Hello, and welcome to Part 3 of my Venkai Endgame series! A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one (I hope)!

Spoilers for Melody of Memory!

I had written in the description of this series on Archive of Our Own that I only had two parts planned, but that I might add to it. Well, I thought of a new story to add to it, and it took a while to get done, even before Melody of Memory was released! I had started writing it a couple months ago for fun, 'cause I liked the idea of imagining how Kairi and Ven could have indirectly interacted while Ven's heart was with Sora, especially since it was confirmed that Ven was aware of some of the stuff that happened to Sora (and that he sometimes acted through Sora, especially during KHIII). I did include familiar scenes from the games, so this can be considered canon compliant. Just more of those hidden/additional scenes. I highly recommend reading the first two parts before this, just so things can make sense.

Going back to Melody of Memory... Wow, the ending unloaded so much. I think it goes without saying that we're all happy that Kairi chose to train under Aqua. This should mean that Kairi will be staying in the Land of Departure for the time being, right? Or at least visiting frequently? So of course, being the Venkai piece of trash that I am, I immediately thought, "Ven and Kairi will definitely canonically interact now! I must write something about it!" I see a lot of people gushing about the possibility of them becoming really good friends due to having so much in common, but I'm here to further present the possibility of them becoming a couple!

Also, you'll notice that I support green-eyed Ven. Green-eyed Ven and brown-eyed Terra should be canon, because too many people have blue eyes! Plus, I myself have green eyes, and I've always loved fictional characters who also have green eyes. Yeah, I'm a weirdo.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Enjoy!

The only thing Kairi knew was going on was that she was wet and cold. The ground she was laying on was soft, but unfamiliar. Her eyes were tightly shut and she was coughing up salty water. She started to hear voices. They sounded like boys her age.

"Did she fall from the sky, Riku?"

"Maybe she's from another world!"

"We have to help her!"

Then she felt hands touching her.

"Hey, can you hear me?" It was the first boy.

She slowly opened her eyes. Once they focused, she saw the two boys. One had white hair like clouds and bright green eyes that reminded her of trees. The other had spiky brown hair and blue eyes like the sky. She couldn't explain it, but he felt...familiar to her...

"Ven?" she asked weakly.

The boy tilted his head just as the world went black again.

"What's that you're making, Kairi?" Sora asked, pointing to the object in her hands.

"This? I'm making a necklace out of thalassa shells. In the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage. See this?"

She showed him her work. She had pieced together four shells, one of which had a little face drawn on. One more shell, and it would look like a star.

"It's a charm to help us find each other if we ever get separated. The three of us will always be together."

All of a sudden, Sora's heart felt heavy. Somehow, the idea of the charm and the promise of always being together was familiar to him. But he knew for a fact that Kairi had never made something like this before.

He looked down and heard two voices in his head, one unfamiliar and another...

"Together...always."

"The three of us can never be torn apart, all right? I'll always find a way."

"Sora, are you okay?"

He snapped his head back up. Kairi was watching him carefully, looking a bit worried. He felt something warm and wet slide down his face, and her eyes widened.

"Sora, you're crying! What's the matter?"

And then, as if his arms were acting of their own accord, Sora pulled her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, Kairi," he whispered. Where was this coming from?

"What for? You didn't do anything wrong, I promise!"

He finally pulled back. He was very confused now.

"Heh, I don't know what came over me," he said, rubbing the back of his head. He seemed to have calmed down. "Sorry about that."

Kairi shook her head. "It's okay. I hope the charm doesn't make you burst into tears every time you see it," she added with a giggle.

Sora laughed with her. "I promise I won't."

He didn't keep that promise.

"Naminé?"

Kairi's head hurt all of a sudden. Ignoring Selphie's gasp, she collapsed onto the ground. The world went black, but she heard the boy's voice in her head.

"Naminé...? What's happening to me?"

This boy sounded so familiar...but she couldn't place his name. Was it the same boy she was missing? The one she just told Selphie about?

"Who are you? And that's not my name. I'm Kairi."

"Kairi... I know you. You're that girl he likes."

This wasn't him? She could've sworn she recognized his voice...

"Who? Please, a name!"

"I'm Roxas."

Well, his name was completely unfamiliar, so maybe she was mistaken. But the other boy he mentioned...

"Okay, Roxas, but can you tell me HIS name?"

And then a new voice spoke.

"You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi!" When she gasped, he went on, "Okay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an 'S'!"

Kairi and Sora approached the girl in white.

"Thank you, Naminé," said Kairi.

"Sure," Naminé smiled. Then she turned to Sora. "See? We meet again, like we promised."

"Huh?"

Kairi almost giggled, but then there was that voice again...

"You said we'd meet again, but when we did, we might not recognize each other."

And a blond boy – Roxas – emerged from Sora as he addressed Naminé. Sora was naturally confused, but Kairi stared as the two Nobodies conversed. That spiky blond hair was so familiar to her, yet she could have sworn this was the first time she saw him. And his voice...she couldn't explain it, but his voice made her feel very happy.

"So, we can be together again!" Naminé's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Right. Anytime Sora and Kairi are together."

Roxas moved to stand next to her, smiling at their Somebodies. Kairi saw that his eyes were blue, very much like Sora's. That was to be expected, but for some reason she was expecting them to be green...

"We'll be together every day. Right, Sora?"

Sora snapped out of his stupor and nodded at her. "Uh...yeah!"

And when they merged with their Others, Kairi couldn't help feeling a bit sad to see Roxas go. She wanted to know why he looked so familiar to her.

"I can help you figure it out, if you want," she heard Naminé's voice say to her as she approached the Dark Corridor.

Can you? That'd be great! she thought eagerly.

But then she was separated from Sora and Riku once again, so that would have to be put on hold. Helping her friends was more important.

Ven was amazed by the Gummi ship. Sure, he'd caught a few hazy glimpses of Sora driving it, but it was very different now that he was wide awake. He almost wanted to drive it, but Donald was very adamant that Sora drive.

Huh, so they do know that he's capable of something, he'd thought dryly. He didn't like that others sometimes talked down to Sora about his abilities. Because of that, the boy tended to keep his negative emotions bottled up. And since Ven was in his heart, unfortunately that meant he basically swam in his repressed negativity (though wasn't he supposed to have been asleep? ...Even he was confused about how this "being in someone else's heart" thing worked).

Once Sora began driving to Yen Sid's tower, Ven sat back and relaxed next to Aqua. He put his hands in his pockets and froze when he felt something in one of them. He slowly pulled out whatever it was.

It was a flower. A dead flower.

"What is that, Ven?" Aqua asked softly.

Ven didn't answer at first. He just stared at the flower, feeling sad.

"It's a flower," he said finally. "Kairi gave it to me in Radiant Garden."

"You met her in Radiant Garden, too?" she asked in mild surprise. "And she gave you a flower? That's so sweet."

"Yeah, she is," Ven said without thinking, his cheeks warming.

Aqua didn't miss it. She smiled.

"When we get back, I can help you heal that flower," she offered.

Like flipping a switch, Ven immediately brightened. "You can do that?"

"Well, there must be magic that can heal flowers, or something of the sort," she explained. "I'm sure that we can find something in our library."

Ven was in much happier spirits by the time they reached Yen Sid's tower. But he nearly froze again when they met up with everyone in the Master's office and saw Kairi. It was like everyone else had disappeared, except her.

When he first traveled the worlds, he'd met a lot of people. Many of them were rather attractive, especially Princess Aurora. Even Zack was kinda cute.

But Kairi...she was beautiful.

While in Sora's heart, he'd seen images of his life as he grew up, almost like dreams. He got to witness times when he played with Riku and Kairi, and he couldn't help feeling sad whenever he hung out with Kairi. He didn't know what she was doing so far away from her home world, and his heart nearly broke (again) when he felt her heart join his inside Sora's. She didn't deserve that horror; it was bad enough that he had to go through it for twelve years.

But he knew her heart was strong. Her heart was that of a Princess, but she also had the strength of a Keyblade wielder. A part of him didn't want her to fight because he was worried about her safety. But if there was one thing he (and Sora) had learned, it was that she wouldn't take no for an answer.

And seeing her standing before him now, wearing her new clothes from the good fairies and her hair cut a bit shorter, ready to fight for the worlds...he couldn't deny it anymore.

He was in love.

As Mickey went to Scala ad Caelum, Donald and Goofy took Kairi to the Land of Departure so they could explain the situation to Aqua.

"I'd be happy to train you, Kairi," she said, smiling proudly. "I'm honored that you thought of me first."

Kairi smiled and shrugged. "Well, you are the only Master I thought of that could actually teach me useful things."

"HEY!" Donald squawked angrily, on behalf of Mickey and Yen Sid.

"Just teasing," the Princess quipped, patting his head.

Everyone shared a good chuckle as Donald grumbled to himself about young people disrespecting kings and great wizards.

"Also," Kairi added, a bit more shyly, "there's another reason why I wanted to come here."

Before they could ask what that reason was, they were joined by someone else – who happened to be the answer.

"What's going on?" Ven asked curiously. Then his eyes widened when he saw Kairi. "Kairi?"

Kairi turned towards him and beamed. "Ven!"

She ran up to him and he caught her and spun her around, both of them giggling happily. The others smiled knowingly and opted to continue their discussion elsewhere, so that the young couple could be alone.

"How long have you been awake?" Ven asked as he put her down.

"Only a few hours," Kairi answered with a shrug. When he looked down, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Sorry I wasn't there when you woke up," he said quietly.

Kairi frowned, then remembered the last time they had spoken and giggled.

"Aw, it's okay," she said sweetly. Then she kissed his cheek and winked. "You'll just have to make it up to me by kissing me awake tomorrow morning."

Ven blushed slightly, then tilted his head. "Tomorrow morning?"

He's so cute when he does that! Kairi silently gushed. Out loud, she said with a hint of excitement, "I've decided to let Aqua train me! So I'll be here for a while."

"Really? That's great!" Ven beamed.

Then they kissed. Kairi wrapped her arms around Ven's neck and he placed his hands on her waist, and they melted into each other. It felt wonderful to have this again after a year of being separated.

"So, did you write any more songs about me?" Kairi teased when she pulled away.

Ven chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Well...I did get an idea for a new one."

"Really? Well, let's hear it!"

They went to Ven's room to talk more about music, from Ven's notes and ideas to Kairi musing about writing songs of her own. After that, they finally discussed what had happened while Kairi was asleep – what she had learned and where Riku and Mickey went – and then they spent the rest of the day just being a new couple. Training would begin the next day, but for now they were going to thoroughly enjoy being together for real.

Thank you for reading! Pardon me whilst I unload more of my thoughts, lol.

I'm only assuming that Kairi's charm in KHI was the first of its kind she ever made, so if that gets or was already retconned...oops! Also, I imagined that Naminé would have helped her uncover her memories of meeting Ven before their confession, but I don't really care if that may be retconned as of MoM. Speaking of Naminé, I've always assumed that she and Roxas were still "awake" until the end of KHII, 'cause of that scene where they appear in Sora and Kairi's places. So sadly, Kairi missed her initial chance to let Naminé help her with her memories.

I originally dedicated this paragraph to thoughts I had about Ven finding Aurora and Zack attractive, but then I realized that it would probably bore readers, so I removed it. If you're curious about it, though, you can ask. :)

And of course I'm continuing to reference Ven being voiced by Jesse McCartney! I mean, someone has to do it, right? As for Kairi wanting to write songs, I needed to find a way to reference that both of her English voice actresses sing as well. And as much as I love Alyson Stoner, I still prefer Hayden Panettiere's version of Kairi and desperately hope that she may return (in fact, I even signed an old petition for it that others have signed even this year, so I know I'm not the only one). Besides, she has quite a lot of good songs, particularly from Nashville. If, like me, you haven't seen that show, check out some of her songs from it! I'm associating a handful of them with Kairi already.

Lastly, about Kairi teasing Ven about kissing her awake in the morning...don't worry! They're both very responsible, so they won't be doing anything naughty (for lack of a better word). They're not ready for that step yet. That being said, they ARE teenagers, so...they're gonna want to sleep in the same bed every so often, just for the cuddles. Of course, I've never been in a relationship myself, so I wouldn't know any better. :P

With that, I hope you enjoyed this story and at least put up with my rambling notes, XD. Until next time!