:AN: Oh my gosh, I haven't had any time to update. I'm sorry! But I've written, like, three chapters out in a binder during geometry… I'll try to type them all soon. Chapter five. And here develops the plot. I hope you enjoy it.

Sin's Remorse
Chapter five

She felt herself slowly regain consciousness, instantly feeling a sharp pain cutting down her face. Her head throbbed as it felt as though an exceedingly heavy object had struck it. She reached a trembling hand up to her skull to try and ease the pain. A dream… she thought lightly, recalling the distant encounter with Riku. She pulled her hand away from her face as she winced with pain. Her hand dripped with blood. Kairi slowly forced her eyes open as an extraordinarily dim light seemed to blind her. She stared up at a gray-brown ceiling. Everything about where she was seemed distinctly unfamiliar. A cold, heavy air seeped through her exposed body as she lay upon a bed atop a dark-coloured quilt. She ran her hand over the soft surface as she squinted against the faint light that spilt in through a slightly open door to her left. Through it, she could hear voices mumbling about something she couldn't quite comprehend.

"-What the hell were you thinking?" shouted one voice quietly. Kairi strained her ears. It hurt her head, but she wanted to know where she was and why she was there and she decided this was the only possible way to find out at the moment, considering she found it difficult to move.

"I thought that maybe she'd be better off this way," came another, deeper voice. This one sounded recently familiar to Kairi. She gasped silently at the thought. Riku… This can't be real; I have to get out of here. Kairi thought as she forced herself to sit up. Her feet dangled just out of reach of the floor. She winced again as another searing pain ran through her entire body. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment.

"How can someone be better off in a place like this, Riku? Are you blind?" shouted the first voice again. It was Riku. Kairi furrowed her brow intensely. She looked around the darkened room, finding it hard to make much out now that her eyes had slightly adjusted to the extreme lack of light that still seemed to burn her vision. She couldn't understand it, why her eyes were so sensitive to a glow so dim and gentle that it was considered more of a subtle darkness than an illumination. Kairi sighed and continued listening.

"That's not funny," spoke Riku. Kairi pondered aimlessly about whom they could possibly be talking about and whom Riku could possibly be talking to… she tried stepping up onto her feet, but caught her legs off guard. She fell, but caught herself on the edge of the bed.

"Thanks to you, now she can't escape this, Riku! Do you really want her to have to go through everything that we had to?" the other person exclaimed. Both voices seemed to be drowned out by the continuous pounding of Kairi's head. She felt a sudden coldness seep through the air, bitter against her still exposed skin. It had been there all along, however, she had not taken notice of it until just now. She slowly attempted to regain balance and took a few stumbling steps toward the door.

"I'm sorry… It's just… she told me that she'd rather have never been born…" Spoke Riku coldly. "She just wants to be with you, Sora." Kairi gasped and stumbled forward again, losing complete control and falling right as she reached her destination. She hit the frame and landed with a loud grunt on her face across the threshold, the door swinging completely open before her. The same dim light burned through her tender eyes as she struggled to get up against the pain. She heard some surprised gasps and urgent footsteps. A pair of strong hands grabbed her shoulders and forced her up. Kairi pushed against him, using his arms as support. She cautiously tried to open her eyes, but, yet again, found it difficult somehow.

"Turn down the light, Riku," came that first, cold voice again. Kairi felt the hands around her upper arms tighten as she trembled. Within moments she found it much easier to see as the room fell almost completely dark. She squinted up before her, barely able to make out a pair of dull, blue-gray eyes. She rubbed her throbbing temple, wincing slightly as she touched the deep cut that ran down the side of her face. She felt the warm blood spilling, again, over her trembling fingers. Her eyes slowly began to adjust and she was able to see pretty well, fully making out the guy who sat before her. A look of intense concern laced his face. She stared deeply at him, letting the bitter familiarness of his being drown her. She felt tears surface at the rims of her eyes and she choked, trying to force back the sobs that welled in her throat. The man sighed and looked away, staring down at the cold, hardwood floor. A few moans escaped from Kairi's lips as an overwhelming and unexpected sense of depressed emotions took over her. Tears slipped from her eyes and streamed endlessly down her cheeks. Sora bit his lower lip as he wrapped his arms around his distant friend, pressing her head against his shoulder. He gently wiped the long strands of auburn hair out of her face.

Kairi didn't understand it, but she no longer seemed to care. Her confusion seemed only to be washed away by this unfamiliar feeling of unforeseen… something. She couldn't quite describe it, but it felt good somehow. Almost as though a thousand years of spiraling anguish was instantly drifting away because of a single embrace. An embrace, however, that Kairi felt as though she had waited an eternity for. Yet, it felt different than she had anticipated. It felt hollow, somehow… There was something that didn't feel right. An emotion entangled within her rising sympathy that seethed nothing but unfamiliar remorse. It was hard to explain, but she felt it, a kind of depressed feeling… darkness.

Kairi let out another forceful sob. She allowed her warm tears to freely slip from her eyes, soaking his dark shirt. She took her trembling arms and wrapped them so tightly around his back that it hurt, twisting her fingers around the fabric. He ran a hand through her soft hair, trying to calm her weary body. He let his head rest upon hers, trying desperately to hold back his own quavering emotions.

"Damn it," he whispered softly as he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

Sometimes words can't even begin to describe the intensity of emotion people may feel. Sometimes we can feel so much that it's hard to comprehend what it all really means. Our feelings are held within our memories and at the exact moment a forgotten memory is awakened, our lost emotions will flood us until the point where we are nothing but drowning, drowning in a sea so deep with remised feelings that words no longer seem to exist. That is as close as I can come to describing the very state Kairi found herself in at this particular instant. She was drowning in a sea that held every awakened memory she could recall and flooded her with long forgotten emotions. She could do nothing but trust that this was her reality, not just another twisted nightmare. But the feelings were too pure, too innocent to be anything but real. They welled and seeped and fell. It was a slightly demented reality, but it was hers. This innocent remorse was all she had to hold onto here, in this dim shade. She would never let it go, not even if it meant her life, she could never let this go.

"No…" came Sora's light voice. Kairi felt him shift away and she looked up into his face as tears continuously refused to cease spilling from her eyes. "God damn it, Riku!" Sora shouted as he rose to his feet in outrage, turning to face the second man hidden within the shadows of the small, faint room. "Why the hell did you do this?" he exclaimed. Kairi stared at both of them in her own silenced confusion, slightly taken aback by Sora's chosen vocabulary. She could feel the angry hatred seeping from his distressed form. "I-I can't believe you-" Sora cut himself off as he choked back a sob. He bit his lip and turned away from the emotionless man who kept himself seated upon a bed that sat in the far corner of the small, cold room.

Kairi slowly tried to rise to her feet, throwing herself against the wall for support. She dried her cheeks with one hand and helplessly stumbled across the floor, her bare feet feeling numb against the cold, hardwood. She followed the wall until she reached the corner before which stood Sora. She eyed him in confusion as he turned away from her. She looked over at Riku and then back at him. She gulped back on last weep and attempted to approach him, falling forward. Sora caught her, firmly grasping both of her arms in his strong hands.

"Look at her, Sora," spoke Riku's dark voice. It was bizarre, but Kairi swore she heard something else in his tone just then. An edge of bitter darkness, perchance. She looked up to see a dark pair of faded sapphire eyes staring down at her, fircefully studying her. "It's too late," Riku whispered emotionlessly. Sora began to shake his head. "She opened her eyes, Sora… It's too late now," Riku laughed. He got up off the bed and slowly walked over to where they both stood. He reached out a hand and began stroking Kairi's head, running his fingers through her long, auburn hair. Kairi stared up at him with a slightly frightened expression lacing her face. A black cloth was wrapped around his eyes, like a sort of blindfold. It was bizarre.

Kairi noticed an expression of pure hatred upon Sora's face as he glared up at Riku. The silver haired man grinned down at Sora, taking his hand and running it down Kairi's face.

"She still looks so innocent, doesn't she?" Riku laughed lightly. Sora grabbed his hand tightly, pulling it away from Kairi's face, and dug his finger nails into his flesh.

"You sick bastard, don't you touch her," Sora spoke in an angry whisper. Kairi grew exceeding confused. This wasn't Riku, certainly not the same guy she knew from her childhood, and, likewise, not the man she had just been with on the beach. He was cold and empty. He touched her and all she felt was sin, hollow sin. She gazed over at Sora, unable to stand the look upon Riku's face. His eyes seemed only to burn, burn like a deep void of seething darkness. She felt like screaming now, as an insatiable sensation of unforgotten angst washed over her.

"What's wrong, Sora? Scared I might hurt her, Hmmm?" Riku questioned as he turned his gaze over to the angry brunette. Sora tightened his grip on Kairi's arms as she nearly fell forward again. Riku grinned. "Or, are you just upset because I'm leaving and you are not?" Riku smirked as he placed a finger upon Sora's nose and laughed. "Poor wittle Sowa is scawed because he doesn't-"

"Shut-up, Riku, just shut the hell up!" Sora exclaimed. Riku eyed him intensely and fell emotionless again. He turned around and walked over to a door that stood shut in the darkened corner of the room.

"It won't be long now, Sora. Just remember that…" he spoke monotonously. "Be fair to her." Kairi watched as Riku opened it and walked out slowly without another word. A cold wind seeped through the room as Kairi frowned and trembled slightly. She blinked heavily and stared past Sora in a sort of daze. She took a deep breath.

"I'd like to wake up now…" Kairi spoke softly as she looked up at Sora, his face hidden within the shadows of the dim room. He sighed and nodded with a frown.

"Me too," he replied drearily. Sora sifted his gaze down onto her somnolent form. He lifted a hand up to her forehead as she gave him a confused look. He gently pulled his hand down over her pale eyes and she instantly felt a weary sleep overwhelm her. She uncontrollably lost consciousness and fell forward against Sora's willing form. He sighed as he effortlessly raised her up into his arms and carried her weak body over onto the large bed on which Riku had been previously sitting, gently setting her down. He took the heavy, dark umber-coloured quilt and placed it over Kairi's trembling body. She still wore nothing but her dark crimson, black lace trimmed nightgown that cut off a few inches above her knees. Her skin was pale and cold.

Sora looked down upon her sleeping form, sinking down to his knees. Nothing but hallow innocence seemed to surround her. He let out a deep sob as he traced the cut on her face with his finger, running the long strands of dark auburn out of her eyes. He smiled darkly as he studied her, taking in every remnant of pure reality that washed over him.

"Damn it, Kairi… It is too late," Sora whispered softly as he drew his hand away. He slowly sunk down and turned away from her. He drew his knees up to his chest, running his fingers across her eyebrows. And he cried. He cried because he knew, no matter what, he was nothing but powerless now. And because an unexplainable anguish drowned his teeming thoughts as Riku's words echoed though his mind. But mostly, he cried because he knew that he may never be able to again.

:AN: Hehehe… Comma happy. (sneezes). I think I have a cold. That chapter sucked. See you next time on chapter six! I'm kind of delirious, so if things don't seem to make sense here… It's because my brain no longer functions properly…

Just some thanks to my reviewers:

Zanisha: Like your writing is even comparable to this load of crap. Your stuff is amazing it's not fair to me that you're comparing it. :laughs: Your support is amazing.

Lvkishugs: I've decided to dub this my comeback story, even though it's really the first or second story that I've actually gotten into this far. And it's all thanks to you! YAY. Thank you so much for the support as well. Even though you and Zanisha are practically the only two reviewing, I have to say, I would take just the two of you over one-liners from a thousand other people. Thanks so much .

Selene: Sorry, I think spelt your pen name wrong… There was an S and an e and an n… Anyway. Yeah, this is definitely a SoraxKairi fic. I'm sorry if it's not too SoraxKairi yet. The next chapter will probably make you a little angry too, for a SoraxKairi-er, but I need the element of KairixRiku for the time being so that I can tie the present happenings with the past… BUT NOT TO FRET! It is definitely a SoraxKairi… Yes. Bwahahaha!