It's [not] your birthday!! okroginator

[sincere]

Happy extremely belated birthday,
okroginator!
Riku/Kairi drabble for you~



On their last day of school, they all skipped class and went out to the play island to sit around a campfire, drinking soda and eating s'mores until it had seemed like an absolutely fantastic idea to see who could do the most cartwheels in a row. Riku had the foresight to bring a project to work on, a little piece of wood that he shaped with a knife while they celebrated themselves sick and collapsed to the sand in laughter. Eventually, as the day began to fade away, they settled in to reminisce.

"But who would've thought Riku would be here, man?" Tidus asked, his eyes narrow and fey in the dying light. "I was so sure the moment he graduated he'd be off like a bullet, studying in some far-away land. Remember how antsy you used to be?"

Everyone laughed, and so did Riku. He kept his gaze on the piece of wood, but he drawled, "I stopped thinking that way a long time ago, Tidus. Try to keep up. Or do you pay as much attention to your friends as your homework?"

Wakka hooted and punched the smaller boy in the shoulder; Tidus protested, "Hey, I passed, didn't I?"

Kairi leaned forward over her knees, arms coiling loosely over them, and said, "I think Riku's changed the most out of all of us," and she was smiling. "It's a good thing."

With his head bowed over the little piece of wood, she probably couldn't see the way he stropped breathing, just for a moment. Riku mustered a smile when he looked up, just for her. "Yeah, well, you'd better appreciate it. Back then I tried to set you up with Sora, thinking it was for the best -- and look what a loser that guy turned out to be."

This time Riku only heard half the laughter, as Sora wrapped an arm around his head and tried to give him a noogie; Riku protested, "Hey, I've got a knife, watch it!" The words came out slightly muffled as Sora proved victorious... at least, since Riku was distracted.

Sora flopped back down and leaned back on his hands, asking reasonably, "Why did you keep shoving me at her, anyway? I always thought you wanted me to admit that I liked her, but you stopped after the storm."

"Oh, so you still like Kairi?" Riku countered coolly, to oooohs from the watching trio. Kairi flushed and Selphie leaned into her side.

"Nah. I mean, I like her a lot," Sora said, grinning quickly at her, but he leaned back and looked up at the stars. "But I guess after the storm, I was just happy to be with all my friends. I didn't want to change anything."

Riku's heartbeat settled back into its normal place; he knew that it would be Sora's answer, had guessed it probably before even Sora had realized it, but it still felt good to know for certain. "Maybe that's why," he said, whittling another shred of wood away.

Sora had changed, too, after the ambiguous storm that was still the only reference to their respective travels that they felt comfortable using around their friends, but Kairi was right, and it was Riku who had changed the most, and it was Riku's change that had made things different.

All he'd ever wanted, before the storm, was to get off this rock. See other places, learn new things, adventure. Sora and Kairi had wanted to come because he was their friend, and he had made it sound exciting, but their hearts belonged to the Destiny Islands, and they didn't have the same passion for leaving that Riku felt inside him.

He'd always assumed that Kairi would be happy here, on the beaches and in the town. In his mind he'd imagined her settling down with Sora, in a cute two-story house with a white picket fence, and living happily ever after, and if his heart had twisted a little at the thought it had only been a little, because she'd only be unhappy living the life he had wanted for himself.

But Riku had changed. He didn't want to leave anymore. He'd finally realized that his heart was here, too.

So it was probably for the best that Sora didn't want to settle down with Kairi anymore, because Riku had been thinking about cute two-story houses with white picket fences lately.

Selphie said philosophically, "It's kind of sad, though. Since Sora went all mushy on us, that means nobody we know hooked up with any of their childhood friends. I thought that was, like, tradition!"

Wakka demanded, "What, you don' think Lulu gonna say yes when I ask her out to graduation?" and responded to more gales of laughter with, "What?!"

Riku smirked to himself, and kept whittling his block of wood into the shape of a paopu fruit.