I.
Today, Xion gets to go on a mission to a new world. According to the blue-haired man with the scar on his face (Sigh-axe, she remembers someone saying), the new place is an island.
Xion doesn't know what an island is. She tries to ask some of the other members and they say it's a place full of sand and water, but she doesn't know what sand is so they don't really help her. She asks if it's anything like the hard ground of Twilight Town, but they only make weird ha ha noises at her.
She'll have to ask Roxas what an island is when he wakes up. He might know, since Roxas is a little bit older and even though they met a few days ago he's really smart and he knows a lot.
"Oh, and Xion?" Sigh-axe says, watching her with really bright yellow eyes that make her feel like she did something wrong.
Xion stays silent, since she doesn't know what to say to make Sigh-axe stop watching her. But he starts talking again, and she listens quietly.
"Stop wasting time. Your mission today requires you to go alone." He opens a portal the color of the empty sky and their coats, and mutters something as she goes in it. She can't make out what he says except for the last word, but it's a new word she's never heard before.
When Roxas wakes up, she'll need to ask him what a puppet is too.
II.
The island is really pretty. Xion isn't sure what the sand is – maybe it's the pretty crinkly grainy stuff that crackles and pops underneath her boots (it's the color of her skin, and she feels her lips tug upward but she doesn't know what that means), or maybe it's the big green things that sway in the wind. But it can't be the blue stuff, since she knows that's called water. She's never seen so much water before, not even when the water-man with the strange weapon that makes pretty sounds took her on a mission and fought Heartless with her.
But the island is a funny place. The sun moves through the sky! It's a lot brighter than the one in Twlight Town, and if she tries to look at it like she does with the one in Twilight Town it hurts her eyes. It's really bright and yellow, brighter than Sigh-axe's eyes and she didn't even know that was possible.
Yet…she feels like she's seen it before. Her mouth stays all weird and funny and she doesn't know why, but she does know that she likes the island.
She feels like she's missing something. She checks her pockets, but the mission paper is there and she doesn't know what it says and it hurts her head to try to figure out but Sigh-Axe told her and she remembers.
So she checks for her weapon –the Keyblade, Roxas called it- but that's there too and it still works because she can smack away Heartless with no problem.
But she still feels like she's missing something, or forgetting something but she doesn't know what or why.
She has everything she needs.
Her mission goes by really fast, since it's just collecting hearts and the yellow fliers and the red fliers are really easy to get rid of. She's done before the sun moves too far, and so she sits down on the maybe-sand by the water.
The water whooshes back and forth, like there's a big heartless playing tug of war with the land. They're both equally strong, so it just goes back and forth and back and forth and whooshes each time.
She closes her eyes, and settles into listening to all of the sounds. It's really pretty too, even if sometimes a cawcaw or a squaaaak interrupts the whooshes.
Xion likes the islands a lot.
III.
"Are you alright?"
A strange voice that Xion's somehow heard before somewhere far away asks her. Her eyes open (and she guesses she's waking up but she doesn't remember falling asleep), and she finds a strange new person standing above her, with eyes that are a color Xion doesn't think she's seen before.
They feel really familiar.
But they're really pretty, just like the island.
The girl backs up with a large sigh but her face doesn't look upset like Sigh-axe whenever she asks him a question. No, this girl's face isn't bad at all. Xion doesn't know what word to use to describe it, but she knows that a nice word would have to fit.
"Oh thank goodness, you're not unconscious." The girl's lips split in two, and she displays all of her teeth for Xion to view. "But…" her nose crinkles, "you may still be hurt. Can you at least speak, so I know if you're hurt or not?"
Xion was told not to interact with people when she was on a mission, but she doesn't like the face this girl's making and she wants to see the other face again so she nods. "Y-yeah…I'm not hurt." The words feel clumsy and forced, but the girl shows Xion her teeth again and everything feels nice.
The girl darts forward, and Xion's body jumps back automatically, flinching up in response. "That's great! What's your name? How did you get here?" The girl asks again, trying her hardest to stay still.
Xion looks away and she isn't sure how to reply since the others would get mad at her if she said who she was, but one last look at the girl's face and every single doubt leaves. "Xion, and…um…I came here to get rid of Heartless and collect hearts."
The girl makes those weird ha ha noises, light and fluffy like clouds, and Xion can feel her face contort in confusion. She doesn't understand why the girl made those noises, or what they're for, but they make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Before she knows what's happened, the weird ha ha noises are coming out of her mouth, too! But Xion stops when the girl stops, and she gets quiet again and hopes that the girl will talk again.
"You're really blunt," she says. "But…I thought the Heartless were gone, after what they did…" she mutters quietly, her eyes darkening as she stares down at the ground.
Xion's not sure what she's talking about, but she tries to say something to make her feel better. "It's my job to get rid of the Heartless," Xion explains softly, "so it's okay. Don't be sad."
Sad…? Xion's not sure how she knows that word, since she's never heard it before. But she looks at the girl, and instantly realizes what it means.
This girl looks sad. Xion's chest feels empty at the sight, like a Shadow just ripped into her with its claws except not as sharp. It's achy and it hurts a little and she knows that no potion can heal it; the only thing that can is making the girl not sad.
The girl nods, pretty red hair dancing in the light wind. "Yeah…and there are less Heartless than before." She shakes her head, and in a flash the sadness leaves, taking Xion's hurt with it. "But this is no time to be upset. I'm Kairi!" She says, reaching a hand out to Xion. "It's really nice to meet you, Xion."
Kairi…
…even her name feels familiar, but Xion can't remember where she's heard it before.
"It's nice to meet you too, Kairi." Xion replies.
"So, I'm guessing you finished your mission?" Kairi asks, looking around. "It looks pretty Heartless-free to me."
"Yup!"
Kairi sits down next to her, and for a while they simply talk under the bright sun. Kairi continues to ask questions, fast and quick and curious, and Xion answers them. They're really simple and easy to answer, since they're things she does know, like why she's wearing a coat (because it's their uniform and she has to) or how she came to the island (though a portal, of course! How else would she get there?).
"Xion, what are your friends like?" Kairi asks, tilting her head just a little teeny tiny bit, watching Xion with those familiar-but-strange-and-so-pretty eyes.
Xion pauses, trying to figure out what to say. Eventually an answer comes, and she says it slowly and quietly. "I…don't have any. Roxas said that he would be my friend, but then he fell asleep and now he won't wake up."
Kairi's lips go down, and her eyebrows knit together. "That's terrible…everyone deserves to have a friend, especially someone as nice as you, Xion. So even if that Rock guy is asleep, I'll be your friend, okay?" She closes her eyes, so peaceful and friendly and Xion's never felt more at home (home…?) than she does now.
She's never had a friend before. She wonders what it's like. "Thanks…" Xion says, slightly confused since she doesn't know what to say to a friend and if she should treat Kairi differently now. "Though I do want to get Roxas something for when he wakes up…"
Kairi nods, resting a finger against her chin and making a hummm noise. She's thinking about something, Xion realizes after a few more moments. "What about giving him…seashells?"
"Seashell?" Xion repeats. "What's that?"
Kairi makes those weird ha ha noises again. "C'mon, I'll show you!" She grabs Xion's hand and pulls her up to her feet and dashes off, with Xion clumsily trailing behind, holding on for dear life.
If this is what having a friend is like…
Then having a friend is really nice.
IV.
Xion walks into Roxas's room and stops by his bed. She pulls out the seashell Kairi helped her find and sets it down by his head so when he wakes up he'll see it and he'll smile.
That's what Kairi said, that he would smile when he saw it. Xion asked her what smiling was, and turns out it was that thing when she can see Kairi's teeth. It's something people do when they're happy, she had explained.
Xion likes seeing Kairi happy. She'd like to see Roxas happy too, since they're both her friends and she guesses that a friend is a person that can make someone feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
"Roxas, I went to the beach today!" She says excitedly, hoping that somehow her words will reach him even though he's asleep. "It's so pretty there. I think you'd like it."
Roxas remains still, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.
"I met a girl there. Her name is Kairi, and she's my friend now. She's really nice, and she helped me find a shell for you. She told me that since we're friends, I can come over and visit her whenever I want, so tomorrow I'm going to go back so we can look for more seashells."
Xion smiles. "Maybe when you wake up, you can come with us and we can all look for seashells together. I'd really like that."
V.
Every day, after Xion goes on her mission, she goes to the islands to visit Kairi and collect seashells. Sigh-Axe sometimes gets mad and asks her why her missions take so long, but Xion tells him that the missions are hard and the Heartless are fast.
He calls her worthless, but that's okay, since Kairi says that she's not worthless.
"That Sigh-Axe guy sounds like a real jerk," Kairi says, walking along the shore (that's what Kairi calls it) with Xion. The sand (the green things are called trees, and the short green things are bushes) crinkles under Xion's boots, and she really likes the sound since its quiet and gentle like the whoosh of the waves.
Xion shrugs. "He's not as nice as you, but most of them aren't really nice anyways."
Kairi turns to her, pretty-strange-but-familiar eyes big with wonder. "Really? There are more than him and Rock?"
Xion's tried to tell Kairi that his name is Roxas, but Kairi ha has and says that she likes Rock better.
Xion nods. "Yup. There are…" she struggles to remember the name of the others, but she doesn't know them very well so she can't, "a lot of the others, but I don't know them that well. Some of us were sent off somewhere and they haven't come back yet, so I don't know them very well either."
Kairi blinks again. "So you live together in a big castle, but you barely know each other? That's strange."
Xion shrugs again, because she doesn't have anything to compare the Organization to and to her it's normal.
Kairi flops down onto the sand and stares up at the sky. Xion lets some of those ha ha noises escape, and lies down next to her.
The sky is really pretty and blue, and today there aren't any soft fluffy clouds in the sky, just the too-bright yellow sun.
They both get quiet, but Xion's happy with it because the quiet is nice and Kairi is still happy. She closes her eyes, and for a brief moment it feels like she's done this before but she's not sure when or where.
After a little while, Kairi talks again. "Hey, Xion," she begins, propping herself up on her elbows to look at Xion, "don't you think it's a bit weird how we look alike?"
"What do you mean?" Xion asks, glancing over at Kairi.
"Well…we have different eyes, but our faces are kind of the same, and so is our hair, except yours is black and a bit longer, while mine's auburn."
So the pretty shade of red is called auburn. Xion can remember that.
"I…guess so." Xion says, looking back up at the sky. "But I don't see it."
She doesn't see it because she's never seen herself. The only times she's seen herself is in the shiny metal of the cold tables (Xion struggles to remember when this happened but she can't and maybe it was just a dream), but her hood was up so she's never actually seen her face before.
But she and Kairi are the same height, not that she minds since that means that she can always see Kairi's eyes without having to look up and she likes that.
"Really? Then maybe it's just me."
That night when Xion returns to the castle the first thing she does is goes into an empty room and sees her reflection in the mirror.
Kairi was right. They do look a little like each other.
But Kairi always glows in the sunlight, and she's really bright and pretty and colorful.
And Xion looks a little sadder and a little less bright, and she's okay with that.
VI.
"Poppet, you look like you're a million miles away. Something on your mind?"
Xion looks up at the strange man talking to her. He says that his name is Xigbar, but the Water-man calls him Xiggy so she's not really sure which one it is.
He calls her Poppet, which she guesses he got from Sigh-Axe, except Sigh-Axe never calls her that anymore except for that one time. Maybe it's because Xiggybar might get mad if he found out Sigh-Axe stole the name he gave her, so he only does it really quietly.
Xion shakes her head. "No."
Actually, she's thinking about how Kairi invited her over for dinner today ("My parents are always happy to meet my friends!" Kairi almost-sings, but Xion doesn't know what parents are or what they do and she doesn't ask), but she doesn't want to tell Xiggybar that since he might tell Sigh-Axe and that would make Sigh-Axe mad.
Xiggybar grins at her, and he makes those weird ha ha noises but they're clipped and they kind of make her feel bad.
"You sure about that?" He asks, raising the eyebrow above his good eye, the too-bright yellow one, the only one he has.
Xion looks down at the ground, as if her boots would give her the answers she wants. Even though boots can't talk, she still gets an answer.
"What do you call it when you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?" She looks up at him, waiting for a serious answer. Xiggybar likes to say silly things, but if she asks him a silly question there's no way he'll give an even sillier response.
Except this isn't a silly question. No, this is a serious question so Xion expects his answer to be really silly.
His eyes darken, wet and watery bright yellow drying and slowing down. He looks away, and brings a finger to touch the ugly red mark on his face. It looks like it would hurt him, but his face remains dark even as his fingers touch the center of it.
"That's called having a heart."
"A heart? What's that?"
Xiggybar's single eye rolls in a circle, but that manages to warm up the yellow and he's back to being silly again. "What, you mean they didn't teach you the most important part of being a Nobody? Jeez, talk about bad foresight." There's something funny in his voice, some funny tone that kind of hurts her, but she doesn't know what it is and keeps quiet. "Remind me to smack Vexen when he comes back from C.O."
Vecks…sen? Xion sticks her bottom lip out, trying to remember a face to go with the strange name. After a few moments, she gives up, and when Xiggybar gives her a funny look, she smiles at him. "Okay."
"Now, let me tell you what a heart is. A heart is…" Xiggybar pauses. "Well…" He folds his arms and stays quiet for a little longer, while Xion waits for him to talk again. "It's what regular people have that we don't. It's what makes us Nobodies."
"We're Nobodies?" She didn't know she was a no body. After all, she has a body. If she doesn't have a heart, shouldn't she be called a no heart and not a no body?
"Yup. We don't have hearts, so we're Nobodies. This means that we can't feel anything, Poppet."
"But it hurts when a Shadow attacks me…" Xion mutters quietly. "That hurts a lot."
Xiggybar gets really confused for a moment, but then he breaks out into ha has. It doesn't take long for him to stop, and once he does, he talks again. "Wrong kind of feel. I'm talking about emotions – happiness, sadness, anger. Things like that."
Xion tilts her head. "We can't?" She asks. It doesn't make any sense, because she knows that she's felt happiness before.
"Nope. That's why we're trying to get our hearts back, and why you collect hearts for us." In a flash of light, Xiggybar summons his weapons, large and bulky but sleek and smooth in his hands. "Speaking of which…how about we get started?"
Xion nods, and as they start the mission, she can't help but think about what he said.
If she can't feel happiness, then why does Kairi make her feel so happy?
VII.
Kairi's Superiors (Mom and Dad, she calls them but those are really funny names) are really nice. They're a lot nicer than Sigh-Axe, and even nicer than Xiggybar or Demmicks.
When she knocks on the door to Kairi's castle (it's so tiny and it looks so comfy and safe just like the rest of the is lands and even Kairi herself) one of her Superiors opens the door; a woman with long brown hair and green eyes with a different kind of warmth than Kairi's eyes. This new warmth is like getting wrapped up in a big fluffy blanket, and while it's nice, she thinks she likes Kairi's warmth more.
"Oh!" She says happily, clapping her hands together. "You must be Xion! Welcome!" She reaches a hand out as she continues talking. "We've heard so much about you, and both I and her father have been dying to meet you!"
Xion sees Kairi hanging around the edge of the door, and she moves her hand a little bit as she watches Xion. Xion blinks in confusion, but she glances down at the woman's hand and suddenly it all makes sense. She takes the hand and shakes it, and when she sees Kairi's face light up in happiness, that weird warm and fuzzy feeling races through her body and makes her stomach do weird flip-flops.
"Come in, come in! Dinner's not ready yet, but you two can just go in Kairi's room for now." The woman says, taking a step back to allow Xion inside. She walks over to Kairi, still glowing, and Xion doesn't say a word as Kairi grabs her hand. Little sparks race up and down her body, mixing with the warmth and the fuzziness and making her feel all nervous and flustered.
The feeling is nice, in its own weird way. She likes it a lot, and when Kairi lets her hand go when they reach her room, Xion feels a tiny bit sad that she takes it with her.
But Kairi turns to her and smiles, warm and pretty and perfect. She ha has, quiet and little but still full of happiness. "Sorry for the mess beforehand," she says, looking away and rubbing her arm. "I haven't had guests over in a long time."
Xion turns her attention away from the girl to look around the room. It's not nearly as clean as her room in her own castle, but it's not messy. She sees a few pairs of shoes (the purple ones are Kairi's favorite, so she wears them a lot and those are the only pair Xion actually recognizes) lying around, and Kairi's bed is a little messy and covered in fake animals, but it only gives the room a comfier feel to it.
"I like it," Xion says, sitting down on the bed next to her friend, "it's not like the castle. Back there, it feels empty, like nobody actually lives there. But here…" she looks around, taking in all of the little parts of the room that make it come to life; the small, butterfly lamp, the pretty seashells (like the ones she gives Roxas) scattered across her dressers, the drawings of strange places and hearts that cover the walls, "…it feels safe."
Like I belong here,she wants to say, but even in her head the words sound a bit silly.
Kairi's face lights up, but not in a way that flipped on like a light switch – it lights up with a warm, soft glow, like Twilight Town's sun, spreading that weird warmth through Xion's body, all through her fingers and toes.
"Um, thanks…" Kairi smiles, still glowing with some emotion that Xion doesn't know the name of. She's seen it before, once or twice, and maybe she's felt it too but she's not entirely sure.
"Kairi! Xion! Dinnertime!" The woman from earlier (Kairi's mom) shouts, her voice carrying itself with an order behind a sweet, cheerful lilt.
Kairi's walking back down the hall in an instant, looking back over her should to watch Xion with a playful glint in her eyes. "We better hurry, or else Mom won't let us have the best part."
Xion follows without another word, but she wonders what the best part could be. She opens her mouth, but something tells her that Kairi won't say what it is just to tease her, so she closes it when she slides into the last empty chair at the table.
Xion turns her attention to the only person at the table who she doesn't recognize; a man with plain brown hair and eyes like the island's skies hidden behind some strange square things on his face, like black metal picture frames.
The man laughs, and Xion looks away, shame building up inside of her and making her cheeks go hot. "Not used to seeing such nerdy glasses where you come from, hm?" He asks.
"Dad!" Kairi snaps, and the irritation in her voice – something she always hears whenever Saix speaks to her – seems so foreign and out of place in such a gentle voice. It doesn't belong, and Xion scrunches her nose up at the thought.
He ha has, and Xion decides to steal a glance back at him, smiling big and large and it looks kind of silly to be honest. "Oh, sorry honey. You know I love to tease your friends."
Kairi sighs. "Yeah, Dad." Her voice is clipped and harsh, and Xion doesn't like it. "I know."
"Anyways!" Kairi's Mom buts in, clapping her hands loudly. "Xion, dearie, I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just went ahead and made some fish for dinner," she explains, her eyes traveling down to the several fancy plates covered in tasty-smelling food in the middle of the table.
"Don't worry!" Kairi chimes in. "Mom makes great fish."
Xion nods, unsure of what exactly to say. Back at the castle, the big scary windy man with the black braided hair makes the food, and while it tastes good, he never tells her any of the names of anything, even when she asks. He only makes a weird harrumph sound and shoves a plate of food in her hands.
Kairi and her parents start to serve themselves, and while Xion finds it a bit strange, she copies their movements, trying to make her plate match Kairi's. She doesn't know what any of the stuff that she's putting onto her plate is, but she trusts Kairi and if Kairi can eat it then so can she.
Before long, the two adults look at Xion, and Kairi's Mom starts to speak to her. It's a little unnerving, and she guesses Kairi can tell because she feels a third pair of eyes on her, calming and comforting and silently telling her not to worry.
"Now, Xion, we have heard a lot about you, but I still have a few questions. What are your parents like?" The brown-haired woman asks, her eyes never leaving the girl even as her hands work with the knife and the fork to cut up her food.
Xion blinks in confusion, and she glances over to Kairi, who suddenly looks like she's hurt. Instantly Xion feels her stomach twist up, and her face twists up to match it.
But Kairi shakes her head and gives her a little smile, and while it isn't her normal smile Xion can tell it's real, so she turns her attention back to the question.
"Parents?" She echoes. "Well, I have a Superior, but I don't think I have parents. If I do, then I don't know them…"
Honestly, she doesn't even think Nobodies have parents, but the last time she called herself a Nobody in front of Kairi, she got really mad and told Xion never to call herself that ever again.
Both of Kairi's parents gasp, and look at each other as if they're both really hurt too. "Oh, you poor baby…I didn't know you were an orphan…" Kairi's Mom whispers, suddenly breathless.
"Um, it's not that bad," she replies, shrugging. "A lot of the older members teach me whatever I need to know, and I have a place to live and things to do, so I'm okay."
"Kairi's told us about those…" Kairi's Dad hesitates, and when he speaks again, his next word is icy and brittle, "people you live with. You're a young girl – you need a family to love you, not some faceless Superiors to order you around."
Kairi looks kind of upset, and she slumps down in her seat but she's nodding, agreeing with what her dad is saying.
Xion can only blink again, even more confused than before. "…love?" She tests the word out on her tongue. It's a nice word, and she likes it. "What's love?"
The other three stare at Xion like she just turned into a giant Heartless, and Xion fidgets in her seat. Her cheeks suddenly feel really hot, and she's not really sure what she did wrong.
"Mom, Dad, remember," Kairi begins, obviously trying to make Xion feel better. Just the action itself does help to make her feel a bit better, though, "she's from another world. It's not the same there."
"But…sweetheart, how can you not know what love is?" Kairi's Mom asks, worry seeping into her voice.
"I don't know?" Xion asks, desperate to push the questions away.
Kairi notices yet again (she's so nice and Xion can't help but wonder if all friends are this nice or if Kairi's just special), and so she begins to explain. "Love is…" she pauses, a single finger tapping against her chin in thought, "it's…an emotion. It's a little like being happy or sad or nervous, but it can also be all of those wrapped up into one. But…it's deeper, and it comes in a lot of different forms."
"…then what does love feel like?"
"You'll know when you feel it. Trust me."
VIII.
It only takes a few more days for Roxas to wake up, and Xion likes to think that he had the biggest smile on his face when he saw all of the seashells they collected for them.
But she doesn't, though hearing him thanking her for them is more than enough.
And finally, they manage to spend a day together on top of the clock tower eating ice cream. Xion looks over and smiles at him (though she doesn't feel the same around him as she does around Kairi; she doesn't feel her nerves dancing under her skin or the soft airy happiness does that mean they aren't really friends), and he gives her a small smile back, but it doesn't reach his eyes.
"Roxas, what's the matter?" She asks, knowing that she may not be able to help him. She wants to though, and she figures that it's all she needs to try.
He sighs, shoulders slumping down, though his grip on his ice-cream stick never lessens. "I heard that the entire C.O. team is gone. That means Axel's gone too…"
She blinks, remembering hearing a few of the other members talk about it. She tried asking the blond man, Luxord, about what had happened, but he told her that they had been dealt the wrong hand, leaving her with even more questions than before.
"He was your friend, right?" Roxas swallows at her question and nods, but he never looks up at her.
"He was my first friend, too…"
Xion closes her eyes, and for a moment tries to put herself in Roxas's situation. But instead of losing Roxas, she tries to picture what it would be like if she went to go visit Kairi, only to find out that she was gone and never coming back.
As soon as that thought enters her mind she feels an icy chill settle over her body, striking straight into her chest and ripping it to shreds. She gasps in pain, and claws at her chest, trying to get the feeling out no Kairi would never leave that can't happen it hurts make it stop
"Xion!" Roxas's worried shout drives the pain away, and she snaps her head up to look at him. Her eyes feel all watery but she thinks that it's from the lingering feeling of the pain. "Are you okay?"
Now it's her turn to stare down at her hands, but she does nod. "I'm fine…Roxas?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry…about Axel. Maybe he'll come back one day."
If she was in Roxas's place, that would be the only thing she'd be able to hold onto to keep the pain away.
Maybe he needs that comfort too.
IX.
Xion doesn't know what she did wrong. If anything, she thought she was doing everything right. Defeating Heartless, collecting hearts, obeying the Organization…
(Meeting with Kairi may be disobeying the Organization but that thought never crosses her mind because it simply can't. Kairi is perfect and good and nothing bad could ever happen because they met, not in Xion's mind.)
The mission wasn't supposed to be hard at all, but that all changed when Xion tried to summon her Keyblade, only to have nothing appear in her hands.
She tried telling herself that it wasn't too bad. She still had her magic, and even though the heart wouldn't go to Kingdom Hearts, it wasn't like Sigh-Axe had a chart on each and every single heart she collected, right?
…right?
Even though Sigh-Axe may find out that she didn't use her Keyblade, she could make something up! She was using magic, and instead of getting the final blow in with her Keyblade, she accidentally sent a fire spell at it and that got rid of it! It was the perfect plan!
…Well, it was the perfect plan, until she found out that not being able to summon her Keyblade made it almost impossible to hurt any Heartless. It took three fires just to take down a Yellow Opera, and that was one of the weakest Heartlesses in Twilight Town! She didn't even want to know how many fire spells she would have to use in order to take down her target…probably enough to use all six of the Ethers she had been saving.
Then, to make matters worse, when she finally found the dumb lizard, it disappeared right before her eyes!
After an entire day and a half of searching, Xion decides that it would be better to go to sleep before she passes out right in the middle of Twilight Town.
She opened a dark corridor to RTC, but stops in front of the portal as the thought of what's Sigh-Axe going to do when he finds out I didn't complete my mission? floated through her head.
..the next thing Xion knows, she's standing on Kairi's doorstep in the middle of the night. A harsh wind is ripping through the air, weighed down by seawater and chilling her to the bone. She shivers, and zips up her coat a little more, knocking on the door and hoping that someone will answer.
She wonders if they'll not let her stay for a moment, but Kairi and her parents are so nice that she's pretty sure that she'll be fine.
A few moments pass, and Xion frowns, knocking a little harder this time. Just when she's about to leave the door swings open, and she finds herself face-to-face with a very sleepy Kairi, hair mussed up on one side of her head and sleepily rubbing her eyes.
She squints at Xion, just barely tipping her head in confusion. "Xi…?" She asks groggily. "W-why are you here?"
Xion looks away, tapping her boot against the ground below. "Um…I can't really go back to the castle, and I didn't know where else to g-aah!" Suddenly a pair of hands wrap around her arm, pulling her into the house. Kairi's eyes glitter in determination, and Xion knows her well enough not to try to struggle as she is pulled deeper into the house and into Kairi's room.
"First, you should really get out of your clothes. They're all wet," Kairi says, opening her drawers and pulling out a pair of plain pajamas and shoving them in Xion's arms. She leads her over the closest bathroom, and it doesn't take very long for Xion to shrug off her old clothes and hop into Kairi's clothes.
(But she takes a moment to simply enjoy the feeling of the clothes on her skin since they're softer than anything she's ever worn and they smell like sea-salt and vanilla and soap and it's the best thing she's ever smelled.)
Kairi leads her back to her room, and somewhere along she way she managed to pick up an armful of blankets and pillows. "You can have my bed tonight," Kairi says, spreading out her things on the floor by the front of the bed. "I don't mind."
Xion looks back at the bed, and some bad feeling nips at her stomach and makes it sink down. "But…it's your bed."
"And you're my guest." Kairi retorts simply.
Xion glances back to the bed, so much bigger than hers. It looks a lot comfier, too, and she wonders if it smells like sea-salt and vanilla too. An idea pops into her head, and it's trailing out her moth before she can stop it. "It looks more than big enough for the two of us. Why don't we share it?"
For some reason, even in the darkness, Kairi's looking away from her. Even stranger, when she talks, her voice sounds really quiet, and Xion feels worry prick at the inside of her mind. "Are you sure about that?"
"I don't see any problems with it." Xion replies, pulling the covers back and snuggling deep into the bed. She keeps her eyes open, watching as Kairi's shadowy body climbs into the bed with her. She faces her, and there's just barely enough light to see the faint purple shine of her eyes.
"…goodnight." Kairi whispers after a few moments. "And…um…sweet dreams."
Xion mumbles something, and she's not even sure what she says but the second she closes her eyes she's out like a light.
Her pillow really does smell like vanilla and sea-salt and it wraps her in a warm cocoon as she drifts off into sleep.
(And she realizes, somewhere in the back of her mind, that there's nowhere else she'd rather be in the whole multiverse.)
/
I've been working on this for a while now. KaiXi is one of my favorite pairings, and I really want to convert people to it. That, and KH needs more yuri. And girls. And fans who like the girls.
But anyways. I've encountered a rough spot while writing it, and so I'm posting this first part of what was originally going to be an extremely long one-shot because I want feedback. Please, give me your feedback. Tell me what you think of it, please. Motivation is always encouraged.
Tell me how I'm doing on character voices. Those are always hardest for me, and any pointers or tips or ANYTHING is greatly appreciated.
Anyways, uh, I hope you like it, and the next installment will get into the adorable fluffy center of this fic.
Well, until it ends that is.