A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this one shot, which takes place during KH1, after Sora had come to Traverse Town for the first time. I wrote this one-shot, because I thought that it's impossible for anyone to be happy all the time, even for our favorite hyperactive super-ninja, who thinks that Kairi's dead. She doesn't know how wrong she is about that! I know it's a bit shorter than my normal one-shots, so sorry if that bothers you. And this is a sequel to "Chaos," but you can also read this without reading that story first. :)

Thanks: SecretAgent99, my beta reader.

~ That only left one possibility, the painful one. ~

"I'm so glad you're okay, Kairi."

Sora had called her by that name, the very first time he and Yuffie had met, just a few days ago. That one sentence had brought some serious commotion in Yuffie's life. Every time she thought of it, her heart started beating faster and faster.

At first she hadn't even noticed anything special about it. He had just mistaken her for someone else, so what? There had been absolutely nothing wrong, almost as if she had not heard that name. She still had no idea why in hell's name he had called her by that name, but it had brought a flood of old, dusty, and, in some cases, incomplete memories along with it. Memories that she had buried deeply somewhere in one of the dark corners of her always active brain a long time ago, where her heart could not find it that easily.

Sora had been like some random key that fitted perfectly in the rusty old lock of Yuffie's first forgotten memories of Hollow Bastion and her. He had said those magic words which had reactivated all her pure memories of her at once. Sora himself had apparently had no idea what impact he had had on the poor Yuffie with that one little sentence he had used at that time. She thought it was better that he did not know it, for it could lead to a lot of awkward questions from everyone around her, especially from Aerith. That was something she did not want to happen.

Yuffie quietly sat on the high roofs of Traverse Town, where it was peaceful at this time of the night and she would not get disturbed by anyone. Only Heartless occasionally brought her a short visit to get her heart, but that wasn't that bad nor dangerous. She knew very well how to defend herself, thanks to Squall, who liked to train with her every day, as if he was taking revenge for something, something she had ever done, but couldn't remember anymore. So those Heartless got what they deserved, but not what they wanted. She silently sat there and gazed up at the dark sky.

Yuffie still remembered everything in one way or another, as if it all had happened just yesterday...and yet there also were some parts in her memories that she could not quite remember, not even when she concentrated. Some memories were sharp, full of fragrant and colorful details. Other memories were very vague, with lots of movement and quick flashes of unclear and incomprehensible things, like she was looking at a dream from long ago of which she could no longer recall various parts. A scattered dream...or was it more like a far-off memory? How was she supposed to know which one it was?

One thing that she knew for sure, though, was that she had always felt lonely ever since she didn't have her best friend to accompany her. Even Aerith had not been able to cheer her up after a while, but she probably didn't know that, for Yuffie always tried to hide all her suffering from the world and the ones she cared for. That was why she always had that "stupid goofy smile plastered on her face," as Cid put it oh so nicely, so nobody could see how she really felt sometimes.

Only Squall sometimes gave her the scary feeling he knew exactly how she felt at times, when he looked her straight in the eyes with that strange look reflecting in his own eyes. It actually felt more as if he could look right through her and could see her soul in order to unravel its dark and mysterious secrets. There always went a shiver down her spine. At times like that, she tried not to break eye contact with him, because she would only betray herself when she did so. At least, that was what if felt like. She was always more than glad when he stopped staring at her like that.

Moreover, it wasn't such a miracle that she felt so terribly depressed, for Kairi had been Yuffie's best friend forever. Yuffie had known her ever since Kairi could crawl. She had been two years older than Kairi, but neither of them had really cared. They had been buddies for life, until she had suddenly disappeared that horrible night when the Heartless invaded Hollow Bastion, and had never showed up again.

That only left one possibility, the painful one. She was...she couldn't even think the word. Years had passed, seasons had come and gone, but Yuffie's hope had become lesser and lesser after all these long and lonely years.

At that time, they both had long hair, so they looked alike. Some people had even thought that they were therefore sisters when they saw the two play together happily. Maybe that was why Sora had called her "Kairi" when he had met Yuffie for the first time. Yuffie made him think of her.

Yuffie's heart ached. She missed those times terribly, when everyone and everything was still normal and when she took everything for granted. It had been years ago when she could be young and carefree. Those times seemed to be so far away, almost like those times had not been real.

It would also never be as it was before, she was sure of that. Wars changed things, people's attitude towards...everything. But she now had to focus mainly on fighting off the Heartless and helping Sora as much as she could, because Sora was, and had the key to success and peace. He could restore everything back to the way it was first.

That was by the way something that Squall, who still liked to be called Leon, after all these years, was secretly jealous of. He never said anything about it, let alone admitting it in public, because he was probably afraid that Yuffie would tease him with that for the rest of his boring life. Boy, he really didn't underestimate her.

Yuffie sighed and looked up at the starry night sky. Every few seconds there was again a star that went out. She noticed that the speed of disappearing stars was now much slower than before, when Sora had not known anything about the Keyblade and was not trying to save all those worlds far away. Before she had met him, she couldn't count how many stars disappeared every five seconds, because there were too much that went out. This was an improvement, compared to first.

And yet she should ask him to tell something about that Kairi, his Kairi, when he came to Traverse Town again. Her appearance, for example. Maybe she really was the Kairi she once used to know. But to be honest, Yuffie didn't dare. She had no courage for it. She had been too often disappointed in life to try something new again. She did not want to get all her hopes on something, just to see how her only hope would shatter in thousands of small shards when her wished didn't come true.

She feared that this would just be one of the many mysteries in life that would remain unaddressed until she somewhere got the nerve to ask about it...but until that time she still had Squall to keep herself busy, so she actually had nothing to complain about so far.

A/N: Thanks for actually taking the time to read this! =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Let me know what you think of this one-shot