Once again, I'm posting more stories than I can handle...but I couldn't wait to get this one out.

Summary: (Post-KH2.) After finally returning home, Sora's having a tough time adjusting and getting used to the peace. Matters are made more difficult when he can't explain where he's been to his family, and his friends Riku and Kairi are experiencing their own troubles; but nothing can make things harder when his hard-earned tranquility is shattered by an all-too-familiar enemy...

Returning Home

By FlikFreak

Chapter One: Restart

Sora could have slept for the rest of his life. The past two years had been rough on him: he had been torn from his home world and thrown into another, where all-out war was being waged with the heartless. The keyblade chose him to end the said war, and he ended up going from planet to planet with little to no idea what he was doing or what he'd run into next. He had quickly learned to adapt to whatever place he was tossed into, which helped, but he had revealed himself more than once. He had sacrificed himself to rescue his best friend, which involved basically splitting himself in half, and somehow came back by the grace of some light that had saved him. Then he had ended up in a castle where his memories had been screwed around with and was sent to sleep so they could be repaired. He woke up at least six months later, maybe longer, with no memories of the said castle and found himself in a town he was sure he hadn't fallen asleep in to begin with. After that, he ended up in the middle of yet another war, with not just heartless but also Nobodies and the remaining members of Organization XIII. Then, after finishing off Xemnas, he had been trapped in a world he wasn't certain he'd make it out of, only to plummet meteor-style into the ocean below and finally make it back home.

At least he had slept through puberty.

Even harder than defeating Xemnas was coming home. He had been nervous, walking up to his own front door. He hadn't had a real home for so long – the only bed he really called his own was the one in the back of the Gummi Ship, and he only slept in that one during long flights – and though the front door was exceedingly familiar, it also felt foreign. The wood creaking underneath his feet was almost more welcome to him than the relief of the thousands of heartless in Hollow Bastion finally being vanquished. Sure, his parents had nearly smothered him upon entry, but he was more than happy to finally be home.

Fortunately for the group, they had returned home near the beginning of spring break, and were thus given some leeway in terms of school. It was awkward for Sora (though moreso for Riku, whom had been through his own share of pain and torment via possession of a power-hungry heartless) to suddenly be thrust into normal life again. He, Riku and Kairi were all over the news for a while, and the attention wasn't being hailed as a hero or thanked for good deeds, but having people worry over him, ask him if he was alright, wonder how and why he went missing for two entire years. Knowing that the worlds needed to remain in order, Sora had refused to answer, causing controversy. Luckily the most popular theory was amnesia, which was something he could deal with quite easily. Kairi was luckier than the boys: she had already been through the whole I've-been-missing-for-a-year-and-now-I'm-back routine, so getting lost for a week was hardly trouble for her in comparison.

Thanks to the news, Sora wound up being a celebrity again, right alongside Riku, but he did his best to ignore the attention. The fewer people to worry about him, the better. Besides, going from fighting for your life to being protected by nearly every adult you even breathe on was startling for him, and sometimes he wished he could just shove them out of the way and spill out the fact that he had fought monsters for two years. No one was going to rob, kidnap, or kill him any time soon. If they tried, they'd find out the hard way whether or not the keyblade was edible.

The phone rang. Sora glanced at the caller ID and snatched it up. "Hey, Riku."

"Hi, Sora. Finally breaking in to the peace and quiet?"

"It's still pretty weird," Sora replied, sitting back against his pillow. "Normally I'd be running all over the place tracking down enemies or helping someone out, and when I wasn't doing that I was shooting lasers in outer space. I didn't even have my own bed to sleep on; usually I just took the couch in the Restoration Committee's place or one of the beds on the gummi ship. Now, I have my own room, my own bed, and there's no enemies to fight and no people to save…it's kinda boring."

Riku laughed. "Yeah, it is, huh? That's what we thought when we first wanted to set off for other worlds, remember? We wanted adventure and all that…boy, did we find it."

"You had it rougher," Sora pointed out. "You didn't get to sleep for a year. You kept on fighting."

"I did keep fighting," Riku agreed. "And you know, those dark portals weren't easy to use. I'm kinda glad that I can't make them anymore." There was a slight shuffling. "My grandmother was all over me when I finally came back…I couldn't stand it, but I tried to humor her and stay calm for her sake. Her grandson's been missing for two years, after all."

Sora bit his lip. Riku's parents had died when he was younger, so he lived with his (rather rich) grandparents. The boy had never been fond of any form of mollycoddling, though he made some rather serious exceptions concerning their recent adventures around the universe, having not even flinched when Sora wept upon reuniting with him. Returning home was far more difficult for Riku than it was for Sora, mostly because of his fear of letting the darkness overcoming him again.

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" Riku asked.

"Yeah!" Sora replied, smiling. "The worlds are connected now, aren't they?"

There was a moment of hesitation on Riku's end before he chuckled. "Yeah…I guess so. You nervous about heading back to school?"

"More like annoyed," Sora said as he rolled his eyes. "I didn't need the formula for the volume of a cylinder while I was fighting heartless."

"And I didn't need to know any verb conjugation while I was helping you fight off Xemnas," Riku added, laughing. "Anyway…I gatta get going now. It's getting pretty late and grandma still wants me to eat dinner with her."

"All right, see you tomorrow."

"See ya."

Sora hung up and placed the phone back on its stand before staring out his window again. Now that he looked at it, there were many more stars out than before. He smiled, knowing what it meant. The worlds are all back. Everyone's safe.

He knew he was happy, but part of him felt upset…like something was missing. After a while of thought and not being able to find the problem, Sora sat up. "Something wrong, Roxas?" he asked aloud.

There was a twitch in Sora's heart, and the uncertainty increased. He knew what it meant. "Don't worry, everything's fine now. Xehanort's gone and the heartless won't bother us anymore. We're safe."

But he knew he couldn't be sure. After all, Xehanort's heartless was only half of the main problem, and if Ansem hadn't even come up with that research none of the mess would have happened, and he wouldn't have to go through seeing his best friend-

Sora scrunched his eyebrows together and put a hand over his heart, which had started beating frantically as a barrage of thoughts made their way through his mind. It was making him very dizzy and causing his chest to hurt. He knew these thoughts weren't entirely his. "Roxas. Stop."

There was an apologetic feeling, and his heart immediately calmed. Sora sighed, sitting back again as a feeling of concern rose. "It's fine. Actually…I'm kinda upset over that, too. But at least some good came out of it."

It didn't make that much sense to him. What good could have come out of a man allowing his apprentices to awaken such terrible power?

"Well, I did get to meet tons of new friends. And I got to meet you, too. Plus, I don't think some raft would have gotten us all that far, anyway."

Sora felt a smile tug at his lips. This feeling one was one he shared.

It was only by the grace of Roxas being a naturally early riser that Sora managed to get out of bed before noon. Of the many things that he and Roxas were starting to exchange with one another – memory included – Sora was most thankful for some of the Nobody's habits. He earned an odd look from his father, but nothing was said of it, and he headed outside to find his mother weeding the garden.

Luckily for Sora, the streets weren't too heavily crowded, so he didn't get any unwanted attention. He had run from Heartless and Nobodies before, but running from people was much more difficult, and he'd rather not do it.

He made his way to the docks and checked on his canoe. It was still there. Of course it was. Riku's was there also, right next to Kairi's. Their parents were probably hogging them in the house that day.

With a nod to himself, Sora stood upright again and made down the road, finding something to think on while he made his way to Kairi's home. The adventures he had gone through seemed almost like a dream now…aside from the fact that he still had a few scars (physical and not) from the battles and conflicts he'd been dragged into. Recently, the escapades Roxas had been through were coming to him as well, but the Nobody only seemed to share his six days in Twilight Town and other bits and pieces of his memory rather than everything.

For a brief moment, Sora felt an oddly familiar sensation prickle up his spine. He knew what it was, and froze on the spot. His fingers twitched, ready to summon the keyblade at any given moment. He spun around, racing forward…

"OW! Didn't know you were so jumpy, man!"

Sora blinked, noticing that he had just tackled a very familiar person to the ground. Harshly. Whoops. "Er…sorry, Wakka. I could've sworn…"

The redhead just laughed and stood up. "Nah, it's okay. I'm pretty sure after going through whatever you went through the past two years you'd be like this."

You have no idea.

"Were you headed to Kairi's place?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"It's the other way. This is the way to school."

The brunette chuckled nervously and scratched his head. He had been gone for so long, he had forgotten. "Ah…right. Thanks, Wakka."

Wakka grinned, spinning his blitzball on his finger. "No problem, Sora. You can come to me if you need anything, ya?"

Sora smiled. "Yeah…I can."

It took all of three minutes for Sora to remember where Kairi lived and find it, a trip which would have been faster if he didn't have to worry about avoiding people. He quickly found that hiding in the bushes like many cartoon characters did wasn't quite as effective as it seemed, but it did work, and hiding in trees was also an option due to his jumping abilities.

Kairi met him in her back yard, which was really more of a back porch than anything, and they sat down underneath a small palm tree facing the ocean.

"Riku's grandmother is really excited about him being home," She began. "It was hard on her for him to be missing, but it's even harder on Riku to be back home…"

"He never really did like being coddled," Sora commented, leaning back and staring at the nearly cloudless sky. "Sometimes I just want to go to her and yell at her to leave him alone."

"Why's that?"

Sora sighed. "I saw the look on Riku's face when he started heading home. He looked happy, then we started talking about meeting our parents again and he just seemed upset…like he didn't want to go. He doesn't like his grandparents much, but I think for their sake he lets them have their way as much as he can handle."

"My father nearly passed out when I came home," Kairi said. "I don't think he knew how to react…he got really mad at me for being gone for so long. The islands were gone for a year, I know…no one should have remembered anything, but I think they still knew that time had passed."

"What happened when Axel kidnapped you?" Sora asked.

Kairi narrowed her eyes in thought. "I was visiting the beach that day…I was only going to be a few minutes, because I was supposed to meet Selphie later. When Axel showed up, I knew something was off, so I just sort of ran for it. I didn't really think about it…Dad was really mad when I came back, madder than the first time."

"How come?"

"I couldn't tell him where I'd been, Sora. The world order and all…people aren't supposed to know about it, remember?"

Sora bit his lip. Of course. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about the heartless, nobodies, or outside worlds. It was against the rules. Kairi's father was also quite gruff, so it had to be hard on her to keep it secret. "What did you end up telling him?"

"I faked amnesia," Kairi replied, "But I knew it wouldn't work the second time, so I told him I was kidnapped…I just didn't tell him everything." She turned to him. "What'd you tell your parents?"

"I didn't have to tell them anything," Sora replied. "I was trying to think of an excuse when they decided that I either couldn't remember or it was so hard on me I didn't want to talk about it." He paused. "I think it's going to get out sooner or later…I jumped Wakka before I made it here."

Kairi blinked. "You did? Why?"

"He snuck up on me on accident, I guess," Sora explained, shrugging. "I thought it was a heartless. He didn't seem to mind, though. Just laughed it off like usual."

"What exactly did you do to him?" Kairi asked, still concerned. "You didn't use…did you?"

Sora shook his head. "I think it knew it wasn't needed. It was my instinct that made me do it, not the keyblade sensing darkness. I sorta just tackled him…"

"That would explain it," Kairi said, laughing. "He gets tackled all the time in blitzball. I'm sure the most you did was catch him off guard. I'm just glad you didn't…"

"It wouldn't come if there wasn't danger," Sora replied. "It'll show up on its own if there is. Other than that, it won't come unless…unless I call on it myself."

"Can you still call it?"

Only one way to find out, Sora thought, extending his arm and fingers outward as though reaching for the sea in front of them. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, in a calming yet powerful flash of light, the Kingdom Key appeared in front of him, and he grasped the handle without a word. "I guess I can."

Kairi took a deep breath and stared at the ocean quietly, as though pondering something. After a while, she spoke. "School starts in a few days. They might set you back a year or so…"

"But I was just in school," Sora protested quietly before stopping himself from furthering the sentence. No, he hadn't been in school. He had been on summer vacation in Twilight Town with his friends Hayner, Pence and Olette, competing in the Struggle Tournament and earning money for a beach trip that wouldn't happen and doing independent stu…no, he hadn't done all that.

"…Sora?"

The brunette shook his head. "Erm…nevermind."

"Was he…?"

"Yeah. I'm still trying to get used to it. Does she ever do it to you?"

Kairi hesitated, then smiled. "Not often. She keeps to herself most of the time, but every now and then she likes to draw, so I let her. She seems to really enjoy it more than she used to…I think it's because she's drawing because she wants to, not because she has to or because she's forced."

Sora grinned. "You ought to show me sometime. I bet she's pretty good."

Kairi blushed. Sora knew it wasn't Kairi blushing.

Visiting Riku was much more difficult, supplemented by the fact that he wasn't at home at the moment. The silver haired boy was, according to his grandmother, at the market picking up groceries. While the elderly woman claimed it was because she was too weak to head there herself anymore (which was, sadly, partially true due to her medical condition), Sora had a feeling that Riku volunteered to do it just to get some space for a while.

He found Riku in the fruit department picking out some apples. He hesitated before approaching his friend, noting how he chose them carefully by feeling them with his hands and sniffing them rather than just glancing them over. There was a moment of hesitation before the silver-haired boy froze, then turned to Sora. "Oh. I didn't see you there, Sora."

He's awfully calm about that… Sora smiled. "Hey, Riku. Getting groceries for your gramps again?"

"Yeah," Riku replied quietly. "I could use the space, anyway. After being alone for so long it's really hard getting used to being near people all the time. Not that I'm upset…it's just awkward."

Sora noted that as Riku spoke, he didn't look directly at him. He tilted his head curiously, but Riku didn't seem to notice all that much. "You want any company while you're buying food? I won't coddle you or anything."

Riku grinned very, very slightly and turned back to his shopping cart. "Yeah, I guess I could use some help. Only other stuff I need to get is in the next isle over."

Glad to be of help, Sora accompanied Riku through the rest of the store and noted a pattern when the boy was shopping. He didn't use his eyes to look at a product; most of the time he smelled it or felt it, and he normally went for whatever was freshest and avoided the snack isle like the plague (Sora sent a forlorn look to the Doritos on the other end, but followed Riku anyway). All the while, Riku avoided looking directly at Sora, and after they checked out and Sora was helping Riku carry the bags home, he decided to bring it up. He cleared his throat quietly, wondering how best to word his question. "Riku?"

"Yeah, Sora?"

"Are you mad at me?"

Riku looked surprised and glanced in Sora's general direction, not making eye contact like he normally did. "No. Why? Is something wrong?"

Sora shrugged it off. Maybe Riku was just stressed. "No reason."

But even as he said it, he knew something was wrong. Everything was wrong, in fact. He had been looking forward to coming back home for two entire years, give or take a few months, and nothing was the way it was before. He couldn't tell his parents where he had been, and he knew they would eventually grow suspicious. Kairi's father, while not abusive, wasn't very happy with her having gone missing. On top of that, something was wrong with Riku. He seemed upset over something…or was he upset? Maybe it was something more?

"Are you listening, Sora?"

His thoughts popped like a soap bubble. "Huh? What?"

Riku shook his head. "I was asking if you were going to come with me and Kairi to town tomorrow. We're going to take the ferry and check out the new mall."

Sora nodded. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

They spent the next few minutes discussing the said mall. By the time they were done, Riku's house was nearing. "I'm in for a long night," Riku said. "Grandma will probably want something fancy again. You wanna stay for dinner or…?"

"Mom and Dad probably want me to spend some more time with them," Sora replied, looking directly at Riku in hopes that his silver-haired friend would do the same. "I haven't told them anything about…you know. They're leaving it alone for now, but sooner or later they might ask…"

"You worried?" Riku asked, returning Sora's gaze. While he didn't look him directly in the eyes, it was close enough.

Yes! I knew he wasn't mad at me! Sora smiled, shaking his head. "No. I'm sure I'll come up with something."

Riku nodded. "Yeah…hey, Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"What's it like?"

The question threw him off, and Sora nearly stopped walking. "What's what like?"

"Having a Nobody."

"Hmm…" Sora slowed a bit, staring at the sky. The sun would be setting soon. Just like in Twilight Town. He remembered sitting on the station clock tower with the others, either holding that little blue bead in the sun or eating sea salt ice crea…no. Not him. He shook his head, embarrassed. "It's awkward."

"Awkward?"

"Yeah. Roxas's thoughts and feelings…they're starting to blend in with my own. It's like I'm two people at the same time, but I'm still me…" Sora put a hand over his heart. "It's weird, and it'll take some getting used to, I admit…"

Riku smirked. "What does he think about it?"

Sora felt an uncertain but satisfied feeling rise in his heart, and he shook his head. "Roxas isn't really sure either, but I think he's fine with the idea. I guess we both have to get used to it."

"At least you'll never have to feel alone again," Riku commented.

"…huh?"

"I have to go," Riku said hurriedly, taking the bags Sora was carrying. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Sora blinked. "Um…okay."

The two bade each other farewell and parted ways. Sora was left with many thoughts over the day: Kairi's father, while not abusive, was rather gruff with her being missing for so long, which wasn't very welcoming for a girl that had been through as much as she had. She might not have fought like him, but she had been with Sora for his entire first year of his search for her. She had seen him fight and fall, only to rise again and keep fighting through whatever pain he suffered just to find his beloved friends. After that, she had been separated from him, waiting for him to come home while dealing with this now-foreign concept of school and normal life, not to mention a rather disgruntled foster father. Then, she had been kidnapped again, fighting right alongside everyone, then coming back home to more anger.

Then there was Riku. He had been through his share of harsh events, having been tricked into betraying his own friend, only to realize that it was a trap for him to be possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, the very enemy that Sora ended up going after. After that he had been trapped behind the door to Kingdom Hearts, then sent back to the light realm and nearly killed in his own personal quest to get Xehanort out of him, which nearly ended up being futile when he took on that same form to protect Sora and reunite him with his other half. It was only by a stroke of good luck that Riku regained his original form, and even after that he was almost fatally injured during the final battle with Xemnas. Now that he was home, something just seemed…off about him. Sora had spent his entire life being friends with Riku; he knew when something was wrong. The problem was that Riku insisted that he was fine.

Maybe he took for granted all the bad stuff, too, part of him tried to say. After all, nothing was perfect.

"But it shouldn't be like this," he replied as he headed home, keeping his voice low. "I did so much so that I could come home."

It was true. He had fought, sweat, cried, screamed, bled…he had even died and came back to life for this. This was what he wanted. Shouldn't he be happy?

"I should be happy," Sora said, staring at the now-setting sun. "I mean, I got homesick so many times I lost count. I just keep getting the feeling that something's wrong."

By the time he reached his doorstep, a phrase came into his mind…something he had heard on his travels. A hero's work is never done. Hadn't Hercules said it or maybe he said something like it…?

Sora rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, look what good it did him."

The memory came up of how the hero of Olympus had lost his confidence and thus his strength when he failed to protect the coliseum after the hydra attacked. It was only when Megara was in danger that he had regained his vigor. Sora had been the same way at some point or another. That promise had been what kept him going. When Kairi had been taken by that man in red into that dark portal, they promised they'd see each other aga-

"Wrong promise, Roxas," Sora chuckled. He promptly felt his cheeks flush red. "But that doesn't matter. We both made promises, and technically to the same people if you think about it. It doesn't matter who made what promise, a promise is always important."

He was right, he knew it. Sora grinned to himself as he climbed up the stairs to his room. His parents would call him when dinner was ready.

To Be Continued…