CHAPTER SIXTEEN

~ Doubt and Reassurance ~

The air, gentle and warm was filled with joyous sounds. Light was still very much abundant and azure still dominated the upper realms. A slender golden haired girl sat on a bench gazing at the scenery in front of her, troubled. Looking up at her from her lap was a small golden-eyed kitten. It reaches up with its paw and caused a soft tinkle to sound. Lux turns to the kitten and smiles, stroking its soft fur.

"You must...really like this bell...don't you?" she says with a smile.

The small kitten meows in response with a smile on its face.

Lux continues. "You're much more...luckier than me…"

The kitten meows and tilts its head as if confused.

"Nobody is after you...no one wants to take you away...from the people you care about…" she trails off, looking up at the white puffs that were being stained slowly with color above her.

The kitten meows again as if to call her attention to it.

Lux returns to the kitten. "I didn't tell you...about the note from last night."

The kitten tilts its head again, looking confused. Seeing this, Lux continues.

"Someone sent...another note last night..." Lux begins to explain, leaning back on the bench and staring at the clouds again. "...it seems that it's all because of me…again."

The kitten looks at Lux with concerned eyes now as it notices her unhappy expression.

"They want to see me tomorrow night…at eight." she goes on. "I think maybe I should go with them...they bother Kai...because I am staying with Kai..."

The kitten shakes its head frantically and meows as if trying to express a "No".

"You don't...think so?" Lux asks, turning back to it. "Still…I must be a lot of trouble for Kai…they always come…because of me… I already owe him a lot… for saving me, housing me, taking care of me… I think he's been very kind to me…I feel like I'm just causing more trouble for him…"

The kitten meows again, worried.

"If I go with them...they might stop bothering Kai..."

"No," a voice tells her before the kitten had a chance to respond.

Lux turns to see a black haired boy with golden eyes clad in mainly white and black.

"Ray!" she exclaims, surprised by his presence.

"Hey," he greets her, chuckling a little. "You finally noticed me."

"How long have you been there?" she asks him as he walks closer.

"Not that long, but I heard enough of what you were saying to the cat." He answers her as he takes a seat next to her and gently pets the cat on her lap.

"Oh…" Lux turns back to the kitten, uncertainty dominating her once again.

"You were an hour late for your lesson today so I called Kai to see if he knows where you are and since he didn't know we decided to go looking for you." Ray explains.

"Ooops..." Lux felt bad now. She kept her eyes down. "I'm sorry...Did I worry you?"

"Well, yeah…" Ray answers her. "I think you worried Kai more than you did me though."

Lux turned to him

"You should've heard him on the phone." Ray chuckles.

"Will he be mad at me?" she asks a little timidly.

"Why?"

"For worrying him…" she replies.

"Nah, I think he's just going to be relieved that you're ok." he tells her.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Ray answers. "By the way, I doubt Kai minds having you around at all."

"Why do you think that?" she asks, curious. "Many people keep bothering him because of me…"

"Well…Kai's not the most expressive and doesn't talk very much, but if he didn't want you around, you would be the first to know." He explains to her while looking at the scenery in front. "Besides, judging from the way he reacted earlier, I'd say he'd rather have you around than not."

"Really?" she asks, her face lighting up a little upon hearing that.

"Yeah" Ray assures her. He gets up and turns back to her, "Now let's go before you worry him even more."

Lux nods happily and picks up the kitten sitting on her lap before getting up as well. As the two left the park, a pair of iridescent, glowing eyes belonging to a cloaked figure with dark purple hair watches them from the shadows. She mutters something angrily and turns to go.

...

In a small while, warm tints of color once again stain the skies as the sun prepares to rest below the horizon. The usual sounds and noises of this time of day fill the air entertaining a youth with red, flowing hair as he walks in the direction of a house up ahead. Walking at a steady speed next to him is a periwinkle haired youth with a bag slumped over his shoulder and a book in one hand. A squirrel pops out from a nearby bush and stops in the two's path to pick up a chestnut on the ground. As the two walks closer to it, it flees in fear.

"Hey Nex…" the youth with spiky periwinkle hair stops and says suddenly.

"Yeah, Tanor?" the red haired youth responds, stopping as well.

"How do you think Ventus is doing?"

Nex chuckles. "How should I know? He's probably still obsessed over that girl…"

Tanor looks up at the warm colors overhead as the wind blows through his spiked hair.

"Why?" Nex inquires.

"It feels like we're not done yet…like there's something more we have to do." Tanor replies.

Nex shrugs and resumes his journey home.

...

Elsewhere, a two toned haired boy and a golden haired girl are heading home as well. It had been a rather tiring afternoon for Kai as he had spent the past two to three hours running around in search of the golden haired girl who is now walking home with him at his side, holding a small, golden eyed kitten in her arms. She was reported missing by his friend and teammate, Ray, earlier on thus provoking a search for her. He had been glad when Ray had found her at the park a little earlier and was relieved when he found out that she had merely lost track of time at the park. He felt an unexplainable urge to embrace her then and there when he saw her but fought against it and remained calm.

Kai glances at the girl next to him. She had been unusually quiet on the way home and seems to have kept her gaze on the kitten in her arms the entire time. He wonders about her unusual behavior; normally the girl is like a walking radio on "la" on the way home.

'Is something bothering her?' Kai wonders. He then realizes what he had just thought. He had known the girl for roughly three weeks only. It was uncharacteristic of him to care. 'But why do I care?'

His thoughts are cut off as the two arrive at the gates of his home. There was mail in his mailbox again and Kai opens it to find its usual contents. Going through all the envelopes, he finds one that was unusual. Like the one in his mail a few days ago, this one too did not seem to have been handled through the post service and just like the last one, it had no return address. He immediately opens it to find another note. The note was written in the same childish handwriting and was slanted in the same awkward manner. It read,

"Kai, I have left you and Lux a present in the fridge. I hope it will prove useful. Though more than a month and a half late, tell Lux I wish her a happy birthday and that I regret not being able to wish her such any earlier.

-No one."

Noticing his actions, Lux takes a look at the note and reads it. Then she turns to Kai. Kai turns from the note to her.

"Do you think this person…might be the same as the one who gave me the disk with the pictures?"

Kai nods.

"I wonder who this person is…maybe he or she can help me get my memories back…"