Dreaming Awake
- Foreword-
This is a Final Fantasy crossover Kingdom Hearts story and is told from each character's perspective.
- Disclaimer-
Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts characters are of Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. None of the characters mentioned in this story are of my property with the exception of Niika. However, the storyline is of my creation and has been created from the separate universes of the two games.
-Chapters-
01: The First Encounter
02: A Second Attempt
03: Third Time's A Charm
04: The Fourth Chapter
05: Five People Without Names
06: Confession Number Six
07: The Seventh Hour
08: Eight Minutes With You
09: Beyond Cloud Nine
10: After Ten Years
11: Eleven Flights of stairs
12: Eden's Twelve Secrets
13: Thirteen Second Darkness
14: The Fourteen Paths
15: Fifteen Hours Later
16: Ending In Sixteen Moves
17: Infront Of Seventeen Soldiers
18: Of Eighteen Year Olds
19: Down With Nineteen Lilies
20: Boiling At Twenty Degrees
- The First Encounter -
~ Zidane
I was walking along the strawberry fields that Quistis had been growing for a while now, they were ripe and ready for picking so I decided I would raid some of them. Just as I was about to get my hands on one of the delicious treats, I saw a figure waiving at me out of the corner of my eye, sitting not too far on a bench. The figure then pointed out to Quistis who was arranging her delicate collection of flowers, dangerously close by. I smiled towards the figure as a sign of my thanks for the warning, just in the nick of time. I decided I would go over to express my thanks more and the closer I came to the bench, the more it became clear that the figure was a girl's. I sat next to her and to my surprise, this girl was insanely hot. I started a casual conversation when I noticed the flow of her hair towards my neck, it gave me a tickling sensation that made us both laugh and giggle. But just then, I see a couple of feet away from us was Bartz, who was probably watching us the whole time. I knew I had to get away as fast as possible from her, otherwise there would be trouble.
~ Bartz
Zidane's at it again. He'd been womanizing as usual but he says he can't help it. I approach him with caution, as not to arise suspicion but he already had that look. This sucks, I was gonna be a nice guy by warning him about picking on those strawberries but that girl had out done me. As a good friend, I want to keep Zidane out of trouble and dammit, I AM a good friend! Several minutes pass and I get bothered by the fact that Zidane keeps starring towards the place where he spoke to the girl. I couldn't help but think he could actually be attracted to her in some way...
~ Zidane
I count to five before gathering the courage to walk back to the garden and start looking for that girl, I just hope she's still there though. Having missed her name coz of Bartz's interuption, I could've been texting her now if he hadn't showed up. Having lost control over my thoughts, I found her popping up everywhere I look... She was gorgeous; like the first sunrise I'd remember as a kid, she crowned and blinded me with her beauty. This girl has got me knocked out unconscious with that face; her wide, light-green to hazel coloured eyes that seem to mesmerize even with the slightest glimpse. Her luscious, apple-red lips and ofcourse her supple, tickled pink cheeks. For someone so hot, she was very polite and soft spoken, quite contradictory of all the other hot girls I've been with and to top it off, she had the sweet voice of an angel... It made me wonder why I've only met her now, coz I know most if not all of the hot chicks here in Balamb Garden. My mind didn't give me much time to linger on those stupid things and I'd been diverted straight back to her, there's something about her that keeps me fixated. Walking out the exit door to the south end of Quistis' garden, I see her running off towards the thicket of the bushes beyond the strawberry field. I rushed to catch up to her, making my way past all the flowers and then the strawberries I had my eyes on not too long ago, only to be blocked by Bartz. I try my hardest to look past him to the moss-covered entrance of Pinnacle Rocks but I only manage to see a shadow run through and my hopes of catching her grow dim.
~ Bartz
*Sigh* I knew it. He wants to talk to that girl and get to know her but I wasn't gonna let that happen. Zidane maybe slick but I caught up to him right on time and stopped him on his tracks. Trying to take his mind of her, I asked him "What's up?" But he had a very worried look then and it made me feel kinda bad for getting in the way.
"Here, let me make it up to you, let's have some fun!" Taking his hand, I dragged him towards the carnivals set up besides Garden in lightning speed.
~ Roxas
Walking around Garden has been my favourite thing to do lately, well I suppose its the only thing I've been doing since Sora and Riku left, it gave time to think about stuff... I was just about to make my rounds again, starting my way down the stream off the side of Pinnacle Rocks. Everything was going as usual, quiet and serene were the only things that greeted me here, until I heard something out of tune. From a fairly close distance was the faint sound of a woman crying and for every second I heard it, my heart inched closer to breaking. Even when I tried to mind my own business and walk away, I couldn't resist searching for the source of the sound full of sorrow as it echoed through the trees ahead. Striding past the branches and bushes, I found myself at the edge of the stream, upon a sight like no other. A girl had been sitting right infront of the water, looking into her own reflection, with tears falling down her cheeks. Not wanting to startle or frighten her, I carefully took small steps closer but my shoes rubbed against the pebbles in the ground and immediately gave me away. As a reflex reaction, she looked towards the suspicious noise and in an instant, our eyes met. My heart raced as I gazed into her deep, sad, hazel eyes; I didn't think to look anywhere else or take my eyes off her. The muscles in my body stiffened and lost all strength to move when I thought of what to do next. Not a moment later, she stood up and smiled at me, to my surprise. As if hadn't been crying just a couple of minutes earlier, she again smiled at me and waived goodbye but I muster all the nerves I had left in me to follow her and somehow mutter "Hi, I'm Roxas" and as those words left my mouth, my right hand came forward for a shake. Again, she looked at me with a smile on her face, then held out her hand and I took it into mine. Time seemed still, even for a moment. Reading 7-o'clock from my watch, she broke away from my hold and bid farewell.
"Wait! I didn't get your name!" Shouting as loud as I could, she still failed to respond due to her sudden rush and with it, disappeared into the crowd headed for the carnivals past Garden. For a while I stood there, pondering about what just happend before deciding to look for her.
~ Zidane
Bartz had literally dragged me along to the carnivals next door to Garden, hoping that he could take my mind away from that girl I met earlier, which he kind of did. Hours passed by since I hooked up with girls around here by the main square, where Selphie's also been flirting with me the whole evening. Fortunately, she'd just gone home so now my mind is free to think of her again. As I made my way over the nearest hotdog stand, I see her amoungst the crowd. There she was, waiting for a guy to finish a target practice game. After he shot down the last target, the stall owner gave him a huge stuffed animal for prize and in turn, he gave it to her with an accompanied kiss on her cheek. I seriously had to find out who he was to her.
~ Girl
"You're late, I've been waiting here for an hour." Cloud had been waiting for me, just as he promised he would.
"I won these for you." He pointed to a bench full of stuffed animals, all for me.
"I couldn't carry all of these!" I protested.
"You're the one who said you love them, so I got them." Said Cloud with a smirk. He then took my hand and walked me across the square, intending to take me to a stall.
"Haven't you won enough?" I asked but he just smiled and kept going. We ended up at a shooting practice stall, where he took a replica rifle and had a shot for practice.
"Try your luck for the big stuffed panda!" Announced the stall's owner.
"Panda's are your favourite, right?" Asked Cloud.
"Yes they are." I replied with a wide smile all over my face.
~ Roxas
I reached the entrance gates to the carnival and began to look for the beautiful yet peculiar girl, however, the huge crowd made her seem impossible to find. Even so, I pressed on and headed for the shooting stalls. There were people everywhere and music played from every direction as the fun and festivities continue but suddenly, Hayner, Pence and Olette had appeared as if from nowhere.
"What are you doing here Rox? Thought you said you weren't coming." Said Hayner with a hooked brow, while Pence and Olette looked in awe.
"Yay! Roxas is here now, so let's have some fun!" Announced Olette in excitement.
"Sorry guys, I just came here to check something out." With those words said, Olette and Pence let out a huge frown.
"That's just like you Roxas, you never even hang out with us anymore!" Hayner blurted in dissapoinment.
"That's not true, -"
"Yeah, right. Let's go guys." Hayner angrily walked off before I could explain.
As Pence and Olette joined hayner, they gave off a look of sadness. A couple of seconds later and Olette walks past the same girl I've been looking for but this time she wasn't alone. She was walking closely with a tall, muscularly built, blonde, spiky-haired guy who is curiously carrying many stuffed animals. She looked so happy with him, unlike before when I met her by the river not too long ago. It didn't take long until they were both walking infront of me and just like before, I lost all my nerves once more and failed to make any gestures or sounds, I just stood there, witless. As they passed, she didn't even look at me, not even to catch a glimpse...
It was at that moment I realised, maybe I was... DREAMING AWAKE...
- CHAPTER 1 END -