Stolen Serenity

"Hey Serenity!" the familiar voice of Sora called out to her as his feet kicked through the sand. "Catch!"

She spun around, her blue sun dress flowing in the breeze as she did, revealing bits and pieces of her orchid two piece underneath. Before she could ask him what he was talking about, Sora threw a piece of wood through the air that landed right at her feet.

"What is it?" she questioned him as she bent down to the ground and picked it up. She examined carefully and identified it to be a wooden sword quite like the one Riku had the day before.

"Can you fight?" Sora swished his sword around in the air as if he had all the moves and skills in the world of a sword master. "Want to go a round?"

"Give me your best shot," Serenity laughed as she readied her stance and held her sword out at a fair distance, waiting for him to make his first move.

"I'll go easy on you," Sora smiled as he positioned himself in the sand.

"Why?" she asked. "Because I'm a girl?"

Before Sora had any time to respond to her, he was being hit on all sides of his sword with Serenity's.

"Ahh!" he exclaimed, completely thrown off guard. After only a few hits, his sword was flying into the sand.

"You're good," he smiled as he moved to his sword and picked it up in the sand.

"I know," she replied matter-of-factly. "Go again?"

"Of course! I'm not going easy on you this time," Sora spoke as he moved back to his previous position. "Ready?"

"Go!" Serenity shouted before he could say so himself. Their swords clashed against each other in unison as they both fought for victory, but after a number of swings, Serenity's sword fell to the ground.

"Damn," she muttered as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Heh," Sora grinned as he placed his wooden sword up against his shoulder blade. "Best two out of three?"

"It only seems fair," Serenity proclaimed as she scooped up her sword that had lost a few chunks from the previous fight. She spun around, catching Sora completely off guard and slashed at his sword.

The two began to strike at each other once more, moving across the entire beach as they dodged each other's attacks. Serenity barely missed a blow to her sword by ducking as low as she could go to the ground, resembling something you'd see only in the Matrix.

"Very nice!" Sora complimented as they continued, this time Serenity taking her chance by swerving around behind him on the ground. She was about to strike him from behind, but she found he had already turned and blocked her hit.

"You're fast," she spoke as she tried the same maneuver, only to have him block it once again.

"You're slow," he chuckled as the two of them moved down towards the water. The rush of the waves filled Serenity's ears as they fought, but she paid no attention to it.

"You can't beat me!" Sora boomed as he tried the same move she had. He ducked low onto the ground and moved behind her, only to have his attack blocked.

"Nice try," she snickered as they continued to advanced to the ocean. "Slowpoke."

"We'll see who's the slow poke here!" Sora laughed as he advanced towards her, making her step into the shoreline. The wet sand smashed under her feet, making a suction-like noise.

"You really shouldn't talk about yourself like that, you know," she chuckled as she attempted to hit him again, but he was too fast and blocked as usual. Sora spun around her quickly, trying to throw her off guard.

Serenity spun around to face him just as the water rushed up to the shore... touching her feet. Her body froze almost instantaneously as she recollected images of her sleep that night.

Sora, not realizing this, spun back around to her front and knocked the sword clean out of her hand, sending it straight into the water.

"Ha! I knew that'd get you," Sora cheered as he did a small victory dance in the sand. He kicked seashells here and there as he celebrated, but he soon stopped when he noticed that Serenity was staring off into the water.

"I suppose I should go get that," Sora sighed as he moved to her side. He glanced over to her, concern filling in his eyes. "You alright? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"What?" Serenity pulled her attention away from the water and up into the eyes of Sora. "Oh! No, I'm alright. Good game."

Sora smiled down at her. "I guess I'll leave your cute little self up on shore to stay dry while I fetch that sword for you."

Before Serenity had time to stop him, Sora was rushing into the water as he threw off his clothes until he was only wearing the same pair of swim trunks she had seen in her dream. The scene was all too familiar to her as thoughts of the nightmare rushed into her head. The peaceful water that soon turned to one of horror... the choking of water that she had experienced which felt so real... but what frightened her the most wasn't the thought of her losing her own life.

It was the thought of Sora losing his.

"Sora!" Serenity called out to him as her hands waved over her head in the sky.

"Aw she's waving to me," Sora said to himself as he watched her on the shore. He kicked his feet into the water to push himself up the surface more.

He waved his hand into the air and shouted, "Hi Serenity!"

"What an idiot," she sighed to herself as her palm smashed up against her face, slowly sliding down.

She had to think of a plan to get him out of the water and fast. She watched as the wooden sword disappeared into the horizon, Sora quickly following it. She didn't want him to disappear too.

And suddenly a light bulb clicked on in her head. With no warning whatsoever, Serenity began screaming as loud as her lungs would allow.

"Serenity!" she heard Sora shout to her as he turned his attention away from the sword and straight to her.

She peeked over at him to see him watching her. Thinking quickly, she began to squirm all over the place, messing up her hair as she did.

"Sora!" she shouted for help.

"Serenity!" Sora rushed her way through the water, kicking as fast as he could. "Hold on, Serenity!"

"Hurry Sora!" she shouted. She fell down into the ground and started rolling through the sand, it clung to every inch of her body as she did so.

"Serenity!" Sora called as he rose up out of the ocean and ran to her side, trying to calm her by holding her down in the sand.

"What's wrong?!" he panicked as he checked her bare arms and legs for any marks or bruises.

"A hermit," she whispered, wide eyed. She figured she could get used to this acting. It was kind of fun.

"A... hermit?" Sora questioned, one of his eyebrows raising in that cute way she loved so much. "You're screaming.... because of a hermit..."

"It crawled in my bathing suit bottoms," she blushed as she curled her knees up in the sand.

"Oh," he whispered, needing no more details as his face flushed red.