I had some extra time this week so this chapter is earlier than usual, enjoy !

"How was my mother?" Sora asked.

"Well," Roxas told him. "She sends her love, as do Yuna, and Alice."

"Has Jane's child come?"

"No, but she feels well."

Cloud had remained silent during this exchange, and Sora now transferred his gaze to him.

"What say you, Cloud?" Sora said with teasing light in his eyes.

"Where is she?"
Sora smiled. At 18, Cloud was preoccupied with the fairer sex. He had been impressed, not dismayed, that the king has taken notice of Sora to order him to marry. He'd thought that was something saved for lords with loftier titles. Now he wanted to know if his brother was to be saddled with an angel or a harridan.

"I believe she's inside. Yonder come Aunt Aerith. She'll know."

Aerith received warm embraces from some of her favorite nephews before she stood back and lovingly studied them.

"You're taller, Cloud."

He smiled boyishly before she turned to Roxas and eyed him a moment. His looks so closely resembled Sora's that it was starling.

"I was certain that Kairi would like both you and Cloud, but you look enough like Sora that I can see she may have trouble." Aerith then turned a devilish smile on her oldest nephew, who tried to scowl at her but couldn't quiet bring it off.

"What's this, Sora?" Roxas teased. "Trouble in paradise?"

Sora chuckled, but Cloud cut in seriously.

"Aunt Aerith is teasing," he said, believing with all of his heart that no woman in her right mind could find fault with Sora.

He was soon to learn differently. Not ten minutes later they were inside and meeting Lady Kairi, who stared hard at Roxas before transferring her gaze to Sora. The lord of the keep was clearly amused by her reaction and smiled when he saw her chin go up in the air.

"My brother are hungry," he said, his tone sill light by his eyes watchful.

Kairi's raised her brows mocked him. "The food awaits, my lord." Kairi started to swing away, but Sora's voice halted her.

"Kairi."

She turned back with reluctance.

"I wish you to join us."
It was not what she wanted to hear.

"Very well, my lord." Although clearly not happy, Kairi allowed Sora to take her arm and escort her to her place.

The meal progressed with much talk between Aerith and her younger nephews, but Kairi and Sora were distinctly quiet. The meal was coming to an end when Sora leaned close and spoke for Kairi's ears alone.

"What is it I have done, Kairi, to vex you so?"
Kairi looked at him for the first time. His face was close, and for an instant she studied his serious, blue eyes. This marriage had not been his idea, nor had it been his plane that she stay at Twilight Crest. He may not really care for her, but she realized then that he couldn't force feeling onto his heart.

"I'm sorry, lord Sora, that my mood has been so poor. I will try my utmost not to brandish it upon you in the future."

"I appreciate your effort, Kairi, but I'm sorry you're so unhappy."

Kairi sighed. She hated being so obvious.

"I left my home abruptly; I would have wished for a little more time."

It was true, Sora thought. She had left all that was familiar and had been given little time to adjust.

"Would it help to move you to a more comfortable bedchamber?" he suggested.

Kairi shook her head; she was sincerely content. "I shall be fine where I am."
"Playing the martyr, Kairi?" Why Sora quietly baited the girl he didn't know, but it had its effect.

"No." Kairi's chin was up, her voice cold. "If there is nothing else," her voice could now be heard by those at the table, "I have duties that need my attention."

Kairi stood, nodded to toes around her, and walked form the room, her bearing resembling that of a queen. It wasn't long before some of the other left as well, but Roxas found Cloud standing alone, a fierce frown on his young face.

"Are you ill, my brother?" Roxas asked.

"What is wrong with her?"

"Her?" Roxas replied, although he knew exactly to whom Cloud referred.

"Kairi." Cloud's voice held strong aversion. "How dare she treat Sora in such a manner."

"Do not be too hard on her, Cloud; she reacts out of fear."

"Fear!" Cloud scoffed and finally faced his older sibling. "What has she to fear? Certainly not Sora."
Roxas wisely held his tongue, but he did believe that Sora was at the core of Kairi's fears and thus her animosity toward him was clearly explained. The brothers did not discuss it again, but Roxas wondered when Cloud would find that all men had feet of clay, even their beloved Sora.

(&)

Kairi had little contact with Sora or his brothers in days to follow, and as much as she tried to fight the emotion, despondency was stealing over her. It seemed to Kairi that the castle and keep crawled with people and she cold find no solitude of any kind. The only place where she found quiet was her room, but after too many hours within those walls, she had begun to feel vaguely suffocated, a feeling which didn't prove to be very restful.

Kairi had not been sleeping well. Several times she had awakened in the chair by the fireplace but not remembered getting there. If she was walking in her sleep, what was keeping her from leaving the room? Not having an answer to her question made Kairi even more restless. Feeling almost desperate, she made for the fortress gate and freedom. The guard did nothing to block her path, and to her amazement not even Kimabir seemed to notice.

Once outside the walls Kairi walked on and on, some of the tall grasses coming over her knees. The landscape surrounding Twilight Crest was lovely; Kairi felt her heart calming as she took in the trees and lush landscape.

It really is lovely here, Father God, she prayed in her heart. I thought nothing could match Hallow Bastion, but Twilight Crest is like a rich paradise.

Kairi stopped and watched several squirrels at play, knowing they must have been young with the way they gamboled and chased up the trees. Kairi's face broke into a brief smile before she continued to pray.

Please help me to find the same peace in my heart as I see in your creation, Father Yensid taught me that contentment is my choice, Father God, and I have not been doing a good job. Please fill my heart and life with You so that my situation or circumstances do not matter.

She hiked on for over an hour, praying and praising God, before sinking down under a tree. The sun sprinkled brightly over her in little patches through the leaves, and it wasn't long before its warmth lulled Kairi to sleep.

(&)

"Have you seen Lady Kairi?"
It was a question on Aerith's lips and then on everyone else's as Kairi's absence became apparent. Sora's face, that of a warrior with a mission, was void of emotional expression, but those who know him well could detect the concern, the ache to know where she was.

When it became evident that she was not within the castle walls, some of Sora's knights rode out on horseback, but the rest of the castle folk, including Sora and his brothers, set off on foot. Kairi heard their cries before she regained full consciousness, and when she did awaken, she listened in horror to the call of her name.

With a head still muddled with sleep, Kairi came to her feet and nearly stumbled out from beneath the trees. She was rushing along the edge of the forest when Sora, Roxas, and Leon suddenly appeared. The towering rage on Sora's face stopped her in her tracks. She watched as he spoke to Leon and then as he and Roxas covered the distance between them.

"Why are you out here?" Sora's voice was curt.

"I wanted o be alone."
"So you left the safekeeping of the walls?" Sora's voice betrayed his astonishment, telling Kairi that he would never understand.

"Yes. I felt a need for solitude. I never meant to fall asleep."
"You foolish woman!" The words where spat at her. "I have the entire keep looking for you, thinking you abducted or harmed, and here you are asleep! Indeed, you are a fool!"

Sora seemed to be out of words then, or too angry to say more. He turned on his booted heal and swung away form Kairi and his brother. He was ten steps away when Roxas spoke softly.

"You disappoint me, Kairi."

She turned hurting eyes to him, wondering from how many she would know rebuke.

"I'd never have guessed you for a woman who would stand mute while someone called you a fool."
Kairi stared at him and then at Sora, who was swiftly moving away. Her brow lowered menacingly before she raised her voice to he heard.

"I am not a fool."
Sora stopped, turned, and stared back at her.

"Where you speaking to me?" he asked as if she had no right.

"Yes. You will not speak to me is such a fashion."
Sora began to walk back to her so abruptly that Kairi stared. As he neared, she was reminded of his ire and began to back away. Sora come right ahead, backing her into a tree and speaking in an angry growl after she bumped her head on the bark.

"What did you say to me?"
Kairi swallowed.

"I'm not a fool." The words where whispered this time as blue eyes, wide with fear and pleading, stared up at him.

Seeing that fear, Sora's heart softened within him. When Kairi had disappeared, he had been more frightened than ever in his life. He had handled and the situation poorly, but flower words were not in him. When he spoke, his vice was slightly less harsh but it was far from congenial.

"It is as you say, you are not a fool. I would ask, however, that in the future you do not leave the keep without informing someone. It is most troublesome to lay out a search."
Kairi didn't since her own trembling until she was alone once again. She stood against the tree for several moments, fighting down the despair she felt rising within. Would she ever find her place here? Would she ever do that which was expected?

Kairi left the tree without any answers and was surprised to find Roxas awaiting her. He did not comment on the scene he had witnessed, but offered to escort her back.

"Thank you," Kairi told him softly and began to walk slowly, thoughtfully, toward Twilight Crest. After several yards, she commented.

"I fear I am nothing but an annoyance to Sora." Kairi didn't normally confide in strangers, but although Roxas looked like Sora, he was a good deal kinder in Kairi's eyes, and she felt desperate for someone to talk with.

"That isn't true," Roxas told her. He'd seen with his own eyes what was happening to his brother's heart.

"I fear that it is. I am a stranger here, and I am troubled that it will always be so."
"You have not given yourself sufficient time, Kairi," he spoke familiarly to her, truly seeking to help. "Sora was stern just now, but he does care. He would not have reacted so, had he not been fearful of your harm."
Kairi had not looked at it in such a way. His words made her pause and think. The one time her father had spanked her sprang to mind. She had deserved his hand of punishment far more often, but not until she nearly frightened him to death did he strike her.

"Have I lost you?" Roxa's voice was kind.

"I was thinking of what you said and remembering a time when my father punished me severely. I deserved the punishment, but then I often did. This particular time, however he did so out of fear."

"Where you very bad?" Roxas found himself captivated.

"I was," Kairi admitted. "I bribed his young vassal into letting me dress in his clothing during a tournament. I found myself on the jousting field. I was quiet nearly killed by a runaway horse." Kairi glanced at her companion then and wanted to laugh at his look of horror.

"It's quiet true."
"You say your father beat you?"
Kairi nodded. "I couldn't sit down for several days."

"What would possess you to do such a thing?" Roxas was still trying to take it in.

"The usual," Kairi said softly. "I was trying to gain my mother's attention."
Neither one felt like taking at they passed through the castle gates. Roxas was still amazed at this new insight, and Kairi was completely wrapped up with dread over having to face Sora at the tables that night.

Things are still on shaky ground for Sora and Kairi. Will they ever get along enough to stand being married to each other? Find out this and more next time.

Please R&R.