Okay, so this is the absolute longest I've ever gone without updating a fic. There really are no excuses for it taking me this long; I'm sorry.

WARNINGS: OT3-ness (Sora, Riku, and Kairi), same as last chapter. Still rated T for now.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Never have, never will.

Chapter 2: Blood and Paopus

Paopu fruit had lost every shred of mystery and intrigue it once held. In one of the first days after the collapse, Riku had witnessed two men fighting over the sacred fruit, their limbs flailing, blood spewing, thrashing, soaking into the sand. The weaker had ended up dead, his life smothered because of the greed of starvation, because that sense of irrevocable devotion it once held had been lost to primal instinct. Riku had shared many with Sora and Kairi, and he doubted the two of them believed the old fables any more than he did. That intrigue was one of innocence and naiveté, pieces of his personality he had abandoned years before. Love was one of the few positive aspects of his life, and Riku refused to believe that a star-shaped fruit could pull him any closer to the destinies of those he loved. Starving, scrapping, ripping it into pieces that were gobbled before anyone else could steal them… that's what he remembered of paopu fruit.

"Wear a smile for their innocence, a grin to shy from pestilence."

Sora and Kairi's personalities had changed so rapidly that Riku could barely see a specter of their once bright intrigue. Sometimes he wondered if he had imagined Kairi's sun-speckled smile, the radiance that once gleamed in eyes that were as blue as the sea had been. Now with the sun forever clouded, they appeared gray, as though they had become muddled with the world's despair. Sora's somehow remained blue, even against the dying light of the fire in their primitive hearths. But the life behind them had long ago withered, desiccated. Every tattered dream had fled, and three years of desperation left Riku with only the memories of that unrelentingly optimistic boy. So he would smile. He would laugh, grin, chuckle for their sakes.

"How do you stay so optimistic?" Kairi asked one night as she lay curled up in his arms. The sun had long since set, and despite their best efforts to search for Sora, he had not returned from his fishing trip.

Riku sighed, burying his face in salty red locks. He reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly in reassurance. "If I wasn't, I'd have given up a long time ago. Sora will be back; I promise."

Kairi shifted in Riku's arms and turned to face his cerulean eyes. They were barely visible in the hut's dank light. "You shouldn't promise anything these days. What if he got lost at sea? What if the wind was too much and it carried his boat away? Or maybe it sprang a leak and-"

"Calm down," Riku brushed light fingers over her lips. "Sora's too strong for that. Try to sleep; I'm sure he'll be back by morning."

Riku listened to Kairi's breathing grow steady as she drifted into an uneasy slumber. Their dreams were never peaceful. The specters of the dead always lurked in the recesses of their subconscious. Even the most mundane of reveries promised the recollection of a dead sibling, parent, friend… So Riku could not sleep, not with the troubling knowledge that even in her dreams Kairi was thinking of Sora's feared demise. Sora's demise… how dare he even consider such a horrible thing? It had been Sora who wrenched him through the cataclysm that had stricken the worlds. Kairi may have comforted him, but Sora made him stronger, urged him to struggle through the heaps of rubble, drove him to fight for a will to survive in a world that knew only destitute.

Riku hugged Kairi tighter, enveloping her into his arms. It felt wrong without another body there, without the pillar that Sora provided. The three were an inseparable unit. When one was absent, the other two faltered, crumbled. When Kairi traveled to one of the smaller islands to forage for food with Tidus, Riku and Sora were without her gentleness and purity. If there was a storm and Riku found himself stranded in the woods for a night, he returned to the worried expression of his hutmates, who had missed the solace of his comfort and strength. When Sora was missing… and Riku refused to admit this to anyone but Kairi… his heart ached as though a piece had been cleaved from his chest and strewn to one of the forgotten worlds in the outer frays of the universe. It was a heavy thought, and perhaps a bit melodramatic at times, but with their world in such an unstable condition, Riku couldn't help but feel this way.

Hours passed before the door finally creaked open. Kairi still slept uneasily, but Riku had barely closed his eyes since night had fallen. He tried to untangle himself from Kairi's limbs, but his swift movements and the sounds of Sora's entry woke her from an already light sleep.

"Hmm…" she grumbled, slowly becoming aware of her surroundings. "Sora!"

Kairi jumped up and scampered across the small room, the light from Sora's candle her only guidance. She swung herself into his arms and pressed a furious kiss against his lips, knocking the old burlap bag from out of his hands.

"What took you so long?" she asked breathlessly. "We were worried sick!"

"I'm sorry," he said, pulling her into a strong hug. "You know the paopu tree on the old play island? Well, no one really goes out to it anymore, so the fruit's really had a chance to grow. We've been low on food, so I figured I'd grab a bunch."

"And it took you that long?" asked Riku as he picked the bag off the ground and set it on the table.

"Hey, I'm not exactly an expert navigator at night," he defended. "I would've waited 'til morning, but I didn't want you guys to worry more than I knew you were. I got us food, didn't I?"

Kairi dug through the bag and pulled out a plump, ripe paopu. She surveyed the fruit, looking indeterminately between it and Sora. "I guess I can forgive you," she said with the semblance of a smile. "Riku, on the other hand… We both know he's not going to say anything about it, but he didn't sleep a wink while you were gone."

Riku glared at Kairi. The fact that both of them were thinking the truth was one thing, but he hadn't expected her to verbalize his feelings for Sora's well-being. He sighed, doubting his mask fooled either of them.

"Sorry, Riku," said Sora as he reached into the burlap bag and pulled out another paopu as a peace offering.

He could feel the edges of his solemn expression crack as Sora stared at him with serious eyes, their bright hue dancing in the light of the candle. There was a glimmer in Sora's expression that Riku rarely saw anymore, but he was unable to place its catalyst. He told himself foolishly that perhaps it was the paopu, but he knew that Sora had given up on such childlike pretenses long ago. Brushing away the thought, Riku ripped off one of the fruit's corners and wedged it into his mouth. He had forgotten how hungry he was. Without another thought, Riku tore into the fleshy fruit.

"Hey, that was the best one!" protested Sora, a slight smile on his lips. "No need to pig out…"

"Last I checked, potato chips were for pigging out, not fruit," Riku cocked an eyebrow and took another bite.

"Last I checked," said Sora, ripping off a piece of Riku's paopu. "Potato chips didn't exist anymore," he stuffed the piece into his mouth as a small trickle of juice fell from his lips. "Damn, this is good."

"Hey, watch it," Riku pulled the fruit away from his friend. "You gave it to me, remember?"

"Yeah, but I'm the one who toiled through the dark night just to bring - it - back!" Sora reached forward, wrenching the paopu from Riku's grasp.

"Boys…" murmured Kairi as she leaned back to watch their never-ending competition.

"Well, you shouldn't have been so careless," argued Riku as Sora dodged his ruses.

"Oh yeah, and why not?"

Riku stopped his feigned attacks, frowning slightly. Sora smiled with an expression of artificial innocence that somehow managed to creep onto his face. He had cornered Riku and knew it.

Riku sighed. They all knew. Why, after so much time, did he still have difficulty verbalizing it? "Because we… because I… was worried about you."

"Thanks, Riku… didn't know you cared so much," there was that smirk, the same one that graced his features all those years ago, back when they gazed at the night's sky and contemplated the existence of other worlds. Back before the knowledge of those worlds had brought destruction upon their fragile lives.

Riku couldn't help but smile at the stinging joy he saw in that grin. It belonged to Sora, but not really. It may have fit the innocent, bumbling fourteen-year-old, but on the hardened features of one who had seen too much in his early adult life, it seemed almost contrived.

"Shut up, asshole," Riku shook his head, a cynical laugh on his breath as he moved closer to Sora. There was only one way to get that stupid grin off his face. And Riku had to, because its mixed meaning was killing him. So he leaned forward and kissed him, pressed his lips against Sora's windburnt, sea-cracked ones. The kiss was rough, lingering, almost desperate for an affection that had gone too long unquenched. Their tongues touched for the briefest moment, and Riku could taste the familiar tang of the paopu as it mixed with the taste in his own mouth. Sora pulled away after only a few moments, pressing his forehead against Riku's. He didn't speak, but the depth of blue in his eyes spoke the words they both knew would sound ridiculous if verbalized.

Riku shifted away, but only to encompass Kairi into their small huddle. Occasionally she stood back when he and Sora were sharing an intimate moment, and neither boy could figure out why. Both had asked her numerous times, but Kairi only ignored the question. Perhaps she felt that she was driving a wedge between the two. Riku shrugged away the thought. If anything, she held them together.

Sora offered the remaining pieces of the paopu to his friends, fumbling the fruit in his hands.

"Hmm…" considered Kairi, leaning forward to grab one of the remaining spikes. "This is better than mine. You said it came from that tree we used to sit by, right?"

Sora nodded. "It was the highest one. I almost fell out of the tree trying to get it," he dug his finger into the pulp. "Completely worth it if you ask me."

Riku had to silently agree. He linked arms with Kairi, leaning down to kiss the residual paopu juice from her lips. The kiss was much different than the one he had shared with Sora; her lips were soft, smooth… somehow free from the battering hardships in her life. With his eyes closed, he could taste that masked sense of innocence that he saw on Sora's face only minutes before. And it killed him.

Maybe that's why he hated the idea of the paopu so much to begin with. A sweet, star-shaped fruit that entwined the destinies of those who shared it. Yeah right. It was the same as a coconut, pineapple, or strawberry. All of that destiny garbage was a myth that naïve dreamers had placed upon it centuries before. It was a simple fruit that sustained their lives and allowed them to be together by that fact alone.

"I really am glad you're back," Kairi whispered in Sora's ear.

"Me too," he looked at her with eyes tired from rowing and climbing and navigating through the cloud-covered night. Sora leaned down and cupped her chin in his hand, bringing her into a passionate yet gentle kiss. Riku smiled slightly at their embrace, Sora's hand still at his hip and his fingers still locked with Kairi's.

When the kiss was broken, the three remained in a silence that encompassed all of Riku's thoughts. It was love, simple as that. He closed his eyes as Sora kneaded a thumb into his back and Kairi absentmindedly fumbled with a lock of his hair. It was this comfort, this closeness, that was to be envied. When they settled down to sleep after such an arduous day, Riku was glad to find himself in the middle. Kairi snuggled against him, falling asleep in his arms as she had earlier. Sora settled against Riku's back, draping an arm across his waist and hooking Kairi's hand in his own. With their missing pillar back in place, Riku was able to find sleep in the pitch-black hut, and it had nothing to do with paopus.

I usually kind of hate paopu-based stories because they're done way too often, so I'm still a little surprised I wrote this. I tried to put a new spin on it though, and I'm hoping I pulled it off.

Thanks for reading!