Disclaimer: Square Enix owns Kingdom Hearts, not me.

I should really be focusing on my other fics, but I've just been so into Kingdom Hearts recently that I found it hard to resist writing this. So these two short stories are kind of like a 'sneak preview' for my Traveling Heart fic. I hope that Riku doesn't seem OCish, but if he does, then sorry.

Ears?

Merlin was dilegently working in his house on a new kind of potion; a stamina drink. He was trying to get it so that if someone drank it, their stamina would rapidly increase and they would have super human strength for 24 hours straight.

"Aha! It's finished!" Merlin cried triumphately.

"What's finished?" Mana asked, the 16 year old's golden eyes full of curiousity.

"Why my stamina drink, dear," Merlin answered, brandishing the purple bubbling potion, "It will make you have limitless stamina and super human strength for 24 hours!"

"Wow!" Mana said in awe clapping her hands together, "That's so cool!"

"Thank you. All I have to do now is test it, and then it will be completed."

"Can I test it?" Mana pleaded, eyes sparkling, "Can I? Please?"

"Hmmm." Merlin paused stroking his long white beard in thought, "Sure, why not?"

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Merlin handed Mana the vial, "I want you to drink all of it completely and tell me how you feel, got it?"

"Got it!" she replied before downing the potion.

They waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened, "Do you feel any different?"

"Not really." Mana replied just before a puff of smoke appeared around her, "Wahh!"

"Mana, are you okay?"

At that moment Riku walked into the house, "Hey, Merlin. I saw some weird smoke coming out of here and-" he stopped short though, when he saw Merlin staring at the floor in front of him, "Hey, what are you-?"

Mana now sat on the floor rubbing her back. She looked up and saw Merlin and Riku staring at her oddly, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Ears..." was all Merlin managed as he pointed towards her head.

She instinctively reached up and felt that there were two soft lumps on her head. Quickly getting up, she went through a drawer and found a small hand mirrior. On her head were now two fluffy golden cat ears that matched her long hair, and at the side of the mirrior she saw a cat tail swining behind her. She turned around to see that she didn't just have ears, but a tail as well.

"Wow..." was all she managed as she watched her tail swish back and forth.

"Awww, and I thought I had it this time, too!" Merlin said exasperated, he walked over to Mana and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Sorry about this Mana, don't worry though the effects will wear off in 24 hours."

"I'm not worried."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep! I think they're so cute!" she said smiling and turned towards Riku, "Right?"

"..."

"Riku?"

"I've...got to go." he said before rushing out of Merlin's house.

"Riku!" she yelled after him, but he continued to run, "I wonder what's wrong?"

Riku stopped running when he came to the market place. He leaned his back against a wall and placed a hand in front of his face; shaking his head.

That was close.

When he had seen Mana's ears and tail he had the sudden urge to go and pet them. Luckily, he got out there before he really did pet them. It would have been embrassing for him to do that all of a sudden.

"Riku, what are you doing?"

He moved his hand and saw Kairi and Sora standing in front of him, "Nothing." he replied casually, he stood straight and then asked, "What are you two doing?"

"We were about to go to Merlin's." Sora replied.

"Wanna come with us?" Kairi asked, a cheerful smile covering her face.

"Uh, no thanks..." he said averting his gaze.

"Oh, come on. It'll be fun." she said, grabbing Riku's arm.

"That's ok. I'll go later."

"Nope, you're coming with us and that's final." Kairi said, and before Riku could object he was unwilling being dragged back to Merlin's.

When they reached Merlin's house a commotion seemed to be coming from inside. They entered and saw Yuffie and Aerith around Mana petting her ears and tail; cheerfully talking.

"They're so cute!" Yuffie squeaked, rubbing Mana's head.

"I know! Aren't they just adorable?" Aerith agreed. Noticing the three teenagers standing in the doorway she turned and said, "Hey, guys. Have you seen Mana's ears and tail. They're just adorable!"

"No, I haven't," Kairi said, releasing Riku, she walked towards Mana and stroked her ears, "They're soft! Hey, Sora you've got to feel them!"

"Okay." Sora said walking over to Mana and stroked her ears, "Wow, you're right they are soft! Hey, Riku you have to-Huh?"

When Sora had looked back Riku wasn't standing there anymore, "I wonder where he went?" Sora commented scratching his head.

"Riku..." Mana whispered to herself.

All day Riku had managed to avoid Mana. When she had went to the market he had managed to sneak past without her seeing him. He had even managed to lose her the one time she had spotted him and gave chase after him. He had managed to do that all, well into the evening. So how come his luck finally ran out?

He had walked into Merlin's house seeing that she had left a few minutes earlier, thinking it was safe for a minute. He had chatted with Merlin for a while, when the wizard said he had to go and get a few ingredients. Riku had volunteered to do it, but the wizard insisted that he had to do it himself; then left, leaving Riku there by himself. He had been examining Merlin's books when she had walked in.

In front of him now stood the cat girl blocking his one means of exit. He had been so careful too. One slip up and he was doomed.

"Uh, I..." he tried saying, looking everywhere but at her, "Hey."

"Hello." she said sweetly.

Suddenly, she walked over to him and took his face in her slim hands forcing him to look at her, "Please tell me why you've been avoiding me?"

Before he could respond, Mana gasped and looked at him with widened eyes.

Oh, no.

His body had reacted without thinking and currently both of his hands were on her head stroking her cat ears. He snatched his hands away quickly, and had a shocked expression on his face; showing signs of a slight blush. His blush deepened when Mana burst out laughing, after the intial shock had passed, "W-what's so funny?"

"If you wanted to you could have asked me if you could pet them." she laughed her tail swishing happyly behind her.

"I-I don't k-know what y-you mean."

"It's ok, Riku. You don't have to explain." she said patting him on the shoulder.

"...Fine."he sighed, "Then can I...?

"Yep!"

He grabbed her around the waist, and hugged her against him. She was surprised and looked at him with questioning eyes, in turn he smiled softly down at her, "I'm sorry."

She understood what he meant and hugged him back rubbing her head into the hand that he was currently stroking her head with. They stood there like that for several minutes, when the door to the house opened. In the doorway stood Sora, Kairi, and Merlin-who they had bumped into at the market-staring at the two. The groups stared at each other for a few seconds, before Sora reached his hand out-still staring at the two-and closed the door, leaving Riku and Mana alone again. Riku had realized right away what they thought was going on, and yelled (with a dark blush on his face);

"It's not what you think!"

Haine-of-Winter: Okay, now that I see it, all the character's seem a little OCish, and I'm sorry about that, but they had to be to get this oneshot story to work out. This is my first time writing a oneshot fanfic, and I hope I didn't fail completely in it. There's still one more chapter to go then it's finished. I'm just hoping that this was at least a little bit funny, cause I'm not that really good with jokes. Really, I'm just hoping I got a few laughs from this.