Sora pulled himself out of the secret place and stood upright.
"BOO!!"
"AH!" Sora fell head over heels, and landed on his back. "Ouch…" He glanced up and rolled his eyes. "Kairi!" She just giggled.
"Hello Sora. I knew you'd be here somewhere! Quite a surprise you're not asleep though!" Sora bit his lip awkwardly. He had a question.
"Kairi…"
"Yes?"
"Did you draw you giving me the Papou fruit?"
"Oh!" Kairi flushed a slight pink. "Of course I did! Who else? Riku? Or maybe Selphie?" She grinned. "Or perhaps Wakka?"
"Okay, leave it Kairi!" Sora had to smile. He had really missed this, just being silly. "It's a good drawing."
"Thanks!" Kairi paused. Sora quickly tried to think of something to say. Think brain think…!
"Hey guys!" Wakka ran over to them. "Sora, d'you wanna play Blitzball with Tidus and me?" He frowned as Kairi and Sora started laughing. "Was it something I said? Or did I do something… STOP LAUGHING!"
"Sor- sorry Wakka!" Kairi said between hysterics. "It wasn't anything you did. It was just…" She collapsed into hysterics yet again. Wakka raised an eyebrow.
"You guys are strange. So are you up to blitzball or not Sora? It's me and Tidus versus you and Riku."
"Okay Wakka, I'm coming. Kairi?" He turned to his friend.
"Can I join in?" Sora looked as if he was going to faint.
"WHAT?!" Kairi sighed.
"Can I join in the Blitzball game?"
"Um…" Sora paused. "We'll need to get another player."
"Oh!" Kairi's face fell slightly. "It's okay. Maybe another time." Her tone was flat, which made Sora feel just as flat.
"Tell you what! Why don't you and I take it in turns?" Kairi's face lit up again. She smiled.
"Thanks!"
Riku just raised an eyebrow when he heard the plan. But he nodded and ran to grab an extra blitzball. After the game (Tidus and Wakka won.) the trio ran to the Papou tree just like old times.
"So…" Riku breathed out. "Today was okay."
"Yup." Sora stared at the sea.
"Tomorrow will be worse." Kairi pointed out.
"Huh? Why?" Sora's over-active imagination went into overdrive.
"School starts tomorrow."
"URGH!" Sora and Riku yelled at the same time. Kairi laughed.
"I had to go through a whole year without either of you two guys at school, so don't even try to get out of it!"
"Okay, okay!" Riku held his hands up. "We admit defeat, Madame Kairi!" Kairi grinned and took a fake bow.
"So, let's get going before our neurotic parents call the police." Sora joked, pushing himself upright.
"Yeah, it's getting pretty dark. We won't be able to see where were rowing soon." So the trio left the island.
Sora lay in bed thinking. All the stuff that had happened in his life, and yet there were still normal things happening. School, Blitzball, and all that stuff. It suddenly came to Sora that he had forgotten everything he had learnt at school. Well, when defeating Heartless, you don't really need to explain the properties of Magnesium. Sora grabbed a textbook, with the idea of cramming.
He was asleep within a minute.
"Sora… Sora… SORA!!!"
"Huh?" Sora looked around. "Hello?"
"Look Sharp!"
"ROXAS?!" Sora snapped his eyes open. He was on the platform where he had fought Roxas. What was he doing here?
"I've been yelling for ages, my voice is going." Roxas sighed. "Anyway, I came to warn you." At this, Sora frowned.
"Warn me what?"
"Sora, there's something not right in the realm of darkness. I mean, really, not right. It's like… Something's waking up."
"Nobodies? Or heartless? Wait… How do you know all this anyway?"
"Look, I'm a nobody; I have strong ties to the darkness. I can tell when something is not quite right. And, I don't know whether or not it's something to do with Nobodies or Heartless. Just be on your guard, Okay?"
"Fine."
"Also…" There was a noise like static.
"Roxas?"
"Beware… He… Xeh…"
"ROXAS!!"
Everything went dark.
Kairi felt a presence in her room.
"Hello…?"
"You don't need to be scared. It's only me."
"Naminé?" She bolted upright. Her face was full of surprise as she saw her nobody materialise in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
"Roxas and I thought we should warn you and Sora. Kairi, there's something wrong in the realm of darkness. We're not sure what, but be on your guard."
"Okay…" Kairi felt a shiver of fear slid down her back. They had only gotten home. Were they going to be swept away again?
"You shouldn't be scared." Naminé, who could obviously read Kairi like a book, smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's probably nothing."
"Okay…" Said Kairi, not quite believing her nobody. The sound of static reached her ears.
"Naminé?" She yelled as her nobody faded from view…
Riku was sleeping more peacefully than Sora, to start with. But then the dreams started again. Trapped, in Darkness, Castle Oblivion, memory after memory came flying at him. One after the other after the other.
And then they stopped. And he couldn't see anything, the world was covered in darkness, and then…
"Riku!"
The voice slashed through him like a knife.
"Riku, run!"
Riku bolted upright, promptly hitting himself on the bookshelf above his head.
"Ouch…" He rubbed his head. "Stupid dreams…" He quietly cursed school, bad dreams and all sort of other things that he found annoying (Like how long it takes his arm to heal) and pushed himself out of bed.
Riku sat on the Papou tree, staring out at the sky. His first day of school had ended, and it had been okay. Apart from all the questions. But he was used to questions. And wondering about the dream. He hadn't told Sora and Kairi. It was probably nothing. Unknown to him, Sora and Kairi had done the same.
Sora ran up and leant against the papou tree. Riku had only noticed this lately. He and Sora had switched places. Which was how it should be. They remained in silence for a moment.
"Nothing's changed, huh?" Riku thought of ordinary life, and all the things you had to remember.
"Nope. Nothing will." Riku continued to stare out across the water.
"What a small world."
"But part of one that's much bigger." Sora couldn't help but wonder what was up with Riku. He had been a little off all day. Maybe it was just going back to school.
"Yeah." Sora felt cheered at the slight upbeat note in his friends' voice. There was another pause. Sora had his own question, something that had been bothering him.
"Hey Riku… What do you think it was--- the door to the light?" Riku pushed himself off the Papou tree, laughing to himself.
"This." He tapped Sora chest, where his heart was.
"This?" Sora was confused.
"Yeah. It's always closer than you think." Sora burst into a massive smile.
"Sora! Riku!" Sora and Riku turned to see Kairi running towards them, waving her hand in the air.
"Hey, what's up?" Sora felt worried. Stupid overactive imagination.
"Look." Kairi held out what she was holding. It was a bottle, with a letter inside. On it was…
The king's seal?
"From the King?" Sora grabbed the bottle out of Kairi's hand. He quickly undid the cork, tipped the letter out, unfurled it, and began to read. Riku and Kairi started to read over his shoulder. The three friends wondered what was ahead…