Frozen Sky-Water
Red Riku XV

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, they are the property of Squaresoft.

~~~~~
  It was a beautiful summer day on the Destiny Islands. The weather was hot, the water was cool, and they were plain out tired of it all! "Man," Sora said exasperatedly, "I am so SICK of all this beautiful weather! Sun all friggin' year, even when it's raining!! This is insane!"

 A silver-haired boy turned to his brown-haired friend with a pointed gaze. "So what do you want to do? FREEZE the Islands? Pfft, right."

 In reply, Sora thrust out his lower lip and gave a wide-eyed frown-his signature scowl. "Hey, don't make fun, Riku! It's just that…geez, it's so boring and hot here…"

 A large-headed brunette girl turned to her two companions, excitedly jabbering, "He you guys! I hear that in SOME worlds, it gets so cold that it… uh… um… well, I don't know if there's a real term for it, but it gets so cold that water in the sky freezes and falls down!"

 Sora and Riku looked at each other, not sure whether to laugh or cry at such stupidity. "Do you mean snow?" asked Riku.

 Kairi tittered. "Hahahaha! What a funny word! There's no such thing silly! It's frozen sky-water, of course!"

 "Hey!" Sora exclaimed. "Snow actually sounds pretty good right about now! Hey Kairi, do you remember which worlds had snow?"

 "Do you mean frozen sky-water?" Kairi replied as she stuck her tongue out at Sora.

 "Whatever," Sora muttered, rolling his eyes. "Do you remember which world had it?"

  "Hmmm, I don't remember the name of it, but I'm SURE I could find it if we got into the Gummi Ship! C' mon, let's go! I'll race you!" Kairi said as she stumbled on her humongous feet at the first step.

 As they board the Gummi Ship the two boys mutter amongst themselves about such a big head and such a small brain.

~*~

 A couple hours later, after flying to many various worlds, the three friends have yet to come upon their wintery wonderland. "Kairi!" Riku proclaimed, "This is the eighth world we've been to! I thought you said you could find it no problem! Hurry up and get us there, my butt is falling asleep!"

 "Oh, LOVELY visual, Riku," Sora muttered. He too was getting rather restless. For the entire time they'd been flying, all he did was practice his victory poses, which he knew he would probably seldom use now that his only opponent was Riku.

 Riku smirked and rolled his eyes. "Oh, you know you like it Sora."

 "Whatever."

 "Hey!" Kairi shouted. "I think I found it!"

 "Isn't that what you said last time?" Sora asked.

 "Yea, and every other time too. This better be it, Kairi," Riku said threateningly.

 "It is! It is! Look, there's white stuff on the ground and it's cold out!" Kairi exclaimed. As they exited the Gummi Ship, Sora Riku and Kairi all took long deep breaths of fresh mountain air as they stretched their cramped limbs.

 "Brrr," Riku shivered. "Man, this feels great, but let's go get changed."

 "Yeah," Sora agreed as the two boys jogged excitedly back to the ship to don their snow clothes.

 "Change?" Kairi asked, a quizzical look on her face.

 "Um, yeah," Sora said, "you're not seriously gonna go out in this cold wearing THAT are you?" he asked, pointing to her spaghetti-strap shirt and pink mini-skirt. "You'll get frostbite!"

 "What's frostbite?"

 "…Nothing, nevermind…"

 After Sora and Riku finished putting on their warm winter clothes, they began a debate on what to do first. "I say that we should build a snow-fort first!" Sora exclaimed.

 "Snow forts are for babies," Riku protested. "I wanna hit the slopes! There, see, there's a ski and snowboard rental place right over there! Let's go!"

 "No no no! We HAVE to go ice skating first! There's a nice frozen pond just over there!" Kairi squealed. "I even brought ice skates!"

 Sora and Riku looked at eachother questioningly, then at Kairi. "Ok," Riku stated, "you went to all the trouble of bringing ice skates that fit us all, but you 'forgot' to bring a freaking COAT?"

 Kairi blinked, somewhat innocently. "Yeah."

Sora slapped his forehead as Riku muttered under his breath something about huge feet taking the blood supply away from the brain.

~*~

 A few minutes later, Kairi was whizzing happily across the ice as Sora and Riku struggled to gain their balance. "Kairi!!" Sora shouted. "Help us!! This stuff is IMPOSSIBLE to stand on!"

 Kairi tittered as she spun in rapid circles and performed a perfect double-axle. The boys simply stared after her dumbfoundedly. "It's all in the ankles, boys!" She skated over to them and did a twirl, laughing gleefully before rushing away to show off more of her skating skills.

 The two boys stood on wobbling knees. They were almost there, almost standing, when they promptly fell flat on their bottoms. Kairi laughed playfully in their direction as Sora turned to Riku, saying "It's 'cause her feet are so damn big is all…"

 "Yeah," Riku agreed. "Man, this blows, c'mon Sora, let's go have some REAL fun!" They grinned at each other maniacally, and after several seconds burst out in unison, "SNOWBOARDS!!"

 "Hey, what are you boys planning to do without me!" Kairi pouted as she finished a perfect inverted spiral. "Don't you dare go anywhere without me!!"

 "Uh, don't worry, we're…uh…goin' to the bathroom! Yea, that's it!" Sora lied. He and Riku planned to ditch the ditz as soon as possible, which was precisely what they were about to do.

 "Oh, okay," Kairi said, gliding off to do more twirls and spins.

 "How long do you think it'll be before she catches on?" asked Riku.

"Long enough to get a few runs in, anyway," Sora replied. "But you know her, she probably won't realize we ditched her 'till we're back on the Destiny Islands…without her."

~*~

 After trudging up the hill to the ski rental shack, Sora and Riku were disappointed to find that there were in fact no snowboards left.

 "What?!" Sora demanded. "How can you guys not have ANY snowboards??"

 "Sorry kid," the fat ski rental clerk said in between bites of his large bratwurst sandwich. "We gots none for ya's."

 Sora scowled at the man. "I'm NOT a kid!! I'm fifteen years old!"

 "Stupid kids…" the fat man growled.

 "Stupid jerk mother-lovin grumble grumble grumble" Sora muttered under his breath as he stalked away from the check-out counter.

 "Hey, hey, wait a minute I've got a plan," Riku said as he lay a hand on his friend's shoulder. "C'mon," he beckoned as he lead Sora back over to the counter. "Excuse me," he said to the clerk, but to no reply. "Excuse me!" he tried again, louder but with the same result. Fed up, he shouted, "HEY FAT MAN!" Success! "I'm afraid you don't realize who you're DEALING with here!"

 "Yeah I do, a couple a snot nosed kids who ain't got no reason ta be here! Scram!"

 "HA! I'm afraid you are painfully mistaken, my large-bodied lump of lard!"

"Hehe, good one Riku."

 "Thanks. ANYway, my friend here is the master of the Keyblade! And I'm the second in line for it! So unless you want a large shaft of magic metal up your trash depository hole, I suggest you get us the best damn snowboards you can conjure up!"

 Wide-eyed and shaking, the sales clerk stammered, "Y-y-you g-guys are the…the KEYBLADE MASTERS? Ye-yes sir, right away sir! Please don't shove anything up my trash depository hole, sir!" He waddled away as fast as he could into the back room to find some suitable snowboards.

 "Chop-chop, man!" Riku called to his gelatinous back.

 "Whoa, awesome!" Sora exclaimed.

"Here you go sirs! I hope my services are…are…acceptable!" the fat sales clerk stuttered, handing the two boys exemplary snowboards and boots.

 Riku sneered at him. "Ah, it'll do… I guess. C'mon, Sora, let's hit the slopes!" "Yeah!" Sora exclaimed, pulling on his boots.

~*~

 Back at the frozen pond, Kairi was happily twirling (still) when she heard whoops and shouts coming from the snow hill. She looked over and to her surprise, there was Sora and Riku, racing each other down the hill. "Hey!" she cried. "Those meanie heads forgot to come get me after they went to the bathroom!" She threw off her skates and rushed over towards the ski rental area.

 "Hey, gimme some skis!" she shouted at the sales clerk. She waved a large munny ball under his nose, hoping that it would suffice for her rental fees.

 "The last pair just went out, but I'll see what I can scrounge up," the fat clerk said. He disappeared into the back and emerged with a mismatched pair of skis, one of them only three feet long and the other at least twice that amount. "Here," he said, handing them to her.

 Kairi inspected the skis doubtfully. "Is this how they're supposed to be?" she asked, unsure of the odd lengths.

 "Yeah," answered the clerk. "It's…advanced technology. Or something like that."

 Kairi gave him a blank stare, but burst into a bright smile and said all too cheerily, "Ok, thanks! Bye now!" and rushed off to the chair lift.

 "Hey wait! You for got your boots!" the clerk called after her, but it was too late. She had already fastened the skis onto her feet using dental floss and old chewing gum.

 Over on the boarders' side of the hill, Sora and Riku were still busy racing each other down, up, and back down the hill. After tiring of this, Sora plopped down on the snow before the ski lift. "Man, this is gonna get boring if we keep it up. Let's do something else."

 Riku glided by and stopped near his friend. "Umm, well what else is there to do?" he asked.

 Scrunching his face in thought, Sora replied, "Well, we haven't worked on our jumps really. And I hear they have a keen half-pipe, so let's go there!"

 Riku's face instantly brightened. "Hey, yeah! Awesome! I'll race ya there!" he called to his back. He had already started on his way.

 "Hey, wait! Stop right there, you mean ol'…" Sora's insults fell into the wind as Riku was already too far away to hear them. Grumbling, Sora stomped his boot into its binding and raced after his friend.

~*~

 Over at the half-pipe, Sora and Riku stole the show from all the other boys and girls practicing their jumps and tricks. "WWOOOOO-HHOOOOO!" they shouted as they got yards of air over the pipe. "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!" All the onlookers waved and cheered them on as they performed flawless five-forties and magnificent back flips.

 "Hey Riku!" Sora called. "Watch how much air I can get on this jump!"

 "Heh, show me what you've got!" Riku called back competitively.

 Sora flew down the ramp and onto the half-pipe, going up and down, back and forth, building momentum for his jump. Finally, near the end of the pipe, he was ready to get some big air. He rushed up the side of the pipe and thrust his board into the air. It was higher than he'd ever gotten, he felt like he was flying. He arched his back and grabbed the back of his board, waving his free hand in the air. It seemed like he was suspended there for eternity, but finally he came back down, landing perfectly. The crowd cheered uproarously, chanting "Sora! Sora! Sora!"

 Sora sauntered over to Riku, cheeks red and a huge grin spread across his face. "How's THAT for ya??" he said playfully.

 Riku smirked. "Eh, not bad, but I'll show you what REAL air is!" He took off from the starting mark and mimicked Sora's actions. Up the wall, down the wall, and up the opposite side, over and over again until he had enough inertia for his big jump. Finally, at the end of the pipe, he crouched down, knees a perfect right angle, face to the wind and his hair whipping back. Up the ramp and into the air he soared. The crowd gazed up at him. So high! He added a tail grab to the jump for a picture-perfect pose. When he came back down, he found that he'd just cleared Sora's jump by four feet. "Now THAT is REAL air!"

 Sora grinned competitively. "Pssh, you just couldn't stand to be shown up, could ya? Well, I can't either! Watch THIS move!" he said as he started once again on the pipe. Pushing all his effort into getting the biggest air, he quite nearly lost control a number of times. At the end of the pipe he was just ready to make his big jump, and as he raced up the wall to build that last bit of momentum, who other than the stupendously stupid Kairi stumbled onto the floor. As Sora came down from his second-to-last jump, he looked down and saw her huge head hovering in the pipe. "KAIRI, GET OUT OF THE WAAAAAYYYY!" he shouted. But alas, as the girl was looking up, he landed directly on top of her.

 Kairi lay shocked in the snow. Sora blushed and offered a quick apology before rushing off. Riku started after Sora, but stopped and turned to the girl, saying, "Well, um, we'll meet you at the top, Kairi!" and proceeded to the lift.

 Sitting up and dusting herself off, Kairi whined to herself, "Ohh, I really wish that I'd brought that jacket now. Well, I guess I better be off!" Struggling to balance in her lopsided skis, she dashed towards the ski lift. "WAIT! You have to help me!!" she called to the boys.

 Sora and Riku simply turned back to her and shouted, "It's all in the ankles!"

~*~

 "Ok, one, two, three!" Riku counted as the chair on the lift clapped the backs of their knees. "Alright, so we're going to the top to try the expert courses, right Sora?" he asked of his friend.

 "Yeah…" Sora replied.

 "What's the matter?" Riku asked, concerned. Usually Sora would be overly excited about something like that.

 "Well, it's just that…I feel kinda bad. Y'know, about hitting Kairi like that."

Riku rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it, she deserved what she got anyway. And then some!"

 "Haha, yeah you're right. I mean, how many times has SHE ditched US to go flirting around with the other island boys? And besides, she was TOTALLY rubbing it in when we were ice skating, y'know?" His good spirits returned, Sora laughed jovially. "Heh, you wonder why we're so good at snowboarding? I mean, it's our first time but we're already sssooo much better than all those losers down at the half pipe."

 Riku shrugged and said laconically, "It's just like skate boarding and surfing. And gods know we did a lot of THAT back on the Islands. Piece of pie."

 Sora grinned. "Yeah, totally. I mean, did you get a load of all those amateurs back there on the slopes and the pipe? Tryin' to copy our moves…pathetic."

 "Pfft, rookies."

 They approached the unloading zone for the expert course and hopped off. After doing so, they noticed the operator was having some difficulties swallowing his cheese burger. He spent a considerable amount of time hacking and wheezing, and in the process of doing so punched the "stop lift" button. Not noticing what he'd done, he rushed off to clear his esophagus.

 "Man, I'm sure glad we got off before THAT ordeal," Sora said.

 "Yeah. Come on, let's go hit the course!" Riku said uncaringly.

~*~

 Hanging in the air on the lift chair, Kairi merrily hummed a tune to herself as she waited to get to the unloading zone. When she saw Sora and Riku a couple chairs in front of her hop off, she prepared herself to go as well. However, before she was able to get to the top, her chair suddenly stopped moving. "What's going on?" she wondered. She looked down toward the control hut to see an employee running out of it holding his throat. "Oh, well, I'm sure he'll come back soon," she said to herself. "I guess I should just wait here. It won't be so bad…"
~*~

 A sudden chill breeze swept across the snowfield. "Wow, the weather looks like it's going to get pretty bad," Riku noted, observing black storm clouds heading in from the east. "We should probably get back to the lodge." He and Sora sped the rest of the way down the hill and back to the large log cabin that served as the food and rest area for tired skiers.

 They were warming themselves by the fire when two pretty girls came over to them holding steaming mugs of hot chocolate. "Hey," one of the girls said. She was about sixteen years old with long wheat colored hair and blue eyes. "You guys want some hot cocoa?"

 The other girl was short with black hair and brown slanted eyes, about one year younger than her friend. "You were lucky you got in before this storm hit," she said, handing Sora a mug of hot chocolate. It had little white marshmallows in it, just the way he liked it. The two boys eyed each other, then the girls in turn. "We saw you up on the half pipe. Man, that was so KEEN!" the girl went on to say.

 "Yea, that was so awesome," the blue-eyed girl said. "You guys are so good! What are your names?"

 Grinning like a fiend, Sora cleared his throat. "Ah, well, MY name is So-…"

 "My name is Riku, and this is Sora. Pleased to meet you," Riku said, shaking the girls' hands. "Do you come here often?"

 The blue-eyed girl blushed and answered, "Yes, lately." She smiled at them, and the other girl shot shy glances at Sora.

 "Hey, um, you guys hungry?" the brown-eyed girl asked. "'Cause if you are, there's a really good hotdog place downstairs!"

 Sora, his stomach growling at him, jumped up. "Sure, let's go!" Riku gave no protest as he stood gracefully and the four strolled over to the lunch café.

~*~

 Kairi swung her feet in a vain attempt to warm herself. To the east storm clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up. Teeth chattering, she looked down at her hands neatly folded in her lap and noticed that her fingernails were a dark shade of blue. "I don't remember painting my fingernails this morning," she said to herself. She shifted her hands and a snowflake landed in her upturned palm. "Hey, frozen sky-water!" she exclaimed. As if on cue, a sudden flurry of snow encased her body, leaving her looking not unlike a snowman.

 Nose running like a faucet and clothes sodden and clinging to her skin, she struggled to brush all the snow off. Her hands were so numb, however, that any effort at using them caused them to flop about like raw sardines. She looked down at her huge numb feet, noticing that her heels were becoming black. "Wow, I'm so dirty, I need to take a bath!" she cried. Shivering profusely, Kairi gingerly reached up to scratch an itch on her nose. However, she wound up hitting herself in the face, causing her nose to tingle. She let out and enormous sneeze that echoed off the hills. The force of the explosion sent her careening out of the chair, plummeting downwards to the hard-packed snow. She landed with a THRAK on the frozen ground. As she attempted to stand up she found that one of her two broken legs somehow had gotten over her head, and she quickly passed out.

~*~

 Kairi awoke to find herself in a small log cabin, sparsely furnished save for a bed and various mountain rodent skins. A gangly old man with beady black eyes was leaning over her, breathing heavily and staring at her neck. A sudden fear came over the girl and she stared back in horror into the hellish eyes.
~*~

 "So, what do you guys do? You know, for fun and stuff?" the brown-eyed girl asked the two boys.

 Sora replied, "Well, uh…um…what was your name?"

 "Call me Desiree."

 "Well, Desiree, my hobbies include skateboarding, surfing, and saving various worlds from darkness," Sora replied, trying to sound as grown-up as possible.

 "Cool, skateboarding is so AWESOME! Oh, and the whole saving the world from darkness thing is pretty badass too!" Desiree replied.

 "And what do you do, Riku?" asked the other girl.

 "I also partake in the pleasures of skateboarding, surfing, and the occasional act of heroism, Miss…what's your name?"

 "My name is Shana," the girl said.

 Feeling that the attention was slipping away from him, Sora said to Desiree, "Hey, you know I'm the Keyblade master!"

 "The what?" Desiree asked.

 "The Keyblade master! I wield the Keyblade!" Sora said proudly.

 "Cool. Is that some sort of chizz sword or something?" Desiree asked.

 "Eeeexactly!" Sora said. "Y'know, I saved all the worlds from impeding darkness! AND I defeated the guy who released it on everybody! Pretty cool, huh?"

 Riku, feeling somewhat threatened, butted in. "Yea, Sora sure has come a long way since I first took him under my wing. You know, I taught him everything he knows."

 "Oh realy?" Shana asked.

 "Oh yeah, he's a cute kid, but sometimes…"

 "I AM NOT A KID!!"

 "Sometimes he makes careless mistakes, and that's where I come in. I help him whenever he's in a bind."

 "What?! That is SO not true, I'M the one that got you out of the whole mess with Ansem in the FIRST place! I'm the one that…"

 "He really needs to learn to control himself better, though. And sometimes he is so predictable when we're fighting, I win every time…"

 "THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

 "But he tries, he really does…"

 "I HAVE THE KEYBLADE, YOU KNOW, THE LEGENDARY KEYBLADE!"

 Riku shot him a look. "Yeah, I have a Keyblade too!"

 Sora glared back at him. "Yeah, but yours is all Darkness and stuff like that, it's all stupid. And besides, didn't it disappear after you got locked in Kingdom Hearts?"

 "Yeah, true, but I still have my bat wing sword."

 "What's the deal with that thing anyway?"

 "Hey, don't insult my sword!"

 "Don't insult my fighting!"

 "Fine, I'll insult your hair, Mr. Bedhead!"

 "At least MY hair isn't a girl's haircut!"

 "WHAT?!"

 "Um, you guys?" Shana said.

 The two boys simultaneously turned to look at her. Caught up in the heat of the argument, they hadn't noticed that the storm had ceased. Suddenly, Sora felt a wad of snow pelt him on the side of the head. He looked out the window to find Desiree laughing and sculpting another snowball in her gloved hands. Grinning, Sora called over to her, "Oh, so THAT'S how you wanna play, huh?" He dashed outside with Riku and Shana on his tail. When he got out into the snow, he grabbed a large handful of the white powdery stuff and lobbed it at Desiree. A playful battle of frozen sky-water ensued.

~*~

 Through the midst of whirling snow, a shivering purple body dragged itself towards the lodge. Propelling herself forward with her nearly-useless arms, Kairi looked much like a diseased starving sea lion. Up ahead, she saw four figures playing joyfully in the snow. Two she recognized as Sora and Riku. Jealousy overwhelmed her. She had waited for the perfect moment to roll of her bed in the old man's cabin and knock him down with her gargantuan feet and dragged herself all the way here to see her two 'boyfriends' flirting around with some...some...some snow bunnies!! Enraged, she called out to them. "Hey, haven't you forgotten a very special Someone!?"

 Sora and Riku froze, arms lifted and about to throw cold spheres of snow at their new friends. They stared wide-eyed at the girl as they were pelted with snowballs. Then they both looked down at their watchless wrists.

 "My, my, would you look at that! Why it seems it's time to go…" Riku said evasively.

 "Well, shucks. Sorry, ladies, we had a lot of fun but…yeah, we'll be going NOW!" Sora added. He and Riku dashed away towards their Gummi Ship, ignoring the protests of their large-headed shipmate.

 Kairi gave one final cry as she once more attempted to pull her mangled body towards Sora and Riku. "WAAAIIIT! YOU FORGOT ABOUT ME, YOU STUPID MEAN MEANIE POOP HEADS!" Suddenly she could hear behind her the rasping of heavy breathing. She looked back and to her horror the gangly old man was back. He grabbed onto her ankle and attempted to drag her back to his cabin. "NNOOOOO! SORA!! RIKU!!! TAKE ME WITH YOOOOOOUUUUU!!!"

 Through the Gummi Ship windows the two boys called out, "Oh, well since you're having so much fun here, we'll let you stay a little bit longer!"

End?!?!

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