Oneshots are back, baby! I'm kicking off the return with 3 weeks of requests that take place between books 1 and 2, before we get into the Inferno's Edge oneshots. You should all be happy to know that these first 3 are 99% fluff and humor...you guys deserve a break from the angst for a little while.

Today's request was from Enamis09, back before I started posting Inferno's Edge, but I was about ready to start so I didn't get to this oneshot. She asked for Meli telling her friends about her former universe. The hair braiding session was not part of the request, but I couldn't resist!

I would imagine that this takes place a few days (or maybe even the next day!) after the previous oneshot where everyone found out that Meli was Kairi's doppelganger.

Bonus chapter 3

(Falls somewhere between books 1 and 2)

Meli's perspective

"So, this parallel universe." Sora was lying across his bed with his legs stretched up the wall, his head hanging slightly over the edge of the mattress. "What's it like?"

Before I could think of where to even start with an answer, Riku piped up from where he sat just in front of me. "They have tacos."

"Wait, you've been there?" Sora exploded, flopping abruptly over onto his stomach to stare wide-eyed at us.

"No. I've just had their tacos." He tilted his head to the side, nearly making both Kairi and me lose our grips on his already slippery hair, earning himself a smack on the shoulder from my sister. "They were kinda crappy tacos, to be honest."

I laughed, tugging on the braid that I had just finished. "That's because it was Taco Bell. They're supposed to be crappy. They cost like, one munny each."

"Do you have pizza?" Sora asked.

"Yes."

"What about ice cream?"

"Of course, though I'd never heard of sea-salt ice cream before."

"Pancakes?"

"Yep."

"They also have coffee," Riku interrupted. "Lots of coffee, apparently. It's a big deal over there."

"And I still have not figured out why it's not over here!" I threw my head back dramatically. "How do you people live?"

"With our tastebuds intact." Kairi wrinkled her nose at me. "You and Dad are weird. Coffee is gross."

"I like coffee!" Sora piped back up. "At least if it has lots of sugar in it."

I smirked wryly at him as I started on another little braid. "Yeah, somehow you strike me as the double chocolate chip frappuccino with extra whipped cream type."

His eyes went wide. "I don't know what that is but it sounds delicious."

"Sora's not allowed to have coffee." Kairi tied off her braid and began playing around with all of the ones we had already finished, arranging them in different ways. "Between the caffeine and the 'lots of sugar' he puts in it...well, you can imagine the results."

I laughed as Sora pouted. "Yes. Yes, I can."

"Okay, but back to the other universe. Do they have a beach?" Kairi asked.

"Oh yeah, plenty of them. But none anywhere near where I lived."

"You lived in a big city, right?" Riku questioned over his shoulder.

I nodded. "Right. I can't...really think of anywhere I've seen here to compare it to...well, except for when we were fighting Xemnas, and we walked through those big doors onto the city street. That reminded me of my city at night, just, you know, add in people and cars, and take out the psychopath and the flying buildings."

Riku and Kairi seemed to be thinking back to that moment, considering the information. Sora, however, jumped right back into the apparent game of twenty questions. "But do you have video games?"

Laughing, I rolled my eyes affectionately. "Maybe it would be easier if I just told you the differences that I know of."

He nodded eagerly. "Yeah, let's hear it!"

I shifted to sit cross-legged, letting Kairi take over the hair styling for the moment, since she was busy twisting all of the braids together anyway. "Well, there's no magic."

Sora blinked. "What? Not even a little bit?"

"Not that I know of." I shrugged. "People pretend to do magic sometimes, but it's all tricks and illusions. I mean, it could be that I just never heard about it, like some of the people here, but I've never seen evidence of it."

"So no Keyblades, right?" Kairi queried, painstakingly pinning her creation into place.

"Right. And no Heartless or Nobodies that I've ever seen. I'm not sure how that difference works."

Dropping his head back down onto the bed, Sora let his arms dangle down over the side. "Gee. Maybe we should take a vacation there sometime."

"Technology is a big deal, too...not in every part of the universe, necessarily, but at least in the most populated parts. TV, computers, the internet..."

"What's the internet?"

I laughed. "I have no idea how to even begin to explain that to you. I was rarely ever on it, myself, only if I was job hunting at the library. I didn't have a computer at my apartment, just a tiny, old TV."

"Which is where you got all of your many quotes and references from," Riku commented.

"Right," I smiled. "I was kind of an anomaly in that sense, though...not owning a computer, or a smartphone. Pretty much everyone owns a smartphone these days."

"What's a smartphone?"

"Mm, it's a mobile phone, but you can do all kinds of other things on it, too. Like it's got a camera, and the internet...which I realize you guys still don't know what that is...and you can edit pictures, and send messages, and play games...basically it's a computer. Just, a really tiny computer that is also a phone." I never imagined that I would need to explain these things to anybody, and I was now aware that I completely sucked at it.

"Oh, and another important thing," I added, getting back up on my knees to accept a handful of sparkly barrettes and flower pins from Kairi. "No humanoid animals like Donald, Goofy, and the King."

"Really?" Sora exclaimed.

"Well you know, none of us had seen anything like them before we left the Islands," Riku pointed out.

Sora hummed. "Yeah, that's true. But I'm so used to them now that it's hard to imagine them not existing."

"I imagine it's somehow connected to the 'no magic' thing." I clipped back a stray section of Riku's hair that hadn't made it into a braid. "But yeah, that was one of the biggest surprises for me over here, seeing them for the first time."

Comfortable silence fell for a few minutes as Kairi and I peppered Riku's twisted braids with multi-colored flowers. "So, for the most part," she spoke up eventually, "it sounds kinda like the two universes aren't all that much different."

I pursed my lips in thought. "No, I guess not. Sometimes I think they are, but when it all boils down they have plenty of similarities."

Silence again for a moment, then Riku asked very quietly, "Do you ever think about going back?"

Immediately I punched him in the arm. "No. Of course not. Why would I?" I glanced at each of my friends in turn, but returned my focus to the final flower pin in my hand as I spoke again. "I've got everything I could ever want right here."

"Aw," Sora cooed.

"Especially such a gorgeous man!" I exclaimed in an over-enthusiastic, affected voice, leaning forward to plant a wet smack on Riku's cheek. "Look at him, isn't he beautiful?"

"So beautiful!" Kairi joined in with her own weird accent. "The loveliest hair I've ever seen! Come over here, darling, and see how lovely it is!" She yanked him unceremoniously to his feet and dragged him across the room to the mirror that hung over Sora's dresser, and I followed with the handheld mirror so that we could show him the back of his head.

"What do you think, darling?" I asked him, grinning at his obviously nonplussed reaction.

"It's...yeah. It's lovely. Very...sparkly."

Sora just shook his head at us. "Speaking of plenty of similarities...sometimes the two of you are way too much alike."

"Watch it, mister." Kairi pointed a finger at him and narrowed her eyes.

Then, in the most perfect coincidence, we both simultaneously added, "Besides, we are the same person, after all."

Kairi and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows before bursting into giggles over the sound of Sora moaning, "That was so creepy!"

When the laughter had subsided, Kairi clapped her hands together, back down to business. "Alright. Riku's had his makeover. Now it's your turn!"

Sora bolted upright on the bed. "What? No! Riku volunteered, I never did such a thing!"

"Don't you want to be as gorgeous as Grim?" I teased.

He shook his head adamantly. "Nope. Nope. This is one competition he can win. Not doing it."

"Aw, come on, Sora. Don't be a chicken," Riku grinned.

"I'm not a chicken, I just– ahh!" His argument was cut off when Kairi and I both lunged for him. Flailing backwards, he fell off the end of the bed, but was back on his feet immediately and running out the door.

"After him!" Kairi cackled, and we raced out of the bedroom, hot on his heels.

Please let me know what you thought in a review, and if you have any special requests, shoot them my way! Ideas for scenes can be as vague or specific as you want. I'll try my best to do whatever I receive!