Okay...here we go, disclaimer: you know the drill...enjoy!

Thank you Sora... River sat down against a large crystal protruding from the ground in the crystal cave, as she regained her breath; she pulled out the pendant, reminiscing…
"Give it back!"

"You can't catch me Adria!"

A young dark haired girl chased after a tall young man carrying what looked like a large key.

"Eryx, give it back to her, you know that you shouldn't even be touching it."
"Weiss! Where are you going?!"

"I need to stop him."

"Wait!"

River opened her eyes and realized that she had tears in her eyes; she then noticed a tissue in front of her face, "Take it." River looked up and saw Leon holding the tissue, "Go ahead…I brought a box of them." At that comment River smiled and took the tissue and wiped her eyes.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have pushed you so far."

"It's alright, how- how did you know where to find me."

"Well, um I had Merlin use a tracing spell." said Leon sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, River then laughed, the sound and the look on her face made Leon's heart beat even faster.

"Thank you for understanding."

"So what did you talk about?" asked Cloud as he helped Leon put in new light bulbs for the chandelier in the ballroom of the castle.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Define nothing when the two of you were gone for at least 45 minutes." smirked Cloud

"We just sat there in silence."

"What?! You guys just sat there in silence?!"

"What are you, a parrot? What are the others up to?" said Leon as he pointedly looked at Cloud to signify the end of that conversation

"Fine, Leon, Aerith and Merlin are both at Aerith's kitchen doing lots of cooking; though don't go in there till she's done."

"Why not?"

"You don't want to know, I just managed to get away before Aerith asked me to do the dishes." Leon winced in memory of the last time they had to wash dishes for one of Aerith's bake-a-thons, they couldn't even lift their weapons for two weeks after all the scrubbing they did.

"Uh, Tifa, Yuffie, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are out getting decorations, and I think River is with Cid in the garage. So you going to the ball? It's two days from now."

"No."

"Um, you know that the Triple Threat will come after you if you don't."

"So, let them come, I'm still not going."

"Is it because of a certain someone…who has decided that their not going?"

"She has nothing to do with it."

"She? Now we're being more specific."

"That's-

"HEY! We're back!" Yelled Yuffie as she bounced into the ballroom with two bags full of balloons.

"What did you guys get?" asked Cloud as he came down the ladder

"Balloons, streamers, confetti, some cleaning supplies since everything is still messy from the construction and I'm going to get the helium for the balloons later since we don't want those two to be touching the stuff right now." said Tifa as she looked back at Sora and Yuffie who were both about to open a package of confetti before she turned and grabbed the bag away from them.

"Can you guys handle the rest? I'm going to go check the rest of the reconstruction." said Leon as he came down the ladder with the last of the unused light bulbs

"Sure, you go ahead." said Tifa as she began to unpack the bag full of cleaning supplies and handed a broom, dustpan and a mop to a groaning Sora, Yuffie and Donald.

"Hey there."

"Oh hey Leon, could you bring the hose over?" asked River as she picked up a sponge and scrubbed Sora's gummy ship.

"Sure, so you're cleaning Sora's ship?"

"Yeah, it's the least I could do for him since he's leaving soon. Just spray over here." River then pointed to the front of the ship and moved over to the side so she would not get wet.

Leon then picked up the hose and walked over to the front and began spraying the ship when an idea came to mind, Leon then pretended to pull on the hose and not notice that he was coming around to the side that River was cleaning, he then held the hose so that no water came out of it and called out to River: "Hey!"

"Huh?" Leon then let lose the hose he was holding and sprayed River.

"HEY! Ah! So you want to play that way huh?" River then picked up the bucket of soapy water and threw it at Leon, causing him to be totally drenched in soap water. Leon then looked up at River with a smirk and began chasing after her with the hose.

What is going on outside? Cid then got up from his desk and looked out the window smiling as Leon chased after River with the hose, he then took his reading glasses off and shook his head and sat back down and muttered: "Finally he learns to have some fun."

"STOP!...stop…"said River as she bent down and clutched her knees and caught her breath, Leon stood a few feet behind River out of breath from laughing and chasing after her, when suddenly he was hit with a soapy sponge. The sponge fell from Leon's face and landed with a splat on the ground, he just stood there looking at the sponge as if confused as to how it got there.

"Leon? Leon are you all right?" River then walked up to Leon and stood in front of him when he suddenly lifted the hose and was about to spray River as she was about to run away when she slipped on the soapy sponge. As she was about to hit the ground Leon quickly dropped the hose and ran over and cushioned her fall.

"Huh?" River then opened her eyes expecting to see the ground, to her surprise she was sprawled on top of Leon, who had his arms around her waist.

"Leon! Are you alright? I could have taken that fall." said River as she moved to get off of him. "Leon? You can let go of me now."

"You're so beautiful…" whispered Leon

"What? Leon, come on, it's time to get up, and I've got to finish cleaning the ship." said River as she moved and this time Leon reluctantly let go of her.

Yep the ending of this chapter was bittersweet don't you think?

Extra Special Note: hehe, you may be wondering...'Who are those three in River's memories?' well, you'll find out...now for a few explanations

Eryx: male, his name is pronounced 'Erics' Just think of the 'y' as an 'i' . His name is from a Greek mythological figure.

Weiss: male, his means 'White' in German, his name sounds like 'wise'

Adria: Her (finally a chick eh? haha) name is pronounced as 'Ah-dria'. Her name is actually the latin form of Aubrey (though her name is not Aubrey, interestingly enough Aubrey is old German for 'elf' or supernatural being, power)