Pairing: Kairi/Selphie (and implied Riku/Sora)
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Square-Enix, whom I am not affiliated with. No profit made.
Notes: Contains spoilers for KH2. Written for Aconite. The title is a word that got stuck in my head and refused to leave. According to my Google search, "hab" is an Arabic word for "seed," and Allah, is of course, God. So, I ran with it.
...
The classroom was a blank, square affair, filled with neat rows of desks and bored students. At the front stood Professor Elihm, who looked as if he'd never had an exciting day in his life, his voice as dull as his expression. His tweed suit was stiff and the color of slate; the pretense of stretching a thin, gray strap of hair across his bald pate was so ludicrous that Kairi had to stifle a giggle every time she saw him.
Already bored with the lecture, though it had only begun two minutes ago, Kairi turned to look out the large windows overlooking the sea. In the distance, she could see the small islet she and Sora and Riku had played on as children. She could even make out the waving palm tree fronds, as if to beckon her to its sandy shores.
As the sunlight dances over the gentle waves, snatches of Professor Elihm's lecture made its way to her ears.
"A Haballah is a creature that once served the ancient gods when the worlds were new. Though the gods have long faded from mythology, the Haballah remain in limited numbers, believing themselves superior to all other beings…"
Riku and Sora should have been there, listening to the lecture. They might have learned something from it. A Haballah sounded like something they were dealing with, given what King Mickey's letter had suggested. But Riku and Sora hadn't attended school in two years. They'd been too busy saving the world. Worlds.
"Normal weapons have no effect on Haballah, and…"
Selphie leaned forward, her breath warm on Kairi's ear. "Do you want to swim out to the island today?" she whispered. The smell of mango clung to her hair.
"The word Haballah comes from the ancient…"
Kairi smiled, warmth running down her spine. "Sure."
...
Kairi thought of Riku and Sora the most when she was on their island. She hadn't seen them in almost a year now. The loneliness had finally receded to a dull ache. After all, she still had Selphie and the rest of their friends.
Selphie spread the blanket out on the sand, the warm wind drying both her and Kairi off from their swim. Sand clung stubbornly to both their arms and legs, refusing to let go, even in the face of water evaporation.
Selphie wore a yellow bikini with a big, yellow bow on the front, as bright and untouchable as her personality. Kairi could forget there was darkness in the universe when around Selphie. She was sunshine and smiles and daisies.
Kairi had learned to appreciate those things when trapped in darkness.
Selphie stretched out her bikini top to shake out the sand, her wet, auburn hair still stuck to the side of her face. She smiled at Kairi. "C'mon. We better get to studying, because you know how Professor Elhim is about pop quizzes."
Kairi glanced back at the ocean, its blue surface glittering like gold in the late afternoon sun. The sound of water lapping at the white shores was as comforting as her mother's heartbeat after a nightmare. No matter where she'd been born, Destiny Islands was her true home.
"Do you ever wonder what Sora and Riku are up to?" she asked, suddenly, thinking of Sora's eyes when she glanced up at the azure sky.
"Sure. I'll bet they're kicking butt and taking names. Maybe picking up shiny, new toys. Or even sucking face in the back of a gummi ship."
Kairi was unable to stifle a giggle. "You can't possibly think they're doing the last one."
"Sure I can." Selphie winked and flopped down onto the white blanket. Its edges fluttered in the sun like some sort of truce flag.
Kairi settled down next to her, brushing sands off her thighs. "Sora and Riku…? But they…"
"Like you, I know."
"No, I meant –" Kairi blushed. "– just that, well…"
"I'm joking, Kairi," Selphie said, tilting her head. Kairi stared at her smooth neck, following the curve past her shoulder, to her small breasts.
Averting her eyes, Kairi coughed, feeling her cheeks heat up. "Maybe they are," she said with a weak laugh. "They always had something between them that I couldn't touch."
"Land and sky are two opposite elements, but there's always a place on the horizon where they meet. You were that place."
"'Were'?"
"Are."
"No, I think 'were' is right. I…" Kairi turned back to the water. In the distance, the islands where their homes left blocky shadows on the horizon. The horizon wasn't just a place where sky and land met – it was where twilight and dawn lived. "I haven't heard from them in so long. I think they've forgotten about me."
"Nobody could forget about you, Kairi. They're just busy."
The sentiment was sweet, but Kairi didn't quite believe it. "Thanks, Selphie."
Selphie grinned and patted Kairi on the thigh. Her hand was warm, and the warmth snaked through Kairi's body until it rested in her abdomen, coiling tight.
"Now," said Selphie, sounding self-important as she opened their Ancient History textbook, "the word Haballah is derived from the ancient term for 'seeds of the gods,' and refers to how they were created…"
Kairi laid down next to Selphie on the blanket, listening to the sound of Selphie's voice. It was high-pitched, but sweet, as soothing as the birds singing to each other in the palm trees.
She watched Selphie's chest rise and fall the rest of the day, as steady as the ocean tides.
...
"They finally wrote?"
Kairi sat on the humped tree trunk that Riku and Sora had spent so much time on, reading and re-reading their letter. The bottle it had arrived in lay in the sand at her feet. She didn't glance up at Selphie, merely hoping that the blurring of her vision was due to tiredness, not to tears welling in her eyes.
"Yes," Kairi said, shivering from the cold. It was a windy, gray day, full of clouds threatening to spend their wrath on the islands below. She shouldn't have swam out to the islet, but she had a feeling it was important she be there. Her instincts had proved her right when she found the bottle floating to the shore upon her arrival.
"Well?" asked Selphie, putting her hands on her hips. She must have used the boat, for she was dry, wearing their school uniform with the same nonchalance she wore everything. Part of the shirt had rode up to reveal a bare strip of skin on her waist.
"They're at Twilight Town right now. Maleficent has been making trouble – but they have even bigger trouble – the Haballah woke up. So, Sora and Riku won't be back for a while. There's a war out there."
"Shouldn't you be helping them?"
Kairi stared at her knees, peeking out from the towel laid across her lap. "They said it's safer if I stay here. That it doesn't involve me."
"And you're just going to take that?" Selphie put her hands on her hips. "That's not the Kairi I know and love. She would be out there, fighting the good fight, taking care of her boys."
Kairi shuddered, warming again when Selphie said she loved her. She stared at Selphie for a long moment before speaking. "I don't think they want me with them."
Selphie didn't say anything more. She just threw her arms around Kairi and held her tight.
Even after the heavens opened up and it started to rain, Kairi never got cold.
...
"Once, they guarded the corridors connecting every world, and flew through the skies in great numbers. But when the gods forsook the Haballah and taught mortals magic, a war began. The gods fell, and Keyblades were created so mortals could defend themselves against the vengeful spirits and travel as the Haballah did…"
Kairi winced every time the professor said the word "Keyblade". The image of Sora and Riku standing back to back, Keyblades in hand, burned in her mind. She saw her hand over theirs, felt their pulse beneath her palm, then she let go. It was up to them. It had always been up to them. She connected their circle, but once the connection was made, what did they need her for anymore?
What did anyone need her for?
A piece of paper slid over her desk. Kairi glanced down at it. A bright, red heart sparkled in the sunlight painted in glitter. It read:
You'll always be my Princess. I "heart" you!
Kairi looked up, following the smell of mango and sea air as the wind blew past Selphie to her. Selphie was dark against the sunlit window, her short hair blowing in the breeze. When Kairi's eyes adjusted, Selphie's smile was even brighter than the sun.
"I 'heart' you, too," Kairi mouthed, positive Selphie understood what she was saying.
...
"It was said that the Haballah had power over life and death, but they never understood the human heart or emotions. Despite their disdain for mortals, they knew nothing about love or hate. They were cold beings, that…"
The sound of Selphie's voice was still relaxing, and while Kairi knew she should be paying attention to the words, she instead concentrated on how Selphie's voice matched the gentle sound of the ocean lapping at the islet's shore. Wide, gray rocks and tall, green trees stretched out in front of Kairi as the water kissed her bare toes, all making Kairi feel right at home.
"Do you ever think you're overreacting?" Selphie asked, abruptly halting reading aloud. "That maybe they do need you, and they're just trying to protect you? They always loved protecting you, you know."
Kairi traced a heart on the sand with her forefinger. The white blanket was smooth beneath her stomach, and the sun hot on her back. She hoped she would tan this time without burning. She was tired of being pale.
"Maybe. But maybe they… really don't need me. I'm… scared."
Selphie stared at her, her hands holding down the pages of her textbook so the wind wouldn't send them fluttering. She frowned, a cute expression that crinkled her brow and the corner of her full lips. "Are you scared of them leaving you behind or of you leaving them behind?"
Kairi had no answer for that. She ran her fingers through her hair, staring at the sand as it swirled in the wind. Her gaze finally rested on the Paopu tree that held the fruit Sora had given her. An inexplicable ache shot through her chest as she thought of those little cave drawings she and Sora had made. She could almost feel his warm breath against her face, his soft lips on hers. Every time she looked at the sky, she saw Sora. Every time she looked at the trees waving in the wind, she saw Riku. They were still with her, after a fashion.
"I thought… we would be together forever."
"Nothing lasts forever."
Kairi flipped over onto her side and smiled at Selphie. "When did you get so wise?"
Selphie grinned. "When did you get so timid?"
"Timid?" Kairi narrowed her eyes and grabbed Selphie by the side, tickling her warm flesh. "Timid?"
Selphie shrieked with laughter, and Kairi attacked full force, her fingers trailing over the smooth, velvet soft flesh. They rolled over the blanket, books forgotten, a tangle of struggling limbs. Selphie's gales of laughter pelted Kairi's ears; there was no sweeter sound in any world.
It stopped when Kairi's fingers wandered farther than they should have, slipping under the stretchy material of Selphie's bikini. Kairi felt extremely soft flesh under fingers, and a hardening nipple. Frozen, Kairi sucked in her breath, staring in wonder at Selphie.
Selphie lay on her back, staring back. She panted heavily, her chest heaving so Kairi's fingers slipped even further under the bikini. Smiling, she cupped Kairi's cheek, her green eyes full of something that Kairi hadn't seen since Sora had left.
Heat pooled in Kairi's abdomen, trickling between her thighs. Encouraged by Selphie's fingers on her face, Kairi pushed the bikini top up and cupped Selphie's breast, her thumb wandering over the small nipple. A desire to touch more, to be touched, burned in Kairi's belly, like a fire that would never go out.
"Have you ever kissed anyone before, Kairi?" Selphie asked, lazily reaching up to undo the strings on Kairi's pink bikini.
"Almost."
"Then kiss me," Selphie whispered.
Kairi bent down and brushed her lips against the Selphie's. It only made the fire hotter, urging her to grind her hips against Selphie's. Her hands grew more demanding, almost of their own volition, as she slid her palm down's Selphie's flat belly to between Selphie's legs, cupping the warmth she found there.
Selphie groaned and half-sat up, eagerly drawing Kairi into a kiss, her own hand sliding beneath Kairi's bikini bottom. Fingers ran through Kairi's pubic hair, leaving trails of lava behind, and then her fingers brushed against - oh.
It was then that Kairi knew a bliss so fierce that could make her forget all her worries and fears, burning them away as quickly as fire on paper. She could think of nothing else but lips, and tongues, and fingers, and touch me.
...
How could any being live without love? It made life worth living, a light that could shine in any darkness. Kairi had loved many people, but perhaps none so fiercely as she did Selphie. That Haballah didn't even understand the concept was almost heart-breaking.
King Mickey stood in front of her, the golden handle of his Keyblade gleaming in the setting sun. His face was sad, exhaustion etched into ever curve of his eyes and snout. His other hand was in the pocket of his black coat. Behind him, Pluto moaned pitifully, sniffing the air in front of Kairi.
She glanced back at Selphie, who sat on Kairi's bed. She'd covered herself with the sheets when the King had appeared, and her cheeks still burned red from embarrassment. The white cloth was thin, and Kairi could still see the soft curves of her body, the edges lit from the light pouring through her bedroom window. The King was carefully avoiding looking at her, which Kairi appreciated.
"Go, Kairi. Help them. It's your destiny. They need you."
Kairi glanced at the King and at the flower-carved Keyblade he'd just given her. It was her time now, her time to be brave and strong. To save Sora and Riku. To really save them. To make a difference. To finish connecting their circle.
"I love you," Kairi whispered.
Selphie smiled, that same flash of teeth that made the sun seem so dull. "Then come back and visit me once in a while."
"I promise."
"Let's go, Kairi," said the King, obviously trying to sound cheerful. He held out a gloved hand, and a portal appeared. Pluto woofed and dove in, his straight, black tail wagging. The King offered Kairi and Selphie a half-hearted smile and followed.
Kairi glanced back, taking strength from Selphie's smile as a flower would the sun's rays. She hefted the Keyblade in her hand and ran into the portal, prepared to fight the Haballah who had kidnapped Sora and Riku.
It was her destiny to be at Sora and Riku's sides, but her heart belonged with Selphie. It was only one short adventure until they were together again.
End.