Will of Light

Kairi's PoV

"Sora, you had your light take in more light for me… how? Why?" Kairi asked the obvious, as she stood on the small islet where the paopu tree was. And she took in not only Sora's pristine white outfit, but the fact that rays from the sun itself seemed to come from him now. "Weren't you light enough already?" It was insane to Kairi that he would think any differently, when he had the purest heart she'd ever seen and had done more than anyone else in the world had.

"...No. And I felt I was maybe tainting you by even being near you, so I- I had to do something… Well, that's part of it, anyway. I'll tell you more later."

"But…" Kairi started, as she took her shoes off so she could feel the sand beneath her feet. She needed to feel something real, because this didn't feel like it was that at all. "Sora... aren't you worried that you'll have lost some of your personality and be 'boring' this way?

"...Not that I ever want to doubt the light, of course... But when Riku and I had that spat after we lost you—and at first, I wanted to stay on the paopu tree and just wait for you... in thinking that you'd had to die at all, since I'd thought I could fight when I clearly couldn't—he oddly told me that if I did that, I'd be boring…

"And that snapped me out of my funk more than anything else could have. Maybe because I was worried that I'd lose you then—when you eventually did come back—if I was like that… and aren't you worried about the same kind of thing?"

If she'd had to say anything to Sora to try and convince him this was, perhaps, a bad idea… she had no idea why she'd chosen to babble about him becoming boring in being pure light.

Sora could never be anything but interesting, and Kairi knew that well. Everyone did, really.

And how did she even know this was turn out badly? …When they'd been looking for Sora a few years back, Naminé had showed Kairi all of Sora's memories. And she'd seen when Goofy had suggested that everyone's hearts were full of light, the Heartless would probably go away and Sora had excitedly nodded his head.

Was this the answer to the Heartless problem? Would it create a better world? What did she know, really, in order to doubt that?

…And yet Kairi couldn't help feeling that this was much more wrong than the times Sora had been consumed by the darkness. Because even she—a being of pure light naturally—had access to negative emotions, but this Sora didn't seem to have that choice anymore.

"No... not really," Sora answered the question she'd just asked, that she'd already almost forgotten. "And even if it is true… why worry about boredom when you can worry about the world instead?! Isn't that the reason you stayed behind for Riku's—and my—Mark of Mastery, Kairi? Because you couldn't fight yet, and didn't want Riku or I getting hurt protecting you if something sprung up? You were thinking about the universe then."

That was true. And it actually amazed Kairi that Sora had now seen that about her. In learning that he had fallen in love with her after she had him, she'd begun to think that maybe he hadn't noticed as much about her as she had him… and that that was what had taken him a while to fall in comparison.

So, if this Sora was so all-seeing and empathetic, could it really be a bad thing?

"Sora!" Kairi exclaimed, touched, as she sprung forward to quickly peck him on the lips and had to giggle when he spun her around as he held her afterwards.

"Kairi…" Sora whispered against Kairi's forehead—that he'd just kissed—after they finally stopped. "I- I know I wasn't always the best boyfriend to you in the past, and I apologize for that. I took you for granted and didn't spend enough time with you. I see that now… And I feel perfect. Maybe like I was always meant to be, if Xehanort hadn't interfered. And I think I should pass this feeling onto other people, don't you?"

With all of their moving around, the two of them lost their balance at this point and fell into the water that was far below them. And though it was quite a fall, Kairi barely noticed since Sora had used his newfound light magic to shield her from the impact. And as it stood, something more important had Kairi's attention now, anyway.

'But what about Riku?' Kairi wanted to ask… but she didn't. Afraid of what Sora might say, and what the right answer should be. Riku had found the perfect way to walk the Road to Light and Darkness together: the Road to Dawn, so was Sora saying he should give up the darkness… or would he be the one exception to this new idea? And what if other people didn't want to give up their darkness?

Seeming to sense she was troubled, Sora helped Kairi to her feet and kissed her ear as he put a strand of hair behind her ear. "Kairi… let's get married. What do you say to that? You're too polite to say so, but I know you think I've somewhat messed up with you in the past. So let me make up for it now!"

"Sora!" Kairi exclaimed, truly in shock as she swatted his arm. "We're only seventeen! And we don't come of age on the Island until eighteen!" But even as Kairi was technically refusing Sora here—because they were still so young, and since she had the bad feeling that Sora was trying to manipulate her here (that she tried to stamp down)—she did think they could probably be engaged for a year and get married as soon as they turned eighteen. Maybe that was the best solution here, because—if she was being honest with herself—Kairi had dreamed of their wedding.

And as Sora almost looked disappointed for a second (before it was gone so fast, she had to wonder if she'd imagined the whole thing), Kairi decided to spare his heart some as beings of pure light did… So maybe she and this new Sora weren't do different, after all. "Alright, Sora. We'll be engaged for a year and then get married as soon as we can! Lighten up!" Kairi said as she kissed Sora's cheek, and little fish chose that moment to swim over her ankles.

"To a year of engagement, then!" And Sora was spinning Kairi around in the air again—and oh, how it made her giggle—but she also couldn't get over the awful sense that Sora was lying about much.

The next few months on the Islands—as Sora and Kairi tried to convince their parents to let them marry, and Sora talked to everyone about lightening their hearts—passed by pretty normally.

…Except that Sora was more respectful to his parents than Kairi he ever seen him be before—so much so, that he hadn't see Riku or her for a while, when Sora's parents had banned him from "seeing those he had traveled to other worlds for" for two days—and he was doing a lot more chores now… but Kairi supposed it was nice that he was closer to them than he ever had been before.

Sora was also now cooking his amazing dishes for his parents, and her and Riku all the time now! And not even once complaining that they were using him, or exhausting him, or anything. The day he had actually succeeded in making her love mushrooms, was the day Kairi thought she'd died and gone to heaven.

And Sora couldn't have been happier that they were all happy, and was writing many nice journal entries about what he'd learned and "the wonders of understanding people's feelings"

But even so… Kairi—and Riku, too, she thought—still had their suspicions. And Riku was somewhat sniping at Sora even now, as the three of them sat atop the shack on the Play Island together. "So... how's your mission going, Sora?" Riku asked as if he were suspicious. "I still don't know how you found more of your own light to give yourself, and a way to give your light to others…"

"I- I went to the Final World, of course Riku. It's partly dream there. At least, the pathway that links to the Final World there. Dreams… and my heart. So if, in my dream, I want to imagine there's more of my light there, I can. And through Chirithy's help, I found a way to make it physical… to literally give more light to myself this way, and others."

Well, this was all news to Kairi. She hadn't known that Sora had been going to the Final World at all, and if she had she would have stopped it immediately!

She turned towards him with a glare on her face now, and nearly slapped her betrothed. How dare he be risking his life like this, when they'd all just gotten him back?!

"Sora, you can't do that kinda risky thing!" Kairi said with her hands shaking, as she started seeing stars and thought she was going to black out. "I don't like this. At all! And I thought Chirithy was with Ven! Why did he go back? Or is it a new Chirithy, and-"

"Kairi KairI Kairi!" Sora tried to calm her, as he gently held her in his arms now and looked at her with the most loving expression he'd ever worn before "...I swear to you that it's going to be okay this time. Since the new Chirithy at my Station of Awakening knows that I fall asleep and end up there by accident a lot, he's given me an ability called 'quick sleep', where I'll wake up in three seconds after having fallen asleep… but I'll have been there longer in the real world, of course. But three seconds in that world—in real world time—won't hurt anyone."

'Don't make promises you can't keep', Kairi wanted to say… but she didn't. Riku was absentmindedly nodding his head now, so maybe she was being the crazy one and all would be okay.

But then again… Riku was just as selfless as Sora was, and would easily die for the sake of the world or someone else. Kairi didn't know if she trusted either of them to be good judges about this, but for now… she'd bite her tongue.

"Kairi... I swear I'm fine," Sora promised. And despite everything that had changed with him now, Kairi believed Sora's sincerity here.

But she also realized… that he had no idea that she still had his qualms about what he was suggesting to people—for whatever reason—though at least he'd left Riku alone…

And she must have still seemed shattered, because Sora took it up a notch even further. "Kairi... I'm asking you to trust me now," he said now, as he kissed Kairi's neck and Riku laughed (huh. This was a new way of trying to comfort her). "Please please please please do so, love." And with that kind of earnestness—and this sweet new endearment for her-how could she do anything but?

Kairi leaned her head on Sora's shoulder then, and happily breathed in his scent as he moved her to sit in his lap.

She wouldn't lose Sora again. She just wouldn't!

"I have to wonder, though," Riku broke the silence, as he jumped down to try and spear a fish, "What made you first get the idea to try all this out, Sora?"

And at this, Sora sat up straight a little and scratched his chin in thought, as if he hadn't really stopped to try and articulate it before. That surprised Kairi; she had imagined he at least told the King.

"...I guess because of this pretty peaceful world I went to, with more elderly people there than anyone else? At least that I saw, I mean. I followed this old man… with pristine white hair but still some pep in his step, and watched him be in this play about murder...

"But despite the fact that a neighborhood full of elderly people was putting on a play about murder… I swear I could sense so much light in their hearts!

"Like, the man I was tailing was, to be honest, not the best actor in the world? But do you think anyone would dare hurting his feelings to tell him that? Nope! And it was actually pretty sweet. They instead tried to change the play to fit him, as best they could.

"But anyway…. I guess there's proof that, no matter what—unless we change things—the brightest light will always cast a great shadow, because this woman in it ended up being a real murderer, unfortunately!

"And the lawyer—the, umm, bad actor—had to figure that out with my help... Throughout the play, there was a line Matlock kept failing at saying: 'Murder, Miss Isabel, that's what it was..." And it was the woman who played Isabel who did it! And then Matlock had to say that to her in the courtroom when she was convicted... it was awful.

"And after that, everyone decided to try and get rid of the darkness in their hearts. Even the lady who played Isabel. Yeah."

Well, when Sora put it like that... Kairi could maybe understand where he was coming from. Seeing such a light place even have a darkness like that… it would make you hate the dark even more, wouldn't it?

And deciding that Sora probably was making a real utopia here, Kairi brought Sora's hands to her face, and summoned the light out of them. "I'm curious now, Sora… can you add even more light to me? Perhaps the world will be even better that way." And as Sora made will-of-the-wisps float around them, as Riku cried out to them both, he did just that.