Author-The one, the only… Sam Baku!

Summary- Post KHII, but non-spoiler. You'll have an idea of what happens, but seriously? If you played the first game, then this story is ambiguous enough to fit into that ending as well. XP

Pairings-General, but if you tilt your head…. R+S+K. Who knows, one day I might be adventurous and pull it deeper than what I left it at.

NOTE- Critique this! I don't have a beta, and would happily take tips on how to make this better, seeing as how I wrote it in the middle of the night, after spazzing out at the end of the game (proud mode), and listening to the ending music non-stop.

RsKrSkRsK

We're back.

We are back, all together, with nothing changed but everything is still different. It was the end of another story, another chapter. And I was just reciting lines for an epilogue we all played, until another story began. If that makes sense to anyone but myself.

When Riku, and I all came back to the island, after we had rejoiced being together with the others, it became time for our other world friends to go home, and for us to do the same.

RsKrSkRsK

I was reluctant to leave. No! I've worked so hard to see you both again! Don't leave me! But I kept the words sealed up tight. After all, I had been gone for over a year, and so had Riku. Our parents must be fretting.

The three of us headed back to the main island.

"Riku… Kairi…" I grabbed their hands. "I'll see you again real soon!"

Riku gave one of his deep-throated chuckles, and yanked me into his arms. Kairi was pulled along with me, and when we settled, squeezed her body to mesh with ours.

Her violet-blue eyes twinkled at me. "Silly Sora! Of course you will"

We all held on for dear life, showing our own underlying need to prove each of our existences. On the dusty street that was our town, in the breaking of twilight, embraced in a hug far longer, far greater and far needier than any normal friends hug, we held on as if our lives depended more on this moment than on any in the past.

Twilight time was ending, and the nights darkness settled over the town at last. Light flooded out of lampposts, and homes windows where families lay inside. We broke apart, with our smiles and laughs settled into place.

Riku was the first to turn and leave. He said that he had left some things unsaid with his father before our adventures began, and perhaps it was time to make amends. Kairi and I watched him limp away, but not before Kairi called out a joke to him about his pants falling off. His laughter echoed softly back to us.

Kairi turned and gave me a final hug. Pulling away the light shone onto her face, illuminating her teeth briefly, and with that she dashed of, turning and waving as she went.

I stood there, in the intersection, alone. Turning, and tacking a step into the last joint of the road I stopped. I felt the wind push against my hair, and moved my head to face it. Riku and Kairi had also turned with the wind, and we all locked eyes above the crossroads.

RaKrSkRsK

My mother, when I first stepped into the household, gave me a look of utter confusion. She had been drying a plate, using an old rag I had gotten for her when I was ten, and thought a set of washcloths was the perfect gift for any mothers birthday (I had given one to Riku's mother as well). Usually she would clean the dishes while she made dinner, so there would be less to do afterwards. The confusion broke, and her forgotten memories came back to her, as I watched it ripple along her face, those which had been hidden from her for her protection while I was gone.

The next second I held the entirety of a weeping woman in my arms, the sounds of fine glass breaking, and my fathers concerned shouting, echoing in my ears.

It took forever to tell them the story. They listened to everything I had to say, Father's guttural voice raising occasionally to ask about a certain detail, and mothers wispy voice Ohh-ing and Ahh-ing in all the right places, with the occasional murmur of excitement, because after all, her little boy saved multiple worlds… Twice!

Dinner had long since burned on the counters, cooling into a disfigured mush. Around the time I started on Castle Oblivion, Father had risen and ordered take-out.

When the tale had winded down, I went up to my room, but not after the fierce hold my mother gave, the last of her tears winding down her face in relief, and my father choking out a good night, pulling me in for a hug. I sprawled out on the window's alcove, the same I had sat on that fateful night before everything changed, the take-out laying heavy in my stomach.

RaKrSkRaK

I couldn't sleep. Over and over again, I felt the terror of so long ago. Losing Riku's hand, Kairi's cold form going through me in the hidden passage. The shock, hurt and betrayal when Riku had turned his back on the light. The pain when Kairi's heart had been stolen. The undying misery at locking my best friend into the darkness, and watching the abyss grow between Kairi and me afterwards.

One night of despair, when I thought I would never see them again before I bucked up and started looking.

I refused to keep thinking about it. Pushing myself up, I pressed my hands against the cool glass of the window, then gripped them along the stiff metal of the drain pipe, escaping from my room like I had when I was younger, and wanting to escape with Riku and Kairi onto whatever childish adventure we may have gone on. I shimmied downwards, and headed to the one place I new I should be.

The place that was calling for me, which needed me there, and would sooth my own needs in the process.

RsKrSkRsK

"Riku! Kairi! Rikuuu! Kairiii! Are you guys here!" I couldn't hold the desperation out of my voice. When only my own echoes came back to me I slumped to the ground and stared out into the waves, which rose and fell not to far from my feet.

I crashed backwards to gaze up into the stars, when two pairs of eyes twinkling brighter than stars looked down upon me. Ocean green and sunset blue.

No words were spoken as Riku settled my right, Kairi to my left. A smile light up my face watching their long hair splay out in the sand, Riku's glinting a bright metal silver, while the bright auburn of Kairi's seemed to catch the ground on fire.

In one final spontaneous movement, I grabbed for the hand Riku had hidden beneath his head, and the one Kairi had spread out on her stomach. Twin looks of uncertainty crossed their faces, before being veiled by knowing looks.

We are back… All together. Connected by love, friendship, and destiny.

Later on that night, Kairi would break the chain to curl up into a ball while she slept, snoring softly, auburn hair floating with her tiny breaths. Riku would toss and turn on the soft sand, then promptly knee me in the stomach. And when it was time for high tide I would wake up drenched and shivering. But at this very moment…

I was home.

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End.

Please, I encourage your constructive criticism, but also you encouragement, and plus who would say no to a simple review saying how much you like it?