Still in a weird fanfiction funk. In the meantime, been working on bits and pieces of stuff that I've started previously but never finished, like this story. It's a headcanon that I formulated a couple of years back to make myself feel like canon!Kairi was a lot more useful in KH2 than she actually was.

Please review when you're done :)

The waiting had always been the worst part. Kairi watched the sky, waiting for Sora and Riku to return from their final battle. It had already been three days. Kairi insisted that Mickey, Donald and Goofy should take her back home after the door had disappeared. They had exchanged confused glances and asked her why.

"Because I'm a Princess of Heart," she had answered. "And Sora and Riku are deeply connected to me. If they lose their way in the darkness their Keyblades will lead them back to me. So when they come back, I want them to come back home."

That was three days ago. Now she was starting to lose confidence. Footsteps in the sand and a comforting hand on her leg made her look down. King Mickey did his best to look upbeat for her but she could see how much concern he was harbouring too.

"Cheer up, Kairi," he said. "I believe in your power and in the boys. They'll take down Xemnas and come right back home."

"I know… maybe I should have stayed with them."

"You might be thinking that now but your abilities as a Princess of Heart are being put to better use here. You did say so yourself."

"Being a beacon to someone who'll never come back isn't much use. I'm no real use to them."

"Sure you are, Kairi."

"What if I'm not? Any minute now the darkness and the nothingness are going to creep over that horizon and swallow this place."

"I think that's unlikely," Mickey replied, looking out to the horizon. "If they had failed we surely woulda seen it by now—in the stars. Believe in yourself, Kairi, I know you can do it."

"But I'm not doing anything. Waiting… it wasn't good enough… it was never good enough."

"Then do something more!" Mickey said, as if the solution was really so simple. He looked up at her with a wide grin. "Do whatever you need, even if it's writing a letter or making a new trinket, you've got the power and you'll know best how to use it. And I can tell, Kairi, you've got the special kind of heart it takes to be a Princess and the mettle of a queen."

Kairi lifted her eyes to the sky, noticing the sun beginning to drop westwards. "I guess…" she began, sounding more uncertain than she felt at that moment, "…you're right."

She looked directly at the horizon, as if she could somehow engulf the whole thing into her line of sight. It stared back at her, straight and endless. She closed her eyes, opening her heart towards that infinite boundary, feeling it shatter against the force of her will and then the realm opened up warmly to her.

Then, on the black sands of a dark beach, her heart finally reached them.