It had been ages since Kairi had last had Sora and Riku over to spend the night, but finally the opportunity presented itself. They watched a silly movie, got into a heated pillow fight that ended in a draw, and played cards before finally crashing in her room with Sora and Riku on the lower mattress of her trundle bed.

Sora fell asleep first, of course. He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow. She and Riku chatted for a while until Sora tried to cuddle with Riku in his sleep and accidentally clocked him in the face in the process. Riku just groaned and excused himself to the couch on the landing for some space.

"It's okay, Kairi. Sora and I can't really both fit on the mattress anymore, anyway," he said as he took his blanket and pillow and closed the door behind him.

It was just her and Sora in the room now. She watched his peaceful form as he slept, his blanket bundled around him, his messy hair poking out over the top. What she wouldn't give to have the chance to run her fingers through it again, but she had no transformation to use as an excuse this time.

Until she woke up a few hours later to see a monster staring her in the face. She barely had time to scream before the monster in question placed its clawed hand over her mouth.

"Shhhh, Kairi, it's just me."

"Sora?" came her muffled response. She pried his fingers off her mouth. "You're a… monster?"

She couldn't decide what kind of monster he was supposed to be, exactly. He had gray fur with black stripes, red webbed hair, pointy ears, no nose, and a catlike snout. His eyes were as blue as ever, but his legs looked a lot longer than normal and she thought she could make out a tail in the dim light too.

She sat back on her bed. "Let me guess, Donald?"

"Yup."

She glanced at her phone. "It's four AM. We can't take pictures or call him now."

"So I'm supposed to just stay like this till morning?" He rested his face in his hand and sighed. "Great, Riku's never gonna let me live this down if he sees me like this. And your parents…"

"They don't have to. We'll just… wait till it's light enough outside to take pictures."

Two or three hours, more or less. That wasn't too long a wait.

Right?

Sora was getting tired of this. Here he was, sitting in Kairi's room at five AM as they tried to find something to talk about that might get their minds off the whole transformation thing when they should be fast asleep. And to make things worse, she kept staring at his body like he was some kind of freak. As if he needed another reminder of what he'd become. He had no idea why Donald thought this was so funny when really, it was embarrassing and awkward and—

Kairi's hand moved to his chest, and everything else sort of went out of his head.

"You're really… fluffy." Her cheeks were pink as she ran her hand over his chest. "Your fur's so soft." She put her other hand over her mouth and giggled. "I think it's the softest thing I've ever touched."

Sora didn't know what to say to that. Kairi's hand just kept stroking him and it felt even better than when he'd been a merman and a lion. He closed his eyes and melted into her touch, imagining she was touching him for real, not just because he was a fluffy monster.

Then he felt the weight on the bed shift and before he knew it her cheek was leaning against his chest.

"So… fluffy…" she murmured, giggling as she nuzzled his fur. Oh, geez. Maybe it was a good thing he was a monster right now instead of a human. His heart was pounding enough as it was.

"This is gonna sound kind of weird… but… can you lie down?" she asked, looking up at him with a cute smile. "Your fur's so soft I wanna see what it's like to snuggle."

"Uh, sure."

He wrapped his arms around her and brought her close, hardly believing this was really happening. She rested her cheek against his chest before letting out a contented sigh.

"This feels amazing," she murmured. "It's like cuddling a ball of fluff."

If only she knew how good this felt for him, too. Especially when she started stroking his fur again. Every touch was like heaven, knowing it was coming from her. He couldn't help it. When she scratched behind his ears, a low purr escaped his throat.

She froze. "Did you just purr?" she asked, leaning back to give him an incredulous look.

Seriously, Donald? Of all the things to equip me with…

It was a good thing he couldn't really blush in this form. "Uh…"

She giggled. "No, it's cute. You don't have to stop."

She resumed her touches and scratches and he couldn't help it, he started purring again. This made her giggle and double down on her efforts, looking for all the places that made him purr the loudest when she scratched or touched them.

Well, he couldn't really complain. Kairi was in his arms like he'd always dreamed she'd be, even if he was some weird cat kappa hybrid monster. Maybe someday she'd let him hold her for real, as himself. Not as a merman or a vampire or a toy or a lion or a monster, not even as the boy she once knew. No, as himself, as he was now, as a… well, he hardly dared call himself a man, but he wasn't really a boy anymore, either. So yeah, as a man.

He sighed. Wouldn't that be the day.

The pictures Kairi sent this time were great. At some point Riku had entered the mix, and his howls of laughter and Sora's reaction had been captured very well by her phone. That had led to them play fighting in Kairi's room until Donald had turned Sora human again.

Not before Riku had snapped a few photos and even some videos to send as well, though. The best one of all was of Kairi scratching Sora's chin and making him purr. The look in his eyes was blindingly obvious to anyone with half a brain. Kairi had to know by now, right?

But nope, she was still as clueless as ever. She even turned to Riku and said, "Here, you try!" As if that would have the same effect.

It didn't.

Donald wanted to scream. "Kairi, seriously?"

He grew more and more agitated as he watched Riku pet Sora's head and mutter to himself about how it was still pretty weird (and funny) that Sora was a cat monster. Sora complained that Riku's scratches didn't feel as nice as Kairi's and gave the camera a pouty look. And Kairi was blissfully unaware of it all. She just giggled and continued filming the whole time.

Various quacking noises came out of Donald's bill as he lifted his phone high in the air and threw it to the ground. Hundreds of tiny dark sparks came out of it, and he stared at it, mouth hanging open, until one last explosion sounded from it, leaving a very cracked, very broken phone in its wake.

He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a nervous chuckle. "Uh-oh, I didn't mean to do that."

A/N: Sora purring in monster form was inspired by Alja :)

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!