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BOUNCE.
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When Sora had been little he'd liked to bounce on his blue kiddie-trampoline in the garden. He'd been very short his age (he could still remember those God-awful days when even Selphie had been taller than him, much to the brunette's delight because it meant somebody else in the second grade class would be called 'munchkin' apart from her) and felt amazingly tall and important as he bounced harder and higher, springs squeaking in protest at the pressure.

It had also been a good opportunity to spy on the neighbours. His mother had told him over and over never to look over the few metres of picket fence that divided their yard from the other and so, of course, he did it all the more.

And then Sora grew up as most things do and became heads and shoulders taller than Selphie, taller than most of the girls. He became tired watching the same old scenes flash by in Mrs-Next-Door's garden (a mundane routine of hanging up the washing, taking the washing back in and tending to flowerbeds.) He didn't need his trampoline anymore and it was left to rust outside through several summers and generally just got in the way whenever Cloud tried to mow the lawn, always resulting in long shouting fits which Sora ceased to find funny because he knew what the words meant and he heard them every day in school anyway.

Upon asking Aerith for the fifth time that day why she'd married Cloud if he insisted on screeching loudly at inaminate objects she'd replied dreamily 'he was such a calm, reserved young man… Of course, that was all before I'd seen him try to turn on a computer.' And then she bustled off in all her pink dress'd splendour to whatever women decked out head-to-toe in pastel bustle of to.

However, that is, as they say, another story. Maybe next time.

So Mrs. Next-Door finally grew sick of such dry weather and complained no end to Aerith over their garden fence about cracked soil and bad growing conditions for her azeleas all the while tugging irritably at her pale pink hair and finally, two months later, Mrs. Next-Door left to peruse her life-long career as a florist in a place with better growing conditions.

The house sat empty for quite a while, just as the blue trampoline had done, and Sora's life took on a regular routine.

Wake up in morning, hit snooze button, wake up again to dulcet tones of mother tugging at your hair and saying 'you'll miss your bus, dear', realise she's right, attempt to put pants on head, rush downstairs without tripping over the cat (sorry, Vivi), grab hold of toast, eat haphazardly as rushing to bus stop and then remember you've left your bag at home. Fast forward through finally arriving at school twenty minutes and the telling-off that follows, sit through boring lesson after boring lesson, talk to best friend Riku and then rush home.

The normal sort of routine for a fifteen year old boy.

But then, in a completely non-romantically cliché way, she came. A flurry of gangly limbs and skinny elbows and scratched knees extracting itself from the back of a car, bright red hair and violet-blue eyes and the prettiest laugh you could ever imagine.

"Hi," she greeted Sora as he came home from school, not expecting such a meeting in the middle of the street. A welcome from Aerith back from her yoga class and a peanut butter sandwich once inside closed doors, perhaps, but not a cute red-head who just had to catch him in his dorky school uniform. A cute red-head who just had to disrupt normal routine and send his world off its axis.

"Um… Hi…" he replied slowly, watching the movement behind her pretty face; a red-headed woman cooing over the sheer loveliness of Mrs. Next-Door's house (although Aerith had told him afterwards, in response to a question about how deep her voice had been, that it was actually a guy, you naïve child.) A man who's had was also on fire was taking care of the more practical side of things, directing burly-looking bald men with large muscles into the house with sofas and tables and the like.

"My name's Kairi Panettiere. I moved from Traverse Town," she greeted warmly, smiling a little and coiling a lock of hair around her finger. Sora wondered if was hamming the 'cute lickle me' act up just a tad or if it was merely accidental, but surely she knew it was a bad idea to act like that, to talk like that, in front of a hormonal member of the opposite sex who'd given up trampolining a long time ago and was no longer called 'Munchkin'? Or maybe in Traverse Town the guys were all too flamingly gay to notice a pretty girl.

"Oh… Er… I'm Sora. Sora Joel Osment. And… Um… That's my house," he replied a little lamely, waving an arm at what was indeed his house.

"I figured," Kairi replied, giggles laced with her speech and oh my God, do you have any idea what you're doing??? I'm not the naïve one here just because I though Marluxia was a Mrs five years ago!

A yell of 'Kairi! Give us a hand with the lighter stuff, eh?' from her dad distracted from the conversation, red-head nodding in response. "Well… It was nice talking to you. I'll see you later, Sora," she grinned, waving a little with her right hand. "Okay, dad, I'm coming! Don't blow a capillary!"

Sora watched her retreating figure, tilting his head slightly as she swung her skinny hips an- no, bad Sora! Bad, dirty, perverted Sora! He didn't want to turn into Riku did he? No.

Who needed girls when they could have peanut butter sandwiches?

¤ ( && ) Xx

Sora lay, body sprawled across his trampoline idly in that way men seem to have down so well; oh, his feet could touch the other side now. He folded his legs up so as to fit better, music pounding into his ears from his Ipod; it was better than lying on the grass and getting his new jeans dirty.

Hmn. That was an interesting cloud; it looked a bit like a papou fruit if you sort of squinted a little, or if you lived in Selphieland. And that one to the right of it could've passed of as Kairi, or at least a crude caricature of the girl. And… to the left of the fluffy white star-shape… Him?

Speaking of Kairi, he wondered what she was doing right now. It was pretty hard to see over the picket fence even now and not stand on your tip-toes, and even if you did that you only got a lovely prickly eyeful of Marluxia's numerous trees which had grown pretty big.

Maybe…

But no. That was just as sick and pervy as yesterday and he definitely wasn't going to use his beloved trampoline to further him in sick plans. That trampoline signified summers of long ago, sepia-tainted and hazy; deckchairs and chubby cheeks and sword-fights and the old play island. Not red-headed girls. But he wanted to see her so much, and he couldn't exactly knock on her door and say 'Hi! You're the best thing since sliced bread!'. No. Well, maybe Riku could, but Riku was skilled at stuff like that and would actually manage to make it amazingly incisive and witty. Sora wasn't a natural born flirter, nor was he a professional lady-killer.

The only other option to sedate his longing was to bounce on the old trampoline and hope to get eyefuls of her through the bedroom window. And hey, who knew, maybe she'd notice and think of it as amazingly romantic (like princess in tower, prince yearning) and then they'd get married and have kids. Not that Sora was thinking about having kids. But it would be nice to have a girlfriend.

Sora turned off his Ipod, stowed it away safely in his pocket and began to bounce, springs creaking ominously under his weight.

¤ ( && ) Xx

Kairi sat in her room and watched a brown head flicker up and down over a wall of leaf-green and giggled, shaking her pen in an attempt to get the ink flowing again, fingers stained with blue biro. She sort of liked the attention; how long had been outside bouncing for his lady love now? Two hours? He was persistent and completely adorable with it, pained look painted across his face.

Maybe she'd put him out of her misery.

Banana-yellow painted fingers snapped her diary shut and placed the pen neatly behind one ear, casting one look about her happily chaotic room with boxes of her stuff strewn willy-nilly before exiting, grinning to herself.

Day two and she already had a (not-so-secret) admirer. Maybe it was the pink dress or the strawberry shampoo or the immaculate nails or something, but whatever it was it seemed to be working.

¤ ( && ) Xx

Bounce 1653; garden.

Bounce 1654; garden.

Bounce 1655; God, my ribs hurt.

Bounce 1656; garden.

Bounce 1657; red hair.

Bounce 165- wait a minute, red hair?

Damnit. Now I lost count.

Oh fudgesicles, she's coming over…

Think up something witty, quick.

"Um… Hi…?"

Oh yeah. Reaaalll smooth. Like you WEREN'T just perving on her with a trampoline and she DIDN'T notice. Your social skills never fail to amaze, Sora Joel Osment. Have a sticker.

¤ ( && ) Xx

"Hi," Kairi replied brightly, watching the boy's head as it appeared in and out of her line of vision, bordered by sky and hedge and fence. He looked funny. "Exercising, right?"

"Um… Excercising. Yeeeaaahhh. That's it. Um… Yeah. Hahaha."

"You know, you didn't have to spy on me. If you wanted to go on a date you only had to ask; s'not like I'd say no," she grinned, lacing her fingers together and placing them behind her head.

Sora blinked. Double take. Triple take. She looked gorgeous.

"Wh-What? You mea-?"

And then, with a bad miscalculation of general foot placage, the springs decided it was the last straw and they would not take any more abuse; groaning, shrieking, screams of agony, and the whole thing collapsed in on itself like an exploding meringue, leg stuck painfully amidst a mess of broken trampoline.

Kairi sighed. "Well, what I mean is we can go out on a date. After I unjam your foot from the wreckage."

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a/n: for sequizurx because it was her birthday like four weeks ago xP