Disclaimer: I don't own KH

Sorry for the lack of updating. End of school stuff sucks. But summer is soon and it's gonna be good : ) Anyway, enjoy and don't forget to review please!


It had been awkward to say the least. For Kairi and Riku anyway. Sora had been talking and chit chatting away, informing them on all the progress they were having with the Radiant Garden castle and all its secrets. He didn't seem to feel the heaviness in the air like the other two did. After all, why would he?

"Geez, you guy sure are talkative." he said when he realized they had barely spoken a word.

"Huh? Oh, well you just have so much to tell." Kairi told him. "We've just been sitting on the beach since you left. Same old same old you know?"

Sora smiled. "Yeah, I miss that. I can't wait to get back. Thanks a lot guys for coming here with me."

The two smiled back at him, the guilt growing deeper inside them with each passing moment.

"Hey, we're your friends. Why wouldn't we come?" Riku pointed out. "Now get a move on. We're almost there, and I'm hungry."

"Oh! Right." Sora said, rubbing the back of his head. He forgot that he had stopped walking when they were so close to Merlin's house.


"I'm telling you that's NOT the way it works!" the unmistakable voice of Yuffie bellowed throughout the house as the trio walked in the front door.

"Shad up! I know how tuh work this piece of junk better than all a' you!" Cid yelled back, slamming a fist down on his keyboard.

"Calm down, Highwind."

Cid's shoulders went rigid. "Who th' hell said that?" he spoke up, turning around. "Well! If it ain't Riku and Kairi!" he stood up and walked over grinning at the two, completely disregarding Riku's statement. Riku had only met the man a few times but they had connected almost instantly.

"Damn, now I got four of you little brats on my back!"

"Can't you count old man?" Yuffie scoffed, "There's only three of them."

He sent her a glare, "Course' I can count, I was counting you!"

Yuffie shut her mouth and pouted.

"Hey, Cid, where did everyone go?" Sora stepped forward and asked.

The blonde man looked up and placed a hand on his chin, "Mmm... Dunno where that Merlin is, what with the disappearin' thing he does. Could be anywhere. An' last I checked Cloud and Leon were still at the castle.

"What about Aeris and Tifa?" Kairi asked, "I want to say hi to them."

"They're just next door." Yuffie told her.

"Oh yeah." Sora said, "I forgot the huge house next door is where we're staying. I'll take you guys over there now and show you your rooms."

"Who all moved into the big house?" Kairi asked.

"Everybody, except for Merlin."

Riku shook his head, "Wait, let me get this straight... You guys have seven people living in one giant house together any you're not partying eveyday?"

Sora scratched the back of his head, "Uhh well..."

"We haven't exactly had time for that." Yuffie chimed in. "Don't get me wrong, the girls and I have been all up for it, but with Cloud and Leon being huge stiffs all the time what with their "work". And of course Cid bein' an old man." "HEY!" "It's just kind of hard to get everyone together."

"Hmm, I see."

"Yeah, anyway, let's get over there." Sora suggested, pushing the two out the door.


He led his friends through the front door which expanded into a large living room with three couches, a large chair, fireplace and a television. To the right of the room, where one of the couches was resting against was a large flight of stairs, and then a wall and a door leading into the kitchen. To the left of the room, there was a fairly large sized study room with a two desks.

As the trio walked into the kitchen, they were surprised to find no one in there.

"You sure they're here?" Kairi questioned.

Sora shrugged, "They could be somewhere else." he said, taking a quick glance near the bathroom and the back door. "C'mon, we'll try downstairs."

He walked out of the kitchen with Riku and Kairi both following close behind. The tension had eased up slightly for both of them. Being around more people definately helped.

The headed into the study and Sora opened a door near the desk that led to a staircase.

At first they couldn't see a thing as they felt along the wood panelled walls to make sure they didn't fall down any steps.

As they neared the bottom, the steps became clearer. They reached a rather large room that Riku vowed he could spend the rest of his days in. Two couches and a coffee table were situated in the middle and the entire room was brightened only by a dim yellowish lamp. Another television sat infront of the couches and on it's stand there were a bunch of movies and video games that Riku recognized as being Sora's. The wooden walls were plastered with a fair amount of posters and shelves. Behind the couches next to a closed door was a large stereo and a fridge. Sora walked down the last step and knocked on the door. After receiving no answer he opened it slowly. He peered inside momentarily and then retreated. "Nope."

Kairi and Riku followed him down the stairs and watched as Sora waltzed across the room and knocked on another door, following the same routine before peering into another bathroom.

"Well they're not down here."

"Are there any other rooms down here?" Riku asked.

"Nope, just Cloud and Leon's. You have to stay upstairs."

"Aww..."


The third floor was huge too. The staircase that led to it had a hallway spanning all the way around in one large square. Cid's room was on the end, Yuffie and Tifa shared a double bedroom with their own bathroom and there were three other rooms on the opposite end of the hall. Sora opened one of the doors.

"The rooms are kind of small but I'm surprised we can all live here." he pointed out.

"Don't even worry about it." Kairi said. "Being able to stay here is awesome all on it's own."

"We just have to make sure we knock." Sora said, pointing to a door that was inside his room.

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, confused.

Sora walked over and opened the door, which led to the second room, and then another door which led to the third room.

"They're kind of all connected."

Riku raised an eybrow, this could have it's benefits... and it's downfalls.

"Which one is mine?" he asked.

The far one, on the right. Mine is on the left.

"So I suppose I get the middle then." Kairi finished.

"Err... yeah."

A heavy silence filled the room as the three stood motionless. The sound of laughter could be heard faintly and Sora perked his head up. They were each thankful that something had distracted them.

"That's coming from the attic." he said.

"The attic?"

"Yeah, Aeris' room is up there."


"Helloooo?" Sora called up the stairs.

"Hello? Sora is that you?"

"Yeah it's me!" he said as they all jogged up the stairs.

When Kairi heard the word attic, she immediately thought of dark, damp and spiderwebs. But it was the complete opposite. The room was rather large, and painted a faint pink with a matching carpet of a slightly darker shade. The roof was slanted and on the far end of the room, opposite of the stairs were two glass doors that led outside onto a small balcony that overlooked all of Radiant Garden, which had become quite an attractive and bustling town since she'd last been here. A vanity and the closet sat on the right side of the room and a large double bed on the left where Aeris and Tifa were sitting comfortably.

"Sora, hey, what's going - oh! Riku, Kairi! I thought I heard Sora say something about you staying for a while! How's it going?" Aeris asked when they came into view.

"Not bad," Kairi commented, "The island was getting a little boring without Sora there anyway."

"Hey I wouldn't complain, it's been kinda boring around here too." Tifa said, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all up for the town restoration and whatnot, but the guys have been spending half their time on the castle. The town is doing fine on it's own with their part. I just want to rest and relax for awhile." she sighed.

"Exactly." Aeris pointed out, "Which is precisely why we hid up here for the time being."

"Well I suggested, and am still standing by a party. Just throwing it out there." Riku said.

Tifa and Aeris laughed at him, "Oh we'd be all up for that, but good luck convincing Cloud and Leon to have fun for a night."

"Why don't you two do the convincing? Besides," he grinned, "We have an excuse."

Sora looked to him dumbfoundedly, "We do?"

"Yup."

"Ummm..."

"It'll be Kairi's birthday."

Sora smacked his forehead. How could he have forgotten? "Oh that's right."

"Really?" Aeris asked, looking to her.

"Umm... yeah, but you guys don't have to-"

"Well we don't even have to convince anyone!" Tifa said excitedly. "Aeris, Yuffie and I are throwing you a party no matter what."

Riku smiled. He knew he'd at least be able to have some fun.

"Sounds awesome." Sora said, "Do you wanna head out to the castle for now though?"

"Sure thing." Riku agreed.

Kairi hestated, she really wanted to stay and catch up with the girls instead.

"The castle is boring." Aeris waved her hand, "Stay here with us, Kairi." she said, noticing her unsureness.

"Kairi if you wanna stay it's no problem." Riku assured her.

"Yeah, we'll just see you at supper." Sora added.

"Really? Thanks guys."

"No problem." Sora smiled at her as they turned to leave.

"I'll-...We'll see you in a bit." Riku said before heading down the stairs.


Riku stared in awe as they headed to the castle. The whole area beyond the town was almost completely fixed. No rubble or boulders or scrap metal anywhere. It was a peaceful and long walk though. There were no heartless anymore so it was actually somewhat boring.

"You have to take this long walk everytime you come up here?" Riku asked with a chuckle, shoving his hands in his pocket.

"Well I usually take one of Scrooge's skateboards, but I figured you wouldn't want to."

"Well you thought right."

Sora smiled, "I thought so. So... what's new with you Riku?"

Riku looked up, trying to think of something to say, but the guilt from earlier had found its way back into his thoughts.

"Nothing much I suppose. Just hanging out like usual."

"I've been bummed without you guys here."

"... Same."

"I'm glad you decided to come."

Riku kicked a small rock out in front of him, "Come on now, why wouldn't we have come?"

Sora shrugged, "I dunno, maybe you were having fun."

He thought back to last night and smirked, "Well, I suppose it had potential to turn fun. But, for the most part it was just like it used to be. I do enjoy the island. It was good to be home for a while. It wasn't all of us home though, so it wasn't the same."

His statement cause Sora to beam with happiness. "Thanks Riku."


Well, the castle had been much less boring than the girls made it out to be. Sora and Riku had helped Leon and Cloud explore some of the hidden passage ways that they had yet to enter. Sora even needed to use his keyblade once to open a door. They ended up finding some results on the testing that Ansem hadn't known about.

Currently they were all sitting in the living room enjoying supper. There wasn't enough room for even half of them at the kitchen table. Cloud, Tifa and Aeris were on one of the couches, Cid had claimed the chair. On the other two couches sat Yuffie and Leon, and Kairi, who was situated in between Sora and Riku.

When Kairi finished, she stood up and brought her plate into the kitchen and placed it in the sink. When she returned, she sat back down on the couch considerably closer to Riku. Enough for him to notice. Sora kept his hungry eyes on his plate and paid no attention to it.

She did however receive quite the stare from Cloud, of all people, when Riku placed a hand on her knee casually in order to hoist himself up off the couch to return his plate.

Kairi quickly averted her gaze. She had never been one to have an actual conversation with Cloud. He was too intimidating. From what she gathered, he only spoke when needed, kept to himself, focused on what needed to be done and just looked really hot. Not the kind of person she could confidently walk up to and start chatting away with.

When Riku returned, Kairi looked back and watched Cloud shift his gaze elsewhere before Tifa spoke up.

"It's Kairi's birthday next week." she said casually.

"Yeah," Aeris added in, "So we're gonna have a little birthday party for her."

Cloud and Leon both looked unfazed while Cid continued to focus on his food.

"It'll be a little boring with just us girls, so you guys should come... If you want."

"Sure." Leon spoke up when Yuffie nudged him, "I'll stay in for a day."

"Yeah, why not?" Cloud shrugged.

Aeris gave Kairi a small wink and she smiled back at her. She had to remember to personally thank them later. After the party date for tomorrow night was settled, everyone went back to their eating and personal conversations.

Sora leaned over and glanced in Kairi's
direction, "Kairi what do you want for your birthday?"

She shook her head, "That's okay, Sora, I don't need you to get me anything."

"Come on, it's your birthday. I want to." he complained.

"Yeah Kairi, let us spoil you for one day. I'm sure you won't mind." Riku smuggly added in.

"Kairi, I've made so much money from the Colessium Tournaments I don't even know what to do with it. I'll buy you whatever you want." Sora offered with a laugh.

"Well Sora, if you buy me whatever I want, what will there be left for Riku to give me?" she asked with a hint, locking her eyes with his.

He understood. To whether she was just playing around with him or not was the real question. "I'm sure I could give something to you that you would thoroughly enjoy. I'll give you whatever you ask for."

Sora raised a confused eyebrow at his friend who broke his eye contact with Kairi long enough to notice that Sora was staring at him a little oddly.

Kairi noticed this and cleared her throat before trying to relax back into the couch.

"Well," Riku said, breaking the silence, "I think I'm gonna have a shower and get ready for bed. I'm kinda tired "

"Okay, Night Riku." Kairi said as he got up off the couch.

"...Night." Sora added in.

"Night guys."

"That was a little strange." Sora mumbled to Kairi.

She decided playing stupid for now was a good thing to do. She shrugged, "What was?"

Well if she didn't notice anything, maybe he was just imagining things, right? "Oh," Sora leaned back into the couch, "Nothing... I'm actually getting tired too. I think I'll go to bed too."

"Well, then I might as well too, right?" Kairi agreed, flashing him a small smile. "I know how lazy you get without sleep anyways. Let's go."

The two stood up and wished everyone goodnight before having a race up the stairs. Kairi pushed Sora playfully into the banister. He lost.

"Not fair!" he called up the steps.

Kairi poked her tongue out at him from the railing on the second floor and took off into her room.

Sora wasted no time in picking himself up and bounding up the rest of the stairs, following closely behind her as she slid into her room and locked the door.

Sora was about the bang on it and tell her to let him in but he had a better idea. He opened up the door to his own room and slowly and quietly headed to the door that linked their tooms together. He pressed his ear against it before turning the knob slowly. When Sora heard the door click open he grinned. She must have forgotten to lock it.

He barged into the room, catching Kairi by surprise and tackled her at the waist, throwing her down to the bed.

"Ha! Victorious!" He boasted.

Kairi let out a small but awkward laugh, "Yeah... um..."

"What? Did I hurt you?"

She shifted uncomfortably, "No, but, um... You're kind of on top of me."

Sora looked down and blushed before pulling himself off of her. "Oh, heh, sorry. Didn't realize." He half lied. He had noticed their position, and the fact of the matter was that he liked Kairi. He wanted her to know that... If she didn't already. She had reacted quite negatively to his playful actions, even if they were just friendly ones. Strange.

"Well," she said, rubbing one of her arms, "I think I'm gonna head to bed now."

Sora nodded and gave her a small wave before he headed out of the room.

Once he had shut the door, Kairi collapsed on her bed and sighed heavily. This was going to be harder than she thought. Poor Sora. She didn't want to hurt him. They were best friends.

A few moments later she summoned the strength to lift herself up off the cozy bed and searched around in her bag for some pajamas. After changing into them, Kairi headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She could still hear everyone else chatting downstairs, but Riku and Sora's rooms remained silent save for the sound of running water. She walked over to her and Sora's door and gave it a knock before cautiously opening it.

He looked up at her from his bed. He wasn't sleeping and the lamp was still on.

"Hey Kairi." he greeted.

"Just came in to say goodnight again. This time I'm really going to sleep now."

He laughed, "Alright, see you in the morning."

"Night."

After she closed the door, Sora heard her footsteps making their way over to Riku's door and he heard her knock. A second later the door opened and their muffled voices could be heard. Not that he cared. He didn't need to listen to what they were talking about. But he couldn't help but notice how long they actually talked for.

When Kairi walked into Riku's room, he was just coming out of the bathroom. Clad in only a towel, he tossed his dirty clothes on a nearby chair.

"What was that all about?" he said with a laugh.

"What was what?"

"Before I got in the shower I heard you and Sora head into your room."

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Oh, we were having a race and he threw me on the bed, and decided to land on top of me." she informed him, moving to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Ah yes, I heard that." Riku said with amusement, grabbing a plain muscle shirt and throwing it over his head. "Although you should be a bit more quiet." he warned.

Kairi narrowed her eyes, and grumbled inwardly when she noticed he'd covered up. "What do you mean?"

"When you went into his room to say goodnight. I stopped the shower and I could hear." he finished, grabbing some baggy pajama pants and sliding them on before removing his towel.

"So what? I'm allowed to say goodnight ot him Riku."

At her comment, Riku laughed out loud and ruffled her hair. "I didn't mean that. I meant if you're gonna talk about him, do it quietly so he can't hear you from his room."

"... Oh." She blushed. "Sorry."

"That's alright." he said, sitting down beside her and pulling her on his lap. "It just means we'll have to be quiet." he whispered into her ear.

Her head reflexively moved into his touch, "And what do you mean by that?"

"Mmm, nothing referring to tonight." she felt him kiss his way down her neck before resting his chin on her shoulder, "Because I wasn't lying. I am tired."

Kairi grumbled. "Guess I can't stay in here either huh?"

"Definately maybe another time."

"Alright, then I'm heading to bed." she said, dipping her head down to kiss him.

"Night."

"Night."

Kairi hopped off his lap and left into her own bedroom. Part of her really never wanted to have to tell Sora anything, but she didn't want to commit to sneaking around and keeping secrets from her best friend. And she definately didn't want to stop seeing Riku.

This was going to be a long summer.


Wow, once again - sooooo sorry for not updating in so long but I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway even if it wasn't too excting.