Chapter Five:

Riku burst out laughing, haunching over and tears forming in his eyes. Kairi and Sora glared at him, and Roxas finally let go of his brother.

"I don't see how that's funny," Roxas cocked his heard to the side. Riku wiped a tear from his eye.

"Sure Xion and I'm the king of France." Riku replied through snorts of laughter. "Right Sora?" he nudged his best friend.

"Her name's Kairi," Sora replied simply. Riku stared at her.

"And I'm the princess," Kairi added, "Get used to it peasant," she mocked cheekily.

"Bite me M'lady," Riku replied with equal attitude.

Kairi spent the night at Sora's, quite a lot of the night talking about her life with the boys. Roxas was particularly enthralled by all the parties that were held at the castle.

"Guys, time to sleep!" Riku groaned a few hours after sunset, "Happy dreams," he winked at Kairi and climbed into his hovel.

"Party pooper," Roxas stuck his tongue out at Riku and dived onto the mattress on the floor. "Kairi, you can sleep with Sora." he yawned oblivious to exactly what he was suggesting. Kairi blushed furiously and wondered exactly where she would sleep.

"don't mind them, you take the couch, I'm going for a walk." Sora told her, he headed out the door after blowing out the candle. Kairi sat on the couch in the dark in thought. She thought a lot about the last few days. Her meeting Sora, Roxas and Riku, Sora's trial and rescue and of course what she was going to do when she got back to the castle.

She heard Riku and Roxas begin to snore softly and decided to find Sora. Not after shifting Roxas back on the mattress since he's decided to hang off it.

The first place she though of was the river cave. Sora said he went there when he was lonely or when he missed his parents, maybe he went there to think as well.

"Sora are you in here?" she called out from the mouth of the cave, she walked in slowly and found Sora curled up on the lip over the water, fast asleep. She smiled to herself and wonder if she should wake him or leave him be.

She sat down next to him and hummed to herself, he stirred slightly. She chuckled to herself and kept humming. Sora rolled over in his sleep and snuggled up to Kairi's legs. Kairi laid down around Sora and drifted off to sleep.

OoOoO

"Xehanort will find it suspicious if we're not panicking Naminé," Zexion found his daughter in the library, sitting calmly in one of the many armchairs set out in a semi circle. "Particularly if if you're not in a frenzy about it" he added.

"Yes, but we can't have the royal guard up in arms, searching for her," Naminé replied, "And you know if she'd really gone missing I'd be requesting that in a heartbeat." she added looking up briefly from her book as Zexion took the seat next to her. He placed his hand on his chin

"We could look for her," Zexion suggested

"Us?" Naminé asked.

"We don't want the royal guard up in arms, but we can't let Xehanort think we're doing nothing about it, so we tell him we're looking for her." he offered.

"Because if we're looking there's no reason for the royal guard" Naminé agreed. "let's go!" they both leapt out of their chairs to go see the steward.

OoOoO

"father, we're not doing a good job at this," Naminé said to Zexion. The two of them stood out among the city folk. It wasn't often Nobels travelled through the slums, and even rarer for them to be travelling on foot.

"never the less, Xehanort won;t be sending the royal guard through the streets" Zexion replied wisely.

"Point taken," Naminé sighed. The people of the slums were all grubby and dirty. Naminé didn't like them touching her, but the crowd was too thick for them to avoid it. She felt it was just one of the downfalls of being overly clean and preferring to wear white.

"Where does this 'Sora' live anyway?" Zexion asked, "I do hope it's not that cave we found his brother at," he said with disgust. Recalling their meeting with Roxas and Riku when Kairi was attending a trial. He briefly wondered where that prisoner had gone, he'd escaped somehow along with the princess.

"I wouldn't think so." Naminé replied "It's almost noon, so Kairi would be awake" Naminé mused, "the best place to look would be that cave, it seems to be important to both her and Sora," she deducted.

"Let's got then," Zexion agreed.

OoOoO

Kairi awoke before Sora, she was glad to not be in the castle for once, even if her hip was hurting from sleeping on the ground. She nudged Sora awake so she could stretch, Sora yawned and rolled over. Kairi chuckled and sat up. Stretching the kinks and knots out of her body. She then curled up on top of Sora's side and played with his hair.

"Do you mind," Sora muttered, glaring at her through one eye. She knew Sora wasn't actually annoyed at her, he was playing around.

"Not at all," Kairi grinned in reply. He shifted onto his back so Kairi was now laying on his chest. She liked being able to hear his heartbeat.

"My girlfriend's the princess," Sora laughed to himself. Kairi stopped playing with his hair and pouted.

"If that's the case, then my boyfriend's a peasant." Kairi replied. Sora laughed again and kissed her forehead.

Kairi found it hard to believe she'd only known Sora for a few days, it felt like forever. He knew her almost as well as Naminé did. There were not many people who know the real princess Kairi. She was glad she didn't have to hide who she was any more, it made her more comfortable to be able to respond to her own name.

"You love me anyway," Sora chuckled.

"You're lucky I do," Kairi replied, "I do have the power to hang or imprison you," she 'booped' his nose.

"Does said Imprisonment involves visit from you?" he asked in an attempt of seduction. Kairi had to admit it was kind of working. She poked him in the ribs.

"The way you're going, I don't think I could stay away." she kissed him softly. The two of them lay there in complete bliss, watching the twinkle of the cavern walls from the glowing water. Kairi wished she could stay there forever, but she knew not only would she have to face Naminé and Zexion, Xehanort would chew her face off for leaving the castle grounds.

"Time to get up," Sora said reluctantly, both he and Kairi scrambled off the cave floor. Kairi sighed sadly.

"This sucks," she muttered and took a step towards the cave entrance, "I have to go back to the castle now," she sighed again. Sora wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"I don't want you to go," he nuzzled her neck, "The security will be way stricter," he kissed her cheek. "You won't be able to get out," he added sadly.

"You remember the way in don't you?" Kairi asked and she grabbed his hands and held them. Sora though for a moment and nodded, "You can come see me whenever you want, Naminé and Zexion are the only ones allowed in my room." she told him, "And they both know about us,"

"I'll be there every night," he told her. They shared a parting kiss before Kairi left the cave.

Only three steps from the cave Kairi was confronted by and unimpressed Zexion and Naminé.

"Hello princess," Zexion greeted sternly.

"Hi guys," Kairi mumbled in defeat.

OoOoO

omg so much fluff in this chapter. Make you feel all fuzzy inside doesn't it. But wait it gets better, because in the next chapter there's even MORE fluff :D fluffy fluffy fluff fluff (try saying that ten times real quick.)

more coming your way, so review and what not and make me feel happy!!!

~shazi-chan