Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

A/n: Sorry, this chapter is kind of short. But better a short chapter than no chapter! This is were it gets kind of dark and interesting. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you, Tishannia, I wasn't going to upload this chapter tonight but then I read your review.

Chapter Two

"What!" Riku jumped violently and stared at the girl next to him in a mixture of confusion and fear. She just smiled hopefully and stared back with sparkling blue eyes.

He continued to stare at her and edged backwards, "You're kidding, right? I mean, you don't seriously…" His voice trailed off as her smile turned into a pout. Her face fell and she blushed. 'Oh my god..' He thought, swallowing back the lump in his throat. 'I can't believe this is happening.'

"Oh, Kairi, I didn't mean it like that." he leaned forward and put his hand on her shoulder. This was what he'd wanted since he met her, but for some reason all he wanted to do was run away in fear. 'I never knew girls could be so intimidating…' he groaned internally. She looked back at the movie they were 'watching', but the credits had begun to roll. She looked really upset, but not like she was ready to cry about it.

"I just thought that, you know." He took a deep breath. "That you'd end up with Sora. You two were always a lot closer…" He lowered his voice awkwardly. Kairi spun around to face him.

"Of course we were closer, you were always avoiding us! And just because I care about him doesn't mean I want to marry him! Besides, he's not here anymore, you're the one that came back to me." She looked really angry and he sighed.

"I just feel like it'll make things awkward later. You're really important to me and, you know. It would change everything." Riku tried to explain. He'd never seen her look so disappointed.

"Please." She whispered, tucking her legs under her and curling into the couch.

He couldn't stand it, he didn't know what to do. He knew what he wanted to do, but what about Sora? She crawled closer and rested her face against his neck. Riku wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"Please. It won't be weird, I promise." She whispered again.

"Alright…" He sighed in defeat. Kairi smiled to herself and relaxed against his chest.

Neither of them said anything for several minutes, they just sat there together watching colorful images flash across the TV screen. It was well past midnight, and after the surprise of the evening Riku was tired. He tried to keep his eyes open, but the images on the TV screen were blurring. His head fell back against the couch and he drifted off to sleep. Kairi was still somewhat awake, trying to pay attention to the newscaster on the screen. There was a long red bar across the bottom of the screen below him. She decided she was too tired to really care and closed her eyes.

"We've just received word of a severe storm warning in the next few days. So it is advised that you stay in your home and avoid windows, as the winds are expected to pick up."

xxxxxxx

Riku leaned against a palm tree, waiting for Kairi to come back. He had walked her to her house, but she snuck in her window to avoid her dad. Kairi's dad was known for hating teenagers, he'd even yelled and Sora and Riku for an hour once because they had gotten Kairi back home a few minutes after curfew. He shuddered at the memory.

"Let's go!" She cried suddenly, appearing from behind his tree. He jumped in surprise. She ignored it and grabbed his hand, pulling him down the street toward town.

Riku had to admit, it was a lot less awkward than he thought it would be. She didn't seem any different at all, she was the same Kairi he had grown up with, just holding his hand and seeming a little happier than usual. He watched her as she walked beside him, she was wearing the pink dress she'd worn when they were still fighting the Nobodies. It looked good on her.

"So, were are we going?" He asked curiously, shoving a hand in his pocket. She smiled up at him.

"I promised Selphie I'd go shopping with her today." She said cheerfully.

'She's taking me to show off to her friends…' Riku groaned internally.

It wasn't long before they reached the small town. Kairi waved happily as their friends came into view. Selphie noticed the girl first and rushed forward, Tidus and Wakka walking slowly after her.

"Kairi!" The girl called out, waving back. Several feet in front of them she skidded to a halt and her mouth fell open.

"Oh my god, what is going on here?" She pointed at their joined hands in horror. Tidus and Wakka had appeared behind her and realized what she was pointing at. "You two are seriously-"

"Yup." Kairi flipped her hair nonchalantly and pulled Riku closer, hugging his arm. He fought back a blush and forced a smile. 'What the hell is she doing?'

Selphie seemed unusually surprised, "Oh. Wow, about time, don't you think?" She turned around to glare daggers at Tidus, who looked like he was about to say something.

"Well, shouldn't we get going?" Selphie motioned down the street. Kairi smiled and nodded, yanking Riku forward with her.

xxxxxxx

"You should get this, Selphie, it compliments your eyes!" Kairi held up an unusual looking green dress with white buttons down the sides. Selphie wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Well then you should get something like this!" She smirked and held up an atrociously hot pink sundress.

"Oh yeah? Well I think this would really draw attention to that well-rounded backside of yours. Maybe you could get a date with that cute little blonde over there!" Kairi smiled painfully and showed the younger girl a fanned orange dress with black stripes.

Riku, Wakka, and Tidus sighed. "This is ridiculous, what the hell are they even doing?" Riku groaned, watching the two girls insist on the other wearing the outfit they painstakingly selected for them. Wakka shook his head.

"I'm going home, I've got a date tonight to get ready for!" Wakka said proudly, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking away from them. Tidus called to him pleadingly, but his cries went unheard.

Riku looked down at the boy in pity. 'At least he's not so short anymore' he observed, noticing that Tidus was only a few inches shorter than him now. Looking back up towards the girls he noticed that it had somehow moved from playful to dangerous, they were practically throwing clothing and fake smiles at each other. He darted forward to stop them before they could really start fighting.

"Um, hey, Kairi, you wanna go see a movie?" he asked quickly, taking her by the hand and moving towards the checkout. She smiled brightly and turned to look back at the other girl.

"Yea, good idea! Come on, Selphie, we'll all go to a movie together!" she called back to her. Selphie glowered darkly but followed them.

xxxxxxx

Kairi jumped sharply and grabbed Riku's arm. He looked at her again, she was acting so weird. He noticed her glance behind them then tighten her grip on his arm. He tried to focus on watching the movie. After his incident with Ansem and Kingdom Hearts, he wasn't big on horror movies. But, Kairi had wanted to see it, so here he was. He slowly lost interest as some kind of disturbing, vaguely Nobody looking creature lurched around on the screen. He found himself watching Kairi again, just in time to watch her jump and yelp. She practically jumped into his lap. He rolled his eyes. This movie wasn't that scary, what was she up to? He wrapped an arm around her and she relaxed a bit.

He forced himself to watch the rest of the movie, thoroughly unimpressed. At least Kairi seemed to be enjoying it, the moment the credits rolled she leapt on him in excitement.

"Wasn't that good, Riku? It was so scary! That big guy with the sword scared the crap out of me!" She gushed, grabbing both his hands and staring up at him with wide eyes. He nodded and smiled.

"I'm glad you liked it." He picked up her shopping bag from earlier and lead her out of the theatre. Kairi looked around and scanned the small crowd of people leaving the theatre.

"Do you see Selphie and Tidus anywhere?" She asked Riku. He shook his head, kind of glad they had lost the two.

"Well anyway, that was really great, Riku, thanks!" She gave him a kiss on the cheek and he shifted awkwardly. She smiled. Heavy raindrops began to fall around them and he couldn't help but look up at the sky. He'd never seen such dark clouds before.

"Wow, the wind must have really picked up to blow a storm in that fast." He said quietly. Kairi shuddered and hugged herself, looking up at the clouds fearfully.

"I have a really horrible feeling about this…" She murmured, staring up at the dark sky. "Hey, um, I'm gonna go home for a little bit, I'll meet you at your house later, okay?" She said quickly. Before he even had time to respond she had darted off down the street.

"Okay…" He whispered after her.

xxxxxxx

Riku stood pacing his bedroom floor. The temperature had dropped surprisingly, and he had dug out a coat from his closet. It was almost 7 in the evening and he hadn't heard from Kairi, he was starting to worry. He looked out the window again, the wind was blowing fiercely and rain was falling in torrents. A tree fell across the street and he stared at it. He saw a flash of red down the street and dashed out of his room and down the stairs. He barreled out of the front door and ran through the wind to meet her.

Her frail body was thrown around violently in the powerful winds and she was already soaked from her walk over to him. He threw his arms around her.

"You should have called me, I was really worried." he said loudly over the wind. She shook her head.

"Phone lines are down!" She pulled him forward with her. "We need to get out of here! This is getting really bad!" She yelled back to him. He noticed she had a backpack.

"What? Where should we go? We're on an island!" He yelled back. She glanced back at him and he noticed the fear in her eyes. 'Wow, if she's scared, I should be terrified…'He thought. He realized where they were headed when the docks came into view.

"Whoa, what are you thinking! We can't take the boats out in this! It's suicide!" He called out to her. She looked back at him.

"We need to try!" She said urgently, tossing her backpack into her boat. She pulled him in with her, cut the rope, and shoved off from the dock as hard as she could.

Riku grabbed the paddle before she could get her hands on it and began paddling toward their favorite island. The wind beat against them angrily and pushed their boat around in the churning water. The ocean swelled around them and angry waves crashed against the sides of the tiny boat. It seemed like hours later, but somehow they managed to make it to the island. Riku jumped out before they had even hit land and pulled the boat up on to shore. Kairi grabbed her backpack and ran forward.

He quickly followed her and she threw herself into the secret place, scrambling on all fours to fit through the small cave opening. He dove in after her and found her huddled up against the cave wall, knees tucked up to her chin. She was shivering from the cold and wrapped her coat tighter around herself. He shoved a rock up against the entrance to help block the wind and crawled over to her. The moment he sat down next to her she wrapped herself around him. He took of his coat and draped it over them both, hugging her tightly.

"We'll be safe here, it's okay." he whispered softly in her ear. She looked up at him and tears rolled down her face.

The wind howled ferociously and the sound echoed through the cave. The occasional boom told Riku that the ocean was starting to act up, and all in all he thought it sounded like the apocalypse. He sat there and held Kairi's shaking form for hours, trying to keep her warm. Thunder began to boom outside and he watched in horror as a tree fell across an opening in the cave ceiling. Rainwater leaked down from the hole and pooled on the floor across from the two huddled teenagers.

A violent boom of thunder over head made Kairi cry out in fear, digging her fingernails into Riku's shirt. He hugged her protectively as the wind blew even harder, screaming at them. She stared up at him in terror, rainwater dripping from her saturated hair.

"We're gonna be okay, Kai, I promise. We're safe in here." He placed a reassuring kiss on her forehead.

"But what about them?" She whimpered. "What about all our friends out there on the island?" She sobbed, tears coursing down her cheeks.

Riku didn't want to think about it. He just hugged her to his chest.

End of Chapter Two