Yeah, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Very sad, I know. Title isn't mine either, it's just my the title of one of my favorite books and belongs to Tolkien.

Anyway, this story will have a plot. Promise. I have a few ideas, and I just have to figure out which one to use. A couple are dark. But I always felt cannon KH was really dark. I mean think about how many lives were lost to make that many heartless. Think how many worlds would have been destroyed if Sora hadn't succeeded. Think about how close Sora was to death over and over. Come on.

Anyway I don't know what I'm going to do for pairings yet. Not Sora/Kairi, because I dislike writing and reading it. I like it a lot in the game, but that's it. Slight (and not so slight, if I can figure out a logically way to do it) Axel/Roxas. Maybe Sora/Riku, but it's more likely that they'll just be really, really close friends.

I'll stop talking now.

Chapter 1: Back Again

He had traveled to countless worlds, fighting the forces of evil that had included countless creatures wanting to steal his heart, freaky heartless white things whose movements were just creepy, a giant three headed dog, a god of the dead with flames for hair, and a witch who turned into a fucking DRAGON. He had raced through the savanna and jungle as a lion and swam underwater as a merman. He could flip off a roof twenty feet above the ground and land easily on his feet. He had used magic to defend, attack, and heal. And that was just scratching the surface.

Needless to say, school was just a bit boring after that. Especially history class.

Sora groaned and let his head drop onto the table looking toward the desk beside him. His best friend, Riku, the tall, silver headed, "omg he's, like, so gorgeous!," bastard rolled his eyes at his antics and continued taking notes. Sora thought it was hilarious how popular Riku had gotten when they had gotten back to school. He had been asked out no less than nine times so far and it was only the first week. He had turned them all down awkwardly. Sora had been asked out twice as well, but he was more relaxed and friendly about gently letting them down. Riku just got embarrassed, a fact that Kairi and Sora teased him about as much as possible.

Speaking of Kairi, she looked as bored as he felt. She sat in front of him, chin in hand, staring quietly out of the window. Occasionally, she would jot down a note on the paper in front of her and then promptly go back to gazing thoughtfully at the perfect day outside. It was bright and sunny, but with a light breeze to cool the air. The kind of day that only seemed to come on weekdays.

Sora turned back to his own notes and added a dull, monotone fact to it. Yeah, he was taking notes. He wasn't an idiot. It wasn't like math were everything was logic and patterns, those he could do easily. History was just memorization, and he needed notes to pass. And he was sure as hell, not repeating sophomore. He was already technically a year too old for it. Kairi was too, and poor Riku was a year older than them. Well, that's what happens when you disappear for almost two years, Sora mused. Their journey had started in the middle of his freshman and Riku's sophomore year. On his return, Sora had decided to do catchup work over the summer so he could start as a sophomore while Riku decided to just repeat it. Lazy bastard.

Still, it was good to have him in the same grade. They had all their classes together; it wasn't a big school and most people in the same grade did. He probably would have gone insane if Kairi and Riku hadn't been there. It was a lot easier when he didn't have to keep secrets from everyone. They often talked about the worlds they had visited, the friends they missed. He and Riku even had keyblade spars on their island when they were sure they were alone.

They couldn't tell anyone else the truth though. They'd probably be labeled insane and sent away to some mental hospital or some crap like that. It was… weird coming back. Apparently everyone, including their parents, believed that they had gotten seriously sick and had to stay in the hospital. Luckily they made a "full recovery" and were welcomed back with open arms. It was very convenient, although none of them knew why the memories had changed. Sora and Riku suspected Namine, but Kairi wouldn't say, which just made them suspect her even more.

Sora realized that his mind had wandered again and he was sketching something in the margins of his paper. A little shadow heartless stared up at him with blank white eyes. Sora smiled. As dumb as he felt to admit it, he loved drawing. By drawing thing from his journeys, he felt like it was more real. It kind of scared him that he might forget, and with the drawings, he could look back at them and remember. Kairi had laughed at him when she first found out about his new hobby.

"Isn't Namine supposed to be MY nobody? She looks a bit feminine to be yours," She had teased him grinning. Sora had mock glared at her and threw the nearest thing at her, a small stuffed bear that the keyblade master had had since he was young. And got teased for still having. Actually, he was the end of a lot of Riku and Kairi's jokes. Some best friends they were.

"Well, you can't even draw a stick figure right, so maybe we have the wrong nobodies. I always thought that Namine looked a bit feminine for you; Roxas is a better match," To his disappointment, she hadn't risen to the bait. A mock thoughtful look crossed her face.

"Well, that would explain why I always found Axel so attractive," Sora had gaped at her in shock and inside his head, instead of being pissed, Roxas was laughing his ass off. He didn't really want to think of the implications of that, so he had quickly recoved and tackled Kairi, tickling her until she gasped out an apology between laughs.

Sora smiled at that memory. And then his smile widened as the bell rang again. As the class gathered their things, Sora leaped on Riku's back, wrapping an arm lighltly around his chest.

"CHARGE!" He called pointing ahead dramatically. Riku snorted and loosened the slightly stir-crazy teen so that he landed heavily on his butt.

"Dork," Sora pouted up at his friend, who was obviously amused at his antics.

"You're no fun," He stuck his tongue out at Riku childishly but accepted the offered hand, gracefully getting to his feet. Kairi's exasperated but amused laugh sounded beside them and she grabbed both of their wrists.

"Come on, it's lunch, I'm hungry," She said pulling them out the door.

Sora smiled. He was back with his best friends. He didn't have to worry that they couldn't be found anymore, or even if they could be found, he would stay alive long enough to succeed in his search. He didn't have the weight of whole world's fates in his hands, didn't have to worry about the lives of all the friends he had made. He was safe at home with his friends and family, and things were going back to the way they had been when everything was normal.

Maybe boredom wasn't so bad.