Well, here it is… the final chapter. Wow, I'm so happy right now that I've actually completed a multi-chaptered story. :D Even if it is one with no extensive plot.

I just want to say this right now. Thank you Kai Saitou!! You're probably the only reason I ever finished this, what with all the guilt trips you've sent me on and the 'updating your story three times' between my updates kind of thing. Lol, so yeah… this story is dedicated to you! Thanks a bunch… and no, this doesn't give you permission to hassle me about writing something else right away. :P

I also want to thank everyone who's reviewed, and everyone on my forum, and even everyone who's reading right now who's never left a review… because maybe today you'll change your ways and click that purple button! Or not… anyways, on with the last chapter!

Friendship Is Forever

"Umm, I'm going to go find Tidus and Selphie…" Kairi whispered as she hurriedly walked past Riku to where the other two were playing down the beach.

When she was gone, Sora put his hand behind his head and tried to look apologetically at the furious boy in front of him.

"When we found this cave… don't you remember? We weren't going to tell anyone about it? What happened to that?"

"I'm sorry Riku… I… wasn't thinking about that. I just wanted Kairi to be happy."

"Is she more important than a promise you made to me?"

"Riku!" Sora said, shocked, "It's not like I―"

"You know what, never mind." Riku turned away from him and walked away, the opposite direction of Selphie, Tidus, and Kairi.

Sora watched him go, feeling horrible about breaking the promise, but also justified in his argument that he really hadn't done anything wrong. He frowned and turned towards the other three kids. Selphie and Tidus were at the water's edge, splashing each other in the saltwater waves. Kairi was standing watching them, farther back, away from the water's reach. Sora headed over to them and stood next to Kairi.

"I'm sorry." She said softly.

Sora knitted his eyebrows. "It's not your fault at all."

"I shouldn't ha―"

"Hey guys! Quit standing there and come in the water! It feels so good in the sun!" Selphie called from the waves.

Sora turned to Kairi. "Come on!"

She shook her head and smiled at him. "Whatever, Sora."

The two ran down into the water, splashing into the shallow waves that lapped at the shore, higher here because they were closer to the open ocean than the main island.

"Check this out!" Tidus called as he dove into an oncoming wave, coming out the other side and shaking the water from his hair.

"Bet you can't stay up above the wave!" Sora teased him as all four of them waded out to their shoulders.

"Oh yes I can!" Tidus braced himself to jump over the next wave, but it came up just above his face and splashed him down. Sora kept himself up easily.

"That's not fair! You're way taller than me!"

"Uh huh… that's what they all say."

Tidus scowled at him.

"Seriously though, it's all in the timing, and you've got to keep your head up."

Tidus tried again and made it over the crest of the wave, whooping in victory. He immediately called for a contest to see who could stay above the waves for the longest.

Kairi and Selphie opted out and decided to judge the boys. Sora and Tidus stayed up for a long time, trying to make the other forget about the contest by talking about other things. The girls were in the middle of discussing whether or not a splash in the face Tidus had received counted as 'going under' or not, when a rather large wave caught the boys unaware and took them both under.

Selphie giggled. "Guess it doesn't matter now."

They came up spluttering.

"You went under first!" They both shouted in unison, pointing at one another.

"Hey!"

"No!"

"It was you!"

"Guys, guys! Aren't you both a little tired of this game?" Kairi broke them up, she and Selphie giggling.

Tidus thought for a moment.

"Ooooookay. New game!" Tidus called, immediately jumping on Selphie and dunking her. She came up screaming.

"Tiduuuuuuuuuuuus!"

The horseplay continued, the four friends dunking, splashing, chasing, and otherwise having a great time. They even played a few rounds of chicken, although Tidus and Selphie were no match to Kairi and Sora's combined height advantage.

Finally, tuckered out, they all lay down to float on their backs in the water. The sun was no longer at its highest point, but lower in the sky. Even while he had fun, Sora was thinking about Riku and wondering where he was. When they finally all headed back to dry land, he decided to go look for him.

"Hey Sora! Selphie and I've been wondering what's on the other side of the island, wanna explore with us?" Tidus asked.

"No… Kairi and I need to go talk to Riku."

"Are you guys fighting or something? 'Cause it's weird that he didn't swim with us."

"Yeah… well, not huge… I just need to talk to him."

Kairi gave Selphie a look to explain that it was nothing, so then she pulled Tidus's hand to come with her around the island. When they'd walked out of sight along the beach, Kairi turned to Sora.

"Where do you think he is?"

"I…," he paused for a moment, scratching his head. "Maybe on that little island?"

Kairi nodded. The two made their way back down the beach towards the nearly circular islet that rose out of the water. They waded back into the water, the waves now completely gone in the late afternoon. The crystal clear water reminded Sora of his first trip to the island with Riku, and that just made him remember the promise about the cave. He did feel bad, but he was glad that he'd made Kairi happy again. He knew that if Riku understood, then he wouldn't be mad anymore. He and Kairi made it around to the ladder, treading water when they could no longer reach. Sora pulled himself up on the ledge and then turned to his newest friend.

"Kairi, I'm going to go talk to him first, so you just stay down here until I call you, okay?"

"Sure Sora." She smiled at him. "I hate to see you two fight… because of me. So good luck."

Sora sighed again. "It's not your fault Kai."

"Okay, okay…," She shook her head, still smiling.

He turned back towards the ladder, pulling himself up rung by rung, noticing as he made his way up that Tidus and Selphie must have helped Riku make repairs to the unsteady thing earlier. When he reached the top, he slowed down… still not sure that he'd find his friend here, but not wanting to make Riku run away, not wanting to talk to him.

He peeked up over the ledge and sighed with relief. Riku was sitting near the middle of the island, his back resting slightly on the poor bent tree, that, to Sora's surprise, was still alive, a little tuft of green leaves poking out the top. His older friend was staring out towards the open ocean, his eyes detached, like he was thinking. Sora slowly brought his head into full view. Riku didn't look at him.

"So, you must've seen us swimming…" His attempt was met by silence.

"You should've come down. It was fun… I picked up Tidus and dumped him into the ocean." Sora tried to laugh, but all that came out was a sort of frightened chuckle.

Riku didn't answer him.

Sora pulled himself completely off of the ladder and went to stand next to Riku.

"Look… I'm sorry about earlier. I wasn't thinking, and I should have remembered that the cave was our secret. I don't want to fight over anything. I think…. I think if you knew how scared and sad Kairi was earlier, you'd understand."

Riku finally looked at him, turning his head slowly, keeping his mouth shut.

"You're still my best friend, and I'll never forget that… but Kairi's really cool too. Don't you think it'll still be an awesome secret, for all three of us to share?"

"Yeah… I guess. I just wish you would've asked me." Riku finally replied.

"I know, but I'm really sorry." Sora said, immediately jumping on the fact that Riku had spoken. "I promise that I'll never break another promise to you again, unless… you know, I ask permission, like I should've about Kairi. I just wasn't thinking."

"You never think Sora" Riku chuckled, standing up and offering his hand. "You gonna shake on that promise?"

Sora smiled with relief and shook his friend's hand. Then he reached back and scratched the back of his head, smiling sheepishly.

"Kairi's down at the bottom of the ladder. She thinks this is her fault… because she was the person I showed the cave to."

Riku headed over to the top of the ladder, but then paused.

"What was Kairi sad about?"

"Oh, well… she said that she was upset that she couldn't remember anything about her old home, but that she forgot about it when she hung out with us. And she was afraid that she'd think about it more if she went to live with the mayor."

"Oh." Riku looked down at the ground a moment, and then continued to the top of the ladder.

"Hey Kairi!" He called down, "I'm not mad at you! Just a little peeved at this blockhead up here!" He jabbed his thumb back at Sora, who smiled weakly.

A few seconds later, Kairi came up to the top of the ladder, looking at Riku.

"You sure you're not mad? I made him want to show me the cave."

Riku laughed good naturedly, all signs of the argument gone from his expression. "Oh yes, you're right. That was pure evil. Remind me to never speak to you again until you learn how to be a good person."

Kairi giggled and pulled herself onto the island. The three friends settled down to sit in the sand, their back against the small tree running parallel to the ground. They watched the sky as it turned yellow and orange.

"Man, it feels like today went by really fast." Sora mused.

"Ha! Maybe for you, but I had to go to that brunch this morning… before the ice was broken, time dragged on and on…" Kairi sighed.

"Yeah and you guys played in the water for like, three hours, and I was sitting up here the whole time."

"Well I don't get myself involved in anything boring, so time flies for me." Sora smiled smugly, putting his arms behind his head.

"You wanna throw him into the water Kairi?"

"Oh yes. Let's."

Sora jumped up to defend himself, and Riku and Kairi laughed at him, both remaining seated.

"Haha, a joke… I get it." Sora muttered sarcastically, sitting back down between his two best friends.

After a moment, Riku leaned forward to look at Kairi. "So, d'you remember anything else about your old home?"

Kairi's smile was gone as she stared at the ground.

"No…" She whispered.

Sora frowned at Riku, distinctly remembering telling him that this topic upset Kairi. He couldn't think why he would want to bring it up.

"Hey, that's okay." Riku told her. "Don't worry about it. I just think it's awesome that you've shown us that there's more out there than just these islands. Sora and I have always dreamed of adventuring, and now you've actually given us something to look towards, besides climbing to the top of the tallest palm tree, or diving to the bottom of a lagoon. There is something more out there… thanks for helping us see that."

"Well… we don't know for sure, of course." Kairi answered bashfully.

"What I wouldn't give to be able to explore other worlds!" Sora said excitedly. He leaned back against the small tree. "And now we have the three of us to explore together, not just me and boring old Riku!"

"I'm going to ignore that."

Kairi laughed. "How would you even get to another world?"

"Hmm… I suppose if we sailed out into the ocean… we'd have to get somewhere." Riku said.

Sora nodded in agreement.

"That'd be an adventure." Kairi said, gazing out at the sun as it made its journey towards the horizon.

"An awesome adventure! Sword fights, bad guys and heroes… could you imagine?" Sora said, his eyes shining.

"I just want to know what's out there…" Riku said.

"Well… we do know that we'll always have each other. No matter what, we're going to go on whatever adventure together!" Kairi said, nodding her head.

"Yeah, friendship lasts forever!" Sora agreed.

Riku rubbed his nose. "Aww, you guys are way too sappy."

Kairi and Sora laughed.

"But it is true. Kairi; I'm so glad you came to this island."

"Me too."

It's done! It's over! :D

I really hope you guys have enjoyed this. Thanks so much for reading, and leave a review!