I have a headache. That was the first thought to run through Kairi's throbbing head as she slowly gained consciousness. She moved a little, feeling the sting of movement over her injury. She could feel her hair being pushed away. Gathering all her will, she fought off the remnants of unconsciousness and stirred a little. She suddenly became aware of the movement around her, or, more accurately, the lack of movement. When the person had been moving, she hadn't noticed until they stopped. Something told her that she should have known someone was there because she felt someone moving her hair, but she was in no mood for logic. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked up at this person next to her. Confusion was plastered all over her face. She couldn't see much of anything except a very undistinct blob of colour. She blinked a few times, her vision coming back into focus. Once she could see properly, her heart almost stopped. Staring up at him a second longer, she decided that this couldn't be real, and before she could stop herself, she asked,
"Am I dead?" Her voice was cracked, and she knew she didn't sound very healthy, but she really didn't care. Sora smiled sadly.
"You're not dead." He replied. "I don't know what I'd do if you were." Immediately, his eyes dropped away from hers and she knew he hadn't intended to say that. She watched him, half smiling and pretending she hadn't heard. He picked up the potion bottle and dipped the makeshift bandage inside. Gingerly, Kairi sat up.
"I didn't think I was. I still hurt too much to be dead." She admitted, pulling her hair over her right shoulder. She felt one of Sora's hands on her lower back, steadying her, and the other she could feel holding the potion-drenched cloth just inches from her wound.
"I'm sorry if this hurts, but if you give it a moment, it will dull the pain." He spoke almost nervously. Kairi nodded, bracing herself. He touched it to the injury, and almost instantly, she cried out, pulling herself away from it. She felt his hand on her right shoulder, worried. "Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright to you?" She snapped. There was silence. Kairi turned to face him, her eyes low. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" To her surprise, Sora touched his fingers to her lips, rendering her speechless.
"It's okay, I know." For a long while afterward, there was silence. Sora quietly unfolded the bandage and tried again. This time, though it made her eyes burn with tears for a few moments, Sora got it on long enough for the initial pain to pass. He had been right; the potion was helping dull the pain. Carefully as he could, he wrapped the bandage around her shoulder. She sat as quietly and as still as she could, but every once in a while, she'd begin to sway, her dizziness overcoming her senses again. Each time, with a hand that she found surprisingly gentle for someone who was born destined to be a warrior, he'd steady her until the spell had passed. Once it was tied, Kairi tried to move her arm a little. It hurt, but at least it was mobile. Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion passing over her.
"I'm tired." She murmured, yawning. Sora smiled.
"I could only imagine." As he spoke, she curled up, leaning against him, and rested her head on his shoulder. Something in her mind told her that she shouldn't be doing that, because of things like manners and pride, things that all felt rather trivial to her at the moment. All she wanted was someplace safe and warm and comfortable to fall asleep, and in Sora's arms? What could be better? She thought drowsily, drifting off to sleep. Rather surprised, Sora shifted his weight slightly, to accommodate Kairi's injury. Before he realized what he was doing, he found himself wrapping his arms around her. He almost had to laugh at himself. From the moment he first saw her here, he'd been bursting with questions. How she could have possibly gotten here was the most persistent, but now that they were there, together, he found that he wasn't dieing to know anymore. He was quite content to just sit there with her. This was why he'd been searching for her and now that he found her, sitting there holding her in his arms, he was seriously contemplating never letting go. A slight movement caught his attention. Looking up, he saw eight amused faces watching him. Yuna was grinning, biting her lip. Tidus, his arms around Yuna, was grinning too. Rikku looked like she was trying not to laugh. Gippal was half laughing, half smirking. Paine was trying to look indifferent as she always did, though unsuccessfully. Baralai was trying to hide a smile, as was Nooj and Leblanc. Sora looked innocently at them.
"What?" That was not the reaction any of them had expected, and so he got a couple of weird looks before Yuna and Rikku came over to help. The girls lifted Kairi off him so he could stand up.
"Alright," Paine said, sounding bored. "Let's get Kairi back to the ship."
Sora, Gippal, Baralai, Nooj, Leblanc, Yuna, Tidus, Rikku and Paine all piled onto the bridge, much to Buddy's amused surprise and Brother's disliking.
"What is this? Why are there all these people on my ship?" The Al Bhed leader demanded in his broken English. As Yuna and Paine explained, the others tried to relax. Sora couldn't sit still. He hadn't argued when everyone decided that they should all go to the ship and leave Kairi be, but to be honest, he'd wanted to stay with her. He was drawn out of his thoughts, however, when Brother marched over to him.
"Who are you?" He demanded, almost shouting. Sora started and looked up at him. Brother was obviously pretty angry about something, but as he hadn't been paying much attention, he didn't know why.
"I'm Sora!" He said, smiling. "I'm the Keybearer!" It had become general habit for him to say that when introducing himself, because people usually ended up asking him that anyways. Brother gave him a weird look.
"You are the key bear?" He asked, studying Sora suspiciously.
"Key-bear-er." Sora repeated, enunciating every syllable. Brother crossed his arms.
"What key?" He asked, still unsure. Now it was Sora who gave Brother the weird look.
"The Keyblade." he replied. Most other people seemed to know what he was talking about when he said he was the Keybearer. Brother was still studying Sora suspiciously. It was making him rather uncomfortable. "Umm, do you want me to show you what I'm talking about?" He asked, fidgeting a little. Brother nodded.
"Show us this 'key'." Brother commanded. Instantly, Sora had it in his hand. Brother raised his eyebrows. "HA! You say that is a weapon?" Sora glared at him.
"Yes it's a weapon, and a good one too." He replied defensively. Brother chuckled and walked away. Buddy walked over to Sora and shrugged.
"Don't worry about him, he hates having new people on his airship. Wouldn't talk to Paine for two weeks when she joined the Gullwings."
"The Gullwings?"
"We're spherehunters. Haven't you heard of us?"
"Nope." Sora replied, wondering what a spherehunter was.
"I'm not surprised." Gippal said. "You haven't even heard of blitzball before I told you about it, eh?" He said, smirking. Buddy looked surprised.
"You haven't heard of blitzball either? Where are you from?" He asked, thinking Sora was from some far off little island somewhere that was cut off from everything else (which really wasn't too far from the truth).
"I'm from the Destiny Islands." Sora replied.
"The where?" Buddy asked. Sora sighed. Didn't I just go through this conversation with Gippal and Baralai and Nooj? he asked himself.
"The Destiny Islands, in the Kingdom." He replied. Gippal crossed his arms.
"Alright!" He said loudly, drawing everyone else's attention. "Might as well tell us all exactly what you're talking about, so then at least you won't have to explain it a bunch of times." He said, motioning for everyone else to come over. Sora shrugged.
"Okay. So, I was born on the Destiny Islands. From the time I was really little, I was best friends with a guy named Riku. When we were still pretty young, Kairi moved to the Islands, but she doesn't remember where she came from before that."
"Hold on, you know Kairi?" Rikku asked. Gippal laughed.
"Come on, after that little scene at the ruins, you still didn't think they knew each other? Come on, how dense are you?"
"Hey! That's not nice!" Rikku complained, punching Gippal in the arm. He smirked, but cringed when Paine punched his other arm.
"Both of you shut up and listen." She commanded. Sora was having a hard time keeping from laughing, but he cleared his throat and continued.
"Anyways, the three of us were all best friends until me and Kairi were fourteen and Riku was fifteen. One night, there was a storm, and I got worried that our raft that we were building was going to be broken in the storm, so I went out to check on it. Riku and Kairi were out too, but when I reached the dock, I found the whole island swarming with Heartless. I couldn't do much against them with my old wooden sword, so I had to run to find Riku and Kairi. I found Riku, and he said a bunch of stuff to me that I thought made no sense at the time, and I somehow ended up with the Keyblade. After that, I went looking for Kairi, and I found her in the Secret Place, but the door blew open and threw me back outside."
"What's the Secret Place?" Yuna asked.
"And what door?" Baralai asked, sounding a bit confused.
"The Secret Place was a cave on the Islands that we used to go to a lot, and I don't remember when, but one day, a weird wooden door just appeared in the wall of the cave. I found out later that it was the door to other worlds."
"Other worlds?" Paine asked.
"That's what the Kingdom is, it's a group of planets that were never connected before, but the Heartless connected them."
"The Heartless connected them? Well, they don't seem so bad." Rikku observed. Sora shook his head.
"The Heartless only connected them to destroy them. That's what happened to the Destiny Islands. They were destroyed by the Heartless."
"How'd you get off?" Rikku asked eagerly. Sora shrugged.
"Honestly, I don't know. I just remember waking up in an alleyway in Traverse Town. I met Leon, Arieth and Yuffie there, and I met up with Donald and Goofy. From there, I went to the other worlds on the gummiship that Donald and Goofy had brought, to lock all the planets."
"What's a gummiship?" Baralai asked, reminded of when Sora had mentioned that before.
"Locking the planets?" Yuna asked. Sora nodded.
"When a planet is locked, it keeps the Heartless from reaching the planet's core, so they can't destroy it."
"What's a gummiship?" Paine repeated.
"It's a ship that can fly from planet to planet." Sora replied. Shinra looked up from his work.
"A ship that can fly from planet to planet? How?"
"Umm, naviblocks." Sora replied, shrugging.
"Navi-what?"
"Naviblocks. You attach them to your ship and then you can make your way to the next planet." Sora answered simply. Shinra nodded.
"And, where do you get these?"
"Around, I guess. Actually, I think I have one somewhere." As he spoke, he began to rummage around. Then, grinning, he pulled an odd looking block, that didn't appear to have much of a purpose at all. Shinra stared at it.
"…that?"
"Yup, this is a gummiblock." Sora answered, handing it to him. Getting a closer look, Shinra nodded in amazement.
"Genius…" he muttered. "Sheer genius…" Nodding, he looked back up at Sora. "If I could have a few hours to take a closer look, I may just be able to duplicate it. You don't mind, do you?"
"Not at all." Sora replied, nodding. A moment later, Barkeep burst into the room.
"Oh! Deersh! She'sh being shick!" He cried, stumbling down the stairs. Sora looked up, trying to decipher the Hypello's words. Yuna frowned.
"Kairi's sick?" She asked, worried.
"Veeery!" Barkeep replied, obviously stressed. Sora frowned.
"She's sick?" He asked Yuna, who nodded in reply. Instantly, he was off towards the elevator. Yuna glanced around the room.
"Baralai and Rikku, come give us a hand!" She ordered, running towards the elevator. Both Baralai and Rikku sprang into action, Baralai heading off to collect potions, antidotes and various other useful items, when Rikku snatched up her Healing Wind grid and grabbing the white mage and alchemist dresspheres, which she put on the grid as she ran for the elevator, Baralai on her heels.