Well, since waiting for the japanese release of Dream Drop Distance kind of makes me stir-crazy and I keep thinking that I should/want to write more fanfiction, I decided to make my own countdown and borrow one of the 30-claims tablets for prompts. The one I settled on is from the LJ community 30_nights and can be found in my writing community on dreamwidth (iceboundary), though while I intent to use the prompts, I'm not keeping the night theme for every drabble.
While I'm doing my best to release one drabble per day over on my dreamwidth they will probably take a little longer to make it to here. Most of them will be set somewhere between Birth by Sleep and Re:Coded, though it's likely that some will also contain spoilers for the Dream Drop Distance pre-release material. I will put up Spoiler Warnings if/when that's the case though!
Pairings-wise there probably won't be much aside of slight hints on Destiny OT3, because that's just the way I roll.
Anyways, this is the first time I've written anything from Sora's point of view, so I'm kind of unsure abour everything, and maybe really like to have some feedback?
Enjoy?
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi, hints of Destiny OT3
Genre: Gen, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: G
Warnings: ...Nothing really in particular? Though a tissue warning might be at order I suppose. |D;
Prompt: 30 - It hurt to see you cry.
Summary: Drabble - Their whole dynamic has changed, but the pieces still fit together and as long as they do, things are just fine as they are.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.
- All Things Different -
It's strange to fall into old-yet-new patterns upon returning - because they are home now and everything looks unchanged and yet totally different. The people around him are different too - Wakka is even taller than Riku, both him and Tidus are so seriously involved with never ending practice of their ballgame that they hardly find time to hang out and Selphie too has gotten all strange - she's still as forward as before, but more girly and while her aim still is mean, she hardly lashes out with her jump rope anymore.
He supposes he is different too - nobody travels for two years and stays totally the same right? - and he can see the way his mother looks at him from time to time, hesitant, as if she does not quite recognize him.
Riku and Kairi are different too - more adult-ish, that's for sure - Kairi is even more bossy now and Riku has grown far, far more quiet and their whole dynamic has changed, but the pieces still fit together and as long as they do, things are just fine as they are.
Different doesn't mean bad after all, because before he could have never even imagined teaming up with Kairi to tackle Riku to the ground and tickle him until he's dissolved with laughter, to pin him down and drag him into a cuddle so close that they can't even tell where one of them starts and the other ends and keep him there until his quiet protests have totally stopped.
Because sometimes Riku is stubborn about the things he deserves - or rather about the things he thinks he doesn't - and sometimes Sora just needs to cling to his best friends - and absolutely make sure that both of them, all three of them, are really, really here - that no one has been kidnapped or taken or is running around all alone thinking that he's just got to do everything by himself.
The first time they do this, Riku suddenly starts laughing once they've pinned him into the sand - not the "Oh that's funny"- kind of laughter and (thankfully) not the smirk-creepy kind either, but in a strange, sad, not-actually-funny-way that makes his heart ache and he exchanges glances with Kairi, who looks just as worried, just as uncertain.
When they try to pull away, to figure out what's wrong - maybe they've crossed a line they couldn't see, maybe it's just one of these things that Riku keeps hidden (there are way, way, way too much of those, but one day they'll get him to spill, so that it stops eating him up from inside) - he pulls them back and clings clings clings, like he's never before and laughter changes into something like sobs and suddenly all three of them are crying and clinging like idiots and even forever seems too soon to let go.
Later, Riku calls them stupid, even though his eyes are still all puffed and red and he really doesn't look much better than either of them. But there is also something strangely vulnerable in that look in his eyes, something like he doesn't quite believe that it's actually happening, and Sora feels his chest tighten and hurts at the thought of all the doubts Riku must have felt the entire time he's spent alone, especially since he hadn't thought he should really return with them when they had finally, finally found him.
It hurts to see his best friend cry, to think about all the things and people that hurt him and to consider that maybe he's hurt him too, even though he'd never never wanted to.
He makes a promise that night, when he just short of falling asleep curled close to his best best bestest friends in all worlds in the sands of their play island, with only each others' voices and the sounds of the waves as lullaby: next time (because there'll probably definitely be one - they are all Keyblade Wielders after all and even though things ought to be better now that the Organization is gone, the Heartless are still out there), next time he's going to protect them both.
Next time, it won't be just Riku having his back like he's had in the year he was sleeping and after, but them having each other's back and really, they've already promised, haven't they?
From now on, they'll all go together.
- Fin -
