Hey, guys, sorry for taking a few days to update. For one, right now I've gotten a case of the flu, so I might not update for some time. AGAIN. That, and now it's getting hard to attend college classes because of it. Thank god it's the weekend...

But never fear! I will update ASAP!

Kyrie (c) Me

Kingdom Hearts characters/some of the story (c) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts

Bonded Soul

Chapter 54

Everyone sighed as they got onto the Gummi ship, exhausted after the day's events.

"Man, fighting down in the Underworld sure takes a lot out of you." Sora murmured as he stretched, trying to relax his tired muscles. Kyrie nodded as she sat down, relaxing herself in her chair. Donald looked at the girl before walking over, stopping in front of her as he looked at her apprehensively.

"Kyrie, I'm…I'm sorry." She raised her eyebrow at the duck as he continued. "Well, I shoulda been able to trust ya after what happened at the Beast's castle… but I didn't. I'm sorry for not trusting you." Sora and Goofy were silent as Kyrie and Donald stared back at each other, before she smiled and knelt down, wrapping her arms around the duck. He blinked at her in confusion as she pulled back and retrieved her notebook.

It's all right, Donald. You had every right to not trust me after finding out about the truth, so I didn't blame you for that. But it makes me happy to know that you trust me, now.

The duck smiled and nodded, making Sora and Goofy smile as well.

"Well, let's set the ship to autopilot so we can take a break. I'm bushed!"

-The Next Day-

Kyrie awoke with a start as the ship shook, throwing Donald and Sora out of their chairs as Goofy jumped, now awake. The four rushed over to the screen, looking to see what caused the commotion. But with one look at the windows, Kyrie backed up, her eyes widening.

"Oh no…we're in Atlantica!" she thought in dismay. Sora and the others smiled as they looked at the windows and screen, clearly taking this news much better than Kyrie.

"We're back in Atlantica! I wonder how Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian are doing." Sora spoke as he looked out the window. Kyrie shrugged her shoulders, trying her best to not look at the windows. Goofy turned to them.

"Whaddaya say we go and find out!" he suggested. Sora and Donald nodded eagerly as they got ready to leave. Sora looked at Kyrie as Donald and Goofy headed below, eyebrow raised.

"You're not coming?" he asked. She nodded and he sighed, but chose not to argue further.

"Oh, okay then. We'll see you in a bit, and watch the ship!" he called as he followed after the two. Kyrie nodded as she grabbed her backpack and walked into the room where the bunks were, sitting down and sifting through her backpack. After a few moments, she had her sketchbook, utensils, and her plush resting beside her as she made herself comfortable.

"Since I'm going to be stuck inside her for awhile, I might as well draw. But what can I draw?" she thought as she opened her sketchbook and grabbed her pencil. She stared at the paper for a few moments, before an idea came to her. Smiling, she began to draw, her eyes and mind focused solely on the paper in front of her.

Her pencil danced across the page as she drew, her eyes narrowed and her tongue sticking out slightly as she did so. A few times she withdrew her pencil for an eraser and erased, before getting right back to work. She didn't know how long she spent drawing this one picture, but when she was done, she lifted it up and shook it before smiling in satisfaction.

The picture was of two people, a man and a woman, dancing. The man was dressed entirely in black and the woman was dressed in white as they danced, the man holding the woman up as they did so. She had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as her head rested on his shoulder, a smile clear on her face. White hair mixed with red as the her hair flowed over her shoulders, wrapping the two in its white tendrils. The picture was of her an Axel from the other night, dancing in the moonlight as it shown through the windows. She smiled softly at the picture, before looking at the ceiling.

"Axel…where are you? What are you doing, right now?"

-Meanwhile, Axel-

Axel was silent as he walked along the streets of Hollow Bastion, careful to stay away from any civilians as well as the "Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee". Demyx was tagging along behind him, looking around as he hummed to himself. But Axel wasn't caring what the melodious nocturne did at the moment, his attention was on elsewhere. His thoughts were focused on a certain white-haired young woman who was currently traveling all over the worlds with a young boy, a bipedal dog, and a duck.

"Kyrie…" he thought as he walked, his arms crossed as he did so. Ever since the other night, all he's been thinking about is her. The feeling of her in his arms, the scent of her hair, her smile…

"Axel! Watch-" but it was too late as the pyro slammed face-first into a wall. Demyx stopped for a moment, before howling with laughter as he fell over, landing the ground as he continued to laugh his ass off. Axel quickly took a few steps and covered his face with his hands, groaning as he did so.

"Damn…that hurts…!" he thought as he held his hands over his face, trying to suck it up and take it like a man. Which, he did very well, despite himself. When he pulled his hands away from his face, he glared at the water mage, clenching his fists.

"What the hell is so funny?" he shouted. Demyx stifled his chuckles as he slowly got to his feet.

"Y-you walked right into the wall! That was hilarious!" he exclaimed as he began laughing again. Even if he couldn't feel laughter, he didn't hesitate to act it out, especially in situations like this. Axel growled as his cheeks flared crimson, before turning away. He began walking away, willing himself not to roast the annoying man as said man followed right behind, still laughing.

"Aw, c'mon, Ax! You have to admit, it was pretty funny." Demyx cried out as he tried to keep up with the red-haired man. Axel growled and kept walking, if Demyx didn't shut his trap soon he would-

"Besides, seeing you all spacey because you're thinking about Kyrie is funny, too." at this, he stopped dead in his tracks, with Demyx running into his back and falling on his behind. The pyro turned to him, anger blazing in his eyes.

"I am not thinking about her!"

"You are, too! C'mon, just admit it! You're worried about her and in your shoes, who wouldn't be?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The two men were silent as they stared at each other, before Demyx got to his feet and brushed himself off.

"So, when are you gonna ask her to be your girlfriend?" he asked out of the blue. If Axel had been drinking something at this moment, he would've spluttered it all over the place.

"W-what-?"

"Oh, come on, Ax! Don't tell me you haven't thought about asking Kyrie out! If you don't ask her out soon, someone else will!" Demyx protested. Axel was silent as he looked away, he had thought about it. For a while now. Demyx was silent for a moment before continuing.

"You've known her almost as long as you've known Roxas, and when she was in the Organization, you would go crazy worrying whether or not she'd make it back. You were constantly around her, and always stood up for her whenever Larxene would harass her when she was still around. You protected her, comforted her, and looked out for her when she was still with us." he explained. Axel continued to stay silent as he continued.

"Then when she got thrown out of the Organization to follow after Sora, you became miserable. I mean, sure, you were depressed when Roxas left, but she was there for you. But when she got thrown out, I thought you were gonna follow after her and abandon the Org. So don't you see? You do like her, and you care for her." he spoke, finishing his explanation. Things were silent between the two men for a few minutes, before Axel spoke up.

"Demyx, I…" Axel paused as he sighed, before continuing. "Demyx, she is important to me. And I have thought about asking her to be my girlfriend. But…"

"But…?" Demyx questioned, his eyebrow raised.

"But…I couldn't take it if she rejected me. And when girls reject guys, they tend to avoid them. I couldn't take it if she started to avoid me, I could hardly take it after that big fight we had. So I can't ask her. End of discussion." Demyx was silent for a moment, before protesting.

"But Axel, Kyrie wouldn't avoid you because of that. And I'm sure she feels the same way-"

"You don't know that, Dem. Kyrie's a nice girl, but if I tried to force my... "feelings" on her, she wouldn't know what to do. Then I would've ruin the friendship we had and I'd lose her. I just can't…" he sighed angrily as he turned away. Demyx was silent before taking a few steps forward, placing a hand on the man's arm.

"But Axel, you can't just leave it at that. It's not fair to you, and it's not fair to her. Just try, just ask her. Because if someone else asked her and she accepted, you would lose her forever." the pyro was silent as he contemplated this. If someone had came and taken her away from him, he wouldn't know what to do. After a few minutes, he sighed.

"All right. I guess I can try…but if I was right an she starts avoiding me, then I get to burn you to a crisp. Got it memorized?" he growled, glaring at him. Demyx gulped and nodded.

"S-sure, Ax! Got it memorized!"

"I really hope my suspicions were right…otherwise I'm toast."

-Later, Kyrie-

Kyrie was silent as she finished another drawing. This one was of her, Axel, Roxas, and Xion sitting on the station tower, eating ice-cream back when she worked for the Organization. It was one of the days Axel talked about the color red, how it was the one color that reached the farthest. Roxas and Xion had rolled their eyes at this, but Kyrie nodded as she listened to him. He looked at her and smirked, placing a hand on her head as he began ruffling her hair.

"That's why I like red so much. Got it memorized?"

She smiled fondly at the memory as she slowly flipped the pages back to the first page. Each page in this sketchbook held a memory, a scene frozen in time from her perspective. She began flipping through the pages, looking at each drawing as she did so. One was of the time Demyx had slipped on some jam that had fallen on the floor in the dinning room, sending him to the ground and his food splattering all over his uniform. The others had laughed as Kyrie and Xigbar helped the man to his feet, trying to bite back their smiles as he glared at the others.

Flipping through the next pages, she saw scenes from her adventures in the Organization, as well as her adventures with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Landing on the last used page, she quickly closed the book and got to her feet, walking out of the bunkroom and into the main part of the ship. The sea outside had grown dark and foreboding, making her look outside worriedly as she held her hands over her chest, her body trembling in fear.

"I hope they're alright…" she thought as she stared outside, trying not to focus on the water. But it was incredibly hard to do so, since the ship was completely surrounded by it. Suddenly the water outside began to distort, the current growing rougher as the ship shook, sending her to the floor.

"What's happening?" she thought as she held onto the arm of a chair, trying to get herself back on her feet. But the ship shook again, throwing her to the wall this time. Getting to her feet, she stumbled and got to a chair, seating herself in it and holding on tight as the ship shook. It seemed like forever as the ship shook violently, trying to throw the girl around as she clung tightly to the chair, not daring to let go. But after awhile, it suddenly stopped, the sea outside seeming to calm down as it did so. It took Kyrie a few minutes to relinquish her hold on the chair, but when she decided that it was safe to get up, she quickly stood and looked around.

"What was that about?" she thought as she looked around. She didn't dare go near the window because of her fear of the ocean, so she decided to go sit down and wait for the trio to return.

She didn't know how long she sat in her chair and waited, but when she heard the familiar sounds of bickering, she quickly got to her feet and watched as the three walked in, with Sora and Donald bickering. Blinking at them in confusion, she turned to Goofy for an explanation. The dog simply smiled and shrugged.

"Aw, don't worry about it. Their argument is kinda silly." he assured her. She was silent before nodding, smiling. Sora growled as he glared at Donald.

"Donald, I'm telling you! You weren't supposed to sing that line!"

Oooh...Axel's got a dirty little secret!~

Axel: Shouldn't you be in bed? You're sick.

Me:...

Kyrie: *writes* He's right, K-chan. You should be in bed.

Me: Muh~ fine! *goes to bed*

Demyx: See ya on the next update! And remember to review!