At Last
by divinerosekeeper
Disclaimer: I do not in any way own any of the characters that are from either Kingdom Hearts or any of the Final Fantasy games, as they are owned by Square Enix (and in Kingdom Heart's case also by Buena Vista). I do own any original characters in this story.
Important Note: As you can obviously see,I have decided to completely revamp this fanfic. I'm sorry that I haven't bothered to even try to update this in nearly six years. I'm not going to even try to give you guys shit excuses, because really, why lie? Haha. Anyway, I am this time planning to force myself to update this bitch as often as I can, no really, I promise. I also promise that this time around this will be even ten times more awesome than the original! You will notice lots of drastic changes to this story, like the fact that this isn't a Sora and Kairi pairing anymore, as I've changed it to a ROXAS AND AXEL fanfic! No, I'm really kidding… This is still a Sora and Kairi story, I swear. Anyway, I really hope that you will all enjoy this new and improved version of At Last. As a special treat I'm debuting the revamp with a special double feature!
SIDE NOTE BEFORE READING
This no longer is set place in Tokyo, as it's set in the city of Radiant Garden. The Radiant Garden in my story is being depicted as a bustling city, which is known for its beautiful flowers and gardens. But essentially how I imagine it all is splicing Radiant Garden and the city that was shown in the World That Never Was together with having the vibe of New York City, could you imagine that? This still takes place in Japan; by the way, though Radiant Garden is not the capitol, it is a big city just like Kyoto and Osaka. Other places that will be mentioned in my story are Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, and Twilight Town (another big city); these are technically sort of suburbs in the area. Anyway, yea, glad to get that all cleared up.
Chapter One
Harmonia Matching Services
August 22nd
Tip, tap, tip, tap, tip, tap…
"Ugh."
Eyebrows furrowed and lips in a tight line, Kairi Hikari dug her hands into her hair, stopping her previous action of typing. She sighed again, glancing at the time on her computer screen, seven thirty-six. Taking off her glasses, she pinched the area in-between her eyes.
Maybe I should call it a day,she thought tiredly.
Kairi looked again to the computer screen, eyeing her document. Although not satisfied with the piece itself, she felt she had made just enough progress for the day; thus saving and closing it. She quickly packed her belongings—her glasses into their case, cell phone, and other miscellaneous items and turned off her computer and lamp, then finally retrieved her umbrella.
Putting on her coat, Kairi grabbed her bag and left her cubicle. She gave curt, but polite goodbyes to the few people that were still in the office, refusing to be distracted on her way to the elevator. All she knew was that she wanted to get home, eat a decent meal with a hot cup of tea, possibly take a bath, and then crash in her bed. A smile played upon her lips at the thought.
The elevator ride down to ten floors below was quiet and long. Kairi was impatient; she just wanted to get out of the building. The elevator progressed slowly down the floors; seven…six…five…four… Her foot tapped eagerly; everyday she swore she was becoming more and more convinced that this was the slowest elevator in the entire world.
Mental note: write a complaint about this damn thing tomorrow,she thought bitterly.
When the elevator made the shaky stop on the bottom floor and the doors opened, Kairi practically ran out of it, muttering, "Finally!" to herself.
She only regained her composure when the receptionist at the front desk cheerfully told her to have a good evening, to which she replied with a "you too."
As soon as she made her way out of the revolving doors of the building, Kairi was met with the downpour of heavy rain. "Shit," she muttered as she clumsily fumbled to open her umbrella. She walked towards the street searching for an upcoming taxi.
Looking around, it almost surprised her at how busy Radiant Garden could still be on a rainy Monday night. Nothing stopped people in the city from having a good time; growing up in a sleeper town like Destiny Islands she was accustomed to living in a less lively environment.
Spotting a taxi, Kairi whistled as loud as she could, waved her hand out and called out to it. When it pulled over, she crawled in and shut the door, "Fifth and Peony, please."
When Kairi entered her apartment she could have cried out with joy, so relieved to be finally home. She placed her sopped umbrella into its holder, kicked off her shoes, and slipped off her coat, putting it on one of the hooks.
She walked out of the small hallway, only able to put her purse on the sofa before she noticed something very unusual. Her roommate, Selphie Tilmitt, was on her personal laptop.
"What are you doing?" Kairi demanded.
As soon as Selphie heard her roommate's voice she froze for a moment, then quickly snapped the laptop closed, "Ah, n-nothing—!" Kairi towered over her with an annoyed look oh her face, Selphie smiled nervously, "I didn't expect you to come home so early."
One of Kairi's eyebrows rose, "I'm sure you didn't."
Trying to change the subject in hopes of distracting her, Selphie asked, "I thought you were staying at the office super-late today?"
"I was. But then I decided to go home because I was really tired and had gotten a lot done today." To Selphie's disappointment, Kairi's scowl didn't disappear. "Nice try, but you're not going to distract me from the fact that you have on your lap. So once again, why are you on my laptop?"
Selphie just couldn't tell her the truth, Kairi would kill her, and not just simply kill her, it'd be creative and long and not to mention torturous. So, she had no other choice, she said the first excuse that came to her head, "My laptop is broken, and I really needed to check my email!"
She bit her lip, Please for the love of God, let her believe me!
"You know, I totally would have bought that, if it weren't for the fact that…" Kairi paused looking over at the coffee table, "your laptop is open and fully functioning, and it's on your email account no less."
The brunette mentally slapped herself, "Crap."
"Crap is right," Kairi said nodding, "now the truth."
Sheepishly smiling, Selphie replied, "Do I really have to?"
Kairi sighed, "Well, it's either that or you just hand the damn thing to me, it's your choice. I'm going to find out either way."
Selphie surrendered the laptop to the redhead; Kairi then swiftly snatched it out of her hands, "Was that so hard?"
As Kairi sat down with her laptop on the sofa, Selphie could feel her palms start to clam up with sweat; nothing could prepare her for the anger that Kairi was about to unknowingly unleash.
When Kairi opened that laptop and looked at what was on the screen her face quickly drained of all blood, and just as quickly it was filled with red rage. Eerily, she whispered, "What the hell is this?"
"…"
Her voice rose just a little more in volume, "I can't hear you."
"…"
"Selphie why the hell are you registering under my name on 'Harmonia Matching Services?'"
"Well, I couldn't exactly register you on my computer now could I? All of your personal info is on your laptop," Selphie retorted.
Kairi took a deep breath, trying to calm down, so she could resist the urge to kill her best friend, "Okay, but why are you even registering me in the first place?"
"Kairi," she said slowly, "We've been friends for many, many years…"
"Cut the shit, and get to the point."
Selphie glared, "Since you said it so nicely. Anyway, Kairi, you don't date much, I feel bad, so that's why I am trying to get you a date."
Kairi placed the laptop on the coffee table, she shakily said, "I don't need to date."
"I know you don't need to date, but I think it would be good for you. You're always so tense these days; everything is about work with you. Kairi, you don't have any fun anymore."
Kairi looked away, "I have a job, so therefore, the only thing I have time for is work."
Selphie rolled her eyes, "Kairi, technically you get off at five, but you stay until eight everyday when it's not even asked of you. Let's face it, you're a workaholic."
"Am not," she muttered stubbornly.
"Are too."
"Are n—"
Selphie cut her off, "Whatever! The point is you're young and need to get out more often!"
"I do too go out!" Kairi argued.
"Kairi! Quit arguing for once, and listen," said Selphie getting up off the chair she had been sitting in, "Yes, you occasionally go out and have a few drinks with the girls, but that's even a rarity these days. And you never go on dates. Every blind date I set up for you fails miserably, one's that you, yourself initiate don't go any much better."
"What are you expecting me to do? Get set up on some date from that site, fall in love, and then get married and become a baby-making machine?" snapped Kairi.
"Er—" this caught Selphie off guard. "That's not exactly what I meant—though, don't get me wrong, that would be great —what I meant was that you're twenty-five, I don't want you to miss out on what you could be doing, and I don't want you to regret it later."
Kairi was about to say something, but was once again cut off, "And I know and understand why you do shy away from dating, it's pretty understandable. But I think that even Ni—"
"Thank you, Selphie, but I just really don't want to, okay?" Kairi said. She picked herself off of the sofa and headed towards the kitchen.
There was nothing that Selphie could rack in her mind to say; she hated seeing her friend so lonely. No matter how hard Kairi tried, she couldn't hide this fact from her. Her eyes moved to the ring that was on her left ring finger, sometimes she would feel slightly guilty for wearing it.
She looked up at Kairi again, who was getting a plate and cup out of the cupboard, "Kairi," she said softly. The redhead paused, but didn't look at her, "I saved you some food, it's in the fridge. All you have to do is heat it up."
Sora Isamu arrived at the secluded bar just a little after eight o'clock. When he walked in he was greeted by two of his friends, Wakka and Toji. "Happy birthday, man," Wakka said slapping Sora on the back.
Sora lightly punched him on the arm, "Thanks." He took off his hoodie, the rain outside had turned into a light drizzle. "Alright, we can't be out too late, I have work tomorrow and I need to be able to function."
The two men waved him off, "Yeah, yeah…"
Sora sighed, "I'm serious."
"We know," said Toji, "C'mon let's just make the most of this, eh, birthday boy?"
The three men walked to the bar and got themselves onto the stools, the bartender went to them and each of them ordered a bottle of beer.
"So, how's it feel to be twenty-six, man?" asked Wakka taking a sip of his beer.
"Eh," said Sora taking out a cigarette out of the carton, "Same as twenty-five." He lit his cigarette with his lighter and took a drag, "There's no difference, so it's really nothing special."
Toji frowned and covered his nose, "Ah, aren't you ever going to quit that?"
Sora rolled his eyes, "What's your problem? You're in a bar, everyone is practically smoking in here."
Toji covered his nose, "Yea, but not five inches away from my face."
Sora sighed, "Fine, fine, you win," he took one last puff and smashed it into the already full ashtray in front of him.
"Anyway," Wakka said, changing the subject, "how's that little project of yours coming along?"
Sora grinned, "My baby, you mean?"
Wakka raised an eyebrow, "Yea, sure, that."
"It's going pretty good," answered Sora taking a sip from his beer. "It should be done in about half a year, maybe even a little more than that."
"Taking your time on it, I see?" Toji commented, his finger tracing the top of the bottle.
"Well, yea. I want it to be absolutely perfect. It needs to be the sturdiest thing in that damn town." Sora said thoughtfully.
"Hey Sora," he heard Wakka say, interrupting him from his thoughts.
"Huh?"
"That chick over there is checking you out," Wakka whispered, subtly indicating towards the left.
Sora slowly looked to his left, Wakka was right, there was a girl that was looking at him. She smiled, and winked with one of her alluring amber eyes. Sure, she was pretty enough, hell, she was gorgeous, the woman was tall and slender, with a nice rack, and even in the dim light of the bar he could tell how shiny and blonde that long hair of hers was.
He looked away momentarily and gripped his beer bottle. He glanced over at her again; this time she was batting her eyes at him. "Nah," he said.
"What?" asked Wakka and Toji in perfect unison.
Sora shrugged, "Not tonight."
"What the fuck is wrong with you, man?" asked Wakka, eyes wide in shock. "You'd usually take this opportunity."
Once again, Sora just shrugged and took another sip of his beer.
"Suffering from limp dick syndrome, tonight?" asked Toji.
Sora rolled his eyes, "I guess," he replied. He just wanted them to get off of his back.
Toji's face brightened and desperately looked at Sora, grabbing his arm, "Then would you mind if I tried to get with her?!"
Both Wakka and Sora gave Toji a weird look by his sudden pathetic outburst, flicking off his arm from his friend's grasp, Sora said, "No, do what you like. Just quit being a freak, alright?"
"Thank you!" said Toji, practically flying out of his seat.
"What's his deal?" Sora asked.
"Eh, it's been about three months or so since the guy's been laid, you can't blame him too much" Wakka replied, he then looked seriously at his friend, "But the real question is, what's wrong with you?"
"Hm? What do you mean?" Sora asked, taking another slow sip of his beer.
"What I mean, man, is why didn't you go for that girl yourself?" Wakka explained. "You'd usually be up on that."
"Eh."
"Well?" urged Wakka.
"I just—I-I guess, I guess I just want to settle down," Sora honestly answered, he averted his eyes from his friend, looking at one of the televisions instead.
"Seriously, man?" Wakka asked, taken aback. "Where's this all coming from?"
Sora smiled, looking at his friend again, "I think I am. I don't know, Wakka, I just have this feeling, it just feels like the thing to do, instinctive, almost, you know? I'm tired of all this playing around, anyway. It's so routine and boring. Being casual is no longer exciting; it's lost its charm. " He finished off the rest of his beer and looked at Wakka, "I guess there is a difference between twenty-five and twenty-six."
Before Wakka could say anything, Sora grabbed his sweater and slipped off of the stool, "Hey man, I think I'm gonna go."
Wakka gave him a quizzical look, "You sure man? It's still pretty early, and you've only had one drink. There's still plenty of time to celebrate!"
Sora nodded, slipping on his sweater, "Yea, I just want to go home, maybe some other night." He looked around to see if he could see Toji, he couldn't. He looked at Wakka again, "Tell lover-boy I said thanks, if and when you see him, 'kay?"
Wakka only nodded.
"Hey, Wakka," Sora said before he walked away.
"Hm?"
"Thanks."
"No problem, man, any time, alright? Happy birthday."
Sora grinned and walked out the door. His eyes roamed from the streets up to the sky, it had stopped raining, which was nice, since he had to walk seven blocks all the way to his condo. He inhaled, taking a deep breath, he had always loved the smell after it rained, everything always seemed fresh again.
He walked to the curb and pulled out the carton of cigarettes from out of his pocket, he drew one out and lit it up and took a long and slow inhale. He knew that he should probably quit, but considering he'd been doing it since the age of sixteen, it wouldn't be that easy.
It was now 10:30, and Kairi had just finished her bath. Clad in a white camisole, striped pajama pants and a towel hung around her neck; she walked into the empty living room (Selphie having retired into her bedroom a half-an-hour earlier with the complaint of nausea again). She had come out to retrieve her laptop, wanting to check her email before going off to bed. She picked it up, surprised to feel that it was warm.
I must've not have turned it off from earlier, she observed.
Kairi sat down on the sofa, placing the laptop in her lap; she carefully opened the lid, revealing the bright half-filled application that Selphie had started. Curiously, Kairi browsed through it, seeing what Selphie was going to reveal about her to the World Wide Web. So far, she had her full name, age and birthday, email, profile picture (Kairi couldn't complain too much, it was a good picture she chose), cell phone number, her employment, hell, even her blood type!
She scrolled down to the parts that Selphie hadn't been able to fill out yet, her eyes widened, Shit, they get really detailed with this.
Continuing to scroll down and read, Kairi became to hate the idea of it all a little less, This doesn't seem too bad. Maybe Selphie is right; maybe I should do more things.
With that, Kairi scrolled up to where Selphie had left off, filling out details about herself.
She had been so engrossed with the assessment she had started; she failed to notice that Selphie had come out of her bedroom. "Kairi?"
"Oh, my—" the redhead screamed, the laptop almost falling from her lap. Her eyes met with puzzled green ones, "Jesus, Selphie, you scared me."
"I'm sorry, Kairi, I didn't mean to. I was just coming out here to get myself a glass of water and some crackers."
Kairi raised a brow, "You're still having problems with nausea?"
Selphie frowned, "Unfortunately, I don't know what's wrong with me. It has to be something I've eaten."
"I don't think it's that," Kairi said shaking her head, "You've been like this for a week now, and I've been eating pretty much all the same things you have, and I haven't had any problems. Besides, you're a chef, you know the difference between good and bad food."
"I know…"
"Selphie," said Kairi seriously, "You sure you aren't…"
"Pregnant?" Selphie finished becoming suddenly somber and quiet, she looked at the redhead and bit her lip. Staring down at the floor, she continued, "I've been thinking of that, I've just been putting off buying the pregnancy test, that's all. I'm scared to find out the result, to be honest."
Kairi frowned, "Don't be ridiculous. This isn't something you can put off, you need to find out."
"I know," she sighed, "I was planning on getting one tomorrow. But for now, can we please not talk about it?"
"Suit yourself."
"So," Selphie started, mischief tugging at her lips, "what's that you're looking at?"
Kairi blushed out of embarrassment, and slowly tried to close her laptop, "Er, nothing, just checking my email, that's all."
"Liar," Selphie quickly snatched the machine out of her lap and looked at the screen, "Checking your email, my ass, Kairi."
Kairi looked away in further shame, embarrassed to have been caught.
Selphie beamed, "I knew you'd come around," she laughed at the sight of her friend, who was becoming redder and redder by the second, "aw, don't be so embarrassed, there's no shame in trying to find love."
"Okay, okay, I'm going to go through with it. But if you continue to be a complete ass about it, I might just change my mind. So if you know what's good for you, you will hand over the laptop and slink back into your room and eat your damn crackers," threatened Kairi.
Selphie nodded, carefully slipping the laptop into Kairi's outstretched arms, "There you go, have a nice night." She then picked up her crackers and water from the counter and went back into her bedroom.
Kairi sighed, looking back at the screen, "Now where was I?"
Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Sora stared at the screen of his laptop. So, this is the thing that everyone talks about, "Harmonia." He smirked; I guess it's worth a shot. He then clicked on the link that his cursor had been hovering on.
Register with us!
Author's Corner:
How exciting! I'm finally writing again, and I'm able to enjoy it! I guess it's also pretty exciting that this is the first chapter of the new and improved At Last, so you can choose whatever you want to be the most excited for. The original story started nearly eight years ago, in December of '05, when I was in seventh grade. Holy sweet Jesus, how atrocious my writing was, not saying that my writing is great now, just much improved. Haha. Anyway, I really hoped you all enjoyed this! I actually for once checked for mistakes (I never usually do that!), and I will continue to try to do so.
Anyway, if you have read the original, you will notice a lot of changes in just this first chapter, and I hope you like them, I sure as hell do. Please share your thoughts with me; whether they are good or bad, both are accepted!
For every new character introduced in the chapter I will add a character profile for each!
Name: Kairi Hikari
DOB: February 18th
Age: 25
Hometown: Born in Radiant Garden, grew up in Destiny Islands
Occupation: columnist for CLASSIC magazine
Current Residence: Radiant Garden, in an apartment with best friend Selphie Tilmitt
Name: Sora Isamu
DOB: August 22nd
Age: 26
Hometown: Born in Twilight Town, grew up in Destiny Islands
Occupation: architect for Garaku Architecture, Contracting & Co. (also his apprentice)
Current Residence: Radiant Garden, in a condo with dog, Ryo
Name: Selphie Tilmitt
DOB: April 1st
Age: 24
Hometown: Destiny Islands
Occupation: a chef at a local café
Current Residence: Radiant Garden, in an apartment with best friend Kairi Hikari
Name: Wakka Aido
DOB: June 16th
Age: 27
Hometown: Destiny Islands
Occupation: contractor for Garaku Architecture, Contracting & Co.
Current Residence: Radiant Garden, in his apartment
Name: Toji Osaka
DOB: May 19th
Age: 32
Hometown: Radiant Garden
Occupation: contractor forGaraku Architecture & Co.
Current Residence: Radiant Garden, secretly with his mother
Thank you!
Love,
Tabitha