Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Eye of the Storm ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

And a quick reminder about the 4 OC's in this story:

Skylar Strifehart (16-years-old) (Leon and Cloud's daughter)

Sorika Kagi (15-years-old) (Riku and ? 's daughter)

Nerina (14-years-old) and Andrew (15-years-old) Tillmitt (Tidus and Selphie's daughter and son)


Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I do, however, own Nerina, Andrew, Sorika, Skylar, and any other OC's made up for the purpose of this fanfiction.

Destiny Gardens

Sorika staggers in the door to her house after spending the night and the whole morning with Yuffie, Cid, and Haruko. In the short time she spent with them, Sorika has been set on a strict diet and exercise program and given weights to wear to strengthen her endurance. She also has a third training schedule added on to her daily routine.

“Dad, I’m home!” She calls as she slips off her shoes.

Laughter coming from the living room catches Sorika’s attention. She frowns in confusion and walks down the hall to look into the living room. She looks in the room and her eyes widen in surprise when she sees her dad and Sora sitting on the couch talking and laughing. It’s the most cheerful that she has ever seen her dad.

“Dad?” She asks.

Riku looks up in surprise, the smile fading from his face a little. Sora looks up at her as well and his smile wavers a moment.

“Sorika, where have you been?” Riku asks, more than angry at himself for not worrying about where his daughter is. His anger unintentionally leaks into his voice a little.

Sorika tugs her bad further up on her shoulder, noticing the anger in her father’s voice. “Yuffie made me stay with her overnight.” She explains.

“Oh.” Riku looks a little relieved. ‘Of course she stayed with Yuffie. I’m certain that is was Yuffie who convinced Sora to come here anyway.’ He glances over at Sora for a moment, confused by the less-than-happy look on his friend’s face. Then he looks back over at his daughter. “Sorika, this is--”

“Sora. I know.” Sorika says. “He’s teaching me how to use a key blade. Didn’t Yuffie tell you?” She asks.

Riku rolls his eyes toward the ceiling and mutters something degrading about a certain black-haired ninja. “It must have slipped her mind.”

Sorika shifts her feet uneasily. She wracks her brain for some way to escape the tension in the room. “I’m going to go change.” She hurriedly says before rushing off to her room.

Riku and Sora remain silent for a minute or two. The silence envelops them and makes it difficult for either of them to know what to say.

“So, you’ve been training Sorika?” Riku tries to strike up a conversation.

Sora nods. “When I got here and went to see Yuffie she dropped the news on me. She didn’t even tell me that Sorika’s your daughter. I found out for myself when she asked if I knew you. That was about a month ago.”

“But why key blade training?” Riku asks. “The heartless are gone, right?” When Sora hesitates, not wanting to tell Riku the truth, Riku gently prods him. “Sora?”

“The heartless will never be gone, Riku.” Sora says softly. “There will always be darkness in the hearts of people. But at least now there are more people to fight them. The worlds that have been invaded are all ones that have people capable of fighting them.”

“So they’re more attracted to people with strong hearts?” Riku asks.

“Yeah, so no more running around to strange worlds anymore.” Sora breathes a sigh of relief and then gives Riku a smile. “So you can’t get rid of me now. I’m back for good.”

“You’re not going back to Destiny Island?” Riku asks curiously.

Sora shakes his head. “No. Too many memories. What about you?”

“Same here.”

0-0-0

Sora sighs for the umpteenth time in the past ten minutes and Kairi gives him an annoyed look. Unfortunately for her, they’re in class and so she can’t try and talk to him. Instead she decides to crumple up a piece of paper and throw it at him. She giggles when it sticks in his spiky hair.

“Miss Heartstone, would you care to explain to the class what you find so amusing?” The teacher asks.

Kairi flushes in embarrassment and shakes her head quickly. She would rather wait until after class to talk to Sora rather than get in trouble for passing notes now that the teacher is keeping an eye on her.

Fortunately, she doesn’t have to wait for too long before the bell rings. She catches Sora before he can sneak off like he’s done in every other class and drags him down the hallway to an empty classroom so they can talk.

“Alright, you.” Kairi puts her hands on her hips and stares down Sora. “What’s with you today? You’ve been sighing and staring off into space ever since history class!”

“It’s nothing, Kairi.” Sora tries to convince the redhead.

Kairi gives him an unconvinced look. “It most certainly is not nothing! Tell me what it is, Sora, or I’ll go and get Riku and get him to get you to talk!” A predatorily smirk crosses her face when Sora blushes at the mention of Riku. “Ah, so this is a Riku problem.”

Sora’s eyes widen in alarm. “No! No, it’s not!”

Kairi giggles and clasps her hands behind her back. “Sora likes Riku!” She sings. “Sora’s got a crush on Riku!”
Sora frantically waves his hands, trying to get Kairi to stop singing. It only serves to make Kairi giggle more and start singing the most infamous of the teasing songs.

“Sora and Riku sitting in a tree!”

“Kairi!” Sora bemoans. “Stop!”

Kairi giggles again and stops singing. “I’m just teasing you, silly.” She puts her hands back on her hips. “Now tell me this, Sora Hikari; have you been sighing over Riku all morning?”

Sora avoids Kairi’s gaze. “Yeah…” To hiss surprise, Kairi squeals in happiness. “Kairi, what-?”

“This is great!” She exclaims, grabbing Sora’s hand. “Lets go find Riku!”

Sora does what any normal person would do and panics. “What?! Wait- no Kairi!”

Kairi won’t take no for an answer and drags Sora through the hallways to the lunchroom. That’s not to say Sora didn’t put up a good fight. He even escaped once or twice, even if it was only for a few seconds. He’s just no match for Kairi when she’s determined to do something.

In the lunchroom they find Riku getting ready to sit down at their usual table. Before he has a chance to sit down, Kairi grabs his hand and tugs both boys back out into the hall to locate an empty classroom. Sora continues to struggle but Riku follows willingly, although a feeling of dread does make him want to bolt.

The first classroom they come across is empty so they use that one for their discussion. Kairi makes sure to stand between the two boys and the door so they won’t escape.

“Alright. Riku, Sora has something he wants to tell you.” Kairi says.

“What?!” Sora exclaims. “Kairi, I do not!”

“Then you explain to him why you’ve been sighing and staring off into space all day.” Kairi says. She puts her hands on her hips once again, determined not to let Sora get away with not telling Riku. “Go on.”

Riku looks between Sora and Kairi. His feeling of dread increases but he’s also curious about what’s going on.
Sora stubbornly keeps his mouth closed and looks away.

“I’ll buy you ice cream every day for a month.” Kairi prods, knowing Sora can’t resist ice cream. “Come on, Sora. Think about it. Ice cream for a month if you tell Riku.”

Sora stays quiet, although he seems to think about the offer.

Kairi stamps her foot when Sora remains quiet for nearly a minute. “Sora! If you don’t tell him then I will!”

“No!” Sora yelps.

“If I leave the room, will you tell him?” Kairi asks.

Sora hesitates a minute and then nods. “I promise, Kairi.”

Kairi smiles and leaves the room. ‘It’s about time.’

0-0-0

Sora and Riku lay on the beach of their play island together, hand-in-hand.

“Hey Riku, we’ll always be friends, right?” Sora asks, his blue eyes worried.

Riku looks at Sora in confusion and sits up. “Of course we will. Why?”

Sora sits up as well and pulls his knees against his chest. He stares out at the ocean. “I… I don’t know.” He fibs, avoiding meeting Riku’s look of concern.

Both of them are silent for a moment.

“If I had to go away, you wouldn’t be angry with me, would you?” Sora asks.

“Maybe for a while.” Riku admits. He takes Sora’s chin and makes the smaller boy look at him. “But I’d be more angry at myself for letting you leave. You’re not planning on leaving, are you?”

Sora wordlessly hands Riku two envelopes. One of them is open and addressed to Sora and the other is closed and addressed to Riku. “They’re from Merlin and King Mickey.” Sora quietly explains. It should explain everything.” He stands up and brushes sand from his pants. “I need to get home. I’ll… see you.”

Riku watches as Sora runs off and then he turns his attention to the letters. He reads the letter for Sora fist and shakily sets it aside when he’s finished. He fights back tears and wins, although his heart aches with each breath he takes. He wait’s a few minutes and then opens his envelope from Merlin and King Mickey. He unfolds the letter and sneezes when a strange dust blows into his face. Riku ignores the odd powder and begins reading his letter. His heart lightens more and more with each word that he reads and by the time he’s done his heart is racing in his chest.

He grabs Sora’s letter from where it fell in the sand and stuffs both letters into his pocket before dashing to his boat to get back to the main island. He has a certain brunet to see.

0-0-0

Hollow Bastion- Sunset Boulevard

Skylar stands outside a small blue house trying to decide if it’s a good idea to have a sleepover with Rikku. Before she can decide for herself the door opens to reveal Rikku standing there with a broad smile on her face.

“Skylar, you’re here!” Rikku happily squeals. She grabs Skylar’s arm and tugs her into the house. “I’m so happy you’re finally here! We’re going to have so much fun tonight!”

Skylar lets Rikku drag her through the house without putting up much of a fight. She remembers from childhood that the best way to handle Rikku is to let her do what she wants as long as it’s within reason.

“Skylar, won’t you let me do your hair?” Rikku asks pleadingly. She pouts and bats her eyelashes, which makes Skylar laugh.

“Alright, alright!” Skylar gives in. “Just don’t get it all tangled up like you did when we were kids.”

Rikku just cheers and tugs Rikku into her bedroom, happy to finally be able to style her old friends hair. It’s something she’s wanted to do for a while after noticing that Skylar always wore her hair down or in a low ponytail.

Rikku makes Skylar sit down on her bed and then collects a hairbrush, comb, and a tin she keeps her hair beads, clips, pins, and bands in. Then she hops over to the bed and makes Skylar turn around. She begins humming a tune as she brushes Skylar’s hair.

“Nothing too crazy.” Skylar tells her. “That’s all I ask.”

Rikku smiles. “So does that mean I can use scissors, or no?” She asks, wondering how far she can take the hair styling.

Skylar hesitates a minute, unsure of whether she trusts Rikku with a sharp object near her head or not. Feeling daring she says, “Sure. Why not.”

Rikku looks surprised but shrugs it off and continues brushing Skylar’s hair. “Alright then! Prepare to be amazed!”

0-0-0

“Roxas, I’m home!” Skylar yells into the unusually quiet house.

“Repairing the hole!” Roxas yells back, his voice coated with agitation.

Skylar walks into the living room and smiles at the sight of Demyx, Roxas, and Axel trying to figure out the best way to patch up the hole in the wall. Naminé and Zexion are sitting on the couch watching the three.

When they notice that Skylar is in the room they all look over to say a quick ‘hi’ before going back to doing what they were before. Then they all do a double take, unsure if they saw Skylar correctly.

“Skylar, what happened to you?” Roxas asks, shocked by his sister’s new look.

Skylar grins and spins around, which causes her dark blue, knee-length skirt to flare out and multiple beads in her hair clink together. “You don’t like it?”

Axel scowls and looks back at the wall.

“It’s…” Roxas searches for the right word. “Different. Did you cut your hair?”

Skylar nods. “Yeah. Rikku wanted to do my hair and then insisted that we go shopping. And let me tell you, trying to talk Rikku out of doing something is like trying to convince Axel that water isn’t evil.”

Axel mutters something under his breath and Skylar scowls. The others look at Axel in surprise, wondering why he didn’t make a loud remark on how water is the bane of the universe.

“Everyone out.” Skylar says, staring straight at Axel’s back. “Axel needs some sense beat into him like usual.”

Zexion, Naminé, Roxas, and Demyx file out of the room to go to the backyard. Something similar has happened before with them all there and they’ve all sworn not to interfere again.

It doesn’t take Skylar too long to knock some sense into Axel, in a very literal sense. The two of then tend to solve arguments or disagreements with one another by actually fighting before they talk. No one’s been able to figure out how they solve things that way, but it’s just the way their friendship works.

Axel and Skylar nurse their wounds, a few bruises, carpet burn, and a scratch or two, while they talk. They don’t talk about Rikku though, at least not at first. When the subject is brought up, it’s Axel who brings it up.

“So, are you going to dress like that from now on and start hanging out with Rikku all the time?” He asks.

Skylar makes a face. “Hell no!” She exclaims. “But I’m not going to not hang out with Rikku. She’s my friend, Axel. And anyway, this is the only thing I got when she dragged me off to go shopping. Well, and this.” She takes a small box out of her pocket and hands it to Axel. “I saw it and just knew you had to have it.”

Axel eagerly opens the box and grins when he sees a lighter with flames and the number 8 printed on it.

“And there’s a thing of lighter fluid that’s out in the backyard along with a whole stack of logs.” Skylar mentions. “We also have hot dogs and marshmallows.”

Axel grins and gets up. “Lets go forget the wall and burn logs instead! To the yard!” With his new lighter in tow, he runs from the room, happy to be able to light something on fire and not get in trouble for it.

Skylar laughs and watches as he leaves. When she hears him shout, “Burn, logs! Burn!” She gets up and heads to the backyard to make sure Axel doesn’t go too crazy with the lighter fluid. It has happened before.

0-0-0

Bast: (gasps) What's this? An update? The world is going to end! (falls over)

Shiro: It hasn't been that long.

Bast: It's been over a month, baka.

Shiro: (glares) I know that! You don't have to remind me!

Bast: Hmm... Now if you would write all of your chapters in two days we wouldn't have this problem, now would we?

Shiro: Shut up, Bast. Just shut up.