Sora in the Mangroves

The sky was pink when Sora awoke that morning. He sat up in bed and stared out the window blearily, not used to being awake this early. Actually, he wasn't used to having a set state of time to reference anymore. When travelling between worlds time varied greatly and he never bothered to monitor his sleep-wake cycles. It was especially difficult in worlds that were eternally set in some suspended time state of being either eternally daytime or eternally night-time (or somewhere in between). There was no one who would bother to enforce it anyway. Waking up with the sun was strange nowadays.

The past few days had also felt strange. He'd gone to the play island for at least a little while every day. Kairi and Riku were always there but Tidus, Wakka and Selphie weren't so consistent. It was as if he'd stepped into a weird time warp that took him back to the days before the storm. He went out to play and his mother sewed. Breakfast, lunch and dinner happened at around the same time every day. Almost nothing had changed. Yet he felt as though something should have changed, since he'd changed a lot, he was sure of it. His life had slipped back into a routinely normalcy that he'd forgotten he ever had.

He wasn't tired enough to snooze an extra couple of hours so he got up and shuffled out of his room to see if anyone else was awake. As he passed Sunni's door he glanced at it curiously. Initially he didn't remember a lot about her but the more he saw her, the clearer his memories became. The first ones to come back to him were the warm ones that he wanted to remember. Sunni was a sweet girl, if a little shy, who cuddled and snuggled affectionately while the family was alone. Memories of the three of them curled up on the sofa on an unusually cold night, swinging on a hammock with a little girl on his lap and building elaborate (albeit childishly amateurish) sandcastles on the beach with shells, twigs and leaves made his heart leap. But darker memories swirled into the mix of a girl who was snappy and standoffish, especially towards his friends. Most especially towards Kairi. He wanted to pull them back but they were usually too vivid: Sunni shutting a door sharply in his face when he invited her to play on the island, slumping huffily in a rowboat while she waited for Sora to take her home and being nowhere to be found when he asked her to wait for him on school mornings. He had no idea which one was the real Sunni.

Her door was closed and all was quiet behind it, so he continued downstairs. Briefly, he recalled that the sewing machine had been running until very late last night. When he got to the ground floor he noted with amusement that his mother's workspace looked like a cyclone had blown through. There were patterns and rags on the floor, chalk and scissors too. Pins and pin cushions were all over the place and the pieces of a few new patterns were taped to the window frame. A couple of outfits were hanging on a clothing rack all to themselves. They were short, swanky and shimmery; either they were for a performance or someone was just getting a very special gift. His mother must have pulled an all-nighter.

As he began to make his way to the back door he briefly wondered if that meant she was also in bed. His feet automatically took him outside. The morning air was cool and as salty as always. The sound of the waves was a lonely one as the creatures of the islands patiently waited for the sun to creep over the horizon properly, even if they were already up. Then there was a tiny burst of light on the horizon as a sliver of the sun's disc sent the first sunbeams of the day across the ocean and suddenly a bird began to call.

He looked around the veranda. They had a wooden bench with a matching table on one side. He breathed slowly as he wondered if his father built that for them, he doesn't recall them ever not being there. On the other side there was a hammock strung up between beams. Someone was asleep in it with a blanket tossed over them. Sora crept up to the hammock and pulled the blanket aside. It was tucked in tight and it disturbed the woman beneath it. Dawn groaned and cracked an eye open. She peered over the edge of the blanket to check the sky.

"Sora, it's so early," she moaned, burying her face in the cushion she was using as a pillow.

"Long night, huh?" Sora grinned cheekily.

"Yes," she grumbled in a muffled voice. "Now be a good boy and let your mother sleep." Sora giggled as his mother pulled the blanket up to her face. Drowsily, she added: "If Timbo and Syka come around, just give them their order – they've already paid."

Sora nodded, even though she wasn't looking. There was a knock on the front door, giving him an excuse to be leaving. He opened the door, expecting it to be one or both of the two people his mother mentioned (not that he knew who they were). Instead, the person on the other side was a large, muscular man with jet black hair and a lopsided grin. He was scarred and scruffy – he hadn't even put on shoes or a shirt – and he exuded an air of absolute confidence. He was familiar to Sora yet for some reason alarm bells were going off in his mind. Sora couldn't place the face to a name, it was all a jumble again.

"Hey, Sor'," the man said, patting him on the head. His hand was heavy, or was that just his strength? Sora was already starting to think that he was right to be even a little bit intimidated by this man. "Is Dawn in?"

"Uh, she's…" Sora scrambled for something to say other than 'yes', "… occupied. Why do you want to see her?" It crossed Sora's mind for a moment that this was, in fact, Timbo but the outfit on the rack seemed at least two sizes too small for this guy. Despite his better judgment, he asked: "Are you Timbo?"

The man laughed loudly. "Geez, Sor', how could you forget your awesome uncle Jecht?"

Sora quickly shushed him. When he got an odd look in response, he said: "My… uh, sister's still asleep, so… you shouldn't disturb her. Anyway, mom can't help you with whatever you want right now so, I dunno…" How did one go about politely telling someone to go away without rudely implying that they were never allowed to return?

"Don't worry, kid," Jecht said, pinching Sora's cheek hard and playfully. "I'll try again some other time."

Sora rubbed his aching face as Jecht turned around to leave. He didn't remember what it was but something about that man set him off. Was he actually his uncle or did he just like to think of himself as such? Sora watched him take the road along the beach heading towards some dark green wilds. He hung back for a moment and just watched, making sure that the man wouldn't know he was spying before he slid out of his front door. Perhaps it was time to start trying to actively remember things, rather than wracking his brain for memories that weren't coming easily, especially when they left him unsettled like this guy.

He discretely followed the man down the vaguely recognisable road to the edge of some unruly mangroves. His memories slotted into place, confirming the familiar feelings he was having. Within the trees the road narrowed down to a scraggly path and he lost the man while trying to move slowly enough to be quiet in this stinky jungle with its humid, salty air and sticky mud. However, it didn't really bother him. He just had a feeling that he'd find the guy again by the time he got to the end of the path.

The path met with the end of another road, this one loose and sandy. Along it were many more unfenced houses but they were all shabby and old. They stood on stilts, sheltered behind and between mangrove trees. Each house was uniquely built but had in common their state of dilapidation. Chipped paint, mouldy thatch and broken windows characterised this end of town.

Right at the end of the road was a house with intact windows (thankfully). It was hard to tell if it had once been a more flattering shade of green than the snot colour it was now and the white paint on all of the posts, beams and jambs was sporting splotches of grey, sometimes black… something. Jecht was climbing the rickety stairs of this house leading to its veranda. However, to Sora's surprise (although why he was surprised, he wasn't sure), Tidus was also there. He was sitting on the veranda balustrade, facing outwards, tying up those heavy, yellow shoes he was always wearing these days. Jecht leaned on the balustrade next to him and began to talk, smirking the whole time. Sora couldn't hear what they were saying, nor could he see Tidus' reaction since the blonde's head was bowed. Tidus did eventually finish tying his shoelaces and looked up. The expression on his face was peeved but strained with a large tide of repressed emotion. Jecht clamped his hand down on the boy's head, rocking it a bit before giving him a little push that sent Tidus off the edge. There was a little slope under the balcony where solid, grassy earth rolled down to the sand and mud of the mangrove flats. He landed with a thud but tumbled his way out of a serious injury with some acrobatic grace, rolling down the hill in a cloud of dust and landing with a splat in the mud.

Sora gasped and rushed out of the cover of the foliage to get to Tidus' side. He helped his friend up and tried to brush some of the mud off but Tidus was pushing his hands away to do it himself. "Oh my gosh, Tidus, are you okay?"

He turned to Jecht, teeth bared and positively seething. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Sora screamed.

"Oh, hey, Sor'," Jecht said, ignoring Sora's anger. "If you were coming this way anyway you should have caught me up, we could have walked together."

"Ugh, dad, you're an idiot," Tidus hissed, heard only by Sora. The spiky-haired boy turned to the blonde questioningly. Tidus glared at his father and yelled: "he only came to hang out with me, he doesn't want to spend time with an old geezer like you."

Lies. Somehow Sora could tell. There was a subtle hint of insincerity in Tidus' excuse that left him wondering why.

"Hey, c'mon! Who wouldn't want to spend time with a champ like me?"

"Whatever. Let's go, Sora." Tidus grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the mangroves, going off the beaten path.

"Hey, wait a minute," Sora tried to protest, pulling back but Tidus only pulled harder and walked faster until they were deep enough in the groves that nobody would see or hear them. "Tidus, let go! Why are we running away?"

"Running away?" Tidus exclaimed incredulously, letting go so suddenly that Sora almost tripped on his own feet. He turned around. "We're not running from anything. We're just leaving him behind."

"If you hadn't dragged me off I would have gone up there and thumped him," Sora huffed. "Nobody hurts my friends and gets away with it!"

Tidus blinked at him in surprise and then burst into laughter. He swung an arm around Sora's shoulders and ruffled his hair. "Man, you're gold, Sora. Don't ever change, you adorable little dork."

Sora wiggled and squirmed, trying to slip out of Tidus' tight grip. "Let me go! Your armpits stink!" That only made Tidus squeeze harder. Sora suddenly had a moment of internal sympathy for poor Pooh Bear, who seemed to always be stuck in some too-tight hole or another. He could swear he heard a pop when he finally got his head free. "And who are you calling little? I'm older than you. Seriously, though, that fall could have hurt you."

"Nuthin' I can't handle," Tidus shrugged nonchalantly, putting his hands behind his head. "I always land on my feet."

"He's done that before?" Sora said, voice rising in disbelief. "Does he do stuff like that a lot? Have you been hurt before?"

"It doesn't matter what happened before," Tidus snorted defensively. "Why were you at my house anyway? And this early in the morning too."

"I was following Jecht here. He turned up at my house and wanted to see my mom-"

"Sora! I keep telling you, just make him shove off. He's only trying to get in your mom's pants and I would rather not have my cousin suddenly become my brother."

"I did turn him away—wait, you're my cousin?!"

"Are you being a goof again or are you trying to piss me off?" Tidus shouted.

"I'm not trying to do either of those things!"

"Then stop doing such a good job of it!"

"Why are we shouting at each other?" Sora exclaimed. A sudden silence dropped between them. Sora took a deep breath. "I got him to leave without seeing my mom but I decided to tail him because… well, I just got some bad vibes. I thought he might be dangerous."

"Pfft, not while he's sober," Tidus muttered under his breath, looking away. He didn't seem to care if Sora heard that or not. "My dad's not dangerous, he's just an asshole. Although I'd understand why he's giving you the heebie-jeebies showing up at your house so early in the morning."

Sora nodded, looking very much like an anxious fawn when he realised that he did have a vague comprehension of what Tidus was talking about. He looked around, trying to find some way to divert the conversation and he took in Tidus' overalls and bright yellow shoes. "Are you going to swim to the island again?"

"Yep," the blonde replied, lifting his arms up to stretch as if he'd suddenly just remembered. "Think today's the day I finally make it in one breath?"

"Totally," Sora replied, more as an encouragement than anything else.

As Tidus swung his arms down to loosen up his muscles the collar of his shirt dipped and there was something dark beneath it. Sora instinctively grabbed it and yanked, paying no heed to Tidus' yelp and protest. There was a big bruise on the back of Tidus' shoulder. Sora swallowed thickly.

"Should… should I have known?" he asked, leaving the context to write itself.

Tidus wrenched his clothes out of Sora's grip, refusing to look at him. "It's no big deal. Dad just wants me to be tough, so I can take on the world, deal with my own problems, all that jazz. Sometimes he's just… over keen." He reached over his shoulder to press the injury, making it ache. Suddenly he turned around and clapped both hands onto Sora' shoulders, still not looking him in the eye despite the fact that they were face to face. "Do me a favour and revert back to a point in time when you didn't see my dad push me off a balcony."

Sora shivered and the chill lingered even as Tidus stepped away to go back to his stretches. "Say, any chance you'd wanna come with me?" Tidus asked, as if that whole conversation hadn't happened.

"I wouldn't make it," Sora managed to croak, looking shell-shocked. His mind was a whirling mass of chaos, his memories in a complete tailspin. He didn't remember any of this. He wasn't sure how he knew, he just knew that he was learning something completely new while his brain was scrambling to find anything that might have related even though most of it was slipping out of his grasp just as soon as he'd grabbed it; something he should know but couldn't quite remember. "Unless you want to hang with me…?"

Tidus looked at him. Sora expected to see a sober expression but it was the usual sunny grin. "I suppose I can stand to take the easy way out just this once. It's for the sake of my friend."

He patted Sora on the shoulder and steered him off in some direction, Sora couldn't tell which but he trusted Tidus to not screw him over.

At the beach, Sora let Tidus get ahead of him, diving into the surf and speeding away under the surface. Sora took his boat out, going much slower. His fingers shivered with a terrible numbness that he'd never felt, even in front of the great hydra of Olympus Colosseum. Real life was a scary thing and he had no weapons with which to fight it.

Sorry for dropping a chapter so horrifyingly intense on you all of a sudden. I also realised recently that the end of this story is now clearly in sight and it's a bit of a nerve-wracking thought... that one day this story will no longer be in-progress. That'll be kind of weird.