Ahhh... A new story. New plot, new theme, and new readers to screw with ^^

As you can tell (eer... will tell), this takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts 2, so there WILL be mentions to heartless, there WILL be mentions and appearances of Keyblades and there WILL be some really weird POV's. Just a little warning, no?

But, on top of that, there will be some violence, some language (there's always language), some sexual themes (by sexual I mean, all you'll be reading if hot and heavy kissing and some hints toward bowchikawowwow) and some pretty depressing shit. If, by some reason you decided you don't want to read all that, leave. This first chapter is clean though, so there shouldn't be a problem.

Let's get this party started!

Disclaimer: Nooope! I think I used all my original disclaimers for "Nothing More Than A Whisper" (which all of you should go check out, BTW), so... yeah. I don't own this:3

Chapter One:

A strong gust of wind ruffled the palm leaves, carried the salty spray of the ocean further into land and the sand kicked up a little, falling back to it's rightful place. It was warm, calm, serene, everything he had missed, everything he had wanted for that year or two he was traveling. Now, finally after all the battles, running after his best friend and saving the only girl he's ever loved, everything was back to normal, or in Sora's case, as normal as normal gets around here.

He heard the laughter and screaming from the water as Selphie was splashed by Tidus again, her giggled erupting into her revenge as she pushed him down into the water, Wakka just standing by, shaking his head slightly. Kairi was on the beach, sitting at the water's edge smiling at the trio in the sea, then turned to look up to the walkway that connected to the tree. She beamed. "Sora! Come on!" she yelled up and Sora smiled back, cupping his mouth.

"In a minute!" he yelled back, then continued up to the landing they had always dubbed the "Tree House", and sighed to his silver haired friend leaning on the railing looking to opposite side of the sea. "Riku, why don't you come down and spend time with us? We missed you."

"I've got a lot on my mind." Was the answer he got. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sora leaned on the railing next to him, his spiky brunette hair being ruffled by the small breeze that blew through. His eyes flicked to Riku's face for a moment. "You wanna talk?"

Riku shook his head, viridian eyes still to the sea. "It's… It's hard to explain." Was all the second answer gave him.

Sora scowled. Riku had been like this since they got back, and it was always the same; Riku would outcast himself from the rest of them, say he had too much on his mind, then refuse to tell Sora if (and when) he asked. It was like a routine now, but one Sora would love to break the second he got the chance. If only Riku trusted him like he use to… What had he done?

About now, Sora would have walked away, but he just stayed there, staring out into the water with his "best friend", never saying a word. Nothing had happened during that last battle with Xemnas, right? What about when they were sitting on the beach at the End of The World? Riku said he valued Sora's friendship, but this was a horrible way of showing it. Sora just frowned more, then stood up straight. "Well, I'm gonna go down there with Kairi and them. If you want to… Just go down there, okay?"

"Mhm."

The brunette's face changed to sorrow and he held his chest a little as it hurt, then turned and walked away, back down the walkway and the ladder to join the auburn haired girl he loved on the beach. She turned with a beautiful smile and waved a little. "Sora. Where's Riku?"

Sora shrugged a little. "He's here, but his mind's somewhere else. He's just thinking to much, like he always does."

"Oh." Kairi simply said, her mouth forming the smallest 'O', then she rested her hand on Sora's, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I'm just happy we're back, you know?"

The brunette smiled. "I am too. I missed the islands." He lied. He didn't miss the islands; he had missed Riku.

The warm breeze, the salty, humid air and even the hot sand was the same, but it was all just so out of place in his mind. Everything settled back into the normalcy they all missed from before, so why didn't Riku feel like he was back where he belonged? He blamed it on all that time he spent in the darkness, but he knew the real answer; he was back with Sora.

It was a lie when he told Sora he didn't want the brunette to find him, because that was the one thing he was holding his breath over for two years. He had always missed his best friend, and everything he had said to him when he had been looking for Kairi's heart had been the best lies he had ever told. Riku looked for Sora, just as Sora had done, and missed him, just wanting to grab the brunette by the hood of his jacket and drag him back to the islands without any trouble.

He put his face in his hands, groaning in frustration. Everything so fucked up now! Two years had taken their toll on Sora, and now the boy was just a little taller than he was before, voice deeper and his fun loving personality was starting to fade away bit by bit… Or maybe that was because of…

Riku forced himself not to think about that, instead just looking into the sparkling water, not turning when he heard the creaking of footsteps on the stairs leading to his little haven. He expected it to be Sora again, asking him what the hell was really wrong and forcing it out of the viridian eyed boy, like Riku planned it to happen. But, was Riku really ready to tell Sora that horrible secret just yet?

"Riku, Sora said you seem kinda sad. Are you okay?" Selphie's still girlish voice greeted his ears instead of Sora's, and Riku turned a little to look into the golden blonde's green eyes, her hair pulled down into pigtails. He smiled a little to throw her off.

"Yeah. I'm fine, just thinking of something." He lied, hoping she would take it and leave, but he knew better than that. This was Selphie, after all.

Selphie crossed her arms over a dress that vaguely looked like the one she wore two years ago, then shook her head. "You're not fine. I can tell, Riku. Ever since you got back, you and Sora have been acting really weird, and you never come down from the Tree House." Her voice took on something you'd hear from a worried best friend or mother. "You and Sora use to be so close, almost inseparable, but now you two barely talk. What happened?"

"I… I'd really like to know the same thing." Riku chuckled slightly, then turned back to the sea. "I really don't know what happened, Selph. I just can't talk to him anymore."

The golden blonde girl answered to her old nickname with a huge smile, then stood by Riku at the railing. "Maybe you should start with a 'hi'. That always helps, you know." Her eyes met Riku's. "You two have changed physically and mentally in some ways, but you'll always be Riku and Sora on the inside. That will never change."

"Glad to see you've stayed the same." Riku smiled, ruffling the girl's hair.

She fixed the slight mess her friend had made, then smiled back. "You haven't much either."

The two stood there for a moment, just in silence, as Riku's brain comprehended Selphie's words; just talk to him? That didn't sound too hard. After all, Riku had trekked through the darkness, saved his best friend, close the door and killed the biggest asshole of the century in a period of a year. How hard could talking to your ever-changing best friend be?

Just as he was pondering that, Selphie spoke up again, but her voice missing the usual cheerfulness. "Riku, Sora's changed."

"What makes you think that?" Riku looked down at her, eyes questioning and worried.

"You know how he's always had the aura of light-heartedness and that childish demeanor?" her eyes caught the floor. "Being around him just feels different now, like there's something wrong."

His interest was peaked. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

Selphie's eyes met the sea again. "Being around him feels like darkness, and sadness, but it seems like he doesn't even know. There's something terribly wrong with Sora, something so wrong he's oblivious to it."

Riku didn't know how to answer that, so he lowered his gaze to the ground. So Xehanort hadn't been lying.

Being back in his own bed felt great, Sora had realized a few days earlier. The Gummi Ship beds and couches were hard and uncomfortable, and they rarely got a chance to rent out a hotel or motel room to stay a night, so sleep (and comfortable sleep at that) had been rare for the brunette. Laying here on his bed felt so right and normal, that if he got up, everything would change again.

That day was just like all the others, sitting on the beach with Kairi as Tidus, Wakka and Selphie played in the water like the little kids they still were on the inside. Sora had wished he could still do something like that, but his heart just wasn't into everything he was into before. Suddenly playing in the water and running races around the island didn't feel like something normal anymore, and he had even noticed a sharp pain in his chest when he attempted to do that. He really should have told Kairi or Riku that when it happened the first time after they had come back, but it didn't seem like much to him, so he shook it off. It was probably because he was growing up and getting more mature, and that was normal, right?

Sora sighed, then remembered the days from so long ago when they would spend hours out there on the beach just playing and fighting and building, then those rare nights they spent the entire night out there, falling asleep under the stars. The sound of waves was heard echoing from far away, and it was something so strange, yet so normal to hear, and he closed his eyes.

"At least the waves sound the same…" escaped from his mouth before he knew it, and that beach at the End of the World popped into his head as well with Riku, and he opened his eyes again. Riku was right; at least they did. If everything else changed with them and the island and this world, at least those waves would keep crashing on the beach the same.

He heard a rustle of bushes and foliage, then looked out the window above his bed to see a familiar silver-haired boy trudging out to the small dock, presumably going to the island. Sora saw some sort of opportunity this to talk to Riku, and opened his window and jumped out in one fluid movement, following his best friend with stealth. Just as Sora had guessed, Riku untied his little boat from the dock and started rowing away, the islands in his sights. As Riku was well enough out of earshot, Sora followed the suit, and trailed after Riku slowly and quietly, getting up onto the dock at the islands and tying his boat up before he forgot.

His silver haired friend had gone to the beach, just sitting on the shore, listening and watching the waves, making Sora glare a little. It was nearly midnight; why wasn't Riku at home? Sora quietly walked up to Riku, but his friend turned, feeling the sudden present behind him. Viridian found blue and they just sat there, in silence for a second before it was broken by Riku's smooth voice. "What are you doing down here?" he asked, never once breaking the gaze between the two of them.

Sora was struck for a moment before he swallowed away the awkward lump in his throat and ignored the pain in his chest. "I-I followed you." His tone got slightly smart-assed, then said. "What about you? You realize it's midnight, right?"

Riku snorted, then turned to the water. "I do. I can't sleep."

"Oh, don't tell me; all that stuff that's on your mind?" Sora asked, glaring down at Riku.

His silver haired friend never once looked up. "Yeah."

Sora growled, then sat down next to him, the burning in my chest becoming more unbearable, but I had to bear with it. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong. I can be stubborn, too."

Riku gave a short snort in reply. "I don't get why you care."

Sora's chest hurt even more, but it wasn't because of the stabbing pain already. "I-I care because you're my best friend." He snapped, tears stinging the back of his eyes. Everything felt really fuzzy. "I can't believe you would say something like that."

As if Riku finally realized what he said, he turned and shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that, I promise." He apologized. "I'm sorry."

Sora frowned with a bit of a pout, tears running down his cheeks, trying to sort through why his mind was racing and spinning and everything felt so far away. "I-It's okay…" he said, and it trailed off a bit, then he held his head as the pounding pain of a headache took over.

"Sora, are you okay?" Riku asked, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"Fin-" Sora's speech stopped, and his vision went really hazy as he fell over into the sand, Riku's face appearing over him.

"Sora! Sora!"

Everything went black.

Riku saw Sora fall over, and his eyes slip close. He had passed out, and Riku was sitting right there. The silver haired teen, shook him a little, then noticed how his hand rested on his chest and his face was screwed up in pain. His chest was hurting, maybe? Riku put the hand on the sand, then slipped his arms under the boy's knees and back, picking him up bridal style. Hopefully he could get up to Sora's window without being noticed, and without dropping Sora in the process.

He started walking, carrying Sora in his arms (which wasn't very hard, considering Sora weighed close to nothing at all) and into one of the boats they had taken here. Once getting Sora in comfortably and sitting down himself, Riku untied it from the dock and started rowing. In the silence that settled beside the distant sound of waves and the water under the oars, he heard a very familiar mumble.

"Riku…" Sora said in his coma-like state, sounding pained and relived, making Riku's cheeks turn red. The brunette looked tense, then relaxed a bit, making Riku do the same. Sora didn't seem comfortable at all, like his body was under a lot of pressure, and Riku couldn't help but to worry. Why was Sora like this?

Riku tied the boat to the dock connected to the main island, then picked up Sora the same he had earlier, and started walking. Sora didn't make any more sounds, or mumbled anything else the entire way back to his house, but still looked like he was in pain, and Riku sighed, convincing himself it was all his fault.

The window was about a foot taller than Riku, and he managed to get Sora on his back piggyback style and used one hand to keep him there while the other gripped the lattice as he climbed up. The good part about Sora's parents is that they build everything with amazing wood and building materials, so the lattice was able to hold Riku and Sora's weight all the way up to the window, which Sora had left open. Riku slipped Sora in first, carefully, then climbed in himself, falling face-first onto Sora's bed. He sat up, and looked around, smiling when he saw nothing had changed much. The silver-haired boy put Sora into the bed right, then pulled the covers over him, not bothering to put some pajamas on him or anything else.

Riku was about to go back out the window when another pained mumbled caught his ears, making him stop completely.

"Riku… I'm… sorry…."

The older teen looked down, shaking it off, then jumping down, breaking out into a run as soon as his feet hit the ground. His feet wouldn't stop until he got back into his room, but his mind kept going, running around every single little thing about Sora, him, the worlds, and everything he once knew so well. Then, his mind went back to those few words Sora managed to say in his unconscious state. '"Riku… I'm… sorry…."'

"No, Sora," Riku said, closing his eyes as he lay back in his bed. "I'm sorry."