You know, I find it amazing that despite all of the one-shots I have for this, I haven't updated.
Seriously, my mind amazed me... for being so stupid.
Anyway, Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and everything else is not mine but the idea is, more or less.
Now, I'd like to apologize for not updating my fics, yadda yadda yadda... and to say that this chapter was NOT going to be the ninth one.
But hey, I like these guys and have decided to put the bad guys' cameo later.
So enjoy, whoever's reading this!
Chapter Nine: Starry Starry Night
The two teenagers step silently into the darkened room, treading softly on the shadows of the empty cottage. All around them, the images of a once happy life were present in the forms of weathered pictures in equally as old picture frames. The girl picks one of them up, even as the boy moves on ahead of her, motioning for the girl to stay in the living room. She nods to his unspoken order, admiring the picture in the frame quietly.
A soft smile appears on her face as she traces the image of a little boy standing beside a pier with two other little kids at his side. All three of them were covered in sand, looked like they were completely soaked and each had variations of the same happy smile on their faces. The oldest one, a little boy with light silvery hair wearing bright yellow, was smirking proudly as he held up a large fish up to the camera, obviously happy with the catch of the day. The other little boy, a brunet with spiky hair, grinned up with a much smaller, but equally as coveted, fish in his hand. The little girl had nothing in her hands except for a bright red starfish, which she was playfully sticking onto her friend's cheek, making the younger boy laugh that much harder. They all looked radiantly happy, content with the simple pleasures of childhood and of each other's company.
They had been happy, hadn't they? Once upon a time…
"GODDAMN IT!" A savage snarl suddenly rips through the silence, making the girl jump and hold the picture frame to the front of her pink dress in surprise. Her solemn violet-blue eyes immediately flicker to her silver-haired companion. The boy's blue-green eyes were full of anger, his entire body shaking violently as he restrains himself from moving. It looked as if it was taking an extreme effort to keep himself so still, an obvious by-product of the intense training that he had been through with their teachers.
"What is it?" The girl asks softly, suddenly alert to her surroundings. As she holds her hand out to her side, a small ball of crimson flame suddenly appears in her hands, slowly trickling down the girl's slender fingers as she looks around cautiously. Where the flames drip onto the wooden floor, a very tiny but very hot fire starts before it's suddenly snuffed out by the girl's sheer control over her ability. Even when the flames burn a harsh shade of cobalt, they didn't seem to hurt her. In fact, her skin wasn't even the least bit singed.
"They're gone!" The boy hisses back, looking absolutely furious. The girl immediately relaxes, mentally causes the flames in her palm to go out before walking over to him, placing a gentle and soothing hand on his shoulder. The boy's face turns a shade or two redder but his sorrow was still inconsolable. It had been obvious that he had been waiting to see someone, someone for the first time in years, but not being able to was almost too much to bear. The girl hums softly to him, stroking his shoulder in a friendly and calming way. But the boy remains still, silent in his misery.
After a few minutes of this treatment, the girl murmurs: "We knew they'd be gone, Riku. That's why we registered at the Academy a few months ago, remember?" The boy gives her a slow nod before collapsing onto the ancient couch, older than he was and made to look even older due to the abuse of one happy, go lucky family. The girl continues: "And well, we'll be able to see him at school. The Master told us that Sora and Ventus were registered yesterday while we were off on a mission-"
"But he's supposed to be here, Kairi! Always! This is where he's supposed to be!" A choked voice comes out of the boy's lips as the girl steps back a step in surprise, not expecting to see her valiant friend in tears. He hides his face in his palms, shaking his head slowly. When he finally lifts his head from his hands, the girl could see the puffy red swelling around his eyes that he always got from crying.
"This is where Sora's supposed to be," He continues in a calmer voice, though he had began to tremble a little from the force of the memories that he was reliving while sitting in the house of his beloved friend, "This is where Sora always sat and where we would always meet before going off to play. This is where Mrs. Minami always put out that huge plate of cookies and ice cream and brownies and all that other junk food that she packed into us… I knew Mrs. M more than I knew my own mom. I loved her like I should have loved my mom. And I loved Sora more like a brother. He was my own little goofball of a brother." The boy smiles sadly as he looks up at the room, the phantasms of his memories moving around the room in the shape of a little boy in red shorts and the image of a woman with a loving smile, each one saying his name or waving or scolding him for something he had done wrong, depending on the memory.
In unison, the pair says: "But now they're gone."
With these words, a final sense of solemnity seems to disperse itself around the room, as if it was the last nail in a coffin, burying the happy memories forever.
The boy winces as if feeling physical pain at this, pain at knowing that his best friend would most likely never come back to this cottage, never return home. It was a horrible feeling, knowing that a person that should always be there for you disappeared completely from where they were supposed to be. It was like the world had suddenly gone slightly off-kilter, making everything that once seemed right wrong and everything that had been wrong had been made strangely and frighteningly right. It was a terrifying feeling and the boy only wanted his world to be put right back to the way it had been before.
But there was no way for that to happen anymore.
The boy's right hand clenches into a fist on top of his knee as he snatches a picture off of a small end table and shoves it into his pocket, glaring at the girl as if daring her to say anything. She just shakes her head before pocketing the small picture she had been looking at before and holding her hand out to him. The boy gives her a solemn glare from the couch, not understanding her gesture.
"Let's not go yet, Riku. I think we should bring Sora something from home. So he won't be as homesick as you are." She says with a gentle smile on her face, smiling that much more broadly when her friend nods. He gets up, brushes his navy pants off before motioning over to a wide open door, open to what looked like a child's bedroom.
Inside, they could see a huge collection of dirty clothes and plenty of other miscellaneous junk littering the floor. A chuckle and a giggle sound out from the room as they look into Sora's room, each having at least one happy memory - whether beating the pants off of the hyper brunet's in a challenging video game after a grueling training session or simply lying in the bed with a snoring ten year old, happily poking him and getting a funny reaction from him - of that room.
"I think I already know just what to bring, Kairi." The boy says with a slightly mischievous smile, which would have looked sweet on their friend's face but looked absolutely devilish on the solemn teenager. The girl nods happily, having a fairly good idea of what he might take.
After he had wrapped the present up in a plastic bag he had "salvaged" from the kitchen, there was nothing more for the teens to do but to leave the island cottage. Shutting the door silently behind them, the pair simply walks out, walking idly up the main street where the small house was located.
The only noise in the silent night was the rustling of the plastic bag as it bounced ceaselessly against his thigh and the almost imperceptible footsteps of the two kids. With solemn but nostalgic eyes, they observed the peaceful island night, kicking up sand with every silent step. Their hands remained clasped, held as glances were reluctantly passed between them, each one containing yet another memory and story.
They knew that in just over an hour, they would be awash in bright sunshine, the glow of another world and maybe… just maybe… their beloved friend would be there with them, too.
All they could hope was to get there in time.