Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Princess

Chapter 2: Jobs That Suck

Two mornings later when Selphie informed her boys that they would all have to find jobs while in Twilight Town, neither of them were very happy. Sora even went as far as to tell her that he'd rather make breakfast for a month, but the only thing that happened then was Selphie happily giving him the task of making breakfast for two weeks and finding a job.

"We may not be paying rent, but we still need money for food and drinks. And it wouldn't hurt to get some new clothes. Most of ours have rips and tears in them that I can't fix." Selphie told them. "Not to mention it'll cost a lot more than what we have right now to go all the way to Radiant Gardens."

That was how Sora found himself working what was possibly the most boring job in all of Twilight Town: working at a tiny, old fashioned ice cream shop on Tram Common, right across from the newer ice cream shop that sold the ever popular sea-salt ice cream.

'I can't even eat any or they'll take the munny from my pay.' He thought dejectedly. 'Not that I'd want any. This place has icky looking ice cream.' He wrinkled his nose at the thought of having to eat it. 'But it pays fifty munny an hour and that's about as good as it gets in towns like this. I bet Riku's having a hard time running stupid errands all day.'

Sora looked around moodily and, when he didn't see anyone coming anywhere near the ice cream stand, picked up an ink pen and began tapping it against the wood frame.

'Stupid Riku.' He thought. 'Him and his girly silver hair. And his muscles. And his cocky… Riku-ness.' He didn't even notice when he began to stab the ink pen into the wood, a cloud of anger broiling his head.

"Hey mister!" A childish voice demanded his attention.

Sora blinked in surprise and pulled the pen out of the wood with a jerk, surprised that it hadn't snapped in half and spouted ink everywhere. Then he leaned over the counter and looked down to see a cute little girl who had her brown hair tied into pigtails. Baby blue eyes stared up at him.

"Hello," Sora said, wondering what the little girl wanted. Then he remembered where he was and what he was suppose to be doing and cleared his throat. "Er- welcome to Joe's Ice Cream Corner. What can I get for you?" Inwardly he rolled his eyes at the lame name, but outwardly he smiled pleasantly and kept his focus on the little girl.

"Gimme my ice cream!" The little girl demanded. "I gave you the munny, so give me!"

Annoyed but not about to let it show, Sora looked down at the counter expecting to see the ever-so-familiar golden, square coins. Instead he saw two buttons, a stick, and a metal blob. "I'm sorry, I don't see any munny on the counter." He told her, not feeling sorry at all. He could already feel the beginning of an impending headache.

"Yes you do!" The little girl protested. "It's right there! You just looked at it! See!" She pointed to the buttons, stick, and metal blob.

Sora resisted the impulse to throw something across the room. Preferably something heavy that would cause a lot of damage. He scowled down at the little girl, all cheer and friendliness forgotten. "Look," He growled. "I don't accept buttons, a stick, and a piece of metal as proper munny, so take it and leave. I'm sure every other sane ice cream shop will tell you the same thing." He pushed himself away from the counter with a huff, needing to get away from the annoying little girl before he'd lose his temper.

In the back he couldn't help but throw a little temper tantrum, the stress of the days finally getting to him. Normally he'd be more careful since Selphie would lecture him about keeping his cool when she'd catch him at it. Never mind that he didn't do it that often and it was his way of letting off steam when he and Riku were fighting.

He threw everything he could find that wouldn't get him in trouble or cause too much damage and he stomped and cursed and slammed the freezer doors repeatedly until his anger ebbed away and he began to feel foolish for acting in such a manner.

He walked back out front and took a seat behind the counter again, mindlessly picking up the ink pen to take it against the counter. This time he made sure to not stab it into the wood.

No one bothered him for a while and he took the time to watch the everyday routines of the townsfolk. After an hour more of mind-boggling boredom, someone approached the ice cream shop. Sora recognized that someone. He was Kairi's brunet friend.

'Aw, crap. This is the last thing I need.' Sora thought. 'Please let it just be him walking in the wrong direction. I don't need to hear about how I should stay away from the princess. Selphie's already told us not to bother her.'

Unfortunately for Sora, the brunet boy walked right up to the ice cream shop and stopped in front of him.

"You're one of those kids who thinks Kairi is the princess." Pence said without preamble. "Why? Just because of that photo?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. We know it's just a photo and at first we thought it was of Selphie when she was a baby, but then we found something written on the back." He set the pen down and regarded Pence seriously. "Are you sure you want to hear this? I don't want to cause any trouble around here."

"I want to know why you think Kairi is her." Pence said.

Sora sighed. "Alright. I just hope Selphie doesn't murder me over this." His hand strayed toward the pen, but he pulled it back to rest it on the counter. "Selphie's had that picture for as long as I can remember. She had it before Riku and I ever arrive at Traverse Orphanage. It wasn't until we were about eleven that we noticed there was something written on the back of it. It was hard to read and parts of it were missing because it's burnt." He plucked a napkin from the holder and picked up the pen before carefully writing three lines of words and numbers exactly as they were on the back of the photo. When he was done, he handed it to Pence.

The napkin read:

--OF-BIRTH: APRIL 21, YEAR 320

-PICTURE D-ATE: AUGUST 20, YEAR 320

PRIN-- OF RAD--NT G-RD-N

Pence frowned. "That's not much to go by."

"It's enough." Sora said. "Because it lets us know that she's our age and that she was born in the spring. And thanks to the photo we know her hair is a shade similar to brown and her eyes are a bluish color. And Kairi has the same exact photo. If she's not the princess then it only means we're getting close to finding her." He looked at Pence, his jaw set and his royal blue eyes determined. "We know there are flaws. That's why Selphie tells us to take things slowly. She says things will work out if given enough time. Riku and I think differently though."

"But you still listen to her." Pence pointed out.

"Of course we do!" Sora said, sounding insulted. "She's our sister. She's the only mother-like figure we've ever known. And she's deadly when she gets a hold of a jump rope."

By then Pence looked more curious than confrontational. "So why are you guys trying to find her? Is it for the reward munny?"

"Well, yeah. But there's more to it than that." Sora said. "I won't say we're doing it out of the good of our hearts and that no one deserves to be separated from family, because that's only half true. We're doing it so we can find our families. And if we can help her find hers in the process, then that's great."

Pence looked a little surprised by the seriousness in Sora's voice. "That was either really well rehearsed or the truth." He said, not sure which one it was.

"I'm used to having to explain why we're looking for her." Sora said, shrugging. "And me, Selphie, and Riku talk about it whenever one of us starts to have doubts." He looked at Pence curiously, wondering why he came over to talk to him. He voiced his question, which took Pence back momentarily.

"Curiosity." He said. "Kairi's one of my best friends. She grew up here with us. You can't expect us to just let her go forever."

Sora looked alarmed. "Well- uh-"

"Never thought of that?"

Sora looked sheepish. "I have, it's just that Selphie always answers that 'cause Riku gets all mad and I always start rambling. We don't expect you to just let her go. That'd be dumb. I mean, I wouldn't like anyone telling me I'd have to leave Riku and Selphie behind in order to find my family and I can't imagine that anyone else would so--"

"You're rambling." Pence pointed out.

Sora blushed. "Oh. Oops. But you get what I'm saying, right? If she didn't want to leave, then we wouldn't make her. But if she did, then anyone she chooses could come with us if they wanted to." His head cocked sideways and he scratched the back of his neck. "We'll just be stuck around here for a bit longer. We don't have the munny to get to Radiant Garden yet."

"How much munny does it cost?" Pence asked. "It's just two towns over, right?"

"Seven-thousand munny a person." Sora said with a sigh. "We only have about three-thousand right now, since Selphie let me get ice cream yesterday. I feel kind of bad about that now."

"Pence!"

The boy in question jumped, an almost guilty and fearful expression crossing his face. "Gotta go." He muttered to Sora before he rushed off after Olette, who was waiting for him over near the candy shop.

Sora sighed and stabbed the pencil into the wood again before he turned around and walked to the back.

Selphie was having a much better time than Sora and she was getting more pay.

'I lucked out this time.' She thought happily. 'I feel bad for Sora though.' She had walked past the ice cream shop earlier and had seen Sora moodily stabbing the counter with an ink pen.

"Selphie, go clean out the dachshund's cage and then feed the snakes." One of her co-workers said as she walked by carrying a bird cage. "Make sure the albino sees you put the mouse in."

"Okay." Selphie said, looking wearily at the snake cages. 'Okay, there's a few downsides. Like the snakes.' She held back a shudder and deposited the bird cage in the right place before she made her way to the back of the pet shop where they kept the dogs and cats up for adoption from the local animal shelter. She quickly cleaned up the cage and then fetched a cage of mice and carried it over to where the three snakes were kept. She opened the lid of the first snake's glass case and then pulled a mouse out of the cage by the base of it's tail and dropped it in before shutting the lid. She did the same for the next snake, but for the albino she gently tapped the glass to get it's attention and then dropped the mouse right in front of it. She quickly closed the lid and took the mice back to their area.

"Not a snake person, are you?" Another co-working remarks, sounding amused. "Don't worry about them too much. We don't have to feed them often." He held out his tanned hand for her to shake. "I'm Tidus."

Selphie smiled and shook his hand. "Selphie."

"So, uh," Tidus scratched the back of his neck uncertainly. "You new around here? I've never seen you around before now."

Selphie nodded. "Yeah. Me and my, er…" She paused a moment to think of a suitable title. "Me and my brothers are here for a while, but then we'll be heading off to Radiant Garden."

"Oh." Tidus looked almost disappointed to hear that she would be leaving. "How long are you staying?"

Selphie shrugged. "No idea. It depends on how fast we get the money to leave. With all three of us working I don't think it'll be too hard, but I haven't added in the expense of clothes and food yet so…" She trailed off, uncertainty evident in her eyes. She had forgotten to include food and clothes when she was adding up how much it would cost to get out to Radiant Garden.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Tidus said confidently. "And you'll love it in Radiant Garden. I was born there. Moved when I was seven and ended up out here. I'd love to go back some day, but my parents refuse to. I guess there's too many bad memories there for them or something." He shrugged.

"Tidus!" The co-worker who had Selphie feed the snakes walked around the shelves, her hands on her hips. "Get back to work or else I'll go get Cid on your ass!"

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you, Tifa." Tidus said, rolling his eyes. "He gave Selphie and apologetic look and then walked away to get back to whatever it was he was doing.

"Selphie, man the register for a while." Tifa instructed.

Selphie nodded and made her way to the register. Part of her wondered how long she would last working in the pet shop.

"Thank you so much, young man." An old woman said, looking at Riku fondly. At her feet rested a plain, gray cat carrier and the animal inside was growling in contempt. "I always lose sight of the little dear and nobody around here helps anymore."

Riku plastered a charming smile on his face, willing himself to pay no attention to the scratched running down his arm. The cat wasn't very happy about him climbing up the tree to get it down. "It was no trouble, ma'm." He lied.

"At least let me give you this in return." The old woman handed Riku two-hundred munny. "Make sure you get those scratches looked over." She said as Riku accepted the munny. After that, she picked up the cat carrier and shuffled away, talking to the disgruntled cat.

Riku dropped the munny in his munny pouch and then continued down the street towards the bulletin board to see what other odd jobs he could do.

'If I keep this up I'll have the munny in no time.' He thought, pleased. 'I've already made one-thousand munny, so in another week I'll have almost enough. Sora and Selphie are working actual part-time jobs, so it might take them longer unless they get a second part-time job.' He glanced over to his left to look through the window of one of the many shops lining Tram Common. There was a large 'Help Wanted' sign in the window, but that wasn't what caught his attention. There, right out in front, was a crown pendant secured to a sturdy looking chain. The listed price for it was one-thousand munny, but there was a big red sticker marking it half price.

Normally, Riku was not a compulsive buyer and when he did buy something compulsively he would feel regret almost right after he'd buy it. But that time as he left the store he didn't feel the least bit of regret.

'Selphie may kill me for spending munny already, but it will be worth it.' He slid his hands into his pockets and a small smile came to his lips when he felt the cool metal chain. 'Definitely worth it.'

Dinner that night was, for the most part, quiet like it had been for the past few nights. Sora picked at his food, for once not much in the mood to eat anything. Riku kept his eyes on his plate the whole time and forced himself to eat something. Selphie ate slowly, her green eyes flickering back and forth between the two boys, wondering if something else had happened to them.

"Soo…." She set her spoon down for a moment. "Working at the pet shop I make about five-hundred-seventy munny an hour. What about you, Sora?"

"Four-fifty." The brunet mumbled.

"How much did you make today, Riku?" Selphie asked.

"One-thousand-fifty munny." Riku replied after a moment of hesitation.

The numbers cheered Selphie up a little. "That's great! At this rate we'll be leaving for Radiant Garden in no time!" She looked disappointed when neither of the boys shared her enthusiasm. With a huff, she stood up. "I'm going to leave you two to sulk and be all pissy. I'll see you in the morning." She told them before she left, walking into the room on the right.

Riku and Sora continued eating, or picking at the food, for a while longer. It was then that Riku chanced a glance at Sora and noticed that he had eaten very little.

"Sora, you should eat more." He said.

Sora didn't look over at Riku as he mumbled, "Not hungry."

Rikku frowned. Sora was never not hungry. "You're going to make yourself sick. You really should eat something."

Sora glared at Riku as he got to his feet. "I said I'm not hungry!" He yelled before turning around and stomping out of the room. At the base of the stairs he slammed his plate into the garbage can, which made Riku wince.

"Damn it…" The white-haired boy muttered to himself. "Way to go, Riku. Piss him off right before bed, that's brilliant." Scowling, he got to his feet and walked over to the right hand stairs, pausing to drop his plate in the trash, and then continued on up to the room he claimed.

He sat down on his make-shift bed of sleeping bags and then let himself fall backwards. He was exhausted from running around doing off jobs and from the on-going fight with Sora.

"It's got to end tonight." Riku said to himself. He sat up and removed the chain from his pocket. He held it up and watched the light reflect off of the crown for a moment. Then he reached under his "mattress" and retrieved his pocket knife. Ever so carefully, he began carving out words into the back of the pendant.

Nearly an hour later, Riku crept across the hall and carefully cracked open Sora's bedroom door to check and see if he was asleep. Upon finding that Sora was asleep, Riku moved stealthily across the room to him and carefully laid out the chain on Sora's pillow. Then he tiptoed back across the room and left, quietly shutting the door behind him. Minutes later her was back in his own room getting ready to go to bed.

Several hours passed before Sora rolled over onto the necklace. The sudden coolness against his face stirred him into wakefulness. He sat up slowly and looked sleepily at the chain before he picked it up to look at it. The light of the moon shining through the windows reflected off of the metal.

'Where did this come from?' He wondered. 'It wasn't there before. Maybe…' A wild thought entered his brain and he gulped. 'Maybe this place is haunted! And the ghost likes me!'

Sora practically sprang out of his bed and raced out of his room and down the hall to Riku's room, not even stopping to consider that they were still fighting. He pushed open the door and walked right over to Riku and shook his shoulder. "Riku! Wake up!" He whispered, fearful that the ghost might hear him.

"Huh?" Riku sleepily mumbled, cracking open his eyes.

"Riku! The mansion's haunted and the ghost is after me!" Sora hurriedly whispered, looking around the room. "Look! It left this on my pillow!" He held up the chain.

Riku groaned when he saw what it was and closed his eyes. "Did you even think to read the back of it?" He tiredly asked.

"Huh?" Sora looked confused for a moment and then turned over the chain. He struggled to read it until Riku turned on his lamp.

"Our destiny's intertwined and our hearts connected, my love for you is never-ending." Sora read out loud. He opened his mouth to say something about the ghost, but shut it when he reread the words. His eyes widened and he looked down at Riku, who calmly awaited his reaction.

"Y-you love me?" Sora whispered, sitting down on the edge of the pile of sleeping bags. "Is that why you got mad about me being around the girl who thought was the princess? But you were the one flirting with her!"

"To make you jealous." Riku said defensively. "But only because you were the one who flirted with her first."

Sora scowled. "I was being nice, Riku."

"Didn't look that way to me."

Sora crossed his arms over his chest and got up. "If you're going to be such an ass then I don't want the necklace."

"Sora, wait." Riku said, reaching up and snagging Sora's t-shirt before he could escape. "I'm sorry, okay? I messed up."

Sora wasn't convinced that easily. If anything, he was even more angry. "So what, you expect me to forgive you just like that?"

"Damn it, Sora! Listen to me for once!" Riku snapped, getting ready to stand up. "I said I was sorry! I didn't ask if you forgive me or not!" He stood up and Sora backed away a little, intimidated by Riku's height. "And the necklace has nothing to do with my apology." Riku continued, his voice softening. He released his grip on Sora's shirt. "That is to show that I do love you, even though I never said it before."

Sora uncrossed his arms and his scowl disappeared. Of all the things he imagined Riku saying, that wasn't it. He trembled as he wrapped his arms around Riku's chest. "Love you too, Riku." He murmured as he felt Riku's arm wrap protectively around him.

They remained that way for a few minutes, reveling in the fact that they were finally talking again. Then Sora pulled away from Riku and looked up into his eyes.

"I forgive you." He said with a smile. "But you're still an ass."

Riku chuckled and kissed the top of Sora's head. "I know. I have a nice ass, don't I?"

Sora laughed and turned a light shade of red. "Way to ruin the mood, Riku!"

"You did it first." Riku replied. "Now, lets get some sleep. We all have work tomorrow."

Sora nodded and turned around to leave, only to be stopped by Riku. He turned back around and looked at Riku questioningly.

"Stay in here, tonight?" Riku asked, sliding the chain from Sora's grip. Before the brunet could protest, he slid it over his head, being careful not to get it tangled in the spiky locks of hair.

Sora reached down to touch the pendant, liking the comforting weight of it against his chest. Without a moments hesitation, he gave Riku a smile and agreed.

End Chapter

Well, in order to prevent the SoraRiku fight from taking over the story completely, I decided to end it here and now. Now that they may actually behave, I can get back on track with the actual plot. Now I just have to convince Kairi and probably do some speeding up with the chapters and then it'll really be fun to write. Not that it isn't now, but I'm thinking it'll get even more fun the further in I get.

Next chapter: A little flirting between Sora and Riku, the return of Kairi, and a shopping trip.