"Aw, how sweet!" The Doctor whispered to a stranger. They had seen the whole event. They had been hiding in the bushes observing and keeping an eye on their daughter.
"Yes, I am very happy for her." The stranger exclaimed, with a wide smirk that had been plastered on her face.
"Pssst... Pssst!" the two parents turned around to find that there were two other people now behind them. Upon looking, they noticed that it was Sora and Yuffie who were stood there.
"Oh... um, we were... just leaving" The stranger said as she grabbed The Doctor and ran, rather noisily, from them and out of sight. Kairi and Riku looked toward the bush, curious about the sound and where it had come from. They exchanged a look of firm readiness as Kairi began to move toward the bushes cautiously before disappearing behind it. after a few moments, Riku heard a panicked rustling and panting, shortly followed by Sora rushing from the bush faster than Riku had seen him move before. He ran behind a tree just in time. When he was mere inches from the tree, a girl went flying past Riku and smashed into the tree next to the one Sora was headed to hide behind. As Sora took cover, Kairi came from behind the bush and jumped the girl who appeared to be Yuffie.
"Sora?" Riku asked. He looked at Sora, slightly confused, waiting for some sort of explanation on what was going on. He walked towards them and knelt down, slightly back from the girls, to confirm that it was Yuffie, then straightened up and laughed while Kairi continued to terrorise Yuffie. Sora stepped to Riku's side from behind the tree, behind which he had taken refuge, and mumbled something, rather miserably, to Riku, who gave a little 'ouch' and winced. Sora grabbed Kairi and pulled her from Yuffie. Kairi began to flail about violently and shouted abuse at Sora and Yuffie.
"WHAT... THE.... HELL...Are you doing?!" She kicked some more and was soon able to reach Yuffie once more, she kicked at her, hard. Yuffie began to cry.
"IT WASN'T ME! WE JUST GOT HERE! IT WAS YOU PARENTS!" Riku stood laughing at Yuffie and Kairi, before Sora hit him on the head as he forced Kairi into him. Riku rubbed his head, still chuckling, then he obediently restrained Kairi, whose hair had become some what Messy from her struggling. Sora leaned down and pulled Yuffie from the ground and helped her straighten up.
"There, now you can stop screaming." He said. "I do believe I told you to hide when they ran."
"I know! But she jumped me before I had a chance." Yuffie protested. Rubbing her bruises.
"S...Sora? Yuffie!!" Kairi yelled in surprise,
"W...We JUST got here! I swear it!" Yuffie swore.
"Oh? Ok... Ok! I'm sorry..." Kairi looked down and slowly walked off. "I'm going to go get some ice-cream.
"OKay," Riku, Sora and Yuffie watched Kairi as she went out of sight.
"So, it seems you've got things sorted." Sora turned to Riku, away from Kairi.
"Wha'...?" Riku looked stunned as he turned to Sora and spotted Yuffie behind him, snickering.
"Oh, come ON, Riku. It's SO obvious that you two liked each other." Yuffie stared, dumbfounded by Sora's suddenly wise words. Her face seemed to read the most obviously stupid question anyone could ask, in Sora's mind anyway. 'It was?' After a few moments, she cleared her face and spoke.
"Yeah... What he said." There was a slight pause, which gave Riku the impression that there was a heavy tension between Sora and Yuffie. It was starting to annoy him, and this was clear, for Sora, at least. So Sora spoke next, breaking the silence.
"Let's get going, to the beach." Riku and Yuffie both nodded, and they all made there way toward the beach. When they came across a small fork in the road, Yuffie went to the right and told the boys to go on as she was going to go and tell Kairi where they would be. The boys took the path to the left and walked on silently for a few moments. It was still a few hours until sunset, so they had plenty of time to mess about before carrying out the plan that they had made a long time ago, but, thinking back, now that it was happening, Riku couldn't help but feel bad for Sora, as they had intended it to be a happy time, with two couples. Not just the one.
"What happened, man? I mean, that's... that's just wrong." He asked Sora, in the hope that talking about it would cheer him up. Sora knew exactly what Riku was getting at, so he explained to him what had happened. Why he and Yuffie had broken up.
"That's harsh, Sora. Really harsh. And I'm sorry to hear it." They walked for a little longer until the beach came into view. Riku slowed and hesitated.
"Um... Sora..." He realised his voice had gotten frighteningly high and quirky.
"Riku? You're not going to chicken out now, are you?" Sora asked, looking at Riku. Riku decided that it was best not to answer Sora's question, he didn't trust his voice. He could feel the pitch rising. He simply looked back at Sora and shook his head before looking down at his feet. "It's 'cause it'll just be you and Kairi, if you get what I mean, isn't it?"
"Kind of... yeah."
"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Sora smiled. "Here will do." He said, sitting down. Riku sat with him and they looked toward where the sun usually set and rested on the water. They both took a guess at how long it would be until the sun would set. Also, guessing what they thought it would be like. Sora pulled Riku towards him and glanced around to make sure that Yuffie had not yet returned with Kairi before talking to him quietly. He began to give Riku advice and telling him not to worry about what happened to Sora and Yuffie, Riku listened with a look of determination on his face, but the one thing that he was surprised to hear from Sora's mouth was; "This time, it's your turn to shine, it's your night." Riku nodded firmly and sat to think whilst they waited for the girls to come back.
******
The light from the sun was beginning to dim. And it was soft, as it always was before the sun would set. The girls still hadn't returned and Riku, who had just managed to calm his nerves, was starting to dig his heels into the soft, golden sand. Sora glanced through the corner of his eyes and at Riku and a sense of sympathy flowed through him, he knew how Riku was feeling. He had felt the exact same way when he and Yuffie had first got together.
"Chill, it'll be fine." He reassured Riku. Then Sora explained that he had let Yuffie in on the plan and she was probably just helping Kairi to get ready, unaware, of course. About five minutes passed, then ten, and as it hit fifteen minutes hit, Yuffie came into view with a smug look of pride on her face.
"She's getting the ice-cream's." She was obviously answering the unspoken question that was currently planted on Riku's face which read; 'Where's Kairi at?'
"Oh... um... Ok..." Riku choked nervously. He swallowed rather noisily as he had a lump of fear half way down his throat.
"Ouch," Sora said, with unwanted sarcasm deep within his voice. "Only a bit scared, then?"
"No, not at all..."
"Look who we picked up on the way over." Riku and Sora turned quickly and saw that Cloud and Jo were walking across the beach and, what's more, was they had Kairi with them. "Some young Red-head with ice-cream." Came Cloud's voice again as he patted Kairi's head, messing her hair up a little. She seemed to have a hint of displeasure on her face.
"I got them." She said as they reached Sora, Riku and Yuffie.
"Sweet," Sora said, taking two of the ice-creams and handing one to Yuffie. Kairi sat down shyly, passing Riku his ice-cream. Cloud, Jo, Sora and Yuffie sat down facing the horizon, too. As Kairi started on her ice-cream, she tried to avoid Riku's gaze and pushed her hair behind her ears with her right hand, as she usually did. Riku was stunned at how different she looked with the extra effort compared to the effort she would put in on a daily basis. Her cheeks were a soft pink, and her lips a cherry red. After five minutes of taking it in, and when he realised everyone was watching them, he swallowed, somewhat quieter than the last time, and said;
"You look really nice, Kairi." Kairi's face went somewhat redder than her cheeks were with the blusher, and smiled to say 'thanks.' then they both looked over at Sora and Yuffie, who would usually be looking into one anothers' eyes at this point, but Sora appeared to be trying to avoid that happening at all costs, yet, Yuffie was trying to catch Sora's gaze. Cloud and Jo looked to see what had caused Kairi and Riku to start snickering, and soon began to join in. They pointed to Sora and Yuffie who had been so busy trying to either be noticed, or ignore the other, that their ice-creams had melted, dripping onto them. They were now sticky and covered with ice-cream, so they couldn't help but join in the laughter.
Because of giggling so hard, Kairi had sub-consciously knocked her ice-cream into Riku's face. After some more laughing at each other, they all decided to take a swim in the sea. Cloud and Jo went along, too, for the sake of splashing everyone. On returning to the beach, they all noticed that the sun had finally begun to set. So they all sat together in a tight line. Cloud and Jo were to Kairi and Riku's right, while Yuffie and Sora were to their left. Kairi seemed to notice that Yuffie and Sora were acting a bit strange today. Well, toward each other, at least. There appeared to be about a three inch gap between them. That's three inches more than there'd usually be. And they never used to be able to leave each other alone. But, to the right, was a completely different story. Jo lay across Cloud's lap, with Cloud's arm around her. Kairi glanced over at them and thought they seemed so happy together. She felt that it was a sweet gift, to get to see them like that. But, at the same time, she realised that she would give anything for the courage to do the same, but she was too shy. So, she simply rested her head on Riku's shoulder and he kissed her head, then, he pulled her 'round, in front of him, and lay her across his lap, so they were sitting just like Cloud and Jo, with their fingers locked together and watching the sun as it set, turning the sky a soft, and friendly, pink to lilac. Kairi and Jo both began to fiddle with the intertwined hand's of theirs and the boys', and, at the exact same time, both Cloud and Riku leaned down and kissed both the girls foreheads, this actually freaked Sora out as he sat watching, but soon he was distracted by Yuffie trying to hold his hand.
******
After, what felt like just fifteen minutes, had passed, the sun had set completely and the stars were now out.
"They get more and more beautiful each night, neh? Riku?" Kairi said, looking up to his face.
"Yeah, they do," He answered, then he and Sora exchanged looks and nodded to each other. Cloud eventually looked at them questioningly before Kairi and Yuffie glanced at each other curiously. Their glance was soon joined by Jo. Sora got to his feet and all the girls sat up, Yuffie had lain down after giving up on trying to hold Sora's hand. Riku and Cloud followed suit, standing, like Sora.
"Wait here, we got something to do, we'll be right back, you stay here and..." Riku started. Then he looked at Sora, nervously. Cloud just stood wondering what was going on, his curiosity grew intensely when Sora and Riku nodded to each other.
"...and do whatever it is you girls do..." Cloud finished for them, as they would obviously have ended up annoying the girls with what they were going to say. Riku and Sora nodded to Cloud and raced off into the distance. "HEY!" Cloud yelled as he ran along behind them, leaving the girls, Kairi, Jo and Yuffie, on the beach alone.
"Hmmm..." I wonder what they're up to this time." Yuffie said rather curiously, looking at where they had disappeared off to.
"I don't know, probably something flashy to show off, you know what those guys are all like. Especially when they're together." Jo laughed in retaliation to Yuffie's curiosity.
"Yup, you're right." Kairi agreed. "We all know what they're like, especially when let loose together. And that's what frightens me the most. Aw, well." She brought her knees to her chin, hugging her legs, she rested her head on them. She smiled secretly as she reminisced all of the events within the past few weeks, but then they mixed with her curiosity of what was going on between Yuffie and Sora.
"I'm glad you're happy again, Kairi." Jo smiled
"Yeah," Yuffie agreed with a nod. "And the reason as to why, well, it's just so CUTE!" She screeched, gleefully.
"Yeah," Kairi sighed. "Thanks, guys." She slowly leaned back, using her arm's as rest's, but as she did so, she heard a familiar voice yell, and then, she collapsed to the ground completely, passed out.
