Reckless

"Sora! Your arm!"

Blood oozed out of the scratches the Heartless had made, and Sora swayed back and forth on his feet. Kairi managed to make it over just in time to catch him and lower him to the pavement.

"This is getting ridiculous," she said as she began a set of emergency first aid spells with what little magic she had left. "Do you really think my fighting's so bad that—"

He looked at his arm and winced. "This isn't about that!"

Oh, that was rich. If he really did trust her to hold her own in a fight, he wouldn't always swoop in and take over.

"It's not?" she said, ripping off a piece of her skirt and wrapping it around his arm to staunch the bleeding. "Then why is it that every time I try to help you out in a fight, you push me to the side?"

She yanked the makeshift bandage tight, and he hissed and put his hand over the spot.

"Ouch! What was that for?" He scowled at her, and she glared right back at him.

"I'm trying to stop the bleeding the old fashioned way, idiot! My magic reserves are running low, and you're completely out!"

He raked his uninjured hand through his hair. "Yeah, because you just took on an entire swarm of Heartless! How reckless can you get?"

"Reckless? Reckless? You're calling me reckless?! Who just took on a Behemoth by himself and shoved me to the side when I could have helped?"

"You'd never fought a Behemoth before! What did you expect me to do?"

"That doesn't matter! Things are different now. I trained my butt off so I wouldn't get in your way anymore, and it's still not good enough! Nothing that I ever do is good enough! I'm supposed to just wait at home like a good little trophy girlfriend while you and Riku are off on your adventures and I'm sick of it!"

Sora's eyes went wide, and she realized she'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"You really think that's why I don't want you to fight?" he said, his voice low and an awful hurt look in his eyes. "You think that I see you as some sort of prize that the worlds owe me for saving them?" He shrugged her hand away and stood. "If you really believe that, then you don't know me at all."

Ouch. Now he'd gone too far, too, and while a part of her was tempted to tell him off for that, she knew that would just make things even worse.

Someone needs to be the mature one in this situation. Guess it has to be me.

She grabbed his hand before he could walk away. "Sora, stop. We need to talk about this."

"Let go of me. I don't want to talk to you right now."

Oh, fine. Maybe it would be better if they waited till they both cooled off. She was about to let him go when she noticed he was swaying on his feet again. His jacket had popped open, and his shirt was torn and was that blood seeping into it?

"Sora, you're hurt!"

He gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I noticed."

"No, I mean – not just your arm, your side, too!" She sprung to her feet and touched the spot, and sure enough, her hand came away slick with red.

Fighting or not, she couldn't let him just walk off with an injury like that. Time to break out the emergency reserves. Out of her pouch came her very last High Potion, and she forced him to sit down and lean against the wall again so she could tend to the injury. He watched her every move but didn't say a single word.

"I worry about you, you know," she said softly, hoping to break his stony silence. "It's like you don't value your own life. You throw yourself in harm's way as soon as there's even a chance I'm in danger."

Oh. He gave her a pointed look, and she realized she had just stumbled upon the reason for that. She tore another strip of cloth from her skirt and poured some water over it from her bottle, then dipped it into the High Potion. Chewing her lip, she silently looked to him for permission, and he lifted his shirt so she could heal the wound more easily.

Once the bleeding had stopped, she could see the three gashes that had caused it. If she had to guess, they had probably been made by the Behemoth's stupid claws. At least they were healing now, the skin knitting together and smoothing over before her very eyes.

She gingerly rubbed the area of the injury clean with the cloth, and Sora winced and bit his lip but made no sound.

"I just… I don't want you to get hurt because of me anymore," she finally said, setting the now bloody cloth aside and examining the wound one more time to make sure it was healing.

How many times has he gotten hurt because of me?

She was tired of their enemies using her to hurt him, too. That was why she'd trained so hard in the first place. To see him try to shove her back into a position where she was helpless to do anything to stop that from happening just hurt too much.

She knew he didn't see her as a prize to be won. It was just hard not to feel like that after she'd been forced to wait and wait and wait with no word from him or Riku and no idea when they'd be home again.

Satisfied that his side had sufficiently healed, she turned her attention back to his arm. She'd already broken out the High Potion, might as well put it to good use.

"I can't sit on the sidelines and wait for our enemies to come to me," she said, more to herself than to him. "I have to protect myself. I have to fight."

"I know," he said, his voice cracking. "It's just that... if anything were to happen to you, I would never forgive myself."

She paused and searched his eyes. "You think you're the only one who feels that way?" She tugged at one of his spikes and smiled sadly. "That's the price we pay for caring."

"Yeah. Having a heart really sucks sometimes, you know?"

She clicked her tongue. "Careful now, Roxas and Naminé might hear you."

"I think they'd agree with me."

They fell silent again as Kairi finished healing his arm. He tested it afterwards to make sure he wouldn't have any trouble fighting. When he was convinced it was fine, he let his Keyblade disappear and cleared his throat.

"Kairi?"

"Yes?"

He fidgeted with his jacket for a few seconds before sticking his hands in his pocket and continuing.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. And… you're right. You do need to fight. You won't get better if I always jump in and take care of things for you."

She nodded, glad to hear him admit that he knew pushing her to the side wasn't the answer.

"It's just… really hard for me not to do that," he continued. "I'm probably gonna keep doing it for a while until I break the habit."

She finished packing her things away and stood. "I understand. I might still get annoyed, but I get it. Plus, the more I succeed, the easier it'll be for you to trust me to handle myself, right?"

She knew she didn't have to prove herself to him, but if it put his mind at ease, she didn't really mind.

"Right." He paused and took a deep breath, like the next words were going to be difficult to say. "That being said, you really were reckless in that fight earlier. Please be more careful next time."

He winced as he waited for her reaction, and she sighed. It killed her stubborn side, but if he could admit when he was wrong, so could she.

"I know," she said. "I will. You know how I am. Sometimes I just let my enthusiasm get the better of me."

To her surprise, he grinned.

"What? Isn't that a bad thing?"

"Sure, but the enthusiasm? Not at all. You should have seen your face when you charged those Heartless. I think the Neoshadows even shrank away from you."

She smiled. "Good. They'd better. And Sora," she paused to straighten the lapels of his jacket and make her voice stern, "the whole reckless thing goes for you too, you know."

"Yeah. I'll be more careful, I promise."

They stood there for a moment, neither of them sure of what to say or do. Then he held his arms out to her, and she hugged him, being careful to be gentle with his side as she nestled into the crook of his neck.

"Thank you, Kairi."

"For what?"

"Watching my back."

She let go of him to get a better look at his face. "Of course. I'm always with you, remember?"

"Yeah. And now, thanks to your training, we really can be together." He smiled and offered his hand. "I'm starving. Wanna go get some pretzels? Hayner, Pence, and Olette told me about the perfect place."

"Sure, but maybe we should change first. I mean, your shirt's got bloodstains on it, and my skirt's a little, um, shorter than usual."

She tugged at the ripped fabric in vain. She could imagine the poor shopkeeper's face if they waltzed up to the pretzel store in their current condition. As funny as that might be, she wanted to look presentable first.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "You say that like it's a bad thing. You look great."

"Sora!" She gave him a playful smack, being careful it landed on his good arm.

His eyes had that all-too-innocent-to-actually-be innocent look in them. "What? It's true."

"Then you'd look better if you took your shirt off. You know, because of the bloodstains."

"Right, the bloodstains." He pointed to a nearby sign and shook his head in mock sorrow. "Sorry, Kairi, but most of the stores around here have a 'No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service' policy."

Kairi had to giggle. Home was a series of islands surrounded by water, which meant no one cared if you walked into stores or restaurants looking like you'd just come from the beach. What had happened here, exactly, for a rule like this to be put into place?

"Well, that settles it then," she said. "Guess we better go back to the hotel and get changed, huh?"

"Guess so."

He offered his hand again, and this time she took it. As they rounded the corner, a small group of Soldiers popped into view, and Sora tensed and summoned his Keyblade. But the sudden movement made him wince and clutch his side, and Kairi knew what she had to do.

She stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. "I can handle these guys. You keep resting, okay? Who knows, you might need your energy if we run into another fight along the way."

He looked at her for a moment, and she could practically hear the wheels turn in his head as he warred with himself over what to do.

"Sora, trust me."

At last he relaxed and moved to the side. "Right. They're all yours."

It was a start, and after she'd finished the Soldiers off, he took her hand and led her along the golden afternoon streets back to the hotel where they were staying with everyone else.

"That was harder than I thought it would be," he muttered.

She tilted her head. "No it wasn't." The Soldiers had barely given her any trouble. What was he talking about?

"Not for you, it wasn't."

Oh.

"Well, you kept your word," she offered. "You didn't jump in and take over."

He stopped to look at her. "Yeah, but next time, we should fight the enemy together. We work better as a team, and I don't like watching from the sidelines any more than you do."

Now that was an arrangement she could be happy with. She smiled and squeezed his hand.

"Deal."

To fight alongside him, not as a sidekick or an assistant but as a partner, an equal. It would take time till she reached his level, but she was determined to do it.

It was what why she had always fought so recklessly before, after all.

Keydreamer/Naivette requested a protective SoKai story, and I got the feeling Sora would easily go into overprotective mode. That combined with Kairi's, uh, reckless tendencies made me think they might clash over Kairi fighting.

But I also wanted to show them working through it, because at the end of the day they really do care about each other and that was the whole reason why they fought in the first place.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, and as always, thank you for reading! And thank you to reviewers and my anonymous reviewer(s?) who keep reviewing these oneshots, I really appreciate it!