Another update, yaaaaay!

I AT LAST know how I'm going to finish this... which actually will probably not end up the way you expect! It's a surprise, you'll find out in the last chapter! There's most likely 2 more chapters, no more than 4. Anyways. This one is MUCH shorter than last chapter, and hopefully a little more entertaining.

THANK YOU SO MUUUCH to all of the reviewers! I really enjoy reading those... I always look forward to right after I update! You're the reason why I even continue this!

Enjoyyyyy!

It was difficult, but after nearly half an hour of coaxing, Riku finally managed to get Kairi out of the house and walking toward the beach. Though he was trying to keep Kairi engaged in conversation to ensure she didn't fall asleep on her feet and end up flat on her face, he couldn't seem to stop thinking about Asahi and Sora.

He knew that she was brilliant, and that she could more than handle Sora, but… somehow, he couldn't help but wonder. As he began to wrap his thoughts around Asahi and Sora, he suddenly remembered: Asahi would have to go back to her world in a few days. This mildly entertaining scheming behind Sora and Kairi's backs wouldn't last forever… and for whatever reason, it was just hitting him now.

He desperately tried to shake these thoughts from his head, but they stuck all the way to the beach. At last, he spotted Asahi and Sora sitting together on the dock, and breathed a sigh of relief—being alone with his thoughts any more today would probably be a bad idea. "Hey, Kairi," he said, "look, there's Asahi!"

Her eyes shifted to get a good look at the dock. Her mouth fell open, and she seemed more awake than ever. "What is she doing alone with Sora?"

Riku shrugged. "She just wanted to get to know him, I think."

"Get to know him," Kairi scoffed. "Whatever, Riku." She continued to march across the beach, walking determinedly in the opposite direction of the dock.

Riku grabbed her wrist. "C'mon, Kairi, let's just go be friendly and say hi, or something," Riku pleaded, attempting to drag her towards Sora and Asahi.

Kairi struggled against his grip. "Riku, no! You set this up, you must've—"

Riku belted out a nervous laugh. "Set it up? I haven't a clue what you're talking about!"

"Oh, puh-leaze. You're not fooling me!" she snapped, still struggling to get away.

"Kairi, you and Sora can't keep fighting over something so stupid—"

"We'll fight over whatever we want to!" she shouted at him. "It's none of your business, Riku, just stay out of it!"

Asahi saw Riku struggling with Kairi, and figured it would probably be best if she and Sora met up with them over there. She stood up, and said, "Hey, Sora, Riku's over there… let's go, I bet he came here looking for us."

Sora stood up. "Riku, eh? I completely forgot about—" He froze when he noticed Kairi. "It's Kairi!"

Asahi peered over at him cautiously. "Shouldn't you… you know… go apologize?"

Sora covered his face with his hands, and said nothing.

"Sora, after everything we talked about, how can you still be so stubborn and thick-headed?" Asahi demanded, hands on her hips.

He looked up at her. "I'm trying," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm nervous, don't push me."

She sighed in exasperation. "You can fight powerful guys like Ansem and Xemnas, but you can't even talk to a girl? That's a little surprising."

"Aw, stop heckling me," Sora said, staring at the ground. "Let's just go over there then, I guess," he muttered.

"Alrighty, then!" Asahi said happily, cracking a grin and leading the way off the dock and toward the beach, where Riku was still trying to pull Kairi towards Sora and Asahi.

As Naminé tried to force Kairi towards Sora (to no avail, obviously), she could sense it—if Sora just came forward a few more feet, she'd be able to—

"Naminé?"

"Roxas!" she shouted happily. "It's been way too long!"

She could hear him chuckling a little. "Yeah, it really has…"

"So, why's Sora hanging out with that girl?" she asked him, overjoyed that Roxas was at last close enough to communicate with her.

"They're trying to get him to apologize to Kairi," Roxas explained. "I must say, she's got a way with words. Sora thinks she likes Riku, though."

Naminé smiled a little. "Riku deserves a nice girl."

"Yeah," Roxas agreed. "After all the stuff he's done to try to help Sora and Kairi be friends again… he definitely deserves someone pretty great."

Naminé giggled. "I really hope they make up, then I'll get to talk to you a lot more!"

Roxas grinned widely. "I'd really like that, too!"

"Do you think that what that girl said to Sora really helped?" Naminé asked, praying that Sora could pluck up the courage to apologize.

"I know that he really wants to now," Roxas told her. "But I'm not sure if he will. He still has his doubts."

"He's still Sora, of course," Naminé commented slightly bitterly.

Riku saw that Asahi seemed to understand what was going on—she was leading Sora over toward where he was still trying to convince Kairi to talk to him. "Kairi, he wants to apologize… just give him a chance," Riku begged.

She finally stopped pulling. "You really think he wants to apologize?"

"Oh, definitely," Riku said, praying he was right, and that Asahi had talked some sense into him. "Just let him try."

Kairi folded her arms across her chest, and stood there, glaring at Sora, who was standing just behind Asahi. "Hi, Riku," Asahi greeted him brightly. "Hello, Kairi! How are you today?"

"A little angry," Kairi said huffily, still shooting a hole through Sora with her eyes.

"Guys, could… could I have a minute to talk to Kairi… alone?" Sora meekly requested.

Riku and Asahi were off without another word. Kairi still had her arms folded, and still looked pissed.

"Kairi?" Sora began quietly.

She stared him down. "What?"

"I… I'm really sorry for going off on you like that."

She shut her eyes, taking this moment in. Sora was actually apologizing!

"It's okay, Sora," she finally said. "You know… I was thinking about this all night last night… do you remember, way before your whole keyblade hero thing even started…? I told you never to change."

Sora wracked his brains. "Yeah, I remember…"

"I was so worried that you had. But… now I guess I can see that you're still the same old Sora."

He grinned. "What can I say? I'll always be the same old me."

"Hooray, he's apologized!" Naminé said happily.

Roxas smiled. "It's amazing, isn't it… what one conversation with a girl will do."

"It certainly changed your life," Naminé commented. "Remember the first conversation you ever had with me?"

Roxas shut his eyes—he remembered the moment perfectly, of course. There was no way he could possibly forget when Naminé had told him that he was never supposed to have existed. Anything involving Naminé typically stuck in his head pretty well. "I'm still glad I met you," Roxas told her.

"I'm glad I even saw you again, after that whole thing," Naminé said, half-smiling. "Even if it was only for a couple of minutes. But, hey, just like we knew we'd meet again then… sometime in the future, we'll see each other, I just know it."

"I really hope that's soon," Roxas murmured. "Sora is frustrating. This is what really sucks about being a nobody."

"Roxas… something that you really should learn… is that no matter what, to me, you'll always be somebody. So don't be so down on yourself about something you can't control," Naminé advised. Right now, for example, being a nobody wasn't so bad—if he could actually see her, he would have known that she was blushing furiously—not exactly something she would have wanted him to know.

With every minute that passed, Roxas found himself liking Naminé more and more. "To me, you'll always be somebody, too," he told her softly.

"So… why were you hanging out with Asahi?" Kairi casually asked Sora as they walked along the beach.

Sora chuckled a little to himself. "I'm starting to put two and two together, and I'm pretty sure Riku stuck her with me, just so that she could talk me into apologizing to you."

Kairi smiled a little. "You're too stubborn for your own good, and Riku knows that. He's so smart!"

Sora's mouth collapsed into a scowl. "Smart? He doesn't even realize what kind of girl he has a chance with! He doesn't see that she really likes him, and… she's great, Kairi. So, as far as I'm concerned, Riku is the stupidest guy alive."

Kairi suddenly felt obligated to stand up for Riku, though she wasn't sure why. "Riku looks out for her, Sora… he came to my house to see if I had clothes she could borrow. He obviously has some sort of thing for her. If anything, she's the one who will end up breaking his heart!"

Sora stared at her in disbelief. "What? I mean, Riku's a nice guy, he'd do that for any girl. I'm just saying, he doesn't seem to realize that a great girl just fell into his lap."

"Sora, you know that Riku—"

"Yeah, I do know Riku," Sora interrupted her. "I know that right now, he's so confused about his feelings that he doesn't have a clue how to act."

"It seems like he's not the only boy on this island with that problem," Kairi muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora demanded, heat rising in his face.

Kairi put her hands on her hips. "You know what it means, Sora. Don't play dumb."

"You think I'm confused?" he asked incredulously. "Oh, trust me, I know exactly what's going on in my head right now."

"Oh really?" Kairi said, eyebrows shooting up towards the sky. "Inquiring minds want to know: what is up there, Sora?"

"…I don't know."

Kairi couldn't help cracking up. "That's exactly what I thought."

"No, I mean… one minute, it's like, I'm completely angry at you for something, and the next, it's like something completely different takes over me and I'm ready to rush out and apologize to you. It's the craziest thing," Sora explained.

Kairi's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me? That's exactly what's been going on with me, lately!"

"Wow, talk about weird," Sora commented, wrinkling up his nose.

"You know… maybe Asahi would know something about this…"

Sora looked more confused than ever. "Why would Asahi know anything about this? It's probably just a coincidence.

As Kairi recalled what she had told Riku about possibly feeling what Naminé felt,it wasbecoming clear to her that this was most likely not a coincidence. "I still really think we should ask her about it."

"O-kay," Sora reluctanly agreed. "We can ask, but I still think it's weird."

Sora and Kairi turned around, and began walking back towards the dock, where Riku and Asahi were sitting together.

"Having you here the past couple days has been great," Riku told her, staring out at the seemingly endless ocean.

Asahi smiled. "Being here has been great. I wish I didn't have to leave."

There that topic was again—Asahi leaving. Why couldn't it just leave him alone for two seconds so that he could think properly? "Yeah… I'll really miss you." Well, at least he knew he could saythat for certain.

"The thing is… after Sora said something to me today… I don't want to leave."

"Sora actually said something that amazing?" he said, surprised. "That's unexpected."

Asahi backhanded his arm. "No, it's not unexpected! Sora is a great kid," Asahi said, smiling. "You really need to get out of the habit of teasing him."

Riku shrugged. "He's used to it by now."

She smacked him again. "Seriously, Riku. He's got a good head on his shoulders, when he remembers to use it."

As Riku was pondering a witty comeback, he suddenly noticed something in the sky—it could only be one thing. It was unmistakeably… "A gummi ship," he murmured.

"What? Where?"

Riku pointed. "Wonder whose it is…?"

As the spot in the sky seemed to draw nearer and nearer, Riku realized—it was coming to the island. As far as he knew, there was only one ship that came to the island—Mickey's. Which could only mean one thing—he was here to get Asahi and take her home.

The ship made a perfectly safe landing, and Riku watched with dread as Donald and Goofy rushed toward him and Asahi.

"Riku, where's Sora?" Goofy asked, frantically scanning the beach.

"He walked that way with Kairi," Riku said, pointing up the beach. "…Why?"

"We need you two, too—the castle's under attack," Donald hurriedly explained.

Riku and Asahi were on their feet without another word, sprinting down the beach to find wherever Sora and Kairi wandered off to.

Dadadummm... who would attack Disney Castle, and why? Read chapter 7, coming soon, to find out!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading,

Lulala