If it Never Happened: A slice of life take on what the Kingdom Hearts characters from the FemSora universe would be going through if the events in the game never existed.
Author's note: Just a reminder to readers, I want you guys to know I take opinions into effect. I like hearing suggestions and opinions on fics and if you guys have any requests or things you want improved don't hesitate to bring them up with me. Not just with this fic but with all my stories. I live to serve!
Chapter 4: Ready...Set...Dash!
She dreamed again… It was the island, it was always the island. Who knew this piece of land could be such a center to her life. It was important to her, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because it was where she and her friends always spent time together… or maybe it's because that's where her father first taught her to fish with her bare hands, and swim in the cove… or maybe there's another reason it called to her altogether…
Whatever the reason, she dreamed of the island… it was a sunny day, the sea wind blowing in the trees and the scent of the ocean. It was so realistic to her senses she swore she was there. She stood on the shore staring out at all the blue, she felt Kairi nearby though neither of them spoke. It was dead silent… until...
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Riku's voice echoed in her ears and Sora's eyes drifted over to him. He stood at the beach holding a log looking as he had years ago. "So I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."
He tossed the log aside walking to Kairi. "You're just as lazy as she is."
"So you noticed," Kairi giggled and smirked at him. "Okay, let's finish it together. I'll race you!" Kairi challenged him and Sora took a leisurely walk to stand beside him. When he sat so did she and the two of them looked at each other, their fingertips touching and his hand flinching slightly from the contact. Their eyes locked, and a look of challenge and competition was exchanged.
"Ready...GO!" Kairi shouted.
Sora jumped to her feet racing across the beach. Her feet were heavy from the weight of the sand, but she lifted them up high and hard kicking up dust and shells as she went. She heard Riku panting right beside her and risked a glance to watch. His aqua blue eyes were so intense, his mouth opened slightly and his breath came out in thick heavy pants.
Out of the two of them she was the faster sprinter, but that didn't necessarily mean she won all the time. Unlike Riku she didn't have much focus, and she always got distracted by things around her. The smells of the sea, the sounds of the waves and Kairi's laughter… or even the sight of Riku's young nimble body keeping pace with hers.
They reached under the bridge and Riku's gaze met hers. She saw him smirking and reaching out, his hand grabbing hers and yanking her body to his. He spun her around, arms closed tight around her waist as she gasped out laughter.
"Riku! Hahaha put me down! You cheater!"
They hit the sand, side by side, Riku's arms still around her and his breath heavy on her neck. She giggled from the tickle of it, and how happy it had made her.
"Riku…"
"Sora…" The voice started off calm, and warm as the sun… but soon a cold chill ran over her and she gasped for air. She felt arms around her still but they were trying to pull her up out of the water as the waves tossed them about. She came loose and her hands flailed as she reached out screaming.
"RIKU!"
"SORA!"
~Reality~
"Sora...Sora...SORA!" RIku shook Sora awake as she tossed and screamed in bed from her nightmare. Sora's eyes pop open and she looked around wildly a moment before her blurry vision focused on Riku's face and she launched herself into his arms quivering.
"Whoa! Whoa hey, shhh hey it's okay Sora."
"Riku… Riku…. mnng" She held back the tears of relief that wanted to slip from her eyes and just held tight onto him afraid if she let go he would vanish. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry just give me a minute."
"Yeah.. yeah okay" He sat down beside her letting her hold on and he stroked a hand down the length of her hair resting his cheek on the top of her head. "Don't worry I'm here. Everything's okay."
After a minute to compose herself Sora finally let go and quickly brushed away the few tear droplets she let fall. "What time is it?"
"It's after 3, you missed your last classes, everyone's in club and cleaning duties right now. You had a really bad fever but it seems to have broken." He touched her forehead to check for himself. "Dr. Aerith was in an out of here. There's a lot of chaos on the sports field because of the upcoming tests. All the coaches are putting the students through rigorous training."
"Heh, yeah, we have Sports and Health up first… that at the very least I won't have a problem with." Sora laughed and tucked hair behind her ear. They were so close together, and her heart began to pound in her chest remembering Axel's words. She gently scooted back an inch and swung her legs over the side and rubbed feeling back into them. "Don't you have a student council meeting today?"
"Yes, I did… but I asked Leon to cover for me, because I told him I had more important matters to attend to than deciding what colors should be used for the senior picnic." Rikku rubbed her back and felt her tension. "Your nightmare still bothering you Sora? You look real freaked out."
"Huh? Oh… yeah right my nightmare. It was pretty freaky." She laughed nervously rubbing the back of her head. "Then again what nightmares aren't. I must be pretty jumpy if you're asking me." She got to her feet and straightened herself out.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" He stood with her his hands reaching for her again and she pulled away just in time.
"No. no that's alright. I need to go find Donald and Goofy and see if I can borrow their notes… you know Study Study Study, or fail fail fail… see yah!"
"Wait! Sora!" He made a grab for her and managed to clasp his hand around hers keeping her from exiting the room. "Just hold on a minute. I didn't just sit with you for kicks yah know. I wanted to make sure you were okay, and to make sure Axel didn't do anything."
Sora flinched and stood still as a statue her face flushed as she turned just enough to glance up at him. "What do you mean?"
"Axel told me that I wasn't the only one tutoring you. Does that mean he's also tutoring you? What could he possibly help you with that I can't?"
She thought of Axel and his words before and the heat returned to her cheeks and she struggled to keep her composure but Riku was making it very difficult. "Science!" She finally said after a moment. "Axel is helping me with science and he's also helping me with the little island."
"I can help you with science… what's this about the little island?"
"Riku you're so busy with your own work, and with the student council you don't have the time to be tutoring me on every subject and you've made it clear to me how you feel about the little island. Axel is more open, and he likes the island as much as I do. We're using our spare time putting it back together, that's what he came to talk to me about last night. He wanted to show me he'd gotten materials to fix the docks and stuff."
Riku's defenses went down when she said this and he let go of her hand and rubbed the back of his neck grunting. "I don't care about my workload Sora. I've always got time for you."
Something about his words struck her, a slight pain in her chest and before she could think her mouth moved. "Really? Strange that you haven't been using that time… especially when you didn't come see me after the accident. I was in the hospital for months Riku, and everyone said you didn't come to see me once."
"That's… .different." He avoided her eyes looking away and Sora pouted.
"How is it different?"
"IT JUST IS!" He yelled at her, his fists clenched at his sides. He let out a small curse under his breath and he ripped the door open. "I gotta go… have fun with Axel!"
"Hey! Wait! RIku that's not fair you can't just…" She stopped looking around for him. She couldn't figure out which direction he went and she stomped her foot. "He wouldn't let me run off but then he does it himself."
Riku was in the classroom next to the infirmary having ducked in so she wouldn't see the tears streaking down his cheeks. He stared at the floor angry and upset that she brought up the past. His chest ached and he gripped a fist into his shirt as if trying to ease the pain.
"Sora… you don't understand…I did visit… but I didn't go in." He held his face now slipping down to the floor. "One look at you... and I just couldn't go in."
~Saturday~
Sora sat on newly finished dock, it hadn't taken her and Axel long to resupport the beams and it would be the easiest of the jobs they had ahead of them. Still she wished they could be doing more labor work than trying to memorize what Mitosis is.
"Mitosis… the process in which a "parent" cell divides into two identical "daughter cells"
"It's really not all that hard…" Axel bit into an apple and ran a hand over her hair. "Just think of Mitosis as you and Roxas."
"Say what?" She looked up with a raised brow.
"Think about it… A parent is giving birth to two daughters… your mom giving birth to you and Roxas who are twins."
"Oh.. .OH I get it now." She smiled and wrote a memo in her notes. "Okay so I'll just think of this parent Cell as my mom, and the twin cells are me and Roxas… easy."
"Roxas and I… don't forget your English either, the more you speak it the easier you remember it."
"Is that why you always say, "Got it memorized?" to everyone when you want them to remember something?"
She got a shove for that as well as a full belly laugh. She smiled in return and looked back to her books. She went to the next chapter and began reading. Axel crouched down leaning over her shoulder. He saw her tense up and he couldn't hide his smile. "Don't mind me, I'm just making sure you're actually reading instead of just staring into a page as you have been the past half hour."
Sora sighed and closed the book frowning. "I'm sorry, I know you're doing your best to help me but I'm just…"
"Distracted?" Axel finished tugging a strand of her hair making her pout and flush from embarrassment. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Not really… it's kinda personal and I'm not altogether sure what happened myself." Sora played with the edges of the book and then slammed it shut pushing it and her notebook away so she could stand. "I need a break."
"Alright," Axel put the discarded books into her bag. "What do you wanna do, now?"
"Want to go fishing or something? We can set up a fire, cook it the old fashioned way like when we'd have those picnics."
"That does sound like fun." Axel grinned. "Except for the swimming in really cold water. Summer isn't quite here yet, I imagine both of us will be nursing stuffy noses by tomorrow."
"Ah who cares?" Sora said jumping from the dock and spinning across the sand. "It's not that cold and it's not like we've got school tomorrow. It's the weekend afterall."
"That's even worse." Axel mused jumping down beside her. "Getting sick on an off day. Where's the fun in that?"
"It's in sleep. When you sleep you dream…" she trailed off thinking of the nightmare she'd had at school and she gave a small shudder rubbing her arms. "On second thought, maybe it would be better to stay away from the water."
Axel narrowed his eyes studying her body language.
"You sure you don't want to talk about what happened?"
"I had a nightmare, though it didn't start out as one." Sora confessed suddenly. Maybe she'd feel better if she did talk about it.
"When?"
"In the infirmary. After you dropped me off there I'd fallen asleep, and I dreamed of the little island, about the days when Riku Kairi and I were working on the raft to go exploring." She put her hands behind her head as she walked to the exact spot where she had stood in the dream. Instead of endless blue she saw a mix of colors now. The day was growing late and the first streaks of orange and red light started to touch the blues of the sky and water.
"I remember that." Axel commented standing behind her, watching, and studying her form. He felt an odd twist in his gut as his imagination pictured Roxas doing a similar pose. Stay focused, Axel told himself. "You, uh, were wandering all over the place. While Riku and Kairi made their lists and got the grunt work done you were lazily gathering supplies, and playing games in between the work."
She smiled, though he couldn't see her face he saw some of the tension ease from her shoulders.
"I guess I am kinda lazy. I work hard when things matter a good deal to me. Sports, games, play fighting… They were all so much fun and I wanted to be the best I could. I wanted to be able to beat any guy on the island. I challenged them all… You, Tidus, Wakka, Terra, Riku… Tidus and Wakka were easy, but you, Terra and Riku were another story."
"Terra would let you win occasionally, and if I recall you beat me a couple times."
"I did… and I could beat Riku in a race, but never with a sword. Just the way that he fought, the way that he could just coolly swing that silly wooden sword made him seem as regal as any prince, and as fierce as any knight." She hugged herself. "I looked up to him so much."
Axel heard the change in her voice and felt that was enough for now.
"You never asked me to race. I bet I could beat you."
"What?" She looked over her shoulder, the swimming eyes suddenly cleared. "Are you challenging me, Axel?"
Axel stretched out his legs from side to side then straightened up. "First one to the bridge and back wins. Ready...Set...DASH!" Axel took off but Sora was already on his heels. She laughed a little as she ran her smile big and her eyes fierce from the challenge of it. He had long legs that ate up ground but she could see his stamina wearing out fast. She picked up the speed her legs kicked up so high she thought she could kick the back of her own head with enough force.
As she passed him they were just coming under the shade of the bridge, she skidded to a halt whirling around to make the return sprint to the docks. Her feet were lifted up off the ground as Axel's arm came around her. She squealed and wriggled her movement causing them to topple over and she laughed breathlessly.
"I change my mind!" Axel said panting. "I can't beat you, so I'll have to play dirty." He rolled over her tickling her sides and she squealed again her hands slapping at his trying to pry his fingers away.
"Axel! Hahahaha stop it! Axel!" She found her hands above her head and he held her down his free hand going down to tickle then halting as he stared at her face. The laughter halted, time stood still a moment as they just stared at each other. Sora's eyes had teared and droplets were spilling over her cheeks.
"Sora…" Concerned he loosened his grip on her hands and cupped a cheek brushing the tears away.
"I thought he didn't care about me…" Sora whispered and the tears wouldn't stop. "I thought he was angry at me for going out by myself to save the raft." She let out the first sob. "I wasn't alone though… he'd been there… I remember now he was there. He pulled me out of the water."
"Who… who was there, Sora?"
"Riku… Riku was there." She pulled hands up to her face sobbing into them. Axel sat her up and knelt in front of her. "Riku saved me."
Axel's eyes went soft and sympathetic and he trailed a hand over her braid before pulling her hands from her face. "You never talked about the accident before, not to anyone."
"It's because I couldn't remember. Everything had been a blur that night, like a bad dream." She sniffed and shuddered her eyes unable to meet his as they continue to tear. "All I could remember was the storm, and watching the waves rush over me. I was so frightened." she touched her head where she'd smacked it up against the rocks.
"My nightmare… it's started with the race, Riku did almost exactly what you did, he pulled me in his arms, spun me around to keep me from beating him. I could feel his warmth, hear his breathing… then I looked into his eyes, and next thing I knew his arms weren't holding me gently, but for dear life. He was trying to pull me to shore, but the waves were so violent they kicked us apart again and I went barrelling into the rocks."
"I had been at home when I heard the news. Roxas called me completely freaked out and crying. I ran all the way to the hospital, I don't think I'd ever ran so hard in my life." By the time he'd gotten there almost all of Sora's friends and family had littered the waiting rooms of the hospital. "I saw Riku, briefly, he had cuts and scrapes of his own but he was okay. I didn't think about it much at the time, I was too busy trying to calm Roxas down."
Sora sat there looking pale and teary as she stared straight ahead going over the memories tossing around in her head. Axel tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and then lay a hand on her damp cheek.
"Sora, listen, I don't know what reasons, better yet excuses Riku has for keeping his distance all this time. All I know is, is that you shouldn't let it get to you. You've friends who care about you even without Riku always there. You've got Goofy and Donald, your sister even if she is a bit distracted right now," he muttered and then shaking it off he pulled her face up so her eyes looked to his. "And you've got me. I won't ever keep my distance, I'll be here so long as you need me. I promise." He waited a beat and the to lighten the mood he tapped his own temple. "Got it memorized?"
Sora stared blankly a moment, then at his signature move the lips twitched and then spread into a smile.
"Yeah, I do. Thank You, Axel."
"Good, oh and one more thing." He leaned his head down, closed the gap and his lips gently touch hers.
Sora's eyes went wide as the lips smoothly caress hers. He didn't push or pull her in, the kiss was like a comforting hug, soft and warm and it made her twisting stomach muscle loosen and relax. When he pulled back the tears had stopped, and a nice flush caressed her cheeks.
"There, now that your eyes are clear, let's get back to work."
It's been awhile! I've been working on some of the other continuations in my spare time. As per many requests I may put this particular fic on hold so I can concentrate on the others, or at least post a chapter once in awhile in between. I've almost finished the first Chapters for "If we had Hearts" and "If I could do it again" so expect one or the other to be posted up soon.
Next Chapter: Mixed Feelings