Chapter 7

At that moment,the skeleton head that Kairi had began to cackle, and then in spoke in Santa's voice."Kairi, are you there? I need your help." Kairi severed the skeleton's hair again."Yes, I'm here, Santa. What happened?"

"My workshop is being overrun by Heartless,and I can't fight them all off alone."

"Don't worry, Santa. We'll be over there right away."

"Thank you, Kairi."

The skeleton head cackled again, and then fell silent. Kairi bonded the hairs again,then turned to Sora with a smile. "Wanna ride with me?", she asked. Sora had a goofy smile on his face. "Are you sure you can keep your balance?",he asked, mischief in his eyes. Kairi didn't know what he was upto, but she smiled anyway. "You wait and see for yourself",she purred. She took the charm off her necklace and waved one hand over it. The broom grew to normal size, and Kairi sat on it. Sora laughed. "I thought you might not be able to keep your balance, so..."Sora instantly sobered. Kairi stood up on the broom and lend out a hand to him. Sora hopped on,and he held on to her waist. Jack sighed. "Well, we can always use the flying skeledeer", he said. Jack whistled, and three skeledeer flew into view. Jack mounted one, and Donald and Goofy mounted the other two.

Kairi laughed a very witch-like laugh. "Hold on tight,"she whispered. Then she kicked off from the ground, the others following her. She urged the broom on, doing loop-de-loops in the sky,laughing as she did so. Sora was scared, she could tell. His arms felt like iron manacles around her waist. After a while, he released his stronghold on Kairi's waist,and threw his arms out sideways. He laughed loudly, finally enjoying the ride. As they entered the gateway in the tree,the broom changed under their feet back into a hoverboard, this time with a candy cane design. Kairi changed back into the Christmas outfit she was wearing, and Sora changed into a Santa Clause outfit.(without the beard, mind you) Everyone landed in the snow, face down.

Kairi laughed. That was the second time she fell on her face when she was riding her hoverboard. She sat up. Sora moaned and rolled over onto his back. Jack was dressed like Santa Clause (with the beard) and Donald and Goofy were dressed like elves. Kairi laughed harder, rocking in place. Finally, she got up and gasped. Sora was too busy looking Kairi over to see what was wrong. But everyone else saw. The entire North Pole was barricaded by Heartless. Everyone else got up and flew towards the workshop.

Because of the swarm of Heartless,everyone had to enter the cabin through the chimney. Of course, they entered through the guest room's chimney because that one wasn't lit. As Sora and Kairi were about to enter,a bunch of goons from Organization XIII showed up out of nowhere. "Go!!", Kairi screamed. "No! We both go at the same time!", Sora yelled back. Kairi didn't have enough patience to deal with him right now. She pushed Sora off the hoverboard and into the chimney. "KAIRI!!!", Sora screamed as he flew down the chimney.

Kairi fought off most of the Heartless alone,but she was blasted off her board by one of the members of the Organization. She landed in a giant pile of snow, and all of the Heartless and Nobodies disappeared as she was knocked into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, in Santa's cabin, the Heartless siege had ended mysteriously,yet Sora was freaking out that Kairi still didn't come back. "We should have heard from her by now, something's wrong, I just know it.",Sora fretted. "Alright, alright. We'll see what going on. I'll contact her.",said Jack. He pulled out the skeleton head from his pocket,and spoke in its ear. "Kairi, Kairi. Can you hear me?" No answer. "Kairi?" No answer, but the skeleton head's teeth began to chatter, and then the head fell silent.

"I knew something was wrong! I'm going to go find her.", said Sora. He was halfway out the door before Donald spoke. "You don't even know where she is. We can track her the same way she was gonna track Belle." Sora closed the door. "We don't have anything of hers to track her by, though.",said Sora. "That's where you're wrong, Sora. Don't you still have Kairi's lucky charm?", said Donald. "Oh yeah! I forgot!" He pulled the charm out from his pocket and gave it to Donald. Donald gave it back to Sora. "You can track her better than I can. All you have to do is concentrate and think only of her." Sora brought out his Keyblade and held the charm in his hand. Soon, both the Keyblade and the charm began to glow. The Keyblade put itself away, and the charm began to levitate and it flew out the window.

"Quick, follow it! And don't lose focus!", said Donald. Sora ran out the door, and followed the charm, all the way to an evergreen forest. There the charm gently landed on a giant pile of snow. Sora saw Kairi's skeleton head sticking out from the snow and began to dig. Despite his hands almost freezing off, he finally unearthed Kairi. Her skin was blue, and her eyes were closed. Sora clutched Kairi in his arms, desperately trying to warm her up. He brought the hoverboard out from underneath her and rode it back to Santa's cabin.

Mrs. Clause gasped when Sora kicked the door open, with Kairi in his arms. She took Kairi into one of the many guest bedrooms,lit the fireplace,and placed Kairi in front of the fireplace. "She'll be fine, she just needs to warm up,is all.", said Mrs. Clause. Sora was about to go inside when Mrs. Clause stopped him. "Let her rest. She'll be fine",she said. Sora gave in and helped himself to some cookies while they talked in the living room.

An hour later,Kairi woke up. She felt very cold. Her boots and coat were by the bed, and there was a bowl of soup waiting for her on top of the drawer. There was also a blanket draped on her. She got up and ate the bowl of soup on the counter. She folded the blanket, pulled on her boots, and put the bowl in the kitchen. She then placed her coat by the fire to warm up, then walked outside of her bedroom. "Hello?", she called. The cabin was eerily quiet for a second, then Sora came running down the hall. He ran and hugged her, and Kairi laughed. "What happened?",she asked. "I was really worried about you. First, you hit me in the back, then you disintegrate on me, then you hit me over the head, and now this!", said Sora. She sobered instantly. "Why do you put me through torture all the time?", he said. She looked down. She didn't mean to hurt anyone, least of all, Sora. She felt really awful.

Sora gently tilted her face up to read her eyes, and he read the pain there. She looked at his, and clearly he was joking. But, of course, there was truth to his words. She tried halfheartedly to smile, but her eyes retained misery. Donald broke in. "I don't mean to break up this little love fest, but we need to come up with a plan." Kairi flushed, and folded her arms behind her back. Sora looked like he was gonna go emo, but he walked over to the living room.

When everyone but Kairi was asleep, Sora went to sit next to her in front of the fireplace. Kairi was staring deeply into the flames,dried tears on her face. Clearly she was in pain, and he felt horrible because he had been the one to make her feel this way. It was his fault. He sat by her patiently until he couldn't stand it any longer.

He took Kairi face in his hand, and made her look into his eyes. She blinked and tried to look away. He wouldn't have that. "Look, I'm sorry I said what I said back there. I didn't mean it like that.",he said. She looked at him with emotionless eyes. "I know you didn't mean it like that. It was stupid of me to react like that.", she said. It didn't help that her voice broke. " You are not stupid. You're smart and funny and beautiful-"

"What?"

"Erm,well..."

Silence.

"You're a good person too. That's why so many people care about you. Including me."

Kairi flushed with pleasure and said nothing. Finally, she spoke.

"I care about you too, Sora."

Sora felt like his heart was going to explode with all of the love that he felt at that moment. He felt like he was the king of the world, just because Kairi said that. He felt like taking her in his arms and-

Kairi blushed deep red. She,for some reason, had learned magic, but somehow unwillingly learned how to read other's minds. As she could see the other's dreams in their heads, she could also read Sora's thoughts. She had heard that last bit about what he was about to do, and she blushed a red deeper than Santa's coat. She looked at Sora, and at that moment, he leaned forward to kiss her. "Oh my god!", she was screaming in her head. The other kiss, back in Beast's Castle, she hadn't really felt it, on account that she was slowly disappearing into the darkness. But this, she could feel with all her heart and soul. She was suddenly hyperaware that her heart was beating fast in her throat. She forced it down again.

Meanwhile, Sora's heart was jumping up and down in place. There was a lion roaring in his chest, growling and roaring for more. He desperately wanted more,and it seemed he needed more. He put his arms around her, and he could feel her heart fluttering underneath his hands. That only made him want more.

Finally, Kairi became a little more sober and she broke away from him, her face flushed with excitement and pleasure. She stopped reading his mind, and looked into the fire. The fire seemed to be brighter than before. Or, at least, it had appeared that way. She didn't really care. She knew this was true, that she would forever belong to him, and vice versa.

She had always wanted it this way.

(end of story3)