A very grateful thank you to the reviewers, without which this chapter would have been posted even later! I know, I know, you're all thinking that an almost two-month interval is long enough but, trust me, it could have been longer. And I apologize for that, since I have no excuse. I know the prospects for Chapter 3 arriving soon aren't looking good, but if this fic was meant to be written, it will be. Won't it?
Thank you also to everyone else who's read this far! And as of right now, I have either set the rating to T or M. If it's T, then watch out for mild cursing. And if it's M, then be prepared for cursing cursing. Either way, I hope you enjoy the read, and feel free to complain for a refund if you don't!
White Firmament, Obsidian Earth
Chapter 2-- Minor Disagreements
"I'm hungry," Sora announced.
Neither Riku nor Kairi decided to grace him with a response-- not even a single glance was cast in his direction. Sora was standing right beside Riku as the older youth cleaned freshly caught fish in a bucket, so he knew for a fact that he had heard him. But Riku's head remained angled downward, focused on washing and cutting the white flesh of the fish, and occasionally his knife flashed brightly as it caught the orange rays of the setting sun.
Kairi sat in front of their bed tent on the raised platform a few feet from Sora, but he could tell that she was not so focused on what she was writing in her notebook that she hadn't heard his statement. His friends were simply ignoring him.
"Guys, I'm--"
"Hungry? Yeah, we heard you the first time," Kairi interrupted, flicking her eyes up to him for a short second while her pen continued to scribble away on the paper.
"Well, then let's eat already," Sora suggested, looking back and forth between his friends. "I know those little sandwiches at lunch couldn't have filled you up that much. They were, like, barely an appetizer for me."
Riku finally raised his head, brows furrowing at Sora as if he couldn't understand him.
"Sora," he said, gesturing with the knife in one hand to the fish in the other. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
Sora frowned, eyes shifting between Riku's pointed gaze and the prostrated fish disapprovingly. "Taking too long."
Riku sighed, shoulders slumping, and returned to his task.
Without looking up, he told Sora in a slightly exasperated tone, "Go start some of your dinner, then."
Sora turned away, absently scratching his stomach as he debated inwardly.
He could start eating his dinner now, which happened to be some of his mother's chicken casserole that he had brought along in a Flupperware container. But, then he wouldn't have much of it left to eat with the fish. Still, just the thought of homemade casserole made him glad that Kairi had insisted they each bring some fresh home meals for their first day at sea. They would be eating enough canned and heavily packaged foods during the rest of their journey.
As Sora mentally weighed the pros and cons of eating now and of eating later, he reflected that the entire day had been very food-oriented. After the building westerly wind had relieved them of rowing duty, which-- to everyone's relief-- had been quite soon, Riku had begun fishing. The hours had rolled by with Riku's hook continuing to return fishless, and Sora and Kairi had laughed and poked fun until their stomachs were begging for lunch. Afterward, Sora and Kairi had each tried their hand at fishing-- unsuccessfully-- before Riku had forcefully regained possession of their sole fishing rod and had eventually managed to catch two fish.
Maybe Sora only thought he was hungry, seeing as his mind had been on food all day long. Or maybe he was just bored.
But, then why was his stomach growling?
He ultimately decided to just start on his casserole, and ended up eating almost all of it before he realized what he had done.
"Sora, wasn't that your dinner?" Kairi asked as he placed the lid over his miniscule amount of remaining food.
He looked up from his seated position and observed Kairi standing above him, closed notebook hanging from her hand. He flashed her a sheepish grin, hunching his shoulders.
"Ehehe. Kind of."
Kairi rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she dropped to a cross-legged position across from him.
"Well, you're lucky because it looks like Riku's about to cook the fish," she said, pointing behind Sora.
Sora turned and saw that Riku had paused at the mention of his name, one hand holding a match poised above its matchbox. He raised a single cautioning eyebrow.
"You're not getting all of it, Sora," he warned.
Sora waved him off, feigning disinterest. "Yeah, yeah. I know."
Still, he couldn't help the wistful sigh that escaped him as he watched Riku prepare a makeshift stove. Sora noted that the fifteen-year-old was very resourceful; he struck the match and lit a pile of woodchips that were sitting ready inside a small saucepan. Sora wouldn't have thought to bring woodchips.
"I don't see how you can be that crazy about fish, anyway," Kairi said, drawing his gaze back to her as she flipped open her notebook.
"What are you writing?" he asked, distracted by the metallic flash of the silver pen as Kairi uncapped it.
She glanced up quickly, looking at Sora as if the question had surprised her.
"A journal," she answered. "I want to document what happens on our journey. Starting today."
"Oh," Sora said, nodding in understanding. "That's a really smart idea."
Riku and Kairi had both planned ahead so well. Why hadn't Sora? It seemed the only useful items he had thought to bring were his camera and his favorite fiction series, The Chronicles of the Stone Master.
"Do you mind if I look at your notebook?" he asked Kairi, putting what was too late to change in the back of his mind.
She regarded him uncertainly. "I just started it."
"Well, can I see it when you've got some more?"
She shrugged, shoulders touching the tips of her hair. "Yeah, I gue—Actually, no," she amended.
Sora frowned. "Why not?"
Kairi tilted her head down to regard the green cover of her notebook. "Because if I know you're going to read it, I'm not going to write anything really personal. And I want this to be a candid account, so that when I read it in the future I'll know how I really felt."
"Fine," Sora replied, slightly miffed at having the opportunity to do something taken away from him.
And for the next several minutes, Sora contented himself to watch the sun dip lower in the sky until it finally disappeared behind the plane of blue. The scent of cooking fish eventually reached his nose, and as it grew stronger, his mouth began to water.
"Riku, you idiot! You're burning it!" Kairi suddenly shouted.
"What?" Riku said, and Sora turned in time to see the older youth hastily jerk the skewers back away from the low flames. Riku's expression contorted into a grimace as he examined the blackened fish. "Oops."
"Great," Kairi remarked, slapping her notebook down on the wood of the raft in frustration. "There goes half our dinner."
"Wait!" Sora interrupted, scrambling to his feet and hurrying over to Riku. "Is the inside burned, too?"
Riku shrugged, searching Sora's face with doubting eyes. "You still want it?"
"Yeah," he breathed eagerly. "You guys don't?"
Riku shook his head while Kairi sourly replied, "No, thanks."
"Cool!" Sora exclaimed, seizing the fish from Riku's hands.
Fifteen minutes later found Riku and Kairi finishing off their own meals from home as Sora carefully licked each of his fingers clean.
"Mm, that was good." Sora patted his stomach in satisfaction, standing slowly. "You guys should've had some."
Riku scoffed as he washed his plastic utensils in some sea water. "Funny how you make us that offer after you've already eaten it all."
Sora smirked cheekily at him, but his expression quickly dimmed as a sudden strange feeling crept up into his throat.
"Sora?" Slight concern leaked into Riku's voice, and Kairi raised her eyes from the piece of aluminum foil in her hand. "What's wrong?" the silver-haired teen asked.
But Sora was unable to answer, his hand shooting up to clutch at his throat in panic as the muscles there twitched and began to constrict.
"Shit!" Riku hissed, uncaringly allowing the plastic spork and knife to fall into the water as he pushed himself up, and in two long strides, slid to a stop at Sora's side.
A second later and Kairi was at Sora's other side, her hand hovering worriedly over the distressed youth's shoulder. "Sora, what is it? Does it hurt?"
Drawing breath became impossibly difficult for Sora as the tightening in his chest began to block off his air pipes, which seemed maliciously intent on slowly suffocating him. His gaze stared wide and unfocused at nothing as he tried to speak through his wheezes.
"I c… can—"
"He can't breathe," Riku finished quickly, casting a fearful glance at Kairi.
"You think?" the girl shot back, latching on to Sora's wrist and squeezing. "Sora… come on. Just… try to take deeper breaths."
Sora shook his head, trying to speak, but nothing managed to escape through his gasps.
"What do we do?" Riku's tone now neared panic, and Sora inwardly lamented his friend's inability to aid him.
Kairi shook her head helplessly. "I don't know… Sora, you're not asthmatic, are you?"
Sora shook his head once, just as bewildered as his friends were, and he briefly wondered if it was possible for someone to suddenly 'develop' asthma in the middle of adolescence.
"Well…" Kairi's brow puckered as she looked uncertainly at Riku. "I think caffeine helps stop asthma attacks. Do we have any coffee?"
Riku's form tensed anxiously and his eyes grew hopeful as they locked with Kairi's. "No, but I have an energy drink in my bag. Would that help?"
"Yeah. Hurry, get it."
Riku had sprung to his feet before she could finish her command, and his mad dash across the raft sent the vessel rocking heavily. The pitching tipped Sora off-balance, and he fell hard to his knees, Kairi following in a crouch to support him.
"You're gonna be okay, Sora," she assured.
As Riku dug furiously through his pack, he continuously cast worried glances at Sora, who met his eyes as he tried ineffectually to catch his breath. "Do you think it was the fish?" Riku proffered hesitantly.
Sora felt Kairi's hand freeze on his back, and through his darkening vision he saw the tension in her jaw as she fixed Riku with a concentrated, wide-eyed stare. "…It was poisonous."
Riku paused in his search, dubiously regarding Kairi. "Poisonous fish? Are you serious?"
"Keep looking!" Kairi snapped, and Riku jerked back, resuming his task at a doubled pace.
Sora's wheezes were painful now, and he clenched his eyes shut as a penetrating, internal roaring began to drown out the voices of his companions.
"I swear, Riku, you're so—" The vehemence in Kairi's tone managed to infiltrate the thunder in Sora's head, and he weakly cracked one eye open to see her agitatedly rub at her brow. "You just never want to believe that you're stupid little plans aren't foolproof!"
"What?" Riku's exclamation released a puff of warm breath on Sora's face, and he started belatedly, realizing that the older boy had made it back to his side. "He could be allergic."
"Still," Kairi argued as she wrenched the silver can from Riku's grip, popping it open and holding it away from her body as it fizzed and spilled on her hand. "You didn't even consider that! You just catch some random fish that we've never even seen before, give it a crappy little cleaning job that the fishermen back home would kill you for, and then give it all to Sora after you burn it!"
Riku's lip curled into a sneer, and he was about to retort until Kairi promptly cut him off.
"And here we are," she went on, batting Sora's hand away as he grasped feebly at the can, "stuck out in the middle of the ocean with no one to help us while Sora is suffocating!" She brought the drink to his lips herself, and he choked and coughed on the first sip, the liquid having slid down the precise moment he had inhaled.
"Your bitching isn't helping him right now!" Riku spat through clenched teeth, snatching the can away from Kairi and unconsciously squeezing the fiber glass so that it popped and contorted in his grip.
Sora's pained, choking gasps momentarily cooled Kairi's anger, and she patted his back as Riku waited with the can ready in his hand.
"You can do it, Sora," Riku encouraged, and as Sora struggled to catch his breath he tried his best to believe him.
"Easy, steady breaths," Kairi whispered anxiously.
The urge to cough began to diminish, and Sora tried to stabilize his wheezing even as he fought to remain conscious.
Riku apparently saw the opportunity, and after waiting for the younger boy to take in a relatively deep breath, he lifted the energy drink to Sora's lips and gently tipped a small bit into his mouth.
Sora swallowed quickly, the liquid's sharp taste of too-sweet cherry lollipop piercing his awareness and chasing the black spots from his vision.
"More," Kairi urged.
Riku obediently lifted the can once more, but Sora hastily snatched it from his grasp and shakily took a sip on his own.
He managed a few more gulps before he began to choke again, and this time Riku pounded his back while Kairi took the rest of the drink out of his trembling hand to quickly set it down.
When his coughs had died down, Sora noticed that his wheezing had become easier and less painful. "I think it… it's working…"
"Thank God," Kairi exhaled, slumping back on her heels in relief.
Riku was silent, and simply rubbed a hand wearily over his face.
Realizing that his legs had gone numb, Sora shifted to sit on his rear, leaning back on weak, still shaky arms. He let his heavy eyelids slide closed and appreciatively thanked his luck as his breaths grew more effortless and deep.
"You see, Riku? This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about."
Reluctantly, Sora reopened his eyes and nervously watched Kairi recommence her argument against Riku.
"What if we—"
"We handled it, Kairi!" Riku interceded heatedly, seeming eager to put an end to the dispute. "He's okay now."
"But, what if we hadn't been able to 'handle' it?!" Kairi pressed, pushing irately to her feet while her biting gaze remained fixed on Riku. "What, then? Riku, Sora could've… things could have turned out way worse!"
Riku stood, as well, clenched fists paling in their strain. "But they didn't!"
Then Kairi released a frustrated sound and impulsively pivoted away, brilliant magenta hair flying around in a short fan. She abruptly buried her face in her hands, and her muffled voice only carried faintly as she spoke.
"Gosh, I really don't know what we were thinking when we started this stupid journey," she sighed, voice shaky. Then she dropped her hands and cast a glance back over her shoulder, slowly shaking her head at Riku. "I don't know what I was thinking. The whole thing is completely ridiculous."
"Yeah, I don't know what you were thinking, either," Riku viciously bit back, and as Sora watched the boy's eyes brighten furiously, he feared the potentially irreparable damage being done to the friendship of his companions. "You never should have come with us! Your stupid fear and your negativity—that's what causes bad things to happen! You're practically waiting for everything to go wrong!"
Kairi rounded on him, piercing eyes shiny with anger and disbelief. "Are you seriously blaming me for what happened to Sora?! Jeez, you're an even bigger asshole than I thought! That was your fault, Riku! Just like everything else is—it's all your fault!" She took a step forward, contempt dominating her expression, and pointed an accusatory finger directly in Riku's face. "Sora fighting for his life just to breathe is your fault! Deluding us to believe that this pile of sticks is going to get us anywhere is your fault! And when we die of starvation out here only a few miles from our islands because you want to find new worlds, it will be your goddamn fault!"
Riku's eyes were livid, unblinking, and in that moment Sora was terrified for his friends. It seemed they were on the verge of coming to physical blows, and Sora knew he had to stop them.
"Guys," he pled, straining to apply his weakened vocal chords. Their fuming gazes remained locked, the odium between them unwilling to give up. "Please…just… stop fighting, okay? I know that you guys don't really mean half the stuff you're saying. And besides, everything's fine. I'm alright now."
The raft gave a sudden lurch, and Kairi and Riku were forced to interrupt their staring match to steady themselves before they fell over. The energy drink tinkled as it tipped over, and Riku quickly moved to retrieve it even as it spilled half of its remaining contents.
The silver-haired boy straightened with the can in hand, turning to Sora with a smug, showy grin and loudly saying, "Yeah, Sora, you're right. You're perfectly fine now so there's absolutely no reason for anyone to throw any hissy fits."
Sora half-heartedly returned the grin, noticing that behind Riku's back Kairi was sending the older boy a burning glare that could melt solid stone.
Riku quirked his lips once at Sora before tipping his head back and chugging the remaining liquid down. Kairi swiveled away in frustration, deliberately heading for the farthest corner of the raft.
Sora sighed, leaning forward to hang his arms over his bent knees.
If these two were going to be neck and neck the whole time, it was going to be a long journey indeed.
~*~*~*~
Sora awoke to a breathy whisper tickling his ear.
"Sora, are you awake?" Kairi was asking, at an almost inaudible volume.
The half-asleep youth blinked up at the dark tent above him.
…Tent. Right. He still had to get used to the fact that he wasn't going to be waking up to the sight of his bedroom ceiling anymore.
"Sora," Kairi pressed from her position on his right. She probably couldn't see his eyes in the dark.
Off to his left, Sora was aware of Riku's gentle, even breaths as he slept on. That explained why Kairi was whispering then. Naturally, she didn't want to wake Riku.
Then the girl apparently grew impatient, as she reached over to give Sora's shoulder a light shake.
"I'm awake," he informed.
Nylon swished as Riku shifted a bit on his sleeping bag, sniffling as he turned away, before settling back into a still slumber.
Kairi's hand was now squeezing Sora's shoulder as she leaned so close that, instead of hearing her near-silent words, Sora thought he could feel them as she spoke. "Not. So. Loud."
He nodded, realizing in the next second that Kairi might not have picked it up. "Okay," he exhaled.
The ensuing silence stretched for about a minute before Kairi decided to speak again.
"Sora…" Kairi began, and though she had backed off a bit so that he had to strain his ears to hear her, he could still discern the note of seriousness in the word.
"We can't continue this journey."
"Kai-"
"Wait! Just listen." She briefly pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. "Sora, what happened to you yesterday was really serious. We were extremely lucky that we had something caffeinated on hand. But the chances of us being that lucky next time are pretty slim."
Sora wanted to interpose that the chances of something that life-threatening happening again were also fairly slim, but he figured Kairi would just cut him short again.
"Sora, we have to go back home." Though her whisper was warm on his face, Sora was only aware of the cold disappointment creeping up his spine at her finalizing words. But he wanted this adventure so badly. "We never should have let it get this far. I know that now, but I was being too naïve in the beginning, thinking stupidly that everything would work out. Sora, you know I'm right. We have to turn back now before we get even farther from the islands."
Sora turned his face away from her, mutely resenting her somewhat logical pleas.
Kairi must have heard the movement and interpreted it for what it was, if her frustratingly sympathetic sigh was anything to go by. "I understand that you were really looking forward to this, Sora. Believe me, I was, too; but we have to be realistic now. Just think. Even if there are other worlds out there, we have absolutely no way of knowing where to find them. And the ocean is huge, Sora-- more vast than we can imagine. We're practically looking for a microscopic needle in the biggest haystack in the world, with the possibility that there might not even be a needle."
By this point, Sora's conflicting emotions were creating turmoil inside him, and he struggled to keep his voice at a whisper as he spoke.
"What do you want to do about it, Kairi?" he ground out. "You think Riku's going to give up on his dream just like that? There's no way he'll listen to you. Not after what happened today."
"I know that, Sora." Kairi sounded unfazed, and as she continued her voice dropped so low that he was unable to catch her next words.
"What?" he asked.
She shifted closer again, so that her lips almost brushed his ear, and repeated, "He'll listen to you."
Sora was unable to stop his neck muscles from instinctively jerking his head back at the implication of Kairi's words.
Startled by his movement, the girl flinched back, as well, before gently placing a hand on his arm.
Sora stared up at the tent as it gradually grew brighter, the waxing moon's light having finally made an appearance as the clouds departed.
The moonlight gave the inside of the tent a whole new atmosphere of clarity, but he kept his gaze fixed straight above him though he knew Kairi could see his face now.
She wanted him to ask Riku to return to the islands from which the older youth had been contriving a way to escape for years. How could he possibly ask that of Riku? This journey meant everything to him! And to Sora, as well, but not only because he felt he had to support his best friend through his endeavor… No. Sora wanted this for himself so he could finally have a real adventure. After nearly a decade of imagining magical places and battles, he felt he deserved to experience this exciting, tangible quest of discovery. And Riku did, too.
"Sora…"
He turned back toward Kairi and tried to keep the discontent from leaking into his expression as he regarded her, imploring eyes shining in the new light.
"Tomorrow you have to tell him that we need to turn back. Okay?" Kairi watched him intensely for a reply. "He can't say no to you, so just tell him what I told you. Okay, Sora?"
Sora couldn't find it in himself to answer her, so he simply sighed as he turned his head away.
He heard Kairi twisting away on her sleeping bag, seemingly accepting his compliant gesture as agreement.
"Tomorrow morning," she whispered once before settling at last.
Sora's eyes remained open and fixed above him well after Kairi had drifted off. And after he finally allowed his eyes to close, it still took him a good while to fall back asleep.
His last thought before awareness left him was that it would be really great if tomorrow they woke up to find that the raft had washed up on the shore of a new world.
~*~*~*~
The following morning presented an air of such tension that Sora thought for certain another full-on argument would break out before the day was through.
But that turned out not to be the case. In fact, it was a very civil, very awkward silence that reigned over Excalibur that day. Exceptionally few words were spoken—absolutely none between Riku and Kairi—with Sora continuously refusing to broach the subject of reversing their course to Riku.
Sora found himself repeatedly wondering why a new world couldn't just suddenly pop up so they could all have a reason to get along again.
Numerous times during the day Kairi would shoot him pointed looks that increased in severity with each passing hour. Sometimes he would just glance away from her gaze; other times he would offer her a short, inconspicuous shake of the head. Perhaps when night came once again he would be able to give Kairi a definitive no—that he would not throw away the dream that Riku and he needed to believe in more than anything.
He reflected that he should have just told her no last night.
But by the time darkness fell and they had gone to bed again, Kairi seemed to have finally understood that Sora had no intention of telling Riku that they should return home. As she entered the tent from having brushed her teeth, Kairi went out of her way to avoid Sora's eyes and lied down on her sleeping bag rigidly facing away from him.
Watching the back of the girl's unmoving, fuchsia head, Sora felt a little bit sorry for her. She was stuck with them now. Apparently, majority ruled on Excalibur and there was no getting around it. But, most likely, Kairi would come around eventually. She had to. She had harbored her own share of enthusiasm for their expedition once upon a time. No doubt she would regain it once the three of them had found a new world.
Sora just hoped for all their sakes that they would find one sooner rather than later.
~*~*~*~
A dispute finally erupted on their third day at sea, in the morning, just after the trio had finished a breakfast of sugary, preservative-loaded oatmeal 'n cream cookies.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Kairi swung around at Riku's demand, torso twisting back from her kneeling position at the edge of the raft. Her jaw began to drop and her transparent green toothbrush almost fell from her mouth before she hurriedly snapped her teeth back firmly around it. Clasped tightly in front of her in a two-handed grasp, Sora saw a full water bottle that Kairi had seemed about to open, and which he was pretty sure she was holding against her stomach in an attempt to hide from Riku.
"I-I'm-I'm just-um…" she stuttered in a toothbrush-muffled voice, and Sora couldn't suppress the short snort of amusement that broke out of him. She probably couldn't hear him from his position seated in the entrance of the bed tent, anyway.
"I know you're not using our drinking water… to brush your teeth," Riku said icily, advancing to stand imposingly over Kairi.
The girl huffed helplessly through her nose before she pulled the toothbrush out of her mouth and turned desperate eyes on Riku, one hand absently wiping the toothpaste from her lips.
"Oh, c'mon, Riku!" she whined. "Ocean water tastes like crap!"
Sora almost interjected that he thought it tasted more like slightly diluted caviar, but instead he said, "It's not like you have to swallow it, Kairi." To him, her complaints were unwarranted; his rationale being that she should have to suffer just like everyone else.
Riku's hard gaze remained steadily locked with Kairi's as he reach down to pull the bottle from her grasp.
And Kairi went on without acknowledging Sora's statement of truth. "I was only going to use a little—barely, like… not even a sip. And, seriously, I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of it. If we would just turn back, we wouldn't have to worry about the damn water at all!"
"That's not going to happen!" Riku instantly snapped back. He then proceeded to turn away toward the water crates, twisting the bottle cap closed even tighter though Kairi hadn't opened it yet. "You knew what you were getting into when we started this," he continued, placing the bottle back in the box with the others before shifting to face Kairi once again. "You didn't have to come, but you did. And that's your problem. But since you're here, you cannot go wasting water like that."
Kairi scoffed bitterly, and wordlessly twisted away to spit into the green sea water. Then, leaning closer to the water, she quickly rinsed her mouth and hands with annoyed efficiency.
"There," she said sourly down at the water lapping gently against the raft, and spit one more time. "Happy now, Captain?"
Riku simply maintained his irate stare on the back of her head, and for a few anxious moments all that could be heard was the cresting and breaking of the small waves rolling along with the raft. Sora's shoulders, which he had unknowingly tensed, began to relax as it seemed the argument was coming to a close, and he reached for the nearby beef jerky he had been planning to eat.
But then Riku took a brusque step forward, and derisively said, "No matter what you say or want, Kairi, this raft is going to keep moving west until we find something, or until 21 days is up and we've used half our provisions. So you'd better get used to it, because your attitude is ruining it for everyone else."
"You're such a stupid freaking jerk, Riku!" Kairi railed, whirling around and straightening up, and Sora stuffed his jerky in a pocket with apprehensive haste.
"Yeah, well, if that's the way you want to look at things…" Riku said, lifting his hands palms-up in a diffident gesture.
"No, Riku, quit twisting stuff around!" Kairi cried, swiping a hand through the air in frustration. She regarded him with an incredulous gaze for a few moments before continuing. "Why don't you realize that come 21 days, we will have found nothing because there is nothing out there?! There has never been any evidence of another place existing on this ocean besides Destiny Islands!" She waved an arm to vaguely indicate the surrounding sea. "'Cause wherever I come from is not someplace we're going to find out here! It's you who just invented this crazy idea straight out of the blue! This raft isn't going to take us anywhere except farther away from the one place where we're safe—home. So, we need to turn back now, Riku. You know I'm not just saying this because I want to spoil your adventure. And, honestly, I think Sora agrees with me, too, even if he is too afraid to say something."
"No, I—" Sora started, and Riku cast him a brief, cool glance that belied nothing of his thoughts on Kairi's implications. "Riku, I don't completely agree with Kairi, but I don't really know… what to think. I just don't want to argue with anyone."
Unreadable, Riku's gaze shifted back to Kairi, whose eyes had narrowed in her returning glare, seeming to be disappointed at Sora's words.
"Fine, Kairi. You want to turn back that badly?" Riku asked in a tone laced with disdain, and broke eye contact as he moved off toward the sailing equipment lying beside the mast. He reached down and easily snatched up two oars, then went back to Kairi and held them out to her handle-first. "Then, go ahead."
Kairi's lips contorted into a resentful sneer as her eyes flickered rapidly between Riku and the outstretched paddles.
"Take them and paddle yourself all the way back home," Riku told her. "This is what you want, isn't it? Just know that you won't get any help from us."
Sora swallowed, discomfited by his continuous inclusion into his friends' dispute, but unable to find the will to let loose the breath he was holding and intervene.
And Kairi seemed to have been struck dumb in the intensity of her fury; her eyes discarding the need for words as they conveyed to Riku all the ire and loathing within her.
Then, as she expelled an enraged growl, the petite girl tore the oars from Riku's hands and spun around to fling them with a surprisingly great amount of force into the ocean.
There was a very audible splat as, first, one oar landed, and then the other, though the second sound was fainter as the oar fell slightly farther than the first.
"You-!" Riku gasped, gawking at Kairi in utter disbelief. "We need those!"
Sora stood, prepared to do something about his own irritation at Kairi's actions, but found himself frozen in place as Riku suddenly pushed past the redhead and launched himself fully clothed into the water after the oars.
"Riku!" Sora cried, panic eventually driving his feet to the edge of the raft. "What are you doing?!"
Riku was a good swimmer, Sora knew, but the wind was unusually strong today and the raft had been sailing west at a relatively swift pace. And the impulsive youth had jumped off in the exact opposite direction. If he didn't have the strength to retrieve the oars and swim back quickly enough, how would he ever…?
All thought ceased as Sora was struck with a sudden realization. He raced back to the center of the raft and hastily tugged on the rope that would close the sail.
The large canvas whooshed as it billowed in the wind before finally falling closed. Sora waited anxiously for the result of his action, but after a few long seconds passed, he was dismayed to discover that the raft had barely slowed its pace at all. The wind was simply too strong.
"Riku!" Sora called again as went back to the edge, remembering another option. "Should I drop the anchor?!"
"No!" was Riku's distinct reply as he furiously paddled across the choppy water, not sparing the time to look back as he yelled. "Don't bother! I can make it!"
Sora shifted uncertainly on the edge of the raft, twisting his head around to look back at the large, jagged rock tied to the mast that served as their anchor. It was so heavy that it had taken all three of them just to relocate the stone from the small cliff by the shore onto Excalibur, so who knew if once they dropped it into the water they would even be able to haul it back out.
Though when it came down to it, the risk of leaving Riku stranded out in the middle of the ocean was nowhere near worth merely avoiding the loss of a semi-disposable anchor should the need arise to cut it loose. But Riku himself had confidently assured Sora that he would be just fine. And the older boy usually knew what he was talking about… Right?
Sora drew his eyes back to follow Riku's now more distant form, and as he did so, caught Kairi regarding him with a cautious, measuring gaze. He turned to meet the gaze, and the girl cringed the slightest bit at his obvious distress.
"What where you thinking, Kairi?" he demanded, and she curled in on herself even further, glancing up through the concealment of her bangs.
"…I'm sorry," she murmured, voice trembling with more than just shame. "He just made me so pissed." Recounting her anger seemed to spark it back to life, and her stance regained a bit of its former self-assurance. "Sometimes he pushes too far, Sora."
"But, what if he can't make it back? What then, Kairi?" Sora responded, staring at her with genuine worry.
Kairi's eyes became apologetic as she blinked back at him, unable to offer him a response, and she shifted her gaze to look after Riku.
Sora followed suit and saw that Riku had just reached the first oar, and was probably now out of shouting distance.
Then he made his decision.
"Help me lower the anchor," he ordered, fixing Kairi with serious, imploring eyes before moving off to the sailing equipment.
"What? Why?" she asked, following behind him, but without the amount of vigor he would have liked to see. "That thing weighs a—"
"Just help me!" he cried, and tried to shove the big rock down the length of the raft only to find that the roping that was looped around the rock itself had been knotted to the mast, in addition to the very end of the rope.
"Crap!" Sora deplored, and began to struggle with the exceptionally tight knot. "Who did this?"
"It was done so it wouldn't just slide off into the water in a rough storm or something," Kairi explained uselessly as she fell to her knees beside Sora. "Let me see it," she insisted, pushing Sora's hands away as she leaned in close and began to delicately pick at the elaborate knot.
Sora restlessly observed her attempt for a few moments before complaining, "This'll take forever!" Then he pushed impatiently to his feet to search the sea again for Riku, surprised to see him already on his way back, awkwardly paddling with both oars gripped in his right hand.
"Riku…" Sora sighed in relief. The boy was a bit farther away than when Sora had last checked and his strokes looked somewhat heavier, as if Riku was becoming weary from the effort, but he was paddling at a relatively steady pace, it seemed.
If only the raft were not moving as fast as it was. At its current pace, it was moving only slightly slower than Riku was swimming, so that it almost appeared the straining teen was making no progress at all.
"Kairi," Sora called suddenly as he was struck with another idea. Kairi raised her head questioningly from pulling at the tied rope with which she had been getting nowhere. "Forget that. Let's use this." He picked up a coil of loose rope that had been lying underneath the third oar and indicated for Kairi to follow him to the raft's edge.
"Maybe I can throw it far enough for Riku to reach so that we can pull him in with it," Sora suggested.
"Try," Kairi said, shrugging.
Sora began to position the rope in his hands so that most of it would end up in the water when he threw it, and tried not to let Kairi's discouraging attitude dispel his hope.
"We're gonna help you with this rope, Riku, so get ready!" he shouted to his friend, who lifted his head higher in the water as he watched Sora expectantly between strokes.
Once Sora had the rope the way he wanted it, he drew his arm back behind him and swiftly brought it forward in a wide arc to hurl into the water.
His face fell as he watched it sink and splat not even a fourth of the distance to Riku.
"You've got to tie a loop at the end, I think," Kairi advised as she helped Sora pull the heavy cord back to the raft.
Sora would have asked her why she hadn't suggested that sooner, but once they had all of the rope back he became fully immersed in the task of making a good loop.
When he had finished, he straightened and launched it off again only to watch it fall pathetically short once again; although it did seem to have made it slightly farther this time. But that also could have been because Riku was gradually catching up.
"Urrgh," Sora growled in frustration as he and Kairi reeled the rope in for the second time.
As they did so, both of them suddenly became distracted when Riku spontaneously decided to stop and tread water as the raft drifted farther out of his reach.
Sora's heart pounded furiously somewhere in his throat as his mind immediately thought of the worst.
And beside him, Kairi sounded scared. "What is he--?"
Riku let out an abrupt cry of exertion as he flung one of the oars in the raft's direction, and it was upon them so fast that Kairi didn't have time dodge it as the end of the handle struck her shoulder on its way past them. It clattered against the wood of the raft as Kairi yelped and flinched away just a moment too late.
"Watch out!" Sora presaged as the second oar came sailing at them, but the warning proved unnecessary as the paddle failed to make it that far.
It landed on the water just in front of Kairi and Sora, so that they were showered with the resulting splash of water droplets. Sora quickly reached out a hand for it, managed to get a firm grip, and pulled it in to toss behind him with the other oars.
And as Riku began to swim again, now faster, Sora hastily stood with the rope again and started to swing it in broad circles so that it reached well over his head even as it came to brush down against the raft.
"I think this will work," he told Kairi with confidence, before lobbing it with all his might. "Yes!" he enthused as the rope splashed down a little ways to Riku's right.
The older boy hurried to latch on to it, and Sora and Kairi immediately began to pull.
After a few heaves, they found that it was easier to sit back on their rears while wedging their heels in between two logs of the raft so they wouldn't slide forward.
And when Riku finally reached the raft, Sora imagined that he and Kairi had to be almost exhausted as their silver-haired companion, who was erratically panting and hacking sea water as they began to haul him up by his upper arms.
Sora felt the periodic spasms of Riku's drained muscles as he dragged him onto their vessel. He noted that the older youth wasn't even protesting Kairi's help, and then found himself wondering if that was a good or bad thing.
When Riku's entire body was finally out of the water, Kairi released him first and, chest heaving, scooted back to slump wearily against the raft's raised platform.
Sora leaned back on his propped arms at Riku's side, smiling tiredly down at his friend as the other boy flopped limply onto his stomach, gulping large breaths of air as he allowed his eyes to slide closed.
"…You okay?" Sora asked, and would have been laughing in relief if he hadn't been trying to catch his breath, as well.
Riku simply kept sucking in precious air for a few moments until he managed to croak out, "Are you… laughing at me?"
Then Sora actually did bark out a short laugh, replying, "No, Riku. Never."
The fifteen-year-old said nothing, and after a while opened his eyes again to fix them on the silent redhead.
"Kairi?" he said.
She turned her head in his direction, expression belying her conflicting distrust and guilt.
"Let me see your arm," Riku demanded, voice regaining its hardness.
"My shoulder," Kairi corrected, but obediently turned and pulled her shirt strap back to reveal the full hideousness of the multicolored bruise.
Then Riku smirked up at the sky in self-contentment. "Payback's a bitch."
Sora snorted, and Riku proceeded to do the same, which in turn caused Sora to begin to laugh in earnest.
Kairi huffed in irritation, but as Sora continued to laugh helplessly, the girl couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across her lips.
Sora's laughing grew into breathless, chortling gasps, and Riku finally kicked him in the side. "Shut up, Sora."
The younger boy momentarily returned Riku's admonishing, amused gaze before he let himself fall back to lie on the raft. He managed to calm his laughing, but the ridiculously wide grin wouldn't go away.
They were okay. Everyone was perfectly fine. And on top of that they were all smiling.
It wasn't physically possible for Sora to make the grin go away, and he didn't want to, anyway, because at that moment he knew he couldn't be any happier.
A/N: Okay, if you're just dying to review, but you don't know what to say, I would absolutely love it if you would answer at least one of these questions for me.
- Do the characters seem OOC? Considering the circumstances? If so, who? Riku? Sora? Kairi? ...Or worse, all three?
- Would you go on a journey like this if you were an adventurous 14/15-year old?
- Did you find any spelling or grammar mistakes? If you did, please let me know! Thanks!
And if you do know what to say, go ahead and say it! If it's cruel criticism, I'll try my best to take it like a man...