Chapter 1: Returning Home

"Sora! Riku!" screams a young woman with shoulder length auburn hair and wearing a short pink dress as she tries to stretch out her fingers to reach towards her childhood best friends, Sora and Riku, but the portal of darkness that she traveled through is closing at a rapid rate. As the portal completely closes, Kairi turns her head and looks around at her current location. She realizes that she is on her home world, Destiny Islands, a world of tropical trees and islands. Her scanning eyes land upon three of Sora and Riku's friends: King Mickey Mouse, an anthropomorphic mouse; Donald Duck, an anthropomorphic duck; and Goofy Goof, an anthropomorphic dog.

"Kairi, what happened?" squeaks King Mickey, the ruler of Disney Castle, with concern in his voice.

"I don't know, but the portal just…it just closed…" Kairi answers with despair in her voice.

"Your Majesty, what should we do?" quacks Donald, the Magician of Disney Castle's Royal Court, to King Mickey.

"Gee guys, I don't know, we're going to have to figure out a way to get back to Sora and Riku because they're going to need help fighting against Xemnas," King Mickey says with worry and concern.

"Sora and Riku are tough, they can hold their own against Xemnas," Kairi says with determination.

"But how can we get there, Your Majesty? A-hyuck," Goofy, the Captain of Disney Castle's Royal Guard, asks.

"I can signal for a gummi ship," King Mickey says with determination. He summons his keyblade, the Kingdom Key D, in his hand. Kingdom Key D is a keyblade that has a gold blade and silver handle. He points it to the sky and shouts "Light!" A beam of light shoots up from the tip and lights the sky up.

"Your Majesty, I'm ready to help Sora and Riku," Kairi says with determination. She stretches out her right hand and summons the flowery keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, that she got earlier from Riku to fight with on the World That Never Was. She twirls Destiny's Embrace around in her hand and she looks to the sky.

"Yeah, we're ready to help too," Donald quacks as he summons his staff, Save the Queen. Save the Queen is a staff with a purple handle with a golden heart for the end. He sets it over his shoulder and looks to the sky.

"A-hyuck, yes, we are," Goofy says as he summons his shield, Save the King. Save the King is a blue heart-shaped shield.

The four of them wait with high anxiety as they prepare for the gummi ship to arrive so that they can leave and help their friends fight their biggest foe.

"Look!" Kairi exclaims in surprise as two shooting stars come falling down from the sky and into the ocean close to the shore of Destiny Islands.

All four are so surprised from the sudden appearance of the two shooting stars that their perspective weapons disappear.

The two shooting stars that hit the ocean are two boys. One of the boys has brown spiky hair and is wearing a black and silver outfit. The other of the boys has long silver hair and is wearing a white shirt and blue pants.

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi exclaims as she realizes that the two shooting stars aren't just any boys, but her best friends.

Sora and Riku see Kairi waving at them from ashore and swim towards her. As they get in water they could stand in, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey run past Kairi and into the water, surprising the boys.

Goofy and Donald jump on Sora and knock him back into the water. Sora sits up as Goofy hugs him and Donald wipes his eye. King Mickey runs to Riku, who picks him up and spins him around. As Donald and Goofy hug Sora, they look at King Mickey and Riku, who are also hugging. Kairi giggles and smiles at the five friends. Sora takes out Kairi's star-shaped lucky charm that she lent him near the end of his first journey from his pocket. He looks up and suddenly Roxas, his blonde haired nobody, is him. Kairi feels that she is Naminé, her blonde haired nobody and smiles back at Roxas. Sora and Kairi feel like themselves instantaneously after they are temporarily possessed by their nobodies.

"W-We're back," Sora clears his eyes with the back of his fingerless gloved hand and says with a smile.

"You're home," Kairi holds out her hand and says with a returning smile and tears of joy coming down her face.

Sora grabs her hand with his as they both cup their hands around the lucky charm. Sora stands up and looks down at Kairi as he lets go of Kairi's good luck charm as he has returned it to her, its' rightful owner. Kairi pockets her good luck charm.

"I promised to return it to you," Sora grins.

"Yes, you did," Kairi says as she stares deeply into Sora's eyes.

Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and King Mickey walk ashore and King Mickey notices an anthropomorphic cricket is sitting in the hood of Sora's shirt. "Jiminy Cricket?" King Mickey clarifies.

Jiminy Cricket, the Royal Chronicler of Sora, Donald, and Goofy's adventures, hops out of Sora's hood and onto his shoulder.

"This has been one great adventure, Your Majesty, and I have a lot of things to tell you about what's happened ever since that fateful day that I wound up at your castle," Jiminy says with eagerness to Mickey.

"I am excited to hear about it," Mickey says with a smile.

"I am interested in hearing what happened too," Riku says.

"We'll help you, Jiminy, with telling them what happened in the first journey," Goofy says as Donald nods his head.

"Yup, we sure will," Donald says.

Sora is about to offer to help them when Kairi interrupts his chain of thought, "There's something I want to show you Sora. Do you mind coming with me to the Secret Place." The Secret Place is a cave on the island that Sora, Kairi, and Riku used to play and draw in when they were kids.

"Uh, sure," Sora says with a bit of confusion. He turns to the others and says casually, "Kairi and I are going to talk about something else. But we'll back in a few minutes." He reaches for Kairi's hand and grabs it.

Sora and Kairi walk to the cave's entrance, hand in hand, and Kairi gestures for Sora to go in. Sora ducks his head and enters the cave. Inside the cave, the walls have drawings that were clearly made by young children by using rocks to scrap them. One picture catches Sora's eye the most, it was one of the oldest pictures. The picture was of Sora and Kairi, when they were little they drew each other. The picture had two new additions to it in which it depicts that Sora and Kairi are giving each other a paopu fruit. The paopu fruit is a yellow star shaped delicacy on the world of Destiny Islands. He drew himself giving a paopu fruit to Kairi in the picture shortly before his first journey. Sora lightly brushes his fingers along the part that show's Kairi giving him a paopu fruit.

"I saw your addition to the drawing shortly after you closed Kingdom Hearts and I was returned home," Kairi says as she enters the cave.

"Kairi…" Sora says in awe.

"Sora, you and Riku have been my best friends since I first came to the islands. I have been having more feelings for you as each day goes by. Every time I needed you there, you always were there for me. You have fought Heartless, Nobodies, and the Organization to find me and protect me. Sora, I realized something that day that I first returned home, I don't want to live without you in my life. I love you," Kairi utters those three words with a whisper, but she knows that Sora was listening to every word she said.

Sora is taken aback by this revelation and doesn't say anything. The silence from Sora starts to make Kairi feel that she made a mistake and starts to tear up and turns to leave the cave. Kairi is stopped when Sora wraps his arms around her waist and whispers into her hair and back of her neck, "Please don't leave." He turns Kairi around and looks into her eyes with a soft look and continues, "I'm sorry for making you think that I don't return your feelings. I was just taken by surprise by hearing you say something I've only dreamed about hearing. I care about you greatly. You are my light, Kairi. I love you," Sora whispers the last three words as well, just for her and looks into her eyes.

The two share a lingering stare into each other's eyes. They feel drawn to each other, as magnets are drawn to metal. They know the time is right and move their heads to the side and share a passionate kiss. That kiss has all the love that Sora and Kairi have for each other. Both of their hearts melt to this first kiss. Sora wraps his arms around Kairi's waist as she wraps her arms around his neck.

"I love you Sora," Kairi says with a smile with her arms still around his neck.

"I love you Kairi," Sora returns with his own smile with his arms still around her waist.

Suddenly a strong ocean breeze hits the island. The breeze is so strong that it blew one of the paopu of its tree. The yellow star-shaped fruit comes in flying into the cave. Sora reflexively moves Kairi's body into his as he outstretches one of his hands to catch the fruit. He catches the fruit and he and Kairi are taken aback by this sudden event.

"'If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what'," Sora quotes the legend the paopu fruit with awe.

Sora and Kairi look at each other for only a brief moment. Then they both grab onto the fruit.

"On the count of three," Sora says.

"Ok. One."

"Two."

"Three," they both say and at the same time they take a bite out of the paopu fruit. The magic from the fruit starts to pulse through Sora and Kairi's body. They are stronger and they are now bonded for all eternity to each other.

"I love you," Sora says as he wipes the juice off of his mouth.

"I love you too," Kairi says as she moves in to kiss Sora again.

The couple shares another kiss, but this time magic and power is transferred between them. They both share the same power. They get interrupted from their kiss when Riku calls for them.

"Sora, Kairi, the gummi ship has arrived and the others are leaving soon," Riku announces to the new couple.

Sora and Kairi look at each other with a quick look and rush to get to where their friends are. When they get out of the cave, they are hand in hand, and Riku looks at them, shakes his head and chuckles.

"Good to see you two are finally together," Riku says with a smile as he leans against the side of the entrance to the Secret Place.

"How did you know?" Sora asks with disbelief.

"You two have been falling for each other for years, it was just a matter of time," Riku says with a smile to his dense best friend.

"Your Majesty, sorry about that," Kairi apologizes with a massive red blush on her face to King Mickey, who is walking with Donald and Goofy to the entrance of the Secret Place. Jiminy is sitting on Goofy's shoulder.

"You guys are fine, but we're going to head back home now, but if you ever need a gummi ship to come find us, just create a beacon of light," Mickey states to his friends. He turns to Donald and Goofy and realizes, "Where's Pluto?" Mickey asks inquiring about his dog that entered the portal first to arrive on Destiny Islands.

"Bark bark," barks the yellow dog, Pluto, as he comes running from another part of the island and arrives to Mickey's location.

"Okay now that all of us are here, I bid you all farewell and I will see you later," Mickey says with a smile as he, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy are teleported from the land to the ship.

Sora looks at the cockpit of the gummi ship and sees his two favorite gummi engineers, the chipmunks, Chip and Dale. He waves at his friends as they head back home. "It's good to be back at home," he says as he wraps one arm around Kairi's waist. Riku and Kairi join in on waving goodbye to the ship.

"Yeah," Riku says with a smirk.

"I wonder how long it'll be until we see them again," Kairi ponders.

"Not long, our friendships are something that will keep us united and bonded for a very long time," Sora says with a smile.

Meanwhile on the World That Never Was, a tall black cloaked figure arrives to the location where Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas. He looks at the location of the final battle and chuckles.

Author's Note: This is my first chapter for my version Kingdom Hearts III. But later on as the story truly begins, I will start using Jiminy Journal entries for characters at the end of each chapter once the main events start. For the next couple of chapters the story is going to be a giant prologue to the real story (similar to Roxas' story in Kingdom Hearts II). In the Chapter 2: The Message in a Bottle, Sora, Riku, and Kairi are adjusting back to living on Destiny Islands, when two weeks after returning, they receive a message from King Mickey. Read more to find out what that message is and more on who the mysterious man is. Thanks to Nf2752 for the tip with Sora's dialogue.