Cute, Red-Haired, and Fabulous
A/N: The disclaimer from all my previous stories stands. Rated T because, as a result of sexual frustration, Sora's a perverted little thing, and the students either have raging hormones and/or a bit of a potty mouth.
"Ow!" Sora yelps when Kairi absentmindedly runs a brush through his hair.
The redhead snaps out of her trance at the sound and frantically scans her room for any signs of a potentially dangerous threat.
"What?" she asks in a panicky voice. "Where's the damage?"
"In your brain, apparently," Sora replies whilst rubbing his head in pain. Kairi scowls and tightens her grip on the brush. Sora merely raises his hands in surrender. He is well acquainted with this look. He did, after all, date this woman for over a year.
"Are you okay?" he decides to ask, hoping not to get on her bad side.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she asks as she moves the brush closer to his head. Sora backs away as if she were holding him at gunpoint.
"Well, it may have to do with the fact that you're brushing my hair," he answers as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You must know how ridiculous that is after knowing me for nearly two decades."
"Oh," is all Kairi says when her actions sink in. She sets the brush back down on her vanity table with embarrassment, suddenly remembering the hopeless—albeit kind of adorable—mess that was Sora's hair.
"So why do I have to go on this date again?" he asks as Kairi helps him into a navy blue sweater that went overtop his pastel blue dress shirt.
"Because as your best friend and supportive ex-girlfriend, I think you need to get out there and meet a nice girl," Kairi answers as she smoothes out the material on his shoulders.
"Ugh, that sounds like so much work," Sora groans. At least with Kairi, it had all felt effortless to do the smallest of gestures. Now, opening a car door took an unneeded toll on his arm.
Kairi merely rolls her eyes as she continues to help him look presentable. "Man up, you lazy bum."
"Why can't we just drink beer and watch Disney movies like we do every Saturday night?" Sora whines. Sitting on a couch with Kairi's creamy legs stretched out over his as they shamelessly sang along to songs from their childhood clearly seemed like the better option over wining and dining some girl he didn't even know.
"Besides, it's Mulan night," Sora further justifies. "One does not simply ditch Mulan night. I had Chinese takeout ready on speed dial."
With a sigh, Kairi places her hands on his well-built chest and looks up at him.
"You need to get over me," she says simply. She feels him chuckle beneath the palms of her hands.
"Well then you need to stop looking at me like that," he says as he places one of his hands overtop hers in a non-platonic way.
"Like what?" Kairi asks, innocently cocking her head to the side.
"Like that," Sora answers as he, with much will power, pulls away. "You need to stop looking at me with those… adorable twinkling eyes of yours." He then makes a strange gesture with his fingers to emphasize the twinkling of said eyes.
"I need to stop looking at you?" Kairi asks incredulously.
"Or you can get your eyes surgically removed," Sora suggests playfully. "Your choice."
"Yes, then I can join Riku with his blindfold fetish," Kairi continues, bringing up their mutual close friend with a grin.
"You know what, that sounds kind of hot," Sora admits as he walks through the wall of cologne that Kairi had sprayed for him. "Imagine the things I can do to you when you're completely blind to all my actions." He then makes a V like shape with his index and middle finger and sticks his tongue out in between them, flicking it back and forth at an inhumanly fast pace.
"Mother of Buddha," Kairi says, completely mortified as her ex-boyfriend laughs. "Promise me that you won't scare away your date tonight with inappropriate gestures like that."
"Fine, fine," Sora agrees, not wanting to scar the poor girl on their first—and most likely last—date. Ever since the breakup, he'd become pretty good at evading romantic and/or sexual advancements from women all over campus when they made their offers. He had his eyes dead set on the prize; so naturally, this was going to be a cinch. "Can you at least tell me what this bitch looks like so that it's easy for me to find her?"
Kairi gasps and sends her best friend a mock look of disapproval. "Sora Gainsborough Fair, your mother would be appalled with your language!"
"Kairi," Sora says, his eyes pleading her to stop being so adorable.
"Okay, all right," the redhead says as she wills herself to calm down. "Let's see… she's cute, she's got red hair, and she's got tons of style, so she's pretty much… for lack of a better word, fabulous. Plus she's got a rockin' body."
"She's cute, red-haired, and fabulous?" Sora repeats with amusement. "Are you sure you're describing my date?"
"Uh, yeah," Kairi replies, completely oblivious to Sora's suspicions. "She's also really upbeat and optimistic. I think you'll like her."
Sora crosses his arms with a grin. "I think I already do."
"Uh huh," Kairi says, finding her best friend's sudden change in attitude towards the situation sort of strange. She wordlessly hands him his wallet and keys and kindly walks him to the door of her apartment.
"So what's her name?" Sora asks as he leans against the doorframe with an entertained expression.
"Shiki. Shiki Misaki," Kairi answers swiftly—a little too swiftly, Sora may add. "She lives in Cornerstone Hall, unit 14B, but I told her that you'd meet her at that Italian restaurant we love on Wayfinder Street—that way, I don't have to worry about you getting lost."
"How kind of you," Sora says as he places his wallet into the pocket of his beige chinos.
"Yeah, yeah. I told her you'd be there by seven, so hop to it, Romeo," Kairi says as she hastily pushes her best friend out of her apartment. "Come back here when you're done!" she says as he makes his way to the elevator. "I want to hear all about how the date goes! See you soon!"
"Oh, I'll see you soon all right," Sora mutters to himself as he shoves his hands into his pockets and walks away with a knowing grin.
Back in her apartment, Kairi hugs her arms and plops down on her couch with a heavy sigh. She sits completely still, waiting until the deafening sound of silence and boredom brings her to the brink of insanity.
It didn't bother her in the least bit, she suddenly thinks. She'd been best friends with Sora since, what, birth almost? They rose together, fell together, and learned together. He knew her bra size, and she knew the approximate time it took for him to take a proper dump.
So why did it bug her that her best friend was going out on a date with another girl tonight? She and Sora farted around each other for crying aloud. Why did he so willingly agree to it just then? Was he that eager to get over her?
Sure, they had dated once, but that wasn't a good enough reason to justify her ill feelings towards his date tonight… was it? Yes, he was a gentleman, but he had been too childish back then, too playful, naïve, and incapable of even the slightest bit of romance, but could the same thing be said for the young man that just walked out her door?
Perhaps it was because she knew the girl he was going to be with. In comparison to Shiki's physical attributes, Kairi feels completely outclassed. Her hands immediately fly to her breasts, which are well developed, but they aren't nearly as large or as perky as Shiki's. Truth be told, Kairi thought she was pretty much set in the ass department, but Shiki was, well, Shiki. The girl had curves that could kill any man upon first glance and a face that attracted over twenty double takes in a single day.
Kairi secretly hopes that the girl doesn't decide to wear her favourite green skirt, otherwise Sora would be hitting dat ass up all night—not that he was actually like that, but the mind of a nineteen-year-old university student could be easily persuaded.
And let's take a moment to admire Shiki's personality. For three straight semesters, Shiki had been nothing but energetic, funny, kind, and optimistic towards her peers. She was a good influence overall, and she could easily whip Sora into shape with that manipulatively cute smile of hers.
Kairi groans into one of her couch pillows and falls back in defeat. She may have just set her best friend up with the perfect girl.
With all the strength she can muster, she looks up from her couch and finds a half empty tub of strawberry cheesecake flavoured ice cream on her coffee table. She blinks twice in disbelief. When did that happen?
She brings the tub back into the freezer, feeling about five pounds heavier than before, and decides that she's done enough moping for one Saturday night. Without a second thought, she pulls out her phone and hits the emergency call logo in intimidating red letters.
Thirty seconds later, Selphie, Olette, and Xion burst through her door, the latter of the three armed with a kitchen knife.
"We got your emergency call," Xion says as she raises her weapon and inspects the living room. "What is it? Who do I stab first?"
"There will be no stabbing tonight," Kairi announces dramatically as she falls back on the couch.
"Oh hell, this is going to be good," Selphie says excitedly as she rummages through the kitchen for a snack. She sits next to Kairi with a can of diet cola and a bag of chips in hand. After Olette and Xion sit cross-legged on the floor, three of Kairi's best girlfriends/neighbours look at her expectantly.
"Where's Naminé?" Kairi asks, clearly noticing her cousin's absence.
"MIA," Olette informs. "Date with Roxas."
"Ugh," Kairi says with disgust. "Relationships."
"Oh, I know what this is about," Xion immediately says with a knowing look. "You called this meeting into session because you've finally realized that you still have the hots for your ex-boyfriend."
"What? No," Kairi claims, red-faced.
"A little childishness is good, you know," Xion advises, fully aware of her friend's doubts. "It keeps your sense of imagination and wonder intact. Besides, Sora's not the same boy he was in high school, and you know it. And have you seen him in his gym shorts lately? Fuck, I just want to lick his—"
"I didn't call you over here to talk about boys!" Kairi interrupts, not wanting to know where Xion was going with that conversation. "Where is your inner girl power? We are miserably failing the Bechdel test here. We are grown, independent women who don't need no men. I was just… lonely, that's all."
"So you're telling us that you're the only girl on campus that hasn't fallen victim to Sora's adorably childish charms and that it doesn't bother you at all that he's out on a date right now?" Selphie asks, mouth full of potato-y goodness.
"Why would it bother me? I'm the one who set it up," Kairi points out with skittish eyes.
"Yes, but you clearly didn't consider the consequences," Olette says a matter-of-factly. "You miss him, so in this instance, you're using us as second rate substitutes."
"Am not!" Kairi exclaims, offended that Olette would even accuse her of such a thing. But in all honesty, Kairi imagines a large fountain lighting up behind her and expects a choir of angels to start singing upon coming across this realization, but all she hears is Selphie munching loudly on her potato chips in the background.
"I mean, we have absolutely no problem with it," Selphie says as she takes a swig of her soda. "Given that we are provided with unlimited kitchen access, I get to pick the movies, and that you pay for pizza."
Not wanting to bring forth another argument, Kairi merely says "deal".
After tolerating A Walk to Remember and suffering through half of The Notebook, Kairi gets up from the couch and walks over to her room to stretch, highly convinced that Selphie's painfully cheesy choice of movies was made to pester her even more about her lack of a love life. As she brings her arms up over her head, she feels the cool November air of Twilight Town hit her taut stomach, causing her to shiver. She walks over to her closet and quickly exchanges her shirt for the first hoodie in sight. It is noticeably too big for her petite frame, but she merely shrugs, thinking nothing much of it because of its comfort and all too familiar warmth, and walks over to close the window.
But just as she's about to walk away after completing her task, she sees a familiar red Lexus drift into a vacant spot in the parking lot. The driver walks out, forcefully slams the door behind him, and walks towards the building with clenched fists and long, hasty strides. Kairi gulps and slowly walks over to her front door. She opens it, and within seconds, Sora comes stomping through with an evident frown on his face.
"I cannot believe you," Sora growls, seething as he paces around his best friend. The girls in the living room secretly turn their attention to the soon-to-be bickering couple whilst Kairi inwardly punches her fists in the air. Judging by the way Sora was acting, the date went terribly, and she could soon have him all too herself again. Sora rarely expressed his anger, so it must have been bad.
"So, how'd it go?" Kairi asks, rocking back and forth on her heels innocently.
Sora merely scowls at her. "Seriously? First you make up this fictitious Shiki character, then you stand me up, and now you're going to pretend like it never even happened?"
Kairi shakes her head in confusion. That certainly wasn't the answer she was expecting.
"Wha—okay, first of all, Shiki is very much real, thank you!" Kairi argues, not liking what Sora had just implied.
"Oh, and moogles can fly!" her best friend fights back with flailing arms.
"But they can—"Kairi starts.
"Can you just shut up and let me have my diva moment?" Sora interjects. Then, with a heavy sigh, he brings his hand up to rake a hand through his hair. "Where were you tonight?" he asks, obviously hurt and flustered from the night's events.
"Where I'm supposed to be—at home, while you're out with your date!" Kairi responds, confused as to why she had to explain the night's itinerary to him yet again.
"Well then perhaps it would inconvenience you to know that my 'date' didn't show up!" Sora yells, angrily using air quotes around the word 'date'.
"What?" Kairi asks, now with disbelief and even more confusion.
"Oh, Kairi!" Selphie yells through a mouth full of pizza. "I forgot to tell you that you got a text!"
Kairi runs over and grabs her phone before walking back to a very irritated Sora. After briefly checking the time, she checks her most recent texts. Riku asking her if she had any wite-out, her older brother Axel asking if he could jack some booze from her fridge, Naminé asking where the hell she was, and the last was a very short, but very important message from Shiki saying that she was terribly sorry to cancel her date last minute, but a family emergency came up and she had to bring her attention to it immediately.
Please say sorry to your friend for me, Kairi then reads. I'll make it up to him, I promise.
She then checks the delivery time. 6:34PM. Nearly four hours ago, when she was helping Sora get ready.
"Oh," is all Kairi can say. Had she really been so blinded with envy that she was inattentive to the notifications on her phone? "Here, read this," Kairi says as she shoves her phone into Sora's hands. He reads the text for quite some time as if trying to confirm its authenticity then widens his eyes in disbelief.
"Wait," he says, handing the phone back with a twitching eye. "This Shiki person is real?"
"Yes, what kind of person do you take me for?" Kairi asks, feeling offended for the second time that night.
"I'm sorry, just, give me a moment," Sora pleads as he leans against her wall with uneven breaths.
"Oh, this is going to get good," Xion says as the three girls hide behind the couch in a not-so-discreet fashion.
"You actually set me up on a date?" Sora squeaks. "With another girl?"
"Yes," Kairi answers tiredly. "Why is that so hard to believe?"
"I, I just… I thought you were describing yourself earlier," Sora confesses, cutely looking down at the floor with embarrassment and shame.
Kairi thinks back to her description and inwardly chuckles at her choice of words. Cute, red-haired, and fabulous. Now that she thought about it, it really did sound like how someone would describe her. Perhaps that was why Sora suddenly got all excited earlier, and the thought makes her heart swell.
"Aww, Sora," she coos while placing a hand on his arm. "You think I'm fabulous?"
Sora looks up at her with his jaw agape. "Really? That's what you're going to pick up from my confession? Not even the fact that I'm still hopelessly in love with your dorky and pain in the ass self after all these years?"
From the couch, Xion elbows Selphie in the gut as she holds back a squeal.
"I only said she was fabulous because she's a fashion communications major," Kairi informs while tucking a few strands of hair behind her ears. "But… it also flatters me to know that your feelings are still that strong for me after all this time."
Sora merely shrugs and sends his best friend that infamous goofy grin of his.
"Can't help it, I guess," he admits as he rubs the back of his head sheepishly. A few awkward moments of silence and floor staring pass until Sora decides to speak up again.
"So," he says, looking up at his ex-girlfriend with a smug grin. "The night wasn't a total waste. Half an hour into waiting for my date I ran into my brother and Naminé and shamelessly third wheeled them for the remainder of their date at the restaurant. Naminé then checked her phone and was informed that she missed an emergency meeting."
Kairi's cheeks turn red at Sora's realization.
"Why was such a meeting called, hm?" Sora asks while walking towards Kairi and forcing her back into a wall.
"I, um. Olette's having relationship issues with Hayner," she lies.
"Hey!" Olette exclaims.
"Hun, you have to admit that he is a bit of a loser," Selphie says as she pats Olette's shoulder as a comforting gesture.
"Yeah, I know," the brunette confesses as she sinks back down into the couch.
"I don't think Olette's the one with the problem," Sora says as he continues his advances. "Because last time I checked, emergency meetings were held at the caller's location." Kairi gulps.
"Is this not your apartment, Kairi?" Sora asks, although he already knows the answer. "And are those not your lovely lady friends over there?"
The girls giggle amongst themselves at Sora's unfaltering charm.
"Okay, so I just felt a bit lonely because I was deprived of my usual Saturday night," Kairi admits, refusing to let her voice reveal even the slightest of tremors. She would firmly stand by her beliefs, Sora's confident and hot demeanor be damned.
"I think you were feeling more than… a bit lonely," Sora claims as he teasingly traces her jaw line with his index finger. "Did someone miss me?"
"Not more than I usually do," Kairi answers as she bites her lip in anticipation.
"Really?" Sora asks, raising an eyebrow to test her. "You're in my hoodie, you've got pizza and beer in abundance, the girls are over, and you're watching the fucking Notebook."
Kairi pulls at them hem of her hoodie, now understanding why it had felt so warm and familiar to her earlier. "For the record, I didn't suggest those movies—"
"It doesn't matter," Sora interrupts. "Face it, Kai. You are literally having a pity party because you're jealous."
Kairi scoffs and stubbornly crosses her arms. "Of what?"
"Of my date tonight!" Sora answers with enthusiasm.
"Am not!" Kairi claims. "Why would I be jealous if I'm the one who set it up for you in the first place?"
"Beats the hell out of me," Sora replies as he wipes a hand through his nose and places both his hands on his hips. "Oh, this is rich. You set me up on a date only to have it backfire on you because my lack of presence reminded you of how much you missed having me as your boyfriend. You should have seen the look on your face when you thought my date went terribly earlier. You practically lit up the entire building. You, my dear Kairi, have been in denial this whole time."
"Amen!" Xion preaches. She lowers herself again when Kairi sends her a warning look. After rolling her eyes, Kairi turns her attention back to a—now—smirking Sora.
"Listen, Sora, I don't know what you're getting at, but—"she is cut short by his lips, which descend upon on hers effortlessly and desperately. It's clumsy at first, but because she'd secretly been aching for this for quite some time, Kairi is quick to reacquaint herself with the familiar feeling of his soft lips against hers. Soon enough they are continuing from the level of skill that they had left off at two years ago and the girls behind the couch cheer and wolf-whistle at the show.
When Sora pulls away, he still keeps his best friend close with a protective arm around her waist and she rests her hands on his shoulders near his collarbone that she's just so tempted to lick but no—she will not give in that easily.
"You're not romantic," Kairi reminds with her eyes half-lidded and clouded with desire. "Not even in the least bit."
"I know," Sora whispers as he leans his forehead against hers affectionately. "But I want to try. I really do. I'm not losing you like that again."
Kairi purses her lips to prevent a huge smile from breaking out uncontrollably. "So… what?" she asks, unsure of what to say next.
"So it's not gonna be easy, it's gonna be really hard," Sora answers, reciting the words straight from the movie on her TV with proper pacing. "And we're gonna have to work at this every day but I wanna do that because I want you." He then begins to mimic the arm movements of Ryan Gosling onscreen and speaks with an over-exaggerated pained expression. "I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day."
Kairi laughs into the second kiss that he pulls her in for that night and the girls sigh with delight at the display of affection before them.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" Kairi asks when she pulls away for air.
"Mhm," Sora hums against her lips.
"You don't even want to give Shiki a try?"
Sora groans. "Woman, you really like to test my patience, don't you? But if you must, my lady, let me have a look at this competition of yours."
Kairi brings up her phone from her shorts and pulls up a picture of Shiki on Facebook. Sora lets out a low whistle at the full body picture. She was pretty cute, she did indeed have red hair, and she was undoubtedly fashionable.
"Wow, you were dead on about the rockin' body," Sora admits, and Kairi hits his arm in disapproval. "Ow! Hey, she may have a hot body, and she is pretty cute, and damn, that skirt level shouldn't be allowed in public, but…"
"I know," Kairi sighs. "She's perfect in almost every way possible."
"Well yeah, she's gorgeous," Sora says as Kairi slumps her shoulders in defeat. "But she's got one fatal flaw," Sora whispers as he puts his index finger below her chin. "She's not you, Kairi."
And there it was: the panty dropper.
"You really want this?" Kairi asks again, her entire body aching for his touch.
"Goodness, yes," Sora answers while pulling her to him.
"Get a room!" Selphie screams when Sora manages to wrap Kairi's legs around his waist. The young man sticks out his middle finger in the girls' direction and makes shooing motions before leading himself and Kairi to her bedroom. When the door shut behinds them, Kairi looks at Sora with a sweet smile, attempting to feign innocence.
"So, what do you want to do?" she asks.
"I think I'm going to take my hoodie back," Sora responds as he reaches under the sweater to unclasp Kairi's bra without difficulty. "What do you think?"
Kairi sends him a devious smirk, happily accepting this unexpected twist in the night's events. "I think that's a great idea."
Sora doesn't hesitate to lock the door behind him.
"Great, let's go."
Fun fact: The Hayner bashing is an ongoing joke between me, Redeeming Endeavor, and Jomatto. For some odd reason we all just either hate the guy and/or love shitting on him.
Another fun fact: I've actually never watched The Notebook. Not completely at least.
So I really have no idea where this came from. My cousin's obnoxiously loud voice woke me up too early and since I couldn't go back to sleep I decided to write this instead, lol. I considered letting it collect dust on my laptop because the ending got a little draggy to me but I thought it was a shame to put my afternoon to waste so here we have this cute, red-haired, and fabulous mess. At least you all know I'm not dead.
I've recently moved to a different province to live with my cousins for a few months, so I'm still trying to settle in and whatnot. If you're reading SOTC, the next chapter is about seventy-percent finished, but I really have no idea when I plan on releasing it. In time, you will all understand why my updates are so inconsistent, I promise. Unless, of course, some of you are very keen and figure it out yourself!
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed that hot mess of a one-shot. I'm sorry for any grammatical errors that I might have missed (there was an ungodly amount when I proofread this, yikes), enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll see you next time!
xoKyorii