Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts of any of it's characters
Rating: T
Pretty self-explanatory lol. Only thing to add is this takes place after KH2's "You're home" scene, but before they get Mickey's letter (and obviously everything after that). Still enjoy!
Sora stretched as he leaned against the big palm tree, while he chuckled for no reason, putting his hands behind his head.
"This place always had the most beautiful sunsets" he thought, smiling.
Being on a few journeys, while he certainly noticed details like that, he'd never have time to really appreciate them. No, it was always searching for his friends, battling Heartless, or otherwise saving the worlds. He didn't regret any of it; he just wished he had more time to relax every now and then. And now he finally had some of that! Now he was back with Riku and Kairi.
If only the King, Donald and Goofy could have stayed though. But they had that castle to take over, among other things, so they'd said their goodbyes.
Even as he stood/leaned against the palm tree, footsteps sounded, lightly crunching closer and closer. "Sora?"
He looked over to his left. "Kairi" he greeted, standing up in a hurry. "You're here!"
She smiled, hands behind her back. "I wouldn't miss it for the worlds" she said softly, red hair flowing slightly in the wind. "I've been longing for the day we could sit together again, like old times"
He grinned for a moment, agreeing. "Shame Riku's not here yet" he said. "But he did say he could take awhile - should we wait?"
Kairi considered this for a moment, then shook her head. "No, we can still sit together" she said, quickly moving past him.
"Come on" she urged, standing up on the lowest part of the palm tree.
He laughed, then turned and jumped his way up on the palm tree, sitting down just as quickly. Kairi took a little more time, sitting down on his right, just as she used to. Now all they needed was Riku, and the friends would be complete.
"I've really missed this" Kairi breathed, looking truly content. "And I've missed you"
"I'm sorry we keep you waiting, Kairi" he said, turning toward her. "I really didn't mean to just leave you here! But I couldn't leave Riku when I didn't know what happened to him!"
She hummed a little, slowly placing her hands on her lap. "Don't worry about it, Sora" she breathed softly. "I've thought about it myself. Riku disappeared after the Heartless attack on our island, and besides a few brief appearances, you haven't been able to make sure he was okay. And whether I was, uh well, 'inside' you or here on the island, you thought I was safe most of the time"
"Yeah" he agreed, rubbing his head. "That's it, exactly!"
"I understand why you were crying, Sora, when you found Riku" she said softly. "You missed your best friend"
"Hey, I missed you too, Kairi" he added quickly. "I promised I would come back to you, and I came back"
As she looked at him, her hand brushed against the black pouch she wore on her side, where her lucky charm resided. "You did" she agreed softly.
When she didn't say anything else, and he didn't know what else he could say, he initially tried to think of something else. What he arrived at though was how Kairi had changed since he'd last seen her.
Though he didn't know it, he was unconsciously looking at Kairi when he thought of this.
He remembered Kairi after he promised he'd come back; her red hair been fairly short, she wore a white shirt and a pink skirt, and she'd been a bit of a tomboy. Now her hair was longer, she wore a pink dress, she was much more soft than before and her voice had matured. Of course, when he'd seen her in TWTNW, he'd recognized her instantly by her blue eyes. He'd been very happy he and Kairi were back together again when she hugged him, but even he couldn't miss the pressure against his chest when she did so.
Yeah, he could notice girls; he wasn't that stupid. He just didn't have any real interest the way other guys seemed to.
Beside him, Kairi's cheeks turned pink at his (unnoticed) interest in her. "Sora?" she asked, and when he didn't respond, she waved a hand in front of his face. "Sora?"
He jerked out of it, and realized he was staring. "Kairi, I was- uh" he tried to explain. "I was just- well, I was just so used to how you looked before, and I got carried away!"
This surprised her, but she slowly giggled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "So you were looking at me" she stated playfully. "Trying to adjust"
He tried to say more, but: "That's so sweet" she breathed softly, no longer playful.
He wasn't entirely sure what to say (other than "Oh"), but he quickly gave off his goofy grin, just embarrassed.
Kairi giggled even more, then her cheeks still a little pink, she jumped down from the tree.
"Kairi-?"
"Come with me" she whispered softly, holding out her hand.
"Where?" he asked, but he reached for her hand anyway.
She grabbed his wrist before he fully got there, pulling him along. "You'll see" she said teasingly as she dragged him along, first to his surprise, then he just laughed.
/
Minutes later, her destination was revealed; the cave with all their drawings.
He thought it was pretty cool they were going in there again, probably to add some drawings that showed their newest adventures. Then he remembered two things. 1) He'd added onto a previous drawing, showing him giving Kairi a paopu fruit - and 2) when he searched the cave days before, he'd found the drawing, except Kairi had added to it herself, now showing them giving each other that that same fruit.
Occasionally, he'd been a little worried how Kairi might react when she saw it; what if she didn't like it? Only for that worry to turn to relief (and a small grin) when he saw she had added onto it herself.
That's all he had time to think before they entered, Kairi leading him through, past all the various drawings. Eventually she stopped, letting go of his wrist at the same time.
He looked around, smiling. "Ah, I remember all these" he said, taking it all in. He still remembered drawing a few of them, though they were a little fuzzy.
"You remember this one?"
He turned, finding Kairi standing beside their picture, with newly added Paopu fruits between them.
He wasn't entirely surprised that she wanted to talk about it. "Ah, that" he said sheepishly, rubbing his head. "Well uh, after the Heartless attacked, and you were gone... I wanted to make a promise to you, Kairi. Saying it out loud to myself didn't feel like enough, so I drew it out. I drew my promise that I would see you again, as proof of it"
Her cheeks turned pink again, but she still looked happy. "And you drew that promise with a Paopu fruit?" she asked, kinda shyly. "Why?"
He gave off his goofy grin, a little embarrassed. "It was the first thing I thought of" he admitted. "But after I drew it, I thought about what that fruit does-"
"Bind two people's destinies together, forever" she whispered softly.
He blinked once, then chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, that" he said. "We were great friends, Kairi, and after you were gone... well, I guess I didn't want you to go anywhere"
The pink seemed to deepen, then Kairi slowly strode toward him, which he just watched. Soon they were face-to-face at a close distance.
Then she kissed his nose.
He was surprised; "What was that for?" he asked.
"To thank you" she whispered softly. "For caring about me that much"
"Oh" he said, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Well, you're welcome, Kairi"
Her smile was soft, warm, but she didn't move.
As the seconds passed, that slowly confused him, but he couldn't think about what it could mean - until Kairi gently took his head in both hands, bent him down gently (he didn't resist; he knew Kairi wouldn't hurt him), and give his forehead a very slow kiss.
His heart-rate went up quite a few notches. Traveling across various worlds, he'd seen a lot of story lines and helped many of them end the way they were supposed to, so he'd seen a few kisses here and there. And because of that knowledge, he knew kissing could be friendly, like the thank-you one Kairi had just given him. But this one? This one wasn't just friendly, it was-
Oh man.
He'd never given any thought about what-if situations like this! He had no clue what to do, say, or anything of the sort!
Exactly as he was freaking out about this, Kairi removed her lips from his forehead, tilting him back to normal but not removing her hands. She observed his eyes for awhile, and perhaps she understood, because her smile only got sweeter. "Sora" she breathed.
"K- Kairi?" he finally managed.
"You don't have to think about this" she whispered, softer than he'd ever heard before. Then she kissed him.
The feeling was better than he could have imagined, if he had tried to imagine it in the first place. It was like he was eating a really juicy fruit, except much softer... before he could think much more than that though, Kairi pulled away, and he felt a strange urge not to let her.
He was left staring at her, and she at him, just less intensely in her case.
Her smile became playful. "You're supposed to kiss back too, you know" she said, giggling underneath it all.
"Oh" he said stupidly. "Yeah - right"
Kairi just giggled again, then adjusted her grip on his head and pulled him in again.
Oh yeah, he could definitely get used to this. Strangely though, his hands moved to her waist on their own - where did he get that instinct?
He didn't have the answer though, and the taste of Kairi's lips made it harder to think with every passing second. Unnoticed by either of them, Roxas and Namine's images superimposed over their forms, kiss included. And all four of them couldn't be happier.
Probably similar to my Life on Destiny Islands story in the romance area, but still, I thought this was pretty good :)