Chapter Text
Canon (A piece of music where each part begins the song at a different time)
Kairi doesn’t even knock when she storms into the office and slams her hands down on the table, making Master Ansem jerk up from his papers, “I’m taking a vacation. And Riku and Sora as well.”
“Kairi? What is this about?”, the elder man looks up at her and lifts his eyebrows, “Not that I mind, you haven’t had a vacation in close to a year, but… Does this have a reason?”
“Cabin fever in the lab. If I have to tolerate Ienzo’s rants about heartless types one more time, I will shove my keyblade where the sun doesn't shine. Also, Aqua sent Riku away for a month for a much needed break after he started showing signs for Burnout and Sora just got back from his mission, so… We need bonding time.”, Kairi crosses her arms and huffs, “Again, heartless types. I fought those things. I know them, I don’t need to go through another five hundred scans of them, when my specialty is dream and memory magic, this is not how flirting works!” Throwing her hands up, she sends a pleading look towards her boss, who sighs.
“And I miss my friends. Please?”
“Fine. How long?”
“A week? Two? Two. I still need to talk Master Yen Cid into letting Sora go for a while, but that would do.”
Ansem nods, taking out another pile of papers and offering Kairi a page, “Fill this out. You are going tomorrow, I presume?”
She lifts a thumbs up and grabs the piece of paper and a pen she digs out from her coat pockets, “I’ll let Namine know what I’m working on so she can keep an eye on my data. If anything arises, she has my number. Nothing should happen, it’s just basic dream monitoring and after we got the nightmare problem handled last year the Dream Eaters should stay quiet. But just in case.”
“How is Floofers?”, the man interrupts.
Kairi laughs. After they introduced the man to their dream eaters, Amsem may have fallen in love with the adorable little creatures and Kairi started working on maybe summoning the precious little spirits to the real world. It’s a slow progress, with little success, but if Sora can summon an avalanche of them, she might find a way to keep them materialized outside of their dream.
“She’s great. Impatient, but great. Cookie is keeping her company during her pregnancy, so I work with Komory most of the time. Though I might steal Riku after the vacation for a test or two. Or five. Maybe it will work better if the actual summoner of the spirit is the one calling it to the real world.”
And she is going to steal Sora’s heartbinder for science. He won’t mind. If her plan works out.
The old man hums in agreement, and takes the paperwork back, signs it and smiles up at the young lady in front of him, “Then I hope that you will have fun. Where are you taking the boys?”
Boys, he says, like they are still fourteen and green behind their ears and not two masters in their respective fields. All three of them, actually.
Kairi grins, “Disney Town. Queen Minnie reminded me of the fair this year and I wanted to see the fireworks, at least. So why not make it a whole vacation with my friends?”
She blackmails Riku with puppy eyes and guilt trips.
“Just two weeks, Riku.”, she pleads.
“It will be fun.”, her eyes grow larger with every word.
“Just like old times.”, she promises and crosses her fingers behind her back.
He relents within seconds. Must have been really bored after two days of his forced break. Aqua sighs in relief when Kairi drags both best friend and his suitcase out the door and mouths a “good luck” at her and Kairi sticks her tongue out at the older woman, who just tugs at her own jacket to indicate that Kairi is still wearing her lab coat.
She likes her lab coat. It’s fun how it swishes behind her whenever she turns and awes the younger apprentices.
Once outside and in front of the gummi ship, Kairi pulls Riku down backwards and pulls his hair into a tight ponytail.
“When was the last time you cut your hair? And don’t tell me it was last year when I dragged you to my aunt’s.”, Kairi lets the hair tie snap shut and lets go, watches the man rise to his full height and pulls a face when she realizes that she is barely reaching his chest, “Please tell me you stopped growing. Do you even fit through doors now?”
Riku laughs and flicks her forehead and Kairi kicks his shin, if only because slapping him anywhere is too much of a hassle and she can’t reach the fun places.
“Yes, barely and no, I had no time.”
“You didn’t take on any students this year, how is it that you have no time? You should have more time and not less!”
He coughs into his hand, “Terra needed help with lesson plans and we had to rebuild a whole staircase after Ven and Van managed to ruin it with one of their spars. Again. And I may have stolen one of Aqua’s students.”
“Start talking. We definitely haven’t talked in too long.”, her hands punch in the digits to open the gummi ship and Riku whistles at the wider interior, “Yeah, I asked Moogle about an upgrade. Felt too cramped, I didn’t like it.”
She got two more beds installed, the fancy ones you can pull from the wall, with matching cupboards. Just in case they ever manage to do that world hopping trip they have been planning for ages. And since she doesn’t trust Sora’s Highwind with her life, well. Upgrade it is.
“Looks good. So, now…”, Riku falls into the chair beside hers and sends a longing glance to the empty one on the other side, a glance Kairi doesn’t miss as she revs up the engine and starts the ship.
Right, he doesn’t know that Sora's back yet, the poor guy arrived late last night and just managed to send Kairi a text before crashing. Riku would have called if he managed to text him as well, so she concludes that the silver haired man has no idea about their friend’s return and isn’t that a perfect surprise.
So she tells him only half the truth, “I still need to pick something up at the Mysterious Tower, so we’ll make a pit stop there and afterwards, it’s a short hop to Disney Town.”
“Isn’t that a five hour flight? In every direction?”, Riku asks and only gets a smirk as his answer.
Kairi plugs her phone in and her grin widens once Riku’s face contorts in realization.
“The deal was that you never choose the music, Kairi!”
“My ship, my rules, Riku. And if I want to listen to cheery pop songs, you are listening with me. Have fun humming the whole playlist for the next few months!”
She cackles.
He only groans.
Sora is still out cold when they land and Kairi stomps off to the office with the air of purpose only a woman on a mission possesses. She leaves Riku in the ship to recover from his “five hour torture” and to keep jis surprise a secret and stalks up into the tower. Usually, Sora would spend a day or two recovering from jet lag, she remembers, then maybe another day or two preparing and then he’s off on another mission. That’s what ruined their relationship after all, the little time they spend together and Sora’s inability to say no to people in need. Which is what Yen Cid is abusing shamelessly and she is so, so sick of this.
“Time to retire, old coot…”, she growls and slams the door open, voice rising, “Sora’s taking a vacation and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Both she and Riku have stopped showing the older man respect, after they realized the true extent of damage that possessing the power of waking has on its hosts, after they watched their best friend almost crash and burn from exhaustion and overuse of it. And Yen Cid knew, back then, in the war, what it would do to Sora. He knew, and he let that happen and that is one thing both Kairi and Riku will never forgive. And even if the older man had no idea, that still makes him the bone at fault for burdening Sora with a power that takes consequences and no prisoners.
She doesn’t hate this man, but she lost her respect the day Sora broke down in her arms and cried himself to sleep on Riku's shoulder after a particularly horrible nightmare.
They both did. Shame that Sora still answers to him, she would prefer Sora working for Mickey, at least that man knows when his people need a break.
Another point to talk to Queen Minnie about.
Sora has been gone for two years on this reconnaissance mission and Kairi missed him dearly, even with all the calls and letters and packages they tend to send to each other through the Moogles. And Kingdom Hearts knows how much Riku must miss their favourite idiot if his workload is to be believed.
At least she and Riku manage to have dinner together once in a while, but seeing Sora? It’s a rarity these months.
And she is sick of this.
Time to shine. She lifts her chin, sets her jaw into an expression of forced calm and levels the old man with a glare of defiance, daring him to say something against her. If he says no, she is going to kidnap Sora.
Master Yen Cid is sitting behind his desk, as always and she stops right in front of it, “It is nice to see you too, Kairi. Why don’t you take a seat?”
“I’m not staying long, we will just grab our friend and be on our way. I hope you don’t have any new missions for him?”, she asks sweetly, poison dripping off her lips, a promise of disaster, depending on his answer, “It would be a shame if you had to cancel them.”
He gives her a hard stare, one she doesn’t even flinch at after almost three years of knowing Aeleus and his resting bitchface.
I’m not afraid of you. , her eyes flare, shoulders tensing and ready to attack, this is not about you.
He needs a break, you old fool.
“He needs a break.”, she says aloud, “And I’m talking about an actual break and not one of your secret solitary missions. He needs his friends, an actual vacation. Fun. I assume you still know what those are.”
Triumph rushes through her blood when he twitches, sighs and nods in defeat.
And with no fight at all, surprisingly, in and out of the office in less than five minutes.
She doesn’t tell the man just how long she plans to keep Sora, that other plan just forming in the back of her head. She doesn’t say goodbye.
This has time, she has a more pressing problem up ahead right now. Namely, bonding time with her friends.
It’s still the usual room where she finds Sora, the other man freshly showered and with just a thin towel around his hips when she barges in and turns right on her heel with a scream, “Hearts, Sora! Put on some clothes!”
“You literally saw me regularly in less just over three years ago, Kai, why are you making a fuss now?”, he grouches and she hears the rustle of clothing and zippers until he gives her an affirmative “I’m dressed” huff so she can turn right back.
And throw herself into his arms, “I missed you, stranger.”
He laughs into her shoulder, all warm and fond and gentle, happy, though still quite tired. she makes up for it with her own energy, squeezing him closer and breaking a rib or two.
“I missed you too.”, Sora groans and curls into himself, “But do you have to prove that you can snap me in two if you want to every time we see each other?”
“Of course. Someone has to keep your ego in check after all, saviour of the worlds. Now. Off.”, she grabs his jacket and pulls it away, “No uniforms for the foreseeable future, we are going on a vacation. And there will be no fighting, no darkness, no work waiting for us there, just fun and friends and games.”
“But… I still have to debrief…”, Sora starts and quiets back down the second she glares at him, already at his wardrobe and throwing clothes into a bag, “Kairi, what did you do?”
“Nothing.”, she sing songs, “Just made sure that Yen Cid remembers that you are a human being.” Her lips curl into a smirk, then derail into something aghast once she sees just how little there is still left in the closet. “Sora, what the fuck did you do to your clothes? Where is all the stuff we bought last time? Don’t tell me you outgrew it, you are still a midget, we are still the same height. Why do you have five uniforms and not one more normal shirt left?”
“I.. tore… it… all? During the last mission?”
He sounds terrified. Good, she is going to kill him. Or…
“If Riku’s old clothes don’t fit, I will kill you.” These two shared their room during the war and Riku left all his old clothes here after he moved into the Land of Departure after he outgrew all his old things. Yellow might not be the best colour for Sora, but it will have to do and seeing him in his old clothes will break Riku, so that could be a blessing in disguise. She shoves a shirt into his chest, “A little tight, but it will do. I just need you to have enough to wear until we can go shopping again.”
Sora’s panicked glance towards the window is beautiful.
Kairi finishes packing and leaves Sora with something comfortable to change into, dragging his suitcase out. Riku is already waiting for her and opens the door, confusion written all over his face.
“Guess what?”, she sends him a kiss, “Watch the door.”
Sora’s things are shoved into a free cupboard and she is out of the ship fast enough to catch both boys seeing each other and it is perfect.
Riku’s jaw drops, Sora blinks. Blinks again.
And again and then the little shit actually blooms when he realizes just who is standing there, screaming “RIKU!”, rushing forward and tackling Riku into the dirt. Who is still frozen solid. Maybe the skin tight tank top and shorts were a bit too much.
“Eh.”, she shrugs and leans against the ship, waiting for her idiots to familiarize themselves with each other again, Sora positively cuddling the silver haired man, while Riku is slowly processing his arm full of his crush.
How Sora didn't notice that is anyone’s guess, but hey, it’s still Sora, so why are they guessing again?
Why Riku fails to notice Sora's feelings is an even bigger question. He is supposed to be the smart one.
Well, it seems like he lost his last two brain cells when he saw Sora, so…
“Where were we? Right. Boys, We still have a five hour flight ahead of us and I’m not switching so if you could move your reunion into the gummi ship, I would be most grateful.”, she pulls at sora’s ear and kicks Riku’s side and both boys turn a ridiculous shade of red and scurry into the ship faster than she can say “cute”. Sora rushes out not even a second later and runs off to his own ship, they hear something banging inside and a curse that makes both young adults lift their eyebrows before the brunet comes back with a cactus and an ivy plant, “I almost forgot sunspot and Kooma! Now we can go!”
The plants find a place on Sora’s side of the console and Kairi finally allows a breath of relief when she allows the situation to hit home.
She has her best friends in her ship, ready to get a much deserved break and for once safe, healthy and with no pressure to return in time.
“Okay, everyone, buckle up. Next destination: Disney Town!”