Riku wouldn't lose her.
His bare, sun darkened feet thundered across the scorching hot wood of the dock. His expertise prohibited the man from slipping on the streaks of water splashed there. Run.
Run. It was all he could think.
He had to save her.
The silver haired man stared over the water, eyes wide—almost bulging—with frustration.
Finally, there she was!
To the right he darted, leaping in after that lock of red hair shining in the water. He could only imagine the sweet, tanned face with the pink lips squeezed shut and the cerulean eyes searching—oh, those poor panicked gems!—trying desperately to glimpse some faint hope of rescue.
Rescue arrived promptly as the man submerged himself, sending the green-blue water from the sea to the sky. His feet were so heavy in his quest that they sunk to the sand below. With naked, muscular legs he pushed off the bottom and flew through the tide's unforgiving current and caught the small body in both arms.
He came up all at once, emerging over the waves, throwing back his head and the cropped silver hairs that usually rested so elegantly upon it (now they exploded in all directions like fireworks, sending water everywhere). He took a big deep breath before he paddled with his strong legs to shallow water.
He reached the sand again and dragged his prize from the depths of high tide. The girl was unconscious, so helpless in his grasp. The red hair clung to her face and the man carefully brushed it away from her eyes and mouth.
All the gentleness in him mounting deep inside, he reached the dry sand and laid her down, turned her over so she was kneeling over the ground. He patted her back, harder and harder. She came awake all of a sudden and began to cough. He coaxed her with his deep voice, urging her to resist the urge to gag. She put both hands on the ground and spat and vomited all the foulness of the sea she had swallowed.
She was very tired when she had finished and looked at him with sad, exhausted eyes.
"Oh, Papa," was all the child said before falling into his arms.
~*~
Kairi's eyes were on the sky, as they usually were. The sea churned softly to itself, lapping at the beach far below her loft. She sat by the window and pulled a brush thoughtfully through her hair. Part of the time she had to fight the strands, as they seemed rather bent on drifting out the window with the wind.
She stood, her brushing done, and left the tool on her vanity before proceeding to race down the two flights of steps. She lived in the big old house on the far side of the island. It was built around three great trees, two of which that had long since passed on, that served as sturdy hollows to live in. Boards and vines crisscrossed the trunks to form rooms large and small. The youngest tree, which was still full of life, stretched from the ground up above to shade the home with its eternally green branches and, during the right season, drop the delicious paopu fruit.
She never failed to skip the last two steps, leaping down despite anything—her dress, her mood, her health. Kairi had taken to wearing long skirts, for she no longer felt any need to show off her legs to anyone. She wore tank tops because of the heat, and alternated between tying her long, red hair atop her head and letting it loose to play with the teasing breeze.
After she left her house and let the cloth door swing shut behind her, she wandered up the beach to the main village area where about a dozen other tree houses and huts stood. In the middle was the well and more toward the middle of the island was the public bathroom and shower. Around the side people were gossiping and trading cloth for fruit and wood for labor and so forth.
Kairi lived on the third island in the Destiny Islands chain. It was the farthest from the main island and also was the smallest. The closest neighbor was half a day's boat ride away, and even that was with a favorable wind. The other four islands were grouped more or less together, so it was as difficult to reach one as another.
But this island on which she stood had been her home since she first arrived from Hollow Bastion and the only one on which she would dream of living. It was also her child's home.
Speaking of that, where was the girl?
Kairi became worried and looked around, her eyes wide and her heart beginning to race. She had been alone in the house when she had woken up this morning, but that was not rare. The island children rose at dawn and stayed out until suppertime, and no parent thought anything of it, having done the same thing in their youth.
Still…Kairi was a mother and had a certain premonition about these kinds of things.
Selphie walked up then, shoulder length brunette hair bouncing and her face filled with concern. "Hey, what's the matter?"
"Do you know where Nadia is?" Kairi said slowly.
"She went off with the others about half an hour ago. Was hardly sunrise," her friend replied, shaking her head as if to say, 'Was I ever that young?'
"Kairi!"
Kairi spun to see one of the neighborhood boys running toward her. He was coming from the other side of the island, where the docks and waterfall were, where all the children liked to play. "What is it?"
The blond child breathed as if it could be his last time. "We were playin'—and Nadia slipped offa the dock and fell in!"
Kairi's blood ran very cold, and all her muscles froze. "What?"
"Ka—" But before Selphie could say anything, Kairi had come to her senses as a watchful mother and was racing across the sand, screaming her daughter's name.
~*~
Riku had the girl cradled in his arms. The small arms were wrapped around his neck. He held his daughter close, thanking the gods he had arrived in time.
He paused by the waterfall and used his hands to spread fresh water across the girl's face to rid it of the stinging salt water.
"Papa, I'm sorry I slipped," she mumbled in her small, seven-year-old voice.
"It wasn't your fault," he assured her. Even if it had been, there was no way in the world he could be angry with this little angel of his.
Riku's head snapped upward instinctively when he heard a voice. His days of being a fighter were far behind him, but the reflexes were still carved into him—no, maybe he was carved from those very same warrior's instincts.
"Kairi," he said to himself when he saw the woman jogging across the sand. She didn't notice him at first; her eyes were fearfully on the rising waves of the tide. She stopped as if in defeat before finally turning her gaze to where Riku and the child were kneeling.
Her face lit up like a bonfire at the midsummer festival. She came upon the two very quickly and took her little girl into her arms, ignoring all the water.
"Oh, my baby, are you all right?" she proceeded to murmur, taking the little clone of herself very close and holding on very tight.
"Mommy, why are you crying?" wondered the girl, gazing into her mother's face.
Kairi sniffed and wiped the tears away before littering the child's cheeks with kiss after kiss. "Mommy was just a little scared for you."
"I'm fine now, Mommy. Papa saved me," the girl said proudly. She was always proud of her father.
Kairi turned her eyes to Riku and her expression beamed with such gratitude she didn't have to speak a word. He, the father of her child, who knew the woman so well. He knew how thankful she was because he would have felt the same with the situation reversed.
But the thanks eventually melted and the usual distance between them returned once more, like an ice-cold breeze. Kairi looked away.
"Mommy's going to give you a nice bath at home, Nadia," Kairi whispered. She adjusted her grip on the small body so that Nadia was straddling her middle.
"I'm a big girl, Mommy," mumbled the child, her heart half in the argument. But she was quite tired from almost drowning, and gratefully placed her small head on Mommy's shoulder and drifted back to sleep as the woman bounced her up and down.
The three returned to the main village, both parents relieved and the little girl content—most likely oblivious to the magnitude of the tragedy that had almost occurred. Kairi breathed slowly, trying to urge her heart rate back down after that impulse of fear.
Riku was silent. He adjusted the dirtied, tattered shorts that ended raggedly at his knees and began to brush seaweed from his bare chest. He halfheartedly dragged calloused fingers through the short silver hair of his and adjusted the black bandana across his forehead.
He secretly admired the beautiful woman next to him as she mumbled lullabies to the slumbering Nadia. Her hair's long strands were flying out like a veil behind her in the morning breeze. Her rosy cheeks seemed smooth beneath the dried tears, and her face itself was always so sweet. Her eyelashes were long and dark above absolute jewels of eyes, and below a cute nose her lips moved gently, perfectly round and painted red. Her body was medium height, her build slender. Kairi was indeed the most beautiful creature he would ever know.
And he also knew that she would never be his again.
When she had told Riku that she couldn't be his anymore, there was no need to mention the reason. At that time, the reason in question had been missing six years. She wouldn't give up hope, that lingering hope that he would return. Even now, though Kairi vehemently denied it, she was still looking out, praying to see him return. Now that it had been ten years since they had all been together.
And that reason, the reason that most everyone was sure was forever gone and more than likely dead, he would forever separate Kairi from Riku, be he near them or not. That reason who everyone was sure would never come back.
That reason was washing up on the beach, not so very far away at all.
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Important: You did not read this story. It was merely a figment of your imagination! The author did not break her promise to finish her old epics before starting anything new and she didn't just have to get this out because it was kicking her brain cells this way and that. I mean…what story? Besides, this won't be very long. Um, yeah, I mean what are you talking about? Story does not exist. Don't tell your friends about it. What is there to tell?