The Magic of the Earth and the Sky

by Flare Haynekie

Disclaimer: …………

Warnings: AU, OOC-ness, shonen-ai

Author's note: THE LAST CHAPTER. No, I'm not kidding. This is the last chapter. Read the notes at the end for more info. There's a surprise too!

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Chapter 34: The magic of the earth and the sky
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Sora yawned and looked around. There was chaos all around, and Selphie tried to control it by hitting everyone over the head with the script whenever she felt they weren't doing something useful. They were currently near the end of the play, and they were taking a ten minute break. Which was more for their sake rather than for the audience's sake.

Plus, since Selphie wanted to save this for all time, she made everyone pitch in to contract a small company to record the play, which caused a bit of an uproar from the cast and staff members. But since everyone was getting a copy of it, the arguing didn't last very long. In fact, it inspired them to do even better than before, meaning better than during the practice sessions.

"Here, Sora. I got you some juice." Riku approached Sora, handing the brunet a bottle of pink liquid. "Supposedly it's good."

Sora smiled at him. "Thanks. I actually like this strawberry melon juice a lot."

They leaned against the way as they drank their respective juices and watching the others running around.

"Will you be okay? That scene is coming up soon." Riku said, pausing to look at Axel run past them looking for Roxas.

Sora looked at the stage, and sighed. "I'll probably won't be okay." He looked up at Riku. "It was really sad, you know."

Riku smiled at him. "Yeah. I read the play before Selphie cut it. I was quite surprised."

"There's nothing to be surprised about, really." Sora noted. He smiled and waved at Cloud as he passed by, waving back.

"Why is that?"

"If you had contributed to most of the parts that I didn't know about, Selphie would've been more troubled figuring out what to cut out."

Riku leaned and kissed Sora's cheek. "I didn't mean that."

"Huh? What did you mean, then?"

"SORA!" Selphie called, running towards them, hitting Riku over the head with the script. "We're starting soon, so both of you get ready, okay?"

Sora gave her a nervous chuckle. "Sure. Ah, please stop hitting Riku and the others with the script."

"I've been trying to stop her since last week. Sorry." Irvine apologized, appearing out of nowhere and scooping up Selphie in his arms. "This little one is a bit troublesome." He laughed, even as Selphie hit him with the script instead.

"Right…" Riku simply said, but took Sora's hand and walked away. "We should get ready."

---- Some time later ----

"What's wrong?" Sora asked, worried.

"My father… he's dead." Riku replied, clutching the crown in his hands so hard, his knuckles went white.

"What! No! Are you sure?" Sora asked, but walked around stage as if looking to see there wasn't anyone there.

"Yes, I'm sure."

Riku took a deep breath, while Sora stood near, sad. Then Riku looked up, placing the crown on Sora's head. Sora looked up puzzled. This isn't right. This wasn't the way it happened. And since Selphie clearly knew that, she was holding Irvine's hand in a tight squeeze, quietly panicking over the sudden change in the script. Cloud, who was on the other side, also backstage, froze. He had been waiting for his cue to go in, but with Riku's suddenly changing the script, he decided to wait and see what would happen.

The crowd was softly murmuring, wondering why Riku suddenly went quiet. They gasped when Riku leaned down, pulling Sora's dress down and kissing the spot of the brunet's rapidly beating heart. And Riku looked up to Sora with a smile.

"You are mine, as I am yours. I shall always place your happiness before mine, as well as your health and your safety. I vow to stay by your side, through all eternity if needed, because my love for you will be with you always." Riku recited the vows.

"The royal vows." Sora gasped. He looked down to where Riku had kissed, a golden round mark appeared. "Um…"

Riku straightened, still smiling, fixing Sora's dress. "Now you, my little fluff ball." He said as he raised his shirt.

Sora nodded, taking off the crown and placing it on Riku, then leaning down to kiss Riku's heart. "You are mine, as I am yours. I shall always place your happiness before mine, as well as your health and your safety. I vow to stay by your side, through all eternity if needed, because my love for you will be with you always." Sora repeated, straightening as he saw the mark appear on Riku as well.

Riku leaned down towards Sora, lowering his shirt as he placed a soft kiss on Sora's lips, taking his crown off in the process. He also made a hidden motion for Cloud to get on with the original play already. Cloud gulped and nodded, although he was sure Riku couldn't see it.

"Sorae? Sorae! Where are you little brother?" Cloud called.

Sora blushed, breaking the kiss to look towards where Cloud was, walking a few steps in his direction. "It's Cloud! Over here Cloud!"

Cloud ran up the stage, running to hug Sora. "You stupid idiots. Did you have to make the vows during the play?" he whispered, scolding.

"Yes. Sorry." Sora murmured his apology.

"Oh, thank goodness you're alive." Cloud said, loudly, continuing with the play.

Meanwhile, Selphie gave a sigh, quickly turning around and hitting Roxas with the script, the unlucky blond not able to dodge or cover himself in time.

"Why are you hitting me!" Roxas argued, angry at her sudden reaction.

"Because you're his twin. Plus, he's currently in the middle of the play so I'm not able to hit him." Selphie huffed.

But she quickly recovered her carefree self when she noticed that the play was nearing the accorded ending, and ran to where the backstage narrating microphone was, waiting for the curtain drop.

Once Cloud ran off with the screaming Sora on his back, the curtains fell, Selphie shushing everyone before turning on the microphone. "But Rikue never survived, and couldn't fulfill his promise. Drove into denial, Sorae waited endlessly on the island. He waited and waited, hoping that one day Rikue would come back, even though he had watched as the castle burned down. It is said that Cloud, after taking back the heir rights from his youngest brother, confronted the heaven kin's troops, and stopped the war.

"Even after Sorae's death, Cloud continued to search for any sign of the remaining earth kin, but even at the burnt remains of the castle, he couldn't find anything other than the crown Rikue held the last time he saw him. Sadden that he couldn't find anything, he spent countless days searching until he was suddenly murdered at the ruins. The ruins were then forgotten, only bits and pieces of this tragic story being passed down by the island's inhabitants, it's possible that it was Cloud himself who started to tell it, telling everyone that in the far off future, the princes would be reborn as normal humans to continue their unforgettable promise, and make sure they're never separated ever again."

The lights went off on the stage, everyone running on to it for their vows. Once the lights were back on, they vowed. The crowd clapped, they cheered, and they cried. It really was a once in a lifetime show. After the first vow, they took a second, then they finally filed backstage. Once backstage, Selphie was happily running around hugging people, giving her congrats on a good show, then hitting them over the head with the script, blaming it on Riku mostly.

"I have a great idea!" Selphie declared once everyone was out of wardrobe. "Let's go to the ice cream shop to celebrate!"

And even if they were a bit miffed at being hit by the script, they couldn't deny that this was the best day in their lives. The ice cream shop got full quickly with the crew, along with the fans of the play.

Selphie declared a toast. "Ahem. A toast to, first of all, a good play!"

Everyone cheered.

"Secondly, to the reborn princes and their memories. Because if it wasn't for Sora starting to remember, we wouldn't have the complete story in the first place."

Another cheer.

"Thirdly, to this beautiful day which has been marked as the day the Paopu was created."

A couple of laughs, but another cheer.

"And fourthly, to me, who got proposed by Irvine." She squealed.

There was a pause, everyone staring at Selphie shocked, before cheering and flooding her with questions, Irvine not believing she said it.

"Ahh, she's getting married!" Sora said, slightly disappointed, but happy for her.

"She's too young. We should stop her before Irvine regrets it." Riku joked.

"Nah. He won't. He has liked her since way before, remember? Either way, I'm glad it's over." Sora placed his left hand over his heart. "It's all finally over."

Riku reached across him, taking Sora's hand into his. "Yes, it is."

Sora smiled. "I'm still surprised Selphie managed to convince Kairi to do her part as Hikari."

"You're right, that was rather strange."

Even as they pondered on it, Kairi appeared before them, her eyes red from crying.

"I'm sorry, Sora. I've been so mean to you all this time, and I haven't even realized that it wasn't because you were stealing away Riku, well partly it was, but still. I'm sorry. Would you ever forgive me?" she looked like she would cry again.

Sora simply smiled at her. "Sure! Since no one was really hurt or anything, yeah. I forgive you."

And so came the waterworks as Kairi hugged Sora. "After all the mean things I said and did to you…" she let him go a few minutes later, apologizing and thanking them before leaving.

"That was weird." Sora stated, Riku moving to sit next to Sora just at Roxas and Axel sat across them where Riku had sat.

"Congrats on the play, Sora." Roxas said, looking around before passing a small crystal pot like the ones for baby food, but with a rather yellowy-clear mush at the bottom. "It's not much, but you two should eat this. We stole one and made this purée out of it, not wasting a single piece. Out of precaution of course."

Irvine quickly grabbed a seat and sat with them, a notepad in his hand. "Okay, I'm ready. Tell me how it tastes like and everything since I need it for my project."

Sora blinked, but Riku picked up the pot and opened it, grabbing the spoon he had use for ice cream and eating a bit. He made a face like he was eating something utterly disgusting.

"Is it that bad?" Roxas asked, but laughed. Riku's face was priceless.

"This is not bad." Riku started. "It's horrible! It's like eating something rotten. Or a couple of things rotten." But even so, he picked another bit, this time, force-feeding it to Sora.

Everyone waited for Sora's response, only that Sora's face lit up and he opened his mouth, asking for more. Curious with the strange response, Riku fed him another bit, and tasted some himself, even though he expected the strong foul taste from before. But it didn't come.

"It's sweet!" Riku exclaimed, quite surprised at the sudden change.

Sora opened his mouth again. He really liked it. "It's a bit like the strawberry melon juice I like."

"Really? To me it tastes like apple sauce." Riku pondered, feeding Sora a spoonful, eating that much himself.

Irvine scribbled it all down. "So it's bad if you eat it alone, but if it's shared it tastes good. Even if the tastes differ depending on who's eating it."

"What about the kiss part?" Axel asked. "Remember? You guys wrote that those three said that if the fruit is shared with a loved one and a kiss your destinies would become intertwined."

Riku smiled, making Sora look up before kissing him, the symbols on their chest slightly shinning, even if no one noticed.

"Ahh…" Sora sighed when they separated, Riku feeding him more. "I thought Clotho said that it would be tasteless, not bad tasting."

"That's your fault." A sudden voice said, the table inhabitants turning to look at the small girl. "That's because even when I told him that he couldn't kiss you, he went and kissed you!"

"It was on the nose!" Riku exclaimed, glaring at her.

"But it was a kiss." She noticed the melting ice cream Sora had abandoned and looked at it anxiously. But she decided to ignore it. "Anyway, in order to avoid anything extremely bad from happening because of that silly kiss, we directed it towards the fruit, making the otherwise tasteless fruit into a bad tasting one. Well, at least it stopped idiots from recklessly eating it." She gave Sora a hug. "I'm glad it turned out like this. I guess this is goodbye. Don't go around doing stupid stuff!" And she ran off into the crowd towards the exit, disappearing from view.

"What was that?" Irvine asked once he had recovered from the shock.

Sora chuckled. "You just had the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Clotho, the time deity of the future."

"THAT was Clotho!" Roxas asked, quite shocked. "That bratty little girl!"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Most unfortunately."

They continued talking for hours. The Paopu purée that Roxas and Axel had made was finished, and the ice cream they were eating was gone. At one point, Riku went out with Sora, letting the others continue to party, and took the brunet to the small island. Once there, he took Sora's hands and kissed them.

"We're married by the royal vows, and our destinies are intertwined by the fruit." Riku softly said.

Sora nodded. "We are…"

"There's no need to be worried about our parents, about the kingdoms, about Hikari. There's just you and me, and there's nothing else that can separate us anymore." Riku pulled Sora into his arms. "This is the beginning of our future, Sora."

"It is. And there's nothing else I'd rather be doing than spending that future with you."

And softly under the setting sun, they kissed, a never ending promise finally fulfilled. They suffered countless pains and sorrows, but now as they kissed under the bright glow of the setting sun and the first appearing stars, they were certain that this was the beginning of a new life.

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The end…!
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(Author's rants)
Oh, dear, God, it's over. I'm in shock. Ah! SORRY FOR THE LAME ENDING! Seriously, I didn't know what to write to end it. Well, it was a happy ending… XD And not only that but the play was a success (XD), Selphie's getting married (gasp!), Clotho made a re-appearance (the hell?), and Riku and Sora were fed Paopu purée (giggle).

SO! How was that for a shocking ending? Bah, I could write an extra chapter as a bonus, but I wouldn't know about what… (reads the extra chapter written during history class out of boredom) that's it! XD I can't believe I forgot about this! THERE'S AN EXTRA CHAPTER! Just something extra for everyone. Hehehehe. But other than that, I would like to thank EVERYONE (!) for having accompanied me during these two years (shock) that took to write this. I'm really glad to have kept with it from beginning to end, and it does give me a sense of pride and satisfaction over it. I was a good project, it helped me with my writing (and narrating skills) and it earned me a stalker (hullo Nessa!). Hahaha.

But really, thank you for being with me. And I hope you enjoy the extra chapter as well.


(Things you should know)
This is the last thing I wrote in Fayt (my laptop) before going to change it (because the battery died and Costco is annoying and said that they didn't have replacements or the tools to fix it so it was better to exchange it for a new one… the laptop not the battery).

There's not supposed to be anything missing! But if there is, I would like to know what so I can add it on the revised version. (grin)


(Things I was hearing and/or working on while writing this chapter)
Working on "A little bit of love", and hearing the playlist. Same old, same old.


(Reviews)

1. pansypantelones411 – LOL. Everyone hates Kairi now. XD
2. ShadowShapeshifterAndHerCat – Whoot! Gummy worms! Well, that makes sense. I should sniff some too XD.
3. Kayrana – ahh. True. Thank you!
4. Bonnie Mizuhara – Yeah, it was sad. Sorry.
5. Largo-sensei – ((pets))

More! 3 ALMOST DONE!