Author's Notes: Welcome to my first Kingdom Hearts fanfic! When I first planned this story out, it was just going to be a simple short Sora/Riku story because God forbid I finish writing a fic. But somewhere along the way it just evolved into something not so simple, with more characters and a deeper plot than I originally intended…cuz I like plots. Yeah.

And yes, the main relationship will revolve around Sora/Riku, but there is some Sora/Kairi too because plots. I love Kairi and I dislike authors who just bash on characters for no good reason.

Also, just a heads up—I've spent the last few years talking in math equations and C++, so my writing might not be up to par (ha what a tragedy). Hopefully my story will still be enjoyable to some of you. ^_^

Summary: In order to protect the Blessed Child of Destiny Islands, Sora surrenders himself to the forces of Hollow Bastion. Now he must find a cure for Prince Riku's blindness, or face death at the hands of General Xehanort.

Warnings: Uhh… boy/boy and language? Damn did FF raise the barline for teen rated fics or what? :\ M rated is like T rated now.

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts I would drop out of college to finish the third sequel that Nomura should have released years ago (it's been 10 years…WHERE IS IT?). Also a lot of references to FFX.

Heart of Darkness

Chapter 1 – The Blessed Child of Destiny Islands

Sitting at the cliffs of Kilika Island, Sora frowned at the paopu fruit between his hands. He broke off a corner of the star fruit; chewed on it twice and shivered. The bittersweet juice prickled his dry throat like acid. With a weak gulp, the brunet tossed the remains into the ocean, a dull plunk between the sounds of waves crashing against jagged rocks.

Another sharp throb shot through his head. With a shuddered breath, Sora sprawled back onto the sand, arms across his face so that he didn't have to watch the sun dance in circles. He begged for the drowsy afternoon to fade away…but the ocean kept roaring against the cliffs. The world was just too noisy.

"SORA!"

Sora flinched. Beach sand scraped against the flip-flops that crept upon him. A shadow fell over his body. Sora parted his arms just enough to distinguish the auburn haired woman between the crack.

"You lazy bum! It's almost sunset and there are still people who need help! Not to mention Tidus and Wakka have spent the last hour looking for you, and Selphie is absolutely furious that you—" Her blue eyes melted into panic as she knelt down to place a hand over his forehead. "You're burning."

Kairi slipped off her handbag and propped Sora's head against it. "Drink slowly," Kairi said, placing a canteen against his chapped lips. Sora almost choked on the sweet, sweet water gushing down his scorched throat. "Oh Sora, why didn't you tell me you were sick? And dehydrated too…"

Before Sora had a chance to answer, Kairi stripped off his black shirt and forced him back down to the ground. "Relax," she said, soft fingers digging into the muscles of his abdomen. "I need to figure out the source of your fever."

"But you're groping me."

The gentle hand curled into a stone fist. Kairi grabbed the canteen and dumped the rest of the water onto Sora's unsuspecting face.

"Blegh," Sora whined, arms defending himself against Kairi's swats. "I was joking!"

"That was for you to shut it," she said, a pink hue spreading across her cheeks, "or I'm going to ask Tidus and Wakka to beat you into a pulp!"

Too exhausted to retaliate, Sora slumped into the sand in defeat. Kairi smiled at his quiet submission. She pressed one palm against his stomach, the other against his forehead, and then closed her eyes. A few minutes passed before a cool wave washed over Sora from head to toe, soothing the ache in his body and the pounding in his brain. When the tingling sensation dissipated, another wave of energy surged back into his veins. With this newfound power, Sora picked himself up with ease.

"Feel better?"

"Y-yeah, wow." Sora clenched and unclenched his hands with wide eyes, then pressed them against his cheeks, having a hard time believing that his world ceased to twist in an endless loop of misery. Everything was so feather light and crystal clear and just amazing. "You're amazing." With a huge grin, Sora tackled Kairi into the sand and squeezed out an oof from her small body. "Thanks Kairi," Sora sighed, hugging Kairi tightly, "I owe you another one."

It was at this point in time when two abrupt coughs sounded from behind the couple. Sora dropped Kairi like a hot plate and scrambled back into sitting position, ears red under the pair of men sporting indigo swim trunks and the yellow jacket uniforms of the Besaid Aurochs. Tidus cackled madly under his breath, blue eyes twinkling beneath those dirty blond locks. Wakka, the bigger and darker of the two, had his eyebrows raised to the headband supporting his long tuff of orange hair. The bubble gum in his mouth popped as he watched the scene with amusement.

"Ohhhhh…"

"Oooooh…"

"So this is where you guys have been..."

"Wassup love doves?"

Sora dove for his shirt and hastily threw it back on, then finger combed through his unkempt hair. Grains of sand sprung from the crevices of his spiky mane like crickets. "Uh—I mean—we were—I thought—" Sora let out a frustrated growl when none of his words came out right. He thrust a finger at them in accusation. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Welllll," Tidus said, "Wakka ended practice early so we could catch the last boat to Kilika. Then we bumped into this child named Selphie who was going ballistic about how you broke up with her. She was like, 'this son of a bitch is gonna get it,' and then swung her nunchucku like whoosh and snap—"

"What Tidus is saying," Wakka said loudly to drown out Tidus' poor attempt at acting, "is that Selphie was worried about where you were, so we came to look for you. Guess Kairi found you first, ya?"

Tidus crouched close to Sora and smirked. "So, what base?"

Sora smacked Tidus away. "Fuck off man, I was sick."

"Oh." Tidus frowned. "Well…Kairi's made you all good now right? 'Cause if you miss Yuna's sendoff ritual…" Tidus narrowed his eyes, dragging his finger across his throat. "I'll make sure you don't see tomorrow."

Kairi gasped.

Wakka planted a face in his palm. "C'mon buddy, this isn't about your Yuna—it's about Kilika. We should be peaceful towards one other, ya?" He offered one hand each to Sora and Kairi with a warm smile. "Let's go back before the sun sets."

By the time the group returned to Kilika, the sun's rim dipped below the horizon, breaking into soft hues of gold and red. Uprooted paopu trees obstructed the main streets, so the group weaved through desolated alleyways, until they reached the boardwalk. It was here where they could see the wreckage of the over-water bungalows and canoes that used to populate the coast. Splinters of wood and other debris from the storm still drifted around the shoreline.

"Damn, they're still not done with the piers yet," Tidus said when they reached the end of the dock that curved into the ocean. Two workers were hammering in another plank of wood where the walk broke off. The other three lounged at the edge, drinking beer and watching the sunset silently.

"Kairi! Kairrrriiii!" a high voice squealed from far away. The wood beneath them rumbled as a young woman in a yellow top and sun-kissed jeans skipped across the pier, brown curls bouncing up and down with vigor.

"Oh shit," Sora said and scrambled behind Wakka.

"Selphie!" Kairi greeted with surprise. "How are you?"

"Fantabulous!" Selphie grinned fondly, hooking Kairi by the arm and leading her across the pier. "How do you like the progress so far?" she asked, sweeping her hand across the shoreline. "We've rebuilt most the houses by the coast already. Haven't done much here unfortunately…" She laughed nervously and dropped Kairi's arm. "The water here is really deep, and the committee hasn't found the blueprints of the infrastructure yet."

"I think it's wonderful!" Kairi smiled, clasping her hands together. "I'm sure many families are happy that you've done so much for them."

Tidus crossed his arms. "I think you should tell that team of yours to hurry their old asses up. It's been like a week already!"

"Maybe we'd be done by now if you and Wakka would help out instead of playing blitzball—"

"Whoa there Selph," said Wakka, raising his hand to silence Selphie. "Tidus and I, we got a plan to wipe the floor at the tournament this year. Gotta train hard, ya?"

"C'mon sis, give your bro a break."

Selphie glowered at Tidus and Wakka.

"Oh! We found your runaway boyfriend by the way," Tidus said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He grabbed Sora by the sleeve and yanked him off of Wakka's back.

"H-hi Selphie," Sora said with a weak chuckle.

Selphie's glower morphed into indignation. She grabbed the collar of Sora's shirt and dragged his face down to her eye level. "You sir, you are an absolute disgrace to the restoration committee! Where were you when we needed you to haul the woods down from the mountains? Huh?"

Sora rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry…" he said sheepishly. Then he glared at Tidus. Tidus whistled.

"Sorry doesn't cut it! Look at my beautiful hands—" Selphie shoved them into Sora's face—so close that he could count every splinter buried in her swollen fingers—then withdrew them and bawled. "They're fucking ruined!"

"Oh shut up you crybaby," Tidus said, rolling his eyes. "Just ask Kairi to fix it."

"No! Kairi needs to help the people of Kilika!"

"This will take her like five seconds. Five seconds!"

"I need a manicure too!"

Wakka rubbed his temples. "You kids are giving me a headache."

"We're all adults here, hello," Tidus and Selphie said in unison.

"Please, neither of you are adults until you can come to the bars with me."

Their argument was cut short when a deep gong echoed three times from the mountaintops. At once, workers dropped their tools and jogged back to join the crowd at the lagoon, where the red caskets of the dead floated, tied down deep into the sand. A young brunette dressed in a white tunic stood at the edge of water barefoot, separate from the gathering. Next to her was an elderly man in long, blue robes, combing his grey beard pensively while waiting for the people of Kilika to settle down.

"Yuna!" Tidus sighed longingly and reached his hand out to the lonely girl.

Selphie huffed and kicked Tidus in the shin. "Stop dreaming you sick lovebird. Just because we have a nice and happy and sometimes functional family doesn't mean you're entitled to act like a spoiled, ignorant child in front of the people of Kilika."

When the elderly raised a hand into the air, the crowd immediately fell silent. "Dear fellow brothers and sisters, as chief of Kilika, I thank you for joining us at the gathering today. As all of you may know, the gods have become angry with us and unleashed a catastrophic storm upon our homeland. In the end, we have lost homes, friends, and families. However, with the help of our neighbors from Besaid Island, we have rebuilt much of our community."

The people politely clapped before the chief continued. "Let us first thank Selphie, who leads Kilika's restoration committee; Kairi, the Blessed Child of the Destiny archipelago, for saving many lives this week; and last but not least, Priestess Yuna of Besaid, who will now perform the sendoff ritual for our loved ones."

Yuna took a long bow. She held her golden staff high as she walked into the water with commanding strides, stopped at knee length, and waited. The chief began to hum the Hymn, and the rest of the crowd slowly followed. Skimming across the eerie stillness of the sea, the staff beckoned the water to flow. Then she began to dance. The ripples grew wider and taller as she twirled in circles, bringing the staff to her heart and thrusting it away.

The waves splashed high into the sky, and the sunset shattered into prismatic rainbows, bathing Yuna and the lagoon in an ethereal glow. The ocean breeze became gusts of wind that stirred the caskets to life. Spherical lights bubbled from within the coffins, past the sunset, and up into the night sky, where the lights finally faded, the souls of lost ones finally departing this world.

Sora watched all this silently, the cold wind biting his cheeks, and thought back to another time, another sunset, when it was just he and Kairi, watching the same dance all over again.

"Fuck you Selphie. Why do I have to carry all your shit from the mountains?"

"Let me help—"

"Oh no you don't Yuna, I'm not letting your beautiful hands turn into those ugly man hands too—"

"Fuck you Tidus!"

Kairi giggled, grasping onto Selphie's hands. "Selphie, calm down so I can remove your splinters."

Wakka grumbled something incoherent and left to join another campsite, where the rest of the Besaid Aurochs were drinking boisterously and hollering, "Defeat the Zanarkand Abes!" every other minute. Sora bid him farewell before shifting himself to the middle of the log, now that he was alone. He threw more wood into the sand pit. The fire erupted, and then relaxed back into its warm waltz. Sora rested his elbows on his knees and watched the distorted figures of his friends through the fire, lost in thought.

"Kairi, oooh I love you I love you I love you!" Selphie squealed and there was another oof as she gave Kairi a bear hug and a huge kiss on her cheek. "I don't know how you do it gurl but you are fucking awesome."

"T-thanks."

"But really Kairi, how do you do it?" Yuna leaned towards Kairi eagerly, her blue and green eyes blinking curiously. "Do you remember when we were nine, and Tidus kicked that blitzball into my face and gave me that horrible concussion?"

Tidus spluttered, face turning red. "I-I didn't mean that!"

"He totally meant it," Selphie muttered under her breath.

"And Wakka keeps breaking his right arm during practices, but you manage to heal it back to new each time… Oh and last year when Tidus broke his neck in that game against the Zanarkand Abes…" Yuna's lips quivered, tears shimmering in her eyes. "I-I thought he was going to die…"

Tidus looked extremely flustered now. "Y-Yuna, I'm sorry! Don't cry…" He threw down the planks of wood next to Selphie and rushed to wrap an arm around her shoulders in comfort. Selphie twisted her face in disgust as the beach sand billowed up to her nose.

Kairi looked down at her woven fingers, frowning in confusion. "I mean…I still have to study medicine so I know what injuries or illnesses there are, how to diagnose them, and stuff…"

"But like, how are you able to just touch people with a finger and whoosh, everything is fixed?" Tidus placed a hand on his chin in thought. "Like, don't doctors usually have to like…cut people up sometimes to do some of the stuff you've been doing?"

Kairi shook her head. "I-I don't know… I just concentrate and think about good things. Chant prayers. Sometimes I chant the Hymn. Sometimes I think of something like… 'We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.'" There was a giggle, red creeping up to her cheeks again in embarrassment. "It sounds super cheesy I know, but when I want to save someone with all my heart, it just…happens." Kairi sighed, leaned back onto her arms, and looked up into the starry sky. "I don't really know where this power comes from… I just remember discovering it ten years ago…"

"After the tsunami." Everyone jumped and turned to Sora, as if they forgot he had existed all this time. "I almost died trying to save my parents, and she saved me."

Kairi smiled. "Yup, Sora was my first patient! It was really hard though…Sora was bleeding all over the place, and he was asphyxiated too so I had to…"

Selphie hid a giggle behind the back of her hand and Tidus snickered. When Sora realized Kairi had just hinted at their first kiss, he blushed. "Shut up."

"Well, I have a couple of theories," suddenly said an old, wise voice from the darkness. Everyone jumped again.

"Chief Yen Sid!" Yuna gasped and stood as the elderly man in blue robes stepped out into the fire. She bowed in respect.

"Hello Priestess Yuna of Besaid Island. Thank you for your service today." Yuna bowed again. "And hello, the Blessed Child and her friends. It is an honor to be in all of your presence."

Sora scooted back to his old position on the log and tapped at the vacant seat next to him.

"Thank you…"

Selphie poured another cup of tea and offered it to the chief. "I am sorry to have eavesdropped on your conversation," the chief said, sipping on the tea silently. "I was returning home, but I thought to stop by and say hello." Chief Yen Sid gave Kairi a warm, fatherly smile. "Kairi, I want to thank you again for your hard work. We do not have many doctors here in Kilika. You truly are a blessed child of Destiny Islands."

"Aw, stop complimenting her guys, Kairi's turning into a cherry!" Selphie patted Kairi's head. "Come on Kairi, don't be shy!"

"So…" Tidus trailed off, struggling to piece words into a concise and mannered sentence. "These theories of yours…what are they?"

Chief Yen Sid closed his eyes and cleared his throat. "Well…my first theory is the obvious one, that Kairi's power may stem from her lineage."

"But Kairi's parents died ten years ago…" Sora said slowly. "So how would you know?"

"That my boy, I do not know. However, Kairi, I did personally know your parents and your grandparents. They all lived here on this island when they were young. And they were all very nice and ordinary people. So I am skeptical to conclude that your power is inherited from some distant, powerful ancestor."

Tidus blinked a couple of times, absorbing the information into his brain. "So then…what's your other theory?" Tidus finally said.

"A long and bizarre one." Chief Yen Sid chuckled and stroked his beard. "You see Kingdom Hearts?" He stretched his hand and waved it across the night sky, his long robe sleeves flapping in the night breeze. He pointed at the heart-shaped moon. "There is an old legend in Destiny Islands that Kingdom Hearts is humankind's final destination. When people die, their souls become light, a manifestation of their hopes and dreams. If these souls don't reach their final destination, then the darkness of the human world shall consume and corrupt them." Yen Sid turned back to look at Yuna with a smile. "And that is why we have priests perform the sendoff ritual, to guide them on their way to Kingdom Hearts."

"And what does that have to do with Kairi?" Sora asked with a low, uncertain voice.

"Since the beginning of time, humans have fought against disease and decay. Death is something frightening, something evil. In other words, Death is the physical representation of darkness. And if what Kairi said is true—that her hopes and prayers can conquer people's illnesses—then you can see that there may be some sort of connection between Kairi and Kingdom Hearts.

"But alas Kingdom Hearts is a legend, and our rituals are just a tradition in Destiny Islands. So to say that Kairi is connected to Kingdom Hearts is to say that Kairi is also just a legend, and that of course is not true."

Chief Yen Sid took Kairi's hands and cupped them carefully in his aged, wrinkled ones. "Kairi, your power to heal the wounded is rare, unique as far as I know. There are many people out there who will want to use your power for their own good. Please stay safe."

The warm and light ambiance of the campfire turned cold and dark as chief's ominous words sunk in like quicksand. There was suddenly another gust of wind, icier this time, and it howled harder and harder.

"Oh dear…" Chief Yen Sid said, releasing Kairi's hands to stroke his beard and observe the paupu trees fighting against the force of wind. "It seems that the gods are angry once again…"

"I-it's not another storm is it?" Yuna said with trepidation.

"N-n-no." Selphie shakily stood up and pointed at the ocean. "What's that?"

As everyone turned around, someone shrieked at the dock, and another sailor screamed, "A f-fleet! A f-fleet from H-Hollow Bastion! A fleet from the Kingdom of Hollow Bastion has come at night!"

More notes: I know this story sounds like a SoraxKairi fanfic…and I'll admit Kairi will be pretty important to the plot…but fear not! Sora shall meet Riku in the next chapter, and someone else too hehe…

I don't do regular updates because storywriting is not my main focus in life, so follow if you're interested in knowing when I update. Also if you have time, tell me what you guys think! I'm interested. Thanks for reading.