First of all, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read my fanfic. I really appreciate it. This is the only fanfic I have ever written thus far, so I understand it may not be very good. However, I am also working on two novels of my own, and a series of books. I hope to have all of them published one day, but I know that my writing skills need ALOT of work. I would greatly appreciate it if you took the time to give me a review on myfanfic so that I can become a better writer and achieve my goal. I also write poetry and short stories that I write for fun and would possibly like to improve on as well, so just let me know if you're interested in reading any of that. For now, this is all I'm going to put up and I hope you like it! More to come!! :)

P.S: Another thing about this fanfic- I was on a forum of a Kingdom Hearts website when I wrote this, and I had a great idea. I told the people of that website that if they made a character, I would include it in my story. So, all of these original characters are not mine. Every original character in this story belongs to it's respective owner. Just a disclaimer. -

Chapter One

"Aww… Do you guys have to go…?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah… The king needs our help," Riku replied. "We have to help him in any way we can." Sora saw that Kairi looked upset.

"Don't worry. We'll be back before you know it!" He said and smiled, giving her a thumbs up. Kairi seemed a bit more cheerful and a small smile grew on her face.

"Just try and be careful…" She said. Sora nodded.

"We will!" He said, grinning happily.

The waves were crashing against the beach as the sun began to rise over the horizon. The palm trees on Destiny Islands were swaying gently in the breeze. Sora, Kairi and Riku were standing in the middle of the beach, saying their goodbyes as they began to board a gummi ship, which had Leon and Yuffie waiting inside. Once again, Sora and Riku had received a letter from the king. It had given strict orders that Kairi was not to go with them on this journey, as it would surely be a dangerous one and Kairi was a princess of heart. They could not afford to let her heart be taken again.

"Did the letter say anything about what you'd be doing…?" Kairi asked. She was beginning to get worried.

"No… Nothing…" Riku said, thinking hard about what the letter had said.

"He just asked for us to meet him in Hollow Bastion and that it's too dangerous to take you with us…" Sora remarked, thinking hard about the letter as well. He could see that Kairi was worried. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll be back soon, safe and sound… I promise," He said and smiled soothingly Kairi smiled back.

"Thanks, Sora…" She said.

Riku looked over towards the dock. "Hey, Rinn! You ready to go?" He called, grinning.

"Yeah!" A voice called from the dock. A girl was running towards them, her short, brown hair blowing lightly as she ran over and stood next to Sora, panting. "Sorry I took so long… Mom wanted to make sure that I'd be okay…" She said and giggled. She looked over at Riku, blushing a bit and looking down when she saw that he was looking at her. "So are we ready to go yet? I can't wait!" Rinn said excitedly, jumping up and down anxiously.

"Not yet… We've still got to wait for Kaori," Riku said, looking at Sora as if it was his fault for her being late. "You did tell her to meet us at the beach by 5 o'clock, right?" He asked.

"Of course I did!" Sora replied. "She said she had to take care of something before we left, though." He looked around. "I wonder what she's up to…" He thought aloud. Kairi looked around, too.

"You guys can't keep the king waiting for too long…" She said, not wanting them to be late. "Maybe you should leave without her…"

"Leave without me? Yeah right! Like I would miss an opportunity like this!" A voice said from behind Kairi. A girl with short, black hair had shown up and was smiling. Her long skirt was flowing in the breeze and her bright, brown eyes seemed to glimmer in the morning sun. She was holding a small bag in her hands. "I didn't think that any of you had had breakfast yet, so I picked up something to take with us," She said and smiled. Rinn skipped over to Kaori and looked at the bag.

"That was sweet of you!" She said and smiled. Then, she turned back to Sora and Riku. "C'mon! Let's go now!" She said excitedly, dashing over to the gummi ship. "Hurry up, slowpokes!"

Riku laughed and ran after her.

"Alright, alright!" He shouted and stopped, turning back towards the rest of the group. "Come on, Kaori!" He shouted to her and got into the gummi ship. Kaori walked over to the gummi ship but then stopped, turning to face Sora.

"You coming…?" She asked, tilting her head.

"I'll be there in a second…" He said and smiled. Kaori nodded and walked over to the ship.

"Don't take too long, though," She said before boarding the ship. Sora nodded and turned to Kairi.

Smiling, he reached into his pocket and took out a small item.

"Here… I made this for you," He said and handed it to her. It was a small necklace made of seashells. Thalassa shells to be exact. "I thought you might like it… I just wanted to show you that I'll keep my promises. One day we will explore the worlds together…" He said and turned, running towards the ship. Kairi was blushing now.

"Thanks, Sora…" She said and smiled. Sora turned to her while he was running and waved.

"Bye!" He shouted as he ran onto the ship, the door closing behind him. Kairi gripped the necklace tightly in her hands and waved goodbye as the ship flew up and out of view.

"Bye… Sora…" She said.