Happy New Year! Ah, it's been a long wait again… I really don't mean to keep neglecting you guys with these delays. Given the time of year, I'm hoping that it's understandable why it took a little longer to get this chapter written, but I still feel bad. Hopefully I'll be able to write during the upcoming school term to make up for the fact that this story's updates have been less frequent than my other two. They're all kind of reaching the midpoint so I can't exactly say that I'll just focus on one and work on the others later on without pissing some people off. I'll try to get at least one chapter for each story written over my school term.

Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one

Understanding Others

"You know, Sora, I think you're taking Kairi just a little too seriously."

"And I think you aren't taking her seriously enough."

"Haha, sorry, but trying to put 'Kairi' and 'serious' in the same thought doesn't process too easily."

"C'mon, Roxas, I know she can be a little over-the-top but…"

Sora paused as he was about to tell his brother to ease up on the teasing. Sadly, Roxas wasn't being all that insensitive by saying that "serious Kairi" was something of an oxymoron. Sure, the brunet had seen her serious and vulnerable sides, but that didn't change the image she portrayed as the ridiculous redhead everyone knew and loved.

"Hah, see?" Roxas chuckled when Sora was unable to complete his thought. "Anyway, you can't really expect her to kidnap us, so you can stop putting together defenses against some kind of attack."

Again, Sora was about to argue back, but he had to stop and look at the things in his hands: duct tape, a screwdriver, a hammer, screws, and some nails. It was like some kind of Saturday morning cartoon. What was he even planning on doing with this stuff? The proprietor wouldn't exactly be happy to find out he'd boarded up the front door and his bedroom window to keep a cute girl from kidnapping him. Besides, even if he did board everything up, Kairi, being the crafty person she was, would probably find an equally cartoonish way to sneak or break through the barricade.

Sighing, Sora tossed the tools into the small toolkit he had gotten them from and slid it back under the kitchen sink.

"I still can't believe she managed to get Naminé to keep the date from you, too."

Roxas let out a wry chuckle. "Heh, well, to be honest, I didn't really have the heart to force it out of her. Naminé is kind of delicate, so getting upset with her wouldn't result in anything good. Anyway, you asked both of your bosses, didn't you?"

"I did, but it went pretty much exactly how I expected." Sora flopped down onto the couch and leaned his head back in an exasperated manner. "Axel said he couldn't say or else Kairi would feed him some nasty thing and Mr. the Wise said that she had informed him of the plan. Apparently he's okay with giving both of us time off and going along with her crazy ideas."

"Damn, why's he so nice to you? I'd kill for him to joke around with me too."

"What, he's mean to you because you're dating his daughter?"

"No, he's just freakishly intimidating in the nicest of ways." Roxas followed Sora's earlier action and flopped onto the couch beside him. Apparently he wasn't going to deny his and Naminé's relationship status either. "He tells me stories about his past training in the army and how he was honourably discharged because he got shot six or seven times in battle. Supposedly he still managed to take out five more guys before the bullet wounds got to him."

"Huh, I'd never think he was injured given how lively he is, especially since he looks at least fifty."

"Yeah, and now you see why I'm so terrified of him. It doesn't help when he follows up by mentioning that Naminé is his only kid and how he would relive that experience a thousand times over if it meant protecting her from any guy who didn't treat her perfectly."

Sora curled his lips in to keep from laughing. He could only try to sympathize with what that must be like, and he suddenly felt glad that Kairi's parents were always away. Judging from how professional they had looked at the commencement ceremony, the last thing Sora wanted to do was get on their bad side. It probably wouldn't end up that way if they knew that he and Kairi weren't a couple, but the idea of giving them the wrong idea did little to ease his mind.

"Knock knock," Riku's voice called in through the open window.

"Door's open!"

In stepped the silver-haired teen, a pair of bluish aviators blocking his eyes and an unlit cigarette pinched between his lips. With his tank top, cargo shorts, and flip-flops, the guy was basically a walking advertisement for the entire season of summer.

"All you need is a fedora and you can be mega-douche," Roxas jabbed, receiving a flip-flop to his face right after.

"Heh, little punk," Riku chuckled while keeping the cigarette in his mouth, perhaps as a coping mechanism for withdrawals. "You guys look tired. Late night or something?"

Sora shook his head. "Nope, just trying to figure out how to stop Kairi from breaking and entering to kidnap us." Riku instantly took on a toothy grin and gestured for the brunet to elaborate. "Basically, she's coming sometime this week to kidnap us for that trip I told you about. Neither of us knows exactly what day she's coming, so I thought barricading the door might be a good idea."

"Ha! Classic Kairi," Riku laughed. "Sucks for you, though. She had to tell Xion and me so that we could take time off of work. Wasn't too happy that she couldn't hide it from us too, but she didn't have much of a choice."

"Oh, did she threaten you not to tell us though?" Roxas leaned forward in anticipation.

"Nope, but watching Sora panic like this is more fun than letting you guys know. What better way to start a trip than with a kidnapping?"

"I'm pretty sure almost every other way is better…"

Roxas stood up and turned the fan to its highest setting, though it did little more than blow hot air around the room and make noise. "Hey, I just noticed, but isn't it kind of weird that she's only inviting us?"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well, you guys have really only known each other for a few months, right? Not that you aren't her close friend, but wouldn't you think she'd invite her close friends before you?"

Riku laughed, possibly mistaking the harmless comment as some kind of jab at either Sora or Kairi. Sora, on the other hand, scratched his head in wonderment. He really hadn't thought about that. He did vaguely recall her saying "those three" when she was listing off everyone coming without referring to whom those three were. It was possible they were friends of hers that he didn't know about.

"Heh, hey, if she doesn't bring any distractions, that's a good sign for Sora, eh?" Riku nudged his best friend in the side. "I mean, think about who we know is going so far. Other than her brother and his friends, it's basically a couples retreat."

The brothers both blinked at the taller teen and glanced at one another, apparently not having thought about that either. Riku started blathering on about all the dirty things that might happen, but Sora tuned him out as he tried to put some of these thoughts together.

It was hard to imagine Kairi had planned it this way, as the mentality during her spiel about the trip was 'the more the merrier'. Inviting more people didn't seem like something one would do for a couples retreat unless she could be certain that everyone being invited had a significant other. Besides, even if she had planned it that way, that would imply that she wanted to move his and her relationship forward.

Sora scratched his head sheepishly, despite the fact that neither of the other guys could hear his thoughts. He didn't want to get ahead of himself thinking that Kairi held him in a higher regard than any of her other guy friends. Sure, they'd gotten close, not to mention shared more than a handful of kisses, but assuming that she liked him in some kind of affectionate way seemed almost presumptuous of him. After all, she had been pretty clear that the kisses were some form of oddly platonic teasing, and that she was not opposed to doing so with other strangers if both parties were for it.

"But, man, I tell you, for her first time, Xion sure knows how to–"

Sora smirked at his timing to tune back into the conversation. Realistically, it probably would have ended up this way regardless of when he tuned back in, but that didn't make it any less amusing or typical.

"And that, men," Riku wrapped up his story, "is how we both enjoyed a very white Christmas."

"Uh, didn't you say this happened a week ago?" Roxas jeered.

"Yeah, so?"

"Christmas in July?"

"It was a metaphor."

"You're stretching it a bit."

"I probably stretched her a bit, too."

"…I can only imagine what Xion would do if she heard any part of what you just said."

"Get turned on, I bet."

"I'm just gonna cut in here for a sec," Sora interrupted before Roxas could say anything else. "Riku, you said Kairi had to tell you when we're going, right?"

He nodded. "I'm still not telling you, buddy."

"Yeah, I already knew that. Can you at least tell me how long we're going for so I can grab enough clothes?"

Riku pushed his shades up onto his forehead and scratched his head in thought. "I guess it's not a huge deal. It's either five days or a week, I can't remember exactly, but I think I told my boss a week so he wouldn't schedule me. She told me she was going to kidnap you and grab your clothes for you though."

Sora let out a wry chuckle and leaned forward on his knees. "Knowing her, she'll be too excited to think about what she's grabbing and just stuff a whole bunch of shirts into my bag. I'd rather not go on a trip with one pair of underwear and shorts."

"Heh, maybe that's just a really literal way of her telling you to get in her pants."

"That still wouldn't change the fact that I need more than one pair of underwear." Turning from Riku for a second, Sora glanced at his brother. "Just wondering, when Kairi busts in through our door, are you just gonna let her kidnap me? I know Naminé isn't going to try it on you, so it's really a matter of Kairi going wild by herself."

Roxas grinned and rubbed his chin. "I plan on filming the whole thing. I told Naminé to film it too, so both our hands'll be full."

"You're a real lifesaver…"

The more the guys started talking about the trip, the more Sora realized just how psyched up he was getting for it. He hadn't been on a trip since he was a kid, so to suddenly get the chance to go on a tropical vacation with the girl he kind of had a thing for was more than a little awesome; it was totally badass!

For the rest of the day, the boys ended up hanging out and relaxing in the apartment instead of going out, which wasn't really a bad thing since they hadn't planned anything else. By the time Roxas started prepping things for dinner, Sora and Riku were lazing about in the brunet's bedroom.

"Hey, mind if I ask something?" Sora asked as he threw some clothes into a large duffel bag.

"Shoot."

He hesitated for a moment, but figured that he might as well ask since he'd already brought it up. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I was sort of wondering…how things with Xion are going."

Riku snorted and started laughing, rolling into a sitting position from how he had been lying on the bed previously. "Really, man? No need to get all worked up asking about that. Things are fine. Why?"

Sora shook his head and turned towards his best friend. "I wasn't asking casually – I'd have asked when we were still with Roxas if that's how I meant it. What I mean is that…well, how are things?"

"Heh, uh, you lost me, Sora." Riku still had his typical smile, so it was apparent that he really didn't understand what Sora was getting at. That or things really were going great.

"How should I put this…?" Sora mumbled as he folded a shirt in his hands. "It's like…you guys seem to fight a lot more than when you weren't actually dating, y'know?"

As expected, Riku's smile faded a bit, and the silver-haired teen crossed his arms and nodded in an introspective way. Prompted to continue, Sora did so.

"I'm not saying I think you guys should take a step back or anything, but…have you noticed the way you guys have sort of changed? Before it was all playful bickering, but now…"

He trailed off as he suddenly began to feel a bit condescending. Riku didn't seem to be taking it that way, as he simply continued to look introspective. Sora didn't have the right to question others' relationships anyway; it wasn't like he had any firsthand experience or success to base some kind of advice off of, so this current situation only served to make him feel the exact opposite of conscientious.

"Sorry…" he muttered out. Surprisingly, Riku simply shrugged and readopted his normal demeanour.

"Don't apologize, man," Riku chuckled. "At least you're looking out for me, right? From a guy who has dating experience to one who doesn't, let me explain how I see this thing right now."

Sora smirked, allowing the lighter mood to get the better of him. "Dating experience? As far as I know, Xion's your first real girlfriend."

"Buddy, what are you saying? I've had loads of girlfriends!"

"I think it takes more than calling a girl back to make her a girlfriend."

"Hey, isn't anything more than a one-night-stand considered a girlfriend?"

"No, but it does make you a scumbag for leading them on."

"Heh, you know what, I'll let that one go since you're probably just looking for advice about your own girl problems." Riku laid back down on the bed and put his hands behind his head. "Anyway, let's see… For Xion and me, I think arguing and all that are just what come naturally. You said it yourself, we always used to bicker before we were actually a couple, and that was kind of like our normal back-and-forth. I wouldn't say that's changed much, just that there's more to fight about."

"Isn't that a bad thing?"

"It should be, but it's not something that'll kill us. She knew perfectly well what I'm like going into the relationship, so it'd be stupid of her to think that I was going to suddenly change as soon as we started going out for real. To be fair, I know that it bothers her, so I've been toning it down, at least when I'm with her."

"That's a start, I suppose."

"Hey, better than me completely ignoring how she feels, right? Anyway, the thing about our fighting is that it's one of those ways we can communicate easily. That might seem pretty screwed up from the outside, but, at least for me, the messages get across easier when we're bickering about silly little things, and that way it lets us blow off steam so that we can avoid any big fights over those dumb little things. What I'm saying is that we know what each other are saying based on how genuinely annoyed or mad we get, instead of what we're actually saying to each other, if that makes any sense."

Sora took a moment to process that in his head, but the thought just wasn't clicking. He thought he sort of understood part of it, but the more he let Riku's logic sink in, the harder it became to comprehend it. Rather than wallowing in the thought for too long, Sora just shrugged and let him continue.

"The point is that we fight, and it's more normal for us than it would be for other people. I don't doubt that we'll probably get into an actual big fight later on, but for now what we have works pretty well for us."

"So, you're saying you're not worried about possibly doing something that'll lead into a big fight?"

"It's not that; it's more like every couple gets into a big fight at some point, so I'm hoping that if it's going to happen, I'd rather have it happen sooner than later."

"Couldn't it possibly end with you guys breaking up if it's too early on? I mean, I'd assume that if you were together for a while, then just the fact that you've been together for so long would be a factor in not letting you guys split."

Riku was quiet for a moment, staring blankly at the plain white ceiling. Sora quietly continued to fold his clothes and pack them away, though he was diligently waiting for some kind of answer from his friend. Riku's way of thinking was so much different than his own, yet he could mostly understand it as long as he got into the right mindset. The biggest surprise was how much Riku must have thought about this on his own. He'd probably have just laughed and brushed it aside if he hadn't already given it any.

"Honestly," Riku said quietly, "breaking up doesn't scare me that much."

Sora stopped and gave a confused yet intrigued look to the guy lying on his bed. Riku wasn't the first guy he thought of when he heard "stable relationship", but even a guy like him had to have reservations about messing something like this up. For him to answer in such a way, he would need some pretty good reasoning to back it up.

"If Xion and I got in a fight that made us break up this early on, I think I'd rather let it happen than try to fight to stay together. Hopefully this doesn't make me sound like an asshole, but it's too early to say if I'm really serious about her or not. I mean, if you think about it, she and I have only been together for about a month. Even if you count all that crap before we were actually together, it'd still only be two or three months since then. I don't think you can really call a relationship serious until you've passed the six-month mark."

"Would you actually be okay with breaking up, though?"

"Not okay, just…accepting of it. Think about it, if something could push us that far when we should still be really into each other, then I doubt we'd last later on when all the initial feelings and junk have died down a bit. Besides, it's so early into this that I don't think either of us can say for sure that we're serious about the other."

"Didn't she have sex with you?"

"So?"

"And it was her first time?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

Sora sighed, truly baffled that Riku didn't seem to understand the concept of how important that must be. "I'm saying that she must be pretty serious if she was willing to go that far after just a month of officially dating you."

"So, a bunch of those other girls in the past did it the same night they met me."

"That's…a different thing altogether. I really don't think any of them were trying to have a meaningful relationship with you, and, not that I want to generalize, but it probably wasn't any of their first times. Didn't you make sure your first time was meaningful?"

"…Was I supposed to?"

"Dude, you have the emotional range of a teaspoon."

"Harry Potter reference?"

"What? No! Geez, you always pick the most random times to show your inner geek."

Riku laughed and sat up, tossing Sora's pillow at him when he wasn't expecting it. "I think that's enough heart-to-heart brotalk for one day, man. Don't really know what spawned all of that, but take whatever you want out of that and use it to bag Kairi, okay?"

Before Sora could say anything more, Riku was already out of his bedroom and heading into the kitchen where it seemed like Roxas was almost done cooking. Shaking his head, the brunet shoved one more pair of shorts into his bag and followed his best friend. He wasn't completely sure what he had taken away from that whole conversation, but somehow he felt like it had been important, so he was content simply to have had it.

キングダムハーツキングダムハーツキングダムハーツ

"Ugh, this place is gonna be sooo boring when you and Kairi are gone!" Shiki whined as the four o'clock bell chimed.

"Heh, don't say that," Sora chuckled as he stapled some papers together. "Aren't Neku and Joshua working a little more while we're gone?"

Shiki puffed up her cheeks and leaned on the counter in a rather unbecoming fashion. "Only a little; Mr. the Wise said that your company is sending some more temps over to replace you guys for a bit anyway."

"Is that so?"

Sora stole a glance to the redhead at the concierge desk as she enthusiastically spoke to a large group of foreign guests. It was now the end of the week and he had yet to be kidnapped, so he could only imagine that it would take place some time before Monday of next week.

"So, do you, like, know who's replacing you while you're gone?" Shiki stole his attention back.

Sora stopped to think for a minute, but he hadn't actually asked Axel who might be getting sent over. In fact, he didn't even realize they would be getting temps to come in to replace them, though it made sense since the whole reason he was here was because they were understaffed.

"Maybe…Vivi? He'd be my first guess."

"Ooh, what's he like? Can I be the same around him as I am with you? Is he hot?"

"Uh…well, I've never said more than a few words to him… You probably can't treat him the same way as me. Actually, you're lucky that you have so many people you can treat this way in the workplace."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing, nothing, settle down. Anyway, Vivi always covers his face, and he's really short, so I doubt you're gonna have much fun standing around with him."

Shiki deflated and flopped onto the counter again. "Work's no fun if all I do is work all day."

"Heh, I think you picked the wrong line of work to go into."

Shiki continued to whine as Sora went back to organizing the papers he'd been stapling. Stealing another glance upwards, he noticed Kairi waving politely to the large group of guests she'd just been helping. Once they had exited the building, she promptly slumped back in her chair, glanced at him, and pretended to shoot herself in the head with her fingers. A moment later, his computer screen opened up the instant messaging window.

Concierge Desk: I don't want to sound racist, but trying to explain things to people that know, like, three words of English is the worst.

Sora grinned, able to empathize with her since he'd also had to deal with a fair number of non-English speakers since coming here. It came as quite the surprise when he discovered that Shiki was fairly fluent in a handful of languages, as he never would have pegged her for the type that would want to learn all of those. Then again, her unconditional love of conversation was unmatched, so learning more languages would allow her to talk to even more people…

Concierge Desk: Are you free after work today? It's been a little while since we last hung out.

Reception 2: Don't we hang out every day?

Concierge Desk: Work doesn't count as hanging out! Come on, pleeeeaaase?

He laughed and looked up to see Kairi with her bottom lip pushed out and a sad puppy dog look. Not wanting to push her too far, he laughed again and sent her a response saying that he didn't have any plans. She reacted just as he thought she might, dancing around a bit with a silly grin stretched along her face.

"Ooh, looks like someone's gonna get some later," Shiki giggled mischievously. Sora groaned as he looked at her, but his unimpressed look did nothing to faze her.

It didn't feel too long before the six o'clock bell tolled, and the daytime staff took it as their cue to switch with their nighttime counterparts. Sora said goodbye to Neku as he exited the changing room and stood in the lobby while he waited for Kairi to meet him. Bouncing on his heels, he wondered if her earlier excitement meant that she wanted to do something, or if she was simply overreacting to his willingness to spend time with her.

"Anxious for your private after-work activities?"

Sora jumped as Shiki's voice sounded uncomfortably close to his ear. Whirling around, she was laughing with that usual teasing look on her face.

"Come on, you know we're not d-doing anything like that." He mentally cursed as his lips stuttered on their own. "More importantly, how come you haven't changed? You're not planning on working longer, are you?"

"No choice," the strawberry-haired girl sighed. "I came in an hour late a couple days ago because of a doctor's appointment. Gotta make it up or Neku's gonna get mad at me for not splitting the rent fairly."

"Are you really cutting it that close? If one hour's pay is going to give you enough to pay your rent, you must buy a lot of other stuff."

"Heehee, what can I say? I like clothes."

Sora could only give a wry chuckle and send Neku a sympathetic smile from across the counter. He had no idea how Kairi spent her money, but he could already hear her saying something equally as outrageous when they had to deal with things like this. Well, at least when she did, as he had been dealing with these sorts of things since he and Roxas had gotten their own apartment.

"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting!" Kairi called to him as she ran over from the women's changing room.

"No probl– Whoa!"

Caught completely off guard, Sora was surprised that he didn't fall flat on his face as Kairi grabbed his wrist and whizzed towards the exit. Before he could ask her what the rush was, he needed to catch his balance, which wasn't as easy as he was hoping it would be. How did she manage to run this quickly while he was stumbling like a drunken clown?

"Whew, we made it in time!" Kairi cheered breathily as she practically threw Sora onto the tram's seat.

Trying to catch his breath and make his legs stop shaking, the brunet ran a hand through his hair before turning to the hyped-up redhead.

"W-What the hell was that all about?!" he huffed, gulping in air and leaning back on the seat.

"Whoa, no need to get all angry, Sora," the redhead laughed, using her thumbs to push his cheeks up into a forced smile. "We caught the tram, didn't we?"

"The tram doesn't leave for another ten minutes. Look around!"

She cocked her head to the side but followed his instruction. Almost everyone at the tram depot was heading to another tram or heading for the train, and the few that were already seated before them were giving the couple a wide variety of strange looks. Once she'd had a good look around, Kairi turned back to him and bonked herself on the head.

"Ehehe, well, getting here early is better than missing it because we were late, right?"

Sora simply smacked his face with his hand and did what he could to make the two of them less conspicuous.

"Where did you want to rush off to so badly, anyway?" he asked.

Kairi blinked at him and lightly bopped his forehead with her palm. "Where else, silly? The secret place, of course."

"Oh, of course. It's not like we're the only two that know about it or would even think to go up there for fun. I am so thankful you rushed us over here so we could beat all the competition."

"Aww, is widdle Sowa in a baaad mood? Heehee, I know what'll make you feel better."

In an instant, Kairi clapped her hands onto his cheeks and pulled his face towards hers so that their lips were pressed firmly against each other's. Though he did feel quite a bit of tension leave his body as she slowly pulled away from him, his displeasure with the whole situation remained true.

"Better?" she asked sweetly.

"Y-You shouldn't just do that," he grumbled. "At least not in public; it causes a scene."

"Mm, this won't do. You're still mad. Looks like you need a bigger helping of Doctor Kairi's stress-relief medicine."

"No, w–"

Her timing certainly was impeccable, as she managed to catch his lips right on the 'W' of "wait". Trying his best to keep a cool head, Sora did not struggle against her, as it would only make this into a bigger scene (not to mention that she would probably just kiss him again if he tried to get away). After about five or six seconds of having his lips forcibly squished against hers, she pulled away, her face looking fairly red.

"Wow, you know, you're really warm when you get mad," she giggled, fanning herself with her hands to take the redness away.

"Thanks, I'm not mad anymore, so don't do that again," he said in his best attempt to mask any remaining anger in his voice.

"Oh, too bad, it was just starting to get good, too!"

Sora couldn't help glancing around at the other people on the tram. With only five minutes until it left, there were quite a few people now, and it seemed that most of them were either blatantly avoiding to look at the two of them or were just as blatantly sending disapproving looks their way.

"But you know, Sora," Kairi continued, "your kissing technique hasn't gotten any better since the first time. You should really figure that out."

"Sorry that you always catch me off guard. Besides, it's not like I ever return any of them."

"Ah, how rude! My fragile maiden heart is breaking!"

"I don't typically associate you with fragile maidens."

"And to think that I gave my first kiss to you. My virgin lips were tainted by your lustful mouth!"

"H-Hey, keep it down, will you? You were the one that kissed me that night, remember? Besides, I hardly imagine that was your first kiss."

"Heehee, of course it wasn't, but that doesn't mean you didn't like it as if it were."

"…Huh? What does that even mean?"

"I don't know, but it sounded funny in my head. Anyway, I get the privilege of saying I stole your first kiss, don't I?"

Sora blushed and slouched down in his seat. He shouldn't feel emasculated over something as trivial as a kiss. It didn't mean anything; he had probably kissed some girl in kindergarten and forgot about it anyway. That's what all kids do…at least, that's what he wanted to convince himself they did.

"Aww, don't worry, I'll make sure you don't kiss any other girls then, okay, Sora? You'll have pure, unadulterated lip action from now on."

Kairi certainly seemed to be having a ton of fun at his expense.

"What are you saying?" He figured that playing along couldn't make this situation worse than it already was. "Are you going to stop me from ever getting even a little bit close to another girl?"

There was a gleam in the redhead's eye when she realized that he was actually going to play along. "You bet your bottom! I'm like your protective guardian, and I'm going to make sure that your lips are untainted for the rest of your life. The only girl's lips you'll ever experience are mine! Boys…well, if you really want to, I guess I can let that happen."

"…What exactly made you think that I would ever resort to kissing guys if I wasn't allowed to kiss girls?"

"Well, Shiki told me that this one time when I wasn't there Roxas made you a really yummy-smelling lunch and had Naminé bring it to you, and then she said–"

"Oh for the love of… He's my brother!"

"Heehee, it's just like some terrible soap opera!"

The brunet didn't even bother to check all the strange looks they were getting, instead opting for leaning forward onto his knees so that he could hide his face from the world. If there were ever a time that he regretted going along with one of Kairi's crazy, runaway conversation trains, it was this one.

The tram started to bump along its track, and as the redhead continued to pester him, Sora could already tell that it would be a long trip to the secret place.

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"Ugh, I still can't believe that Demy told us to leave and locked the ladder in place!"

"Well, considering the bar was closed, it doesn't surprise me that he would lock up the roof as well."

"Yeah, but your place isn't anywhere near as fun as our secret place!"

"…Thank you for pointing out that my apartment is less fun than a roof."

After spending a few hours on the roof of Jazz Corner X, Demyx informed them that he was closing up early and that he couldn't leave the entrance to the roof unlocked. Despite Kairi's attempts to allow them to stay, he wasn't caving in the slightest (though he did promise that he would cut a key for Kairi sometime in the future). After that, she suggested they hang out at Sora's, and while he didn't mind, he found it slightly amusing that she was complaining about having to be here instead of there.

Despite her gripes about the secret place, the two of them did more or less what they always did: talk about anything and everything that came to mind. Kairi's topic of interest for tonight seemed to be what would have happened if they didn't get separated for five months after meeting each other. Realistically, Sora couldn't imagine things being much different, though he did think that, assuming his feelings for the redhead developed at the same rate they had over these past two months, he might have had the courage to ask her out after graduation. Of course, that was hypothetical, and he had no idea if that logic would still apply after knowing her for that same amount of time now.

The door opened and Roxas stepped in. "Oh, hey, Kairi. Long time no see. You here to kidnap us?"

"Heehee, not yet. Even if I was going to, it wouldn't have worked unless you were here too."

"I guess, but I was with Naminé a little while ago, so she could've kidnapped me there if you had gotten Sora."

"Mm, I'll save that trick for another time."

"I thought you didn't have work today," Sora said as Roxas opened the fridge.

"I was just at Hayner's place with the usual group," he answered plainly. "Probably would've come back later, but he said he had something to do tomorrow."

"Oh, did Nami give you a ride back?" Kairi asked. "It's kind of late, so if she's still here, I should see if she can drive me home."

"Yeah, I think she said she was picking up something from a friend who lives in the building too. She's probably just waiting down in the roundabout."

"I'll walk you down," Sora said, getting to his feet as Kairi hurried towards the door.

When they got to the bottom floor, a big seven-seater SUV was waiting out front, just like Roxas said. Sora couldn't suppress a chuckle at the sight of the petite girl sitting behind the wheel of such a vehicle. The blonde girl noticed them and waved as they stepped out the entrance doors to the building.

Kairi let out a random but contented laugh when they stepped beside the car. Turning around, she suddenly wrapped Sora in a strong hug. Though he wasn't opposed to her hugging him in front of people, the suddenness caught him by surprise.

"You know, Sora," she giggled into his ear, "you being the gentleman that you are and walking me down really makes this a whole lot easier for us."

"Haha, um, your welcome? But what are you–"

"DON'T MOVE, ASSHOLE! YOU'RE COMING WITH US!"

That was definitely Riku's voice, but before Sora could figure out where it had come from, Kairi shoved him towards the back of the SUV with a laugh. Stumbling off balance, he watched as the back door flew open. The only thing he managed to see was a flash of Riku's silver hair before a potato sack was thrown over his head and torso. The opening immediately fastened so that he couldn't move his arms. Disoriented and still rather confused, Sora couldn't fight back as he felt Riku pick him up and stuff him into the backseat of the car.

"Alright, did Roxas leave the door unlocked?" Riku's voice asked Kairi outside the car.

"Yep, he's all yours!"

About five minutes later, Sora felt another person get stuffed into the seat beside him, and he could only assume it was his brother in a matching potato sack.

"You kids sleep tight," Riku laughed as he and Kairi got into the car. "We're picking up Xion and then heading off. Oh man, I told you this kidnapping was gonna be more fun than letting you know when we were coming."

As the group of kidnappers and the kidnapped brothers headed off towards Xion's house, Sora nudged his brother in the leg.

"Hey, Roxas?"

"What?"

"Next time you tell me I take Kairi too seriously, I'm gonna punch you in the stomach."

Hopefully the ending didn't seem rushed. I rewrote it a few times trying not to drag anything out, but I also feel like a lot of things happened in a short span of time. There wasn't really anything I wanted to cover between Sora and Kairi hanging out, which is why I ended up skipping to when she was going to leave.

Anyway, it took me a while to write but it's finally here! One thing I noticed about previous chapters is that I was using the terms money and munny interchangeably. From now on (assuming I can remember to do so), munny is the form of currency and money is just the term for cash in general. I may go back and fix that at some point so that the past chapters have that all right.

Thanks to The Master of Chaos, WitsWithMe, lordibau, Malcolm Yuy, and Painted With a Palette for reviewing! Also a big thanks to everyone that gave their input about the relationships thing! It's great when people give me actual feedback when I ask questions instead the usual "Nice chapter, update soon."

Thanks for reading and please review!

–GengaJupite