Nyxie Is A Gamer Nerd: It tickles me to see you referring to them as "your" Meli and "Grim"...seems like you're just about as attached to them as I am!

AkemiMimi: Here's the rest of it haha! Or at least the next chapter. Glad you're still enjoying it!

Coolmegan123: Yeah, I actually always figured that Riku and Sora came back almost immediately, but since it isn't really specified I figured this way was more interesting. :)

Enamis09: Aw, thank you so much! Thanks for following, and for taking the time to let me know how much you're loving it!

A/N: Posting this chapter was a bit more challenging than normal this morning since our wifi has decided to stop working. :P But hey, I got it done! Welcome, 4 new followers!


It was some time later when I woke up lying on a cushy sofa in the nicest living room I had ever seen. A kind-faced woman with light brown hair and dark-rimmed glasses was kneeling on the floor next to me.

"It's alright, sweetie," she smiled when she saw me glancing around nervously. "I'm Kairi's mom. You're at my house."

I had no memory whatsoever of making it here. My brain felt like it was in a fog, and when I first tried to speak, no words would come out. "What...happened?" I finally was able to rasp.

"You fainted, and your friends brought you here." My friends...oh yeah, I was with Donald, Goofy, and the King. Before I could ask any more questions, Kairi's mom held out a bottle that was in her hand and offered me the straw. "Here, take a drink. This should help you perk up a little. Then we'll get you to the table and get you some real food."

I wasn't going to argue with her about getting some kind of sustenance into my body. Taking a sip of the fruity drink, I craned my neck to try to take in all of my surroundings. "Where's Kairi?"

"Just in the next room, along with your friends. They're eating some breakfast." She held up the bottle again. "Drink some more."

She was right, the drink did help a little. After several minutes of sipping, I was feeling a little more awake, and was eventually able to sit up with the help of Kairi's mom. "Take it slowly, sweetie," she urged. "Don't push yourself."

My head swam slightly at the sudden movement, but calmed after a few seconds. I was just about to tell her that I was feeling a bit better when a deep male voice spoke from behind her. "Do you need anything, hon?"

I felt like my heart was going to leap right out of my chest. Kairi's mom and the man were carrying on some kind of conversation, but I was too terrified by the sudden intrusion of this stranger to hear. Who was he? What did he want? Tucking my knees up under my chin, I sank back into the couch cushions as far as I could go. When he began to walk towards the couch where I was sitting, my mouth went dry and I found myself shaking all over.

I was so focused on the man that I barely noticed Kairi's mom dropping back down to my level, her eyebrows knitted together with concern. She touched my arm, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"It's okay, sweetie. This is Kairi's dad. He's not going to hurt you."

Kairi's dad. Of course, that made sense. Kairi did say that she had both a mom and a dad. None of that made me feel any better, though, and the man leaving the room didn't really help much, either. I didn't really know these people at all, so how was I supposed to know whether I could trust them? What if my friends weren't really in the other room? What if this was all a trick, and I was all alone again?

My wild, racing thoughts were interrupted when a familiar figure strode through the doorway. "Hiya, Mel," Goofy called. "Glad to see you're awake. We've been eatin' breakfast, and it was real good, a-hyuck."

I had never been so happy to see that dog in my life. Despite my weak protests, he carried me like a baby to the dining room where everyone else was already finishing up breakfast. I kept a wary eye on Kairi's dad, but he stayed at a distance, and seeing all the smiling faces set me immediately more at ease.

I cried when they set a steaming plate of eggs, bacon, and pancakes in front of me, then cried again when I could only eat a few bites of the eggs before starting to feel nauseous. Everyone assured me that it was normal, and that I wasn't hurting anyone's feelings. Then Kairi's mom insisted that I be carried upstairs to one of their guest rooms, and I cried some more while she basically dressed me like I was a doll in a set of Kairi's pajamas. I knew she had to feel awkward about it all, as did I, but she was very considerate and could obviously tell that I didn't have the strength to do it myself. It was partially her kindness that caused the tears to fall.

"It's gonna be alright, sweetie," she soothed, smiling at me sympathetically as she tucked me under the soft covers. "You can stay here as long as you need, and we'll get you feeling all better."

The next few days were a blur of sleeping, dreaming, and frequent visits from Kairi and her mom where they tried to coax me to eat and drink as much as I could hold. I found out later from Kairi's mom – whose name was Mrs. Yoshida, and who was apparently a nurse – that I had been running a relentless high fever that not even Curaga would touch. Once it finally broke, I was able to make my way shakily downstairs to join the family for meals.

This included Donald and Goofy, who were still sticking around for now. They informed me that King Mickey had used something called a Star Shard to travel to Yen Sid's tower and update him on everything that had happened. Eventually he planned on bringing a Gummi Ship back to the Islands so that they could all go home, though they didn't seem like they were in a big hurry to leave without knowing anything about Riku and Sora.

Mr. and Mrs. Yoshida never asked me any questions about who I was and what had happened to me, though I assumed that Kairi had already told them all she knew. They merely welcomed me into their house like I was their daughter, too, and let me know that they wouldn't hear any talk of me leaving until they were sure that I was fully recovered. It was the middle of the school year there, so after a few days of rest, Kairi had returned to school, and was gone most of the day. I spent my time hanging out with Donald and Goofy in the basement game room where they were sharing a fold-out couch, and reading some books from the extensive library in Mr. Yoshida's office. He and I still kept our distance for the most part, but when we did meet I was much less distrustful than I had been initially.

In the evenings, after Kairi had finished her homework and we had both changed into pajamas, she and I would sometimes sit out on the balcony that our two rooms shared, listening to the distant crashing of the waves and gazing up at the endless starry sky.

"Do you think they can see these same stars right now?" Kairi asked quietly one night.

She didn't have to specify who she was talking about for me to understand. "I don't know," I sighed. I wanted to be able to give her an optimistic answer, but the truth was, I had been trying my best to keep myself from picturing where Riku and Sora might be. Anytime I did, all I saw was the two of them wandering lost and dying in the darkness. It had become a recurring nightmare over the last several days, and also often included Saix chasing them and trying to kill them.

Kairi sighed, too. "They'll come back. I have to believe that they will. They have always come back before, and they will this time, too."

I didn't answer. Every day – sometimes more than once per day – since my fever had broken, I had gone into the In Between without telling anyone, and tried to find a pathway to Riku and Sora. They were still nowhere to be found. It had been so long now that it was seeming more and more unlikely to me that they were even still alive. That would certainly explain why they didn't seem to exist anymore.

Hugging my knees to my chest against the cool evening air, I tried to picture the real Riku, the one with baggy jeans and no blindfold, the one whom I had known so briefly. I wished for the hundredth time that I had been able to get to know that Riku, that I had gotten over my issues sooner and given him the second chance that he deserved. Despite continuing to feel better physically with each passing day, there was a deep ache in my chest that never really went away.

"I'm really glad you're here," Kairi spoke up again. "I mean, I'm sorry that you've been sick, but it's been nice to have your company. It would have been unbelievably lonely otherwise."

I glanced over at her. "Well, thanks, but...don't you have a bunch of friends at school that you hang out with?"

Kairi twisted her lips in thought. "Not really. Sora and Riku are my best friends, and they were the ones I was always with up until they disappeared a couple of years ago. I mean I do have a couple of girl friends. There's Selphie..."

"Wait, you know a girl named Selfie?" I blurted out, laughing.

Kairi turned to look at me with a bemused expression. "Um, yeah...why is that so funny?"

"I guess you don't use that word here." I shook my head, still snickering a little. "Where I'm from, a selfie is like...slang, for a picture that you take of yourself."

Kairi gave a laugh. "Well, somehow I doubt she would be so amused. But it got you to laugh for once, so that's what counts to me!" She smiled at me as I tried to compose myself. "Anyway, she's my best girl friend at school. But I can't really talk to her about...you know...all the stuff we've been through. Nobody at school really knows about Keyblades and Heartless and the Organization and all of that.

"Lucky them."

"Maybe," Kairi sighed. "But the point is, having you here makes things easier for me, because I can talk to you about it. Besides, it's kind of like having a sister, and I always wanted a sister!"

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Crazy, because I used to imagine that you and I were sisters..." I saw the confused look on her face and realized she had never heard that part of my story. "Oh. Right. Um...I used to have dreams about you and Riku and Sora...? I'm still not exactly sure how or why. But since I didn't know anything about my real family, and the dreams were so realistic, I would pretend that you and I were long lost sisters."

Kairi gasped. "Maybe we are! I don't know anything about my birth family, either! Wouldn't that be crazy? We do look a bit alike, I think."

I opened my mouth to answer, but decided against telling her the truth just yet. That was a bit of a long, complicated story to get into, and might very well completely freak her and her parents out. I could tell that she was just joking, anyway. "Yeah, that would be funny."

Leaning back in her seat, Kairi looked back out at the stars. "Well, even if we're not, I'm still enjoying having you around."

"Yeah," I replied. "I'm...glad I'm here, too."