Song list: The Fray, "How to Save a Life"; Soul Asylum, "Runaway Train"; The Wallflowers, "Sixth Avenue Heartache"; Loreena McKennitt, "Caravanserai (Radio Edit)"; Billy Joel, "New York State of Mind".
When Kairi had woke up that morning, she was still excited about what had happened last night. She had actually talked to someone from another world! Okay, so the other girl – Sarah wasn't a boy's name, so Kairi didn't think that she was wrong about that, at least – had knocked Sora out of his body, and the two of them had traded places with each other, but that only meant that they could go to Sarah's world and meet her family instead of just traveling around at random on their raft until made it to a world they all liked, the way they would have probably done otherwise.
Sure, Sarah could be a bit scary sometimes – and a bit harsh, too – but she kind of reminded Kairi of Riku in some ways, too. Riku if he was older; and also a girl.
Giggling softly at the thought of Riku as a girl, or maybe with an older sister, Kairi went over to her desk and pulled out one of her blank notebooks. It she was going to help Sarah get back to her world, which of course she was, then she was going to need to know everything she could about it. There was also the fact that she was going to be asking someone from another world to talk about their own world, but that felt kind of selfish, so Kairi tried not to think of it that way.
Leaving her house for the day, after thanking the mayor's wife for making her breakfast again and getting a kiss on the cheek in return, Kairi made her way down the path to Sora's house.
Sarah must have been so confused when she woke up this morning; sure, she had seemed all right while the three of them had been having breakfast together yesterday, but when she looked back on that, Kairi realized that that was something that Riku probably would have done if he'd been in the same situation: pretended that he was okay so that no one else would worry about him. Riku didn't really like people worrying about him, and from what she had seen, Sarah was just the same.
They would probably get along really well, once she managed to introduce them. As Sora's house came into sight, Kairi made up her mind: she would introduce Riku to Sarah, so that when the three of them made it to her world, they would have more time to explore it. Smiling as she made her way up the path to Sora's front door, Kairi let herself in.
She was just about to call out to Sarah, just in case the other girl was already up – and probably confused about just where it was that she was at the moment, but Kairi had already made up her mind to help the other girl deal with that – but she paused for a moment as the sound of far-off singing reached her ears. Listening for a few moments, Kairi found that the sound was coming from Sora's house's kitchen.
The song itself wasn't one that she had ever heard before, but that probably meant that it was from Sarah's world: "Step one, you say 'we need to talk'; he walks, you say 'sit down, it's just a talk'. Smiles politely back at you, you stare politely right on through. "
It didn't sound like a very happy song; not something that anyone would sing normally, but then Kairi realized that this wasn't a normal situation at all. Sarah probably didn't know that she wasn't really trapped here, so far from everyone and everything she knew, so it really fit that she would sing a sad song from her own world; if only to remind herself that she still hade someplace to come home to.
"Some sort of window to your right; she goes left and you stay right, between the lines of fear and blame, you begin to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life."
As she continued on her way to Sora's house's kitchen, Kairi bit her lower lip. She would have to tell Sarah about their plans soon, before the other girl could get any sadder from missing her own world. In fact, it would probably be best if she told the other girl about what she, Sora and Riku had all been planning before they left Sora's house.
"Let 'em know that you know best, 'cause after all, you do know best. Try to slip out fear's defense, without granting innocence. Lay out a list of what is wrong, things you told them all along; pray to God he hears you, and pray to God He heals you. And, where did I go wrong? I lost a friend; somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known; how to save a life."
As she made her way over to the kitchen door, Kairi wondered for a long moment whether she should interrupt Sarah to tell her their future plans or not. On one hand, the song that Sarah was singing sounded really sad, but on the other hand, Kairi knew just how she felt when she was interrupted in the middle of something. She'd never been particularly happy about the interruption, even when it had been for something good, in the end.
"Rashid begins to raise his voice, you lower yours and grant him one last choice: drive until you lose the road, or break with the ones you followed. He will do one of two things: he'll admit to everything, or he'll say he's just not the same, and you'll begin to wonder why you came. Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I could have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life."
Pushing open the door to Sora's house's kitchen, deciding that it would be better if she waited for Sarah to finish somewhere the other girl would be able to see her rather than not, Kairi was caught by surprise when she saw a bright, shinning light at the back of the room. Right between the sink and the refrigerator.
"Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life."
As she regained her bearings after the sudden – not painful, just sudden – light that had filled her vision so completely, Kairi could have sworn that, for just a few moments, she could hear someone playing the piano.
"How to save a life."
Opening her eyes, not quite having realized that she had closed them on reflex up to that point, Kairi saw the strangest thing that she had ever seen when she wasn't dreaming.
"How to save a life."
Right there, standing at the back of the kitchen, working at the counter almost exactly between the sink and the refrigerator, was a tall girl with just-over-shoulder-length hair; one who seemed oddly familiar, for all that Kairi knew she had never seen the other girl before.
"How to save a life. Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life."
Stopping right in her tracks, having been making her way over to the far end of Sora's house's kitchen so that she could try to speak to the unfamiliar girl that she had found there so suddenly, Kairi found herself stunned all over again by what she was hearing.
"Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend, somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night, had I known: how to save a life."
She almost would have said it was impossible, if she hadn't already seen so many other things that she could have sworn were impossible before. This wasn't even the first time she'd seen what Sarah really looked like, Kairi realized.
"How to save a life."
Back on the boats, that first time Sarah had traveled to Play Island with them; she'd been singing then, too. Back then, all that Kairi had been able to see was bright white light in the vague shape of someone, but with the definite suggestion that there was someone under it all.
"How to save a life."
As she made her way closer to where Sarah was standing, the other girl's back still firmly turned towards her, Kairi tried to take in as much about Sarah as she could while this strange vision lasted. She knew, from what she'd seen the last time this had happened, that she would only be able to see Sarah like this for as long as she – the other girl, that was – kept singing.
Moving closer, Kairi found her eyes drawn to Sarah's right hand for a long moment; the other girl had long, graceful fingers, and Kairi found herself wondering if Sarah was an artist. At least, she wondered that up until she saw what Sarah was actually doing with those graceful, artistic fingers of hers. The other girl had her – well, Sora's actually, but right now it looked like hers – right hand curled slightly, and was actually tapping out the exact rhythm of the drums that Kairi was not-quite-hearing in just the same way as she'd not-quite-heard the piano from before.
She wondered if everyone from Sarah's world could do this – could make people hear actual music when they sang – or if Sarah was special even among her own people for it. As Sarah began to tap out a new rhythm on the countertop, Kairi concentrated as hard as she could on listening for a few, long moments.
She and Sarah could talk a bit later, and even though the other girl was singing sad songs, maybe that was just what she needed to do after finding out that she had been separated from her home and everyone she had ever known.
"Call you up in the middle of the night, like a firefly without any light; you were there like a blow-torch burnin', I was a key that could use a little turnin'."
Making her way into the kitchen, trying to be quiet enough that she wouldn't disturb Sarah while she was singing, Kairi saw the strangest thing that she had seen yet.
"So tired that I couldn't even sleep, so many secrets I couldn't keep, promised myself I wouldn't weep; one more promise I couldn't keep."
Standing at the counter at the back of the kitchen, outlined in a strange, soft light that didn't cast any shadows – light that Kairi could have almost sworn that she had seen somewhere before – was a tall, dark-blonde girl; she was wearing the exact same clothes that Sarah had dressed in this morning, though they somehow looked larger; fitting over her taller frame even though she knew that they were Sora's size originally.
"It seems no one can help me now; I'm in defeat, there's no way out. This time I have really lead myself astray."
As she moved closer to the other, much taller girl – still singing with Sora's voice, something that Kairi still thought was strange even in spite of all that she'd seen before – she saw that Sarah was making herself some sandwiches. The ingredients were more like something that her father would have ordered from the local deli than anything that Kairi's mother would have made for her, though: ham or turkey; mustard, lettuce, mayonnaise, and the bread even looked like it had been toasted a bit beforehand. It really reminded Kairi of what her father would order when their family would go out to their local sandwich shop together.
It was kind of nice to be reminded of that, really.
"Runaway train, never goin' back; wrong way on a one-way track; seems like I should be getting somewhere, somehow I'm neither here nor there."
Looking up from Sarah's hands – surrounded by that same not-quite—real light as the rest of her, and with long, elegant-looking fingers that reminded Kairi of descriptions of either painters or fairy-tale princesses – Kairi studied Sarah's face as the other girl continued to sing.
"Can you help me remember how to smile? Make it somehow all seem worthwhile. How on Earth did I get so jaded? Life's mysteries seem so faded. I can go where no one else can go! I know what no one else knows! Here I am, just drownin' in the rain; with a ticket for a runaway train! And everything seems cut-and-dried: day and night, earth and sky! Somehow I just don't believe it!"
Sarah's face was kind of strange; of course, no one could say that the other girl wasn't pretty, but Sarah's face seemed like it could have just as easily belonged to a boy as a girl. When Kairi looked over the rest of Sarah's body – however she was able to see it in the first place; Kairi was starting to suspect it had something to do with that strange light – she found that Sarah's face wasn't the only thing that made the other girl look kind of like a boy. Sarah had a lot more muscles than any girl that Kairi had ever net before; most of her muscle looked like it was in her legs, but Sarah's arms also looked like a smoother version of Riku's.
"Runaway train, never goin' back; wrong way on a one-way track. Seems like I should be getting somewhere; somehow I'm neither here nor there."
Sarah and Riku both clearly liked to exercise; something else they could talk about, besides the fact that Sarah was from another world.
"Bought a ticket for a runaway train, like a madman laughing at the rain. A little out of touch, a little insane. It's just easier than dealing with the pain!"
Sarah had a pair of pale, greenish-brown eyes, and dark-blonde hair that she kept in a low ponytail, and the only thing that let Kairi know that Sarah was really a girl and not a boy who was a bit prettier than Riku were the other girl's fairly large breasts. Especially considering the fact that she hadn't actually heard Sarah's real voice even once; not even now that the other girl was singing while she worked.
"Runaway train, never goin' back; wrong way on a one-way track. Seems like I should be getting somewhere, somehow I'm neither here nor there. Runaway train, never comin' back; runaway train, tearin' up the track! Runaway train, burning in my veins! I run away, but it always seems the same."
Kairi began to notice something a bit strange, then; not something strange about what she saw – while there was still plenty of that, she was starting to get used to it by now – but about what she was hearing. Now that Sarah's singing wasn't distracting her – as strangely beautiful as the other girl had made such a sad song sound – Kairi realized that she could, just barely and just when she was concentrating on it, hear some kind of music. Somehow, Kairi didn't quite know how, she knew that the music she was not-quite-hearing had had something to do with the song that Sarah had been singing.
When Sarah began to pack up the sandwiches that she had made for herself, stowing them inside a cooler-bag and then putting the bag itself inside the refrigerator, Kairi opened her mouth to ask how the – clearly older – girl was doing, when she noticed that Sarah had gotten the milk out when she'd finished putting the bag inside. While Sarah began to fill some of the thermoses that Kairi had only just noticed set out on the countertop, Kairi smiled softly. It looked like Sarah really was serious about being as prepared as she could be for when they all left on the raft tomorrow.
When Kairi heard the whistle of something that could only be a teakettle, she turned to look at the stove in slight apprehension. Sarah had seemed so completely confident and self-possessed while she had been working that Kairi had completely forgotten that Sarah was just in Sora's body right now and not actually here working in front of her. She did, however, remember that Sora wasn't supposed to use his family's oven or stove anymore than she was.
But, just as she was about to mention this fact to Sarah – maybe ask the older girl to wait to finish doing whatever it was that she was doing until Sora's mother could get home to help her with it – Sarah had grabbed one of the oven mitts that had been hung up one of the lower cupboards, out of reach of the stove's heat.
~KH1~
She'd been peripherally aware of Kairi's presence in the kitchen with her pretty much since the younger girl had come into the room with her, but as Kairi hadn't elected to make a nuisance of herself, Sarah felt perfectly comfortable working around her.
"Sirens ring; shots ring out. A stranger cries, screams out loud," she sang, pouring the freshly-heated water from the kettle into the thermos that she had earlier put a generous portion of cocoa powder into.
It almost had the same name of the brand she liked from back home, which was kind of funny, really.
"I had my world, strapped against my back. I held my hands; never knew how to act," she continued, making her way over to the fridge after having emptied out the last of the water inside the teakettle and sealed the thermos tight so the heat wouldn't escape.
"The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it's drawing me in; Sixth Avenue heartache."
Moving back toward the counter where she'd been working, Sarah was mildly surprised to see that Kairi had not only removed the lids to the four thermoses that she'd been planning to fill from the milk carton currently in "her" right hand, but also that of the hot cocoa that she hadn't quite finished mixing yet.
With a mental shrug – it was easy to figure out what someone holding a carton of milk wanted with a bunch of thermoses – Sarah moved to continue her work.
"Pity me, I was a homeless man. Singing songs I knew complete. On the steps alone, this guitar in hand; fifty years, stood where he stands."
Pouring milk into the four open thermoses arrayed in front of her, Sarah smiled as Kairi capped them off.
"The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me. Now it's drawing me in; Sixth Avenue heartache." Filling up the space she'd left inside the thermos of hot cocoa she'd prepared, Sarah fixed the lid back on and determinedly shook it up. "The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me; and now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache."
As she moved away from the counter she'd spent a fair bit of time working at, aiming to find some containers for the water she was going to need during the first leg of her journey – before she'd gotten settled in – Sarah found Kairi tugging lightly at "her" left arm. The other girl was smiling, pointing to a cupboard just to the left of where the two of them had been working.
"I'm walking home, on these streets; the river winds can move my feet." Crouching down in front of the indicated cupboard, Sarah found that it did indeed contain the very things that she was looking for; the bottles themselves were made of transparent blue plastic, and about as large as one could ask for. "Subway steam, like silhouettes in dreams. You stood by me – stood by me – just like he means." With five of the twelve bottles gathered up in her arms, Sarah carefully rose back to "her" feet. "The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache."
When Kairi came back over, taking three of the bottles that bottles that Sarah herself had been carrying over to the sink, Sarah was a bit surprised to note that the other girl was singing along as well. "Well, the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache."
As the two of them stood together at the sink, filling up the bottles that Sarah was going to pack away in the duffle she'd found to take on her trip, both of them singing along to a song that Sarah had thought only she'd known, she found herself wishing – just for a moment, before she pushed all of those kinds of thoughts aside – that she could actually do something besides just preparing for the oncoming destruction of this world.
"Look out the window, down upon that street; and gone like the midnight,. Who was that man?" As she finished filling the last of the water bottles – the small one that she was going to carry with her and refill from the larger ones back in her future hotel room – Sarah wondered if there was anything she'd neglected to do.
"But I'm seeing six-strings, laid against that wall. And all his things, they all look so small. I got my fingers crossed, on a shooting star. Just like we, just moved on; and the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache. Heartache. Oh, the same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, and now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache; Sixth Avenue heartache. Now it's drawing me in." As she considered once more what she might have overlooked during her efforts to prepare for the coming apocalypse – the list she had previously made notwithstanding – Sarah looked over at Kairi.
The other girl had wrapped both of her arms around Sora's left, and was swaying softly to the rhythm of the song that neither of them could really hear; it was kind of cute, really.
"The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me, now it's drawing me in. Sixth Avenue heartache. Heartache."
Turning her attention more fully to Kairi, as the other girl hummed out the last few bars of the song that they had both been singing, Sarah smiled softly. While this place might not have been the home she knew – and she was going to do everything she possibly could to ensure she got back there – while she was here, Sarah was at least going to enjoy herself. As much as she could manage with what she knew was coming, at least.
"So, do you think you finally have enough supplies for the trip, Sarah?" Kairi asked with a laugh, looking over the assortment before them.
"As far as meals go, yes," she allowed; there wasn't any real point in looking for non-perishable goods when she didn't need to stock provisions, after all.
"Oh right, you mentioned that we were going to need bedding, too," Kairi said, hand to her chin in the archetypal thinking-pose. "Well then, let's go get them, okay?"
"Sounds like a plan," she said, making a quick stop at the counter to gather up the water bottles she'd filled for herself and stick them in Sora's oversized pockets. "Let's get going."
Finding herself humming as the two of them made their way down the hall, Sarah was a bit surprised when Kairi started singing before she did.
"We woke that morning at the onward call; our camels bridled up, our larders full. The sun was rising in the eastern sky, just as we set out to the desert's cry."
Stopping in front of the closet just opposite the linen closet where she'd collected the towels and washcloths that she had used in her First Aid kit, Kairi opened said closet and they both began to rifle through it in search of useful items for the trip that only she knew they weren't really going to take.
"Calling, yearning; calling, come to me."
Once they found the thicker blankets, what few there were considering the climate, she and Kairi quickly pulled them off the shelves.
"The tents grew smaller as we rode away, on earth that tells of many passing days; the months of peace and all the years of war, the lives of love and all the lives of fear."
Back in Sora's room, Sarah sat down on his bed, while making a quick mental note to fetch her supply-pack when she was done with this part.
"Calling, yearning; calling, come to me."
As they both finished rolling up the blankets, her showing Kairi how to balance them so they didn't just unroll when they were set down, Sarah yawned briefly as the two of them got back up. "We crossed the river, boats all lashed and stowed; and up the mighty mountains ever known; beyond the valleys in the searing heat, until we reached the Caravanserai."
She personally thought that the two of them could cover more ground if they split up, or that's what she would have thought, if she'd actually had the first useful clue about just how this place was laid out. "Calling, yearning; calling, come to me."
Kairi hummed along to the music that swelled near the end of the song, and Sarah smiled softly. It wasn't like this was the strangest thing that had happened to her lately.
"What is this life that pulls me far away? What is the home where we cannot reside? What is this quest that pulls me onward? My heart is full when you are by my side."
Kairi seemed to know almost instinctively what they were looking for, which was a bit weird considering all of the mounting evidence that none of the two – or three, if you were counting Sora for some reason – people she was currently associating with had ever been camping before, but now wasn't really the time to get into something like that.
"Calling, yearning; calling, come to me. Calling, yearning; calling, come to me."
Sitting back down on Sora's bed, right next to Kairi, the ropes that they had gotten from another shelf in the supply closet set neatly down beside them, Sarah began the long, fairly involved process of tying up the blankets that she had gathered for her own use – or not, considering what her future circumstances were going to be – even as Kairi did just the same on left.
She was the one who started singing, this time.
"Some folks like to get away; take a holiday, from the neighborhood. Hop a flight to Miami Beach, or to Hollywood; but I'm takin' a Greyhound on the Hudson River line; I'm in a New York state of mind."
Once she'd finished tying off the last of the three ropes that she had used to fasten the thing closed so that it wouldn't go flapping around loose when she didn't want it to, Sarah set the thing aside, crouched to pull out the supply-pack she'd been packing, and packed away her bottled water. Slinging her bedroll over "her" right shoulder, she climbed back out of Sora's bed.
"I've seen all the movie stars, in their fancy cars and their limousines; been high in the Rockies, under the evergreens; I know what I needed, and I don't want to waste more time. I'm in a New York state of mine."
She and Kairi set their burdens down beside the front door, the way pretty much anyone who had prepared for more than a few camping trips in their time knew to do. It was nice to see Kairi catching on so quickly, too.
"It was so easy, living day-by-day, out of touch with the rhythm and blues; but now I need a little give-and-take; the New York Times; the Daily News."
Kairi headed back down the hall towards the two closets; probably to pick up a pillow, which was just what Sarah herself intended to do once she had gotten her travel-pack and her supply-bag set to rights.
"It comes down to reality, but it's fine with me cause I've let it slide; I don't care if it's Chinatown, or on Riverside' I don't have any reasons, I left them all behind. I'm in a New York state of mind."
Once she'd hauled both bags back into Sora's room, putting her supply-bag close to the bed so that she would have nigh-immediate access to it while sliding the larger and bulkier travel bag just under the cover of the blankets that hung over the edge of it, making a mental note to pull it back out before she went to sleep tonight and then grabbed the pillow off of Sora's bed and left the room. It wouldn't be the first time she'd slept without a pillow.
"It was so easy, living day-by-day; out of touch with the rhythm and blues; but now I need a little give and take; the New York Times, the Daily News; I don't have any reasons, I left them all behind. I'm in a New York state of mind."
She and Kairi met up at the front door again, and the other girl watched her as Sarah carefully tucked the pillow that she had been carrying up under two of the straps that held the rolled blankets together.
"I'm just takin' a Greyhound, on the Hudson River line. Cause I'm in a New York state of mind."
She noticed Kairi's right arm around her waist then, and then felt the other girl leaning gently against her, but as the song that they had both been singing was nearly over she'd figured "what the hell" and just kept going. Sure enough, once they were both finished with the song, Kairi let go and straightened back up.
"So, New York is a place on your world, too?" Kairi asked, as she opened the door and the two of them trooped out onto the front steps.
"It's one of the larger cities," she confirmed, as the two of them made their way back down the path from Sora's house.
Of course, New York was also one of the smaller states, but she figured that bringing that up would only confuse the issue.
"And all those other places?"
She chuckled softly. "Well, they're not exactly in walking distance, but you could always take a plane."
"Just like the song said," Kairi muttered, sounding thoughtful.
The two of them arrived at the docks then, where Riku stood waiting for them, so there wasn't really anything she could say to that. Not that there was anything to say to that.
"Hey, I see you guys managed to make out pretty well," the silver-haired – and damn, but that was still really weird to see live and in person like this – boy said, gesturing to his own boat, where a rolled-up sleeping bag that sat just on the line between on blue and purple had been tossed. "I could only find one of these. And, no offense, I'm not going to be sharing."
"Bet you wouldn't mind sharing with Kairi," she said, giving Riku a sly, under the eyelashes look.
He turned away slightly, looking like he was trying not to blush, before quickly regaining his composure. "Well, that's different."
As the three of them prepared to board their boats and cast off, Sarah felt Kairi lean in close.
"Behave yourself, Sarah," the other girl said, though she sounded fairly amused, herself.
"Moi?" she asked, casting the other girl a look of deliberately exaggerated innocence. "Why, I'll be a model of decorum and tranquility."
"Good," Kairi said, grinning as if to day that she was in on the joke, too. "You do that."
Their trip back to the trio of bite-sized islands was as uneventful as anyone could ask for, but considering the fact that she already knew what was coming tomorrow, that really made things more ominous rather than less. Climbing back onto the dock, Sarah hefted the blanket-and-pillow combination that she had prepared – to no real end, considering what was coming – and checked the straps to make sure they weren't coming loose. Then, out of the corner of "her" eye, she spotted someone coming her way.
"If I end up in the drink, Riku, I'm going to be stealing your sleeping bag."
"That's not what I was planning, Sora," he said, chuckling. "It's not that bad an idea, but Kairi would probably throw me in if I tried it."
"You're right, I would," the other girl said, and Sarah looked up to see her grinning at the pair of them. "Don't fuss over your stuff so much, Sora. I'm sure you tied that up nice and tight."
"Just had to be sure," she said, smoothly rising to her feet and slinging the bundle over "her" back as she did.
"All right," Kairi said, her gaze switching from Sarah herself to Riku, and then back again just as quickly. "We still have a lot of work to do on the raft," the other girl turned a bright smile on Sarah. "Though we don't really have to worry about food, since Sora already took care of all that."
"Really?" and the dubious look Riku turned on her really made her want to cross "her" eyes at him.
"Yeah; he even made hot cocoa for us."
"Hot cocoa?" Riku echoed. "Well, I guess that'll come in handy if we get really cold or something."
"Remind me not to let him have any," she deadpanned, smirking at Kairi.
"Hey!" Riku exclaimed, beginning to grin a bit himself. "Just because I think it's a weird idea, that doesn't mean I don't want any."
Before anyone could properly respond to that, another voice called out to them.
"Wow, you three are really serious about that rafting trip, yeah?"
"Good morning, Wakka," Kairi called cheerfully.
"Sora's the one who's really serious about this trip, Wakka," Riku said, slinging his free arm around "her" shoulders. "He's the one who thought all this up."
"Yeah?" Wakka asked, turning slightly to grin at "her". "Well, good thinking, mon. I wouldn't want to be sleeping on the hard ground, neither."
"Thanks," she said, nodding in his direction with a smile, even as the three of them continued walking.
"That reminds me," Riku said, as the three of them came up to the wooden wall that served to separate the two halves of the largest – though that really wasn't saying much – island, and pushed open the door with his free hand. "We still need to think up a name for the raft."
"Why don't we let Sora do that? Since he's gotten us organized like this," Kairi suggested.
Sarah didn't know just what the other girl's aim was, but under the circumstances she didn't really care; it wasn't like it was going to matter much, considering what was coming.
"Whatever you guys want to name the raft, that's fine with me," she muttered, far from interested in naming something that was going to be destroyed come tomorrow.
Dead silence; Sarah stopped in her tracks, turning to look back over "her" right shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
"I bet you're just worn out from all the packing you've been doing," Kairi said, before Riku could make any sort of comments. "Why don't we wait for awhile, and then decide what to name the raft?"
Fighting back a wince, and silently thanking Kairi for her quick thinking, Sarah couldn't quite hold back a sigh.
"I guess I've been working harder than I thought. Thanks, Kairi," she said, smiling.
"No problem," the other girl said, smiling in a way that suggested she understood the double-meaning of what Sarah had just said.
The three of them dropped their bedrolls off near the mast of the raft, and Sarah noticed Riku falling into step beside her.
"Don't work yourself too hard today, Sora," he said, and Sarah looked over to see his cocky smirk aimed at her. "After yesterday, I definitely want a rematch."
"I'm game," she said, smirking right back. "Where and when?"
"I'll come get you," he said, and left to go do whatever it was that videogame characters did when they suddenly became real.
"Sarah?" Kairi called, after checking to make sure that Riku was fully out of earshot; Sarah was grateful for the other girl's discretion. "Do you think we could tell Riku about what's going on?"
She almost laughed. "No offense, but I really don't think that would be a good idea."
"Why not?"
"Well, Riku he's…" she trailed off, pausing for a few, long moments as she searched for something diplomatic to say.
"He's what, Sarah?" Kairi pressed, as the two of them made their way up the beach in the vague direction of the coconut palm grove.
"I'm looking for a polite way to say dense as neutron-degenerate matter, but I don't seem to be finding it."
"What?" Kairi asked, sounding more confused than irate on Riku's behalf.
Maybe she didn't study astronomy.
"Well, I'd say he's dumb as a sack of hammers, but I wouldn't want to insult the hammers."
Just after she'd finished speaking, but before Kairi had said anything in response, Sarah heard a very familiar laugh.
"That's a good one, Sora," Riku said, smirking and still snickering a bit. "I'll have to remember that one." He laughed again. "Insult the hammers." Sarah, having spotted the most probable reason for Riku to have sought them out again, waited for the silver-haired boy to regain his composure again. "Anyway, I managed to get the fishing rods you said we'll probably be needing, but I couldn't manage to find the rifle," he frowned. "I think my dad keeps it locked up, somewhere."
And let us all be grateful for small mercies, she didn't say. "I'm sure we'll be able to manage without it."
"Yeah, I know," Riku said, rolling his shoulders as he shifted his grip on the fishing poles and what was most likely a box of tackle. "Come on, let's go put the rest of this stuff with the raft."
As the three of them made their way back toward the aforementioned watercraft, Sarah firmly resisted the urge to shake "her" head or roll "her" eyes. It wasn't as though anything the three of them were doing right here and now was going ultimately going to matter. Still, it would probably help preserve her remaining cover if she at least attempted to feign interest.
She was vaguely curious if the in-game naming-scheme would hold true even in this flesh-and-blood world.
"You know, I think we should name the raft the Highwind," Riku said.
She almost laughed; there was that question answered.
"I thought we were going to let Sora name the raft," Kairi said.
"Riku can name the raft if he wants," she said, not particularly caring about the debate.
It'd be completely moot once Zero Hour came; and Zero Hour was coming fast.
"Oh come on, Sora," Riku said, slinging his unladened right arm around "her" shoulders and giving "her" a gentle shake. "You have to have some idea about what to name the raft."
I will not suggest the name NTom64OWNS, she didn't say, biting back a smirk even as she regained her composure. "Maybe the Normandy."
"The Normandy?" Riku echoed, even as she slipped his hold and continued on her way to the grove.
"Or just Normandy," she answered off-handedly.
As she looked up, she contemplated the small grove of coconut palms. She'd had quite a few coconuts in her time – sometimes whole and sometimes not – but never fresh off the tree. The fact that she'd seen them hanging up there, unlike in the game where they hadn't been rendered, made the situation all the more interesting.
And, some might say, more tempting.
Making her way back to the raft, Sarah dropped off her cargo along with Riku and Kairi. Rolling "her" left shoulder to work off the tension she'd built up carrying it, Sarah sighed gratefully.
"Well, that's one more job done," she said, linking "her" arms behind "her" head so that she could stretch "her" back. "What do you guys want to do next?"
"How about we decide what to name the raft?" Riku insisted.
Kairi shook her head. "Sora spent most of the morning making food to get ready for our trip, and all three of us had to roll up our own bedding. So, why don't we all just take a break and have fun for awhile?"
Riku looked thoughtful for a moment, before smiling. "All right, Kairi, if that's what you really want."
"Sounds good to me," Sarah said, more pleased at the moment to have that damned weight off "her" shoulder than to concern herself with something she'd never been particularly interested, and that ultimately wasn't going to mean one damned thing.
"All right, it's settled then," Kairi said, smiling at the both of them. "We'll all meet up later, and then decide what to name the raft."
"All right, then. Later, Kairi. You too, Sora," Riku said, turning to leave.
"Later, Riku," she said to his retreating back.
"Sarah, what did you mean when you kept saying that Riku was stupid?" she asked, an earnest expression on her face.
Sarah sighed; she'd really have to remember to stop reacting to Riku on the basis of her out-of-context knowledge. Especially around someone as perceptive as Kairi. "I've known people like him," she said, settling once again for a half-truth. "They always think they know more than they really do, and their short-sightedness usually lands them and everyone around them in serious trouble. I'd keep my wits about me around him, if I were you."
"Sarah, that's not a nice thing to say at all," Kairi said, and Sarah noticed that the other girl had begun to lash the sleeping bags together, and then tie the resulting mass to the mast.
Sarah was glad to note that she wasn't the only one capable of taking initiative. Still, Kairi had likely been raised in at least a casual sailing culture, if not an entirely seafaring one, so it was only natural that she would know how to handle herself when it came to securing cargo on a vessel.
"That doesn't make it any less true," she said calmly, continuing to watch as Kairi secured their respective bedrolls so that they wouldn't go flying off if they encountered a bit of turbulence.
Kairi sighed, finishing the last knot before she looked back up. "I know Riku can be a bit impulsive, Sarah, but I don't think he's as bad as you think he is."
Future events will bear me out on that, she was oh-so-tempted to say. "Well, I guess you would know him better than I do," she settled for.
"Yeah," Kairi muttered, looking thoughtful for a few moments, before she smiled brightly. "Why don't you go take a look around? I bet you haven't seen a place like this before."
I wouldn't take that bet, Sarah mused sardonically, walking out under the coconut palms.
It was approximately weird as fuck, seeing real things that you had seen so many times before, and Sarah wondered for a moment if this was how people felt when they played video games that were either partially or fully based on places where they lived. It was the little details that really made it, though: of course the coconut palms wouldn't be so neatly-spaced if they had grown naturally, and of course there would be parts of the root-systems visible where the rain had washed parts of the soil away.
Everything that she was seeing contributed to the idea of this as a real, living planet with its own ecosystem and history. Even the gull shit that had caked along the top of the wall. Feeling someone's arm wrapping around both of "her" shoulders, Sarah turned to her left to see Kairi smiling at her.
"See? I knew you'd like it here. Even if it is different from your home."
Sarah laughed. "Actually, I was just thinking that this place looks a lot like some of the beaches Dad and I went to."
Which was one more half-truth in a long line of them, yeah, but even though Kairi had found out some of the truth, she probably wasn't ready to hear all of it. It wasn't something that people liked to think about: the fact that their friend was either a genocidal madman, or arrogant enough to screw with forces beyond his current understanding; and in either case willing to sacrifice his family, their families, and god knew how many uninvolved civilians to his own hubris. Not many people would think someone they knew would be capable of that, since most people liked to think of themselves as good. She tried not to use psychological warfare on people she wasn't actually fighting, and not on someone as nice as Kairi.
"Wow," Kairi said, bringing Sarah's attention back to the here and now, strange as it currently was. "You mean, parts of your world look just like ours?"
"Something like that," she said, with a last look up at the grove of coconut palms as she and Kairi made their way back toward the large, wooden wall that bisected the largest of the small islands. Kairi laughed suddenly.
"Had a funny thought?" she asked.
"I was just about to ask what you wanted to see first, but you've never been here, so that would have been really silly of me."
"You're right, that is pretty funny," she said, chuckling softly herself.
She was about to suggest that Kairi just show her around to those places that she enjoyed most on the island and not worry about the all that other strictly-formal tour guide crap, when she remembered that there was one particular little hitch in the plans that the other girl was so tentatively forming: Riku. Dense and outright oblivious as he was, even he wasn't stupid enough to miss the whole guided-tour aspect of what Kairi was planning to do.
"I'm sure I can manage to find my way back here after I explore the island for a bit," she said, as the two of them came to a stop in front of the door that would take them back to the half of the island that they'd arrived on in the first place.
"It's all right, Sarah, I don't mind. It'll be fun to show you around. You can see all the places that Riku, and Sora and I have found to play on this island."
"And therein lies the problem," she said, turning so that she could rest "her" back against a clear patch of the high, wooden wall, facing Kairi squarely.
"What do you mean, Sarah? I'm sure Riku would understand, if we just told him what was going on."
"There are two big things wrong with your starting premise," she said, considering how best to express what she wanted to get across, without giving Kairi reason to perhaps begin to doubt her own existence, or else to think that Sarah herself was completely insane.
"What do you mean, Sarah?"
"Well, think back on how you decided to find out if I was Sora or not," she prompted. "Riku was seeing the exact same things you were, back then. Do you think he noticed them?"
"I don't know," Kairi said, with a soft sigh and a slump of her shoulders. "Maybe he noticed, and just decided not to say anything."
People always wanted to think the best of their friends. "You know him better than I do," she said, both for the fact that it was true, and to get Kairi to think. "Is he the kind of person who would do that."
"Well," Kairi paused for a moment, clearly thinking. That was good; someone who could stop and think before they went and did something was a lot less likely to make stupid mistakes than someone who didn't. "No; I guess not."
"Keeping that in mind, do you honestly think he'd believe you if you told him what was going on?"
Kairi half-chuckled, shaking her head and wearing a rueful sort of smile. "How do you manage to pick everything apart like that?"
"I think most people would call that logic, Kairi," she said, pushing "herself" away from the wall so that she could sling one of "her" arms around Kairi's shoulders as the two of them made their way through the door and back to the other side of the island.
Kairi wrinkled her nose, but she was still smiling so Sarah knew that the other girl wasn't being entirely serious. "I though logic was for old people."
Sarah laughed. "Logic, my dear, is for anyone who wants to grow old in the first place. If you just keep reacting to situations as they come, that always ends up getting you into trouble."
"I guess it does," Kairi said, looking thoughtful for a long moment.
As the two of them made their way back out onto the half of the island that the three of them had originally landed on, Sarah found "her" eyes drawn once more to the building whose purpose she had wondered about ever since she had played KH1 for the second time. While she couldn't have asked the last time they were all here, there were certain advantages to having someone in on her secret. Still, just because one of her secrets was out, that didn't mean she could stop being careful.
There were secrets she kept that people on this planet were better off not knowing.
"What's that shack?" she asked, guiding the other girl's attention to the small, squat-looking shed-type building whose continued mysteriousness irked her on general principle. "Some kind of seaside cabana, or something? I saw it when we came in yesterday." And quite a few times before that, she added silently.
"Cabana?" Kairi echoed, sounding like she didn't quite know how to answer.
Sarah, not quite sure if the other girl was confused over her choice of words or if she just didn't know what Sarah was talking about, decided to clarify both. "A cabana is a place where you can change into the clothes you wear at the beach. You know, for swimming and stuff," she said, before a rather interesting – some might say disturbing – thought came to her. "That is, unless you guys actually swim naked here. You don't, do you?" she asked, turning back to Kairi with a raised eyebrow.
The other girl stopped right in her tracks, an expression on her face that suggested someone who had just bitten into something spicy when she hadn't expected to. And then she burst out laughing.
"No," she finally got out, her voice still quavering with laughter. "We don't do that," she snickered a bit more, then cleared her throat in an obvious effort to compose herself again. "Anyway, I don't know where you'd find someplace like that, but this place is really," Kairi paused for a moment, looking like she was searching for something to say, or else just thinking about how to say whatever it was. "Well, do you know what an outhouse is?"
"That's what this thing is?" she asked, raising both eyebrows in surprise.
"So, you do have something like this on your world," Kairi said, smiling softly.
"Yeah, but ours are usually smaller; just enough for one person to use. And they usually have a crescent moon carved into the front door."
At least the wooden ones did, and for a moment Sarah debated with herself about whether or not to mention the plastic porta-johns, before deciding to let Kairi herself ask first.
"That sound pretty," the other girl said, with a soft chuckle.
There was really nothing she could say to that, so Sarah let her mind wander just a bit. She would still hear Kairi if the other girl wanted to ask her something, but she was also free to take in just how real the world around her was. It was the smell that really sold it: you couldn't smell things when you were dreaming, and there wasn't much that smelled like sea air in the first place.
"Why do you keep doing that, Sarah?" Kairi asked, just as she had opened "her" eyes after a particularly deep breath of fresh, clean sea air.
"Hmm? Oh, you live in a coastal town, so I guess you'd be used to this kind of thing," she said, as she and Kairi continued on their way to a destination known only to the other girl.
"You mean, you and your family don't live close to the ocean?"
"Nope," she said, smiling slightly as she shook "her" head. "We live farther inland."
"What's that like?" Kairi asked, curling both of her arms around Sora's left as the two of them continued on their way across the more-miniscule-than-small island.
"Well, for one thing, the air smells quite a bit different; less salt smell, more dirt and trees. And a fair bit more of the smells you get in the city," Sarah paused for a moment, thinking. "There's a lot less seagulls and a lot more pigeons, though some seagulls do show up from time to time," she paused again, glancing at Kairi. "You have heard of pigeons, right?"
"Are those the gray birds with the shiny green heads?"
"Those would be the ones," she said, surprised for a few moments at the presence of earthlike fauna on a planet that – when you came right down to it – wasn't Earth.
"Do you feed them fried potato strips, too?"
"Fried potato strips?" she echoed, raising an eyebrow. "You mean, those finely-sliced things that are cooked by boiling them in oil?"
"Yeah, those are the ones," Kairi said happily, and then she pulled out a notebook and pen, and Sarah wondered just what was up with that. "Are they called something else in your world?"
"French Fries; even though I don't think they were actually first made in France. And, they probably call them different in France, too," she said, tilting "her" head slightly in contemplation.
"So, you have been to other worlds before," Kairi interjected, not quite sounding like she was asking a question.
Sarah laughed; she couldn't help it. "Well, there are people who claim that the French are weird enough to be from another planet, but those people are jerks and you shouldn't listen to them," she chuckled softly, more reflectively this time. "This is the first extraterrestrial or extrasolar planet that I've ever set foot on," she smiled mischievously, inviting Kairi to share in the joke. "And these aren't even my feet." Kairi laughed, just like Sarah had invited her to. "No, France is just a separate country on Earth," pausing for a moment as Kairi wrote down some more things in that notebook of hers, Sarah hooked "her" left thumb into the same-side pocket of Sora's shorts. "You know, if you're really going to do this, you might want to find somewhere we can sit down; I don't know about you, but having long talks standing up isn't really my idea of a good time."
Kairi laughed softly. "Don't worry, Sarah. We're going to the clubhouse. You know, the place where you found the sail for our raft," Kairi frowned briefly. "Come to think of it, how did you know to look for it in there, Sarah? You've never been to this world before."