A/N: This was done as a present for my sister's 20th birthday. She is a big Kingdom Hearts fan, and as a joke I said I would write her a drabble about the unsung heroes – the paopu fruits. Of course, she then decided she really did want me to write one. This takes place at the beginning of the first KH game, before the race between Rikku and Sora, and is the tale of the paopu which was to be shared with Kairi and whoever won said race.
The Plight of the Paopu
It's a hard life for a paopu, hanging around all day, filled with the fear that someone will come along and pick you off your branch at any moment. And if it is not a person, then perhaps the wind will be a fickle friend and blow you off into the ocean, to float away to unknown lands. Children climb and hit our trees, shaking us out of our wits. And there is always the constant threat of…
The Bet.
Some of my brothers and sisters have already fallen prey to The Bet. One of the human children will pluck us from our tree and wave us around as incentive to take The Bet, whatever The Bet may be. There seems to be some myth about two people eating a paopu… that if two people share our fruit, they will be together forever. Obviously, we did not invent this. A paopu's take on this myth would have been, 'whoever shares a paopu will keel over immediately and die'.
Oh, no! I have been snatched!
I can hear some silver-haired boy talking pompously to a smaller, brown-haired boy, instigating some sort of challenge – using me as a reward for the winner! Alas, I am but a poor victim. Life is so cruel. All I want is to sway in the breeze and soak up the sun. Woe is me! I am a good little paopu, and I do not deserve-
Oooph! What's this? (Gasp!) Can it be? I have been tossed unceremoniously onto the beach, forgotten. Ha! Their game did not defeat me! But, no! I am far below my fellows! I will undoubtedly be swept off into the ocean, or stomped on by some uncaring individual, or eaten by a bird, or-
Oh, ho! I am being hoisted into the hair by a strange man with crazy orange hair! I am saved! I am-
CHOMP!
"Mmmm," Wakka said, finishing off the last of the delicious fruit someone had left on the beach. "Even tastes good with sand."
~The End~
Happy birthday, baby sister!