Disclaimer: I don't own the games or the challenge; however, I own my interpretation of what the paopu tastes like, which strangely seems to change from fic to fic...XD
Notes: This is my entry for xsynthetic-smile's challenge (which, incidentally, everyone should join. XD) Also, hm, there's Soriku if ya squint, not too much Kairi (unfortunately), and I think it kinda goes all over the place.
Tasting Paopu
He wanted to do a million things. He wanted to pounce on Riku and he wanted to cry and he wanted to crack a grin and a joke and pretend that everything was cool. He wanted to forget about the sweat that plastered his hair to his face and his clothes to his body and how his arm was starting to ache and that one of his shoelaces had come undone during that last battle.
He wanted to just stare at Riku like he hadn't seen him in a million years because that was what it felt like, like his friend hadn't been there all those other times when they had run into each other, and really he hadn't, it had been someone else in Riku's body because there was no way Riku would do anything he'd done.
He wanted to stop pushing on the door, but he didn't, he just kept pushing and Riku was pulling and then he wasn't, he was standing and
"Take care of her."
the door was shutting shutting shutting on them, and his keyblade was glowing and making his body lock his best friend behind that white door that led to nowhere anyone should ever be.
He wanted to break down and cry and he wanted to nudge Donald and say
That's my best friend Riku.
something about the other boy. He wanted to bring up their past; he wanted to remember the sunny days on the beach when all they thought about was having fun. He wanted to, however briefly, let go of his keyblade and let everything slip away. He wanted to erase the images that he'd been confronted with, the pictures of his keyblade and keychains and Riku's keyblade
Why's his look cooler than mine, huh?
and Kairi lying on the floor all dead-like and the Princesses and the worlds and
What the heck is that
Riku in a gods-forsaken half-skirt (he definitely wanted to get rid of that one). He wanted to remember the good old days and forget the bad new days and go back to that time before the keyblades, when the most important things in the world were a paopu fruit and a sturdy little raft that he had helped build.
He wanted to take a ship and fly back to the Islands and finally taste a paopu fruit. He wanted to taste
Spring flowers and summer raindrops and fall leaves and winter snowflakes.
whatever the fruit tasted like, because he knew somewhere deep inside of him that if he just wanted it to taste like the past hard enough that it would. He wanted it to taste like saltwater fish and warm coconuts and gritty sand and roasted mushrooms and a million other tastes that he'd ever encountered back in that place that used to be home but wasn't anymore, not without Riku and not without Kairi.
He wanted all these things and more, but all he did was run over to Kairi, and then he lost her too
"I'll come back to you! I promise!"
and Riku was gonna be livid when he found out, either that or disappointed, and Sora knew that he didn't want that and he wanted to keep his promise.
He would come back for her and he would find Riku and together they'd get to taste the paopu fruit, and Sora didn't care if he'd have to drag his best friend through the white door that wasn't there anymore or if he'd have to shove two separate pieces into Kairi and Riku's mouths and make them swallow, because he'd done stranger things and he'd make sure that he never, ever lost either of them again.
Besides, he wanted to see the looks on their faces when they realized they were stuck with him forever.
-Fin.-
Okay, like I said, it's kinda all jumpy and stuff, but I kinda make it chronlogical and whatnot to help contain that. (apologetic grin goes here)
As for the sudden focus on the paopu fruit...well, I had to incorporate some aspect of KH into here, and it was either that or the keyblade. But since this is kinda all "life was better then," I figured the paopu would be better than the keyblade. (No offense to the keyblade, of course.)