Kh Chapter 10: His Name is Sora

(Traverse Town, Accessory Shop)

Kairi groaned as she struggled to get up. She felt like she got hit by a truck. Her vision was a little distorted. Others were talking completely oblivious to the fact that she was awake.

"TWO DAY!. TWO WHOLE DAYS LEON!," Yuffie was yelling.

"Sorry," he said flatly. He said casually leaning against the wall unfazed by Yuffie's anger. Ok granted the others were angry too.

"IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY!," the ninja yelled again.

"Yes," he replied.

Kairi was growing irritated by all the noise and she just wanted to go back to sleep. She put the cushion her head was laying on and covered her ears with it. 'Could Yuffie be any more louder than this,' she thought. "LEON!," yes. Yes she can. And Kairi was on the verge of throwing the pillow at her. Maybe that would get Yuffie to pay attention to the fact that maybe she was…. trying to rest! But she kept screaming at Leon. Kairi had enough and used whatever strength she had and threw the pillow at her hitting her in the head. People not only were relieved that she did that to Yuffie, but after five minutes of her constant yelling it was finally quiet.

Sitting up which was against her judgement she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and used her other hand to control numb throbbing in her head. "Don't move around so much. You were hit pretty hard," Goofy said. She was fine for a brief couple of seconds then fell back on her side about to fall back asleep. Kairi was one of those people where if she didn't get enough sleep would be a very grumpy person. Sora and Riku never and I mean never woke her up when they were out of school on the weekends. Kairi fell back asleep not to long after. A small smile reached Riku's mouth out of amusement. Not wanting to run the risk of waking her up again "Is there any place quieter we can talk and not be on the receiving end of her wrath?," Riku asked folding his arms.

"Sure. Let's talk outside. I need some air," Leon said. He also wanted to try and get away from Yuffie before she blew her cap again. Aerith stayed behind to watch Kairi while she slept while everyone else, including Yuffie, poor Leon, went outside. The door shut Aerith turned back to see a sleeping Kairi. She was hit pretty hard, but luckily it didn't cause her to take too much damage. She tossed and turned in her sleep she may have been having a dream again. She mumbled out a name in her sleep. "Sora," she said just loud enough for Aerith to hear. "Sora," she said again, Aerith caught the name again.

'What is she dreaming about. Who is Sora," Aerith asked herself.

(Riku)

The entire group was now outside briefing Leon on each of their situations. Riku told Leon how he and Kairi wielded keyblades and arrived at Traverse Town. So much has happened in the last couple of days since Kairi and Riku left their home. He decided it was to start from there, the day the storm happened. "Two days ago a massive storm came to our home. It was the largest storm we had ever seen. It was an unnatural one at best. Kairi and I were out searching for our friend when the storm hit. We trekked out to the island the three of us played on. We searched the island high and low looking for for our friend but...," Riku didn't want to say but the others figured it out.

"The Heartless got him," Leon finished for him.

"Yes," Riku sighed, what other explanation could there be. Yeah he saw with his own eyes Sora had become something else, but he was still unconvinced that Sora was gone emotionally and spiritually forever. But after coming back on Christmas it was a sign that something in Sora had changed. But of course things changed when someone you know dies, but Sora too almost looked like he wasn't going to survive. But he did. He couldn't nail down specifically what had changed in him to make him who or what he was now. Riku hoped for the best and continued to tell his story to Leon.

"Anyway after we lost our friend and nearly got sucked into darkness itself. Kairi and I heard these voices, and before we knew it this happened," Riku summoned his keyblade out to them. Donald and Goofy watched with awe they had never seen a keyblade up close before.

"May I," Leon reached out with his hand asking Riku to give him the blade for him to hold. Riku gave it to him, but it instantly went back into Riku's hand. "Well I'll be. Still I don't understand why two keyblades chose kids like you," he finished.

"I'm not a kid," Riku said under his breath. "After going through what seemed like some sort of door, we then found ourselves in front of a very tall tower then confronted by a fat cat man named Pete…"

"Bhaaa!," Donald screamed.

"What did I say?," Riku turned to the screaming Duck.

"Well you see that 'fat cat' man named Pete escaped from the dimension the king imprisoned him in a few months ago. We've been chasing him ever since," Goofy elaborated for Riku and the others.

"He tried to overthrow the Queen and take over the castle!," Donald yelled.

"Ok you don't have to yell. I thought we got past the point of yelling," so Riku claimed. "While we're on the subject, Pete even tried to kill me and Kairi with Heartless," this caused everyone in the group to be wide eyed at the news Riku just delivered to them.

"Pete used Heartless to attack you?"

"Yep," Riku said thinking back to the time he was at Yen Sid's tower fighting Heartless to protect Kairi. That day he thought he was finished when Pete blindsided him after destroying the neo shadows, but Yen Sid was there just in time to save them. Those neo shadows game him shivers just looking at them. They even seemed to channel some kind of emotion through him for some unknown reason. What he felt that night was foreign to him.

"This is very bad. First the king goes missing now this?"

"Your king didn't return to the castle?" Leon asked his voice was raised a bit higher.

"He hasn't returned for over two months," Goofy said.

All this information they were receiving from each other was complete overload for all of them.

"What are we gonna do?," Goofy asked. Good question what were they going to do? How were they going to do it?

"I think we should call it a day. We'll think on this tomorrow. I can't think straight."

"Y'all more welcome to stay at the shop and sleep on the couch."

"Or we could all stay in the hotels at the second district," Aerith suggested.

"And risk waking up miss grumpy," Riku said. "I'll take my chances sleeping in the chair. But thank's for the offer." He turned and headed back into the shop.

"Suit yourself!," Yuffie said running inside the store and pulling Aerith out of the store and dragging her back to the hotel.

Before Yuffie could yell again Aerith bought her index finger to her own mouth signaling her to keep it down because Kairi was still sleeping. Riku walked up to Aerith and said he would watch her for the rest of the night. Aerith herself was pretty tired of watching Kairi sleep. It only made herself more tired. Yuffie took Aerith's hand and they walked back to the hotel to retire for tonight.

Cid tossed Riku a blanket then waved goodnight to Riku and shut the light off. Riku got in and slept on the long chair across from Kairi. Riku had so much on his mind right now the stress was actually catching up with him. Shoving all negative thoughts aside he dozed of to sleep.

Kairi woke up in the middle of the night feeling better after a good rest. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and slowly sat up and stretched her arms out. She moved quietly so as to not wake Riku up and walked outside and sat at the steps in front of the store. She sat on top of the steps feeling very sad. She missed the things she values the most. The man who she considered her father, Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, the island and its blue green ocean, the scent of the sea and it's tides that smell so beautifully. The place she called her home, she missed it all especially the one person who made her feel like she could call it home. "Sora what happened to you?," she thought. Deep in her heart she could for some reason still feel him for some reason. But at the same time she couldn't. It was like a light flickering on and off.

Hey," Kairi turned around and saw Goofy behind her.

"Oh hi," she sounded startled. "What are you doing up this late,"

"The same reason I can tell you're up. Thinking," Goofy finished. Kairi knew he was right. "No one with eyes open this late would be up for no reason."

"When you put it that way, you could say I'm thinking about things. Oh and you are?"

"My names Goofy," he then let out a laugh he was notorious for. This made Kairi laugh at him a little. Laughing at him may have sounded rude, but no one could blame her on the grounds on how funny Goofy's laugh was. Her smile was forced a little and it was evident on her face. She felt something inside her go off. It reminded her of Sora's smile from when he came back from the hospital on Christmas day last year. When she looked at him after they shared an embrace of being reunited he looked very different. Not physically but more emotionally and his atmosphere was different.

"What wrong?" Goofy asked her.

"Just got alot on my mind."

"Riku told us what happened to your home and your friend." Kairi flinched upon hearing Goofy say that. It struck her to her core being reminded of what happened to her home. Assuming it was still in one piece. All she could do was hope that her father and friends were all right. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to,"

"It's not your fault. You don't have to apologize" Kairi sighed.

"Don't worry you'll find your home again. You just gotta believe," Goofy said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Believe huh. I can try," she said sadly. "You sound like you're looking for someone too," Kairi asked him.

"Donald and I are out searching for our King, who also is a friend of ours."

Kairi chuckled at that goal. 'Searching for a friend' is what her and Riku's ultimate purpose. "I know that feeling. I'm guessing Riku told you about our 'friend'." Goofy nodded and Kairi took a deep breath and came right out and said his name. "His name is Sora," it sounded like a sensitive subject and Goofy just remained quiet and let it pass.

"Sounds like quite the friend if it's hard for you two to talk about him," damn Goofy and his insightfulness. He was right, it was hard to talk about Sora.

"Yeah he is," Kairi said as a tear trickled down her face.

"Want to talk about him just to get it off your chest," Kairi didn't know if she could.

"Not at the moment," Kairi said and Goofy accepted that.

"Well I'm going back to bed Donald and I got a long road ahead of us tomorrow," as Goofy took his leave he stopped to think for a second. He thought to himself 'I know how she feels to have lost someone and had hopes of finding them. A lot of people lose who they care about. I wonder," He turned back to Kairi "Say Kairi," she turned to him from her seat "If you want. You and your friend Riku can come with me and Donald. We have a gummi ship and plenty of room. We could help each other find our friends. Besides after what happened yesterday with that Heartless I'd say we make a pretty good team," Goofy proposed.

"You let us travel with you?" she asked astonished. Goofy nodded a yes.

"I'll talk to Donald if you want and you could talk to Riku."

"I can do that. There's no way Riku could turn this down. I know I won't." Kairi was starting to perk up again.

"Ok see you tomorrow," goofy said waving goodbye.

"Good night," Kairi said heading back inside.

Ok there's another chapter. I'm sorry that I didn't upload anything in over a month. I really didn't have the motivation to write anything, until now. So please bear with me I'm not someone who has a definitive schedule on when I should post new chapters. But I have no intentions on stopping uploads for this story, just so you guys know. I also want to thank all those who stuck with me and gave me support and ideas. As always please leaves review to let me know what you think. If you want to get in touch with me feel free to Private Message me anytime and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Take it easy.

Chapter Question: What did you think of connection I made between Sora and Kairi and how it translated in the conversation between her and Goofy. Just some food for thought to think about if you're interested.