12

An Ode to Corridors

The news of the great battle spread far and fast. By the time Sora, Yuffie, Cid, Leon, Aerith, and I had sauntered across the castle courtyard and through the front gates, a huge impromptu celebration had already begun in the streets.

People danced and cheered and released hundreds of balloons into the starry sky. Children ran through the milling crowds, reliving the battle themselves with toy swords and costumes. Lights were being strung throughout the city, and on every corner there were people feasting and talking about the amazing battle of the castle, in which many of them had taken part of themselves.

And the best part was that I actually got to see it. The six of us wandered along for several blocks, ogling over this or that until we stumbled upon some carnival booths that had been set up in the gardens.

Leon and Cid were soon completely immersed in a highly competitive round of laser-tag. Yuffie bought ten large helium balloons and tied them to her arms, then giggled wildly as she tried to walk along and hold her arms to her sides—with little success.

Sora and I decided that we'd like to see the gardens on the other side of Borough, which we'd heard an old woman talking about earlier. Apparently they'd been decorated with thousands of icicle lights, and in a matter of minutes someone was going to flip the switch and turn them on.

So we set off together, hand in hand. But we soon found out that getting anywhere was going to be a real problem. People were so desperate to shake our hands and compliment us on how bravely we'd fought and how grateful each and every one of them were that they converged on us at every turn. I tried to thank them in return whenever I had a chance, but there were far too many of them to thank individually, and the rumble of so many voices tended to drown mine out, anyway.

After a while we were able to escape to the square with Yuffie and Leon. The crowd was thick there, but everyone was dancing. Some rock music was coming from the very same stage that Sora and Riku had punched Setzer. People were cheering, stomping, and clapping their hands.

"What's all this?" I laughed, stumbling to a stop as soon as I caught sight of all the commotion.

"A dance, duh!" Yuffie said, untying the balloons from her arms and letting them go into the night.

"Who's playing?" I wondered, standing on tip-toe to try and get a glance at the stage.

Yuffie shrugged. "I dunno, but they're sounding great!"

"Let's get out of here before we get mobbed again," Sora said, looking around anxiously.

"Aw, you're no fun," Yuffie said. She giggled, dashed over to Leon, and grabbed his hands. "Let's dance, Squall!"

"No way; I don't dance," Leon said irritably. "And how many times have I told you not to call me that?"

Sora and I laughed as Yuffie dragged him into the crowd, steering him along with a firm hand. He looked scandalized.

The song ended, and the crowd cheered so loudly that I thought my eardrums might burst. Then a new song started up. A slow and steady beat sent single dancers edging nervously toward their partners. I caught sight of Leon, who was wearing a startled look on his face and cradling Yuffie's relaxed form against his chest.

I looked up at Sora from beneath my eyelashes. "Should we?"

He half-smiled at me, then looked at the ground. "I... I can't dance."

I giggled. "You can't or you've never tried?"

"Um... both."

I took his hands in mine. The gloves he wore were thick and hard against my palms, but his bare fingertips rested easily on my small, pale, delicate ones. It felt so wonderful. I looked up at his face, and was surprised to see the same marveling expression that I was certain was on mine.

"Here," I said, taking one of his hands and placing it on my waist. Then I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Well… I like it so far," he said softly. His thumb did laps on the back of my hand.

I leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Me too," I breathed into his ear.

We danced, slowly and steadily. After a while, I moved my hands to his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. We moved in a steady circle, content to touch, breathe, and savor the moment. There were no words for this kind of satisfaction.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest.

And then I was in my moonlit bedroom, my head resting on a different chest entirely, while long silvery hair whispered against my cheek and wide, strong hands cradled me against a tall, muscular body.

The other half of my heart ached. I stiffened, a lump rising in my throat. What was wrong with me? I was beginning to wonder if I was seriously messed up.

The flashback faded as I opened my eyes. Sora had stopped dancing. He pulled me away from him to look into my eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked.

I shook my head, but my eyes were burning. I wouldn't let myself cry. I wouldn't. Not here, not now, not in front of Sora…

"I was just…" I gave him a weak smile. "Just thinking about… Riku. And wondering if he's okay."

Sora sighed and hugged me. "It's like I told you, he'll be fine," he said in a gentle, pacifying voice. "Riku's tough. He's a beast. He can handle anything."

I giggled. "Yeah…"

He kissed my cheek, and I caught the sweet scent of his skin as it brushed across my nose. He was so good to me. I promised myself I wouldn't mention Riku to him again.

We circled with the slowly revolving crowd. Once in a while someone would look up at us and point, but I hardly noticed them anymore. How could I, when I was holding pure perfection in my arms? It would probably kill me to look away from him now.

His eyes were so gentle, so perfect in their oceanic blue. His smile was gentle and beautiful as always. His head was slightly inclined toward me, and I couldn't help but notice that he didn't look away from me the entire time we danced.

Then, ironically enough, Leon interrupted us. I felt like I was defying gravity when I tore my eyes away from Sora's face. But Leon had shaken my shoulder and said my name three times, so I couldn't just ignore him. Sora laughed when I gave my head a feisty toss and finally whirled around.

"What?" I demanded.

"Have you seen Yuffie anywhere?" Leon asked, anxiously scanning the crowd as he spoke.

"I thought you were dancing with her," I said, not really interested.

"I was, but then she said she had to leave." He shook his head. "I thought she might be with you, but it looks like she just vanished."

"Maybe you could dance with Aerith," Sora suggested, smirking.

Leon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Cloud would kill me for even thinking about it."

"Hiya gang!" Yuffie said brightly, appearing out of nowhere.

"What was that all about?" Leon asked in his low, nasally voice.

"The royal advisors wanted me to contact the princess and give her a message," she explained, turning to me. "They've scheduled a press conference in about fifteen minutes, in the square. You've gotta be there."

Was it just me, or did she actually seem excited about it?

"What?" I said, raising my eyebrows. "Why me?"

"Well, not just you. Sora, Leon, Aerith, Cid, and yours truly are supposed to be there, too." She grinned broadly and jerked a thumb at herself.

"Ugh," I groaned, slumping over.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Re-lax. They probably just want a recap of the battle."

Sora put his hands on my shoulders for a moment, then surprised me by wrapping me up in his arms and cradling me against his chest in front of everyone. "It'll be okay," he said. "If you can fight an army of Heartless and Nobodies all day, this is nothing, right?"

I laughed. "I guess so." The sound of his heart beneath my ear, beating in sync with mine, made my stomach tickle as though it were full of beating wings.

~o~

The mass of humanity that descended us was positively suffocating, cutting off our chances of escape quite effectively. And it wasn't just the press, either. It looked like half the city had dropped what they were doing to come and hear whatever it was that they thought we had to say.

As the reporters stood there, waiting for permission from the guards to start asking questions, Sora watched me with eyebrows raised. He was used to publicity, but not this much publicity. The look on his face was almost pleading. I laughed aloud and gave him a helpless smile.

"Princess Kairi! Princess Kairi!" a little girl with pigtails squealed, her high-pitched voice easily discernable from the dull hum of adult voices, "can we see your keyblade?"

She was so cute that I couldn't help smiling back at her, even though I was less than certain about her request. I shot Sora a questioning look. Would I be able to summon the keyblade just because I felt like it? Or did I have to have a genuine need for it?

"Try it," Sora suggested. He extended an arm out in front of him and curled his fingers around an imaginary handle. With a clang and a flash of light, the Oathkeeper appeared.

After a moment's hesitation, I followed suit. For a couple seconds I just stood there, feeling stupid.

"Um…" I said, lowering my arm, "I guess not. Sorry." I gave the little girl an apologetic look and a shrug.

Sora flashed his bright white teeth at me, then looked down, still snickering. There was an outbreak of bantering laughter from Yuffie, Cid, and the vast body of people surrounding us.

"Hey," I said, frowning at Sora and everyone else, "don't laugh! We can't all be keyblade masters!"

"You didn't really even try," Sora scoffed, reaching down and catching my hands in his own. When he tried to pull my arms back out, I scowled and clenched them to my sides.

"No!" I said stubbornly. "I can't!"

Sora rolled his eyes. "Stop telling yourself that. You've done it before, and you can do it again. You gotta believe that, Kairi."

I raised an eyebrow at him. He was so corny. Did he really think that just because I believed that I could make something happen, that it actually would?

Then again, I probably would have rattled off that exact same line myself, once upon a time. And I would've had absolute faith in it, too.

"C'mon," he said, still smiling lopsidedly at me.

I heaved an exasperated sigh, only too aware of the thousands of sets of eyes that were resting expectantly on my scrawny, unremarkable body. "I'm gonna look like a moron," I said quietly, so that only Sora would hear me.

"We'll see."

Once again, I held my arm out in front of me, fingers groping the air for the comfortable, familiar handle. A long, awkward moment passed. I looked up at Sora, eyebrows raised in an "I told you so" sort of way.

But then my palm began to tingle, and my bangs were blown back away from my face in the sudden rush of air that accompanied the appearance of my splendid weapon.

I looked up, startled. Then a smile spread across my face like warm sunshine. Everyone in the vicinity applauded loudly.

As I stood there, trying to control the sudden flood of heat that went rushing to my face, I was suddenly distracted by a flash of silvery hair in my peripheral vision.

But as soon as it had appeared, it was gone. I twisted my body around, craned my neck, and hastily searched the crowd until—

My eyes came to rest on a small boy of six or seven. Wispy, ice-white sheaves fell into his eyes, which were a warm, rich brown. As I watched him, feeling a little deflated, a woman caught his grubby little hand in her own and began to tow him toward the outskirts of the crowd.

My shoulders sagged with disappointment. Where was Riku? What if something terrible had happened to him while he was trying to catch the man in black?

I was staring off into space as Sora was shaking an elderly gentleman's hand. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking about?" he asked.

I started a little and looked at him. "Um, I was just wondering where Riku is. He went after this guy in black during the battle... they went upstairs..."

"The whole castle was searched," Sora said, his eyebrows pulling together. "Remember? There was nobody else there."

"I know," I said, smiling and shaking someone else's hand. "That's what worries me. Where could he have gone?"

"Well..." Sora said slowly, nodding and smiling politely at the crowd, "Riku can take care of himself."

I frowned. "Well, sure he can, but he shouldn't have to. Not all the time."

Sora shrugged.

~o~

Yuffie was probably one of my favorite people in the whole world.

It's true. She was not only my caretaker, but one of my closest friends, always listening to my moaning and moping and doing her best to cheer me up when I was sad. Her smile was infectious, too, her demeanor steadfastly buoyant and bright. She was a pleasure to be around.

But she did have a couple of tiny, irritating little flaws. She was bossy. And she loved attention, no matter what she said to try and negate that fact.

So I was getting close to hitting her as she flaunted us around the city, taking us first to a cute but crowded Italian restaurant on Main Street, then to the park, and then to her favorite hair salon, just so she could show us off to her stylist. We spent what felt like forever talking in front of different groups of people, posing for pictures, and telling our story countless times. And after four or five hours had passed, I'd just about had enough.

Not that I hated publicity, per se. I was fairly used to it, after all. And as for being outside of the castle, the first couple hours had been wonderful. It was just that, well… I was with Sora. Finally. I could feel the pulse beating in his warm wrist as it rested against mine. I could still taste him on my lips, and whenever he looked at me with those godly, ethereal eyes, all I wanted to do was drag him into a broom closet so that I could have him all to myself for once.

It didn't seem like so much to ask for, really. But nobody else seemed to share my view on that particular issue.

"Okay, now we're going to run over to Market Plaza for a minute," Yuffie was saying, pulling me by the arm across the street and away from a gaggle of small boys who were beginning to converge around Sora. "Markus agree to meet us there; he's going to take some professional pictures of you and Sora together. Speaking of Sora, he could use some touching up before we get there. Do you have a comb or anything for your hair, Sora? Maybe we could dip in water or —" she stopped abruptly, whirled around, and snapped, "hey, Sora, get over here! I'm not talking just to hear my own voice, you know!"

From the other end of the crosswalk, Sora rolled his eyes, finished signing and returning a brown-haired boy's scrap of paper, then strolled casually across the street to meet us, muttering something that sounded extraordinarily like, "You could have fooled me," all the while. Yuffie scowled and tapped her foot on the cobblestoned sidewalk impatiently.

I knew that she was enjoying herself, though, however edgy she may have seemed. Having helped plan and instigate the rebellion, she couldn't help basking in the aftermath of our victory.

As Yuffie began interrogating Aerith on whether or not she'd bought the right pair of earrings for me to wear in my upcoming photo shoot, Sora caught my eye and heaved a gigantic sigh.

I giggled quietly, then put a finger to my lips. If Yuffie heard him complaining, she was sure to turn around and take a snap at him.

The idea of it didn't seem to worry Sora, however. "This sucks," he murmured.

I smiled and shook my head at his harsh, yet undeniably accurate take on the situation. "Well, if anyone should have to stick around, it's us," I murmured, shrugging. "We are pretty fundamental characters in all this, I guess."

"Yeah, well… sometimes I wish we weren't."

My eyes met his, our cerulean connection brimming with mutual understanding.

"Me too," I whispered, lips pulling down at the corners. What I wouldn't give to be able to leave with him now—to escape all the obligations and notoriety! What I wouldn't give to be Kairi again—just Kairi, the little redheaded thing who walked along the beach, picking up shells. I wanted to be with the people I loved, unbothered by all of the complications and drama that I faced now.

A tear fell; I caught it on my palm and wiped it on my shorts. But Sora had already seen it. He pulled me quietly to a stop, and the rest of the group proceeded on without us, caught up in their own affairs.

"You okay?" he asked, reaching up to brush at my glistening cheek.

I nodded, irritated at myself. "I don't know why I'm so emotional these days…" I muttered.

Sora shook his head. "I do," he said, laughing humorlessly.

I tried to laugh too, but it came out as a sob. He took me gently in his arms, rested his chin on the top of my head, and traced circles on my back with his soft, soothing fingertips. "Shhh," he said tenderly as more sobs racked my body. "It'll be okay."

I continued to cry, my mind burdened with wonderings of Riku's whereabouts, and also the future that awaited Sora and I in this world full of people who needed our guidance—the guidance, ironically enough, of a couple of teenagers that wanted nothing more than to go to school together, hold hands, and live normal lives.

"C'mon," Sora said in response to my continued silence. "At least we can be together now. That's something."

I nodded. Suddenly an idea occurred to me, and I glanced up at him, eyes narrowing. "I hope you don't have any other plans," I said threateningly.

He snorted. "Aw, c'mon. You really think I'd run out on you just like that?"

I sighed and rested my head on his chest again. "To be perfectly honest, Sora, it wouldn't surprise me."

Quite abruptly, he pulled away from me and craned his neck so that we were at eye-level. His mouth pressed itself into a thin, angry line, and his eyes snapped and crackled with intensity. "Why?" he demanded.

"You've done it before."

Scowling, he put his hands behind his head, clenched his jaw, and stared off into the distance. After a long moment, he said, "I said I was sorry."

I shrugged. "I know. And I forgave you. But I still don't have any reason to think that you won't do it again. After all, it's not like you really filled me in on what's been going on for the last three years."

His scowl became more pronounced. "You didn't ask," he reminded me sourly.

"I know," I said, linking my hands together behind my back. I sighed and looked across the street, where people were walking along the sidewalk, talking and laughing. "It just seems like… well, we used to be able to talk more easily. Before. But now… you don't tell me anything."

Sora sighed, his anger seeming to evaporate on the spot. He walked over to me and took my hands in his own. "Well, what about you? You didn't used to always pick fights. I mean, you were feisty, all right, but I think I could talk to you for hours on end and the subject of my inadequacies never even came up. My gosh, what a concept!"

I gave him a wry smile. "Don't change the subject."

He chuckled a little, then looked around until he located a lone park bench. Hand in hand, we wandered over to it and sat down. For what seemed like a very long time, we just sat there, silent and brooding.

Finally, he spoke. "What do you want, Kairi?" he asked abruptly.

I looked up at him, startled. "What?"

"What do you want?" he asked, staring expectantly into my eyes.

I waited for him to elaborate, intrigued his question and expression. When he didn't, I murmured, "Well… I want to be with you."

"Aright then," he said, examining our fingers, which were intertwined and resting on his knee. Finally he looked up, eyes soft and round. "When I do have to leave again, you'll come with me. I'm sure the king will agree that you've gotten strong enough. We can unite the worlds together, just you and me."

"'Unite the worlds'?" I repeated, eyes widening dramatically, "Is that what you've been doing?"

He looked at me for a moment, smiling at my distraction, then sighed and placed a hand behind his head. "Um… yeah. Kind of."

"Uniting the…" I trailed off, amazed. "What does that mean, anyway? How do you unite the worlds?"

"Hmm." He put his elbow on the end of his knee, then rested his cheek on his hand. "I'm not sure… where to start, exactly."

I stared at him, curiosity gaining intensity with every moment that his eyes searched the horizon and his fingertips drummed thoughtfully against his chin.

"Well, start at the beginning," I finally said, a little more demandingly than was really necessary.

He laughed. "Guess that makes sense. Let's see… well, right after Riku and I met up with the king, he told us about this… idea that he had."

"Where'd you meet him?" I asked, hungry for detail.

"At Disney castle. He'd been studying some of Ansem's reports… or Xehanort's reports, anyway. And he was curious about… well…" he paused, still gazing off into the distance as though he were unsure of how to explain. Then he looked up at me again, eyes bright.

"You know how there's a legend that says that all the worlds used to be unified by the light in people's hearts? Like, it was just one big world?"

I nodded. It sounded familiar.

"Well, this world was a great place. Everybody loved it. But then they started fighting over the light, and darkness entered their hearts. It spread all over and pretty much destroyed the world.

"There were a few fragments of light left though, and they spread out and became all the worlds that we have today. They were sealed off from one another. Even Heartless couldn't travel between them unless they were summoned.

"But then something happened, and dark pathways were formed between the worlds. You know what Corridors of Darkness are, right? The Heartless and Nobodies use them. Riku used to be able to use them, too."

I nodded again. "Like those dark portal things?"

"Yeah. Anyway, the king had this theory. He thought that, since Corridors of Darkness are like veins connecting the Ream of Darkness to the rest of the worlds, then there must be Corridors of Light, too. Because it makes sense that the worlds would have forged a connection with Kingdom Hearts, since Kingdom Hearts is the heart of them all, and therefore their source of light."

I gaped at him. "Wait. Corridors… of Light?"

"Yeah. Pathways made by pure light."

"Do they exist?" I babbled, awestruck. The idea seemed so fantastical.

Sora smiled, a little wryly. "Um… well… yeah, they exist. The real question is whether or not they exist in working order."

I blinked a couple times, then snorted with laughter. "What, do they need to be repainted? Did the light bulbs burn out?"

Sora shook his head ruefully. "They've never been used by humans, Kairi. It's almost like they need to be completely re-forged in order for us to pass through them."

"So…" I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Have you ever used them?"

He brightened visibly. "Yeah. I have. And I guess that brings us full circle."

"What do you mean?"

"That's what we've been doing so far," Sora said, shrugging one shoulder. "Me and Riku and the king. Opening the Corridors of Light."

"Really?" I gasped, eyes wide. And quite suddenly, I leapt to my feet, grabbed his hand, and dragged him off in a southerly direction.

"Ow," he complained, stumbling along behind me. "Where are we going?"

"Away from all the people," I said, rounding a corner and proceeding into a long, narrow alleyway. "You can't show them. But you've got to show me!"

"Show you what?" he asked, bemused.

"The corridors!" I said impatiently, casting a quick glance at him. "If we can travel to a new world, any world we want, then…" the possibilities unfolded themselves before me, infinite and fantastic. "You could do whatever you had to do to unify the worlds or whatever, and I could go with you. But I then could come back here whenever I needed to and fulfill my responsibilities as Princess!"

There was a sudden tug on my arm. I lurched to a stop, then whirled around, eyes wide, to find Sora shaking his head sympathetically and holding me where I was. "That's the problem, Kairi. We can't go to any world we want. Not yet."

I stared at him for a long moment, frustration welling up inside me. "Why not?"

"Because the pathways aren't all open."

I blinked. "Oh."

"I had to fly here by gummi ship. I couldn't forge a pathway no matter how hard I tried. This place has always been shrouded in darkness, see… I think Riku got through, though…" his eyebrows pulled together thoughtfully. "Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

"Why?"

"Um…" Sora looked at me appraisingly, as though he were wondering, again, where to begin. "Well… Riku isn't exactly a pro when it comes to opening up the Corridors of Light."

"But…" I pursed my lips, confused. "Riku belongs in the Realm of Light now. He should be able to move about in it just as well as the rest of us."

"In theory," Sora agreed, nodding. "But, well, he told me something once, and I think it might apply in this same situation. He said that, in order to use the Corridors of Darkness, one has to wholeheartedly accept the darkness inside them and put it to use. One has to submerge oneself in it."

I shivered at the very thought.

"I think that the same sort of rules apply when it comes to using the Corridors of Light. Riku has forsaken the darkness in his heart. We all saw that. But I don't think that he's fully accepted the light, either. So he's kind of in between right now, I guess. He can't use the Corridors of Light very well, and he can't use the Corridors of Darkness at all."

My shoulders sagged. "Poor Riku," I murmured. He was trying so hard to join the Realm of Light. But would he ever feel like he truly belonged in it? It was in his nature to be hard on himself. I could still remember, back in the World That Never Was, the way he'd said, "I didn't want to be found. Not like this." Still, his heart was in the right place. It wasn't fair.

"So… does that mean that anybody can use the Corridors of Light, if their hearts are mostly light?" I asked.

"Not exactly…" Sora said, trailing off thoughtfully. "You have to know that they're there—the connections. And you kind of have to get a feeling for using them before you can open up portals and stuff by yourself. But those are the basics."

"So anyone can learn to use them if their hearts are mostly light?" I asked, rephrasing.

Sora nodded keenly. "Yeah. That sounds about right."

"Hmm." I linked my hands together behind my back, thinking. Then I looked up at Sora, eyes wide and pleading. "Will you teach me?"

He didn't seem to need much convincing. "Um… you probably won't need much teaching, to be honest," he said, smiling. "There's no darkness in your heart to begin with, Princess."

"Oh, yeah," I said, reaching up to place a hand over my heart.

"But everyone else is going to need a lot of teaching," Sora said, looking very weary all of a sudden. His eyebrows pulled together worriedly.

"Everyone else?" I asked, puzzled. "Why does everyone else need to learn?"

"Because it's the key to the king's entire plan—his plan to unify the worlds."

I folded my arms in front of me. "You mean… your mission?"

"Yeah."

A very pregnant pause followed, in which we stood there together and stared up at the moon. It peeked through nearby telephone wires at us, casting its eerie light on the pavement at our feet. Surrounding it was the usual collection of stars—stars that now seemed much closer together than they had before.

"Sora?"

He turned and looked at me, the dim light on his face making his skin look particularly soft and smooth. "Yeah?"

"How are you going to unify the worlds? I mean, it sounds more like the stuff of legends than reality."

He laughed softly, then reached up, very slowly, and took my chin between his fingers. "The hard way," he chortled. And then he was kissing me, one hand holding my face to his and the other on the small of my back.

I kissed him back, quickly forgetting, in the beauty of the moment, that I'd been irritated with him only a few short minutes ago. He was a part of me, and I was a part of him. It was impossible for us to be at odds for very long.

When he finally released me, his eyes were luminous and soft in the moonlight. He stroked my cheek with two fingers, removing a stubborn red ribbon of hair that clung to my cheek. Then, out of the blue, he murmured, "We'll unite them first, Kairi. The people. And once they're united, the true light will return."

"And then… the worlds will be one?"

"Yes," Sora said, releasing me. He held his hands out, fingers spread apart, and brought them together to form two fists, which he promptly brought together. "When their hearts are one, the world will be one. No more Heartless. Hardly any darkness. Only good."

I continued to stare at his hands, awestruck. "It just sounds so… impossible," I confessed.

Sora laughed. "I know. But the king and Yen Sid think that the time is almost right. They know the legends; they've read the signs. And, hey, you said it yourself. 'There are many worlds, but they all share the same sky. One sky—"

"—one destiny,'" I finished, clutching a hand to my heart.

"Right."

He pulled me into his arms again. I stared up at the starry sky, listening to his breathing and enjoying the sensation of his pulse beating against my forehead. After a minute or so, I asked, "So… your part in all this is…?"

"My job, and Riku's, too, is to open the corridors for everyone within the Realm of Light so that they can interact. We have to convince them to love a little more, hate a little less, and accept one another for who they are. It's not an easy job, but it's definitely important…" he trailed off suggestively. "And it can be yours, too, if you want it."

I smiled and burrowed my face into his collarbone. "Of course I want it. I want to be with you. And not just in your heart, either."

He chuckled and kissed my forehead. "You will be with me. I promise, Kairi."

I sighed a deep, contented sigh, savoring the smell of his skin and the warmth of his arms around me. "Okay, then. It's settled. We'll save the worlds one last time, just us three. And then we'll retire. Deal?"

Sora chortled. "Okay. But just so you know, this isn't gonna be a quick fix. It might even take years."

"Don't be so optimistic. You might accidently make me want to come."

Even in the darkness, I saw his eyes roll.

"How am I going to keep up appearances here, though, if I can't use the Corridors of Light to get back and forth?" I mused. "The people need me."

"We'll figure something out. Don't worry." He smiled down at me, his teeth gleaming like pearls in the moonlight. "If we're together, we can do anything, right?"

It wasn't like me to let go of my fears and trust in a future that I couldn't see. Not the most recent version of me, at least. The old me had been buried in the past, crushed by the weight of the many hours that she'd spent waiting on the beach for a boy that seemed to have forgotten his promise to return. And yet somehow, as I looked up into Sora's eternal, seemingly perfect eyes, I knew that he was right.

"Sure. We'll win this thing, you and me," I murmured against his neck. It was simply a matter of our unity.

One heart. One sky. One destiny.