Destroying Kingdom Hearts comes at a price. The heart is a burden that must be tamed.

The auburn haired boy stood defensively, his knees bent low in an animal-like crouch, key blade raised in front of his face. Sora had taken this pose many a time, but this was the first that his breathing was completely easy and even in pace. Sky blue eyes locked gaze with the ever mysterious grey-blue eyes of his opponent, who nodded briskly in a solemn manner.

Sora opened his mouth to speak, trying to think up something witty to say before their battle began, but the words simply would not come. Then, with a flash of lilac-grey hair, Riku was beside him, swinging his weapon with all his might towards Sora's head.

The boy braced himself for the impact, gritting his teeth and clenching his free fist up into a tight ball. There surely wasn't any time to dodge, when the attack had been so stealthy. His eyes scrunched shut, obscuring his view of the rolling sea; which was crashing lazily on the golden sand.

After a few seconds of realising that there was no impact to his head, Sora cautiously opened one eye to reveal a frowning Riku, who had now lowered his own key blade.

"What's wrong with you, Sora? You promised this battle would be fun." he said, poking his friend gently in the forehead.

"Well how is this fun? You could've taken my head off with that swing!" Sora moaned, mimicking the expression that had crossed Riku's features when his weapon was merely inches from his best friend's head.

The lilac-grey haired boy winced slightly, his shoulders shrugging upwards from their usually slack position.

"Ugh, I really looked like that? Sorry. But hey, I wasn't going to kill you or anything. What do you take me for?" he joked, dropping his key blade to the sand in order to ruffle Sora's already untidy hair with both hands.

"Hey, jerk!" Sora pouted, taking the opportunity to grab Riku's key blade from the ground and poke him hard in the stomach with it. "Sora, you little cheat!"

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As he lay in bed, Sora remembered the "battle" with Riku at the beach and smiled nostalgically to himself. That had been about six months ago and only several days after he, Riku and Kairi had all played a part in destroying Kingdom Hearts for good. They had been happy, like it had been before Destiny Island had been attacked and they had been a little more naive and carefree.

Placing his hands behind his head, Sora stretched his legs out.

'Nothing to do today, nothing to do tomorrow… same old dull routine.' he thought to himself groggily. Life for Sora had been rather… normal, as of late. Since destroying Kingdom Hearts, Donald and Goofy had gone back to serving King Mickey at the Castle and he and his two best friends had returned to their home. He wasn't complaining, though, destroying Kingdom Hearts had been wonderful- to see Kairi again, as well as Riku was beyond what words could describe. There was just that small problem that was a consequence of destroying the world, which was that everybody got their hearts back.

In many, many ways, this was a beautiful thing to see, but hearts are complicated and emotions overflow when one loses sight of how they used to make them feel for others.

Sora, for one, remembered how he felt for Riku, as soon as Riku's true heart was returned to him and that had made him feel bad, because he was happier when those feelings dulled- his mind wasn't spinning round in girly confessions and words.

Then there was Kairi. Sora had never really seen Kairi as a potential partner, only as a mate, to fool around and have a laugh with, to make snide comments at because she was a female and that's what boys do. Now, however, he saw that she was… pretty. The sun highlighted her hair in so many magical fiery ways. 'Snap out of it. You like Riku, you've always liked Riku, not that he needs to know that.' Sora thought privately, lifting himself to stare out of his bedroom window.

Remembering the "battle" with Riku at the beach brought up another touchy issue inside his thoughts. 'That was the first time he gave me that look.' he recalled. 'The look that makes me think… he really does…like me.'