The room in Traverse Town is deceptively airy and light, Kairi thinks. It's probably due to the people crammed in, the cheerful plans for the awaited restoration and Sora leaning against a stack of unpacked boxes close enough to touch.
(She blinks once-twice, looking at her hands and checking them for no last traces of stardust and fireflies. Kairi can't bear to lose Sora again, to have his warmth reduced to a steady flicker in her heart- much less when Riku isn't there anymore and the sword is barely-warm-enough metal instead of driftwood that even she can wield.)
Outside, they all can tell that the heartless are, if not waiting, at least still there. Stronger, but nothing out of their capabilities. Kairi can even deal with one or two of them, if they are weak enough. She's kicked and such at the shadows already. And well, it worked well a short time ago.
(Kairi doesn't think of before-then. She dodges as skillfully as she can around the night in the storm, huddled against the large door in the cave and rush-falling into Sora's warm embrace. Kairi chooses not to focus on the first time, when she had tried to lash out at the things and all she had to show for it was ending up…)
The meeting is called off sometime during her reverie, and only Yuffie waving herself out with fanfares and a couple of Donald's ethers ensures she leaves in the safety of the group. Originally, Kairi planned on following Aerith over to her study and sorting through data and old research. Or trying to cajole the young ducks managing the item store into granting Sora, just for this one time, a little bargain on the prices- a little, easy task. Something to take her mind off waking up almost alone and the feral grin of a man draped in darkness.
Something to keep her from instinctively curling her hands around her chest, or checking every little overcast corner for a Riku caught in agony or more little Sora-lights that fluttered out of her reach in the grand hall. Something to keep her from checking every single keyhole for the dreary warps in time and space and wishing so very hard she could get her own Keyblade and lock as much troubles away as she can.
But that's Sora's job. Her job is…
Kairi finds herself all the way in a secret waterway. Or not so secret, since the walls are beautifully painted and inscribed with powerful runes. She is queerly glad of her sandals, wary of the vaguely familiar magic permeating the air and making her dizzy. Rummaging about the shallow water manages to produce some loose piping, and Kairi takes some practice sweeps at foes.
But that's Sora's job. It was Riku's as well, before everything went awry. Kairi supposes she'd be the healer, the one who'd keep them close and together, but she hasn't been doing much of it lately. Just wishes and hopeful thinking.
(Willing someone, anyone, to deliver them from the predatory man calling himself Ansem. Riku staggering to her call, only to buy her time to run and send a last wish to her friend. A desperate flight Kairi really wanted to avoid, but with heartless pressing on all sides, escaping was the only option. Finding the last bobbing shadow, swaddled in remembered warmth and willing so much light into it… finding Sora in her embrace instead of a swarm of enemies and just thinking that here it is, here goes, I'm going back-)
Kairi yells once, swinging her makeshift weapon in a clumsy arc and watching it spin out of control. The splash is far away enough to not drench her, although the sound reverberates in the chamber with more volume than expected. She shifts her sights back to the murals, focusing on one that seems to have something else about it.
It's just a silvery moon, Kairi would like to think. But there's magic about it, and when Sora rushes in muttering something about 'a navigation gummi', Kairi just points him straight ahead.
(She hopes he didn't hear her play-fighting. Sora wasn't his usual self when the lot of them were running from Hollow Bastion, always looking over her shoulder as if Kairi would fade at any second or expecting some eldritch force to catch up with them. And hearing her struggling, even if this time it's only fighting her own innocuous shadow, might mean he'll lapse into this again.
Kairi can't really bear to see him without his beaming smiles.)
Then she sees him retrieve something from the mural, and set off with another world-saving mission and how she longs to be by his side but it's his job. He tells her as much, hands ruffling his hair like he does when nervous and eyes flitting every way.
No one sends the princess to the battlefield. No one sends the healer into the fray either, where she can get cut down into ribbons or see her smiling boy die.
(But she has seen him fade into so many fireflies. She has seen him fall, same as she saw Riku fall with deadened eyes and please Sora, I don't want you to go the same way.)
Kairi does the exact same thing as in the stories. She tears the little star-shaped charm from her pocket and presses it into Sora's hand.
"It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me!"
She sounds reprimanding, but it all is only Kairi cramming as many last-hopes and wishes into the little seashells as she can before all she sees of Sora is his spiky hair.
He doesn't really give her a hug before he runs off, but that's okay.
After all, that's her job, she supposes.
But waiting isn't. And she didn't really promise she would either, but Sora supposes she did.
The first time she tries to sneak out, it doesn't work. She gets caught mercifully by Goofy and rescued by a Moogle before the knight can decide to give her away. He winks goodbye, looking for the entire world like he'll throw hints around that Sora has a very pretty girl waiting on him. Or that he should hurry up, or even better take her along.
The last she knows is wishful thinking, but Kairi decides against biting the thought back.
The second time she tries to sneak out, Mog the Moogle escorts her all the way to the world's exit and makes her swear for the last time that his pom-pom is the cutest (yet most un-ruffle-able) one she's ever seen. And is promptly rescued by Yuffie and Aerith, who take her in with all the ease Mog said they would.
Cid's ship is gigantic. And Kairi doesn't get to drive it- the mechanic is quite obsessive over his rides. But Kairi does get to read out all the little maps and coordinates, and she knows the route to the ruined world better than the calculations.
Everyone claims they've seen it before, and they all ask if Kairi knows of a place called Radiant Garden. It sounds similar, but she can't place from where- it might've been a fairytale, for all she knows.
Their faces fall for a second, before Yuffie says that it didn't matter, since soon enough she'll get to see it. After Leon- Squall- and Aerith are done with restoring it, that is.
They land outside, at the waterfalls, and Kairi feels dejà vu rise and fall in her chest- she supposes it's just thinking that Sora is running around there somewhere. Or that Riku did carry her here, and that she'll be seeing him enough to rail at him for doing such a dumb thing as forgetting to wait for them that night.
(There are many more things she'd say, but not if Riku still feels as pained as when fending Ansem off. Not if Sora is still out there, doing his hero job and leaving her waiting on a ship she stowed away into.)
She doesn't disembark along with the rest, claiming tiredness or something like that. For a moment, Kairi thinks she's been caught, before Cid chases the lot of them out with some well-placed swears and waving his weapon around.
It's even his job, and Kairi curses (a lot more mildly) that she can't rush out and help. But then, Sora would catch her and that isn't the idea- he's supposed to think she's still in Traverse Town.
He's supposed to think she's all right and not scrabbling around the air to check that he isn't fizzing off in warm lights and death-smiles. He's supposed to think she will calmly wait for Riku and him to wash up on the shore and just receive her token back with a smile and a star-fruit on her hand.
Her job is to wait and wish upon all the remaining stars.
Her job is to sit on the gummi ship until everyone returns and Kairi has to take the trip back to Traverse with a look of bored longing on her face.
She steps out of the ship, pulling some strands of red hair behind her ears, and sets off tracking the tell-tale sparks of Sora's light all the way to wherever they may lead.
A.N. – this idea's been chasing me for a while now, so that's for the why… and I think Kairi would've found a way around having Sora leave her behind after the whole rescue, for Mickey's sake.
By now, you should already know the characters don't belong to me. Only the possibly mildly-boring plot, but you'll have your own opinion on that ;)
So hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading it!