They all arrived at Disney Castle, but things weren't as they should be, the beautiful garden where Sora and Kairi shared their first kiss was overrun with weeds, the flowers all withered. They walked slower, taking it all in. The walls with the beautiful ivy growing in all the right places were now covered with thorns that were nearly black. The grass was dirt, and the bushes and ledges so expertly carved and cared for were now gone. They all took a deep breath as they prepared themselves for what this could mean.
Roxas nudged Sora. "Should we be worried?" Riku replied, "Duh" Sora thought about for awhile, but before he said anything, the throne room door opened. They walked inside to see most everything inside was still the way it was, which was a huge relief. But Mickey and Minnie were upset, and Donald and Goofy had their heads down. "Your Majestly," Namine said, bowing, while the rest of them followed suit. King Mickey motioned for all of them to sit.
"I'm sure you've all seen the garden as you made your way from the launch pad to the castle." He went on after he noticed their nods. "Things are getting bad. But it's not a bad thing, it's good. Now don't look so surprised; what this is is a warning. We now know how much time there is before we see the first wave of enemy soldiers cross into the territory. Enough time for you to all visit your home world, for one final rest. The gummi ship will be waiting in the hangar, and will appear in your world when it's time."
"How will we know?" Riku asked, "when the gummi ship has appeared in Destiny Islands?" King Mickey spoke, "You'll automatically change into battle armor." Riku sat back down. A door opened then, and Kairi appeared. King Mickey looked like he wanted to tell her to leave again, but he looked tired, and just too exhausted from everything to care if she heard. He turned back to them. "Now please, don't take this battle lightheartedly; it won't be like the ones you've faced in your past. This will be constant, no rest, no victory until there is defeat. It pains me to say this, but, there is a chance that, after the battle, the people in this room will be fewer." They looked anxious. "Yes, you may die. Some will die."
He turned his attention to Kairi. "Which is why after you get to Destiny Islands, you will stay there." Sora asked him then, "How much time…" Mickey saw where he was going with this question. "How much time until you are requested back? I don't know. I don't know if you'll see the birth of your child." He put his head down. The girl was due in less than a month, and if Sora went to battle before she was born, there was a possibility he would never meet her. He looked at Kairi, who held his gaze, before seeing the king stand up. "You're dismissed." And with a grim look on his face, he left the room.
Sora, Riku, and Roxas walked behind Kairi and Namine, who were all heading to the hangar to leave for their world. "That sucks", Roxas told Sora. Not being an affectionate person, he didn't know of much else to say. Sora didn't respond, he kept looking down with his hands in his pockets. Riku put his hand on Sora's shoulder. "You can't think about it, you need to focus. You're going to battle to provide a better life for her and Kairi." Sora looked at Riku and looked back down. "Thanks for trying, guys. But I just need some time to get over this." "There's no sense worrying about it now," Roxas told him, "For all we know, you may get to see her first. Speaking of her, you guys don't have a name yet?"
"With our hectic schedule? I'm surprised we had time to create her." Roxas saw a smile on his face. "Finally, I'm not used to seeing an emotional Sora." Riku had to agree, "Yeah, you're normally so happy, it makes me sick." Riku and Roxas laughed, Sora managed to laugh a little bit.
Namine, up ahead, heard it. "What the hell are they laughing about? What could possibly be so funny in a time like this?" Kairi, also facing down, shrugged. "I guess they're trying to make light of the situation." Namine thought about it, "Damn it Kairi, you suck. You've always got something smart to say." Then Kairi and Namine found themselves smiling as well.
The gummi ship ride home was all too quiet, hardly any words spoken. Some tears, some sighs, some shock that this was all actually happening, and way before they'd had a chance to live their lives. The date was February 20th, the baby was due on March 5th. They were all only seventeen years old, except for Riku, who had just turned eighteen the month before. They hadn't even lived yet, and it seemed so unfair to all of them that their lives may be cut short in the coming battle. Especially for Namine and Roxas, whose existence had only come to be three years previously.
Sora helped Kairi out of the gummi ship, and while Riku went home and Roxas and Namine decided to go look around the island, he walked her home to see her father. When something struck him. "Kairi, you haven't seen your dad since we last left here."
"Uh huh," then a few seconds passed before she realized what he was getting at. "oh shit." She stopped in her tracks. "He doesn't know about the-" He stopped her and kissed her for the first time in a very long time. "What was that about?" She asked him after he finally backed off. "You have no idea how much I've been wanting to do that since I saw you last…"He continued to stare at her until she snapped her fingers in front of him. "Well, it doesn't look like that's all you've been wanting to do." "Can you blame me?" Though he did feel a little stupid for making it that obvious.
"No, but I'm not really in tip top shape am I genius?" He shook his head. "You're right. I'm sorry. I love you." He took her hand and kissed it. "Now, what to do about your dad…" "Sora, there's nothing to do. We will just have to get it over with." Sora took her hand and they continued their walk towards Kairi's house.
They reached the doorstep, and both their hearts were pounding with fear. "This is worse than the anticipation of battle" he jokingly told her. They knocked on the door. When it opened, her father was ecstatic, he hadn't seen her in so long that the fact that she had a belly was escaping him. He hugged and kissed her, then realized that the hug felt different, he pulled back, about to ask how she'd put on weight when he saw the shape of the belly, and the rest of her. It was clear then that she hadn't put on weight, at least in that way. "What the-" He began. Then the smile on his face turned to a frown, and the crinkle in his forehead suddenly made itself visible. His tone got louder, and he looked at Sora. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded from Sora. He got closer and Sora backed off, then Kairi stepped in between them and put her hands on her dad's shoulders, she spoke softly, "Daddy, please, calm down. Don't scare me like that." His face was still red and his pose threatening, but he motioned them to go inside and sit on the couch, though now he watched Sora's every move.
They sat on the couch and her dad splashed water onto his face, then offered them both water, to which they both declined. He sat down and took a deep breath. "Okay, without going too into detail, please explain how this happened. The last time you left, you were such good friends, and that's it." Kairi looked at Sora, who started to tell him. He looked him in the eye when he told him. "Sir," he interrupted, "Don't try to kiss ass boy, just tell me why the hell my daughter hasn't been home in over and year and suddenly she shows up at my doorstep in this condition." Kairi raised her voice, "Dad! What the hell? Why does everyone keep referring to the pregnancy as a 'condition'? I'm not dying, I don't have a disease, stop acting like this is a bad thing!" Her dad calmed himself a little more. "That's not what I meant, I just don't understand how you guys could have been so stupid." She got up from the couch, Sora tried to help her but she pushed his hand away. She walked outside and slammed the door. Immediately Sora got up to go after her but her dad blocked his way. "SIT." Once he saw that she was safe, sitting outside on the porch swing, he agreed.
"The pregnancy wasn't intentional, not even the, uh, conception was intentional. It just happened." He groaned. "Start from the beginning." Sora looked outside again and back at her dad. "I've had feelings for your daughter since I was fourteen years old. At first, we were just friends, when the storm came and the three of us, her, Riku, and I, got separated. I landed in a new world, a place I'd never been to, I knew no one, I had no idea how I got there or anything. I felt absolutely alone. That's when I began frantically searching for them. I went to so many different worlds and fought so many different beasts in order to find them. When I finally found out what happened to them, I was crushed. Riku had turned to the dark powers to try and find Kairi, so I'd lost him, at least for then. But I knew I had to keep pushing, because I didn't know where she was, and I was worried. I was her only friend that hadn't turned his back on the light." To his surprise, her dad was listening very intently to the story. "I'm sorry, but has she not told you any of this before?" He shook his head before going on. "Then, you may not want to hear some of this." "Just go on," he told him.
"I was in a world called Neverland when I'd finally found her, she was alive, but just barely, her heart had been stolen by an evil witch named Maleficent who was trying to capture all seven princesses of heart's hearts so she could come to power over Kingdom Hearts. It pissed me off more than anything, and I didn't want to leave her there, but a friend in that world and a good fairy promised me that she would be safe. I pushed on, hoping to find Maleficent and recapture Kairi's heart. I didn't see her again until I got to your old home, Radiant Garden. Except it had been taken over by Riku, Ansem, who was using Riku,and Maleficent. I had to find my way to the top of the castle through a maze of hidden traps and secret ambushes. But I succeeded. I don't know how, for all the things I went through, I have absolutely no idea how, but I did. I reached the inside of the castle, and found myself in a room with a dark portal. I made my way to the portal, which was on a platform. When I got to the top of the stairs, that's when I saw her lying there. No heart, barely breathing. I ran up to her and held her in my arms. Shouting her name even though I knew she wouldn't wake. That's when I felt a tear spill onto the tile, and the first time I'd ever experienced a broken heart was in that very moment. I bowed my head, not knowing what to do next. When Ansem, taking Riku's form, appeared before me and suddenly Kairi disappeared. I demanded to know how to save her to which he told me that it was too late. Then I was forced into a battle with him. I was pissed and heartbroken, but that gave me edge. I used that to fuel myself into beating someone who formerly could not have been. Once I injured him enough, he limped off and Kairi once again appeared at my feet." Kairi's father had tears in his eyes. Kairi saw from the porch swing, and came inside to sit next to Sora. She wanted to hear the story told again. Nothing else in the world could make her dad cry. She sat next to Sora and put her hand on his shoulder. "Go ahead."
"Something told me then, that maybe our hearts were one. If someone truly loves someone else, then it's possible that that person's heart may be tied to the other's. It was a longshot, but it was all I had. I took the keyblade that Ansem left behind, the one with the power to take my own heart, and without thinking, jabbed it into my chest." He stopped when Kairi's dad gasped. "Did it hurt you?"
"At first. It was like being cut with a very sharp knife. It didn't hurt until I saw the blood, then the pain lasted only an instant, and the next thing I knew I was in a deep, black abyss, just falling." Her dad looked confused. "Do you want to tell him the next part Kairi?" Kairi nodded her head as she looked her father in the eye. "Donald, Goofy, and I were surrounded by heartless, little shadows that we're fighting against to this day, though now it's much easier. But there was one in particular…I don't know why, but I felt it was a ghost of something…not really a heartless. It came up to me and I put my arms around it, then in a swirling cyclone of light, Sora appeared before me. Then I put the pieces together, that it was him all along, fighting this evil at the age of only fourteen, to save me." She smiled at him. He returned it. "That's when I discovered that the boy who was my trusted friend was the person I trusted my heart to. That's when I knew I loved him."
They sat and talked with Kairi's dad for almost four hours, filling him in on their journeys after they discovered friendship was not their fate. At the end, he was more supportive of their relationship, though he still didn't approve of the pregnancy. They didn't blame him. What parent would be happy to learn their daughter or son would be a young parent? Before they'd gotten a chance to fully mature? Though the things they've gone through did make much of a difference. He was a little excited to be a grandpa too. "It's getting late," he said to his daughter. "I'll see Sora out." She nodded her head and whispered goodbye to Sora; he smiled and turned. Kairi headed up the stairs while her dad talked with Sora outside. "Look, son, I don't like how this has all ended up. Frankly, it scares me a little. Especially because you won't be sticking around for long." Sora bowed his head. "I know."
"Kid, it's too bad that you missed the whole nine months almost. Maybe the birth. But anyway, you'll be welcome in this family, as soon as you get back."
"If I get back." He said, still facing the ground. "Don't talk that way, kid. That will bring you nothing but discouragement." He patted him on the shoulder. "Good night." Sora nodded his head and turned to go home. Now parent number two is up.
