-1AN: So, while you all wait patiently for the next chapters of my ongoing fics, (yes, I am writing them, it just takes a little while) I've have written you a lovely little Kingdom Hearts One-shot. I hope you guys like it. I wrote it in about 3 days, even though I skipped some days, but if you put them together, it would be about three days. I've always wanted to do a One-shot, and my writers block for my other fics made it seem like the perfect opportunity! So here it is. The idea just came to me on a whim. It's in Sora's POV, and I hope you enjoy it!
NOTE: The reason it goes from present tense to past tense throughout this fic is to show that Sora is drifting, and the italicized dialogue is used because he is only distantly hearing it. When he is conscious it goes to my regular style.
Disclaimer: No. I DON'T own KH, or any of the characters in this One-shotter. Just the idea. So stop pestering me about it, will ya?
WARNINGS: This fic is rated M for mention of rape, blood, language (really only one word said by Riku), angst, and other queasy things. Don't like it? Don't read it.
"Help him! Somebody, please! Help!"
That voice. It sounds like it's in pain.
"Please..."
Wetness. Rain? Or is it that the voice is crying? Whichever, the wetness feels good.
"Please, Sora! Please don't leave me! Sora... Don't go. Don't go away."
Sora...? Is that my name? Sora. Yes, my name is Sora. It means "sky," doesn't it? Am I the sky? If I'm the sky, then why is the voice crying for me? I'm just the sky. Who cares about a dumb old sky?
"Riku! We have to call 911! Riku! Hurry, Riku!"
That's another voice. A different voice. Did she say Riku? Riku... that is the first voice's name. I knew a Riku. I can't remember where. Was this the Riku I remember, who calls my name? Does he know that I can't breath? Does he know that I long to open my eyes?
What eyes? You're the sky, remember? What do you need eyes for, anyway? A voice inside my head tells me.
Pain. Oh, the pain. Where is it coming from? I shouldn't feel pain. Where is the pain? I don't know where it is in my body. I know I have a body now, and that I'm not just sky. I'm human, because I feel pain. I'm searching for the pains source, and I've found it. I feel pain in my limbs, in my head, and in my chest. The pain in my heart is the worst. It isn't physical pain, but emotional.
"Kairi! Help me! Please!"
The voice, Riku, calls out in desperation. Kairi. That's the other voices name. I knew a Kairi once. Her memory is more faint than Riku's. I can't remember what she looks like. But Riku is beautiful. His silver hair is like a cloud, soft and gentle. His eyes are a hurricane of ocean blue, with that tint green that makes the sea look dark and murky. I can feel his strong arms around me, and nothing else of the outside world. Just the pain. The pain that is excruciating.
"Riku! I'm calling 911! Take him inside! Hurry! There's blood everywhere!"
Blood? Am I bleeding? Or was someone else bleeding? It must be me, because I don't hear anyone else in pain.
Gravel. I hear the soft crunch of it underneath my protectors feet. He's running inside. I don't know where, but maybe there I'll be able to open my eyes. I want to see his eyes. They might comfort me in a way. But now I hear Kairi's voice as she speaks.
"Please! 911? Please, someone's attacked my friend! Please help us! He's been raped... A-a-and he-he was shot in the shoulder, and the man stabbed him when we took the gun away from him!"
Wait, I was raped? How did that happen? Oh, now I remember. The awful pain when that man was inside me. It makes me want to cry. But I can't cry, because I can't open my eyes. I can't even feel them. But, the rape would explain the pain. Pain everywhere. The pain in my shoulder ached when Riku moved slightly. And there was a pain underneath my ribs. That must be where the man stabbed me.
"He's unconscious, and his breathing is irregular. He's bleeding heavily. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Just please! Hurry!"
She's muffling something. I can't hear, but it sounds like an address, and our names. Riku has stopped running. He's set me down on something, like a bed, or a couch. Kairi must still be outside.
"Sora! Sora, if you can hear me, please open your eyes! Or, or if you can't, just give me some sign that you can hear me, please! Sora, please, don't leave me! Please don't go away, not yet."
He's crying. I want to comfort him, but I don't know how.
"Um, if you can hear me, wiggle your fingers on your right hand. You probably can't on your left,"
What does he mean by that? Oh, because I was shot there. The nerves might be damaged there. Well, the pain isn't too bad in my right hand. Maybe...
"Yes! Oh Sora! Sora, thank God!"
It must have worked, because I can feel him hugging me. How good that feels, against all the pain.
"Sora! Listen to me. I love you so much! Just please! Hang on, okay? I'm gonna get you a doctor, and they're gonna catch the guy who did this to you! I promise! And I won't leave you, okay? So you don't leave me. We're gonna get through this, right? Just don't stop breathing! Keep your heart beating! I love you, Sora! I love you!"
He loves me. That's right. Riku is my... um... boyfriend? No, that's not right. Riku's my husband. I'm remembering our wedding. Small, but we were happy. If only none of this had happened. We could have gone on being happy, couldn't we have? But that man saw to that. There won't be that same happiness again if I don't pull through this.
I'm trying to find my voice, but it's so hard through this darkness. I want to find it so I can tell Riku that I love him, too.
There it is! I found it! Now, if I can just get the words out right...
"I-I-I... I lo-love... I love y-you, t-too." There. It came out. Now maybe Riku will stop crying...
"Sora?! Oh Sora!"
I feel him grip my hands, and stroke my cheek. But he's still crying. Maybe I could open my eyes.
"Sora... Sora, can you open your eyes? Please, I want to see them... Wha?" I could see. His voice wasn't a distant sound echoing in my head anymore. It's real. His eyes, they're so beautiful. Just like I remember them. I was free from my drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.
"Oh, Sora! Thank God!" I turned my head to look at him better. His eyes were red, filled to the brim with tears, and flowing over.
"Ri-Riku." It felt so good to say his name. "Wha-what h-happened?" I didn't remember what happened before the man hurt me.
He wiped his eyes. "You were raped, remember?" I nodded. He nodded in return. "You were walking home from the store. You went to buy milk, and the man attacked you right outside the house. I feel so stupid. I didn't hear your screams because I was listening to music too loud while I was cleaning. When it got on one of the quieter songs, I heard you, and ran out there, and got the man away from you for a little while. I took his gun away from him right after he shot you, but he threw me aside and stabbed you... uh, here." He took my hand and placed it on the wound on my stomach. It was wet and sticky. "He ran off after that, and I immediately called Kairi. She's outside talking to 911. They should be here any minute."
I nodded once more. I lifted my hand to look. The dark red blood was like wine, staining my skin, but thick and blotchy, too. It made me sick to look at it, so let my hand fall back to my stomach. I held my breath for a moment, but Riku didn't like that.
"No! Don't hold your breath! You need to breathe regularly." I did as I was told, but my breaths were rather short and raspy.
"I-I'm so stupid, Riku... We didn't need milk. But, but I just had to go out and buy some. I feel so stupid." My voice was barely above a whisper.
"No. Don't think that, Sora. Any other day it would have been fine, so why should this be any different? The guy could have attacked you any other day, but it was today, okay? If it's anyone's fault other than that man's, it's mine. I'm so sorry!" He collapsed beside me, sobbing.
"N-no, it's not... Riku." I reached out to him. He grasped my hand. I could see now that both our hands were covered in blood before, for the blood on his hands mixed with the blood on mine.
"Riku, the police are almost here, along with an ambulance!" Kairi came through the door. "Oh! Sora! You're awake! Are you alright?" She ran to my side. "I was so worried about you!"
Good ol' Kairi. She's had a crush on me for years, but we're really just friends, especially since Riku and I married.
"I called all our parents. They should all be here in about a half hour. They have to come from the main island." Kairi sat on the edge of the couch. That's where Riku put me.
I laid my head back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. I could already hear the sirens of the police cars, and the ambulances.
"How could all of this happen!" Riku said. "Oh! It's all my fault! I heard there had been even more crime in the area, but I let you go out there anyway! I'm so stupid, I hate myself! God, why!"
"It's not your fault, Riku, I mean, come... on? Riku, look at Sora! Riku, look at hi--"
Black. That's all I'm seeing now, because everything's gone black. Riku, Kairi, I can't see them anymore. I must have fainted. Or maybe I'm dead, now. Maybe my blood was spilled far too much earlier, and my heart couldn't take it. I must be dead, because an angel is calling my name.
Sora...
Sora...
Soraaaaa......
The sound is so beautiful. I can't tell if its a man or a woman, but all I know is that I want to hold it. To grasp it and never let it go. If I could just...
"Sora! Sora! No! You promised you'd keep your heart beating! You promised!"
I hear him. The other angel, who I've always loved so. Riku. What am I doing? I want him to hold me. Not some angel who only promises me happiness. Riku has given me happiness. I know for sure that it'll be there with him. If I could just...
Sora...
Sora...
Soraaaaa......
"His heart rate is slowing! Nurse! I need you!"
I feel someone poking at me. Ah! Something is jabbing me in the arm. A needle? So I am alive.
"AH! Oh God!" That pain! Oh my God! My shoulder was burning! I screamed as hard as I could. My eyes watered hard, the tears streaming down my cheeks. I was strapped down to a hard table, and I couldn't get up. I writhed in my confinement. My blood was everywhere, people were running everywhere, and the entire room was in utter chaos. I whipped my head back and forth, trying to find some solace in the walls of the hospital room as my entire body was in pain. And I found it.
"Sora!" He was weeping. My angel cried as he held my head in arms.
"R-R-R-Ri-ku-ku-ku... I-I-I-I lo-l-love y-you..." I leaned my bloodstained forehead against his, gritting my teeth.
"I know, honey, I know. I love you." He stroked my disarrayed spikes of hair. "Everything is going to be okay..." He smiled falsely. Oh, my poor Riku. What has happened to us? He gulped. "You're gonna be okay. You just keep breathing, and keep that heart beating, okay?"
I nodded. The pain was worse, but I needed to hold on.
"No, Sora. You have to promise! Say you promise! Say it!" He looked like he'd gone mad.
I nodded again. "I p-p-p-promise, I-I-I-I do. I promise." The last part was a whisper.
He nodded.
"Sir, I'm gonna need you to step outside." A nurse from my other side said to me. She was poking and prodding my arm where the bullet hit. I screamed again, when she put pressure on a spot that I didn't like.
"No way! You can't make me!" Riku said next to me.
"I'm sorry, sir, but you have to leave." She didn't look sorry at all.
"Wha!? No! NO!" I yelled. Another nurse started to lead Riku away from me. "No! Don't leave me! Riku! RIKU! Ah!" I felt a sharp pain below my ribcage. A doctor had pushed Riku away.
"NO! You bastards! I'm not leaving him! Get away from me! Now!" Riku came back in my view. He gripped the table I was on furiously, and even when the nurses tried to pull him away, he wouldn't let go.
"We're just going to have to work around him! Get me a scalpel! Quick!" The doctor shouted more orders at the nurses around me. The doctor rotated from my cut to my gunshot wound in a fashion that I didn't think possible.
"Riku..." I whispered. I winced in pain, when the doctor started cutting me near my wound under my lungs. "Riku... Am I-I... dying?"
Riku's tears fell on my face as he caressed my cheek. He nodded silently.
I took a breath as I took that in. "Why?" I breathed.
He almost choked as he said, "Kairi and I... We had thought that the gunshot wound was the more critical one, but were wrong." He shook his head in disbelief. "When you fainted when the ambulance came, we noticed that the knife wound started reaping with blood. The doctors said that you had been stabbed in a crucial organ, but they wouldn't say which. They're doing the best they can right now..." He trailed off.
I nodded. His angelic face looked so sad... "Riku..."
"Yes?"
"I-I-If I d-d-d-die, pro-promise m-me that you won't d-do someth-th-th-thing you'll regret. Promise?" My voice was barely audible.
He shook his head violently. "No! You're not going to die! You hear me!? Don't even think that!"
"Y-yes."
"You just hold on, okay? I'll be right here, with you. You're gonna be okay if you just hold on."
"Okay! His gunshot wound is clean! We need to take him to the OR, now! Stat!" The doctor yelled around me. The nurses started unhinging some things underneath me.
I felt the table start rolling under me. We were exiting the room. I couldn't believe that the room we were just wasn't the OR; what kind of doctors were they here! Everyone was running around me, pulling me towards the operating room.
Riku ran along beside me. "It's gonna be okay! I promise, Sora!" He kissed my forehead. "I'm gonna stay with you, okay?"
I winced from the pain that was everywhere, and nodded.
We pulled up to the operating room. "You can't come in here, sir!" A nurse said to Riku, pushing him away.
He grabbed the nurse by her collar. "You are going to let me in there, or I'm going to let myself in there, by any means possible! You understand!?" He yelled.
She nodded frantically. I was in the room by then. "Riku! Ah!"
"I'm coming!" He came into view. He held my head in his hands. The doctors (more than one) started draping a cloth over me.
"I need some morphine over here! Nurse!" I glanced at my heart monitor. Oh, God. It was so slow. I breathed in and out, slowly. I felt a prick on my right arm. Slowly, the pain started to dull.
"Give him some gas! Hurry!"
"What! NO!" I struggled against my binds. "I want to be awake! No!"
But it was too late. The nurse had already put the gas mask on me.
"No! I don't want him to faint!" Riku yelled. "NO!"
I'm already gone, though.
I can't hear or see anything. There is no pain. Just darkness. And an angel, that's calling my name.
Sora...
Sora...
Soraaaaa......
No! I won't go to you! You aren't the angel I want. Where is my angel? My beautiful angel.
I can hear his voice in my memories. I can't hear his real voice, for I'm under the water too deep. I'm drifting under the weight. Just drifting peacefully.
I'm struggling against the water. I have to fight to stay alive, even if the angel calling to me wants me to come to it. I will not give in. Never will I quit, until I can see Riku's face again...
.............................................
"Soraaa...."
"Soraaa.... Sora, honey, wake up."
The angel is calling me again. I've been drifting for who knows how long. I don't know if I'm dead now, or I'm just still asleep. Maybe all of this is a dream. But if all of this is a dream, then why is the angel calling my name?
"Sora...."
Wait. That's not the angel who calls me to heaven. That's no angel. At least, he's not in Heaven. He's on Earth. He's....
"Riku...." I opened my eyes. He was there. My angel, Riku. So beautiful...
He smiled lovingly at me, tears still in his eyes. "Hey."
"H-hey." I looked down at myself. I was in a hospital gown, tucked under bucket loads of covers. There were tubes running up and down my arms. I felt another tube underneath my nose. I lifted my hand to pulled it out, but Riku pushed my hand away.
"Oh, no you don't!" He wiped his eyes.
I smiled weakly. I could barely move. "Am I okay?" I found it easier to talk now.
He smiled again. "Yes."
I sighed. "How bad am I now?"
"Not too bad. You've been out for two days." I couldn't hide my shock there. "The doctors wouldn't let me wake you up. They said you needed to rest. But they let me today." He stroked my hand. "There were a couple of times during that surgery that I thought you weren't going to make it. But I didn't loose hope in you."
I took my hand in his. "I kept fighting it."
"Fighting what?"
"The angel..." I looked up to the ceiling. "The angel that kept calling to me. It wanted me to come with it to Heaven, but I wouldn't do it. I don't want to go to Heaven if you're not there..." I smiled. "I just kept telling myself that I was going to make it. I just thought of you, and it wasn't so hard."
"Yeah." He said. He sat up straight in his chair. "Guess what?"
"Tidus married a broom?"
He rolled his eyes, but laughed, seeing that I still had my sarcasm intact. "No. They caught the guy who did this to you! After I gave them a description, of course."
I was surprised. "Already?"
"Hm-hmm." He grinned. "He's in jail right now, as we speak. Thank God."
I sighed. "You got that right."
I heard a knock on the door. "Helloooo?" Kairi stepped into the room. "I see you're awake!"
"Hey, Kai." I said. She walked to the bed and gave me hug.
"How are you?"
"Alright. I've been better." She smiled.
"Well, you're gonna be all better soon. Don't you worry!" She stood. "I just came in to talk to Riku."
She turned to him. "Yep? What's up?" He said.
"You're mom wanted me to tell you that she's leaving in an hour. She would have come in herself, but she was down in the cafe getting a bite to eat."
"Oh, um, okay."
"Hey, where are my parents?" I said.
"They left yesterday. Your dad had a meeting to go to, and your mom went with him, seeing as how you were gonna be fine."
"Okay..." I was wanting to see them, but I guess I could wait.
"Well, I've gotta get going. See you guys later!" She ran out the door.
"Hey, Sora,"
I looked at Riku, "Yeah?"
"I'm glad you're okay." He smiled.
"Hmm. Me too."
He squeezed my hand. "Is anything hurting you? Anything at all?"
"No. Why would it be? I'm sure I've got enough morphine in me to last a week!" I laughed.
He looked down.
"Riku, what's wrong?"
He glanced at my left arm. "Can you feel it?"
"What, my arm? Of course I--" I tried to lift it up, but it didn't work. "Can't" I gulped.
He nodded. "The gunshot wound damaged your nerves in your shoulder." He lifted my right hand, and laid his cheek against my palm. "You'll never be able to use your left arm again."
"I see." I laughed. "Thank goodness I was never left handed!" I was upset, but I didn't want Riku worrying about me.
He smiled. "I guess that is a good thing. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I figured you could feel that you couldn't feel it, so I didn't say anything."
"It's okay."
"Are you all right with this?"
"Of course not!" I snorted. "But I mean, I can't get my feeling back, so it doesn't really matter if I'm all right with it. Right?"
"Yeah, I suppose."
We were silent for a moment.
I broke it, by asking, "So, when am I gonna get out of here?"
"In about a week, the doctors say."
"Oh, well that's not too bad."
"No."
"So what all did the doctors do to me, anyway?"
"Hmm?" He looked up. "Oh, you lost a lot of blood, so they gave you a few transfusions, and they had to mend that organ after they fixed it."
"Which one was it?"
"They still won't tell me. But the knife the guy used to stab you must have been rusty or something, because they had to clean a lot of infections out of you. That was the whole reason you were dying in the first place."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah."
But I was okay. I was so happy I was okay, even if I couldn't feel my arm anymore. Riku was here with me, and I was alive.
"But I sure know one thing." Riku said.
"What's that?"
"I'm never letting you out of the house alone again!"
I laughed. "Come here, you!" I took his chin in my hand and pulled him to my face. "I haven't had a kiss since two days ago, you know."
"Yes you have, I've been kissing you plenty."
"Well, not while I've been awake. So you give me a kiss now or when we get home, you sleep on the floor." That was enough for him.
So I kissed my husband. And we all lived happily ever after.
Yeah, right. As happy as you can live with a limp arm and a scarred chest. But I can live with that. As long as my Riku is here with me. I'll be safe for all eternity.
Then, I heard a voice calling for me. The angel again. Well, that angel wasn't getting me today, nor any other day. Because I was alive, and I'm not going to die until I'm ready. When Riku is ready. And that would be... um... never.
Hey? Who says I can't live forever?
So, R and R pleaz! I had originally planned for this to be a Two-shot, and that Sora dies, and the next chapter, Riku gets revenge on that guy, but that just seemed too morbid for me, so I settled with Sora having a limp arm instead.
Oh, by the way, I know nothing about hospital procedure, and organs and doctors and such, except for what I read, so I'm pretty sure much of that hospital stuff was a load of crap to you guys who do know about it, so either overlook it, or you can comment on it, and I'll see if I can fix it. IF it is fixable.
Hope you enjoyed it, though!
See ya!
Hana-chan