for the prompt 'death.' I'm personally most found of Kairi's part. Written in a flash of inspiration in between cramming for midterms.
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"Riku, how do you die?"
"I dunno. I guess you just…stop living."
"Well, yeah, dummy," Sora sticks out his tongue, "but how?"
"Something in you just stops working. It gets tired."
"But how, Ri-ku?"
"Look, remember when your toys used to break?"
"Yeah."
"It's a lot like that."
"Oh." Sora gazes out at the sea, his brow furrowed. "So what happens next?"
"Nothing. It's the end of your story."
"But what if it's not the end?"
"It is for you," Riku sighs. "The story never really ends."
xx.
"Kairi, where do we go when we die?"
"Sora," the girl sighs, "you are not going to die."
"I know! I was just talking to Riku and—"
"Riku's not going to die either."
"I know, Kairi. I'm just curious."
"Well," Kairi pauses and stares at the sky, rocking back and forth on her heels, "I've always thought that there would be a door. And light behind the door."
"Like the door that Riku and I found."
"A bit like that, yeah."
"So did Riku and I—"
"No, Sora, you did not die."
"What's it like behind the light, though?"
"It depends, I guess."
"Does Naminé know?"
"I think, Sora," says Naminé in her soft voice, so soft they didn't notice her appearance, "it would look like Destiny Islands. Riku and Kairi will be there, too, I'm sure."
"What about you and Roxas?"
"We," here the pale girl trails off, a bitter smile on her lips, "we are different, Sora."
xx.
"You know," Roxas tells him when they're alone on the small island, "you could have just asked me."
"Well, I…" but Sora doesn't have any justifications.
"Because you know what I'm going to tell you? That there really isn't anything after death?"
"There's, there's memory at least." Sora is grasping at straws, but he's defenseless before this new Roxas.
"Memory lies," he spits.
"Then why do you let Naminé give you back your memories?" The minute he says it Sora regrets it, because it was cruel and Roxas face is darkening.
"What do you think of Donald and Goofy?"
"They're wonderful. Outside of Riku and Kairi, they're my best friends!"
"You don't dislike anything about them?"
"Of course not!"
"But didn't they snore so loudly? Didn't you think that Donald could be a bit quick to anger?"
"That doesn't mean they weren't my friends!"
"But you see what I mean."
"But, if it's the good things you think about…"
"It's still a lie," Roxas mutters fiercely, and suddenly Sora's mind explodes into snapshots of Nobodies fading away, one by one, with a notable exception. Sora can't help wondering where Axel is, but winces when Roxas lowers his head. Of course he would pick up on Sora's thoughts.
"You see?" Suddenly the blond boy isn't bitter, he isn't angry, he's just so sad that it makes Sora's chest ache. "There isn't anything. Not even memory. You close your eyes thinking you'll open them somewhere else, but you don't. And there isn't even a you left to care." Roxas turns from Sora, his thin shoulders hunched defensively, but shaking.
Sora places one hand on Roxas' shoulder, and is relieved when it isn't shrugged away. He looks up; the clouds of the first summer storm are rolling in. They will wait it out together.