For Kairi, the next few weeks were spent sneaking out after dark with Sora.

At first, they'd spent their evenings walking around the campus—which was always deserted, except for their presence; they were the only two students who didn't spend every spare minute studying—chatting and telling stories, having a good time.

Occasionally, on Friday or Saturday nights when there were no classes the next day, the two would make the hike down to their lighthouse. Kairi especially liked those nights, even though Sora never smiled much—he seemed to be a bit more serious, which was rather unlike himself, and showed a darker side. Those times up in the lighthouse were the ones that Kairi seemed to sense something was wrong, something bothering her ocean-eyed boy; he would be quiet and his eyes would be dark and he would close up. She didn't have the heart to press further, though, because she felt his hesitation when her concerned gaze landed on him. His body would tense and his eyes would dim and he'd be so sad looking, but there seemed to be a mutual understanding that she shouldn't ask. Not until he wanted her to. They always had very in-depth conversations about topics up at the lighthouse. It seemed to be a haven for both the lighthearted things as well as the deeper stuff, the things they wouldn't take about down at school. The moments seemed to mean more up there.

Unfortunately, the time spent with Sora caused Kairi's grades to slip even closer to that tipping point, the one that would cause her to fall from an A to a B. Of course, she couldn't care less about the social classes—as long as she didn't fail miserably, she was doing all right in her books. However, she was getting dangerously close to that low point, the one that the Academy refused to allow any students to drop to—except for Sora. And so, they'd begun going to the library.

They'd go into the very far back corner of the Grand Library on campus, the dimmed corner where no one ever seemed to go; Kairi would sit and study hard, sometimes finish up a bit of homework, and Sora would just sit and watch or grab one of the millions of dusty books in the place. Sometimes, Sora would even help her study; he'd quiz her on her notes, helping her to memorize dates and chemical equations. Kairi returned the favour a few times, helping Sora study whenever he felt up to it. She'd quiz him and ask him a couple questions and he'd respond, getting a few of them right. His study sessions never lasted for long—he became a bit restless, his goofiness maximizing and become nearly unmanageable, so Kairi would stop and they'd whisper to one another and just laugh.

Kairi had noticed the small bits of her reflecting in the boy, the parts of her that were rubbing off on him. It wasn't hard to tell that his grades had begun to improve, albeit slowly, but were nonetheless better; her short study sessions with him must have paid off a bit. Not only that, but since their meeting he hadn't missed a single drama class, and his attendance was picking up in Latin. Kairi had asked him about it once, wondering why he'd started showing up to Latin despite him saying it was stressful; he'd blushed madly, glared down at his feet and muttered 'It's just a beautiful language, okay?' and then quickly changed the subject.

Truth was, she couldn't see how this school would be any fun at all without Sora around. He made everything a bit brighter, made the pressures of the classes painless and lightened her mood. She'd found herself heavily dependant on him if she had a bad day, and he always came through. He was like her own little bit of happy, and she didn't intend on having that end any time soon.

Of course, any time she snuck away with him she was met with questions by her friends; she'd always made up some stupid answer like she felt restless or homesick or that she needed to read a book from the library, and although she was sure they didn't buy her terrible lies, they allowed it to pass without pressing any further.

As soon as she'd begin to feel bad about lying, Sora would make her forget. He'd crack a joke or tell a story or even just start talking about something that didn't particularly matter but she didn't care anymore, because his voice was warm and soft and nice and his eyes were the ocean, and she felt at home.