Kingdom Hearts: Sound of Destiny
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Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or the characters (except the ones I've made for this story), in anyway, as Square Enix owns it. The worlds, and characters that belong to those worlds, appearing later in the story are owned by Disney.
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Chapter 1: Measure the Year
This was always the best part of Summer, getting to leave reality behind at home while spending the whole day dreaming with the friends that mattered the most. Sora always looked forward to rowing away from the main island, out across the vibrant blue waters to their favorite place to play. Somehow, life with just Riku and Kairi beside him was never boring or exhaustive; there was always something to do between the three of them. Yes, indeed, this was the best part of life since Sora and Riku had come home from their last adventure.
A whole year had passed since the beginning of Sora's last escapade through the other worlds, accompanied by his friends Donald Duck and Goofy. They had traveled through Twilight Town and Radiant Garden and all the other worlds, searching for Riku and Kairi and King Mickey, battling the heartless and the nobodies, defeating Organization XIII, and finally Sora returned to the islands with Riku. The year had been calm, no signs of an ensuing fight, no stars lost into the vast expanse of darkness that fell across the sky each night, and Sora was joyful to have made it to his 16th birthday with no threats to his home.
The sound of wood hitting wood startled the brown-haired boy back into the moment. Jumping out of the boat and onto the dock, he noticed a girl with red hair that flipped out at the bottom in three directions leaning against a pole, staring across the beach towards the bridge that connected this island to the rock that Sora and Riku and often play fought.
"Hi, Selphie," Sora said once he had dropped next to her the sand.
"Oh!" she said,jumping a little at the voice and soft thump that had driven her train of thought of its tracks, "Oh, Sora, it's you. Hi." Her eyes looked him over for a second before she turned her gaze back towards the bridge. "Riku and Kairi are in the cove."
"Figures," Sora said under his breath. "Thanks," he finished, loud enough for the girl to hear. As he walked towards the other end of the beach, Sora smiled a little to himself. Tidus and Wakka were having a scrimmage on the bridge, which was exactly what Selphie had been watching so intently; she was more than a little interested in Wakka. Of course, Wakka was a little too dense to notice, which everyone joked was because he had been hit in the head with his blitz ball a few too many times.
"Hey, Sora! You wanna have go next?" Wakka called down, " I can take it eas - Oophm." His sentence had been cut off by Tidus's wooden sword striking him in hard in the stomach. Wakka's red hair, that flipped up in the front, looked rather like a bird's tail as he doubled over from the blow to his trunk. Tidus, as blond as ever, smiled triumphantly down at Sora and waved.
"Nah, I'm going to the cove. Maybe when you're ass hasn't just been kicked," replied Sora, a hint of laughter in his voice. He continued on, passing under the bridge and coming to the door that lead to the cove. 'Well, Riku, Kairi, things are just the way the used to be, huh?' he thought as he opened the door.
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A head of ridiculously spikey brown hair emerged from the door that connected the two sides of the island, and Riku grinned as he turned towards Kairi and leaned closer to her. "Not a word," he whispered to her, and laughed a little when she nodded.
"Sora, you bum, what took you so long?" teased Kairi, her smile touching her eyes.
"I slept in, Kairi. It is summer you know," replied Sora in a tone that showed he understood she was just messing with him but still implied he was a bit serious.
Riku's long silver hair rustled as a breeze blew the salty air around them. His hand instinctively reached up and brushed the hair away from his face, and he smiled as memories of two years ago came back to him. This would have been a perfect day to set sail on that raft they had built then... The smile fell from his face as the darkness forced its way into his thoughts, his head shaking as though trying to force them out. A nudge to his side shattered the dark memories, causing him to look at the curious face in front of his eyes.
"Did you hear me?" Riku shook his and forced a smile for Sora. The spikey-haired boy sighed a little and repeated, "Want to race? You know, just for old time's sake."
Endorphins coursed through his body, a natural high from chemical processes, enough to distract Riku from the mix of memories that had been bothering him since they had returned home. He lost sight of Sora as the other boy climbed up the tower to the zip line, while he himself continued down the beach. The feeling of shifting sand beneath him, the salt air, and just being with the two people he cared about most pumped in his veins, mixed with his blood, giving off a constant supply of energy that kept him going. He climbed up the slope, jumped across the ledges and touched the star tree, just seconds before Sora leaped towards it. Apparently Sora had miscalculated, as he slammed into Riku, knocking them both back into the tree.
A laugh forced its way from Riku as Kairi came up the slope, her eyes a little wider than usual as she took in the scene before her. Riku was sitting against the tree, Sora hugging his stomach, their legs interlocked awkwardly. Sora wriggled his way out of the knot and muttered about whatever the score was now, forcing another laugh from Riku. He suggested calling a draw, to which Sora looked up and grinned.
Standing up, the silver haired boy rotated his shoulders to make sure they still worked, and offered his hand to help his younger companion. His eyes drifted from Sora out to the ocean. Sunlight danced on the water's surface, warm spots in the icy expanse. "How long?" he asked softly, looking straight forward, away from his friends.
"What?" Kairi responded, moving to stand next to him, her gaze following his.
"How long do you think things will stay like this? Calm and... together?" he said, both his face and voice sullen and worried.
Sora walked to Riku's other side, placing his hand lightly on the older boy's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Riku. When it happens again, if it does, we can take care of it, just like before."
Riku's face turned now towards his feet, hiding the obvious look of deep consideration from his friends. They had no idea what it had been like, losing himself so easily to the darkness, losing them along the way. Guilt had been planted within him, had been growing steadily each day, and now it felt to Riku as though he were carrying a pumpkin in his chest. 'I promise.... This time...'
"This time, I with you guys. no matter what." he finished out loud, the firmness in his voice reflected in his tensing muscles. His gaze turned to Sora and Kairi in turn, a smile given to each of them as a way of promising he was alright. "Come on. I bet we can get a tournament going with the others back on the sea shore. Winner gets the loser's lunch."
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Sora sat on the dock, watching the final match between Riku and Wakka. The red headed boy threw his blitz ball with force, and Riku would hold up his sword to block it. A few times the ball caught Riku's arm or side, causing him to slow down for a second before retaliating with a strong blow to Wakka's arms. It surprised Sora how much both of them had strengthened over the last two years. But he supposed all of them had had the chance to become stronger... The match between Sora and Riku had lasted longer than any before, each of them skillfully attacking and counter-attacking, and it ended all because Sora had slipped up, literally. His feet had slipped in the sand, sending him face-first up the beach, towards Riku's feet.
Now, watching from the outside, it was clear just how much skill the silver haired boy had. Each motion was calculated, playing to his strengths and his opponent's weaknesses. His sword struck the blitz ball, and this time it was flung at Wakka's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Wakka doubled over, and raised his hand in defeat as he caught his breath. Kairi and Selphie had jumped up to congratulate Riku, while Tidus checked to make sure his friend was alright. Sora hung back on the dock, smiling a little to himself. He was just starting to realize the appreciation he really held for fighting skills; it was something he knew and relied on.
The excitement died down after a few minutes. Wakka had regained his composure, now talking with Selphie and Tidus about something, and Riku and Kairi had joined Sora on the dock. The three of them were sitting with their feet dangling over the edge, staring at where the sunset met with ocean, melting together into one image of the sky. The spiky-haired boy had briefly congratulated his older friend, and then they had fallen into a comfortable silence, waiting until they absolutely had to go home. Finally the sun was half hidden by the water, and they could no longer avoid the trip home. They said their "See ya later"s and rowed back to the main island.
A neon star illuminated the room where Sora sat, staring out the window next to his bed. His stomach felt suddenly knotted, but he shrugged it off, convinced he was just hungry; Riku had gotten his lunch after their match and had eaten before his next round. Sora's mind reflected back to Riku's promise. Something about his friend's face and voice when he had made the promise to be on their side had slightly unsettled Sora. It seemed that Riku doubted himself more than he was concerned about helping them. Sora felt that Riku wouldn't lose himself again, but it was probably just strong wishing.
He sighed a little and turned off the light, blankly watching the stars twinkling in the sky. Slowly, his mind drifted off, retracing the worlds he'd been to, recounting the time he'd spent searching for his dearest friends with his newer friends, remembering the brief instant of hope he'd felt back in Traverse Town when Riku had been there... Throughout the night he slept restlessly, the past displaying itself vividly, images of the battles he'd faced, the friends he'd made, every detail as real as it had been back then. Somehow, Sora could watch this all now and only think about how he'd changed since the beginning.
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It was with a knot still in his stomach that Sora docked his boat back on the island. He couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened that night. Both Riku and Kairi's boats were there too, but Sora twitched a little when he saw one set of foot prints heading across the beach, and one heading to the secret place. The sun had barely touched the waterfall yet. For both of them to be there that early was unusual. A long shadow stretched towards him, and when Sora looked up, it was Riku who was looking back at him.
"Where's Kairi?" Sora and Riku asked at the same exact moment. A silence fell between them as the sense of deja vu made their hearts skip. Two years ago, Sora had found Riku, but Kairi was gone, taken as a Princess of Heart. Sora looked up at his silver-haired companion, his face crestfallen. If darkness came and swallowed them up it would mean that everything they had done would have been for nothing. Everything would have gone back to the way it had been before they defeated the Organization and sealed the Door to Darkness.
The brown-haired boy jumped when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. His vision had gone blurry, trying to look through Riku, but now he could clearly see his friend's face, a very soft and concerned smile there.
"Remember my promise?" Sora nodded and forced a smile. "Good. C'mon... I think I know where to look for now." Riku removed his hand from Sora's shoulder and turned up the beach, towards the Secret Place. Again, Sora's heart skipped. What was going on? How could something like this have happened again? He had found his friends just to go back and do it again.
'This is just so fantastic,' he thought as he followed Riku to the base of the tree, where everything had started the last time.
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A/N: Poor Wakka just keeps getting beat up.... Anyways, I meant for this to end up kind of like a book version of a video game, but this exact plot is original, as far as I know. This is going to end up as a Sora/Riku slash (in case you couldn't tell). There will be foul language, sex and other fun things. I think the following chapters will be longer than this, except for a couple that take place in the Hundred Acre Woods. I'm going to try and update around once a month.
