Howdy, Bitzee is alive! I am seriously the laziest trash in the entire world. ><
I've got a Soroku fic for my fellow Kingdom Hearts fans! I've almost finished the last chapter, so I thought I'd share it with the Wattpad community while I work on it :) What's this one about?
Prepare for my first soulmate AU, because this AU is my life and I love it. I would like to say, however, that the first three chapters (there are four) are not Soroku. So feel free to read this story however you want; you may want to skip a few chapters and read the last when it comes or you could stick around for the other pairings. It'll be nice if you read it all! It will make sense in the end!
I do not own Kingdom Hearts. That said, here's Red!
******************************************************
In a world full of strangers, you'd think it's a miracle people go through life as they are and meet with several people they come to know and love. Is it really just chance, or does fate have a say in who comes and who goes; who loves and who hates? Besides having friends and family, there's always that one special person everyone's been dying to meet, to know everything about, to make special promises with and spend the rest of their lives with, but who and what and when and where and how will it even take place?
Destiny Islands, present time. For concrete reasons, the inhabitants all believe in their suburb's namesake when it comes to meeting new faces. It's only fitting after all, if you're born with a mark that will eventually lead you to the one you're destined to be with. According to everyone else, they're said to be the first thing your soulmate's supposed to say to you.
Several words, or just one: letters biologically tattooed around one's ankle, wrist, stomach or shoulder. A simple "hi", an insult, a poem – it could be anything depending on fate. Varying from person to person, the ideal's still complicated, for how could you fully rely on a birthmark to dictate your life? So while it's convenient in the eyes of the beholder, there are still a few chances you could get it wrong...
******************************************************
Red
The first time it happens, Sora is in elementary.
The hyperactive seven year old is on his way to his classroom when he spots a new girl with red hair heading the same direction he was. He passes her and pays her little mind as he swerves into the room and stumbles over his chair just before the bell. After moments of chatting up his friends who sit at the same group and waiting for their teacher, the woman walks in with the same girl and introduces her to the class as Kairi Hamasaki.
Kairi was a beautiful young individual who was not only intelligent, but was also very sociable with her new classmates. What everyone seemed to really like about her was the unique deep colour of her shoulder length hair, and it isn't until a week or so later that Sora finally notices this as well. The young second graders are in the middle of finishing a spelling test when their teacher asks them to move around the classroom and find a partner to check their work.
Sora Leonhart had always been clumsy. Whether it was handling a jug of water or a bag of chips, he was constantly dropping things and tripping over his feet. So it's nothing new when the seven year old brunette excitedly takes off with his beloved multi-coloured pen and workbook and eventually loses his balance on his way to find a partner. The new girl happens to be nearby, and she doesn't hesitate to pick up the boy's stuff and help him up.
"You dropped your pen," she mutters to him, and he looks up at her with the most inquisitive pair of blue eyes. Everyone's looking at them when he stands up and receives his fallen things from the girl with the pretty hair.
"Ahaha, I'm, uhh, usually falling over n' stuff. Thanks for helping me up, err–"
"Kairi. It's nice to meet you." She grins at him warmly and offers to mark his test for him. Sora then takes her hand and sits beside her to check her spelling test, and for some reason, as he crosschecks the answers on the board to the neat page in front of him with his pen, he feels... like something important's just happened, but he'd completely missed it.
~o~
Sora's only reminded about his destiny later on in the day when he recalls the school day with his mother. She tells the young boy of his situation and he immediately perks up on the idea of having a soulmate.
"So, she told you that you dropped your pen? That was it? Word for word?"
"Ya! It's just like my birthmark, right, Mommy? I didn't even notice until afterwards. And she's so pretty and kind too!"
"She could be your soulmate, dear. Oh, I'm so happy for you!" His mother tells him, recalling the four-worded statement tattooed on her son's left shoulder.
"Does this mean I have to be really nice to her now, Mommy? I don't know anything about soulmates..." The boy scratches his head, confused. What is a soulmate anyway? He knows his mother and father are soulmates, and that they've been together for a long time. Could that be it? If he thinks about it now, the television shows his mother loves to watch usually feature two other people meeting each other with the help of their birthmarks, and they seem so happy when they do. If that's what a having a soulmate is like, then of course it must be a good thing!
"Mommy, will you teach me about soulmates, will you, will you?"
Finding no harm in doing so at his young age, she agrees, and Sora almost hits his head on their kitchen's granite tabletop on his way to give her a hug. But what she's forgotten to tell him in his glee is that their fate has a two-way confirmation. If the beautiful red-haired girl bears a birthmark of Sora's first words to her, then maybe... maybe they really are meant to be.
~o~
He's so excited about the ordeal that he can't help but talk about Kairi every single day. The blue-eyed boy's told his class buddies and they congratulate him about it, but every time the girl gets close to him, he withdraws out of embarrassment. Sora hasn't talked to her since the spelling test a week ago. Now that their first words were out of the way, what exactly does one even say to their soulmate?
During their math lesson, she catches him staring at her and flashes him an illuminating smile. Gah! Is this what it's like to have a soulmate? Weird feelings of wanting to be close to someone yet somehow feeling awkward and embarrassed? It's definitely peculiar, but Sora wouldn't know because he hasn't gone through something like this before. He is still seven years old, after all.
The young boy finds himself boasting about the pretty girl time and time again that it's evident to everyone around him how smitten he is with her. "Her hair's always so perfect, Mommy! Daddy, can you believe Kairi got the highest marks in Science today? Guess what, Zack? Kairi actually smiled at me at Math today! She's so cool!"
One time Sora's father even witnesses him dancing to the theme song of the most popular drama of that time before joining his mother on the couch to watch the romance unfold as well! It's cute at first, and seeing little Sora so happy put smiles on their faces, but when the child begins to realize the reality of it all, that's where everything goes downhill.
.
.
.
"Mommy, it's been weeks now, but I still can't talk to Kairi. And everytime I try it feels weird. How will she know we're soulmates if I can't even talk to her?" Little Sora pouts, his head bowed down while he sulks pathetically in a corner. She came home to him like this, crouched down and moody, fiddling with his pen by continuously clicking it in and out. Doing her best as a mother to explain, she picks him up from the corner and carries him into their bedroom to have a good talk.
"I know you really like Kairi, dear. And that making an effort to approach her is hard and you are so brave for doing something like that." She starts. "You and I have been watching television together often, haven't we?"
"Ya! And I noticed that I hafta ask her if her birthmark's the first words I said or else that means we aren't soulmates. I can't even remember them... All I know is she said mine."
"If it isn't, you will still be brave no matter what, won't you? You'll still be friends with her anyway?"
He's silent for a while, azure eyes trained on the pen he so loved until he eventually mumbles a, "Ya. I'll be strong even though I really like her... hnn... but it's still a little sad thinking she isn't..."
"That means that fate just wants someone better for you. Someone who's waiting patiently just as you are."
The thought that his true soulmate would do something like that for him really moved Sora, and somehow, even if the outcome isn't what he wants it to be, Sora really thinks he can talk to Kairi and be strong about it in the future. "Okay... I get it now! Mommy, maybe Kairi and I could really be goood friends no matter what happens! Right?"
Embracing her and giving her a kiss, Sora thanks his mother for cheering him up before making a leap down from the bed and falling flat on his face. "I'm okay..."
He takes one last look at her and she waves as the boy heads over to his room, the pen in his hand ready to draft out potential confrontation plans for tomorrow.
~o~
Sora intercepts the girl before class starts the next day. He's spent the entire night practicing just saying a friendly hi, eventually telling her how he feels and then asking her the BIG question. Who knew it would be so hard doing it in real life? He's forgotten everything he planned to say immediately upon seeing her, and now, as she looks and beams at him cheerfully like she always does, the brunette hears his mother's words in his head and finds motivation from those television episodes that aired every other night.
"Umm, K-K-Kairi, uhh, hi. I'm uhh, I... y-you. Look pretty today. And e-everyday, of course! And uhh..."
Chuckling, she tilts her head to the left and coyly thanks him. "You look great today too! Your hair's different."
"Uhhh..."
"It's a good different, don't worry. I always see you looking at me, so I noticed." Kairi tells him happily. "I'm sorry I haven't tried hard enough to talk to you. But everytime I approach you, you run away."
"That's because... uhh..." This confrontation thing is not working out because all Sora wants to do is run away and hide like Kairi says he does. It's not that these feelings he feels deep down are bad, but it's really so weird and new and weird. When the red-haired girl makes a move to enter the classroom, Sora barely stops her with a hand.
"Wait! I, uhh, need to tell you something! Well, that is..."
"Yes?"
Great, he's gotten this far, now all he has to do is LET THE WORDS OUT. But there's this unhelpful lump in Sora's throat that's inhibiting the words, so instead of the coherent confession he had practiced all last night, it comes out as a messed up jumble of waffle.
"I... I... I like you, Kairi! Ithinkyou'reveryprettyespeciallyyourhairandIreallyhopewecouldbegoodfriendstooandIneedtoaskyouaboutwhathappenedbetweenusinthespellingtestweeksagobutI'vebeensoscaredthatyouwouldn'tlikemepleasedon'thateme I'm sorry..."
.
.
.
GAH! Could Sora be even more embarrassed with his head lowered down to avoid looking into her pretty blue eyes? The girl lays a hand on his shoulder and tells him that everything's alright and no, no, she doesn't hate him at all.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't catch all of that, Sora. What's this about our spelling test?"
"Well, y-y-you see... the f-first thing you said to me back then... It was..." He makes a move to pat his left shoulder, still not looking at her, and it isn't until minutes later that she finally realizes exactly what was with a small gasp.
"I said the words on your soulmate birthmark..."
Sora nods slowly and reservedly. "Ever since then I really wanted to talk to you but I was so embarrassed and I didn't even know why and I know I still know nothing about soulmates but I thought it was really cool to have one and then I became aware that I'd have to ask you if I said the words on your birthmark that day we first spoke to each other otherwise we wouldn't be soulmates..."
There. He's said it and he was able to tell her exactly what was on his mind. But will the circumstances fall on his favour? Kairi seems to be thinking back to the day of their spelling test as well and Sora knows he's not going to get the answer he wanted to hear when her perpetual smile falls away and the sapphire-eyed girl turns back to him sadly. "I think you told me about how you were always falling over or something. I'm so sorry, Sora, but my birthmark says something else."
The girl points to her right foot and slowly rolls down her knee-high sock. Pretty cursive red letters encircle her leg in a spiral, and the closer Sora looks, the more he understands that they just aren't meant to be. "Oh, look. A redhead. That does say something else, huh..."
"It's why I always keep my hair well done, you see. It may not be nicest choice of words though..." Kairi admits, concealing the tattoo once more. "Guess the whole soulmate thing's not so reliable, yeah? They should really feature the downsides in Romancing the Soulmates sometime, ha ha... I really am... so, so, sorry, Sora."
Unbeknownst to her at that very moment, Sora disregards the apology for a much more important piece of information. "...No... no way! It can't be... Y-You... Y-You...
.
.
...you watch that DRAMA too? Mother and I have vowed to each other never to miss an episode!"
"Really? So have my family and I!" The girl exclaims ecstatically. "Did you think last night's show was a little odd? Miss Aqua and Mr Terra were obviously meant to be but then it was funny how confused she was because Mr Terra had a twin brother..."
All traces of sadness in Sora's heart gradually fade as the two of them discuss the happenings of Destiny's top rated reality romance program on their way inside. So he lost a soulmate today, or technically misunderstood his situation in the first place, but the boy has a new friend with whom he hopes to learn about their fate with a little more. As he and Kairi beg their teacher to sit next to each other from that day on – helping each other on spelling tests and talking about their favourite drama together, the brunette tells himself that deep down, he's glad the red-haired girl and himself aren't meant to be, because that would mean that whoever was his happily ever after is really out there, still patiently waiting for the day they'd meet one another.