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Kairi sat atop the small cabin that stood by the waterfall and continued to watch the boys playing with Wakka's blitzball on the beach right below her.

Ever since her conversation with Selphie the previous night, she found herself monitoring Riku the entire day. Watching his every move, look, listening to his tone of voice; all to observe and to try and see what Selphie was seeing.

She really hadn't meant to do so, it just kind of happened. It started this morning when the three of them went off to go fishing. Kairi had wanted to go off to the mini island to fish, even though there were less fish there. She just liked the area better, where as Selphie said she was headed to the docks to fish, which they all knew was a better place. In the end, the two went to their separate locations. Riku hadn't said a word and followed Kairi. This was one of the first little things she noticed. Of course, she didn't know if it actually meant anything, so, curiously Kairi continued to watch him throughout the day.

"Heads up!" she heard someone yell, and ducked just in time to dodge the flying blitzball that went soaring past her head, almost knocking her popsicle right out of her hand.

Kairi shot an angered look toward the boys, who were now all looking at her.

"Sorry, Kai." Riku said sheephishly, rubbing the back of his head.

She just rolled her eyes and smiled before reaching back to toss the ball back at them, "Just don't let it happen again." she warned.

"Yes, ma'am. Hey, do you wanna come play?" he invited.

"No thanks."

Riku shrugged and tossed the ball back to Tidus. Kairi then watched him walk away from the others and over towards her. When he reached the cabin, he took a leap and landed on the top and sat down beside her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Coming to sit with you."

"You were in the middle of playing blitzball."

Riku shrugged again, "I've been playing long enough."

"I see." Kairi mused. It was the things like this that had been happening all day that made her think Selphie's theories about him liking her were indeed true. She had to admit, she was really starting to like it though.

"Gimme a bite of that." he said, leaning towards her.

Kairi smiled and complied, putting her popsicle to his mouth as he took a bite of it. She laughed when some of it melted and dripped down his chin.

"Very classy, Riku."

"Ah, shut up." he remarked, wiping the liquid off. "So why did Selphie have to leave early?"

"Oh, she had some plans with her family or something like that."

"That sucks."

"Yeah."

"Hey," Riku nudged her slightly, "We were thinking that we should all stay the night here tonight."

"That would be awesome!" Kairi said excitedly. They had always wanted to stay on the island over night, but their parents would never have it back when they were a little younger.

"Alright good, we worried that you wouldn't want to come, cause then with Selphie gone it would have been three guys on an island alone for the night...kinda weird." Riku pointed out and laughed.

Kairi giggled, "You're right. But, it's almost supper time, so shouldn't we head back and get our stuff?"

"Yeah, let's go." he agreed, hopping down off the cabin.

"Move so I can jump." she told him when she saw that he was still directly below her.

Riku turned his back towards her and look over his shoulder, holding his arms out. "Jump." he said

Kairi looked at him a little surprised, "I'm not jumping, you'll fall down."

Riku rolled his eyes, "Kairi, I will not fall down. Just jump, I'll catch you."

She hesitated before finally deciding to trust him and walked right off the ledge of the roof. She landed right on the center of his back and he immediately gripped onto her thighs with his hands so she wouldn't fall any lower.

Kairi wrapped her arms around his neck, being careful not to get any of her popsicle on him.

"See," Riku boasted, turning his head to look at her face, which was now very close to his, "I told you I'd catch you."

"Yeah whatever, now move!" she ordered playfully.

Riku did as he was told and began walking toward the docks where Wakka and Tidus were already close to.

Kairi noticed that the last bit of her popsicle was beginning to melt and she couldn't reach it, so she moved it up to Riku who took the rest of it, giving her the best, "Thank you." he could with the stick still in his mouth.

Kairi yawned and settled her head on Riku's shoulder, leaning into his own head.

"Oh yeah," he spoke up, spitting the stick out, "you were up early this morning. Tired?"

"Mmm hmm." she mumbled.

"You sure you're up for staying here tonight then?"

"Yes," she said lazily, "I'll just have a nap when I get home."

"Aw, don't tell me she's not coming either?" Tidus' voice spoke out from the docks that were only a few feet away now.

Riku shook his head, "Nah, she's just tired, she's coming." he told them, letting Kairi gently down off his back.

"You better not fall asleep and be a party pooper tonight, ya?" Wakka cut in.

Kairi waved him off, "I'll be fine."

"Alright! Well, see you all later!" he said as they all hopped into their bats and headed back to the mainland.


"So which one of you rugged woodsmen forgot to bring the flashlight huh?" Kairi joked as she and the guys fumbled around in the bushes, unable to see without any light.

"Wakka's fault." Tidus retorted.

"No way, man!"

"Shut up. We all forgot." Riku pointed out, "Doesn't matter now does it. I found some sticks." he announced. The sound of twigs snapping followed. "Alright, let's go."

Tidus and Wakka were the last ones who walked into the bushes to search for firesticks to roast their food with so they were the first ones out. Kairi had gone in first.

Riku followed the boys but stopped when he heard Kairi call his name, "Kai? Where are you?"

"I'm right here, but I can't see a thing." she chuckled, reaching out into the darkness and waving her hand around. It eventually came into contact with Riku's and he grasped it.

"Here, this way." he said, guiding her out of the bushes and toward their campfire on the beach.

"Thanks."


"So, so then!" Tidus choked on his words from laughter in mid story.

"Tidus, your marshmellow is burnin'!" Wakka yelled.

"Huh!" he looked up, "Damn!" he cursed, blowing out the fire.

"Go back to the story." Riku urged, "It was new years, and you guys were all at that party right?"

"Oh! Oh yeah!"

"Tidus c'mon...please, this story is so embarrassing!" Kairi said, burying her hands in her face.

He didn't listen, "So it was almost midnight and we're all doing the countdown from ten right? The WHOLE room, and on Four, Kairi comes bursting in the room, drunk off her ass and yells like, as loud as she can -" he was cut off when Kairi jumped on him.

"Tidus shut up!"

Wakka burst out laughing and pulled her off of their friend.

"And she yelled, "Guys, what time is it!" And everyone in the room just stopped counting down and stared at her, right before she tripped and fell down!"

Riku threw his head back and began laughing hysterically.

Kairi moved back onto her own sleepingbag beside his and pouted.

"K-Kairi, that's...that's hilarious!" he managed to blurt out.

All three of them were laughing now, at her expense.

"Alright, so it was one time!" she tried to defend herself.

"Aww, we're just kidding around." Riku assured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him and giving her a friendly pat.

"Yeah, I know." she grumbled, leaning into him.

Riku pulled his stick out of the fire and examined his marshmellow, "I don't even know why I cooked this. I'm full." he said and pushed the marshmellow in Kairi's direction, "You want it?" she opened up her mouth and he fed her the marshmellow off the stick.

"Yeah, I'm full too man." Wakka said, patting his stomach.

"So, Riku," Tidus spoke up, "what about you? You got any stories for us."

Kairi realized Riku still had his arm draped over her shoulders when she felt him tense at the question.

"Umm, not really..." he trailed off.

Wakka and Tidus sensed his discomfort and decided to back off about the subject, "Oh, ok, that's fine..."

After a brief moment of an intensely awkward silence, Kairi spoke up, "What time is it anyway?"

Tidus glanced down at his watch, trying to catch the time in the light of the fire, "Almost midnight."

"Wow already?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, I am kinda tired, ya?" Wakka said.

"Really?" Kairi said, surprised.

Wakka shrugged, "I'm not a night person." he confessed with a yawn, which Tidus mimiced directly afterwards.

"Blah, yawns are contageous." he stated, stretching his arms.

"What, so do you guys wanna go to bed or something?" Kairi questioned.

"Well," Wakka said, resting his head on his pillow, "We got nothin' else to do."

"Uh huh." Tidus agreed enthusiastically, getting comfy with his own sleeping gear.

"Alright, whatever." Kairi giggled. She thought guy sleepovers were always all-nighters. Apparently not with these losers. "Night guys."

"Night."


They had left the fire going. There was nothing to be caught aflame on the beach, and they had moved far enough away from it so as their sleeping bags weren't a hazard.

Kairi lay on her back, hands behind her head looking up at the clear sky. She couldn't sleep due to Tidus and Wakka snoring, and the fact that she wasn't really tired. She wasn't quite sure how long she had been laying there; maybe an hour? Kairi assumed Riku was asleep. He hadn't said a word since they went to bed.

Sighing deeply, she turned and rested with her back facing the fire. She tried closing her eyes so that hopefully sleep would take her. It wasn't long though, before she heard the sleeping bag next to her rustle. Kairi turned to find Riku's bed empty. She sat up and squinted her eyes to see him walking off in the direction of the mini island. Curious, she slipped out of her sleeping bag quietly and began to follow him. He was considerably further than her and she didn't want to call to him and wake up the others, so she followed silently.

By the time she had been led under the bridge, Kairi's eyes had already adjusted to the darkness and she could almost clearly see Riku ahead of her, passing through the door to the other side of the island.

As he walked through the door, she followed just in time to see him take a great leap all the way across the broken walkway and walk down onto the beach.

Kairi grumbled and hopped down the ledge and waded through the knee high water to where Riku was. He hadn't seen her yet, he was too busy undressing himself.

"Riku!" she called when she was about twenty feet away.

His head snapped up and looked in her direction. "Kairi." he said with surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I never fell asleep and I heard you leave." she answered. "What are you doing?"

Riku shrugged and kicked off his shoes. "I couldn't really sleep either, so I decided to go for a swim."

"Mind if I join you?"

He shook his head and pulled off his pants so he was wearing just his swimming shorts. "Not at all."

Kairi smiled and quickly shed herself of her clothes to join him.

"Hey," he said, tapping her shoulder, "Wanna see something cool?"

"Yeah."

He grinned at her and took off up onto the lookout tower.

"See the drop off point over there?" he pointed to a dark patch of water not too far from the shore.

"You're too far from the water, Riku. You won't make that." she warned.

He grinned at her and held his chin up, "I told you, Kai, I learned a few things while I was gone." and with that, he ran from the back of the tower and hopped up onto the front ledge, kicking off of it as hard as he could soaring into the air and down into a perfect dive into where the water was deep. Or so Kairi had hoped.

He surfaced a few moments later with the same cocky grin plastered on his face.

"You're ridiculous." she stated, reaching back to double knot the string on the neck of her bathing suit top.

To her pleasant surprise, Riku just shrugged. To be honest, she had expected him to say something like, "You're just jealous." Or something along those lines. He would have before.

"Is the water warm?" she asked.

"Yes." he said without hesitation, dunking his head half under so that only his eyes were peering out of the water. Riku watched as she strode hastily into the ocean but stopped when the water reached mid thigh with a look of pure shock locked on her face. There she stood, for a moment with her hands above the water before she squeezed her eyes shut and yelled, "It's freezing!"

Riku popped his head out of the water and burst out laughing.

"You're such an ass!" she spat at him, half jokingly while taking backwards steps out of the water.

Riku, of course, would have no such thing and pulled the rest of his body upward and began stalking towards her as fast as he could. Kairi caught on and let out a small, "Eep!" before turning around to make a run for it. Unfortunately, she was much too slow and felt herself get tugged backwards by the waist.

He had her pinned with one arm to him. Her back was to his front and Kairi felt her body stiffen and melt at the same time and the feeling of the skin on skin contact.

Riku felt the change in movement of her muscles as soon as she was attached to him and took this as an opportune moment to turn her around and fling her up over his shoulder in one swift movement.

As soon as she realized what was happening, or what was going to happen, Kairi began pounding on Riku's back with her fists. "Riku! No! Please, it's cold!" she begged. When she decided the punches weren't effective she began clawing at his back. He merely chuckled at her feeble attempts, "That tickles."

Great, now what was she going to do? Well he couldn't exactly drop her in the water if she refused to let go, right? Just as Riku loosened his grip on her back and prepared to launch Kairi in to the water, she quickly secured her arms around his waist. The force of him "throwing" her along with her weight on top of him caught him off guard when he realized that she wasn't letting go and they both ended up tumbling into the water.

Riku was the first to surface. He kept his body submerged under the water and brushed the damp hair out of his face. Kairi followed not long after.

"See, now look what ya did." Riku joked with a smirk on his face that quickly disappeared when he picked up that she wasn't laughing...at all. Instead, Kairi sat there in the water, teeth chattering, arms around herself, soaking wet.

'Oops...'

He figured she really hadn't been all that thrilled to get in the water, but he didn't think she'd be that cold. Riku swam over to Kairi, who was still shivering rather uncontrolably and brought his arms around her, moving them up and down to try and warm her up.

"Kairi, I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd be that cold."

"That's okay." she said, managing to stifle out a small laugh and leaning into him. The air was cold on her skin now so the water actually seemed slightly warmer. Riku moved and dunked them under so just their heads were above the surface.

"Great. Now I won't want to get out." she mentioned, causing him to laugh a little.

Kairi felt herself beginning to warm up and pulled away from Riku and treading water near him. He followed suit and ducked under the water. It really wasn't that cold when you got used to it. After he surfaced, Riku caught something at the corner of his eye. At first he thought it was jus tthe moon reflecting off the water, but as he took a closer look he realized it was something else.

"Kairi." he said. She look to him, "Look over there." he pointed.

Kairi turned and looked out toward the horizon and what Riku was looking at. She spotted a small, shimmering object not too far from them. Without thinking she began swimming towards it with Riku soon following after.

When she was no more than five feet away from the object, it didn't take long for her to figure out what it was. Reaching out and grasping it with her hand, Kairi picked up the object and examined it.

"A bottle?" Riku's voice said from behind her.

"Yeah."

"Open it."

Kairi did as he asked and opened up the bottle and removed a letter from it.

"It's from Sora."


Yeah, sorry for the delay guys! But, keep the reviews coming please and thankies!