Summary: Upon return to Destiny Islands, Sora finds himself more and more drawn to an injured Riku in the surprisingly unfamiliar atmosphere while Kairi still holds tightly to a promise he's unintentionally made to her. SoraxRiku

Warning: I like my angst, and I like my hurt/comfort, and mostly, I like my SoraxRiku.

AN: Hehe, sorry for the wait. :) One of my shorter chapters, but there's not much more to add after that. Heh. Please review, and please don't hit me.

Disclaimer: Square Enix is god. Disney is sort of a demigod I guess. I am but a lowly servant.

-I had problems uploading, please let me know if you see anything wrong, okay?-

Everyday

Chapter 10

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"I don't see why you never have time for me anymore. You always used to!"

"That's not true! I see you almost everyday!"

"Yeah, Sora, you see me, but you don't see me."

"…What the hell does that mean?"

"Don't curse at me!"

"Ugh, come on Kairi, I'm sorry, I…"

"No you're not! You always say that!"

"I've been hanging out with you and Riku everyday since-"

"You've been with Riku, Sora! You said we'd be together everyday, and all you've been doing is hanging out with Riku!"

"That's not fair…"

"You promised me Sora! You're a liar."

"I'm not!"

"You are. I can't believe how you've changed."

"Kairi…"

Click

"Dammit." She hung up on me. I stared at the beige colored phone incredulously for a long moment. It stared back. 'You're an idiot, Sora.' It told me. 'Thanks phone.' I told it. 'It's nice to know I can rely on you in times of crisis.' The dial-tone blared back at me. Slowly, ever so slowly, I set the phone back down in it holster.

That was not how I had planned for that phone call to go. Granted, I didn't exactly plan out my phone calls, but if I did? I wouldn't have planned it that way.

I knew Kairi was upset with me. She'd seemed generally dissatisfied since we gotten back to Destiny Islands. She had snapped at me last night about going to look for Riku, and then walked out of the room. But then, she'd seemed fine when we got back, cheery as ever… of course, then I'd freaked out and gone out on the porch with Riku, leaving her alone with the others. Huh.

Okay, maybe I was ignoring her a bit. I didn't mean to though! Really. It was just… Kairi expected so much, too much. Did every teenage girl expect this much from her friends? I wondered. I didn't know. I was missing so much I would have learned in school about kids my own age from the last few years that I really had no idea whether it was Kairi acting odd or myself.

And I didn't see her? What did that mean? I saw her. She was red haired, blue eyed, skinny little Kairi who used to play on the beach with us. She lived with the mayor, she was one of my two best friends, and once I went on a life threatening journey to save her from the Heartless. There you go. That's Kairi. I saw her fine.

I knew I'd changed. I felt it, I really, really did. In everything I did and everything I said and everything I pretended to be. But…was I really a liar?

I prided myself on being an honest person. The truth is important. If you can't trust your friends, who can you trust, right? And if you can't trust anyone, then we're all in trouble. Paranoia city, right?

Kairi was my friend. I wanted her to trust me. I needed her to believe in me. I wasn't a liar. I knew I'd changed but… I wasn't a bad person…right?

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It took me 10 minutes to work up the nerve to knock on her front door. Don't ask me why I was so nervous, I just was. Fighting with a guy was normal, it was par for the course. You got pissed off, yelled, one of you tackled the other, you fought, eventually you got your aggressions out, forgot what you were fighting about, and went home to get something to eat. Riku and I practiced this ritual all the time. Usually heavy on the tackling, don't ask me why. But arguing with a girl? Now that was just a scary thought.

I cringed when the front door opened, patted my hair down in a nervous habit, a pasted a smile on my face. Of course, it wasn't her, it was our ever so beloved mayor what's-his-face.

"Sora. Nice to see you. Kairi's in her room." The distinguished looking man nodded at me. Vaguely, I wondered if he was still mayor. I couldn't remember his name, so I just smiled and nodded. Sadly, I couldn't remember where Kairi's room was either.

"Er… which way is it… again?" I grinned, going for innocent and stupid. I'm sure I was pulling stupid off just fine.

"Upstairs, final door down the hall." The graying man said, raising one suspicious eyebrow before disappearing behind the kitchen counter. Wooh.

I walked slowly up to her room, like a man on death row. Er, a boy on death row. Whatever. It was a slow walk, that's the point. I didn't bother knocking on her door. It would probably take me another 10 minutes to work up the nerve. Maybe even 15. I just grabbed the knob and barged right in.

"Kairi?" She was sitting at a desk, chin resting on in hands, elbows resting on the desk. In front of her was a picture window. The mayor's house had a great view of the town, and the window was open, a breeze blowing Kairi's hair and making her shiver ever so slightly in her pink tank top and shorts. It was a cold afternoon on the mainland, foggy, otherwise I'm sure you'd be able to see the ocean from her window.

The ocean. The edge of our world. Beyond it, who knew?

"What are you doing here?" She looked over her shoulder at me, surprised, but not necessarily angry.

"Um…" What was I doing there? I wanted her to understand, I wanted to not be fighting, I wanted her to tell me I wasn't a bad person, I wanted to prove I wasn't a liar. I wanted all those things but… what exactly was I doing there? I so should have worked on a plan first.

"What, Sora?" Kairi asked again, a little more annoyed this time. I guess I'll wing it. Pay attention, because this is very-obvious-mistake-number-one.

"I… I'm not a liar. I know I've changed, but… I'm not. And I do see you, er, see you. Really."

Kairi sighed, her expression softening as she moved from her desk chair to the bed and gently patted the spot next to her with newly manicured pink nails. I sat, quickly accepting her invitation before it was revoked, peeking at her out of the corner of my eye.

She didn't look angry, like I expected her to be, just sort of worn, tired. I expected a fight, like the one I'd gotten over the phone. It didn't look like I was going to get one. Which may have been good, or bad, depending on how you looked at it. And angry Kairi was better than a sad Kairi, as far as I was concerned.

Everyone sure was hormonal lately. First Riku, then me, now Kairi. Someone always had to have a problem, and it could never be an easy problem, like, ''the heartless are attacking' or 'the princess has been kidnapped' in which case I could go play white knight and save us all. It was always 'do I belong here?' or 'do you really know me?' It sucked. Majorly.

"Do you, Sora?" Kairi asked, looking at me deeply, leaning forward. I nodded frantically. Yes, yes, I see you dammit, now can we stop with the drama?

"Yes Kairi." I said, with all the reassurance in the world. This, ladies and gentleman, is mistake number two. Because I didn't see her at all. I didn't even know what she was talking about. At least, not until she leaned forward, closing the scant few inches of space between us to place her sweet, butterfly lips on mine.

Then it all sort of snapped into place. The looks she gave me. Her constant demands for attention. Her jealously. How she always wanted more.

Well, this was certainly… more. Her lips were soft, her eyes closed against soft cheeks as she kissed me and sort of nuzzled against me at the same time.

For some strange reason it was all very clear. She was beautiful, amazing, quirky, sweet, and so, so wrong for me. I placed a final kiss on her lips and pulled away.

"Kairi…" I whispered, as her eyes slowly opened. She was flushed from the short encounter, slightly dazed. It was so odd to look at my friend this way. "I…" I what? I lied, that's what. Just like you accused me of doing. I had no idea what you were talking about, I don't see you at all, I don't know what's going on, and I want out of this.

How do you say that to the girl who just gave you your first kiss? And probably hers too?

"It's um, getting late. You'd better get home Sora!" Kairi said, popping up from the bed with a bright blush on her cheeks. It's wasn't late. It was hardly past noon, but yeah, that sounded good. In fact, that sounded great.

We stared at each other for a long moment, Kairi smiling dazedly and myself… well, I'm not sure what I looked like, but it couldn't be great. I certainly didn't feel great.

I knew I should tell her, crush her hopes now… I knew I should. There was only one problem with that.

I couldn't crush Kairi.

"Right, see you later." I said, practically running for the door. And that, my friends, was mistake number three.

TBC…