34
Thanks for the ask! This prompt is from this list, and this particular one is “A kiss to pretend,” so without further ado…
Kisses and Lies
“Oh shoot, I think they’ve spotted us!” Kairi said as she anxiously glanced over Sora’s shoulder at the men in uniform behind him. They were supposed to be tracking these guys undetected through this mall, but apparently their cover was blown.
Sora quickly looked around to see if there was anywhere they could hide. A cart? A bush? Anything?
Kairi had a more immediate solution in mind. She grabbed his face and said, “Quick, kiss me!”
A confused, “Kairi, wha—” came out of his mouth before she managed to cut him off, smooshing his lips against hers. His arms hung dumbly at his sides while she wove a hand into his hair and did her best to devour his lower lip.
She broke away long enough to hiss, “Sora, don’t just stand there, kiss me back!”
“Er, sorry—”
He was used to fighting Heartless and stuff, not going on undercover missions. But if this would throw the local guards off from noticing they were here, well…
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, then joined their lips together once more. This kiss was much more successful than the first attempt, probably because he hadn’t been taken off guard this time. Memories of warm summer evenings spent on the Play Island together filled his mind, and he let his eyes flutter shut as he lost himself to the kiss. It wasn’t like Kairi was doing anything to stop it, either. She was letting the kiss go on and on and on in a way that would’ve scandalized all their friends back home. Maybe this meant… maybe this meant she still—
She pulled away and glanced behind them. “All clear,” she whispered, then blushed as she realized there was still a strand of spit connecting their mouths together. She quickly wiped her mouth and cleared her throat, as if that could wipe away what had just happened between them.
“Sorry for springing that on you,” she said with a sheepish smile, “I kinda panicked and didn’t know what else to do. At least it worked though, right?”
“Oh, um, yeah,” he said. “No one wants to watch two people making out. Good thinking, Kairi.”
He turned away from her for a moment to get it together. Of course that kiss didn’t mean anything. Kairi was serious about this mission, and the kiss was just one step along the way to successfully completing it. It was a distraction, a diversion to throw the guards off their trail.
Too bad it had distracted him too.
“Sora? You okay?” she said, and even without looking he could picture the concerned look on her face.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied as he adjusted the baseball cap on his head and straightened his jacket.
The truth was, he was anything but fine. That kiss had awakened old feelings in him, feelings he thought had been dealt with a long time ago. Before he and Kairi were assigned on this mission together, the painful fog that had clouded his thoughts and memories had finally started to lift, but now—
“I’m sorry, that was out of line,” she said. “Very unprofessional. My brain just… blanked, and that was the first thing that popped into my head.”
He plastered on a smile and faced her. “It’s okay, really. We needed to keep our cover intact, and now the mission can continue. No harm, no foul.”
“If you say so,” she said as she chewed her lip. “I know… our breakup was really hard on you—”
Sora really wished she would drop it. The less he thought about how she’d chosen to break up with him, the better. So much for the paopu fruit keeping them together forever. He hadn’t tried using One Heart, the most powerful magic he and Kairi were capable of, since the night of their breakup, either. The last thing the worlds needed was another one-winged angel.
“What’s in the past is in the past,” he said. “We don’t have to talk about what happened. It’s all behind us.”
He started walking towards the food court, and she followed after him. She had to walk quickly to keep up with his long strides, and he hoped that meant she wouldn’t try to talk.
No such luck.
“But that’s the thing,” she said, her voice low. “We didn’t really talk about it at all. You just… ran off the next day, and I didn’t get to see you for months.”
“That was the point,” he muttered. “It’s what happens with a breakup, Kairi. You stop seeing the person you were seeing so you can both get over it more easily.”
“Did it work?”
He sighed. “You tell me.”
She dropped the subject after that, thankfully, and he figured now was as good a time as any to eat.
“Here,” he said as he handed her enough munny to get herself lunch. “Get whatever you want. I’ll meet you at that table over there in ten.”
“Okay.”
He watched as she made her way over to a restaurant that served Chinese takeout and sighed. Even with her hood pulled over her hair and her arms stuffed in her pockets, she still looked great.
Curse his brain for trying to make him as miserable as possible. And no fair that she’d gone to the exact restaurant he’d had his eyes on. Oh well. Guess he’d have to try the Greek place, that looked pretty good. Some of the stuff on the menu even reminded him of the food on Herc’s world, and the line wasn’t too bad.
When she joined him again, he was about halfway through his kofta and rice. She opened up her white takeout box and attacked the rice and stir-fry inside with her chopsticks, eating gracefully despite how hungry she must be.
“That looks really good,” she said in between bites as she glanced at his food.
“It is,” he said. “It’s similar to the stuff on Herc’s world.”
“May I try it?”
“Sure.”
He watched as she deftly snatched a piece of the kofta from his fork and savored it, her eyes fluttering shut as she enjoyed its taste. It reminded him of all the food they’d shared on dates, of how much he’d enjoyed giving her new things to try.
“Wow, that really is good,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for sharing.”
“Glad you like it.”
She was silent for a few moments, then said. “Sora, listen—”
He shot her a warning look. “If this is about earlier—”
“I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He grabbed his napkin and wiped his mouth. “Really, it’s fine. It was just a fake kiss. Just pretend. We’re both on the same page about that, so there’s nothing to worry about or apologize for.”
Her shoulders slumped and her head drooped a little despite his reassurance. Her eyes were fixed on her plate, too.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure you… felt the same way I did about it.”
“No worries there,” he said, plastering a smile back on his face. “That kiss meant as little to me as it did to you.”
Her head drooped a little more. “I see.”
“Now,” he said, ignoring the uneasy feeling in his gut and pulling out his Gummiphone, “let’s talk strategy.”
She was still staring at her plate like it held the answers to the universe. Time to try a different approach.
“If we put our heads together, Kairi, this mission will be a success before we know it.”
She lifted her head. “You really think so?”
“Yeah, of course. We work pretty well together.” He smiled sadly. “That much hasn’t changed.”
The sooner they got this over with, the sooner Sora wouldn’t have to be around her anymore. And yet… a stupid part of him wanted to be with her. The old, foolish Sora that wouldn’t let go of her. But another part of him didn’t want to be with her, the newer, wiser Sora that was better at not getting his heart broken.
Why were feelings so complicated? Following his heart had never been an issue before, but now his heart was pulling him in about ten different directions, and he didn’t know what the right direction was.
She nodded. “You’re right, we do work well together. It’s no wonder we got paired together for this mission.”
Sora still felt like cursing Master Yen Sid for coming up with this idea, but now that Kairi’s smile had returned, his anger and frustration was dissipating a little. Curse her smile for having that effect on him still. As much as he hated to admit it, that kiss had been anything but pretend for him. It didn’t matter what lies he told Kairi or himself. A small part of him still cared for her.
No, that was a lie too. The part of his heart that still loved her was anything but small, and their kiss had made that blindingly obvious. Sora, local idiot and laughingstock of happily partnered people everywhere, was still desperately in love with Kairi, his ex-girlfriend of over a year who had willingly broken up with him. And knowing his luck, which was about the worst of anyone he’d ever met, she would figure it out soon too.
No, that was another lie. As she looked into his eyes and smiled, he knew she already knew.
Curse his eyes for being an open book. Curse his face for being so terrible at hiding his feelings. Curse his heart for still being in love with someone who was no longer in love with him. He could only hope she would keep things professional. For that, he would pretend for as long as he needed to.
And maybe, just maybe, it would stop being pretend for her. Maybe it would become real, like the fake smile on his face that was quickly becoming genuine in response to her smile, like the hearts he’d willed back into existence when everyone else had given up hope they’d be saved. Maybe there was more truth to her smile and to the sparkle in her eyes than she was letting on. And if experience had taught him anything, it was that even lies revealed something of the truth.
That was the best thing about make-believe. If they pretended long enough, maybe, just maybe, they might get their storybook ending and happily-ever-after in the end. It was no guarantee, and yet… maybe the legend of the paopu fruit wasn’t wrong, after all.
Whether it was a lie or the truth, Sora would allow himself to believe in it again. And maybe with time, Kairi would too.
