The Key To A Heart

The Key To A Heart
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Warning: There is some Kairi bashing in this chapter, so anyone who may get offended by that, please note, you have been warned, please no flames!

I Don't Own these characters, or make money from them, I just like to use them in my stories.
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Chapter Three
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“Sora! Riku!” the silver haired teen inwardly cringed when he heard the unmistakable voice of his long-time friend. Sora had just given him a smile worthy of a kiss when Kairi had to interrupt the moment. Riku lifted his head and looked over to see Kairi running over the bridge connecting Papou Island to the rest of the shore.

“Hey, what’s up?” Sora answered, completely oblivious to Riku’s train of thought as Kairi bent over in front of the pair, trying to catch her breath.

“Look.” Was the only word to fall from her lips and she held out her hand, revealing a bottle. A bottle with a letter inside of it. Riku’s heart began to flutter when he saw the King’s seal on the paper, and he wondered if it might be the letter that they had been hoping for over the past two days.

Although they were glad to be home again, neither Riku nor Sora had been able to gather the courage needed to leave the play island that they had found themselves on after emerging from the door to light. They had been staying in the old shack, and Kairi had effectively kept the other kids away from the island, giving Riku and Sora both some privacy. What she hadn’t known was that they had been using the alone time to discuss and explore their new relationship a little.

“From The King?” Sora questioned, pulling the stopper out of the bottle and shaking the paper out as fast as he could. He felt excited at the thought of the king responding so fast. Before the three companions had left, King Mickey had told Riku and Sora in private that he would talk to Aurora as fast as possible to get the answers he needed, and because the doors between Disney Castle and Radiant Garden had opened before the heartless had abused them, they should still be connected.

The brunet could feel the eyes of the other two reading over his shoulder, so he didn’t bother reading out loud the message, and as soon as he finished reading the fairly short letter, he wish he had read it to Kairi.

“What’s this about? Sora? Riku? Is there something that you aren’t telling me about?” the hurt shone through Kairi’s voice, and the tone went right to Sora’s heart.

“I’m sorry, Kairi. You should have known that neither of us would have been able to go back to a normal life here on the island.” Sora told the redhead as gently as he could. But the look in her violet eyes told him the true feelings she was having about this.

“You two weren’t the only ones to visit other worlds. You should have known that if either of you went, I’d want to go with you!” Kairi stomped her feet in annoyance, clenching her fists as she did so, giving her the appearance of a five year old. “Besides, Sora, if you two leave, you’ll be breaking the promises that we made to each other and to Roxas and Naminé. You can’t do that to them!”

Sora winced at the girls words; he couldn’t deny that this was exactly how he thought that she would react. “But you weren’t gone as long as us, Kairi. Riku and I have been gone for almost two years, so much has happened to us.” He knew that arguing with Kairi was not the best way to go about clearing things up.

“For fuck’s sake, Sora. I’m a princess and I never knew about that! And on top of that, I can use a keyblade now too. Not to mention that I feel like I’ve got another person sharing my body at all times now too. And Radiant Garden of all places? That’s my home world, remember? If anyone from this island should be able to go live somewhere else, it should be me!” tears began to fall from Kairi’s eyes, and Riku let out a soft sigh.

“Can it, Kairi. We don’t need your sob story.” He said, turning away from the hysterical girl, only to look at Sora. The brunet had a pained expression on his face, and Riku knew that it was hard for his boyfriend to see one of their closest friends in anguish, but she was going too far.

“Riku, you’re so heartless!” Kairi cried, before clasping her hands over her mouth. Riku got a strange look on his face, before diving off the side of Papou Island and swimming back over to shore. Sora could only watch as the silver hair faded off into the distance before disappearing close to the shack they had set up camp in.

“Sora, I didn’t mean to say that! Why is Riku so touchy about that anyway?” the redhead asked the brunet, calming down quickly as she saw how hurt her friend was at her words.

“Think about it, Kairi. I was turned into a heartless in front of Riku, he was in the body of the man who tried to destroy the worlds using heartless, and he’s only just lost the darkness that has been inside him for a long time. Of course he’s upset that you called him that.” Sora shrugged, still holding onto the paper that granted him and Riku passage to another world. “Besides, you’re not the only one that is sharing their body with someone else. Roxas is with me just as much as Naminé is with you.”

Kairi flushed a little at her selfishness, before sliding down the trunk of the tree. “I guess he has a reason for storming off like that.”

“Yeah. And think about how happy you have been here on the island for the past year and a bit since you returned. Riku and I could never have that again. I don’t even know if my parents remember me. Riku has been living in the darkness too long, and really, he was never happy here anyway.” Sora sat down beside Kairi, as much as he wanted to follow after Riku, he knew that the silver haired teen needed some privacy to tackle his demons.

“But Sora…you promised.” Kairi whispered, somewhat knowing that she was arguing a losing battle.

Sora sighed. How could he explain this to her without completely breaking her heart? Just because he wasn’t going to be her prince charming, it didn’t give him the right to hurt her even more. “I know I promised. But, there really is no other way.” The brunet was whispering, afraid that if he spoke any louder, that Kairi would lose it all over again, then he would be right back to square one.
“Why haven’t either of you said anything about this before? Riku talked about coming back to the island so much when he was in Ansem’s body. How that no matter what he looked like, he would still be himself. And then just before I went through that last dark portal, both of you seemed excited to get back here. What could have changed in that short of a period?” Kairi’s voice once again broke with tears; the thought of her two best friends leaving her for good so soon after getting reunited was a tough blow.

With another short puff of breath, Sora attempted to get his thoughts in order to break the news off to Kairi. And also, how much exactly would he tell her? Should he tell her every reason why neither he nor Riku could be her prince charming, or leave some of the details to her imagination. Sitting back on his hands, Sora looked up at the salmon coloured sky. The sun was nearly gone behind the horizon now, and the colour began to bleed into the water, giving the horizon a supernatural glow.

“That night we spent in that abandoned building, Riku and I finally had some time to catch up and talk about…” Sora paused, not sure if he felt comfortable telling Kairi the status of his sexuality. “Well, we talked about a little of everything, really. And think about it, not only have we been gone for two years, but most people don’t even remember me. How would you feel going up to your parents for the first time in forever, only to get a blank look? I don’t think I could handle it.”

“But people are starting to remember! Selphie almost remembered your name before Axel kidnapped me. And no one actually forgot Riku, so why is he so scared to come back?” Kairi leaned forward, and started to draw a design in the sand. Her depression was apparent in her voice, and it was all Sora could do not to reach over to her and try and make everything better. But if he did that now, he would never get it through to her that they were just not meant to be.

“Kairi, please understand. Riku is in a very delicate situation right now. It’s been only a couple of days that he’s been back in his own body, you know? Besides, he wasn’t always on the side of light while we were gone. The darkness is still within him. It’s just not the most powerful right now.” Sora explained to her, watching carefully at what she was drawing the in sand. It was a papou fruit.

‘Stupid islands and their stupid myths.’ Sora thought to himself. ‘Glad that I’ll be getting off them soon. Only two more days and then Riku and I will be official residents of Radiant Garden.’

“You’re totally skirting around the question, Sora.” Kairi growled, quickly getting to her feet. The innocence that she normally held was not there in the least bit. “The three of us have always been together! First just as friends, then as the only ones from this island to visit other world, now the three of us are keyblade masters together! Why can’t it be like that?” Her words caused something in Sora’s mind to spark to life, and as he rose to his feet, he knew that it might be the only way to prove his point to the redhead.

“Draw your keyblade, then Kairi.” Sora hung his head to the ground, reaching his right arm out and allowing his keyblade to appear in one of his favourite forms, Oblivion.

Stunned at the request, Kairi just stared at her best friend standing there in front of her, his weapon drawn. “Sora?” Sora refused to look up at her calls, and he continued to stand there in that position, waiting for her to draw her blade. Kairi just stared in silence for a few more moments before she understood that he would not be moving until she pulled her keyblade into her hand from where ever it came from. Holding her hand out, she thought hard about it appearing, and when that didn’t work, she tried imagining what it had felt like in her hand. Once again, the mysterious blade refused to answer her calls and would not appear.

“Why? But I was using it the other day just fine!” Kairi’s voice wavered with unshed tears. She turned back to Sora, only to see that his keyblade had disappeared once more, and he was looking at her with a slight look of pity on his face. “Why? What did I do? Why can’t I make mine appear too?”

“Do you know where the keyblade comes from, Kairi?” his voice was soft, and was tight with emotion, but the reassurance that Kairi needed was not there.

“What does that have to do with any of this?” She stomped her foot once more, and Sora was starting to get annoyed with how childishly she was taking the situation.

“Everything, Kairi. Absolutely everything.” Sora replied, before taking a deep breath. “The keyblades come from within our hearts. That’s why as soon as someone else takes our keyblades, they always come right back to their owners. Because they are a part of that person. Kind of like when your heart was locked within mine. But we are able to pull that energy into a weapon. But when a heart is shrouded in darkness, you are unable to pull that energy. That means that no matter what, you won’t be able to drawn your keyblade.”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with my keyblade.”

Sora ran a hand through his hair once again, trying not to get frustrated with the girl standing in front of him. “Just keep listening. While in Ansem’s body, Riku was unable to use the keyblade. And Castle Oblivion just did fucked up things to everyone. But didn’t you notice that as soon as little parts of the real Riku began to show through the façade, he began to use the Way to the Dawn? The darkness was lifting off of him. He’s always had the ability to use the keyblade, his heart has always been strong enough. It just was clouded over with darkness. When the darkness began to leave, his ability returned.”

“Just get on with it please!” Kairi demanded, getting a little impatient, and very pissed off at her friend.

“Fine. Jealously is a type of Darkness, Kairi. That’s why when I was in Hollow Bastion that first time, I was jealous of Riku being able to be with you, so I lost my keyblade. He told me that he was the true keyblade master, that I was just the delivery boy, but that was completely untrue. He got it through his dark powers he had at the time. His heart wasn’t completely lost then. Anyway, whatever. You’re jealous, Kairi. Admit it. There is darkness in your heart right now, and it is because it is what Riku and I are going to share without you.” It pained Sora to tell her this way, but with the way that she had been acting, this was the only way that he was going to get through.

Kairi stopped immediately at Sora’s words, and grew utterly anger with him. “There is no darkness in my heart! I am a princess of heart! I can’t have darkness in me!” With each comment she began to cry a little more, and by the end of her rant, she had completely broken down and had fallen to her knees.

“Kairi, can’t you understand that Riku and I want to have some time just to be who we want to be? Not who we have to be, or who others want us to be. Just to be us. We just want to spend the time together, and see what we have missed over the past two years. Right now, Riku and I are in the same situation, we’re the only ones who understand each other.” Sora knelt down beside, placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort, though he knew that it was probably do little good. Kairi was pissed off. And when Kairi got pissed off, it was normally better to stay out of the way.

“You make it sound like you are sleeping with him, Sora.” She snarled, brushing his hand away from her. The redhead then turned to her childhood friend and sent a cold glare at his that froze Sora all the way through. He was so surprised at her comment, as well as her tone of voice that he didn’t reply to the comment. Unfortunately, Sora’s lack of response was exactly what Kairi was expecting. “Fine, so that’s how it is, is it? You guys didn’t want me to get hurt because I’ve been in love with you both all my life, huh? You figured that it would be better if you two just moved away, to have all the ass sex you could ever want, and I would never know the difference because I was worlds away, right?” Kairi’s face showed her anger, and it was a sight he thought he would never see.

A princess of heart with her face so contorted in darkness that she was almost unrecognizable.

Sora replaced his hand, feeling as if he needed to maintain the contact to comfort her. “Kairi, you have to understand. Riku told me that he has had these feelings for a long time. And I have them too. We aren’t naïve little boys any more, we’re experienced, but at the same time, we are completely innocent. We lost two years of our lives, Kairi. You got to have that time to grow. Riku and I didn’t. He was stuck in his enemy’s body, and I woke up in an unfamiliar body too. Don’t you see? We have a connection, one that we don’t want broken, ever.” Sora knew explaining things to the red head would do little, but he still had to try. His hand was pushed off her shoulder and she turned her whole body away from him.

“Fuck you, Sora.” She whispered, her voice so quiet that Sora had to strain to hear it. He was hurt by her words, but was totally drained from trying to reason with her, so Sora decided to leave the rest for the morning. He would try to get her to understand their reasoning the next day, there was nothing more that he was willing to try tonight. The sun was almost fully gone now, and the only light was coming from the moon and a small camp fire on the beach, where Riku must have started cooking some food for the two of them.

As Sora began to walk away, Kairi realized that her tactic was not working and she had to come up with another plan and fast. If she was going to make her own happily ever after, she would have to resort to drastic measures. Without another thought, the redhead burst into tears, and just as she hoped, Sora stopped walking away from her and turned back.

“Sora, I feel so awful! You must hate me!” She wailed, shrouding her face with her hands, and she felt the recognizable weight of Sora’s hand resting once again on her shoulder.

“I could never hate you, Kairi. Just like I could never hate Riku. The two of you will always be my best friends. It doesn’t matter who we are or aren’t dating, or what worlds we live in. We’re always going to be best friends.” He whispered, pulling the hysteric girl into a hug and allowing her to weep relentlessly on his shoulder.

Kairi lifted her head after a few minutes and sniffed the rest of her tears away. “All I wanted to do was make Naminé and Roxas happy. I wanted to be able to give them back what they had, even if they would have to live it out through our bodies.”

That comment shot right through Sora like a dart. What Roxas and Naminé had? As far as Sora knew, the two were only ever friends, even during their days with Organization XIII, before Roxas mutinied and went to Twilight town. Kairi was trying to play him for a fool! And he had almost bought it. Sora was losing his respect for the girl who was clinging to him like he was a life support, and as much as he hated to admit it, he wasn’t sure if he was going to miss her now or not. But if he was leaving, he was going to go with a proverbial bang.

“And what kind of relationship was that now, Kairi?” he asked in a very whimsical tone, hoping that she wasn’t going to catch on to the fact that he was now on to her.

“They were really close; Roxas had even promised that he would marry her when they were older. Naminé has told me all this through my dreams. I think that if you left, Sora, you’d feel the pain that Roxas would have felt losing Naminé. Even if they are no longer their own entities, they still deserve a small chance at happiness, right Sora?” Kairi lifted her violet eyes to Sora’s, and it scared the brunet at how sincere she looked right now. If he hadn’t known better, he would have bought it hook, line and sinker.

“That’s not true!” A memorable voice came from somewhere, causing Sora to jump away from Kairi, who at the moment resembled a deer caught in headlights. A flash of blond hair passed in front of him, and Sora knew at that moment that Naminé was going to have her say in the matter. What worried him was that Roxas would want his say, and Sora wasn’t sure what would happen if they were to separate again.

“What was that?” Kairi’s voice now trembled with fear, and she fell back onto her backside, trying to crawl away from everything that was going on here. It was all just a little too far out of her league to understand. As Kairi began to back up, a bright light shone out, causing Sora to lift his arm up and shield his eyes.

As the brunet eased his eyes open once again, he was greeted by a not entirely surprising sight. There, standing in front of Kairi was her nobody, slightly transparent, clad in the same white dress and sandals that everyone associated with the blonde girl.

“Hi, Naminé. How are you?” Sora said with a smile, before feeling a strange rumbling in his stomach. “Roxas is coming out too. Hold on.” He told the two girls, before closing his eyes and holding out his arms. It was a strange feeling, a nobody being born without the creation of a heartless, but at the same time, it felt completely natural, as if they were meant to be able to do this.

The next thing that happened was as odd a feeling as anything that had ever come to pass. Sora watched as his nobody walked casually from his body, as transparent as Naminé. The blond boy went and stood beside the blonde girl, and gave her a small smile.

“Hi, Naminé. Long time no see.” Roxas said, giving her wave.

“It really hasn’t been that long, Roxas.” She giggled, cocking her head to one side.

“What the fuck is going on?” Kairi demanded, finally making her way back to her feet. The redhead glared at the newly formed nobodies, but both blondes just ignored her and turned to face the brunet.

“Sora, I think that you’ve been having some dreams of my memories lately.” Roxas grinned while saying this, and Sora knew right away exactly what dreams that he was talking about. This caused a slight crimson colour to take over his normally pale cheeks.

“Oh, are they the good ones that he used to tell me about?” Naminé exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm for Roxas’ liking, clasping her hands together in front of her.

Roxas just nodded in response. “Kairi is lying to you, Sora. I think that you may have already figured that out. Naminé and I were never more that best friends. I never promised to marry her or any of that stuff that she was claiming.”

“Roxy and I were only good friends. There was someone else that had already captured his heart long before he ever met me.” Naminé looked so serene whenever she spoke; it was hard to imagine that she was the nobody of the girl standing right behind her. The look on Kairi’s face had gone completely from scared and confused to downright pissed off and ready to kill at a moments notice.

“I knew that in a way. I think that is also the reason why I could never be more than friends with Kairi.” Sora added, then continued as to put his own fears to rest. “Are the two of you okay with me going to live in Radiant Garden? I mean, I promised you not that long ago that you two would be able to see each other every day. Now only a couple of days later, I am breaking that promise.”

“But Sora, you weren’t the one to promise that. Kairi was. You only agreed.” Naminé pointed out, never losing her smile. “You were reluctant to do so as well. Besides, we don’t need to see each other to know that we care about one another. We’ll always have our memories. The good ones…”

“…And the bad ones.” Roxas finished off her sentence, looking down at his left hand. “I will always have these bands as well. One from you and one from him.” With those words, Roxas clenched his hand into a fist, before looking up directly at Sora. “You should never be without the one you love. Especially if he is as important to you as Axel is to me.”

“What, is the whole world gay now?” Kairi growled, feeling the need to make her presence known once again. She was getting really mad now, the fact that her nobody was siding with someone else was not going over too well with her.

“But Roxas is Sora’s nobody. And the fact that Sora has always been in love with Riku somewhat manifested itself in Roxas. But because Riku never had a nobody, Roxas found a substitute. And the closest he got was Axel. But that bond that they made was very strong. So strong that Sora could feel it when he met Axel, and that’s why when Axel faded away, he did so happily. He could feel Roxas’ love through Sora. Sora’s bond with Riku is as strong, if not stronger than that. That’s why Sora only had to close his eyes to see Riku through the darkness. I was the one who had to show you, through my powers of darkness. I’m sorry, Kairi. But you and Sora were never meant to be together.” Naminé tried to tell the redhead as gently as possible, but knew deep inside that it was useless. Her next actions would only confirm that.

“I hope you both rot in hell, Sora!” Kairi screamed, turning and running away from Sora and the two nobodies.

Naminé slowly started to fade away, but the smile never left her face. “Sora, I forgive you. Do what you must to ensure that you are happy. Roxy, I’ll never forget you. Don’t forget me.” She smiled with a small wave, before disappearing completely, leaving Sora standing there speechless.

“Don’t forget to look sharp.” Roxas grinned, startling Sora. “And grow a backbone. None of this would have happened if you had just sucked it up and admitted that you liked Riku before everything happened.”

The brunet just laughed at his nobodies comments, before offering up his own. “Just be sure never to pop out like this when Riku and I are getting busy, alright?”

This time it was the blonds turn to laugh. “No promises there. I really mean it when I say that you make a good other.” And with that fleeting comment, a bright blue light flashed as Roxas stepped towards Sora, disappearing to that place only he knew about deep within Sora’s soul.

“So do you, Roxas.” Sora whispered, knowing that Roxas would be able to hear him.

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Anways, so here is the next chapter! I really like the end result of this chapter, and who knows, maybe I’ll be able to stretch another two out of this plot. I’m planning on at least one more; the only problem will be to get it done. Work is still hectic as always, not to mention having a hard time medically. I swear, I’m going to go live in a bubble, but my luck, I’d be allergic to the bubble.

And here is the normal begging for a new beta, please? Anyone? I give out free hugs and lots of praise, as well as lots of cookies! Twin is so confused, she’s never played the games and I just keep adding new elements and she is getting sick of having me explain every little detail to her. Please, help me put her out of her misery! Just email me at crimson__passion @ hotmail.com (just remove the spaces).

Alrighty then, no promises when the next chapter will be out, a lot depends on if I decide to go with one or two more chapters. Let’s just see how much I can stretch the plot out before it breaks. Once again, thanks to everyone for all the wonderful support! Until next time, please read, review and recycle! Ta-ta!