Hey everyone, I'm back! I'm hoping you all will enjoy this next chapter, as I am very, very excited to write it!

'And remember, the truth that once was spoken:

To love another person is to see the face of God'

~Les Miserables

Kairi

The next morning, Kairi awoke to the knowledge that she would again be seeing Sora, and that she would have to answer for her actions. She'd not even seen her mother since she'd awoken in the hospital! Now here she was, about to talk with the man she was desperately and perhaps pathetically in love with why she'd tried to kill herself. How was she going to go about doing this? How could she possibly admit to him what she'd been doing for a living for the past few years? She knew that once she told him, there was no going back. There was no telling if he would ever speak to her again. But she knew she had to be honest with him. She had to tell him. She had to know if he would ever want her.

The woman trembled as she waited for her Love to arrive.

Sora arrived twenty five minutes later, just as one of her nurses had finished checking her vitals. In hand, he had a smoothie, and a star shaped balloon tied to it. She smiled, tears already welling in her eyes at the caring gesture her best friend had extended to her.

"Sora, you didn't have to do that…" She said, blinking back her tears. The brunette grinned, and handed her the smoothie.

"Yeah I did. I figured you wanted something other than shitty hospital food." He sat on the edge of her bed and watched her take the first sip of her drink. Paupu Fruit Smoothie. Her favorite. She and Sora had shared dozens of them when they were in high school. While their other friends would often opt for a bar of sea-salt ice cream, Sora and Kairi would split a Paupu Fruit shake, joking about the old legend that because they had shared the smoothie, their destinies would be tied together for the rest of their days. Now that Sora was back, it struck her with that first sip that maybe that was true. If it wasn't for the fact that she was about to tell him she'd been working as a stripper, she would have whole-heartedly agreed with her wishful thinking.

"Listen, Kairi…about yesterday," Sora began, clearing his throat, "I've decided I need to be honest with you. After all, you are my best friend, and honesty should be a given. So, here it goes…I don't think you should have gotten as upset as you did yesterday. I think you're scared, and I think you have every right to be upset with me about my lack of communication with you over the past five years. I deserve that. But you can't stay angry at me forever. You can't just sit there and stew about how mad you are! You'll just dig yourself into a rut, and if you do that, then you'll just become more thoughtless and more careless, and…" The brunette paused for a moment, and glanced up at the ceiling, and to Kairi's shock, she realized that he was tearing up.

"I can't…I can't imagine what I would do if I knew you died and I could have stopped it. What's even worse is that I could never live with myself if I knew you'd died by your own doing and there could have been something I could've done to stop it. I can't think about a world where you aren't alive in it. I don't want to imagine a world that you aren't alive and well in. Especially if I had something to do with it. Jesus Christ. I can't-I, I can't even begin to think what I'd do if I lost you like that…Kairi, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I did this to you, I'm an awful person to hurt my friend like this…"

Sora had begun to cry and was now bent over, hugging Kairi's blanket-covered legs, weeping torturously into the sheets. Kairi felt a surge in her heart, and she slowly extended her hand down to run her fingers through his hair. She glanced up at the ceiling, and took a deep breath. Here went nothing.

"After two years of community college, I was recruited for a job…it was after they'd seen me dance at a half time performance. They said I was absolutely perfect for the job. They told me they couldn't have picked a better person if they'd tried. God I wished they'd tried. But I took the job, because I was lonely, and I liked feeling wanted, and I loved knowing I was good at things. So for the first year, I really enjoyed working at the club. I was wanted, I brought in the most money, everything. But then I started to feel…just hollow. And I figured it was because I didn't do a lot with my friends, so I went out shopping and partying and went to dinners-everything. But the more I went out, the more I worked, the more people I slept with, the worse it got. Until about a month ago I realized that I missed my friends. I missed Roxas' snide comments when he got annoyed, and I missed how Xion refused to wear bright colors. I missed how protective Riku was, and the random drawings Naminé would give me…but mostly I missed you. I missed you and your obsession with smoothies. I missed your stupid sense of fashion, and your mad cooking skills. And above all, I missed your smile. I missed the way your eyes lit up when I'd tell a joke and how loud your laugh was…I missed you so much, Sora.

"And I am still so hurt that you didn't say a word to me in five years. I hate that you just forgot about me and that you got so successful without any of your friends around and you just…left all of us. But I guess…well, I suppose the rest of us could have made an effort as well. We should have called or emailed or written-something. I should have called or written or something. I could have just as easily reached out to you as you could have to me. But instead I just got so lonely and empty until I didn't want to be around anymore. I had convinced myself so thoroughly that you would never come back-that nobody would come back, that I needed to just…get out. I was a fucking stripper, Sora! I've forgotten the names of most of the men I've slept with, and I can't remember the last time a guy really made me feel special! I felt like the dirtiest, most useless mistake…and so I ran in front of a car. And when I woke up, there you were. You were there, and yes, it was almost too late, but you came. You came and I understand if you don't want to be around me now that you know what I've done, but I cannot thank you enough for finally coming."

Kairi was weeping, sobbing all over herself, and fresh tears were falling from Sora's clear blue eyes. And they wept together for a long time, holding each other, Kairi's heart beating faster than she thought possible. She waited for him to get up and leave, or for him to say something-anything. But after the tears came silence. The monitor beeping, the air conditioner humming, and the occasional sniffling were the only sounds she could hear. He was done with her. He was absolutely done with her. So when he finally did speak, she could not have predicted that she would hear,

"I love you, Kairi."

Roxas

"Way to go, Roxas, you really fucked up now." Axel snickered.

"Axel, shut up!" Roxas snapped to his ginger friend, before turning back to the still confused Naminé. "Um, hey, if you're wondering what all that was about, I just, um…had to clean out my fridge."

"By throwing it out the window?" Axel muttered, crossing his arms. The shorter blonde friend elbowed his taller friend in the ribs before smiling nervously at Naminé.

"Um, it's okay. I don't really mind, I just figured that that's dangerous for others. What if someone walks down there?" The woman said in a small voice.

"Yeah, Roxas, what if someone walks down there?" Axel asked, obviously annoying his friend. Roxas gritted his teeth and sent a glare Axel's way before telling the blonde woman,

"It's just an alleyway. Nobody ever goes back there except guys who are up to no good. Trust me, we're fine." Naminé glanced at Roxas skeptically, but shrugged and walked over to the two men,

"So, what are we going to do today?" Axel and Roxas glanced at one another, before Roxas answered,

"Well, Sora still hasn't called, so I guess we can do whatever you want to do today." Naminé grinned up at Roxas and asked,

"Really?" and when Roxas nodded, she said, "We could just watch a bunch of movies and bake cookies…I'll draw for you, too." Roxas smiled, remembering how much he used to love it when she would draw for him.

"Draw Axel, here and you've got yourself a deal." He said, and Naminé grinned at him.

And so, the three adults spent the rest of the day baking as much as they could with the meager amount of food in Roxas' kitchen and watching the small collection of movies that the Blonde owned. When the three had settled down with a batch of slightly burnt cookies and the third Disney movie of the day, Naminé settled to draw Axel as well as she could, though she insisted to Roxas that she'd not drawn in a very long time. They were seated next to each other on the couch, while Axel lounged in the chair to their right. After an excruciatingly long time, Naminé elbowed Roxas lightly, and tilted the paper towards him so that he had a clear glimpse of it. The poor blonde man had to work to keep from spitting his food all over the room. Naminé had drawn the red head chasing futilely after a group of ladies, his arms outstretched like a child reaching for candy.

"What's so funny over there?" Axel questioned, craning his neck to try and see Naminé's drawing. The two blondes looked at each other and grinned.

"Oh, nothing, just a rough sketch, I'll have to get another piece of paper and start over." Naminé said with a grin.

"Oh, bullshit, lemme see!" Axel exclaimed, jumping up and trying to grab the paper. Naminé yelped and handed the drawing to Roxas, who stared at it dumbly, before jumping up and sprinting away from Axel's reaching hands. "Give me the paper, ya little shit!" Axel yelled, chasing after the shorter man while Naminé giggled with glee from the couch. Roxas, suddenly feeling adventurous, leapt behind Naminé, and crouched behind her on the sofa. "Wow, hiding behind the girl, way to be a man!" Axel snapped.

"You're just mad because we won't show you a drawing!" Roxas exclaimed, gripping Naminé's shoulders and cowering into her back, attempting to ignore how good she smelled. And with that, Axel picked up the tiny girl with one arm, and snatched the paper from Roxas' hand.

"A-ha!" The red head exclaimed while setting Naminé back down, right on Roxas' lap, and examined the drawing. "What the-what the fuck?!" Axel exclaimed, eliciting laughter from the two blondes. "You-you dicks!" Axel sputtered, throwing the paper back at the two now hysterical blondes. "I can get girls just fine, thank you." He muttered. The red head sat back down with a huff, and promptly ignored the two for a good hour. Meanwhile, to Roxas' absolute shock and joy, Naminé did not move from his lap for the entire evening.

Xion

Xion had left the house, and was now headed to the house where her former 'friends' if she dared call them that, were residing. There wasn't a place where she would want to be less, but for now, she'd have to grit her teeth and muscle through until she could go back to Ven's. Who knew when that would be. But for now, she'd make it through. She'd made it through before.

Her home life had never been an easy one. It could have been much worse, she knew. She could have been raped by her father and scorned by her mother, or she could have been homeless. She knew her cards could have been far worse that what they were. But she also knew they could have been so much better. It had started when she was around eight or nine. Her grandparents had all died within two years of each other, and her parents were devastated. At first, it started as just her parents sleeping in too late, or not making dinner. But then, it became more and more frequent. Her mother slowly stopped going to work, and then her father stopped going out at all. Luckily for her family, her father worked from home, and was able to keep his job. But that hardly mattered to Xion when nobody picked her up from school, or packed her a lunch. From the age of nine on, Xion know that she was on her own.

For the most part, she did just fine with it. She packed sandwiched for herself, did fine in school to keep her teachers satisfied, and cleaned up her house enough to keep it looking presentable enough if a friend wanted to stop by for a bit. Xion showered, picked up groceries for her mother, and often cooked, and grew used to not being praised or really spoken to at all. The only time her mother would get was to pay bills, or speak with a fellow adult for something or another, and her father only left on impossibly long business trips. So when Xion met Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Naminé, and Riku, she couldn't imagine how she'd gotten by without this much love before she'd met them.

But by then, she'd already begun to take a knife to her skin in her unbearable loneliness. So when Riku found out, and instead of leaving her, became the best friend she could have asked for, she knew she couldn't let him go.

But she had. She'd let him go, and after graduation, her life had degraded to a humiliatingly dark place. After she'd awoken in Xaldin's bed, blood between her thighs and nobody in the room but herself, she'd fled, and when she and Luxord began dealing together, months later, she'd worked to push the memory of waking up that morning as far away into her subconscious as possible. But with Luxord's friends, she saw the man again and again, and though everyone was wary and cautious of him, nobody understood why Xion grew increasingly afraid of him.

And she never told anyone, for she knew that telling others would bring more harm than good. Xaldin took her again. He promised her extra money, extra pills, anything she wished while he had his way with her, and while he did that she would grit her teeth and nod her head to whatever he offered, knowing that he would bring her even worse pain if she refused.

And that is how her life continued for a while. Until Luxord became so lonely he asked her into bed with him, and she went willingly, knowing that he was just as lonely as she was and that he didn't need anything to hurt-just something to feel. So she and Luxord continued that way for a long time, even long after Xaldin stopped taking her whenever he pleased. But Xion grew restless. She grew poorer and more restless until along with drugs, she offered her body to some who came to her. She began to dress better, lower cut shirts, shorter shorts and skirts, even in the freezing cold. And she earned extra money that way. Enough to get by, enough to get her fix, and enough to keep the memories of her old friends out of her head.

But then her life changed again, and this time it left her reeling. She awoke one morning in the house where she, Luxord, and his friends lived, to all of the house's occupants gathered around her bed. One of them explained that they'd found Luxord's body in a back alleyway earlier that morning, surrounded by blood. A block away, they'd found Xaldin's body. The two had gotten into a fight, and dueled it out. The police had speculated that Xaldin had died first, and that Luxord had made it a block towards the house before collapsing.

Xion felt as if her entire world imploded in that one moment. Her only friend-gone. Just like that, the man she hated the most took the man she had cared about the most. One demon gone, one angel gone. She missed Luxord terribly. She quickly found that she could not stand Luxord's friends without Luxord around, and left. She left and took to wandering the streets and selling by night, sleeping by day, each day becoming more and more pointless than the last. But now Riku was here. He was here and he was coming to inevitably fuck Aqua. Xion ground her teeth to keep the tears at bay. No use crying over a man who didn't care.

So the raven-haired girl walked north, towards the house of drug dealers whom she had not spoken to in such a long time. Determined to not watch her heart break today. Riku could have all the fun he wanted with Aqua. At least one of them would be enjoying themselves. And despite her anger with him for ignoring her so long, she desperately hoped that he would get a happy ending. She'd never met someone more deserving of a happy ending than him.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and I would really appreciate it if you guy would review, favorite, etc. for me. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Special thanks to: Lucenthia, Guest, and 89niners-best-team-ever. Thanks for reviewing, guys!