[Team One] a kingdom christmas carol
~ 1250 words of mostly gen kingdom hearts fic with light soriku. A start to a Christmas Carol type fic that I would love to be able to finish this year :)
He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so tired. Sora didn’t bother to hide his yawn as Riku’s hand at his back guided him down the hall to Master Yensid’s office. Even the balls echoing through the halls couldn’t quite rouse Sora completely from the brief slumber he had been in not 5 minutes ago.
“Again?” Roxas grumbled as they met right at Master Yensid’s door.
“Who wants to bet it’s Maleficent again?” Xion said, rubbing the dark circles under her eyes.
“Is that even a fair bet at this point?” Lea stretched, his hands brushing the ceiling above their heads.
“Does she ever sleep?” Kairi met up with them. “Does she sleep?”
They all turned to Riku in question. Sora leaned back against his boyfriend craining his neck to look up as well.
Riku groaned. “Don’t look at me. Wasn’t like we were having slumber parties every night talking about boys.”
“Now there’s an image that’ll produce nightmares,” Roxas snickered. “If she ever gave us the five minutes to even have nightmares!”
The door to the office swung open, a very tired and irritated Aqua waiting on the other side. “Complaining about it out here isn’t gonna solve anything either, so come in.”
Begrudgingly, they filed in, all still in their day clothes. The calls came so often now that no one bothered with PJs.
“Where to this time?” Riku asked, getting straight to the point.
Despite looking the same as ever, even Master Yen Sid appeared to be a little more tired than usual. “King Triton is reporting heartless on both land and sea in Atlantica, while the Pridelands is also dealing with more shadow ghosts.”
“Oh good,” Lea rolled his eyes. “Two world-changing magics on top of all this.”
“And,” Yen Sid continued. “Leon requested that Sora, Riku, and Kairi come to Radiant Garden. There’s been activity at the tower Maleficent had resided in prior to the great Heartless battle there 2 years ago.”
“Goodie,” Kairi ran a hand through her hair. “Maleficents doing home renovations as well.”
“I’m starting to think her plan is just defeating us through sleep deprivation,” Ven grumbled as he walked in, five minutes late and dragging Terra behind him. To Sora’s eyes, it appeared Terra was still very much asleep.
“Alright,” Roxas turned to Ven. “Rock Paper Scissors for Pride Lands?”
“What’s the other option?”
“Atlantica.”
“.... I am not hearing Terra try to sing again, let’s go.”
Sora, Kairi, and Riku made their escape while Ven and Roxas battled it out. Sure enough, as soon as they had headed through the doorway Sora heard the sounds of an argument starting and Yen Sid threatening to send them all to Atlantica instead.
Sora chuckled. There was nothing wrong with Atlantica, though the constant swimming did tire him out once he was back on the ship.
“Too bad we got Radiant Garden right?” Riku murmured. “You wouldn’t have minded a swim in the ocean.”
“Neither would you,” Sora teased. “My big and strong shark boyfriend.” Sora hummed. “Besides it would have been nice to see Ariel again. This whole Maleficent thing made us miss her daughter’s first birthday!”
“And I missed going shopping with Olette and Namine,” Kairi groaned.
“I doubt she can keep this up forever,” Riku reassured them. “Spreading the heartless and shadows at this pace has to be wearing her down somewhat. With the borders between worlds reinforced by light, she has to manually call them to each world. It wasn’t like before when even the borders were closed to most.”
“I think she just guzzles down her pumpkin spice villain coffee and goes to the next one like a blitzball mom with three kids and errands to run.” Kairi stretches as they reach their gummiship. It was looking a little rougher around the edges. With the increase in heartless on worlds, it also means an increase in the lanes between.
But it still fired up without incident and soon they were flying the short distance to Radiant Garden, the flight short enough that neither Riku nor Kairi were able to doze off.
“Leon better meet us with coffee and three shots of espresso or I’m gonna raise a coup here and now.” Kairi opened the hanger door. “Oh thank Kingdom Hearts!”
“Leon figured you guys would need it.”
Aeirth’s voice was nice to hear, even after not much sleep. Sora took the cup of coffee she offered, downing a large gulp without a second thought. Even Riku looked thankful though coffee was never his first choice of beverage.
Taking another, slightly smaller sip, Sora glanced around. “Well, at least I don’t see any heartless in town.”
There was the gentle ping of the defense system from nearby as Aerith nodded. “Yes, the town center and marketplace are the safest places. But with that tower… well. Leon is better at explaining it.”
They followed her to Merlin’s house- still the headquarters for the restoration committee. Along the way, Sora took in the new shops that had cropped up since the last time he had been there. And he noticed all the festive decorations- lights lining windows, wreathes of greenery hanging over doors. Even the lights lining the street were brighter, shifting color every so often.
Suddenly, Sora stopped, realization dawning on him.
“Oh. It’s almost Christmas.”
Riku and Kairi stopped as well, Kairis’ eyes widening with the same realization. “Yeah. in what… two days?”
“We’ve all been so busy.” Riku sighed. “Maleficent would ruin your first holiday back with her shenanigans.”
He walked up to Sora to draw him into a hug and a quick kiss that raised Sora’s spirits a bit.
“Oh, I hope you guys have a break on Christmas day,” Aerith said.
“We’ll make sure she doesn’t ruin the celebrations here at least.” Sora reassured her.
Riku wrapped his arm around Sora’s waist, curling his hand right over Sora’s hip. “I wouldn’t put it past her to ruin Christmas.”
“Oi, what’s all this now?”
Sora turned at the familiar Scottish brogue. “Oh! Uncle Scrooge!”
“Aye, Leon said you’d be in town. Thought you three could try my new ice cream flavor. Just in time for the holiday.” He held out three ice cream bars, colored light green. “Mint chocolate mocha. Might go well with that coffee ya got there.”
“Oh man, I’m sure it will!” Sora eagerly grabbed all three bars, passing them out to Kairi and Riku.
“Now, what’s all this about Christmas?”
“Oh, well…” Sora gestured with his ice cream towards the great maw. “Leon’s spotted some activity over at Maleficent’s old place. We’re checking it out, but she might be gone by now.”
“She’s been spreading misery all around,” Riku said. “Like some kind of Christmas… ”
“Scrooge?” Scrooge asked, then laughed at their befuddled expressions. “Oh aye. I’m well aware of the expression. I am the cause of it, after all.”
“Wait, what?!” Kairi asked. “But that’s- that expression has been around forever! There’s no-”
“We’re a lot older than you give us credit for, lassie,” Scrooge explained. “Right?”
“Well… Mickey is almost a hundred,” Riku shrugged. “I mean, I suppose it’s possible. But you don’t seem very… scrooge-like?”
Scrooge chuckled again. “Oh, you didn’t know me back then. But just ask His Majesty. Or that cricket friend of yours. It’s thanks to them and your friends that I became the upstanding investor I am now.”
Sora looked back at Riku and Kairi but they looked equally confused.
“So… we’re totally asking Mickey about this later, right?”
Nichi, I will tag you on discord, but your line is "So... we're totally asking Mickey about this later, right?"