Summary: After hearing Mickey's tale in Yen Sid's tower, Mickey, Riku and Kairi head off to Twilight Town to get ready for their respective adventures. Between magical trains and rabid Heartless in a back yard, Kairi finally manages to get Riku to open up about his fears.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Disney/Square Enix.
So... in March, I hit 1.3k followers on tumblr and being the KH nerd I am, I was like YAS 13! And I did a fanfic give away. cubans was the lucky winner of it and they requested a story about Riku and Kairi (Rikai to be exact but my little Sokai heart couldn't commit to it, I'm so sorry ;_; ). So this story is for them!
Please enjoy!
Twilight Town's wayward train rattled steadily over the tracks, gently swaying back and forth. It was one of the wagons that had the benches running along the walls of the train, allowing for a lot of space in the middle even though the current passengers merely took up three seats of the otherwise unoccupied space.
Kairi had a whole bench for herself, sitting sideways on it, her left knee hiked up on the seat while her right leg rested comfortably on the ground below. Her shoulder pressed into the back rest as she leaned her head against the window to stare into the mesmerizing sky. Under normal circumstances, the rocking of the train, its rattling as well as the beautiful colors of the sky would have been enough to calm and lull her into sleep, especially after a long day like today.
But none of her current circumstances were normal: She sat in a magical train, in a foreign world, traveling with one of her best friends and a mouse as companions to start her Keyblade training with her former kidnapper.
Nope, nothing normal about that.
It didn't help that her stomach was twisting and turning in response to the knowledge she had been made privy to today: Master Aqua was lost in the Realm of Darkness. Xehanort was gathering allies to attack the Princesses of Heart. War was coming.
She sighed heavily. It was a heavy burden to bear. She had envied Sora and Riku, had wanted to be part of their new and exciting life, but while she was still undoubtedly ready to help out and fight, she wondered whether she'd prefer her old life instead if she had a choice. One where they weren't in danger, where they didn't have to fight. One without a war looming over their heads.
"Kairi?"
She lifted her head off of the cold pane and turned to her right, letting her gaze fall upon Riku and King Mickey who were sitting on the bench across from her. Mickey had leaned forward, propped up on his arms between his outstretched legs. They were short enough for his feet to hang off of the edge of the seat and he kept bobbing them up and down cutely. Riku sat on his right, arms crossed over his chest as he focused his gaze on her face. His cerulean eyes were full of worry.
"Are you okay?"
Kairi answered with a small smile and nod. No need in burdening Riku with her thoughts.
"I am. Just a little nervous."
"Aw, don't be!"
Kairi let her glance shift from Riku to Mickey who had raised his hand in encouragement, gesticulating wildly.
"I'm sure you'll do great! You did a great job of defending yourself back in the World that Never Was!"
"Thank you, your Majesty. But what about you two?" She let her eyes wander over to Riku again. "How do you two feel about entering the Realm of Darkness again?"
"We'll be fine," Riku assured her and leaned back into the seat as he nodded to the suitcase to his feet, "after all, we got new clothes to protect us."
He didn't meet her eyes, Kairi realized, and kept his eyes focused on the floor. She raised an eyebrow it question, but decided to drop it for the time being.
"What kind of clothes did the fairies give you? Another black coat?"
"No idea," Riku replied and reached for his suitcase. He scooted over, closer to Mickey to allow Kairi to take a seat next to him. The three of them peered into the suitcase together as Riku opened it.
"A jacket? T-shirt, pants, boots-"
"An entire outfit?" Kairi spoke up and turned to King Mickey who had started to inspect his own suitcase.
"Looks like it! I've got a whole set as well."
"You think we can change somewhere in Twilight Town?"
"Why don't you change in here?" Kairi intercepted as she stood up and sat down on her own bench again. "We're alone in here and we don't know whether there'll be some private place anywhere in Twilight Town. I'll just close my eyes."
"That's probably for the best," King Mickey agreed and as soon as he and Riku got up and placed their suitcases on their seats, Kairi's eyes fluttered shut. Just to make sure, she covered her face with her palms and turned back to the window.
For a few minutes, the soft rustling of their clothes accompanied the rhythmic sounds of the train before something heavy dropped to the floor and King Mickey gave her the okay to open her eyes again. Kairi immediately turned back to them.
Riku was hunched over, lacing up a pair of boots what Kairi assumed to have been the sound she had heard before while Mickey inspected his outfit, turning around and making sure his tail wasn't stuck in his pants. Both wore similar outfits – uni color T-shirts under short sleeved jackets with Capri pants, the latter two decorated with a gingham pattern, but while Riku was sporting a pair of black combat boots, Mickey wore yellow shoes, not unlike the ones he had worn before.
Riku reached into his suitcase and grabbed the pair of gloves inside of it, then deposited his old clothes in it and clicked it shut. With a poof and a tiny cloud of smoke, the suitcase vanished and Kairi jumped up a little, startled. The same happened seconds later with Mickey's suitcase. Riku tried to smother a small laugh at her surprise, but he failed miserably and Kairi only acknowledged it by sticking out her tongue at him. She then took a second to regard him and Mickey more thoroughly and nodded in approval.
"You two look quite handsome, if I might say so."
"Gosh, thank you, Kairi!" Mickey replied with a chuckle and both turned to Riku, who despite the rosy tint to his cheeks didn't say anything and opted to fumble with his gloves instead. Kairi let out a giggle.
"Riku, are you still bad at receiving compliments?"
"He is! Can't accept them to save his life," Mickey confirmed with another chuckle. Riku flushed even more, but resolved to shake his head and smooth down his jacket instead of defending himself. At that, Kairi cocked her head and stared at Riku – something about his look bothered her and she scratched her chin in thought before she got an idea and walked up to him.
"Hey Riku, lean down for me, will you?"
Automatically, the boy complied, bowing down, but as soon as Kairi's hands reached out for his head, he got tense and shot up again. He narrowed his eyes and stared down at her.
"You're not going to braid my hair again are you?"
Kairi rolled her eyes theatrically.
"It's not my fault you grew out your beautiful long healthy hair while mine wouldn't reach past my shoulders. Now get down here!"
Riku grumbled a little, but gave in and sat down, allowing Kairi to reach his for head. She immediately buried her fingers in his hair, softly running them through his strands and along his scalp, pulling in one direction and smoothing down in the other, before she hummed to herself in approval.
"Now, that's more like it. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
She took a step back, allowing Mickey to look at his companion, and he nodded excitedly.
"Very good! A hair style worthy of a Master!"
"Oh come on, you guys, stop it!" Riku buried his glowing face in his hands as Kairi and Mickey shared a laugh. Before any of them could add anything else however, the train slowed down and Kairi realized that they had arrived in Twilight Town already. She jumped through the opening doors down onto the platform, Riku and Mickey on her heels.
"Leon will be waiting for you at the old Mansion and bring you to Radiant Garden where Merlin and Lea are already expecting you! I'll just have to stock up on potions on the way."
Kairi threw a glance over to Riku. His face was tense again, maybe even nervous, but when their eyes met for a second, he immediately pulled up his poker face again. Kairi's eyebrows knitted together in worry as she followed the King and Riku outside onto the Station Plaza and down the steep streets of the Station Heights.
Twilight Town was a truly curious place. Technically, Kairi knew it was late afternoon or even early evening and likely starting to get dark outside on Destiny Islands. Here, the sun didn't move an inch though - the streets and buildings were perpetually bathed in the soft colors of the setting sun. It was beautiful, but she wondered how anybody could rest with so much sunlight at night. It probably explained all the window shutters she saw on the houses.
"Here we are!"
Kairi skidded to an abrupt halt and blinked. They had reached the item shop already.
"I'll stay here and fill up our supplies. You and Riku go on alone," Mickey urged them with a knowing smile. "I'm sure the two of you will want to catch up a little in private and shoppin' might take quite a while. I don't want to leave Leon waitin'. Just meet me here once you're done, Riku."
Riku smiled down at him.
"Thanks, Mickey."
"This is goodbye then? For now at least."
Kairi leaned down and Mickey eagerly grabbed the hand she extended to him. "Good luck, your Majesty! Please look out for Riku for us."
"Will do! And you do your best so the three of you can finally fight alongside each other!"
"You can count on me!"
Mickey waved one last time at the pair and lined up at the queue as Riku and Kairi continued the track down the road through a big archway. A tram passed them right as they entered the big plaza and slowly rode along its trails.
"We'll find our way if we follow the tram," Riku explained to Kairi and set off. Kairi caught up to him quickly and they followed the road alongside each other in companionable silence, until Kairi saw Riku's eyes darken and his jaw tighten up and she bit her lip.
"So...," she asked softly and Riku turned to her with a questioning glance, "how do you feel about going into the Realm of Darkness for real?"
Riku sighed and rubbed his neck nervously.
"Can't hide anything from you, huh?"
"Nope!" Kairi answered, popping the 'pe' as she folded her arms behind her back. "Well, and you didn't meet my eyes when I asked. You always do it because your eyes can't lie."
Riku stared at the ground for a few seconds and came to a stop. He leaned his arm against one of the houses they passed on their way.
"It's not that I'm scared of the Darkness," he said then, "It can't touch me anymore and I won't let it touch Mickey, either." He turned back to Kairi and the raw hurt in his eyes shocked her. "I'm scared we're too late to save Aqua. She gave her life for me, stayed over 12 years in the Darkness, without anything to protect her."
Kairi walked up to Riku and put her hand on his back to comfort him. Instead, he leaned his head against his arm, hunching his shoulders and balling his fist.
"I remember the time when I was in there alone. The Darkness tries to crawl under your skin and the second you are distracted, it'll try to chip away at your heart until it consumes you. Imagine 12 years of that."
"Riku…"
"We don't even know where exactly to look for her," he told her as he turned back around to her, his entire face contorted with pain. "Finding her could take us days, weeks, even months. If we find her. What if we get lost and don't find our way out in time? What if Xehanort starts his attack while Mickey, Aqua and I are still missing? It's my fault that –"
Suddenly, Riku's eyes narrowed as he focused on something over Kairi's shoulder.
"Kairi? I think your training might start sooner than you thought."
With her eyebrows raised up high, Kairi turned around to the sound of Riku summoning Way to the Dawn. A group of Shadows crept out of a backyard, slowly and uncoordinated, until they seemed to have sensed them – and started to charge at them.
"Watch out!" Riku yelled at her and both of them jumped out of the way of the attack. With a flick of her wrist and a pull in her heart, Kairi summoned Destiny's Embrace, its weight still foreign in her grasp but reassuring all the same.. She took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart as much as possible and rushed to Riku's side, hacking away at the heartless that tried to attack them. From time to time, she threw a glance at Riku and she saw that he did the same – she did it to copy his movements, he did to make sure she was doing okay.
Some of the heartless got scratches on her until she got the hang of the combat and managed to block them off successfully to then deliver a few blows of her own.
"Kairi behind you! Dodge!"
Kairi spun around. Several Shadows had made up a formation again, ready to squish her beneath them, and she did the first thing that came to her mind.
She grasped her Keyblade tightly and threw her torso to the side, supporting it with her outstretched arm as the other held the Keyblade out of her way. Her feet followed her movement smoothly as she cartwheeled away to safety, back to Riku's side and assumed a perfect stance before raising her Keyblade in defense again. A side glance at Riku showed her that he looked slightly shocked. Or was that awe?
"That was impressive," he confirmed her assumption when another heartless tried to jump him, "when did you learn that?"
Kairi couldn't help her wide grin when she answered him.
"I joined a gymnastics class while you guys were away. Looks like it paid off!"
They had decimated the Shadows until only two tiny ones were left who frantically moved around, morphing into the ground and back. Riku and Kairi shared a quick glance and jumped together, each slicing through one of the two heartless to make them vanish.
Kairi exhaled loudly and allowed herself to take a look around. They had ended up right next to a large hole in the wall that led into the woods. She faintly remembered them leading to the old Mansion they were supposed to meet Leon at, so she dismissed Destiny's Embrace and ran the back over her hand over her brows. The fight felt… surprisingly good. She was a little sweaty, sure, and maybe slightly breathless, but overall, she felt good.
She turned back to Riku and realized that there was not a single drop of sweat on his forehead. He barely seemed out of breath as well when he checked the rest of their surroundings for some hidden enemies.
Alright, maybe she wasn't that good after all.
Nevertheless, she raised her hand high above her head and Riku enthusiastically high-fived her before then mustered her from head to toe with an approving smile on his face.
"You'll do great, Kairi," he concluded with a grin on his face as he dismissed his Keyblade, too, "I might even be a little concerned for Lea now."
Kairi puffed out her chest.
"Well, he better watch out, I'm coming for him!"
"I bet you are!"
The two of them laughed a little until Riku motioned at the hole in the wall and entered the woods, Kairi right on his heels. Riku insisted on going first, on the lookout for more enemies that might pop out from behind the trees. It allowed Kairi a moment to herself to really look at Riku. He had grown so much even though he'd always been taller than her or Sora. The way he held himself was less influenced by cockiness nowadays, but by genuine confidence. His shoulders had broadened, but instead of feeling intimidating, he radiated calmness.
This was the Riku she had gotten to know when she first arrived at the islands, not the cocky caricature that he had been for a while when the Darkness had taken over him. Would he still be the kind young man he was now had he not been on his adventures? Maybe there was a good side to all the danger happening around her – it strengthened Sora's compassion and brought back Riku's kindness.
"I believe in you."
Riku halted and turned back around to her, the arch of his eyebrow raised inquisitively.
"I believe in you and Mickey finding Aqua," Kairi explained, and a tiny gasp escaped Riku's lips. Before he could get a word in however, she continued. "I believe in you finding your way out of the Realm of Darkness back into the Realm of Light. I believe in you getting out of there in time to join us in the fight." She shook her head energetically. "None of this was your fault. It's Xehanort's fault. He set us up. He sets everyone up." Her eyes softened. "I believe in you. We believe in you."
They looked at each other for a moment before the corners of Riku's mouth started curling up slightly. He reached out to her.
"You're right. We're gonna save her, right?"
Kairi gladly took his hand.
"Of course you will. If anyone can do it, then it's you."
Riku tugged her close and threw his arm over her shoulders, pulling her close to his side until their heads bumped.
"Thanks, Kairi. I guess I needed to hear that."
She giggled a little.
"You're welcome. I do wonder however – since when are you this affectionate?"
Riku's grip on her loosened a little, he didn't remove his arm from her shoulders though and they leisurely strolled towards the exit of the woods.
"Guess Sora rubs off more on me than I'd like to admit."
"Well, I stand by what I said before," Kairi hummed as she poked him in the stomach, "We still like you!"
They had reached a clearing behind the woods. The rooftops of the huge Twilight Town Mansion were visible over the giant wall that was built to enclose the property. Through the huge double door gates, Kairi was able to see a glimpse of brown hair behind one of the pillars in the front yard.
"I guess it's time."
"Yeah," Riku answered and let go of Kairi to push at the old squeaky gate. A small gummi ship was parked in the corner of the yard so it wouldn't be visible from the outside.
"Hey."
Leon had noticed their appearance and nodded in greeting. "Nice to see you again, Kairi. And you must be Sora's other friend, Riku?"
Riku nodded.
"I'm happy to see you again, too!"
"Nice to meet you, Leon."
Leon nodded and looked over at the gummi ship.
"You ready?"
"Just one minute, okay?"
Kairi turned back to Riku and the two of them smiled at each other.
"Make sure the King returns safe and sound, Donald and Goofy will be out for you if you don't."
Riku chuckled.
"Got it."
"And make sure you return safe as well. No objections."
His face softened
"Will do. And you don't slack off during your training!"
"Excuse me?" Kairi put her hand over her chest in mock-disbelief. "Sora is the only lazy bum of our group!"
"Not according to my memory," Riku countered, tapping at his temple, "You avoided building the raft just as much as he did, you were just smarter about it."
She pushed her tongue out at him again and then grinned.
"Don't worry, I won't. Gotta make Axel regret that he kidnapped me after all."
"That's the spirit!"
Leon opened the door to the gummi ship and entered it with a small wave at them. A little reluctantly, Kairi followed him, but paused in the entrance.
"Come back to us safely, okay?"
"I will. Can't leave you and Sora unsupervised, now, can I?"
She smiled.
"No. No you can't."
Riku smiled in response and waved as Kairi finally entered the ship and closed the door behind her. Without a problem she followed Leon into the cockpit of the ship and took a look out of the windshield. Riku was still there. He had moved to the edge of the yard, allowing Leon enough space to maneuver the gummi ship around.
"You better sit down for the start," Leon told her, and she settled on the seat next to his as she felt the engines rev into life. It didn't take Leon long to take off and just a few seconds later, Riku's figure grew smaller until he was only a dot on the huge world before they entered the Lanes between.
Kairi leaned back into her seat.
This was it. A new beginning. Her very own adventure.