An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Living
Summary: Sora and Kairi visit Lilo and Stitch's world shortly after he's rescued from Quadratum... And while there, Sora expresses an out of character moment of sadness about something. This causes Kairi to want to protect him, thinking that he must still be traumatized by everything that's happened to him, but Sora is quick to assure her that what he needs from her is not her protection.
"This world is beautiful," Kairi commented, taking in the beaches that Sora's friend, Stitch, called home.
In many ways, it reminded her of Destiny Islands, yes—that she would always see as her home—but that wasn't why she thought it was moving. Rather, it was so sweet to think that Stitch had found such a loving family here, and it reminded Kairi of her own family.
"You think so?" Sora asked, a smile in his voice, Kairi could hear, as he walked down the shore hand-in-hand with her.
What a wonderful feeling this was: one she promised herself she'd never let be ripped from her again. She was too strong to let such a thing happen now—or for Sora to get hurt on her watch—and Kairi was forever thankful for it.
"I do, too," Sora said, bringing Kairi back to reality. "Though it's sad it's connected to a place that would want to kill Stitch, or tear him away from his family," Sora said sadly.
'And that it's somehow connected to that era of Keyblade wielders that was forgotten until now,' Kairi thought, but didn't say.
"It is, Sora, it really is," the Princess said, squeezing her boyfriend's hand tighter… "But I also know what you're getting at here. And I swear that our friends and I will never let anything take you from the Realm of Light again. I promise."
After Kairi had said those heartfelt words, she thought that she and Sora might have a moment then. That perhaps they’d lace their fingers together ever tighter, or share one of their favored hugs… Perhaps they’d even finally share the kiss she knew the both of them were dreaming of…
More than anything, Kairi had hoped that Sora would be reassured by what she had said. So, she was more than a little shocked when she eventually noticed they seemed to put a damper on his spirits.
"I appreciate it, Kairi. Really, I do," Sora said, smiling at Kairi widely for just a moment… but was she imagining it, or did Sora look a little strained in doing so? "But you… you really don't have to promise me things like that. Or to try so hard, I mean!"
"I don't- I don't understand," the Princess of Heart admitted, as the couple chose that minute to take a seat on a park bench. And just as they did, a cute cat with a blue-ish black coat jumped into Kairi's lap—and he reminded Kairi so much of the afore-mentioned Stitch as she petted him—but she knew now was not the time to mention it.
"It's just that… you guys—my friends—have been… walking on eggshells with me ever since I came back from Quadratum. And I truly understand why, Kairi," Sora said the last in a pleading voice, as he took her free hand once more and looked deeply into her eyes. "And I thank you for it. But... you don't have to do that. I swear I'm- that I'll be fine."
Oh.
While Kairi hadn't gone through nearly as much what Sora had—of course not—she thought she understood where he was coming from. Were they all coddling him too much now?
Riku and the King had been right to let her train with Axel, even after how they had first met (even if she had been a little afraid at first), because now she had a new best friend in her life.
But everyone was so… fearful of what had happened with Sora to lead him to Quadratum—and what had happened to him there—that they wanted to protect him so much. But in doing so, were they overdoing it and not allowing him to grow?
"I'm sorry, Sora… I'm sorry if all of us have been too much for you since you've gotten home," Kairi said, looking deeply into her boyfriend's blue eyes and being so relieved to find that, despite everything, they still looked the same and hardly troubled at all. "Thinking over my actions since seeing you again… well, I can see how I might seem overwhelming. And that's the opposite of what's good."
Sora laughed: either at Kairi's words or the kitty who had just crawled onto his lap, Kairi wasn't sure, but she wished that she could forever remember the sound, for nothing had ever sounded more pure to her. "It's just that I want to live like I did before, y'know? Fighting for the Realm of Light with my friends by my side… and maybe goofing off a lot along the way. But if you guys put me in bubble wrap, I'm never even gonna fit in the gummi ship!"
Now it was Kairi's turn to laugh at Sora's analogy. Yes, she had most definitely missed this. And she was glad to have it back. And Sora was right that he needed to be allowed to bring this normality back.
"You're right, Sora. Whatever was I thinking? I mean, I'm the one who's always called you a lazy bum. I can't have you slacking now!"
Sora rolled his eyes at that, but Kairi could tell it was in good humor and that her reaction had been exactly what he’d been looking for.
“No, we can’t have that, can we?” Sora sighed. “Even when I first appeared in Traverse Town, scared out of my mind in fighting the Heartless for the first time, you had to wake me up by calling me a ‘lazy bum.’”
“It was only right!” Kairi defended herself now, though she was mainly joking, of course. “I had just found myself in your heart—though I really had no idea what was going on at the time—so I needed you to find me… and explain that to me, I guess. There was no time for your long naps.”
Somewhere during their banter, Kairi had found herself falling into Sora’s arms… and their faces were closer than ever as they looked deeply into each other’s eyes.
Yes, this was exactly what they needed, for they were the same, weren’t they? Both beings of light, who didn’t hold grudges… And even when trauma happened to them, they didn’t stay in feelings of darkness long, but rather strived for the light again, both for themselves and those who looked to them. She’d been silly to forget that.
Sora’s lips were on Kairi’s for less than a minute, Kairi thought. Not too long at all. He didn’t want to overdo it with their first kiss: something that was meant to be spontaneous and innocent. Really, it was such a short time, she wondered if she had enough time to properly remember what the joining of their lips together had felt like at all.
But she did.
As Sora pulled away from her while blushing down to his toes, she thought, she knew it was nothing but the purest magic she’d ever encountered. She smiled.
Standing up now, Sora offered Kairi his hand (which she readily took) as he pulled her to her feet with a scheming expression on his face. Curious.
“C’mon, Kairi. Now that we’ve got the heavy taken care of, what do you say we find Stitch on this world? He’s the best companion you could ever ask for, but so mischievous, too! The way light should be.” ‘Not what the Master of Masters is doing,’ Kairi knew Sora was thinking, but didn’t say. “I know you’ll love him!”
Well, he knew her, so she most definitely would, at that. But she had a condition first. “Only if we can take this little dear of a kitty we accidentally displaced while we were kissing with us. He needs a home, don’t you think? And Lilo seems like the kind who would be more than willing to oblige.”
The kitty looked at Kairi’s words questioningly, maybe even incredulously, but Sora didn’t seem to notice: for he swooped the kitty up in one hand before swooping Kairi up in other, while she instantly protested.
“I always wanted to do that,” he said, while she playfully beat on his back, demanding to be put down.
“Well, let’s go, Kairi… and in take in some life while we can. Wee!”
And Sora started running with both her and the cat in his arms before she could protest, though Kairi did think better of the situation and switch the cat—who she was now calling “Veil”—into her hands—and while she wanted to argue this… seeing Sora so free like this, she found she couldn’t.
This was what they were all fighting for, wasn’t it? What they’d fought for before, even, and always would. And it was a lovely sight behold.
Not being able to resist the urge to do this, Kairi very carefully maneuvered herself so she could rise up sightly and kiss Sora’s cheek as he ran.
Yes, they were living indeed.
Author’s Note: For my bestie Liz’s birthday=)
If I’m being honest… I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to write a SoKai fic for you this year. KH has left us in this weird place, where we honestly don’t know enough about Quadratum or KHIV stuff to really write about the next saga and make it believable. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to write about anything else, since that’s where we’ve left off at, and pretty much every other mystery has been solved. So it’s sort of a pickle.
I’ll admit that I don’t always have fun writing KHIV fics for the former reason, and it isn’t always fun.
But I’m pretty pleased with how this fic turned out. In some ways, it might be one of my better KHIV fics, imo, in just having Sora and Kairi dealing with emotional stuff and the fallout of KHIV (and being back in the Realm of Light): like Sora not wanting to be coddled and everyone needing to understand that. Even if this did get more shipp-y than I intended at the end. Oh well.
Also, this takes place in the Lilo and Stitch world, since people were speculating that that one world in Missing Link might be Moana or that, so I thought it might be fun to put Sora and Kairi there… even if ended up having little to do with Lilo and Stitch in the end. Pfft. =)
@bluerosesburnblue