Finally Chapter 2! Sorry it's so short and took so long. It's kind of slow getting started, and I am not 100 sure where this is going to be going, but I do have a few fun ideas that I can't wait to get to! Read and review, please! Constructive criticism is always welcome.

disclaimer: i do not own kh, kh2 or kh:com. unfortunately. they belong to tetsuya nomura. i do however own axel and roxas in plushie form who are permanently stuck cuddling on my bed, and i do own sora and riku in sims2 form in which sora is currently expecting riku's child! UPDATE: it's a beautiful healthy baby girl! clearly kh would have been in trouble if i had owned it. oh yeah, no ownage of any ffness eithernow, onto the story!

-----------------------------------------CHAPTER 2----------------------------------------------

Roxas might as well have set his alarm. My body was too excited to stay asleep for long so I was rising with the sun, hurrying to get showered and dressed, then down to get some breakfast. There was an upside to showing up for breakfast so early, I was able to snag a box of froot loops which are usually gone long before I get anywhere near the cafeteria.

I did respect Riku's wishes to be allowed to sleep in later. To give him a little extra time, I went to the drama room to see if my teacher was in and hopefully get a head start on what we would be doing this year. I wasn't at all surprised to see Ms. Kisaragi (better known to most of us as Yuffie) in the classroom, she was such a morning person.

"Sora! How are you!" She greeted me excitedly, rushing over to give me a hug. Yuffie was pretty typical of a drama teacher, minus being old. But she was very loud, outgoing and over-the-top. And dramatic.

"I'm great, how are you, ma'am?" Finally I was able to pry myself away from her.

"Oh I have so many ideas for this year, it's going to be great! I can't wait to get started on everything." Her arms were all over the place as she spoke. She always did have a way of evading direct questions like that.

"Yeah? Like what?" I gave her my best smile, my eyes hopeful, though my expression fell as she suddenly stood very stern in front of me.

"Now Sora, you know better than that! It wouldn't be fair for me to give you an advantage over the other students. You will just have to wait till the first day of school like everyone else."

"Not even just a hint?" Another attempt at an innocent pleading face but she simply shook her head. "Oh, fine then. I should get going anyway, I have a date today! Well, not a date, but... you know. See ya, Ms. Kisaragi!" I waved hurriedly then ran out of the classroom and back to the dorm rooms. It was still a little too early to go see Riku, thoughI was sure Roxas was already in their room since he wasn't in ours. But I still didn't want to appear too eager. I decided to lay on my bed and read for an hour, then head off, though it wasn't going so well seeing as I was having a very hard time concentrating, indeed.

Finally it felt like enough time had passed and I fixed myself in the mirror before heading out the door, calmly, and this time waiting for the elevator. I knocked softly on the door, of course, not wanting to come across as too eager. Five seconds passed, then ten, then fifteen. I was starting to wonder if I had knocked too softly and was raising my fist to knock again when the door finally opened.

"Oh, hi Riku! I didn't wake you, did I?" I smiled, turning a little pink as I just stared up at him. He didn't look like he had only just woken up, his hair was perfect, as were his clothes, his eyes, that smile... But, he had just taken so long to come to the door, I knew something had to be up.

"No, I've been awake for a little while." His smile grew and he let me step inside. I looked around to see if Roxas and Axel were around, but they weren't and I frowned when I saw who was. "Sora, this is Kairi. Kairi, my new friend Sora."

She gave an annoyingly sweet smile, her pretty almost-violet eyes squinting shut as she did, nodding her head and letting out a short giggle. "Hi Sora, pleasure meeting you!"

I glared at her and ran forward, grabbing her hair and shoving her down to the floor, then proceeded to grab all the blankets and pillows from the bed she had been sitting on and hurled them at her. When I ran out of ammo I sat on top of her and held a pillow, trying my best to smother her with Riku cheering me on in the background. "I'll steal your boyfriend if it's the last thing I do!"

Okay, so that isn't really what I did, but the scene did flash in my mind and I would have liked to very much. Instead I just back and nodded. "Hi Kairi, nice meeting you, too. But, did anyone tell you girls aren't allowed in the boys' dorm rooms?" Well, I couldn't be perfectly polite. And sure, it was a rule, but no one hardly ever enforced it. Boys in the girls' rooms was a little more strict, but they were still a little lax on that one too.

I felt a little bad about my outburst when her face immediately fell. Already it seemed like it would be hard to hate her, she came across as such a nice person. But her annihilation was certain anyhow. "Oh, no, I didn't know." She looked at Riku helplessly and I scowled, but quickly softened my features as he turned to me, looking unsure of what to do, and I sighed.

"But, I won't tell anyone. Just don't get caught." Offering a forced grin, I glanced around the room, and saw a few more paintings laying out. I wasn't sure where they came from, they couldn't possibly have been stuffed in those two boxes. But I was grateful for the opportunity to change the topic. "Are these yours?" Though I didn't look at him, Riku knew the question was directed at him and I stepped a little closer, this time certain it was allowed since he had invited me.

"Yeah, just a few of them that Kairi brought with to hang in her room." So that explained where they had been hiding and why she was here. This only annoyed me further.

"Oh Sora, you should see his house! He has so many paintings, and they are all really good!"

I merely nodded, stepping right up to the bed and studying the paintings. They were all beautifully done, dark yet vibrant colors were splashed on the canvases, and the ones Kairi had brought all portrayed a cloaked figure battling mysterious beings with an oddly shaped weapon.

But the one that caught most of my attention was the one I'd seen from the previous night. Since it was now lifted onto the bed, propped against the wall I could see that it was indeed a castle. And a rather odd one at that with strange angles that made it look rather crooked. There were three tiny figures seen heading towards the entrance, though they were too small for me to make out any details. It also didn't help that there was a sort of mist covering the entire painting. And upon another glance at the overall scene, I realized that one half was painted in shades closer to nighttime while the other reflected those more seen during the day, albeit still rather dark.

"Hmm... I like this one a lot. But.. I'm not really sure why." It was hard for me to tear my glance away from the painting until I heard Riku's voice.

"I do, too. It's one of my favorites. I'm oddly attached to it." I turned to the older boy, expecting to see him eyeing the painting himself since he was speaking of it so fondly, but instead I saw him watching me intently, a realization that caused my cheeks to turn an embarrassing shade of pink.

Attempting to save face, I grinned and cleared my throat, turning back to the painting and moving my body so that my face was out of view, trying to get as close to the canvas as possible. There was something so inviting about it, I wanted so badly to be able to crawl into the painting and enter the strange castle, but that of course was impossible. It was easy to see how Riku could be attached to it.

"Well when you become a famous artist, I'm going to buy the first reproduction of this one!" I faced him again finally, beaming, standing with my arms crossed behind my head.

Riku smiled back, remaining quiet for a few seconds as though he were thinking. "Hey, if you want, I could paint you something. Maybe somewhat of a spin-off of this one?"

My eyes were the size of platters and my cheeks were close to splitting from how wide my smile had become. "Oh that would be so cool, I would love that!"

"Oh, yes, that would be very nice Riku." We both looked over at Kairi, who was smiling softly, Riku looking almost as surprised to hear her voice as I was. I had completely forgotten she was there. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna go, Namine was going to show me around the music department some more today and see if I could get in and practice a little on one of the school's pianos. Just give me a call later and we can get those paintings back to my dorm, okay Riku?" She stood up, looking at me before walking over to Riku and kissing him on the cheek.

"Yeah sure, see ya Kairi." He gave her a quick hug and nodded, then moved the paintings off the bed, motioning for me to sit as soon as she had left. Once I did so, he pulled a large box-like folder from one of his boxes and then sat next to me, opening it up and laying it across our laps. "This is my portfolio. It has a few small paintings and sketches and a lot of photos of my other work that won't fit."

I slowly flipped through the pages, becoming even more in awe of his talent as I turned each one. He had many different styles, some sketches were cartoon-like, some similar to the paintings Kairi had brought in, and some that I guessed were sketches of his friends hanging out back home. Most of the small paintings he had in there had no real subject, they almost looked like random colors just tossed and swirled about, but it was all done so wonderfully. But I noticed every single painting in the photograph had the same cloaked figure, sometimes more than one, aside from a few that had the same tiny figures from the painting with the castle, always too small to make out features.

"So, what's with these cloaked people? Any story behind it?" I looked to Riku curiously, and he just shook his head and shrugged.

"No, not really. I just always see them when I hit the canvas, not sure what it's about."

I nodded and flipped through a few more pages, stopping suddenly on one that made my face go ashen, my jaw dropping as I just stared before looking to him incredulously.

"Ha-Have you ever been to Destiny Islands?"

Riku shook his head, looking confused. "No, why? Are you okay?"

I shook my own head quickly, holding the entire folder up so I could get a closer look, gaping at it. "That's where I'm from, and this... this looks exactly like the island my brother and I play on! In fact, with a little imagination, this looks like it could be my brother and I here on the beach, dualing with our keyblades!" I couldn't tear my eyes from it, if I hadn't known better, I would have said that was exactly what it was.

"Really?" He moved in for a closer look as well. "I guess you're right... It does kinda look like you and Roxas. That's strange. This one, like the castle, were painted because of dreams that I have. A lot of the paintings like this are, actually. I always see different places in my dreams, but always the same three figures who I never can really make out, but paint anyway. Creepy."

I nodded enthusiastically, and after all that, as I looked back up to him, I couldn't help but feel a certain fondness, some sort of connection. I could feel goosebumps rising all over my body, despite that I was actually feeling almost too warm. As I looked down at the painting again, I knew for sure now that Kairi was history, deep down in my heart. She wasn't in a single one of these paintings. It was obviously in my and Riku's fate to be together. So I was even more determined than before to make him mine.