Kingdom Hearts: Because I Love You

Chapter 2: The storm

Riku pulled away from Mai and she smiled at him with reassurance. She walked him to the dock and watched him get on the boat. He looked back at her with a smile and she grinned.

"Hey, you two lovebirds." They heard a deep voice and saw Akira on the boat, rowing into the dock. Riku's cheeks turned red at this and looked down.

"Hey shut up you big idiot!" She shook her fist in the air.

"I'm kidding!" Akira chuckled and hopped off the boat. He had a bag with him and tied his boat to the dock. "Riku, thank your mom again for me. She made us some great dinner."

"Yummy! I love your mom's food!" She exclaimed.

"I'll tell her you guys said that." Riku stated. "Anyways, I'm gonna go before it's off with my head." He joked.

"Bye Riku." The brother and sister said and he rowed his boat away.

"Riku's a great guy isn't he?" Akira stated and she smirked as she turned to him.

"He already likes someone." She said.

"Hm, you jealous?" He sneered at her and she shook her head.

"Of course not. I'm happy for him." Mai smiled.

"I know you have a crush on him." She looked at her brother and rolled her eyes at this whilst shaking her head.

She walked over to the ladder leading up to the treehouse. They both climbed the ladder and went into the hut shaped treehouse where there were 2 pillows, 2 blankets and a little pit in the ground where they would make a fire. Mai then began to start a fire with 2 flint stones. The fire appeared and they sat around the fire. He took out a few containers and they began to eat Riku's mother's food.

"I bet you do like him." He continued the conversation.

"He's just a very good friend, Kira." The teenager stated.

"Ooooh, friend zoned harshly." Akira chuckled but Mai just stayed quiet at this. She stared at the bright flame as if hypnotised and was deep in thought.

"Riku's a nice guy." She said. "And even if I did like he's way out of my league. Besides, he already likes someone else."

"Maybe you're the girl he likes." He mumbled and she looked up at him. She then snorted and shook her head.

"The girl he likes is beautiful." She laughed.

"Yeah you're right, can't be your cuz you're ugly as hell." Mai then glared at him. "But still, he's the only guy I'd be cool with you dating." Her eyebrows furrowed together and she looked at her brother weirdly.

"What?" She asked. "You're my brother, shouldn't you be protective?"

"Well obviously I'd have to threaten him first." Akira joked.

"Why are we even talking about this in the first place?" Mai questioned and he shrugged.

They finished eating and decided to lie down on the floor. They both stared at the ceiling with Akira relaxing but his sister seemed worried.

"Hey Kira, can I ask you something?" She asked.

"What's up?" He asked curiously.

"Don't you ever think about home?" He sat up and looked at her.

"It's out there, I know that." Akira stated.

"You're lucky you remember what it was like. Tell me again." She said looked at him.

"It had this radiance to it and there were so many gardens. I remember some people from there." He began to look back. "Kairi looks vaguely familiar, then there's Leon, Aerith, Cid, Yuffie and Ienzo. Yeah, Ienzo was your best friend and so was Lea an Isa." Her smile dropped and she sighed.

"You remember everything and I don't…" Her brother sensed the change of her mood and she sounded so sad. "It's sad because the world we came from; the world I remember growing up in, was never supposed to exist. And the world where I was actually from, and the relationships I've had with those people I don't even remember."

"Mai, it's gonna be okay…" He mumbled.

"It's horrible, why should we live in a lie? It was a stupid idea for us to be in a fake world. Why would anyone do that?" Her voice cracked as a tear fell down her cheek. Mai's emotions went from curiosity, to sadness, to anger.

"That's why we need to find mom and dad. We need answers and we need to find them to see if they're okay." Akira stated and she looked at him.

Tears kept on falling down her cheeks and she was about to go into an emotional breakdown. Her older brother crawled to her and pulled her to sit up. He wrapped his arms around Mai who buried her face into his chest and let it all out. Hearing her cry, seeing those tears and knowing she was hurt, killed him inside. Akira didn't want his sister to be sad, he's taken care of her for 10 years now.

"I just wanna see mama and papa." She cried.

"We will, someday…" Akira assured her.

Riku wanted to tell Mai something and was listening to their conversation, from outside about their home. His fist was trembling and he walked away; he needed to open the world's Keyhole. He wanted Mai to be happy and to find her parents.

Akira pulled away from his sister and wiped her tears, then he began to sing a song whenever she cried. Something their parents sang to him and his sister too.

"Come stop your crying, it will be all right… Just take my hand, hold it tight." He took her hand and gripped onto his hand. "I will protect you, from all around you, I will be here; don't you cry. For one so small, you seem so strong. My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm. This bond between us, can't be broken. I will be here don't you cry…" She couldn't help but smile. "Cause you'll be in my heart. Yes, you'll be in my heart. From this day on, now and forever more, you'll be in my heart. No matter what they say; you'll be here in my heart in my heart always…"

"Always…" Mai whispered and she leaned her head on his shoulder. The brown haired man had his arms wrapped around her and she fell asleep.

A few minutes later they heard lightning from outside and it began to get windy. Mai opened her eyes a little and ever her brother could hear her heart beat faster. His little sister was still afraid of storms and thunder. Because in their old world, there would be a lot of blackouts, which were caused by the storms, and she was scared of darkness.

"It's okay, don't worry." He pushed her back gently so she leaned against the wall, and the fire blew out as the wind got stronger. It was very unnatural that the wind would change so quickly. Akira stood up and walked slowly towards the entrance of the treehouse.

Suddenly a tree fell right outside the treehouse and they were blocked off, except for the window. Mai screamed and stood up quickly. Akira looked back towards her and ran towards her.

"Akira, I'm scared. It's dark and we can't get out!" She screamed and he wrapped an arm around her. "We're trapped and there's no way out!"

"We need to get out through the window, there's a ladder leading down." He stated.

Just as they were about to run to the window, these creatures appeared. There were so many of them; they were small and ink coloured, with humanoid bodies, antennas, claws and bright yellow eyes. They were walking towards them and then they heard a woman's voice; the same voice from before the destruction of their old world.

"Heartless; beings of darkness who lack hearts. Born from the darkness of people's hearts. You must stop them at all costs! They want to take hearts from people!"

"Stay back!" Akira shouted at Mai. The teenager stepped back and heard something behind her. When she turned around, the girl yelped to see 10 Heartless behind her. They were surrounded.

"What do we do?!" She yelled.

"Chosen ones, look into your hearts and find the light. There you will find strength and use the Keyblade to destroy the Heartless!"

They both closed their eyes and found a bright light shining deep inside themselves. The light got brighter and brighter till then, there was a wave of light.

In their hands were Keyblades; they omitted a warm radiance which lit the treehouse. Akira's Keyblade was dark blue, white and had hints of gold. The dark blue shaft of the Keyblade was covered in a light blue and gold ornate filigree, the handle were white wings and at the end of the Keyblade was a white crescent moon. Mai's Keyblade was gold, white and bright orange. The gold shaft was covered in the same coloured filigree as her brother's weapon, the handle was also covered in white wings, however at the end of the Keyblade was a gold and orange sun.

"Now go on and fight Keyblade wielders of the future! Keep your hearts pure and balanced!"

"You got this, Mai?" Akira asked and she smirked.

"Let's go kick some Heartless ass!" She yelled and they both dashed at the enemies around them.

Brother and sister back to back, began to fight the Heartless. At first, Mai was struggling because the weapons were a bit heavy, but she kept on fighting no matter what. Akira had more strength and found it easier to fight with it than his sister, however the amount of Heartless was a lot for him. Their fighting styles looked different, Akira used both his hands when swinging the Keyblade, but his sister fought like she was fencing, but swung the Keyblade more.

When Mai finished fighting the Heartless which were in front of her, she turned to her brother. He was getting tired and fell on his bottom exhausted. Her eyes widened as 5 Shadow Heartless were walking towards him. She jumped in front of him with Keyblade in hand.

"You may be my big brother, Kira. But I'll always protect you, no matter what." She giggled and fought the Heartless.

When she was finished, he stood up and both their weapons disappeared. He scratched the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

"You fight good." He stated.

"Fencing classes and training as well as the tournaments really paid off. Plus, you used to weight lift. It's like we were being trained for this." She stated and they both stared each other with wide eyes. But then roared out of laughter; what a joke.

"Sound ridiculous!" Akira exclaimed.

All of a sudden, they felt something beneath them move; it was the tree. The storm was now at full destructive mode and what they feared, wasn't happening; it was much worse. The tree that their house was in, was tipping over and Akira grabbed his sister.

"Come on, we have to jump through the window!" He yelled.

"But…!" He interrupted her.

"No buts, we have no other choice!" He shouted and she squeezed his hand tight.

Just when Akira said that, the treehouse got detached from the tree and was flying away. She screamed with fear and held onto her brother, with her arms around his torso. He ran with all his might and jumped out of the window. By the time they jumped out, the house had already flown away far away into a red and black orb in the sky. They both saw it get destroyed and saw the orb in the sky which grew more powerful and bigger.

Everything was getting destroyed and it was complete chaos. No one would have imagined this to ever happen.

Akira, grabbed onto the branch of the Paopu Tree on the miniature island which was still intact. Mai saw Riku standing there; there was something which seemed suspiciously odd about him.

"RIKU!" She cried from the top of her lungs and he turned around.

"Akira…Mai, the door is open. We can go to other worlds now, just like we wanted. We can't let darkness stop us." He shouted.

"RIKU, WHAT THE HELL?!" Akira growled angrily.

Riku then held out his hand and she held out hers, in an attempt to grab onto him. Her brother just kept holding the branch for dear life.

As her hand neared his, she sensed this darkness coming from him; pure darkness which was bad news. Then something flashed before her eyes. It was as if she saw someone wearing black and red organic looking body suit, and a black helmet hiding his face. There was a flash of light and then she saw another person.

The person she saw, made her heart ache so bad; it hit a nerve inside her. It was a man, with tanned skin, yellow eyes and spiky silver hair. He was strangling this young woman with blue hair. There was a darkness growing from him; which was similar to Riku. Her eyes widened and she gasped as tears filled her eyes. Mai didn't know what was happening to her, but it was a memory which hit a nerve and scared her; she didn't know why. Then she mumbled the boy's name…

"T-Terra…" It was like a mumble of sadness.

Akira's green eyed widened and he turned to his sister; did she remember him. Tears fell down her cheeks and without thinking or knowing, she let go of her brother. Her eyes closed and she cried silently, as sadness filled her heart.

"MAI!" He yelled.

Akira let go of the branch and grabbed onto her hand. He pulled her hand onto his chest and wrapped his other arm around her.

"No matter what happens to us both, I made a promise to mom and dad to protect you with my life. And I will…" The elder brother said as he wrapped his other hand around her protectively.