The Tale of the Lost

PandaShadow

Reluctant Departure

A/N: Wow. I am on a roll. I haven't been on a roll since seventh grade. I am in shock. All of my sentences are choppy. They are choppy because I am in shock. So now I am going to waste some time talking to anyone who cares to read my author's notes about my life.

I watched Spirited Away recently and have been pouring myself over fan fiction, because Chihiro and Haku are too cute. And I saw some really great stories, but they haven't been updated in forever. It made me sad. And then I realized I was being a total hypocrite. After all, I have never finished a chaptered story. Ever.

So I hope to change that.

While I am typing this author's note before I actually upload the chapter, I know myself well enough to know that I will feel the need to update rather quickly. I am going to fight this need. In an effort to get very, very far ahead of the chapter that is next to be posted, I will only update once a week. I will be much more likely to finish this story if I follow that plan and, as such, I will probably update on Sundays. Because I don't do anything on Sundays. I can pretend like it is homework for one of my Monday classes. It seems like a good idea to me.

Sundays.

And I have recently come to the realization that my plot, or at least the initial mystery behind Riku, is astoundingly obvious. Oh well, I can't do much to fix it. I was in seventh grade. It'll have to do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I make no profit from this story. Don't steal Meera or my plot. I'll be super depressed.

Enjoy the chapter!

Never a fan of abrupt awakenings, but seemingly having attracted them as of late, Meera squinted her eyes open to a familiar sight leaning over her face. "Kairi," she muttered, opening and closing her eyes a few times to help them adjust, "why on earth do you feel the need to wake me up every morning? How early do you get up?"

The burgundy-haired girl just smiled and stepped back from the side of the bed, clasping her hands behind her back. "Cloud told us you agreed to come," she explained, the smile still on her face. Meera groaned and shoved a pillow over her own face, remembering exactly what she agreed to the day before. "You don't have to sound that upset about it," Kairi commented, her smile shrinking.

"It's not you," Meera replied, throwing the pillow off the side of her bed. "You're fine. I like you. I think we could even be friends. Sora's fine too, really. But Riku isn't," she explained, becoming more and more awake with each word that left her mouth. "Riku makes me uncomfortable. There are certain things about him that remind me of a situation I was in that caused me a lot of trouble, and he makes no effort to prove me wrong." She sat up, staring straight into Kairi's eyes. "I just don't want to cause you guys any more trouble than necessary. But Cloud convinced me that going with you is a good idea."

The smile came back onto Kairi's face as she sat down on the end of Meera's bed, leaning on one arm. "You know, Riku isn't as bad as you seem to think he is," she began. "And whatever situation he reminds you of, well, you just have to remember that this is different. And Riku wasn't there, then. Honestly, fighting with you was the most life I've seen in him in a while. It might not be positive, but at least you're bringing out something in him."

Meera tilted her head to the side before looking down at her nightgown and picking off a piece of lint. "I'm glad I'm such a positive influence," she muttered, flicking the lint onto the floor with her spare pillow.

"He's been sulking," Kairi explained. "There was a point in his life where he did some things he shouldn't have, and I think it's catching up to him. I can tell that he feels guilty, even though we've all forgiven him and it's totally in the past."

Meera's eyes widened and darted back up to Kairi's face. He had done things that he regretted? It couldn't actually be him could it? "What… what kind of things?" she asked nervously, afraid of the answer. Kairi furrowed her brow, shifting into a more comfortable position.

"Well, I was captured once. Honestly, I probably shouldn't be telling you this since it isn't my story to tell, but if it will help you feel better, I don't mind," she interrupted herself. "Anyway, a not-particularly-nice person convinced him that, if he worked for her, she could find me and save me. So he agreed, thinking the deal made sense. It didn't work out so well, though, and she ended up convincing him that Sora had betrayed him. He got so caught up with it that the Darkness overtook his heart and he got possessed by a really powerful Heartless. He caused a lot of trouble, but he managed to find his way out of the Darkness, with King Mickey's help, and now he's totally on our side."

Meera inwardly let out a sigh of relief. She had enough issues with the silver-haired boy without suspecting his true identity was that of someone else, so she was glad to hear a story completely different than the one that led to her and the scar on her shoulder. "Oh," she replied. "That must have been hard." Kairi nodded.

"Well, basically, I would really appreciate it if you could, maybe, try and be nice to him?" the burgundy-haired girl tentatively suggested. "I'm just worried that arguing all the time will make him feel even worse, even though it's been almost three years." Meera nodded. For Kairi's sake, Riku's sake, and the sake of her own sanity, she knew she had to try and put her distrust for him aside; it wasn't like she could avoid him all the time. As difficult as it would prove to be, she agreed to make an effort.

Sora, no more fond of abrupt awakenings than Meera, was similarly disrupted from sleep that morning by someone bearing a similar, spiky hairstyle to his own. "Sora," Cloud muttered. "I need to talk to you before you leave. It's important." The teen grumbled and wiped his eyes before staring at the blonde standing beside his bed.

"Okay," he yawned, "get talkin'." Cloud sighed and opened the curtains that blocked the light from entering the large room. Sora groaned and covered his eyes with an arm before sitting up and looking back at Cloud. "Okay, okay," he gave in, "I'm paying attention now." He stood up from the bed and grabbed his shirt off of the floor, contemplating whether or not he should take it to the laundry room so that Kairi wouldn't yell at him for not washing his clothes again.

"It's about Meera," Cloud began, catching Sora's attention. "I need you to promise me you'll look after her. She isn't… well, sometimes she gets emotional. Excessively emotional." Sora cocked his head to the side in confusion. "She tried to kill herself, not for the first time, two nights ago."

Sora's mouth dropped open. "She certainly wasn't acting like someone that's suicidal!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking a little, dropping his shirt onto the bed. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"Keep it down, will you?" he requested. "I'm only telling you because I needed someone in your group to know, and I trust you. Don't be hard on her. And try and keep Riku from saying or doing anything too overly offensive. I worry about her, so please keep her safe," Cloud explained in a softer tone. Sora's face relaxed into a more serious expression and he nodded once.

"Will do," he promised. "Thanks for telling me, I guess. I'll try and keep Riku in line," he added with a small smile. "I guess I'm going to go wash my shirt," he continued, picking up the small lump he had dropped on the bed. "Oh, if you see King Mickey, tell him I'll meet him in Riku's room, like he asked."

Cloud nodded and the two males left the room, heading in opposite directions. Sora, slightly cold due to his lack of a shirt, tossed the lump of cloth back and forth as he whistled and walked towards the lift – one that he was certain worked. His whistling stopped when he stepped on and saw Kairi and Meera, the latter with some of her own clothes in her hands. Her eyebrow rose when she saw Sora's shirt, assuming they were going to the same place.

"Do all guys sleep shirtless, or just you and Riku?" she asked. Kairi's head snapped in her direction and Sora's eyes widened. Meera was momentarily confused before she realized exactly what she said. "I-I mean, because you two are from the same place, right? So I just figured, you know, you would have the same habits, and, like, things like that in common. And you aren't wearing a shirt, so I just assumed. I assumed, you know, about sleeping shirtless," she sputtered out, trying to cover up her folly. Luckily for her, the other female on the descending lift took that moment to notice that Sora was, in fact, not wearing a shirt.

"Okay," Sora replied, the first to step off of the lift when it stopped on the first floor. "I'll just pretend like you didn't say anything." He turned around and walked towards the laundry room, leaving the two bewildered females behind. They glanced at each other simultaneously and then made their way off of the lift as well.

"So you aren't dating," Meera commented, making a valiant effort to remove any and all spotlight from herself. From the corner of her eye she saw Kairi's face light up to a red even deeper than it was when she noticed Sora was without clothing on his upper half. The burgundy-haired girl shook her head frantically.

"No," she squeaked, looking anywhere except at Meera.

"But you do like him," the red-head continued, still making her way towards the laundry room. Before Kairi could respond, the shirtless Sora was in front of the pair again, this time with nothing in-hand. He stopped in front of them and directed his attention to Kairi.

"I figured it would be a good idea to wash my shirt at least once," he told her with a smile, scratching the back of his head. Kairi's face stayed the same shade of red as she opened her mouth only to abruptly close it again. Sora didn't seem to notice the coloring of her face, as she nodded and he made his way back to the lift. The burgundy-haired girl continued to stare at the spot he had just vacated.

"I'll take that as a yes," Meera interrupted her staring. Her eyes locked with the red-head's and some of the color receded from her face.

"Yes, yes I do," she answered quietly. "Can you do your laundry on your own? I need to go, uh, talk to someone," she asked, looking back towards the empty spot where the lift would return shortly. A small smile, the first Kairi had seen, came across Meera's lips as she nodded, making her way to the laundry room by herself.

The red-head was proud of her ability to veer the conversation away from her slip-up. She certainly didn't want Sora and Kairi knowing that she snuck into Riku's room in the middle of the night to stare at his face. That would be embarrassing, whether or not they knew what her intentions actually were. Her thoughts were interrupted as she handed her clothes to Barkeep and exited the laundry room, only to find one of the three objects of her thoughts leaning against the wall beside the door – though, unlike his friend, he was wearing a shirt.

"So you agreed to come with us," he commented. Meera bit her lip, trying to ignore the familiar frightened shiver his voice brought her, and nodded. She had promised Kairi she would try to be nice, and that was exactly what she planned on doing. "What changed your mind?" Of course, nice was difficult - especially when her instinct was to snap at him.

"Curious, are you?" she asked, though she managed to keep some of the bite out of her tone. "Cloud talked to me and convinced me it would be a good idea." She turned and walked away from the boy, making her way towards the lift. She felt her eye twitch a little when she heard his footsteps behind her.

"Why didn't you want to go in the first place?" he asked.

Without turning or slowing down in the slightest, Meera responded, "It didn't feel like a good idea. I typically put people in danger when I'm around them, and there are certain people I would have to be around that find it particularly easy to get on my nerves." 'Kairi so owes me for not just yelling at him,' she thought to herself. She stepped onto the lift only to have Riku continue to follow her.

"Oh? I know Sora can get annoying, but I'm sure he doesn't do it on purpose," he jibed, intentionally twisting her words away from their intended purpose. He stopped the lift on the second floor and lightly grabbed her wrist, pulling her off behind him. She worked hard to suppress the urge to pull her arm away and run; it wasn't like he was leading her to her death.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He stopped in front of his own room, the door propped open, and pulled her inside where she saw Sora, Kairi, and Mickey waiting for them. Kairi had a huge smile on her face when she spotted the placement of Riku's hand. Meera sneered and pulled her arm out of his grasp, sitting down on an available chair. Riku plopped down onto his bed.

"Now that we're all here," the mouse began, "I have a few more things to tell you. Sora, you asked me earlier about Donald and Goofy. They can't come on this journey for the same reason that I need to return to Disney Castle as soon as possible; something is going on there that needs our attention. I am sure the four of you will do fine on your own. Similarly, you are going to want to leave as soon as you can; today, if possible. Zopyris grows stronger each day, and the quicker you can discover his plans, the quicker you can put an end to them."

"Um, sir," Meera addressed the king, "how am I supposed to learn to use my abilities if we leave now? Won't not having a way to defend myself put me in unnecessary danger?"

"It would, but I'm sure Sora and Riku here could teach you some spells until you get the hang of your own abilities," Mickey explained. "I've told Sora and Kairi as much as I know about your abilities, so they can try and help you in any way they can. It would be best if you took opportunities while traveling from world to world, or even in your down time, to work on mastering them."

Meera nodded, as overwhelmed as she felt. The past three days had gone by so slowly, but now that the mouse was telling her it was time to leave, everything felt rushed. She had to say goodbye to the world she had lived in for as long as she could remember, aside from some time three years ago, and goodbye to the people who knew her the best. She agreed to go with the trio on their journey, but she hadn't really understood how soon she would need to leave.

"I have to be getting back home now, but I wish you four luck," Mickey said, hopping up off of his chair. "If you ever need me, you know where to find me. I've left a gummi ship you can use, Sora, and I am assuming you remember how to pilot it."

"That I do," he replied with a smile. "Good luck with whatever is happening back at the castle, King Mickey." The mouse gave the group one last smile before leaving the room, assumedly returning to his home.

"Well," Kairi began, "I guess we should all get our things together and go, like he said. We could meet here once we're ready?" she suggested. The other three teens nodded and everyone except Riku left the room.

Meera made her way to her own room, pausing in the doorway. She wasn't going to have a bed of her own on this adventure. She wouldn't have a closet. In fact, she probably shouldn't even take any clothing with her. She walked inside her room, closing the door behind her, and began the laborious task of choosing something to wear that would last her for an entire adventure.

The shoes were an easy decision. She had a pair of lace-up, flat, knee-high black boots that were both comfortable and durable. She threw them out of her dresser and onto the floor. Kairi was wearing a dress of sorts, but Meera didn't see a dress or skirt as being practical. She pulled out a pair of jean shorts and chucked them on top of her boots. Lastly, she needed a durable shirt that covered her shoulder completely. After searching through shirt after shirt, she came across one of her older ones; a dark purple shirt that laced up the left side and had sleeves down to the elbows. It had never so much as ripped through the years she had had it, and she knew it was a good decision.

After she put on her chosen articles of clothing, she took one more glance around her room. She mentally bid goodbye to her dresser, her bed, the extra pillow she abused so frequently, her chair, and even her crimson carpet. She pulled the curtains closed and darkness fell on the room as she stepped out into a new portion of her life.

A/N: I was going to go further, but ending the chapter with her closing the curtains sounded so very appealing to me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I would love to hear from you. You can look for an update again sometime on Sunday, since that is when I have decided I will update.

Thank you for reading! There will be some more Riku and Meera interaction next chapter, I promise. Though, you should know, I move my romances slowly. Especially between people who have never met before. Sora and Kairi might move a little faster, since they have had so much time to develop.

Again, thank you for your time!

C. E. Taylor