The days have begun to blend together now, one with another, with another, with another, just like the colors in the sky at dusk. You've never been so at peace with yourself, with your surroundings. But now the ocean breeze is calming, and sweet, and all that you've ever dreamed of and then some, until you're so overcome with nostalgia and joy that all you can bear to do is bask in it.
Has it truly been a week since your return? It seems like longer, like a part of you never left, but at the same time you feel like you only arrived an hour ago, and that all of time is in a gambit against you. Even so, you're pleased to be back, and pleased that your family was willing to take you.
Your mother says your name cautiously now, quietly, like any little thing will set you off and make you start to run. You don't try to explain it to her the reasons you left, because you know she'll never understand. As cliché as it sounds, the truth it is. You're mother is simpler than you, and never spends hours at a time brooding over life and its meanings. She says, "Riku, you mull over everything! Why don't you just make some sort of impulsive decision for once and try to have a little fun!"
"Made my impulsive decision, didn't I, Mom?" a part of you wants to say, but you never will because you know how easily she breaks and how hard she is to pick back up subsequently. She's like you in some ways, you suppose, because she doesn't hold back and doesn't deny trust, and many times it gets you both into trouble. You shouldn't complain though, because she's all you've got and all you'll ever have, most likely. Not that your friends don't mean anything to you, but…they have one another now.
That's the way it always has been and always should be, you deduce. Sora and Kairi have been a pair since the day they met, as if some sort of invisible universal rope tied their hands together and never let them go. You tried; you tried so hard, because maybe if you could untie the rope then you could have your friend back, but Kairi wasn't so bad, and soon you wished that it was your own hand she was tied to. That wasn't meant to be, it never was, and it was much better that way. You couldn't drag such a wonderful girl into such a dire situation that was your life.
But she's calling your name now, and you wonder how long she's been with you on the island today, and if maybe, somehow, she can hear your thoughts, because most of the time you can so clearly hear hers.
0--0
Kairi scoots next to you on the tree. She's on the branch while you're slouching against it, but still you come up pretty far compared to her height. Kairi shakes her hair out of her eyes and leans forward into the wind.
"Hey, Riku?"
You tilt your head up at her.
"Do you ever think we'll leave the islands again?"
You cross your arms and unknowingly enter your thinking pose. Kairi giggles. "I think that, if we have to, then we will. Darkness will never truly be gone and so there will always be a threat."
"But darkness isn't always so bad," she counters, giving the back of your head a knowing stare.
"It isn't always so good, either," you respond, turning around to face her. That was the end of that discussion. "Where's Sora?"
"Oh, he's cleaning his room."
You raise an eyebrow. Sora? Cleaning a room?
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! His mother made him. I don't blame her though…it was kind of starting to smell in there…" Kairi makes a disgusted face and the two of you laugh. It feels good to be able to be so connected again. The days when the three of you could dream the same dream and finish one another's sentences were beginning anew.
0--0
Kairi's sole skims the top of the water, sending mist through the air. Fish dart around her feet, so accustomed to people that they don't scare anymore. You wonder when, exactly, did that happen? What was the exact second of the exact day that fish stopped being scared of the human children? Could it maybe happen with all species eventually, or were these fish just special?
"I wonder if the fish are just stupid?" Kairi asks absently, applying those mind reading techniques that only best friends acquire—the kind when you read someone's mind so clearly that you begin to think that their thoughts are your own.
"That or really smart," you offer.
"Well that's kind of vague." Kairi frowns and scratches the back of her knee. "What's the purpose of bugs that bite and itch?"
"To make girls like you stop showing off their legs."
Kairi sticks her tongue out at you. "That sounds like something my dad would say."
You shake your head, as if the notion could just rattle right out. "That really scares me."
"Don't worry, Riku." She puts a hand on your shoulder. "That really scares me too." A giggle gives her serious demeanor away, and you think that she was never any good at lying because she laughs too much.
"Do you think Sora will be done by tomorrow?" The sun is beginning to set and still there's no sign of your other friend.
"I dunno…have you smelt his room lately?"
You shake your head. "I know better than that."
Kairi's eyes twinkled, bemused, in the fading light. "Do you think that other friends are as happy as we are?"
"I hope so. We're pretty happy." You smile at her and she tucks her head under your arm, content to watch the sunset, smell the waves, feel your skin, and listen to your heart.
0--0
The two of you knock on Sora's door the next morning, because Kairi had fallen asleep on your couch, and no one really minded it anymore. Years ago, yes, because her mother had a fit if she slept anywhere near her two best friends, but now there was no thought of anything improper because it just seemed right for them to be together. But the absence of one friend was looming and even though he was just houses down, it was bit unsettling being apart after trying to stay together for so long.
Miss Lilly comes to the door, her still shower-wet hair pulled back, and her cool eyes delighted to see the two of you, her other children. She invites you in for breakfast even though Sora isn't awake, because this house is as much as home as where your own parents resided.
You and Kairi sit down at the kitchen table, because your both very fond of Lilly, and no one would turn down Sora's mother's cooking. Not even Sora, it seemed, because soon he was up and about, claiming that the smell had roused him from dreamworld. The sight of his two best friends eating in the kitchen with his mother didn't even surprise him, a testament to how close they all really were. There was small talk about who was staying where that night, whose house you all were crashing at this weekend, and who still had a room to clean. You laughed and smiled and for a moment forgot that there'd ever been life beyond this.
But that doesn't last long, because it is mandatory that you all clean up. Three of you doing dishes, putting things away, and wiping up afterwards might seem like a quick task, but your number just made it harder. After several incidents with the hand soap, a problem with a dripping rag, and a harmless prank turned horrid with the help of syrup, Lilly rolls her eyes and tells you and Kairi to get out of her house (all in good humor, of course) and Sora to get back up to that room.
It's a few hours collecting shells with Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, and you and Kairi are back to your place for lunch. Your mother's there, ready for the two of you with something or another that Lilly gave her a recipe for, that will never turn out as good as the original, but the love and good intentions that put it together make it delicious (it's usually pretty inedible, but it seemed that Lilly had helped this time). Kairi uses her manners and her, "Yes, please, Miss Kaito," stuff, and you roll your eyes when your mother makes her inevitable comment on Kairi's influence and how it isn't rubbing off strong enough.
You're surprised when the door swings open without a knock (meaning it could be only one person) and Sora comes waltzing into the kitchen. Your mother is delighted to see her 'other son' and pecks the top of his head because after so long it doesn't even seem strange.
0--0
Kairi said something about her parents grilling, so her house is an automatic for dinner. But you still have hours until then, and you spend a lot of that time exploring any island that you can reach, because the Secret Place is shrinking (or maybe you're getting bigger?) and Sora and Kairi blush every time they go inside. There's the inevitable crack about using the piles of junk on Sora's floor for a new hangout because no one would ever be able to find their way out, and you can't even remember who said it anymore because you were both thinking it. The three of you find some old sea caverns, only visible now that the tide is down, without a single trace of human interference. Armed with sharp rocks the three of you venture inside, carving your names into the stone. Your art is better now, which makes it a little less fun, and you can read all the writing. Kairi carves 'Secret Place Junior' in the very back in big, curvy letters, and you all get to work decorating with random doodles and squiggles and designs until none of you know where one's work ends and the other's begins.
You're very careful to watch the time so that the waves don't trap you inside, and by the tine you all get out it's time for dinner and you can almost smell the clams cooking from atop the hill. The whole town is there, sprawled out through the house and the yard, and you think of other worlds where such togetherness isn't possible. You're happy to live in a world where it is.
When the barbeque is reached, you, Sora, and Kairi are the center of attention. Everybody wants to talk to you, to ask you questions, and to just admire how much you've grown. You all try to push past the inquiring townspeople and try to enjoy the dinner, but it isn't so easy, so you eventually retreat to the old dock a few miles from the house. It's where the boats used to dock on the island until the house was built and other wharf was put into place.
You sit on the old wood, green from weathering, but you aren't afraid of it breaking. It's an old, grizzly, tough structure, and you doubt that anything could ever break it. It's half-buried by sand, and Kairi sticks her feet of the edge into the grains, while you and Sora lay back on the planks, your mind rushing in memory of all the attention you'd just received.
0--0
"Is this was life was like before? It's hard to imagine…" Kairi's sentence trails off, her toes wiggling beneath their sandy prison.
"I guess so. But it seems like a lifetime ago," Sora adds, patting the sand around Kairi's feet, having been the one to bury them. "But I guess that nothing has really changed."
"It's not just about the three of us anymore. We aren't alone."
"I guess…"
"It's a different time now," You finally speak up. "It's not time to fight, or time to worry, or time to spend alone."
"It's time to act our age again, huh?" Sora muses, propping himself up with his arms. You nod before Sora continues, "I guess they're not all that off. Did you see how Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie wanted us to come out to the island with them? I guess we never really realized how much everyone missed us. They all want to spend time with us."
Kairi sighs and smiles at the two of you, her best friends, her companions. "And they can, tomorrow. But right now, we just need to be together. Tonight…tonight is our time of rest."
0FIN0
I started out loving it, but now I'm not so sure. I tried to portray, what with the constant interfering of the parents, how the three were struggling to adjust to their life, but with each other they could work through it. All through Riku's eyes, of course, because if you know me then you know I can't get enough of the silver-haired sex god.
Hopefully this flows well. I just kept getting interrupted by the cries of Spooky, our adorable rottweiler puppy. And this where you go, 'awwwwwwwwwww'.
So please review and all that other stuff. You know the drill.