Breaking the Habit Breaking the Habit

Chapter one "Mentos Fresh" Start

KH doesn't belong to me it belongs to Nomura and all those other peoples who worked on it…or whatever. I started this the summer after my freshman year of high school, am now I'm fixing to graduate…slow progress. Well, I actually finished this sophomore year, but like all my early works it was God awful, so I'm revamping it, this time with Kairi/Namine action! Yaaaaay! I think, anyways, I'm not sure a/b that…but anyways, read this or whatever.

Like any other teenager, Sora liked to sleep in. His usual waking hours were any time between twelve to two-ish, depending on whenever he collapsed on his bedroom floor (or the living room, whichever). The same applied on school days, when he knew he had to get up early, so it was pretty much a set schedule for him to sleep through most of the day. Dad had to wake him up for school, which usually meant waving a lighter around his face - the pain from the burning was a sure way to get up quick. But, seeing as how it was summer, Dad wasn't home so it was Leon's job to get Sora out of bed.

Leon didn't have the patience to go look for lighters (they were with Dad's cigarettes, and he hid those regularly from Mom, who was clueless that he downed about forty packs a day). He preferred the "bang down the door and scream 'till he woke up" approach, which worked just as well.

'But why the hell is he still upstairs?' Leon thought, looking up at the clock, which clearly stated that he left Sora's room about thirty minutes ago. His brother was completely incoherent in the morning - and every other time of day - but it never took him a half-hour to get up out of bed. 'I swear to God if Selphie or that other one is in there I'm gonna…kick them out. Again.' The window was their entrance of choice lately even though they fully well knew where the door was. The smaller and more annoying of the two had bought some Dawson's Creek DVDs, so they were probably to blame for that. "Sora the ferry's leaving in twenty minutes! Hurry up or you're staying home with dad all summer! And get those girls out of your room, I know they're up there!"

"Herpes or AIDS?"

"Herpes."

"Utena or Marimite?"

"Utena."

"Raisinettes or Milk Duds?"

"Raisinettes."

"Me or Selphie?"

"…."

"What?"

"If I say you Selphie will hit me. If I say Selphie you'll hit me."

"Oh my gosh, Sora! I wouldn't do that! You're in the Friendly Circle! This is a Kairi-certified hit-free zone."

"For sure? You're not just saying that to soften me up for the punches?"

"For sure!"

"…You?"

As Sora wailed in pain from the multiple shin-kicks he'd received from Selphie (he forgot that it was a Kairi-free hit zone, not Selphie-free), Leon began ranting about the ferry leaving or something like that. He was in too much excruciating pain to be able to catch everything. "If you don't get down here right now you're getting left behind!"

"Left behind!" Kairi echoed, sliding off the edge of his bed to get her bags, not bothering to ask whether or not his legs were okay. He wondered why he even got brutalized the way he did- Selphie didn't look even remotely angry as she hastily threw stuff™ into his bags. "Get up Sora!" she scolded, "Or you'll get left behind!"

"Left behind!"

"Alright already! Maybe if my legs weren't broken I could move around!"

This was more or less a daily occurrence, the exception being the internal bleeding in his legs. Usually that was saved for…well, wait, that was daily too. Sora needed less violent friends. Maybe if he had a clue though, he wouldn't have answered that question. He had the feeling that if he'd said Selphie Kairi would've kicked him anyways. The Friendly Circles never lived up to their namesakes. "Legs…legs…can't feel them-hey, Selphie, get out of my stuff™! Stop being such a snoop!"

"Snoop? I'm getting you packed, Backstabber. What in here do you not want seen?"

"Leave that alone!"

The mini argument continued for a while, or at least until Leon came upstairs and pwned everyone.

'This isn't fair…why do I always get backseat? Shotgun should be mine regardless…stupid Kairi. This sucks' Sora thought miserably, trying to get comfortable with all the bags the other three had thrown on him. It was his (brother's) car, so why did he always get landed in back? 'Underneath all the bags too…this isn't fair. Kairi and Selphie's parents should've driven them to the ferry; Leon and I aren't their keepers…this sucks.'

"Stop pouting back there!" Kairi cheered, grinning at him and her sister as she fanned herself in the front seat, "you two should've gotten here faster…heh heh…"

"Let's pelt her with Milk Duds when we get on the ferry" Selphie whispered.

"Agreed."

The ferry was…horrible. There was no room, Kairi ended up just hitting both of them for throwing Milk Duds at them, and Leon ran off with all the munny. So far not very fun.

"Have you ever been to Twilight Town before?" Selphie asked, leaning on the boat's railing, apparently not bothered by the height as much as Sora was. The two of them were outside where the cars were kept, avoiding Kairi's wrath. They'd be in Twilight Town in about in hour but Sora was already sick out of his mind.

"Ugh. I don't think so…Mom and Dad took us to some T-Town…but I think that was Traverse Town or something like that…I think I'm gonna hurl…"

"Then look away from me, nasty! I just bought these shorts!"

He didn't hurl, but had the feeling he'd feel better if he just would. He thought of making a joke about Selphie's shorts (they had moogels on the back pockets for crying out loud), but he wasn't in any condition for a beating when his stomach was busy doing backflips. They were going to Twilight Town for summer break because Leon had gotten a 374,455,4890 billion on his SATs or something like that. Kairi and Selphie were visiting the Older Sister who'd gotten married to some Guy a few months earlier. Since Leon was a cheapskate and Mom/Dad didn't have any relatives in Twilight Town, Sora and Leon were staying at Older Sister and Guy's house for the summer.

'It's gonna be all awkward' Sora thought, propping his head over the railing so if he did puke it would be in the crystally ocean instead of his friend's lame shorts. 'I haven't seen Aeris since…oh, last year. Whatever. I've never met this Guy, which means awkward conversations and stuff…I'm gonna puke….'

All in all the summer was expected to be fun; he was in a different town with no parents and a buttload of munny (if Leon stopped hoarding it, that was). But besides that, he was interested in getting away from the stupid islands for once. He'd lived there all his life and the only time he'd ever left was to go to the other T-Town so Mom could buy a different kind of nail polish remover than was sold on the islands. Destiny Islands were nice and all, but he wanted to see snow! And different people for once - everyone in Destiny Islands knew every one else. This meant no privacy, especially when your friends were the Gossip Twins. "Maybe I'll have a hot summer romance" Sora gurgled, teetering side to side. "As if" Selphie chirped, looking at her butt (or the moogels). "You look five years younger than you actually are. Any girl who dates you is a pedo. And plus, that kind of thing only happens in fanfictions and the like. You spend too much time online."

"I'm gonna hurl…"

"Then point the other way! These shorts are new!"

"Selphie!"

"Aeris!"
"Kairi!"

"Sora!"

"Leon!"

"…"

"Eeek!"

Meeting Aeris and Guy and Guy's Younger Brother was actually really fun. Except for Leon, but just 'cause he was socially inept. While he hid in the shadows unpacking, Sora chose the less aloof choice and chatted while avoiding doing any work. Guy was actually Cloud, and Guy's Younger Brother was actually Tidus. Cloud hid in the shadows too, and Tidus was the one walking around with Aeris showing them the house (and his blitzball trophies). 'I have a feeling Cloud and Leon will get along…' Sora thought, glancing back at the two of them as they avoided human contact.

The house seemed a little too big if there were only three people living there, and Sora half-hoped a murder mystery would occur - without his involvement, that is. Big houses just screamed for murders to happen, right? Selphie agreed and Kairi called them immature, but they could tell she thought it was probable too.

Since it was only a three bedroom house, the girls got the extra room (the one with all the trophies Tidus wasn't too modest about) and Sora and Leon were stuck on the fold out bed. Or that's what everyone else was told. Sora knew full well that Leon would make him sleep on the other couch that conveniently didn't fold out. "Unless the murder mystery actually does happen. In that case Leon would be the first to die."

"But how? It can't be something typical, like stabbage or something."

"True. Tripping? Maybe he'll trip over one of his shoes. You know he brought like six pairs? Why does he need so many shoes? His hair already makes him look like a girl, so why have girly habits?"

"Funny how you never say that to his face."

"That's because I'd like to keep mine."

"Do you two always have conversations like this?"

Sora Tidus and Selphie were on the back porch, eating ice cream they stole out of the freezer. Kairi had run off somewhere in search of intense summer romance while Aeris made dinner. Cloud and Leon were brooding in the shadows or something. They seemed to get along, what with having so much in common. "What's it to you? If you don't like it go away" Selphie said tartly, posing as she licked more ice cream of the stick.

"I didn't mean it like that! It just seems a little…weird that you're plotting to kill his brother or whatever. My bad."

Selphie was being overly mean to Tidus and she'd just met him. He was apologizing to her and tripping all over himself to look good (he'd shown off his trophies for about the eighth time. Selphie made the effort to show no interest). It couldn't have been more obvious they wanted each other.

'I suppose that's a little weird with the whole related by marriage thing…but they totally like each other. Great. With Kairi stalking boys out in the street I'm the third wheel. Ugh. Think I'll go find Leon or whatever… '

Conversation with Leon was about as stimulating as bashing your head against a rock, though…that wouldn't really be any better than watching the lovebirds and their budding romance. Aeris was a no-go, since she only wanted to talk about girl things like being married and flower shops and stuff. He had two girls for friends, he'd had all he could take of marriage and flowers. "I'm gonna go in town" he said, leaving Selphie and Tidus behind as he complemented her ugly moogel shorts. 'Defiantly attempting to flirt. No way would anyone but her think those don't look disgusting.'

Yay, chapter one is done! Oh yeah, yuri isn't really the focus of this story, so if that's what everyone was expecting…sorry. And, on another note, Irvine has been cut from this story.