Unattainable Desire
By Chiharu Tanaka
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A/n: I'm so tired…but I still got the spunk to write this down! It's fun! You know…Britney Spears's Overprotected really gets me into the groove of this story. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Kingdom Hearts nor Final Fantasy. They both belong to Square Enix.
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Chapter Two: A New Experience
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Tears were unstoppable in that room that night. Elena handed Kairi's mother, Calista, what seemed to be the hundredth piece of tissue that night. Rude, Tidus, Kairi's father and the entire police force were still searching for Kairi's whereabouts in the city. Riku, who felt responsible, joined the search even though Tidus had strongly advised him to stay home.
Kairi…she disappeared right under my nose! I didn't even hear her scream! Oh God, I pray that she'll be okay…
Naminé wiped the tears away from her eyes with another piece of tissue. She looked at all of them in the living room at Kairi's house that night. Her mother was nervously fiddling with a piece of paper in her hand. Elena was trying her best to comfort Kairi's mother, who was crying her heart out. They all had the same questions in their minds.
Where could Kairi be now? What do these people want with her? Did they kidnap her for ransom? Is she going to be okay? Are they going to harm her?
Naminé could only hold her tears for so long until she felt herself wash away with sadness and anxiety. She sobbed uncontrollably, grasping Kairi's petite pink cell phone in her hands. In a few moments, Elena's cell phone rang, which she answered, for the first time, in a serious manner.
"Yes, sir?" she answered, noting quickly the caller ID. Tidus coughed from the other side.
"Get down to the lobby and meet up at HQ."
"Yes, sir," she replied. She turned to Kairi's mother. "I'm really sorry, Mrs. Herrington…duty calls…" she said apologetically.
"Yes…go on Elena. Please find her…"
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The morning sunlight hit against stained windows. The pale grey curtains blew inwards with the spring breeze. A young sparrow hopped onto the windowsill before taking off in flight once more as a groan was heard from inside the room.
What…? The bed feels so hard…and my hand…
Kairi's blue eyes shot open in horror. She barely remembered fainting from last night. She got up and found her left arm cuffed onto the bedpost. She looked around, frightened at the new surroundings. The room was dull, barely furnished, and invaluable. As soon as Kairi realised that she was kidnapped, she screamed.
"Shut up, princess, there's no one around here for blocks away except us."
The stern voice came from behind the door. It swung open, and in came a medium-height man, just her age, with a luxurious shade of mahogany brown hair set in a disarrayed manner, and deep, tantalizing sky blue eyes. He wore a casual black T-shirt and white slacks.
Wow…he's hot. What! What are you thinking, Kairi? This guy kidnapped you – and most probably going to ask daddy for ransom! Or even, kill me!
"Why did you kidnap me?" spat Kairi. Sora looked down on the floor in silence. "Answer me, you jerk!"
At that comment, Sora looked up at her, deeply, with his eyes. Kairi felt her mouth close in fear as his ice blue eyes froze her anger over. "We aren't like you uptowns. If you're wondering if we're going to ask your father for ransom, you're wrong. We kidnapped you so that you and your people fear us."
Kairi raised an eyebrow. "That's a stupid reason to kidnap me…won't that just waste your efforts?" she muttered. Sora looked at her, and then smirked.
"Oh contraire, Miss Herrington. We're very well trained to hide ourselves from your spies. We're going to keep you as long as it takes so that they know what they deserve for neglecting us. Actually, by my choice, I would have rather killed you."
Kairi let out a little gasp of fear. Someone so handsome could be so…deadly, she thought.
"Thanks to Cid, our leader, he spared your life. But no matter. It's not like we'll return you to your family. You're going to die here and rot miserably anyway."
She felt a few droplets of tears flow from her eyes. She had so much for her in life – and it took a dead end at that grimly point. She ignored Sora's presence and sobbed mercilessly into her hands.
"Sora! You idiot, did you make her cry!" yelled a loud female voice. A second person came into the room – a young girl with fair skin, short black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a green sleeveless turtleneck and khaki shorts.
"I'm really sorry for whatever the brat said to you, Miss Herrington…" she said again, sitting down on the bed beside Kairi.
"Oh, now it's my fault for telling the truth? She IS going to stay with us forever, am I right?" he shouted.
"That's for Cid to decide!" yelled Yuffie back. She patted Kairi's back. "I'm going to vote for you to be released, okay?"
"But why…why me? Why did you have to kidnap me? I mean, it's not for money!" wailed Kairi. Sora snorted in disgust and left the room.
"I'm sorry – but we had to get the elites attention one way or another. We weren't going to harm you or anything…" Yuffie handed her a handkerchief, which she gladly took to wipe the tears away.
"I hope I can go home soon…thanks for cheering me up…um…"
"Yuffie. I'm going to do my best to get you back up there…it's sad to see you stay here with us when you have a bright future ahead of you…I'm not the one to blame people, but it was all Sora's idea to kidnap you…I just hesitantly agreed."
They sat there in silence, when Kairi spoke up. "I just realised…how, sorry for being rude, poor you guys are…now I feel guilty for living in riches."
"It's not your fault…we're born that way. What's living if you don't try your hardest? I mean, we make a hard living, but it feeds us. We're all orphans, all of us taken in by Cid and Baku. Ever since then, we've been family. You're lucky you still have your parents. Among all of us…Sora's been most affected. So don't take it so hard on him."
Kairi smiled and nodded. Her cheeks turned pink as her stomach grumbled loudly. Yuffie gave a little chuckle. "Do you want some breakfast? Ruby made some awesome pancakes."
She smiled. Suddenly being kidnapped doesn't sound so bad…even though father and mother…as well as Naminé are worried sick about me…I can't do anything…I have no idea where I am, or how to get back home. If I walk there…I'll get into much worse conditions…
"Sure."
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A frustrated sigh echoed through the large, empty room. Keys were tossed onto the table. He emptied his pocket and set his cell phone and wallet aside on the table. He took his black coat off and laid it over a chair. He then took off his black necktie and laid it on top of the coat. He sat down on the sofa and unbuttoned the top half of his white shirt. The news was on, and the anchorwoman was reading details about the headlines.
President's Daughter Is Missing.
"The President's only daughter, Kairi Herrington, 17 years of age, mysteriously disappeared during the annual Gala Dinner celebrating Mirage's Prosperity Day. Witnesses claimed that she was kidnapped, but police investigation is yet to confirm any suspects. The kidnapping happened when…"
The television was turned off and he breathed out another sigh as he raked through his silver hair.
Riku, you dope…how could you let her go missing just like that?
She was the reason he got a job as a bodyguard. It wasn't hard, he came from a long line of skilled fighters, with talent to match. At the youthful age of eighteen, he proved himself worthy to obtain this demanding job with an exceptional display of strength and agility. As Riku stared outside the window, he remembered the one question Tidus asked him during their formal interview.
"Why do you want this job? You're still so young. Guarding VIPs in Mirage isn't just boring, it's life-threatening, too."
He had came to the big city to look for that particular job a few months after graduation. All because his marine eyes landed on an article with the President's daughter in it. Somehow, he thought he could actually get the chance to be her bodyguard if he performed well enough in the establishment.
"Well, you might think it's funny, sir, but I felt that I was born to protect people," he had answered. Tidus, with a smile, took the young lad in and dismissed the happy Riku from the office.
His heart ached with every beat it made. He couldn't bear thinking how Kairi was at the moment, whether or not her indigo blue eyes were stained with tears. The monster growling within the depths of his heart unleashed itself as Riku grabbed the nearest object he could grasp – a flower vase that Elena gave him as a welcome gift – and threw it across the room, where it smashed into pieces, leaving fragments of glass, and also his feelings of anxiety, on the floor.
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Yuffie and Ruby had grins on their faces as they watched Kairi cut a piece of pancake that was flowed with syrup over it and popped it into her mouth.
"So, how is it, Miss Herrington?" asked Ruby, her eyes sparkling. Kairi swallowed the chewed pancake before replying.
"First of all, you don't have to call me 'Miss Herrington' all the time, I'm not used to that. Secondly, these pancakes are good! How'd you make them, Ruby?"
Ruby gave a little 'ohoho' laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. "That's a secret, doll face." Yuffie grinned along.
"Don't try to scoop any secret recipes outta her, she's a tough ice to break."
Kairi smiled as she started to eat more of the pancakes. "Well, at least you guys can cook. I can barely cook an egg without burning it whole or setting the kitchen on fire."
Yuffie and Ruby exchanged surprised looks at each other. "Are you quite serious?" asked Yuffie, not believing her ears.
"Yeah, my mom doesn't allocate me enough time to actually learn cooking…I've been busy with studies, and the frequent trips to spas, massage centres, beauty salons, hair salons, shopping malls, eating dinner with more old geezers and heavily perfumed snobs…"
Kairi ended her sentence in a sigh. Yuffie and Ruby looked her in bewilderment. "Wow, your life sounds so much more interesting than ours…care to tell us about it?" asked Ruby, all ears.
"Well, I live a super fancy life, with everything a girl could want; shoes, accessories, clothes, hats, make-up, the spotlight, the red carpet…"
"Wow! Hey, I've been wanting to ask you – is it true that you're dating Roxas Parker? I hope not, I'm his biggest fan!" wailed Ruby.
Kairi laughed. "Don't listen to those stupid rumours – I've never even met Roxas, how am I supposed to date him? Speaking of which, I think my mother was about to set me up with some ambassador's son if you guys didn't come along and took me here."
"Don't you have friends? I bet you have many," said Yuffie.
With a dignified snort, Kairi replied, "Yeah right. Most of the people who actually want to be my friends just want to use me for my father's power, status and riches. The only friends I've got is Tidus and his sister Naminé, they're friends from when I was really small…"
"Oh, you mean Tidus Crucis, that businessman dude who owns Snackers Inc.?" asked Yuffie.
"Urm…yeah."
"Wow, Kairi…you really DO know a lot of VIPs…" said Ruby in awe.
After ending breakfast with a mug of hot chocolate, Yuffie squeaked "Ah" out of nowhere as she noticed something. Ruby and Kairi turned to her.
"What's wrong, Yuffie?" asked Ruby. Yuffie turned to Kairi with an apologetic look.
"I forgot…since Sora kidnapped you and all…you don't have a spare change of clothing."
"C'mon," she said again, taking Kairi's hand and going up a flight of steps to the second floor. They walked past the room where Kairi woke up in and towards the end of the hall.
Yuffie swung open the door, and Kairi gaped in awe as there were so many different sets of colourful costumes hung on metal clothes racks and rolls of fabric standing against the wall. A sewing machine was in the middle of the room, situated on a wooden table. Several stacks of paper with designs on it were on the table.
"Welcome to my workshop, Kairi. Ruby's really good in cooking, but for some odd reason that doesn't quite fit me, I've always been good at making clothes," said Yuffie. Kairi looked around and picked up a dress that was hanging on a corner labelled, "New Designs".
"At first I was kind of embarrassed to tell people of this…hobby of mine, but my mother taught me how to sew since I could speak! Now that my parents have moved on, Ruby said it was best that I continued with my mother's wishes."
Kairi looked at her reflection in the mirror, holding the dress in front of her. "Are you serious, Yuffie? Your works are great! These could even beat the new Tinkerbell designs on the Spring/Summer Roadshow last week!"
Yuffie blushed in embarrassment. "No, really, don't praise me like that…this is just mediocre stuff compared to what you've seen."
Kairi set the dress back and found a white tank top and purple mini-skirt that caught her eye. She picked it up and turned to Yuffie. "Not really, their designs are so lame and made for people like my mother. Now this," she said, showing her the pair, "Is what teenagers would definitely love. A funky, cool new style."
Ruby giggled. "Praise her any more, Kairi, and she might just give you that top and skirt you're holding. You look good in it."
Yuffie looked at Kairi. "Yeah, you're right. Take these…even though it's not as expensive as what you usually buy."
Kairi grinned in joy. "Thank you! Oh, this is great!" she exclaimed. "Quantity doesn't always mean it's in best quality, anyway."
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The three girls walked downstairs once more as Kairi was dressed in her new white tank top – with two horizontal lines on the right side of the shirt and the purple miniskirt with a indigo belt. As they gathered into a living room, there were people already there. One was a young boy with dark blond hair with the impression of a monkey, sitting on an armchair. Another was a cool, dark-skinned guy with a do-rag tied on his bald head, sitting on a couch. The third one had fiery red hair, wearing a black shirt sitting next to baldie. The fourth was a little fat man with a peculiar hat.
The four men noticed Kairi's presence and turned their attention away from the TV and onto her. "Looks like our princess is up," said the monkey. The bald one just turned back to the TV. The redhead and the fat man stood up and walked closer to Kairi.
"Back off, Blank and Cinna – she's not interested," said Ruby, narrowing her eyes at them. They slumped in defeat and sat back down.
"Interested in what?" asked Kairi.
"Joining Tantalus, what else. I'm the only actress, and that makes it hard sometimes when there's two female roles."
Kairi giggled at what Ruby meant. "I remember that you guys performed last night…you were awesome."
"Thanks. Well, now that all of Tantalus is up – time for practice!"
"Aww, Ruby! Don't tell me we're going to practice until 6 p.m. like yesterday?" wailed the monkey. The bald one just grunted as he stood up and headed for the door.
"Shut up, Zidane – see, Marcus is already off. Now get your butt out of that couch!" she wailed, and shooed the three guys out of the house.
"Come, I'll show you around the house," said Yuffie.
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To be continued…
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A/n: Okay, here's chapter 2…why so little reviews? I can see all you silent readers out there! Review please? Don't worry about Riku though, he's not going to bother the Sora/Kairi pairing for this story.
Riku: Hey! What about me? Who am I paired up with?
Me: You'll find out soon, nyuk nyuk nyuk…
EDIT 2006-05-07 I changed BHK's name to the default name, Roxas.