Work Text:
He let Sora go.
No questions. No comments. No discussion.
Sora said he had to find Kairi and bring her back, and Riku let him go.
It was just… too much. The never-ending battle, the heartless, the nobodies. Since he was 15 he'd been fighting. He never stopped -- not when he lost Kairi, not when he lost Sora, not when he lost himself. He fought and he fought and he never saw an end in sight. Ansem, Xemnas, Xehanort, himself. The end was never the end. The battle kept on.
But now, the battle was over. There was no one left to fight. They'd won.
But Kairi was gone.
She was gone, and Sora refused to accept it.
And Riku, the soldier, the youngest keyblade Master in centuries, the boy who never stopped fighting, let him go.
Riku, who, when Sora was gone, went on his own to bring him back. Riku, who not only gave up his light to save Sora but manipulated, kidnapped, and even killed others to make sure Sora was safe, let him go.
Riku would've carried on for eons if it meant it would keep Sora safe and alive and well. He would've fought to the death to protect him, and in fact, he had fought to the death for Sora. The alternate timeline came into his head unbidden, memories of himself planting his feet in front of Sora and facing Demon Tide, sheilding Sora with his own body as the darkness tore at his skin and ate him alive.
But where Riku would do anything for Sora, so Sora would for Kairi.
It didn't bother Riku anymore that Sora would never look at him he way he looked at Sora: like the sun shone because he smiled, like the war didn't exist when he laughed. It didn't bother him anymore that Sora viewed Riku as his best friend and only that. It used to, but a year without Sora made him grateful he was in his life at all. He refused to jeopardize his time with Sora like that.
Sora -- he loved Kairi. He loved her in the way Riku loved him. And if Riku would fight to the death to keep Sora safe, Sora would do the same for her.
So Riku didn't fight Sora. He didn't argue with him. He let him go, alone, into the darkness to find Kairi and bring her back home even though everything inside him ached at the idea. Even though he could feel it in his heart that, if Kairi returned, Sora would not.
Riku let Sora go, knowing it spelled Sora's death, but he would fight to bring Sora back when that happened, the same way he had time and time again in the past.