A/N: AWW I WANT TO CRY. You guys are so supportive T.T' I'm actually feeling okay enough to write this in my hospital bed with an effing IV stuck in my arm (not the most comfortable) but yeah. Please enjoy this chapter and review!

o.o.o

Follow Me Home

Chapter Thirty-Three

o.o.o

Reno, Auron, Jecht and Vanitas met over at an abandoned apartment building. Everyone was silent and it was apparent that they weren't too happy about failing.

Vanitas couldn't get Kairi's image out of his head. How he came to have this obsession with her was baffling, but it was like he just had to have her. It was almost as if... he met her before.

o.o.o

Flashback: 19 years prior; Destiny Islands

Eight year old Vanitas rode in the back seat of his parent's car. Mr. and Mrs. Spar had been arguing the entire trip here.

"We're giving him back! He only gets in my way!" Mr. Spar yelled. His wife tried countless times to refuse.

Strangely, Vanitas was calm. He watched the palm trees go by until they turned into suburbs. These houses were way nicer than his own, run down place. Mr. Spar pulled into a driveway and stopped. He slowly managed to get his tobacco smelling pot belly self out of the car. Vanitas looked over the seat and watched as his parents went to the door.

'They're trying to get rid of me?'

"Leave, before we call the police!" he heard the lady at the door yell.

Mrs. Spar came back around, got into the car and slammed the door. She looked really disturbed. After a while, his father got in, saying every curse word in the book.

"Both of you are useless in my life! I should just leave you here! You-" he turned to Mrs. Spar who was on the verge of tears, "You're the one that agreed to take this... this..." he glanced back at Vanitas, who was just numb to all of the arguing. The child wasn't sure what to think, but he had an uncanny ability to block it out. He looked back out the window and watched as they drove away from the house.

Mr. Spar dropped Vanitas and his mother off at the beach and drove off without a word. Whether he would come back or not was a mystery, but Vanitas didn't really understand at the time. His attention was focused on the two girls playing with the sand. They had sculpted an elaborate sandcastle. Without his mother's consent, Vanitas went over to it and started kicking it. The girls became upset and started fighting with him, but this was fun. All of a sudden, he was pushed down into the sand by a redhead eight year old.

"We worked really hard on that!" she yelled at him.

"Kairi..." the blonde girl hid behind her, "...we can fix it."

"No! What he did was mean!"

Vanitas looked into her blue eyes. She was furious with him, yet he couldn't understand why it intrigued him. His mother came over and tried to apologize to the girls, but Vanitas pushed her away.

"Shut up, stupid woman!" Vanitas ran off.

End of Flashback

o.o.o

It hit him.

That was why.

He did meet her before.

It was a very distant memory, but suddenly everything made sense. Ever since he saw her the first time, he was intrigued, the same way that he was back then. She may have not been the brave little girl that he remembered, but actually, in his eyes she was better. She was weak and vulnerable—just the way he liked it.

"We need some bait." Jecht interrupted. "But who?"

"Didn't he mention like three people?" Reno added, not really interested in any of this.

"That... Roxas guy?" Jecht pondered. "You think it would work?"

"Who knows. But I have a feeling that it won't take long to find him." Auron stated. "I've done some research about him. He's an irrational fool. He's bound to show up eventually."

"We should kidnap him and beat him." Vanitas said, his blood boiling.

"Aww, nicely said but coming from someone that couldn't even-" Reno was cut off by Auron.

"If that's what you want to do, we will make it happen."

o.o.o

Sora took Kairi along a path that went through the mountains. As they drove, they were silent, but the natural beauty around them made it a comfortable silence. They came to a lake that was hidden deep within the mountains.

'This is how I imagined our honeymoon... but... of course reality tells me that it's nothing like that right now...' Sora thought as he stepped out of the car. Kairi was in awe from the beautiful blue water that glistened in front of her. Sora opened the car door and reached out his hand.

He wanted to keep her mind off of the bad situation, but he could barely relax.

Kairi took his hand and nearly fell onto him when she got out, but of course, Sora caught her. They went over to the lake and sat down. The mountains made it all the more magical.

Kairi didn't bother Sora about his outburst; she still wanted to maintain her stance on not coming across as needy and annoying. Just being with him was fine with her. She still couldn't believe everything that had happened, but there was something that weighed on her mind. She was too afraid to ask, however because it reminded her of terrible times.

If Sora and Vanitas really were brothers...

"No... no..." Kairi started to panic.

"Kairi, what is it? What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing..."

"Oh no, you're not getting away with that this time. Tell me." Sora pulled her closer. "If we have to sit here all night, we will. But I want to help you."

"I... I can't... it's too... scary..."

"He really hurt you, didn't he?" Sora asked in a low tone.

Kairi almost felt like she didn't even have the right to say yes to Sora. She didn't have the right to complain about her misfortunes.

But she did it anyway.

"He took everything that I had left... if anything..." Kairi sobbed, "he... raped me... he beat me..."

"Kairi-"

"Sora, I was so scared... thinking of you was the only way that I got through..."

"You don't have to tell me what he did. I already know... and don't worry... he's going to pay for it..."

"Even though he's your... brother?"

Sora stared at her incredulously. "You... you knew?"

"Your Uncle told me."

"Well, I just found out not long ago. Trust me. My parents never planned on telling me in the first place."

Kairi placed her hand on his in a supportive manner and then leaned against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and took some steady breaths as she tried to forget all of the bad things that happened. She wanted to just spend this moment with Sora, here, on this beautiful lake in the mountains. It was her escape from reality, even if it was short lived.

'I can't believe that I said that to her earlier... deep down it may be true that I love her still... but... it was in the heat of the moment and I...'

Sora got lost in his own thoughts as he felt her warmness up against him. 'I've known her for so long... just letting her go like that... despite everything... I... can't...'

'But at the same time... how can I truly love her if I don't trust her?'

Sora hated going back and forth with his feelings. He really wanted things to slow down, but it was like he didn't have a choice. Everything always seemed to be suddenly thrown at him—he was always the last to know and always the one to suffer the consequences. He didn't know how to make it easier on himself because he didn't feel like he had control and that really bothered him. Kairi may be the only girl he could ever see himself with, but he was having trouble picturing what their future would be like. Would they fight all the time? Would they be able to laugh like they used to? He couldn't even trust his own friends—even Riku made him a little insecure even though he clearly knew that Riku would never do anything like that.

'I didn't used to be like this... what happened to me...?'

Would he become one of those obsessive boyfriends that monitored their girlfriend's every move? Would he check her when she came home, keep tabs and everything else? Sora couldn't imagine himself being that way, but he was afraid. He felt like his brain would explode from all of the possibilities in his head.

He remembered a few hours earlier when Kairi asked him if he had forgiven her.

Even if he did, he would never forget—and that was his biggest dilemma.

"Sora, are you okay?" Kairi looked up at him.

Sora shook his head and carefully moved a little bit away from her, causing Kairi to sit up on her own. Kairi didn't have to ask him what was going through his mind. She leaned over and buried her face in her knees. The pain he must have felt; the conflicts he must be battling by just sitting next to her and doing all of these things for her—she felt terrible. She didn't deserve any of it, yet he was still here.

"We should get back. It's getting late." Sora got up and stretched, but Kairi remained on the ground. "Kairi?"

"Just... let them do what they want to me... I don't want anyone else getting hurt... because of me..." Kairi mumbled, on the verge of tears.

"That's nonsense. Come on, let's go." Sora reached for her arm to help her up, but she refused. She may have needed her medicine, but that wasn't with her at the moment.

"I... I don't want you or anyone to... die because of me... I'm the one they want... just let them have me!"

"There's no way!" Sora yelled back at her. "If you're feeling guilty for everything, I understand, but I will not allow you to say such stupid and crazy things!"

"You don't understand! You deserve someone much better than me..." Kairi sobbed, "...I'm just a liar... a whore... so naturally... I should-"

Sora dropped to his knees and forced her to look at him. She could barely make out the outline of his face from her watery vision. She fell onto her back and he came with her. They just lay there; Kairi still sniffling and trying to calm down. Sora had a sympathetic glow in his eyes. He took his fingers and moved her hair out of her face, then wiped her tears. Kairi felt a little calmer as Sora continued to stroke her hair. Finally, he lay down next to her and asked her to rest her head on his chest as he stared up at the night sky. Kairi did so and all of her worries slowly went away.

Their "relationship" was so confusing to her. He loved her, he hated her, he wanted to protect her—at this point she was just going to go with the flow. If Sora didn't want to be here, he definitely wouldn't be, right?

"Don't call yourself those things." Sora said in a low tone. "You are not a whore... or anything like that... you just... lost your way." Even Sora was unsure of what he was saying. "It happens... at least once in our lives... right?"

"Sora?"

"Hm?"

"How did you... I mean..." Kairi was trying to find a way to word things, "...when you were living with your Uncle... did you try to forget about me?"

"Honestly, yes."

Kairi cringed, but she expected it. "I... also tried... maybe once or twice. But it was impossible..."

"I do wonder one thing," Sora paused, "...why would you try to kill yourself?"

Kairi had no answers for him, although they should have been obvious.

"It really... must have torn Roxas apart."

Kairi was surprised that Sora even mentioned Roxas in such a way. "What?"

"I've gotta give him credit; like you said, if it weren't for him... you probably wouldn't be alive right now... laying here with me..."

There was the old Sora—always making light out of even the worst situations.

He sat up, helping her up with him. "Let's... make a truce."

"A... truce?"

Sora nodded and took her hands in his. "I... will try to... trust you again... if you promise me... that..."

"Promise you what?"

"That... you will stay with me... and only me... forever..." Sora's face turned deep red.

Despite all of his confusion and fear about the future, he was tired of worrying about it. He too, just wanted to go with the flow. If it works out, great, if not—well, life does that sometimes, but at least he would know whether or not they were truly meant to be.

"Sora... of course... I swear on my life... I will never... do that... stuff... and... I will always tell you if I have a problem... and I won't try to kill myself... I'll take my medicine... I'll eat normal meals... I'll do anything to make it up to you... anything..."

Sora let out a huge sigh, followed by a smile. "Whatever happens, happens."

o.o.o

They returned to the cottage about an hour later. Zack, Leon and Rinoa were sitting in the dining area, as if they were waiting for them. They all had nervous looks on their faces.

"Where have you two been?" Leon asked, "Do you realize how dangerous it is out there? Sora, I don't care how much you think you've learned from my training, you cannot take on five mafia members at once or whatever!"

"Sorry..." Sora merely smiled and wrapped his arm around Kairi's shoulder, "we're tired so... we're going to bed. Night!"

"Wait," Rinoa spoke up, "...something has happened."

"Huh?" Sora and Kairi turned around.

"Uhh..." Rinoa turned to Zack and Leon. Zack said it for her.

"Genesis informed us that... Roxas has been kidnapped and they're using him to get to you two."

"What?" Kairi shrieked.

"They probably won't keep him alive for long." Leon added. "Zack and I are going to go and finish this once and for all."

"I'm going too!" Sora stepped up, but was rejected.

"What did I just say?" Leon pushed him back.

"But... Roxas has to live! He has a-"Sora stopped himself. "I have to go too. This battle is with... my brother... you guys can take care of the other people... but I personally want to deal with... Vanitas. What he did to Kairi was unforgivable..."

"That's very noble of you, Sora, but you've done enough." Leon said as he packed his things. "Your job now is to keep Kairi safe."

"Leon, just let him." Rinoa said. "I can protect Kairi."

Leon didn't doubt his wife, but he just didn't want this to be worse than it could be. However, as usual, he was easily persuaded once Rinoa was involved and let Sora go with him. Sora kissed Kairi before he left.

"We'll take care of this, don't worry. You won't have to be afraid anymore."

"Sora... please... be careful..."

"I'll be fine." he grinned.

She whispered an 'I love you,' as he left.

o.o.o

o.o.o

A/N: I hope you liked this somewhat long chapter (for me at least) after a while of no updates. Can't guarantee when the next update will be. Anyway, I hope you review like always.