Author's Note: Uploading the other day was apparently not working, so this was delayed a little. But I like how this came out. Yay!
Disclaimer: I, obviously, do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters, I own nothing, etc. etc. All I did was write the story. Etc.
Lost on a Tropical Beach
Well, you got what you wanted. You saved the universe, twice. You stopped evil from using Kingdom Hearts, and now here you are - home. Or is that what it is now? You've spent two years away from home, traveling all over the universe, praying that things would go back to normal. Praying everything would turn out okay. Praying you'd be strong enough.
Maybe too strong? So strong a warrior that that's all you know now - battle. War. The life of a child-soldier. Fighting all the time while hardly eating or sleeping. Saving the world. What does that make you? A fighter. A killer. But it was okay, right? It was what you had to do to save the universe.
Would you have done that before? What do you remember about your old life? Duels on a beach, a mother who always had dinner waiting when you got home. A bed and a roof over your head, every night. Isn't that what you've been hoping for? Begging God (if he exists) for?
It's only now that you realize it. It's only after you get to go back that you realize it will never return to the way it was. You've changed too much, and you didn't even realize what you were becoming, great hero. The hero of the universe. The one with the key. The over-sized key you used to bludgeon people to death with, and that's not a particularly pleasant way to die - any member of Organization XIII can tell you that.
One thing remains kind of the same, though - you have your friends. Riku and Kairi. But then... that's not quite the same either.
On one hand, you have Kairi. No matter what you try, she will never leave your side. Not once, ever since you came home. Perhaps that may be because she had to leave so soon. Because she was left behind for another year while you and Riku were off adventuring. And because she doesn't want to forget you again. She's afraid to lose the only piece of you she has.
On the other hand, it's nearly a miracle if you see Riku at all. And if you do, it's only because he wants to see you. Nobody else has since the day he returned. Maybe because he also nearly lost you, to Roxas and Xion. Maybe because he's lost in his thoughts, submerged in the memories that scarred him last year. But it's mostly because he, like Kairi, is afraid, though he'd never admit it. He's afraid of hurting you like before. Afraid of losing control. Afraid of doing something stupid. Of sacrificing what was never his to sacrifice. He figures that if he stays away from everyone else, nothing like that will ever happen again.
And so you find yourself here, one year after your return, feeling more alone than you ever thought possible. Roxas is gone, disappeared into a part of your heart even you can't reach. It's impossible to find Riku most of the time, and Kairi has ceased revealing her thoughts to you. So you manage to escape into the darkness, surrounded by the thing that was once your enemy... Now the only thing you feel comfortable surrounded by, because you're used to it. You sit in the secret place, your back to the cave wall, staring at the carving you and Kairi created years ago... and another one that you made of Riku three months back, hoping that he would see it. Hoping… Begging God (if he exists) he might want to come out.
But things have changed. They've changed too much, and not only do you find yourself to be a stranger - an abnormality - in what was once your home. You find that you're now a killer, caught between haunting memories and a terrifying future.