Notes: I redid chapter 2 a bit since I wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out. Well hope I can write Kairi better. She's basically just here to break up the action and well it's kind of an important chapter. I was a little misty eyed at the end of this and don't worry Riku's not dead by a long shot.

Chapter 3: Inseparable

Kairi had to force herself to go through the motions of another day. She would get up, get dressed, and then go to school. It was easy for her to receive high grades, doing the assignments without even trying. When the teacher called on her, she always had the right answer, only Kairi was never really there, sitting at her desk and staring at the blackboard without seeing it. When her classmates and teachers were too absorbed to notice her, Kairi would give up pretending and gaze wistfully out the window.

At lunch, she'd sit with Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka, eating mechanically without tasting the food but if her friends noticed, they never said anything. Selphie would talk excitedly about the newest dress she brought while Tidus and Wakka would go on and on about blitzball, all of it seeming so normal. The conversations meant little to Kairi, sailing over her head. When her friends asked her opinion, she would smile up at them and nod, without having heard them. That had been her life for the past year.

Then when school was over, she could at last go down to the beach. Everyday without fail, she'd sit out on the sandy shoreline, digging in her toes and shifting her hands through the sun warmed and fine white sand, running her fingers over the roughness of twisting shells and the smooth dove gray of clamshells, collecting the bodies of washed up starfish before she threw them back into the ocean. Then Kairi would stare into the distance at the never-ending expanse of blue sea.

She'd stay that way for hours on end until the sky faded to night, waiting for anything, a trace of hope, a splash, or ripple out of the glittering water. Nothing ever came. Sometimes Kairi fell asleep underneath the soft glow of the starlight. The sound of the crashing waves were comforting and lured her to sleep, soothing her nerves more then a human voice ever could.

Kairi couldn't blame Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka for not understanding. After all, how could they? They hadn't seen what she had, didn't know what she'd been through. Kairi would have given the world to be able to talk to one of them but they'd never be able understand what she meant, what she felt. The redhead was expected to go back to a normal life like nothing had ever happened but that was impossible. She wasn't the same fourteen-year old girl anymore. She was different no matter how the others tried to overlook it.

Kairi no longer believed things were so innocent and that lucky charms could chase away any problem, was on longer the girl with the chopped hair, content to just run and play in the sunshine of her tiny island. Kairi knew there were other worlds out there, that she was only a trivial part in something much greater. It wasn't the same when she stood beside the sea. She felt so insignificant and small.

Once in a time that felt so long ago, Kairi had told a boy to never change, knowing now that could never happen. Just like her, he would be over a year older. She'd missed out on seeing him grow, on being with him, the lost time something that could never be made up. The boy had faced death and things that were only supposed to exist in nightmares, had been put through situations she couldn't even imagine and as much as Kairi wished everything could still be the same, she knew it never would be again.

Kairi wasn't sure why the others couldn't remember him. Tidus and Wakka looked confused whenever she hinted at mentioning the boy. Selphie simply said she made him up. Everyone else moved on, all forgetting about him but her, as if he never existed. Kairi's memories of him were vague at best. She could picture a blurry face followed by a mixture of jumbled feelings but that was it. She didn't even know his name.

It was slow at first but Kairi could tell Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus were starting to distance themselves from her, unintentionally leaving her out of activities and beginning to develop their own lives, letting her have her time alone out on the beach. Kairi was strangely grateful even when she knew a part of herself was fading away but she couldn't bring herself to care, knowing she would wait for the boy as long as it took. She hadn't given up hope of his return, would forever believe.

It wasn't always like this. Kairi used to be carefree and happy, running along the lapping waves with the boy and Riku, laughing the whole time and sitting with them under the bleeding colors of the pink, orange, and red sunset. That was when the three of them talked about paopu fruit and promised to always stay together. Kairi never could have foreseen this future, never thought that one day they would all be torn apart and that she would end up alone.

The boy had left to find their friend Riku, their silver haired friend that had let the darkness penetrate his heart but in the end had sacrificed everything to save them both from an unknown fate, so the boy from her memory had to go, needed to rescue Riku, bring him back to the island so they could all be together again.

Kairi alone was the last remaining out of their trio. Sometimes she'd go to the Secret Place, running her hands over the rocky walls and staring at the drawing she and the boy had carved of each other sharing a paopu fruit. Kairi went only to remind herself that the boy existed. The drawing was proof he was real, no matter what her friends thought but she could never stop the tears from leaking down her face whenever she looked at it because once she knew it had held a special meaning in her heart and now she couldn't even remember how it came to be.

Kairi knew all she needed was his name and the memories would flow back to her. She tried everything to remember, used to know his name by heart, once being able to speak it without a second thought, without worry or hesitation, could still see herself saying it, could still feel her lips forming the one word. Though no matter how close she was to grasping it, his name always escaped her, locked somewhere within a barrier of her mind.

So Kairi waited for a boy. A boy who she couldn't remember the name of because he was all she had left.

Kairi's only sanctuary was in sleep. While sleeping she was able to escape from the outside world that she felt so isolated from. She didn't have to force herself through another day or worry about the weary looks Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka gave her whenever she motioned 'the boy', didn't have to see the worried glances the mayor threw her way, a man that called himself her father but really was just another stranger to her.

In sleep, Kairi could dream. It was in her dreams that she could envision the boy from her memory.

Eyes such a deep shade of blue, they rivaled the sky. Eyes that glistened with wonder, adventure, resolve, and an unfulfilled dream. It was so easy to get lost in his eyes.

A lopsided smile that nearly took up his whole face, that he wore every time he saw her coming, face lighting up just from her being near, how he'd pout every time he didn't get his way. His cheeks always round and soft, yet his body toned from countless days spent swimming and sparring and his skin tanned from the sun

Dark brown hair that stood out in all directions and smelled of earth and salt from the sea. Hair he would sometimes run a hand through out of sheepishness or in a sign of unconscious agitation.

A voice full of promise, strength, and untamed laughter. A voice she'd been drawn to from the first moment she'd met him. She could never wait just too simply hear what he would say to her next, she'd always loved talking to him.

In her dreams, she even remembered the last time she saw him as if it had happened only moments ago.

She could still feel the heat from their intertwined fingers, his grip on her hand was hard, almost desperate and she clung back just as strong, holding on as long as possible, all the while her hand was being wrenched away. Soon her fingertips could only graze his and then she grasped nothing but air.

In her dreams, he came back to her. He'd be off in the distance swimming toward the shore with Riku right behind him, shouting her name as he reached the beach, and smiling that grin she knew so well, waving to her with his whole arm, an action the made his whole body rock back and forth but something he'd always done when he greeted her.

She'd get up off the sand and run to him, throwing herself at him so hard she would knock him back, then she'd wrap her arms around him and Riku too, the three of them half laughing and half sobbing, holding each other in a tangle of arms and legs and she would never let go. Not ever again.

That dream was something that played out in her mind every night, happening in hundreds of different situations and ways but that's all it was, a dream. Kairi would wake up in her room or out on the beach, looking up hopefully before she realized she was alone. Then the boy's image would slip away from her and her eyes would tear, her heart hurting so bad she felt as if she wanted to die.

Only tonight was different. Kairi was aware that this time she actually was dreaming.

She was standing on the beach and looking out at the sea just like always but she was afraid, could feel something was off, was deadly wrong.

Every time it was the boy who reached the shore first, swimming and waving madly, Riku always reaching it second. This time there was no boy, it was only Riku and he wasn't swimming. He was walking slowly and calmly out from beneath the water. Kairi could see his head emerge and then his shoulders, soon the water only came up to his waist and then just barely covered his feet as he stepped out onto the dry sand.

Riku was soaking wet, wearing a black robe, crystal water dripping from him in rivulets, pastel light of the moon mirroring his silver hair and illuminating his pale skin. Riku looked ethereal standing there cast in the soft brightness, but everything else including Kairi was doused in shadow.

Kairi's violet eyes met his, but the aqua green was hard and haunted. Riku stepped forward. Kairi flinched and stepped quickly back.

"What's wrong Kairi? Is it because I'm not him? Aren't you happy to see me?" Riku said cynically but somewhat amused.

"I'm dreaming." She heard herself say, her voice sounding hazy and far-off.

Riku took another step forward and Kairi once again stepped back.

"Who says?"

Kairi knew this wasn't Riku. Her silver haired friend wouldn't leave her feeling this terrified, this edgy. What stood in front of her may have been a fragment of Riku but there was something else there that was deeper, dark, and deadly. All Kairi wanted to do was run. "Stop it! I'm dreaming! I want to wake up!"

Riku crossed his arms and gave her a smug smile. "I need to tell you something first."

"What?" Kairi's voice didn't come out so panic stricken, fear partly replaced by curiosity at Riku's last statement, having a feeling that whatever the aqua-eyed teen said was going to change her life.

"I failed"

"Failed? I don't understand."

Riku tilted his head slightly, silver hair cascading over his shoulder. "I wasn't able to awaken him and now he will continue to sleep."

"He's asleep? Why is he sleeping?"

"It doesn't matter" Riku said bitterly. "What's important is that you know he will continue to waste away. He has no chance of ever coming back to you. If you thought waiting for him for the past year was hard, try eternity without him."

"You're lying." Kairi's voice had lost all traces of fear and now bordered on defiance and determination. "He promised to come back to me. I believe him and I will wait for him as long as it takes."

Riku smirked. "That's a nice sentiment but are you sure about that? You're already so close to breaking. How much longer can you really hold out Kairi? How much longer can you keep this up?"

"As long as it takes" Kairi repeated.

Riku looked upward at the sky, letting his head fall backwards. "Without him the worlds will die. The sky will open, the heartless will come. You will be killed. You will never see me or him again."

Kairi's eyes narrowed. "You're wrong."

Riku shrugged indifferently. "Believe what you want but the fact remains I still lost, he is still asleep and I…" Riku trailed off, blinking as if confused, staring down at his hands. "I think I died"

Whatever the thing was that had been inside of Riku before was gone. Now it was only the silver haired teen that stood before her, left open and whole. Riku looked into her face, his expression clouded in uncertainty and a slight trace of vulnerability. "The heartless came for me." He said, voice sounding mystified and strangled. "They tried to pull my heart from my body."

Kairi reached out a hand toward him. "Riku…"

Riku met her eyes. "Kairi, I'm dead Kairi."

Kairi shook her head vigorously, sending long red hair flying into her face. "Riku!" She called out frantically, running forward, kicking up sand, wanting to wrap her arms around him, knowing she needed to get to him, to hold onto him, to help him in anyway she could.

Kairi was an arms distance away when his expression turned into a sneer. Stopping short, she watched in horror as the right side of Riku's face melted away directly in front of her eyes. Chunks of flesh shredding away and falling onto the sand, exposing pulsing red muscle and the glistening white of his skull, right eye changing from green to a full shinning yellow, lips splitting down the front, right half peeling completely off, the strips of skin still hanging from his face turning and glowing an inky black as Riku's face throbbed and swirled with the darkness.

Kairi's eyes widened but she couldn't turn away, to terrified to move. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. She couldn't struggle, couldn't even jerk away when Riku's hand came up to grip her shoulder, her body feeling as if it were frozen. Riku pulled her forward, toward him. "What's wrong Kairi? Do I frighten you?"

Kairi woke up from where she'd fallen asleep with her head against the windowsill. She pressed her wrist to mouth, biting into her palm to muffle her scream, lifting her other palm to her face, gasping for breath, sobbing, and choking into her hands. Her heart racing as a sudden sharp pain tore through her chest, intense, feeling like needles and she knew in that moment something had happened to Riku.

Kairi felt like she was going to be sick, running to her conjoined bathroom, she barely made it as she heaved into toilet, expelling the contents of her stomach, feeling as if her whole body was trying to turn itself inside out but it didn't last long and Kairi quickly flushed the toilet, then vigorously rinsed her mouth out before returning to her bedroom.

She touched a hand to her cheek, feeling the wetness there but didn't try to brush the tears away, letting them fall. She could feel the sobs in her throat but fought them back, breathing deeply through her nose, trying to calm herself and keep herself quite. She couldn't afford to wake the mayor. Slowly, her breathing became steadier. Her tears began to cease.

Kairi stood in the center of her room, looking to the place by her window where her math textbook was still laying carelessly across the plush blue carpet. She had been studying, remembered her eyes had gotten heavy and the math problems had seemed to blur together. She'd been half sprawled on her floor and half slumped against the window, resting her arms on the windowsill, using them as a pillow, and she'd fallen asleep. Kairi could still feel the slight tingling sensation of the blood rushing back into her limbs.

Her whole room was nearly cast in shadow. The window was opened and the glow from the moon streamed through being the only source of light, looking like a white puddle on her pale fuchsia bedspread. Kairi could feel the gentle breeze from the sea on her feverish and sweaty skin, the nightmare still fresh in her mind, seeming so detailed and vivid, feeling completely real.

"Riku…" Kairi whimpered. The dream had been a warning she was sure of it. Riku had just been through something terrible that she was afraid to even think about. She'd felt it in her heart when she'd woken up. This wasn't the first time Kairi wished she could be there for her friends, but she was alone on Destiny Islands, having no way of reaching them. She felt helpless and she hated it.

Suddenly wanting to be outside, Kairi crawled out through her window. She was wearing her pajamas, white drawstring pants and a small peach colored top. They were very easy to move in. Kairi jumped the small distance to the ground, feeling the cooled sand on her bare feet. The warm nighttime air that smelled slightly of salt brushed through her hair and Kairi took off at a run, not stopping until she reached the closet thing she had to a safe haven. The beach.

Panting slightly, she sat down looking out to sea. The water was the color of dark gray blue, waves swelling and rippling gently as they lapped at the shore. Kairi could hear the soft rushing sound. The large silvery moon and the glinting of stars shone vividly against the nearly pure black sky, water reflecting the light as it shimmered and sparkled. There was no doubt it was beautiful.

Kairi felt content, strangely real and alive. She laid down on her side and curled in on herself, a smile crossing her lips as she thought about the boy, wondering if he missed home. Closing her eyes, she was about to fall back asleep, when she moved her arm and felt the blunt edge of something jab her shoulder.

Startled she sat up, seeing something brown sticking up from beneath the sand, she dug it out, holding up a wooden sword, covered in bits of wet sand, weathered and cracked but whole. Kairi swallowed back the sudden tightness in her throat. The boy and Riku used to play with these, maybe the sword even belonged to the boy at one point. Kairi constantly used to watch them fight. If she closed her eyes, she could nearly envision Riku swinging one through the air.

An idea suddenly came to her. Standing up, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure on one else was there, even though the chances of that were remote. Satisfied, Kairi held the sword out in front of her and formed an image of Riku in her mind. She had watched his technique on the island enough to know it by heart and she pictured the way he moved, his arms, his steps, his posture. She followed it.

Kairi swung the sword through the air as Riku would, letting herself move like him, trying to become him as she stepped through his routine. It was hard, much harder then she thought especially when Riku made it seem so effortless. It didn't take long for Kairi to lose her footing and fall onto the sand. Dusting herself off, she tried again. It took nearly twenty times before she accomplished just half of his routine with out ending up back on her face. Even then, Kairi wasn't anywhere near as graceful as he was, being slow and clumsy, from never doing this before. The sword didn't flow and cut through the air in elegant and skillful motions for her like it did for Riku.

The redhead practiced until she was to spent to move, before letting herself fall onto her back, collapsing against the beach, sweat slicked hair fanning out behind her, breathing hard, limbs feeling rubbery but it was nice and she promised herself she would do this again tomorrow.

Kairi smiled as she looked up at the moon, the boy entering her mind as he always did. In that moment she felt the closest to him she had been in the last year. He was out there somewhere, maybe also thinking of her. Wherever he was, they shared the same earth, the same sky. They were both alive in this moment. "I wonder" Kairi whispered breathlessly "If you're looking at the moon too."

She held the wooden sword above her face, studying it as it flickered with moonlight, a look of undefeated strength passing over her features. "You're wrong Riku. We'll see each other again, no matter what happens. I know we will."

Kairi suddenly sat up, having the urge to scream out to the sea, wanting the whole world to know what she had to say next, letting her voice ring out clear and unfaltering in the night. "You hear that Riku! No matter what! You, me, and him are inseparable!"