Chapter Text
Sora and Riku have been practically attached at the hip from a young age. Where one went the other was sure to follow. Riku, being the older of the two, often found himself leading the charge with Sora trailing not far behind. The two often told themselves stories of the future, one they could share together. Nothing could come between them.
Riku was over at Sora’s house one night when he declared to both their parents that he and Sora would marry each other. Of course their parents laughed it off, it was just like the two boys to make a joke like that. Sora held the brightest smile that night.
Later when both were tucked in bed Sora quietly asked Riku if he truly meant it. Riku took Sora's hand and interlocked their pinkies and promised under the the brilliant night sky,
“One day when I'm strong enough I'll show you the outside world. We'll be married and have a happy ever after like everyone in the stories do.”.
When the boys were still young there was a new arrival to the island. A sight rarely seen. A girl had shown up on the shore of the play island. Something about that girl caught Sora’s attention. It wasn't as if he had never seen a girl before, Sylphie often came to play with her friends Waka and Tidus, but this girl was new. When asked, she would avoid talking about her parents and couldn’t remember where she came from. This didn't matter to Sora, the girl was quickly pulled along into the now trios games.
At first Riku thought nothing of this. It wasn't unlike Sora to go off and make everyone his friend. Sora had once tried to make friends with the fish who swam near the shore. Sora had come crying back to Riku when all the fish had swam away leaving the poor boy alone. Riku had to remind himself of this memory every time he saw the two playing without him.
One day it was just building a sand castle, another gazing up into the sky and picking out their favorite clouds and what they looked like. Riku was not bothered by these interactions, he was sure of it.
It wasn't long after that Riku found himself left out of many of the activities the two shared. Riku still wasn't bothered.
He wasn't.
Riku had woken up early that morning, rising even before his parents. As every day before this one Riku rushed out of his house, if he was just a bit older he would have left a note to his parents about where he was going, but for the young boy there was only one place he could be.
Sora's house was small and only needed two bedrooms and a combined kitchen and living room, but to make up for the lack of size, the foliage grew high. Sora's window just happened to be right next to a decently sized palm tree. Riku and Sora had climbed this tree for years trying to sneak back inside after nightly trips walking down the shore. Halfway up, Riku leaned over and knocked quietly on the window. The younger loved to sleep in, but whenever Riku came to his window he would shoot up from his sleep almost automatically like his body knew who was there. This night happened to be different.
Three separate times Riku knocked on Sora's window to no answer. To say he was worried would be an understatement. Sora's blinds were only half shut and as Riku peered into the cluttered mess of a room the younger had he could find the boy. Sora' was almost never up this early and when he was he was always with Riku. Carefully the older boy slid down the tree trying for the life of him to think about where Sora could be. His only idea was the play island. But why would he be there so early in the morning?
Riku ran down the dirt road to the old bridge that connected the two islands. After Sora turned ten he was finally trusted enough to go by boat like the rest of the kids. After that no one used the bridge and slowly it began to fall apart. The wood could be seen rotting away. Some of the boards had cracked and fell into the water below. Even Riku was unnerved when he stepped on. The last thing he wanted was to fall in. Help wouldnt come for at least an hour.
Once Riku was able to get his feet back on the solid enough sand of the beach he broke out into a sprint.
'Where is Sora?'
'He can't be too far.'
'Why didn't he wait for me?'
The search was fruitless, no matter where he searched the Sora was nowhere to be seen. the room up in the trees, the ship always docked on the shore, the plateau that the two always fought at, Sora just wasn't there. Riku' last hope was the secret place. It was a small cave hidden near the waterfall. Sora and him hadn't been back there for years. The boys would often draw on the walls using the stones littering the floor, often giving light to stories they heard or dreams they had. The sun was starting to climb higher and higher in the sky, Sora had to be here.
walking down the short tunnel of the cave to reach its deepest part Riku started to hear the sound of rocks scraping the walls and two voices laughing. The cave used to seem so big when he was younger. if he fully extended his arms no matter which way he turned they would reach the walls, but now it seems like they were shrinking.
Sora and Kairi sat side by side in front of a new drawing on the wall. It was a simple illustration, you could tell from a glance who did what. Both of their heads facing each other with a Paupo shared between them. The two looked happy at their work, Kairi basically leaning her whole body onto Sora laughing. Riku could feel his grip tighten, nails scratching the rock. He had enough and ran out of the cave, out of the secret place. His vision started to blur with tears. no one could see him like this. Riku was strong, he was a man. men don't cry.
Riku didnt think about where he was going, just that he needed to get away. It wasn't long before the boy found himself at the bent paupo tree the trio often sat at to watch the sunset. Oddly enough the sun was at its highest point and he was alone. In his peripheral vision Riku could see the toy swords his dad had made for him and Sora. The two were in such a rush to get home yesterday that they hadn't put them back in the seaside shack. He bent down to pick up his sword, it was bigger than Sora's and less damaged too. His name was carved into the handle with big and bold lettering. Back when they first got them Sora insisted that they put their names on them so they wouldn't get mixed up, Riku argued that since they were essentially the same thing it didn't matter. Later that day Sora reached over and carved Riku's name on the sword for him. It was a good memory, but it only made Riku's heart hurt more. He couldn't understand why.
Giving the sword a few good swings Riku turned off his brain and let muscle memory take over. Training allowed him to get stronger. He has to get stronger to protect what matters. It wouldn't be too long before the younger two would wander over to find him.
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Swing
Chop
Swing
Chop
Riku pushed on the now broken in tree and watched as it toppled to the ground. He was alone chopping down the tree his friends promised to help him with, Sora was more than likely laying in the sand for his midday cat nap with Kairi not too far behind. He'd have to reprimand the youngest for sleeping on the job. If they all wanted to get off the island then they all had to work for it. Riku lifted the axe a few more times to break up the tree into more manageable pieces.
Reaching down, Riku lifted a log under each of his arms. He shouldn't help but stop for a second and bathe in the feeling, he was strong. Strong enough to protect all three of them. Years he spent watching the shoreline. He can't remember when the longing started, but he remembers something like a dream. A man in brown with a key. He made a promise then to protect what matters.
It didn't take long for Riku to reach the other side of the island. Waka and Tidus going at each other, the loud spack of the taller’s blitzball hitting Tidus in the face could surely be heard on the main island. Sylvie was creaking up as she sat on the dock. She took a moment and then stood up and made her way to her friends, Tidus was already up and raring to go as if nothing happened. That left Sora and Kairi.
He wasn't wrong when he had thought of Sora laying on the beach not helping with the construction. Riku could hardly get mad at him, Sora has been like this since the first day they met. It seems that Kairi had woken him up not too long ago too, sand still stuck on the back of his brown spiky hair. Riku wished he could go over there and card his fingers through his hair, but he couldn't, he reminded himself. Sora was with Kairi and so Riku kept his distance.
As he got closer to the two he started to hear bits and pieces of their conversation.
“Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like?” Sora looked at Kairi curiously as if they hadn't been over this question a million times since she first appeared on the island. “You know, where you grew up.”
Kairi gave Sora a knowing stare. “I've told you before, I don't remember.”
“Nothing at all?” Sora leaned in a bit more.
“Nothing.” she looked away, shaking her head.
“Do you ever want to go back?”
Riku sped up his pace and just before Kairi could respond he let go of one of the logs he was carrying, letting it drop onto Sora’s chest. “Aren't you guys forgetting about me?” He knew they would, they always do. “So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft.”
Kairi let her head back and laughed as Sora struggled to lift the log when Riku had been carrying both of them like it was nothing. “And you're just as lazy as he is!”
Kairi smiled at Riku as she stood up to wipe the sand from her legs. “So you noticed. Okay, okay, let's go back and finish up.” Kairi paused in thought, “How about we make it up to you Riku! Let's race back.”
Sora shot up beaming with energy, he and Riku could never turn down a race. The two boys lined up with Kairi behind them, “Ready? Go!”
All three start running, at the start Sora and Riku are neck and neck but it doesn't take long for Riku to quickly take first. Kairi as usual hand back laughing all the way. She liked seeing her friends happy like this, something in her sensed that these coming days would be some of the last for a very long time. Her heart ached, but she couldn't understand why.
Riku, Sora and lastly Kairi all made it to the raft. “That was 1-4” Sora weakly held up his fingers, still very out of breath.
“It's only 1-4, I let you win last time.” Riku leaned over and flicked Sora on the forehead. Sora hissed and rubbed at the sore spot.
“I won that fair and square!” Sora stuck his chin out at Riku.
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Did not!
“Did too!”
“Did no-”
“All right!” Kairi put her foot down, if she didn't stop this now they would ultimately rush to bring out their wooden swords and nothing on the raft would get done. She might have been slacking earlier, but that didn't mean she didn't want to explore the world beyond the sea.
The two boys may have stopped arguing with their words, but both gave each other a good long glare. Kairi could only let out a sigh. It's just like boys to hold a grudge.
Kairi turned to face the youngest, “Sora you still need to get all of your materials. I can't start without most of them.”
Sora looked at her apologetically “Can you remind me what I need to get, I uh, forgot?” Both Kairi and Riku shared a look. Neither of them could really fault him, it was just like Sora to completely forget what he needed to do.
Riku looked at Sora intensely as if to you ‘you better remember this’. They all knew he wouldn’t. “You need to find pick up the two logs we left, Rope and-”
“A big cloth for the sail!” Kairi stepped in front of Riku, “Make sure to get it first, I need it to start my part of the raft.”
“Got it, two logs, some rope and a big cloth.” Sora started to bounce on his feet already raring to go and find his items. “I’ll get everything and be back before you could even say paupo!” and with that he was off
Riku and Kairi both let their shoulders drop and a smile on their lips. Neither could deny their love for Sora, even with having to put up with all his energy from time to time. Whenever Sora was with the two he always made sure to keep a conversation going. He never liked when there was a long pause of silence. But with Sora gone Kairi and Riku often stayed in silence. The two didn't hate each other, quite the opposite. Both cared for each other, but if not for Sora they would have drifted apart long ago.
Riku sat along the edge of the ‘Highwind’, he’d already named the raft in his head, it was like a baby to him. Reaching beside him he grabbed an already split log and a knife to whittle down the wood. They still needed two oars to control the raft, this was gonna take all day. Slowly, little by little the oar started to take shape, first the handle, thick enough to comfortably fit in his hand but not big enough to lose his grip in a storm.
Sora had come up to Kairi during the day to drop off the items he collected, the two logs would go to support the sail, the rope to tie it up and of course to cloth to be said sail. Right now Kairi and Sora were working together to tie the sail onto the supports. Riku has finished the first oar, he’ll have to work on the other one throughout the night. The other two wouldn't like that he was staying up so late, but what they didn't know wouldn't kill them. The sun was starting to creep closer and closer to the horizon, it was almost time for them to watch the sunset like they always do. He could already tell the younger two were itching to go even without turning to face them.
“Let's get going, the sun's already setting.” Riku is sure they didn't hear the last part, already running off to the small offshoot of land.