Chapter One: Where it Began

His POV

I was only four years old when I met her. I feel like I knew then but my tiny brain wasn't able to process it. I've had feelings for her for as long as I can remember. She meant everything to me, and she doesn't even know it. She's been one of my best friends since we first met. From that moment on, my feelings progressed and became more intense, especially when I hit fourteen. I think that was when I figured out what these feelings were. At first I thought it was just a crush, but not too long after, I realized I was head over heels in love with her. I had no interest in any other girls. I wanted her, but I knew I could never have her. Not only would she never want me in that way, but I didn't deserve her. There were better guys here for her. Stronger, more mature. I was just her goofy best friend. My name is Sora and her name is Kairi.

I'll start from the beginning when I first met her. We were both four. I was playing on the beach with my best friend, Riku, who was five. I had spiky, brown hair and bright blue eyes. My best friend had short silver hair and a mix between blue and green eyes, turquoise colored. We were sword fighting down the beach with our toy swords. It was a beautiful sunny day, in Florida. We lived right by the ocean in small, little beach homes. The sun was beating down on us and the sand was hot, I could feel it through my sandals. I wore red shorts and a white t-shirt. Riku had on blue shorts and a yellow shirt. We were talking our playful banter, back and forth and slamming the swords against each other until we were interrupted by a light scream. We turned our heads towards the scream and saw a red bob in the water and small arms flailing around. We looked at each other and nodded, and quickly ran towards the person. We were great swimmers already, since we lived by the ocean and spent most of our days swimming. We both stepped into the water and splashed through to reach the person. I felt an arm as I approached them, the ocean waves were trying to drag them away but Riku and I both pulled her by the arms and brought her to the shore. We set their arms down and that was when I could see it was a young girl.

She had short, auburn red hair and her skin was very pale. She lay there on her stomach in her pink one piece swimsuit. Riku turned to look at me,

"Is she breathing?" He asked.

Her face was pointed towards me and bent down to get closer to her face. She had her eyes closed but I could hear her breath and could see she was breathing. I admired her features for a moment. Something about her caught my eye, and I couldn't stop starring. She started coughing and then I focused on that. She slowly opened her eyes and I could her dark blue orbs look into mine. She squinted her eyes, probably from the bright sun.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She then looked up at me, again. She started to lift herself up and propped her hands on the sand and brought herself to a kneeling position. Riku was still standing on the other side of her and I was knelt on one by her. She looked at me, sort of teary idea. She smiled softly and shook her head. "Yes, thank you." She said.

"You're welcome." I smiled. We starred at each other for a moment, I almost forgot Riku was right there but then he made his prescence known, and said to her, "Glad you're okay." She turned to look at him suprised he was there. She must've thought it was just me that helped her. She looked at each of us and smiled. "Thank you both, I thought I was a goner." She said in a light tone. I stood up, reached my hand down to her and smiled. She looked at my hand and then at me and gently took it. I helped her get on her feet and stumbled slightly. My arms reached out for her, but she caught herself before she fell. She looked at me, and smiled embarrassingly. I decided to take the opportunity to introduce ourselves to her. "My name is Sora." I said, smiling at her.

"I'm Riku." Riku said, standing next to me.

"My name is Kairi." She said, sweetly.

After that day, we met up with each other almost everyday to play on the beach. We played all sorts of games with each other. We'd have races, Riku and I would do our usually sword fighting and she'd be the referee. One day, she brought her own toy sword and Riku and I taught her how to use it properly. We came up with a game where she was a princess and Riku enjoyed playing the bad guy, so that ended with me being the brave prince that was meant to rescue the princess. We became best friends with her. I would continue to have this odd feeling about her every time I was around her. I couldn't figure out what it was but it was different from how I felt around my other friends, like Riku or even other girls I was friends with. By the time I was fourteen, I realized I had a crush on her. I never thought it would escalate to more than that though, that is until the last year, on the last day of summer.

I was fifteen once I really faced this feeling. It was the last day of summer vacation and Kairi had been away all summer at a summer camp. When she met up with Riku and I on the last day, I was completely blown away by her. She came back and she was gorgeous! Not that she wasn't before, but she was more feminine. She was kind of a tomboy before but when I saw her running towards us down the beach, I couldn't take my eyes off of her! She wore a sleeveless pink dress, and a zipper on the front of it, where you could see a white camisole underneath it. The dress filled her body out perfectly. I could see her curves, her long white legs, her slender body and even though I didn't want to think about how much perkier she had gotten, I couldn't help myself! I was a teenager with raging hormones and she sure didn't make them easier to control. Her red, got slightly darker and longer. I just kept starring at her and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and my face felt hot. I felt a slight smack on the back of my head and snapped out of my thoughts. Riku was standing next to me, chuckling to himself. Kairi approached us and smiled that beauitful smile. "Hey what are you laughing at Riku?" She giggled. "Oh, nothing." He said snickering. My mouth was still gaping open and I was at a loss for words.

"I missed you guys! You have to tell me everything you did this summer!" She said and grabbed a hold of my arm. My insides screamed.

Quit gaping at her like a moron! Respond to her! You look foolish!

My mind kept yelling at my body and my body finally responded to her. I turned my head to look at her. "Uhh...ye-yeah! You too!" I stuttered. She linked arms with me and started walking with me down the shore. Riku followed next to us.

That was when I realized, it wasn't just a simple crush. I finally admitted to myself how I really, truly always felt about her. I could understand why I always felt differently around. I understood why I missed her so bad that it was torture being away from her. I could see why I thought about her day and night. She was the first thing on my mind when I woke up and the last thing I thought about before I went to sleep. I was in love with my best friend. I was in love with Kairi. And it killed me on the inside because I knew she would never feel the same way. She could never know how much she meant to me. I can never tell her how I feel because even though I couldn't have her the way I wanted to, I'd rather her be in my life as just a friend than not at all.

Her POV

The moment I saw him, I died a little inside. He matured so much over the course of the summer. I ran towards my best friends, Sora and Riku, but Sora was the one I couldn't take my eyes off of. I ran towards him. I wanted to run up into him and feel his strong arms wrapped around me. But I couldn't. I knew I had a crush on him, but my feelings for him became so intense and I missed him so much over the summer. I realized that I was in love with him and I scolded myself for taking so long to see that. Even though, I knew I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about it. Did he feel the same? Would he ever feel the same if he didn't now? The world around me seemed to be in slow motion as I ran towards him. I started admiring his features. Those bright blue eyes, his chocolate messy hair, that perfect tan and as the wind blew his black short sleeved jacket, I could see his toned muscles on the inside. He wore a v-neck, sleeveless top underneath the jacket and I could vaguely see his chest where his crown chain sat. He had on black shorts and black sneakers, and he looked amazing. I approached them and did the usual chatter with them. I looked to Riku and then I looked at Sora, I looked at his arms and I could see his perfect shaped biceps and I just had to touch him. Even though, Riku probably had larger muscles than he did, but my feelings for Sora steared me away from admiring him. Riku was a ladies man around here. People were quick to talk about his features and his calm personality. They would ask me why I hadn't snatched him up yet and it was never really clear until recently. Other than seeing Riku as a big brother, Sora was obviously the one I was attracted to and had feelings for. There were so many things I wanted to do to him but I held back and just casually grabbed his arm. Once I had a hold of his arm, I didn't want to let go and he didn't seem to mind so I just kept holding on.

I knew how I felt about him, but I just wasn't sure how I wanted to approach the situation. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to pursue a relationship at the moment. Sure, I dated a few guys here and there but it never lasted longer than a few weeks and I had never been kissed before. I was saving all my firsts for a special someone. Someone that truly held my heart and now I knew Sora was the one that did. And I don't think Sora knew anything about relationships either. He never dated anyone. He showed no interest for anyone now that I thought about it. He was extremely friendly with everyone so it was hard to see if that was Sora just being Sora or if he was actually interested in someone. He made friends with practically everyone. Riku on the other hand was a dating machine. He's had more than his few share of girlfriends, but I didn't know any details about his dating experience. I'm sure Sora knew though. I would just tease him about certain girls but we never had a serious conversation about it. I started to think though, maybe Riku knew what Sora's deal was. Maybe I could talk to him about it, but I don't think Riku would betray Sora's trust like that. I guess I would hold off until I was really desperate. Like I said, I didn't know what I wanted at the moment. We would just have to see how things play out and see what time will bring us. I didn't care how or when we got to that point, as long as we did someday.