Of Friendship

"The friendship that can cease has never been real." - Saint Jerome

"Sora! So-ra!"

"Pooh Bear!" a small, ping animal was waving his paw, grinning. "What are you doing, Pooh Bear?"

"Oh, hullo Piglet. I'm looking for my friend, Sora. Would you like to look for him with me?"

"Of course, Pooh Bear." Piglet said, quite glad to have Pooh (and all his memories) back. He took Pooh's paw, their hands swinging as they headed down the path and further down into the Hundred Acre woods, looking for their friend.

Pooh tried not to frown as they drudged down the path, greeting friend and gathering other lookers. Everywhere the group ventured, Sora wasn't. It was...disappointing, and a bit worrying. Pooh had no idea where Sora could be if he wasn't in the woods, of course, Christopher Robin often vanished from the woods from time to time, but this felt...it felt different, as if Sora wasn't just on the other side of the woods, as if he...wasn't around at all.

"So-ra!"

--

It had been several weeks, not that Pooh really knew what weeks were, too him, there was day, there was night, and occasionally there was year, when a birthday came. But be that as it may, it had been several weeks since Pooh had last seen his friend Sora.

He sat on a log, hunny pot in his hand, carefully licking his paw free of the sticky golden liquid as he thought about his missing friend, and how sad that made him. He didn't want his friend to be missing, he wanted his friend to be right there beside him, watching the big moon, getting hunny from the tree, or even bouncing around with Tigger.

As he reached his hand down for more hunny, he accidentally dropped the pot. "Oh dear," he said, reaching down for the pot, before over balancing and ending up head first in the pot. "Oh dear," he repeated, before sighing heavily.

--

Rubbing his head, he hopped up onto the log next to Sora, looking up at the large moon above them, giving a soft, sigh, before scooting closer to Sora, feeling the boy's warmth keeping the night chill away.

"So, what were you doing in there?" Sora asked, rubbing his arms for a moment against the chill before simply resting his hands on his thighs, also looking up at the moon.

"I was thinking, perhaps there is a way to make it so that you won't go away," Pooh said, finding the stars fascinating.

Sora blinked and looked down at the small bear at is side, rather confused by that sentence. "You mean, a way to make me stay?" he asked, trying to understand what Pooh was saying.

"Yes," Pooh said, nodding before looking at Sora. Would there be such a thing, as a way to make it so you don't go away?" Pooh wanted to add 'again', to the end of that sentence, but that sounded more like something Rabbit would say and Rabbit could sometimes be...not very nice.

"Pooh..." Sora sighed and looked back at the moon, feeling a pain in his heart for his friend. He couldn't stay, he had things to do! Riku and the King were out there, as was Kairi and his home. The Hundred Acre Woods and Hallow Bastion were a long way from his islands. "Don't worry, I promise I'll come back and visit, now and then."

Pooh frowned ever so slightly. "Can we make it 'now and now' instead? That seems a bit nicer." He bounced his legs, watching the stars twinkling merrily, the small fireflies darting around in the grass around their log.

He remembered searching for Sora with Piglet, even long after the others had lost interest and gone home, even after Piglet had finally given up the search. For many day and many night he searched, but he couldn't find Sora anywhere. He found Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Roo, Kanga, Tigger, Christopher Robin, Gopher, Owl, even a heffalump (which stopped his searching for the day), but...no Sora.

"Sora, if I go looking for you...will I find you?" Pooh asked softly, already knowing the answer to his question, but desperate to hear something else.

Sora smiled. "I'll always be with you," He reached out, gently placing a finger over Pooh's heart. "Right here."

Fin