Disclaimer: I don't own kingdom hearts

You know it's been such a long time since I posted that I'll leave the formalities for later. Enjoy! Josie

Secrets

Chapter 11: Destined for Destruction

"Hey Sora, it's me again. Tidus. I was just wanting to know if you wanted to come to the footy game, it's against the Dragons and the Bulls. We've bought you a ticket." Tidus' concerned voice was heard through the speakers. "Well the game is at seven, so just drop by if you want to come." Beep. The small red light on the answering machine flashed, the same as it had been for the past two days. The words 14 new messages scanned across the small digital screen. Sora lay on the couch with a bag of potato crisps resting on his stomach, crumbs all over his body and empty packets strewn across the floor. His arm hung over the edge of the couch, his hand wrapped around a bottle of Coke. Sora dug his free hand into the packet of crisps and stuffed a few in his mouth. He lay there with his ear pressed against the arm of the couch as he watched The Simpsons.

Homer picks up the phone and dials "Hello Dominoes?"
–pauses- "What do you mean you're not open!"
–pauses- "No! You call me back during business hours"
–pauses- "I'll tell you who's a recorded message!"

A pained, involuntary smile spread across his face as Homer's stupidity amused him. He lifted the Coke to his lips and took a large mouth full from the bottle. Sora closed his eyes as the Coke burned the back of his dry throat but opened them again after the effects had simmered to a light scold. Sora hadn't moved from the couch in front of the T.V. since the holidays began. Empty Coke bottles were scattered over the lounge room floor, as well as empty packets and crumbs from broken crisps. The T.V. hadn't been turned off once, and you would have sworn he didn't sleep, but he did, occasionally. He lay there for what might have been hours eating potato crisps, drinking Coke and watching a numerous amount of cartoons. Suddenly the phone rang again, Sora lay on the lounge undisturbed as the phone rung on beside his ear. He turned up the volume on the T.V. to drown out the annoying sound. Finally the phone stopped ringing and the answering machine picked up. "Hello? Psyche! Off doing something more important than answering your call so leave a message after the beep and you never know, if I have nothing better to do I might call you back. " The answering machine went silence, then beeped to signal the end of the outgoing message.
"Hey Sora, it's Tidus…again. We we're going to go down to the beach and go for a surf, and we were wondering if you wanted to come. Well I guess you're not there or just not picking up, OK well bye Sora." There was a light click as Tidus hung up and Sora threw another few crisps into his mouth. The daily life of The Simpsons continued on the screen as Sora lay there staring blankly, sipping from his Coke bottle. The digital screen on the answering machine read, 15 new messages.

***

The rain tapped lightly on the roof, as what little light that was outside filtered through the windows. Kairi lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, a small smile on her face. It was the sort of smile that, you only wore when life was good. She sighed and snuggled deeper under the warm blankets, that covered the bed. She tilted her head upwards so she could see out the window and up to the sky. The clouds were dark and the rain beat against the window, blurring the finer details. Roxas was right, it would be raining for the next few days. The rattle of the door handle sounded around the room, and Kairi quickly curled into a ball and closed her eyes. She framed sleep as he slowly opened the door and walked into the room. He tip toed across the floor and knelt down beside the bed, trying to be very quiet. Kairi lay there trying impossibly hard not to smile as Roxas quietly called her name. He knelt on the carpeted floor, quietly calling her name and shaking her shoulder every so often. She couldn't hold the smile in any longer, her face was only seconds from betraying her. She quickly jumped up onto her knees and grabbed Roxas' shoulders. Roxas jumped a foot and a half off the ground and landing back on the floor with a thud, his arms stretched out behind him. Kairi burst into laughter and fell back onto the sheets as Roxas looked up at her with a scowl on his face. She rolled over onto her stomach and dug her face into the blankets as she laughed harder. Roxas slowly stood up and continued to glare at Kairi as her laughter slowly subsided. She rolled over again, wrapped up in the blankets and looked up at him.

"That was not very nice," Roxas grumbled unhappily as she sat up looking like a pig in a blanket.

"It was priceless though," Kairi snickered as she wriggled happily on the bed. He sighed and rolled his eyes, when suddenly her stomach growled. This time Roxas laughed and Kairi smiled at him sheepishly.

"Come on, let's get you fed" Roxas started to walk over to the door and Kairi pulled off the blankets that had been keeping her perfectly warm.

She shivered a little letting out a quiet "Brrr" from the sudden change in temperature. Roxas turned around to look at her and his mouth almost hit the floor when he saw her. Kairi stood there in a long grey shirt that reached halfway down her thighs, and her hair was in a slight mess around her neck. Kairi cleared her throat loudly and Roxas quickly snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. "Breakfast?" Kairi asked trying to move Roxas' attention away from the conversation that she was trying not to have. He nodded and headed out the door, turning around as he waited for her to follow him. Kairi happily skipped out the door, a huge smile on her face. As she skipped past him she leant into his ear and whispered "I scared you," and laughed again as she began skipping down the corridor. Roxas followed slowly behind her and caught a last glimpse of her as she began to skip down the stairs taking them two at a time. Kairi walked down a number of different corridors; she still wondered why they had so many, it seemed almost pointless to have so many corridors. She skipped out the corridor and into the lounge room, quickly spinning around to wait for Roxas. After a minute or so he finally appeared in front of her. She looked at him smiling, but the smile was quickly replaced with confusion as she saw him biting his bottom lip. She cocked her head to the side as she looked at Roxas, reaching back and giving her hair a quick ruffle in bewilderment. Roxas lifted his hand and gestured for her to turn around. Kairi slowly turned around to see the wide eyed, shocked expressions of, Axel, Olette, Selphie and George. A bright red blush filled Kairi's cheeks faster than you could blink. Selphie was the first to say anything.

"We know you love us, but you could have kept your pants on," Selphie laughed, still a little shocked. Kairi blushed a little deeper, but everyone had now managed to compose themselves and rid their faces of their expressions. Selphie who had been staring at Kairi from the the armchair turned back to the T.V. Olette finished walking across the room and dropped into the purple beanbag that was on the floor, next to her was George who was intently staring at the television screen his face redder than Kairi's, and Axel leant back against the arm of the six seater couch that ran around the corner just beside the door.

"I must look like a ship wreck," Kairi muttered as she looked down at the ground and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. Everyone laughed lightly and Axel pushed himself off the arm of the lounge and walked up to her smiling.

"Well if you want the truth," Axel smiled at her as he rest his hands on her waist, her hand reaching up and playing with a piece of her hair as he looked her from head to toe and back again.

You look absolutely beautiful," Axel kissed her forehead and then pulled her into a hug, her head resting against his chest. "Good morning," he whispered into her ear.

"You know, you're a terrible liar," Kairi smiled into his shirt happily and sighed as she snuggled a little deeper in his warm arms.

"You never could take a compliment could you" Axel laughed happily as he held Kairi out at arm's length. Kairi scowled at him and he just looked at her confused.

"You were warm," Kairi whined unhappily and folded her arms across her chest, the goose bumps clearly visible on her arms. Axel laughed happily and pulled her back into his chest, spinning her around so she faced away from him. Roxas stood there in the corridor with his hands in his pockets leaning against the wall, waiting. Kairi held onto Axel's arms which were enclosed around her and waved at Roxas with the other hand.

"Did you still want breakfast?" Roxas asked with a half bored, half amused look on her face and right on cue, Kairi's stomach growled unnaturally loudly. Roxas and Axel laughed at her and she merely stuck out her tongue at the two of them. Axel unwrapped one of his arms from her waist and moved the other up over her shoulder as he and Roxas walked her to the kitchen. Roxas walked over to the kitchen bench while Axel sat down on one of the chairs at the table, seating Kairi on his lap, his arms now wrapped around her small waist. "What do you want Kai?" Roxas asked leaning against the bench casually. Kairi looked down and bit her lip in concentration.

"You know what I'd really like?" Kairi started and Roxas gestured for her to continue. "I'd really love some bacon and scrambled eggs," she liked her lips hungrily. "Oh and hash browns. Wow my mouths all watery." Kairi laughed as her stomach growled again.

"Anything else your majesty?" Roxas asked sarcastically.

"Do you really want to know?" Kairi asked with a playful smile on her face.

"Might as well." Roxas rolled his eyes as he leant against the bench waiting for Kairi's answer.

"Ice coffee?" Kairi asked hopefully, smiling innocently at him. Roxas sighed shaking his head unhappily. "Hey don't you complain, you asked me what I wanted, so I told you. I never asked you to make it for me." Kairi unwrapped Axel's arms from around her waist and stood up walking over to one of the kitchen cupboards. She pulled down a cup and walked over to the kitchen sink shutting the cupboard door behind her. Roxas looked at her with his eyebrows raised slightly.

"I thought you wanted an ice-coffee," he said mockingly, "because you know that's water not coffee right?" Kairi stuck the cup under the faucet, turned on the water and turned to face Roxas with a scowl across her face.

"Yes I do know that it's water and not coffee. Am I not allowed to have a glass of water?" she huffed, turned back to the faucet and froze in horror. Axel and Roxas looked at her suspiciously as they couldn't see past her to see that the faucet was hanging off the edge of her cup and water was spouting up from the base of it. After a minute or so Kairi slowly leaned forward turned off the tap. She turned around as stiff as a board still holding the cup in her hand with the faucet hanging off it. Axel and Roxas burst into laughter which pulled Kairi out of her horrified trance and glared at them maliciously. "Hey shut up, it's not funny." She huffed but then turned to Roxas and whined, "How do I fix it? Roxas help me!" Roxas laughed, walked over to the tap and before Kairi could turn around to watch, he had already fastened it on and other then the excess amount of water around the taps you wouldn't have believed it'd been broken.

"I can't believe you broke his sink," Axel laughed and shook his head typically.

"I didn't break the sink I broke the faucet. There is a difference," Kairi grumbled.

"There is, but most people don't manage to break sink or the faucet," Roxas laughed.

"Shush, it's not funny, and I want my bacon. Because you're making fun of me you can make my bacon now." She sat with her arms crossed and her nose lifted in the air slightly.

"You just broke my tap why should I make your bacon?" Roxas argued knowing that he had the upper hand.

"But I want bacon," Kairi whined, Axel braced himself for one of Kairi's temper tantrums

"No problem Kairi, I can make that for you" Kris walked into the kitchen pulling her apron down off the hook next to the door. "Does anyone else want anything while I have the stove on?" Kris asked. Roxas opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off.

"I'll have a hash brown if you don't mind," Olette called from the lounge room.

"Could I have some ice coffee?" Selphie called. Kris laughed and happily got to work in the kitchen.

"Would you like anything Axel?" Kris asked as she cracked open a few eggs and started whisking them in a bowl.

"I would really like some bacon if that's OK with you," Axel said his mouth watering at the thought.

"No, no problem at all," Kris smiled happily putting some bacon on to the griller.

"I won't have anything, thank you Mrs Atten," George called from the lounge room.

"You can call me Kris, it's not a federal crime, Mr Hamilton" Kris called shaking her head slightly. "Roxas dear? Would you like anything?" Kris put some hash browns on a baking tray and slid them into the oven.

"For you not to call me dear?" Roxas asked raising his eyebrows at her.

"Oh but sweetheart," Kris crooned. Roxas scowled at her unhappily and she laughed as she began to cook the scrambled eggs.

"Aww cheer up Roxas," Kairi smiled pushing up the corners of his mouth with her thumbs. Roxas looked down at her trying to portray no emotion other than annoyance. "Come on you know you want to be happy. Come on you know it." Kairi said, her voice slightly more childish than usual. Roxas scowled at her, trying to hold the expression fixed to his face although he knew he was fighting a force stronger than gravity. Kairi sighed irritably and got up off Axel's lap, walking over to Roxas and held his face in her hands and slowly shook it from side to side. "Rox-as, you want to be hap-py. You know-it, happy Roxas, hap-py," Kairi spoke in a cheery, drawn out voice. Roxas scowled at her eye to eye, for as long as thirty seconds before he rolled his eyes and smiled helplessly. "See?" she said in her know-it-all voice they had heard too often. "I told you that you wanted to be happy, didn't I?" Kairi walked over behind Axel and rest her hands on his shoulders. "Kris? Do you want a hand with anything?" she asked looking over to her who was at that present moment working over the stove.

"No I'm fine, I can give you a call when the food's ready if you like," she smiled happily at Kairi, as she nodded in thanks. Kairi pulled on Axel's shoulders to get him to stand, but he only groaned in protest.

"Kairi, I'm comfortable, do I have to get up?" he whined lazily.

"Nah, you don't have to," she said as she walked around his chair, taking up her seat on his lap again. She shifted a little until she was comfortable and Axel wound his arms around her to keep her warm. He looked at her cautiously, as if he was waiting for her evil plot to unravel at any moment.

"OK what's the catch?" he sighed, turning her so she was slightly more angled towards him.

"There's no catch," she said innocently, smiling happily at him. Axel carefully watched the features of her face, suspicion written all over his own. "I promise there is no catch, plan, scam or evil scheme of any sort," she said giving in, holding her hands in the air.

"What about a plot?" He asked watching her suspiciously.

"None of those either," she assured him. Axel looked up to Roxas, silently asking his opinion. Kairi looked up at Roxas and watched him as he assessed the colour of her eyes, while his own narrowed with suspicion.

"I wouldn't trust her," Roxas said gently pushing himself up from the counter. Axel sighed in defeat as he placed his hands on Kairi's hips and lifted her up off his lap. Kairi looked at him with a small pout riding her lips.

"I hate it how you do that," she huffed unhappily.

"Do what?" Axel looked at her with mock innocence as he stood up from his chair and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Pick me up and move me around like some sort of vase," she said as they walked into the lounge room.

"You may not look like one but your almost as breakable," he smirked at her, knowing very well he'd get a reaction from that. Kairi jumped back with her arms straight by her sides and her small hands in fists.

"I am not that fragile," she yelped unhappily. "You could all sit on me right now and you wouldn't even break my finger," she said wriggling her littlest finger in the air. Axel looked at her with raised eyebrows and then turned to Roxas, smiling cheekily. "What are you thinking?" she asked suspiciously. Roxas slowly started to walk towards her, "Whatever your thinking Roxas, don't do it," she warned. Roxas shrugged and stopped his advance sliding his hands into his pockets. Kairi couldn't believe she'd won that easily, there had to be a catch, somewhere. Just as she had finished that very thought, her legs flew out from under her and she fell to the floor, landing with a thud. She whipped her head around, scowling up at her spiky haired boy friend. She was about to open her mouth to tell him off when something landed on her, knocking the wind out of her chest. Roxas smiled down at Kairi as he lay face down across her stomach.

"What one earth is going-" she started yelling but before she had a chance to finish her sentence Axel came crashing down on top of Roxas' back. "What are you two-?" She began, but once again she was interrupted, this time by Olette's cheerful voice.

"Stack's on!" she laughed and gracefully jumped, landing face down across Axel.

"Will people please let me speak?!" Kairi yelped unhappily. She lay their ready to unleash a sure fire way to get them off her as she watched Selphie. She looked at the pile reluctantly, almost disapprovingly but she then sighed in defeat and jumped onto Olette landing with her legs daintily crossed. Kairi sighed irritated, and then yelped out in pain. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Get off, it hurts. Ow! Off, off, off, your breaking my ribs!" She whined, in one swift movement Roxas had pushed the entire group of people off her. She looked at him amazed, she never knew he was so strong, and he sure didn't look like it. He and Axel looked down her, scared that they had actually hurt her. Kairi looked up at them and smirked, sticking out her tongue triumphantly. Roxas scowled at her irritated, he hated it when she did that, and no matter how many times she'd screamed in the past, it worked every single time.

"You do that every time," he growled unhappily. Kairi looked up at him putting on her best sarcastic know-it-all face.

"I do not do that every time," she sneered lightly "Only when no one will listen to me, and as much as you may not have broken anything, all four of you lying on top of me makes it insanely hard to hit you all across the back of the heads for being pains in the neck," her eyes quickly flashed to Roxas and then back to the rest of her friends.

"Well what what did you want to say Kai?" Roxas asked impatiently, still unimpressed that she'd resorted to making him believe he'd hurt her.

"Well I can't remember now," she sighed as if she was blaming him for her memory loss, but she couldn't get the fact out of her mind the Roxas was capable of throwing her pile of friends off them. Roxas rolled his eyes and sighed as he flopped back onto the couch. Kairi looked around the room trying to figure out what she wanted to do when George caught her eye. He was still sitting on the bean bag staring intently at the T.V. She cocked her head to the side and ruffled her hair as she called his name, "George?"

"Yeah Kairi?" he asked not letting his eyes move an inch.

"Why are you staring so hard at the T.V.?" she asked slowly, trying to figure out what was so mesmerizing about Judge Judy.

"I…ummm…I have…ummm…" George ran through all the possibilities in his mind that he could use to skirt around the truth. He found one that had the smallest window for further questions. "Judge Judy turns me on," he said quickly barely finishing his sentence before the entire room burst out in yelps of shock, all except Kairi.

"Liar," she accused barely audible over the racket of her friends, but George heard her. He silently cursed under his breath as everyone went silent waiting to find out what was going on.

"What?" he asked as if she was falsely accusing him hoping she hadn't actually seen through him.

"You're lying," she repeated. "Why are you really staring at the T.V.?" she asked slowly walking between him and the television. As soon as she was in his eyesight he quickly bent over and started playing with his shoe. "What on earth is wrong George?" she asked wondering why on earth he wouldn't look at her.

"I want to live," he said and she saw his eyes quickly flick towards Axel.

"Ohh," she mouthed silently. "Sorry I'll fix that," she said quickly smiling sheepishly as she quickly walked out of the room. As she left George looked up to meet a number of suspicious faces, an awkward silence echoed through the room until minutes later Kairi skidded into the room. Kairi stood there now with a pair of jeans on, she hadn't realized until she got up stairs that all the bruising and scars on her legs had become so faint they were almost impossible to see. Everybody looked between George and Kairi as he gave her an appreciative smile but unfortunately for him, Axel caught on.

"YOU!" He shouted. "HOW DARE YOU!!" Panic ran across George's face faster than you could blink and Axel slowly walked forwards, looking like a lion about to kill its prey. George had started to stumble backwards as Kairi's mind started to work at lightning speed and she ran between the two of them.

"Axel. Axel wait, calm down. Just slow down for a second," she said hurriedly trying to push him backwards, but his fury was giving him more strength then she could force back. Axel gently, but forcefully, pushed her aside as he continued to advance on George who was now standing up and walking backwards into a wall. Kairi quickly ran forward and just as he swung, she ripped down on George's shirt, pulling him to the floor and letting Axel's knuckles collide with the brick wall behind him. Axel, now blind with fury and pain, swung his leg through the air aiming for George's face, but with his coordination now exceptionally bad he kicked Kairi full force in the chest. Kairi gasped, winded by shock and pain as Axel froze in horror. The whole room had come to a standstill, Olette frightened about George's safety, she knew Axel wouldn't intentionally hurt Kairi and he definitely wouldn't take his chances now, Selphie was in utter shock and Roxas couldn't have been more worried about an injuries that had still remained from Rinoa's episodes. As Kairi slowly got her breath back she called out in a soft quiet voice, "Roxas, I seem to have a boo-boo." The room seemed to come to life but the fearful atmosphere still hung overhead. George still sat on the floor horrified just in case Axel was still made enough to hurt him. Olette quickly ran over to them and pulled George aside out of harm's way before walking back to Kairi. Selphie walked into the kitchen to get Kris who was the best nurse at Dusk City hospital and Roxas quickly walked over to Kairi, pushing Axel out of the way and kneeling in front of her.

"Do you know what it is?" he asked, his hand slightly extended towards her. Kairi gently prodded her ribs wincing slightly.

"Broken ribs I think," she analysed. Axel let out a whimper from the couch he had resided to.

"Mind if I check?" he asked slowly reaching forwards.

"Knock yourself out, it's these four here," she indicated pointing to the four lowest ribs.

"Four," Axel whimpered, obviously beating himself up about it. Roxas carefully prodded the ribs she had pointed to as he carefully watched just how much Kairi winced. Suddenly Kris walked into the room with a medical kit and a sad look on her face. Roxas pointed to Axel and Kairi and Kris quickly walked over to them.

"What happened Kairi?" she asked, her mood obviously less buoyant then it was in the kitchen.

"Four broken ribs," she answered, pointing to the four she meant. Kris carefully pressed them and nodded as she pulled out some bandage and handed it to Roxas before quickly moving over to Axel. She quickly analysed his hand gently pressing on a few knuckles.

"You've broken all four knuckles and a couple of bones in your fingers and hand, you must have had a lot of force behind the punch." She said quietly opening up her medical kit and pulling out the bandages for Axel's hand. "Now I can safely say that you didn't get the broken knuckles from hitting Kairi's ribs right?" she asked. Axel looked down at her horrified by the thought. "Good, that's what I thought. Kairi can you come bandage Axel's hand while I attend to your ribs, please?" she asked calling across the unpleasantly silent room.

"No problem Kris," she called closing her eyes in pain as she stood up. Axel watched her, guilt and despair flooding through him like a tidal wave. She knelt down in front of him with Kris beside her, who quickly lifted her shirt and began to strap up her ribs. Kairi took Axel's hand in hers and slowly began to bandage it up looking up occasionally in hope to catch his eye, but Axel refused to look at her. Kairi finished placing the remaining materials into the medical kit. Kris quickly finished and walked into the kitchen without another word. George and Olette were sitting in the corner having a conversation no louder than a whisper, Roxas and Selphie had resigned to playing Mario Kart on the Xbox live but Roxas still looked back behind him every few seconds to check on his broken friend. Kairi reached up and pulled on Axel's good hand trying to grab his attention but he still wouldn't look her in the eye. "Axel?" she whispered, gently tugging on his hand. No matter how many times she pulled his hand and said his name he wouldn't look at her, so she stood up and pushed the pain to the back of her mind which she had become a professional at after all the years of living alone with Rinoa. Both Axel and Roxas turned to look at her as she silently walked into the kitchen. She walked in and let out a delighted moan as the smells of breakfast wafted through the air. "Awww, Kris it smells so good. Is it ready yet? Please tell me it's ready, I'm very hungry in the tummy." She walked over to the stove and looked down at the bacon with was perfectly crisp and at the hash browns which were a delicious golden brown. Kris laughed as she watched Kairi's longing face.

"Yes it's ready Kairi, would you like to be my little waitress?" she asked, her buoyant mood had obviously returned.

"Yes ma'am," she said saluting and marched over to the cupboards, pulling down four plates. She quickly walked them over to the stove.

"Why do you have four plates Kairi?" she asked curiously.

"Olette and I need a plate and whether he'll admit it or not after you called him sweet heart, he'll want those scrambled eggs. I didn't actually want them, I knew he'd eye my plate until I gave in and let him have them and then I thought you might want some of breakfast since your cooking it and plus I'm going to have to force feed Axel now, so he doesn't need a plate." She sighed turning her head to look at Axel's depressed slump through the door way.

"You have it all figured out don't you Kairi," Kris laughed.

"Yep, I'm tele-pathetic," she smile triumphantly.

"Don't you mean telepathic?"

"See I knew you were going to say that," Kris laughed at her pathetic excuse for a joke as Kairi smiled cheesily. Kris had served up Kairi's hash brown and bacon, with extra bacon for Axel, Roxas' scrambled eggs and Olette's hash brown while Kairi walked to the fridge and pulled out two 600mL bottles of iced coffee. She took the three plates and bottles of iced coffee out to the lounge room. A strangled silence floated through the room as she handed everyone their food and placed her own down next to Axel. "Hey Roxas?" she asked turning to look at her best friend who had resigned to leaning against the wall. He looked up, waiting for her to continue. "Can we play 'Need For Speed'?" she asked hopefully. Roxas let out a quiet laugh as he pushed himself off the wall.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?' he asked mockingly. Kairi pouted and winced slightly as she folded her arms across her chest too tightly. "Did you learn how to use that cheat?" he asked, smiling contently.

"No," she huffed, looking at something on the floor. Roxas laughed triumphantly and walked over to the games cupboard pulling out another copy of "Need For Speed" and slipped it into the second play station which had permanent residence in the lounge room.

"Is this really a good idea Roxas?" Selphie sniggered as Kairi glared at her, offended. Roxas set the game to two player and shook his head in pity as if he could hear Kairi silently sulking. He turned around and walked over to one of the single lounges, throwing Kairi a game controller as he went. She held the controller in one hand before sticking a piece of bacon in her mouth and making herself comfortable in Axel's lap with her legs crossed. The tense silence which had haunted the room had slid away, except for Axel, who weighed down the bubbling atmosphere like a huge rock. Kairi leant forward as the countdown began. 3-2-1-GO! Roxas sat against one of the single seater couches as Kairi almost fell onto the floor from leaning forward to far. She quickly recovered her balance and started driving as fast as she could, trailing only inches from Roxas' car. They lapped around the track in just under a minute and as they raced through the second lap Kairi realised that there was little hope of winning unless she passed him before the third lap. Leaning forward further she started to egg her car on.

"Go! Go! Go! Come on, over take the stupid little car! It's a piece of blue trash! Overtake it!" she growled venomously. "Get into gear you useless piece of junk!" she yelled hoarsely her voice echoing through the entire first floor. She leaned forward further as the nose of the car inched further past the other. Suddenly the controller was ripped out of her hands and she sat there frozen in place. "What?! What was that for?" She whined, whipping her head round to face Olette who was standing next to her holding the controller in the air. "Hey give that back! Give it back!" Olette smiled as Roxas drove over the finish line, winning the race. She quickly turned to face him and shouted competitively. "Hey! That's not fair! Olette stole the controller," She yelped, Roxas just smiled at her triumphantly. "No! No you did not win. No! I demand a rematch!" She growled but it was too late. Everyone had stopped listening to her rant on about how unfair the race was and Olette had started a new one, racing against Selphie. Kairi started grumbling under her breath, tearing a piece off one of her hash browns and sticking it in her mouth. Axel shuffled a little underneath her which stopped her grumbling at once. She had completely forgotten he was there and even more that he was still in a ditch of depression. She turned around to look at him, the smallest smile was spread across his lips as he had watched her complain but as soon as she caught his eye he dropped his head to inspect his belt. Kairi sighed and picked up the plate and waved it under his nose. He shook his head and pushed the plate aside. "Axel, what's wrong?" Axel looked up at her wondering if she really didn't know why he was upset. Wasn't it obvious? He'd just broken four of her ribs hadn't he? "Axel? Why are you so sad? Cheer up Axel," he couldn't believe she didn't know. He sighed and began to explain it to her but within the first few seconds that his mouth was open she had whipped up a piece of bacon from his plate and shoved it in his mouth. Axel stared at her grumpily as he slowly chewed on his piece of bacon and swallowed. Kairi smiled at him triumphantly before slipping a piece of hash brown in her own mouth. "Are you happy yet?" she asked in a childish voice; Axel grumbled under his breath. Kairi looked at him with a piercing stare, "Do I need to stuff more bacon down your throat?"

"But what about your ribs?" he asked, regret riddled through his voice.

"What, these?" she asked poking at her ribs. "They're perfectly fine, they don't hurt at all," she smiled at him and he gave a small smile back. "Yay! Axel's happy again," she laughed and clapped her hands together like a two year old amazed by a coin being pulled out from behind her ear. Suddenly Axel's smiled dropped as he looked past Kairi to George who was slowly making his way over to them, trying not to seem to threatening.

"Um, Kairi?" George said quietly with the striking resemblance to a naughty puppy whose just been smacked on the nose with a news paper.

"Yeah George? What's up?" she asked turning her head to face him while placing a hand across Axel's wrist.

"I was wondering where the bathroom is?" he stood at least a six feet from them making sure he was out of harm's way.

"Oh the bathroom, that's easy. You go up the hall I came down this morning, hang a right and walk up the staircase and then it's the fourth door on the left. Have you got that or do you need me to draw a map?" she smiled at him but she seemed to be serious about the map.

"Nah I'm ok thanks Kairi," George chanced a smile at Axel hoping for a truce but Axel had rested his chin on Kairi's shoulder and was glaring into space. George quickly retreated out of the room and made his way to the bathroom. Kairi turned to Axel and was about to tell him to relax and it wasn't Georges fault but decided to gently press her lips to his and whisper in his ear instead. Time went on and Kris brought out a few buckets of hot chips from the local take away shop. They all raced each other on the play station and when ever Kairi got to verbally abusive, the controller would be stolen out of her hands, which was then followed by a long string of complaints. It wasn't until later that afternoon that Olette finally asked the question that she had been wondering about for the last hour.

"What happened to George?" Everyone began to look around as they finally noticed his absence. They looked at each other in confusion, all except Kairi who was looking at the television screen smugly.

"I did ask him if he wanted me to draw him a map," she smirked.

***

"Roxas," Kairi whined unhappily. "It's too ear-" she paused to yawn, "-ly," she finished, blinking a few times. She quickly opened her eyes wide, trying desperately to stay awake.

"This coming from the person who is up at 5:00 every morning to make her step mother's blueberry pancakes." Roxas looked at her, his eyebrows raised mockingly.

"Hey! When I'm making Rinoa's pancakes at 5:30 in the morning my nerves are standing on wits end," she sneered playfully. "I'm sure there's no one here in Dusk City more than willing to beat me to death."

"You sure about that?" he smiled his toothy grin threateningly at her, snapping his teeth together for effect.

"Yes I'm sure," she glared at him as he laughed happily at her reaction.

"Don't worry Kai, I'll buy you a coffee as soon as we get to the square OK? You might be able to buy KFC without having to come up with another one of your brilliant scheme's," he reasoned, smiling happily. "I doubt the fat kids would be there at 6am."

"I doubt they're even open, Bozo," she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Bozo 'm I? Bozo da clown?" his voice coated with a hill-billie accent, swerving across the toad like a mad man.

"When has a clown had a hill-billie accent?" she criticized, raising her eyebrows in amusement.

"Since I gave him one. Don't you go teasing my hill-billie clown," he scowled. Kairi smiled happily to herself as she turned to look out the window. It had rained for the entire two weeks she had spent in Dawn City. This was the first sunny day they'd had since they had gone to the KFC in Dawn City Square. The sun was just starting to shed rays across the night sky; the trees on either side of the road passed by in a blur. As minutes passed by her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. They slowly began to close, flickering open every few seconds. Finally her tired, violet eyes closed as she slowly began to slip away into unconsciousness; she quickly slapped herself across the face, rubbing her eyes sleepily, desperately trying to rid herself of exhaustion.

"Roxas," she whined for the fifth time that morning.

"I know," he sighed irritably, "it's too early. Man Kai, you're really whiney this morning; is everything OK?" Roxas went from slightly annoyed to concerned in a matter of seconds, glancing quickly at Kairi from the corner of his eye.

"I just miss the guys that's all and plus, we didn't leave on great terms, I shouldn't have been so harsh," she sighed looking out the window, then turning to Roxas; the smallest tinge of blue began to fill her eyes.

"Don't worry Kai, they'll forgive you. To be honest who doesn't?" he laughed, smiling at her. "You have this charm about you that makes it impossible to stay mad at you; maybe it's because your such an air head." Kairi stuck out her tongue in response; her eyes narrowing as he reached across and rustled her autumn red hair.

"I'm not an air head," she hissed. Roxas leaned across the car towards here, wrapping his arm around her shoulders; Kairi sat there watching him suspiciously from the corner of her eye. He held his hand an inch away from her ear while slowly leaning into the other. Kairi was beyond suspicious by this point not even worrying that Roxas wasn't watching the road. She watched him cautiously as he blew in her ear, catching her off guard. She'd been expecting something else.

- June 14th 2003 -

Kairi stuck out her tongue childishly as she threw a Jaffa across the room, down the rows of seats.

"OW!" a man bellowed from the front row of the movie theatre, she leant into Ty's ear and whispered quietly.

"I win," The man in the front row stood up and looked up along the theatre, scanning the audience,

"Who threw the damn Jaffa?!" he bellowed, Ty looked at her playfully.

"Cheater," he smirked triumphantly.

"But still a winner," she whispered, laughing cheekily. Ty slowly leant down to her; she grew suspicious within seconds. She watched him from the corner of her eye; he smiled charmingly at her before blowing in her ear. "What the?" she looked at him, puzzled.

"Still think you're a winner?"" he smiled triumphantly at her confused look.

"Yes, why?" she raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Aww so it's only a myth?" a childish pout flooded his face but the playfulness never left his eyes.

"What's a myth?" she asked a little beyond confused by this point.

"Am I annoying you?"

"Kairi Rosa! You over grown midget! Are you even listening?" The image in her head snap back to reality like a rubber band snapping back into place. Roxas was waving his arm in front of her face, clicking his fingers occasionally. Kairi continued to stare blankly out the window until his hand was level with her mouth. She quickly leaned forward and hooked her teeth into his hand. "OW! What was that for?" he yelped quickly retracting his hand.

"Well what do you expect when you wave your arm in front of the face of an over grown midget?" she asked sarcastically. Roxas nursed his sore hand, cradling it against his chest; she may not have bit him hard enough to hurt him but the shock was there all the same. After a minute of silence he let go of his hand and looked to her, puzzled.

"What happened? You were zoned out for a good five minutes," a concerned look was on his face, the one that on almost every occasion made her spill every ounce of information but she refused to let this be one of those times. She angled her face away from him hoping he wouldn't read anything in her eyes.

"Well maybe you disturbed some dust when you blew in my ear," Kairi said sarcastic. "Nope, I'm insulted. I'm not talking to you anymore," she huffed, closing her eyes and lifting her nose in the air as she pretended to be offended. Now she had five minutes to clear her thoughts before Roxas started to worry that she was actually upset. She had to get over Ty; she knew he wasn't coming back, so why couldn't she let him go? She could let him go, she already had. Her mind had been filled with Axel almost 24/7 unless it was something to do with missing her friends in Twilight Town or breaking off a faucet. It wasn't until this stupid flash back that had marched into her head on its own accord had she given Ty a second thought. "Stupid flashback," she growled under her breath.

"I thought you weren't talking to me?" Roxas smirked happily. She had only been ignoring him for a minute and a half.

"I'm not, for the record I was talking to myself," she retorted lifting her nose in the air again.

"They're usually pretty interesting conversations, care to fill me in?" he asked, smiling happily at her as he attempted to make her forgive him.

"Do I have to?" she whined, just as if she was five years old, hiding the rising panic surprisingly well. How could she tell him about Ty?

"Please?" he asked, he tilted his head to the side, pulling his lower lip out a little and his sky blue eyes catching the early sunlight from the perfect angle; Kairi almost melted in her seat.

"OK, OK but stop with the face, will you?" she huffed, irritated that she was giving in. Roxas smiled happily at her and straightened his head, waiting patiently for her to speak.

"You know how you have those flashbacks that just march into your head and you just can't get rid of it until it's played out?" she asked. Roxas knew what she meant, he'd had one of those exact flashbacks the day Kairi showed up and he found her letter from Ty. He nodded understandingly and didn't say another word. Kairi was curious to why he had dropped it so readily but she wasn't about to push the subject. Finally the parking lot of Dusk City square came into view and there in the almost empty lot was Axel's blue Ute he was still angry at George but after a lot of persuasion he was now only ignoring him rather than the violent outbursts and racial slurs. Selphie's silver Porsche, Olette's emerald green Nissan and a forth car that she didn't recognize, a rusty brown Jeep. Roxas drove into the lot and wound down his window as he pulled up beside the cars. Kairi looked around to peer through the window of the Jeep and there in the front seat was Cid Highwind.

"You guys ready to go?" Roxas asked.

"Wait, where's Kairi?" Axel asked turning his head to look around the parking lot for her motor bike.

"She's here," Roxas pointed to her as she leaned forward and waved. "I literally had to drag her out of the house," he said rolling his eyes.

"Hey, you know how stubborn I am. It was your own fault for trying to drag me out of the house," she pointed out in her defence.

"I told everyone we'd meet here at 6:30 and look at the time," he tapped the digital clock slightly irritated, "it's 6:30"

"It's 6:32."

"Oh I'm sorry your highness, it's 6:32. Would you like me to-"

"OK enough you two" Selphie snapped. "Roxas can you hurry up and drive please?" she huffed impatiently. Roxas sighed unhappily and wound up his window. Everyone else did the same as he started to the engine and turned to drive out of the parking lot. He drove down a road now on the way to Dawn Point. Silence floated through the car as the after math of their fake fight. It was after they left the parking lot of Dusk City Square, Kairi finally spoke.

"Roxas?"

"Please don't tell me it's too early, I swear if you do I will tie you to the roof racks," he sighed threateningly.

"Sheesh someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I was going to say I'm bored but now I'm tempted to say it just so you'll tie me to the roof racks. Sounds like good fun," Kairi said smiling happily at him. Roxas couldn't help it, a smile slid across his face and he rolled his eyes as he thought, how typical. You couldn't stay mad at her, she was just so happy all the time, when her friends were around at least. Kairi huffed aimlessly and started tapping on the dashboard, humming to the tune of "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" over and over again. Roxas laughed happily and began to sing along.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddle-e-dee. There they are all standing on a wall, dum dum-dum dum. Big ones small ones some as big as your head." Silence suddenly rang through the car. "What's the next line?" he asked looking at Kairi, clueless. A thoughtful look crossed her face which she was obviously putting on for the occasion; Roxas only just managed to stifle a laugh. Then a light flickered on behind her eyes.

"We don't know the next line so let's just start again." They both burst into laughter, they were finding the smallest things amusing at this point in time. Roxas leaned over and flicked open the glove box, pulling out a CD labelled Kairi's Mix. He pushed it into the stereo system and hit play. The unmistakable introduction of "Dammit" by Blink 182 blasted through the car.

Roxas smiled triumphantly at her and only ten seconds into the song, he yelled "Take you pants off!" in perfect sync with Tom DeLonge. Roxas slammed on the brakes faster than you could blink. Kairi flew forward slamming into the seat belt as the car lurched to a stop. They looked at each other with shock across their faces, but for some reason there, in his face was a touch of pity. "I knew it was bad Kai, but I didn't think it was that bad," he sighed, concern riddled through his voice. Silence echoed through the car, the stereo continued playing loudly but it may as well have been off for all the effect it was having on the intense silence between Kairi and Roxas. Suddenly Kairi's phone rang and she reached forward to turn down the stereo as she pressed the answer button on her mobile. She was just about to greet the unknown caller when Axel's frantic voice met her ear.

"Kairi! Sweetie are you OK?" he rushed. She looked over her shoulder out the rear window and saw Axel's blue Ute behind them

"I'm OK Axel, calm down. You might give yourself a heart attack," she said lightly trying to get him to ease up.

"What on earth happened?" he asked, obviously he wasn't going to calm down anytime soon.

"There was a duck, Axel would you please calm down!" she urged, his ragged breathing echoed through the phone, "I'm fine OK?" Roxas slowly eased on the accelerator and continued to drive down the straight almost deserted road.

"OK, OK, calming down," Kairi listened as he took deep, relaxing breaths. "Alright, I'm calm. I'll talk to you when we get there, I love you so much Kairi," he sighed, relief that she wasn't hurt was clearly heard in his voice.

"I know, I love you too Axel." The phone beeped once as Axel hung up and Kairi slipped her phone back into her pocket. "Now what were you going on about Roxas?" she sighed irritably, it was taking a lot of effort to keep up with everyone.

"I didn't realize you were so unhappy" he sighed, watching the road in front of him.

"What are you going on about?" she said, irritation replaced with confusion.

"I knew Rinoa was getting worse, and I knew you dads death was taking its toll, but I thought you were happier than this," he rushed out in one breath.

"OK Roxas, stop! What's going on? How aren't I happy?" she asked, completely lost. She didn't have a clue what Roxas was going on about.

"You don't sing anymore. When you lived here, you would always sing and it always seemed to make you happier. Whenever you were so upset, that nothing could cheer you up, I'd play you this song and we'd scream out take your pants off and after that you grew happier by the second. We would walk around listening to it on our iPods and somehow we'd always have it playing at the same time. We'd scream out in the middle of the mall and people would give us the funniest looks. It was just our thing and I have never, ever screamed that without you, till now." Roxas sighed, every word he spoke, the more upset he became.

"Roxas, shut up!" she growled aggressively. His voice caught in his throat, he had never heard Kairi speak like that. "Look at you, every second you mouths open the more depressed you get. Now shut your trap and let me talk." Kairi waited for him to respond but she was only met by silence so she assumed he was listening. "Yes Rinoa has been laying into me a little harder, yes dad's death is sad," the enormous clouds of sadness she felt when she thought about him was no more than a small mist now. "I'm just as happy as I always was." She knew she was lying, she had been happy in Twilight Town but nowhere near as happy as she was when she lived in Dusk City. She was hoping that Roxas wouldn't have noticed but that thought had quickly been erased.

"You are not! When you were here you acted like a complete stoner. Actually that was a big part of your reputation," a small humorous smile slid across his face.

"That'd be the Codeine," Kairi pointed out in a know-it-all fashion. Roxas looked at her shocked, mouth slightly open.

"You. Were. Taking. Drugs?" he said slowly.

"Roxas, Codeine is in pain killers; they make you drowsy. I've taken pain killers for as long as I can remember," she sighed, rolling her eyes at the dramatics of his reaction. "You really need to grow a brain Roxas," she laughed, reaching over and ruffling his spiky blonde hair. "Dammit" finished and a new song began, Kairi laughed and sang along. Roxas laughed as he watched her from the corner of his eye; there was a smile on her face that he hadn't seen since they found out that she was moving to Twilight Town. She looked at him and waved, gesturing for him to sing along. He took one hand off the steering wheel and reached forward to turn up the stereo.

"It's something unpredictable,

But in the end it's right.

I hope you have the time of your life."

***

The phone rang once before Axel pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled it out. He flipped open his mobile and checked the caller ID before holding it up to his ear.

"Hey Selphz, what's up?" he asked casually, one hand gently turning the steering wheel as he followed Roxas' orange commodore around another corner.

"Can you do me a small favour?" she asked. Axel's eyebrows crinkled in suspicion as he cautiously agreed. "Wind down your window for a minute."

"Why?" He slowly held down the button for the window.

"Just do it," she groaned impatiently.

"I am, I am! Calm down Selphz," The sudden gust of wind blew Axel's hair in every direction. "Now why is my window down?" he asked sceptically.

"Listen carefully, can you hear that?" she asked. Axel held the phone way from his ear and closely listened to the wind. Faintly he could hear some form of tune coming from outside. He listened more carefully and he could just hear voices mixed in with music.

"Is that Kairi singing?" he asked in amazement.

"I'm not sure; that's what I was going to ask you," she laughed.

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was," he laughed as well. He looked into the back window of Roxas' car and saw an unmistakable movements of his two friends singing. "Yeah, it's them," he sighed typically.

"And just think, you're going out with her," Selphie teased; Axel shrugged.

"Doesn't bother me," he laughed. They drove up over the top of a hill and stretched out across the horizon was a crystal blue ocean. Axel looked around and was amazed by its beauty, he had never seen a beach so pure. Silence carried on from the other end of the phone as he snapped it shut and slipped it back into his pocket. Roxas pulled up at the end of the road, jumped out of his car and quickly walked down to the rest of their cars that had pulled up behind his own. Olette and George stood up standing behind their doors with one foot still in the car while Axel, Selphie and Cid wound down their windows.

"OK, were going over those sand dunes to the beach on the other side because they never get any surf on this one." He pointed to the sand dunes to their right, which were at least 18 feet high. "So Selphie, George and Olette, you guys are going to need to get a ride with me, Axel or Cid because, your cars haven't got much chance of making it over those dunes." Roxas smiled mockingly at Olette who was scowling at him for criticizing her car.

"I don't care what you think, my precious car can make it over those sand dunes just as easily as yours," she sneered. Roxas smiled sarcastically and laughed as he turned to walk back to his car. Selphie had walked away from her car and was now sitting next to Cid in his jeep. As Roxas was about to sit down in his car he called out over the top of the door.

"Oh yeah! Olette, I'll drive my car, you drive yours and don't come crying to me if you can't make it over the sand dunes." He slipped into his car laughing to himself as Olette started up her engine growling under her breath.

"Ollie calm down, he's just teasing you," George said quietly, smiling gently at her. Olette huffed unhappily as she began to drive up the sand dunes following behind Roxas and Axel with Cid driving along behind her. The distance between each car slowly increased as they all battled they're way up the sand dunes. As they drove, Olette slowly over took Axel as his wheels found a little too much grip on the sand. Olette continued to drive on because Axel wasn't too happy with her either since she was the only reason George was still around, but he was talking to her at least. Slowly Roxas' car came into view and Olette smiled as she saw the orange commodore shudder and stop. She laughed, rolling down her window and called out to him.

"Oh Roxas? Don't come crying to me if you can't make it over the sand dunes." She laughed and took off over the next sand dune, quickly losing sight of him through her rear mirror. She pushed down on the accelerator, raced up the sand and flew over the top. George smiled at her as he watched the hills of sand disappear underneath them and open up into a beach. The sand was whiter than snow and the waters were crystal clear. There was a large circle of rocks set in the sand with a pile of burnt fire wood and ashes, cold and gray, sitting in the sand. Olette drove up the beach onto the grass and parked her small Nissan, facing out to the ocean. They sat there watching the waves crash against the shore . Olette unbuckled herself from her seat belt and moved across to lean against George as he wrapped his arm around her. They watched the sun rise higher over the horizon. Cid was the first to drive over the sand dunes with Selphie sitting in the passenger seat of his rusty brown jeep. Olette and George slowly opened the doors and stepped out of the car as Cid pulled up next to them. Cid jumped out and ran around to open Selphie's door as she daintily dropped to her feet. "Hey Selphie, nice beach don't you think?"she said as she jumped up and took a seat on her boot.

"Yeah it's nice," Selphie leant against the bonnet next to Olette. "I reckon the water would be nicer," Selphie smiled at her and started to run towards the water. Olette leapt down off the bonnet of her car and ran off after. They peeled off their shirts revealing their bikinis underneath. They had just reached the water's edge when they stopped dead and looked up at the top of the sand dunes as the Axel's ute came flying into view. It crashed down into the slope and slid down the sand. The ute shuddered as it crossed onto the flat and quickly drove it up the beach and parked alongside Cid. Olette and Selphie had ran back up the beach to stand next to their respective men. They looked at the Ute as the passenger door opened slowly and Axel jumped out of the car and ran to the front of his car carefully inspecting any damage that could have been done.

"Axel, will you please calm down." Kairi jumped out of the driver's side of the ute and closed it behind her slowly walking to the front of his ute. "It's fine Axel calm down."

"You could have murdered it, why on earth would you do that?" Axel whined, almost dropping to his knees. Kairi walked up to him and straightened him up.

"It was just a bit of fun," Axel opened his mouth to retaliate but Kairi quickly went on. "And if I thought it was going to ruin your car I wouldn't have done it in the first place," Kairi quickly touched her lips to his and ran her hand down his arm giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "You have to admit it was fun though," Axel looked down at her and after a few seconds agreed grudgingly. Kairi turned around to the rest of the group and Olette laughed.

"I didn't think Axel would risk driving his car like that. What happened to Roxas?" Olette smiled happily as Kairi rolled her eyes.

"He kept trying to restart the car, so I offered to try for him because you know how I have a way with cars. Well no matter what, he wouldn't let me try and it finally got to the point where he was trying to get me to help him push it over the sand dunes when Axel pulled up." Kairi looked up to the top of the sand dunes.

"I offered to haul his car up but he refused, so I asked Kairi if she wanted to jump in with me instead of pushing it up over the sand dunes. So she jumped in with me." Axel looked up at the sand dunes waiting for the orange commodore to appear over the top of them.

"Then I managed to convince him to let me drive, was pure talent." She laughed as Axel gave a cautious look to the front of his Ute. Olette gave a quick look up the sand dunes and then turned to Kairi.

"We'll race you down to the water?" she said with a thick smile on her face. Kairi tore off her shirt and threw it into the back of Axel's Ute and raced Selphie and Olette down to the water, tripping over the waves as they came rushing in. Axel laughed as she landed face first in the surf, pulling Olette down with her. The two wrestled in the surf, as one tried to get back to their feet the other would pull them back down and they would be rolled over as another wave came crashing through. Olette pulled Selphie down as well and the three of them rolled around in the waves. Kari finally managed to get out of reach of the two and stood up, when she finally saw the orange commodore sliding down the sand dunes and Roxas running fifty feet behind it. Kairi laughed hysterically, as she watched slowly walking up out of the water and onto the beach. She ran over to the sand dunes, dripping wet, as the commodore rolled to a stop at the bottom. She opened the driver's door, jumped into the car and pumped the clutch as she twisted the keys in ignition. The car stuttered to life.

"I told him to let me try," Kairi laughed happily as she sped up the beach, quickly accelerating as she got closer to the parked cars. She was aiming at the spot next to Olette's Nissan when she twisted the wheel and stamped on the brakes. The car spun around, creating a full one-eighty and came to screeching halt only a few feet from a collision with the side of Olette's car. Kairi pulled the keys out of the engine, opened the door of the car and laughed as the thrill slowly wore off. "Now that was fun," she swung the door shut behind her and took a seat on the bonnet of his car. Axel, George and Cid just looked at her as she lay back, watching the sky and flicking the keys around her finger. Selphie and Olette walked up to the cars at the same time that Roxas arrived. Roxas didn't even try to catch his breath, he walked straight up to Kairi and started to yell.

"What...do you...think...you...were doing?" Roxas panted. Kairi sat up and crossed her legs as she looked at him.

"I believe I was driving your car," she said casually holding out his keys. Roxas looked at her in disbelief.

"You almost totalled my car." He yelped

"I would not. I would have totalled Olette's car, and have you no faith? I'm a pretty damn good driver thank you very much. I timed that perfectly." Kairi huffed, offended at his lack of confidence in her driving skills. "Look Olette's totally fine, she didn't believe I'd hit her car." Kairi smiled at Olette happily.

"You didn't actually do any damage to my car so I'm not all beat up about it." Olette smiled at her apologetically, Kairi merely shrugged.

"Well your here now and more importantly, I told you you should have let me try to start the car." She smiled at him and jumped off the bonnet and walked back over to Olette and Selphie. Roxas looked at her trying to think of something to say but drawing up a blank. Any of you guys coming in?" Kairi looked at Axel, Cid and George waiting for one of them to step forward. Cid pulled off his shirt and threw it onto the front of his jeep and walked over to Selphie.

"I'm in, how about you guys?" Cid turned to George and Axel. George carefully kept his eyes on Cid and Olette as he agreed. Selphie, Olette, Cid and George all made their way down to the surf as Roxas carefully inspected every inch of his car for any sign of damage. Kairi walked up to Axel and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Aren't you going to come in?" she asked with a false sadness in her voice.

"But I'll get wet," he said, smiling at her.

"That's kind of the point," she rolled her eyes and tried to subtly pull him closer to the water. "Pretty please?"

"No I'll get wet, you know what happens when I get wet, I melt,"

"What so now your an ugly old witch?" she asked. "You know I don't date old witches." She let her hands fall away from his neck and began to walk away.

"And I don't date girls that a super model worthy either but we all make exceptions," he laughed. Kairi turned around to face him with raised eyebrows.

"Who said I was making an exception, I was under the impression that you weren't an ugly old hag, but if you've been lying to me then I guess I'll just have to find someone else. I don't know maybe George." Kairi smiled at him, she knew she had him now. Axel scowled at her and slowly walked over to her.

"That's not fair," Axel huffed as he walked closer towards her.

"Whoever said it was?" she smiled at him. He pulled off his shirt and let drop on the ground behind him revealing his toned chest. She smiled at him and stretched up onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. She then turned around only to see everyone coming up out of the surf and laughing as Cid shook his hair like a dog and sprayed water all over Selphie. Kairi turned around to face Axel and he was just smiling down at her. "You got off easy this time kid,"

"Who you calling kid?" Axel asked picking her up and seating her on top of his bare shoulders. " Who's the one enjoying the piggy back?" he smiled cunningly.

"I am not enjoying it, now put me down." She grumbled.

"Aww come on tell me your not having fun," he laughed.

"I am not, OK well I guess it is kind of fun," she smiled.

"That's what I thought," he laughed triumphantly. He walked along the beach with the others as Kairi ran her fingers through his soft red hair. Roxas had finished inspecting his car and walked across to the back of Axel's Ute. He jumped up into the back and began to throw flattened cardboard boxes over the sides. Olette walked between the two cars and looked up at him.

"Roxas? What on earth are the boxes for?" Olette held up one of the boxes and looked at it, they were all old refrigerator boxes. "You aren't planning to turn into some sort of crazy box man, are you?" Roxas looked down at her totally confused, "You know like a crazy cat lady?" Olette laughed as he scowled down at her and threw another box down to the ground.

"No I am not turning into a crazy old box man," Roxas huffed. "You use them to slid down the dunes with, they don't pick up much friction so you go fairly fast." He threw another over the edge of Axel's Ute and then jumped over the side. He landed on one of the boxes and it slipped out from underneath him. Roxas fell down, landed flat on his back and everyone burst out laughing.

"Well you were right, no friction," Olette laughed as Roxas pulled himself off the floor grumbling under his breath. He ran his hands through his and a cloud of sand cascaded to the floor.

"Oh, can it Olette," Roxas retorted.

"Can it? I will not can it you-"

"Oh quit it will you?" Kairi jumped down off Axel's shoulder and walked over to the two. "Plus I want to have a go on the refrigerator boxes." Her face split into a wide smile as she picked up one of the cardboard boxes and ran off in the direction of the sand dunes. They all began to talk amongst themselves and after a ten minutes. They looked up to see Kairi and they couldn't see her anywhere, until they spotted a small Kairi shaped lump on the floor. They all looked at Kairi as they waited for her to stand back up, brush herself off and continue to run towards the sand dunes. They waited, her position not budging an inch to the left or to the right. They looked between each other, confused. They slowly began to walk towards her and the longer she wasn't moving the faster they moved. Roxas dropped the boxes on the floor and he and Axel fell to their knees beside her. Roxas had his fingers to his throat as Axel knelt there shaking her like a maraca. "Axel quit it, you're going to end up shaking my brain out one of my ears." Axel quickly stopped shaking her and she dropped back to the floor with a light thud. "Whoa, all the blood in my head is swirling around," Kairi lay there looking up at the sky as the pretty colours in her eyes faded away. "Am I going to have to fake death every time I want you guys to hurry up? I was turned around and yelled at you every few minutes. I'm surprised you noticed me lying on the floor in the first place." They all looked down at her, some were amused, others, like Axel, were not so amused.

"You mean you were lying on the ground not moving, for who knows how long, to make us think you'd passed out just so we would hurry up." Cid looked down at with raised eyebrows. He was starting to think she was a little more than drastic.

"OK, it doesn't sound so great when you put it like that but I guess, that's the basic gist of it." Kairi smiled and she grabbed the pile of cardboard boxes from beside Roxas and began to walk up to the sand dunes. Axel and Roxas picked themselves up off the floor and ran after Kairi. Roxas caught up to her first and ripped the cardboard boxes out of her arms. It wasn't hard considering she was so short she could barely see what was in front of her. Axel came running up behind her and tackled her to the floor. Roxas laughed as Kairi struggled against Axel's strength.

"Come on Kairi, hurry up. We want to go sand surfing, hurry up Kairi," Roxas mocked as he laughed and tapped her nose with his foot.

"Did you just tap my nose with your foot?" She looked up at him utterly bewildered.

"Well I'm not sure what you call this," he pointed to his foot, "but I call it a foot and unless that's an abnormally large wart on your face I believe that's a nose."

"Oh your funny. I'm going to get you funny man, because you're so funny." Kairi slipped out from under Axel so fast that he knelt there frozen in shock. Roxas ran up the sand dunes and Kairi followed quickly. Selphie and Olette just looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "You'd think all three of them were related." The four of them slowly made their way forward. As they walked past Axel who was still kneeling in the sand, Olette dropped back and crouched down in front of him.

"Come on Axel," she sighed, grabbing his wrist. She stood up and pulled him up along with her. They slowly walked across the sand, Olette keeping a firm grip on his wrist. Axel stared blankly and his lips moved soundlessly. "Axel I can't hear you unless you use your voice." Olette spoke gently almost as if she was talking to a trauma patient.

"She vanished into thin air." Axel turned to look at her, "Poof," he turned back to look at the sand dunes in front of them. "Poof."

"It's OK Axel, see there she is," Olette pointed up the sand dunes at Kairi. "She's almost at the top, see?" Axel looked up to the top and watched Kairi tackle Roxas and fly over the top of the sand dune and out of site. "Now we are going to walk up to the top of the sand dunes and I'm going to take you to Kairi, OK?" Olette looked up at him and he nodded.

"OK." Olette and Axel caught up to George, Cid and Selphie and they all made their way to the top of the sandy slope. No one seemed to notice the two figures in the distance walking towards them from the main land. They made it to the top of the sand dune and saw the pile of cardboard boxes, splattered on the floor. They also saw Kairi running back up the sand towards them, closely followed by Roxas. Kairi was laughing hysterically as she looked over her shoulder at Roxas, chasing her up the sand dune. She saw Olette at the top holding Axel's wrist and Axel looking totally out of it. Kairi looked up at the confused and began to slow down. She suddenly heard Roxas' breathing get shockingly louder and with a quick burst of energy she sped up the last of the sand dune. She quickly ducked around Axel, and peeked over his shoulder as Roxas came to a panting stop in front of them. Kairi smiled at him cheekily from behind Axel. Roxas stood there glowering.

"You're going to get it Kai. Believe me, you are going to-" Roxas was cut off when he was hit in the face by a large refrigerator box.

"Can it Roxas and slide," Roxas scowled at Selphie and then dropped the cardboard box onto the downward slope of the dunes. He turned around to face the others and saluted them. They all looked at him like he had his head screwed on too tight. Roxas stood back and dived onto the refrigerator box. He slid straight over the top and started rolling down the sand dune, kicking up a ton of sand.

"You guys don't do this much do you?" Everyone whipped around to face the voice. There stood two girls, one girl had golden honey skin with long dark hair and bright hazel eyes. The one that had spoken had shiny shoulder length copper hair that sat in hundreds of small ringlets down around her pale freckled face with dark brown eyes that turned the slightest shade lighter around the pupil. The honey skinned girl looked at Cid and smiled.

"And you are?" Selphie hissed. You could almost see her bend into a crouch that looked like a cat about to pounce. The copper haired girl stepped forward as the honey skinned girl continued to smile casting a sideward glance at Cid.

"I'm Mandy, Mandy Hebblewhite but most people just call me Dez, and this is Francesca Ormshaw, also known as Fran." Mandy held her hand forward to Selphie. Selphie just looked at it in disgust. Kairi sighed, this was just typical. She stepped in front of Selphie and took Mandy's hand.

"Sorry about her she's gets a bit territorial," Everyone quickly glanced from Fran to Cid to Selphie. "I'm Kairi, this is Axel," she pointed to the spiky red head who looked like he had been smoking marijuana. "The territorial one is Selphie, Olette's the blonde and the tall dark one wrapped around her is George, and finally Cid." Kairi finished introducing the group of people on top of the sand dunes but Mandy looked down the slope to the crumpled heap at the bottom that was slowly standing up brushing off the sand.

"And who's the klutz that just rolled down the sand dune?" Fran asked looking down the sand in the same direction as Mandy.

"Oh that?" Everyone looked down at Roxas as he slowly made his way up the slope. "That's Roxas. Best friend and all time idiot." Everyone laughed loudly and Roxas looked up at them suspiciously, but then again what could he expect? He had just rolled face first down the sand dune.

"Oh Dez can relate to that, she's accident prone to the extreme," Fran laughed happily and Mandy turned to her and stuck out her tongue.

"Just because I fell down a hill, rolled into a lake and caught pneumonia does not make me accident prone," Mandy argued. Fran just looked at her. "OK fine, but you still didn't have to say it."

"Dez, they had to be warned," Fran laughed as Mandy grumbled unhappily.

"I am not a threat to them, I'm only a threat to myself." Fran smiled and raised her eyebrows. Mandy opened her mouth but shut it again when she realised there was just no hope.

"So why do they call you Dez?" George asked looking at Mandy. Mandy when to speak but Fran decided to do it for her.

"Dez is short for destruction, because she's basically destined for destruction," Fran laughed as Mandy scowled at her furiously. "Anyway, why don't you let a professional show you how it's done." Fran picked up a refrigerator box and took a running leap across the peak of the first sand dunes. She held it underneath her and landed down on to the box. Sliding down the sand dunes, quickly gathering speed, standing just as if she was on a surf board out in the ocean.

"Well she's not full of herself, is she?" Selphie growled sarcastically. Cid laughed as he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"You are so cute when your jealous," Cid smiled. Selphie just glared down at Fran as she came to a sliding halt at the bottom. Cid pressed his lips to the back of her head and whispered into her hair, "Don't worry, you're way hotter than she is." Selphie turned around to look at him and smiled.

"Kai, what have I told you about strangers?" Roxas had finally made it to the top of the sand dune.

"You know, you're always going on about stranger danger but every stranger I've met has been perfectly nice. I've always told you that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet, it's your friends that will cause the most damage." Kairi looked at Roxas meaningfully and didn't notice the quick look that Axel flashed at him.

"I totally agree. Strangers are such nice people," Mandy laughed happily. "I met this really nice guy named Ian. He was fishing on the beach, he was so nice." Roxas looked at Mandy and then to Kairi and with a mixture of horror and amusement he realised that he'd just meant what would be the closest living thing to a second Kairi. He looked up at Axel and sighed.

"Today is going to be a long day." Roxas looked at Axel, as he looked between the two girls. It took him a minute but he finally realised what Roxas meant.

"Aww man. One was ahandful, but two?" he groaned. Kairi and Mandy looked between the two boys, completely stumped.

"Two of what?" Kairi asked turning around to face Axel. Axel remained silent as the two girls looked between him and Roxas. Kairi grew more suspicious as the silence wore on. "Two what?" she growled. Axel looked at Roxas and both their eyes flicked toward the small stack of cardboard boxes sitting on the sand. Kairi followed their glance and before she could move both Axel and Roxas had dived for the boards and were sliding down the sand dune at phenomenal speed. Kairi glowered at them as they slid down the sand.

"They're sneaky trouble makers aren't they?" Mandy laughed as Kairi stormed over to the pile of refrigerator boxes.

"They have to be the most painful pair of children I've ever met. Those two are impossible." Kairi picked up a box and threw it at Mandy. "Do you want to come help me beat it out of them?" she asked picking up a box for herself.

"Beat what out of them?" Mandy asked positioning the cardboard in front of her, trying to find the least dangerous route to the bottom of the sand dune.

"What they were thinking. It was about both of us and I have this small feeling it's got something to do with the amount of chaos we'll cause today."

"I am not that dangerous," Mandy huffed. "Let's get 'em!" Mandy and Kairi dived forward landing on their stomachs on top of the refrigerator boxes and sped down the sand dune. Selphie, Cid, George and Olette who were also standing on top of the sand dunes had been entirely forgotten by the party that had just taken off down the sand dunes on cardboard boxes.

"I want to try this. It looks like fun," Olette smiled as she slipped her hand into George's and pulled him across to the pile of refrigerator boxes. "You guys going to come?" Selphie looked down the hill and saw Fran only a few feet from the top of the sand dune, and once again, she was smiling at Cid. Selphie pulled Cid towards Olette and George and picked up a box.

"Come on, we'll ride this one together," she said casting contempt glances towards Fran. Olette and George grabbed a box each and dove over the edge of the sand dune and landed on the sand, flying down the dune. Selphie sat on the cardboard box as Cid grabbed the back of it and began to push it over the edge of the sand dune. As it began to pick up speed he jumped onto the back of the box and wrapped his arms around Selphie's waist. Kairi and Mandy were half way down the sand dune when Kairi's refrigerator box began to swerve wildly out of control. She carved wide arcs through the sand passing just in front of Mandy and just behind her each time. Mandy thought it was a miracle they didn't crash into each other, but she thought that a second to soon. Just as she finished thinking it Kairi came skidding into her side and they were both thrown off their boxes and were sent tumbling down the sand. Olette and George had no time to swerve around them as the pair came tumbling out in front of them. Olette hit them first and she was thrown head long over the top of them, but as they tumbled down the sand they soon ran into her and she was sent tumbling with them. George tried drastically to manoeuvre around them and only just managed to clear them, but just as he thought he was clear, they clipped him from behind. They tumbled straight into his back and he was flattened against the ground as they rolled over the top of him. Selphie and Cid were too heavy to move around them so they had to hope they wouldn't collide with them. They sped closer and closer to the somersaulting group, the space between them shortening at a frightening rate. At the last second, just as they were about to collide, Kairi, Olette and Mandy rolled off to the side and Selphie and Cid managed to avoid the collision. Axel and Roxas stood at the bottom of the sand dunes watching the mass mayhem that was rapidly rolling down to their far right at bottom of the sand dunes. As they watched the tumbling mass come to a crunching halt at the bottom, they didn't see Selphie and Cid speeding straight for them. Selphie and Cid looked down in front of them yelling out to Axel and Roxas to move, but they didn't seem to notice. It wasn't until it was too late, that they turned around to see Selphie and Cid crash into them. The four were sent into a hurtling ball of limbs. Olette, Mandy and Kairi had managed to untangle themselves just in time to see the mass collision on their left. They burst out laughing as they watched Axel and Roxas yelling trying to control the utter chaos they were in. They yelled, grabbed at the sand and digging their heels into the floor to try and stop them from tumbling across the sand but all their efforts were useless. They didn't have a hope of stopping until they hit the rise of the next sand dune. At the top of the sand dune, Fran stood laughing hysterically at the two piles of bodies at the bottom of the sand dunes and halfway down the sand lay one corpse like body. George slowly lifted his head, up out of the sand, he spat out any of the multitude of sand that had made it into his mouth and brushing off the mask of it that covered his face. He slowly stood up, brushed off his shirt and pants and slowly made his way down the sand dune to where everyone else was standing. As he trudged through the sand, Fran came skidding gracefully down around him and came to a perfect stop at the bottom of the sand dune. Everyone looked at her grudgingly as they all began to untangle themselves from other bodies and slowly but cautiously stand up.

"I think I'm over the sand surfing," Roxas sighed as he straightened up to see the engravings they'd left down the sand dune.

"Man Roxas, one collision and you're out for the count? You'd be a useless if you were accident prone." Kairi laughed as she and Mandy brushed themselves off and picked up their cardboard boxes.

"I think we're over it too," Selphie called from a few feet away, she was lying on the floor being too uncaring to get up off the ground.

"Fine, no more sand surfing. Can we play with the snapping turtles now?" She smiled gleefully at them all. Everyone just stared at her in disbelief. "Aww, come on. It'll be fun." Kairi smiled around at them.

"Kai, it'll be disastrous. Especially with Dez," Rox looked between the two of them and almost physically shuddered at the thought of playing with snapping turtles.

"What do you mean especially with me?" Mandy growled. "Kairi, stacked it on the sand dunes first in case you didn't notice," she defended herself. Fran just laughed.

"If Kairi hadn't ridden down the sand dunes, the mass collision would have happened anyway there would have just been one less person in it."

"Oh thanks Fran," she growled sarcastically. Kairi just turned to her with a sympathetic smile.

"Don't worry Dez, they do it to me all the time. They think they're so good because they don't fall over the majority of the time, or break kitchen taps," she said the last part louder and scowled at Axel and Roxas who began to laugh, trying desperately to conceal it behind their hands.

"You know they're probably right though," Mandy reasoned. Kairi looked at her with her head tilted to one side and a confused look across her face. "About the snapping turtles, considering we're both intensely accident prone and let's face it, snapping turtles are a lot more dangerous than cardboard boxes on sand dunes."

"I guess you're right," Kairi huffed. "I hate it when people have to be all reasonable."

"Anyway, while you're complaining about the lack of snapping turtles, I want to have lunch." Roxas said as his stomach grumbled loudly.

"What are you talking about? It's barely past breakfast," Kairi looked at him in disbelief and Roxas just looked at her with the same sympathetic face she had just given to Mandy.

"Kai, it's 12:30, well 12:36 to be exact." Roxas said gently. Kairi just looked at him and shook her head.

"No way," she walked over to him, pulled his arm out in front of her and looked at his watch. "Holy mackerel, how did that happen?" Kairi dropped his arm and then began to walk over to her cardboard box which she had dropped onto the floor.

"Yeah Kai, that's what happens. Time won't stop for no one," Roxas began to walk up the sand dunes and was quickly followed by everyone else.

"Well I knew that. Smart aleck," she grumbled, dragging her feet behind her. "I just didn't think time went that fast."

"Stop complaining Kai. It's just making me hungrier," Roxas sighed and he turned around to face Axel. "Hey, do you still have that portable BBQ in the back of your Ute?"

"Yeah I think it's still in there from when we went camping." Axel thought carefully, trying to remember everything that was in his Ute. "Yeah I'm fairly sure it's in there."

"Oh! Can I cook?" Mandy looked around at them excitedly.

"Dez? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Fran looked over at her, with a smirk across her face.

"I am a good cook thank you very much," she huffed.

"Yeah I'm kind of fond of my BBQ," Axel said as he wrapped his arm around Kairi's shoulders.

"Don't worry, I'll cook with her. You trust me don't you?" Kairi looked up at him but Axel kept his eyes averted, refusing to meet hers. "You don't think I can cook?" Kairi looked at him, completely insulted.

"No that's not it," Axel said slowly. Kairi looked up at him, daring him to go on. "No, it's just, that you seem, to attract, how would I put it?" Her eyes narrowed as he quickly searched for a word.

"I think Axel's trying to say that, chaos follows you like a hyperactive golden retriever." Olette smiled at her as Kairi began to grumble under her breath. Kairi looked around at her friends and with a loud humph dropped to the floor and crossed her legs. They all turned around to look down at her and Axel as he stumbled over the top of her.

"Come on Kairi, you know it's true." Roxas walked down behind her and then began to push her up the sand dune with his foot.

"Hey cut that out!" she growled. "I was sitting her so I wouldn't cause any more chaos." Her eyes narrowed as she looked around at Axel, Roxas and Olette. Kairi wrestled with Roxas' leg for five minutes before Olette stormed over and stood in between them.

"Alright alright, enough you two, at this rate we'll never get lunch." Olette huffed. Kairi sat on the floor and looked up at her showing no sign that she was going to stand up. "OK Kairi, chaos does not follow you like a golden retriever, now can we go please?" she gestured down the sand dunes towards the cars.

"No you we're right. Everything I do turns into chaos, so I'm going to sit here so I don't cause another disaster." Kairi crossed her arms and lifted her nose into the ear, keeping her eyes averted from anyone else's. Olette sighed in defeat and then looked up to Axel. He nodded, bent over and lifted Kairi up off the ground throwing her over his shoulder. They all began to make their way down the sand dune and crossed onto flat sand, the entire time Kairi was kicking, squirming and demanding that he put her down.

"Put me down! I am not a sack of potatoes that you can just carry away. I demand that you put me down. Axel if you don't put me down I'll...I'll...I'll throw you in with the fishes." As she threatened him her kicking and squirming became less frequent.

"I'd like to see you try," Axel laughed.

"Let. Me. Down!" Kairi growled, she wriggled, kicked the air and began punching him with the sides of her fist. They were half way between the dunes and the cars, when Axel finally caved.

"Alright, alright I'll let you down, but only if you promise to keep walking," Axel looked over his shoulder at her face with raised eyebrows.

"Only if I get to cook," they stared into each other's eyes, both refusing to look away. Axel sighed, readjusted her on his shoulder and continued to walk. She began to struggle again, wrestling against his vice like grip with as much force as she could muster. They was still three hundred feet from the cars, and keeping Kairi on his shoulder was becoming tedious.

"Alright, alright you and Dez can cook, but as soon as you blow up my BBQ, me and Roxas are taking over." Axel slowly let her down, and she smiled at him reaching up on her toes and kissing him on the cheek.

"Thank you Axel," Kairi smiled at him and then turned to Mandy. They laughed and gave each other a high-five.

"Oh I have a bad feeling about this," Axel groaned, casting a glance to his Ute which had the portable BBQ in the back. "Do you have a bad feeling about this?" Axel asked turning to Roxas.

"I always have a bad feeling about this," Roxas sighed as they finally approached the cars. He and Axel walked around to the back of the Ute, Axel jumped up into the back while Roxas remained on the ground. Axel picked up the portable BBQ and passed it down to Roxas. Roxas walked it a hundred feet from the cars and Axel assembled it in a matter of seconds. It was a medium sized red sphere on three legs. The hatch folded back to reveal a three foot circular grill. Kairi and Mandy walked over to the BBQ, carrying the kilogram of sausages and dropping them on the sand beside one of its silver legs. Olette and George were watching as Axel reluctantly handed Kairi the lighter fluid and the BBQ lighter.

"You know I reckon he's not so mad at you anymore," Olette was sitting on the bonnet of her car watching the small ordeal in front of her.

"What do you mean?" George looked at her curious and then back towards the group of people gathered around the BBQ. Olette turned to face him.

"Axel, he hasn't scowled at you once today," Olette laughed as Kairi began to squeeze the lighter fluid into the BBQ. Axel's face widened with horror and he snatched the lighter fluid away from her.

"What are you talking about? Every time he's looked at me he's been scowling." George watch Kairi light the BBQ lighter and dip the tip between the grills onto the fluid covered coals underneath. A huge ball of fire leapt up through the grill and Axel jumped back in shock.

"Not really, I was watching him earlier and whenever you've said something or done something he'll look at you and smile, only for a second, but it was there. Then he'd replace it with a scowl, which is what you saw." Olette smiled at him and then watched as Kairi and Axel were arguing, slowly the voices drifted up to meet them.

"Come on Axel, it was one little fireball. It won't happen again, look your BBQ isn't even damaged. Give us another chance." Kairi had the palms of her hands resting against his upper stomach.

"I didn't even cause the fire ball, give us one more chance." Mandy was standing a few steps behind Kairi and they were both looking up at him, begging. Roxas was stand a few feet away watching Kairi and Mandy slowly beat down Axel's defences. Axel looked at them hesitantly then over to his BBQ then down into Kairi's eyes.

"Fine. One more chance, but I'm very fond of this BBQ, so if you don't mind I might supervise." Axel planted himself on the floor ten feet away and Kairi and Mandy walked over to the BBQ and tore open the packet of sausages. Roxas took a seat next to Axel and looked up to George and Olette who were talking amongst themselves. He looked around the beach, across the sand and out to the surf. He couldn't see Cid or Selphie anywhere, he figured that where ever they had gone they would turn up eventually. Kairi and Mandy quickly laid the sausage on the BBQ, squeezing as many sausages onto the grill as they could fit.

"See look nothing has blown up," Kairi huffed at Axel. "There's no bits of sausage flying all over the place." Kairi sent a suspicious glance to the BBQ just to make sure that no sausages had flown off the BBQ.

"Yeah, nothing else has blown up, yet." Axel watched the BBQ cautiously, watching for a sign that it would crumble at any moment. Olette and George walked over to them and sat down beside them, while Fran was sitting with her headphones in her ears almost twice the distance away from the BBQ as everyone else.

"You won't believe what happened to me the other day," Mandy said flipping over the sausages. "I went to my Aunt and Uncles, they live in this seven story condo. We'll we went there for dinner and my Uncle decided to give me this Santa's hat." She put the tongs on the side table and then turned around to face them. "He said it was because I had a little brain and small pointy ears to match, my cousins, they're two and four years old, they thought it was hilarious. My Aunt decided to tell them that I was Santa's little helper, so that was the big joke of the night. So when we left, our cousins decided to come with us and say good bye down in the car park." Fran pulled out her head phones and slowly moved closer to the BBQ. "We got in to the elevator behind this lady and when she saw me, she started grumbling that she already had to deal with these punks at Christmas. When we passed the 5th floor she started yelling at me about how I could wear a sign of Christmas so, now this was her word not mine so don't ask me what it means, blatantly and how it was offensive. So my little cousin turns to her and says to her, she's Santa's helper meanie. When we got off she just stood there and said, damn scaarrry little girl." They all laughed and for the next few minutes they talked amongst themselves. Mandy suddenly saw the sausages spitting and popping around the BBQ. Kairi looked around frantically for the knobs to turn off the BBQ. They were at the back over the top of the BBQ. The sausages were leaping around on top of the BBQ and fire was spitting up through the grill. She thought frantically, if she didn't do something soon then Axel would notice all the smoke billowing from the BBQ. He was currently facing the other way, talking to Fran. She quickly looked around and then she saw Roxas' car out of her eye.

She quickly leaned into Mandy's ear and whispered, "Run over to the orange commodore and in the glove box is an oven mitt. Can you run and grab it for me?"

"Why is there an oven mitt in the car?" she looked at her entirely confused.

"I don't know but please, we need to get it before Axel realises his BBQ is on fire." They cast a worried look to him, resembling two mice watching the sleeping cat. Mandy tip-toed away and once she was far enough she sprinted towards Roxas' car. She tore open the door and ripped open the glove box almost pulling it off its hinges. She snatched the oven mitt and slammed it shut. She shut the door as she ran off towards the BBQ. As she neared it she saw that Axel was still talking to Fran, so she tip-toed toward Kairi and handed it to her. She quickly slipped it over her hand and reached across to turn off the knobs for the BBQ and they sighed. Axel was still talking to Fran and he hadn't noticed the column of smoke coming from behind her. Kairi pulled her hands back from the BBQ and looked down at the oven mitt. The top of the mitt had caught on fire. She looked at Mandy with wide eyes and they both looked down at the burning oven mitt.

"What do I do?" Kairi mouthed silently. Mandy looked around and the beach searching for something. "My hands on fire, can we hurry up and think of something?" she whispered urgently.

"I know, smother it, stick your hand in the sand," Mandy whispered pointing to the ground. Kairi dropped to the floor and crushed her hand against the floor. The fire on the mitt went out but she'd also punched the floor to hard and her hand was hurting. By this time everyone was looking at her, especially Axel. Kairi smiled at him guiltily as she slowly stood up and took of the soot covered oven mitt.

"I'm not cooking anymore, am I?" she looked down at Axel and Mandy looked over at Fran, who was shaking her head with an, I knew this would happen, sort of way.

"No Kairi, you aren't cooking anymore," he said as he stood up and walked over to them.

"Well it's a good thing lunch is ready then," a huge grin spread across Kairi's face as she turned around and started moving all the cooked sausages from the BBQ onto the container that the packet of sausages was in. Roxas walked across the sand to the boot of his car and pulled out the bag of bread rolls, walked back towards the group of people and dropped them in the middle of the circle that had formed. They dug into the food, eating quickly and quietly. Usually lunch wasn't a quiet event, but they hadn't eaten since breakfast which had been at 5:30 that morning. They went through the entire kilogram of sausages, most of which had been eaten by George, Axel, Roxas and Cid. Selphie and Cid had turned up looking a little worse for wear, and they disappeared again as soon as the food was gone.

"Wow, I'm stuffed." Roxas dropped backwards and slid his hands underneath his head. Kairi sat there picking apart one of the last bread roll and popping the pieces of bread into her mouth. George sat cross-legged on the floor and had his arms stretched out behind him with Olette pressed up against his side. Mandy was talking to Kairi and telling her the story of when she feel through the trapdoor during a performance. Fran was laughing as she listened and remember just how funny it had been. Axel had stood up and made his way over to the BBQ. He walked around it, inspecting it for any sign of damage.

"Axel, calm down. I may be accident prone but I don't cause that much damage." She sighed. Mandy had stopped talking and turned to look at him.

"Kairi, first you used way too much lighter fluid, then you made this massive fireball erupt from my BBQ and then you manage to catch an oven mitt on fire while trying to turn off the BBQ without me noticing." Axel looked at her with raised eyebrows and she just smiled back at him sheepishly. "I do believe that I'm within my rights to make sure BBQ wasn't too severely harmed.

"Fine," she huffed, she knew he had a good reason to be scared for his BBQ, she had managed to break off the kitchen tap with ease at Roxas' house. She'd also managed to break a dozen plates at the pizza store and had knocked over three sets of display racks at the surf shop. Time passed slowly as they sat there, quietly talking amongst each other. If they weren't to full to move then they were just too lazy to get up. It wasn't until an hour and a half after they had finished eating that Kairi stood up and walked off to the cars. Everyone turned their heads to see what she was doing, they didn't have enough energy to move anything else. Kairi opened the boot of Roxas' car and pulled out a large black bag. She closed the boot and made her way across the sand, back to her small group of lethargic friends. She walked up in front of them and kicked sand over the top of them.

"Come on you lazy slobs, get your butts off the floor. We are going to play some beach cricket." Kairi smiled down at them and kicked more sand on top of them.

"Quit it Kai," Roxas groaned as he rolled over and cover his face with his arms. Kairi rolled her eyes and walked over to him. She placed her foot on top of his back and began to shake him. Everyone saw what extents she'd go to to get them off the ground and were all standing in a matter of seconds. She smiled as she turned to see them all standing. She then turned back to Roxas and began to roll him over with her foot.

"Get off the floor and come play," she said as his arms flopped back off his face and he looked up at her, his eyes narrowing.

"I don't want to. I want to stay here and just melt," he whinged as he lifted his arms off the sand and let them fall back down with a thud. Kairi sighed and quickly began to roll him over with her foot again. She rolled him across the floor, until he caved. "Fine! Fine, I'll referee." Kairi stopped rolling him and he stood up, brushing off all the sand.

"No, you'll play," she glared at him threateningly. Roxas looked at her, challenging.

"There's seven of a Kai, it's not fair if one team has four and one team has three." He smiled at her as he saw her glare falter. She turned around quickly counted everyone and turned back to face him with a triumphant smile.

"Hah! Your wrong, there's eight of us."

"Count again Kai," Kairi turned around and counted through them carefully. There was Axel, he was one. There was George and Olette, three. Mandy and Fran, they made five. Then there was Roxas, six and herself who made-.

"Seven," she growled unhappily.

"That's what I said," he smiled at her, using her triumphant smile against her.

"Yeah, shut your mouth." She glared at him unhappily but he just gestured for her to continue. "Fine! You can referee."

"Thank you," he smiled and walked over, taking the black bag out of her hands and began to set up the stumps. "Axel. Olette. You guys can be captains and no Kai, it's never a good idea to let you be captain." Roxas said, cutting across Kairi before she could open her mouth. Kairi just huffed unhappily.

"Shot gun!" Olette called, she smiled at Axel as he scowled back at her. "George," she smiled at him and he quickly walked over to her trying to avoid Axel's eyes, which wasn't hard since he wasn't looking at him either.

"Kairi," Axel and Kairi were always on the same team. Together they were unbeatable and they knew that. Olette knew that too, but then again only she knew just how good George was at cricket. Olette looked between Fran and Mandy trying to figure out which would be the better player. Mandy seemed a lot like Kairi and Kairi was intensely competitive which was always an advantage no matter how bad she was at the game but then Fran seemed very sporty. Mandy had also proven to be as accident prone as Kairi.

"Fran," she smiled at Axel, she knew that he would not be impressed about his entire team consisting of him and the catastrophic. He looked between Mandy and Kairi, the similarity between their personalities was uncanny.

"Dez," he watched her as she walked over to them and as he thought the possible disasters that could happen during the game, he shuddered.

"Yes! We are going to kick some serious butt!" Kairi and Mandy high-fived each other and waited as Roxas walked over to them with the cricket bat, ball and a coin. Axel and Olette walked up to him and he dropped the ball and bat on the floor. Roxas flipped the coin and it landed on his palm. He flipped it over onto the back of his other hand.

"Ladies first. Olette, heads or tails?" he held his hands toward her, one hand on top of the other with the coin stuck in the middle.

"Heads." Olette looked down at the coin as he removed his hands, and swore.

"Tails wins. Axel, are you batting or bowling first?" he asked turning towards him, slipping the coin back into his pocket. Axel turned around to look at Mandy and Kairi and then turned back to Roxas.

"We're bowling," Roxas threw the ball to Axel and the bat to Olette.

"Now if anyone hits me in the head with something, it's a out. No negotiations." Roxas looked at them all in turn and they nodded in agreement. Roxas found a long stick on the beach and laid it down thirty feet from where the stumps had been set up. Olette took the bat and stood a few feet from the stumps, Axel stood ten feet from the stick that Roxas had thrown on the ground. Olette tapped the floor twice and Axel made the run. He swung his arm around, he loosened his grip on the ball and it flew, hard and fast at the stumps. Olette swung, the bat swinging high over her shoulder and she ran, straight for Axel.

"OUT!" Roxas yelled holding his arm in the air. Olette whipped around to look at him, he pointed down at the stumps. They had been knocked over.

"What?! No way! I hit that, I know I did." Olette yelled, turning to Roxas, waiting for him to confirm it.

"It's out," Axel called. Olette turned to glare at him and he just smirked triumphantly.

"I demand a re-play!" She stormed back to the stumps and stood there waiting for him to bowl.

"Olette it's out, everyone saw-" but Roxas was cut off.

"Don't worry about it Roxas, if she wants a replay she can have a reply." Axel walked back to the start of his run up, smirking to himself. He turned around and Olette was staring at him furiously. He blew on the ball and rubbed it against his shirt just to keep her waiting. She tapped the ground again, but harder this time. He brought his arm around his chest and stretched the muscles running down running down his arms and back. Olette stood there tapping her foot impatiently as he stretched his calf muscles. He licked his finger and held it in the air, trying decide if there was any wind. Olette slammed the bat into the sand twice and it quivered under the impact. Axel laughed, he began to run, swinging his arm around, he loosened his grip and the ball rocketed from his hand at unnatural speeds. Olette didn't even get a chance to swing before it hit the stumps. She screamed out in frustration and threw the bat to the floor, storming off to where Fran and George were standing. Fran stood up and walked over to meet her half way.

"Don't worry, you'll get them next time." Fran was trying to comfort her but for all Olette thought, she was just trying to be smug.

"Yeah, break a leg." The smile on her face was forced. As she walked towards George she grumbled under her breath, "literally." Fran didn't hear her and walked over to the stumps picking up the bat. She took her stand in front of the stumps and quickly readjusted it in her hands. Axel smirked ready to use the same fast bowl he used on Olette.

"So will I get you out twice like Olette or will you admit when I bowl you out first ball?" Axel laughed as she just smiled at him and paced the small two foot of ground she was batting in.

"I wouldn't underestimate her Axel, she's been asked to play professionally," Mandy told him as he watched her swing the bat. In that one swing he could see the agility, the precision, the accuracy and he realised that Mandy was dead right. She'd be able to hit the balls that Olette couldn't. Axel thought of all the bowling he could use, but it seemed that she'd send any ball that he threw at her flying. He looked down at the ball and sighing in defeat, he came to terms with the fact that he wouldn't be able to bowl her out in one ball. He took his run up and let the ball fly through the air directly towards the stumps. The bat was a blur as it swung down and hit the ball. Fran ran towards Axel at lightning speed as the ball flew throw the air. It wasn't until she had scored her second run when they heard a thud followed by a yelp rather than the usual thunk the ball made when it hit the sand.

"Out," Roxas growled as Fran slowly turned around like a caught child and faced Roxas. Fran held up her hand but Roxas wouldn't hear it. "I said who ever hit me in the head would be out. No negotiations." He rubbed the bump that was forming on his forehead. "So that's just it. No negotiations." He looked at her with an intensely authoritive look. Fran carefully placed the bat on the floor and walked backwards towards Olette and George. Olette looked at her and tried desperately to stifle her laugh. "You're up George," Roxas called holding his hand to his head.

"Be careful, he can bowl every type of ball imaginable. He'll keep you on your toes. But if you watch his eyes carefully , you can usually see him trace they path the ball will take," Olette whispered quietly.

"Don't worry, unless it's a slow ball I'll be fine. They're my only weakness, it's like Superman and Kryptonite." He laughed as he kissed her on the forehead.

"I always thought superman was cuter," Olette laughed sticking her tongue out at him, teasing. During this conversation Kairi's little ears had perked up. She smiled cunningly and waved at Axel, catching his attention. She bowled an invisible ball, but she did it slowly, signalling for Axel to throw a slow ball. Axel looked at her as if she'd gone mad. Did she want to go for a swim? Axel just gave her a thumbs up, he knew there was no point in trying to figure out what she wanted. George tapped the floor and Axel bowled. First he bowled a fast ball, then a low ball, a spinner, a curve ball and a bouncer but he hit everyone, he even tried it baseball style but no luck. They went flying, over the top of Roxas' head and onto the grass which had been marked as the six point zone. Kairi was standing there trying everything she could possibly think of besides screaming out to tell Axel to throw a slow ball. They had scored 56 runs, all by George while Axel was getting desperate and Kairi was getting frustrated. She walked over to Axel and held her hand out to him.

"Can I bowl?" she asked, the effort it took to keep her voice level was barely heard. He handed her the bowl and kissed her on the cheek.

"Knock his teeth out," he whispered. Kairi laughed happily and stepped up to the stick. George laughed and tapped the floor mockingly. She reeled her arm back and with half the amount of force she usually used, she bowled the ball. Olette saw it before the ball had left her hand. Kairi knew to bowl a slow ball. The ball slowly went throw the air and George swung when the ball was still several feet away. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the ball flew past him and knocked over the stumps.

"He's out! Boo-ya! Yeah we are the champions." Kairi laughed dancing around in circles. "That's right! Suck on those Kentucky fried chicken wings!" Axel laughed at her, wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up off the ground.

"Don't get cocky Kairi, you still have to bat." Olette warned her, walking over to them and picking up the ball. "Remember, George scored 56 runs and let's say I have a mean fastball." Olette threw the ball over her shoulder with amazing speed and George caught it. Mandy walked up to bat first. She scored 18 runs before she hit Roxas in the back of the head, he'd docked her two runs for that. Axel scored 30 runs before Olette bowled him out. They were sitting on 48 runs when Kairi stepped up to bat. Olette and Kairi smiled at each other competitively. Olette took the run up and let the ball fly. Kairi let the cricket bat swing and the ball was sent soaring through the air and into the six point zone. Kairi laughed as Olette stuck out her tongue and bowled again. She nicked it with the edge of the bat. It skimmed across the floor and she sped off managing to score a single run before Olette threw the ball to the stumps, missing them by inches. The next ball she hit, she'd made three run before George sent the ball towards Olette. Kairi danced around the stumps laughing happily. Olette sneered at her and walked back twice the distance of her usual run up. She stretched her arm across her chest and spun her wrist around in circles. Kairi narrowed her eyes and watched her. It looked like a western stand off as Kairi and Olette twisted their heads around in a small circle. Olette twisted her arm around her back and in a blur, threw her arm forward and let the ball speed forward. It spun through the air, Kairi swung and the ball was smashed into the air. It arched high in the air, covering so much distance that it was quickly approaching the cars. Kairi watched in horror as the ball descended towards the hood of Roxas' car.

"NO!" Roxas screamed watching the ball, "No, don't you dare touch my car." Kairi slowly walked backwards towards Axel. The ball rocketed down and missed the car by half an inch. Roxas dropped to the floor in relief, Kairi was grateful that she wouldn't be murdered that afternoon.

"Well I think we might call this game over," Kairi suggested walking over to the bag the cricket gear had been in.

"Yeah I think that might be good," Axel laughed. They had watched Roxas run to his car and drop to his hands and knees a few feet away. They pulled apart the stumps and slipped them, the bat and the cricket ball into the bag. As she was zipping the bag up Olette walked over to them.

"So what was the final score?"

"58-56" Kairi answered, sticking out her tongue and walking beside her as they made their way to the cars.

"Really? I swore we were-" Olette cut herself off and was silent for a few seconds. "Hey you wait up a minute. Mandy ran 18, Axel ran 30 and you scored 10 runs."

"Yeah, and they all add up to 58, what's your point?" she asked throwing the cricket gear into the back of Roxas' car.

"Mandy was docked two runs for hitting Roxas on the head. Which means you finished on 56 runs," she pointed out, a smile slowly sliding over her face.

"Well then Fran was docked two points too. So you were on negative two when George scored the 56 runs, leaving you on 54."

"But Roxas never said to Fran that he was taking the points," she argued.

"I never said Roxas was an idiot, doesn't stop it from happening," she laughed as Roxas threw a handful of sand at her. Kairi looked into the window of Roxas' commodore and saw a blue esky on the back seat. "What's in the esky Roxas?" Roxas whipped his head up to look at her, his eyes flashed wide for a few seconds but then returned to its usual relaxed state.

"Nothing, just meat." Roxas slid his hand into his pocket in search of his keys.

"If it was nothing you wouldn't be frantically searching for these," she pulled his keys out of her pocket, "to lock the car so I can't get to the esky." Kairi opened the door of the orange commodore and reached over to open the esky. "Iced coffee!" she yelled ripping out a bottle and running off down the beach. "Double espresso iced coffee!" She spun the top off the litre bottle and began to gulp it down.

She drank two litres of iced coffee throughout the evening, and the effect it had on her sent everything into a haze. That night was a blur of flames, music and laughter and it was one o'clock in the morning when Kairi finally crashed. She fell asleep as soon as she had laid down.

***

Hey everyone! I am so so so sorry for such a long wait. Now I have no idea who I have and haven't thanked for reviewing, story alerting, or favourite-ing so I just want to thank you all because you all know who you are. I just have to finish editing chapter 12 and then I'll post it so it should be up in the next few days. I had actually written chapter 12 before chapter11 so that's why it's taken me so long to post a new chapter. Once again, terribly sorry and I will try to write chapter 13 faster. But I promise you all the I will not hiatus this story and if for some good unknown reason I do, say I die. I will personally send a message to all my reviewers apologising and giving the explanation why. If I'm dead then I obviously can't do that so if that is the case I will get my good friend Sora15 (read his stories, their good) to notify you. Probably not as personally as I would but you will know about it so please have faith in me as I slowly write this. Believe it or not I love writing this story and I love getting reviews. As a reader never under estimate your power. Because it is in your power to how great a quality a story can be. Most writers will tell you the same thing, a lot of reviews encourages you to write really quality work but few means it'll be only average. SO REVIEW!!! I want to write something you'll love reading not just something you do if you have absolutely nothing to keep you entertained.

TTFN. Ta ta for now.