Here's another part to the Kairi mini-series. Enjoy and laugh at your leisure.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disney, Square-Enix, or Digimon. All I own are Menelmon, Aiwemon, my original characters and plot.
-A-D-
Garden of Snow and Ice
Earn Your Happy Ending
A door opened, and the few heads belonging to the people in the room looked up at the person who opened it, all talk fading into silent echoes. The new arrival closed the door behind her, listened at it for a moment, before striding towards a chair and the table where her friends were sitting. "Kairi's really depressed," Selphie said, reaching for a brown bottle on the table and a glass mug. She strained for a second as she unscrewed the tight lid, wincing slightly as the bottle cap's hard edges attempted to cut through her skin, before it popped off. Sighing, she dipped the bottle and started to pour a honey-brown liquid into the mug. "Even though Menelmon came back as a digiegg, she's still sitting alone in her room, cradling the egg like it's a newborn baby."
"So what can we do?" Olette asked, wincing for the briefest of moments as her leg gave a twinge of pain when she moved it. Selphie sighed and shrugged, making sure that the foam that was rising didn't rise over the edge of her glass. She stopped pouring and set the bottle down on the table before taking her seat.
"I… I don't know," she told them only a moment before taking a swig of her beer. All of those at the table had alcoholic drinks with them, primarily the beer that their messes were stocked with. At this point, none of them really cared that they were underage, as that worry had been stripped of them back when they were all together in George Company in training in Twilight Town under the gods awful then-lieutenant Sobel.
Hayner nodded. "And you guys know as well as I do that after tonight we're basically losing any free time we're still getting."
Selphie smiled slightly. "Especially you, sergeant," she said.
"Ha ha," Hayner replied, giving the Private First Class in the same platoon as him a small smile and raised his glass towards her. "You're going to be doing a lot of work for that, yah grunt."
"I'm shaking in my boots," Selphie retorted.
"Yeah we'll all be busy," said another girl at the table, her shoulder-length golden-brown hair actually down to her shoulders rather than up in a bun on the back of her head. Kia glanced around the table. "Starting tomorrow, the whole damn regiment's preparing to move into the Starlight. All us infantry, all the chocobos in the three cavalry squadrons in their battalion, all the supplies…"
"Not to mention the fighter and bomber squadrons," Pence added. "Which ones are Seifer, Fuu, and Yazoo in again?" he asked, looking towards Hayner.
Hayner took another sip of his beer. "Seifer and Fuu are together in 2nd Black Knight Fighter Squadron in the 1st Fighter Wing in 10th Group, and Yazoo's off in the 6th Hailing Angels Bomber Squadron in the 3rd Bomber Wing in 2nd Group."
"Know which ships they're being assigned to?" Tidus asked. Hayner shook his head.
"No. And I don't even know which ships are going with which flagship either, just that the Unity and Starlight are going to be the heads of two different battle groups and that we're going aboard the Starlight. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine; probably the carriers. Oh, and yeah," he gave Tidus an apologetic look, "sorry for calling you a corporal last night. I knew you were a sergeant, just forgot for a moment."
"Eh, it's cool," Tidus replied, tipping his beer towards Hayner's.
"But none of that is helping Kairi right now," Wakka reminded them. He took a swig from his drink. "We're gonna have to figure out some way to cheer her up, yah? And before her planned snowball fight tonight."
A dark-skinned youth glanced at Selphie and Olette. His black hair was cut short and he seemed slightly uneasy. "How badly shaken up is Kairi?" Jeffery asked. "I wasn't there today, and she seemed so happy last night."
"She was devastated," Olette answered. There was one slightly sceptical face from someone from their group that she had never thought would be, the golden-haired twin Anar from Destiny Islands; he was also the only one besides Hayner and Tidus to have made Sergeant. "Don't give me that look," she told him sharply, even though she was two ranks beneath him, "I was the closest one to her when it happened; I saw it. Imagine how you'd feel if Isil died in your arms because he was protecting you."
At the mention of his silver-haired twin, Anar glanced at the other seventeen-year-old with a horrified look before looking at Olette again. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking. I didn't really get to know either of their digimon all that well."
"Hey Wakka, where's Charlie?" Hayner asked suddenly. "I thought Daltry was coming."
"Nah, he's hanging out with Hook, if you remember her," he said, giving them a knowing smirk. "And Vivi's busy practicing. That's all he ever does these days is practice."
"But anyway!" Selphie exclaimed. "Kairi! What are we going to do with Kairi to cheer her up?"
"Well there's the snowball fight tonight," Kia offered, taking a sip of her beer and giving a faint grimace at her discomfort of the bitterness of the brew. "Not trying this kind again," she muttered, "Much too bitter."
"Try adding a bit of honey to it," Anar suggested. Kia shot him a look before glancing away. The golden-haired sergeant glanced around the table in confusion. He and Kia had always gotten along well before.
"Was it something I said?" he asked. Tidus and Hayner shrugged and nobody answered him, but everyone else knew that Kia was acting this way because she was beyond upset with Anar for crushing her hopes at romance.
"Can't," Pence said. "She might cancel the snowball fight if she doesn't get out of her room because she's still obsessing over Menelmon sacrificing herself for her."
"So we want her to think that it's not important?" Olette asked her friend incredulously.
Jeffery hastily went into damage control. "No, he's saying that we need to get her mind off of it and remind her that Menelmon will still come back when she hatches from the egg."
"Wait," Wakka said, "innit Egg, Baby, In-Training, then Rookie?"
"I don't know," Jeff answered. "I just know that Menelmon turns into Soronmon and then Soronmon turns into Thorondomon and then when Thorondomon's kicked Maleficent crony tail she reverts down to Luinmon and then Luinmon becomes Menelmon. I don't know what the stages are called."
"What if we got Sora to call her?" Kia asked. "Shouldn't talking to her boyfriend take her mind off of it?"
"Unless it just causes Kairi to start bawling her heart out to Sora," Hayner replied.
"But what if that helps, by getting it off her chest?" Olette asked.
"But Menelmon's not gone," Isil reminded them. "She's going to come back after her digiegg hatches."
"This is getting us nowhere," Tidus said suddenly. "We need to do something zany and crazy enough to get Kairi's mind out of the dumps and back into the fun-zone."
"Like what?" Selphie asked him. "Get Lord Ramius or Garda to chuck a snowball in her face and say it was from us? Bake her a pie? Sneak into her room with awesome ninja skills and steal her diary?"
Silence greeted her as everyone stared at her. It took several seconds for someone to speak. "I think," Pence began, "that just might work."
-A-D-
1800hrs, Tuesday, December 2nd, 2003
Kairi's Room, Talerith Castle, Radiant Garden
Kairi
The lights were off, the thick, warm, blankets draped around her shoulders and over her head. Wrapped in a shroud of complete darkness, Kairi withdrew from the world with her arms gently clutching the digiegg Tron had found and given her. Her hands softly ran up and down the egg's shell, feeling the warmth of the life beneath the hardness of the egg's solitary protection.
No, not solitary. She was here; she would protect this egg with everything she had from anyone that might try to hurt it. What did it matter that her left arm was still healing and completely covered in a straight cast? Nothing would harm this digiegg until it hatched and Menelmon was returned to her as long as Kairi had something to say about it. Maleficent would not win this round.
Somewhere in the back of her mind there was a small voice whispering to her, saying that she was being silly and overly zealous in her guardianship of the digiegg. But Kairi shook it away. As much as she loved the light, here, in the dark, where nothing could be seen, she and Menelmon's egg would remain safely hidden until they could come out again, as strong as they ever were.
Kairi heard the door open and saw the faintest glimmer of light from in the hallway reaching through her blankets to touch her eyes. She withdrew further onto her bed, holding the digiegg tighter to her chest. "Go away," she muttered.
There was a distinct sigh from the other side of the blankets. "Kairi… you need to come out of this room. It's dinner time."
"I'm not hungry," Kairi told the voice, denying the rumble in her stomach at the mention of food. "Just leave us here."
"Kairi…" it was irritated now. The blankets were suddenly whipped off of her and Kairi shrieked as her eyes were suddenly stung by the lights that had been turned on in her room. Blinded, Kairi summoned Crowning Flame into her hand and swung.
"You won't take her from me!" she shouted, her eyes jammed closed. Her arm thudded to a stop, her Keyblade halted by something.
"You can put that away right now girl," the voice growled. Kairi opened her eyes a smidge, still stinging from the change from darkness to light. Garda was standing above her, his hand clenched around Crowning Flame's blade and revealing that that was how he had stopped her.
Kairi wilted and dismissed her Keyblade at the sight of her former master's face. Her right hand came around and hugged the egg again. "Please, don't make me leave her," Kairi whispered. "She's all I've got left."
"Kairi…" Garda murmured.
"She's all I've got left Master," Kairi whispered. "Menelmon, Sora, Naminé, Riku, Selphie… they're all I've got. I couldn't bear it if I lost them; if I lost Menelmon again."
"Kairi…"
"What's come over me?" Kairi wondered aloud, even though her voice was still barely a whisper. "Why am I so weak? Why do I keep crying? Why do the people I love keep getting hurt? Is there something wrong with me? I'm cursed, I must be. I am just a mon—"
Her shoulders were suddenly gripped tightly as Garda sat down on the bed next to her. "Don't even think that girl," he told her forcibly. "No matter what you think or what happens, you aren't a monster. You're a good person Kairi. You are so bright and cheerful and undeniably good that it hurts everyone to see you in pain."
"Even you?" Kairi wondered.
Garda nodded his head. "Even stone-hearted me. And don't for a second think that your tears make you weak. Tears shed for the people we loved are never a sign of weakness, but a true display of where our hearts lie and just how strong our feelings are. Only those who cannot or do not want to cry for the people they care for are monsters."
"But there was nothing I could do!" Kairi cried. "I could only stand by and watch as Soronmon sacrificed herself for me. I talked big back there, but I can't back it up! Even if Maleficent has weakened herself, there's no way I can beat her. Her Heartless killed Soronmon right in front of me and there was nothing I could do about it. She'll kill me and the others and take over the universe and enslave everyone and nothing good will—"
SMACK!
"Shut your mouth right now girl," Garda told her sternly. "Look down." Kairi did, and all she saw was the white egg patterned with dark blue circles between her arms. "Look there. She is alive, you are alive. Your boyfriend is alive, your sister is alive, your friends are alive, I am alive, your godfather is alive, and the people of Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden still live." He took her chin in his hand and made her look directly into his grey eyes. "As long as we are alive, we can make a change. As long as we live, we can only do our very best to make sure the future is the one we want. You want to live a long and healthy life with Sora and your friends and have a dozen little Soras and Kairis running around? Hiding here in your room lost in grief for a friend you haven't lost yet won't make that come true. Zealously guarding an egg for fear that even your friends who want nothing but the best for you might also harm it won't make your future the one you want, it'll only turn you into a crazy and cranky old woman with no children or grandchildren but her twenty cats. You're a princess but this isn't some fairy tale. You need to earn your happy ending dammit!"
Kairi smiled at the thought of herself old and a crazy cat lady. She more than smiled, she started laughing. "Master, a crazy old cat lady? Really? I thought I'd at least be cut out for something cool, like lizards or something."
"How about tarantulas?" her former master asked. Kairi's face paled terribly at the thought of the big spiders with their hairy, banded legs.
"Not funny," she said. "Those things are terrifying."
"Then I'll remind you not to go into the jungle near the mines on Nova," Garda told her. He got up from the bed and went to the door. He stood at the doorway, looking back at her. "There's supper waiting for you in the dining room. Oh, and I just remembered something. Think fast."
He whipped around, and a ball of white powder flew out of his hand and struck Kairi in the face. The auburn-haired princess blinked in sheer surprise at the cold and wet feel of the snowball that had hit her, the snow that had stuck to her cheeks already beginning to melt. Garda smirked and rushed away from the door, and Kairi clutched the digiegg tighter to her body as she leapt off of the bed. "I'll get you for that!" she crowed as she rushed out of the room she had cast into darkness and into the light, not even bothering to get her shoes on and giving chase in her sock-covered feet.
Not even a second after leaving her room, Kairi almost lost Menelmon's digiegg as she tripped over a bunch of bodies huddled outside of her door. Hayner caught the egg though. Kairi looked up from the floor, groaning at the small dull pains that would pass in a minute or two, surprised that they were here. "What are you guys…?"
"Oh, well we convinced Garda to toss a snowball at you," Selphie said. "I didn't think he'd do it actually."
"I always thought he was far too gruff and stern to do something silly like that," Isil mentioned. Kairi smiled at the silver-haired seventeen-year-old.
"Well, he is most of the time, but if he can joke about how obsessing over a digiegg is going to turn me into a cranky old cat lady then he obviously isn't entirely a stick in the mud," she replied. "Hayner," Kairi said, motioning with her arm.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure," he told her, smiling and giving the digiegg back to Kairi. She smiled and rubbed it gently, cradling it in her shoulder.
"You look like you're with a baby or something," Kia blurted out. Kairi looked at the golden-brown haired teen, and giggled slightly.
"I guess I am," she muttered. "Come on guys, let's go eat and then I can kick your butts in another snowball fight."
"Are you sure you're alright Kairi?" Wakka asked. "I mean, you…"
"No, I'm fine," Kairi asked. Her smile that came to him was, surprisingly, genuine. "Master was right. I am still alive. We are both still alive." She looked down at the egg. "Menelmon will come back to me. We're both still here. It's not that what happened wasn't traumatic, it was, but Menelmon is still here with me, just resting inside of this egg. And… if T.K. could bounce back after Angemon sacrificed himself to defeat Devimon and save us all, then what excuse do I have to hide in my room with?"
"Well said," Jeffery told her. "And by the way, we're going to be on your side tonight."
"Really?" Kairi asked humourously. "I thought you guys would have been looking for redemption tonight by trying to take out me and my guard."
"Nah, we're joining your guard tonight," Wakka said. "Going to be a lot of players tonight, yah?"
"Redemption, smeption," Selphie said, "we protect you Kairi."
"Actually, I've got a different job for you," Kairi said, figuring correctly that Selphie had already had a couple of drinks by now, while exiting the corridor and beginning towards the stairs and, by extension, the dining room. "Refereeing." When the others looked at her curiously, she elaborated. "I'm making a levelling system for this too. All the attackers are going to get one band, and most of the front line defenders will have one band. Each band is going to represent a hit point. You get hit, you die, and give up your band to the person who hit you. Each band represents a level. Someone with two bands has two hit points and an attack power of two, but someone with three bands has an attack power of two while also having three hit points. You'd gain one attack power every other level. So a level two defender going up against a level two attacker is the same as two level ones squaring off, but a level two attacker squaring two level one defenders is able to one-shot each defender, but it will take two hits to kill him. After that, he drops his bands and gives them to the one who made the killing blow, bumping her up to a level three. "
"Why not share the experience?" Anar asked.
"Too complicated in practice," Kairi answered. "Imagine if five people, two level twos and three level ones, fought against a pair of level fours. The fours knock out a level two each, becoming two level sixes, and the three ones pepper and batter down the sixes without getting hit. How do you… wait, those are nice numbers. Throw a level five in with the two sixes and the three ones are able to down all three of them, now how would you split the seventeen bands?"
There was a pause for a few seconds, the only sound heard beyond their footsteps the track that just started playing on the speakers that Kairi still had yet to actually spot.
They said there'll be snow at Christmas,
They said there'll be peace on Earth,
But instead it just kept on raining;
A veil of tears for the virgin birth.
I remember one Christmas morning,
A winter's light and a distant choir,
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire.
"This is too complicated and unfair," Tidus said. "Then a person could figuratively level up to like, a hundred, just by snatching killing blows off of people."
"Well I'm level fifty and my guards are level fifteen," Kairi retorted. "It wouldn't be a very good game if the final boss, me, could just die in one hit after all that the attacking team had gone through to get to me."
"Then why don't you guys say, 'oh yeah, by the way, you need to hit my guards fifteen times in order to kill them, and I'll die at fifty hits, but all it takes to knock down any of you is a single snowball to the face, or chest, or two to the arms or legs' because that would be a lot easier to implement than your levelling concept," Kia recommended.
"So, BOOM! Headshot, BOOM! Chestshot, or BOOM-BOOM! Armshot and legshot?" Kairi asked, "And fifteen hits anywhere on the Royal Guards and fifty anywhere on me?"
"Exactly," Isil said as they left the staircase. "Now you've got it."
They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a silent night.
They told me a fairy story,
'Till I believed in the Israelite.
And I believed in Father Christmas,
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes,
Then I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,
And I saw him and through his disguise.
"Which radio station is this?" Selphie asked suddenly.
Kairi frowned and bit her bottom lip for under a second as she tried to remember. "Uh, I think it's 97.8 Radiant Rock with their 'December Nonstop Christmas Playlist'. It's good."
"So they play nothing but Christmas music all December?" Selphie prodded.
"Uh… they started while we were fighting in the Zeus Cup, and I think they go until noon on Boxing Day," Kairi murmured, "but I'm not really sure."
"Either way," Olette told them, "we need a station like that in Twilight Town."
"Same here," said Tidus. "Although I'm pretty sure we can do without listening to Let it Snow."
"But Michael Bublé's covered that song," Kairi countered. "And he's so awesome."
"Crushing much Kairi?" Olette asked.
Kairi's retort was swift. "I love Sora, but he's Michael fucking Bublé! If he sang me a song and asked me out, I'd go on a date with him in a heartbeat. It'd be almost as if Tony Valtina who plays Justin in Knights of the Ordinary asked me out."
"Well Justin's hot," Kia said, like it was the most obvious thing ever.
"I know!" Selphie added. "Did you see him last night in the pool with Heather?"
I wish you a hopeful Christmas,
I wish you a brave new year.
All anguish, pain, and sadness,
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.
They said there'll be snow at Christmas,
They said there'll be peace on Earth,
Hallelujah! Noel! Be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get we deserve.
"Heather's a bitch for practically cheating on Randy," Kia spat. "I know that they aren't together, yet, but come on! It's so obvious that they like each other!"
"Well can you blame her?" Selphie asked. "It's freaking Justin in a pool with her!"
"That's shallow," Kairi remarked.
"Um, hello? Did you hear yourself a second ago Kairi? You just said that even though you're completely head-over-heels deliriously in love with Sora that you'd still go on a date with the guy who plays Justin if he were to ask you out."
Kairi blushed and fought back. "Hey, I'd only go out with him once, after that I'd be perfectly content with never seeing him again."
"Code for: I just want to fuck him in a one-night-stand and get away with it," Selphie said.
"S—Selphie! How can you even say that?"
"Because I'd tap that too," Olette said. She turned towards her boyfriend. "No offence Hayner, but he does beat you in the looks department."
Grumbling, Hayner shoved his hands in his pockets right as they reached the door to the dining room. "Sure. Thanks for clearing up that question. Now we can go to bed at night, knowing that our girls would all love to have sex with the hot guys from SV shows more than they would with us."
"Cheer up Hayner," Jeffery said. "They're just fantasising, it can't hurt anything."
"Except their pride," Selphie giggled. "Ooh, I wonder what Sora would say if he found out?"
"That's it, you guys aren't my friends anymore and can all die fiery deaths at the snowball fight tonight. Good day!"
"Aw," Tidus teased, "Kairi's blushing angrily."
"I say good day!"
-A-D-
She forgave them an hour later after slipping a snowball right down both Selphie's and Olette's shirts. Just hearing the brunettes' squeals when the cold snow made contact with the warm skin between their boobs was payback enough. Of course, the offending party was also made to take payback in kind, and got one on the back of her neck to slither all the way down her back and soak into her panties, but that only happened after the game when everyone still interested was heading back to the castle in one big mob. Kairi'd shrieked and chased after both Olette and Selphie, Selphie having distracted Kairi while Olette snuck up to dump the snow down her neck. Anyone nearby had burst out laughing, later commenting on just how priceless and cute Kairi's shriek at the sudden cold was.
Kairi's team won again in brilliant fashion. Only a couple of times did anyone from the attacking team even make it to her throne room in the ice fortress, and when they did, Kairi matched every snowball they threw at her with a perfectly fired tiny fireball that melted the snowball in a midair collision before pelting her attackers with snowballs of her own.
She was the final boss, why should she fight fair?
But cold water sticking to her bum and slowly drying was not how she wanted to spend the night while sitting with the six hundred people sitting and laughing and joking in the lavish celebratory dining hall on the castle's ground floor. Normally the servants and guards ate here by themselves, while Kairi, Naminé, and any guests of theirs ate in their own dining room on the second floor, but this was the only room big enough, besides the audience chamber, to accommodate so many patrons. Cookies and hot chocolate were abundant, as Kairi had proclaimed earlier in the day, and the Christmas music from 98.7 Radiant Rock kept on coming out of the hidden speakers.
Silver bells (silver bells),
Silver bells (silver bells),
It's Christmastime in the city.
Ring-a-ling (ring-a-ling),
Hear them ring (hear them ring),
Soon it will be Christmas Day!
Kairi laughed at some joke that Tidus had told involving a genie, a Stracan, and a Felranite (A Stracan and a Felranite are walking together in the jungles near the volcano on Dunash when they find a strange bottle. Picking it up, they rub the bottle and out pops a genie. He thanks the two for freeing him from the bottle and says that he will grant them each one wish. The Stracan goes first, saying that he wants Straca to become its own nation away from the rest of the Islands, all Stracans brought back to the island and all non-Stracans returned to their own islands, and for a hundred-metre wall of solid concrete to be erected around the entire island to keep the others out. The genie says, "Done", and the Stracan is gone with his wish granted. The genie then turns to the Felranite, who is smiling. The Felranite says to the genie, "Fill it with water."), when she felt the communicator that she had returned to her pocket (she hadn't taken it with her to the press conference she'd given earlier in the day because she didn't want it to go off) start to vibrate and heard her incoming text message ringtone.
"(Whoa-oh-oh-oh)
I need you.
(Whoa-oh-oh-oh)
I need you here, I need you now;
I need security somehow.
(Whoa-oh-oh-oh oh-oh)
I need you, like you would not believe;
You're the only thing I want,
'Cause you're everything, everything I need."
She fished the communicator out of her pocket, noting the looks of the others with her at the table, and smiled for a moment as she saw the name at the top of the screen. "It's Sora," she announced, answering their implied question. Then she frowned at the words on the screen as she read them out loud. "Kairi what's wrong? Why aren't you answering me?" Scrolling back through her missed notifications, Kairi's eyebrows rose as she saw that she had missed two texts from her boyfriend, and no less than seven calls. All of the texts seemed to be asking her what was wrong or what had happened, and the first ones came in at…
"Oh gods," Kairi whispered. "He felt my pain."
"What?" Pence asked.
"Sora," Kairi answered, looking at the jet-haired teen. "When Menelmon sacrificed herself for me, he must have felt my pain through the connection between our hearts." She turned back to look at the communicator. "He must be sick with worry by now."
"Then put him out of his misery and tell him everything's mostly alright," Tidus told her, glancing down at the egg in Kairi's lap. She nodded and started dialling, leaving on the video setting so that she'd be able to see as well as talk with Sora, and that anyone else at the table would be able to do the same.
He answered almost immediately. His face was almost frantic. "Kairi, what happened? Why didn't you answer?"
The look on his face was just enough to cause Kairi to laugh. "Sora you lazy bum, if you'd really wanted to talk to me right away you should have sent a message using the Light like I taught you. Didn't you even listen to my voicemail message?"
He glanced away from her and began rubbing the back of his head. Kairi took the opportunity to get a look at Sora's surroundings. He seemed to be in a room in a house, the walls of the room painted a soft shade of blue. No, that was because it was night and there wasn't enough light to get an accurate depiction of the colour, but the guestroom of a house probably wasn't a bad guess. "Uh… I kinda tuned it out," he said apologetically.
Kairi sighed. "Well next time, listen to the message, okay?"
"Alright. But seriously, what happened? One minute I'm going to get ice cream with Aiwemon, and the next, my heart's been hit by a freight train of pain coming from yours. What happened Kairi?"
The auburn-haired princess cast her eyes downward and bit her bottom lip. "Sora… Menelmon died today."
The stunned silence lasted for only a few seconds before Aiwemon shoved his way past his partner and took up the majority of the screen. "What? What do you mean she died? How? What happened?"
"Kairi…" Sora choked out in disbelief, "I'm so sorry. Do you want me with you? I'll come back right now if you want me to."
"No, it's okay," Kairi told him. "I'm alright. Stay where you are and keep doing what you're doing. As for how it happened…"
She told them of the fight earlier in the day, and made sure to meticulously describe the Scorpionkin Heartless as well as warning him that if he encountered one to stay as far away from the purple acid goop as possible.
"How are you okay though?" Sora asked as Aiwemon slowly flapped off of Sora's shoulder to go to an opposite corner of the room. "I mean, Menelmon…" He gasped as Kairi brought the egg into his sight. "Is that…?"
"Yes," Kairi answered with a smile and a tiny tear leaking out of her right eye. "It's her digiegg. I can be alright because Master smacked some sense back into me and because she's still here with me. It'll be a little while before I even see Luinmon again if how long it took Angemon's digiegg to even get back to Tokomon is any indication, but she's still here with me."
Sora sighed with relief. "That's good. Hey, this might not be the best timing, but I've got a question I want to ask you."
"Go ahead."
"What would you say if I told you I want to grow a beard?"
Selphie laughed next to Kairi, but all cerebral function on Kairi's part ground to a halt. She gave Sora a blank stare, her mind wholly centred around the word, what?
Ten seconds passed, Kairi leaving it to Sora to break the silence. She could not comprehend just what Sora had to be thinking to think that he should grow a beard. Did he think that she wanted him to grow a beard? A big, bushy, messy beard that would be hard to keep clean and look bad anyway? Not to mention that all of that hair would be rubbing up against her anytime she wanted to touch his face or kiss him. A little stubble was fine, but a beard!
"Kairi…?"
"What are you smoking and why aren't you sharing?" Kairi asked him, deadpan. Selphie and Olette laughed next to her.
"Maybe I should grow a beard," Hayner muttered.
Olette rounded on him in an instant. "Against regulations and hell no!"
"So it's okay for me?" Sora asked Kairi, hopeful.
"Ask me again in four years when we're twenty and have lost brain cells from whatever it is that you're smoking behind our backs," she returned.
"But Kairi, this is important."
"I don't care Sora. No."
He scowled. "Why did I think you'd understand? You're only a girl after all."
That got Kairi incensed. "Excuse me! Please, forgive this mere girl for only wanting to be able to kiss her boyfriend without the unpleasant feeling of coarse hair rubbing against her lips or the fear of coughing up hairballs."
"Kairi you wouldn't cough up hairballs unless you actually kept on kissing the beard instead of me, which I know you won't."
"No means no Sora. I don't want you with a big, bushy, scratchy bird's nest all over your face!"
"Yeah, you tell him Kairi!" Selphie crowed, rooting her on.
"What do you mean bird's nest?" Sora growled. "Just being able to grow a beard would be great. Think of all the great people who've got beards! Merlin's got a beard, Master Yen Sid's got a beard, Gandalf's got a beard, Ansem the Wise and your real dad had a beard! Maybe a beard's a status symbol and I want one too? Ever think of that?"
"They're wizards and a scientist and a king and you're not!" Kairi retorted. "You are a sixteen-year-old asshole who's still growing and still developing with a girlfriend who, as of this current moment, thinks that you with a beard is horrendous!"
"Kairi—" Sora began harshly.
"What would you say if I suddenly decided to stop shaving my legs?" Kairi interrupted.
Sora's look back at her was blank for a second. "What?"
"What if, hypothetically, I told you that I wanted to let my leg hair grow out?" Kairi asked.
"Um, Kairi, that's ew," Olette said. Kairi promptly shushed her.
"I'd ask you if you had a particular reason for growing it out like keeping your legs warm and then I'd accep—"
"Bullshit Sora," Kairi spat. "You'd hate it because then your hands wouldn't be running down the smooth skin of my legs because there'd be icky hair all over it, right?"
Sora was quiet for a few seconds in defeat before grumbling, "Yes."
"Same thing with your face," Kairi replied. "So, as your girlfriend, I'm telling you that right now I don't want to see you with a beard. A bit of rough stubble is fine and clean-shaven is better, but I'm putting my foot down with a firm 'no'. Got it?"
"What about not a full beard but a goatee around the chin, mouth, and upper lip?"
"Got it!"
Sora threw his hand in the air. "Alright! Fine! No beard! But seriously Kairi, the goatee?"
"Four years Sora," Kairi replied firmly. "Four years, and you can ask me again."
"But that's like, four years away Kairi!" Sora moaned.
Kairi suddenly noticed the lack of chatter in the hall and glanced behind her. Quite a few faces were turned towards her and the people at her table. "What?" she asked them. "Sora wants to grow a beard and I don't want him to and we're having a fight. Does everyone think that our relationship is all sugar and rainbows all the time? We're normal people too you know."
Selphie glanced between Kairi and Sora on the screen as Kairi's frown deepened. "Okay, I know that both of you are stubborn as bulls and everything, but what's got the two of you so angsty? Kairi, I know what's up with you, and, what was up with you until yesterday but I'm glad you're not freaking out to me about it now, but what's bugging you Sora?"
"My automail's acting up," Sora replied instantly, looking a little bit relieved at the opportunity to speak about it. "It's been catching on nothing and just randomly stopping or not moving when I tell it to. Kinda like its asleep or something."
"Well that's odd," Kairi said, this time frowning in interest. "Has it ever done that before?"
Sora shook his head 'no'. "But that's just a minor problem. I can deal with it. But, Kairi, guys, I can't swim anymore."
Kairi's eyes flew open in surprise and Selphie gasped. "What! No way! You've been able to swim since you were two!"
"Yeah man," Tidus said. "We were in the same swim class. What do you mean you can't swim anymore?"
In answer, Sora extended his left arm. "It's too heavy. When I get in the water, it drags me down and tries to drown me." He sighed heavily and dropped his eyes.
Kairi gulped and tried to meet her boyfriend's eyes, but Sora still wasn't looking directly into the screen of his communicator. Not being able to swim after years of taking the skill for granted, especially when living in a place surrounded on all sides by water…this was a huge blow to Sora, and she hadn't really helped his self-esteem much by shooting him down in his quest to grow a beard.
But she was still selfish enough to not renege on her demand that he not do it. She'd given herself a window of four years to decide whether or not she'd like Sora to actually grow one. "Sora I'm sorry," she said. "I had no idea that you were—"
"No, it's okay Kairi," he answered. "I'll figure out a way to deal with it, I guess. And if I do end up having the beginnings of a beard, it'll probably be because I'm lazy, so don't feel bad if you have to remind me to shave when I'm getting too hairy for you."
Kairi smiled. "So long as you don't plan on becoming as hairy as the Beast, I think I'll be fine." She reached out and took a cookie from a plate, dipped it in a glass of hot chocolate, and placed it in her mouth.
"Kairi," Sora quickly addressed her, "what's that?"
Swallowing, Kairi answered pleasantly, "Shortbread Christmas cookie."
"YOU MADE YOUR SHORTBREAD COOKIES AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"
It's coming on Christmas,
They're cutting down trees;
Putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace.
Oh I wish I had a river, I could skaaate away on…
"Oops," Kairi said, giggling. "I forgot, I had planned not to tell you so I could surprise you with them when you got back. Oh well. Guess this means you're going to want to get back fast now huh?"
"Heck yeah I'm going to want to rush back to the Garden," Sora answered. "My mouth's already watering just thinking about them."
Kairi slightly raised an eyebrow. "And wanting to get back quickly has nothing to do with missing me?"
Sora grinned. "Well, maybe just a little bit," he teased, "those cookies are really good though. Probably good enough to avoid talking to the press if I had one on me."
"I think you've got it backwards dude," Hayner laughed. "If Kairi wasn't even around, then those cookies wouldn't exist."
"Okay," Sora laughed. "Now I've got my priorities straight."
"Thanks Sora," Kairi said, preparing to blow him a kiss through the communicator.
"I've got to thank Garda for his stone golem breaking Kairi's arm."
"Sora!" Kairi whined playfully.
But it don't snow here,
It stays pretty green,
Make a lot of money then I'm gonna quit this crazy scene.
Oh, I wish I had a river, I could skaaate away on…
I wish I had a river so loooong….
"You have to admit that Hayner's right Kairi," Sora told her. "If Garda hadn't called Cho'kal, you wouldn't have had your arm broken and ribs cracked and been forced to stay behind, so you wouldn't have been able to bake us cookies for when we come back victorious to pick you up and go out again."
"But you're still more excited about the cookies than seeing me again," Kairi teased.
"Hey, they're great cookies, and part of the reason is because you're the one who bakes them, I might add."
Kairi smiled as they continued flirting across the screen. "You are too sweet, even though we were feuding over facial hair not five minutes ago."
"That's because we love each other too much. And I love those cookies of yours just as much. I'm serious. If I had my way, I'd kidnap you, dress you up in a skimpy maid outfit and put you in a kitchen just to bake those cookies for me every day. Oh, and what was that thing Selphie said you were stressing about?"
"Too much information Sora!" Kia blurted out, though she only had peripheral sight of Sora on the screen.
"Oh, I started my period yesterday, and before you go off the wall about being able to fight today as soon as it started I grabbed the iron pills Dr. Fraiser prescribed for us, and I had been worried, not freaking out Selphie, because I was two days late and thought something was going wrong with me."
"Two days late doesn't seem so…" Sora started.
"I've been late maybe three times a year since I started having them Sora and each time it's only been a day and I've never been early. My cycle's like a clock ("Okay seriously, Tee-Em-I guys! Tee-Em-I!"), and as for you kidnapping me, well…" Kairi whispered as she leaned in closer to the screen. "If you did that, I'd have to demand fair compensation from my captor."
"And what sort of payment for your services would you be looking for?" Sora asked with a devious smile, filing away the previously rambled explanation of Kairi's in some undisclosed part of his brain.
Kairi's answer came prepared with a dash of her own devilishness, "Whatever I ask for."
"We'll leave that open to negotiation, my little kitty."
"Then you won't be getting any of my cookies, and kitty?"
"I could always steal some when you're not looking, and you're as cunning as a cat and I've decided that I like it more when you purr for me."
Half the table gave the girl with the communicator a mildly amused/disgusted stare. "Could you two please save the dirty talk for the bedroom please?" Pence asked.
"Fine," Kairi said simply. She turned to the screen. "Give me a sec Sora, I'll call you back when I'm in my room." He nodded, and she ended the call. Kairi grabbed one more cookie and devoured it, making a little bit more small talk with the rest of the table before standing up and announcing that she was turning in for the night, commenting on how much fun the night was and how successful the defenders were, again, at keeping their Princess 'alive'.
As she headed up to her room, thoughts of speaking to Sora in private on the front of her mind, she recognized that even injured and taking care of Menelmon's egg and baby form when she hatched, Kairi had a big three days in front of her and that her leisure time was over. Like Garda had said, she was still alive, and she would have to do everything she could in what time she still had here on Radiant Garden to ensure that she and as many others as possible would stay that way.
She vowed to Sora not to die, so she would survive and earn that happy ending they desired.
-A-D-
Songs used in this chapter:
I Believe in Father Christmas – Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Silver Bells – Andy Williams version
Kairi's ringtone – I Need You – Relient K
River – Robert Downy Jr. version
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk