-1Okay, I'm sick and bored, so let's see what becomes of my demented mind. This is a Kairi/Yuffie one shot, with slight hints of Leon/Riku. This the beginning of an arch (maybe) that I've been thinking about for awhile. So tell me if you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Heteromorphic

Kairi sighed. What kind of lame ass assignment was this?

"Draw a word from the hat and look it up. After that, I want you to write a paper on what that word means to you and how it relates to your life. It's not due until the end of the semester, but I don't want you to procrastinate. This isn't something you can do in an hour."

This is what she got for going to the Illustrious Destiny Islands School for the gifted. Flipping through her Webster's dictionary, she sneezed as dust flew up from the page. The school hadn't hooked up her desktop yet, which meant that, for now at least, she was stuck doing things the old fashioned way, like a starving artist out on the streets, trying to make a living off of lyrics and useless, endless words only to starve to death and become famous five hundred years later when now one remembers what your story was about, what your art meant, why you chopped off your ear or if you were even alive to begin with.

"Here it is! Heteromorphic: Having different forms at different periods of the life cycle, as in stages of insect metamorphosis."

Great, now she was being compared to a bug. So was she a butterfly? Maybe her childhood was spent as an ugly caterpillar as she ran around palm trees and dreamed of marriage and princesses and dragons. Maybe her cocoon years were the years when she found out that she wasn't turned on by her two male friends, or any males at all, and that she liked staring at Selphie in the girl's locker room more than she liked watching Tom Cruise make and ass of himself over the Mission Impossible theme.

So what would that make her now? A butterfly with reading glasses who liked screwing with other girls and playing piano rather than ice skating and watching movies while making out with their boyfriends?

"This is a stupid assignment."

Kairi twisted and fell backwards onto her bed, staring at her bland, white ceiling. In her room, at home, Riku and Sora had helped her paint her ceiling, and it was the color of the sunset, with red and pink and orange and purple, with blotches where Sora messed up and the memory of Riku's hair streaked with pink.

And now, Riku was down the hall and Sora was on the other side of the island, at the "normal people" school. Between the three of them there was only the promise of weekends at the beach and dinners at the ice cream parlor where Riku's latest boy toy worked his way through college so that he could work more under the system and die a meaningless death with the benefits of Well fare, like she would do and they all would do someday.

Maybe that's why she was a lesbian, she was saving those eggs of hers from the useless torments of life.

Her roommate ignored her, typing obediently at her desk and occasionally casting small smiles at the framed picture of her boyfriend, living in the comfort that she was normal and he was normal and they were both going to heaven because they fell in love with the right people.

"I'm going out," Kairi commented, noting that her roommate probably didn't care and that if she was her roommate she probably wouldn't care either.

Because let's face it, who cares about the dyke on campus?

Paupu's Ice Cream (The Best Ice Cream On the Island) came into view, the cheery, bright coloring causing a small smile to appear on her face.

Really, she wasn't happy about the bright coloring. Actually, she was smiling more about who'd she find inside, scowling as Kairi ordered the most complicated sundae known to mankind. Hmm… This time she'd just get something simple, not.

The bell rang as she opened the door, an actual bell and not one of those mechanical motion detectors that every store seemed to have now. She liked the fresh chiming better. Closing the door, she relished in the sound of the bell ringing once again, ding dong ding dong.

The small shop was busy as usual, with everyone crowding by the window seats and tourists grabbing brochures to find out exactly where the famous Paopu tree was. Of course, anyone who got there would be chased away by an angry silver haired teen named Riku. That Paopu tree was his property, and those stupid tourists would never forget it.

"Welcome to Paopu's. How may I help you?" Leon stood, wearing a pink apron with Paopu's dashed across the front, scowling. Kairi giggled. No matter how often she saw it she still couldn't believe that Leon could wear that apron. When she had first met him, she had sworn that the first pink thing to get near him would die a slow, horrible death, like a boa constrictor squeezing its pray until the poor thing had no more will left.

But here Leon was, wearing the horribly PINK and SPARKLY apron. It was like seeing a snake and a mouse playing together in the forest, aka, something only Disney could make possible.

"It's your lucky day, Leon. Today I'll just take a vanilla chocolate twist with bananas, pistachios, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, topped with caramel sauce and gummy bears of course."

Around her, customers cringed, and Leon glared at her. Silently, he bent over to retrieve her order. Personally, as she watched every single teenage girl crane their necks to get a glance at the man's perfect ass, she decided this was why Cid hadn't fired the man for his crappy attitude. Leon's ass was an ass of legend. Girls from all around the world flocked into the ice cream parlor to stare and drool over the amazing sight. It was, according to one of the dingy air headed girls at Kairi's old school, one of the seven wonders of the world.

"Here you go," Leon muttered, a dark frown on his face. He held out her ice cream as if it were a poisonous snake ready to bit his hand off. Of course, her ice cream did look like a deformed fungus sprinkled with gummy bears, so Leon might have some merit behind his unspoken claim.

Kairi smiled innocently at him before bouncing over to her seat. She didn't miss the boys' gaze on her as her short school uniform skirt lifted with every step. Still she ignored it. They'd probably have more luck going after Leon's ass.

Sitting down at the only available table left in the small shop, she happily licked her ice cream, swirling her tongue around the base. It looked like shit, but it tasted like heaven. Kairi was sure there was some deeper meaning behind that, like don't judge a book by its cover or some other shit, but right now she just wanted to finish her ice cream, philosophical shit be damned.

"Hey, is this seat taken?" Before Kairi could say no, a bag landed on the table with a thud, and a woman gracelessly plopped down across from the aggravated teen. She was definitely the weirdest character Kairi had seen. The beads that hung off her green tube top jangled loudly, reflecting the light into Kairi's eyes and ruining her view of the older girl's cleavage. She had a purple bandana holding her short hair back, and a pair of ridiculously large sunglasses perched precariously on a gracefully small nose, threatening to fall from her face at any second.

"Hey, my name's Yuffie!" She announced as if it were the greatest thing in the world, and Kairi half expected trumpeters to come out, playing a strong proud tune as dancers whirled flags edged with jangely glass beads that deafened the cruel and blinded the perverted.

A hand, slightly larger than Kairi's and calloused from god-knows-what grabbed her hand and shook it enthusiastically, more gleaming beads jangling from her wrist, like tiny shards of crystal in a hollowed cave. Yuffie had a strong shake for a chick, and Kairi feared that she would lose her precious ice cream from the harsh treatment.

Then again, that might actually be a treat. Leon would be so pissed if he had to make another one of Kairi's mixes.

"My name's Kairi," she continued, looking at the older girl, who was most obviously a tourist. The brochures and odd clothing definitely gave it away. Well, as long as she was sitting here…

"So, what brings you to our fine island?" Kairi asked, taking another lick of her ice cream. Yuffie pulled down her sunglasses, revealing dark gray eyes, and Kairi nearly shuddered when she realized that Yuffie's gaze was focused on her tongue. It was the gaze of a lion stalking its prey, deciding whether or not to pounce or wait, prolonging the terror of the poor animal trying desperately to run before it's engulfed in giant jaws and torn apart by sharp teeth.

"Well, about a month ago my old man kicked the bucket, and he left everything to lucky old me. So, I've been using the money to travel around and see the world-" she enunciated the last part by waving her arms around in huge circles, like duel windmills, and the light reflecting off the beads was so bright Kairi had to close her eyes.

"Looking for a place, to, you know, settle down," she finished. Her honesty astounded Kairi, and made her laugh, almost choking on her ice cream as the delicious frozen substance slid down her throat.

"You found anyplace that interests you?" Kairi asked, taking a small bite out of her ice cream. Yuffie leaned forward, her cool breath brushing Kairi's cool lips and igniting a hundred forest fires, more dangerous than any brain freeze. The predator lunged, and its prey could only stand there, helpless, with wide eyes.

"Maybe," Yuffie replied with a mischievous smile, gazing into Kairi's blue violet eyes. Kairi gulped at their closeness. The noisy ice cream parlor seemed to go silent, as if someone had pressed mute on everything outside of her and her company.

Suddenly, a pink tongue darted out of Yuffie's mouth, licking Kairi's bottom lip. The warm tongue against her cold lips felt like frostbite almost, except she wanted more. Yuffie drew back slightly, pulling that tongue back into her mouth.

"That's some good ice cream," Yuffie replied with a grin. Kairi nodded shakily. Coming closer, Yuffie whispered, "mind if I have some more."

Kairi nodded, frozen in the moment. She really should have expected it when Yuffie stole her ice cream cone, darting out of the small store. Stupid tourists!

"Catch me if you can!" And usually exercise-phobic Kairi, who didn't run if she didn't absolutely have to and couldn't catch a blitz ball to save her life, ran after Yuffie, panting and tired but still shaking a fist and screaming,

"Give me back my ice cream!"

Years later, Kairi would look back on this day with a smile, and realize what Heteromorphic meant to her. Because on that day, Kairi had climbed out her cocoon and blossomed into a beautiful butterfly, or at least, some metaphorical crap like that.