musefic | Kingdom Hearts fic: Detour

I need to find a way to make these shorter! I kept wanting to make this one longer and needing to rein it in. It's hard to capture the weird liminal feel of a good road trip in a short fic! (Though I love road trips dearly, and am sad I haven't had a chance to go on one in several years.)

This is the fill for Day 16: Road Trip AU.

Riku, Sora, and Kairi are on a road trip. They wind up making a strange detour.

“Your turn to drive,” Riku said, tossing the keys to Sora.

Sora caught them with barely a fumble. “Yeah, yeah.”

Sora unlocked the doors, then helped Kairi load their resupply of snacks into the coolers and bags in the backseat. The sodas, iced coffee, chips, and candy would hold them until the next inviting truck stop.

Once they’d piled into the car and gotten the air conditioning going again, Kairi leaned up between the front seats. “Where to now?”

Riku showed her the map. They were using a road atlas for the trip, as vintage as it felt. Better to make notes directly onto when they wanted to. Better to hold them through the dead zones where their phones couldn’t find a signal.

“There’s apparently a pretty popular overlook that’s about a twenty mile detour off the main roads. We could get there without too much trouble. We are also in prime roadside attraction territory, so if you ever wanted to see a collection of statues made entirely out of CDs, or the world’s largest chicken, then you’re in luck.”

“We’re all in luck,” she deadpanned. “Let’s go!”

The overlook was as spectacular as promised. There wasn’t a lot of elevation gain, but it looked over a lower canyon that dropped down through a desert valley. The rock walls of the canyon were striated in various colors, and thanks to a creek down below, wildflowers had sprung up in the valley itself, covering almost all the visible ground.

It was perfect for a picnic, and the three took full advantage.

The world’s largest chicken was slightly less impressive, considering it was actually an emu being unconvincingly passed off as a “giant chicken.” They still paid for the overpriced souvenir photo of them standing in front of the emu though.

Those two stops, plus the detours to get to them, took up most of the afternoon, and they settled into a long stretch of unbroken highway as they headed into the evening hours.

Riku flicked the overhead light on just long enough to find a likely-looking town up ahead that wasn’t too painfully far away.

It was dark by the time they reached the town, but their luck was with them: there was a classic diner just off the main road, neon bright in the window.

Like every other diner, it felt both like its own unique place and identical to every other diner they could have slid into. They sat in a booth with vinyl seats, and ordered more food than was strictly a good idea.

Sora swiped fries off of Riku’s plate, despite having his own, and all of them stole sips of each others’ milkshakes, since they’d each gotten a different flavor.

When the trio had come in, there were a handful of people in the other booths, or on the stools at the counter. Everyone else had slowly trickled out, singly or as couples heading out. Some were maybe locals, though the diner seemed like the kind that catered to people like them, just traveling through along the highway.

It had moved from being after dark to being truly late in the time they finally finished the last fry, and emptied the glasses of the last of the melted milkshakes.

“Are we looking for a motel tonight?” Sora asked.

“Nah,” Kairi said. “I can drive for a while.”

Having three people to split the driving had meant they were able to travel straight through on a lot of the trip without needing to stop. Someone could always nap in the back. They’d stop overnight every few nights just for the chance to take a shower and sleep in a real bed, but there was no need to worry about it every night.

Not because they were in a hurry to get anywhere. Almost the opposite. They didn’t know what they were looking for, but better yet, they had no timetable to get there.

Riku paid their check.

The waitress gave them an only slightly tired once-over. “Drive safe, you three. The roads get weird this time of night.”

“Weird how?” Kairi asked.

The waitress shrugged. “More fog than there’s any business being. Weird things sighted along the road. Just be careful.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Sora said.

The night was warm and quiet. Other than the muted noise of cars passing on the highway, the only sound around was crickets.

Kairi took the keys, since it was her turn to drive.

The highway narrowed down to only two lanes. Their headlights were the only source of light on the road. There were occasionally distant lights from solitary houses off the road, but even those were few and far between. They hadn’t passed a car going the other direction for miles.

“Remember what the waitress said?” Sora asked from the passenger seat.

“About the road getting weird?”

“It’s getting foggy.”

Sora was right. Wisps of mist had started to form above the road, reflecting her headlights back to her in bright swirls.

“Keep an eye out, I guess,” Riku spoke up. He’d been half-dozing in the back, but sat back up.

As if him saying it had been enough to summon it, the headlights caught something much brighter white, just at the side of the road.

A girl.

Kairi saw her as they sped past. She slammed on the brakes.

“You saw her too, right?” Sora said, craning to look back behind them, though there was, of course, no light.

Kairi nodded. “A girl. Do you think she’s okay?”

Riku frowned. “That seems like exactly the kind of thing the waitress was talking about.”

“Definitely weird,” Sora agreed. “But we have to check on her. What if she’s in trouble?”

Riku looked a little skeptical, but gave a tight nod. “We should make sure.”

Kairi carefully made a u-turn on the deserted highway. The fog had dramatically thickened, even in the short amount of time they’d been waiting there. Almost as soon as she’d turned around, the girl was visible in the headlights.

She was youngish, maybe about their age. She had long, light blonde hair, and she was wearing a white sundress. The night was warm, but with the rising fog, she had to be getting chilly.

Kairi pulled over to the edge of the road. She rolled down her window, glad that there wasn’t any other traffic.

“Hey there!” she called. “Are you all right? Do you need any help?”

The girl turned toward them. She looked… sad. “Can you help me get home?”

“You need a ride?” Kairi asked. She turned toward Sora and Riku. “Can we give her a ride?”

Riku shrugged at the same time Sora nodded.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Sora said. “We have to help her!”

Kairi glanced at the clock. It was just after 3:00 in the morning. The chances that anyone else would pass by to help were slim to none.

Riku didn’t say anything, but started to gather up their things in the backseat, cramming the cooler and the miscellaneous detritus of a road trip into the footwells, making room on the seat behind Kairi.

“Come on, we’ll give you a ride,” Kairi said. “If you want, that is.”

Some young women probably wouldn’t want to get into a car full of strangers. This girl just nodded.

Riku opened the driver side door of the backseat for her.

The girl crossed the road more quickly than seemed possible, delicately sliding into the offered seat.

“Which way do you need to go?” Kairi asked gently.

“The way you were going before.”

“All right. Buckle up.”

The girl looked at the seatbelt like it was an unfamiliar thing, but gently reached over to buckle it. Kairi pulled another u-turn, and they headed back down the road.

They let the silence sit for a few minutes.

“Where are you trying to go?” Kairi finally asked.

“Home.”

“Where is that?” Sora asked.

“Not so far. I can tell you when to turn.”

“Sure,” Kairi said. “Are you okay otherwise? Did your car break down?”

She hadn’t seen any cars by the side of the road, but she could have missed something.

“I’m fine. I just got lost.”

“Lost?”

The girl just stared out the window.

She didn’t seem interested in small talk, so they drove in silence.

Finally, what felt like hours later, though a glance at the clock revealed it had been less than thirty minutes, the girl said, “Turn here, please.”

Kairi obliged, taking a small exit half-hidden by trees. The road was old and rough, barely qualifying as paved. She slowed down. “This is right?”

“Yes.”

“How far away do you live?” Riku asked.

“Not far.”

They lapsed back into silence.

About twenty minutes later, the girl said, “You can let me out here.”

Kairi slowed. There was a small pull-off just ahead, and Kairi took advantage. “Really? Here?”

“I live nearby. Thank you for the ride. I’m glad I met you; you were very kind to me. Be safe on the roads.”

She slid out of the car, and stepped away into the fog.

Kairi woke up with a start. She was behind the wheel, though at least she’d clearly pulled over before she’d fallen asleep. She didn’t remember having fallen asleep.

She turned around. Sora stretched, just waking up from where he’d been leaning against the window. In the back seat, Riku pushed himself back upright.

“Ouch,” he grumbled. “Not the right position to sleep in.”

“Where are we?” Sora asked, staring up at the trees shading the car.

“I’m… not sure. It looks like we turned off the highway at some point, but I don’t remember it.”

“It looks like everything is okay though,” Riku said.

“Yeah, I pulled over, I guess. And I turned the engine off. Maybe I was more tired than I thought.”

“I guess we all were,” Sora said. “Maybe tonight we should get a hotel room.”

“I definitely won’t object to that,” Kairi agreed.

“A real mattress sounds great right now,” Riku said.

“For plenty of reasons, I bet.” Sora turned and winked at him, as silly as it was flirty.

Riku rolled his eyes fondly. “Ulterior motives aside, it still sounds nice.”

Kairi laughed.

Riku handed out bottled coffee from the cooler. Kairi was already feeling better, like there was a fog clearing out of her head.

Fog… there’d been fog on the road, she thought.

She was pretty sure the highway was behind them, so she turned around, and headed back that direction. Before too long, they reached the highway, and were back on the road.