Author's Note: Nothing much to say really... all the timeline stuff was posted in the last chapter... more stuff just happens here. Rar wrote the majority (if not all) of this chapter. I might have helped a tad... I don't really remember without going back through and rereading.

"What do you mean?" the older Kairi asked.

Kairi stared for a second, too stunned to say anything more. She hadn't even really meant to bring it up in the first place. It had been on her mind, but—

She quickly looked down at her toes to hide the tears that were rushing to her eyes.

"Hey." Roxas stopped walking and turned to look at her. "You don't have to talk about if you don't want to."

She slowly stopped walking, too, and took a deep breath. "No, it's okay," she said, and then looked up at the older Kairi. She and Tifa had stopped walking, too. Kairi swallowed.

You don't have to say anything, she reminded herself. They'll understand.

I know. But I want to.

"It's just like…" She paused, and then tried a different approach. "Me and Sora were inseparable when we were kids. We did everything together. So when Riku showed up… I guess…" She trailed off. Where had she been planning to go with that? Everything changing… Sora—

Sora.

Her throat tightened.

Wanting to talk about him and actually doing so were two completely different things.

Just say it.

Just say what's on your mind. No sense trying to lie about it or dodge the subject or anything.

You're the one who wanted to have this conversation.

Besides, the older Kairi could probably tell if you were hiding something.

You are basically the same person, after all.

So just—

"It was weird to have someone else around?" the older Kairi offered, interrupting her thoughts.

Kairi stared for a second, but then agreed. "Yeah." She was silently thanking the older Kairi about a million times for helping her with that. While, in her head, she was pretty sure what she would've said next, she had a feeling that getting the words to come out of her mouth would've been a completely different battle.

She was determined to fix that.

This was the very thing that had kept her from saving Sora in the first place.

"How'd you know?" she asked. "Was it like that here?"

The older Kairi laughed and shook her head. "No, we all grew up together."

"That must've been weird… growing up with Riku."

The older Kairi shrugged. "I couldn't imagine it any differently."

"If that's all, then let's get moving again," Roxas said. "I'm really getting hungry." He turned and started walking again, motioning for them to follow him much like Sora might have. Though, Kairi admitted to herself that she might've imagined the similarity; she had been suspicious of Roxas since he had first reminded her of Sora, and had been watching him for any other resemblances.

Her mind could easily be playing tricks on her.

The older Kairi rolled her eyes and followed after Roxas. Tifa followed after, and Kairi pulled up at the rear.

What is wrong with me?

Why didn't I just say it?

It's not their business to know, a part of her argued.

But that doesn't mean I have to freeze up when I think about it, she argued back.

"You okay?" Tifa asked, glancing back at her.

She nodded. "Yeah."

She considered telling Tifa more, but never got the chance to. They had walked into the restaurant by now, and there wasn't a chance she could tell Tifa what was on her mind without being overheard. Though… maybe she wouldn't mind being overheard…

The restaurant was a nice place: small, but not terribly so. Roxas headed to the counter, apparently very intent on getting his food, and the older Kairi followed after him. Tifa glanced around and smiled.

"I've been here before," she said. "They have good food. You'll have to try the-" She paused, and then glared at the menu for a few seconds in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me," she said finally.

"Hmm?" Kairi asked.

"They sell burgers here in our universe."

Kairi only had to look at the menu to discover Tifa's problem. The restaurant they were currently standing in only sold chicken. The first three combos on the menu were exactly the same, just with varying amounts of chicken fingers. The fourth and final combo was a chicken sandwich. Kairi did her best not to laugh at the situation, even though she found it oddly funny.

Roxas had already ordered his food when Kairi and Tifa made it to the counter, and the older Kairi had just finished ordering hers. "What would you like?" she asked, turning to Kairi.

Kairi frowned for a moment. "Same as you got, I guess."

The older Kairi relayed the order, and then told the rather baffled employee (who had been glancing between the two Kairi's since they walked into the restaurant) that they were sisters. The employee still looked slightly baffled, but didn't argue. He then asked Kairi if she'd like lemonade or soda, and she replied soda.

"Sisters, huh?" she asked as she and the older Kairi went to get their drinks.

"I'd say we're twins, but there's obviously an age difference," the older Kairi replied as she dumped excess ice out of her cup and moved to get her soda.

"I know, but you'd think he'd just assume…" Kairi shook her head and filled her own cup with ice.

"You two look just a smidge too much alike; just enough to give anyone who isn't used to this – or who is, for that matter – a pause," Roxas said. "You want some ketchup, uh-" He got a thoughtful look all of a sudden (which, there was no doubting, looked a lot like Sora's thoughtful look). "We should come up with a name to call you, so we don't confuse other people by calling you both Kairi."

"Janine," Kairi replied, without even thinking about it. "And yes to the ketchup."

"Janine, huh?" Roxas laughed as he grabbed a few more ketchups. "That sounds a bit obscure."

"Trust me, if there's anything that I'll answer to that isn't my own name, it's that." She took the straw that the older Kairi was handing her and put it in her drink.

"Why are we coming up with a different name for you?" Tifa asked as she came over and grabbed her own straw (she had opted to get the lemonade).

"So we don't confused people," the older Kairi explained. "And just why will you answer to Janine?"

They moved to sit down at a nearby table.

"Role I had in a school play two – wait-" Kairi thought for a second. "Sora's birthday's next week, which means we're three weeks away from opening night, so – three years ago. And considering how many times we rehearsed the play, performed the play, and reenacted the play just for fun, Janine might as well be my actual name."

"Sora's birthday is next week?" Roxas asked.

Kairi nodded.

"Don't worry," the older Kairi assured the slightly worried looking Roxas. "It's going to be a while before his birthday here."

"You'd almost expect them to be born on the same day," Tifa mused.

The two Kairi's exchanged glances. "When's your birthday?" they asked at the same time, and then laughed.

"May fourth," Kairi said.

"February fourteenth."

Kairi stared.

"You're kidding."

The older Kairi shook her head.

"Roxas?"

Roxas looked up, and then flagged down the employee who had their food. It didn't take them long to sort out whose food was whose; Roxas had ordered the largest meal, and Tifa and the two Kairi's had ended up ordering the same thing.

The chicken fingers weren't anything special, Kairi soon discovered, but they certainly weren't the worst thing she had eaten. The fries weren't half bad either.

"You mentioned you were looking for Sora," Roxas said, swallowing the last of his second chicken finger (the rest of them had only just finished their first). "Can I ask why?" He paused. "Or is that not a subject we want to talk about?"

Kairi followed Roxas's gaze to Tifa, and glared. "Could you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"Oh, I don't know – the shifty glances, the looking at me like I'm going to break, the interrupting everyone before they can even mention Sora. I mean, seriously, it's not going to kill me to talk about him."

Tifa glanced down at her food. "Sorry…" she muttered. "I'm just… cautious…"

Kairi snorted. "Sure."

Tifa shot her a look. "Hey! What happened last night was an exception!"

"Dare I ask what happened?" the older Kairi asked.

"Oh, Sora's Shadow decided he was going to force me to think that there was no way I could save Sora, and when Tifa tried to convince me otherwise, he started meddling." Kairi casually took a sip of her soda. "We ended up shouting at each other for a while."

"In my defense," Tifa said. "It has been years since the last time I've had any form of darkness meddle with my thoughts like that. I'd let my guard down."

"Years?" the older Kairi asked, seeming a bit confused. "What about Sephiroth?"

Tifa frowned, too, also a bit confused. "Gone. Got rid of him years ago."

"Really?"

"Is he still around here?"

The older Kairi and Roxas both nodded.

Tifa made a face that suggested she wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. After a moment a thoughtful look crossed her face. "I wonder who else is still around…" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked.

"Well…" Tifa began, but then shook her head. "No; it'd be best if I didn't know. He's not around in our universe, and that's all that matters. Him being alive here won't change anything."

"Who?"

Tifa just shook her head again.

"Why don't we go back to talking about Sora?" Kairi suggested.

Roxas shrugged. "Alright. You still haven't answered why you're looking for him."

"Well…" Kairi was silent for a moment. She had answers. She had about twenty of them. But it was hard to focus on one, and even harder to make it come out of her mouth. She had spent so long not talking to anyone… would it hurt to continue to keep quiet? Tifa could explain this.

No, she told herself, firmly.

No. You need to be able to say it.

How do you expect to save Sora if you can't even tell him, or anyone else, what's on your mind?

"He lost himself to the darkness," she said, voice much firmer than she thought it would be. "And I'm trying to find him, so that I can bring him back."

There was silence for a moment.

Roxas blinked a few times, apparently at a loss of what to say. The older Kairi looked stunned and… angry? Was that anger? And, if it was, Kairi couldn't help but wonder if that was really what she looked like when she was angry.

"You two seemed surprised," Kairi said when neither of them decided to say anything.

"Uh…" Roxas began.

"I- I can't believe-" the older Kairi managed to stutter.

"I still can't quite believe it, either," Kairi said (though she said it more for the older Kairi's benefit than her own).

Tifa looked like she meant to say something, but must've thought against it, because she merely resumed eating her food.

Kairi slowly took a bite of her own food, too.

See, Joseph WAS wrong to ask her, she couldn't help but think.

She wouldn't understand.

She didn't grow up with Sora like I did. She had Riku, too. I had just Sora.

And she can't even believe that Sora would-

She stopped herself there.

You're being too hard on her, she told herself. You never believed that Sora would fall into darkness, either. Why should she?

And it's not like it's her fault Joseph asked her a question.

And it's not like the question matters, either.

YOU decided to forgive Sora, despite all he's done and no matter what he says. What does it matter what SHE would do?

When she pulled herself out of her thoughts, she noticed that Roxas and the older Kairi had returned to their food as well.

"You know," Tifa said, breaking their silence. "You two do seem awfully surprised to hear this; especially considering you know – or, at least you know-" She nodded at the older Kairi. "That Sora has a Shadow. And you can't really have a Shadow if you haven't-"

"I know," the older Kairi interrupted. "But it's one thing to piece together what happened in your head, and another actually have it told to you."

And another entirely to have it happen to you, Kairi thought. She immediately scolded herself for being so bitter. There was no way that it was helping anything. She swallowed, then closed her eyes for a second.

"Maybe… maybe I don't want to talk about him…" she said, slowly, hoping that her voice sounded as upset as she was aiming for.

Of course, she didn't really mind talking about him. Avoiding talking about him felt too much like she was giving up on him.

However, just for now…

Maybe it would be best if they just didn't talk about him.

A generally agreement went around the rest of the table, and the mood lightened quite a bit after that. (Kairi had a feeling that the change of mood was slightly forced, but she didn't really care). She smiled to herself, and took a drink of her soda to hide it.