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A/N:  This fanfic really is gonna kill me...  Jesus, I haven't written this much in a matter of a few days, since, like, ever. (aka when my plot bunnies for my "books" were still alive.  If you find one, please return it.  Please?)  Anyways, yeah.

Oh, I lied in the last A/N.  There is a love triangle thing.  Hmm.  And there will be one-sided Riku/Kairi (dunno the pairing name).  Yeah.  The plot thickens, ladies and gents.

And I always wondered why all my reviewers were up at 4 in the morning xD.  You guys come from different countries!

Dedications:  Passionx3.  For the same reasons as the last chapter.

Brainwashing:  I dunno if anyone noticed, but when Kairi went and hugged him, Sora looked pissed.  Just look in slow-mo.  I'm serious.  And then, when Riku and Sora (...a little bit of Kairi, too, I guess) have their moment, uh, Sora, y'know, gets on his knees and starts bawling his eyes out.  Oh yeah.  Sora so doesn't love Riku, mm-hm.  Suuuure.

Disclaimer:  I own!  *is carried away by lawyers*  Um...no I don't.  *lawyers leave*  But, I do own my OCs (original character) Scarlet and Thomas!

--

Apparently, McDonald's is everywhere.  Even in a little place in the middle of nowhere like here.

The cashier was a blond-haired kid, whose hair was a little tamer than Sora's, but it still stuck up in places.  He had the same blue eyes as Sora, too.  His mouth turned into a thin line when he saw us (or, at least, Sora and Riku).  "You do know I'm working, right?"

Sora grinned.  "I know.  But, c'mon, nearly no one goes here, anyway."  True:  As I looked around, there wasn't anyone here except for a big man all alone in a corner.  "So why can't I talk to you once and a while?"

Blondie sighed.  "I already told you.  Because-"

"Roxas!  Stop the chit-chat and start working, for once!"  Behind him, a girl with red hair popped her head out of a door leading to somewhere.  Yikes.  Did she have anger management problems, or what?

The apparent Roxas glared back.  "Fine!"  The girl disappeared with a huff.

He shook his head.  "Sorry, my manageress is sort of a bi-"

"I CAN HEAR YOU!"

He glared at the door again, then at Sora.  "Look.  Either order something, or leave."

I think Sora tried to glare, but it was more of an angry pout than anything.  "I was, I was.  I thought you might've wanted to talk first, but fine."  He looked up at the menu.  "I want..."

"He wants a double Fish-Filet-O, with large fries and a sea-salt ice cream."  I looked at Riku.  What was that about?  Sora looked like he was thinking the same thing.

"Riku!" he whined.  "I was gonna order!  Why do you always do that?"

He smirked.  "Because," he drawled, ruffling Sora's hair, much to his dismay, "if I don't, you'll order every single thing on the menu.  And I can't afford that."  Riku turned to Roxas (ignoring Sora's angry "No, I wouldn't!"), now leaning on his elbows, like he was negotiating or something.  "What would you order here?"

Roxas leaned in.  "I wouldn't order anything here; have you seen how they make the food?  But I'd probably get our new salads.  They actually don't mutilate it that much, and it's cheaper than most of our stuff because we use coconut oil for the dressing instead of that crap we import."

"Mmm.  Really.  I'll get that, then.  And a Paopu smoothie, on the side."  He looked at me.  "Well?  You want anything?"

I flushed (heaskedmewhatIwantedohmygosh).  "Oh, I'm...not hungry.  Uh, yeah.  Not hungry."

Roxas punched in some buttons.  "That'll be 125 munny, please."

Sora dug in his...whoa.  Just how many pockets did he have?  He pulled out a few munny, then pouted.  "Aww...I only have 47...must've already used the rest up..."

Sighing, Riku made up the difference, muttering "I knew it..."  Roxas looked to the back, where rather apathetic looking employees flipped the filets and filled the fries.  I looked at Sora, who was sort of bobbing up and down, waiting for his food.  Riku stared at the drive-thru window with a blank look in his eye, then caught me staring.  Oops.  My head automatically fell, now staring at my feet.

A few minutes later (though it seemed like forever), the food was served on a greasy tray with a sheet of paper advertising more McDonald stuff.  "There you go," Roxas said, boredom lacing his voice.  He looked at his watch - it was one of those cheap, fabric ones that were sort of hard to read unless you were in the light - then turned.  "Scarlet?"

"Hnn."

"My shift's over.  I'm leaving."

A thumb's up protruded from the other side of the door.  "Got it.  Thomas, you heard him!  Get to it!"  The large man scuttled up to the counter, Roxas uncomfortably squeezing through.

We settled at a booth, Sora next to me and Riku across from me.  I had a feeling that the fates liked watching me suffer.  Luckily for me, Riku didn't pay any attention to that.  "So, stereotypical nightmare employer?"

Roxas looked at him.  "Nightmare?  She's psychopathic!  She threatened Ray - the guy on burgers - that if he didn't cook them to her expectations, she'd whack him with the spatula.  And she went through with it!"  He suddered, apparently remembering the moment.  "Remind me why I'm working here."

"Because we're broke, you don't trust me near anything sharp, electrically charged, flammable, or with a tendency to bite, Riku's lazy, and you're smitten for Namine, so you wanna buy her the best things you can," Sora piped through a mouthful of fish.  I slightly grimaced.  Didn't he know that talking with your mouth full was gross?

Roxas, used to Sora's lack of manners, blushed.  "I...I-I am not smitten for her!  She's nice, and stuff, and..."

Wow.  I was suprised he didn't faint from all the blood rushing to his head.

"And you want to kiss her, and hug her, and love her.  Yeah, yeah, lover boy."  Riku grinned while Roxas sputtered incoherently.  "She's your girlfriend, and you haven't kissed her once.  C'mon, I thought you had more guts than that."

Roxas managed to gain the art of speech back.  "I really like her.  I, uh, respect her, and stuff.  Look, I just don't want to move too fast.  She looks so fragile, and I'm not gonna be the one to break her.  You got that?"  He glared, expecting an answer.  I, meanwhile, was blushing furiously.  Was this a usual topic in their conversations?

Riku laughed it off.  "I was just kidding, y'know.  I'm definitely not going to get involved in your little love problems."

Roxas huffed.  "Yeah, well..."

"The sea-salt ice cream is really good."  Sora, apparently, was paying a little too much attention to his food to care.

"So, anyway, who're you?"  Roxas stared at me.  Did all of these boys have ridiculously pretty eyes?

"I'm Kairi.  You're...Roxas, right?"  Roxas.  Roxas.  Boy, that was fun to say.  Rooooxaaaassss...

Roxas nodded.  "Nice to meet you."  He held out his hand, and I shook it, like a handshake confirmed our acquaintance.  And that was that.

SrRsSrRs...

The last few hours were spent walking around the area.  All three boys showed me around, which was nice.  Too bad there were only a few places to show.  There was a really ritzy restaurant on the main island  ("You either eat there, at McDonald's, or at your house.  There aren't really any other choices without worrying about food poisoning."), a few clothes shops spotted here or there ("Sleeping Beauty Designs is for custom-made stuff, but there's also a Belle's for trendy clothes, and a Maleficent Fabrics for a more alternative look."), and a grocery store ("Huey, Dewey and Louie have everything, trust me.").  Those were basically the only stores in the entire island.

Finally, Sora (and I was suprised it was Sora who saw the dilemma) spoke.  "So, you live in that little neighborhood over there?"  He nodded to my new neighborhood:  Destiny Station.

"Yeah."

"Huh."  He put his hands behind his head.  "Aren't all the houses white there?"

"Oh.  Yeah..."

He looked at me.  "You gonna have any trouble finding your house?"

"..."  Yes...  Of course I would.  I'd just moved in, all the houses were glaring white, and there wasn't really any way to figure out which house from which.  Wait, I knew my address, didn't I?  Let's see, Paopu Drive, 3... um, 3... 3 something.  Great.  Now I'd forgotten my address.  Next time I went out, I'd be sure to write it down on the inside of my hand.  In Sharpie.

Sora laughed, which annoyed me a bit, but I decided to let it go.  "Hey, I'll walk you to your house.  You can just look for your parents' car or something.  Riku, Roxas, you guys don't have to come."

Riku did his signature smirk (I think he smirked three times that day...).  "You sure you can make it back to your house all by yourself?"

Sora rolled his eyes.  "I'll be fine.  Honest."

With that, Roxas started walking in the opposite direction.  He'd gotten a text from that Namine girl, and I supposed he was anxious to see her.  I smiled; it was cute, how he cared so much.

Riku sort of waggled his eyebrows at Sora.  "See you tomorrow, then.  Bye, Kairi."

"Ah, bye."  Oh!  I'd forgotten to say goodbye to Roxas!  "Bye, Roxas," I called out.  I got a small wave as a response.

I gasped shortly as I felt a hand grasping my own.  Sora tugged.  "C'mon, then.  Let's go."

We walked in relative silence.  There was the occasional "The houses are pretty."  "Yeah.  They are, huh?" conversation, but nothing that actually meant anything was said.

A few minutes later, I found my mom with this other girl around my age.  Mom's head swiveled around.  "Oh, hi, honey!  I see you met a little friend!  How nice to meet you, I'm Kairi's mother."  She enthusiastically shook Sora's hand.

He grinned.  "I'm Sora.  It's really nice to meet you, Mrs...erm..."

She laughed.  "Mrs. Suzuki.  But you can call me..."  I couldn't hear anything else because the girl had tackled me.

"Oh, my gosh, so you're that new girl I saw walking down the street!  I couldn't come out and greet you 'cause my mom got all grumpy-pants on me and we had to do all this party planning for her anniversary, which I don't really care for either way, but I was so excited about having a new neighbor and I was thinking of topics to talk about and things to do the whole time!  We could be friends and I'll do your nails and your hair - it's very pretty, by the way, is that auburn natural? - and you could do mine, and we'd tell each other our deepest, darkest secrets and maybe we'll go on a double date with our crushes together, and I'm just so glad you're here!"

I wasn't sure whether to focus on the fact that she just tackled me without even knowing me, had already planned our friendship without speaking a word to me before, or the fact that she had just said all of that in one breath.  "Umm...I'm Kairi."

I got a squeal.  "Kairi!  Oh, that's such a cuuuute naaaame!  I wish I had a cute name like yours.  Mine's just bleh, you know?  Selphie.  Bleh.  I wish I had, like, a fabulous name, like Crystal.  Isn't Crystal, like, one of the coolest names ever?  I think so.  If you could change your name, what would you change it to?"

Error.  Error.  Problem comprehending excess words.  "Err...uh...oh!  Um, I wouldn't change my name.  I like it the way it is."  She had gotten off of me, and I was able to see her better.  She had pretty brown hair cut in sort of a Jimmy Neutron's mom way, and her green eye's sparkled with delight.  Her face were nice and round, with a cute nose and small pink lips.  She wore a yellow summer dress with fashionable brown shoes.  A pretty girl, if not over-active.  To the extreme, I mean.

She laughed, chimes ringing in my ears.  "You don't seem like a person to want things changed, anyway.  You and me are gonna be great friends, I can tell."  She nodded, agreeing with herself.  "Yep, I can tell."

Selphie turned to my mother.  "It was nice meeting you guys, Mrs. Suzuki!  Maybe someday soon we'll invite you over for dinner or something."

Mom looked astounded.  "Oh, we - we couldn't!  I wouldn't want to inconvenience you all, and..."

Sora glanced at me.  "You'll be at the beach tomorrow, right?"

Hmm?  Was I going to be at the beach?  Was that an invitation?  "Uh, yeah.  Of course."

He grinned, his white teeth gleaming in the streetlights.  "Great!"  His eyes suddenly widened.  "I bet you'll be able to meet Namine!  I'll ask Roxas to bring her when I get home.  In fact, it's pretty late right now - must've lost track of time - I should get going.  I'll see you later, Kairi!"  With that, he took off running out of the neighborhood.

"Uh, bye!"  He was too far to hear me, anyway, but it felt rude not to.
 
Mom had overheard Sora.  "Oh, dear, it is rather late.  Selphie, you should probably get home, your parents are probably waiting for you.  Kairi, let's go home and eat.  I have chicken in the new oven.  Oh, speaking of that, have you seen it?  It's beautiful.  Much better than our old one, that's for sure.  See, it has..."  I was sort of lost in my own head, so I didn't exactly hear what our new, grand oven had.  It wasn't that I was thinking; I was more in a daze.  So much had happened that day, and my brain needed to take a rest.

I gazed around stupidly as I ate my dinner.  The house looked more like a home once all of the boxes were removed (probably stored in the basement) and the stuff taken out.  Things were more at peace, less white.

I collapsed into bed a little later.  I was ready for this day to end, and a new one to follow.

--

*dies*  Sorry this chapter took so long!  A certain reviewer asked for longer chapters, so I tried to make this one longer than my last ones.  Unfortunately, I didn't know how to end this one, so give a round of applause for one of the crappiest endings ever!

I've got a few things thought out for the future - mostly dialouge - and this story might turn out very interesting...

Or it could turn into a dud, depending on whether my plot bunnies stay alive long enough for me to continue writing.

If you don't review, Sora will start crying.  And no one wants to see the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts cry (unless it's for Riku).  So make him happy and review!

*Edit:  I know that Selphie said "You and me", people.  She's a motormouth, you expect her to have correct grammar all the time?

Also, I do not own the concept of sea-salt ice cream.  Squeenix and Disney do.

And I did not make the paopu.  Just the paopu smoothie xD. (I also do not own that slogan.)