The Heart of All Things, Part 1: Dark and Stormy Nights
A Tokyo Kitty Production
Disclaimer: Due to a lack of creativity I'll be blunt: I don't own it. Get used to it.
WARNING THIS CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T PLAYED CHAIN OF MEMORIES OR KINGDOM HEARTS 2. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
A/N: Hideho everyone. This is a continuous work-in-progress plot wise. I have an idea of where to start and where I want it to go but that could always change. For those of you who are familiar with my other work don't fret about this being a large project. I know I am notorious for never finishing them but I have true inspiration on this one. Also, I promise there will still be sex scenes but the story will keep a much more serious overtone (at least until Axel starts showing up) Well, let's get started shall we?
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It was a storm like Radiant Garden had never seen.
The rain had been coming down in sheets for over four days. The usual crowded streets with their many stores had all been closed down and sandbags piled at the storefronts to keep from flooding. I could see out the window of this great castle into the town far below. The town seemed a sea of darkness occasionally illuminated by a great crack of lightning that would brighten the sky as if it was high noon.
As I looked back down at the notebook I had been writing in and picked up my pen there was a loud crack followed by something that sounded almost like an explosion. My head snapped up to look out the window where I could see smoke off in the distance rising from where the town square should have been. I stood from the table , kicking my chair back behind me. It fell with a clatter and I was off, down the great stairs, and through the atrium; grabbing a coat before ignoring the servant at the door who was trying to tell me it wasn't safe.
"I'll be quite alright, thank you." I said hastily before stepping past the servant and pushing open the giant doors.
The door closed behind me with a loud slam from the force of the wind. I threw the hood up over my long platinum blonde hair and trudged down the steps to the wall of the city. After only a few minutes, even with the coat, I was soaked to the bone. I threw my weight against the large wooden door that lead into the city and pushed it open against the howling wind and pounding rain.
As I passed through the abandoned streets past darkened houses it seemed that the explosion had not stirred any of the residents. Looking up toward the sky I could still see the smoke coming from the town square. Hurrying down the streets I was careful not to slip and fall in the puddles that had seemed to form lakes from the heavy rainfall.
I reached the town square at last and stared through the rain down over the railing to the center below. The ground within a five foot radius of the center seemed to be punched in as if a meteor had fallen.
'Probably caused by the lightning.' I assessed. Near the edge of the large crater was a sandbag that had fallen over. It was smoldering now which explained the smoke. I was about to turn away and head back having found the source of the smoke when I saw in center of the crater the body of a thin boy curled up.
Without thinking of the drop to the town square or my age I jumped over the railing and landed with a splash in a puddle. Bolting across the square I carefully knelt at the side of the boy.
"Boy! Boy, are you alright? Boy!" I called to him shaking his shoulder gently as I held him. His hair was white like starlight, even lighter than my own. As if in some sort of ironic contrast his skin was dark like the skin of a beachgoer who spent all their time in the sun. I put two fingers to the side of his neck to check for a pulse. It was there, but very faint.
"Where did you come from?" I said more to myself than to him. The boy looked to be no more than fifteen, maybe seventeen at the most. With long silver hair and perfectly naked it seemed like he had fallen out of the heavens themselves.
"Boy! Please wake up!" I called again. This time I felt him shiver weakly, opening half-lidded eyes into this tempest of wind and rain. I was shocked to find weak orange orbs stare back at me; eyes so much like my own.
"My name is Ansem the Wise. I am Governor of this city, Radiant Garden." I said quickly lest he fall into unconsciousness again. He seemed to smile before closing his eyes once again and falling limp in my arms.
'I must get him somewhere warm.' I thought. Almost too hastily I picked him up into my arms and started for the stairs that would lead back into those winding streets and finally the castle.
0000
Ansem sat at his work desk writing in another one of his journals with natural sunlight flooding through the large pained windows. Strangely enough, the storm had stopped by midday after he had found the boy in the middle of the square. The city had assembled a small squad of people who were now working on filling in the cobblestone ground where lightning had struck and slowly the draining systems were catching up with the rainwater once again.
Ansem frantically wrote in the journal in his own scrawl that no one could read. The events of the night before had been so peculiar he had decided to write them down. There was a loud groan that broke the silence of the room causing Ansem to jump and drop the pen on the ground.
"What...what day is it?" The boy whispered quietly, shielding his eyes from the sunlight.
"Th-the...It's the twenty-first." Ansem answered hastily. The boy had been laid on the couch of his study because it was one of the warmest rooms in the entire castle due to the large stone hearth against one of the gigantic walls.
"You're that man from the storm...Thank you for saving me." The boy answered slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
"You are very welcome. If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?"
"My name? It's Xehanort, sir. You're Ansem, yes?" He said searching his memory for the name the man had given him when he had been saved.
"Yes, that is correct. It's also very nice to meet you Xehanort." He began. Ansem stood from his chair and walked over to sit down in a large armchair that was next to the couch Xehanort was sitting on. "You are very lucky to have survived that storm. Were you struck by that bolt of lightning?"
"Lightning?" Xehanort repeated slightly confused. He didn't remember any bolt of lighting or getting hit by one.
"Well yes, of course. There was a huge flash of lighting and when I went to investigate it you were lying in the center of where it had struck." Ansem explained as if this was the simplest of facts.
"I'm sorry Ansem, sir. But the last thing I remember was you appearing and trying to wake me up."
"Where are you from Xehanort? Your name doesn't sound familiar to me. Are you from another town?" Ansem asked skeptically. He had never heard of another town anywhere but it was always possible.
"I...I don't remember...It's as if my mind is totally blank" Xehanort responded. He sat up straighter and stretched pushing the blankets off of his overheated body. He was now clothed in white fleece pajamas, something Ansem had been able to find quickly by raiding the servant store room for something in the boy's size.
'Amnesia maybe?' Ansem thought, leaning back into the over stuffed armchair. "Do you remember how old you are?"
"I'm sixteen, sir." He answered. Although he could remember his age he could not remember a birth date or a birthplace, let alone parents. Xehanort found it strange that his memory was blank except for these two things.
"And that's all you remember?" Ansem asked. Xehanort nodded which caused Ansem to sigh and give up on this particular train of conversation.
It was at that moment that there was a knock on the heavy wooden door and a servant walked in. She bowed respectively to Ansem and then to Xehanort.
"Master Ansem the Wise, Master Leonheart is here to see you." The girl said.
"Ah yes, thank you. Xehanort if you will excuse me there are some matters I need to take care of. You are free to stay here and if you need any help just ask on of the servants. There is a library upstairs that you are also free to use." Ansem said standing and heading for the door.
"My name is Yuffie, sir. I am hopeful to be of service to you." She bowed her head lightly with a kind smile. Her black hair was cut short and hung on her head flatly. Like all the servants she wore a long black dress with short sleeves and a white apron tied around her waist. The black of the dress made overly pale skin stick out even more. She appeared to be very young, perhaps nine or ten.
"Thanks Yuffie. There's no reason to be so formal." Xehanort said smiling. The girl's cheerful smile was intoxicating and obviously very contagious.
"Okie dokie then!" She cheered with far more energy then Xehanort had thought possible. "You must be hungry after sleeping through breakfast like that. Would you like something to eat?"
"Yes, that would be good."
"Alright then! Follow me. We'll go get you some food and then we'll see what we can do about finding you some suitable clothes. You can't just walk around in servant PJs all day." She teased nearly bouncing around the room until he stood to follow her. Xehanort chuckled and followed her out of the large private study and out into the corridors.
"This castle is huge!" Xehanort exclaimed. They had been walking for a while past forks in the corridors, down stairs, up stairs and back through everything again. It seemed like a maze.
"Master Ansem the Wise is the ruler of this realm. He is very special to us. If it weren't for his achievements, this town and castle wouldn't exist." Yuffie answered solemnly.
"Is he the only one who lives here?" Xehanort asked.
"Technically yes. But there are also all of the servants like myself as well as the people who learn here to be scholars and fighters."
Xehanort nodded and they continued for a while in silence.
"I'm learning to fight too you know! Master Ansem the Wise prohibits servants from the training halls but I've been learning ninjutsu." She said softly with a sort of half evil smirk that looked more like a child at Christmas.
"Ninjustu?" Xehanort said confused.
"You don't know what that is? It's the skills that assassins use, ninjas." Yuffie was slightly surprised to hear that he had never heard of ninjutsu. "Oh! We're here!" She said stopping in front of a small wooden door.
"What would you need assassin skills for?" Xehanort asked.
"Well...you see. I don't know why, but I get this feeling that one day someone is going to try to hurt Master Ansem. I want to be there and be able to kill them before they do." She said sadly. Her voice had dropped dramatically so Xehanort was the only one who could hear.
"I see," He said accepting her answer before she opened the door and led him in to the kitchen.
0000
They exited a while later and Yuffie led him down a long stair way. The stairs led to an area that looked almost like a dungeon but with better lighting.
"The bathhouse is down here." Yuffie explained for him. "Along with where we are going to get you new clothes." They entered through another door into a nicely lit room where servants sat at tables mending worn-out clothes. Xehanort was starting to think he'd never get used to all of the halls and doors in the castle.
"Yuffie! We've been expecting you." A girl said standing up from the table and running over to hug Yuffie. She looked maybe only a few years younger than himself, perhaps twelve or thirteen. "What took so long? You haven't been wasting this sir's time have you?" She ruffled the younger girl's hair before smiling at Xehanort. "My name is Aeris, sir. It is nice to make you acquaintance."
"Xehanort, nice to meet you too." He nodded, acknowledging her.
"Well, with introductions out of the way, why don't we go find you something more suitable to wear?" She asked politely. Whereas Yuffie seemed to have to force the more respectful tone it seemed that Aeris had a natural air to her that was more proper than Yuffie, even at the age of thirteen.
"Are you a fighter?" Aeris asked as they passed into a smaller room where shelves lined both of the east and west walls with small cubbyholes piled with clothes.
"I don't know...I guess." Xehanort answered the seemingly random question. Once again he couldn't really remember, but he didn't want to get into that long story.
"Ah well, I'm sure Dilan won't mind a new trainee." Aeris said searching through one of the many shelves for a set of clothes.
"Dilan?"
"He's one of the arms masters. Actually he's the prodigy of our true master. But he left on some kind of important business so Dilan has taken over. He's fairly young actually." She said taking out a tunic and holding it up to Xehanort, shook her head and put it back.
"But Aeris he's too scrawny to make a good warrior." Yuffie blurted out and then slapped her hand over her mouth.
"Yuffie, how dare you say that to a young master!" Aeris exclaimed.
"Shut it, girl." Xehanort glared daggers at the girl. It wasn't his fault he wasn't exactly entirely developed yet. He was only sixteen.
"Sorry..." Yuffie said quietly shrinking toward the other wall of shelves.
"You need to learn to control yourself better...honestly Yuffie, if Master Ansem the Wise could see you now I'm sure he would be very displeased."
"I said I was sorry..." Yuffie whined.
"Ah! Here we go!" Aeris said pulling out another tunic. "This one should fit right." She held it up to him and then nodded confidently. She handed with the tunic along with three more of them and pants as well.
"Thanks." He said as she loaded him down with clothes. She then turned and started ruffling through one of the lower shelves. Aeris passed him a pair of boots.
"That should do it then. The bathhouse is stocked with its own towels so don't worry about that." Xehanort nodded thanks to her before Yuffie started dragging him back out of the room.
"Since you're going to start training that means you'll live in the training wing. It's actually not too far from here." She said taking part of the load from him so he wouldn't drop anything. They walked back up the stairs and hung a left. After this was a hallway that was lined with doors on either side.
"Here we go. This room should be empty." Yuffie said pulling a ring of keys out of her pocket. She balanced the clothing in one hand and opened the door. It was fairly simple. There was a large window directly across from the door, two beds, a closet and a dresser. Xehanort entered the room looking around. Yuffie dropped the clothes on one of the beds and then turned to leave.
"Don't worry about it. You'll get used to this place real quick." She said responding to the look of overwhelming stress in Xehanort's eyes. "Dinner isn't for another couple hours but you're free to roam in the meantime. If you get lost just ask one of the trainees or someone. Good luck!" She said cheerfully before closing the door.
Xehanort sighed and flopped down backward onto the bed. "Great, now what?" He said closing his eyes. He opened one eye and raised an eyebrow at the clothes he'd been given. Xehanort sat up and picked up a shirt and pair of pants. The tunic was made of a soft cotton dyed deep red. Next to it was a pair of thick black pants.
"Ah well, nothing better to do than go have a look around." He said to break the silence before beginning to undress.
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A/N: Oh my gawd this is so much fun to write...It's even more of a drug than The Camera fic ever was. I'm scared that I actually wrote in first person...how unlike me. Lol, Yuffie as a nine-year-old. She's so cute...and Aeris too! You'll see lots more cameos by Final Fantasy characters let me assure you. Next chapter: fighting lessons and enter Braig! Whootness.