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It started, with all things, a loose floorboard.
It was easily overlooked, something that had to be stepped on at the exact spot to even make a peep. During their inspection of the house, neither Riku or Sora heard it. Kairi, who’d been in charge of surveying the upstairs, never even stepped into the hallway it was located in. Once the lease was signed and everything was finalized, the trio were so focused on moving in that the thought of any imperfections could be placed on the back burner.
Living together was good. Easy. The three of them had been attached at the hips since they were little. Moving in together had just seemed like the next logical thing to do. They’d already done everything else - shared hearts, fought Darkness together, saved the Worlds a few times - so living together seemed pretty blase compared to their regular adventures. The only thing left was marriage (which wouldn’t happen at least until Kairi and Sora passed the age of 19).
Their routine was simple - Sora, ever the morning person and always the first one awake, would make breakfast. Riku, whose sleep schedule could be hit or miss depending on the traumatic nightmares he suffered from, would do the morning chores like cleaning or laundry. Kairi, who insisted on still going to school (because, no guys , fighting Heartless does not keep the lights on!) would make dinner after her classes. Rinse. Repeat. Only minimal disruptions in the form of rogue monsters or King Mickey needing a quick favor.
It was peaceful.
Until it wasn’t.
It started with a loose floorboard. It was nighttime, close to Sora’s proclaimed bed time, when they’d heard it.
Squeak.
Sora paused from going up the stairs, barely jostling when Kairi ran into his back. He frowned and tilted his head to the side, wondering if he just imagined it.
Squeak.
“Is that a mouse?” Sora asked, turning his head. He squinted down at the dark hallway leading to the garage. Riku, at the end of the three, rolled his eyes.
“Why, scared?” Riku teased.
Creeeeeeak-squeak.
Kairi blinked rapidly. Sora paled.
“I knew it,” Sora whispered in a hurried tone. Kairi looked between the two, confused as Riku groaned and rubbed his forehead. “It was too cheap for a reason!”
“What reason? Also, I’m pretty sure it was only so cheap because King Mickey pulled a few strings. Apparently the landlady, Maribelle, was an old friend.” Kairi nudged at Sora, wanting them to move. The stairwell was narrow and with Sora’s muscular figure blocking her front and Riku’s boulder-like body behind, she was stuck.
“I don’t want to hear it again,” Riku exhaled as he reached around Kairi to force Sora forward and up the steps. “We’re not talking about this.”
“What’s this ?” Kairi asked as she wiggled her way around Sora and skipped up the last four steps. “What did I miss?”
“This goof thinks the place is haunted,” Riku said as they finally made their way to their shared bedroom. “Says stuff gets misplaced. I told him he’s just forgetful or you move it during your weekend cleaning.”
“But how could my light-saber charm get all the way behind the basement washing machine?” Sora argued. “That seems like malicious intent!”
“Or it broke off of your pants when you put them in the wash,” Riku countered. Kairi snorted, wasting no time in changing into a pair of soft shorts and one of the boys’ shirts - one of Riku’s that shrunk to fit Sora before Kairi got her grubby little hands on it. Riku followed suit, always one to wear sweats and hoodies to bed. Sora, the human equivalent of the sun in demeanor and body-heat, tended to only sleep in a tank and shorts.
“But that sound! It sounded like a door opening,” Sora fretted as he pulled back the comforter of his side of the bed. Riku plopped down in the middle, sandwiching himself between the two shorter bundles of joy and sunshine and all that is light.
“It sounded like the wind,” Riku argued. “This is an old building - I’m actually surprised we’re only just now hearing stuff groaning and moaning.”
“I don’t know,” Kairi said as she crossed her arms on Riku’s check and laid her chin against them. “I’m thinking ghosts.”
Only Riku saw the glint in Kairi’s eyes.
“You think so too?” Sora whined. Riku rolled his eyes.
“You literally fight shadow monsters. How is a dead person scarier?” Riku reached out and tugged on Sora’s ear, making the younger man whine and swat at him.
“I can cut Heartless with my Keyblade!” Sora said, chest puffing out before deflating. “But I can’t do that with my Keyblade. Believe me, I tried in that Haunted Mansion World.”
Riku shuddered at the memory of the short-visited World. It was one of those favors King Mickey asked of them. They were gone for 12 hours and when they came back, the two were covered in bright green goo.
To this day, Kairi still didn’t know all the details.
“Just use the power of Light and Friendship!” Kairi teased, poking her tongue out childishly when Sora bopped her on the nose.
“Haha, very funny,” Sora griped.
Creeeak-squeak.
The color drained from Sora’s face and his head snapped to their closed bedroom door. Riku rolled his eyes again while Kairi sat up.
“Want to be the little spoon?” Kairi asked, frowning at the visible expression of terror on Sora’s face. She didn’t understand his aversion to spirits - technically Heartless and Nobodies could arguably be dubbed so, but Sora never had issues with them. Maybe it was a transparency thing? Either way, she wasn’t enjoying his fearful eyes.
“Yes,” Sora forced out. Riku heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. Kairi felt he was going to be doing that a lot.
Maybe Sora was on to something. Kairi pursed her lips, hands planted firmly on her hips as she surveyed the bathroom counter top. She’d literally just put down her lipstick - where could it have gone in maybe the span of five seconds?
“Riku,” Kairi called down the hall, “can you come here?”
A perk about traveling to different worlds and collecting munny was that the conversion rate was whack and ended up making Sora someone even Scrooge McDuck was jealous of. As such, the trio didn’t need to have jobs. With that being the case, Riku usually just mingled around the house until one of the two called for him to do some menial task before going back to mulling over Darkness or fist-fighting Pete (or so Kairi liked to believe).
Riku walked up the stairs, hair tied back by one of Kairi’s headbands and notably stretching out one of Sora’s shirts. He raised an eyebrow at Kairi, who gestured vaguely to the bathroom.
“My lipstick went missing,” Kairi said and when Riku didn’t catch on, she added, “and I literally just had it. I think Sora’s right. I think this place might be haunted.”
“By what?” Riku crossed his arms and leaned against the door-frame. “Spooky, scary skeletons? Com’on Kairi, not you too. You know this place isn’t haunted.”
“They could have followed you guys back after you visited Jack and Sally,” Kairi pointed out. “Can’t you, I don’t know, sense their dark energy?”
Riku stared at Kairi, shoulders slumping when her unwavering gaze began to intimidate him. He exhaled loudly and closed his eyes, concentrating. Kairi watched.
For about seven seconds, there was silence. Then Riku’s eyes snapped open and he frowned.
“Oh no,” he said and Kairi leaned forward, eyes wide, “it’s horrible.”
“What is it?” Kairi whispered, worrying at her bottom lip. Meeting her gaze, Riku looked grim.
“Clutter.” He stepped into the bathroom and pushed aside a few of Kairi’s makeup pouches, revealing her toppled over lipstick. Kairi’s cheeks slowly began to match Lea’s hair color.
“I thought you were supposed to carry the brain cell,” he teased and ruffled her hair, stepping out of the bathroom.
“I still do!” Kairi called back. Downstairs, they could hear Sora singing songs he’d learned from Atlantica.
“Sora,” Riku said slowly, with feeling, “it’s the floorboard.”
“It’s a demon here to devour our soul and replace us with doople-gangers,” Sora argued.
“That’s like three different horror plots put together,” Kairi pointed out and crouched down, putting pressure on the floorboard with her hand. It squeaked. “Huh. It’s loose.”
“That’s what the demons want you to think!” Sora said, halfway up the stairs and peering at the two in the hallway from behind the stair railing.
“I’ve literally been the actual embodiment of evil and darkness,” Riku countered. “I doubt that any demons would want to live in a house with me.”
“And me and you are like the pure sunshine children that demons fear,” Kairi said with a wide beaming smile towards Sora. “Just our existence would make any demon scared!”
“...well, when you put it that way…” Sora slowly descended from the staircase and made his way over. “I can fix this.”
“You can’t use Heal on inanimate objects,” Kairi said and quickly added, “and no, you cannot animate the floorboards first. Fantasia ruined you.”
“That was one of my favorite Worlds!” Sora whined.
Riku chuckled.