Hello everyone. It's been a while since I wrote a SoKai.

This one actually came into my mind as something almost completely different, but the way it ended up made me think of the old 'Hands' oneshot. It sort of fits within the same theme. So, I did a little re-vamping of the old oneshot so I could post a series of hand-themed oneshots. :D

I know, I'm weird.

Disclaimer:I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything associated with it. All rights to Kingdom Hearts and affiliated characters belong to Disney and Square Enix.

Summary: She really felt terrible about yelling at him, especially when he was only trying to be a good boyfriend. She'd bribe him later on to forgive her with ice cream.

Rating: T (loosely, caution for referring to the Facts of Life)

Genre: General/Romance

Pairings:SoKai

World: Destiny Islands, Two years post KH2

Warm Hands

Kairi was in pain.

She knew Sora didn't know what was causing it – well, actually, from the face he had pulled that morning as she had gutsed down that Midol in homeroom, he seemed to have had a fair idea of what it was and obviously did not want confirmation – but she knew it concerned him that she had decided to forego going to the island that afternoon. Kairi dearly loved the island, and the days she didn't visit it were very few and far between. In fact, when they were ten and she had fallen and broken her left arm, she had all but demanded that Riku row her to and from the island every day so she could spend the afternoons sitting on the curved paopu tree and drawing pictures in the sand with Selphie while the boys went swimming or roughhoused on the beach.

So the fact that she was not there that day irked him.

And she knew it.

But the fact of the matter was that Kairi had barely managed to make it to school that morning, and wanted nothing more than to curl up into the foetal position in front of the television with chocolate and a hot water bottle. So, she had sent her boyfriend and best friend off with a smile, telling them that she wasn't feeling well, but to have fun without her, and had proceeded to hobble home from school. Sora had offered to walk her home, but she had been in a bad mood all day and had snapped at him to leave her alone. So he had left, confused, hurt and unsettled, and she had felt terrible about it ever since.

She sniffled as the ending credits for One Litre of Tears rolled across the screen; every other channel had some form of sport playing, and she wasn't really in the mood to watch teams of men fight over a silly little ball that Saturday. There was no real entertainment value in it without Sora and Riku around – who often bet between themselves as to who would win and would often get so wrapped up in ribbing each other (while Kairi retreated to the doorway to watch them from a safe distance) that they would forget the blitzball game entirely and fail to dish out winnings afterwards.

She frowned at the thought of Sora, wiping her face to remove any tears. She really felt terrible about yelling at him, especially when he was only trying to be a good boyfriend. She'd apologise as soon as she felt better and take him out for ice cream in town – she could always bribe him to forgive her with ice cream. He would kick up a stink that going out for ice cream was for little kids, but she knew that if she pouted enough she could get him to come with her. And he'd always liked going out for ice cream anyway, so making a fuss was usually for everyone else's benefit.

She whimpered as she stretched her legs. Her hot water bottle was mysteriously M.I.A. (she had a sneaking suspicion that her mother had taken it to the office with her, damn their synchronised uteruses) and all she had to relieve the pain was the heat generated by a simple blanket. Of course, she'd taken all the painkillers she could, but they'd yet to kick in. She didn't even have any chocolate! Her mother (she was noticing a theme here) had made the snap decision to put the whole family on a diet two weeks before, and had removed all non-healthy foods from the house.

Kairi, of course, had protested; her parents were plump – not too fat, but not exactly thin, either. It was in their genes. She had argued that she didn't need to go on a diet. She could eat whatever she wanted and not gain a pound. But her mother had put her foot down, and Kairi was supposedly living on a diet of carrot sticks and lettuce leaves until further notice. What her mother didn't know, though, was that Kairi cheated every chance she got – she'd stolen food from Sora so many times those last two weeks that he'd just started to bring extra to school, she'd stopped off at a fast food place after school with the boys three or four times, bought more junk than she'd care to admit from the school cafeteria's vending machines and generally ended up throwing out the food that her mother served to her of a night time, and she would go up to her room and eat whatever she had smuggled into the house that afternoon. Her mother thought she was trying to make a statement by starving herself. Kairi just ignored whatever was put in front of her.

She may have been a Princess of Heart, but she was still just a teenager.

"Here you are, Miss." The housekeeper made to deposit a mug of warm milk tea onto the coffee table.

"Thanks, Haruna." Kairi winced as she uncurled herself and reached for the mug. Sparing the younger woman a sympathetic glance, the maid placed it in her hands instead before scurrying off to see to that night's salad.

Kairi sipped at the sweet tea, staring out at nothing in particular. She wanted to go to bed, but there was no one else there but Haruna to help her scale the stairs, and the housekeeper was already busy. She would have to wait for one of her parents to come home before she could go back upstairs. She checked the clock – two in the afternoon. There was an election coming up, so they'd likely be gone for another four hours at least. She groaned.

She laid back down after she'd finished her tea, hoping to get some sleep – it felt like the painkillers were finally kicking in. Those hopes were dashed, though, by the doorbell. Still, she pulled the blanket up over her head, praying that whoever it was that had come to call would take it to mean that she was asleep and would just go away.

She heard Haruna answer the door and speak with the visitor. They were too far away for Kairi to make out the voices, but she heard Haruna's laugh echo through the house. She heard the door close and breathed a sigh of relief – it seemed like whoever it was had gone.

After a few moments, she heard the soft padding of sock-clad feet approach her, and a rustling noise began above her head – she was determined to ignore it, but as the noise grew more insistent, she finally heaved an aggravated sigh and pulled the blanket down far enough to peek out at what it was that was making the sound. Her glare fixed itself on a plastic bag.

A plastic bag with chocolate in it.

"I figured you'd be more likely to want to see me if I brought a peace offering." A masculine voice sounded. She could hear the laughter in it, but graciously ignored it in favour of swiping at the bag.

"Sora…" she growled as he lifted it out of her reach. She glared at his grinning face as he shrugged and dropped it into her lap.

"I remember you said your mother got rid of all yours, and I know mine likes chocolate when she's… in pain. So I figured you might—"

Kairi was already opening one of the bars, moving over on the couch. "Sit your butt down." She ordered. He obeyed. "Do you want something to drink? I can call Haruna back in."

"Nah, I had a soda on the way over." He shrugged. "How are you feeling?"

"My stomach feels like the dog that went a round with a bus and lost." She sighed, biting into the chocolate-and-caramel bar. "Mmm… God, this is good." She practically moaned.

Sora laughed a little, but didn't comment as she leaned against him. He shifted so that one of his legs was on the couch and one was on the floor, with Kairi between them. They only ever sat like that when her parents weren't around – they'd made that mistake with her mother only once, who had decided that it was the sweetest thing she'd ever seen and had proceeded to dig out the camera, and Sora was too terrified of her father after the time that he'd come into Kairi's room to see them sitting together on her bed, watching a movie, to even hold her hand in front of him. They had barely even been touching – she had been lying at the end and he had been sitting at the top, both with their eyes fixed on the television – but he had looked fit to kill Sora where he sat. So, they didn't show any intimacy, at all, in front of her father.

She leant against him gratefully, pulling the blanket up over them. He really was like a giant heating pad, helping to warm her aching back. He wrapped his arms around her. "Do I get any chocolate?" He asked, half-jokingly.

"No." She craned her head back to look at him and stuck her tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes and feigned a hurt expression. "Geez, you're mean." He mock-sighed. "And here I went out of my way to get you chocolate and visit you, inside, on a beautiful day, and I don't even get a lousy bar of chocolate." He joked, poking her in the forehead.

"How come you're not on the island?" She asked, popping the last bite of her chocolate treat into her mouth. "I thought you went with Riku."

"I did." He shrugged, looking away. "He and Wakka decided to play beach volleyball. They said I'm too short to play," he frowned in irritation, "and Tidus and Selphie were making out by the spring. There was nothing to do there so I came back."

Kairi raised an eyebrow, unwrapping a block of chocolate this time. She broke off a row and handed it up to him. "Well, when I feel better," she broke off a second row for herself, "there can be ice cream. And Riku wont be invited."

"I like ice cream." He grinned around a mouthful of chocolate.

Kairi made a disgusted noise as she watched him chew. "Manners, much?"

He shrugged. "You love me."

She made a non-committal noise of agreement. "Aren't you lucky?"

She could feel him smiling as he kissed her temple. "I like to think I am."

She closed her eyes to better enjoy the feeling of his fingers tracing her face. She grinned as he tapped her nose lightly, enjoying the trails of gentle warmth that his fingers left in their wake.

His hands were warm.

She grabbed one of them away from her face and started picking at the velcro that kept his gloves closed. "What are you doing?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She asked sarcastically. "Glove. Off. Now."

"Why?" He nonetheless complied, freeing his hand from the fabric covering and allowing her access to his bare hand. He spluttered as, without warning, she moved his hand under the blanket. "Kairi, what—?"

"Oh, don't be a baby." She sighed as she rested his hand over the bare skin of the tender area of her stomach. "Your hand is warm. Heat is good for pain."

She could practically feel his eye twitch. "Don't you have a hot water bottle…?"

"Mama stole it, I think." She sighed. "Mmm… that feels better." It wasn't as good as a hot water bottle, but it was still much warmer than anything else she could find around the house. She tilted her head back and cracked an eye open to look at him, and laughed at the stricken look on his face. "Relax, Sora. I don't really feel up to taking advantage of you right now." She winked playfully.

He frowned at her. "Are you insane?" He hissed. "What if your parents see—?"

"Sora," she explained tiredly, "it's election month. My parents are hardly home. The only one likely to see us is Haruna, and your hand is under the blanket. For all anyone else knows, we're holding hands." She tapped his hand lightly. "Please leave it there."

"Well…" he shifted a little, uncomfortable with the situation, "…okay. But only until your parents get home."

"Thanks."

"You owe me."

"Nuh-uh." She teased. "You love me. It's obligatory. You have to take care of me when I'm not well."

"I want two ice creams."

She grinned. "Deal."

EDIT July 10, 2011: Fixed a typo where 'his' should have been 'her'.

Poor Kairi. It sucks to be a girl sometimes. It really does. I've actually taken some of this from experience – I've spent the last few days warming my hands in front of the heater and putting them on my stomach because the pain has been so bad. :(

Anyway, please review. :D I posted a NamiKu the other week and I got no reviews for it, so I was quite disappointed. :(

Thanks for reading.

Sparkly Faerie