"Kairiiii…I'm trying to read…"
"But 'Zoeey, I wanna plaaay!"
"I'm never going to be a supergenius scientist if I don't study, though…"
A glossy pink bottom lip pushed itself out into a pout and large indigo doe-eyes began to glisten with crocodile tears in the candlelight of the Hollow Bastion Castle library. Her sad, blue gaze was matched with a narrow turquoise stare, growing softer and guiltier by the second as the small redhead choked out a sniffle and a whimper.
"…okay, don't cry! I'll…study later," the bespectacled blunet relented, snapping the large tome in his lap shut - the thing had to be bigger than his head, honestly - and pushing it up onto the desk before hopping out of his chair and taking hold of the little girl's hand. "What do you want to play?" he asked, soft voice becoming a loud, looped echo in the vast room.
That creamy pale face once on the brink of sobs lit up with a renewed happiness, a simple bliss brought on only by the presence of a friend or the offer of a cookie. "We should play hide'n'seek, 'Zoey!" She smiled broadly, but as he opened his mouth to reply, it turned back into a pout and she shook her head, cropped auburn locks swaying this way and that. "No, wait. I wanna play with your hair!" decided the fickle child as if she had never first offered the game of hide and seek.
She smiled again and circled around behind the twilight-haired boy, hair looking more silvery in the candlelight than Kairi had ever seen it. Plopping down on the floor, she then turned expectant blue-violet eyes on her companion, who gave a small sigh and gave in to sitting in front of her, back turned so his long hair was exposed and defenseless to the little girl clad in white and purple.
Kairi giggled a shrill, excited laugh and undid the tie keeping the ponytail together, snapping it around her wrist before burying her fingers in the soft locks of indigo.
This resumed for a long time, Kairi merely running her fingers through the girlishly long strands (longer than her own, which was probably why she loved them so much) and her friend counting the books along the shelves with almost fluorescent orbs of aquamarine. Then the motions stopped briefly and a small voice - a voice that he had only ever heard once before, and that was when her mother had died - squeaked out to him, "…'Zoey? Will we always be best friends?"
He glanced over his shoulder at the solemn little redhead, once bursting with energy but now deflated and limp like a flower in a drought. "Of course we will," he answered easily, scooting across the floor so he was next to Kairi. Again, she perked up as easily as that, and let out a happy squeal before throwing her arms around the poor blunet's neck, knocking him from his sitting position and consequently sprawling them both out on the dusty floor of the library.
"Ienzo!" called a deep voice, knocking the pair from their fantasyland reverie as they looked towards the door that the booming summon seemed to be entering from. "It's time to go home!"
They both frowned and the young male looked up at Kairi, who was still clinging to him like he were the favorite stuffed animal she had lost years ago. A very simple sadness flitted across her face, but soon the corners of her lips lifted into a tiny smile and she gave him another brief snuggle, burying her head in the front of his grayed turtleneck sweater. "You're gonna be back t'morrow, right?" the muffled question came from through the fabric of the article of clothing, warm breath tickling the skin underneath.
"I will. But I gotta go now…" He sat up, Kairi crawling off to the side to allow him to stand. He offered a hand to her, which she took and pulled herself up with, giving him one last hug before he exited the library, leaving the small girl to find her grandmother in the wide castle on her own.