´¨¤.¸¸A Suki and Mio Collaboration´¨¤.¸¸

Suki (Gray-Rain Skies) here! This story is something new that Ana (silvermoondroplet) and I are trying out. The idea for it struck her a few days ago, and I thought it sounded awesome, so now we're writing it together. At the moment, it looks like it's going to be six chapters in length (that's what we're shooting for), but the fic is still in its early stages, so there are no guarantees. It's exciting, though. The idea's a good one. I'm having a blast writing my portion of the story, and Ana's sections are blowing my mind out of the water. Therefore, it's required that you love this story and leave many reviews! Well, no, but that would be nice, haha.

This collab is a Kairi- and Axel-centered story, filled with tragedy, drama, angst, and romance. In each chapter - prologue excluded - our styles of writing will blend together, so that we can fabricate this story for you, and we sincerely hope that you enjoy the end result. Therefore, without further ado, we introduce Misery Business for your reading pleasure.

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

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They're more than slightly drunk.

Kairi, because she's the one who's most sober, gasps over her giggles and marches her friends out of the bar. Or tries to. Olette is more than willing to leave – she was forced into their revelry after her loud row with Hayner, and she is extremely ready to return home and apologize to him now. Selphie wants to stay, slurring her words into Olette's ear even as the curly-haired brunette pleads for Kairi to get a move on, insisting that there are plenty of fish in a basket and she shouldn't get her feathers tarred to a wall. Kairi doubles over and clutches her sides, her knees buckling as hysterical laughter wracks her frame, and Olette, tripping over her feet, tries to make sense of Selphie's statement in her sluggish brain.

Yuffie, meanwhile, is raising up raucous shouts as she dances on a table, some poor man's hat stolen from his head and resting sideways now on her hair. She's kicking glasses filled with beer onto the floor in her stupor, her own drink sloshing in her hand and splashing her wrist with alcohol, but her face is flushed with excitement and she doesn't care that some old slob is grasping at her thigh and trying to tug her into his lap.

Kairi, pushing hair out of her face as she straightens, laughs once more at the way Selphie is trying to drag a protesting Olette over to a man propped up against the far wall. Shaking her head, the red-haired girl places two fingers between her lips and whistles shrilly – Yuffie stops mid-dance, raises a holler, and leaps off the table, grabbing hold of Selphie's shoulders thereafter with a grin and steering both brunettes out of doors.

As they trip and stumble through the parking lot, the lights from the club pulsing with music and laughter guiding their way, Kairi giggles uncontrollably and fishes through her purse for her keys. Yuffie is bouncing up and down several feet in front of her, jumping her way to their car, punching the air with her fists as she whirls around and crows, impeccably keeping her balance despite being wasted. As Selphie snorts in laughter and Olette whines about how worried Hayner must be, Kairi locates her car keys and Yuffie pretends she's a plane, her lips making motor sounds as she stretches her arms out wide and spirals and circles around the half-emptied lot.

"Shotgun!" Selphie immediately shrieks, not bothering to temper her voice in the after-midnight air, and stumbles for the yellow bug whose lights are cutting through the dark, dark night as its alarm switches off.

Olette shivers and sniffles as Yuffie clambers into the back seat, her wild spirit scrunched up too tightly in the small space. As Kairi smiles and slings her arm around the curly-haired brunette's shoulders, she laughs at how Selphie fiddles with buttons that will not turn out and Yuffie splays her feet out in between the two front seats, swaying back and forth as she screeches out some self-copyrighted ninja song. Kairi guides the petite brunette around the small, yellow bug, and Olette sighs and pulls at the door, growing frustrated when her grip proves too slack and the door stubbornly remains closed. Shaking her head with a patient smile, Kairi leans forward and unlatches the door for her friend, and Olette slides in behind Selphie.

Rounding the front of her car, Kairi smoothes her hair out of her face; the light shift of wind lifts it off her neck and drags it through the air. Dropping resolutely into her driver's seat, she pulls her door shut and shoves her keys into the ignition, the teeth scraping clumsily against it several times before they find their way home. As she turns the key and the motor roars to life, Selphie hits another button with a maniacal grin and pounding music shrieks through the small apartment of the car, so that Olette slaps her hands against her ears and whines, Yuffie lets out a joyous whoop, and Selphie dances excitedly in her seat. Laughing, Kairi rolls down the windows, lets out a cheer, and steps on the gas, careening out of the parking lot.

The night is dark. The road is quiet. The only disturbance comes in the form of their flashing bug, racing far over the speed limit along the main road and away from Twilight Town's life and vigor. The music throbs in the quiet night, and Selphie, tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration, fishes through her purse for candy. Olette, in the back, sobs into her hands and talks about Hayner – she always was and always would be a sad, depressed drunk. Yuffie, paying her no mind, covers one eye with her hand and talks like a pirate, but her words are either slurred or interrupted by uncontrollable laughter. Kairi, her eyes shooting to the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of her friend, immediately snorts and bows her head as giggles tumble from her lips.

"Yer…yer swerving, Kai-Kai," Selphie admonishes as she glances over at her friend. "Yer drunk. I…I should drive!"

"Selphie, you are not driving," Kairi laughs, securing both hands on the wheel once more and straightening her shoulders as she pulls away from the double lines. "I'm the most put together person here at the moment, anyway."

"Suit yers—" Selphie hiccups. "…yerself." Once more she plunges her hand into the mysterious depths of her purse, dislodging a cell phone from the contents, which falls unnoticed by her to the floor.

Haunting yellow lights shine down the road, and Kairi realizes that she's relieved to see other signs of life. She doesn't really like driving. She'd rather be a passenger. But her friends are drunk, and she hardly trusts them to drive when they're sober. So as the car rushes by, the sound of it passing a whispering sigh in her ears, she forces out a breath and shakes herself, keeping her car straight. Her vision is a little hazy, and she feels a bit tired, but she knows that home is not so far away.

"I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT—!"

Kairi jumps, and then she shakes her head with laughter. "Yuffie, shut the hell up!"

"No fuckin' candy," Selphie grumbles at her side, pulling forth from her purse one vibrant, yellow stocking with disdain. "I've socks, but no candy. Sucks."

"How nice, Selphie." Kairi's hands tighten on the wheel. She switches to high beams, and a weight lifts off her chest as the black night is shredded by the ethereal glow. The shadowed sides of the road flicker in her peripheral vision, small patches of grass and dirt licking against the road as they emerge from the darkness of a world beyond the asphalt.

Suddenly, darkness closes around her eyes. "Guess who!" Yuffie giggles, and Kairi jumps, jerking her head away.

"Not funny, Yuff!" she cries frantically as Selphie shrieks with laughter and doubles over, her purse tumbling off her lap. Yuffie, in the back, is kicking her feet as her head lolls back and forth in hysterical delight. Olette remains tearful, sniveling and tracing patterns on the back of Selphie's headrest. "God, you're a nightmare." Nervously, Kairi pats the wheel beneath her palms. "We could've gotten into an accident."

"'cause there're so many people aroun'," Yuffie laughs, and Kairi shoots her a glare through the rearview mirror. The short-haired girl merely makes a face, sticking out her tongue as she pulls at the corners of her mouth with her fingers, and the redhead's anger ebbs away, replaced with ridiculous giggling.

"I hate you," she chastises.

"I…I love all you guys!" Olette wails beside Yuffie. "Yer…m'best friends."

"Fuck." In belated realization, Selphie stares at her empty lap, an incredulous expression painted across her features. "It fell."

"Then get it, shit for brains," Yuffie teases, crossing her ankles resolutely between the two seats and linking her fingers behind her head.

Groaning, Selphie lurches forward, and Kairi tosses her a skeptical look. "No puking in my baby, Selph."

"Yes, Mother," the brunette retorts sarcastically, the ends of her hair bobbing as she gropes around for her dislodged belongings. Resting her elbow against the window, Kairi leans her cheek against her hand and sighs, watching as another car passes on by. Her forefinger rubs idly at her temple, and she yawns widely, her exhaustion creeping up on her little by little.

Again she checks the rearview mirror, and she is relieved to realize that Olette has cried herself to sleep. Yuffie, her right foot bobbing without rhythm, is humming happily under her breath, her head swaying as she watches the shadows pass over the ceiling of the bug. Selphie, meanwhile, is still furiously stuffing odds and ends into her bag, her hazy, green eyes glittering with frustration.

The redhead listens as, with a huff of breath, Selphie straightens in her seat at last. Prodding against her cheek with her knuckles, she smiles and looks over to the brunette, who is shoving pens, loosened coins, ribbons from somewhere, and peculiar-looking whistles into her bag, her hand forcing them to the very bottom in case they decide to attempt a magical leap of escape later. With a sigh the brunette finally settles into her passenger's seat, and a calm atmosphere descends upon the group. Kairi finally punches the button to the radio and kills the power.

The road is quiet again, but the silence is sweet. She can hear the whisper of grass as the wind blows it down to the earth, and the crickets raise up a throaty symphony that blends with the rush of tires on concrete. Smiling, Kairi hums a gentle tune of her own, her head swaying in time with the melody, and liquidly the wheel turns beneath her hand as she rounds the corner a little too quickly. She is far over the indicated speed limit, and so she attempts to slow down.

With a quick look she notices that Yuffie is fogging up the window on her side with her breath, then tracing swears onto the glass with a smug expression on her face. Rolling her eyes, Kairi turns to Selphie, who is once more rifling through her purse, as if she has forgotten that nothing promising lays within its folds. As she turns back to her wheel, however, a flash of light catches her eye, and she glances down between the seats. A yellow, sequined phone meets her stare, a number flashing on the screen. The name says Tidus.

Smiling, Kairi realizes that she has discovered what Selphie has been searching for frantically. Her boyfriend is no doubt checking up on her, since she hadn't called earlier. Keeping her wheel turned decidedly left, she leans down and gropes for the phone, which has wedged itself stubborn between the cup-holder and her chair. Biting her lip, she feels her fingertips brush against the glittering sequins, and futilely she gropes for the cell, frustrated that it continues to evade her grasp.

Faint, pale lights slither across her arms and along the ceiling as she remains hunched over. Knitting her brow, she forces her hand further down, and finally her fingers close around the phone. Triumphantly she pulls it free, but it falls from her grasp in surprise when Selphie shrieks with fright, "KAIRI, THE ROAD!"

Olette is jostled from her sleep by the scream, and Kairi straightens to see a motorcycle heading straight for her. She swears and swerves the wheel, sending Yuffie crashing against the glass, but her speed is too much, and she can't keep the car under control. She's aware of the cell phone rolling around by her feet, Olette's frantic cry, and her own wild heartbeat as the lights blaze sharply into the windshield. The black world fades in and out of white as the cyclist swerves to get out of the way, but the space is too small, and her car is going far too fast.

They collide in a sickening crash.

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End prologue. Please review.