Disclaimer: yeah, yeah, yeah no owning the patents of Kingdom Hearts for me… ;;
Teaser: There she is, standing before him in a glow of light all her own
Notes: just how I picture their meeting, even though I never thought it would actually happen. It is rated E+10 right? I was just hoping for something more mushy (after all they went through to reach each other). Yeah, so, I wrote this. XD
Warnings: spoilers for the end of KH2 (or almost the end) also, this is a rewrite of the Sora/Kairi meeting. You don't need to tell me. I already know it didn't happen like that.
Enjoy!
/An Array of Light/
"Kairi!"
And there she is, keyblade in hand, face gritted and smeared with sweat. But the fact that she is trembling, shaking from weakness and fear, does not matter. She is here, is all he can think. She is here and suddenly is world spinning, spiraling, down into gold dust.
Even as he is making his way to her, swatting at Nobodies and Heartless alike, she is turning.
Sora has imagined this meeting. It has always been a bright spot in his mind, even as he immerses himself in countless battles, countless victories and losses. This has always been in the foreground. The exact point in time where he might stand before her.
This is not how he imagined it, of course. He pictures the sandy beaches of their island home. The bright sun shining upon her fiery head. The glow and the feeling of simply being home and being with her.
But somehow this is better.
She turns and she smiles and she glowing. Her hair—longer now, skimming her shoulders—is plastered to her forehead, her body is molded to her pink dress, and her hands clasp a keyblade between them.
And she is glowing. How brightly she burns in front of his eyes, a supernova of laughter and sugar. He thinks not even the light of Kingdom Hearts—not even that door he has been searching so long for—can eclipse the mere light that radiates from her pulsating body.
Almost sluggishly he thinks she has changed.
It is funny. Even with a year gone by, he hasalways imagined her as a young girl. A short crop of crimson hair and innocent, wide eyes. It never occurred to his mind—which clung tightly to the thought of being home soon—that she would change just as much as he. That she would grow willowy and soft just as he grew lankly and tough.
Kairi is a woman, and his mind had never imagined her to be.
It doesn't upset him that she has changed. His world has learned to adapt and adjust quickly to transformations. And there is something blazingly wonderful about seeing Kairi not as a gangly girl, but a lithe woman. The only bitterness in him is that he missed it. Missed the day when Kairi opened her eyes and held within them all the knowledge and power a woman could.
He prays for a brief moment that she will see that he, too, has become an adult. That he is not the boy Sora she knew, but a man now.
For a moment, neither move. The short distance between them seems like miles. It is as if they are watching each other float away like they had a year ago, when Kairi returned to their home and he had gone to fulfill his duties as the Keyblade Master.
Her breathing is hissing out between her lips and her chest is heaving. He is panting just as heavily and his grip on his keyblade has made his knuckles white.
There is so much to say. And, yet, there is nothing at all.
They are connected, he and Kairi. And words are not needed. Their human instincts might, but their souls have been entwined for so long that the thought of speaking is almost blasphemous to what they feel.
But he wants to call to her. To call out her name, to prove to himself that if he does she will not fade like so many dreams he has had of her.
How much had he scarified to save her? How long had he yearned for this moment? He had searched for Riku not merely because the silver-haired boy was a friend—though that was true enough—but because he was Kairi's friend and Riku was precious to her. So in turn, Riku became all the more precious to Sora.
Now she is standing before him and Sora feels that the Door to the Light has never been closer.
He takes a step forward, unsure of how to proceed. Unsure of how to tell her of the emotions that swell and buckle against his knees.
Kairi does it for him. The smile on her face quivers and becomes watery and she washes away her sweat with her own salty, life-saving tears.
"Sora!"
And she is flying to him. It is like she is flying, soaring across the gaping distance between them that he never thought he would be able to cross. She crashes through the barrier he does not realize he has erected; breaking down walls and healing wounds so deep only she could ever truly find them.
He holds his arms open for her, to catch and cradle her. Relief spurs through him because he knows this time he will grasp her solid flesh and she will not fade. Not like the first time she flew at him.
Her tears are shockingly wet against his suddenly flushed skin and she is so strong and bright he is not sure what to do.
But he cannot seem to make himself not touch her. His hands smooth the fabric of the dress that coats her back. He murmurs into her hair—pleased that she is still shorter than him when everyone else seems tall, pleased the she fits so wonderfully against him, pleased that she still smells of sunshine and rain—and holds her body to him.
This feels wonderfully like home.
She withdraws from him so she can look onto his eyes, touch the planes of his face in a way that they had been too embarrassed to before. But there is no embarrassment here. They know who they are, and what they want.
"Sora," she breathes and manages to say everything that needs to be said in that one word.
"Kairi," he can only think to reply.
Sora ignores the man who has the face of an enemy but the feel of a friend, he ignores Donald and Goofy as they gasp and glance around for Heartless and Nobodies alike, he ignores the bays of more enemies beneath him.
He ignores the threat of the Organization—he would not be able to even tell you who Xemnas was—he ignores the fact that they are both in a world that never was, and that Kingdom Hearts still glows brilliantly above them.
All there is in his world—the world Sora has created for himself—is Kairi and the soft feel of her body against his.
She watches him, waiting for him to crack a smile. But he cannot. There is too much pressure on his chest. He cannot even breathe.
Without a word—for words, he knows, are unnecessary—Sora lowers his head to claim her mouth and Kairi rises to meet him.
Between their colliding bodies, the light burns.
notes: I told you it had spoilers. I tried to keep it vague though. Personally, I thought the Sora/Kairi reunion was über sweet. A long 'awww' came from me. And, surprising or not, I am romantic at heart so I guess I wanted… a little more? Hell, they let Tidus and Yuna and Squall (Leon) and Rinoa kiss, right? Couldn't they do it for Sora and Kairi? Just a little peck, hmm? Speaking of Rinoa, I really missed her in the last two games. Hope that letter at the end was from her.