Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Salvation Holdout Central ❯ Four Moments ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: Squeenix and Disney.

* * *
- Logistics -

"Sora," Kairi growls, low and startlingly vicious, and yeah, okay, this is more than sort of terrifying and way worse than Riku's teasing and he really doesn't know what he's supposed to do and anyway these things are really tiny and impossible to see and anyway his hands are shaking way too much and if Riku were here he'd be laughing hysterically because of course Riku could probably do this with his teeth because he's stupid and gorgeous like that and--

"If you don't hurry up back there I'm putting my shirt back on."

--and he can figure this out. Totally. Maybe. The phone's down the hall and Riku never answers it anyway and he really really doesn't want to actually have to talk to Riku's mom and--

"Wait, Kairi, no! No! I'll figure it out, I promise!"

- - -

"STOP BEING SO TALL," Sora roars, and Riku blinks thoughtfully down at him for a long moment and then says "I guess I could take off my shoes" and that's when the coconuts start flying.

* * *
- Precious Things -

"Silly," she says, and closes his fingers back over the charm. "That's not what it was about at all."

He stares at her, because he still doesn't understand, and he knows it exasperates them, that he's always a little slow to catch on, to catch up, to fall all over all the words they managed to figure out while he was still sleeping.

"Ask Riku," she says, laughter in her eyes, in her smile, and the kiss she presses against his lips tastes of light and life and strawberry soda.

- - -

Sora doesn't quite understand Roxas' obsession with keeping that keychain safe until one soft dark night when Roxas asks, sharp and quiet, "What if Oblivion was all you had left of Riku?" and Sora goes dead white and can't stop shaking for fifteen minutes.

The tears finally trickle to a stop an hour later, but the nightmares last for a week, and if Riku notices he's clinging more than usual, he doesn't say a word.

* * *
- Bandages -

She's got a jasmine blossom tucked in her hair and the morning sunlight falling pretty on her face, and she buries herself right in between them, the hem of her uniform skirt brushing their thighs and her hands firmly tucked in their back pockets, but her hold's a little tight, and there are fine lines around her eyes, like she's been crying.

Sora's already beet red and even Riku's looking a little pink around the ears, but when she whispers "I decided to stop forgetting last night" they don't even have to exchange a glance before abruptly turning from the pathway that leads to the school and towards the road down to the beach, and the docks, and the play island, and each other.

- - -

"It's always so bright here," Riku sighs, long lashes drooping against the glare of the blazing high noon sun, and Sora slides around his back and softly softly closes his hands over his eyes.

* * *
- Speechless -

Summer sunshine loveliness, and she's the first one to say it out loud, the words lingering sing-song sweet in Sora's ear as he trips off the pier in complete shock.

Her ensuing cackle of laughter isn't princesslike at all, and Riku is seriously not helping what with all the pointing and laughing because he's a jackass, but even just being sprawled out there in the surf and staring up at them makes his breath catch too much for a single word to slip past his lips.

- - -

"I kissed Kairi once, before," Riku says, and he's looking away, to some other world and some other memory, out beyond the sea and stars and farther. "...she didn't wake up."

It takes a moment for it to sink in, and then - oh - and Sora has to blink back tears and chokes a little, because it's so hard to breathe through the knot of love that's tangled in his throat.

Riku says "Oof" when Sora tackles him, and says it again when Sora squeezes him, and then says "Stupid, what are you crying for?" when Sora buries his face against his throat and nuzzles him in an expression of something that he doesn't have words for but is half-frantic and half-gentle and "You're getting my shirt soggy, you giant sap, c'mon, shut up already" and Sora has to chase those words into kisses, catch his hands in his hair and try to tell him all the things that he can't say out loud because he doesn't know how.

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