_ [ riku / kairi ]

stolen - dashboard confessional.

She stood there, simply taking in the golden sunrise that wafted over her slightly pale skin. Blue eyes took in the vast expanse of water that stretched before her and her lips parted slightly in amazement of the beauty she was witnessing.

"Kairi? What are you doing up so early?"

The fifteen year old girl twirled around gracefully, only partially startled by the sudden disruption in her thoughts. The timid, shy eyes of a princess met the seemingly cold, dark ones of a sixteen year old boy. Silver hair framed the sharp contours of his face while his jaw seemed set in a determined expression. However, Kairi simply smiled at her longtime best friend's face. Nothing about him could scare her anymore. Not the harsh tone of his voice, nor his fearful looks that she had so often seen him give. Nothing. He was Riku and that was all that mattered.

"Oh, I just...wanted to see the sunrise," she remarked nonchalantly. "Want to watch it with me?"

Kairi extended a hand to him and instantly became confused as she noticed his eyes widen in...shock?

"Riku?" she whispered, hurt at his apparent rejection.

He looked down at the shimmering sand that reflected the light from the newly reborn sun, avoiding Kairi's watering blue eyes.

"...it's nothing. I just...thought you'd be here with Sora or something."

He clenched his fists and ground his teeth together at the mention of his best friend's name. He had wanted to avoid this. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Kairi.

Kairi.

"What?" she asked. "What are you talking about? If I had wanted to be here with Sora, I would be here with him now. Obviously I'm not, so what's the problem, Riku?"

He shrank back from the accusatory tone in Kairi's voice.

"There's no problem, Kairi," he assured her, finally able to meet her eyes. "I don't want to hurt either one of you, that's all. You and Sora are supposed to be together, it's fate...we all know that. I don't want to be the one that gets in the way of both of you..."

His voice trailed off into a whisper. There was no need to repeat words that had been running in circles within his mind for years. He knew the truth and so did she.

But then again, Riku had been wrong before.

Leaving her place by the shoreline, Kairi walked over to Riku and placed a hand on the side of his face. He closed his eyes, relishing in the feeling of her touch. She looked up at him with adoring blue eyes and knew what she was feeling wasn't a dream this time.

She kissed him for a second. A brief moment, a fragment in time. Her lips met his and static flowed between them.

As she walked away, leaving him by the ocean that now glowed with the warmth of the sun, he pressed his fingers to his lips ever so softly.

[ you have STOLEN my heart. ]