#riku x kairi

[kwoojii]

so about them...

[autumn-may]

waiting for the bus

[kumeko]

A/N: For the Shorelines and Sandcastles zine! My first ship in the game, I’m still very partial to them now. Especially to Kairi being a bit of a shit to Riku XD

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Riku was a traveller. Kairi had known that going in, had known that since they were little kids, sneaking around the yard as they pretended to explore a jungle. Sora and Riku had always taken the lead, wayward adventurers clearing the path, and she had tagged along because it had looked fun. None of this had changed as they grew up, as backyards became neighbourhoods became cities, as their journeys took them further and further from home.

Even now, half-way through university, Kairi could hear Riku’s wanderlust on the phone as he rambled on and on about his new city. Sitting on her bed, her red blanket half covering her legs, she leaned back against the headboard as she listened to him describe the beaches near his dorm and the crusty old man selling spicy fries. If she closed her eyes, she could see his bright eyes, his small smile. There was none of Sora’s energy in his words, but she preferred it that way. If Sora had been the sun in their childhood, their leader and constant motivator, then Riku had been the earth, stabilizing them all and keeping them on path.

And she was the moon, pulled along by their gravity.

“Kairi?”

She blinked, snapping out of her thoughts. “Huh?”

“Were you listening?” Riku sounded mildly exasperated. In the background, she heard seagulls cry and waves crash. He gently teased, “Or is it past your bedtime?”

“If it is, it’s only because you had to go to another time zone for uni,” Kairi huffed in response, covering up her embarrassment with mock hurt. It wasn’t like her to be so gloomy, especially when their timetables finally synced up for a proper call. “I can’t believe you left your girlfriend behind like that.”

It was an old disagreement, one they delved into when they were bored. She could almost hear him roll his eyes. Wryly, Riku pointed out, “You didn’t even want to apply for this school. What did you say again—that it was too much packing?”

“Well, it was. It took you a day and you don’t even own anything.” Kairi grimaced as she scanned her bedroom. Between her posters and her clothes, she’d have trouble getting the bare necessities. “It’d take me a whole week.”

He chuckled, deep and rich. She’d missed the sound. “You just have too much shit.”

Riku had always been a minimalist, preferring functionality over form. Kairi understood, but only to a point—what was the point in having an entire room if you didn’t personalize it? Why even live if you weren’t actually going to live? The only good thing was that he had an eye for style and quality; if Riku bought something, it would last for years.

“Some of us like having things. Also, that’s sacrilege,” Kairi huffed, wrinkling her nose at the insult. “None of my things are ‘shit’, that’s all Sora’s poor-quality impulse buys.”

“Oh, don’t get me started on that.” RIku groaned. There was a soft thud as he leaned against a wall. “He sent pictures of his room. I don’t think he has a bed anymore. Or a floor.”

“Same-day shipping was a mistake,” Kairi agreed, remembering all of the pictures Sora had sent in the group chat. Alone in a new city, there was no one to protect their poor friend from his terrible lifestyle choices. “Did he get a pet? Or two?”

“I’m not sure,” Riku admitted. She was certain he was rubbing his forehead now, though that wouldn’t save him from his frown-wrinkles. “I thought his roommates were dressing up as a prank, but maybe he really did buy a duck and a dog?”

“This is why I didn’t leave home.” Kairi shook her head sadly. “Look at all the misery I’ve been spared.”

Riku laughed, a short, bark-like sound. “Look at all the adventures you missed.”

“There’s plenty of adventure here,” she countered.

“Like the trip to the ice-cream shop? You can say what you want, but I know the truth.” She heard a squeak as an old window slid open and the seagulls’ cries grew louder. Riku teased, “You just wanted to stay home, didn’t you?”

“It’s comfy here,” she weakly protested.

Riku laughed fondly. “You’re such a homebody.”

“And you’re a nomad,” she retorted.

They’d had this argument before. For fun, when she relaxed on the beach while Riku dreamed of rafts and pirates. Seriously, when they were tykes and she had been scared to step onto the sidewalk.

And now, it hit home like a punch to the gut. It was such a basic fact. She’d known it before they’d started dating, before she’d fallen in love with him. His eyes had always been on the horizon, on the places just out of sight. Hers had always been on the ground, focused on familiar comforts. If he liked travelling, she liked staying still. If he liked adventure, she liked lazing around. And now he had actually left. Would he like his new home? Would he stay? Would she be forced to follow? The questions crowded her throat, wanting to get out, and she stared at the phone.

“Kairi?” He sounded concerned when she didn’t respond. “Kairi?”

She swallowed down her worries, too afraid to ask. Weakly, she grumbled, “You know, it’s not fair you’re right next to the beach. It’s still cold here.”

“I don’t think there actually is ‘winter’ here. Seriously, Kairi, what’s wrong?” Riku replied quickly, not dropping the matter. He’d always been ridiculously perceptive when it came to her.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she mumbled.

“Kairi. You’re a terrible liar.” There was a long silence before he added, “If you want, I’ll ask Sora to call you—”

“No!” Kairi immediately cut him off. It had been an old insecurity of his, comparing himself to Sora, and she knew how hard it must have been for him to suggest that. “It’s not…He doesn’t…I’m just scared.”

Riku breathed in sharply. “Of what?”

“I don’t know…” Kairi ran a hand through her hair. “No, I do know, I’m…here. You’re there. It’s just…It’s exciting over there and it’s boring here and I’m not, I’m not really—” She dropped her hand, staring at her palm. It felt silly, complaining about this. Like she was in elementary school again, crying that the boys had left her behind.

They were adults now. This was just whining. Softly, she whispered, “I miss you.”

In all honesty, that was the root of her fears.

It was silent on his end. A seagull squawked, the wind blew, and she could just picture him leaning against his window, staring at the sea. His expression would be tight, his brows knit, and she really wanted to see his face right now.

Finally, he broke the silence with a simple “Oh.”

That quiet response knocked her back to her senses. Mortified, she flushed. “Never mind, I—”

“You know,” Riku interrupted. “I was going to keep this a secret, but I’m coming home next weekend.”

Kairi almost dropped her phone. “R-really?” she squeaked.

He chuckled. “Yeah, really.”

“Why—” She glanced at the Mickey Mouse calendar on her wall, taking note of the date. “Oh, the long weekend?”

“It is, but that’s not why.” Kairi heard him shift, his clothes rustling in the breeze. “I didn’t come back for the last one.”

She half-wished they’d done a video call instead. Riku had never been much of a talker, his body often speaking for him. Kairi couldn’t read his voice at all. It was terrifying. “Then why?”

“It’s nice out here,” he replied evenly. “There’s a beach. There’s a series of caves. There’s so much to see and do here.”

Kairi had no idea where this was going. “You’re bragging,” she accused.

“A little,” Riku admitted with a laugh. “But the thing is, whenever I find something new, I just want to call you after. I only like finding these places because I want to see your reaction. Even now…I’m just counting down the days till I come home to you.”

She didn’t have to see his face to know how red it was, to hear the slight hitch in his voice whenever he got embarrassed. Not that it mattered; even if they had video on, Kairi wouldn’t have been able to see him. No matter how quickly she blinked, tears filled her eyes. “That’s mushy,” she mumbled, her voice cracking.

“I’m never saying it again,” he stated. “Ever.”

“Still mushy.” Kairi wiped her eyes. “I love you, too.”

There was an embarrassed cough on the other end. Riku cleared his throat. “Hey, Kairi, next time why don’t you visit me.”

Kairi was a homebody. She always would be. Yet, that didn’t mean she didn’t like a vacation every once in a while. Especially if Riku was waiting on the other side, with his warm eyes and confident smirk, with his firm hands and gentle hugs.

She smiled. “I’d like that.”

[pupsandartwork]

sorikai gem fusion

[alieinthemorning]

Star Crossed Festival [Rikai Week 2020]

Content: Fluff, AU: Fantasy, Wishes, RiKai Week 2020, Oaths & Vows, Poem: When by Lang Leav

Header:@natade-art

Reblogs: Let me know that you enjoy my work and want to see more, so don't forget to like and reblog (and comment in the tags. I love seeing people’s rambles in the tags)!

This work's concepts, plot and original characters are my own which means I do not allow any sort of creative theft nor do I allow my work to be entered into any sort of A.I. bots. Thank you for respecting my space and boundaries.

Three knocks woke her. “Princess, time to wake up.” A soft voice announced.

Kairi groaned. “Five more minutes.”

“You said that five minutes ago.” The covers were snatched from her, allowing the cold air to attack her exposed legs. She shoved her nightgown down over them and glared at the blonde who roused her from her slumber.

Just as she opened the curtains.

Kairi harshly flinched back from the light, causing her to tumble over the side of the bed and fall to the floor with a loud thud.

The door burst open, “Princess!” and a sword left its sheath.

“She’s fine, Sir Riku.” Her lady in waiting giggled. “Just had a little rude awakening.”

The man sighed. “If you say so.” Then, with a curt ‘good morning’, he took his place outside once more.

Kairi shimmed from underneath the bed. “Naminé!”

Said woman giggled. “Yes, my lady?”

“Don’t ‘my lady’ me.” She climbed to her feet, dusting off her nightgown. “Anyhow, what’s on the agenda today?”

As Naminé went through her list of responsibilities, Kairi shifted her attention to the outside.

“Hey, Naminé?” A hum in acknowledgement. “Can we go outside after breakfast?”

“Only for a short while, my lady.”

Per her wishes, Naminé dressed her in a low-high empire dress. She relished in the cold water lapping against her ankles as the sun beamed down upon her.  

As she reached down for a blue tinted shark eyes shell, her gaze trailed to the sparkling ocean behind.

“The Star Crossed Festival is tomorrow, isn't it?”

Naminé huffed. “I’ve been telling you about it for weeks! Honestly, do you ever listen, my lady?”

Riku chuckled. “I believe her highness keeps her head too far in the clouds to hear us.”

“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in the crowd.”

“You always seem to slip away right when you’re needed.”

“No, I mean like,” Kairi stood, gaze on the horizon. “Being down with the people of my kingdom and those from the far lands.” She ran her hands across the rugged skin of the shell. “What kind of music plays? How do the people dance? What kind of foods will there be? Will it be as magical as I’ve always dreamed...”

Her two friends were silent, the sound of the waves carrying her questions along with them. She knew she would never be allowed among her people unless she were armed with almost all of the royal guard.

“Well, I do have a dress that would fit you, and it wouldn’t take much to change your hair…”

Kairi whipped around. “Huh?”

Naminé nodded. “Yep! I’m sure we can sneak you in, no problem!”

“We?” She and Riku echoed.

She winked. “Even if she’s undercover, the princess still needs to be protected by her royal guard.”

Everything was just as she imagined it to be and more. The lights were golden and lit the smiling faces of the patrons beautifully. The music was familiar yet different, while the dances were something completely other worldly. The food was also to die for! She’d have to get them working in the kitchen as soon as possible.

“This is amazing!” Kairi shouted as she pulled Riku deeper into the crowd.

“Your majesty—”

She spun on her heel, jabbing her finger in his face. “Rikai! I’m undercover!”

Riku sighed, letting her drag him along once more.

When Kairi was finally tired enough to be pulled away from the bustling crowd, Riku led her to the shore. The cool salty breeze doing wonders on her heated face. She found herself staring at the boats that lined the docks, then further down to the full moon dancing atop the water’s edge.

“Hey, Riku?” He grunted. “What’s beyond the horizon?”

“The rest of the world.”

“Yes, but what is that? The rest of the world.” She wrapped his jacket, which she had stolen, closer around herself. “Is it like our kingdom? Or is it different? Is it better or is it worse?” She sighed. “What lies beyond the horizon without the light of the moon?”

Riku was quiet for a long while as he contemplated her question. “Even in the deepest darkness,” His voice pulled her from the moon’s stare and into the green pools of his own. “There is light.”

He looked up and Kairi swore she saw a glint of light in his eyes. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of something.

She gasped, and stood, “A meteor shower! It's beautiful!”

“It truly is.”

“Let’s make a wish.”

Another bout of silence fell upon them, the stars fell from the heavens.

Just as she was going to tell him she was ready to go, a familiar tune. One that brought her back to once she was a babe.

“Grandma, sing me the song!"

“Again?”

“Yes, I love it!"

“Well, alright."

"When every night

You close your eyes,

And long inside

For something more.

Remember this

And only this,

If nothing else

You can recall—

There was a life

A girl once led,

Where you were loved

The most of all.”

“How romantic! Will I grow up to be that girl?”

“You already are that girl. You only need to find someone to give your love to.”

“Give my love to…” She placed a hand over her ever beating heart.

“Kairi.” She jolted. He hadn't called her by her name since they were children. He certainly had her full attention. “May I tell you what I wished for?”

She puffed her red cheeks. “No! If you tell me, then it won’t come true.”

He gave her a soft smile. “I believe that it will happen regardless.”

“If you’re sure…”

He took a deep breath, then dropped to one knee with a hand over his heart. “Princess Kairi of the Isles, might you do me the honor of allowing me to protect you with every ounce of my being?”

Kairi was speechless, her heart tumbled, her body shook.

He pulled a velvet box from his pocket. “I give you this vow of holding my heart forever more.” He flipped the box open and there laid a simple silver band with a beautiful pearl.

She dropped to her knees and placed her hands over his.

“I shall take care of it always, as you shall take care of mine.”

THE WAY THAT I SURPRISED MYSELF WITH THAT ENDING

I TOO FELT LIKE THE READER IN THAT MOMENT

Ko-Fi | Commission | Masterlist

[skytsunrose]

Rikai is so underrated so heres a one shot for them that I tried my best at it.

[haido]

Listen to my story

(KH ver.)

[luxmoogle]

˖♫ + *' +*:ꔫ Brand Ambassadors *ੈ✩‧₊ + ☆⋆｡࿐ Kingdom Hearts X The World Ends With You

[kittyjosei]

@ohnoesitsnidia Requested Vala and sigrun, but my pc died and I could only finish vala, next is sigrun!

Is only me or does Riku look a lot like Vala???

.⋆ ✯⛧⋆ . Request more KH characters! .⋆ ✯⛧⋆ .

[varietivity]

My contribution to the Kingdom Hearts community becoming Organization XIII members when Twitter rebranded to X in the last week.

There is also a BONUS PANEL in a reblog to this post.

[nikutsuneart]

Yesterday's Mermay Community Draw stream!

The program was giving me grief so I didn't get to draw too much unfortunately ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So a BIG thank you to everyone who came and contributed many a sora and riku in my stead hehe 🧜‍♀️

[d4rk-x-w0lf-17]

any time someone says that sora isn't gay, i hit them with the KH2 reunion cuz that shit is still just as funny now as it was back in 2013 when i first saw it

[superdorkcat]

When it comes to thinking about the future of KH, few things give me more joy than imagining Sora making it back home with all of his cool new unreality friends in tow and all of the other Guardians just having to deal with it.

[frickingnerd]

childhood friends to lovers with sora

pairing: sora x gn!reader (+ kairi & riku)

tags: childhood best friend!sora, supportive kairi & riku, fluff, missunderstandings, jealousy (reader of kairi & sora of riku)

for the longest time, it had always been sora, riku and you! the three of you were inseparable and did everything together!

but when kairi arrived at destiny island, the dynamic you guys had changed. sometimes sora would spend his days with her, while other times it was you and him again, while kairi was with riku

kairi was your friend, but you couldn't deny that you were jealous of how much time she got to spend with sora!

it was back then that you realized that you were in love with sora! he was your first love, but you didn't dare confess to him

years passed and the four of you remained good friends. but you always worried that one day, sora would fall in love with kairi, instead of you…

while you loved sora, it hurt being around him too. slowly, you began to spend more time with riku, as it was easier for you

but you distancing yourself from sora was what made him realize his feelings for you!

sora had taken you for granted, always expecting you to stay in his life. until suddenly, you weren't there every day and he began to miss you

seeing you with riku made sora jealous and he couldn't help but wish that he was the one by your side!

what finally got sora to confess to you was hearing from kairi that riku had confessed his love to you as well!

sora knew that if he didn't say anything now, he'd never get a second chance! and so, he rushed to you, surprising you with a confession!

and surprised you were! especially when he mentioned riku's confession to you… that never happened!

turns out kairi and riku were lying to sora about said confession, to give him a push in the right direction and finally admit his feelings for you!

and it truly worked, as now you finally knew sora loved you too and the two of you could be together after so many years of only being friends…

[pupsandartwork]

rikai gem fusion

[daylighteclipsed]

ive been replaying kh1 (going thru the whole series on steam since i never got the chance to play all the games) and i was struck by something a bit odd. i have been dyinggg to talk about it

it's about kairi and her past.

i don't think she's a replica or construct necessarily

but in kh2 there's a parallel drawn between her and sally in halloween town; and the same i think could be true in kh1.

sally is a Frankenstein monster/doll made by the doctor. the entire plot of Halloween town centers around the need for the dr to make a "heart" which requires memories from Sally (the scene of her picking the forget me nots looks a lot like kairi holding a flower for aqua too)

sora takes interest in the project to restore a heart to the heartless too because of his desire to restore Kairi's heart.

i havent really come up with a coherent thought about what this means.

but given that we know kairi was experimented on in a way that involved her heart, it just seems suspicious that this parallel was made twice to her and a doll that was stitched together and animated by a mad scientist.

shes also compared to chirithy in kh3, which from my understanding were created by MoM for keyblade weilders; and to Pooh, who is a toy/story book character that came to life

given too that Kairi already has a weird thing going on with her heart, it just seems possible that theres something..more to it that i have yet to piece together. and its driving me crazy

NO, WAIT… ANON YOU’RE COOKING. Idk what it all means either, but those parallels are so good and so true. Cause there definitely is something artificial about Kairi’s heart, even if just partially. It was experimented on, like you said, and it looks completely different than the organic hearts we see, and I suspect that’s why we’ve never seen Kairi’s heart station. Because it’s (at least partially) artificial. It would look totally different than all the other heart stations and would probably give away what’s going on.