Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

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Something to Fall Back On

For fourteen years of his life Sora had lived in complacency, comforted by the sound of waves and used to the feeling of sand in his shorts. But for over a year things had been in constant motion, his surroundings changing with the day, faces coming and going, all the mock battles he'd had with wooden swords had become harder, tougher, rougher and real. All the impossibilities he had grown up with were being broken, magic much more than the stuff fairy tales are made of, and true evil forces weren't just what he read about in books.

But Sora wasn't one to dwell on his misfortune, taking advantage of what he had. Two mismatched royal helpers that were his dearest of friends now, friends that he could trust to catch him if he fell, find him if he was lost, and protect his life with their own. Irrepressible and optimistic, Sora refused to be stopped by his hardships, and to appreciate the little things that could still make him smile.

To anyone else it would be so easy to overlook, but for Sora, two friends that had seen what he had seen and lived through what he had lived through, who had been with him through unimaginable times, to be able to sit down side-by-side and have a popsicle, something let him remember the islands, wasn't something he could take for granted.