I'm sorry that it took me so long to finally get this out. My life has been too crazy for me to even keep track of everything that's been going on lately. I had a snow day at work today so I finally had a chance to juts sit down and write. It's been nice…

::cries::…I can't believe that this is the last chapter!!! WAHHH!! I have to say that getting this thing done will take a lot off my chest, though...

Enjoy!!...

WARNINGS: a lime-ish scene, lotsa tears, language, things you all will probably hate me for by the end of the chapter, but oh well…::shrugs::…

Disclaimer: the characters and worlds of Kingdom Hearts belong to Square Enix and Disney…

Chapter Fifteen:
Closure…

A few days passed by with nothing but relative calm. Sora and I took turns trading nights at the other's house, just so our parents wouldn't feel left out. During the day, we spent most of our time fooling around at Roxas' house with everyone there. We watched movies, played cards, swam in the cool ocean. Life was, if I dared to say it, beginning to feel like normal. It was easy for me to picture us making our life back on the Islands once we wrapped everything up back in Radiant Garden.

It was unfortunate that the peace couldn't have lasted longer than it did, but I guess I should have known better. Between my mother craziness and Sora's habit of worrying too much, things were bound to get crazy a bit.

""

"I need to go talk to her."

I groaned for what felt like the millionth time during the course of the day and slouched back on the bed, propping myself up on my elbows so I continue to watch Sora pace back and forth across his bedroom.

"You don't need to talk to her."

"Yes, I do! I just left her without an explanation and she comes here and finds us kissing. I owe her something."

"You don't owe her anything."

"Would you stop arguing with me?"

"Would you stop being such an idiot?"

He glared at me and I held his gaze with as much intensity as I could muster. I wasn't going to let him win this. There was no way in hell that I was going to let him wander off and talk with Kairi without putting up a fight first. She had already put him through enough pain. He didn't need anymore.

A heavy sigh pulled my attention back to my boyfriend and I frowned, reaching forward to grab his wrist and pull him down onto the bed with me. He rolled his eyes and let himself be pulled, sighing again when he collapsed onto the mattress.

"Am I really being an idiot?"

I snorted and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his hair. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

Sora groaned and moved so he was lying on his back. I made up for the movement by shifting around and resting my head on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't worry so much. It's going to drive you crazy one day."

"I'm already crazy."

I snorted and pressed a gentle kiss to his shoulder. "Yes, but it's what I love the most about you."

He shoved at my shoulder so that I rolled off him. "You love me because I'm insane?"

I shrugged and propped myself up on my elbows so I could look at him. "Everyone has their quirks."

"You're special."

I laughed and pounced on top of my boyfriend. He yelped loudly in surprise, but was soon quieted by my mouth over his. He moaned loudly and wrapped his arms around my neck so he could deepen the kiss and keep me from pulling away, not that I would. Our breath and tongues mingled in a vicious battle that I won out. Sora admitted defeat easily and let me do whatever I wanted.

My fingers danced lightly down Sora's sides and beneath the hem of his T-shirt so I could feel his skin. A wonderful shiver rippled through his body when my cold fingers met his heated flesh, and he gasped into my mouth.

"Nn…Ri-ku…," he groaned when I pulled away from his mouth so we could breathe. He groaned again when I began to nip and suck at the tender flesh of his neck.

"If you're trying to distract me, you're doing a good job," he managed to mutter through moans, his hands fisting my hair tightly.

I chuckled and let my mouth wander back up to his mouth. "Now, why would I do that?"

He shrugged and smirked…way too lustfully than he should have. The look on his face sent a rush of need surging to my groin. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you don't want me to go talk to Kairi."

"I could care less about that right now," I growled and snatched his lips back with my own.

Thirty minutes later, I carefully pulled myself out of Sora's arms and quickly pulled on my clothes. There was somewhere I need to go.

Before I left the room, I made sure to give Sora a gentle kiss on his forehead. "I'm gonna fix things. I promise." With one last glance back at his sleeping face, I left the room and closed the door behind me.

I hated going behind his back, but there was no other way. If he knew where I was headed, he would try to stop me or beg to come along, and I couldn't let him do either. I had to do this on my own so I could have a small piece of mind and try to make things better. I had to do this for him. I could only hope that no one would be harmed in the process.

""

It was strange thinking about the last time I had been to this house on good terms. It must have been at least six years prior, for Kairi's sixteenth birthday party. I hadn't wanted to be there at all because of my depression, but Sora had managed to drag me out of my bedroom and into the sunlight. Honestly, it had been fun.

The house still looked the same as it had back then. The wrap-around front porch was still white and the flower beds were still as prim as ever. Only the pale blue siding had a few more chips in it than it had before. Even so, seeing the house didn't send me back to happier times. It only made me angrier. Who was she to treat Sora so badly?

Setting my mouth into a solemn frown, I shoved my hands into my pockets and made my way up the porch. I recognized the powder blue Prius in the driveway as Kairi's and knew that she was home unless she had decided to take a walk somewhere.

The door opened as I stepped up onto the porch and I was met with the smiling face of Kairi's mother.

"Ah, Riku. Nice to see you."

I put on my best smile and nodded. "Yeah, you too." And it was true. Kairi was a bitch, but I didn't have anything against her parents.

"If you're here to see Kairi, she's up in her bedroom." She smiled. "I would call her down to greet you, but I don't foresee that going over very well."

No wonder I had always liked this woman.

"Thanks," I said and made my way upstairs. "I promise to drop by and catch up later, okay?"

"Of course, Darling." When I looked back, she was gone. I assumed that she had moved into the kitchen.

Kairi's room was still in the same place as I remembered—last door on the right at the end of the hall. Through the partially opened door, I could see that the walls were still painted lavender, as well. Such a light purple had always been Kairi's color, and she knew it.

I tested my limits by pushing the door open when I heard the quiet sounds of music. She was lying on her back on her bed with her eyes closed and the buds for her iPod shoved into her ears. I could clearly hear the sounds of Fergie blaring from the earbuds.

I tried to close the door quietly behind me, but she heard it anyway.

"I'll be down in a minute," she muttered and pulled the buds from her ears.

I guess she wasn't expecting me to be the one standing there because her eyes widened slightly before narrowing into a glare.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she growled.

I took a second to make sure the door was completely closed before answering. "I have something I need to talk to you about."

"And what makes you think that I want to hear what you have to say?"

"If you ever cared for Sora, you'll listen to every word."

She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth as if to argue more, but closed it soon after. Her shoulders slumped and her body seemed to collapse upon itself. For the first time in years, she looked like a real person to me and it was strange to see. I'd been starting to believe that she was emotionless.

"Is he okay?" she whispered.

Surprisingly, I found myself wanting to sugarcoat the truth and make everything seem a bit better than it actually was. I knew that I couldn't, though. She deserved whatever I had to throw at her, and from the way she was acting, I think she knew it.

"What you did tore him apart. He's been a shell of the person he was, only because he knows what kind of person you truly are. You enjoy hurting people, including me. You should have known better than to think that th would want to marry such a sadist."

"I'm not—"

"Then what are you, Kairi? You were one of my best friends—my sister for godssakes—and look what you did to me. I trusted you, gods dammit! Do you know how much that hurt?"

She shook her head and put a hand over her mouth, eyes wide and full of tears. "I-I'm sorry, Riku. I was stupid…so stupid."

"Four years too late."

"Better late than never, right?"

I frowned and glared at her harshly. She flinched under my gaze, and I sighed. I couldn't help it. As hard as it may be to believe, I didn't take any sort of pride or fun out of hurting her. It hurt me to hurt her, but I knew that she deserved it after what she had put me through. My grudge was the only thing that kept me from opening the door back into my life for her without a fight.

"Kairi, what you did to me was horrible. And when you proceeded to lie about knowing that I was headed over, I felt like I had been betrayed more than I had when I saw…what the two of you were doing. I trusted you and embraced you in my life. You were my sister. But you hurt me." I sighed and ran a hand back through my hair. "And I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you for it."

"Riku, I—"

I shook my head. "Save it, Kairi. Besides, I'm not here for myself right now. I'm here for Sora."

"I didn't mean to hurt him," she said through tears.

"But you did."

She sobbed loudly and put a hand to her mouth to hold back any more than wanted to sneak through. "He hates me now, doesn't he? He probably never wants to see me again."

I shook my head and couldn't help but chuckle quietly. "Quite the contrary. You know that Sora could never hate anyone." I sighed and sank down to my knees in front of Kairi so she had to look me in the face. "Listen, you may have lost my trust, maybe even my friendship, but don't lose Sora's. He's everyone's light. Think of how dark your life would get if you didn't try to fix things."

She nodded, but kept her mouth closed. I guessed it was in fear of letting anymore sobs slip past her lips. I stayed on the floor in front of her for a couple of minutes before pushing myself up and heading towards the door.

"We're all going to be at Roxas' tonight for dinner," I muttered over my shoulder. "You should come."

"But…"

"I'll make sure to let everyone know that you're coming, except Sora of course." I laughed quietly. "Wouldn't want everyone tearing you to pieces, right?"

She nodded slightly and let a small, tearful smile spread across her face. "Riku," she called as I was headed out the door. I turned to her with a raised eyebrow, and her smile only widened. "Thank you…for giving me another chance."

"Meh…." I shrugged and left the room behind me.

Now all I had to do was call Roxas and let him know that we were going to be over for dinner. Or maybe I should call Naminé. Roxas would probably huff and puff, but I knew that Naminé would agree immediately. She had been calling and begging us to go over and eat for the past couple of nights. Better do it before she went psycho and dragged us over.

I couldn't help but wonder, though, if I had made a good choice. Things could go two ways tonight. Good or very, very bad. I was hoping for the former, but knowing my luck, it was hard to tell.

""

"I can't believe you invited that bitch over for dinner without telling me first!"

Axel sighed and pulled his boyfriend down into his lap and put a hand in front of his mouth, never once flinching at the arms that flailed wilding in the air around him. Roxas kicked and punched and slapped. I could barely hold in my chuckle when Axel's hand flew away from the blonde's mouth, a look of incredulousness shining in his green eyes.

"You bit me!" Roxas made a small noise and the redhead burst into laughter. "And did you just growl at me, too?"

"What did you expect me to do, Roxas?" I asked before he could cause anymore bodily harm to his lover. "This could be the only chance I have to try and fix things between her and Sora. I mean, you saw him when we got here. He wandered straight up to your spare bedroom and closed the door behind him so he could go back to sleep."

Roxas shrugged, finally having stopped his struggling. "So? He was tired."

"He's depressed!"

"I know that. I was being sarcastic."

"Gentleman, gentleman," Naminé cut in before sparks could fly between the two of us, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder to make me keep my mouth closed. "Roxas, I think that Riku is right. I think that it will be better for Sora to see that we're all willing to give Kairi a chance. I know that he'll forgive her regardless, but if he sees that we're trying to forgive her too, I think it will make him happy."

"So you're expecting me to lie to my cousin?"

Naminé shook her head. "No. You wouldn't be lying. You're giving her a chance to redeem herself, remember?"

The blonde scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I don't need to hear anything she has to say. I'll never be able to forget what she did."

I couldn't keep the snort from slipping out. "If anyone will never be able to forget what she's done or forgive her for it, it's me, Roxas. But look, I'm willing to give her a chance because I know that Sora cares about her. If you care about your cousin, you'll give her a chance."

He opened his mouth to complain, but Axel silenced him by placing a finger over his lips.

"They're not asking you to forgive her, Rox," the redhead muttered. "They're asking you to act like a decent human being for the night. Is that too hard to ask?"

"Yes." I opened my mouth to argue, but Roxas beat me to it. "But I guess it won't hurt to be…decent…for a night."

I sighed. I couldn't help it. Roxas may have sounded like acting decent was the worst possible thing in the world, but at least I had his word that he would do it. Besides, I knew that Naminé and Axel would help me keep him in line throughout the rest of the night.

A timer beeping in the kitchen was Naminé's signal to run and check on something or other that she was making. It wasn't two seconds later when the doorbell echoed off the walls of the house.

Roxas sighed. "That has to be her. No one else rings that damned thing."

He moved to stand and answer the door, but Axel pulled him back down. "Why don't we let Riku handle this, huh? Your patience is already thin enough. Don't want you blowing up on her because she wore the wrong shoes or something."

Roxas glared at Axel, but didn't attempt to struggle out of his arms. I sighed and pushed myself up from the couch, making my way towards the door. Kairi was standing in the center of the screen door, her eyes glued to a piece of the screen that had been fixed with a piece of string.

"You came," I muttered, startling her out of her thoughts.

She laughed nervously and nodded. "Yeah."

The smile that crossed my face surprised even me. My surprise must have shown because Kairi chuckled quietly, her hands tugging at the hem of her mid-thigh length skirt.

"You gonna let me in?"

I blinked and shook myself out of my stupor, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry."

I pulled open the screen door and let Kairi in, after advising her to kick her flip flops off at the door, of course. Roxas hated whenever anyone wore their shoes in his house. Knowing him, he would throw a fit that was ten times worse than usual just because it was Kairi who had worn shoes into his house.

Naminé turned away from the stove with a smile on her face, licking a bit of whatever was in the steaming pot away from her pinky as she did. She waved politely, but I didn't expect anything else coming from her.

"Kairi, this is Naminé. Naminé, Kairi."

Naminé bowed her head. "It's nice to finally meet you, Kairi. I've heard so much about you."

"It's nice to meet you too," Kairi said with a nervous laugh. "I can only guess what this lot said about me."

Naminé laughed, but said nothing else. It was heaven. Of course Kairi would be afraid that we would talk shit about her, but she didn't need to hear it from Naminé.

I grabbed Kairi's elbow gently and turned her in the direction of the living room. Roxas was still in Axel's lap, and the redhead still had his arms wrapped tightly around the blonde's waist. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

"H-Hey, Roxas. It's been a long time."

I closed my eyes and bit my lip, praying to God to please—please—help Roxas mind his mouth. The last thing we needed tonight was for him to ruin everything.

"Yeah, it has."

"Thank God…," I whispered under my breath, smiling when Kairi glanced at me in question. As a distraction, I pointed to the smiling redhead beneath Roxas. "Kairi, the idiot under Roxas is Axel, Roxas' boyfriend. Axel, this is Kairi."

"The pleasure is all mine," Axel said with a smirk. "But please don't listen to what this bastard says about me. He's as dumb as the rest of us, I promise."

Kairi chuckled. "Oh, I know."

I could have glared, but I didn't. One point for me. "There are two others that live here as well, but they're out of town."

"Thank God!" Roxas muttered. "I wouldn't know what to do if I had to deal with Demyx's hyperness thrown on top of Axel's tonight. I'd probably kill someone."

Of course we all knew who that person would most likely be, but no one had to say it out loud.

"Sora's upstairs sleeping. Lemme go wake him up and then we can chat and all that good stuff," I said, anxious to get out of the tense atmosphere that was quickly developing in the living room. I was up the stairs before anyone could complain.

Thankfully Sora had left the door to the guest room unlocked so I didn't have to make too much noise. I smiled upon his sleeping face once I sat down on the edge of the bed, placing a kiss between his eyes. He sputtered a few incoherent things under his breath and then blinked open his eyes.

"Someone's here to see you."

He yawned and stretched himself across the bed. "Who?"

I shrugged. "Can't say. You'll have to come downstairs."

"Aww." He pouted, but I actually stood against it for the first time in my life.

I leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips. "Come on." I held a hand out to help him get out of bed and led the way downstairs.

"It's alive!" Axel cried dramatically.

Sora frowned and flipped him off. I laughed and patted my brunet on the bottom playfully. Damn I was proud. He was a quick learner.

Sora yawned again and rubbed sleepily at his eyes. When he opened them again, I swear I felt my own heart stop along with his as his eyes landed on Kairi. She had her eyes glued to a spot on the floor and her hands were toying nervously with the hem of her skirt again.

"K-Kairi?"

The girl's shoulder tensed and she glanced up from beneath her bangs. Sora looked back and forth between me and her for what felt like an eternity before he punched me on the arm.

"You bastard! Why didn't you tell me that Kairi was coming?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise. Geez." I rubbed my arm tenderly. "You didn't have to hit me so hard."

Sora glared at me harshly. "You went to talk to her while I slept didn't you? I woke up once and you were gone. Is that where you went?" He didn't give me time to respond before he hit me again. "Why didn't you let me come with you?!"

"Ow, dammit!" I took a couple of steps backwards so I was out of his hitting range. "I wanted to have a chance to talk to her. There's a lot that Kairi and I need to talk about. You wouldn't have let me get a word in if you had been there. Hell, you probably wouldn't have even let me see her 'cause you would be so afraid that I would shout or something."

"I'm glad he came to talk to me, Sora." We both blinked and turned our attention onto Kairi, who was finally looking at us with a bit of confidence in her face. "The fact that he actually came on his own without being persuaded showed a lot of courage. You should be proud of him, not angry."

"Wh-what? Kairi?"

The girl smiled. "I was an idiot and I'm sorry. I can't believe I got so jealous that I ruined so many good friendships. Roxas. Riku. And you, Sora. You all were such good friends to me and all I did to show my thanks was act like a completely selfish bitch." She sighed. "I'm just glad that Riku and Roxas are willing to give me another chance, even though I don't deserve it. I wouldn't have given myself a second chance. It just goes to show you that they're bigger people than I am…than I'll probably ever be."

"Oh, Kai." Sora sniffed and went to the girl quickly, embracing her gently. "Thank you."

"No, thank you." She smiled. "I knew all along that your heart really belonged to Riku, but I was too selfish to let go of you. I stole you away from Riku when the darkness was ready to swallow him whole. I stole away his light. Thankfully, he's selfless enough to give me the chance to try again. It just goes to prove that you and Riku belong together and that maybe, one day, you can forgive me and we'll have our friendship to keep us together."

"You never lost my friendship," Sora muttered. "I was just confused and…hurt, but I understand why you did it now."

Kairi smiled sadly and returned the hug that Sora offered her. "Thank you, Sora."

"Alright. The angst in this room is about to suffocate me," Axel groaned. "Naminé. Is dinner almost done?"

"It would have been done a lot sooner if someone had offered to lend a hand," she grumbled from her place over the pot on the stove.

Kairi laughed and pushed herself up from the couch. "I'll help her. You boys have your bonding time."

I almost wanted to disagree, but knew that it was something she needed to do. I was sure that Naminé wouldn't mind an extra hand after hearing the irritation in her voice, and Kairi needed a good girl friend. She hadn't had one since Selphie moved away from the Islands when we were younger. Naminé would be good for her, I knew it.

Axel, Roxas, Sora, and I sat around in the living room and talked back and forth, sometimes arguing but mostly just fucking with one another. When Naminé interrupted our fun and said that dinner was ready, we raced into the dining room to see what the blonde had cooked up this time.

"Fettuccini! My favorite!" Axel shouted and jumped on the spoon.

"Sit down," Roxas muttered and jabbed the redhead in the arm with his fork.

Next thing we knew, water was flying everywhere and everyone was stuck in the middle of a water fight. Not food. None of us felt like cleaning up food later. Instead, we threw our glasses of water at one another. Roxas dumped the fresh pitcher on top of Roxas' head. Naminé beat us all to the kitchen and got her hands on the sprayer from the sink.

Once we—and most of the house—were thoroughly soaked, the fight moved outside. We pushed and shoved and threw sand at one another, jumped on backs and tackled each other to the ground. Somehow we ended up in the ocean and the water fighting continued.

It was the most fun we'd all had together. We all forgot about everything Kairi had done in the past. She was just another one of us. A friend.

I came to the conclusion that I would forgive her while we battled back and forth on the beach. The sound of her laughter and the sparkle in her eyes was something I hadn't seen in a long time. She wasn't the Kairi I had known for the past six years of my life. She was the Kairi that Sora and I had met in sixth grade, the sweet innocent girl who had become like my sister.

Darkness fell and we still didn't go inside. The fighting turned into crab hunting, which turned into drunken crab hunting after each of us drank a few of the beers and such in the refrigerator on the boardwalk.

Naminé laughed and screamed so hard when Axel dumped a bucket of crabs by her feet that she peed on herself. Axel scared the shit out of all of us when he jumped over the edge of the boardwalk and onto the sand eight feet below (we could have sworn that he'd died when he took forever to come back up onto the deck). Roxas lost a few of his inhibitions and let Kairi in a little bit. Kairi stripped down into her underwear and ran into the freezing cold water, screaming bloody murder when a wave crashed into her. Sora forced crabs to fight with one another and got pissed whenever they tried to fight with him instead…

And I just sat back and watched it all happen.

We were home. We were back together. Sora, Kairi, and I. And now Roxas, Axel, and Naminé. We were a family and would always be there for each other, I knew that we would.

The next day, the six of us woke up on the beach. Because we had fallen asleep soaking wet, the sand stuck to our bodies like glue. A quick jump into the water quickly fixed that, and woke us all up pretty quick. The water couldn't have been more than fifty degrees.

It was obvious with the morning that the night had proved to healing for us all. Roxas didn't grit his teeth or bite his tongue whenever he spoke with Kairi. She cried when I told her that all was forgiven. She said "sorry" so much that I had to threaten her with revoking my forgiveness if she said it one more time. The light was shining in Sora's eyes and smile once more. Axel and Naminé were still the same, but it was nice to know that they had willingly let Kairi into their lives without a fight.

Naminé's fettuccini never did get eaten, but I digress. It seemed that closure had finally been met at least. And man, did it feel good.

-OWARI-

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: ::cries:: It's done…I think… I really don't know. I'm very happy with this as an ending spot, but I feel that I could write an epilogue if I had to. And was that a happy ending?! ::gasps:: Why, yes. Yes, it was. Heheh. I felt like this story was one that did deserve a happy ending if none of my others do (not saying that none of my others will have happy endings, though)…

So, anyway…whether there will be an epilogue or not for this is up to you guys. If you want one, lemme know in a review or something. I'll be happy to write one, but I'm not going to promise that I will write one or that it will be out soon. Since this is finally done (at least to me), "Understanding" is going to be taking the extreme priority over everything. I feel like I've put it off into the background for long enough…

Please, please, please… Don't send me any nasty reviews about how you think that Kairi is a bitch who didn't deserve to be forgiven…that Riku needed to plan something so she would walk in on him and Sora in the middle of sex…or something like that… I feel that Riku giving Kairi a chance made him the bigger person here. He could have just shoved her away and been a complete asshole (and we all know that he wanted to), but he put his feelings for Sora in front of himself…and look where it got them. He forgave Kairi for what happened. Kairi did go through a lot throughout the story, though. I mean, Sora left her just when they were about to get married. That would leave a mark, no matter how bitchy or cold a person is. Karma gave her what she deserved for being so unkind to Riku and she knew it. I hope you all are big enough people to realize that…(I know that most of you are, but I just felt that this was something I needed to say)…

Anyway…I want to thank everyone for hanging in there with me. Through thick and thin, you guys kick my ass! This baby's finally done and I really hope that you liked it. I think this chapter is my favorite out of all of them, though. I just really enjoyed the mood throughout the entire thing. Even though the middle has its angst, I think that this chapter is really light and fun. It makes a good ending… And seventy pages is the shortest I've ever written for a multi-chapter story… Woot for me!…Hehe…

Anyone who knows where the "powder blue Prius" reference came from gets a cookie…Heheh…Here's a hint…Walter made fun of it…well, and Peanut too…

And now I shall say adieu to all of you out there reading "Solitude" one last time (or is it??). You're all amazing and you have no idea how much your support and understanding over the past ten months has meant to me. I love ya, guys…

Adieu…

Kolie
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2.21.2008
6:10 PM