Feel For You

Summary: Kairi's memories of her life before arriving on Destiny Island are few and very precious. If only she knew who they were about... Pre-KH, major spoilers, partial-AU (when it comes to Birth by Sleep at least)

Pairings: Canon (including one-sided), i.e. AxelRoxas (stated by Nomurahimself as canon), PartialSoraKairi, PartialRikuKairi, etc. Also look out for: ...I don't know. We'll have to see. However, I can guarantee at least PastBraigOC(unnamed), PastEvenOC(/LucreciaCrescent-turned-KH character), and probably one or two others you weren't expecting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or anything I might cameo in this story. Trust me, if I owned Kingdom Hearts, Saix would have more personality/screen time, Axel and Saix would have remained friends, and Braig would have repented and been less evil after becoming an Apprentice. Go away now while I mourn this horrible loss.

Chapter Kairi:
Heart of Light

Sometimes, Kairi remembered things. Little things, sure, but none the less they were things she unconsciously deemed important enough to remember through her partial-amnesia.

The sound of a boy's startled laughter, for one. It was a twinkling sort of a laughter, belonging to someone near- or in-puberty, and for whatever reason it was the most comforting laugh she could remember. Kairi got the feeling that she'd do nearly anything to hear that laugh again, up to and including risking her own Heart in the process.

The feeling of sitting on someone's shoulder, for another. She was smaller, then, probably six or younger, sitting behind the head of a tall broad-shouldered man and squealing in delight whenever he suddenly ducked or turned when she didn't expect it. Kairi wondered if, when she remembered who the man was, he would appreciate how happy such a simple act had made her.

Then there was the smell of chemicals mixed with a scent that reminded her of winter. Distantly, Kairi remembered waking up to a nightmare and crying until someone with that scent came and comforted her, explaining clearly that it was only a dream and nothing in a dream could hurt her unless she allowed it to. She blamed that memory on why she enjoyed Chemistry so much, always searching out the elusive components of that comforting scent.

The sight of amused purple eyes surrounded by thick black dreadlocks always came when Kairi had been injured. They seemed to be laughing with her at her carelessness, as if used to the way that she often spaced out when in large crowds. But other times they were laughing at her, at her jokes or her (failed) attempts at harmless pranks. Kairi would have to one day show the owner of those eyes how much better she had gotten at pranking over the years.

Perhaps one of the more disconcerting memories was the taste of Darkness and gun smoke that arose the few times Kairi had gotten into fights. The taste both frightened and comforted her; the owner of it made her feel protected, as if he were fighting for her and prepared to do anything up to and including kill her opponents for hurting her. When she met the person positively soaked in those tastes, Kairi would insist she wasn't as afraid of him as everyone else, even though who "everyone else" was was beyond her.

But the memory Kairi both feared and cherished the most was of, not something from one of the normal senses, but of her Heart. When she was alone in her room late at night, wondering what had happened to make her lose so much of her Heart (for she knew better than anyone that memories make up the Heart), it ached so much. Kairi felt like she was having an eternal struggle, like the Light in her Heart was struggling against some sort of Darkness trying to take control.

For Kairi, her Light always won, but for whoever it was that originally triggered that memory...

It was with a firm sort of resolve that Kairi decided that, as soon as she met whoever it was whose Heart was in such a deep struggle, she would help him resolve it however he chose-whether it be with the victory of Light...or Darkness.

And, in Kairi's mind and Heart, that decision was all that truly kept her together anymore.