Calantian

Oh btw I drew all of these characters from memory with some intentional alterations... except the Keyblade... bcuz I forgot which Starlight upgrade some of the Dandelions used and only realized my mistake once I already coloured it... so have a weird mix of several I guess?

"I've got to take you there to try some too! In fact, I think you and Aladdin and Jasmine would get along really well!"

Sora stands up straight, arms crossed behind his head, grinning — had his grin always been so...dazzling? Her heart's never jumped at him before, she's sure.

"Yeah, still not sure I believe you," Riku says, barely holding back a smirk as he tosses a stray starfish into the waves before it can dry out in the sun. "About as much as I believe you swam with mermaids once."

"Not once! Twice!" Sora protests. "You wouldn't believe it, I had fins like a dolphin and I — !"

On impulse, Sora bolts into the water, certainly diving into an incoming wave like a dolphin, and attempting to imitate the animal's way of swimming: kicking strongly and only with the back legs, but quickly sinking in the process.

"Don't laugh!" Sora calls back to her and Riku, even as he's trying and failing not to giggle himself. "I mean it!"

"We believe you, Sora!" Kairi manages, covering her mouth, though she's not sure what good it does: it's very clear what she's doing.

"Wait a minute 'til we're in, then show us!" Riku adds, kicking off his sandals. He tenses to run for the water himself, but Kairi quickly stands and grabs his arm.

"Hold on! Let me braid your hair!"

Riku blinks. "Huh?"

"Now that you've got such long hair..." She reaches out and flops a lock of it, where it hangs down past his shoulders, surprising herself. "It'll get so tangled if we swim for too long. Let me braid it?"

"Oh..." Riku's face lights up. "Yeah, of course!"

He sits back down on the sand, cross-legged, waiting for her. She kneels behind him and, with only a moment's hesitation, takes his newly thick tresses of hair into her hands. Turning them over each other, she marvels at how soft it still is, and wonders why he decided to let it grow out. As kids, he'd always kept it short, he'd never liked it in his eyes. Neither had Sora, but his hair always seemed to grow up and out instead of down.

"Hey!" Kairi almost jumps; she hadn't noticed Sora emerging from the water, until she felt his fingers run through her own hair. (When did they become so calloused? The wooden swords never did that, but the Keyblade must be harsh on their hands.) He draws something out of her hair, something she hadn't even noticed. "Wind blew a little flower into your hair, Kairi!"

She looks at the little plant he's absently twirling between finger and thumb — bright blue, with dark green in the center and on the edges of the petals. Where did it blow in from, she wonders? The same place as her? Have either of them seen it, then, the place where she was born?

Sora's about to toss it back into the sea, to find a new home on the waves, until she takes his wrist. "No, actually...it probably looked better there, didn't it?"

He gives her a puzzled look, but then a moment later his face breaks into the grin she loves so much. "I'll tie it in for you, then!"

Without missing a beat, Sora kneels down in the sand behind her, his hands warm and soft in her hair the way she hopes hers are in Riku's. They work fast: they're island kids, they always have. They look out for themselves and each other, because no one else is going to, out here in the vast and endless ocean.

"Done!" Sora and Kairi both say at the same time, and Riku rises to his feet before either of them, his new braid hanging down between his shoulder blades.

"So? How do you like it?" Kairi asks.

Riku shifts his weight from side to side, tossing his head like a curious dog, and smiles. "Love it! But I think you look just a bit nicer."

"Oh?" Kairi blinks in surprise, hand going to the flower stem safely wound into her hair...but then again, is he looking at the flower or her face?

Meanwhile, Sora's eyes are delightedly flicking between both of them. "Well, I think you're both perfect!"

He's looked at them like that a lot, lately, as if he never thought he would see them again. Not as if she doesn't understand: she's caught herself staring like that since they got home, too.

It's almost unbelievable how much things have changed since they thought they could cross the ocean on their own aboard a raft...and even more so what doesn't necessarily have to.

She's the first to jump up from the sand this time; much as Riku liked to lead, they always have taken that in turns. "Race you to the sandbar!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see that they both look momentarily startled, but that doesn't stop them from jumping to follow at her heels, grinning. Like fruit is sweeter when shared, somehow, the hot sand is cooler and the rumbling waves they dive under not quite so big, that the ones she loves the most are back by her sides.

It's strange: being with them in the waters of Destiny Islands should be the easiest, most familiar thing in the world. But something is...different. It's not enough to say she wants Sora and Riku there with her; she always has. It's just...new. And Kairi isn't sure she has the words for it.

Do they feel the same way, she wonders? She thinks she should be able to tell...but then again they've both always been so confident.

A good thing they were raised to handle the ocean currents, when to go with them and when to pull out of them. Far from trying to push into the lead the way they would have done just a couple years ago, now all three of them are trying to stay close to each other. She knows right away that she prefers it.

Sora's warm skin brushes against her arm, and the stem of his flower is still tightly wound into her hair. Riku's eyes gleam as he propels himself over a wave, a strip of seaweed catching on the end of his long braid. Kairi smiles, sea foam catching the side of her face: she couldn't ask for anything more than this.