Title: Holding Up the River
Part: 2
Pairings: Riku/Sora/Kairi, eventually and in theory. Background implications of Roxas/Namine and past Roxas/Axel. Sora and Kairi acting like bestest girlfriends forever because they are.
Warning: Boys Love, over all lameness.
Notes: Begins directly after the end of Kingdom Hearts II, sans the epilogue at the end of the credits.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all associated names and images are the property of Disney and Square Enix. This fanfic is for entertainment purposes only and maybe not even that.

_____________________

All good intentions aside, it wasn't until after dinner and leaving two messages with her father's secretary that Sora finally managed to get Kairi on the phone. He felt silly not being able to contact a friend that lived only three blocks away when he'd been hopping between dimensions just the other day.

"Sorry," Kairi said, sounding breathless and a little distracted, "We've had a ton of visitors and I was just walking the last few home. I'm surprised you haven't been mobbed too."

"I guess my parents asked everyone to give us some space?" Sora offered uncertainly. Some people had dropped by with food, only to be turned aside with a brief "thank you".

"Hey, do you think you could sneak out for a minute? Even just outside your window."

"Hang on," Sora said. He set the phone down on his pillow and crept out of his room into the hall. His father had gone to bed a while ago, but his mother was still listening to the radio by the sound of it. A peek into the living room showed her fast asleep in the armchair, a newspaper spread out across her lap and a news program droning on in the background. Sora smiled and tip-toed back to his room. "Yep, the coast is clear!"

"Great! I'll be right over."

Soon enough, they were standing together in the shadow of Sora's house, quickly exchanging the news of their day. Sora's yard, like many of the yards in the area, was an abundance of flowering bushes and spiny-leafed succulents. Sora's was wilder and more unkempt than most; the two of them stood almost knee-deep in half-dead plant life. His family had never had much of a green thumb, but it didn't used to be this bad.

"It's strange how happy every one is to have me back. But my poor father," Kairi said. Her eyes were shadowed, belying her light tone. "He won't say it outright, but I think he was afraid that he had driven me to running away." Seeing the question in Sora's face, she elaborated. "Axel kidnapped me a few months after everyone had remembered you again and... the community was still in a bit of an uproar."

"How come?" Sora asked, "I'd already been gone for -- how long was I gone for, anyway?" The weather beaten shingles on the side of the house tore a little when he braced his shoulder against them, showering him with splinters. He brushed his shirt off distractedly.

"You mean from the time the Islands were restored?" She fiddled with the edge of her open-fronted sweater, her forehead creased with -- thought? Worry? Guilt? He couldn't tell. "Almost two years, I think. It was about a year that we had no memories of you."

"...oh." Well. That explained why he'd grown so much during that long sleep. "Wow. Two years."

"Give or take a few months. It doesn't seem real, does it?"

"Not really." He looked down at his hands and picked at a hangnail. They were calloused from wielding the Keyblade and streaked with little white scars across the knuckles and fingers. Small wounds from blades and claws and flying shrapnel he hadn't been quick enough to dodge.

Two years. A entire year spent asleep. Once again, he prodded at the memory of what had happened before he woke up in that mansion in Twilight Town, and once again, he couldn't make sense of it. He knew he'd lost his memories and regaining them required a long sleep -- and, apparently, being reunited with his Nobody, something he was putting off thinking about too deeply -- but how had he forgotten? Did everyone else forget because he did, or did he forget because they had?

"Okay, so, a year," he said, trying to get used to the sound of it, "That's kind of late for everyone to be getting all riled up."

Kairi tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and hummed thoughtfully.

"It was only a month or so between the Islands being restored and the memories of you starting to fade," she said, "There wasn't enough time for all the questions about your disappearance to be asked or for the rumors and doubt to die out. With Riku, it took six months of searching before everyone decided there was nothing more they could do but wait and hope. With you, most of the police reports hadn't even been finished! So, here was everyone remembering that funny, friendly Sora from down the street had been missing for over a year, only to discover that nothing had been done about it. No one understood how that was possible. There were a lot of accusations. Like before, everyone was convinced that I was hiding the truth of what really went on and it got... it got uncomfortable at times."

She kicked idly at the ground with the toe of her boot, not meeting Sora's eyes. "Since he's the mayor, most of the accusations came down on my father. He didn't mean to, but it made him a little short with me, especially since he didn't really believe my story. When I vanished, he had to have blamed himself for not defending me enough."

Sora's earlier affront that anyone would treat Kairi like that bubbled to the surface again. He started to say something, but Kairi cut him off defensively.

"He did try!" she insisted, "When the sheriff interviewed me, it wasn't suppose to go beyond yours and Riku's families. But... it's so hard to keep secrets around here."

Silence followed. Sora's anger deflated and his heart twisted, remembering how he'd been so relieved to know she was home safe while he tracked down Riku. He hadn't ever considered that his and Riku's disappearance would get her, the last person to see them alive, in trouble.

"Jeez, Kairi," he said quietly, "You shouldn't have had to go through that. I'm sorry."

He took hold of her hand, lacing their fingers together like he did when they were younger and he would drag her around the island to see his latest awesome discovery. She smiled at him through her bangs.

"Don't be," she said, "It's not your fault and it wasn't really theirs, either. It's just what happens when people are worried and scared." She tugged at their joined hands. "Besides, you went through a lot worse."

The concern in her voice made Sora feel giddy and embarrassed all at once. He let go of her hand to scratch the back of his head.

"Nothing I couldn't handle!" he said boisterously. Eventually. And with the help of Goofy, Donald, and a ton of potions and Cure spells. In fact, there'd been a few battles he'd staggered away from with the entirely startled thought of "I made it? I'm alive?"

Kairi shook her head slightly, a hint of a laugh lingering around the edges of her smile. Their gazes met and Sora realized that he'd forgotten, even since yesterday it seemed, how blue her eyes were. He got that feeling again, the sense that there was something he was supposed to say, something they were supposed to talk about, but the words were all locked up tight in his chest.

His cheeks felt hot and he was dead certain he was going to horribly embarrass himself any second now. Luckily for him, his brain helpfully decided to kick in.

"O-oh, I, um, I almost forgot," he said. Kairi perked up and that somehow made his cheeks become warmer. "My parents said there were others who remembered being in the Darkness. I mean, they didn't say it like that," he found himself starting to babble when disappointment flickered across Kairi's face, "They just said there were other people who talked about being in some kind of dark place with monsters and stuff, and I bet anything those were Heartless. Riku said maybe their hearts were stronger and I was wondering if you knew --"

"Who they were?" Kairi interrupted, her head titling to the side curiously.

He relaxed and nodded, strangely glad that she didn't sound upset over the subject change. Her easy going acceptance made his conversation with Riku earlier seem...off. It hadn't been anything Riku said, exactly, more like the way he said it. Like he didn't want to talk about it, but was forcing himself to anyway.

Kairi started talking again, drawing Sora out of his thoughts.

"Actually, I'm glad you brought it up," she said, "I do know about two of them, because their stories ended up in the paper. There are some rumors of others, too. But that's not what I want to tell you." Her voice dropped lower, even though there was no one around to hear them. "He's never said anything and I can't confirm it but... Sora, I think Tidus remembers being in the Darkness."

"Tidus?"

Down the street, a dog barked, making them both jump. Sora had his hand out, fingers starting to curl as if around the Keyblade's hilt, before his brain registered the source of the sound. He took in a breath to calm his racing heart and let his hand drop, empty, back to his side. It was fine. There weren't any Heartless or Nobodies here.

Kairi was looking off in the direction of the bark. She'd stepped back in surprise at the noise, out of the shadow of the house, and the silvery moonlight turned her auburn hair almost blonde.

"Kairi," he said, to get her attention, "What makes you think that?"

"I - I'm not sure if I can put it into words," she said. She continued to stare down the street. "And it's been a while since I've seen Tidus, so maybe he's different now."

"Buuut... " Sora drawled when Kairi fell silent. He planted his fists on his hips and leaned forward to stare at her pointedly out of one eye. "Hmmm?"

She giggled. "Okay, okay," she said and became serious again, "It was like when Riku changed, before everything happened. I mean, Tidus still acted like himself. He still hung out with Wakka and Selphie and played sports. There was just... something more to him. Something in his eyes that hadn't been there before. I think he even tried to talk to me about it once, but Wakka interrupted and he never tried again."

'Like when Riku changed.' A chill of warning prickled up Sora's spine and he pulled away from Kairi.

He had never noticed a change in Riku the way Kairi had. Riku was Riku; cocky, confident, good at everything he tried, always ready for an adventure, always there when they needed him. It hadn't fully registered to Sora that his best friend wasn't the same anymore until that terrible moment on Captain Hook's ship, when Riku gave his familiar "I won" smirk as he talked coldly about the Heartless answering to him now.

What had happened to Tidus to cause him to change, too?

"Think we should ask him about it?" Sora said.

"I think we should try," Kairi said, "I want to at least let him know that he isn't alone. He's probably really afraid of being made fun of like the two people in the newspaper were."

'Tidus' and 'afraid' didn't normally go together in the same sentence. The brash, athletic teenager had always flung himself laughing -- and yelling, and boasting, and probably making some reference to blitzball -- into whatever danger or challenge came his way, and damn what anyone else thought of it. Of course, 'Riku' and 'wants to be like Sora' didn't used to go together in the same sentence, either.

Sora felt the ridiculous urge to sulk. Man, why couldn't everyone just stay the same? Destiny Islands was supposed to remain stable, safe, and familiar forever -- only the rest of the worlds were allowed to turn on their heads!

"I should get back home," Kairi said, while Sora was still bemoaning the injustice of the universe, "Before my father can start worrying again. I just wanted to make sure I got to see you."

That she'd gone out of her way to see him gave Sora a warm glow of contentment and made up for not getting to enjoy cookies with her earlier.

"I'm glad you did," he said, completely unaware of the goofy grin spreading across his face.

"We'll talk more later," Kairi promised. She hesitated and then darted forward to wrap her arms around his narrow shoulders in a quick hug. Her hair smelled of coconut. "See you tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow," he agreed. He waved her off as she ran down the street and disappeared over the rise.

He went to bed that night still grinning.

__________

Arms spread for balance, Sora carefully put one foot in front of the other along the narrow ledge of stone. On one side, a huge clock ticked away the hours, the position of its hands insisting it was ten in the morning despite the muted sunlight. On the other side was a several story drop to the cobblestones below. It would take only one misplaced step and down he'd go. Splat. No more Sora.

He wasn't afraid. If anything, the rush of the wind around his ears and the sense of being suspended over nothingness was invigorating. The hint of danger only made it more so.

He laughed and spun around, so that he faced out over the tight cluster of buildings. On the distant horizon, the perpetually setting sun wallowed in a bank of wispy clouds, casting the town in the golden half-light that was it's namesake.

"Would you like one?"

Sora glanced down.

A blond boy sat on the ledge next to him, his feet dangling over the side and a blue ice cream popsicle held out to Sora. His heavy, Organization XIII robe was open down the front, showing the baggy pants and high-collared, zippered jackets he wore underneath. In his other hand, he held a picture that Sora faintly recognized.

Roxas wiggled the popsicle invitingly when Sora didn't respond. "It's gonna melt soon if you don't decide."

"Oh! Uh, sure, thanks," Sora said. He lowered himself onto the ledge before accepting the treat, his fingers brushing Roxas's as it was passed over. "Where did you get it?"

Sora bit into the ice cream, tearing off a chunk. Sweet, salty, creamy. It filled him with a sharp, sudden longing.

"Same place I got all of this, I guess," Roxas said, making a sweeping gesture to indicate the whole of Twilight Town, "I remembered and here it was."

"Really?" Sora responded around his icy mouthful, "Man, I wish I could get ice cream just by thinking about it."

Roxas laughed, sounding surprised. Sora, though, winced, pressing his hand against the painful sting in his chest.

"Well, I suppose that's something," Roxas said, smiling, "No more paying for ice cream when I want it."

He shook his head and released the picture he'd been holding, letting it drift away into a white spec in the distance. Sora saw a brief flash of the image before it vanished; two boys and a girl posing together in front of an old, rusted gate. Hayner, Pence, and Olette. He'd seen that picture before, but there was something missing from it that he couldn't remember.

"...Sorry," Sora said, belatedly recalling what, exactly, Roxas was.

Roxas shook his head again. "Don't be sorry for me. I'm whole, I didn't fade away. And look."

Distracted from what he'd been about to say, Sora followed the direction of Roxas' pointed finger.

On the ground below, in the circular courtyard leading into the train station, a figure in red and black twisted and spun in a deadly dance against an invisible opponent. Flames accompanied him, echoing his movement like vibrant shadows. It was energetic and wild; accentuating his long, slender limbs, sleek hips, and vivid red hair. Watching the performance gave Sora a strange mix of feelings. Affection. Sadness. A discomforting heat that settled low in his stomach.

Sora swallowed and shifted. "Axel?" he asked.

"Hmm," Roxas said. He leaned forward to get a better look, bracing his arms on his thighs. He didn't grin like Sora might've; his smile was mild, a bare lifting of pale lips, but it carried the same meaning of warmth and happiness. "It's funny. I have a lot of memories of him fighting. I never realized I spent so much time just watching him when we went on missions together."

A rush of wind fanned the flames around Axel higher. They chewed their way up the side of the clock tower and then retreated, leaving no mark behind. In response to the heat, Sora's ice cream fell off its stick, dissolving into nothingness mid-air. He yelped and put out his hand to catch it, but it was too late. He only succeeded in getting a few drops on his fingers.

"Axel was a real pain," Sora said, in the middle of sucking his fingers clean, "Kidnapping Kairi like he did. But in the end... in the end, he was a good person."

Roxas turned his head to look at Sora intently.

"He wasn't," Roxas said. He continued when Sora started to protest. "He wasn't a good person, or even a person. Nobodies aren't anything."

"Hey! He was your friend!"

Roxas waved off the distinction as if it didn't matter, but Sora's stomach twisted all the same. "That doesn't have anything to do with it. He didn't have a heart, so nothing he felt or thought he felt was real."

Sora lunged to his feet, furious. After what Axel had done for them -- !

Roxas' eyes widened, his voice taking on an edge of desperation. "No, don't -- "

It was too late. As if Sora's remembrance was all it needed, the memory-Axel below let out a shout and released a devastating barrage of flames. Except there were no Dusks to kill this time and the flames burned out harmlessly, filling the air with a hazy grey miasma of smoke. Axel himself collapsed and dissolved into nothingness as easily as Sora's ice cream had.

Roxas closed his eyes.

Sora's anger drifted away, leaving behind a hollowness in his chest, the lingering ache of loss. He stared down at the now empty courtyard and took a deep breath. The world breathed with him, a pulse of wind between the buildings. The faded orange sun of Twilight Town began a reverse climb in the sky, turning the searing yellow that burned the blue skies of Sora's islands.

"You know," Sora said, his voice soft, "What he did... sacrificing himself for us...there are some people with hearts that would never do something that. So even if he didn't really have a heart, even if all his feelings were just make believe..."

Sora squatted down to be closer to Roxas. His other self was watching him again, his blue eyes a mirror that reflected the increasing light. Sora could feel his need for an answer echoing through their shared heart.

"Then what he did have was something better. The same for you."

On the edges of the world, the vivid green farmland gave way to shimmering azure waves and Roxas' face broke out into a grin. "See?" he said, "I told him you'd figure it out."

And while Sora was still trying to decipher what that meant, Roxas grabbed his arm and shoved him off the tower.

______________________________________

"Aaaaahhh!" Sora came flailing up out of the tangled bedsheets, dead certain he was seconds away from being smeared across the pavement.

"Aah! Sora!" His mother stood frozen next to his bed, his clothes from the previous day clutched to her chest. Her eyes were comically wide. "What's wrong?!"

"Mom," he gasped. For a wild moment, he wondered how the hell she ended up in Twilight Town. His mouth still tasted of sugar and salt, and he could still hear the rush of the wind. Then his brain fully registered his surroundings. He was on Destiny Islands, in his bedroom with the partially unpacked boxes stacked against the walls and the smell of seaweed and flowers drifting in through the open window. It was a dream. He hadn't really been whisked away to another world for a talk with ---

Roxas. His Nobody. What was that all about? He swore every encounter with his other half just got more baffling.

"Sweetie?" His mother continued to frozen stand in the middle of his room, tense creases at the corners of her eyes and mouth as she watched him. He'd seen enough apprehension and grief in his travels to recognize it in her face, but he didn't understand why. What was she grieving for?

And when had she started looking so old?

"Sorry!" he said, forcing out a laugh and rubbing the back of his neck. The terrifying sensation of plummeting to his death aside, there was no reason for him to wake up screaming like a girl. He should be used to mind-wrenching visions by now. "I'm fine! It was just a dream."

This only served to make the lines in her face deeper.

"Sweetie," she said again, much softer this time.

She loosened her clutch on his clothes and walked over to his bed. He helpfully scooted back against back against the headboard so she had room to sit down. She rested her small hand on his pulled up knee, the contact warm through the thin material of his sheet. She took a deep breath, seeming to brace herself.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

Sora considered the possibility. He wasn't very fond of talking about his dreams in general and the ones that were tied up with his destiny as the Chosen Wielder of the Keyblade in particular. Granted, most of that had to do with his tendency to slip off into visions while wide awake and in the middle of conversations. People -- i.e., usually Donald -- looked at him like he was a loon even without him describing what he'd seen; he didn't need to open his mouth and confirm the impression. Still, the idea of having input on the matter from someone he trusted was appealing.

As soon as he opened his mouth to explain though, he realized that it wasn't going to work out. She didn't know enough to be able to offer much insight and it would take hours to cover everything. Besides, telling the whole story was one aspect of his return he was still putting off.

"Nah," he said, "I don't think you'd be able to understand."

Her mouth twitched up in what tried and failed to be a smile.

"I could try," his mother said hopefully, "Does it... does it have anything to do with what happened while you were gone?"

"Yeees and no," Sora said. The part of his journey that he understood the least about, anyway. "I mean, it was just confusing. I don't know how I could explain it."

His mother's hand dropped from his knee and went to pick at the rivets on the tan shorts she was holding instead.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," she said, not looking up, "Do you remember Dr. Gurtz?"

On an island populated primarily by fishermen, shop owners, and teachers -- and the last two composed mostly of retired fishermen -- Dr. Gurtz served a unique capacity. He was the person who came around for a chat when something bad had happened. When a storm capsized a fishing trawler and several of the kids in Sora's elementary class lost family members, Gurtz showed up at the school with a soft voice and pockets full of butterscotch candy to talk about death. When there'd been that court case on the industrial island a few years back, Gurtz had been there to talk about what to do about strangers that made you feel uncomfortable. Tidus had even had to visit him in his little office next to the open-air fruit market for several months after his father died.

Dr. Gurtz was a strange person for his mother to bring up.

Sora folded his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees. "Yeah, what about him?"

"Well, I thought that, maybe, you should go see him," she said. She made a throw away gesture, like it was just a casual suggestion, but her shoulders were stiff. "You know, you might feel more comfortable telling him what happened than telling your father and I."

The idea that he'd be more comfortable talking to a complete stranger about his adventures than his parents made Sora laugh. At the look on her face, he covered his mouth to stem his chuckles. His mother was completely serious. It occurred to him that this was a really big deal to her.

"Sweetie, I know it must be hard to talk about," she said earnestly, "But you need to talk to someone. Especially if it's giving you nightmares."

"Whoa, whoa," he said, holding out his hands to forestall that line of thinking, "First!" He held up one finger. "I wasn't having a nightmare. It was only a weird dream -- "

"You woke up screaming, baby."

He really wished she wouldn't use that careful tone with him. It made him feel like -- like a kid. And it had been ages since anyone had talked to him like he was a kid.

" -- because I got pushed off a tower at the end, but it was totally non-scary beyond that. Second!" He held up another finger and hesitated. Okay, so maybe he was uncomfortable talking about this part with her, but not for the reasons she seemed to be thinking. "Like I told you before, I was traveling around to different worlds and saving them. I know that doesn't make any sense yet, but could you just trust me for now?"

His mother sighed and looked pained.

"It's not that I don't trust you," she said, making it perfectly clear that it was, "But all the top scientists are certain there is nothing out there. Dozens of sailing expeditions have tried to prove otherwise and all of them just end up right back here."

Sora was reminded of his, Riku, and Kairi's conviction that they could reach other worlds just by setting out on the ocean. Of course, why would they think differently? The five landmasses and variety of islets, atolls, and barrier reefs that made up Destiny Islands were all accessible by water, so it only made sense that they thought they could reach the rest of the universe the same way. They hadn't known to look up at the stars.

"It's all just legends, sweetie," his mother continued, "I mean, how did you know it was another world?" Her voice became that much gentler, like she was going to tell him that Santa wasn't real. (A falsehood he so needed to remember to rub Riku's face later.) "Maybe whoever told you that was lying."

"Aargh, mom." Frustration and annoyance churned in Sora's stomach. He raked both hands through his hair, yanking out several strands in the process when his fingers got caught on knots. What did she think? That someone had hid him away in the Haunted House on the big shopping island and convinced him it was Halloween Town?

He wished suddenly that Jiminy had left a copy of his journal behind. The only physical proof he had of his quest -- until the King or Donald and Goofy came back with the gummi ship, that is -- was the Keyblade and a collection of odds and ends. The charms that clipped to his Keyblade, the munny pouch with the blue crystal, the photograph of Roxas and them from Twilight Town, his now out-dated Hallow Bastion Restoration Committee Membership card, his magic resistant jewelry, and a few crystal and metal shards he'd forgotten to either give to a Moogle or stash in the gummi ship's storage units. Those would have to do.

"Look," Sora said, lifting his head and managing a cheery smile, "Lets get dad and I'll show you both, okay?" He'd put it off long enough.

________________________

To be continued…