"Yvaine, you have to get up!" Someone was shaking me, and when I woke up, Sora was leaning over me in a protective way.

"What?" I growled, rubbing my eyes.

Sora pulled me to my feet, his keyblade already in his hand. "The Heartless are everywhere!" He exclaimed before running out to the exit.

I blinked twice before everything snapped, and I remembered where I was. I summoned my rod that now looked like a katana and ran after Sora, easily catching up with him. My eyes widened when I saw how many heartless were in the Grand Hall. Sure, it was mostly Shadows and Neoshadows, but there were a ton.

((A/N: I suck at writing fight scenes so I'm skipping that. :P ))

With my rod falling out of my hand, I leaned on my knees and tried to catch my breath. "Sora?" I looked up and blinked a few times, the Shadows getting a few cheap shots on me. The Islander was lying on his stomach a few yards from me and I stumbled over to his side, flipping him onto his back. The poor boy was out cold. "Cura." I held my hand over his wounds before drinking one of my potions, still breathing heavily. "Alright, come on." I heaved the lad onto my back, his arms flopping over my shoulders with his forehead on my shoulder and my arms around his thighs. "Damn, Sora, how much Paopu fruit do you eat?" I complained, finding my balance. Once I did, I carried Sora back to where I remember parting with Belle, hoping to see either Kairi or Riku along the way.

"Belle?" I dropped one of Sora's legs to knock on her door, but there was no response.

Growling to myself, I walked back until I found an empty bedroom where I set Sora down. As he slept I thought about how peaceful he looked, and how much he looked like Ryuu. They had the same eye color and acted the same ways. I chuckled when I thought about how they would get along if they met.

No, they'd have to meet. They'd be good friends. And Ryuu could use another friend, being basically locked in his room.

I then thought about the day I told him I was leaving…

"Yvaine, where are you going?"

The black haired boy followed me around everywhere that day.

"I have to go on a mission from Her Majesty. I don't know how long it'll be, but I will be back." I knelt down in front of him and already saw tears forming, which just broke my heart.

He tried to look strong, but I knew that deep inside he wanted to cry and hug his big sister before she left, probably for good. "But be strong, okay? Ntch, Elaine, Kichai and Sakuya-dono will take care of you." I rested my forehead on his for a moment, before pulling back and noticing that the tears were spilling over his pale cheeks. "Ryuu, come on." I chuckled lightly. "I'm never any good with comforting people." My arms found their way around my brother's waist, pulling him into a goodbye hug. "I'll bring you so many souvenirs that you'll drown in them." I smiled weakly, hating this moment; and hating Her Majesty for creating this moment.

The boy started to sob, his smaller arms wound around my neck. "But what'll I do?" He cried.

"You can play with Elaine. She's a few years older than you, but she's a sweetie. And you could possibly learn magic from Kichai, too."

There was pounding on my door before it burst open, a man dressed in all black and pale green eyes starring down at me. "It's time." He said, his voice low.

"Okay, Ryuu, be a good boy for me." I kissed my brother's forehead, taking his hands and releasing them from my neck, standing up straight. "I'll miss you." I said, smiling weakly. I turned back to the boy dressed in black. "My, my, don't you look emo, Kai." I smirked.

"Shut it." He growled, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of my house, barely giving me enough time to look back at Ryuu who was bawling, rubbing his eyes at the sight of his sister leaving. "Take good care of your wheelchair, too!"

I snapped out of that awful memory when I saw Sora stir. His eyes opened and he looked at me with his cobalt eyes, before gasping and sitting up right away. "What happened to the Heartless?" He asked, Keyblade in hand.

"Calm down." I rested my hand on his shoulder. "I took care of them." I turned my head to the door and saw Lumiere peeking in. "Madam? Is this a friend of yours?" He pushed the door open a little more and revealed Kairi to us.

"Kairi!" We exclaimed in unison.

The girl only smiled at us, walking over to our side. "Are you two alright?" She asked, glancing at me, though I knew she was just asking Sora.

He nodded and the two started chatting happily about where they landed, basically leaving me out.

"I'm gonna go look for Riku." I said, though neither of them listened. "Care to join me, Lumiere?" I asked, looking down as I picked up the candle.

"Of course! I wouldn't dare leave a woman by herself!" The candle moved one of his 'arms' to his 'chest', smiling at me.

I couldn't help but giggle, giving the couple a last glance before leaving the room, closing the door behind me.

We walked down and passed another large room, and I saw that Belle and the Beast were reading a book together in front of it.

"Let me guess." I said when we were farther away from that room. "The spell is that if he finds true love then it'll break." I looked down to Lumiere.

"That's the basic idea. There are a few more rules than that, though." He shrugged.

I nodded slowly. I looked out a nearby window and saw white covering the snow. I quickly twisted my heel and jogged over to the glass, my eyes widening in surprise. "Snow already?" I exclaimed, grinning. Snow was my absolute favorite thing. My 'family' and I used to play around in it all the time, then we'd go back inside and have hot chocolate.

Lumiere chuckled. "I thought you were looking for your friend." He said, nudging me gently with his 'elbow'.

My mind snapped back to reality and I nodded. "We would've seen him by now if he was in the castle, right?" He nodded. "What if he's outside? What if he's lost?" I started going to the worst case scenario.

"Would you like to find out where he is?" I heard Belle behind me, and I whirled around to see her smiling at me again. "Come on, I'll show you." She motioned for me to follow her, walking off into her room again.

I followed close behind, then raised an eyebrow when she showed me a mirror.

"Just ask for it to show you whatever you wish." She handed it to me and I gripped the handle and the back gently, not really knowing what to do. "Show me Riku, please." I said, and it flashed a bright green that made me wince, before an image appeared.

It was Riku, and he was out in the cold, like I thought. But then a door opened and an old man ran out, a blanket in his arms.

Belle gasped. "He's with Papa!" She exclaimed, almost happily. "He's in good hands, don't worry." She smiled once again.

"Your father?" I asked, turning to her after carefully setting the mirror on her bedside counter.

"Yes, he's fine. But if you'd like, you can use my horse and go to him. I'll give you the directions, of course." I nodded quickly and she went to a wardrobe, taking out a rather cute and furry cape. "You'll need this. Keep the hood up at all times." She tied it around my neck and pulled the hood up.

"Thank you very much." She turned me around and pushed me on, though we stopped when we saw Sora and Kairi. "Where are you going?" Sora asked, tilting his head slightly.

I glanced down to their intertwined hands and blinked. "To get Riku." I pulled Belle onward, heading to where her horse was. Sure, I felt bad for not letting them come along, but it would just take longer to get there.

"Okay, when you get to a three-way intersection, take the left. After that you keep going straight and you should come up onto a small town. Papa's house is in the back, over a small bridge. Do you think you'll make it before the snow really piles up?" She asked me, and I nodded.

"Thank you, Belle. I'll come back as soon as I can." I smiled weakly at her, before getting Phillipe into a gallop, nudging her sides with my heels. We got to the intersection and I heard some howls which made my skin crawl. I absolutely hated wolves. I don't understand why some girls find them adorable, because they're not. I kept my mind off of them, wanting to find something else to pay attention to.

There's the town!

The snow here wasn't as heavy as the castle. It had been about an hour or two to get to this town, and I couldn't find her father's house anywhere behind the town.

"Are you lost, madam?"

I turned around and saw a kind middle-aged man leaning out of his window, and the smell of bread found it's way over to me. He must be a baker.

"Do you know Belle's father?" I asked, hopping off of Phillipe and bringing her over with me as I made my way to his window.

"Sure I do." He smiled at me. "He's just down that way. Over a little bridge." He pointed behind me, before shivering. "You should go fast if you want to get there before night."

"Thank you, sir." I nodded politely to him before hopping back on Phillipe.

"Take care!" He called to me as I galloped away in the direction he pointed to.

And sooner or later, I came to the small bridge and a house just beyond that. I hopped off the horse once again, taking her reins and guiding her over to the front door, and knocked three times.

A few moments later an elderly man opened and looked to the horse. "Phillipe!" He exclaimed, blinking in surprise. "Why do you have her?" He asked me.

"Belle let me use her in order to get here. You see, I think my friend's staying here." I rubbed my arm at how strange that sounded.

"You mean Riku? Yes, he's here. Come on, I'll take Phillipe. If Belle let you use Phillipe then you must be a good girl." He smiled at me. So many people smile here. He took the horse's reins from me and walked off towards a stable. "Go on in." He called to me, and I nodded. He was a cute old man.

I walked into the house, warmth surrounding me from the former chills.

"Yvaine?"

"Riku?" I turned around and saw Riku looking at me with a confused/surprised look. He had a basket of berries in his arms which he quickly set on the table and he ran over to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and picking me up, spinning us around. "Yvaine!" He said in the happiest tone I've heard in a while.

"Riku, you're safe!" I exclaimed, my arms wrapping around his neck. When he set me down he helped me take off the cloak, and I noticed his change of clothes. He was now wearing a white dress shirt that seemed a bit too big for him and it had rolled up sleeves and a white undershirt. He had black pants and shoes, as well. Seemed like a farm boy to me, and that made me giggle. "Your new clothes don't seem to fit you." I rested me forehead on his chest, still laughing lightly.

"It's better then wearing soaking clothes." He said, kissing my forehead.

I looked up at him then motioned to the basket. "Were you making something?" I asked, walking over to it and looking at all of the berries.

He nodded briskly. "Yes. Maurice was going to make a pie and he wanted me to get the berries." He turned his head to the door when Maurice walked back in. "Care to help us out as well?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Call me Yvaine." I looked at how this man looked like Elaine's father. He acted a little like him, too.

"Come on, Yvaine, let's go get you some clean clothes." Riku wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me to the upper floor.

"I'll get everything ready." The man called from behind us.

This was going to be a nice night.

I swear, I love this world. :D Lumiere's always been my favorite, so that's why he's pretty much everywhere. :P

I found out just a few moments ago that his voice actor died in 2004 and I started to cry. xD

Man, I'm on a roll with this stuff. :] I just really really love this world. Probably one of my favorites.