SHORT SUMMARY — WHERE NICK VLOGS LEIGHTON AND KAILEA TRYING NEW FRUITS WHILE ON VACATION
“Alrighttt so this is.. star fruit?” “Who wants to try this one?” Nick and Matt had been trying to get the kids to try new fruits for a while now and fortunately now that you guys were on vacation for a while it was the perfect opportunity “Kailea you wanna try it” Kailea nodded at her dad and reached up to gently grab the piece that was in nicks hand “be careful!” Kailea nodded at her dad again and took a small bite of the fruit before making a face of disgust “nasty” “too sour?” Kailea nodded at her uncle before looking at Leighton and offering up the same piece of fruit
Leighton grabbed it and took a bite before shaking her head “neither of you two like it?” “Too sour!” “Yeahhh I figured” Nick then offered to feed Kailea a slice of guava “yummy?” This time Kailea nodded and smiled “more please!” Nick chuckled and nodded before feeding her another slice “Leigh?” “You want some?” “What is it?” “Guava!” Leighton shook her head “you sure?” she then nodded and unknowingly grabbed a piece of the dragonfruit that Nick had been eating beforehand
Leighton then put the whole piece in her mouth and made a sound of satisfaction “yummy!” “You like that one?” Leighton nodded “so one of them likes guava and the other likes dragonfruit!” “Interesting.” Nick chuckled and agreed
“Alright last one!” Matt said as he gently fed the girls a piece of pineapple
Almost instantly both opened their mouth for another piece “guess we found a winner!” Matt chuckled before placing another piece of pineapple in both of the girls mouths
she loves!! jellycats, lip liner, yellow, cartoons, burritos, matcha, anything cutesy, my little pony, balloons, boba, demi and eli!! true and cute guys, farms, tube tops, yummy snacks, valentines day, her hair, being nice, having fun, sleeping, editing.
she doesn't like. hate, rumors, scratchy clothing, frizzy hair, coffee, being dry, homophobia, drama.
Isa glared over his shoulder at Lea as they approached the old mansion in Twilight Town, Roxas and Xion in tow. “Will you shut up? Riku should be here soon. Where’s Pence?”
“Riiight here!” A new voice sing-songed as Pence walked up, a big grin on his face as he stopped in front of the group.
“What’s up, Pence?” Roxas offered, grinning back at him as they clapped their opposite hands together, a friendly high five of greeting. “We need your help. We—“
Each pair of eyes swiveled toward the skyline when they heard the whir of the Gummiship overhead and saw it land somewhere in the vicinity of Station Heights.
Roxas nodded. “Riku. You sure you can do this, Pence?”
“Possibly. You guys didn’t give me much to go on when you called,” Pence replied. “It was easy enough to open a portal to the alternate Twilight Town with its mapping algorithm already in the system. But you’re asking me to try and connect the computer portal with an entirely different set of worlds than our own? Without even a technological footprint to follow.”
“We have a lead,” Isa said. “It’s Sora’s Gummiphone. Riku isn’t certain if the phones will work outside of our own Worldline.”
“But,” It was Xion now, “even if it isn’t working, we figured you might be able to trace it if Sora still has it on him. At least give Riku a....general launching off point.”
“Get him to a Worldline in the metaphorical ballpark of where Sora might be,” Lea chimed. “Got it memorized?”
Pence scratched his cheek thoughtfully, before adjusting his headband and shrugging with a negcous chuckle. “I mean, I can try. If the Gummiphone isn’t working, it might be impossible to track. It needs to be pinging off of a working cellular network tracker—the towers in town, the satellites when you guys are traveling between worlds. If he’s not near any of our Worldline’s trackers...”
“That’s where I thought my assistance might come in handy.”
All heads swiveled when Riku approached, walking next to a graying wizard with a pointed hat, an intelligent smile and a carpet bag. He waved at them.
“Had to make a stop in Radiant Garden to pick up an old friend,” Riku said. “If Sora’s phone isn’t working, Merlin’s magic might give it just enough of a kick to track him.”
“You hope,” Xion said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I hope,” Riku replied, looking up at the mansion. His eyes immediately trailed to Namine’s white room, and his heart clenched. “She didn’t come?”
“She said it’d be too hard to say goodbye again,” Roxas answered, his pursed lips crooked to the side. “Sorry, Riku.”
“It’s okay,” he replied. “I talked to her last night.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s get this over with. DiZ’s old computer room always did give me the creeps.”
Roxas snorted. “It just pisses me off.”
“We know,” Riku and Lea said in unison, and Isa covered up a small laugh with his fist, pretending to cough.
They entered the decrepit old house, and Riku tried to ignore the memories of months of walking through the rooms with Namine, both wearing his own face, and wearing Ansem’s. He missed her more being here, but also felt the darkness of his past haunt him as he relived those days. He knew who he was now but it still didn’t stop him from carrying his past in the back of his mind.
The group climbed the stairs and paused when Riku stopped at the top, his eyes trained on the hallway going in the opposite direction
“Library is this way, man,” Lea said, and then Riku shook his head.
“I’ll be right there,” he said. “Get everything started.”
“Riku, don’t—“ Roxas started, realizing where he was looking, only to be halted by a sharp glare.
“Go,” Riku said again, more firmly this time. He started walking down the hallway toward the room on the other end. Roxas sighed abd followed him, glancing st Isa, Xion and Lea. “Go on ahead. We’ll catch up.”
Lea nodded and shuffled everyone into the library, just as Riku reached for the door into the room on the other end. As he swung it open, a burst of stark white hit both of their eyes like bright paper or fresh snowfall. Riku paused, studying the room as his heart was flooded with memories.
Roxas stopped behind him. Riku never turned, his eyes trained on the drawings on the wall. Finally, still without turning, he murmured, “Do you love her?”
Roxas crossed his arms over his chest and approached a drawing of him in his Organization coat, standing next to Sora. His brows furrowed. “I thought I was supposed to. Because Sora loves Kairi.”
Riku finally turned, but his eyes trailed downward to the clean white table, brushing his fingers over it as he remembered talking to Namine about promises. “And now?”
“Now? I think everyone is content having their own hearts. Making their own decisions. Deciding who to love on their own,” Roxas replied, finally looking at Riku. “I’m not Sora. And Namine is not Kairi. You jealous?”
Riku, eyes still trained on the table surface, chuckled and shook his head, but: “Yeah, actually. I always figure it’d be you, or The Other Me. Never...me.”
Roxas approached Riku, causing the young man to lift his eyes finally, the green orbs widening at how familiar the friendly, encouraging gaze from Roxas was. It was Sora’s.
“Don’t sell yourself short. You deserve to be happy,” Roxas said, and laughed, “is I’m sure what Sora would say right now. But he’s right. If she picked you, there’s a good reason. Besides, I don’t think of Namine that’s ay. I realize now I don’t have to. She’s a really good friend—and all I want is for her to be happy.”
Riku chuckled, and nodded as he gazed around the room one final time.
“Which means you better come back to her,” Roxas instructed, his voice firmer now, more earnest. “Or I’ll hunt you down myself.”
Riku laugher and raised an eyebrow at him. “I think there’s more of Sora in you than you realize.”
Roxas rolled his blue eyes skyward, but grinned. “Guess I’m pretty lucky then.”
///////
Pence looked up from the computer when he heard footfalls coming down the stairs. Riku placed a hand on the back of the computer chair and leaned in. “Any luck?”
Pence pointed to Lea’s phone, plugged into the main console, trying to connect to Sora’s. “It keeps disconnecting. I can’t power the portal if it doesn’t go through. But...”
All heads swiveled to Merlin, who pulled out his wand and smiled. “Just in time, m’boy. I’m going to see if I can boost the signal beyond our Worldline.”
“Just don’t fry it like you did Cid’s computer,” Roxas said, a few of Sora’s memories still present inside him.
“Says the boy who played Keyblade Struggle on DiZ’s computer in the other Twilight Town,” Riku teased back with a smirk, causing Roxas to stick his tongue out at him.
“Just stand back and watch a professional work!” Merlin replies, and then, carefully, sent a jolt of Thunder through the phone. Everyone looked at Pence, who shook his head.
Merlin’s harrumphed, and then bumped the magic up to Thundara, careful not to pour it into the phone and computer all at once—he had learned since CID. Still, nothing. Finally, casting a small amount of Reflect on the phone’s circuitboard with some intricate swishes, and then pouring Thundaga directly into it, Pence’s eyes lit up as Merlin’s magic seemed to do the trick.
“I’ve got a signal! It’s super faint—hold onto that!” Pence said to Merlin and then began to type furiously, causing the portal to flare to life, not to the other Twilight Town but to an alternate set of worlds far and away outside of their own. “Haha! It’s open!”
The entire group exchanged glances, before their eyes landed on Riku. He held up his hand and his new keyblade appeared within his fingers. He stared at it for a moment before nodding, allowing it to vanish as he looked at the sparkling portal to worlds unknown. He looked at his friends—his friends.
“I’m going to bring Sora back,” he said.
Everyone was quiet, and then Roxas smiled, and nodded. “Yeah. We know.”
Riku smirked back at him, glad for his Sora-Like confidence in him. He said nothing else, but thanked them all with his eyes. Thanked them for being his friends. For believing in him. Finally, his eyes went back to Roxas again. “Take care of her.”
“I will.”
Riku wavered, But only for a moment, as he though about Namine, and then he turned, took one final look over his shoulder at them, and dove through.
That was when everything went black.
/////
When he awoke again, his gloved hands pushed themselves up on wet cement. Everything was dark, the only lights those of the street lamps and dimly lit skyscrapers.
He stood, rubbing his head and looked around. Yep. This definitely wasn’t King Mickey’s domain anymore.
Well, he though to himself, Sora’s here somewhere. Welcome to the new Worldline.
Isa’a eyebrow twitched in irritation as he heard the bootfalls on the floor of the small island house that he shared with his friend, Lea, at Lea pacing in front of him. He popped a teal eye open, his arms crossed tensely over his chest.
“What is wrong with you?” He mumbled, watching his friend pace and mumble to himself. “Lea. Lea.”
“Huh?” Lea finally blurted, realizing he was being spoken to, and breaking from his distant, anxious contemplation.
“What has got you so riled up?” Isa watched as Lea shrugged and plopped down next to him, sighing.
“Kairi,” He said. “She goes out to the small island every day and sits on that palm tree and waits. Stares out at the horizon and just waits.” He shook his head. “I never woulda left her.”
Isa rolled his eyes. “Lea, she’s Sora’s girl. That’s how it’s always been. That’s what Xehanort was counting on.” He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“He never counts on me. He counts me out. Always has,” Lea replied, and then rested his elbows on his knees and stared out the window at the sunset. “Never counted on me spending all that time with her. Guess I can kinda see why Sora’s crazy about her.”
Isa sighed and shook his head. “Lea, she’s not going to—“
“No I know. I know.” Lea’s green eyes shifted from the window to the floor and be wrung his fingers together a little. “Believe me, I already got that memorized. But I...I wanna make her happy. I wanna help Riku bring Sora back.”
Isa’a brows furrowed thoughtfully, and he stood up, beginning to pace himself, pacing for a while, his thumb and forefinger pressed against his chiseled jaw thoughtfully.
Lea watched him and then raised a fire-colored eyebrow. “Wow. You’re right—that is annoying.”
Isa glared at him. “Would you shut up? I’m thinking.” He paused in his pacing, turning his head and picking up his Gummiphone, before smirking. “I have an idea. Come on.”
////
Kairi heard the shuffle of feet and turned from her spot on Sora’s favorite curved palm tree, and saw Isa and Lea approaching. She smiled at Lea. “Axel.”
Lea blushed and grinned back. “Hey, so, crazy thing, when did we end up on a beach? Because I totally feel like working on my tan. Whaddaya think?” He flexed a little, how clearly pale skin finally visible without his long coat on.
Kairi laughed, and shook her head.
Lea softened. “There’s her smile.” He hopped up on the tree next to her. “Okay, so, Sora is gone—“ Kairi’s demeanor wilted, “and Riku went to find him. And Isa has an idea.”
Kairi’s eyes slid over her shoulder and she looked at Isa.
“I believe I remember you mentioning something,” Isa said as he hopped over the tree and leaned against the trunk on the opposite side of her. “Something King Mickey mentioned to you after Sora disappeared.”
Kairi’s brows furrowed, eyes downcast at the sand, before they widened, her head swinging quickly back toward Isa. “The card.”
“The card. Luxord’s wildcard,” Isa replied. “If Sora found himself in a bind, he would have used his ace in the hole. I assume—he always was good at getting himself out of dire situations.” He pulled out his Gummiphone. “Which means you should call Riku and tell him. If the King knows what was on that card, he might be able to point Riku in the right direction. And for the record...this was actually Lea’s idea.”
Lea’s eyes widened and he started to correct him, but Isa stopped him with a raised hand when he saw Kairi was so focused on deciding to make that phone call, her eyes trained in the screen. Finally, she lifted her face and smiled at Lea. “Why are you so good to me?”
“Because I—“ Lea paused, and shrugged. “I’m glad we’re friends. Got it memorized?”
Kairi giggles and nodded, gently, before pressing Riku’s little icon on the phone.
////
Mickey looked up from his desk when he heard the door into the library open. He hopped down from his chair and approached the visitor, his eyes soft. “Hello, my friend.”
Riku pauses about a foot from the desk and bowed. “Mickey. I think we need to talk,” he began, eyes firm, determined, “about Sora’s wildcard.”
