I Want to be a Hero (Chp. 35)

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"You did good today, you know." Sora's lips touch my ear as the hot water from the shower head slides down our bodies. "I don't think Simba would've gone back if you hadn't given him that pep talk." I take a deep breath and bring my head down, letting the hot water run over my head.

"I know a thing or two about ghosts of the past. I guess I just told him everything I needed to hear." I know the pain of heartbreaks, of no answers, and of fear.

"Things haven't been easy for you, Rea, but.." His hands slide over either sides of my arms, and I enjoy the sensation of the skin of his chest rubbing against my back. "I don't think you could've turned out any more beautiful than you are now." Scrubbing the last remaining bit of body wash from my skin, I step out of the shower.

"I think I'm going to go talk with Blair for a bit, but I'll be back in before you're asleep, kay?" Sora gives me a small pout before closing the shower curtain. I wrap myself in a towel and head out of the bathroom to the room I share with Blair.

Said pink haired girl was lying on her bed, fiddling with her small yin-yang necklace and staring at the ceiling. "Yo." She gives me a small wave and I step over to my dresser, retrieving one of the few pairs of pajamas I had left in this dresser, rather than one in Sora's.

"You look pretty deep in thought." I give a glance her way before turning to get changed. "What are you thinking about?" She gives a small laugh.

"What do you think I'm thinking about? The same thing I'm always thinking about." She brings her arm up over her eyes.

"Sooo. Riku." I slip on my shirt and take a seat on the bed. "What about him?" Blair groans and removes her arm to look up at the ceiling again.

".. I told him how I felt once." I raise my eyebrows. Emotional? Blair? That was out of character.

"Oh? What happened?"

"He put his hand on my head."

"...and?"

"Walked away. When I woke up the next day he was gone." I shake my head.

"You haven't seen this guy in two years and you're still--"

"Completely hung up on him, yes,yes I am." She sits up, "Of course I am, are you telling me you've never done something or never NOT done something and have it absolutely haunt you after? That's my whole life, every time I talked to Riku. How am I supposed to know what a damn pat on the head means? I could've asked, I could've stopped him that day. But I was too damn scared, and now look where I am." I give a small nod and give her a pat on the leg.

"So. You know what you have to do, right?" Blair gives me a deadpan and I give her a big smile.

"The first moment you see him, walk right up and give him a biiiiig kiss." Blair remains deadpan for a few more seconds before bursting out in laughter.

"Aw man, you really don't know Riku. He'd hate me just for embarrassing him!" I simply shrug and rise up off the bed.

"Worked for me, didn't it?" I head through the door to Sora's room and Blair sings to me as I shut it.

"Good night, loser!"



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"I should've gone with them." I groan. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had gone back into the Grid to see Tron and figuring out why Hollow Bastion's security system wasn't working, and even why the town was beginning to receive heartless from the Grid. Blair and I had been asked to stay and defend the computer systems from any heartless that may appear, but really, all I had been experiencing since coming here was Yuri cooing in my ear, playing with my hair and trying to come up with reasons why we should kiss.

"Because, honestly, it just makes people happier in general, right? I know it makes ME happier, anyways." Yuri giggles and Blair snickers from the corner desk she was sitting at. I sigh as Yuri continues to braid a small portion of my hair.

The floor shakes from several computer systems booting back on, and a glance out the window shows the town's defense system returning full speed. Yuffie stares at the computer screen in front of her, wide eyed. "Wow, it looks like everything's back up and running, but even better than before! There's even less heartless than before!" That's my Sora, so dependable.

"I just hope we can get all three of them back in one piece." Aerith stares worriedly at the transmitter. I let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Hahah- NOT FUNNY." I glare at the transmitter. "You bring my boys back in one piece or god so help me I will come in there myself and set that world on FIRE." And with those words, the transfer system starts up and Sora, Donald, and Goofy are back with us in the room. I let out a sigh of relief. "Looks like he heard my threat then." I pat the transmitter. "Good boy."

"Welcome back!" Aerith sings and claps. Sora gives a sad nod and Aerith rests a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, why the long face? What happened?"

"Tron just disappeared." Donald frowns too and I feel a tinge of guilt in my chest for not going to the grid.

"He promised we'd see him again.." Sora's cut off by an alarm on the large monitor going off. A dialogue box appears on the screen, and a new voice over comes out of the speakers.

"Greetings, friends. System is up, and ready for User input." Sora soon has a large grin stretch across his face.

"Tron!" he bounds up to the monitor.

"Keep in touch." Oh this was so cute.

"Oh boy oh boy!" Donald runs up to the keyboard and begins lightly hitting the keys. Tron responds in laughter and claims he's ticklish, which only causes the boys to hit more and more keys.

"W-Wait, now hold on just a moment, there's something I dug up that I'd like to show you all!" The system outside begins to act up, and beams of light go up towards the sky, releasing shards of crystal and magic the float down upon the city.

"This place had another name once," Aerith begins "Radiant Garden. I can't really remember when it got changed to Hollow Bastion but.. I think I like the previous name a lot better."

"All done!" Yuri pats my head. "Don't you look cute?" Sora finally turns his head over in my direction and he gives me a big grin.

"Wow, that really does look cute." I feel the blood rush to my cheeks and lift my hands to the top of my head. Yuri had put two small braids on the top of my head like a headband, and left the rest of my hair down like it normally was.

"Sora, don't you think we should go talk to Merlin about those pages?" Donald pulls on Sora's sleeve and Sora gets wide eyed.

"Oh yeah! Pooh! Let's head out now, bye everyone!" Sora practically runs out the door, the rest of us following after and leaving behind the Hallow Bastion crew. As we enter Merlin's house, I see Mikoto sorting some books. She drops her stack very quickly and meets me with a hug.

"Rea! Wow, have you gotten taller? Look at you, you're practically glowing! Are you pregnant or something?"

"Wow, she just killed the moment." Blair laughs and ruffles some of Mikoto's hair before continuing into the house. I sigh and push Mikoto off.

"Well I WAS gonna be really happy to see you, but I think I'll settle for ignoring you for a bit now."

"Aw, Ray-ray nooooooo, don't ignore me, I was only kidding!" Mikoto clings to my arm and I have a hard time coping with the fact that this girl is the same age as me, but I guess I have always called her my 'younger' sister for a reason. I take a seat at the table while Merlin begins placing that pages we've collected back into Pooh's story book. Mikoto sits beside me and I read her for a moment before leaning on my hand.

"Shady Isle is back." Mikoto looks at me, wide eyed.

"It reappeared on the map?"

"Not just that, I went back there a few days ago." Mikoto's jaw drops.

"You went back? Why didn't you call me and tell me about it?" I sigh.

"It's not like I've had much down time, Mikoto, I mean finding out I had a nobody was tolling, then the whole thing with Hikaru." Mikoto holds up her hands.

"Okay let's slow down a minute, what the hell is a nobody? Didn't you tell me those were the things that made up the organization?" I give her a nod before explaining the creation process of a nobody, and how I came upon Mio back at Shady Isle. "So you're telling me... that there's another one of you?" She scoffs. "I can barely take care of ONE of you, I don't need two!" I roll my eyes.

"You hardly even took care of your cat, don't act like you take care of me." Mikoto crosses her arms.

"EXCUSE ME, I take very good care of Taiyo, I brush him and feed him and-- oh.. oh my god. TAIYO. I HAVENT FED TAIYO IN SO LONG!" Mikoto nervously twists one of her ponytails and I cant help but laugh.

"Could you just chill out, Mio's been feeding your stupid cat everyday, and she still is. Hikaru's been helping, too." Mikoto narrows her eyes.

"I don't want that creepy boy anywhere near my precious kitty."

"He's not the same Hikaru from Maleficent's castle." Mikoto scoffs and I lean back in my chair. "I'm serious! The one from Maleficent's castle was a heartless, and a really powerful one at that. Sora took care of him though, kicked his ass."

"So then.. who's with Mio right now?" I bite my lip.

"Okay. So. Apparently when a person's heartless, and a person's nobody are destroyed, the person can return back to their original form with all their memories of both lives still in tact." Mikoto gives a slow nod.

"So Hikaru had a nobody too?" I give a nod.

"And I knew him, too. He didn't seem... so bad." My mind flashes back to nearly flashing the boy and I clear my throat and push the thought away. "Anyways, so Shady Isle is back to normal, Hikaru's back to normal, and once I finish helping Sora... we can go back home." Mikoto slowly nods, giving me no real sign of emotion.

"Are you... okay with that?" Mikoto stares at me blankly with her bright green eyes. I look over to Sora, preparing to jump into Pooh's storybook. My eyes go back to Mikoto before I give her a small smile.

"Yeah." She nods for a moment, deep in thought.

"Merlin said he could start teaching me magic, I was thinking it could be pretty cool." I laugh.

"It's a hell of a lot easier than swinging around a weapon all the time, that's for sure." I summon my keyblade and Mikoto blinks a few times.

"The flowers are new." She inspects the blade closely.

"Yeah, Poison here has been changing with the times. Changing with me." Mikoto rubs her chin for a moment before sitting back in her chair.

"I think it's due for a name change.. It doesn't really look like poison ivy anymore." She grins. "You could call it Poppy, just like you!" I roll my eyes.

"Ha ha." It was true that my name meant 'poppy', but the flowers on my blade didn't resemble poppies at all. "They kinda look like that tree right outside the house, you know the one with all the tangled branches?"

"That's a flowering quince." I give a nod and look down to my keyblade. I liked that name.

"How are things with Sora?" Mikoto leans on her hand, resting her elbows on the table. I can't help the smile that comes to my face.

"He's absolutely perfect." Mikoto raises her eyebrows at me.

"oh..mygosh. You did the deed, didn't you? You're absolutely beaming, oh my gosh you actually did... IT!"I widen my eyes and kick Mikoto's chair over.

"Shut the hell up!" I whisper and she laughs from the floor.

"Geeeet sommme!" She whispers, and I cover my face in agony. This was not coming out of my little sister's mouth!

"I'm back!" Sora blows in my ear lightly and I nearly fall out of my chair.

"W-Welcome back!" I let out a nervous laugh and Mikoto simply smirks, still on the floor.

"You two have a nice long talk?" Sora crosses his arms and Mikoto and I share a small nervous laugh together. "What about?"

"NOTHING!" We both finish a little too quickly. We're about as shady and suspicious as our home planet.

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