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“I should have known this is where I’d find you.”
Kairi sighs, idly tracing her finger in the sand where she sits. “You don’t have to check on me.”
She can hear the smile in Lea’s voice when he sits next to her on the water’s edge. Above them, the sunset paints the sky in a swirl of golds, pinks, purples. Just like the day they'd met, however many lifetimes ago that had been.
“No, but I don’t mind it.”
“They’ll wonder where you went.”
Kairi’s not even sure who exactly she means. Lea seems to have an abundance of people in his orbit lately, barely recognizable as the same man she’d passed those days in the woods with.
“They’ll be fine.”
There’s an unspoken question there, she can feel it.
Are you?
It’s what everyone’s been asking, ever since Riku left to chase after wherever Sora might be. And here she is, alone on the beach, just like last time.
Well, not quite like last time.
“I know they’ll come back,” she whispers, closing her eyes against the break in her voice. “They always do.”
There’s a small splash as Lea tosses a shell into the water.
“It never feels good to be left behind though.”
Fear coils tight in Kairi, leaving her voiceless as she watches Lea wind up to toss another. Sure, she’s thought it once or twice. It’s different to hear the words out loud like this.
“Do you think that’s what they’re doing?”
A shrug. “Not on purpose. But it looks like that’s how it feels.”
“I’m so tired of feeling this way.”
Lea slings an arm around her, pulling her in. He’s a terrible shoulder to cry on, all bones and sharp edges where she leans against him.
At least, for now, he’s here.