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Riku wakes up to Kairi's elbow jabbing him in the gut. Again.
He does take a moment to appreciate the way her hair shines, bathed in the glow of early morning sunbeams, before shifting away out of the Danger Zone(tm), but he can only go so far before he reaches the edge of the bed.
Over Kairi's shoulder, he can see Sora splayed out to take up literally half of the bed. This happens every night, and Riku has yet to devise a solution. But if he's being honest- Kairi might be pointy, but she's also warm, so maybe he doesn't mind waking up like this more often than not.
Kairi jerks in her sleep, nailing him right in the bladder. Riku calmly reminds himself that he loves them, and is careful to step over the creaky floorboards on his way to the bathroom.
Kairi is awake when he returns to climb back into bed, reading some book that she borrowed from Cid about gummi engineering. He scooches right up next to her, resting his chin on her shoulder to read a little himself. It's totally incomprehensible to him; this is why he prefers boats. Or rafts. He has a pretty decent amount of experience building those.
Sora eventually begins to stir next to them, stretching dramatically and letting out a huge yawn before he's even opened his eyes. Kairi smiles fondly at the display, and reaches over to ruffle his hair. He leans into it like a cat. Riku is so, so lucky- but is it luck, if he had to fight tooth and nail just to have this? Just for all three of them to even be here, together, let alone like this? Maybe some people would call that a reward. Maybe it's both.
"Good morning," Sora says, eyes bright as he looks up at them.
"Morning," Riku replies, his heart full to bursting.
It's over breakfast that Sora suggests it.
"It's been a while since we've seen everyone, you know?" He's saying as he pops his eggs yolks with his fork. "I guess I just wanna check in and see how everybody's doing. Texting over the gummiphone just isn't the same."
"Sounds fun." Kairi has to speak around the bacon in her mouth before she tips her head back and, by all appearances, swallows it whole. How does she do that? "Where do you wanna go first?"
Sora looks up with a whole slice of toast hanging out of his mouth, so Riku takes it upon himself to answer. "How about Twilight Town?"
"Mmphhg!" Says Sora, nodding enthusiastically and spraying bread crumbs everywhere. Riku's never understood why Kairi and Sora eat every single meal like they're starving, but it sure does seem to save them a lot of time. Even still, he takes his time with his breakfast - if he's going to cook it, he's going to enjoy it.
Okay, he's being unfair. Savouring something isn't the only way to enjoy it. He can't expect Kairi and Sora to appreciate things the same way he does. Even if he doesn't get it, he can't begrudge them for wanting to take it all in as quickly as possible. That's a form of hedonism, right?
Kairi presses her hand over his on the table, her thumb rubbing lightly on the back of it. He tries not to be too obvious about how soft it makes him feel, but who is he kidding? She smiles back at him.
"Okay!" Sora cheers. "Let's get ready and go!"
Riku blinks, looking down at Kairi and Sora's empty plates, and then over to his, still half full. Maybe he should pick up the pace.
Twilight Town is different than he remembers.
Admittedly, Riku's only seen the place during his few trips to the fake Twilight Town, but he had still expected it to be more or less the same, with the addition of a couple ex-Organisation members.
Market Street is absolutely packed with people, and there are mile-long queues outside the bistro that Sora had told them about. Nothing like the empty town that Riku had encountered before - though, perhaps that's to be expected. That a real, alive world would have more going on than a digital replica created entirely for the benefit of one boy.
Sora says that last he heard, Hayner and Olette were doing odd jobs for some guy called Scrooge McDuck, who might know where to find them.
"I'll just run in and ask! I wanted to introduce you guys to Little Chef, but they seem pretty busy, so maybe later?" And then he runs inside.
Riku looks over to Kairi. "Little Chef?"
She shrugs. "I don't know any more than you do."
He sucks a breath through his teeth and leans against a wall to wait. "He's been on quite a few adventures without us, huh?"
She looks at him, almost a little oddly. "I could say the same to you."
He considers; "yeah. Sorry for leaving you behind all those times."
Kairi laughs. "It's okay. You're stuck with me now."
"Good. You shouldn't have to be alone."
"I've never been alone, Riku. You guys are always in my heart, remember?"
He huffs. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah." She grabs his hand gingerly with her own. "I do."
He smiles at her - even after all this time he occasionally still finds it difficult, with Sora; wanting something he doesn't feel like he should be allowed to want. But Kairi makes it easy. She always has.
Sora bounds out of the bistro and makes a beeline straight for them. "Okay, they should be at the old mansion! Did I miss anything?"
"Not really," Riku says, and holds out his other hand. "To the mansion?"
Sora grins and takes it, dragging them around the corner to an underground tunnel that Riku doesn't remember being there before.
"What's at the mansion?" Kairi asks. "I thought that place was supposed to be completely run down?"
"I don't know! Apparently they're working on some project? I'm sure they'll tell us when we get there."
The tunnel isn't long, and neither is the small section of woods leading up to the mansion, which still looks just as abandoned as Riku had expected.
"Whoa, it's huge," gasps Kairi. "Who would abandon this place?"
Riku had never even stopped to consider that before. "I don't know," he says, thinking. "Maybe someone in town would know?"
"Come on!" Sora calls, from where he's already pushing the door open. "We're already here, let's just ask Hayner! He's pretty smart."
Sora stops abruptly, two steps inside. "Wait... Something's different," he says, staring at the room in front of them.
"Right?" agrees Riku, but he can't put his finger on what exactly it is. It's the same layout, nothing's moved, except...
"It used to be a total mess in here," Sora concludes.
"They must have cleaned it up," Riku supplies.
"Okay, but where are they now?" Kairi asks.
Sora looks at all the exits. "Maybe with the computer? Through that way."
Riku and Kairi follow his lead.
Hayner and Olette can be heard squabbling before they even enter the room.
"You're doing it wrong!" Olette accuses, playful as usual.
"I'm doing it-? No, you're supposed to put it together- like- this-" Hayner, as always quick to rile, grunts with the effort of whatever he's doing. A great crash resounds through the mansion.
Sora rushes into the room, and Riku and Kairi are hot on his heels.
Hayner has collapsed on the floor, a chair seemingly gone down with him. Gummi blocks are strewn around the room.
"Sora?" Hayner says, lifting his head from the ground.
"Sora?" Olette questions, turning from where she'd been about to help Hayner up.
"Sora!" Pence yells, spinning in his chair to face away from the computer.
"Hey guys." Sora scratches the back of his neck, a nervous habit he's had since they were kids. Riku's always thought it was cute.
"Riku and I are here too!" Kairi says, leaning past him to wave. Olette gasps, waving eagerly. Riku lifts a hand, to be polite.
"I am so glad you guys are here," Pence says, making his way over. "We've been trying to figure this out all day, but none of us can agree on how it's supposed to go."
Hayner has by now gotten bored of waiting for Olette's assistance, and has climbed to his feet on his own. "More like you guys can't agree that I'm right," he says, in signature Hayner style.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Sora asks, not having yet put two and two together.
"Oh!" Olette says, clearly excited. "We forgot to say. We're building a gummi ship."
"Well, Pence has done most of the work so far," Hayner cuts in.
Kairi is already at the computer, looking at what Pence had been working on. "Are these your blueprints? Cool! It's really smart to have two gunner positions, especially if all three of you will be flying it!"
Pence is blushing brightly, but clearly pleased at the praise. "Thanks. But it's the actual mechanics part of it that's giving us trouble. Gummi is such a weird material to work with - I've never seen anything like it before."
Sora laughs. "Yeah, this isn't exactly our forte either. What do you say, Kairi? Can you help them out?"
Kairi looks up. "What? Me?" She is so cute, with her head cocked to the side, disbelieving like that.
"Yeah, you've been reading up on it, right? You know a lot more than Sora or me at this point," Riku finds himself saying.
"I... I mean I can take a look? But I'm still a beginner too!"
"That's totally fine!" Olette assures. "Just anything you could tell us would be helpful. We know that the gummis bind together, but some of them seem to have... like, an anti-agent? And we've been wondering-"
"Oh!" Kairi lights up like the sun. "I know this!"
Riku finds himself standing at the back of the room with Sora, while Kairi works animatedly with the group.
"She's incredible," he hears himself say - it just slips out, but he wouldn't dream of taking it back.
"I know," Sora responds, seemingly unable to take his eyes off her.
"This was a really good idea," Riku tells him. "Coming out here. How did you know?"
"Huh?" Sora turns to him. "I didn't. I just wanted to." Oh. Hedonism at it's finest.
Riku places his hand tentatively over Sora's, where it rests on the wall - Sora doesn't hesitate to reciprocate, clasping his hand tightly. It's warm; like home.
"I'm gonna kiss her face off," Sora comments, and Riku can't contain his laughter.