I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters. Just Kiri. Behold an AU of an AU. Just because.
The room was quiet, not empty. The only soul in it had her mind far, far away from the place. The girl remained standing, rocking almost undetectably on the spot. Her brown eyes were half-lidded, unfocused. One hand was on the desk to stabilize her, but it did little to keep her grounded in the real world.
"Gotta study for the test… I can't keep playing, the dogs will get me…"
"Kiri! Dinner's ready!"
The voice reached her as though through a fog. She reached under her blue frames and rubbed her eyes tiredly, jostling her glasses. Her hand remained fixated on her desk, unable to even push back to heed the call. She would have much rather crawled into her bed and huddled the last of daylight away.
Except then they would've actually come up to talk to her. She skipped the last two nights already.
Kiri finally managed to push herself up from her desk, but not to reach the dinner table. Taking a few slow steps out for her window, she pushed aside the curtains a little more to see the sky. The sun would set soon. Searching the expanse for the twinkle she sought, she was relieved when she saw it, already feeling herself calm.
"The magic's here… thank goodness, I thought I'd be alone."
Opening up her window pane to welcome the ocean breeze. It played with her dark hair and swished it around her heart-shaped face gently. Kiri closed her eyes and took a breath, before releasing and opening her eyes again. Kiri blinked. Brow furrowed, she squinted at the twinkling star as it flickered oddly.
"I think… it's breaking…"
Two comets shot across the sky in a blaze. The distant tiny pinpoints of light were not shooting stars, but two very distinct projectiles sailing across the evening sky. Riveted to the scene, she watched them blast straight into the water.
"Kiri, did you hear me? Dinner! You need to eat, sweetie!"
She murmured. She mumbled under her breath to herself in a mantra, not moving even when the door opened and her mother spoke to her. "Kiri, did you hear me?"
"…The worlds… are returning. I can go home now. I can go home now…"
"Kiri… Kiri, honey, you're already home…" The woman urged desperately.
"I can see everyone again…" And the girl smiled joyously. "My family… everyone on the islands."
The girl did not turn around to see the heartbreak on the woman's face. Nor did she move when the woman approached her and held her shoulders. "No, honey, please, I thought you were getting better."
"Go back… the worlds are coming back…"
Not even when the woman hugged her, close to tears. The girl just kept smiling vaguely, eyes on the distant comets.
"I can go home… I can go home."
Kiri awoke several hours later, when the sky was dark and the stars twinkled outside in the night. She eyed the window unsurely, before she decided to make her daily update before heading out. Stalking over to her closet, the girl pulled out her black duffle bag, sat down at her desk, and pulled out a book, chained three times in a crisscross pattern. Pulling out the string under her shirt, she unlocked it, unwrapped it, and opened it to the needed page. She slipped the glasses on again, just long enough to write out what she needed before putting them away safely on her desk.
Still tired. I don't know what's going on. I keep trying to sleep, but every time I wake up I still feel groggy, like from a nap. Maybe it's the daylight? Who knows. And I had this really weird dream, too. It was daytime again, and I saw two shooting stars, like the time right before the worlds returned. It was really realistic too: I swore I heard mom's voice. I really miss her. Maybe I should try to stay awake during the day sometime.
Now that I think about it, I haven't been to the south side of the Island for a while. Maybe I should go check it out. It'd be nice. Who knows. Maybe someone will be outside this time.
Ha. Right. I can dream, can't I?
'I don't know about this.'
The girl stared at the tied rig, her stomach knotted in uncertainty. She fingered the ends of her beige sleeves nervously with her free hand. This was beyond anything she'd done before. Picking up junk was one thing, but this? Okay fine, she knew the owners wouldn't really care, and sure she intended to give it back, and sure it would just be "borrowing", but her ethical morals still acted as a barrier for the actual thievery. Too bad her family didn't own a boat themselves to solve this problem. Turning swiftly on her heels, the girl started pacing, thick soled boots brushing the sand.
'This is dumb. Just take the stupid boat and go. It'll take a few minutes.'
On her last turn, near the edge of the residence the boat belonged to, the girl took another look out to the island. And then faltered when she thought she saw something gliding through the shadows. Squinting through the nighttime, she frowned lightly as she tried to make out the distant shape heading for shore. It almost made her wish she was wearing her glasses, before she remembered it didn't actually help her see better in the dark. Was it a bird? It was…
And then she leaned back slowly with incredulity. That was… a person. That was a human flying through the air! And when the girl finally came to terms with that, her incredulity turned into unadulterated joy. A person! Finally, another soul she could talk to! And he could fly! And she thought she had seen everything. That was… holy moly that was awesome, and totally not fair! How did he learn how to fly? When the boy landed, he was just far enough away that she could make out his form. Wait a second… he had a hair style that looked kinda familiar… and apparently he had no guilt or shame to speak of. She saw him waltz right up to the boat without a problem and do the very thing she had been agonizing over for the past five minutes.
He did not notice her as he stooped to pick up the boat and hoist it over his head. Or even to place it carefully on the water. It took the girl a few moments to shake off her surprise, because when she saw him climb into the boat, she remembered her mission.
"Wait!"
"Whoa!" The boy nearly jumped a foot in the air and almost overturned the boat. He stared at the stranger running up to the dock and looked around fearfully. "Where did you come from?"
"I've been here."
"Oh… did you see-"
"Yeah, I saw you flying in. And I know exactly what I saw, so don't try to tell me I was seeing things or imagining it." She said sharply. "I'm not crazy."
He winced. "Man, look, just don't tell anyone, okay? I wasn't even supposed to do that. But Kairi's tired and Riku's still hurt and I just wanted to get us home fast as possible."
"Kairi's there too? Riku…" The name felt familiar too, and it wasn't until she rolled his name carefully in her memory that she remembered him. That boy she had crushed on forever ago. She had completely forgotten about him. He had been missing for over a year, along with- "Sora. That's your name."
Sora winced again. "Yeah, that's me. Look, pleeeeease, promise you won't tell anyone?" He all but begged.
The girl was quiet as she scrutinized the rather frightened looking boy. He was worried and scared. He knew of the repercussions of what would happen if he were caught. As he should have been, the people here weren't exactly forgiving. But he had no idea how she had been regarded by the island. She debated telling him "no one would believe me anyway" just to put him at ease, but she merely sighed. She looked at her bag, before holding it out. "Here."
"What's this?"
"My supplies. You guys are hurt, right? You can use them. There's potions and water in here too."
"Oh…" Still confused, but more at ease with the token offering, he smiled as she set it in his boat. "Thank you."
"In exchange," she said sharply and crossed her arms. "You're going to explain to me exactly what's going on. Where you've been, why you can fly, and why the heck you dropped from the sky."
His smile dropped. "But, I can't! I'm not supposed to talk about that stuff."
"Or I tell the whole island the truth about how you got back and what you can do."
"But you're not… I mean-" He fidgeted uncomfortably, and the girl was rather happy to see him squirm. "It's supposed to be a secret. Can't we just-"
"Do you want me to tell them or not?"
"Okay, okay!" He held up his hands in protest, then groaned in aggravation and hung his head in defeat. "You win."
"Promise me."
"Alright, fine, I promise."
"Good." She uncrossed her arms. "Now go. Your friends need you."
"Thanks, I guess." He grumbled.
"Rest up tonight. Get some sleep. And brace yourself for tomorrow. They're going to attack you like a pack of hyenas. We can talk after everything's calmed down."
"Yeah, like I don't already know," He shrugged helplessly with a resigned grin. "Wait, how will I know where to find you?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll find you later."
"If you say so." He shrugged, and finally pushed away from the dock to drift out to sea. "Oh hey, what's your name?"
The girl watched him carefully, as though weighing her options. Would it be too risky to tell him now? "You promise not to tell anyone you saw me?"
His expression clearly conveyed his disbelief. "You're already blackmailing me. How can I tell anyone who I saw out here?"
"…Kiri." She finally said. But she already had second thoughts, and added quickly. "With a 'y'."