Author's Note: Hello all. This is another snippet I know I want added to this story. It's way shorter than anything I've ever written and is susceptible to changes later. Let me know what you guys think. I seriously wish there was a like button feature now. Anyways, this is just the introduction of a new rival for Kairi since she doesn't have any interesting character development. I'm hoping in KH3 she gets more than the sweet, lovey dovey stuff. Maybe they could actually explain when and how she started having feelings for Sora or even vice versa but that's it. I don't want her sole purpose to be the love interest. I don't know why. If you have some suggestions or ideas about a female rival for Kairi, let me know or write your own kind of one- or two-shot fic. It might inspire me. ;-D

Sora knew that she was close by. He didn't have to feel anything amiss like when they first met in Agrabah to know it. As long as he heard the familiar screeching of the hunting vulture overhead, he knew Fait would be close by. If he saw it flying in the sky as though it were preparing to land, then he could easily deduce that she was within a few feet of him. She was the most methodical fighter he'd ever come across so far in his career as a keyblade master. It made him wonder if Maleficent really was a capable teacher. He had fought Maleficent multiple times in the past, but he had never seen her use hand-to-hand combat the way Fait did. It made him wonder exactly who taught her how to fight. Cloud said he remembered Fait as a teen and they trained together back then, but she already knew a few techniques and often hesitated when using a sword. It wasn't out of fear is what he said, but it was because she wanted to learn how to fight without it.

"Hey, Sora?" Riku called, no longer wanting to follow behind him without a reason. Not that he needed one. He just wasn't sure if his friend was lost. He then asked, "What are we looking for?"

"Oh," Sora responded, turning back to scratch behind his head and smile. "I'm looking for Fait."

"Who?" Kairi questioned, tilting her head cutely.

"She's this girl I met in another world," Sora answered, turning around to explain briefly. "Since Donald and Goofy are working on the Gummi ship, I thought I'd take a power nap, but I heard her pet bird and thought I'd say hi. One of my friends knows her, too. He said they go way back."

"Okay, but why are we trying to find some girl you flirted with?" Riku teased, producing a small smirk at Sora's blushing face.

"I didn't do that! And I was just introducing you!" Sora argued, hearing the vulture screech in the distance. "She's close!"

With that, Sora ran off without saying more than that. Kairi looked at Riku for some reassurance at the new information but he shrugged his shoulders in confusion. He had never heard of the girl either. As friendly as Sora was, it normally wouldn't bother Kairi to hear about him making a new friend but something felt off. It seemed like he hoped for whoever this Fait character was to be some place he could easily find her. As a friend, it would've been legit for Sora to hope like that, but this was strange on his part. Nevertheless, both teens followed their cheerful friend down the alleyway to see this new girl friend of his. When they heard Sora let out an excited gasp, he rushed to a clearing at the end of the alleyway and saw the vulture landing near a resting figure. There she was!

"Hey, Fait!"

Riku and Kairi followed Sora as he waved at someone and took notice to a young woman hugging the rim of some pot with steaming water in it. She had a towel covering her head and was dressed in black spandex pants, brightly colored shoes and gloves, and an orange spandex shirt. Her dirty blonde hair covered her face, but she did react to Sora's voice by turning to the direction of it and giving a lazy wave. Ah, he found a napping buddy it seemed. When Sora got close enough to stand in front of the girl, Riku and Kairi lightly gasped a bit as the woman pulled the towel off her head and whipped her hair back to shake her head and ruffle her hair. She was really pretty! At least when Kairi took note to the violet-purple eyes, freckled cheeks, and dark raspberry-colored lips. Riku, on the other hand, was suspicious. He recognized similar features on another person, but had this Fait not worn her colorful shoes and gloves he would have smacked Sora. Fait almost looked like Vulture, their new enemy who he witnessed plunge a world into darkness with no remorse or regret. She even owned a pet vulture it seemed.

"Is this where you train?" Sora asked brightly.

Fait leaned over to rest her elbows on her knees and responded, "Yup. If you ladies are havin' a tea party, this ain't no spot fer ya."

Riku narrowed his eyes at being called a lady and asked, "What sort of training do you do?"

"The usual," Fait answered, putting her towel in the steaming water so it could soak in the herbs.

"Which is?" Riku asked with impatience and displeasure laced in his tone.

"Not ya business," Fait responded, smirking before replacing the towel on her head and sitting up to crack her back.

"You could be a little nicer to new people, y'know," Sora said, placing his hands on his hips to scold the blonde.

"Is that sass coming from you?" Fait questioned with widened eyes and an angry parent's tone in her voice.

Sora flinched, remembering what happened last time he tried to scold Fait about something. That was not a fun time. He then said, "Well, these guys are my friends. I'm trying to introduce you."

"Then introduce them," Fait said, eyes returning to normal.

Sora nodded and pulled his friends' arms so Fait could see them. When she lightly chuckled at his behavior, he smiled at her approval and said, "This is Riku and Kairi. We grew up together on my island. Now, we're keyblade masters together!"

"Island?" Fait questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Which island?"

"Our world is called Destiny Islands," Sora told her. "Ever been there?"

"Actually, yeah," Fait responded. "I guess everyone from that island is just weird."

"Hey!" Sora shouted, taking a hint of offense. It made him wonder, though. Who did she meet on his island if it wasn't him or his friends? Why'd she think they were weird?

Sora took the liberty of shrugging in apology to Riku and Kairi at Fait's rudeness but smiled to reassure them that she was okay. She was a teaser. That's just something he learned to accept about her when they formally met in her world. While Riku and Kairi didn't seem all that happy about her attitude, Sora found he didn't really care. Fait was relaxed and calm at the moment. She was still the good, annoying, and somewhat embarrassing girl he met. Either way the brunette watched Fait bring her left knee to her cheek as she sat on her boulder-chair. He decided he'd join and took a peek at her to see if it was okay to sit next to her. That's when he finally noticed that Fait was wearing makeup. He had never seen her wear it in her world, even when he visited her house and played with the kids.

When Fait opened her eyes to catch him staring at her, she smiled in that familiar half-teasing, half-flirting manner, "Do you like girls with lipstick, Baby Blue?"

"Baby?" Kairi questioned, some hidden anger bubbling up.

"Blue?" Riku questioned, looking at Sora with a raised eyebrow. Wait, so he did flirt with her? What's with the pet name?

Sora blushed visibly and shouted, "I'm not a baby!"

"Well, Toddler Blue sounds stupid," Fait remarked, giving Sora a more flirty stare. "And you're still staring."

"I AM NOT!" Sora argued, shouting directly into Fait's ear. "You are so embarrassing!"

"You make it too easy," Fait responded, digging in her ear to get the ringing to settle. "It's not bad to like makeup."

Kairi harrumphed inelegantly then said with an annoyed tone, "No, it isn't, but he's not that shallow."

Fait looked at Kairi with curiosity at first until she sensed a hint of something in Kairi's body language. The twitching of her eyebrow, the turning of her head, the tiny frown on her lips, and the tapping of her foot interested Fait until she was able to pinpoint the emotion that was emanating from the petite, redhead girl. Slowly, Fait's lips curled into a Cheshire Cat's grin and her eyes lit up like jewels catching the rays of the sun. Riku took notice to this and got the hint based on Fait's smile. Kairi was a tiny bit jealous of the attention Sora was giving Fait. When Riku saw what Fait was seeing, he produced a small smirk himself but erased it to show seriousness when Sora turned to him to see why Fait was smiling so weird. He then hummed in question when the blonde stopped smiling and sniffed the air in an exaggerated way that gained Kairi's attention.

Fait said through her sniffing, "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" Sora asked, trying to sniff the air around them. He smelled the tiniest hints of Fait's perfume but it was getting ruined by the smell of her sweat and whatever herb she put in the water. He sniffed a little harder to identify the scent of the blonde's perfume but the sweat was strong. "You had a nice perfume on before you ruined it with your training."

"No, it smells like rosemary," Fait said, still sniffing loudly. "A bit of lemongrass, poison ivy, and dead meat. Oh, that's raw! That is nasty. Oh, it's terrible!"

"I don't smell anything," Sora replied, frowning now that he can't smell any of those things. "Just your perfume and sweat."

"You can smell dead meat?" Riku questioned, trying to fight the laughter beginning to bubble in his chest.

"Yeah, but it's - " Fait said, sniffing again, "in a weird direction. Like it's at someone. So weird."

"What is it?" Sora questioned, slightly frustrated.

"Oh, it's..." Fait said, sniffing some more before responding, "Envy."

"Envy's an emotion, you jerk!" Sora said, lightly punching Fait's shoulder. "You can't smell that."

"Oh?" Fait purred, puckering her lips and watching Kairi's movements. She was blushing lightly underneath Fait's gaze and began to grit her back teeth. Fait then turned to Sora with a happy smile and asked, "You can actually smell my perfume, Sora?"

"Huh?" Sora questioned. He sniffed lightly and nodded with a smile saying, "Yeah? It's faint, though."

"What's it smell like?" Fait asked with a light giggling, feeling tension from Kairi's direction and hearing light snickering from Riku. So he could sense it, too?

"Um..." Sora hummed, closing his eyes and sniffing lightly again. "Like... flowers... and some kind of candy." He then quickly stopped sniffing and gave Fait a flat look before saying, "But that's all I can pick up. You smell like sweat, lady."

"I'll try to wear it next time you visit my world," Fait said, closing her right eye to wink. "After a shower, of course. I take it the girls on your island don't really care much for perfume and lipstick."

Kairi walked up to Fait and Sora and said with a smirk, "The women he's around are natural beauties. Only the older women wear makeup."

Riku cleared his throat in the background. He wasn't going to be able to hold in his laughter for long. Sora had no idea that Fait was purposely trying to get him to focus on her so Kairi would get even more jealous. This was all possibly to confirm her earlier suspicion that she was, and Fait was playing them both like fiddles. How couldn't they see what she was doing?

Fait hummed at the response, rose to her feet, and bent down to Kairi's height to speak lowly in her ear, "That's good. Means I get his attention in a way an ordinary little girl can't."

Riku sucked the air through his teeth sharply to say, "Yikes..."

Fait then returned to her normal height and straightened posture before tossing her towel over her shoulder so it could land in the pot of water.