Most of war was waiting, and the battle between Light and Darkness was no exception. There was very little to do in Porthaven to protect its people that wasn't likely to get Sora arrested, so they wandered back to the room to debate, pointlessly, Howl's status as a human being and went to bed before they were really tired.

After an early breakfast of stale rolls in the hotel lobby, Kairi slipped away through the back entrance into the alley. It chafed at her sense of integrity to be sneaking around behind Riku's back, but he would've made a scene, she just knew it, and she didn't want either of them to slip up and accidentally mention Howl's name in the heat of an argument. There were some unpleasant characters around where they were staying, as well as a substantial cash reward for Howl in police custody. It had the potential to be a disastrous combination.

Nothing had set Riku off like this since Donald Duck crashlanded on Sora's head. Riku had (mostly) learned his lesson from the consequences of those events, and she was sure he wasn't going to go on another bitter Princess-kidnapping rampage in ribbed black vinyl, but he seemed intent on being as vocal about his dislike of their new ally as possible. This annoyed Kairi mostly because it jeopardized their mission, and also because she simply liked the man. She'd never been courted by a seasoned professional before and was rather enjoying it, even if she had no intention of letting Howl get any farther than longing gazes.

Kairi took the leisurely hour walk from the hotel to the door of Wizard Jenkin's shop and knocked twice. Sophie answered, done up in a head kerchief with a mop in hand, and looking apologetic. "You're early! He's still upstairs fussing with his hair. I think my cleaning the bathroom got everything juggled around, since he was practically in tears yesterday when he came down the stairs a redhead."

Kairi giggled. Most days she got up, washed, brushed her teeth and hair, and put on clothes. That was the end of it, since work when she wasn't out on missions was often dusty, grubby business, and when she was her concerns centered more on keeping herself and her friends alive than on whether her lipstick matched her eye color. She felt like somebody's anxious boyfriend the night of a big date, complete with embarrassing personal stories from his mother. "I'll be sure to tell him his hair looks nice," she assured Sophie, as the older woman let her inside. "I mean…unless…it's not pea-soup green, is it?"

"I don't think so," Sophie said, absently scratching her cheek.

Kairi sat herself down behind the kitchen table to wait while Sophie puttered about the kitchen with her mop and bucket. Kairi obediently lifting her feet and skirts off the floor as necessary. Before too long Howl descended the staircase in a blue and silver coat and a cloud of cologne. It made Kairi's nose itch a little, but she managed to accept the greetings and compliments without sneezing, making sure to return one about his hair, which was now deep raven black but didn't look at all bad on him. Sophie waved goodbye as they left. It may have been Kairi's imagination, but her smile looked slightly forced, and she clutched the mop like she wanted to strangle it.

When Howl stepped out of the door the buildings outside had gained another three floors at least and no longer smelled remotely like fish. Unlike Porthaven, which was a thin-lipped, solid, and often ugly place, this city was, in a word, lovely. The facades were a riot of bright colors, concrete ivy, and wrought iron gates and gratings. The streets were well swept and in excellent repair considering the thousands of feet, hooves, and wheels the pounded over the cobblestones every day. "Welcome to Kingsbury, Kairi," he said, and took her hand on his arm so he could nonchalantly bend low and whisper in her ear. "While we're here, call me Evan Pendragon. Wizard Howl would not exactly be welcome in the capital unless he came in chains." He straightened and resumed the normal conversational volume. "The dressmakers' is quiet a distance; I'll get a car for us." Instead of stepping out into the street and hailing a taxi like a normal person, he peered intently into a spot that didn't look like much of anything, and then, satisfied with whatever he found, flicked his wrist as if he were giving a sharp tug on an invisible string.

"Do you mind if I ask why he's so unwelcome?" Kairi asked, they strolled leisurely down the sidewalk to the street corner. He hadn't relinquished her arm yet, and while this was too close for her taste, she couldn't think of a way to reclaim it without embarrassing him in public. She tried to keep the conversation as businesslike as possible to counter it.

Howl laughed indulgently. "I didn't kill anyone, if you're worried. I simply made several very powerful people very angry with me. It was incredibly unfair, you see. Academics are almost as bloodthirsty as politicians, and when you're a simple undergraduate there's not many places you can turn when what you know embarrasses important people. The stakes were too high for…ah…I believe that's our car," he said abruptly, and left that tantalizing morsel dangling just out of reach. Within seconds an unoccupied cab came whizzing down the street at an incredible speed, dodging the rest of the cars and carriages, a trio of giggling ladies, two poodles, and a small boy in a sailor suit with superhuman skill. It screeched to a halt directly in front of them. She reached for the handle, but Howl opened the door for her before she could grasp it and waved her inside.

The cabbie made a valiant effort to unglue his shaking hands from the steering wheel to ask Howl where they were bound. Fortunately, Howl let him get there under his own power and made to resume the conversation. Unfortunately, what he chose to discuss was just a hair above whining, and although Kairi nodded and made encouraging noises, he refrained from adding any useful details whatsoever. He had a very pleasant voice to listen to, unexpectedly deep and resonant, but from the sound of it he enjoyed hearing himself talk as much as everyone else might, which somewhat spoiled the effect. He carefully rebuffed all of her attempts to wring a promise of the full story out of him as they rode. When they stopped in front of the dressmakers Howl gave their still rather pale cabbie enough cash to cover their fare plus a sizable tip. He made no comment on the magic Howl had used to drag him up to the curb, but wished them a good day and puttered off.

Howl smiled on indulgently while Kairi was whisked away by a trio of plump and well scrubbed female employees almost as soon as the shop's door had jingled. It was an upscale place, with flattering lights, lush wine carpets, and tasteful fixtures. The gowns on display in the windows were fancier than anything Kairi had worn in her life. The women ushered her into a spacious fitting room and diplomatically urged her to strip down to her underwear. She couldn't think of a diplomatic way to say no.

The youngest of the girls went bug-eyed when Kairi did finish removing her old, plain dress, sputtering something rather unprofessional, and went to work tallying up the lengths and girths of all Kairi's relevant body parts without another word. She got glares from the other two, at least. Kairi pinched her eyebrows a little and consoled herself with the knowledge she probably wouldn't ever be coming back here. To quiet gossip and suspicion she mumbled something about being from the country and raising mastiffs and hoped that was enough to satisfy their curiosity about where all those faint tooth and claw marks had come from.

She didn't have a lady's figure, either. Her arms were too sinewy, her hair too short, and her hands too rough. She was not conventional princess material, and being poked and prodded with this faint aura of disapproval only accentuated it. She felt a sudden stab of apprehension over the audience tomorrow. Bravery in battle was one thing. Bravery that required her to debate a very powerful, very canny, and probably dangerous sorceress was something else again. Well…if Madame Suliman was as smart as Howl seemed to think, she would listen, and make the right choice.

The girls finished taking her measurements and disappeared into the stockroom. The most senior came back with a large box, trailed by the other two. Kairi did not put the contents on, but rather had them put on her, and when they were finished led her out to where Howl was waiting.

"For such short notice, that looks magnificent," he breathed, half to the girls and half to Kairi. She smoothed down the slick silk bodice with her hands and had to agree. It was a delicate yellow a shade too rich to be white, and beautifully adorned with lace and crystal beads without being gaudy. The purity of the color was fitting for a Princess of Heart, even if it was only by coincidence.

"I'll have that boxed up and sent back to the house," Howl said to her. He caught the attention of the attendant and asked, "Charge it to the Pendragon account, would you? The lady and I have sights to see," before Kairi could even work out how she was going to pay for the thing.

"Thank you," she said, surprised but sincere. "It's a beautiful city. I'd love to see more of it."

Kairi changed back into her old clothes and was whisked away to a waiting carriage, horsedrawn, this time, so she could drink in the sights at slower pace, and was taken on the whirlwind tour of Kingsbury. Despite her grim mission she found herself enjoying it. The tour ended early in the afternoon at the door of an exclusive-looking teashop. It was a place to be seen, and every table was occupied by exactly one man and one woman. Howl exchanged a few quiet words and probably a large bill with the maitre'd, and they were led back to a secluded table half hidden by a pair of midnight-blue curtains. The room was private for a painfully obvious reason. Kairi mulled over how to let him down as gently as possible, and while she was occupied with her thoughts Howl ordered for her before she could speak. It annoyed her slightly, and he laid his hand suggestively over hers while doing so, which annoyed her even more. Once the waiter left, so as not to embarrass him, she firmly removed it and set it down outside her personal bubble. "This has been really nice, Howl, but I am here for a reason."

He looked faintly affronted for a moment but rallied again, probably assuming she was playing hard-to-get. "Of course. Fate of the world and everything. What did you want to know?"

She sighed internally with relief. He really was a gentleman, and although she was sure he wanted to charm his way into her panties, at least he wasn't going to be as ass about it. Flirting was touchy, especially on another world when she didn't know the rules. When it came down to it, her familiarity with the rules on her own world was a little fuzzy. Kairi was nice to people out of reflex, but felt this may not be working in her favor at the moment. Howl had been very forthcoming with his assistance to their cause, and she didn't want to insult him, but enough was enough. "Why is there a price on your head?" she asked.

Howl leaned back against the plush chair, and blew out a slow breath. "Are you sure there isn't another topic of conversation I could tempt you with? We have all day to…" he trailed off when the expectant look on her face failed to fade. "It's not a period in my life I enjoy discussing."

"We need to know we can trust you," she said. "At least…I think I already do. My friends need a little more convincing."

"Officially, I'm a deserter from His Majesty's army, and an oathbreaker, for failing throw my life into the pyre of this pointless war."

"And unofficially?" Kairi prompted, still gazing onto his face. Howl broke eye contact and looked down into his empty teacup. She didn't enjoy making him squirm like this, but she sensed there was something very important buried under the superficial flirtation he'd heaped on her so far. She had only known Howl for two days, but she knew the type inside out. Cocksure, witty, handsome…and deep inside, terrified. He was just like Riku in many ways, and for that it was no wonder they'd clashed from the moment they'd met. "Did it have something to do with the Heartless?" Kairi asked, hazarding a guess. Howl stiffened a little. Apparently she'd guess right.

"I had entered the Royal Sorcery Academy just in time for things to get…" Howl paused and licked his lips. "…interesting. I was a lab assistant at the facility. In my second year of the internship something went wrong. I was the only survivor. It was contained, barely, but…"

"But the palace is trying to silence you," Kairi said, as she realized it.

"They almost succeeded. No one in the kingdom can talk about what happened with any detail to someone who doesn't already know. An elegant curse executed by a master sorceress," he said bitterly. "I'm the only one with a chance of breaking it. That's what she's afraid of."

"Master sorceress? Madame Suliman?"

"Beautiful, royal, and quick on the uptake," Howl said, smiling weakly. "She's afraid she'll be proven wrong about the Heartless. Tread carefully tomorrow, but if you can convince her, you have convinced the king. She wouldn't listen to me."

"Come with me and try again, then," Kairi urged.

"I'll…I'll follow after you in disguise. It's best that way," he said, letting the confident mask slide before he righted it again.

"Howl?"

"Hmmm?"

"One more thing. If your lab was overrun with Heartless, how did you survive? You said yourself you were only a student, and in the thick of it."

"They didn't seem to have much of a taste for me," he said, sounding slightly confused about his good fortune himself. "Now, I believe that's our waiter. How much do you know Ingarian palace protocol?"

-ooo-

Sora and Riku were sitting at the hotel bar playing checkers with a very tattered board and handfuls of old bottle caps. There was an impressive collection of glasses by their elbows; those next to Sora had contained a procession of cherry sodas, but the smaller ones at Riku's elbow had something a great deal stronger that had thrown Sora into a coughing fit the first and only time he asked for a taste. Riku was rather proud he hadn't made a fool of himself knocking those back, a skill imparted to him by Cid in between the sessions dismantling gummi ship thrusters. He'd sort of hoped they would distract him from thinking about Kairi and where she had chosen to spend her day. They didn't, and only served make his brain so fogged he was in the process of doing the unthinkable—losing to Sora at checkers. The younger boy slid yet another piece to the end of the board. "King me," he announced.

"Go king yourself," Riku said moodily, as if the phrase was synonymous with a physically impossible sexual act.

Sora sighed and shifted his weight to the opposite elbow. "You are the world's worst loser," he announced, reaching into the pile of captured Harding's Pale Ale, but stopped abruptly when the door to the bar jingled. Heads turned, jaws dropped, and there was nearly a very sticky accident with a tray of cocktails, their waiter, and somebody's foot. "H-hi, Kairi," Sora stuttered. His eyebrows had packed their bags and taken up residence somewhere in his hair. Riku spun around on his barstool to see what had evicted them.

It was the dress. But it was a dress like the Christmas Feast at Disney Castle was 'dinner'. It flowed around her body like a cascade of thick cream, sparkling around the neckline and sleeves with tiny jewels embedded in the lace.

"You look great, Kairi," Sora said, grinning. "Just like royalty."

"I had to show it off, but I should probably change before I get it all dirty. Wizard…um…Jenkins told me a lot about the court you ought to know. Come on, I'll fill you in," she said, and spun around and headed for the stairs. Sora let them all in with the key in his pocket, and Kairi began the convoluted process of undressing, which ended up taking four pairs of hands and some improvisation.

"Looks good on you. How much was it, anyway?" Riku asked.

"Oh…ah…don't worry about it, Riku. Howl bought it for me," she said, and laughed. "He's quite the gentleman. Wouldn't take 'no' for an ans—"

Riku's face darkened like a gathering thunderhead, and Kairi realized that answer had been a mistake. "I see. Tell me again what took six hours for you and Howl to discuss?"

"We were strategizing, okay? Strictly. Business," she insisted, looking hurt.

"I don't trust him," Riku said. "He's a wanted criminal. But I don't suppose you got into that, did you?"

"Actually, we did. It was political and he is not the one at fault."

Sora paused with his hands on one of the dozens of tiny button and peeked around Kairi's head to look at him warningly. "Riku, I saw how messed up their cops are firsthand. If he's not all buddy-buddy with them, that's a good thing. Seriously."

Riku looked unconvinced. Kairi waved Sora's hands from the fastenings and stepped over to look straight up at Riku, hands planted on her hips. "I can take care of myself, and spend my time with whoever I like. You're trying to Rescue the Princess again. Please stop, because she doesn't need it."

"He's a smarmy, conceited little bastard and I did not like the way he looks at you," Riku answered.

"And we need his help, so I'm going to put up with it. And so are you."

"You let him buy you a dress," Riku said, not even remotely pacified, in a voice just short of a snarl. "That's hardly 'putting up with it.'"

"I needed one for the audience, and in case you haven't noticed we're all kinda broke," she retorted. She paused, breathing deep and trying to be conciliatory "I understand that its—"

Riku was in no mood to be soothed, and the liquor pushed his voice over the brink, into a furious shout that could be heard through the thin walls of their room. "No you don't! How could you? You've never had a jealous thought in your life! If you say you can understand us lesser, tainted beings, you're either a delusional or a liar!"

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, horrified.

Kairi was too shocked to answer at first. She simply looked up at him, mouth agape and lips working over unspoken retorts. Finally, she swallowed hard against the tears prickling her eyes, and said, quietly: "We have to sacrifice a lot, doing what we do, and I'm sorry, but your ego is on that list. Now get out until you have it under control." Riku didn't move. Finally her voice cracked and split with anger too, and she shouted, "The door is over there!"

There were a dozen things Riku could think of to say to her. All of them were cruel, and most untrue. He bit them back and threw open the door as if it had been his idea in the first place and slammed it behind him. "Can you finish unlacing the corset, Sora?" she asked. "I feel like I can't breathe."

-ooo-

There were several courses of action laid out for Riku to choose from as he walked aimlessly through the narrow streets. The easiest was to find the seediest, most disgusting dive bar he could and get drunk…drunker….so drunk he lost track of what planet he was on and possibly his own name, and then pass out somewhere so he wouldn't have to face Kairi again until the morning. That was the easiest, and also the stupidest. Many of the survivors of Radiant Garden were, unsurprisingly, heavy drinkers, and Riku knew his share of people that tried drowning their problems in alcohol. He also knew most problems were champion swimmers.

The most difficult choice would be to slink back to the hotel room with his tail between his legs and apologize for being a complete and total dick to Kairi, and then to Sora, for having to watch it all. Riku was brave—he was brave enough to take the first leap into the unknown, or shut the door that was the only way out of a writhing abyss that would, for all he knew, claim his life. But he was ashamed to discover he wasn't brave enough to turn around, look Kairi in the eye, and say two simple words.

There was a bridge up ahead over the channel that led to the sea. It was deserted. Riku chose option three, which was to sit down with his legs dangling over the edge and his arms braced on the guardrail and do nothing but watch the boats slide by under his shoes. As he sat, the clouds in the sky enriched from gray to a brief burst of sherbert pinks and oranges on the western horizon. No one stopped on the bridge but the lamp lighter, who nodded in silent greeting as he went about his task and quickly moved on. Riku slapped at a few mosquitoes that had emerged to feast and ignored him. There were no stars out tonight. The sky was now completely swathed in a funeral cloak of black, grays, and weak violet, and the clouds began to weep halfheartedly over the city. Riku didn't move to get up and out of the feeble but still very annoying rain.

When the time the drops had just soaked through the back of his shirt, a set of footsteps clanked across the bridge and stopped right beside him. Their owner said: "Either you're slipping or I'm getting way better as this, because it only took me a couple hours to find you this time." Sora sat down next to him, with his back to the rail and his wrists crossed over his knees.

"Did I make her cry?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, a little," Sora answered. Riku sighed heavily and let his chin fall further down on to his arms. It wasn't the first time he'd managed to do that, but they were kids back then. It was different. Sora arched his head back a little, so he could get a look at Riku's face. "Did she make you cry?"

"What kind of dumbass question is that?" Riku muttered into his shirtsleeves. Sora decided this meant 'almost', and kept his mouth shut. He resisted the urge to open it again and waited for Riku to speak.

"When Howl looks at her she's naked," Riku growled. "That doesn't bother you?"

"Not really," Sora said, shrugging. Riku looked at him quizically. "I trust Kairi," he said, to elaborate. "She's never given me a reason not to. And I thought you were convinced Howl was a Nobody."

Riku sighed again. Nobodies operated on force of habit and the phantom twinges of their lost hearts, like someone who has lost a limb can still feel it ache. Their emotions were superficial, weak as wet paper. They couldn't feel much like infatuation, and certainly nothing like love. If Howl was one, it was as logical to begrudge Kairi the time spent with him instead of Riku as it was to begrudge a chair the time she spent sitting in it instead of his lap. But logic rarely entered into things like this. "I'm doing it again, aren't I," Riku said.

"Yeah," Sora agreed.

"I thought that was done. I fought that fight. I won," Riku insisted, partially to Sora but mostly to himself. Riku was well-acquainted with jealousy. It began as a catch in his throat, where a question he did not want to ask or answer would stick unspoken; then a steady drip, drip, drip of acid that percolated through his chest and pooled in his belly until it seemed he couldn't concentrate on anything without that pain corroding every thought and feeling.

Sora laughed gently. "I don't think you stop fighting that fight 'til you croak. It's part of being a good person…which you've proven you are. But you do trust her, don't you?"

"Of course I do…she's so perfect. How could I not?" he said, and left the conclusion for Sora to draw about his own worthiness for such a princess.

Sora made a little snorting sound in the back of his throat, exactly like the sound one makes when you've been selected as the victim of an infamous Riku stealth dunking at the pool. His shoulders started to shake. And since Sora was piss-poor at keeping anything inside for long, the laughter bubbled over to fill the quiet and the distant splashing of the water. Riku turned to stare at him, and couldn't decide whether kicking him and stalking away to be deeply offended or joining in was the appropriate response. When the brief laughter ebbed, Sora said: "That's really sweet of you, Riku. Totally wrong, but sweet. Kairi's lots of things. Perfect wasn't one of them last time I checked." Riku pinched his eyebrows together skeptically, so Sora cast about for proof. It didn't take long. "Don't you remember the homemade hang-gliders? That was ninety percent her idea."

"Oh. Yeeeeah." Riku remembered. It was very difficult to forget, since it had resulted in him spending a whole month of prime beach season in a cast, and to this day the ring finger on his left hand bent funny when he laid it flat.

"Then there was the time she got her school portraits taken with her dress on backwards and inside out. Then slept in and missed retakes. Oh…and the day she tried making shrimp tempura. Lucky you were such a quick draw with the fire extinguisher."

A nostalgic chuckled escaped from his lips before he remembered he was supposed to be brooding. "Didn't her mom have to get new countertops?"

"She did. See? We all have our flaws. Kairi doesn't think things through before she dives in head-first and can't cook anything but pancakes without setting the kitchen on fire. Yours is that you take everything too darn personally."

"I do not."

"And you can't take criticism."

"Yeah, well you couldn't keep yourself from opening your mouth to let out every thing that pops into your head if you life depended on it, and speaking of which you really have to hold off kissing me in the morning 'til after you brush, because damn," Riku said, now thoroughly back in the spirit of things.

"Too-che," Sora said, meekly submitting himself as a verbal punching bag. After all this time he didn't mind. Insulting people usually made Riku feel better.

"It's pronounced 'too-shay', stupid," Riku corrected.

Sora pushed himself to his feet and turned around to offer Riku a hand up, which he accepted. "You're not the only guy ever to get sorta sloshed and say something to his girlfriend he didn't mean." Sora stuck his hands in his pockets against the chill kissing the air. "And you didn't, right?"

"No," Riku assured him, as they wandered back in the direction of the hotel. "At least…mostly no. It still seems like she doesn't get normal people sometimes."

"We're not normal people, but I know what you mean. She doesn't have to struggle against herself to keep from falling; she doesn't have anywhere to fall to. But I don't think that makes her any better or worse than somebody who's had to fight every step of the way to keep his heart from pitching over the cliff."

Riku glanced over at him, but Sora was looking down to keep from stepping into anything unpleasant on the cobblestones, and his look wasn't returned. Riku had always been proud of what he imagined to be his whipcrack intellect, and Sora just never compared. He was too slow. His mind couldn't keep up with the intricacies of Riku's plots and plans as they careened from one challenge to another; he never really cared to try. It had never really occurred to Riku slowing down might have given him the time to see things as they were, and not the way Riku imagined them to be.

-ooo-

Kairi was sprawled on the bed in her nightshirt when Riku opened the door, flipping through a magazine she'd found in the drawer of the nightstand. Her expression was carefully blank; she was waiting for him to make the first move. Sora poked Riku hard in the back and he stumbled over the doorframe. Kairi giggled. Riku glared behind him, briefly, and turned back to her. "I didn't mean it," he said haltingly. Apologies had always felt like wringing the last drops of juice from a withered old lemon. "There was whiskey involved…I'm sorry. I know it's not fair to be angry at you for being you."

She abandoned the magazine on the bed and threw off the covers. She wasn't wearing anything but a nightshirt, and Riku assumed his apology had been accepted when she rose, stepped gingerly over to him across the chilly floor, and craned her head to kiss him on the lips. She had to stand on the very tips of her toes to execute that maneuver and wobbled a little, so Riku steadied her by grabbing her at the nearest convenient point, which happened to be right where his palms fit into the depressions on the sides of her hips. After a few sweet seconds she pulled away and sank back down to the ground. "I think you owe him one too."

"A kiss or an apology?" Riku asked.

Sora pulled himself away from wall where he'd been leaning to watch them. "Can I have both?" he asked hopefully. Kairi dropped her hand from where it had been resting below Riku's shoulderblade and extended it to Sora, an invitation to complete the circle.

Riku obligingly gave him the first, and then the second: "Thanks for coming to get me. And making sense when I don't."

"You're welcome," Sora said to him. "It's what I do." He was still for a few moments, then walked his fingers down the gentle valley in the center of Riku's back and worked the tuck of his shirt free so he could run his fingers across his bare skin. Kairi took notice of this and contributed by laughing warm and feather-light into Riku's chest and undoing the buttons from the top down. She kissed him on tiptoe again, quickly, and hooked her finger into one of his belt loops to tug him in the direction of the bed. Kissing him long and deep was always much easier for Kairi and Sora when he was horizontal, and usually that led somewhere even sweeter.