Kingdom Hearts fic: Asteria

[mistressofmuses]

The absolutely gorgeous header that I was given for my fic!

This is the fic that I wrote for Set Sail, a Destiny Trio fanzine. If you're interested, you can find more of the art and fic on the zine's tumblr. There were so many amazingly talented writers and artists involved!

"Asteria" was a daughter of Titans in Greek mythology. Her name means "of the stars", and at one point she turned herself into an island, said to have fallen from the sky like a star. It seemed... fitting for the Destiny Trio in terms of imagery, ha.

---

Six years ago, Kairi was taken to the hub planet of Radiant Garden to pursue a prestigious education. Sora and Riku were left behind on the distant satellite of Port Destiny. Separated by seemingly impossible distance, they wonder if she'll keep her promise to return.

Riku was already in the park by the time Sora arrived. It was otherwise empty; the usual lull between the larger shift changes. Riku was perched in his favorite spot, the sideways trunk of an awkwardly-grown tree. Sora hoisted himself up, settling in next to Riku.

Riku glanced over, before his gaze returned to the planet rising over the horizon line. Its bluish light was brighter even than the station lights behind them.

Sora dug in his bag, pulling out two round boxes. He clicked the button on one of them, triggering its heating cycle, before handing it to Riku. “From my mom,” he said.

Riku smiled as he accepted the box. “I always appreciate your mom’s willingness to feed me.”

“Someone has to make sure you eat.” Sora clicked the button on his own box, waiting a few seconds until it let out a soft chime, signifying the food was warm.

The two of them ate in silence for a few minutes. While his manners remained impeccable, the speed at which Riku wolfed down the rice and grilled meat betrayed that he probably hadn’t eaten anything for quite a while.

When both their containers were empty, Sora took the used dishes and returned them to his bag.

Riku had resumed staring at the planet. Its apparent position hadn’t changed along the horizon, of course; “the island,” as they semi-fondly called the Port Destiny satellite, was tidally locked to the planet. It made it easier to facilitate the jumps between the station and the planet’s surface.

Sora jostled his shoulder into Riku’s. “Rough day?”

Riku shook his head. “Not particularly. A few big cargo ships. Demanding clients who didn’t want to wait for the next transport down to the surface. The usual.”

The silence stretched until Riku finally said, “Do you really think she’ll come?”

Of course that was what Riku was worried about.

Sora took a deep breath. “Of course she will.”

“It’s been more than six years.”

As if both of them hadn’t counted every passing day. As if they hadn’t both been quietly counting down to Kairi’s promised return.

“And she promised. She’ll graduate, and she’ll come right back here.”

“Six years,” Riku repeated. “That’s a long time. Six years on a real hub planet, not out in the galactic nowhere. Six years of real education, surrounded by important people, doing important things.”

“Hey,” Sora protested. “Says the manager of the biggest transport company on the island.”

Riku let out a humorless laugh.

Sora knew he didn’t find that particularly brag-worthy, despite it making him one of the most important people on the port. He could have taken a more prestigious position planet-side, working for his family’s company there. Given a few years, he could work himself to one of those hub planets. Staying on Port Destiny was considered the sort of dead-end that no one wanted. Yet here he still was.

“Anyway, I know Kairi will keep her promise.” Sora kicked his heels against the tree trunk.

Riku shoved into Sora with his own shoulder. “And how do you know that?”

“Because you kept yours.”

---

The station on Port Destiny was active for full 24-hour cycles, but it was still late by shift standards when Sora made it back to his mom’s restaurant. He ducked through the cloth hanging across the front, holding it aside for a couple workers making their exit.

His mom was behind the counter, chatting with the last lingering customers. Once they were done, there’d be a few quiet hours, until the next shift let out a new crowd of workers in search of a meal before heading home.

Sora scooted around the counter, dropping off the containers from Riku’s and his dinner with the rest of the dishes, and kissed his mother’s cheek. She giggled and pulled him into a one-armed hug before he headed for the stairs up to their apartment. He’d grab a few hours of sleep before he took over the shop, giving her a deserved break.

His room was dark and quiet. The lights were tuned to an artificial day-night cycle lined up with his usual schedule. Supposedly that made living in the perpetually-active port more tolerable.

Flopping onto his bed, he reached over to his bedside table, digging for a particular small chip. His fingers recognized its shape immediately, and it slid with a satisfying click into the side of his bracelet.

The hologram of Kairi’s face lit up, more silver-blue than a real image, but still recognizably her.

“Hey, you two. I always feel like it’s been too long. There haven’t been that many ships heading from here to there, and if there are more than a few ports before Destiny, I worry these will get lost.

“This year has been so intense! I’ve probably said that every time, but each one is so much more so than all the other ones. I finally have access to the whole library now! This is when we really start on whatever our research field is going to be. It’s a big decision, but… I’ve decided on botany. Xenobotany. Kind of a cliché, right? Go to Radiant Garden, come away studying flowers? But even here, there’s just so much they don’t have, and don’t even know! So many worlds out there, waiting to be seen and learned about.

“Just like the three of us, counting stars and imagining how many worlds they represented. We said we’d visit them all, or at least as many as we wanted.

“I’m coming back. As soon as I graduate, I’m coming back. I miss you two!”

Sora cradled the bracelet close to his chest. It wasn’t the same as giving Kairi a hug, but at least he could pretend.

---

Silvery screens lit the walls of Riku’s bedroom, their constantly updating lines of text scrolling past. A quick gesture could slow any of them so he could read the data: get a picture of where each represented ship was located, what delays or detours they’d faced or were likely to be forced into, and ultimately how he’d take responsibility for landing them upon arrival in Port Destiny.

Instead, he flicked his fingers in the signal for them to dim further, casting the room into subdued twilight.

He threw himself backwards onto the bed, one knee bent, trying to quiet his head enough to sleep. He already knew it was a losing battle.

Riku gestured toward one of the streams of text, bringing just that screen’s brightness up enough to read.

The ship called Bastion had no passenger manifest—most of the data he received was more concerned with cargo, since it wasn’t like Port Destiny was a tourist destination—but if Kairi was on an incoming ship… it would be that one.

It was a large galleon-style charter ship en route from Radiant Garden to Port Destiny. The only one. It had left Radiant Garden several standardized-days before. If there were any alternatives, they were too small to rate inclusion on the lists he’d been given yet.

Doing quick calculations based on the scroll of data, she’d be here in another week and a half.

If she was coming. If she was keeping her promise. Either possibility ached.

The last time he’d seen her—really seen her, not through the periodic recordings she sent them—she’d been crying.

Just over six years ago, the fanciest ship he’d ever seen came into port. The kind of ship that carried important people and important things, not cargo to be delivered to the surface, or simply transferred to another ship.

They came bearing unbelievable news: Kairi, little foundling Kairi, left alone and abandoned in the port as a little girl, was Important. Her father, the genetic one she’d never known, had been Important.

This meant they were bearing an equally unbelievable offer: Kairi could leave with them, get off the dead-end island, and go to Radiant Garden, to study for six years at their university.

Riku’s family all but owned Port Destiny, and they couldn’t have afforded even a single year of education there. Just getting to Radiant Garden could have been prohibitively expensive. This was an opportunity like no other being extended to Kairi, practically something out of a fairy tale.

And Kairi wanted to say no.

“How could I leave? You and Sora are here. They won’t let me bring you with. We promised we’d leave the island together!” She started to cry, but not because she was sad. She was furious.

“Are you kidding? None of us are going to get off the island. Not like this. You have to go.” And he meant it. Maybe he could get a job down on the surface, but that wasn’t really leaving. But he understood too, because he didn’t want to do even that much if it meant leaving the other two behind.

Sora nodded, even as he scrubbed away his own tears. “You should go. At least one of us can see Radiant Garden! You can tell us what it’s like.”

“Then I’m coming back! Six years? That’s not so long, right? I’ll go. I’ll study, and learn all the things and meet all the people they want me to. But then I’m coming right back here. And if we want to leave, we’ll go together.”

So Riku had promised the same. He’d stay right here, and so would Sora. They’d wait for her. She’d hugged them each goodbye, and whispered in Riku’s ear that she promised.

Riku dimmed the last screen. He’d believed her then. He wanted so badly to still believe her. So he would. He heard the echo of Sora’s words: “You kept yours.”

---

Sora was practically vibrating. He’d spent the entire day waiting, fidgeting and checking the time so frequently that his mom finally waved him away, laughingly telling him to “Just go already!”

It wasn’t difficult to find Riku at the largest dock in the main port. His silvery hair stood out, even compared to some of the more exotic alien species roaming the island.

Riku looked more composed than Sora felt, though Sora recognized his more subtle signs of excitement. He kept tapping one finger restlessly against the data pad, and refreshed the incoming information at least twice as often as he ordinarily would.

“Any update?” Sora asked by way of greeting.

“Less than half an hour,” Riku answered. He tilted the screen toward Sora, though Sora couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Is she for sure on there? Really?”

“Bastion’s voyage started in Radiant Garden. It’s a supply shuttle, but big enough for passengers.”

“And if she’s not?” Sora hated to even entertain the thought. But what if this ship had left too soon for her?

“Then we wait for the next one.” It didn’t sound as light as Riku clearly intended.

Sora retreated to wait along one of the walls, staying out of the way while Riku efficiently dealt with another ship.

Once the ship was on its way to the launch dock, the largest arrivals section was cleared for Bastion. Sora tuned out the announcements of smaller vessels cleared to land at other docks. All his focus was saved for this one.

Twenty minutes of docking procedure later, the ship disgorged its passengers, many clutching paperwork. Port employees ushered them to the booth where they could obtain directions, whether to surface transport or to await a different ship.

Sora frantically looked for a flash of red hair. There weren’t that many passengers; it would be weirder if there had been. But no hint of red among the humans.

Riku swallowed hard, returning his attention to the data pad. He was hiding it, but Sora could see his disappointment. “Disappointment” was putting it too mildly.

Something crashed into him from behind, knocking him into Riku.

“Hey,” Riku started indignantly, regaining his balance and turning around. He froze. “Kairi?”

She briefly tightened her arms around Sora before lunging at Riku, yanking him into his own hug.

“But you weren’t—” Sora gestured helplessly toward the ship, emptied of passengers, crew hustling to unload cargo.

“Of course not. Didn’t you get my last recording?”

At their blank looks, she answered her own question. “Apparently not. I came in on the ship Asteria. Nothing like that galleon.”

“Asteria came in on a different dock,” Riku confirmed. “I didn’t…”

Kairi stepped back and looked at them for a drawn out string of seconds, like she could barely believe they were here.

Sora could sympathize.

She rocked back on her heels, barely stifling a grin. “If you didn’t get my message, then you didn’t hear the best part!”

“Better than you being here?” Riku asked.

“Even better. Asteria is a small ship, nothing fancy. But she’s mine. Which means she’s ours.”

“Your own ship?” Sora echoed.

“Our own ship. Room for three, which means all three of us can go. We can go wherever we want.”

At that she stopped even trying to suppress her grin. She sprang forward, hooking an arm around each of their necks and pulling them close.

Possibilities were already spiraling through Sora’s mind as the three clung tight. Wherever we want…