Heartbeat
———
He has the same. Why does he have the same?
Kairi doesn't understand.
She's laying on that little island with the umbrella paopu tree, feeling the sugar-sand against her skin and the wind in her hair and the light in her eyes. And he's with her, holding her as she lays across his chest, and they both dream of open skies and fantasies, even though their previous ones had just recently ended.
She'd returned to the islands full of hope, he'd returned battle-bruised and joyful that he was finally home. And even though his memories were wound with a dark past, she was still here for him, to open her arms and lead him up that stairway into the sun.
But in this moment, as the sun sets beneath the horizon and turns both the sky and the sea to a wildfire of tropical colors, she hears his heartbeat. And her indigo optics widen in surprise as she realize – it matches hers. One rhapsodic beat after the next, in single, perfect harmony. And she feels – deep down, as her stomach swirls with butterflies and her heart soars untamed, that the two of them are one. Whole.
"They match," she whispers, her voice as faint as the waves riding along the shore.
"What does?" he turns to her, looking confused. His brown spikes are somewhat lopsided, and damp from their earlier swim. But his eyes are a bright, pensive blue – deeper than water and lighter than sky – the most meaningful pair of orbs she'd ever set eyes on.
She laughs. "Our heartbeats, dumbo."
"Oh."
For a moment, he places his ear to her chest, listening. All was silent, apart from the swirling tides, and so they could both hear this strange phenomenon. He drew back slightly, stunned.
Kairi was smiling at his bemused expression. "Why do you think that is?"
His fingertips trailed across the many scars that now gouged his tanned arm. He remembered the Heartless – flinging themselves at him with no mercy, and he having to grip the cold blade of the Keyblade and fight back. All of it was a mess of valor and determination and blood – not to mention the pain of losing others along the way. And even though darkness often eclipsed his senses, threatening to drag him into the darkest oblivion, he had held the smallest figment of light in his heart. He'd had the Oathkeeper charm after all, and that was all he'd ever needed to connect him to her.
He eyes her for a moment, watching the liquid sunlight trail across her skin, and in her auburn hair. He's dazzled, enraptured – but even these feelings can't possible match the unbridled love and protection he has for her.
His fingertips find her face, and he gives a murmur that rises to the sky, to the faint beginnings of twilight stars.
"I was fighting for you. Maybe that's why."