Raspberry Swirl - KH AU Series - Story1Ch.5

[cheeesecat]

Title: Raspberry Swirl
Author: Me! _superherogirl_ :D
Pairing: RikuSora, AkuRoku, Kaiphie? xD very lovely surprises towards the end.
Rating: PG-16 always to be on the safe side
Summary: Three cheers for the hilarity that is adolescence! The heart is a very complex thing, and these teenagers on the verge of going to adulthood are going to realize how important it really is what they've been overlooking all along. The adventure begins when Sora wakes up at the crack of dawn craving ice cream. Ooh how exciting?
POV: third, only diary entries and such will be in first person duh.
Authors Note: Went through depression, mother is at the hospital, everything was just horrible at home. I'm sorry I took so long, but I've finally delivered and it's not the last chapter! I will be introducing my Akudemy short-shorts after the chapter too. :)
Previous Chapters: one two, three, four
Dedications: First of all to my one true bunny love, Fester. I miss you so much sweetheart. As well as to my mommy because she's the world to me. Thank you to everyone that has read and commented as of yet. It means so much to me, just thank you so much.
Disclaimer: This Fag Hag is very sad to inform you all that... none of these wonderful worlds of magic and fantasy belong to her. *sniffle*



Morning was too sunny and bright, it hurt Sora’s eyes. Usually he adored bright and sunny mornings, but it was Christmas and Christmas wasn’t supposed to be that- wait it was… Christmas! Sora jumped out of bed and smiled stupidly. Alright so Christmas was the exception to his sprightliness that early in the morning, but still the excitement was almost too much for the boy to bear.

“Merry Christmas Roxas!” The brunet pounced on the boy that was sleeping on top of an inflatable mattress, almost popping both it and his cousin in the process.

“OWW! Watch it, my sprained ankle! And anything else I sprained from my fall, so get off me!!!”

“Yipes! Fine, geesh I just wanted to wish you a-”

“-I heard you now get off…”

Sora rolled off him and scratched his head, “So are you feeling any better? I still can’t help but feel slightly responsible for the injuries…”

Roxas sat up and sent a glare in Sora’s direction, “I wonder why…”

The other boy shrugged, “I dunno. We should get our butts downstairs, and have breakfast though.”

“Eh, do we have to?”

“Ah come on, it’s Christmas get with the program!” Sora jumped onto his bed and grinned wide, “I love the holidays so much!”

“I really couldn’t tell, with all your jumping and pouncing on other people,” the blond groaned upon realizing his cousin still blubbering his holiday related soliloquy.

“-Even if the weather does suck around here during winter, but can’t have them all I guess.” He sighed and looked out his window, it- there was what looked like ice glued onto the edges of the window pane. That couldn’t be possible, the only hint of ice on the island was inside everyone’s freezers. Sora took it upon himself to open his window; while Roxas continued to twist and turn on his inflatable mattress, trying to get a couple more minutes of sleep. A soft cold breeze caressed the brunet’s face when unexpectedly- for him anyway- the wind picked up.

The boy lost his equilibrium and fell back against his bed, but the look of bewilderment never left his face. “Roxas…?”

The blond only grunted in response as he rustled snuggly under his blanket.

“Roxas, you gotta see this…”

“You’re really annoying me,” Roxas rolled the warm blankets off him, and couldn’t help but shiver when he did so. Damn his cousin for waking him up to see whatever it was he wanted him to see! He was more than sure it was something of little importance, and it only made the blond get out of his already comfortable state of- “Holy hell, is that…?”

Sora nodded and didn’t know what to do with his newfound discovery. The island was covered in snow from top to bottom, side to side, every which way! The boy beamed and jumped towards the window, almost falling out in the process, but lucky for him Roxas grabbed him by the ankles.

“You dork, don’t do that! You’re going to fall off and then we’re going to have two members of this family that will not be able to walk properly- or at all- for a good while!”

“But I want to go outside, I want to play in the snow!”

“We should probably make sure it’s not some sort of Christmas hallucination. Maybe someone is playing a trick on us.”

Sora gasped, “Dude, Christmas is not a time for pranks! It’s a rule!”

“Ah hell. Why is it so cool for everyone to have rules all of a sudden? I want rules, I want to have a bazillion Roxas rules!” He then thought twice about what he said, and had a feeling Axel would probably mention something witty and cheesy along the lines of ‘Of course Roxas rules, he rules in many places, occasions, he might even rule the world someday, with me by his side of course.’ The fact that Roxas just pictured and imagined the red-head saying that made him cringe. Who the hell did that moron think he was to invade Roxas’ thoughts that way! Even if he was a blast to hang out with, because they both had a lot in common and they were also very- He had to put a stop to all thoughts that involved Axel and pronto. It wasn’t healthy.

“You know Axel would totally have something to say to-”

“-Finish that sentence, and you won’t live to open up any presents later.”

“Geesh, you’re always so touchy. Either way, time to go play in the snow! Meet you outside!” Sora bounced away and rushed downstairs, but not before wishing his parents a Merry Christmas. Even if they certainly didn’t look pleased at the fact that their boy pounced on their bed to wish them said greeting. Seventeen years of it every single Christmas morning, should be more than a fair warning to know it’ll happen sooner or later.

The boy continued on his short journey downstairs, to reach the pot of gold at the end of his rainbow- wait there wasn’t a pot of gold or rainbow, but it was close enough. He leaped out the door, and smiled wide as he fell face first onto the snow. Snow, the very cold snow that was making his face feel as if it were about to freeze off. Sora wasn’t even wearing winter attire to go out in such weather, but then again no one on Destiny Islands had winter attire. That could be a problem.

“COLD, HOLY MOLY! COLDDDD. BURRRR.” Sora whined as he got off the snow, but resumed to act as some sort of drug induced mental patient. He ran around in circles, did cartwheels, attempted to make a snow angel or two… Got up again to scream at the top of his lungs, “MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!” Then falling back onto the snow and laughing hysterically.

Roxas joined the boy soon after and stared down at him, “Stop it, they’re going to call the white-coats on you.”

“Look Roxas! I made a snow angel over there! Isn’t it pretty?” Sora snorted and pointed to where the snow angel was.

The blond looked at it confused, “Looks more like someone decided to sit on the snow angel.”

The other boy pouted, “You’re no fun when you’re grumpy. I know exactly what will cheer you up!”

“If you just so happen to mention Ax-”

“-I’m going to go make gingerbread men cookies!”

Roxas blushed in utter embarrassment and looked once more at the squashed snow angel, “Oh right, in that case- wait a minute you don’t know how to make anything in the kitchen, much less gingerbread men cookies! Your mom will not let you.”

The brunet dismissed his cousin with a lazy wave of his hand, “Leave it all to me. Besides, it’s thanks to me there’s snow today.”

“Oh yes, do you happen to know how to make snow? Last time I checked when I got up for a glass of water in the middle of the night you were still sleeping. I find it highly unlikely that you made this all happen.”

“No duh, dodo. I was all shocked this morning for a reason, but I know why it happened!”

They both made their way inside, and Roxas decided to let the brunet humor him. “Do tell.”

Sora beamed proudly as he jumped onto the couch- yes he was quite the little froggy that morning-, “I wrote a letter to Santa!”

The room went awkwardly silent for a good minute until the blond burst out in laughter, “Santa? You… wrote a letter… to Santa? HAHA, what did you wish for, snow?” He couldn’t stop laughing, his cousin was known for some bizarre things in his time, but writing to Santa? And Santa actually reading and responding to his letter no less. HA, what a joke.

“It’s not funny! It’s the truth! I wrote to Santa, Father Winter- whatever! But I wrote to him, and he obviously read my letter. That’s the only logical explanation there is to why there’s snow outside today.”

Roxas sighed and placed a hand over Sora’s back, “Oh really? Please Sora, Santa does not exist. We all know that.”

“Not you too. Fine, whatever I’m going over to Kairi’s! She believes me, she’s the one that encouraged me to write the letter in the first place!”

“Dude, you’re seventeen. Santa is for little kids, and even then by seven or eight we stop believing in him. You’re the one that should get with the program.”

He didn’t know why, but Sora felt tears daring to make it’s way down his cheeks. No, he wasn’t going to cry. Let Roxas and Riku think whatever they wanted, yeah. He knew Santa existed, and that’s all that mattered. The door opened as he made his way out it once more, closing it quite ruthlessly in the process.

“Ah he’ll be back…” Roxas shook his head and called out to him, “You’re going to freeze your ass off if you don’t put something on over your pajamas!” When he received no answer back, he took it as his cue to go back upstairs and continue sleeping. It was absolutely ridiculous, a letter to Santa, only Sora would do such a thing hoping for some positive results. It was all a mere coincidence, just a coincidence.

--------

As beautiful as the morning was, there were still individuals that would much prefer to sleep in. Christmas or not, Riku wasn’t going to budge from bed. There were years that he simply boycotted the dumb holiday altogether; the only times otherwise were when he would celebrate them with Sora and Kairi, them being the holiday enthusiasts after all. Riku on the other hand was against most commercial holidays. There was nothing that spectacular about Christmas anyway. The younger kids were the ones that got all the toys their heart desired anyway, meaning all the cool stuff. When a person reached a certain age, it was not only harder to get them gifts but way more tedious. So naturally Riku would skip it; the two people that would get gifts from him on Christmas never complained anyway. For that the older boy was grateful, because he knew he wasn’t the best at holiday shopping. But those were his best friends, and he had to get them something; no matter if it was the silliest or crummiest thing in stock.

That year he got them both a box of strawberry cheesecake ice cream sandwiches. Yes, it did seem like an inexpensive- more like crappy and very cheap- gift, but in reality he knew it was something they’ve been wanting to try for awhile. Both Kairi and Sora seemed to have a fascination for cheesecake, and cheesecake as well as ice cream seemed like a nice combination at the time. Besides, they were on special at the Quickie Coconut Stop.

Riku groaned and sat up, “Ah who am I kidding… I always get my friends such crappy gifts, when they never fail to go all out for me. Ugh, I suck.” He fell back onto his bed and sighed. When his father asked him if he had wrapped his friends’ gifts the boy only chuckled, and said that he hoped not. Otherwise there would be a big goopy puddle of cheesecake ice cream under their pseudo Christmas tree.

He had to get up regardless; it was Christmas and he had to wish his friends a merry one after all. As well as get ready for the big Paopu Palace blowout bash, since he couldn’t miss that. Only a couple more minutes of sleep, that’s all the boy wanted. Just a little bit more sleep…

“MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY, MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I LOOOOVVEEEEE CHRISTMAS!”

Riku shot up from his bed once more, what the… That voice that was wishing everyone a Merry Christmas at the top of their lungs, sounded a lot like Sora… There was no way he was going to be able to go back to bed after that. Why was Sora running around Destiny Islands wishing everyone a-

“MERRY CHRISTMAS! WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND!”

“Huh?” The boy had finally cracked. He was dropped on his head a little too many times as a baby. A winter wonderland, on Destiny Islands? That didn’t make any sense at all. Well now naturally he had to go outside to check out what was going on. There had to be some rational explanation as to why Sora was screaming- wonderful his thoughts verged on dirty at the moment - and running frantically around the island, in front of his house no less.

“In that case, it’s time to go outside.” Riku got out of bed, and casually walked down the stairs as if it were any regular ol’ day. He usually slept shirtless, just because it was more comfortable. Besides, they did live on an island where the temperature was for the most part very humid, if not disgustingly scorching hot. Lucky for them they did have the ocean to cool them off, but sometimes it really wasn’t enough. Although, Riku could care less about whether the weather was enjoyable or not- he chuckled at his ‘thought pun’.

Afterwards he made a detour to the kitchen, and did a quick check in the freezer to make sure his cheap, yet yummy Christmas gifts for his friends were still there. The last thing he needed was to break such news to Sora and Kairi… ‘Um yeah, my dad kinda ate your Christmas gifts sorry. So I have nothing to give you this year…’ Kairi would probably reply with something along the lines of, ‘Has the dog ate my homework line been upgraded to dads eating Christmas gifts?’ Sora’s approach would be a little different though, he would do his irresistible pout- not that Riku thought it was irresistible, it’s just everyone else thought so… but it was better described as cute for the most part- then wonder why he had been such a cheap ass and not have gotten them anything. Probably scolding him some more for using such a lame excuse as well, leading to Riku never hearing the end of it. Ever.

After slamming the freezer door shut he shivered, but knew it was because he had just finished opening the darn thing in the first place. He didn’t think twice as he made his way out the front door, taking a deep breath, and almost choking on the cold air that made it’s way into his lungs.

“What the hell? Huh?!” The silver-haired boy gawked at all the white snow surrounding the once snowless island. He blinked a couple of times and made sure he was fully awake. It had to all be a dream, there was so such thing as snow on Destiny Islands! No way, no how! With his mouth still hanging open Riku continued to stare, but not before a huge block of said nonexistent snow fell on top of his head. The boy groaned and was sent tumbling forward onto the ground. He wasn’t sure if to whine from the pain, or feel really stupid and embarrassed. One thing was for sure, he was really, really, really cold.

-------

“Selphie, I need to tell you something. P-Please it’s important… I just want to-” Kairi interrupted her talk-to-self session when she heard a knock on the door. She proceeded to ignore it as she continued to talk to her reflection, pretending it was the happy-go-lucky brunette.

“Hey Selph Merry Christmas! Do you possibly… have a minute?”

The knocking ensued, and that time around her mother called out to answer the door. Kairi growled, “Mother tell whoever it is to come back later! I’m busy!”

“Missy, you get your prissy butt downstairs and ANSWER THE DOOR. IT’S CHRISTMAS FOR MERLIN’S SAKE.”

Kairi shuddered and could’ve sworn she saw her reflection flinch, “Coming mother dear! Er… Merlin?” The girl obliged after much deliberation, and rushed to their door to only see a very pleased with himself Sora. She knew he had a tendency of being frighteningly jubilant and dare she even think mighty gay, but it looked as if he were overdoing it just a smidgen. Only just…

“Sora? What are you-”

The very happy and excited brunet lunged himself at his best friend, “MERRY CHRISTMAS KAIRI! It worked! It really worked! It really, really, REALLY-”

“AGH! I get it Soooo-RAHH!!!” Kairi fell back onto the conveniently placed couch, and she simply gawked at him. “What is the matter with you?! What are you talking about?! Did you happen to have a talk with Puff the Magic Dragon or something?”

Sora giggled, yes he giggled, he was so incredibly happy he had to giggle. “No, even better! Have you taken a look outside? Huh, huh?”

“Well, no… since you didn’t even give me a chance to before you attacked me.” She playfully shoved him away, then proceeded to dust off her light pink shirt and dark magenta colored pants. The dust didn’t feel like dust though, or looked like it. It was rather cool, icy even… watery… A berry colored brow shot up, “Sora, is this…? How did you get that all…”

“It is Kairi, it is! Santa read my letter! Remember you told me to write him one? He made my wish come true!” Yet another wide smile graced the boy’s face, and he hugged the still very confused girl.

“You mean that… outside there’s… outside there is-”

“-Stop stuttering and come see for yourself!” Sora grabbed onto the red-head’s hand, and dragged her out the door. His ocean blue eyes sparkled as a small snowflake drifted and landed above his cheek. The cool sensation made him smile even wider, if it were even possible.

Kairi was gawking again, but she didn’t know what else to do. It was as the brunet said, there really was snow. The island was covered in snow! She grinned just as wide, and laughed stupidly. “SORA THE ISLAND IS COVERED IN SNOW!”

He covered his ears immediately and winced, damn was Kairi loud. “That’s what I told you!”

“Sora, I can’t believe it there’s snow… I’ve always wanted to see, feel, play in the snow!”

“Well, now it’s our chance Kairi. Come on, it’s waiting for us!”

“WOOHOO SANTA ROCKS!” She laughed and catapulted onto the snow, followed by a just as eager Sora.

For a good while they didn’t say another word to each other, because at that moment nothing needed to be said. They continued to frolic in the white icy substance; it was so new to them they were still in awe. There was even an attempt to make a snow castle, but alas no such luck. Just as they didn’t have any luck making a sandman last Christmas. But there was obviously no rule against trying.

“Thanks Sora.”

Sora looked up from his failed attempt at a snow anything, “What for Kai?”

“For writing to Santa, for making this,” She picked up some more frost from the ground, and sprinkled some slightly over the deformed block that her friend was working on. “For making it all a reality. I gotta admit, I had my doubts just as everyone else…”

The brunet saddened a little at what Kairi had last said, “You didn’t believe either?”

She shook her head and frowned, “Not that I didn’t believe, but it just seemed so farfetched. Out of reach, like many things in this world.”

“You’re beginning to sound like Riku, and I can only put up with one of him.” Sora chuckled despite himself.

“No, I mean it Sora. There are just times that it feels as if life is not giving you enough, you know? Lately I’ve been feeling that way. I’m sorry if I’m coming off bitter or anything.”

Sora patted the girl on the back, “You know better than anyone that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade and sell it so you can franchise it to then make even fruitier juices!”

Kairi blinked, “Are you trying to imply something by not making any sense?”

The boy simply laughed and grabbed a big chunk of snow, “And now what happens when life gives you snow?”

“Could life possibly be so kind?” She smirked and did the same as Sora.

“It was this time!” Sora grinned triumphantly, molding the chunk of snow into a ball.

The red-head knew what was coming next, so she didn’t even wait it out. Her chunk was already made into a perfectly round shape. “I’ll tell you what happens when life gives you snow, you throw it to the least expected target!”

“Well you lose there buddy, I’m kinda expecting you to-”

Kairi winked and sent the snowball flying straight in the direction of an unsuspecting Riku, “I’m not really that predictable am I?”

“Hey! You like, completely missed me!”

“That was the point you dorkus!” She laughed and pointed to Riku as he fell back onto the blasted snow for the second time that day.

Sora turned around and made a face, “Riku!?”

“Got ya! Haha!”

Kairi!” Sora rushed over to Riku’s side, and laughed because no matter what, the situation was completely hilarious. He helped the shirtless individual up, and blushed a bit. What the hell was Riku doing shirtless outside? In such weather no less! “Come on you stubborn arrogant fool, you’re going to catch a cold. Or worse hypothermia!” exclaimed the brunet as he yanked him all the way back into Kairi’s house.

Riku rolled his eyes as he shivered, “Merry Christmas… to you too.”

“What possessed you to go outside without a shirt on?!”

“How was I supposed to know it was actually to be cold out?!” He pulled his hand away from Sora’s tight grasp. What had gotten into him, and why were the boy’s cheeks flushed? It only make Riku’s smirk widen.

The red-head chuckled and walked up to them as well, “Sorry about that Riku, I really meant to aim it at Sora. It’s just you kinda got in the way.”

“Kinda?” Riku scowled.

All three of them were now back inside, and Sora looked over at Kairi, “Since technically this was your doing, do you got a spare shirt of some sort you could let Riku borrow?”

She nodded, “Naturally! Now this is my question to you Riku, what color of shirt would you like? Pink, light pink, pink with lilac, pink with red, or maybe pink with-”

“Oi, you’re kidding right? Don’t you have anything other than pink?” Riku faked a sob as he plopped himself down onto the couch.

Kairi shook her head and smirked, “Aww, sorry but no I don’t.”

“How about your mom? She’s bound to have something less um, pink.”

“You actually want to use one of my mom’s shirts? You’re already crossing the line by using one of mine, but my mother?”

The silver-haired boy cringed and Sora stifled yet another laugh. His blush finally having left his face.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Give me un segundo, and I’ll have a non-pink shirt in hand for you,” Kairi snorted as she moseyed over to the back of the couch, without being noticed. She reached under the piece of furniture to retrieve the baby monitor that was oh so cleverly hidden. The switch was turned on, and she stood back up making her way up the stairs. If Kairi was going to leave her two best friends alone in a room, certain measures had to be put into action. Of course that wasn’t the first time she had spied on the two, but nothing interesting had ever happened before. The usual guy talk, and maybe playful flirting from time to time, but that was sadly it. It only had begun to get good recently!

Kairi snickered at the thought as she closed the door to her room, turning on the replica of the other baby monitor. Yup, she was absolutely brilliant! No one was going to foil her plans that time around, nope.

“Now they have no choice but to talk to each other, and hopefully more.”

Ever since the bathroom stall incident they hadn’t really discussed what happened, or much at all. Sure they still hung out, talked even, especially with Kairi’s encouragements and subtle hinting of the passed events, but nothing. Well, nothing remotely interesting that was.

Oh no, Kairi’s imagination was going all wild at the thought of anything happening between Riku and Sora. She opened her closet door, and pulled out the first t-shirt that was not pink. Rather it was the only shirt that wasn’t pink. It was all the way at the far end of her closet, with spider webs decorating the piece of hardly, if ever worn shirt. Her mother made her buy it a couple of years back because she thought it wasn’t normal for a girl to only be fond of one color. Although that was far from the truth, Kairi did like the color purple as well.

“I wonder if it'll fit Riku...” The red-head stopped in her tracks, as her inner-mind theater started making use of all her indecent, naughty, maybe even slightly kinky thoughts. Her jaw dropped, and she suddenly felt herself plummet downwards. How she was doing so was beyond her…

“Okay narf? Why does this always happen to me when I- wah!”

Kairi dropped butt first- thankfully- onto a big comfy looking recliner chair. She arched a brow as she sat up and laughed nervously, “Oh dear Gods not again… I really have to control my imagination.”

A bag of popcorn floated down onto her lap, along with a big theater screen appearing in a puff of pink smoke in front of her. It immediately turned on, and showcased two boys sitting next to each other on a couch.

“Déjà vu much?”

The two boys on the couch began to blush furiously as they got a little closer to each other. They were discussing something or other, but unfortunately for Kairi her inner-mind theater only let her imagine so much. She dug her hand deep into the seat of the recliner chair in hopes of finding something to adjust the volume.

“Hey what gives? Is this thing on mute? Where’s the remote, where’s the remote!?”

What she saw next made her jaw drop once again, and her cheeks burn as bright as a firefly. A shirt went flying to the other end of the living room, and Kairi squeaked loudly. All she saw next were articles of clothing being thrown in every which way. She immediately got off the recliner chair- popcorn falling all over the place- and attacked the big screen that had appeared.

“You guys wait! I need to get the camcorder! Don’t do anything yet!”

Knock, knock. “Kairi sweetie, are you okay?”

“Wha?”

“I’m coming in, hope you’re decent.” Her mother opened the door, and smiled until she noticed the dazed off look about her daughter.

Kairi snapped out of it once she heard her mother’s voice, “Mom! What are you doing in my- What is that?”

The slightly plump woman that was an inch shorter than Kairi smirked, and handed her a gift wrapped box. “If you haven’t noticed already it’s your Christmas gift. It’s not much, but I have been meaning to give you this for some time now. I just wasn’t sure when it would be appropriate to give it to you.”

“Mom…”

“-It was your grandmother’s.”

That said it all. Kairi knew exactly what her mother was giving her, and she couldn’t help but almost beam in anticipation. Her mother had promised something extra special awhile back, but she never in a million years thought she had actually meant it. “Mom no, it was grandmom’s I can’t…”

“Yes, you can. I promised you, and I very well don’t go back on my word. All I ask is that you take good care of it. She would’ve wanted for you to hand it down to your own daughter as well.”

Kairi blushed at those words, “But, what if I don’t have kids? Or a daughter? I would only disappoint her.”

The care package was placed on top of the bed, and a pair of arms encircled around the younger girl. It all caught the red-head by surprise, but she returned the hug nonetheless.

“Mom, stop being so motherly…”

“Don’t ever say you would disappoint her. She was very proud of you, and specifically wanted you from all the others in the family to read about her past. She was never one to share her tall-tales to anyone. The one person she thought would understand-”

“Gramps?”

“Yes. Well, he didn’t. He thought they were too farfetched, there was no such thing as other worlds or magic.”

Farfetched? Now Kairi felt plain ol’ guilty and mighty stupid at that. She didn’t deserve to be entrusted with something as important as her grandmother’s journal. She was a woman of adventure, never stayed in a place for too long. That was troublesome for her grandfather, but he was still madly in love with her. No silly expedition of any sorts was going to separate them, and the man tried desperately to get the woman to understand. Her journal was the only other thing in her possession that was constantly with her, and was soon the only thing in general. Once Kairi and the other grandchildren were born, helping to raise them became his first priority. In the end it was one of her grandmother’s many adventures that lead to her unfortunate disappearance. “Do you think she’s still out there mom?”

“I wish I could say, but in all honesty I don’t think so.”

The red-head let go from the embrace and frowned, “Pessimist.”

“Hey, you would be a pessimist too if your mother had been declared missing after a good sixteen years before.”

“It’s so unfair though, she went missing right after I was born… Maybe it was my fault…”

“Kairi, sweetie, don’t be stupid. Your grandmother was careless at times, and unfortunately her carelessness lead to… lead to…” The woman’s wavy hair fell forward and covered most of her face, which she was quite thankful for in the end. She really preferred not to let her daughter notice her eye’s watering, even if it never really worked anyhow because Kairi knew her all too well.

She wiped a stray tear making it’s way down her mother’s cheek, and took hold of her arm. “Now you’re the one being stupid. Grams wouldn’t want you to be crying on Christmas, it was her fave holiday after all. Next to Halloween of course!”

“Naturally. Aren’t you going to open-”

“Not now. I have yet to deliver something to a very cold shirtless boy downstairs,” she smirked in a most cocky like fashion.

Her mother then let go of the slight grip on her daughter’s arm, and squeaked much like her daughter would do in such a situation. “You have a shirtless boy downstairs!? Honey, I’m so proud of you!” She clung onto her and let out a school-girlish giggle, “Now tell me, who is it? Whooooo?”

Kairi shook her head, and stared down at the floor from the embarrassment, “I think you’re not only sadly mistaken, but would be quite disappointed in the long run.” That’s when she heard other voices, and they were coming from none other than the baby monitor. She immediately shushed her mom and made her way up to the contraption.

“What is it swee-”

She shushed her again and pointed to the baby monitor, “They’re finally talking, shhhhh!”

“Who?”

“Riku and Sora.”

“Ooh! Have those two finally gotten out of the clo-”

More sounds were coming from the monitor, and both of them fell silent.

“Sora… we really need to talk…”

The only other sounds heard from Kairi’s room were the loud squeals of excitement as they continued to eavesdrop.

-----

“What’s taking Kairi so long? We did only ask her to get a shirt right?…”

“Knowing her she probably went to get a matching skirt for that shirt.”

Sora stifled a laugh and nodded because that seemed to be sadly very true. The candy sweet face that belonged to the one and only Kairi was known for such buffoonery. In fact, in school she had been declared number one to succeed in pulling what would one day be the best prank in all of Destiny Islands. Yuffie was a close second. As the thought finally decided to register, Sora realized that if their persistent friend hadn’t made her way downstairs yet…

“Riku?”

“Sora?…”

“Um, what did you want to talk about?”

Before the silver-haired youth had the chance to reply, a hand was suddenly slapped against his mouth. The boy stared at his friend wide-eyed with eyebrows raised. All he got in return was an abrupt ‘shhhhhushhh’. He pushed the hand away, “What are you doing?”

The other boy only startled Riku as he whispered into his ear, “It’s not safe. The room is bugged.”

A light colored eyebrow arched up again in irritation, “You’re absolutely mad.”

Once again Riku was shushed, and once again Sora continued the whispering. Apparently he was the only one that was well aware of the more than troublesome antics of one Kairi.

Riku shoved the brunet off him lightly, as not to send him falling onto the floor. “This is ridiculous. I’m going to go-”

“-To the kitchen? Yes I’ll join you!” Sora immediately shot up from the couch, and made his way to the girl’s kitchen.

“Sora… what the-”

“-Coming?”

Riku grunted and nodded, “Fine. I hope you can properly explain to me then about what’s going on.”

A sigh was heard as the younger maroon colored haired individual sat on the edge of her bed, in complete and utter defeat.

“Honey are you alright?”

Subtly ignoring what her mother had finished saying, she stood back up from her bed. “Time to initiate plan B.”

Her mother tilted her head to the side in confusion, “There’s a plan B?”

“Mom, there’s always a plan B! There’s also a plan C in case plan A and B both fail. I thought you knew this! You should take notes for future reference.”

“Nah, I've retired as a fulltime meddler years ago. At least you're carrying on the family business. Although, what happens if plan A, B, and C fail?”

“Mother… It’s not nice to be a smart ass, but since you asked I have made plans from A-Z.”

None of it fazed the one responsible of giving birth to such a wickedly insane child, she was obviously more than used to it all, “What about double Z? If you went through the trouble of putting together twenty-six plans…”

Kairi semi-glared at her mother, “You’re doing it again…”

She chuckled, “Hey, you might as well-”

“Either way, I’ll be back. Time to execute plan B a.k.a Deck the halls with no balls.”

“You seem to be really serious about this,” she tried to hide any and all amusement.

The red-head sighed as she was already halfway out the door, “Mother if I don’t do this for them, who will?”

Her mother in turn sat back down on her daughter’s bed, “But sweetie, what about if they don’t want this?”

“Of course they don’t want this, but I know that their subconscious does!”

“And that’s all that matters, correct?”

“YES!” Kairi finished off as she stomped out of her overly pink room very agitated. Her mother had a bad habit of teasing her to the point where she wanted to break all expensive looking things in the house. Mostly her mother’s expensive looking things naturally. She knew she was doing the right thing, those two have been meant for each other since the day they were born. Everyone knew of it, especially her, and it was simply irritating that no one would do anything of the matter. Well, being the amazing friend she was… “They’ll thank me for this in the near future, I’m sure of it.”

All that was heard this time around as she walked down the hall, and proceeded down the stairs were the silent murmurs of one very stubborn fag hag.

-------

“Good morning love.”

The darker haired brunette yawned as she stretched her exhausted limbs, receiving a kiss as soon as she finished doing so. She smiled at the beautiful radiant green eyes that were staring down at her, “It’s always a good morning when you sleep over.”

Aerith blushed as she held the gift wrapped box close to her chest, “Oh stop, you natural charmer.”

“Ooh, what is that you’re holding? A present for, moi?”

“Maybe.”

Tifa smirked, “Well, if it is why don’t you hand it over then? I wanna see what it is!”

“Nope. You have to wait until we get to the Paopu Palace,” Aerith said with an apologetic shrug.

“But why? That sounds rather silly, and besides you know I don’t like to wai-”

“-You’ll just have to wait for this one darling. Just like you waited for me,” she winked and blew her a kiss.

“That’s different, darling,” Tifa said as she sat up from her bed.

“How is it so?” Long light brown curls moved from side to side upon placing the gift on the window sill. She looked back at her dear friend with the sincerest of smiles plastered on her face.

“Oh don’t think you’re going to get me all googley-eyed again, because you’re acting extra cute.”

A giggle escaped as Aerith only but shook her head, “Extra cute eh? Now really, just go along with it and wait until we get to the Paopu Palace.”

“Will it be worth the wait?”

“More than you’ll ever know.”

Tifa finally shot out of bed and grinned wide, “Good answer!”

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you though…”

“You sound rather serious. Should I be scared?”

Aerith sighed and chuckled slightly, “No, but I guess this is a bit serious.” She hesitated for a moment, placing a finger just an inch over her lip. “About Cloud…”

The darker brunette grimaced at the mention of the name, and looked down at the floor. “What… about him?”

“When… are we… going to-”

Nothing more was said because they were cut off by a rather loud and scary sound. When Tifa looked over her bedroom window to see what it was her eye twitched.

“A snowball!?”

“A big one at that! How in the wor- No better yet, where in the world did someone get a snowball?!”

Aerith found the whole situation very humorous, but at the same time was rather worried from where it did come from. “Calm down Tifa! I’m sure there is a perfectly more than logical explanation as to why-”

Yet another big ball of snow smashed against the bedroom window, sending Aerith flying into Tifa’s arms.

Now it was Tifa’s turn to be amused, “Calm down?”

The brunette flinched and scowled, “Not funny! It took me by surprise that time around!”

“Uh huh…”

“Humph. Put me down please,” Aerith pouted blushing a little.

“You’re doing it again! I cannot possibly want to put you down now.”

“Tifa! This is no time for such shamelessness. Go find out who is attacking us with snowballs!”

Tifa laughed and kissed Aerith’s forehead, “Fine, but you owe me twice as much later.” She put her back down on the bed, making sure not to get any more indecent thoughts in the process. Geez, there were definitely times where she was just as bad as one of the guys, but only Aerith could bring that side out of her. After doing that, she made her way up to her window and opened it. Thankfully she got to duck before getting hit with the evil snowballs of doom, that were somehow appearing out of nowhere.

“What in the…”

“Aerith, stay down and take cover. They’ve instigated long enough, it’s war now.”

“B-but-”

“No Aerith, you must stay here. Who knows what other dangers are awaiting us outside. You have to stay in here, where it’s safe.”

Aerith decided to humor her, “But what about you? What’s going to happen to y-”

“Shh,” Tifa placed a finger over her lips and shook her head. “No more. It’s time for me to go.”

Without another word she walked out of the room. Tifa was going to put an end to it once and for all. Maybe she’ll be able to thank those snowball throwers for conveniently giving her the chance to change the subject on the girl. She really didn’t know what Aerith wanted to say about Cloud, but she’d rather leave it at that. There would be no drama on Christmas; none she couldn’t handle of course.

Only steps away from her front door, she took a deep breath and awaited her fate. Tifa opened the door and smirked, “ALRIGHT, BRING IT ON!”

Much disappointment flashed across her face when all she was saw outside her door was, the whitest of snow with no one arou- Wait, double-take. Snow? She almost flipped, but still walked back into her house as she slammed the door shut, “This, is not real. This, is only a Christmas hallucination. Are there even such things as Christmas hallucinations? Regardless, yes, that’s it. That’s all there is to it. I’m going to walk out the front door, and see nothing but sand… Yes sand. Sand, the thing that an island should be covered in.”

Before Tifa had her chance to walk out of the house again, there was a knock on the door. Aha! That must be the prankster who fooled her into thinking that it actually snowed! She opened the door wearing a quite scary grin, “IT WAS YOU!”

The blond stared at the brunette and arched a brow, “What was me?”

She twitched again, “Cloud…? What are you doing here? Heh, you are supposed to be-”

“-Yes I know finishing up at the Paopu Palace, but Leon and I thought you were taking too long. So I came to fetch you.”

“Are you not the least bit fazed by all the snow?!”

“Snow? There’s- Oh right! I knew there was another reason I needed to talk to you,” he turned around and pulled a young short-haired girl from behind him.

“Yuffie!?”

The girl sighed and tried to hide the melting snowball as best she could, “Merry Christmas?”

Tifa smirked and placed her hands on her hips, “Young lady, what were you doing throwing snowballs at my window?”

Cloud’s eyebrows both shot up, “Well, you can’t expect anything less from the great ninja Yuffie.”

“That’s not funny! I couldn’t help myself, Tifa’s house was the closest so I decided to shower her with some traditional Christmas joy and cheer! Besides I tried Aerith’s first, but for some reason she didn’t respond to the snowball threats like you did Tifa,” Yuffie frowned as she took a deep breath from the mouthful of an explanation she just finished giving those two.

“Yuffie, that’s enough,” Cloud warned.

Ignoring the irony of everything that was happening, Tifa smiled and shrugged the rest off. “Don’t worry Cloud, just take her with you. I still have some things to wrap up around here.”

Yuffie smiled wide, “Ooh did you get me a gift Tifa, huh? Lemme have it!”

“I’ll let you have it alright, a big ol’ lump of coal is what you should get-”

She gasped, “Me? A lump of coal, but I’ve been exceptionally good this year!”

Cloud stifled a laugh as he grabbed Yuffie by the back of her shirt, “I’ll take her away now.”

“Thanks,” Tifa smiled.

The blond smirked and nodded, “No prob.” He turned to walk out the door, but had one more question to ask his best friend. “Uh Tifa…”

“Yes Cloud?”

“Will Aerith be making an appearance at the Christmas bash too?”

The brunette felt weird at the mention of her name coming from Cloud’s lips, for some reason, oddly enough. “I think so. Why do you ask?”

He shrugged, “No reason, only curious. Okay then, see you.” And so he finally left the Lockheart residence to retrieve one very annoying ninja to her rightful place, at that opportune point in time.

“That was odd…”

Aerith poked her head from the foot of the stairs, “You’re alive? So that means we’re going to live another day?”

“Ha, very funny. The culprit just so happened to be Yuffie. She says that she stopped by your house first, but you didn’t respond as I did. Lucky you…”

“Oh that Yuffie, she always has some scheme up her sleeve,” Aerith smiled and finished making her way down the stairs.

“Yeah almost as bad as Kairi, speaking of… I wonder what they’re all doing now.”

She hugged Tifa from behind, and mentally shrugged, “Opening presents?”

“Hmm, yeah I suppose so.” Tifa always enjoyed Aerith’s arms around her, but she was terribly bothered by Cloud’s sudden interest in the brunette. It felt wrong, out of place. Something that shouldn’t have been- Alright, maybe she was taking it a little too far. Aerith has been part of their group of friends forever, it’s only natural for him to ask if she was going. But still, it bothered her greatly.

“So, are we going to get ready to go or what?”

Tifa was snapped out of her semi-trance, and looked back at Aerith with another warmhearted smile, “But of course! Everyone is waiting for us! We mustn’t keep them waiting any longer.”

“Yes, lets.” Aerith led her back up the stairs to get her belongings and finally get themselves over to the Paopu Palace. It still bugged her that she didn’t get to ask Tifa what she had wanted to ask in the first place. Although, there was always tomorrow, and then she wouldn’t let anyone, especially not Yuffie go around causing anymore cleverly timed wacky diversions. Aerith Gainsborough was going to finally pop the question- Um not that kind of question ( besides if anyone were to pop the question, she assumed it would be Tifa ), but close enough! She was going to and that was final! No matter what future obstacles will get in her way.

------

While most of the population on Destiny Islands were flipping their nonexistent wigs, and doubting the fact that they had woken up on the right island, Demyx shrieked loud enough for the whole damn universe to hear. Only making the other person that was sleeping in the same room with him shudder and seethe in annoyance.

“Demyx…”

“Oh wow it’s Christmas and there’s SNOW outside! I can’t believe it! I want to go out and make a snow sitar!”

“Demyx,” Axel warned again.

“This is the best Christmas ever! I’ve never seen snow, I wonder what it feels like, or what it tastes like!”

“DEMYX!” The redhead got out of his cozy bed, and glared the sharpest, deadliest of chakrams at his best friend.

Demyx looked over at him and laughed nervously, “Merry Christmas Axel! Isn’t this awesome? It actually snowed on the island!”

“Snow?” Axel rushed over to his window and sneered. “I HATE SNOW!”

“What?” Demyx stared at him stupefied. “How come Axel? Everyone loves snow! It’s so mushy and squishy, or so they say, and so nice and cold and, and-”

“This is an island, it’s not supposed to snow! That defies the whole purpose of the scorching hot all year round summer weather!”

“B-but, it’s nice! Especially on Christmas!”

“Wonderful, two things I hate.”

Demyx huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, “How can you act like such a grouch on Christmas?”

“I thought I already stated I hated the holiday.”

“Well, honestly. In all the years of being friends with you, I never knew…”

“You should learn to pay attention to my ranting more often then,” he crossed his arms as well.

The blond sighed, “Does this mean we’re not going to go to the Paopu Palace Christmas Bash?”

Axel shrugged, “You could do whatever you want. I could care less.”

“Okay,” Demyx pouted. “I’ll see you later, maybe. Merry Christmas,” the boy picked up his things and closed the redhead’s door behind him. It was quite disappointing to see how indifferently Axel reacted; but in the end it was Axel, and he shouldn’t expect that much from him. No matter what he would always be his best friend, but there were times where the blond really wanted to bonk him hard over the head. Yeah, that’ll so show him. Bonking… He was so immature at times, no wonder Axel was always constantly annoyed with him.

He spotted Axel’s mother as he made his way down the last step on the stairs, “Um hey Merry Christmas…”

The woman had finished making a holiday breakfast fit for a king and a queen, and all their twenty-seven children, but she noticed the sad look on the boy’s face immediately. “Merry Christmas Demykins, are you okay? Why the long face?”

“I’m fine! I’m just going to take my bag back home, say hi to my mom, and stay there. I am only in Axel's way most of the time. Besides, you know how she gets when I-”

“I’m not buying it buddy,” she waved the spatula only a mere inches away from the blond’s face. “Axel did something, or rather said something stupid again. I can sense it, remember this mommy always knows best. Furthermore, its written all over your face!”

“Uh… I really should go. I’ll stop by later, promise!” Demyx waved at her, and made for the door in less than five seconds flat.

“Yup. My boy definitely said stupid to upset him. Aye, AXEL GET DOWN HERE AND EXPLAIN!”

With the whole rush to leave Axel’s place as quick as possible, Demyx hadn’t realized he had left the house still in his seahorse pajamas. He squeaked and shivered when he felt the sudden winter breeze, it was so different. Naturally it would be different, he had never experienced such delightful cold weather before. It would’ve been even more delightful if he would’ve gotten to spend it with his best friend, but lucky him Axel had dangerous mood swings all year round.

The boy then began to walk all the way back home, and greet his mom as he did every year. He had been hesitate at first to sleep over Axel’s since he didn’t like to leave his mom by herself, especially on holidays. She insisted on him going on and having fun though. Demyx was such a mommy’s boy, it hurt.

A couple of feet away from where Demyx last stood, were two recognizable individuals that were staring at the blond in his pajamas. Both were highly amused, but tried to keep their snickering to a minimum. They wanted to see how long it would take for the boy to realize he was being watched.

“Do you think he got into a nasty argument with the stubborn red-head?”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. The idiot is lucky to have that other idiot put up with him. I wonder how much longer it could go on for though…”

“Yes, you’re right. No one likes a mean ol’ Scrooge.”

“We should impose on their matters, and makes things worse!”

The blonde smirked holding one of her partner’s hands, “But what about all the righteous crap you talked to me about yesterday? Are you just about to go back on your word? Tsk.”

He pushed her hand away, and rolled his eyes, “Oh please. Righteousness doesn’t exist, and I’m not about to encourage any of that foolish mumbo jumbo anyway.”

“Not even for a Paopu Islander salad?”

“What do I look like to you, woman? That wretched dog from that cartoon television series, that is stupid enough to do ridiculous things for doggie treats!? So that’s what I am to you, a dog?”

“Yes. You’re my dog Marly, now say woof,” she chuckled.

“Flip off.”

“I am aware you two have very intriguing fetishes, but really…”

Larxene and Marluxia jumped from the surprise ( Where had he come from?! ), then both scowled. It was Marluxia that had a ‘light bulb lighting up’ moment, and he turned to his dearest friend. “You know, we haven’t seen you around for a good while. Where have you been?”

The man that had decided to join their conversation raised an eyebrow, “Don’t play dumb, you know I’ve been working. I told you and Larxene that I was going to visit you both for the Christmas holidays. After New Year’s I’m heading back to Hollow Bastion. You know how the music business is.”

Marluxia scoffed, “I really don’t know how the hell you got your hands on a record company job. You don’t even like music!”

“Far from the truth, I do like good music. Lately, everything that’s been popping out is not worth my time.”

The blonde looked at her friend quizzically, “And you’re quite full of it. Honestly, does anything rub you the right way?”

“Hmm, Larxene, I think I’ve subconsciously transferred my latest immoral plan to you through brain waves of some sort.”

“Mar, you are one of the only people I could put up with, but seriously sounding like a blockhead from time to time is not one of your favorable qualities.”

“It might be all that pink hair. It never did anything for his masculinity, it’s probably effecting his brain cells too.

Marluxia grunted and flailed his arms angrily, “You’re not paying attention! None of you- And hey don’t mess with the hair. At least I could see where I’m going, unlike you with that chunk of what you call hair covering most of your face. Emo boy.”

“People totally go for the mysterious type, the hair is just a tactic to-”

“Okay we all get the point schemer, you still are in dire need of getting laid. I’m surprised you haven’t concocted one of your many brilliant tactics, to get yourself some ass.”

“Excuse you?” Their friend stared down at his shoes-- which he had bought last weekend since they were on sale and all- and blushed, but thanks to his ridiculous hairstyle he was able to hide those blasted rosy tinted cheeks.

Marluxia snorted and nodded, “She’s right, and I think we might know of someone that’s to your liking. Right Larxene?”

She scratched the top of her head, “Um we do?”

“Yes, this boy really likes music, maybe something can be done about it. I mean, Zexion is in the music business. Coax him to show you what he’s got, then start small by getting him a local gig or two. I’m sure everything will be history from there, he’ll really like that.”

Larxene finally comprehended it all, oh that pink-haired fool was good. The plan seemed flawless as of yet, and not only would that get her friend some action, it will also… Oh yes, Axel was going to regret ever messing with her, or trying to steal away her sister’s boyfriend at that. Although, she could care less about helping her sister, it just so happened to fit into her plan as well. How fortunate for Naminé… The sweet taste of revenge was so near she could probably take a nice big bite off of it. That’ll show that brat what it means to ever mess with Larxene Strife! She wrapped an arm around Zexion, “Most importantly, he’ll be forever in your debt.”

“He could be just what the music industry needs.”

“You two, stop getting my hopes up. It’s so hard to find real talent these days…”

“You’ll never know until you go and check him out, Zex,” Marluxia finished off with a shrug.

“It’ll be your loss otherwise.”

Zexion threw his head back in exasperation, “Okay, okay. Does the kid have a name?”

“Let’s just call him the Melodious Nocturne, for now,” the wind blew into Marluxia’s mauve colored hair in a most theatrical way. All that was needed to finish off the scene was some out of place menacing laughter, “Muaha.”

The other two stared at their friend in mild confusion, but Marluxia only continued his laughter.

“MUAHAHA!”

Larxene blinked and looked over at the only other sane person present, “Why am I the only one with a normal hair color? I highly doubt that the both of you were born with such extravagant-”

Zexion shushed her and pointed over to Marluxia, “Hold on, he’s doing his menacing laugh.”

“I cannot understand how we all became friends in the first place. You’re all complete imbeciles!” The blonde grunted and stomped away from the two, very far away.

Marluxia only continued his menacing laugh as he twirled around, not very menacingly, “MUAHAHAHA!”

--------

-snort- I am one silly bitch, yes I am. Who caught on to the lame usage of a certain narcissistic boy's inner-mind theater bit? Yes well, like many others I'm quite obsessed with that flippin' adorable Host Club. I'm also uber excited at the fact that I will be attending Metrocon this year. Wee!! But anyways, enough babbling. I had so much fun with this chapter! I still have so many surprises up my sleeve, but in time, hopefully I'll get to posting like before. This one was for my bunny rabbit love Fester, and of course my dear mother. Demyx's momma's boy syndrome = Lucy Fag Hag's momma's girl syndrome. Tis true, I cannot help it! I've made the boy a lot like myself actually, not intentionally I swear! ;-;

As promised here are the two new spankin' Kairi rules!

Kairi Rule #15. Impressing a Kairi is a tough job all on it’s own. If you try too hard, you’ll only get burned. If you try too little, you’ll get bonked over the head with a rotten seagull egg. There is no real way to properly impress a Kairi, but it’s always best to be prepared. Why you ask? Well, you really never know when it’ll lead to positive results. There is a 74% chance they’ll be negative, but to get a Kairi’s attention it is essential to be as persistent as one. They key is to never give up; they are unpredictable creatures after all.

Kairi Rule #63. In the beginning of time when the now rampant species of Kairi began roaming about, there were two things that were never to be requested of them. One, to butt out of a person’s business ( meddling is a Kairi‘s specialty ), and two to never ever let her cook you a meal. If you want to live a long and prosperous life, don’t let her pull out the pink chef hat. Now, if it has been done and she has already offered to cook you something, and you didn’t want to hurt her feelings… It’s your loss, but you cannot say you weren’t warned.

And now to add to the already growing list of ridiculous things I can come up with... I introduce all to you my Akudemy short-shorts! They're based on the Raspberry Swirl AU world, but it's not necessary to have read the story. I'll always warn you beforehand of course. Hope you get to check it out, and I hope you all enjoyed this ridiculously long chapter!