Author's note: Hiiii! How are we all? Okay, I wrote this about two-and-a-half times because it was weird. o.O Then i though, "Hmm... I should just put it up because otherwise i'll never update and every will get annoyed and you'll never update and then this story will dieand you will be all annoyed because you will have to write something else."

Sooo, i updated.

-o-x-Chapter 9-x-o

"Nooooo!" Kairi! You can't put me through the embarrassing procedure that involves!" Sora protested, trying to tug his arm out of the red-head's surprisingly firm grip.

"But Sora! It'll be so fun!" she whined.

Sora pouted, "But it will make me look openly-gay and flamboyant if you paint my nails!"

Kairi opened her mouth to reply but then seemed to change her mind and closed it again. She paused, a questioning look directed at Sora – as though she were trying to reassess him. Then she opened her mouth again, "What do you mean 'openly-gay'?"

Sora shuffled on the spot, "I err… It'll make me look gay as in a tight t-shirt and short shorts would make me look… gay…"

Kairi smirked slightly. "So you don't mean it'll make you seem openly-gay oppose to being 'in the closet'?"

Sora could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks, which was never a good sign. Damn that girl. She was too clever.

"Uh… No. No, definitely not."

Kairi raised her eyebrows and gave the brunette a 'you don't fool me' look before walking into her bedroom.

Sora felt his face. It was hot enough to fry a couple of eggs! He started fanning his face, to make the blush calm down a little. Maybe he could pretend that he was sick and he had a temperature. But then, if he did that he would probably have to home and besides, Kairi knew what Sora was like when he was sick. She'd known him for too long.

"Okay, Kai. I'll let you paint my nails. But I'm taking it off before we go anywhere."

"Okay!" the red-head agreed, jumping on the her bed, "Come here then!"

Sora grinned and sat on the bed, bouncing slightly. They both started giggling for no apparent reason until Kairi suddenly looked solemn.

"Sora," she said, "Pass me your… left hand."

The brunette was still laughing slightly but managed to do as she said.

She opened the bottle she had picked out and began brushing it carefully on to his left thumb.

"So, Sora. Got anything to tell me?" she asked, not looking at him.

Sora, almost automatically, mentally panicked before telling her that no, he didn't have anything to tell her. She'd have to be quicker than that to catch him out.

But he felt bad when the red-head's face dropped and she looked disappointed. It was then he realised that Kairi had her suspicions, but wanted him to tell her in person, because he wanted to, not because she had asked.

He bit his lip thoughtfully. Maybe he really should just stop second-guessing and tell her. The whole of Roxas's old school knew that Roxas was gay and (almost) everyone seemed pretty much okay with it. Mind you, Roxas had a whole girl army to protect him, so you'd have to be mad to say something offensive to him.

Sora longed to be able to talk freely to Kairi about anything and everything like he could when they were younger and he knew that she did too.

He could always just tell her part of it… Just that he was gay and leave out the whole 'Oh, yeah, I fancy your boyfriend too' palaver.

"Kairi…" the brunette started, sounding much braver than he felt. "I think... Yep, I think I do actually have something to tell you."

The red-head looked up, her eyebrows perked slightly with a mixture of surprise and interest. "Oh? And what might that be?"

Sora automatically started thinking of something else to say instead but he mentally smacked his forehead and told his brain to shut up.

"Okay…Idon'tknowhowtosaythisandI'mreallysorryeventhoughitprobablydoesn'tmattertoyoubutI'mgay." He breathed a huge sigh of relief; he'd said it. Now all he needed was Kairi's reaction.

The brunette opened his eye slowly, biting his bottom lip, to see the red-head staring open mounted at him, her eyes were wide with shock.

'Ah,' he thought, 'maybe she hadn't been expecting that one.'

"You're… gay?" she asked, swallowing a gulp.

Sora nodded, "Yeah, I'm gay." he confirmed, this was more awkward than he thought it would be.

Kairi suddenly squealed and threw her arms around him causing him to yelp in shock.

"This is so cool! I've always wanted a gay best friend! And now a have one! We can go shopping together and borrow each other's clothes and bitch about people and… and talk about boys!" she squealed, clearly delighted.

The brunette sighed in relief and hugged her tightly, "That sounds great!"

"Ohh! I love you so much! You are the bestest best friend in the whole wide world, Sora!"

"You too Kairi!"

When they had finished hugging (and squealing, in Kairi's case) Kairi smiled cheekily and Sora knew what she was going to ask.

"Is there someone you like then?"

"I don't really know…" He lied.

She pouted, "Aww, come on! There must be somebody! What about Leon? You know, the senior guy? Phwoar!"

Sora burst out laughing. It was weird to hear Kairi talking like this. He supposed this was how she acting around other girls but it still felt really strange.

"Now I know where Selphie gets it from!" he joked. Then he frowned. "But... isn't Leon straight?"

Kairi giggled, "I know! But still. You can still think straight guys are hot. I mean, girls think that gay guys are hot as well!"

Sora's eyebrows shot up, "You do? Oh… right. Well, yeah. He is." he said, grinning sheepishly.

Kairi giggled, "I know! Oh, I'm so glad you've told me! I've been so worried about you! I thought you didn't like me anymore." she paused, thinking, "Are you going to tell Riku?"

"No!" he replied so fast that Kairi raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "I... I just don't think that I'm quite ready for anyone else to know yet."

The red-head nodded, "Okay, but remember that you can talk to me about anything! Even any seriously weird and disgusting dreams you've had."

Sora burst out laughing (again) before releasing some of the pent-up energy he had gained from sitting down for so long. He felt like he'd just jumped ten miles closer to his goal.

And it felt brilliant.

-x-X-x-

Author's Note: yeesss! Finally, we are getting somewhere!

Well, was it good? Was it terrible? Let me know!

Nirii xx