Disclaimer – I don't own any of the characters I am about to brutally maim in this insignificant attempt at what many others have so skillfully laced together in the past in this magnificent thing many have come to know as 'Fanfiction.' With that out of the way, what follows are merely the ramblings of a bored and slightly bemused individual with more than a little time on his hands. 'Nuff said.
Also – Spoiler alert! If you haven't taken the time to watch the Secret Ending of Birth by Sleep and were doing so because you didn't want to know what went on, this is merely one projected outcome of how things might play out; if Square Enix and Disney were not limited to staying within their own universes and not having to pay people every time they wanted to use something, and if there were no qualms about breaking the fourth wall, and many other such nonsensical ideologies that hopefully will manage to occur a plethora of times in the writings that shall commence shortly. If you still don't want to read it because of the marginal information contained forthwith, then you have been forewarned.
With a sigh, a brooding individual leaned casually against the wall of an entirely wooden structure. This figure was tall, easily over six feet tall, and, whilst not obscured, the author hopes to keep you in suspense as to the nature and/or name of this person for as long as can be possible by being incredibly vague and annoying. But, if the author were to drop key clues as to whom the individual was, like, perhaps the fact that they possessed mid-back length silver hair, sea-green eyes and, considering the world upon which they resided, a very inconvenient choice of clothing such as two vests with the lower of a sable colouring that zips both up and down and showed his belly button and a beige and yellow one above that, along with incredibly baggy jean-like pants that managed to be multi-coloured, or an inconspicuous accessory upon his left wrist that vaguely resembled a bandage, though, because it was loosely hanging onto his arm, one might doubt its usefulness at supporting and/or stopping a wound from bleeding, then the readers might easily guess who this mysterious and brooding figure was.
Or if the man's name has not been guessed forthwith by the readers at this point as of yet, then the author could simply state that this brooding figure was named Riku, and ruin a whole page of other good times the author could have by droning on and on and on and on about miniscule details that the individual possessed, such as the number of, the length and width of hair strands in front of the man's face that were always used to conceal his blindingly bright sea-green eyes.
Riku was, of course, in usual emo-kid fashion, currently moping about something that had only recently happened; it was too time-consuming to attempt to focus upon merely one thing for more than a week, because there were only so many faults you could find with a single happening before it came old. In fact, this something that Riku was moping about had occurred mere minutes before he'd started moping about it.
This was, of course, the fact that his bestest buddy in all of the worlds, Sora, had decided to go on another adventure. Except this time, Riku didn't even get to be a bad guy and hassle him endlessly as he struggled valiantly to reunite himself with his friends and to save the world from the imminent creeping touch of Darkness. Instead, Sora had ever so bluntly told Riku to stay here where he would not go chasing the Darkness like an American following a Japanese Schoolgirl in a sailor outfit, and not only that, but also to babysit Kairi so that, for the fourth time in a row, Sora's journey did not involve saving a damsel in distress.
Riku was forced to grudgingly agree when the puppy dog eyes were directed at him, but as soon as they had been shut off, he'd instantly regretted ever uttering any semblance of the word 'Yes.' And so, that brought Riku to his current predicament; not only did he not get to go around the worlds with his bestest buddy blindly swinging his keyblade at anything that wasn't a Disney character (unless they were a villain, then they got a monologue and –then- he got to brutalize them with his keyblade,) but he had to stay home and guard the girl that had a mad crush on Sora and Sora happened to have a mad crush on.
So he couldn't even hope to have a little fun to pass the time. And the only other alternative was –Selphie-. It was a little known but very important fact, however, that guarding girls like this was -very- boring. It wasn't like you got any chances of a pay-off, 'cause the girls were so enamoured with the other half of their 'One True Pairing' to even notice anyone else, despite how fine they were; and Riku was quite certain of the fact that he was a very fine piece of man; fanfiction tended to portray him as such.
But, alas, they also tended to portray him as the epitome of homosexuality, so that goes to show that they couldn't always get everything right.
A scuffle of shoes and the sound of light footsteps descending the stairs in the shack signified that Sora and Kairi's alone-time beside the paopu tree was finished. Riku raised a hand up to his eyes as Kairi's posterior came into sight as she walked by him, telling himself that if he did not look, he would not want. Which was a complete and total lie, but it served to make him feel better about the fact that he'd never stand a chance, anyway.
She turned to look at him and, though Riku's eyes were downcast, he could sense a frown upon her face. He suspected it was a mix of reasons; mainly the fact that he said he'd babysit her, and probably slightly because he wasn't helping Sora. He prepared himself for a lecture, and glanced up at her, only to see that she was, in fact, smiling. He stared in disbelief.
"So, looks like it'll just be me and you, Riku!" Riku's ears tuned in as he was suddenly very interested in the conversation; more importantly, listening for any sort of suggestive activities Kairi might throw out for them to do.
Kairi looked upwards and rolled her eyes in the fashion one might whilst trying to remember a specific piece of information. Then she giggled, about-faced, and hurried out the door. If it hadn't been such a long fall, Riku would have slammed his face into the nearest available horizontal plane. He settled, however, for trying to walk out the door and it promptly slamming into his face. He grimaced and decided that if this was the kind of luck he was going to have while waiting for Sora to return home, he wasn't certain he would triumph over the tedium of however long it might take for Sora to successfully rescue these people who had made him into the person he is today. He hiked his hands into the pockets of his jeans, stuck out his lower-lip stubbornly, and followed grumpily after Kairi.
Babysitting Kairi was a chore that wasn't all that it was cracked out to be; and suddenly Riku realized why Sora had wanted to run off on an adventure as soon as the possibility arose. Though, why Sora had wished upon him the unfortunate fate of fetching specifically coloured coconuts day in and day out was beyond Riku's thought comprehension; maybe his naïve best friend wasn't as dim-witted as he liked to make himself out to be.
After the countless weeks he'd spent babysitting her, he was looking for any chance to break the tedium, and more importantly, so that he'd stop having to find coconuts, sea-shells, bottles of fresh water, fish, and any other sort of object Kairi had a fancy for; idly, he wondered she stored it all. Hell, if this is what it took, Riku wasn't certain he even –wanted- to tap that anymore.
Which, of course, was a lie, but he didn't feel right if he didn't complain, which is what he was currently in this process of doing. It was quite a long, drawn-out rant that the author is too lazy to dictate in such a manner as to convincingly be in character, so, utilizing the meager excuse of the artistic license he possesses, he shall invoke the right of skipping to the end.
"—and furthermore, I don't know what in all of the worlds you need this many coconuts for!"
Riku huffed after saying this last sentence, and defensively stuck his hands into his pockets and angled his head in such a way that his bangs protectively covered his glaringly-glowing sea-green eyes as he eyed his other best friend, Kairi.
She looked at him with absolutely no emotion on her face, a surprise for Riku, and he almost felt as though he should apologize. As he opened his mouth to do so, however, Kairi spoke.
"I figure if I get enough coconuts and fill every empty space of my house with them, then there'll be less places for those creeps to teleport in and keep kidnapping me!"
She clenched a fist determinedly in front of her chest and glanced skyward, a look of determination upon her face as she dramatically displayed her determination in the matter. Merely by using determined in a single sentence a lot.
Riku almost sighed. He really did. And it was all he could do to avoid breaking down and crying in the corner. Fortunately for him, as the urge to do so came upon him, the doorbell to Riku's home rang. Conveniently, they were home alone. which, for any other teens, surely would have resulted in lots of naughty occurrences.
Unfortunately, however, Riku couldn't bring himself to do anything to the girl his best friend had such a raging crush on, and anytime Kairi said anything remotely suggestive to him (Which actually happened with alarming frequency,) he managed to evade the situation by leaving the room and going to do something productive; like cook, since Kairi was way too lazy to do any household chores of her own volition, which gave Riku a mental image of Sora being reduced to something much akin to a housewife. Which he found to be pretty damned funny.
Anyway! The doorbell to Riku's home rang, and, as the only actual living residence there (Though Kairi seemed to be there all hours of the day, and Riku was beginning to doubt she ever actually left) Riku hurriedly left the room before he curled up and cried and, without looking out of the peeping hole, flung the door open and was surprised to see the mailman. Actually, this wasn't true, as there were constantly all sorts of fangirls sending him mail and he received it at all times of the day. Rather, Riku was surprised in that the mailman only had a single letter for him. Tentatively reaching a hand out to take this single letter from the mailman, he felt slightly unloved as the man usually had an armful of these things for him. He never read them all, but it was the sentiment that counted, right?
As the mailman handed it to him, he asked a simple question, which, at first, Riku couldn't comprehend.
"Where do you want the rest of them?"
When Riku's mind had finished processing this information, he couldn't help but shrug.
"Wherever."
Then, the mailman walked past Riku into his home, and, lifting the flap of his satchel, unceremoniously dumped the contents upon the ground. And, without breaking stride, turned around and walked out of the abode. Riku stared at his back sullenly, but turned his attention to the letter in his hand. The envelope was crisp, white and firm; and it smelled like oranges. He turned it over, and upon the back of the envelope, was scrawled 'Master Xehanort' in black pen. But, this name had, in turn, been marked out by purple crayon, and above it, in all colours of the visual spectrum with rainbows, bunny rabbits and sunshine surrounding it, was the name 'Sora.' Riku's jaw dropped in fervent delight as he turned the envelope back over and carefully peeled the adhesive away so as to get at the letter's innards.
Kairi, being the ever snoopy girl that she was, had followed Riku, and at first attempted to glance over his shoulder; but, finding their heights to be too different, instead resolved to just glance around his side as he rushed to read the letter; but, he made sure not to rip any of the envelope, as cleanliness and uniformity was something he preferred over merely destroying everything. After several minutes of watching Riku opening the envelope in silence, Kairi broke the awkward moment.
"Who's it from, Riku?"
"It's from Sora!" Riku stated excitedly, not even taking the time to look her in the face while doing so; ever so concentrating on not ripping the envelope. Kairi gasped and reached for it, but Riku had anticipated this maneuver, and moved the envelope high over his head, and continued his work.
"No fair, Riku, lemme see it!" Kairi whined, while jumping up and down and reaching her arms up futilely to wrest the letter from his grasp; however, he had a significant height advantage, and so her arms couldn't reach said letter. He was, however, distracted by Kairi pressing against him in her attempts to retrieve it.
"No way, I haven't even seen it yet!" Riku retorted, turning his head and sticking his tongue out at her. It was at this time that, having finally wrestled the top flap away from the adhesive on the base of the envelope, Riku brought the letter out of the envelope's nestling confines and, still holding it high above Kairi's head, began to read it to himself.
"Jerk!" Kairi exclaimed, and then promptly kicked Riku in the shin. Having not expected this act of aggression, Riku was immediately driven to protectly cover the shin from further assault, and/or attempt to soothe the pain, if possible. It was then that Kairi lithely reached out with her hand and nicked the letter from Riku's grasp, and then, in a childish return of Riku's previous gesture, stuck her tongue out at him.
"Oh, yeah; thanks, that's really mature, Kairi." Was all Riku could say to defend his wounded pride; which, of course failed to do so, but it made him feel better if there was an attempt. It was at this time that Kairi, scrunched her face up in confusion after having read the contents of the letter, and with a shrug, passed it to Riku.
"You understand this at all?" Was all she said as Riku tentatively reached up to take the letter from her, and made certain to continue protecting his shins from her vicious kicks. As he downcast his eyes towards the paper, he read the short letter aloud.
" deer sweetcheeks,
i rite 2 u so that u kno i am doin' ok. donald goofy n i r out kiking lotsa 3les but. but we hav 1 prob. i met my match w/ that one boss and he is srsly kikin my but. plz help in ne way u can.
sinseerly, Master Xehanort
sora "
"Riku… What does it mean?" Kairi asked, an unexpectedly worried frown upon her face. Riku, however, was quivering with anticipation.
"It means I don't have to babysit you anymore and we can both go help Sora!" Riku pumped his fist into the air, and let out a whoop of victory.
"I'm not so sure…" Surprisingly, Kairi didn't share Riku's enthusiasm. Riku cocked his head to the side quizzically at her reaction.
"What're you saying, Kairi? You don't want to go help Sora as soon as possible?" He frowned at her; this wasn't what he was expecting at all.
Kairi shook her head. "No, that's not it at all, Riku."She pursed her lips and searched for the right way to say it. "The letter… It doesn't sound like Sora."
"Doesn't sound like Sora? Kairi, the guy's been fighting Heartless non-stop for the last few months, and getting constantly smeared into the ground for who knows how long by one particularly obtrusive boss that he even called that one boss. He needs a little slack, and we need to trust him and help him out." Riku, blinded by the fact that he wanted adventure, refused to accept any sort of logical deduction that Kairi could have produced at that moment to sway his opinion. So, she gave up with a sigh.
"Alright then, Riku, if you're so sure about this, then – Where should we start?" Riku turned towards his door and started to dramatically point, but, as realization dawned upon him that he literally had absolutely no clue how they would get there to help Sora, he froze in mid-action. Which greatly concerned Kairi, who walked up to Riku, and touched his side gently.
"I'm… Not sure… " He said suddenly, and faster than the brain could comprehend, he was in one of the corners of his house, with his knees clutched to his chest as he rocked back and forth pondering this conundrum. Kairi blinked slowly at him, and then cocked her head to the side.
"You got all worked up to go save Sora and you didn't even think about how we would get there? Some rescue we are." Kairi huffed and crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently at Riku's antics.
Riku banged his head against the wall a few times, and then he regained his composure and, with a spring in his step, strode back over to Kairi brimming with confidence.
"I've got it! I'll open a portal there!" Riku grinned at her, and Kairi's reaction was to slap a hand to her face with a groan.
"But I thought you couldn't open portals anymore, Riku." Riku opened his mouth to respond, and froze once more, his eyes moving rapidly in search of a response.
"Dammit, you're right…" Was all Riku could think to say, and then he crossed his arms across his chest and began to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "Well… I don't have any more ideas, Kairi."
"No? Well, then, let's keep brainstorming, and eventually, we'll find an idea that works."
Suffice to say, that, several hours into their brainstorming process, having no productive ideas come out into the open, the both of them decided that they were hungry, and so, putting their money together, they went out to eat. Figuratively speaking.
"So, uh… How about swimming there?" Riku asked between mouthfuls of ice cream from the cone he was viciously assaulting with his mouth.
"No way, there isn't water completely between here and wherever Sora is, I'm sure; I meant throw out semi-plausible ideas, Riku, not just anything that comes to mind." Kairi frowned at him, and he grinned at her sheepishly in response. When her attention was back upon her own ice cream cone, Riku took the time to stare at her chest, and somehow, this act escaped Kairi's knowing.
"Well, maybe we could, I dunno… Make a Gummi-ship? I mean, Sora found all sorts of gummi blocks all over the worlds. There have to be some around here somewhere." Riku said thoughtfully, biting into his ice cream cone once more and ending up with a thick, chocolatey mustache. Kairi snapped her fingers and turned her attention on Riku excitedly.
"Sora had all sorts of Gummi-ships, didn't he? What if he stored some on the Islands somehow?" Kairi stood up and began peering around hopefully.
"Like… How?" Riku asked, a grin upon his face as he stared unceremoniously at Kairi's rump. As she turned about to face him, he skillfully raised his eyes to look at her face, and adjusted it to a neutral face.
"I don't know, but it's as good of a place to start as any, right? What places are big enough to store a gummi-ship?"
After pondering this question, Riku said, "Y'know… I'm actually not too sure about that one. I guess… People's garages? Uh… Under the sea? Conveniently in the shallow water around the play island we just never noticed it before?" Kairi frowned at him at the last one.
"We can figure it out! Come on, let's go go go!" Kairi said, dropping her ice cream cone in the nearest trash receptacle and dragging on Riku's wrist with both hands, forcing Riku to do the same with the mauled remains of his ice cream cone. His chocolatey mustache, however, remained.
Riku hung his head dejectedly. He had believed that this would be an easy task, finding a gummi-ship hidden by Sora. Assuming, of course, that Sora had actually thought to hide a gummi-ship on this Island in case Riku and Kairi needed to come help him out against one of those bosses. They were at a loss, however, as to just what they could do. They'd literally uprooted every tree, searched every house, checked all around the play island, and still, there was no Gummi-ship. How in the world were they going to find a gummi-ship?
"Hey, Riku, don't look so down! We'll find it, trust me!" Kairi touched his shoulder gently and gave him a determined smile.
"I hope so…" Riku said, giving her a weakly motivated smile in return. Her smile waivered at that, and she moved in closer.
"Aw, come on, Riku? Is that the best you can do? Where was all that fiery motivation you had whenever we first got the letter?" Kairi's smile strengthened and she cocked her head to the side.
Riku stared down at her and he couldn't help but notice how pretty she was; man, every instinct he had screamed for him to make a move. "I dunno, Kairi… I really want to help him. But how in the hell can we, when it seems the only plausible way off of this island is if I surrender myself to the darkness and get the power to make portals again…" He lowered his gaze, not to perv on her chest, but instead to cover his eyes with his oh-so-conveniently long bangs.
Kairi moved in even closer, and Riku could feel the warmth of her body as she moved forward and reached a hand up to brush the hair out of his face; and it remained on his cheek. "You won't ever need to do that again, Riku; you know that." Riku reached his own hand up to touch hers. And just when Riku thought he might get lucky, a whistling screech could be heard from outside. He looked up, and, from the window just above his door, he could see a flaming object descending through the stratosphere and, quite frankly, on a beeline straight for the two of them.
Crap, Riku thought, there's always gotta be something to ruin the moment. Kairi turned to look at it as well, which felt awkwardly good consider how close she was to him, and Riku momentarily forgot about the imminent danger as he was tempted to put his arms around her. When he glanced back up, however, the object was mere yards away from his house; he squeaked ineloquently, and wrapping his arms around Kairi, he hoisted her into the air, and moved away from his front door as quickly as possible.
Which was, all things considering, exceptionally fast; one instant he was inside of his front foyer, the next, he was in the adjacent room as his front door was literally obliterated by some sort of sentient meteorite hell-bent upon destroying Riku's chances of getting lucky. Or did it merely make them that much easier, seeing as Kairi was now on the ground with Riku in a somewhat protective pose over her, which could also in different context, be taken as an exceptionally suggestive pose?
Riku was not, however, worried about getting laid at the moment. Instead, he was fretting the damage that had just been inflicted upon the façade of his house. He couldn't help but stare wide-eyed with his jaw dropped at the object responsible for this; and whenever it stopped smoking, however, he couldn't help but leap for joy.
"Is that a…?" Kairi began to ask, as Riku excitedly ran forward to touch it.
"It is!" Riku cried in reply, and hastily hugged the smoking Gummi-ship. Which, not surprisingly, resulted in a rather nasty burn. He didn't let it stop him for long, however, and thus, with their passage to Sora secured he couldn't help but grin at Kairi.
"So, now what?" He asked, his eyes narrowed upon her face. And she couldn't help but grin back.
"What else? We go and save Sora, silly!" In yet another immature display of victory, Riku once again pumped his fist in the air. "But first, I totally need to pack." And Riku's spirits decayed.
It turns out, that, despite the fact that she was a Princess of Heart, Kairi actually traveled light. Rather, if you would call six bulging bags and briefcases of accessories, clothes, make-up products, and hair products. Or, perhaps this is a relative term. While Kairi had six bulging bags and briefcases, Riku had sixTEEN. He had all various asundries of crap, and whenever Kairi commented on it, he reacted exceptionally defensively with a sharp barked retort that quelled any other comments Kairi might have thought to make about his luggage. Fortunately, whenever the Gummi-ship had cooled down, it was exceptionally spacious inside, with enough room for their luggage –and- them to live comfortably. Riku seemed oddly more excited about this fact than Kairi. In fact, this gummi-ship was so spacious it had a recreational room, the cock pit, the armory (though they didn't need one), five separate bedrooms, and twelve bathrooms.
Sighing contentedly as he plopped onto his bed after having packed all of his clothing away, he stared at the ceiling for a good long while, before pushing himself off of his bed to go find Kairi. She was not in any of the four other bedrooms, which shocked Riku, and, after vigorous searching of the rest of the rooms, he then found her inside of the cockpit. He should have known.
"Hey, Kairi, whatcha up to?" Riku said, coming up and laying his head down on the back of her chair in what might have been seen as a seductive manner. Had Kairi actually looked up at him.
"I'm trying to figure out how to work this – Oh, hey, look, a letter!" Before Riku could reach for it and take his impossibly long amount of time to open it, Kairi's lithe arms snaked out, took the envelope hostage, and after surveying the outside (the back was marked similarly to the one before), ripped it open at the top and tore into the letter. She read it aloud.
" deer sweetcheeks,
lol last tiem i sent u a letter i ddnt think 2 inclood a gummi-ship sins u gais ddnt haf a wai 2 get hur. lol silly me. heer u go.
sinseerly, Master Xehanort
sora "
Riku couldn't help but grin. "How thoughtful of him. He asked us for help, then helped us get there to go help him!" Noting the irony of the situation, Riku tried to extricate Kairi from the pilot seat.
But she refused to budge.
"Hey, c'mon, Kairi! I know what I'm doing!" Riku declared lamely as he tried to scoot her out of the seat with his butt.
"No way, I bet you've never even piloted one of these things!" Kairi declared, slouching further down into the seat and hooking her feet around the console so that Riku could not wrest her out of her position.
"Moooooove!" Riku whined, and Kairi shook her head ferociously declaring her defiance. Then, he gave up. "Please?" Kairi shook her head again. "… Rock, paper scissors?"
Kairi slowly turned her head to face him. "No cheating?" Riku smiled sincerely.
"What, me, cheat? I didn't even know you could cheat at Rock-Paper-Scissors." Kairi glared at him. "Oh, alright, fine, I won't cheat."
"Best of three, then."
"You're on."
Kairi moved her hands out in front of her, and Riku did the same. And the epic battle of rock paper scissors commenced. And was shortly thereafter concluded, with Riku as the winner. As Kairi sullenly slid out of the pilot's chair, Riku couldn't help but chuckle to himself with a smug grin on his face as he plopped his butt down into the seat.
"You cheated." Kairi said definitely, crossing her arms in a pout.
"I didn't cheat! You just have a tell!" Riku said, in an attempt to defend his pride.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Kairi glared sullenly at him as she slid into the co-pilot chair, and Riku was thankful that he could move faster than the eye could see; had he not been capable of doing so, Kairi would have won all three, hands down. It was like she actually knew how to play the game or something, which was a scary concept.
"So, Captain Riku, you know how to work this thing?" Kairi asked with an indignant huff and a roll of her eyes.
"Uh… I'll get back to you on that one?" Riku said with a grin, and flashed her a thumbs up sign.
Kairi burrowed her face into her hands with a groan.
"It's gotta be this button!" Riku declared confidently, and with infinitely more flair than was necessary for launching the Gummi-ship, he pressed the large red button in the center of the console that said, in bright white letters, LAUNCH
And the Gummi-ship was unceremoniously blasting off again. In reverse, straight back through the way it came. If only it would have repaired his house, Riku thought bitterly. That was gonna be a bitch to explain to his parents. Riku gripped the controls nervously, having never actually piloted a Gummi-ship before, and not quite all that certain what to do once they got into space. It had to be a lot like a game, though, right?
Riku had acquainted himself with several video games while having to babysit Kairi in order to relieve the boredom of having to fetch coconuts for her so monotonously like clockwork. If she wasn't so hot and didn't happen to be his best friend and his other best friend's best friend, then he wouldn't given up on it a long time ago. But there was something in his brain that just said he might get lucky if he was nice to the cute girl. Riku could feel the blood draining out of his head as he began to fantasize about just what getting lucky might entail.
But he was shocked back to reality by a jolt from the Gummi-ship shaking. He shook his head warily, and glanced back at Kairi, whose face was still burrowed into her hands. He bit his lip. What now?
Like he had thought before, it had to be like a game. So, maybe this problem of not knowing what to do could be solved by one of two methods. Either A) Pressing buttons randomly or B) Button mashing. He was up for both at this point.
"So, Captain Riku, what now?" Kairi asked with a sarcastic tone.
"Well, I was planning on just pressing buttons until I figured out which ones do what." Riku stated matter-of-factly, and began reaching forward with a finger.
"What? No! There could be an eject or self-destruct button for all we know!" Kairi said, jumping out of her seat quickly and pushing Riku's hand away from the button he had planned on pressing. Riku frowned at Kairi, and Kairi frowned right back.
"Hey, come on, if I don't press these buttons, you will! Just let me do it!" Riku stated, and again moved his hand forward, and Kairi pushed it away again, shaking her head.
"Nu-uh, we should see if this thing has a manual, Riku!" Kairi moved herself in the tight space between Riku and the controls on the console and stubbornly put her hands on her hips. If she hadn't been being so stubborn at that very moment, Riku would have noted just how much he liked being this close to Kairi.
However, because she was being so stubborn, Riku was inclined to be just as stubborn right back. He moved his head forward, pressing it against her stomach and reached around to blindly start pressing random buttons. Kairi squeaked, and immediately turned around and tried to keep Riku's hands from assaulting the console any more than they already had. But, unfortunately, the damage had been done.
As Kairi grabbed Riku's hands by the wrist, and those hands in turn decided to give Kairi a hug from behind (with Riku's face noticeably pressed up against Kairi's butt,) klaxons within the ship began to go off and Riku couldn't help but grimace as a monotonous robotic voice came onto the Loudspeaker.
"WARNING: BLACK HOLE DETECTED. WARNING: PLEASE RELOCATE THE GUMMI SHIP IMMEDIATELY."
Kairi put a hand to her mouth and, ignoring Riku's awkward hugging from behind (Which he was now burrowing his face into her behind out of shame and only slightly because of another reason,) began to attempt to maneuver the Gummi-ship in vain. The controls, or, more importantly, the joy stick, were stuck in the permanent position that they had been in when the two had entered the cockpit.
"Oh, come ON!" Kairi said with a whine, raising both hands and throwing them back down in frustration. "Riku, stop molesting me and help me figure out how to move this ship!"
"Mmmihwtwklrwamihmkmmmmklhlka!" Was Riku's response, and Kairi pulled away and to the side until Riku was forced to remove himself from her or fall out of the pilot's chair. "Alright, alright, fine!"
Riku put a finger to his mouth as he eyed all of the individual buttons on the console. Which buttons to press first… Not taking the time to decide, he reached out, and starting from the top right and going left, starting pressing buttons in sequential order.
Kairi groaned and burrowed her face into her seat.
"WARNING: ABSORPTION IMMINENT. PREPARE FOR TURBULENCE."
No sooner had the monotonous voice spoken than the Gummi-ship was completely engulfed by the darkness of the black hole. Riku and Kairi were both moping in their individual ways for quite some time, waiting for the end to come. And indeed it did; but not in the way they were expecting.
The Gummi-ship was launched straight out of the black hole and into a low, orbit around a world they had never seen before. An orbit so low, in fact, that it was on a collision course with its surface; or, rather, into the ocean upon the surface. Riku panicked, Kairi groaned again, and then they both sat up.
"Find the eject button!" Kairi said as she moved forward from the co-pilot seat to do so, scanning each and every button for anything remotely resembling ejection.
"My clothes!" Was Riku's simultaneous reaction as he bolted out of the pilot's seat and back towards the room he had claimed in order to save his sixteen bags. His attempts, however, were in vain.
Kairi's attempts, however, saved the day. Observing a button that had a parachute on it, she pressed it in the hopes that it would eject the two pilots (not realizing that Riku had left the cockpit for something as menial as clothes). When she turned to beam at Riku, she was dismayed to find that he was not present. And even more dismayed to find that she had not been ejected. She looked out the windshield and saw that their descent had slowed somewhat. She looked upwards to see a parachute floating away into the sky, having deployed from the gummi-ship but breaking from the pressure.
She pressed the button several more times, in the hopes that it would deploy a few more times; it did, but this did not change the fact that they landed in the ocean. Or that Gummi-ships could not float.
As she hurried to the exit hatch, she spotted Riku hoisting his bags all around him, and moving into his room, dragged an involuntary Riku away from his clothing and various other beauty products. They made it out before the Gummi ship before it sank, but the nearest shore was nearly a mile away. Fortunately, however, they were both raised on Destiny Islands, an oceanic world, so swimming a mere mile posed no difficulty for them. When they arrived on the beach, soaking wet and somewhat tired, they both flopped down upon the ground; Riku making sure he got an upskirt view, of course.
It was then, that, after catching their breath and observing the situation around them, the blame started being thrown around.
"This is SO your fault, Riku!" Kairi exclaimed suddenly, sitting up and pointing an accusatory finger at the silver-haired man. Riku looked taken aback.
"MY fault? I didn't stick my butt in anyone's faces so as to obstruct their view of the console they had planned to be pressing buttons on!" Kairi glared sullenly at him, and Riku stubborn stuck his hands on his hips.
"Alright, fine. But you got us into this mess." Kairi said matter-of-factly, and pushed herself to her feet.
"Yeah, okay." Riku said with a huff of his shoulders and a roll of his eyes as he did the same, sad that he no longer had a good view.
Kairi glanced around; there was nothing but beach to the north and south of them, and a wide expanse of ocean to the west. To the east, there was a forest, vast and stretching off into the distance up to the north and the south. Her blue-ish purple eyes narrowed upon Riku's face as she pointed to the east.
"We head east?" She asked, still fuming at Riku but knowing that if one of them didn't fold, this journey would be insufferable, so she was willing to forgive him… For now. But oh, there would be revenge. Yes. There would be revenge.
Riku glanced over to the east with slitted eyes. "Good a place as any." After gathering what dignity the two of them had left, Kairi took the lead and immediately began stomping off into the distance. As they trodded through the trees, both Riku and Kairi could feel watching eyes upon their backs, and all around them. When they looked, however, there was nothing there. This fact, of course, was exceptionally worrying. Though, Riku had his hands in his pockets and walked with his eyes downcast, and Kairi's arms were crossed across her chest as they walked in total silence.
The journey, surprisingly, wasn't that long. It was beginning to become clear that the cover of trees was about to end, and as they neared the glade they were walking to, they could see, off in the distance, a castle with a town at its southern border.
So, without any other plan of action, as Riku and Kairi looked at one another, they silently agreed that visiting the town was probably the best course of action here.
So, a few more minutes of silent-walking, they arrived within the borders of the town, and after talking to some of the locals, they learned that the place was called Cornelia. The town had several peculiar shops and it was unconcerting for both Riku and Kairi just what they were selling. They had no CLOTHES shops, or shops that had FOOD. Instead, they deemed it important to have a shop for selling weapons, a shop for selling armor, a shop that sold BLACK magic, a shop that sold WHITE magic, a shop that sold ITEMS and an inn. And, despite all of Riku and Kairi's charms, the innkeeper would only say one thing, and that was to offer them a place to sleep for some kind of currency known as gil.
All in all, after spending about an hour in the depths of the city of Cornelia, they determined that there was absolutely no way that they could ever get help here. So, dejectedly they began to leave the inn. It was as they were walking out the gates of the city that they caught sight of a peculiar band moving just opposite of them and going INTO the city. Riku raised an eyebrow curiously, and turned around to evaluate them.
There were four in total, and, surprisingly, they were all dressed exactly the same. Each one wore a robe that just barely did not touch the ground, and they all had exceptionally baggy sleeves; but the robes were white, not the kind of Riku was accustomed to seeing. And they had red triangles around each of the edges; and they were all female. Their hoods were up, but, unlike the Organization, who wore their hoods to conceal their identities/protect them from darkness, they just looked they were wearing them because they wanted to, as Riku had seen their faces as they'd passed. They were all cute, two blondes, a brunette and a redhead. But perhaps most peculiar about this band, was that they all clutched a different-coloured, glowing crystal in their hands.
