#khfanfic

[mewsomniac]

Yo choombas. The next chapter of Cyberhearts is loaded and ready to be chipped!

💙Cyberhearts 1.2 💙

»»——————————-　✶　——————————-«« A Kingdom Hearts / Cyberpunk 2077 / Edgrerunners Fanfiction »»—————————————————————————-«« Pairings: SoRoku with implied AkuRoku and SoRiku. Rated explicit for oncoming lemons.

Available Now:

FF.Net [Mature] - AO3 [Mature] - AO3 [Explicit]

» » »

Need to catch up? Read Chapter 1 here...

FF.Net [Mature] - AO3 [Mature] - AO3 [Explicit]

[paybackraid]

Someone’s First Snow

Summary: It snows in the Land of Departure for the first time in a long time and, well, Vanitas has never seen snow before.

Genfic, post KH3, following Vanitas’ inevitable redemption (I promise).

Ambiguous POV.  AO3

--------

“Fuck,” Ventus chanted, rubbing his forearms as he shook his way toward the kitchen. The castle was freezing, he could feel it in his toes. It was rarely toasty, but it only ever got cold, when…

One glance out of the window confirmed it. Snow. 

Ventus hated snow. He wasn’t a cold weather person. He could handle fifty degrees at minimum, and even that was pushing it. When it was cold enough to snow, then it was just too fucking cold. 

“When the fuck did this happen?”

“Ventus,” Aqua scolded from her place at the table, hand curled around a mug of coffee. “Language.”

“It’s below freezing, I’ll say what I want.”

Terra snorted from the kitchen counter where he steeped a cup of tea. “Amen to that. This fluffy white bullshit negates all manners. Hope no one important was coming.”

Aqua laughed and shook her head. “No, not today. Thankfully. I have to go out and see if I can salvage my garden. This came out of nowhere.”

Terra turned to lean against the counter, nursing his mug in one hand and holding out another to Ventus. Yet another sat on the mug warmer, but it would probably be there for a while. 

Ventus extended his hand for his mug and melted into the warmth in his hands. It was too hot to drink yet, but this felt too nice anyway. 

“So,” he said after a long moment of just existing in something warm, “what’s the plan for today then?”

“Lessons are off,” Aqua immediately said. 

“Shoveling,” Terra said with a grimace Ventus could hear. Terra hated shoveling—apparently it messed with his back. Ventus should probably consider helping him.

“You should continue your studies, if you have any bookwork left.”

Ventus grimaced himself, but nodded. He hated bookwork, but Aqua was the Master around here. He didn’t ask about Kairi, assuming Aqua had already told her not to come. “I’ll help shovel, and the—“

Before he could get out his sentence, there was a commotion from the stairwell that instantly had all three of them on edge. Ventus took three steps back to peer out of the kitchen toward the front door, which now stood wide open letting in the cold. That had been closed when he passed it. 

Two more steps and much wider vision outside confirmed it. A black mass stood outside in the front yard, surrounded by twirling blue emotions. 

What was Vanitas doing up already…?

“What was that?” Aqua asked, coming around to see. Vanitas normally stayed up late and awoke late, favoring the dark. So it was no wonder if she wasn’t expecting him already. Nevermind that he was normally significantly quieter…

“Uh… I guess Vanitas is up.”

Aqua and Terra split a look, but Ventus was too busy watching his other half. Vanitas had been living with them for almost two years now, studying alongside him and Kairi to be a Master. He had mellowed out significantly since being released from Master Xehanort’s control, finding comfort in sullen silences and snarky one liners. He acted aloof most of the time—sometimes he’d show some positive emotion, and he spent enough time with Ventus that he knew what his laugh and amusement and smile was like, but little else.

And this?

This was none of that. 

Starkly black against the white falling snow, Vanitas stood out like a sore thumb. His head was pitched to the sky, and when Ventus got closer, he saw his mouth hanging open. He looked entirely astounded. By what? The snow?

“Whatcha doin’, Van?” Terra asked when he squeezed past Ventus, leaning against the door frame. 

“Snow,” Vanitas said. 

Aqua hummed and stopped just in front of Terra, leaning back against him. “Yeah. We don’t see it often, so this was a surprise. Came out of nowhere.”

“Snow.”

“I see.”

Apparently realizing that he looked like an idiot, Vanitas closed his mouth and dropped his head to the white stuff at his feet. Aqua had gotten him a nice pair of slippers for his last birthday, which were covering his feet then. “I, uh…” he said, scratching at the place that used to be covered by the chin and headguard, in his hair. “Once we were split, I lived in a desert my whole life, and I don’t remember seeing any before that either. Closest I ever got to—“ he put out his hand to catch falling snowflakes, watching them melt in his palm. “Snow, was a Blizzard spell. But now it’s just happening. ‘S like magic.”

“Distinctly not magic.”

Vanitas shot all three of them a soured look. “You know what I mean.”

Terra and Aqua laughed. Ventus stepped inside to slip into his boots and follow his other half. Annoying as it was, there was nothing quite like someone experiencing their first snow. He stopped several feet away from him, knowing Vanitas would get up to shenanigans as soon as he realized what snowy options were available. 

Vanitas took a step away, not the recoil it used to be so much as taking back his space. However, his roly poly Unversed, the two Blue Sea Salts having a good old fashioned time in their element, did not expect the movement. One had apparently been having the time of its life, and rolled under his feet in just the wrong moment. 

Vanitas tripped and landed in a small snowdrift, his back immediately going rigid and hands flying out of the snow. “C-cold!” 

The other three all laughed again, and since Ventus was closer, he neared and extended his hand. The darker boy took his hand and was hauled to his feet, but the shivering didn’t stop. The Blue Sea Salt at his feet crooned, looking ready for death, but Vanitas’ annoyance with the creatures had drained years ago, and he merely tapped his ankle against it as some sort of reprimand, and left it at that. 

“Hey, Van,” Terra called from his place by the door. “Wanna know what the best thing about snow is?”

Vanitas turned to him, eyes huge with wonder at the clearly far wiser and much more knowledgeable Master. He shoved his hands into his fluffy pajama pockets to try to warm them.

“Terr—“

Ventus glanced over too late. A snowball pelted him in the face and knocked him off his feet, and instantly Vanitas and Terra were bent double, wheezing with laughter at his misfortune. To Ventus’ mortification, he even heard Aqua’s familiar breathy laughter shortly after scolding Terra. 

Helpfully, Vanitas came over and offered his hand, and he didn’t even shove Ventus face-first back into the snow after he helped him up. Instead, the dark-haired teen leaned over and whispered conspiratorially into his ear. 

Ventus’ face split into an ear-to-ear grin. He gathered snow and packed it together, handed it to his other half, and watched him vanish. 

Seconds later, Vanitas appeared above Terra’s head. Rather than smashing it onto his head, though, Vanitas yanked the back of Terra’s shirt from his neck, and shoved the entire mound of snow down it. Terra yelped and danced away, and Vanitas dodge-rolled away from flailing, frantic limbs.

When even Aqua burst into laughter right away, citing Ventus’ attack as “well-deserved retaliation”, it was war. 

Ventus and Vanitas arguably teamed up, packing snowballs and hiding behind heavy bushes, although they spent as much time pelting each other as they did Aqua and Terra. Terra hid behind the banister, collecting his snowballs, and Aqua used her magic to build up a fort of her own. 

Aqua won. Naturally. Or at least, she came out of it covered in less snow than the other three. Ventus surrendered to her warp magic pelting him with snowballs on all sides, all while Vanitas valiantly declared, “you’ll have to kill me, I’ll never give in!” Typical Vanitas. A drift of snow had fallen off the roof and coated poor Terra halfway through the game, which gave him more ammo but also set the cold in that much faster. He had been first to fold. 

Then, the shivers and sniffles set in, and they decided as a collective to head in. Aqua was pretty sure she saw Vanitas dunk Ventus’ head in snow one more time before running in, but she didn’t comment. They were having fun, and she’d never seen Vanitas have so much fun and act so carefree. 

Terra, bless his soul, dumped out all of their chilled mugs of coffee and tea and started on hot chocolate. Aqua went to set a fire in the fireplace, and sent the boys running off to find wool socks and blankets. 

“Well,” Terra asked once they were all bundled in. Ventus was sat between he and Aqua, cradling his mug, while Vanitas was wrapped up in no less than three blankets, chin propped on the coffee table. “How was your first snow? Hate it yet?”

Vanitas turned his face to the side and considered it, squashed against the table. He flexed stiff fingers and toes, then looked out the window. The snow was still falling. “Fun. I think.”

“Great. Then you’re going to love the part where we have to shovel out all of the walking paths and the gummi pad. It’s a thrill.”

Ventus groaned, having totally forgotten about the work that came with it. Vanitas groaned in solidarity and flopped back against the couch. 

“Great. Can’t wait.”

[undesirable13]

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION. REBLOGS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.  ( ❛ ᴗ ❛ )

Someone (me) decided that Kairi needed a new outfit in the final arc my story.

Someone (also me) decided that instead of just sketching it on the back of a post-it note, it would be nice to actually try and draw it properly for once.

Then someone (you’ll never guess who) thought it would be a great idea to add a fancy background and also create a Start Screen mock-up including custom logo instead of writing the chapter in which this magical outfit change occurs.

Huge shoutout and credit to @apticho - their beautiful drawing of their version of Kairi’s outfit was used as a reference image for the pose and face (seriously, I cannot draw faces, I studied the heck out of the reference image).

If you’d like to take a look at the story, links are below:

FANFICTION.NET: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13428404/1

ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24197746/

SYNOPSIS: It’s been three years since Sora left to search for Kairi. When a falling star signals the return of a fallen friend, it sets in motion a chain of events that could bring about the beginning of the end (or the end of the beginning). The apprentices gather, the Master returns, and we finally answer the question: what’s in the box?

[paopuatsunset]

Alone for the Holidays

Rated E for Everyone -- Words: 2655 -- Kingdom Hearts Holiday-centric Fic It was in the first five minutes of Thanksgiving Break that Vanitas set himself up for failure.

He’d all but bolted out of his English 460 Seminar, thoughts of the long weekend ahead, promising hours of solitude, video games, microwaved turkey dinners…

His mind was in the clouds, lost in the euphoria of sweet, sweet daydreams, and unfortunately, so was the other person before him. It was some sort of sick, twisted fate that the only person on the entire campus that Vanitas would have given his right arm not to barrel into was there, as though waiting, as he rounded the corner.

They collided and there came a rip, a clatter, a yelp. The rip of the canvas was more painful, more irritating, than the sloshing of the paint, stark blue against Vanitas’ black sweater and the stinging of his knees as he clattered to the ground. Shitfuckseriously. Vanitas could feel the anger pooling, growing with the throbbing pain in his knee, and unfortunately for the surprised student before him, he didn’t care to quell the impulse to yell.

“Are you an idiot? Don’t they have carts to carry your shit? Why are you so close to the wall?”

Vanitas went to stand, wincing at the growing pain, and with another torrent of abuse growing, he looked down to the disheveled art student, almost relishing in a sort of sadistic glee. He was going to drag this kid.

 Shit.

He knew that face, those wide eyes, that spiky blond hair. His eyes, almost intuitively, went to the small, blue Wayfinder tattoo, hiding, as though frightened, behind the man’s left ear.

Ventus, the TA from  Introduction to Art. The ever-encouraging cheerleader, the one who’d tell Vanitas “good job” even if he just splashed some black paint on a canvas and called it a day.

The young man in front of him was speechless, his downcast gaze going to the rip in the canvas, to the paint. Gently he stroked his fingers over the tear, his usual playful spirit evaporated in Vanitas’ fiery anger

“Listen, I’m sorry,” tentatively Vanitas returned to the ground, collecting the spilled paintbrushes, righting the overturned can of red paint. There was already a large scarlet puddle on the sidewalk, a growing stain, evidence of the collision. “I’ll make it up to you.”

Ventus perked up, and Vanitas, blinking, tried to hide the spark of surprise. Is that all it’d taken to rouse the assistant from his apparent despair? Already that familiar, friendly smile had returned, already Ventus seemed repaired, as though with just six words all the wrongs had been righted, forgiveness given.

“You’ll make it up to me?”

“Yea, sure, whatever.”

“Really?”

“Um, yeah, sure.”

Vanitas didn’t expect to see such a mischievous glint in Ventus’ eyes, didn’t expect the request that followed. Finish reading on AO3

[wrencatte]

(oh, look, a thing)

This world is burning. Kairi chokes on dirt and dust, on tears and metallic blood bubbling in the back of her throat. She cracks her keyblade into the hard earth, muscles screaming in protest as she uses to heave herself to her feet. Her legs barely have any strength left in them, leaving her staggering.

“Riku,” she whispers, barely a sound. She coughs again, warmth trickles down her chin. She tries again, “Riku,” yet it comes out as a broken rasp. Her breaths are no more than a wheeze, her chest feels like it’s been caved in.

And yet, she puts one foot in front of the other. Even as the sky is smothered by the storm, casting everything in a twilight sort of darkness, she knows she can’t be alone. Kairi fights against the blustering winds threating to take her away, her grip on Destiny’s Embrace never wavering even as her shoes drag. Time passes slowly, the distance she walks feels like nothing….

But she keeps going, head bowed to protect her face from the sting of sand, her skin etched raw. She wipes tears away, drags her glove over the blood on her lips. Continues to move forward.

“Riku,” she murmurs, her words lost in the wind. “Riku, please—.”

She trips.

An abandoned keyblade, right in her path. Her knees crack when they hit the ground, her palms scrape raw from when she tries to catch herself. She stays there, stunned, on her hand and knees, eyes wide at the abandoned keyblade. Because she knows this keyblade, from the wide blade to the dark guard and handle. The familiar three circle charm is coated in dust, one the links threating to pull apart.

Kairi takes it with a shaking hand, searching around frantically for the owner. She spots him only a few feet away, laying still and silent, face turned away from her. She scrambles towards him, barely getting off the ground, both keyblade screeching against the hard earth.

“Riku!” she cries. She drops their weapons, shakes his back. Tears spring forward anew; thick sobs break through her chest. He doesn’t move, he doesn’t even seem to be breathing. Blood coats the side of his face, staining his silver hair.

(oh look, another thing)

Sora can’t move. Can’t blink. Can’t even breath. Vanitas smirks, something wicked and twisted, and stalks around him in a slow circle. When he disappears behind him, panic leaps to his throat, choking him.

“You’re afraid of me,” Vanitas remarks, appearing on Sora’s other side.

No, he thinks. No, he lies. Vanitas’ smirk grows. He reaches out, cupping Sora’s face with both hands. If he could, Sora would flinch. Fear runs down his back, his eyes sting. Vanitas’ fingers are cold against his skin, his thumbs rough where they dig into the soft flesh under Sora’s eyes.

“Shame,” he says, soft, dangerous. “It would probably save you if you were.”

His jaw creaks, his throat burns. “Don’t touch me,” Sora whispers.

Vanitas laughs, squeezes his face tighter. “What you going to do about it, So-rah?” he mocks. He yanks him closer until they’re nose to nose, gold eyes burning. “You’re powerless. Have been this entire time. Your keyblade? Because of Ventus. Your powers? Because of your friends. You don’t have a single worthwhile bone in your body.”

“You’re…” His voice wavers and fades. Sora closes his eyes and swallows thickly. “You’re wrong.”

“Am I? Am I really? Take a good look at yourself, So-rah. Don’t be so deluded.”

A sob catches in his chest. “Don’t call me that.”

Vanitas presses harder under his eyes, to the point of pain. Sora gasps, eyes flying open. “Don’t call you what?” he taunts. “Your name? At this point, are you even sure it’s your name? Maybe Roxas actually came first.”

“Stop.”

“Make me, oh powerful Golden Boy.”

Sora’s fingers twitch, but that’s as far as he gets. “Stop it.”

Cold darkness bleeds from Vanitas’ eyes, dripping like tears down his cheeks, streaking over his smirk. A feeling like ice spreads across Sora’s face, curling over his lips and invading his mouth. He chokes on the darkness, drowns in the overwhelming despair and anger bearing down on him.

Vanitas’ hands slide down to wrap around Sora’s throat. He doesn’t apply pressure, just simply holds Sora as he gasps desperately for untainted air. He watches him like a curious bird, head titled to the side, as Sora’s knees buckle and his back bows.

“This is going to be so much fun.”

Preview! From the same fic! Will I ever finish? I hope so! 10 years in the making and KH3 kicking me into gear. Hope people like it

[nightsky-wonderer]

Next chapter of the Lost Adventures: Dark Kingdom Arc.

A few days after leaving the castle... and the trio are in a somewhat awkward position.  It was earlier that day that the group performs a small sparring session in hopes to help Quirin regain his confidence from the “failure” of saving their kingdom.  However, due to being in close proximity to the opal at the time of the explosion, the mysterious “opal sickness” began to mess around with Quirin’s eyesight.  In Aurora93′s place, to his surprise, appeared a mysterious young boy with an unnatural blue strand of hair.

Adira awaits patiently, wondering if anyone is going to speak up, but the other two are having a hard time breaking the silence.  Quirin wonders to himself who could this young boy be? and why is it that he, out of all people, only appears to himself?

Notes:

*In this story, if you are very close to the opal at the time of an explosion, your body can absorb a small amount of its blast.  This energy can cause some short term side effects (e.g. hallucinations, precognition etc.).  Aurora93′s nightmare could have been one of these side effects, or she just slept through the whole thing.

*The boy in Quirin’s hallucination plays a large role in the current tv series; If you’ve watched it, you would know why.

[seasaltandcastles]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Kingdom Hearts Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua/Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts), Axel/Saïx (Kingdom Hearts) Characters: Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Lea (Kingdom Hearts), Axel (Kingdom Hearts), Isa (Kingdom Hearts), Saïx (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé (Kingdom Hearts), Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua (Kingdom Hearts), Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Demyx (Kingdom Hearts), Zexion (Kingdom Hearts), Ienzo (Kingdom Hearts), Selphie (Kingdom Hearts), Wakka (Kingdom Hearts), Tidus (Kingdom Hearts) Additional Tags: Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, Established Relationship, Polyamory, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, POV Female Character, Bisexual Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Pre-Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Rescuing Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Fantasy, Keyblade Wielders (Kingdom Hearts), Underage Drinking, Swearing, Hurt/Comfort, Scars, modern references, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Riku & Roxas (Kingdom Hearts) Friendship, Roxas & Kairi (Kingdom Hearts) Friendship, Bisexual Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Teenagers Summary:

"He didn't even ask me if I wanted to trade with him. I would've said no."

When Sora takes Kairi's place in the Reaper's Game, she is left feeling guilty and alone. It doesn't help that it's been two months since he disappeared. Time catches up to the Wayfinder Trio, and Riku's the only one left searching for Sora. He recruits Kairi and Roxas to help him scour the Sleeping Worlds and find their friend, dealing with old feelings and a new enemy along the way.

Updated every Monday starting 5/20/19

[saltynyxie]

Encounter PT1. A Child of Snow Story

Ahh yes, continuing with the story I started testing the waters with.

This is kinda the first interaction that she has with Sora, and well... She ain’t got the time to mess about XD

"Come on Sora!" The loud voice, which belonged to Goofy called out as the three were running through to the old mansion in the world of Twilight town. Their plan is to try and find some answered to things that had been happening.

Grinning, Sora continued to run to catch up when sound seemed to fade. Slowing to a halt, looking around the forest with growing confusion. "Donald? Goofy?" He called out, unsure as he had gotten an uneasy feeling.

This was emphasized when a speck of white fell in front of his eyes making them widen, soon more began to appear and his body shivered in the cold. "Snow? Where did this…" He trailed off as he noticed it was only falling in a few feet radius around him which should have been impossible.

"It's alright...It tends to follow me wherever I go."

In an instant, Sora took a defensive stance and summoned his Key-blade. Glaring around for what he suspected was a threat. "Who are you? Come out of the shadows!" He demanded, prepared to run into another organization cloaked person. Having run into them a few times already but was taken off guard.

It was a young girl, dressed in black clothing with white fur and the strangest split hair color he had seen. She seemed normal enough, but the feeling of darkness and the emotionless look in her eyes kept him wary and on guard. Especially since his companions were up ahead.

Sora pointed his key-blade at her, "Who ar-" But he was off as she waved her hand and sent a cold wind at him to stop him. Making him huff and pouted at being interrupted.

"I do not possess the luxury of casual conversing….Tell me...Where is 13?" She asked, her voice having a dead tone to it but the question sprung confusion inside of Sora.

He had no possible idea what she could mean, he lowered his Key-blade and stood up straighter. "13...what exactly? 13 boxes? Flowers? Snowflakes?" The obliviousness made her sighed, the barest hint of frustration which made Sora hold his hands up.

"Easy there, not my fault you are so vague. Heck, I can't even really count." He shrugged, a cheeky grin on his face but the girl was far from impressed. The snow seemingly falling harder as she placed a hand on her necklace. Mumbling a few words under her breath.

There was a small rumble and from the shadows of the trees, a few heartless spawned led by a single nobody formed from snow which made his eyes become huge as he immediately became defensive again ready to fight when he noticed the girl was leaving.

"Where are you going? Who even are you?" He turned to run after her only to be stopped by the nobody. Pushing him back and Sora gritted his teeth, watching her stop, however, waiting.

She turned her head slightly, the gold in her eyes shining for a moment. Contemplating answering for a moment before looking away.

"My name is Eirlys...And I am nobody in particular." Her words left the barest hint of a smirk on her face, as the next moment, Sora blinked….She would be gone. The snow along with her.

Leaving Sora wondering what in the worlds just occurred but the enemies didn't leave much time to think and focused on defeating them, not taking long at all but still leaving him panting slightly. Looking with a frown at where Eirlys vanished.

"Who was that…." he wondered out loud, his key-blade disappearing and placing his hand over where his heart would be. "She seemed so...empty."

"Sora stared for a few moments longer before finally realizing that his friends Donald and Goofy were calling for him, so he turned to catch up. Donald narrowing his eyes at the boy with his hands on his hip.

"What's the big idea?! What took you so long?" The duck said, sounding near gibberish but the companions knew what he said.

Goofy looked up, as well and seems a bit more concerned at the situation especially seeing the slight daze and dampness of his clothes the melted snow left. "Gee, is everything okay Sora?" He asked and Sora looked up, frowning a bit.

"What? You didn't see her? Or the snow?" He seemed stunned at this, even more so when even Donald showed a bit of concern.

"What are you talking about Sora? There was no one there." Donald spoke slightly impatiently and that made Sora grit his teeth. Clenching his hands.

"Yes, there was! Her name was Eirlys and there was snow and she summoned heartless and a nobody." He ranted which causes Donald and Goofy to trade looks and shrugs.

"We didn't see anyone Sora, this Eirlys could have been an illusion," Goofy suggested and Donald nodded.

Crossing his arms, "Exactly as Goofy said, you need to drink more water if you are seeing illusions." Donald said and Sora sighed, knowing without proof Eirlys may as well been fake.

"Well...it wouldn't hurt to tell Master Yen Sid or King Mickey when we have the chance."

And that was the end of that. Sora quickly forgot about Eirlys as they continued on with their mission. Unaware of a certain pair of green and gold eyes watching their every move, snow hiding her gaze.

"You will show me 13….perhaps I need to be more patient."

[fanfictionlive]

I’ve created a sub specifically for Kingdom Hearts fan fiction

Please let me know if this type of post isn’t allowed. I wasn’t sure how to flair it also.

I just wanted to invite Kingdom Hearts fan fiction writers and readers to join me at r/KHfanfic! I’m building a community where we can share our work, make friends, discuss the games, etc. Hoping to find lots of fellow KH fans there!

submitted by /u/Excruciasm [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/2RlPWSy

[theyshare-thesame-sky-blog]

ReSeT

This is my (first!) entry for @kh-worldsconnected fanzine. I was paired with the lovely and super talented @letshareapapou. She helped me develop lots ideas for this story and she also came up with the title! Additionally, she drew an AMAZING companion drawing for the story. I HIGHLY recommend you check it out HERE! Seriously. It is so beautiful and you’ll seriously think the same. :) While you’re at it, be sure to take a look at the other entries too!

Title: ReSeT Genres: Friendship, Mild Angst Characters: Roxas, Hayner, Pence, Olette, Axel Word Count: 4,962

Also posted on fanfiction.net here for nicer formatting ;w;

010001000110000101111001001000000011001100110101 001101110011101000100000010101000110111100100000 010011010111100100100000010000100110010101110011 011101000010000001000110011100100110100101100101 01101110011001000000110100001010

The sweet, silver sound of bells chimed faintly, momentarily causing Roxas to freeze. They were so nostalgic yet, somehow, strangely foreboding.

“Come on, you bonehead!” Hayner urged as he cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. “Focus!”

“You can do it, Roxas!” Olette cheered.

“You got this!” Pence exclaimed, clapping loudly over his head to demonstrate additional support.

The distracted blond, upon hearing the encouraging voices of his dear friends, forced himself to snap out of the abrupt trance. “Right!” he called back urgently. He tightened his grip on the blue bat and faced the Grandstander ball with a fierce, determined gaze. Yet, while no longer in the air, the clock tower bells remained ringing hauntingly in his mind.

He attempted to disregard such bells and instead prioritize on what really mattered in that moment of time: reclaiming his number one spot as Twilight Town’s Grandmaster Champion.

By then, a large group consisting of town residents and shop owners began to crowd around Roxas. Even Seifer (the current Grandmaster Champion) and his gang watched in the shadows as if only to ensure his failure.

With a full audience, Roxas rushed forward and swung at the ball with great force. The large ball, much to the amazement of the cheering crowd, soared high up into the air. Then, it came racing back down. Before it could crash to the ground, Roxas reached for it with his bat and smacked it back up. The crowd, with the exception of Seifer and his gang, applauded enthusiastically.

Roxas continued on. To build suspense, he would occasionally wait for the very last second before the ball hit the ground to throw it back into the air. The crowd went wild every time. And as Roxas reached higher numbers, they began counting.

“54, 55, 56!”

Roxas, Seifer noticed, was coming dangerously close to his record of 77. He emerged from the shadows and shoved his way to the front of the crowd for a better look. His loyal friends followed without any questions asked.

But as the numbers increased, the sound of the bells intensified in Roxas’s head. He found that it was becoming difficult to focus and genuinely almost missed the ball - twice.

“65, 66…67, 68!”

“Come on, Roxas! You’re almost there!” Olette exclaimed.

Roxas ignored the bells as best as he could and went on hitting the ball before it could fall. All he needed to do was beat Seifer by one. All he needed was a 78.

“71, 72, 73…74!”

But those bells, the melodic, melancholy bells, they wouldn’t get out of his head. He just couldn’t take it.

The ball was high up in the air. Time seemed to slow. The noise of the crowd blended harshly with the noise of bells. Roxas winced in pain and then stood still.

“What are you doing?” Hayner’s voice demanded somewhere in the cacophony.

And then time seemed to speed up. In an instant, despite desperately reaching out to it, the ball crashed like a fallen star onto the ground. Upon impact, it exploded into confetti.

Collectively, the crowd went aww in disappointment. Seifer, relieved, merely smirked smugly. He and his gang walked away. The people in the crowd, seeing as though Roxas had failed, gradually left as well.

Roxas and his friends remained. By then, the shock of the ball suddenly exploding caused the bells in his mind to come to a sudden halt.

When the trio approached the boy, Hayner roughly patted Roxas’s shoulder. “You’ll show him next time,” he said dully, apparent that he wanted him to “show him” that time, not next time.

“You did really good today,” Olette added, genuinely.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Pence said. “It’s hard to keep the ball in the air after 20.”

“Says the guy who can make it up to 5…on a good day,” Hayner remarked with a snicker.

Pence thought about it. “It’s tiring,” he insisted. “I don’t know how you do it, Roxas!”

Olette laughed. “See, Roxas? There’s nothing to feel bad about. 74 is a great number!”

“Yeah,” Hayner said. He looked thoughtfully to Roxas. “Come on, man, why are you being so quiet?”

Roxas became alert. “What?” he asked, only to shake his head. “Never mind.” He looked at his three friends and smiled fondly. “Let’s go get some ice-cream,” he said.

“We haven’t gone out for ice-cream in a while,” Olette noted.

“That’s right,” Hayner agreed. “How long has it been now?” He rubbed the back of his head.

“Two days, three hours, forty minutes, and fourteen seconds,” Roxas replied without a second thought. After he said it, he gasped softly and brought a hand to his mouth. Where did _that _come from?

And the three friends stared at him oddly.

Then the blond attempted to play it off. He laughed. “I’m only kidding,” he said, hoping that they wouldn’t think much of his precise outburst.

Hayner crossed his arms. “You’re such a weirdo, Roxas,” he stated, closing his eyes. He opened them and brought his hands to his side after a pause. “But you are our weirdo, and we’re pretty much stuck with you, right?” He smiled.

“Oh thanks!” Roxas exclaimed, and they all shared a laugh.

010100100110111101111000011000010111001100100000 011011000110010101100110011101000010111000100000 010010010111010000100111011100110010000001110011 011011110010000001101100011010010110101101100101 0010000001101000011010010110110100100000

“Man, Roxas, you’re being weird again!”

“All I said was that the sunset looks nice. How is that weird?”

“It’s the same thing every time, man. Get your head out of the clouds.”

“Oh, leave him alone, Hayner. The sunset does look especially nice today. Right, Pence?”

Pence took a mindless bite out of his ice-cream before responding. “It looks the same to me,” he mumbled.

Olette sighed and simply swung her legs over the ledge of the clock tower. It really did look as it always did, didn’t it?

Roxas gazed at the golden palette in the sky. “Come on, guys,” he gestured to it. “Just look at it!”

Hayner shrugged indifferently in response, and the three just went on eating their ice-cream.

But Roxas hadn’t taken a single bite. He turned to take a good look at his trio of friends, and, just as with the bells, felt strangely concerned. It was an unprecedented anxiety gradually building up inside of him, just as before during the Grandstander event, but more intense.

He tried to forget it, but the feeling wouldn’t subside. He wanted to watch the sunset and eat his ice-cream, but he just couldn’t.

And then, the bells of the tower rang behind them. The bells, now closer to them, were much louder and even seemed to momentarily shake the world.

Roxas suddenly stood.

“What’s wrong?” Pence asked immediately.

Roxas searched for an answer himself. “The bells,” he finally said. “They’re louder than usual today. I guess they just scared me.” He managed a forced laugh.

The three exchanged glances before Olette informed Roxas, “The bells haven’t rung yet.” There was deep concern in her voice.

“What?” Roxas asked, completely lost. “But I just heard them.”

“Roxas… You should sit down,” Pence advised. “You don’t look so well.”

Without a single breath of protest, Roxas plopped right back down to his seat. “I heard them,” he said, more so to convince himself than to convince his friends.

There was a pause.

“I forgot to tell you guys,” Hayner said, in an attempt to lighten the mood, “Don’t throw your ice-cream sticks away!”

“Why not?” Olette asked as she flipped her wooden popsicle stick around to observe it.

Pence brightened. “You’re talking about that contest, right Hayner?” He looked eagerly in his direction.

Hayner nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “If you get a stick that has a big ‘WINNER’ printed on it, you get a prize!”

Roxas smiled. The terrible feeling, if only for that moment, fleeted. He took a bite out of his ice-cream and imagined himself being a WINNER.

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Roxas glared at the man. “Just, who are you?” he demanded.

The two stood alone in the back alley.

The tall red head made dramatic hand gestures while he spoke. “Ah, Roxas, come on! I thought you had the name memorized.”

Roxas stiffened. He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but there was something, something oddly familiar about the man. He wanted to ask him for his name, but all that came out instead was, “How do you know my name?”

“I’m not going to forget the name of my own best friend,” the man said charismatically. “Look, I don’t really want to hurt you, but I’ll have to if you keep this up.” He offered him a hand. “So just come with me, Roxas.”

Roxas, almost offended, took a step back. “No!” he exclaimed.

The man, looking irritated, merely brought his hand back to his side. Then his expression suddenly softened.

Without prior explanation, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a single blank, white envelope. He held it before Roxas in between his index and middle finger.

“You gave me this before,” the man said, tone indistinguishable. “It was your way of saying goodbye.”

The very sight of the envelope caused the immediate feeling of confused anticipation to develop inside Roxas - the same feeling the sound of bells triggered.

Roxas frantically searched his memories in hopes of understanding why, but he discovered then that he could only recall memories of the short term involving his Twilight Town friends. He could not recall a time when the sun was not setting, a time when the bells were not ringing, and that unsettled him.

Perhaps, he figured, knowing of the contents of that envelope would be what made everything else make sense.

Roxas held a weary hand to his head. “What’s inside of that?” he asked quietly.

“This?” the man asked, playfully feigning ignorance. “Who knows?”

Roxas glared. “Just, just tell me!” he shouted with a hint of desperation.

The man’s face grew grim. There was a fire in his eyes. “You really can’t remember.” He carefully tucked the envelope back inside his pocket. “Guess I have no other choice then!” In a fiery display, he outstretched his arms and crimson chakrams appeared. “You’re coming with me,” the man said threateningly.

Before Roxas could make any move, the world around them seemed to pixilate if only for a single moment in time. This caused great distress on the man’s part.

He lowered his chakrams. “Don’t worry, Roxas,” he said smoothly. “You haven’t seen the last of me.”

And before Roxas could say a single word in response, the man vanished into darkness.

The intense feeling only grew until Roxas tumbled to the ground.

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The sound of bells plaguing Roxas’s mind woke him up with a start. He jolted up.

He panted heavily and instinctively brought a hand to his chest.

When he eventually calmed himself down, and when the bells faded, he gasped silently to himself. Where was he? His…his room?

He slowly cast his covers to the side of his bed and glanced in every direction to verify.

When Roxas concluded that the familiar setting was in fact his bedroom, he scratched his head, puzzled.

“What just…happened?” he found himself asking no one in particular.

He thought back to his previous encounter with the mysterious redhead. Did such an encounter even occur?

“A dream?” he mumbled to himself.

But what happened before that? He thought of his friends, of ice-cream, and of the sunset. Was that all a dream too? No, it couldn’t have been. It felt much too real for it to have been merely a dream.

And the Grandstander match! Was that all imagined as well?

Shaking his head in utter confusion, he stood. Surely, he wouldn’t find answers just sitting there. He made his way out through the door.

011001110110010101110100001000000111010001101000 011001010010000001101111011100100110010001100101 011100100010000001110100011011110010000001101000 011101010110111001110100001000000110100001101001 011011010010000001100100011011110111011101101110 0010110000100000

“Look who finally decided to wake up,” Hayner remarked as soon as Roxas stepped foot into the Usual Spot.

Roxas took a quick look behind him to ensure that Hayner was indeed speaking to him, and not someone behind him. He took a pause, and then looked back to his best friend. “…Me?” he asked, pointing to himself.

Hayner jumped up from his seat. “You’ll never guess what Seifer did this time,” he said, not bothering to comment on Roxas’s enhanced obliviousness. He crossed his arms, looking dissatisfied.

“What did he do?” Roxas asked, deciding to stop trying to make sense of what was happening.

“Roxas!” exclaimed Pence as he and Olette came breathlessly dashing in.

“Huh?” Roxas asked, turning to them.

“Seifer broke your Grandstander record,” Olette gasped out, panting and fanning herself.

Pence bent over and breathed heavily. When composed, he straightened and looked back to Roxas. “He made it to 77!” He screamed frantically.

“Roxas can beat that no problem,” Hayner confidently remarked in response. He looked to Roxas. “Isn’t that right?”

Roxas, in a state of bewilderment, simply stared at him. He, much to the dismay of his friends awaiting a response, lost himself in his thoughts. 77? Wasn’t that…the record he attempted to beat in his recent dream?

No, it couldn’t be. It was too convenient for that. Perhaps he was mistaken.

“Roxas,” Hayner urged. “Don’t do this now. You have to go show Seifer off.”

Roxas blinked. His mind momentarily came to a blank. “Y-Yeah,” he finally said. “Let’s go…do that.”

011000100111010101110100001000000110110001100101 011000010111011001101001011011100110011100100000 011101000110100001100001011101000010000001101000 011001010111001001100101001000000110110101100001 011010110110010101110011001000000110100101110100 00100000

“55! 56! …57!”

Roxas tried to avoid thinking of the severity of the situation, but how could he when it was all so painstakingly familiar?

Here the crowd was, chanting his score - just as before.

But how? How could he have dreamt up such specific details?

He smacked the ball up into the air in frustration.

“58! 59! 60! …61!”

Why did it feel as though he was reliving the same events from before? And why was he the only one who seemed affected by it all?

“62! 63! 64! 65!”

The same, familiar voices of his friends encouraged him to keep going - worded exactly as before. It was peculiar, like listening to echoes in a cave.

Hayner: “Come on, you bonehead! Focus!” Olette: “You can do it, Roxas!” And Pence: “You got this!”

“66! 67!”

Bells. The bells Roxas once found comfort in, now harsh and alarming.

Here they rang again, causing Roxas to lose his footing and nearly miss the ball.

“68! 69! 70!!! 71! 72! 73!”

Roxas clutched his head with his free hand. What was the score he achieved before? He forced the memory to come. 74. He made it to 74, previously. If he could just make it past that number, maybe nothing would repeat anymore. Even if he couldn’t beat Seifer’s record, nothing would repeat. Nothing would repeat. He just needed a 75, and nothing would repeat.

74!

The blue ball froze mid air making a 75 impossible. The sea of faces in the crowd abruptly stopped cheering; they too, froze. Time stopped entirely.

Roxas, greatly distressed, turned in every direction. The frozen faces surrounding him, the frozen sunset above him, those bells, it was all too much to take in.

He searched desperately for answers until he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the world briefly pixilate. He’d seen that before, hadn’t he? Yes, of course, it was when he confronted that man in the black coat. Perhaps he knew what was going on, why everything was happening all over again.

Having nowhere else to go, he ran as fast as his legs would take him to the back alley.

There, he was greeted by emptiness. Greatly aggravated, he took the blue bat still in his hands and swung it aggressively for some time.

Why was this happening? Why did everything stop? Why couldn’t he have made it to 75? Why him? All he wanted was to spend time with his friends. All he wanted was to enjoy the remainder of his summer vacation. All he wanted was… What did he want, truly? He continued swinging his bat. He wanted time, he concluded. He wanted time, _needed _it, actually, and the world simply wasn’t giving it to him.

“Roxas, are you okay?” asked a warm voice suddenly.

With a stumble back in surprise, Roxas looked up to see the speaker, Olette. Hayner and Pence stood beside her.

Roxas had so much to say to them, yet he caught himself unable to form a single word.

“I know!” Pence exclaimed, attempting to make Roxas feel better. “Let’s go get some ice-cream!”

“That sounds like fun, doesn’t it, Roxas?” Olette asked, smiling kindly as she brought her hands behind her back.

Hayner nodded. “It’s been awhile since you had some ice-cream. Maybe that’s why you’re acting like such a weirdo.” He smirked at Roxas’s reaction.

“I’m not acting like a…” He trailed away and thought of the previous Grandstander game. “But what about Seifer?” he asked. “I still have to beat his record.” 75. That was all he needed. Not to beat Seifer, but to ensure that nothing repeated.

“What Grandstander game?” Pence asked curiously.

Hayner placed a lazy arm over Roxas’s shoulder. He faked despair. “Poor Roxas.  He can’t go a day without ice-cream without losing his mind!”

Roxas lightly shoved him away and allowed himself to forget everything to laugh. “It’s been more than just one day,” he argued.

“Oh yeah?” Hayner challenged. “How long has it been, then?”

Roxas opened his mouth.

Two days, four hours, ten minutes, and three seconds.

Why did he know that? Was he…counting? He just shook his head and kept his mouth shut that time.

Olette laughed into her hand. “You know,” she said. “When we get there, make sure to check your sticks before throwing them away.”

Roxas’s smile faded. He felt his muscles stiffen. He’d heard that before, but from Hayner. Now…Olette was mentioning it?

“Why’s that?” Pence asked.

But why didn’t Pence recognize the contest that time? What changed?

“If your stick has a WINNER printed on it, you can take it into the shop and get a prize,” Olette continued, nodding.

“With all the ice-cream Roxas eats, finding that WINNER stick will be a piece of cake,” Hayner said, amused, and all but Roxas shared a laugh.

Roxas said nothing.

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Pence asked, throwing his arms up into the air. “Let’s go!”

Roxas needed a moment to figure everything out, to piece together all the strange, recurring events. “You guys go ahead,” he said. “I’ll catch up.”

Hayner studied him, but ultimately gave in to his request. “Alright,” he said simply, and he and the others walked away after exchanging worried glances.

Roxas closed his eyes. What was happening? Could it all be just one large coincidence?

Before he could contemplate too deeply, a voice spoke immediately as if waiting for Hayner and the gang to leave.

“Well, well, well, don’t you look like quite the trainwreck.”

Roxas opened his eyes upon hearing the voice he instantly recognized. He needed someone to blame for everything that happened, and without a second thought, he chose the man with the fiery hair and personality to match.

“You again!” Roxas exclaimed, glaring.

“Surprise,” said the man, smirking. He leaned against the wall with one foot on the building and with his arms crossed.

“Tell me,” Roxas demanded. “What’s going on!?”

The man pulled out the white envelope again. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, Roxas?” He spoke slowly as if analyzing the boy.

The blond balled his hands into fists. He exploded. “What is it that you aren’t telling me? Why did everything that happened before happen again? And why am I the only one who sees it?”

The man laughed tauntingly and neglected to answer a single question.

“Answer me!” Roxas demanded.

The man tucked the envelope back into his pocket. Roxas’s anger was starting to get to him. “It’s a glitch, Roxas,” he spat.

Roxas was no longer upset. Such a response caught him off guard. “Huh?”

The man straightened. “Don’t you understand?” he said. “None of this is real. It’s all just his creation. You’re being lied to. Those people you just saw - they aren’t your friends.”

Roxas huffed, his anger returning. He spoke quietly. “How can you just say that?” he asked. “Hayner, Pence, Olette… Of course they’re my friends. Who do you think you are…to say otherwise?”

The man was frowning. Then, an idea came to him. “How long has it been, Roxas?”

“What?”

The man clarified. “How long has it been, since we last shared ice-cream?” He crossed his arms.

Roxas glared. Was the man taunting him further? He wanted to yell out that they never shared ice-cream before, and that they never would. Only friends shared ice-cream. They weren’t friends! They were far from it! How audacious was this man, to ask such a thing, to ask him how long ago had it been since they were friends?

But Roxas said none of this. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it, and he didn’t understand why.

His answer, in actuality, surprised himself. It was automatic, precise, and felt like it belonged to a stranger.

“Two weeks, three days, two hours, one minute, and seventeen seconds.”

Roxas and the man fell silent.

But how did Roxas say that so effortlessly?

There was a trace of sadness in the man’s green eyes. “See?” He looked to the sky. “You got the number memorized.”

Then, before he could say anything, the sound of bells struck Roxas like a slap to the face.

He shut his eyes tightly in a feeble attempt to escape. When he opened them, he was laying peacefully on his bed.

He wanted to scream, but would good would that do him? He jumped out of his bed and scrambled to the door. This was his chance to make sure things went differently this time around.

011001100110010101100101011011000010000001110011 011011110010000001110000011001010111001001101101 011000010110111001100101011011100111010000101110 001000000100100100100000011101110110100101110011 011010000010000001110100011010000110010100100000

“Let me guess,” Roxas interrupted before the upset Hayner could say it. “Seifer beat my high score in Grandstander.”

Hayner stared at him. “How’d you know I was going to say that?”

Roxas forced a smile. “Just a feeling I had.”

“You have to go and defend your title,” Pence insisted, and Olette nodded in agreement.

“We’ll be there to cheer you on,” she added.

Roxas took a small breath. A glitch, the man called it. His creation, he said. You’re being lied to.

The gut wrenching feeling returned.

But he refused it to be a glitch. A glitch would imply that the world wasn’t real, and if the world wasn’t real, what was? Hayner, Pence, Olette, they were real. They had to be.

Things wouldn’t repeat again. Roxas would make sure of it.

“Seifer could keep the title,” he said. “I don’t really mind.”

Hayner was the most startled by his comment. “What do you mean?” he asked, demanded, even.

Summer vacation would be ending soon. Perhaps that was why the sound of bells frightened him so. He was afraid of running out of time.

Roxas’s voice cracked slightly. “I just want to spend time with you guys.” There was so much on his mind, and yet, that was all he needed to say.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette all looked at one another, and then to Roxas.

“Okay,” Hayner said. “How about we go get some ice-cream, then?” He and the others smiled.

Roxas nodded weakly.

“Hey, and you know what?” Pence said excitedly. “If there’s a WINNER on the stick, you can take it into the shop and win something!”

Now Pence was mentioning it? Roxas tried not to think too much of it.

“What are the chances of finding one of those?” Olette questioned.

“With our luck, probably one in a million,” Hayner said, laughing. “But we have all the time in the world! Odds are, one of us is bound to find one, right?”

Pence and Olette nodded in unison.

Roxas looked to his friends. Just being there with them, listening to them, made him smile and forget everything.

“And besides, being a Grandmaster Champion isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Being a Struggle Champion, now that’s a different story!” Hayner exclaimed with a grin.

Roxas nodded. “Yeah,” he said.

>011101000110100001110010011001010110010100100000 011011110110011000100000011101010111001100100000 001011010010000001110100011010000111001001100101 011001010011111100100000010011100110111100101110 00100000

Axel, sitting alone on the clock tower, sighed.

Maybe, he thought, instead of asking Roxas how long ago they shared ice-cream, he should have asked how much longer until they could again.

He took a bite out of his ice-cream and watched the sunset. It was, he noticed, particularly beautiful that day.

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“Have you fixed it, DiZ?” asked the tall, hooded figure.

The man in red, who sat by the computers, nodded. “It took longer than previously anticipated, but my digital Twilight Town and its inhabitants should be functioning properly now. That is, time should no longer loop.”

“And Roxas?”

“Naminé is working on adjusting his memories of the previous catastrophe now.”

The hooded man lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry all this had to happen to him. All the glitch did was waste what little time he has left.”

The man just laughed coldly. “Do not concern yourself over the wellbeing of a Nobody, Riku,” he said.

“I already told you to call me Ansem,” the man said plainly.

DiZ laughed as if he were enjoying the most amusing, private joke.

“Still, isn’t there something you can do for him?” Ansem asked when the laughter faded.

“I’m doing far more than enough for the Nobody,” DiZ said indifferently. “Did I not allow him to spend the remainder of his time in a perfect world?”

“I guess so. But,_ still_…”

“That is enough.”

“So be it,” Ansem said. He turned away. “I’m going to check up on Naminé’s progress. Let me know if you find the source of that glitch.”

The man in red gazed thoughtfully into the computer screen. Roxas and his friends sat atop the clock tower oblivious to the previous events. It was when he saw Roxas so blissfully unaware that everything came together: the source of the glitch was Roxas himself.

The digital world was meant to serve as a distraction for Roxas, a means of forgetting his past in the Organization. Following such logic, a glitch would mean anything that had Roxas remember the past. In this special case, it was Roxas; Roxas was, perhaps subconsciously, attempting to remember the past.

But why?

DiZ considered it. It started after Roxas spoke with that blasted Nobody. Perhaps something that Nobody said to him sparked something deep within. Perhaps…

DiZ felt himself slam a fist on his keyboard. Of course! It was whatever was inside of that envelope that triggered some part of Roxas to try and remember.

“The source was a miscalculation on my part,” DiZ concluded distantly. “Nothing more, nothing less. I will not allow it to happen again.” But he seemed to be keeping something to himself, something he wouldn’t dare admit out loud.

Ansem nodded once realizing that DiZ would most likely never tell him the true source of the glitch. Then, without another word, he walked away.

DiZ, now in solitude, continued watching the screen.

A mere miscalculation, he thought to himself. _The glitch was the result of a mere miscalculation. _

But just what was inside that envelope? He pondered over it for some time until realizing Roxas had been giving him the answer all along.

It was the only variable that he never coded into the system that still somehow showed up in all three time loops - a community ice-cream contest.

DiZ raised a suspicious eyebrow every time one of three of Roxas’s friends mentioned it, but he ultimately thought little of it due to its seemingly harmless nature, but now… Now it didn’t seem as harmless as he initially thought it to be.

Roxas must have somehow created the contest himself. DiZ assumed that he would never understand how, but he knew that it was, without a doubt, Roxas’s doing.

But why? Why did Roxas want to remember his past? Why forget such a perfect life in exchange for a nonexistent one, if it meant being a WINNER? Why did he want to win that badly, so as to go that far?

A faint sense of guilt plagued the old man’s heart as he mused further. Impulsively, he began typing away at a few lines of a potentially risky code.

011100110110100001100001011100100110010100100000 011100110110111101101101011001010010000001101001 011000110110010100101101011000110111001001100101 011000010110110100100000011000010110011101100001 011010010110111000100000011100110110111101101101 011001010110010001100001011110010010111000100000

Hayner, Pence, and Olette eagerly spoke of the time Roxas single handedly reclaimed his Grandstander Championship title as if it happened years ago, and not only that afternoon.

“82!” Hayner reminded everyone. “Roxas scored 82!” He was grinning proudly.

Roxas, in his own world, focused his undivided attention on the sunset. The voices of his friends played distantly behind him. The sunset was just so beautiful that day, and he couldn’t help but to marvel at it. He ate his ice-cream as he did, and while not even realizing it, he reset the timer to 0 seconds ago, in terms of how long ago he and his friends shared ice-cream.

He smiled. Bells chimed sweetly. All was right with the world.

When he eventually finished his ice-cream, he looked back up in surprise with a soft gasp after carefully observing his stick.

“Guys,” he announced, unaware of how painstakingly ironic his next statement really was. “It looks like…it looks like I’m a WINNER!”

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[paybackraid]

Thanks for tagging me @shadowdweller101 !

“If you are tagged in this post, post the last seven sentences of the last WIP you’ve worked on and tag seven more people to keep the challenge going.”

I’m tagging @problematic-ranowa @saoryemanoelle @wrongnote and anyone else who’d like to join in!

This is from a little (i say) Lost Trio, Vanitas-shaped fic I’ve been working on, “The Case of Vanitas”.

~~~

She laughed. “Okay, they’re not that bad. I’ll make up a nice little excuse again. We’ll talk again soon.” Then much to his surprise, she dropped his hand and cupped his cheek, leaning in to kiss the opposite one.

The hug was warm, but the kiss was fucking electric. Electric, but more unexpected than anything else. When she stepped back from him, eyes so fucking warm and casual for something so intense, he turned gigantic eyes on her.

And she just stood there and smiled, like everything was right with the world.

[zenellyraen]

34 or 55, please!! Sora x Riku – gimme some sexual tension! Hahahaha!! 💜

((Okay we’re gonna break up the Kurahi prompts here with Soriku!))

34) Things you said in your sleep

Sora’s chest rises and falls, and Riku watches him tirelessly as the hours slowly tick by until dawn.

One day, he won’t be scared every time Sora goes to sleep.

He looks so peaceful like this. Lips gently parted, features relaxed in slumber. Sora sleeps quietly, even with his limbs tossed about haphazardly, and Riku smiles, fond, at him. Seems as though tonight is a night for good dreams. Maybe Riku can end up getting some rest after all.

And then Sora’s brow furrows. His breathing changes, shortens, and Riku immediately is on guard for any sign of pain, any-

Oh.

Sora shifts, a small but unmistakable press of his hips against the blanket, and he lets out a quiet sigh.

Does it again. And again, and again, a quiet, persistent whine building in the back of his throat, most likely at the lack of any real friction.

Riku, wide eyed, cannot breathe.

“Riku...”

Oh god.

Riku rolls to the side, warm and aching, his breath labored and his dick pressing insistently between his legs. Fuck. Fuck, sharing a bed was the stupidest idea in the entire world. He had clearly been thinking with his dick when he agreed to it because this? This is bullshit. Riku isn’t about to molest his sleeping friend. Even, especially, when said friend moaned his name in his sleep.

He’ll just have to suffer.

Behind him, Sora makes a whining sound, then rustles as he come up behind Riku. And spoons him, hard and flush against the curve of Riku’s ass.

Riku’s hard-won breath stutters out.

It’s a long, long wait until morning.

[paopuatsunset]

Missed Connections: A Soriku Fic

Riku nodded slowly and continued his work in silence. He pushed the Grocery Store Man out of his thoughts, but then those blue eyes and wide smile flickered into mind and he’d push away from his desk, clasping his hands together in exasperation. We didn’t even talk long, there’s no reason to continue thinking about him. And yet, all through the three-hour drive home, the eyes and smile remained. You’re never going to see him again, forget about it. Riku walked up the stairs to his apartment, and wondered if the man had eaten the paopu fruit yet.

That’s how he found himself on the Missed Connections page, retyping his message with a worried, beating heart.

Come on Riku. Just do it.

He pressed the enter button and pushed back from his desk, eyes wide.

There on the screen was his message, in all its vulnerability:

I was the silver-haired guy at the 24-Hour Market on Friday. I’m sorry for my rudeness, I was tired from work and wasn’t thinking properly. I’d love to meet up and try some of the paopu fruit recipes you talked about.

Finish reading on AO3!

[cloaked--schemer]

Drabble: Cheesy Movies and Sleepy Cuddles

[soft-sunflower]

I finally have Chapter 5 of my Riku story completed! Please take a look and give it a chance? :)

[paybackraid]

What You Need To Hear

Summary: Namine cannot, and will not, let her best friends go without knowing they are loved.

Words: 9569

Characters: Namine, Vanitas, Riku Replica

Just a cute not-little Lost Trio fluff fic I wrote because I imagined Namine telling the boys that she loves them! :’) and then it went to town. Complete, possibly part of a series!

Also available under my FFN or AO3 profiles, under YAJJ.

------

“Thanks for doing this for me, Sora,” Naminé said, leaning forward to show her friend her brightest smile. Sora was piloting her around the worlds, had kindly offered to do so when she said that she had some otherworldly errands she wanted to run. They weren’t really important, but she missed her new best friends so much. They didn’t live on the same world, like the rest of their friends seemed to gather. One was off “finding himself”, and the other was making a home for himself and the creatures who followed him. Neither of them were exactly people-people, so their seclusion did make sense. As long as they were happy, Naminé was happy. “You’re the best. I love you.”

Sora laughed his wonderful Sora laugh, all big and warm. He swerved out of the way of an asteroid, and flashed her his huge Sora smile. “Don’t even mention it! I’m happy to spend time with you. I don’t see you nearly enough.”

“I’ve been meaning to make it out to Destiny Islands, but between school, and the restoration, there hasn’t been time.”

She felt a little guilty, but only a little, that she was making time for the two strange boys attached to her heart and not the one that saved her. Sora always understood. And she would make it out to Destiny Islands! Just, not yet. 

Sora gave her another grin, glancing over his shoulder. “I know! My mom’s making me do tutoring to catch back up which, ugh. And now that Riku and I are both Masters, we have to stay in tip-top shape. I’ve hardly had the time to call Ven, Roxas, or Xion, nevermind everyone else.”

“Well, let me know when tutoring is done, and I promise I’ll find the time to come out, okay?” And Naminé always kept her promises. 

“We’ll make a day out of it!” Sora agreed happily. “Maybe even a whole weekend!”

“Sounds great!”

Naminé loved Sora so much, she really did. She made attempts at calling her best friends everyday, but they weren’t always available, and they didn’t always have the right social energy to talk, and she understood that. Even when they did, the two of them were sourpusses at heart. So sometimes, talking to Sora and his cheerfulness and readiness was a nice change of pace. 

“So, where to? I know you said you were looking for Vanitas and Riku’s… uh, his replica, but you didn’t say where.”

“It’s Van and Ri,” Naminé corrected softly, smile never leaving her face. Van and Ri—two of the only people she knew of who were as lost as she. And in that loss, they’d found one another.

“Er, right. Van and Ri.” Sora was still a little weird around her two boys. One had tried to kill him and certainly had made attempts at the one locked away in his heart for so long, another looked exactly like his best friend when he was young, and shared memories with Sora of a thing that he couldn’t for the life of him remember. He was trying, but they were all still weird with each other. 

“Van lives in Halloweentown, now, remember? So he can let his Unversed run free without being called freaks. He works at maintaining the graveyard there, I guess. Last I heard, Jack Skellington was very impressed.”

“That’s cool, I guess.”

“It’s honest work,” Naminé chirped. “And he’s actually really enjoying it there. He walks me through the Hinterlands when I call him. They’re spooky.”

“That, they definitely are. Okay, we’ll go to Halloweentown, then. Maybe I’ll go visit Jack and Sally, too! What about Ri? Is he still… exploring?”

“Yeah. He was in San Fransokyo yesterday, but he sounded like he was on the move, soon. All this is doing him good, too. He’s finding ways to be a separate person from Riku, even as simple as going to worlds Riku’s never been.”

“Aw, Riku’s a cool person to be,” Sora said with a fake pout. He knew of Ri’s circumstances, but would also say many things to come to the defense of his best friend. 

“He is! I always liked Riku, he was so nice. But, Ri just… wants to be different. He’s trying to find a different name that he likes, too, but he hasn’t settled on one.”

“Maybe he should just stick an ‘x’ in Riku’s name and jumble up the letters.”

Naminé snickered, noting the mirth in his eye. “He’s not a Nobody.”

Sora laughed as he steered them toward Halloweentown, the dark and gloomy world already putting a light in her heart. Van may have been the dark half of Ven, once upon a time, but now there was no denying how happy he made her. He was going to be so surprised. 

They landed just outside of the square, and Sora quickly cloaked the ship. Before they could step out, he cast the same cloaking magic that Donald used to cast to protect the world order. Out of the ship stepped a vampire, and a girl with webbed hands and feet, gills on her neck and frills around her head, the hem of her white dress dripping around her like water. 

“Wow, Nam,” Sora said, looking her up and down while Naminé got as good of an eyeful as she could. This was her first time in Halloweentown, after all. “You make drowning look good.”

Naminé giggled and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Sora. Come on! I don’t know where the graveyard is so you hafta show me, I bet that’s where Van is.”

“O-okay,” Sora said when Naminé squeezed his hand. “How are you even wet?”

“Let’s go!”

Sora led her around, tossing greetings at the townsfolk. All of them were surprisingly friendly, all waving to Sora and Naminé as if they’d known them their whole lives. That, Van had told her once, was the one thing he didn’t like about living here. For such a spooky town, these townsfolk were far too friendly.

Behind one of the decorative guillotines, Naminé got her first clue without even having to acknowledge Sora. Sitting atop a wall, there was a Flood, watching the sky. They, of course, had no order to protect, and Van didn’t often care one way or the other. 

“Flood, Flood!” Naminé cheered. She didn’t bother looking around for its master yet; since coming to live here, the Unversed had become staples of the community, and so were allowed to roam wherever they wanted. 

The Flood looked down to her and stared for a second, working out if it knew her or not. It slowly crept down the wall, clinging to the shadows, sticking its little nose out to get a good sniff.

“Aww, don’t be afraid, little Flood,” Naminé cooed, putting out her hand. Normally, she got along splendidly with the Unversed, but she looked so different, and it probably didn’t help that the water on her washed away easy traces of her scent. “You know me, I promise.”

The Flood crooned noiselessly; even now, Van was the only one who could hear them. It touched its snoot to her fingertips and took a deep sniff. 

And quickly leapt from the wall to her shoulders, knowing her now. It pressed its head to her wet chin and happily rubbed its head all over, just like a cat. Naminé pretended she could hear the crooning, and happily pulled it forward into her arms, to hug it and kiss its head. These were both Van’s pets, and extensions of Van himself. Showing them as much affection as possible was the easiest way to make sure Van felt loved. 

“...Nam? You good?” Sora asked after a moment of fierce affection. He struggled with the Unversed, too. Didn’t get the affection. But he definitely saw Naminé loving on the Unversed, and the Unversed loving on her right back. 

“Yeah!” Naminé pulled her face from the Unversed’s skin, smiling so wide it showed off her fangs. “I’m good. Sora, if you want to go see Jack and Sally, I bet this little guy can take me to Van. Isn’t that right?!?”

The Flood happily crooned at her and turned over in her arms to show her its belly and claws. Naminé took that as agreement. 

Sora didn’t bother to hide the relief on his face when she said as much. He turned away for a second, then glanced back to ask, “you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine! I’d trust him with my life. I’ll just text you if there’s any problems, okay?”

Sora sighed, shaking his head affectionately. “Okay, yeah let me know. Say hi to Van for me, okay?”

“Okay! Thanks Sora!!” Naminé chirped. When Sora turned away, Naminé was quick to say “good bye! Have fun!! I love you!!!”

Sora chuckled to himself and waved goodbye. “Okay, bye Naminé. Love you too!”

Naminé waved until Sora was out of sight, and then turned down to her little companion. “Okay, Flood, show me where Van is.”

Somehow, the little emotion understood her perfectly. It righted itself in her arms and took off out of the square, looking over its shoulder occasionally to make sure she followed. It darted up unnecessarily huge steps that she had to jump up, and then through the gates. Even just through the bars of the gate, she could see her target hard at work tending to some of the Jack o’ lanterns that just grew that way. 

The Flood scootched over to its master, but didn’t disturb him, instead watching Naminé as if to see if she saw. Naminé followed it silently. Van didn’t scare easy, but she almost hoped she could startle him. 

“Vani!!”

Van yelped when Naminé threw her arms around his neck and dragged him down. She had no balance to begin with and so fell to the side, and whatever balance Van had in his shaky crouch was lost with her weight. He fell on top of her, narrowly avoiding ramming his shoulder into her clavicle. 

“What the hell?!?” Van snapped, getting an arm beneath him to get a good look at his attacker. His eyes darted all around her, and he seemed to know her, but wasn’t certain enough.

The Flood who had narrowly avoided death crooned up at him happily and hopped up onto his shoulder, nuzzling its face against Van’s. It must have explained what it knew, because he turned down to look at her, a tiny smile on his face.

“Nam?”

“Hi, Vani. Can I hug you?”

“If I say no, will you let me go?”

Naminé pouted but retracted her arms. He was in one of those moods, huh? “Of course I will.”

“Hnnnn,” Van said, baring sharp incisors. “...Yeah, you can.”

Naminé quickly replaced her arms around his neck and squeezed him tighter, so tight he was probably struggling to breathe. She buried her face into the hair on the back of his neck and laughed to herself. Van wasn’t always a great hugger, but he sure was great at receiving them. Or, sitting there and doing nothing while he got them. 

At least sometimes he reacted to them very positively, hugging back when he was in a very good mood or at least pressing in close. At least when he did that, Naminé knew he didn’t entirely hate them. 

“What are you doing here?” Van asked when Naminé climbed off of him, sticking one leg between his so he had no choice but to stay seated with her. 

“I missed you,” Naminé said very simply, shrugging her shoulders. 

“...We are several worlds apart,” Van said very quietly. “That’s insane.”

“I know! But I missed you a lot and I just… wanted to be with you for a bit. Not just talking to you. Touching you.” She grabbed his arm and pushed her claws gently into his skin. She was one of four people he let touch him—the others being Ri, Aqua, and Ventus. She used it to her advantage, but made sure not to overwhelm him too much that he stopped letting her get close. “You’re my favorite.”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, barely detectable in the moonlight, and he looked away from her. She didn’t miss the tiny smile pushing at his mouth. Van had spent far too long not being cared for by anyone, so he was always embarrassed when Naminé, and occasionally Ri, casually said something along those lines. He didn’t respond, but Naminé didn’t expect him to. It was enough when he squeezed his legs together around hers. 

“How long will you be here?” Van asked, leaning back and looking up at the moon. “I could show you the Hinterlands, if you wanted. We could go down to the lake.” He poked at her arm and smeared the water on her a little. “Bet this form would like that.”

“That’d be cool!! Sora never mentioned a lake. But I don’t know how long we’ll be here. I want to catch up with Ri, but he mentioned heading out in a few days so I want to get some time.”

“You’re gonna see Ri, too?” Van said. He turned suddenly excited red eyes on her, perking up like a dog. As much as he wouldn’t say so, he did miss Ri terribly. 

“Yeah!! It’s quiet in Radiant Garden and I missed you both, and Sora I guess had some time and wanted to roam.”

“...He’s here?” Van peered back towards the gates, scowling. He didn’t exactly dislike Sora, but he didn’t really like him, either. After being sealed in Sora’s heart longer than anyone else, Naminé understood his hesitation. They’d gotten along for as long as it took to drop Van off and make sure he could get himself settled nicely, but after that the two lookalikes had to back off.

“Yeah, he wanted me to tell you ‘hi’ for him. He's visiting with Jack and Sally now, though. You're in the clear.”

Van didn’t bother to hide silent relief. He lifted a hand to scratch at the Flood on his shoulder, who crooned again and affectionately nuzzled his cheek. He leaned back and laid in the dirt crossing his arms beneath his head. Apparently, he was done talking. 

Naminé smiled at him anyway. Neither of them were conversationalists, and she didn’t mind at all. 

So she scooted in close, pulled her leg back, and laid down right in his personal space, watching him the whole time to make sure that she wasn’t invading too much. He was a little twitchy, but then he often was.

“Hey Van?”

“Hmm?” Van hummed softly, moving his arm a little. When Naminé snuggled in a fraction closer, he adjusted enough to allow it. 

Naminé lifted her chin to watch his face, then lifted her head to press her lips against his jaw, kissing the place that used to be permanently covered. “I love you. You know that, right? I love you?”

For just the briefest of moments, Van looked startled. He definitely wasn’t expecting the question. Then he smiled, eyes beyond soft. “Well, you tell me every time we talk, so yeah I figured it out.”

The kiss was new, but Naminé didn’t regret it. He deserved to know and he deserved to feel it. “Good. I love you.”

He laughed a little, just a tiny bit, and squeezed her tight. He didn’t say it back; he never had, but Naminé wasn’t discouraged. She felt it, too, in how differently he treated her and Ri from everyone else, even the ones he got along with. He cared for her in ways he did no one else. 

After another moment of peace, Naminé wiggled around and sat back up. Her frills were pressed wonkily around her head, but she didn’t have nerve endings in them so she couldn’t feel it. “C’mon! We might not have the time to explore the Hinterlands, but you can show me around town and we’ll pretend we’re looking for Sora. And your home!! I want to see it!!!”

“Okay, okay. Let me finish what I was working on,” Van requested. He sat up beside her and ran a hand through his hair. Beside him, most of the leaves on the Jack o’ lantern stems had been trimmed away and neatened up, except a small section where Naminé had interrupted him. He took the shears he had and went back to work, working efficiently and diligently. He threw his scraps in a metal bin Naminé hadn’t seen before, then closed the lid and set the shears on top. 

Naminé took his hand but let him lead the way. The lone Flood hopped up onto her shoulder and happily nuzzled her wet cheek. 

They artfully dodged Sora, who was being shown things around town by Jack. The first time had been entirely Van’s doing, but Naminé decided to make a game out of it, if only so she could spend just a little more time here. The closer to Sora they got before they had to dodge out of his presence or line of vision, the harder Naminé giggled.

She was also fairly certain that Sora actually knew they were there, or had an idea, but was letting her spend more time with Van rather than rushing her along. 

Van showed her all sorts of things. Jack’s house was huge, to account for both his height, and his status as the Pumpkin King. Dr Finkelstein’s lab gave her the creeps, and Van very pointedly instructed his Unversed to stay far away. The fountain was beautiful, even though the water in it was green and goopy. Naminé was pretty sure there was someone in there; she wondered if it was part of her species. 

Lastly, he dragged her to the end of the town, bordering the Hinterlands, just to look at it. Apparently, deep in these woods, there were doors to a different holiday world. Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Independence Day. Van claimed he’d been in a few, but he wouldn’t say which. 

They sat amongst huge gravestones, just looking out into the woods. The Flood played in pools of water Naminé left behind, very deliberately getting itself dripping only to climb into Van’s hair and shake off right there. 

Van only laughed and shoved the little creature away. Naminé was glad he’d found himself a home and a place he was comfortable; it was clearly doing wonders for his annoyance and anger. It made her glad she had yet to ask him to move to Radiant Garden, with her. He was happier here. 

“When we leave, you should come,” Naminé said softly, covering one of his calloused hands with one of her own.

“...Leave where?”

“To see Ri!” Naminé reached a hand up to her shoulder, where the Flood was perched again. “He’s in San Fransokyo, now. He misses you, you know. You don’t call him, do you?”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, and he sharply looked away. “...he doesn’t call me, either. I work a lot.”

“I know,” Naminé sighed. “I know you do, you keep yourself busy and it’s real, honest work and I’m really proud of you for it. But even if he doesn’t pick up, you should still call him. It reminds him that he’s loved. He needs to hear it, too.”

“Yeah, well… whatever,” Van said, cheeks grayer. Though Van didn’t deny that he loved Ri, too, he was embarrassed that it was spoken aloud. 

Naminé smiled but rolled her eyes, curling her fingertips around his. “It’s okay, you can tell him yourself when you come with us to see him.”

“Nam…”

“What?” Naminé asked, leaning back a little. The Unversed wrapped around her neck to stare at its master. “You miss him, you love him. You don’t talk enough. It’s an easy fix! And Sora won’t be too jumpy, I promise.”

Van frowned hard, taking his hand back and crossing his legs to lean forward a little, more than a little nervous. Since coming to live here, he had gotten accustomed to letting his Unversed run rampant. Going to other worlds meant he couldn’t do that. Which meant bottling. Ever since he no longer had to, since Master Xehanort’s passing, he hated bottling.

The Flood quickly crossed over from Naminé’s shoulder onto his, as if offering him comfort. It nosed his cheek, speaking to him, pressing closer and closer. Scrapper Unversed started materializing—he was getting very nervous. 

If she pushed him too hard, he’d flat out tell her ‘no’. He was nervous, and it was time to back off. 

“...But I won't think any differently of you if you decide not to come,” she said instead. He didn’t like having choices stolen from him; at least this way, whether he agreed to come or not, it was his choice, not hers. 

“...I won’t make any promises about Mr Sunshine,” Van finally said after a long minute, shoving the Flood off of his shoulder and vanishing the hovering Scrappers. His shoulders were a little stiff, but he seemed a little more at ease. 

A huge grin grew over Naminé’s face. She leaned her head down onto his shoulder and squeezed his hand. “Yay! I’m really happy you’re gonna come, Vani! Then I get to spend more time with you. And don’t worry about Sora, not much gets him down so if you don’t talk to him, he’ll get it. I’ll talk to him. I love you.”

Van’s cheeks once again went shades grayer. He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but he flashed her a surprisingly shy smile, lips sealed. As much as he could be a cocky asshole most of the time, something about having real friends now always made him clam up and get nervous. “Do what you want.”

“What are we doing?” Sora suddenly asked behind them, nearing from the town square. His sudden appearance made Van stiffen again, and slowly work Naminé off of him. Something about showing affection in front of people. 

“Sora!” Naminé didn’t mind that she had been forcefully detached, at least. She squeezed Van’s hand once, then let go and hopped to her feet, leaving Van looking very deliberately away from Sora. “Sora.”

“Hi, Nam. Having fun?”

“Loads! Van and me have just been poking around. Listen, I know I asked him before asking you, but I hoped it was okay to bring Van with us to see Ri. They don’t talk as much as they should even though they’re like best friends.”

“I, uh… I mean, sure, if he wants to! I don’t mind. Wanna come with, um, Van?”

Van was still looking away from him, and did not respond. He still seemed embarrassed about being clung to and found out.

“He’s not feeling very social right now,” Naminé said very quietly, reaching out and touching Sora’s arm. “Nervous.”

“Ahh. Well, that’s okay! You’re definitely invited, Van!”

The Flood crooned up at her silently, touching her webbed feet as if asking a question of its own. She leaned down to scoop it up. “This little guy is probably gonna stay out, because it helps him, is that okay?” She grabbed one of its little claws in her fingers and waved it at him. The Unversed had no care whatsoever. 

“Um, I guess, but make sure it doesn’t run around too much.”

“Will do! It’ll probably just stay in Van’s lap anyway; it helps.”

“Nam…” Van said warningly, shooting her a look. 

Naminé winced, hugging it tighter in apology and hoping he felt it. “Er, or mine.”

“Okay. Well, if we want to get over to San Fransokyo before it gets too late, we should go! Timing’s a little different there, and you don’t want to miss their sunsets. C’mon!”

Van took a second to catch up, but Naminé waited for him anyway. She looped her arm around his loosely, and flashed apologetic eyes his way. He shrugged, but said nothing more on the subject. 

Once they reached the Gummiship, Sora vanished the cloaking spell and let them in. Sure enough, when Van took a seat and was buckled in, the Flood leapt from Naminé’s arms into his lap, curling up like a pet. Naminé halfway expected it to start purring.  She took the seat next to Sora again so he didn’t feel forced to be social, and once they were buckled in (Sora happily chirping “safety first!!”), they took off. 

Naminé called Ri halfway to San Fransokyo, but hid who she was with and what she was doing to keep it a surprise. She screenshot her call so Sora had an idea of where they were going, then asked what he was up to. She happily shared conversation with Ri for a few minutes, until San Fransokyo showed up on Sora’s Navi-Screen, and she knew they were getting close. She happily turned her head back to look at Van, but he just watched the stars and asteroids fly by, and didn’t seem to notice. The Flood had yet to move. 

“Okay, okay, I gotta go Ri! I love you!! See you soon!”

“...What?” 

“Uh—nothing! Bye!”

“Smooth,” Van finally spoke up when Naminé hung up, which made Sora start to laugh, trying to at least cover it up with a wrist to his mouth for her sake. He reached over to take her phone when she offered it, saying “that’s where he was last.”

“Well,” Sora said cheerfully. “It’ll either be a huge surprise, or it’ll be small enough that he won’t get too surprised! If he’s anything like Riku, he won’t take surprises all that well.”

“He’s nothing like Riku,” Van snapped from the back, a hand resting on the Flood’s back and digging into its skin. “...But he doesn’t like surprises much.”

“He can be like Riku sometimes,” Naminé said. “He likes Riku. You’re the one who doesn’t.”

“He likes Riku because he thinks he has to,” Van corrected bluntly. “He’s still somewhere between ‘I Am Riku’, and ‘I Am Definitely Not Riku’, and all that self love crap is confusing him.”

“...Well, I hope it’s not crap,” Naminé said under her breath, frowning. Self love was not crap, and it wasn’t conceited either. It was a hard lesson that every person she knew of seemed to need working on, not just her boys. 

“...I’m just saying,” Van said, conceding just a fraction. 

Sora laughed goodnaturedly then coughed into his elbow when he felt Vanitas’ glare on him, silencing quickly. San Fransokyo was nearly just beneath the ship, so Sora turned the nose down sharply to descend into orbit. Naminé, and Vanitas behind them, both gripped their seats as the landing got shaky—no more than usual, but getting through the atmosphere was always a little disruptive. The Flood even darted into Vanitas’ jacket and poked its little head out to watch. 

The massive blue and green expanse they flew above soon gave way to a huge red bridge. Sora excitedly started talking about the first time he got here, flying toward the forest on the other side of the bridge, away from the city. Sora happily chattered about how apparently this bridge, the Torii Gate Bridge, was one of the largest in this world. Naminé supposed that was cool—probably would be cooler, if she lived on this world or visited it regularly. 

Still, the bridge was massive. That was cool. There was a semi-secluded clearing not far from the bridge that Sora dropped the ship into. Cloaking themselves apparently wasn’t necessary, so they exited the ship, and Sora cloaked it from view. Van took the Flood from his shoulder and stared at it, nervous. At least with one Unversed out, he could feel through it without being totally trapped. The Flood nosed his face and clawed at his hands happily.

“I bet,” Naminé said, feeling his nerves deep in her soul, “that if you put it in your jacket and don't make a big deal out of it, it’s fine to stay with you.” She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like, to not be able to feel emotions at all, without giving birth to a creature of darkness. That was one particular power of his that he’d never been able to put to words for them. The Unversed at least seemed to take on his emotions, varieties of them, once they were free, so he could feel in small spurts.

“...Yeah.”

“There’s lots of huge buildings too, with like 500 foot roofs at least, that are away from people and easy to get to, so they can, like, go free there,” Sora chirped. “C’mon! The sunset is to die for.”

Naminé gave him affectionate eyes, which she then tossed back to Van to see him lift his jacket and tuck the little critter inside. The Unversed seemed perfectly content to bury its face into its master’s side. 

The walk felt long to start, but then Sora flashed a wink at them and took Naminé’s hand, reminding her to have “light feet”, whatever that was supposed to mean. He crouched his knees just a little and waited for a decent sized passing car, and he and she jumped, much to Van’s surprise and hidden delight, on top of it. He followed suit quickly after, and the trip into the big city took much less time. 

Naminé was giggling like mad when they finally dismounted from behind, likely startling the driver. Sora waved them off with a sheepish grin, while Van actively fought back the appearance of another Unversed of some kind, hand protectively over his mouth. 

“Why didn’t you just glide?” Naminé asked once Van successively fought back the rush of emotion, eyeing Sora. “It’d be easier. Scare less people.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Did you really just ask,” Van asked, voice strained like he was still fighting back tarry vomit, like it was still balled in his throat, “where the fun is in flying?”

“Besides,” Sora said, ignoring him. “I didn’t think either of you could glide.”

Van frowned and looked away. Naminé mumbled sheepishly about not being that far in her magic. That was all the answer he needed. 

“Come on! Can I see your phone again? I’ll take you right to where he was, then I wanna see if I can track down Hiro and the others!”

Naminé passed off her phone. Sora got a good idea of the area, where Ri had been surrounded by round pink bushes, and then took off, Naminé followed closely with Van trailing a little behind. 

It was outside of a huge building, but Naminé decided that wasn’t saying much since all the buildings here were huge. The bushes were pretty much perfectly round and absolutely, in Naminé’s opinion, delightful. 

Ri, though, was not lost amongst them. This city was much bigger than Halloweentown was and, unlike with Van, there would be no delightful little darkness critters to lead her right to her best friend. They’d either have to hunt him down, or…

“Would the Flood know his scent?” Naminé asked Van, looking at the little blue critter tucked into his coat. “If he was just here?” 

“You would be amazed,” Van started, but he obediently removed the little creature, “just how stupid these things are. I doubt it’ll know Ri.”

“Aren’t they extensions of you?” Sora asked, half-innocent. Van shot a positively evil glare on him, and Sora paled and took two steps back. “Um, I’m gonna dash, track down Hiro and them, okay? Just, um, remember the World Order, and call me if you get lost, this world is easy to get lost in. And!! Call me just before sunset, I wanna watch with you guys and catch up with, um, with Ri for a bit. We’ll get ice cream!! Okay?! Have fun!!” Like that, Sora was off. He freeran up the damn building and leapt onto the railing of the highway above them, grinding off quickly.

Naminé waved him off, bouncing on her toes. “Bye Sora!! I love you!!!” 

Van shook his head, but now that they were alone again, the affection on his face was much freer to show when he looked at her. “You say that a lot.”

Naminè looked back at him, flashing her best grin. “Yeah, well, it’s true, and everyone should know. Don’t worry, you and Ri are still my favorite.” She surged forward and took his hand, and when he didn’t stiffen which normally meant he was okay with contact, she moved the rest of the way in and wrapped her arms around him, burying her cheek against his shoulder. “I love you.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. C’mon, before we miss him.” Excitement shown on his face, and in the suddenly jittery Unversed. It had been a long time since he had last seen Ri. “Find Ri.”

The Unversed, apparently stupid as Van claimed, just stared at him, shaking a little as Van’s excitement leaked off of it. 

“Go.”

If the Flood had been human, its eyes would have been dead.

But Naminé knew what to do. These things were extensions of Van himself, after all. She crouched in front of it and scratched its head, noting the way Van turned his head just slightly as if he could sort of feel it. “Go, find your best friend.”

The Flood stared at her, but this time with less stupidity and more confusion, like it was asking “why are you asking me to find you?” Then its nose twitched, and it whirled around and hopped over one of the bushes, now knowing what it was looking for. 

Naminé glanced back to see Van completely gray in the face, blackened blood making his skin turn ashen. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought him ill, but she did know, and so knew he was needlessly embarrassed. 

“Shut up,” he said, then took off after his Flood. Naminé laughed and followed. 

The Flood was sniffing at a spot by one of the bushes that looked recently matted down, as if Ri had been laying there before vacating. Once it got a decent enough scent, it looked back at them as if to make sure that they were catching up. Then, it took off toward the side of the building, melted into the surface, and ascended like it was no problem. 

Naminé stared up at the little critter, seeing its shadow in the building but only slightly. She looked to her companion. “You know how to freerun?”

“I think so. You?”

“I hope so.” Naminé gulped, then took Van’s hand and laced their fingers together. “Come on!” 

She jumped and he jumped with her, activated their high jump, and angled themselves so their feet touched the building, and she prayed to something. Sure enough, their feet clung to the side of the building, as if gravity was merely a suggestion. After a second, she lost her footing, but as soon as they started moving, gravity forgot to care about them, and they followed the Flood up to the roof. It was a testament to how much time Sora spent here climbing walls, when so few people even noticed. 

They soon had to jump to another building, following the Flood’s suggestion, and headed towards the center of town. It lead them up another tall building, where it rocketed right to the top of the building and stopped. 

Once Naminé and Van were safely obeying gravity once again, the Flood took off to its final destination, the shoulder of the person standing there and staring at the flying fish things. 

Ri started hard, not knowing they were there at all, when the Flood happily launched onto his shoulder and forcefully nuzzled his face. He grabbed it and lifted it away, then realized exactly what it was. “Flood…?” It would make no sense for an Unversed to be here, unless…

He turned in the direction it had come from, eyes absolutely lighting up when he saw its master, his best friends. “Naminé? Van?”

“Ri!” Naminé gasped. She luckily avoided tripping over her feet in her rush to grab him. She launched forward and hugged him so viciously that he lost his footing and hit the roof on his rear. She understood why Van didn’t like being touched, what most of his life had been like before turning to the Light, but she was still really really happy that Ri didn’t have the same qualms. She loved hugging him. He had been, out of everyone she knew and loved, of Sora and Roxas and Xion and Axel and Kairi and now Van, he had been her first friend. She huddled into his suddenly exposed lap and pressed in all the closer, possibly squashing the Flood. “I missed you. I love you.”

Ri was still somewhere between amazed and startled, staring up at Van and eyes darting toward the blond hair not for from his face. After a moment though, he wiggled the Unversed somewhere safe, and hugged Naminé back just as tightly, kissing her cheek for good measure. “What are you guys doing here?”

9

“Aw, didn’t you miss us?” Van asked, half mocking. There was black tar dripping out the corner of his mouth, which meant Van was attempting to squash emotions and, ultimately, was failing. 

“I kidnapped Van.”

“Of course you did,” Ri said with an affectionate sigh. The affection flashed between both his friends, and Naminé knew there was no judgment toward Van for not being the one to decide on his own to visit. Where Ri wanted freedom to be who and where he wanted to be, rather than trapped in a castle or Riku’s heart, Van wanted control over his life and choices, and a place to call home. 

Ri shoved Naminé off of him playfully, then got back to his feet, offering the Flood to its master, although the extra outlet for emotion didn't seem like it would do him any good. An Unversed was well on its way. 

Regardless, Van stepped forward and opened up his arms, a gesture he had never given to anyone but them. “I’m hugging you,” he said, a semblance of the question they always posed for him. Naminé wasn’t sure if he was telling them that yeah, it was okay and he wasn’t forcing it, or maybe it was him warning himself, but he had always done it and they didn’t question it.

“I won’t stop you,” Ri assured with a laugh. Like Naminé had, he invaded Van’s personal space and buried his face in Van’s shoulder. Despite not being terribly tall, Van was still the tallest of them, and Ri and Naminé always took full advantage of it when he let them. 

The hug lasted for five seconds tops, before Van suddenly lurched in Ri’s arms and shoved him to the side, not violently but enough to get him out of the way. A hand flew to his mouth, and he quickly doubled over, gagging. Naminé and Ri’s hands quickly went to his back.

He lurched again, a terrible, bubbled noise coming out of his throat. Thick, black tar flew out and splattered on the metal, more dripping from his mouth to fill out the pool. He coughed and more came up, bubbling out of his mouth. He spat the acrid taste out and shuddered there, hands on his knees, Naminé and Ri rubbing his back helpfully. After a minute, the tar bubbled up again and took life, forming into a Hareraiser who stared up at its master and stepped forward as if to help soothe. 

“...Did you have to do that now?” Ri asked, shit-eating grin spreading across his face. 

Van shot him a heated glare and pulled a kerchief out of his pocket, a gift from Jack Skellington apparently, judging by the skeleton face in the corner. “You know damn well I don’t have a choice. I should kick you off this building.”

“No!!”

After a moment, the three sat at the edge of the building, staring at the mechanical flying fish. Naminé linked her fingertips with Ri’s and leaned on his shoulder, giving Van the space he needed after so violently birthing another Unversed. The Hareraiser perched on Ri’s shoulders and occasionally nuzzled him happily, very much embarrassing Van again without meaning to. 

“Why did you guys come here?” Ri asked after a short amount of time, silver hair swaying in the breeze. He kept his hair back in a low pony now, because he didn’t like his hair getting in his eyes but wasn’t prepared to cut it yet. Kairi had once braided it not long after he was reborn, lamenting how much she missed Riku’s long hair. “I mean, why here. Why now?”

“We missed you, dumbass,” Van snapped. 

“We love you,” Naminé said very simply, making Van sigh while Ri tossed her the fondest expression known to man. He squeezed her tight, and stuck his tongue out at Van, who snottily stuck his out back at him. 

“She’s become fond of the phrase,” Van explained, although it was hardly necessary. 

“Well, I do. And we did miss you, and I had time, and I had Sora. We do miss you. Plus Van doesn’t call you because he’s mean.”

“Oh yeah, he’s the worst.”

“Hey,” Van snapped. “I just spit up some awful bunny for you.”

The Hareraiser raised its ears as if aware it was being spoken of. Van winced when supposedly its voice shrieked in his head.

“Happy birthday to me.”

“Screw this, I’m going home,” Van snapped, although the tone in his voice suggested less. He shoved himself up off the side of the building, turning around to walk away. Ri laughed and released Naminé to lean back and grab at Van’s ankle. The Hareraiser lifted its ears to wrap around his knee, too, forcing Van to a stop. Well, more or less; he was certainly powerful enough to kick them both off without struggle, if he really wanted to. 

“Get back here, asshole, we’re only messing with you. Of course I like your awful bunny. It’s wonderful.”

The aforementioned Unversed cheered to itself, waving its ears in delight. Van kicked its ear, and Ri’s hand, out of his way, then obediently melted into the rooftop, crossing his arms over his crossed legs. Naminé leaned her head back and flashed him her best smile. 

The trio fell back into silence. Ri was stretched back, one hand knotted in Naminé’s shirt, the other just barely grazing Van’s knee. The wind was cool and gentle, the sun bright but they were protected by the shade of the building. They were so high up that the chatter from down below was pretty much non existent. It was like the three of them were the only people in the whole world. 

“...You know,” Ri suddenly said, stretching his hand up to reach for nothing but air. “I think this is the best random hangout session we’ve ever had.”

“I don’t think we’ve had one before,” Naminé said. Since the three of them regularly lived on different worlds, nothing they did could be random. Everything was planned. It was nice, and it worked for them. She’d take what she could get. 

“You have sad hangout sessions,” Van commented, flicking his head. “All we’ve done today is find you, hug, I threw up an Unversed, you made me hate you, and this.”

“Thrilling,” Naminé agreed, in such a sardonic Roxas voice that it made her start giggling to herself. 

“Shut up Van. Naminé has a point. We haven’t had one before, and that means that legally I’m allowed to call this one our best yet.”

“Legally?” Van asked with a laugh. His laugh had mellowed out since his release from the dark, and Naminé and Ri both found it quite pleasing. “You must not have gotten the memo. You aren’t allowed to do that anymore. CDA’s gonna come and break down your door.”

“CDA? What the fuck is CDA?”

“Oh—wrong world?” Van pulled a face, and Naminé and Ri started laughing with him. Naminé pushed herself back a little and laid back to use one of his knees as a pillow. It was bony, and he was still skinny, but she liked the warmth.  

“I agree with Ri,” Naminé said softly. The Flood was in her arms, arguably sleeping if Unversed ever slept. “This is the best, even if all we’ve done is find Ri and watch you throw up. I really needed this.”

“Needed?” Ri asked, turning his head to look at her. And there it was, that protective thing he was always so good at. 

“You didn’t say anything was wrong earlier,” Van said, voice suddenly tight. Naminé worried she was forcing on him some sort of emotion that was going to come bursting out in the form of black tar. 

“No no it’s… I mean, everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong, don’t either of you go worrying about me.”

“Legally we have to,” Van protested. 

“Shut up.”

“Everything’s fine! I just, I’ve been missing my favorite people a lot, and we don’t always talk as much as I like, and obviously we can’t spend a lot of time together and, I don’t know, I guess I’ve been lonely.”

“Lonely?” Ri sat all the way up, removing himself from Van’s personal space, to look down at her. He shared a suddenly nervous look with Van, who shifted a little to allow the adjustment. “You can’t be lonely. You said you’ve been doing better.”

“I was. And I am! Leon and his team, they’re all awesome. Sora’s awesome. Xion’s awesome. Terra’s—awesome. But they’re not… they’re not… I don’t know. I know I shouldn’t be lonely because I have friends now, loads of them, and it’s great! Kairi calls me every day, all the time, and she keeps saying ‘oh, you should have seen what Sora did this morning!’ or ‘Riku spent the night last night and we were up for hours’. Stuff like that. I just. I don’t know.” Naminé looked away from Ri and Van, going red in the face. She hugged the Unversed closer. She didn’t want to look at either of them, because she knew why they did what they did, and she knew why she did what she did. She didn’t even always feel like this, in fact most often she didn’t, but some days the miss happened, and she called up Sora to drag her all across galaxies. “I don’t know.”

“Nam—Nam, do you… are you jealous?” Ri asked, poking her bare arm. “Of Kairi? ‘Cause I mean that’s cool, Kairi’s cool, but if you ask me she’s got nothing on you.”

“Are you, like…” Van leaned over her a little, struggling with his words because emotions were hard to feel, let alone talk about. “...sad? That we don’t live on the same world as you?”

“It’s dumb! I know it’s dumb! Because you guys are awesome. You really really are! You’re out there living your best life, Van you have a steady job that keeps you busy and distracts your anxiety that you’re really good at, and you have a home where your emotions can do whatever they need or want to the way that they should, and that’s awesome!! Ri, you’re out here exploring worlds upon worlds upon worlds, you’re finding yourself in this spectacular way and you’re finding out every way that you are and aren’t Riku and that’s awesome. I hate feeling like this. Because it isn’t fair of me to want to uproot you from where you guys are finally happy.” Naminé squeezed the Unversed even tighter, so tight the squeak was nearly audible, but the wince from Van was definitely visible. 

Van and Ri shared another look before looking down on her. Van lifted her head and scootched out his knee from beneath. He moved a little and slid down alongside her, laying back so they were side by side. Ri scooted down and laid on her opposite side. The three huddled together like sardines, and for once none of them minded the touch in the slightest. 

“It’s okay, Nam. If you miss us. Or if you want to call us up in the middle of the night because world times are fucked up and you want to tell us all about your latest art project. We might not talk but we’ll listen. Well— I’ll listen, Van’ll fall asleep.”

“You—knew damn well how much work I did the day before, you called me then on purpose!” 

“Shut up Van this isn’t about you.”

“Pot shot,” Naminé said quietly, reaching over to pinch Ri like Van asked her to every time he made a low blow. 

“The point is, we’re still your friends, no matter what. You were my first friend.”

“You were my first friend,” Van agreed softly. 

“So we’ll be here, even when you’re lonely and you don’t think you should be.”

Naminé sighed, wiggling her shoulders a little so she came out on top. “I know. In my head, I know. I just… it’s not the same as being with you. Touching you.” She released the shaky Unversed, reaching out both her hands to track down Van and Ri’s hands. “Even when you don’t always like it.”

“...Sorry we can’t be there, then,” Van mumbled. Their pinky and ring fingers locked. 

The trio lapsed once again into silence. The Hareraiser once again found Ri’s free hand and was demanding head skritches, so Van occasionally turned his head in a fruitless attempt to get away from the bizarre muted feeling. 

“You know what I think?” Van suddenly asked, which was odd considering he didn’t often voice his opinions unless he was being snide. 

“What do you think,” Ri asked. 

“I think somewhere out there, there’s a world for us. Like how stupid Ventus and his friends have a world practically made for them, and OG Riku and his friends have a world made for them, and even the two carbon copies and their friends have worlds made for them. I think somewhere there’s a world like that for us. Some kind of weird mix of light and dark.”

“Mostly dark,” Ri interjected halfway playfully, watching him. Van was suddenly talking with his free hand, fingers up towards the clouds. 

“Oh obviously, light is gross.”

“Obviously,” Naminé giggled. 

“What do you think of this world made for us?” Ri asked. “What will we do with it?”

“I dunno. I’m not saying we, like, we move there but. Who knows. Maybe one day, you’ll go there Ri, and you’ll find out its like hella artsy and shit. So you call up Naminé, and because it’s hella dark and there are weird monsters everywhere you call me, and now we have to go check it out, and maybe we just don’t leave.” 

“Hmmm…” Naminé said seriously, setting her chin. “We’ll be on the same world.”

“Pretty much all the time.” 

Naminé’s smile grew back over her face, in a soft and gentle way that really, Van and Ri both loved. “I think that sounds amazing, Van.”

“Yeah, it sounds pretty cool. I’ll keep my eye out for really super fucking dark but also really super fucking artsy worlds, and I’ll let you know the next one I see.”

“Cool.”

“Until then,” Ri said, squeezing Naminé’s hand, “maybe Van and me can get out to Radiant Garden more. So you’re not so lonely. Would that be okay? Van?”

“...Yeah. I can make it work. But Naminé, you have to show us something cool every time.”

“Legally, or CDA will kill you.”

Naminé looked between her two half-bickering boys, her best friends in the whole multiverse, attempting to make plans that she wasn’t even sure they’d be able to keep, just because she sometimes got lonely. The Flood was nuzzling her chin as its own affection as well as Van’s took over. 

“...Okay, I think I can do that. I really love you guys.”

Ri pressed closer to her and leaned his head against hers. Van squeezed her hand tight, and she knew they felt the same.

Sora was right. The sunset was fucking spectacular, especially from the vantage point atop the Torii Gate Bridge. As promised, Naminé called up Sora and they met him on the bridge. Van glared at him, but then he presented bars of chocolate ice cream, and he mellowed out. Sora took a slightly higher vantage point than them, leaving the three to their companionship while still able to interject himself. 

Ri had spent the rest of the day showing them cool things around the city and talking about his time there. He only dropped Naminé’s hand when he had to. 

He also carried the Hareraiser around all day, and it curled in his lap now, not prepared to leave, apparently. Van mumbled under his breath when he noticed, but didn’t seem all in all too upset that it stayed where it was. 

“I feel like we should come back here more,” Naminé said softly. “Just for this part. Or for all of it. Today was great.”

“I’m leaving here the day after tomorrow,” Ri reminded her, poking her head. 

“...Elsewhere then. Somewhere else pretty. Oh!! The Caribbean would be cool.”

“We should live there,” Van agreed. “They have ships and you don’t have to talk to people because you can be on the ocean one hundred percent of the time.”

Ri rolled his eyes and smacked a fist on Van’s thigh, making him laugh. 

“That won’t work because I need electricity to do digital art and also phones won’t charge.”

“Yeah, Van, you’d die without your phone.”

Van willed an Archraven into existence, then pulled out his phone to consider it. He shrugged, said “eh”, and tossed it over the edge. 

“Van!”

The Archraven instantly trailed after the little device, depositing it back in his lap and perching on his shoulder. 

“That’s the only way we can contact you when you’re on a different world, asshole!”

Naminé, giggling, dropped her head toward her lap and the Flood, who lifted its snoot to her, ready to be kissed. “Why are you the way that you are,” she said, as Van had asked them a number of times when he was simply too tired to put up with their shenanigans. She took the Flood’s head in her hands and angled it back a little bit so she could easier kiss it. 

“Hey, you guys like me this way, that’s not my fault.”

Ri let out a startled laugh and shoved Naminé into him, making them both start laughing as well. The Archraven waved its wings in protest of the movement and clicked its beak at Ri. They settled and left the poor Unversed be.

“...I don’t think I want to go home,” Naminé said. “I love Radiant Garden, but I don’t wanna say goodbye yet. I love you guys so much.”

“We love you too,” Ri said softly, flashing her a warm smile. 

“Love you too,” Van agreed, halfway startling Ri and Naminé. They looked at him with huge eyes; he’d never said so before. He showed it, but he’d never said the words. 

“...You do?”

“Yes? God, fuck off. Nevermind then.”

“Nono!!” Naminé gasped, flinging her arms around him and squeezing him tight. “I love you too, Vani. I’m just surprised you didn’t throw up an Unversed again.”

“...That really only happens when it’s sudden.”

Naminé squeezed him tighter, enjoying that implication. “I hope it’s okay that I’m hugging you. I forgot to ask.”

“Yeah yeah…” Van said, putting his arm around her. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Ri stood from where he was now left alone and slunk over to Van’s other side, putting his arms around him and squeezing him tight too. “I’m hugging you now, since they’re free.” 

“Whatever. Last one.”

Naminé leaned her head on Van’s shoulder, looking up to Sora who was smiling very warmly at them. He leaned back and watched the sky, as if they had all the time in the world. Maybe they did. She didn’t know how times worked on different worlds. “Do you love him too, Van? Or just me.”

“Definitely just you.”

“Ouch,” Ri said with a laugh.

“Van!”

“You asked!”

“It’s okay Nam,” Ri said, patting her head. He released Van and let him take some space back. “I know he loves me because a few weeks ago I called him three times on the same day and he only yelled at me for like ten minutes the last time.”

“Three times in one day is unnecessary.”

“It must be love,” Naminé agreed. 

“It is,” Van snapped, then he realized he’s spoken alone and his skin went several shades ashier. “Anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have answered once.”

That was true.

“Yeah, well, anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have called, so it must be love or something.” Ri gently kicked Van’s boot so he knew, and Van kicked back.

Naminé smiled at her friends and leaned back, the sunset now almost totally blocked out by the Flood. “You know, I think today might be the best day ever.”

Ri leaned back. Van sat up between them, but put his hand on her belly to pat. 

“I think you’re probably right.”