A/N: Know what's funny? I wrote this story on an impulse. Not my best work, I think. I think this whole oneshot just kinda grew from a desire to write that first scene. Don't ask me how they ended up in that position, cuz I don't know. Use your imaginations. Also, I'm a little mean to Sora in this one. But I have a broken nose, and it pulled the story together. Goodness, I have so many other stories I need to update. So, to any wondering where the next chapters of TIaaG, AtW, and As If We'd Just Gone to Buy Milk, are, well, this got me side tracked.

Sokai fluff. I'm writing so much fluff lately. Strangly enough, when my life was carefree and easy, all I could write was angst, tragedy and drama. It was romantic angst, but still. Now that my life is full of my own angst and stress and drama, all I can write is fluff. Escape from reality, I suppose.

I digress.

Disclaimer: After a while, you run out of ways to make these things clever.

Impulse

Well, he'd gotten this far.

That was her skin beneath his fingertips; her forehead pressed against his. The heat against his body was her frame which was sandwiched between his body and the wall. That warmth was her breath tickling his lips, which were hovering inches away from hers.

Exactly how they had ended up here, Sora couldn't remember. They'd been talking about…something. He couldn't remember what.

All he could remember was the sudden impulse to kiss her. She had yet to protest, which meant the only thing left to do was to lean all the way in and press his lips to hers…

Unfortunately, this was about the time his brain kicked in. He had actually moved forward slightly before he started thinking too hard about what he was doing. The result was that he turned his head slightly before their lips could meet, and his lips grazed her cheek.

He felt completely stupid. He felt stupid for doing something as impulsive as trying to kiss Kairi, but at the same time, he felt stupid for not kissing her. His brain was telling him that it was a stupid, impulsive, rash action. Too sudden; too spur-of-the-moment. But his heart was telling him to be a little bolder. His brain was yelling louder right now, and Sora, feeling increasingly ridiculous, released Kairi and hesitantly took a few steps back.

He chanced a glance upwards and saw that Kairi was still leaning against the rock wall. Her eyes were wide and staring expectantly at him.

Sora quickly looked back down again. He cleared his throat and attempted to come up with a halfway decent excuse for his behavior.

He couldn't come up with anything, so he mumbled, "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't…" Sora wasn't sure what else to say. He could feel his face getting warmer, and his mouth getting dryer. And if he thought his heart was beating fast before, now it was pounding so quickly he was certain he would drop dead any second. Which was not entirely undesirable at the moment. At least then he wouldn't have to explain his actions.

"So-ra?" Kairi began shakily, but Sora cut her off.

"I'm sorry," he murmured again, and turned and exited the Secret Place as quickly as he could.

As soon as he was outside, Sora broke into a run, the noon day sun beating down was nothing compared to the heat on his face. He had to get away-as far away as he could from that place. He threw open the door that led to the cove, and didn't bother to stop and apologize or explain when he bowled Selphie over.

He continued across the bridge; ignoring Selphie's aggravated shouts. She'd probably run into Kairi exiting the Secret Place, and Kairi would probably explain why Sora was in such a big hurry.

Sora reached the grove of palm trees and finally stopped to bang his head against the trunk of one of the trees.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" He muttered. He was now feeling stupid not because he'd tried to kiss her, but because he hadn't kissed her. His brain would give him plenty of reasons not to: they were just friends, what if she didn't feel the same; he shouldn't do something that might compromise their friendship, etc. But he knew all of these concerns were ridiculous. They may be just friends, but that was what he wanted to change. He was almost positive that she felt at least somewhat the same for him as he did for her. There was the paopu fruit drawing after all…

But part of him had still doubted enough to be afraid. His brain would start being all rational, and rationality would lead to cowardice, and that was precisely the problem.

What he really needed was to be impulsive. Being Impulsive was something that should have been easy.

He was a guy. By definition he was supposed to be impulsive. Act first, think second.

Where had his brain been in second grade, when Riku dared him to jump off the top of the jungle gym onto the see-saw? Did it show up to warn him that a broken leg was not worth winning a dare? Of course not. He got to spend his summer vacation on crutches.

His brain hadn't said a word the time he and Riku filled the neighbor's garden gnomes with fire crackers.

Neither had it added any input when he tried to melt crayons in the microwave when he was five.

But now, the one time he needed to be stupid and impulsive and just kiss her; now his brain decides to make an appearance.

He usually didn't have to think very hard when it came to Kairi. She had a way of melting his defenses with the simplest words. She knew him so well that she could penetrate his soul and get him to talk no matter how much he didn't want to talk about it.

And yet he couldn't get up the nerve to kiss her.

Sora groaned and ground his forehead into the bark of the tree. His eyes squeezed shut, and his mind contemplating his situation, he failed to notice a certain someone approach.

"Sora?"

Sora's eyes snapped open. He bit his lip and turned to face her.

She was watching him with a concerned look on her face, and he noticed that her cheeks were still slightly tinged with pink.

Sora took a deep breath. "H-Hey, K-Kairi."

"Hey," she replied, giving him a very small, very brief smile.

There were a few tense moments of awkward silence before Kairi finally spoke up.

"Sora, about what just happened-"

"Kairi," Sora interrupted, struggling to look her in the eye, "Can we just, just forget it ever happened?"

Kairi's expression hardened. "No. Sora, talk to me. What's wrong, why-"

Again, Sora cut her off. "Kairi, no! I don't want to talk about it." He turned to walk away- "Can't we just-" –and walked face first into the palm tree.

Accompanying Sora's cry of pain was the sickening crunch that would turn out to be a signifier of Sora's nose breaking.

Sora fell to the sandy ground clutching at his nose, and trying very hard to muffle the stream of very colorful curses he'd picked up in Port Royal.

Kairi gasped and dropped to her knees beside him.

"Sora!" she cried, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sora, are you alright?"

Sora groaned. Even though his nose wasn't bleeding, it still hurt like- well, the terms that came to Sora's mind to describe the pain are probably best left unrepeated.

"Do I really have to answer that question?" he moaned, his eyes watering from the pain.

"Oh, Sora, let me see," Kairi pried his hands away from his nose. Holding his hands away from his face, she leaning in to examine his nose.

"Oh, I think it's broken!" she said, carefully turning his head with one hand to look at his nose from different angles. "It's a little crooked at the top."

She brought her finger up to brush the bridge of his nose. Her fingers barely grazed his nose, and pain went shooting along Sora's nose and forehead.

"Aah!" he whined, and Kairi immediately removed her finger.

"Sorry!" She gently placed her hand on his cheek, and tut-tutted as she looked at his shattered nose. "We'll need to get you some ice as soon as possible. It's starting to swell. But it isn't bleeding, that's a good sign. But ice will help the swelling go down."

Now, if Sora's head hadn't been hurting so badly, he might have pulled out the keyblade and either whipped up a makeshift ice pack with a Blizzaga spell, or simply healed his nose all together with Curaga. However, Sora was in too much pain to think straight. Kairi, while a keyblade wielder herself, had only so far succeeded in mastering the fire spell; and while he'd begun to teach her Blizzard, she would most likely end up turning him into an ice pack, rather that making one for him.

Sora finally was able to concentrate at least long enough to comprehend how close he was to Kairi. They hadn't been this close since…

Since he'd tried to kiss her. In all the excitement of breaking his nose, Sora had quite forgotten that particular escapade.

He realized that one of Kairi's hands was still holding one of his from when she'd pulled his hands away from his nose. Her left hand was still placed on his cheek.

She was smiling sympathetically at him, and through the haze brought on by the throbbing pain in his skull, he realized he was so close, that he wouldn't have to lean in that far to kiss her.

She looked gorgeous. The midday sun glistened off her hair and her blue eyes radiated kindness. Sora was feeling that impulse to kiss her again. He reached up his free hand and placed it on the back of her head.

Due to the pounding headache his broken nose was giving him, Sora wasn't able to think too much about what he was doing. He pulled Kairi closer and gently pressed a soft kiss to her lips. He was surprised to feel Kairi kiss him back. He was even more surprised to feel her tongue run along his lips. Unfortunately, at that point, Kairi shifted slightly and her nose brushed against his, sending a sharp pain up his nose and causing him to pull away.

He opened his eyes to see Kairi blinking her eyes open at him. She looked at him through half lidded eyes.

"You've changed," she murmured. Sora was taken aback by this remark. He'd changed? But, that meant he'd broken his promise. She'd told him never to change. This was bad. Where had he messed up?

Kairi then smiled wider.

"You never used to be this bold."

Sora smiled. His nose wasn't hurting quite so much anymore.

Apparently, a kiss from Kairi made it feel better.

Sora leaned in again, deciding this pain needed a little more medication.

(&END&)

A/N: Like I said, a little mean of me to break Sora's nose, but mine's been broken for about two weeks and so I could write that injury perfectly. Course, I broke mine a different way. Anyway, I hope this story actually made sense. I'm a little concerned y'all won't understand what I'm talking about with Sora's inner battle bit.

Also, that bit about the boys putting firecrakers in the neighbor's garden gnomes-this event is also referenced in the chapter Drive Me Crazy of As If We'd Just Gone to Buy Milk. Maybe one day I'll write a little something further exploring what happened.

This was partially inspired by the way men are often so stupid and impulsive. They do things like throw carrots, throw keys, make a mountain of morons or a pyrimid of peabrains went they get frisbees stuck on the school roof...

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