For warm. Summer. nights contest (again sixth entry) and it's Riku-Kairi-Sora (au) I really like how this turned out. Apply disclaimers and leave a review.

Kairi was just a girl, a girl that just randomly appeared on their island, or at least that's what Riku thought about her. He was only seven when his best friend had presented her to him; the silver haired boy was not impressed, no he was rather jealous— who did this girl think she was? She hadn't been there when Sora had lost his first tooth, or they found the secret spot—plus she was a girl; a stupid pretty girl. Like all the OTHER stupid pretty girls; Riku expected that she would want them to play dress up—instead of pirates and would want to play house. Riku despised house and would rather watch educational television whilst eating tofu than play house—he was set to show her the door.

Sora adored her, his mouth full of Kairi this and Kairi that. . . . So Riku smiled and went along; and like always Riku was right. Kairi was just a tad different than OTHER girls, because Kairi adored pirates and hated house, but there was something she did love. Dressing up; playing pretend, but her game was different and though Riku would never admit to anyone; he liked it. Kairi was the princess much to Sora's grievance; he was quite fond of wearing his mother's heels, but not the damsel in distress princess, she was pretending to be a pirate. She was pretending to be a pirate because she was hiding from the evil Riku, who was taking young girls that matched Kairi's description. Sora was mashed into the mess because the evil Riku had stolen his sister, thus he and Kairi teamed up to take Riku down. Riku liked playing the bad guy, he and Sora always used to be the heroes in Selphie's games, which was when she would try to plant a kiss on one of them.

Kairi was different from other girls, she played in the mud, would hit Riku but never Sora, if he made her mad and she would NEVER try to plant a kiss on him. Riku started to like Kairi, it soon became Sora-Kairi-Riku instead of just Sora-Riku, they were always together the three of them. They would all show up at their little island, and then start their game from where they had left off from the day before. Riku began to forget that Kairi hadn't always been there, that she was an outsider. Soon time passed so that Kairi was in every one of his childhood memories. They had always been together, always, until he came along. Riku was fourteen, seven years older and seven years wiser, so when he saw a fiery red head with a magnifying glass trying to roast a sea turtle, he generally steered away.

"What are you doing?" Kairi asked him.

He looked up at her, his green eyes filled with melancholy and fatigue; he stood up towering over all three of them. "Trying to make lunch, what's it to you?"

"You know that only works on ants."

"Have you ever tried it on a sea turtle?"

"Well, no."

"Alrighty then, you just leave me…to…my lunch…which has wandered off. . . . Alright princess, you owe me a meal" he grabbed her arm, dragging her away before Sora or Riku could do anything.

Sora looked at Riku with a look asking if they could take him, Riku watched him take Kairi away for a moment; he was taller then both Sora and Riku. He was much skinner then them too, and he didn't look strong—but Riku wondered if they'd be a way to take him down without taking Kairi with him. It didn't seem possible, so Riku shook his head.

"I guess we'd better follow them."

Axel, was the beast's name, he was nineteen and had washed up on the shore; like Kairi had. Only Kairi didn't have a cocky grin, or nonchalant attitude, no Kairi was sweet and kind, girls like her didn't hang out with drifters like Axel. Kairi liked him, like Sora had liked her, so Riku gave him a chance; despite the fact that Sora said he had evil written all over his face. Axel didn't dig the whole kid scene; as a matter of fact a lot of stuff that they USED to do they had to stop because Kari insisted it was too juvenile. Riku always wanted to remind her that she still was a kid, but he kept him mouth shut; watching as Kairi fell further and further away from them. It was Axel this and Axel that, Riku found it hard to see what she saw in him, but Kairi was so allured by him that she didn't feel the need to explain.

Sora noticed it first; Kairi smoking, Kairi wearing too much makeup and Kairi wearing ostentatious clothes, the change that Riku stayed blind to, because he didn't want to see it. Sora watched his best friend fall down, chaining them down with her, so he pulled away, taking Riku with him. They would go to the beach, but stopped waiting for her; they would make small talk with her and Axel but wouldn't hang out with them. Sora thought this would make her realize what she had become, and maybe the old Kairi would come back crying to them, asking for them to forgive her. He was wrong; he learned that the hard way when he had found the note.

"Riku!" he screamed, running off the beach with note in hand. "Riku!" he yelled again, off the beach and into town. "Riku!" his yell more frustrated than the last, tears burning his vision through the town and into Riku's house falling to his knees. "Riku…" he cried.

Nobody had answered his call because there was nobody there, Riku was gone.

Their friendship was broken; Riku couldn't protect them from it; so he ran away, leaving Sora all alone to face the world. Kairi had changed and Riku was gone. Sora's chest ached, like someone had pulled out his heart, crying, hoping that Riku would come in and pick him up like he ALWAYS did. Riku wasn't there to pick anyone up, he was gone and Sora realized that he wasn't coming back this time. He had noticed Kairi's problem straight away, but Riku hid his so well that you would need a magnifying glass to see. Sora felt guilty he had always just assumed that Riku didn't have problems, because Kairi was the one who always needed saving not Riku. Now, Riku was gone and Kairi had Axel, so who was left to save him, from his misery; they're broken friendship.

"Sora…" Kairi whispered, she was standing in the doorway—her makeup smeared and her normal attire changed with a basketball jersey and shorts. "He isn't really…gone?" she choked on the last words; she wanted to hear that IT wasn't true.

Sora just looked at her, hatred in his expression. "Why don't you just go talk to your adult friend, because we're—"he stopped, for the first time he wasn't a we, he was just him, alone without Riku or Kairi. Riku was gone; he escaped, but Kairi. . . Kairi had been gone for a longer time. Sora was at a loss for what to do. . . .He knew one thing he needed to get out of the room and away from Kairi. Sora didn't know what to do; he couldn't just tell them that he had to go take his bath, game over, because this wasn't a game, it was real.

Riku was REALLY gone.

Sora couldn't get over that, no matter how many times he told himself that; because Riku was always there, they were like two peas in a pod. Never, ever apart. Then it hit him, he knew exactly what to do, because Kairi didn't need him anymore and Riku did. He had to go find him, save him from. . . . Sora thought about it, could he really help Riku? It was always Riku helping him, not Sora helping Riku, because Riku didn't have problems, he was invincible or that's what Sora thought.

Sora sat down, on the beach they, Kairi-Riku-Sora, had played on, where it had all started and where it had all broken. Sora closed his eyes, trying to remember the good times when it was just the three of them; happy and together. Now they were miserable and broken, more so than Sora could ever realize. He wished he could turn back time and stop Kairi from wandering over to the guy with the magnifying glass and just walk away. He lay down, cracking something in the process; the noise frighten him—he jumped up and turned to see what ELSE he had broke. He brushed his fingers over the sand only to get pricked by glass, he carefully removed the item from the sand. Axel's magnifying glass, Sora scowled. Had it been there this WHOLE year? He threw it back into the sand, angered by what had caused his whole world to crash down, taking the ones he loved with it.

Kairi watched Sora go, the anger she saw in his eyes was enough to show he didn't want her with him, so she stood in Riku's house alone. She cried, hating that Riku had left because of her, he didn't say in his letter; but the friendship they had was broken and gone. It was her fault; her change, she knew that much, she was all alone now, because she had thought Axel was like her and she was wrong. She had realized it too little, too late. She wondered where Riku had gone, probably off on his boat on to a different island. He always used to say they'd get away together, the three of them. She remembered she had laughed then, she didn't want to leave the paradise she had called home, but now. . . . She was so sick of it, she would swim off the island if she had the strength.

She had left her friends; looking for something better but there was nothing better than Riku and Sora. She wished she could have seen that, the way Riku would look at her sometimes, when she would talk about Axel. Or how Sora would shake his head in disappointment when she would enter a room, she wished she could have stopped herself from changing. She was just a girl; too curious for her own good, always protected by her best friends. Riku was gone and Sora hated her—who was she to turn to now? Certainly not Axel; who only wanted one thing out of her now, nor Selphie; who had called her a slut so many times she couldn't count. Sora or Riku never said or asked anything bad from her; they just let her be Kairi, something she took for granted. She wanted to fix what she had broken, but she wasn't sure where to start.

Riku hadn't wanted to leave, but he didn't have a choice in his mind. He couldn't protect them, anymore. He had left his goodbyes in their mailboxes and was ready to set out into the world, at least that's what he told himself. He wanted to take them with him, that way they could just start over. But Riku knew that only Sora would come, only a constant reminder how he couldn't save Kairi. They would be fine without him, because neither of them needed him anymore; he was just a constant reminder of the past. Maybe he could come back one day, and fix the broken friendship. But now, he was going to escape it before it crashed.

He hated himself for it. He couldn't bring himself to face the facts, that Kairi had changed and Sora had hated what she had become. That would mean he would have to choose someone, forever breaking they're friendship and he wasn't STRONG enough to handle it. He paddled at to sea, not too excited to visit the worlds unknown, he just wanted to runaway from it; their friendship which was beyond repair. They could only be seen with a magnifying glass at first, but now; you would need a boulder to hide it. He was scared, because he didn't want to LOSE Sora or Kairi; but he had already lost them, Sora so caught in fixing Kairi and Kari so caught up in growing up. They didn't notice that Riku was drifting away, that he was gone.

Someday he would come back, they could start over, pretend that YEAR didn't happen, but Riku wondered how long the game of pretend could last, until someone had to grow up.