Kingdom Hearts fic: Step Right Up (chapter 1)

Step Right Up on AO3
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: T
Pairing: Sora/Riku/Kairi

Sora has always wanted to believe in mermaids, longing for there to be something more and exciting out in the world. He's been disappointed by supposed mermaids before, the costumed models never living up to the one genuine sighting he believes he had.
When a carnival advertises their "Real Live Merman", Sora goes to see him... and is horrified to discover that the carnival does have a merman, the one Sora saw once before, and worse, he's clearly being held there against his will. Then a mermaid comes ashore, bent on rescuing the one held captive, and Sora realizes that he'll do anything he can to help them both.

A mermaid AU, written for Mermay (barely made it!), as well as whatif_au's "Triple Threat" challenge. (I'll post to the community... later.) It fits the "Ocean AU", "Magic AU", and "Stranded/Lost AU" (if you squint slightly - merman Riku is held captive on land, so a sort of inverse of the usual.) It could also be a Shapeshifter AU, though that's not technically on the list of community themes. ;)

This is also an AU of my own previous AU. (Which I never linked here... I'll have to do that soon, too!) In that fic, merman Riku comes ashore and is found by Sora, who is a very kind person. When Kairi comes to find him, she hints around what could have happened if he'd been found by someone who wasn't so kind... and that idea didn't let go. So this is what could have happened if he was found by someone else.

This is chapter 1 of (probably) 3. Chapters 2 and 3 aren't yet written, but I'm hoping to get them completed in the next couple of weeks.