Journeys
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Kingdom Hearts series. Except for Nami, since she is my OC.
Author's Note: I kind of have a love hate relationship with this chapter. Some parts I love, some parts I don't. I may rewrite some parts of this. Hope you enjoy! Please comment. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Summary: My name is Nami. I'm nineteen years old and a Keyblade Bearer. It wasn't always this way. Four years ago, I couldn't have even told you what a keyblade was. That was before my life was changed completely.
It started with a boy and ended – no, it hasn't ended yet. Because this is my story, and it won't end until I let it. It won't end until I find the boy who started it all.
Chapter Two: Destiny Islands
"You're going to surprise him so much!" Yuna said happily.
"I can't wait to see the look on his face!" Rikku added.
Paine just groaned, and Nami giggled to herself. Yuna and Rikku had talked amongst themselves for the majority of the trip, with Paine interjecting random sarcastic comments every once in a while. Nami had listened quietly, thinking about what she would say to Riku when she arrived. She knew that Yuna was right; Riku would be surprised. Nami could only hope that Riku would be happy as well as surprised.
"Well, we're here," Paine said, turning to Nami. Nami smiled at Paine. She rather liked the no-nonsense pixie. It was nice to have someone else with her who wasn't getting excited over nothing.
"Here goes nothing, I guess," Nami replied nervously, and stepped off the Gummi Ship. Looking at her surroundings, she couldn't help but smile. The world they had landed on was sunny, and she could feel the soft sand beneath her shoes. Kneeling down, she grasped a handful and let the sand slip between her fingers. She looked out across the bright blue water, and then back down the beach. "It's just like he said it would be," she muttered.
"Hey Nami, we're going to go this way," Yuna said, hovering in front of Nami's face. "But I think you'll want to check out Riku's island first. It's over that way. Plus, you two saps need some alone time." Yuna chuckled as Nami's face flushed, then flew off with Rikku.
"You know," Paine said to Nami, "they're a bit hyper sometimes, but they are right. He did miss you." With those words, the pixie followed her friends down the beach.
Nami smiled slightly. Somehow Paine had eased her worry slightly. Taking a deep breath, Nami started her walk down the beach. Walking into a small worn down shack, she found stairs, which led up to the rickety bridge leading to the island that Yuna had said was his. She couldn't bring herself to look across to the island to see if he was there, so Nami decided to focus on crossing the bridge first. Though it seemed sturdy enough to support her, she also wondered how long it had been there. Nami bit her lip as she crossed, trying not to think about what would happen if she fell – although it would surely involve getting her only pair of clothes soaked. When her feet finally touched sand on the other side, she heaved a sigh of relief and looked up to find a girl with shoulder length auburn hair looking at her with curious blue eyes.
"Hello," the girl said. "I don't believe we've met."
Nami thought quickly about what to say. For some reason, this girl seemed familiar, but she couldn't place her. "Umm, yeah. My name's Nami. Sorry for intruding."
The girl in front of her laughed. "Oh, it's no intrusion at all. It gets lonely around here without the boys. It's nice to have some company. My name is Kairi."
"Kairi… I recognize your name. You're friends with Riku, aren't you?" Nami asked, finally realizing why the girl had seemed familiar. Riku had always talked about his two best friends.
"Yes, that's me. Do you know Riku? If you're looking for him, I'm afraid he's away right now. Typical Riku and Sora. They go off and save the worlds and I'm stuck on this world," Kairi said, but then noticed how Nami's face fell. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, it's nothing…" Nami said softly, trying to stop her tears from falling. She had waited so long for this day, and now it wouldn't happen.
"But surely-" Kairi began to say, then stopped. "Wait. Nami. I know that name too. You… you couldn't be? You're the one Riku met on that other world! And you've come to find him?"
Nami merely sighed in response before walking over to a sloped tree that could be used perfectly as a seat and leaned up against it. Kairi followed her. "I don't know what to say. Part of me is happy that you're here, and part of me feels awful for you."
"It's fine. It might be better this way, you know?" Nami replied. "Now there's no chance for me to get hurt."
"How do you mean?" Kairi asked, looking at Nami curiously.
"You know, he can't reject me this way. So maybe it's better this way."
The look Kairi gave Nami then was one of astonishment and confusion. "What are you talking about? He's been a horrible mope ever since he left you back on that world. Sora and I have been trying to get him out of the dumps for months, but he's refused to go on every blind date we've set up for him. You coming back in his life would be a miraculous situation, and he would have to be an idiot to tell you to leave."
Nami looked up. "Everyone seems to say that."
"Maybe you should start listening to everyone then, because it's true. Sometimes I only think he went on this journey with Sora in order to see if he could find a way back to you."
"Maybe you're right. But is it really all that foolish of me to worry anyway? It's been almost two years. I'm not the same girl he knew back then. I've changed."
"Everyone changes eventually. But we all know that. It's looking beyond the change of time and seeing the person within that really matters. I've never seen a purer form of love than the kind Riku has for you and that says a lot, considering how in love Sora is with me and I am with him. But for Riku, you're the only girl he could ever think of being with. He thought of himself as hopeless, but somehow you managed to convince him he could redeem himself. I don't know how you did it, but even I have been meaning to thank you for that," Kairi said.
"But it's not that way at all," Nami said, and Kairi looked at her with surprise. "I never saved him, he saved me. When my darkness was at its worst, he fixed me. I don't deserve someone as loving as him."
"Hmm. Well, you're here, aren't you? So something's pulled you here. I think you need to try to find him." Kairi said, grinning. "So, what do you say Nami? Want to go on adventure?"
"I mean… I wouldn't know where to start," Nami stuttered, looking at Kairi with surprised.
"Well, I never said you would be going alone!" Kairi laughed.
Nami looked at Kairi, surprise present on her face. "You mean… you would go with me?" she asked.
Kairi smiled brightly. "Who says that the boys should get to have all of the fun? I think that it's about time they realized that they can't just keep leaving us behind. But wait… you're going to need a weapon. Can you wield a Keyblade?"
"I've never tried before… it's not a weapon on my homeworld," Nami answered, looking at her feet.
"That's no problem at all; I'm sure I can teach you. It can't be that hard, right? After all, even Sora has one," Kairi said, giggling.
"I guess so," Nami said after a moment, a smile spreading over her face. "It wouldn't be a good thing if I went out there and faced our enemies with no weapon."
"That's right!" Kairi said. "But we should find you someplace to stay until we leave. I don't really have any family here, so I live alone. So you could stay with me if you wanted?" Kairi looked hopeful as she trailed off, and Nami realized that she wasn't the only one who had been left behind by someone she loved.
"Sure, why not?" Nami replied. "I would love to stay with you." She smiled at Kairi, and her new friend smiled back.
"Then come on, this way!" Kairi grabbed Nami's hand and started to pull her off of the island.
"Wait, I came with some pixies. I should let them know where I'm staying," Nami said, remembering how she had arrived in the first place.
Kairi stood still for a moment, thinking, and then a smile spread across her face. "Oh, you must be talking about Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. No problem, I know exactly where to find them."
"You do?" Nami asked, and then reminded herself that it would make sense that Kairi would know the pixies.
"Yeah, you see, Yuna developed a little crush a couple of visits ago. So the only place where they could possibly be going is to the new blitzball stadium!"
"What's blitzball?" It sounded like a sport, but Nami had never heard of such a thing.
"It's a sport most of the guys around here play. I personally find it kind of boring, and Riku and Sora were never very interested in it either. They were more interested in finding other worlds when they were here, and after they left, they didn't really come back much. That's probably why Riku never told you about it," Kairi answered.
"Probably," Nami said, and then followed the girl with auburn hair off the island. They headed to the other side of the island, where a fairly new stadium that appeared fairly new was located. And sure enough, three pixies were hovering in the air outside the stadium. Kairi grinned and waved.
"Yuna, Rikku, Paine!" she called out, and the three pixies looked towards Kairi and Nami. After a moment of whispering between themselves, they flew over to the two girls.
"Hi Kairi, Nami. Where's Riku?" Yuna asked, tucking her hands behind her back and hovering before them.
"He left with Sora a couple of days ago. Pretty much right after you left to go visit some other worlds for a while. But I ran into Nami here, and we decided that we're going to go looking for those two. But we have to prepare for the journey, right? So Nami's going to stay with me until we leave. Don't worry, she's in good hands," Kairi answered, wrapping an arm around Nami's shoulder. "We're already friends."
Nami was only slightly surprised by the girl's words. It seemed odd to her to make friends so quickly, but Riku had told her that was how his friends were. They were accepting of everyone and pure-hearted. Nami had wondered if such wonderful people could really exist, but now she knew for sure. Tears came to her eyes as she realized this, but she quickly blinked them away. She had to focus on the task ahead, not the past now. She nodded, and spoke. "Yes, I'll be staying with Kairi. Thank you for bring me here, Yuna, Rikku, Paine."
The three pixies nodded and agreed to the arrangement. They said their farewells, and the pixies went back to spying on the players inside the stadium. But as Nami and Kairi began to walk away, Paine rushed back over to them. "I just talked this over with the girls," she said calmly. "I'm coming with you guys."
"Why?" Nami asked, surprised at the sudden offer.
Paine shrugged. "All they ever talk about is boys. Ever since Yuna got a crush on that blitzball boy Tidus, he's all she can talk about. And Rikku just encourages the behavior."
Nami recognized the name; it was one of the boys Riku had grown up with. Riku and Tidus had never been extremely close, but Nami knew they had sparred as children, and played together a lot of the time. "Isn't it a bit odd, with you being pixies and him being human?" She was genuinely confused about this part.
"Well, yeah," Paine answered. "But hey, it's her right to like him, I guess. Maybe someday they'll figure something out. Like, how to turn Yuna human or something."
Kairi smiled. "I'm sure everything will work out for the best," she said. "And Paine? We're glad to have you with us."
The next morning, Nami woke up in an unfamiliar room. The curtains, drifting lazily in the breeze, were a pale pink, and her comforter had pink flowers on it. This was most definitely not her room. She hadn't had pink in her room since she was ten years old.
She sat up in the bed, and then she remembered the events of the day before. She had come back to Kairi's house after Paine joined them, had dinner, and then promptly went to bed. Nami had been exhausted from her long day, and so she hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Kairi and Paine about plans yet. So she was reasonably surprised when she left her room and found clothes scattered on the floor and in some suitcases.
As she looked over the mess in front of her, Kairi came out of the room Nami remembered to be the kitchen with two mugs of tea in hand. "Good morning, sleepyhead. Paine is out with Yuna and Rikku for the morning, saying goodbye. Here," she said, handing Nami one of the mugs. "I started to pack up so we can get going soon. I don't know about you, but I prefer to have a selection of at least a few different outfits when I travel, unlike the boys. We can leave the suitcases on the ship."
Nami took the mug, and nodded. "Good idea," she said. "But the clothes Yuffie let me are the only ones I have."
Kairi grinned. "I thought about that. So I got up early this morning and went shopping. Those are yours. I already knew Yuffie's clothes fit you, and since she visited once and we went shopping, I knew her size," the auburn-haired girl said, pointing to a plastic bag sitting on the floor by the suitcase.
Nami stared at the bag for a moment, surprised at the kind gesture and opened it. In it were different clothes similar to the style of Kairi's (which Nami supposed was the popular style on the islands), but in blue, green, and purple rather than just pink. "Thank you so much," she said, looking at her new friend. "I mean, you didn't have to –"
"It was nothing. I just thought, if I were on a strange world with no clothes, I would hope to meet a person nice enough to take care of me," Kairi shrugged off the girl's protests. "Now let's get some food in you. You must have been very tired, because it's nearly noon. Then you can fill me in on some things while we pack."
Nami's heart sank slightly. She didn't want to talk about Riku anymore; that only made her anxious. She hoped that Kairi would respect her wishes when the time came, and only ask simple questions. She knew that this was unlikely though. To an extent, Nami understood that Kairi need to know some details. But Nami didn't know if she was ready to share yet, regardless of what the girl already knew and how friendly she was.
After eating, the girls continued to pack. The two were silent for a few moments, and Nami grew more nervous with every second about what the girl would ask. When Kairi finally spoke up, she surprised Nami yet again with her intuition.
"Now, I know you probably don't want to talk about a lot of things with a complete stranger, but I would like to know a few just basic things about you. Like your age?" Kairi asked, her blue eyes glancing over from the suitcase to look at Nami.
"I'm nineteen," Nami answered.
"Same age as me. Any family?"
"None to speak of."
"Then who do you live with back home?"
"I stay by myself, like you. At least, most of the time. Some of my friends from school come to visit at times." She thought back to her school days, and how happy they had been. She hadn't had a care in the world back then. She was startled from her memories when Kairi spoke up again a moment later.
"That must be very lonely." Kairi wasn't looking at Nami now, but Nami knew that Kairi was thinking of all the times she had been left behind by Sora and Riku. Suddenly, she felt bad for ever having wanted to keep Riku from returning here to stay by his friends' sides. And in the next moment, before she knew what she was doing, she had reached out and wrapped her arms around Kairi, filled with sympathy for the girl.
She hadn't hugged anyone since Riku had left, and she had forgotten what it felt like. She had forgotten that physical contact could mean the world, and how it could heal even the loneliest heart. This time, when the tears came, she couldn't stop herself. She let them flow. Somehow, in less than a day, this girl had managed to break down Nami's defenses and become her friend. Nami's first friend in a long time.
"Nami…" Kairi said gently, "why are you crying?"
Nami smiled through her tears at her new friend. "I'm just so happy that I met you. I don't really know how to explain it, but I haven't had a real friend in a long time.
Kairi smiled back at the crying girl, and returned the embrace. "Well," she said, "I'll always be here, no matter what. And I know Sora will be your friend too. And the others on the island when we return with the boys. Don't forget everyone from Radiant Gardens. We all care so much for you already. Riku loves you, so we know you must be a good person. It's okay if it takes some time, but I can promise I'll be here whenever you need to talk."
Nami wiped her eyes and nodded. "Thanks. I'll definitely come to you," she replied, and then began to focus on packing so she could finish by the time Paine returned. With the addition of some food and essentials, Nami found herself saying goodbye to the islands and taking a step forward to deciding her own future – hers and Riku's.