Sora quickly walked through the large, mostly empty halls. He was confused, torn between heartache and hatred. Kairi had seen the hurt in his heart, she had seen his weakness. It didn't take much thought to feel that piercing gaze. He didn't like it, it made him feel vulnerable.

He looked around and realized he was lost. But he didn't mind, he just wanted to sort away the anger and depression that had started bursting from him. Or maybe he just wanted to mope, like he'd always done. He turned around then back the way he was heading: maybe Riku would help him, or maybe he wouldn't.

He heard a reedy laugh around the corner. Curious, the glanced to find Donald with another duck around his age(whatever that was).

"Oh Daisy, you always know how to make me laugh." He said, leaning over to kiss Daisy on her cheek.

Sora turned away and resumed his route to finding the courtyard. Jealousy, wrath, and envy boiled in his stomach. He didn't completely know why, but one thing for sure was that everything that had happened to him was surfacing and adding weight to the air around him. He slashed out at nothing, trying to vent his anger. He knew he didn't need another breakdown-

"There you are, Sora!"

Sora glanced behind him to find Kairi running down the hall. He rolled his eyes and sighed "I'd like to be alone." Hoping she would stop. Her pace only quickened "I want to help you!"

"I don't need your help! I need to be alone!" She was getting close now, so Sora started a light jog.

"That's the problem! You're not letting any love into your heart-"

Sora almost completely turned around in anger, but he snapped back "I don't need it! Now just leave me alone already!" And he sprinted down the hall, finding the courtyard shortly after he had lost Kairi.

He didn't stop in the open air, he headed for the clumps of flowery bushes that signaled a secluded spot. He didn't care what they were, he just wanted silence, solitude. Everything was bubbling up: lost home, lost lives; each of his losses sprung up from his footsteps like splashes. They arrived, seemed to vanish, but left ripples among his mind.

Finally winded, he leaned against a bench, finding himself surrounded by pale blue roses. The scent was overwhelming, but he wanted it like that, a good distraction. He took staggering breaths, trying to calm down, trying to stem the flow of his tears. A dark, demented rhyme rose from the suppressed and lost child in him:

Bloody daddy,

Screaming mommy,

The islands are all gone.

No friends,

No home

Tummy's always hungry-

He stopped himself from finishing. He collapsed onto the bench, finding that in his confusion he had gripped a rose stem and pulled it off. His hand was bleeding from the thorn wounds he didn't notice. The serene blue was starting to get marred by rusty, brownish red. He leaned over, putting his face in his free hand, trying hard to keep himself from breaking.

But he did, and he began sobbing quietly. He whispered out small cries for home, how he wanted life to just take a 180. Blubbering like the broken child he was.

He became almost completely quiet when he heard Kairi calling for him, but he still couldn't keep himself from making just enough noise for Kairi to find him. Her cries stopped, but that was all he noticed.

Until he felt two arms gently wrap themselves around him.

His normal train of thought said to resist, to shove her away, to get away from her. Yet another rose, saying to allow his sadness out, let it run away so he could be free of its burden. He followed both half way: pushing Kairi off of him, and only stopping his tears.

"You don't need to shove me away." She said, sounding hurt.

"I don't need your help." Sora replied half heartedly.

Kairi was silent for a few moments, then she noticed Sora's hand. It now had a small pool of blood. "Oh, you were hurt on the roses-"

"I'm fine." It came out bitter. Sora wasn't sure if it was just as bitter as he wanted it or not. All he was aware of was the pain the racked his heart and body and Kairi trying to worm in to help. "I've felt worse..."

"Well if you're in pain, it's not fine, is it?" Kairi inched closer.

"Just stop trying to help me!" Sora snapped at her. He hated her light, her optimism. She was a goody two shoes who didn't know how to help him, and there was no point in her bothering him like this.

Kairi inched back to where she was, and they sat together, staring at the scenery around them in harmonious silence. Occasionally she would point out something, and Sora would look the other way. After a while, when the sky was turning its dusky twilight shades, Kairi gently clasped the hand that Sora held his rose in. He quickly pulled it away, but moments later Sora felt his hand grow warm and soft feeling, but it waned as fast as it had come.

"There's a little lesson my dad taught me when I was little, about these roses." She began, moving closer again and turning herself to him. Sora scooted away while she held up his hand with the blood-stained rose, continuing "Imagine that our lives are a rose. It can be beautiful, it can be sickly, it all depends on how we, the gardeners, care for them." Sora took the words in, watching Kairi delicately take the rose from his hand and twirl it around. "You can't stop it from having thorns, but you can prune them. Sometimes you can't prevent it from getting sick, but you can heal it. If you put enough work into it, you get a beautiful, rich, and lovely rose." She stopped twirling it and moved her gaze into Sora's eyes. Only briefly though, she glanced away with a blush creeping on her cheeks.

"Well what if you can't prune it? What if you don't have the medicine to heal it?" Sora asked, sounding contrastingly hard. He pulled away his hand "Sometimes you get a rose planted in the worst of places."

"Then you have two options. One, let them stay. Or two," Kairi set the rose aside and held Sora's hands "let someone help."

Sora sat there, confused by Kairi's insistence on trying to help ease his suffering. She then smiled a little, encouraging him to let it all out.

Sora decided to stare at one of her necklaces: the blue star made of glass and pewter. He had never really payed attention to it until now. Something about that star was uncannily familiar-

He winced, a headache starting to arise. It seemed to question why he was feeling care for A-Kairi. Why was he feeling love for her? He then roughly stood, and walked away without a word.

I don't need her help, I don't need her to care for me. I'm alone and that's just how I like it.

...

right?