Kingdom Hearts fic: All Strange Wonders - Chapter 15

[mistressofmuses]

---

After a good night’s sleep, no one seemed the worse for wear. Maybe especially Riku.

Sora slept late, waking up only when Riku was on his way out the door, a gentle waft of orange blossom accompanying him out. Apparently he was feeling just fine.

Kairi was back to her normal, bright self though, which was definitely a relief.

Technically, Riku had only forbidden Sora from going out the door prior to him waking up, but Sora still didn’t really want to venture out alone. Maybe going to the mansion wouldn’t have been so bad. He’d been there before, and knew he wasn’t likely to encounter anybody.

Still, he found things to keep him busy inside. He rearranged some of the bottles and jars of ingredients, first by height, then by color. He read through a couple of the thinner books from one of the shelves, and remembered nothing about them after he’d finished.

When Riku returned, Sora almost leapt out of the chair.

“Well, come see our new place,” said Riku, waving Sora over to join him.

The door was set to red-down, the new Twilight Town entrance, and Sora followed him through.

Maybe Riku hadn’t been off with Tae that morning; the shop had been almost totally cleaned. Of course, if he’d done it by magic, Sora’s original ‘job’ of cleaning the main room of the castle seemed even more ridiculous.

The counters had been polished, the shelves scrubbed clean, ready to hold goods for sale. Buckets and vases and jars crowded almost every surface.

Oh right. We were going to sell flowers.

“I hope you’re still happy with the idea of selling flowers,” Riku said, as if he’d read Sora’s mind. “If you’ve changed your mind on that, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

He waved at the shop window, which had new paint. The letters were backwards from inside, but Sora could still read the fancy, curling words. In the same pale teal as Riku’s eyes, edged in sparkling gold, was the shop’s new name:

The Radiant Garden

It seemed a little strange, to have moved away from the real Radiant Garden in a hurry, just to open a shop elsewhere using its name. Though he supposed he understood, from a business perspective. It evoked the things someone might associate with the capital: sophistication, fashion, exclusivity. Plus the obvious connection to flowers.

A paper taped below the shop name said, “Grand opening tomorrow!”

“It’s nice,” Sora said. He wanted to say more, but didn’t know what he could.

He ran a hand over the counter behind him, just like he’d done countless times before.

Riku’s ecstatic expression faded. “There’s a little shed in the courtyard between the shop and the house, which we can use as well. And look, in the corner behind the counter, I even put in a perch for your bird.”

The bird seemed happy enough about that, fluttering over to land on the free-standing metal perch.

But Sora’s eye had been caught by someone walking past the windows. Seifer, one of his old classmates. He was talking to Rai and Fuu, two of the people that had confirmed that Sora’s curse was genuine. The three glanced at the new paint on the window and kept walking.

Sora kept watching until they were out of sight.

Riku sniffed. “Fine. Come on, then.”

Sora felt guilty when he realized Riku’s feelings were likely hurt. He’d sounded proud of the new shop, and was probably unhappy that Sora hadn’t shared his enthusiasm. He wished he could at least explain why.

Back inside the castle, Riku spun the door’s dial to the new purple section.

This was the one that Sora had been most curious about. Riku said he’d been working on finding another place, but Sora hadn’t seen it, or even heard exactly where it was.

The door opened on more flowers than Sora had ever seen in one place. It was like Naminé’s garden, if it stretched for a mile in every direction. The flowers slowly drifted past as the castle moved gently along.

“Kairi, slow down just a touch,” Riku said over his shoulder.

Sora hardly noticed, already walking down the steps away from the door, but she did slow, making it an easy step onto the soft, springy moss that made a pathway through the garden.

Directly in front of him was a bush, at least eight feet tall, covered with little white flowers in round clusters the size of his fist.

Next to that was a stand of some kind of tall, spire-shaped flowers, some a blue so intense it was hard to look at, while others were a vibrant indigo.

Twining vines of red trumpet-shaped blossoms attracted butterflies and tiny long-beaked birds that zipped between the flowers almost faster than Sora could watch.

Little blue flowers that looked as delicate as lace peeked out from the shade of fragrant purple lilacs.

He turned a corner, and there were sunflowers, reaching up toward the sky, too high for Sora to even reach.

Riku followed him at a short distance, not crowding, but watching him take it in.

“This place is amazing!” Sora said, spinning back to face him. Every flower he’d ever seen—and several he’d never even imagined—seemed to grow here, heedless of season or usual growing environment.

Now Riku seemed to glow a bit at Sora’s enjoyment.

Sora found himself oddly charmed; Riku did so like to be appreciated. And for this, he certainly deserved it.

“What is this place?” Sora asked, spinning another slow circle, trying to see everything.

“I don’t know that it ever had a formal name,” Riku said. “I think it was always just called ‘the gardens.’ Aerith started it several years ago. Cloud and Tifa helped her. I think even Leon and Yuffie were roped in.”

“The advisors?” Stupid question; it wasn’t like they were common names.

“Mn. We’re right at the western border of the country. When you come out here, you have to promise me you’ll be careful. Bring your bird with you, let Kairi know how long you’ll be gone, or I’ll even come with you, all right?”

“The far western border… this is next to the Wasteland?” Sora yelped. He clapped a hand to his mouth, like he shouldn’t have even said it out loud.

Riku nodded. “If you go much farther west, you can see it.”

Sora wanted nothing to do with the Wasteland, but of course he still had to see. He rushed off down one of the moss paths. They must have already been fairly close, because it was only a few minutes’ jog to the edge of the garden. Enormous hydrangea bushes made a sort of wall, but pushing between them, he saw it. The mossy paths petered out into scrubby dry grasses, and then nothing.

The Wasteland didn’t look like much, but that was part of what made it so offputting. It was just a seemingly endless expanse of dry, cracked dirt and sand. A sickly yellow haze obscured the horizon, but for all Sora could tell, it went on forever.

“Why would they put this garden here?” Sora asked.

“I think Aerith was hoping to… rehabilitate the Wasteland, maybe. She and the others called some deep hot springs up to the surface, planted and cultivated everything they could. I think there was a hope that the flowers would spread, or at least encourage something to grow out in the Wasteland. Even the things you’d expect in a desert—cacti, scrub, grasses—won’t grow there now. The ground is too toxic. I think they hoped that this would at least slowly start to repair it.”

“Is it working?” He couldn’t see anything at all growing out there. The grass at the edge of the pathways all died a few feet out, going from green to yellow to dead and dry.

“Well, the Warlock of the Wasteland wasn’t terribly fond of the idea. He seems to like being the only thing living out there. Maybe he considers himself a lone flower in the Waste. Whatever it is, he didn’t want any competition.”

Sora swallowed audibly. “So he knew that was what they were trying to do?”

“That’s why the Warlock took Aerith, I think. He wanted them to stop. Or to punish them for what had already been done, I suppose. They’d all worked on it, but flowers were always her specialty, and it was no secret that she’d started the project. Either he took her from here, or perhaps he baited her somehow, and Aerith went into the Wasteland after him. No one really knows for sure.”

Riku tossed a pebble out into the Wasteland. It landed with a dull thunk, sending up a plume of yellowish dust. “This is where I met the Warlock, you know. I’d come by to see what was left, after Leon had disappeared going after Aerith, and Cloud and the others had been called back to the capital. The Warlock was here.”

“Does that mean this is where he cursed you?”

“Where he first threatened to. The curse didn’t ‘take’ until I heard that poem. At the time, he asked me to go with him into the Wasteland. When I refused, he promised he would lay a curse that would force me to come to him by the summer solstice.”

By the summer solstice? That’s only a bit more than a month away. Sora didn’t remember ever hearing that there’d been a time limit before. “And now here we are.”

Riku’s head snapped back toward Sora. “You think I moved us here because the curse is making me?”

“Is that why?”

“I moved us here because you wanted flowers. And because moving closer would be the last thing the Warlock will expect me to do. I want to be unpredictable.”

“I think the most unpredictable thing you could do would be actually trying to rescue Aerith and Cloud,” Sora said. “Actually doing your Royal Wizard task.”

Riku snorted, but didn’t say anything else.

---

It’s really a completely perfect setup,” Riku explained. “In the morning, you can go out the purple door, and pick whatever kind of flowers you like. Then you bring them inside, switch the door to red, and take them into the shop, where suddenly we have flowers that are so fresh they still have dew on them. If someone wants to make a special order, we can find whatever they’re looking for the next day. And with Kairi moving the castle up and down the gardens, you’re at a new spot every morning, so you don’t have to worry about over-harvesting any particular area.”

Sora nodded, trying to project the enthusiasm Riku clearly hoped he’d feel. He pushed his misgivings aside, and went to work.

Their grand opening flew by. It was slow at first, but a few brave souls came in to look at what they had to offer. After that, word of mouth did the rest. Soon people were practically pouring in, to the point that Sora was actually afraid they were going to run out of flowers.

Riku was there all morning and afternoon, though Sora wasn’t sure he could say that Riku really helped. His salesmanship was certainly dramatic, like it had been when he haggled with the King’s messengers. He often did talk customers into leaving with twice what they’d been interested in, but Sora usually helped five or six people in the same amount of time.

Sora’s prediction about running out of flowers didn’t quite come true, but it was a near thing. By the time the shop closed, they were down to a few small daisies and a couple sad stems of miniature roses that had gotten a bit crushed.

Riku waved the last couple girls out with a charming smile and promises that they’d have just as amazing a selection the next day, and that they should all feel free to come back.

Flipping the sign to ‘closed’, Riku turned back toward Sora with a smile. “That wasn’t so terrible, was it?”

It hadn’t been. It had been busy enough that there hadn’t been an opportunity to dwell on anything. And what Sora had been most afraid of—his mother or Roxas coming to check out the new store—had not happened. Yet.

---

The second day and even the third passed similarly. The shop stayed busy, and Sora really did enjoy making bouquets for people. It was satisfying when he could help design something that made them happy. An armful of sunflowers to cheer someone up, or a rose perfectly matched to someone’s favorite dress, or that obscure flower that had always been someone’s favorite that they never saw for sale anywhere. And he was able to whisper suggestions to the flowers about how well they would last, and how their color would stay vibrant, so no one had to worry about their purchases wilting too soon.

After the initial rush of excitement over the new shop had passed, the number of customers per day calmed down. Before long, there was no reason for there to be two people taking care of the store. Riku would still help get things set up in the morning after Sora went and picked the day’s flowers. After that, he’d disappear back into the house, letting Sora mind the shop.

While the store certainly stayed busy enough to be successful, it did mean there was some time where Sora was left alone to think. He was grateful that he at least had the bird with him, and he talked to her. She was a good listener if nothing else.

Kairi said Riku was spending his typical hours of time to get ready, and then was going to Destiny Islands for most of the afternoon. Sometimes he wasn’t even back by the time the shop closed.

As the days wore on, Kairi seemed frustrated, too.

“Are you even still working on the contract?” she asked one day. “You’ve figured out part of it, but there’s more to it! If you don’t figure it out soon, you aren’t going to break it before the Warlock’s curse comes about.”

Sora told her that of course he was working on it, he just needed some more time. Not that he had much of that; the summer solstice was creeping closer, less than two weeks away now.

Truthfully, he hadn’t made much progress since the realization that Kairi was a fallen star. Now that he knew the contract had come about because Riku was trying to keep her from dying, he was horribly afraid of what would happen to her if he did succeed in breaking it.

If Riku’s main fear of the Warlock’s curse was death—not just his own, but Kairi’s too—then how could Sora break the contract and possibly condemn her to that very thing? Sora didn’t want her to die, and if she did, Riku would certainly never forgive him. Assuming Riku even survived it; if their fates were so closely tied to each other’s, what if breaking the contract killed them both?

And there’d been no progress on his own curse. Kairi said she’d help him if he broke her contract, but if it killed her, how would she do that? And Riku still seemed completely oblivious. He’d even given up on trying to guess Sora’s name, and didn’t seem to have any idea that there was more to the curse than that.

Plus, every day that went by in the shop without his mom or Roxas coming in made Sora more and more anxious for when they would. They had to be curious about who and what had moved into their old house and store. Roxas had even been the one to tell Riku about it, so it seemed inevitable that he’d come to see it.

The worst might have been the feeling of failure. He couldn’t break his own curse, he was failing at helping Kairi out of her contract, Riku’s curse was bearing down on them… And beyond that, Sora hadn’t even managed to leave.

He’d run away, left the shop behind him… and here he was, right back where he’d started. Still working behind the counter in the same building as before, selling things to people who now didn’t even know him, returning through the door to the house he’d lived in his whole life, even if the room on the other side had changed. And then doing it again the day after. And the day after that.

---

He had his days off, of course, when the shop was closed. But then he found he hardly knew what to do with himself.

Before he’d even realized it, the eve of the solstice arrived.

The eve fell on one of the days the shop was closed, but beyond even the concerns about curses and contracts and the Warlock, the flower shop would be absolutely swarmed with people the following day. Everyone would be coming in for garlands and bouquets and flower crowns leading up to the festival. Worrying about that seemed so trivial compared to everything else.

Then again, Riku had already vanished for the day, off courting or whatever he wanted to do before his own curse caught him.

Back when the door led to Traverse Town, or even Radiant Garden, Sora might have gone out for a walk. But he didn’t want to do that in Twilight Town, and there wasn’t much point in wandering around the mansion. Finally, he settled on a walk through the gardens, of course bringing the bird along, as he’d promised.

It was nice to walk around without having to eye what he thought people would be interested in buying. Though even coming through every day to stock the store, the gardens hadn’t grown mundane; Kairi did bring the castle to a new area every day, so it was never the same twice. He didn’t think he ever could grow bored with them.

While he wasn’t looking for stock for the store, he still brought his knife, and cut a few especially fragrant blossoms. He’d give them to Kairi to burn—eat? She seemed to enjoy the different ‘flavors’ that various flowers had. His partial pathway extending the hearth into the castle room let her get a little closer to the door, but still just enough to glimpse outside. Bringing the flowers to her seemed like the next best thing.

Reaching up to cut a spray of lovely scented white trumpets, his eyes cheated toward the west. The proximity of the Wasteland was always there, an awareness in the back of his mind. With the solstice approaching, it was like having twin anvils hanging over his head.

The bird soared down, landing on his shoulder and headbutting him in the cheek in what he assumed was an affectionate manner. The day of the fight in Traverse Town was still the only time she’d spoken since that first day. Instead she chirped and sang like an ordinary bird. Sora would almost have thought he’d somehow imagined her magical nature. Though she did always seem to know when something was really bothering him.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said aloud. “For anyone. I failed Kairi. She and Riku are both in danger now.”

The bird let out a melodic trill, but didn’t offer anything more.

Sora sighed and headed back to the castle.

---

He’d almost finished feeding flowers to Kairi—she liked how strong the rose petals were, but said the delicate nature of the large blue irises made them extra fun to eat—when the door clicked open.

Sora expected it to be Riku, surprisingly early, and entering in an uncharacteristically quiet manner. But when he turned to look, his greeting died on his tongue.

“Oh,” said Tae. “Not quite what I’d expected at all.”

Sora climbed to his feet, for some reason wanting to block Tae’s view of Kairi. It may have been nonsensical, but he got the impression that someone like her wasn’t a common sight in the world Tae and Riku were from.

The bird let out a piercing squawk from her perch in the rafters. Tae looked up with a jump.

Sora mostly ignored how funny it was to see him startled. It wouldn’t have been kind to laugh.

“Can I help you?” he asked instead.

“Ah, Riku’s… research assistant, I think he said?”

“That’s right,” Sora said a bit stiffly.

“I suppose that means I might be in the right place after all. Though he never mentioned that you lived together.”

Of course he didn’t.

An awkward silence. Tae ran a nervous hand through his hair. Sora realized that maybe he was a little older than he’d thought; the hair at his temples was silver, streaking through the dark.

“I don’t think I caught your name, before,” Tae said.

“That’s fine,” Sora said. That probably sounded rude, but really. What was he supposed to say?

“Oh. So, is Riku here?”

“He’s… stepped out for a bit.” Apparently not to Destiny Islands today, unless he and Tae had just missed each other.

“I see.” Tae stepped a bit farther into the room, edging along the wall to look at one of the bookshelves.

“Do you want me to pass a message on for you?” Sora asked, hoping the man would take the hint.

“I can wait. It’s actually a bit nice to have a chance to see the house that Riku is always so secretive about. It doesn’t look at all like I imagined from the outside.”

“Riku is a very private person,” Sora said. “I don’t know that he’d want you snooping at his things.”

A crackle from Kairi, and he guessed she was probably laughing at him. Maybe that was a bit of the leaf calling the grass green, but it didn’t mean that Sora wanted Tae poking around.

But when he glanced back at Kairi in the hopes of just giving her a look in response, he found she was doing a quite admirable impression of an ordinary fire. Sora could see that she was sitting crosslegged on her logs, shoulders dropped down, but if he didn’t know her, he might not have noticed that she was anything out of the ordinary.

Tae tracked his gaze. “Odd to have a fire going this time of year,” he remarked.

“It gets drafty,” Sora said. “Are you looking for something in particular?”

“Oh, just curious about the kind of place Riku returns to every night. He can be strangely evasive about it. A private person, as you said.”

“And yet here you are.”

“I’m sure you can’t really blame me for being curious. He showed up out of nowhere on my doorstep, looking for an old book. Seems fair for me to do the same. Turnabout is fair play, as they say. Or maybe ‘all’s fair in love and war.’”

Sora’s throat grew tight. Did that mean Tae was already reciprocating Riku’s feelings? Did Riku realize that Tae loved him back? And if so, was that why he hadn’t gone to see him today, because he was already planning to move on?

It probably wasn’t nice of him that Sora found the thought a comforting one. He should have been appalled as ever that Riku was fulfilling his same pattern.

He didn’t want to focus on that. “So, you’re looking for a book?” he deliberately misunderstood.

“Well, I would be interested in a copy of his thesis. The library at the university has had their copy checked out for months now.”

Sora wasn’t certain what that meant. “Well, I’d be happy to ask him for you. I really think it’s time for you to go. I don’t know when Riku will be back, but I can tell him you stopped by.”

Tae continued looking at the shelf, running his hands over the spines of the books, shifting the crystals around, picking up a candle and turning it over in his hands before setting it down.

“On second thought, please don’t tell Riku I was here,” Tae said. “You’re right; I shouldn’t have pried into his business. I’d rather he decide to invite me over at some point, and I wouldn’t want to seem pushy.”

“Great! Have a lovely day!” said Sora, trying to herd Tae back toward the door.

He went without complaint, even laughing a little at Sora pushing him out.

Once the door was closed, and the dial spun back to purple—why had it been on black anyway? Sora had been the last one back—Sora sagged against it with a sigh.

Kairi laughed, louder than her crackling giggle before.

“What are you laughing about?”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen someone so thoroughly pushed out the door,” she said. “I’m surprised you weren’t after him with a broom.”

Sora supposed that had been mean of him, and not terribly fair. He stomped into the bathroom under the pretense of washing his hands.

He stared into the mirror. What right did he have to try and keep Riku’s paramour out? It was none of his business, just because Sora was upset that Riku had moved on from Xion.

He knocked his forehead into the glass. It wasn’t Xion he was upset for. It was him. He was jealous of Tae. Which was utterly ridiculous; he was just Riku’s assistant, definitely below notice. Riku was nice enough to him, but certainly not anything like how he behaved when he was courting someone. Or at least not how Sora imagined he behaved, when he went to spend every day with them. And anyway, Sora should be glad of that, since he knew that Riku was the heartless sorcerer, incapable of giving his heart to anyone.

Frustrated tears bubbled their way up, which just made him feel even worse. This wasn’t the kind of thing to cry about. It was stupid.

“Argh!” He let out a wordless shout, and smacked his forehead into the mirror again. “It’s not fair.”

The castle door clicked. The bird let out a trill, much gentler than the shriek she’d startled Tae with.

Sora went back into the main room, and this time it was Riku coming in through the door. Sora scrubbed at his face, trying to hide the fact that he’d been crying. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to mention Tae or not.

“Afternoon,” Riku said by way of greeting, and then paused. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Sora tried to say, but his eyes stung with tears again, and a harsh breath that threatened to turn into a full-blown sob forced its way out.

“What’s wrong?” Riku asked.

And he even sounded genuinely concerned, which made Sora want to cry more, which made him that much angrier with himself for wanting to cry at all.

The bird trilled again, and then swooped down. That wasn’t uncommon of her, but instead of coming in to land on Sora’s shoulder, this time her form began to change. She grew bigger, her wings sweeping back behind and up, lengthening into arms. Her delicate feathers grew longer, the white cascading down and around her into a dress. The last remnants of the transformation spell popped like a bubble, releasing a waft of honey-scented air.

“Naminé,” said Riku, blinking at her. “That’s a bit of a surprise. Was there a particular reason you’ve been pretending to be a bird in my house for the past few weeks?”

“I was keeping an eye on your assistant,” she said, brushing her hands over her skirt to smooth it. “And I think that he and I may need to talk a bit.”

If nothing else, Naminé’s sudden appearance had at least startled him out of tears.

“Let’s go chat, all right?” she asked, reaching out a hand toward Sora.

He took it, letting her pull him towards the door.

“You know,” she said, glancing up at Riku and quirking a half smile as they passed, “You could have bothered noticing. It’s not like transformation magic is subtle.”

“Had other things on my mind lately,” he said, looking at Sora more than at her. “Are you all right?” he asked again.

Sora avoided meeting his eyes. He wasn’t sure he could answer.

“Your assistant will be fine,” Naminé said.

She spun the dial by the door to the cream-colored side down, and they stepped through onto the mansion grounds.

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