There were only so many times one could here the same compliment over and over again before it finally got old and virtually meant as little as nothing.

It was sort of how Kairi felt, just about every day. At school, at church, at the mall, at the beach. It didn't matter what she was doing or who she was with - every boy, and girls just as frequent, would stop and stare and utter the same thing she'd already heard ten times that day alone.

"What gorgeous eyes."

So, yeah, Kairi knew that her eyes were beautiful. It sounded arrogant and cocky when it came out that way, but in all honesty, it got a little frustrating when she heard it said the same way every time. The number one pickup line for guys and a envious comment from her girlfriends, it was tiring to hear. Yes, she supposed she was grateful for having pretty eyes, and yeah, it was still sweet of her friends and admirers to say, and she still always said thank you with a smile, just as she was taught. But sometimes, she felt like she wanted someone to compliment her for something more than the color of her eyes.

Quite frankly, she would have liked hazel eyes better. A stunning shade of forest green laced with rings of brown and specks of strikingly bright gold. Yes, she'd seen eyes like those, so bright and hypnotizing with the mirage of beautiful colors. How nice that had been. Or maybe something absolutely extraordinary, like a deep lavender or amethyst, maybe a fiery crimson or hot pink. Those were the type of colors that deserved the sort of compliments she received daily. Unique and special, not as boring and plain as hers were.

Blue. Simply blue.

Oh, but not just any blue. Apparently, they were a beautiful kind of blue, one that outshone every other shade of blue known to mankind. Translucent and clear, as bright as precious gems - or brighter, according to the whole world. Occasionally icy, touched with a tad of silver that made them glow as if they emanated their own light.

Or so she was told. Really, Kairi just saw blue, didn't know why the rest of the world didn't just see blue, and kind of just wanted them be something other than just blue. Maybe it was the psychological reason why Kairi sort of hated the color blue and avoided it at all costs. She owned not a stitch of blue clothing, was adamant that her room be vacant of it, refused any cars her parents offered that gleamed blue, and even tried to avoid people who she noted happened to wear blue too often. Apparently, being around blue made her eyes stand out even more.

She knew it made her sound like a selfish brat, but she honestly couldn't stand the compliments. If she was allowed, she would have bought colored contacts. Her parents had immediately rejected the idea, and when she'd mentioned it to her friends, they'd all responded with a ton of indignant discouraging comments. So, she'd given up on that idea and settled for waiting until she was eighteen and had made enough money to get laser eye surgery. They could do that, right?

As for now, however, she was subject to the tedious job of fending off shallow admirers who had nothing better to say than "you must have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen" and wearing cute completely void-of-blue sunglasses whenever she could.

Except today.

Because today, Kairi was scheduled to work at the cute little diner downtown where just about everybody loved to stop by to grab a bite to eat with their family or friends. It was the one place to be, so it was typical that Kairi would get a job there and still be able to see her friends, becoming all the more popular in their average-sized suburban neighborhood.

Now, however, she was tempted to quit. Forget the fact that she currently got paid more than minimum wage because of months of dutiful tending to the place and got tipped more than she could count a day. Really - she'd stopped counting it a long time ago and had begun to just keep it stuffed in a locked up little box on her bedroom dresser. But no.

Now was different. Because, now, somebody had bought the diner from the old owner, who was apparently well into her eighties and needed to retire because she wanted to cruise the world before she died. And whoever had bought the store apparently had a favorite color. A favorite color Kairi hated.

Because the whole damn store had been remodeled.

Blue and white tiling and walls painted with a mirage of different shades of blue. Turquoise, lapis lazuli, sapphire, sky-blue, sea-blue, blue-green, green-blue, navy. It looked pretty and had been praised by all amounts of customers, but one thing was still certain: it was blue. The ceiling was now blue, the bathroom stalls, the table and countertops, the register, the plates and silverware, the chair cushions - everything was blue. Even the uniforms had been changed and now held a sort of school-girl/boy appearance. So now, every day she was scheduled to work, she was forced to wear a thigh-length blue plaid skirt, blue stockings, and a blue necktie. She didn't mind the form-fitting button-up white blouse or the cute black school shoes that went with the outfit. No, it was the blue.

And she'd be damned if she wasn't getting ten times the compliments she normally did.

Thus, she found herself in such a situation, at work one day, wearing her blued-up uniform and handing a couple of girls who knew her from school - she wasn't too sure if she knew them - their take-out order over the counter.

"Have a nice day," she said, smiling sweetly as was mandatory when waiting on customers. Both girls thanked her and began to turn away before one paused, took another look at her and then sighed.

"Kairi, you have such pretty eyes," the girl said, looking both jealous and admiring at the same time. Kairi bit the inside of her cheek before tilting her head and smiling brightly, pretending to be totally caught off guard and flattered.

"Aw, thank you," she said, gripping her pen beneath the counter hard and tight to keep from punching something. "You just made my day."

Both girls looked pleased that their comment had made Kairi happy, no doubt because they were the type who believed in all those "popular stereotypes" and thought that being friends with Kairi would make them cool. Grinning ear to ear, they waved and said their goodbyes before heading out the door. It took a lot of Kairi's strength not to frown as soon as they were out of sight. But no, instead, she kept smiling and turned her attention to the customer that had seated himself at the counter just moments ago.

"Welcome, sir, will this be a sit-in or a take-out?" she said, out of instinct and duty, smiling as she did so. It took her a moment to register that the boy, who looked maybe a little older than herself, was currently squinting at her, leaning over the bar to get a better look. Inwardly, she sighed and rolled her eyes, but was able to maintain a professional appearance on the outside. The guy was just one out of many who would compliment her eyes, try to hook up with her, yada yada… "Sir, would you like to order?"

"Yeah…" and it was quite the drawn out "yeah" if Kairi had anything to say about it. Whatever he saw in her eyes, he was absolutely fascinated by it and felt no awkwardness at all in staring at her without reserve. She was about to open her mouth when he beat her to it and pointed right at her, asking, "Hey, just tell me first - is that your natural hair color?"

"Yes, they're natu-" She paused, blinked, and then replayed his question in her head. Frowning for a moment, she tilted her head at him suspiciously and asked, "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"Your hair," the boy repeated, reaching forward with a smile to tug one of the strands that had fallen from her ponytail and was currently framing her face. "I like it. Is it natural or did you dye it?"

"Oh," Kairi said, feeling kind of silly and dumb for assuming, and even more silly and dumb at having her hair teased by this stranger. Blushing and turning her head away awkwardly, she tucked the loose strand behind her ear and nodded. "It's, um… Yeah, it's natural."

"Well, isn't that neat," the boy chuckled, as if her hair was the most fascinating thing in the entire world. With an added grin, he then asked, "Did you think I was going to say something else?"

"Huh? Oh, right, um…" Now she really felt stupid. Blushing intensely, probably a shade similar to the bright cherry red of her hair, Kairi bit her lip awkwardly before sighing. "I thought… Well, most people who come in here tend to say something about… uh… my… eyes. But it's fine that you didn't, really! I hear that enough every day. So, thank you… For the compliment… I mean. I was refreshing."

Oh wow, she sounded like a rambling idiot. Great.

"Oh, I gotcha. I totally know what you mean," he laughed, shrugging and leaning back in his stool a moment. He shot her a curious glance and it was only then that Kairi registered the color of his own eyes. "Apparently, having blue eyes makes a guy automatically more chivalrous and romantic than every other guy with brown or green eyes. So I feel your pain. It gets old, huh?"

"Yeah, really old," Kairi laughed, smiling again, a little less awkwardly. A silent moment passed in which Kairi was absolutely mesmerized by this person. This boy who made her feel kind of special and unique and sort of a little more appreciated than all the others did. Shifting on her feet, Kairi tilted her head a moment before gesturing to the open kitchen behind her. "Did you want to order…"

"Sora," he filled in with a grin and a wink, making Kairi's knees go a little weak. And then he was glancing up at the menu, tilting his head, and as he did, his own hair shifted before his eyes. Though just brown, it was uniquely styled, spiky and fluffy all the same. Kairi decided to keep her mouth shut on that one - no doubt, he heard that all the time. "How about… a cheeseburger and fries. Can't mess that up, right?"

"I don't think so," she laughed and scribbled the order down with a smile. She glanced up at him after a moment. "What drink? And is this take-out or for here?"

"Eh… Give me a coke," he said with a grin, placing his chin in one hand and propping his elbow against the counter. "And this will be definitely be for here."

"Good," Kairi murmured, sort of without meaning to, but glad she had when she caught Sora's flirtatious smile once more. Turning, she went to give the order to the cooks in the back before she paused and turned to look at Sora once more. "Oh… I'm Kairi… by the way."

Yeah, I know I haven't updated anything in forever. I went to upload this into the "Document Manager" page and I was shocked to find absolutely nothing there. I mean, I've been really slacking, haven't I? I blame AP classes and work. :) But! I've been really struggling with my writer's block. "Amongst Hell Are Angels" is technically finished. I've written most of the scenes for it - random word doodling in my honors algebra II class (in which I recently took my exam and got an 89 - woot woot). I just need to piece together the very last chapter and then post it. Yeeeeah. And then there's Move. Stupid computer deleting my damn chapter. And Mute... still torn on how to end that one. And nothing close to progress on any other of my projects. So, I'm really sorry, but I really hope you like this one.

It's actually based on my own experiences. I have really, really light blue eyes and get compliments all the time. It's the first thing guys say if they want to impress me or get in my pants. So, in an attempt to fight writer's block, I sketched out this little thing because I was thinking about how all the characters in KH have pretty blue eyes (Sora, Roxas, Riku, Kairi, Namine, etc.) and how that's a huge factor in a ton of stories. I mean, come on, we're all guilty of saying, "His sparkling blue eyes" or "Her stunning sapphire eyes" or "the blue-eyed blonde" or blah, blah, blah, blah. And frankly, in real life, that gets really annoying. So, the above story is my expression of how I feel about idiots complimenting my eyes just because they're blue. I hope you enjoyed. Lemme know.

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