Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters belong to Squeenix and Disney, not me.
Irony
By Alterz
He had never liked the water.
When he was a child there had been a stream near his home. The other boys and girls loved to play there, but he had always found it too cold and too fast and too dirty.
Well, his Other had, at least.
The first time he saw a river, he had been in awe. It was so clear, and appeared so still. He looked down from the small bridge which had been built over it, and he could see smooth rocks and green weeds at the bottom. But then he found, when he had dropped a stick on a whim, that anything that went in was swept instantly away by the deceptive current.
He—no, his Other—hated that.
When he visited the ocean, he had not had high hopes. Good thing, too, for they would have been smashed. So much raw power—the ability to grind a stone to powder or sink an entire town—and it was controlled by something else, something separate and far away. He found it pitiable.
It was his Other, he had to remind himself.
He had become a prolific liar. Even with a child's mind, he had realized that no one would understand. You couldn't not like water, couldn't just not feel like swimming; there had to be a reason.
And so he was afraid. He painted himself a coward's face, and said he was scared of the water. The other children could understand cowardice better than apathy, and he learned, through them, to mold himself into what was expected instead of what was true.
Perhaps that was why he still thought of himself as the same person he had been. Fundamentally, they were not so different. They could both see the dirt in the beloved stream, the strength under the peaceful river, the unseen force behind the tides. The face reflected on the surface was the same.
But if he was the same person, why had the water chosen him.
This fic idea hit me while I was babysitting two very small children. Trying to write this and keep an eye on them was no small task. I hate plot-bunnies.
Alterz