Hey all. This is my first fic, so be nice! May upload more chapters if you like, so
please R+R.
Basically, this fic is set in the universe of Kingdom Hearts and has all the same characters and worlds, but has nothing to do with the storyline of the games/manga/novels ect. Just to clarify for anyone who was confused.
Twilight Town. A quiet, peaceful world suspended in never ending twilight, forever caught in the warm, orange embrace of the evening sun. A world all of its own, seemingly untouched by the effects of turmoil and war raging on in the universe around it.
It was a regular day. Market Street buzzed with activity; shopkeepers selling their wares to eager customers, small groups of people gathering to watch the grandstanders perform their juggling act, boys dangerously tearing down the street on skateboards, and young
children dashing through the crowds, giggling and laughing as they searched eagerly for munny to spend on sweets.
It was on this regular day that a group of teenagers sat at the end of the Back Alley, their 'Usual Spot'. Trains passed overhead, clacking and screeching on the metal tracks, as the group idly chatted about nothing in particular, all the while sucking on sea salt ice-
cream, the light blue treat famous in Twilight Town for its adverse flavour combination.
"… and he fell back right on his butt! You should've seen the look on his face! Several kinds of priceless!"
"No way! Seriously?"
"Yep. Guess he just couldn't handle the awesomeness that is the H-Man."
"Oh, come on Hayner. There's just no way YOU could do that to Seifer. I mean, he IS the Struggle champion, after all."
"Not for long. This year, I'm going to knock him off his throne and take the title. Just picture it: 'Hayner: The Underdog Hero, Undisputed Champion of the Struggle Tournament!' Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
"Hmm…nah. I think 'Hayner: Twilight Town's Attitude Problem' sounds better. What do you guys think?"
Erratic laughter sounded in agreement. Hayner scowled, running his hands through his wavy blonde hair.
"Gimme a break, Roxas. I'm still a better struggler than you."
Roxas turned to face his best friend, white teeth flashing in a confident grin. "Don't go running your mouth, Hayner. It'll get you into trouble."
Hayner jumped up, fists clenched. "What's that supposed to mean, smart guy?" Roxas just chuckled at his friend's predictability.
"Guys, guys… can't we all just get along?" Pence, ever the peacemaker, leaped in front of Hayner, separating him and Roxas.
"Pence is right. You guys are best friends. Please…" Olette pleaded tiredly.
Hayner and Roxas stole a glance at each other, then proceeded to laugh.
"Oh come on, you two, don't act so serious."
"Yeah, we were just goofing around." Hayner pounced on Roxas and caught him in a headlock, playfully kneading at his head. "Like I'd ever pick a fight with my favourite little bonehead!"
"Ow! Hayner, cut it out!"
Pence and Olette sighed before joining in on the laughter.
The group gathered at the Usual Spot to hang out every afternoon, catching up on the day's events and just spending time together.
Far away, at the top of Station Heights, the large clock tower began to chime, its loud, tolling bells reaching the ears of every inhabitant of Twilight Town.
"Three o'clock." Roxas sighed. "We gotta meet the old man over at the Tram Common for work, remember Hayner?"
Hayner frowned. "Oh yeah… work." He woefully released Roxas from the hold.
"Aww, man," Pence whined, "Do you really have to go? Honestly, I think it should be against the law to force you to work during summer vacation."
"Yeah, well, we need the munny. Those ice-creams aren't free, you know. " Hayner responded, gesturing to the treat still clutched in Pence's hand. "And besides, if we're late again, the boss'll have our hides."
"Well, I suppose I should get going too," sighed Olette, rising from her chair. "My mom wanted me to help out at the flower shop."
"So you're all just ditching me?" Pence groaned. "What am I supposed to do for the rest of the day?"
Hayner, Roxas and Olette chuckled at their friend's despondent reaction.
"Relax, Pence," laughed Roxas. "We should be finished up around five."
"That is, if the old man doesn't stick us with extra work, which IS a nasty habit of his." Hayner added.
Pence chuckled. "Haha, yeah, he looks the type. I'm surprised you guys aren't out at the Tram Common at the crack of dawn for work."
"Well, we probably would be, if Hayner weren't so lousy at the job and the boss actually wanted him around."
"Hey!"
The friends broke out into hearty laughter once again. Yes, it was just a regular day, more so for this group than anyone, their playful laughter commonplace in the humdrum normality of the afternoon.
"Man, my back is killing me!" Hayner whinged as he and Roxas pushed a heavy cart loaded with garbage up Market Street to the storage shed. "Why, oh why, did we agree to this?"
"Whatever happened to 'We need the munny', Hayner?" Roxas grunted in reply.
"This is not worth the five hundred munny we've been promised!"
"Oh, stop complaining. You expect me to believe you beat Seifer if you can't push a cart up a hill?"
"Don't start with me, Roxas!"
Roxas laughed. He knew he shouldn't mess with his best friend all the time, but it was hard not to. Hayner was just so much fun to mess with.
"What is all this preparation for anyway? We've never had to move this much before. And everyone seems really stressed out. What's going on?"
The smile Roxas was wearing quickly faded. How could Hayner have forgotten? He turned away from his friend as he answered, his voice flat and bleak.
"It's the fete next week, remember?"
Hayner's face dropped. "Oh…right..."
They continued to push the cart in silence.
"Heh, hard to believe it's nearly been ten years since all this started…" Hayner sighed.
Roxas didn't answer. He just continued up the street, eyes downcast, lost in emotion and terrible memory.
It was hard to believe. Nearly ten years since Lord Xehanort had planted darkness within the core of Kingdom Hearts, the Heart of all Worlds, the brilliant, heart shaped moon suspended at the core of their universe. The darkness had quickly engulfed Kingdom Hearts,
spawning millions of the dark entities known as Heartless, and Xehanort had used them, along with his own dark powers, to kill the former king, Lord Ansem the Wise, destroy his armies, and take his place as ruler of the Kingdom Hearts universe. Since that day, Lord
Xehanort had been a horrible tyrant, forcing all worlds in the universe to worship him and punishing all the worlds that dared disobey by plunging them into darkness. His very name struck fear into the hearts of men, and his reign over the universe had come to be
known as the Days of Darkness.
Roxas was all too familiar with that day, the first of the Days of Darkness. His father was a part of the Kings Great Army, and had been killed that day by the Heartless while trying to protect Lord Ansem. His mother had been left alone to take care of both himself and
his twin brother, who were both but five years old at the time. Her grief had been great, and Roxas could still remember hearing her crying at night, after she had sent he and his brother to bed. Great, heaving sobs that he would listen to, sometimes all night, until he
fell into tortured sleep.
"And they make us celebrate it." Roxas muttered angrily to himself, his eyes stinging with tears. "They make us celebrate the day we lost everything like it's the best day of our lives!"
"Roxas!"
Roxas looked up, saw that he and Hayner had reached the storage shed.
"We're here. You can stop now."
"Right." Roxas hurriedly wiped his eyes, ashamed to be seen crying. "Sorry. I was kinda distracted."
Hayner didn't have to hear the shaking of his friends voice to know what was on his mind. He slid down the shed wall and sat cross-legged on the ground, motioning for Roxas to sit. Roxas wearily obey, sitting down next to him.
They sat in silence, watching the activity of everyone on the street below. After a while, Hayner spoke.
"You know, it's times like this that make me remember how much I miss Auric."
Roxas turned to face him. Auric was Hayner's older brother, who had been reaped more than seven years ago. Hayner barely ever spoke of him, and when he did, it was never like this. Looking at him now, Roxas saw a different side of Hayner, a side barely anyone ever
got to see.
"It's funny," Hayner said, still staring at the ground. "I still remember all the good times we had together, but… his face is almost like a blur to me now." He turned and met Roxas' gaze. "I think I've forgotten what he looked like."
Roxas saw genuine pain in his friend's eyes. Pain and frustration at forgetting the face of his brother, the person he looked up to more than anyone else in the world. A pain and frustration that Roxas couldn't help but understand.
Reaping was by far one of the most barbaric practices that Lord Xehanort had introduced. A few months after his takeover, Xehanort realised that Heartless alone would not be enough to sustain his kingdom, and so began the process know as reaping: the forcible
recruiting of young men into his great army. At first he took boys aged thirteen and over, but realising their battle skills were not well enough refined, he began to take children as young as ten, so they could be given comprehensible training before being accepted into
the army's ranks. Soon enough, it became official law for every firstborn son in the universe to be taken from his family at the age of ten in order to be trained for the King's Great Army.
Roxas still remembered the day his brother, Sora, was reaped. The soldiers arrived at their house on Reaping Day, and when their mother wouldn't let them past, they stormed the house and grabbed Sora, as was the custom with those families that did not give up
their sons. Sora screamed and cried, and their mother fought the soldiers with everything she had, but it was still not enough.
Roxas had often wondered at the nature of he and his brother's births. They were twins, born only a few minutes apart, but that few minutes was enough to determine their separate fates. And if a few minutes could determine someone's destiny, what could happen in
a few hours? A few days?
Roxas lay in his bed that night, thinking hard while staring at the ceiling. He doubted he was going to sleep. His conversation with Hayner and the memories he had recalled; memories he hadn't recalled for a long time, kept running through his mind.
Off in the distance, he heard the faint sobbing of his mother, crying herself to sleep. Roxas sighed. She was a strong woman, to be sure, but the loss of both her husband and one of her sons was often too much for her to bear. It hurt him to hear her cry. She was the
most important person in the world to him, as he was to her. They were all each other had left, and Roxas sometimes wondered if he were the only reason she had left to live.
He turned on his side, trying to get into a more comfortable position. Shaking the thoughts from his head, he slowly drifted off into restless sleep.
Thoughts? Any good? Should I continue?