says and I frown.

The wind is warm and moist. It’s so peaceful, of course the only stories you’d ever hear about the stars are the good ones.

Ven jumps up, pointing at the sky. “Look, look!”

Two shooting stars fly straight across. May they be blessed.

“Okay.” Sora slaps his hands together. “Wishing time. I wish…” He closes his eyes, and for a second, a solemn smile darkens his face. “I’ve been away for so long. Any minute Donald is going to ring me up and take me somewhere. I just want to stay home for a while, just a few days. You know, take a break, be with you guys, my best friends. I promised my mom I’d help with her gardening and stay one night for dinner.”

Riku nods to himself. 

“I’d like the same,” Kairi says, laying on her stomach on her blanket, gazing at the fire. 

“You’re not supposed to be wishing on them,” Ven blurts out, covering his mouth too late.

Sora’s eyebrows furrow. This is not a look I like to see on him. “Why?”

If Ven could kick himself without anyone seeing, he would.

Terra holds onto Sora’s shoulder. “A shooting star is someone traveling between worlds. Their heart is reaching out to someone to comfort or protect them. You don’t want to wish for something selfish, you want to wish the best for them.” 

The expression Sora gives can only be described as horror. “Oh, well, um, safe travels buddy. I hope you find your friend.”

“Is it too late to take the wish back?” Riku asks. I think he’s asking on purpose considering how much more fraught Sora becomes and how much Riku is enjoying it.

Terra notices. He nods his head to the side. I love the way he does it. He’s beautiful. “Probably.”

“But I really do want them to be safe,” Sora whines, defeated. 

The wind picks up, clouds floating across the sky at a speed where they swallow the stars. It smells damp and it feels hotter.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Riku says, dumping the pail of water next to him onto the fire. He kicks sand over it for good measure. Sora and Kairi don’t hesitate to stack baskets and fold blankets. 

“What’s going on?” Ven asks, moving slowly when he folds his chair, as if unsure.

“Monsoon season.” Riku steps on the last embers. “We didn’t expect a storm to come out this soon but you never know.”

“Maybe it wasn’t supposed to come tonight.” Kairi eyes Sora suspiciously.

“No way—” Sora starts.

“Nice job, Sora.” Riku says. “You’ve doomed us all.”

“I didn’t wish for a monsoon!”

“You wished to be locked up here with us. Congratulations.”

I interrupt. “What do you need me to do? Where do we go for shelter?”

Kairi points to their treehouse, which connects through the cavern and which, from my understanding, stood there through their entire childhood. “My dad—the one you’ve met before, Papa—fortified it with extra wood on the walls and the roof. It’s always been safe.”

By the time we have everything packed and are going up the ramps to the treehouse, it’s pouring. At least it’s not the iciness of mountain rain.

The door bangs when Kairi swings it open, the wind throwing it back and forth as if it’s juggling it between two hands. Ven waves his arm in a circular motion—his magic redirects the wind for as long as he can hold it, letting everyone inside before he lets go and the door slams behind us. 

Inside, we dry ourselves with rags, our shoes and socks warming up under the lanterns. We have fresh blankets and sacks of food, in case the storm lasts all night. 

Except in terms of blankets, we’re one short.

Ven hands Terra the last blanket and (pointedly) says something to him. 

The last blanket is the largest, so I’d have to share it with Terra. I adore Ven to pieces (and I won’t protest sharing any space with Terra), but when Ven gets difficult, I sometimes have to suppress myself. Judging by the way Terra wraps it around our shoulders and nudges close to me, he doesn’t care what the others think anymore. 

Kairi quickly looks away from us, rolling her lips inward like she’s witnessed a scandal.

Rain beats onto the roof, a million patters like the fingers of thousands of people asking to be let in. Thunder rumbles in quickly, soothing then unsettling. Terra and I sit in front of a window, the water so thick that it blurs the screen. Under the blanket, he rolls a finger over my wrist, stroking my palm. I smile at him. 

“We should have brought real fruit,” Ven says, chewing on dried mango. If by real fruit he means paopu, he’s smart for not specifying it. 

“You need finer taste,” Kairi says, chewing on the same.

“You need culture,” Sora says, swallowing something I don’t recognize.

The idea of a spontaneous camp-in might have been exciting the first several minutes, but hours later, it becomes agony. 

All this time, I can’t talk to Terra about anything too personal, though we’ve snuck a few passing whispers here and there. 

He asks me an indistinct question that anyone can misinterpret out of context: When did you know? 

My answer is just as vague. I was fourteen. 

There’s not much we can do to explore touch. I tend to listen more to the way he takes finger by finger. Terra will intermittently say one sentence with minimal effort, but just enough so that the others know we’re still with them. I worry that if I laugh a certain way, it would expose us. 

But no one asks, too busy chatting about building bigger boats for the one dream they’ve never been able to accomplish. 

At some point, Terra challenges Riku to a rematch.

“So what you’re telling me,” Riku says, a mock-smirk that fits perfectly on his face, “is that you’re very impressed and you want to be foolish enough to lose to me a second time so that everyone else knows how impressive I am.”

“We all know, Riku,” Sora says.

“But Terra wants to remind you.”

Terra laughs as if he’s not interlacing his fingers with mine. He squeezes my hand. 

It’s when everyone’s eyes are closed, drifting away to sleep, that Terra wraps his arm around my waist and I rest on his shoulder. One lantern is still on. The storm has quieted for now, but we’ve been told to expect another onslaught. 

Terra cranes his head back, looking out the window. He’s done this twice per hour, but the sky has been black, the clouds smearing everything.

“What are you looking for?” I whisper. 

“I have this very,” Terra starts, pausing, “vague memory of looking up to the stars, looking for home but I could never find it.”

So not his memory, but Xehanort’s. Blurs and images that make no sense, as if from a dream. Castle Oblivion never shined, so of course Xehanort couldn’t find it for the last twelve years. Terra is lucky that’s as much as he remembers. I don’t know how he could possibly deal if he woke up with a history of every crime Xehanort has committed in his body.

“And I feel like,” Terra continues, his eyes lost, his voice hushed. “I’ve—or he—tried over and over again.”

“Ah.” I sigh. “You were looking for it these past few nights.”

“The Master told me that home is the brightest star in the multiverse. You could see it through the clouds. It would always guide you back if you were lost.” 

“I never heard that story.”

Terra looks at me and holds me closer. “That was before you came.”

“Whether it’s true or not, it’s out there.”

He frowns, leaning his head back against the windowsill again. “The idea that home was gone at some point… that’s the one thing that haunts me still, even though I know it’s just a trip away and I could always go back. But knowing that doesn’t suffice.”

I rub his stomach. “We can find it together.”

He goes quiet, the hand on my waist tensing up. The wheels in his mind turn. “Do you want to find it tonight?”

I look up at him. 

“The storm has stopped,” he says.

“For now.”

“Then we come back before it starts again.” He pulls me closer, nearly settling me on top of his leg. I feel his smirk in my hair.

I glance out the window. “But the clouds are too thick.”

“Well, if the story is true—”

“If.”

“Then we’d take some time for ourselves.” He nudges my nose, and I wish he’d kiss me. “We’re Keyblade wielders. A monsoon isn’t impossible to manipulate.”

I stifle a laugh. He has a quick answer for everything, and to any given person, it’d be infuriating. I once found it so when I was younger. 

“I am obligated to remind you that it’s dangerous,” I say, wishing I could get away with tasting his lips. I come close to.

“I feel like I’m about to scream,” he says, brushing my hair. “I need to do something loud. Yell. Throw myself into the ocean. Touch you—I don’t know. It’s too suffocating in here. I’ve suffocated for twelve years. I’ve had enough.”

I don’t know why my heart jumps at the idea when it’s so reckless. Terra is not a bad influence, he’s just as responsible as I am, yet I find myself yearning for the thrill. 

I haven’t tasted something like this in years, when thrill was something to be avoided in the Darkness.  

“Okay. But we come back in no less than twenty minutes.”

We blow out our lantern and Terra takes precious, long seconds to turn the doorknob. 

Ven stirs, his bright eyes blinking open in the dark. “You guys are leaving?” he whispers. 

“We’re coming back,” Terra says.

“Is this going to happen a lot?” 

My heart sinks. It’s usually the three of us, never disconnected except when we’re bickering. I look to Terra for what to say when he replies with, “Do you want to come with us?”

Ven looks at me. “Nah. I’m tired.”

I bend down and pet his head. “You’ll come with us next time.”

“I know.” Ven wiggles in his blanket and gets comfortable. “Just don’t drown.”

Terra gently takes my wrist. As much as I’m compelled to stay with Ven, Terra’s smile is a reminder that there’s little to worry about with him. We leave the shoes and socks behind.

Outside, the wind howls strong, my sashes beaten in fury. The sand is warm when we step off the ramp, loose swirls of dust devils skidding across the beach. It’s dark without the moonlight, the ocean waves crashing onto the shore so hard that all I see are white bubbles. My heart races, but this feeling is nothing like the constant race of fear in the Dark Realm. No, this is familiar yet foreign. The slap of salty air in my face makes me gush with something jittery. 

Terra cups his hands close to the ground and jerks them forward near the base of the giant tree where the treehouse stands. The sand buckles—he’s moving earth and boulder against the trunk of the tree, compensating for years of erosion, creating a natural scaffolding to fortify it further.

The river nearby spills out of its bank, small streams skittling towards the ocean. I bring my hands together and wave them back inland, redirecting the water away from the tree so there is less risk of flooding. 

I hear Terra calling me. The wind ruins his hair—he looks more charming this way. When he walks, his pants flatten and blow open like balloons. He gathers bunches of my hair in his thick, large fingers, holds it off of my face, and kisses me. He’s firm and pulsing, strong but gentle, the touch of his lips igniting a flame that rides up to my heart. By the way he breathes through me, he’s been wanting to do this for a long time. 

A gust of wind bashes against our bodies. Water splashes on our knees and I nearly topple down.

We laugh into each other’s shoulders, my legs caked in wet sand. He’s holding me up by my arms, taking me towards the nearest palm tree.

“This is the most insane thing I’ve ever done,” I say, my voice raised to compete against the roar of the wind.

“I needed this,” he says, nodding. 

My heart sighs in agreement. 

Terra trembles from adrenaline, his smile glued on his face. He gestures in a way to call something down from above. A palm tree bends over, giving its head to us. “I want you to meet my new best friend, Leafy.” 

I snort. “What is this for?”

Terra giggles before grabbing a paopu fruit. “Thank you, my friend,” he says to Leafy, bowing.

“You’re talking to a tree.”

Pointing that out melts him into hysteria. “I don’t know how to describe it. I am so happy right now.” He gestures like he’s about to rip his skin off, something inside about to explode. “And I don’t know what to do with that feeling.” He turns to me, holding out the paopu fruit. “I want to share this with you.”

My cheeks hurt. “We don’t know how it works.”

“Will you accept it anyway?” 

No second thoughts. 

It has the consistency of an orange, the taste of a grape. The legend of the fruit claims that it binds the destinies of those who share it together, intertwining their hearts and fates so they’re a part of each other’s lives forever. It could be a symbolic gesture—I certainly thought so when I made our Wayfinders, embedding my magic into them to make sure they work that way. 

I don’t know what I think of the future—I stopped planning for it the day I fell to Darkness—but I would be okay so long as Terra stays somewhere in my life.

Terra leans forward and bites the other side of the fruit, right out of my mouth. It catches me off guard, shuddering me into a chuckle, and I lean to meet him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He tastes of warmed juice. My heart pounds at the slide of his fingers on my forearms as he pushes my sleeves away. I lose the paopu fruit somewhere when he pulls me in.

I realize now what it is: I’ve been numbed. The Realm of Darkness hushes it all inside, leaving you with nothing but your thoughts. When you can’t take much more, you wish for it to be over. Then, you are soothed, a sick, cold honey that drips over your skin. The numbness makes you keep walking so you keep living, until you can’t take the numbness anymore and you go back to despairing. Only to be soothed yet again. The only real emotion that lasts for more than a moment is the sudden whiplash when Heartless attack and you have to survive. The wrong kind of thrill.

Terra has been cut off from all senses for twelve years.

I’ve been quieted. 

So I need him. I need him to brush his fingers on my skin, I need to taste his tongue, I need to run in the rain, laugh at stupid jokes, get scared on purpose, for reasons that don’t truly threaten me. Terra reminds me of the morning when we raced in the ravine as children. He reminds me that there’s more to the way my heart beats than keeping my hands to myself. 

Terra sighs into my neck. “I wish I was strong enough to be a shooting star for you,” he says into my ear. “I’m sorry we waited twelve years to do this.”

Does he not remember that he came to me in the Darkness? He told me not to give up.

He told me that I never stopped lighting his way back. I must have flown in the sky too, without knowing, for other children to see. Maybe I’ve done so many times. I hold him tightly.

An unnaturally strong gust targets at us, loose leaves slapping us and nicking my face. Terra looks up and bursts into laughter. “Stars, he’s watching us.”

Ven sits at the window, waving his arms in circles, as if to slap our wrists with rulers for such behavior. 

My instinct is to remove myself from all scrutiny, but I bump into Terra’s chest. I laugh. I don’t know what else to do except to take his hand and run to the other side of the beach. I think about how Ven must have been worried, and opened that window to see what we were up to, only to witness what he did, and— 

—I cover my mouth and snort. “I can’t believe we were caught.”

“We’re being sloppy.”

I can’t stop laughing. It hurts, but in a good way, better than the victory after a Heartless attack, better than even seeing my friends again after so long, when I couldn’t stop crying.  

Water washes over my feet faster than I can step out of it, my toes sinking like I can be erased in a heartbeat. We all could, at the precipice of Darkness. I could laugh right now, I could mourn tomorrow. The thought chokes me.

“Aqua, are you okay?”

Storm clouds have suffocated everything, dark paint dabbed with a sponge layer after layer so that everything under is hidden. I lean back, but I don’t step away. It’s dark but not Dark, I tell myself. We’re alone, but I’m not. We’re nowhere close to home, but with him, I am. Small reminders for large steps forward. 

“It looks like it goes on forever.”

Terra squeezes my hand, and it says so much. He understands. “We’re facing west. Home would be this direction.”

I’ve faced the darkest enemy and survived. I’ve been running—it’s my instinct to—but I don’t have to run anymore. 

Yet I don’t know what else I could do with all this energy. I face the black ocean now. I want to do something crazy.

“We could try to find it,” I say.

Terra jerks like he’s about to torpedo himself into the sky. “We’ll fly.”

I swallow. “The ocean looks bottomless.”

“It’s not.”

“I know it isn’t.” I look again. The star isn’t there. “But that doesn’t make sense to me. Dark is dark, kind is kind, and the things that hurt me hide.”

“There’s nothing out there that can hurt you, only whales. And I know for a fact that you’re stronger than any shark I know.”

I pause, a mix of childish giddiness and sudden tears wrestling with each other and I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel. “We don’t fight sharks.”

“We don’t.”

“You don’t know any sharks.”

“You’re right.”

My body gives up and I laugh and cry at the same time. “That was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

Terra wraps his hand on my waist, leaning against my forehead. “I’ve got you. I’m not going to let you fall. Ever again.” 

“I know.” I place my hand on the center of his chest. Sometimes lessons are learned too late. Sometimes the consequences are more than what we’ve prepared for. “Let’s fly.”

He summons his Keyblade and commands it to transform into his glider, helping me on with the guidance of his hand. Neither of us want to break contact. His glider isn’t designed to carry two people, the curve of its engine forcing me forward so I lean onto him. His back muscles are well-formed, sturdy under my weight, his waist so thick that I have to grip his shirt to hold on. 

When Ven sees us take off, he makes frantic arm movements, grabbing fistfuls of air. It calms the fury of the wind around us, giving Terra a smoother path ahead with mild turbulence. We leave the beach behind, and ride into a world of nothing. 

I grip harder into his stomach and contain a meep. Terra slows to a stop. We haven’t gone far.

“I’m okay,” I say onto his neck. It’s quieter out here, without the waves and the trees.

Terra palms a hand over mine, gliding it up to his chest like he wants to feel his heartbeat through both of our hands. It’s hammers, like he’s running away, or towards something.

Or nowhere, really. We’re running just to run, just to remember what it feels like. I kiss the back of his neck, where it meets his shoulder.

“Look,” he says softly. His grip tightens on the handlebar, and he shudders under me. He’s about to cry.

There is one star through the clouds, brushed over in fog. Terra reaches up as if to grab it, measuring our home in the pinch of his fingers.

“To think our beds are small enough to fit,” I say, smiling into him.

Terra takes my hand from his chest and kisses it. 

A gust of wind knocks his glider, and he revs it up to stabilize us, holding a solid kick onto the pedals. Ven is either too far away or too tired to keep helping us.

Rain prickles onto us, and starts to build. I tremble. For some reason, I don’t want to go back into the treehouse and sleep it off. I feel cut off, trapped in a bottle where I can’t move. 

I look behind me. There are now four heads on that window, four worried faces gawking at the scandal. “The others are awake.”

“Let them have a show.” He turns over and holds me close, taking my lips with his. Again, again, again. 

I shiver. He tastes like springwater. I don’t know why I don’t find our predicament threatening. We’re hovering over darkness—but I’ve won against the Darkness. We’ve hovering in a dangerous storm, and yet it seems miniscule. I’m grateful.

“I can make the water dance,” I say.

“I know. That’s why I’m not scared.” He smiles. It’s like he’s asking permission.

I nod. “We wouldn’t be falling.”

“We’d be flying.” 

He dismisses his Keyblade. He falls first, relaxed, his arms open like he doesn’t mind landing into the turret of waters, like he’s about to fall on a feather bed. 

I call for my Keyblade and let it shine. The rain around us swirls, bursting into bright pellets. Terra catches me with one arm, hooking it around my waist and keeping me close. We twirl like we’re caught in a tornado. We kiss. We laugh, our legs wrapping over each other. The light spreads, tiny pinpricks of asteroids and firecrackers that shower Destiny Islands.

I can’t be crazy. I can’t fall. I’m safe and sound with the earth beneath my feet.

[snowflake-of-destruction]

A House Divided

A little, silly kidfic Sorikai for the soul, and for @shaky-mayhemm

Note: The more times I try to change colors of the first letters of the first words in each paragraph, the more formatting glitches and scrambled paragraphs I get, so see if you can get the “oh so secret message” without it being completely pointed to.

Selphie was at fault to start with, though, if she was going to be ascribed the blame for the hurt feelings, she would have to be given credit for starting some wheels in their lives turning, which Riku and Sora both agreed she did not deserve, even if Kairi was more magnanimous. Thus, it became a habit just to talk of conversations and promises made when they were too young to fully weigh choices. Still, the most accurate account begins with: one day when they were all young-- too young to even be allowed to swim in the water surrounding play island without an adult in the surf with them--if that gives perspective--Selphie, to everyone's surprise, scored the winning goal in the game of land-blitzball the group of them were playing in order to decide what game they would really spend the day playing, and chose, to absolutely nobody's surprise, house.

How it went down, everyone accepted their fate and divided into family units with minimal grumbling, phrasing which means that Wakka threw the blitzball into the sea and lost it forever when Jecht--the parent chaperone on play island that day who was five minutes away from falling asleep on the sand and typically didn't care what they did, unlike most parents who at least had restrictions about not hitting each other in the head with wooden swords or throwing sand--refused to go into the water after it. 

As it was, the game mistress, Selphie, who should have, by all rights, been content, found a problem with Sora, Riku, and Kairi's family. Specifically, she didn't like that the family was Riku, Kairi, and Sora all together parenting a yellow coconut Kairi was trying to rock to sleep while Riku built him a bed out of sand and palm fronds and Sora cooked dinner for the household--a savoury stew of sticks, sand, and mushroom. She stood with pursed lips and hands on hips, and declared that their proud coconut son, Rekka, couldn't have all three of them for parents because that wasn't how things worked.

Kool-aid stain lips pursed and Sora asked, with all the curiosity and innocence of a child, “Why can’t it work that way?”

Yearning to prove his maturity, Riku tried a more practical, solution based approach with, "Can we change the rules?"

Madly defending her rights as alpha-female of their friend group, Kairi was more direct and firm, her, "It does if I say so," leaving very little room to argue. 

Already invested, Selphie stuck firm in her first assessment, voice gaining volume and rising in pitch to an affronted shriek that doubled down on, "It's just not how it works!" that was rooted in fear that they were trying to sabotage her game on purpose and embarrassment at being left as a single mother since Tidus and Wakka had happily coupled up and were introducing a piece of driftwood they had named Chappu to the newly dubbed Grandpa Mark IV Jecht who "just wanted a damn nap."

Young Sora provided the counter argument of bursting into tears while Kairi used every bit of her clout as the girl who had fallen out of the sky last year to put power behind the statement that she was going to launch Selphie to the moon, which caused Riku to wrap his arms around her from behind in a combination restraint and hug as the glare that he leveled at Selphie over Kairi's shoulder as he repeated his request to change the rules said that, while he'd stop Kairi from launching Selphie to the moon, he was just as upset by Sora's crying and would bury her in the ground. 

Heroic duty calling him to intervene, Tidus left Chappu in Wakka's expert care, reminding him to support the baby's head, and padded over to see what was the matter. He proceed to have the situation explained to him by an increasingly agitated Selphie who refused to admit she was wrong when the other three were cheating and leaving her with no partner to raise her baby with after she'd won fair and square, and, in the end, took Kairi, Riku, and Sora's side. "I have two dads and a mom. It happens in real life. Isn't that right dad?" He yelled the last words and Jecht gave a thumbs up, undoubtedly having no idea what he was agreeing to and not caring.

Even presented with such evidence, Selphie stayed strong, however. "Your parents are dee-vorced and your dad second-married your Papa. You don't have two dads and one mom all in the same house together. That would be chaos!" She threw her arms out to demonstrate the extreme degree the universe would be thrown off by the anarchy of two dads and one mom all living together, "And a couple is a two. When you ask for a couple of cookies even if you want three cookies you only get two cookies."

“My grandmother always told me three cookies will make you sick!" Kairi argued, "So it’s because of stomach aches, not because a couple equals a two!"

“Mmm, no, she's right." Riku's arms slackened their grip on Kairi and defeat entered his voice. "A couple means two. Three is a few. Miss Rosa taught us that grammar rule." 

In wake of that knowledge drop, the argument ended there. Riku was one year older and had been taught a great many things in school the rest didn't know yet, which made him a Trusted Authority. If he knew the rules, those had to be the Enforceable Law. Riku would have liked to lie, especially when Selphie started dragging the still distraught Sora away by his arm to be her husband and pick out a baby with her, but he couldn't compromise his Trusted Authority status. He also ruled out revenge when Kairi suggested throwing Rekka at Selphie's head ("I'm allowed. We're both girls.") both because the plan could "trauma-ato-rize" baby Rekka and cause one billion years of therapy but also because Selphie was not being mean. She was right. The three of them would never raise a baby together, or be married, or be a couple. A couple was two.

Luck decreed Sora and Selphie would divorce after fifteen minutes when Tidus and Sora started using Chappu and Sora and Selphie's baby, Spaceship Train, as swords in a fight over a spot of beach where both wanted to build a vacation home to get away from the hustle and bustle of the beach ten feet away. After a brief huddle, Riku and Kairi divorced amicably so Kairi could marry Sora with the promise that they in turn would divorce soon so Riku and Sora could get married. This triggered a new round of accusations of cheating and renewed fighting until Jecht was forced to intervene and decree that they could either all find a way to get along or he'd row them straight back to the main island. The children meant to choose the former, but the latter came true sooner rather than later

On the way back home,  Sora, Riku, and Kairi were especially subdued, each lost in thought bigger than child brains usually were forced to hold in an afternoon of beach play. Sora was absorbed in planning how to train a pet dolphin, but Riku and Kairi were both still  consumed by melancholy at the revelation about their future, or the restrictions on it.

Very carefully, Kairi traded spots in the boat, going from sitting beside a sulky Selphie, to hanging on to Tidus, to slipping beside Riku. He smiled at her, obviously faking, so she wasted no time in giving him a reason to smile for real. “You and Sora have known each other longer. You two should get to be the ones who get married when we grow up.” She had decided it, and when she decided something, she made sure it happened.

“Even if you knew you would always-and-forever-pinky-promise mean that, it doesn’t mean Sora would agree.” Riku replied after a too long pause, his face shifting into a frown that added centuries not just years to his rounded baby face. “You’re pretty special, Kairi, and pretty pretty too. He might choose you.” He knew then that he’d choose Kairi for himself over just about anyone else, using forever stakes as puppy-love often did when forever to the young mind often only lasted as long as five minutes (or ten, if you counted five as merely an eternity, less than forever).

“You know I can hear you,” Sora grumbled. Everyone could. Sora was just the only one that still cared about deciding how the friends would avoid becoming an illegal trio. “I should get to decide for myself.” Sora sucked in air to puff out his chest. “And I choose that I won’t choose. We’re going to all stick together, and we’re going to be a family. You two have to promise. Nothing can take us apart, and, even if it’s wrong, then we all go to jail together.”

On the bench behind him, Riku and Kairi shared a look, searching for one another’s reactions before forming their own. Riku was the first to nod, and give his word, clenching and unclenching his hands. “I’d make sure only I went to jail to protect the two of you.” Kairi screwed up her face like she was going to argue, so Riku took her hand to hold and squeezed it. “But it should be the three of us together. If you marry your very best friend, I have two of them now.” He paused again and waited, not getting the chance to say more when Kairi and Sora expressed their agreement by jumping to their feet and setting the boat to rock and Mr. Jecht to yell.

Undeniably, it wasn’t the most thorough or well informed discussion, and there were times where the childlike resolve that it was always to be the three of them equally, inseparably, and united in commitment (may the first to change their mind be launched right to the moon) was replaced with doubt or temporary jealousy, but all three would pinpoint that day as an early memory of being faced with the heartbreak that came trying to imagine a life not lived as one--and, yes, grudgingly, they would consider thanking Selphie for making them play house.

[razorblade180]

Venqua Week day 4: AU

Losing sucks! Especially when it’s the championships. You put all that effort into giving it everything you got, and then boom! Someone with just a little more reach, hits the curve ball you’ve perfected right into the audience. Yeah, losing sucks. Aqua dragged her feet as she walked down the side walk, head held down and worn out baseball gear stuffed in a bag around her body. She might’ve been home by now if she didn’t have to clean out her locker; the cherry on top of losing it all. She couldn’t go home looking like this. Aqua needed a pick-me-up.

Her feet carried her to only place to find a latte on par with their pastries, Sweet Memories. The air conditioning hit her glistening face and cooled a bit of the frustration her body was radiating. She took a seat at the style counter and propped her head up with her right arm. She probably should’ve washed up a little. Aqua was sure there was still a bit of dirt from the sand lot on her face, but she was too tired to care. A heavy sigh left her lungs, summoning someone to come from the back of the shop. A cheerful blonde haired barista boy Aqua has meant plenty of times.

“Ventus, the usual please?” She said, a little whiny. “Can you throw in some extra honey too?”

“Oof, extra honey huh? I guess it’s been a rough day for my favorite customer? Not surprising. Heard about the game today.” He quickly started gathering the ingredients. “Do you skim milk again, or are you feeling...dangerous?” He reached for a cart of coconut milk and shook menacingly at her. He wiggled his eyebrows from dramatic affect.

Against her will, Aqua let out a giggle. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?” She sat up straight and weighed her options. “Hmmm screw it, I’ll take the coconut milk.”

Ventus’s eyes lit up. “One coconut milk latte with extra honey, coming right up!”

Aqua loved watching him work. She had known about this little hole in the wall shop for about a year now. It was okay at first. A little out of the way from her house, but that was just fine when she met the owner’s son. Ventus was one of those boys that people only hear about in lies, except he real! The boy would lend an ear to anybody and was sweeter than anything on the menu. He whistled a cheerful tune at any given time and danced like nobody was watching. Aqua remembered the one time Kairi’s grandma had came in singing some old song. Ventus immediately pulled it up on his phone then took the lady’s hand to waltz. Still, it was his food that hooked Aqua the most.

“One ticket to flavor town, ready to board.” He said.

Aqua was surprised when a plate slid in front of her with two blueberry danishes on it, freshly baked. The sweet aroma hit her nose immediately. The glaze over one made a star while the other had two curved lines on each side to make it look like a baseball. It looked her delicious, but her wallet made it less pleasing. “Ven...” she chuckled, “I can’t-”

“It’s on the house. Besides, win or lose, an athlete burns a lot of energy right? Call it a pick-me-up.”

He slid the latte across the counter slowly. Aqua reached to take a sip of heaven in a blue mug, but paused just as she tilted it. Slowly, she leveled it back out. Ventus has made a design in this as well. Someone the milky white and golden yellow from the honey had made surface make a heart shape. Aqua could feel her face get a little red. Her eyes looked up to see Ven with a cheeky smile on his face and eyes that was marveling at her. Aqua looked away and sipped her beverage.

“Do you like it?” Ven said, admiring the cutie. Even with the little dirt on her face, Aqua was breathtaking. “Not sure if this means much, but I actually saw most of your game. I could tell you gave it everything. Be proud of that. You were amazing.”

The blush reached her ears. “You trying to butter me up something? Sweets, compliments, and an amazing latte? If I didn’t know any better I think you were trying to pull something?”

Ventus props his arm on the counter and tears his head on his fist. “This place is called Sweet Memories. I consider it my job to give my customers just that.”

“You tell that to all of customers?”

“I do in fact, but what I don’t tell them is I have a two tickets to the music festival on the beach tonight. I was thinking maybe...we can you know, make a bunch of memories today.” Despite is calm exterior, Ventus could tell he was blushing a bit. That was okay though. Aqua was pretty red in the face herself. “Well...?”

Aqua tapped her chin as if this was a hard decision. She took a bite of danish, absolutely stunning. “Hmmm, I don’t know.” She teased. Couldn’t make it too easy for him. “What kind of sweet memories are we talking? Things could get pretty dangerous with me. As you can see?” She pointed at the coconut milk behind him.

“Hehe, that is true. Such a rebel.” He teased back, “I guess we’ll just have to find out? Or you know...” he put his hand on his chest. “I could go alone, the crushing embarrassment of a girl saying no to heart latte she drank weighing on my mind.” He dramatically layed his head on the counter like he was actually hurt. The look of Aqua smiling down on him made his heart flutter. “Go on a date with me Aqua. Be my sweet memory.” He said in one calm breath.

The direct approach caught Aqua off gaurd. Her finger ran across the rim of the empty latte. “Well...I did accept the heart latte.” She stuttered. “Eight o’clock?” She smiled.

Ventus’s smile went ear to ear. “It’s a date!”

@venquaweek [Yo if anybody, fill free to direct me to a picture of Aqua in a school baseball jacket. 😂]

[softbbyg0rl]

꒰๑ ᷄ω ᷅꒱ 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐛𝐛𝐲𝐠𝟎𝐫𝐥! ☆ミ ☆彡

about me!

FACTS

› hi i'm opal!

↳ my pronouns are she / her, 03 liner, my star sign: taurus / moon sign: taurus / rising: libra / im canadian. I'm a witch! I want to be an artist! (I have an art account on instagram!)

❁ I'm in art school and I'm currently specializing in ceramics, printmaking and textiles, painting will always be my first love though

❁ i love music! i taught myself ukulele and piano! I played the flute in school and have done a little piccolo and oboe.

❁ I've been dying my hair since like 2015

❁ I have a nose ring and a bridge piercing!

❁ I have a tattoo and want to get more!

❁ ive been on tumblr for years but this is the first blog ive written for!

❁ I can speak a lil French and a teeny tiny bit of asl. I'm trying to learn Italian, Danish, and korean

❁ my first true introduction to kpop was txt

❁ I found out about both txt and skz by complete accident!

❁ my first bias in txt was taehyun and my first bias in skz was felix

LIKES [ # BRO IT'S HUG TIME ] ／(･ × ･)＼

❁ studio ghibli / horror movies / cats / plushies / sanrio / fashion / art / platform shoes / pasta / rubber ducks / pastels / fashion design / photocards / thunder storms / macarons / dumpling tuesdays

❁ i love fashion (alt, kidcore, clowncore, soft, 70s, 80s, 90s, soft grunge) I really want to try the kinderwhore aesthetic as well!

DISLIKES [ # PLEASE BEAR WITH ME ]

✄ body shaming / bugs / bullies / bananas / littering / green veggies / sad movies / hot weather / coconut / sea critters / mint / auditory asmr /

BIAS LIST

txt ult ~ beomgyu / skz ult ~ jisung (minho) / en- ~ sunoo / ateez ~ yeosang, hongjoong, seonghwa, yunho / xdinary heroes ~ jungsu, seungmin

itzy ~ yeji + chaeryeong / bts ~ yoongi / tbz ~ chanhee, younghoon, changmin / ace ~ chan, sehyoon / p1h ~ intak, soul / ateez ~ yeosang, hongjoong / onewe ~ cya / oneus ~ xion / elast ~ rano / mcnd ~ minjae / cravity ~ taeyoung, minhee / hur hyunjun / svt ~ minghao, jun

nct ~ yuta, jaemin, taeyong, xiaojun / renjun, shotaro, winwin, yangyang, chenle

dreamcatcher ~ dami / everglow ~ aisha, mia / weeekly ~ monday / purple kiss ~ chaein / stayc ~ yoon, seeun / hot issue ~ mayna, yewon, hyeongshin / lightsum ~ juhyeon, chowon / pixy ~ ella, lola, satbyeol / billlie ~ sua, tsuki / pink fantasy ~ momoka, heesun

astro ~ rocky / victon ~ hanse, byungchan / omega x ~ jaehan, xen / bae173 ~ muzin, dohyon, youngseo / tnx ~ hwi / epex ~ baekseong, mu / T1419 ~ gowon, kairi / dkb ~ lune, yuku, heechan / onf ~ / to1 ~ / 8turn ~ myungho, minho, yoonsung

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[rex101111]

She Deserves The Stars

Re:mind…well, reminded me why Sokai was such an obsession for me back in high school so naturally I had to buckle down and write a 10k+ fic about them being cute and loving each other because what else does Nomura expect me to do with myself now until he finally nuts up and releases a Kairi-centric game?

Rating: T

Enjoy!

Riku was good at focusing on little details. How sand would gather around the edge of a wave once it crested over a beach, how a leaf rocks from side to side as it floats down to the ground, small things, insignificant things. He’s gotten good at noticing those things and honing his focus on them so he could avoid thinking of things that he did not want on his mind.

When he was younger it was to divert his head from petty, cruel thoughts about his two best friends. Focus on the sand to avoid thinking about how Kairi keeps stealing looks at Sora behind his back, keep your eyes on the leaf to not think too hard about how soft Sora’s voice gets when the subject of Kairi comes up.

Focus on the water, the raft, the far away freedom, the adventure, focus on that and not on how two people you’ve known for over a decade were leaving you behind.

(A voice from the back of his head stabs him with these thoughts, you were such a shit remember? Such an awful friend, and he takes a breath. Sometimes the voice is nasally, young and arrogant and so sure of his destiny, and sometimes the voice is deeper than a fall in a canyon, full of silk smooth venom and sharp like a dagger, but he’s gotten used to remaindering himself that the voice is always wrong, so he brushes it off easily enough.)

As he grew older it was a matter of survival, the rustle of the air as holes of pure nothing tore open and things made of twisted cloth-flesh and empty souls were about to pour out, the electricity and dull fire licking his skin whenever creatures of dark and hate were nearby. Things that passed by in a second, things that kept him alive if he noticed them.

It made him good at reading people once things simmered down. The twitch near the corner of Terra’s lip when Riku was being difficult, Aqua’s left eyebrow raising half an inch to prepare for a lecture, Ven’s eyes darting back and forth when you caught out a bluff, Roxas mouth thinning when you hit a sore spot, Xion’s shoulder’s bunching up if she feels threatened, Lea’s fists clenching when he’s pissed.

Kairi’s nose flaring when she’s frustrated, biting her lip to hold back tears, how empty and tired her eyes were becoming every day Sora remained out of her reach.

He used it to be a better friend, when everyone needed him to be more than any other time in his life, he even thinks he managed it fairly alright. Kairi barely gave him the time of day as things dragged on, but he could hardly blame her for that, with how she was wearing herself thin searching for Sora, for their friend.

The one she loved.

If he was younger, spiteful and jealous and so afraid of being alone, that last thought would have been a knife in the back, but seeing Kairi so determined, so driven, so on fire to look for Sora after everything he’s done, for everyone, for them, for her, it was hard not to admire her now that he’s more secure with his place in their lives and with more years on his shoulders.

And best of all, it paid off.

He didn’t even want to begin to think of all the loops and nonsense he and Kairi (plus their friends from Radiant Garden, and the three Masters, and the king, and Roxas and his gang, and who knows how many more) had to jump through to finally find Sora, but they did. He was beaten within an inch of his life, bruised and bleeding from a few worrying places, but he was alive, against all odds and spitting in the face of whatever laws of nature and destiny were dead set on keeping them all apart, he was alive.

And the look on his face when he caught sight of them, caught sight of Kairi, was absolutely worth every second of searching it took to find him. Riku barely had enough time to cast Curaja to heal their wounds before he and Kairi basically attached themselves to each other to hug and sob and be glad to be together again.

They even pulled him into the hug, and Riku was never more glad to get snot and dirt on his jacket. Soon though, as if all the time searching and fighting and hoping caught up to them all at once, Kairi and Sora fell sound asleep, arms still wrapped around each other and Riku.

Prying himself, however reluctantly, from the hug, Riku was left with the question of how to get these two on the Gummi ship and on the way back to Destiny Islands, back home. Thankfully, Aqua, Terra and Ven were close by when things began to wind down, and were able to help him pick the two up and carry them to the ship.

Still hugging even, after all they went through they seemed determined to never be apart again, even while dead to the world and snoring and drooling on each other. It was cute, in a weird and gross sort of way, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to pry them off each other, and the other three weren’t too keen on the idea either.

So, they laughed, shared a hug, gave their best wishes and congratulations, and left through their portal, and now Riku was left alone on the Gummi with his two sleeping, hugging friends.

And he was making use of his long developed skill for careful inspection to take notice of every little noise the ship made, the groan of metal and grinding of gears, the flowing of fuel through pipes, anything to keep his eyes open and his arms steady, lest he fall asleep and the three heroes that saved the world a good half dozen times will die as a result of crashing into a huge hunk of rock floating in space.

Because he too, like Kairi and Sora, was practically dead on his feet after the trial that was today, but he was left to be the responsible one and get them all back in one piece.

“As per usual, I might add.” He muttered with faux outrage, “I swear, I always have to be the one to actually get stuff done, don’t I?” He shook his head with a scoff, “this is just like the time we were building that damned raft, remember that?”

He turned his head back to look at his friends with a tired smile, Sora having moved his arms to envelop Kairi completely, as if protecting her from a wind that would blow her away, and their princess burying her head in Sora’s chest, as if to anchor him where he was and keep him there with her.

Otherwise, they snored and ignored his question, typical.

“Exactly!” He shouted, to no reaction from the snoozing pair, “I was running around carrying logs and ropes from all over the island, while you two were sleeping the day away on the beach!” He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and shook his head again, paying attention to the give of the leather on the wheel as he steered the ship, “Sora might have been the lazy bum, but Kairi, you always used the excuse to look for him to not have to work and make wayfinders, and that left me to find the two of you only to see you goofing off near the water.”

He left it at that for a moment, pistons whooshing in the air and his friends mumbling softly in their sleep. Sora taking a deep breath through his nose buried in Kairi’s hair, Kairi grabbing Sora’s jacket in a tightening fist.

“…we never did finish it, right?” He let the question hang in the air for a while as he searched his memory of that one sunlit afternoon that took so long to end, that one storm that changed everything, “well, I mean, we did, but we never really got the chance to take it out to sea.” He chuckled at his past self, naïve and sure with his so called plan to seek destiny and a different sky, “not that we would have gotten anywhere, three dumb kids on a rickety raft in the middle of the ocean, wouldn’t that have been a stupid end to our story…”

He was quiet again, listening to the sound of his friends breathing, in and out, in and out, two hearts, two souls, two people he could never imagine being without. It is the most wonderful sound he’s heard in years, and he strains to commit every tiny detail of it to memory.

“We should build it again.” He intones resolutely, eyes dead ahead and watching for their goal, “we should take a day to build it, and actually get it on the water.” He starts smiling without even noticing, his heart growing warm in his chest, “not even out to the ocean, I’d like to think the three of us aren’t that stupid, just, spend an afternoon floating near the beach, just close enough to swim back if we need to.”

He looked at the stars outside the ship, saw them slowly drifting close before floating away, didn’t he dream of this? This freedom? To be this far away from a home that gave him nothing but sand and sea water? Look at him now, wanting nothing but to get back there, to the palm trees and glowing sun.

He hums deep in his throats for a moment, “I think we’ve all earned a day or two of being lazy bums.”

“Try a week.”

Riku’s smile widened for a moment before he tempered it into a cool smirk, “or maybe a month, considering how you two conked out so quick back there.” He looked back with that same smirk to see Sora sleepily blinking at him, only just barely awake and hanging on the edge of falling right back to snoring on Kairi without a care, “how long have you been up?”

“Around the time you started talking about the raft, and how I wasn’t any help.” He used the one hand not wrapped around Kairi to point accusingly at Riku, “which is a big fat lie, don’t you remember me bringing in all the food?”

“Oh yeah, all the food, an egg, two coconuts, three mushrooms, and three tiny fish, a very sustainable supply, Sora.”

“And water!” Sora added cheekily, grinning widely no matter how tired he was, “don’t forget the water!”

“I wouldn’t dare! A whole bottle of water!” Riku stifled a yawn along with a smile, looking back over the map as he adjusted his course slightly, “Kairi practically had to twist your arm to get you to pull your weight and get all of that.”

A moment of quiet before Sora chuckles warmly, “nah, all she really had to do was ask me.”

Riku let out an undignified sound between his lips holding back a laugh, “man, you are so whipped.”

After making a few outraged noises, Sora fired back, “excuse you, I prefer in love.”

The air stills between them, Riku looks back at Sora with a kind smirk, seeing his friend’s face softly glow red.

“Love…” Sora repeated, slowly, as if testing how the word traveled along his tongue, “love…wow…just saying that, don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…” Sora looked down at Kairi, smiling stretching his face as he buried his nose in her hair again, “love…yeah, I’m in love with her, isn’t that crazy, Riku?”

(Why did you think you ever had a chance? Both voices, young and dark, say at once, and he’s so far past over that whole jealousy business that the ease and annoyance in which he pushes that thought out of his head is almost laughable. Because I was young, stupid, and afraid of being alone, now shut it.)

“Not crazy at all, in fact it’s about time you got it through your thick hair and skull,” He looked back at his glaring friend with a grin, “also, same thing as being whipped, buddy.”

“Hey!”

Kairi made a soft sound in her sleep, digging her head deeper into her embrace of Sora, shutting both boys up before they woke her. Sora breathed out a sigh before wrapping his other hand around her, speaking to Riku while his eyes stayed on her sleeping form, “I don’t think I had a chance to thank all of you guys for bringing me back,” he turned to Riku, eyes wet and smile quiet, “so, really, thank you Riku.”

Riku was silent for a long moment, face hardening before he gestured sharply with his chin to their sleeping friend, “she’s the one you should be thanking, Sora, she’s the only person who refused to give up looking for you, no matter what.”

Sora blinked at Riku, taken aback by his sudden sharp tone, “I-I know that-”

“Yeah but you don’t get it.” Riku stalled the ship so it wouldn’t move and turned to Sora, eyes stone like and voice tight, “Kairi damn near killed herself looking for you, on more than one occasion and in a variety of ways, no matter how many times people told her to slow down, no matter how much I told her to take a break before she cracked under the pressure.” He shook his head with a frustrated breath, memories of those stressful months weighing on his mind, “you have no idea what she had to push through to get you back Sora, no fucking idea.”

Sora stared wide eyed at his friend, at a complete lose at what to say to all that, the only thing he could think to do was simply hold on to Kairi tighter as Riku took another breath and rubbed his face.

“No.” Riku shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a few calming gulps of air, “no, that was…that came out angrier than I wanted it to be.” He let out another breath between his teeth, “I’m not…I’m not telling you all of this to guilt trip you Sora, I…I just want you to understand exactly how lucky we all ended up being today.”

Riku’s eyes flit over the many wounds and bandages covering his friends’ bodies, and feeling the faint thumping of his own injuries, that even after a dose of healing magic from both himself and Aqua he knew would leave scars. He pushes the sight of Sora bleeding from the side of his stomach out of his head, he needs to focus.

“Seriously Sora, today was, bar none, the closest call the three of us of had at losing our lives.” An incredulous laugh leaps out of him unbidden, voice a bit hysterical as he went on, as if the danger of the situation has only hit him fully now that he has a chance to look over his shoulder and actually see it, “and considering the shit we went through? That is saying something, don’t you think?” He pinches his left thumb and index finger together and then just barely pulls them apart to make a space between, “this close, that was our margin of error, that was how close I was to losing my two best friends in the whole world, Sora. That was how close Kairi was to failing after everything we all went through.”

Sora started looking at Kairi mid-way through Riku’s plea, the affection in his eyes mixing with something else, something like pride and determination, that look he had when he was prepared to move the stars for the people he loved.

What would he move for Kairi? Riku supposed that wasn’t a question worth asking, considering he already had the answer.

“But she won.” Riku continued, voice growing steady and certain, “she made it Sora, after all of that she made it, we made it, and that means she’s earned something from you.”

“Anything.” Sora said, voice rock solid and eyes unclouded, “I’ll give her anything she needs, everything, what do I need to give her?”

“No Sora, not give.” He leaned back on the wheel, crossing his arms and smiling at his friend, “something you need to tell her.”

Sora looked between the girl in his arms and his smiling friend, once more at a loss, “what’s there left to say?”

“How you feel, Sora.” Riku stated plainly, “exactly how you feel, exactly what you see in her, exactly what you want to do with her, exactly how you love her.” His smile grows warm when comprehension glows in Sora’s eyes, “tell her everything in your heart, even if she already knows what’s there from the time she was there, even if you think it’s stupid, out loud, in the open, between the two of you, leave nothing to guesswork or implication.”

Sora was holding Kairi against his chest, the girl snuggling into his warmth in her sleep but still refusing to wake.

“After everything she did for you, she’s earned that, all of it. And you need to tell her,” Riku looked aside at a window, watching stardust blow by and the universe turn around them, “…because who knows if this was the last time we get so lucky.”  

Riku left it at that, letting the implication sink in on its own, turning back to the wheel to start them back on their route, the heavy quiet of his two friends and the noises of the ship his only accompaniment.

“…I called her my guiding light.” He heard Sora whisper, just barely, growing weaker, “…my light in the darkness.”

Riku blinked, the line of his mouth unsure whether to sink or rise, before another laugh jumped from his lungs and it was all he could do to keep the ship steady, “Sora, of all the things I’ve heard you say, that has to be the cheesiest.” He turned his head to look behind him, voice raising in pitch in a parody of Sora’s, “and that includes your famous my friends are my-”

He stopped, seeing Sora once more joining Kairi in dream land, whatever strength he had used to listen to Riku gone like it was never there. Riku would crack up if he didn’t want them both to keep resting.

“…power.” He shakes his head, looking at the map to see how close they were to home, smiling when he saw they weren’t too far. “You two rest,” he mutters as he leans a bit forward on the accelerator, just enough not to rock the ship, “we’re nearly there…we’re back guys, we actually made it.”

Another soft voice from behind him, different from before, tired to the bone but full of joy, “we're…home.”

He waited for more, but a soft sound of shuffling clothes was all he heard from her, so he let the tears of relief drop down his face, “yeah…we’re home.”

-_-_-_-

Kairi was always a heavy sleeper. Maybe it was just how she was built, or perhaps it was a consequence of dropping between worlds and getting her heart stolen when she was young, but waking her was, reportedly, a very difficult task if Lea and Riku and her grandmother were to be believed.

That changed after the year long search into her heart for Sora, in which she spent that whole time sleeping and went away with barely any clue at all to where he might be. After that she barely allowed herself rest, and any sleep she managed was a wired one, where she was set to spring up at the lightest noise or touch in case she needed to summon her weapon and fight.

Sleeping meant dreams, dreams of a sword through her back, dreams of being weak, dreams of her arm being bent behind her until she heard the bones snap. Dreams of him, right within her reach but always too far away, which were the worst of them all. She loathed sleep, loathed the idea she wasted so much time when she could have been out there looking but instead was useless while her friends risked their lives to make up for her weakness.

Sleep was a waste of time, if she had time to lay down on a pillow and be selfish she had time to get on her feet and put the work in to atone for her failings.

And yet, now, it was as if all the sleep that was drained from her in that year of searching came back at once, and all she wanted to do was cling as long and as hard as she could manage to this slumber, this rest sweeter and warmer than she’s felt in ages.

Kairi was surrounded by warmth, her head resting on a pillow, her body covered by a blanket, and she refused to be woken. Her mind was still reeling from something she was sure was a dream; Sora, after all that time searching and struggling, in her arms, alive and here, a part of her was afraid of opening her eyes, afraid this was just another illusion brought about by her desperate mind.

So long as she was pressed up to this warmth, so long as she was hearing the steady thump thump thump of a heart she knew better than her own, so long as her eyes were closed and she saw nothing she knew for certain it was real. At least in the moment, as she rested, Sora was with her again.

Opening her eyes would mean risking the chance she failed, again, that she was still no closer to finding him again, that he was once more torn out of her reach, her heart would clatter to pieces in her chest if that were true, she could only take so much.

So, she clung to sleep as long as she could manage, holding onto it in a death grip, even as she heard Sora and Riku’s voices float around her, even as she felt Sora’s arms wrap tightly around her, even as she felt him put a feather-light kiss to the top of her head.

It was such a wonderful dream, waking would make it a nightmare.

She wouldn’t survive that, she was home, she was finally home.

She wants to rest, please just let her rest.

“Kairi! Kairi wake up!”

Her eyes flew open and she bolted straight up, recognizing the panic in Riku’s voice as well as being shaken by the shoulder. She saw him in front of her, or at least a blurry mess of colors she thought was Riku, and it took a moment for her to realize her eyes were full of tears.

“R-Riku?” She mumbled rubbing her eyes and blinking rapidly, her mind more sluggish than she was used to when waking, “what-what happened?”

Riku, now perfectly visible that her tears were out of the way, sighed, “you were mumbling and crying in your sleep, you scared me for a second there.”

Kairi blinked, “…sleep?” She muttered quietly, a bitter chuckle leaving her as the implications crawled up on her, making her feel cold from every direction, “right…sleep. I was…” She rubs her face with a frustrated breath, scowling, “…I was just…asleep.”

Of course she was, of course it was nothing more than a stupid wish, a ridiculous dream, why would it be anything else, of course.

Another day another failure, no one but herself to blame for hopes raising too high.

Of fucking course.

Riku grew worried, his hands raised towards her uncertainly, “Kairi? You okay there?”

She wonders when he’ll grow sick of her, get tired of her scowling and glaring at him every time he shows her concern, wonders when he’ll just get a clue and give up on her, leave her to this impossible mission that will probably kill her before she drags him down with her.

She won’t stop, even if it costs her everything she won’t stop until she finds him, that was the simple truth of it, if it cost her Riku than she’ll live with it if she needs to. If he’d just hurry up and give on her it might be better, but if Riku lost his heart over her (like they were all twelve all over again and nothing changed) after all the growing up he’s done she’ll never forgive herself.

He reaches out again, concern still clear on his face as he attempts to put a palm on her shoulder, “Kairi?”

“It’s fine.” She dismissed him with a snap, sharper than he deserves but she’ll curse herself for it later, rubbing a spot at the back of her head, “I’m fine Riku it was just…just a dream.” She sighed harshly and pushed against the warmth of her pillow and the bed she laid on, one hand holding her up, “don’t worry about me just give me a-”

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Kairi is frozen, every bone in her body locks in place, her heart seizes in her chest and she waits, waits for that steady rhythm under her palm, to make sure she wasn’t going crazy after all this time, after all that searching.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Tears start flowing down her cheeks as she slowly turns to her left, to see what she’s laying her hand on. She’s met with the lazy bum who stole her heart, her hero and her friend. She sees Sora, soundly snoozing under her palm like nothing in the world was amiss.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Her face lights up with an impossibly wide grin, her whole body bursting in flame to burn away the ice that froze her not a moment before, all while tears continue to flow down her cheeks as she sees Sora breath in and out in peaceful sleep.

“Kairi?” She turned to Riku, his face torn between a relieved smirk and a worried fret, his eyes jumping from spot to spot on her body, not quite sure where to stop, “are you…Kairi what’s wro-”

“This is real.”

Riku blinked, “what?”

“This.” She emphasized by bunching up the fabric of Sora’s shirt in her hand, her eyes never leaving Riku as she smiled and cried, “this is real, all of it, right?” A desperate edge sharpened the end of her question, a bit of panic floating in the air, her grin unstable at the corners, “he, Sora, he’s really here right? We did it, right?” She took her second hand and grabbed Riku’s shoulder, her fingers shaking, “this isn’t a dream? I’m not seeing things, right Riku? Is he back? Right?”

He grasps her by the shoulders, steadies her by with a solid stare and a steely grip, and when the panic drains out of her, he smiles, “we did it Kairi, this isn’t a dream.” He leans his forehead on hers and her tears nearly double, “we did it.”

She crumples into him after a few disbelieving spurts of laughter, hiccupping as she buried herself into the crook of his neck and used one arm to hug him fiercely, the other still bunching up the fabric of Sora’s shirt nearest to that precious heartbeat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

A soft groaning rose beneath her palm, and she leaned away from Riku to see Sora slowly rousing from his slumber, mumbling incoherently as he sat up, “Mmn…wha…?” He blinked the sleep out of his eyes as he managed to sit up straight, smiling slowly as he took in the image of his two best friends in front of him, “hey guys, did I sleep long?”

Kairi’s grin nearly split her face, the arm she had wrapped around Riku and joining its twin near Sora’s heart, “no more than usual, lazy bum.”

Sora matched her grin inch for inch, all his teeth on display as he wrapped one hand over the two she placed on his chest, eyes soft as he took her in, “man, been a while since I heard that…one…” He trailed off as he finally noticed her tears, Kairi could only imagine how blotchy her cheeks were, the red rimming her eyes, but all she could see was the love and concern filling his face and weighing down his voice as he brought his other hand to brush a few stray drops from her left cheek, “Kai…don’t tell me I did this…”

He did, he is the reason she was crying so openly right now. He wormed his way into her heart years ago and refused to leave, even when he left her memories her heart remembered him. Yet he seemed chronically out of her reach, every time it seemed they would have a moment together it was snatched away by shadows and men who cared only for their curiosity and not for anyone they might hurt in searching to satiate it.

He protected her time and time and time again, putting his body and his soul on the line to keep her safe even as the sight of it robbed her of sleep. And when the time came to repay him his bravery, she failed, and her failure costed her more than she was ever willing to pay.

She got to stand by his side, lending her strength to him like she wished to do so since they were both children, lost in a war they had no business in waging. She held him in her arms and walked with him through so many worlds and saw so many things…and then he was gone again.

Yes, he did this, he was the reason tears were staining her face and her body ached with bruises and sores from yet more fights and yet more war that she waged herself to find him. He was also the reason she was able to push through all of that, the reason she was able to wake day after day with the hope that she would find him again, that they would have time again.

She loves him, and he’s made her cry for all sort of reasons over the years, so he shouldn’t be so surprised that she’s crying now.

Instead of giving him that answer, instead of telling him all of that, all that mess of emotion and muddled thoughts that have crept into her mind after the long search for him, she settled for leaning her head forward, closing her eyes, and capturing his lips with hers.

A shock went through him for a quick second, Kairi having felt him jump as her lips landed on his, but soon his arms crushed her in a hug as he returned the pressure and they were lost in each other, the whole universe falling away as they simply existed in the moment, together at last.

…at least until Riku very loudly cleared his throat to remind them that he was still in the room.

“You guys good?”

They reluctantly separated, suddenly sheepish now that they remembered that reality wasn’t limited to themselves, faces glowing red as they looked at each other uncertainly for a moment before big, goofy grins stretched their faces again. They laughed loudly, some combination of elation and relief, smiling at Riku who returned his own understated smirk.

“I’ll take that as a yes…and as my cue to leave.” He turned towards the door with a light and easy step, waving over his shoulder, “I’ll see you two in the-”

He’s stopped when both Kairi and Sora grab one of his hands, their faces worried at his sudden departure, “Riku,” Kairi started, guilt at how she treated him when she woke up gnawing up her stomach, “you don’t-you don’t have to leave, you know were not pushing you away right?”

Riku blinks at her, as if the thought never even crossed his mind, “yeah!” Sora added, sharing a quick look with Kairi as he squeezed Riku’s with one of his own while the other was still holding one of Kairi’s, “we’re just-”

“Guys relax.” Riku stressed, pulling his hand out of their grip and smiling easily at them, “It’s not like when we were kids, I know you aren’t doing that, it’s fine.” He crossed his arms and looked down at them with a raised eyebrow, “it’s just I know that you two, specifically you two, have a few things you need to work out,” a too smart grin lit his face, “privately.”

Kairi could feel her face catch fire from the implication, “Riku.”

The grin didn’t budge, “am I wrong?” He looked more directly at Sora, “well?”

She turned to look at Sora, face just as red as hers was, when she saw a determined gleam take shape in his eyes, “…yeah, you’re right, we do have some things to talk over.” Sora met her gaze and she could feel her heart beat a bit faster as he smiled at her, “just the two of us.”

Kairi was stuck between being utterly elated at Sora’s affection, mortified at Riku’s good natured laughter, and confused at what those two boys might have communicated with that brief look.

As she was deciding which direction she wanted to lean towards, she noticed for the first time that she didn’t recognize the room Riku brought them two; bare bones with only a bed, a desk, and a window to give it any features beyond the inside of a pale white box.

“Riku, what is this place?” Kairi looked around a bit more, confused, “this isn't…my room, or-or Sora’s,” she ignored the snigger he sent her way, “where is this?”

Sora nodded, “yeah, I don’t think I remember any place like this back home…”

“You wouldn’t.” Riku said plainly, “this is just a small place the Radiant Garden Committee bought when they were looking for clues to find Sora around here.” He shrugged, “when they didn’t find anything they gave me the keys to keep safe since my house is the closest to here,” He looked at Kairi, “and since your room hasn’t been touched or cleaned since Sora disappeared and his room is just a total mess in general, I figured this is the best place to bring you two so you could…” His grin came back, cheeky to the extreme, “catch up, privately.”  

It was Sora’s turn to glare red-faced at their mutual friend, eyes wide and darting between him and Kairi, “Riku seriously you-” He stopped of a sudden, taking another wide look at the room, some realization causing his red face to pale a bit, “Riku…Riku there’s-” He gulped in the middle of his halting speech, voice creaking, “there’s only one bed.”

Kairi blinked, her brain trying to catch up to what Sora sounded so stressed about, and when it did she could practically hear the kettle screech as the inside of her head boiled and she snapped a glare in Riku’s direction, his face the picture of perfect innocence.

He didn’t.

“Really?” He asked, voice surprised and taken aback, as if he didn’t know this room for the longest time out of the three of them, looking around the space as if he was just taking it in for the first time, “well what do you know, there is only one bed!”

That bastard he did.

“Huh, what are the chances?” He started walking towards the door, utterly nonchalant as he pushed on the handle to open it, “honestly, how weird is it that the one place I could think to bring you two that has any privacy would only have one bed, crazy!”

She was going to kill him. She’s going to wait until he’s sleeping, thank him for all the help he’s given her and being a better wingman than she honestly deserved, and then she was going to kill him.

“I suppose you’ll simply have to make do with just one bed, guys.” The bastard they called a best friend smiled pleasantly as he stepped under the threshold, ignoring Sora’s steaming face and Kairi’s murderous glare, “honestly this place is really private, so you guys can take as long as you need to talk things out, okay?” His smile turned endlessly smug, “try not to have too much fun!”

They both opened their mouths to shout his head off, but he slammed the door in their faces with an evil cackle more fitting for an Organization member than a guardian of light, leaving them in the room.

Alone.

Together.

With only one bed.

Kairi was going to kill him.

Her plans to horribly murder Riku were derailed when she heard a soft chuckle from behind her, looking over her shoulder to see Sora laughing a bit awkwardly, as soon as he saw her staring at him he sent a heart melting smile her way as his face continued to glow red, “good to see Riku’s sense of humor stayed the same.”

Kairi smiled back, her chest aching with how much she missed hearing him laugh, seeing him smile, as if to make sure she was aware that this wasn’t a dream. “One of the few things that didn’t change.” She didn’t mean it in a bad way, or a good way, simply acknowledging how much shifted since the time Sora vanished, not really caring for any of that currently anyway, far more occupied with the person on the bed with her, twining her fingers with his and leaning her forehead against his shoulder, “like you, you haven’t changed much either, Sora.”

He’s quiet for a minute, putting his nose in her hair again, drinking her in before he sighed, “…but you did.” He said finally, smiling thinly as he squeezed his fingers around hers, refusing to let go, “you changed a lot Kairi.”

There’s a note of sadness there alongside the pride, a twist of guilt in his voice she does not intend to allow to grow, “it’s been a long time Sora, a lot happened to me, to everyone,” she laughed mirthlessly for a moment before nuzzling into him, basking in his heat, “besides the obvious, of course.”

He’s silent again for a brief second, and then he pulls away slightly, locking his gaze with hers, showing her there was still some guilt in there, a sense of responsibility for what happened. Like he allowed her to die, like it was his fault she needed to be saved, again, and the price he had to pay for it was nearly too much.

She would have to fix that way of thinking, wouldn’t she?

“Kairi…” He started, and she could hear the despairing, heartwarming speech coming from a mile away, “I…I’m so sorry for-”

She silenced him with another kiss, hungrier than the last, more confident. She liked the feel of his lips against hers, she decided, and she also decided that she had a lot of time to make up for, and that the single bed they were laying on was perfect for that purpose.

(She was still going to kill Riku after this, of course, no question of it, but first thing’s first…)

She wrapped her arms around him, and soon he did the same, his mouth clumsy on hers, eager yet uncoordinated, not the she was much better. They were both severely lacking in practical experience, bumping their noses and clacking teeth on more than one occasion, but they made up for it with passion and desperation.

They hungered for each other, the long absence and coldness in their hearts begging to be filled and warmed. Soon she found herself with her back pinned to the mattress, Sora peppering feather light kisses all over her face as he cupped it in his hands. Her own fingers were busy threading through his hair, eager to feel him, ecstatic at the chance to reinforce the fact that he was here, with her, real and in the flesh and here with her, and that this wasn’t another dream.

Because she’s had this dream before, many times before, when the loneliness threatened to overwhelm her, her mind would conjure this image of the two of them on a bed, totally engrossed in each other with no sign of slowing down.

It always ended before it got good, which served to fuel her loneliness and frustration. She hoped that, since this was real, that this Sora, unlike the one in her dreams (who was, coincidentally, not nearly as good with his hands and lips as the genuine article), would be so kind as to satisfy this warm pit at the bottom of her stomach.

“W-wait-Kairi wait-”

Oh damn it.

“Kairi I-”

“Sora.” She pleaded breathlessly, and the way his jaw hanged loose and his eyes widened proved it was effective at getting his attention, “not now, please not now, please I just want-”

“I know.” He says firmly, though he visibly swallows a lump in his throat as he keeps his palms pressed to her cheeks, “believe me I know, and I’m the same,” he breathes harshly through his nose when she turns her face to kiss his right palm, clearly fighting for restraint, “trust me on that, but-but Riku’s right, I need to tell you something.”

She barely stopped herself from whining, putting Sora’s face in her hands like he did with her, her whole world warming the space between her fingers, “can’t it wait till morning?”

“No.” He was firm this time, putting his hands on the small of her back to pull her up as he leaned back to sit on the mattress, gaze burning into her, “I need to say it now, there’s so much I need to tell you now because if I don’t do it now I’ll lose the nerve for it.”

Kairi was torn between planting another kiss on him, which she was sure would be enough for him to see sense and continue what they were doing, and biting her tongue to calm her burning nerves so she could listen to him.

Knowing Sora, and she hoped she knew him well enough, it was probably something both very heartfelt, very sincere, and very, very stupid. But seeing how serious he was, the warmth of his hands on her waist, the depth of determination in his eyes, she couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Alright…” She allowed, after a sigh, wrapping her arms over his shoulders and around his neck, leaning her forehead on his, smiling softly as his blush deepened, “tell me everything Sora, if it’s that important to you, I’ll listen to everything you have in your heart.”

Sora blinked at her, a bit taken aback, before matching her smile, “who taught you how to flirt?”

She placed a kiss on his nose before she put her forehead back on his, a toothy grin on her face.

She doesn’t think she’s ever been this…happy. This content to be with someone and exchange affection like this, her heart bursting with happiness and her face bursting into flame with every little action and smile Sora showed, it was ridiculous.

Sora rubbed his nose with her as revenge, and after a quick giggling fit from the both of them, he locked gazes with her again, as serious as he was when he asked her to listen. He closes his eyes and takes a breath, to steady himself, to straighten his thoughts in the order he wished to share, and then opens them again, and speaks clearly and resolutely, “I love you Kairi, more than anything in the world.”

Kairi could feel her blood boil, her face nearly catching fire. She was almost confused as to why, considering she’s known what’s in heart for a while now. She’s known since she saw that picture on the cave wall he made years ago, where he offered her a Paopu fruit, since they shared one while watching a sunset.

She’s known since the day he ripped himself apart simply to be able to hold her in his arms one last time before taking her home.

Hearing it though, in so many words, out loud, seemed more than enough to make her heart want to burst out of her chest.

And he wasn’t done, the hands on the small of her back pulling her closer to him as his eyes dug into her and refused to let go, “you’re amazing, you’re the reason I was able to push through the dark when I thought I was going to be overwhelmed, you remember what I called you right? When you saved me? Way back when?” His gaze grew soft as he recalled that moment, where she pulled him out of the dark and back into the fight, “you’re my light in the darkness Kairi, I want you to know that, I want you to know how strong you make me feel, how I feel like I can do anything so long as you’re by my side.”

Kairi could feel more tears falling down her cheeks, she felt overwhelmed, like she was drowning in him, utterly engulfed by him and his love for her. All the doubt and fear she’s felt over her search seemed so insurmountable, crushed under the weight of it all. And yet here he was, reaching out his hand again, pulling her up, inch by inch, and wrapping her in his light.

“And…” He went on, that sadness and guilt from before resurfacing, and Kairi had to physically stop herself from interrupting him as he went on, she promised she would listen to him, she promised, “what you went through to find me again? Bring me back? I’ll never be able to thank you for that; I’ll never be able to pay you back for all of that.”

She feels cold. Ice is spreading through her veins, and freezing her from her feet to her heart. He’s wrong. He’s wrong. She’s done nothing he needs to thank her for, she wasn’t some guiding light, just an angry girl who didn’t know her limits.

A child who walked right off a cliff expecting the bottom to ignore her.

(I’m the reason you were dead, the reason you pulled yourself apart, because I was weak and slow and failed even though I put all that work into training and learning how to use my keyblade I was less than useless I couldn’t do anything I couldn’t save you on my own I couldn’t beat Xehanort alone you helped me don’t you see? I was lost and angry and pushed everyone away without you I was weak without you I-)

“Kairi!”

His shout pulled her by the hair out of her sudden sink, a yank that left her out of breath and gasping, her cheeks soaked with her tears. She felt ill, a spike jabbing itself as far as it could go in her gut, she didn’t deserve this, all this praise from him, she didn’t deserve a love like this from someone like him, she didn’t deserve this dream-

He captured her face between his palms again, making sure that he was the only thing she could focus on. He was warm. His hands on her cheeks were warm and gentle and real and she felt like a fool for letting herself fall like this, so easily getting swallowed up by fear and doubt when Sora was right there, right in front of her.

Damn it why can’t she just be happy for once!?

“Kairi.” He repeats, firmly, “are you listening to me? You promised you would listen, are you?” He waited for her to make a few halting, stuttering nods before he went on, carefully enunciating each word as he said it, “You. Aren’t. Weak.”

She’s shocked still for a moment, and then a bitter, cracking laugh raises from her, “I said that out loud?” She laughed herself to pieces, more tears staining her cheeks as her voice grew weaker, “well, I bet that ruined the mood huh?”

Sora stared wide eyed at her for a moment, leaning back a bit to look at her fully, see every inch of her and all the angry red blotches covering her face from her tears. His face calmed, and his voice was a salve for her fraying mind, slowly pulling her pieces back together as he spoke, “Riku told me about what you did to get me back Kairi, how far you went, how you refused to give up.” He took her hands in his, rubbing circles on the back of her hand and knuckles, “you pushed and pushed and pushed, you never stopped, you were the first to go looking for me, and you’re the one who found me.”

He lifted her hands to his lips, placing a gentle kiss to her fingers tips, and she could nearly feel the refreshing rush of a cure spell working its way through her system, and she slowly found it easier to breathe.

“It took strength to do that Kairi, it took more strength than people who’ve fought for longer than you and I have been alive could muster, never doubt that.” He tightens his grip on her hands, placing them on his chest to feel his heartbeat, more frantic and pounding then it was when she felt it as he woke, “you’re the reason my heart is beating Kairi, you’ve kept me going since all of this started, I want you to remember that, alright?”

She bunched up the fabric of his shirt where she could feel his heart racing, some age old memory of when it was a sanctuary for her own heart surfacing, where his soul kept her safe without knowing. To think he thought the same of her, that she was something like that to him, it was hard to parse, impossible to believe, but he said it so earnestly what else could it be but the truth?

“Okay.” She answered, voice wavering, a wet, fragile smile on her face, pulling him closer so she could put her forehead to his collarbone, his chin tucking her in and his arms holding her in place and rubbing soothing circles on her back, “I won’t forget Sora, I promise.”

“I want you to live Kairi.” He spoke into her hair, placing another kiss on her crown, “I don’t want you to tear yourself apart to return some favor to me that you never owed in the first place, we’re even, you and I, always have been and always will be, and nothing will make me happier than to have you by my side,” he pauses for a moment, and she can feel him smiling in her hair, “that sound alright?”

“Perfect.” She answers swiftly, a pleased giggle bubbling in her chest as she nuzzled into him, holding him tighter, “that sounds perfect.”

They stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in each other’s warmth without moving, Kairi could feel her legs falling asleep but couldn’t find it in her to change positions, feeling so utterly content with the world and the angle she’s found for herself in it.

Eventually though, she could feel Sora shift slightly in her grip, though not out of discomfort. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if poised to say something but rejecting the words before they could fully form.

Reluctantly, she lifted her head from her cozy spot under his chin and looked up at him, wiping her eyes and smiling tiredly at him with no small amount of affection, “anything else you want to tell me, Sora?”

He visibly struggled under her gaze, pulling away one arm from his embrace to scratch the back of his head in a way the reminded her of a much younger boy, lounging on the sand while the world smelled of sea salt. “…yes.” He mumbled eventually, voice subdued as if he wasn’t sure he was allowed to speak this out, “but it’s…kinda stupid.”

If Sora, of all people, thought something was stupid, then it must be something utterly spectacular, which meant that Kairi really wanted him to say it, if only to have something to laugh at to lift the mood a bit.

“Didn’t I tell you I wanted to listen to everything?”

“Yeah but…” He looks away with a light blush on his face while scratching his chin and he was so cute Kairi had to hold back from kissing him so she wouldn’t interrupt, “but it's…really kinda silly.”

“Then you have to tell me!” She smiled up at him, searching for his eyes and smiling wider when she found his sky blue gaze locking with hers, “it’s been a heavy few minutes and I could use a laugh.”

Sora scoffed briefly, smiling incredulously at her as he sputtered, “well I’m not going to tell you if you’re going to laugh! It’s important!”

Despite his seeming outrage, he burst out laughing himself soon after, drugging her under as the previous heavy atmosphere from before dissipated completely. As soon as she could calm herself enough she grabbed one of his hands, still chuckling a bit as she squeezed it to get his attention, “if it’s important to you Sora, then I won’t laugh.” She let out a giggle when he raised an eyebrow at her, “okay I won’t laugh too much, but I will listen, I promise.”

He looked at her for a moment, his mind twisting itself into knots trying to come to a conclusion, before he sighed heavily and got up from the bed, turning her back on her and crossing his arms.

She blinked, flat-footed, “Sora?”

“Just…” He muttered, beginning to pace in front of the bed, his face severe in concentration, “just give me a second, I need…I need to get the words right…”

She blinked again, blank on what could have him so stuck on the words, but she stayed where she was, watching him slowly pace back and forth from one room of the wall to another. His lips moved without sound, as if sculpting the way for the words to come out properly without stumbling over themselves.

A part of her, a very childish, naïve part of her, had an innocent guess at what he was planning to say, but she pushed it back as far as she could before her face turned too red at the idea of it. It was a nice hope, but she shouldn’t raise such things so high, lest they shatter when they eventually fall.

Finally, Sora took a steadying breath, stopping right in front of Kairi and turning back to her, eyes nearly glowing with an emotion she found it hard to describe, something intense and bright that left her mouth dry.

Then, he took her left hand and held it between both of his, his palms wrapping it in a comforting warmth, locking gazes with her so she wouldn’t look away.

He then got down on one knee, and Kairi could vaguely hear the sound of a fuse shorting out.

She used her other hand to stealthily pinch her thigh hard enough to hurt, and sure enough the image of Sora, down on one knee, looking up at her with upmost love and devotion, did not dissipate and vanish, she wasn’t seeing things, this was actually happening.

She was so busy determining the reality of him that she almost missed him beginning to speak, “Kairi,” he spoke her name like a prayer, like a vow, softly and reverently, but firm and impossible to miss, “will you marry me?”

Kairi’s heart nearly exploded in her chest, her face flushing with heat as blood rushed up from seemingly her entire body to fill it. She had nothing, nothing to say to that, even after getting him back, even after hearing him tell her how he feels for her, her mind simply could not recover from the shock of hearing that.

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she spluttered out a chocked, “what?”

Sora mistook her question for reluctance instead of disbelief, and kept going, “sharing a Paopu fruit means tying your fate to another person forever, making sure you’ll never be apart, right?” He barely waited for her to nod dumbly before he squeezed her hand between his palms and went on, “we shared two, and isn’t that kinda like promising each other two lifetimes?”

Kairi’s mind was too busy screeching a few variations of holy shit this is actually happening over and over for her to offer any kind of intelligent response to him, so she settled for a hesitant, “I-I guess?”

“I want more than that.” He leapt in as soon as she finished stuttering, her heartbeat going impossibly fast as he smiled up at her with so much hope and love she didn’t know how he could contain it all, “I want more than two, or three, or ten, I want every single lifetime I could possibly have to be beside you, I want to be by your side through anything life might throw at us next, I want to fight with you, travel with you, live with you and love you and be happy with you for as long as I can possible manage.”

She could feel more tears flowing down her cheeks, warm and happy.

“I…” He stopped for a second to catch his breath from the sudden burst he had earlier, edging closer to her while still on his knees, “I want…forever, with you, Kairi. I want forever, for as long or as short as forever end up being, I want to spend every single second of it with you.”  

And finally, he’s done. Kairi could only sit there, looking down at this boy, young man, who loved her with all of his heart and then some, sit among the love and affection he promised to give her, and feel more at home than she’s felt in years.

She pulls her hand from him, and there’s a light note of panic in his face when she does, “you were right,” she says, with the warmest loving smile she can manage, putting his face between her palms again, “it really was a little stupid.”

The note of panic increased for a moment before she leaned down to kiss him deeply and slowly, letting the taste of him and his warmth and his love place itself in her memory, his shoulders lowering with relief.

She pulled away from him, smiling again, “stupid that you actually thought you had to ask when you already know the answer to that question.”

He blinked, bewildered both by the kiss and her words, before a sheepish grin lit up his face, “it is wrong to want to hear it out loud?”

She laughed warmly, pulling him back on the bed by his shoulders and leaning her forehead on his one more time, leaning in until their lips almost touched, “ask me again.” She pecked his lips quickly, too quickly for him to return pressure, “ask me again and you’ll hear it.”

He put his hands on her waist, the warmth and weight of his fingers pleasing and calming, and took a deep breath, “Kairi,” he started, voice low, tone confident and solid, “will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She promised, kissing him again as she did, “yes, I will,” she kissed him a second time, a third, a fourth, adding another promise between his lips every time she came up for air, and she’s lost in him again, his warmth surrounding her and flowing into her without restraint, “I love you Sora, I want forever too,” another kiss, I want forever with you.“

He groaned against her lips as he captured them again, his arms crushing her against his frame before they both collapsed on the bed, tangled up in each other so that neither knew where one began and the other ended.

The night passed in warmth and passion, and Kairi knew that this, this place, between the sky and his heart, was where she belonged.

-_-_-

Sora softly brushed a lock of Kairi’s hair behind her ear, placing his palm on her cheek as she slowly breathed in and out.

He was awake for about half an hour now, but he didn’t want to move, didn’t want to ruin this perfect little moment where the morning sun played tricks on Kairi’s dark red hair and her face was peaceful and calm and content.

They were both still in bed, of course, covered only by a blanket as Kairi slumbered and Sora waited for her to wake. He wanted this moment to last, to engrave the image of Kairi smiling in her sleep into his mind so he never forgot it, so he can remember his promise to make her happy.

She deserved this and nothing less, he decided, to be able to sleep peacefully in his arms and not doubt herself. Her tears from the night before haunted him, Riku’s words about how she nearly ripped herself to pieces ringing loudly in his mind.

He loved her, this truth echoed in him with every breath she took and with every beat of his heart as he laid near her. He wanted to give her peace and joy, to love herself as much as he loved her, he wanted her to believe in herself as much as he did.

He wanted forever, and knowing their luck, forever might not be all that long at all.

Riku was right, they were lucky, the three of them, maybe luckier than they deserved, but he was determined to make sure they wouldn’t need to be so lucky ever again.

He didn’t know what else the world had to throw at him, but he was ready, ready to fight it all, every single evil thing that lurked in shadow and hate he was ready for. He was ready to fight with her, to put his hand in hers and jump into the unknown with her knowing, knowing, they will come out the other side still holding on.

He’ll give her a home, a family, every little thing she deserved, and there was so much she deserved, he’ll give her, and nothing will keep them apart ever again. Not darkness or destiny or prophecy, nothing.

Forever would have to wait a while though, for now, Sora will content himself with Kairi’s sleeping face, the light catching on her eyelashes as she breathed in and out in a steady rhythm.

After a few more minutes of this, Kairi’s face scrunched up a bit, she mumbled in her sleep for a moment, Sora holding his breath to keep quiet and watch, wait for the moment where she saw him, to make sure he was the first thing she saw as she woke.

Soon her eyes, dull with sleep but brimming with joy, caught sight of him, and tiny tears formed at the edges of her eyes as she smiled at him, "Sora…” her voice wasn’t relieved, or surprised, but happy, truly happy, truly accepting that it wasn’t a dream, that what she was seeing was real and loved her, “you’re back…”

Smiling at her sleepy words, Sora leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss, breathing her in as she smiled against him with a lazy tilt, nose to nose with her as he smiled back. “I’m home.”

Kairi’s smile was the most radiant, most sublime thing he had ever seen in his live. She kissed him, and home would never leave him again.

[mariposalass]

Night Mass (Tradition)

This is my Day 13 entry for @silentlyfangirlingselfshipper​’s A Very Shippy Christmas event and the main theme of the day is about tradition. And since it’s nearing an important seasonal holiday for us Filipinos worldwide known as Simbang Gabi, I thought I would love to share this with you guys. And yes, my family takes visiting a nearby church on Christmas Eve very seriously! Although brace yourself for colonial past mentions, Pinoy culture, and a lot of Catholic references though so you guys can understand where this cherished Pinoy holiday tradition came from.

For starters, Simbang Gabi is a 9 day series of Masses observed among Catholic and Aglipayan Filipinos in the Philippines every December from the 16th to 24th. The last day though usually calls this Misa de Gallo (Rooster's Mass). It is quite similar to Puerto Rico’s Misa de Aguinaldo.

Believe it or not, it was actually stemmed from the Spanish era when Filipino farmers had to work long hours under the hot Philippine sun until noon to harvest rice, coconut, and sugar canes, lest they want to incur the wrath of their Spanish overlords and men old enough would have to work on the Spanish government projects while the women would toil on their vegetable gardens and work as household staff to the elite for similar reasons. Whenever Christmas comes along, the Church would normally hold evening novenas, but when they noticed people still attend despite how tired they are from the work, they eventually changed gears to hold Mass in the early morning so people go to work right away. In hindsight, maybe NOT a great idea for call center people and people working on night shifts.

Everyone will adorn their houses with parols which are star shaped ornamental lanterns that are usually made from bamboo and paper (although you can use recyclable materials for them as well) and can come in various sizes and shapes, but stars are more popular. It’s meant to represent the Star of Bethlehem that guided the 3 Wise Kings to the manger where Jesus was born and victory of light over darkness. Me, Issa, and Kairi had made some in the past and have them put when December arrives.

We usually visit a nearby Catholic Church every December 24 for a few minutes and light up candles and joss sticks for Our Lady of China (the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary that first appeared in Donglu, China in 1900 and it is something I actually do every Simbang Gabi and New Year’s Eve and during death anniversary mass for dead relatives) before heading back home. Also, I’m also Chinese so that’s a thing for me.

It is often said that if a Filipino devotee completes all 9 days, they could be granted a request that could be made during the novena. I never do all 9 days, even the fam bunch doubt that this is entirely true. Besides, we don’t have the time and energy to pull this off.

In recent years, the current Cardinal, Luis Antonio Tagle, has made a ban on malls holding Simbang Gabi masses unless they have their own chapels. Perhaps he’s trying to prevent the blurring of the Christmas spirit and spirituality with capitalism? I don’t work for the guy so I can’t speak on his behalf.

There will be food and drinks to feast on while on Church premises. These days, local snacks like yema, suma, bibingka, puto bumbong, otap/lady fingers, barriquillos, and arroz caldo are among the food being served to Churchgoers and you have coffee (such as Kape Barako, which is a strong local coffee from the province of Batangas), hot chocolate (tsokolate) and ginger tea (salabat) for drinks. We sometimes try to get some of that but there are also crowds coming in so we don’t get to have them often every year. That doesn’t stop Harry from getting us hot chocolate regardless of how crowded it can get.

This year is obviously Philip’s first time experiencing this so I’m going to be explaining everything to him while at the Church and I’m certain that some people will get annoyed by me and the fam bunch teaching him inside the Church. God help us all!

[dusky-dancing]

All I Wanted

Summary: A young Kairi finds herself back on her islands, but it isn't at all what she expected. Inspired by a certain scene in FFXV

Rating: T

Genre: Angst

Length: ~1000 words

For SoKai Week, Day 6 - Separation/Sacrifice

----------------------------------------------------------

Last Kairi knew, she was drifting, fading. There was pain in her back, but it faded along with the rest of her body. She fell deeper, farther, faster, her Light dimming ever so slowly. All around her was dark, and she soon closed her eyes. She was tired.

"Kairi," a soft familiar voice called to her.

She opened her eyes, only to shield them from the bright sun. She lay down in sand. Waves crashed against the shore just out of sight.

She stood and dusted off her favorite white dress, the one with the little white halter strap behind her neck. Her dad loved when she twirled in it, and she hoped he wouldn't be angry that she got sand on it. Why had she been napping on the beach, anyways? And why did her back hurt? She hoped she hadn't fallen into a prickly bush again. Her dad would be so upset.

"Kairi."

She looked up and saw a young boy her age, but it wasn't just any boy.

"Sora!" she ran clumsily and stopped in front of him, "I'm so glad to see you!" Already she was planning their day in her head. They'd fish in the shallow water, then climb the coconut trees, and maybe add more drawings to their Secret Place.

He giggled, "I did it, Kairi, I saved you just like I said I would."

"What?" she had no idea what he was talking about. Was this some game he and Riku were playing without her?

He took her hand, "Don't worry, you're gonna be okay," his soft childish voice said to her. "Home is waiting for you. Everyone will be there."

Wait, but she was already home, wasn't she?

Sora wore a beaming, contagious smile on his face. Her eyes fell to his hands, and a sinking feeling rose in her stomach. It was starting to feel like a dream, yet she was positive the Sora in front of her was real.

"Will you be there?" she looked him in the eyes.

At her question, Sora's expression fell, as if he didn't want to talk about it.

He shook his head.

The island around them began to drift, breaking apart grain by grain. In the blink of an eye, the boy in front of her transformed into a young man - the same man, only older.

It all came back to her. She wasn't a little girl, she was a young woman, a Princess of Heart, a Guardian of Light. She joined Sora in his fight. They'd shared the paopu fruit of legend.

And she'd died.

But if she'd died, and Sora was in front of her, then that meant...

His words hit her like a crashing wave. Tears flooded her eyes, and her breathing fell short. She shook her head vigorously, as if protesting enough would make it all go away.

"It's not right," she cried, stepping away.

She hated crying in front of Sora. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her sad, but she couldn't control herself. She was like a child again, unable to fight away the nightmares.

"All I-" she choked, "All I wanted, was to save you."

"You did, Kairi," he knelt down to her level, "but I promised to keep you safe too."

He stood and began to back away.

"No!" She reached for his hands and held onto them for dear life. Suddenly, her height doubled. Her hands were no longer that of a child, but a woman. "I won't let you go!"

The sand beneath them faded away, but while Kairi remained floating in place, Sora was falling down with it. Her tears fell into the abyss below them. Whatever force was pulling Sora down continued to do so.

"Remember what I said before," Sora nodded, "I'm always with you."

Still he smiled at her, bringing her heart some sense of ease. That was, until she realized it'd be the last time she'd see it.

"What about the second part?" she asked, "About coming back to me."

His hands slipped out of hers, and he muttered his last words to her.

"Thank you, Kairi. For everything."

She lunged forward as desperately as she count, in any attempt to get him back. Her efforts fell in vain, though. She refused to tear her eyes away from him, and even when he'd faded completely, she kept her gaze forward, cherishing her last sight of him as long as she could.

She wrapped her arms around her body, "You promised…"

Soon, her knees met sand once again. Her gaze lifted to the beautiful orange sunset she'd always known and loved. A bright paopu fruit hung above her head. As she held herself, laughter of those on the island filled her ears.

It mocked her.

All of it mocked her.

She stood and screamed at the horizon, "You promised!"

Her strength quickly failed, and she fell onto her hands and knees. Her fingers dug deep into the sand.

It wasn't right.

It wasn't fair.

He should've lived. She was the weak one.

The laughter had died, and now several pairs of footsteps were crossing the bridge over towards her. She dared to lift her head and look back.

Riku came into sight first and frozen in surprise.

"Kairi," for a moment, he smiled, but she knew she wouldn't need to say a word for him to understand. She was back, but Sora wasn't with her.

Instead of meeting her with disappointment, however, he let out a deep sigh and ran to her. She couldn't control herself and threw her arms around him. It all came pouring out. Her pain, her anger, her sorrow, he braced it all.

Sora was right, everyone had been there. All except for him. But even the relief of seeing Namine didn't help.

Their faces showed the same somber expression, but no one said a word. She was grateful, though.

Nothing needed to be said.

[kairi-chan]

"You can eat me instead" ~ Borusara .... I know you can dodge it Kairi but I got to ask for it - *Smut it* hahaha

Title: Sweet and Spicy - BoruSara, Designer AU

Genre: Humor / Fluff / Romance 

Rating: T

A/N: Happy birthday, @ourlittlesecrethoney ! Hope you like this! And thank you for letting me use “Baguette.” You’re such a wonderful friend and thank you for being so supportive of me always.

— 

Sarada snapped a quick photo in front of the floor length mirror and sent it to Boruto. It didn’t take long for him to respond. 

Boruto: So basic. I love it.

She smiled at his comment. Usually, “basic” wasn’t what a model would like to hear. But it was her style, and she adored wearing comfortable clothes. Although a black shirt and jeans really were basic, she had to up her game by wearing a pair of designer heels and a jacket her father designed especially for her. 

Sarada: A jacket and heels should finish it up nicely. 

Boruto: I like you better without them, though. 

Sarada smirked at the smug smile he placed in his last message. Trust Boruto to turn any conversation cheeky. With one hand, she responded to him, with the other she started putting her heels on.

It was her last night in Thailand. The show was a success, and the girls were being treated to dinner tonight. Usually, the afterparties were grand in order to show how successful the event was. But the designer was still relatively new, although he was creative, he just wasn’t making so much money… yet. If he kept impressing and sticking with the right people, he had a lot of potential. His choice in hiring her for the show was already a good step, as she had been Instagramming the event all week. 

Chocho: Girl, are you even getting paid for all that? 

Sarada: No, but he’s nice, and I do like his clothes. 

Chocho: You’re a model, not a charity org! Inojin is pouting you don’t Insta his clothes this much! I’m getting a little jealous, too. 

Sarada laughed at Chocho’s response. Her best friend always was rather touchy about these things. She noticed that Boruto was, as well, although he would never admit it out loud. Her own Papa would pout if she did not post a photo of something new he made for her.

After she shrugged her jacket on, she looked at herself and smiled. Simple, yet elegant. The restaurant they were going to was fancy, but more on the casual side. Instead of walking with the other girls, she opted to go alone, in order to take in the scene a little more. It was hot in Thailand, a nice change of weather for her. Although it was also summer in Paris and Japan, the heat in Thailand was still quite different and she appreciated that. The humidity–not so much. 

Once she found the restaurant, she pushed the door open and the scent of lemongrass filled her nostrils. She took a deep breath in and smiled. The ceiling was high, and multiple decorative lights hung above. There were also plants hanging from the walls and ceilings, giving it a comforting feeling. The smell was also relaxing. She was greeted by a charming lady with a sweet smile and guided her to the reserved table. Some of the girls were already there, and so was the designer. She took a seat next to him and proceeded to order a drink as they waited for the rest. 

.

.

.

The food started to be placed on the table and Sarada felt overwhelmed with all the colors, smells, and presentation of the food in front of her. All the other girls seemed to be just as impressed as she was. She took photos and uploaded a quick video on her stories and then placed her phone away, far too excited to try the dishes. 

“I hope you girls like spicy,” the designer grinned cheekily. “We’re known for our spicy food.” 

Some of the girls looked terrified, while the others looked elated. Sarada didn’t really know how to feel about the warning. She could hold her spicy food, but it wasn’t exactly her favorite flavor either. 

After tasting dish after dish, they were spicy, but some were also sweet, sour, and salty. The texture was amazing–crunchy and then soft, smooth and delicate. Some were fried, grilled, and steamed. The variety was amazing, and it all tasted delicious. Their host was right, though. It was spicy. She sent some of the photos to Boruto, thinking he would already be awake. 

Sarada: Everything is so good, but also spicy! 

To her surprise, he saw the message right away. 

Boruto: You’re spicy. 

Sarada nearly choked on her mango shake. 

“Are you alright, Sarada?” The designer asked. 

She faked a smile and cleared her throat. Not funny… or appropriate. Borto sometimes forgot his decency, and although she wanted to give him a piece of her mind, his next message made her smile like a lovestruck teenager. 

Boruto: Good morning, my muse. I miss you.  

Sarada hovered her thumbs over the keyboard for a while before starting to text. She read it once before hitting send. 

Sarada: Good morning, baguette. I thought you said I was sweet, now I’m spicy? 

Boruto: Drop the baguette already! I would rather call me your idiot. You are sweet and spicy. 

Sarada giggled at his response. It was so easy to rile him up. 

Sarada: You mean like the sauce? 

Boruto: What? Sauce? No, like, you know. Sweet but also spicy in bed? 

She couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his response. 

Sarada: I know. I was joking. You’re such a dumb baguette. 

Boruto sent an angry looking sticker, throwing a fit. She giggled and would have responded, but she put her phone away when a fellow model started to lean over, wanting to read her texts. Sarada flashed her a smile, but her dark eyes were flashing daggers. The girl leaned away and went back to her food. 

Sarada felt her pocket vibrate but chose to ignore it as dessert was being served and it looked heavenly.

.

.

.

She placed her fork down and leaned back on the chair, feeling full and satisfied. That sticky rice with mangoes and coconut milk really did it. Her pocket vibrated again and she pulled it out, reading his messages quickly and then typed up a response. 

Sarada: I’m so full. I couldn’t possibly eat more. 

Boruto: You can eat me instead. 

She covered her mouth in order to stop herself from screaming. It was a good thing she was leaning back, and her phone screen was set away from the nosy girl next to her. 

Sarada: BORUTO!!! 

Boruto: Didn’t know you could still talk while your mouth is full. 

“Sarada, are you okay?” The designer leaned closer to her, eyebrows tucked together. “You’re turning red. Was it too spicy? Do you need water?” 

She shook her head and tried to explain that she was okay. But one thing was for sure, a certain baguette wasn’t going to be once she flies back to Paris. 

—

A/N: Thank you for reading! 

If you like what I write, please visit my profile. I have links to my Master Post, FFnet, Ao3, Twitter and Ko-Fi there! 

Write on, darling. 

[oveliagirlhaditright]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25092943/chapters/60809314

SoKai Week Day 2. Prompt: First Meeting.

Author’s Note: My take on how Sora and Kairi met… but I didn’t use the manga version—or Sora finding Kairi at all—as I figured everyone would do that. And something like this might actually be canon, because in the game Sora and Riku are basically like, “You know the girl at the mayor’s house? She got here during the meteor shower.” So, it sort of seemed like they didn’t know Kairi before that moment, but perhaps went to go meet her then?

Also… While I usually write a third person that’s from a character’s PoV, this is moreso the omniscient/omnipresent PoV—like, a god or gods are narrating about Sora here and not Sora himself—and that’s why it has adult lingo instead of childish lingo in this little boy’s memory.

And (1) and (2) here are just instances where Sora and Kairi used the wrong words, because they’re babies. Sora meant to say “glaring” instead of “grinning”, and Kairi meant to say “world” instead of “whirl”… I thought about having Riku mess up with that once, too… but even as a toddler, I think he’s too smart for that. XD

Oh, and eventually the parents do catch up with Sora and Kairi… but since they’re just having a nice moment—where Kairi’s making yet another friend—they leave them be for a moment, while they secretly watch them from afar.

It also used to be an old fanon theory, that Kairi’s name is actually “Hikari” and not “Kairi”. And that she tried to say her name was Hikari when she was first found… but was having difficulty speaking from having just space traveled, and it came out sounding more like “Kairi”. So the adults started calling her Kairi, and later she had amnesia and couldn’t even correct them that that was wrong and thought it was right herself. So I went with that here, just because.

Enjoy!

How Can I Love, When I’m Afraid to Fall?

How had Sora and Kairi met? That was an easy one… Sora had gone over to her house with his dad—after having heard about the new girl at the mayor’s house—soon after he’d helped that person who had been squeezing his heart, as he felt that she somehow needed his help, too.

And it was, strangely, when the small Kairi opened the door to let him in… that would partly make a later Sora realize he loved her. Since he would often see Donald do such things… and so it was clear that she could fit in with both the old and new segments of his life.

“Kairi!” chastised the man, who Sora could only assume was Kairi’s adopted father—the mayor—as she tried to usher them in. "You can't just open the door by yourself like that, sweetie." And with that “sweetie” added in for the child he had only just met, it had seemed to Sora that the elected official had already come to adore her heart and spirit.

But even though the man had just told Kairi “no”, about letting Sora and his dad in… he motioned that they should come in now, anyway, in probably thinking it would be rude otherwise.

"Hi!" the cute girl had said with such energy, that she'd inspired Sora to try and be just as extroverted as she was from now on, since it did no good to be shy in Kindergarten. "Have you come to see me? I'm Hika- Kairi."

"Yeah! We hear you came from another world!" Sora exclaimed excitedly, as he’d beamed at Kairi and resisted the urge to pinky promise with her that he’d help her fine her home planet.

…But even though Sora had been young at the time, he'd been able to tell by the look on the mayor's face that he was uncomfortable with what he had just said. His face had looked both pinched and purple as, he'd stepped closer to Sora's old man and whispered, "Even if she is, this is not the time nor the place to-"

And Sora had immediately understood then, that the mayor was unintentionally confirming that Kairi did come from another world. Parents were always this grave, when they wanted you to believe something. It was like how Sora had recently come to accept that Santa wasn't real… somewhat because of Riku. And when he’d told his parents that, they'd used big words to try and say that Santa did exist.

"Surely the world is good enough, that a man would secretly give everyone presents one night a year," Sora’s mom had argued. But Sora had deduced later—when he saw a play guitar his parents gotten him for Christmas when they’d all been out shopping together (that they’d clearly forgotten about) labeled as "From Santa"—that that wasn't true.

And one time, when Sora had suspected his dad had eaten his cookie, the man usually of few words had asked, "Would an honest and good man do that to you, when he also just bought you a slip-and-slide to show you how good he is?" And Sora had heard that his dad's voice was higher, too.

It was the same thing here. And knowing that, Sora interrupted the grownups before they could get angry, as only adults did, and said, "I'm going to take Kairi to the Play Island. She needs to meet Riku, if she's going to play here!"

And Sora was running off with Kairi's hand in his own, before either man could catch them. They were toddlers, after all, and much faster because of it.

Just a few days ago, a massive makeshift bridge had been erected, to get people from the Main Island to the Play Island faster. And while it would sink before Sora and Kairi turned six, it served to get them to what they'd eventually see as their home right now, so Kairi could meet her other future best friend this night.

But as they ran... Sora couldn't help being struck by how Kairi’s red hair matched that of the setting sun. He'd never been out this late before, and so this memory would later stick with him for two reasons.

Once they reached the paopu tree where Riku was at, Sora felt proud that he'd won this "race" with Kairi, but also bad that she was now wheezing with her hands on her knees. He put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her once, before walking towards Riku.

"Hey, Sora," Riku smiled, as he seemed to sense his bestie's attention on him even without turning around. "What are you doing out so late?"

An older Sora would have easily turned that around on Riku—in wondering why he was out this late—but baby Sora had had no idea what attitude or turning the tables was, so he instead proudly showed off Kairi, by putting a hand in front of her face before pulling it away, like a magician revealing what was behind curtain number one. "Riku, this here is Kairi. She's from another world! But the grownups don't want us to know and were grinning at each other." (1)

And Riku was instantly sympathetic here, while Kairi winced. And at the time, Sora had thought it was secondhand embarrassment she felt for her new father's sake... but years later, he would come to understand why Kairi might fear adults being angry at her—because of the experiments Xehanort did on her; and perhaps he treated her worse during them, if the results displeased him some way—and it made his blood boil.

"The... other world thing is cool," Riku had chirped, as he’d indicated Kairi should relax and take a seat on the paopu tree trunk he himself had just vacated. "But the adult stuff is rough... eat a paopu here, and take a load off. …They say, if two people share one, they'll kiss forever or something. But who cares about the icky thing? Just eat it like I do, and pray that other part will never get to you."

Kairi did seem somewhat hungry to Sora, so maybe that was why she took Riku up on his offer. But only somewhat. For in maybe not wanting to mess up the paopu fruit legend like he was okay to, she smashed the fruit in her hand some and then just only drank the juice from it. And Sora watched on, somewhat transfixed, as he thought he was the only one to do that…

It was after a seagull accidentally dropped a coconut by the new trio's feet—and they all began eating it, after they’d worked together to get it open—that Kairi finally spoke up about something that seemed to be on her mind, "...Don't get your hopes up, you two. I might not be from another whirl. I don't remember." (2)

And Riku opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but Sora cut him off by extending a hand towards Kairi for her to take and smiling at her. "Even if not... you may be from another island. And so, you can show us another world that way. And maybe we'll be your friend for that... or everything else!"

And Kairi's face lit up like the Christmas tree that Sora loved even now, as she threw her arms around Sora and eventually brought Riku into the hug, too. "Thank you both... so much."

And years later, Sora would come to understand that maybe Kairi had come to love him, because he'd been the first to bring her something good after her recent world of horrors.

Author’s Note: I also hope I didn’t make Kairi’s adopted dad seem abusive. Because he’s not. At all. That one part was just to say that Xehanort gave Kairi trauma about any adult for a while:(

[avatarconner]

Every Step Forward Chapter 1

Destiny Islands

Sora was……back.

Back with his friends, back in his home world, back in his house, back up to speed, in most if not every sense of the phrase he had returned. But unlike before where what kept him away was a year long induced coma, the fate of all worlds, or the Organization what had taken him away this time was something far more…..real.

Death.

He had died, granted he had almost died countless times on his previous adventures with Donald and Goofy, but there was no mistake or debate in what had happened to him. He had died, but he found his way back from the other side and was back here. Right at the very spot where he had faded away at, the only difference was that now he was currently sitting on the bent paopu tree’s trunk alone at daybreak instead of with Kairi at dusk. Kairi…… Sora thought to himself solemnly as he thought back to that day. His hand holding her’s, the lone tear that slipped down her cheek despite the reassuring smile she wore as she realized what was about to happen.

He told her that he’d be back, it wasn’t the first time he lost his heart. That ironically was also his own doing just as his losing his heart this time to save Kairi’s was, but this time it wasn’t as simile as him becoming a heartless and her returning him to his old self again. He had to work his way back to her, back to all his friends, thankfully he didn’t need to go that far to find Riku, his brother in every way but blood, who had come looking for him.

Riku of course wasn’t the only one, Roxas, Axel (or Lea rather), Isa, and Xion searched for him across the worlds of Twilight Town, Radiant Garden, even Traverse Town but to no avail. Terra, Aqua, and Ven sprung into action as well in searching the Realm of Darkness for any sign of him much like they had done for Aqua. And were met with the same results, Kairi took his place with Donald and Goofy and searched all the worlds they could find for any clue of his ware bouts. Donald told him Kairi was like a machine, no matter what got in her way she would get over and past it in search for him.

‘It was like you back when we first met! Only she was more smart about it.’ were the duck’s exact words. What popped into his mind was a young version of Kairi replacing him on his first adventure, and how she would have handled things differently than he would have. She probably would have saved Alice in Wonderland by tricking the Queen into giving her up. Or maybe she would have caught Clayton’s intentions right away in the Deep Jungle. he mused to himself before chuckling to himself. She would have hated Monstro.

Kairi being swallowed by the giant whale? He’ll admit that looking back on the experience, it was pretty gross. When Riku told him he had to go back inside that monster during the Mark of Mastery he did gag a little bit. Riku….Kairi…..back then things were so….simple. Just the three of us making a raft to get off the island. he mused to himself, looking back behind him as he recalled Kairi ordering him and Riku to gather supplies for the ‘ship’. We would have starved and turned back, I mean mushrooms and coconuts? We’d eat that stuff up by the next day.

Then there was the infamous race between him and Riku, they both wanted to name the raft something different. He couldn’t remember what the names were, it seemed too long ago, but he did remember just before the race how Riku had thrown him off his game. “Deal? Whoever wins gets to share a Paopu with Kairi.” he had boldly declared. Sora, in a non-grudge holding way, blamed that for his loss, especially when Riku said he was joking about that. Always was better at stuff than me. the keyblade wielder thought to himself, recalling his and Riku’s talk after defeating Xemnas for the first time.

As the sun rose more on the horizon, a question formed in Sora’s mind, did Riku know?

Was it that obvious back then the bond that his and Kairi’s hearts shared? Was it even there back then? Upon thinking about it for a solid minute, Sora came to the conclusion, No duh he knew.

Kairi, he was thinking about her again. Which wasn’t at all a bad thing but it was different now, most things with her were now. It took him a while, probably nowhere near as long as it did for her to quickly figure out, but what they had was……new. His heart never felt for someone the way it did for Kairi and she clearly felt the same way about him. Or that’s what he hoped rather, they hadn’t really had a chance to discuss it with her, but between the way they looked at each other the day he passed on, and how when she first saw him back from death, tears in her eyes as she sprinted over to him faster than he ever saw her move and covered his mouth with hers?

Lest he forget the fact that she initiated sharing a paopu fruit from this very tree with him, something that he could never ask her face to face with how the tradition went with something like that and he ended up just carving it on a wall he didn’t she would notice or see. But she did, and what did she do? She drew herself giving him one, only made sense that she would be the one to pluck them out from the tree and start the whole thing.

‘I just want to be a part of your life no matter what. That’s all.’ she had said, it was the way she had said to him. It wasn’t casual but from the bottom of her heart, she wanted that in that moment when it was just him and her. Sora didn’t know much about love yet…..but that seemed like it, or something like it at the very least. “You’re here early.”

Sora nearly jumped off the tree at the voice, whipping his head back he saw the very girl in question step off the bridge that connected the smaller island to the main one. She wore a soft look on her face, her eyes locked on Sora as she walked around the tree, “Hey Kairi.” he greeted with a smile of his own as she hopped up onto the trunk and scooted over to his left side, her fingers grazed over his and entwined with them together.

He could feel the callouses that had developed from using her keyblade, something he or Riku probably should have warned her about before she went to train with Axel. It didn’t bother him so much as surprise him, he always remembered her hands were soft, or they looked like it anyway. “So what are you doing here so early?” she asked, the spikey haired boy looked out to the sunrise. A small ball formed in his stomach, this was almost an exact replica of when he faded away, even their clothes were the same as that day.

But he fought it down, “Just thinking….it’s great to be back.” he said honestly, his eyes darting over to her and seeing the relived smile she had. “And…back with you….” he trailed off quietly. He could take on any Heartless or Nobody, even ones he’s never seen or fought before and come out on top, but that seemed to pale in comparison to trying to think of something flattering to say to Kairi.

The copper haired girl’s cheeks seemed to warm with the rising sun, the smile she wore broadened, “Well obviously. It’s impossible not to miss me.” she replied jokingly, making them both let out a chuckle. The keyblade wielders sat together in silence for a minute, listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore while Kairi shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “What else were you thinking about?” she asked.

Sora smiled tenderly as he recalled the two of them along with Riku at this same spot around what? Two years ago? “The old days……you, me, Riku, and that raft we thought would take us to new worlds.” he explained, feeling Kairi’s hand shift in his so her palm was covering the top of his hand. “And how we probably would have gone hungry and turned around the next day.” he added.

She let out a brief chuckle, “I thought we thought things though pretty well……I wonder what happened to that old thing.” she pondered aloud. If she had to guess, that poor raft that they worked so hard to make was probably at the bottom of the sea somewhere. “I prefer the Gummi ship, it’s much more roomy than the raft.”

Sora nodded, the ship might have seemed fairly small in comparison to other ship designs, but the Gummi ship was roomy enough inside to house a bedroom for three people, a small kitchen, and a bathroom of course with a shower. Basically everything you needed to save the worlds from the forces of darkness, “Did I ever tell you the first time I flew it?” Sora asked. Kairi’s eyes instantly gained interest and were locked on him, “Well see, Goofy thought that since I had the key, it was only natural that I fly us to the worlds. Donald agreed and plopped me right in the captain’s chair.”

“Oh no.” Kairi said in anticipation.

“Oh yeah. And what’s the first thing I do? I hit the gas and what we hear is he sound of the bottom of the ship scrapping against the ground.” Sora said, causing her to cover her mouth as she silently laughed. Sora’s was much more loud and good natured, “HAHA! Donald’s face got so red I thought his head would explode!” he howled, thinking of how his friend’s sometimes hard to understand speech could turn to utter gibberish if angered too much.

As Kairi managed to quell her laughter, her form moved closer to Sora’s making the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. “I wish I could have seen that…….but I was…….you know…..” she said, her voice dropping from it’s usual hopeful and joyous tone to a more somber and saddened voice.

Sora cursed himself, he had said something wrong and now she was sad, “Well….I always kind of thought you did.” he said, making Kairi look at him curiously as he used his free hand to scratch the side of his face like he did when he was nervous. “See I might have…..thought you were a ghost or something on that adventure.” he revealed, making Kairi look at him bizarrely, “I mean I saw you! But you weren’t really there, and when I found out your heart was inside mine I thought that maybe that you were always there watching me and……” he trailed off as Kairi suppressed the smile growing. “You don’t remember any of that?” he asked.

“I have no idea what your talking about.” she affirmed.

Sora’s head fell forward with a groan, “Aw man! And I went after all the dalmatians because I knew thought you would strangle me for not helping find the puppies.”

Kairi’s eyes seemed to grow at the mention of dogs, “What about puppies!?”

“In Traverse Town? Me, Donald and Goofy found these two dalmatians who lost their puppies and we went looking for them across the worlds.” he explained, remembering just how sad the poor dogs looked over their lost pups. He obviously would have looked for them regardless of Kairi’s presence or not, but her imaginary company just more motivation to do so.

“Wait the worlds? How many were there?” she asked, curious as to how big the litter had to have been to be spread that far.

Sora’s expression for a moment became almost horrified, “Ninety Nine.” Kairi’s face resembled his at the number. She loved animals, dogs especially but…..no, she wouldn’t take in that many…..maybe. “Still worth it. Every second of it.” Sora said proudly, Kairi nodded in agreement. “But still, I always thought…..what else don’t you know?” he asked. Kairi gave him a look, and Sora suddenly realized how bad that sounded, “A-About my adventures I mean.”

Kairi’s head craned back as she looked up at the sky in thought, the orange and red hues of the sky overhead somehow seemed to amplify Kairi’s own beauty. Sora didn’t know exactly when he started thinking of Kairi like that, like she was pretty, which she certainly was! But back in the day when she asked him or Riku how she looked their response would be about if she had sand in her hair or a mark on her somewhere. Not about how he found her attractive in some way.

But now her shortened red hair, which he admittedly missed a little when he saw that she had grown it out, seemed…..nice, not in the causal sense but….she looked attractive to him because of it way.

“Well, I know what you did leading up to…..” she stopped herself, “Your last adventure. But before that? Nothing.” she answered, the playfulness in her voice suddenly absent. “When you disappeared, I went with Donald and Goofy to a few worlds. The Toy Box, the Monster world, Hercules’ too but……Riku found you. And we all went to you.” she said, a small smile spreading over her lips that Sora shared. He remembered just how exhausted he was when he and Riku were nearly back home, Riku didn’t seem to be as tired as he was but he had been going non-stop since the Keyblade Graveyard.

It took him a solid week to recover after his return but it wasn’t really a surprise, he had been going non-stop since the Keyblade War and it clearly showed.

He was almost ready to give up when they arrived. Everyone, the guardians of light plus Donald and Goofy of course. They all arrived at the last moment and stood with Riku against the darkness to save Sora. He was honestly touched beyond words that they all came for him, he wanted nothing more than to join in the fight alongside them but his exhaustion finally won out and he fell. He faintly remembered Donald and Goofy holding him up, just like they always did. The next thing he remembered was waking up just as  they got back here to the island how everyone gathered around him in a warm embrace like how they had done with Aqua after saving her from the Darkworlds.

And then his and Kairi met eyes, she pushed her way through their friends and he stood before her with what little strength he had left before embracing her tighter than he ever had before and then-

Sora glanced over and saw Kairi was doing the same, apparently she must have had a similar thought process because when their eyes met again, Sora’s face warmed up considerably and Kairi suddenly felt a lump in her throat. Initiative, that was what it was, at least that’s what she told herself when that scene appeared in her dreams and she would wake up flustered and a little giddy. She didn’t regret it, not a single bit, but while she remembered the act itself and the soft look in Sora’s eyes when she pulled away, she also remembered the loud cough which Axel made and wanted to bury her keyblade in his head for.

“So….um……did you see Riku on your way here?” Sora asked, trying to make his blush go away.

Kairi couldn’t help the chuckle in her throat at the mention of their friend, what she and him had was special but he had been actively sure not to say or do anything while their friend was present. Even though, probably unbeknownst to Sora, it was him who told her that the day before battle on this very island, that he wanted some time to himself and that he would talk with the two of them after bit. Her first instinct was to immediately tell him it was out of the question, but before she could even think of what to say he winked at her.

And of course after getting Sora home for some much deserved rest, Riku and her walked to each other’s respective homes without so much as a word before he simply said, ‘About time.’

Her response was silence and a smile that crept over her face, “No. But speaking of whom.” she turned around as she heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden bridge behind them. Riku approached the two and Kairi felt Sora’s hand immediately tense as though he had been caught doing something wrong, “Greets Master Riku.” she greeted playfully, knowing full well that Riku hated being called that.

The white haired boy rolled his eyes as a grin spread over Sora’s face, “See, this is why I wish you were the one who got the title.” he said accusingly at his friend, walking around the tree before leaning against the trunk between Sora and Kairi.

Sora clasped him on the shoulder, “Aw come on Riku! You should be proud! Being a Master and all.” he said, causing the green eyed teen to put a hand over his face. There was now two of them, he didn’t have the strength for this, “Just wait until Axel finally manages to pass.” Sora said, making the three of them all let out a good natured groan. Suddenly Sora tapped his finger to the side of his head, “ ‘It’s Master Axel, got it memorized?’ ” he imitated before laughing out loud while Riku and Kairi tired and failed to stifle their own.

The trio settled into a comfortable silence soon after, watching as the Sun finally rise over the coast and the multicolored sky began to shift to it’s regular blue hue.

Sora looked over at Riku and Kairi, some of the most important people in his life…….and he nearly never saw them again. “So……I’ve been thinking.” he began. Kairi and Riku looked over at him curiously, “……lets go on a trip.”

“What?” Kairi asked, Riku’s expression mirroring the question. “To…..where?” she asked.

“The worlds.” Sora answered, at that both his friends shared a even more confused look with one another. “…..I mean……when was the last time the three of us just….had fun? No worrying about darkness, Heartless, Nobodies, Xahanorts, or any of that.” he explained.

“Ever since I found you?” Riku provided.

Sora shook his head, “No, I mean, yeah. I mean…..” he looked between he two of them mid smile. But it slowly faded away, “Look…..we all know that….something else is gonna happen. Not today, not tomorrow. Maybe not this month or year or even decade but……it will eventually.” he said, his tone more serious then before which took both his best friends off guard. “I know it’s sudden, and pretty out of nowhere but……remember before all this happened? We were going to see new worlds in a raft we made all by ourselves……why not do that?” he asked.

Kairi eyes watched him with concern, he didn’t sound desperate for it but she could tell that Sora had put a lot of thought into this. “If you guys don’t want to then it’s cool but…..I just thought it’d be fun.” he finished with a shrug.

Kairi and Riku looked at one another, a smile that would make the Cheshire cat proud spread over Kairi’s face, “We do have a Gummi Ship.” she supplied.

“Which would be infinitely better than a raft.” Riku added, making a smile spread over Sora’s face. Riku was reminded of his younger self, wanting to get out of here and go on an adventure. That day seemed like it was decades ago despite only being a few years, but between Xahanort’s machinations and Sora’s sudden disappearance and eventual return it might’ve well have been. “But, where would we go?” he asked aloud.

“Well I was thinking Twilight Town, then maybe a few worlds I visited, then Radiant Garden, it’s been way too long since I’ve seen Leon and the others.” Sora admitted, showing he’s put more thought into this than originally suspected, much to Kairi and Riku’s surprise. Sora’s hand hovered in the air between the three of them, looking at each of his friends excitedly, Riku and Kairi looked at one another with a smile before clasping their hands over his.

The rest of the day was spent with the three gathering their things and explaining to their parental guardians what they intended to do. Sora’s mother, bless her heart and whom Sora felt especially guilty for leaving without saying a word before his first adventure, was surprisingly all for the idea. Telling Sora that if anyone deserved to spend time with his friends and be happy for a while, it was him.

However when the Destiny Trio arrived at the dock, Sora’s mother immediately pulled Kairi to the side, which made a pit form in Sora’s gut.

Not that there was any reason for it, his mother loved Kairi, and when he finally told her that they had started….whatever this was between them, she was overjoyed by the news. She did have to bring up a certain…..conversation with Sora…..one of which will haunt him for the rest of his days and has been actively been avoiding thinking about. But most of all she was glad that her son had found someone he cared so deeply for, and he knew that deep down she was glad it was Kairi of all people.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Sora asked Riku as he folded his hands behind his head patiently.

Riku looked over as Kairi laughed at something Sora’s mother said, “She’s your mom, and Kairi’s your girlfriend. So I’m guessing it’s about yo-“ he began before seeing how flushed Sora’s face became. It was the first time that Sora had actually heard someone refer to Kairi as his girlfriend, it sounded so……official. She was his girlfriend, just thinking that made his heart beat a little heavier. Feeling Riku staring at him he glanced over at his friend who had a smirk on his face, “Sora, calm down.”

“I know it’s just…..it’s sort of weird, thinking of her as that but it’s…..right at the same time.” he tried to explain. Riku gave Sora a look, “You know what I mean.” he grumbled out.

His best friend chuckled, “It’s called change Sora. And it can be a good thing.” he said, Sora smiling at his words, “Look you guys will figure it out, just spend some time with her.” he explained as Sora’s mom seemed to finish talking with Kairi and waved her off, their crimson haired companion approaching the duo, “Like maybe asking her about your mom?” he suggested before walking further down the dock where the Gummi ship would beam them up.

As Kairi approached him, Sora saw the amused look on her face, “So what did my mom want to talk to you about?” he asked.

The girl shook her head as she and Sora made their way down the dock, “Nothing serious, just wanted to say how happy she is that we’re going together.” she said cheekily. Seeing Sora’s face warm up a little, he flashed her a smile before glancing away, “What were you and Riku talking about?” she asked in kind.

Sora rubbed the back of his head, “Um….well…..you….and me.” he answered sheepishly. Kairi stopped, walking and Sora instantly noticed, turning around he was met with her looking at him imploringly, “Oh! No I mean……I really like this….it’s just I’m…not really sure what to do.” he admitted bashfully. His divulge causing Kairi to chuckle, her hands reached out and took his within her’s, entwining their fingers together. “I…..think I might want to take you out on a date.”

Kairi looked up at him, her eyes wide with how upfront about it he was. But she couldn’t help but smile, “That usually is what people like us do isn’t it?” she teased.

The spikey haired boy laughed, “Well yeah. True…..um, we can talk more about it later right? Riku is waiting and……and my mom is taking pictures.” he said in a more tired and irritated tone. Kairi looked over her shoulder in time to see Sora’s mother pocket a camera and try and feign innocence. As they untangled their fingers, Kairi thought of what else Sora’s mother talked to her about.

When Sora had…..disappeared. Kairi felt nothing if not wholly responsible for it, he had to pay the price for her being too……useless. She came to Sora’s mother and told her everything, she expected her to shout at her, blame her as much as she did herself, curse her out of her house and tell her to never come back but……she didn’t.

She held onto Kairi as she wept, telling her that Sora would put anyone before himself and it wasn’t her fault.

She……she still didn’t think that. If she had fought harder, better, then she never would have been captured again and used to just cause Sora and her friends pain. So she made a vow to herself, to Sora, to everyone. Never again.

She joined in the search for Sora, she traveled across the worlds battling Heartless with Donald and Goofy, every fight she had with them she got a little scraped up but she didn’t care, she learned. She knew how to fight with her Keyblade, she knew that if Xemnas ever grabbed her like he did that day again she would summon her blade into her empty hand and aim for his head.

And when he was back……the drive was still there, they were safe for now, but how long would that really last?

Apparently Sora’s mother knew it as well, she just told Kairi to embrace the time she and Sora have now and to not worry about later. That was a nice thought but…..she couldn’t.

As soon as they reached the end of the dock, the trio looked amongst themselves and nodded together before the three friends dissapearied in three columns of light onto the Gummi Ship waiting in the space between worlds.

However there was a slight hitch.

“K-K-Kair!?!?!” Sora squeaked out when he saw that his girlfriend was currently in his lap in the control seat, looking back at Sora, her face as red as her hair as she realized as well their current situation. Nethier of them moved, which made the situation even more awkward until Kairi finally rediscovered her voice hiding deep in her stomach.

“I…..when you were gone I flew the ship.” she explained, when they boarded the ship, where they wanted to be was where they appeared, so whenever Sora beamed aboard the ship he desired to be in the captain’s chair. Kairi was the same while she took his spot with Donald and Goofy, so naturally her first thought was the same seat…..

The sound of stifled laughter made them both turn their heads to see Riku trying his hardest not to laugh at his friends’ predicament. Kairi slid off Sora’s lap, straightening out her skirt as they both glared at their friend before turning their attention to one another, “So…..you want to fly?” Sora offered with a smile, getting up out of the seat and offering it to her.

The princess of light smiled at the gesture and took her seat as Sora took the only empty chair, holding her hand out, Kairi summoned Destiny’s Embrace and held it out towards the window, a wormhole appeared in front of the ship as Kairi beamed. “Alright then, first stop is Twilight Town!” she declared cheerfully as she put the ship into full acceleration. The sudden shift in speed made both her friends push against their seats as Kairi let out a whoop of excitement, both of them suddenly realizing that Kairi had modified the ship’s speed to go much faster than either of them were used to.

“KAIRI!!!!!!!” They both yelled out as the princess of heart turned speed demon flew them to Twilight Town at top speed.

[vannahfanfics]

Dark Oceans Still Lead to You

Category: Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Fluff

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Characters: Kairi, Sora

Hello again, everyone! I’m here again with another story for @sokaiweek​! I decided to combine the Day 2 prompts, “I’ll Keep You Safe” and “Let Me Keep You Safe.” I hope you enjoy the story!

“Hello? Hello, can anyone hear me?” Kairi wailed into the abyss. She gripped the bars of her cage until her knuckles turned white, but no matter how much she tugged or pushed, they wouldn’t budge. Four walls of bars and a flat metal ceiling and floor; this was Kairi’s home, no larger than a small closet. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she continued to sob until her voice was hoarse and scratchy, but still, the only thing she saw beyond the bars of her cage was darkness. 

“Please,” she whispered brokenly, then slid down to her knees. “Please… I don’t want to be alone anymore…” 

Maybe it was her imagination, but it felt like her prison was growing smaller— or perhaps the endless abyss surrounding her was expanding, growing larger and larger to finally swallow her whole. Kairi shrunk in on herself, tucking her chin into her sternum while holding her legs with her arms, and screamed again into the void. 

“Please! Get me out of here!” 

“SORA!” 

Kairi awoke with a gasp. Her auburn hair stuck to her forehead, as a thin layer of perspiration covered every inch of her skin. She’d flung the sheets from herself in her anguish, so the warmth smothering her body quickly gave way to a cool flush as the wind pushed cold air down onto her. Her body was still humming from the nightmares, like her nerves were no more than exposed, sparking wires thrumming with electricity to leave her all tingly and high-strung. She forced herself to breathe in, then out, then in again until her tense muscle finally unwound. 

She melted into her mattress with a dismal sigh, the anxiety morphing into exhaustion. She reached up to rub her eyes with the heels of her palms, as if she could scrub the image of that cage and that darkness from her subconscious from the outside. How many days in a row had she had that same dream? She’d lost count, and each successive dream didn’t grow any less frightening. 

She rolled her head on her pillow, ignoring the swathes of auburn hair that slipped down into her face, to stare out the window. She watched the grey clouds drift across the moon through the gaps between her long hair; they looked like ships sailing across the indigo sea. 

The sea… She had the sudden desire to see it. 

She slipped out of bed, glancing at the alarm clock more out of habit than anything; though it was in the early hours of the morning, her desire to see the water and hear the waves sloshing upon the sand was too great. She slipped on her shoes and a light cardigan before trodding to the window, which she quietly lifted up. The breeze rushed in to rustle the papers at her desk and the curtains framing the window, and as she perched on her desk, she savored the wind tugging at her nightgown and playing with her hair. 

Carefully, Kairi lowered herself out of the window to the ground, and the wind waved goodbye as she stole away towards the docks. Normally she would stick to the shadows, but with her nightmare looming still on her mind, the darkness just seemed too crushing. She flitted through the patches of moonlight, and gradually, the melody of the ocean graced her ears. The gentle ebb and flow of the water spurred her on, and soon, she was full-on dashing across the cobblestone. 

She slowed down when the cobblestone gave way to salt-slicked wood. She tottered to the end of the dock to inhale the aroma of salt and seaweed and ocean spray. It calmed her immediately— well, mostly. The shadows still lurked around her, ever-shifting and ready to take her in their vicious claws. 

Just as the anxiety began to mount within her again, she heard someone tentatively call, “Kairi?” 

She looked over her shoulder to see Sora standing at the end of the dock. He was in his pajamas, too, with a hoodie thrown over his shirt so he could bury his pockets away from the early-morning chill. His eyebrows knitted together above his eyes, which reflected the indigo sheen of the night sky. He took a few tentative steps toward her, and then asked, “Are you all right? It’s pretty early in the morning…” 

“And yet you’re out here too,” she joked, to which he responded with a sheepish smile. She looked back to the sea, to the gentle slish-slosh of the waves. “I’m out here for the same reason you are, I guess. It’s hard to sleep.” 

“Yeah.” She didn’t turn when she heard the thunk-thunk-thunks of his boots against the wood, but she did edge to the side so he could join her at the end of the pier. “It’s just… hard to adjust.” He turned to her, cocking his head as he looked inquisitively at her. “What about you? Why can’t you sleep?”

She chewed on her bottom lip. It was a little embarrassing, honestly, admitting she was having these nightmares. But… Sora would never laugh at her. She fiddled with the hem of her nightgown before tentatively revealing, “I’ve been having nightmares…” 

“Nightmares?” 

“Yeah. From when I was held captive by the organization. I’m in a cage, surrounded by darkness… And no matter how much I scream, no one can hear me, no one comes to save me.” As she spoke, the tears flowed freely from her eyes once more. They dripped down her cheeks to coalesce on her chin, and after they beaded into little dewdrops, they fell down into the sloshing water below. “It’s… It’s so scary.” 

When Sora opened his arms to embrace her, she turned into him, nestling herself in his body. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tight, tight enough to hurt, but it felt really nice to be held. She buried her face into his clothes and breathed in deep, and Sora’s scent flooded her nose— salt spray and coconut and paopu fruit, the aroma of home. She melted against him, comforted by his touch and his scent and him. 

“I’m sorry, Kairi,” he whispered against her scalp, pressing his face down into her hair. He stroked her auburn tresses, not minding the kinks and knots from a night of restless sleep. “I’m sure you were really scared deep down even though you tried to be brave… I can’t imagine how frightening that must have been.” 

“It wasn’t as scary as the dreams,” she sniffled, trying to dislodge the tears clumping her lashes by repeatedly fluttering them. “I knew you would come to rescue me, Sora… But in the dreams, I call and call and call for you and it just gets darker.” She didn’t know why she was having these dreams. Her faith in Sora was unshakeable, or so she thought. Had she really been afraid that her Sora wouldn’t save her?

“I’m sorry,” he said again, and his voice sounded so broken that it made her start crying all over again. He squeezed her even tighter than before and pressed his face so hard against her skull that she could feel the cartilage in his nose bruising her scalp. “I’m so sorry. You should have never gone through that in the first place, Kairi, never. I should have done more.” 

“Sora—” she tried to interject, but he shushed her with another squeeze.

“No, let me… Let me talk, please. I know I can’t take it back or do things differently… But I swear, Kairi, from now on, I’ll keep you safe. Let me keep you safe.” 

“Of course,” she sniffled, and she reached up to place her hands on his shoulder blades to return his crushing hug. He’d grown so much taller, so much broader; in the time they’d been apart, he’d really grown up into someone big and strong. Kairi and Sora both knew that she could handle herself, but at times she couldn’t… Sora would be there, Sora wanted to be there. 

It wasn’t until she felt the tears drip down onto her scalp that she realized he was crying, too. The tears threaded her auburn locks like diamonds, shining in the moonlight to form a glittering crown of water. “I trust you, Sora,” she choked out even as the happiness and relief threatened to close up her throat. “I know you’ll keep me safe.” 

He pulled away, leaving her feeling achy, but in a good way— it was a darn good hug. He kept his hands on the back of her neck, fingers playing in her tresses of hair, while he gazed at her with a soft look. It made Kairi melt all over again, that look he had like she was the most enchanting creature in all the worlds. 

“I’ll keep you safe,” he mouthed as his hand slid to her cheek, and she immediately leaned into his touch. His hand had roughened from his time wielding the Keyblade, but it was still soft, still welcoming, still cherishing. He loved her, and she loved him, she knew that then. 

She wasn’t sure who initiated it, but then they were kissing, his lips were smoothing over hers like they belonged there, and it was everything Kairi could have ever wanted and more. He kissed her like he could never kiss her again, like her lips were the sweetest candy he could ever have and he would never get enough. And Kairi loved being swept up in it, in him.  

When he pulled back, he cradled her face, unable to resist peppering her face in little butterfly kisses. She giggled at the feathery feeling of his lips brushing her skin and the amount of adoration behind each little peck. When he’d finally gotten his fill, he looked at her with pure reverence, and she smiled brightly at him. 

“Thanks, Sora. I needed that.” 

“I kinda needed it too,” he chuckled. He pulled her back into a hug again, a softer one but no less full of feeling. They should probably go home, but… Neither of them really wanted to. They just held each other and listened to the song of the ocean, the thing that connected them no matter how far apart they were. Even if there was an ocean of worlds in between, Sora would keep Kairi safe, and that’s all she needed. Even if the ocean was dark and cold, Kairi would swim toward him until she found the light again.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[guidingkey]

HEADCANON : //  SORA’S FAMILY & HIS CHILDHOOD.

SORA’S CHILDHOOD:

Needless to say, it was a relief to both Sora’s mother and father when Sora met Riku when he was three, the two of them becoming as close as two peas in a pod from the very beginning. Sora was still rambunctious and wild and loud and got into trouble, but they were more relaxed and at ease with the knowledge that Riku was with him at least, keeping him out of danger and keeping him company.

Sora looked up to Riku immensely as a child, admiring his knowledge and his quiet confidence and wanting to be just like him. The cave became their secret hiding place, free from the others, and Sora would spend countless hours in their, scratching drawings into the walls with their rocks as they talked of all the adventures they would have when they were older, all the fantastic places they’d go and see!

The two became three when they met Kairi, and Sora was immediately fascinated by her, wanting to know where she came from, what her home was like, who her parents were, how she got to the islands --- everything. He stopped asking when he realized that she didn’t remember anything, and how she would get sad sometimes, and instead focused on becoming her friend and making new memories for her instead, along with Riku. He made a promise to himself, and to her, to make sure to make her smile and laugh as much as possible, and always be there for her. He doesn’t remember making that promise, but it still holds true to his heart today and he keeps it close, trying to never break it.

He was absolutely inseparable from Riku and Kairi, from the moment he walked out the door to go to school he was with them, running along the dirt path with his backpack swinging from his shoulders as he talked energetically with them, to actually being in school and eating lunch with them and making up stories, to after school when they would all head out to the play islands and play around together. Sometimes they’d be joined by Selphie, Wakka and Tidus, but every time, no matter what, it was him, Riku and Kairi. Sometimes Sora would convince them to spend the night at the play island inside of the tree house, long after the sun had set, and he’d stay up as late as he could, pointing out the stars to them and making funny animal shapes through the light of the flashlight. Ironically, Sora would always be the loudest and always bother and poke Riku and Kairi to stay up as long as possible, but inevitably fall asleep first. Every time. 

Other small things:

sora was incredibly scared of the dark when he was little. he mostly got over this fear, and now it’s just a vague uneasiness. the reason he isn’t scared of the dark anymore is because of riku. he helped him get over it. 

he believed in santa until he was 8. everyone the past year had been telling him he didn’t exist and he was a little kid for still believing in him. it broke sora’s heart and he cried a lot, but resolved that he wasn’t a little kid anymore, and he was ready for the ‘truth’, proclaiming he didn’t believe in santa claus anymore. he did though. deep down, he still did, but he made sure to keep it to himself from then on. he still leaves cookies out for santa. 

sora always wanted a pet -- a cat, a dog, or even a hamster! -- and tried to convince his parents he was responsible enough for one by bringing a coconut home and acting like it was a pet. he accidentally dropped it down the stairs a few days later. (he buried the coconut in memory of it)

crabs would never go for his toes or his ears but his hair, and one time sora came back to shore out of the water with four crabs pinching the spikes of his hair. there’s a photo of it somewhere.

Even so, growing up, Sora was a rambunctious and curious little kid, always running around and getting himself into trouble. He was a tiring little tot for sure for his parents, and more than once they ran themselves ragged trying to find him, searching the house and the town before inevitably, every time, finding him on the play island.

SORA’S FAMILY:

Sora’s father, for as long as Sora can remember, is a fisherman. It’s a life that Sora’s paternal family has led for generations -- Sora’s father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and so on. His father’s family has always lived on the islands. 

Sora’s mother, on the other hand, moved to the islands when she was a little girl. She came from the mainland, miles away, and her family moved from the city to the tiny islands here. They were merchants, and they followed where they thought they could best thrive, and though the islands were small they were full of people and their own healthy world of commerce. 

Sora’s mother is kind and patient, indulging in Sora’s playfulness and creativity. She’d go along and play pretend with him when he was little, and smother him with love whenever humanly possible so that he would always know how much he was cherished. She would let him help out at the merchant stand every once in a while, but only sometimes. He was still a kid, and he was an energetic kid to boot. Sora’s natural curiosity was present even then at a young age, and as a result he would often knock some of the fruit off the stands or end up running off someplace else and getting into mischief there whenever he found something interesting or new. The villagers knew Sora and his parents well, often having to walk him back to his mother or father after catching him getting into trouble or being some place he shouldn’t have been.

Sora’s father is quiet and busy, but always took time out of his day to row Sora over to the islands when he was little. He’d teach Sora how to fish, and later on how to sail a boat. He’d talk about the stars and constellations to Sora, of great pirates and adventurous tales. He’s the reason why Sora was always so enamored by the idea of one day becoming a pirate and having his own ship, and setting sail as Captain with his own crew to one day have an adventure of his own and have legends told about him. 

He was a handful to look after, but he was also incredibly sweet and caring even at a young age. Sora had a knack for picking up on when his parents were feeling down or ill or sad, and would try to comfort or cheer his parents up with games or a colorfully drawn picture of the three of them. He’d offer his dessert or his juice box or his favorite action figure to them, hoping it would make them happy because those things always made him happy, and his parents were sad so they needed it more than he did. He was also very affectionate as a child and would constantly cling to his parents, forcing them to hold him up and hug him as he giggled, happy from the attention he was getting from two people he loved the most.

The night Sora went missing, Sora’s mother had come upstairs, knocking on his door to get him to come down for dinner after calling him down hadn’t worked -- and to warn him about closing the windows before any of the storm’s rain spilled in. She got upstairs to find his door open, his room dark, and his windows ajar. There was no sight of her son, and she panicked. She knew Sora was likely at the play island, but it didn’t curb her worry any --- no one should be rowing out on the sea in this weather, with waves that could topple a little boat like his. It was even more dangerous to go out now, with the storm at its height, and Sora’s mother could only hope he’d made it safely to the island.

The minute the storm died down, she went searching for him alongside his father, sure they’d find him at the play island like they always had every time he’d gone missing before.

For the first time, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere. There was no sign of him. Not him, or Riku. Only Kairi remained, and all Sora’s parents knew was that their son was out there somewhere, safe, but not home. But safe. Alive. They put up missing posters anyway, traveled to other islands, to the mainland, to see if maybe he’d arrived there. But the days and weeks and months passed, and there was no mention of him anywhere, no sighting. Life went on, but the emptiness left behind by their missing son never left.

A few weeks after Kairi’s return, Sora’s mother woke up, and wondered why she had a kid’s bedroom in her house. Why there were kid’s clothing. Photos that normally held Sora -- with his friends, or with his family -- changed so that he was no longer in them. As if he’d never existed. It was like that for a year -- where Sora’s parents kept his room locked and untouched, not knowing why such a room existed but also feeling, inexplicably, like they shouldn’t touch it or renovate it. For a year, they forgot about their son, forgot they even had one. And then one day, it came back. Memories of Sora came back, the photos changed so that he appeared in them again, and the foreign room became Sora’s room again. The knowledge of Sora came back to them, but unlike Sora’s existence disappearing from their minds before, the memory of forgetting him stayed with them. So did the guilt, and the fear, and the anguish. For an entire year, they’d forgotten their son. Their precious son, the most important person in the world to them. And he was still out there somewhere, far away. Kairi had disappeared as well -- both of Sora’s friends gone someplace no one could reach. All Sora’s parents could do was hope the three of them were okay and found their way back to each other, and that they would all find their way back home too. Months later, Kairi arrived back. She told them Riku and Sora were just here, and they’d be back soon, but they had something important to do first. It was difficult to hear, and unsatisfying, but Sora’s mother trusted Kairi --- and trusted that Sora would be safe. It didn’t make it any easier, however, to know her son had only just been here a few hours ago and she’d missed him, and she wouldn’t be able to see him again for a while longer. 

This last time was different. Kairi and Riku were back, and so were a bunch of newcomers as well --- people who didn’t live on the island, but were welcomed warmly into the village’s folds. And Sora’s mother was ecstatic, overwhelmed. Kairi and Riku were back, which meant Sora was too. At last, after nearly three years, her son and his friends were home. She would be able to hold her child in her arms again and keep him safe, make up for all the lost time. Seeing Riku and Kairi again, it only solidified what Sora’s mother already knew: how much time had passed. How the years had passed. They were kids still, but all grown up. They weren’t children anymore. The innocence of childhood had been lost, and Sora’s mother felt her heart ache at that. She’d missed out on Sora’s childhood, as did Riku and Kairi’s own parents. Their kids had grown up without them. Had grown taller now than she was. She expected to see the same of Sora ------ only to find out the truth of it, and how her son wasn’t ever coming home.

[internetremix]

Hey Internet Remix! If you guys could travel to any location from a video game, where would you go and why??

Uprising: That’s an amazing question Uh™

Tex: I’d go to stardew valley and live there forever

Kristen: I would love to live in Traverse Town from the original KH. It just feels so cozy. Though I suppose it comes with the unfortunate fact that my world has been swallowed by darkness but uh hey whatever!

I would also love to go to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp but only with the caveat that I have psychic powers. Though the idea of someone with no powers having to be a counselor at Whispering Rock sounds like a very silly situation haha.

Brodingles: Either Unova or Alola. Unova has the hustle and bustle, but Alola is just the right amount of fun and chill

Juno: The Mushroom Kingdom or the Alola region HI FIVE BRO

Brodingles: HI FIVE

Juno: I NEED to ride my boy Mantine. I need to capture the buff mosquito and the pretty rocket princess

Brodingles: Want masala and hilariously ineffective gangsters

Juno: IT’S OUR BOY! GUZMA!

Xander: I think Kristen wouldn’t mind a vacation to Darkwater Island This is such a hard question for me to answer because there are so many choices… I’d love to go to Azeroth, honestly. BECOME AN ADVENTURER and study magic

Kristen: Perish, Xander.

Uprising: I don’t know what I would want. Skyrim, maybe. The forbidden lands so I can just fuckin chill with lizards forever. And I’d like to go to the island that Sora Riku and kairi live on (and wakka and tidus and stuff but squeenix forgot about them) OK AZRROTH IS A GOOD CHOIVR but so many political strife

Juno: Like fire emblem places can be pretty but like there’s war

Uprising: Yea azeroth is like fire emblem places

Kristen: lmao remember when Destiny island had cameo side characters

Uprising: In that sense Destiny island killed the final fantasy characters

Alex: Congratulations fucko you’ve been drafted into Fire Emblem War and the player is Real Bad

Juno: “This isn’t so bad”

is Thracia 776

“Oh No”

Uprising: OH WAIT I HAVR A BETTER ONE KRISTEN! TWILIGHT TOWN!

I N F I N A T E I C E C R E A M

Alex: Before you can live in Twilight Town you must do a tutorial for thirty-seven hours

Uprising: That’s fine

Kristen: I like Twilight Town but I actually like Traverse Town more. Part of it may just be Traverse Town feels like an actual town and I could explore for hours and just imagine Sora’s little normal life there like a huge nerd. Though God I still wanna try seasalt ice cream so bad.

Alex: Okay but very important question, by including Kingdom Hearts are we also including the Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts?

Kristen: Yes.

Juno: Mushroom Kingdom offers extreme kart racing with no consequences too

Alex: True, true. It also throws some crazy parties

Juno: With extreme party games with no consequence except for Flip the Chimp related rage. Flip the Chimp can eat my coconuts.

Alex: Mushroom Kingdom has a pretty good case going for it. I’d say the Halloween Town, Dream Land, or the Mario Odyssey kingdoms.

Also in ye olden days I banded a forum (mostly) together against the awfulness that was Flip the Chimp and made a man my one-sided sworn enemy because I joked “no one can beat Flip the Chimp” and he aggressively insisted he did.But no longer could because I made the jokes and that affected his groove.

Juno: f

Phill: Elder scrolls Tamriel all the way

Split: Wouldnt mind giving any elder scrolls locations or like, hyrule a visit as a modern day man lol Im bringin a gun of some kind though these places are fuckin dangerous

Juno: Split Shoots Ganondorf

Alex: link…. with a gun

Split: Listen, it was self defense

Jojo: Portal land

Kristen: Jojo wants robot verbal abuse and dangerous puzzles

Jojo: ;)

Invidebit: disnie princecs enchantned journy PRINCECS CASLE so i can meet all of my faverite princecs

Scott: The locales in Sonic’s universe are gorgeous and fun to traverse. Definitely that hands down.

Moon: I’d go purely in a lava pit in minecraft. Cause then I’ll perish and be hot at the same time.

Juno: no moon no

[multiimuse]

currant, crimson, raspberry, mallow, and silk for both isa and riku!

currant: what's something that absolutely disgusts your muse (can be a person, place, thing, ect)?

Isa -  When Isa was a child, nothing disgusted him more than the simple fact that there were things he didn’t - and couldn’t - know. If it was out there, he wanted to find out what it was, and learn everything he could about it. This was a part of why he absolutely had to see the inside of the castle: he couldn’t be content with the general impressions the public had, or even what he could pester out of people who did go in and out of it. He had to see it for himself, to learn its secrets, because he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t try.

Riku -The smell of rotten fish. Growing up on the islands meant that sooner or later he would run into that smell gain, and he loathes it. Going inside Monstro once was bad enough, with that particular smell being so thick in the air, but that he could still smell it when he ended up in the dream version? He’s still not over that.

crimson: how passionate is your muse about the things they love most?

Isa - Isa is on the quieter side, ready with dry wit and mockery, so it might give the impression that he’s not the passionate sort. But in fact, the opposite is true: he’s very passionate and devoted, he just keeps it all beneath the surface. It gives him a veneer of serenity, but it’s an illusion - an attempt to keep control of emotions and feelings he has no idea how to deal with, and no experience in understanding them if he could even begin to guess.

Riku - Ahaha, oh, boy. If the games don’t paint a clear picture already, I’m not sure I could do it justice. But Riku is a person who both thinks and feels very deeply. He’s tried pushing people away, keeping them out to protect himself and them alike, but it doesn’t change who and what he is at heart: he feels, and he feels down to his bones, often with an intensity that makes it difficult to put those emotions into words. After everything he’s been through, he’s started letting his barriers down more, stopped trying to hide his heart away behind either standoffish pride or a stubborn dedication to self-mastery (or self-punishment), and it shows. He can, will, and has walked through the fire for those he loves, and he’ll do it as many times as necessary.

raspberry: what food and/or drink can your muse not get enough of? do they indulge in it often, or is it something reserved for special occasions?

Isa - Never breathe a word of this to Lea, but it is not sea-salt ice cream. It’s not ice cream at all, actually - ice-cream is okay, but just okay. (The company, on the other hand...) No, what Isa adores are the things his mother eventually learned to  keep hidden and dole out to him on occasion, lest he make himself sick on them due to an utter lack of self-control whenever they’re around: snickerdoodle cookies. He loves them, and ruined his appetite many, many times by refusing to stop at a reasonable number.

Riku - He tries not to drink too much of it, but Riku has a huge soft spot for pineapple juice. The first time he had it after getting back home following KH2, he cried a little - not that he’ll admit it. He’d been afraid he was forgetting the taste, and couldn’t be happier to be wrong.

mallow: what sorts of things might remind your muse of those close to them? any scents, objects, sounds?

Isa - For Isa, the most powerful reminder he knows is the moon. Watching the moon makes him think of Lea; of nights sitting on the roof and watching the stars, of sunsets and sunrises and moonrises, of talking about everything and nothing and making plans that might never come to pass or might be acting out the very next day. Mostly, though, what it reminds him of is how all of those things felt, and even as Saïx, watching the false Kingdom Hearts and its light reminded him of these things, and of what it felt like to have a heart.

Riku - For Riku, the sound of waves on the beach will always bring to mind Sora’s big, dumb grin, and the lingering blue of the sky just before twilight fades and night sets in makes him think of Kairi. And it’s not something he thinks about too much, but the smell of vanilla and coconut will always make him think of his mother.

silk: does your muse care about appearances much? do they spend a lot of time on their own appearance, or do they just go with the flow each day?

Isa - Yes and no. He likes to keep a neat and organized appearance, but he doesn’t want to waste hours on his look. He’ll comb his hair and set it in place if there’s any reason to style it that day and make sure all of his clothes are neat with no wrinkles or missing pieces, but beyond that he’s not overly worried about it. There’s more important things to spend time on, and no reason to get extremely fussy about it.

Riku - It’s not really something natural to him. Before everything started, he’d brush his hair, but there was no point in fussing much when he was just going to head out to the play island later and spend the afternoon sword-fighting or racing or just generally being too active for anything to keep in order. During the time Sora was sleeping, even brushing his hair fell kind of to the wayside, and he had to force himself to get back into any kind of habit of self-care. He’s working on that now, and has started experimenting with styling a little - mostly as a method to help him keep his self-esteem up. He doesn’t want to fall back into that place he reached when he wore another man’s face and couldn’t bear to be around the people he loved, and while he’s not really afraid of that happening any more, it never hurts to take precautions.