Chapter 2: Letters
Your POV--ZOMFG YAY! :D
"Atatakai suna no ue wo arukidasu yo, kanashii shirase no todokanai umibe e," Utada sings from your Ipod. You gently tuck a lock of your almost-butt-length golden hair behind your ear. "Kimi ga inakutemo taiyou ga noboru to, atarashii ichinichi no hajimari. Kyou eranda amidakuji no sen ga, doko ni tsuzuku ka wa wakaranai. Namakemono no watashi ga mainichi hataraku riyuu."
Why are you listening to this song when it's so sad?
*Because, right now, it's my life story,* you tell yourself.
"Aa, ryoute ni sora wo mune ni arashi wo. Aa, kimi ni owakare wo. Aa, kono umibe ni nokosarete itano wa, itsu mo oki tegami. Aa, yume no naka demo, denwa koshi demo, aa, koe wo kikitai yo. Aa, kotoba kawasu no ga nigate na kimi wa itsumo oki tegami. Isogashii to renraku tama ni wasurechau kedo, dare ni datte ichi nido wa aru koto. Kyou hanashita toshi ue no hito wa hitori demo daijoubu da to iu. Ibuteshige na watashi wa mada kangaeteru tochuu.
"Aa, hana ni namae wo hoshi ni negai wo. Aa, watashi ni anata wo. Aa, kono madobe ni kazararete itano wa itsumo oki tegami. Aa, sukoshi dakedemo shatsu no ue demo. Aa, kimi ni furetai yo. Aa, oboete iru saigo no ichigyou wa kanarazu kaeru yo. Aa, yasuragu basho wo yume ni tsuzuki wo. Aa, kimi ni okaeri wo. Aa, kono sekai no dokoka kara watashi mo okuri tsuzukeru yo. Aa, yume no naka demo denwa goshi demo. Aa, koe wo kikitai yo. Aa, kotoba kawasu no ga nigate nara kondo kyuu ni inakunaru toki wa nanimo iranai yo.
"Tell me that you'll never ever leave me, then you go ahead and leave me; what the hell is going on? Tell me that you really really love me, then you go ahead and leave me; how the hell do I go on?"
Sighing, you turn your Ipod off. The last lines echo in your head. As if the song could be more true.
Two months after getting home was when it started. That you could understand. King Mickey wanted to talk to Sora about what all had happened. Completely understandable; he IS the Keyblade Master, after all.
Then, three weeks later, he got another call over there. Okay, maybe it had to do with Donald and Goofy, considering the previous time he went they weren't there. Okay, understandable. They're his best friends besides you, Riku, and Kairi. You'd do the same. Sure, he could've taken you along, but they haven't seen him in forever, so it's completely fine.
You knew something was wrong when he stepped off the ship getting home from that trip.
FLASHBACK START
You and Nami stood out by the little waterfall, feeling the cool mist hit your almost bare backs. It was so warm...and it was supposed to be early spring by your calendar year!!
"I miss Vermont now," Nami joked, referring to the cool temperatures.
"At least the air's not polluted," you teased back, referring to Ohio's constant traffic flow around Cincy.
She nodded, closing her eyes briefly. "...I thought you said he was coming back today."
"That's what he told me," you replied, looking up at the sky. The sun instantly blinded you. Nooo, wait! "And he was right!"
You jumped to your feet and sprinted out onto the hot sand, ignoring the burning in your feet as the familiar ship landed in shallow water.
As soon as Sora stepped out into the ankle deep water, you tackle-hugged him tightly.
"Welcome back!" you greeted cheerfully.
"Hey, Kira," he said, hugging you slightly. You looked up at him, your smile slowly fading. He looked a little concerned.
"What's wrong?" you asked, stepping back.
"Huh? Nothing," he said. "I'm just tired, that's all."
"Were you partying or something?" you teased.
"No, it's not like that," he said, laughing quietly. "C'mon, let's go inside. It's practically a hundred degrees out here."
"I know. It's pretty bad."
FLASHBACK END
You never found what happened that particular day, but whatever it was, it meant he would be going back.
And he has been. Again and again.
You miss him. He's not himself. And what really bugs you is the fact that you don't know why. And it's not like you haven't asked him. You been hounding him for the past few months, and he refuses to tell you. You've been in so many arguments about it, and every time, he's won them. Every single one.
Six months ago, things were perfect. Did he not think so?
You want to set up a camera in that spiky hair of his and find out, but then he'd be mad about being sneaky.
"Hey, Kira!"
You turn your head slightly to see Kairi and Tidus running out towards you.
"Do you wanna play volleyball with us? It's gonna be me, Tidus, and Riku, so we need another person," Kairi says, grinning.
"Okay, sure," you say without a second thought. Getting to your feet, you follow them and see Riku come out. He doesn't get out much like he used to. (:P) He looks as sleepy-headed as ever.
"Are you awake enough, Riku?" you ask, smiling.
"Yeah," he says, nodding slowly. "Are you happy enough?"
You glare at him, then turn to Kairi. "Give me the ball."
She gladly hands it over, and then laughs as you hit Riku in the face with it.
"I am now," you say, grinning. "You serve first."
Riku slowly rubs his head, then picks up the ball. With surprisingly quick movement, he runs over with Tidus to one side of the net. You and Kairi pace around slightly, waiting for the serve.
The ball flies up in the air and over the net. "Got it!" you shout, bumping it backwards over your head. If it weren't for these often-played games of volleyball, you'd have nothing to put your anger into.
You get even more angry when you see Sora cross the beach over to the ship, carrying stuff with him. Spiking the ball hard, you watch as Tidus runs out of the way, avoiding the pain it would've caused.
"Geez, you're scary to play with when you get angry," he says, laughing. You smile a little. Tidus and Kairi are normal. Thank the higher power. You never used to really like Kairi, but if it weren't for her, you'd be insane.
"That's why she's on my team," Kairi says, hi-fiving you as you grin sincerely.
"At least it's not Selphie," Riku says. Everyone laughs. You notice out of the corner of your narrow eyes that Sora is watching you. Good. You hope he feels bad!
"That was hysterical," Tidus says. "Bad karma, right there."
"Shut up," he replies, throwing the ball over to you. "Serve and let us get on with our lives."
You nod, smiling, and throw the ball up in the air.
"Kira?"
You almost falter, but still manage to serve the ball over.
"What?" you ask Sora as he makes his way over to your game.
"Well, I'll wait...until you're done...I guess," he says quietly.
Truthfully, you feel a little bad for being mad at him, but he deserves it! He's abandoning you every other week! It's not fair! So you refuse to look at his puppy dog, blue eyes pleading with you to look at him. Hit after hit comes back at you and Kairi.
"Kira, c'mon," Sora says a little louder.
By chance, the ball comes to you, and you spike it as hard as you can, right into Sora's face, who had walked out onto the "court". He stumbles back and falls into the sand. Everyone laughs but you and Sora. You just stare each other down. You, your face beaded with sweat and sand, your lips pursed, your eyes narrowed more than usual, and him, his face with the imprint of the blitzball on it, his nose bright red and bleeding, his eyes narrowed also.
"What?" you finally say angrily.
"..." He stands up, not bothering to wipe the blood draining from his red nose. "Never mind." He walks away, his fists clenched.
Breathing hard, you stare at him, not sure whether to feel bad or be pissed. You're kind of both. Kairi's, Tidus's, and Riku's eyes are boring into you, confused. Finally Tidus picks up the ball and looks at it.
"It has blood on it," he states, a small smirk on his face. "Wakka would be proud."
You finally remove your gaze from Sora to look at Tidus. You want to say something, but the only thing you can do is fall into the sand. Kairi rushes over to you, hugging you.
"We should stop," she says firmly. Riku nods, Tidus looks at the ball, then nods, too. The two of them walk away as Kairi lifts you to your feet.
"I'm...turning into a monster," you say quietly, now ashamed of yourself.
"He deserves it," she reminds you, glaring after him. "I would've done worse, trust me."
You start to cry. "I don't want to..." The words don't want to leave the safety of your mind. Instead, you're both distracted by the gummi ship starting up. You immediately turn your back to it and run off, leaving Kairi alone to watch the ship soar out of sight. Over your shoulder, you watch as she flips him the bird angrily. You don't want to laugh, but it's like she said, he deserves it.
Nami's POV
You pull your black hair off of your sweating neck and into a messy bun. It's soooo hot! Summer here sucks bigtime. You don't feel like doing ANYTHING. Not even something like listening to music or reading a book. Just nothing.
Sighing, you fall back on your bed, limbs stretched out. It doesn't help the heat that your mind is working overtime on what to do in several situations. The most recent would be the story you heard from Kairi about Kira and Sora. On the one hand, he definitely deserves it, but on the other, that was really, really harsh and mean. Kira has become someone else over the past few months, someone angry and stressed. You know whenever she smiles, mostly it's fake, because the internal battle she's struggling with is tearing her apart day by day.
The other situation is Roxas. After Kira took Sora to her house on Earth, Roxas overheard them one night talking about it. He asked you about it, of course, and you told him you couldn't tell him as easily as Kira told Sora. He asked why. So you touched on how you haven't seen your parents since the fateful day you left Earth for good. He seems to understand, but you know he still wants the whole truth. Parents or not.
You sigh again, wiping the sweat off your forehead with your forearm. The worst thing you have to deal with, though, is the reoccuring dream you've been having almost every night. Three soldiers, standing on a cliffside, a dark man and a shadow figure of himself approach them...war breaks out... The three of them...seem so familiar. One of them is a girl with periwinkle hair and blue eyes. Her hair is short, just like her height. There's also a young man, dark brown hair, blue eyes. He's the most powerful of the three, and yet the most mysterious. The third is a young boy, probably 15 judging by his height and stance. He and the girl appear to be friends. You have yet to see his face. Keyblades whirl around the scene. A couple times, you've sworn you've seen Mickey there, too.
You haven't told anybody about it yet. You're debating whether to tell Roxas or Kira. It depends on this third soldier. Seeing his face is what you want to know. One thing is for sure, though. Mickey knows about this. You can't help but suspect that's why Sora's gone so much. You'd be willing to bet he's learning all about this.
"Nami?"
You lift your head to see Kira standing in the doorway, panting.
"I did it again," she says, her cheeks flushed.
"What did you do this time?" you ask. You know what she means. A couple times she's lost control of herself and lashed out physically against Sora. The first time she just slapped him. The second time she shoved him off the small island's bridge, into the sand. That...was...hysterical...but mean.
"I...I-I threw a blitzball at his face," she stammers, closing the door.
"You threw it at him?!" you ask, looking shocked, even though you know the story.
"Well...I...actually, I, um, spiked it...at his face...and...um...gave him a nosebleed."
You look at her, internally wanting to shake your head. But she obviously doesn't need anyone else to tell her how crazy she's acting.
"He left already," she adds, answering the question that had just popped into your head.
"Well...is he okay?" you ask, sitting upright.
"I-I think so." Kira starts to cry. "I hate myself," she admits, clenching her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. "I just...lose control and..."
"Kira..."
"I didn't mean to!"
"Hey!" you say sharply, wanting to catch her attention. She timidly looks up at you. "You know what you need to do when he gets back, right?"
She nods, sniffing.
"When does he get back?"
"Ummm...he didn't say," she says quietly, a funny look on her face.
"...C'mon, let's go do something," you say, pushing her by the shoulders out of your room. "You need to get your mind off of him."
Sora's POV
"Sora, what's wrong with your nose?" King Mickey asks you kindly. You touch it and wince, feeling the sting.
"...Kira," is all you can manage to say. What else can you say? You hate her for it, but you deserved it! What she doesn't understand is that you hate this whole leaving thing, too!
"Is it broken? What happened?"
"She hit me in the face with a blitzball," you say, frowning.
"Golly! Why'd she go and do that for?"
"...Your Majesty, look." You run over to face the King's front while you trot backwards for a while. "I hate this. I really do. Kira does, too. She doesn't understand why I can't tell her anything, and it's killing us. Why can't I tell her? Maybe she could help! She wouldn't mind! Please, Your Majesty-"
"Sora, I know things are hard for you right now," King Mickey says sadly. "But I don't want you telling anybody right now, okay? Not until I say it's good to go. We still don't know enough yet."
"Your Majesty, it isn't fair!"
"You know just as well as I do that Kira is too delicate to-"
"DELICATE?! SHE FREAKING HIT ME IN THE FACE WITH A BLITZBALL FOR PETE'S SAKE!"
King Mickey gives you a stern look.
"No, Sora. You know what I mean." You sigh angrily. "Would it cheer you up at all if I told you you don't have to do any physical work today?"
"Huh?"
"We're going to travel a bit. I want to observe from a far away point whether or not this is the place. It's been so many years, I'm not positive. But with the information and evidence I've shown you, I think we've got it."
"Does it mean I'm closer to getting my friends the truth, then?"
When Mickey nods, you nod in return.
"Okay, then let's do this."
