The Mandatory Love Interest
I was eight years old when I met Sora. It wasn't until I was nine that I pledged to marry him.
"You look funny!" I exclaimed, surveying my latest masterpiece: a disproportionate portrait of my dearest friend, scrawled on the cave wall. I was never particularly artistic. Not like my Nobody counterpart. But Sora's drawing made me feel much better; I could've tied a pencil to a moogle's pompom and it would have done a better job. My throat ached as giggles raked their chipped fingernails through its soft flesh, threatening to escape. But Sora was far too proud of his, erm, abstract representation of my face for me to mock it in such a way.
"Hey, Kairi?" he said, letting his chalk fall to the ground with a chink!
"What is it?"
"I think I like you." Those words doused the laughter burning my esophagus. They were foreign words that were rarely divulged, and when they were they were only shared between a boy and a girl. It knew not the second meaning they carried, but I knew enough to know that they were significant. I thought for a moment.
"I think I like you, too." I replied with a smile, completely oblivious to the implications that statement held. Back then, marriage meant flowers and storks and eternity. It was something that validated a deep friendship; something that two people did only if they were in 'like'. And so that's when I resolved to marry Sora. Because it was just that simple. I liked Sora and he liked me. There was no need for getting-to-know-you trial periods, extensive shopping trips, anniversaries, or any other complicated mating ritual you could have thrown at us.
Of course, we slowly lost that mentality as we grew older.
As my barbies were gradually liquidated for the funding of lip gloss and mini-skirts, Sora's action figures collected dust as he ran off to frolic with his little anthropomorphic friends and save the world(s). Twice. In other words, we grew up and apart. Sure, we're still friends. We still talk. But the romantic aspect of our relationship has been utterly obliterated, thanks in part to a little discovery of mine.
See, thing is, Sora is so far in the closet he can see Narnia.
What? Just because I was practically in a coma for the duration of the first game and all but forgotten in the second doesn't mean I'm stupid! I saw him all over Riku when they reunited in The World That Never Was-- and I shudder to think of what transpired after everyone was transported back to Destiny Islands. So, when Sora finally decides to confide in me what really happened on the beach that night, I'll pretend to be shocked at the loss of his innocence, give him a pat on the back for being so honest with me, and gently nudge him in Riku's direction. In the meantime, I'll be busy searching for a new love interest.
Let's see... who do I have to choose from? Oh, right. Wakka and Tidus. Not gonna happen.