A Promise

Summary: The three of them had promised to be together forever, but now they're growing up. Do things really have to change? [oneshot] [RikuSoraKairi]

Disclaimer: It's too bad I don't own Kingdom Hearts, well I do own the games, but owning the rights to it all would be like a dream come true... Even if I was killed a second later by rabid fangirls.

Dedication: to my dearest Draggy and Plushie daughty 3

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"If it's love that keeps us breathing,

Gives us something to believe in,

Is it fear that makes us blind?"

-"Why is Love so Hard to Find" by Jesse McCartney

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The three of them had promised. Together forever.

Sora reminded them every morning, his bright smile and silly hair always flung every direction.

Kairi had to ruin it, of course, “Sora… We can’t be together forever you know. One day we’ll all find people we want to marry and we’ll all have to go off and take care of our families.”

His smile was less bright the next day. Riku and Kairi shared a worried look when the strangely glum boy wasn’t looking.

Riku shifted his backpack on his shoulder, it was filled so much that it really was bursting at the seams. Riku and Sora had missed years of school after all, and had to make it all up now. Summer break was something of the past. The silver haired teen sighed and waited for Sora to walk out of ear-shot while telling Tidus again about some various battle he had won sometime during his adventures.

As soon as the brunette was far enough Riku scowled at Kairi, “This is your fault you know.” He said softly but harshly.

Kairi knit her brows together, “I didn’t think he’d take it so hard. I mean, yea, I don’t really want us to split up either but that always happens to friends like us.” She looked away, a strange strained look flashing across her face before being replaced with a mildly annoyed one.

Riku frowned, “You forget, it’s Sora we’re talking about. He never thought much for the future Before and that’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed.”

Kairi had that strange sadly strained look again, “He’s changed more then you realize, Riku. You shouldn’t take him for granted so much.” She tugged on a lock of her deep auburn hair, shifting her own, much lighter backpack on her shoulders.

The silver haired teen opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by being tackled to the ground by a brown, crazy haired boy.

“Ah! Pinned ya!” Sora exclaimed in delight.

Green eyes narrowed slightly, but soon the teen was laughing hysterically. “Yup. You got me, Sora.” Riku snorted, shoving the younger boy off his chest and ruffling the crazy brown hair in a caring way.

Sora grinned widely then bounced over to Kairi, “I got that one from Simba! We should go visit him again, you know?”

Kairi giggled, “Sora, you need a gummi ship to visit anyone. Wait until the King comes back at least.”

The trio matched strides as they fell into a comfortable silence. Before the Heartless came they had rarely shared these kinds of silent moments, but now they seemed to dominate their time together. It wasn’t unpleasant, just different.

“A lot of things are different now.” Sora said softly.

Riku sighed, “Yeah.”

“Sometimes that’s for the best.” Kairi watched the sun slowly creep up into the sky.

The three of them were silent so much now simply because they knew already what each other would say, so there was no real need to say anything.

“Jeeze, you guys are all like an old married couple.” Three heads turned to stare at Wakka as the redhead crossed his arms behind his head and frowned at them.

Tidus soon followed, the blonde hefting a backpack similar to Sora and Riku’s because apparently the boy had failed a year and had to retake a lot of classes the same as them. “Only they’re no couple. May as well be all one person though.” The blonde snorted, “Maybe we should start referring to you all as RSK or something.”

Selphie tailed the two other boys and wandered over to walk next to Kairi, “Hey want to go shopping later?”

The redheaded girl patted her uniform skit down nervously, “Sorry Selph’, we’re hanging out at the Island later, I promised.”

Although her strangely gravity defying curls made her look silly, Selphie still managed to look quite annoyed, “But all you do is hang out with them… c’mon, they’re boys, you need some serious girl time.”

Sora grabbed Kairi’s hand and gave it a squeeze, which didn’t go unnoticed by the annoyed brunette, “Oh, I get it. You don’t have time for your friends because you’re too busy with your boyfriend.” Selphie pouted and stomped off and shoved the school’s doors open so hard that they slammed the outside wall.

Kairi watched her friend lose her temper and bit her lip in thought. Noticing the look from all the boys she quickly waved both her hands in front of her in complete innocence, “I don’t have a boyfriend! Seriously! Selphie is just being silly…” The red haired teen glanced back at the school’s door nervously, letting her sentence trail off.

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“Riku?”

“Yeah, Sora?”

“If Kairi had a boyfriend, which of us do you think she’d pick?”

Riku threw the brunette a sharp glance, keeping his voice low to avoid the glare of the teacher, but saying his words slowly as if choosing his words carefully, “Sora, it’s Kairi’s decision, not mine.”

Sora wrinkled his forehead in thought. Riku turned to take more notes on what was being scribbled all over the whiteboard.

“Riku?”

The shinyheaded boy whipped his head around to stare at Sora, “Sora, we’re in the middle of history class. Do shut up.”

Sora stuck out his bottom lip in a pout, “But Riku…”

Riku sighed, “What, Sora?”

“Can’t we both be her boyfriends?”

Riku continued to scribble down notes, not looking at Sora, “That’s not how things work, Sora.”

The Hero of the Light frowned.

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“Kairi?”

The auburn haired girl sighed, “Yes, Sora?”

“Why do you have to choose between us?”

Kairi turned and blinked at the puppy-eyed brunette, her hands and apron were covered with clay, giving her an amusing comparison between her usually prim and neat uniform and the messiness of her ceramic work clothes. “Sora, why are you in my ceramics class? Don’t you have Earth Science this period?”

The keyblade master twisted his face into a frown, “This is important though, Kairi!”

“Yea! So is your GED! You’re never going to graduate if you keep this up!” Kairi dashed to the sink and soon was back to looking clean and neat, “Sora get back to class!” She grabbed his hand and dragged him out into the hallway, the art teacher giving her an odd look as she passed.

Sora dug his heels in and Kairi was forced to stop. “What is it, Sora?! You need to get back to class!”

The usually happy brunette was frowning again, and Kairi shot him a worried look, wondering if this really was something important enough to miss a badly needed class.

“Kairi… How come we all have to split up?” The brunette chewed on his bottom lip nervously, “Why can’t we be like we promised, together forever?”

The Princess of Heart’s hand slipped from his own and Sora looked back up worriedly at Kairi. She had that strained sad look on her face again, he’d been seeing it more and more as of late. That expression always made him worried.

Kairi squeaked as she was pulled close to Sora’s chest in a tight hug. Relaxing slightly, they both stood like that for a moment. It seemed so right… but…

Finally Kairi spoke softly from her place against Sora’s chest, “… This isn’t… Sora, you can’t understand… We can’t…”

Sora loosened his grip on her and let her pull away enough to see each other’s faces. She looked pretty shaken but he just looked sad still. “No, I understand.” He said softly, then smiled, “But I don’t see why it’s so wrong. I love you.”

She rested her auburn hair against his chest, “I know.”

Sora hugged her tightly to him, “I love you both.”

A choked sound came from around the corner. The brunette let out a laugh as Riku relinquished his hiding spot, rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly. Kairi looked from Sora to Riku, then sighed. “Oh c’mere you two lugheads.”

The trio laughed as they held each other close.

“I can’t believe I love you two idiots.” Riku chuckled, “This will never work, Sora…” but he didn’t seem to believe it even as he said it.

“Let’s all get married!”

“Sora!” Riku and Kairi exclaimed in unison. The two stared at each other for a moment before both cracking up.

Maybe they would keep their promise after all.