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currantlees-creative-corner · 8 months

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Summary: Sora, Kairi and Riku have returned to Destiny Islands, but it is clear that nothing is like before their adventure off-world. While Riku struggles with the fact that half of the school wants to date him, Sora struggles with her new-found feelings for Kairi on top of getting bullied for - supposedly - sleeping with Riku. And Kairi? Well, she tries to do everything in her power to make her two friends feel a bit better.

~3.9k Words. Rated T (Teens and Older). LGBTQ+ themes. Depictions of Bullying, Misogny, Sexism and Xenophobia. Wanna read it on Ao3? Click here!

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock… Rrrrrrrrring!!

The alarm clock was quickly shut down when Sora turned around, and slammed her hand down on the poor thing. She actually needed multiple attempts to find it in her daze, but once she did, her room quickly got quiet again. It was a wonder that after all these years, the clock on Sora’s nightstand was still ticking. Then again – it had already needed to be repaired several times.

Sora yawned and turned around once more. She wasn’t awake yet, and if it was up to her, she would have kept sleeping. It didn’t take long for her to drift away into the realm of dreams once more…

“Rise and shine, Sora!”

She groaned as she slightly opened her eyes again. “Yeah?”

“You have school today!”

“Ugh…” She had just returned home from saving not only the world, but the entire universe from Xemnas’ plot, and she was already pushed back into everyday life. Sora appreciated the sense of normalcy, but she also wished she could have gotten a break first. “Just five more minutes…”

“You’re gonna be late again, young lady!”

“You know I don’t need that long in the bathroom…”

“Well, you do ever since you came home out of nowhere with that long hair!”

Sora sighed. She still tended to forget that her hair was much longer than it had ever been these days. Not that she hated it, she actually kinda liked it (especially since Kairi liked to play with it), but it was a pain to take care of. Definitely not a great hairstyle to go on another worlds-saving quest with. If she ever had to again, she’d probably cut it off at least to shoulder-length…

“Sora!”

“Right…” She yawned. “Gimme a sec…”

She rolled onto her side, and blinked – unfortunately right as her mother opened the yellow curtains across the room. She rubbed her eyes. Yeah, now she was definitely awake…

“Come on, Sora,” her mother chided. “You don’t wanna be late.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

That wasn’t really true – truth be told, Sora couldn’t care less about being late to school. She had never particularly liked it after her initial excitement about it had worn off. Learning things from lectures and books was so dull. Sora preferred learning from practice. Maybe that was why her favorite subjects – or rather the only ones she liked and frequently excelled at – were art, music and sports. She had a hard time following the lectures without drifting away into a daydream or thinking of her plans for the afternoon, even when they were technically about topics that interested her. At least most of the teachers were kind and understanding, though there were a few who thought the key to handling Sora’s lack of attention in class was giving her extra homework. Luckily, she had Riku and Kairi to help her out with that so she was done quicker, and they could go back to having fun together. Her friends were pretty much what kept her coming back to school every day.

Sora sighed and opened her eyes again, finally sitting up. She rubbed her eyes. Her mother wasn’t in her room anymore – she must have left. How long had it been since she had come into Sora’s room to wake her up? Sora glanced at her alarm clock again.

“Oh, phooey!”

She was definitely going to be late now. Not that it mattered much. Sora already had a reputation for being late, so at least it wasn’t like she had anything to ruin.

Despite that, Sora got out of bed rather quickly, grabbed her school uniform ensemble she had already worn the day prior, and hurried to the bathroom. She got out of her PJ top on the way somehow, but that stunt also resulted in her hitting her arm on the doorframe.

“Ouch!” She hissed. That would certainly bruise…

“Heal,” she murmured, purely out of a habit, before remembering that she would have to summon her Keyblade for this to work – and both of her hands were occupied. Sora sighed. Despite all the things she’d learned in the past year and a few months, she still didn’t know how to cast magic without a conduit. She definitely had to ask Donald if he knew anything about that when they next met.

She threw the uniform on the toilet haphazardly before taking off her pajama pants, and starting to get dressed.

The Destiny Islands’ school uniform, alongside a strict dress code, was supposed to make everyone appear equal, to hide the fact that someone like Riku or Kairi came from a family that was better situated than those of others like Sora. She appreciated the idea, but what she didn’t like was that just like all the other girls, she wasn’t allowed to wear pants, and had to put on one of these short, impractical skirts instead. Sora had never understood that. Pants were so much more practical, and she didn’t feel like she risked exposing her panties every time she did anything but walking or sitting with her legs in a perfectly parallel fashion. She had pondered wearing leggings underneath, but any deviation from the uniform wasn’t allowed. On top of that, the boys’ pants had pockets, which her and the other girls’ skirts didn’t. It was almost as if the designers thought girls were calm and quiet, and that they didn’t need any extra space to store their stuff.

Sora sighed when she put on her tie. She was still totally out of the loop when it came to making the knot – she would have preferred to go with her crown necklace instead. However, it had to stay at home. Even small personal touches like this weren’t allowed according to the dress code.

She stared at herself in the mirror. Another Sora stared back.

She never looked like herself in this uniform. She never felt like herself in this uniform. If she could at least wear pants… With pockets.

Brushing her hair in the morning was trouble these days. Sora still wasn’t used to having long hair, and it proved to be as untamable as ever. If it wasn’t for Kairi, then she probably would have cut it off as soon as she returned to Destiny Islands. Sora had to admit there was something enjoyable about her best friend doing her hair during the school breaks whenever Sora didn’t manage to tame it in the morning herself. Besides, long hair actually suited her better than she would have thought. She wanted to keep it like this, at least for a while, even though it was a battle every single morning.

Sora sighed in defeat. This morning, her hair won.

She pulled one of the headbands that matched her uniform (and apparently her eyes, as Kairi had remarked a few days prior) from the bathroom shelf, and pulled it over her head, before tying the mane back into a chaotic, messy ponytail. That would hopefully keep it from tangling any further when she cycled to school at least, and at least the dress code didn’t say anything about hair apart from the fact that dying it in unnatural colors wasn’t allowed and that it was supposed to be worn in a tidy manner – something that Sora regularly didn’t succeed at even before her hair had grown out. She’d have to ask Kairi if she could fix that part for her during one of the breaks.

~*~

“Sora, you really need some kind of leave-in conditioner,” Kairi sighed. She had tried to detangle Sora’s hair during the first and the second break before lunch, and both times, she had failed to get the job done in time. Now they were at lunch break, and Kairi was still working on getting Sora’s hair into a manageable condition.

“Yeah, I could probably try that,” she mumbled. Admittedly, her hair was worse than usual today, but she also secretly enjoyed Kairi detangling it for her. She was always so careful – whenever she did Sora’s hair, it never hurt. “Do you have any that I can borrow?”

“Unfortunately not,” Kairi replied. She started working through another strand of hair. “My hair is pretty straight naturally. It tends to get stringy really quick if I put too much stuff into it.”

Sora sighed. Yeah, Kairi’s hair was as straight as her, probably…

“But we could go shopping on Friday afternoon if you want.”

“Sheesh, you still aren’t done?” Riku sat down a tray with two meals on it on their table. He took one of them, and placed the other in front of Kairi on the table.

“Nope,” she said. “I swear Sora’s hair has a life of its own.”

Sora was startingto think that too – mainly that her hair was trying to get her closer to Kairi in this innocent way. But she wasn’t getting her hopes up. She could daydream, yes. But more than that was probably never meant to be.

“Thanks for getting me my food,” Kairi said. She sounded as warm as she always did whenever she was sincerely grateful.

Sora used to think that Riku and Kairi must have it easier, coming from better situated families. Nowadays, she knew better. Kairi’s adoptive parents were lovely, but neither of them could cook. They usually ate out, or their meals consisted of simple sandwiches. As for Riku’s father, he was a doctor, meaning he rarely had time for his son. As a result, both of them usually got their lunch from the cafetéria, or whenever they had a free afternoon, at Sora’s house. Meanwhile, she didn’t have to worry about that. Sora’s mother still made a bento for her daughter to take to school each morning, and Sora was still excited to open and enjoy it every single day.

“Hi Riku!”

“Ouf,” Riku huffed under his breath. “Oh no…”

Riku had always been popular with the girls in school ever since the talk about who dated whom and which couples would break up at the end of the month became a thing. Ever since Sora and him had returned from what as far as everyone else knew was a lonely island they had gotten stuck on after the storm, his popularity had only increased. Meanwhile, Sora’s was at an all-time low. At least Kairi, Riku, Tidus, Wakka and Selphie still stuck with her.

“Sitting at the losers’ table again?”

“It’s not the losers’ table,” Sora disagreed with the two girls, a blonde and a brunette who seemed to have gone to the bathroom just to refresh their looks for this occasion. They weren’t in the same class, but Sora knew them. She had seen them pinning something to her locker the other day.

“Oh?” The brunette addressed her, without actually turning towards her. “What would you call it then?”

“Uh…” Truthfully, Sora had no real idea how to respond. “The table of people who are cool enough to sit with Riku?” Okay, that came out meaner than she wanted to, but then again, it wasn’t like these girls were going to be nice to her anyway.

“Sounds like someone doesn’t know their place,” the other girl said, and her voice was dripping with venom. “Listen up, Sora, you may have turned the head of the hottest guy in school just because you two happened to get stuck on a lonely island for a year, but don’t get cocky. At the end of the day, you’re just a slut and the entire school knows.”

Sora heard Kairi suck her breath in sharply, like she wanted to jump to her defense immediately, and she could see Riku furrowing his eyebrows. But Sora didn’t want to argue back, and simply shrugged instead, hopefully to the girls’ annoyance. The situation didn’t need to be escalated any further, and at this point she was pretty used to being called a slut, a whore, and other names. Sora and her closest friends knew she wasn’t any of that, and that was what really counted.

“Anyway, Riku,” the blonde girl went on, and her voice shifted back to a sweet tone in the blink of an eye, “we were wondering if you’re free after school?”

“Sorry,” Riku said coldly. “But I don’t put up with people who call my best friend a slut.”

“Aww, come on! It’s not that big of a deal. Besides,” the girl glanced at both Sora and Kairi, “you deserve better than these two anyway.”

“I think I can decide who I want to be friends with by myself, thank you very little!”

“A whore and an outsider? Seriously?”

“You know, I think you should apologize,” he said in a rather unimpressed manner. “To Sora for calling her names, and to Kairi for dismissing her for literally no reason.”

“She isn’t even from here,” the blonde girl said. “Why should we put up with her?”

“Excuse me?” Sora interjected.

Kairi just looked down and said nothing, and Sora’s heart ached. Her friend had always been picked on for not being born on Destiny Islands, despite the fact that that wasn’t her fault at all and she didn’t get much of a say in the matter. She had just arrived on the islands one day, without a memory as to where she came from.

“I think you two should go,” Riku said coldly. “Now.”

“Fine.” They turned to leave, of course not without winking and waving at him first. “See you later, Riku!”

He rolled his eyes after they finally turned their backs on him.

“Are you alright, Kairi?” Sora asked her best friend, who had stopped working on her hair and turned to her meal silently.

She nodded. “Thanks for your support, you two.”

“No problem.”

They all turned back to their lunch – Sora’s hair still wasn’t done, and it would probably have to wait until they had all finished.

“Honestly, I still don’t get what all of these girls haven’t gotten about me not being interested in anyone,” Riku sighed, grabbing the cup on his tray. “I really hoped this would stop after coming out, but no.”

“I mean, they’re probably just desperate because you’re unavailable,” Sora remarked. “You’re just a really sexy guy.”

Riku choked on his matcha tea.

Kairi reacted immediately. She stood up, moved to their friend, and gave him a few pats on his back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Riku coughed once more, but then returned to breathing normally. Sora smiled. It was rare to see Riku laugh like this, although she felt a bit sorry for making him choke on his tea. She hoped the joke hadn’t made him too uncomfortable.

Kairi stepped back. “I’m gonna get myself a smoothie,” she announced, still sounding a bit down. Maybe she needed some space after what had just happened. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She didn’t wait for their response before taking her leave. Her hair in its ponytail bounced and shimmered as she took her steps rather quickly. She was almost skipping.

“So,” Riku, who had apparently calmed down again, asked, “when are you going to tell her?”

Sora sighed. Well, there it was – that topic she’d rather not talk about.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Honestly, I haven’t really planned on outing myself.”

Riku nodded. He was already out himself – not that it really changed anything. The girls in the school kept blaming Sora for him being unavailable, and flirted with him anyway pretty much on a daily basis. Sora could kind of see why, and part of her had meant what she said before. Riku was attractive, even she could see that, despite the fact that she’d discovered that she was into other girls – Kairi in particular. But he was off limits, and Sora was fine with that. Obviously, not everyone was, though.

“I don’t want to pressure you,” he said. “But I think Kairi wouldn’t be mad if you just told her.”

“And I told you, she can’t know,” Sora sighed. She wished she could, but she really didn’t want to lose Kairi as a friend.

“I may be aroace, but I’m not blind , Sora. I see the way you look at her.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Sora snapped, a little more harshly than she meant to. “Confess to her in front of the entire school?”

“Well, that would be one way to get rid of all the hatemail on your locker,” Riku chuckled.

Sora groaned. Not that topic again too… She appreciated that her friends were looking out for her, but she also knew very well that an outing would just give the entire school another reason to make fun of her, call her names, and pin not so lovely letters onto her locker. Well, half the school. The guys didn’t seem to mind her as much.

“They’d probably just write different things in their hatemail,” Sora murmured. “Or throw me out of the girls’ changing room before PE.”

“Realistically, unfortunately yes,” Riku said. “But it’s not like they have to know. You could also just tell Kairi.”

“Look, I don’t wanna get my hopes up, okay?” Sora sighed. “I just… Don’t want Kairi to hate me too.”

“I honestly don’t think she would.”

“You don’t know that.”

One of the cafetéria’s glasses was set in front of her, the fancy ones with the handles and engravings. It was nicely decorated with a strawberry and a starfruit on the rim, and there was a small note on the straw that read ‘You’re amazing!’.

Kairi sat down next to her, with a smoothie of her own in her hand.

“Kairi, I didn’t want any…”

Kairi smiled. “It’s strawberry and lime. Your favorite.”

“But I don’t have any munny with me!”

“That’s okay,” Kairi said. “I’m paying.”

“Kairi, I can’t ask you to…”

“I can spoil my bestie a little from time to time, especially when she has a notably bad day. Besides,” Kairi waved a small card, “my coupon card is all filled out now. Which means, I can get a smoothie for free tomorrow!”

Sora couldn’t help but smile. Kairi was about the only student whose family was better off financially who used the school’s healthy meal coupon cards in order to get a free smoothie every once in a while, at least that Sora knew of. She loved them. Sora did too, she just didn’t get one as often, seeing as making one at home and bringing it to school with her in a bottle was much cheaper.

“Thank you, Kairi.”

“No problem,” she smiled back. “Enjoy!”

Sora nodded, smiling, and took a sip from the smoothie. She enjoyed how the sweetness of the strawberry and the sourness of the lemon blended together into something that was still sweet, but with a little bit of extra spritz.

“So,” Kairi said with her mouth full of food, “where were we?”

“We were talking about how I am just a really sexy guy, apparently.”

Sora had to compose herself not to break out in laughter, and spill her smoothie in the process. The way Riku said that out loud in such a dry tone was just funny. She failed however – a giggle still escaped her. Riku was grinning as well.

“Very funny,” Kairi said, but Sora could see she was trying to hide a grin as well – for whatever reason. “Anyway, do you guys have any plans for the weekend already?”

Riku shrugged. “My dad’s on night shift from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning,” he said. “So I can pretty much do whatever I want.”

“We could have a sleepover,” Sora suggested. They hadn’t had one in a really long while.

Riku and Kairi looked at her somewhat disapprovingly.

“Oh… Right.” They weren’t kids anymore. “I guess our parents wouldn’t allow that.”

“More like people would talk even more than they already do if they find out,” Kairi pointed out.

Sora shrugged. “They can think whatever they like.”

Kairi and Riku exchanged glances.

“Sora, we know all of this hurts you,” Kairi said gently. “You know, the hatemail, the name-calling, all of that. You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t.”

Sora sighed. Kairi was right – as much as she liked to pretend that she was unbothered, she really wasn’t. Having to throw away all of the more or less gross stuff that was pinned to her locker each morning nowadays, and sometimes having to clean it up entirely because someone decided it was a good idea to smear something onto it, took a toll on her mood and nerves. Being called a slut, a whore, a bitch or anything like that hurt. However, Sora knew people had already made up their minds about her. She knew these girls, who happened to have a crush on Riku, were set on the idea that just because the two had supposedly spent a year on a lonely island together, that must mean they slept together. Which was somehow a big catastrophe, because apparently it meant Sora had taken something irreplaceable from him – and that he was no longer available, even though he really had never been in the first place.

“You’re not wrong,” Sora admitted. “But there isn’t really anything I can do to change their minds. Even if I outright say that Riku and I aren’t a thing, they won’t believe me.”

And neither did they believe Riku whenever he said that he wasn’t interested in anyone. Why did people have such a hard time accepting that others were different . Even when they weren’t outright hostile, like they were with Kairi, they were still disrespectful.

Sora sighed. “You know… I miss it.”

“What?”

“Traveling the worlds. Meeting awesome people. Learning new things. Wearing whatever I want every day. Being able to be myself without getting judged for it. Everything.” Sora lowered her head. “School sucks.”

She had never been happy whenever she entered this building, but nowadays she was even unhappier. The boring lectures and occasional extra-homework she could deal with, but now with the bullying and her newly realized feelings for her best friend, she wished she could just go back to adventuring.

“Maybe we could just take the gummi ship and spend the weekend… Anywhere but here,” Riku suggested. It sounded like something he would have said a year ago, only that this time, it wasn’t to satisfy his own curiosity – it was for all of them, to get away from everything, even if it was just for two days. “We could visit some friends we made along the way, or just… Get away, at least for a while.”

“Sounds good,” Sora murmured. “I’ve been wanting to see Donald, Goofy and my other friends again for a while.”

Kairi apparently had other concerns. “And you think that won’t get people talking?”

Riku shrugged. “Maybe, if they find out,” he said. “But it’s not like they aren’t talking about the three of us being different already. Why should we let our lives be ruled by that?”

“Well, we could at least try to fit in…”

“Awww, come oooon, Kairi!” Sora whined. “It’ll be fun!”

Kairi sighed. “I mean, probably, but…”

“It’s not like the entire school has to know,” Riku smirked.

Sora couldn’t resist the temptation to make yet another joke. “Oh, but it’s so scandalous,” she giggled. “I mean, you, just a really sexy guy, in a gummiship, with two very pretty girls…”

Riku pretended to throw his chopsticks at her, and she broke out in laughter.

“Alright,” Kairi said. “But only under one condition.”

She had both of their attention.

“We stop by some sort of shopping mall at some point,” she said. “Sora needs a leave-in conditioner.”

~*~

Author's Note: A lot of this is based on my personal experiences. That being said, no character in this fic is in any way, shape or form based directly on a real person, and I do not condone certain behaviors depicted in this fic. Thank you for reading, and no matter which ethnicity, culture, gender or sexuality you are / have, I wish you wonderful times.

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