Kingdom Hearts fic: All Strange Wonders - Chapter 20

[mistressofmuses]

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Riku climbed up the piled rubble, shielding his eyes from the glare and looking out over the Wasteland.

Sora scrambled up after him, but couldn’t see anything more than the flat, barren dirt. There was a vague haze on the western horizon that may have been some sign of the impossibly distant garden, but he couldn’t say for sure.

As he stared, something did come into a view: a pair of distant clouds, moving quite rapidly along the ground toward the fortress.

Sora didn’t think he imagined that Riku nearly sagged with relief.

Moments later his suspicions were confirmed as Riku let out a heavy sigh. “Thank the stars. I really wasn’t that confident I could carry four.” He glanced back at the still forms of the council members, still on the stairs next to the throne.

Sora was going to ask him to elaborate, but the clouds were approaching fast. They’d been closer than Sora realized, just smaller than he’d thought. Riku’s relief at seeing them kept him from bracing for a new attack.

The clouds flew up to the edge of the fortress just a couple yards away from them and then burst, releasing a cool, honey-scented breeze. They revealed Naminé and Xion, leaning on each other and gasping for breath.

“Glad you didn’t listen, when I said not to follow.” Riku’s voice was dry, but he gave a friendly wave.

“I bet my brother would say the same to you,” answered Xion, still bent over and breathing heavily.

“Mn,” he said noncommittally. “Lovely chat. Now, my assistant and I need to get back across the Wasteland to rescue our fire demon from the comparatively ancient and evil one that may be lurking in our castle.”

Our fire demon? Our castle? The word choice sat strangely with Sora. Strange, but pleasant. Like he was… wanted. Belonged.

Naminé looked through the ruined wall, and her eyes widened fractionally when she spotted Aerith and Leon. “You have been busy.”

“But I’m afraid we don’t have much time, now.” Riku’s tone was artificially light, but Sora recognized the stress bleeding through. “Is there any way you two would be kind enough to take over the last leg of rescuing the council members?”

Naminé nodded. “Xion and I will get them back across the Wasteland. You rescue Kairi and everyone else.”

Riku gave her a quick little half-bow.

Sora was more focused on Xion, who was still catching her breath. She waved him off. “Get to Kairi and Roxas and Mom. We’ll be behind you. Again.”

Riku stretched out a hand toward Sora. Of course he took it. Riku tightened his grip and started to run, away from the fortress, back into the Wasteland, pulling Sora with him.

A wind whipped up behind them, almost lifting them up, until their strides were nearly effortless, propelling them over enormous stretches of ground. Their run seemed to devour distance nearly as fast as the speed spell had, but in a smoother way that wasn’t nearly so disorienting.

“Why did you follow me?” Sora asked, twisting to look up at Riku. “The curse…”

Riku kept his gaze fixed on the horizon. “I had to let the curse catch me. It was the only way to find Leon and Aerith. If I’d tried directly, the Warlock would never have let me get close.”

That… made sense, actually, in a way. “So you were trying to find them!”

“Guess I managed to do the least-expected thing after all.” Riku tightened his fingers on Sora’s. “But you really didn’t think I’d come for you?” His voice got smaller on the second sentence.

“I thought you’d come for Tae,” Sora admitted. “But I didn’t have any idea what he was.”

Riku laughed, but squeezed Sora’s hand again. “I thought I’d been so careful around him, but he still found my weak points. The things that matter the most to me.”

Sora nodded knowingly. “Your parents and Kairi.”

Riku’s laugh sounded surprised, and the wind that was holding them up faltered for half a second. “My parents were on purpose. I knew he would go after them, but also that I could protect them. But I had two genuine weak points. Two things that would hurt me the most to threaten. One is Kairi. I am terrified the curse is going to hurt our fire demon. But you should probably know the second one by now, as well.”

Sora glanced back up at him for a moment, but had no idea what to even guess. The haze at the horizon had thickened, taking on a slight greenish tinge. Maybe that was the garden after all.

“You,” Riku finally answered, punctuating it with another squeeze of his fingers. “You were my other weak point, and somehow he realized it.”

Sora’s heart leapt at the words, suffusing him with a kind of glowing warmth. He squeezed Riku’s fingers back. “I didn’t realize it.” Though he should have, shouldn’t he? He thought of Riku showing him the garden, after he’d said he wanted flowers.

“You continually defy expectation,” said Riku. “In the best of ways, understand. You’re too damn nice for one. I’d counted on you running Tae off if he tried to get into the castle.”

Sora felt the blush hit his cheeks, because of course he’d wanted to do that. “That seemed unkind.”

“See? And even getting your whole family to come visit wasn’t enough to keep you in one spot.”

“That was your doing, too?”

“Serves me right for thinking I could predict what you’d do. I guess we were both trying to do the least expected thing.”

“But right now we’re going to Kairi, right?” Sora figured he should be certain they really were on the same page for once. The garden was clearly a garden now, a thick smudge of green and an impression of colors, all getting closer by the second.

“We are going to Kairi,” Riku confirmed.

“You called her ‘our’ fire demon,” said Sora. Twice, actually. And it still made him feel fluttery, like Riku saying Sora was important to him.

“Isn’t she? I feel like she’s ours as much as we’re each hers at this point.”

Sora nodded. “And we’re going to rescue her.”

“Yes we are.”

With a final burst of speed, Riku’s summoned wind pushed them to the edge of the garden and through the border of hydrangeas. The wind dissipated, leaving them in a shower of leaves and petals. The castle was still standing motionless, where it had been when Sora left. He and Riku both set off for it at a jog.

---

Riku entered the castle first, pushing the door open with more force than usual, rushing in already tensed for a fight. Sora followed anxiously, barely a pace behind, not sure what to expect, yet afraid of something.

It felt silly then, that everything had barely changed from how he’d left it. Naminé and Xion were gone, but his mom and Roxas were still there, standing by Kairi. All three turned toward the flung-open door, caught mid-conversation. No horror or carnage.

Sora realized that despite everything that had happened, it hadn’t actually been very long at all.

Kairi shifted, turning toward them and opening her mouth to say something, probably to ask what had happened.

A candle on the bookshelf—the one Tae had picked up—suddenly ignited. The flame erupted upwards, though it didn’t catch any of the nearby books on fire. A few of them fell to the floor, pages fanning back and forth.

The flame continued to grow, licking out and over the shelves above the candle, more than three feet tall, and then it exploded.

It wasn’t a true explosion, more like a localized thunderclap, as air fled away from previously-empty space that was very suddenly occupied.

Tae was standing there, but just as suddenly he was not Tae. He was also the Warlock of the Wasteland. The silver that had streaked his hair at the temples had overtaken the rest completely. His eyes were no longer the faded blue they’d been before: now they were an inhuman shade of gold, no longer hidden behind spectacles.

This was clearly the same man who had come to Key and Blade, who had stolen Sora’s name along with everyone’s memory.

So few changes, and yet Sora hadn’t recognized him.

Sora’s mom and Roxas both stumbled back from the sudden appearance, nearly landing on the stairs up to Riku’s room. Roxas stood in front as if to protect her.

“And here you are.” The Warlock addressed only Riku. “Come to me of your own free will, as I knew you would.”

One step brought him next to Kairi’s hearth. She drew back as far against the chimney as she could.

“Terra is gone,” Riku said. It could almost have been conversational. “Your beloved host. The body is nothing but dust and ash.”

The Warlock smiled. “Is that supposed to hurt me? Really, I should thank you for saving me the trouble of disposing of him. I have the only part of him that matters, worn out and used up as his heart is. Little matter, since I’ll soon have a replacement.”

Several things pieced together in Sora’s mind. The memory of Aerith and Leon’s bodies on the stairs, intended to become puppet bodyguards for the Warlock. The figure in the fortress—had that been Terra?—had thought Riku was bound for the same fate. But without Terra… “You want Riku as your new host?”

“The nameless little heart-worker understands.”

The Warlock reached toward Kairi. She had already flattened herself as much as she could against the chimney, her body almost growing indistinct as the flames of her skin and hair flickered and pulled away. She looked terrified.

“All right. You want me, come over to me,” said Riku.

Sora was impressed by how level his voice was, though it was still obvious he was trying to get the Warlock away from Kairi.

The Warlock paused his reach. “Oh, but you’d be quite worthless to me at the moment, Heartless Sorcerer.”

“Tae—no, not Tae. I’m sure that isn’t really your name. You want something from me, so let’s talk about it. You know I’m clearly the kind of man willing to make deals and sign contracts.”

“Rude of me not to have introduced myself properly. ‘Tae’ was a… conceit, a pseudonym appropriate considering my host. But it seems fair to all know each other by name. Those of us important enough to have them, at least. Call me Xehanort, please.”

“Xehanort, then. Let’s go talk. We can reach an arrangement, I’m sure.” Riku’s control over his voice was slipping, the last few words coming out desperate.

“I have no need for a new contract with you. I’m more interested in the transfer of an existing one. Don’t you remember that poem I read to you?”

The Warlock—Xehanort—turned his attention back to Kairi. He reached out a hand to brush at her face, the purple flames of her eyes wide and frightened. “It’s about falling stars, so it seems like one you should know. The important part for the moment is: Too lovely to be bought or sold…”

In one swift motion, he plunged his hand into her chest. “And then forever to be gone.”

Kairi screamed as Xehanort grasped at something in her chest, lifting her up by whatever he’d taken hold of. An instant later Riku collapsed, screaming at least as loudly as she was.

Sora crashed to his knees, grabbing at Riku, already knowing there was nothing he could do.

Xehanort’s gaze flicked to Riku on the floor. “Don’t be overdramatic.”

“He’s not,” said Kairi, voice choked and thin as she scrabbled ineffectually at the arm thrust into her chest. “His heart is very soft. You’ll kill him!”

Xehanort relaxed his grip marginally, though he didn’t release Kairi.

Sora was distantly aware of the door opening again, of the smell of honey and flowers wafting in. He couldn’t turn to look, his attention already divided between Riku on the floor next to him, and Xehanort holding Kairi aloft.

The Warlock’s hand was buried to the wrist in her chest, and the flames of her body were licking at his arm… but how could fire hurt another fire demon?

Her struggles were already weakening, the grasping motion of her hands at Xehanort’s arm slower and more flailing. Riku writhed again on the floor. The screaming had stopped, but now he convulsed in silence, pale eyes wide and blank. That was far worse.

There was nothing Sora could hope to do to Xehanort, but it didn’t matter, because he had to get him away from Kairi.

Sora’s fingers tightened on his knife. It had cut through the Shadow things. Maybe Xehanort would at least feel it. Maybe he’d let go, even for just a moment.

Sora lunged up and at Xehanort. Someone shouted behind him, but he didn’t know what they said.

The blade sank into Xehanort’s outstretched forearm. It felt strange, the blade going in too smoothly and softly. It wasn’t a complete surprise; Sora had watched Kairi struggling to make her form more human. Xehanort had clearly succeeded, even to the point of walking around on his own, but he wasn’t really flesh and blood.

He did jerk his arm away, the wound on his arm and the blade of the knife itself both faintly smoking. He let go of what his hand had been clenched around in Kairi’s chest as he took a step back.

Kairi fell, tumbling off the raised hearth and to the floor. Sora pulled her into his lap, fully expecting her to burn him, and not caring. Instead he was horrified to find her body barely warm against him.

Xehanort let out a wordless snarl, reaching toward them.

“You will stay back!” Sora snapped, curling over Kairi to shelter her with his own body.

The Warlock did. He looked furious about it, but he stopped moving toward them. Sora hadn’t expected it to work. Though it wasn’t the first time he’d talked something into happening.

Just in case, he tried to put his whole heart behind it when he added, “You aren’t going to hurt anyone here.”

Riku had stopped convulsing. He was lying still, his breathing coming too heavy and harsh.

Naminé and Xion were both approaching from the door, Naminé calling up some kind of spell, Xion going to Riku. Roxas and his mother were still by the stairs. They were all safe for the moment, and that was all the attention Sora could spare.

Kairi wasn’t as bright or as warm as she should be. This was worse than she’d looked after the fight in Traverse Town. But under his hands against her back, he could feel a very faint, weak heartbeat.

“It’s Riku’s heart, isn’t it?” he asked.

Kairi nodded.

There’d been a hundred clues and hints dropped. Maybe Xehanort having Terra’s heart had been the final piece that let him put it together, but really, he thought he’d known for far longer.

“But if I break your contract… if you give Riku’s heart back, won’t you die?”

“I would. But not if you do it, I think.” Her voice was still too thin. “You talk heart and purpose into things. Maybe me, too.”

A few lines from the other poem, the one Riku had gone to find, drifted through his mind.

…Our heart felt like a single thing… and was whole, as if it would survive them.

It wasn’t quite a spell, but he tried to trap the words in his head and really believe that he could do this.

He lowered the knife toward her chest, biting his lip to the blood as he did so. The flames parted easily around the blade—sharp enough to cut right to the heart of things, wasn’t that what he’d told the knife when he finished it?—revealing something in her chest.

Sora might have thought it was a strange coal or a stone, but he knew what it was. A bit lopsided, slightly larger than his fist. Riku’s heart was smooth and silvery, somehow still seeming to glow, even surrounded by the flames of a fire demon. He reached for it, trying to gently cradle it between his hands. The heart pulsed faintly against his palms, a too-weak heartbeat.

“The contract gave you a heart and let you live. It is a single thing, but letting you both survive.” It wasn’t exactly the words of the poem, and his voice didn’t have the lovely cadence Riku’s had when he read it, but Sora believed the words. “Kairi, you have a heart, and it will let you live another hundred years or more!”

Sora didn’t tighten his grip, feeling sick at the memory of Xehanort tightening his fingers around it. As softly as he could, he pulled the heart from Kairi’s chest, keeping it held in his cupped hands.

She gasped as he removed the heart, eyes flaring wide. Sora nearly dropped the heart, terrified he’d failed to save her. But no. Through the flames at her chest, there was something where Riku’s heart had been before. This did look more like a coal, deep orange glowing bright inside a dark shell.

Her own heat and brightness started to return, though not exactly the same as before. The flames didn’t burn Sora where she was still resting against his legs. She seemed more contained in a way, more solid, like her shape was stronger.

She pushed herself up from her sprawl across Sora’s lap and rushed across the floor to Riku’s side. She crossed the floor like it was nothing, even though she wasn’t close to the hearth or to the path he’d built.

Sora was slower, too scared of dropping the heart to move quickly. His eyes darted up, afraid Xehanort would take the chance to strike out for the heart. The Warlock was being held at bay by Naminé, Xion, and Roxas, who must have joined them while Sora was occupied.

Magic swirled at Naminé’s fingertips, and Roxas and Xion had their twin knives drawn. Twin knives I gifted to them, he recalled. ‘Something to remember me by.’

Xehanort snarled and lashed out at them like a cornered animal, but Sora’s command not to harm anyone still must have bound him, and none of his attacks found targets.

Satisfied that Xehanort wasn’t an immediate threat, Sora carefully crossed the room and knelt beside Riku. His breathing had been rapid and ragged before, and now his chest was barely moving, the breaths too, too shallow. His eyes were open, but slow to focus on Sora.

Softly, Sora pressed his cupped hands to Riku’s chest, allowing the heart to slip between them. The glowing silver sank into Riku’s chest.

Kairi’s hand gripped Riku’s tightly as a long second passed. Sora barely dared to breathe, words about falling stars and hearts and surviving all tumbling through his head.

Then Riku took a real, strong breath in, and squinted his eyes shut. The hand not held in Kairi’s went to his chest, rubbing at it like something felt wrong.

He scrambled upright so quickly he nearly knocked Sora over.

“Kairi! She—” The words sounded like they were torn out of Riku’s throat.

“Is fine,” answered Sora, “And so are you.” The words betrayed his own surprise, rather than coming out as a reassurance.

“Xehanort grabbed her heart.”

“Your heart,” she said, tightening her hands on his.

Riku seemed to finally really see her. “My—” He touched his chest again. His eyes were wide when he turned back to Sora. Their color had changed, growing more intense, and less like glass.

It looked like he was going to say something else, but then he caught sight of Xehanort, still backed against the wall. “I wouldn’t have expected him to be so easily held back. Is your whole family just that intimidating?”

“They can be,” Sora agreed, ignoring that Naminé wasn’t technically his family, or at least not yet. “Though I might have cursed him. A little.”

“You cursed him.”

Sora bit his lip. “I told him he wasn’t going to hurt anyone here. And he isn’t.”

“I’m both impressed and mildly terrified.” Riku looked back at Xehanort. His expression hardened. “But he isn’t going to hurt anyone ever again.”

Riku glanced between Sora and Kairi, then gently freed his hand and pushed himself off the ground. The room was small enough that it was really only a few paces to reach Xehanort.

Kairi and Sora got to their feet as well, but stayed back.

“You wanted to take my heart in order to prolong your own life. It didn’t matter to you that it would kill Kairi. It didn’t even matter that I’d never agreed to a contract with you.” Riku’s voice was calm, but glacially cold.

“It would have been a fair exchange,” Xehanort spat.

“A fair exchange? A curse on my assistant, kidnapping council members, killing my fire demon, and stealing my heart in order to make me a puppet for your own ambitions? What, exactly, would I have been getting in ‘fair exchange’?”

“You would have been given everything you wanted,” Xehanort answered. “Sorcerers who make contracts with fallen stars only ever want one thing.” His eyes shifted from Riku to Kairi. The look he gave her was full of so much contempt even Sora wanted to draw back.

Kairi pressed closer, her hand finding Sora’s. She did not pull back or cower at Xehanort’s hatred. She glared back, defiant.

Even with everything else, there was a bit of Sora able to wonder at her arm resting against his. She was warm, but didn’t burn him. She felt close to human. Looked it, too, albeit one who gently glowed. Sora would have thought it a miracle, except he was starting to realize he might have been the one to do it. Maybe that was a kind of miracle, too. He pulled her even closer, and glared at Xehanort right with her.

If Riku noticed the looks passed between them, he didn’t comment on it. “What is it that I want?”

Xehanort scoffed. “Power. It’s always power. You give us the heart we don’t have, so we don’t burn out when we hit the ground, and we give you the power that an ordinary sorcerer couldn’t hope to touch.” His voice changed, turning gentle and lilting. “That offer still stands. I can hear your heart. Trade it to me, and I can give you so much. You don’t even realize how much better it could be; your first star was a weak one. I can give you so much more than she ever could have.”

Kairi made an offended noise in the back of her throat.

For all that Xehanort was still backed against the wall, unable to do anything against anyone in the castle, Sora realized that he still thought he could win. His ‘offer’ to Riku wasn’t tinged with desperation; he genuinely thought that was a real temptation.

“I’ve seen what happens to your contract partners,” Riku answered. “You were delighted to learn Terra was dust, carried away on the Wasteland wind.”

“A future problem for a future time,” Xehanort said. “How long ago did he find me? A century? Two? A hundred or more years of power, compared to a mortal lifespan? You can hardly hold that against me.”

When Riku didn’t answer, Xehanort continued, “Think how you’ll regret it. Your first contract broken. The power she granted you may be nothing next to what I can offer, but it’s still more than you have now.”

Kairi cleared her throat. “Actually, that’s not quite true!” she chirped. “Hi! Yes, I’m the other fallen star you’ve been pretending to subtly insult. And while it’s true that the contract is broken, and I’m not bound to give Riku my power… that doesn’t mean I can’t.”

For the first time, Xehanort really faltered.

“I believe my assistant already made it clear that you aren’t going to harm anyone here. I’m going to make sure you never have a chance to harm anyone else either.”

Sora could feel the energy rise. He’d felt it before, when Riku and Kairi worked together on something, but this time was even stronger.

Everyone else clearly felt it, too. Naminé and Xion shared a look, and even Roxas and Sora’s mother looked around as the power crackled through the air.

Riku said something else then, one hand stretched palm-out toward Xehanort, but Sora couldn’t hear the words themselves, each one completely drowned out by a sound like thunder.

Xehanort was already as far against the wall as possible, but with each obscured syllable he seemed to shrink away even more. He didn’t get smaller so much as he began to fade.

Xehanort looked afraid for the first time, an expression that Sora remembered from the star he’d so briefly held. He would have felt bad for the Warlock, if it hadn’t been for all the things he’d already done. What more he’d been willing to do, to Kairi, to Riku, to Sora, to everyone in the kingdom he’d planned to take over. Sora pulled Kairi close again.

The last of the thunderclaps faded away, and so had Xehanort, leaving behind a dark, cracked stone. Though of course it wasn’t really a stone.

Riku’s hand dropped, his shoulders relaxing. He almost stumbled, but caught himself. He shrugged out of his jacket, then stooped and wrapped it around the fallen heart. “Rest well,” he murmured.

Then he did collapse.

---

After that, things started to move very fast.

Sora and Kairi both practically flew to Riku’s side, kneeling down hard enough to bruise knees.

His breathing was strong, and so was his heartbeat. Sora sighed with relief.

“I think he just overexerted himself,” Kairi said. “That kind of spell takes a lot, even with my help. Especially with everything else he’d already done today.” She shifted, and pulled his head into her lap.

There was a commotion near the door, and voices that Sora didn’t recognize. He glanced up, but Naminé and Xion were already on their way to investigate.

“—an explanation. The Warlock’s fortress—”

“I was just in the garden and then—”

“Looking for you—”

Sora knew that must be important, but trusted the others to handle it. He didn’t want to look away from Riku.

“Can I help?” he asked Kairi.

“He’ll wake up any minute, I’m pretty sure. He’s going to need some real sleep later, but this shouldn’t last long.” She brushed tangled hair out of his face, where it had escaped from its tie.

Naminé and Sora’s mom were both talking to two people near the door. Sora hadn’t ever seen them awake, but he recognized Aerith and Leon from the fortress. They both seemed fine, if possibly confused. Clearly whatever spell the Warlock had placed them under had broken. It was a good thing that Naminé and Xion had been able to get them to the castle, rather than leaving them to wake up in the Wasteland.

Riku’s eyes opened. “Kairi.” Her name came out like a prayer.

She smiled down at him. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

He laughed, then gave a sharp inhale. He sat up, so quickly he nearly cracked his head against Sora’s. Sora barely managed to avoid a bloody nose.

“Where’s Sora?” he gasped.

“Right here,” Sora answered, and then stopped. “Wait, you—”

“Sora,” Riku repeated.

“My curse must have been lifted!” Half ready to feel it choke him, he said, “My name is Sora.”

Nothing happened, no magical tendrils wrapped around his throat or crushed his lungs.

“Sora?” Kairi said. “That’s a wonderful name!”

“And it’s my name,” he said.

“Which makes it even more wonderful,” Riku said. “We met before, didn’t we? Before you came here… On the equinox, wasn’t it? I asked you to get a drink with me.”

Sora nodded. He was a little surprised to discover he was crying, but he was laughing too. “You did. I was a nervous wreck, and couldn’t even agree.”

Riku reached out like he wanted to touch Sora’s face, but then he paused, and his hand went to his own chest. “My heart. I can feel it. It’s strange.”

“Hearts are heavy things,” Kairi said. She gently rested her own fingers against her chest, right over where Sora had seen the glowing ember. Her own heart.

“I had to break your contract,” Sora said. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be. It was the best thing you could have done.” Riku still sounded sad, though. “It would have done us more harm than good eventually, and we could never risk becoming like Xehanort and Terra. I’m just relieved you managed to save Kairi.” That wistful note still didn’t entirely leave his voice as he looked back at her.

“I have a heart of my own now,” she said. “I don’t know how, but Sora managed that.”

Riku reached out and took her hand. “I’m afraid it’s terribly selfish of me, but I think I’m sad you don’t have my heart anymore. I’m glad you’re free, but I’m going to miss you.”

“You’re an idiot.”

Riku looked a little startled, but before he had a chance to get upset, she repeated: “An absolute idiot. Just like I told Xehanort, I’m not bound by the contract anymore. I don’t have to share my power if I don’t want to, but that doesn’t mean I can’t. And just because I don’t literally have your heart beating in my chest anymore doesn’t mean you aren’t still allowed to share your heart however you’d like.”

She sniffed and looked pointedly at both Riku and Sora. “I certainly plan to share mine. ‘Miss me.’ The nerve.”

Roxas was saying something, stressing Sora’s name. His mother was talking too, about remembering so much that she hadn’t before. Xion and Naminé were both trying to get his and Riku’s attention to deal with council members, who were also adding their voices to the general cacophony.

Sora managed to tune all of them out, and it definitely seemed Riku and Kairi were doing the same.

“You’ll stay?” Sora asked, feeling his own heart leap a little at the hope.

“Of course I’m going to stay.” Kairi reached the hand not tangled with Riku’s toward him.

He took it, and then Riku reached for his other hand.

“Will you?” Riku asked. It sounded more vulnerable than Sora was used to him sounding. Which made sense, really.

Sora grasped Riku’s hand, closing their circle. “Of course,” he echoed Kairi. “Did you think I wasn’t going to?”

“I didn’t want to ask for too much,” Riku admitted.

“Have you ever considered living happily ever after?” Sora asked. “Assuming that’s the sort of thing you would be interested in.”

“You know, I think I’d very much enjoy that. And I think it’s the kind of thing the three of us could be very good at.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever let it get boring,” Kairi said.

“Of course not,” Sora agreed. “Because Riku will find something to be overdramatic about.”

“Or you’ll rush into something without thinking it through,” Riku said.

“I think it will be worth it,” Sora said.

“To happily ever after,” Kairi said, and pulled both of them into a three-way hug.

There was plenty waiting for them, between Sora’s family, and the rescued council members, and letting the king know that the Warlock of the Wasteland had been dealt with.

But for a few minutes more, they were able to ignore all of that, and look to their future.

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