I CAN BARELY SAY
Chapter Three: Growing Up
Receiving a glare from Kairi in return, Sora continued, "Okay, I'll promise that I won't pull you in… but I won't promise that I won't splash you."
She rolled her eyes, smiling and coming a few steps closer to him, "I guess I'll take that." The waves now coming up to the hem of her dress, she commented, "You know, this might be one of the last weeks that the ocean's still warm. Fall's getting pretty close."
"I know." He sighed, returning to floating on his back, "I wish I would have come home earlier."
Kairi noticed he used the word 'would' instead of 'could' but decided not to linger on it for very long. Instead, she asked in a laugh, "Can you believe you're going to be twenty years old soon?"
"No," He tilted his head slightly to look at her, "Can you?"
She shook her head, smiling, "Not at all. But Riku's already twenty-one and he still seems like the same old Riku, so I guess it's not so bad."
Sora blinked and paused, letting his feet drop down to the ocean floor. "Wow… I hadn't even realized that. I mean, I knew that; I knew that when I looked at the calendar on his birthday. But my brain never really transferred it over after seeing him in person again."
"By the way, you owe us a few birthday presents mister." She put her hands on her hips.
"Maybe I could actually afford that by the time your birthday comes around." He laughed, "We'll see how this job goes."
She looked down at her feet, splashing around the water absentmindedly, "I'm just teasing you."
"I know. But maybe I'll surprise you." He replied, repeating, "Maybe." Looking at the sky and over at the main island to see the street lights were coming on, he commented, "It's getting kinda dark. We should start heading back."
"Okay." She nodded, before squinting at him, "Wait, you're not going to splash me at all? I'm surprised after you made a big deal of not being able to promise you wouldn't."
Sora shrugged, wading over to the boat, "The sun's almost all the way down, you'll be shivering the entire time we're walking home if I did it now."
"That's really considerate of you, Sora." Kairi commented in a soft voice as Sora brought the boat around for her. He was still the same old Sora, but he had definitely grown up too, Kairi thought.
He smiled sheepishly, holding the boat steady for her, "Uh, thanks, I guess."
"You're welcome." She replied as she stepped into the boat and took a seat.
Aside from the sound of Sora rowing, they shared a comfortable silence most of the way back to the main island; occasionally flashing quick smiles to each other.
After they had tied the boat up and started walking towards Kairi's apartment complex, she groaned, "Ugh, I have to start on a paper when I get home to and I really don't want to."
"We could go get something to eat first if you don't want to go home yet." He motioned towards town.
She shook her head smiling, "Thanks, but I've pushed this paper off one too many times already."
"Oh. I see how it is," Sora replied overdramatically, "You used me to avoid your paper."
Kairi rolled her eyes and shoved him playfully, "I definitely did not!"
"Yeah, yeah." He waved her off, "Whatever you say."
As they approached her door, she twiddled her fingers together, "Guess I have to go be productive now."
"And I guess I get to go home and lay around, doing nothing." Sora teased with a grin.
"Lucky you." She shook her head, "But you should try to go to bed early so you can be well rested to start your job in the morning."
Sora's eyes widened, "Oh yeah, that's right. Good idea."
"No problem." She and Sora stood there for a moment, just staring at each other.
His eyes darted around to look at everything but her, wondering, 'Does she want me to make a move or what?' They'd only kissed once so he didn't really know any sort of body language that hinted towards that sort of thing. But she was just looking at him as if she were expecting something.
Feeling nervous and awkward, Sora started to lean forward and shut his eyes before he felt Kairi's head against his shoulder and her arms loosely around his waist, "Hope your first day goes well. And see you tomorrow; same time, same place?" She questioned.
'Guess not?' He thought to himself, confused. "Um, thanks. And yeah, sounds good. Good luck with your paper and… I would say to say bye for Selphie for me but I don't know if she wants to hear it." He hugged her back awkwardly.
She let go of him, groaning, "Yeah, I've still got to talk to her about that… Don't worry, though. She'll warm up to you again soon."
"Hope so. Anyway, I'll see you later, Kairi." He started to turn to leave.
"Bye, Sora." He heard her reply softly before knocking on the door to be let in by Selphie, who spared Sora from another snide comment even though he was still in ear-shot.
Glancing behind him, he watched Kairi disappear behind the closed door. 'I wonder if that was bad timing, or if she changed or mind… or if I just really have no idea what I'm doing.' He stuffed his hands in his pockets, still damp from the ocean water.
When he reached his house, he opened and closed his front door loudly and announced, "I'm home!"
As he walked into the kitchen, his mom caught one glance of him and said, "I'm guessing you went to the beach."
Sora smiled sheepishly, "Yeah. Went to watch the sunset with Kairi. I'm assuming you saw I went grocery shopping, right?"
"I would joke that you took the $50 and went on a shopping spree somewhere but I don't think there's any shops here that have anything you like more than food." She tousled his hair.
"You got that right." He laughed, "Oh! By the way, I ran into Tidus after I went grocery shopping and I'm going to start working with his dad tomorrow morning."
She hugged him tightly, "That's great news, honey." Stepping back, she waved a finger, "Just make sure you're always paying attention while walking around; there's a lot of power tools running all around you."
He inwardly laughed, thinking heartless were a lot more dangerous than power tools, but he knew his mom had good intentions. "I know, I know; I will." Sora stepped backwards pointing towards the stairs, "I'm gonna go upstairs and change."
She nodded, moving back towards the sink and working on dishes, "Okay. I finished dinner a little while ago so you'll probably need to reheat it."
"Okay, no problem. Thanks!" He headed up the stairs, hearing her call back 'you're welcome'. Shutting the door and grabbing the first t-shirt, boxers, and pajama pants he could see out of his dresser, he shrugged out of his wet clothes and changed into the new ones.
Once he was at the top of the stairs, his mom heard him and called up, "Did you hang up your wet clothes?"
Sora froze, slowly responding as he turned back towards his room, "…No." After hanging up everything on the towel rack in the bathroom, he headed down the stairs; slightly embarrassed. "Sorry, some old habits die hard I guess." He apologized as he passed his mom on the way to the kitchen.
His mom shook her head, "It's okay. I figured that one might slip your mind, but you have been really helpful lately. Don't put yourself down too much."
"Thanks. And… yeah, I'm really sorry I wasn't more helpful around the house when I was younger. Especially after Dad died and you had to do everything by yourself." He paused and looked up at her.
She gave a grateful smile, "It's okay Sora, you were a teenager. I'm glad that you got to have to have a lot of fun with your friends and go on your own adventures." Smirking, she continued, "But now that you're an adult, it's time to pay back your debts."
"Hey, I'm still a teenager for a few more weeks." He pointed out with a wave of his finger.
She laughed, "I guess you get to use that excuse for a little bit longer, then."
"Shouldn't have said that, I'm totally going to abuse it now." He grinned, heading into the kitchen to grab a plate.
As he scooped the leftovers onto his plate and popped them into the microwave, she replied with a snap of her fingers, "Oh well. A few more weeks won't kill me."
Sora laughed, taking out his reheated food and sitting down at the dinner table to continue the conversation with his mom. Once he had finished eating, he promptly washed his dish and headed upstairs to go to bed early as Kairi had suggested. Seeing that it was only 9:30 when he set his alarm, he figured he was going to have a hard time falling asleep that early.
But to his surprise, he fell asleep not long after his head hit the pillow. When his alarm went off the next morning, he still felt a little groggy but nowhere near the amount he would normally be feeling. 'Thanks, Kairi.' He thought to himself.
Rushing through his morning routine, Sora quickly headed out the door after his mom wished him luck on his first day. Making it to the office with fifteen minutes to spare, he nervously knocked on the door. Once it opened, he started to greet, "Hi, Mr.—"
"Sora; Tidus told me you were coming by. And no need to be so formal, just call me Jecht. After all, you're a man now." Jecht hovered in the doorway, neither inviting Sora in or stepping out.
"Err, right." Sora was unsure how to respond, not exactly used to being recognized as a 'man' as opposed to a 'young man' or 'boy'.
"If you're not quite a man yet, you definitely will be after a few weeks of work here." Jecht let out a deep laugh before stepping out of the door and closing it behind him, "Either way, you've definitely done a lot more than my boy has."
Sora bit his tongue. He didn't know much about what Tidus had been up to in the past few years, but in the past he'd always tried hard to please his dad and it never seemed to pay off. Sora assumed it was the same thing going on now and as much as it irritated him, he knew it definitely wasn't the right time or place to bring it up.
Motioning him forward, Jecht continued, "I'll let Wakka teach you the ropes since you two already know each other pretty well." They walked past a few houses that were close to being finished but had a few minor details left until they finally reached a house that was only three/fourths of the way finished. Pointing, he said, "He's probably around back. I'll let you get started."
"Thanks." Sora answered, already feeling unsure of this as Jecht began to walk away. Carefully edging his way around the house, careful to avoid any wires or cables on the ground, he eventually caught sight of Wakka.
Once the loud buzz of the miter saw that he was using had stopped, Sora greeted, "Hey, Wakka."
He looked up curiously before a large grin took over his face, "Sora! Nice to see ya. Tidus said you'd probably be around today."
Rounding the cutting table, Sora asked curiously, "So do you work here full time or just part time?"
"Full time; I use all the rest to practice blitzball. They make it sound like I'm not too far off from making the team, I just gotta keep at it." He grinned enthusiastically.
"That's great." Sora smiled as well.
"What about you?" Wakka motioned toward the younger boy, "You going to school too?"
The brunette shook his head, "Nah. It's too late plus I have quite a bit of catching up to do, so I'll be working full time as well for the next few months."
"Gotcha. Well, at least we've got each other and with you around, I'm not the newbie anymore so I appreciate it." Wakka laughed loudly and patted him on the back, "Guess we should get to it."
Sora laughed, "Guess so…"
