"Kairi, Kairi, wake up!"
Kairi sat up straight in bed on Destiny's Island when she sworn she had heard Sora's voice. It had been a year now that she hadn't seen him, and she still heard his voice in the morning.
The routine would be this:
Around nine in the morning, when the sun had risen into the sky, and it was still speckled slightly as a rainbow of magentas dripping over the horizon, Sora usually woke her up to a new trick he had learned to defeat Riku, or a new game Riku and he had pondered. Of course, it was near impossible to defeat Riku, but she knew it had been possible, seeing as though he was once been posessed by Ansem and, thus, made him several times quicker and stronger, but Sora had been determined.
"Kairi, Kairi, hurry up!"
Then down to the beach. At the beach, their most favorite pasttime was swimming, but of course, Riku and Sora liked to gang up on her and toss her into the ocean when she was lying on the beach to soak in some sun. She brightly remembered when she one time got a mouthfull of seawater, and a fish as an appitizer.
"Kairi, what's taking you so long?!"
Then she would fall behind trying to catch up with Riku and Sora. They ran so much faster than her, and she would always pout when she lost, and they would give her gifts later to make up for it. When Riku had been away or sleeping, perhaps working on the raft they never used to set out for their adventure, she and Sora would take to the caves behind the waterfall that fell beyond the shack. It had been covered by large leaves and was considered their secret hideout. Riku and Sora used to draw in it when they were younger, but over the years, Riku had forgotten about it.
When Sora once got into a huge fight several years back with Riku, he was upset, and ran into the cave to get away from everyone else. Kairi heard distant sniffles, and soon discovered the cave. They weren't very close before then because Kairi was so shy, seeing she had been new.
Sora would never believe that her optimism came from himself. Perhaps he had just forgotten.
"Kairi, I want to show you something!"
"Huh?" Kairi whispered.
"Geez, I've been shouting for the last hour," said a girl's voice outside Kairi's window.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were Sora," Kairi replied.
"That boy you nag on and on about?"
"Yeah," she said quietly, staring down at the ground with a frown on her face.
The girl finally made her way up to Kairi's room at the top of the ladder along the path to the caves. She had blonde, wavy hair that fell to her shoulders, and she was only a year younger than Kairi. She had emerald eyes that sparkled mischeviously, and she was about Kairi's height.
"Come on, I want you to play down on the beach with me," she said.
"Magnolia, it seems rather early, don't you think? I haven't even gotten to know you very long."
"Tssh, I've been here a year," she said. "So have Navani and Cheisu. Don't you wanna go hang out with them? Don't you think they're totally cute? Cheisu is the same age as you, and Navani is only a year older."
"Much like Sora and Riku," she said quietly.
"Aww, come on, they're in the past. Sometimes, you gotta look forward, Kairi. You know that you're going to have to get married here, right?"
"Huh..?"
"If you don't, then all the people on the Island will die off eventually, and there won't be another generation after it."
"What are you guys talking about?" said a male voice. Cheisu, a brunette with wild hair and dark blue eyes, much like Sora's, entered the room. "Magnolia, didn't you tell her that we wanted her to come down and play?"
"I did, but she won't come down. She thinks it's too early."
Cheisu smiled, and walked to Kairi. She had been looking down at the ground in thought, but now, he was lifting her chin and looking into her eyes. She blushed slightly.
"Don't you wanna come down? It's almost eleven. Is something wrong?"
She kept seeing the image of Cheisu's face and then switching to Sora's. Cheisu had similar pools of blue eyes, and she looked the other way, pulling her face from his grip.
"I'm sorry, I'm just in thought is all."
"She misses this one boy who was here a year ago," Magnolia whispered into Cheisu's ear.
"Oh, that so?" he whispered back. "Lemme handle this."
Magnolia nodded and left to join Navani on the beach. Cheisu sat at Kairi's side and put a hand on her shoulder. She shook slightly at his touch.
"Kairi, I really like you a lot," he admitted. "I.. want you to be my girlfriend, and I know there's a sweet, optimistic girl inside you, a crazy one." He smiled, then frowned. "But this isn't like you, I know."
She turned her head slightly towards him. "Chessy," she said, his nickname, "he'll come back. He promised he would. I know Sora wouldn't ever break that promise. He never had broken a promise for me."
"Kairi, sweetie--"
Kairi completely turned her gaze away from him.
"--it's been a year now," he continued. "Don't you think that he would've come back by now?"
"If you really do love me," she said coldly, "then you'll accept that I love someone else. He will come back. He will. He also has to find Riku. He's not selfish. That's why he left me because he did have to find him. He will come back. I know it.."
Cheisu sighed, and moved closer to Kairi, kissing her on the back of the neck. She flinched, and didn't look his way. He walked out, and out of her field of hearing, said "You'll change your mind."
When he had left completely, Kairi glanced from the door then back to the wall, closed her eyes, then finally let the tears fall from them.
(As suggested by "Minnie" the next chapter will be dedicated to her suggestion.)