"I love you," Kairi, shaking, whispered.

Riku paused, quite inelegantly, turning around with his not his mouth half-open. He stared, with not his eyes, straight at her and she was combusting.

"Please. Please. Don't just look at me like that," she whispered again. Here, where the wind never blew and the sun never shined, Riku was suddenly plummeted into a flash forward, a day dream if you will, and the cold tile beneath his not his feet was covered by blown-in sand, and the sky lightened up and the waves gave off their breeze, and he could smell it, and suddenly he was aware of himself, of his own body, unclogged of pesky darkness by the force of nostalgia.

And Kairi was there. Sweet, perfect, angelic Kairi with nothing changed at all, because there was nothing to change. She was walking slowly towards him, smiling, beaming, and held out her arms as she began to pick up the pace. Riku glanced around. Sora must be here, she must want to be in his arms.

Sora was nowhere to be seen.

And Kairi was running to him, running for him, until their bodies made contact and she all but melted into him, feeling so beautifully breakable beneath his hands. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up into his eyes. "You're here." She bit at her turned up lips, her eyes threatening to mist.

"Don't cry, Kairi." He pressed her back to him, wrapping his arms around her back, putting his head on hers. "Please don't cry."

And he could almost feel all the reasons to, but he wasn't going to let himself start blubbering when he'd held it in for so long.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

When their lips met, it was perfect. A mix of light with dawn and silver with auburn and her with him. It didn't matter how much taller he was, or that her tears were falling at their mouths now, or the way that his hands were rough on her skin. It didn't matter that she was Sora's, that everyone thought so, that she'd have to be, in the very end. None of anything much mattered.

This much they needed to have.

"Riku, you have to say something."

But they were still standing on the side of that castle, and he wouldn't dare kiss her because his lips weren't his and nothing about him was right for her. Nor would it be if he changed back, because nothing in him could be trusted around such a treasure.

"But does it change anything?" He asked, finally, because even though it's hopeless, he has to know.

"No," she admitted softly. "It doesn't. But I wanted you to know that someone does. That you have to stop hating yourself. I love you, and that's not changing."

"Kairi, you should leave. You should run, and never come back, and never think about me again. There's nothing in me, in this body, for you."

"There's your heart."

"If it's even still there. Besides, you wouldn't want it."

Kairi took a step closer to him; he'd already turned to leave before, putting distance between them. She took another one when he didn't retreat.

"I still love you. Even if it doesn't mean anything."

There were a million little things he could have done. He could have slapped her for stringing him along the whole time, but a part of him knew that it had only been his delusion. He could leave and he'd never see her again, he'd let Sora save the day and get the girl and go along home, his best friend only an afterthought. But, for hundredth in his whole freakin' life, he did the thing that would hurt him the most, that would heal her the best.

"I still love you too."

Turning to leave, he felt Kairi's arms wrap around his not his body, pressing her face into the back of his cloak.

"Then stay. Without you...I don't feel whole. I need you too, okay?"

He was ever powerless to her tears, turning around to hold her in his not his arms. "So you finally know how I feel, huh?"

And she cried harder against him.

Separately, they were broken. Together, it was beautiful.

0FIN0

This isn't quite what I envisioned when I wanted to write a Kaiku after going on a sudden rampage for them yesterday, but you take what you can get. Maybe one day I'll write these two a happy ending. Then again, maybe not. Can Kaiku even have a happy ending? I really don't think so.

This is the missing scene after Kairi pulls down Riku/Ansem/Xenanhort's heartless's hood. Are we calling him Riksem? Because I know that's what everyone called him when he was possessed. Of course, now we know it really isn't Ansem, so I guess not. I think I spelled Xenanhort wrong, but I've spent fifteen minutes looking through the guide and the cut scenes saved on my computer and I can't find it so suck it up and deal with it. Thanks!