Kingdom Hearts III

By -Zeida-and-Maria-

Ch. 1 First Dream

It was dark, very dark. The room was almost empty, save for a thin girl, with a hoodie, sitting on what looked like air. But, as well informed as I am, for I am the one telling the story, it would be quite obvious that it was an invisible chair, stool to be exact. As for the project that sat, expanding all the time, this girl was working diligently on something that you may recognize, although most likely not, because this particular project, done so many times before, by so many different people, two to be precise, although it didn't make much sense, because what she was working on was a report.

It was known to its select number of readers, as the 'Ansem Reports' Although done by different people, the subject of the Ansem reports never changed. They were always about the same

thing. The one thing that, in this thin, red haired girl's opinion was the only thing worth researching. The heart. What would happen to the heart if it were separated from the body, and, interestingly enough, what would happen to the soul?

A noise could be heard, faintly, of someone walking into the room. The girl, who, incidentally, looks exactly like a boy with flaming spiky red hair, turned to reveal the fact that one eye, the right one, was covered by one extremely long lock of red hair that exceeded the rest, and stopped at the neck. The other eye, which was uncovered, showed her to have empty green eyes. If you could judge, you would say she was half asleep, and if you were well informed, you would know, that this was exactly the case.

Well, anyway, she turned, looking a man standing behind her in the darkness. Her sleepy look changed slightly, as she looked up at the figure and glared. "Who are you?" She asked, in a harsh voice, barely above a whisper.

"My name," Said the tall, white haired man, "Is Xemnas. And I think I can help you."

If you had looked at the small, normal work desk in that small black room, filled only with darkness, and the soft, gentle glow of green eyes, you would have seen a sheet of paper, written out in neat hand writing were the words 'Ansem report' at the top. And if you continued to read, you would see an explanation, not of the heart, where it came from, and what would happen if it were gone, but of why this girl were writing this report, as if she were writing in a diary for the first time, introducing herself, except a name was never mentioned, and it wouldn't be for a long, long time...

'I am not Ansem, my name is not Ansem, and I do not pretend it is, nor I do no see the logic in confiding this of a piece of paper, my true name. No matter how important it may be to those who read it. I have restarted the writing of the Ansem reports, because I have also been studying the ways of the heart, for I must if I do not wish to fall into the darkness further. I am writing now, to share my view of the fact of the soul. The soul is connected to the heart, by a thin string. But when a 'person' is split, the body takes the soul. And it breaks the thin thread, so to keep its self from fading away completely. This 'person' as I have decided to call those that are whole, is split into three parts, body, heart, and soul. If the body and heart are disconnected from the soul, the body and heart will die, and the soul will find a new vessel. But, in the case of a Nobody...'

-

The air was cooling down as the evening swept in, although it was still impeccably hot. The sun was setting over the deep blue ocean. Its light tinged the white clouds pink and purple, and the waters reflected their colors and gently warped them. The waves slowly lapped up on the sandy beach, turning white and foamy for a second before dragging itself back out to azure sea, only to break on the sand bank again. Three figures lay on the beach, the waves barely touching their feet, holding each others hands.

They stared up at the darkening sky, as endless as the water that surrounded the islands they lived on together. They couldn't make out any shapes in its distance of either. But they knew, come sundown, when the sky was black, the stars would appear. The worlds, proof that they weren't the only ones there, that there was a place they could, well, run away to. Being on an island was so restrictive.

The figures on the beach could hardly be called kids any more; they had all grown a lot, since the darkness had first consumed their world. There was one girl, on the right of a boy she was just shorter than, and a much taller boy to the left. The boy on the left sat up, looking from the sky to the endless ocean trapping them. He shook the sand from his lengthy silver hair, his pale hand still gripping the darker hand of the boy next to him. His aqua blue eyes observed his surroundings briefly before focusing on his best friends.

"Sora," Riku's voice had deepened considerably since his younger days. It was the kind of voice that made you feel safe just listening to, or the kind that could make you shiver uncontrollably, if it was mad. "When do we leave?" he continued.

The boy lying next to Riku was a year younger and quite a few inches shorter. His skin was darker, too, tanned by the sun. They had always made jokes at Riku's skin, saying he must be a vampire, because he was in the sun as much as his friends yet continued to stay pale. Sora's eyes were as blue as the sky they were focused on, though they turned to focus on the silver haired boy for a couple seconds. He sat up like his friend, and also did not break the handholds he had. His hair was a dark cinnamon brown, with hints of darker and lighter shades mixed in. He didn't bother to rid himself of the sand.

"Not tonight..." he moaned, blinking sleepily. His voice had deepened as well, although it would never be as deep as Riku's. Sora looked at his friends with half lidded eyes before flopping heavily on the only girl in their group.

The girl squeaked and her violet eyes widened as she struggled beneath her friend. Her red hair flew every everywhere as she shook her head, and the rest of herself, in a futile attempt to rid her stomach of the tired brunette.

Riku laughed and scooted closer to the two. He grinned evilly at his friend when Kairi squeaked out pleas for help. The silver haired young man pushed Sora down, just a little and promptly laid his own head down next to his and, to Kairi's dismay, on her stomach.

The red-head sighed in defeat and just relaxed under the comforting weight of her long time friends. "Well, Sora?" she asked, "When are we leaving?"

The boy muttered something into her stomach, making her snort with laughter, but didn’t answer the question.

"What was that?" Riku asked, also tickling his friend with the rumbling of his voice. This was giving him an idea. Sora just mumbled something again, sending Kairi into full out peals of laughter. This, of course, caused her body to shake, ultimately disrupting Sora's sleep.

He rose to glare at her, and noticed that he was not alone on her stomach. In his sleepy haze he had not felt Riku lie on Kairi as well. The silver haired boy was still there, looking annoyed, but patiently confident that their red-head friend would stop laughing soon enough for him not to get up.

"When'd you get there?" Sora muttered, still glaring at his 'pillow'.

She giggled.

Riku lifted his head slightly so as not to set off Kairi again, and spoke in a mock seriousness to the key bearer, "Why, I was there the whole time! Didn't you notice lying beside me?"

"Riku, dearest nutcase, I know I was there first."

"Yep, I was there first and Pain and Panic stole your clothes while you slept." Riku propped his head up on his arm and observed the worried glance that Sora sent him amusedly. He was having to much fun teasing and didn't even notice as Kairi snuck out from under him and was also looking at him with something akin to worry.

"Riku, did you get into your dad's liquor stash again?" Sora asked. He Still did a once over on himself, you never know with those two.

Oh. That's what he's worried about! "One time, Sora! One time!" The silver-haired boy exclaimed. (1) He glared at the brunette and flopped back on Kairi's belly. And found out the hard way that she had, in fact moved. Riku sat up rubbing the side of his head and glared at these... these creatures he called friends as they rolled on the sand laughing.

"That wasn't funny..." he muttered, his pale features tinged with pink.

"Oh, yeah it was!" Kairi got out between giggles. He glared at her.

"Oh, shut it she-devil." Something closely resembling a pout appeared on his face, only making Kairi laugh harder.

Riku sighed, and resigned to ignore her. "Sora. This is the last time I ask, before I use torture method 3 on you. When. Do. We. Leave?" (2)

Sora cringed at the thought. "All right, all right! I think they're coming in two days!" The shorter male was slowly sneaking away from Riku.

The young man, just smiled, however, and stood. "Let's get packed then!" He offered his hands out to his friends to help them up. They gratefully accepted and pulled themselves into standing positions. Riku gave both of their hands a sharp tug, sending them both flying into him and wrapped his arms around their shoulders and they did the same. The three made their way over to boat they had taken to visit the play island and headed back to the main land.

-

Kairi's (General) POV

Kairi grinned almost stupidly, as she pack yet another pink cloth into her small duffel bag. She had been working very hard to only pack things that would be appropriate for a journey, but it was hard, when you've never really gone on a big trip before in your life. Sure, she had been kidnapped, held hostage, and even had her heart stolen -literally- but she had never really traveled. Not really. Not in the way that her two best friends had, traveling from world to world. Of course, there was that fact that one had been causing destruction, and the other locking keyholes, and fixing the problem caused by the first, but they had still traveled.

Kairi tripped over a pink stool as she stalked around her room impatiently. She kicked it over to the matching pink tinted wooden vanity in the corner of the room. It wasn't really her room, per se; it was more Selphie's old room, which was covered from floor to ceiling in what could only be the most obsessive love of pink that she had ever seen. Selphie had always worn yellow, therefore, when she had moved in with the girl and her family, that Selphie’s room would be yellow as well. The last thing she expected was to find a room covered in pink. But that was not the problem. The problem was that she needed more pairs of pants. She couldn't wear mini skirts through the worlds, it would be odd, and it was always so awkward to bend over, so she had decided to only bring one dress, one skirt, and the rest would be girly shorts and embroidered pants. The only problem was she didn't have all that many different pairs of pants. And none were really the best things to be fighting in.

Kairi had always had a thing for fashion, always trying her best to get a head to turn towards her. Everyone thought it would be for one of her best friends, but that didn't really seem to work all that well. She thought of them as brothers. Brothers. There would just be something wrong with dating them.

She seriously felt like there mother sometimes. This was only emphasized by the fact that she wanted to go check on their packing. And of course make sure they had gone to the toilet before they left... and packed enough underwear... Underwear! She knew she had forgotten something!

Kairi quickly rushed to the chest of drawers and yanked out one of said chests with surprising strength for her petite form. The red-head promptly emptied the panties into their bags.

Kairi shook her head, a small half smile playing on her lips. She would have to think of her strange tendencies later, right now, she had to find at least one pair of sweat pants. She needed some, didn't she? Of course she did. If not, how could she learn to fight with her keyblade, 'Companion'(3) which had been given to her by Riku, that dark, cold night on the World that Never Was? It was rather beautiful, although she couldn't really fathom why Riku had such a girly keyblade, but it wasn't really her place. Not really. Although it was good for blackmail.

She knelt down, in front of a small pile of pink and purple clothes in a large laundry hamper. She smiled fondly again, looking around the small room, before giving out a half hearted sigh, and ruffling through the mounds of cloth and zippers.

She carefully pulled out a pair of neon pink sweat pants that still had a price tag on the waistband. She raised her eyebrows, surprised at her own messiness. She was usually to neatest person on the islands, but lately, since Sora had gotten back, really, she had gotten sloppy, just throwing stuff around carelessly, and spending little time cleaning the pink room. That boy needed too much looking after, they both did. She could have sworn that if she left them alone for a week, they would be skeletons, or maybe one would have eaten the other? Then poisoned himself with his own cooking... It was a miracle that they survived without her when they had. Of course they had had friends to look after them. That must have been it.

As she looked around again, she realized that, because of her previous excursions, it was even messier. Bright, girly colors were strewn on the floor in clumps, joined occasionally by the rare sight of black, or brown. The floor was barely visible, the pink stool she had kicked over not too long ago, lay on it's side, across the floor. The vanity in the corner had all it's drawers opened wide, and one missing lying on the ground somewhere, more pieces of clothing, jewelry, and other such things hanging over the walls, as if trying to climb out of the wooden frame.

Kairi stuffed the pants into her bright bag, before slowly making her way across the room to pull the stool back onto it's feet. After doing so, she started to pick the pieces of clothing up, one by one, slinging them over her arm neatly, until the floor was clear, and she could walk normally, without weaving uncertainly through the piles of possibly dangerous clothes. You never know with those things, especially the black ones. And there was that one time an orange piece had tried to strangle her and Riku... (4)

She half closed her eyes, yawning slightly as she looked around for the alarm clock, which was usually situated on top of her vanity, but had been knocked to the floor in her struggle to find suitable clothes to go traveling in. But now that she had finally packed the last of her clothing, she could concentrate on emptying the contents of her vanity into the nooks and crannies of her bag. She grabbed a small hand full of lipsticks, eyeliners, and blushes from her top drawer, and shoving it forcefully into her bag. Kairi had a wonderful vision of what she could do to Sora and Riku with those, but she would concentrate on that later. They would have to be sleeping... Later! Next, she grabbed the skin cream, and face moisturizers that had settled themselves on the floor below the pink piece of furniture. The red-head knew that Riku would oh-so-subtly commandeer her bag when he learned of the skin care products. For a tall, muscular, handsome specimen of the male species, he sure was girly sometimes.

She grinned as she imagined the looks on her two friends’ faces, if they saw inside the contents of her bag. Riku would probably be a bit understanding, as stated above, seeing as she already knew he would be packing at least two hair care products, but he would probably think the make up a bit much. Out loud, anyway. But she was a woman, and she would wear make up if she wanted to. Besides it looked rather good on her. As long as she didn't put on too much, she would be fine, and no one would ever know. Sora would stare at her like she was crazy, wondering why the hell she was putting 'vanishing cream' in if she didn't actually vanish.

She let out a soft, melodic laugh, smiling gently as she zipped her bag up, and abandoned it on her bed. She would come back for it later, after she completed her raid of her two friends bags. Being the only girl in a group of boys was tiring, as were her motherly tendencies, but they had their quirks. Like, if she said she just wanted to make sure they weren't bringing anything stupid, they would let her search their bags, giving her a fair idea of what they were bringing, even if they were not entirely done packing. Plus there was always blackmail material to be found.

-

When Kairi reached Riku's house, his mother answered the door. She looked slightly stressed, her wispy graying brown hair falling loosely from her messy bun. She had dark shadows under her eyes, and her bottom lip had two large indents, signs that she had been biting it more often that not.

Kairi looked over to her, concerned, biting her own bottom lip as she asked sincerely, "Are you all right, Motoko?"

"Oh, Kairi. Of course I'm alright dear, I just feel so worried- I mean, Riku's going to be going off on his own again, and he just got back, and we never talk, and I'm just so worried..." She bit her lip again; it looked as if she bit any harder she would draw blood. Kairi cocked her head in worry. She knew personally how much of a hand full the silver haired young man could be.

"Well, He won't be alone; he'll be with me, and Sora. I'm sure he will be fine." Kairi shivered slightly, as the cool wind blew lazily over her. She had dressed lightly, because it never got too cool on the islands, but it could get a little brisk.

Motoko quickly hurried her inside, closing the door behind her as she told me that Riku was up in his room.

She nodded thankfully, and padded quietly up the stairs, and listened at the doorway, only to hear a consistent snoring coming from inside. She suddenly felt like she was walking into the lion's den.

She frowned, taking a deep breath, before pushing the door open gently, and looked around slowly into the darkness that reached her eyes. She frowned. Riku hadn't slept with the light out since before the island had been shrouded in darkness. What had happened? All he should have done was pack, which was odiously done. Why the sudden change of heart? He could not honestly say he wasn't afraid of the dark after what had happened and Kairi knew it. So did Sora, but he wasn't here right now. She was. So she crept silently into the room, before flicking on the light, and lunging for the silver haired teen. Forget the motherly relationship, Riku, alone and asleep, was to good a chance to miss.

-

Sora ran around his room, desperately searching for his keyblade. How could he have lost it! He always had it with him! It wasn't possible to lose it, was it? He hoped not. That blade was the only thing that would be able to defeat Maleficent! Well, that wasn't completely true, Riku and Kairi also had Keyblades, but he was the most experienced, and he was the keyblade bearer. He was special.

Sora looked franticly around the messy room, pulling clothes out of drawers to look underneath, He dragged things out of the closet in handfuls, and still nothing. Sora furrowed his brow. Where could he have put it? Then he spotted it. A long pole visible beneath his bed. The brunette lunged, and dragged out, to his dismay, not his keyblade but his old wooden sparring sword.

He gazed at it, happy memories clouding his mind, and momentarily suppressing his panic. Life had been nice back then, not that it wasn't now. Back then had been different, back then they hadn't been this close, even though they had thought they were as close as close could be. Back then was when he had had that godforsaken crush on Kairi. He had really loved her, and when she had vanished, he was devastated.

The brunette smiled, one day he had realized that the spirited red-head had not returned his feelings. He didn't really give up, exactly; he just fell out of love, somehow. But as his love for her lessened, his friendship with her grew. It wasn't that Sora didn't love her anymore. Sora still loved her, just as a sister. He shuddered at thinking of her as he used to, despite appearances, he had quite a dirty mind. Sadly, or happily, depending on your point of view, the boy didn't like anyone that way right now. Maybe he had missed his chance of love, not perusing Kairi? Nah, it would work out, it always did.

Sora looked back at the weapon, remembering sparring with it. He had fought against his friends all the time back on the play island. He was always training. He could easily defeat most of his partners, namely Selphie, who was pretty tough, Tidus, who flinched, and Wakka, who was really funny drunk, not that that had anything to do with sparring.

But they were small fries; it was Riku, his best friend, that he had trouble beating. It wasn't as if the silver haired young man was that much betters that him, no. It was simply that they knew each other so well, that they had come to expect stalemate as much as wins and losses, they were more or less even. The brunet laughed as he remembered that one time that Riku had ripped the back of his favorite T shirt right down the middle. He had liked that shi-

Oh, freaking moldy heartless! Shirts! He had forgotten shirts! Again!

Sora ran around his messy room.

After a few minutes of looking for clean clothes, and failing miserably, he gave up.

The brunette sighed in dismay, and plopped down on his bed, tired from trying to find shirts. He now knew why

Kairi liked her room so immaculate. His entire room was a disaster area, clothes spilled from his closet. Filth mingled with his clean clothes, he always did a sniff check in the morning. His floor was littered with more clothes, trash, the can had fallen over again, and there was a disgruntled cat with shorts covering its body. It glared at him.

"I should never have named you Cheshire, it doesn’t suit you..."

The Cheshire cat just glared at him. Sora sighed and rose again, walking over to his dresser for the last of his clothes. Upon opening one drawer he realized it was empty and shut it again vehemently, and opened the next.

Empty. He opened another and another, they were all empty! All his evil clothes were strewn about, anywhere but where he wanted them. Again the boy sighed. Sora quickly gave up trying to find clean clothes and shoved a bunch of not so rancid smelling ones from his floor into the bag. He smiled in victory at the defeated bag and began to zipper it, them he remembered...

"I can summon the keyblade!" the brunette exclaimed as he promptly held out his hand and watched as the keyblade materialized in it. He repeatedly bopped himself lightly on the head with it.

"Only a few more things to pack..." Sora muttered to himself. He picked up three special key chains and dropped them into his bag. Oathkeeper. Oblivion. Bonds of Fire. And viola! He was finished.

"I should go check on Riku and Kairi..." The keyblade bearer hefted his bag over his shoulder and headed to Riku's house, where they decided they would meet.

-

Riku woke abruptly from his pill induced sleep to the feeling of finger caressing a particularly sensitive part of his body. He knew he shouldn't have slept without the lights on, but his mother had been so mean about it.

"No one sleeps with the lights on at your age Riku!" She would say every night, and he couldn't really explain to her the reason was that he was afraid an evil heartless named Ansem was going to come back if he stayed in the dark too long, so tonight he had decided to try to sleep without the light. He had tried, and failed miserably. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the tan skin, and red eyes of his white haired possessor. The image haunted his eyelids, and plagued his dreams, he feared the dark more than anything now, but since he couldn't get to sleep normally, he had done the only reasonable thing-no, he had not thrown his ego aside and turned the lights on, as he knew he should- he had taken sleeping pills. And they had worked, very well too, until someone had suddenly attacked him-

Kairi grinned evilly as she continued to stroke her fingers up, and down, grazing her fingernails ageist the pale flesh.

Then Riku did something neither the attacker, nor the victim expected-

He giggled.

Riku couldn't hold it in anymore, and a vicious bout of giggles overcame him, as he writhed in his bed. Kairi giggled as well, not lessening her attack of tickles on the poor older boy, who had no chance to get away, as she climbed over him, still laughing evilly as she stopped attacking his sensitive sides, and was working her way up toward his arm pits, when she was suddenly pushed off of him with enough force to throw her halfway across the room.

"Ow!" She whined, rubbing the back of her head where she had landed indignantly. "What was that for!"

"For attacking me! In my sleep I might add..." Riku glared pointedly at the redhead, and she hung her head, feigning guilt as she stood, brushing off her girly pink dress. He slowly untangled himself from his covers, not taking his eyes off Kairi, he edged slowly toward the light switch, if he turned it on, she would stop, nothing bad ever happened unless it was dark out- it was like a rule of his life... "I thought you were supposed to be motherly, loving Kairi.

Not take-advantage-of-my-friend's-sensitive-sides Kairi."

She shrugged; she didn't seem to really care all that much for the subject. "I swapped." She suddenly grinned evilly again, and lunged for him, again. He gasped, making his own lung toward the light switch, and he fell short, and at the same time, become the easiest target his friend had ever seen.

"Ah!" He screamed, pulling his hands above his head as she pounced- bad move. She was once again tickling at his unprotected sides, gasping for breath, trying to make a statement in between the giggles that were escaping his lips.

"Haha! Don't- ha, No! Hahaha! Stop, Ha, stop I said!" He gasped.

She giggled maniacally, manic grin still set firmly in place. She straddled him, for better angle at him ribs, plus with her on top of him, he couldn't writhe quite as much. Much better angle...

"Kairi!" Riku grumbled scathingly. "Get OFF of me! I mean it get o-" He froze. She was skirting her fingers lightly up, and down his ribs, another very tender area. "Ah! Kairi stop that! You'll regret it! Promise you, you will!" He shouted.

He was starting to have trouble breathing.

What was she doing? What if his mother came in? What would she think? Or even worse, what if Sora came in and got the wrong idea? He couldn't let that happen! Riku furrowed his brow in concentration, and then it hit him. Sora..! "K-Kairi, hahaha! No, um- Haha Kairi, listen to me! What if Sora comes in!" Riku gasped out. This was getting to be too much, Lungs will now cease function in five, four...

"Then he could help me!" She giggled evilly. "I don't mind sharing, I could hold you down, and he could take over for a bit!"

Riku gave he an exasperated look. Three... "What? No! Kairi, seriously, get off." Riku gasped. Two, one... zero-

"Am I interrupting something?"

Kairi and Riku both turned, tickle fight forgotten to stare in horror, as the lights flicked on.

-

Sora nodded sympathetically towards Riku's mother, as she ranted on about how Riku never talks to her anymore, and such. She just kept rambling on, and on, and on the front porch until he sneezed. And she gasped, ushering him in quickly before hurriedly telling him Riku was upstairs and Kairi was already here. Sora had expected that. Kairi was so neat; she was bound to be done before him.

He shook his head fondly, as he took his sweet time getting up the stairs, and over to Riku's door. He was about to open the door to announce himself to his friends, when he heard something he did not expect to hear. Riku was giggling. Uncontrollably. But the lights were off, he could tell, because there was no light spilling from the crack separating the door from the hard wooden floor. It felt like it had just been waxed, his socks sliding slightly when he walked.

Then he heard something else unusual. And most unusual, was it was Riku saying it. Sora frowned, listening close to the door to hear the conversation.

"Get OFF of me! I mean it get o-" The voice was cut off sharply, as if something had covered his mouth.

"Oh my god..." Sora gasped, backing away from the door slightly. Was Kairi kissing Riku? He didn't like her like that anymore, but still, would they be harboring a romance behind his back? Did they not trust him to support it? Because he would! As long as his two good friends were happy, so was he.

But before Sora could think anymore, Riku spoke again, gasping for breath for some strange reason- no, it wouldn't be strange, if they were kissing, how could they breathe? Of course he would be gasping! "Ah! Kairi stop that!

You'll regret it! I promise you, you will!"

Sora's face turned bright red as his overactive imagination set to work. Was Kairi forcing herself on him? That would be so weird; then again, Sora had never seen Kairi in love, so maybe this was normal? He had no idea. But he hoped

Riku was ok.

"K-Kairi, hahaha! No, um- Haha Kairi, listen to me! What if Sora comes in!" Sora turned red again. Now they were talking about him? What would they do if they knew he was there, listening? Would Kairi get embarrassed and shy? Probably. Riku would probably go into denial that it happened at all. Sora walked tentatively toward the door. Should he go in? Or was it rude just to barge in without knocking? But he really did want to see what they were doing in the dark, in Riku's room. Probably on the bed...

Sora opened the door slowly, soundlessly. It was pitch dark in the room, but he could make out two figures on the floor in the darkness. They didn't seem to notice his entrance. He was about to make himself known, when Kairi spoke again.

"Then he could help me!" Sora froze. What was she talking about! What made her think he wanted to share?

"I don't mind sharing, I could hold you down, and he could take over for a bit!"

Sora gulped, and readied himself to speak as Riku gave a strangled reply. He took a deep breath, and spoke the first words that came to mind.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asked as emotionless as he could.

He flicked the light switch quickly. His eyes bulged slightly as the scene in front of him met his eyes. Riku was lying on his back, with his shirt hiked halfway up his muscular chest. And Kairi was on top of him, her hands under his shirt. They both stared at him in horror. Sora stared right back. He wished he hadn't opened the door...

Riku stared in horror at the look on Sora's face. He was trying to hide it but he looked betrayed. It wasn't what it looked like! It wasn't! He wanted to say, but his lungs had given out a bit ago. How long since he last breathed? Why was Sora look betrayed? Did return the secret feelings that Riku held for him and him alone? No... He couldn't. The silver-haired boy wanted to sigh, but he still had no air in his lungs. It was a bad thing not to breathe this long... right?

But the male had more important things to worry about, like the fact that Sora was upset.

Kairi looked at her other friend, not the one she was currently sitting on. As much as she was teasing Riku, she didn't want Sora to walk in. That's always what happens in those soaps. The husband and an old friend end up in a compromising position, then the wife comes in and gets the wrong idea and runs way and when they finally fix everything up, one of them gets in a near fatal accident or gets amnesia! Sora's not gonna get amnesia... is he?

Sora stared at his two best friends. It was worse that he thought,

Kairi had gotten his shirt half off, and he was in his boxers. They stared at him in terror. They didn't want him to know, they thought he would hate them. All of a sudden all those strange moments made sense to him now... And there was always this strange tenseness... Sora focused on Kairi for a moment. He knew that look; she was letting her imagination run wild with worst case scenario. Sora wondered briefly if it included going on a jealous homicidal rampage. She told him once abut his time she thought... What was wrong with Riku?

The silver haired male had been staring at him, but his eyes were slowly drooping shut. His head fell with a loud thud.

Both Kairi and Sora focused on him.

"RIKU!"

The brunette dove to his side as red-head pulled off of him. Kairi shook him, almost violently. Then he gasped, drawing

in a long shuddering breath.

"He... couldn't breathe?" Sora mumbled.

"I guess I tickled him too much!" Kairi laughed weakly.

"Ticked him...?" the brown haired boy stared at her.

The girl looked at him oddly, "Yeah, why? Oh, I knew you would want to help!"

He stared.

"You... didn't think that it was... something else did you?"

He stared, and blushed.

Kairi covered her mouth eyes wide as she suppressed giggles. Sora glared at her now, his face still related to a tomato.

"What?" he demanded.

Kairi snorted into her hands and turned to look at the now sleeping, and breathing, Riku then back at Sora. "I'll just say one thing to that, EW!" she squealed. "If I wanted a boyfriend he wouldn't be prettier than me!"

They stared at each other a while then started to giggle. Then laughed, until they huddled over Riku, still snoring away, trying to suppress their merriment, their shoulder shaking.

Sora bit his lip, hard. But it was too late. A large amount of pressure broke through his defenses, and he was writhing

on the floor, laughing once again.

Kairi wasn't having much better luck, although she hadn't fallen down on the ground like Sora had yet. Yet! That did it. She doubled over laughing, and for a time, the two just sat there, bending over Riku, laughing hysterically.

"I-I don’t remember what we're laughing about anymore," Kairi giggled, finally calming down enough to speak.

"Neither do I," Sora giggled back. They both stopped laughing, then looked at each other. Sora blinked his sky blue eyes over towards Kairi. Kairi blinked her sun-set violet eyes right back at him.

And they laughed again. There was no point, no reason, they were just there, laughing over the sleeping form of Riku, and enjoying each other's company.

Sora smiled slightly, looking up toward the ceiling, he raised his hand skyward. "Just two more days, and we're off on another adventure."

Kairi smiled too, bobbing her head to show her agreement. "Hey, wanna dress Riku up in make up while he's asleep?" Kairi asked him, suddenly sounding serious.

Sora grinned and nodded. They grabbed Kairi's pink duffel bag, and shifted through the contents until they found a container of lip stick, eye shadow, and some blush.

Kairi nodded approvingly, before pulling Riku into a sitting position up against his bed. "Good thing Riku's a heavy sleeper. Took me five minutes to wake him up when I was ticking him earlier. Let's start. Pass me the lip stick!"

-

"I'm bored!"

"Deal with it." Riku grumbled moodily. He still hadn't forgiven his friends for putting that retched thing called make up on his face. He didn't look good in eye shadow. Eye liner was fine, but having purple paint above your eyes is not very comfortable.

"But Riku! They should have been here by now! What if something happened?" Sora whined. Kairi rolled her eyes. Sora could be such a baby sometimes, and he was supposed to be the leader? Ha!

"Sora, they're traveling worlds. They may have gotten held up." Riku crossed his arms, and looked out toward the ocean. The azure waves were crashing lightly against the dock, making it creak slightly. From his perch on the end, with his legs hanging off, he could feel the slight breeze cool the heated air.

Kairi nodded, as she concentrated on swinging her legs, cutting through the air under the dock swiftly before bringing one leg back up to repeat the action as the other swung down. She was distracted by this for a few moments, before she looked up toward their silver hair counterpart. "Look, Riku, you asked for it, passing out like that! You can't blame us for dressing you up." Kairi huffed. If Sora was a baby, Riku was a bitch. Really, he sure could hold a grudge...

Riku was about to make a particularly rude come back when a loud rumbling distracted them. All three looked above them to see a very big and colorful...bird?

"Oh, god! They took the Chocobo to pick us up! How embarrassing!" Riku buried his face in his hands while Kairi and Sora stood and started jumping and waving go the newly arrived duck and dog.

Their journey could finally begin.

1) We’re planning on writing a drabble series about a few funny incidents between Kingdom Hearts II, and this fic. This will be the topic of one of them.

2) Another drabble.

3) ‘Companion’ is the name I gave the Keyblade that Riku gave Kairi, since it didn’t have a name in the game.

4) Another drabble.

5) The Chocobo is one of the ships you can fly in the games.

Ok, this is our new colab. First one on the account, but I doubt it will really be the last, I mean; we made the account to do this sort of thing. But oh well, in cases like this, we will be using our Bold/italics rule, which can be found somewhere on our profile.

I really do hope you liked the first chapter, it's a bit more light hearted than I plan the rest to be, but then again, I'm working with Maria on this one, so I doubt it will be all that angsty. But I could be wrong, it could be a good action fic, complete with kidnapping, evil plots, and manipulation. But then again, the character manipulating the bad-guy is based solely off of Maria, so I doubt it.

I do hope we get some reviews on this story, if we get like three reviews, we will post the next chapter, and we'll see from there

We know we're mean, but we need f e e d b a c K

This story is going to have MANY original characters that we have created on our own, so if you want to use them, ASK! We will also be making this a major crossover, because we have a bunch of worlds that have not been in the games. Like YuYu Hakusho, and Dot HACK and Negima, and Harry Potter, and other such things. So, you'll see what this is really about soon.

The next chapter has the main plot twist if anyone was wondering; it also gets you acquainted with Mr. Main character, who you have not met, contrary to popular belief.

Me thinks Zeida talks to much.