Kairi lifted the brush away from the flower, beaming as she set it to the side. The cupcakes were turning out almost better than she had imagined. They were for Selphie's surprise birthday party that night. She had spent a good chunk of her day on these suckers, and they were a work of art, if she did say so herself.

Picking up the last gum paste iris flower, she eyed the last cupcake. She set the flower onto the icing. Nodding to herself, she picked up the brush once more to decorate the tips of the flower with some edible silver glitter.

The front door of the house slammed open. Kairi jerked in surprise. This caused her to stab the brush into the cupcake right through her beautiful icing. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. She knew that taking the brush out now would most likely ruin the entire appearance of the cupcake.

When the door slammed shut and she heard the deadlock slide into place, Kairi turned to glare at the entrance to the kitchen. She knew who she going to see come around the corner. There was only one person who would enter her house like that. And though she loved him with all her heart, she was going to give him a piece of her mind. She'd spent hours on these cupcakes. For weeks, she had meticulously planned, tried out dozens of cake batters, practiced the piping of the icing until her hands cramped, and watched countless online videos to get those gum paste flowers looking perfect. Today alone, she'd remade the cake twice because her first batch hadn't turned out as well as she wanted. Though she'd only made these particular cupcakes today, they were the culmination of weeks of work and practice. She did not come this far for him to ruin them now.

As predicted, Sora came barreling into the room. Kairi opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't get out anymore than his name. Sora grabbed her shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. Her mouth snapped shut, and she cursed herself in her mind. This was definitely not a moment to be rendered speechless by his adorableness, she reminded herself. But her heart decided to take that advice, crumble it into a ball, set it on fire, and toss it out the window.

Sometimes, her boyfriend was just too cute for words.

It took her another moment to register that he was talking. "Whatever happens, whoever comes knocking, I've been here for at least an hour."

She blinked at him. "What?"

His hands released her shoulders and clasped together in front of himself. "Please, Kairi? Do this for me?" And his eyes got wide and pleading and so very blue. She cursed herself again. She could never say no to him when he looked like that.

"Okay," she found herself agreeing. A moment later, she realized she had no idea what was going on or what exactly she was agreeing to in the first place. Her head tilted to the side, and she was about to ask him exactly that.

However, before she could get out another word, Sora brightened and leaned forward to give her a peck on the lips. When he pulled back, he had his trademark wide grin in place. He looked so happy that she grinned in response almost without her own accord. "Thanks, Kairi. You're the best." His eyes trailed over to the counter. "Hey! Your cupcakes look awesome. I can't wait to try them tonight."

Kairi's heart warmed at the praise. She knew, coming from him, Sora meant every word with complete sincerity. He didn't know how to be anything less. Her toes curled in her shoes and bounced a little as a warmth spread in her chest. "Thank you." Her smile didn't fade as she watched him walk over to the couch. He relaxed into a corner and pulled out his phone, looking for all the world as if he had been there for the last hour as he'd asked her to say.

Shrugging, sure she would find out sooner or later what this was all about, she turned back to her cupcakes. When she saw the brush sticking out of the last one, she remembered that she was supposed to be angry at Sora for it. But his weird (yet adorable) behavior had brushed all those feelings aside. Glancing back over her shoulder at him, she realized that she was unable to dredge those feelings back up. She should remember that she always found it impossible to stay angry at Sora. Kairi shrugged again, getting back to the task at hand.

She frowned at the cupcake, wondering if there was any way to salvage it. Tugging lightly on the embedded brush, she bit her bottom lip, hoping she could pull it out without messing up the icing too much. Perhaps she could arrange the flower petals so that they would cover up any damage.

A pounding on the front door interrupted her work this time. Another noise, like a yelp, caught her attention. Kairi looked behind her to catch the tail end of Sora vaulting over the back of the couch and flinging himself to the floor behind it. His reaction to the door pounding explained so much yet so little at the same time.

When the person pounded again, Kairi went to go answer it. As she had guessed, she would at least find out what was going on. She unlocked the door and opened it. When she saw who was there, she realized that she should have known, given Sora's reaction. Kairi's head tilted and she frowned as she took in what was different about him.

She was not unintelligent. Given what she knew and had seen thus far, the answer to this question she knew could probably be summarized into one word. (That one word being "Sora".) Still, she couldn't help but find herself asking the question anyway.

"Riku, why is your hair pink?"

The young man did not acknowledge the question. Instead, he brushed past her into the house with a question of his own. "Where is he?"

"Haven't seen him," she promptly replied. Her lips pursed tight when she remembered that wasn't what she was supposed to say. Shaking her head, she continued, correcting herself. "No, wait. He's been here for an hour."

Riku stopped his strides as he turned to look at her with an amused smirk. "Why he continues to get you to cover for him when you're so bad at it, I'll never know."

As she shut the door, she whipped around. "Hey!"

Shaking his head, he scoffed. "Must be that true love stuff. Now, where is he?" He stopped in the center of the kitchen and looked around.

Kairi stopped next to him. "I asked you first. Why do you have pink hair?" She folded her arms across her chest. She lifted her eyebrow at him, letting him know that she wasn't going to budge on this question.

There was a pause where they stared at each other. Finally, the pink-haired young man's slid shut and he sighed. "Sora." Riku hissed out through gritted teeth.

Waving her hand dismissively, Kairi rolled her eyes. "I figured that much out. Can you give me anymore specifics?"

Riku pressed his lips together. "Sora and magic," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Which explained a little bit more to her but still not enough for her to get any kind of explanation from it. Kairi came to the conclusion that there was only one way she was going to get an explanation for this. So, she remained silent as Riku lifted his gaze again and scanned the room. "He's behind the couch, isn't he?"

"Yep." She gave her reply without hesitation. She had concluded that if she was going to get the full story, she was going to have to let Riku confront Sora. Besides, if Sora wanted her to perpetuate the lie that he had been there for an hour, he shouldn't have flung himself behind the couch the first moment someone knocked on the door.

Sora's head popped up from behind the couch. "Kairi!"

Not one single bit sorry that she ousted him, she shrugged at him. "He was going to find you eventually." In fact, behind the couch was the most obvious hiding spot in the room. He couldn't have picked a worse place to hide if he tried.

Riku cut across the room in moments with large purposeful strides. Sora scrambled to his feet and took a step back with wide eyes. "Sora. Fix this now." Riku's hands clenched to his sides, and Kairi knew he was stopping himself from strangling his best friend. He stayed on the other side on the couch, likely putting that barrier between them on purpose.

Sora folded his arms across his chest. His body shifted, giving away that he wasn't as confident as he portrayed. "How do you know it was me that did it? Did you see me do it?"

Riku lifted his eyebrow at him. "Besides the fact that you were cowering behind the couch? I didn't have to see you do it. You are the only one who could." Sora opened his mouth, looking like he was about to protest, but Riku cut him off with a swipe of his hand. "Let me finish." Sora's mouth clamped shut. "There are three people on this world that can use magic. All of whom are currently in this room. I didn't turn my own hair pink. I know for a fact that Kairi has been here all day working on those stupid cupcakes for Selphie's party that she's been talking about non-stop for weeks." Kairi would forgive him for the insult to her precious works of art considering he currently had pink hair and was likely experiencing high stress. "Which leaves you. And so help me if I have to go to Selphie's party with pink hair, best friend or not, I will end you."

Sora shuffled out from behind the couch. "I can't."

Riku closed his eyes and sighed. Kairi recognized that sigh as his I-will-not-kill-my-best-friend-because-I-tried-that-once-and-it-did-not-turn-out-well one. "Why not?"

With a sheepish laugh, Sora rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know how," he admitted.

"Sora…" Riku growled his friend's name. Kairi stepped a little closer, ready to jump in and sooth the situation. Just because she knew without a doubt in her heart that Riku wouldn't actually kill Sora didn't mean that maiming wasn't on the table.

Sora seemed to realize this same thing. He lifted his hands in front of himself and began to ramble. "Look. Donald sent me this spell and told me to use it on you because it would be funny but didn't tell me what it was or how to use it. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I had no idea it would turn your hair pink."

"And because you had no idea what it did, you decided to do it while I wasn't looking. When you saw what happened, you immediately ran to Kairi."

"Uhh…"

Riku nodded. "I'll take that as a yes." His anger seemed to bleed out of him as his body sagged. She understood exactly how he felt. It was super hard to stay angry at Sora for a long time.

Now that she didn't have to worry about Riku jumping his best friend and causing injury, Kairi turned her head as she realized something. "Well, if it's any consolation, you kind of rock it," she said.

"Sorry, what?" Riku looked at her with his face twisted into confusion.

She waved her hand at his head. "The pink hair," she clarified. "It doesn't actually look that bad. In fact, if you just keep up your normal confidence, I don't think anyone would even question it. It looks that good." The more she thought about it and stared at it, the more certain she became. After the shock of 'holy crap that man has pink hair', it actually looked really good on him. There was probably few and far between the men that could pull of pink hair, but Kairi thought Riku may very well be one of them.

"Really?" The was a speculative tone to his word. Riku walked back toward the entryway to the mirror hanging on the wall. He stared into it with contemplation as he rested his chin in his hand.

She turned to face her boyfriend when she felt his presence behind her shoulder. "Kairi?"

"Yes, Sora?"

"You are the most perfect girlfriend ever."

"I know."