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“Did we…do it?” Sora manages between his ragged panting, trying to stand straight and failing. He stumbles forward and leans on his keyblade to keep himself standing, looking around. A few city blocks around them have been totaled, pieces of buildings collapsed on the pavement, cars crushed, and debris everywhere.
But Sora doesn’t have a speck of dust on him. No, because he and Riku—Riku, Riku, Riku, the name is still unbelievable to him, the fact that Riku is here, Riku came for him—had been fighting the so-called Master of Masters who wanted to use this reality to tear apart light and darkness again. He wanted to start with this city and return to the status quo: light with light and darkness with darkness, and everyone worse off.
It was a decent plan. It was clearly millennia in the making. It’s a shame he didn’t consider that he would be fighting Sora and Riku. Sora, who had finally accepted the darkness in his light, and Riku, who had finally accepted the light in his darkness, were the perfect counter to the cycle of abuse that keyblade wielders had repeated over and over.
They’d held hands—no, Sora thinks something else happened. He doesn’t know, can’t remember, it was all a blur of light and darkness, him and Riku, and then—their keyblades combined again. And then—
Sora stumbles over a boulder but someone catches his arm. He looks up and smiles at Riku, whose hair is sticking to his forehead and who looks like a mess, and most importantly, who’s here, he’s here, he’s here.
Sora knows he wouldn’t have been able to do this without Riku.
“Yeah,” Riku whispers, smiling shakily. “It’s done. It’s finally over.”
And he knows Riku couldn’t have done it without him.
Riku helps Sora stand up and Sora looks around. His eyes don’t land anywhere in particular, and he goes over the last few weeks in his head over and over (Riku finding him, Riku fighting with him, Riku fighting by him) until a hysterical giggle escapes him. And then another, and another, and pretty soon, he’s doubled over in laughter.
“We did it, Riku!” he screams, his laughs echoing through the empty buildings. The empty streets bear no witness to his joy, save for Riku. Riku. Riku . “We did it!”
And Sora pulls himself back up, grabs Riku’s collar, yanks him down—
Sora remembers now.
He didn’t hold hands with Riku to summon their combined keyblade. They kissed. They reached out for each other, like the moon forever reaches for the sun, like the stars reach for the sky, and they kissed. And then there was a burst of light, and the combined keyblade appeared like a light after a storm. And now, Sora kisses him, and it feels right. It feels like everything. It feels like what Sora was born for, to be with Riku, and to kiss him, to kiss him, to kiss him.
This is what has been feeling off. This is why Sora couldn’t see Riku as his brother. This is why Sora couldn’t see Riku as his rival. This is why Sora kept reaching and reaching, kept searching through the sand for broken seashells of answers. And it’s here. It’s written on Riku’s torn lips and Sora reads them with his own, he reads them between Riku’s shaky breathing, drinking every one of his noises.
He’s drunk on Riku and when he pulls away, the loss makes everything appalling. The loss makes everything cold so Sora holds on to Riku, looking up at him.
But he can’t see him, he’s too blurry. The lines of Rikus’s strong face have gone soft, and Riku brushes aside one of Sora’s tears. He doesn’t say anything. Maybe he cries too, Sora doesn’t know, all he knows is he doesn’t want to let go of Riku.
“Now what?” he whispers, looking around. Everything is alright with Riku here, but they’re still here, in this realm of unreality. And if Riku says that they’ll be here forever, Sora will settle the ache in his heart over the years and smile now. He will walk hand-in-hand with Riku to wherever this city takes them, the same way he would’ve done with him in the Realm of Darkness.
But Riku doesn’t say they’ll spend the rest of their days here. He doesn’t talk about taxes or the economy or inflation like how Sora’s gotten used to. He doesn’t talk about what job they’ll get in the morning. He doesn’t talk about this world’s morning.
Instead, the hand on Sora’s face lingers, cradling the skin. Sora wonders how pale he’s gotten without the island sun to kiss him. He wants Riku to kiss him.
“I want to follow my heart,” Riku says instead. He smiles, and Sora is drunk, he is oh, so drunk. “And…it usually says to let you do what you want. To pick up the slack or help you back to your feet. But this time, it wants to take the lead.”
“Yeah?” Sora tilts his head into Riku’s hands. They’re warm.
“Yeah. We’re going home now.”
Riku has always fancied himself the moon to Sora’s sun. (Of course, Sora only just learned this a few days ago. Only learned the extent of Riku’s devotion in the moonlight, tracing the Dream Eater sigil on Riku’s back, tracing every one of his scars, memorizing them.) But now, Riku beams and Sora swears he’s staring at the sun.
“Okay,” is all Sora can shakily manage, his mind a blur of emotions, happiness and fear and dread and excitement and it all leads back to him, Riku. It all leads back to home.
It happens slowly and all at once. Riku leans down and Sora meets him up halfway. Their lips don’t start fireworks, but Sora wishes they would. Their hands move and Sora’s left hand meets Riku’s right. They turn and when they pull apart, they’ve summoned their combined keyblade (and Sora feels like an idiot, only for a moment, for not realizing the paopu fruit meant something) and they’re readying it, aiming it, and Sora feels at peace.
If this doesn’t work, it’ll be okay. If he’ll spend the rest of his life just standing next to Riku, trying to get back home, it’ll be okay. He wants his friends. Oh, more than anything, he wants his friends.
But Sora’s wanted Riku for so long that it wasn’t even a feeling anymore. It became him, it consumed him, it was his every action, every thought. And he’s here. He has Riku. The world is safe.
And it works. Maybe Sora’s love was enough. The keyblade shoots out a brilliant beam of light, slicing across the grey world and exploding in a fit of white. Sora winces and closes his eyes. When he opens them, a portal stands before them, power rippling through the air. Sora can’t see through it, but in the same way he knew what it was all that time ago with Riku, he knows what’s beyond.
Their keyblade disappears and their hands find each other. Sora looks at Riku and Riku looks at Sora. Sora smiles and Riku smiles. It’s perfect. Sora memorizes the moment and stores the memory where he can easily find and polish and relive it.
When they walk through the portal, Sora unconsciously lets go of Riku’s hand. He feels breathless, the same way he did after kissing Riku. This one isn’t the same relieving feeling, though. This is suffocating. This is horrible.
The sky is blue. It’s blue-blue, fairytale-blue, not like the kind of blue that existed in Quadratum, tainted with pollution. The sky is blue and endless, unblocked by skyscrapers and planes. It unfolds before him, leading down to the horizon of flowers. Wildflowers reach out as far as his eye can see in brilliant colors, and Sora recognizes this place as a whisper in his heart: Radiant Garden.
This is where Riku set off to look for him. This is where Riku has brought him back to. Sora stumbles forward, like a baby walking its first steps in the light of dawn.
Sora’s home. Oh, how could he have stayed away from home for so long?
Sora’s home.
Sora’s home.
Sora’s home and he screams, he screams long enough for Riku to wrap his arms around Sora. He screams long enough for it to turn into laughs and he turns and kisses Riku, and the sun wraps around his body, he can feel his skin returning to its skin color, he can feel his soul at peace, he can feel everything too much around him, he can feel Riku’s lips, Riku’s lips, Riku’s lips.
Sora pulls back and looks up into his eyes. “Sorry. Everything feels…”
“It’s a lot,” Riku says, moving his hands to rub Sora’s forearms, grounding him. “I know. It feels so right seeing you here, and still…a part of me’s scared it’s a dream.”
Riku doesn’t let Sora respond though. His hands trail down to grab Sora’s and he turns him gently to face the sun. Wincing, Sora squints and looks at the day. “But it’s not a dream. It’s over. The Master is dead, and…we’re coming home.”
“It feels different this time,” Sora whispers.
“It does,” Riku agrees. “Because it is different.”
Riku doesn’t bother explaining how when they went to the Realm of Darkness, they had already won. How they were willing to spend eternity there because they would be at peace and with each other. How this time, when Sora left, there were no guarantees, no happy endings. No Sora and Riku like there had always been. Riku doesn’t explain because Sora knows, and he tilts his head up to the sun.
“Riku,” Sora says. “I think I’m going to pass out.”
Riku snorts. Then he hesitates and turns to Sora just to make sure there isn’t any truth to that. “Sora…you don’t have to go home right away.”
“What?” Sora furrows his eyebrows and turns to Riku. Their eyes meet and Sora feels like he accidentally cast Firaga on himself. “But I’m already home. It’s over.”
“That’s not what I mean, I…” Riku moves down to the ground, bringing Sora slowly down with him. Blades of grass and flowers dance along their skin as their lower halves press flush to the earth. The earth. When was the last time Sora sat on dirt? He’s never appreciated it before, not until there was nothing but concrete. “You don’t have to see everyone yet. It was a lot for me to even face you after…everything. You’re allowed to breathe for a minute.”
The thought didn’t cross Sora’s mind and yet, thinking about it, he couldn’t imagine anything else. He can’t think of seeing his friends and smiling and telling them it was okay, it wasn’t that bad, he’s fine, because it’s not true. Not right now. None of it was okay. It was awful. And he feels awful. He feels like the world is suffocating his lungs, and he takes a deep breath and exhales, and he feels like he’s slowly remembering how the air tastes here again.
Sora nods and lets his eyes shut.
He dreams of the ocean. He dreams of fish, starfish, angelfish, all kinds of fish, and he dreams of mermaids laughing, the noise carrying through bubbles. He dreams of laying in the sand, the sun holding him, the bubbles kissing him. He dreams of being brought back to the surface, of Riku reaching for him—and he dreams of grabbing his hand. He dreams of wading back to land, to home, and he dreams of being fourteen again.
When he wakes up, he’s sixteen and leaning on Riku’s shoulder, a line of drool connecting them. He rubs his cheek but doesn’t make any attempt to move away. “How long did I shleep?” he asks, mouth pressed.
“Maybe an hour,” Riku says, and he just notices that Riku has been watching him. Had he been watching the whole time? Had he slept alongside Sora? (The Dream Eater sigil on his back. Sora can’t get over it. To change his very being for him. Sora can’t get over it.) “Surprised you stopped there, lazyhead.”
The insult feels foreign in Riku’s deeper voice, but it still resonates warmly with Sora’s heart. He hums and he feels okay, better. His lungs aren’t collapsing on themselves. Groaning, he pushes himself straight up and his dreams flutter around in the back of his head. “Tell me everything.”
Riku tells Sora everything that he missed. Tells him a lot about Kairi too, very, very nervously, and Sora realizes just how deep that insecurity ran. Sora says nothing though. Doesn’t settle too long on the guilt of Kairi sleeping a year for him. On Ven, Terra, and Aqua searching for him. Because he knows he would do the same for them. (The voice in the back of his head screams.)
Riku tells Sora about what he did. There isn’t much. It’s like Riku’s life was on pause, searching the background for Sora before hitting play again. But Sora listens intently, hanging on to every word. He wants to do this more, catch up on what happened before. (The voice in the back of his head sobs.)
Because while Riku’s talking, Sora realizes he doesn’t know why Riku chose darkness in the first place. Doesn’t know what drove Riku away. (He does know. He just wants to hear Riku say it.) The thoughts are driven away by Riku’s laugh, a soft chuckle that makes Sora’s heart do cartwheels.
Sora’s eyes focus to see that Riku pulled out his Gummiphone. “I can’t believe I brought this with me. I don’t know why I thought it would work over there.”
“Maybe we should ask Chip and Dale to add an interdimensional…” Sora trails off. “Uh. Whatever lets them talk to each other. What are they called?”
“Signals.” Riku elbows Sora. “Maybe if you paid attention, you’d know that.”
“Maybe if you were the one explaining it, I would.” Sora shrugs.
Riku coughs (and Sora feels like a genius for making him red), before tapping on his messages. It’s red all over, hundreds of unread messages, and Riku looks off to the sky. “Want to talk some more?”
Always. Forever. “I miss everyone. Feels weird being here and not telling them.”
“Thought you’d say that. So…how do you wanna do this?”
Sora turns and blinks at him. “What?”
“I mean…” Riku’s lips turn to the side. Sora doesn’t know how he’s gone this long without kissing him. Riku’s got such kissable lips. Sora’s heart tightens, either from the prospect of seeing his friends, from not seeing them, or from not kissing Riku enough. Maybe all. Maybe none. Maybe Quadratum messed with his heart. “Do you want to go back to the Islands? Just wait for them to find you? Or do you want me to call someone?”
“Call someone,” Sora says immediately, before cringing. “I don’t want it to be a big deal.” (The voice in the back of his head smiles.)
Riku stares at him. “You were missing for a year.”
“I know, but—”
“You were missing for a year.”
Sora sighs and looks down. “I’ll get better with this self-esteem thing. Promise. Still don’t want everyone to make a big deal. It’s already overwhelming.”
(The voice in the back of his head goes quiet.)
Riku softens and reaches over to place his hand on top of Sora’s. “I know. I know. Alright, we’re calling. Who do we call?”
“What.”
Riku snorts, rubbing his thumb over Sora’s hand. “I’m not going to call everyone—I don’t know how to do that anyway. Haven’t had a Gummiphone lesson in a while. So, who do we call first?”
Sora blames the shortening in his brain on the way Riku’s thumb touches him. Sora’s always the one to initiate, the one to always jump over Riku like he can’t get enough of him (because Sora can never, ever get enough of him.) But Riku’s never the one to reach for him. Sora remembers how easily Riku let him go when he wanted to go after Kairi.
And now, he’s here. He’s trying to bring back Sora now.
But how can he pick? After a year—a year, the word tastes foreign in his mouth, this isn’t like last time, Sora’s older, different, more tired—who does Sora decide gets to see him first? How does Sora decide? Will they be mad at him? Will they hate him, will they hold him like he’s fragile and going to break because that will probably break him, but they should probably hate him, how could he leave them to fend for themselves—
“I’ll pick for you.”
Sora snaps out of his thoughts and studies the edges of Riku’s face. “What?”
“I said I’ll pick for you.” Riku lifts his hand and Sora doesn’t feel his heart slow down. Sora heard of the word ‘anxiety’ once in Quadratum. Maybe this is that. “You don’t need to feel bad or scared. Sora, I promise, nothing can go wrong now.”
“Okay,” Sora whispers. “Yeah.”
Sora remembers when they were younger and Riku would comfort him. After a while, it flipped, with Sora bringing Riku back from the darkness time and again. Now, they’re pulling each other into the light and darkness, waltzing to their heart song.
This is new. And it’s a little scary, but Sora takes a deep breath and beams. “I trust you a little bit.”
“A little bit? Gee, thanks.” Riku rolls his eyes, pushes himself to his feet, and dials a number. The moment the line goes through, he immediately flinches away from the speaker, and Sora’s heart skips at the voice.
“RIKU!” Donald yells and Sora knows it’s Donald because Sora would recognize that voice anywhere. “Riku, where have you been? Kairi said you ran off looking for Sora on your own and none of us have been able to find you and—”
“Donald,” Riku cuts off, looking over his shoulder at Sora with furrowed eyebrows. If Sora’s heart wasn’t falling apart at the sound of his friend, he would’ve found it funny that Riku didn’t understand a single quack. “I’m going to send you a location. I want you and Goofy to come. No one else.”
Donald says something a lot quieter and Riku sighs. “I’m one of Sora’s best friends. Can you trust me on this?”
He must agree because Riku hangs up the phone and fully turns to Sora. Before Riku can speak, Sora says, “You haven’t said you’re my best friend in a while.”
Riku suddenly stiffens and puts his phone away. “Is…that okay?”
Sora stands up and yanks Riku into a bone-crushing hug. “More than okay. You’re my best friend in all the worlds.” When Riku wraps his arms around Sora’s frame, when Sora feels the love he’s been missing for all his teenage years, Sora chuckles. “Also, I kissed you. I hope you don’t think I’m the type to kiss strangers.”
“I don’t know,” Riku teases, voice hitching a little bit. (How long has he wanted that? Sora doesn’t know how long he’s wanted it. Sora doesn’t know how long he himself has wanted it. Too long.) “We have a lot of catching up to do. Lots of things to learn.”
“We’re gonna be like how we were when we were kids,” Sora promises, pulling away. He runs his hands over Riku’s jacket, feeling every scratch, every stitch. His hands grab hold of one of the buckles and he shakes Riku gently. “We’re gonna be better. We’re gonna know everything about each other again. We’re gonna be each other’s light and darkness and whatever else they wanna call us.”
And what can Riku say to that other than to shakily kiss Sora, sealing the promise?
Sora didn’t want to talk, so he laid his head on Riku’s shoulder, and Riku ran his fingers through Sora’s hair. When was the last time Sora felt this at peace? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything, other than he wants to spend the rest of his life here.
He changes his mind the moment he hears shouts coming across the flower field. In an instant, Sora feels revitalized, and he rushes to his feet, squinting. And then there are, in all their toony glory.
“Do you want me to go first?” Riku asks, but Sora’s not listening. If Sora was, he’d hear the endearing sigh and Riku encouraging him to run forward. But Sora’s just watching his duck friend and his kinda-dog friend come walk, stop, look at each other, and break out into a sprint, and then Sora’s running.
They don’t say each other’s name as much as scream it and Donald jumps up, Sora catches him, and Goofy tackles the two of them to the ground. Sora’s holding them so tightly he can hear all their heartbeats fight against each other until he sits up, the two of them looking shaky through his tears. “Donald… Goofy…” is all he can manage.
Meanwhile, Donald’s nervously blathering, failing to wipe away his tears with his feathers. He’s forcing Sora this way and that, looking for injuries. “Sora,” Donald says, sniffling loudly. “Sora, a-a-are you hurt? Anywhere?”
“Can ya say the alphabet backward?” Goofy asks nonsensically, on his knees and running his hand over Sora’s cheek. He stretches the skin there, just to make sure it’s Sora.
“He c-c-could never do that anyway!” Donald shouts, slapping away Goofy’s hand and grabbing Sora’s cheeks, yanking his head fiercely to each side. “This idiot always needed us!”
“I’m okay,” Sora whispers, pulling Donald up to his lap for a hug. Donald doesn’t hesitate to wrap his own limbs around Sora. “I’m okay, I promise, I… I’m sorry.”
“Why’re you sorry?” Goofy asks while Donald continues to blather. “We missed ya, Sora, oh we missed ya so much, but…we never blamed ya.”
“I shouldn’t have left you two like that.” Sora ducks his head away from Donald, who doesn’t dare move an inch off Sora. He only pulls his head away to listen. “I… I should’ve told you what was going on, and—”
“You shoulda told us how to help!” Donald yells, wiping his eyes. “You idiot! We’re your friends—”
“—and you’re ours,” Goofy finishes, wiping away a tear and smiling. “We’re not mad at ya, Sora.”
“Speak for yourself,” Donald grumbles.
“I missed your whining,” Sora laughs with a sniffle. Donald’s eyes widen before his face softens.
“No more reckless stunts,” Donald says. He holds out a feather.
“No more reckless stunts,” Sora promises. He latches his finger around Donald’s, making the promise permanent. He wants to share a paopu fruit with them. He doesn’t want to do this again without them.
“Unless you’re with us,” Goofy supplies, and Sora lets out a fit of laughter. He doesn’t know how he lived the last year without these two. He doesn’t know how he lived all his life without these two. It feels like they complete each other like they were made to meet.
At the sound of footsteps, Sora shifts, and all three look behind him at a sheepish Riku, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry for the cryptic message. Sora’s been through a lot and if I told you I found him, well…”
“You think I’d tattle,” Donald accuses before standing up. “Y’know, you’re lucky no one was with me when you called. Everyone was worried about you too.”
It’s pretty easy to understand Donald when he’s talking slowly, so Riku can’t hide away. Goofy stands up, nodding. “The King was real mad when he heard ya ran off without telling him.”
“It’s the exact same thing Sora did,” Donald grumbles, eyeing the two of them. “No wonder you’re friends.” The way he says friends has a lilt and Sora remembers all the teasing Donald gave him right before he left.
Riku rubs his eyes tiredly and sighs. “Oh, crap, I almost forgot about Mickey. He’s probably gonna ban me from leaving Yen Sid’s castle.”
“I can sneak you out,” Sora supplies before Donald gapes at him.
“What did we just say about being reckless!” Donald places either feather on his hip and taps his foot at Sora before rolling his eyes at Sora’s giggles.
Sora moves to his feet with Goofy’s help and wipes away the last of his tears, smiling softly at the two of them. “I promise, for real. No reckless stunts. Besides…I don’t think we’ll need to.”
Donald and Goofy look up at him expectantly and Sora beams. “It’s over.”
The words feel real to him.
Sora tells them as much as he can bear then and there—it’s more than he expected. Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was days, but Sora tells them about Strelitzia, about Ventus, about Marluxia, about Larxene, about the Master, about all the Dandelions. They listen as intently as they can (for Donald, that means interrupting Sora only every three minutes), until Goofy finally asks, “And you?”
Sora should’ve expected it. They were well-versed in the world of Keyblade wielders but more than that, they cared about their friend. Sora smiles, and he means it, he finally means it when he says, “It was hard without you guys, but I wasn’t alone. I had your love and—I had myself.”
(Sora does not tell them about his kisses with Riku, so many that he can’t count and yet never enough, because he just got back from being dead. He’s allowed at least a week without being teased.)
Donald and Goofy share a look before beaming at Sora. For once, he believes the words. My friends are my power…and I’m theirs.
Rolling onto his back and jumping onto his feet, Sora holds a fist up in the air and hoots. “Feel like I’m ready to take on the world!”
“You already did that,” Riku supplies.
“Well, again then!”
Donald sighs, but Sora knows him well enough to know he’s smiling. “He’s hopeless…”
Sora turns around to his three best friends. All the fear and anxiety has gone quiet. The voice in his head has gone quiet for once. It’s beautiful. Sora isn’t second-guessing himself, doesn’t feel like he has anything to do. He has nothing to do. He’s free. He’s home. “C’mon, I wanna see the others!”
He takes off without another word, and only Riku can keep up. Donald sputters indignantly and Goofy laughs and Riku keeps up with him, with that brilliant smile of his. And Sora returns it in full force. It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.
And everything’s just begun.
“Something’s different between those two,” Donald pants, Sora watching the entrance to Radiant Garden with fascination and Riku patiently waiting by his side. Riku does a good job politely pretending he’s not just waiting for Donald to catch his breath after sprinting the whole way. “But I don’t know what…”
“Gee, Donald,” Goofy says, scratching his chin, “I think that they finally kissed.”
Donald catches his breath and snorts, before pausing. He eyes the way Riku leans down to Sora and the way Sora turns up to him and smiles softly. Eyes widening, Donald turns to Goofy before he glares. “And Sora didn’t tell us?! Why, that— SORA!”
Sora turns around with that peaceful smile on his face before raising his eyebrows in alarm. He sprints into Radiant Garden, Riku on his toe, Donald and Goofy right behind them, and the world waiting.