Desolate: Small Tensions Relieved

A young boy walked down the street, his spikey brown hair bouncing with each step that he took. His usual expression was absent: his lips were pulled down into a frown and his eyes followed his yellow shoes. Just as he was about to mount the stairs to re-enter the marble building, someone shouted at him.

"Sora!" Kairi called. "Don't you want to go to the beach?"

"B-but Riku—"

"Who cares? It's not as if it's unusual for him to visit his brothers. Especially when Sephiroth requests. I'm sure he won't mind," Kairi responded.

"Alright," Sora said, unsurely. He turned and returned to Kairi, who had her hand outstretched. He grabbed it. Kairi had a thing for holding Sora and Riku's hands. It didn't mean something specifically; it was just another one of her quirks.

They were running. Sora had forgotten how quick and agile Kairi was. He thought for a second, remembering how Kairi had leapt from the ledge in the Castle That Never Was in order to protect him. For some reason a girl protecting Sora never bothered him. Perhaps he really was just a sap, like Riku said. Then again, Kairi wasn't the typical girl. She never dreamt of romantic girly things, like Selphie, and she wasn't afraid to get wet or dirty. She still had her girly moments, though they were rare. The Wayfinder charms were a good example of that.

In a way, it only made sense that Sora and Kairi were best friends. They balanced each other perfectly. Not to say that Riku was a third wheel. Quite contrarily, the three were a triangle.

Just as Sora was about to remember the time he closer his eyes and saw the Riku underneath his Xehanort's Heartless body, they stopped running. The keyblade weilder noticed that Kairi's hand had slipped out of his own. She was pulling her hood off and unzipping her dress. Oh, right. They were going swimming. They hadn't brought any surfboards so that wasn't an option. Sora started to remove his clothes as well when Kairi got impatient.

"C'mon, So-ra!" She was wearing a lilac-colored strapless one-piece bathing suit. Sora shed his socks and stood. Kairi quickly ran the fifty yards to the shore. The two friends were soon splashing in the water. Other children were on the beach too. It was another sunny day, so there was no surprise there.

"Aww, now I wish we had brought our surf boards," Kairi sighed, watching older teens farther out in the ocean as they surfed.

"We can always body surf," Sora suggested, excitedly. Kairi shaded her eyes with her left hand, glancing out beyond at the waves. Sora sensed a change in the atmosphere and Kairi suddenly wasn't smiling anymore.

"Do you think that Riku really got a call from Loz?" She asked, mutely.

Sora frowned briefly. He remembered the way Riku's eyes looked blacker, like an emerald, as he spoke about his brothers. Also, his head was tilted diagonally left, slightly. A cold feeling was in Sora's belly.

"Riku's okay, Kairi. You can call Sephiroth himself when we get back if you're still worried."

Sora almost considered just telling her about all of his suspicions and his own worries. When Kairi's eyes shone like that, with the love of her two best friends, Sora just couldn't unload his burden on her. He vowed to himself that he would demand to know what was going on with Riku when he met him that night at the Secret Place.

Kairi's face quickly molded back to a cheerful expression and she smiled, nodding.

"No, you're right Sora. I'm just imagining things after all."

He didn't feel guilty, lying to her like that. The mean thing to do would be to tell her and run the risk of a false alarm.

The two sat on the beach as the evening melted away. The days were long and both Kairi and Sora were hungry for dinner. They made a firepit. Sora gathered thet sticks and Kairi ran home to grab some meat, fruit and a lighter.

"Sora, you pineapple-hog!" Kairi teased as Sora ate the last piece of grilled pineapple.

"Hey," Sora said, sheepishly, "Don't look at me! You are most of the peaches." The two teens sat back and started laughing at each other. It would have gone on for quite a while, but they were too full for such an activity. Laughter stopped and a comfortable silence descended. Kairi exuded a sigh.

"I should be getting home now. Daddy gave me a curfew to not go out after dark, ever since I left the island twice without telling anyone," Kairi stated, disappointedly but not lacking a bit of sass. She stood. The two had dried by the fire and redressed.

"Want me to walk you home?" Sora asked.

"Nah," Kairi said honestly, "My house is really close. I have to get home soon, anyway, and no offense, but we go a lot slower together."

Sora laughed sheepishly and stood as well. He was kind of relieved because sunset was approaching fast and he had to row all the way to the play island to meet with Riku. The two friends parted with waves and hugs. Pretty soon, Sora was walking towards the docks at a brisk pace across the sand.

It was on the border between daytime and sunset and the light had a bluish tinge. The water was still warm when Sora stuck his hand below the surface from his safe spot in the tiny wooden boat. He started rowing. Sora's arms weren't particularly muscled, but after a while of keyblade wielding, he was left with a certain muscle endurance. He wasn't even tired when he tied his boat to the smaller dock and climbed out.

The air smelled really good in late summer evenings for some reason. The wind brushed Sora's cheeks and he closed his eyes and tilted his head up towards the sky.

It feels so good to be home, he thought to himself.

Sora got lost in his own world for several minutes. There was a really strange sound that finally brought him out of his trance. It sounded vaguely like scraping of rocks and a loud bang, like a collision. It wasn't particularly alarming, but Sora figured that he should check it out. He was supposed to be meeting Riku, anyway.

Sora walked down the path to where branches, palms, and flowering bushes obscured a hole that leads to a cave. It was really dark near the entrance because it was in the shadows of the setting sun, but it was even darker inside.

Sora pushed the shrubbery aside, crouched down and then entered. Immediately the disconnected feeling overwhelmed him. It felt like all of his limbs and senses were cut off along with all of the light.

Used to this feeling, Sora kept walking down the tunnel. He mentally braced himself. He quelled his curiosity as to what the strange sound from before was, and replaced it with confidence. He was going to talk the truth out of Riku for sure!

"Riku…?" Sora called loudly, but hesitantly.

"Sora? Is that you? You scared the crap outta me! Could you help me out here?"

The pale moonlight and starlight slipped through slits that were in the roof of the cave. It illuminated the teenager pinned beneath once of the heavy rocks that previously belonged to the cave wall. Riku lay flat on his back, the rock covering him up to his abdomen. Sora's eyes went wide and he rushed over, kneeling and tugging from Riku's shoulders. When that made little progress, he tried pushing the rock over and off the teen's body. He wasn't strong enough to.

"You have a keyblade, dumbass!" Riku called, in pain and panicky. Sora retracted a bit at the insult, but summoned his Kingdom Key and got a determined look on his face. One powerful combo later and Riku was free. The once boulder lay in shards. Riku's leg bled and stained his jeans a dark red from his right calf.

"Heal! Here you go!" Flowers appeared above Sora's head and floated over to Riku, weaving the skin into a scab and sewing together the sinew below the surface.

He winced. "Thanks."

"What happened, anyway?" Sora asked, gesturing to the hole where the boulder used to stand.

Riku stood, gingerly lowering his weight onto his damaged leg.

"Ow…" He started to fall, but Sora caught him under his armpits. There was a moment when they just stood like that. They adjusted their positions to get more comfortable and so that Riku wasn't entirely smushing his small friend. Riku's bangs covered his face, making it unreadable. Not being able to stand the silence much longer, Sora reached up and flicked his friend's nose.

"Hey!" He protested, "You shouldn't hurt an injured man."

Sora laughed and startetd to back away. Riku nodded to say that he could stand again. The two stood, observing the cave drawings that generations before them had created.

"The boulder…" Riku started, "…I thought I saw something move near it and when I turned to look, I swear I saw…"

Several moments passed.

"…Well?" Sora crossed his arm.

"Nevermind," Riku said, shaking his head. "Anyway, I ended up attacking the boulder with Way to Dawn."

Sora snickered.

"It's not funny!"

Their laughted started and then quickly died off. Sora's face got determined.

"Alright, Riku! Why did you call me here?"

Riku sat on a smaller boulder sitting on the ground.

"Sora," he said, looking to the side, "I've been…well. Hallucinating, I think." Sora wrinkled his nose.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember yesterday when you fell out of that tree and nearly landed on me?"

"Heh. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that."

"It's 'kay. Well, weren't you wondering what I was doing there? And then later when I left?"

"I just kind of figured that you were out early to get some fresh morning air in order to clear your head. I know that you think about things a lot, though it doesn't show."

"Well, yeah, I was," Riku said, honestly, "but it wasn't because of what happened the night before at city hall. It was because of a dream I had."

"Oh." Sora said obliviously, "What was it about?" He sat back to back with Riku on the same rock.

"It was scary. I could hardly move. In the dream, you and Kairi were dead. But….alive. You were chanting my name, and Kairi, she…she was laughing. Like a maniac. I was so scared…you were rotting, dead. It was so gross. I….can't see you like that. I don't want you to…"

"It's okay, Riku. It was just a dream," Sora said, turning and putting a hand on his shoulder. He could sense the worry emitting from his friend's words.

"I know," Riku said, his voice confident again. "But there was a voice. It warned me that I'm still half dark…I know there is light, but…"

"Of course there is light. If you ever are facing the darkness again, Riku, just look for my light. I'll be there."

"He warned me not to turn into a heartless," Riku stated, bitterly.

Sora stood.

"Riku, are you seriously worried about that? You're not the thirteen-year-old power hungry Riku that I once knew. You'll always have my friendship, okay? And besides, we're home; there are no worlds that need saving and we can just be ourselves again."

Riku laughed lightly. "You're right Sora. But that's only part of what happened. You see, I don't know how to say this, but…"

"Go ahead and hit me with it, Riku," Sora grinned, "I'm all ears."

"Something's up with Kairi." Sora paused, his expression changing to the confused look he gets when contemplating.

The keyblade wielder's mind went into overdrive. What was Riku talking about? Something was up with him not Kairi. Sora was still sore about the thing with Riku raging at their red-haired friend. What would be up with Kairi, anyway? It's not like Sora had noticed and anything. He was just with her, after all.

Was Riku just saying this because he was mad at Kairi? Why would he be mad at her, though? So many different emotions were swirling through Sora's head. Confusion, anger, concern for both of his friends and frustration. It wasn't mean to be like this. Life was supposed to be stable again.

"I- I don't…what do you mean?"

Riku bit his lip.

"I know you, Sora. I mean enough to tell you anything, right?"

Sora got curious.

"Of course, Riku. Please, just tell me. Enough hazing and get to the point!"

The older teen sighed and began, "Well, of course, it started with the dream. But, again later when King Mickey was leaving on the Gummi Ship and you had to go because Kairi wanted to talk to me. We waited until you were gone and then the strangest thing happened. She looked furious. The, she told me to stay away from you. It was scary, Sora. It wasn't like her at all."

"Of course it wasn't because you made it up," Sora said, tonelessly. He looked to the left and bit his lower lip.

Riku's jaw dropped. Was he seriously surprised that Sora didn't believe him?

"Okay, Riku. How about you go home and get some rest? You're probably tired from traveling all the way to the mainland and back on such short notice. I'll see you tomorrow." Sora turned to leave the cave, but Riku grabbed his arm. His fingers gently closed around the soft flesh and it sent chills up Sora's spine.

"Ow, Riku, let go!" Sora shouted, fearful of his intense expression. Riku let his arm slip through his fingers, reluctantly. Sora left and the orange sun was swallowed by the sea.

A/N: I edited all of the chapters! I hope the paragraphs are now easier to read, and the wording is better. Now i have to find the notebook where I foolishly wrote the next chapters thinking that it wouldn't be years until i was ready to face the music again

I get that my story isn't really an easy read and that the plot and character development is slow, but do people not like it?

Can you please review? Desperate here. Even for a 'good job.'