Disclaimer: I own everything! Nah, I'm just kidding, I'm dirt poor. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This storyline is mine. I was overcome with the desire to throw some fluff in there, so I hope you enjoyed that. I'm a SoraxKairi fan, so sue me. Actually, please don't, because I have no money. Reviews are love.

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Chapter Five: Phantom

A few days after the fishing incident, Riku started staying home more often. His mom told me he was feeling under the weather, but she'd seemed really nervous.

I didn't tell Sora about what Riku had told me in the car about Xehanort. I was afraid that if I voiced it, it might actually be true. But how could it be? Xehanort was dead…gone, banished. So Xehanort couldn't be on the island because he was dead, which was comforting. That meant Riku was hallucinating or suffering from delusion, which was anything but comforting.

These thoughts kept swimming around in my head, keeping me awake at night and distracted during the day. Sora only voiced his concern about Riku once in the week following the incident. I guess he thought things would work out as long as he didn't fret about it. Maybe that was just how I was thinking. The problem was, we were both realizing that this wasn't going away. If anything, it was getting worse. He'd mentioned the caves…what did that mean?

"…and then, I was thinking we could head up to that cliff where the rockslide was. What do you think?" Sora asked.

I answered absentmindedly, "Hm? Oh, sounds great."

Even Sora recognized my lukewarm answer, "Or we could just watch a movie."

"Okay."

"Sip some wine in front of a sunset."

I wasn't catching on to his sarcasm, too lost in my own thoughts, "Yeah."

"Run around naked screaming 'Long live Kingdom Hearts'."

I finally snapped out of it, "What?"

Sora was looking at me with one eye narrowed, "What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been distracted all day. What's the matter?"

I looked up. I had been gazing off into the horizon again. Sora and I were sitting on the edge of the pier looking out at the ocean. It was around midday, but we were both clutching our jackets and the water was too cold to dangle our legs in.

I looked at him, flashed a quick smile, leaned in, and kissed him, "I'm okay. What were you saying?"

Sora frowned, "You're not getting out of it that easily. Come on, something's bugging you."

I let my smile droop, "It's Riku."

Sora acted like he'd been stabbed in the heart and toppled onto his back on the pier. "He beats me at everything. He's gotten to you too! Maybe you and Kelly can make picket signs that say 'Give us Riku!'."

I laughed and slapped his leg, "It's not like that and you know it."

He made a face, "Yeah, but it's still fun to bicker."

A cool wind rushed up from the water and I withdrew my legs, "Why is it so cold?"

"Because Riku's not here to spice things up for you." Sora chuckled, sitting up and scrambling away before I could slap him again.

I got to my feet and we started walking down the pier to the island again. "Seriously, it's been thirty degrees for the last month and a half. July is supposed to be hot, isn't it?"

Sora stepped off the pier onto the beach, "I don't know."

I jumped down after him and we walked along the shore, kicking sand up into the air, "What were you asking me earlier? Something about running around naked?"

Sora smirked and nudged my shoulder, "You wish. I was asking about this weekend."

That was right! I'd completely forgotten that Sora had been planning some sort of little getaway for a while. I pretended not to be taken off guard by the conversation.

"What about it?" I asked as innocently as possible.

He put his hands behind his head as we walked, "I was thinking we could go up to that cliff, you know, the one where that rockslide was a few years ago."

I smiled and nodded, burying my fists deep in my jacket pockets to warm them, "That sounds great, as long as it isn't this cold."

"I dunno. I kind of like it like this. We could snuggle to keep warm." He pretended to cuddle up to me.

I shouldered him off, "I'm sure you'd like that."

"Ah, that hurts." He grabbed me up in a bear hug and swung me around.

I staggered as I swung off balance and fell backwards against the makeshift hut built against the rocks. My head bumped it hard. "Ow!"

"Oh, sorry!" Sora almost fell against me, but regained his balance, "Are you okay?"

I rubbed the side of my head, "Yeah. I may file an abuse charge though."

Sora leaned in close and kissed my hair where my head had hit the wood. We were really close together, and he was warm. I closed my eyes.

"Better?" Sora asked.

I hooked my arms around his neck and grinned stupidly, "Better."

He leaned in and kissed me on the lips this time. I tilted my head to the side and kissed back. We stayed like that for a while. The wind crept up again and lifted some sand against our legs and rustled our hair…well, my hair, Sora's hair didn't move as much. I could feel little pinpricks of cold on my arms and my neck. We parted and he looked down at his arm. There were wet spots on it, as well as on my jacket.

"It's raining." He said, looking up at the sky.

I laughed, "You've always had a wonderful grasp of the obvious, Sora."

He stuck his tongue out, and slid his hand into mine. We swung our hands together as we walked over to the boats.

"So, is Riku still at home today?" I asked as we climbed into the boats to head back to the main island.

"Yeah. I called him this morning and got his dad. Sounds like he's really down with something." He must have read my thoughts because he added, "He's a big boy, Kairi. I'm sure he's fine."

I chewed my lip, "I don't know."

Sora paused, "What?"

I exhaled heavily, "Remember when we were fishing and he went numb?"

"He nearly scared me to death, yeah I remember."

"Well, when your mom was taking us home, he…he told me something."

"What was it?"

"What he's been seeing and hearing. It's…he says it's Xehanort."

Sora's reaction was exactly as I suspected it would be. His jaw went slack for a moment, but then he crossed his arms and sat back, "Xehanort? The guy who possessed Riku and tried to open Kingdom Hearts? Kairi, he's DEAD. We KILLED him."

I lifted my hands, "I'm not the one you have to convince of that. It's Riku."

"He's being stupid."

"What if he's not? What if something—something is happening to him and he—"

"You think he's losing his mind, right?" Sora said defensively.

"No, no, of course not." That was exactly what I thought and Sora somehow could sense that.

He sighed, "Kairi, Riku is a lot of things. If he was the kind of person who would lose his mind, he'd have lost it long before now. Besides, don't you think his parents would notice if their son turned into a raving lunatic?"

"I never called him a raving lunatic. But, why would he say that Xehanort was on the island? He knows he's dead, right?" I asked, still not persuaded.

We had reached the main island shore by now. We stepped out of the boat onto the sand and started the trek up to the village.

"Maybe you misunderstood what he said. Anyway, you shouldn't worry about it so much. I think we're all a little messed up after what happened." He sounded light about it, but I could tell he wanted me to drop the subject.

I hugged my jacket closer as we walked, "Fine, you win. So when do you get to take your driver's test?"

Sora groaned, "Four months! We may be in an Ice Age by then!"

I let him grumble about not being able to drive as we walked towards the center of town.

"All right, let's see here." I pulled out a short list from my pocket.

Sora paused in his rant about teen driving to glance at it, "You don't have your license yet and your mom's already sending you on grocery runs." He made a face.

I read down the list, "Yeah, well, at least she can trust me to get the right stuff!"

"Hey, I don't want to hear it. It was an honest mistake."

"How do you mistake lettuce for a cantaloupe?" I chided.

He looked around, "Well, lookie there. It's Riku's mom. Tara! Hey!" He waved.

I followed his gaze and saw her. Tara was a very petite woman with long brown hair and vivid blue eyes. She was talking to another group of women, but turned around when Sora called her name. She smiled and waved. We made our way over.

"Well, well, what trouble are you two up to today?" She asked, hefting up a bag of groceries.

Sora hooked his arm around my neck, "Just looking for a batch of paopu, right?" He kissed my cheek.

I nodded, "Yep."

Tara laughed, "Good luck with that." She shuddered, "It's freezing out here."

I snapped my fingers, "Oh, that reminds me. I still have Riku's jacket from Selphie's party. It was soaking wet and SOMEONE pushed me into a puddle of mud." I glared at Sora.

He lifted his hands defensively, "I swear it was Tidus."

"Anyway," I continued, "I washed it and it's just at my house. I'll bring it by sometime."

For a split second, a shadow darkened Tara's eyes and her fingers tightened just a fraction around the bag she was carrying. The next moment, however, she was smiling again and her eyes were bright once more.

"Sounds great."

"How's Riku doing?" Sora asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Tara lifted one shoulder, "He's just got a bad cold. You'd think he was on his deathbed the way he's milking it up." She chuckled, but not as heartily as before. "But anywho, I should be getting back before I get frostbite. I'll talk to you guys later. Good luck paopu hunting!"

With that, she was walking away. I exchanged a look with Sora. Something was screwy here, and we both knew it. Sora looked away.

"Let's get crackin' then. That list is pretty long."

"Sora, we can't just—something is wrong here."

"I know, I know it's messed up. I'll swing by his house tomorrow, okay?"

As we picked up groceries, my mind stayed on Tara. Why had she looked so scared?