The boat ride back to Destiny Islands was quiet. The ocean was

surprisingly pacive and none of the three seemed to have anything to

say. When they finally did arive back on the biggest of the three

islands, they each tied up their own boat and had a seat on the end of

the dock facing west.

After a very quiet minute Sora mumbled, "So now what?" as he threw

himself back so that we was laying down with his hands behind his head.

"Well the sun wont be setting for another half hour so we have some

time." Riku hopped onto the sand below and began walking around,

drawing pictures with his feet. Kairi stood up and just looked around

thinking of what they would do if they were here a year ago. Her eyes

fell on the paopu tree and she suddenly remembered the real reason why

she hadn't joined Sora and Riku that morning.

"Oh guys come here, come here. I have something for you!" She reached

into her leather hip-bag as the two hurried over. "I was finishing

these thismorning while you two were out." She said with a big

satisfied grin on her face. "Hope you like 'em."

She handed each one a small star shaped plush. They both looked at

their yellow gifts for a moment before realizing what they were. There

were two pieces of green cloth sewn onto the top of each one to look

like leaves and the top left point of the star on each one was shortened

to a flat end. It was a plush paopu fruit, made to look like there was

a bite taken from it.

Riku quickly wrapped his arms around Kairi, swaying her side to side

and saying, "Ah thanks Kairi! They're great. I wish we had gotten

something for you though."

When Riku finally released her and she regained the use of her arms,

she reached over to Sora's plush and turned it over in his hands. He

had still been looking down at it, smiling a sad and remenisant smile.

Riku hopped back onto the sand and began rumaging through his backpack

down on the sand for a gift to give to Kairi.

The back side of Sora's plush had blue thread stiching in the center.

There was a script "S&K" stitched on, inside of a big heart that had

unnecissarily swirly ends. Sora looked up at Kairi, smiling as they

hugged.

"Aha!! Here ya go Kairi. You can have our 7-11 slurpee cups from

thismorning. It's only nintey-nine cents for a refill. What a deal!"

Riku knew his garbage could hardly pass as a gift, but he wanted to give

Kairi something.

Sora slipped his plush into his over-sized side pocket, still smiling,

and then followed Kairi over to Riku by the end of the dock. "Oh,"

Kairi giggled, not quite sure what to say, "thanks but, you think you

could hold onto them for me?"

"Yeah sure. We can all make use of them the next time we go to 7-11."

Riku crammed the cups back into his backpack and then climbed back up

onto the dock and took a seat next to Kairi as Sora plopped down on her

other side.

The sun was nearing the horizon now and the sky had begun to adopt the

familiar orangle glow which created a surreal tinted filter on the

entire island and ocean.

Kairi looked at each boy after a moment and realized she was the only

one simply enjoying the begining of the sunset. Both of them were deep

in thought, just staring ahead into the sea.

"Paopu for your thoughts?"

"Hmm?" Both boys came back to the island from their thoughts and

noticed Kairi was still next to them.

"I gave you guys those paopu, so in return you can each tell me what

you're thinking and we'll call it even." Kairi's request was simple but

sincere.

"Alright then," Riku began, "I was thinking about how all we- or

mostly I- wanted to do last time we were all here was make that raft to

sail away. I know I was eager to see other worlds and all, but now that

I'm back I can't believe I ever wanted to leave."

Kairi nodded and smiled, knowing Riku would never acually share all

that was on his mind, but satisfied with his responce all the same.

"Well we had never been away and besides, even if the raft wasn't

destroyed we still may have never left here. We all came back after

getting our chance to go didn't we?"

Riku nodded with a small grin and then dove back into his thoughts.

"Well Sora, what about you?" Kairi asked as she turned to face him.

"I was... Well, do you remember the few days before the storm came?"

"Of course."

"Well that same feeling, like we weren't in control, I feel it now.

It's just like, is any of this for real, or am I just being wierd?"

Kairi took a moment to respond, choosing her words carefully. "Well

destiny can do that, take away control of what's going on. But didn't

everything turn out for the better last time?"

Sora met Kairi's gaze and was assured that her words were genuine by

the look in her eyes. "Yeah I guess, but what if we are seperated

again?"

"Sora," Kairi began with almost a disapointed tone, "havn't you learned

be now; the three of us are never truley seperated. The legend of the

paopu fruit is true if you believe it is."

"But we never-" Riku tried to cut in.

"But we believe it. Anyone can just eat a fruit, it's acually putting

faith in the story that binds our souls."

Satisfied, Riku turned his attention back to the fading sunset. Sora

was still afraid of what he could feel coming, but Kairi's words were far

too asuring to let that bother him now.

With one small movement, Sora slid his hand to Kairi's. Neither one

took their eyes off the sunset but both their hearts were looking to

their hands,

to their bond,

to them.