Kingdom Hearts fic: All Strange Wonders - Chapter 12

[mistressofmuses]

---

The next morning, Riku seemed to feel far better. The dramatic sneezes and nose-blowing and blanket cape were gone, at least.

He also seemed to feel at least a bit apologetic, though of course he didn’t go so far as to actually apologize. Instead he made tea for Sora, and offered to make him something to eat, and asked if he needed new blankets for his bed in the alcove.

Sora would have preferred just to forget the whole thing. He wasn’t angry anymore, and instead was just embarrassed. It had been foolish, to fall so easily for everything Riku had said. He’d just sounded so sincere. Sora hadn’t even wanted to talk about it to Kairi. Though it had been clear that he was struggling not to cry, so of course she’d asked.

Even though he hadn’t told her what had happened, she was apparently still angry with Riku on his behalf. When Riku brought her the frying pan to fry eggs for breakfast, she singed his sleeve. He fixed it with a spell. Then she burned precisely half of the eggs.

Riku glared at her, and she pointed toward the non-burnt ones. “Those are for Sora.” She stuck out a wavery flame like a tongue.

He gave the unburned eggs to Sora, and dumped the burned ones over Kairi. She ‘ate’ them, staring at Riku the whole time.

“Well, I have errands to run anyway,” he said. “Better than sticking around where I’m clearly unwanted. Both my assistant and my partner ganging up on me.”

Sora expected he would leave through the door onto the islands, but instead he left through the door while set to green, heading out onto the hills.

Once he was gone, Kairi asked, “Do you want to tell me what happened yesterday?”

“No.” He hated how stupid he still felt over it, and if he actually told her what Riku had said—worse, what Sora had believed—he’d probably start crying.

“Fine. I’ll keep burning his eggs if you want. I’m sure he deserves it.”

That startled a small laugh out of Sora, which at least helped chase away the last of the desire to cry about it.

“Hey, do you want to take us up near the mountains today?” he asked, in what was probably a very transparent subject-change.

“Sure, if you want.”

He nodded. “I can try to find some rocks to extend the hearth for you.”

Kairi took them back to the same area where he’d first started looking for spell ingredients. He remembered seeing some nice, flat rocks that weren’t too large for him to carry.

Unfortunately, it turned out to still be quite the project. It was still a climb to get up to the appropriately rocky area, and while he could shove some of them to roll at least part way down the hill, he certainly couldn’t carry more than one inside at a time.

After a couple hours of back and forth with rocks the right size to carry, Sora didn’t think the results were terribly impressive. He’d basically managed to puzzle-piece the rocks together to form a surface he hoped Kairi could stand on. It was only about half the height of the hearth proper, but extended it by about two more feet. It didn’t seem like a lot, but he’d happily keep working on it.

He settled some kindling on it. While the logs that Kairi sat on burned far more slowly than they would with a real fire, she still seemed to need something to burn for fuel.

After that, Kairi took her first tentative step down onto the new bit he’d constructed. He wished he could offer her a hand to steady her, though of course he couldn’t.

As soon as her ‘feet’ settled on the new kindling, her whole body flared brighter. She spun back to Sora and cheered, “It worked!”

Her delight seemed out of proportion to how small the new area was, but still made him feel like he could glow.

---

Riku was gone for another hour after Sora had done as much as he had the energy for. Despite how long he was away, Sora was sure it wasn’t to visit Xion.

When he did come back, he had a box with him. Sora recognized the stamped logo of Plaza, the bakery along the common in Twilight Town.

“I brought you some pastries,” Riku said, holding it out toward Sora. “Am I forgiven yet?”

“You could try apologizing,” Kairi said. “For whatever you did.”

Riku sighed. “I’m sorry that I made a stupid bet with myself. Please at least take the pastries. The bakery in town really does make delicious things.”

That much was true. Sora relented. “Okay. Thank you.” He took the box, and went to sit by Kairi so that he could toss her crumbs.

“I see that you were busy,” Riku said, raising an eyebrow as he surveyed the addition to the hearth.

Sora shrugged. “It only seems fair that Kairi have more space.”

“That is fair,” Riku agreed. “I should have thought of it myself.”

After a moment, he said, “Now, I’m sure you want to ask me what my important errands were. Because buying my assistant a gift was not the only reason I had to go into town.”

Neither Sora nor Kairi asked, but Riku carried on as if they had. “Well I went into town to inquire about any property that might be for sale. If we’re going to be moving at least two of the castle’s entrances, this town seems like a reasonable place for one of them.”

Riku looked at Sora then, like he expected a reaction.

Sora stared blankly back for a moment before realizing, Of course. He worked out that I’m from Twilight Town. I wonder how he expects me to feel?

“O-oh?” He tried to make the syllable sound positive enough, or at least… pleasantly neutral. Then he took another bite of the pastry. It was delightfully flaky, and filled with raspberry preserves.

His feelings on the possibility of relocating to Twilight Town were decidedly mixed. He hadn’t liked the thought that they might move so far away that he wouldn’t be able to go back. And yet, being in Twilight Town would be a step in the wrong direction, wouldn’t it? He’d be returning to everything he’d run away from. His curse hadn’t been lifted, he hadn’t fixed anything… he’d just be back in the path of everything he’d been unable to face before.

Riku kept talking. “I did find out about an old manor house for sale, some distance away. It’s about half a day’s journey by foot at normal speed, off into the woods west of town. Been abandoned for a few years it sounds like. A possibility, and could probably be made to seem quite respectable. But it is a bit isolated, except for some other estates out that way.”

Sora knew exactly the place Riku was referring to. It had been abandoned for more than a few years; as far as he remembered, no one had ever lived there. Rumor said it was haunted, and plenty of people claimed to have seen ghostly apparitions in the windows, or wandering the grounds. Sora, Roxas, and Xion had gone out there with Hayner, Pence, and Olette to investigate it once, though they hadn’t seen anything supernatural.

Sora nodded. That might not be so bad. It was probably about as far west from Twilight Town as the hills were to the north. Still far enough, but not as impossible as he’d been afraid of.

“But then,” Riku continued, “I met a local with a bit of insider information. He was picking up a delivery from the bakery when I stopped by there. A very nice young man named Roxas”—

Sora’s pastry fell from his fingers into his lap.

—“and he said there’s a little shop that will be going up for sale in the town itself. Used to belong to his mom, a knife and sundries shop, I think? But she’s decided to sell, and it should be available in a few days. I think we should move there, maybe as a replacement for the Radiant Garden door. We could set up our own shop of some kind, though nothing magical this time. Something that lets us lay low.”

As delicious as the pastry was, Sora couldn’t even think of eating it with the roiling in his stomach. He tossed the remaining half to Kairi, who seemed to enjoy ‘eating’ it, but then tilted her head in question.

“I don’t feel well,” he finally managed. The words sounded a bit distant even to him.

“Something wrong with the food?” Riku asked.

“No, no. It was delicious. I just… think I need to lie down.”

“I hope you didn’t catch that cold of mine. Terrible thing. Or exhaust yourself hauling rocks.”

Sora nodded, and then crawled onto his little cot. He turned to face the wall and pulled the blanket up over his head.

---

He didn’t sleep. Riku bustled around doing something, though Sora had no idea what. A couple times, he heard Riku and Kairi holding quick, hushed conversation, almost like they were afraid he would hear them. That was ridiculous, of course.

He wasn’t completely sure why it upset him so much to hear that Key and Blade had closed, and that the building would be up for sale. Maybe because it had been his responsibility to keep it going. Instead, he’d disappeared. Not that anyone would even know to blame him for it.

Or maybe it just hurt that Riku had gotten to speak to both Xion and Roxas, now.

After a while, Sora became uncomfortably aware that he was just feeling sorry for himself. Maybe justifiably so, but it wasn’t going to help anything. If he was going to be annoyed by Riku going off to sulk, that was hardly fair. So he got back out of bed.

“Feeling better?” Kairi asked. A sudden burst of heat from the hearth made it clear she’d turned her temperature up just a bit.

“Yeah.” No. “I’m fine now. Sorry.”

Something clattered in the kitchen, like Riku had dropped it. “Finally my assistant arises. Perhaps he can turn his well-rested mind to the topic of where else to move to.”

“Where to move to?”

“Well, if we move from Radiant Garden to Twilight Town, that takes care of one of the entrances. But if we’re also changing the castle entrance from the hills, we need another location. Anywhere you’d like it to go?”

Once upon a time, Sora might have said he’d like to see the sea. But now he had, if briefly. Riku had probably had enough of beaches and the ocean. But then he thought of Naminé’s cottage, and how much he’d loved the flowers there. And he remembered Kairi saying she wished she could see them, too.

“Flowers,” he said. “Somewhere with flowers.”

Riku looked a bit surprised, but then he shrugged. “I’m sure I can find ‘somewhere with flowers.’”

A few minutes passed in silence. “Any thoughts on what we could sell?” he asked. “At the shop in Twilight Town, I mean.”

“Not knives,” said Sora. “Er… I mean, they say you can buy a building but not a business, right? We wouldn’t want to try and set up the same kind of shop that was there before.”

Riku shrugged again. “I suppose. Hmm… what about your flower idea?”

“What about it?”

“If we move the castle somewhere with flowers, we could open up a flower shop in Twilight Town. We could sell flowers that no one grows near town!”

“I guess.”

“I have a few places I need to check out,” Riku said. He stepped out of the kitchen, and grabbed his coat from where it was draped over a small table. “Don’t forget your pastries. They’re best when they’re fresh.”

And he was gone again, out through the door set to gold.

---

Sora was somehow unsurprised when Riku didn’t have anything more to say about it when he returned long after dark.

He was even less surprised when he woke up the following morning, and Riku was already in the bathroom, steam creeping out the crack under the door.

An hour later, when he emerged, it was the least surprising of all when he left through the door, dial set to black.

For all of Riku’s focus the previous day on finding locations to move, his door to Destiny Islands, and to Tae, wasn’t going anywhere. Sora supposed it had been a minor miracle that he’d skipped visiting Tae for even a single day.

Sora made a few trips out onto the hills to get more rocks for Kairi’s hearth, before they lost access to the hills. He felt the strain from the previous day, though, and couldn’t keep at it for the entire afternoon.

He did manage to get the start of a small stone pathway farther out into the room, though. Kairi was almost as delighted with the extra couple feet of space as she’d been with the bigger addition the previous day.

After that, Sora turned back to some of the books. He was more careful with the subjects he chose to read about, after all the trouble with the falling star. He wondered if Riku had ever even found the poem he’d gone in search of. Or had that turned into an excuse to keep visiting Tae?

He frowned. He really didn’t need that souring all of his thoughts.

Some time later, Sora had managed to get fairly well absorbed in reading a story out loud to Kairi, something about magic and quests and adventure.

There was a tapping at the door. More gentle than the usual pounding knocks of a customer, but still very purposeful.

Sora glanced at the door.

“It’s the hill door,” said Kairi. “Which is a bit strange.”

That was odd. People really only ever came to the Radiant Garden or Traverse Town doors, the ones ostensibly set up as shops of a sort.

“Should I answer it?” he asked.

“I don’t think whoever it is means any harm. They don’t feel bad, anyway. And they are knocking politely.”

Sora set the book down, and went to the door. With the dial set to green, he cautiously opened it.

There was a bird, awkwardly perched just to the side of the door, where it had obviously been pecking. It was a white bird, something like a dove, but with a longer, decorative tail with hints of gold through it.

As soon as the door was open, the bird flapped its wings and flew into the castle over Sora’s head.

Crap. A bird loose in the castle room was exactly what he needed.

The bird swooped to a graceful landing at the top of one of the tall shelves.

“Uh, hi there,” said Sora, stepping closer, hands out as if he could convince the bird he wasn’t a threat. “I don’t think this is the best place for you, lovely. Let’s just get you back out the door…”

“Please, I’m here to help,” the bird said. She had a sweet, feminine voice.

Sora stopped. Then: “Did you actually say that, or are you one of those pet birds that repeats things?”

The bird gave a musical giggle. “I know Xion. I’m here to help you.”

She knows Xion? “Help me?” he asked instead. “With what?”

The bird fluttered her wings. “With the heartless sorcerer, of course. Don’t tell him that’s what I’m here for.”

Sora glanced over at Kairi.

She shrugged, hands up, as if to say Hey, not my problem.

“You can go back to Xion,” he said. “I don’t need help with him.”

The bird flapped her wings hard enough to blow a couple of loose papers around. The breeze from her wings smelled pleasantly sweet. “Don’t turn down a magical helper so quickly,” she said.

That was a fair point. However… “Kairi?” he asked. “This isn’t one of the Warlock of the Wasteland’s tricks, is it?”

The bird squawked, sounding thoroughly offended.

The flames of Kairi’s body all flared up for a moment as she stared at the bird. Then she sat back. “I don’t think so. She’s magical, and under a spell, but she doesn’t feel like something of the Warlock’s. I know he can make constructs, but I don’t know that he could make anything like this.”

“I am not a construct,” the bird protested. “And I would never work with that monster.”

Sora wasn’t sure it was the right decision, but he said, “All right, you can stay. But be nice, even to Riku.”

“Wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise,” the bird chirped, and then settled on her claimed perch.

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