Kairi returned in the late morning and opened the door quietly. Poking her head in she found Riku sitting in bed, holding his phone in one hand, and absentmindedly playing with a sleeping Sora's hair with the other.

She beamed at them happily. She'd known they each had feelings for each other for a while now. She'd suspected it ever since the two of them returned to the islands together for the first time, and it had been even more obvious after Riku had travelled through Sora's dreams to save him. That experience clearly shifted things for both of them, especially Riku. When she first noticed, it had made her anxious and jealous. She had been afraid Sora might realise the feelings were mutual and act on them... Now she would be sad if he never did.

The time she had spent revisiting both hers and Sora's memories while she slept, and watching the way Aqua and Terra were with each other, the way they looked at each other... it had made her realise it wasn't her and Sora who were meant to be together, and she was fine with that. She'd never seen the two boys hold hands in the past and, considering how much time they had spent doing that since they found Sora, she expected it was only a matter of time now.

She wished they'd hurry up though. Maybe Sora was still too oblivious to realise how he felt, let alone how Riku did. How anyone could not notice Riku's feelings was beyond her, he did such a terrible job of trying to hide them.

"Am I interrupting?"

Riku looked up and turned red at her smug grin as she used his own quip against him, and quickly took his hand away from Sora's hair. She giggled and came in to sit on the end of the bed.

"I'm guessing you two made up then?"

"Uhh, yeah..." He replied awkwardly. "What have you got there?" He gestured at a bag she had slung over her shoulder, thankful for an easy way to change the subject.

She took the bag off and reached into it, pulling out a handful of Thalassa shells. "I made a stop at the island on my way back. I thought it was about time I made another Wayfinder."

"A new one?"

"Yep, and it will be for you."

"What?"

She grinned at his surprised expression. "I'm making one for you, and then one for me as well. I should have done this ages ago. Aqua made one each for her, Terra, and Ven, and they kept them connected. I want all three of us to have one as well."

Riku was touched. He didn't know what to say.

"It'll take me a few hours to make yours, I haven't attached any of the shells so far, but I was working on what to put in the middle of it last night... I wasn't sure what to choose. Sora's one has his crown so it needs something."

Considering that the first charm was meant to be hers, and to protect all three of them, he thought it said quite a lot that she had chosen to put a crown like Sora's necklace in the middle. He wondered about saying it out loud to tease her, but she pulled something small out of her pocket that distracted him.

"I thought maybe this could be a good choice." She reached out and handed him the tiny object, looking a little anxious. "But I wanted to check with you first, it's meant to be-"

"The keychain from my old Keyblade!" He recognised the little three-pointed heart instantly.

"Yeah! What do you think? I thought maybe you wouldn't want it because it's kind of similar too..."

"The Heartless emblem?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah..."

He smiled. "It may be similar, but it's not the same. It's perfect, thanks Kairi."

She beamed and took it back from him. "I'm so glad you like it!"

Sora stirred at the sound of their voices, yawned widely, and then winced at the pain in his ribs. When he opened his eyes and saw them both there though he smiled.

"Morning lazy bum!" Kairi grinned at him.

"Morning..."

"Finally!" Riku exclaimed, pulling his arm out from around Sora's back and standing up.

"Aww I was comfy," he whined, looking deeply disappointed.

"And you weren't the one sleeping with someone squashing their arm all night." He put a hand on his shoulder as he rotated it, working out the cramps that had woken him up hours ago. "My back is killing me."

Kairi laughed at the two of them and Sora turned to her, looking sheepish. "Sorry about yesterday..."

"It's fine" she smiled at him. "How are you feeling?"

"OK, I think." He pressed on his right side tentatively, testing the state of his ribs, and was rewarded with a severe stab that made him flinch. The pain was much worse since he fell. "Actually... could one of you guys get Baymax? My chest is pretty sore."

"Sure." Riku quickly went to fetch him, relieved that Sora wasn't pretending to be fine.

"That bad huh?" Kairi asked sympathetically.

"It's just a bit worse, don't worry, I'm still fine!" he told her, trying to sound reassuring. Kairi stood up and moved around the bed to pull up a chair next to him, leaning over and giving him a kiss on the forehead before she sat down. He blinked, a little non-plussed, then grinned. He rather liked this new habit of hers. It was cute.

"Good morning Sora and Kairi" Baymax greeted them as he waddled in, followed by Riku.

"Hi Baymax" they replied together.

"Riku tells me you are experiencing excessive chest pain Sora?"

"It's just a little worse since yesterday, I kind of... fell over."

Baymax scanned him. "It appears you have re-broken two of your partially healed ribs."

Sora groaned. "Seriously?"

Baymax nodded. "Yes. While you are healing it is highly important you do not exert yourself or risk any kind of physical injury. Even minor bumps may set your progress back, and risk permanent damage."

"Right... I'll try and be more careful, thanks Baymax."

Sora glowered down at his broken arm and bruises. He was angry with himself for taking a risk the day before, and even more angry with his general lack of improvement. He'd never been knocked down hard by injuries before. Even before all of this began, when magic was still a thing of the imagination, he had always bounced back quickly.

Sensing what he was thinking, Kairi placed a hand on his other arm. "You're going to get better." Sora didn't reply and continued glaring down at his arm. "Baymax? Do you think it would be safe for me to use some healing magic on Sora?" Sora's head snapped up. "I wouldn't try and heal his bones or anything big like that, but I could get rid of some bruising at least and it might help with the pain."

Baymax placed a hand on his chin, thinking. "Yes, it would be safe to try a small amount of magic."

"Even after using it yesterday?" Riku asked him, looking a little apprehensive.

"Yes. I believe so."

"That's great!" Kairi and Sora beamed at each other. "Do you want me to try right now?"

"Yeah, definitely!"

"Just take it easy ok?" Riku told her.

She nodded at him, stood up, and summoned her Keyblade. Pointing it at Sora's chest, she quietly said "heal", and cast cure.

The familiar green flowers bloomed in the air above him, raining down healing light. He grimaced at the slight discomfort as they passed through his skin. Then he closed his eyes and sighed with deep relief, his body relaxing as some of the pain finally faded. The little white pills Baymax had given him had run out already, but the magic did ten times more than they had.

"Any better?" Kairi asked.

"Loads," he said with a tired smile, eyes still closed. "Thanks."

Baymax gave him a quick check and confirmed that the spell had achieved its intended effect and his vital signs were still fine. Relieved, Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder and rubbed it gently with his thumb.

"You should probably go back to sleep," he told him. "You were already worn out from yesterday."

Sora dragged his eyes back open. "What? But I only just woke up." He'd been wide awake a minute ago...

He blinked slowly at Riku, eyes half closed and bleary. Kairi giggled again and Riku smirked at him. "Fine then, suit yourself."

Baymax left the room, and five minutes later Sora started snoring quietly.

When he woke up several hours later he found Riku sitting up next to him on the bed, waist level with his shoulder. He was turning something over and over in his hands, examining it. It looked like a shell of some sort.

"What's that?"

Sora reached a hand up to touch it and Riku passed it down. He tried to take it, before realising he was using his weak right hand and took it in his left instead. "Oh, Kairi's charm... wait..." He furrowed his brow. The Wayfinder looked different. He couldn't see a single crack in it now, and when he turned it over the tiny crown was gone, replaced by a small heart, with three points. "Why's it different?"

"It's my one."

"Yours?"

"Yeah, Kairi just finished it."

"I'm working on mine now!" She called over happily from the table.

"But you already have one?"

She laughed. "I think that one is officially yours by now Sora!"

She came over and showed them the tiny yellow star she was going to put in the centre of hers, and a shell she was part way through making a hole in. Tying them together was easy, but it took some time to carefully cut the holes through the shells without cracking them. "I thought it was about time we had one each, now the three of us will always be connected."

Sora smiled widely. "That's amazing Kairi, thank you." He doubted he could express in words how wonderful he thought her doing this was.

"You're welcome!" She returned the grin, looking pleased with herself, and went back to the table to keep working on her charm.

If only she'd had a chance before he went... he wondered if having that extra connection would have eased some of the loneliness. He raised his right hand and ran a finger around the outside of the heart shape at the Wayfinder's centre. "It's just like your old Keyblade."

"Yeah." Riku moved his arm around Sora so he could place a hand on his shoulder. He looked sad, despite his smile. "Kairi showed me yours when she was fixing it. Did it get broken while you were fighting or something?"

"No. That man smashed it, a few days before you got there."

That took Riku by surprise. "How did he get it?"

"He..." Sora trailed off and stayed quiet for a few seconds, thinking, and still holding Riku's charm. When he continued his voice was flat and quiet. "I had it on my Keyblade, and I think he realised it was important to me so he trapped me and took it. He had me tied up so I couldn't do anything. He just crushed it in front of me."

Riku rubbed his shoulder gently as he paused, trying to put together his next words.

'It was strange, when he did it that Keyblade sort of fell apart. It just dissolved away in my hand." Kairi was listening from the table, her hands now shaking slightly.

"But I could still summon my old one," Sora continued. "After that, I started searching for him instead of waiting for him to come to me. Luckily you two turned up a few days later." He went quiet and ran a finger slowly around the outside of the heart shape again. They all sat in silence for a few seconds.

"I wish we'd gotten there sooner... But, I'm glad we got there when we did at least," Riku said. Sora looked up and gave a real smile this time.

"Me too." He passed Riku his charm back and then prodded him in the side. "I thought you were sick of sitting here."

"Yeah well, you were tossing around a bit so I was worried. Don't want you freaking out and hurting yourself again."

"Oh, right..." He'd been dreaming of Rage.

He rolled towards Riku, laid his broken arm across his hips, and pressed his face into his side, glad he was there. Riku was taken aback for a moment, then smiled happily and put his arm back around him. Sora looked troubled though.

"Still having nightmares?" he asked.

Sora hesitated, feeling embarrassed. But then again, this was Riku. "Yeah," he said, voice slightly muffled against Riku's shirt.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Umm..." He did, and he didn't. He didn't know how to talk to Riku, or Kairi, about what he was dreaming of. Neither of them knew about Rage, and he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to tell them. He was scared of what they would think of him if they knew, and add to that what he saw himself doing in the dreams... "Not right now."

"OK," Riku dropped the subject without pressing him further.

As far as Sora was aware the only people who did know about Rage were Donald and Goofy, and they had both promised not to tell anyone. Maybe he should talk to them about it. They were planning on visiting again soon anyway. But, he didn't want to worry them, or, even worse, scare them.

He really should tell Yen Sid and Mickey about it. He hadn't put much thought into it, but they probably needed to know about that world, and in particular about the man. He'd had plenty of things to be preoccupied with, not to mention his concussion making thinking in general difficult, and he was only now realising that they might be concerned that man was still a threat. Maybe he should be concerned if Rage was still a threat as well... He shuddered.

Riku rubbed his arm soothingly but didn't say anything. He'd chased away Sora's nightmares before and he would do it again, even if he didn't know what it was that was haunting him.

In the early evening, Kairi heard the distinct sound of a Gummi Ship landing outside. She looked up from the Wayfinder she had almost finished and turned to ask the boys who they thought it might be. She stopped herself though when she realised they were both asleep, Sora sprawled across Riku's chest and Riku with both arms wrapped around him.

The healing spells seemed to have exhausted Sora as much as Aqua had warned him they would. He'd spent barely an hour awake since morning. She was surprised to see Riku fast asleep during the day, although considering how emotionally draining the last two weeks had been it wasn't all that surprising he was worn out as well.

The sound of the ship was soon followed by voices and the tower door opening. She tiptoed to the bedroom door, hoping to cut off whoever was here before they had a chance to wake the others. She entered the office just in time, as Axel, Roxas, and Xion came through the opposite door.

"Hey, Kai-" Axel stopped mid-sentence as Kairi waved a hand and put a finger to her lips, urgently signalling that they should be quiet. The three of them stared at her, nonplussed, each with two chocolate ice creams in their hands. She grinned and opened the door behind her a little and jerked her head, gesturing for them to come over and look. The three stuck their heads around the door frame.

They drew back and Kairi closed the door quietly. Xion and Roxas were smiling at the cute scene, but Axel was smirking knowingly. "Well well well, guess you were right then Kairi." He held out an ice cream to her.

"I told you so!" she said gleefully as she took it.

Xion and Roxas exchanged puzzled looks. "What are you guys talking about?" Roxas asked.

"Oh nothing..." Axel crossed his arms and continued smirking. "Just a little theory Kairi had."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh!" Xion gasped and put her hands up to her mouth as she realised what might be going on. She quickly lowered them again though, still confused. "But Kairi, I thought you...?"

"Nah," she shook her head, still grinning. "That was a while ago, things have changed a little."

Xion grinned widely now as well. Roxas looked from each of them to the next with increasing annoyance.

"What's going on? Tell me!"

"Shhh Roxas, you'll wake them up!" Kairi put her finger to her mouth again, but it was too late. They heard muffled voices from the next room and Kairi crossed her arms, giving Roxas a chastising look.

"Don't worry about it right now," Xion told him, not wanting to risk Sora and Riku hearing them.

"But-"

"We wanted to stop by and let you all and Baymax know how things are in his world, pretty sure we got rid of all the Heartless," Axel told Kairi.

"But what-"

"Is it OK that we're here though? If Sora's still too tired we can leave," Xion asked, a little worried after seeing Sora still sleeping.

"It's OK," Kairi replied. "He's still tired but loads better, and he'll be happy to see you all."

By this point Roxas was furious. "Will one of you please tell me what's going on!?"

Axel sighed and leant an elbow on his head. "I'll tell you later dumbass."

Kairi heard footsteps behind her and jumped away from the door. Roxas had opened his mouth to retaliate but Kairi stomped on his foot as Riku opened the bedroom door. "Riku! Look who just arrived!" Kairi cried, a little too enthusiastically, trying to cover Roxas's yelp.

"We brought ice cream!" Xion held one out to him. Axel was still smirking.

"Oh, hey, uhh... thanks." Riku took the ice cream, a little overwhelmed after having woken up about 30 seconds ago, and moved out of the doorway so they could come in.

Xion and Kairi followed him, while Roxas shoved Axel's elbow off of his head. "You better tell me later..." he grumbled.

For the sake of his toes, he decided not to ask again until they were out of the tower, and out of reach of Kairi's boots. He and Axel followed the others in and found Sora looking far better than the last time they'd seen him. He was sitting up on the edge of the bed, a little bleary-eyed and tousle-haired, but grinning broadly. Roxas immediately forgot his annoyance, thrilled to see him looking actually alive.

"Hey!" Sora called out, just as excited to see the three of them.

"Hey Sora!" Roxas sat down next to him and handed over his ice cream. "You recognise us this time then?"

"Heh, yeah, I'm a little more awake now than when I last saw you..."

Xion took the free seat beside the bed while Axel pulled another chair up and spun it round, sitting down and crossing his arms on top of the backrest.

Riku picked up Sora's sling from the bedside table and held out his ice cream to Roxas. "Roxas, could you hold this for a sec?" He took it and Riku helped Sora put the sling on, causing Axel and Kairi to raise their eyebrows at each other. "Thanks," he took the ice cream back and joined Kairi at the table, letting Xion take his usual seat with the other three.

"It's good to see you," Xion smiled and Sora beamed back at her.

"You too, thanks for the ice cream!" He took a bite happily; this was proving to be a much better day than the previous few. Riku and Kairi smiled at each other, both pleased to see him so cheerful again after what happened yesterday.

"It's not seasalt though? It tastes like the ones from San Fransokyo."

"That's because it is," Roxas said. "We just got back from there, actually we should say hi to Baymax too."

"You were there!? How come? Did you guys meet Hiro and everyone?"

Sora hadn't heard the conversations about the Heartless in San Fransokyo and was relieved to find out that the three of them had been able to go help. They hadn't been able to learn anything about why the Heartless had suddenly appeared there again, but Hiro was working on some theories. It was exciting to hear about his friends all meeting each other.

Hiro was smart enough to deduce that these three new friends were, like Sora, Donald, and Goofy, from another world. There was clearly much more to the universe than just his own world, but he planned on keeping this a secret. He doubted his friends would try and hide this without good reason, though he was planning on grilling Baymax for every detail he could when he eventually returned.

Noticing the bandage had been removed from Sora's head Roxas and Axel couldn't help asking if he liked his new hairstyle, much to Sora's indignation. Xion took pity on him and tried to see if there was a way she could brush and style the rest of his hair to hide it, but had limited success. Just like with Ven, Sora and Xion had spent barely anytime together, at least consciously. A strange mish-mash of each other's memories and feelings still existed in their hearts. They were strangers, and yet close friends.

Xion was enthralled by the Wayfinder Kairi had been working on. She had been about to attach the final shell when the trio arrived so showed her and Axel how to do it while Roxas, Riku, and Sora chatted about general happenings in Twilight Town.

Almost two happy hours passed before the conversation inevitably turned back to Sora's disappearance.

"How's your memory?" Roxas asked him. "Have you remembered anything else yet?"

"Oh..." Sora hesitated, but after talking with Riku and Kairi, and having a few more days to process things, he found he was feeling ready to talk about it with more people. Or parts of it at least. "Yeah, I actually remember most of it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know what happened for the first few months, but I woke up in that city about 300 days before you found me."

"That's a lot of days to count..." Axel said with a grimace, expecting they weren't happy ones. Sora nodded.

"So... what happened?" Roxas asked.

"Well..." and again he told his story, omitting Rage and describing things relatively abstractly. Xion and Roxas had seen the city themselves and told Axel about it, so they already knew what it was like. They had no idea of the details of his actual time there though.

By the end, Xion was looking close to tears. "That sounds so awful Sora."

"Heh, yeah... it wasn't great," He scratched the side of his face awkwardly, then grinned at her. "I'm glad you guys showed up!" She nodded and tried to smile back.

"I wonder who that guy was though, and how the hell he knew who you were," Roxas said.

"Beats me. Yozora seemed to know me too, or at least knew of me somehow. He thought I was pretending to be me, I think." It had been a pretty confusing conversation overall.

"Are you sure this Yozora did actually disappear and he wasn't the guy in the cloak?" Axel asked.

"I'm sure. Their voices were different and they were nothing alike. I wonder what happened to Yozora..." He'd have to go talk to the star at some point and explain what had happened. He hadn't wanted to fight him, he wasn't looking forward to telling her what he'd had to do to defend himself.

"Maybe Mickey will have some ideas, or Ansem and the others at the lab," Roxas said.

"Oh yeah, I haven't talked to the King about it yet. I should probably tell him soon, and Yen Sid too." He doubted that would be a fun conversation. He knew they'd have a lot of questions, and he'd need to give them more details than the others, even if he didn't want to talk about it. His discomfort must have shown on his face.

"I can go talk to them instead," Riku volunteered but Sora shook his head.

"Nah. Thanks, but I should do it." He was grateful for the offer, knowing Riku wanted to spare him from having to relive things yet again, but he needed to do it himself. He had to tell them about Rage. It didn't matter how much he hated the idea of telling them. They needed to know what that man had been trying to do. Maybe they would have some idea why he had been doing it as well.

"I'll call Donald and Goofy tomorrow and see if they can come too." At least that would make him dread the conversation less.

Like Riku, Roxas was curious about the Unversed. "So you only saw Heartless on your side?" he asked.

"Yeah, I never saw any Unversed at all."

"That's so weird. It always seemed like they were following you around."

"I wonder why they were there at all... Vanitus couldn't have been there as well could he?" Sora asked.

Roxas shook his head. "I don't think so, we never saw anyone else there except you, and we haven't heard anything suggesting Vanitus has even come back. It was strange though, the Unversed disappeared once we finally got to your side so I don't think they were there because of us."

"Yeah, Xion and I never saw any," Kairi said.

Roxas gave a wry smile. "I guess in a way they were helpful though. We always found you if we followed them, and I never would have gone there with Riku either if he hadn't gotten beaten up by them so badly."

"What?!" Sora turned to Riku looking horrified. Riku's stomach clenched and he quickly looked away, trying to avoid Sora's gaze. He hadn't wanted him to find out about this.

"I already told you I was fighting them," he said dismissively. "When Rox-"

"What do you mean beaten up?" Sora looked from Riku back to Roxas. Roxas realised his mistake now, but it was too late.

"Um, well... Riku had been searching for you by himself, cos' we weren't sure if anyone else would be able to get through the portal. We didn't want to risk trying and something going wrong or us breaking it somehow. But we decided we needed to try it..." he looked awkwardly at Riku, not sure if he was the one who should continue.

"After I got hurt." Riku was still refusing to look at Sora. "There were never enough Unversed to be a problem. Then one night a really big one appeared and there was a sort of... explosion of them, thousands of them just appeared, all at once. I would have been fine, but they took me by surprise."

Axel snorted. "Would have been fine? Oh man, you barely made it back alive."

"It wasn't that bad," Riku snapped.

Sora was lost for words. Riku had almost died? Because he was searching for him?

Roxas kept talking, mainly to break the awkward silence. "A week later, once Riku had recovered I went with him in case something happened again, and that was when we realised having both of us there strengthened the connection to your side. We couldn't always find you, but when we did we could see you more clearly, and almost hear you, but you still couldn't see us. We tried contacting you but after a while, we decided we needed to try with more people. And that was when it worked"

Sora hadn't been listening though. "Riku, why didn't you tell me?" He stared at Riku, upset by what he had just found out and that he hadn't told him before.

"It wasn't that bad Sora, I'm fine." He forced himself to look at him and, seeing his expression, tried to smile. "Sorry, I just didn't want you to worry."

Sora nodded slowly. That definitely wasn't a reason he could hold against him, so he smiled back. "It's OK, I'm just glad you're alright." Then he frowned again. "Wait, how long before you found me did it happen?"

"About two weeks I think." Riku glanced at Roxas to see if he agreed and he nodded.

"That sounds about right."

"Two weeks..." Sora was staring at the floor now, brow furrowed. "Maybe the Unversed were related to the Heartless then. About two weeks before you found me a really massive one appeared on my side, the biggest I ever fought there, it almost took me down." It would have if it hadn't been for Rage.

"Was it at that crossing? The same place where we found you?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"It was definitely the same night then... I saw you fighting there as well."

"What?!"

Riku gave him a small smirk. "It didn't look like it almost took you down Sora, it looked more like you took it out in one swing. I saw you dive on something, and then you disappeared. Right after that, the Unversed appeared on my side."

"Right after that..." Sora stared back at him for a moment, and then his eyes went wide with sudden fear.

Right after Rage took over.

"Sora? Are you OK?" Xion asked after a few seconds of silence. His face had gone grey and he was clenching the edge of the mattress tightly with his left hand, staring at the floor.

Could it really have something to do with Rage? He'd never noticed a connection between it and Unversed before... He'd only gone into Rage form three times there, and if the Unversed were always near him then wouldn't it make more sense that they were linked to the Heartless? That they were simply mirroring the ones the hooded man had been sending? That was much more likely... it couldn't have had anything to do with Rage. It couldn't...

When he didn't respond the other five looked at each other, no one quite sure what was wrong. Roxas put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Sora? You alright?"

He blinked a few times, then his demeanour abruptly switched and he looked up at Roxas, grinning. "Yeah, sorry! Don't know where I went there." He tried to brush it off with a laugh, ignoring his chest pain. "My head's still kind of cloudy."

Kairi was still looking at him with an uneasy expression. "Are you sure you're alright? You're really pale right now."

"Huh? Oh, I just got a little dizzy again, don't worry! I'm fine!" The smile he gave her looked genuine.

"I reckon that's our cue to head home then." Axel got to his feet and Roxas and Xion followed his lead.

"Hey, nah! You guys don't need to leave yet," Sora protested.

Axel folded his arms, looking amused. "You look like you're about to pass out Sora, and I'd prefer not to have to help bandage you up again."

"We'll see you again soon," Xion reassured him.

Roxas nodded. "You can come see us sometime! Then we can show you our new place!"

"Yeah... yeah OK, thanks for coming to visit."

"And thanks for the ice cream!" Kairi grinned at them, and Riku nodded in agreement.

"No problem, see you all later," Axel lead the others out of the room as they waved goodbye. The door was barely shut before Roxas punched him in the side, demanding to hear the big secret they all had.

It was obvious to Riku that Sora was still badly shaken by the news about him being attacked, so he took the spot Roxas had just vacated next to him. "Sorry I didn't tell you about what happened."

Sora smiled at him. "It's OK, I get it."

Kairi had been sitting at the table putting the finishing touches on her charm and now came to join them, bringing it with her. She took theirs from the bedside table and held them out.

"Here," she sat down and beamed at them both as they took them. "I finished mine. Now we're always connected. We'll always find our way back to each other."

The three of them sat silently for a while, each with their own Wayfinder in their hand, holding them out together so that the shells touched. Kairi and Riku's were perfect, with their gleaming yellow star and black heart at the centres, surrounded by shiny new shells. The crown at the centre of Sora's was scratched and dull, and the cracks in the shells caught the light at odd angles. Kairi had done a wonderful job fixing it, but there was no hiding those cracks.

Regardless of the damage, he couldn't be more thankful to have it back and to now have this connection to them both. When they eventually looked back up at each other Kairi and Sora were shocked to see tears on Riku's face. "Riku! What's wrong?" Kairi cried.

"Huh? Oh," he hurriedly wiped his eyes on the back of his hand, only just having noticed them. "Nothing, it's nothing."

Sora grinned evilly and elbowed him in the ribs. "Who's the sap now huh? Huuuh?"

"Definitely still you Sora."

Kairi started laughing at the two of them, then leaned forward and put her arms around them both. She squeezed them in so their heads were pushed against the side of hers, then turned from one to the other, kissing them each on the cheek.

"Oi Kairi!"

"Get off!"

She laughed at their protests and then released them. "You're both total saps," she told them, sitting back down with an enormous grin on her face.

Sora was trying to hide it, but sitting up talking for well over two hours had taken its toll, and the pain-relieving effects of Kairi's magic had worn off a while ago. With no more conversation to distract him, he was unpleasantly conscious of the pain in his chest and arm, and his headache was back with a vengeance. He yawned, and winced, again forgetting how much it hurt when he did that.

"You should get some more rest Sora," Kairi said sympathetically.

He sighed and nodded, "yeah I guess."

"Here," Riku helped him extricate himself from the sling and lie down again.

"Thanks..." He closed his eyes as he sunk into the pillows, then smiled. "This was a good day."

"Yeah," Kairi said, and Riku nodded in agreement.

Kairi put a hand on Sora's shoulder and massaged it gently with her thumb for a few seconds. "Do you need anything?" All she got in reply was a quiet mumble and Riku snorted. It was impressive just how quickly Sora could go to sleep when he needed to. Kairi giggled. "I'll take that as a no."

Riku rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. "I'm beat too, I think I'll head off to bed."

Considering all the time he'd spent napping it seemed strange that he was so worn out. Despite his tiredness, he was feeling happy. Sora was right, it had been one of the better days they'd all had in a very long time. Between Kairi making their charms, spending time with friends, seeing Sora more cheerful, waking up to find him sleeping on his chest... it really had been a good day.

"I should probably do the same soon," Kairi agreed.

Riku stood up and stretched, barely stifling a yawn. "I'll see you both in the morning."

As he got to the door and reached for the doorknob Kairi stopped him though. "Wait, where are you going?"

He turned back, confused. "To bed."

"You aren't sleeping in here?" They had at some point come to an unspoken agreement that at least one of them needed to stay in the room with Sora at night, whether on the couch or 'accidentally' trapped with him sleeping on them. She seemed confused.

He frowned at her. "I just thought..." He trailed off awkwardly. He'd assumed now that she was back she would want to stay with Sora. "I, ah, think I need a sleep in a proper bed actually." It wasn't really a lie, he was exhausted. "Is... that OK with you?"

She gave him a strange look, he couldn't tell if she was disappointed or pleased. But then she smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine here. Have a good sleep!"

He gave her a smile back and, still feeling a little perplexed, left for the night.