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For Day 3 of SoKai Week. Enjoy!
Kairi reached out and touched Sora's face.
Oh, not his actual face. The drawing of his face she'd made when they were kids.
"You've been back a whole week now, but you still haven't said anything." She ran her fingers across his rocky cheek and sighed. Because this was the closest she was going to get to touching his real face, apparently.
"I wonder if you've even seen this yet. Maybe not. I can't fault you for not saying anything if you don't even know."
But worse still was the possibility that he had seen it and just… wasn't… interested anymore. It had been an entire year since he'd drawn his addition to it, after all. Who knows how many people he'd met since then. Probably plenty of beautiful princesses and cute girls and lovely maidens. It would have been easy for his eyes to wander.
Their reunion sure made it seem like he still cared, but… but…
You were the one who hugged him first, a nagging voice at the back of her mind whispered. He wouldn't have hugged you if you hadn't hugged him. And when he came back home, all he did was hold your hand. No hug, and certainly no kiss.
"He's shy about that kind of thing, that's all!" she shot back. "All our friends were watching, he wouldn't—"
She paused and shook her head to clear it. "This is getting ridiculous. I'm just arguing with myself."
Her eyes traveled to the part she'd added to the drawing, her hand holding out a paopu fruit to him.
"Look, the one I drew for you is bigger." She giggled and traced its outline. "Probably wouldn't even fit inside your mouth. But you know what? I'm going to try to stuff it in all at once anyway. I want to see the look on your face when I do."
She imagined the moment, his eyes going wide before he pulled himself together and turned it into a game. Then he'd stuff as much paopu fruit into her mouth as he could until they were both giggling so much that the sticky sweet juice would be dripping down their chins and they could hardly breathe.
Once they'd finally managed to chew and swallow the fruit, he'd whisper her name and lean in close and—
But then another thought occurred to her and drug her mood down with it.
"What if mine's bigger because… because I care more?" Her hand dropped to her lap. She was the one who had pined after him all this time, after all. Even when she'd forgotten his face and his name, she couldn't forget what he meant to her.
Well, so what if she cared more? She was a Princess of Heart, after all, and there was nothing wrong with caring.
So she leaned forward and acted out the fantasy she hoped would come true someday. She whispered his name and kissed his big, brilliant smile, her imagination doing its best to substitute the cold cavern wall for the warmth of his lips.
"You know," came a familiar voice from behind her, "I think kissing me would probably feel a lot better than kissing a rock."
Kairi froze. It couldn't be.
Her cheeks flushing bright red, heart pounding in her chest, the urge to crawl into a hole somewhere and never come out washing over her, she forced herself to turn around and face reality instead.
Sure enough, Sora was leaning against the wall behind her, arms crossed and a mischievous grin on his face.
"How long have you been standing there?!" she cried, wishing with all her heart that this whole situation was only a bad dream. "How much of that did you hear!?"
"Hmmm, let's see," he said, making a big show of scratching his chin and pondering her words. "Probably wouldn't even fit inside your mouth… He's shy about that kind of thing, that's all… I wonder if you've even seen this yet…" He gave her a cheeky grin, then put his hands behind his neck and tilted his head to the side. "All of it, I think."
She turned back to the cave drawing, her eyes burning. Of all the ways for him to find out, this was not the one she would have chosen. Especially not since he was teasing her about it. Normally she wouldn't care and would even dish it right back, but this— this hurt.
"It was pretty cute," he said, chuckling. "I never thought—"
"Oh, laugh if you want!"
"Kairi?" he asked, his tone changing completely. Somehow that made things even worse.
"Just leave me alone!" She wiped her eyes and took off. The tunnel would slow her down, and trying to rush through it would probably bang up her arms and legs, but even that was preferable to being around him for another moment.
"Kairi, wait!" He caught her hand and stopped her before she could make her escape. "You've got it all wrong. I wasn't trying to make fun of you!"
His grip had gotten stronger in the year they'd spent apart, and even when she tried to wrench her hand away, he refused to let go.
"Let go of me!" she cried. "I don't want to talk to you! I don't even want to look at you right now! Go away!"
"A year," he said softly, letting go of her hand. She stumbled forward and had to catch herself, still not completely used to the deeper, velvety tone of his voice or the way it made her stomach flip flop.
"I waited an entire year to hold your hand again," he continued. "It never should have taken that long. I should have come back here with Riku before a month had even passed."
Nope. She still wouldn't look at him, even though his words were tearing down the defenses around her heart with ease.
"I'm sorry, Kairi. I'm sorry for all the time we lost. I'm sorry you had to wait so long for us to come home."
"It's not your fault," she finally said, allowing herself to relax a little. And it wasn't. She didn't blame him for it, either. "You brought Riku home in one piece, and that's what matters."
"But I still… all that time we lost, all those days, all those moments…"
Kairi turned around and looked him in the eye. "Sora?"
His head drooped, and his eyes were filled with melancholy and regret. Two emotions she'd never seen in them before. Who had taken her carefree Sora and turned him into this?
The height advantage, the deeper voice, the stronger grip, the different hairstyle, the stylish clothes, even the newfound sass and cocky attitude – those were all changes she could accept.
But not this. Never this.
"That doesn't matter," she said, taking a step towards him. "What matters it that you're here now."
"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier," he said, nodding to the cavern walls around them. "About this… about the drawing… I was scared, I wasn't sure how to..."
The vulnerable look in his eyes was familiar, at least. It happened a lot less often now, but it was still a part of the Sora she knew, and that meant she also knew how to cheer him up.
"You heard me, didn't you?" She strode past him and knelt next to the drawing, pointing to the paopu fruit she was holding out to him. "Look at the size of this thing. It's as big as your head, and it still isn't big enough to show how much you mean to me."
His expression softened and he smiled shyly at her. "Yeah, about that. I really don't think I could fit it all in my mouth."
Good. The playful tone from before had returned to his voice, just like she'd hoped it would. If they could tease each other like this, then she knew everything would be okay.
She gave him a devilish grin. "We'll see about that."
"Do you mean it? Do you really… want to share one with me?"
The intensity of his gaze, combined with the earnestness of his tone, caught her off guard. It was like he thought this was a dream and couldn't really believe it was happening, but wanted it to be real anyway.
Just like she'd longed for her fantasy to come true, he wanted his to be real, too.
"What do you think?" she said, dropping all hints of teasing and putting as much sincerity into her voice as she could muster.
He considered something for a moment, then walked over. "I think that right now, I want to prove what I said earlier is true."
Kneeling beside her, he carefully positioned himself right in front of the drawing of him, arms wide and legs open to allow room for her to come close.
"Well?" he asked, a big smile lighting up his face. "Aren't you gonna kiss me?"
She did, and he was right. Kissing him did feel better than kissing a rock. It felt a million times better. Especially when he kissed her back, his arms going around her and bringing her into his embrace.
A drawing certainly couldn't do that, and not even her imagination was a match for the reality. Not one single bit. She couldn't have predicted the taste of his lips, the tenderness of his caresses, the sea breeze scent lingering on his skin and hair.
She only ended the kiss because the cold, hard floor of the cavern was digging into the skin on her knees.
"Well?" he asked, leaning back against the cavern wall now that they'd had their fill. At least for now, anyway. Something told her they'd be doing a lot more of this from now on.
"Better than kissing a rock?" he clarified, his eyes filled with a look she hadn't seen in them before. His voice was lower than normal, too.
More changes. But they were good changes, thrilling changes, changes that were probably reflected in the way she was looking at him right now.
"Much better," she whispered, smoothing his hair out of the way and giving him a quick peck on the forehead.
And she meant it. Sora had changed, and so had she. She wasn't sure how she felt about some of those changes yet, but this?
This was just fine.
It was what they had both dreamed of, after all.