Bedrooms & Bathrooms

Kairi was looking around in Sora's bedroom, checking out the sights. She had never been in his bedroom before, so she was extremely curious what a teenage guy's room looked like. She was expecting the stereotypical pigsty that she always heard of, but the room was surprisingly well kept. "Maybe being a Keyblade master finally taught him some responsibility," Kairi thought.

The posters plastered on the walls were photos of all the different worlds that he had been to. "He must have bought a lot of souvenirs on his adventure." On his dresser were group photos of Sora and the many friends he made as well. Most of them were people Kairi had never met. But a couple of photos caught her eye that seemed to stand out from all of them. Sora had made sure to encase these in special crystallic frames. One was of him and Riku taken a few years ago. They were standing in front of the waterfall that led to the secret place, wooden swords in their hands.

Kairi giggled (feeling really weird that it was Sora's laugh that came out of her mouth) as she remembered that she had taken that picture herself. "I forgot how cute and adorable they were back then." Then she glanced at the other photo and gasped. She picked it up for a closer look. It was a shot of her and Sora years before the Riku one. It was the day when they first met.

Kairi remembered how scared she was at first. She didn't know anyone and was afraid of being around the other kids. A couple of boys started picking on her at school when she had first started. Kairi was on the verge of tears when Sora had come in and told them to back off. Of course, the boys wouldn't listen, so Sora decided to fight them. Typically, Riku was the one who saved Sora when the two-on-one assault became too much for him.

She had felt bad that Sora was beaten up because of her, but he only smiled. "No worries! As long as I'm around, I'll always protect you!" Ironically, that had been Sora's destiny all along: to protect her when she needed him most.

Kairi placed the photo back on the dresser. "Guess he really does care about..." Her thought trailed off as she noticed a magazine cover peeking out from under his bed. "Is this the naughty magazine that Selphie's always joking about?" Kairi thought darkly. Sure enough, the cover was simply emblazoned with the title "KH Babes of the Millennium." She dropped it with disgust. "So much for being the Hero of Light," she muttered. The magazine's pages fell open. Kairi was about to badmouth Sora even more when she noticed the page's contents.

Apparently, the only thing wrong with the book was the cover. The inside of it, however, had nothing to do with naughty stuff. The "magazine" was actually a scrapbook that Sora had been working on. It was like the photos that were on the dresser, but this time it was only photos of him and Kairi. It consisted of them throughout the ages. Some of the pictures were from events that she hadn't thought about in a long time. She shook her head in disbelief. "I don't know whether to be flattered or disturbed by this." Kairi carefully replaced the "magazine" back underneath the bed.

After Kairi stood up, she immediately got worried. She knew that Sora was in her house right now, about to take a shower. As much as she didn't want him to, the alternative was to let her body start acquiring body odor. What worried her even more was the fact that she had to do the exact same thing to his body. Kairi sighed. "I might as well get it over with."

Kairi removed Sora's half-jacket and began to peel off his T-shirt with trembling fingers. It felt creepy, exhilarating and embarrassing all at the same time. She looked in the mirror and was stunned to see that Sora had been taking very good care of his body. She ran his fingers over the abdominals, amazed how tight and well-defined they felt.

"I never thought that I would ever be in this position," she thought as she admired Sora's shirtless form. She struck a few poses just for fun and laughed at how silly Sora's body looked doing them. Kairi was about to remove the pants too, but stopped herself. "It wouldn't be right." Sora's face was a bit crimson. "Maybe I should just use a washcloth..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sora was in Kairi's bedroom, unsure of what to do. Yeah, taking a shower seemed like a good idea at the time, but now...it gave him goosebumps thinking about it. He tried to keep his mind off the problem by snooping around. It was a typical girl's room. The decor was either white or pink and it almost made Sora's eyes hurt.

The photos posted on the wall were of Kairi's various extracurricular activities. Gymnastics ("Not bad-looking in a leotard"), water polo ("Looks a lot like the leotard"), track and field ("Cute shorts"), and surfboarding ("Is that even possible?!"). On her bed lay her outfit for the next day and a couple of photos that she had recently developed. They were photos of her and Selphie goofing off at the mall.

That's when Sora noticed Kairi's diary was laid out on the table. Obviously, she had been in the middle of writing as it was still open and unlocked. "I shouldn't..." Sora quickly glanced around. He was the only one in the house. "I guess it couldn't hurt. I mean, I'm never going to get a chance like this ever again."

Sora left the pen where it was to mark the page she had been writing and flipped back to the point where he and Riku had disappeared from Destiny Islands. It was pretty interesting to see how life had been treating her since their adventure. In the beginning, Kairi had written how much she had hoped that Sora would come back. She looked out to the sky every night, trying to imagine what kind of adventures he was going through. Then a few months later, Sora realized that Kairi had started to forget about him. "Not surprising. My memories were being tampered with after all," he muttered. The further he read, the more it looked like Sora's existence had been just a mere dream. Everyone had forgotten all about him. Kairi, however, kept insisting that there was a boy that she had made a promise to and that he would return with Riku someday.

Near the end, Kairi's memories finally returned to her and it was painfully obvious how much she missed him. Sora read about the bottle ("So that's what that was.") and the promise that they would be together again. After that, when Sora and Riku finally made their way to the "Door to Light," she was ecstatic and thrilled that they both returned. And then the diary ended with the day before. She and Sora were finally going to spend some quality time together. Sora chuckled.

"Yeah, and look where that led us." He put the diary back in its open position and headed for the bathroom. He was stunned to see how pink it was. What stood out even more was the number of hair and beauty products that lined the bathtub. "How much stuff does a girl need to take a shower?!" Sora glanced at the mirror to see Kairi's innocent blue eyes looking back at him. He took a deep breath and clamped his eyes closed. "Here we go."

Sora kept his eyes glued shut as he slowly unzipped Kairi's pink vest. "This is just wrong on so many levels," Sora thought, "but it has to be done." He began to remove Kairi's undershirt expecting a bra underneath, but was taken completely off guard when he felt the slight breeze across his front. Sora quickly pulled it back down. "Oh my gawd, she doesn't even wear a bra." He willed himself to keep his youthful curiosity in check and his eyes tightly shut as he unzipped the skirt.

"Kairi?" Sora jumped at the familiar voice. "Kairi, what are you doing with your eyes closed?"

"Naminé?!" He had completely forgotten that Naminé still shared a connection with Kairi. Or in this case, Kairi's body. "I..."

"What the...Sora?!" Naminé couldn't believe her metaphysical ears. "Sora, what are you doing in Kairi's body?!" He immediately told her the entire story. ("You idiot! Don't you know blue paopu fruits have magical...") When he finished, Naminé was silent for a few minutes. Finally, she broke the silence. "So, you were planning on taking a shower?"

"I...was," Sora's said with a tone of uncertainty. "I don't think we could afford either of us not to at least keep each other clean, right?"

Naminé sighed. "Typical male. I bet you couldn't wait to strip her."

"Hey, I resent that!" Sora huffed defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why do you think I have my eyes closed? If you've got a better idea, I'd like to hear it."

"Tell you what, Sora. How about you let me take over and I'll take the shower for you," Naminé suggested. "But if I feel your consciousness even peek out at least once..."

"I get it, I get it," Sora conceded. "I don't want you to mess with my memories anymore." It felt unnerving to have a conversation standing in the middle of Kairi's bathroom undressed as Kairi. Before he relinquished control, Sora had one final question. "Hey, Naminé?"

"Yeah?"

"What's with all these hair and beauty products?" Sora asked. "She doesn't really use all of them, does she?"

"Um, no. Most of these are for the mayor," Naminé explained. "You know, another election year and all that. Now get out of here before I have you believing that Riku was always your..."

"Alright! I won't peek! I promise!" And with that, Sora's mind sunk into the far corners of Kairi's brain.