kh_drabble | Homes, Hearts, etc [105] (Reply)

Challenge: [Home]
Title: Strength of Heart
Word count: 455
Notes: orz long, I'm sorry. I kept trying to make it shorter, and it would get longer. Magically. :<

You come back and say nothing has changed. Your prince says nothing will, and the beloved princess agrees.

Some things change. You come home in time for a funeral, for a man you can hardly remember, for your father. You have to look at his face in that coffin to recall his appearance fully. You feel guilty for not crying, especially with your two best friends trying to comfort you - telling you it's okay to cry.

School is so trivial. It's a waste of time, and you hardly ever go anyway. You're a year behind. They say 'if you pass everything like you used to, you'll graduate on time.' They say 'you were always so smart, Riku,' they say it won't be a problem for you. If you'd start attending.

Your mother is all smiles and wit, and she's charming like you remember. But the house is empty with just her and you. All the kids you knew before attack you with questions that you don't want to answer, and they hardly listen when you find something you want to share with them. The shops have cheap trinkets. The adults are closed-minded.

This hasn't changed. This island has always been this way.

You wake up in the night, but there's never anything there. The only one you can properly spar with is the prince, who you can tell is holding back and still winning.

This has changed. You have not always been this way.

But you're home. You're home, you're home, you're home. Finally back where you started.

Back to the same damn place you started. A home that had to earn it's name by distance. The place you tried to escape from, only to come crawling back to as if you really loved it. But you don't, and you won't, and you never have.

You want to go to the king's castle and serve him as a knight. You know where you want to be. That is where your heart tells you home is. One year, the king says, and you can go home with him. The prince and the princess will follow you, they say. They are hesitant. They, unlike you, will miss their 'home.' You tell them to stay, tell them to visit, tell them you'll visit. Tell them not to follow you if they don't want to.

You don't want them trapped away from home like you've been your whole life.

The prince calls you stupid, and says home is with his knight and his princess. The princess abuses you with a near-by pillow.

"My home is with you," the prince and princess say.

You wonder if you don't love them enough. If you loved them more, maybe you would have always felt at home with them.