A/N: Thanks: MaroonAngel of Darkness, Yue Asuka, HawkRider, LBWind, My5tic-Lali, rushninja, and my lovely beta reader M. L. Ayala. :)

~ And suddenly, going to the chiropractor didn't seem like such a waste of time anymore. ~

19) Chiropractor

Terra's mouth dropped open and his jaw practically reached the floor when he saw the beautiful red-haired woman again, but at the most unexpected moment and location ever. Needless to say, he'd recognized her immediately, but he had to pinch himself in order to be sure that he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. Honestly, who had ever thought that she was a chiropractor? He wasn't sure if this was all just a mere coincidence or him being lucky. At least she didn't look all that sad and thoughtful now, what with the polite but genuine smile on her face. Whether she was masking her real feelings or not, he didn't know.

She gave him a hand, which he shook almost too eagerly. "My name is Kairi."

Kairi... Wow. That was a highly unusual but pretty name. Kind of exotic even. Terra frowned when he caught his train of thoughts. Why the hell was he even thinking all of that now? This was a serious appointment for crying out loud, not some blind date!

He shook his head to get rid of the silly thoughts, recovering quickly enough to mutter a rather dazed, "Uh, Terra."

"Please come in, Mr. Terra."

She stepped aside and let him enter her office. The brunet man looked around him and saw a neat, clean office. At least that was a good sign.

"Please, take a seat." When he did as he was told, she smiled at him. "So what's the matter?"

"Oh! Uh… My leg hurts and sometimes I have these weird muscle spasms. So I was hoping that maybe you could help me…"

She nodded, as she took notes and typed something in the computer. "This is your first visit I see. Let me guess, you've got terrible headaches with that, too?"

Terra blinked. "Yeah," was the surprised answer. "How did you know?"

She gave him a knowing smile that made her violet eyes shine brighter, as she explained patiently, "Well, chiropractors usually manipulate the spine with our hands to realign the vertebrae and relieve the pressure on the nerves. Before this happens, tension headaches are pretty normal. The kind of treatment that we use is very effective for such tension headaches, muscle spasms of the back and neck, and leg pain."

Terra nodded. "I see."

The brunet had never known that. He couldn't help but notice that she had a pretty smile. It felt as though the whole room lit up when she smiled.

"Okay. Let's get started, then."

Terra nodded. And suddenly, going to the chiropractor didn't seem like such a waste of time anymore.

Terra looked around him, but after fifteen minutes, there was still no trace of Aqua. He didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to get a little worried; Aqua was never late. In fact, she was the kind of woman that arrived somewhere fifteen minutes too early. Her "late" meant when she managed to get to her destination two minutes before the appointment would start. If that didn't say enough already then he didn't know what did.

At the moment, the brunet man was sitting all alone at a table, waiting for his best friend. He had tried to call her on her mobile phone several times now, but she wouldn't pick up. Maybe she was just stuck in the traffic with her mobile's battery dying on her, but it could also be something else. Terra decided that if she didn't come in another fifteen minutes, he would start looking for her.

At that moment, a pretty red-haired woman, who had just entered the coffee shop, happened to spot him. She smiled, taking something out of her purse, before making her way over to him.

"Hi, mind if I sit down here?" she asked politely.

This seemed to bring him out of his reverie. Surprise was written all over his face when he saw that it was his chiropractor again. She was definitely one of the last people he'd expected to see here, especially because this was the third time in two weeks that she was seeing him. This couldn't be a mere coincidence, right?

"Hey. Yes, of course," he said, motioning for her to sit down.

"Thank you." She took a seat on the chair opposite from him and smiled at him. "It's a good thing that I saw you, because you forgot your watch the other day."

Wow, it seems that this day is full of surprises for me, he thought with a raise of his dark brows.

"Thanks! I've been looking for it for days," he said, which was a lie, because quite honestly, he hadn't even noticed that it was gone.

But that didn't matter now.

It was silent between them for a moment, but then he couldn't resist but ask about something that had been bothering him for a while now. "I'm sorry, but have we met somewhere before? I keep having the strange feeling that I know you…"

She smiled. "That's probably because we actually have, several times."

At this, his eyebrows shot up again, almost disappearing into his hairline. Was she joking around with him?

"Really?"

Okay, so he might not have the best memory in the world (because that position was Aqua's already, there was no doubt about that), but he was pretty sure that he would have been able to remember at least that.

"Yeah, I'm Kairi, the little girl who was never allowed to come and play with you guys in your tree hut, because that blonde, spiky-haired boy always got nervous from me."

"Oh…"

Wait...of course.

Terra scratched the back of his head sheepishly, feeling more and more stupid with every passing second. Especially now that the bells had started ringing. Not only that, but he was feeling a little guilty again.

"Yeah… Sorry 'bout that… I think he had a little crush on you back when he was six. So he wanted to avoid you most of the time."

Terra could still remember those days. It was before Ven had met Naminé.

Kairi laughed heartily, and he couldn't help but notice that it sounded like sweet music in his ears. "That's okay. I don't blame you. But it certainly does explain a lot."

To get rid of the awkwardness in the air, he decided to change the subject. "I haven't seen you for a long while."

"I used to live near the market place with my grandma. But I moved out of town when I went to college and my grandma passed away shortly after that, so I never had a reason to come back to that place again, what with the memories and all. It would only leave me to deal with the pain and loss," she explained calmly.

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's okay, it's been a long time. Anyways, I should go now, before my overly worried friend calls the cops. I'm already running late," she admitted with another laugh, as she got up from her chair. "I'm sorry."

Terra's face fell at once and he tried to shake off the disappointment. "Oh, I guess I'll see you around?" he asked, hoping that he wasn't sounding too eager or hopeful.

"Sure, I've rented a room, not too far away from here actually. See you soon hopefully."

Yeah...hopefully, he thought as he watched her retreating back.

"Take care."

Terra didn't know what it was about this woman, but it made him want to know so much more about her.

A/N: We will meet another new character the next chapter (one that I've grown to adore haha).

Teaser: He blushed when she caught him watching her. "Uh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare… It's just…you remind me of someone," he explained, somewhat awkwardly.