#cimplistix

The first time he doubted kisses, in particular, was when his friends stared shockingly at him and him back to an orange scarf around a neck, the sensation of soft, warm skin against his forehead, hand brushed his front locks back, and then, lilac eyes giving him a wink as Yang Xiao Long straightened up after the short contact; but a big impact left, unknown to her. A dent in Sora’s speech and mind, apparently.

          “Wait, what?”

And she shook her head, a mischievous smile graced along her lips and an amused chuckle, as her hands placed on her hips.

           “You helped me with that dust shard and I owed you a date, didn’t I?             Sadly, I’ve got to go. But maybe next time, yeah?”

And his mouth wide open as blue eyes stared at her, still processing what just happened; “What?!”

Yang looked at him now, amusement slowly turning to mirth and she laughed, her fingers flicked the brunet’s forehead playfully, and his hands automatically covering his forehead; eyes shut and whine out. She said something his brain couldn’t quite translate yet afterwards (he’s not dumb, his brain’s acting dumb!) before she left on her bike as Goofy pulled him into a hug and twirled him around before raising him up and hugging him down while Donald pokes his sides and does things with his hands and gross…smooching sounds.

After his friends embarrassed him enough in the middle of the town center of Traverse and they took off to the next world, Sora finally decoded what she said.

          “I like you, Key Boy; that kiss just made us friends, okay?”

The second time he doubted kisses, in particular, (oh but he knows, deep down, he knows yet he’s not fully aware; thoughts slipping in and out whenever he’s in the shower, mental notes that he threw in his mental garbage can, questions raised yet put down and forgotten) was when he’s back in his own world, attending classes because he “needs to catch up on learning”, quoted by his parents who celebrated their son’s return, and just as he’s having morning thoughts about how awkward it is of his peers to show affection (mostly kissing and he still can’t erase that long-distant memory of yellow hair and flames around her fists and eyes red that burn with just one gaze…) to their girls only for them to ‘break up’ the next day, she crashed into his room this one morning. Literally.

          “Yang?! What are you doing? Most importantly, are you okay?!”

Well, she did enter his window. Impressive but destructive. 

           “Oh hey, Key Boy!” Yang replied, her hand brushing dust from the wall she almost blasted through (one he’d probably need an explanation for later this morning) off her clothes. “Well, I could’ve waltz in but, I’d much rather do it this way.”

          “But, you can use the front door…?”

          “Hmm, seems too conventional to me,” She reasoned. “Besides, it’s fast for me this way; I’m dropped off the sky, so I picked a house to land in ‘cause my ride’s a-maize-ing in picking wrong locations and ta-da! Who would’ve thought it’s yours and your world! I’ve never thought I’ll see you again! We should create a Link or something! Do you guys have phones here or––”

          “Hold on, you’re dropped off the sky?!” That doesn’t sound good. Is she in kind of trouble? Immediately, he called for his weapon, light flashing in a second and the Keyblade in his hands. “Who dropped you?! We should go after them! Dropping people from the sky is dangerous and––”

          “Sora, relax!” Yang squeezed his shoulders, patted his back and reached for his hand free of the Keyblade; and Sora stopped, it’s warm, she’s holding me, I’m holding her, wait why am I thinking this, why am I thinking that, what did she just do?

          “I’m on vacation, silly, there’s no Grimm or Heartless here right now,” and she leaned close, giving a small peck on his cheek, and he felt his cheeks warm, blood rising, palms sweating, mind in alarm. She did it again! 

         “But, that’s sweet of you; didn’t know you have a side of that.”

The days slowly unraveled after that. Yang became the center of his life in these small islands, his world. Though much to his embarrassment (he’s still a growing kid, he doesn’t really know how to act around ladies when they’re pretty much bent on attacking him, physically and emotionally!), she does what she wants; she checks out his stuff, especially his childhood days where pictures of mostly Riku’s victories are there as well as his baby photos, his parents loved to take photos of him but he didn’t;

          (“Yang, don’t!”

         “Oh it’s okay, nothing to hide from me, Key Boy;            I’ve seen much worse than this!”

         “Am I supposed to feel better now?”

         “Yes, yes you do… I mean, just look at how cute you are!”

         “…Yang, please.”)

…comments how adorable he is in his uniforms (“I’m not! It’s the same thing I wear every school day!”), shares the bed with him (now this one is too suicidal; he can’t really sleep well on the floor and with two people cramped in a small bed, especially with the one girl messing with his head, how can he be sleeping?) and goes to school with him (he doesn’t know where she got the uniform though…probably she bribed his parents because she’s good with them just at first sight).

And the times when she does what she wants when she kisses his cheek whenever he’s slowly dozing off and him jolting and his head hit awake with a bruise, whenever they’re eating lunch together and she does the airplane thing with him and him to her and suddenly, she stood to grab a quick kiss on his cheek, and especially times when he got his guard down. Which is most of the times.

          “Heard you were getting chocolates from Yang?” Riku mentioned one time, nudging him teasingly as he groaned in response and dropped his head on the desk. 

          “Riku, I’m not eight anymore. I know what kisses are.” Sora knows his best friend has something to do with some rumors somehow, he knows he is very acquainted with Yang that if Sora didn’t exist, Yang will be his best friend. Probably. And Riku is playing evil right now.

          “So he says,” the lad retorted, stretching his limbs before setting down his arm on the brunet’s head. “Do you now?”

             “What do you mean?”

This caught Sora’s interest, and he quickly sat up straight and looked into his best friend’s eyes because he knew it! Riku knows something he doesn’t and it’s confusing and frustrating when he’s being cryptic like this, like he expects Sora to know something he knows and he’s giving him the look and Sora hated that.

          “WHAT?”   

Riku sighed and massaged his temples (“I can’t believe this”) and Sora demanded explanation with a strong, steady stare (“Just say it”).

            “Sora, no one kisses you besides your close circle of friends and family; sure, you’re open to affection from people you know, but...you have ‘distance’ in spaces you don’t know, you’re not even aware until now I’ve told you, are you? People see, I see; I’m your best friend since birth. You let Yang do that to you, and even steal from you. No matter what or how you act, you can’t hide anything from me.

          “You and Yang…you’re dating, right?”

Yang is spontaneous, uncontrollable, like the fire dancing at the tips of her golden hair, like the fire that consumes souls but warm, homely, safe. And her kisses on his cheek are seconds long, filling his chest with an emotion he couldn’t describe. With an emotion that let’s face it, screwing things up. At a fast rate, too.

Sora knew there’s something there he had been avoiding, the topic, the confrontation, anything that can make this stop. He knew this is odd, too, somewhere in his mind but he chose to ignore because mainly, he can’t think straight whenever she’s around. He enjoys being with her, simple things she does like taking care of her hair in the morning after bath, taking in the silence between them when he’s studying and she’s observing, teaching him sometimes, and he likes it, he doesn’t want this something to stop. This feeling whenever she’s around, it’s good, yes it’s suffocating sometimes, but it’s beautiful. It’s a feeling that he can associate with his family, with his friends but not entirely each of the categories; but something in between.

Yang and him together…the image is powerful, bringing his hopes up and he could have sworn that the thought excited him, the experience of a new adventure, with someone he thought Kairi would be, he thought other girls he pursued would be, but… it was also scary. What if Yang didn’t like him back? What if Yang sees them only as friends? Because he’s fifteen and way younger than her league? Because he’s still weak, he still has to get his Keyblade Mastery Exam who knows when, and she’s already a professional Huntress? Because he can’t protect her? Because he gets to be protected instead?

          “You’re not telling me something, are you?” And there she is, by his side, sitting on a blanket upon the sands as stars twinkled along the dark skies and the oceans reflected the light across the horizons. “Sora, what’s wrong?”

And here he is, shaky as leaf within, as his hands trembled and he sighed, avoiding her concerned gaze, and kicked the sand his feet sunk in. He’s scared, of what ifs, of her rejection, of his feelings but he’s also tired, of denying, of hiding, of not feeling anything when in fact, his senses are always sharp around her; his heart beats fast, his throat dry, and fine, I won’t run away anymore.

          “Hey, Yang, are we…are we dating?             Are we together, like…like a thing or something like, together?”

His heart slowly sank in the pit of stomach, second by second, as Yang gaped at him slightly, here it comes, she’ll hate me, I know it I shouldn’t have said anything and closed her mouth, the corners of her lips curling upwards, and she slapped him. Hard. At his arm. And Sora, still surprised, pushed himself from the sand where he stumbled, as he heard Yang’s laughter in the air. It’s not lady-like as he viewed her before, but it is genuine; voice full of happiness, sincere happiness.

           “Sora, I––oh my god, you’re really cute!”

            “W-What? What?! Th-This is a serious question I’m asking, this isn’t the time to laugh at me! Yes or no? Just say it, Yang; I’ll take anything! I’m not afraid anymore, I’m facing my feelings like a man I am! So just say something, please!”

                 “This is what you’re brooding for?” The blonde asks, her hands removing tears from her eyes, but the glint in those purplish optics are still present; Sora almost wanted to bury himself in the sand right there. Did he just embarrass himself? Yes, positively, he did. “Well, you shouldn’t really. I can’t believe I’m saying this now, but, yes, we’re dating for a long time, Sora.”

                  “…Scary, this is exactly what Riku told me.”

              “I can’t believe Riku told you this now, I thought you knew, everyone thought you knew,” Yang remarked, and Sora sighed, shying away as he turned slightly so not to catch her gaze. He felt like a punch sent him flying somewhere and that somewhere is out of his comfort zone, and Sora, though he likes adventures and discoveries, felt unsettle with this kind of feeling. 

It’s only when he felt hands turning his head to face the blonde, and her lips were on his cheek again, right and left, longer than before, one after another, and Sora felt calm, feet placed back on earth, and Yang smiling at him, hands playing with his hair, the stars falling from the skies, the ocean waves crashing against the shore, and it’s just right. 

               “I told you before, Key Boy; I like you. More than friends.”

The third time he wasn’t doubting kisses anymore, when she did air kisses and he caught them, playing with her flirty attitude before surrendering because Yang is powerful, she’s an expert to these teases, and he’s not, he’s the punching bag of teasing from his best friends and family ever since he’s young, was when he’s sixteen and she’s nineteen, and everything in the world, their world felt right.

Occasionally, Yang will drop by the islands whenever her ‘vacations’ are available and Sora, all around the worlds for training, will come home for the timely meeting on this point; Destiny Islands became their convergence point, between their worlds. They will see each other and help each other along the way whenever their paths cross in worlds where Grimm cooperate with Heartless, and an Organization standing with new enemies, but it is only in the beaches of their world that they both find peace, and peace within each other.

Peace like right now, when Sora woke up to the sound of the winds outside and the branches of the trees hitting his windows, the storm violently transpiring, while they were both in bed, layers of blankets over them, bodies close sharing the warmth, and arms and torsos as pillows. He sat up, hand rubbing his eyes, as he looked down; Yang sleeping soundly in his clothes (somehow, his jackets are slightly larger than her now), her youthful face reduced to a content expression, and the brunet found himself leaning closer, elbow supporting his weight, as he pressed his lips carefully and gently on her closed eyes, then a kiss on her forehead; his cerulean eyes lingering on her sleeping face, mumbling soft whispers, just before he went back under the covers to embrace her.

A few seconds follow, and lilac optics fluttered open, lips forming a small smile before reciprocating the gesture with a shift closing the space left between them. Even in her dreams, Yang will never forget his unsaid words that he will never let her know because she knows what Sora is like –– bright but dim, he can show and hide himself if he wanted to. He’s not exactly all ‘Light’ as people believe, he also have his fears and defenses. And she knows just how to gently reach his core.

          “Sleep well, Yang; I’ll always protect you.”

 The fourth time he wasn’t doubting kisses anymore, and slowly, he knows he’s drowning, he’s suffocated, and he likes it anyway, because it’s Yang, because it’s her kisses, and because it’s Yang, was when one day, Yang didn’t show up in Destiny Islands like they’re used to and Sora is worried, didn’t care when he and his friends in a Gummi ship crashed into her world without warning and the defense systems of her school were on them; battle-scarred hunters and huntresses ready to take them down until somehow, the fighting stopped when Yang appeared to cease the misunderstanding and Sora came out of the ship, throwing himself at her, and they almost fell if it weren’t for the blonde’s good catch and the brunet catching himself not to push her more; he was, after all, a little bit taller than her now. Few inches thanks to seventeen years of existence, and Yang on her twentieth.

          “You didn’t show up,” he said in an upset tone, clearly more than upset tone, that he knew sounded needy and he does, does need her and he didn’t care if it’s childish, if it’s a request of Sora of three years ago if he ever voiced that out. He would always look for Yang, he swore to her he’d protect her, because he likes her, and she likes him back, and he couldn’t bear the thought of her gone, just like how his friends fell to darkness and almost never came back, when he had to go around worlds searching for them, for the light, for his light–––

          “I’m sorry, Sora…I’m running late, I know but I––I can’t stay with you this time.”

Eyebrows furrowed at the statement, when Yang spoke and it cracked something in his chest, so his arms dropped and he let go, taking a step back. “…Tell me why?” His voice cracked, it usually does more often now, but his eyes had it coming as he looked into hers and she just, tried to smile at him, as if she didn’t tell him “Sorry, Sora, good things come to an end”. 

          “Was it…Was it me? Have I done something wrong?             Didn’t I do…enough?”

          “No. Sora, no! Don’t ever say that, okay?” The blonde immediately countered, and she reached for his hand, squeezed it and he couldn’t move; how can she say that when she told him herself that it’s over? That he must probably be dreaming back that day when she said “yes, yes we’re together”? That maybe, his experience, his knowledge, all that he is… maybe––– “And don’t think it’s your fault; it’s no one’s fault, don’t beat yourself up.”

And Sora gathered his strength to look at her, and all he could see is the cloud in her eyes; near yet far, here but there. Heard her situation, her world’s status, wars involving Keyblades and Organizations of different worlds and he immediately said, I can do it, I’ll help you and she smiled sadly, looking far away as her peers are sent in flying devices Sora is not familiar with yet. You could but not here, not with me, and she explained her and his priorities, my world and your world, all worlds, and how they’ll fight together, but not with each other. His resolve strengthened, and his eyes asked, and she nodded; his lips on hers, longing and missing, with his arms around her and hers around his.

          “I’ll do my best, and when I’m done, I’ll be here as soon as I can.          I promise.”

        “You better, Key Boy. Now go! I’ll see you back at your world, okay?”

        “Okay.”        

The fifth time he wasn’t doubting kisses anymore, not anymore, was when arms threw around him and he held her, sand under their feet, birds flying freely through the blue skies, the sun and ocean meeting across the horizon, and he found his lips on hers, passion and raw emotion, dedication, in one longing kiss.

           “I’ve always loved you; I’ll always do.”

           “Got Riku for you to figure that one out?”

           “Yang, we’re having a moment here?”

           “Just kidding, I love embarrassing you, okay?”