Namine held her phone in confusion as she tried calling her sister, but for some reason, she was not picking up. It was currently two in the afternoon, and her plan with the Roxas guy was at three; she still didn't know if she could go with them, and she really, really wanted to go with them. She had gone up to her dorm room to check if she had slept in, but she was perplexed to see only Xion answer the door.
"After she stormed out last night, I have no idea where she is right now," Xion admitted. However, that was all she offered before shutting the door on Namine-which Namine thought was a little bit rude. But being the person who saw the good in everyone, she just shrugged the matter off. Maybe she just woke up.
Now she was just scouting around the clock tower of the school like a lost sheep, trying to find where her sister was. Her delusions began to get wild as her imaginative mind started to wonder into depths it shouldn't have.
"What if she got kidnapped?" Namine pondered as she held her chin. "Or maybe she got mixed in with the bad people at night?" Namine, suddenly realizing the seriousness of the situation, began calling her sister again and whirled around to go head off to the administration office to report a missing person. However, she headbutted against someone's chest and nearly fell backwards and dropped her phone in the process.
"Oops, sorry."
"Shoot, I wasn't looking at where I was going. Sorry." As her phone rang, she looked up to see who she bumped into and was quite surprised to clash with the person she was going to see in an hour right in front of her. A look of recognition passed by his face before he smiled kindly at her. He mouthed a greeting, not wanting to bother her phone call. She offered a small, polite smile in return before sighing and ending the call when it went straight to Kairi's voicemail.
"Namine?" Namine blinked as she looked at him.
He's pretty cute.
"The one and only. Roxas?" He nodded, shook hands with her, and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. He then scanned the area before looking back at her.
"Looking for your sister?" Namine nodded, feeling a bit shy. She had not really talked to him, but Kairi was right when she said he was extraordinarily friendly-a little bit too friendly to the point where she didn't feel too awkward talking to him, and she was awkward with almost every guy.
"I have received no signs of life from her the whole day, which is extremely weird."
"Huh. She's not at the dorm?"
"Yeah. I'm kind of worried." Roxas rubbed the back of his neck in thought, trying to see if there was any reason for the redhead to be missing.
"She's usually quick at replying back by phone, so that's kind of weird, but if I hear no signs of life from her by three, then we can do something about it." Namine felt uneasy at the option of continuing to wait, but Roxas's calmness convinced her otherwise.
"Alright, then. By the way..."
"Yes?"
"Can I go?" He laughed before giving her a thumbs up.
~.~.~
"C'mon, Kai," he chuckled as he pushed her onto his bed. "You're such a shy girl." Kairi blushed as he climbed over her, his dark eyes gazing into her own. However, despite the fluttering feeling in her chest, it felt...
Wrong.
"Wait, Van," Kairi murmured into his shoulder as he buried his face into the crook of her neck. She giggled slightly when his hair tickled her, but that didn't stop her from gently pushing him back up. He didn't fight against it, but he didn't look too happy about it either.
"What is it?" His smile morphed into a small frown as he stared at her. Kairi swallowed the nervous lump in her throat before sitting up against his bed post. She twiddled her fingers, something she always did whenever she was conflicted.
"I think we're moving a little bit too fast." Vanitas clicked his tongue in disappointment, something she really didn't want to see.
"We've been together for over a year and a half already. What are you talking about?" Slightly perturbed at his logic, she returned his frown with her own.
"I don't think that determines anything." He gave her an odd look before closing in on her and kissing her. She closed her eyes-a bit unwillingly-but immediately shot them back open and pushed him away a little bit rougher when she felt his hand creep underneath her shirt.
"Van, I'm serious." Her parents had yet to find out about him, and she was scared to introduce him to them too-he didn't have the qualities of a person her parents would exactly approve of. Doing stuff behind their backs just increased the guilt, and using her friends as an escape method also made her feel sick to the stomach sometimes too. If they did anything more than whatever they were used to, she wouldn't be able to live without a heavy burden on her shoulders.
Vanitas's face hardened before he retracted himself away from her and sat on the edge of the bed. Instantly, she felt guilty towards him too.
"Whatever."
"Van-" she reached out towards him, but he only avoided her touch. A strike of pain ran through her chest as they sat in deafening silence. He sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and turned back towards her with a weak smile.
"Sorry." He turned back towards her and cupped her cheek, already seeing the tears of hurt forming around her eyes. He laughed softly before pulling her in for a hug. Kairi held onto his shirt and felt a sense of relief run through her as he gently stroked her hair.
But that was just a premonition of the worst that was yet to come.
"Get up." Kairi awoke in a shock as she felt something soft hit her head.
The first thing she noticed was the hard platform she was on, and it took her a while to realize that she was flat on the floor. Moving her limbs, she immediately felt the ache in them as she tried to turn on her side, only for the blanket-which seemed to weigh one thousand pounds-to make it difficult for her. The second thing she noted was that the blanket did not smell like her at all.
What the fuck?
Of course, the last and most striking thing she noticed was the big, enormous headache that drilled through her skull. Propping herself up by the elbows, she managed to rip herself free from the heavy blankets and sat up against the foot of the sofa. Noticing the pillow that was thrown at her, she frowned. She then looked around and began to panic when she did not recognize her surroundings.
What in the flipping bats did I do yesterday?
"Your first hangover. Wonderful, isn't it?" She let out a sharp intake of breath and whipped her head forward towards the voice and paled when she saw Sora standing near the entryway that led to the kitchen. At that second, a million thoughts-mostly questions-raced through her head.
Dressed in his casual attire, Sora merely leaned against the side and looked at her with pure, taunting amusement. He waved the water bottle in his hand to warn her before he threw it at her. Catching it, she instantly relished the feeling of the coldness of the bottle in her hand, but her mind began to go haywire as she tried to remember what in the world led to this.
"W-why?" was all she managed to stutter out as he came towards her. In one swift motion, he ripped the blankets away from her and folded it into neat squares before setting it off to the side. She looked down at her clothes and felt slightly relieved that everything was intact. He caught her motion and smirked.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but nothing happened." She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Yuck. If anything did happen, I would have to bathe myself in boiling water to disinfect myself." Sora raised an eyebrow; her drunk self and normal self were two completely different entities. She stood up and groaned as she clutched her head in pain. Uncapping the water bottle, she chugged the whole thing before recapping it and throwing it at Sora, who had to play hot potato with it for a few moments before securing a hold on it. "Where the hell am I?" She rubbed a hand down her face as she tried to turn on her phone, only to find out that it was dead once more.
"My apartment." Kairi widened her eyes at the enormity of it before frowning.
"How did I even get here?" Sora opened his mouth to explain, but she held up a hand to stop him. "Just don't even answer. All I remember is getting wild at the party. I must've drunk some weird shit, didn't I?" Sora looked at her suspiciously-she was acting a little bit too calm.
"You don't remember anything?"
"Nope."
"...Okay, then."
"Where's the bathroom?" Sora pointed left towards a door that was across from the front door.
"Over there. You better hurry it up; you have long overstayed your visit. I have somewhere to go." He didn't have to say that twice. Kairi turned on her heels and took a step towards the bathroom.
"Wouldn't want to be here any second longer anyway." Sora rolled his eyes at her attitude as she stalked to the bathroom and closed the door with a slam. Last night must've been a delusion, for there was no way she was that-
"Kill me now!" Sora winced when her glass-shattering shriek echoed loudly within the bathroom walls like a banshee's. She screamed so loud that he could barely make out what she said. Sora let out a small laugh as he went to go fetch his keys from his room.
She definitely remembered.
When she came out all freshened up (she didn't feel too guilty for prying out a brand new toothbrush from the package), Sora was already by the front door waiting for her with phone in hand. When he heard her arrival, he looked up and looked at her knowingly. She merely put on her stoic mask.
"There was a spider in there," she simply stated.
"And I was born yesterday on Mars." Kairi looked away, a bit embarrassed at the whole ruckus she caused him yesterday. She didn't really remember everything, but she did remember herself crying about her ex to a stranger, which was already bad enough. She couldn't even imagine what nonsense she spouted at him last night. Kill me now, kill me now, kill me now.
"Sorry, I got kind of-oh," she let out the last part stupidly when Sora walked up to her suddenly and placed a hand on her head. Before she could question what he was doing, he ruffled her hair in whatever manner, she wouldn't know, before retracting his hand back inside his pocket. She furrowed her eyebrows as she attempted to smooth her hair out again. "What the heck was that for?"
"I pity you."
"Pardon?" Sora ignored her and checked his wristwatch and let out a hum of hesitation.
"It's kind of too late for breakfast, but-"
"Wait, what?" Kairi grabbed his wrist and checked his watch, much to his discomfort. However, she didn't pay heed to such a small matter; she was freaking out that it was two in the afternoon.
"Crap, I'm going to be late," she said quickly as she put on her shoes. "Crap, crap, crap. Namine's going to freak on me. Oh my God, why did my phone have to die right now? Why did I even go to a party in the first place? God freaking damn it, I make such bad decisions." Sora watched as she clumsily stuffed her feet inside her shoes and rambled about her dilemmas out loud, something she usually did whenever she was completely flustered.
"What's gotten you in a frenzy?"
"Please, can give me a lift back to the campus?"
"Be thankful I'm going back over there anyway. I'm in a rush too, so shoo shoo." He opened the door and allowed her to go first. Tapping her shoe against the floor to get her foot securely in, Kairi stumbled out the door, eager to get out of his apartment as well-she really didn't want to stay a second longer.
Because it was just plain weird.
"But watch your-"
Not seeing the small step down in front of her, she took a mini dive through plain air. Immediately, the adrenaline rushed through her veins when her foot did not land on anything, causing her to lose her balance and tip over, and if it wasn't for the arm that shot out and wrapped itself around her waist, she would've had another close call to potential death.
"-step," his voice sounded, a little bit too close to her ear. She felt herself get a bit warm as he steadied her. The moment she found footing, she immediately ripped herself away from him, and he was glad to let go of her too.
"T-thanks," she stuttered. He turned to lock the door before closing it.
"You're a gigantic klutz," he grumbled as he took out his keys from his pocket and walked towards the elevator. "Didn't you learn how to walk on two feet when you were, I don't know, two?" Kairi didn't bother throwing anything back at him as she followed his footsteps towards his car. With all the trouble she put him through and all the embarrassment and foolishness she went through herself, words were simply not the remedy for making her feel any better.
Kairi, in less than twenty-four hours, you went to a party, got flat-out smashed at a party, cried about your ex to some stranger, and got knocked out at that stranger's home! If she could have the power to redo the whole night again, she would do absolutely anything.
Anything.
Sora tried his hardest not to laugh at the self-destructing redhead who was having a mental breakdown in his car on the way back to the campus.
When they finally returned to the campus, Kairi quickly escaped the confinements of his car and said a quick thanks before dashing away, both for the sake of her appointment and for the last bit of pride she had left around him, for it had all been completely crushed and destroyed a good fourteen hours ago.
However, before she left, she asked him a question that she, on impulse, asked out of curiosity.
"Since it's almost been, like, three weeks, and you seem to be able to drive again, so does that mean I'm done being your serv-"
"I don't think you really have the right to ask me that after everything."
"You're right. Good bye."
When she was a good distance away from the car, Sora burst out laughing as he pressed his forehead against the wheel of his car.
He found her absolutely hilarious.
Even when his phone, which was connected to the car through Bluetooth, rang incessantly loud, he couldn't stop his chuckling as he answered it.
"Hello?" he said through his snickers.
"Sora! You here yet?" the voice echoed through the stereo. Having not read the name of whoever was calling, he instantly stopped laughing when he recognized the caller as Xion and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I'm in the parking lot A." She giggled into the phone, which caused a weird flutter to run through his chest.
"Be right there!"
~.~.~
Kairi ran her tongue on the inside of her cheek as she sat on the bench near the girl's dormitory-nervously, she might add. Standing in front of her was Namine, who had her arms crossed, which was not good. When Namine had her arms crossed, it spelled "lecture time."
Kairi averted her gaze from her younger sister and glanced at Roxas, who was awkwardly trying not to listen in on their conversation, but that was hard considering he was at a good range to listen. He had his phone out and everything, but Kairi knew he was obviously listening in.
"I was freaking out about your disappearance all of a sudden and was about to report you as a missing person, but then you come back with hair that looks like it just went through an electric fence and came out of a toaster."
"Sorry." Namine raised an eyebrow as her eyes darted from her Kairi's eyes to something more below.
"Not only that, but you come clad in a boy's jacket?" Kairi choked on her saliva and thumped her chest harshly, not expecting that one at all. She looked down and realized that she was still wearing his jacket and opened her mouth to explain, but Namine continued to beat her down. Leaning down next to her ear, Namine whispered, "It's a no brainer to figure out what the hell the initials S.H. stand for." Kairi, confused, followed her gaze and grimaced when she saw what she was talking about: Sora's initials in tiny cursive near the hem of the jacket.
"What the fuck-" Kairi felt her heart stop, for her sister never ever cursed, "-did you do last night? I see you come towards me from the parking lot in this state all crazed up. Holy god, I can't even imagine what you got yourself in-"
"Namine," Kairi interrupted in a low voice; the blonde was beginning to jump to very hasty conclusions. "It is a very, very long story, and-"
"You're going to freaking tell me that 'very, very long story' or else I'm going to throw you for the birds to peck at." Namine's eyes narrowed before she sighed. "Of course, if you're still determined to keep secrets from me after the whole-"
"No, I won't ever again," Kairi sharply cut in. Namine's gaze instantly softened, eyes searching for any lies behind her sister's eyes; she had been kept in the dark far too long back when they were in high school. Kairi swallowed and managed a small smile. "Not again. Really."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'll tell you later, but don't worry; it's not what you think it is. Really." Namine gave her the dubious eye before finally letting it go and uncrossing her arms.
"Okay then."
After finally getting Namine to calm down from the surprise, Kairi quickly went up to her dorm to change and brush her hair. She was hoping to see Xion on the way and apologize for suddenly just rushing out last night, but was disappointed not to see her there.
When she went back down, she had to hide behind the wall for a second because she saw an interesting sight.
"So who's the older sister again? Is it you?" Roxas asked in a light manner. Namine laughed before shaking her head.
"Kairi is, but sometimes she's a bit too..."
"Not older sister-ly?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely. Plus a few other things, but that's a completely different story." Roxas chuckled as Namine rolled her eyes. Of course, Kairi didn't like the fact that they were laughing about her, but what really irked her was that Namine was not being a complete shy freak she usually was with the opposite gender.
You go, Namine.
After the two blondes receded into a silence, Kairi found it the right time to make her appearance and stepped out of the shadows.
"So, ready to go?"
~.~.~
"Sora, you can't just handle him like that!" Xion giggled as she watched Sora try to bring the corgi into his arms. The chubby dog wiggled its body defiantly against his hold, not at all comfortable at the way Sora was handling it with one hand and a half-ish. Sora decided to just let the poor dog go when he accepted his fate that no animal would ever grow to accept his affections. Even when he wasn't crippled, animals never liked him in the first place.
Reason? He probably just had some sort of aura or scent they just didn't like.
"And why are we even here?" Sora questioned for the third time since he picked Xion up. He swirled his coffee with a spoon before drinking it. "I never really took you to be a dog person." Xion beckoned a small chihuahua to come towards her before answering.
"Psh, you know I'm an animal lover. This shouldn't come as a surprise." Sora leaned an elbow against the table and rested the side of his face on a hand, eyebrows slightly etched in a frown. It was true that she did like animals, but she called him up wanting to drink coffee and tea.
What in the world? Sora knew she was extremely picky with her caffeine; it had to be at the coffee shop downtown, or it was a no go for her.
So why a dog cafe?
As he sat pondering the reason why this unusual phenomenon was happening, the jingling of the bells on top of the door signaled the entering of new customers. With a barrier that blocked his view of the front entrance, Sora could not see who they were.
"Oh my gosh, if we had one of these type of places back at Destiny Islands, I would camp and live in it forever," Namine squealed excitedly as she tottered on her feet. Bending down, she happily greeted one of the dogs instantly came up to her feet with an affectionate belly rub while Kairi and Roxas went over to a table to sit down and prepare the camera.
"This is so not calculus," Kairi said with an eye roll as she configured his camera. He simply smiled a cheeky grin.
"Think of it as a tour. Both of you seemed super excited about it anyway, so no harm. By the way," he jerked a thumb over at Namine, who now had three dogs surrounding her as she played with them near the play area. "How's her project coming along?" Kairi shrugged.
"Didn't really say anything. All I know is that her partner is that close friend of yours. Axe, or something?"
"Axel," Roxas corrected, "And that's unfortunate because that guy is as useful as a fish out of water-pretty useless." Kairi shook her head with a click of her tongue as she handed the camera to him.
"Tell your friend to prepare because Namine's going to work him to death. She absolutely hates freeloaders on projects, so watch out."
"Oh, really? Doesn't seem to be the type." Kairi narrowed her eyes slightly in a scrutinizing manner at Roxas, who was now fixing the settings of the camera one last time before they started filming their "highly educating video."
"What type of person do you think she is then?" Roxas looked up, saw the look of mischief on Kairi's face, and slightly raised an eyebrow in suspicion before shaking his head to himself and standing up.
"Just go do what your heart desires while I film you like a creep." Completely avoiding the question, I see. "Go crazy. Make sure you don't suffocate them, though."
"I trust you to capture all my good angles," Kairi joked as she flipped her hair over her shoulders. "My left side is better than my right."
"Right side it is."
Back at Sora's table, he began to grow a bit suspicious as Xion kept trying to edge her chair off to the side of the barrier and peeked at whatever she was looking at before sliding her chair back to the table to return to her latte. Noticing his observing look, she smiled at him-as if that was going to cast his suspicion away- and pointed at the plate of chocolate cookies.
"You haven't touched them." Sora scratched his cheek awkwardly and pursed his lips; he didn't really like chocolate, but since Xion wanted them, he didn't really say anything. He tried not to touch upon the fact that Xion had known him ever since high school and still to this day does not know his dislike for the sweet. He really tried not to.
Since she never really looked at him properly in the first place.
"Uh, I'm not feeling the sweets today. You can have them." Xion's eyes lit up, but she quickly caught herself.
"You sure?" Sora laughed before offering a small smile.
"Knock yourself out." Xion gladly took the small plate of cookies and began to munch on one. Of course, her motion of sliding her chair slightly back and looking past the barrier didn't go unnoticed by him, but he decided to assume that she was just looking at some cute dog or something.
Yeah, right.
"Something on your mind?" he asked slowly. She immediately looked back at him and offered a sheepish smile.
"No, nothing. Just thinking the place looks nice." Sora ran his lazy eyes over the interior of the cafe and sighed. It was just an ordinary place with its creative wall paintings and bright atmospheric nature-nothing was really outstanding-but considering it was Xion, who appreciated a lot of weird and quirky things...
"Fair enough."
"Isn't it, though?"
"Sure." Sora stood up from his chair and stretched his arms over his head. He didn't notice how Xion became greatly unnerved at the motion. Jerking a thumb towards the bathroom, he said a quick, "Gotta go to the bathroom," before turning around and heading towards the doors that were parallel to their table. From behind, Xion let out a sigh in relief when he didn't turn his head towards the right.
Entering the bathroom, he sought refuge at the sink as he placed his hands over the counter and stared at his reflection off the mirror.
"Sora, stop being a wimpy pushover," he told himself. Looking at his caramel-brown hair, he turned on the water faucet roughly and tried to apply water over his hair to calm down his wild spikes, but when he thought it was close to being flattened, they popped back alive. Letting out a sound of frustration, he roughly jerked the water faucet handle off and shook his head, letting tiny droplets of water spray in every direction.
He hated his spiky hair, period. Out of his whole family, his gravity-defying hair was the spikiest out of everyone. When he was young, he thought it was pretty cool, since no one really shared such a trait like his. Always known for his signature hairstyle, he held some strange pride over it because of its ability to define some part of him as "unique."
Now he hated it since his hair wasn't as calm as a certain someone's.
Giving himself one last look, he collected himself (and his emotions) together before he decided that he had spent enough time in the bathrooms. Whenever someone stayed in them too long, Xion liked to crack silly taking-a-dump jokes-he wanted to spare himself from at least that.
As he walked towards the door and swung it, he didn't take into account that he could whack someone passing by good in the face with the door if he didn't watch out (but who does that anyway?). Just when he opened enough space for him to go through, an unknown obstruction blocked the door's path, and a thud sounded as the person rammed into the wall of the narrow way towards the bathroom. Immediately, Sora panicked and quickly slipped through the door.
"Shoot, I am so sorry," he apologized, and he felt instantly worse when he realized that the person he smacked was a girl-and a rather fragile one at that. The blonde recovered from her faceplant into the wall and let out a breath to let all the feelings of shock from the surprise drain away.
"It's okay," she assured as she saw the look on Sora's face. When she looked up, and when her eyes made contact with his, a sense of recognition immediately struck through both of them. Sora furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he tried to pinpoint where he had seen her before, and Namine the same. Then it finally clicked.
"Nami-something!"
"The bully!"
Both obviously didn't appreciate the greeting they gave to each other.
"The bully? Really?"
"Is my name really that hard to remember?" Sora and Namine stared at each other for a moment before cracking into small smiles. Sora rubbed the back of his neck and had to awkwardly do some side step twirl to move away from the bathroom door and allow an impatient man to pass through.
"Anyways, sorry about that." Namine shook her head.
"It's alright." Silence. Sora held both his hands up to signal for her to go first through the narrow hallway, and she did. Sora followed behind, and when he saw Namine's form from behind, he finally remembered the small detail that this blonde was Kairi's sister.
One's a blondie and one's a redhead, he thought, a bit confused at their genetic makeup, but decided to call it a "freak of nature." Of course, there wasn't anything bad to it.
Uniqueness.
Wish I could embrace my own.
When they reached the end of the hallway, the two separated to go to their own paths. Sora tilted his head down slightly to say a sort of goodbye-acknowledgement to Namine, which she responded with a small upward curl of her lips, before heading back over to his table with Xion. However, before he could even walk three steps, the name she called out made him freeze on the spot.
"Roxas, what are you doing to that poor dog?" The familiar tone of laughter that Sora could never mistake rang in the air as he approached Namine.
"I'm saving it from Kairi's clutches. She's mishandling the poor thing, so she's taking over camera work now."
"Like you're even making it better! Give him to me, oh, you poor thing!" When Roxas came over to hand the dog over to Namine, Sora finally had a full view of him. Likewise, Roxas's silly grin slowly dissolved when he noticed Sora's figure standing by the sidelines, and he suddenly became rigid. Namine, not yet knowing what was going on, went towards Roxas instead by a few more steps to take the dog out of his hands. When she noticed that his line of sight was directed somewhere off to the side, she followed it and was thoroughly perplexed as she looked between the two.
"Oh, Sora," Roxas managed to let out, offering a cordial, yet strained smile. Sora looked away, and finally, the reason why he was even at this dog cafe finally came to light. He looked over to where Xion was, and the look of astonishment on her face was enough to confirm his suspicions. "Why are you here? I never took you to be the type of person to-"
"Well, I'm not going to be in here in the next minute," Sora cut in coldly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Roxas's smile faltered, and a sad look graced his features.
"Why is everyone just standing around here? Hey, Roxas, I think we have enough film for the video." Kairi, who was having a difficult time cropping the bad shots Roxas purposely did to annoy her (it was a misconception that he was a nice guy), went over to Namine and Roxas to see what was making the atmosphere all tense and strange, and shot both eyebrows up in surprise as she saw Sora once again after two hours. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when she realized that it was not the right time to say anything when she felt the tension.
Sora noticed Kairi, but she was the least of his problems as he struggled to either blast his frustration or rush out the door, but with all four people staring him down, he chose the latter and walked quickly past Xion's table and towards the door.
"Wait, Sora," Xion shot her hand out to grab him by the wrist, but he shook it off. "I really was planning to tell you what I was doing here, but-"
"Too late." And with that and the jingling of the bells on top of the door, Sora was out.
Roxas sucked his lips in while Namine and Kairi stood dumbfounded, lost on what was going on. Xion, who was now standing out of her chair, gave Roxas a guilty look, which he returned with a weak smile. Looking between everyone with absolutely no clue on what the heck was going on, Kairi spotted Sora's phone on the table, and since no one was obviously going to bring it to the hothead, she went over to the table, grabbed his phone, and rushed out the door before he disappeared somewhere.
Luckily, he hadn't made it that far yet down the street when Kairi caught up to him.
"Dude, wait-" she grabbed him by the jacket, in which he harshly ripped from her grasp. He turned around with a vehement look, but when he realized it was Kairi, he closed his eyes momentarily to calm himself down and faced her again.
"Sorry. Look, I'm not looking for any-" To make him shut up before he started to blow at her, Kairi took his hand and placed his phone into it. He instantly shut up and blinked. Kairi released a huge sigh and put her hands on her hips.
"At least make sure you got your stuff with you. That's why I branded your white jacket so that you won't ever lose it." It was obviously not the mood to joke around, but what else was she supposed to say?
They weren't really friends.
As always, the afternoon streets of Twilight Town were always energetic, although not as much as the night time. The sun shone harshly on the entirety of the place, nearly roasting Kairi's feet as the scorching pavement dug its heat through her shoes. Sora shielded his eyes from the sunlight and stared at Kairi expectantly. She stared right back, feeling a sense of challenge arising.
"Aren't you going to go?"
"I should. My sister's back there."
"Go so that I can go too."
"Nothing's stopping you."
"Well-"
"Want to talk about it?" Sora felt a shiver ran down his spine as Kairi uttered her words-they sounded way too friendly. It was a strange thing he was not used to, since he always received that annoying and irritating sass from her. His frustration towards the matter before rapidly evolved into suspicion towards Kairi, completely taking his mind off the things he didn't want to think about.
"Are you possessed?" he blurted out bluntly. He didn't waste any time to make sure this was the Kairi Lockhart he was talking to. Kairi moved her jaw slowly, clearly offended.
"I'm actually a nice person once you get to know me."
"Yeah, and so is Sephiroth once you get to know him too over a campfire." Sora tried to maintain a nonchalant face, but Kairi's stomp on the ground and menacing eyes was just too amusing. She's funny. "But I'll pass. I've seen you way too much for the past twenty-four hours for my liking."
"You make it sound like I'm the one wanting your company."
"And isn't that tr-"
"Which will never be the case."
"Wouldn't want you to anyway." Kairi stuck her tongue out at him before shaking her head and returning back to the matter at hand.
"Well, I'm not a person who likes debt weighing me down." Sora gave her a quizzical look.
"Debt?" At this, Kairi regained some of the embarrassment because of the night before. She was hoping Sora knew what she was hinting at with the way she phrased it so that it could save her the humility of going through the horrid experience again, but he didn't.
"As thanks for taking care of me and what not and giving me encouraging words." At this, Sora instantly coughed as his throat suddenly hitched on him.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. Behind his back, he crossed his fingers. God, don't fail me now. Kairi suddenly looked down at her feet and felt herself turn warm when it was already hot enough.
"Words of encouragement before I blacked out." Sora licked his lips and looked up into the sky.
You're pretty. Sora groaned inwardly. Kill. Me. Now.
As the day went on, Kairi slowly regained memory of what fiasco took place last night, and managed to remember most of what happened well.
A little bit too well, much to Sora's dismay.
"Don't know what you're talking about." Sora turned on his heels and strode to his car to avoid such an awkward topic. Being nice just felt so unnatural, so when someone actually started bugging him about it and pointing it out, he was ready to run at any time. All of it was just too cringeworthy and cheesy for him. He had a dose from Riku way too many times before; he didn't want to have an overdose from Kairi.
"Aren't I still your right-hand man? Let me repay you!" Kairi shouted after him as she trailed him. He shook his head; now she was admitting to the fact that she was his right-hand man!
"No, go away. I dismiss you from your duty from now on, so buzz off. It's not really any of your business, you idiot," he shot back exasperatedly as he unlocked his car. She was beginning to creep him out big time.
"Dude, an eye for an eye." Kairi half-lied; she did feel bad for causing trouble for him, so she wanted to do something in return. But she also had a feeling that he was going to blackmail her one day and make fun of her if she didn't get even. Kairi Lockhart, you sly creature. So all in all, this was kind of for her-but of course, it would be great if it would make him feel better too.
When Sora didn't say anything when she opened the door to his car, she figured that he really was a person of big words. She made sure to text Namine about what was going on when she got in. However, before she did, a very familiar voice called them out from the sidewalk.
"Whoa, Sora?" Half-way in his car, he took his foot out and looked over the roof of his car to see who had called his name. A look of pleasant surprise crossed his face, but it slowly turned into a disapproving look when he noticed all the shopping bags in her hand.
"Really, Selphie, really?" he deadpanned as he signaled towards all of them. She looked down to see what he was pointing at and giggled.
"Monthly shopping spree!"
"More like daily, but alright." Selphie gave him a peace sign before directing her eyes on Kairi, who was the last person she thought would be hanging around Sora.
"Kairi! What the," she darted a finger between Sora and Kairi, "You two know each other?" Sora and Kairi looked at each other oddly.
"Not really," came the simultaneous response. Selphie frowned before shrugging the matter off and breaking into a bubbly grin.
"Sora, give me a lift!"
~.~.~
"Dude, fuck that bitch, why do you keep hanging around her? Sora, are you a dumbass?" Kairi tried not to be involved in the heated discussion Sora and bipolar-Selphie were having as they sat at one of the tables on campus. Selphie had tagged along with them and had forced Sora to drive her back to the campus. Surprisingly, he complied grudgingly.
All was great until Kairi mentioned Xion.
"Selphie, it's not the right time to talk about this," Sora muttered as he glanced at Kairi. "We have another audience here."
"We need a third opinion on this!" Selphie shot her fiery eyes towards Kairi. "Right?" Kairi had no idea what the hell they were even talking about.
"I wasn't even planning to say anything about it. I was actually just planning to dump her off the streets somewhere so she would stop bothering me."
"Hey!"
"So can you not, Selphie?" Sora groaned as he tried to flatten his hair once again. At the motion, Selphie reached over the table and slapped his hand away, and Kairi could tell she did not hold back at all as the sound of it rang loudly.
"Stop trying to make your hair become something it's not! C'mon, Sora, I think it's awesome. Right, Kairi? This guy is so sensitive about his hair."
"Selphie, shut up." Kairi kept her mouth shut as they continued to have their silly bickering. "Why do you like discussing my private life with people?"
"To wake your stupid mind up!" She turned back towards Kairi and clasped her hands together. "Kairi, this guy has love sickness. Major love sickness." Kairi, completely caught off guard of the notion of Sora in love, widened her eyes and looked over at him, who just had a hand over his forehead.
"Please stop."
"Remember how I said that bitch broke my best friend's heart?" Kairi nodded, starting to have a gist of what was going on. Selphie pointed her index finger at Sora, who was now completely uninvolved from the conversation as he scrolled through his phone. His nonchalance towards the fact that Selphie was spilling something very personal freaked Kairi out a lot. "It's this guy here."
"Oh," was the only thoughtful response Kairi could give. Selphie sighed and took a sip of her soda she had gotten during her shopping spree.
"Long story short-and it doesn't need to be any longer to even understand what the right thing to do is-Xion led him on, took his heart and ripped it into two with her bare hands, and is still stringing this poor soul along with her! Who the hell does that to their ex that they dumped into the pits of the ocean!" At this, Kairi was further surprised; Xion and Sora were actually together at one point. "And here's the real problem here: he allows himself to be strung along like a poor fly in a spider's web!"
"Well, I wouldn't phrase it like that," Sora countered. "You're making it sound like it's a crime."
"She's using you!"
"What am I suppose to do, shun her?"
"Yes!" Kairi felt so out of place-maybe she shouldn't have tagged along. "Shun her until the darkness consumes her, and when the timing is right, stab her with a-"
"Stop, Selphie, stop." Noticing her own rampage, Selphie huffed a huge breath and flipped her hair over her shoulder in order to relax. Clearing her throat, she gave Kairi a wide, friendly, and apologetic smile.
"Sorry, this subject just heats me up so bad. But besides that, what do you think, Kairi? That's not right, right? This numbskull so stubborn, it's poisonous-it is really." Right when Kairi was about to say something, Selphie's phone rang. She took it out of her purse and answered it.
"What? Right now? Oh, hell no-no, don't worry, I'll be right there in a second. Stay put!" Selphie hurriedly stood up, shopping bags and all. Sora quirked an eyebrow up to question her. "My little munchkin Mr. Periwinkle is getting bullied in the cat-care center! Ugh, I must hurry to him. Ciao!" Selphie skipped away, off in less than a second without even staying long enough to hear Sora's and Kairi's goodbye towards her.
Why did Kairi always find herself to be with Sora alone all the time recently? Expecting him to do the same and leave, she didn't know what to say to him as he remained solid in his seat as he scrolled through his phone.
"Now we're even."
"Huh?" Sora rolled his eyes.
"An eye for an eye?"
"Oh." It wasn't what Kairi had had in mind, but...
Sure. Though, it wasn't exactly the full story and she was still completely lost at what happened between him and Xion, she decided not to question him about anything.
Plus, why would he tell her anything?
Surprisingly, he continued.
"I felt pretty bad for actually listening to your drunk rambling last night-usually, such things are too trivial to even listen to-but it was pretty personal, so yeah. I don't know, kind of a strange trade, don't you think? Now I feel less bad."
For some odd, odd, very odd reason, Kairi felt her heart palpitate a bit faster than normal, especially when he curled his lips into a small smile in response to the weird look she was giving him.
"What?"
"N-nothing." Kairi cleared her throat. "You know, minus your snide comments and asshole-like attitude, you're actually a nice guy."
"I don't know if that's a compliment, since it's so damn contradictive, but pfft. You're realizing my charms a little bit too late." At this, Kairi rolled her eyes. She observed as he ran a hand down his hair again, trying with no avail to flatten down the spikes, only for them to pop back up. Curious, she asked about it without thinking.
"Do you not like your hair?" Sora stopped doing what he was doing before shrugging.
"Kind of."
"Why?" She automatically knew that it was a sensitive subject he didn't want to talk about when his posture stiffened, but that didn't stop him from saying why.
"It's weird," he admitted. "No one in my family has hair like mine." Kairi was waiting for him to say more, but when he didn't, she frowned.
"So?"
"It's...abnormal?"
"Well, I think it looks cool." Kairi hadn't really thought about what she was saying, but it was the honest truth. When she first saw him at her NDE, the first thought she actually had was that he looked...
Handsome.
Sora blinked before chuckling.
"Sure."
"Well," Kairi took a hand out, "We're both comrades of messed up love." Sora looked at her hand in amusement before taking it.
"Highly doubt that it's something to rejoice over, but okay."
"Relationships suck!" Sora pulled his hand away and put them back into his pocket while he gave her an amused look.
"What got you all emotional yesterday? It was quite the sight," he said with a smirk, not wanting to talk about himself anymore. "Though, I'm not intending to relive bad memories here, so-" Kairi waved the matter off as no big deal, but deep inside, that it was far from that.
"Just saw a post on Facebook that really ticked me off."
"Figures, since you spammed comments on his post." In less than a second, her heart rate sped up like crazy as she let his words sink in.
"I did what?" Kairi scrambled for the phone in her pocket and unlocked it, anxiety coursing through her veins like hot water and hands trembling like an earthquake. "No fucking way, oh no, oh no, oh no." Just when she was about to open the app to check if the horror was true, Sora erupted into laughter and placed a hand over her phone to settle it back down to the table.
"Stop, I'm just kidding," he wheezed. When he saw the horrified look on her face, he only laughed harder. "Oh my God, I'm sorry; that was a bad joke, but your expression was priceless. Comedy gold material." Kairi punched him in the shoulder, causing him to double over across the table bench.
"You're such an asshole, what the hell. I take back every nice thing I said about you," she hissed. Sora sat back upright and, with a finger, wiped a stray tear.
"Hey, I don't think you should be saying that to your savior."
"And what exactly are you talking about?" He tapped on her phone with a finger and let out a snort of laughter again.
"While you were dead ass drunk, you were about to go rage on SNS until I stopped you. Don't you remember that?" Kairi paled.
"Really?"
"I might be an asshole, but I'm not a liar." She shuddered.
"Parties are scary."
"Watching you dance is scary."
"Shut up." Sora stuck out his tongue as his eyes twinkled with amusement, which made Kairi smile a closed-mouthed smile as well. However, her mind backtracked by a step the moment a thought hit her. Seeing no harm to it, she bluntly voiced it out.
"Why are we talking as if we're buddies?" Sora looked at her quizzically before shrugging playfully.
"Maybe we were never meant to be enemies," he quipped. "Now that you've mentioned it, we have been encountering each other too often. In a somewhat friendly way too." Kairi snorted.
"Friendly? If this," she pointed a finger between herself and Sora, "is what you call friendly, then you might want to get your eyes, and probably your mental state too, checked. Just giving you some advice, pal."
"Ooo, you're calling me 'pal' now. I think I'm feeling an upgrade here." Kairi shook her head to herself in mock disappointment before cracking into a grin.
"Maybe if I didn't meet you through an NDE-"
"It should be more like 'maybe if I didn't fuck up Sora's wrist.'"
"And maybe if you weren't such an asshole to me-"
"Well, I wouldn't have been if you just kept your sassy mouth shut."
"Then I think we could've been on good terms." Sora stuffed his hands back into his jacket pockets and looked up into the sky, where twilight was beginning to settle once more onto the town.
"Well, nothing's making us be on bad terms forever," he looked at her in mock worry, "Just kidding, I take that back. Besides you preventing us from being on bad terms forever, I think we could possibly get along. Possibly."
"Possibly," she played along. "Just possibly." Without another word, Sora stuck his hand out, which Kairi willingly took.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, Kairi," Sora said as he felt her hand hold his rather tightly, but the moment he said that, it magically got looser. Kairi flashed him a very fake smile.
"Oh, I won't, Sora." The two looked at each other before entering a state of snickering.
"Hey, by the way."
"Yeah?"
"Do you know what's the greatest way to piss off your ex? As a token of this treaty between us, I'll give you some advice that Riku has been following since he got his first girl. It's quite simple." Kairi looked at him expectantly with a slightly raised brow.
"Do tell." He leaned down to make it look all secretive, but it was nothing special.
"Fight fire with fire."
"What." Sora clasped his hands together and put it behind his head as he turned around and leaned against the table.
"In the world of relationships at this age, there's always some bitterness-even if the people think they aren't bitter. Trust me, they'll be salty as fuck, especially if the break up is around like one year old."
"Aren't you sounding like a professor?" Sora clicked his tongue, obviously disappointed in Kairi for not really feeling it"
"Because there are such things called 'salt levels', you have the ability to raise them up until the person goes crazy. No, don't give me that doubtful look, trust me." Kairi crossed her arms, silently telling him to continue. "Are you still friends with him on SNS?" Kairi bit her lip uncomfortably.
"I mean I guess."
"Perfect. Give me your phone." Complying, she did, though she didn't have a really good feeling. He opened the camera app, went over to Kairi's side to stand in front of her, and pointed the camera at her. Apprehension started to fill her core.
"And what exactly are you doing?" She already had an idea of what he was going to do.
"It's called showing your ex that you're doing fucking fine without him and that you're having the time of your life, that's what. Didn't you say there was some sort of photo with his current girlfriend or something?" At the mention of the post that got her all messed up last night, she was reminded of the pain, and nodded solemnly.
"But I'm not really the type of person who would just do this," she waved her hands towards her phone in his hand, "just to spite someone."
"Pfft, you've managed to annoy the shit out of me at some points. What the hell do you mean you don't want to 'spite someone'? I got something to tell you, Kairi."
"What?"
"It's time to shed some of the goody two-shoes image you got going around you. Now smile super big like you've never done before."
"But I'm not, though."
"Kairi."
"Okay, fine!"
Snap!
And on that day, Kairi watched as Sora typed the most cringeworthy, cliche, blog-like status she had ever read and posted it on her account along with the picture of her.
"You'll thank me later."
"I'm so tempted to just delete this right now," Kairi said in a dead voice as she accepted her phone back. She looked at the post and sighed before laughing.
Twilight Town has been so amazing for the past few weeks I've arrived here! It's big and gigantic, and I swear I saw the top model Squall Leonhart walking by the streets! I've been able to make new friends too, and I already love them all :) There are so many other things, but I would be writing a book if explained all of it, so I won't!
Besides all the new stuff I've experienced here, nothing beats the sunset here; the same, beautiful sunset I'm used to seeing. Twilight sure is pretty in Twilight Town, isn't it? Can't wait for for more to come! Peace out. Sincerely, your typical redhead.
"By the way, I have a huge stack of homework for you."
"You jerk, you just said earlier that I was 'dismissed' from my duty."
"I lied."
Phew! Finally finished this chapter. Didn't expect myself to actually spend one week on this chapter. M-A-J-O-R writer's block this week for some reason. Writing this chapter was so difficult omg I would just stare at the screen and try to figure out how to transition it and put plot in and omg nOOoOoO This chapter is *stabs own heart* but it's long and maybe it was cool for you guys to read! Hopefully, I won't have the same problem for the next chapter, but ugh yes I'm finally done. hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
