Dishhhclaimer: This isn't Burger King; I can't have it my way. No Kingdom Hearts for me.

A/N: I had to watch part of Aladdin to help me write this chapter. lol. You'll see what I mean.

I was delaying writing this, but I didn't want to make everybody wait too long, so I drafted it all today, along with part of the second chapter. Phew. Can't believe I managed the whole thing without driving myself crazy. X)

Sora was sitting on the couch with his foot propped up, and little Olette was sprawled out in his lap. They were munching on popcorn and staring at the television screen with avid interest, occasionally quoting some of their favorite lines in the movie. Aladdin was exceedingly entertaining for them.

Kairi was leaning back in a nearby seat, being strangely quiet for some reason. She had stolen a few quick glances at Sora, and it was quite annoying. If she wanted to say something, then say it, dammit! He could never understand what was on that girl's mind.

"I want more juice," Olette said, holding up her cup.

Darn it, she wanted juice now? They were just getting to the part of the movie with the Prince Ali song! Oh, well, his babysitting duties beckoned. He'd already seen that scene five zillion times, anyway, and he knew practically all the words to the song. (He really needed to get new hobbies.)

"Okay." Sora slid her off of his lap and stood up, stretching. "I'll have to make more Kool-Aid. I'll be back in a minute."

He expected Kairi to stay behind and watch the little tyke, but instead, she followed him into the kitchen. What was with her odd behavior? Maybe he was just imagining it.

Ignoring her, he pulled some Kool-Aid packets out of the cupboard. Hm, what flavor should he make? Tropical punch? Orange? Lemonade? He settled on blue raspberry, as that was his favorite Icee flavor, and pulled out the container he was going to make it in. (He knew where everything in the house was, not surprisingly, since he'd visited Riku here since they were Olette's age.) He was typically bad at cooking and sewing and all that housework stuff, but making Kool-Aid was a cinch. Even he couldn't mess it up...too badly.

Kairi suddenly spoke up. "You're good with kids," she remarked quietly.

Sora jumped when he heard her voice. "Huh?" Okay, now she was complementing him?? What the hell?!

She didn't answer his exclamation, if it could even count as a question. Sora pulled the sugar out of the cabinet and thought about her strange actions. She was being really spontaneous today, harder to read than usual. There was no way he was over-thinking it; something was definitely wrong. But what exactly could be bothering her, he hadn't the faintest. She was incomprehensible enough without acting all weird like this.

Changing the subject in a flash, Kairi randomly queried, "Why does Riku keep setting us up together?" She was biting her lip as if wondering if she should have said that.

Sora stared. He wasn't exactly sure if he'd heard everything she said, but it sounded like she was accusing him. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't bother playing dumb about it."

"I'm not playing dumb! What the he..."—he once again stifled his cussword—"What are you talking about, Kairi?"

Riku? Setting them up? Riku was his best friend, so why would he do something like that? It made absolutely zero sense. Kairi was obviously going crazy. Sure, they'd seen a lot of each other lately, but it was all coincidence. Riku couldn't have anything to do with their encounters.... So this was what had been on her mind. She had to be kidding herself.

"Sora, I already told you, stop pretending you don't know about i—what are you doing?!" Mid-sentence, she let out a shriek.

Sora raised his eyebrow, puzzled. "Um, adding sugar. You know, that sweetener of tiny particles that makes Kool-Aid so yummy and delectable." His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"B-but that's way too much! You're going to put Olette on a sugar high or clog her arteries or—"

Sora snickered. "Dude, she's a kid. She won't drink it if it's not mega sweet." He decided to overlook the fact that sugar didn't clog people's arteries.

True, he was adding an awfully large amount of sugar, way more than what was recommended on the package, but that was the way he always made it. Heck, even his parents had sugar-loaded the drink when he was a child. First Kairi was a spastic goody two-shoes, and now she was a health freak. Greeeat.

"Whatever." Kairi dropped the subject. "Anyway, back to what I was saying before..."

"What? About Riku?"

"Yes! I swear, he's..."

Sora turned the faucet to fill the container with water, and the loud gushing stream of liquid drowned out Kairi's voice. "What?" he asked loudly.

"I said, Riku's trying to wear a new sweater!"

Huh? Sora turned the water off, browsed through the silverware drawer until he came upon a large wooden spoon, and began stirring the blue concoction. Then he gazed at Kairi, perplexed. A sweater?

"What did you say?" he asked again. He couldn't have heard her correctly.

Kairi sighed with annoyance. She apparently didn't like having to repeat herself. "I said," she reiterated, "Riku's trying to get us together."

Oh, so that's what she'd— Wait a minute. Sora stopped stirring in utter surprise. That couldn't be true. Sure, he'd accidentally hired them both to baby-sit, but that didn't automatically mean he was up to something. Besides, he wouldn't have anything to gain by pairing the two of them up. Kairi was full of kooky ideas.

"Trying to get us together? Yeah, right." He shot down her statement instantly. Riku knew he couldn't stand Kairi, and vice versa (although they were getting along a bit better today, for Olette's sake). That was a stupid assumption. And he'd thought Kairi was smart.

"I'm serious! And you have something to do with it, which is why you're covering it up." What was this girl babbling about?

Sora had completely neglected his Kool-Aid duties now. "Yeah, sure," he said, his voice sardonic, "because you and me are the best of friends. We just love seeing each other's faces."

Kairi's anger switch had just been flipped on. "Quit lying!"

"I'm not!"

"Just admit you like me already!!"

"I what?!!"

Just as the argument was spiraling out of control, Olette came into the kitchen, wide-eyed and teary. She was clutching her baby blanket to her chest, and it was dragging on the floor behind her. Her adorable, big eyes were staring up at them, and her bottom lip was sticking out—a four-year-old's greatest weapon: the puppy dog look. Sora felt himself crumbling under her pitying gaze.

"You are fighting, Sowa?" she said with a sniffle.

"Oh, geez..." Sora rubbed his temples and prepared a lie—uh, explanation—for her. "Olette, don't worry. We weren't arguing. We were just...quoting our favorite part of Aladdin! Um...yeah." He was bad at thinking in a hurry.

Olette didn't seem convinced, so Sora attempted to demonstrate. Unfortunately, the only scene that came to his mind was the romantic balcony chat between Aladdin and Jasmine.

"Uh, Princess Jasmine, you're very...punctual," he said, mimicking the hero's voice.

Then it occurred to him—he may know all of the lines, but Kairi probably didn't have a clue! Oh, crud. And Olette, having seen the movie a dozen times, would notice.

But amazingly enough, she came in right on cue. "Punctual?" she questioned. Oh, right, he'd forgotten how Disney obsessed she was, too.

He was so glad she was playing along! "Uh, beautiful," he said hurriedly, completely absorbed in the role playing now. Olette's frown was slowly shifting.

"Hm, I'm rich too, you know," Kairi continued, not faltering in the slightest. She was performing the lines flawlessly.

"Yeah..."

"The daughter of a may—uh, I mean, sultan." Okay, almost flawlessly.

"I know." They were doing really well with this! Olette seemed to have completely forgotten about the fight. She was giggling and clapping, saying, "More, more!" with fervor.

And for the first time, Sora had to say that Kairi was pretty amazing.

"A fine prize for any prince to marry." Kairi moved towards him, just as Jasmine did in the actual movie.

"Uh, right..." Sora replied, feigning nervousness. "A-a prince like me."

"Riiight. A prince like you." Was it just him, or was Kairi getting too into this? She was moving dangerously close to him now, and she tapped her finger on his nose with a strange smile.

And then she shoved him against the counter. "And every other stuffed shirt, hell-raising idiot who's scheming with Riku!" she screeched angrily. This was no longer acting. She tried to push him again, but tripped in the process, which successfully knocked Sora to the ground...but unfortunately, brought her down on top of him.

"Um, that's not right," Olette said in confusion. "Can I have juice now?"

Sora grumbled and started to get up, accidentally bumping foreheads with Kairi. Now, if this were some romantic scene just like the one in Aladdin, they'd start making out or something mushy like that, muttering lovey-dovey stuff in each other's ears. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Who would kiss a she-demon? He didn't like Kairi at all.

Okay, so he was blushing a little bit. But that was only because her chest was pressed against his, not because it was Kairi.

"Hold on," Sora mumbled, rubbing his head as Kairi got off of him, clearly embarrassed. "I'll pour you some more Kool-Aid. Just give me sec."

Oh, man! She hadn't meant to fall on top of him. Sheesh, her klutziness got her in so much trouble sometimes. She felt like an absolute moron, but at least she'd made her point.

Once Olette had her Kool-Aid and was comfortably watching Aladdin on the couch, Sora indicated for her to come back into the kitchen. Kairi supposed that he wanted to finish their argument where they'd left off, just a teeny bit quieter this time.

She obeyed his request, sneaking out of the room, and Olette was none the wiser. Hopefully the juice-loving kid wouldn't wander off and break something again while they were leaving her unattended.

Sora got straight to the point once she successfully approached him. "What's this Riku business?" he asked bluntly.

Kairi studied him for a bit as she considered the situation. Sora really did seem like he knew nothing about the scheming. Either he was a really good actor, or he was being dead-honest. That probably meant Kairi was wrong, and that he didn't have a crush on her. Then what was Riku's motive? She was starting to lose her suspicions about Sora, but Riku was still planning something. She just knew it.

"Riku's been setting us up," she said. She excluded including Sora in the 'blame category' this time.

Sora shook his head. "No way." This time, he made sure not to shout. They didn't want to capture Olette's attention again.

Kairi had to get through to him somehow. He didn't want to doubt Riku because he was a friend, but Kairi didn't have that bias. She was certain that he was the cause of the recent chaos in her life...she just wasn't sure why.

"Sora, he's made sure we were together several times now. Waaay too many for it to be a coincidence."

The dense idiot actually looked like he was considering her words. Wow, he was listening to her. That was a first. "Why would he do that?" Sora asked, still skeptical.

"I...I don't know," Kairi admitted hesitantly. She was wondering that herself.

She was pondering the dilemma when suddenly, her cell phone rang. "I, um, should probably answer it," she said awkwardly.

Without saying a word, Sora went back in the living room. He returned seconds later, though, when a four-year-old voice squeaked, "I want another sandwich, Sowa."

"Already?!"

Kairi ignored their presence. "Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Hi, Kai!"

Kairi would recognize that voice anywhere—it was her Aunt Yuffie, a woman who was peppy and energetic to a fault. And she loved to chat. She hadn't called in a while, though. And now wasn't exactly a good time for petty conversing.

"Hi, Yuffie." Her talkative relative detested being called an 'aunt', claiming it made her sound old. So, to honor her request (and avoid groundless whining), Kairi simply referred to her as Yuffie.

"Boy, do I have news for you," her aunt announced cheerfully. "You've got yourself a date."

"What?!" Kairi hadn't meant to speak so loudly, but it was hard not to when she heard something like that. Sora and Olette both looked up at her as they removed the crust from a PB&J sandwich.

Kairi knew 'bad', and this was a perfect example of it.

A/N: Cliffy! Yay! I put another FF character in this chapter, and there'll be yet another in the next one. *hint hint* So, has Riku been figured out? We'll see. X]

Reviews are much appreciated, as well as guesses on who Kairi might have to go on a date with. =)