Disclaimer: If I owned anything of Kingdom Hearts, Axel would still be alive.

"And so then she says to me-Sora…? Sora, no wait, would you get back here? We were having a serious-"

"HERE KITTY KITTY!"

"Sora, you're scaring it! Stop, it's going to-"

"HEEEEEERE KITTY!"

Sora Harada bolted down the streets, his friend Kairi Flynn rushing after him, trying to get him to slow down before he tripped and broke something.

"Sora, you know what your mom is going to say when-"

"It went around that way, Sora!" an older gentleman called from his front yard, pointing across the street-the cat had cut across that yard and dashed between houses. As Sora called his thanks, Kairi gave the man an exasperated look, but only got a sheepish grin and shrug in response; this happened no less than three times a week, after all, and there were several people in the neighborhood who looked forward to Sora's antics.

"Kairi, I see it!" Sora called over his shoulder, a look of dogged determination in his eyes as he gained on the pathetic looking ball of fluff in front of them. He was right, too; it looked like the cat was running out of steam and fast.

"Sora… Ah, I can't breathe! How do you run like this?" Kairi gasped, holding her side as a stitch formed and steadily dropping behind until her best friend was finally out of sight, still calling for the cat. Sighing, she pulled out her cell phone, sent a text to Mrs. Harada, and glanced up as two water bottles were held out to her, one of her neighbors trying hard to hide her smile.

"He's… very lively, isn't he?" she said, and Kairi could only roll her eyes, that infectious smile spreading to her as well, making her laugh as she pocketed her cell phone once more and grabbed the bottles.

"Thanks, Mrs. Davies. Yeah, lively is… Lively is one way to put it, I guess. You know how he is with cats, though, and there's supposed to be a storm tonight, so he's super determined. I'm going to go find him now, make sure that he wasn't hit by a car."

"The cat?"

"No, Sora." With a grin and a wave, Kairi darted off after the brunet, leaving Mrs. Davies to shake her head as she headed back into her house.

Riku Masaki grumbled as he pulled yet another box with his name on it out of the moving truck. There was literally no way all this had fit into his room. Larxene must have written his name on the kitchen boxes; she was just malicious enough to do that, knowing that he would want nothing to do with unpacking the rest of the house once his stuff was out. It didn't help that he could finally see the ones he'd labeled 'IMPORTANT.' All the way in the back of the truck.

"Bitch," he grumbled, carting his load upstairs and dropping it unceremoniously (none of his stuff was breakable, after all, and if something of hers broke, well… she really couldn't blame anyone but herself). The thought brought a grin to his lips and he skipped down the stairs with a bit more bounce in his step, pleased to see that there was enough cleared out of the truck now that he could grab some boxes he knew were his. It took some fancy maneuvering, but finally he emerged victorious, though before he could make it even halfway to his door, he was distracted by someone yelling. Whoever it was sounded pretty frantic, too.

His aquamarine eyes scanned the street and finally came to rest on the source of the noise: a boy about his age was chasing… something. A cat, maybe? Before he could quite put it together, the cat darted between his legs and he wobbled a bit, startled as he tried to regain his footing.

He would have been able to, he was positive, but then the crazy kid chasing the damn cat careened into him (too late, he realized that he'd switched from yelling "HERE KITTY!" to "HEY! HEY, LOOK OUT!") and they both went flying. Riku lost his breath as he hit the ground hard, his box flying out of his arms and scattering its contents all over the yard. The spiky haired brunet landed sprawled over him, breathing hard as he apparently tried to regain his bearings, and Riku really got a look at him as he scrambled up, blushing and stuttering.

This boy was beautiful.

"No, no, it's… it's fine…" Riku mumbled, still a little dumbstruck-he was probably staring, hell, he was probably drooling, but he couldn't help it.

"I… um… uh… S-sorry!" the boy cried, and just as quickly as he came, he was running off again, calling out to the cat as he made his way down the street. As he lay in the middle of his yard, his back and head sore from their impact, his things still scattered in the grass, he came to an abrupt conclusion.

Riku Masaki was pretty sure he was in love.

"Are you the first casualty?"

Riku blinked as yet another person appeared in his yard, a girl this time, looking down at where he was still sprawled with an unmistakable air of amusement.

"Huh?" he responded intelligently.

"Are you the first casualty? When Sora gets like this, it's normal to find things laying about that he sort of plows over. Usually it's fences or mailboxes; I think this is the first time he's actually taken out a person," she said, grinning widely as she held out a hand, reaching down to help Riku to his feet. "I'm Kairi, by the way."

"Do you always get stuck on clean-up duty?" the silveret joked, and Kairi snorted.

"Pretty much."

"Lucky you. I'm Riku, by the way. His name is Sora, you said?" Something in his voice must have given him away because the auburn-haired girl smirked, giving him a knowing look.

"Yep. Sora Harada. Lives a few houses down from you, actually, and he has an older brother that I'd watch out for. And a thing for cats. And boys with long hair. You've got a good shot," Kairi said, and, seeing that Riku was effectively embarrassed, laughed as she ran after Sora once more.

Sora very nearly collapsed as he finally caught up with the stray cat, but his gasps were gasps of triumph. He gathered up the cat in his arms and turned victoriously to head back home, and when Kairi finally caught up to him, her face as red as her hair and her breath ragged, he ignored her glare and instead cried, "Look! I caught her!"

"Him."

"Him! And now we're all going to go home. Come on, Kairi, you slowpoke." Smiling that smile that he knew his best friend could never be angry at, Sora skipped off towards his house. It didn't take them long to get back, and though he tried so hard to sneak in with the kitty, his elder brother still managed to catch him as he was on his way upstairs.

"Mom said no, Sor," Leon stated, glancing at his younger sibling as Sora, with the cat bundled up under his jacket (it ended up making him look pregnant, which was, quite possibly, more conspicuous than if he'd just carried it in), climbed the stairs to his room.

"Leeooonnnn, don't tell her! It's supposed to storm tonight, and she's-"

"He's."

"He's just a kitten! He could die out there!" Sora pleaded, and when he pouted and Leon pinched the bridge of his nose, he knew he'd won.

"Just keep it out of my sight, so when I have to lie and say I haven't seen it, there's at least a small modicum of truth in there. Kairi, keep an eye on him. Them," Leon grumped, and as Sora celebrated as he climbed the stairs, Kairi saluted.

"So…" Kairi said as she closed the door, reaching to pet the cat that was happily twining around her legs now that Sora had put him down.

"So?" he asked, pulling his homework out of his backpack and waiting for his best friend to do the same.

"I saw that you left some wreckage in your wake," she started, pulling her algebra book out of her bag and grinning as Sora grimaced, heaving a sigh as he set down their literature book and grabbed his, as well. If they didn't do it first, she knew he'd find a way to avoid it. Sometimes it sucked to have a friend he'd known for going on nine years.

"Oh? I didn't think I took out any fences or anything this time," Sora mused as he flipped through the textbook.

"You didn't. You took out a hot guy," the redhead replied, grinning when Sora blushed deeply and laughed, the sound a little strained.

"Oh! Oh, that guy. I forgot all about him! Was he hot? I didn't even notice! Oh my gosh, would you look at this math problem? Wow, this is going to take us an entire night of silence to finish, without the mention of the really hot guy that I ran over! Man, what a shame," Sora said in a tone of voice that clearly said the topic was closed.

Kairi decided to be tone deaf. "Yeah, his name is Riku, actually. Just moved in down the road from here. Did you get a good look at him? I swear to god, his eyes-"

"Kairi."

"It was like looking into the ocean, wasn't it? And all that hair… so long and pretty-"

"Kairi."

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I rambling? Jeez, it must be so embarrassing, knowing that you just sort of mowed him down like that-"

"I swear to you, Kairi Ann Flynn, I know where you sleep and I happen to be on very good terms with your brother," Sora growled, and Kairi laughed.

"Don't bring him into this. You know he wouldn't touch me!" she teased, to which Sora cocked an eyebrow.

"Not even if he were led to believe that you'd insulted his precious Roxas?"

"… You are a cruel person, Sora Harada. Come on, this homework won't do itself, I guess." With a defeated sigh, Kairi flipped to the assignment and started working. Sora beamed.

"That's the spirit."

NOTES This is my second (hopefully more successful) attempt at a KH fanfic, and seeing as how this one actually has a plot from the get-go, things are already looking up. There are a few cliched ideas in here, but at this point, there isn't much of a way to avoid it, now is there? My hope is that you, darling readers, can overlook them and see the story for what it truly is: a good excuse to see what should have been in Kingdom Hearts from the beginning. :D

Review if it strikes your fancy; I love con/crit, and I love even more knowing what you lovelies would like to see. The plot is developed, you see, but how we get there is still up in the air.

Here's to you, dear readers.