Chapter Fourteen—Vacation's Over

"SELPHIE?" Kairi screamed. The two girls jumped up and down and hugged each other tightly. It was amazing. There was just more and more surprises coming Kairi's way.

"How have you been?" Selphie asked, still shocked from it all. She took a look in the car and saw the twins. "You have children?"

Kairi nodded. She pointed to which twin was which. They were still fast asleep. Everyone fit themselves into the car and Riku drove over to the hotel.

Kairi and Selphie promised to get together tomorrow and catch up on many things; but for now it was midnight and they all were tired.

"Wow…" Kairi let out a big sigh as she got into the bed with Sora. Akira and Kosuke surprisingly didn't wake up when Riku and Sora were carrying them, so it was easy to get them to bed.

"I still can't believe Riku is married to Selphie!" Kairi exclaimed quietly. Sora nodded in agreement. He seemed to be pretty tired himself. Respecting that, Kairi decided to keep her comments to herself and just go to sleep.

- - -

Kairi went over to Riku and Selphie's house; a small, one story home near the shore. Sora decided to stay with the kids for the day so Kairi could visit her old friend. Good thing Selphie was off work today.

The door opened and Selphie's huge smile appeared. She let Kairi inside. It was the cleanest house Kairi had ever seen; not even the tables had dust on them. She also noticed a crib in one of the rooms they passed… which could only mean…

"Do you have kids?" Kairi asked.

"Yes, two." Selphie answered happily. Kairi's eyes widened.

"One is three and the other is seven months. The baby is in here." In the TV room, a baby girl was playing with a rattle on the floor. Selphie picked her up and showed her to Kairi.

"Aww! How adorable!" Kairi exclaimed. Selphie laughed.

"Riku and I got married about five years ago. When I had Joanna, my three year old, it was really awesome. And Hanna here needs to have her diaper changed…" Selphie gave a disgusted look and went to go and change the diaper. Kairi stayed in the TV room and looked around. There were pictures of Selphie and Riku on the wall, along with pictures of their daughters. What Kairi wanted to know is how this happened…

Selphie came back into the room about ten minutes later. She sat on the couch next to Kairi.

"I had to put her to bed. Joanna is taking her nap too."

"Aww." Kairi smiled.

"I bet you're wondering… why me and Riku, right?" Selphie cleared her throat and continued. "Well… it all began when…"

Flashback

Riku knocked on Selphie's door. She was the only one around anymore and he needed someone to talk to. She was quite surprised to see him at her dorm, but nevertheless decided to let him inside. Riku thanked her and sat over at the desk.

"Something wrong?" Selphie asked anxiously.

"Yeah. I just don't know what to do anymore." Riku's tone was low and depressive-like.

"Well… what's wrong?"

It took him a little while to answer, but when he did, it shocked the poor girl.

"I'm sick of being in a new relationship every week. I want someone that I can… love…"

This was quite awkward for both of them. Selphie wasn't sure on what to say to him, for she has never been in a relationship and wouldn't know. He was so serious about it, too…

"Ever since Namine and I broke up, I felt like a complete asshole. However, I just went out with whoever was there to try and fulfill my desire of being loved, but everytime it ended in failure. It's like there's no one out there for me…"

"Riku…" Selphie put her hand on his shoulder.

"I mean… come on… is love even real? Because I can't seem to find it… no matter how hard I try…"

"Well," Selphie began, "Love just won't… come to you automatically…"

"But look at Kairi and Sora!" Riku was about to bust into tears. "They fell in love, got married and moved away… and I'm left with nothing! Namine's gone too… which doesn't help much… and she's probably in love with someone else anyway! I'm such an idiot!"

"Riku, no you're not!" Selphie cried. "At least you've been in love before! I've never even thought about it!"

"How can you not think about it?" He argued.

"Because I'm in school, and that's all I focus on."

"I'm sure somewhere in there you'd like to find love…" Riku said.

"Maybe so, but I don't want to let it get me down. That's the thing with people these days. They think love is the only thing needed to get by in this world, and yes, I admit, it is a powerful thing and may be very important, but I believe that there's more to life than heartbreak and torture. I want to know when it's right… not wrong."

"But how do you know?" He interrupted.

"When you have absolutely no doubts about the other person and everything just feels great… although that doesn't come easily." Selphie admitted.

"Wow…" Riku was quiet for a moment. "I didn't know you were so… smart…" Selphie took that as an insult and hit him. Riku laughed a little. Ever since this talk, they started to become closer and closer until one day…

End of Flashback

"We were married." She grinned. Kairi wasn't sure she understood the whole story, but Selphie just mixed up thoughts like that. However, it was pretty sweet of her to talk with Riku and help him out. Kairi sometimes wished her and Sora would talk more…

"Of course, there are times when I wonder if he's cheating or something, but isn't that normal?" Selphie was obviously very new at the whole relationship thing, even if she has been married for years. Kairi nodded.

"The problem with Sora is not cheating… it's just…" Kairi paused, "him not being around. He's on the famous Blitzball team and has to travel a lot. I'm proud of him but I sometimes feel lonely because he's not there. I definitely don't want my kids to grow up thinking that their father doesn't like them enough to stick around…"

"Wow, I thought you two were like… perfect!" Selphie gasped.

"Hey, we have our ups and downs too." Kairi laughed.

"He took you on this vacation, didn't he? He is around." Selphie mentioned.

"Yes, and I'm loving this time with his and the family, but it just can't make up for all the times he's left my at home with the twins… especially when they were little…" Kairi leaned back on the couch.

"Isn't he required to go, though?" Selphie asked.

"Yeah, but sometimes I think he made up excuses to leave as well… like when he left one night to go to a home game, but I figured out later that game was cancelled… surely he knew about that…" Kairi sighed.

"That's weird."

Flashback

"Hey Kairi, I'm leaving now." Sora waved and walked out the door. Kairi said goodbye. It was storming really badly outside.

"Would he really have a game in this weather?" She wondered, drying her hands off. Akira and Kosuke were crying in the living room from the thunder. They were about one year old at the time.

About an hour later, the power went out which only made things worse. Where would Sora be? Surely he didn't have a game… was he lying to her?

"He wouldn't…" Kairi told herself, still having a small doubt in her mind.

End of Flashback

"He came home around lunchtime the next day. Tell me that's not strange." Kairi said.

"Very…"

Even though this vacation had been great, the thoughts of Sora in the past were starting to get to Kairi again. She hadn't thought about them for weeks now, since he was home. However, she knew after this vacation he would only pick up his bag and leave again…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Hmmm, I wonder if Kairi will ever actually tell Sora about these things… she's a chicken…

Kairi: Am not! That's what you make me to be!

Me: And… you're a chicken.

Sora, doing the chicken dance: What?