Missing

Kairi woke up on Sora's bed. She was snuggling one of the pillows as she remembered what happened overnight.

Sora laid on his back on his bed with his hands folded behind his head. Kairi was lying on the floor next to Sora's bed on some blankets he had laid out for her. Sora heard a gasp and looked down to see Kairi shivering. Sora looked at Kairi confused.

"Um, Kairi? Are you cold?" Kairi nodded. Sora rolled on his side staring at the shivering girl. "How? It's nice tonight. It always is. Are you not used to it?"

Kairi looked up at Sora. What could she say? 'I've lived in the Palace where the temperature is the same constantly and I'm not used to the shift of warm to cold during night?'

Kairi stared towards her feet. "I uh…"

"Is it warmer where you're from?" Sora watched Kairi silently nod. Kairi heard shifting and looked behind to see Sora moved over and left room on his bed. Sora patted the empty space next to him on the bed. Kairi's eyes widened. 'I've never slept next to a male before…'

Sora looked at Kairi; reading her eyes. "Kairi I'm not going to hurt you. I'll stay on this side and you can have this half. Besides the beds warmer than the floor, not to mention more comfy."

Kairi still was torn. She was a little scared of Sora due to the whole 'I hate the princess' thing…but he's safe now…right? Kairi slowly stood up and stared at Sora. Sora stared at her, unsure of what to do or say. He found her beautiful but he just met her so he decided to act cool.

Kairi fidgeted a bit. "You won't…hurt me will you?"

Sora stared at Kairi shocked. "N-No?" Sora shook his head. "No, of course not. Why would I?" Kairi looked to her feet once more. "Kairi…I promise I won't hurt you." Kairi looked into Sora's eyes which she could surprisingly make out very well in the dark room. His blue cerulean eyes shown through the dark room like Christmas lights. She could also faintly make out a frown on his face. Kairi slowly walked closer to the bed and placed her knee on the blankets. Sora moved back father to give her more space. Kairi then got onto the bed and laid down with her back facing Sora. Kairi closed her eyes tight trying to ignore Sora looking at her. Sounds of Sora turning on his side were heard so Kairi glanced back to see nothing but Sora's back. Kairi sighed and turned back around. Truth was that she was not only scared of Sora finding out who she was, but she was terrified of Agrabah. This is her first time being out of the Palace and she's scared of walking around corners and angry merchants and thieves. Kairi turned on her side to face Sora's back. Even though she was staring at the back of his head, she felt better already about being outside the city. Kairi closed her eyes feeling warmer than before when she was on the floor.

Kairi stared at the empty spot where Sora was. Kairi sat up to have a blanket fall off of her. Kairi grabbed the fabric realizing that Sora must've placed it on her sometime during the night or morning. Kairi looked over to see Aladdin going through the sack of food. Aladdin looked up and smiled.

"Morning!"

Kairi nodded. "Good Morning." Kairi glanced around the room. "Aladdin? Where's Sora?"

Aladdin took out an apple and walked over to hand it to Kairi. "Out doing who knows what. He'll come back though."

Kairi stared at the apple in her hands. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why does Sora hate the Princess? I know it has something to do with the past, but what exactly?"

Aladdin sighed and told Kairi the whole story. "…Later after he ran, Sora went back home only to find them gone. He ran into one of the merchants who told him that his parents were hung. Sora was alone with no one there. He had to fend for himself and grew up knowing how to tolerate some things over others. How to make hard choices and the consequences that come with it. Ever since then though, he's wanted nothing more than to find the Princess and well…kill her."

Kairi shook at hearing the story. Had she really done that? That's impossible…how could she have? She was so young…

"K-Kill her?"

Aladdin nodded then smiled. "I don't think he'll go through with it though when he finds her."

Kairi looked at Aladdin confused. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sure when he finds out who she is he will contemplate his options." Aladdin turned towards Kairi and winked. "Right Princess?"

Kairi's eyes widened. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

Aladdin walked closer to Kairi and knelt in front of her sitting form on the bed. "Don't worry, your secrets safe with me."

Kairi frowned. "How'd you know…?"

Aladdin smiled. "Easy. You have the same name, you are the same age and not to mention when Sora found you there was not even a speck of dirt on you."

Kairi stood up violently making Aladdin fall on his butt only to stare up at Kairi. Kairi kneeled down to Aladdin and clasped her hands together and pleaded the boy.

"Please! Don't tell Sora! I'm afraid he'll hurt me!" Aladdin started to laugh. Kairi stared at the boy angry. "What's so funny?"

"You aren't afraid of Sora! If you were, the second he said he despised the Princess you would've booked it outta here."

Kairi realized what Aladdin was saying was true. "But…when he finds out…"

Aladdin grabbed Kairi's arms and got into a kneeling position. "Kairi, trust me. I won't tell him and if you leave all that behind he's not going to figure it out. Give it time to where you're comfortable to tell him yourself. If you wait it out, your friendship will be greater and he might not even touch you harshly when you tell him. He might be pissed for awhile but I bet you that he won't lay a finger on you."

Kairi smiled at Aladdin's words but then frowned. "The key word is 'Might'. He might not hurt me."

"If he does I'll punch him!" Aladdin looked around and whispered into Kairi's ears. "Just don't let Abu know. He can't keep a secret at all." Kairi nodded then looked around.

"Aladdin, where is Abu?"

"I think he went with Sora."

Kairi and Aladdin spent the day together waiting for Sora and Abu to return. The sun was starting to set when Sora and Abu have returned. Aladdin saw Kairi turn white as Sora made eye contact with her. Aladdin nudged Kairi making her look at him and winked. Abu ran over to Aladdin and jumped on his shoulder.

"Hey! Where'd you two go?"

Sora started walking over to Aladdin. "Well first we got more food then we just started messing around with people. Plus I was searching."

"Searching for what?"

Sora smiled. "The Princess." Aladdin noticed Kairi's frozen expression.

Aladdin looked up at Sora. "What do you mean searching?" Sora opened his bag and handed a newspaper to Aladdin. The front page headline was in big, bold letters.

"PRINCESS GOES MISSING!''

Sora looked down at Aladdin. "She's outside the city walls. Now's my chance. That little runaway is not going to get very far."

Aladdin stood up. "Sora, drop it. It was the past!"

Sora stared at Aladdin. "You are kidding me. She killed my parents!"

"Sora, Kairi's now here. She's uncomfortable with you talking about this."

"Why?"

"You're freaking her out and scaring her. Keep this 'Princess Business' to yourself."

Sora looked down to Kairi to see her hiding from Sora's stare. Aladdin walked towards the window with Abu on his shoulder. "I'm going to sight see." Aladdin left with Abu, leaving Sora and Kairi alone together. Sora continued looking at Kairi and felt bad. Sora got on knees and crouched next to Kairi.

"Kairi?"

Kairi turned her face to look at Sora to see his face filled with regret. Kairi smiled thinking there was some sort of hope to him not freaking out when he finds out about her little secret. Sora noticed Kairi's smile and returned with his. Sora held out his hand to her and Kairi softly took it as Sora helped her up. Sora – not letting go of Kairi's hand – started to walk to the window.

"W-Where are we going?"

"You'll see." Sora let go of Kairi's hand and bent his knees in front of Kairi. "Jump on."

"What?"

"On my back." Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora's neck and jumped on his back. When she was on Sora stood up. "Don't let go." Sora carefully got through the window and slowly scaled down the brick wall to the ground. When he hit the ground, Kairi got off his back and Sora took her hand once more and they walked on.

Their walked continued till they left Agrabah's walls and into the desert. Kairi looked at Sora shocked. "Where are we going?"

Sora tightened his grip on Kairi's hand. "Don't worry; it's not far into the dessert. It's a surprise." They walked 15 minutes farther into the desert and stood on top on a tall sand dune.

Sora turned towards Kairi. Night had fallen over the desert. "Kairi, what are we standing on?"

Kairi looked to the sand then to Sora raising her eyebrow. "Uh, a sand dune?"

Sora smiled and led her to the bottom of the sand dune and she noticed there was a small sand tunnel through the sand dune. Kairi saw wooden planks forming the tunnel to prevent sand from covering the small tunnel. Sora looked at Kairi excited. "Go through." Kairi looked at Sora worried. Sora smiled. "Alright, I'll go first." Sora crawled through the small tunnel and shouted to Kairi when he was through. Kairi timidly crawled after Sora.

"Sora?" Kairi called out worried.

"It's ok. I've got you." Kairi saw Sora's hand extent towards her and she took it only to exit the tunnel and meet Sora. Sora helped her up and smiled. "Welcome to my little hideout."

Kairi looked and was shocked and surprised at what she saw. She was inside a cave!

"How is this possible?"

Sora took her hand and led her further into the cave. The top of the cave was lit up with small crystals. "This used to be an obvious cave but because of all of the Sand Storms it got covered with sand. I got trapped in here during the storm and dug my way out. I left an entrance because I really wanted to return again."

The cave was small and it was only a few feet before Sora brought Kairi to what he wanted her to see. In the cave was a spring filled with water. Kairi gasped and smiled.

"Granted it's not a Hot Spring but it's still nice." Sora walked over behind a rock and pulled out a towel and handed it to Kairi. Kairi took it stunned. "I-uh, I figured that maybe you wanted to wash up and this is as private as it's going to get. Plus, I thought you'd like it." Sora smiled blushing at Kairi.

Kairi smiled. "Thank you Sora. This is really sweet of you."

Sora nodded. "I'm going to wait over there. Don't worry, I won't look. If you need anything just call out."

Kairi nodded blushing as Sora awkwardly walked towards the tunnel and sat down with his back to Kairi. Kairi took off the pink t-shirt, kicked off her pink converse and slipped out of the torn jeans. Kairi folded them up nice and neat and placed them on a rock nearby her. Kairi then stripped of her undergarments and laid them on top of her clothes. Kairi slowly slid herself into the warm waters of the spring. Kairi let out a sigh at the feeling of the water. Sora was right, it wasn't a Hot Spring but it still felt amazing. Kairi looked back over to Sora to see he stuck true to his word and was still looking at the tunnel entrance. Kairi sighed in relief of the bath and sank into the water. She held her breath underneath the water for a good while before she heard loud noises rapidly hitting the ground coming towards her and before she knew it, she was yanked out of the spring forcefully. Kairi screamed seeing that Sora was the one who pulled her out of the water and covered herself.

"Sora!? What are you doing?!"

Sora was kneeling on the edge of the spring was his mouth closing and opening. Kairi was on the verge of tears and Sora noticed.

Sora started to ramble. "I-I didn't hear anything so I quickly looked back to see you were under the water and I waited and you never came back up and I panicked! I was worried that you weren't going to come back up! I worried that maybe you feel asleep and were drowning or you hit your head and lost consciousness or…" Kairi stared at Sora rambling on and on noticing the worry etched onto his face.

Kairi was shocked that Sora was this worried that something had happened to her.

Sora stared at Kairi apologetic. "Kairi please forgive me! I was just…I didn't…I was scared…I'm sorry I panicked!"

Kairi cut Sora off from his panic attack. "Sora, I'm fine. Thank you for caring. I'm glad to know that if anything did happen, you would've been there for me."

Kairi smiled sweetly at Sora easing the tension of not just the situation but of Sora has well. Sora blushed and turned around as Kairi got out and got dressed. When Kairi was done she looked at the back of Sora as a tear escaped her eye. He cares a lot about her safety…maybe he won't react dangerously to her secret. Kairi hoped he didn't because honestly no one has ever taken so much consideration into her safety as just a person before instead of a Princess. It was always 'the safety of the Princess', not Kairi. He worried and panicked for HER. Kairi for once felt wanted in her life as a human being and not an expectation. Kairi quickly wiped the tear from her face and tapped Sora on the shoulder to turn around. When he did, Sora was caught off guard by the sudden hug that Kairi was giving him. Kairi's arms were wrapped around his waist with her face buried into his shoulder. Sora awestruck shook his head and wrapped his arms around Kairi.

Kairi sighed. "Thank you."

Sora closed his eyes enjoying the warmth of the hug. "For?"

Kairi tightened her grip on Sora and held him closer. "For caring."

Sora laughed lightly. "You got a story too?" Kairi nodded and closed her eyes also to enjoy the hug. It didn't last long however. They later let go of eachother and Sora ran his hand through Kairi's wet hair smiling. "Will your hair get frizzy due to the humidity?"

Kairi blushed. "A bit."

Sora laughed. "Then let's get outside quick!" Kairi smiled. She was happy with being a street rat. Something she never thought she would say until she ran away from home and met Aladdin, Abu and especially Sora.