C09

LOCATION: Meeting room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Tuesday, November 27th 2X60
TIME: 0901 hours

"...what?"

For once, he and Naminé are on the same page. Cause who—what—where—when—why—how did any of this happen? Sora's brain swells with the influx of information, which just means no one has answered his question and he still has no idea what's going on.

"...you guys remember my research, right?" Hiro raises a brow. "I presented like yesterday."

"That's not—what do you mean we," Sora points between him and Naminé, "can use Synergy?"

"Remember when we were headed towards the elevator and those Heartless ambushed us?" Hiro reminds them. "There was a white light during the fight—it looked like the glow I've seen when Keyblade wielders demonstrate Synergy. Our theory is that Synergy strengthens Keyblades. Therefore I think Synergy made your Keyblades stronger, which helped both of you take down the Heartless."

"Because this happened yesterday, we made a last-minute decision to join Hiro's project," Tifa explains. Sora stares at the dark-haired captain, whose expression has a tint of sympathy for his situation. "I know you were looking forward to going home, but this could be a game-changer in how we fight Heartless."

Going home—right, he's supposed to be home by the end of the day. And though he won't admit it aloud, Sora misses home. He misses the familiar halls of HBRC, misses deciding between the same three go-to restaurants for takeout, misses hanging out with Riku and Kairi. Thinking about them makes him realize he's been a bad friend and hasn't talked to either of them since embarking on this mission. Is Riku still awkwardly avoiding the new recruit who obviously has a crush on him? Has Kairi been discharged from the hospital?

"I...I have to go back," Sora insists pleadingly, looking at Tifa. "I need to. My team, I have to talk to them and check in with everyone. Kairi—one of my teammates, she was in the hospital before I left, and I have to be there for her."

"Kairi's fine, if that's what you're worried about," Tifa says. "I took the liberty of checking in with your team when deciding whether to assign you to this mission solo. Kairi has physical rehab so she's on medical leave till the end of the year, which means your team's also on hiatus. Both of your teammates are aware of the details of this mission, and they said they support whatever you decide."

Sora gulps. He's glad that Kairi seems to be recovering. Well, it sounds like there isn't much for him to do if he goes back home. He'll just be bored out of his mind waiting for Kairi to get better. Worst case scenario, she might even feel like her injury is holding the team back. And that sounds like another fight waiting to happen.

"How long will it be?" Sora asks.

"For now we're gonna have you stay for a month. Then we'll reevaluate and decide if we want to continue the project. Don't worry, we'll definitely get you back to Hollow Bastion for time off over New Year."

A month. That's longer than he'd anticipated...but doable. Plus, it'll be the holidays when he goes back and everyone's bound to be in a good mood then. It'll be all celebrations and festivities when he returns to Hollow Bastion.

Plus, greater good and all.

"Okay," he mumbles. "I'll stay.

"Great." Tifa grins. "I think this'll be worth it. When you come back, you can teach all of us how to fight Heartless more effectively."

"I'll get to teach Captain Leonhart?" Sora grins at the thought.

Tifa shrugs. "Squall's always been fair. If there's someone better than him at something, he'll concede."

Him teaching his captain how to fight with the Keyblade? Sora wants to burst out laughing. Focusing on the prospective takeaways of this mission, he slowly grows more excited to learn about using Synergy and how to fight Heartless more effectively.

Which means he'll have to work with Naminé, a fact his mind has conveniently overlooked till now.

He glances over at the other end of the table. Assuming Naminé's situation is similar to his, in that up till a few minutes ago he thought he'd be going home in a few hours, Sora can sympathize. He can hear the blonde LODer having a serious discussion with her instructors.

"We have another team of students staying behind along with an instructor, so you won't be alone. If you have any safety concerns, you can trust Terra." The guy in charge—Zack, if Sora remembers—explains. "Do you have any other questions?"

"I really don't see what I'll get out of this," Naminé insists. "I'm just an operator, and I have no background in using Keyblades. I think I'll be more helpful back at DiZA."

"That's the point," Zack says. "You're already a good operator, so you more or less aren't growing from that anymore. Here, you'll learn something completely new that can help even more people than the teams you'd supervise back at DiZA. Also, I understand you're on probation for another week so there isn't much for you to do at DiZA anyways."

Naminé freezes in her seat. Sora marvels at how hard Zack is pushing for her to stay. Knowing LODers—specifically Naminé—it's only a matter of time before she yields to her superior. In fact, Sora's impressed by how much of a fight she's putting up. She must really wanna go home.

"I really wasn't expecting to be away from home for long," Naminé mumbles.

Zack finally softens a little. "We've also talked to your father, if that's what you're worried about. If you'd like, we can try to arrange a video call with him before we leave—"

"No!" Naminé exclaims. "That's not what—it's fine, that's not necessary."

Oh, that's right. He keeps forgetting that with LOD's crazy mandatory drafting policy, Naminé's still a teenager. She said she's in her last year of school, which makes her, what, 18? That's basically a kid!

You're only three years older, and you act like a kid, Conscience-Kairi points out.

Well, yeah, but thinking back to when he was 18, what was he doing? Slacking off in school, chilling by the beach everyday with Riku and Kairi, and staying up all night playing video games. He'd joined HBRC straight out of school, and that was definitely a challenge both physically and mentally, but he always had his best friends by his side. Plus, first year was all about improving yourself and learning to work with teams, so the stakes were incredibly low. All in all, life was pretty good.

Unlike Naminé, currently stranded thousands of miles away from home by orders of her authoritarian government. Despite her capabilities as an operator and fighting Heartless, she really shouldn't have to be here.

"...I'll do my best," Naminé finally acquiesces in a profoundly sad, helpless moment.

The higher ups go over some of the logistics, which Sora tunes in and out of, assuming someone will let him know what applies to him. Finally, he senses that they're wrapping things up, which thank goodness because long meetings have never been his forte, especially impromptu ones.

On his way out of the room, he bumps into Naminé and the other LODers who are apparently staying in this world as well. It seems like LOD is a lot more interested in Organization XIII's work than Hollow Bastion is. Or maybe they have people to spare, cause Sora assumes they're students as well. Since they're all guests on The World That Never Was, he figures it'll be helpful to at least have a working relationship with them.

He sticks out a hand to the tall guy. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sora. Guess we'll be seeing each other around, huh?"

Sora can't tell if the tall redhead is only literally or also metaphorically looking down on him. His face is unreadable, though there is a glint in his bright green eyes. After a stretch of silence, he finally acknowledges Sora's greeting and shakes his hand.

"I'm Axel. We've heard about you, it's nice to finally meet."

Sora pauses, raising a brow. "About me? From who?"

Axel gives a nonresponse while Sora's eyes drift past the other LODers, settling on Naminé who is stubbornly avoiding eye contact. Of course she'd get all her friends on her side, probably telling a very biased account of events. Hopefully he'll get the chance to share the whole story sometime.

"Anyways, this is Xion and Roxas. We're part of a field team, WINNER," Axel explains, gesturing at the short-haired girl and scowling boy by his side. Both of them look equally unimpressed with Sora, which he attributes to any gossip Naminé has fed them.

"That's cool, I'm an agent as well, though my teammates are back home. So you guys are all students like Naminé?" Sora asks in an attempt to be cordial and get to know them a little better. Being surrounded by people who all somewhat dislike you isn't a pleasant feeling.

"Yeah, but we're done with mandatory education," Xion says. "We're just wrapping up the practical curriculum on fighting Heartless. I know this guy's been ready to graduate for years." She knocks Axel on the side of his head, which is a little impressive cause he's quite a bit taller than her.

"Wait, you mean you were held behind?" Sora asks.

Rethinking his word choice, he realizes that probably came out a little derogatory. Thankfully, besides a raised brow, Axel seems to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Technically you could say that. I finished my mandatory education a few years ago, but because Xion, Roxas, and I are a team, I had to stay behind to finish the fieldwork curriculum with them."

"Which means this guy's ancient!" Xion cackles. "He hangs out with us to feel young."

Sora swears he sees a grimace behind Axel's smile. "I'm not that old."

"Says the 23-year-old."

"Ancient," Roxas chimes in.

"Well then respect your elders, you brats!" Axel complains.

Sora blinks, looking at Axel a little differently. "You're older than me?"

Axel glances at him, and this time he might also be metaphorically looking down on Sora. "How old are you?"

"21…" Sora mumbles, realizing he's inadvertently making a big deal out of this age difference when it really shouldn't matter. How'd they get to this topic anyways?

"Yeah, Axel's old af, even if he doesn't act like it." Xion shoots Sora a look. "So don't mess with him."

Is that her goal, to intimidate him with seniority? Knowing Axel is older than him does correct his bias that the LODers are a bunch of students.

But besides Axel, the rest of them are still basically kids.

"Anyways, good to meet you, and I guess we'll be seeing each other," Axel says as he and the other LODers walk off.

They're nice and polite but in a distancing fashion—fitting for LODers, he supposes. Nonetheless, watching the trio bicker and tease each other reminds him of his own teammates, and he wonders what Riku and Kairi are doing.

He wants to talk to them. He wants to check in with Kairi after her hospital discharge. He wants to ask Riku to look out for her—and himself, cause that perfectionist will work himself to the grave without someone keeping an eye on him. He wants to see them because he misses them.

According to their schedule Sora just received, he's free for the rest of the day. There must be a computer center somewhere in this building. What's the time difference between here and Hollow Bastion again?

By the time someone has directed him to a computer lab, he has the Hollow Bastion local time calculated. His best guess is Riku's finishing his morning workout and Kairi's asleep. He tentatively sends the former a text to ask if he's free to videochat.

Within 10 minutes, he gets an affirmative response from Riku, and that absolutely makes his day.

He wastes some time browsing the web until Riku is free, and he excitedly logs onto the encrypted videochat program HBRC has them use 'just in case.' The call jingle rings for long enough that Sora's worried Riku's not gonna pick up for whatever reason. Thinking about their last contentious exchange, maybe Riku's still upset.

Maybe this is a bad idea.

When Riku's silhouette pops up on the screen, Sora instantly relaxes.

"Dude. You need a haircut."

Riku rolls his eyes, running a hand through his hair. "Right back at you." His slightly irritated expression softens. "What're you up to?"

"Not much. This mission is pretty boring, it's just been a bunch of meetings one after another. Oh, but I'm staying another month cause they think I might be able to learn something useful."

Riku blinks at the new information. "Oh yeah, Lockhart mentioned they want you to stay. You didn't wanna come back?"

Sora shrugs. "I mean, I heard Kairi's on medical leave so we can't do much till she's better. I might as well try to be useful here."

"Look at you, working hard for once."

"Hey!"

Sora grins. Some things never change, including his friendship with Riku that has endured its fair share of conflicts. Sora's infinitely grateful that the two of them have been close friends for so long. Kairi too, usually—though given the tinge of awkwardness before he left, he's a little worried about seeing her after their last confrontation.

"So, what exactly are you learning over there?" Riku asks.

Sora perks up at the chance to rant to his best friend. He's still frustrated with his 50% understanding and the abrupt nature of this mission. "A new way of fighting Heartless that's supposed to be more effective. The thing is, LOD's here too, and I have to work with this student LODer to learn the new technique. And let's just say we haven't been getting along."

"Sounds rough. Wait, what do you mean student?"

"Cause of LOD's crazy drafting policy, they literally sent high schoolers on this mission."

"Seriously? That's insane. How do you trust a 15-year-old by themselves off on another world?"

"I think that's why they also have an instructor here. But anyways, she's 18, which I guess is technically an adult. But it's crazy! Hell, she's crazy! You know, she decided to mess with me and fed me an Oreo filled with toothpaste!"

"Pfft!" Riku unexpectedly bursts out into laughter. "You actually fell for that?"

"I've never had food betray me like this! Seriously, this is gonna haunt me."

"You're such a moron."

"Hey!"

They chat a little more about Sora's mission, Riku's plans for the upcoming month, and some good old HBRC gossip. It's a slice of home that suddenly has Sora reeling from his decision to stay. He misses home more than he thought.

He sighs. "Now I kinda regret staying longer."

"Yeah, why did you? You avoiding us or something?" Riku asks with a raised brow.

Sora pauses, contemplating his friend's words. There's almost a hint of an honest inquiry behind the joke.

"Nah, I'm just avoiding Kairi," he ends up saying with the same amount of sincerity and sarcasm as Riku. He sighs, figuring they should probably talk about it now that he's brought it up. "I heard she was discharged from the hospital?"

"Yeah, she only had to stay a few days. She's on bedrest at home for a bit, then she's starting physical rehab.

"How's she feeling?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

Sora pauses, unsure how to answer. Though it pains him to admit it, he knows Riku is right.

"Dude. She's gonna kill us when she finds out we're videocalling without her."

Riku raises a brow. "At least you recognize the risk I'm willing to take for this friendship."

"Thanks man."

Riku chuckles and then calms down. "So, are you gonna call her?"

"I guess," he mumbles vaguely, sighing at the thought of the impending conversation. "She definitely hates me now. If she didn't hate me already."

Riku tuts softly under his breath. "C'mon man. It's Kairi. You know she'd never hate you."

"...yeah, I know."

The two boys let the silence rest for a moment, because no one really knows what to say.

"Well, it's like ripping a band-aid," Riku points out. "If it's gonna happen anyways, might as well get it over with."

Sora's about to agree when he looks at Riku's facial expression. "Wait, what do you mean?"

Riku shrugs but also can't hide a widening smirk on his face. "Let's talk again, Sora."

"What?"

Suddenly, a third person joins in just as Riku drops from the call. Sora stares with absolute dread as he reads the name:

Kairi.

What. The. Fucking. Hell.

"RIKUUUUU!"

"My god, I'm wearing earphones, Sora," Kairi complains as her face comes into view on the screen. "Please, think of my eardrums."

"Sorry Kairi," he apologizes easily. He takes a moment to stare at her image. She looks like she just woke up, which time-wise sounds about right. Her hair looks a little shorter than he remembers, but besides that, she looks the same. And as per usual, he lets his thoughts fall out of his mouth.

"You look okay."

Kairi snorts. "Well, that's definitely the best compliment I've received all day. Mostly because the day has just begun."

Sora rolls his eyes. "C'mon, I mean...you look fine. Riku said you're resting at home?"

Kairi huffs. "Yeah, they finally let me leave the hospital only to keep me grounded at home. Seriously, I'm not a kid anymore! I think I can make my own decisions."

"Just listen to the doctors, they're the professionals," Sora reasons. "You have physical rehab coming up?"

Kairi makes a stink face. "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. I guess it'll help me slowly get back into things. It's only been a week and I'm so deconditioned. I don't wanna fall behind."

"You mean fall behind even more?" Sora teases.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night." Kairi grins mischievously. "So, did you hear what the new recruit girl tried to do with Riku?"

Sora cracks a wide smile. "No, Riku did not mention that. This the one who's always staring at him in the cafeteria?"

"Yeah! So I found out she's fresh out of high school, a real bright-eyed young'un…"

Maybe it's the fact that they haven't talked in so long, but Sora simply enjoys Kairi's presence. He isn't super worried about discussing their fight, or why she'd been acting strange before he left. He misses his friend, and he's glad they get to hang out. Things feel normal for once, and he decides to focus on catching up. They can save the charged conversations about arguments and whatnot for a future date.

"Tell me more about your mission," Kairi asks. "I can't believe you're gonna be gone for another month."

Sora snorts. "Tell me about it. They put me on the spot and asked me literally earlier this morning if I wanted to stay. Gave me about a few minutes to make the decision." Sora huffs. "So far this mission's just been listening to a ton of presentations. But they're starting this new project that's looking for a more efficient way to fight Heartless, so fingers crossed I guess."

"It's just you there? Why didn't they ask anyone else to stay?"

"I'm not sure. I guess partially because the evidence is shaky and we don't want to waste resources. This particular project is more promising and they kinda need me, along with this other girl, to work on it together."

"This other girl? I thought you were the only one staying."

"Oh yeah, it's just me from HBRC. Forgot to mention, LOD was also invited to these meetings, so we've been bumping into them all the time this past week. Which has been a pain. Anyways, me and this other LODer supposedly hit it off in terms of compatibility for this project, so we've been asked to stay to specifically develop this new technique." Sora shrugs. "Who knows? The whole thing could be a bust."

"You hit it off with a LODer? What, are you running around flirting with girls on this mission?" Kairi exclaims with a snort as well as a healthy dose of judgment in her voice. "Is that why you asked to stay another month? To spend more time with this girl?"

"What?" Sora squeaks. "No, that's not what I meant! By compatibility I meant—okay, that's not the right word." He mumbles through a few choices from his vocabulary bank but can't find a good descriptor. "It's not that, it's based on this weird thing they're researching—anyways, I swear, it's not that. We don't even get along. She gets on my nerves all the time. She's a LODer, for god's sake."

"...okay, well, I'm not sure what you're trying to say."

Sora huffs, frustrated he can't explain himself properly. "Well, it's definitely not what you said. You seriously think I'm off on another world trying to hit on girls?"

"I don't know! I mean, you said 'hit it off' and 'compatibility'—it's your fault!"

"Glad to know you trust my work ethic."

"You're so annoying," Kairi says, crossing her arms and turning away.

"Are you so bored that you're mocking my nonexistent love life?" Sora smirks. "Why don't you work on your own first?"

Kairi arches a brow. "What do you mean? Are you saying I should date someone?"

"Yeah! You're on a break for a month anyways. YOLO, right? Also, you already know Squall's gonna make us work like hell once we're back at it." Sora grins. "Hey, you should tell Riku as well, now's a chance for him to date. Both of you guys—not together, I mean. Separately, with other people. Otherwise that'd be weird." Sora hastily makes a face. "It's a chance for you guys to expand your horizons!"

Kairi looks like she's hesitating on what she wants to say. Finally, instead of speaking, she lets out a loud laugh. Is dating such a funny idea to her? Well, maybe it's not the first idea he should've pitched as a pastime. It'd probably be a bit weird if he suggested practicing her cooking skills, would it? In hindsight, that'll probably benefit him more.

Eking out a final chuckle, Kairi sighs. "Why're you giving my relationship advice when we're both single?"

"Aww, c'mon! I'm saying this as your best friend. I just want what's best for you!"

Also, having something else to tease Kairi about sounds like fun.

"I can't believe you—never mind. Remember, this was your idea."

"yeah, my amazing idea. Wait a sec, what do you mean? If you find a lame guy, that's cause you have horrible taste. If you start slacking off on missions, that's unprofessional. Don't blame me for anything that goes wrong in your love life! I'm just here for the gossip."

Kairi narrows her eyes at him. "You really are the worst."

"I know. But you love me anyways!"

Kairi sighs. "I guess I can't argue with that."

They talk a little more about their respective schedules for the next month until Kairi announces she has to go. Bidding her goodbye, Sora realizes after the screen has gone dark that he misses her and Riku more than he thought. The thought of a month looming between now and the next time he'll get to see them is a little daunting.

He sends Riku a quick text telling him what he's looking forward to once they reunite.

After I'm back I'm gonna strangle you for ambushing me with Kairi.


A/N: Sora, you dork. It's kinda fun (and challenging) to write a POV that's not Naminé's. I keep wanting to explore some topics more but then realize Sora wouldn't overthink things (though I would). Some things just fly over his head—I guess we'll see what comes back to bite him in the butt.

Again, I would love to hear from readers if you're enjoying the story—it would absolutely make my day if you left a review with your thoughts! And I hope you all stay tuned for the next chapter! More explanations coming up to clarify the confusing jumble I've written, AKA what is this bizarre concept of Synergy, and will Sora and Naminé finally get along?!