"Hey Sora?"
Though the music was still swelling all around them, Sora paused, his hand still in Kairi's, arm around her waist. He had been very careful not to step on her shoes or her dress, and thought he'd been doing pretty well. Had he made a mistake without realizing it?
"Is… something wrong?" he asked.
Kairi's face reddened and she looked over his shoulder. He decided to mirror her and avert his gaze a moment. The gymnasium was still filled with other couple swirling around in a slow and (dare he think it?) romantic dance. Despite how much he hated school, this whole dance thing had actually been working out.
"N-No, not at all!" Kairi stammered, still avoiding his eyes. She started to step back, so Sora began to release her waist. She paused, and her free hand slid down to his arm to stop him.
"I'm… just a bit warm," she continued, and her blushing intensified. "Do you think we could step outside for a minute?"
"Sure!" Sora said, perhaps a bit too eagerly. Kairi laughed lightly and took hold of his other hand. They smiled at each other a moment, then made their way out of the gym. Sora couldn't help but keep his eyes on his date as they left, though he was pretty sure he saw Riku giving him a thumbs up out of the corner of his eye.
Once outside, the music faded away and the pleasant evening breeze instantly cooled them down. Despite his physical body feeling cooler, his face still felt on fire. When he glanced at Kairi, he saw her cheeks were still burning red as well, perfectly matching her hair. The thought made him blush harder.
"Sorry," Kairi said abruptly, using her free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I was having a really great time. I just think this dress was making me light-headed."
"That's okay," Sora grinned. "I was having a good time too. But… er, well it wouldn't be very fun if you passed out!"
Kairi laughed. "I agree! I'd like to enjoy my evening conscious, thank you very much!"
The pair chuckled and looked away from each other, staring up at the sky. All was quiet, save for the faint melody wafting out from inside, and the chorus of crickets keeping them company. Sora was ever-aware of Kairi's hand still in his. Was this the longest they'd held hands, ever?
"One sky, huh?"
Kairi's voice broke the silence, making Sora's blue eyes fall on her instantly. She was still staring at the sky, but a brilliant smile spread across her face.
"Yeah," Sora said, his throat suddenly dry. "One destiny."
Kairi laughed softly and looked at him. "You remembered."
"Of course I did! How could I forget? Without you reminding me of that, Riku and I could still be—"
"Let's not talk about that," Kairi interrupted him, looking down. Sora could have kicked himself. Why ruin such a regular, normal night with a stupid comment like that? He couldn't be bringing up the saving the worlds stuff when they were trying to be regular teenagers.
There was an awkward silence now, and Sora was sure he had blown it. Why did he always have to go for the dramatics? Even if it wasn't extravagant, he was always brining up darkness, or the Keyblade, or Heartless. Transitioning to a normal life was harder than he'd thought. Riku and Kairi didn't seem to have any problem with it, to his surprise, so what was his problem? Had it really affected him that much?
"I'm really glad you're here."
Kairi's voice brought him back to earth again, and he found that her blue eyes were lined up perfectly with his. Her smile was so soft, so faint that unless he'd seen it in her eyes, he might have missed it. She was definitely beautiful tonight, at least, more so than usual.
"I'm glad I'm here, too," he replied, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. "Especially since I get to be with you."
A silent laugh shook Kairi's shoulders, and very subtly, the distance between them began to close. Sora's heart pounded loudly in his chest, and he was sure she could hear it. It was deafening him, but instinctively he reacted, scarcely tilting his head and lining it up with hers. He didn't think his face could get any warmer as it came closer to hers, mere inches separating them.
Very suddenly, Kairi had stepped back and straightened up, her face blank. Sora's brow furrowed and he too straightened up, trying to process what had just happened. There was a series of groans, he looked past Kairi to see a handful of people peeking out of the gymnasium, spying on them.
"Did her internet have to go down right now?" one peeper asked. He was short with dark blue hair and green eyes. Standing next to him was an equally short girl with bright pink hair and crimson eyes to match, and she just shook her head.
"No, that's a pause, I can tell," she replied.
"Screw the timing though," Riku said, leaning on the door frame. "How many months have we been waiting for this?"
"Would you guys can it?" Sora muttered, folding his arms. "As soon as she unpauses, we can probably continue. If you don't totally kill the mood."
"Ooo, Sora's eager," Riku teased, and the group laughed despite Sora somehow managing to turn a few shades darker.
Kairi blinked and shook her head, still blushing.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "It's my parents… they caught me still up."
The group groaned again, and Sora's shoulders drooped.
"You gotta go?" he asked.
"Yeah…" Kairi replied. "But, um… maybe we can pick up the RP tomorrow? If you guys don't mind waiting on me."
"I think it'd be pretty hard to skip ahead at this point, and explain everything away—" Sora began.
"Oh stop making excuses, Light," Riku chided. "You just wanna kiss her."
Sora's face turned the same shade as a tomato.
"N-No! I just think it's an integral part of the narrative, that's all!" he argued, but everyone was sniggering.
"It's fine, don't worry about it, Princess," the blue-haired boy interjected. "We can pause here. We'll find something else to RP tonight, no worries."
"Thanks, Ito," Kairi replied, then her hand hovered to her temple. She looked up at Sora through her lashes, still slightly pink. "See you guys tomorrow."
"Good night, Princess!" the assembled group called, and with one last lingering look at Sora, she disappeared.
The five peepers joined Sora outside, a ragtag group of young adults with an assortment of hair colors and styles. Aside from Riku, Ito, and the pink-haired Midnight, there was a Roxas and Namine as well. It was Roxas who spoke first, putting one hand up to his temple and another to a hologram keyboard that appeared in front of him.
"So I can take down the dance decorations for the night then?" he said, starting to tap away.
"I guess," Sora mumbled, making Roxas snort.
"I'll save the code off, don't worry," he smirked. "You'll get your kiss."
"Would you guys leave me alone about that! Geez, it's just a roleplay."
"But it's cuuuuute!" Midnight giggled. "And we've been waiting for that SoKai moment forever!"
"Give him a break, guys," Namine said softly, then waved a hand around herself. Her extravagant white dress faded into a black T-shirt and ripped jeans, and her hair turned to a purple pixie cut. She no longer looked anything at all like Namine. "Anyway, you guys have fun. I think I'm gonna go grind out some EXP at Halloweentown."
"G'night, Yuki," Riku said, giving her a casual salute. She mockingly curtseyed and then faded away much like Kairi had.
"So am I setting up another Destiny Islands mod or what?" Roxas asked, raising a blonde brow at the assembled.
"Hmm… sure," Sora shrugged. "What haven't we played with lately?"
"Some kind of sparring," Riku suggested. "We haven't done PvP in a while."
"That's because you and Light always kick our asses," Ito mumbled. "You're like 600 levels higher than us."
"But Ito! The cap is only level 50!" Midnight gasped.
"Hyperbole, Midnight," Ito sighed.
"Eh, just set up a general Destiny Islands day mod," Sora suggested. "We'll figure out what to do when we get there."
Kingdom Hearts Online had only been up for six months, but it was arguably the best six months of Light's life. At least, Light was the nickname his online friends had given him, based on his full username, HeartOfLight. It was hard to get simple usernames in such a popular MMO, even if he had been one of the first people to make an account.
Part of the reason Light loved KHO so much was the fact that it was a Kingdom Hearts MMO. What was not to love? He could visit the worlds in the game, interact with real Disney and Final Fantasy NPCs, and even wield a personalized Keyblade. Not that it looked personalized; he tended to prefer the standard Kingdom Key skin. When it came to customization, Light tended to keep it simple: His avatar was always cosplaying Sora in some form or fashion, and why not? Where else in the world could he ever really become the Keyblade Master?
Another reason KHO had become a huge part of his life was because of the technology it wielded. Even though he had followed it since its announcement, the GameOVR (which stood for Game Optimized Virtual Reality) and how it functioned was still largely a mystery to him. It was just a simple headset he could slip on while sitting in a chair, lying in bed, wherever, but it quite literally transported him into a digital world. The signals it sent to his brain made him see the sights, smell the smells, and even feel the breeze on his face. No one was sure where Square Enix had been hiding this hardware, but everyone sure was glad they'd finally released it, and with a Kingdom Hearts launch title no less.
But the biggest reason Light loved KHO was because of the friends he had made. Having been an active roleplayer well before the days of the GameOVR, Light had accumulated quite a gaggle of enthusiastic and nerdy acquaintances, some of which he'd brought with him to KHO when he'd first joined. Among them were Princess_Kai (Nickname: Princess, Character: Kairi), InsertWittyUsername (Nickname: Witty, Character: Riku), and ~Yukimoto-Rain~ (Nickname: Yuki, Character: Namine). The others had come along later, joining one of the many roleplays Light and his group had started: ItoChairo (Nickname: Ito, Characters: an OC named Kusa and occasionally Leon), MidnightMoon35 (Nickname: Midnight, Character: another OC named Zalaria), and Scattered_Dreams86 (Nickname: Scat, Character: Roxas).
Unfortunate though it was, the simple hobby of roleplaying wasn't as easy as it was on a forum-based website. First of all, finding all the right skins and hairstyles was difficult, and when some of them had to be bought with the in-currency, that took some intense grinding. That was probably half the reason Light and Witty were at the current level cap, the other half being that they were naturally competitive and completionists to top it all off. But secondly, and probably most importantly, play-acting in real life, even in virtual reality, was a lot more taxing and involved than simply typing words on a screen. It took some practice, and a lot of humility.
It was a lucky day that Scat had joined their team. Scat had some great code-sense about him, and was a whiz when it came to crafting up private servers for their RPs. He could customize locations, NPCs, enemies, anything they could ask for, based on the foundational code provided for each world in-game. It gave them a good deal to work with, and kept them away from any trolls that might try to interfere.
All things considered, there were a lot of things Light and his friends could do in KHO, like defeating Heartless in all the worlds to complete NPC quest and gain incredible collectibles, or competing in the player vs. player Olympus Coliseum to improve their ranking and get rare rewards, or even just sight-see in all the fantastic worlds at their disposal. But there was just something so incredibly immersive and empowering about roleplaying that Light could never get away from. He needed it, thrived on it. The things they did in a roleplay, that's what felt real. That wasn't something he was just going to get bored of anytime soon.