There are strange things that live in my dreams. My memories and thoughts become a vision. I can reach into them and touch them. I remember the darkness. I remember the shadows crawling up my legs, slick, dark and dangerous. Then I was running. Running away from the darkness that tried to bring me down. That tries to bring the worlds down.

I scream. The foul shadow had filled my lungs. I was drowning. I couldn't breathe. The shadows found their way to my heart, slowly pulling it away from me. They were stealing it… They were stealing my heart!

Sora slowly awoke from his nightmare. Beads of sweat rolled down his bare chest as he sat himself up. He buried his head into his hands before taking in a deep breath. The sound of the ocean drifted into the room, a haunting sound to the ears. It was a recurring nightmare, one that has followed him three years. The door to Kingdom Hearts was closed for good, Ansem was gone. There was no way he was going to come back. Goofy and Donald were off serving King Mickey, just as they had always wanted. Riku… He needed time to recover, taking off to Deep Jungle to live with Jane and Tarzan to collect his thoughts. And then there was Kairi. Sora moaned into his hands.

"Sora?" There was a tentative knock on the door. He knew whose voice it belonged to. A voice he was joyful to hear every day, from the morning to the night. Sora had returned to Destiny Islands with her, wanting to make up for the time he spent without her, the time he had also spent looking for her. When there was no reply, she let herself in.

"Kairi," Her name left his mouth softly in a greeting only they shared on the late nights she visited him. Those were the nights when neither of them could sleep through the nightmares. For the first year, she would walk into his room, curl up beside him and cry in his arms, afraid that the nightmares could reach her and pull her back into the darkness. Sora had felt exactly the same, yet tried to stay strong for her. On the nights she didn't come, that was when he would stare up at carved out ceiling, wondering if he would ever have a peaceful sleep again.

Sora scooted over as Kairi made her way into his bed and into his arms. Her relaxation was almost instant and he heard her let out a breath of relief. As Sora stroked his best-friends hair, he thought about what scared both of them the most. They were terrified that the Heartless would return and tear apart the worlds again. There was no way to be sure the Heartless wouldn't return. Last week, a few gummi pieces had fallen out of the sky. When Kairi brought them to him in her excitement of finding something new, Sora ran. The gummi blocks were remnants of a shattered wall to a world.

"Do you ever sleep?" Kairi asked the question lightly, glancing up into Sora's eyes. Even through the dark he could make out her cerulean blue eyes that held all the beauty of the oceans in the worlds.

"I sleep through the nightmares." He shifted on his side so he could slide an arm around Kairi's waist, pulling her closer and breathing her in. He remembered sacrificing his heart to release her from Ansem's hold, becoming a Heartless himself. Sora shivered, pulling Kairi closer as if she could take away all the terrible memories that sent them on their twisted path.

"How do you think everyone you met is going back in their worlds?" Sora couldn't reply to this. He had met so many friends and allies on his path, and after Kingdom Hearts was sealed, the gateways to the worlds were closed. He could remember all his friends in Pride Lands, Atlantica, Neverland, even those in Halloween Town. He had promised Kairi that he would take her to all the worlds and visit all the friends he had made, but now it seemed unlikely. He hadn't seen any of his friends in a long time.

"I think they're well." A thought irked him…Had they forgotten him?

Silence spread throughout the room, only the sound of the ocean and their breathing mixed together. When the pair returned to Destiny Islands, it was quiet, nobody was there. Selphie, Tidus and Wakka, all friends of Sora and Kairi, were gone. The Kingdom Keys that Sora could conjure on moment's notice were out of his reach. He wasn't the Key Bearer anymore. Organisation XIII was no more. Everything was the way it should be. Yet it wasn't. The world felt empty without the adventures, without his allies Donald and Goofy fighting by his side. Sora missed fighting for something he loved, and he'd do it all over again as long as Kairi was safe.

Sora looked down at Kairi's now sleeping figure, her chest rising up and down with each breath. Time would never heal the wounds the Heartless left on both of them, yet he tried his best to heal her by welcoming her into his bed when she couldn't sleep, holding her close as if to protect her from anything that came their way.

As Sora's eyes began to slide shut, he paced a soft kissed on his friend's forehead. They knew how the other felt, they just needed time. Kairi stirred slightly in response to the kiss but didn't wake. With that, Sora drifted off into a much needed peaceful and dreamless slumber.

"Sora, wake up." The singsong voice filled the room. Sora opened his eyes to the blaring sun that quickly focused on his ocean eyed friend.

"Nice to see you slept well," He chided with a beginning of a smile pulling at his lips. She tackled him back down to the bed as he begun to sit up, taking the breath out of him.

"I always sleep well when I know you're protecting me." She planted a kiss on his cheek and rolled off his bed, bounding out of his room before he could say another word. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes before setting off to find Kairi.

Three years ago, the day after they returned home, he found her sitting on the edge of the pier, legs dangling in the water and catching the rays of the morning sun. Even after so long, she still came here. "How is it that you are always here in the morning?" The question left his lips before he considered asking the question. She froze, caught off-guard by his question.

"Some mornings, while Riku and I let you sleep in, we could sit right here and talk about everything. We shared our hopes and dreams and we would watch the rising sun." Her shoulders slumped over and she lifted her legs out of the water, bringing her knees to her chest. "Sometimes, when I sit here long enough, it's almost like he's here next to me."

Sora sat down next to her, snaking his arm around her shoulder and pulling her against him. "I miss him, too." She sniffed, leaned into him and closed her eyes. "One day, we'll find a way to see him again."

"Anyway," Kairi rose to her feet and offered her hand to Sora, "We have some fishing to do today."

Even though I love Kingdom Hearts to bits, I never sought to venture into the fanfiction world. Turns out there's a lot of people writing in this section. Please leave any tips or just comments in general because it keeps me writing. Thanks guys.