Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts

Part 7

Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.

Longwythe Rest Area

With a small yawn escaping her lips, Kairi shifted her head slightly before she slowly cracked open her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was a wonderous warm sensation and the slow but steady hum of a heartbeat. A sense of security that made her feel as if nothing could harm her, and she wanted more of that. Kairi gently nuzzled her head into the chest, letting a small sigh of content.

Slowly she raised her head to see the sleeping form of Sora, looking at peace and his breathing was relaxed. Kairi was sporting a large grin on her face, reviling in this situation she and he were in, and she could hear her heartbeat quickly with excitement. Sora shifted, his eyes squinted before his eyelids opened them and showed the princess the beautiful blue eyes he possessed.

When he glanced down to Kairi, still grinning happily at him. His cheeks turned rosy red when he sees he practically had the girl in his arms and felt their legs tangled up in the bed.

'M-Morning', he gasped, shy.

'Morning', she replied, giggling.

Gently Kairi moved up and rested her head on the mattress, now eye to eye with Sora and still smiling at him lovingly. 'Ya know, this reminds me of our sleepovers', she said, before she giggled. 'We used to share the same bed every time, be it my home, yours, Riku's…'. Sora smiled shyly, remembering those nights of innocence and naivety.

When sharing a few blankets on the floor with an army's worth of pillows wasn't awkward for him, that having his best friend by his side was the norm. Now here he is, sharing a bed with the girl who owned his heart.

Slowly with hesitation, Sora gently brushed against her soft cheek to brush away a strain of red hair, enjoying the softness and warmth of her skin. Kairi let out a sigh, closing her eyes and placing her own smaller hand on is own. Opening her eyes to face him, there was a sparkle within them, glistening innocence. Sora felt his throat dry up, the rapid beating of his heart grew into a quicker pace.

Kairi gently pulled his face closer to hers, as Sora moved his body closer to hers until their noses touched. As their eyes slowly closed, their lips moved in…

'Hey guys, you ready to-

Quickly they both turned to see Prompto, door opened with his cheery face slowly changed to shock. There was a silence as none of the occupants in this room had spoken until Kairi turned scarlet and had a look of mortification.

She screamed, Prompto and Sora screamed. Sora fell out of the bed in shock, Kairi grabbed the sheets and threw them all over herself as Prompto quickly ducked his head, averting his eyes while profusely spouting apologies.

'PROMPTO GET OUT!', shouted Kairi through her shield of blankets.

'SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!', yelled the blonde. In his rush to escape, he banged his head on the door frame before he slammed the door shut.

On the floor with his legs in the air, the hero rolled back and landed on his stomach with a grunt, getting back to his feet. Sora then poked Kairi's head (at least where he thought her head was), and heard her let out a small sound of embarrassment. She poked out her head to see him, her cheeks still rosy. '…why didn't he knock?', she whined.

Sora shrugged in response, not having an answer to Prompto's negligence of mannerisms. 'Well, plus side we don't have to get up yet?', he offered. Kairi gave him a look, then she let out a giggle. 'True, but you're up already', she sighed, throwing the blanket off herself. 'So I guess I might as well join you in the world of the awakened'.

'Ok, but uh, maybe we should, shower first?', he suggested.

Upon hearing him, Kairi looked at herself and immediately frowned at her state. Last night she was far too tired to even consider how messy she was, now that she wasn't held down by fatigue, she grimaced by looks. Her exposed skin was carrying several splotches of mud, dust and other blemishes on herself, she could feel the dry sweat on her body, and she didn't even want to imagine how filthy her hair looked.

'Yeah…maybe that's a good idea', she agreed. 'But you go first, I'll grab us some breakfast'. Kairi approached her clothes, and to her surprise, they were in pristine condition. Looking over them, she couldn't see any signs of the fights from yesterday nor did she find the tear on the shoulder anymore. Kairi turned to Sora. 'Oh yeah, our clothes patch and clean themselves', he explained. 'I mean, with all the trouble we get into, it makes sense'.

'…is there a spell for that?', she asked.

'You just want to be lazy', he teased.

'That is true'.

Changing back into her full set of clothes, Kairi headed for the door, but then her hand was caught. She turned only to receive Sora's lips against hers, catching her off guard and causing her to blush. For a total of five seconds before she kissed him back. They broke apart, the boy sporting a cheeky smile. 'There we go, first kiss of the day!', he said boastfully. Kairi raised a brow with a coy smirk. 'Oh? "First kiss of the day", what makes you think you'll get more than that?', she teased.

Sora grinned, and then pecked her quickly on the lips, making her squeak with surprise. 'See? Second kiss of the day!'. Kairi rolled her eyes, smiling. 'Fair point, cheater', she conceded. Once that was done, Kairi exited the room and headed down for the main lobby.

She found only Ignis sitting by a table with a mug of coffee in hand with the newspaper laid on the table. The green-eyed man lifted his eyes to her with a friendly nod as she approached him, smiling at him. 'Morning Kairi', he said, courteous. 'Hi Ignis, are you and Prompto the only ones up?', she asked, looking around for the blonde youth. 'Oh he's gone over to the restaurant across the road for everyone…', he said, but then he slowed down when he saw a slight blush on Kairi's cheeks.

Kairi saw this look and sheepishly scratched her cheek. 'Umm…we uh, got a wake-up call from him…', she mused.

Ignis sighed, seemingly understanding what she was implying. 'I warned him his disagreed for knocking first before entering would land him in trouble', he said, sipping his coffee. Kairi then looked to where the restaurant was, before turning back to Ignis. 'Are we looking for another Royal Arm today?', she asked. 'No not today, we've acquired the last of them in this region', Ignis said. He pulled out the map of Eos and placed it on the table for the princess to look at.

'The next arm was in Duscae. Which, unfortunately, the tomb itself had been looted and the weapon stolen', he revealed, pointing at the location on the map. 'How is that possible?', she asked, remembering the arms could only be used by Noctis. 'One of our allies believes it may have been a daemon, and luckily they managed to track down where it was last sighted', he elaborated. He pointed to another spot on the map only a few paces where his finger was.

'There is an old ruin site not too far from there, so we're hoping to see if we can get it back'. Looking at the map, Kairi frowned. The distance from here to there was farther than anywhere else they had explored so far, and the chocobos immediately came to mind. 'The chocobos wouldn't be able carry us that far though, we'll wear those poor things out', she said with concern. 'Agreed, which is why once we eat, we'll visit Cindy and see if she can help'.

'Sadly our funds are a tad bit on the short side…', he lamented. Kairi could imagine, based on how expensive the hotel was along with the food they were purchasing. 'Well is there anything we could do? I mean, we're kind of feeding off your wallets', she offered. Ignis smiled in response. 'Think nothing of it, you are all helping us with our tasks, but we could do with some extra coin'.

'Which is why once we return to Hammerhead, we'll take on a few hunts, and hopefully that will cover whatever costs Cindy will charge us'.

Just as he finished, Prompto returned to the lobby, carrying a few plastic bags in hand and his cheery smile dimmed when he looked at Kairi. His cheeks went rosy, and wordlessly he handed her the breakfast for herself and Sora, before handing Ignis his own. With a quick "good morning", he quietly climbed the stairs to the other bedrooms. Blinking with confusion, Ignis turned to Kairi, who like the blonde, took her bag and left.

'…he caught you and Sora in a compromising situation you said?', Ignis said coolly.

Kairi didn't give him a verbal response, but she did quicken her pace up the stairs, leaving the older man to smugly enjoy his breakfast and coffee.

On her way to their shared room, Kairi turned down a corridor and spotted Gladiolus walking down it, stretching out and yawning. His amber eyes fell on her, who gave the giant a smile and wave. 'Moring Gladiolus', she greeted kindly.

'Morning kid', he replied in kind. 'Where's Sora?'.

'Oh he was taking a shower, Prompto brought some food from the store and I'm just running back', she explained. 'What about Noctis?'.

Her answer came when a sluggish and still sleep-induced prince was walking down behind the giant. If Kairi was honest he looked like he hadn't slept at all for the past few days by how off his walks were. Her face must have shown the concern for him because Gladiolus gave her a smirk. 'Don't you worry kid, sleeping beauty over here is just being dramatic', he assured. 'Go to hell…who wakes up at…', Noctis slurred, before reaching for his phone and checking the time. '…nine am…'.

'Almost everyone', Gladiolus said with a deadpanned tone. 'Anyways, we're gonna see if Aqua and the others are up, Iggy told you our plan today yeah?'.

'Yup, I'll see you guys soon', she said.

Once she bid the two a good morning, she continued her way back the room, a spring in her step. On her way, she began to think about her experience so far and evaluate her progress and so far she liked to believe she was at the very least holding her own with the party. Kairi was happy to see she could keep up with them, despite knowing she was still a novice compared to Sora and Aqua, but she was happy to say she wasn't a liability to them.

Kairi then began to think about how Axel was doing, and a part of her felt a little bad she didn't ask him to tag along with her. Since they started training together, she was rather surprised to see that behind his "jerk move" motives there was a genuine goodness within him. He almost reminded her of Riku in some parts, and he was a great listener to get stuff off her chest. When she got off the phone with Sora the first time, she was adamant they find him and bring him home.

Once she and Axel were brought to the tower, Kairi told them what had happened and her losing contact with Sora. Unfortunately for them, the king had told them that Sora was farther away from the tower or even the worlds he's explored, and without a way to find his ship or him, tracking him down would take forever. It also didn't assure her that Yen Sid himself, deemed him to be a secondary priority and even told them to return to their training.

When they left the meeting, she was furious. How could he ask her, or heck anyone among them to just leave Sora behind for now until they come up with a plan that may take days, weeks, even months possibly? Kairi even had the mind to steal a ship and go off on her search, until Axel pulled her on that plan, stating she had a better chance of getting lost or ambushed by heartless than even reaching a new world to start her search.

She hated to say he had a legit point, piloting ships wasn't part of their keyblade training sadly, and even though he could have, Axel wouldn't be able to use the dark corridor for himself to transport them. Whether he could use it again or not was irrelevant seeing as he couldn't just take them to Sora just like that. So while she was brainstorming, she remembered overhearing Ventus talking about the Star Shard the king used all those years ago and maybe looking back she must have paid closer attention to the "teleporting to worlds" part more than the consequences of using it.

And while she should have known better, or at the very least asked the group, Kairi knew it was their best shot. It took some time, some sneaking and some thoroughly searches (helping Sora clean his room was great practice), she found it. Then came the trick of using it…which she had no clue how to even start it up.

Luckily (or unluckily) Aqua had caught her in the act, and when she touched it to take it from her, she must have unintentionally activated it. Next thing Kairi knew, she and her new master were off to wherever the shard desired to go.

"Maybe I should try and call Axel, or Riku, just to let them know we're at least safe", she mused to herself, feeling guilty. She could only imagine how worried those two, or the others must be. Plucking out her phone from her back pocket, she started to look at her contacts, but to her dismay, she only had Sora's.

'Oh…crud…', she muttered, standing before the door. She placed the bag down and opened the door, eyes still on her phone and walked in after picking the food up. 'Hey, I'm back', she greeted, taking her eyes off the phone, but then froze on the spot.

Before the girl was possibly the greatest sight her eyes had ever bore witness to.

Sora was just coming out of the shower based on the steam from the bathroom and some slithering up from his body, a towel wrapped tightly around his waist covering everything, but his torso. Which Kairi took DEEP notice of how muscular he was. Granted he wasn't anywhere near Gladiolus, but she find his lankier form to be far more appealing. Four-pack muscles on her stomach with his chest looking solid, pumped arms and the tanned skin, his crown necklace dangling down his neck.

Even damp his hair refuses to be flat.

Kairi seemed to have lost control of her jaw because she couldn't close her mouth at the sight, eyes widened (and secretly taking in EVERYTHING and burning it into permanent memory), her face red as her hair, food bag dropped with her gummi phone.

Sora, however, just smiled. 'Why didn't you knock?', he asked innocently with a cheeky smile.

His voice seemed to break her free of her state of shock and admiration because she started to stammer and jumped on the spot, looking away. 'SORRY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE STILL IN THE SHOWER!', she shouted. 'Well I just got out there, so if you wanna hop in, go ahead', he said, gesturing it with a nod from his head.

'Right! Sure, thanks!', she said, shyly looking back at him. Sora then shyly smiled. 'umm Kai…c-could you um, go in? Cause I'm gonna get changed', he said. Kairi blinked, then looked back at his towel then at his neatly folded clothes on the bed. 'Unless you WANT to see EVERYTHING', Sora muttered softly but loud for her to hear.

Kairi's eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates and her face was even redder than the color itself and Sora swore he saw steam escaping her ears along with it. With a very loud squeak, Kairi dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it behind her. Her back against the door, she took several breaths to calm her extremely beating heart, her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Then a thought just occurred to her, and she let out a groan as she heard Sora's laughter from behind the door. '…why didn't I take a picture of him…?', she lamented.

*Later*

Hammerhead

Arriving at the famous pitstop, most of the party went to the restaurant to pick a few hunts while Aqua and Prompto went to see Cindy about methods of transportation.

The worker was currently at a desk inside the garage, several blueprints on it with a lot of tools next to it and several notepads. Cindy was muttering under her breath about the notes and occasionally scribbling them in. When Prompto called her out, she jumped and turned to the two visitors, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

'Howdy you two', she said, putting down her pens and walked over to them. 'If you're here for your ship, have to say sorry but ain't ready yet'.

'Oh no, we had a feeling it'll take more time', assured Aqua, 'We're here ask about, other means of transportation'. Cindy gave her a worried look before Prompto jumped in. 'It's ok, the Regalia is safe and top condition, promise!', he said. Cindy's worried look turned to relief, the last thing she wanted to hear was that glorious machine to be in pieces. 'Alrighty, but what's the trouble then?'.

'Well see, we're heading to Duscae soon, and well…', Prompto said, scratching the back of his head.

'The journey would be too much for the chocobos', Aqua finished, 'We've only used for short distances but this will be too much for the poor things'.

Cindy nodded in understanding, the journey here to another region would do the poor birds out for life. 'So you need some other vehicles?', the mechanic asked. 'Yeah, don't suppose you have any on hand? We'll pay!', Prompto promised. 'Well…I got two vehicles', she said, thinking. The mechanic showed them the two vehicles in question further in the garage, both covered with a tarp. She yanked them back to reveal one motorbike, along with a regular car.

While the car wasn't anything to brag about compared to the Regalia, the motorbike was a beast in a half. Pristine condition that shined even in the garage's darkness, perfect sized for anyone and with two leather bags on the seat for conveniences. 'These two we found in a scrap yard, but after some polishing, changing a few things and tinkering, these two will get you from point a to z if ya wanted'.

Prompto whistled with approval while Aqua gave the bike a look of apprehension. But when she looked at the car and thought about it, there wasn't enough room for all five of herself and the otherworld beings. 'So, you two wanna ask your buddies if these will suit ya'll?', Cindy asked. 'How much would you charge us first?', Aqua asked. Cindy had a grin.

*Five minutes later…*

'SEVEN THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED GIL!?', Noctis said, horrified.

'That's' what she wants for the bike! The car is just a rental!', Prompto weakly argued.

'Oh, how frigging sweet of her!', replied the angry prince.

Aqua awkwardly scratched her arm as Ignis rubbed her temples, while everyone else was looking over the hunts. The blue head was starting to think maybe just walking everywhere wouldn't be as painful as the payment Cindy wanted. Noctis slumped into his seat in defeat, looking at the bill Prompto got from Cindy, almost like if he glared at it hard enough it'll burst into flames. Prompto sheepishly grinned at the situation, while Ignis spoke up. 'Regardless, she's doing us a discount compared to back home, not to mention the ship', he pointed out.

'Sides, the hunts won't be that hard with everyone else', Gladiolus reminded. 'And most of them are in Leide and aren't too far from Hammerhead'.

'So, we could split up?', Sora offered.

'That would certainly cut down on time if we're all for it', Ignis concurred. 'But the hunts at night are to be done together, remember daemons come out at night'.

Everyone nodded and with some prodding on Noctis' reluctance, they all started to go through the list of hunts before everyone had a few.

As such the parties were split into a two-man/woman squad each.

Sora with Kairi, Aqua and Prompto, Gladiolus with Ignis and finally Noctis would be with Donald and Goofy.

After everyone bid good luck to one another and after the mother hens stressed the importance of safety, they all split up to their hunts…

Lestallum

'Bananas…oranges…', listed Iris, carrying a paper bag filled with groceries, looking at the small paper in hand of items.

Lestallum was as busy as usual within the market, many times she had bumped into a customer or window shopper or get lost wandering the busy streets. The sister of Gladiolus though enjoyed the busy place, seeing the energy of the excited shoppers and equally eager merchants.

Granted Jared was willing to go shopping instead, but Iris had grown bored of just waiting in the hotel for any word from Noctis and the others, so this way she had an excuse to go out and see what was going on in the world. News of late hadn't changed much save for more imperial propaganda, some rumors of the Oracle being alive and well, still performing her Oracle duties.

Then the most recent one that defiantly caught her ears was the speculation of new daemons that have been sited by the hunters back in the Leide region. Iris asked one of Cor's men about this a while back but he hadn't gotten back to her yet, which was the norm for her by this point.

'Now where's the mango…?', she said, looking back at the list before standing on her toes to peer over the sea of people.

Sighing, the brunet scratched her cheek in thought. Yet as she did so, her eyes turned to see someone walking through the streets. She blinked twice, almost certain she saw Noctis and immediately proceeded after him.

He turned down a corner seemingly trying to find his way, which already sent her alarm bells ringing in her head. Given how often he and she explored the city Iris had assumed he'd have the place down like a mental map. Then again this was the same young man who kept forgetting his King's Knight password so often he had to keep a note on his phone with his passwords.

Iris remembered fondly how often she and Prompto would troll him with his phone~

Following him, Iris found him looking left and right before walking down the former path. Iris followed closely, taking out her phone just in case she needed to ring Gladiolus or someone, and perhaps take a picture of this stranger. Although she was aware of the risks she was taking, for all she knows it could be an imperial spy or worse, but if this was someone looking for information about Noctis the last thing she wanted was to put them in danger.

Iris followed this stranger down an alleyway, but when she came around the corner, she stopped. There was nothing ahead of her bar a few garbage cans, several pies left unattended and a few construction obstructions before her. The stranger was nowhere to be seen.

'What the heck…?', she quietly said to herself.

Walking towards the wall in disbelief, Iris looked around, seeing no doors were opened nor were there any other ways to leave this area. Looking up, she rejected the idea he could have climbed this wall and escaped using the rooftops, seeing as the height would take some work to get that far up, plus she didn't hear any exertions.

Iris pocketed her phone with a sigh, maybe the heat was getting to her?

Then, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she turned around to find small portals opening in front of her on the ground. Slowly strange white creatures slithered out from the ground and stood in before her.

Iris immediately backed up to the wall with a gasp, looking around for something to defend herself with. Luckily there was a lone pipe just a foot from her, and like a dog for a bone, she quickly scrambled for it. The strange slithering creature leaped at her, and like Gladiolus had taught her, she swung it with everything she possessed.

The creature, somehow, bent its body like it was made of some malleable substance. It weaved around her strikes and landed on its bony thin feet behind her. She swung again, but despite smacking it right on the head, it wasn't even remotely fazed. There wasn't even a sound from the impact, it was like she hit a very durable wall of fluff.

Deciding that if offense wasn't going to cut it, the girl decided to make a run for it. She quickly weaved past the group, but no sooner did she even get past those creatures, another portal opened before her, revealing a giant bulky sized version of them. She even bumped into it and fell back on her backside, rubbing her face as if she ran into a wall. Peering up in terror to see a monster that was a few inches taller than even her brother, with an equally large weapon in hand.

Trapped between a wall of a monster and several malleable monsters, Iris closed her eyes in fear when she sees the monster raising its weapon.

Then, a sound rang through the air, the sound of steel.

Daring to peek, the giant's weapon fell and slowly it collapsed to its knees before fading out of existence, and then before her, was her savior. 'Stay down', he instructed.

He walked past her, and from the corner of her eyes, Iris spotted his weapon…

A key…?

A/N: (Edited) So after some chats with a few of you, and I've decided to do a switch. I did have an idea with someone from the 13 Darkness, but then ultimately decided to scrap it with a new idea. So yeah, I hope this will be a more entertaining change.

A/N: So a short one, but this is just to build what I've planned next and some background to Kairi finding the shard with references to characters. Next time we'll go on hunts and have some more development between the team.

Question: if you could have a KH character appear here, who would it be and why?

Thanks for reading, and as always, stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!