I CAN BARELY SAY
Chapter Seven: Birthday Wishes
He'd spent a while thinking about this wish.
Every birthday in the past he'd always thought of something on the spot or had something that he already wanted. But he was already home and Riku and Kairi were right there with him, singing as his mom placed a chocolate cake in front of him. There really wasn't a whole lot that he wanted more than that; to be at home and with his friends and family.
He had a few worries, though. The high school had called earlier that morning to say that he would be able to take a test for his diploma. They'd need about two weeks to compile something together since they'd never really had a situation like this before and Sora was completely fine with that because he desperately needed the study time. Once he had finished that, he had to worry about applying to the university as well. And on top of all of that, he started to notice people whispering around him whenever he was out in the town. Some even seem scared of him, much to his dismay.
If he was by himself, he'd do his best to keep his distance and do whatever he needed to do as quickly as possible. If Kairi was with him, though, she'd glare daggers back at them before urging Sora to take his time and reminding him that he had just as much of a right to be there as they did. When he talked to Riku about it, Riku suggested that the idea of being to so many different worlds scares them in combination with the fact they don't really understand what exactly a keyblade is and what it does. He also added that there were some people who still weren't very fond of him or Kairi but most had gotten over their worries after they went back to school and everything continued as normal.
'I wish for this year to go smoothly.' He blew out the candles on the cake and everyone clapped. "Now it's time for the best part." He joked with a wide grin, rubbing his hands together. He wasn't sure if wishing on a birthday cake would actually help change anything, but it sure didn't hurt. After all, he got to eat it afterwards.
"How's it feel to be twenty?" Kairi asked as his mom set down a piece of cake which he immediately started digging into with his fork.
"Not much different." He took a bite, asking with his mouth full, "How's it feel to be the only teenager left?"
After saying thank you for her own piece of cake, she replied smugly, "Just fine. I'll catch up to you soon enough."
"Besides, it's not like you can really call yourself an adult yet, Sora." Riku chimed in and everyone laughed, with the exception of Sora.
He pouted, but he agreed. He certainly didn't feel like an adult at all even though he'd spent so much time out on his own. He'd always had help, be it from Donald or Goofy or various residents of the worlds he was visiting. "Guess I'm just stick in limbo." He finished off his piece of cake and folded his arms behind his head, "But I think that's okay with me."
"Just don't turn back into an actual kid, I don't think I have the energy levels to handle that." His mom replied with a ruffle of his hair.
He laughed, "That would maybe be nice for like, a day, but I'm good where I am." His mom flashed a smile before heading into the kitchen, making Sora ask, "You're not gonna eat a piece?"
"Later!" She answered back loudly.
Turning back to Riku and Kairi, he tilted his chair backwards, "So when should we start doing these crazy cramming sessions?"
"Tomorrow morning, if you're up for it." Riku shrugged, "I've got some research to do for a paper so I'll read my books in any spare time I get."
Sora nodded and looked to Kairi who answered, "I can do tomorrow morning."
"Sounds like a plan. And we can have left over birthday cake for breakfast." Sora let his chair fall back onto all fours.
Kairi clapped excitedly while Riku made a noise of disgust, mumbling, "I'll pass. Too much chocolate for so early in the morning."
"C'mon, Riku. You're no fun." Sora teased, sticking his tongue out before continuing, "Don't take the adult thing too seriously."
"I think that's a code meaning that I'm gonna have to keep you two slackers in line tomorrow." The older boy crossed his arms as he looked at his two friends.
Kairi grinned first, "Probably."
"Jeez." Riku shook his head before standing up, "Guess it'll never end, no matter how old you two get."
"Nope." Sora stood up as well, flashing a smile.
"In that case, I better get going so I can mentally prepare myself." He hugged his younger friend, "Happy Birthday, again."
Sora hugged him back, "Thanks."
As Riku turned away, Kairi added, "I should get going too." She leaned in towards Sora and he expected that she was going to kiss his cheek. Instead, he found her whispering into his ear, "I'll meet you upstairs."
"O-okay." He smiled nervously, his heart beginning to race. She flashed a smile back as she pulled away from him and turned to leave.
Sora's room was fairly easy to get to even though it was on the second story thanks to a large tree right next to his house so Riku and Kairi had been sneaking into his room for years. But this was the first time in a long time and this time was the first time Kairi had ever been more than just a friend, and that was what made him nervous.
He didn't watch her as she left the room, instead focusing on collecting the dirty plates off the table to try and calm himself down. He walked into the kitchen and rinsed off the plates in the sink before putting them neatly in the dish washer. As he stood back up, he announced loudly without looking at his mom, "I'm gonna go to bed so I can get up early to study tomorrow."
His voice was believable; it was just his face that was always a dead giveaway when he was lying.
"Goodnight, sweetie. Happy Birthday." He heard her reply.
He turned around to flash a quick smile and answered, "Thanks. Goodnight." With that, she went back to reading her book and Sora went up the stairs.
He opened the cracked door and saw Kairi seated on his bed, her legs folded underneath her and her shoes on the floor. Taking a step in and locking the door behind him, he moved towards his bed and sat down next to her. In the past, normally have sat in the chair at his desk but he was still trying his best to be a little more forward, at least in small ways like this.
"Are you nervous?" She asked quietly as he sat down.
"Huh?" He jumped a little bit, turning to look at her.
"Are you nervous about the test?" She repeated, resting her weight on her left arm to lean closer to him.
He smiled, feeling a bit relieved by her clarification, "Yeah. I am."
"It's okay to be, it's a big thing." She scooted closer to him, bumping into his shoulder, "But you'll be okay. You're gonna get plenty of help."
He turned his head to look at her, smiling again, "Thanks." She smiled back and he looked away briefly before he couldn't hold the question back anymore, "So, did you have any particular reason for wanting to come up here?"
She laughed to herself, leaning back and commenting, "So you're nervous about that too."
Sora gave her a bit of a frown in response. "Y-Yeah." He admitted begrudgingly and flopped down on to his back.
She nudged her knee against his side playfully before laying down on her back as well, keeping a small gap between them and resting her hands on her stomach, "I don't want to do anything to makes you uncomfortable. I guess it was sort of silly to think we'd sort of just pick up where we left off."
Sora turned over onto his side, leaning over her as he said with a small laugh, "Kairi, I would have still been a nervous wreck around you even if I had come home right away. Because I don't want to do something dumb and lose you. And I guess maybe I am more nervous because of how bad things were when I first got home, but either way… you're not doing anything wrong." He kissed her cheek, "So don't worry about that."
She looked up at him, locking her eyes with his, "We're both going to make our fair share of mistakes. That's unavoidable. I'll get upset, you'll get upset; but we'll work through it and move on. Unless your personality does a 180 and you become a completely different person, you're not gonna lose me."
He smiled sheepishly, "Maybe one of these days that'll finally sink in."
"I'll remind you until it does." She reached up and put her hands on both sides of his face, guiding him down. He complied, using his right hand to support himself as he leaned over her and caught her lips underneath his. The kiss started out slow and sweet, Sora making sure to keep the small distance between them. But once Kairi moved her hands around his neck, tracing his jawline on the way, he had all but forgotten worrying about that; his skin tingling as her fingers passed over. He deepened the kiss and she had no objections, pulling him just a bit closer. He used his other hand to lift himself back up again, slowly and as subtly as possible in order to not break the kiss. Once his right hand was free to move, he mimicked her by running his fingertips down her side, lightly brushing her bare skin from where her shirt had been slightly pushed up before stopping at the top of her jeans. He felt her shiver a bit and smile into the kiss for a moment before she pulled back.
He lifted himself up slightly, though his one hand remained at her hip as he watched her. "I should get going so I can be back here tomorrow morning. I'm gonna run by my parents' house, too, so I can go get some of my old books." She retreated one of her hands back to her chest, the other stopping to rest on his shoulder as she spoke.
"Okay." Sora answered, not sure of anything else to say.
Her other hand left his shoulder and his hand slid off of her as she sat up. As she leaned over his feet to grab her shoes from the floor, Sora sat up and pushed the window open for her. Placing her shoes outside on the tree, she turned back to give him a peck on the lips, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight." He watched her as she exited and climbed down the tree, making sure that she made it back to the ground safely before closing his window again. Once she was out of sight, he sunk back down into his bed and felt how warm the sheets were where she had just been. Smiling to himself, he pulled the comforter up to his neck and turned over, easily drifting off to sleep.
The morning wasn't quite as peaceful, as he was awoken by the sound of Riku dropping what sounded like twenty pounds of books on top of the desk next to his bed as he called out loudly, "Rise and shine!"
Sora groaned and pulled the comforter over his head, ignoring him. Riku didn't say anything else but he heard the light shuffling of feet against his floor and assumed that it was Kairi. Just as he was about to peek out of blankets, he let out a loud noise as Kairi sat on his stomach. "C'mon, you've gotta get up!" She called as she easily ripped the blanket out of his grasp, pulling it down to just below his neck.
"It'd help if I could breathe a little." He mumbled back, his voice strained. She rolled her eyes and stood up, looking down at him with a hand on her hip as he gasped for air dramatically. As soon as he had sat up, Riku placed an open book in his lap. Looking up, he asked desperately, "Can't I at least eat breakfast first? And wasn't my door locked?"
"We have keyblades, Sora." The older boy answered without even looking up before glancing to Kairi. She bent over to reach into her tote bag, draped on the back of Sora's chair.
"Right…" He blinked and rubbed his eyes, tired.
Kairi pulled out a plastic box with a blueberry muffin and placed it beside the brunette, "So you can study and eat at the same time. I grabbed it from my work yesterday before I came over." She leaned in closer to his ear and whispered not so quietly, "We'll have cake later when Riku's distracted."
"The sooner you get started, the sooner you can take a break and eat all the cake you want." Riku cracked open his own book and sat down at the desk.
"Alright." He sighed, starting to look down, "So what am I starting with, anyway?"
"History." Kairi sat down next to him, "We figured it'd probably be the easiest thing to refresh."
He nodded, starting to read a little bit as he asked, "Makes sense. When are we doing math, though? That's probably gonna be the worst."
"We'll do that last so it's the freshest thing in your memory when you go to take the test." Riku looked over to them, "We'll do a few review days for everything else, too."
Sora looked at his friends briefly, smiling as he looked back down, "Almost sounds like you two could be teachers."
"Basically, for the next two weeks, we are." He glanced up at her and she grinned mischievously as she added, "So pay attention!"
Sora grinned as well and Riku looked up once again, warning, "Stop flirting or I'll make you sit on opposite sides of the room."
"Yes, Master Riku." Sora mumbled sarcastically and Kairi giggled.
The older boy sighed and touched his forehead in annoyance, "Ugh, not that again."
"Sorry, I had to." He looked back down again, "I'll be serious now. Promise."
And he was; especially once Kairi had started on her work, as well. Sora asked for clarification every once in a while, but it was mostly smooth sailing. Kairi even ended up falling asleep after she had finished her homework due to Sora's lack of questions, curled up on his bed with her shins pressed against his back as he continued reading.
When Riku finally called for a break, Sora stood up as slowly and carefully as he could, not wanting to wake her up. But he didn't make it past before the doorframe before he heard, "You're going to eat cake without me?"
"I thought maybe you needed to catch up on some sleep." He shifted back towards her, watching her sit and up and raise her hand up to her mouth in a yawn.
"I probably could use the extra sleep, but I'm okay." She answered as she slid off the bed, walking across the room and right past him as she finished, "I'll have more energy after I get something to eat."
Sora nodded and followed after her, wondering if there was another reason why she wasn't sleeping well or if she was just too busy between school, work, and now helping him. From the way she and Riku were talking, it sounded like they had been doing a decent amount of planning without him. 'Wonder how much time that took them…' He bit his lip, feeling a bit guilty.
"Alright, what's your problem?" Riku asked immediately as he walked into the room, staring at him intently.
His eyes widened, "Huh?"
"What are you worrying about?" Riku crossed his arms and Sora felt Kairi's eyes on him as well.
Sora looked down at the floor and smiled sheepishly as he looked back up at his friends, "Just… Thank you, guys, for doing all of this for me. I know you're both really busy, so it means a lot."
"We've always got time for you." Kairi touched his arm lightly before looking to Riku, "Right?"
"Yeah." He nodded, adding, "Besides, you saw us. We're still getting work done so it's not like we're wasting time or anything." Catching a small glare from Kairi, he corrected nervously, "Not that helping you is a waste of time. It just—ugh. You know what I mean, Kairi. Stop looking at me like that."
Sora laughed and she softened her expression as he replied for her, "I know what you mean."
"Thanks, Sora." Riku answered appreciatively before turning back to the kitchen counter, "Well, hurry up and eat, guys. We've gotta get back to work soon."
"Yeah, yeah…" The younger boy sighed. Noticing that Kairi was unmoving, he reached behind her and gave her a little nudge forward. She turned her head and gave him a confused look to which he responded, "You go first."
She blinked before giving a small smile, "Oh, thanks."
"Are you okay? Seems like you're in a daze." He kept his hand lightly at her back, taking a step closer to her.
"Just a little tired and hungry, like I said." She took a step forward and he let his hand fall back to his side as he watched her move towards the fridge.
He leaned over the open fridge door as she looked at her choices, crossing his arms over it as he responded, "If you say so."
