Author's Note: I'm taking a bit of liberty with the storyline and putting them going to school in Traverse Town. Why? It's a lot cooler than the Destiny Islands. I'm making a lot of stuff up along the way. ^_^

"Ansem, are you watching that girl again?" DiZ said, irritated, as he walked up behind Ansem/Riku. Ansem was watching a screen intently, and as DiZ had suspected, it was that irritating woman. He squinted at it, trying to figure out what she was doing… her position looked vaguely obscene, but it had to be unintentional. Kitty had no idea she had an audience.

At Riku's… Ansem's request, he had set up a monitor on the woman. Grudgingly, very grudgingly, but he had done it. The world she lived in didn't seem to be quite real. In fact, DiZ strongly suspected it had been created from her thoughts and memories. That was worrisome in the extreme. Very few beings had the strength of will to manipulate the darkness that way, and she had done it effortlessly, if it was true. Of course, it was only one theory. Perhaps another entity had created the place for her. That was still worrying, but less so. DiZ shuddered to think of such power in that girl's hands.

"It's not like I have anything else to do." Ansem pointed out reasonably. "Roxas is only at thirty-two percent." He had a smaller monitor set to watch what was happening with Roxas and alert him if he was needed. Turning gold eyes back to the monitor, Ansem rested his chin on his hand. "DiZ… when this is done, I think I'm going to go live with her." He glanced down at his hands. "She won't care about what I look like, or the darkness I've embraced." He thought Kitty's reaction to his new appearance would be to demand to try out his new body immediately. Ansem smiled faintly at the thought.

It was strange and probably less than wise, but Kitty had become a light at the end of the tunnel for him. Sora… he was working to save his best friend, but what would Sora think of him now? He had embraced the darkness and taken on the form of their worst enemy. How could he expect Sora to accept him when he was this tainted?

"Because she's completely amoral." DiZ growled behind him. "Not to mention unpredictable, rude and insane." Ansem smiled faintly. He knew exactly why DiZ couldn't stand Kitty. DiZ disliked things that couldn't be neatly ordered, which was why he quite liked computers… and probably why his work with hearts had gone so badly wrong. Most of the time he could deal with that dislike, but somehow Kitty had rubbed him exactly the wrong way.

"Precisely." He turned to meet DiZ's gaze, until the other looked away. "Was there something you wanted of me?"

"Yes, actually. Roxas has decided to go to the beach. We'll need to prevent that." Ansem listened carefully as DiZ outlined his plan.

He had a lot of work to do before he could return to Kitty's island.

Much later.

In the joy at having his old body and friends back, Riku put Kitty aside for a while… but he couldn't forget about her. She was like a magical fire that could easily burn, but could never be forgotten. Finding her again, though, took some work. If he'd been able to access the corridors of darkness it would have been easy. But he couldn't do that anymore, so he'd had to go at it in a round-about fashion. He'd found the way to Twilight Town in Traverse Town, and made his way to DiZ's lab. Using the equipment there, he'd found the way DiZ had located him in Kitty's realm originally, and replicated that. It had taken some time to do, and he knew Sora and Kairi would be worried about him despite his reassurances before he left… but some things just had to be done.

When he finally got onto the island, he couldn't help but stare, bedazzled. Kitty still had her jeans, but they had been turned into skeletons, hardly more than enough to cover her. Her shirt was gone completely, probably shredded in one of her games, and with no cloth to replace it she had opted to simply go unclothed. Her full body tan was… stunning. Right now she was standing in the water, holding a copper tipped spear and looking intently into the water. As he watched, her hand flashed down and when she lifted it, there was a flopping fish at the end of her spear.

"Kitty!" He called to her and waved. She looked up from her fishing, surprised, and grinned and waved back. She splashed to the shore then stopped for a moment, just looking at him.

Riku hadn't changed a bit that she could see… except that he was wearing new and, in her opinion, better clothes. But the soft silver hair and the beautiful green eyes were just the same, and he was looking fit and healthy. And pleased to see her… that was nice.

"You took your sweet time getting back!" She said teasingly, which made him wince. "Ah, don't worry about it Riku. I haven't been wasting my time." She looked at the portal behind Riku, which was still active. "I'm guessing you're not planning to stay." Riku looked at her, wondering if he heard sadness in her voice. It was hard to tell, since she immediately tossed back her hair and stared at him challengingly. He was moving before he even thought about it, holding her and sliding a hand through that thick, red hair.

"No… but I was hoping you would come with me. I'm going to school in Traverse Town now with Sora and Kairi." It was wonderful to be able to say that. Living on Kitty's island would have been good… but this was great. If she would come with him. "You could go to school too." Kitty wrinkled her nose.

"Learning? What use would I have for that? I can read already, and count up to thirty." Riku blinked. Thirty?

"Can you do multiplication? Division?" He asked cautiously, and Kitty suddenly grinned.

"Oh sure, I'm just using an anti-pregnancy charm. And I can divide anything with my knife." Riku almost choked at that reply, but caught the wicked gleam in her eye. She was teasing him again.

"You know what I mean." He managed to get out, and Kitty shrugged, snuggling up a bit.

"Yeah, you mean sums. No, I can't do sums. Hated them, didn't see any reason to learn." She tapped his chest thoughtfully for a moment. "Sums… this idea is daft, but it sounds like it might be interesting. And the island is starting to get boring. Sure, why not?" Then she kissed him thoroughly.

That was Kitty's answer to everything.

"She can only stay here a week." Riku's aunt told him sharply. "Then she'll need to have her own place."

"Yes auntie." He replied neutrally, and Kitty sneered, playing with the ties of her brand new shirt. Riku poked her in the side with an elbow, and she gave him a look, then pasted on the cheesiest, stupidest looking smile he had ever seen. Fortunately, his aunt had already turned away, but his cousin was sniggering at them.

Riku hadn't wanted to take her to his Aunt's house, but there hadn't been any other options. They were his family here, and had guardianship over him until he was eighteen. Until then, he would endure whatever he needed to. And Kitty would need the week to get on her feet here, although Riku didn't doubt that she could have managed if they had thrown her onto the street immediately. She was that kind of girl.

"I have to go to school," He said to her in an undertone. She leaned close, listening. "Can you meet me on the park at around, um… six?" That would give him plenty of the time to get there. He had to think very hard about how Kitty was going to get an apartment and support herself. Kitty nodded with a smile, running a hand down his back and giving him a tingling feeling in the base of his spine.

"Sure thing. I'll start exploring this place, see what I can do." They left the house together, but separated quickly as Riku went to the school. Kitty wasn't enrolled yet, and there was nothing down there she wanted to see at the moment.

Pausing, Kitty contemplated the world around her, then began wandering. Riku couldn't know, since she hadn't pointed it out to him, but she was from a world that was just starting the jump into the technological revolution. She could recognize the vehicles around her as horseless carriages. The ones with just two wheels were confusing, but clearly a derivate. Traffic lights took a bit of observation, but she figured them out after the first time she almost got hit.

"So what am I going to do around here?" Kitty wondered out loud as she walked, glancing at the stores. Half the merchandise was stuff she couldn't recognize at all. "I'm not giving blow jobs in alley's again, that sucked…" Ignoring a few quizzical looks from other pedestrians, she took a seat on a bench and thought.

Riku assumed that she would get a job as a waitress or clerk at a store, but he didn't understand the realities of Kitty's home world. Where she came from, those were subsistence jobs where you could expect to work from dusk to dawn and earn just enough to put a roof over your head and food in your belly. Clearly that wouldn't work, if she was supposed to go to school with Riku, so she didn't even consider it. She needed something that would make good money without too much time investment. The options that occurred to her were violence, sex and sex appeal. Violence looked to be out, she could tell that this was a respectable place without any real slums. Sex was out. She had a feeling Riku was kind of serious about her, and few men liked having a whore for a girlfriend.

So that left sex appeal. And if Riku didn't like that, he could get stuffed. Grinning, Kitty decided to take the direct route and picked out a prosperous, older looking man to accost.

"Hey, sir? Would you happen to know the name of the best gentleman's club in town." He looked confused, and she added helpfully. "You know, the type where the girls dance."

"Oh! Err… that would be the Black Kitty Club, down on Diagon Way." She got a few directions, then walked off humming.

She had a plan.

At the beach.

Kitty kicked the soft dirt with a toe as she leaned against the tree. She hadn't managed to get into too much trouble, although she had stolen a few things. Surreptitious stealing wasn't her usual thing… she preferred the gangland approach her first boyfriend had taught her… but a girl needed spending money and Riku had forgotten to give her some.

Assuming he had any. Kitty's brow creased as she thought about it, and she groaned. Her island had freed her of the tyranny of money, but now she was back on that treadmill.

"Oh well." She mumbled to herself. "At least it's interesting." She really had been running out of things to do on the island. Kitty didn't bore easily, but she could make it there eventually.

"Kitty!" She turned her head with a smile at the familiar voice. Riku was really starting to grow on her. He jogged up, two other people behind him… a girl with auburn hair who seemed to favor pink, and a boy with absurdly spiky brown hair. She pushed herself away from the tree, grinning as he put an arm around her shoulders. "Kitty, these are my friends, Sora and Kairi. Sora, Kairi, this is my girlfriend Kitty." The girl seemed surprised but pleased, and the boy… Kitty eyed him thoughtfully as Sora went through several expressions quickly and finally settled on shock.

"Riku, you have a girlfriend? That's wonderful!" Kairi offered a hand to shake, and Kitty clasped it firmly with a smile. "Welcome to Traverse Town. We're all a bit new here, but we're making friends already. We can introduce you as soon as you enroll." Kairi clearly wanted to make her feel welcome, and Kitty's eyes twinkled as she smiled.

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that." And she would. Getting in trouble was a lot more fun when you had friends who were willing to hold your coat as you kicked in the doors to Hell. Of course, she didn't know if their friends would be like that, but there was no way to know but go. "Oh, Riku, I've got a job."

"Already?" He sounded surprised, and she nodded.

"Yeah, and one of the girls there offered to put me up if I could pay part of the rent, so I think I'm set." Riku blinked at her.

"Wow… you're fast. I wasn't even sure what you could get a job doing. Where are you going to be working?"

"The Black Kitty Club." Kitty grinned, wondering if any of them would have any idea what it was. Apparently not, because they accepted it without question. "I'm an entertainer." Which was certainly true. "I'll be making seven bucks an hour plus tips."

"That's great!" Riku cuddled her for a moment, and Kitty melted against him, running a finger down his chest. She caught an odd expression on Sora's face for a moment, but it was gone almost instantly. "Lets go out and celebrate. My aunt gave me some spending money." Kitty grinned at him.

"That would be great, since you forgot to give me any money and I'm starving." The little bit of money she had gotten from her thefts had gone to lunch, and it was wearing thin. Riku looked startled, then ashamed.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kitty. There's a little café we can go to…" He took her hand, and they started walking, with Sora and Kairi following.

Riku was glad his friends and new girlfriend seemed to be getting along. He hadn't caught the nuances Kitty was picking up at all.