CHAPTER I

Pretend That I Am Weightless

(NOTE)

This is the second sequel to my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, A Step Into the Twilight. If you haven't read that, I suggest you go do so and then read it's first sequel, The Blue Hour Awakens. I can absolutely guarantee you that you will not understand this fanfiction until you do so. On that note, thank you to everyone who has been reading, and I'll announce the winner(s) of the virtual cookie at the end of this fic!

(/NOTE)

With open arms, and open eyes.

Hundreds of red hats flew above the crowd of eager and hopeful teenagers, red gowns draping over their, now free, bodies. Skillfully catching the last one down in a hand full of rings and a wrist of bracelets, a brunette girl with even darker brown eyes smiled at the sight.

"Here it is. Graduation." she whispered to herself, only to be bombarded by her best friend, Nessa. She had changed much since before their last journey to unlock Kingdom Hearts; she now donned glasses and a slightly cuter face, all for reasons that only herself, Nessa, and a girl named Sada would ever know.

The brunette smiled as Nessa jumped on her back, and caught her by the legs, "Finally free!" she laughed at the girl who started playing with her hair. "If only my parents were here to see this."

Nessa giggled, "I think your parents would be happy enough to know that you actually cared about continuing with your education."

Both of them were tackled over by three others at that very instant; One was another brunette girl with longer hair tied back, another was a boy built like a football player, and the last was none other than Nessa's boyfriend, a blond boy somewhere in the middle.

They knew these three as Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

Charity's claustrophobia began to kick in as she somehow rolled out of the heap of bodies, only to be greeted by Olette's boyfriend, Odol, who for some reason refused to take part in the football tackle that had been going on.

"We're finally free, we're finally free!" the three on top of Nessa began to chant as they all stood up.

"And summer's here and college is around the corner." Pence said. Everyone stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Don't even talk about college." Hayner told him quite seriously, but was silenced by a kiss from Nessa on the lips, "We should go to the beach sometime this summer."

"Come on, Ness," Hayner complained, "The beach is for little kids."

Nessa half-pouted, "It wasn't for little kids two years ago."

"Yeah, well," he suddenly became an inch taller as he fixed his posture and jutted out his chest, "We're legal now. We have more important things to do, like balancing checkbooks and investing in stocks and stuff."

"And stuff." Charity laughed.

"Coming from the guy who told me not to talk about college!" Pence hit him on the back of his head lightly.

"Naturally." Olette giggled.

Taking their skateboards, they all rushed out of the graduation ceremony before the principal and deans could start going on a long rant about the good and bad of highschool and how college is going to be a lot harder and something of the sort.

"I can't believe we graduated already." Olette whispered as they escaped the crowd.

"I can't believe I graduated." Odol shrugged.

"I can't believe I survived to graduate." Charity confessed. Two trips to the Universe of Kingdom Hearts already and she had survived both of them. She didn't even want to go over the amount of casualties in her head as to who didn't, but she knew that if she mentioned one of them Nessa would immediately grow silent.

"So how's Riiiikuuuuu?" cooed Pence to Charity. Charity hit him on the shoulder.

"You know I haven't talked to him in forever." she murmured. Riku seldom picked up the phone, or used it, for that matter. Probably busy all the time trying to restore The Radiant Garden and Hollow Bastion. Sora, Kairi, and Riku had the option of going back to Destiny Islands, but only a year after they had returned they decided to go help the committee.

"That's not being a very good boyfriend." Olette shook her head.

Charity suddenly had a look like a sympathetic frown on her face, "He's okay, I can't help what he's got to do. Besides, I might not ever see him again." Charity told them.

Nessa shook her head, "He said he'd visit you soon. Maybe the Heartless are just insane over where they are right now."

Charity remembered; they had tried to shut Kingdom Hearts many years ago, and nothing. Heartless still appeared, and as long as there was a world where somebody had darkness in their heart, they always would. Thankfully, none of them seemed to appear in Twilight Town, but both Nessa and Charity both had assumed that they were just waiting for their time to strike; they could name at least three people with plenty of darkness. Vivi, although, was most likely not one of them.

The Usual Spot. Although growing too small for them, it never grew too small for it to be in their hearts. Sitting like a king and a queen to the side of the Spot was Olette, and Odol who had taken where Roxas sat in the alternate Twilight Town. Hayner and Pence sat next to each other on another side, with Nessa close by and Charity next to her.

Pence, of course, handed them all ice cream and they sat there for hours.

"I suppose that means that there probably isn't anything wrong with the balance anymore." Charity smiled. She had remembered the last time she was practically itching for another adventure, but now that she had just graduated high school she was happier to just be at home with her friends and living a normal life.

"Hasn't been for two years." Odol mentioned. He hadn't gone on the last trip because he had finally settled back into his home and he had Olette. It was too awkward to leave already for both his family and Olette to miss him.

Nessa smiled. She, on the other hand, was not supposed to go to the Keyblade Wars but had anyway. She had gone through so much that journey, both escaping the darkness, finding her Almost Somebody, merging with her, and using the legendary keyblade of The Blue Hour, otherwise known as Charity's Savior of Balance's mirror keyblade, to unlock Kingdom Hearts.

And she could never forget what happened to Quince.

Or the year before that with Leander.

Looking over at Hayner, she frowned. Was she really destined to lose the ones that she loved? She didn't want to put anybody in that kind of trouble. Especially not Charity, whom she had known for her whole life. Technically, both of her lives.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette on the other hand had also been involved on their first journey to destroy Kiur and seal Twilight Town.

Charity wondered silently why they hadn't gotten any calls. Surely they needed to lock up some worlds again due to the Keyblade War; many of them were probably close to being sucked into the darkness. This, however, couldn't be much of a risk since they unlocked Kingdom Hearts and left it open just enough for both light and darkness to seep through, for eternal balance.

Maybe that was why Twilight Town wasn't affected so badly?

It probably meant the same for the rest of the worlds.

"What's wrong?" Pence's voice pierced Charity's innermost thoughts. Shaking her head, she waved him off and laughed.

"Just thinking about what it'll be like to be on our own." she lied.

"Yeah." Hayner sighed.

"We'll always have each other, right?" asked Olette. She put her hand out palm-down in front of everybody else.

"Of course." Odol said, following suit and being the first to put his hand on hers.

Everyone else nodded, and put their hands in the center.

"Forever." Charity told her.

At that moment, Nessa's cell phone rang.

"Ugh." she murmured, and dug through her pocket to find her cell phone. When she finally managed to get it out, it had already timed out and was now flashing '1 missed call' in the front screen. "It's probably someone from school wondering where we are." she mumbled and flipped open the phone.

Riku.

"What?" she asked, utterly confused.

"Who was it?" asked Hayner.

"Riku called." At this, Charity immediately perked up, but then drooped back down. It was probably just another rain check on how Quince was doing. The last time they talked, he was still breathing and his heart rate was still normal, but he had not waken from his trance. Aerith was doing a good job at taking care of him, as she was the only one that offered. Nessa knew that she couldn't stay to help him, but sincerely missed him.

As if Hayner had gotten the message, he put his arm around Nessa and smiled, "Try calling him back?" he asked her.

Nessa nodded, and dialed the number. Ring, ring, ring. Nothing.

"Dammit." Charity mumbled, finishing her ice cream.

"If it's important, he'll call back." Olette said.

Speak of the devil, a ring.

"Sure," Charity said in a mock sing-song, "He can call but we can't call him."

"Hello?" asked Nessa, expecting just what Charity had, an update on Quince. And that's exactly what she got.

"Charity," Riku said. His voice somehow seemed lower, which was expected what with him nearing his twenties. "Quince woke up."

Nessa dropped the phone, and it hit the floor. "Hello?" came Riku's voice from the ground underneath them.

"What happened?" asked Hayner, running to her side.

Nessa opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it and turned to Charity, "We have to go back to Hollow Bastion."

Pence spit out the part of his third ice cream that he was eating and stared at them in the same amazement as Odol, Olette, and Hayner were.

"No. No, no, no." Hayner said sternly, and took Nessa by the shoulders, sitting her back down in the chair. "You're staying. No more keyblade crap. I'd miss you too much."

Nessa managed to laugh at Hayner's unsmiling face, "Just for a couple days. We'll be back, right, Charity?"

Charity cocked her head to the side. She didn't even know why they were going. "Uh. Yeah." she responded.

"Great, we'll go to the beach then." Olette decided.

Nessa picked up her phone from the ground. Riku was, surprisingly, still on the line. "Come pick us up at Twilight Town." she told him.

xxxxx

"Riku!" Charity called. Without even looking at his face, she threw herself into Riku's arms. She knew his presence well enough already to not even have to look at him. "I've missed you so much." she admitted to him.

"I missed you, too." he smiled, and laughed lowly and hotly into her ear, kissing her on the cheek. He pushed her away to look at her face, "You've changed so much. You look gorgeous."

Charity was smiling. Even back when she was with him all the time, he wasn't too free with compliments. Charity had certainly grown since she was sixteen; her eighteenth birthday, though, wouldn't be for weeks.

"You haven't changed a bit." she smiled, looking up at him. Maybe he had gotten a little taller; which only made it harder for Charity. He kept his hair the same length it used to be, and his face was still angular yet soft, angry yet calm at the same time.

"Did Nessa tell you?" asked Riku.

"As to why we're going back to Hollow Bastion? No." Charity replied honestly.

"Quince woke up." Charity's eyes widened almost the same as Nessa's had. Nessa nodded her head, and headed towards the door of the Gummi Ship.

"We'll be back soon!" Nessa called out to the rest of them. Riku and Charity climbed into the Gummi Ship and it set off.

Without even having to guess who was driving the ship, Charity smirked while she crossed her legs. "I hope you've been getting some lessons since the last time you drove this thing with us, Sora." she cooed.

Sora poked his head out from the opening of the cockpit. He hadn't changed at all, except maybe his eyes seemed a little bit lighter. That always seemed to be true, though, when Roxas was in his body; at least the last time they saw him.

Sora smiled and gave her the thumbs-up, causing all of them to laugh.

"That's a 'no'." Nessa laughed, who was trying to calm down at the moment. Why was she so excited to see Quince? She had Hayner now. But she had to admit that she definitely felt something strong for Quince, but she did nothing because she was still stuck in the past of Leander. Author's Note: Poor, shishka-bobbed Leander.

Landing swiftly, they all jumped out of the Gummi Ship. Charity and Nessa only stared in amazement at Hollow Bastion; every building, street, and shop seemed to be re-done only to the best. Following Riku although they knew all too well where Merlin's house was, they were not surprised to see that this was the only structure that hadn't changed one bit.

"Sora, Sora!" a girl's voice came from the house. A girl familiar to the group as Kairi stepped out, and gasped. She had apparently been very busy since Sora and Riku had gone to pick both Nessa and Charity up.

"What's wrong?" Sora found himself obligated to ask.

"We tried to stop him, he's not supposed to walk until we could get him into a rehab because he's been out so long, but he's walking. He's not shaky or anything, it's like he wasn't affected at all by the coma." Turning away from that bit of happy information, she smiled at Nessa and Charity, "It's been so long!" she exclaimed.

"He's walking?!" asked Sora as Kairi exchanged greetings with Nessa and Charity.

Kairi nodded, and they followed her inside.

"...Quince."

The boy's brown hair had grown a bit longer, and he was obviously wearing a different set of clothes. He had gotten taller, more muscular, but his face was still calm and baby-like. Pretty brown eyes glimmered from under a few strands of his hair, and his eyes immediately drifted towards Nessa's. He was smiling.

Why did she miss that smile so much?

Author's Note: Short, I know, but it's only the first chapter. Nonetheless, it's time to announce who won the virtual cookie! XD Uhm. Technically. Both Azul Twilight and Igor Lollipop did, because the present was whatever you wanted it to be so you could decide the ending for yourself. :D Surprise:dodges meat cleavers: