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“Watch it, you’re coming in too fast!” Sora alerted Riku as they descended through the atmosphere.
“Well someone didn’t teach me how to land until like five minutes ago!” Riku yelled at Sora, although he was more frustrated at himself. How could he have overlooked reading that part of the GummiShip manual? “Maybe we should have practiced first, instead of making my first experience driving a ship involve going through a difficult route?”
“It’s not difficult!”
“According to the maps, yes it is!”
“Well I didn’t think you’d be this bad at it!”
“Well maybe—oof!” Riku grunted, as the ship landed hard on the sandy beach, skidding a small distance and ramming into a palm tree.
“Ugh, Donald’s going to kill me!” Sora complained, rubbing his head slightly. Had he hit it?
“You okay?” Riku hurriedly asked Sora, all frustration dissipating in exchange for worry.
“Yeah I’m fine; it wasn’t that bad of a landing. I’ve done worse,” Sora admitted as the green glow of a cure spell flowed from his hand to the back of his head.
“That’s not exactly comforting…”
“Yo, anyone gonna ask how I am?” the third person in the ship, Lea, asked as he climbed off the floor from behind the pilot and copilot seats. He’d been lying on the side bench seat before the small crash.
“We told you to wear a seatbelt during landing; not our fault you didn’t,” Sora quipped back. “Now, let’s go find Kairi!”
“Wait,” Riku suddenly realized. “Sora, what color are my eyes?”
“Your eyes?” Sora asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, are they still pink?” Riku asked anxiously. They had been before they left, a result of Sora discovering that Riku’s dream-eater powers caused his eyes to reflect his emotions—pink having appeared after their first kiss. Had it really only been a few hours since then?
“Oh, right. No, they’re fine,” Sora informed him.
“You sure?” Riku asked worriedly. If Kairi saw him with pink eyes, and realized why they were so, surely there’d be endless teasing about it; that, or she’d be upset, as Riku was pretty sure Kairi still had a crush on Sora—or was that just misplaced jealousy talking?
Sora narrowed his eyes as he peered into Riku’s. “Wait… What does orange spots mean?”
“Orange… spots?” Riku asked, confused.
“Yeah! Like, lots of little dots in the irises. Bright orange, not the darkness kind,” Sora clarified. “Wait… are you worried? Why are you worried?”
“How do you know it’s worry?” Riku wondered.
Sora shrugged. “I dunno. Like, a gut feeling, I guess. So, why are you worried?”
Riku blushed. “Well, everyone can see my eyes,” Riku explained. “So everyone will know my emotions…” Riku would have to work harder to keep them hidden.
Sora shrugged again. “So?”
“So, I don’t want everyone knowing what I’m feeling!”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Riku looked at Sora deadpan. “I could ask you the same question.” The brunette hiding his negative emotions rather than trying to resolve them had played a huge part in helping Xehanort manipulate Sora during their exam, as darkness thrived on self-doubt and insecure feelings.
Sora cringed. “Right… well, maybe we can figure out a way to stop them from doing that, or change it back quickly. If not, contacts work,” he reasoned.
“I dunno if I want to constantly wear contacts…” Riku trailed, thinking it was too similar to when he blocked his eyes with the blindfold. Logically he knew the two situations were completely different, but still.
“Hey, if you two are done, wanna head out?” Lea interjected.
Riku, followed by Sora and Lea, left the ship and emerged onto the small island off the shore of his town’s main island, the part of the Destiny Islands colloquially called the Play Island.
Riku looked around, nostalgia washing over him. It hadn’t changed much since they’d been gone… which actually had only been about a week, Riku realized, as time worked strangely in the sleeping worlds. To Sora and Riku it had been longer. It was a relief to be back somewhere more familiar and relaxing.
Riku gave a start as a frisbee conked him in the head, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“Ri-kuuuu, you’re supposed to catch it!” Sora sang, hopping over to him. “Whatcha so distracted about? Aren’t you happy to be here?”
“What? Of course I am,” Riku defended.
“Hmmm….” Sora stared into Riku’s eyes, looking contemplative. “So that’s what yellow means?”
“Yellow?”
“Your eyes! Yellow must be happy, or having fun or something,” Sora determined. “Or, nostalgia?” Oh, right. Riku’s eyes… wait, did this mean every single one of his emotions would be on full display to everyone?!
“Aww, they changed back,” Sora said.
“Good; I don’t want my emotions so easily known by everyone!” Riku asserted, then realized something. “Hey, where’d Lea go?”
“Oh, I think he went to find Kairi,” Sora said.
“WHAT?”
“What?”
“Sora, she doesn’t know Lea isn’t Axel and that he’s on our side now!” Riku exclaimed.
“But she knows he sacrificed himself for me,” Sora pointed out.
“Yes. So she thinks he’s dead, Sora. And last time he was here… well, you know what happened.”
“Oh, right, he basically kidnapped her,” Sora recalled. “But didn’t you say that was a misunderstanding? He was trying to protect her from Saïx or something, right?”
“Does Kairi know that?” Riku asked. It had been hard to find time for all three of them to be together during the weeks after they’d returned, due to the general events that occur after two teens return from being ‘runaways’ for two years and Kairi being involved with basically all the sports and extracurriculars she could possibly be (she had intentionally kept extra busy when the two boys hadn’t returned, in order to cope with their absence), so the stories and explanations had mostly been delivered in pieces separately.
“Um… I thought you told her that?” Sora said.
Riku shook his head. “If I did I don’t remember.”
Sora’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit; we gotta go find them then!”
Sora grabbed Riku’s hand and pulled him in the direction of the docks. As they reached the boats, they stopped, as they saw Kairi and Axel—Lea—sharing a boat, already on their way back. Kairi must have realized that Axel was not a threat this time. That, or she had been told about it and the boys forgot.
Kairi jumped out of the boat and immediately tackled Sora and Riku, who had been standing next to each other still holding hands. “You’re home!” she declared excitedly from on top of them.
“Oof. Hey, Kairi,” Riku eked out, the wind knocked from him as he lay on the ground.
Kairi got off of them and sat back on her heels, grinning. “So, how was your big test? You’re both Masters now, right?”
Riku and Sora sat up too. The latter looked away, the dream-link unnecessarily notifying Riku that he was upset, and Riku scrambled for an explanation. He had secretly hoped Lea would have told her.
“Oh,” Kairi said quietly, face falling as she realized. “I’m sorry. Both of you…?”
Riku shook his head.
“Ah. Well, congrats then, Sora!” Kairi cheered, assuming he’d be the one to pass—understandably so, as Sora was technically more experienced.
Sora turned to Kairi and chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head with a hand. “Actually, Kai, Riku’s the one who passed,” he explained. “I, er, fell to darkness and nearly got possessed by Xehanort.”
Kairi took a moment to process that. “Okay, I think you’re going to have to give me a little more detail than that,” she concluded.
Sora groaned. “But I really want to play frisbee!” he whined.
“Well, then, just tell me the general outline for now,” Kairi suggested. “But you can’t just tell your best friend ‘oh yeah, I fell to darkness’ and expect to leave it at that!”
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪
Sora tossed Riku the frisbee, who immediately caught it and tossed it straight to Kairi. The girl paused as she caught it, looking curiously at Riku.
“What’s wrong?” Riku asked in response.
Kairi shook her head. “Nevermind, I probably just imagined it,” she said as she tossed the frisbee to Lea, who missed the catch and ran to chase it.
“Imagined what?” Riku wondered.
Kairi shrugged. “It’s just, I could have sworn I saw you sparkle. But that’s silly; must have been a trick of the sunlight, it’s really bright out today.”
“Yeah, must be,” Riku said, glancing at Sora, who looked momentarily confused before his eyes widened and he grinned knowingly. ‘Oh gods; don’t say anything, don’t say anything’, Riku thought anxiously, attempting to mentally send the thought to Sora. Could dream-eaters do that?
Evidently not. “You know, dream-eaters sparkle when their affection rises,” Sora said, his eyes practically sparkling too.
“Dream-eaters?” Kairi wondered. Right, they hadn’t told her about that part of the Mark of Mastery yet, only given the bare basics… And honestly, Riku didn’t really want to tell her that. It was embarrassing! Especially since Riku now freaking sparkled as a result.
“It’s something having to do with those sleeping worlds,” Riku quickly informed her. “We had creatures that fought by our side, created by these dream-fragment things. When they were happy, they glowed, and the happier they were the better they fought.” Hopefully Sora would let him leave it at that, letting Kairi assume that Sora referencing them was a joke.
Evidently not. “Except for Riku!” Sora gleefully pitched in. “He became one simply by desiring to protect me!”
Riku resisted groaning. “Seriously, Sora?” he whined. Was the brunette going to reveal everything?
“So he probably was actually glowing, if we’re playing with him,” Sora continued despite Riku’s protests. “That’s how we got the dream-eaters happier: petting, feeding, and playing! They were like cute little pets. The main one I used was a cat!”
“Don’t tell her all that!” Riku complained.
“Why not?” Sora wondered.
“It’s embarrassing…”
“It’s just Kairi,” Sora said, turning back to the girl in question. “Anyway, so we tried the petting and feeding earlier, and they worked for Riku, so I guess it all works if the games made him sparkle!”
Riku actually did groan this time. “Seriously? Why are you telling her all this?!”
“Because it’s Kairi,” Sora said simply. “She should know, right? She’s our best friend,” he pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but still…” Riku wasn’t sure how to proceed. Kairi hadn’t said anything yet; would she tease them, find it cute, or be weirded out? Any of them were possible. Would she be able to extrapolate that the two were in love, which is why Riku could become such? And if so, how would she react to that? Riku was pretty sure Kairi still had romantic feelings for Sora, and had hoped they could ease her into that so as not to hurt her too much…
“Riku, that’s awesome!” Kairi declared excitedly, speaking in a rush. “I could tell you had some sort of weird new bond, but to think it’s something like this? Can anyone make you sparkle, or is it just Sora?”
“Um. I don’t know, but I don’t really want to test that out,” Riku said, sure he must be blushing and wondering if his eyes reflected such. And, how had Kairi known about the bond? Was it a Princess-of-Heart thing? Probably.
Kairi nodded, “Right, sorry; wanna leave all the touching to your boyfriend, right?” she said with a wink. Well, guess that saved Riku the trouble of telling her that he and Sora were a couple, as she clearly already knew—had Lea told her?—and answered the question as to how she’d react.
Riku’s face felt like it was on fire. “K-kairi! Don’t say it like that!” he protested, as Sora took the opportunity to reach up and ruffle his hair. Riku resisted the instinct to lean into the touch.
“It’s true though,” Lea teased; he’d returned with the frisbee a little while prior, but had decided to hold the frisbee and observe the conversation until then.
“Even so…”
“It’s okay, I’ll touch you lots,” Sora said gleefully, adding a second hand to Riku’s hair.
“Not here!” Riku declared, dodging away.
“Fine, in our bedroom later then,” Sora stated.
“Bedroom?” Kairi asked, appearing confused.
“Yeah! In the Mysterious Tower! Oh, wait, didn’t we tell you that, Kairi? We’re all going to be doing more keyblade stuff!”
Kairi’s face fell. “Oh. So you’re leaving me again?”
“No!” Riku asserted quickly. “No, you’re coming with us to train too! Er, if you want. Yen Sid said something about you and Lea training with Merlin.”
Kairi’s eyes lit up. “Really?!” Then, she looked confused. “Wait, with Lea?”
“Oh yeah, we didn’t tell you that either,” Lea realized. “I got myself a keyblade, too,” he told her proudly as he summoned it.
“Whoa!” Kairi declared in reaction to the fiery keyblade in front of her. “So cool! Oh, you haven’t seen mine yet, either, right? Here.” Kairi summoned her keyblade, decorated with flowers.
Sora sighed wistfully. “All of your keyblades are so fancy…”
Riku patted Sora on the shoulder. “It’s okay. We can’t all be fancy,” he teased.
“Ri-ku!” Sora whined. “You’re the one who made it, not me!”
Riku shrugged. “Eh, it was a first draft.”
“Then make me a better one,” Sora demanded with a small pout, although he clearly was trying to resist smiling and the link informed Riku that the brunette was just being playful.
“I don’t think it works that way, Sora,” Riku said with a fond chuckle.
“You don’t know that for certain,” Sora accused.
“Well if you want to ask Yen Sid if—”
“No that’s okay!” Sora said hurriedly, a very slight panic briefly washing over him. He didn’t like the wizard very much. “This one’s fine! Besides, I’m happy with anything you give me,” Sora said salaciously, leaning into Riku’s side as he did so. Riku felt his face heat up.
“Hey, if you two are done flirting, maybe we should head back now,” Lea suggested, probably intentionally cutting the conversation off before Sora could get even bolder. “It’s getting late; don’t want to be falling asleep on the way back, considering it’s an eight-hour flight.” It had only been three to get there, but space physics were wonky.
“Oh, okay,” Sora said neutrally, but Riku could easily sense the disappointment behind the veil, link unneeded. “That makes sense. I’ll drive!”
“Nah, let’s play some more,” Riku suggested. “You want to, right, Sora?” Sora, in his attempts to please everyone, often didn’t advocate for what he himself wanted. Riku planned to change that.
“How did you—ah, the link, right?” Sora ventured, then sighed. “That’s going to get annoying…”
“I want to play more too!” Kairi said cheerfully. “Come on, Lea, just a half hour more?” she begged, clasping her hands together and giving doe eyes.
Lea sighed. “Seriously? That’s the same look both Roxas and Naminé used to give me! How can ALL of you have that look down? Except Riku of course… Fine, whatever. What game?”
“Tag!” Sora decided, tapping Lea’s arm before dashing off with the help of wind magic.
“Oh come on, that’s not fair!” Lea called, chasing after Sora at nowhere near the same speed.
Riku chuckled as he watched the scene with affection. Typical Sora. Could he love that boy any more?
Kairi giggled. “Ri-ku, your eyes…” she trailed.
“What about my eyes?” Riku asked, before realizing they’d probably changed color again. Hopefully not to something embarrassing.
“Mmmm… you know what, nevermind,” she said with another giggle before dancing after the others, not waiting for Riku to respond.
“Kairi, wait!” Riku called, then sighed in resignation as he followed, realizing he was doomed to having his feelings forever on display. But, hey—that was a small price to pay for Sora’s safety, and the special bond the two now shared.
Riku wondered what other things they’d eventually discover about his newfound dream-eater status.