Author's Notes: Wrote this as a Christmas present for LoverofSilverHairedBishies. Sort of spoilery for Birth By Sleep, although these two characters don't meet in BBS canon. As a random observation: it's kind of hard writing kids in the KH universe. They all sound like mini-philosophers when they talk in canon, and they're like 4 and 5 years old. Hopefully I did an okay job with the dialogue here. XD;

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the word order, with the exception of the direct quote in the first sentence, which belongs to Square Enix.

Before the Beginning

Isa often accused him of "picking up stray puppies." Lea figured they were kind of stray puppies themselves, but he didn't tell Isa that. He didn't think he'd react very well. At any rate, when he heard the distinct, muffled sound of someone crying, Lea went to investigate right away.

What he found was a little girl with a big scrape on her knee. She was biting her lip and whimpering. He could see that she was making every effort not to cry full-out. Brave kid.

"Hey there," he said softly. Even so, the girl jumped, startled. He held his hands out in a peace-keeping gesture. "You gonna be okay?"

The girl sniffled, blinked up at him, and said, "My grandma says I shouldn't talk to strangers."

Lea scratched the back of his head.

"Guess we've got to stop being strangers, then," he surmised. He tapped himself on the chest. "I'm Lea! L-E-A, if you know your alphabet already. Got it memorized?"

She scrunched up her nose at him, her crying stopped for the time being.

"Lea," she repeated hesitantly.

"That's right." Lea knelt on the ground, keeping a polite distance but bringing himself closer to her vantage point. "Now, then. What's your name?"

The girl hesitated a moment too long. Lea frowned, shifting to sit full on the ground.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he told her. Then he got an idea. "Hold on a sec…"

He dug around in the pockets of his pants, then his vest, until finally his hand closed around the object of his search. He produced it with a flourish, brandishing it in front of him for the girl's inspection.

"Ta da!" he crowed.

When she didn't react except to rub the tears from her eyes and blink a few times, he tore the paper off and tried again.

"It's just a band-aid," he said sheepishly, offering it to her on his open palm.

She reached out tentatively and plucked it up. Looked at it. Turned it side-to-side. Lea waited to see if it was up to snuff. His answer came when she peeled the backing off and stuck it carefully over the scrape on her knee.

He grinned. She smiled shyly back.

"I'm Kairi," she told him finally. "Thank you for the band-aid."

"You're welcome, Kairi."

He glanced around, then, but he didn't see anything out of place. No overturned bike, no toys…

"By the way; how'd you get that scrape in the first place?"

Now it was Kairi's turn to look sheepish.

"There was a butterfly…"

Lea grinned again.

"Trying to catch it?"

Kairi shook her head quickly.

"Just wanted to see where she was going. But my foot slipped out of my shoe…"

"Ah. Hate it when that happens."

Kairi giggled. Lea looked around again.

"Did you see which way it went when you fell?"

Another head-shake.

Lea was at a loss. Kairi seemed to have a plan, though.

"Will you help me look for her?" she asked. Her tone was so hopeful that Lea could only agree and pray that they didn't run into Isa. He'd never live this one down.

"Absolutely," he agreed, and Kairi's smile could have powered every lamp in the city.

He helped her to her feet.

"There's no way a gentleman like me is going to allow an injured girl like you to risk falling again," he informed her. Kneeling again, this time with his back to her, he motioned her toward him. "Hop on!"

And so it was that he quite literally picked up another "stray puppy." He spent the better part of the afternoon following her directions and trying to find her butterfly. They found a lot of butterflies, actually, but it was impossible to tell if any of them was the same one she'd seen earlier. After some debate, they both decided that one of them must be, and Kairi, at least, seemed happy for that.

Lea glanced up at the sky and noted the pink and red tint of it with some surprise.

"It's getting late; we should probably head home," he told her. "You'll have to tell me where to go."

"I'm the princess," Kairi said matter-of-factly. "I live in the castle."

Lea almost dropped her in surprise.

"Is that right?" he asked, trying to mask the freak-out he was having internally. He'd been carrying a member of the royal family around on piggy-back for half the day. What if they thought she'd been kidnapped?

"I am so dead," he mumbled to himself. Then, louder and to her, "Sorry, Princess; I had no idea."

"That's okay," she said.

"I can escort you back to the castle if you'd like," he said. "Just make sure your guards don't throw me in the dungeon, all right?"

Kairi giggled.

"They won't. I promise!"

With that settled, he set off. He had almost reached the base of the palace steps when he heard a familiar voice say dryly, "There you are. I've been looking for you all day!"

Lea stopped short and turned. Isa was leaning against the brick wall, regarding him with an exasperated expression.

"Did you forget you promised to meet me in the square after lunch?" Isa asked.

Whoops.

"Well, y'see… This girl here, she was hurt…"

"Lea helped me find my butterfly!" Kairi put in helpfully.

Lea winced. Isa rolled his eyes.

"Of course he did." Then, to Lea, he added, "Come on; playtime's over. Maybe we can still get something accomplished if we hurry up and go eat dinner."

Lea knelt so that Kairi could clamber down off his back.

"Do you think you can make it the rest of the way?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"My knee doesn't hurt at all anymore. Thank you for playing with me today!" she said. Then she looked around, and, apparently making a decision, scampered over to the nearest bed of flowers and plucked one up. She returned and handed it to him. "I dunno if boys like flowers, but…"

Lea took the bright yellow blossom from her, slid the stem behind his ear, then reached across and mussed her hair.

"I like it just fine; thank you."

Kairi beamed at him.

"Now go on before they send out a search party," Lea said, shooing her toward the steps.

"See you!" she called out, and then she was gone.

Lea straightened with as much dignity as he could muster and turned to face his friend.

"I suppose this means I'm buying?" he asked.

"Yes. Yes, it does."