"And you promise you'll stay here?" Riku asks again, worrying.
"Yes, Riku. I'll stay here, in Hollow Bastion, with Leon and the others." Sora grins, as if amused by Riku's actions.
"Promise me. Cross your heart."
Sora rolls his eyes, but his smile doesn't leave as he crosses his heart and repeats his promise. Ven waits patiently a few feet away, and Riku has found out that he's an awful lot like Sora. It makes him feel kind of mad and kind of guilty for snapping at him so much.
He should probably apologize to him like he had to Leon and the others in the castle.
"I'm serious, Sora."
"So am I. Go get Kairi. I'll be better by the time you get back." Sora smiles at him, and Riku has to resist the urge to kiss him.
"Right. Ready to go, Ventus?"
"Lead the way." He grins before bumping his fist against his shoulder plate, and in a flash he's covered in blue and gold armor.
"Whoa," Sora says, clearly in awe. "Did I look like that?"
Riku shakes his head, "Yours looked different. It was gold and bronze. A bit bulkier, too."
"What does your armor look like?"
Riku shrugs, "White and black, I think. I've never seen myself in a mirror while in it."
Riku doesn't have any armor to tap and activate his suit, so it takes a bit of concentration to summon it into existence. Once he dons the armor, he sees Sora staring at him with admiration.
Ventus walks over. Even though it's hard to hear with two helmets in the way, he hears Ven say, "Wow, you're a natural. You don't even need a conduit."
Sora laughs and pats him on the shoulder, "That's Riku. Always so talented at everything."
Riku can feel himself blushing a bit, and he's thankful for the helmet blocking Sora's view.
Shaking his head, he summons Way to Dawn and tosses it into the air at the same time as Ventus. Riku notices that Ventus' Glider – that's what he'd called it – is different than Sora's, if only slightly. Ven's is gray with wing like extensions coming out of the back and a large point on the front. Sora's was silver with gold wings lining the entire board, if he remembered correctly.
His own Glider looks nothing like Sora's or Ventus' Gliders. His own is like a bike, or that was the closest comparison he could come up with in his mind.
Sora watches as Riku summons his Glider and he gets a bad feeling in his chest. Like…being hollow and broken. The brunet shakes his head and waves to Riku and Ventus as they take off into the sky.
He wishes he could go, too, but he'd been telling the truth when he'd said he'd been feeling off. Not bad, or sick. Just off.
And that feeling grows as Riku races into the sky on his Glider.
His vision swims and he panics for a split second. The last thing he sees after Riku and Ventus disappear through the portal is the ground as he falls forward.
It's easy enough to follow Riku to Destiny Island. When they land, Ven almost loses his balance as he hits the sandy beach. Riku lands expertly, showing his years of practice.
Ven looks around, slightly disappointed when he doesn't see a village or anything resembling a town. All he sees are foreign, funny-looking trees and a large cliff side.
"Is that a giant star on the cliff over there?" He asks, pointing to the aforementioned star.
"Yeah. Sora and I used it to race. First one there and back won."
"Oh." Ven nods, wishing the silence wasn't so awkward.
"Sorry about landing so far out; I've only ever landed once before." Riku says as he starts off in a seemingly random direction.
"Don't worry about it. It takes a few tries to get used to." Ven chirps, following behind.
Then the awkward silence settles back in as they make their way around the cliff wall and up a small ledge. They're making their way over a wooden bridge when Riku stops and turns to him.
"I, uh… I'm…sorry." Riku looks ashamed and embarrassed, and Ven can tell it's taking Riku a lot just to tell him that.
"It's fine. I understand completely."
"It's not fine. Even distressed, I had no right to take it out on you. It wasn't your fault."
"No, but you needed a boogeyman. It's fine. I get it. I wish I knew who to blame for Terra and Aqua going missing."
"Why don't you go home and see if they're there?" Riku suggests.
He had thought about it. His head drops, and he stares at his hands.
"I'm afraid, I guess. I…I don't' want to get there and…have them -"
"Not be there?"
"Yeah."
Riku sighs, "I know that feeling."
Ven looks up at Riku's face and sees the melancholy and longing in them. He's obviously felt what Ventus is feeling.
"How did it work out for you?"
Riku smiles, but he's not really looking at the ocean like it appears, and Ven guesses he's thinking about it.
"It was Sora. He'd been looking for me the entire time I was gone. The doofus dropped to his knees the minute he found me and started crying like a baby." The look on Riku's face looks so affectionate and Ven begins to suspect Riku's relationship with Sora runs far deeper than friendship.
"RIKU!" The yell snaps both men out of their thoughts and their heads whip over to the doorway they'd been headed to.
There stands a red haired girl, waving her hands in an enthusiastic wave.
Riku smiles, but it's more like a small smirk, and makes his way over to her.
"Hey, Kairi." The girl hugs Riku, and the other man seems a bit put off.
"Well at least you came back for me."
"You figure it out?" Kairi shakes her head.
"I only had two days, Riku. You had five, give me a break." She teases, but then sobers. "Besides, I…"
"What's wrong Kairi?"
"I'd rather talk to Sora about it, really."
"Is it about Naminé?"
Ven wonders who Naminé is and tries to follow the conversation.
"Yes. She…I haven't been able to talk to her for almost two days now."
"Did you talk to her that often?"
The red head looks reluctant to reply, "Yes."
Ventus pipes up, "Why don't you just go visit her?"
She seems to realize he's there, and the look she gives him ranges between bewildered and scared.
"Roxas?!"
"Ventus, actually." Riku supplies, "Which brings up another point."
"Don't tell me Sora did something stupid and he's got another Nobody." She looks absolutely done with the idea before she's even fully done voicing it.
"Yes and no. Ven's heart was sleeping inside Sora, so what does Sora do?"
Kairi groans and runs a hand down her face, "He released his heart."
"Jackpot. But, bright side. He's okay. Somehow."
"He's okay?"
"Yeah, he was fine when we left. Anyway, Ven here is a Keyblade wielder, he offered to give you a run-down of how the Keyblade Glider works since I have no clue."
Kairi looks at him, intrigued, "Oh, thank you. We can go to the little island, it's where I've been practicing for now."
She leads them through the door she'd arrived through and Ventus recognizes this part of the island as vaguely familiar.
"I think I've been here before." He says.
"That might be because of Sora." Riku suggests.
Ventus brushes it off as such and follows Kairi up onto a bridge and then a small island.
"So you guys live here? Where are your houses?" Ven asks.
Kairi chuckles and points over to the main Island, "This is our play island. We come here after school – which some of us still attend – and goof off until it's time to go home."
Ven smiles, and she's reminded of Sora and Roxas at the same time. And she worries a bit more as she doesn't feel a painful ache as she thinks of Sora's Nobody. Naminé had felt such a connection to Roxas. They'd both known nothing of who they were. They'd both been so lost and so full of questions.
"So, who's Naminé?" Ven asks.
"She's my Nobody. But it's complicated. I have no darkness in my heart, so it was kind of like a joint Nobody with Sora." She chuckles, but stops at Ventus' lost look.
"What's a Nobody?"
So Kairi explains to Ventus what Nobodies are while he shows her how to easily summon her Keyblade and then her Glider. The latter process takes two and a half days, what with her obligations in town as the Mayor's child and school.
By the time she gets it, she's more than ready to get off this island and find Sora and some answers for Naminé's silence.