Good evening, fanfiction readers! Here is what I'm going to call my final "prep chapter" before the actual convention begins. While not much will be happening with this update, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. I own nothing in this franchise.

Downstairs, there were several hotel guests picking up breakfast items in the dining area: a good handful of them in colorful costumes. It was down here at a couple of tables that Sora and his friends watched the people walking by.

"Whoa! Check out that guy with metal arm!" Sora exclaimed as he pointed out a cosplayer with a red coat and blond wig. Before his friends could comment, his head whipped around as he spotted another interesting costume and said, "Whoa! How do you get away with wearing so little at these things?"

As Xion giggled at his antics and Roxas rolled his eyes, Kairi simply sighed and said, "Sora, you might want to eat before getting too excited over there."

Sheepishly, the young boy turned around and grabbed the donut he had picked up earlier. "R-Right. Thanks, Kairi. I guess seeing everyone in here makes me curious to see the rest of this convention."

As he began to scarf down his food, Kairi said, "Okay, but try not to rush through breakfast, okay? It's not like the convention has legs and is getting ready to run away from us."

"Yeah, and besides, if you keep eating like that, you're gonna end up choking," Roxas added, a little disgusted with how Sora was stuffing his face with a second donut.

Turning to his former nobody, Sora, with unchewed food still in his mouth, said, "Oh, come on, Roxas. I'm not that ca-"

Suddenly, he coughed hard and grabbed his glass of milk to clear his throat. As Kairi and Xion looked at him in concern, Roxas said, "There you go. What did I just say?"

Sora chose not to comment to this, instead taking deep breaths. "Man, went down the wrong pipe for a minute there…"

While they ate, Riku simply watched his friends' antics while eating a croissant. After a moment, he turned to Namine and asked, "So, are you excited for the convention?"

"Well, I have to admit, it is a little exciting to know what's going to happen," she replied quietly, cradling a cup of orange juice.

"I still can't believe what you girls did to Ven," Terra mumbled before finishing his coffee. "Seriously, how do you come up with something like that?"

Namine gave out a small giggle before saying, "Yes, it is a little strange, isn't it? From what I've heard, though, a lot of people at conventions cross-dress. When I shared that information with Kairi, she really wanted to see one of you guys cross-dress." After watching their other friends for a bit, the young blond dropped her voice before saying, "In fact, she was almost tempted to have Sora do it instead."

As Riku nearly spat out his drink, Terra raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Really now?"

The three of them observed Sora, now back to cheerfully eating after clearing his throat, and after a while, Riku commented, "Well, I guess I can see why. Compared to the rest of us guys, he is a little on the short side."

"Not to mention he is lacking in muscles," Terra added casually. "So, what made her not pick him?"

"Well, the four of us girls talked about it for a while. In the end, though, as much as Kairi wanted to pick Sora, we all agreed that Ventus had the better type of eyes suited for cross-dressing."

"Hm…" The two boys thought about this new information quietly, neither of them knowing what to make of it at first. Before either of them could make a comment towards that, Aqua came into the lobby, a little bit of blush added. Noticing her, Terra said, "Oh, hey Aqua. Finished?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I set a couple plates aside for you and Ven. I wasn't sure what you guys would want, so I just got some toast and eggs."

"Thanks, Terra."

Axel entered a few seconds after, now with make-up on his face that made him appear to have a stitched mouth and much bigger eyes. As Ventus clung onto him, hiding himself behind the taller man as much as he could, Axel gave a big toothy grin and said, "Hello! What are the breakfast options?"

"Well, Roxas and I got some scrambled eggs," Xion piped up. "There's also some cereal, donuts, bagels, croissants, and several different drink options."

"Great! I hope there's some leftover coffee."

As a few of his friends rolled their eyes at his response, Riku took note of the frightened boy behind Axel and said, "Hey, Ventus, do you wanna show us how Aqua fixed you up?"

"I don't know…" Ventus mumbled.

"Come on, Ven, the worst of it is over," Terra said calmly. "It can't be any more embarrassing than when you first stepped out in that dress, right?"

"But it's still embarrassing!"

"Well, you can't cling onto me forever, pal," Axel said teasingly. "Everyone's going to see you anyways; might as well get it over with now."

"I don't know... You guys are just going to laugh at me..."

"We won't laugh at you, Ven," Kairi said reassuringly. "We know this is awkward enough for you as it is. And plus, think of it this way; after you show us how you look, walking around in front of strangers will seem easy."

"That's easy for you to say, Kairi. You aren't wearing something totally ridicu- AH!"

"Gotcha!"

Unknown to the other heroes of light, Sora, without alerting anyone else, had gotten up from his seat and snuck over towards Ventus and Axel. Once he knew they were distracted, he had grabbed Ventus and pulled him out from behind his human shield. Now that Ventus was out in the open, everyone else could see that Aqua had spruced up his face with some light blush, bringing some nice color to his face, and that his wig had been straightened out so that the blond locks looked pretty identical to Princess Aurora's. After a slight pause in shock, Ventus looked towards his friend and shouted, "Sora!"

Sora just gave a mischievous grin, resting his hands behind his head, and shrugged as if saying "I had no choice". Meanwhile, Kairi and Xion both exclaimed, "Awww!" with Kairi throwing in, "You're so cute, Ven!"

Meanwhile, the guys stared back wordlessly for a while. Eventually, words did come out. The first to speak up was Terra, who merely whispered out, "Whoa…"

"Yeah, whoa indeed," Roxas murmured in response. "If I didn't know it was you under that wig, I'd swear you were a real girl."

"Yeah, Aqua, that make-up work you did was incredible!" Riku told the older woman, admittedly impressed.

As he heard all of these comments, Ventus's already rosy cheeks from the added blush turned even more red in embarrassment. Sensing his discomfort, Sora looked at him and said softly, "Hey, Ven. It's okay. Now that everyone's seen you, it'll be easier now."

Sora watched his friend give a quiet little nod. Seeing this as a good response, Sora smiled and added, "Besides, you really do look great."

"Mm… Thanks, Sora," Ventus mumbled before letting out a small breath and straightening up. Before grabbing his breakfast, he turned back to Sora and gave a small smile. Aqua and Axel followed suit and grabbed some breakfast before sitting with the rest of their friends.

After everyone got seated and was eating, Axel asked, "So, how big is this convention thing anyways?"

"Well, since the people running it reserved this entire hotel for the people attending and the map online showed that two buildings are being used for the actual convention, I'm guessing it's pretty big," Namine responded. "So, I think it would be best for all of us to have at least one person to stay with in case we get separated."

"That sounds like a good idea," Riku said, resting his chin on his hand. "I'm guessing we're pairing off based on our costumes?"

"That's right," Aqua answered with a nod. Calmly, she turned to Axel and said, "Lea, you aren't really paired with anyone in terms of costumes, so you should pick someone to travel with."

"Thanks, Aqua," Axel said with a grin, looking a bit more malevolent than usual, thanks to the make-up. "Personally, I would want to just wander between you guys all day, but maybe I'll just hang around my best pal to see how he does on his first date."

"It's not a date, Axel," Roxas exclaimed with a frown and a slightly red tint on his face.

"Sure, pal. Suuuuure."

As Axel gave a knowing smirk, Roxas's frown deepened, and a glare entered his eyes. "Don't give me that look."

As the two of them exchanged quiet looks with each other, everyone else discussed their plans about who would stick with who. While everyone would try to stay together throughout this convention, they acknowledged that some people would want to do different things. So, Sora and Kairi would be one pair, Riku and Xion would be another, Roxas and Namine would be the third pair, and Terra, Ventus and Aqua would be one big group. Once they managed to get their plans in order, Sora got up after finishing his food and said, "Alright, guys! Let's go!"

After taking Kairi's hand, he eagerly began to exit the dining area, leaving his friends to quickly get up and rush after him. While everyone had different thoughts running through their minds, everyone knew one thing for certain: the weekend of their first anime convention had finally begun.

Well, there we go. Like I said, this is the last "prep chapter". With the next chapter, we'll get to see the KH cast going through typical convention things. I don't want to make any promises (since at this point, I have no pre-typed chapters left for this story), but I will do my best to get the next chapter ready by next Sunday. I hope you enjoyed this update, and have a great night!