Ch. 8: The Freaking Long EPIC Chap
Kupo3.0: I'm BACK!!! -is met with silence-
-sees curled up body on the floor-
Kupo3.0: Oh no…no…it can't be so! I didn't mean to be gone so long… I lost the chance at a new posse member, AND…
-rolls over the body-
Kupo3.0: PASSERBY!!! I forgot to remove the gauze out of your mouth and you dried up after the hiatus from this! NOOOO! My one ALMOST friend!
Disclaimer: Fluids! Fluids must be mine, to put back into Passerby's weak and feeble body! Blast, KH has fluids in the ocean, but I don't own that either!
-xXx-
Sora threw on a black hoodie over a regular ensemble, of baggy pants, straps, and a shirt.
He did, however, slip on some sandals instead of his usual sneakers. Oooh, such a branching out rebel.
As he chained his necklace on himself, he craned his neck so he could gaze out the window, hearing someone pass by.
Selphie padded on down the path from the bushes towards the beach, where an apparent glow was coming.
Hmm he thought. She looks good.
But once the girl passed, nothing blocked the view to his friend's window across the way. Her small, curved shape was outlined as a silhouette through the drawn shade.
Closing the clasp on his necklace, he thought,Come on, you're practically over it. She's been your friend since what, five? She doesn't think like that, and you don't either. There's new fish in the sea.
Warmth spread across his face in a flush as he thought of the brunette, despite something tugging at him inside to run the other way.
Tonight's going to be interesting, he noted to himself.
-xXx-
Kairi peered past the sheers hanging on her window to watch a boy padding down the path to the beach. Her full heart swelled with desire and love. She dropped the curtain and crossed back to her vanity and picked up a soft brush coated in pink and dusted it across her face.
Maybe tonight. Maybe tonight I can tell him. She felt so completely sure of herself, every fiber of her being willing her on.
Pulling up her last zipper, she trotted outside in her bare feet onto the sand, migrating towards the glow of flames.
-xXx-
"Just 'bout time you showed up," Riku yelled at Kairi. "What were you doing for so long?" Kairi rolled her eyes and said, "Have you never heard of fashionably late?" and started to laugh. Her eyes started scanning around across the filled beach, with its bonfire, volleyball net, and the few maniacs splashing in the cold night water.
"If you're looking for Sora, he's kicking a ball around with Tidus down the shore," Riku said, a slight smirk dancing across his face.
The red-head tried, in a rather futile effort, to calm down her solid blushing cheeks. "No, actually, I was looking for a friend. Who cares what Sora does? I don't care. Why would I care, I-" Kairi said, cut off by a tapping on her shoulder.
Whipping around, she came face to face with Mizuki. "Boo! Did I scare ya?" she said, smiling. Her long black hair was a little wavy from the salty ocean during the day, flowing over her milky skin and green bikini top hitting right above her dark patterned sarong.
Kairi yelled, "Hey!" She hugged her friend as Riku just stood awkwardly watching as they engaged in quick chatter.
Turning around, Kairi looked at Riku, initially puzzled and then suddenly lighting up. She grabbed Mizuki's wrist and dragged her by the arm right up to Riku.
"Riku, Mizuki, Mizuki, Riku," Kairi said, coupled with the proper hand gestures. "I'm sure you two will get along great. Now, get close to the fire, stay toasty, bye," she said, with the quick wiggling of her fingers in a strange wave as she mysteriously traversed away, alone.
Slightly tinged with just enough pink, Riku commented, "So…hey. Uh, want to make some marshmallows?" He awkwardly gestured back toward the firepit over his shoulder. Mizuki smiled and replied, "Sure… let's make something." They meandered over, side by side.
-xXx-
Sora walked the beach, after an abrupt and strange end to his game with Tidus. He just kept walking forward, with not much thought, until he started to consciously realize Selphie was sitting on the rocks in the shallows. He felt a small jerk in his navel when he saw Kairi striding alone in her short pink dress. Managing to shake it off, he slowly approached the smooth, water-beaten rocks. In the shadows, Selphie's body looked even more slight than usual, clad in long sleeves and loose sweatpants soggy with the salty waves washing over her feet. He bent over and tapped the girl on the shoulder.
"Hey Selph?"
Met with a pause, or perhaps a silence, he finally got a "Hey."
"Selphie, what's wrong? What'cha thinking about?"
She didn't deflect her eyes from the water and continued, "Just trying to imagine what its like. To escape this place, to see everything, then be thrown back in the water. There's got to be so much out in those other worlds… you must hate everything here."
Bending down, he wrapped his arm around her cold back. "Selph, I don't like leaving home. But you understand what I was saying before, right? I don't have much choice if the King needs me." She sat there like one of the rocks.
"Hey, how about you help me right now?" She finally moved, looking up at his face, moistened by the splash. "We can't go now," she replied. "Why not?" Sora responded, enthused. "This has got to be one of the few times everyone's going to be preoccupied. No one's gonna find us while we go searching for whatever that thing the King's looking for its." Seeing the apprehension in her eyes, Sora stood up and extended a hand down to her, saying, "C'mon… we can go together."
Slipping a hand into the much larger one, she said, "Sure", as she was escorted into the midsummer's nocturnal woods
-xXx-
"Ha ha, how you do that Kairi, its, like, crazy," Wakka laughed, as Kairi sat on the sand with a pack of kids cracking coconuts open with her bare hands.
Passing the shells round, everyone was taking sips as she replied, "Ha, you learn it when you've been beating things for year, a la the tutelage of Sora," The group cackled, obviously misinterpreting her words.
"Kairi, you never fight anybody. You only ever watched when Sora got his ass kicked by Tidus. Mad funny, you are. But I'll give you this girl," Wakka said, raising a coconut up in toast. "You sure got heart, even with those crazy dreams," he said as he tilted the shell back to swallow the milk, handing off a near empty shell to frustrated Tidus.
-xXx-
"Ha ha!" Mizuki laughed as she leaned backwards, watching Riku trying to fan out a burning marshmallow.
"Shut up!" he laughed, nudging the girl as he kept breathing on the molten puff. She came back forward, leaning over his arm blowing gently on the flame as it softly extinguished. Looking up at the tall boy, who she was almost half on top of when trying to reach the former fireball, she smiled, "You just have to be careful when you play with fire, silly."
Riku looked down at the girl almost on his lap, at the large expanse of skin across her chest in the moonlight. "Yeah, I guess I need to be careful," he said, with a brief pause, considering going back to a safer position, but screwing that. "-when I play around you."
She looked up at the boy- the man- and ran her fingers down his arm. "We're not being all that playful here Riku. I've only taught you how to blow something."
Riku grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up against his standing body. "Well then let's go." Mizuki smiled slyly at him as he dragged her over past the ferns.
-xXx-
"Find anything?" Selphie called out. "Not yet," Sora sighed, pushing his way through the brush to find the exasperated girl. They were both muddy, with leaves glued onto their legs messily like a kid's craft project.
"What'd the king say to keep an out for again," Selphie asked, pulling a stick from her hair. Sora, resorted to looking under rocks, placed the stone back down. "He didn't really give us much to go off of; he just said to keep an eye out for something unusual." Selphie pushed out of the forest, walking up to the small pool at the base of the waterfall, replied, "Well, I think it's unusual we haven't found anything unusual." The girl dipped a toe into the water, thinking.
"There is no way you are jumping in there with all those clothes on," Sora said, looking at her, with that small glint her eyes. "Oh yeah?" she said. "Well, I think I deserve a break from all this treasure hunting." She jumped, spritly, high in the air before crashing into the water. Sora backed up, caught in the spray and shock. "Oh, so now you're just asking for it," he cried, running at the pool and cannon-balling in. She winced at the drops bouncing off her face, being quickly assaulted with a rather hardcore dunking. "Ha ha, okay, okay, I surrender, ha!" her laughter rang out as she surfaced. Satisfied, Sora hoisted himself out of the water, lending an assisting hand to the girl. He pulled her up and scanned her from head to toe as she ran shaking off under a nearby tree. Her usually curled hair was flattened and slick, with her glowing skin mostly cloaked by the large soggy sleeves and legs of sweats.
-xXx-
Meandering away from the beach, Kairi started out to the dock and up to see the waterfall. It was always so peaceful whenever she needed to get away from all those people, all those people who didn't understand. So clear. God how she wanted things to be clear in the world, like how it was in her heart.
fLaSh
Blood smeared down a wall. Long metal sheet. Green eye. Dark room. Body huddled in corner. Green eye. Her own scream.
-xXx-
Selphie chuckled as she swung her soaked sleeves, shaking out the slight water weight. Walking up to her slowly, Sora said, "So do you think we'll ever find this thing?" Selphie peered toward a crack in the rock wall, approaching a secretively hidden cavern. As she creeped forward, she said, "I suppose we'll have to. If you need it, then we'll find it for you." Reaching for her hand as they reached a tree next to the crevice, Sora turned her around.
"You'd keep looking for us, even though this doesn't concern you?" A slight smile slipped out her lips as she looked up and coyly replied.
"Well, it's more like I'd keep looking for you, more than them."
Sora leaned in to her face, dripping with water, towards her small peachy lips, drops of the waterfall curling down them. Selphie felt her heartbeat jumping as he came in, so sweetly, as he was about to lightly press a kiss.
As they tripped over a tree root and fell half into the crevice, as their feet wrapped around the irregularly bent root, Selphie rolled over to pull herself out of the mud laughing. "You're real suave Sora." With a distinctly brick-like shade in his cheeks, he pushed the slop off his legs as he explained, "I try."
Sora started to stand up, only to have his hand immediately grabbed by Selphies and pulled back down to the ground again. "Sora!" Selphie cried as she brought him down, not for the reasons his hormones had initially hoped. But the alternative was almost as good.
-xXx-
"Mhmm," she moaned as Riku slammed her body up against a tree, ravenously kissing her and flicking his tongue against her mouth pleading for entry. Well, more like pounding for entry, like an angry landlord.
"Riku," she said, as she turned her face away so she could talk. "You don't have to be so forceful. Its only our first night together, I'm not getting into anything more." Riku craned his neck to reach for her lips, licking along her milky cheek on the way. "Then stop being such a tease, and I don't want that silly… I'm good where we are," he grunted, finally just taking his hands off her hips briefly to grab her head and turn it back to him, jumping back into her mouth. Mizuki sighed in delight, her body loosening and pushing towards him as he thrust her back into the trunk.
-xXx-
"So is this-" Selphie said, her eyes shining toward the boy, then flicking back towards the roots of the tree.
"Maybe," Sora said excitedly, digging through the mud to pull the chest tucked beneath the raised root out. When he tugged it up some and wiped the worn wooden lid off, he read the engraving.
CID
He breathed in as it began to rain.
-xXx-
fLaSh
Her brief flashing sight of two figures in the ahead was cut off by arms grabbing her. Wait,that was real life. Sora and a girl ducked out of her sight as she screamed, quickly silenced by a large hand smacked across her face. Blood dripped down from her mouth as her lips swelled. The large man covered in black clothing hit her in the head as she screamed again. "SORA."
Sighing his name, softly, Sora looked up and saw the girl being carried away.
-xXx-
"Ohh… Riku…" she whispered as he ran his hands through her long hair, wavy and wet in the middle of the woods. She was shivering but not from the cold. The warmth of the boy's hulking form near her sheltered her from most of the water trickling off the trees. She pushed herself into his hot chest, her cheeks flushed and her green eyes hungry. "I'm really glad I met you…" She ran a singular finger along his collarbone as he panted, tired and exalted, from their kisses for the past hour.
-xXx-
pLuNk
That would be the sound of a plank of wood, if it hit Sora in the head. Which, it did, incidentally. Whipping round his shoulder away from Kairi, Sora encountered a large man, black hair spewing around an aggressive face. Selphie kicked the chest back under the roots quickly, closing the lid before the man saw it.
Throwing herself towards the man, she shuffled some dirt over the base of the tree and tossed her body in an effort to save Sora. Her reward was only a swing to the face with a very large, muscular arm.
The man picked up Sora, struggling to attack, and hauled the boy forward out of the woods.
"Sora!" Selphie screamed, collapsed on the ground. Wiping the raw skin across her cheek, she stood up and said, "You are not taking that boy away right now." And she bolted forward, shooting out of the forest and through the rain.
-xXx-
"What was that?" Riku said, breaking away from Mizuki's face. "Nothing, nothing," she replied, playing her fingers on his lips. "Didn't just like what we were doing right now?" she asked. Riku leaned away and said, "But… but don't you… I need to check this out, I think I heard Sora's name being yelled out."
Resignedly, Mizuki pulled herself forward off the tree trunk, lifting her feet out of the mud. "Fine," she said, following him as he picked up pace pushing through the brush. "I figure I have to let you back out before the night's over anyway. Wouldn't want to miss the big midnight pow-wow," she said, her eyes looking up toward the moon.
-xXx-
Rain Bonfire Smoke and Misery
Or so it appeared, what with all the screams and swirling smoke merging with the night sky. Pandemonium swept the beach, all the children screaming as they saw a limp redheaded body being tossed into the back of one of three black armored vans. Kairi's form slumped against the backwall, slightly stirring at the slam of the door, navy sky peering into the dark vehicle through a small window. She slid forward, dragging across the ground due to her apparently broken leg.
Reaching up for the window, she peered through to see a troop of darkly dressed men, forcing the hoards of teens backwards. Their sea parted to reveal Sora, kicking and screaming in the clutches of four men, one per limb.
-xXx-
"Selphie!" Sora screamed, as he saw a crowd diverge for his captors to pass through. "Riku! Please!" His kicking seemed futile, but he couldn't reach up to summon his keyblade. And a sharp pain in his ribs indicated that he wasn't winning.
-xXx-
Riku broke through the trees and encountered hysteria, all his friends screaming or crying through the smoke. Pushing through the crowd, he made his way forward to see Sora struggling against the doors of a van, refusing to let them close.
A very tall man stood at the vans, with salt and peppered hair and a soaked laboratory coat. He turned on a megaphone, into which he began to address the crowd.
"People of the Destiny Islands, I warn you that we come peacefully. I am a representative from the new Isle's Facility for the Mentally Insane. Thanks to an incredibly helpful tip off from an island insider, we have decided, that for the safety of everyone, sane and sick, to take action and detain three unstable threats. I want to let you know that their extreme hallucinations of other worldly things and various alien threats are just that: hallucinations. Our staff will do our best to help these children anyway we can, as their health is of the utmost importance, with our new building isolated amongst some of the islands' mountains. Thank you for your cooperation."
The man clicked the megaphone off as he slid inside a sedan out of the weather.
Riku was bumped in the shoulder at the head of the mass by a small-ish girl in wet sweats running forward with mascara dripping down her face.
Sora yelled, still fighting the men at the doors, "Selphie, why, who, who did you tell?"
She sobbed, screaming, "I didn't tell these people, I swear, I didn't tell them, I SWEAR!" as staffers shoved her back into the group.
His back giving out at shoving the door on the back, Sora grunted through his hanging wet locks, "You're lyi-"
Click As the door shut, locking Selphie out, shattering her as she screamed in the night.
Riku felt his arms, grabbed roughly, when he stepped forward towards Selphie. He punched one of the men in the face, breaking a nose and knocking him out cold. A pack ran forward and grabbed him though, taking about seven to one to be evenly matched.
"Riku!" Mizuki yelled, stepping forward, as he thrashed in their grips, carried toward the last open van. "Riku."
He howled out, in anguish, his confused mind swirling. "I"ll come for you Mizuki, I swear! I'll get out of this damn place. I'll see you again!"
The men chucked him in the back, slamming the van shut before Riku could launch forward and attack. The twelve wheels began to spin, carrying the mental children away.
Tidus turned around, at the silently numbed crowd, and yelled, "What are you all looking at, huh? You're safe! Go home!"
He looked down, at the heap of a broken girl in floppy oversized clothes, before walking away. "You're safe. Go home."
Mizuki stood on the far end of the beach, walking along slowly in the direction of the vans. She stopped and wriggled her toes in the sand, and she touched her lips. Then she looked down and tied her sarong back around her waist, tugging it tight. Glancing back up, she said to the rattling rear van in the distance, "I'm sorry this happened tonight."
-xXx-
Kupo3.0: Oh my god! Two months, and I've finally finished the epic uber-long chapter!
-No one even crickets-
What! Oh, right. I'm really sorry about the unannounced hiatus. Its not that I haven't wanted to work on this story, I've just had the craziest, probably crappiest year of my life. I've been dealing with so much death, stress, everything. But I don't want to get into that here. I'm just psyched to be writing some more. I'm finally starting to hit the darkness and romance of the story, at least dipping my toes in, so hope you enjoy it. I still try to sprinkle in some humor, for kicks. Hope you enjoy it and realize any material that may be… controversial (especially coming up) is for the benefit of the story (at a slight bit of guilty pleasure in the romance). Please, if you've read and felt this worthy, review so that I know people still read after my half year plus hiatus. Still not satisfied with their capture and some other stuff, but I REALLY need to post this up. Thanks, and sorry for such a long note.
Please review, and wish well to Passerby. I think she needs it! Ha ha.