Kingdom Hearts fic: While We Still Have Time

[mistressofmuses]

Day 4 of AU-gust. Today's prompt was "Runaway."The title of this fic (and the general vibe, at least to me) are taken from the song "Work" by Jimmy Eat World. That song has always given me a sense of... melancholy desperation, knowing things have to change, but wanting to be able to control how they do.

"All I can say,
I shouldn't say,
Can we take a ride?
Get out of this place while we still have time..."

---

Riku, Sora, and Kairi have one final night to spend together, before they go off to separate futures that none of them want. They have one enormous decision to make: do they walk onward down those paths that were chosen for them, or do they create their own?

It was mostly dark, the space lit by fairy lights around the edges of the room and colored bulbs throwing random bits of refracted color around the dance floor.

A group of girls had pulled Kairi onto the floor over her objections for a fast-paced dance, and Sora was off getting punch from the table across the room, leaving Riku to protect their spot at one of the little tables along the perimeter.

The decorating committee had done a surprisingly competent job of transforming the high school gym, but there was only so much that could be done to disguise what it was. Supposedly they had considered trying to rent a different space somewhere in town, as an attempt to make the post-graduation dance feel more “special,” and to further emphasize the transition away from the school they were all leaving. Unfortunately, the gym remained the biggest venue available in the town, so they’d had little choice in the end.

It might be the last time you get to see it.

Sora was making his way around the edge of the room, somehow managing three plastic cups. Reaching the table, he set them down.

“And I only spilled one!” he announced proudly with a laugh. He punctuated it by then licking a drip of punch from his wrist.

He picked up one of the cups and offered it to Riku. “This one didn’t spill.”

Riku took the cup, Sora’s fingers brushing over his. Riku definitely didn’t pull away, though he glanced to the side before they could acknowledge the contact. One of many things they’d all resisted acknowledging.

Is that yet another last time?

The song ended, and Kairi extricated herself from the group of girls, arriving back at the table just as the next song started.

Sora held out a second cup of punch to her.

“Thank you.” She took a slow sip.

“Sora promises only one cup spilled. It was a harrowing feat,” Riku teased, wishing he could feel as lighthearted as he was trying to sound.

Sora stuck out his tongue in reply.

“It’s good,” Kairi said, holding it up in a toast. “Thank you for the feat of bravery in obtaining it.”

“Of course. Hey, it matches your dress, Kairi.” Sora held up his own cup toward her.

The punch was slightly brighter, but it did look nice against her lighter pink and black dress. That meant it matched all of them to some degree, since Riku and Sora had coordinated with her. Ties and boutonnieres and the whole deal. One final night together, before they were expected to go their own ways. A chance to play grownup for one night before it was supposed to be real.

All three of them choosing to match each other was yet another missing acknowledgement.

“Tidus says someone spiked it, but I doubt it’s true.”

“Tidus claimed someone spiked the juice in the cafeteria once, so I’d be skeptical.” Riku laughed as he took his own sip.

The three of them looked out at the dance floor, most of the people they knew well out in pairs or small friend groups.

The last time…

The room was anything but quiet, but the silence between the three of them expanded like a bubble.

“Do—” Riku started.

Both the others looked to him so quickly he thought they might get whiplash.

He cleared his throat and tried again. “Do you want to get out of here?”

“Yes,” Kairi said,

at the same moment Sora said, “Please.”

“Only if you want,” Riku hastened to add. “If you don’t want to leave, I understand, it’s the last night, so I don’t want—”

But Sora and Kairi had already grabbed hold of his hands, hauling him toward the exit, cups of probably-not-spiked punch forgotten on the table behind them.

---

They drove away from the school, piled into Riku’s car. Kairi sat in the passenger seat, while Sora chose the middle of the back, so he could lean up between the seats. They didn’t talk about where they were headed, but no one objected as he chose the roads, taking them farther and farther out, to one of the little coastal roads that people rarely seemed to use.

Finally he pulled over onto a small side road, putting the car into park at an overlook.

They all climbed out. The silence still swelled around them, yet the quiet of the seaside cliff made it far less oppressive than the noise of the dance.

The breeze from over the waves was pleasant on the warm evening.

Kairi looked up. Nearly no light from the town reached this part of the island. The stars twined together into a glowing road above them.

Riku watched her watching the stars.

This could be the last time you see them, at least like this. He didn’t know if he meant the stars or Kairi. Both.

When she glanced back down, the starlight reflected off the tears on her cheeks. “One last night. One last dance. And now we just say goodbye?”

Sora took a hesitant step closer to her, holding out a hand, but not quite touching. “It’s not though, right?”

Riku could almost wish this place didn’t feel so perfect. That the air didn’t feel so right, that the sea didn’t smell like home, that the stars weren’t so beautiful. That Sora and Kairi weren’t the people he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Except he wouldn’t wish any of that.

“Hopefully not forever,” he said. “Just… for a while.”

“We all have it set out for us, right?” Kairi said.

She was right. They each had somewhere they were expected to go. For him, a job at a company owned by his family. For Kairi, a school halfway around the world. For Sora, a trade program on another island. None of them had chosen their destinations, but that didn’t matter to the people who had.

“Do you want to go?” Sora asked.

Kairi looked back up to the stars. “No. I don’t want to go. Not to a school I’ve never been to, to study things I don’t care about, to be the person my parents want me to be. I’ll be alone there, and I don’t want that.”

Sora looked to Riku, the same question still in his eyes.

Riku shut his eyes for a moment and breathed in the salt air. He exhaled slowly. “No. I don’t want to go become the carbon copy of my father that he expects me to be. I don’t want to be the person he wants, or to surround myself with the kind of people he thinks are important.”

Sora nodded, like he’d already expected the answers. “Me either. I don’t want to go to the other island. Or really… I don’t care where I go. But I don’t… I don’t want to go there without you. Either of you.”

Sora was the one who closed the distance, grabbing on to both Riku and Kairi. “So do we have to?”

Kairi hesitated, maybe warring with herself, before she came to her decision. “Do we?”

Then both of them were looking at Riku.

He took in their hopeful looks, the waves below, the stars overhead. Then glanced back to his car. “No. We don’t.”

---

None of them were expected back at home for hours yet, the assumption being that tonight would be their final night to do what they wanted before turning their attention permanently to other things. It was almost trivial to sneak into each of their rooms, an ironic inversion of the sneaking out they were ordinarily doing.

His car was packed. They’d each packed a single bag, with whatever they couldn’t bear to leave behind. They’d changed out of their formal attire.

Riku pulled over one more time as they left the town behind. One last check-in, to make sure this was truly what they all wanted. It wasn’t the kind of thing they could take back, not really. So they had to be sure.

And if they were, then it was one last chance to say goodbye to the only home they’d ever known.

This time, he drove them down to the beach, where they could watch the soft waves and the quiet stars.

“You really want to leave?” he asked. “You’re sure?”

He was sure.

“I’m sure,” Kairi said. No hesitation now. “We go together. That’s where I want to go; anywhere with you.”

Riku smiled. It sounded like a little-kid promise, even as they were making a decision about the rest of their lives.

“Me too!” said Sora, bounding closer.

Then he did something Riku wasn’t expecting. He grabbed Kairi and kissed her. Before Riku could quite react, he threw an arm around Riku’s shoulders and pulled him into a kiss too. It wasn’t a deep kiss, just soft lips pushing close. Riku heard Kairi laughing a little breathlessly.

This was one of those many unacknowledged things. Or many it was many of them. Either way, Riku hadn’t been sure any of them would ever decide to change that. Maybe making one brave, reckless decision for themselves had inspired additional bravery and recklessness.

Sora looked him straight in the eyes when he pulled back. “You still want to go? Together?”

As if that would make Riku change his mind. Riku reeled Sora in for another kiss, quick and just a little sharp. “Of course I do. Kairi?”

“If that was an attempt to make us reconsider, Sora, I don’t think that was the way to go about it.” She was still giggling, color bright enough in her cheeks he could see it even in the starlight.

Sora looked away, suddenly embarrassed. “Not what I was trying to do.”

“Good,” she said.

Then she darted forward to press a quick kiss to Riku’s lips. “Just to be fair and all,” she said, lips still just barely moving against his, so he felt her speak as well as heard her.

“Have to be fair, definitely.”

“Can we maybe… explore that a bit more later” Kairi asked, with a nervous glance back toward town. It was out of sight, but certainly not far. “We should go while we have a head start.”

“Sorry,” Sora said. “You’re right.”

“Never apologize for that,” Riku said. “And we will be exploring that later.”

The other two got back in the car, and Riku took a last glance out over the waves. He would miss the island, and how right it felt to be there. But there’d be fresh air in other places. Other shores to see the ocean from. And they could look up at the same, perfect stars from anywhere they went.

There was no replacement for Sora or Kairi. And he’d take any home with them over the most perfect place without them.

---

The bridge off the island was shockingly well-lit, even in the middle of the night, though they didn’t encounter any other cars.

None of them knew quite where they were going to go, but for now that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that they’d be going there together.