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It was night when their gummi ship touched down on the shore of the Play Island, the three of them walking out onto the sand in a quiet, single file.
It was over, the war had been won, the worlds saved, Xehanort defeated for good. And here they were, home again. And they were quiet, and tired, and still trying to swallow around the knowledge that they had come out the other side of a cosmic war alive. Maybe not completely in one piece, though, seeing as Sora and Kairi were still rubbing at their chests long after Namine, Roxas, Ventus, and Xion had been freed.
Riku just drops down on the sand without ceremony. He’s tired. His bones feel like they’d been put through a taffy machine and even the potency of an elixir couldn’t completely erase the ache of exhaustion from his muscles. Too much magic, too much adrenaline, too many near misses involving a keyblade and Sora’s neck or a claymore and Kairi’s spine. A Dark Barrier that was almost a quarter second too late to protect his stomach from a massive, shadowy fist.
Maybe tomorrow they’d have the energy to be happy, or have the strength to actually sit down and process it all and start to wrap their heads around the question of what next? that was already hovering over them. Riku would not stay on the islands forever. Sora would not stay away from all his friends forever, and Kairi had a family and history she was just starting to understand in Radiant Garden.
And the heartless weren’t going to go away, not so long as darkness lingered in people’s hearts.
But that could all wait, especially when Kairi pulls at jackets and sleeves and they all tumble backwards into the sand, a twisting pile of limbs that settles into the soft rush of the tide coming ashore, and the quieter sound of breathing and heartbeats. And Sora is holding them both tight, tight, tight like he’s afraid to let go and Kairi’s fingers are digging into their backs because she can’t get her arms around them both and Riku’s just letting himself sink into that space and that need to be as close as possible to the both of them.
All of Sora’s sunshine brightness, evenly threaded with the darkness he faced, owned to, and conquered. All of Kairi’s wildfire brilliance that she learned to bring to heel before it burned her and everything else around her to cinders. And Riku’s hard-won balance of bright and dark, tempered and strong. For a long, quiet time, they reveled in the simple happiness of each other, whole and alive.
And then Sora sneezed.
“Uuuugghgh, Sora!” Kairi moaned. “Gross!”
“Sorry, sand got in my nose!”
Riku was too horrified to say much, instead he peeled away from his boyfriend and girlfriend and lifted a hunk of hair away from his head like it was poisonous. “Im going to go wash my hair out.”
“Not in the waterfall, you’ll contaminate it!”
“It was just a dust sneeze, I’m not sick!” Sora whines, and rolls over to pin Kairi back on the sand with an arm and a leg thrown over her so he can snuggle back up against her and keep listening to her heartbeat. Karma for insinuating he was contagious… or contaminated. Whatever.
One hand comes up to card through Sora’s thick spikes as her head turns to watch Riku stroll down to the surf and scrub seawater through his hair. The moon was starting to touch down towards the horizon, which meant the hour was still too late to get up and actually go home and sleep in actual beds like they’d been instructed to. They had time before even the fishing boats would be out to trawl the channels. Which was fine by her, they probably needed this buffer to just… rest. Because when they got home, there’d be a lot of explaining to do. Parents to reassure, friends to soothe and probably half the island itching for some gossip.
So right now, the calm was pretty welcome.
But Riku also looked so very pretty in the moonlight like that.
She nudges Sora’s side with her hand, and tips her chin towards him. His eyes follow and the both of them enjoy watching him flip his hair back and forth to wring out the water. And in a heartbeat, they looked at each other and back at him before Sora carefully rose to his feet and started shedding his jacket and gloves. Kairi followed suit and there was a very quickly shed pile of clothes up and out of the way of the tide before the both of them broke into a dead run and tackled their boyfriend into an on-coming wave.
Riku sputtered, shouted, was shoved back under as they dragged him deeper into the water. He came back up again, cursing vividly, and throwing both of them away.
“Thanks,” he snarks at them, standing up to his hips in the water, slouching and his hair plastered over his eyes. Still ridiculously pretty. “My clothes are soaked.”
“Oh no, its going to take hours to dry them!” Not like they had magic, or that Sora had wheedled a few domestic spells out of Donald and the Good Faeries. Because his clothes might not stain or get dirty, the same didn’t extend to things like socks and underwear and the gummi ship didn’t have a laundry room. Riku just blows his hair out of his face before diving under. A few minutes later, he surfaces and hurls the wad of his soaked clothes back on the beach.
“Better!” Sora declares before diving on him and picking up their splash fight right where it left off. Kairi treads water and laughs as they jockey for footing in the mushy sand while trying to trip each other at the same time. A frothy wave comes through and they both get mouthfuls of salt before they notice Kairi watching them. What? They both didn’t have shirts on!
“Hey, Sora, I think Kairi’s slacking.”
“Yeah! I mean, as the resident keyblade masters, its our job to make sure the newbies don’t get lazy!”
“You mean resident keyblade dorks.” Both boys turn and look at each other, before bursting into grins and dunk her under.
“You should respect a keyblade master, Kairi!” Sora crows as she slips out from under their hands and deeper into the water. Riku barely senses her draw her keyblade before the Aeroga bursts up from underneath them and sends both boys flying through the air, arms and legs windmilling like a pair of startled fish.
“Well I’m a princess, and princess clearly outranks a bunch of dorky keyblade masters!”
“Does not! Riku, back me up here!”
“I dunno, she has a point…”
“Riku, since you recognize my authority, I order you to throw Sora into that wave!”
“Hey, no! Riku! Don-- aaaaahh!”
---
They splashed and laughed until that burst of energy played out and they were treading water in the quiet. The moon was down, and it was the dead hours before sunrise, and nothing could hide the mill of stars burning against the velvet dark. A thousand stars would keep shining because of what they did, and it was ok to be proud of that.
"We did good, didn't we?” Sora asked, between the two of them.
“We did amazing,” Kairi corrected. Riku snorts and reaches out for both their hands. It wouldn't be long before sunrise, and jumping back into the whirlwind again. Which is why this was important, the quiet and the stillness. He says nothing, letting his hands speak for him as they watch the worlds burn.