Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters…*puffs out bottom lip* but I do own my ideas. Take them and I will flame your butt! *looks all innocent but then makes choking movements with hands* hehe! ^_^

I guess it takes a real strong person to live up to you…. But I know it takes a real weak person to set the bar on which you lay… -Snell Tawen 

        ~See if you can make sense of this and tell me what you think! ^_^

Almost 16

Part One: Lost, Found, Frozen

          Kairi lay on her back with the covers up to her chin and thought of the up coming vacation that she had been waiting for. The warm sand resting between her toes and the ever-shinning sun that gives her comfort…

'Okay, it's not really a vacation because I'm not going anywhere, but… I guess… I just need some time to NOT think about… them… 'They' left me all by myself! Just abandoned me and left me to rot!' A single tear rolled over her cheek. ' Every night I have cried and now, now I can't even shed more than one tear.' Kairi sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She knew that they, Sora and Riku, wouldn't have left her on purpose. She still remembered the promise made to her by Sora, and he never went back on his word. Never! 'But what if this time he did?'

She couldn't think about that, and she wouldn't. "Get a hold of yourself, girl!" Her thoughts screamed. Slowly she got up from her bed and made her way into the hall.

One kitchen, two baths, two bedrooms, a study, and a dining room are all that Kairi had. That might sound like a lot but when you have no one to share it with it's all kind of depressing. No parents, but Melody, a 35 year-old woman who owned one of the fish markets, checked in on her every once and while, but she mainly lived by herself. 'Alone and almost 16' was the mental title she used every once in a while.

'How pathetic!' she could hear Riku say into her ear. Then she'd imagine Sora grabbing her hand and reassuringly squeezing it.

"Ahh!" she cried and ran to the study and flung her self into a chair in front of the wooden desk. 'I have to get ride of these feelings… or at least hide them away.' She pulled out a pen and notebook and after about an hour she wrote:

I try to run from what I hide Water rains simple yet plain

But too often does it stay

And now a single tear gives way

Strong is what you said to be

And strong is what I am

But there is one thing that hinders me

And now that single tear slowly falls

Day after day, night after night

You never leave me

But out of all the things I fight, you are my defeat

And now that single tear drops and disappears

I could replace what you have taken but that lonely tear might come back and make another tear…

            'It may not make sense but writing it down helps some…' She stretched out her arms and yawned. 'I guess I'm finally tired.'

(~**~)

          After 15 minutes of nagging from hunger in her stomach, Kairi finally got up. She quickly changed into a white tank top with light blue trim and a skirt that was also a light blue color and went to the kitchen to make some breakfast. 'Ha! I can't cook!' she mused. But she made some any way.

          After finishing her bacon Kairi grabbed some (burnt) toast and headed outside. She planned to go and lay in the shade instead of basking in the sun, but that didn't happen.

          "What in the…" Kairi dropped her (again Burnt) toast and wrapped her arms around herself. It was freezing! But how could that be? She stepped out further; it was snowing!

          Her jaw hung motionless as she looked around. The sky was filled with falling snowflakes, and the once sandy beach was covered in an inch-of-snow blanket. 'It's never snowed here… It was hot yesterday!' She walked toward the water, which she couldn't see. Waves couldn't be heard like usual as the dumbfounded girl stumbled on.

          "Where is the ocean?" She asked into the wind and broke into a run. She had grown fast on account of she had been racing Tidus and Selphie almost every day. They had become her alternate friends; they knew that they couldn't care for Kairi like Sora and Riku had, but friends they could do.

          Her heart raced as she finally saw the dark blue waters. They were still- frozen. "Oh, how strange…" The dark beauty of the ocean drew her closer until she could put her feet in the water. But she couldn't; the water was literally frozen. She tested it to see if it could hold her wait. "Wow…" she said as she stepped out onto the water. "How beautiful…" No snowflakes fell over her and so Kairi walked on. "I'll walk on till I find Sora…and …Riku." Before she broke into a run her foot snagged on something and sent her plunging to the ice water. Blood oozed out of a cut on her cheek that the jagged ice left on her. Kairi pulled her self up into a sitting position and looked out into the sky. A star or either it was a snowflake, she couldn't tell, hung suspended a few feet above her head. "How beautiful."

          "KAIRI!" Some one called out from the shore.

          Every thing went in slow motion, as time seemed to stop. Her long hair lashed around her shoulders when she turned to see who called her. "Wha…" Before she could see anything the ice dissolved and Kairi was swallowed into the water. Now, she could swim I mean swim really well, but something was wrong… she couldn't move. Down, down, down she went; coldness wrapped around her. Unconsciousness overtook her and everything went black.

          "Kairi…NO!" was the last thing that she heard.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's note: Hope you liked my story! The next chapter will be better I promise! Please review me!

          Sorry so short, the next one will be longer!