Beginnings [Kingdom Hearts/Russian Trilogy] Title: Beginnings Author: myeerah Rating: worksafe, one instance of language Prompt: Kavi and Sora, first impressions Word Count: ~1,500 Characters: Sora/Kairi/Riku UST, Pyetr/Eveshka, Sasha Warnings: very rough Notes: Set a couple of weeks after "Into the Woods". In other words: (Un)Kindness Into the Woods Beginnings <-- You are here Summary: Happily ever after has to start somewhere; too bad it usually starts with someone being stupid.
“You. Bottomless pit,” Pyetr called from across the yard.
Sora looked up from where he’d been sitting in quiet conversation with Kairi from the rough-hewn wooden porch.
“Yeah?” he yelled back.
“Insolent lad, aren’t you?” Pyetr came closer to them and dropped a couple of woven baskets at their feet.
“He is,” Kairi agreed, earning a mock glare from the insolent lad in question. “What can we do for you?” she asked.
“A fine question, and a fine attitude,” Pyetr complimented her with a charming flash of his smile. “You, young miss, can go assist my wife. She seems to think that you need rescuing from the scandalous company of two young men, completely forgetting that she’s not a shining example to set in regards to that condition.” He laughed, fondly annoyed with Eveshka’s quirks.
Kairi smiled and shook her head. Eveshka had only ever known a handful of people in her entire life, all of them men, but she had strong ideas of propriety nonetheless, and the trio had gotten the idea that it was best to allow Eveshka her whims.
That didn’t mean Sora had to like the way he was never allowed to spend any time alone with Kairi, although he was secretly a little glad that Riku was equally denied the privilege. It was just a shame that Riku was so often in the company of the nervous young wizard that shared the cottage with his friends. Like right now. “Well, what do you want me to do?” he asked.
“You,” Pyetr answered with a pat to the top of Sora’s disheveled head, “can collect your pale friend from Sasha and go gather mushrooms. We’ll have stew tonight, and dry them to trade downriver. Doubling the number of people to feed has been hard on the stores, lad.”
Sora blanched, and tried to stammer an apology. Pyetr waved it off.
“Don’t fret yourself over it,” he said, kindly. “You boys are working off your room and board fairly. Now fetch your friend and get started on that work. Do a good job and I’ll teach you something when you get back.”
The mischievous smirk that crossed the older man’s face struck them both as being a sign of Bad Things to Come. The strong similarity to Riku didn’t help matters.
“Aye, aye, sir,” Sora huffed, somewhere between amused and resigned.
* * *
"I've been talking with Sasha a lot," Riku said without preamble as they grubbed along the forest floor in search of fungi. "The magic of this world is completely different from anything I've ever learned."
"It's kind of funny, isn't it?" Sora asked while crawling along, following the scattered trail of mushrooms winding through the trees. "I mean, I can't cast a spell, but we can summon our Keyblades? That's just weird."
"Yeah," Riku mused, "and you saw how that freaked them out, too. Actually, I'm surprised more people don't freak over that, to be honest."
Sora laughed and crawled a few more yards.
"Anyway," Riku went on, "Sasha thinks that the Keyblades, and maybe us, are something like Babi."
"Not since I got my heart back!" Sora interjected; all explanations aside, he still thought the dvorovoi resembled a Shadow.
Riku glared over his shoulder before returning to his own work. "Anyway," he repeated, "Sasha thinks that we're like Babi: natural, but not of this world."
"Babi's not from this world? I wonder where he comes from."
"Don't be a dip, Sora," Riku called over the increasing distance. "Babi's from this world, just not of this world. It's like...all this," he waved a mushroom around, encompassing the trees and earth and sky in a vague, mycelial gesture, "is of this world, but the leshys they told us about aren't."
"Think we'll ever meet them?" Sora wondered, scuttling ever further along the mushroom path.
"The leshys? Depends on how long we're stuck here."
"I hope we do. I want to apologize for crashing into their forest.”
“I wonder how they’ll take that? Sasha says that they’re shy and don’t much like humans, but they actually help Pyetr and them.”
Sora sat back on his heels and looked over at his friend. Riku was kneeling on the mossy ground, gathering handfuls of tiny mushrooms from the shade of a tree. “You…like Sasha a lot, don’t you?” he asked.
“Huh?” Riku looked over his shoulder, silvery hair falling in his eyes, only to be blown back with an annoyed puff of breath. “Yeah, I guess so. He’s a nice guy. Quiet, but smart.”
“He seems to like you, too.” Sora observed. He brushed some clinging dirt from one hand. “He hardly talks to me, but he hangs out around you a lot.”
“It’s probably ‘cause I look so much like Pyetr. The guy treats him like a little brother, so I guess he’s just more comfortable with me.” Riku didn’t quite sound as if he quite believed himself.
Sora opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Instead, he crawled a bit further in the direction the mushrooms had been leading him. When bright sunlight broke through onto the shadowy ground, he looked up from his intent search in favor of the clearing he’d just discovered.
He blinked.
“Riku,” he called back, “did Sasha happen to mention whether it’s natural to find guys sleeping in the woods?”
* * *
The stone looked perfectly natural. It could have been any sort of moderately flat-topped boulder; there was no indication it had ever been worked by hand. Presumably, the man lying atop the stone was also natural, except that he looked like some sleeping fairy tale princess. Well, maybe not a princess, exactly, but the concept was the same.
He was handsome, with dark hair, finely cut features, and quality clothing. It must have been quality, because it was still on him in spite of the wear it showed; the fabric was water-stained and stiff, as if it had been out in the open for a long time. He was scattered over with bits of twig and stray leaves, but his skin was warm, his color seemed healthy, and his slow breathing was steady.
Sora and Riku stood, identical expressions of puzzlement on their faces, some feet away.
“Think we should try to wake him up?” Sora asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Riku answered, dragging the words out. “Something about this picture doesn’t seem right, you know?”
“Yeah, obviously.” Sora rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t seem right that there’s somebody sleeping on a rock in the middle of the forest that looks like he’s been at it for a few years.”
Riku punched him in the arm. “Not that, dummy. This whole place just feels…off.”
Rubbing his shoulder, Sora griped, “A cursed guy on a rock will do that.”
Glaring at his friend, Riku said, “I think we should go tell Sasha. He might know about this.”
Sora returned the glare and muttered, “What if he’s the one who did it?”
A shadow flitted past as a large bird settled in on a branch at the edge of the clearing. Trees creaked ominously all around them. Riku stared down at Sora, caught somewhere between fury and worry. “What is wrong with you?” he demanded.
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?” Sora snapped. “Ever since we got here it’s been ‘Sasha this’ and ‘Sasha that.’ I don’t understand the magic around here, but I know that he could do anything he wanted to you and you just aren’t seeing it!”
There was a shocked silence as they both stared at each other, Sora’s expression falling as he realized what he’d said, and Riku’s hardening in anger.
“Oh…oh, Riku. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” Sora babbled.
“Save it,” Riku snapped. He spun on his heel and stalked from the clearing.
“Riku, wait!” Sora called after him. “I’m sorry! Riku!” He cast desperately for something else to say. “What about the guy?” he yelled, gesturing to the neglected sleeper still on his stone in the middle of the clearing.
There was no answer.
Sora bit his lip, his hands curling into fists. He felt as bad as he ever had, dredging up Riku’s past mistakes and throwing them in his face like that, and he couldn’t even say why he'd done it. Sora liked Sasha, too, and he didn’t understand what had come over him. He pressed his forehead against a nearby tree, eyes closed tight against the tears he could feel burning behind the lids. “Shit!” he swore, and punched at the bark beside his face.
He looked up abruptly as something caught his hand in what felt like a net of sticks. His shoulder screamed at him in pain as Sora was suddenly lifted into the air by that hand, only to meet a huge, moss-green eye that rolled madly as it looked him over.
“Foolish little man,” roared a voice that seemed to be made from the groaning of wood and the rustle of leaves. “Break your bones, yes. Foolish man who disturbs the sleep of Chernevog.”