Life NEVER was Normal.
Disclaimer: Life NEVER was Normal is a story set in an alternate universe of Kingdom Hearts, set immediately after the second season of the previous story Life DEFINATELY not Normal, after the first season Life FAR from Normal and after the Epilogue of, "The Betrayal of Light", also featuring many characters from Disney and Final Fantasy that haven't made it to Kingdom Hearts games or Manga yet.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay of starting season 3 and the other stories on hiatus. I'd been on a KH3 story mood lately and was also planning on updating "Kingdom Hearts: Before Crisis" too. I will get around to the other stories...it'll just be really slow. Well, finally, season 3 has officially started, and I got a lucky break this weekend to continue writing.
It's a week early, but I've decided to post this because Saturday's my Birthday next week.
I don't own anything here.
EP 1: Where's Minnie?
It's been a month since the final battle against both Hades and Chernabog, and things had relatively returned to normal for everyone in Radiant City, and possibly even better now that Pete had been kicked out of the Academy and sent to Galbadian Academy instead. Even more so, due to his actions, Vanitas transfered from his school to become a student, and had brought Roxas, Xion and Namine with him, much to the delight of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Yuffie, Tidus and Yuna.
Today was a different day, though. Almost everybody's been acting quite strangely, and Mickey was the first to notice, because no matter where he went or who he asked around the school, people were acting like they were hiding something. Well, except both Iago and Mushu who were both doing something else.
Which left only a few more people to ask.
"Minnie? Have ya' noticed everybody acting strang-" Mickey began as he entered his girlfriend's favorite garden she usually spend time in that was in the backyard of her dorm. Which was way he found himself stopping when he found not Minnie, but Goofy wearing a red skirt with white panties, red high-heeled shoes and a great big bow on top of his head, watering the flowers.
"Goofy?" Mickey asked, dumbfounded.
"Hi-ya, Mickey!" Goofy greeted when he turned around after hearing his friend's voice after stopping what he was doing.
"What're you doin' here?"
"Doin' Minnie's favorite hobby to water the flowers. You like my bow?"
"Cute." Mickey replied, awkwardly while mentally sighing at his friend's usual goofiness, before asking, "Where's Minnie?"
Being Goofy that he was, he couldn't get the facts right and keep a secret even to save his life. "Oh, uh, she went to find you a Birthday surprise."
"Birthday Surprise?" Mickey asked, before quickly remembering that today was his birthday. It was just his speculation, but maybe that was why almost everyone was acting quite strange. Maybe they were preparing a birthday party for him.
"Yup." Goofy replied, before whispering, "But don't tell yourself. 'Cause ya' might ruin it."
Too late for that now, Goofy. You just ruined it yourself.
"Shhh! Don't you tell Mickey either, Ms, Authory." Goofy broke the fourth wall while shushing at the Authoress(Me).
"It's Authoress." I sighed in exasperation. Anyway, back to the story.
"But that doesn't explain where she is." Mickey pointed out, ignoring the comment.
"Oh, she went to the Prompt Room with the Head-Masters' permission." Goofy answered, pointing at the map-board near them which Minnie always had with her.
Mickey's eyes widened in great worry and shock. There was a good reason why no student was allowed in the Prompt Room; it was a very easy place to get lost for students who didn't know their around unless they had someone with them.
"Oh no! She'll get lost in there!" Mickey cried out, worriedly, before quickly calming down as another logical thought came to mind. "Unless she took Genie and Pluto with her. She did take either of them with her, right?"
"Hmmm...let me check." Goofy thought deepily, just as both Pluto and Genie poofed out of nowhere and before Genie could even speak, Goofy asked, "Did you both go with Minnie?"
"Uh, no? Why do ya' ask?" Genie shrugged, while Pluto shook his head and made a noise that sounded like, 'Nuh-uh.'
"Oh no...!" Mickey gasped, greatly worried now.
Of course, being boys, Mickey and the others didn't know that Minnie actually had a good sense of direction and thus, was clever enough not to get herself lost and do the most other logical thing even the Headmasters did; read and follow the signs, which is what she did. For the second time in a row this morning, Minnie found herself back to where she came from earlier; with three signs that one pointing left that said "This way", and one that pointed in the direction where she just came from behind her that said, "That way".
"Hmmm, well I already went This Way, and That Way." Minnie said to herself, gazing at the sign that said Yonder and decided, "Guess I'll have to try Yonder."
Which was what she did, in her quest to find the perfect Birthday Surprise for Mickey.
Meanwhile, in the Cafeteria, Ven, Aqua, Terra, Donald, Lea, Isa, Cloud, Tifa, Zack, Aerith, Reno, Rude, Elena, Cissnei, Melody, the rest of the students and even the Headmasters and teachers were all decorating the entire room with colourful streamers, balloons, party hats with games, ect., while Selphie was rehearshing for a birthday song and the school's chiefs were brining out all kinds of delicious sweets and a large birthday cake while Lea had suggested for all kinds of take-outs to make things faster and easier, which included all flavours of Pizza.
Well...almost everyone was helping.
"A Birthday Party as big as this for one person." Iago, who was just standing on one of the tables, rolled his eyes in exasperation at the stupid activity that was happening all around him. "It's almost as though it were Jasmine's birthday or somethin'."
"You're just jealous that your birthday was never like this." Lea stated as he was finishing up tying another bunch of streamers by the windows.
"Please, my idea of a birthday is peace and quiet with no noise, a nice comfy pillow chair with free food and shakes and sleep." Iago shook his head, still not understanding what the big fuss is all about just for Mickey.
"That's just your idea in general." Isa pointed out, with a skeptical look that said, 'Seriously?'.
While that was going on, Ven, who'd been busy setting up the tables, noticing a soft munching before he turned to the source of the sound and scowled, "Mushu!"
Mushu, who'd been dying to eat the large cake secretly, turned when he heard Ven's voice and tried to act innocent despite that his mouth was covered in chocolate frosting and his mouth was full of food. "I'm-not-eating-cake." He managed to muffle.
"Mushu..." Melody sighed, approaching the dragon when she and everyone else noticed.
"But it's Chocolate Cheese cake!" Mushu, seeing how he'd been caught, pointed out.
"And it's for Mickey." The half-human-half-mermaid added, gently.
"And it's for Mickey..." Mushu repeated in guilt and disappointment, spitting out the large ball of chewed up cake and placed it back onto where he'd began chewing it, much to the disgust of Iago, Lea, Isa and Donald who'd been busy finishing up placing the large sign that said, "Happy Birthday, Mickey!" in different colours over the set-up stage where Selphie would be singing.
"Ew...great, now we'll get sick for more reasons than just over-eating the junk food." Iago groaned.
All of the sudden, Genie appeared out of nowhere, looking all panicked and called out through a mega-phone which scared Donald into falling down the ladder and crashing on top of Iago on the table and breaking the said table. Thankfully, no one even noticed as they were startled at Genie's appearence.
"Brace yourselves, everybody! Mickey's coming!" Genie shouted through the mega-phone.
"But we're not ready yet!" Sora moaned, disappointed.
"Genie, make the decorations and sweets disappear, quickly!" Ven cried out, hurriedly.
"Aye, aye, sir!" Genie saluted when he turned into a sailor, before using his magic to make all of the set ups for the party disappear and immediately returned the Cafeteria back to normal while everyone else quickly took seats and pretended like nothing unusual happened. Just in time too when Mickey came running in through the auto-mactic doors with Goofy and Pluto, panting and Mickey found himself a little suspicious when everyone looked rather...odd and too innocently.
"Oh, hey, Mick'." Reno greeted, before noticing that the teenaged mouse looked a bit sweaty. "What's wrong? You look like ya' just ran a marathorn or somethin'."
"Sorry, Reno. No time. I need help to find Minnie. She went into the Prompt room and got lost!" Mickey hurriedly said.
While everyone was mentally groaning at Goofy for ruining Minnie's whereabouts since Mickey wasn't supposed to know, Ven and Donald, who recovered from his fall and got off the slightly flattened Iago, stood up and hurried over to him.
"Sounds like trouble!" Ven thought, worriedly.
"Now why would she do somethin' stupid as that?" Iago asked, getting up after recovering.
"Headmasters, please, I need permission to go in there to find her. And I'll take Pluto, Genie, Ven, Donald, and Goofy with me." Mickey requested hurriedly to Eraqus, Xehanort and Ansem, ignoring Iago's annoyed question.
Pretending to look both concerned and disappointed, Ansem nodded with his fellow headmasters before saying to Mickey, "Very well, Mickey. Be sure that she is safe. We will be discussing her actions later once you retrieve her."
"Thank you, sir." Mickey bowed his respect.
"And take Mushu and Iago with you as well...just in case." Ansem quickly added.
"Yes, sir." Mickey saluted.
"Me?" Iago asked, stunned, while Donald approached him, grabbing both him and Mushu to Mickey and the others. "I'm not goin' into some storage room!"
"I'd better get m' gear for this rescue." Goofy remembered.
"Not to worry. I can help with that problem." Genie voulenteered, using magic that now made him into an explorer with an over-sized large back-pack that was the size of a car, and did the same to change Goofy's clothes into explorer's clothes and a bag that was much too big and heavy for him, but he somehow managed.
Once they were prepeared, Mickey nodded and headed back out of the Cafeteria, "C'mon, fellas. Let's get to it. Operation: Find Minnie, begins now."
As soon as Mickey, Ven, Donald, Iago, Mushu, and Goofy were out of sight(though Goofy had a bit of trouble in getting through the doors due to to his large back-pack), Genie lingered behind while using his magic to make the decorations reappear for everyone else to finish up, winking at them before zipping to catch up to the others.
"Well..." Terra began once Mickey was out of earshot, "At least it'll keep him busy from seeing the suprise."
"Yeah, but it's too bad Goofy had to spill the beans to where Minnie is, though. So that's surprise is already ruined." Cloud pointed out, rolling his eyes.
"Just hope Iago will keep his mouth shut about the party." Lea sighed, exasperated.
When they entered the Prompt Room which had a stair-case that lead downstairs into a very large room that was the size of an entire valley underneath the school and over where Arbutus lives, Mickey and his group quickly understood why students were forbidden to enter. It had so many old records from students before them with hundreds of bookselves that looked more like zillions and other things that only teachers find in here for special annual events like Christmas, Halloween and New Year's Eve.
"No wonder none of us were allowed here." Ven commented as he and his friends sticked in line while searching for Minnie, now starting to worry as well. "It's really easy to get lost."
"The best thing to do is stick together and not wander off." Mickey pointed out.
"I'd better make a note." Goofy thought to himself, pulling out a notepad and a pen, writting down self-instructions as Genie copied him as the two walked together. "Stick together and don't wander off...always stay focused..."
Only to find himself alone as while he'd been writting the note and had accidently wandered off, much to his dismay. Goofy couldn't find anyone nearby, which meant only one thing.
"Gawrsh! I'm lost!" Goofy cried out, before quickly calming down and said, "Good thing Genie had me prepared."
With that, he pulled the straps of the bag forward, and the back-pack suddenly unvealed itself into an immediate camp site with a set up tent, two touches, a hammock, camping chairs, and shake in hand. Now that his 'camp site' is set up, Goofy leaped into his hammock to relax for a while.
"Now, I just need to wait to be rescued." Goofy concluded.
As it turned out, he wasn't as lost as he thought. In fact, Mickey, Donald, Ven, Genie, Iago and Mushu were only a few feet away, gazing at him with annoyed expressions. It was time like these that Goofy's dim-wittiness got on their nerves.
"Hot-dog! You found me!" Goofy cried out in relief, as Mickey and Donald both grabbed the poles that was holding the hammock and carried him with them back to Ven and the others, while he continued as though he'd really been lost, "Thought I'd never make it."
"Oh, Goofy." Ven sighed, shaking his head.
"This is gonna be a looong search." Mushu groaned, facepalming himself.
"Why can't anything ever be easy?" Iago asked, gazing upward as though praying for strength. "Or even simple?"
"No complaining. We still have a damsel in distress to find!" Genie told the two firmly, turning into a Knight in shining armor, riding on a horse and sped off, hollaring, "CHAARRGE!"
Only to end up crashing right into wall that he didn't notice and comically crumbled into pieces. Much to everyone else's embarrassment. Mushu was right; this was going to be a long search.
Mickey, Ven, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Genie, Iago and Mushu had been searching almost all over the place in their search for Minnie. They looked through book-shelves, behind book-shelves, climbing up top of boxes and other things to get a better view, searching along a large old history log(why it's there is beyond me), through crates, in the air, down below, and they still couldn't find her.
Minnie in the meantime, had still been searching for the perfect Birthday surprise for Mickey until finally she spotted something that seemed perfect.
A small device with colourful settings, with the words "Fireworks" on it on the front side.
"Ooh! That's perfect! It'll make a wonderful surprise for Mickey." Minnie said to herself happily, making her way towards it and with the push of the remote botton, the fireworks immediately lit up and let off colourful display above her while it didn't even touch the ceiling, so it was safe even in here.
Little did she know, Mickey himself was closer than she knew.
"Ooh! Where is she?" Donald groaned.
"Gee, she sure is good in getting lost." Genie commented.
"We'll never find her at this rate. Can't we just go back before we end up getting lost?" Iago complained.
"Keep looking." Ven told them.
As Mickey looked ahead, familiar flashes of colourful lights were lighting up in a short distance, which made him realise what they were, and relief and hope immediately lit up in his heart.
"Look! Fireworks! It's gotta be her!" Mickey proclaimed, believing that Minnie was using the Fireworks for a help signal. Without waiting for the others, Mickey immediately raced ahead with both Ven and Pluto following seconds behind, unaware that everyone else didn't hear him and just...wandered off.
Back with Minnie, she turned off the Fireworks set and smiled to herself. "This'll be perfect for the surprise tonight. Mickey'll love it." She muttered.
"Minnie!"
Speak of the devil.
Surprised herself, Minnie turned to see a very relieved Mickey who came up to her and hugged her in his arms, with Ven and Pluto joining him.
"Mickey? H-How'd you find me?" Minnie asked, stunned that Mickey even knew she was here as he let her go, still smiling in relief.
"Saw the Fireworks that led us to ya'." Mickey answered.
"Y-Y-You saw the Fireworks?" Minnie asked, quickly becoming disappointed and saddened.
"Yup. Follow them all the way here." Mickey nodded.
Ven, remembering how all of this happened, sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, saying, "Sorry, Minnie. Goofy made the slip and told Mickey where you were."
"Oh. Now the Birthday Surprise is ruined." Minnie sighed, feeling sad and guilty.
While Mickey was a little surprised and a bit disappointed, he dismissed that and had already decided since her disappearence was much more important to him than his birthday. "Oh. Well, the important thing is that you're not lost anymore."
"Lost?" Minnie asked, confused. "I wasn't lost."
"You weren't?" Mickey asked, now even more confused and surprised.
"Uh-oh. I know where this is gonna go." Ven muttered, worriedly. Pluto nodded in agreement.
"Mickey Mouse. Did you really think I'd come here just to get myself lost?" Minnie scolded now that she knew the situation and glared at her boyfriend in annoyance. As much as she loved him, sometimes his naiveness made her annoyed.
Realising that he's in a bit of trouble, Mickey sheepishly replied, "No. Yes-uh, uh, no. I-I mean..."
"Hmph. Well, I certainly hope not." Minnie responded.
"Well, I say that we head back up before the others worry about where we are." Ven suggested, turning to face the others, "Let's head back guys...guys?" only to realise that they were not there. Mickey's eyes widened as well as new worry came.
"Um, Mickey? Who's Ven talking to?" Minnie asked, puzzled.
"Donald, Goofy, Genie, Iago and Mushu." Mickey answered, "They were right behind us."
Minnie gasped, now worriedly. "And now they're...?"
"Ha-ha...Lost?" Mickey laughed nervously with a shrug.
Here we go again.
"Marco!" Goofy hollared as he and the others except for Iago who was standing on a shelf.
"Hello!" Mushu called.
"Yo-ho!" Genie hollared.
"Hello!" Donald called.
Iago groaned, knowing the full concept of the situation and cried out in annoyed dismay, "We are so lost!"
And they even had Genie with them, for crying out loud!
Meanwhile, back at the Cafeteria, everything was up and ready, and now everyone else were waiting for Mickey to arrive to surprise him a welcoming Happy Birthday, when they spotted someone whom they thought was Mickey and...
"SURPRISE!" Everyone jumped out, cheering, only for that cheer to die down when it wasn't who they thought it was.
"...What in Leviathan's name happened?" Tseng asked, as he had arrived after the Headmasters gave Elena and Reno permission to invite the Wutaiian for the party. Veld was invited too, but unfortunately, he had to be guard duty for the President today. And the moment Tseng had walked in, he was nearly given a heart attack.
"...Sorry, Boss." Reno sheepishly replied.
"False alarm, people." Jecht sighed, disappointed.
"Ah...the traditional surprise." Tseng nodded, just as he heard the doors open behind him. "I think he's here."
The moment the Turk stepped aside, Mickey, Minnie, Ven and Pluto, who had found Genie, Donald, Goofy, Iago and Mushu who were with them, had just stepped in and while most of the others tried not to look disappointed, Mickey, who had figured it out the moment they heard what happened, just felt embarrassed.
"Uh, surprise?" Mickey shrugged, sheepishly.
Seeing that Mickey was here, everyone immediately cheered once more. "SURPRISE! Happy Birthday, Mickey!" as they all gathered arond the birthday mouse who smiled and blushed.
Even though it wasn't much a surprise, Mickey still was surprised and he loved surprise parties. "Ha-ha! Aw, gosh. Thanks, everybody!" He said, happily.
Despite the mishaps at the start of the day, Mickey utterly enjoyed the birthday party everyone had set up for him, and was even more happy that they all enjoyed it as well, and it was all in the effort to make him happy. After the party which had games, food, cake, Selphie's singing and of course, Presents, they all watched as Minnie set the Fireworks she brought with them and happily watched the colourful display in the sky when the sun at set.
"Oh, Mickey. I'm sorry that today wasn't as surprising as we had planned." Minnie said as she and Mickey stood side by side.
"Aw, it's okay, Minnie. It's the best birthday I've ever had, and I'm just glad that things turned out just fine." Mickey said, smiling at his girlfriend, placing an arm around her shoulders. "It's even more perfect to watch the fireworks with you. One of my favorite moments to share with my gal'."
"Oh, Mickey." Minnie giggled, before she and Mickey shared a kiss.
Which was witnessed by Iago, Lea and Isa, with the former groaning.
"He even had to have a birthday kiss on top of everything else." Iago was complaining, which fortunately, Mickey and Minnie didn't hear. "What's next, a Birthday Wedding?"
Isa responded by taking off his party hat and shoved on top of Iago's head which he made it get stuck on purpose. "You whine too much, bird." The blue-haired teenager muttered.
"You just read my mind, man." Lea smirked, chuckling at Iag's futile attempt to get it off.
"Hey! Where is everyone?" Iago called out, while his voice was muffled due to having a party hat stuck on his head, which he tried and failed miserably to pull off. "Hello? Anybody?"
To his dismay, no one borthered in helping him just yet.
All in all, it was a great birthday and Mickey enjoyed every moment of it.
To be Continued...
A/N: That's episode 1 here! Sorry that it's not all that exciting, but I couldn't figure out how to start off without things being too dramatic, especially after the battle against Hades and Chernabog at the end of Season 2. I'll try and update this as soon as possible, while I work on my other stories at the same time.
See you in the next chapter!