Sitting on her bed, it took Kairi a few minutes to figure out what just happened to her. She sat in silence for a full ten minutes, and even in that time could only find one clear conclusion: she had to talk to Sora. She didn't even have any idea what she thought she was going to say to him, but as she stepped into the hallway of the hotel, it became clear that she wouldn't have to worry about it. Rikku and Yuna were walking down the hall toward her and, upon seeing her up, ran over to her in a rush of 'are you okay' and 'how are you feeling' and other such questions that did nothing but confuse the still rather tired girl. Paine showed up moments later and, despite her efforts to clam everything down, succeeded only in confusing Kairi further. It wasn't until LeBlanc arrived that things took some direction.

"Clearly the poor girl has overslept." She decided upon arrival. Everyone else went quiet.

"And who made you the authority?" Paine asked, breaking the silence. Leblanc laughed, as if the answer were obvious.

"When a woman has beauty sleep down to as fine a science as I do, it becomes clear that proper beauty sleep is a fine line, and it is much too easy to cross either into too little or too much sleep." She spoke as if it was obvious, but her knowledge clearly surprised the other girls. She continued, "It's quite apparent that poor Kairi has overslept, and there's only one cure for that." She looked at the others. None of them seemed to have any idea of where she was going. "The only real cure for overtiredness from oversleep is shopping. Lots of shopping."

"Ohhhh! Kairi, we're gonna give you a make-over!" Rikku squealed, excited. Yuna grinned.

"What are we waiting for? The sooner we administer the cure, the sooner the results will take effect." She said, sound like she was trying too hard to sound professional. Within seconds, the entire group of them had burst into fits of giggles.

"This is going to be funnnn!"

……………..

In minutes, Kairi found herself in Yuna Rikku and Paine's room, piles of stuff dumped all over the floor and bed, mostly make-up and the like. Rikku was attempting to put some brightly coloured eyeshadow on Paine, who was flatly refusing. Kairi never bothered to resist and just let Yuna and Leblanc go to work on her. It was actually quite relaxing (AN: for anyone who's had a facial, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about grin). Though Kairi wouldn't have known, it was actually quite surprising how well Yuna and Leblanc got along as they worked together. Rikku had persuaded Paine to let her do her makeup if she let Paine do hers first. Paine really didn't have any intention of actually upholding her end of the bargain, but figured it would be fun to give Rikku a bit of a change of look, even if it meant getting on the young Al Bhed girl's bad side for a little while afterwards. If she was really lucky, Rikku would like what Paine did and forget to be angry altogether. Paine laughed in spite of herself. Like that's going to happen. She thought, digging through Leblanc's seemingly never-ending bag of interesting makeup stuff. Without warning, Leblanc and Yuna grabbed Kairi by the hands and pulled her up off the bed, sitting her on a chair that seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. It was actually the chair from the corner by the window, but Kairi had just had her eyes closed for a few seconds and it hadn't been there before. Not getting much of a chance to think about it, she found herself sitting in the chair while Yuna ran a brush through her hair and Leblanc plugged in multiple hair accoutrements (straightener, curler, etc). The pair of them played with her hair for quite a while, often bursting into fits of laughter and leaving Kairi blind to whatever it was they were doing, because she was sitting facing a wall. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Leblanc spun the chair around so Kairi faced the rest of them, both she and Yuna grinning.

"Done!" She announced. Rikku and Paine looked up. Kairi had to do a double take when she saw Rikku. She had a style that one would expect from Paine, but to Kairi's surprise, the Al Bhed girl looked really good! Her hair was pulled back loosely, falling out of a dark clip in loose, curly layers. Her makeup was dark; thick mascara and dark eyeliner, but it only made her bright green eyes seem all the brighter. She was wearing dark green eyeshadow, which again only served to highlight her eyes. Kairi grinned.

"Wow, Rikku, that looks good!" She said, standing up. Rikku grinned.

"You too, but I guess we wouldn't know, we haven't looked in a mirror yet!" With that, both of them burst into the bathroom. When Kairi saw her reflection, she was rather taken aback. She'd always known herself to be less 'girly' than most of the other girls she knew, and never really had a second thought about how she looked, but, seeing how she looked now made her think twice for the first time. Her hair fell freely about her shoulders, hanging in thick, choppy, waves, her dark locks framing her face. A little mascara widened her eyes, making them look incredibly intense. The light shade of pink eyeshadow made her eyes look bluer than they were, making them look like more of an aqua colour, bright green with streaks of ocean blue. She was about to head out of the bathroom when she realized that Rikku was giving her a funny look.

"What?" She asked, slightly bewildered. Rikku grinned.

"Nothing, you just look really nice is all. Why didn't you ever wear makeup before?" Kairi shrugged, and led the way out of the bathroom, back into the main part of the hotel room where Leblanc, Paine and Yuna were waiting for them. As soon as Kairi emerged, they all started outside, talking of their plans for their impromptu day of shopping. The group spilled out of the hotel and onto the walk, splashes of sunlight peeking across the road between buildings and through windows. Leblanc proclaimed herself the authority on Luca's shopping district, pointing out the best shops, the expensive boutiques and of course all the sorts of stores she'd never be caught dead in. The other girls were insistent that Kairi's makeover wouldn't be complete without a new outfit. The five of them spent hours browsing through shops, trying on clothes and picking out Kairi's perfect new outfit. The whole time, Kairi felt a little bit overwhelmed, but Leblanc had been right; the cure for oversleeping was definitely shopping. Kairi was feeling much better already.

………….

Back at the hotel, the guys were realizing that there was not a girl to be seen.

"So, where did they go?" Baralai asked, sounding more confused than anything. Gippal shrugged, seeming like he didn't care. According to him, that's how he was supposed to act and, because of that, he'd gotten very good at hiding worry. He really didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but he was kind of worried about where Cid's little girl could have disappeared to without a trace. Nooj wasn't entirely that worried, though it would have been nice to have an explanation. There was always, however, that thought of what had happened to Leblanc. What if something like that had happened again? Tidus had no worries at all. Yuna and the girls had survived without him for two years, they could survive one afternoon more. Sora was trying to keep himself occupied. He knew it was entirely ridiculous, but if he didn't keep busy, he'd start feeling a bit guilty. He knew well that the girls disappearing wasn't his fault, but he could help the stray thought that would pass through his mind that said maybe his 'actions' had made Kairi want to disappear for a while? As soon as the thought would enter his head, however, he'd chase it away, knowing that even if she did want to disappear for a while, she wouldn't have taken all the other girls with her. Would she? She shook that thought out of his head too and decided that he needed something to do before he made himself go insane. Muttering some incoherent excuse for having to leave, he wandered out of the games room and down the hall, not having any idea where he was going or what he planned to do when he got there. He found himself wandering the streets of Luca, ending up at the stadium. It was only standing at the steps leading into the stadium that he discovered how far he'd gone and that chances were slim to none that he was going to be able to make his way back without getting lost. And just as he'd predicted, he got very, very lost. He did have a good sense of direction, though, so though he took a very long detour in getting there, he did make his way back to the hotel. It only took him an hour and a half. Going to see if the girls were back, he glanced into the lobby and games room as he passed them; the lobby was empty and there were no girls to be seen in the games room. He wandered down the halls towards the rooms. Opening the door to his own room, he heard footsteps approaching from around the corner. He paid them no mind until he heard someone speaking to him.

"Sora?" The voice was uncharacteristically quiet, even nervous sounding, but it was still unmistakably Kairi's. Sora stopped, his minding rushing to figure out something to say to her before he turned around to face her. His mind still buzzing, he looked toward her over his shoulder, still frantically searching his mind for something to say that wouldn't sound too stupid or too blunt. Instantly, his brain seemed to stop working. She was standing at the corner leaning apprehensively against the wall. Her eyes were shooting around the hallway, looking anywhere but at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him staring at her and found herself wondering what he was thinking. In truth, he was having a problem thinking any rational thought at all. For as long as he could remember, he'd thought she was pretty, beautiful even, but now, she was gorgeous, and impossibly so. Her eyes were bright, her little bit of makeup accentuating them the same way her outfit accentuated her curves. She looked nervous, but he had a hard time seeing how a girl like her could be nervous about approaching anyone for anything, much less approaching one of her best friends for as long as either of them could remember to talk. Then again, he was the one who wasn't able to put together two words in his stunned state. Suddenly startled by the rather awkward silence stretching between them, Sora kicked his brain back into motion and began to spew random and rather incoherent apologies.

"Listen, Kairi, I'm sorry for what happened, I'm not really sure why I did what I did, but I didn't mean it and I know I shouldn't have done it but I did and now I'm sorry so-" Halfway through his run-on sentence, Kairi interrupted him with a question that he wasn't expecting.

"Why would you be sorry?" She asked, slowly beginning to walk toward him. Having another only half-rational explanation already formulated in mind, he opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he realized what she'd just actually asked him.

"Why am I sorry?" He asked, as if to confirm that this was the question she was indeed asking him. She smiled a little, nodding, curious as to what he would answer. He started slowly, sounding a little confused. "I'm sorry for, well, what happened before…" He said, his voice trailing away as if he really didn't want to talk about it. Standing right in front of him now, Kairi crossed her arms, her smile widening a little.

"I didn't ask what you were sorry for, I want to know why you're sorry for it." She explained, watching him expectantly. Sora opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again, not having anything to say. She could tell he had just stumbled upon an important discovery: he didn't have any idea why he was sorry. Thinking about it for another moment, he spoke again, only this time he kept his eyes on the floor as if he was nervous about voicing his answer, even a little embarrassed.

"I don't really think I am sorry," he paused, trying to sort out his words before continuing, "I apologized because, well, I guess I thought that's what you wanted. I thought that 'sorry' was what you wanted to hear." A bit more confident in his answer, he looked at her, but upon looking up, was slightly startled at how close they were. Now it was Kairi's turn to be a bit embarrassed of what she was going to say, blushing as dusty rose colour, but her eyes never leaving his. She couldn't help but smile a bit as she spoke.

"I didn't want an apology," she told him, her voice quiet again. "I, well, I kind of want another kiss..."

…….

Heeheehee! Not to blow my own horn or anything, but that's so cute! Sora and Kairi make such a cute couple! Make sure to R+R, it always inspires me and reviews always encourage new chappies to be posted sooner! Much luv and hope you like my story so far!