The day started out like any other. Wake up, have a shower, watch a little TV while eating breakfast, then maybe a little Myspace or a walk with the dog. Then get dressed, straighten her hair, put on her makeup and catch the bus into town. If she arrived early, she might do a little window shopping or head to work and take a seat in the café she worked at and wait for her shift to begin.
Destiny Café was one of the only café's on this side of Destiny Island. It was quite large, with several private booths and even a small function room for birthdays and weddings and such. It was also the best place for any teenager to work, because the hours were good, the pay was better and the boss was super nice. Quite frankly, Kairi considered herself lucky to work there and she always made sure she was on time and presentable. The waiting list for employment was three whole pages long, and she did not want to screw with that.
Today, however, the bus was late because it missed a stop and had to double back to pick up the passengers and one of them had yelled at him for five minutes. Kairi rushed in through the doors at 12:05, frantically made her excuses to her coworkers, went into the back, tied her hair into a loose ponytail and pulled an apron over her head and proceeded to look about for an odd job to keep busy with.
Destiny was busy today. All of the booths were occupied and many of the tables were taken. The roar of the coffee machine could just be heard over the din of the customers and the scraping of chairs and plates.
One of the free front tables was covered in salt, sugar crystals and a puddle of coffee, so she began to rapidly wipe down the table, cursing at the messy occupant in her head. Really, did they have to practically empty the salt shaker onto the table? And was it possible to put the coffee into their mouth instead of everywhere else? Some people really need to go back to kindergarten etiquette classes.
"Can I sit there?" A voice interrupted her thoughts. Kairi looked up to spot a thin girl of about her age, standing on the other side of the table. Icy blue eyes glinted beneath golden blonde hair that fell past her collar. She was wearing a white sun dress with a bunch of colourful butterflies stitched to the bottom half, and a silver butterfly charm hung around her throat. Her skin was very pale for someone on an island. However, deep shadows hung under her eyes and her posture seemed to sag a little bit.
Kairi paused as she looked the other girl up and down.
"Uh, sure." With one last irritable flick at the salt on the table, Kairi grabbed a menu out of her apron and handed it to the girl, who was taking the seat opposite.
As she handed her the menu, she noticed the other girl's fingernails for the first time. They were very long and rounded off, almost making her feel a little inferior with her broken, bitten-down fingernails. Also, they were painted a bright green.
Green fingernails? That's a new one. Kairi mused to herself as she made her way back to the kitchen.
When she got behind the counter, a tired-looking coworker pushed her in the direction of the cash register. Kairi began to ask people for their orders, write them down and hand them to the girl behind her who was feverishly churning out cups of coffee by the coffee machine. She took money, counted it quickly, shoved it in the cash register and dispensed change where necessary.
The job was really easy. She didn't have to do much thinking to do a good job, unlike the poor girl strapped to the coffee machine. How terrible that job was – shake of sugar, give it a stir, froth the milk, dump that in, put in the hot water and try not to burn yourself on the steam, watch the level now, oh no, too much froth, scrape a bit off, crap, now there's not enough, oh well, next cup. Shake of sugar –
"Huh?" Kairi said, realizing that she had zoned out.
"I said I would like a donut with that, please." The blonde girl from before glared across the counter at her.
"Yes! A donut, of course. Anything, um, else?" She scribbled it down, hoping that was it and that this angry girl would leave her alone.
"No, I would also like a cashier that's paying me a little attention, but we can't have everything we want." She snapped, icy eyes narrowed into a seriously scary death glare.
Kairi felt dumbfounded. How rude could a person get? She inwardly sighed and mentally smacked herself over the head. Bad Kairi! The customer is always right!
"I'm sorry about that, err, how about extra donuts to make up for my blunder?" She asked hopefully, pen in hand. As a rule, she wasn't supposed to hand out extras, but she was scared that the girl might learn over the counter and strangle her if she didn't.
The blonde girl waved her hand absently, glancing in the other direction. "Sure, whatever makes you feel better."
"Uh huh." Kairi muttered, scrawling on her notepad, before tearing the page off and handing it to the girl behind her. Extra froth, okay?
"That comes to six dollars." Kairi smiled at the other girl, who pushed a crumpled tenner at her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she rapidly straightened it out and shoved it in the register. Looking up, she expected to see the next customer, but instead the blonde girl glared at her again.
"Yes?" Kairi asked, hesitantly. Oh god, what do you want now?
"My change. You forgot my change."
Oh, hell!
Apologizing profusely, Kairi ripped the change out of the register and practically threw it at the other girl. The girl, not expecting an aerial coinage attack, put her hand up in front of her face, sending the coins bounding off her and flying all over the floor.
When the blonde girl lowered her hand, her face was a mixture of fury and disgust, making Kairi cringe. She turned away and spat a small coin onto the floor.
A moment's silence swept the shop, and Kairi felt that everyone within a one-mile radius had stopped, turned and stared at her. It felt like the earth had stopped turning. She could feel the stunned glances of her coworkers burning into the back of her skull, and she could see the furious glare of the blonde girl in front of her.
"Oops?" Kairi muttered.
---
A roar of laugher was her response.
"You're such an idiot! Did you get fired?" Her brunette friend asked, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes as he clung onto the tree for dear life.
Kairi's arms folded and she glared at him. "Could you please be a little considerate? You asked me what was bothering me and I told you and – stop laughing!"
Sora, the brunette boy with blue eyes sitting on the tree that bent sideways, coughed a few times and straightened up a little. "Okay, I stopped, but lighten up, Kairi! Nothing bad came of it, right?" He stood up and began to pace the length of the tree "So, you pissed off a customer and embarrassed yourself in front of a shop full of people and you probably got a cut in your pay check, but oh well, life does go on."
"Kairi's right, you know." Said a silver haired boy learning against a nearby palm tree. "Don't be inconsiderate."
Sora stopped and sent a glare in the direction of the slightly older boy lounging against the tree "What's up your arse today, anyway?"
The boy, Riku, ignored Sora and turned to Kairi. "So she was blonde and wearing a white dress with butterflies on it?"
Kairi nodded. "Did you run into her?"
Riku shrugged "I didn't run into her, but the door I was holding did."
"You slammed a door in her face? Way to go, chauvinist."
Riku shoved Sora roughly, sending him sprawling off the tree and into the sand. "Well, I was walking into the library today, and I noticed that there was someone behind me. I didn't want to let the door slam in their face, so I gave the door and extra push to give them time to get inside before it closed, but it swung around and smacked them in the face. I turned to say sorry to this really angry-looking blonde girl in a white dress, but she slapped me and pushed past."
Kairi's hand went over her mouth as she listened. Damn, that poor girl really was having a rough day.
"So Kairi, you didn't get fired?" Sora asked as he clambered back onto the tree.
"No, I just got 'theraputical leave', meaning half of my shifts got cut." Kairi said, gesturing the quotation marks "The boss said I was stressed from working so much."
"Well that sucks, but at least you have more time to spend with us, right?" Sora reasoned, trying to catch his balance on the tree again. Kairi had to nod in agreement.
The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about in the shade, talking and laughing, and finally a sparring match between Riku and Sora, the loser having to climb up a tree, fetch a coconut and crack it open for them to eat. In a stunning turn of events, Riku tripped over a rock, lost his balance and fell from the island into the water. Kairi, acting as the judge, disqualified Riku and announced Sora as the winner. Riku, cursing colourfully, found a good coconut and had it cracked in a matter of minutes, and the tree of them shared the milk and ate the meat together while watching the sunset.
It was later revealed that Kairi had disqualified Riku because it usually took Sora half an hour to crack a coconut, and he usually spilled all of the milk and got sand all through the meat in the process.
As good as the afternoon was, Kairi couldn't help but shake the blonde girl's angry glare from her mind. Somehow she knew that she would be seeing the girl again. She did, and sooner than she thought, but under circumstances she would never expect.
---
Author's Notes: I used to hate Kairi with a fiery passion, but as I've matured I've come to see the ignorant bundle of skanky goodness that is Kairi with some amount of affection.
But only if she isn't paired with Sora.
I dunno how, but I somehow figured that Kairi/Naminé was a good pairing. It may have a little to do with some real life events, but whatever. I'm already four chapters into this fic and not showing and signs of slowing down, so sit back and enjoy the Yuri goodness.
This is based (however faintly) on a true story, like a lot of my fics. As a result, I tend to get the real people mixed up with the pretend people, and some characters may appear slightly OOC, so forgive me for that. (I might tell the original story at the end, if you're good. It's actually quite a doozy.)
Please enjoy and review – any and all feedback is muchly loved.