A/N: So, here's the start of a new challenge, because my brain is fickle like that. This is Wishing-Fire's Memories challenge, in which you had to pick a couple, and write 150-600 words per theme. I'm a fair ways along in this challenge, and I expect to complete it soon. This is my main writing focus of the moment, but after it's complete, expect a flurry of Mangoes and Limes updates at the least, and possibly some Beats in Time as well. Don't Get Caught in Foreign Towers, meanwhile, is being outlined. So...yeah, I think that's about where things stand at the moment.

Pairings: Olette/Naminé, with some unrequited Sora/Naminé.

Warnings: Hey, lookit there, it's some YURI, aka girl/girl love. And some het too, oh my! Seriously though, no flaming, mkay guys? And angst, etc, etc. It's me, and this story is in-game. If you expect anything other than angst from me under these conditions, I'll be surprised.

Dedication: To Ghostwriter, because it was through her influence that I even thought of shipping Olette/Namine in the first place. And also to Fruity-Fruit-Cups, because she is the first person (outside of Ghostwriter and Lauren, but you two almost don't count at this point, seeing as we're all almost the same person) I've met who ships this pairing. And thanks also for actually knowing who Prince Phillip is. Anyway, so here's to the both of you, and to anyone else who thinks that there needs to be more yuri/femmeslash in the world.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I think it should be obvious that I never have. Oh, the things I would have done…but anyway, it all belongs to Square Enix and Disney, the lucky bastards.

Watercolor in the Rain

Curiosity

If DiZ could have had his way about absolutely everything, he would have preferred Naminé to spend her every waking moment, and then forgo hours of sleep, to work on 'fixing' Sora's memory. Fixing. As if all she was doing was picking up a few scattered puzzle pieces, and then just plopping them back into place, there, the problem's all solved.

Sure, Naminé supposed that one could liken her work to that of a puzzle. But it was a puzzle of infinite complexity and layers, the pieces miniscule, and there tens of thousands, millions, of them. It was incredible, really, how rich and abundant they were, these memories that Sora had accumulated in a mere fourteen years of life.

And this was all under the apparent assumption that Naminé had all of the pieces of his memory. Which she didn't. Some of them seemed to have retreated to the deepest recesses of his mind, and still others…it was as if they were drifting away, being carried along in some kind of current. And Naminé was afraid that she knew exactly where they were going. But she didn't dare to bring it up. Not yet. Maybe it wouldn't matter. She could hope, anyway.

The point, though, is that DiZ was not having his way about absolutely everything, and Naminé was most certainly not spending every possible moment 'fixing' Sora.

It wasn't as if she was doing it this way just to spite DiZ. And she would keep her promise to Sora, to make this all right, even if it killed her. It was just…Naminé wondered if this was heartbreak, this ache that had taken up residence in her chest that shouldn't be there. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her, maybe this was a spillover from the part of herself that was Kairi, the part that was connected to Sora, to Somebodies, but she felt pain, as she took apart the memories that she had—lovingly, yes, she admitted it—crafted, of her and Sora together, when he promised that she was the only thing that mattered to him, when she had never meant anything to anyone…

Yes, it hurt very much, to have to break apart the chains, to cast herself deep into the shadows of the only heart that had ever cared for her.

And so when the mansion became to stifling for her to bear anymore, when the pain started to make her want to claw at her empty chest, she slipped out into Twilight Town.

Today, she had dared to open a portal to the beach. The faint sound of the ocean had been a background lullaby since she came here, but she had never seen it before. She wanted to see it, just once.

As she watched the waves, the two boys playing amongst them, laughing, smiles flashing like the sun, Naminé felt lonely once again, like she was back at square one. As if she had never even left Castle Oblivion.

The sound of shifting footsteps in the sand behind her made her tense, afraid that it was Riku, there to drag her back to the mansion. But when her frightened eyes darted up, it was to see a brunette girl holding three watermelons; Naminé recognized her as a local.

The girl's eyes were green like Axel's, but a warm shade that his had never been able to achieve. "Oh! I'm sorry for scaring you like that. Are you new around here? My name's Olette. What's yours?"

Naminé was silent, staring at—Olette. No one had ever asked for her name before.

"It's Naminé."