Epilogue: The Happiest Place on Earth

Sora's never been on a plane before, so, naturally, he's very excited. He clings to my arm as we board, and he chatters on and on, bouncing in his seat like a little kid. I make sure that he gets the window seat.

It's a three-hour flight to California. We're due to be landing at LAX, one of the busiest airports in the U.S.

Sora's first words as we step out of the airport are: "What the hell?! It's cold! And it looks like it could rain any second!" He rubs at his arms, staring up at the gray sky, and I laugh at him.

"It's February," I point out. "It's the coldest month of the year."

"Yeah," he argues, "but it's California! California! Southern California to boot! It's one of the hottest places on this side of the planet—next to Nevada, probably. Ooh! Hey! Maybe we could rent a car and go to Vegas to gamble. I've never been to this part of the U.S. before."

I smirk at his rapid-fire commentary then add, "I've only been to So Cal. That was back in the late nineties, when I was like…" I pause to remember. "I think I was eight. God! I feel old!"

"That's why we should go to Vegas and gamble—and get drunk—like young men should!" I laugh at the thought of Sora gambling—and getting drunk—then concede, "Whatever you want."

He frowns at me. "It's our anniversary. Why do you say that it's whatever I want?"

"Because this year is all about me wooing you, remember?"

He now grins. "Oh, yeah! Then, hell yes it's whatever I want! And this applies to all the other holidays, too!"

Chuckling, I murmur, "Sure thing, Sora." My arm wraps around his shoulders; he shivers and presses closer to me for warmth.

"Brr! Chilly!"

I just smile and shake my head. We head off to baggage claim.

At the sight of a familiar white car, I grin and rush toward it. It's similar in make to the one from the high school years, but it's newer. Its owner lights up and runs around the front in order to give me a hug. "Hey!" the blonde cries. She squeezes me even tighter then kisses my cheek. The next second, she sees Sora, and I am forsaken as she moves to do the same to him. With this accomplished, she gushes, her crystal blue eyes alight, "God! It's been too long! Webcam does not do you guys any justice! How have you been? Happy anniversary! Gosh!"

Sora and I chuckle at our friend, our matchmaker. "Yeah, it has been too long. We're fine. We're really good, actually."

Sora latches onto my arm and raves, "Guess what Riku did for me on Valentine's Day, Nami! Guess!"

Naminé giggles. "Umm…made sweet, sweet love to you?"

He rolls his eyes. "Well, duh! I mean the romance portion of it!"

"Ooh! Riku was in charge of the romance department this year? How fun! Tell me more!"

"Wait!" I cry. "Pop the trunk first, Nami!"

She grins but jogs back to the driver-side door to hit the switch at the front of the car. I nod my thanks, and she returns to the sidewalk to talk more with Sora.

As Sora goes into great detail, I work on getting our luggage tucked away in the trunk. I hear Naminé go, "Awww!" I smirk, proud that Sora still loves my scavenger hunt idea.

We only have one suitcase each because we're only staying the weekend. Today is Friday, March 7th, 2014. Tomorrow is our anniversary, and tomorrow is when we go to Disneyland.

"Hey," I point out, "I hate to interrupt, but we should at least get in the car and get driving. We can catch up over lunch."

"Yeah!" Sora gushes. "I'm starving!" Both Naminé and I chuckle at his expense.

And so, over a lunch at a fairly nice restaurant, we catch up. It's been awhile since we even talked on webcam, so there is a lot to discuss. We end up going back to Naminé's loft.

"You've redecorated," I note appreciatively.

She's got different artwork hanging on the white walls, but it's all just as colorful and moving. She's still got her mantle and living room plastered in photos of all her friends. Sora and I are the most photographed of the bunch, but Axel, Roxas, Demyx, and Zexion—and her college friend Marluxia—can be seen in a few. Her furniture is different, but it's still new-age and vibrant. There's a lot of red and blue in here.

"I'll be right back!" my boyfriend cries. I recognize the anxious smile on Sora's face even before he heads off in the direction of the bathroom.

I call, "That's why you should have gone at the restaurant!" I don't get a reply. I just hear the bathroom door shut. I snort and shake my head, smiling at him. He hasn't changed a bit after all these years.

"Do you want some water or anything?" my host wonders.

"No, thanks. I'm good."

"'kay." She smiles and hugs me again, squeezing me tightly. "Oh, I've missed you! I know we've got busy lives, but we really shouldn't wait two years before seeing each other in person."

"Well, you're the one with all the funds, Miss World-Renowned Artist!"

She grins, blushing faintly. "Yeah. I suppose you're right. And I really do miss the islands. I'll try and make it out more—I promise!"

"You better!" We laugh. Suddenly, we're in another hug. Ever since Sora and I discovered (by talking about it between ourselves) that Naminé was basically our matchmaker in a very discreet way, we've been extremely close to her.

Our host is adamant that we stay at her place instead of a hotel—"for the whole weekend! I'm not taking no for an answer!" Sora and I are quite amenable to this, which is why it's even a bit silly that anyone could possibly entertain the idea that we'd stay at a hotel. Why stay at a hotel when you can crash at a friend's place for free and talk for hours on end?


Much to Sora's delight, the morning of March 8th dawns bright and sunny. There are still nippy winds, but he doesn't care. He's got a tummy full of Naminé's homemade omelets and hash browns, so he's good to go.

Sitting in her breakfast nook, we invite Naminé to join us on our trip to Disneyland, and she goes, "Hmm…I don't know. It's your guys' anniversary and all…." She abruptly states, "Which reminds me! Don't fornicate in my place! I love you guys, but that's not cool!"

Getting offended, I gripe, "When have we ever?"

"Never," she fluidly replies, "but it is your anniversary." She grins at us, and we laugh.

Standing to stretch, Sora promises, "We won't 'fornicate' in your place, Nam. Relax. I think we can last until we get home to do that. Today's just gonna be about childish delight and DISNEYLAND!" He grabs my shoulder, shaking me from side to side in my seat as he jumps up and down, grinning so hard that it looks painful. I laugh because this is the delayed reaction I've been waiting for. "DISNEYLAND!" he repeats. "Fucking DISNEYLAND! Eee!" Both Naminé and I laugh. He insists to the blonde, "You have to come! It's not every day we see you. Come on!"

"Okay," she agrees. "I'll come! But if only to play photographer for you two." She grins, giggling a bit.

"Oh! Totally!" I agree. "Absolutely!"

Anxious and eager, Sora pushes, "Come on! Let's go already! I want to be able to go on as many rides as possible!"

"Hai, hai…" He smirks at my use of Japanese. And then he's off and running to get dressed.


"It's a small world!"

"Sora, I didn't think I would ever say this in my life…but if you don't shut up, I will hurt you."

He laughs silently then offers, "Maybe you'd prefer it in Japanese?" He takes a breath and sings, "Sekai wa!" I clamp my hand over his mouth.

"No," I command. "I'd prefer it never again! Once is enough to last a lifetime!"

Naminé giggles behind her hand…before abruptly snapping a photo of me with my hand over Sora's mouth. She muses, "I think we'll have the caption read, 'Riku hates "It's a Small World".'" She giggles again, and I get muffled chuckling from Sora. Rolling my eyes, I release him. I walk ahead of the pair, and they hasten to catch up.

"I can't believe they put in fucking Disney characters! Fuck you, Disney!"

Sora snorts and reminds me, "Riku, we're at Disneyland. You can't say 'Fuck you, Disney!' in the Magic Kingdom. That's like…blasphemy! Plus, there are little kids around! Have some decorum." I chuckle at him scolding me—normally, it's the other way around.

He opens his mouth to say more but abruptly catches sight of something. This something becomes apparent as he childishly yells, "GOOFY!" and charges the person in the suit. Naminé and I laugh so hard that we have to lean on each other for support; there are tears of mirth going down our faces as we snort for air through our nostrils.

"Take a picture!" I urge her as we see Sora skid to a halt in front of the life-sized character. She pulls herself together in order to snap a couple.

Sora waves us over and begs, "Take a picture of us together!"

I lose it again, but Naminé obeys, taking multiple shots of a grinning Sora and "Goofy," who mainly sticks to putting his arm around the brunet's shoulders.

Oh, wait: Sora gets him to give a peace sign with him while he grins. And Sora hugs him unabashedly. I get embarrassed on his behalf, but I'm also too busy dying from laughter that can't even be voiced. I wonder if the actor playing Goofy thinks that Sora's retarded. A young man of twenty-four getting as excited as a little kid, throwing caution to the wind, is indeed a strange (yet oddly heartwarming) sight. Luckily for Sora, he hardly looks his age.

The two share one last hug in which Goofy pats Sora's back then, upon withdrawing, his spiky hair, causing the brunet to guffaw.

"Thanks, Goofy. Catch ya later!" Sora offers a fist, and Goofy pounds it. I snicker, horribly amused. Naminé snaps a picture of it because the action and Sora's grin are priceless.

We go all over the park. After the Pirates ride, Sora sings under his breath, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" He then decides that he wants to go on it again…so we do. Meanwhile, I'm busy trying not to ruin it for him by holding my tongue instead of bitching about the changes to the ride—the most obvious being the addition of Johnny Depp and some other movie things.

Fucking Johnny Depp! Blasphemy or not, I still say, 'Fuck you, Disney!'

We wander off to visit other rides before lunch since Sora wants to eat at the Blue Bayou. This gives us a break from that song, which might just be stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It's a toss-up between it and "It's a Small World". Obviously, I'd prefer having the Pirates song stuck in my head. And so, we eat at the Blue Bayou. Our eyes stray to the people going by on the Pirates ride.

We go on every ride at least once. We even catch the parade at its start. Sora makes me buy a pair of Mickey Mouse ears just so that he can try and stick them on my head. I grab them from him and try to do the same to him. He runs, and I chase after him. Poor Naminé is left to both run and take photos of our fun. Finally, for the sake of a photo op, we stand in front of the castle and take turns wearing the stupid ears, both of us grinning like idiots.

Out of all the places go, my favorite is Space Mountain. I think it's Sora's favorite ride because he's always had an affinity for rockets and space, which is why he loves Tomorrowland in general. The snapshot of Sora's wide-open smile and huge blue eyes is great. The only problem with it is that I look rather unattractive in it, with my mouth hanging open and my eyes looking like, 'What? Picture time? Say what?' We buy a print because Sora loves it so much. Naminé and Sora spend a great deal of time guffawing at how I look in the photo.

By now, it's nighttime, and my stomach wants dinner. Since Sora wants to stay until the park closes for the night, "to get your money's worth," he claims, we stick around to have dinner and to ride Space Mountain again. We catch the fireworks, managing to get a good spot to see them.

I'm very glad that I've got a lot of money in my savings account because I don't just pay an arm and a leg for this trip: I pay an arm, hand, leg, foot, and head for it. It's worth it, though, because Sora's insanely happy.


After much hugging, we bid goodbye to our dear friend Naminé and head into the airport to begin the process of going through security. We've only spent a few days in California, but they are a few days well spent. We've gone out to eat—mostly to cheap places—a few times this weekend, but mostly we've hung out with Naminé. Obviously, the biggest chapter of the weekend is Disneyland.

As we board the plane, Sora's more subdued—quite sleepy, actually, since we've landed a morning flight. He spends the duration of the flight dozing on my shoulder. Thankfully, he never really falls asleep (and thus never drools on me). During an instance when he sits up and shifts because he can't get comfortable, he mumbles with a sleepy smile about how great this weekend was and how I'm awesome.

"We should totally do this more often," he says right before a big yawn hits him. He nuzzles my shoulder, completely missing the fond smile that I shoot him.

"Maybe someday we'll do this again, but I think the novelty is what makes it magical."

"Yeah…." He grins. Prying his eyes open just enough, he peers at me through his narrowed eyes, up through his lashes, and intones, his grin softening into a dreamy smile, "I love you, Riku." His voice is so soft yet so passionate that I feel like he's just covered me in a warm blanket of peace.

I smirk and tease, "More than you love Disney?"

A tired grin stretches across his face. "More than I love Disney."

"More than you love chocolate?"

He purses his lips, but the grin re-emerges. "I think so."

I prod, "More than you love Paramore?"

"Yeah."

"What about sleep?"

He exhales through his nostrils. "I don't know about that one, Ri. I'm pretty damn tired."

I chuckle. "I'll let you sleep then. Sweet dreams, Sora."

His eyes slip closed as a beatific smile graces his lips. I can't resist pressing a kiss to his forehead. I start softly singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," and he laughs, grinning. Soon, the grin melts away into a peaceful expression. I sing the whole thing only because he doesn't stop me. Of course, that might have to do with the fact that he seems to have drifted off somewhere between "Makes no difference who you are" and "Your dreams come true".

As sappy as it is, I consider that song to be one of our dearest songs, what with our history of shooting stars and Sora's love of Disney. Silly though it may be…our dreams really have come true. And if I had a shooting star to wish on right now, I really would wish that we could be together forever.

- Fin -