kh_drabble | 189 (Reply)

Title: [189] The Last Day
Word Count: 443
Notes: Might be stretching things a bit, but anyway... I love these kids so, so much.

Sora always went back, again and again – he couldn’t help himself.

They were supposed to visit the beach that day, but when Sora arrived they were all out of funds. So he did what he did best – he lent a hand, and what a very good hand it was, too. His palm was tinged red from slapping at least thirty-or-so garish Struggle posters about the appropriate walls of the districts. But somehow it was easy, despite the terrain, because for some reason the quickest, easiest route was burned into his memory.

They were all staring at him, open-mouthed - sunset was burning gold into his hair as he leapt down from a certain green ledge. (It convulsed heavily under Sora’s foot but, thankfully, remained intact.)

Hayner was the first to find his voice.

“Wow. That… that was amazing, Sora. None of us ever did it that fast.”

“Thanks,” Sora said awkwardly, and emptied the earnings into Olette’s munny-bag.

It was heavier than any of them could have expected, but nobody seemed to want to make a move for the train station. They were all waiting for something.

And finally Olette said, “Sora, will you show us the photograph again?”

He hesitated, then nodded. The other three huddled around it. There was silence again, broken only at length by Pence,

“Our… fake selves.”

“Not fake,” Sora half-shouted. Three pairs of startled gazes swung towards him wordlessly, then back at the poker face in the picture.

“I’ve always thought this… He doesn’t seem used to cameras.”

“He’s the serious kind,” Hayner said, keeping his tone casual. “The… the ‘a pence for your thoughts’ type. Ha ha!” He slapped Pence on the back.

(“Ha ha,” Pence said.)

They were supposed to visit the beach that day, but Sora knew from ‘experience’ that they never would. The sun was fast dipping over the horizon by this time, and Sora, locking his hands behind his head in his usual careless way, told them as lightly as he could about how he had another life, another sunny sandy paradise, and now that things were nearly done he didn’t know when he could be coming back again…

But the other three saw the strange ache he was fighting to hide, anyway, and there was real dismay and regret on their faces.

“Then the four of us should take a picture together. As a memento.” Olette, sensible as always.

So the four found themselves lined up at the old mansion’s gates, before a camera poised to capture a tiny piece of world from atop a wobbly tripod.

And Sora made sure to smile for it, this time.