Divided by Two: Chapter 2 [prologue 2] Preparedness
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Title: Divided by Two
Rating: PG
Summary: Takes place after Kingdom Hearts 2. Sora, Riku, and Kairi have returned to their islands and a relatively normal life. However, a couple months after their return, Destiny Islands is once again torn apart, scattering its inhabitants across various worlds. In addition to this, a new batch of baddies has appeared to terrorize the worlds, and those once thought dead seem to have come back to life. How are all these events connected, and who's running the show this time?
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Two months had passed since Destiny Islands had anything major to celebrate. Two months ago there had been an impromptu party to rival some of the festivals the islands normally had.
After all, it wasn’t every day that three kids, two of whom had been missing for two years and presumed dead and one who had disappeared, reappeared and disappeared again, returned home alive and well.
Kairi lead the trio back onto the main island, and was swept into a hug by her father almost as soon as her feet hit the sand. Her mother joined the hug a few seconds later, her scolding punctuated by sobs. Sora was the next one to reach shore, and was nearly tackled by his mother, who was simultaneously trying to crush her son and boast to anyone who would listen about how he was back and she knew it and see she wasn’t crazy like everyone had said. Riku was the one to approach his parents, somewhat hesitantly and very awkwardly, before his mother burst into tears and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.
Selphie was the one that suggested throwing a welcome-back party and even somehow managed to plan, organize, and throw the party in the span of a few hours when the idea was approved. With some help, of course-Destiny Islands wasn’t that big of a community and many people were more than happy to help with a party, as long as they were invited.
Nearly a month had passed before all three teenagers’ parents had started trying to get the story of what had happened two years prior from their kids. Sora’s story of sailing out into a storm on the raft and getting stranded held up for a while, since the raft had indeed been destroyed. Unfortunately, the more times he told this, the more elaborate the tale got, and he still couldn’t quite explain how he and Riku hadn’t come back when Kairi did or how Kairi had disappeared a second time. Eventually he just changed the subject or left the room whenever anyone asked, shrugging or waving the matter away with a simple 'I've already told you the story.'
Summer had begun on the islands, and for most it meant more time hanging out at the beach and less to no time working or sitting in school. 'Summer' meaning the couple of months where it was the very hottest and there was the highest chance of storms.
Sora decided that it was a great time to be throwing rocks at peoples' windows. He was standing on the sidewalk outside a cream-colored two-story house, tossing pebbles at one of the windows on the second story. He concentrated on the window, tongue poking out slightly, and aimed a whole handful of rocks at the window. They clattered against the glass, and a few seconds later the window slid open and a silver-haired head poked out. Sora froze in the midst of picking up another rock.
“Sora, what are you doing?” the head demanded in a female's voice, narrow blue eyes flickering from the stone in the boy's hand to the windowpane next to it, which had a fair amount of dust and sand on it and a few scratches from the rocks.
“I was, ah…” Sora started, trying to think of an excuse why he was throwing rocks at someone’s window. To be safe, he dropped the rock in his hand and kicked it down the sidewalk a few feet. “Is Riku home?”
The woman nodded, still looking slightly irritated, but she seemed to have decided the window wasn’t damaged and stopped checking it. “He’s probably still asleep. Go wake him up if you want.”
Sora fidgeted a little; before, he had practically lived at Riku’s house, but he had felt nervous lately about visiting his friend at home. Especially since Riku’s mother was still prone to bouts of near-hysteria whenever Riku happened to be around her and his father seemed slightly suspicious of Sora. He headed for the front door, stopping to shout an apology, and heading inside when the silver-haired woman nodded and slid the window shut.
Sora toed off his shoes and shrugged off his backpack before dashing up the nearby stairs, taking them two at a time. There were four doors in the upstairs hallway and two of them were partially open, but one led to a bathroom and the other to what looked like an office. He headed for one of the closed doors, the one opposite the front of the house, and tried the handle to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, and he peeked in.
The room was unusually dark for mid-morning, probably due to the blinds being drawn on all the windows. Sora squinted, using the light from the hallway, trying to make out the room. There were some odd-shaped mounds on the floor he assumed were clothes, and in the furthest corner of the room was a bed with a pile of blankets on it. Sora crept into the room, noticing that a pale arm was sticking out of the blankets, hanging over the side of the bed.
He crouched by the bed, grabbing the arm by the wrist and shook it a little, causing the blankets to shift slightly.
“Mm...c’mon Mom, leave me alone,” the owner of the arm mumbled sleepily, swatting at Sora. Sora made a face and stood up, only to nearlycollapse on his friend a few seconds later. A cord leading from a pair of headphones had gotten tangled around one of his feet; he unwound it and threw it into a corner of the room.
“Man, and Kairi calls me lazy,” Sora mused, glancing at Riku’s alarm clock and noticing for the first time that there was a nightlight plugged into the outlet below it. A palm tree nightlight, he noted; he never remembered Riku ever having a nightlight in his room. “Do you know what time it is?”
“Sometime before ten. Don’t you have school?” Riku mumbled. He refused to come out from under the covers and Sora didn’t weigh a lot so he wasn’t exactly being crushed.
“Nope! Well, not yet.” He shook what he figured was Riku’s shoulder. “Get up, please? I hate going by myself and Kairi won’t go with me. I hate summer school.” He pouted and started to say something else, but a loud beeping noise startled him and he fell backwards off the bed.
Riku laughed as he reached over to turn his alarm off, shrugging off the you-did-that-on-purpose look Sora was giving him from the floor. Sure, it was pretty much his fault that the alarm went off at nine forty-five, but it was also Sora’s fault for deciding to show up in his bedroom when he did. Even though a t-shirt landed on his head a few seconds later, obscuring half of his vision and Sora’s indignant expression, he still thought it was funny.
And that’s how he headed to the bathroom a minute later, t-shirt still partially draped over his head and wearing only a pair of pajama pants.
---
A couple hours later, Riku was by himself, having dropped Sora off at school (he knew Sora would recall it later as “ditched” rather than “dropped off”), trying to catch up on missed sleep in the spot he figured people would be less likely to bother him-the tree-house on the play island. Surprisingly, it was still in use. There was evidence of a recent sleepover--a pile of sleeping bags piled in one corner of the one-room "house", board games stacked up near the sleeping bags, and a handful of candy wrappers strewn across the floor.
“Riku? You in here?” a female voice called. The footsteps entered the tree-house and Riku opened one eye to catch a glimpse of something red and pink standing there.
“I can’t hide from you, can I, Kairi?”
“Of course not! Guess you’re stuck with me forever and ever.” Kairi giggled and sat down beside Riku, drawing her knees up to her chest.
“Sora won’t like that,” Riku replied. “What are you doing here anyway?” He made a mental note to find better hiding spots, though he doubted he’d ever be safe from Kairi’s Riku Tracking Senses.
“Looking for you.”
Riku knew this. If Kairi had her way, both boys would have tracking devices implanted in them so she’d never be able to lose either one of them again, despite Riku’s excuse that they probably wouldn’t work in the dark realm if either of them were to wind up in it. He nodded, but didn't say anything. Both of them knew he was still uncomfortable being back on the islands, but Kairi couldn't help making sure she knew where he was, just in case.
“Wakka’s recruiting for the blitzball team. He wants to know if you’re interested,” Kairi said, trying to fill the gap in the conversation.
Riku didn’t respond, his attention directed towards the tree-house’s window instead. Kairi, thinking he had seen something interesting, got up to look out the window as well.
“Kairi.”
“Hm?” She turned around, slightly confused.
“Have you noticed anything weird lately? Something doesn’t seem right, ever since we got back to the islands.” Riku stood up and joined Kairi by the window, looking down at the beach.
Kairi’s confused look was replaced with a worried expression. “Weird? Like how?”
“I don’t know. Just…weird. I can’t describe it.” He shrugged and shook his head. “Maybe I’m just imagining it." He looked suddenly uncomfortable and started heading towards the exit.
"Riku, wait!" Kairi called, running onto the deck after Riku. Unfortunately for her, he was already heading for the dock below, having vaulted over the railing. He glanced up at her for a few moments before wading over to his boat, shoving it away from the dock and jumping in. Kairi screwed up her face out of frustration and sighed, leaning against the railing.
---
"Kairi, help meee. Pleease?"
Kairi glanced over from her spot on Sora's bed, catching sight of Sora's upside-down face peering at her from under a textbook hat. He was attempting to look unhappy, but leaning backwards over the chair wasn't helping him in the fact that it just made him look vaguely creepy. Kairi shook her head and hit him lightly on the nose with with her own book.
"I told you, Sora, I'm not doing your homework for you."
"I can do my own homework," he protested, sitting back upright and turning in the chair. "But you've done all this stuff already. I don't want to be stuck at home all day." He pouted at Kairi again, exaggerating his expression as much as he possibly could to see what response he could get out of her. The redhead didn't do anything at first, but Sora kept changing his expression, making it sillier every time. Kairi's mouth twitched, and she opened up her book again to ignore him, though she snuck a glance now and then.
"Sora, stop it! I mean it!" she finally cried, cracking a smile. Sora's face had finally come to resemble a fish's--lips puckered, tongue poking out, and eyes crossed--and not at all like the original pout.
"Only if you help me." Sora rearranged his expression, grabbed his study materials, and threw himself onto the bed next to Kairi. "C'mon. If you help me, I'll show you something really cool later."
Kairi regarded him skeptically, but then took the textbook out of his lap. "I'll hold you to that promise, Sora."
Chapter 1: Die