Shorties

There were things you just didn’t say when there was a mission to take care of.  When you weren’t done trying to fix the worst of the mess that the world had become.

Maybe someone like Sora or Kairi would say them.  Everything’s going to be alright!  Or, We’ll meet again!  Those two had more light in them, more hope, than either Lea or Riku.  No, hope wasn’t the right word, because Lea and Riku had hope.  It was just a hope tempered with a cynicism that the others didn’t own.

They bonded over that: their shared backgrounds.  Friends lost.  Mistakes made, lives they wanted to redeem themselves for—and did—and a pinch of realism when they approached the mess that was Kingdom Hearts.  Their closeness was that of friends, at first, anyway.

“I thought you were—!”  Riku didn’t say what he thought might’ve befallen Lea, and instead pulled him into a tight hug.

There was a hiss of pain from Lea, too much pressure on one of his injuries, and Riku released him.  Started a cure spell and they both watched the bloody gash from the Heartless knit closed. “You know,” Lea murmured, “even if it did—” and stopped at the dark look Riku gave him.  Because maybe he might’ve been a Nobody once, and come back again, once, but who knew if that could happen again?  So he didn’t say it, and Riku didn’t have to voice those doubts.

Another day, another mission.  Yen Sid didn’t call them missions; Lea did, a habit from his time as Axel, working for Xemnas.  Except these were the real missions, trying to keep the darkness at bay, trying to prevent the world from falling in on itself.

It was Riku, this time, that returned in bad shape, collapsing to the floor, his magic and potions exhausted, and Lea saw the friends he’d lost, and didn’t say that he worried that Riku might be one of them.  He didn’t say anything, just helped Riku to a couch and supplied him with potions until Riku could breathe without those pained gasps.

Somewhere between those concerned, frightened looks, and the weary ones, and the grateful ones, something else grew.  They didn’t say what it might be out loud.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”  Or, “You made it back.  Good.”  Those they could say aloud.

“Be careful,” and, “Stay safe.”

Sometimes they talked about the things that Sora and Kairi and the others wouldn’t understand.

Sometimes, there were things that they didn’t understand, themselves.

When they kissed for the first time, it was a surprise, but not really.  They didn’t say how scared they were.  They didn’t say what was in their hearts, then, because that would be admitting they had something more precious to lose than just friendship.

Lea didn’t say that he hoped, someday, that they could say all of those things, the ones that they didn’t say at all.  That he wanted the world to be right, and safe, and that he didn’t want to worry anymore.  Because giving voice to it, meant it was out there in the open, and that it could be taken away.

So he kept the words inside, and waited.