I CAN BARELY SAY

Chapter Two: Getting Settled

"It definitely went better than I expected, yeah." Sora nodded before frowning, "Now I just have to figure out how and when to tell her I'm still in love with her."

Riku gave a big shrug, staring at Sora from an arm chair on the other side of the living room, "You got me there. I guess just try to work up to it gradually; in the meantime, get reacquainted with everyone else on the island."

The brunette sprawled out on the couch, "Yeah and I gotta try to find a job sometime soon, too. Talked about that earlier with Kairi plus I told my mom I would as well if I didn't go back to school."

He raised an eyebrow, "You're not going to try and see if you can take classes?"

"I will, but I just want to get used to being here again." Sora shut his eyes and cringed, adding, "Not to mention I could probably use some tutoring in just about everything before I try to take classes for real. They might even make me go back to high school and take classes before I can go to the university, I dunno."

Riku leaned back, nodding, "Ah, yeah. I didn't really think about that. What would you study in school, anyway? Just curious."

The younger boy shook his head, "No idea about that either. So yeah, it's definitely the best thing to just try and get everything figured out before jumping into it." Looking up towards Riku he asked, "What are you studying? I think I forgot to ask."

"Business." He replied simply.

"Gotcha." Sora replied with a nod, "I can see you doing that." Getting up from the couch and motioning towards the door, he suggested, "I can walk with you half way to the university if you want. Since I have nothing better to do, I got assigned to go grocery shopping."

Riku stood up, walking towards the door, "Sure."

Once they had both walked out the door and Sora had locked it, they both started down the path into town. Sora started out walking casually before realizing Riku was walking at a much more brisk pace. Speeding up, he asked, "Did I keep you too late?"

"What?" Riku turned his head to look at Sora, "Oh, no. It's just kind of habit." He slowed down a little.

"Okay, good. Just making sure." He nodded with a small smile, "I know you're trying to help me feel comfortable again, but I don't want you or anyone else to put me in front of all their other responsibilities. I'll be okay."

"I won't, school's definitely way more important than you." Riku teased with a tousle of Sora's hair.

Sora laughed, "You're joking, but it's true."

The older boy shook his head, "School is really important, but if there's ever a time where you really need me, you'd come first."

"Thanks, Riku." He gave a small smile, "I'd say I'd do the same for you but I don't have anything else important going on right now."

Riku laughed as well, "Don't worry. You will soon."

Coming up onto the entrance of the grocery store, Sora commented, "This is my stop. I'll see you later!" He waved.

"See ya." Riku waved back, continuing straight down the path and further into town.

"Hello!" The cashier greeted with a quick glance but didn't really look at him.

"Hey." Sora replied back, glad that they didn't really pay attention to who he was or else they would have caused a scene about not seeing him in forever. But of course that part would come anyway, once he went to the cash register to check out.

Absent mindedly grabbing a cart, he dug in his pocket for the list his mom had given him. Unfolding it and reading over it, he commented to himself, "Alright, got it." Making his way through the maze of aisles he grabbed all of the things on his mom's list with a few improvisations.

When he made it back to the check-out line, it went exactly like he thought it would. "Sora! I heard from your mom that you were home, but wow, you've really grown up since I last saw ya!" The man greeted him as Sora started unloading all of the groceries.

"Hey, Sam. Yeah, it's been a while." He gave a small smile.

"Your mom's already got you back at work, huh?" He joked as he scanned and bagged the groceries.

Sora shrugged, "Eh, it's the least I can do. I'd just be laying around the house otherwise."

"Ah, I see." He finished bagging the last of the groceries and hit a few buttons on the register, saying, "That'll be $42.50."

"Okay," Sora dug in his pockets and pulled out the $50 his mom had left on the counter for him that morning, "Here you go."

"Say hi to your mom for me." He requested as he handed the change back.

Sora nodded as he loaded up the grocery bags onto his arms, "Will do. Bye!" With that, he walked out of the store and started heading back towards his house until he heard a voice from behind him.

"Whoa! Sora, is that you?"

Spinning around curiously, he smiled as he saw Tidus, "Hey! Yeah, it's me. How's it going?" It was a little weird seeing how much Tidus had grown. He was definitely still very much a kid when Sora first left the islands and now he was just a bit taller than him.

"Good, good!" He grinned, "Man, I haven't seen you in forever."

"Yeah, I know… Sorry about that." He smiled apologetically, wanting to scratch the back of his neck but his hands were weighed down by the groceries.

Tidus shook his head vigorously, "Nah! Don't worry about it. What've you been up to since you've been back to the islands? Aside from, you know, that." He pointed at the groceries.

Sora laughed, "Not much… I've just hung around the house with my mom and Riku. Then I saw Kairi for a little while yesterday. I need to start looking for a job soon, though…"

"Hey, my dad could use some help at his construction company. That is if you don't mind working outside a lot—which I'm sure you don't, considering what you've been doing for the past few years." Tidus started to babble, "Unless you're tired of being outside too much—"

Sora cut him off, "Tidus." The blonde boy shut his mouth and stared at him intently as he continued, "That sounds great."

"Cool! Okay, just show up at the office tomorrow around 8. He'll find something for you to do." He motioned towards the town.

"Thanks! I really, really appreciate it." Sora looked down at the bags on his arms, "I probably need to get home while this stuff is still cold but yeah, thank you again. I'll see you around."

Tidus grinned and waved as he started to walk off in the other direction, "No problem! See ya."

The rest of Sora's trip home was fairly uneventful since most people were either at school or work, leaving the residential side of the island practically abandoned. Once he was home, as he walked through the front door, he noticed that there was a message on the answering machine.

"Huh." He commented to himself, wondering if maybe his mom had called him during her lunch hour to check and see if he had gone grocery shopping yet.

When he had gotten everything put away, he moved back to the front hallway and pressed the play button. Surprisingly, he heard Kairi's voice, "Hey, Sora. It's Kairi. Um, I was just wondering if you'd maybe want to go watch the sunset with me like we used to do? I think it'd be a good chance to catch up a little more. So if you wanna come, I'll be back at my apartment around four o'clock. It's in the Bay Tree apartment complex and I'm in building 206 apartment D. Hope I see you then! Bye."

Sora smiled to himself, wandering into the living room to check the time. She still sounded nervous and shy but at least she wanted to see him. That was definitely a plus.

Seeing that it was almost two, he sprawled out on the couch and yawned, "Looks like I've got time to take a nap."

Waking up about an hour later, he scrambled to make sure that he looked at least somewhat presentable. After throwing on a fresh shirt and trying to tidy his hair (and failing), he was out the door. Kairi's apartment complex wasn't too far from his house but he walked a little bit faster to be on time. In the past, Sora was pretty much always late, so Kairi was used to saying a time and not expecting him to show up until ten or fifteen minutes past. Having the chance for a fresh start, Sora was determined to change that.

Knocking on Kairi's door, Sora heard Selphie's voice call out in a sing-song voice, "Just a second!"

As the younger girl opened the door, he greeted cheerfully, "Hey, Selphie."

At first she was smiling but her face fell once she saw him. "Oh, it's you." She commented sourly.

Frowning, Sora stared down at his feet for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Looking back up, he just asked, "Is Kairi home yet?"

"No. And you should go home, Kairi doesn't want to see you." Selphie crossed her arms.

Sora furrowed his eyebrows, "She was the one who invited me."

The younger girl looked surprised before firing back, "She had a temporarily lapse in judgment."

"Selphie, I don't—" Sora began with a sigh before he heard Kairi's voice from behind him.

"Selphie! I can't believe you." She glared daggers at her friend.

She glanced between them, replying, "I can't believe you! I've seen you cry way too many times over him. I'm not letting you get hurt again."

Sora frowned, his heart sinking in his chest and ready to tell Kairi that Selphie was right until Kairi started talking. "It's my choice to work things out with him, okay? I'll talk to you later about this." She gently grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the apartment, "C'mon, Sora. Come inside for a minute while I get changed."

"O-okay." He replied nervously, Selphie shooting him a disapproving look as she stepped out of the way and Kairi guided him to her bedroom. Closing the door behind them, they heard Selphie go to her own room and shut the door loudly.

Kairi looked up to him, frowning deeply, "I'm so sorry."

Sora shook his head, "Don't worry about it. She's just trying to be a good friend." It definitely still stung, though. More than he could try and put into words.

"Still. She didn't have to be so rude about it." She sighed before gesturing towards her bed, "You can sit down, if you want. I just definitely want to change into something new after walking back and forth around the island all day." She walked over to her closet.

He sat down on her bed, watching her and asking curiously, "You have to walk around that much for classes?"

"I have a job at the coffee shop too." She answered as she picked out a white dress, holding it in front of her as she turned back to him.

"Where's your uniform?" He tilted his head.

"There. I mean, it's just an apron on top of my clothes, basically." She pointed to her backpack that she had dropped on the floor after they walked into the room, "Anyway, I'm gonna go change. Just hang tight."

He nodded, watching her go out of the room, "Okay."

Once she had closed the door behind her, he glanced around her bedroom. Much to his surprise, it wasn't that different from when she still lived with her parents. She still had a color scheme of pink, purple and white and a few of the same movie posters still decorated her walls. She also had a few photos posted to the wall but he wasn't quite brave enough to get up and look at that part of her life that he'd missed.

"You ready to go?" Kairi opened the door and peeked her head in.

"Yeah." He nodded, jumping up from the bed and heading towards her. Once Sora was out the door and could see Kairi's entire outfit, he felt his face begin to grow a little warm. She had put her hair up into a messy bun and he could now see that her white sundress actually was covered by tiny little blue flowers. And he wasn't imagining things, she was quite a bit curvier than the last time he saw her.

Noticing his stare, she asked with a bit of a smile, "What?"

"You look really nice." Sora answered shyly, looking away.

They both heard a loud scoff from Selphie's room and Kairi rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Sora." She smiled brightly, "Let's get going." A small distance away from her apartment building, she sighed, "Again, I'm really sorry about Selphie. She's being so over dramatic."

Sora frowned again and started to drag his feet as they walked, "I guess you must have been really upset for a long time."

"I was… but you're here now, right?" She gave his arm a light touch, "Let's just focus on that right now. We'll talk about everything else sometime soon but tonight's supposed to be about fun, okay?"

With a small smile, Sora looked up at her and repeated, "Okay."

"Good." She smiled too and locked her hands behind her back as they walked. Letting a moment of silence pass by, she spoke quietly, "You know, I haven't been to the play island in a while."

"Neither have I." Sora replied jokingly and Kairi let out a small laugh, "But seriously, why not?"

She shrugged, "It just didn't feel right. It doesn't feel right alone and even when I went with Riku it just felt off. It really only feels right when I know all three of us are here at home."

He nodded along silently until they reached the row boats, "I would offer to take my boat, but mine's kind of out of commission. Glad you took care of yours even though you haven't used it. By the way, I can still row, if you want."

Kairi stared at him for a moment before answering, embarrassed, "Oh, sure. Thank you."

"Not a problem." He went to go untie the boat from the dock, Kairi lingering where was and twiddling her fingers. Pulling it closer to the shore and holding it steady for her, he called out, "Here."

"Thanks." She climbed into the boat and sat down on the side that pointed towards the water.

Sora climbed in as well before dipping his hands back into the water and shoving off from the shore. Beginning to row, he said, "So… I got a job."

Kairi raised her eyebrows in interest, "That's great, Sora! Where is it?"

"Helping out Tidus's dad doing construction work. Probably working on houses, I think. I've helped out once or twice before without getting paid so it'll be cool to get money for it for once." He finished with a laugh.

She giggled, "I'm sure."

"By the way, how's your job at the coffee shop?" He asked curiously.

"It's good. It's kind of hectic sometimes, but overall I like it." She smiled, further explaining, "My coworkers are nice and most of the customers are too. Though, occasionally you'll get the really picky people or you'll get the people who are in a rush to get to work and take it out on you."

He smiled apologetically, "Ugh, I'm sure that sucks."

She nodded, "It can, but thankfully those incidents aren't super common."

"How badly do you have to bite your tongue sometimes?" He teased.

She laughed loudly, answering, "Oh, man. Really badly. I definitely can't talk to them like I do to you and Riku or I would get fired."

Sora grinned, pausing his rowing for a moment, "I figured. I guess I'm glad I won't really have to deal with customers face to face like you do."

She shrugged, "It has its perks, too. But the first couple of times I got rude people, it did really ruin my day."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Sora replied before commenting, "We're almost there, we'll be at the dock in a minute."

Kairi turned around to look at the island, obviously surprised, "Wow, that was fast!"

"We were talking pretty much the whole time." Sora said as he rowed the last few times before the boat's bottom hit the sand.

A light blush appearing on her cheeks, Kairi commented, "Your upper body strength from using the keyblade probably helps a lot, too."

Glancing at his arms before getting out to tie up the boat, he replied sheepishly, "I guess so."

Climbing on to the dock, she stood over him and watched him, adding, "That was one of the first things I noticed after coming home; how strong my arms were. But unfortunately that went away really quickly." She finished with a small laugh.

"It's good I'm doing construction work, then. Hopefully I can retain it for a little while." He pulled himself up onto the dock.

"Mhm." Kairi nodded as they walked towards the end of the dock and took their seats.

Looking out over the ocean for a moment, Sora turned back to see Kairi had a wide grin on her face. Amused, he asked, "What are you smiling about?"

"It almost feels like I'm in high school again." She continued staring out towards the ocean, swinging her legs back and forth, "Like nothing changed at all."

"Oh." He didn't know what to say, looking away from her and switching his focus to his feet, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Sora?"

He titled his head back up, looking at her attentively, "Hmm?"

Kairi smiled at him briefly before looking back out over the ocean again, seemingly hiding her face, "Did you ever watch the sunset while you were out on other worlds?"

"Sometimes, yeah." He nodded, "But the one here at home is definitely the best. It's way more beautiful than any of the others."

"Hmm… Is that so?" Kairi replied, but he wasn't sure if she was just acknowledging his answer or if she was really asking.

Unsure of how to respond yet again, Sora looked down beneath the dock for a minute before saying, "I think I'm gonna go in the water."

Kairi squinted, "Right now? Did you even bring swim trunks?"

"No." He shook his head, "But it wouldn't be the first time I swam in my clothes so why not? I haven't had the chance to do any swimming yet, so it's just really tempting."

She studied him for a moment before shrugging, "I mean, I won't stop you if you really want to."

"Alright, I'm gonna go for it." He laughed, lifting his shirt and teasingly throwing it at Kairi.

She let out a squeak as the shirt covered her face, "Hey!" She quickly threw it down onto the dock and crossed her arms.

Sora laughed before jumping down onto the sand and then wading out into the water, "It's actually a pretty good temperature. Sure you don't want to join me?"

Kairi eyed him suspiciously but smiled, "Considering my options are A. swim in a white dress which is pretty much the same as option B. swimming in my underwear, I'm gonna have to say the answer is no. I'll take a rain check."

"Alright, but you're missing out." He laid on his back, letting himself float on top of the water.

She shook her head, "I'll be okay." Sora watched as she lifted her legs back onto the dock. She then stood and jumped down into the sand, continuing, "I'll just get my feet wet."

He raised an eyebrow suggestively, "That's how it always starts…"

Kairi rolled her eyes, "Shush. Unless you drag me all the way, I swear it's all I'm doing." Pointing a finger at Sora, she warned, "And don't you dare try."

He threw his hands up defensively, "I won't, I won't."

She stared at him intently, "Promise?"

He stared back for a moment, serious, before his lips curled upwards into a grin, "No, I can't promise."