Feelings Change
By: theunknownvoice
A/N: I know Sora and Kairi are meant for each other but I had to try this pairing. Please read and review.
Patience was a virtue. A virtue that Kairi had very little of anymore.
Kairi was tired. The wars had been long and lengthy. Sora and Riku were both gone and she had been left behind.
She had understood. They had missions to accomplish and things to do. They were key wielders while she was the princess of heart. Whoever made the rule that princesses needed to be protected was wrong.
Kairi was strong. She could fight and be by her friends' sides. She wanted that. She wanted the simple chance to prove that she was as capable as any of them.
She sat on the Island alone. The others had stopped coming everyday. She knew it was part of growing up but it was lonely. She longed not to be alone, not to be forgotten. Sora and Riku were gone and she didn't know if she would ever see them again. Her heart told she would but doubts began to plague her dreams and thoughts.
"Kairi."
She turned. She had thought she was alone on the Island but she was wrong. Her eyes met Tidus' blue ones.
"Kairi are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she answered turning her gaze back to the sea.
He sat down next to her watching the ocean.
"You know you can talk to me," he said.
It was strange seeing the normally cocky Tidus trying to be comforting.
"Do you ever feel that nothing is ever going to change?" she asked.
"That's kind of dumb. Everything changes," he answered.
"I mean do you ever get tired of waiting for life to change?"
"I don't wait for life," he answered confidently.
"You don't?" she asked turning towards him.
"Life is what you make it. For instance I know I'm going to play bitzball tomorrow. I could go home and rest up and wait for the game but I don't want to do that. I would rather come hang out here. Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today is today. Live one day at a time and make the most of it."
"I feel like I've been waiting for Sora and Riku forever."
"Don't wait anymore. Live your life and be happy. You'll see them when they get here. Anyway, I got to go back. My mom's going to kill me if I miss dinner."
She watched him go. She had never thought of life that way. It was her duty to wait for Riku and Sora. They were her friends.
But she was so unhappy waiting. Her life was still going on while they were out saving the world. She was still here. She would just have to make the best of it.
Slowly Kairi began to change. She went shopping with Selphie. She spent more time with her grandmother hearing about their old home. She took long walks on the mainland and swam in the ocean. And somewhere in the middle of all that Tidus and Waka had told her how to play bitzball.
"How can you play this all the time?" she asked Tidus one afternoon.
"I'm good at it. Besides you like," he replied.
"But I really suck."
"Anyone would suck playing me."
"Ego much?" she laughed.
"I'm just being honest," he answered.
"Whatever."
"Selphie asked me to the dance," he said.
Ever since that day on the beach Kairi and Tidus had been hanging out a lot more. She saw him everyday. He knew how to make her smile and laugh so easily. He made her miss Sora and Riku less. Somehow they had begun to talk more often. It was strange. She had never thought cocky Tidus had anything to say but he sure did surprise her by what he actually did say.
"Are you going?" she asked.
"Nah, I figured I'd hang out with you. You're not going either right?"
"I wasn't planning on it. Dances aren't really my thing."
"Mine neither. Selphie asked Waka after I turned her down. He's all excited to be buying a tux."
Kairi smiled.
It was a late night. Kairi's eyes popped right open. She could hear footsteps in her room.
"I didn't mean to wake you."
Kairi jumped out her bed and wrapped her arms around him.
"Sora," she said.
She hugged Sora for a few moments before she turned and saw Riku. Immediately she ran over and hugged him too.
"I missed you both so much," she said happily. "I'm so glad you're home."
The next few days were insane. Both Sora and Riku had to readjust to being back in school. So many things had changed while they were away. Sora should've guessed that Kairi would change but it was too strange a concept for him to embrace.
In a way he had expected it. He knew her body would change just as his had. She looked older but it was the other changes that startled him. He noticed how close she and Selphie were. They had never been the best of friends before but now they spent a lot of time together. It wasn't Kairi's and Selphie's strong friendship that unnerved him though. It was—to put it bluntly—Tidus.
Tidus was the first person Kairi rushed to tell that Sora and Riku were back. There had always been a competitive angle to Sora and Tidus' friendship. They had always been competing on the Island as kids. Tidus always telling Sora how he was going to beat him and Sora loosing more often then he would like. So it did shock Sora to find out that Tidus and Kairi were close friends.
"Kairi, why don't we go to the Island just the two of us?" Sora asked during lunch after being back for two weeks.
"Sure, I can miss a game of bitzball," she replied.
"When did you learn how to play bitzball?" Riku asked genuinely surprised.
"Tidus taught me while you were away. I'm not very good but I like playing just not everyday," Kairi answered.
Sora's eyes met Tidus. How close were they?
Sora sat next to Kairi happily on the Island after school. He had missed her so much. She was just as beautiful as he remembered.
"I missed you," he said softly.
"I missed you too. I didn't think you were ever coming back," she replied her eyes still on the ocean.
"A lot of things happened," he answered.
"A lot of things happened here too."
"I wish you had been at the beach waiting for me. I always imagined that I would swim right up to you and hug you right away."
"It was hard waiting for you and Riku to come back," she replied.
He hadn't expected her to say that. He had promised to come back to her and he had. He hadn't wanted it to take so long but he couldn't plan out everything.
"Kairi, I love you," he said.
She opened her mouth to try to say the words back to him but her throat was closed. She tried again to say the words but no sound came out. She didn't understand. She couldn't understand. Why couldn't she say the words back?
"Kairi?" Sora asked when he heard no reply.
"I'm sorry Sora. A lot has changed," she said as she ran from the beach in tears.
She sailed back to the mainland. She trying to run home but instead she ran right into someone.
"Hey, can't you watch where you're—Kairi?"
She looked up to find Tidus staring at her in utter confusion. She just wept harder and hugged him tight.
Tidus just stood there in complete shock holding a weeping Kairi. She had fine when he last saw her. He had expected a radiant Kairi to return from the Island declaring that she and Sora were now dating. Instead he held the weeping redhead whose tears just kept raining down.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"He told me he loved me," she whispered.
He must be really confused or just plain stupid. What was wrong with Sora telling Kairi he loved her?
"Kai—I don't think I see the problem," he said calmly.
"I tried to say it back to him but every time I opened my mouth my words died. I couldn't tell him I loved him. I couldn't say those three little words because—because I don't love him anymore. I don't even know him anymore," she wept.
What was he going to do? There was no way he could help her with this situation. What do you say to someone when their dreams come crashing down?
"Kairi, maybe I should go get Selphie. She might be able to help you more," he said trying to remain calm.
"No!" she shouted hugging him so tightly he was surprised he could breathe. "Please just stay with me. Please Tidus, I don't want to be alone."
He just stood there in shock holding her.
Over the next few weeks Kairi was still shocked. She reverted into a shy person holding herself apart from the group. The only one she even spoke to was Tidus.
She was scaring him. This shy person afraid to speak wasn't the Kairi he knew. She came to his bitzball games every now and then but she never played. She didn't go to the Island anymore either. The only times he ever saw her was at school.
Sora and Riku had withdrawn from the group. Sora still felt pain at Kairi's inability to answer him. Riku hadn't known whose side to take. So he just quietly withdrew.
"Why did everything change so much?" Sora asked bitterly as he watched the tides.
"Because you were gone for so long."
"I don't want to talk to you, Tidus," Sora said never looking at his friend.
"Do I look like I care what you want? This isn't about you. It's about Kairi."
"What about Kairi?"
"I last time I saw her so depressed was while you were gone. She went to the beach everyday waiting for you and Riku to come back. And everyday Waka, Selphie and I watched her come back less of a person. She sat out her everyday for over a year waiting for you. She didn't eat much. I don't even think she slept. She hardly ever smiled and she just waited for you to come back."
"Then what happened?"
"I found her out here one day and told her to stop waiting. I told her it was okay for her to live her life instead of feeling obligated to wait for you. After that she began to smile more. She began to be happy. She was Kairi again not some empty shell of a person. Now she's not Kairi. She's not even that empty shell. It's like you robbed her of herself."
Sora's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
"You need to let her go. She's changed. She's no longer the same girl you were in love with."
"You don't know that!"
"Fine let me ask you a few things. What's her favorite color and why?"
"Blue for the ocean."
"No, red because it's part of the sunset. What's her favorite sport?"
"Bitzball."
"Nope, she likes competitive swimming. She just plays bitzball because she likes playing with Waka and me."
"What's your point?"
"Are you dense? She's changed and so have you. You saw other worlds while she's been back here for a year. Sora, you had adventures while she's been going to school. Things have changed."
Tidus got up and prepared to walk away. He didn't know what Sora would do and he didn't care. He had done everything he could for Kairi. Now the ball was in Sora's court.
Kairi was so quiet the next day at school. She barely spoke. She knew now. She knew why she couldn't answer Sora.
She had always thought that ser and Sora would be together forever. She had always thought that if she ever wanted to declare undying devotion to someone it would be Sora. And then it hit her last night why she couldn't say it.
Sora wasn't her best friend anymore. He wasn't the person she knew best. He wasn't the person who she waited to spend time with. Somewhere along the way her feelings for Sora had changed. He was her friend. He was her first love but he wasn't the one she was in love with.
She went and sat with the group during lunch. Everyone was there including Sora and Riku.
"The old Island gang is back together," Selphie chirped happily.
"Yeah man, it's nice that all of us are here again," Waka said before he dove into his food.
The others laughed but Kairi's eyes remained fixed on her friend sitting across from her. She couldn't help it. She had never realized before. She had never even thought that she could love him. She had been falling in love with him ever since that day on the beach. That day when he told it was okay to live her life.
Tidus felt eyes upon him. Normally he didn't care if people stared at him but this person was staring rather intensely. He looked up to meet Kairi's gaze.
She just smiled before turning to her food.
Weird, he thought before he went back to eating.
School was over and everyone was going to the Island.
"It will be like old times," Selphie said, "just the six of us together again."
Kairi followed closely. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go not after the last time. She wandered to the beach while the others went to their old haunts. After a few hours alone she went to go find the others. Riku and Sora were going through the old obstacle course. Selphie was collecting seashells. Waka was practicing for the next bitzball competition. And Tidus—where was Tidus?
She found him over at the beach doing a headstand.
"I went looking for you," he said. "It's almost time to go home."
"I know. The others seem happy to be here."
"You're talking again?"
"No, I'm projecting my thoughts. Of course I'm talking again."
"It's just been a while since even I've heard you speak."
"I know I just had a lot of thinking to do."
"Don't think too hard it will cause your brain to hurt."
"You never think do you?"
"Nope that's why I don't get headaches."
"You're such an idiot."
"I'm not—or maybe just a little."
"Anyway, I figured out why I couldn't tell Sora that I loved him."
Tidus' eyes widened causing him flip over.
"Okay, I'll bite."
"I don't love him."
His jaw dropped. "Since when?"
"Since a few months ago at the beach. I love someone else."
"Who?" he asked his eyes the size of saucers.
"An idiot who doesn't think because it will hurt his brain," she answered smiling.
He was about to ask who again when it hit him like a train. She was in love with—him? He must have died and gone to heaven.
"I knew you couldn't resist my good looks," he teased.
She swatted his arm.
"I can't believe it. You actually like me?"
"Tidus would at least tell me what you think of me?" she asked trying not to freak out.
"Of course I love you too," he answered happily.
She smiled as she pushed him into the waves.
Up above the beach Sora watched the entire scene.
"You alright?" Riku asked.
"I wanted her to love me but she couldn't too much time had passed. I just thought nothing would change between us all," Sora answered quietly.
Down the beach Kairi and Tidus soaked each other in the waves. Their laughter echoed throughout the Island. Only to be silenced by a small kiss.
The End