A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this one shot, which takes place during KH2. Enjoy reading!


~ "Maybe...waiting isn't good enough." ~


Kairi walked slowly on the beach at Destiny Islands, being deep in thought, as always when she came here. She did it every day, so it had now become some sort of secret ritual for her. She had so much to think about, especially since she still hadn't got any answer back after she had sent that bottle with a letter into the sea. Maybe he hadn't found it yet. Maybe he would never find it.

She paused and stood still, now she had full views of the islands where she often had played with, Riku, as a child, and him, Sora, the boy she couldn't stop thinking of. She missed him more than was possible, and bearable. It felt almost as if she was missing an important part of her life, even though she knew almost nothing about him, well, except for his name and a promise that he had made some long time ago, to come back to her.

She was alone today just like every other day, but she didn't mind in the least. Selphie always tried to cheer her up as much as she could. Sometimes helped, sometimes not. But at least she tried. Everyone she knew did their best to keep her happy. They were all so nice to her, probably feeling sorry for her.

But it was just too much for her to bear. Her patience was gone, along with the lively spirit she once had. And here she was again, waiting for him, every day, like so many people seemed to do in the ancient Greek mythology.

She frankly didn't really like these stories, but Selphie just couldn't stop talking about it. So now she knew almost every story by heart. The father of a certain Theseus had even jumped off a cliff when he had seen a ship with black sails.

For him it had been the sign that his son was dead, when in fact he had been perfectly healthy. Jumping off a cliff herself went a bit too far for her, but she thought she had to do at least something, otherwise she would get crazy, being kept on these islands as some sort of prisoner. What if he didn't come back to her after all? What if he needed her now? What if he had been expecting that she would do more than just waiting all day? What if...

"Maybe...waiting isn't good enough," she brooded aloud.

"My thoughts exactly!" a male voice boomed almost immediately in agreement. "If you have a dream, don't wait. Act."

She turned around, a shocked expression appearing on her face at once, while she tried to find the source of the sound. It seemed to be everywhere around her. A portal or pure darkness appeared in front of her, while the voice kept talking.

"One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?"

A man with bright green eyes and wild, poisonous red spikes - not like her hair color, auburn, though. His was bright red. Red like blood - appeared out of the black portal, wearing a black coat. He had small black tattoos under his remarkable eyes. He was around 21 years and he looked very thin.

The tone of his voice was a bit playful, but it was very pleasant to the ears. Why did she have the strange feeling that she had ever seen this man before and even had known him? Was it pure coincidence or could it be possible that she knew him from her previous residence?

"Who are you?" she asked, surprised.

Her instincts screamed "Danger! Don't get any nearer!" Her legs didn't receive this message, though, so she stayed there, waiting for a reply from the stranger. She was so taken aback by him that she didn't notice how the sea lapped at her shoes. The water invaded her thin shoes and made her feet wet, but she didn't care now.

"Axel. I happen to be an acquaintance or Sora's. Why don't we go see him?"

He sounded serious. He reached his hand out toward her, as if he wished she would take it.

"Sora?" she asked, doubtfully, as if she wasn't entirely sure if they were talking about the same person.

She could finally really see him again? For her, it was like a dream coming true. She knew very well that this was her only chance, so she had to take it, right? Something deep in the back of her mind tried to warn her that one should never go somewhere with strangers, but what could possibly go wrong? She seemed to be in a trance by his voice.

Her stream of thoughts were immediately roughly interrupted when she heard the barking of a dog. She gasped and turned around. A large yellow dog with black ears and a green collar around his neck came running towards her, barking once again.

Once he had reached her, he began chasing his own thin, black tail. Kairi put her hands on her knees and bowed to the dog. Where had he come from? She had never seen him on the Islands before. He stopped his antics, barked back at her and wagged his tail. He was panting and his pink tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

Aw, what a sweet thing, she thought.

She truly loved dogs. Her experience with dogs was that one got never bored with a dog around. She found it such a pity she didn't have one.

Suddenly the dog turned up and froze on the spot almost immediately when four silver-gray things - she had no better name for it - appeared around him and Kairi, having black stripes here and there. The dog barked at them.

Kairi had never seen anything strange. They were not animals, but certainly not humans, either. It was something in between. They didn't seem to stop moving, even for a split of a second to stop and the creatures moved to and fro, in a strange way, as if they were performing some kind of dance. They sure were flexible enough to do so.

They had no face, nor fingers on their "hands," but a white symbol of...something was imprinted on their heads, like a tattoo. They also made funny noises when they moved. It sounded as of rubber or marbles (one of the two) was being rubbed hard against each other.

Had Axel been the one who had summoned these figures out of hell? Then they sure promised no good. She could also tell that from the low growling of the dog. Suddenly she heard a high whistle. She turned around to see who - or maybe what - was causing it. Not more monsters?

Another portal appeared behind her, the colors black, purple and blue were dominating, but no one stepped out of it. Before Kairi could do something, the dog ran toward the black portal, away from her.

Before he ran in it, though, he stopped and turned around to face her. He barked back at her, with his tail wagging, as if to say she should follow him. Behind her came the voice of Axel again, the voice she had started to hate with a passion, because she knew now that it was a voice of someone she couldn't trust.

"We've got something in common, Kairi. You and I both miss someone we care about. Hey...I feel like we're friends already."

Kairi didn't bother to turn around and look at him. With a grunt, she ran away from him, toward the black portal. When the dog saw that she came to him, he ran into the black portal.

She turned around and while running, retorted, "You're not acting very friendly!"

After this she run after the dog. She trusted him more than that Axel-figure, for dogs were man's best friend and pretty much the most loyal creatures that existed so far. She knew this for sure, because Selphie had a dog.

She came to a place that was total strange for her. Around her was nothing else, but various shades of blue, gray, white and silver, along with those strange symbols that she had also seen on the heads of those silver-like creatures. She looked around.

"Hey, what is this place?"

She said it to no one in particular, for the dog couldn't answering her question and the place was also deserted. She heard the shrill whistle again and now knew that someone was calling the dog. But who and where was he?

A bright white light appeared ahead, framed by the color red. The dog already run into it. Then it was safe enough to follow him, because she was almost certain that this dog could smell danger. She decided to follow him before the light would disappear. The light was warm and felt very comfortable on the skin, as if the sun that warmed your skin.

Almost as though she felt someone staring at her, she turned to where she had stood at first. She gasped for breath when she saw someone standing there, wearing a black cloak just like that Axel. Only this person didn't attempt to come closer to her. It even felt like he wasn't Axel, but someone else. Someone she knew, because she got a strange gnawing feeling.

Had he been the one who had whistled? It was quite possible. But the hole had already closed before she could ask him anything. Not that she had planned to. Then she felt how she slowly slipped away from consciousness. The dog was nowhere to be seen and soon it was black all around her.


A/N: Thanks for reading this =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Let me know what you think of this one-shot. And to make some things clear: Theseus was a hero of the Greek mythology. Old-Greek is one of our school subjects, so I couldn't resist putting this in it. And it kinda fitted with the plot.