The poll in my profile said that this was the story I should focus on first, so... ta-da? Is this one of those 'popular demand' things? XD
But hey, a fic with blindfolded Riku driving and Naminé helping him out. Yes, this is one such fic.
The young witch in white continued to scribble casually on her sketchbook, putting a certain sleeping Keyblade-wielder's back in order. She had been on the task for weeks and weeks, kept company by only a mysterious man who hid his face in mask of red bandages – DiZ, he called himself – and the Keyblade-wielder's silver-haired friend, who hid his eyes behind a blindfold – Riku, Sora's memories say. Hour by tedious, yawn-inducing hour, she drew, sketched, illustrated, each and every link in Sora's memories as she saw it, but though she amused herself seeing his friends' smiles, hearing their laughter, and stealing Sora's best jokes to use for herself, spending all her time in a quiet, white room certainly strained her creativity. DiZ didn't know it, but putting Sora's memories back together had been becoming more and more difficult the more time she spent in the white room she was put in. The only time DiZ seemed to notice her difficulty was when he caught her in a daze, staring out the window. He immediately told her to snap out of it and get back to work.
But now, she couldn't seem to draw anything. Sora's memories were right there for her to manipulate, but she couldn't bring herself to put the pieces back together. The young witch – Naminé, DiZ named her – contemplated sharing her problems with Riku, but the blindfolded boy seemed to be doing so much by himself already, and she wouldn't want to become a burden.
But she knew that if she didn't do something, then what Riku did would all be useless in the end. Naminé summoned her voice, and spoke softly to Riku, who had been sitting on a chair in the same room she was in, next to a window.
"Riku," she said. "Riku, can I talk to you?"
The silver-haired boy didn't answer. Naminé tried again, a little louder than last time.
"Riku. Riku."
She was met with the same response. The girl tipped her head over to the side in slight confusion as to why Riku seemed to be ignoring her. But she knew Riku well enough to know that he'd never do such a thing. Maybe he'd accidentally destroyed an island after beckoning the darkness, and maybe he'd turned on his best friend and nearly cut the boy's heart out with a key at some point, but he wouldn't just ignore someone for no good reason.
With that in mind, Naminé stood from her seat, and hesitantly put a hand on Riku's shoulder, rocking him back and forth slightly. "Riku, can I please talk to you?"
Riku snorted and moved his head side to side as if he were looking around, but stopped when he remembered he was wearing a blindfold. "Oh. Sorry, Naminé, I must've dozed off. It's easier to fall asleep when your eyes are closed and you're in a quiet room."
Naminé nodded despite knowing Riku couldn't see. "I know. I've seen a lot of instances where Sora fell asleep because of things like that."
"Well, let's see if you can find any of me doing that, then. I don't think you will, aside from times like these." Riku chuckled. "Anyway, you wanted to tell me something?"
Naminé nodded again. "I've had a bit of a problem lately…"
"If it's about drawing, then I don't think I'll be much help." Riku pointed at his blindfold.
"Well, it is about drawing, but I'm sure you'll be able to help anyway," Naminé assured him.
Riku shrugged. "Alright, so what is it?"
"I'm sure you know that I use my drawing to manipulate Sora's memories." Riku nodded in response. "Well, lately, I've been having a bit of trouble finding a way to draw, even with Sora's memories giving me a clear picture."
"What does that mean?" Riku asked.
"Um…" Naminé tried to think of the best way to explain to Riku without sounding nonsensical. "…Inspiration?" That'll do, Naminé, that'll do.
Riku made a big 'O' shape with his mouth and nodded his head in comprehension. "And it's hard to find inspiration in a plain room like this, am I right?"
Naminé nodded twice, and then there was a small silence.
"…Well?" Riku said after the pause, turning his head to face where he thought Naminé was. "Am I right or not?" He looked as though he was speaking to a curtain on the other side of the room.
"Um, yes, you're right," Naminé answered awkwardly. "Exactly right."
"Good," Riku said, a little pride in his voice. "Now how am I supposed to help you find this 'inspiration?'"
"Simple," Naminé said. "While DiZ is busy, then I'd like you to take me to Twilight Town so I can get a glimpse of some real colors."
"Um, Naminé, last time I checked, Twilight Town is really, really orange." Or rather, various shades of red.
"Not entirely. The forest isn't, and not everyone wears orange clothes there."
"Hm. Point taken. What if DiZ finds us sneaking out?"
Naminé looked at the floor. "I didn't think of anything for that, but I doubt he would. He hardly ever comes to check on me these days."
Riku nodded. "If that's the case, then I guess we could go. But we can't stay gone for too long in case DiZ actually checks on you, clear?"
"Um, sure," Naminé agreed.
"And don't go too far away from me. There are still Heartless around."
Learning from her mistakes, Naminé spoke instead of nodding. "Understood." She would've thanked him, but something in her – just her nature, she thought – prevented her from saying things that she didn't deem important enough.
"Alright, let's get going, then." With that, the two of them quietly made their way out of the house, with Naminé's sketchbook tucked in the arms of its owner, and a pencil sitting snugly on the artist's ear.
Her expression did not change upon exiting the mansion, but inside, Naminé was jumping around and tumbling with glee. For the first time in months, she had finally gone to see Twilight town – and the first color she saw wasn't orange, either. She saw green, and to her delight, it wasn't the kind one would see after blowing their nose. It was a rich, deep, forest green given off by the grass and leaves in the woods through the gate, telling of the serenity and earthiness – hardy-har – of nature. Aside from that, the flowers in the garden, which she was usually unable to see through the window, seemed to be blooming at the time, allowing Naminé to fully absorb and appreciate the different hues each type of flower offered. There were bees, too, but those particular insects reminded her of a certain organization member, what with the antennae, the black-and-yellow color scheme, and the stingers.
"Any place in mind?" Riku asked, stirring Naminé out of her reverie.
"Er, I was thinking you'd have someplace in mind, since you've been around Twilight town more than I have," Naminé said, inspecting a flower from a nearby bush. How did she get over the fence?
"I'd stay away from people," Riku said. "We don't exactly blend in with the crowd."
"I understand," Naminé said. She would say more, but she was at a conflict as to whether she would pick this very small, light lavender flower that was on a stem nearly as tall as she was.
"But since I'm supposed so show you around, I guess we can try to sneak around without being seen," Riku thought aloud.
"We could," Naminé said, her hand menacingly looming over one bloom.
"Though, that wouldn't really be much of a tour," Riku continued.
"Uh-huh," Naminé muttered. The only thing on her mind at that point was a single question: To pick or not to pick?
"Man, am I indecisive or what?" Riku said. "I mean, it's just a trip around Twilight town. I don't think there would suddenly be a Heartless attack."
"Yep," Naminé agreed. She made a decision to pick the lavender flower from its patch, until a bee buzzed by her and made her return to Riku's side. She wasn't afraid, just a little surprised.
"You think we should just stay careful?" Riku asked.
"Huh?" Naminé blurted out. "Oh, uh, yeah. Careful. Sounds like a plan." She still wanted to pick that flower.
"Alright. Now that that's settled, let's get going." Riku started towards the woods.
"Um, okay." Naminé hesitated to follow him, but eventually left the flower to go with Riku.
She'd get that flower later.
It was through the streets of Twilight town that Naminé was sure Riku was exaggerating when he said that the town was orange. It was clearly various tints and shades of warm colors, not just 'orange.' Thinking about Riku's words made her think or the blindfold he wore, and how, exactly, he was able to avoid bumping into anything as he walked. He didn't have enhanced senses – aside from possibly smell – that she knew of, and he certainly wasn't a psychic. Perhaps she would ask him.
"Riku," Naminé began. "How do you see with that blindfold on?"
Riku seemed to pause before answering. "Uh, well I don't really see." He seemed to be a little uneasy around the topic.
"But if you can't see, then how do you get around places without tripping or anything like that?"
The interviewee crossed his arms. "I guess you could say it's like sight," he said, "but there are no colors, everything's barely there, and it's all just shapes."
"No colors?" Naminé repeated. "That doesn't sound very nice."
"You'd probably live through it just fine, since you've been in a white room so long," Riku said. "I don't think it's too different from that."
"I guess…" Naminé looked around a bit. "So, what do you see right now?"
"In Twilight Town? Hm…" Riku moved his head side to side, seemingly taking a good look around. They had just come out of the forest, through the entrance in the wall, and there were approaching the main square. He pointed to his left. "I can see a post over there, and it's supporting something like a roof." He pointed in front of him, to his right. "There's a long, high walkway over there, and it leads to that big open space that the trams are parked in."
"It sounds like you can see just fine," Naminé said.
Riku, however, shook his head at her words. "There's a section in that wall that we just passed that was framed like a window. I can't see through that window. All I can see is the glass."
"Oh," Naminé muttered. "How about…" She opened her sketchbook and turned to a used page, with a drawing of Agrabah in it. Without saying a word, she showed it to Riku.
He smirked. "Yeah, not that, either. I can see that paper, but not the drawing. If there even is a drawing on that page, since there's no way for me to tell."
"All right. I think I understand now." Naminé closed her sketchbook. "That means you can't read anything, right?"
"That's right."
Naminé nodded in understanding as they approached the Station Heights. Eagerly, her pace quickened in anticipation of what arrangement of colors she would find there, but she made sure Riku did not fall too far behind. Immediately upon taking her first step in the area, Naminé found a brilliant sign of glowing wires that formed shapes of food, and her own eyes lit up in excitement. As she wondered how the strange wires glowed, she continued to look around the town for any similar arrangement of visual wonder, at the same time keeping her pace with Riku. Once they neared the Station Plaza, Naminé saw an odd figure in the distance. Its head seemed to be completely covered in red belts, and the robe it wore touched the ground lightly. It faced away from the two, looking at the sunset with his arms at his back.
Naminé blinked thrice – once because of the brightness of the sunset, twice to make sure she was really seeing DiZ at the plaza. Apparently, those two blinks weren't enough, because she quickly asked Riku, "Is that… DiZ?"
Riku did the blindfolded equivalent of squinting to see who Naminé was referring to. "That is DiZ!" he said with subtle shock. Hastily, he led Naminé away, to make sure they weren't seen.
From behind a wall, they peeked out to watch him. He hadn't moved. "What's he doing here?" Naminé asked.
"Giving us trouble, as far as I can…" Riku chose his words carefully. "...tell."
"Do you think we should avoid him?" Naminé asked without thinking.
"Yes," Riku answered, pushing Naminé down a bit by her head. "But we should watch first." They stayed still for a moment to watch him. A trio of teenagers passed by DiZ and greeted him, and he nodded in return. As the trio of teenagers continued walking, Riku had to ask, "Did you see that?"
"DiZ greeting those three?" Naminé responded. "Yeah."
"Guess he's more popular than we thought," Riku said. That was when he spotted DiZ turning and beginning to walk towards their direction. "Here he comes! We have to hide!" He grabbed Naminé and led them to the side of the ramp back in the Station Heights. After a few minutes of waiting, Riku decided to peer over the ramp. He could tell DiZ was approaching.
"Can you see anything?" Naminé asked. Though she had never really seen anyone peer over anything before, she thought it was odd for someone with a blindfold to do it. "I mean, is your 'vision' really that similar to a normal human's vision?"
"Yes," Riku said. "Now, ssh. DiZ is coming." Riku saw the man in red slowly walk down the Station Heights. DiZ's one uncovered eye almost seemed to glow under the shadow of the bandages around his face. Riku thought of him similar to a robot that way. His pace was almost robotic as well, now that he thought about it.
"Um, I think it would be a good idea to keep running away at this point, Riku," Naminé said. "He could easily turn this way, and we'd have nowhere to run then."
"But where do we go that would keep us from being seen?" Riku asked in agreement to Naminé's idea.
"While you were watching DiZ at the Station Plaza, I noticed that there was a sort of entrance to someplace that had a sign with a '5' on it."
"The underground passageway," Riku said suddenly. "DiZ probably wouldn't go there."
"So, the passageway, then?"
"Yes." Riku almost took off when he remembered that they might be spotted if they moved. They were already in a crummy hiding spot as it was. "But we have to find either a good route, or a good distraction for DiZ."
Naminé pointed at DiZ. "He's distracted right now."
Riku immediately turned his head too look at what Naminé was talking about, and indeed, DiZ was reading something posted on a board on the wall. In Riku and Naminé's eye was the side of his face completely bandaged, indicating that they were on the side that was invisible to DiZ.
Riku nodded. "Okay, let's go. Stay close." He took off in a light run, with Naminé tailing him cautiously. They aimed to go to an exit that would lead them closer to the hole in the wall that they came through so that they could return undetected, but the gates were shut in all the wrong places, and the only other exit they could go through was the 5th one, which led right back to the Station Plaza. Riku thought it was unlikely that DiZ would return there, so he went ahead, hoping he or Naminé would think of something as they went along. Once there, they scouted the area to make sure that neither DiZ nor the trio of teens that he knew were there.
"Clear?" Riku asked.
"I think so," Naminé answered, still looking around. "But why do we have to look out for those three kids we saw earlier?"
"They knew DiZ better than we would like," Riku answered. "If they saw us, and then saw DiZ, they might tell him about the blindfolded guy and the girl in white. We aren't the average faces in the crowd."
"I see," Naminé said. Inwardly, she thought she might've figured that out if she had just thought about it longer, but then decided asking was just as good an option. She flashed back to one of Sora's memories, where Riku headed a little secret operation where they would steal three slices of cake from Selphie. He acted just like this, she thought, though slightly more serious this time.
"Alright, here the plan," Riku said, ending the silent pause that allowed Naminé to drift off into thought again. After a blink and a small, quick shake of the head, Naminé nodded, and Riku returned it. "I have just enough money for two train tickets to the other side of the town. We could ride the train there, then make our way back through the woods and to the mansion. I don't think those three kids DiZ knew would be in the same ride as us, and DiZ himself doesn't seem like the kind of guy to use public transportation, so it should be a safe bet."
"Okay," Naminé said. "But how do you know how much a train ticket costs?"
"I overheard it from some townsfolk a while back," Riku answered. "It might've changes since then, so I'll rely on you to read how much it costs just in case. Anyway, have you got all that?"
"It's clear," Naminé said.
"Good. Move quickly and quietly while there's no one to see us, then act natural when there is." Staying close to the wall, Riku and Naminé snuck into the Station, out of any witnesses' sight.
Once inside, they acted normal, buying two tickets as if they didn't notice the odd stares and murmurs behind their backs. Riku could hear the mutters of, "Who are they?" the questions of, "What are they doing here?" the whispers of, "Those two aren't from around here," the mumbles of, "That guy's got a cool coat." He and Naminé ignored all but the last one.
In the same manner in which they bought the ticket, they boarded the trainm keeping close to each other. Riku crossed his arms in slight unease, while Naminé just hugged her sketchbook. With a small quiver, the train began to move. Neither of the two spoke a word, until Riku noticed something odd. He discreetly sniffed the air.
"Do you smell that?" he asked Naminé in a whisper.
Naminé sniffed the air for a bit. "I don't smell anything."
"It smells like – " The train shook violently. Riku's head turned from side to side, looking for the cause of the sudden tremble, but all he could see were the shapes of the passengers on the train. He deduced that it came from out of the carriage, but there was no way from him to see where outside the threat was. Luckily, Naminé was very cooperative when it came to such things.
"Riku, Heartless at one o'clock!" she exclaimed as a Neoshadow broke into the carriage through a window. Under a second later, Riku summoned Soul Eater and sliced the Neoshdow in half, destroying it.
"These guys are weaker than I remember," Riku noted.
"I think it's because they're in Twilight Town," Naminé guessed. Another Neoshadow flew by. "There's one headed towards the engineer!"
"We have to hurry!" Riku ran to the edge of the carriage as fast as he could, Naminé following him close behind. Heads and eyes followed them as they pushed their way through the passengers. The doors of the engineer's room did not open easily, and Riku had to kick them open to enter. However, when they arrived there, the engineer was out cold, on the floor. The Neoshadow responsible was just about to do one final attack and take the engineer's heart, when Riku sliced it in half just like the other Neoshadow. Meanwhile, Naminé tried to shake the engineer awake, but her efforts were fruitless.
"He's not waking up!" Naminé said, an uncharacteristic show of panic in her voice.
Riku, acting on impulse, took the engineer's seat and looked at the controls. He couldn't recognize any of the controls but the wheel in front of him. What's a steering wheel doing in a train? He wondered. As he was about the hold the wheel, the train once again shook, though it was by far the most violent Riku had ever felt. "Naminé, what happened?!"
"We're off the tracks!" Naminé yelled, eyes wide and looking out the windshield. They were headed straight for a very red brick wall. "Take a sharp turn left!"
Riku spun the wheel around quickly, feeling the force of the turn push him to the side. "We need to find a place to park this thing!"
They were approaching yet another wall, and a store was to its right. "Turn left!" Quickly, Riku complied. Naminé watched as they swerved out of the way, and various townsfolk ran from them. She had to keep track of the movement of every one to make sure they didn't get run over. It was then that she noticed the carriage slow down a bit. The train is only moving forward because of momentum, she thought. Pretty soon, we'll run out of that momentum and slow to a stop. Until then, we just have to avoid running into anything.
Unaware of the chaos occurring in the town, Hayner, Pence and Olette sat casually atop the clock tower, finishing their bars of sea-salt ice cream. Though in Pence's case, it was the third bar of the past five minutes. He took his last bite and began to open another pack. "That DiZ guy seemed a lot happier today than before, didn't he?" Pence mentioned off-handedly.
"Now that you mentioned it," Olette said, "he didn't have his usual scowl on, and his voice seemed a little more light-hearted."
"You guys talk about him as if you've known him for more than three days," Hayner said, with an ice cream stick in his mouth.
"Well, this is the fourth time we've seen him," Pence said, recalling the other three times.
"And he's not exactly someone you'd forget just like that," Olette added. "Have you ever seen anyone else with a face covered in red bandages?"
"Or heard someone with such a deep, epic voice?" Pence agreed. "I nearly jumped out of my pants when I heard him talk the first time. Even now I feel like shrinking when I hear him."
Olette heard a metallic screeching sound from a distance. She looked around, searching for the sound with a sharp ear and a raised eyebrow. "Uh, guys?" she said. "Is it just me, or was there some sort of screechy noise just now?"
"You mean like nails on a chalkboard?" Pence asked.
Hayner shuddered. "Yikes, please, no," he said.
"No, it's more like metal on bricks," Olette said.
Hayner looked at her oddly. "Why would you know what that sounds like?"
Olette shrugged. "I don't, but there's no other way to describe it."
"Well, I don't hear anything like that," Pence said. "Though I think I hear some screaming…"
"Turn right, but just a bit!" Naminé almost wanted to grab the wheel herself, but didn't out of fear Riku might be confused.
She supported herself on the wall as the train carriage tipped over in its turn.
"Have we run into anything?" Riku asked.
"I hope not!" Naminé answered. She looked ahead, noticing a darkly-colored spot in the road, far from them. As they approached it, it began to look more and more DiZ-shaped until Naminé decided that it was DiZ. Her stomach sank in place of her heart. She also noticed that they weren't slowing down as fast as she thought.
Fortunately, the carriage came to a sudden stop. Unfortunately, it stopped right in front of DiZ, who looked like he was waiting for it to do so since he saw it coming his way. Naminé gulped. "…We stopped."
Riku sighed in relief. "Good. I never want to try that again, especially while I have this blindfold on."
"DiZ is approaching," Naminé said grimly, watching through the windshield. Riku immediately opened a dark corridor and pulled Naminé through it.
DiZ looked inside the engineer's room through his own corridor, only to be greeted by an unconscious engineer.
"Do you think he saw us?" Naminé was back in her white room, still somewhat shaken.
"I don't know," Riku said. "But he definitely saw the damage. It's better if we come clean instead of making a bunch of bold-faced lies."
"He'd read us better then he'd read books…"
They tensed when they heard a few knock from the door. It slowly opened, allowing DIZ inside the room.
"Riku," he said with his usual deep, monotone voice, "Naminé, I believe you two were witnesses to what had just occurred in Twilight Town."
"We were responsible for it, too," Riku answered. "Our walk in town got out of hand. We're sorry."
"I don't believe a mere 'walk in town' would cause you to board a train," DiZ said. "There is something you aren't telling me."
The room tensed, though DiZ was unaffected by the atmosphere and stood patiently. He was somewhat surprised when Naminé broke the silence.
"Riku and I boarded the train to make sure you didn't see us," she began. "This whole thing started because I couldn't work properly in this room. The arrangement of Sora's memories was becoming more and more difficult the longer I stayed here, and I believed it was because I couldn't draw properly. Not while I stayed in such a white room. It was too restricting. Riku agreed to take me on a walk so that I could get a good look at some real colors, but…" She paused, hesitating to give the next set of details. "…While we were walking, we saw you, and tried to escape your sight by finding a different way back to the mansion before you could, because we were afraid you wouldn't approve of us – of me – leaving the mansion. So we boarded the train and…"
Riku and DiZ waited to see if she would continue. When it was apparent that she wouldn't, DiZ laughed.
"So much trouble for such a small worry," DiZ said to himself. "All this could've been avoided if you had just asked."
Riku and Naminé simultaneously looked at him in disbelief. "What?" they said in unison.
"I have no reason to keep you contained in the mansion," DiZ said, "because you could've escaped anytime you wanted, and I would be powerless to stop you."
"What?" Naminé said, confused. "Why? How would I be able to escape?"
"Dark corridors," DiZ answered. "Both you and Riku are able to use them to your liking. For your entire stay here, I hoped you would not escape because of a silent agreement that we would collaborate to repair Sora's memories. If you had escaped, then to find you again would be difficult, as I cannot track corridors."
"What does that mean for us, then?" Riku asked. "Is there a punishment for what we've done?"
"Judging from your anxious expressions, I believe today's experience was punishment enough," DiZ said. "Be aware that you have always had permission to leave the mansion, so long as you return." He turned towards the door. "If that is all, then I suggest you return to your original duties."
As the door shut, Riku and Naminé could only stare.
Fifteen minutes later, Naminé exercised her right to leave the mansion in order to pick a certain flower that she remembered. She placed it into a vase in the room when she returned. I told you I'd get that flower, she thought to herself, smiling.
So? A big waste of your time? Yeah, I bet it was. XD
Nontheless, I would like to thank those who read through the whole thing. Leave a review if you'd like.
...It took me way too long to write this...