Two of Hearts: Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the mentioned canons in
this story, nor the songs that Sarah is occasionally going to be singing when
the mood strikes her – though I will be listing them at the beginning of the
chapter for those of you who happen to be curious – I do, however, own Sarah
herself. If you’re wondering why this disclaimer wasn’t in the first chapter,
it’s because it’s more fun this way. <o></o>

Sarah/Sora’s song this chapter:
Billy Joel’s "Say Goodbye to Hollywood."<o></o>

KH<o></o>

The next morning Sarah yawned and
stretched, bending her spine and curling her toes as she waited for her iPod
alarm to go off. When no music was forthcoming, Sarah turned over onto her
other side and relaxed. It seemed like it’d be awhile before she had to get up
for school, either that or it was a weekend.<o></o>

Either way, the end result was
more sleepy timer for her, so she wasn’t going to complain. Weekends were
pretty much made for sleeping till noon, after all. And she had a timer on for
KRDK, just in case it was a Saturday, so there were no worries about that.<o></o>

Pulling the covers up over her
head, she shifted them until she an opening wide enough to accommodate her
face, and then settled back down to have a bit more sleep.<o></o>

The next thing she felt was the
sensation of someone’s hands pressed up against her right flank, shaking her
like there was no tomorrow. Grumbling and only half-awake, Sarah moved away
from the shaking hands and burrowed deeper under the covers. Unfortunately,
that didn’t deter the mystery shaker; if anything it made them more annoyingly
persistent. Grumbling semi-coherently, Sarah grabbed the nearest corner of her
pillow and walloped the little bastard about where she figured his head would
be.<o></o>

Unfortunately, even that
didn’t make said little bastard go away for very long. Still, she did manage to
find out at least one thing: he was male; and pretty young if she was hearing
right. None of that really mattered, beyond being vaguely interesting, and
Sarah swiftly put it out of her mind as she settled back down.<o></o>

The kid was talking at her again,
but Sarah was opting to ignore him until he actually managed to pronounce her
name right. She would have done the same for anyone else; she certainly
wasn’t going to make any exceptions for some kid that she didn’t even know.
Although that did kind of beg the question of just how this kid had
ended up in her house at all.<o></o>

It was possible that she’d
fallen asleep at a friend’s house for some reason, which would explain the lack
of an iPod alarm, but not the lack of other things; things that included people
who knew just how much she hated being shaken awake.<o></o>

Not to mention people who actually
pronounce her name right. Curling back up in the bed – she couldn’t be sure
that it was actually her bed anymore, but she knew what it was in a more
general sense – Sarah ground her teeth as she felt the kid put his hands back
on her flank. Before he could start shaking her again, she pushed the blankets
down off of her head.<o></o>

Opening her eyes just long enough
to get a bead on her surroundings, Shara grabbed a fistful of her tormentor’s
hair and yanked it hard enough to make him pay attention to what she was about
to say.<o></o>

"Look, bright eyes, it’s a
weekend, and I fully intend to sleep until at least noon," she
paused for breath, vaguely aware that there was probably something that she
should be remembering at this point, but not particularly caring what it was.
"Go the hell away."<o></o>

Burying herself under the covers
again, she decided to be charitable and give the little brat a few final words
of warning: "You start shaking me again and I’ll clock you, bright
eyes."<o></o>

That said – though something about
this whole thing was still kind of bugging her – she settled back into the bed
and tried to relax again.<o></o>

"Sora, you’re going to be
late for breakfast if you keep this up," the annoying kid said, sounding
like he was struggling not to laugh.<o></o>

"Would it be too much to ask
that you, just once, get my name right?" she groused, yawning as
she sat up and let the covers spill off her back. "You’re still a syllable
off."<o></o>

Climbing out of the bed, she
yawned again and scratched her head a bit. Opening her eyes partway, she got
her first look – though not really a good one – at the brat who’d been
harassing her.<o></o>

"Nice hair," she chuckled.
"You have a thing for Kadaj, or what? "<o></o>

"What?"<o></o>

"Nevermind," she said,
with a short, sharp shake of her head. "Just tell me where the bathroom
is. I need my morning shower."<o></o>

"Sora, you’ve never taken a
shower in the morning."<o></o>

"You’re claiming to know me
pretty well for a guy who can’t pronounce my name right," she said,
beginning to become annoyed again. "Just tell me where the bathroom is,
Kadaj-lite, and spare me the commentary."<o></o>

"It’s down the hall on the
left, just on the other side of the linen closet," he said. "I’m
going to want an explanation for this, Sora."<o></o>

"Just as soon as you start
pronouncing my name right, Kadaj-lite."<o></o>

Leaving the room, and the
slightly-annoying-but-fun-to-mess-with boy behind, Sarah made her way down the
hall. The first door on the left was too narrow to lead to anything but the
linen closet that Kadaj-lite had mentioned, so she passed it right on by.
Opening the second door on the left, she found a small but well-appointed
bathroom.<o></o>

Yawning and arching her back as she
stretched, she tossed off her underwear after she’d closed the door behind her,
then climbed into the shower and turned the hot water up to full. Letting the
cold water blast her awake, she climbed back out of the shower.<o></o>

"Ah, that’s better," she
said, sitting down on the toilet while she waited for the water to heat up.
"The hell is wrong with my voice?" she wondered aloud, reaching up to
rub at her throat.<o></o>

Her fingers found nothing out of
the ordinary, but before she could make a more thorough examination, she
noticed the clouds of steam wafting invitingly out of the shower.<o></o>

Other considerations could wait
for later; now was her time.<o></o>

Climbing into the shower, Sarah
sat down next to the hot spray for a few moments, leaning back periodically to
let it soak into her hair, before standing so that she could start washing up.
She was starting to miss her room, with its special acoustics and purpose-built
sound system, since just listening to the splatter of the water could get kinda
boring after awhile. Hell, she was starting to miss her personal bathroom;
they’d renovated the fuck out of that old house.<o></o>

It was one of the few times she’d
actually cackled while wielding a power tool – of course, that had
been a chainsaw, and you were pretty much constitutionally obligated to go just
a bit batshit when you handled a chainsaw – Right, right; washing up,
she mused, opening her eyes just long enough to grab a bar of soap before
closing them again.<o></o>

She knew her own body well enough
that she could do this kind of thing blindfolded; that, and she really didn’t
feel like risking soap in her eyes.<o></o>

"Bobby’s driving through the
city tonight, through the lights, in a hot new rental car…" she began,
lathering up her hands before she started to wash her arms.<o></o>