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- - - PRiZE - - -
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Sora and Riku had been best friends ever since they were little. They had played sword games together, explored the island together and built big, towering castles in the sand. They came as a package, the two of them against the world.
Until one day, when Sora was six and Riku was seven, a little girl appeared on the island. Nobody knew who she was or where she came from. She had fiery red hair and twinkly blue eyes, and she simply trudged around by herself all day.
She seemed happy enough, but Sora knew that she must be lonely.
"I'm going to go and talk to her," he told Riku, who was his very best friend. And as Sora's very best friend, Riku felt it his duty to go along with Sora.
"I'll come with you," he decided, his silvery hair bouncing defiantly as he stood up.
"Hello," said Sora as they approached the girl. She was sitting cross-legged on the grass, fiddling with a small rock.
"Hello," she replied, twisting her head delicately to observe them. She thought that the brown-haired boy had a nice smile, and the silver-haired boy looked strong and sporty.
"My name's Riku," Riku announced. "What's your name?"
"And my name's Sora!" Sora added quickly, as Riku had forgotten to mention him.
"Nice to meet you," the redheaded girl beamed. "I'm Kairi!"
"Hello, Kairi," Sora greeted her cheerfully. "Where are you from?"
Kairi pouted. "I don't know!" she whined unhappily.
Sora nodded sadly.
Riku grinned with excitement.
"Really? You're so lucky," he told her.
Kairi blinked. "I am?" she asked. "Why?"
Riku rolled his eyes as if it were obvious.
"You could be from anywhere," he explained. "There must be heaps of places out there that we haven't seen! You could be from one of them."
Kairi pondered for a moment. "But I don't want to be from anywhere," she answered glumly. "I want to be from one place, and I want that one place to be my home."
Sora beamed. "Well, you can be from here!" he replied logically. "This is Destiny Islands. It's a nice place. I think you'll like it."
Kairi looked pleased. "Really?" she enquired.
"Sure," Riku confirmed. "We could show you around, if you like."
Sora nodded eagerly. "Yeah! We know where everything is!" he added.
"Okay!" she smiled happily. "That sounds like fun!"
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And it might have been fun, had the events not unravelled the way they did after Kairi asked what was inside the seaside shack.
"That's where we go when it's raining and we want to play games inside," Sora replied. "Sometimes Selphie goes inside anyway because she only wants to be boring and paint her nails with icky pink stuff."
Kairi giggled. Sora and Riku had told her all about the other three children who played on the island, so she knew of Selphie's vain but innocent love of beauty products, Wakka's self-centred narcissistic manner and Tidus's obsessive compulsive disorder that made him hit everything with a stick.
She couldn't wait to meet them all.
"Do you think Selphie will be in there now?" she asked curiously.
"Probably. She hardly ever wants to play any games outside in case she gets her dress dirty," Riku sighed, rolling his eyes at Selphie's expense. He knew Kairi wouldn't turn out to be one of those girls.
Eager to make a new friend, Kairi sashayed merrily to the door of the beach shack and opened it widely.
"Hello," Selphie proclaimed, noting the new girl's presence. "Tidus and I are having a tea party. Would you like to join us?"
She gestured at the table in front of them. It was laden with a chequered pink and white cloth, and set with bowls and plates and spoons and forks and other assorted silverware enough for three people.
"Oh, it's so pretty!" Kairi exclaimed breathlessly.
Selphie looked satisfied. "Okay. You can sit over there," she decided, pointing the redhead in the right direction.
Kairi took her seat the other side of Tidus, who promptly hit her with his stick.
"Sorry," he apologised sheepishly.
"That's okay," Kairi smiled.
"So what's your name?" Selphie asked curiously, pouring her new guest a cup of tea (water, sea water at that) and nodding encouragingly.
"Kairi," answered Kairi. "What's yours?"
"Selphie," replied Selphie. "And he's Tidus. He hits stuff with sticks but he doesn't mean it. Would you like some tea?"
"Yes, please," Kairi smiled gratefully, receiving the cup and taking a thirsty sip. It didn't taste much like tea, but she didn't mind.
"Let me cut you a slice of cake," Selphie offered, hovering a plastic knife over one measly cupcake. "We can split it three ways, but the pieces might not be perfectly the same."
"That's okay, I don't mind having a smaller bit," Kairi added.
Selphie shook her head rapidly. "No, Kairi, you are a guest, you must have the biggest piece!"
"I'm not hungry 'cause I just had my lunch anyway," Tidus chimed in, and then hit his fork with his stick.
Selphie frowned, her baby blue eyes glazing over with thought.
"Oh, I know!" she cried. "Kairi, as you are new here, why don't you have the whole cupcake!"
"I couldn't do that!" Kairi squealed.
"Go on, please, Tidus would only hit it with his stick anyway," Selphie insisted, pressing the iced treat into her new friend's palm. It squashed it a little but Kairi wasn't detered.
"Oh, Selphie, you are the bestest best friend ever!" Kairi beamed delightedly, putting the cake down so that she could capture the sunshine-clad brunette in a hug.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting about us?" Riku pointed out as he and Sora stampeded down the wooden stairs.
"Oh yes, well, obviously you're my best friends because you found me and you promised to show me around," Kairi agreed. "But Selphie and Tidus are my best friends too because they gave me a cupcake and Tidus apologised for hitting me with a stick."
"Hmph, he never apologises to me," Sora grumbled.
Tidus beamed and promptly whacked the brunet's arm with his stick.
"SORRY!" he exclaimed, and they all burst out laughing.
Once their giggles had died down, a dishevelled boy with spiky orange hair padded down the stairs and made a grunting noise.
"Hey, what is going on, man!" he groaned. "I was trying to get some sleep, ya!"
Sora, Riku and Kairi exchanged glances, and she knew that this was Wakka.
"Sorry, Wakka," Selphie sighed (this also pointed towards the idea that the boy's name was Wakka). "We're having a tea party! This is Kairi, she's new."
"Hello, Wakka," Kairi beamed, extending her hand for the boy to shake.
He obliged, the tired expression disappearing from his face, leaving a content grin.
"Good to meet you, ya!" he exclaimed. "So, when we gonna get out there and play some blitzball, man?"
"Blitzball?" Kairi repeated. "That sounds fun. What is it?"
Tidus and Wakka exchanged looks of awe.
"You've never heard of blitzball?" Tidus asked.
Riku rolled his eyes. "It's just a game. We'll tell you 'bout it later, Kairi," he finished.
"What shall we play now?" Sora enquired, bored of sitting around doing nothing.
Selphie put her hands on her hips. "Well, Tidus, Kairi and me were having a tea party until you two interrupted it!" she recalled. "But Wakka's here, he was supposed to come ages ago and the table's only set for three so I guess you can take Kairi to see the rest of the island now."
"Great," Sora beamed. "Let's go and see the papou tree, it's really cool!"
Riku frowned. "No chance, the waterfall's way better."
"Papou tree!"
"Waterfall!"
"Papou tree!"
"WATERFALL!"
"PAPOU TREE!"
"Guys, guys, stop it!" Selphie interrupted, pushing them apart, creating a division between the two boys. "Don't fight! Why don't you ask Kairi where she wants to go instead of arguing over it yourselves?"
The glossy silver-haired boy and the spiky chocolate-brown-haired boy glanced at her fleetingly, both hoping and praying she would choose them.
Waterfall.
Papou tree.
They were one and the same to Kairi, who was innocent and sweet and only wanted to make friends and learn about this amazing new place unfurling around her.
But to Sora and Riku, it was something much more. Winning and losing, friends and enemies.
"Why don't we play a game instead?" she suggested hastily.
Sora and Riku looked at her, their expressions twisting with perplexity.
"A… game…?" Riku murmured.
"I thought we were showing you around?" Sora pointed out.
"W-we can do that later," Kairi stammered uncertainly. "For now… l-let's play a game."
Sora shrugged. "Okay. What game?"
"We could play soldiers," Riku suggested, brandishing his toy sword. Kairi noticed the menacing glint in his eye and his hand nestled comfortably around the hilt. She knew it would only end in tears, now that they had started arguing.
"No!" she exclaimed, then corrected herself. "I mean… no, let's play… um…"
She scoped a quick glance out of the rickety wooden door.
"…with sand," she finished, nodding firmly to cement her idea. "Building sandcastles. That's fun, right?"
Sora nodded, and Riku nodded, so the three of them left the seaside shack and strolled out into the sunshine.
"Byeee!" Selphie chorused, and then they heard the sharp thwap that was probably Tidus hitting (and breaking) a teacup with his infamous stick.
"Sandcastles," Riku murmured, letting the word slide off his tongue like gushing water. "Sandcastles."
"We don't have a bucket, or any spades," Sora pointed out. "How can we build anything?"
"With our hands!" Kairi exclaimed, kneeling down in the sand and scooping up handfuls of it in her soft uncallused palms.
"Yeah, Sora, c'mon, it's easy," Riku agreed, rolling his eyes at Sora's immaturity. "Bet I can build a better sandcastle than you."
Kairi froze. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"Bet you can't."
"You're on!"
Before she could stop them, the two boys had allocated themselves patches of the beach and were digging defiantly like pirates on the prowl for buried treasure.
Only there was no buried treasure. The only treasure was Kairi, and she was definitely not buried. But that didn't stop her being a reward, a winning, a prize. This was all her fault.
She held her breath as Sora and Riku pummelled at the grains of sand, and snatching up great chunks of compacted sand and gently pouring seawater on their works to dampen them a little and make them easier to mould.
"Mine's bigger than yours, Sora."
"No it's not."
"Yes it is."
"NO IT'S NOT!"
"YES IT IS!"
"Stop it!" Kairi screamed. "Stop it, don't fight!"
Sora and Riku stared at her.
"Kairi… what's wrong?" Sora asked carefully.
"Stop fighting! You're fighting over such petty things!" she exclaimed. "And you're so competitive with each other! Can't you just both win at something?"
The two boys looked at each other, really looked at each other, until their eyes glazed over with thought and confusion over what was happening to them.
"We never used to be like this," Sora noted.
"We used to agree on everything," Riku added.
Then they both turned to smile at Kairi, both of them knowing that she would come between them without even trying, and both of them wondering which she liked best.
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Oh, so you noticed!
Aren't you forgetting about me?
Let's take the raft and go, just the two of us!
You know… Riku has changed…
You're the one who's changed, Kairi
Y o u ' r e t h e o n e w h o c h a n g e d u s
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A/N: yay! it finally let me put it up! this is for warm.summer.nights' friendship fic contest, and the deadline was actually yesterday but was being crappy and annoying and wouldn't let me upload it so i asked and she said it would be okay me putting it up today. and it decided to be nice and let me yay!
hope you like it! it's set when they're all six and seven, by the way. although it says that at the beginning. i quite like how this turned out, in a way. please review and let me know what you think!
--Sequizurx