It was a beautiful and sunny the next day, perfect for the beach. 'Damnit!' Sora cussed under his breath. 'Why couldn't it be raining?' He trudged down the stairs unhappily. Arriving at the frigde where he usually spent most of his free time, Sora pulled a note out from under a magnet of the RSPCA that had a picture of a cute puppy on it. 'Awww! Wil doggy!' Sora cooed, then turned his attention to the note. 'Sora honey I've gone out to a meeting in Mildura, and I will not be back until tomorrow evening, hope that's ok love mum XOX'. 'Aww man!' Sora groaned. 'Now I have to cook for myself.' Sora wandered over to the microwave where he placed some 2-minute noodles and set the timer. Checking the time on his mobile he realised he had 3 messages and 4 missed calls. They were all from Roxas. 'Oh crap! I'd better get moving! That Briar guy could be doing all sorts of things to Kairi!' He rushed up to his room and 2 seconds later was out the door and jogging down the street. On the way he bumped into someone.
"Roxas! What beach are they at?" Sora asked.
"Christies Beach," Roxas replied sourly. Christies Beach was the beach for couples, and people only went there to do one thing and it sure wasn't swimming.
"Let's go then." Sora and Roxas ran down the road towards the coast.
When they arrived they couldn't see the girls anywhere.
"Argh! Where's he taken them!" Roxas growled, growing more and more stressed about their current predicament.
The two wandered along the beach trying to ignore all the couples making out, and cough doing other things. The day gradually grew hotter, so the boys took off their tops, receiving too many wolf whistles to count, so they put them back on again in a hurry.
"Roxas, what if he does something with them? With Kairi? What if she allows it? Am I fighting a losing battle if she likes him, because he certainly likes her. They should be together if it makes her happy." When he didn't get an answer, Sora looked up to find that Roxas had frozen in his tracks, mouth gaping open. Following his line of sight, Sora found what had caused his friend to act so strangely. Kairi was in a bikini, playing volleyball with Briar, Namine and a couple of other people they didn't know. Sora was practically drooling as he watched Kairi flicking her hair and laughing gaily with the others.
"Hey guys!" Someone was calling to Roxas and Sora. It took them a moment to snap out of their stupor. Sora growled when he saw who was waving them over. He walked over to them, looking Briar up and down suspiciously. Why was he waving them over? And why were there other people on their "date"? Sora was confused, and by the looks of it so was Roxas.
"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" Kairi had just noticed their arrival, and sounded confused, but happy.
"Yeah, why are you two here on Christies Beach, together?" Briar Thorn said, raising an eyebrow. Sora and Roxas both blushed.
"Well, uh…you see…" Roxas stuttered.
"This place has choice waves, duh!" Sora cut off Roxas before he embarrassed himself, and Sora, too much.
"Uhh…There are no waves at Christies Beach…" Briar said, raising his eyebrow even further, if that was possible.
Sora looked out at the sea and sure enough the water was gently lapping the shore, not a wave in sight. He cussed inwardly.
This time it was Roxas' turn to save them. "Yeah, we know, we're headed down to Brighton."
"That's a long way away. And you're walking?" The speaker was Kairi.
Sora and Roxas exchanged glances. "Yeah we wanted to get some exercise."
Briar laughed and said, "You sure need it!" and everyone around them laughed as well. Sora felt his cheeks grow hotter and glared at Briar, who smirked at him. Roxas, however, was simply relieved that the girl's hadn't found out that they followed them there.
"Well, we were just packing up and calling it a day," Briar said. He sure seemed to be the leader of the group. Sora suddenly realised that Kairi and Namine were the only girls there, and the rest of them were boys. There were seven others all up. Sora shuddered as he thought about what could've happened. Seven guys could have easily out muscled Kairi and Namine.
"It's only two o'clock!" Kairi protested.
"Yeah sorry guys I need to finish an assignment for school, I don't want to fail," Briar said, sounding regretful.
"We'd better get going too, if we want to make it to Brighton by sunset," Roxas said. He and Sora waved goodbye to everyone and set off back the way they came.
"Uh guys!" Briar called after them. Sora shuddered. He hated even the sound of that jerk's voice. "Brighton's that way!" The noise of laughter rang in Sora's ears long after they had left the others.
"ARGH! I can't stand him!" Roxas growled once they were out of earshot.
"Yeah I know, did you notice the way he's trying to seem all innocent by saying he's going home to do homework. Sheesh, he must think we're dumb or something," Sora said, while Roxas muttered under his breath, 'Yeah how could anyone think you were dumb…' Unfortunately for him Sora heard this comment and rugby tackled the guy to the ground.
"Hey Sora! Geroff!" Roxas said, however the Sora was much stronger.
Sora jumped off and sprinted up the street. Roxas ran after him, pining to get him back. The chase persisted until they reached Roxas' house.
"Well I better go, bye Sora! Seeya tomorrow. The group is getting together at Bracegirdle's."
"Oh ok, bye!" Sora waved to Roxas and jogged home.
When he arrived home, Sora didn't go inside; instead he sat outside in his tree house. It had the best view of the ocean. As Sora sat there, he looked around, gazing at the walls of his tree house. Of course, it wasn't always his. Riku and Kairi had shared it with him. They had been his best friends since he was five. Everything they went through had been together, and most of it was in this tree house. Or at least, until they were too old to think tree houses were cool. Sora resented growing up. He missed the days where the three could be innocent and imaginative, without the boundaries and limitations that being in Year Ten sets. Sora sighed. He couldn't really complain, there had been worse times. Like in year three when guys couldn't talk to girls (and vice versa) because they had cooties. Not being able to talk to Kairi had been the worse emotional pain that Sora had ever experienced. After year three, however, their friendship picked up again, right where they left off, like nothing had ever happened. Darkness crept across the sky, making it hard for Sora to see, so he descended down the ladder to the tree house and went to bed.
That night he dreamt that darkness was swallowing Kairi, blocking out her being, and the darkness had the voice of Briar Thorn. Sora woke up in a sweat. 'I'm just being stupid, he can't be evil or anything,' Sora reassured himself. But he still felt as though some force was taking Kairi away from him.
Sora got up out of bed and had a shower to clear his head. By the time he got out of it he was whistling happily, almost forgetting his problems, almost… Sora jogged down to Bracegirdle, a favourite place of their groups. It does the best hot chocolates in all of Destiny Islands.
"Hey everyone!" Sora called out to them as he approached the table. Yuna, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Aerith, Riku, Namine, Cloud, Roxas and Kairi were all seated there. Next to Kairi and Namine was the back of someone's head that Sora didn't recognise, but he had a pretty good clue judging by the sour look on Roxas' face. The head turned around, only to reveal Briar Thorn's face, and an ugly smirk that was placed there.
"Hey there, Sora!" Briar said falsely cheery. Sora sighed and sat down next to Roxas, feeling that he was fighting a losing battle…
Author's Note: Sorry to all the Americans reading my fan fiction, a lot of the places I talk about are in Australia. So Mildura, Christie's Beach, Brighton are all in Aust, more precisely SA (South Aust), but I'm not sure about Mildura lol, shows how good I am at Geography. Bracegirdle's is a fabulous chocolate place in Adelaide, in SA and it really does do the best hot chocolates ever. Anyway hope you enjoyed it! Please R&R, especially if you don't like my fan fiction because I would really appreciate some constructive criticism, but I do appreciate complimenting reviews, it feeds my ego lol thanks everyone!