Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine. Kelly is mine too (chuckle, chuckle) Guh, I'm terrible at ending stories. I really tried though! Reviews are love!

..:--X--:..

Chapter Sixteen: Balance

"Haha! See 'em and weep!" Sora cackled, jingling the silver ring of keys in front of Riku's face.

Riku waved him off, "You must have paid someone. There's no way they let you pass."

Sora faked offense and pouted, "Kairi saw me in action, right? After chasing you down, that lousy driver's test was a piece of cake!" He punched at the air triumphantly.

I satisfied him with a small smile, "Of course you did. We'll just leave out the part where I was fearing for my life."

Riku tilted his head at Sora as if to say: Told you so.

It had been a week since the incident in the Secret Place. Incident was all we could think of to call it. Our parents had pestered us nonstop about what had happened, but none of us could explain, because we ourselves couldn't really understand it.

Riku had been unconscious for a few days afterwards, and when he'd woken up, he'd been disoriented for a while, not understanding why my arm was in a sling and half of Sora's face was bruised purple. We didn't have the heart to tell him his hands had caused the injuries, but I guess he figured it out, because he was quiet for a while before apologizing profusely.

It wasn't his fault of course. Xehanort had been possessing him. That's what made this so strange. One minute, Riku was losing the battle for his body with Xehanort, then he was attacked by the darkness inside the heart of Destiny Islands, and then he was back to normal—as normal as he ever would be? It made no sense. When had anything in our lives made sense though?

We were sitting together in Tomas and Kora Gale's house, where Riku had been staying under a medical eye. They had run all sorts of tests on him and were unable to find any trace of anything wrong with him, physically or mentally. Sora said it was all a conspiracy by Dr. Young, who had NOT been the one to test Riku again for Schizophrenia. We hadn't seen her at all lately, come to think of it.

Sora folded his arms, "You guys are mean." He turned away in a huff, "Speaking of fearing for your life, who're these from?" Sora turned, pointing at an elaborate bouquet of flowers tied to a bright yellow 'Get Well Soon' balloon. There was a little pink card hanging off it.

"No! Hey!" Riku lunged forward, trying to snatch at it, but Sora swatted him away and opened the card.

I recognized that mischievous, evil look in his eyes. "Who're they from?" I asked, grinning.

Riku looked at me in torment, pleading.

" 'Dear Riku,' " Sora read with a high girly voice and heavy accent, " 'I hope you feel better soon. Sincerely, Kelly' " Sora sighed and held a hand over his heart, fluttering his eyelids at Riku, who snarled and snatched at the card again. Sora dangled the card out of his reach and looked at it again, "Oh, check it out. She even left her number!"

"I'm going to kill you!" Riku settled for shoving Sora to the floor.

Sora rolled onto his backside, laughing uncontrollably. I took the card from him and replaced it next to the flowers. "I think they're nice. It's a sweet thing to do." I defended.

"Sweet?" Sora sat bolt upright, "He's never spoken to the girl! You like stalkers or something?"

I shook my head, "You're terrible."

Riku had turned scarlet, whether from anger at Sora or embarrassment over the flowers, I couldn't tell. Either way, he pulled his knees closer to his chest, grumbling.

"So, when are they letting you go home?" I asked, changing the subject while Sora pulled himself off the floor.

"Maybe tomorrow." Riku answered, latching onto the conversation change, "They're still making sure I won't go throw babies off a cliff or something."

"Yeah, that might not bode well." Sora said thoughtfully. "What about your parents?"

Riku shrugged, "I'm an only child. They can't worry about me throwing their babies." He sobered, "They're still kinda shook up. I guess they have a right to that though."

"I bet they're grateful you're all right." I offered softly. "I know we are."

Sora put his hands behind his head, "Baby-thrower or not, we were worried about you."

"I know," Riku dropped his gaze, "and I'm just sorry about—that I—" He glanced fleetingly at the bandages around Sora's neck, the bruise, and my sling.

Sora frowned, "You weren't you, so stop blaming yourself."

"But if I had been strong enough to stop him—" Riku said quietly.

"You were. You did stop him, remember?" I urged.

Riku rubbed his head, "I don't remember that much after Dr. Young told me I had Schizophrenia. It's all hazy and fleeting images. I do remember the door though." He looked up at us, "The door in the Secret Place. It opened, didn't it?"

"Yeah." I said nervously.

Riku squinted, "After it opened, everything started hurting. It felt like something was trying to pull me apart, from the inside out. Like it was trying to peel muscle from bone and—"

"We get it." Sora made a face.

"Anyway, then it just stopped and everything felt all tingly and numb." Riku shrugged, "Then I was waking up here."

Sora leaned over the footboard of the bed, "You missed all the fun with the weather."

I shifted and looked at him, "You call shoveling snow for three days fun?"

He shrugged, "It was after we started throwing it at people walking by."

"Yeah, I'm sure Mr. Gibson enjoyed it." I said sarcastically. Sora's grin flat lined and Riku lifted an eyebrow. I explained, "Sora threw a whole shovelful of snow in Mr. Gibson's face and when he saw it was our teacher, he hid behind the bushes. Then—" I looked at Sora for confirmation.

Sora glared, "I got stuck in the bushes and Tidus had to pull me out."

Riku snorted, "Can't believe I missed THAT."

I nodded, "Oh, it was good."

"Well, maybe tomorrow afternoon, I could join in the 'fun with the weather'." Riku offered.

" 'Fraid not, amigo. Seems like something knocked the weather upside the head with a mallet, because it suddenly remembered summer was supposed to be hot." Sora pointed to the window.

Rivulets of water were running down the pane of glass. The snow had suddenly begun to melt as the temperatures rose a few days after the Secret Place incident. It had weathermen blithering and meteorologists sputtering to explain. Not that anyone would believe them anyway.

I had no complaints. I had only ever known the hot, tropical weather. Cold and snow was climate shock and I was not sorry to see either go.

There were a few light knocks on the door and Tomas poked his head in. "How's the patient?"

"Hi, Tomas." I greeted.

"Man, you guys are all a mess, aren't you?" Tomas looked from Sora's face to my shoulder to Riku. "How are we doing?"

Riku groaned, "I'm ready to get out of this room. No offense."

Tomas waved him off, "It's probably going to hit around upper forties this afternoon. There won't be any snow left by the end of the week. You'll just have to wait until actual winter to frolic in the snow, Riku."

I walked over to the window and eased it open. The air's cold breath wafted against my face and droplets of water dripped on my hands. "Looks like it." I stated, reaching out to the snow on the ledge.

Tomas shined his light in Riku's eyes, ears, mouth, and checked his temperature, while Riku grumbled and wriggled uncomfortably, "Well, you seem perfectly healthy to me."

"Yet you insist on condemning me to this infernal bed." Riku said dramatically, glaring at the mattress as if it were his mortal enemy.

Tomas hung his stethoscope around his neck, "Never can be too careful. How's your shoulder, Kairi?"

I looked at my arm, hanging in the sling, "It's…better. Still sore."

"That's good…the feeling better part. The soreness should work itself out in a few days. Sora, how's your face?"

"It's killing me." Riku raised a hand, blocking Sora's face.

Sora stuck his tongue out at him like a child, "It's fine."

"Oh no, are those keys?" Tomas said, eying the keys in Sora's hand.

Sora displayed them with a smug look, "Oh yeah!"

"So, they let you drive legally after your little escapade last week?" Tomas joked.

Sora didn't look put off at all, "They recognize mad driving skills when they see them."

Riku shook his head, "My mom won't give my keys back yet."

"Well, that makes you a loser and makes me awesome!" Sora chortled.

I balled up a bundle of slushy snow into a sad snowball and pulled it inside, handing it to Riku, "Feel better, Riku. Here, have a snowball."

Sora laughed, "Yeah, who's all big and bad with a car now? Ha—"

He was cut off abruptly as Riku grabbed up snowball from my hand and threw it. The mass of ice and snow slammed into Sora's face, sufficiently silencing him.

"Oh, these are very nice." Tomas asked, regarding the bouquet.

Riku's victory with the snowball was short lived as now Sora jumped on this new opportunity to embarrass his best friend.

"They're from Kelly!" He said in a singsong voice.

Before Tomas could ask, Riku reached out, snatched Sora's keys from his hand, and threw them out the window. Sora stood, mortified, staring at his empty hand as a soft thud outside told of the keys landing in the garden outside.

Sora dropped his head, "I hate you."

Riku sat back, arms folded, victorious, "Fetch."

Tomas turned to leave the room, "You might want to get those. We have a gopher out there that has a fetish with shiny objects."

Sora darted out of the room, leaving Riku and me alone.

Riku grinned from ear to ear, reveling in his victory. He was out-embarrassing Sora, the world was right again. I paused, taking that in. He hadn't genuinely smiled in a while. He could have been killed or lost in his own head, but instead, he was okay and smiling again.

"Riku?" I asked, walking over to him.

"Yeah?" He asked, dropping his arms.

"I'm glad you're better." I leaned in and put my good arm around him.

He paused, but then hugged me back, "Thanks. I mean, for helping me. Without you and Sora, I don't think I could have fought him. Fought him and won at least."

I straightened, smiling and tilting my head, "What're friends for, right?"

Sora's voice came through the window, "Hey! Gimme those keys! Drop 'em!"

Riku and I exchanged a look and then burst out laughing, the mental image of Sora chasing after a gopher with his keys rising in our minds.

Outside, the sun glinted across the melting snow, returning the balance of summer and our lives.

..:--X--:..

A/N: The return of humor! As terrible as I am at endings, I'm even worse at sad endings, so I gave this one a happy one!

This story might not have been continued if I wasn't encouraged by my reviewers! So…(opens book) I would like to thank: Shiba-X, ChibiFrubaGirl, Smiley Smackdown, Catemonster, Kairi1624, Exylim, Sora788, Kiss of the Breeze, DragonMaster Reborn, chibi heishi, Kanpa, and DarkEriksRedRose.

You guys are awesome! (gives lifetime supply of pie)