Kingdom Hearts {Reader Insert}

14. Time Off

When you returned to the ship you were overjoyed to hear that in a couple of days you would get to see Sora again. Both your ship and his would be meeting at Olympus Coliseum. The rest of the group wanted to check in with Hercules, Meg, and Phil while also taking a little time to go over the worlds that had been visited with Donald and Goofy. It sounded to you like a relaxing little break.

Now you just had to decide how to spend the two days until then. You woke up the first morning at a good hour and took your time getting ready while listing off everything Sora had missed. He would get to see the Coliseum, but you could tell him about the huge, black three-headed dog you had fought last time you were there, when you had briefly met Hades, and what strange effects elixirs had. You could also try to explain Halloweentown. You were sure Jack and Sora would have gotten along well, and he'd find the giant evil treehouse interesting.

Ready for the day, you stared around your little room. There were some clothes lying around, and your bed was still messed up. You didn't have much. It took you all of five minutes to clean it up. After that you wandered into the hallway looking for something or someone to occupy your time. Finding no one there, you made your way down to get some breakfast. The kitchen was also empty. You made yourself some simple toast and eggs and took a seat at the dining table. You ate quietly by yourself until a silent Cloud came down the ladder from the living quarters and turned in the direction of the engine room. He hadn't even noticed you. He was prepared for work in a pair of heavy gloves with safety goggles resting on the top of his head.

"Hey! Cloud!" you called after him.

He turned to look at you with surprise on his face. He had no clue you were there.

"What are you doing?" you asked him, eyeing his old T-shirt and dirty jeans as well as the goggles and gloves.

"Cid wanted some help with maintenance," he explained, expression returning to neutral.

"Oh, okay."

Cloud turned to walk away.

"Where's everyone else?"

Cloud shrugged and waved vaguely about as he opened the door and left the room.

If I were the other people on this ship, where would I be?

You crossed your arms and thought for a moment before deciding to try the cabins upstairs. There weren't many places for people to be on this ship. You climbed back up. Walking down the hall you noticed that Leon's door was shut and Tifa's room was empty. You walked up to Yuffie's room. Both Yuffie and Tifa were sharpening giant shuriken.

Tifa looked up as you looked into the doorway. "Hi, [Name]," she greeted you with a smile. "What's up?"

"Can I help with anything? Does the kitchen need to be cleaned or something?"

"No," Tifa answered, shooting you a curious look. "We cleaned everything when we cleaned out the kitchen yesterday. If you're looking for something to do you could try helping Cid with engine maintenance. He can always use an extra set of hands. You seemed pretty interested last time he took you down there."

"Thanks." You left Yuffie's room and headed back downstairs.

You stood in front of the doorway, conflicted about how you should enter. Should I knock? It's polite to knock. Will they even hear me if I knock? What if I'm interrupting them and they don't want me down there? What if I just get in their way and Cid has to kick me out?

As you stood there contemplating whether this was a good idea or not the door swung open. A blast of hot air flew passed and a surprised Cloud stood in the doorway. His gloves, shirt, and face were smeared in a substance that you could only guess was oil and grease.