Kairi couldn't remember the last time her grandfather (or anyone in her family, for that matter) had been as furious as he had been when she had gotten home. He and the rest of her family had demanded to know where she had been, why she was gone so long and why her shoes had teeth marks all over them. Needless to say, she had to come up with a tall tale that was actually more believable than the truth. She had a knot in her stomach ever since she had lied, having never actually told such a big lie before, which made it all the more likely to them that she was telling the truth, and had been keen on being exceptionally helpful. Her mother has come up with the story that she was frightened in some way, and has then come to doting her, making her feel even worse.
And on the other hand, she has yet to tell anyone of her new (she is still debating) friend, Sora the Pumpkin Prince, which was difficult anyways since it didn't play with her story. She vaguely wondered if he had forgotten about her, since it had been a month since she had seen him last. The red head sure hoped not, seeing how she had gotten slightly attached to the demon hybrid. Sure, he was a tad annoying and didn't seem to have a clue about proper etiquette, but from the day she had gotten to know him, he grew on her. Then again, maybe he was mad at her for not coming back like she said she would. It wasn't as if she had let him come with her, so he probably assumed she didn't like him and was hurt. She had pondered on that horrid thought for a while.
She sat on a fluffed up rocking chair that creaked each time it swayed back as her grandfather started over his naughty list. It seemed, sadly, there were many children on that list this year. He circled a few that he was still debating. "It seems more and more of the good children are forced into not believing in me anymore." He sighed sadly. Kairi nodded, taking pity. Many children, she had come to understand, were forced into embarrassing situations where they announced they no longer believed in Santa Claus. Once that was stated, they were off his delivery list forever. It may seem harsh, but what was the point of sending gifts to a child who did not believe in him when there were many others he had to care for?
Kairi fiddled with Leonardo who was pretty active for a snake and seemed to take on a playful demeanor (she suspected Aerith may have altered his attitude in some way) and was following her finger which she was tracing in gentle circular motions on her legs. She glanced up at her grandfather who was busily muttering to himself, scratching out in ink and rewriting names. She disliked their weekly meetings when he decided to use them for his own purposes, having less and less time away from the toy making since the gifts asked for were becoming more and more complicated to create. As time was moving forth within the "normal world", technology was moving forward in toys while they seemed stuck in one time period. Since all of Christmas Town was bound by tradition. She eyed her new zipper shoes with distaste, preferring her old ones she had to rid herself of since they were in such poor condition.
"Kairi," she looked up, hearing the voice of her grandfather finally addressing her. "This looks like its going to take me a while, why don't you run off and do something." He gave a low chuckle. "I'm sure this is boring you." She turned a light pink and gave a slight nod, taking Leonardo in her arms and left after kissing her grandfather goodbye.
She then had two hours to herself! What should she do? She stopped and sat on the staircase that she half detested. Selphie was practicing flying lessons with Aerith and some reindeer, Wakka was off visiting relatives and Tidus had double duty as posing as Santa in the mall since last Tuesday when he knocked over a mountain of China dolls. Kairi was sure pretty much anyone else would be willing to play with her (in fear of a demotion from the big guy), but she didn't feel like going through the whole "make new friends" deal for she had little patience at the moment from sitting in one place for over forty minutes. Her stomach grumbled, which pulled her to the kitchens.
Kairi rummaged through the bakery, finding some melon bread that she found suited her hunger at the moment and sat on a high stool, listening to the hail pound on the window. What could she do? She took a bite, munching quietly. She stopped and stared at the bread, wondering if Sora would have liked it. She smiled coyly. She turned to Leonardo. "Are you hungry, boy?" He seemed to get the message for his head snapped up and he was sniffing around with his tongue flicking excitedly. She took it as a yes and scooped him up in her hood, running to outside to her wanted destination: Halloween Town.
Her heavy stomps took no notice as she ran through the woods, somehow remembering just how it was that she had gone there before, taking long strides and ignoring her heavy breath and steady heart that was begging her to slow down. She could feel a tug at her scalp as Leonardo in desperation to not fall out from her abnormally fast pace had wrapped around some chunk of hair. She made a mental note to get a snake carrier of some sort. She continued sprinting until the familiar trees that were angle in a circle came into view. She slowed to a walk as she entered the magical area that she was trying to figure out just how it worked. She leaned forward, using her legs as a breath, catching her breath, not used to being a fast runner. Kairi then breathed loudly and stood up straight, automatically seeing the pumpkin with the creepy face and reached out to open the side of the image. Like before, air that she vaguely recognized blew into her face, almost angrily and she leaned in, confidently and plunged into darkness where ghosts with no figure swarmed about her, cawing.
She fell in a heap on to the ground that was covered in leaves. It was dark out and a bright moon was overhead. She stood and began walking through the graveyard that the corpses had already left. A bark made her stop and she turned to see Zero, the dead dog that had stolen her shoe before. It growled a bit, at first not recognizing her, then suddenly perked and started wagging its nonexistent tail. It yipped and floated over to her. "Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?" She said softly.
"Yep." She jumped and turned around, face to face with Sora. She smiled.
"How've you been?" She asked cheerily. He scowled and kicked the dirt, hands in his pockets. He kept his gaze low and refused to look at her. She bent forward, attempting to meet his eyes. "What-?"
"What took you?" He asked with a rather childish pout adorning his face. He folded his arms across his chest. Kairi bit her lip, having feared something like this would happen. "I've already picked up twenty miles per hour in my flying since the last time I saw you." Kairi's eyes widened, wondering just how fast it was that he could fly, remembering when he had carried her around on her first visit.
"Sorry," She looked down. "I was really busy … especially since I had lied about you since my tale was so farfetched and it wasn't as if I could tell them I went in a tree to find rats and ended up in some (no offense) strange place where--"
"Oh, is that it?" She looked up, meeting a happy face. Sora gave her a toothy grin. "Why didn't ya just say so?" With that he pulled out a large bag that stunk. He held it out to her. Kairi choked on the air.
"Err … thanks … what is it?" She held it out from her as far away as she could. Something was definitely rotting in there …
"You said you were trying to collect mice for Leonardo, right?" She nodded mutely, silently hoping there wasn't a pile of dead mice in there. How would she explain that to Selphie when she came over? "Well, I was collecting mice for when you'd come next time--I didn't mean for the number to get so big, but I was expecting you to come a lot sooner." She gave him a crooked smile.
"Well, at least I'll know that I'll have some spare …" She then decided to make her business that Leonardo would not become lazy and fat of rodents. He beamed even more, very pleased with himself and his hard work. "So … how have things been for you?" She placed the bag next to her, not noticing Leonardo making his way.
Sora shrugged. "Well, I've been helping prepare for Halloween, y'know, setting up Jacko' Lanterns, making some scaring routes, creating plans for the best scaring homes, working on my flying skills cause it's not my strong suit … that sort of stuff." Kairi nodded with wide eyes, truly interested, but she had no clue what he was talking about. "And Riku was teaching me this cool new trick he learned with daggers so that you could trick someone into thinking you're dead! It was totally awesome …" He grinned to himself, chuckling at some memory that Kairi thought best not to ask about.
"Riku?"
"My best friend, really funny guy, good with pranks, you'd probably like him, actually …" Sora scratched his chin thoughtfully. Kairi stared at him as he went deep him thought with a glazed over expression. "Yeah, Riku would …" He fixed his eyes on Kairi then turned a deep red and scowled. Kairi kept her gaze on the boy who kept changing his facial expressions. "No, don't meet Riku … don't …" He turned away muttering to himself.
"Sora … what do you think of our … predicament?" She gave him a half smile and bit her lip. Sora cocked his head to the side, confused.
"Predicament?"
"See, well, honestly, I like you, you're an ok guy, but …" She trailed off, not completely sure how to say what she wanted to. "We don't exactly live close by and I don't know if you've told anyone about meeting me, but I certainly haven't because this is unbelievable! And how would it work anyways? Someone is bound to notice and if I say what's really going on I'll end up in an insane asylum!"
"What's wrong with asylums?" Sora asked. Kairi shuddered.
"Nothing … I just …"
"Nah, I get it." Sora shrugged. "Maybe we could try meeting here every once in a while, I come here on daily walks with Zero anyways, come here whenever you want." He outstretched his arms to either side of himself. "Not like I don't want you to come. It'll be fun, too, I can show you around town, we can go mice hunting, and then you can have some candied apples!" He looked at her like a puppy would. "You sure I can't visit where you're from?"
She hesitated as visions of Sora running lose and screaming elves all over the factory, the demon proclaiming he wants to taste their blood to see if they're really elves, her grandfather mistaking him for some mutant robotic doll and trying to burn him, and Sora screeching like he had before as the sun (which was rather bright, despite being winter twenty four seven) burned him to a crisp. "It may not be that good of an idea …" Seeing his slightly hurt expression she quickly added, "it's really sunny there, you may not like that." He hissed and crouched low to the ground, agreeing with her assessment.
A wave of comfortable silence followed that as Leonardo finally finished through three rats, finding himself full and curled up in what would be considered "reptile heaven" (aka the bag of dead rodents). Kairi and Sora sat on the ground, beginning some small talk, learning tidbits about one another. The moon glistened in the otherwise clear sky as it began to descend from site. The two were giggling, failing to notice time passing by. Leonardo did, for he slithered up onto Sora after glimpsing at the sky, startled, and reminded him that they both had an agenda to keep to.
"C'mon Kairi," he stood up and offered her his gloved hand which she accepted gratefully and he pulled her up. Like before, he lifted her up, this time bridal style and flew away, grazing the tree tops.
They failed to notice three figures watching their retreating forms.
"So this is why the demon's been so downhearted lately…!" One voice cackled.
"This is perfect, and we already know their plans, too!" Another snickered.
"We're definitely going to get a reward for this!" A third countered. They all cheered in agreement to this assessment. The trio then glided along in what appeared to be a walking tub and continued along a road that was rarely used. The same road that was used nearly thirty years previously for the planning of a devious kidnapping of Santa Claus himself. They soon entered a courtyard that lead to a crooked castle that had a drawbridge and a caged elevator that hung from an old rope that some how stayed strong. They leaped from the moving bathtub and sprinted over the bridge, entering their home which was covered in webs, and rats and other things that would untidy a home.
A crooked and bent pipe that popped out from the wall they walked to, grinning to themselves. A voice called from below, apparently hearing their heavy footsteps pounding on the wooden floor. "I suppose you have some news for me?"
At once they all saluted, despite being out of viewing range. "Lock, Shock and Barrel, reporting for duty, sir!" And yes, it was the old trio, yet slightly older, hitting in their early twenties. Barrel, with a slight amount of stoutness around his middle and chin, Lock with a surprisingly good build and a goatee and Shock rather lean in her large, boxy dress.
Shock shoved the other two out of the way and leaned into the pipe to get her voice across so she was heard better. "We've been doing some snooping like you've said and you'll never believe what we found…!"
"What we found! What we found!" Barrel cackled to himself. Lock, annoyed, elbowed him in the rib.
"As you told us," Lock started, shoving Shock out of the way, whispering closely to the receiver. "We watched out for the skeleton and rag doll for anything that might become a weakness if expanded and deepened. We've been keeping a look out for the past seven years like you told us, yet nothing has caught our eyes until earlier…" The three nodded in agreement, snickering to themselves. "Today we found out where that little demon child had run off to that time where the entire town went berserk!"
"Berserk! Berserk! Berserk!" Shock hit Barrel over the head to quiet him.
Lock continued after silencing the two with a hard glare. "Sora-kins has been acting rather moody, as we had told you before, and especially snappish for a half-breed at his own age. Shock chimed in.
"He's been meeting a little girl." She chimed with a cackle. Barrel scratched his head with a Cheshire cat grin.
"Hardly a little girl if you ask me …" Lock snickered in agreement while Shock kicked both of them indignantly.
Shock turned back to the receiver. "And here's the kick, you're going to die again when you hear this, she's not from around here, oh no … she's from Christmas Town!" She lowered her voice to an excited whisper, as if she were saying something forbidden.
"Isn't there irony in that?" Lock snickered. "I bet someone as genius as yourself could find a way to play this into your gruesome hands, especially with past occurrences, yes?"
A low chuckling came from the pipes, echoing through to their ears, they all grinned taking the key. The laughter erupted slowly as if not been able to laugh like it had for so long. It turned to hysterics with a certain darkness to it and drowned out the trio's laughter that was following his. After a long while, he stopped, calming himself. The three followed suit.
"Oogie Boogie thinks you all should continue to keep an eye on this doll face …"
