Disclaimer: Forgot to do this last chapter. I don't own Kingdom Hearts characters. I also don't own Guitar Center or Taco Bell.
Chapter 14: Daddy Issues
"C'mon, Kairi, you gotta try it once in your life. You can't go through your entire adulthood never knowing what it's like to be high."
Kairi sat, legs crossed and arms folded over her chest, staring Sora down with the most intense "mom" face she could muster. It worked a charm on Roxas, but unfortunately for her, Sora was immune since he had grown up with Heidi.
Sora was currently presenting a case to Kairi to convince her to smoke weed with him, just once, since she had never tried it. The idea did not appeal to her whatsoever. Her parents had both been smokers her entire childhood and the smell of cigarette smoke gave her headaches. In her opinion, weed smelled much worse. She always caught whiffs of it when Sora took her to shows and she couldn't stand it.
He had been trying to crack her ever since his birthday, when he had smoked for the first time—she assumed—since high school with all of his friends. Kairi distinctly remembered the awkward ice breaker conversations with Sora the day they met, when he'd brought up the subject of legalization. It's not my cup of tea, he'd said, but she now knew that was a bogus lie. He'd been obsessed with getting his hands on more ever since the night of the birthday party.
"Why is this so important to you?" She asked him. "I've told you so many times that I don't want to, but you keep bringing it up. Why can't you just respect that I'm not interested?"
She lost eye contact with him as he turned his gaze to the floor and his shoulders slumped. His expression and posture reminded her very much of a dog being scolded for misbehaving. "Because…"
"Because?"
"Because I…I want to do it, and if you don't, you won't let me."
I knew it. She had just been waiting for him to confess his ulterior motives out loud. "I thought you didn't like smoking?"
"I lied." Sora shrunk into himself more. "When I saw how you reacted to the subject the day we met, I thought if I told you I smoked you wouldn't want to talk to me again. Then I stopped doing it for real because I didn't want to be a liar."
Kairi's heart pitter-pattered as he spilled the truth to her. She had to admit, it was kind of cute. Sure, he'd lied at first, but his heart was in the right place and he had even turned his lie into a reality just to impress her.
"Would you just consider it?" Sora looked into her eyes again, pleading. "Just one time, and if you hate it, we don't ever have to do it again. I won't do it again."
Kairi chewed her lip. She still hated the idea of the stuff, but he was being so sweet and honest right now that she wanted to compromise with him. She wanted to do what she could to make him happy. "Okay," she finally said. "I'll try it. But you have to promise you'll follow through with what you just said."
Sora's face lit up and he moved as if to sweep her into an embrace, but his phone ringing loudly interrupted. He frowned when he saw who was calling. "Dad?"
Kairi sucked in a breath and listened as he answered the call. Sora hadn't spoken to his father in months. He was hurt by the fact that he and his mother had just been replaced in a heartbeat. He was hurt that his father had asked him to get his own health insurance so that he could afford to insure his new wife's adult children.
She couldn't hear Chris's side of the conversation, but whatever he was saying was unpleasant, judging by Sora's reactions. He wasn't saying much in response, just one-word answers, his face twisting between expressions of confusion, sadness, and rage. He was repeatedly clenching and unclenching his free hand into a fist as he listened to his father talk. The conversation wrapped up a few minutes later with Sora giving an exasperated, "yeah, I'll take care of it," and Kairi waited patiently for him take a breather before explaining what the call was about.
"I never did the insurance thing," Sora said after a few moments. "He was just calling to remind me. Not to, like, check on how I'm doing or anything. If I had to guess, I'd say that cunt Jamie is in his ear about it."
"Is it the insurance that big of a deal?" Kairi asked.
"Well, he said Jamie is sick," Sora answered, "she has a lot of medical bills and he needs to save all the money he can to pay those."
Kairi scoffed. "It sounds like she married him so quick because she needed health insurance."
"Exactly. And you wanna know the weirdest part?" Sora didn't pause long enough for to her to confirm that she did want to know. "She's been married twice before, and both of her husbands died."
"What are you implying?" Kairi asked him nervously.
"I think she's a black widow," Sora replied nonchalantly. "I think she married him for his health insurance and to have someone to live off of 'cause he's a fucking idiot, and I think she's ruining my relationship with him on purpose. He will probably end up dead, too."
"C'mon, Sora," Kairi said. "You have to know that sounds a little ridiculous."
"Does it?" Sora shot her a look and she could see an angry fire deep in his eyes.
"I mean, it is weird," Kairi treaded carefully. He looked like he was seconds from exploding and she didn't want to be the target of his anger. They hadn't fought in several weeks and she didn't want to stupidly ruin it. "But I don't think you should assume that just because her last two husbands happened to die that she's gonna kill your dad. I do agree that she is trying to distance him from you, though, but I can't imagine why."
The fire in Sora's eyes went out as she stated her agreement, and she mentally sighed in relief. "Me neither," he muttered.
"If she is just using him for insurance, it would make sense for her to want you to stay far away," Kairi continued. "You'd be a threat then, if you saw through her and tried to talk sense into your dad."
Sora sat up straighter and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. "I know what to do," he said. "I won't let her succeed. I'll go hang out with him. I'll make him remember that I've been his fucking kid since I was four years old."
XXXXXX
Sora wasted no time in procuring weed after Kairi had finally given her blessing. One of his old band members grew it for medical purposes and gave him some at a discounted price. He was obnoxiously excited when he came home and showed her his prize.
"I got this, too. It's a one-hitter," he showed her a device that was designed to look just like a cigarette, but at a close glance it obviously was not. "We can smoke anywhere and be inconspicuous."
Kairi rolled her eyes. Clearly Sora was holding too high of a hope that this was about to become a regular past time for the two of them. "Let's get this over with," she said, putting as much effort as she could into sounding unenthusiastic.
Next thing she knew, she and Sora were huddled together in a dark corner behind their house, and he was packing a dose of the weed into the little one-hitter. "You can go first," he chirped excitedly. "Make sure you hold it in your lungs as long as you can manage. A good cough means you got a good hit."
"That just sounds awful," Kairi muttered, staring at the little pipe in disgust. She still couldn't imagine why anyone would want to smoke the stuff, and she doubted her mind was about to be changed. She waited for Sora to light it for her, and then forced herself to take the hit before her brain had a chance to comprehend the scent. She inhaled deeply, as he had instructed. She didn't notice much of a taste—it was pretty mild, but she felt her lungs start to burn immediately. Forgetting what Sora had said about holding the smoke in her lungs, she let it out and coughed hard enough that her chest started to burn, too.
Sora seemed completely unconcerned for her well-being. "Nice," he said.
"Nice?" Kairi spluttered between coughs. "Can't you see I'm dying?"
"You're not dying," Sora said with amusement in his voice. "You are gonna be hella stoned, though."
After a couple of minutes, Kairi's coughs ceased and the burning sensations began to fade. "I don't think I feel anything," she said. "This was a waste of time."
"Give it a second," Sora told her, lighting the new packed one-hitter for himself. Kairi watched as he took his own hit, much smoother than she had. She had to remind herself that he was more practiced at this than she had initially believed. When he was finished, they went back into the house to get started on dinner.
"You feel it yet?" Sora asked. "It's not bad."
"Nope."
Sora stared at her while she arranged some pre-made biscuits on a cookie sheet. "Are you sure you don't feel it?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
He frowned. "Well, that sucks. I wonder why."
Kairi put the biscuits in the oven, and when she straightened back up to her full height, she began to feel weird. Suddenly, the lights in the room seemed too bright, and she felt like the objects in the room were swimming in front of her face. Her body felt tingly and almost numb, and her heart was racing. "I need to sit down," she said, and she slowly made her way over to the couch.
"It must be kicking in!" Sora said gleefully. "Just relax and take a breather, you'll be okay." He stroked her hair soothingly.
Kairi did as she was told. In a relaxed position, she closed her eyes, tried to even out her breathing, and focused on the sensation of Sora's fingers in her hair. She felt her heart rate slow down, and the heavy feeling in her head and limbs faded away. When she opened her eyes again, she felt completely relaxed, as though she could sleep where she sat. "I'm okay now," she told Sora, offering him a coy smile.
"How do you feel now?" His fingers trailed from her hair down her neck, and then down the curve of her spine, and she shivered.
"That's really nice," she murmured, leaning into him. "This feels nice. I like this."
He continued running his fingertips gently up and down her back, nuzzling his face into her hair. She moaned softly, and he reached up to caress her cheek, slowly drawing her in for a kiss. She melted against him, allowing him to search her mouth with his tongue, pulling him as tight against her as she could. In that moment, only she and Sora existed—nothing else around them was real. She felt like she was floating on a cloud. Suddenly, it made perfect sense to her why people went crazy for this stuff.
They parted to take a breath, and Kairi took in the sight of her boyfriend. He looked so amazingright then, all starry-eyed and his lips swollen from kissing her. Intense desire for him stirred between her legs and she squirmed. She wanted him bad. She couldn't remember a previous time she had been this aroused. She just wanted him to slam her against a wall and take her, have his way with her, any way that he wanted her, just like in those romance novels she used to secretly read in high school.
"What are you thinking about?" Sora interrupted her thoughts.
She blushed. She was way too shy to confess what she had really been thinking. The next best thing was to flirt her way to what she wanted—if she got him worked up, he'd initiate the rest. She barely had to scramble for an idea of how to get the ball rolling before the perfect scenario came to mind. Maybe the rumors she'd heard about people being able to focus better when they were high were true.
She reached out and ran a teasing fingertip up Sora's forearm, looking at him shyly. "I was just thinking…we've never taken a shower together before. I could wash your hair for you." She took a beat, watching him for his reaction. "Does that sound fun?"
He nodded slowly. "Yeah," he said, a hitch in his breath, and she could see that her plan was already working.
They got the shower running, and slowly undressed each other. As soon as they were both under the water, they resumed their passionate kissing and all thoughts of actually washing each other disappeared. Sora's hands roamed every inch of Kairi that he could reach as he dropped kisses down her neck and over her shoulders. She gripped his shoulders, digging her fingers in as his touch gravitated toward her core. His hardness throbbed against her belly when he finally touched her, and she gasped in response to the stimulation. She raised one leg and rested her foot on the edge of the bathtub to give him better access to her.
He withdrew his hand and kissed his way down her body until he was crouching in front of her, looking straight into her eyes as he placed a soft, sensual kiss on her most sacred spot. She threw her head back, letting herself succumb to the pleasure he was giving her, until a panicked realization rudely interrupted her bliss. Her head snapped back forward and she nearly knocked poor Sora in the teeth with her knee as she slapped the shower door open and scrambled out.
Sora stood up and turned the water off, looking utterly confused. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.
"The biscuits!" Kairi fretted as she fled into the kitchen, still stark naked. "Now dinner is ruined!"
Sora chuckled and toweled off, grabbing Kairi's clothes along with his own. "I guess I'll call and order a pizza."
XXXXXX
Trying to do her best to keep her eyes open through her biology lecture, Kairi was relieved when her phone vibrated to offer a distraction. She was surprised to see it was Sora. He was usually pretty busy at the phone store and rarely had time to text her during the day.
When she read the text, her heart dropped.
Had to leave work early to go to the hospital. Got a call from Jamie, dad overdosed on some drug.
She texted back, Do you need me to come?
You can come after class. They said he's ok, no need to rush.
Kairi decided to rush anyway. She packed up her things, gave the professor and apologetic look and swiftly exited the classroom.
When she arrived at the hospital, she headed to the area Sora had told her to meet him in. It didn't take her long to find him, because he and Jamie, Chris's tall, raven-haired wife, were having a standoff in the middle of the hallway.
"I didn't tell him to take it," Jamie was snapping at Sora. "I called you here because I thought you might want to know what's going on with your father, not so you could accuse me of putting him in the hospital. He needs help."
"Are you suggesting he overdosed on purpose?" The anger in Sora's tone wavered. Kairi remembered that Sora's father had tried to commit suicide shortly after the divorce, and she knew that it was entirely possible that the overdose was intentional. She could hear in his voice that he was now thinking the same thing.
"I don't know." Jamie had read the emotion in Sora's voice too, and her tone was softened. "I want to think he wouldn't do that, but I know about his history."
For a moment, it looked as though there would be an unspoken truce between the two, but Kairi could see the wheels in Sora's head turning and his anger returned rejuvenated as he sorted out his thoughts.
"Isn't he supposed to be happy with you? You're like, his high school sweetheart or whatever. If he loves you so much and you're supposed to be making him happy, why is he still trying to kill himself?"
Jamie narrowed her eyes, all empathy for Sora now lost. "You need to go now," she hissed.
"Fuck you!" Sora roared back at her. "Do you even love him back?"
At this point, they were quite a spectacle and nurses and other visitors had stopped what they were doing to watch. Kairi flushed, embarrassed. She needed to intervene before Sora got the both of them kicked out of the hospital. She dashed over to him and hugged him around the waist.
"Let's go, Sora, you can talk to him after he's discharged," she begged.
"Better listen to her," Jamie egged him on, her eyes daring him to do the opposite. "I wouldn't want to have to get the cops involved."
Kairi squeezed Sora's middle, a silent plea not to take the bait. He untensed his shoulders and leaned against her, a signal that he wasn't going to.
"Go to hell," he spat at Jamie, and then he turned and let Kairi lead him away.
She spent the evening trying to calm him down and make him feel better, but he couldn't seem to let it go.
"He'll be at home tomorrow," she soothingly. "You can go see him and talk things out. Maybe he'll tell you what's going on with him."
Of course, things of this nature were never that easy.
The following day, Kairi was just getting out of work when her phone buzzed. Sora was supposed to have the day off, so she expected it was him, but she was surprised to see it was his mother.
Just talked to Sora, u with him?
No, Kairi typed back. Why?
He's at his dad's. U better go check on him.
Kairi groaned out loud and dialed Sora. When he didn't answer, she started to worry. If he wasn't answering his phone, it meant one of two things. Either he was having a good talk with his dad and working out all their issues, or something problematic was happening. Kairi suspected that since Heidi was telling her to go over there that it was the latter.
Over the 20-minute drive it took her to get from work to Chris and Jamie's house, she made two more unsuccessful attempts to reach Sora. When she got there, she saw Sora frantically pounding at the front door of the house. The neighbor across the street, Cid, was out on his porch observing, cellphone in hand. Kairi remembered Cid being quite friendly when she and Sora were living there, and that he and Sora had chatted about music frequently.
"Have you been out long?" she called out to him.
"Yeah, I'm just standing by in case he needs backup," Cid answered.
"Why would he need backup? What's going on?" Kairi blurted.
"From what I know, he just came around to see if his old man's okay," Cid answered, his eyes still focused on Sora. "Wife won't let him in, and they've been screaming at each other through the door for a while now." He furrowed his brow. "I don't care what kind of issues they got between them, what kinda lady doesn't let her stepson talk to his sick father?"
"What the fuck!?" Sora's anguished cry echoed around them as he kicked the door to the house as hard as he could manage.
"Sora!" Cid called to him, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Come over here, kiddo."
Sora reluctantly turned away from the door, pausing there for a moment before running across the street and up the steps of Cid's porch. He had so much pain in his eyes that looking at him broke Kairi's heart.
"Sit down, take a beat, calm yourself," Cid instructed, pushing a chair toward Sora.
Sora collapsed into the chair and buried his face into his arms, his fists clenching at his hair. His shoulders began to shake as he dissolved into uncontrollable sobs. "She w-won't let me s-see him," he choked out. "S-she said he doesn't w-want to talk to me."
Cid laid a comforting hand on Sora's shoulder. "I'm sorry, kiddo," he said softly, "but you can't force someone to stay in your life. He'll come around. You just have to give him time to realize he's made a mistake."
Kairi could do little but observe as the sobs continued to rack Sora's body. She wanted to be Sora's comfort too, but she had no idea what to say. She'd never before seen him like this. He was so vulnerable…so fragile. And she was clueless how to handle it. She felt awful. Sora always knew what to do when she was in such a state, so why couldn't she will herself to reciprocate?
After several minutes, Sora's started to calm down, his breathing evening out and his tremors ceasing. "Thanks," he mumbled to Cid. "I was kinda losing it there."
"Anytime," Cid replied. "I'll keep an eye out here and check on your dad. I'll get ahold of you and keep you updated."
Sora gave him a small smile through the remnants of his tears. "I appreciate it. I'm gonna go home and try to sleep." He turned his attention to Kairi. "Sorry you had to see that."
"N-no, it's okay," Kairi stammered.
Sora didn't seem at all bothered by her lack of participation before and offered her his hand. "Let's go home."
XXXXXX
In the following weeks, Sora put the drama with his father on the back burner and threw himself back into his music. Just as before, he was coming home from work and immediately closing himself in his studio, surfacing only to eat dinner and go to sleep.
Kairi couldn't deny that she had indeed enjoyed getting high with Sora, and after their first time he had brought a bong home, assuring her that it would be easier on her than smoking out of the one-hitter. Now it seemed the only way she got to spend any time with him was if she requested that he take a smoke break with her. Whatever was bothering him—and she suspected it was the stuff with his dad, even though he was no longer talking about it—wasn't about her, but she was a victim of it. They weren't fighting, but they also weren't getting along. He seemed utterly indifferent wherever she was concerned. He barely touched her, barely kissed her, barely interacted with her outside of small talk during their dinners together or their smoke sessions. Most notably, he was calling her by her name more often and dropped his use of pet names. She felt like they were roommates, not lovers.
Remembering how poorly things had turned out the last time she had chosen to confront him over this sort of behavior, she made a desperate move. When Sora went to work one day, she called his mother. He still talked to her quite frequently and he shared a lot with her about his relationship with Kairi. Maybe she knew something.
"What's up, baby girl?" Heidi greeted when she picked up the phone.
"I wanted to talk to you about Sora," Kairi said nervously. "He's acting weird again." She went into depth explaining Sora's recent behavior of the last several weeks.
Heidi was quiet for a few moments, contemplating the information Kairi had fed her. "I'm sure he's still upset about his dad," she finally said. "Is he moody?"
"Uh…I dunno, maybe? I guess," Kairi answered. "He isn't mad at me—I mean, we aren't arguing or anything. He just seems depressed and like he doesn't really want to be around me."
"Is he smoking pot again?" Heidi asked aggressively.
Kairi blushed. "Um, yeah," she confessed. "We've been doing it together lately."
Heidi sighed. "I promise you that's part of the problem," she said. "He gets so moody when he's smoking a lot. It happened when he was in high school, too."
They talked for a bit longer, Kairi coming to the decision that despite the fun she and Sora had the first time they smoked, that it wasn't worth sacrificing their relationship over. Heidi suggested that she try to get Sora out of the house by offering to go out to one of his favorite places with him. Considering how wrapped up in writing music he was at the moment, she figured a suggestion to go visit Guitar Center would go over well.
She wasn't wrong. Sora even seemed to brighten up at the idea of going there. It wasn't Kairi's favorite place, but she wanted Sora to be happy. He could spend hours in there—he'd admire different guitars and most of the time he'd sit and play the drums. He'd told Kairi he wouldn't mind drumming in a band, but guitar was his first true love.
She let Sora spend an hour goofing around in Guitar Center, and while he did so he chatted lightheartedly with the staff there, who all seemed to recognize him and know him. She had to cut him off when her stomach started growling.
"I wouldn't mind working there," Sora told her in the car as they headed to get dinner.
Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you apply?"
"Well, I do so well at the phone store," Sora answered. "I'm basically my own boss, and the hours are nice. But there's no way to advance…I can't make any more money."
"I think you should apply," Kairi said. "Maybe you could get a management job there or something. Wouldn't that be cool?"
Sora smiled at her. "You know, you're totally right, babe. I think I will…I really have nothing to lose."
Kairi sighed with relief at the appearance of her Sora. For once, Heidi had provided her with advice that was actually helpful. She really wasn't looking forward to having to tell Sora he was going to have to stop smoking, though.
They pulled into the Taco Bell and decided to sit inside to eat. Much to Kairi's pleasure, the time at Guitar Center seemed to have brought Sora out of his depression temporarily, and he was talking with her animatedly, catching her up on his progress with his music. He had nearly finished writing a song that he wanted his band to perform. He also informed her that Leon had purchased studio time for them to record their first EP.
As Sora was talking to her, Kairi felt a presence approach behind her. "Hey, Sora," a gravelly voice said behind her. "Haven't seen you in a while."
Sora looked up and dropped his burrito, his eyes widening and his mouth hanging open. "Nate?"
Kairi turned around in her seat to see who it was that Sora could be so surprised to see in a Taco Bell. It was a man of average height and build, the visible parts of his body covered in tattoos—but it was his face that caused Kairi a shock as well. He had long, tawny colored hair to his shoulders, and his eyes were a brilliant blue. Kairi had no need for Sora to explain to her who this man was—she already knew just from looking at him.
This was Sora's birth father.
