Blood Sweat and Sacrifice

Book I of the Kingdom Hearts: A messed World Series

By Hailey Trusty

Chapter I Paopou Fruit

As I sit on the beach of Destiny Island next to my friend Sora sitting staring into the ocean. Sora's big blue eyes sparkle in the setting sun the wind blowing his spikey brown hair. The sun sets red today that's a good sign of good weather.

I wrap my arms around my knees and move my toes threw the cold sand and lay down. Sora follows me and lies down too.

"Hey Riku" he says. My ears perk up and the sound of my name and his nice smooth voice.

"Ya" I answer

"Is that a Paopou Fruit in that tree over there" He points to a tree "in that tree"

I look over to the tree that he is pointing to and spy the golden little fruit, a Paopou fruit, whoever you share it with your destinies become intertwined no matter what happens.

I look over to say 'ya' to Sora but he isn't there, instead I look over to the tree the fruit is in a see a small little hand reach up to grab it. That hand belongs to Sora. That fruit is way too high up if he falls he is sure to get hurt and I can't have that not when Kairi isn't here to gawd knows where. I run over to Sora who's still climbing the tree.

I look u to him and ask "hey what are you doing up there!"

Sora looks down just as his foot slips of the fragile bark of the tree and my nightmare comes true, I see everything happen in slow motion, Paopou fruit in hand, I sprint to try to catch him before he hits the sandy ground below, I fail, instead he lands on top of me, of course I have to break his fall for him.

We lay there, the Paopou fruit by my head and Sora's on top of me. We see eye to eye, his small hands grasp the cloth of my shirt damped by sweat. The tip of his brown hair rubs against my sliver bangs. Until I say "uh Sora?"

"Ya" he says not removing his eyes from mine.

"You realize you're on top of me, right?" his face turns red as he looks away, and gets off of me.

"I'm so sorry, Riku I didn't mean to" he puts his hand out offering to help me up, I take on that offer and put my hand out too, are hands meet, the touch of his hand gives me butterflies in my stomach and I don't know why we've been friends since we were 10. But every time I'm around him it feels different than what I feel when I'm around other people, a good kind of different? A special feeling? People might call it.

"What were you planning to do with this worthless piece of fruit?" I pick it up and hand it to him.

"Well I was planning to share it with someone." We start to head back to the spot we were before.

"Who" I ask just as he breaks it in half and hands a piece to me "oh with me." Really Sora are you sure you want to do that I wouldn't want to share destines with myself.

We grab a folded blanket and spread it on the ground, this is where we will sleep tonight like we have ever since Kairi left even though we have our own house it's nice to sleep under the stars, watch the sun rise and set with my best friend Sora. We take a seat on the blanket.

"Sora?" I ask "are you sure you want to share destinies with me?"

"Ya I mean you are like my best friend in the whole wide world" he looks to me.

" I feel the same way," I point out " but what if my destiny is bad, what I die and you end up dying too I couldn't image that." I couldn't bear knowing –where ever I end up- that Sora died because of me.

"Riku those are the ifs" he tells me "you can't live life with all these ifs controlling you,"

"b-b-but" I stutter "this is a big deal you know right" he cuts me off by shoving the Paopou fruit in my mouth the sweet yet sour tanginess spreads across my mouth just as I imagined it would taste like "it's really good, thanks" he eats his smiling at me.

"You would of done the same for me" he says "right?"

"Duh" I mumble "but I wouldn't force you to eat it" I lay back and stare at the millions of stars that are out so bright and beautiful. Sora lies down too but this time he lays on my chest and wraps his arms around me.

"I'm sorry Riku you were taking too long." He says as he looks up at me, his hair rubs against my chin. I still have the taste of Paopou fruit in my mouth; I wish it would never go away.

"Are you cold?" I ask him since he's lying on top of me. It's almost like we're dating even though we aren't. It's kinda weird I think?

"Why do you ask that?" he puts his head back down on my chest.

"Um… because you're lying on me?" I say with a question mark

"Oh" it's almost like he didn't notice till now, he gets up and lies on 'his" side of the blanket "sorry"

"No no" I say "you can stay"

Sora's head pops up like a little puppy it even tilts a little "Really" he says all excited

"Ya" I pat my chest "I was just gonna get an extra blanket."

"No I have a Riku to keep me warm" he crawls over to me and lies back down on my chest.

I laugh and soon Sora does too "ya" then I drift off to sleep Sora's head still on me. I think I like it for some odd reason -odd- drifts threw my head as I sleep.

I am not awaken by sunlight but the moon and Sora's voice and his head still on my chest and arms wrapped around me. He's sleep talking, he always sleep talk.

"Riku" he says and laughs a little, I would normally fall back to sleep but he said my name "oh Kairi" lawlz Kairi must of walked in, I think Sora likes her. "No" a pause "I wasn't making out with Riku are you crazy?" another pause 'I'm not blushing and that's Riku natural skin color" Um… that was weird was he really making out with me or did Kairi see wrong "okay bye Kairi" he moves his head a little and smiles –weird I think he was sleep making out with me. - I'll ask him about it in the morning.

. . .

I wake up to sun light instead of Sora's weird sleep talking and the moon; I get and realize his head is no longer on my chest. But he is by the ocean in his swim trunks "hey Sora" I call out "I'm going to change" then I'll talk to him bout his weird dream, I run to m messy house and grab my blue swim trunks and quickly change then run back out and take a seat next to Sora. And he just starts at me "what?" I ask

"You have so many muscles" I look at my arms and smile

"Aww… thanks I have to look good for the ladies" I laugh but Sora doesn't laugh instead he looks away and frowns. I say nothing else Sora gets up and starts to walk "where are you going?"

"Swimming" he says "aren't you coming that's why you changed right?"

"Ya I'm coming" I get up I run towards the cold water as the warm sand flies behind my feet creating a weird sensation. Me and Sora reach the edge of the water "you coming?" I ask I run till I can dive under the water, I open my eyes the salt water hurts for a moment till my eyes get used to it. There's Sora's feet running towards me. I sneak up to Sora, jumping out of the water tackling him bring him under. We can't talk under water but his face says 'I hate you so much Riku'

I bring my head back above water, then breath heavy I was under there for a while and here comes Sora "I'll race you back to the blanket" he says ooo a challenge I love races.

I don't say anything back I just swim as fast as I can towards the blanket then I run when it's shallow enough towards the blanket the finish line to our race, I sit down right when Sora gets here out of breath, I'm gonna ask the 'question' "so," he sits next to me "Did you sleep well?"

"Ya"

"You were sleep talking" Sora shallows real hard and blushes a bit.

"What did you hear" Sora asks not looking at me but at the bright sun

"The part where Kairi accuses you of kissing me." We both laugh.

"That's funny" he says

But one more question still floats threw my mind "were you?" he doesn't say anything "were you?" I repeat myself.

"yes" he finally says, I picture me and Sora making out, and it haunts my mind.

End of chapter I