Kingdom Hearts: Meet Me by the Rosemary
A Light in the Rain production
Neki and Kixen © Light of Heaven and Kitty Fetish
Reni Concept © Kitty Fetish
Reni © Black Rainy
Xinre © Black Rainy
Kingdom Hearts Characters and Concept © Square Enix and Disney
Final Fantasy Characters © Square Enix
All rights reserved.
Light : -deep bow- I'm a horrible writer…
Rainy: Oo….. Light?
Light: GRAAH! This took me longer than it should have… AGAIN! –doom and gloom-
Rainy: -pats head- There there… You can make it up by making this a really awesome chapter of Light proportions?
Light: -brightens- YES! –victory pose- I WILL SURVIVE!!! –another bow- Think of this as a late Christmas/New Years present, okay?!
Rainy: That's the spirit! –dances-
Light: Chapter time!!
Chapter 3:
Xinre jogged a little to catch up with the slightly taller girl. She scowled as she finally fell into step, "Damn you and your long strides." The rosette just grinned at her and kept walking, "So why are we visiting again?" They slowed a little more as they came to the entrance of the building, the sliding glass doors showing the gloomy atmosphere of the outside world.
"As much as I rather dislike Emo Boy, he does make for a good tap."
"You've been spying on Zexion?! Kixen that's just—"
Kixen started for the door, casting a smirk over her shoulder, "Just my style." The brunette rolled her eyes and started after her.
"What does Zexion have to do with what we're doing?" she inquired, liking schedules and plans to an unhealthy degree thanks to her element.
Kixen made a sharp U-turn, steering the two towards headquarters, "I heard that there are a few other quote on quote 'worthless' Nobodies. I want to see if we can't get Demyx talking about where they're keeping them. Then we can bust them out and make our own organization of Nobody's more powerful than the Org Thirteen!" She got a dreamy look in her eyes and Xinre tugged her in front of her so she wouldn't run into a pole, "Then we can do whatever we want!"
Xinre glanced at Kixen, pondering the idea of going against those who were already so powerful, "I don't know. It sounds a bit risky." Her stormy blue eyes fixed themselves on the towering form of the headquarters, "They could crush us under their thumb." Kixen's golden eyes glowed as she turned to face her new found friend, "What?"
"They won't," she shook her head with a wicked grin on her face, "We will be stronger than even Xemnas someday, I can feel it!" Kixen looked to the sky, feeling the gentle pitter on the light rain on her face. Xinre shook her head as well, but in disgust.
The brunette picked up their speed, her lips pursed, "Power will corrupt you my sister."
The cotton candy haired girl paused in her inner battle, "Sister?"
Careening to a stop, Xinre and Kixen exchanged quick glances, before continuing with their walk, as if the slight mishap had never occurred. They weren't sisters, they were barely even friends? Strange ties to each other maybe – it's very rare that you get two girls who seem connected to each other with balancing powers all in one go – but nothing more, right? Xinre shut her eyes tight, hoping that would send the dreadful thoughts of who her somebody could be away.
Now was not the time for such worries. Now was the time to convince her bubble gum haired friend that trying to go against the Organization was suicide. However, no such luck on that one.
- - - - -
She rubbed at her eyes, rolling over onto her side and pulling what blankets she could grab over her head, "Oh come on Mister Sun! A few more minutes won't kill anybody!!" The sentence being said, she abruptly sat up, remembering that this wasn't her sunflower yellow room on Destiny Island, nor was it her pitch black room with Riku. This was a brand new room, the softened cyan paining her heart a little.
Neki first noticed the large pouch on her dresser, then that she now had a desk in the corner across from her bed, a lamp sitting neatly plugged into the wall waiting to be used. A stack of papers, both lined and not, sat right in the middle, and next to the lamp was a small jar, filled completely with pencils and pens. She flung the covers off herself and started for it, pulling open the drawers to see markers and other necessities for an artist – charcoal, chalk, watercolors, graphite sticks – and a small clear plastic yellow sharpener.
"Mickey, you think of everything," the girl murmured to herself as she made her way past the bathroom accessible from the hallway, down the stairs and into the kitchen. The fire had long since been extinguished from the hearth, the room taking on a slight chill from the early hour. She opened up a few cupboards, a smile tugging her lips when she found a whole shelf full of her favorite oatmeal. As she remembered, it was the King who first made her try the stuff, maple and brown sugar oatmeal.
Taking a packet from the shelf, it took her a few tries to find where the bowls were hidden, then a bit longer to check all the drawers for her silverware, but surprisingly not long for her to find the tea and the tea kettle. She filled the kettle to the brim and set it on the stove, which she then turned on. In the meantime, she decided to take a shower. She grabbed her bag 'o tricks as she was going up - it was where her spare clothes were – and headed straight for the bathroom.
She shed her slept in clothes, pulling out a pair of light hip hugger jeans and a forest green tank top with lace at the bottom for a more feminine look, and set them on the counter. She took a few minutes to figure out how the shower system worked, then set the water to full blast hot before stepping in. Neki bit back a yelp as the scalding water made contact with her skin, and quickly grabbed her shampoo, washing her hair in a hasty manner as she waited for her skin to make itself immune to the temperature. When it had done so, she slowed down, taking her time as she tried to relax and figure out the days game plan.
Neki stepped out, her towel wrapped around her and the water dripping lazily from the shower head. She dried herself quickly and set about changing into her new clothes. She paused to look at herself in the mirror, absently rubbing at the claw like marks on her upper left arm. There was a burn mark on her right hip, from the middle of her side to the middle of her back. There were punctures on the back on her thighs, and on the sides; three on the left and one on the right . What intrigued her the most was the strange design on the skin where her heart was. It glimmered as she moved, a black upside down star in front of a red ring.
It unnerved her for some reason, and she quickly finished dressing herself and pulled her shoulder length blonde hair into pigtails stationed at the nape of her neck. Exiting the bathroom, Neki walked down the stairs and deposited her bag onto the couch, walking into the kitchen and flipping on the radio. She fiddled with the stations before deciding that nothing was any good and turned it back off. Taking the whistling kettle from the stove, she made her breakfast and sat down at the counter.
"The first thing to do is get used to the town," she told herself as she took a bite of the oatmeal and glanced at the door. Neki sighed and nursed her tea, "Sure… Sounds easy enough, but actually getting me out of the house is going to be the difficult part." Musing to herself the pros and cons, she finished her breakfast and deposited the dishes into the sink to be cleaned later.
Neki grabbed her bag and went to the door, opening it and stepping out into the late morning sun rays, "I guess the school would be first." She blinked, "My first school year without Riku to copy off of!" She barked a laugh and started down the street, "This should be interesting."
- - - - -
Reni slowed to a stop, her hand messing with a strand of hair. Out of habit, Sora slowed as well, causing the others to stop, "What's the matter Reni?" inquired Jiminy, having a feeling it was the same as he.
"Axel... Something about what he said just sets me off…" Jiminy hopped onto her shoulder and nodded, "The same huh…"
Sora rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in a defiant manner, "Come on, how in the worlds can I be any one but me?" Reni smiled at his use of worlds instead of just one, something he must have picked up from the blonde duo.
"Well yeah, but it's still always better to be careful. Safe then sorry, right?" Jiminy said as he hopped from Reni's shoulder to Sora's.
Goofy nodded and faced away from Reni, who looked unconvinced by Sora's smiling face, "Yeah, just about anything could happen in here. This uh… Castle Oblibbity… er, Oblostemy… Oble—"
"OBLIVION!" Donald shrieked, his eye twitching as his friend's lack of brain power.
"That's what I was going to say thank you!" Goofy huffed and turned around, missing Reni tackle Donald to keep him from bashing the soldier's head in.
Oblivious as usual, Sora turned around to Donald dusting off his clothes and Reni fixing her hair, both coughing lightly, "We'll be fine. Whatever they're cooking up, we can take it tenfold."
Reni rubbed at her thigh, "Well maybe not tenfold, but we can handle whatever they've got to throw at us…"
Goofy blinked, "Hey, remember that other castle we explored together? With all the doohickeys and contraptions and such?"
Every one paused to think.
"When was that?"
"What was I wearing?"
"Were you on anything?"
The two teens stopped to stare at Donald, who cleared his throat, "Oh for Pete's sake, can you remember the name?" Goofy shook his head.
"You sure you didn't make it up?" asked Sora, grinning coyly at his friend.
Goofy shuffled his feet, "I don't think so…"
Reni shrugged and paraded the group to the door, "Who cares! Let's go on to the next world room thinger place already!" Sora jumped up the stairs and shuffled through their cards; Agrabah, Halloween Town, Monstro, Wonderland, and Olympus Coliseum.
The blonde sighed at their choices. Any way they went there were going to be hard times for her here, that much she could already see. Her heart was aching to see Neki, but knowing that it would be an illusion dejected her. She placed her head on his shoulder and pointed at the only card that didn't have anything to do with Neki, "Let's do that one first! And Wonderland last, okay?"
He nodded, guessing it was one of those things he wouldn't get to know, and filed through the cards again, decided on Agrabah. He held it up to the door, and the group was enshrouded in a brilliant white light. Everyone threw up their arms, protecting their eyes from the light as they walked through the entrance to the next level.
- - - - -
Kixen leaned into the couch in Demyx's room, the Nobody leaning onto the arm of the couch. Xinre sat on the other side of the couch wearing a sour expression at how the conversation was progressing.
"But Demyx," Xinre said, looking up from her cup of hot chocolate the Mohawk clad boy had offered them, "Why would they do such a thing?" Her brows furrowed, "Locking up fellow Nobodies for such a stupid reason…"
Demyx shrugged, honestly not knowing the answer himself, "It's a touchy subject for a few of us. Luxord, Xigbar and myself were the ones sent to lock them up. Zexion," he paused and shuffled his feet, "Zexion was the one who gave us the order."
The pink haired Nobody growled, setting her drink by her feet, "So what? We all know that even if Zexion gave the orders, it was his idea." She stood and walked over to the window over looking the city, "Demyx."
"No."
She turned to stare at him, "What?"
"I'm not telling you where," he stated, making a move to wash out his half full cup.
Starting for him, she was stopped by Xinre's hand, "Demyx, it's not like we're planning a revolt. We just want to meet others like us. The ones who've been rejected." She glanced at Kixen, who had gone back to the couch, "The real Nobodies."
Demyx sighed, rubbing the side of his face as he thought over his options, "I'm sorry. But that's not for you to know."
Kixen stood again, "What, members only?"
"Something like that."
She growled, her hair bristling as the air around her crackled. Xinre backed away from the energy rolling off of her companion – it wasn't settling with her well, "Fine then I'll just have to force it out of you." He was going to say something along the lines of 'with what power?' when he noticed her hand. Dark swirls of black and red enveloped the appendage, growing more luminescent with every second, with every angry breath. He blinked, and in place of the energy was an elegant whip; a single tip and a deep russet finish. She cracked it and charged, giving him barely enough time to summon his sitar.
Kixen spun, intending on kicking him in the gut. Demyx retaliated by raising his arm high, meaning to summon a water whip to challenge hers. Before either could, there's was a blinding white light and they were pulled to a halt by forces they couldn't see. When the light faded, Kixen saw that Demyx had been stopped by dogs of some sort. She herself had been bond by something, and a turn of her head showed her that it was Demyx's water clones. Xinre stood between them, her hands spread, a palm in either's face.
"Stop it."
The hounds and clones dissipated into the air, letting the two drop to the floor. Xinre's breath was labored but she remained standing.
"What… was that?"
A voice called to them from the doorway, "It seems you've awakened some powers."
"Axel!"
The said fiery red head grinned and folded his arms across his chest, "Well well well, look who's growing up without me!" Kixen pulled herself up to her full height, glaring at Demyx before making her way to Axel's side.
"Explain if you would." Xinre panted, clutching the pain in her side as she tried to catch her breath.
"It appears that the circumstances for the two of you to obtain powers are finally unvealed." Kixen gave him a 'do go on' look, poking and prodding his ego, "Kixen, when you are angry, when someone is angry at you. Where ever there is malice, you're powers will react accordingly. You 'feed' of the hateful energy of people's hearts so to speak." He inclined his head to the brunette in front of him, "And you, Xinre, receive powers when things get out of hand, when their not to your liking."
"Like when Kixen and I were about to fight?" Demyx asked, staggering to his feet. Axel nodded.
"Exactly like that. It wasn't something Xinre wanted to happen, and so she learned a new power."
Xinre flexed her hands, "And my power is?"
Axel grinned, making his way to the door with Kixen in tow, "You can control others abilities for a short amount of time." Poking the rosette in the side, he turned to her, "You learned to summon your weapon. Great form I might add." He winked to prove his point and she smacked his arm, "I've got to return…Kixen, be good." With that, a dark portal opened up and Axel disappeared inside of it, leaving the three to the tense atmosphere of the room.
Kixen stretched, giving Demyx a wave over her shoulder, "I'll be leaving first then." Xinre nodded and followed after she gave Demyx a wave of her own.
This would be the first of many battles.
- - - - -
"Hey Reni…"
The said blonde lowered her hand to glance over her shoulder at her brown haired companion, "What is it Sora? We've got to hurry and get out of here." Goofy pointed in front of her and she resumed her prior stance, "Oh!!"
"Someone's in trouble!" Donald added, "We better help them!"
Sora nodded and summoned the Keyblade as he ran, prepared to fight. Reni ran past with her bow drawn and eliminated a large group with a Blizzard packed arrow. She drew and fired at speeds he didn't know the blonde had, and in his staring, was almost tackled by a Shadow, "GAH!" He jumped and spun, bringing his weapon down and sliced it in half.
The girl scowled, "Keep your wits about you Sora!"
Donald was huffing as another group came from the floor, "They just keep coming! We can't do this forever!!"
The man who they'd gone to save frowned and slipped his sword into his sash, "Better see if the legends are true then!" He pulled something out in his swords placed and held it up, "Magic lamp, my first wish!! Get rid of these Heartless!" A puff of blue smoke exploded from the tip, and a figure flew up into the air from it, spinning the smoke away to reveal a blue ghost like figure.
"Did someone say 'wish'? Then stand back, kids, genie of the lamp coming through," 'Genie' yelled happily, "There ain't nothing' I can't make right as rain – well, if we got rain. But enough dry jokes! One heartless disappearing act, coming right up!" he came down beside the group and lifted a hand. With a poof of black, the swarm in around them vanished without a trace.
"Gawrsh!" Goofy cried.
Reni did as well, but for a much different reason, "DUDE! His 'talking all in one breath' skill rival's Sora's!!" Her eyes were wide and she was slightly slack jawed, "Wow…"
Donald turned to the man, "Why didn't you call him in the first place?" It was clear that he was trying to make his displeasure with curiosity.
"Well it's not that easy. You see—"
The blue form cut in with a flourish of his hands, "I couldn't have said it any better myself, but I will anyway! I'm strictly limited to three wishes per master. And no wishing for more wishes – that upsets the wishing balance…" He poofed away after that and Reni sighed with relief.
Sora gave the youth a smile, "Well you've still got two wishes! Use 'em the right way, you know?" the black haired kid nodded.
"I've got to get back to the palace somehow! But… with all these Heartle—"
"WE'LL HELP!"
The group of males turned to the beaming Reni, "What?"
"I said we'll help! We've been doing this for so long that the skills are embedded in our brains!" She picked at the dirt under her nails, "If anyone is going to help him, it might as well be us!"
The duck sighed and turned to Sora, "We're going that way anyway so we might as well—GAH!" The girl frowned as she grabbed the man's arm and started down the path.
"Sorry about him Aladdin, he's a selfish moron." Reni careened to a stop, giving Aladdin enough time to think about whether it was really okay to smack a comrade like that, "Wait…" She shook her head, "Um, which way is the palace again?"
Aladdin laughed and herded Reni down a different path, "This way."
- - - - -
Neki grumbled to a small piece of salmon colored paper, visibly angered by the words written there, "Mathematics RIGHT before lunch?! You've got to be kidding me…" With a sigh she shrugged, "Well I'll be failing that class without the help of randomly leaving for missions…" She tucked away the piece of paper into her back pockets and began her trek back home.
She flipped her backpack of her shoulder and began looking through it for her list of things to do that Mickey left her. Pulling it out, she scanned the items.
Get used to the town – in case you need to make a hasty escape
Find a group of friends – easier to blend in and stay unnoticed
Find the answer to the first clue – you need to start your journey now
Good luck!
Heaving a tired sigh, she reread the small note. So intent was she, that Neki didn't notice the group of teens coming from around the corner until –WHAM! – "GAH!" She found herself flat on her butt and staring up into bright green eyes, "Neki! Be careful!!"
The people behind him jumped to attention, shouting sentences like "How do you know her?" and "She's a friend of yours?" She continued to stare at him while he fought down the questions to quiet murmurs within the group.
'Neki?? He knows my name?! Who the hell is this guy…?'
Apparently, one of the teen's friends was thinking similar thoughts and came forward. He had slightly dirty blonde hair that was spiked up. He wore a black wife beater with a skull design on the front, a short unbuttoned army green jacket and camouflage shorts. He stared down at her with chocolate brown eyes filled with curiosity, "How do you know Aio?"
"Aio?" She asked back and the boy she had bumped into pulled her up and gave her a hug, one she shakily returned – his mouth near her ear, he hummed a tune. Her eyes widened as her mind recognized it as Mickey's theme, "M-O-U-S-E," she whispered back and he nodded, "Aio! Geeze, it's been a while..."
"I know!" He chuckled and with one hand wrapped around her waist, turned her to face his friends, "The rude one here is Hayner, the other guy is Pence, and the girl of the group is Olee—"
"Will you go shopping with me?!?" the girl pleaded, her green eyes large and misty with the promise of tears. The males all groaned and shook their heads at the question.
"Olette!"
"Um…Sure?" Neki squeaked and the girl bounced up and down, taking Neki's arms, which she had grabbed onto, with her. The blonde gave her new friend a strained look, who replied with a sigh.
Stepping up next to her, Aio grinned, "I guess the only way I'm going to get caught up with you is if I go shopping too," He gave Olette a devious look, "Smart plan dear Olette… Smart plan." She flashed him a grin and a peace sign and began marching the two towards a nearby clothes shop, giving Neki a chance to look over Aio.
He had icy blue hair, straight with slight emo bangs and brilliantly grey green eyes. His face structure was softer than Riku's she noted immediately. Underneath his white zip up hoodie was a dark grey shirt for a local band. His pants were slightly tight, but not overly so, with holes all over the place. He must have noticed her staring because he looked down at her and smiled. Neki mentally smacked herself for the blush that crossed her face as she sped up to link arms with Olette.
"So is orange your favorite color?"
- - - - -
END
Light: I was going to have a Riku part at the end I SWEAR!! TAT
Rainy: But?
Light: I can't beat the ReplicRiku to GET to the Riku half of CoM and the manga got taken down of the sight I use and more random excuse for denying Riku.
Riku: I hate you.
Light: I figured that…But at least I'm done?
Riku: nojoophail!
Rainy: YES!!! Yes, at least you finished it! –nervous laughter as she drags Riku away-
This Chapter brought to you by:
Light of Heave
Next Chapter sponsored by:
Black Rainy!
Review!! You can do it!
