The original version of Chapter 9 - Stars. I didn't save the original A/N so that's not included this time, sorry!

Atlantica part 2

You're a sky full of stars/

When I look at the stars/ I feel like myself

See the end of the chapter for notes.

Sora took off as soon as the groom took his horse from him. His chest felt tight, like something was squeezing it and he couldn't keep still. He knew he couldn't keep up a smile, so he went looking for somewhere without people and found himself back on the shoreline.

Prince Eric thought they were -

He couldn't even really finish the thought. Thought they were what exactly? All three of them? How did that even work? He didn't want to know.

Okay, actually, he really really did want to know and how badly he wanted to know scared him so much he couldn't even think about it at all.

So Sora went running.

He ran up and down along the shore at a full on sprint, chasing the sound of the waves. The pace forced him to keep breathing, which suddenly was harder than it should have been. He stared out at the water and tried to pretend he was home with Riku and Kairi and that everything was back to normal and that he didn't have these stupid questions rattling around his skull.

Home, it turned out, wasn't a safe thing to think about either. Thoughts of school and the look on his mother's face as she begged him not to go tumbled through his mind. Sora ran harder, pushing himself until his lungs burned and his eye watered. Even then he didn't stop; it wasn't enough. If he just kept moving maybe all the thoughts would fall right out of the back of his head and he could be himself again. Maybe he could stop thinking about kissing Riku the way he'd been thinking about kissing Kairi.

God, Kairi - what would she even think about this? About the three of them? Wouldn't she just feel betrayed if she knew how he felt about Riku? It was cheating, wasn't it? They weren't officially anything but…

He remembered Riku, standing bravely in the realm of darkness, saying "Take care of her." Then, it had been a promise and an apology and an acquiescence. Now it felt more like an admonishment.

"Take care of her." Riku hadn't been giving Kairi to him, not exactly. It was still her choice to make. But he had been giving up trying to win her heart.

It wasn't hard to picture the disgusted look Riku would give him if he voiced this weird desire now.

Sora's mind drifted back over their drawings in the cave and sharing a paopu with Kairi. Bittersweet, like the fruit itself, juice dripping down their chins. He would do anything in the worlds for her. He had done something quite outside the worlds to bring her back. And now he was going to throw it all away for some stupid whim like some horny teenage idiot? Forget that.

Though, now that he was thinking about it, this did make a few things make more sense. A couple of dreams, for one thing and why in the last world he'd felt like his brain was going to explode every time he saw Riku shirtless. The smell thing, too. Riku and Kairi had both smelled so good… but thinking about that too hard made him loop back around to what a faithless, greedy moron he was. Why couldn't he just be happy with what he had?

So Sora ran until he threw up.

It surprised him, forcing him to skid to a stop as he doubled over. He vomited out all of the food he'd eaten that day and then some, dry heaving until he wanted to scream with how raw his throat was. Finally, he managed to get enough air to stop. He rinsed his mouth out with salt water - careful not to swallow - and slowly rose to his feet. At least the waves would wash the mess away before someone found it.

The sun was low, dying everything red and orange and oh crap he probably missed dinner. He dug through his pockets for an elixir, then remembered that these weren't his pants and he didn't have anything in their insignificant pockets. Taking a few steadying breaths, he started jogging back to the castle, gait shambly and hitched with exhaustion.

Miraculously, they were just sitting down to eat when Sora stumbled in, shirt changed and the fringes of his hair still a little damp from hastily washing his face. (Carlotta insisted.) He slipped into the chair on Kairi's right and tried not to look too suspicious even as his fingers drummed on the handles of his silverware and he itched his ankle with his other foot.

Kairi took in the ashy tone on his face and the furrow between his eyes and they way he wouldn't quite look at them and immediately turned to Riku to see if he knew what was going on. Riku wouldn't meet her eyes either, and he wore an expression she hadn't seen since he'd been trapped in a body that wasn't his - like he'd just as easily not exist if he could figure out how to manage it. She reached under the table and caught both of their hands, squeezing tight until they looked at her. She gave them each a reassuring smile, squeezing again and refusing to let go. Sora's palm was clammy, and Riku held very, very still as if he was afraid to touch her.

Ariel, feeling the awkwardness in the room like a physical presence, tried to break the silence. "So, Eric and I were thinking it'd be a good idea to talk about what you wanted for the gala. We'll have to choose what we're serving for food and how things will be decorated, what music you want and what activities will be available."

"Activities?" Sora managed, tilting his head. Kairi squeezed his hand again.

Eric opened his mouth, but Ariel beat him to it, excited now. "There will be dancing, obviously, but there's so many other things we can do! Games and fencing and performers and lots of other stuff."

"Sounds like a lot to arrange," Riku replied.

Ariel nodded. "So we should get started right away. It's your night, Riku. How would you like to celebrate?"

For some reason, Riku was reminded of his parents. Every birthday, every major life event had been marked with a party so stiff and formal - meant to impress other adults rather than entertain children. He'd hated it. He'd wanted nothing more than the simple things Sora's mother threw him - handmade games and lopsided cake decorated in a shaky hand, a yard full of kids running and yelling at the tops of their lungs. Or Kairi's neat little affairs, with face-paint and games designed to teach Island history or mythology without the children noticing. Now, they were back to stuffy and formal, but he had a choice in what went on. It was a new concept, and the foreignness of it struck him silent.

"I like the sound of fencing," he finally said, and Sora grinned at him and suddenly planning a gala felt like the easiest thing in the world.

They spent the rest of the dinner hashing out details, going back and forth about food and games. Often, Riku deferred to Eric and Ariel's knowledge of their world and their guests, but he still made the bulk of the decisions. By the end of the meal, they had a rather serviceable framework for what needed to be done in the next seven days.

Exhausted, but for different reasons, the three teens decided to get their things from the gummi ship and get ready for bed.

By mutual agreement, they all met back up at Riku's rooms. No one was quite brave enough to walk towards the bedroom, so they ended up in his sitting room. Kairi tucked herself in a chair while Riku stood against a wall and Sora perched on the edge of the thick wooden desk.

"What happened while you were with Eric?" Kairi asked straight away. At that question, neither boy was willing to look at her, faces as good as confirming that something was up. But Kairi was patient, and she knew her best friends.

Finally, Riku spoke, "He asked that we not spend time in each other's rooms while the guests are here. He doesn't want people getting the wrong idea, for Ariel's sake." He was impressed that he kept his voice level, since he would have rather pulled out his own teeth than admitted what the prince had talked to them about that day. At least Sora hadn't been around for the worst of it.

Kairi took a second to process exactly what he had just said, then her face flushed. "Oh… Ariel teased me about that too, but she didn't say anything about us not… about it not happening again."

"From what he told me, it's not exactly unheard of on this world," Riku supplied, blank expression fraying at the corners of his eyes and the tension in his jaw.

"He talked to you about it again?" Sora asked, tone dull enough to make both Kairi and Riku shoot him a worried look.

"A little," Riku supplied.

Kairi tried to salvage the conversation, "Well, I mean, at least that's something we can do. It shouldn't be that hard." She was lying, and not even lying well, but no one called her out on it.

Riku decided to test the waters, "They didn't seem to think it was a bad thing, on its own."

"But we can't make Ariel look bad," Sora insisted, loyalty flaring, hands tightening on the edge of the desk.

"Of course not," Riku replied immediately, "I just thought it was strange."

Kairi forced a giggle, covering her mouth, "It is a little bit funny, that they thought we'd be…" She trailed off meaningfully, gesturing vaguely in front of herself.

Sora shrugged, feigning nonchalance by lacing his fingers behind his head. "I think I liked Atlantica better..." He muttered, staring at the ceiling.

"We're not even that old!" Kairi pointed out, ignoring Sora's comment by virtue of not really being able to hear it.

"Ariel's only a year older than Riku, and she's been married for awhile now," Sora replied.

"Less than a year," RIku interjected.

"Does that matter?" Sora fired back, dropping his hands and leaning forward. "She's still... They've still… whatever. Let's talk about something else," he added hastily.

That was preferable for Kairi and Riku too, but suddenly there didn't seem to be anything else to talk about. Silence thickened between the three of them as Sora drummed the desk and Kairi bit her lip and Riku leaned against a wall, staring at the ceiling.

"We're idiots," he said finally.

"Hey! Speak for yourself," Sora demanded. He sounded like he was defending himself, but he'd actually been thinking about Kairi.

Riku shoved off the wall with one shoulder. "I mean, we should have realized that people would talk. It's not like this castle's empty. I should have thought about what it would look like."

"You couldn't have known," Kairi said right away, soothing.

"This isn't Zootopia, or home, where people are just used to us."

His tone made Sora flinch. "Riku…"

"What?" Riku snapped, harsher then he meant to. He seemed to know it too, eyes widening in surprise. Exhaling, he ran a hand through his hair and looked down. "Sorry."

"We're all… embarrassed," Sora offered, "but it's not your fault."

"It was my idea."

"We all agreed to it," Kairi argued.

"Yeah," Sora nodded. "So we'll take the blame together."

Riku glanced between the two of them, then cracked a small smirk. "You two'll be sneaking off on your own soon."

"What?!" Sora yelped, jerking backwards in embarrassment and unbalancing himself to the point where he nearly fell of the desk.

Kairi laughed, but she was blushing.

Laughing, Riku shook his head. "C'mon, we should get some sleep." He turned and headed towards his bedroom, but then stopped, and glanced over his shoulder at the two of them. Kairi was fiddling with her necklace again, eyebrows furrowed. Sora was staring at the floor, knuckles white against the desk.

Kairi looked up and caught Riku's eyes. "What do you think we should do, Riku?"

"We need sleep," he pointed out.

"But…" Sora interjected, unable to finish the sentence.

"The guests aren't here yet," Riku replied, a knife blade edge hidden under the ice calm of his voice.

"Shouldn't we try to learn to sleep by ourselves then, before they get here?" Kairi asked. Riku merely shrugged. Sora looked between the two of them, but didn't know what to say.

"Tomorrow," Riku finally uttered, tone soft. There was no knife edge here, just the faintest hint of pleading, but it tugged something in his friends' hearts just the same.

"Okay," Sora replied, getting up. Kairi followed suit. When she reached each boy, she took their hands and held on tight.

That night, they drew the heavy canopy around the bed and tied it closed. The darkness settled around them, total and oddly frightening, despite the lack of any real threat.

"Here," Kairi murmured, whisper quiet, and a tiny pearl of light bloomed in her cupped hands. She reached up, sticking it to the top of the canopy. She had to focus a bit to make it stick.

Sora, grinning, cupped his hands together and tried to do the same. It took ages - Kairi made nine more little orbs in the same span of time - but finally a ball of light appeared once he whispered, "Pearl," thinking of Queen Minnie's magic. Kairi had to teach him how to stick it on, and Sora had to use a spoken word to do it right, but it stayed up too.

They started coating the whole perimeter with lights, changing their size and position until they swooped and swirled like strings of beads spaced apart on a necklace.

"Like Christmas lights!" Sora enthused, smiling so his teeth flashed in the glow. "Come on, Riku! Make some with us!"

Riku shook his head, "Nah, I'm fine."

"Why not?" Sora asked, frowning.

"I don't think I can," Riku replied, seemingly unbothered.

Kairi frowned, murmuring, "No, I think you can. She turned to face him, moving forward on her knees, and took both of his hands in hers. "You can do it - just focus," she insisted, smiling gently at him.

Riku's heart had just enough time to falter at the look in her eyes before Sora elbowed him in the gut.

"Yeah c'mon, Riku!"

So with a long-suffering sigh, he tried. It didn't take long before a sphere of light appeared in his palms. He was so surprised, it snuffed itself out right away and it took three whole tries to get it back. But once he did, it was easy and soon he was making dimmer stars and sticking them to the canopy ceiling in the shapes of constellations from home. Kairi decided she liked that better and started dimming hers and adding them up there with Riku's. Sora couldn't manage it, but he gathered all of his up into one bigger ball (no more than the size of his fist) and plopped it in the center.

"I made the moon," he explained, grinning. It was a little too bright still, so Riku made scudding little clouds of darkness that passed over its surface.

"It's perfect," Kairi whispered, face aglow. The boys had to agree. They curled up, still carefully not touching, with Riku in the middle.

"Good night," Kairi murmured, and the boys echoed it back to her. They fell asleep dreaming of home.