Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts (II), Sora, Kairi, Riku, etc.

Author's Note: Sorry for the lousy name…I really couldn't think of anything better. Well, here, enjoy, CHAPTER 11, EVERYBODY!!! (I might do over 20 chapters, actually.)

Warning: DiZ and Demyx are morons. (I just wanted to warn any DiZ/Demyx fans out there.)

Quick Author Babble: Go, hedge mazes! (I'm such a loser…)

Chapter 11: Did Too

It was very dark by the time the hedge maze started. Sora could barely see a thing. It didn't help that he was dizzy with thoughts of Naminé and Kairi either. He didn't like Naminé, but he did like Kairi, and somehow he ended up dating Naminé.

It was his whole problem with saying "no". Sora kept telling himself how hard was it to say "no"? But Sora had issues—major issues to keep him from rejecting people.

So, as his mind was whirring and his eyes were completely blinded by the dark of night, Sora walked right into the wall of the hedge maze. So there he stood, his face smashed into a block of plants, completely embarrassed in front of Kairi, who probably already thought he was an idiot from past experiences, and he couldn't help thinking his life couldn't get any worse.

"Sora, are you okay?" Kairi asked, walking up to him.

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but was nearly choked to death as hedge growth flooded his mouth. Sora jumped back, spat it out, and turned to Kairi.

"I'm just fine," he said, trying to disregard the sarcasm that was aching to get out.

"Oh…you've got something stuck in your hair…" Kairi remarked, reaching over and pulling out a clump of bush from one of Sora's spikes.

Sora sighed and glared at the hedge angrily. Suddenly everyone started to clear the way as two seniors, Demyx and DiZ, walked up to the front.

Demyx was a chirpy boy who always had a grin on his face. He was amusingly gullible and frightened easily—Riku had teased him more than once.

DiZ seemed determined to make everyone's lives miserable. His eyes were neon orange, which wasn't a very comfortable colour, and anything that came out of his mouth was sure to be smart or dark. A frown was always placed on his face, and he was rather odd. He always wore a blood red scarf around his face, and reminded everyone painfully of an executioner.

Demyx smiled at everyone while DiZ remained stonily silent, looking at all the students with disgust.

"Welcome to the hedge maze!" Demyx chirped. "Okay, so here are the rules…"

"Don't get lost in there, otherwise we'll have to go in and clean out your rotting corpse next Halloween," DiZ said.

Everyone stared at him. Demyx looked at DiZ, his eyes still twinkling ecstatically.

"Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed, throwing his arm around DiZ, who turned away rather uncomfortably. "Oh, DiZ, what a joker you are! I'm positive no one will get lost in there. We have a smart bunch this year, don't we?"

Everyone still remained silent. Demyx smiled again; he was obviously not ready to give up. DiZ glared at him and pushed him away rather roughly. He straightened the red scarf around his head and crossed his arms.

"Here are the actual rules," Demyx said. "You get half an hour in the maze. If you can't find your way out by then, we'll come and look for you. It usually only takes ten minutes maximum to get out of here, and since there aren't many people signed up, this won't take too long."

Not many people signed up? Sora looked around. There were tons of people—if they all got half an hour in there, it would take forever, and Sora and Kairi were nowhere close to the front of the line.

"Everyone's in a pair, right?" Demyx said, looking over the field of teenagers. "Good, good…It's harder to get lost when you have a partner. Now, we're doing something a bit different this year. Instead of lining up to get into the maze, you have to choose a number from this barrel."

Demyx pulled up a barrel with a huge grunt, and a purple vein bulged out of his neck from the gigantic amount of weight he was holding. DiZ simply watched him in amusement. Demyx threw down the barrel in the path leading up to the maze and wiped sweat off his forehead.

"Whoever has the lowest number goes first," he said, panting.

Sora watched as pair by pair stepped up. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that he needed a low number; they'd be waiting forever outside of the maze if they didn't.

Naminé and Roxas stepped up to the barrel. Naminé reached in and pulled out a small piece of paper. With a sigh, she showed it to Roxas.

"Fifteen," she muttered.

Roxas shrugged, looking a bit disappointed. It was obvious he'd wanted to go into the hedge as soon as possible with Naminé. They walked over to a bench and sat down.

Olette and Hayner went up behind them. Hayner plunged his hand into the barrel, and screamed as he read the piece of paper.

"Forty-one!" he shouted, showing the paper to Olette. "Forty-one! I can't believe this! What a rip-off!"

Olette patted Hayner on the back, but he stormed off, the paper clenched in his hand so hard it looked like it was about to blow up.

Leon and Yuffie were next. Leon reached in and pulled out a paper, he looked at it and shrugged, looking rather bored, and handed it to Yuffie. Yuffie, on the other hand, was positively ecstatic as she read the piece of paper. She hugged Leon, making him turn redder than a cherry.

"Six, Leon!" she squealed. "It won't be too long now! Great job!"

Sora and Kairi were right behind them. Sora gulped. Six—that would be a tough number to beat. He let Kairi pick, fearing that he was bad luck and would screw up their number somehow.

Kairi breathed in, crossed her fingers, and reached into the barrel. As she pulled up a number, she closed her eyes, unfolded it, and, after a few short moments, read it.

She gasped. Her eyes widened.

"One," she said, showing the paper to Sora.

"One?" repeated Sora, jaw dropping.

"One!" cried Demyx, popping up between them. "It seems we have our winners! Congratulations! Just wait by the entrance until everyone's drawn a number."

111

It was very late by the time everyone had finished taking their numbers. Sora kept looking into the maze. Every few minutes it seemed to grow increasingly darker. Kairi's face was filled with dread every time she looked inside the nearly black structure.

Demyx's smile was still brighter than a thousand suns, and, oblivious to the fact that both Sora and Kairi were looking none too happy about being the test run, he threw his arms around the two.

"Well, you guys ready?" he asked, ignoring the violent shaking of Sora's head. "Great! Have a nice…"

"Yes, great," DiZ said, walking out of the shadows. "You two will be the ones to experience the darkness first. It will be far more frightening, since no one's come out before you. You don't know what's in there…what might pop out at you from the blackness, if you'll come out alive…You might twist your ankle, we might not be able to find you for hours. It would be like an everlasting pain, a horrible wait for the other…"

Kairi shivered. Sora just gaped at DiZ, wide-eyed. Demyx coughed loudly, and attempted a big, fake grin.

"Right, so…Have a nice trip!" he chirped, pushing them inside.

"Wait, no, why doesn't someone else…?" Kairi stuttered, but DiZ and Demyx blocked the way out.

"It's no use," Sora said, his breath showing in the cold, autumn air. "We've got to finish the maze. I'm not taking a chance with DiZ and Demyx to come find us…"

Kairi nodded, terror making her face go white even under her black makeup. And as they turned and started walking away, Sora heard DiZ's laughter from behind them—a very frightening, hollow laughter, coming straight from the stomach. Sora shivered, and not because of the cold.

"That guy seriously creeps me out," he whispered to Kairi.

Kairi nodded in agreement as Demyx chirped another "bye" before all sound was blocked completely.

It was darker than Sora had first seen it, and the scenery was even worse without the comforting chattering of teenagers in the background.

Sora couldn't see a thing. He walked blindly down the path for a couple of minutes, trying to find his way by moonlight.

"Eek!"

Sora stopped at Kairi's sudden scream.

"Kairi, are you okay?" he asked, trying to find Kairi in the blackness.

It wasn't easy, as Kairi was wearing all black and the shadows of the hedge walls were covering everything in an extra coat of darkness, but he tracked her down by listening to a shuffling a short distance away.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Kairi muttered, followed by more shuffling. "I just…walked into a wall…"

Sora felt around for her and located her arm. He carefully helped her up, making sure he didn't fall down as well. Kairi sighed.

"I'm such an idiot."

"No, you're not. I walked into a hedge wall when it was brighter outside and we weren't surrounded by them. If anyone's an idiot, I am."

Kairi giggled.

"So true," she remarked.

"Hey, I was being nice!" Sora cried. "Now just follow me so we can get out of here…"

"Yeah…uh…Sora?"

"Hmm?"

"I can't really see you."

Sora noticed the complication as well. He looked for any sign of light besides the weak, half moon, but couldn't find any.

"Well…okay then…" Sora stuttered, and he noticed his hand was still on Kairi's arm. "If I hold onto your arm then you can follow me, right?"

"I guess…" Kairi replied.

Kairi let her arm drop and Sora walked beside her, a bit slowly so that Kairi was able to keep up with him. Sora tried to keep concentrated on the trail. After all, he wanted to get out of the maze before it got even darker outside. But his gaze kept darting to his hand on Kairi's arm, and he couldn't control it.

Come on, Sora. You're basically holding hands.

Sora blushed furiously at the voice at the back of his head. No. No, he had to keep his mind on the trail. He had to find a way out of here…

It's dark and nobody's around. You're basically in the clear…

"Shut up," Sora whispered under his breath so quietly that Kairi couldn't hear.

He felt around for the hedge walls, trying to keep track of each turn.

Face it. You can't concentrate. I don't think you even want to…

Sora clenched his hand into a fist, ripping out a piece of hedge by doing so. Kairi stopped abruptly at the noise.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Oh…nothing…" Sora replied. "It was nothing."

He quickly chucked the piece of hedge behind him.

"It's kind of scary here," Kairi commented. "I feel like I'm blind."

"Y-Yeah…" Sora answered.

She's scared. Here's your opportunity.

Sora clenched his eyes shut. No, he wasn't listening. He was feeling around for a turn anyway…

Hurry up and do something already! Soon it'll be too late! It won't be long before you reach the end or they find you.

Sora tried to block the voice in his head, but could he really not listen to something that was in his thoughts?

And suddenly, totally against his own will, his hand started to move down Kairi's arm and fall into her own. Something jumped inside him that made him blush frantically.

Good, Sora. Have some ice cream when you get home.

Kairi didn't say anything. She did, however, intertwine her fingers with Sora's. Sora felt the words he was about to say catch in his throat. He used his right hand to feel around the hedge again, even though his fingers had gone numb from embarrassment.

The only word that escaped his mouth for five minutes was "crossroad." They decided they would turn right, since they had been turning left for quite a while.

Sora stopped suddenly as his hand hit something that wasn't supposed to be there. He moved his hand along the walls and sighed.

"It's a dead end," he said. "Well, we had to run into one of these some time, I guess."

"Might as well," Kairi remarked. "I'm tired anyway."

She let go of Sora's hand and slid down the back wall. Sora sat down beside her.

"I don't get it," he said. "It should be half an hour by now…They should've come looking for us ages ago."

"Well, as you said before, Demyx and DiZ aren't the most reliable people in the world," Kairi remarked.

"I know, but I thought they at least knew how to tell the time…"

"Well, you thought wrong obviously."

Kairi let out a big yawn and perched herself up against the hedge.

"You don't think…they forgot we're here?" Sora asked.

"Sora!" shouted Kairi, making it sound like it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard.

"Come on, we're talking about Demyx and DiZ here. You've got to expect the unexpected."

"Well, since you expect it, it's not unexpected, so obviously you can't take it seriously because it has to be unexpected to really count so you can't ever expect the unexpected without making it expected."

There was a long pause.

"What?"

"Never mind. I guess we better get…go…ing…"

Kairi let out another tremendous yawn before keeling over and falling asleep. Sora now realized he was quite tired too. He felt his eyelids getting heavy, and the next thing he knew, everything went black.

111

"Ooh, la, la."

Sora grumbled but refused to open his eyes. He was disturbed. Something beside him was very warm, and he'd had great dreams all night.

"Hey, Sora, do you have a reason why you're holding my friend like that?"

Sora groaned and finally made himself open his eyes. The first thing that met him was a lot of light that nearly blinded him. He immediately shut his eyes again.

"Shut up, Yuffie. Can't you see they're comfortable?"

"Oh, like you're much happier, Roxas. You still have vengeance on Sora and we all know it."

"Ooh, la, la."

"Hayner, will you stop saying that? It's driving me insane!"

"You know you're thinking the same thing, Olette."

"If I agreed I wouldn't be yelling at you, would I?"

As everyone burst into argument, the very loud voices finally made Sora fully wake up. He tried to sit up but he realized he couldn't—his arms were wrapped around something.

He opened his eyes and blinked the blurriness from them. As everything came into focus, he noticed the all too familiar black costume of Kairi.

"AAH!!!" he yelled, untangling himself and falling backwards.

Kairi woke with a start, leaping up at the sudden sunshine. Sora realized they were back in the hedge maze. Had they slept here the whole night?

"Well, what do you know?" Hayner said, smiling mischievously. "The two sleeping beauties are awake."

Roxas laughed.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"Shut up!" Sora yelled, standing up and wiping grass off his pants.

His face turned bright red as he thought of everything that could've happened last night without him knowing. By the looks on all of his friends' faces, they had pretty good ideas.

"How'd you guys get in here?" Kairi asked, trying to get off the subject.

"Well, as you might've already guessed, DiZ and Demyx went for punch while you guys were in here and completely forgot about you, and by the time we were about to go in after you guys, the dance was over and the hedge maze was closed off," Olette explained. "There wasn't much we could do except wait for the morning and get a map from the principal. No one knew where you were. I was so worried I could hardly sleep."

Olette's emerald eyes were twinkling worriedly and her voice was very sincere. Hayner's grin grew wider.

"Oh, jeez," Sora muttered, knowing what was coming.

"Looks like you didn't have to worry, Olette," Hayner said. "They seem quite fine to me. And unlike you, it looks like they had a very nice sleep, cuddled up in each other's arms, alone in the dark…"

"So romantic!" squealed Yuffie.

Kairi crossed her arms and scowled at Hayner.

"If you must know, we didn't do anything last night," she said. "Anything you saw was merely out of subconscious mind."

"You know, some people believe that your subconscious mind is stronger than your conscious mind," Pence pointed out.

"Exactly!" cried Hayner, beaming. "Exactly, Pence! I knew there was a reason you're one of my best friends!"

Everyone laughed at Hayner's enthusiasm except for Sora and Kairi. Sora was still miraculously warm, as if Kairi was still curled up in his arms. Kairi just looked angry.

"You guys are so immature!" she cried. "Hayner, you need to grow up!"

"Agreed," Olette said, giggling.

"Hey, Pence, do the Sora and Kairi with me," Hayner said, looking like his side was about to split open, he was laughing so hard.

Hayner and Pence hugged each other, or tried to. They would only get so close to each other.

"I'm Sora, you're Kairi," Hayner explained.

Pence nodded. Hayner put his head on Pence's and held him tightly, letting out a soft sigh.

Sora's face flushed.

"I did not do that!" he yelled, tempted to punch Hayner in the face.

"Uh…yeah, you did," Hayner said, dropping out of Sora pose.

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!!!"

"DID TOO!!!"

Olette pushed the two away from each other and stepped in between them.

"You guys!" she shouted. "Let's act our age, shall we? We have to hurry. It's Thursday morning and Sora and Kairi have to change out of their costumes."

Everyone nodded and as they started off down the street, the voice at the back of Sora's mind smiled.

Did too.

- d a y j u a n a: You CAN'T stop I N N O C E N T!!! It will be a tragedy to society—a loss of a Roxette! Roxettes are already scarce, you know. Well, I'm going to add one soon…I'm going to call it What If. I don't know what to do with it, really, though…I've got a basic idea. Well, thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you liked it!

Valor999: I update fast? This one took a bit longer…But thanks so much!

LOTRchic: I'm glad they're starting to work things out, too…The rating on this is K+, I believe. I guess I should change that to T or something, just in case…

MOOnlite-dUSk: Aw…thanks! (Hugs Sora too for no apparent reason)

Bexmar: Thanks! I like depressing sort of things too. Just not for too long, or they get worn out. I know, my costumes sucked—but it would be so boring if Naminé dressed up as a fairy, and Olette dressed up as a pumpkin, and Pence and Hayner dressed up as a cow or something. So I decided to do something different. And what do you mean by "who dresses up as what they had dressed up as?"? Sorry, I just don't understand what you're asking. Well, this is how the maze thingy turns out. Thanks—Ienzo. Got it. And here's a Nobody name that's quite difficult—Ixalana. (It's my best friend's name.)

KeiraLoveKH: Wow, you're very excited. Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you liked it!

KiaraFay: Thanks! Here's your update!

Cheychey41: Thanks! Sora's costume…I just got a kick out of making it, to be honest. I liked Kairi's too! Thanks and here's your update!

Isler: It's okay. You don't have to review EVERY chapter if you don't have the time. Here's your update!

Rahi-1: Thanks! I'm glad you like it and you think it's really nicely punctuated!

Zestychidken2: It does? Hmm…I never really thought of that. I'm happy you like how things are going along! Hopefully she'll make up her mind and she decides she likes Roxas more than Sora…HOPEFULLY. Thanks for reviewing!

Inspire-Illuminate: Thanks! We'll know next chapter, I guess.

Spam Hearts Zexion: Ha, ha…I guess I should've asked you first, huh? Well, I guess this chapter didn't answer much, but it gave you sort of an idea on Sora's view of Kairi.

JesusRocks!!!: Thanks! I have no idea what I dress up as for Halloween…It's all mixed…Last year I dressed up as Merlin, which people found was really strange because I'm a girl. But I knew what I wanted, so…Merlin it was! We must remind ourselves that Roxas is a very kind, thoughtful person, and that unlike us, is not used to beating people up, especially people that are equally as kind and thoughtful like Sora. Well, thanks for reviewing!

Phew. I've got this song stuck in my head called "Banana Phone". It's so WEIRD, but it makes me laugh like nothing you would believe. Anyhow, this chapter was mainly created so that everyone can see Sora's perspective of Kairi, and not much else. Oh, and Sora has a voice at the back of his head.

Well, I'm glad so many people reviewed and now I have over 100 reviews!

Read and review!