-Elevating Love-
It wasn't the first time that he saw her. Right before and after school, they'd meet in the same elevator that carries them towards their destination. Usually they were also crammed inside strangers that they barely knew running off to catch the last train. After all, it was business hours.
This time, Sora stood beside the girl in the empty elevator. The numbers rolled down from the little digital screen that showed the floors. Rare moment... Where were the others?
He knew that when it reached ground floor, they'd depart for school their own ways. He knew her from before. Like she always got on a bus to school and studied in.
12…
11…
So it was just like any other Friday. Except that this one was the last before winter vacation. Soon the elevator would reach ground floor and both of them would have to depart towards their own school. Then, he would be free.
10…
9…
8…
Ugh… Sora's mind was about boiling. Can't this thing go any faster? Unfortunately for him, the building that he lived in had two 20 year-old elevator. The old things were only big enough to fit 7 people max. The pain were peeling off the walls, the lights flickered occasionally.
7…
6…
5…
The boy and girl have been standing in silence for the past 2 minutes, waiting for the elevator to open. The brunette haired boy shifted weight from his left to right leg in uneasiness. Come on… Open already!
Little did Sora know that the elevator chose this as the day to retire and take a break from a long 20 year work period. The little digital screen that displayed the numbers decreasing suddenly halted to a stop. The whole room shook for a little. A moment of darkness shrouded the two before the lights flickered back on again.
Sora looked at the other person in the elevator. She was wearing the school uniform of Destiny High, the same school that he attended. Short-sleeved shirt with a thin white pink windbreak over it, blue plait skirt and a pink baggie slung around her shoulder. The auburn haired girl had a blue scotched mini tie around her collar and wore a pair of shinny black boots. The same uniform that every female student wore. Very plain… But somehow, she made it seem… Cute…
To his surprise, she was looking at him too. Her eyes were searching for reassurance.
They gazed in each other's eyes. When the ocean blue eyes met with the lavender purple ones, the girl quickly pulled away with a light red tint on her cheeks. She seemed to find the wall interesting.
Seconds quickly ticked past, followed by minutes. The silence was agonizing.
Well… It's not like that she's a complete stranger… I have seen her a few times before on the elevator. And if we are going to be stuck here for a long time, I might as well find a person to chat to.
Sora gathered his courage to strike up a conversation with her and opened his mouth only to find that she had beat him to it.
"So… We're stuck right?"
Fairly obvious question.
"Pretty much." It was the simple answer. "I wonder when will we be able to get out… Getting stranded 5 floors above the ground isn't exactly fun."
She giggled. So icebreakers with a little humor do work… "Well, I totally agree with you… uh…"
"Sora."
"Sora." She smiled a heartwarming smile at him. "I'm Kairi."
Quick… Think of something educated to say to keep the conversation going… "I've seen you before…" Good job, Sora. 'I've seen you before?' What kind of stupid statement is that?
"Weren't you the guy at the winter concert yesterday? You did a pretty good job singing."
"You saw? Err… I mean thanks."
The girl across him chuckled. Her breath smelled of strawberries. Sora tried to hide his red cheeks with no avail.
"You liked it?"
She nodded.
"What kind of music do you listen to?"
The girl blinked twice before answering. "Actually I like any kind of music in general. Pop, jazz, blues, hip-hop, country…"
"Country as in Taylor Swift?" Maybe that was a little arrogant of him to just blurt out the female singer that he liked the best. But to his relief, the auburn haired girl nodded.
"We were both young when I first saw you…" She sang softly and plopped herself down on the floor.
"I close my eyes and the flashback starts, I'm standing there"
"On a balcony in summer air…" The girl looked up and smiled then patted the spot beside her.
"See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns"
"See you make your way through the crowd"
"And say hello, little did I know…" The spiky haired brunette chimed in, his masculine voice mixing with the smooth voice of hers. He put his book bag aside and rested beside her.
"That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles"
"And my daddy said stay away from Juliet"
"And I was crying on the staircase"
"Begging you please don't go, and I said-"
Her voice is mesmerizing…
"Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone"
"I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run"
"You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess"
"It's a love story baby just say yes…"
…She is mesmerizing. The way her chest moves when she inhales in air before singing a long phrase; the way her hair flowed across her face under the heater; the way she closed her eyes and put her emotions into her words…
Time seemed to fly when people were having fun. Before long, the song was almost finished to Sora's disappointment.
"…And said, marry me Juliet"
"You'll never have to be alone"
I love you and that's all I really know"
"I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress"
"It's a love story, baby just say yes…"
Somehow, Sora felt kind of uncomfortable singing out the last phrase. We barely know each other, and here we are singing Love Story together… It's like out of all the songs by Taylor Swift, she picked out this one…
"Cause we were both young when I first saw you…" Kairi finished and just sat there staring into space.
Sora shifted into a more comfortable position and lay down beside her, despite the dirt and dust on the floor. He had his hand behind his head, fingers laced. Something he did when he was relaxed.
Silence followed the ending of the song. Both of them stared at the door of the elevator and secretly hoped that it would open to save them from the awkward quietness. Their prayers were left unanswered by the heavens.
So much for that… Now what to do…
"I've been thinking…" The auburn haired girl was still sitting in that position, eyes locked on the door.
"Hmm?"
"While we're in here, we might as well occupy our time. I doubt that they'd find us anytime soon."
"What do you suggest?" The brunette raised a brow at the girl's question.
"Hmm… I was thinking 'Truth or Double Dare'…" She turned to him with an inviting smile.
So you could dare me to jump out the elevator to see if I would live or not? Or ask me personal questions like whether I'm secretly gay or something? So not gonna happen.
"How about 20 questions?" It's much more safer.
"What? So you can avoid dares about you jumping off this thing?" She teased playfully.
"Exactly why."
"Well your no fun!" She pouted and turned her head and pretended to sulk.
"Aww… How come?"
"That's one down, 19 left to go." She turned around laughing.
"Hey that's not fair! You didn't even tell me that the game started! How is that fair?" Obviously, the spiky haired brunette didn't learn his lesson.
"That's 18 left." She smiled smugly.
"But didn't you just ask 2 questions?"
"17 left!" She sang in a high-pitched voice.
"You do know that you really don't play fair..." Sora was now the one pouting.
"Exactly how I like it." Never in Sora's 17 years of existence had he known somebody who acted such a poor sport.
"So, which floor do you live on?" Might as well finish off the 17 remaining questions… The brunette knew that if he procrastinated any further, the girl would trick him into wasting another question on worthless stuff.
"21st. What's your favorite food?"
"Umm aren't you supposed to ask which floor I live on? And my favorite food is ramen."
The auburn haired girl took a pause. She mimicked the way Sora was laying on the ground and lowered herself beside him. She leaned in close to Sora's left side.
Woah… Isn't it too early for this?
Instead of kissing him, the girl just whispered in his ear. "That's 15 left."
Before long, the boy had already spent 13 of his remaining questions.
Sora face palmed himself. When I play with this girl, I need to be more careful… He stared at the lights that flickered even more frequently above him thinking of a way to get her back. That's when he noticed the elevator lightly shaking. The brunette immediately sat up and looked around. The digital display was off.
Hmm… That doesn't have anything to do with the shaking…Then it hit him. They were losing power.
He turned around to find Kairi shivering on the floor. Winter. No power. No heater. Sora didn't feel much since he was in his thick black cotton padded jacket, the girl on the other hand begged to differ.
His instinct was to ask if she was okay.
"You okay? And don't tell me that I only have one question left…"
"C-Check if the-ere's a-a-any way w-we c-can cont-tact anyone?"
Sora scanned the room. Emergency phone. Hanging on the wall. Why hadn't I thought of it ealier? If only I had paid more attention to the classes our school lectured us on situations like these…
On the other hand… It looked like either that Kairi didn't study very well or that she forgot about it.
The brunette picked up the phone and listened for a tone… 5 seconds passed… 10 seconds passed… After a minute of static, he gave up and left the phone dangling upside down on the wall.
"No connection…" He looked at the poor girl in front of him that was shivering violently. Sora did what any gentleman would do. He slipped his overcoat off and slowly placed it over Kairi's shivering body.
Her eyes were completely shaded by her long lashes and her lips were quivering. Even in this state, she could still be easily mistaken for an angel.
He remembered the days he used to sneak a peek at her whenever nobody was looking. He had always had a special feeling towards her…
Sora was about to pull back and let go when he was stopped by a weak shivering voice.
"No… Don't leave…"
She talks in her sleep?
The brunette attempted to try again when her hand grabbed his and clutched it tight.
"G-Get in the coat…" Oh she's still conscious. Thats a relief.
Sora raised a quizzical brow. He could tell from the tone of Kairi's voice that she wasn't joking around. Does the think that I'm cold? She noticed that he was hesitating to decide whether or not to get in the coat with her. She tugged on his arm weakly gesturing that he should get under the coat together.
"At this rate, you'd get very ill before they found us." She seemed to recover quick enough.
"I'm not cold…" A~chew! Sora on the other hand wasn't looking so good. The lights took this as a good chance to fade and die out.
Before the light finally faded, Sora caught a last glimpse of Kairi's face. Staring at him with pleading eyes. Okay. Just for a few minutes until I warm up. The brunette finally obeyed and got under the coat together. It wasn't too effective, but it did some good.
Sora couldn't help but to feel her soft tender skin on his own. Her legs, now only slightly shivering, were curled beside Sora. She scooted closer towards him.
"Kairi?"
She was already half asleep. The girl responded with a grumble and threw her arms around Sora's neck and snuggled in his chest.
"Man... She's cute..."
Soon, both of them fell into a deep slumber with the help of each other's body temperature. The only thing that Sora could remember was her strawberry scented hair tickling his nose before he was out for good.
Sadly, moments as good as these don't last long enough. The elevator shook violently. The girl in his arms screamed.
Sora's eyes shot open and instinctively looked around. After analyzing the situation, he realized that he was in a violently shaking elevator with an angel clinging on to him for dear life.
I'd probably wake up any minute to find my mom shaking the covers of my bed.
But that's not what happened. Instead, a security guard and a technician came rushing in from the roof of the elevator. The red haired technician blinked twice at the scene.
"Whoa… Usually people panic when they're stuck in an elevator… Not make out…" He chuckled. The blue haired security guard elbowed him.
"Sorry for cutting off the power a few hours ago… We were afraid that the power lines would break and send the elevator down."
"You kids sure know your stuff…" The red haired guy cut in. "Not a lot of high scholars know how to survive in an elevator in this kind of frigid temperature."
Sora was stunned; he looked toward the girl beside him for an answer. He found nothing in her adorably innocent eyes.
"So how did you manage to find us?" He spoke the question that was stuck in both of their minds.
The technician, with a name tag said 'Hi! I'm Axel', rubbed the back of his head. "Well that was simple enough. We traced the call came from. As soon as we knew that there were still people in there, we came."
"How did you know that we were still in here?"
"We heard people speaking?" The blue haired security said with a hardened face. His nametag read 'Hi! I'm Saix'.
Great… Now what did they hear?
Axel noticed the bewildered expression on the brunette's face. He laughed. "No, we didn't hear moaning, groaning and creaking sounds. At first we couldn't hear over the static, but later after it cleared, we heard soft snoring and something about 'man, she's cute'…"
Sora's face was now probably redder than Axel and Kairi's haired combined. He tried to change the subject. "Uhh, so how did you get in?"
"We had to climb down the rope and onto the roof of this thing!"
"So we're going to have to get out that way?" Kairi, who recovered from the shock, still hugged Sora tightly. Unwilling to let go.
"Actually no. When you guys were doing your business, Saix and me slowly lowered the elevator to ground level. Now you can just walk out."
The spiky haired brunette felt a mixture of relieve and disappointment. He was finally free from the wretched room. But that meant leaving her…
"Here… You kids must be hungry. Next time, don't go in elevators alone!" Axel pulled out 2 bags of chips out of his toolkit before walking out of the elevator. "Works done. Time to go home."
Saix followed.
Sora just looked his half eaten bag of BBQ flavored Lays. Kairi held onto her bag of chips in one hand and with the other, she shaded her eyes from the setting sun.
It's been a while being stuck in that dark elevator… It'll take a while before my eyes adjust to the brightness.
Both of them could taste the fresh air. Crimson red was smeared across the vast blue sky, the sun casted shadows over the cityscape. The brightness of the sun warmed both bodies.
"Beautiful." She complimented, hands behind her back, staring at the scene that lay before them.
The blinding light shown on her beautiful features. Her purple tinted blue eyes seem to glimmer…Her auburn hair seemed to glow on her own… Her very presence set his world aglow.
Sora fought the urge to say something cheesy like 'you're more amazing than any sunset I've ever seen'. Which was true on his account. Instead...
"I guess school's over by now…" He stated the obvious.
"Yeah. Well let's head back up." She was already halfway through eating her bag of Ruffles.The auburn haired girl pushed a button to open the other elevator door.
Sora followed her in while reaching into his own bag of food. The first thing he felt was a non-chip-like substance inside. Probably just a gift from Axel. He pulled it out to have a look and immediately shoved it back again.
"Aren't you going to finish your chips?" She asked sweetly with crumbs around the edges of her tender lips.
How could he tell her that condoms were inedible? "I'm not really hungry…"
The numbers from the digital screen flashed.
9...
10…
11…
"Well if that's the case, I'm gonna finish that off for you!"
There was a wild look in her eyes. She lunged.
"Kairi! No-"
The girl grabbed the bag of poor, crumbled bag of Lays.
"You don't understand!" Sora tugged the bag back.
It was a two-way tug-a-war over the remaining bag of food.
12…
13…
"Come on… Ugh… Just let me try yours!" With one last forceful tug, she sent both of them on the floor. Spilling the bag's contents all on the floor.
The brunette's face was inches above hers. They're eyes met. This time nobody pulled away. Sora could see something behind her eyes. They were pleading him to make a move. He didn't hold back.
The boy leaned in slowly…
The elevator took this as the perfect timing to stop and powered out. The digital display was stuck on floor 14 before blinking out. The lights flickered and blackness spread through the elevator.
"So… We're going to be stuck again?" She asked.
"I guess so… This time, we'd have to spend the night in here... Since they won't be back before they get to work in the morning."
After a short pause of silence, Sora spoke up. "You know, you still own me a bag of chips."
She giggled seductively. "No way you can get your chips back."
"You want to bet?" His eyes were locked with hers. Their eyes gazed deep into each others'.
"Why don't you come and get it?" The girl licked away the crumbs around her rosy red lips.
Sora took her up on the offer and leaned in. Their lips met. Softly at first, before Kairi pulled him in a more passionate kiss. At once, Sora's mind was wiped cleaned. Blank. All he could do was enjoy the pleasure of her soft lips.
The couple shifted their weight and Sora found himself on the bottom this time. He tried to get up but was pinned down by Kairi. She was surprisingly strong for her figure.
"Going somewhere?" She teased.
He could feel her warm breath tickle his neck. The sensation sent shivers down his spine. All he could do was shake his head a little.
The auburn haired girl smiled. "Tell me what are you thinking right now…"
Without thinking, Sora blurted out the words stored in the deepest depths from his heart. "Do you like me?
She frowned. "Is that the best you can come up with your last question?"
So… We're still playing 20 questions?
"Actually I wanted to ask… Do you love me?"
The question seemed to take her by surprise. She hesitated for a moment before smiling.
"Looks like that you just used up all your questions." She leaned forwards and closed her eyes. Their lips met.
Sora felt a crumble under him. With one hand, he held the connection with the girl and with the other; he threw the 'present' out the roof. The way the present originally came from. Then returned to his business with the angel.
There the two were, tangled up in the elevator. The elevator where a tiny crush elevated into a full bloom love relationship.
A/N: My first one-shot, hope you guys liked it! Thank you for reading!
And I don't own any of the material I used for this story.
Please review if you want~!
-8989™