Drabble. Riku inside Kingdom Hearts. Spoilers.
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I miss you.
The thought shouldn't be a surprise, but it is. I've been here too long; surrounded by the dark, lies whispered at my back for too long. It's changed me, but I'm not the only one that' changed.
I don't remember the last time I heard you laugh, a golden cadence that rippled through the air. You looked as if you had forgotten how to laugh the last time I saw you.
I do remember your victory dance, though. You'd jump and crow every time you beat me at anything. I saw it more and more those last few months at the islands, the last few months before I opened the door. I even saw it when I finally found you again after the darkness separated us. You were all cock and swagger, the way I imagine I was on the islands.
It was a long time before I saw you again, and by then we were both almost different people. I was infatuated with the dark, seduced by it and lusting for more. You had the beginnings of sorrow all around you now. Confused, lost, betrayed—it was all on your face. You've always been an open book, Sora.
I gave in at Hollow Bastion. I was on top of the world, on top of every world and nobody could stand against me—not Maleficent, not the Heartless and surely I could control even Ansem if I gave him my body.
I've always been arrogant.
When you confronted me, you were shining. Did you know that? No, you probably didn't. The dark sees the light more clearly than anyone else. You were shining, radiant with your belief that the good would win, your hope that I could still be saved. It looked like you had wings, like you were an angel. For that moment, maybe you were.
When you brought the Keyblade down for that final time, when it traced a butterfly arc of light strait towards me sprawled on the floor of Hollow Bastion, when you won—you weren't shining anymore. Your eyes were sad, your shoulders hunched. You looked like the defeated one.
Was that when you began to doubt? I know it was the moment I doubted. What kind of a war are we fighting, that the light could leave you, Sora? What are we doing that you aren't happy that you beat me?
Something about what we were doing was wrong, right down to the core, and I knew it. That knowledge gave me the strength to resist, even if only for a moment. And for that moment, I was the one shining.
I saw the sorrow in your eyes again when you shut the door. It was magnified by the knowledge of why I was on the inside of Kingdom Hearts and why I couldn't step outside of it. I knew you were doubting then, and I know you're doubting now, wherever you are. Kingdom Hearts shone with the light, yet there were Heartless within. I know even now it's churning through your mind, chipping away at your beliefs. But you see, Kingdom Hearts isn't light, and it's not dark ether. It simply is. It's what you expect to find and you can't change it. I found darkness; you found light and neither one of us can really escape to the other side.
What kind of a war are we fighting with that as its center?
I know you'd have an answer. You always did, no matter how simple. I used to scoff at your simplicity, but I know I need it now. Everything's complicated now. I miss the islands, I miss days of swimming and dreaming in equal parts and I miss laughter in the wind, the sound of gold.
I miss you.