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Rougher than usual, the gummi ship finally touched down on Radiant Garden’s brickwork and Sora barely turned off the engine before he stormed out of the ship.
“Sora, wait!”
But he didn't even think about waiting.
“Come on,” he yelled in response, skipping backwards to look at Donald before turning around again, “hurry up!”
“‘Hurry up’?!” Donald imitated him incredulously, quickly flicking his staff in the direction of the gummi ship to hide it before he took off after Sora, “I’ll show you 'hurry up’! Get back here now!”
“Gawrsh, Donald, don’t be so hard on Sora. He’s just excited to finally see Kairi again!”
Heat rose into Sora's face and he managed to stumble over his right foot, resulting in him flailing his arms around desperately to regain his balance. Donald's following snicker didn't make it better and now with a beet-red face, Sora ran off even faster, ignoring the indignant quacks behind him.
By the time he finally reached the Borough and ran down the street leading to Merlin's house, he was severely out of breath, but Sora knew it had nothing to do with his sprint. No, it had everything to do with the way his heart was beating fast in anticipation of seeing Kairi again.
He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was dying to see her again. Ever since he had seen her own addition to their cave drawing, he was giddy to talk to her about it, but somehow, he had never managed to find the right moment: Either his parents had wanted to make up for lost time, his teachers had wanted to talk about school and his future or his friends had wanted to know what he and Riku had been up to, effectively destroying any possibility for Sora to catch a moment with Kairi alone despite Riku's best attempts to draw the attention to himself – something the boy avoided doing normally – just to help Sora out.
And then the King's letter had arrived and he was forced to leave once again and the right moment passed once more.
So the least he could do is see her again and hope for the best, right?
Wrong, judging by the bothersome Heartless that materialized in front of his path.
“Come on!” Sora grumbled through his teeth as he jumped back and summoned his Keyblade with a flick of his wrist. “I don't have time for this!”
Without hesitation, Sora jumped into the fight, slashing through some of the Heartless before Donald and Goofy caught up with him. Together, they tried to keep the Heartless at bay, but...
“What is goin' on?” Goofy asked, parrying a Shadow's attack with his shield and clubbing another one over the head. “How are there so many?”
“Even the Claymores can barely keep up,” Donald grumbled angrily as he summoned a Thunder attack to take out several Heartless at once, “we need to get to the Restoration Committee, quick!”
“But how?” Sora countered, spinning around to get rid of at least one ring of Heartless that was surrounding him. “We're not making any progress! For every Heartless we defeat, two more appear!” He quickly raised his Keyblade up in defense when a Soldier Heartless tried to jump on him, but to his surprise, a beam of Light defeated it before it managed to touch him.
Confused, Sora looked at Donald who shrugged his shoulders. Then he jumped up in surprise and pointed past Sora.
“Look! Up there!”
Sora turned around and followed Donald's outstretched arm until his eyes fell on two figures standing on the outer wall of the city, Keyblades drawn and hoods covering their heads.
His heart picked up its pace again.
He knew these Keyblades. The taller person's Keyblade resembling a flame was Flurry of Flames, Lea's Keyblade. The short person's Keyblade, adorned with flowers and a paopu fruit as its Keychain –
“See?” Sora's eyes widened upon hearing the sassy, familiar voice and he felt his heart jump into his throat as he saw the figure reach for their hood and lower it slowly. Short red hair, blue eyes with a hint of violet in them, thick, dark eyelashes, button nose, pink lips curled up between a smile and grin.
Kairi! Kairi's here!
“I told you Sora's completely helpless without Riku and me,” she added with a softer voice as she looked him straight into the eyes, her own sparkling with mischief and excitement.
Oh dear. Oh no. No, no, no.
She looked so cute.
“Enough flirting, Princess.”
Lea lowered his hood as well and shook his wild hair before propping up his Keyblade on his shoulder. “Let's get to the rescue!”
As much as Sora tried not to stare, his eyes were glued to Kairi's form as she jumped down, gracefully landing a few meters away from him. She gripped her Keyblade tightly with both of her hands and her face grew serious at once ans she bent her knees slightly to assume a fighting stance. She charged forward and two-handedly crushed her Keyblade into her enemy. Not wasting a single second, she switched to wielding her Keyblade with her right arm only, slashing at a Shadow trying to grab her shoulder before she twirled around, defeating the Heartless closing in on her with one sweep.
Sora swallowed. He had had no idea that Kairi was this graceful, but there she was, running from enemy to enemy, raising her Keyblade, parrying attacks, jumping and cartwheeling one-handed(!!) out of the way, her now short hair sticking cutely to her face. And if that wasn't enough already, there was also her new outfit: Staying true to her color scheme, Kairi was wearing a pink dress with pleats and ruffles that curled and swept around her thighs every time she turned, allowing her to move freely to kick some Heartless butt.
Was it just him or did the sun suddenly start to burn down on his neck?
“Hey Romeo.”
A gloved hand pushed his jaw up close. When had it slackened in the first place?!
“Less staring, more fighting. You can ogle your Princess once we're done here.”
Sora sputtered a little indignantly while Donald and Goofy broke out in snickers.
“I did not,” he growled, but took a deep, calming breath as he raised his Keyblade again. That helped clear the hormone-driven haze in his head, especially when a Neo Shadow tried to attack Kairi from behind. He quickly dashed forward to slash the Heartless away just a blink of a second before Kairi turned around.
“Thank you,” she breathed and a goofy smile spread on Sora's face.
“You're welcome.”
Sora got back into his fighting stance and felt Kairi do the same at his side. They nodded at each other shortly and charged forward, plowing through the horde of Heartless much quicker now that there were five of them. But not only that – he realized how exhilarating it was to have Kairi fight at his side! The two of them immediately clicked and attacked the Heartless in perfect harmony, boosting and defending the other without the need to communicate verbally. Sora stepped to the right, Kairi jumped to the left, their Keyblades slashing at the same enemies without ever hindering the other's movement.
Just when they finally reached Merlin's doorstep, Kairi backed off again. Sora reacted immediately and tried grasping her arm to hold onto her, but she was too quick for him and ran to the middle of the small square.
“Kairi!”
She just winked at him cheekily and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Jumping and twisting her body around at the same time as using the spell “Light!”, tiny balls of light appeared around Kairi's body, growing in size and quickly spreading over the whole borough while she smoothly landed on her feet again.
“Every light attack gives us roughly five seconds before they materialize again,” Lea explained, pushing up Sora's jaw once again before pushing at his and Goofy's shoulders, “so go inside, quick, they can't track us in there!”
Instead of going inside, Sora ducked away and reached for the door, earning him a stern glance by Lea and an offended quack by Donald who he hand nearly stepped on. But Sora ignored both, his eyes focused on Kairi who came running at him and managed to slip inside before new Heartless materialized. Sora quickly pulled the door close and turned back to the others – only to realize that Kairi hadn't moved and stood closer to him than he anticipated, making his mouth run dry.
“Hey.”
Kairi grinned and looked at him shyly from under her lashes, pushing her hands deep into the pockets of her dress.
“Hey,” Sora replied in a low voice, drawing closer to her without noticing. Both breathed heavily, their chest heaving with exertion, but Sora doubted it was purely the result of the Heartless attack.
And since when did he tower over her like that?
A loud 'harrumph' broke the spell between Sora and Kairi and they immediately jumped apart. Sora's face heated up once he realized just how close he had been standing to her.
“What is going on? Why are there so many Heartless around?”
That finally managed to distract Sora from admiring his childhood friend and to focus back on the world order – or what was left of it.
“You know how it is,” Lea started explaining, shrugging his shoulders, “they're after people's hearts and seek out Keyblade wielders. There are currently two Keyblade wielders residing in Radiant Garden, so they're drawn to this place more than before.”
“And if that ain't enough,” Cid grumbled and it was only now that Sora noticed he was even present, “our little Kairi's a Princess of Heart and that alone lures 'em in like crazy. Add a Keyblade Master to the mix and they're havin' a party.”
“So what does that mean for us?” Goofy asked and exchanged a concerned look with Donald.
“Most of all it means that our love birds here,” he nodded towards Sora and Kairi, but Kairi was quick to jab her elbow into his side, making him yelp and glare at her, “aren't allowed to be outside together. In different parts of the city, yes, but,” he walked around the table, putting a considerable distance between him and Kairi, “no dating. At least not until the Claymores have been updated. Cid and Tron are working on them, but they couldn't put the finishing touches on them yet.”
“We should be makin' considerable progress,” Cid remarked, typing away on the huge keyboard in front of him. “Now that we have data on how the Heartless react to a Keyblade Master, we can adjust the Claymores' strength. We can't have them potentially hurting civilians after all. Give me ten minutes and I'll have the new program ready! Get cozy over there.”
Cid waved them off, gesturing to the part of the room that held all of Merlin's furniture and Donald immediately waddled off to jump on one of the wooden chairs. The others followed him, with Lea and Goofy taking the remaining two chairs, leaving Kairi and Sora to sit on Merlin's bed.
“Sooo,” Lea started and propped his arms up on the back of his chair before throwing a suggestive glance over to Sora, “what do you think?”
Sora knitted his eyebrows together in suspicion.
“About what?”
“About Kairi's outfit of course!”
Heat shot back into Sora's head and he was suddenly very aware of the fact that one of his hand resting on the bed was brushing against Kairi's dress.
“Yes!” Kairi chimed in and jumped up, clapping her hands together. “What do you say? The three Good Fairies made this for me!” She gripped the hem of her dress and twirled around twice with a giggle.
“What do you think?”
“I think you're beautiful.”
Kairi's jaw dropped and her cheeks flushed prettily. He stood up and was about to take her hands, dying to pour his heart out to her, when he suddenly grew very aware of three pairs of eyes staring at them. He panicked.
“B-Beautifully prepared!” Sora squeaked out, an octave higher than usual. “Prepared for the fight! You fight good!”
Sora slapped his hands against his face and let himself fall back on the bed, groaning in frustration.
Smooth, Sora. Really smooth.
But Kairi just giggled softly and he felt the bed dip again before she gently pulled his hands away from his face with a wink.
“I think you fight good, too.”
“Speaking of the fight – ”
Kairi let go of Sora's hands immediately and it took every ounce of Sora's self control not to growl at Lea in annoyance, so instead, he did what he did best: He pouted.
“– I finally solved the mystery.”
Donald eyed Lea critically.
“What mystery?”
“The mystery of why Kairi's fighting stance seemed so familiar to me! Come on, don't tell me you haven't realized?” Lea's grin widened. “Our Princess here is totally copying her Prince!”
Sora whipped his head around to face Kairi. She decidedly avoided his eyes as the tips of her ears that peaked out of her hair turned pink.
“You're copying me?” Sora asked quietly, incredulously. But now that he considered it... the way she held her Keyblade and bent her knees... that was the way he did it, right? He wasn't imagining it? That was why fighting together with her was so easy, second nature even! Of course they didn't need to communicate because they moved similarly.
“Lea!”
All five heads turned around to Cid who stared at them grumpily. “Stop torturin' the poor kids and move your butt over here, will ya? And bring Donald and Goofy along, too.”
“Come on, right when it starts to be interesting,” Lea mumbled, but left them alone nevertheless, Goofy and Donald right on his tail after they winked at Sora encouragingly. Sora took a deep breath and turned back to Kairi who now grasped the hem of her skirt tightly.
“Is it true?”
“I tried a different style in the beginning, focused more on blunt force like Lea, but it didn't work out for me. I kept hurting myself and I don't have the physical advantage to pull it off. Merlin focuses more on magic and while I excelled in it, I couldn't get the hang of my Keyblade technique. I was really starting to doubt myself, thinking I'm not cut to be a Keyblade Wielder.”
She looked up at him again and the intensity in her eyes made Sora shiver.
“You suddenly popped into my head.” A grin spread over her lips. “You and and that stupid, happy smile of yours! And the thought of you comforted me. After all, I was doing all of this to finally join you on your quest, to help you and Riku. So I kept thinking about you, about how you wielded your Keyblade, about the way you dodge attacks.” Her cheeks turned pink again. “And I tried to imitate you. And surprisingly, it worked really well. I got the hang of it pretty quickly and soon, Axel had to suffer his first loss in a sparring match all thanks to you! Thank you, Sora.”
Sora felt his own cheeks flush slightly and rubbed his nose in embarrassment.
“Well, I guess that means you don't think I'm a lazy bum any more, huh?”
The color drained from Kairi's face as she stared at him in shock. Sora furrowed his eyebrows in concern.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“You know that I'm not serious about this, right?” Kairi asked instead, her eyes full of worry. “You know I'm just saying it to tease you?”
“Sure, I –“
“You're not a lazy bum,” Kairi interrupted him. “You're not hopeless without us. You saved the worlds twice already and if worst came to worst, I don't have a single doubt you'd manage to do it a third time. You're amazing Sora. I'm proud of you and I admire you.”
Suddenly, she was much closer to him than he had anticipated. Suddenly, her knee was pressed against his and her upper body was completely turned towards him. Thanks to their height difference, Kairi had to crane her neck up to look at Sora and Sora looked down at Kairi, at her half-lidded eyes and her slightly parted lips that took Sora's breath away.
“You inspire me every day, Sora,” Kairi murmured, just loud enough for Sora to hear when he bent his neck a little, drawing closer and closer to her. “You're the one who keeps me going.”
Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was hard to concentrate with such an overload to his senses: She was close enough for Sora to feel the warmth radiating from her, close enough for her breath to fan against his face with just a hint of mint in it, close enough for Sora to hear the shallow breaths she was taking to what he assumed was calm her heart beat – because he knew, his own heart was about to burst out of his chest.
Close enough to wonder about the taste of those tantalizing lips that she just had to lick at this exact moment. Goosebumps spread over his body as he touched her cheek with a trembling hand.
“Kairi...”
“Done!”
Sora pulled his hand away as if he had been burned and slid all the way up to the headboard while Kairi slid to the opposite site of the bed.
“This update should do it. With this, the Claymores will adjust to the new amount of Heartless loiterin' around.”
Cid continued to ramble on, but Sora didn't listen. All he could focus on were Kairi's eyes and the fire in them. The same fire that he knew was in his eyes.
“Earth to Sora!”
“Ahyuck!”
“What?!”
“Don't 'What' us!” Donald chided him, waving his feathery hand around in his face. “Don't forget your manners just because of your hormones! That's 'Excuse me' for you!”
Rolling his eyes, Sora defiantly crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“Fine. 'Excuse me?'” Donald nodded appreciatively, until Sora followed up with a blunt “what” which made the mage glower at him.
“Cid asked us to deliver this to Leon and Tron!” Goofy explained and tugged gently at Sora's hand, pulling him off of the bed to shove him in direction of the door.
“Wait! But what about Kairi-?”
“Nothing about Kairi, she's staying here. Geez, have you already forgotten why you're even delivering this disc to Leon?” Lea shook his head. “Let him install the program and update the Claymores, then you can take Kairi wherever you want outside of training hours. But right now, having a Keyblade Master and a Keyblade wielding Princess of Heart outside at the same time will attract the Heartless like crazy.”
Sora slumped his shoulders until he heard Kairi's giggle.
“I'll see you later, okay?” She asked him and Sora nodded frantically in agreement which made the grin on her lips widen.
Waving one last time at Kairi before Donald and Goofy shoved him out of the door with combined efforts, Sora left Merlin's house, slipped the disc with the update program into his pocket and ran off. He couldn't wait to get Leon to install the program as quickly as possible so he could return to the Borough.
You're the one who keeps me going, too, Kairi.