DISCLAIMER: My net worth right now is in negative money. Yes, I owe people that much. If I actually owned KH, I'd never have to borrow money again .:sigh:.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here's chapter two! Slightly less crazy than the first bit, slightly more serious, because the plot actually gets kicked off. It was while writing this chapter that I realized just how much I'd have to deviate from the original source material at certain points, because I couldn't stand doing things to some of the characters (turning Riku and Kairi into idiots, for example). I've figured out that the Leon/Yuffie parts will probably be mostly the same as in the movie, 'cause that relationship is just damn fun, but things are gonna be slightly crazy with the rest of them. It's gonna be interesting (damnit, there's that word again!) to see how it all goes together.
I've posted up a very long string of author's notes/fun facts, as well as review replies and a challenge or three for my readers (with plushie prizes!) up on my livejournal, the address of which is www . livejournal . com / users / tairako Just copy and paste and edit out the spaces. Anonymous comments are more than welcome, as are comments from regular LJ users; just sign it with your ff.n name so I know it's you!
That night, Cid Highwind's residence was not a restful place to be. As usual.
"YUFFIE! Where'd you put my lipstick!"
"I didn't TOUCH it, I don't WANT to touch it, and I will NEVER touch it!"
"You did SOMETHING with it 'cause now I can't FIND IT!"
"SHUT UP!" the pilot roared from the living room where he was quickly developing a pounding headache. "Kairi, look under yer bed, that's where everythin' else ends up!" Years of experience had taught him that when something belonging to a teenage girl went missing, it would invariably be found under her bed or in her closet. Or sometimes in a shoe, but there was really no accounting for that.
A moment of blessed silence, and then Kairi's voice piped up "Oh, there it is! Thanks, Cid!"
He groaned, because he knew what came next even if she didn't seem to. "Kairi, get down here," he called, pushing himself out of his comfortable chair and awaiting the confrontation.
A moment later, Kairi came through the door, an honestly puzzled expression on her face and an open tube of lipstick in her hand. "What is it, Cid?"
"Why d'you need t'put on lipstick at this time of night?"
She immediately looked both contrite and hopeful. "Well, Mela asked me if we could do something together tonight-"
"AT RIKU'S!" the ninja-in-training down the hall yelled.
"YUFFIE!" Kairi shrieked back, turning very, very red.
"Wellllllllll now." Cid drummed his fingers on the back of his chair, watching his charge as she slowly looked at the carpet. "You know we have a rule 'bout stuff like this."
"It's a completely unfair rule!" she burst out, not quite meeting his eyes but meaning every word. "Cid, it's just hanging out! Nothing's going to happen!"
Cid snorted, eloquently expressing his opinion on the likelihood of that. "Yeah right nothin's gonna happen. Y'know th'rule: you gotta be eighteen first."
"Ciiiiiiiiiiiiid!"
"WHO CARES?" the older girl called down the hall again. "The only good thing about boys is beating them up in practice!"
"It's no WONDER none of them like you since you keep trying to KILL them!"
"That's all they're good for!"
"You are a complete IMBECILE!"
"SHUT UP!" Cid yelled again, sick of it all. Sometimes he had no idea why they weren't kicked out of their apartment, with all the yelling that went on. Maybe the walls were just really, really thick. "Yuffie, get down here! There's a change comin'!"
In the baffled silence that followed, Yuffie's footsteps were easy to hear before she stuck her head in the door. "Change? What change?"
"Just come in here an' sit down," Cid snapped, out of patience for the night.
The ninja did, flopping on the couch, and a look from Cid sent Kairi to join her. The girls looked almost nothing alike: Yuffie's hair was a matte black while Kairi's was an auburn so intense it was almost purple in some lights. Kairi had deep blue eyes while Yuffie's were a dark brown. Yuffie was also somewhat taller than Kairi, but Kairi tended to make up for that by wearing tall shoes. The only things similar about them were their skin tones – both very pale, even with the amount of time they spent outside – and their haircuts, and even then Yuffie's was shorter than Kairi's.
Cid had no idea what had happened; the girls had gotten along fine until a few years ago, when Yuffie had begun her ninja training and Kairi had turned into a Girl. Maybe that was it; before that, they'd both been relatively tomboyish, climbing things and playing pranks and the like, but Kairi no more kept to that direction now than Yuffie took to dresses and skirts. It made for a household that seemed ready to rip itself apart at times, no matter what rules he had.
"Let's see," he started out, eying them both carefully. Kairi blushed faintly and looked down, but Yuffie met his gaze squarely, as if daring him to tell her she was doing something wrong. "So," he finally said to Kairi, "you wanna date."
"Yes." She went a bit redder but finally met his eyes. "I'm sixteen, Cid, I think I can make some decisions on my own."
"All right," he said firmly, crossing his arms. "You can date."
"What?" Yuffie shrieked, sitting bolt upright.
"When Yuffie does."
"What!" This time the shriek was Kairi's, and she jumped to her feet at the same time. "But she'll NEVER date!"
"Damn straight I won't!"
"Not my problem."
"CID!"
"Look," he threw out, patience completely gone, "you got two choices. Take this or stick with th'old one, but make up yer mind in the next five seconds."
Kairi was fuming, clenching her fists and glaring at her stepsister as if trying to burn a hole through her head (and Yuffie was glaring right back), but finally she gave in. "All right, all right."
"Now. You ain't goin' out tonight, so you cin go put that back under yer bed," Cid stated, nodding at the lipstick. Kairi's fists clenched again, but she turned and walked out of the room before she could say something that would get her grounded – or worse.
Yuffie, meanwhile, just sat on the couch smirking. "Y'know, I like that rule."
"An' you could make this place easier t'live in, you don't need t'provoke her every time somethin' happens!"
She pouted, her expression completely fake. "But it's so easy!"
"Yuuuuuuuuuffiiiiiiiiiieee…"
"All right, I get the picture, no more hiding Miss Priss's bunny slippers." Yuffie huffed and stood, throwing the ends of her yellow scarf over her shoulder. "Can I go now?"
"Yeah, get out of here," Cid growled, waving her out as he sat down again. As he picked up his tiny screwdriver and once more turned back to the clock he was trying to repair, he heard the ninja's door slam loudly. He could only pray that that would be the end of the noise for the night.
The next day found Sora once again escaping his mother's insane combination of cleaning and unpacking by getting out of the apartment as fast as he could, plugging his ears so he could honestly say he hadn't heard her calling for him to come help. As they had arranged when they'd gone home for the night, Cloud was waiting for him outside the door to the building, clearly not happy about what they were planning to do. He'd hidden himself in the shadows again and kept his face down, and the few people that were going to work passed him by without looking at him.
"Hey, Cloud!" Sora called as he trotted over, and the blond looked up at last. "Ready to go?"
"No," he said bluntly, shaking his head. "Sora, no one's going to be there this early, it's useless going now."
"But you said-"
"No, you thought. I was trying to tell you that you thought wrong." Cloud let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "But people'll be there later. In the meantime, let's go show you the dojo." He turned and started walking for the same set of stairs he had taken yesterday, without waiting for Sora to catch up.
The younger boy trotted after him, more than a little confused. "What's up, Cloud?"
"I told you yesterday, I don't want to go. But I'll drop you off if you insist on going there."
"So why don't you want to go?" Sora asked as he caught up, his natural energy helping him keep up with Cloud's longer strides easily. "The way you talked yesterday sounded like you knew what was going on with everything and that you liked doing stuff with them."
Cloud stopped in front of the doors to the Second District, wearing a peculiar closed expression that Sora was fast learning was a trademark of his new friend. "You're not going to let it rest, are you?"
"Wasn't planning on it, no," he responded as he stopped in front of Cloud.
"Fine. Guess you had to find out sooner or later." To Sora's surprise, Cloud turned away and started pulling off his left glove, and he thought he saw a glimpse of metal on the older boy's hand. But then Cloud pushed up that sleeve of his and turned around, and Sora couldn't help his eyes widening in shock.
The bottom half of Cloud's arm, including his hand, was gone, and in its place was a gold construction almost skeletal in appearance, held in place just below his elbow by very thick metal rings. Above the rings were several scars, almost all the way to his shoulder, that were clearly old and had long since healed over as well as they were able to. Sora had to honestly stop himself from grabbing his own arm as he unintentionally imagined the pain that such an injury must have caused.
Cloud dropped the sleeve back into place and pulled the glove on once more, almost with an unearthly calm. "You're not going to run away shrieking?"
"Why should I?" Sora asked honestly.
"Most people do. It's why I don't 'hang out' with those people anymore. They saw what happened and didn't take it well. Ready to go?" Cloud let the glove's cuff go with a snap and pushed the doors open almost negligently, walking through and into the Second District.
Once again Sora had to scurry after him the short distance to the dojo, but he managed to get in front of the blue doors before Cloud could open them. "What happened?" He mentally cursed his curiosity; one day it would get him killed, he knew.
For a moment it looked like Cloud was contemplating being the one to kill him, but in the end the blond just shook his head and started talking. "I got it caught in a machine in the Gizmo Shop four years ago when I snuck in on a dare. I passed out from the pain; the next thing I knew I was lying on a bed in the infirmary and a third of my arm was missing."
Sora was completely astounded by the matter-of-fact tone Cloud could use when talking about a debilitating injury like that, and it took him a minute to speak again. "So how can you do sword work? And why didn't your friends take it well?"
"Cid built a prosthesis for me," Cloud replied, holding up his left arm and flexing his fingers. Looking closely, Sora could see that they didn't quite function as well as real fingers; they were a bit slower, and seemed to have less random mobility. But for a fake limb, it was really convincing. "It's why I'll never really put him down. The man is overprotective and crazy, but this thing lets me live normally and he's the only reason I have it. But it's why Riku's better than me with swords. It's hooked into my nerves somehow, but in fighting it's more like a prop than anything, and I have to do most of the hand control with my right instead of both. And I can't use just my left, though I can use just my right."
"So what about Riku and everyone else?"
Cloud snorted, something Sora had been sure he'd never hear, and reached for the doors. "Riku's the one who dared me, him and his friends. We were friends until then, but he didn't want anyone to find out he half caused my accident, so he pulled away, and by the time I got out of the infirmary with this thing attached he'd already 'moved on.'" The blond paused with his hands on the door handles, then looked at Sora again, more serious than he had been. "Watch out for him. I mean it. He's used to getting his way and he's very competitive. He likes to be the best and loves winning."
"Trust me, you've got nothing to worry about there. I just started, remember? You could both wipe the floor with me." Sora flashed Cloud a grin before reaching forward and dragging open one of the old doors. "Now let's go check this place out."
Inside, there was everything that Sora was expecting, though there was very little of it. A rack of different live swords was across the room, holding everything from one absolutely gigantic blade to a curved black one, while practice weapons were on the right, but there were only seven of either. There were full length mirrors on the left, for trainees to practice stances and positions in front of, but only two, not the solid wall Sora was used to. There were two crates next to the rack of live swords that seemed to hold real and practice ninja weaponry, but again there wasn't much of it. The only things that were as he expected were the bright lights in the room and the mats covering the floor – and the very conspicuous first aid kid hanging from two nails on one of the walls. In the middle of the floor, sitting tailor-style and polishing a broadsword, was a man who looked to be in his middle fifties or so by the amount of gray in his hair, but had the physique of a thirty-year-old. A very fit thirty-year-old. Sora swallowed a little in apprehension at having to fight him; it looked like his blows would hurt.
"Ah, Cloud," the man said as he saw who had walked in the door. "Little early today, aren't you?"
"A little, but I wanted to bring Sora by." He gave Sora a calculated shove in the back, pushing him into the room before him. "Master, this is Sora. Sora, this is Master Bersi. He's the one you're forced to listen to until you get Master Sanero."
"One day I'm gonna beat that impertinence out of you," Bersi commented casually as he stood with his sword in hand, showing absolutely no signs of his age. Sora was a little startled to see the master's right eye was covered by a plain black patch, but clearly it made no difference to either the man himself or Cloud, so he shoved it quickly out of his mind.
"You like it too much to really do it," Cloud mildly retorted as he started across the room.
"Scamp," the man shot after him, then turned to Sora. "So. You're new here."
"Y-Yes, sir."
Bersi's eyebrow raised. "I'm not gonna eat you, you know."
"Yes, sir."
"Can't you say anything else?"
"Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir, I mean- aww, damnit." Sora glared at Cloud, who was muffling laughter in front of the sword rack. "It's not funny, Fluffy," he warned, which only sent Cloud into actual laughter, leaning against the wall.
Bersi glanced between the boys, then shook his head. "I'll ask later. Meanwhile, drop the 'sir' since it makes you stutter so much. You done any work before?"
"A little, s- A little."
"All right then." Without warning, Bersi tossed his sword hilt-first at Sora; the boy dove to catch it and just barely made it. "Warm up. Cloud, warm up and try him out, see how much he knows."
"Sure thing." Sora looked over in time to see Cloud reach for the grip of the gigantic sword, the one he would swear would take three people to lift, and easily pull it out of the rack with one hand. His jaw hit the floor, but neither Cloud nor Bersi commented on it. "C'mon Sora, you heard him. Warm up."
With an effort, Sora pushed his mouth closed and nodded, then began.
An hour later, Cloud, breathing hard, finally lowered his sword and watched the boy spread-eagled on the floor for a long time before speaking. "When you say a little… How much is 'a little'?"
Sora was panting to get his breath back, and didn't feel like he could move at all. The mats on the floor were a lot more comfortable than standing, so he just stayed where he was. "A year. Maybe a year and a half."
"That's not a little, that's pretty intense training." Cloud had won, of course, but it had been a lot harder than he'd anticipated. Not only was Sora more trained than he'd thought, but the boy's innate stubbornness would just not let him give up until he literally couldn't move, which was exactly where he'd ended up. He'd landed very few hits on the blond, but Cloud had had to work fast to make that happen.
"I guess." Sora finally sat up with a groan, rubbing his head as he did so. "That's gonna bruise…"
"You're a stubborn idiot, but you've got guts, kid," Bersi's voice came from the side of the mats, where he'd watched the match. Sora was quickly learning that the jocular insults weren't to be taken seriously, and managed to push himself up as the master approached. "You need training, but from what I saw, you're a natural. We'll see what Cloud here can do with you, if you want to do some individual work and catch up with some of the others."
"That sounds good… Ow." He winced as he touched a bruise on his ribcage. "You hit hard."
A black-gloved hand pushed itself into his field of vision; Sora grasped it and pulled himself to his feet. "What do you expect with this giant popsicle stick?" Cloud asked, motioning to the sword now propped over his shoulder guard.
"Why in the hell do you use something that big?" Sora picked up Bersi's sword from where it had fallen on the floor and handed it back to him.
"Why not?" There really wasn't much that could be said to that, and Cloud put his weapon back in the rack. He'd been careful not to draw any blood, so there was no reason to clean it now. "Come on, it's late enough to go over if you want to now."
"I think I'd like to die in peace," Sora groaned, but straightened up with a wince. "All right, let's go. Maybe feeling like this'll stop anything stupid from falling out of my mouth."
Cloud just shook his head. "Somehow I doubt it." Looking back over his shoulder, he waved negligently to the master. "I'll be back later, Bersi."
"You better be!" he called as the doors shut behind the boys.
They made a stop at the fountain near the door to the alley to let Sora rinse off a little and help him feel more human. Sora simply stuck his entire head in the water for a few seconds, then pulled himself out and shook like a wet dog, sending water droplets flying everywhere and making his hair even more spiky than normal. "Sure you won't come?" he asked as he tried to get his hair into something resembling its normal shape.
"Perfectly." Privately, Cloud was against even Sora going there; it had been too long since he'd had a real friend, and his cynical side kept making snide remarks that after meeting Riku and fawning over Kairi, Sora wouldn't want anything to do with him. But he hadn't left when Cloud had shown him his arm, which had always been his yardstick in the past, so maybe it would work out – with the exception of Kairi, of course. Plus the boy was just naturally friendly and outgoing; there was no way he could only have one friend. "Go on; if you need rescuing from the cleaning later, I'll be somewhere in the Third District until four."
"And then you'll be practicing. Gotcha." Sora grinned, giving up on his hair, and hit Cloud's hand in an impromptu high five. "Catch ya later." With a bounce in his step that was completely antithetical to someone who'd just been beaten into the floor, Sora headed over to the door to the alley. Cloud turned away before he opened it, heading for the stairs, wondering just where the hell he got his stamina.
Not that Sora would show Cloud, but he was petrified. It wasn't that he thought the blond boy would do the normal "I told you so," but Cloud was so negative about these people to start with he didn't think it would be good to give him reason to justify his beliefs without personal proof. Yes, they – or Riku, at least – had treated him badly, but there had to be an explanation for that, right? They couldn't be all bad, right?
Wondering whether his curiosity or his optimism would get him killed first, Sora took a deep breath and shoved open the door, walking through it into a slightly gloomy, poorly lit, narrow alley. There was a long trough of water in the ground that he guessed was part of a sewer system and led to a hole in the wall that was covered by a large grate. Looking up, he could see several balconies attached to what he assumed were various rooms in the hotel, and to his right was that dumpling stand that Cloud had mentioned, though apparently it was still too early for it to be open. And to his left…
There was a small multitude of voices, mostly female, coming from his left, though he couldn't immediately see the people speaking. Taking a few steps away from the door, he found a niche the size of a fairly big room that had a few crates scattered around it. Perched on the crates and standing around were a group of about seven girls and only three guys, all talking animatedly with one or two others and occasionally laughing at something said. Kairi was sitting on one of the crates in the back corner, feet dangling, and laughing with Riku.
Sora's eyes immediately locked on her, and he took a few steps forward, hesitant, then stopped as he realized that the others were gradually falling silent as they noticed him. He wasn't shy by any means, but he was determined to not look like a dork now.
And of course that went right out the window. "Uh… hi," he ventured, with a bit of a sheepish grin. Dorrrrrrrrrrk! his mind yelled at him, and he determinedly ignored it. "I'm not… interrupting anything, am I?" Major, MAJOR dork!
"You new here?" one of the other girls asked as she hopped off her crate, watching him curiously. She had blonde hair that came down to just below her shoulders, and was kind of cute, but nowhere near Kairi in Sora's estimation. But she was friendly, which was just what he was hoping for, so he grinned and stuck out his hand.
"We just moved in yesterday. I'm Sora."
She grinned back as she took his hand and shook it. "I'm Namine."
That introduction seemed to be some sort of cue, because suddenly the other girls, Kairi excluded, were swarming towards him, trying to shake his hand and tell him all their names at once. Sora heard a Mela, an Ileen, and three other names he couldn't identify as he was forced to back up under the cheerful onslaught. He was laughing, trying to reach for whichever hand was closest, when all of a sudden the ground under his right foot… wasn't there anymore. Everything went into slow motion as he realized just what was happening, and he began windmilling his arms in a desperate attempt to keep his balance. Namine dove for him, trying to keep him upright, but she didn't make it in time and he fell with a loud SPLASH into the strip of water.
There was silence as he spluttered his way to his feet, thoroughly soaked, and he looked at his clothes through brown hair that was dripping into his face. Suddenly, without even him quite knowing why he was doing it, he started to laugh quietly, a sound which quickly grew louder as he realized just how stupid he had to look. Namine, who'd been watching him in concern, smiled when she heard the laugh, then began giggling herself, finally moving into all-out laughter with him, and the other girls weren't too far behind her. Sora was still laughing as Mela, a girl with dark hair and tanned skin, offered him her hand to help him out, which he gladly took, stepping onto solid ground again and starting to squeegee out his hair.
Kairi and the other two guys were laughing along with the others, but Riku was simply watching the scene from his position leaning against the wall, almost contemplatively. "What a dork," he commented, but without any real asperity.
"Oh, be nice, Riku," Kairi teasingly admonished, still giggling. "The poor thing just fell in the water."
"Yeah, like I said, a dork." But he smiled and pushed off the wall. "Come on, let's go say hi before his fan club steals him away." Kairi, still giggling, hopped off her crate and the two of them, along with the other guys, approached the group that had moved a conspicuous distance from the water.
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm used to this," Sora was replying to a question one of the girls had asked as they got there, now in the process of wringing out his jacket and gloves. He stopped, though, when he saw them there, and grinned once more. "Hi, I'm Sora. I'm very graceful. Who're you?"
Sora'd spent the night before trying to think of ways to not come off like some sort of freaky stalker the first time he actually met Kairi (and Riku). So, he figured, that meant he had to pretend not to know who anyone was and let them introduce themselves. And in truth, that unintentional plunge in the water had done him a lot of good; he wasn't tongue-tied anymore, simply because he figured there wasn't too much more he could do to look ridiculous. Maybe it was backwards thinking, but it was working fine for him.
"I'm Riku," the silver-haired boy replied, putting his hand out, which Sora shook. The boy didn't seem to be quite as outgoing as the rest of the group, but he honestly couldn't see anything like what Cloud had warned him about. He didn't think Cloud would make up anything to make his injury worse, but maybe Riku had grown up since then. "Where're you from?"
"The Destiny Isles," Sora answered, and several of the teens gasped enviously. "What?" he asked, confused by the reaction.
Riku laughed, and the laugh also wasn't quite as open as he was used to, but it didn't sound bad at all. "Everyone here knows about them – it's like the dream vacation spot. Hardly anyone gets to go, though."
"You got to, Riku," one of the other boys commented, watching his friend with an ironic look.
"Once, for half a week, eight years ago. Dad hasn't taken us back since."
"But you still went." The boy grinned at Sora and stuck out his own hand. The boy looked sort of like Sora's best friend back on the Isles, Tidus, with his blond hair and blue eyes, but he dressed much differently than the beach boy with baggy gray pants and a white jacket. Sora shook hands with him, definitely glad he'd decided to come even despite Cloud's warnings. "I'm Kyohaku, but call me Kyo."
"And I'm Yurasu," the last boy said. He had dark brown hair contained by a bandana, along with an oversized red shirt and blue jeans. "We were all gonna go over to the First District, you wanna come?"
As much as he wanted to, Sora figured it was probably better to get out of there before he did do something else to humiliate himself. He still hadn't talked directly to Kairi, but he knew that when he did, everything would just go down the drain. "Nah, I should probably get back and help Mom out so she doesn't skin me later."
"Parents," Yurasu said, in just the perfect tone of exasperation that everyone had to agree with.
"Yeah. I was just out looking around before she roped me in."
"Didn't I see you with Cloud yesterday? At the café?" Riku suddenly asked – and this time, his tone was almost accusing, such a shift from earlier that Sora was left a little off-balance.
He shrugged. "Yeah, he showed me around yesterday 'cause I had no idea where anything was. He also took me to the dojo."
"Really?" And Riku began to laugh quietly, a laugh very similar to Cloud's but somehow more… nerve-wracking. "Guess I'll see you there some time, then. I'm there almost every day at four."
Remembering Cloud's warning about Riku's love of winning, and considering the fact that he was starting to get just a little creepy, Sora grinned again and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, but I'm horrible. I'm sure you'll kill me if we ever fight." After all, Cloud says this guy is better than him and look what he did to me!
Riku laughed again, and somehow all the creepiness disappeared. "We'll see. Catch you later, Sora."
"Bye, guys!" he called over his shoulder as he trotted out of the alley, back in the direction of the Third District, still carrying his wet jacket and gloves. But when he'd turned around and began jogging back for the door, shoes squelching on the pavement, his face fell.
She never said a word to me, he thought ruefully as the door closed behind him.
A couple hours later, with dry hair and in a fresh change of clothes, Sora managed to once again escape his mother after helping her scrub down every inch of the kitchen and unpack all the cookware by saying he was meeting a friend, which wasn't entirely a lie. He wanted to seek out Cloud and see if he could dig some more information out of the blond, but when he looked around the district, his friend was nowhere to be seen. However, coming his way, and nearly making him run into a lamppost as he realized it, was the exact person he wanted to find out more information about – Kairi. And she was alone, the first time he had ever seen her without anyone else around.
She hadn't seen him, so he ducked back in the doorway to take a minute to compose himself. Okay, you can do this, he told himself firmly, determined to not look like an idiot again. At least here there was no water for him to fall in. Just… go over and say hi. You never have any problem with that, just do it! He took a deep breath and let it out quickly, shook his head, and ducked out of his hiding place.
"Sora!" she called as she recognized him, and his heart leapt as she changed directions towards him. She smiled as she got closer, then nodded at his clothes. "All black now?"
"What? Oh, yeah," he replied, glancing down at himself. "Couldn't stay in the other stuff after it got soaked."
She laughed, and he nearly tripped over his own feet with how much he liked hearing it and knowing he had caused it when he hadn't done something stupid. "I never told you who I was. My name's Kairi," she said with a smile, and he positively melted.
"I-I'm Sora… But yeah, you knew that," He scratched the back of his head as she laughed again, mentally trying to make his tongue untie itself. "So, uh… You live around here?"
She nodded and pointed to the stairway that led to the Second District, and the platform it led to. "Just up there. So I guess we're neighbors, huh?" And she smiled again as she started walking once more, and this time Sora really did trip over his own feet as he tried to keep up with her. "So where are you going?"
"Ah, th-the dojo," he replied with the first thing that came to mind. "Yeah, I wanted to see if there was anyone there, and… yeah, see people."
She giggled this time. "You didn't seem so stuttery back in the alley."
Damn you, mouth! "Well… Come on." He managed a sheepish grin as they started climbing the stairs. "I'd just fallen in the water… I couldn't be much dumber."
"Oh, not really. I know Namine definitely didn't think so," she said mischievously with a teasing glint in her eye.
"She what?" Sora demanded, shocked by that revelation. Attracting girls was all well and good, but he wanted to attract the girl with him now!
"She couldn't stop talking about you after you left. If any of us had known where you lived, she probably would've turned up at your door and offered to help your mother." Kairi grinned, unlatching the doors to the Second District. "And since I know where you are now, maybe I'll just let that slip to her."
"Uh…" He had to get her mind off of setting him up with anyone, since that definitely wasn't the way he wanted his dating future to go. He grabbed for a change of topic. "So where're you going if you're not going home?"
"The library," she answered as they let the doors shut behind them. "I'm trying to study math with the books there 'cause I'm not very good at it and my guardian wants me to get better, but it just doesn't make any sense to me."
He had no idea what made him go "Hey, I can help you with that!" but he did it anyway, definitely surprising Kairi. But he grabbed the idea and ran with it. "That was my best subject back on the Isles, so it wouldn't be any problem if you needed extra help." And I can spend time with her then!
Kairi brightened significantly at the idea. "Really? You could?" But then her expression fell. "But you couldn't. Cid won't let me do things with guys."
Ah-hah! Opening! "Not even date?"
She shook her head, folding her arms over her chest. "No, not until my stepsister does."
That thought just boggled his mind. "Yuffie? Date?"
She gave him an odd sideways look at that and he immediately began cursing himself silently. He'd just let out that he knew more about her than she'd told him, which had to sound pretty freaky from a guy who'd just moved there the day before. "Yeah, how'd you know that?"
In his desperation, Sora went for the truth. "Well, when Cloud was showing me around yesterday, she nearly jumped on our heads." Kairi immediately relaxed and rolled her eyes, clearly at Yuffie's actions rather than Sora himself; apparently that course of action was par for the course with that girl. "And then she yelled at us and ran off. Cloud told me her name and that she had a stepsister named Kairi."
"She's crazy," Kairi stated flatly. "She only hangs out with Aerith, never wants to do anything besides train, and yells at everyone. I'm sorry she did that; I'll have to tell her to watch out again." Something in her tone made Sora think that that "talk" wouldn't exactly be comfortable. "But you're a friend of Cloud's? That could work, then…"
"What?"
"Well, Cid trusts Cloud more than the other boys, for some reason. So if I tell him you're Cloud's friend, he may let you tutor me." She smiled again, moving over to the doors to the library, and Sora had to lock his feet to the ground to keep from following her. "As long as we swear up and down that we won't leave the library."
"Well, tutoring works best with the information, right?" Trying not to think about how unbearably stupid that sounded, Sora grinned. "So there wouldn't be reason to go anywhere else." Yet, he amended to himself. Yet yet yet…
Kairi grinned as she pulled open one of the doors. "Exactly. It may just work after all. I'll meet you here this time tomorrow and tell you what Cid said, all right?"
"Sure," he replied, actually sounding casual. "I'll see you later then, Kairi."
"See you!" With another grin, she disappeared through the library door.
Sora waited just until the door had closed, then spun and ran for the dojo, wrenching the door open. "Cloud!"
PING. "HE'S NOT HERE!" Sora ducked the falling shuriken and shut the door before Yuffie could attack him again, then changed direction and ran back into the Third District.
Yuffie was definitely going to be a problem. While the tutoring thing would work very well to get to know Kairi, it wasn't dating. And if Kairi couldn't date until Yuffie dated… and if Yuffie acted like that with everyone but that Aerith person Kairi had mentioned…
Whoever would go out with her would have to be suicidal.
Cloud was nowhere to immediately be found in the Third District. Sora even ran into the apartment building the blond had pointed out as his and knocked on his door, but no one answered. He was about to give up and go back to his place when he noticed a small, unlit alley leading to an elaborately decorated door, and decided to go ahead and give it a try. There was no knob to be seen, but as he approached the door, it simply slid up into the wall above it as he watched with wide eyes.
"Oh… kaaaay," he said to himself, and went through before it decided to close him out. The door slid down behind him with a rasp of stone on stone, and Sora briefly panicked, thinking he would be trapped in the dark, but he began to calm down as he realized there was a sort of blue-green light from behind him. He turned around, and once again his jaw dropped at what he saw.
He seemed to be in some sort of underground cave, and most of the cave floor was covered in murky water that he couldn't see the bottom through. In the center of the small lake was an island with an old, dilapidated small house on it that no one could possibly be living in. He couldn't tell what the light source was, but there were five large stones like oversized stepping stones that crossed the lake to the island from the small section of dry land. And sitting on the edge of the lake, humongous sword next to him on the ground, was Cloud.
"Hey," he called back without turning around, his words sounding a little hollow in the vast space. "Quite something, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Sora breathed with awe, moving forward slowly and trying to take it all in. "It's sort of…"
"Creepy? A little. But it's quiet, and calm. Not a lot of places like that in this town."
Sora sat down tailor-style next to the blond, looking out over the lake towards the house. "What's that there for?"
Cloud shrugged. "Who knows? Legend has it a powerful magician used to live here and he made the entire cave and lake, as well as that door and the house. But he's long gone now, if he ever was here to begin with."
"Don't legends usually have some truth in them? I can't think of any other way to explain that door." Sora looked over at his friend. "How'd you know it was me?"
"I heard you when you were coming in. So, how'd meeting everyone go?"
Sora turned away, sheepish. "Not… quite like I hoped."
"…What happened?"
"I fell in the water, had to leave without talking to Kairi, and apparently one of her friends likes me."
Cloud snorted. "Tough luck."
And then Sora grinned as he unleashed his surprise. "But I'm going to be Kairi's tutor."
"What?"
"She's trying to get better at math, so I said I'd help her!"
"You're good at math?"
"For her I can be!"
Cloud just shook his head. "And how, may I ask, are you planning on doing this without Cid finding out and killing you?"
"Well, that was kinda odd, actually." Sora turned to face Cloud, resettling in his new position. "Kairi was going to ask Cid, and she said he'd probably agree because we were friends. Why's that?"
"Oh, that." The blond shrugged. "I used to be friends with her and Yuffie, back before Kairi fell in with Riku's group and Yuffie went crazy. I think he feels sorry for me because of the accident, and I know he'd like me to be after one of them if any guy was, but neither of them are my type."
"Ohhhhhhhhh?" Sora asked, starting to grin. "So what is your type then?"
He didn't answer.
"Come on, what is it?"
Still no answer.
Sora just shook his head and changed the topic. "Soooooo, apparently Kairi's guardian won't let Kairi date until Yuffie does."
"That's new. Used to be they couldn't date at all." Cloud actually grinned at the thought. "Kairi has to be fuming – she could have what she wanted if only she had a different stepsister. Yuffie is never going to date."
"And that's the problem. Cloud-"
"NO."
"You don't even know what I was going to ask!"
"Whatever it is, NO. I am not getting involved in this crazy game of yours."
Sora groaned. "C'mon, please? Would it really be that bad?"
"For me, it would." Cloud grasped the hilt of his sword and stood, leaving Sora to scramble to his feet after him. "Sora, I keep away from these people for a reason. None of them want anything to do with me, so I don't get in their way."
"Come on, Cloud," Sora practically pleaded, desperate. "I've only had one conversation with Kairi and I can tell she wouldn't push you away if you talked to her." When the blond didn't have a retort for that and didn't move away, Sora continued on. "I'm not even asking for much help, just help me think some of this out."
Cloud at last looked in his direction, that strangely closed off expression once again on his face. "Are you talking to me just to get me to help you?"
"What?"
"Are you just trying to use me?"
"What! NO!" Sora yelled, and the words echoed around the cavern as if to reinforce his vehement denial. "I mean, you can answer my questions, yeah, and you seem to know a lot more about this place than people think you should, but I'd hang out with you even without Kairi!"
Cloud was silent until the echoes from Sora's half-shouted protest faded away, watching the water ripple slightly in the odd light. "All right," he said at last with a sigh. "I'm going to regret this, I know it. But all right."
He grinned. "Thanks, Cloud."
"But I am not dating Yuffie."
Sora held up both hands to forestall any other arguments. "I'm not gonna ask you to. But I need to think of someone who will, and fast. Tutoring's a start, but that's all it is." He groaned, the memory of his "encounter" with the female ninja coming back to him. "I looked for you in the dojo first, and Yuffie threw her star at me. She missed, but still – anyone who'd date her has to be the bravest person alive or hoping to find a swift end to it all."
"She missed on purpose," Cloud said as he leaned the sword against the wall since they weren't going anywhere. "Yuffie's got pinpoint accuracy with those things. But she's armed, and very dangerous with them. You need someone who can defend himself, and I can't think of anyone in the sword classes who would do it."
And suddenly Sora was struck with what could very possibly be the worst – or the best – idea he'd ever had. "Hey…"
Cloud looked over quickly, not liking his tone of voice. "I'm hearing something bad coming…"
"That guy at the café yesterday."
It's was Cloud's turn for his jaw to drop, something Sora had thought had the same chance of happening as pigs flying. "What?" he hissed in a fierce whisper, almost as though the leather wearer would hear them despite the fact that he was nowhere near. "Are you insane?"
"Maybe," Sora replied in a low tone, definitely feeling like this was not something anyone else should overhear. "Look, we both know that you, me, Riku, Yusaru, Kyo, and whoever else they hang out with will never do it. You said whoever did it would have to be able to defend himself, and he's supposed to be the best around!"
"Supposed to be, but no one's ever seen him do anything! Besides, he's-"
"Crazy?" And Sora grinned, an almost feral expression that made Cloud dread what was going to happen. "That's why he's perfect."
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeah, it has been scientifically proven that I am incapable of writing any form of multi-chaptered story without some form of trauma. Cloud's accident is actually very light for me. But I hope there's enough other amusing stuff that the one glaring example of my trauma-inducing ways isn't so bad. As said before, review replies and tons of just... really weird fun facts are stuck up in my livejournal, so go check it out!
Let me know what you think! Bye!