Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts II, yada, yada, yada, etc.

Author's Note: Okay, so, I promised this was the last chapter, but I could not fit it all in, so the next one's the last chapter. I PROMISE. However, enjoy the leading to the last chapter in this WONDERFUL chapter. (Applause) …Which is not the last chapter. (Boos)

Warning: No warning! Shoo! Keep reading! Ignore this!

Quick Author Babble: I will miss you all!

Chapter 27: I Love You…Not

Kairi skipped into school, feeling completely happy. There was nothing like being relieved after a humongous tragedy. She opened the doors to the school to see Sora and Yuffie standing in the hallway, arguing about something.

"I said no, Yuffie!" Sora shouted very loudly.

"You have to tell her sometime…oh, hi, Kairi!" Yuffie said, breaking off her sentence halfway to turn to look at her friend.

"Um…good morning," Kairi greeted.

The trio slowly began walking to their lockers.

"What was that argument about?" Kairi asked.

"Nothing!" shouted Sora so quickly Kairi jumped. "I-I mean, n-nothing at all…"

He laughed nervously and sped up a little. Yuffie let out a huge, you-are-so-stupid sigh.

"Moron," she said under her breath.

Sora looked like he was about to argue when Riku came up, silencing everyone in the hallway. Kairi looked around. She'd always thought it was creepy when that happened.

"Well, well, if it isn't my good friends," Riku said.

Everyone around them was listening. Riku looked at everybody around him.

"Excuse me, a little privacy, please?" he snapped, irritated.

Everyone immediately started walking and attempting weak conversations, but Kairi knew they all still had an ear open.

"It came to my attention that Sora happened to be dead?" he asked.

"Yes…but no, not really…" Kairi stuttered defensively. "It was…Well, it was terrible, but…I mean, he never really…"

"I thought we had a conversation about his…'accident,'" Riku said, looking directly at her.

Sora's head immediately turned to her at a neck-breaking pace.

"What?" he asked.

Kairi turned bright pink.

"Back off, Snowy!" snapped Yuffie, sticking her arm in front of Kairi protectively. "Don't you have other people to pick on?!"

"Pick on?" Riku snorted. "Nah…only Sora."

Sora threw him a death glare.

"Kidding!" cried Riku. "Sheesh, none of you can take a joke!"

More death glares. Even Kairi threw in her own, which seemed highly out of character.

"You make me sick!" Yuffie shouted right in his face. "Everything you do is for yourself! No wonder everybody hates you! You know what? I bet they just follow you because they'rescared of you! And no wonder! You're as big as Mt. Everest! And the hair does no good for you either!"

"I-I think that's enough, Yuffie," Kairi stuttered, slightly freaked out at how bold Yuffie was being.

Yuffie looked like she really wanted to continue on with her ranting, and Sora looked very much like he'd like to continue with it as well, but with a warning glare from Kairi his mouth snapped shut once again.

"I don't always think of myself, believe it or not," Riku stated coolly.

"Yeah, right," Yuffie and Sora snorted at the same time.

"No, really," Riku said. "Sora, you're bright enough, you realize what I was doing recently, haven't you?"

Sora crossed his arms and glared at him.

"Manipulating people to your own desires?" he snapped.

"No!" Riku cried. "Sheesh…and they say you're smart!"

"Really?" snapped Yuffie. "Care to explain, genius?"

"Of course," Riku said snidely. "Well, let's see…first off, you all know that Kairi used to be my best friend, correct?"

Everyone nodded.

"Don't know why, really," Yuffie muttered under her breath, which caused Kairi to snort, but she quickly gathered herself and nudged Yuffie.

"We…were close…as you might…remember, Kairi," Riku scratched the back of his head nervously, turning a light shade of crimson, very uncharacteristically.

"Yes," Kairi said, but her voice remained very steady, and no colour reached her cheeks.

"Well, perhaps you wouldn't understand, but I knew you were going to be miserable once I was gone."

"Of course, that's what you always assume, isn't it?" Yuffie snapped. "That the world's going to collapse without you?"

"Actually," he said, throwing Yuffie a dark look, "I was judging by her face every time I saw her in the hallway."

Yuffie gave a little "humph" and turned away.

"No one talked to you afterwards, except for your sister, and not that nicely, I noticed," Riku continued.

"Also a little gift you decided to give to Kairi as well, right?" Sora snapped.

"Do you two ever shut up?" Riku sighed exasperatedly, glaring at Yuffie and Sora.

"Please be quiet for a second, guys," Kairi begged.

"Ugh!" Sora and Yuffie cried at the same time, turning away from Riku and Kairi.

Riku looked at her, resuming conversation as if no one had interrupted.

"Well…I felt kind of…bad," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"The yeti has feelings," Kairi heard Yuffie whisper, and she and Sora exchanged a quiet snicker.

"Shut up, guys!" snapped Kairi, finally irritated.

Yuffie fell into a pout, her bottom lip sticking out miserably. Sora actually looked quite hurt.

"Continue," Kairi said calmly, pushing a strand of strawberry hair from her face.

"No one seemed nice enough to be your best friend in my opinion," Riku remarked, stopping dead from the death-kill glare that Sora was giving him. "And by what I mean by nice is not what you think, Sora, and I didn't mean you. I meant not eternally loyal to popularity, by which I mean me, of course…I knew how much Kairi hated being around Naminé and her 'friends'."

Yuffie sneered at him.

"No offense, Yuffie," Riku said quickly.

"No offense taken," Yuffie sniffed, crossing her arms and sticking her nose snidely into the air.

"Well, I'd lost hope after awhile," Riku said. "I admit, though, I didn't look very hard, considering the overload of homework, but then little, unsuspecting Sora came along."

"Little and unsuspecting?" snapped Sora.

"Okay, okay, but then Sora came along," Riku sighed, rolling his eyes, "and I know an opportunity when I see one. Sora was perfect. He was new to Destiny Islands, he was shy, kind, a total pushover and I knew if I just pushed him a little too far, he'd meet Kairi, no doubt about it."

"Wait…" Kairi said. "So you mean…"

"Yep, me getting under Sora's skin was all on purpose. I knew if I made fun of him long enough, you were sure to step in sometime. Worked out better than I thought. Kairi got even more friends I didn't even expect her to get, like Yuffie…"

Yuffie looked up.

"And Roxas, Leon, Olette, Hayner, Pence, even Naminé after a certain amount of time, my plan was working at its best," Riku continued. "Unfortunately, I had to keep up my jerky façade around Sora after you three created SCARF."

"You knew about SCARF?!" Yuffie cried.

"Look around you," Riku said. "I know about everything."

"He's good," Yuffie admitted, with a little, approving nod of her head.

Kairi felt her breathing become coarse. Her chest swelled up and she grabbed her head in confusion.

"If you cared so much about what happens to me, why didn't you just be my friend in the first place?" she cried.

"It's complicated, Kairi…" Riku began.

"No, it's not, actually," Kairi snapped, fists slowly balling up. "And if you weren't such a jerk, you would realize that!"

Walking past him and shoving his shoulder with hers as hard as she could, she stomped through the hallway angrily, breaking up groups of teenagers as she stormed past them, heat rising to her face.

Sitting in language class, Kairi let out a huge yawn, perched her elbows on her desk and let her head rest sleepily on her palms. They were presenting their poems today, and there was nothing like bad poetry that made people feel like falling asleep.

Kairi was still busy registering everything Riku had said. It was kind of stupid, really. It wasn't "complicated" in the least. Boys were stupid, Kairi finally concluded. None of them could piece anything together without making it seem difficult. She looked lazily up at the girl with long, orange hair and freckles presenting her poem at the front of the class.

"Bumble bees a-buzzing, birds a-chirping, flowers a-growing…" she continued in a monotone voice.

Kairi groaned. This was so painful, she thought her ears were going to bleed. The only good thing about this class was that all her friends were there. She felt something light hit her head.

"What the…?" she murmured, looking up tiredly.

She turned in her chair to find a paper wad behind her that had hit her head. Picking it up, she opened it up to find a note scrawled across the paper:

You're not seriously THAT mad at Riku, are you?

Kairi looked up to see Sora smile and wave at her. Turning back to the note, she took out her own pencil.

You're such a hypocrite, Sora. You HATE him.

Taking careful aim, she threw the wad right back at him. No one noticed because either they were worrying about their poem or asleep.

It wasn't long before the wad once again landed on her desk.

Yeah, but I was the one being bullied. He just cared about you. I should be the one really mad.

Kairi read over the note at least ten times, feeling even more confused before.

Yeah…but why couldn't he have just told me he wanted to be my friend?

Trust me, you heard him talk before. It sounds like he has a reason for everything. There's got to be a reason for this too. He did say it was "complicated."

You're right. Maybe I should talk to him befo

"Kairi!"

Kairi looked up, halfway through her note. Mr. Xaldin was frowning upon her, looking quite dangerous.

"I've called you're name five times!" he snapped. "That better not be your poem you're working on."

"No, sir," Kairi said, standing up and reaching into her desk for her poem.

Students around her were giggling. Sora looked slightly guilty.

She walked to front of the class, looked nervously around, and looked down at her poetry.

"He'll meet you when it's light out. He'll save your life. He'll sing you a song. He'll hold you when you need to cry. He'll tell you when you've made a mistake. He'll see you're past. He'll be with you no matter what. He'll fill you with excitement. He'll miss you when you're gone. He'll whisper poems in your ear. It'll kill you when he's gone. What do you call him? You call him 'friend.'"

There was a long silence, and then the classroom burst into applause. Possibly it'd been the only good poem they're heard all day.

"Very nice, Kairi," Mr. Xaldin said. "You may take your seat now."

"Nice poem," Sora said as they left the classroom.

"Not really," Kairi commented, stopping at her locker. "It was kind of lame, really."

"Not as lame as the 'bees and birds' girl," Sora remarked.

"Well, yeah, but no one was as lame as that."

They laughed a little. Riku walked past them, Selphie and Tidus fast at his heels. Kairi stopped to stare. Riku's icy blue eyes locked with hers for a few seconds, but soon he walked past her.

"What are you waiting for?" Sora asked. "Talk to him!"

"Tidus and Selphie are there…" Kairi stuttered uncertainly.

"Who cares?" Sora remarked. "Go, quickly, before he leaves!"

Giving her a light push towards him, Sora smiled smugly as she looked terrified and turned back to him.

"No, no, no!" she cried. "Maybe later, when he's alone, it'll only embarrass the both of us…"

"Kairi," he said, giving her a warning look.

"Okay, okay."

She took in a deep breath and walked down the hallway, trying to keep in pace with Riku. She walked up to him. Selphie's lime green eyes were locked on her most dangerously.

"Riku, I need to talk to you," Kairi stated, stepping right in front of Riku's path.

"You'd better get out the way, or…" Tidus threatened, holding up his fist.

"No, it's okay, Tidus," Riku said. "Let her talk."

"Thanks, Your Highness!" Kairi snapped. "I was wondering what's so complicated about being my friend."

"We're Riku's only friends, got that?" Selphie growled.

"Not really," Kairi said snidely.

Her piercing, violet eyes met Riku's icy, blue ones, and after what seemed like forever, he opened his mouth.

"I couldn't," he breathed finally. "I couldn't have been your friend. I know that because popularity was calling out to me. I was accepted into the higher crowd and you…weren't. And we were different. I always felt bad for you. I liked being your friend, really, but I knew this was more my place."

"We could still be friends, from different sides of whatever you define as 'popularity,'" Kairi said calmly.

"Maybe."

Riku smiled thinly and walked away. Selphie and Tidus, looking absolutely stunned, took a few moments before gathering their thoughts and trotting after him.

"Well?" Sora said, walking up to her.

Kairi broke into a smile as happiness erupted in her.

"He was right. It's complicated."

Sora and Kairi walked out of Destiny High, onto the beautiful grounds that surrounded it. Kairi had no idea where Yuffie went, but she could see Roxas, Olette, Pence, and Hayner standing on the other side of the lawn, sitting on one of the stone benches and talking. In a dark corner hidden by the shadows of the school, Leon was leaning against the wall and reading a book.

"Kairi, babe!"

Kairi and Sora turned to see a tall boy with spiky, red hair and electric green eyes.

"Hi, Axel," Kairi said, smiling.

"Hello, Kairi," Axel replied, smiling, his face falling as he saw Sora. "Sora."

"Axel," Sora stated with gritted teeth, just to contemplate his presence.

After a few laser-like glares, Axel turned so his back was facing Sora.

"Anyway, just thought I'd say 'goodbye' my way," Axel said, smiling mischievously.

He leaned in. Kairi found herself rather terrified as she noticed his face getting closer and closer to hers. She turned to see Sora, looking both revolted and angry. She looked at Axel, finding herself strangely wishing that he was someone else…someone different…

Hastily, she put her hand to his mouth to stop him from getting any closer.

"No," she said.

Axel looked at her in confusion.

"Axel, this isn't working. You're not the kind of person I want to be with."

"What?" he said, looking slightly irritated.

"Listen…I think I made a mistake doing this to you. I never really thought of you as"—she winced slightly at his expression—"a person really as important to me as to mention the word love. That's why we never said anything close to an 'I love you' to each other. It was just sort of a…a…"

"Fling?" suggested Sora with slight amusement in his voice.

"Yes!" Kairi said, then turned back to look at Axel. "I mean no! Ugh…I don't know! I was just frustrated, Axel. I always thought low of myself, and then you came along, and…and…ugh…I don't know…I just felt…wanted."

"I can't believe this…" Axel muttered.

Kairi felt relief and guilt hit her all at once.

"Well, you know, you're very charming and funny and all that!" she chirped, trying to sound cheery. "I mean, some girl's going to get very lucky, and she'll be right for you, I know it! I'm…I'm just not the kind of girl you want. I'm sorry."

"Whatever," Axel said, aggravated, and he stormed out of the grounds.

Kairi let out a huge sigh—out of relief or sadness, she did not know. Sora walked up to her with a sort of triumph in his step.

"Where did that come from?" he asked.

"Mm…I don't know," Kairi replied, shrugging slightly. "It just occurred to me…Guess I'm the kind of person who needs to be on the spot before I realize stuff, huh?"

"Also described as 'oblivious,'" Sora stated matter-of-factly.

Kairi whacked him over the head with her hand.

"Ow!" Sora shouted. "What was that for?"

"For being a smart Alec," Kairi replied. "Come on, Mr. Dictionary, let's go home."

Sora rubbed the spot where she hit his head and grinned.

Okey-dokey, time to reply to those remarks/questions:

He's alive, and I am not a Sora-killer!

YAY, Sara Roman!!!

Indeed, character death is a perfect plot. Mwa, ha, ha.

What CAN you do with those redhead stealers?

Yep, I defeated Defender X long, long ago.

I DEFEATED SEYMOUR FLUX!!! YES!!! I SURVIVED TOTAL ANNIHILATION!!! (Sorry, I've been waiting for that all day.)

I will work on finding FFVII.

No sequels in mind for this story. However, there will be an epilogue.

Thanks for the "excellent work" compliments!

It was kind of obvious, I know. Sorry.

Indeed, Sora needs to open his mouth…and…not…like, more talking—like, telling evil secrets…

I laughed when I made the bathroom part.

YAY!!! Sora-rebirther! Lol.

Reporters are stupid. In this story…anyway…

Not…last chapter…sorry…

Aw…I'm not a pure genius…Though that is very nice; I thank you for that, Josh.

I'm sorry…it was a bit rushed, I know. The problem was I found the previous chapter very, very hard to write with. That's why I'm ending this story next chapter.

I'll update as fast as I can next time.

Okay, thanks, next chapter…last (not counting the epilogue).

Read and review!