The New Me

A/N: And now….for those of you who have missed them: We’re back in Traverse Town! Yea!

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the characters. Nor do I make any money off of them. The characters are property of their respective creators/companies.
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“YEA THAT’S RIGHT!! GO CALL THE COPS….BITCH!!!”

“Yuffie, if you keep yelling at that old man like that, he really will call the cops…” Cloud coolly said from his beach towel. Never once moving his arms out from behind his head, or his shades from over his closed eyes. But He knew good and well Yuffie was yelling at Leon’s neighbor across the alley for staring at the trio.

It was a summer ritual for him, Aerith, and Yuffie to tan on Leon’s roof, and they couldn’t help it if the sun moved, so they had to move with it. If Traverse Town had a beach or a pool, they’d go there, because everyone knows, the tanning salons couldn’t beat that ‘I’ve been sitting on my friend’s tar roof’ look.

Yuffie, after a few rude hand gestures and body movements sat back down on her towel. She wore a tan bikini top and a pair of even shorter shorts than usual. Aerith, as wonderfully conservative as she was, wore a one piece suit, light pastel pink of course, and Cloud wore some average trunks. Since the trio had moved to this side of the roof, the old man across the way had been complaining about public indecency. Really, he was just ashamed Yuffie caught him starring and chewed him out. Or, at least that’s what she kept saying.

“Yuffie, I swear, let it go…” Aerith lifter her head and looked at the other girl, she was lying on her stomach. “He might actually call the cops…”

“Let him,” she huffed, “I’ll have all the students from the dad dojo come kick his ass!”

“Aren’t a ninja? Do Ninja’s have a dojo?” Cloud smirked, even as Yuffie banged her fist on his stomach.

“That’s great guys…get me evicted why don’t you?” The gang looked over to see Leon climbing up the little ladder that led to the roof. It was right next to his balcony, and was actually a fire escape for the second floor; however, they had, adjusted it for their needs.

“Oh Leon, you own this place…” Yuffie shook her head.

“Doesn’t matter, no yelling at the neighbors.” He sat down on his towel and set down a pack of sodas. Aerith reached over and took one, before sitting up, sputtering.

“BEER!”

“Shhhh…” Leon and Cloud each made a ‘knock it off’ motion.

“It’s not beer…its altered soda,” Cloud smirked as he picked up a pack.

“Good grief? How did you get it into the soda cans?”

“Auron. Man works wonders.” Leon smiled as he popped open a can of his own. Aerith just rolled her eyes, she was going to have a talk with that man someday.”

As the group sat, they all silently drank, except Aerith. Finally, Yuffie spoke up.

“Ma-il Tru-k…” she said lazily. They all watched in stop at the start of the district and watched the mail carrier get out. She started walking along the row, dropping mail in boxes and into chutes.

“Think we got something from Sora?” Cloud asked absent mindedly.

“Nah, we just sent him a letter…” Aerith shook her head.

“Hm…” Leon leaned back and closed his eyes. Aerith reached over and tapped him with a smile. He just nodded at her and closed his eyes again.

He didn’t really care if he got mail from Sora or not. And even still, Sora sent mail to all of them, not just him. And that was good, they needed to grow apart. And it already seemed like he was making new friends. Like that Riku kid. He seemed nice. Athletic, adventurous, had a group of kids Sora could hang out with. Kids his own age. Yea, it was good for him.

‘Good for him like a needle in the eye…’

Leon unconsciously frowned, ‘So he kissed him. It’s not like it was a real kiss. Just the cheek. And it’s not like it meant anything. You can’t like someone after one day, and it’s not like Sora would fall for a jerk like that. Just kissing people off the bat. What an ass, not Sora’s type. What is Sora’s type…I’m kind of an ass sometimes…”

“Leon,” Cloud jabbed him in the side. Leon shot up and looked at him. “You are making the most demented face while you lie there…everything ok?”

Leon blinked at him, “Yea…I’m fine. I guess I just dozed off…’

“Awww, Cloud, you should have let him sleep longer. That would have been a great letter,” Yuffie pretended like she was writing on her hand, “Dear Sora! Hi! We’re great! Leon got a hardon on the roo-” a soda can went flying by her head.

“That’s NOT what I was thinking about,” he growled at her.

“But you THINK about it…don’t cha’,” she ducked as he chucked another can.

“HEY! There will be no wasting of beer!” Cloud yelled. “Now, Yuffie apologize.

“Fine….sorry, Leon…I forget you’re touchy.” Leon and Cloud nodded.

“Now, Leon, apologize.”

“For what?”

“Not for what, to who.” Cloud held up the remaining soda cans, “Go on, tell the beer you’re sorry.”

Aerith angrily reached over, grabbed the cans from Cloud and tossed them over the side. Throughout the neighbor hood, Cloud was heard screaming about his babies and Aerith was heard screaming about growing up. They had to eventually leave the roof when cops came claiming people in Second could hear them.

In the house was no better though, the gang carried on as usual, just down one member. And while they all had a great time, it seemed their exploits weren’t quiet as extravagant with out the underage teen present.

“ARGH…I need some law to break…” Yuffie put her head down.

“You could drink?” Cloud suggested.

“I do that all the time…”

“You could ruff up some kids,” he tried again.

“That’s no fun unless they were picking on Sora.”

“You could streak.”

“I don’t need to see that.” Leon spoke up from his place on the couch, “But I’m sure the old man next door would love it.” Yuffie just shuddered.

Aerith on the other hand flipped through one of her photo albums. “You know, I wonder what Sora will do for his birthday…”

“When is it again?” Cloud asked.

“One week, three days.” Leon answered, but he could feel Cloud giving him that look to the back of his head. He turned around, and sure enough, he was looking at him funny. “He’s your friend too, you ought to know.”

“Pffft, men don’t remember birthdays unless it’s their own. Did you not get the memo?”

“I think it’s nice that Leon remembers everyone’s birthday.” Aerith nodded.

Leon smiled and leaned back into the couch, ‘Sixteen. Sixteen, I wonder what you’ll do…’

“Hey!” Yuffie got up and smiled, “I got a great idea! I know Sora’s not here, but let’s have his Sixteen initiation anyway!”

“His what?” Aerith asked, being left out of the loop.

“Oh Yuffie,” Cloud nervously looked at Aerith, “You and your crazy imagination. There’s no fun having Sora’s PARTY, because it’s defiantly a normal party with a fancy name, with out Sora.” Cloud opened his eyes wide at her and tried to telepathically tell her to shut up.

“How could it not be fun!” She walked around, not getting the message. “I mean, you remember mine right! Life time backstage passes to the Blackjack!” She wrapped around Leon, “You remember don’t ya, you should it. It was so your fault Sora ended up back there.”

Cloud slammed his head on the table and Leon just acted like Yuffie was crazy. Aerith sat dumbfounded trying to piece the loose bits together. ‘Sixteen party? At the Blackjack? Isn’t that the casino-slash-strip joint combo in the Fourth District…you have to be eighteen to even get in there…Why had she never heard this before?’

“Yuffie?” They all turned to her, “What are you talking about?” Cloud silently stood up to leave, “SIT DOWN.” He fell back into his chair.

Yuffie suddenly realized, Aerith never knew about all this. “Um…well you see..” There was n backing out now. Aerith had that look in her eye. There was only one thing to do. “IT’S CLOUD’S FAULT!” Pass the buck.

“The hell! It’s Leon’s!”

Leon stood up, “No, no, no. I said lets not do it once we found out Sora was following us. You’re the one who said lets take him along.”

“Yea but you’re the one who lost him! So it’s your fault Sora ended up backstage with that male stripper.”

“Oh yea Irvine!” Yuffie for a moment forgot she was trying to get out of this, “Leon, you should use the pass he gave Sora, guy was totally hitting on you.”

“Yuffie!” Leon and Cloud screamed at her. She just shrugged.

“He was.”

Aerith slumped forward in her chair, “What in the world? You all did this when you were sixteen….but that would make Sora thirteen. You all let Sora hang out with a male stripper at thirteen….” She put her head in her hands, “MY GOD, no WONDER HIS MOTHER TOOK HIM AWAY! She should have done it sooner.”

The other three feel silent for a while and watched Aerith with her head in her hands. It was reasons like this that they usually left her out of all the really bad stuff. And Yuffie’s catastrophe of a Sweet Sixteen was definitely one of those things you didn’t tell Aerith about.

“Alright,” she sat up, “Tell me what happened.” The three looked around at each other. Looking for that magical fourth person to calm Aerith down so they could get out of this. But currently Aerith’s maternity instinct was off on an island somewhere. “Well?”

The three nodded and sat down on the couch. Aerith walked around in front of them and waited. After a few moments of rock-paper-scissors, its determined Cloud would start them off, which was fitting.

As he spoke, Leon couldn’t help but smile. Yea Aerith was going to bitch them out until their ears bleed, but still, with memories like these, how could he ever think Riku was Sora’s type. Kiss or no kiss, even miles apart, no island kid was a match for him.

‘You know…that would be, if I actually cared, about that. Its Sora’s life, he can kiss who he wants…’ He nodded at no one in particular.


To Sora’s dismay, the knocking on the front door wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. And he was having such a nice dream. It had been too long, at least too long in his opinion since he had a descent dream about Traverse Town. He rolled over and looked at the clock.

“Who the hell is knocking at fucking eight-thirty!” He got up a little pissed. He had planned to get up nine thirty, since Selphie told him that they were all going to the main island to go see a movie. And even then, he was only getting up to tell Riku to go fly a kite. He smirked a little as he walked down stairs. Riku was so angry with him, it was perfect. All he needed now was the icing on the cake.

He flung open the door, to his surprise, he was greeted by Kairi. He had practically forgotten about her.

“Hey! You look a little messy in the morning.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Yea well, we can’t all be miss sunshine all the time,” he said sarcastically.

“No, we can’t.”

“….So what do you want?”

“Oh! Get dressed, I need you to come with me, I’m putting together a surprise for Riku.”

“And I care because?”

‘Because your stealing him from me you stupid tramp,’ she smiled, “Because, he likes you, so I want you to participate.”

“No. I’m going to sleep.” He started to close the door.

“Please! I’m begging you! You have to come!!!” Sora looked at the pleading look on her face.

“Ok…fine. Just…wait here.” He closed the door and she heard hi mutter, ‘I gotta be crazy…’

Kairi smiled at the shut door. This was perfect. She had waited till Riku set out to come knocking on Sora’s door. And ‘her’ Mom was out, so everything worked out just fine. At this rate, they’re get to Destiny Island by nine.

Sora came out of ‘her’ house wearing a button down read shirt, blue jeans, and those yellow sneakers again. A few barrettes held down unruly hair. In Kairi’s mind it was tacky, she couldn’t get what Riku saw in this girl. But for now she smiled and led Sora to the island.

Once at the small pier, Kairi offered to row Sora over in her boat, since ‘she’ still didn’t have one. Sora hopped in and sat back for the long quiet ride. Once to the island, Kairi still wasn’t talking.

“So….where is this surprise?” He finally asked following her along the beach. He was starting to feel a little worried. They were supposed to go to the movies, or at least she was, was she not?

“Oh, it’s up here,” She smiled and lea him to the base of the largest tree. She pulled back a few vines to reveal a tunnel. “Step in.” Sora cocked and eyebrow.

‘Tunnels aren’t good….but then again.’ He looked up at the branches over the waterfall. ‘This is that Secret Place…’ Sora nodded and walked in. The little tunnel turned two times, it was partly narrow until you reached the end. It opened up into a little cave like room.

The walls of the room were smooth on most of its parts, and roots from the large tree broke through to hold the ceiling together, and crawl along the walls. The whole place had a very musty smell to it. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t something that you smelled everyday, so it was a little over powering.

Sora looked around, once taking in the obvious features of the room, he noticed something else. The walls were covered in drawings. He looked around and examined them up close. They were all done with chalk or white rock. He looked at the images of people playing jump rope, sword fighting, even…

“You like that one?” He stood up and looked at Kairi. She walked over and pointed to the picture he was examining. “It’s a picture Riku and I drew of us when we were little.” She smiled. “Originally, it was just our two faces smiling…”

Sora stood up and looked at her, “So when did you add you hanging him the Paopu fruit?”

“This week…” She looked around.

“Oh, so he hasn’t seen it. Is this the surprise?”

“Yep,” She looked at him and smiled, “You’re clever.”

“Yea, except, why do you need me for this?” Kairi stopped smiling and looked Sora over.

“I needed you to see it. I needed you to see all of this.” She waved her hands around the room. “It’s our history. Riku, myself, and the gang. And,” she pointed to the smiling faces, “It’s our future. Guess who’s not on any of the walls?”

Sora smiled and shook his head, “Is that it, you want me to feel left out? You brought me here to show me your cave paintings to make me feel ousted?”

Kairi glared, “You don’t get it. You’re not a part of Riku’s life. You’re his latest fling! He doesn’t care about you. Everyone he loves is on these walls. And once you stop playing hard to get, he’ll forget all about you. So why don’t you just move on now?”

Sora laughed. She wasn’t expecting that. She was expecting her to throw a fit. To be cocky, to talk about how Riku was her’s, but laugh? Did this girl really just not understand, that compared to her, she was nothing in Riku’s life?

Sora kept laughing and looked at Kairi, “Wow…you two are perfect for each other.”

“…What?”

“You’re both SO dense. You’re just as dumb as he is.” He stopped laughing and smiled at her, “I don’t want Riku for a boyfriend. I never have, and I never will.” He smiled at the confused look on her face. “What? You were actually worried I wanted him?”

“But…but…all the stuff you do! The way you act! You have to playing with him!”

Sora looked around, ‘Sure why not, I want these kids to turn on me anyway.’ He nodded, “And I kind of am.” Kairi’s face suddenly turned slightly red. “I mean, he’s so hot under to collar? How can I not enjoy kicking his ass? And my boyfriend back home gets a kick out of too.” Sora smiled coyly, Kairi was burning up.

‘Wow, she’s much easier to deal with than Riku.’

“So,” Sora turned around, “you can have him. I intend to go back to Traverse Town any way.”

Kairi muttered something behind his back, but he kept walking. “I’m sure you two will live happily ever after on your little island.” He could hear her now, ‘So I’m a stupid bitch am I? Well the icing on the cake is…’

Sora stopped walking, “And you can tell him he’s not that great a kiss-”Sora had turned around; sure that he’d see the most angry girl in the world before him. Pissed. Aggravated. Looking like she’d been cheated. Maybe even crying. But this, this?

He reached up and touched the side of his head as he staggered backward, such an impact, he was bleeding. It was all over his fingers. He looked at Kairi; his vision was getting a little hazy, but he still saw her there with the rock in hand.

“You stupid Bitch!” She raised it again crying, “He loves you more than he loves me! And you don’t even give a DAMN!”

Sora watched her hand come down. Still holding the rock. It was kind of like slow motion. Like in those movies. Just one quick blow.

He was sure he heard her say something.

But really, all he thought was that he’d never see Leon again….that he’d never get any chance with Riku.

A/N: Ok, last update for a while. I know I suck. But I have to know? Who do you feel sorry for: Riku, Sora, or Kairi. And no answering won’t change the course of the story.