"Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah Kairi?" Sora answered, coming out of his reverie. The foursome had been riding in the gummi ship in silence for a while now, and he had zoned out a bit watching the stars fly past.

"Back in Neverland," began Kairi, "You said something like, 'those things happen to all of us'...you meant getting hurt, or even almost dying, right?"

The question took Sora by surprise. "Well, um...yeah, I guess."

"So does that mean that it has happened to you, too?" Kairi pressed. "Almost dying, I mean?"

Sora scratched his head, a hundred memories flooding his mind all at once. "Well..." He had made the comment without really thinking about it, just trying to cheer up Riku. But it was true, being in mortal danger had become a pretty routine part of his life for the past few years. For whatever reason, though, he had never shared any of those details with Kairi. They tended to only talk about the fun and adventurous parts of his travels, not the dangerous and scary ones.

Before Sora could decide how to answer, Riku jumped into the conversation from the driver's seat. "I assume you mean besides the time that he actually died, and became a Heartless," he said. "You were there for most of that, anyway."

"Oooh, what about the time I almost killed you?" Lea offered a little too eagerly, leaning forward. "The other me, that is."

"What?" Sora replied in confusion. "You never almost killed me!"

"Sure, you had a big gash across your head," Lea countered. "Could have been really bad." When Sora continued to look confused, he snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah. Castle Oblivion. Sorry, I forgot."

Sora shook his head. He still had no memories of the events of Castle Oblivion, thanks to Naminé. Lea had mentioned a few things that had happened there, but most of it was a mystery.

"Of course," Lea continued, "You healed yourself like five seconds later, and everything was fine."

Sora laughed. "Come on, I wouldn't call that almost killing me." He almost finished with, "I was the one who got you killed, remember?" but he stopped himself. Even though Lea was technically a completely different person than Axel, it was still hard to get used to him being their friend instead of a member of Organization XIII. Sora often felt awkward around him, knowing that every time Lea saw him he probably just saw the guy who was basically responsible for his death, and who took away his best friend. But at the same time, for reasons Sora couldn't explain, he found himself drawn to Lea as a friend, like he could tell him anything.

"Yeah," Lea sighed. "I bet things would have turned out a lot differently if the Nobodies knew how to heal themselves like you guys do." The other three gave him a look, and he grinned sheepishly. "Not that I wanted things to have turned out differently. Definitely glad that I'm me and not him anymore."

"Anyway," said Riku, reaching forward to adjust the ship's trajectory slightly. "There was that time that you told me about, Sora, in Deep Jungle. When the hunter, whatever his name was, shot you with his rifle?"

Sora winced at the memory and rubbed the spot on his shoulder where the bullet had entered. "Oh, yeah. Clayton. That one definitely hurt."

"Or what about Hades?" Lea put in. "Didn't you say he almost had you once or twice?"

"Yep, definitely some close calls in the Underworld," Sora nodded. "And with Jafar...and Ursula..."

"And the MCP," Riku added. "Don't forget about him."

"Yeah," Sora groaned. "That guy."

"And of course there was Xemnas," said Lea. "When Riku saved your life."

"We both saved each other multiple times during that fight," Riku quickly replied. "It went both ways."

"That's true," Sora agreed. "That was definitely one of the toughest fights we've been in so far."

"Yeah, but I'm talking about what you told me, Sora," Lea persisted, getting a bit too excited again. "At the very end when Xemnas was about to chop your head off, and Riku jumped in and blocked him, and pushed you out of the way, and then Riku got hit and he was the one who almost died instead!"

"Did not," Riku retorted.

"Well, kinda," Sora replied. He knew how much Riku hated feeling weak, which meant that as his best friend, he had to tease him about it from time to time. "You certainly weren't doing so well for a while there. I did have to pretty much carry you through the Realm of Darkness..." Riku just shook his head and pushed another button on the console.

"It was really Kairi, though, that saved us both that time," Sora continued, looking back over at her for the first time since the conversation had started. He was taken aback by the expression on her face, but couldn't quite place what it was. Fear? Or perhaps worry? "What's the matter, Kairi?"

She shook her head, her auburn locks brushing her shoulders. "Nothing."

"You shouldn't worry about something like that happening to you," said Sora, guessing at what might be bothering her. "You don't even have to go out and fight big battles like that if you don't want to. And if you do, we'll all be right there with you to give you a hand." He smiled, trying to reassure his friend.

But Kairi didn't look reassured. "That's not it," she frowned. "I'm not worried about myself." She paused, as if hesitant to continue. "I just don't like thinking about you being hurt and in danger like that. I was always worried about you while you were gone, but if I had known exactly what you were doing that whole time...I don't know if I could have handled it. I couldn't stand it if anything actually happened to you."

"It won't," Sora blurted. He knew deep inside that he could never actually guarantee that, but he also knew that he was always going to do everything in his power to take care of Kairi. "I told you I'm always with you, and that I'll come back to you, remember? And I will."

After a moment, Kairi smiled. "Okay," she said. "But you won't have to come back anymore, because I'm going to be right there with you from now on." She gestured to the other two. "With all of you!"

Sora smiled, too. "Right. We'll take on whatever they throw at us together!"

"We're here," Riku announced. "Radiant Garden." Everyone turned eagerly to their windows, but it was too dark to see much of anything. "It's pretty late," Riku continued, "So we should probably just find somewhere to stay for the night, and talk to Leon tomorrow."

"We can try Merlin's," Sora suggested. "I've stayed with him before."

"Lead the way," Riku agreed.

Merlin welcomed them in without question. Before long, he had Kairi settled into the spare bedroom, and had conjured up three cots for the boys in the main room, along with popcorn and sodas, to Sora's delight. They all kicked back with their snacks, happy to relax after such an eventful day.

"You got that message sent to our parents, right?" Sora asked Riku.

"Yeah, it's done," Riku replied. When they had gotten their own gummi ship from Cid, one of the first things that they had made sure it was capable of was sending transmissions to their families on Destiny Islands. They knew a day like today was bound to happen sooner or later, and didn't want to ever disappear with no explanation again.

"So you really have almost died a lot of times, huh?" Lea said out of nowhere, continuing their conversation from earlier.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess so," Sora answered. "Although, it's hard to say if some of them were actually almost dying or just...really bad injuries? Most of the time they got healed right away."

"Do you ever get scars, then?" Lea wondered aloud. "I'm new to this whole Cure spell thing. I know with potions, though, sometimes the bad ones can leave a scar even when you drink it right away." He pulled his left arm across his chest and pointed proudly to a jagged white line marking the back of it. "This is my best one. Got it fighting a Veil Lizard."

"Yeah, it works the same for Cure as it does for potions," Sora responded. "I've got tons of scars. Most of them aren't very big, but there are a couple of good ones. There's one here..." He pulled his collar to the side to show the mark on his shoulder. "That's from that bullet that Riku mentioned earlier. And of course there's this one." Lifting his shirt, he pointed to a large round white spot in the center of his chest. "That's where I stabbed myself, to release Kairi's heart." He noticed another strange-looking scar on his side and tapped it with his finger uncertainly. "I'm not sure where this one came from. I don't remember getting it, which means it could have happened in Castle Oblivion. Looks kinda like a burn..." Sora looked up at Lea, raising one eyebrow. "Do you have anything to say about that?"

"Uh..." Lea scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed. "Can't say it couldn't have been me, though I don't know for sure." He threw his hand up in a shrug. "Sorry?"

Sora laughed. "I'm just giving you a hard time. Even if it was you, that's all in the past. Besides, I won the fight, right? So I can't be too mad about it."

"I let you win," Lea scoffed. "I was just testing you, remember?"

"Yeah, sure," Sora replied, rolling his eyes.

"What about you, Riku?" Lea asked. "What's your best scar?"

"Riku doesn't like his scars," Sora quickly told him. "He doesn't think they're cool." Sora had asked him about it after Riku had started wearing a t-shirt when they went swimming.

"Why not?" Lea asked, sounding surprised. "You know the ladies all love a good scar, especially if there's an even better story behind it."

Sora had a feeling Lea wasn't going to let the matter rest. Riku must have realized it, too, because he sighed and sat up from his cot. "Fine, here it is." Lifting up his shirt in the back ever so slightly, he turned so they could see the thick line stretching from his side all the way to his spine.

"Nice," said Lea. "Ethereal blade, right?"

Just then, the door to the spare bedroom opened, and Kairi poked her head in. Riku immediately jerked his shirt down and flopped back onto the bed.

"What are you guys doing in here?" Kairi asked suspiciously, stepping into the room. Her hair was wet like she had just gotten out of the shower.

"Comparing scars," Lea replied casually, leaning back on his elbow and taking a drink of his soda.

Kairi raised an eyebrow, and Sora jumped in to try to explain. "It's...a guy thing."

"Apparently you're hogging all the snacks, too," Kairi teased, snatching a handful of popcorn out of Riku's bowl.

"We thought you were asleep!" Sora protested.

"I'm heading to bed now," Kairi nodded. She pointed to each of the boys, narrowing her eyes slightly. "You should all do the same, if you can even sleep now after all of the soda you've been drinking."

"Yes, mother," Lea said, giving her a mock salute.

Kairi shrugged, turning to go back into her room. "Someone has to keep you boys in line while we're away from home."

"She's right," said Riku once her door was closed once more. "We should get some sleep. No telling what tomorrow is gonna bring."

"Yep," Sora agreed, setting his bowl on the floor and draining the last of his soda. "Goodnight, guys!"