AN: Sokai is gentle and pure and I adore them, especially around KH1. It seems like fate is always against them, but they make it work. It's an interesting and adorable dynamic I wanted to explore, and I hope it did it well! I hope you enjoy, and please leave a comment telling me what you think!
When Kairi disappears on the night of the storm, he doesn't think anything of it. They'll be together again, soon, he knows it, without question. He'd do anything to see her again, safe and sound.
By the time she's reaching out to him as the door to Kingdom Hearts closes, it feels like the universe is sending Sora a sign.
It's always been like this with them. Every stolen moment interrupted. It first happens when they're eleven, all chubby cheeks and knobby knees, sitting close to each other on a log on the play island.
Sora's telling her a story, something he heard a long time ago from his grandfather about the way the Destiny Islands came to be. It's a wild and intricate story, involving volcanoes and spirits and many things he's sure he's telling wrong, probably even remembering wrong, but she enjoys it anyway. She's laughing and gasping at all the right parts, and he couldn't imagine a better audience.
When he's done, she looks at him in awe, and for the first time, Sora notices exactly how blue Kairi's eyes are. They looks like morning glories, soft and shiny and just a little bit purple, and suddenly it feels like they're sitting very close.
Sora's hand is creeping ever closer to hers, pink dusting both of their cheeks when-
"Hey, you two!"
Riku scares him so bad that Sora falls backwards off the log, landing on the ground and getting sand stuck in his hair. He's about to grumble about it when he looks up, and Kairi's giggling again, and he stops himself.
If it gets Kairi to laugh like that, being interrupted isn't so bad.
It goes like that a lot. He and Kairi will be together, talking and enjoying each other's company, and Sora will just barely work up the courage to tell her something like, "I'm glad you came to the islands," or, "You look really pretty in that dress," when someone or something interrupts him.
Sometimes it's their parents, sometimes their friends. One time a stray dog, which Kairi immediately gasps delightedly at, her blue eyes lighting up. And sure, yeah, he likes seeing her smile like that, but he wishes this wouldn't keep happening.
It's never as bad, though, as it is when they're fourteen, Sora in Hollow Bastion closing the door on the light side and Riku closing it from the other.
"Take care of her," Riku says, and Sora wants to, really, but everything's going back to how it was before and Kairi's going back to the islands and Sora's stuck reaching out for her over a gap they can't bridge.
This is what they get, after two months of searching? He's crossed the worlds and finally found her right inside his heart, freed her and nearly became a Heartless forever, got a few days together and then they're torn apart once again.
He's getting a little tired of this.
He won't remember any of this later, he knows, standing in the white, almost flower-like pod in the stark white room. Naminé's work will make him forget anything he saw and lived in Castle Oblivion, even her. But when he's standing there, he somehow feels like this is a moment he can't ever forget.
Everything is coming back to him all at once, every person he'd met on his journey, and it's almost flooding him with emotions. It's good to see all of those familiar faces again, especially Riku's, but there's one he's trying so hard to remember, somewhere so important-
And there, in the darkness of Sora's mind, her face comes into light. Her cherry-red hair, her pink cheeks and blue eyes and angelic smile. He feels his entire body warm up, spreading from his heart outward all the way down to the tips of his fingers and his toes.
Kairi.
He'll be back with her soon.
When she wraps her arms around him in The World That Never Was, he almost can't believe it. It's ethereal just seeing her from a distance, especially holding a Keyblade (he feels a little bit more enamored in that moment than he thinks possible), but now she's here.
She's here and safe and hugging him and once he gets over his initial surprise, he holds her as tightly as he can.
"This is real," she says, and his heart feels full and broken at once.
It's been more than a year, one he doesn't even remember, and he's been told that he forgot her and she forgot him but they both remember now and they're together and that's all the matters.
They don't have a lot of time, though. There's a lot they have to do, and Kingdom Hearts is descending on them, and there's Ansem in the corner having saved her, and that's a whole other issue, but for now he has a minute just to hold her.
So he does.
When they get separated again, at least it's not for long. Sora doesn't know what he'd do with himself if it was, because Kairi's one of his best friends and it helps to have Riku there with him, in the Realm of Darkness, but it's not the same.
He wants all of them to be back together.
And then, they are. Because she wrote to him. Her words reached him from even as far away as he was, because her light is just that strong. He doesn't know how he ever doubted they'd reunite.
When their eyes meet, he can see she's just as happy as he is.
"We're back!" he says, and she gives him that blinding smile.
"You're home," she says, and he sticks out his hand, the Wayfinder she gave him still there, treasured always.
He wants nothing more than to hug her, pull her and Riku into the biggest hug he can possibly give them, but he's ambushed by Mickey, Donald, and Goofy first.
It's okay, though, because maybe this time, the universe will let them just be together, at least for a little while.
It takes Sora all of a week to learn his desire to have a single uninterrupted moment with Kairi is nothing but a fantasy.
They're walking together, down a side path to the market. It cuts through the tall, leafy trees and past the crowded streets most passersby take. Kairi's telling him about the things that have changed since he left.
"They closed down the restaurant over there," she says, pointing to the back of a building as they passed, "and made it into another shop. Some other people cleared the trees over that way to build some houses."
"Wow," he says, and it's really all he can manage. It's hard to believe that much has changed since he left, when it feels like everything was the same for fourteen years before.
"School was terrible without you, you know," she says, looking up at him a little sadly. "Without you and Riku. I still talked to Selphie and the others, sometimes, but it wasn't the same. I even stopped going down to the play island."
"You didn't have to do that," Sora says, because she didn't. He kind of wishes she hadn't, that she hadn't suffered the same loneliness that he felt while he was gone. "And school was never that interesting, anyway."
She giggles, and pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm still glad you're back, though, even if you have to catch up on almost a year and a half of schoolwork. How are you even going to manage that, lazybones?" she teases, and he bumps his shoulder into hers. It feels natural, casual, the one thing that hasn't changed since they left.
"I'll do just fine," he asserts, and she laughs at his fake-serious expression. He loves seeing her smile. "I'm a great hero already, so how hard can chemistry be?"
"Harder than you think," she warns teasingly, and they fall silent for a few minutes, the sound of their footfalls the only noise.
Maybe, he thinks, shifting just a little closer to her, their hands will touch-
And something hits him. Literally. On the head.
One fat raindrop smacks his face and runs down it, followed by another, and another. Suddenly it's a full tropical downpour, and neither of them are prepared enough people to have brought an umbrella.
He's thinking the moment's ruined, that the rain spoiled it, but then she turns to him with her bright blue eyes and her cheeks are red with excitement as she grabs is hand, fingers interlocking with hers. "Let's run for it!" she says.
And they do, hand-in-hand, soaked to the bone.
When Sora finds that second message in a bottle, he doesn't know what to feel. There's the excitement, the tingling under his skin at the thought of freedom and exploring and another adventure (he ignores the part about being tested, because he hates tests and he's tired of them.)
But the sea breeze on his face reminds him. He's here, on the Destiny Islands, home, and everything's finally feeling almost back to normal.
And Kairi's there.
He knows he has to go- he and Riku have important jobs to do, and at the very least, he's not going to be alone. It's always a comfort to have his best friend with him, the promise of a familiar face by his side whatever danger life throws at them. But he still feels bad.
Sora's prepared to explain to Kairi every reason he has to go and every reason why he doesn't want to and every reason he's cursing the universe for giving him less than three months of safety and togetherness when she stops him. She knows, she says. He has a world to save.
And when she sets the lucky charm in his palm, the familiar textured feel of the shell's ridges on his skin tells him everything he needs to know.
They'll be back together soon.
They have wildly inconvenient timing, it seems, but this is like the twentieth time something like that has happened to the two of them and he shouldn't be surprised.
When Riku calls his Gummiphone almost immediately after he lands in Olympus, he's a shocked. Not that he and Riku aren't close, because they are, and he'd probably spam his best friend with texts about every little exciting thing he encountered along the way, but because Riku doesn't seem the type to call people out of the blue. So he picks up.
"Riku?" he asks, and Riku's face pops up on screen, another familiar sight behind him. "Kairi!"
"Hi, Sora!" she calls, and Riku gives a little smile.
"Sorry we just missed you," he says, and Sora deflates a little. Seriously, after all he went through in the Sleeping Realms, Yen Sid couldn't have let him stay half an hour to say hi to Kairi?
Why was she there anyway?
The girl in question grins at him from the screen. "Guess what, Sora?" she asks, and he's always ready to play that game.
"What?" he says excitedly, and she spins around, Riku rolling his eyes but sticking his hands out as if to present her. "Ta-da!" she says, turning to him again, a familiar flowery Keybalde appearing in her hands in a flash of sparkles. "I'm going to train to be a Keyblade master like you two!" she says.
"That's amazing!" Sora exclaims, and Kairi mirrors his own grin. "You're starting now?"
"Yeah," she says, looking a little guilty. "Master Yen Sid set up a place for me and Lea to train away from here, and I'll be leaving for there in a few minutes."
Sora deflates. "So you'll be gone when I get back."
"Both of us will," says Riku, lifting up a suitcase to emphasize it, and Sora groans.
"Why can't I have five minutes with my best friends before Yen Sid sends me off on another mission, huh?" he demands, but Kairi and Riku just laugh.
"I promise we'll see each other again soon," Kairi says, and her hopeful smile is just as infectious as always. He can feel the warmth spreading out from his heart again, like it always does when she looks like that.
"Yeah, we better," Sora says, and it's too soon when Riku has to hang up to let all three of them go do their jobs.
Soon, Sora thinks. But for now, he's got a job to do.
Sora doesn't think he can ever feel lower than he does when the Demon Tide pulls her away. He watched helplessly as the darkness devours her, every part of his body growing cold. He knows his crying, but he can't feel it. He can't feel anything.
But even then, Kairi finds him again. He restores their friends' hearts and she guides him back to himself with her light, because that's who she is. She's always there for him, and maybe, just maybe, he won't ever have to feel like that again.
He tells himself that over and over, and it's the reason why he isn't prepared when it happens.
When Xehanort's Keyblade makes contact with Kairi, she immediately writhes in the air and dissolves to light, and Sora doesn't know how to even process it. She can't be gone, he thinks. Not that quickly. Not that easily. After everything, at least Kairi should be okay.
But she isn't. The universe has taken her from him again.
Sora barely notices Riku behind him, staring upwards, horrified. He doesn't have time to consider the ramifications of what just happened, that they just lost their best friends, because he's running and he won't stop until Xehanort brings her back. He doesn't know how.
But he'll get Kairi back.
Sora is weary, to say the least, when he finally makes it back. Three years since the storm first took them away from their home islands, where he's been having to working almost non-stop since. (That year he was asleep doesn't count.)
But it all melts away as soon as he sees her. It always does. Everything. Every bit of sadness and pain and fear and exhaustion just dissolves with her smile.
He isn't sure who runs to who, but suddenly they've met in the middle and he's wrapped himself around Kairi as tight as he can possibly manage. Her arms circle his neck, and she squeezes him hard.
When she pulls back, her face is streaked with tears. Maybe his is, too.
"You're back," she breathes, smiling in a way that melts his heart.
"I'm home," he says simply, and her delicate hands find his cheeks and pull him in and-
She kisses him. It's soft messy and he's pretty sure neither of them has ever kissed anyone before but he's never felt so safe and sure of anything in his life other than that he loves her, and he's loved her since the night she arrived on those islands. It's a perfect moment.
They barely even have a second after they break apart when he gets barreled over by three people at once.
Roxas, Xion, and Ventus knock the two of them into a pile on the ground, hugging him because it felt like a part of their heart was missing, and maybe it was.
And yeah, the moment's ruined, but he looks up to see Riku smiling at them, exhausted but happy, and Roxas and Xion and Ven all trying to tell him things all at once and then there's Kairi-
Laughing like she always does.
That smile warms him from his heart all the way to the tips of fingers and his toes, and he smiles back, and maybe their timing is always a little off and maybe they keep getting separated and maybe the universe is trying to keep them apart.
But Sora doesn't care. Kairi's here, and they're together, and they can take anything the universe throws at them. It may not be perfect, but it's right. And they can work with that.