Waiting
She was always waiting – waiting to be rescued – waiting to be found – waiting for her boys to come back to her after they finished saving the worlds. And she was sick of it. She may be a princess, but she's a Keyblade Wielder, just like them. She had power, she was strong! So, she got Riku and Sora to train her.
When she first asked, Riku looked at her, unconvinced, and Sora, well Sora just did his best to convince her that she didn't need to fight, that she was too important to put herself at risk and that he'd fight for her, protect her, save her. Well, he didn't say all that. After all, it was Sora and he still would dodge around the issue of them – Sora + Kairi, Kairi + Sora. He said it in the awkward, naïve, innocent way that was just so perfectly Sora. Which was nice and all (and really cute), but also exactly what she was sick of. So, she asked again, bringing her full arsenal to bear; Logic – "I'm a Keyblade wielder as well! I have to fight – I was chosen! I need to learn to fight for myself." Pleading – "Guys, please. I can't just sit here on Destiny Islands waiting for you two again. I need to be with you, I need to know you guys are safe." Accusing – "It's because you think I can't handle myself, isn't it. You think I'm weak. Useless."
They still said no. Well, Sora said no. Riku looked like he thought it was a good idea, but watching Sora's reactions to her arguments amused him to no end, so he said no. She decided that she hated Riku and would find ways to make him suffer, slowly and painfully. To be honest she found Sora's reactions amusing as well. When she got mad, he got scared, but would still risk her fury to try to placate her. When she begged, he almost looked ready to give in, but bit his lips, stared her straight in the eyes, and said "Kairi, I'm sorry, but you can't. I can't let you risk it." Really, his determination to protect her was adorable, but still annoying. So, she turned on the tears, letting them pool in her eyes quivered her lips, and asked again. He was helpless against crying Kairi. He looked so pitiful, confused, not knowing how to handle her was tears, and even more, berating himself for causing her tears and not knowing how to stop them. He looked at Riku for help, but at this point, Riku was standing off to the side, sitting on the side of the pier, refusing to get into this. "I can't convince her Sora, you've got to do it. She'll listen to you." She saw Riku smirk, eyes dancing with mirth, and proceeded to glare at him. His smirk widened in response. Hmph. Meanwhile, Sora looked as helpless as ever – like he'd rather fight 1000 heartless (again) rather than deal with this. His helplessness was cute, really, but cute wouldn't cut it here. She needed to be trained, so she could finally stop being the one who always waited. She wanted to travel the worlds with her boys, to explore the universe. She wanted to be the one saving people, helping people, rather than being the one being saved, putting others in danger. So, she asked again, with her biggest, best pair of puppy dog eyes, coupled with a quivering voice, and topped off with a tear or two – "Please, Sora, train me. I need you to train me." He never stood a chance.
Eventually, she learned to hold her own. She'd never be as strong as Sora with his valor forms and skills and experience, or as good at fighting as Riku, who made it unfair with how gracefully and skillfully he fought while managing to still look so damn good all the time. Still, she could defend herself, and even take the battle to some groups of enemies. Plus, she was just as determined to fight as they were, and sometimes, that's all that matters. She trained hard, not letting them go easy on her, learning as much as she could so that when King Mickey called for them again she wouldn't be left waiting again – waiting, wondering, worrying for her boys. Next time, she would fight.
But despite all her determination to not be left waiting, there was one thing she would still waiting for. Sora. To be specific, Sora and her. She knew he liked her – he fought his way through worlds for her. He faced off against Dark Riku and Maleficent for her. Isn't that what love is? To surrender your heart to the person you love? Sora, in classic Sora form, just did it a bit more literally than most, but still, it's a good sign right? Then there's the flirting. Well, Sora can't flirt, but she would flirt with him and giggle at his reactions. It really wasn't fair how cute he was without even trying.
There were other things too – she would catch him staring and he'd just blush, smile, and look away. Passing notes in class, randomly touching her, hugging her, holding her, competing to impress her, these were all signs, right? They had to be, the moments when they both happened to catch each other's gaze, when he'd smile, and then she'd smile, or sometimes the other way around, and his eyes, his wonderfully blue eyes would say "I'm here for you Kairi." Those had to mean something. But then again, it was Sora, and you just couldn't know with Sora. Maybe he's just sharing a moment with a friend. After all, Sora was friendly with everyone. What if she was misinterpreting her "moments" with Sora – how could she know for sure he liked her – liked her liked her - because he was just so nice to everyone? Sigh. Maybe it was all in her head. After all, if he really did like her, why was she still waiting? Why hasn't he done anything? Hasn't she proven that she loves him? Hasn't she shared a Papao fruit with him? Couldn't he take a hint? Well…it is Sora. But everyone underestimated Sora – what if he's more perceptive than she gives him credit for? What if he noticed, but was purposely not acting on it because he didn't like her. Sigh. She just didn't know and so, she's left waiting.
She likes to sit on the beach, alone, just thinking. Daydreaming. She enjoyed just sitting here, thinking, watching the tide wade in and out, the breeze playing with her hair, sand sifting through her fingers while she just sat and dreamed. She dreamed of exploring worlds, fighting the heartless beside her boys, of meeting far of princesses (real princesses, unlike her) and princes, heroes and villains. She dreamed days past, present, and future, of what ifs and almosts. She dreamed of Namine, Roxas, Riku, Axel, Sora, Kairi, Kairi and Sora, Sora and Kairi. She dreamed of losing her friends, losing her heart, losing Sora. She often found herself tracing shapes in the sand, drawing pictures of days of old, of friends lost, of vanquishing evil. Sometimes, she'd trace out words – Nobody, Heartless, Bastion – sometimes it'd be a heart, with S + K in it. Her drawings would always end up washed away by the tide, keeping her thoughts to herself. Today found her absentmindedly tracing out the familiar heart, engraving it with the familiar initials S and K.
"You two are pathetic, you know that?"
The words jarred her from her thoughts. She turned around to see Riku standing behind her, gazing out towards the ocean.
"Riku, I…" She stammered.
"Give him a heartless to defeat, or a Nobody to pummel, and Sora will do it without fear of failing. Hell, he beat some sense back into me when I went all dark and evil to try to save you." Riku said, eyes still lost gazing at the horizon, inscrutable. "But give him a problem he can't tackle head on and he does all he can to avoid it."
She was torn between defending Sora's actions and agreeing with Riku, but Riku opened his mouth once again to speak.
"And you. You're not better! You were sick of waiting for us that you got us to train you. You got us to agree to you joining us when the King needs us again. But you're content to just wait for him to ask you out? Both of you are scared over nothing – your relationship is so obvious to everyone, including yourselves, you just don't do anything. And I'm supposed the emotionally troubled one?"
Her face flushed in both anger and embarrassment. "It's not like that Riku. This isn't like a problem like me needing training. It's different Riku."
"How?" He countered. "All I see is a problem that neither of you are solving. You like Sora. Sora likes you. But neither of you are doing anything about it when normally, you two are eager to solve any other problem."
How could he be so sure? How could he know? "What if he doesn't like me back?" She whispered.
"If you honestly believe that he doesn't like you, you're not as perceptive in matters of the heart as I thought." He answered.
She mulled over this thought. She had already known that Sora liked her. She knew since their childhood days, when Riku and Sora would compete for her praise. Back in the old days, when everything was so simple, and matters of the heart were easier to solve.
Suddenly, Riku spoke. "Look. Sora, for all the crazy, insane things he does for his friends, is scared. In fact, he does it because he's so scared. He's so scared that he'll lose the people he loves that he doesn't even worry about the dangers he's facing. Normally, he'd just face the problem head on, but he can't do that here. There's no enemy here Kairi, no villain for him to defeat. Just him, you, and both your emotions. He doesn't know how to handle that because he's scared that if he asks you and fails (which won't happen), he'll be facing a problem he can't solve through skill or training or just plain never giving up."
He paused, breathing in, and turning to look at her. His eyes blazed with some unidentifiable emotion, so strong she had to look away. "Kairi, you're not the only one waiting here. He's waiting too. Now either you two both wait forever, or one of you does something about it."
"But what do I do?"
He scoffed. "Just kiss him. Even he's not so oblivious he'll miss that"
She snapped her head back to meet his gaze. "I can't just go up to him and kiss him Riku! You just don't do that!"
He rolled his eyes and said "Kairi. You've casted magic. You've found out you're actually a princess from a different world. You've been in a coma for months, only to be woken up through the power of love. You've flown around in space in a spaceship made out of gummi blocks. The love of your life has been traveling around with a talking dog and duck saving the world. You've met your Nobody, and then merged with her, to become one person with two different personalities. Hell, the King you're serving is a Mouse, an annoying Mouse at that, with a squeaky voice and a hero complex worse than Sora's. And you say you can't just kiss him?"
She laughed. "No, you can't just kiss him Riku. Relationships don't work like that. You've gotta talk beforehand, confess, make sure that he feels the same way. You don't just kiss someone Riku."
He smiled. "Well, at least it's not waiting."
She looked up, meeting his smile with her own. "Yes Riku, at least it's not waiting."
She had come up with a plan to confess to Sora. She was going to do it, and it was going to work! And well, if it didn't, at least then the waiting would be done, and she could get on with her life and save the universe and stuff.
For ideas, she had enlisted Selphie, because she needed better ideas than Riku's. Honestly, just kiss him? The boy may have inspired her to act, but he had no idea about relationships. Selphie was overjoyed when she asked for help.
"About damn time! If I had to watch you two make googly eyes at each other another day without doing a damn thing, I would've locked the two of you in a closet together until you guys made out or something. You'd think 8 years would be enough for you two to work out your feelings for each other, but noooo. Now, you're going to do this the right way. Sora's gonna treat you like a princess for making you wait. He's going to take you to a nice restraint, with candles and flowers, and Oooh! You're going to need a new dress, and makeup…"
She smiled as she listened to Selphie plan out their date and found herself daydreaming of Sora, of holding hands with Sora, and long walks on the beach with Sora, of kissing Sora…It felt great to finally be done waiting.
It was all Riku's fault, really. She had planned on the date to be next week, when there was a full moon out, and they could walk under the moonlight and everything would be just perfect! But instead, Riku had called her and Sora out to the island to hang out, then "remembered" that he had something to do, took the boat, and promised to return for them later. So she was mad at Riku, but that wasn't all. She was mad at Sora, but she was especially mad at herself. Why? Because now it was just Sora and her, sitting along the pier, silence weighing the air down around them. It was Awkward.
Since when was it awkward between them? They'd known each other since childhood, when everything was easy and it was never awkward because there was always something to do, something to play with. But now, all they could do was sit in silence, too shy to look at each other, too shy to do anything. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They weren't supposed to be awkward! They were supposed to be love-drunk with happiness. Nothing was going right.
"…wish everything was like it used to be." She muttered into the wind.
"Huh? You say something Kairi?" Sora turned to her, his blue eyes question hers.
Dammit. He'd heard. What else would go wrong? What should she say?
"At least it's not waiting."
Riku's words echoed in her ears and she sat in silence. He was right. She'd been putting this off forever, scared of change, scared of losing Sora, scared of rejection. But now, sitting here in awkward silence, it was everything she had feared. Waiting hadn't done anything, it'd only made things worse.
She took a breath.
"I just wish…I wish that everything could go back to being like it used to be, before the heartless, before the keyblade, when it was just us having fun every day without worrying about anything. Everything's just…different now."
There. She said it and now, and all she could do now is just wait. Waiting, once again, and she hated it. She hid her face from Sora out of trepidation.
"Well…why can't it be like that?"
It was so easy for him to say that. He was always so full of hope, believing anything was possible.
"It's just different now Sora. It's all changed. We've changed."
With that, silence once again fell upon the two of them. As she sat there, listening to the waves, the ocean breeze, the oppressing, overbearing silence crushing her, a tear rolled down her face.
Suddenly, Sora stood up. Kairi turned around, wiping her tears away, and asked. "What're you doing Sora?"
He didn't respond. Instead, he waded knee deep into the water and just gazed at the sea, silent.
Curious, she got up and waded through the waves toward him. Putting her hand on his shoulder, she questioned "Sora?..."
He turned, shined his goofy smile, and suddenly, everything felt better. Everything felt right. Looking into his beautiful blue eyes, she smiled and allowed herself to shut her eyes and breathe in his scent.
She felt a shock of cold water splashing her, gasped, and jumped away from Sora, only to trip and fall right into the water.
"What the hell Sora! What. The. Hell!"
Laughter was his reponse. Struggling through his laughter, he managed "You face…you…so surprised…hilarious."
"Oh yeah? You think that's funny?" She muttered, getting up. "Well, take this!"
And with that, she charged at Sora, while he was still laughing, and tackled him into the water.
"Take that! And that!" And suddenly, they were kids again, playing in the water, relaxing, carefree.
After a while, they both paused to catch their breath. She caught Sora's eyes, and he said "See Kairi? Just like old times."
She just smiled.
It was storming, they were still stuck on the island, she hated Riku even more, but everything was still great because she was running with Sora back to the secret hideout, laughing, just like old times.
Upon running into the cave, they paused, taking the time to catch their breath and wipe the rain off their faces.
"Riku probably planned this storm just to torture us." Sora smiled.
"Hm. I'll make sure to make him suffer." She responded, smiling.
They walked deeper into the cave, eager to get away from the cold wind freezing their wet bodies.
Suddenly, Sora stopped. "Whoa. Who changed the picture I drew?"
He was, of course, speaking of the picture he drew when they were kids, where he was giving her a Papao. She knew, of course, who drew it.
"Well dummy, I drew it."
He stared, dumbstruck. It really wasn't fair how cute he was.
"Wait, you drew it? Wait, you've seen this picture? Does that mean…Do you know what the Papao means Kairi?"
"Of course I do you lazy bum. Who doesn't?"
"Wait, so you…then you…but why?"
Maybe it was the rain, or her anger at Riku, or looking at Sora dumbstruck. Anyways, looking at his eyes, she felt it. She couldn't wait until next week. She needed to do something about Sora. Now.
She walked up to him, never taking her gaze off his eyes. She watched his confusion pool up. Standing on her tiptoes, she leaned in, and kissed him.
Sparks. Fire. Electricity coursing through her body. It felt so good. Why hadn't she done this earlier? Why had she waited for so long? Once he got over his shock, Sora began responding, and suddenly, she was flying. Soaring. She ran her hands through his hair, slowly, gently working through the knots plaguing them, while he grabbed her, hugging her closer to him. Despite the cold, she felt burning with relief, with excitement, passion.
Alas, she had to breathe. Curses. As she took her lips off his, she looked up and smirked.
"That's why."
Riku was watching his two best friends as they climbed into his boat. He'd been apologizing since he'd seen them for leaving them marooned, forced to deal with the storm. Honestly, he didn't know it'd stormed. And now, they were just ignoring him.
Suddenly, he noticed something. Sora was helping Kairi into the boat. That was normal. Sora helped everyone. But now, they were sitting down, and Sora still had his hands on hers. And Kairi was just looking off, absentmindedly, like it was perfectly natural. Sora and Kairi were holding hands. They were Holding Hands!
"The hell?" He exclaimed. "You two…you're…holding hands!"
Kairi smirked. "Yes Riku, nice of you to notice."
He recovered from his surprised and smirked.
"Well, took you guys long enough. Damn. Nice."
"Thanks Riku." Sora chimed in.
"How'd you two get together?" He asked.
Kairi blushed.
"Well, we were in the secret hideout, when suddenly, she just…well…she just kissed me." Sora answered. Kairi got redder, if it was even possible.
"Wait. So let me get this straight. She just kissed you? Didn't say anything before, didn't give any signs or whatever?"
"Well…yea. Why?"
Kairi blushed even harder, and buried her face into Sora's side.
"Nothing Sora. Nothing." And he began laughing.