Work Text:
The worst part about dying, Sora decided, was that he was going to die without ever telling Kairi that he loved her and kissing her. He could tell Riku, since the other was struggling to roll over not ten feet away from him, but kissing him would be difficult, especially since Sora lost feeling in his legs approximately eight minutes ago. It was probably better than losing his legs entirely and bleeding out, and better than being fully unconscious and halfway buried in rubble like Donald was next to him, but it made crawling over to Riku for inappropriately timed makeouts more difficult than it needed to be.
Still, telling Riku was better than doing nothing, so Sora drew in a breath of air. And, ow, that hurt everything--his chest, his arms, his head, even his legs that didn't have feeling until then. He prepared to endure the pain and profess his love out loud when a portal of light appeared, and Kairi shot out of it like a bullet and slammed her keyblade against the massive Heartless's face.
Sora gaped and turned his head to watch her, and out of the corner of his vision, he saw Riku managing to flip himself over to his back as King Mickey very slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position. Kairi, meanwhile, had stuck her keyblade into the Heartless's eye and was holding on to it for dear life as the Heartless trashed about, shaking its head desperately to throw her off.
"Kairi!" Sora yelled with the breath of air that was meant for his love confession, "What are you doing?!"
"Saving your butts!" was the reply, and then the Heartless succeeded in tossing her off. She slammed into one of the few remaining upright pillars, which, sadly, failed to remain upright after she hit it.
"Kairi!" Sora heard Riku cry, and then he saw him jolt upright before making a pained expression and nearly falling back down again.
Sora took another breath of air and used it as a start to moving his body, but his limbs had other ideas. He tried to lift himself up using his elbows, but his arms trembled and refused, pain shooting all the way up into his head. He glanced at where the pillar once stood and was dismayed to see the Heartless rearing back, lifting one oversized claw over where Kairi was--
Kairi's keyblade poked out of the rubble, and a bright orb of magic shot out of it. The orb zoomed straight towards the Heartless, which was instantly surrounded by a globe of water when it made contact. Seconds later, a large piece of debris was tossed aside, and Kairi stood, gripping her keyblade tightly and then swinging wildly to her right. Sora watched, slack-jawed, as the globe of water shot towards the right as well, crashing against a stone wall and slamming the Heartless against it.
Kairi continued to swing her keyblade, directing the globe of water as she slammed the Heartless against walls, the remaining pillars, and the ground. Her clothes were dirty, her hair was falling out of its ponytail, she was bleeding from at least four different places, and she was the most beautiful person Sora had ever seen in his life.
With a final swing down, she slammed the Heartless down as well. The water globe lost its form and burst, and before the Heartless had a chance to stand, she cast a Thundaga so potent that even Sora, who was at least a good seventy feet from where the Heartless was, could feel the electricity make the hairs on his neck stand on end. The Heartless roared, then exploded in a burst of glittering hearts.
There was silence as Kairi slumped over and leaned on her keyblade for support, panting heavily.
"Gwarsh," Goofy said after a few moments, picking up his hat from the rubble and placing it on his head. "Guess her training paid off."
There was the general sound of agreement from everyone there, with the exception of Donald, who was still unconscious.
When Kairi started trudging over to where they'd fallen, Sora attempted to get up. Again, he failed, so he settled for making pathetic puppy eyes at her once she was close enough.
She ignored him. "Someone please tell me they have an Ether," she said. Riku stared at her blankly before gingerly reaching into one of his pockets and bringing out a small vial. Kairi took it with an expression of extreme gratitude, then popped it open, leaned her head back, and chugged. Sora tried not to stare too hard at her throat.
"Oh, that's wonderful," she said happily, and then she did something with a Curaga that, thankfully, hit them all at once.
"Waaaaak," he heard Donald groan. Goofy pried a piece of what used to be a statue off him, and Donald slowly lifted himself up. Sora decided to try getting up again as well, and he was pleased to find that not only were his arms working again, but his legs as well, although it took him a second to get used to having feeling there again.
"Gosh, Kairi," he heard Mickey say. "You sure came at a good time! Thanks for savin' all of us from that Heartless."
Kairi laughed cheerfully and then dropped down to the floor. Sora tried to get to her, but his legs were still getting accustomed to being legs again, so Riku beat him to it.
"I'm fine," Kairi said as Riku hoisted her up to a sitting position. "I wasn't expecting the ether to go to my head like that, that's all."
"It doesn't do that unless a someone has no magic left at all before consuming one." He frowned at her. "You shouldn't have healed us so quickly after drinking it."
"I said I'm fine," Kairi said again, whacking him lightly on the arm. "Besides, you looked ready to pass out a few seconds ago."
Riku opened his mouth but said nothing. Sora finally re-mastered the use of his legs again and walked over to where they were, Goofy and a still dizzy Donald trailing after him.
"Still," Mickey said, "I reckon you're beat after fighting that Heartless. Looks like all of us could use a bit of rest."
"Actually, Master Yen Sid sent me to get you guys." She got up on wobbly legs, and this time Sora was able to help Riku help her up, although she batted away both their hands. "He, um, wanted me to warn you that this was a trap."
"We kind of figured that out," Sora said, and she gave him a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, I noticed. Anyway, Lea also came back recently, and he found out some stuff that he wants to tell everyone. Yen Sid said that you should stop by whenever you have the time."
"So it's back to the Mysterious Tower, huh?" Mickey crossed his arms in thought, and Donald and Goofy looked between him and Sora. "Well, we are in a dead end right now, and we're in no condition to fight if another trap appears."
"And we're in a slump, too," Sora added. "We haven't found a single new clue in this world."
"We've just been wandering around in circles before the Heartless showed up," Goofy confessed, and everyone there exchanged looks.
"Gee, looks like all of us are stumped, then. Guess that means we should head back and hear what Lea has to say." Mickey laughed. "Maybe he'll have some good news!"
"For once," Riku muttered, then shook his head. "How are we getting back?"
"The Gummi Ship!" Donald said, then marched towards the direction of where it was parked. Mickey and Goofy followed him, but Sora hung back a little with Riku and Kairi.
"I'm fine," Kairi insisted as Riku pulled out a Hi-Potion from his never-dwindling supplies. "I think you need that more than I do."
"I'm all healed up thanks to you," he said. "Take it. Even if you don't use it, it'll make me feel better."
Kairi rolled her eyes and huffed when she snatched it out of his hand, but the smile on her face was warm and genuine. The two of them, Sora noticed, looked good together. Ridiculously good. Especially when Riku smiled back, a dopey little grin that he would have never let himself be caught dead making if he was consciously aware of it. It made his face softer, made his eyes stand out more.
Sora's mouth went dry, and he swallowed and licked his lips.
"You okay?" Riku asked him, and Sora nodded his head.
"Yeah. Just fine." He smiled. "We should get going if we don't want Donald to take off without us, though."
They caught up with Mickey and the others with no problems, and as the six of them walked, Sora purposefully kept to the back so that he could watch Kairi and Riku. Kairi hadn't put away the Hi-Potion Riku had given her, and it caught the sunlight as she spoke and gestured, reflecting back an ethereal blue light against her skin. She was covered in dirt and there was drying blood running down her arms, but she was still beautiful. Sora couldn't help but to stare.
Of course, staring only managed to catch her attention, and she stopped suddenly, causing Riku and the others to halt as well. She turned around, looked Sora dead in the eye, and put her hands on hips.
"Okay, what's going on? You've been staring at me this whole time!"
"I," Sora began, but found that he had no other explanation but the truth. "I really want to kiss you right now."
A beat, then Mickey said something about the Gummi Ship and walked--at a very brisk pace--towards the direction they'd been heading in. Goofy and Donald were less subtle, and they ran, shooting past Mickey and into the distance.
A moment after they had left, Riku turned to leave as well, but Sora grabbed his arm.
"Don't go," he said, and he tightened his grip when he found that Riku had his head bent down so that the fringe of his hair covered his eyes. "I want to kiss you too."
That got Riku to look up again, although his expression was akin to that of a startled animal--wary and wanting to flee. That was an utterly unacceptable reaction, so Sora tugged at his arm to bring him closer. He turned to look at Kairi as he did so, since she'd been silent for a while, and found that her mouth was slightly parted and her eyes were wide. She also wasn't blinking.
"Kairi?" he asked hesitantly, even as he continued to tug on Riku's arm, causing him to stumble a fraction of an inch closer. "Are you okay?"
She looked at him, then at Riku, then at him again.
"Uh," Sora began, "if you need a moment, I can kiss Riku first?"
Riku snapped out of whatever shock he was in and pulled his arm out of Sora's grasp. "Don't I get a say in this?"
Sora pouted. "You don't want to kiss me?"
"It's not--" Riku was flushed, and he began to shuffle back and away from Sora, eyes looking around desperately but never meeting his. "I-I mean--"
"Oh, wait, did you want to kiss Kairi instead?"
"N-- Y-- Maybe-- What does this have to do with you kissing me?"
"I dunno. I thought that if I kiss both you, it'd only be fair for you two to kiss each other if you wanted to."
"The issue is not about fairness," Riku hissed.
"Then you don't want to kiss Kairi? Or me? Or both of us?"
"I want to kiss both of you, but--" Riku stopped, face bright red, hands balled into fists held tightly at his side, and looked to Kairi in desperation. "Kairi, help me out here!"
Kairi closed her mouth, shook her head, then stared back and forth at the two of them with an intensity Sora had never seen her possess before. He was about to ask her if she was all right again when she reached out with both hands, grabbed Riku's face, and planted a kiss on his lips.
"Hey!" Sora yelled. "I wanted to kiss him first!"
Kairi let go of Riku, who stumbled backwards and looked simultaneously like he was about to faint out of shock and all of his dreams had come true. She stuck her tongue out at Sora.
"Should have been faster," she said, and before Sora could reply, she grabbed his face and kissed him too.
It was just a pressing of lips to lips, nothing more, but there was a fierceness in that act that, frankly, Sora was startled to find in her kiss.
"Oh," he said when she let go. "Wow."
Kairi looked oddly proud of herself. Sora stared at her for a while before he remembered something important.
"I still wanted to be the first person to kiss Riku, though."
"Sora," Riku said, "shut up." And then he kissed him.
Somehow, someway, the three of them ended up on the ground, trading kisses and, on occasion, accidentally kicking each other when they tried to tangle their legs together. Sora was bruised and tired, and the rocky ground wasn't comfortable by any means, but the kisses were good and the touching was even better. Discomfort quickly became a distant background thought to the way that Kairi was giggling into their kiss and the way that Riku nipped the back of Sora's throat with his lips.
Returning to the Gummi Ship also became a distant background thought, which was unfortunate for all three of them. Riku's hands were under his shirt, and Sora's hands were resting over Kairi's breasts when King Mickey cleared his throat very, very loudly.
In the next second, Kairi had scooted back and away from the two of them by using Sora's knees as a spring board, and Riku had launched himself away with so much force that a small Moogle shop's worth of items flew out of his pants' pockets and landed on the ground.
"M-M-M-M--" Riku said.
"Sorry to interrupt, fellas," Mickey said, looking very pointedly at a pebble on the ground that was no where near where the three of them were, "but, uh, you'd been gone an awful long time, and while we didn't wanna interrupt, we really need to get goin'."
"--M-M-Mi--," Riku continued.
"Right!" Kairi said with forced cheer as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. "Master Yen Sid is waiting!" She turned to Sora and Riku and gave them a strained smile. "We should get going."
Sora didn't get up. He was still mortified and would have welcomed a distraction to get away from the fact that Mickey Mouse had caught the three of them making out on a rocky path in the middle of no where. On top of that, he kind-of-sort-of had an erection and was not going to stand up until Mickey was not around. Still, he nodded, which seemed to be good enough for Kairi.
"--Mi-Mic--"
"I'll...just give you guys a few more minutes," Mickey said, and this time he forewent subtlety in exchange for sprinting away.
"--Mickey," Riku finished, and Sora sat up as Kairi walked over to him and pulled him up.
"There, there," she said to Riku, grabbing an Ether off the ground and shoving it into his back pocket. Sora noticed that she didn't take her hand out of his pocket after.
Riku appeared to be in a strange state of being comatose while still conscious, and Sora picked up a Hi-Potion and debated feeding it to him. He decided against it, though, and stuck it down Riku's other back pocket. He kept his hand there as well, and he and Kairi exchanged looks as they guided Riku back towards the ship.
(They removed their hands before they boarded, and Riku looked less like he was going to pass out. It was short lived, however, when Goofy cornered the three of them, and, backed by Donald, told them that he was going to give them a talk about safe sex when they got back, and to not worry, for he gave the talk to his son and only mortified him a little bit.
Riku did pass out after that.)