"Quit dancing around and fight already!" Lea demanded, lashing out and using the momentum to draw him in closer to Kairi. The Princess of Heart sidestepped clumsily, eyes wide. Her own Keyblade was up in a defensive position, and her stance was narrow and tense. She wove around her sparring partner, careful to keep him from getting too close, but not attempting to attack. Lea growled as he swung towards her once more, green eyes narrowing. He studied her expression as he chased after her, demanding, "How many times do I have to apologize?!"

Unable to speak through the tension in her throat, Kairi shook her head, ducking and weaving around his wild strikes. Lea hadn't completely transferred his old dancing fighting style to this new weapon, and "two weeks" (they still tried to measure time in this frozen place outside of it) into their training his awkwardness showed. Still on the defensive, Kairi parried another swing away, but didn't make use of the opening that left for her.

"Spar with me!" Lea demanded, frustrated, "What are you holding back for?"

"I-" she bit her words off with a yelp as Lea made contact with her side. The protect spells Merlin had cast on their blades made them safe and took most of the hit, but she still got knocked off balance. Before she could right herself, Lea reached out and grabbed her left wrist, dragging her in close. His eyes burned down at her, jaw clenched, and all her muscles tensed. She stopped breathing, shaking with the effort of holding still, all thought gone in the white noise of pure panic. It was so much, too much, like the last time he'd grabbed her like this.

Seeing the panic in her face, Lea let go, almost pushing himself away from her as he backed up. Kairi stayed where she stood, legs trembling like a newborn deer. Her eyes followed him as he slumped against a wall and looked at the ground, but they didn't really take in what was in front of her. She gasped, body finally making her breathe, and something about the motion snapped her back to reality. She slid into her fighting stance, keychain rattling as her arms still shook.

Lea sighed, running a hand through his hair as he dismissed his Keyblade. "So that's it, huh?" he asked quietly.

"I do forgive you," she found herself saying, equally quiet. Then her voice jumped up an octave, too harsh and too loud and cracking in the middle, "But you can't expect me not to be scared!" As she said it, she glared up at him, and he flinched as if she'd struck him.

"I really am sorry, Kairi," he said, shoulders lowering.

"I know," she breathed, but she didn't lower her blade. Her heart was pounding, and her breath came too fast. She hated to admit it, but… she was still terrified of him. No matter how hard she tried to hold her arms still, they just shook harder, and the clanking sound of shivering metal filled the silence between them.

Lea met her eyes again. He noted each flicker of panic as it crossed her face and trembled through her arms, and just barely kept himself from muttering something about "icky jobs" before summoning his weapon. "You're always going to be scared," he said, hardening his own expression as he began to circle her, "unless you do something about it."

Kairi spun to face him, pointing her blade at him, waiting for his next move. Lea kept circling, threatening, but not acting on the threat. She followed him for one full circle, then two, before her panic got the best of her and she lashed out.

"Stop it!" she yelled, slashing forward. Lea caught her swing on his own blade and cast her off easily. He smirked, and closed the circle tighter, but said nothing. "Lea!" Kairi shouted again, slashing forward once more. This time, when his blade met hers, she pressed forward for another swing, pushing him backwards and away from her.

"Now that's more like it!" Lea crowed. With a yell, Kairi kept swinging. Her attacks were wild and desperate, and she still didn't feel like she could breathe. Her vision narrowed, instinct pressing forward towards one goal - make him go away. She swung again, and again, then cast a burst of ice right at his face. Lea parried and ducked, just barely avoiding her attacks. Dancing to her left, Kairi slashed at his lanky torso, taking advantage of the extra space to strike at. Lea yelped as she got in under his guard, but he managed to dance sideways and backwards, out of her reach.

They went on like that for several minutes - Kairi fighting on panic and instinct, her body using the training they'd been drilling on for the last few "weeks" along with shots of magic that ricocheted around them. Lea danced and defended, keeping her at arm's length and goading her on as he felt he needed to. His days in the Organization had given him an ocean's worth of experience compared to her, and in her panic she wasn't exactly fighting her best. Still, her ferocity kept him at his limit to avoid her attacks, especially the wild spells hurtling from her blade.

Eventually, a burst of a blizzard spell caught him in the eye. He staggered, wiping the frost away and dropping his guard for a heartbeat. Seeing her opening, Kairi leapt, slashing downward at his shoulders. Lea barely got his guard up, but the force of her blow still brought him to one knee. Baring her teeth, lost to the fight, Kairi pulled her sword back and moved to bring it down again. Never afraid to play dirty, Lea snatched her left hand by the wrist, yanking her off balance. Her blow glanced off of his shoulder as his grip drew them close together again. Kairi skidded to a stop. Lea raised his Keyblade to her neck and stood.

"What are you going to do now, Kairi?" he sneered, glaring down at her. For a moment, Kairi froze. She stared at those burning, glaring, green eyes, heard the same weaseling, oily tone of voice. She went back to that moment of panic, when she couldn't get away. But… there was still a coating of ice alongside one of his eyes. There was still a Keyblade in her free hand. Kairi caught her breath, drew it in deep, and then slammed her blade up and into the arm that held her wrist. Lea's arm snapped up with the force, breaking his grip as well as his wrist, and knocking him off balance. Kairi used the rest of her swing to knock the blade at her throat away. Not wasting any time, she pressed forward, raining blow after blow down at her opponent. She only stopped when he yelled as she struck his broken wrist a second time.

When her vision cleared, she saw bone jutting through his skin, the sleeve of his coat pulled back so he could examine it. "Lea…" she gasped.

He shook his head at her, jaw clenched. "Curaga," he murmured, wincing as the magic did its work. Kairi flinched at the sound of bone stitching itself back together, at the tiny cry that slipped from the red-headed man, despite his best efforts. Shaking the blood off his wrist, Lea straightened. "Not bad," he praised.

The levity of his tone pissed Kairi off. Did he think this was normal? That this was ok? She'd broken his arm! She'd seen his bones, his blood. Her gaze flicked down, looking at the puddle on the floor by his feet.

Mayor's daughters didn't clean fish… and Sora and Riku had made sure she didn't need to.

Still acting more on instinct than rational thought, she stalked over to him, glaring. "You can't just grab my arm anymore!" she yelled in his face, though she wasn't exactly sure where the words even came from.

"No, I can't," he admitted simply, frown still on his face.

Kairi blinked, startled at his answer. She expected more of a fight. She'd expected him to deny it. But… it was true, wasn't it? If he tried again… she would fight him off. She might break more than his wrist next time. The thought made her back down, frowning. It felt wrong, but… she really didn't want him to do that any more. If she had to, she would be doing a lot more than just breaking bones when it came time to fight Xehanort. Maybe she needed to be ok with protecting herself, even if this was the cost. Maybe this was ok, after all.

Her stance softened as she thought, still staring at the splash of blood between them. Lea let her think, waiting for whatever she did next.

"You did that on purpose," Kairi stated, dismissing her Keyblade but glaring back up at him.

He shrugged. "What can I say? You needed to face your fear head-on," he finished with a smirk.

Kairi shook her head at him, but now she was smiling, albeit faintly. "You can't ever do that to me again."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, straightening and dismissing his Keyblade as well.

"Couldn't even if you tried," she gloated, giddy laughter escaping her. Another hysterical giggle followed. She spun around in a circle, pumping her arms up and down in victory.

Lea smiled and slouched contentedly against the wall. "Nope. No one's kidnapping you ever again."

It was too bad that they were wrong.

When Xemnas grabbed Kairi's right arm, he bent it backwards over her head, the wrist strained to almost snapping. She instantly started struggling to get away.

"Kairi!" Sora panicked."Sora!" She yelled, straining towards him. Xemnas yanked her backwards, forcing her to bend over to ease the pain in her arm. He twisted his grip, and she gasped at the pain. His fingers dug into the space between her bones, and she knew her wrist would be swollen and bruised when she got away. Xemnas was saying something, but she wasn't paying attention. She wanted to move, wanted to swing her Keyblade and get herself out of this situation. Fight it! Fight him! her brain screamed at her, but her limbs were stuck fast. Her breaths were short and shallow, she couldn't get any air, and her legs shook as they tried to hold her up in this ungainly position.

Then there was darkness, and she didn't know anything else for a long time.

The first thing she noticed was a rushing sound, rhythmic, and the faint sound of her name. The smell of salt and skin and sweat, someone holding her, the rushing sound hidden under hitching breaths and her name being repeated again and again. Hair brushing her face as the voice became more familiar and the rushing settled itself in her mind as the sound of waves. Tears on her neck and shoulder, sand under her fingers, metal from Sora's bracers digging into her back. Sunlight spilling through her eyelids as she opened them, so bright it hurt. Colors everywhere, everything white and spinning.

Breath in her lungs.

"Sora?" she tried to speak, and immediately started coughing.

He pulled himself off her, helping her sit up. "You're alive!" he said, beaming around the tears still falling from his eyes. She was wincing against the sun, clearing her throat as his hand rubbed circles on her back.

"What… what happened?" Kairi asked quietly, still marveling at breathing, at how it shouldn't feel strange and did anyway, at how she couldn't quite get the rhythm right. Sora kept rubbing her back as he tried to wipe his tears away with the other hand.

When he didn't answer, someone else knelt down on her other side, putting a hand on her shoulder. She saw silver hair and navy blue, and then eyes as green and blue and infinite as the ocean itself.

"Riku!" she choked out, remembering, now, the last thing she knew - that Xehanort was going to break her wrist and she didn't do anything about it. She wasn't sure what was worse, remembering that or that Riku was also crying.

"Sora brought you back," Riku explained, searching her face. She couldn't make any sense of the tilt of his eyebrows or the softness of his eyes, the way he was smiling but not and how things shifted and roiled on his face. "You died," he continued, so so gentle, and she was surprised at the sob that spilled out of her unwilling mouth.

Sora was there, forehead pressed against her temple. "It's ok, it's ok, Kairi," he murmured, and she leaned into him, closing her eyes against tears. "It's ok now," Sora insisted, "I brought you back. Everything's ok."

They wrapped their arms around her, and she clung to both of them, crying out the shock and pain of having a heart again.

Notes:

I know this was a shorter chapter but I hope you guys liked it! We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week. ;)