The White Castle
I own nothing but my own Ideas
He wakes up, and there is nothing. The walls are empty, devoid of colour. He doesn't remember why he is here, what is he doing in such a sterile room? A girl comes in, and he is relieved to see a bit of colour, if only within her eyes, their blue, light like the sky. Her hair reminds him of light, shining around her, framing her face, highlight, that's the word. She is Naminé.
"Sora?" She asks. "Are you alright?"
He looks around for this Sora person, but there is no one else there.
She begins to cry, and there is nothing that could hurt him more in the world.
"I'm sorry." She cries out. "I'm so sorry."
He hugs her. "It's ok K- Naminé. It's ok" He doesn't know why he had begun with K. He doesn't ask either.
The past doesn't matter.
The white is not limited to the room they were in. It's everywhere. Naminé draws colourful pictures with her pencils and crayons, and their vibrant and alive, but they don't take away from the sheer sterility of the halls. It's lonely, and Sora can't help but think it would be less lonely with colour.
It's light, and he's always been told that's a good thing, except it feels like he's always watched. There's no place to hide, to feel alone. It's hard to sleep.
The only exception to the loneliness is the man in black, who sometimes comes, wandering the halls as if looking for something. He wears all black, reminiscent of ink, staining a paper from Naminé's pen. He smiles at her, and Sora always feels a need to step in front of her, to protect her from him, though he can't place why.
Somedays, Sora wonders what he's looking for. There's nothing here but them.
A White page is empty. It doesn't have to stay empty . But until you make a mark on it, it's a blank slate.
He's not a white knight anymore. He's grey, marked up with her attempts to erase what was there. The picture can no longer be made out, can not be put back together right. There's too many people in there, too many people missing as well. The interlopers once within his head, are now running around carelessly with his memories. The replica, the heartless and the sleeping one, all have their own set of memories, and it's hard to keep them from entwining, overwriting.
She needs an alternate plan.
All we need is now
Naminé is teaching him art. She speaks of highlight , and shade, and goes on nonstop about drawing techniques, line thickness, and Intensity. Its strangely endearing. Through her ,he learns about the elements of design, line, shape and form, colour, space, texture, and value.
They practice perspective on the paper a lot. It's something Sora has trouble with.
He likes to watch her draw. She looks calm, quietly happy, as colour blends into the paper. He likes to just listen to her talk about art, and tries to apply it to his drawings.
One day he intends to draw her right. With colour, but not red. Red seems wrong on her. Perhaps Green.
Their pictures are placed in every room, but the rooms still feel empty.
He doesn't want her to feel alone and empty, ( She still cries at night, and he feels certain that if he could just remember, he could fix it) and he needs to do something before one of them breaks.
If he can't remember, he can do the next best thing, and make something to remember. A new memory.
To create anew...
One day Sora stops the man in black and asks for paint.
The man smiles, like Sora has just told some kind of great joke, but it's scarier then that. He's exposed, and it's very uncomfortable, and he almost wishes he hadn't asked, but he wants this, no he needs it.
"How much paint?"The man asked finally, after many minutes of staring.
"Everything. All of the colours out there. And all sizes of brushes."
And then the man does begin to laugh, loudly and disturbingly, and Sora leaves, before the man notices him again.
He's pleasantly surprised when both paint and brushes appear.
One must reuse...
Sora decides they should start at the top, with a sky room. They paint the walls blue, like the colour of Naminé's eyes. Naminé has not started into wet media with Sora yet, and talks about blending, wet on wet, vs drybrush, and colour pigment. Sora flicks paint at her, and it escalates into an all out paint war.
They had a lot of fun, and both came out liberally splashed with blue. Naminé complains it won't come out of their clothing, and Sora is quietly pleased. The paint on her dress makes her look less like she was wearing an empty page. He likes colour on her.
He tells her the paint makes him feel more like an artist, and that she looks even more beautiful with it.
It makes her smile, and even through tears her smile is beautiful.
Or destroy...
They dedicate several rooms to the sky, for all times of day. Sora likes the mid day room, where he had been complimented on his blending in the clouds. Then they move on to forests. Sora thinks about making a beach room, but something feels wrong about it.
How would he know what a beach looks like?
( Naminé had said, he had lived on one once.)
He didn't know what a beach looked like, and he hasn't quite acquired the eye for detail, she has, yet. Best to leave most of the wall designs to her, until he remembers more.
(Because he would remember, if no one forced it, Naminé had said.)
The original...
They wander through the castle, with their endlessly appearing buckets of paint, lost in a world of colours, images, and each other. They leave every room they encounter painted, a steady path through the castle.
They sleep beside each other, and shyly share their first kiss, and she feels both wonderful and guilty. Wonderful, because this is the best time of her life, and she's happy, and real to someone,not lonely, but in love. She's in love, and she never thought she would experience that. She has a heart.
Guilty, because this will only make it harder when the time comes to give him up. Nothing lasts forever after all.
But she will enjoy it while she can.
One day, the castle leads them to a room, undisturbed by anyone else, with a sleeping teen inside. He's blonde, and he looks a lot like what she's seen of Roxas from Axel, but lighter.
"Who is he?" Sora asks, walking up to the stranger, who seems very familiar.
But then he collapses. And the boy moves. That could be the third person in his head. Hopefully.
She stays with Sora, as the boy wakes up.
"Have you seen anyone named Terra or Aqua?" He asks.
She shakes her head.
"Do you need any help with him?"
She nods affirmation.
With his help over, Sora is back to the top of the tower.
As he leaves, tries to smile. It's been wonderful to have a friend.
But its time.
For the sake of rebirth.
She found something unexpected when she went to give Sora back his memories, someone else was in there. Roxas and Xion were making their own, becoming somebody's. She could not change Sora's memories back yet, for fear of mixing them up with the others. Changing them was all well and good, but restoring them. Not with that complication.
She could however create a new scenario with the ones she had, as a temporary fix. Riku had also been a guest of castle oblivion, and was close to Sora.
Someone had to do something about organization Xiii. Why not let Riku be the hero he dreamed of being.
Kirai could wield a Keyblade. Why not give her reason to do so alongside Riku? Why not let give them a chance at love, together without Sora? No more interference than a missing person, but she was capable of giving him a chance at wish fulfilment. It wasn't like she was avoiding the opportunity for herself.
(She was so tired of being lonely)
It was a temporary solution, she had told herself. Just until there are less memories with others. Perhaps once the replica gave them back, it would be less risky to restore him.
Now the other has woken up. That would make the process even easier then the replica would have.
But, she looks at the unconscious Sora, and her sketchbook, and she can't bring herself to do that. She should have left him in stasis, she shouldn't have fallen for him. It would have worked if she hadn't decided on a wish fulfilment.
Havering Sora to herself, was not something she could give up twice. She was real, to him. And that was all that mattered to her.
She picks up her pencil, and begins moving other chains, a temporary plan becoming permanent.
(Donald and Goofy , to Riku and Kari. )
(Riku and Kari to hero's, in the minds of his friends. )
(Vague, unspecific memories of castle oblivion, and hints that it may have something to do with their fuzzy memories. )
By the time Sora wakes up, she's ready.
"Sora, do you want to run away with me. Leave this castle?"
This time...
They leave the castle for and eventually decide on an empty tower in the woods, that looks as though it had once belonged to an artist.
This time, she doesn't want any lies or omissions. When she opens her memory sketch book, she erases his memories, then hers, until the chains are scattered and they are free of the past.
Let's start over together.
Well, this is an older fic, that I brushed it off, and decided to show it to the world. I decided I should publish more fan fiction in 2017, and stop hesitating so much over editing or trying to write a sequel before even 'publishing' it. I'll admit, the kingdom hearts fan fictions I have published before now are a curiosity at best, but this one is a little more solidly story I think. If pretty AU.
Have an awesome day!