The next morning came all too quickly. Riku awoke, still holding the child in his arms, to the loud obnoxious chirping of birds and the ever-too-bright morning sunshine.
He assumed from the amount of sunshine that it was already close to noon. He sat up a little and looked down at the boy in his arms. He was kinda cute...
The boy had a pleasant smile on his face, as if having a really nice dream. His hands were clenched tightly around Riku's waist, as they had been when they had fallen asleep.
Finally Riku nudged the boy awake to ask him some questions.
"Hey..." Riku said as the boy awakened, "Hey...what's your name?"
The boy stirred a little bit more before answering.
"Dakota..." He finally mumbled, eyes still closed as if he forgot everything that happened and just wanted to go back to sleep.
"Ok...can I call you Cody?"
The boy took a minute, and then nodded.
"...are you feeling ok? I mean, does anything hurt?" Riku asked, taking into consideration that the boy could be injured. A consideration he completely spaced thinking about last night.
The boy shook his head and finally opened his eyes.
Riku's heart almost dropped into his stomach as he looked into those deep, ocean blue eyes. They seemed almost fake, they were so unusually...well, blue. And it didn't help that the kid was looking up at him with the most innocent expression.
"Ok...well...I'm going to get up now, ok? You can stay and sleep if you'd like...you must be...exhausted..." Riku said and slipped out of the sheet. The boy just curled up again and began to snore, which spread a little smirk on Riku's face.
Riku climbed down the ladder that led to the treehouse, and jumped into the sand. The sand was already unbearably hot, and he had to run to the shore to keep his feet from burning up. There were a couple of pieces of wood along the shoreline, that Riku hadn't noticed from the night before. He gathered everything from the boat that he could find, looking for anything that could give him an idea of where the kid came from. And of course, there was nothing.
After about two hours, as always Sora and Kairi rowed up in their rowboats. "Riku! What are you doing?" Kairi yelled.
Sora and Kairi ran up to Riku, who was surrounded by wood, nails, and a hammer.
"What's it look like?" Riku looked up, "I'm building a boat."
Sora and Kairi's mouths dropped open.
"RIKU! You can't-" Sora tried, but Riku held up a hand.
"There are other worlds out there, Sora, I have proof, and I'm going to find at least one." Riku said, and hammered another nail into a board.
"Proof?" Kairi mocked, "You have proof?"
Riku smiled, and looked up at the treehouse. "Hey Cody!"
Sora and Kairi stared up at the tree as a young boy holding a sheet poked his head out from the door.
"Wha-" Sora attempted to say, but couldn't finish.
As the yound boy began to wander his way down the ladder, Riku explained.
"I accidentally fell asleep here and I woke up to the kid screaming." he told them the story. Sora and Kairi were speechless.
Riku was finishing up as the boy approached, "And even without him, we had proof when Kairi showed up, remember?"
Sora and Kairi nodded in unison. Kairi had showed up suddenly on the island a few years ago, and was adopted by one of the families on Destiny Islands.
"Cody...I'd like to introduce you to my friends. This is Sora, and this is Kairi." Riku said as the young boy grabbed onto Riku's hand.
Cody held up the sheet to his face, as if either nervous, scared, or both.
Sora smiled and knelt down, "Hey there, Cody." This seemed to frighten the boy even more, because he held the sheet over his head and stepped behind Riku.
Sora frowned and Kairi giggled, "You scared him..." She laughed.
"I...I just want to find him his home again..." Riku said, hammering another nail.
Sora and Kairi nodded, understandingly. The boat looked really good too for a teenager's work. It actually looked like it might float. It was small though, and it looked like it might only hold two people.
Sora knew which two, also. Riku and Cody. He knew because Riku was pissed about last night, and that since Sora and Kairi hadn't been supportive, they didn't get to take part.
Sora frowned as he realized this, and looked down at the sand, shuffling his feet. He wanted to go...
Kairi knew better, she thought, and decided she didn't care if she couldn't go. It would be safer to stay on the island anyway. She'd miss them like hell if they left...but...her heart was still in love with the islands.
Sora reached down and picked up the can of nails and a wooden plank. He knelt down and held up the plank to where Riku needed it, and handed Riku a nail. Riku gave a smirk, realizing Sora wanted to help.
Riku didn't think he could bring Sora with, but with the help, he could get the boat done in half the time.
Kairi walked over to Cody and knelt down on her knees.
"Hey there, Cody. Do you want some candy?" she smiled, and seemed to have caught the boy's attention. The boy peeked out from behind the sheet. She pulled out of her pocket a small, wrapped piece of candy and held it out to him. The boy took it happily and popped it in his mouth. He grinned widely and giggled, as if it had been the first piece of candy he'd ever eaten.
"Riku, he must be hungry. How about I run home and get him some food?" she asked.
Riku nodded, "Sure."
Kairi ran to her rowboat and rowed home. Sora stayed and helped Riku work on the boat. Right now it was shaped like a canoe. Riku needed to build the walls higher, and put a roof and a mass on it. Half of the boat would be covered, in case of rain or thunderstorms, and half would be open.
About a half hour later, Kairi came back with sandwhiches, grapes, strawberries, cookies, chips, and lemonade for everybody. She was always good with picknicks and things like that. She even brought a large blanket for them to sit on, and a cooler filled with ice to put in the lemonade and to keep the grapes and strawberries cold.
When Dakota saw the food he immediately jumped out of his sheet and darted towards Kairi. He was still in nothing but his boxers. Kairi and Sora laughed as they joined the young boy on the blanket.
"C'mon, Riku, take a break and have some food. You're usually the first one to the blanket, right?" Sora giggled in his usual innocent tone.
Riku stopped hammering and took in a deep breath. He sighed, and set down the hammer. He made his way over to the blanket and collapsed in the sand. "Hand me some grub." He laughed. They smiled, even Dakota.
After devouring the food, Riku went back to work, Sora helped, and Kairi played with Dakota. She had taken Dakota around the island, and showed him everything there except the secret place. She wasn't sure he was part of the group yet, and hadn't consulted Riku or Sora about it yet.
She showed him around, and afterwards took him to the shore to play in the sand. She started showing him how to build a sandcastle. It was just a small one, but it seemed to entertain the kid just as easily.