Disclaimer: I don't own the Kingdom Hearts saga, and I'm not making any money from writing this ficlet/drabble.
"Summary" (or enticing take-away sentence): In that place, a small, distant place of life and light inside him, Riku could hear the crashing tides against another shore…
Warning(s): This drabble is a little angsty. It's perhaps one of the scenarios that could've happened if Riku never returned in Kingdom Heart II, so the ficlet is also AU-ish. Very light implied shounen ai, but it's almost not even visible. One sided Riku/Sora. More Sora/Kairi, though. Drabble is in Riku's pov (but in 3rd person).
Rating: T
Author's Notes: This is another drabble wars winnings piece for my lovely Saku. I said what I needed to say in the warnings section, but other than that, I should also mention that I will not write a sequel to this, so please do not ask (unless you are Saku). The drabble is complete as it is.
WC: Approx. 405 words
Penance
By Yo; written 7/4/13 & posted to ffdotnet 8/17/13
"The pounding sea is calling me home to you" – from Loreena McKennit's song "The Old Ways"
His bare feet sank into blackened sand, soft and wet between his toes. A sigh left his lips as he stared down at where his feet disappeared. The blue-black ocean waves ebbed against his ankles, the water neither warm nor cold. The foam trailed behind each calming ebb, before being swept away again.
Riku found himself looking up again at the horizon. He was in a place that was neither night nor day, dark nor light. It was the eternal crossroads between worlds…the shore of twilight…the one place in his own world that was not submerged in total darkness.
The long, black ribbon of fabric in his left hand beckoned Riku's awareness, but he did not look down at it. The strip of cloth would darken his world again soon enough. It was his torment…to ever walk in the shadows, but to never lose himself so he would always remember his betrayal of the one he loved most.
Riku continued to stare out into the horizon, soon disappearing somewhere in his thoughts…lulled into a trance of sorts by the gentle wash of the sea against the twilit shore.
In that place, a small, distant place of life and light inside him, Riku could hear the crashing tides against another shore…
Destiny Islands.
He thought he could hear for a moment that beautiful, twinkling laughter that used to make his stomach twist into knots (he could still see that smile, those mischievous eyes that once lit up his world, as if it were yesterday)…
Riku watched a phantom, older Sora stand at the edge of this distant shoreline, Kairi right beside him holding Sora's hand, a squirming bundle of something strapped to her back…the bundle was squealing in unhappiness…a baby's cries.
Sora's smile and eyes suddenly dimmed, his laughter dying.
"He's never coming back, is he?" Sora asked.
The older looking Kairi didn't answer him, but instead clutched his hand tighter in her own.
Riku gasped aloud in response to this scene, and Sora jerked alert as if he actually could hear Riku.
"Riku? Riku? Is that you?!" Sora cried out, looking all around him for his long lost, silver haired friend.
Riku wrenched himself out of the trance and closed himself down to that place inside.
Our hearts connected then, Riku whispered to himself, quickly putting the blindfold back on and shoving that vision deep down inside.
Soon, he slipped back into the world of shadows again…
Owari