A/N: YAY for a new chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 16: Feelings

Kairi sighed as she trudged off to school with her buddies. There had just been so much excitement last night, and it passed so quickly. No wonder this was Selphie's favorite concert of the year; it was the most amazing, magical, and well thought out, although it was almost the same every time- at least it surprised a few people every year.

She wanted to remember that feeling that she felt onstage- no nervousness, completely relaxed, and she could just let the music fly from her cello. There was no word that could explain it, not one that she could come up with at the moment.

"Hey, Kairi?" It was unnaturally quiet today, almost as if Yuffie and Selphie had gotten into another argument, which was usually the case. Apparently, though, that wasn't the case, because they were walking next to each other as usual. Finally, Selphie had chosen to break the silence.

"Yeah?" Kairi's mind was still in a different world, until she heard Selphie's giggle. The girl must have been nervous to ask whatever she was going to, because her giggle had the little hiccup in it.

"When," she giggled, "are you going to tell Sora how you feel?" Her giggling stopped.

As immaturely as Selphie had stated her question, Kairi felt that she had really meant waht she said; not just some question as a joke. "Selphie, I really don't know. I don't even know if my feelings are real anymore... everytime I think about how awful he was to me, I can't look at him without thinking that it just might be a ploy."

Selphie nodded. "I guess I understand..." She couldn't think of anything else to say- she usually wasn't the comforting person when people got upset. "I mean, the only person that I can remember feeling anything for is Tidus..."

Kairi giggled. "Oh, I remember that one guy that you liked in first grade..."

Selphie took this chance to giggle also. "I didn't like him! He was the one who was obsessed with me!"

Kairi smiled. Typical Selphie... always denying the truth. But it was the past; something that no one can change.

They had reached school by then, although Yuffie and Namine had been walking much faster than the other two, and were screaming for them to walk faster. It was much, much colder today than it had been before, and a fresh layer of snow was in the school's courtyard. Although Kairi would have normally been attempting to run along Yuffie and pathetically failing, today, she was just too beat from the concert, too wrapped up in her emotions.

"Come on, let's go into the music building, so we can all at least get some sort of warmth." Yuffie led them up to the building, and even held the door open for her friends.

They didn't go inside the orchestra room because they knew that Namine would not be allowed in there. It was the way that it had always been- non orchestra members weren't to enter the orchestra room, and non band members weren't allowed to enter the band room- although according to Namine, Miss Gainsborough was much more leinent on the rule.

Kairi sat down against the wall, and Selphie did so accross the hall from her. The older students would probably be looking at them like they were crazy, but it would be okay. People always gave Selphie weird looks anyway.

Yuffie wiped her finger accross the floor. After one swipe, she looked at it, and made a face. "Eww... this is gross... why are we sitting on it?" She showed the immense amount of dust on her finger to her friends.

"Well, I'm lazy. And I don't feel like getting up anyway." Kairi whined.

"Oh, come on, Kairi... let's at least find a semi-clean place to sit... not on the dirty and disgusting tile." Yuffie pulled her friend up.

"Yuffie, the whole music building is tiled floor." Selphie stated.

Yuffie sighed. "Then let's go in the orchestra room and beg Mr. Leonhart to let Namine in there." Her hand was on the knob of the door.

Suddenly, a slew of juniors or seniors with band instruments entered the hallway. They were obviously part of the Symphony orchestra, or else they wouldn't dare enter- unless they were the type who wanted to feel Mr. Leonhart's wrath. They shrugged Yuffie aside, and entered themselves.

All Namine, Kairi, and Selphie could do was stare with their eyebrows raised. Their eyes grew wide as they watched Yuffie, with her hands on her hips, glaring holes into the brass section. She was screaming at the door, "I'll beat you down next year! I SWEAR I will... the unlucky one of you that gets to sit next to me will be completely BEATEN DOWN!" She vented at the door, and then mummbled, "Unless you're seniors... and unless I'm first chair..."

"Yuffie, calm down, all they did was go in..." Selphie put her hand on her taller friend's shoulder.

"And they shoved me aside!" She looked like her face was going to explode.

"And we will go in now." Kairi opened the door, and held it as Selphie halfway pushed Yuffie in, and Namine followed. Apparently, Mr. Leonhart wasn't here today- the first day he'd been absent all year. Selphie thought of that as a little odd, being gone for the first day after the Christmas concert, so she walked over to his office. Inside, Miss Heartilly was looking at the papers at the desk. She saw Selphie through the window and smiled.

"Hey, you guys, it's Miss Heartilly!" Selphie turned to tell everyone else in the room.

"Everyone else" meant the Symphony brass section, Sora and Riku, and her friends. Everyone stopped doing whatever else they were doing and turned to peek through the window.

"Oh my god, it's Miss Heartilly!" One of the brass players opened the door and walked right in her office, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. He seemed to be down on one knee, holding out something to her. It was almost like he was proposing to her. Miss Heartilly shook her head softly, and gave him a loose hug.

Everyone else, including the other brass players, were gawking through the window. No one said a word, and no instrument played a sound. It was like the room was on mute. It was only when the guy came out crying that the mute came off. All of his friends came over and hugged him, although when Selphie questioned them they insisted that it was a "manly hug."

It turned out that he hadn't proposed to her; he was just admitting his undying love for her, the one that he had contained inside him since the seventh grade, when he first saw her in the hall.

He let it all out, right in the orchestra room, in front of his friends, and six freshmen strangers that he didn't know. His friends were all trying to confort him, but all the rest of them could do was gawk. When one of his friends realized that they were staring, he came over, and said, "Did you not realize that he had his heart broken right there?" When no one moved, he continued, "Well, he did. Good luck figuring out your own love life if you can't even realize someone else's heart is broken." He walked away, and insisted that he and his friends leave the room.

Selphie's expression changed as she bounced around the room. "What a sensitive guy... so much more so than Tidus!"

Kairi had been thinking, in her own little world, almost the whole time. She wasn't a bit fazed by the outburst, but she was now afraid. She didn't want to confess to Sora anymore... what if he rejected her the way Miss Heartilly did? Not that Miss Heartilly was cruel about it- but it was still heartbreaking for the guy, all the same.

She didn't want a broken heart quite yet. So maybe she could put off the confession.

-

"Kairi..." Selphie tauntingly spoke as she looked at her.

"What, Selphie?" Kairi gave her a Look from while chewing her sandwich.

"Why don't you talk to Sora during fifth hour today?"

"Why do I need to?"

Namine and Yuffie looked up. This seemed like an interesting conversation, although they missed the more important part from the morning.

"Because he's-" Yuffie covered Selphie's mouth, then lightly kicked her shin.

"It's nothing, Kairi. We just thinking that you should tell him how you feel before..." she gulped, not knowing what to say.

Thankfully for her, Namine thought of a way to continue the onesided convesation. "Because we think the sooner you tell him, the better."

Kairi huffed. What was with this? "Look, you guys, I really don't think that the, um, feeling is strong enough for me to tell him. Besides, was I the only one who realized how the guy felt when Miss Heartilly rejected him today?"

"Kairi, Sora is so TOTALLY not going to reject you. I'm sure he likes you back." Yuffie grinned. Selphie, still muted by Yuffie's hand, nodded quickly.

Kairi was about to say that she personally thought that Selphie was thinking that way because she wanted them to get together, but she decided not to. Besides, she liked the idea of Sora liking her back... even though it would be just a high school romance, and nothing more.

From that thought, she had made herself a little bit upset about it just being a "high school romance," since she had slightly envisioned being with him forever... along with Oathkeeper, of course, but... she told herself to stop. To stop obsessing about Sora... to stop thinking that far. After all, she still had to get past the first hurdle- to see if the feelings were even mutual.

Selphie, no longer muted, was pulling on her arm now. Why was she so demanding about these things? Kairi soon found herself dragged off to the orchestra room, and soon plopped in front of Sora. She felt like she was being questioned at some psychiatric ward, with Selphie and Yuffie as the guards and Sora as the questioner.

"Hey, Kairi... what are you doing here?" Sora sounded very casual. "You haven't really been coming here since I've gotten you Oathkeeper." Yes, she had made it known to him that she, too, had a name for her instrument.

"Well, I didn't exactly come here out of my own free will." She looked at Selphie and Yuffie, who were attempting to glare down at her with firm faces. She could tell that they were both trying to hold back giggles.

"Ahem?" Selphie looked at her, as if she was to say something. Kairi shurgged her shoulders, as if she didn't know what.

Kairi really didn't expect her confession to work out this way, so she gave her friends a plead, and mouthed, "I will." They obviously got the picture, so they left a nervous Kairi and a VERY confused Sora in the room.

How was she going to say it? She hadn't planned it at all; but then, were confesssions supposed to be planned? "Um..." was all that came out of her mouth.

"Yeah, Kairi?" Sora looked at her with soft eyes. She wanted to break away from his gaze, but there wasn't any hope of doing that, now that she had felt the feeling again... the same feeling she felt when she was playing her cello.

Now, she knew, would be the right time to say it. "I like you a lot, Sora..." She mummbled, not sure if it was the right thing to say, and almost intimidated by the way his gaze made her feel.

As she saw the expression his face start to change, she was scared. Was he going to break her heart the way Miss Heartilly did to the other guy? She didn't want that to happen; she was almost begging God to turn back time so she wouldn't have said what she did.

She felt slight relief when she saw his mouth curve upward into a grin. She tried to continue smiling, but it was hard when she was so nervous inside.

"You know something, Kairi?" He seemed to be smiling wider, and he now took her hand in his.

"Wh-what?" She was stuttering from her nervousness.

"I like you a lot, too."

She could feel her heart burst from excitement. He liked her back, and then they could have a happy ending together... along with their cellos and the music that had rested in their hearts. She was so excited that she stood up, and squeezed him in a tight hug. Her tight smile had now become a huge grin, and she let out a giggle.

"Hey, Kairi... I've gotta ask you something."

"What?" She was a little surprised- wait, MORE than a little surprised.

"Do you want to come with me somewhere next Friday?"

She didn't even take the time to think about her work schedule then, she was so happy. "I'd love to!"

And there it was- the feeling so sheer blistfulness; one that most people only feel a few times in a lifetime. There would be nothing to worry about; only them and the music. Together.

-

I'm sorry if this chapter was shorter than the others. ;;

But you can still review & make me happy, right?

(Because I really want to hit 100)

-makes her best pleading face-