Lego: This is for the 100 Themes challenge. Only canon oneshots will be posted. I'm doing this because Tears of a Lotus doesn't want to be written. This is my longest 100 Themes drabble yet. If I get inspiration for a plot, I might continue it, but no promises.
Disclaimer: The Kingdom Hearts franchise belongs to SquareEnix. I own only the story.
Vacation
Sora sat on the biggest branch of his favorite palm tree. Ocean waves lapped against the small island below him. It was peaceful, basking in the warm sun. And calm. Much calmer than his life had been the past couple years. And it was home. Home was nice.
He glanced to the side. Kairi sat beside him, her legs swinging back and forth. Riku had wedged himself between a branch and the trunk of the tree, but he had a smile, so Sora assumed he was comfortable.
The silence lingered for a bit longer (at least, as silent as the ocean and its breeze could be). Sora yawned and stretched his arms above his head.
"You know what we need?"
Kairi alternated her kicking in an offbeat pattern. "What's that?"
Sora smiled. "A vacation."
A laugh burst from Kairi.
Riku, on the other hand, was not as amused. "Vacation? But we just got home." He waved a hand to indicate the island behind them.
"I know, I know. I just . . ." Sora blew out a breath; how could he put this into words? "I want to go somewhere with you two, just the three of us. We haven't really done anything together for a really long time."
Riku raised an eyebrow. "Well—"
"Battling Heartless and Nobodies does not count," Sora grumbled.
Silence stretched between them. Sora watched Kairi's face. She seemed to be deep in thought, truly considering Sora's proposal.
"Sora's right," she finally said. "Ever since the Heartless took Destiny Island, we've all been running around in different places. We've never gotten to properly travel together. It'd be fun to just have the three of us."
Sora and Kairi turned to Riku expectantly.
The oldest of the trio rolled his eyes, but a smile made it past the gesture. "How, pray tell, are we going to go anywhere? It's not like we have our own Gummi Ship."
Sora opened his mouth to respond, then shut it quickly. His cheeks reddened as he offered a sheepish smile. "I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."
Kairi and Riku shared a suspiciously amused glance then burst into laughter.
"It's not that funny." Sora pouted at them. His dark blue eyes, however, held a mischievous light.
Riku smirked. "It's a good thing we have me around or we'd never get anything done right."
Sora shook a fist at his friend, but decided not to pursue it. He hopped down from the branch, landing in the dirt.
Kairi followed him down, a bright smile on her face. "Let's go put together a game plan."
They headed back over the bridge to the main island, Riku trailing them.
Sora would always be grateful for Riku and his friendship with King Mickey. And the moogles, of course. Without their help, none of them would have been able to contact the king at all. But Sora had made friends with many moogles over the course of his travels, so it wasn't long before Riku had obtained a borrowed Gummi Ship for the trio to use.
Riku slapped Sora on the back. "It'll be here soon. Let's get packed."
The three shared excited grins, then disappeared into their island shack to put together what they assumed they'd need. A half an hour later, the two boys and one girl plopped down on the wooden dock to wait.
Kairi kept giggling, and it was just too much fun for Sora not to join in. He poked Riku in the side in hopes the older boy would laugh with them, but Riku took it as a challenge and tackled Sora to the ground.
"Hey!" the brunette shouted, struggling to keep Riku from crushing him. He only got a smirk as a response. He could hear Kairi's giggles amidst his and Riku's grunts. Sora finally managed to bend Riku's arm enough to catch him off guard and roll to the side.
"Ha! Gotcha!" Sora sat with pride on top of Riku. Within moments, Riku had turned Sora on his stomach and had pinned the younger boy under him.
"You were saying?"
Sora grumbled until Riku released him. They sat on the beach until Kairi's laughter quieted, and then rejoined her on the dock.
"You two are ridiculous." Kairi's blue eyes shone with warmth, her lips twitching into a smile.
"I'm glad we could entertain you," Riku supplied. Sora glanced over his shoulder at him and grinned.
"Guys, look."
At Kairi's words, both Riku and Sora swiveled their heads until they could follow her outstretched arm. On the distant horizon, Sora could just barely see the outline of a red-and-blue Gummi Ship. His cheeks complained of the ache that holding his grin meant, but Sora couldn't bring himself to let it go. This was gonna be awesome.
As the Gummi Ship got closer, Sora could see a smaller orange-and-green Gummi Ship following behind it, probably meant for the drivers to return to the Gummi Hangar at Disney Castle. Pretty soon, the two Gummi Ships landed, and out popped Goofy and Donald.
Sora jumped up from his seat on the dock and ran down the beach to embrace his two friends. "Hey, guys! Long time no see!"
"It's good to see you, too," Goofy said with a smile.
Donald laughed. "King Mickey knew we wanted a chance to come say hi, so he let us bring you your Gummi Ship. But he made us promise you wouldn't crash it."
Riku slung an arm around Sora's shoulders. "That's why we have me."
Sora shot Riku a look. "What, you think I'd crash it?"
"Wouldn't put it past you." Riku smirked.
Kairi physically separated them before they could get to blows. "Alright, guys, let's not ruin the moment." She smiled over at Goofy and Donald. "Thanks so much for bringing it for us. We've been really excited to go."
Sora wrapped an arm around Kairi's waist while Riku wrapped one around her shoulders. "Yeah, it's all we can think about."
"Well, we're happy to send you on your way," Goofy said with a smile. "Just let us know when you get back, and we'll come retrieve the ship."
"Will do." Sora gave his old friends one last goodbye, then Riku ushered the three of them onto their borrowed ship. They waved at Goofy and Donald as Riku piloted the Gummi Ship into the sky. Sora took the co-pilot seat while Kairi settled into one of the passenger seats between Sora and Riku.
The redhead tucked a piece of hair around her ear. "So where did we want to go?"
Sora pursed his lips. That was the one part of their game plan they hadn't quite figured out yet. Kairi hadn't been to as many places, and although Riku had visited a few, Sora had been practically everywhere—and he wanted to revisit all of them.
"We can't go everywhere," Riku warned. "Maybe one or two worlds."
Kairi leaned forward in her seat. "Where's the best place, Sora?"
The brunette glanced back and forth between his two friends. "Um . . . well, I think the best vacation-type spot would probably have to be either the Pride Lands or Atlantica."
Kairi's blue eyes sparkled. "In both worlds, your body changes to match the world, right?"
Sora nodded. "Yeah, that's right. You get to be an animal in the Pride Lands—I'm a lion—and in Atlantica, you become a sea creature, or a hybrid—I have a dolphin tail."
The redhead's eyes lit up even more. "Those sound like the perfect vacation spots. Let's do both."
"Atlantica's closest. Let's go there first." Sora grinned at Riku.
Riku shrugged, a smile flitting about his lips. "Fine with me." He pulled on the controls and led them toward the portal that would take them to Atlantica.
Sora turned in his seat to grin at Kairi. "This is gonna be the best vacation ever."
Kairi grinned back at him. "Heck yeah!"
Sora glanced over at Riku to see him frowning at the landscape out the front window. "What's wrong?"
"I think there's a new portal ahead of us. Do you see it?" He pointed at a spot in the distance.
"I see it," came Kairi's voice from behind them.
Sora stared out in front of the ship and squinted. One specific area seemed fuzzy. Normally the portals were blue, but this one was red. It seemed off, somehow.
"Just go around it," the brunette suggested, rubbing his cheek absently. "Maybe we can check it out on the way back." He barely noticed Riku's nod out of the corner of the eye. The fuzzy portal was quite mesmerizing, and Sora found he couldn't look away from it. Gradually it got bigger and bigger until it was almost upon them.
Riku steered the Gummi Ship to the left to avoid the portal, but some sort of gravitational force pulled the ship toward it instead.
"Uh, Riku?"
"Shut up, Sora," the older boy grunted, jerking on the handlebars. No matter how hard Riku pulled, the ship didn't respond, instead continuing on its path to the portal.
Sora shared a panicked glance with Kairi as the Gummi Ship entered the glowing ball of red. It soared forward, bursting out the other end. The ship continued its forward directory at a ridiculously high speed. A world not far from the portal's exit seemed to zoom toward them.
Riku slammed the brakes, but the ship didn't slow. "Hold on to something!"
Sora grabbed the sides of his seat and held on for dear life. The Gummi Ship flew into the atmosphere of the approaching world and crashed onto a white landscape. The brunette held back a scream, though Kairi's rang in his ears. He grunted, the seatbelts pressing into his body, as the ship rolled to a stop.
"Is everyone okay?" Riku asked. Sora heard a click as the older boy undid his own seatbelts and climbed out of his chair.
"I'm fine," Sora responded, searching in the sudden dark for the release button on the first seatbelt. The impact with the ground had taken all the lights out, and they'd landed inside a forest, so Sora couldn't see anything out the front window. Sora was glad that Riku had crashed the ship instead of him, though King Mickey wouldn't be pleased regardless.
"I think I'm okay," Kairi said, her voice shaking. "That was quite a landing, Riku." Sora heard the redhead climb out of her chair and wander around the ship.
Sora could see just barely see Riku's pout in the dark. "Oh, hush. It wasn't my fault."
The brunette popped the buttons on both his seatbelts and hopped up. "Looks like we won't be leaving this world for a while." He laughed uncertainly. "Shall we go see where we are?"
Riku smirked at him, rolling his eyes. "If we can find the exit."
Kairi laughed. "It's over here, guys."
Sora followed the sound of her voice, Riku right behind him. The three of them pried the outer door open and stepped onto snow.
Riku followed him out. "What the heck?"
Sora led his friends through the trees and out into a field. On his right was a huge lake, and on his left, at the top of a large hill, was a giant castle.
"Whoa!" Sora grinned. "That castle is awesome."
"Maybe." Kairi gave him a look. "But this isn't quite what I had in mind when we were talking about a vacation."
Sora and Riku burst into laughter. Kairi glared at them, but she soon joined in.
"Well, let's check it out anyway. Maybe the people in the castle can help us repair the Gummi Ship." Sora smiled at his two friends.
Riku rolled his eyes but indicated Sora should go first. Kairi smiled at him amusedly and giggled. The three headed up the path toward the castle on the hill.