Hi there! This is my newest Kingdom Hearts story - and as usual, it's a SoKai one. :P I'm hoping this story while being one of my most moving stories. I didn't orignally plan on writing it just yet, but now, here is the first of many chapters to come. I hope you will enjoy. :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix.

Destiny Islands was the same as it had always been since before Sora had left it.

The sun was high up in the blue sky, shining brightly and beating down on the soft, yellow sand on the beach of the small island. The sea was its usual beautiful bright blue and waves were gently washing onto the shore. Still standing on the left side of the beach was the tall, wooden pier, which always served as a dock for anyone travelling by boat to visit the island. Even when in their boat, they would be able to clearly see the natural beauty of the part of Destiny Islands that many teenagers were drawn to. At the rear end of the beach, built amongst the tall trees with many dark green leaves were wooden pathways and bridges of different levels. Two narrow waterfalls were to the left of the wooden structures with one of the few sandy paths surrounding the circular, bright blue pool their water was falling into and keeping full.

A wooden shack with no windows but one door stood on the right of the small hill where the pool was. Its rear wall was a few centimetres taller than its front one. The two side walls were the same height, but their top edges had been cut diagonally by the circular saw that had helped to build the shack so that the wooden roof could fit on it easily (although its right side was sticking up slightly, due to the loss of a few nails that held it down, and few planks were now missing from the rear of its left side, leaving five rectangular gaps – one longer than the rest). On the left of the shack was a wooden bridge that led out to the smallest of the three islands. The bridge, despite being just a row of planks nailed together, was just as strong as the six beach trees that were standing tall on the circular island while the only Paopu tree on Destiny Islands was growing outwards on its side over the sea water with yellow, star-shaped Paopu fruits growing right under its gigantic green leaves. At the very end of the left side of the beach, standing on a raised level of ground with a wooden ramp leading up to it, was a much larger shack. Like the smaller one, it had no windows and only one door, although it also happened to have a porch way built above its only entrance. It had also been built with wood which was a much darker shade of brown.

There was hardly anything different about Destiny Islands. One of the small differences was Sora's return.

It had been two weeks since he and Riku had returned from their long hard adventures. Sora had been taking long rests after returning, but somehow, he always felt tired. As he had missed the sights of Destiny Islands so much, he would decide to go out and lie under the sun, which he preferred to lying in bed. The fifteen-year old boy with spiky brown hair was now enjoying a chance to lie on the soft sand and feel the heat of the sun beating down onto his face. He was wearing his short, black jacket with a yellow stripe next to each side of the zipper, his black jumpsuit that had red pockets with a matching red shape on the front, as well as yellow and white lining. Hanging from the silver chain necklace he was wearing was a pendant shaped like a crown, and on each of his hands, which were both lying still on the sand beside his sides, he was wearing black gloves with yellow lining around the wrists and small, blue circles that were above two white stripes that crossed each other. His large, black boots with yellow fronts were on his feet, both of them filled with sand. Sora's blue eyes were closed and a large smile was on his face. He was enjoying getting a chance to relax - despite the fact it was all he had done in the past fourteen days.

"Haven't you had enough of relaxing, you lazy bum?"

Sora opened his eyes while his smile widened. Sitting next to him was what he had missed more than relaxing. He was amazed by how much Kairi had changed while he had left. The fifteen-year old girl had grown much taller while her red hair was longer. She also now wore a pink mini-skirt - with a black pouch that had a purple ribbon attached to its black belt - over a white halter top with a black hood, three bracelets (one white, another yellow and the third blue) on her left wrist, a pair of purple shoes and a string necklace with a small but bright silver bead. Sora was sad he had not been around to see Kairi grow so beautiful, but he knew he had no choice. There were, however, two things about Kairi which had not changed: she was still beautiful and still the girl he was in love with.

Sora sat up and grinned at the girl. "You wanna try going through all the things I went through while you were here. You'd feel very tired."

"Hey, I helped in the end," giggled Kairi. "And I don't feel tired."

"That's because you helped," teased Sora. "I did most of the work, so I'm the hero. And it's hard work being the hero."

"Hark work? For most heroes, saving everyone is just a game. If it's hard work for you, then you know what that means, right?"

"What?"

"You're not a very good hero," Kairi giggled loudly.

Sora smiled and laughed. He knew Kairi was only teasing him and he was thankful. After going through so much trouble to save so many friends and trying hard to keep his promise to return to her, Sora was glad to have a laugh.

As Sora lay back down on his back, Kairi followed his actions. She rolled onto her side to face the boy, a serious look on her face. "No, Sora. You really are a great hero - and you're my best friend. I really missed you while you were gone."

Sora smiled, rolled onto his side and placed his left hand onto Kairi's right cheek. "I missed you as well, Kairi. I never want to have to leave you ever again."

Kairi smiled and closed her eyes. "Can we do the things we always used to do before we were separated? While you were gone, I always tried to do them...but I couldn't without you." Kairi's smile faded. She opened her eyes and looked down. "I felt so lonely without you."

Sora looked at Kairi with surprise. "Lonely? You had Tidus, Wakka and Selphie."

"Yes, I know. And they always did their best to cheer me up when I was thinking of you and feeling sad. But they aren't like you, Sora. You're my best friend."

Sora smiled, but deep down inside, he felt a little sad, because he couldn't bring himself to tell Kairi how he felt. "You're my best friend, too, Kairi."

Seeing a little smile on Kairi's face return, Sora's own smile changed into a wide grin. Being able to make the girl he loved happy always made him feel better when he felt sad.

"Can we, Sora?"

"Well...I still feel tired, Kairi, and I need more relaxation today-"

"Sora!" Kairi's smile was replaced with a frown, which Sora did not like to see on her, especially when it was directed at him.

Sora began to panic. "But...it's not that I don't want to, Kairi. I just...somehow, I feel more tired than before today. I really wanna do the things with you we used to...but I don't have the energy today. I promise you we'll do them tomorrow."

Kairi's smile returned. She knew Sora meant what he said. He had made a promise. "Thank you, Sora."

Sora smiled back and stroked Kairi's cheek. Kairi smiled at him in silence, her blue eyes starting to droop. Within seconds, she drifted off to sleep, although the smile never left her face.

Continuing to stroke the girl's cheek, Sora smiled at how beautiful she was and the fact that after being separated for so long, the two of them were finally reunited. Sora tried to fight his weariness to focus on the sleeping girl, but sleepiness took over him and he soon fell fast asleep.

Well, I sure hope you've enjoyed this first chapter. :) I may be a bit slow updating, because I have my final school exams coming up. But I had to get this first chapter done by a certain date. I wil update as often as I can and I will try to make this story enjoyable from start to finish. So stay tuned. :)