Epilogue

Riku folded his arms, looking down at the pair in the hammock with an amused smile. They looked so comfortable like that, he didn't want to wake them but the sun was climbing higher in the sky. Coming to a compromise, he nudged the hammock gently to set it swinging. If that didn't wake them then he would leave them be.

They both stirred at the unexpected movement. Sora's eyes opened slowly, looking around in confusion at a location he wasn't used to waking up in. He got a glimpse of the blue sky and looked across the veranda roof before his eyes settled on Riku and widened.

"Riku!" he exclaimed, sitting up all of a sudden and rocking the hammock. That shook Dawn to more alertness as well. She rolled over as much as she could and stared at Riku blearily.

"Morning, Riku…" she muttered. She looked around sleepily but when she saw the blue sky and sunlight she gasped. "Oh shit! Late morning!"

In her rush to scramble out of the hammock she caught her foot in the fabric and the entire thing twisted around. Riku grabbed it to try to save the occupants but it had tilted far enough already for both of them to tumble to the floor. Dawn grunted in pain when Sora landed on top of her and he groaned, winded by an accidental elbow jab. Riku awkwardly glanced between them and the empty hammock in his hands before letting it go and crouching down to help them up. Sora waved him away as he crawled off his mother but Dawn gratefully accepted a hand up.

"Thanks, Riku," she said, rubbing her forehead where she'd hit it on the floor and a red mark that promised to turn into a bump had appeared. "Sora, are you okay?"

"Yeah…" Sora wheezed, getting to his feet.

"Good, that's a relief." She sighed disappointedly. "Riku, why didn't you or Faja wake me up earlier?"

"You looked peaceful," Riku said with a shrug. "My mom always worries that you overwork yourself, even when she wasn't staying here."

"But the orders!" Dawn huffed.

"Mom," Sora said, standing up on the other side of the hammock. "I know you have deadlines and stuff but I think Riku's right. You might just be a little crazy about your job."

She pouted indignantly. Riku added: "We don't want to stop you working, just chill out a little. Mom made breakfast and put some aside for you."

Sora's mother put a hand over her belly and the rumbling it was making, as if just noticing that she was hungry. "Right. I'll eat and then I'll have to get right back to work. Oh dear, how much work am I going to have to catch up on?"

She brushed past Riku on her way inside. The boys watched her leave in silence and didn't turn to look at each other until the door had swung shut. Sora twisted the fabric of the hammock in his hands and after several seconds of keeping eye contact Riku looked away awkwardly.

"So…" Sora began, "sorry I woke you last night."

"It's no big deal."

"You didn't have to wake my mom. She freaks out if she oversleeps."

"I had the feeling you needed to talk to someone after you locked yourself in your room for hours."

"Then why didn't you?" Sora snapped, glaring at Riku like he'd just been betrayed.

"I thought this would be better," Riku explained. "Don't you feel like… like you finally got what you needed?"

Sora didn't reply at first. He worried his lower lip and looked down at the patterns in the fabric. Talking to his mother had been so hard, like every word he tried to speak was being dragged back into his throat and lodged there to choke him. Afterwards he felt raw and exposed, chilled by the knowledge of his mother's feelings about his adventures and his duty. But something about it was also nice.

"It feels like," he croaked, throat suddenly dry. He swallowed. "It feels like the air is a little clearer, there's less to be afraid of now that I can talk to my mom and my sister about what my life is like when I'm gone but… I feel awful still."

"Awful?"

Sora nodded. "It's awful. There's just another promise that I have to keep, on top of every other promise. What if I can't keep it?"

"You'll do the best that you can," Riku told him, reaching across to put a hand on his shoulder. "You've kept promises to me and Kairi that were harder to keep."

"Riku, I… I don't want to do this anymore," Sora admitted quietly, hanging his head. "Somehow I… these islands are so small and yet…"

"I know. These islands are so small and yet now they suddenly look bigger than before." Riku looked out but kept his gaze close, focussing on the nearby palm trees, the dunes and the sand on the beach, the grass on the ground and the little birds in the saltbushes. "There's a lot we didn't see here, hidden under the surfaces so we took it all for granted too easily. It's surprisingly a lot to come back to." He looked at Sora out of the corner of his eye to see him nod quietly. "Is something wrong?"

Sora let go of the hammock and walked away, jumping off the veranda to the ground. He lifted his eyes and kept them steadily fixed on the island out to sea. The morning sun set the sea sparkling like a cushion of glitter for that special place. His feet tingled with every step he took, even when he stopped just behind the foliage of the dunes. Riku's footsteps crunched the sand and grass behind him until he was so close Sora could feel the warmth of his arm radiating against his.

"I thought I would just be afraid of making them worry," Sora confessed. "That if they knew anything I would always be dogged by the burden of their fears. But that burden turns out to be heavier than I thought it was. I'm afraid for me now too. Like I've absorbed the doubt and the fear, I don't know if I can do what I need to do to make all of this right. These mysterious guys The King wrote about—I have no idea who they are or how long they've been waiting for someone like me to free them. Where do I start?"

"Who knows?" Riku sighed. "I guess we'd be the only ones with any clue, right? As long as we're patient, we'll see the right signals and we'll know."

"We?"

"Of course. Because we won't ever be alone. Even if we're far away from each other, we've become connected. Those people are also unwaveringly connected to you—we have more connections than we even knew. As long as you're willing to keep them, they won't ever leave."

Something sparkled on the little island. Sora blinked. It could have been a trick of the light but he had a suspicion that it was special. A warm breeze blew across the beach and around him like an embrace from the world and the rustling from all of the leaves spoke to him like a comforting voice.

"The world is cheering for me," Sora thought, smiling at the whimsical thought.

He walked up to the crest of the dune before him where the wind was highest. Before him the sea rippled endlessly and behind him was the village on the grassy plains, as well as what he couldn't see hidden in the mangroves and the jungle. He raised his arms and closed his eyes, letting the wind carry his heart. The time was coming and when it did all of the hearts he'd ever touched would lift him up, he was sure of it now, invincible in the face of the darkness because the light would carry him forever. His heart thrummed.

"You have important things left to do too, right, Riku?"

"Yeah. The wrong I've done stung deeper than I thought. People were hurt by mistakes I made, even so long after I made them."

"So you're not giving up?"

Riku smirked. "No way."

"Then let's not hold back."

The world had returned in full clarity – its heart, its soul, its body and his memory of it. Right now, he thought, he could see clearer than he ever had in his whole life. He wasn't afraid to be the hero anymore. His whole life behind him pushed him to his future. The Hero of Light was ready.

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THE END

That's all there is. Thanks for sticking with me for the ridiculous amount of time it took me to write this. I kept it a little open ended, implying that it leads into KH3D (or at least a version of it that isn't stupid). I hope you liked my version of Destiny Islands family drama. I will be here again in the near future with my sequel (finally) to Princess Story. Peace out. I love you all :)