Title: Dreaming
Day/Theme: November 10 // I dream
Series: Kingdom of Hearts
Character/Pairing: Riku, one-sided Riku/Kairi, Sora/Kairi
A/N: This is AU. Also, I felt like writing this because apparently at the end of KH2, Riku returns home, everyone celebrates everyone's homecoming, and Mickey Mouse is the only one to go, "Oh hey, Riku, nice to see you came out alive. Good to have you back."
That and how in the first game, Sora's looking for just Kairi, if the files are anything to go by, and not his other best friend.
Who built the raft Kairi wanted to runaway with Sora on.
Honestly. D
Though, this didn't end as I wanted....*sigh*
Summary : It starts and ends with a dream.
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It starts with a dream.
He's falling and flying, dying and living, pushing and pulling. His breathes come out like traffic lights, a pause that lasts an eternity between each change. His fingers swim and twist and twirl, dancing patterns in his hair, and if he looks hard enough he can feel a thousand petals brushing past the surface.
A turn, a blink, and the sun shines on his face. He can't tell if he's dreaming or awake.
-x-
Sora says something—a loud voice mismatching his tiny body.
(It's too small for such a big heart.)
Riku listens, half in half out, the tide calling to him. He can still feel the rushing whirlpools sucking him in, the seagulls in the distance squaking his name.
"I think we should go in two months," Sora tells him.
He nods, not sure of what he's agreeing to except that it will take him out to sea.
-x-
Sora has already had the dream. Kairi can't remember hers at all, or if she even had one.
"I can't remember my past," she jokes, "How do you expect me to remember a dream?" Her tie lies straight as an arrow and she shifts her arms. "These books are heavy. Help me, Riku?"
A sigh, and he takes the heavy charges. "You're spending too much time with Sora—I can't deal with two lazy people." She gives a sheepish smile. "What class do you have now?" Their campus is big, sprawling over the land like a sleeping giant.
"Oh, just to the Destiny building." She smiles, a butterfly in flight. "Thank you!" A peck on the cheek, her lips are surprising soft, and she dashes ahead. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"
He chases (always and always and always will he be chasing) after her.
-x-
Twenty isn't too young to fall in love. Riku knows that, but it still feels silly when he thinks of it—love doesn't seem like something he wants at the moment.
All he wants to do right now is discover the world.
That doesn't change a thing, though. Since when did wishes and wants ever come in the way of emotions?
Kairi grabs his hand, pulling him over to Sora in an excited chirp, and he tries to keep his feet on the ground.
-x-
He is smart enough to know when he's the third wheel.
Riku thinks he started noticing it when he had the dream. Sora tends to watch Kairi when he's eating lunch, unconciously turning his head to keep an eye on her as she moves through the crowd. Kairi grabs Sora's hand first and it is his name that falls from her lips whenever she is planning something.
They will probably get their happy-ever-after, because that is the kind of people they are.
(There is something to be said about perfection...)
Riku watches his two friends get closer and closer, leaving him further and further behind, and it is not too long before he stops thinking of himself as the third wheel and more like the invisible man.
-x-
It happens suddenly, a burst of light and sound, but that's how it's supposed to go. No one ever expects these kinds of things.
(Riku expected it the least—these kinds of things were supposed to happen to the spectator.)
Kairi looks frail in the bed, tubes and wires running cities over her skin. The white makes her hair seem darker, her skin seem paler, and he almost finds himself looking at a ghost.
Sora shakes slightly, afraid and unsure. He's already cried, his eyes puffy and red, and his hand grasps Riku's.
"She'll wake up soon." There is a question in those words but, afraid of the answer, Sora doesn't say it.
"Maybe." He thinks that might have been too blunt but dreams can't hold Sora up forever. Reality has to come crashing in. "Even then..."
It might not be the same.
Riku stays behind after Sora leaves, watching the shallow rising of her chest. His fingers brush hers and he knows there will be no sleeping tonight.
-x-
Sora visits him everyday, worry eating holes in him.
"Thank you," he whispers one day. "I...I don't know what I'd do without you."
"It's nothing." Riku thinks of sand and pebbles, of ripples in the lake, and how he will always be the one without a rock to cling to.
-x-
"I've been having that dream more often," Sora finally says after sitting silently for an hour. "I don't understand what it's supposed to mean."
"Of course not. It's just a dream." Even as he says this, Riku knows it isn't true. That dream has been haunting him for days as well.
He's not going to admit it.
Sora nods, not quite believing, and they leave it at that.
-x-
Riku ends up being the first to go. There are doctors everywhere, a world of cures that might not have reached their small island, and maybe he will find the right one.
He knows better than to hope that Kairi will wake up and choose him, knows better than to think she might even consider him.
He still does anyways, hope something he can't stiffle or vanish.
-x-
He sometimes meets Sora on his journeys, the boy (Riku will always see him as a child) laughing as he strolls through climbing streets and endless sky.
You're not taking it seriously enough, Riku almost tells him. Her life is in the balance and you're standing there laughing?
He stops himself midway and plunges himself deeper into the search. He has to find it first.
-x-
Eventually, he finds himself at home. Sora is not there yet and Riku is alone in her room.
She still seems cold, a china doll waiting to be used, and he tentatively reaches for her fingers. Nothing (but everything) is riding on this.
He almost slumps when her fingers remain lifeless nad there are no fluttering eyes.
-x-
It figures (because Sora and Kairi are meant for always and forever) that Sora saves her.
She wakes up, a stream of wires following her arms, and it takes her a few minutes to focus on her hand. She stares at the banner trailing behind it, the see-through tunnels that have kept her alive for the past year, and her eyes slowly slide to Sora.
He almost hugs her, remembering her tubes last minute and settles for squeezing her hand instead. Kairi casts him a crooked grin, finally looking up to where Riku leans against the wall, watching her.
They stare for a few seconds before she gives him a soft smile and sinks back into blissful sleep.
-x-
"I remember my dream," Kairi tells them two days later, sitting up. She's no longer swallowed by the nets that strained to catch her, instead a simple IV strapped to her wrist.
"Really?" Sora looks at her curiously. "What happened?"
She merely shrugs and shakes her head. "Princeses and hearts, locks and keys."
Kairi glances up at Riku, giving him a secretive smile. "Nonsense."
-x-
"Thank you," she tells him when they are alone and Sora has gone to get his lunch.
"It's nothing." It's uncomfortable, nearly, when she squeezes his hand and he can almost think that she isn't in love with Sora. Almost, but not entirely.
He's second best in the thing that counts the most and that is something he can never forget.
"Sora found it, anyways."
She shakes her head. "It's not nothing! You..." her voice trails off and she smiles at him. "You searched for my cure and even if you didn't find it, you still did something. It means a lot to me." She pauses before plunging ahead. "The you in my dream...he also helped me a lot. Even if he didn't do it the right way."
He doesn't pay attention to the rest, trying to ignore the tremor runing through him as her hand stays on his.
Sora comes back and she pulls away and he feels alone once more.
-x-
It ends with a dream.
He goes on a ship once more, his small bag slung over his shoulder. Sora looks disappointed, almost lost, while Kairi frowns.
"Do you have to go?" she asks.
He doesn't tell her of his dreams now, with her fingers ghosting over his arms and her smile always present. Instead he mentions the world and all its sights. "I didn't get to see them last time."
Sora is torn, wanting to stay with Kairi and wanting to go with him. Riku makes the choice for him—he doesn't think he can bear it if he's picked second by both of them. "Make sure she doesn't disappear on us again." He finds that ironic, consdiering that's what he's doing to them. "I'm sure you can handle that much." Sora gives an indignant yell . "I'll be back soon enough."
"...Fine." She pouts before tightly gripping him in a hug. "Be careful." Hand over hand, she drops her favourite bracelet, the small charms clinking on his palm. "You better bring this back."
Sora hits him lightly, a small fight for old time's sake and there are no more goodbyes.
He heads up the gangwalk. If she called for him to stay, he probably would.
She doesn't, though. This is a battle he can't seem to win.
Riku clenches his hand over the small bracelet. It's ok, he's made for solitude and shadows anyways.
His path is walked best alone.
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