Birthday Treasure Hunt:

Today was a certain Girl's birthday, And after pestering her boyfriend the whole school day to tell her what her gift would be, He explained to her that she'd have to earn it.

"Are you serious?" Asked the birthday girl.

"yup." Nodded her boyfriend

"You really prepared a Treasure hunt for my birthday, and the Treasure is my gift?"

"yup."

"And I am not getting my birthday gift unless I complete it?"

"nope."

"... you're on." She said with a determined smile.

"I knew you'd like the idea." he laughed. "Your first hint is in your locker, that's the first and last hint of the day I am giving."

"But you'll still stick around with me and chuckle whenever I get stuck, won't you?"

"Would you have it any other way?"

"nope!"

Opening her locker, she found an envelope and picked it up before cutting it open and reading the next clue.

"Secrets must be shared as no man is an island. In order to advance you must ask our mutual confidant…" she read out loud. "Pretty eloquent."

"Hey I can be sometimes." he shrugged.

"Zexion helped you write these?"

"...Yeah."

With a laugh she started thinking, the riddle was a simple one. There were only a few people Sora and Kairi considered confidants, they had each other, Sora had Roxas, She had Namine, But only one person was what they could call their "Mutual Confidant", and that was the person they went to see next.

"Hi Riku!" Said Kairi as she took a seat in front of him at the Library's table.

"You're here early, I thought you'd get confused and actually go look in an Island." teased the silver haired boy.

"Hey! are you calling me dumb?!"

"Well you are dating Sora." he shrugged.

"On the other hand I guess you're smart you can't get anyone to date you." Sora spit back.

After exchanging a look, the three of them bursted into laughter, that was an average conversation for them.

"Well enough pleasantries, you're here for this aren't you?" asked Riku, showing off a piece of paper.

"I don't know, for all I know this is a shopping list." Kairi shrugged.

"No, this is the… oh.. it is my shopping list… wrong pocket." he said, pocketing the paper back and pulling out another. "THIS is the next hint."

"So what do I have to do to get it? Do we have to fight to the death or something?" she joked.

"That was the plan but I thought killing you wouldn't really make for the best birthday present, so instead you just need to beat me in a little game."

With that he brought up three cups and a marble, putting them on the table.

"Tricky cups, huh? alright, you're on." she nodded.

He grinned, Putting the marble under the middle cup, he started swapping. Riku was fast, and he didn't hold up for Kairi's sake, she tried to follow his hand movements but he clearly knew what he was doing. Soon enough he stopped and Kairi pointed to the left cup.

"Wrong." Said Riku, lifting the cup and showing it was empty.

"I was sure it was that one!" Said Kairi.

"I thought the same…" Said Sora, scratching his hair.

"Try to follow better this time." Riku laughed.

Once again, Kairi kept her eyes on the cup, this time she was sure the marble was on the right cup… But knowing Riku, there was some kind of trick to this…

"The middle one." she said pointing at it.

Riku smiled.

"Looks like you've seen through my trick." said the silver haired boy, lifting the cup to reveal the marble.

"I would have sworn it was on the right…" Sora said in confusion.

"It couldn't have been on the right… because the middle cup never moved." Said Riku with a chuckle. "It was a simple Sleight of hand Luxord showed me, Making you think one of the other two cups was the middle one, and keeping you focused on that one and therefore not noticing that the real middle cup hasn't moved an inch… Although it seems that unlike you, Kairi managed to see through it."

"Eh… No." kairi interrupted.

"... Huh?"

"I just figured there was some kind of trick cause it's you, So i just knew not to pick the one i thought was right, I didn't get any of that other nonsense."

"...Then how did you guess which one of the other two it was?" Asked Riku.

"Well… If you remove one, it becomes a fifty fifty chance." Said Sora.

"Exactly, So I just picked one and hoped luck was on my side." Kairi nodded.

Riku stayed silent for a moment, then grabbed the paper and passed it to Kairi.

"You deserve each other." he sighed before getting up. "Good luck with the rest."

"Thanks! See ya!" said Kairi as he left. "So the next clue…"

"Oh, I almost forgot." Riku interrupted before coming back and giving Kairi a CD case. "Happy birthday."

"Def Märch's latest album! Thanks Riku!"

"Don't mention it, See you guys later.." He said before peacing out.

Focusing back on the paper, Kairi read the next instruction.

"Sometimes shame must be faced to experience improvement, for the next clue you have to go back to the place of our… biggest embarrassment…"

She wished she could say that it took her a moment to think of what it was, But no, she knew exactly what it meant and where to go next.

"Did you really have to keep bringing that up?" she asked, her face already read with embarrassment just from the memory.

"As long as you react this way… yeah."

"Let's just move on." she said, puffing her cheeks.

The next stop was the Gym, The place where she kissed Sora for the first time, and while the kiss itself was a fond memory… not so much. Sora was able to look back at it and laugh it off, But as for Kairi a wave of embarrassment always hit her body whenever she remembered that day.

On top of the school's stage stood girls she knew really well, both doing an… extravagant pose.

"Looks like you're finally made it." Said Namine.

"Took you long enough Sister!" Said Xion.

"Hey girls! Hope I didn't make you wait too long." Said Kairi waving at both of them. "Wait, You haven't been holding these pauses the whole time while waiting for us, have you?"

"Pfft… No!" Said Xion, her eyes fidgeting a bit while Namine laughed nervously.

"Hey Sora, did you ask for the poses?" she whispered to her boyfriend.

"Nuh huh, Just asked them to wait here." Sora answered.

"... Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Hey love birds! we're still here!" Xion called. "Wait until we're done first then you can flirt all over this stage for all I care… wouldn't be the first time."

"Why does everyone have to always bring that up!" Said Kairi, burying her face in her hand out of shame again.

"I guess you're still not over that." Namine giggled. "Don't worry Kairi, Someday you'll look back at that incident and just laugh about it as much as we do."

"But until that day arrives, we'll do our due diligence as sisters and tease you about it whenever we can." Declared Xion.

"Just great…" Sighed the red head. "Enough about that! How do I get the next clue?"

"It's quite simple, all you have to do is answer a riddle." Said Namine.

"That's right, Me and Namine both are holding a piece of paper, but only one of them contains the clue!"

"You need to figure out who has it, and you only get to ask one of us one question to figure it out."

"One of us only tells the truth, and the other only tells lies. Let's see if you can figure out…"

"Hey Namine." Kairi interrupted. "Do you have the clue?"

"Eh?! Uhh… No…" Namine babbled, taken by surprise by the sudden question.

"Okay, you're the liar, and you do have it." Said Kairi.

"That's not how you solve this! how did you…" Namine asked.

"Because you're a terrible liar, Sis." Kairi answered.

At that, the two sisters stayed silent for a moment, before Sora broke the silence.

"... We should have gone with the one about the crow and the writing desk instead." He said.

"Agreed." the two sisters nodded.

"Well, A win is a win, here you go." Said Namine handing her the next clue.

"Riddles were never my thing anyway." Xion shrugged. "Well good luck with the rest of these, gotta meet with Roxas and Axel so i'll see you girls at home."

"I gotta head to the art club, So i'll see you later too." Said Namine. "Oh! before I forget!"

She took off her bag pack and started looking through it, Soon bringing out two little plush dolls, one looking like Sora and the other looking like Kairi.

"Oh… oh! they're so cute!" Kairi said.

"This is amazing… Did you girls make these?!" Sora asked.

"Yup! It's from both of us. I designed them and Xion did the sewing. Happy Birthday!" Said Namine, handing the plushies over.

"That also counts as your birthday gift Sora, so don't expect anything else this year." Xion laughed.

"Gee, thanks!" Laughed the boy, grabbing his own plushie and admiring it.

"Come here you two, you're not escaping the hug train!" Said Kairi, pulling both of her sisters into a bear hug.

Namine smiled and hugged her back, while Xion was feeling crushed.

"Okay! Okay! sis! love you both but you're crushing my bones!" she said in a mixture of both genuine pain and laughter.

After having said goodbye to her sisters, Kair read the next clue.

"In most games you got better as you trained, but your next clue is within the one game where you always failed…"

There were a few games Kairi was bad at, but none that she could say she ALWAYS failed at, no matter how much she tried… except for one. With that in mind, she knew what their next stop would be: the arcade.

Upon arriving, she headed towards her arch nemesis, the Crane game. Looking inside the glass, she indeed found a moogle plushie with a piece of paper wedged between its arms.

"Sora… this is devious." She said, looking at the machine with dread.

"Think of it as your time to get payback for all those quarters you lost on it in the past." Sora laughed.

"You know I am terrible at this thing! this is impossible!"

"Hey, My girlfriend ain't no quitter, it's not even that hard, let me show you."

He pushed her towards the board, inserted a quarter, then grabbed her hand and it on top of the button, keeping his hand on top of her's.

"It's simple, just keep your eye on the crane…" he said, pushing the button. "Wait for it to align with the prize… we'll go for that Chocobo for now… and press again. now we do it again, but vertically… and we wait."

Kairi watched the crane lower, grabbing the Chocobo by it's head and carrying it to the prize box.

"And there you go, it's pretty simple isn't it? give it a try."

"R… right! Today's the day I get my revenge." she said putting a coin in the machine. "Today, Miss Claw Crane, you're going down!"

One hour later

"Sooooraaaa! I am out of quarters!" The girl whined.

"... You know, maybe this was a bad idea, how about you just stop?" Sora suggested, the last hour of watching his girlfriend fail starting to take a toll.

"Your Girlfriend is no quitter! Can I borrow a quarter? Pleaaaaaase?" she said, giving him the puppy dog eyes.

"... Fine."

"Thank you! Don't worry, I am getting the hang of it, the time I am getting for sure!"

Five more tries later

"So… I am running out of quarters too, so… You know, I think maybe it's time to call it quits… It's better to escape and fight another day, you know?"

"But… It's the last clue, I can't just stop now…" She Said.

"Then instead, maybe you should use your own set of skills to find another way to…"

"Can you get it for me, please?" she asked, doing the puppy dog eyes again.

"Common Kairi, that's too easy, I can't just…"

And she added a pout, puppy dog eyes and a pout, a destructive combo Sora couldn't whistand.

"... That's one way to use a skill, So i can't complain, I guess."

With a sigh, Sora took his last quarter, and with it grabbed the moogle with the last clue.

"I may not know how to handle a claw, but I know how to handle my Sora." Said Kairi with a wink.

"I can't even argue with that…" he sighed.

Taking the last clue, she read it out loud.

"Our secret place."

"Yeah… I wrote that one, I thought I'd make it simple and to the point since it's the last one."

"Nothing wrong with that." She said, grabbing his hand. "Let's get going, shall we?"

Taking a boat to the Island was always a bit of work, But one they got used to since they've been doing it since they were children. Upon arriving they walked hand in hand towards the cave, now that they were in high school they didn't have as much time as they used to, so they took any chance they could to visit this place when possible.

Arriving at the secret place, Kairi didn't even need to look around to guess where Sora had put her gift, right under the drawing of each other they made as children… and to which they had added Paopu fruits with time. The drawing never failed to make her smile, especially after it had become a reality.

"And with this, I win this little treasure hunt, hold your applause please." Kairi laughed as she picked up the small box on the ground.

"Congratulations, hope you'll like your prize." Laughed Sora, clapping anyway. "It's nothing extravagant, but you know what they say, it's about the journey not the…"

Kairi shut him up by taking the bow from the gift box and sticking it on his hair while letting out a giggle.

"Hey! what was that for?!"

"You're my present, Sora." she said with a bright smile. "You're my present everyday of the year, and I can't ask for anything better, Thank you."

Sora's face turned bright red, he looked away in embarrassment and coughed to clear his voice.

"Y… You're Welcome." He said, his voice still a bit shaky. "Happy Birthday, Kairi."