Confusion

She did not know how to contain her joy.

  "Kairi? Did I do something wrong?"

  "Leave me alone, Riku."

  Truly, deep inside, she was simply... overjoyed.

  "Fine. I'll leave you alone, but when you're ready to talk I'll be by the paopu fruit tree."

  Riku's return to the islands was abrupt, too sudden for the overwhelmed red head. She just did not know how she was supposed to feel about the sudden return of his two year departure. She should have been feeling *happy*, shouldn't she? Why did she feel so angry instead?

Because he's a jerk, Kairi tried telling himself immaturely.
  Kairi, eventually, decided that she was angry because she was confused. She was confused because she didn't feel immediate happiness when fully realizing that Riku had finally come home.

  She approached him with arms crossed and eyes narrowed in a glare. She had been taking out all of her anger out on him.

  "Hey, Kai. You ready to talk without yelling at me?" he asked with a faint smile.
  She huffed. Everything he said merely fueled her anger. She turned away from him, refusing to even look at him while speaking with him. "I'm still mad at you, Riku," she said in a serious tone.

  "I couldn't tell," Riku responded while making his sarcasm more than obvious.
  Furious that she wasn't even being taken seriously, she twirled around to look at him angrily. When she looked at him though, he was laughing softly to himself.

  "What's so funny?" she demanded, walking closer to him.

  "Just your face," he said with a large grin.

  She slipped away from her anger for a brief moment to express her shock with a short gasp. "What's wrong with my face?" she asked, instinctively raising a hand to her cheek.

  Riku, who had been leaning against the paopu fruit tree, walked over to Kairi. Facing her directly, he said to her in a playful tone, "Nothing's wrong with your face. You have a very pretty face, Kai."

  Her unexplained anger suddenly returned. "Why did you have to come back?" she asked him.

  There was a pause. Riku frowned, unable to fully react to the question. "You don't want me here?" he asked, blankly.

  Kairi realized the severity of what she had asked after he responded. She immediately apologized. "No, it's not that, Riku! I'm sorry."

  He avoided her eyes. "What are you trying to say, Kai?"

  She didn't know what to say or do next.

  "Just tell me what's bothering you," Riku insisted with an exasperated sigh. He, taking Kairi's hand, led her back to the paopu fruit tree. He leaned against it while she sat. He did not look at her when she began talking. Instead, he gazed upon the vast ocean in front of him.

  "It's not that I didn't want you to come back," Kairi said, just to make things clear. "Because I did. I really wanted you to come back. I needed you here."
  "Needed me?" asked Riku with a light smirk. He raised an eyebrow in interest, but he still did not look at her.

  Kairi blushed lightly. "I mean to help me reach things!" she quickly added. "Like coconuts. I can't reach some coconuts you know, Riku..."

  "Of course," Riku agreed with a chuckle.

  She went on saying, "I really needed you, and you weren't here. I mean...well, I waited for you to come back every day for two years. That's an entire seven hundred and forty days that I waited for you. Do you know how hard that is? Why shouldn't I be angry that you came back? I was starting to believe you wouldn't return when you randomly did. You can't just do that and expect me to react like its nothing. You coming back, it just means so much to me. You... you mean a lot to me, Riku. I really need you."

  He stayed quiet until Kairi demanded for him to say something.

  "Seven hundred and thirty, Kai," he said in a quiet voice.

  She paused to catch her breath. "What?"

  He cleared his throat before saying, "You said you waited for two years, right?"
  She nodded absent mindedly.

  "You added wrong. You said you waited for seven hundred and forty days, but there's seven hundred and thirty days in two years. 365 plus 365 is 730."

  Kairi, at a loss for words, stuttered out a weak, "Did you really just correct my math?"

  "Well, yeah," Riku said, almost embarrassed.

  "Did you even listen to anything else I said!?" she yelled out, almost hysterically. She began laughing loudly after hitting Riku's head once.

  "Wow, you're a mess," Riku commented with a wide smile.

  "You make me like this," Kairi insisted, and she threw her arms around him shortly afterwards.

  Confused with her sudden change in emotion, Riku unconsciously hugged her back.

  "I really missed you," Kairi mumbled into his shoulder, just to be perfectly clear.

  Riku stroked her head gently. "I know you did, Kai. Just don't cry, okay? I feel like you're going to start crying or something."

  For a moment, the two stood embracing each other. All was well in Destiny Islands.

  Kairi, deciding that she was no longer upset, let go of Riku first.

  He said to her, "You know what? I probably missed you more than you missed me," he said with a teasing grin.

  "But how come you look perfectly okay?" she asked with tearing eyes.

  Riku, uncomfortably, wiped her eyes with his large hands. "That's just because I'm better at hiding my emotions than you are, Kai," he explained, smiling sadly. "Don't start crying. What did I tell you earlier about crying?"

  Kairi took a deep breath and did not let herself break down. Instead, she threatened, "If you ever leave again, like it or not, you're taking me with you."

  "I don't know about that," Riku said with a flinch at the thought of constantly having Kairi at his side. "I mean, sometimes I go to really dangerous places. You don't even want to know where I've been or what I've been doing for these last two years."

  Very into the idea of always being with him, she said, "Nope, I already decided. I'll always be with you from now on, Riku."

  "I was afraid of that," said Riku with a nervous look in his eyes.

  Kairi laughed calmly. "I'm kidding, Riku. I obviously can't always be with you."

He sighed in relief.

  "But you know. I'll *usually* be with you."

  Riku smiled. "I'm okay with that."

  Kairi then took another deep breath. "I'm not mad at you anymore," she said.

  "I know, Kai," Riku said.

  "And I'm really glad you came back."

  "I know, Kai," he said again, in a harsher voice.

  "And I don't ever want you to leave again."

  "I know, Kai."

  "Its just... I need you so much!"

  "I *know*, Kai."

  "Don't leave again. At least not without a proper goodbye and accurate estimation of when you'll come back."

  "I GET IT KAIRI."

  Smiling, she stopped talking for only a second. Riku, tricked, believed she would stay quiet, and the that the two of them would be able to stare at the ocean in peace. Then, when he least expected it, she began blabbering yet again.

  "How much exactly did you miss me?" she asked, curiously.

  "A lot," Riku answered, annoyed and amused at the same time.

  "How much is a lot?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know."

  She was quiet until she found something else to talk about. "So how come you didn't visit? I mean, I know that you easily could have. Couldn't you?"

  "I was going through a faze," Riku said referring to his Ansem/darkness/blindfold chapter in his two year period.

  "Oh."

  "Kai?"

  "Hm?"

  "Stop talking."

  "Why?"

  He stood up straight with a tired sigh. "You're annoying," he told her with a smile.
  "W-Where are you going?" she asked, startled as he began walking away.

  "I'm just hungry. Relax."

  "I'll go with you!"

  "What, you don't trust me? I'm not leaving you again, Kairi. I'm just hungry."

  "I'm hungry too."

  "Liar."

  "Yeah, I'm lying," she admitted with a bow of the head.

  "...Come on," Riku said after consideration.

   Kairi, delighted, ran and stood beside him. From there, she followed his lead. She was in the mood for coconut juice, she decided. And for the first time in seven hundred and thirty days, Riku was finally there to be the one to reach that darn coconut for her.
 

All was well in Destiny Islands.
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