Chapter 123: Hide and Seek
"Sora!?" Kairi called.
She got no answer.
She wasn't sure if she'd expected to.
Heart in her stomach, feeling very nervous about seeing him—actually seeing him, after all this time—but not backing down, she called again:
"Sora!" She glanced around for signs of movement. "I know you're here!"
Still nothing.
Where was he?
"We'll look around," Tifa suggested finally. "But there's no guarantee that he hasn't left yet."
"He's still here," Kairi insisted, firmly. She started looking.
Sora was not behind any corners.
He was not behind the crates.
Nor the random pots.
He was not hiding amongst the discarded building materials.
And after finally pulling herself up onto the random ledge, she found that there was no reasonable place on this ledge for him to be hiding.
"Maybe he went this way," Tifa said, nodding down a pathway that she had found.
The pathway led to another, much larger, area. There were plenty more places to hide here; plenty of crates and more discarded building materials, along with empty stalls that looked like they might have once had merchandise in them some time ago. There were also more buildings that probably had plenty of hiding places on their rooftops.
They searched the place thoroughly, looking behind every crate and checking every hiding spot at least twice. Kairi searched the abandoned stalls while Tifa, being slightly more accustomed to the sort of thing, checked the rooftops.
It's like a game of hide-and-seek, Kairi told herself as she looked behind a bunch of empty crates in one of the stalls. Like when we were kids.
She smiled, then.
So all I need to do is…
She closed her eyes, doing her best to block out any distractions. She listened, hard, for any of the tell-tale noises. She could not focus on the wind. She could not focus on Tifa's footsteps. She had to listen. Sora was here somewhere, and she would hear him. All she had to do was-
There!
She could hear him breathing. It was all uneven, as usual. He was probably trying to keep it even so that she wouldn't notice it, but failing, like always, because he was trying too hard.
She opened her eyes, and, using his breath as a guide, started looking for him.
From the sounds of it, he was close.
But…
His breath was frantic; more uneven than it should've been.
What was wrong?
He was running. Probably just out of breath, Kairi told herself.
Or he's scared.
She paused.
Of what? Me?
She almost laughed at that thought.
That's crazy!
She continued her search. He was not in the next stall she checked, though, where she was almost positive he would've been.
Then why is he hiding from you? something in her nagged.
She tried not to dwell on that thought.
But, then again:
Come on, you're one to talk, she argued with herself. Your stomach's all in knots at the thought of seeing him after all this time. He probably feels the same way.
She couldn't hear him anymore. Either she had walked too far away from him while she was thinking and absentmindedly searching, or he had finally calmed himself down. It happened from time to time, but she usually found him before then.
You're distracting yourself! she scolded. If this was back on the Islands, you would've found him by now!
But this wasn't an innocent game of hide-and-seek.
This was real.
And he was hiding from her.
But why?
"Sora!" she called, a hitch in her voice as well as her chest. "Come on, this isn't funny. I don't know why you're hiding, Sora, but you- you better—" She didn't know what to say, or how she could convince him to come out at this point by just talking to him.
(Maybe he was gone. She wanted to see him, but him not being here was better than the alternative.)
She took a deep breath, and focused again.
Just, keep looking. Keep listening.
Where were you when you stopped hearing him?
"Listen, I'm nervous, too," Kairi said, because maybe if she was honest… "It's been- it's been a long time since we've seen each other, Sora. But this- this is silly. Come on!"
He didn't answer.
Kairi sighed, rolling her eyes.
Of course not…
She had made her way back to where she was when she had heard Sora for the first time by this point, and was looking around, a bit more carefully. Her ears were straining to hear him, though with how frantic her thoughts were, there wasn't a high chance that she'd even notice.
But wait—
What was that?
Was that… movement?
Behind that stack of crates!
There was the slightest bit of movement – it could've been her eyes playing tricks on her – that looked remarkably like someone shifting into a slightly more comfortable position.
Kairi inched over, slowly, not wanting to alarm him if he was there. He'd just bolt, if she did.
Her stomach roiled. This was it, this was really it. She was going to see him, after all these months. And then… things would be okay. She had her doubts, of course she did, but… Things were going to be okay. Because they were going to make things be okay.
"He's not up there," came Tifa's voice, and Kairi jolted with surprise. She'd been so focused on her thoughts.
She darted a glance over at Tifa, who'd just hopped down from the rooftops, and signaled her to shh.
Then she moved her eyes back to where Sora was hiding. She knew he was there. She just knew.
"Sora."
It was not a shout, but a whisper.
xxx
Sora squeezed his eyes shut. It took everything he had not to move, not to breathe too loudly, not to do anything that might alert Kairi of his presence. She could not know that he was here. She could not find him.
But she knows! his thoughts screamed.
She was staring right at him.
How could she not know that he was here?
"Are you there?"
Yes! Yes I'm here! His heart was crying it, though he did not have the guts to say it aloud.
But, oh, how his heart yearned to be found!
All he had to do was step out – or even just raise his voice—
Or, heck, he could jump out at her, just like when they were kids. He'd scare her, and she'd yell at him, probably smack him, too. But she would be laughing. All would be forgiven.
All could be forgiven.
No!
How could he be forgiven?
Had he forgotten what he'd done to her? How he'd acted?
I can't be found!
Why hadn't she found him yet? They couldn't have been much more than two feet away from each other. All she had to do was step forward, examine his hiding spot more closely—
Unless…
She had spent all this effort looking for him, but…
What if she was scared to find him?
Scared of what she might find. Scared that she might not find him, but a monster. Scared that when she pulled him out of the shadows, it wouldn't be the boy that she missed so dearly, but the boy who had broken her heart and mocked her.
He wasn't even sure who she'd find.
Don't come closer, Kairi, he pleaded, silently.
You don't want to find me.
I'm not the boy you want me to be.
She turned, then. Turned away from him. She started looking other places.
Sora refrained from breathing the sigh of relief that wanted to leave his mouth.
Run! his thoughts told him.
You need to hide somewhere else!
She might've lost the nerve to look here for now, but there's no guarantee that she won't come back.
But where would he go?
The rooftops!
Tifa already checked there, and said that you weren't there. They won't look there again.
His eyes darted across the area, plotting out his route. He could use the crates he was hiding behind as steps, then haul himself up onto the ledge above him, and hide behind that raised part of the roof. Simple.
He just had to do it without being seen.
He peeked out from behind the crates.
They had their backs to him.
He quickly climbed on top of the crates, doing his best to be silent about it. The wood creaked slightly under his weight. He froze. He held his breath.
They didn't notice.
Keep moving, before they do!
He hauled himself up onto the ledge, slowly. He dove behind the raised part of the roof and crouched down.
He couldn't see them from here.
Which meant that they couldn't see him.
Right?
"Sora!"
He could hear Kairi calling. She sounded frantic, upset even. His heart turned in his chest. He didn't mean to be causing her pain. He was trying to avoid that.
"I know you're here! Why- why are you hiding from me?"
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Because I'm not ready to face you…
How selfish of him.
"Sora!?"
She sounded desperate now.
Hiding was hurting them much worse than the uncertainty of what would happen upon being found, it seemed.
"Maybe he's not here," he could hear Tifa say, calmly.
"No!" Kairi was protesting. He could imagine the look on her face: pouting slightly, infuriated because she wasn't getting her way. "I know he's here!"
And she sounded so hurt…
I should stop hiding. I should.
"He could've panicked and ran off," Tifa suggested.
Run.
Running is easier.
I could just have never been here.
He ran. There was the exit to a different area, just ahead of him. He just had to reach it before—
"I heard that, Sora!"
–Kairi heard him.
There was laughter in her voice, just like when they were kids.
But he had to keep moving.
She had probably already seen him.
He couldn't be found.
"Sir Sora, stand down!"
He froze in his tracks.
He couldn't help it.
And the many rehearsals and performances and reenactments of that play had engraved the cue so firmly into his head that he couldn't keep his next words from falling out of his mouth.
"But- but Princess J- Kairi-"
It was even hard to remember to say Kairi's name instead of the name of her character.
What to say next?
There was no thief to blame.
Only himself.
"I- I can't."
The words were coming surprisingly easily.
"I- I've done so many terrible things. I- I hurt you…"
Was it really this easy to apologize?
"I think-" She paused a second, with a hiccup, but still she continued: "I think you deserve a second chance."
She was prompting him. Adapting the next line of the play to fit their current situation. Getting him to keep talking.
But… it was Tidus's line next, wasn't it?
Not that it mattered.
Did she mean what she said?
Did she honestly think that he deserved a second chance?
A second chance? Sora thought, slowly. His heart was pounding in his chest. So she does—
Someone grabbed him by the shoulder. A touch he recognized, thin fingers that were cold as ice. His heart was racing now, cold fear running through his veins.
He'd spent all this time running from Kairi that he'd forgotten who he should really be running from. What an idiot he was.
"There you are," Maleficent whispered, all-too-sweetly.
"No!" He tried to protest, but found it impossible.
He couldn't even flinch away.
"Kairi!" he shouted, instead. But no sound left his mouth. "Kairi! Help me! Please!" he tried anyway, wanting to cry, feeling sick. If he'd just let her find him. If he'd just gone with her and Tifa. Then he could have gotten away from—
"Come now," Maleficent said, teleporting them away. "It will be alright."
Sora was certain he'd never made a mistake this bad in his entire life.