Though it was only a short note, Sora agonized over how to say exactly what he needed to say as he sat on a bench near the beach. It took him five minutes to start the damn thing. Dear Your Majesty, he started, then crossed it out. King Mickey, he wrote, then crossed that out too. Turning to a fresh sheet of paper in his notebook, Sora tapped the pen to his chin a few times before beginning, Hi, Your Majesty.

It's Sora. I'm writing this because I've been thinking for a while now, and I've been wondering a lot about the Organization and Nobodies and stuff like that. Like, what happened to the Organization when we destroyed them? I know they're just shells and stuff, but still – where did their bodies go? I was also wondering – if Nobodies don't have hearts or emotions, then how come Axel did all that stuff for Roxas's sake? And sometimes I feel sad when I should be happy, or lonely when I'm with my friends, and I think that I'm feeling what Roxas is feeling. But he's a Nobody, right? So how can he be feeling anything? Kairi says that she can feel Naminé too, so it's not just me.

It's okay if you can't answer all my questions – it' s just that you were the only person we could think of to ask. Hope to hear from you soon, and say hi to Donald and Goofy for me.

--Sora

"Tell King Mickey that I said 'hi,'" Riku interjected, leaning on the back of the bench and peering over Sora's shoulder. He shoveled a spoonful of fruit from one of the fruit cups they'd bought on the way to beach into his mouth.

PS – Riku says hi, Sora added at the bottom.

"Oh! Tell him I said 'hi' too!" Kairi added from where she sat next to Sora, waving her spoon.

"C'mon guys, I'm running out of room here!" Still, Sora managed to squeeze in, PPS – Kairi says hi too, in tiny letters. He rolled up the sheet of paper and slipped it into the bottle Kairi handed him. Standing, he firmly stopped the bottle with a cork, walked to the edge of the sea, and hurled the bottle as far as he could, the force of his throw nearly causing him to topple into the water.

The bottle glinted in the sunlight as it arced through the air, finally hitting the water with a small splash a hundred meters away. Sora shielded his eyes with his hand and watched the bottle as it bobbed gently in the ocean, hoping that the cork would keep the water out, that the current would carry it the right way that a whale wouldn't eat it –

"That was a pretty decent throw," Riku said, interrupting Sora's worried thoughts.

"I'd like to see you do better," Sora challenged, grinning.

Riku lobbed his empty fruit cup at a trash can twenty feet away and sank the shot cleanly. "I would, if I hadn't gotten busted up saving your life."

Ouch. Sora looked down and kicked at the sand with his toe. He knew that Riku was just joking, but still...

Fortunately, Kairi came to the rescue. "Hey, why don't we go swimming at the island?" she suggested after finishing her fruit. "We haven't been there together for ages!"

"Hey, yeah!" Sora agreed.

"All right," Riku said. "If my boat still floats."

They made a brief return to their houses to grab their swim gear, then strolled down to the marina. Riku's boat was indeed still afloat, right where he'd left it moored long ago, and they each cast off in their respective vessels. In the old days, Sora and Riku would have raced all the way to the island, but now Riku wasn't up to his full strength and Sora was out of practice anyway, which is probably why Kairi beat them both.

She'd already tied off her boat and run off to the changing hut by the time Riku and Sora reached the dock. They secured their boats, grabbed their things, and, not as modest as Kairi, walked up the path to find some bushes large enough to change behind. "God, I haven't come here since forever," Riku remarked, gazing with amazement at his surroundings. Suddenly he winced and rolled his left shoulder, holding his side gingerly. "And I probably should have waited a little longer before coming back."

"I could have rowed you here, if you'd asked," Sora offered.

Riku laughed and shook his head. "No thanks, man. I'd rather swim."

"I'm serious, Riku. It's the least I can do."

Noticing the concern in Sora's voice, Riku just smiled instead of dismissing the offer offhand. "Thanks, Sora. Now let's get changed."

They simultaneously discovered that both their swimsuits were now too small. However, while Sora could get away wearing his, Riku's old trunks were rapidly approaching Speedo territory. Though Sora tried to convince him, between bouts of hysterical giggling, that it was a good look for him, Riku wasn't persuaded and decided to just wear his regular shorts. They bundled up their discarded clothes and trotted back down to the beach, playfully trying to trip one another as they walked. When they reached the waterfront, Kairi still hadn't emerged from the hut. "Aw, c'mon, Kairi!" Sora hollered. "Hurry up!"

"Just a sec!" Kairi shouted back. A few seconds later she emerged from the hut, and Sora's jaw dropped at the sight of . Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and she wore a bikini that showed off her figure to its fullest. It was, without a doubt, the least amount of clothing that Sora had ever seen Kairi wear; judging from Riku's reaction, it was the least that he'd seen her wear, too.

Kairi noticed them staring at her and fidgeted uncomfortably. "Cut it out! My parents got this for me, so quit staring – I know it looks stupid!"

"No, no!" Sora protested, holding up his hands. "You don't look stupid at all – you look great! Right, Riku?"

Riku couldn't seem to bring himself to speak and just nodded.

"Hmph." Kairi eyed them suspiciously, but they managed to summon their most innocuous faces and the subject was dropped.

The three splashed into the water, laughing and shouting with glee as the cold water shocked their skin. Kairi and Sora teamed up on Riku and dunked him, but while underwater Riku managed to pants Sora. As Kairi laughed at Sora's frantic attempts to pull his shorts back up, Riku grabbed her ankles and flipped her head-over-heels, completing his revenge. Next came a splashing contest, an underwater-handstand contest, and a fruitless – but nevertheless entertaining – attempt to catch a school of fish. Even while playing, Sora couldn't help but stop once in a while to gaze at the horizon, searching for some sign of the King's reply. He knew it was stupid to do so – there was no way the bottle had even reached the King yet – but his eyes were still drawn inexorably towards the open sea. A part of him was waiting on edge for a reply, for answers, and try as he might, Sora couldn't quiet that part of him down.

"Hey! Sora!" Riku splashed water in Sora's face, snapping him out of his troubled reverie. "C'mon, we're heading home."

"Oh, okay." Sora wiped the seawater out of his eyes and followed Riku to shore, where Kairi was toweling herself off. As he watched his two friends pick off seaweed and shake water out of their hair, Sora was suddenly struck by how much the scene was like when they were young – and yet so radically different. Kairi was no longer a little girl; she had the body of a nearly-grown woman. And Riku... Sora glanced at the surgical scars on Riku's side where doctors had repaired his shattered bones, a relic of the battle they'd fought together. His friends had changed. And as for Sora?

I'm taller, Sora thought, smiling ruefully. And that's about it. Though he still found it hard to believe he'd spent so much time asleep, he was starting to feel the effects of missing an entire year of his life. He did a double-take whenever he saw the date; he'd missed births and deaths of relatives; he had an entire grade's worth of school to make up. Kairi seemed older than him now, and Riku had matured as well. Sometimes Sora felt like the only one who was still a kid.

The vermilion sea was calm as glass as the three slowly made their way home. Sora only halfway listened to Riku and Kairi's lighthearted conversation as he scanned the distance for some sort – any sort – of reply to his letter. They reached shore, night fell, and no reply came.