The Other

The sunlight streamed in through his window gently for once, and he opened his eyes with a smile. It was the first day of summer vacation, and Riku had promised to come over and hang out.

He'd managed to get up, showered, and dressed, and was combing out his hair when the familiar tap came at his front door.

Rat-a-tat-tattap.

Sora planted a huge smile on his face, and swung the door open wide.

"Hi, Riku!"

Hi Riku~

Hi Ri
Hi...
...hi riku....

...

Hi Riku!

"-ee you saturday?"

Sora blinked, focusing. "What?" He looked around, confused.

"Dork! Did you hear a single word I said? The struggle match. I'll see you there, right?" Riku laughed at him, accustomed to Sora's wandering mind and lapsus memoriae. The brunet looked around again - he didn't remember leaving the house, or talking about the struggle match.

When did the sun get so low. It's still morning, right? A glance at his time-keeper told him that it was nearing ten o clock at night. Nearly twelve hours this time.

He hadn't told anyone about it, because he was afraid they'd all think he was crazy, but Sora had been having some trouble lately.
He kept losing time; usually only a few minutes, or an hour at most, but more recently he'd been losing hours at a time.

Nearly the whole day today.

It scared him, but he didn't know who he could turn to. Riku would have listened, but would laugh it off as 'One Of Those Things' about his quirky best friend. Tidus and Wakka wouldn't understand, and he couldn't even imagine going to Selphie about it-

But Kairi might listen. She might even not laugh at him for it. Waving goodbye to Riku, he veered off the path to his own house, and trotted up the road to Kairi's.

Her mother let him in with a smile. "She's in her room. Supposedly doing her homework," the woman added wryly. Sora thanked her politely, and took the stairs two at a time.

"Kairi?" he asked, knocking gently. Kairi flung the door open, eyes wide.

"Sora? I was just thinking of calling you. What's up?" She stepped back to invite him in, and he took up his familiar place on her beanbag chair. Kairi settled herself on her bed, and he took a moment to look around.

Kairi and her mum had lived in the same house the whole time they'd been at Destiny Islands. There were hand-drawn pictures on the wall, and posters of her favourite singers or actors. There was a pin-board filled to overflowing with images of the three of them, Riku, Kairi, and Sora, usually making geeky faces into the camera.

"Kairi, you're my best friend, right? I can tell you anything." He avoided looking at her, and instead studied the paopu charm hanging from the lamp on her desk.

Kairi gasped. "You're not going to tell me that you finally asked out-"

"No, no," Sora interrupted, blushing. "I didn't ask out any body. And I didn't get asked out, either," he added, heading off her second question.

"Sure, Sora. You know you can tell me anything. I won't tell a single soul, either, not unless you tell me to."

She wouldn't, either, he realized. They'd been keeping eachother's secrets for so long now that it hardly needed to be spoken. Sora and Riku had grown up together nearly from birth; Kairi had moved to the islands when they were eight, seven, and six, respectively, and had immediately fallen in with the two boys despite the age differences.

Even then, as young as he'd been, Sora knew he was in love with his best friend, and it hadn't taken Kairi long to weasel the truth out of him. She'd since become his staunchest supporter, and insisted he relate every single moment he spent alone in Riku's company to her.

"I've been... losing time." he finally muttered. After a moment of silence, he dared to look up at her. His closest friend was staring at the ceiling, frowning.

"Losing time?" she repeated, and he nodded.

"Like blacking out. Only not. I just... open my eyes, and suddenly a few hours have gone by, and I don't know where I am, or how I got there, or what I said or did."

"You don't have any memory of it at all?" Kairi clarified. Sora shook his head.

"I've tried everything from meditating to self-hypnosis. Nothing works, I just don't remember."

She stood up, ushering him to the door. "I'll look into it for you, okay? I need to go to the library tomorrow anyway to return my books. I'll see what I can find then."

Sora gave her a hug, squeezing tightly. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Kai,"

She patted his spiked hair. "Stumble around blindly," she informed him, and shoo'd him out of her room.

Sora turned from the door with the duck name-plate, and suddenly found himself standing in front of his own house. "Shit," he swore quietly. It had happened again.

Before that day, it only happened once a day, and only when he was alone. Today not only had it happened twice, but it had occurred right in front of Riku, as well.

"Great, like he doesn't already think of me as his stupid kid brother," Sora muttered to himself, and let himself in the back door.

--

Kairi sat down at the Library's computer database, wondering what to search for. Wracking her brain, she finally landed on multiple personality disorder. It wasn't a pleasant thought, she realized, thinking that maybe something was seriously wrong with her best friend.

I guess I'll have to see what happens when he ... loses time. Tomorrow, I'll see if he wants to hang with Riku and I, and we'll see if any of these symptoms come out.

She left a message on his phone, and told him to meet her at ten. Then she called Riku, and told him to be on their secret island at eleven. That would give her time to talk to Sora about giving her a sign if he felt his time-loss coming on.

Feeling pleased with herself, she checked out her books and returned home.

--

Sora was waiting at the hut ten minutes early, excited to hear what Kairi had to say, and about getting the entire day to spend with his two friends.

Kairi appeared a few minutes later, grinning. "It's amazing," she teased. "You're awake before noon."

He stuck his tongue out at her. "You know why I'm here, Kairi. What did you find out?" She settled herself next to him on the floor, tugging on her braided hair.

"The closest I could come was dissasociative identity disorder," she said. At Sora's puzzled look, she clarified, "Multiple personalities. Sometimes the personalities aren't aware of one another. Can you tell me when it started?"

"Yeah," Sora nodded, looking nervous. "It started when that weird door opened up in the back of the secret place." He looked frightened. "Do you really think it could be as serious as multiple personalities?"

Kairi stood up and began pacing back and forth. "When the door appeared?" she asked. "I remember that. A lot of people didn't know it was there, and it won't open anyway. You're positive it started then?"

"Mhm," Sora said, nodding. "I was getting up to go to school, and I fell. I just felt really strange all of a sudden. Then I found myself at the secret place, and there was that door there. It's been happening ever since."

Kairi began pacing again. "I'm not a doctor or anything, you know? So don't rely on me to diagnose you with anything. I'd still like it if you could tell me when the lost-time starts?"

"Yeah. If I feel it coming on, I'll fall or something, okay?"

Kairi nodded. "That's good. That won't alert Riku, you fall all the time." Sora made a face at her for the not-so-discreet insinuation about his clumsiness. "When you do, I'll watch you really well to see if there are any differences."

"Wouldn't Riku have noticed any differences?" Sora asked somewhat plaintively. "I mean, he's my best friend, right?"

"Sora," Kairi laughed. "Riku wouldn't notice anything different about you if you paraded around him in a pink tutu playing a trombone. He's a guy!"

"Hey!" Sora laughed with her, pretending to take offense. "I'm a guy, too!" He got up and lunged for her, chasing her around, both of them laughing.

"Did I miss the party?" Riku asked from the door way. Sora stopped so suddenly he tripped over the crate in the corner he'd been jumping over.

"Riku!"

"Hi Riku," Kairi said sweetly, glancing at Sora. "What's up?" She settled herself neatly on the crate, arraning her hair and clothes delicately, as though she hadn't just been running around the room like a ten year old again. Riku dropped to the floor as Sora picked himself up, choosing to lean against the wall.

"I was planning to do a little fishing before I came, but then I heard something like a herd of elephants rampaging through the hut. I didn't think it'd survive anything more than what we put it through as kids," he joked. Sora blushed as Kairi laughed.

Riku was talking again, but it was echoing around in his head, the last vowels repeating themselves. He realized that it was happening again, his lost-time, and he tried desperately to trip over something nonchalantly. Finally, he just reached through the fog covering his brain, and said, "Kai-" before simply falling over.

He was aware that his friends had both leapt up and in his direction, and the next thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the sunset.

He looked around, but he was alone on the little island with the horizontal tree. Shoving himself away from it's trunk, he slid his shoes off and dove into the water. It didn't matter that he was still fully clothed; all he cared about was the action of moving, of doing something he still had control over.

Who knew what this other...personality... did while it was in control. It was spending entire days covering his consciousness. Would it eventually start to smother him completely? Would it be weeks before he was himself again? What if he lost an entire year?

The prospects were frightening.

He pulled himself back up the island, dripping wet but feeling slightly better for it, and found Kairi waiting for him.

"..Sora?" she asked delicately.

"I'm back," he said. "I'm me again. What happened? What did we do today?"

Kairi looked back at him with soft eyes. "You and Riku shared a pau-"

Sora exploded, cutting her off mid-sentence. "WHAT?"

"Pouch. What did you think I was going to say?" She teased gently. He threw his wet glove at her.

"Not funny, Kairi! Seriously!" He flopped onto the ground and pulled his soaked socks off, wringing them out.

She tossed the glove back, sitting next to him, but far enough that he didn't drip on her. "It was just like normal," she said quietly. "You seemed a little angrier, and a little tense - Riku put his hand on your shoulder and you just about hit the roof. Otherwise, I couldn't tell the difference."

Sora felt a moment of uncharacteristic weakness, could feel his eyes getting hot as they filled with water. "Kairi, if no one can tell the difference, then what happens when I don't come back at all?"

"Oh, Sora!" Kairi hugged him, rocking him gently like a mother would her child. "It won't happen that way. We'll go to Radiant Garden, there's a scientist there named Ansem the Wise. He'll know what's wrong, and he'll be able to fix it."

"You think so?" Sora asked quietly, wiping at his eyes.

"I know so. Master Ansem is the wisest and most intelligent person of all worlds. He's the one who discovered there were other worlds, just before I came here to Destiny Islands." She paused, and he waited expectantly. "But, Sora... If we go, we're going to have to tell Riku."

The words echoed hauntingly in his mind, and for a moment, Sora wondered if he wasn't about to lose time again.

"Tell me what?" Came a voice from behind them. Sora and Kairi leapt apart guiltily. Riku scowled. "Tell me what, Kairi?"

---
TBC!!

HAHA. A cliff-hanger? Not a very good one. Riku leaps to the worst possible conclusion. X3