I'm not one for author's comments and such, so I'll just let you get on with the story.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters are owned by Disney and/or Square-Enix.

"So she's it, huh?"

Kairi gave a half-hearted glance through the wooden bars of her wagon. It was very spacious and comfortable with the pillows that lined it, but it was still a cage, and she was still a slave. And the one who had spoken—what was his name?—Riku, glanced back at her.

So he was her new owner. She doubted that, seeing as she hadn't seen any money exchanged between him and the trader she currently "belonged" to. Probably just another slave trader who figured he could sell her off better here than anywhere else. She didn't like the way he looked. He smiled at her, sure, but his eyes were cold. To him, she was just merchandise, another source of income.

Riku shifted his gaze from her back to the other trader. "I trust you have all her paperwork, and she's up to date on medical history and such?"

Kairi watched as her current trader handed him a thick folder that she knew contained all her files. She turned away from the conversation and lay back down, waiting for whenever they'd take her out and put her in another cage. She heard Riku and the trader talking back and forth, discussing business and the weather, but she wasn't paying attention, and thus didn't pick up much of what they were saying.

"What's going on Riku? Wha… another one? Already?"

Maybe it was curiosity, the sound of a new voice, or just that the tone of his voice at the fact that Riku had taken on "another one" held a hint of disapproval, that made her turn around. A boy with messy brown hair noticed her gaze and looked back up at her, and her curiosity of him grew when he smiled at her. Not the cold smile Riku had given her, but a genuine, friendly smile.

Riku handed the file to the other boy and muttered some instructions to him. He frowned, glancing over the file, then nodded and disappeared back into the small building that was apparently their base of operations. She sighed. Friendly as he may seem, the other boy was still a trader, most likely Riku's partner.

She blinked when he reappeared. So did Riku. "I thought I told you to bring-"

"It doesn't look like she's going to run away," the other boy interrupted Riku. "Besides," he added, glaring pointedly at Riku. "Leashes and chains are for animals."

Leashes? Chains? True, she'd considered running from her traders several times before, but she'd long since given up on that. They always caught her anyway. And even if she did think of it, both Riku and his partner looked like they could easily outrun her with little to no effort at all.

Riku waved him off, giving Kairi the notion that the other boy was always like this. "Fine, fine. Lead her, carry her if you want, I don't care. You're too kind-hearted for this job, Sora. You always have been."

Sora glared back at Riku. "Maybe that's what this world needs." He responded, his voice low and carrying more than a hint of anger. Riku raised an eyebrow at him, but Sora shook his head and waved a hand dismissively in the air. Riku chuckled quietly to himself and tossed a key ring to Sora, who caught it and grinned back. Kairi was confused. Either they got along well enough to let arguments and insults like that go, or maybe, just maybe, Sora didn't really like Riku as much as he seemed to.

But she doubted that. The way Sora had handled her file when Riku had given it to him, expertly flipping through it and glancing only at what seemed to be the more important parts without even checking the contents, it was obvious that he was the bookkeeper of the two.

She watched him with wary interest as he approached her cage, and was more than a little surprised when he stared down her former trader, who was a very large and imposing man, with no fear. The trader (he hadn't owned her for very long and she had never learned his name) stepped aside reluctantly, allowing Sora near the cage door. He flipped through the keys and turned back to glare at Riku, who grinned again and tossed him the appropriate key.

"Very funny." Sora said, desperately trying to hide a smile.

"Apparently." Riku replied, turning back into the building. "Bring her to the hold. I'll get her quarters ready."

"Cage, you mean…" she barely heard Sora mutter as he fumbled with the massive padlock on the wagon, finally getting it open and poking his head in through the open door, deep blue eyes meeting her violet ones. "Hey… can you walk?"

Surprised by the kindness of someone in a trade where the attitude was somewhat taboo, she nodded slightly. "I… think so…"

Sora frowned. "You sure?"

Was she? She'd been in low cages that didn't even allow her to stand up for such a long time, she imagined her legs were far beyond not being used to doing anything other than sitting or lying down. But she nodded anyway, getting up on her hands and knees to crawl towards the door, as that was pretty much the only movement the cage she was in allowed due to its size. Sora backed out the door to give her some more room, but as soon as her foot touched the ground and she tried to put weight on it, her theories were proven correct. She would have hit the ground if Sora hadn't been there to catch her. She mumbled her thanks, keeping her gaze on her feet.

Sora chuckled. "Don't hurt yourself. I'll carry you."

She blinked. "Oh no, you don't have to-"

"Don't worry about it." Sora replied, and before she could protest again, she was suddenly off the ground. Sora threw a short goodbye over his shoulder to Kairi's former trader, then carried her into the building, one arm under her knees, the other around her waist. She knew she was blushing, but whether it was out of embarrassment of not being able to walk or out of the fact that she was being carried by a reasonably attractive and obviously kind-hearted boy, she didn't know. Besides, she reminded herself, she didn't know Sora all that well, so how could she tell who he really was just by a first impression?

She closed her eyes and sighed. She had long ago resigned herself to the fact that this was to be her life, an unsold slave shuttled from trader to trader, never getting sold, but she could never deny that she hated it.