Kingdom Hearts 2 (Sora/Riku/Kairi)
Title: The Problems With Divine Interference, 2 of 2
Author: reversedhymnal
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence! And fluff! And handcuffs and blow jobs and fucking, oh my, ♥
Word count: 8,600~ in this part
Summary: Honestly. Nothing ever, ever goes accordingly to plan.
Prompt: Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora/Riku/Kairi: Dancing - three-part harmony
A/N: The second, and last part of this hugely monstrous one shot fic. IT REALLY WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE PORN. But then it turned epic, and, well. Not exactly what most people imagine when they see the prompt, no doubt, XD; *sigh* Hope you guys enjoy it, :D The first half can be found here!
It was Cloud’s third trip back with the Potion Shakes when it happened. He was battered, and bruised, and quite possibly broken in a few places - he swore their last opponent had had fists like mythril forged hammers, the fucker, not to mention a shield that liked getting in Cloud’s way. A lot - and he’d drunk the last of their dinky potions so that he could manage to stagger his way to the refreshment stand.
Riku couldn’t walk, and Kairi was busy worrying over him, and Cloud almost wished he’d told Tifa okay, yes, you can come, but then she would have wanted to fight, and this wasn’t her battle. He loved Tifa, but no.
His sword made a good makeshift cane, even if it did occasionally leave gouges a foot deep in the floor. Cloud gritted his teeth, and made his unsteady way to the counter, threw down not a small amount of munny, and gritted out his order.
He turned, just in time for someone roughly the same height and body mass to slam right into him, and send him backwards into the counter edge. Hissing, his back screaming at him, Cloud started to croak something that might have been half question, but was most likely full cursing, when he heard Sora go, “Oh- shit. Sorry, sorry, can’t. Argh, which way is out?”
“I. Sora?” Cloud squinted at the man draped over him, and, yeah, he recognized that spiky brown hair, almost as spiky as his own blonde. They stumbled upright, hands holding onto each other and Cloud’s Buster Sword for support and help.
“Cloud?” Sora croaked, squinting. One eye was completely crusted over with blood, and he had a swollen jaw. His clothing was rent, and dark and gleaming wetly in the Underworld light in several places. He looked as bad as Cloud felt, actually.
“What are you-?”
“Excuse me sir,” said the ghoul at his back. Cloud turned around, was confronted with a sullen glare that would forever be caught in a teenager’s pimpled, if vaguely translucent and drippy, face. “Your shakes are ready.”
“Uh. Could I have one more?”
The ghoul clerk rolled his - her? - eyes, and almost lost one, but stuffed it back in grumpily. “That’ll be seventy munny, then.”
“R-right.” Cloud dished out the munny, and then realized that Sora was chattering at him, half of it lost in nonsensical mumbling. He grabbed two of the shakes, turned back to Sora, and shoved one in his old comrade’s hand. “Drink this.”
“Suuuure,” said Sora, woozily. “Whasit..”
“Straw.” Cloud coughed, and shifted gingerly. He started sucking on his, to demonstrate.
“Oh, right,” said Sora, and then he was drinking his drink, and both of them quite possibly blissed out for several moments as the green shake was consumed greedily on both of their parts. When Cloud snapped back to reality, at least, he felt like maybe he could walk without falling down, and the ghoul was tapping its bony foot, and glaring.
“You’re holding up my line,” it snapped.
Sora blinked, and leaned over Cloud’s shoulder - yep, Cloud was right. Exact same height - and said, with a charming, slightly crazed grin, “Sorry! Thanks for the drink, though, man.”
Laughing, because that was just so Sora, Cloud grabbed the other two shakes, passed one off to Sora, and then ripped the Buster Sword out of the ground, where he had conveniently placed it. The after effects of such concentrated ingredients - especially those mega-potions, they were a doozy - would leave them a bit muggy for a while, but would clear off soon enough, thanks to the adrenaline rush of fighting. They were at least capable enough to get back to the lobby.
“You,” he prophesized, “Have a lot of explaining to do. Come on. Riku and Kairi are worried about you.”
Probably a good thing he didn’t bring Tifa, Cloud thought, because if he had, she would have fought, and there was no way she would have been willing to give up her slot for Sora, even in a situation like this. And if he had brought her, Tifa might have seen the way that Sora made his heart hurt, just a little, with how much he reminded him of Zack sometimes. And Cloud had finally learned that the past wasn’t worth ruining his future over.
Shaking his head, and smiling slightly behind his red collar, Cloud led Sora back to his own future, to Riku and Kairi, glad to be alive.
*
They were sprawled over the old, dusty chairs in the decrepit fighter’s lounge, Riku just staring blankly up at the ceiling, Kairi mumbling quietly to herself healing charms as she tried to close the gaping wound in Riku’s thigh.
It hurt like a mother fucking bitch, and the concentration was making sweat roll down Kairi’s face, which was the only reason Riku allowed for why they didn’t notice them in the first place. All of a sudden there was the best sound in the world, even in a world narrowed and spiked with pain as his was, saying, “Jeez! I leave you guys alone for two weeks, and this is what happens?”
“S-Sora,” Riku choked, getting up too fast and almost having his vision go white with the pain.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he heard that lovely voice say, muffled and from far away. He thought he heard Kairi’s voice, but couldn’t quite tell; he felt their hands on him, though, Sora’s square and large, Kairi’s slender and tapered; both of them rough and capable and lovingly gentle. Riku couldn’t help it; he let himself relax into their grasp, let himself fall into that forgiving white, knowing that they would catch him.
*
“Well, hell,” Sora said, blinking in surprise. He looked over at Kairi, who was giving him a very irritated glower, and blushed. “Er. Hey! How was I supposed to know he’d be retarded?” He paused, and then grinned goofily, unable to stop his joy at seeing them again, “I mean. Other than the fact that he is a retard, that is.”
“Gah,” said Kairi. And then she slumped over onto him, not passed out, but breathing slowly, deeply like she couldn’t breathe him in enough, her forehead sticky and hot against his shoulder.
Sora felt his entire face fold into a softness that he thought was probably the most grown up thing he had, in a world where he’d been fighting and surviving and killing since well before he was considered a legal adult; his heart felt too full with it, like it would grow wings and fly. “Sorry,” he whispered into Kairi’s hair, softly, keeping one hand resting on Riku’s shoulder, and using the other to stroke up and down Kairi’s arm.
“Sora.”
Blinking up at Cloud’s voice, Sora woke back to the situation at hand. “O-oh, yeah. Right. Hey, hey Kairi.” He pushed her gently up right, and grinned at her teasingly, though his brows were furrowed in concern. “Cloud bought you that shake you wanted. Drink it for me, okay?”
“Don’t.” Kairi yawned, but opened her eyes wide and reached for the drink. “Don’t act like I’m an invalid.” She settled back down with it, leaning against Riku’s hip as she started to suck on the straw, starting with small sips, and ending with great gulps.
“Sure, thing, babe,” Sora grinned. He looked back over at Cloud, and then wound up frowning at him. “Are you still all banged up, as well? I can’t see under that red sheet of yours.”
Cloud gave him a look, and a small smile. “I’m fine, Sora. The mako in my system is good for something at least. It helps me heal faster, remember? Besides, I already had my shake, when you were drinking yours.”
“Oh, yeah. Duh,” Sora said, laughing a little at himself. Then he was tilting his head and squinting at the other fighter. “Huh. You know, actually, it’s weird seeing you in those old clothes. It’s been, what, years?”
“Mm, about seven.” Cloud shrugged, and his voice was quiet, but certain and strong, when he murmured, “It seemed poetic. To return the same outwardly, but inwardly changed.”
Sora grinned. “Whatever you say, man. I think it’s just good to see you.”
“And you,” Cloud returned, a little hesitant, but willing. Sora beamed, glad that he’d come so far since Sora had last saw him; glad that his light was showing him how to be happy again, to be human, rather than an angry obsession. Then he added, “Even if I don’t like having you fall into my arms, half dead,” which Sora, actually, could have done without having been mentioned.
“What was that?”
Sora winced, and then looked over at Kairi. “Uhhhh. You feeling better, then?”
Putting down the Shake, Kairi stared at it in adoration. “Oh, yes. Was there Ether in that, too?”
“Mm,” Cloud said, from where he was standing just off away from them. “Yes. I requested a supplement in them.”
“You’re a prince.”
Very faintly, Riku protested, “Stop…flirting, damn it.” Riku was awake, and wincing up at the ceiling with a sullen look on his face.
“Oi!” Sora looked over at Kairi in startlement. “You flirting with other men?”
“Sigh,” Kairi said. “Sigh and groan and scream. You guys are ridiculous.” Gently, she whacked her forehead with the palm of her hand, as if she could deny her boys’ ludicrousness through masochism. Sora watched with secret delight, and gave Cloud a mock-territorial look.
Cloud snorted, and rolled his eyes at them. “Leave me out of this.”
“Gladly,” muttered Riku, and then he rolled his head over, and his entire pale face locked onto the Shake Cloud still held in his hand. “Is that mine? Hand it over.”
“So polite,” scathed Cloud in wry amusement, though he handed the drink over readily enough, before disappearing back into the shadows of his red cloak.
“Yep,” Sora said, beaming at him. “That’s my Riku.”
“Ours,” interjected Kairi, nonchalantly buffing her nails. She gave Sora a coy look under her lashes a moment later, however, and Sora laughed, and nodded, and agreed. “Ours.”
Riku, thankfully, was too busy downing his Shake to get embarrassed and protest. In the meanwhile Kairi coughed politely and gave Cloud a half sheepish, half appealing look. The blonde snorted, and walked off, without even saying good-bye, his huge sword shining in the dim light. Just called over his shoulder, “I’d better see a trophy at Aerith’s victory party, later.”
Sora laughed, and waved at his retreating back. “Sure thing!” Kairi smiled beautifully, and said, “He’s a really nice guy. I’m glad that whole mess with his darkness blew over.”
“Yeah,” Sora said, wrinkling his nose. “That was…intense.”
Kairi giggled, and then her hand was on Sora’s cheek, and there were a few other people still in the lobby with them, but they didn’t matter, nothing mattered right then, in the face of them, in the face of being together again, if not quite safe and healthy, then fully capable of fighting their way there, now.
Sora sighed into the kiss, tasting the sweetness that was his favorite girl in the entire world, feeling the slow slide and flex of her lips against his, the hungry slip of her tongue along his own. His sigh turned, morphed into a growl, and he felt his own shiver echoed in her, as Kairi slid her hand from his cheek to his hair, tightening her fingers in his brown locks and tugging, gently.
“Hey now. I hope you didn’t forget about me,” Riku said, and Kairi laughed into Sora’s grin, and they both groped a hand out to Riku without quite stopping; instead, they shared amongst each other, trading kisses like the best potions in the world.
“Damn,” Sora groaned when they finally pulled back. “Where’s a bed when you need one?”
Kairi snorted, and swatted him gently on the knee. “After the tournament. You still have to explain- well. Everything, actually. Why the hell are you here, if we’re here to rescue you?”
Sora winced, as Riku narrowed his eyes in agreement. “Er. Funny story that,” he laughed awkwardly, before swallowing it back down with difficulty and rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Well. I. Still need help being rescued, actually?”
“Why,” Riku drawled, “am I not surprised. Aren’t you supposed to be the hero?”
Sora blushed sheepishly. “Shut up, you. This is your story as much as mine! And, hey- like you’d even be any good at being a sidekick.”
“Amen to that,” Kairi muttered in quiet amusement, while Riku smirked, and said, sassily, “That’s because I’m way too awesome to not be center stage, loser.”
“In your dreams,” Sora laughed, and poked him in the side. He yelped a moment later when Riku tackled him to the hard floor, and tickled him mercilessly. “Stop, stop,” he shrieked. “Unfair conduct! K-Kairi, help!”
Dryly, their girl said, “And why would I do that?”
“Be-because - hahaha! Oh, god, stop! - you love me?”
“Hm.” Kairi’s eyes gleamed, and a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. They were no doubt getting strange looks from the other remaining contestants - had to have been the most life they’d seen around those parts in a long time - but Sora didn’t care. He was about to wet his fucking pants.
“Only way to get information from him,” Riku said in all seriousness, while calmly dodging a flailing limb. “Torture it out of him.”
“NOOOOOOOO! Haha- ack, no- argh, help meeeeee!”
“Do you surrender, then?” Riku asked, grinning sly and sharp and beautiful.
Sora, knowing it would mean his doom, but loving Riku acting like a dork too much to make it end, howled, “NEVER SURRENDER.”
“Well then,” Kairi said decisively, and Sora knew dread when he looked at the wicked gleam in her eyes. “You leave us with no choice.”
“There will be no quarter,” Riku chortled with a certain degree of malicious satisfaction.
Sora’s eyes went very, very wide. “….meep!”
“Indeed,” Kairi said, and then she attacked, and Sora was afraid he’d laugh himself to death beneath their loving ministrations.
*
The best thing about being tickled nearly to death was the fact that Sora got away with not telling Riku and Kairi how, exactly, he’d gotten into this particular mess and just how bad, exactly, that particular mess was.
When he got up, he winced, and was glad that he could play it off as ‘wounds’ from his session of torture. But, inside, he hurt. It was like a raw wound on fire in the back of his mind, reaching everywhere and nowhere, inside his body so he couldn’t do anything but close his eyes and grit his teeth against it.
Roxas, he spoke quietly inside his mind.
Fuck this, he replied. We’re going to fucking kill them.
Yes, Sora returned, in answer to himself. We will.
At the very least he was whole again. Just torn, and hurting. He felt more fractured, more discordant than he had in years. It was like and unlike being at war with himself. He was Roxas and Roxas was him, but it was confusing, like having at times conflicting thoughts, or a personality that went in two ways.
Sora sighed. I haven’t felt this crazy in a long time.
Roxas didn’t answer, but Sora knew what he was saying, because it was his own thought, and it was, Makes you appreciate the little things in life, doesn’t it? Sora snorted, and grinned sheepishly at Riku when he gave him a slanted look as they strode out onto the arena. One of the refs had been in to sneer in their direction and inform them that, “If you don’t get your miserable selves onto that floor in ten seconds you’ll forfeit your miserable selves, and wouldn’t that be just like you miserable bunch of living freaks, always giving up.”
“Yes,” Riku had returned, pleasantly enough from their heap on the ground. “That is simply miserable, isn’t it?”
Sora had snickered, and the ref had glowered, and Kairi had sprung up, grinning, “Yes, sir! Right there!”
Then they were off, down the corridor, laughing like children off to play, rather than soldiers off to battle. It was exhilarating, beautiful, and their voices were like music slicing through even the dead air of the Underworld. Now, coming through the entrance, Sora half expected to be blinded by sunlight, but, no, this was the Underworld, and he grinned a little, eyes quiet, because Auron had been one hell of a guy, and he still missed him. All his other friends he could go back and visit, just a quick, warp speed trip away on his gummi ship. Less than that, if he used the Doors.
Auron, though. Auron was gone; but Sora straightened under the pessimistic atmosphere, grinned hard and bright and thought, Bring it, because he’d told Auron he didn’t need a Guardian, right?
So he’d make sure that he made Auron proud, instead, wherever he was.
“Let’s go, you guys,” he said, turning so that they were back to back to back. His keyblades shimmered to life in his hands, key chains swinging, and when their contestants came, swooping through the air, Sora met them with a fierce joy at being alive, and capable, no matter how he may hurt, no matter what the future had in store for him.
*
Fighting was a lot like organized chaos. The only way they could survive it was to be systematic and aware of themselves as well as each other. Lucky for the three of them, they fit together like three pieces of a puzzle, snick snick snick, into one whole that was greater than its parts.
Kairi snapped, “Riku!” and Riku ducked immediately, rolling to the left. He came up, and spun, and Kairi sliced off a wing from the creature that had been dive-bombing him. Sora took his place a moment later, he and Kairi sidestepping back to back in a seamless movement, as two monsters came at them from opposite directions.
They dispatched them quickly, efficiently, and Sora yelled out an insult in a rich voice, the content lost in the battle, and Riku said, “Help me up!” right before he was running at them full tilt. Sora turned, and Kairi covered his back, so that he could be a springboard for Riku, sending him up, vaulting through the air, spinning with his keyblade, to completely obliterate the one-winged monster. He came back down, heavily, and Kairi blocked a blow to his head before he had his bearing straight.
“Thanks,” he grinned, and grasped her arm, pulling her back in an exchange of positions so that he could block an attack at her back with his other hand. Sora came up behind him, and Riku bent, feeling Sora’s blade whistle over his head and take the monster’s head off.
They all worked together like a well-oiled machine, flawless in a way that they hadn’t been when it was just Riku and Kairi and Cloud.
Laughing, as Kairi spun beneath Riku’s arm to take on a fanged creature while Riku tossed a quick blizzard out the other way, she called, “You did ask me to dance, didn’t you, Riku?”
“I don’t think this is quite the tango,” Sora cackled back. He thrust, parried, and then whipped his leg back in a lightning fast kick that broke a spinal cord with a very satisfying crunch.
Riku grinned, sweat dripping into his eyes. “No. It’s better.”
And it was. It was the three of them, dancing together across the battlefield, exhilarated and alive and fully capable. “One, two, three,” Kairi called, grinning, and Riku laughed.
“Yes!” he said. “Exactly!”
“All right,” Sora acknowledged, as he and Kairi went front to front to fire blasts of magic out away from them, and Riku knelt at their feet to fumble with the items in their inventory. “So I like this kind of dancing better than ballroom, sure. But!” He waggled his eyebrows, and Riku snorted, a thrill going through him that was like and unlike the battle entirely. “I know another kind of dancing that I’d love to do to you guys.”
“Later,” Kairi grinned, flushing even then, beautiful and vibrant. “Haven’t we been over this already?”
Sora laughed. “Well, can you blame me?”
This, Riku decided, with a quiet joy that belonged to two people and only them; this is how it’s supposed to be. He stood up, and Sora and Kairi stopped their magic, their keyblades twirling back into their hands, and they shifted, covering all their sides, moving through the battle with well-practiced steps, in beautiful, aching, three-part harmony.
Yes.
*
There wasn’t really a moment to breathe until right before the last match. “Goodness,” Kairi gasped, leaning against a couch. “This is…wow. Shouldn’t we get a break, or something? Half time?”
“Aw, but where would be the fun in that, hm?”
That oily voice had Sora bristling instantly. “Hades. I got out of that room fair and square. Kidnapping me wasn’t a part of the deal!” Kairi blinked, and went absolutely still.
Very quietly, and very dangerously, Riku said, “Deal?”
Hades was standing in a very strategically dramatic spot, right where he was backlit from the dark purple glow of the hall entrance. He smirked, and raised his eyebrow, making a gesture of fake surprise with his hands. “Oh, ho! What’s this? The kid didn’t tell his…what are you guys? His keepers? His fuck buddies? Or just a couple more morons along for the ride?”
Kairi stood up slowly, frowning. “What-”
“Ah, well,” Hades interrupted, chuckling and walking forward, “Not that it matters. I’ve been watching you all fight, and bravo, bravo, you actually might make a stand against him.”
“Might?” Riku scowled. “Maybe the lighting down here has fucked with your eyes, old man. There’s no might about it.”
“Oh, my, well, haha, aren’t you funny,” Hades’ hair turned a sudden, vivid flare of vermilion, and he sneered, flatly, “NOT.”
“EXCUSE ME,” Kairi said, determined. When everyone’s eyes were on her, she smiled grimly, and asked, “Can we get back to the matter at hand, please? What deal?”
“Oh, so polite,” Hades simpered. “What do you think? Sora, here, sold his soul to get his little friends out of eternal torture. Oh,” he mocked, voice high and fawning over an acidic loathing, “what a hero.”
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Riku said, and Kairi kind of just stared at Sora incredulously. He scrubbed at his hair sheepishly, grinning nervously and lifting a shoulder in an uncertain shrug.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time?”
“You heroes,” Hades butted in, smirking gleefully. “All the same. So easy to manipulate. Just dangle a little trauma and pain and injustice in front of you and SNAP, caught in my trap.”
“Oh, shut up,” Riku said. “I realize that you don’t have much for company here, but that’s your problem, not ours. We didn’t come down here to listen to your blathering. Set up a fucking tea party if you want people to listen to you.”
“Remodeling might help,” Kairi suggested gently. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s a little drear and macabre in here. ….and I’m sorry but it really, really smells.”
“This is nothing! You should smell his sheets, god, I almost died-”
“QUUUIIIIIIEEEEEET.”
Riku muttered, “Precisely,” and merely smirked when Hades glowered at him.
Hades said, very viciously, “I’ll send your remains back home, if you like. There won’t be much when Ares is through, of course, but. You know me. I’m so kind.” His eyes glittered, and he bared his teeth in a smile at Sora’s snort, “How’s that soul of yours, Sora? Got it all back in one piece?”
Kairi gave a soft gasp, and Riku’s darkness spread and curled and did a very malicious looking dance, his eyes never leaving Hades. Sora straightened, after a quick grimace their way. “Yes, actually,” he said, fierce and brilliant and refusing to be shoved down. “Ares was kind enough to give me a little help in getting it back.”
“Oh? Was he?”
“Yeah.” Sora grinned, and Kairi stepped closer, at his side. It didn’t matter that she kind of wanted to strangle him for whatever idiocy he’d walked straight into. It was Sora, and she had his back no matter what. It really was like dancing, she decided. Even if you weren’t exactly sure where you were being led, you trusted enough to follow anyway, to work together to make it through all the steps, to the end of the dance.
And with the three of them, it would always be one hell of a dance.
“The Final Match is in ten minutes,” Hades snapped. “That should be break enough for you, doll. And here.” In a sudden zigzag of electric fire, Hades snatched an item out of the air, and chunked it at them. Riku, stepping up on Sora’s other side, snatched it from the air with a contemptuous look.
Hades gave a harsh laugh, and a wild grin. “You’ll need it.” And then he was gone.
“Well, fuck,” Riku said, immediately, smacking Sora on the back of the head. “What do we do now?”
Sora yelped, and reached up to cover the back of his head, because he was at least smart enough to know that Kairi’s fist was coming on the tail end of Riku’s. “I have no idea,” she muttered, concerned. “Sora! How do even you manage to sell your soul to the devil!”
Sora ducked away, wincing, and sheepishly admitted, “Er. Well, y’see…it’s like this.”
“Yes?” Riku asked, through gritted teeth.
In one long, single, dejected sigh, Sora deflated completely. “He bet me that he could make a better s’more than me! I mean really! S’mores are all sweet and good and yummy and wholesome! How was I supposed to know that they were his favorite food? And, you know,” Sora waved his hands in the air in a completely incoherent expression, “with all the fire control problems and stuff, I thought he’d burn it - poof! - just like that. And then I’d still have my soul and Jack’s people would be free. But noooooo, of course not.”
Sora pouted, and muttered, “I should have known better. Trickiest fucker I’ve ever met, damn it!”
Kairi sighed, and rubbed at her temples. “Well…there’s no use worrying about it now, I suppose. Though,” she added with a sharp look, “You’re going to owe us later. Big time.”
“Oh, yeah,” Riku muttered. “I demand a huge apology, you lame ass loser.”
Sora looked hopeful, eager. “Okay! I can do that, totally!” Then he leered cheerfully, and said, “What am I talking about? I can definitely do that.”
Rolling her eyes, Kairi ignored him. It was best not to be distracted by such things at such times, after all. Clearing her throat behind a demurely placed hand, she said, “So all we have to do now is win Sora’s soul, which we knew we’d have to do in the first place.”
“Right,” Riku said. “The price listed on the banner. I just can’t believe he was so stupid about it. Fair and square, bleh.”
“Um.” Sora’s hesitant voice made Kairi look up, and narrow her eyes at him. They were down to just a few minutes, now, and she couldn’t resist reaching out for their hands, feeling their warm, capable fingers wrapped around her own.
“Yeah?”
“That whole winning back my soul thing sounds awesome, don’t get me wrong,” he grinned. “But, uh. If that’s a mega-elixer in your hand, Riku, we’d better damn well make use of it. And be prepared for the battle of your life you guys. ‘Cause, uh. In case you didn’t know. Ares is the god of war. I was nearly a smear on the wall, thanks to him.”
Kairi blinked, and sighed, and silently agreed with Riku when he said: “...fuck.”
*
“Jeez,” Riku groaned on a long, lithe stretch. Sora watched the way his shirt rode up blatantly, and just grinned sheepishly when Kairi swatted at him. “I haven’t felt this good in years, I swear.”
“Seriously.” Kairi held her own hands out in front of her, and flexed her fingers. “What did they put in that mega-elixer?”
“Oh, that? Ambrosia, probably.”
Both Riku and Kairi stopped dead in the middle of the arena, and turned to stare at him. Sora blinked at them, and took a step back, “W-what?”
“…You have got to be kidding me.” Riku lifted an arm up, and sniffed at it, before putting it back down and glaring around at the audience like they were stupid for even thinking he’d do something as ridiculous as that. Kairi brought her hands up, and pressed her fingers against her temples, “Oh, god.”
“Exactly,” Riku muttered sourly, and couldn’t resist prodding at his side suspiciously, audience or no audience. “What happens if a mortal drinks it, again?”
“I have no idea,” sighed Kairi. “We’ll have to ask Hercules, when we get back.”
Finally, Sora interjected, utterly perplexed. “Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? What’s wrong with the ambrosia stuff? It tastes kind of funny, but it fills you right up!” Kairi made a strangled noise, and Riku opened his mouth and started to say, “You’ve got to be-” incredulously, before he was interrupted by slamming into a wall.
“Riku!” Sora yelled, dashing over to him. He heard Kairi’s keyblade snick into her hand protectively, and didn’t bother trying to guard his back; just tried to make sure Riku wasn’t dead. “What the hell?”
“I think,” Kairi said, voice low and edged, “that our battle just began.”
“Then you would think right,” said a voice that Sora, no matter how long it took, doubted he would ever forget.
Sora skidded to a stop, and was relieved to see that Riku had his eyes slitted open in a glare, his teeth gritted. He was pushing himself up, snarling curses under his breath. “Shove off,” he snapped at Sora. “It just took me by surprise. I managed to deflect most of it with my shield.”
“Good.” Sora smiled, and helped Riku up anyway. “Don’t let him do that again. It hurts like a bitch.”
“No shit.”
Kairi yelled at them, from across the arena. “A little help please- oh FUCK.”
Sora looked up just in time to catch Kairi with his face.
*
It wasn’t the best battle they had ever fought, but it wasn’t a complete embarrassment, either. They were all proud of that, even while they staggered against each other, faces set determinedly through the blood. There were moments when the three of them shone as bright as stars before they fell, their weapons singing through the air, even cutting away the jeering crowd, almost to a crystal perfect silence.
There was a moment when Ares was forced back by a combo, a burn fierce along his thigh smelling of Riku’s magic. There was a cut high up on his cheekbone, courtesy of Kairi, and several others littering his body delivered there by their uncanny teamwork. Sora grinned at him, his body close to breaking, but still going on. Even with the ambrosia, his body hadn’t ceased feeling acutely as if it had been torn apart and patched together badly.
Ares spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground, and nodded his head gravely. The look on his face was the liveliest Sora had ever seen there; his black eyes shone, and his mouth was curled into a sharp smile. He was breathing, just a little heavily, and when he spoke Sora could hear the respect lining his words, as well as the shiver of violence, that had been raging from him the entirety of the battle.
“Not bad,” the god of war said. “Are these the ones you had to save?”
“Yes,” Sora said, straightening with an effort. “Yes. They’re mine.”
Ares laughed, very softly. “A good choice, then. It will be an honor to defeat you three.”
Kairi shook her hair out behind her, ragged and torn from the battle, and smiled without humor. The light shone grimly off her keyblade, and Riku quietly passed one of their dwindling supplies of hi-potions to Sora.
Kairi spoke for them all, and said: “Bring it.”
*
In the end, neither Ares nor Sora, Riku, or Kairi were the victors. Neither was Hades, for that matter. The battle, when it ended, ended in a bright flash of gold, in the sound of larks singing, in the smell of the ocean breeze, and in the flutter of wings.
“ARES,” a strident voice echoed through the arena, and they were all stumped to see the god of war cringe, the battle paused instantly, almost as though they were heroes on a bad action film, and the pause button had just been mercilessly pushed. “JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”
“A-Aprhodite,” the god stammered, putting his bloody hands behind his back, like it would hide just what he’d been up to. He was staring beseechingly at a beautiful figure that now stood in the center of the arena between them. “I thought that you-”
“No,” the goddess purred in lilting, golden tones, to match the long fall of her golden hair down her half naked back. Her hands were fisted on voluptuous hips, and then she stomped up to Ares, and smacked him on the forehead, and both Sora and Riku winced in sympathy, reminded instantly of Kairi when they’d done something stupid, usually by virtue of being male.
“Ow,” Ares whined, “What did I do?”
“More what you didn’t do,” Aphrodite huffed, light shimmering over her perfect figure like the sun on water. She threw a glance back at Sora, Riku, and Kairi, and all three of them drew in a gasp, struck by her beauty. She dismissed them in an instant.
“It was your turn to watch Eros, remember? Just how am I supposed to get ready if I can’t rely on you to watch over your own son on occasion.”
“W-what? Was that….oh.” Ares blinked, a look of horror dawning on his face. “But. What am I supposed to do with him?” he asked in a furious whisper. “He likes all those hearts and love and stuff, like you. He doesn’t ever want to try and stir up any battles, or to spar with me, and- I bet he’s gay.”
Sora stifled a laugh, through sheer will, and had to close his eyes lest the sight of Kairi placing a quick hand over Riku’s mouth did him in. A sigh next to him made him open his eyes again, however. “They do this all the time,” said a sweet, cherubic voice. Sora looked down, and saw a young boy who wasn’t quite Kairi’s height standing there. He was naked save for a loose white wrap around his hips, and it looked more like a skirt than anything.
“They love me,” he said, his blue eyes watching them with the world-weary look of teenagers everywhere. “I know they do. But they’re so stupid. I wish dad would just get over it. It’s all because he saw me in mom’s heels that one time. I mean really.” He gave Sora a beseeching look. “Love comes in lots of different forms, for all sorts of people. Why close myself to different kinds? I mean,” he added, with a sudden, mischievous waggle of his eyebrows, “you know what I’m talking about? Right?”
Sora said, “Er.”
Eros laughed, and the slightly gangly, adolescent wings curving from his back fluttered with it. “No worries, mom and dad are probably almost done arguing, and then you guys can get back to your own lives.” He gave them a brilliant smile, and his face was, for a moment, more beautiful than the goddess of beauty, full of love and laughter and possibilities.
“Right,” Riku said, faintly. “We’d appreciate that, yeah.”
Hades stormed his way onto the arena then, his hair flickering wildly, eyes snapping. “Aphrodite, darling, what a surprise! Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“I,” Aphrodite said, giving Hades a heavy lidded look of disgust, “am going to tell Persephone on you.”
Very faintly, Sora said, “I am so confused. I’ve never seen Hades look so pale in my life.”
“This is ridiculous,” Kairi muttered, her eyebrow twitching as she watched what had been a chaos she understood unravel into a decidedly different kind of chaos. She walked a few steps closer, head up, shoulders back, and said, “Excuse me. But we were in the middle of a battle to take back Sora’s soul. Am I right in assuming that Ares is forfeiting?”
Hades and Ares both opened their mouths as though to say something, but Aphrodite turned on one perfect, sandaled heel to face Kairi. “Yes, actually. That is it, exactly.”
“Oh, good,” Kairi said, smiling at Aphrodite. “And I have to say, I love your dress. It almost matches how beautiful your eyes are.”
“Um.” Riku muttered to Sora on the sidelines. “Did our girlfriend just turn lesbian on us?”
“Shhh,” Sora muttered back. “Maybe they’ll kiss.”
They didn’t kiss. Instead, Aphrodite gifted Kairi with an approving smile, and a pat on her shoulder. “I like you,” she purred. “You though,” she countered, turning on Hades, “I don’t like. The atmosphere down here does nothing at all for my complexion.”
“So sorry,” Hades sneered, still looking abnormally pale. “But I hope you realize that as you just, in effect, defeated Ares,” Hades threw a hateful look at the other god, who shrugged and gave a ‘what would you do?’ kind of look back, “it’s now your turn to fight the mortals. Because you just won, and I doubt they’ll let it go without a fight.” He gave a wicked smile. “I hope you break a nail.”
Aphrodite gave a disdainful sniff. “And what, pray tell, would I be winning, even if I did defeat them?” She gave Riku and Sora a speculative look, and they both gulped, and took a careful step back.
Eros sighed morosely beside them, and whined, very faintly. “Mom.”
“I was just looking,” she purred back, and winked at Riku.
“Sora’s soul,” Kairi said, stepping up in front of where Aphrodite was gazing. “And none of that. I don’t care if you are a goddess. They’re mine.”
Aphrodite gave Kairi another look, and then laughed, patting her on the shoulder again. “No need to worry, dear. What would I want with a soul? If it was a heart, maybe,” she gave Kairi a slow, simmering look. “You should be careful how you talk to a goddess, mortal. You don’t want to make me competitive.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good then.” Aphrodite looked over to Hades, and shrugged one beautifully curved shoulder. “I forfeit. They win. Give the lad back his soul and let the mortals go. And as for you,” she turned back to Ares, and went to take him by the arm before she stopped. “You are showering, and then you are watching our son. Got it?”
“Yes, dear,” Ares sighed, and left, Aphrodite and Eros following quickly behind. Eros gave them one last wave, and a wink that made Sora squint his eyes in suspicion. It had been far too happy.
Then Riku said, “Well? What are you waiting for? You heard the woman. Give Sora back his soul, unless you want us talking to…what was her name? Persephone.”
Hades looked like he was getting a migraine. “I hate you all.”
*
It was quick, and confusing, and weird. Sora had his soul back settled inside of him, without any tethers linking it outward, or the heavy, hunted feel of someone else’s power lying over it. It was almost enough to make him giddy as they stumbled back out of the arena, into the lobby. Cloud was there, eyebrows raised, a small army of shakes at his side. He took one look at them, smiled faintly, and said, “Drink up, and then go home.”
“Yeah,” Sora smiled back. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Riku called up a door, and Kairi gave Cloud a hug while Sora opened it, and then all three were stepping carefully through, being sure to close it tightly behind them. Cloud had assured them that he could find his own way home, thank you.
Unfortunately, the weirdness wasn’t over, yet.
“What. The. Fuck.”
“Um,” Sora said, in response to Riku. “I have…no idea.”
Their apartment had been remodeled while they were away. There were candles everywhere, and a shag carpet instead of the cheap linoleum. Gauze curtains hung from their many windows, showing the island night outside, and the light breeze blowing in made the flames flicker, so that the shadows inside danced. Kairi was following the trail of rose petals left on the ground, stepping warily around silk pillows, into their bedroom.
Sora and Riku quickly followed her in, and stopped behind her to stare stupidly at their bed. It had never been small, couldn’t have been small with the three of them - Sora slept everywhere, which made up for Riku sleeping in a ball and taking up barely a corner of the bed; Kairi just slept like a normal person, thankfully - but now it was huge.
Blushing, Kairi said, “It looks like it came from a porno.”
Sora laughed, and wasn’t quite startled to realize that his voice had gone huskier at that suggestion. “You’re right,” he said, looking around. Their mirror was polished, and they had a large, black lacquer dresser now, which explained why clothing wasn’t strewn everywhere. Instead those pillows as well as fur blankets were everywhere, spilling off the big bed. On the dresser were a few items, which Riku had gone over to, and was staring at, back stiff.
“Hm,” Sora said, because that wasn’t an offended stiff, or an angry stiff. Kairi was still staring at the bed, but Sora poked her until she looked over too, and then her head cocked to the side, and she gave Sora a look through her lashes. “Riku,” she said, “What do you have there?”
There was a long pause, and Sora and Kairi held their breaths. Then Riku sighed, body going languid and anticipatory, and said, “Why don’t you come see?”
So they did, eager, because they were pretty sure whom this was from, and Sora was pretty certain he knew what that wink from Eros had been about, now. They were still tired - exhausted, really - but it had been a long time, and their wounds were all healed, thanks to Cloud’s shakes. They needed proper showers, but Kairi had dowsed them all with an impromptu water spell, and then an aeroga, lest they track blood all over their hallways.
Kairi pressed into Riku’s side, and Sora plastered himself against his back, and they all three looked down.
“…he is way too young to know about these kinds of things,” Kairi muttered, eyes wide. She reached down, picked up one toy, and blushed. She didn’t put it down, though, and met Sora’s eyes curiously. Sora grinned, feeling his heart rate pick up, and his cock harden.
“Agreed,” Riku said, clearing his throat and shifting. Sora gasped, when he pressed backward into him accidentally, and Riku shivered.
“But I think,” Kairi said, putting the toy down, and picking up another. “We might be a little too tired to try all of these right now. And…” she smiled, tapping the cuff with her finger, and catching it as it fell open, easily, “I think we might all be a little too…impatient.”
“Some more than others,” Riku said with a smirk, rubbing teasingly against Sora.
Sora laughed. “Guilty as charged.” He ran his hands over them both, taking arms, drawing them backwards. “Come on, you guys. I’ve been through a horrible ordeal. You should kiss me better.”
Kairi snorted, and dangled the cuffs in front of him. “Now, now, what about our apology, hm? Time to pay up, boy wonder.”
Sora grinned, and opened his mouth to respond, but Riku cut him off with a kiss, hungry and deep and searing. Sora moaned, moving one hand to press against Riku’s back tighter, shivering at the wet heat of Riku’s tongue sliding along his. Kairi made a hungry noise, and they broke apart, not quite panting.
“Impatient,” Kairi chided, and Riku gave her a smug, unapologetic look.
Sora laughed again, and held out his wrists. “Now, now,” he teased. “There’s plenty of me to go around.” He grinned helplessly, knowing he looked and sounded like a dork, but unable to care. He sat down on the bed, and raised hopeful eyes at Kairi. “You may take your justice from my body, if you like.”
“Well, if you insist.”
The cuffs were leather, and smooth on his wrists. Not uncomfortable, except for a moment when something inside him twisted in desperation to escape captivity, of which he had already suffered quite enough of. But then he looked up, into loving eyes, and he felt himself relax into a peaceful acceptance, and smiled.
This was a lock he could open easily, and more importantly, a lock he trusted Riku and Kairi to, so that he knew he would never even have need of the key. He was safe here, with them, a willing, beloved captive. He sank back into the covers, arching as Kairi ran her nails lightly across his skin beneath his shirt, as Riku pressed tender kisses to his neck.
His fingers twitched with the want to touch them, with the need to hold them closely. The handcuffs held him, though, and he let himself surrender to their touch, to their mouths, to their greedy, uplifting love, hungry for him and for each other.
*
It was always hard to remember who had what on, if just because they were always too distracted by each other to know whose hands were taking off whose clothing. But eventually they were all naked, and it was all pretty glorious, if confusing.
“So,” Sora panted, as Riku sat behind him, mouthing along his shoulders and grinding against him, “do I get to take these cuffs off any time soon?”
Kairi came up from her lazy rendition of a blowjob, blowing on the wet head of Sora’s cock so that Sora shivered and whimpered. She smiled, and said, “What do you think, Riku?”
Against Sora’s neck, Riku raked his teeth, and then huffed a laugh into Sora’s ear. “Not a chance.”
“Argh,” Sora said, before his eyes rolled back and he groaned at the suction, and the friction behind him. His body was pulsing, throbbing, and he wanted relief. “C’mon, guys,” he whined. “This is just mean.”
Kairi ignored him for a good minute, working him up, and then tapering off so that he never quite fell over the edge. Riku was wriggling around to the front, smirking through his flush, and teasing through his panting. “No, this is mean,” he said, because then Sora was hissing as Kairi slid off of him, and pulled Riku to her, as Riku let out a trembling sigh and relaxed into Kairi’s grasp, eyes dark and hot and dangerous and needfully hungry for them, for their love and possession and acceptance.
“Yes,” Sora rasped, as Kairi dug out their lube from the covers, slicked her fingers smooth and cool and wet, and then dipped them down, and into Riku. Riku choked on a breath, an expression of focused rapture on his face as he arched and tilted into her fingers, stretching him open.
“Beautiful,” Kairi breathed, pressing her lips tenderly to whatever pale, sweaty skin she could reach. She used her other to help Riku straddle Sora’s thighs, her gray-violet eyes almost totally black, half hidden behind the mused fall of her ragged hair. She’d have to cut it again, back short like when they were little. Sora gasped, stricken, for a moment, with how much he loved them.
“Thank you,” he said thickly, “thank you for coming for me.”
Riku pried an eye open, to fix him with a lazy, half-delirious look while he grinded mindlessly back onto Kairi’s hand. “O-of course - hn - of course we did. You d-ah!”
“Dumb ass,” Kairi finished, grinning, pulling her fingers out with a slick pop and a keen from Riku. Then she guided Riku forward, onto Sora’s straining dick, and it was all hot, wet, smooth warm heat tight around him, and Kairi’s hands grasping his as he tried to reach for them. Her mouth placing tender kisses on his palms as he bucked up, into Riku.
The handcuffs were gone, the lock seared open in the passion of his want, his need, to reach and touch and hold them, to ascertain that they were really, truly there, with him, loving him.
It didn’t take long, after that, before Sora crashed head first into white oblivion, shooting his load into Riku’s hungry body, crying out into Kairi’s devouring mouth, clinging to them with all he had. When he came back, he was exhausted, sore, tired and at peace. He stayed awake with an effort, clinging to it determinedly. Inside, it felt like his soul had smoothed out a little more, like the jagged edges had been tenderly realigned and soothed with that same brilliant light that suffused his being with warmth and love; with them: Riku and Kairi.
Riku lay sprawled over his chest, still breathing heavily, and snoring, just faintly. Sora groaned, and shifted, and slid out, Riku making a faint disapproving noise in his sleep. Kairi smiled, and stroked white strands of his hair from his face. Sora watched them, and asked, very quietly, very seriously, “Can you die from happiness?”
It made Kairi laugh softly. She said, “If you do, don’t worry. I always keep a spare phoenix down with me.”
“Oh, good.” Sora grinned, reached out and tilted her chin up to him, until they kissed softly over Riku’s peacefully slumbering body. “He seems tired.”
“Yeah,” Kairi murmured. “I know for a fact that he didn’t sleep well with you as prisoner.”
Sora winced. “Er. Sorry about that.”
Rolling her eyes, Kairi said, fondly, “You knuckle head. Just. Try not to worry us like that again, okay? At least warn us before you do something so stupid.”
“Sure,” Sora laughed. “I’ll leave a memo?”
“Ridiculous.” Kairi shook her head, and then lay down, wrapping an arm over Riku so that she could grasp her hand onto Sora’s bicep.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Sora said.
“Sleep,” said Kairi. “We’ve been through enough, and this is good. Better than good. I don’t need anything else tonight, other than the two of you in my bed, and a good long sleep, so that I can wake up to your stomach growling in the morning, and Riku complaining about bed head, okay?”
“Not a chance,” Sora replied firmly, a devious glint in his eyes. He clambered over Riku, who snorted, and rolled over onto the warm spot Sora had left. Sora sprawled comfortable over Kairi’s soft and leanly hard body, felt the strength and tension still pulsing through it, even on the verge of sleep. “I still owe you an apology remember? And I’m not going to make you wait for it.”
He slid a hand down, between her legs, felt her wet and hot and throbbing, and grinned sleepily, but hungrily into her beautiful face. She laughed at him, and swatted half-heartedly, the lines of her face tired, but happy, and hungry. “Well,” she said softly, winding her fingers through his spiky brown hair, “if you insist.”
Author: reversedhymnal
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence! And fluff! And handcuffs and blow jobs and fucking, oh my, ♥
Word count: 8,600~ in this part
Summary: Honestly. Nothing ever, ever goes accordingly to plan.
Prompt: Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora/Riku/Kairi: Dancing - three-part harmony
A/N: The second, and last part of this hugely monstrous one shot fic. IT REALLY WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE PORN. But then it turned epic, and, well. Not exactly what most people imagine when they see the prompt, no doubt, XD; *sigh* Hope you guys enjoy it, :D The first half can be found here!
It was Cloud’s third trip back with the Potion Shakes when it happened. He was battered, and bruised, and quite possibly broken in a few places - he swore their last opponent had had fists like mythril forged hammers, the fucker, not to mention a shield that liked getting in Cloud’s way. A lot - and he’d drunk the last of their dinky potions so that he could manage to stagger his way to the refreshment stand.
Riku couldn’t walk, and Kairi was busy worrying over him, and Cloud almost wished he’d told Tifa okay, yes, you can come, but then she would have wanted to fight, and this wasn’t her battle. He loved Tifa, but no.
His sword made a good makeshift cane, even if it did occasionally leave gouges a foot deep in the floor. Cloud gritted his teeth, and made his unsteady way to the counter, threw down not a small amount of munny, and gritted out his order.
He turned, just in time for someone roughly the same height and body mass to slam right into him, and send him backwards into the counter edge. Hissing, his back screaming at him, Cloud started to croak something that might have been half question, but was most likely full cursing, when he heard Sora go, “Oh- shit. Sorry, sorry, can’t. Argh, which way is out?”
“I. Sora?” Cloud squinted at the man draped over him, and, yeah, he recognized that spiky brown hair, almost as spiky as his own blonde. They stumbled upright, hands holding onto each other and Cloud’s Buster Sword for support and help.
“Cloud?” Sora croaked, squinting. One eye was completely crusted over with blood, and he had a swollen jaw. His clothing was rent, and dark and gleaming wetly in the Underworld light in several places. He looked as bad as Cloud felt, actually.
“What are you-?”
“Excuse me sir,” said the ghoul at his back. Cloud turned around, was confronted with a sullen glare that would forever be caught in a teenager’s pimpled, if vaguely translucent and drippy, face. “Your shakes are ready.”
“Uh. Could I have one more?”
The ghoul clerk rolled his - her? - eyes, and almost lost one, but stuffed it back in grumpily. “That’ll be seventy munny, then.”
“R-right.” Cloud dished out the munny, and then realized that Sora was chattering at him, half of it lost in nonsensical mumbling. He grabbed two of the shakes, turned back to Sora, and shoved one in his old comrade’s hand. “Drink this.”
“Suuuure,” said Sora, woozily. “Whasit..”
“Straw.” Cloud coughed, and shifted gingerly. He started sucking on his, to demonstrate.
“Oh, right,” said Sora, and then he was drinking his drink, and both of them quite possibly blissed out for several moments as the green shake was consumed greedily on both of their parts. When Cloud snapped back to reality, at least, he felt like maybe he could walk without falling down, and the ghoul was tapping its bony foot, and glaring.
“You’re holding up my line,” it snapped.
Sora blinked, and leaned over Cloud’s shoulder - yep, Cloud was right. Exact same height - and said, with a charming, slightly crazed grin, “Sorry! Thanks for the drink, though, man.”
Laughing, because that was just so Sora, Cloud grabbed the other two shakes, passed one off to Sora, and then ripped the Buster Sword out of the ground, where he had conveniently placed it. The after effects of such concentrated ingredients - especially those mega-potions, they were a doozy - would leave them a bit muggy for a while, but would clear off soon enough, thanks to the adrenaline rush of fighting. They were at least capable enough to get back to the lobby.
“You,” he prophesized, “Have a lot of explaining to do. Come on. Riku and Kairi are worried about you.”
Probably a good thing he didn’t bring Tifa, Cloud thought, because if he had, she would have fought, and there was no way she would have been willing to give up her slot for Sora, even in a situation like this. And if he had brought her, Tifa might have seen the way that Sora made his heart hurt, just a little, with how much he reminded him of Zack sometimes. And Cloud had finally learned that the past wasn’t worth ruining his future over.
Shaking his head, and smiling slightly behind his red collar, Cloud led Sora back to his own future, to Riku and Kairi, glad to be alive.
*
They were sprawled over the old, dusty chairs in the decrepit fighter’s lounge, Riku just staring blankly up at the ceiling, Kairi mumbling quietly to herself healing charms as she tried to close the gaping wound in Riku’s thigh.
It hurt like a mother fucking bitch, and the concentration was making sweat roll down Kairi’s face, which was the only reason Riku allowed for why they didn’t notice them in the first place. All of a sudden there was the best sound in the world, even in a world narrowed and spiked with pain as his was, saying, “Jeez! I leave you guys alone for two weeks, and this is what happens?”
“S-Sora,” Riku choked, getting up too fast and almost having his vision go white with the pain.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he heard that lovely voice say, muffled and from far away. He thought he heard Kairi’s voice, but couldn’t quite tell; he felt their hands on him, though, Sora’s square and large, Kairi’s slender and tapered; both of them rough and capable and lovingly gentle. Riku couldn’t help it; he let himself relax into their grasp, let himself fall into that forgiving white, knowing that they would catch him.
*
“Well, hell,” Sora said, blinking in surprise. He looked over at Kairi, who was giving him a very irritated glower, and blushed. “Er. Hey! How was I supposed to know he’d be retarded?” He paused, and then grinned goofily, unable to stop his joy at seeing them again, “I mean. Other than the fact that he is a retard, that is.”
“Gah,” said Kairi. And then she slumped over onto him, not passed out, but breathing slowly, deeply like she couldn’t breathe him in enough, her forehead sticky and hot against his shoulder.
Sora felt his entire face fold into a softness that he thought was probably the most grown up thing he had, in a world where he’d been fighting and surviving and killing since well before he was considered a legal adult; his heart felt too full with it, like it would grow wings and fly. “Sorry,” he whispered into Kairi’s hair, softly, keeping one hand resting on Riku’s shoulder, and using the other to stroke up and down Kairi’s arm.
“Sora.”
Blinking up at Cloud’s voice, Sora woke back to the situation at hand. “O-oh, yeah. Right. Hey, hey Kairi.” He pushed her gently up right, and grinned at her teasingly, though his brows were furrowed in concern. “Cloud bought you that shake you wanted. Drink it for me, okay?”
“Don’t.” Kairi yawned, but opened her eyes wide and reached for the drink. “Don’t act like I’m an invalid.” She settled back down with it, leaning against Riku’s hip as she started to suck on the straw, starting with small sips, and ending with great gulps.
“Sure, thing, babe,” Sora grinned. He looked back over at Cloud, and then wound up frowning at him. “Are you still all banged up, as well? I can’t see under that red sheet of yours.”
Cloud gave him a look, and a small smile. “I’m fine, Sora. The mako in my system is good for something at least. It helps me heal faster, remember? Besides, I already had my shake, when you were drinking yours.”
“Oh, yeah. Duh,” Sora said, laughing a little at himself. Then he was tilting his head and squinting at the other fighter. “Huh. You know, actually, it’s weird seeing you in those old clothes. It’s been, what, years?”
“Mm, about seven.” Cloud shrugged, and his voice was quiet, but certain and strong, when he murmured, “It seemed poetic. To return the same outwardly, but inwardly changed.”
Sora grinned. “Whatever you say, man. I think it’s just good to see you.”
“And you,” Cloud returned, a little hesitant, but willing. Sora beamed, glad that he’d come so far since Sora had last saw him; glad that his light was showing him how to be happy again, to be human, rather than an angry obsession. Then he added, “Even if I don’t like having you fall into my arms, half dead,” which Sora, actually, could have done without having been mentioned.
“What was that?”
Sora winced, and then looked over at Kairi. “Uhhhh. You feeling better, then?”
Putting down the Shake, Kairi stared at it in adoration. “Oh, yes. Was there Ether in that, too?”
“Mm,” Cloud said, from where he was standing just off away from them. “Yes. I requested a supplement in them.”
“You’re a prince.”
Very faintly, Riku protested, “Stop…flirting, damn it.” Riku was awake, and wincing up at the ceiling with a sullen look on his face.
“Oi!” Sora looked over at Kairi in startlement. “You flirting with other men?”
“Sigh,” Kairi said. “Sigh and groan and scream. You guys are ridiculous.” Gently, she whacked her forehead with the palm of her hand, as if she could deny her boys’ ludicrousness through masochism. Sora watched with secret delight, and gave Cloud a mock-territorial look.
Cloud snorted, and rolled his eyes at them. “Leave me out of this.”
“Gladly,” muttered Riku, and then he rolled his head over, and his entire pale face locked onto the Shake Cloud still held in his hand. “Is that mine? Hand it over.”
“So polite,” scathed Cloud in wry amusement, though he handed the drink over readily enough, before disappearing back into the shadows of his red cloak.
“Yep,” Sora said, beaming at him. “That’s my Riku.”
“Ours,” interjected Kairi, nonchalantly buffing her nails. She gave Sora a coy look under her lashes a moment later, however, and Sora laughed, and nodded, and agreed. “Ours.”
Riku, thankfully, was too busy downing his Shake to get embarrassed and protest. In the meanwhile Kairi coughed politely and gave Cloud a half sheepish, half appealing look. The blonde snorted, and walked off, without even saying good-bye, his huge sword shining in the dim light. Just called over his shoulder, “I’d better see a trophy at Aerith’s victory party, later.”
Sora laughed, and waved at his retreating back. “Sure thing!” Kairi smiled beautifully, and said, “He’s a really nice guy. I’m glad that whole mess with his darkness blew over.”
“Yeah,” Sora said, wrinkling his nose. “That was…intense.”
Kairi giggled, and then her hand was on Sora’s cheek, and there were a few other people still in the lobby with them, but they didn’t matter, nothing mattered right then, in the face of them, in the face of being together again, if not quite safe and healthy, then fully capable of fighting their way there, now.
Sora sighed into the kiss, tasting the sweetness that was his favorite girl in the entire world, feeling the slow slide and flex of her lips against his, the hungry slip of her tongue along his own. His sigh turned, morphed into a growl, and he felt his own shiver echoed in her, as Kairi slid her hand from his cheek to his hair, tightening her fingers in his brown locks and tugging, gently.
“Hey now. I hope you didn’t forget about me,” Riku said, and Kairi laughed into Sora’s grin, and they both groped a hand out to Riku without quite stopping; instead, they shared amongst each other, trading kisses like the best potions in the world.
“Damn,” Sora groaned when they finally pulled back. “Where’s a bed when you need one?”
Kairi snorted, and swatted him gently on the knee. “After the tournament. You still have to explain- well. Everything, actually. Why the hell are you here, if we’re here to rescue you?”
Sora winced, as Riku narrowed his eyes in agreement. “Er. Funny story that,” he laughed awkwardly, before swallowing it back down with difficulty and rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Well. I. Still need help being rescued, actually?”
“Why,” Riku drawled, “am I not surprised. Aren’t you supposed to be the hero?”
Sora blushed sheepishly. “Shut up, you. This is your story as much as mine! And, hey- like you’d even be any good at being a sidekick.”
“Amen to that,” Kairi muttered in quiet amusement, while Riku smirked, and said, sassily, “That’s because I’m way too awesome to not be center stage, loser.”
“In your dreams,” Sora laughed, and poked him in the side. He yelped a moment later when Riku tackled him to the hard floor, and tickled him mercilessly. “Stop, stop,” he shrieked. “Unfair conduct! K-Kairi, help!”
Dryly, their girl said, “And why would I do that?”
“Be-because - hahaha! Oh, god, stop! - you love me?”
“Hm.” Kairi’s eyes gleamed, and a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. They were no doubt getting strange looks from the other remaining contestants - had to have been the most life they’d seen around those parts in a long time - but Sora didn’t care. He was about to wet his fucking pants.
“Only way to get information from him,” Riku said in all seriousness, while calmly dodging a flailing limb. “Torture it out of him.”
“NOOOOOOOO! Haha- ack, no- argh, help meeeeee!”
“Do you surrender, then?” Riku asked, grinning sly and sharp and beautiful.
Sora, knowing it would mean his doom, but loving Riku acting like a dork too much to make it end, howled, “NEVER SURRENDER.”
“Well then,” Kairi said decisively, and Sora knew dread when he looked at the wicked gleam in her eyes. “You leave us with no choice.”
“There will be no quarter,” Riku chortled with a certain degree of malicious satisfaction.
Sora’s eyes went very, very wide. “….meep!”
“Indeed,” Kairi said, and then she attacked, and Sora was afraid he’d laugh himself to death beneath their loving ministrations.
*
The best thing about being tickled nearly to death was the fact that Sora got away with not telling Riku and Kairi how, exactly, he’d gotten into this particular mess and just how bad, exactly, that particular mess was.
When he got up, he winced, and was glad that he could play it off as ‘wounds’ from his session of torture. But, inside, he hurt. It was like a raw wound on fire in the back of his mind, reaching everywhere and nowhere, inside his body so he couldn’t do anything but close his eyes and grit his teeth against it.
Roxas, he spoke quietly inside his mind.
Fuck this, he replied. We’re going to fucking kill them.
Yes, Sora returned, in answer to himself. We will.
At the very least he was whole again. Just torn, and hurting. He felt more fractured, more discordant than he had in years. It was like and unlike being at war with himself. He was Roxas and Roxas was him, but it was confusing, like having at times conflicting thoughts, or a personality that went in two ways.
Sora sighed. I haven’t felt this crazy in a long time.
Roxas didn’t answer, but Sora knew what he was saying, because it was his own thought, and it was, Makes you appreciate the little things in life, doesn’t it? Sora snorted, and grinned sheepishly at Riku when he gave him a slanted look as they strode out onto the arena. One of the refs had been in to sneer in their direction and inform them that, “If you don’t get your miserable selves onto that floor in ten seconds you’ll forfeit your miserable selves, and wouldn’t that be just like you miserable bunch of living freaks, always giving up.”
“Yes,” Riku had returned, pleasantly enough from their heap on the ground. “That is simply miserable, isn’t it?”
Sora had snickered, and the ref had glowered, and Kairi had sprung up, grinning, “Yes, sir! Right there!”
Then they were off, down the corridor, laughing like children off to play, rather than soldiers off to battle. It was exhilarating, beautiful, and their voices were like music slicing through even the dead air of the Underworld. Now, coming through the entrance, Sora half expected to be blinded by sunlight, but, no, this was the Underworld, and he grinned a little, eyes quiet, because Auron had been one hell of a guy, and he still missed him. All his other friends he could go back and visit, just a quick, warp speed trip away on his gummi ship. Less than that, if he used the Doors.
Auron, though. Auron was gone; but Sora straightened under the pessimistic atmosphere, grinned hard and bright and thought, Bring it, because he’d told Auron he didn’t need a Guardian, right?
So he’d make sure that he made Auron proud, instead, wherever he was.
“Let’s go, you guys,” he said, turning so that they were back to back to back. His keyblades shimmered to life in his hands, key chains swinging, and when their contestants came, swooping through the air, Sora met them with a fierce joy at being alive, and capable, no matter how he may hurt, no matter what the future had in store for him.
*
Fighting was a lot like organized chaos. The only way they could survive it was to be systematic and aware of themselves as well as each other. Lucky for the three of them, they fit together like three pieces of a puzzle, snick snick snick, into one whole that was greater than its parts.
Kairi snapped, “Riku!” and Riku ducked immediately, rolling to the left. He came up, and spun, and Kairi sliced off a wing from the creature that had been dive-bombing him. Sora took his place a moment later, he and Kairi sidestepping back to back in a seamless movement, as two monsters came at them from opposite directions.
They dispatched them quickly, efficiently, and Sora yelled out an insult in a rich voice, the content lost in the battle, and Riku said, “Help me up!” right before he was running at them full tilt. Sora turned, and Kairi covered his back, so that he could be a springboard for Riku, sending him up, vaulting through the air, spinning with his keyblade, to completely obliterate the one-winged monster. He came back down, heavily, and Kairi blocked a blow to his head before he had his bearing straight.
“Thanks,” he grinned, and grasped her arm, pulling her back in an exchange of positions so that he could block an attack at her back with his other hand. Sora came up behind him, and Riku bent, feeling Sora’s blade whistle over his head and take the monster’s head off.
They all worked together like a well-oiled machine, flawless in a way that they hadn’t been when it was just Riku and Kairi and Cloud.
Laughing, as Kairi spun beneath Riku’s arm to take on a fanged creature while Riku tossed a quick blizzard out the other way, she called, “You did ask me to dance, didn’t you, Riku?”
“I don’t think this is quite the tango,” Sora cackled back. He thrust, parried, and then whipped his leg back in a lightning fast kick that broke a spinal cord with a very satisfying crunch.
Riku grinned, sweat dripping into his eyes. “No. It’s better.”
And it was. It was the three of them, dancing together across the battlefield, exhilarated and alive and fully capable. “One, two, three,” Kairi called, grinning, and Riku laughed.
“Yes!” he said. “Exactly!”
“All right,” Sora acknowledged, as he and Kairi went front to front to fire blasts of magic out away from them, and Riku knelt at their feet to fumble with the items in their inventory. “So I like this kind of dancing better than ballroom, sure. But!” He waggled his eyebrows, and Riku snorted, a thrill going through him that was like and unlike the battle entirely. “I know another kind of dancing that I’d love to do to you guys.”
“Later,” Kairi grinned, flushing even then, beautiful and vibrant. “Haven’t we been over this already?”
Sora laughed. “Well, can you blame me?”
This, Riku decided, with a quiet joy that belonged to two people and only them; this is how it’s supposed to be. He stood up, and Sora and Kairi stopped their magic, their keyblades twirling back into their hands, and they shifted, covering all their sides, moving through the battle with well-practiced steps, in beautiful, aching, three-part harmony.
Yes.
*
There wasn’t really a moment to breathe until right before the last match. “Goodness,” Kairi gasped, leaning against a couch. “This is…wow. Shouldn’t we get a break, or something? Half time?”
“Aw, but where would be the fun in that, hm?”
That oily voice had Sora bristling instantly. “Hades. I got out of that room fair and square. Kidnapping me wasn’t a part of the deal!” Kairi blinked, and went absolutely still.
Very quietly, and very dangerously, Riku said, “Deal?”
Hades was standing in a very strategically dramatic spot, right where he was backlit from the dark purple glow of the hall entrance. He smirked, and raised his eyebrow, making a gesture of fake surprise with his hands. “Oh, ho! What’s this? The kid didn’t tell his…what are you guys? His keepers? His fuck buddies? Or just a couple more morons along for the ride?”
Kairi stood up slowly, frowning. “What-”
“Ah, well,” Hades interrupted, chuckling and walking forward, “Not that it matters. I’ve been watching you all fight, and bravo, bravo, you actually might make a stand against him.”
“Might?” Riku scowled. “Maybe the lighting down here has fucked with your eyes, old man. There’s no might about it.”
“Oh, my, well, haha, aren’t you funny,” Hades’ hair turned a sudden, vivid flare of vermilion, and he sneered, flatly, “NOT.”
“EXCUSE ME,” Kairi said, determined. When everyone’s eyes were on her, she smiled grimly, and asked, “Can we get back to the matter at hand, please? What deal?”
“Oh, so polite,” Hades simpered. “What do you think? Sora, here, sold his soul to get his little friends out of eternal torture. Oh,” he mocked, voice high and fawning over an acidic loathing, “what a hero.”
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Riku said, and Kairi kind of just stared at Sora incredulously. He scrubbed at his hair sheepishly, grinning nervously and lifting a shoulder in an uncertain shrug.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time?”
“You heroes,” Hades butted in, smirking gleefully. “All the same. So easy to manipulate. Just dangle a little trauma and pain and injustice in front of you and SNAP, caught in my trap.”
“Oh, shut up,” Riku said. “I realize that you don’t have much for company here, but that’s your problem, not ours. We didn’t come down here to listen to your blathering. Set up a fucking tea party if you want people to listen to you.”
“Remodeling might help,” Kairi suggested gently. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s a little drear and macabre in here. ….and I’m sorry but it really, really smells.”
“This is nothing! You should smell his sheets, god, I almost died-”
“QUUUIIIIIIEEEEEET.”
Riku muttered, “Precisely,” and merely smirked when Hades glowered at him.
Hades said, very viciously, “I’ll send your remains back home, if you like. There won’t be much when Ares is through, of course, but. You know me. I’m so kind.” His eyes glittered, and he bared his teeth in a smile at Sora’s snort, “How’s that soul of yours, Sora? Got it all back in one piece?”
Kairi gave a soft gasp, and Riku’s darkness spread and curled and did a very malicious looking dance, his eyes never leaving Hades. Sora straightened, after a quick grimace their way. “Yes, actually,” he said, fierce and brilliant and refusing to be shoved down. “Ares was kind enough to give me a little help in getting it back.”
“Oh? Was he?”
“Yeah.” Sora grinned, and Kairi stepped closer, at his side. It didn’t matter that she kind of wanted to strangle him for whatever idiocy he’d walked straight into. It was Sora, and she had his back no matter what. It really was like dancing, she decided. Even if you weren’t exactly sure where you were being led, you trusted enough to follow anyway, to work together to make it through all the steps, to the end of the dance.
And with the three of them, it would always be one hell of a dance.
“The Final Match is in ten minutes,” Hades snapped. “That should be break enough for you, doll. And here.” In a sudden zigzag of electric fire, Hades snatched an item out of the air, and chunked it at them. Riku, stepping up on Sora’s other side, snatched it from the air with a contemptuous look.
Hades gave a harsh laugh, and a wild grin. “You’ll need it.” And then he was gone.
“Well, fuck,” Riku said, immediately, smacking Sora on the back of the head. “What do we do now?”
Sora yelped, and reached up to cover the back of his head, because he was at least smart enough to know that Kairi’s fist was coming on the tail end of Riku’s. “I have no idea,” she muttered, concerned. “Sora! How do even you manage to sell your soul to the devil!”
Sora ducked away, wincing, and sheepishly admitted, “Er. Well, y’see…it’s like this.”
“Yes?” Riku asked, through gritted teeth.
In one long, single, dejected sigh, Sora deflated completely. “He bet me that he could make a better s’more than me! I mean really! S’mores are all sweet and good and yummy and wholesome! How was I supposed to know that they were his favorite food? And, you know,” Sora waved his hands in the air in a completely incoherent expression, “with all the fire control problems and stuff, I thought he’d burn it - poof! - just like that. And then I’d still have my soul and Jack’s people would be free. But noooooo, of course not.”
Sora pouted, and muttered, “I should have known better. Trickiest fucker I’ve ever met, damn it!”
Kairi sighed, and rubbed at her temples. “Well…there’s no use worrying about it now, I suppose. Though,” she added with a sharp look, “You’re going to owe us later. Big time.”
“Oh, yeah,” Riku muttered. “I demand a huge apology, you lame ass loser.”
Sora looked hopeful, eager. “Okay! I can do that, totally!” Then he leered cheerfully, and said, “What am I talking about? I can definitely do that.”
Rolling her eyes, Kairi ignored him. It was best not to be distracted by such things at such times, after all. Clearing her throat behind a demurely placed hand, she said, “So all we have to do now is win Sora’s soul, which we knew we’d have to do in the first place.”
“Right,” Riku said. “The price listed on the banner. I just can’t believe he was so stupid about it. Fair and square, bleh.”
“Um.” Sora’s hesitant voice made Kairi look up, and narrow her eyes at him. They were down to just a few minutes, now, and she couldn’t resist reaching out for their hands, feeling their warm, capable fingers wrapped around her own.
“Yeah?”
“That whole winning back my soul thing sounds awesome, don’t get me wrong,” he grinned. “But, uh. If that’s a mega-elixer in your hand, Riku, we’d better damn well make use of it. And be prepared for the battle of your life you guys. ‘Cause, uh. In case you didn’t know. Ares is the god of war. I was nearly a smear on the wall, thanks to him.”
Kairi blinked, and sighed, and silently agreed with Riku when he said: “...fuck.”
*
“Jeez,” Riku groaned on a long, lithe stretch. Sora watched the way his shirt rode up blatantly, and just grinned sheepishly when Kairi swatted at him. “I haven’t felt this good in years, I swear.”
“Seriously.” Kairi held her own hands out in front of her, and flexed her fingers. “What did they put in that mega-elixer?”
“Oh, that? Ambrosia, probably.”
Both Riku and Kairi stopped dead in the middle of the arena, and turned to stare at him. Sora blinked at them, and took a step back, “W-what?”
“…You have got to be kidding me.” Riku lifted an arm up, and sniffed at it, before putting it back down and glaring around at the audience like they were stupid for even thinking he’d do something as ridiculous as that. Kairi brought her hands up, and pressed her fingers against her temples, “Oh, god.”
“Exactly,” Riku muttered sourly, and couldn’t resist prodding at his side suspiciously, audience or no audience. “What happens if a mortal drinks it, again?”
“I have no idea,” sighed Kairi. “We’ll have to ask Hercules, when we get back.”
Finally, Sora interjected, utterly perplexed. “Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean? What’s wrong with the ambrosia stuff? It tastes kind of funny, but it fills you right up!” Kairi made a strangled noise, and Riku opened his mouth and started to say, “You’ve got to be-” incredulously, before he was interrupted by slamming into a wall.
“Riku!” Sora yelled, dashing over to him. He heard Kairi’s keyblade snick into her hand protectively, and didn’t bother trying to guard his back; just tried to make sure Riku wasn’t dead. “What the hell?”
“I think,” Kairi said, voice low and edged, “that our battle just began.”
“Then you would think right,” said a voice that Sora, no matter how long it took, doubted he would ever forget.
Sora skidded to a stop, and was relieved to see that Riku had his eyes slitted open in a glare, his teeth gritted. He was pushing himself up, snarling curses under his breath. “Shove off,” he snapped at Sora. “It just took me by surprise. I managed to deflect most of it with my shield.”
“Good.” Sora smiled, and helped Riku up anyway. “Don’t let him do that again. It hurts like a bitch.”
“No shit.”
Kairi yelled at them, from across the arena. “A little help please- oh FUCK.”
Sora looked up just in time to catch Kairi with his face.
*
It wasn’t the best battle they had ever fought, but it wasn’t a complete embarrassment, either. They were all proud of that, even while they staggered against each other, faces set determinedly through the blood. There were moments when the three of them shone as bright as stars before they fell, their weapons singing through the air, even cutting away the jeering crowd, almost to a crystal perfect silence.
There was a moment when Ares was forced back by a combo, a burn fierce along his thigh smelling of Riku’s magic. There was a cut high up on his cheekbone, courtesy of Kairi, and several others littering his body delivered there by their uncanny teamwork. Sora grinned at him, his body close to breaking, but still going on. Even with the ambrosia, his body hadn’t ceased feeling acutely as if it had been torn apart and patched together badly.
Ares spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground, and nodded his head gravely. The look on his face was the liveliest Sora had ever seen there; his black eyes shone, and his mouth was curled into a sharp smile. He was breathing, just a little heavily, and when he spoke Sora could hear the respect lining his words, as well as the shiver of violence, that had been raging from him the entirety of the battle.
“Not bad,” the god of war said. “Are these the ones you had to save?”
“Yes,” Sora said, straightening with an effort. “Yes. They’re mine.”
Ares laughed, very softly. “A good choice, then. It will be an honor to defeat you three.”
Kairi shook her hair out behind her, ragged and torn from the battle, and smiled without humor. The light shone grimly off her keyblade, and Riku quietly passed one of their dwindling supplies of hi-potions to Sora.
Kairi spoke for them all, and said: “Bring it.”
*
In the end, neither Ares nor Sora, Riku, or Kairi were the victors. Neither was Hades, for that matter. The battle, when it ended, ended in a bright flash of gold, in the sound of larks singing, in the smell of the ocean breeze, and in the flutter of wings.
“ARES,” a strident voice echoed through the arena, and they were all stumped to see the god of war cringe, the battle paused instantly, almost as though they were heroes on a bad action film, and the pause button had just been mercilessly pushed. “JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”
“A-Aprhodite,” the god stammered, putting his bloody hands behind his back, like it would hide just what he’d been up to. He was staring beseechingly at a beautiful figure that now stood in the center of the arena between them. “I thought that you-”
“No,” the goddess purred in lilting, golden tones, to match the long fall of her golden hair down her half naked back. Her hands were fisted on voluptuous hips, and then she stomped up to Ares, and smacked him on the forehead, and both Sora and Riku winced in sympathy, reminded instantly of Kairi when they’d done something stupid, usually by virtue of being male.
“Ow,” Ares whined, “What did I do?”
“More what you didn’t do,” Aphrodite huffed, light shimmering over her perfect figure like the sun on water. She threw a glance back at Sora, Riku, and Kairi, and all three of them drew in a gasp, struck by her beauty. She dismissed them in an instant.
“It was your turn to watch Eros, remember? Just how am I supposed to get ready if I can’t rely on you to watch over your own son on occasion.”
“W-what? Was that….oh.” Ares blinked, a look of horror dawning on his face. “But. What am I supposed to do with him?” he asked in a furious whisper. “He likes all those hearts and love and stuff, like you. He doesn’t ever want to try and stir up any battles, or to spar with me, and- I bet he’s gay.”
Sora stifled a laugh, through sheer will, and had to close his eyes lest the sight of Kairi placing a quick hand over Riku’s mouth did him in. A sigh next to him made him open his eyes again, however. “They do this all the time,” said a sweet, cherubic voice. Sora looked down, and saw a young boy who wasn’t quite Kairi’s height standing there. He was naked save for a loose white wrap around his hips, and it looked more like a skirt than anything.
“They love me,” he said, his blue eyes watching them with the world-weary look of teenagers everywhere. “I know they do. But they’re so stupid. I wish dad would just get over it. It’s all because he saw me in mom’s heels that one time. I mean really.” He gave Sora a beseeching look. “Love comes in lots of different forms, for all sorts of people. Why close myself to different kinds? I mean,” he added, with a sudden, mischievous waggle of his eyebrows, “you know what I’m talking about? Right?”
Sora said, “Er.”
Eros laughed, and the slightly gangly, adolescent wings curving from his back fluttered with it. “No worries, mom and dad are probably almost done arguing, and then you guys can get back to your own lives.” He gave them a brilliant smile, and his face was, for a moment, more beautiful than the goddess of beauty, full of love and laughter and possibilities.
“Right,” Riku said, faintly. “We’d appreciate that, yeah.”
Hades stormed his way onto the arena then, his hair flickering wildly, eyes snapping. “Aphrodite, darling, what a surprise! Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“I,” Aphrodite said, giving Hades a heavy lidded look of disgust, “am going to tell Persephone on you.”
Very faintly, Sora said, “I am so confused. I’ve never seen Hades look so pale in my life.”
“This is ridiculous,” Kairi muttered, her eyebrow twitching as she watched what had been a chaos she understood unravel into a decidedly different kind of chaos. She walked a few steps closer, head up, shoulders back, and said, “Excuse me. But we were in the middle of a battle to take back Sora’s soul. Am I right in assuming that Ares is forfeiting?”
Hades and Ares both opened their mouths as though to say something, but Aphrodite turned on one perfect, sandaled heel to face Kairi. “Yes, actually. That is it, exactly.”
“Oh, good,” Kairi said, smiling at Aphrodite. “And I have to say, I love your dress. It almost matches how beautiful your eyes are.”
“Um.” Riku muttered to Sora on the sidelines. “Did our girlfriend just turn lesbian on us?”
“Shhh,” Sora muttered back. “Maybe they’ll kiss.”
They didn’t kiss. Instead, Aphrodite gifted Kairi with an approving smile, and a pat on her shoulder. “I like you,” she purred. “You though,” she countered, turning on Hades, “I don’t like. The atmosphere down here does nothing at all for my complexion.”
“So sorry,” Hades sneered, still looking abnormally pale. “But I hope you realize that as you just, in effect, defeated Ares,” Hades threw a hateful look at the other god, who shrugged and gave a ‘what would you do?’ kind of look back, “it’s now your turn to fight the mortals. Because you just won, and I doubt they’ll let it go without a fight.” He gave a wicked smile. “I hope you break a nail.”
Aphrodite gave a disdainful sniff. “And what, pray tell, would I be winning, even if I did defeat them?” She gave Riku and Sora a speculative look, and they both gulped, and took a careful step back.
Eros sighed morosely beside them, and whined, very faintly. “Mom.”
“I was just looking,” she purred back, and winked at Riku.
“Sora’s soul,” Kairi said, stepping up in front of where Aphrodite was gazing. “And none of that. I don’t care if you are a goddess. They’re mine.”
Aphrodite gave Kairi another look, and then laughed, patting her on the shoulder again. “No need to worry, dear. What would I want with a soul? If it was a heart, maybe,” she gave Kairi a slow, simmering look. “You should be careful how you talk to a goddess, mortal. You don’t want to make me competitive.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good then.” Aphrodite looked over to Hades, and shrugged one beautifully curved shoulder. “I forfeit. They win. Give the lad back his soul and let the mortals go. And as for you,” she turned back to Ares, and went to take him by the arm before she stopped. “You are showering, and then you are watching our son. Got it?”
“Yes, dear,” Ares sighed, and left, Aphrodite and Eros following quickly behind. Eros gave them one last wave, and a wink that made Sora squint his eyes in suspicion. It had been far too happy.
Then Riku said, “Well? What are you waiting for? You heard the woman. Give Sora back his soul, unless you want us talking to…what was her name? Persephone.”
Hades looked like he was getting a migraine. “I hate you all.”
*
It was quick, and confusing, and weird. Sora had his soul back settled inside of him, without any tethers linking it outward, or the heavy, hunted feel of someone else’s power lying over it. It was almost enough to make him giddy as they stumbled back out of the arena, into the lobby. Cloud was there, eyebrows raised, a small army of shakes at his side. He took one look at them, smiled faintly, and said, “Drink up, and then go home.”
“Yeah,” Sora smiled back. “Sounds like a good idea.”
Riku called up a door, and Kairi gave Cloud a hug while Sora opened it, and then all three were stepping carefully through, being sure to close it tightly behind them. Cloud had assured them that he could find his own way home, thank you.
Unfortunately, the weirdness wasn’t over, yet.
“What. The. Fuck.”
“Um,” Sora said, in response to Riku. “I have…no idea.”
Their apartment had been remodeled while they were away. There were candles everywhere, and a shag carpet instead of the cheap linoleum. Gauze curtains hung from their many windows, showing the island night outside, and the light breeze blowing in made the flames flicker, so that the shadows inside danced. Kairi was following the trail of rose petals left on the ground, stepping warily around silk pillows, into their bedroom.
Sora and Riku quickly followed her in, and stopped behind her to stare stupidly at their bed. It had never been small, couldn’t have been small with the three of them - Sora slept everywhere, which made up for Riku sleeping in a ball and taking up barely a corner of the bed; Kairi just slept like a normal person, thankfully - but now it was huge.
Blushing, Kairi said, “It looks like it came from a porno.”
Sora laughed, and wasn’t quite startled to realize that his voice had gone huskier at that suggestion. “You’re right,” he said, looking around. Their mirror was polished, and they had a large, black lacquer dresser now, which explained why clothing wasn’t strewn everywhere. Instead those pillows as well as fur blankets were everywhere, spilling off the big bed. On the dresser were a few items, which Riku had gone over to, and was staring at, back stiff.
“Hm,” Sora said, because that wasn’t an offended stiff, or an angry stiff. Kairi was still staring at the bed, but Sora poked her until she looked over too, and then her head cocked to the side, and she gave Sora a look through her lashes. “Riku,” she said, “What do you have there?”
There was a long pause, and Sora and Kairi held their breaths. Then Riku sighed, body going languid and anticipatory, and said, “Why don’t you come see?”
So they did, eager, because they were pretty sure whom this was from, and Sora was pretty certain he knew what that wink from Eros had been about, now. They were still tired - exhausted, really - but it had been a long time, and their wounds were all healed, thanks to Cloud’s shakes. They needed proper showers, but Kairi had dowsed them all with an impromptu water spell, and then an aeroga, lest they track blood all over their hallways.
Kairi pressed into Riku’s side, and Sora plastered himself against his back, and they all three looked down.
“…he is way too young to know about these kinds of things,” Kairi muttered, eyes wide. She reached down, picked up one toy, and blushed. She didn’t put it down, though, and met Sora’s eyes curiously. Sora grinned, feeling his heart rate pick up, and his cock harden.
“Agreed,” Riku said, clearing his throat and shifting. Sora gasped, when he pressed backward into him accidentally, and Riku shivered.
“But I think,” Kairi said, putting the toy down, and picking up another. “We might be a little too tired to try all of these right now. And…” she smiled, tapping the cuff with her finger, and catching it as it fell open, easily, “I think we might all be a little too…impatient.”
“Some more than others,” Riku said with a smirk, rubbing teasingly against Sora.
Sora laughed. “Guilty as charged.” He ran his hands over them both, taking arms, drawing them backwards. “Come on, you guys. I’ve been through a horrible ordeal. You should kiss me better.”
Kairi snorted, and dangled the cuffs in front of him. “Now, now, what about our apology, hm? Time to pay up, boy wonder.”
Sora grinned, and opened his mouth to respond, but Riku cut him off with a kiss, hungry and deep and searing. Sora moaned, moving one hand to press against Riku’s back tighter, shivering at the wet heat of Riku’s tongue sliding along his. Kairi made a hungry noise, and they broke apart, not quite panting.
“Impatient,” Kairi chided, and Riku gave her a smug, unapologetic look.
Sora laughed again, and held out his wrists. “Now, now,” he teased. “There’s plenty of me to go around.” He grinned helplessly, knowing he looked and sounded like a dork, but unable to care. He sat down on the bed, and raised hopeful eyes at Kairi. “You may take your justice from my body, if you like.”
“Well, if you insist.”
The cuffs were leather, and smooth on his wrists. Not uncomfortable, except for a moment when something inside him twisted in desperation to escape captivity, of which he had already suffered quite enough of. But then he looked up, into loving eyes, and he felt himself relax into a peaceful acceptance, and smiled.
This was a lock he could open easily, and more importantly, a lock he trusted Riku and Kairi to, so that he knew he would never even have need of the key. He was safe here, with them, a willing, beloved captive. He sank back into the covers, arching as Kairi ran her nails lightly across his skin beneath his shirt, as Riku pressed tender kisses to his neck.
His fingers twitched with the want to touch them, with the need to hold them closely. The handcuffs held him, though, and he let himself surrender to their touch, to their mouths, to their greedy, uplifting love, hungry for him and for each other.
*
It was always hard to remember who had what on, if just because they were always too distracted by each other to know whose hands were taking off whose clothing. But eventually they were all naked, and it was all pretty glorious, if confusing.
“So,” Sora panted, as Riku sat behind him, mouthing along his shoulders and grinding against him, “do I get to take these cuffs off any time soon?”
Kairi came up from her lazy rendition of a blowjob, blowing on the wet head of Sora’s cock so that Sora shivered and whimpered. She smiled, and said, “What do you think, Riku?”
Against Sora’s neck, Riku raked his teeth, and then huffed a laugh into Sora’s ear. “Not a chance.”
“Argh,” Sora said, before his eyes rolled back and he groaned at the suction, and the friction behind him. His body was pulsing, throbbing, and he wanted relief. “C’mon, guys,” he whined. “This is just mean.”
Kairi ignored him for a good minute, working him up, and then tapering off so that he never quite fell over the edge. Riku was wriggling around to the front, smirking through his flush, and teasing through his panting. “No, this is mean,” he said, because then Sora was hissing as Kairi slid off of him, and pulled Riku to her, as Riku let out a trembling sigh and relaxed into Kairi’s grasp, eyes dark and hot and dangerous and needfully hungry for them, for their love and possession and acceptance.
“Yes,” Sora rasped, as Kairi dug out their lube from the covers, slicked her fingers smooth and cool and wet, and then dipped them down, and into Riku. Riku choked on a breath, an expression of focused rapture on his face as he arched and tilted into her fingers, stretching him open.
“Beautiful,” Kairi breathed, pressing her lips tenderly to whatever pale, sweaty skin she could reach. She used her other to help Riku straddle Sora’s thighs, her gray-violet eyes almost totally black, half hidden behind the mused fall of her ragged hair. She’d have to cut it again, back short like when they were little. Sora gasped, stricken, for a moment, with how much he loved them.
“Thank you,” he said thickly, “thank you for coming for me.”
Riku pried an eye open, to fix him with a lazy, half-delirious look while he grinded mindlessly back onto Kairi’s hand. “O-of course - hn - of course we did. You d-ah!”
“Dumb ass,” Kairi finished, grinning, pulling her fingers out with a slick pop and a keen from Riku. Then she guided Riku forward, onto Sora’s straining dick, and it was all hot, wet, smooth warm heat tight around him, and Kairi’s hands grasping his as he tried to reach for them. Her mouth placing tender kisses on his palms as he bucked up, into Riku.
The handcuffs were gone, the lock seared open in the passion of his want, his need, to reach and touch and hold them, to ascertain that they were really, truly there, with him, loving him.
It didn’t take long, after that, before Sora crashed head first into white oblivion, shooting his load into Riku’s hungry body, crying out into Kairi’s devouring mouth, clinging to them with all he had. When he came back, he was exhausted, sore, tired and at peace. He stayed awake with an effort, clinging to it determinedly. Inside, it felt like his soul had smoothed out a little more, like the jagged edges had been tenderly realigned and soothed with that same brilliant light that suffused his being with warmth and love; with them: Riku and Kairi.
Riku lay sprawled over his chest, still breathing heavily, and snoring, just faintly. Sora groaned, and shifted, and slid out, Riku making a faint disapproving noise in his sleep. Kairi smiled, and stroked white strands of his hair from his face. Sora watched them, and asked, very quietly, very seriously, “Can you die from happiness?”
It made Kairi laugh softly. She said, “If you do, don’t worry. I always keep a spare phoenix down with me.”
“Oh, good.” Sora grinned, reached out and tilted her chin up to him, until they kissed softly over Riku’s peacefully slumbering body. “He seems tired.”
“Yeah,” Kairi murmured. “I know for a fact that he didn’t sleep well with you as prisoner.”
Sora winced. “Er. Sorry about that.”
Rolling her eyes, Kairi said, fondly, “You knuckle head. Just. Try not to worry us like that again, okay? At least warn us before you do something so stupid.”
“Sure,” Sora laughed. “I’ll leave a memo?”
“Ridiculous.” Kairi shook her head, and then lay down, wrapping an arm over Riku so that she could grasp her hand onto Sora’s bicep.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Sora said.
“Sleep,” said Kairi. “We’ve been through enough, and this is good. Better than good. I don’t need anything else tonight, other than the two of you in my bed, and a good long sleep, so that I can wake up to your stomach growling in the morning, and Riku complaining about bed head, okay?”
“Not a chance,” Sora replied firmly, a devious glint in his eyes. He clambered over Riku, who snorted, and rolled over onto the warm spot Sora had left. Sora sprawled comfortable over Kairi’s soft and leanly hard body, felt the strength and tension still pulsing through it, even on the verge of sleep. “I still owe you an apology remember? And I’m not going to make you wait for it.”
He slid a hand down, between her legs, felt her wet and hot and throbbing, and grinned sleepily, but hungrily into her beautiful face. She laughed at him, and swatted half-heartedly, the lines of her face tired, but happy, and hungry. “Well,” she said softly, winding her fingers through his spiky brown hair, “if you insist.”