Authors Notes: Sorry for taking so long in updating. I just couldn't find inspiration till now. So now I will give cookies to everyone who reads my fic. Throws cookies to everyone
And to those who reviewed! An extra cookie! Throws cookies to reviewers You guys kept me wanting to write. And of course Destiny (My beta-reader) would kill me if I stopped writing the story. Now I'll stop my rambling and get to the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will. This is just a fic I got inspired to write for a variety of reasons. I'm not making money off of this and it is only for the pleasure of writing my ideas out for others to see. Enjoy! (Has anyone noticed I just keep putting the same disclaimer up? It's just a question. Hehe…)
Chapter 4: Idea!
"Sora. Sora it's time to get up." A light shaking entered the boy's senses again, awakening him from his nice dream. Sora wasn't going to give up on staying asleep for as long as he could, and proceeded to ignore whoever was shaking him by burrowing further into his pillow.
"Sora, we can sit here and do this all morning. Time to get up." The voice just wouldn't go away, would it? Neither would the shaking. Was he never going to be allowed to sleep as long as he wanted here?
"Mm." Sora tried to respond back by saying 'no', but his mouth wasn't exactly functioning fully yet.
"Come on Sora. Up, up, up!" The voice, actually the person the voice belonged to, shook Sora a bit harder to get the boy up.
Sora, seeing that he was going to get bugged and bugged till he did get up, shifted to look up at the offending person. He had to bring up one of his hands to shield his eyes as when he tried to open them a few seconds before, the light in the room had been a bit too bright for his senses to handle at the moment. "Metish?" he meant to say 'Aerith', but his mouth, once again, wasn't fully up to speed with his brain.
His brain wasn't fully up to speed in the first place.
"Nice to see you've joined the living again. I was waking you for breakfast and some more yummy medicine. Don't need you to starve or not get better." Aerith said with a smile. She stood up from where she was sitting next to Sora on the bed, walking to the table that had been full of tools and things yesterday, that today was full of food and…of course, medicine!
"Medicine don't taste yummy." Sora stated, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes to get rid of sleep. When had Aerith decided to show up here?
"No, I guess it doesn't, but you still need it. Now be a good boy and take your medicine." Aerith answered, sitting next to Sora again with a spoon filled with medicine in her hands.
"No! I don't wanna be a good boy." Sora shook his head. He already had medicine yesterday! Why'd he need more again today?
"Sora, you need your medicine." Aerith tried to reason with the boy.
"No I don't!" Sora protested right back, crossing his arms in front of him and pouting.
Aerith giggled a few times at how cute Sora looked just then; pouting about taking a bit of medicine. She guessed he wasn't the best morning person, but then again; she didn't know a morning person except for herself. Neither her son nor husband was very articulate in the morning. So she went with a method that usually worked on little kids.
"Here comes the airplane." Aerith stated, holding up the spoon before 'flying' it in circles.
"Huh? Where?" Sora questioned, instantly waking up enough to take a hold on the situation, glancing around him before spotting the spoon 'flying' in front of him. "Oh."
"Requesting for landing." Aerith stated further with a smile, 'flying' the spoon towards Sora. This time, the boy reacted and took his medicine thanks to the 'flying' airplane/spoon.
"Was that so bad?" Aerith questioned after making sure Sora had swallowed his medicine.
"Yes." Sora answered bluntly, making a face at the taste of the medicine.
Aerith laughed. "Well, now you can wash the taste away with breakfast."
Sora decided to forget about the medicine at the mention of having breakfast.
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"I can't believe that. Sora has an imaginary friend. How cute is that!" Olette was still going on about the adventure from yesterday. She's told Hayner and Pence about what happened at the hospital. Hayner and Pence had told them what happened at the crime scene. They had said that the police came and they were told to leave after giving information on what they saw happen. From there, they were to go back home. So they really didn't have news.
"And then he did the question and answer thing with Roxas and it was so cute!" Olette ranted a bit more about yesterday. The boys had known to just nod their heads by now at what Olette was saying.
"The kid had an imaginary friend?" Hayner questioned, looking to Roxas for the answer then rambling Olette. Hayner was currently dressed in his usual clothing. The shirt with the skull among other things on it, the light green; or was it tan; vest over it, complete with the somewhat army pants that were more like Capri's, and the white and black shoes.
"Yeah. I think he said she was named Firelight." Roxas answered with a wave of his hand. They were currently all in the lunchroom for lunch; and he would've loved nothing better then get to his own lunch then ramble on about yesterday.
"The imaginary friend was a girl?" Hayner questioned further.
"Yeah. Sora said 'she', and 'she' implies a girl." Roxas answered. "Why, is something wrong with that?" Yep, read that one clearly.
"Well, he's a guy. You'd think he'd have a guy imaginary friend." Hayner reasoned.
"Roxas had an imaginary girl for a friend." Pence put in, getting Roxas to look up at him with a confused expression.
Pence was dressed in a white sweater overlapped by a vest that said DOGSTREET on it, and a skeleton of a dog. His jeans were blue and his shoes were blue and white.
"I did?" Roxas questioned. When did he have an imaginary friend?
"Don't you remember? I think you said her name was Crystal." Olette jumped in on the conversation.
"Oh right, Crystal. I'd forgotten." Roxas admitted.
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(Flashback)
It was back in Kindergarten; where times seemed easy to the kids there with big imaginations and even bigger dreams.
A miniature Roxas sat on a circle carpet that looked like a bulls eye with the different colors. Little Roxas looked like the exact replica of little Sora, except with blonde hair, and a little bit different taste in the clothes he wore. He still had the red shorts, but he had black tennis shoes on instead of sandals, and his shirt was all white. Interesting combination of colors, but then again, when little you just put on what you liked.
Building blocks were set up in front of him in a form of a house, or at least that's what little Roxas was aiming for.
A familiar brown-haired girl was next to him. Olette in a simple peach dress, with little design flowers in white towards the bottom of the dress. She was wearing peach sandals to go with the dress.
Children's laughter was echoing in the back round, but the picture was on Roxas and Olette.
Oh, and one other person, or thing. A light blue glowing was coming from the shoulder of little Roxas, a pixie.
"Almost done!" Olette said enthusiastically, putting a red triangle block onto the top of the structure, smiling happily.
"And now for a person." Roxas put in, placing an orange rectangle block in front of the 'house.'
"Looks nice." The pixie put in, flying off Roxas's shoulder and hovering in front of it.
"Crystal says it looks nice." Roxas said to Olette, since she couldn't see Crystal, making the girl giggle.
"Yay! Now lets build a car for the person!" Olette already started the car with a blue square block right in front of the person.
"Yeah." Roxas agreed, getting a few small black square cubes for the tires.
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"Roxas?" Olette questioned, waving a hand in front of her friends face.
"Huh?" Roxas blinked, looking at Olette with a questioning glance.
"Go into daydream land?" Hanyer asked with sarcasm.
"Oh!" Roxas cried out, finally getting why his friends were giving him curios glances. "Sorry. I was just remembering Crystal was all." He apologized quickly, rubbing the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment.
"No problem. You just had us scared for a moment there." Pence answered with a nod.
Roxas sighed, and thanked his lucky stars the bell rang a second later to dismiss them to class. He wasn't sure he could handle the awkward silence that had befallen the group after what Pence had said. "See you guys in class." Roxas said as he dismissed himself quickly, throwing away the food uneaten before leaving the cafeteria.
His friends had nodded at what he had said, following what he did since they too, had to get to class.
Roxas sighed again once he reached his locker, opening it up to gather his materials for the next class.
"It's been a long time since I saw Crystal. The last time I remember was when I was eight. Seven years since I've even seen her. Wonder what that pixie is up to? Or what my friends would think if I told them my 'imaginary' friend was real?" Roxas thought, chuckling at a mental image of Hanyer and Pence freaking out. Olette, he thought for some reason, would just be accepting of it; like she already knew pixies existed.
"Yeah right." Roxas said to himself, closing his locker and heading off to his next class.
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Cloud sat across from his boss, back in work clothes, which was only natural since he was at work. Everyone was in work clothes here.
A friend was next to him to discuss what was to be done with Sora: Squall Lionheart. His friend went by 'Leon' these days, saying that he wouldn't take his old name back till the heartless were rid from the worlds.
Of course Cloud knew all about the heartless, being a veteran in fighting them since he was a kid. Leon was a veteran also, since they had fought together at some point in time. The 'Department in the Affairs of Other Worlds', because of their knowledge in fighting the heartless, had employed them both. The DAOF didn't just keep track of Gummi Ships going in and out of Twilight Town, but the rate of heartless in the different worlds. The DAOF wasn't just in Twilight Town, but was in many different worlds where they worked together to try to bring down the numbers of the heartless.
The keeping track of the heartless was a secret they kept within the company, so they didn't panic the residents of the different worlds.
Unfortunately, their plans had seemed to back fired since the heartless were increasing instead of decreasing.
Leon had said he read somewhere about a 'key' being the way to get rid of most of the heartless; but his prophecy went unnoticed by most except his friends who knew Leon would not kid about such things. Leon had said he'd find out more and pledged to prove his point in this war. Cloud didn't doubt he would.
They had had a meeting early about the worlds being separated by barriers again, and Leon had said it was the best thing to happen at the moment. It meant the heartless would be stuck, since the barriers would keep them in one place also. Luckily for the worlds, the heartless had been in abandoned places when the barriers had gone up. Cloud had put in maybe they had been planning something, but now that backfired from the barriers.
The others called them crazy for thinking such things.
Leon and Cloud had agreed with each other though, so that was all that had mattered. Leon and Cloud knew what they were talking about when it came to heartless, the others were just amateurs.
Back to planning where Sora would be.
"We have a problem. The only orphanage in town is full of kids. Putting one more kid there before adoption day, and it'd be over capacity." Mr. Pretzel explained. Cloud had almost started laughing the first time he was introduced to Mr. Pretzel, remembering a comment Roxas had made about Pretzels one time.
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(Flashback)
"Why aren't you eating your pretzel?" A Cloud asked his son at the table in the middle of the kitchen.
"Because its old and salty!" an eight-year old Roxas complained, making a face at the pretzel on his plate.
The way Roxas had said it was enough to make a few laughs escape from Cloud. It had been sitting in the fridge for at least two days. "Alright then, lets see what you can have for lunch." He suggested instead: Roxas nodding in agreement.
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"What do you suggest we do then?" Leon questioned, getting to the point right away.
"Well, maybe find a family Sora can live with for a few weeks once he gets out of the hospital. It'll only be temporary, till adoption day. Then he'd be off your hands and into the city's hands again." Mr. Pretzel explained calmly. Cloud and Leon knew exactly what Mr. Pretzel was getting at. He'd said 'your hands'; meaning he was planning on putting Sora with one of them for a few weeks.
Not a bad choice considering Leon had a daughter around Sora's age and a wife to watch Sora, and Cloud had a teenage son who would be able to watch Sora while he and his wife was at work.
Not to mention they were the ones who actually had experience in the field with heartless. Mr. Pretzel might've thought Sora and the heartless were connected maybe.
Cloud looked at Leon.
Leon looked right back at Cloud.
"He can do it. I'll be gone with my family on vacation to the other side of Twilight Town for two weeks. It's all already planned and I've told you a few times that I'd be gone." Leon emitted with a small smile at the glare he was receiving from Cloud at the moment.
"I am so going to kill Leon later for this." Cloud thought as he continued his glare at Leon.
"Oh, that's wonderful news. So he'll be going home with Mr. Strife then. Thank you sir, it's a worry I need not worry about." Mr. Pretzel said cheerfully.
"The pleasure is all mine." Cloud said back not so cheerful. Great, stuck with another kid. He already went through having a six year old in his life; he did not need to go through it a second time. Not that he didn't love Roxas, because he did, just Roxas had been a handful for a six-year old, and here they might go through it again.
The phone ringing on Cloud's boss's desk interrupted whatever else might've been said.
"Hello?" Mr. Pretzel said, answering the phone. "Mm-hm. I see. No, I'll tell them right away. Don't worry, I found a place for Sora to stay. Thanks for your help. Bye." Mr. Pretzel put down the phone again, looking back at Cloud and Leon.
"Seems they found out what might've been the cause for the Gummi Ship crash. A few heartless were found lurking around the ship just now. They think they may have been the cause for the fire starting. Mr. Lionheart. Could you go check it out for me? I need to say a few things to Mr. Strife before he goes back to his duties anyway." Mr. Pretzel explained and asked.
"Of course Mr. Pretzel." Leon stated formally, standing up and nodding to his goodbyes from Cloud and Mr. Pretzel before he left the room.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about then?" Cloud questioned, looking from the door back to Mr. Pretzel.
"Well, I have some concerns. Sora…"
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Leon waited just down the hall for Cloud to come out from Mr. Pretzel's 'talk'.
His friend came out a few minutes later and Leon pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. "So what'd he have to say?"
"Just what you thought. He thinks Sora has some kind of connection with the heartless and the barriers going up. He chose us because we have experience with heartless and wants me to keep a close watch on him." Cloud explained walking past his friend down the hall.
"Now lets see this Gummi ship with the heartless." Cloud passed off their conversation with a wave of his hand. Leon nodded and started to follow after his friend.
