Fast Food Madness: The Epic Return V2

Kairi closed her eyes, taking in a breath to control the urge to cry at the memory. "...I was blind, wasn't I?" she asked then, her voice quiet in fear of the answer. The Nathan she had known, he was sweet to her and always treated her well. She didn't understand how so much darkness could have been behind that.

 

Sora thought the answer to that question was obvious, but again, that was something he kept to himself. "Do you want to know what I think caused that to happen?" he asked softly. He had come up with a theory over the past few days as to why Kairi hadn't been able to sense Nathaniel's darkness, and it made sense to him due to his recent experiences.

 

"I guess," Kairi answered then, not seeing any other way around the question. She knew that her feelings toward Nathaniel must have kept her from believing anything negative of him, and she supposed that by the way Sora dodged directly answering her question, he believed the same thing. But she also wanted to hear what an outside source had to say about it, regardless of how hard it was for her.

 

"I think that the light in your heart kept you from seeing the darkness in his," Sora said, looking down at the ground as he spoke. "I've learned from past experience that sometimes when Light and Darkness are in contact, they aren't so easily distinguished. Things become unclear when polar opposites come in contact, you know?" As he said this, he was thinking back to the spells the illusion Heartless had put on him. The darkness contained in the spells kept him from reaching the light in his heart and seeing the truth. Even worse than that, he hadn't even realized that the darkness was there until Aerith told him so.

 

Kairi nodded slightly, opening her eyes to look at the wall ahead of her. "I understand," she said softly. So it had been the light in her heart that caused her to be so easily fooled? She didn't think that was going to be a problem anymore. Her heart was shattered, after all. The darkness had finally gotten to her.

 

Sora turned to look at Kairi, hearing the heartbreak in her voice. He wasn't doing a very good job comforting her, but he wasn't going to give up; he was going to keep trying to make her feel better. "In the end, though, your light was what allowed you to see what the reality was," he said softly, trying to sooth her. "Even when you were in shock, you trusted me and left him because you sensed his darkness." It also showed that Kairi trusted Sora, even if it was just a little bit. That made him feel a little bit better.

 

"I wasn't going to live with somebody like that," Kairi said, turning her head and looking at Sora. Her voice showed the anger that was now present in her eyes, the girl feeling the effects from the betrayal against her. "I couldn't live with myself if I did." Four months of trickery was hard enough, and when Sora helped her open her eyes to the truth--open her heart to the truth--she knew there was no way she could give somebody so dark what they wanted from her. Her Light.

 

Sora nodded, seeing the anger in Kairi's eyes and hearing it in her voice. After everything, she had a right to be angry. Nathaniel had used the pureness of her heart against her, and that made Sora furious. However, his eyes only showed patience and kindness as he looked at Kairi, the brunet careful not to hurt her worse than she already was. "And I wasn't going to let that happen, either," he said. "When I challenged him and said that you would go with the victor, I did it because I was absolutely positive I would win. I never would have risked your life for real, Kairi."

 

Kairi's eyes instantly softened, and she lowered her gaze to her lap. "I know..." she replied, her thoughts immediately going back to last night, when she had seen the confidence in Sora's eyes. She had been so scared, but he had been positive in his challenge. How could Kairi have turned her back on that? The girl's hands curled into small fists. She already had, the day she let Nathaniel kiss her.

 

Sora's eyes softened, and he immediately felt as if he said something bad. "What did I say wrong?" he asked quietly, tilting his head a little bit so that he could try and see Kairi's eyes. He really was trying hard to make her feel better, but it didn't seem to be working.

 

Kairi felt her eyes begin to water, the girl taking in a breath to try and hold the forming tears back. "You didn't say anything wrong," she assured him gently. "And you didn't do anything wrong, either. I did." She had done numerous things wrong lately, and she had a feeling that Nathaniel's darkness clouded her mind and made her make illogical decisions sometimes. Like Sora said, things could become unclear when polar opposites were in close proximity.

 

Sora shook his head softly, turning his head to gaze forward. "I don't completely agree with that," he said honestly. He had made a lot of mistakes on his side of things. If he hadn't left her in the first place, none of this would have happened. He was partially responsible for Kairi's heartbreak.

 

Kairi pressed her lips together, crossing one arm over her torso as she lifted the other. She put her fingers to her forehead, shielding her eyes from Sora as she closed them, knowing she wasn't going to be able to fight off the tears as well this time. But had she ever?

 

"I..." Sora shut his lips, not sure what to say. There was too much to say; too many things that were unspoken between him and Kairi. But for most of the things on his side, it was too soon to bring them up. He could hardly face them himself. He needed to focus solely on Kairi and not hint that he had problems of his own. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from this," he said softly, meaning it deeply.

 

Kairi could hear the sincerity in Sora's voice, which only made her want to cry more. How could he be so nice, after all she had put him through? "Don't be sorry," she told him softly, the girl brushing her bangs out of her eyes with the hand that was by her forehead. Her voice had been slightly shaky, but she didn't pay attention to that. Why focus on something she couldn't control?

 

Sora looked down at the ground, leaning forward as he clasped his hands and let his elbows rest on his knees. "This could have been prevented," he said softly. "If I hadn't gone away, then this wouldn't have happened." But...I had no choice, he thought afterward, saddened by the thought. The Heartless were threatening to not only kill innocent people, but also conquer worlds. That couldn't have gone unaddressed.

 

"You were following orders," Kairi stated, bringing her other arm across her and hugging her torso as she continued to sit on the couch. "You were doing what you had to." The worlds needed him and he couldn't stay to protect her from something they had no idea was going to even happen. It was inevitable.

 

"I know," Sora said, exhaling a soft breath. He shut his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts again, realizing that the topic of the conversation had shifted away from Kairi. He wanted to fix that, since she needed more help then he did. "But I still wish this didn't happen. I hate to see you hurt, Kairi."

 

Kairi closed her eyes once more, squeezing them shut as she fought the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks. How could he be so sweet and caring when she hadn't thought twice about his feelings?

 

Sora lowered his head, keeping his eyes shut as he listened to only silence. He felt as if he had nothing to say now, but at the same time, he had everything to say. However, he couldn't put many things into words; he hadn't taken the time to decipher his own feelings over Kairi's betrayal, because he had been so concerned for her safety when Nathaniel was still alive.