Seven Heartbeats

They don't understand us.

But we're okay with that.

They think there's something wrong with us. They think the way we are now is unacceptable, morally and socially, simply wrong. But we know—it's only when all three of us are together that we're right.

We look at Kairi and she's so perfect, a pretty girl grown into a beautiful woman, and we know that we love her and we've always loved her, and we will forever because she's Kairi and she's perfect. We look at Sora, so brilliant and so indestructibly cheerful, so kind and gentle and a flawless boy, and we know we need him around us forever, always bright, always brilliant. We look at Riku, and he's the strongest, darkest, most beautiful of men and we know now matter how far he falls he'll always find his way back to us, because he's Riku and we're the only ones who can make his shadows settle.

We look at each other and know we can't live apart. Not anymore.

Because of that, we're isolated now, just us. But it was going to be that way anyway. We knew this world wasn't our world, not anymore. We weren't the children who dreamed of rafts and sailing away. Not anymore. The changes were everywhere.

Kairi cries more and less often now. She won't cry for pain or a torn dress anymore, but now we find her, huddled in corners, weeping over a five-pointed pendant. She's stronger now but sometimes that strength fails and she cries so hard. And we hold her close and kiss her cheeks and her hands and cuddle up to her, and with our heads on her chest we can hear—she has two heartbeats now.

Sora won't ever be the same. He jumps at quick-moving shadows now, and he rubs his hands, which ache with restrained power and the lack of his Keyblade's weight. He moves too quickly for the people around him, and they jump and startle whenever he slips and runs too fast, turns too suddenly, or strikes too swiftly. He can't forget how to fight and he doesn't want to, but the brilliant laughing boy has a deadly edge to him now that will never fade, and the two heartbeats pounding in his chest give him twice his strength.

And Riku…Riku smells like darkness. There's a black aura around him that just won't go away, and it's too easy to remember being lethal and merciless and it's so hard to forget. The shadows, for all that he hates them, still wrap around him, and now he's taller and stronger and more blackly beautiful than anyone on the island, even Kairi. Riku loves the starry night sky and forgets how fragile things are because we aren't so breakable anymore. We find him alone and staring off into space or the shadows and we know that's when he needs to be held, even if he'll never ask. We kiss his pretty lips and pet his soft hair and inside his iron-strong chest there's three heartbeats hiding, even though one is so dark and faint and held so perfectly under control.

We'll lie together, Sora holding Kairi and Riku's long arms wrapped around us all, and we all three know this is how it's meant to be. There are seven heartbeats between the three of us, all mixing and warm and thrumming in time. Though no one else may understand, we know this is right. This is home, all three of us together, perfect, beautiful, strong. This world isn't really home but it's familiar and it's locked so our minds can call it safe even if we still start when shadows shift too quickly. We have no better place to go and here has parents and old friends and still reminds us a little of more innocent times.

Even if the girls laugh at Kairi for crying in corners and talking to herself.

Even if the boys are scared of Sora when he misses his aim and shatters a wall with a punch.

Even if everyone ignores or runs from Riku if he so much as turns green eyes on them.

Even if Kairi can only sleep in our cave and never in her bed, hidden from the world, sitting before the door until one of us comes to find her.

Even if Sora can't stay in a dark room for long because he sees shifting in the shadows and can't calm down until one of our arms wraps around his waist and tells him, you're still here.

Even if Riku screams at night and breaks everything in reach because he can't mediate his strength in sleep, and he screams and screams until we curl around him and hold his darkness down again.

Even if every night for the rest of our lives we end up pressed against the warm wood of the gate, because we have to make sure it won't open again. This world may not be perfect and this world may not quite be home but it's a place to be and it's as good as any because for now we're all together. And so we'll stay here for now because here is home because home is where we are.

And we'll make this work.

The beach is beautiful, because we like to watch Kairi dance through the water. Because Kairi learned to fight, and Kairi learned how to be strong, and Kairi stayed beautiful. Kairi dances like she flies, and her feet are light and her steps are swift and she's flying and flying and so beautiful and so fleeting.

Thinking of you, wherever you are

We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.

We reach out for Kairi's hands and she laughs and dances with us, our awkward three-way dance that we know so well by now, meet and part and turn and kiss, and we've learned to move so no one is left out and no one is isolated. And Kairi kisses our foreheads and we kiss her pretty soft mouth and her twin hearts go triple time in her chest as we lay our hands over them and make her promise to stay, stay forever.

The sky is beautiful, because Sora is the sun. We know it, we've always known it, and that's why we can't leave him, drawn in by his gravity and his light and his warmth. Sora is perfect, and Sora is everything. He fights and he laughs and he's beautiful and flawless in all that he does.

And the light from our hearts broke through the darkness.

I think I saw that light. I think that's what saved me.

We know for the first time in his life he saw his own light. And no matter where he is or where we are our hands go out to Sora, we cling to him for light and life, we wrap ourselves around his waist and tug on his arms and beg for his attention, and no matter what we do or how desperate we are Sora laughs and Sora pets us and Sora never ever would turn anyone, and especially not us, away. Twin heartbeats thrum strong in his chest, and he is life.

The islands are beautiful but the islands storm. And we hate the storms but Riku loves them, too. But we watch Riku stand in a monsoon with ice-cold rain lancing across his skin and through his pretty silver hair and we are very, very afraid.

We can't let fear stop us…

I'm not afraid of the darkness.

He never did fear what we feared. Because Riku is the strongest and the weakest of us, and Riku is infected. And we run and we pull him under cover and we squeeze him and beg him and turn our faces up until he kisses us and promises he won't leave us behind again.

We trust him.

And his triple heartbeats seal a promise.

We hug together and our seven heartbeats seal a promise.

We'll never be apart.

If someone tried to separate us, Kairi could fight again. We know she could. If someone tried to tear us apart, Sora would hold us together. We know he would. If someone tried to divide us, Riku would kill them. We know he would.

We love each other. And if they don't understand that, we don't really care. We have an imperfect place to be and we have each other and that's all we need.

We'll kiss Kairi's soft cheeks and pet her softer curves, the softest one of us.

We'll touch Sora's thin eyelids—stretched over endless blue—and trace his soft, strong muscles, hidden under deceptive weakness.

We'll press into Riku's solid, strong chest and kiss him again and again until our lips crack and turn red and he soothes them with his tongue.

This is how we fell in love.

This is all we need.

Pressed together, our seven heartbeats keep us warm, and to us, those who have only one heart in their chest are hollow. We can't live without the heat of multiple beats anymore, and pressed together, we thrum in perfect time.

And in one single second, seven heartbeats pound.

…XxX…

A/N

…Three-way porn.

Oh, well. Honestly, I think it's the most suitable pairing. Because I think RikuxSora would be hot, SoraxKairi would be…accurate, and RikuxKairi is also rather accurate, but…why not have all three, yanno?! It's awesome!

It's just too fun to write. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it.

Reviews might just prompt a sequelllll…