Awkward was the only word he could think of to describe the situation. Here he was, standing in front of Kairi, both of them with their keyblades drawn, ready to begin their first sparring lesson together, and all he could think about was how he still hadn't apologized for kidnapping her back when he'd been Axel.

Sure, he'd been acting on Riku's directions to take her someplace safe because they'd known that the Organization would come after her sooner or later, but the way he'd gone about it had not made that clear at all. He'd tried to tell her after he'd grabbed her in Twilight Town, but then Saix had showed up... And now he still hadn't had any opportunity to explain it to her, much less to apologize.

All he could feel was guilt and that made him decide that now was as good a time as any to do so.

"Hey, Kairi... About what happened, you know, when I kidnapped you... Riku had asked me to bring you to him, to keep you safe, but I never had a chance to explain that and my behaviour was really shitty and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." He spoke quickly, barely looking at her when he did and it was only when he'd finished that he actually looked at her properly. She had an unreadable expression on her face and she wasn't saying anything.

Lea sighed, his shoulders slumping as he looked down on the ground. Great, she hates me. Can't really blame her though...

Suddenly Kairi charged at him with her keyblade raised, catching him completely off guard. He just barely managed to raise his keyblade in time to block her attack, but his balance was seriously off and he stumbled backwards from the impact.

Lea had more fighting experience than she did, but when it came to keyblade wielding he became pretty damn certain that she must have sparred before—probably with Sora and Riku—unlike Lea who had only trained by himself and with dummies.

Kairi didn't relent. She just kept coming at him, attacking him with surprising strength and speed. If she hadn't caught him so terribly off guard they would have been much more evenly matched, but as it was now he didn't have a chance at all to withstand her blows and eventually he tripped over his own legs and fell to the ground. He landed on his ass with an embarrasingly loud thud and he was sure that he saw Yen Sid hide a smile behind his hand as he watched over them from a slight distance.

Man, how embarrassing, he thought miserably. He looked up and was surprised to be met by Kairi's smiling face and her outstretched hand.

"I forgive you," she said.

"You do?"

"Yeah."

Lea smiled back at her and took her hand, letting her help him to his feet. It must've looked comical, considering how much taller he was than her, but Lea was just happy and relieved to have her forgiveness.

He didn't let go of her hand just yet and looked right at her. "Friends?"

"Friends," she agreed, nodding.

Satisfied, Lea let go of her hand and got back into his fighting stance, grinning teasingly. "So, how about we do that again? And no cheating this time!"

Kairi laughed. "That wasn't cheating! You're just mad I made you fall on your butt—something I intend to repeat!"

"Hah! We'll see about that!"

And with that, Lea felt a bit lighter, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders from the simple act of being forgiven. All the weights had not been lifted yet—there were still people he needed to apologize to and he wasn't so sure they were going to be as forgiving, but he intended to do everything in his power to make sure he made it up to them and then some. That was the least he could do, after all.