Not Quite Alone [Kingdom Hearts, Sora/Riku/Kairi, G]

[kawaiigami.livejournal.com]

Title: Not Quite Alone
Author: kawaiigami
Rating: G
Warnings: None at all! Feel free to read anywhere.
Word Count: 534
Summary: Riku didn't count on Sora and Kairi finding him
Prompt: June 12--Kingdom Hearts - Sora/Riku/Kairi - reunion/comfort - "there was a darkness, call it solitude or blank desertion"
A/N: Much thanks to syvia for the beta! XD

Riku was used to being alone.

Well, not totally alone. Even beaten, Xehanort was still a constant presence buried deep in his heart, strong enough that he’d left the King to deal with it in his own way. Deserting his friend so Xehanort couldn’t hurt anyone else.

His darkness was his own, though, and what he’d called on to beat Roxas hadn’t been the darkness that came from being so desperate to achieve a goal (whether leaving the world you were familiar with or recovering your memories) that it blinded you to the consequences. No, it had been darkness that came from spending a year by himself, knowing what he’d done and how it had hurt those who he’d have died to protect. He was reminded of it every time he went to see Sora, asleep in that stupid capsule with only dreams for company, or thought about Kairi and wondered how she was getting along without her two best friends.

He’d wanted to be waiting there for Sora when the dork woke up, wanted to go back to the islands and see that Kairi really was safe. But not as tainted with darkness as he was. So he waited, helping from the sidelines. He got used to that.

So it shouldn’t have been so hard to walk away, now that he’d brought Kari to Sora. The hero could save the princess and they’d live happily ever after. He moves too slowly though, and Kairi (who never had liked playing the helpless princess that waited for her knights to rescue her, now that he thought about it) catches up to him. He should have been able to break her grip, get away before Sora responded to her plea to say something. For some reason that holds him there, even though they’ve only got him by the hand and he should have already left. He starts to pull away and then...

And then Sora realizes that Riku’s here and his grip on Riku’s hand tightens and the idiot’s crying even though he knows Riku hates it when he does that. Riku feels himself almost shift back on instinct; Sora’s always looked to him to be the one to say that everything was okay, and in that moment him looking like Xehanort seemed like the most glaring sign that everything was definitely not okay.

He catches himself in time. Finds a spark of doubt in his heart that tells him that this can’t really be happening. It’s too easy, Sora and Kairi accepting him like this--it’s all a dream, he’ll wake up back in the old mansion with Sora still asleep in the pod. He holds on to that, puts it with the rest of the self-doubt he’s built up over a year of solitude. Because everything’s not okay, and he’d be even a bigger idiot than Sora if he tried to pretend it was.

So, glad that the other two have their eyes closed and can’t see the play of emotions across his face, he takes a (quiet) deep breath, and tells Sora to get it together.

Comments

[ldyavalon.livejournal.com]

Oh, Riku, you big DORK. Sora and Kairi should spank you with their keyblades :P

Beautiful little scene <3

[kawaiigami.livejournal.com]

He really is! I'd say "tackle him and tickle him until he cheers up" but, to each their own. XD

Thank you~ &hearts

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

He seriously needs hugs. And noogies. *wibbles quietly*

[kawaiigami.livejournal.com]

Agreed on both counts. *is happy to have inspired wibbling*

[xovanillabean.livejournal.com]

I haven't read a Sora/Riku/Kairi friendship fic in a long time, and I forgot how much I love them. This was just AMAZING. ♥ I loved how you wrote the scene between them and, to me, this is probably exactly what he was thinking at the time. So in character and so well written.

I love this. ♥ And I just wanna go hug Riku for his silly, silly thoughts. ;)

[kawaiigami.livejournal.com]

They are such an OT3 of mine, as friends and elsewise. *loves all of them* The "reunion" part of the prompt made this kind of an obvious choice to me--glad you liked this take on the scene. Thank you, too, for the lovely compliments. &hearts I'm glad they were in character.

Glad you enjoyed it~ XD Agreed, Riku needs lots of hugs. :3