Rated: T

Genre: Angst/Romance

Pairings: Sora/Riku, unrequited SoraxKairi

When Sora and Kairi were eight, they promised to marry each other and live happily ever after just like in the fairytales. Fourteen years later at the age of twenty-two, Sora is getting married to Riku. Now, on their wedding day, Kairi, who hasn't forgotten their childhood vow tries to remind Sora of their promise made all those years ago. Will she get her happily ever after or will reality close the storybook forever?

(A/N): No clue where this idea came from. I noticed that it's almost like the opposite of Soul Surrender, though I thought Soul Surrender was SO much better than this. A note on that: I am contemplating a sequal to Soul Surrender in response to the lovely reviews requesting one. It may not be up for a long while however due to all the other projects that I'm currently working on.

I guess this is just to show how people should learn to let go. People who hang onto the past for so long can ruin their futures. Kairi's obsession and chidishness is her cover up for the fact that she lost a love that was never hers and a shield from dealing with the reality that she does not want to face.

Anyway, I'm not too happy with this oneshot, but I'm putting it up anyway. After all, one man's toxic waste is another man's potpurri, yeah? XD

Please, please review! I only want to get better!

Always,

Duckie

Disclaimer: Uuuh...Kingdom Hearts is not mine.

Worse Than a Fairytale

"Don't worry, Princess Kairi!" a small boy with unruly brown hair and big blue eyes exclaimed from the top of a sand dune, "I'll save you from the evil dragon!" With a heroic cry, he leapt from the short height and charged forward with a wooden sword in hand.

"Hurry! But be careful Prince Sora!" a little girl cried, cowering in the wake of a huge lump of sand adorned with palm leaves for wings and seashells in the shape of eyes and a mouth—their terrible "dragon." The boy deemed Prince Sora rushed forward and slashed at the sand dragon with his makeshift sword and sent the abomination crumbling to the ground. "Princess" Kairi leaped up from her damsel in distress position on the ground and ran to her savior, hugging him tightly around the neck.

"Oh, thank you, Prince Sora!" she yelled happily, "You're my knight in shining armor!" When they pulled apart, Sora puffed out his chest and lifted his chin, trying his best to adopt a heroic stance. His face was round with youth and he appeared to be about eight years old, give or take. His bronze, sun-kissed skin and eyes as blue as the sea he grew up with, and dark, and his chestnut hair that pointed every which way and then some marked him as the islander that he was.

"Anything for you, fair princess!" He proclaimed, attempting to deepen his little voice. He went over to the pile of debris that was once their dragon and stamped his foot into it. He laughed as heartily as he could and shot what he thought was a winning smile at Kairi. "Dragon? Ha! He was more like a dragonfly!" He had heard that line on television from some cartoon that he had been watching and had been eager to use it. Just because it sounded so very heroic.

Kairi giggled and approached him, shyly. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward when she was facing the brunette again. "Now you have to give me a kiss!" She chirped, her face bright with a smile and blush. Her hair was an uncommon shade of pinkish-red and she seemed to be the same age as Sora. Her skin was slightly lighter than his, but her eyes were the almost the same shade of blue as the brunette's though a bit lighter. At her words, Sora gave a very un-heroic squeak and leaped away.

"No way!" he objected, an incredulous look on his face. Kairi pouted and put her hands on her little hips.

"The prince is supposed to kiss the princess after he rescues her!" Kairi argued. She was the fairytale expert and she expected her fairytale to turn out just as it was supposed to.

"But kisses are icky!" Sora whined, his face twisted up into a childish look of disgust. Kairi wasn't having any of that. She ran straight up to him, lips pursed and eyes closed. Sora squeaked again and dodged her, narrowly missing her cherry lollipop stained lips. Kairi opened her eyes in confusion when her lips met nothing but air. She turned to find Sora cowering behind a palm tree. She huffed and poked out her bottom lip. She looked back at Sora and felt tears creeping into her eyes.

"I'm gonna tell your mommy if you don't give me a kiss, Sora." Sora blanched and rushed out from behind the tree chanting "Wait, wait, wait!

"Don't tell my mommy, pleeeease, Kairi!" he begged, grasping at the hem of his shirt and shifting from foot to foot restlessly. It wasn't that he didn't like Kairi, it was just that she wanted to kiss him. Kiss him. That was a big deal! He was only eight years old for cripes sakes!

"Then give me a kiss!" Kairi demanded. Sora bit his lip, thinking as fast as his eight year old mind would allow. Now how did his parents assuage him when he wanted something to the point of tantrum?

Like a light bulb, Sora's face lit up again when an idea suddenly popped into his head. He met the teary girl's eyes again and adopted an almost professional stance.

"Okay, let's make a deal," he reasoned businesslike, "How about…I wait to kiss you on the day that we get married?" Kairi stared at him suspiciously, but was soon put at ease by the sincerity in the brunette's eyes. A slow, shy smile spread over her features (Sora sighed in relief internally at this) before she spoke again.

"Will we live in a big castle, and live happily ever after?"

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed with his usual gusto.

"Like Cinderella's?"

"Just like Cinderella's."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Fourteen years later…

The chapel was made of the purest white marble, its ornate crosses and cathedralesque steeples a magnificent white gold. Beneath the sun's rays, the angelic building shone like the halos of angels. Set against the snowy stone, the garden of painted posies, baby buttercups, ruby roses and languid lilies swaying slowly in the gentle breeze only added to the ethereal vision. Gazing heavenward from the sea of flowers, were the still figures of seraphs and saints, sightless and silent. The whole scene made Kairi's breath catch in her throat. This was just how she dreamt her wedding...but in her dream, she was the bride, not the guest.

When she had received the invitation in the mail, she had almost died right there on the spot. Her Sora, her prince charming, was getting married to his prince charming. She had always known that Sora and their childhood friend Riku had been close as children and even more so as teens, but she had never ever in her darkest nightmares imagined that they would become so close that they could share that thing called love; that they could be so enamored with each other that they wanted to be bound to each other forever.

But the invitation did not lie and on the 31st of April, Sora Hikari and Riku Kurayami would be joined together in eternal bliss. Only God knows how many tears she had cried that night. Within a single moment, her childhood hopes and girlish dreams had been crushed beneath the weight of reality.

Despite it being a spring wedding, Kairi was dressed in black—her way of mourning. Her wine-colored hair that had darkened over the years was done in an updo that was elegant, yet austere. She was in no mood for festivities.

As she sat there in the chapel watching, from the pews rather than the altar, her glowing cherub and his gorgeous seraph dressed to the nines in long-sleeved, button-up shirts and tuxedos of a hue so pale that the true color could not be properly discerned, exchange their vows and kisses, she felt incurably sick.

And as she stood in the crowd outside, going deaf from their cheers, Kairi had to look away as the newly joined left the chapel arm and arm, smiling in rapture at each other. It should've been her bounding down those stairs in a shower of flower petals and camera flashes.

It should've been hers. All of it. The chapel, the flowers, the vows, the happiness. She had been played for a fool and robbed blind. But she was not the fool, and refused to play the part. She was the princess in the fairytale and she was determined to keep her role.

It was during the wedding reception that she finally decided to fix her fate. As the crowd of exuberant guests danced and drank beneath the stars, the scent of spring air accompanying their gaiety, Kairi managed to pull Sora aside. He had been confused at first when she requested his private audience, but instantly ceded and followed her with concern when he weighed the solemnity of her demeanor.

She had brought him to a secluded area where the weeping willows shielded them like a curtain from the eyes of the curious. It was now or never. Happily ever after or happily never after.

"How could you do this to me?" she demanded in a hoarse whisper, ignoring the tears that had suddenly sprung to her eyes. Sora's eyebrows shot up in surprise and genuine bewilderment.

"What're you talking about?" He inquired, "Do what, Kairi?"

"Break my heart," she hissed, "Crush my dreams…ruin my fairytale." Sora stared at her, severely puzzled. It took him a moment, a long moment, to figure out just what it was she alluding to, but when he figure it out he shook his head in disbelief and scoffed.

"Kairi, you have got to be kidding," Sora accused in a belittling tone, "How the hell are you still hung up on that?" He chuckled weakly before shaking his head again and stuffing his hands into his pockets. "This has got to be some kind of joke…" he muttered as he turned to leave. He didn't have time for this type of jest. He had a husband to return to.

"It's not a joke, Sora!" Kairi exclaimed, clearly affronted, grabbing and clutching his shirtfront tightly, "What about your promise? Remember? We were going to live happily ever after in a big castle just like Cinderella; just like the fairytale!" She knew how childish she sounded, but she didn't care; she wasn't willing to let go. This was her fairytale. She was the princess and he was her prince. They were meant to live happily ever after. There was no way he was going to rewrite her happily ever after.

"Kairi..." he began impatiently, extracting his shirt from her grip, his eyes full of the most degrading expression: pity. "We were just kids then and—"

"That doesn't matter!" Kairi shouted, all manner of restraint discarded, "You swore to me! You swore that we would fulfill our fairytale and that—"

"Dammit, Kairi would you just stop?" Sora yelled, losing patience completely, "We're both twenty two fucking years old! Why would you even come to my wedding if you only intended to fuck around like this?"

"To take back what's rightfully mine," Kairi hissed defiantly. Sora snorted derisively. He was far beyond any pretenses of cordiality. He was livid.

"Open your eyes, sweetie," he sneered with a sudden acidity, holding his left hand up to her face to display the silver band encircling his ring finger, "I belong to someone else now."

Kairi couldn't even form a coherent thought. His sudden acerbity had struck her like a slap to the face. The tears that had been collecting at the rim of her eyes suddenly spilled over and slipped down her cheeks in hot rivulets.

"Sora…"

"Have you ever even read a real fairytale?" Sora demanded, not listening. Kairi opened her mouth to speak, but he held a halting hand up and she fell silent. "And I don't mean that happy crap our parents read to us when we were little, I mean the real stuff where happy endings are bitter, sarcastic and always at the expense of someone else." Kairi just stared at him, stunned. Sora, losing his fire, sighed in exasperation. He had no idea why he was explaining this to her. They were two adults for God's sake.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed again. "In other words, Kairi," Sora murmured, struggling to keep his voice even, "You should know that you can never trust a fairytale."

"But Sora—" Kairi cried, but was swiftly interrupted by the brunette, his voice harsher, but less mordant than his previous tirade.

"Kairi, please just grow up!" His voice resembled that of a scolding parent, weary of their child's antics. "Cinderella was a liar and there never was a fairytale."

The finality in his voice sapped all of the fight out of the woman who was still a girl. Kairi's gaze dropped to the ground and she stood in silence, mortified and miserable. The tears continued to fall from her eyes that appeared dark and subdued and the world seemed to fall out from underneath her feet. In fact, she was wishing that the ground would just open up wide and swallow her whole. From somewhere in the distance, she heard Sora sigh and after a moment, his footsteps retreat. Retreat to his happily ever after and leaving her with nothing.

Nothing except for the harsh reality that she had never wanted to face and something that was far worse than a fairytale.

Gah, I thought it was poopie! Please review, I could use some constructive criticism and maybe a bit of love too. :3

-Duckie