Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Disney or Squeenix--simply having fun with the characters. :)
A Matter of Perception
How do you measure, measure a year?—"Seasons of Love," Rent
Namine measures her year in pictures drawn and crayons used.
Most of what she draws is for others—she made a promise to Sora, after all. So she draws scenes from his memories as she reconnects them.
And it's strange, feeling so close to people she's never met and may never meet, like she's eavesdropped or spied, somehow.
And sometimes, just sometimes, she draws for herself, from her own memories. One of the few times she saw Roxas smile (probably at Axel). Demyx playing his sitar. Axel playing with fire. Luxord with his cards and dice. She draws all of them, though she never hangs those pictures on her walls.
xXxXx
Riku measures his year in numbers on a computer screen. He uses them to mark the progress of Sora's recovery—in percents and fractions of a percent, painfully slow if looked at day by day, week by week. Changes in the numbers are so rare that sometimes he thinks he only imagines them, even with the evidence right there on the screen.
There are times he stares at the computer, as if he could force it to show improvement through willpower and hope alone. When the machine refuses to cooperate, he goes to find Namine, who tells him what memories she's been drawing.
xXxXx
Kairi measures her year like any other schoolgirl her age. There are classes and club meetings, exams and Saturdays spent being lazy. At least, that's what most people think.
In reality, though, she measures it in a very different way—in days marked off on her calendar to show how long it's been since Riku disappeared, in visits to his house to ask if his parents have heard anything at all from him.
Finally, she measures it in the slow, nagging feeling that she's forgotten something important. Then it's not just a feeling, she knows she's forgetting something important. Then it's not something she's forgotten, it's someone. Then it's not "someone she's forgotten," but "a friend whose name and face she can't remember".
xXxXx
Sora measures his year in dreams.
At first they're only vague images or scraps of conversation—flying, a dragon, a red-haired girl and silver-haired boy that seemed familiar.
Details come slowly—flying above a pirate ship with a boy in green, fighting the dragon (who had been a witch), laughing with the girl (Kairi), running a race with the boy (Riku) and losing (again. frustration).
Sometimes he feels sad, because he doesn't know why he knows their names or those of others he sees (Donald, Goofy, Leon, Yuffie, Merlin, Cid). Yet everyone in his dreams has a name, except for the blond boy with eyes like his that he sees just before he hears someone say "Wake up."
