The Queen Of Hearts (Kingdom Hearts Story)

The Final Day

“Good morning, everyone!” Akira exclaimed.

For whatever reason, Kairi is the only one to acknowledge her existence. The redhead offers a small smile and waver before going back to fiddling with her hands. Sora and Riku sat in the sand, Riku with a stick in his hand. Their heads blocked Akira's view of whatever they were focused on. Akira shuffles closer to Kairi, watching the two in confusion.

“Those two seem a bit distracted… What's going on?” Akira questioned.

Kairi looks at the boys just for a moment. She is curious when seeing the two so closely packed and whispering to each other. Once realizing her curiosity has been piqued, she shakes her head and covers it up. She returns to a blank expression and picks at the sand beneath her nails.

“I try not to get involved with their antics” Kairi states.

Once seeing that Kairi was not going to participate in the conversation any further, Akira shuffles away. The redhead notices Akira approaching the two. She opens her mouth to urge her friend not to proceed, but it is already too late.

“Hey, boys” Akira calls.

She wraps her arms around the two and pulls them close. They look surprised to see her, truly showing how engrossed they were in their task. Akira joins their circle and looks down at the illustration of the raft in the sand. Akira's head drooped when realizing the two seemed to be occupied with a frivolous task.

“What are we talking about?” Akira whispers.

The boys suddenly place their hands on top of Akira's shoulders. The girl raises a brow and looks between the two in confusion.  She watched as Riku clenched his hand into a fist, his brows furrowed in frustration.

“We realized that there is something very important that we have been missing…” Riku begins.

Sora nods his head in agreement, a rare serious look on his face. He slowly picks the stick on the ground and draws a circle around the illustration of their raft. The boys simultaneously turn their heads to look at her. Akira looks into their soulless eyes just for a moment before looking back down at the sand. She was beginning to regret not listening to Kairi.

“Do you understand, Akira? Do you know what is missing?” Sora asks.

Akira wants to remain silent, but the two stare expectantly with beady eyes. Akira hesitantly shakes her head no. The boys sigh and shake their heads in disappointment. Riku picks up the stick this time and starts writing something in the sand. Sora dusts the sand off his legs as he stands up. The two appear to be linked, moving and thinking at the same time. As Riku gestures to the drawing in the sand, Sora gestures to the incomplete raft.

“A name for the raft!” they both exclaim.

Akira looks down at the addition to the raft drawing, noticing Riku added the word ‘name’ above. Akira stares blankly at the boys who look a bit too serious as they nod their heads. Akira looks between the two in disbelief, her eyes eventually landing on Riku.

‘Riku likes to pick on Sora for being a bit stupid but… He fails to realize that sometimes they share a single brain cell’ Akira acknowledges.

Sora and Riku ignored her look of bewilderment and continued to converse just like they did before. Sora drags his foot against the sand and moves in a circular motion, releasing the raft illustration from its spherical containment. He plops down beside Riku and crosses his legs. He places his hands over his knees and bends his elbows, lowering his face to the ground.

“Back to what I was saying, I was thinking that Highwind sounded cool. What would you call it, Sora?” Riku asks.

Sora looks at the incomplete raft with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. He takes every little aspect of the raft into account as he examines it. An idea sparked in his mind as he saw the wooden pole which is spiked at the top, similar to a sword. Sora grins as he remembers a story that Riku told him when he was younger.