I'm sososososososososososo sorry. I've been swamped with school and family junk, and I hate Wonderland. I've seriously written this 7 times, and I'm still not too happy with it. Try and enjoy and I'll try and be better about this.
I had been walking around for awhile with Cheshire, cracking all his riddles as we searched for the Queen. I didn't mind spending time with the cat, but the walking was starting to get to me.
"Okay kitty cat, enough of this. Is this Queen chick really in the forest or not?" I asked.
"My dear mistress, it's really quite simple. The Queen waits for you in the place where the rabbit entices you to join in our parade. A place where our world meets yours and judgement is made," he responded.
I had to admit, this was a hard one. The riddle itself seemed almost too easy. My first reaction was to go to the courtroom because there were judgements made there. Then I thought that I should go to the world's entrance, since that's where our worlds met. Or maybe I was supposed to go to somewhere with a parade? I needed to figure this out. I couldn't let Sora down.
Sora's POV
This tea party is never going to end...I've been here for what seemed like a lifetime and all I wanted to do was drown myself in the now cold tea in front of me.
From the moment I left Yumi's side Alice had been complaining. It started out with how I never came to visit and how she was always so alone. Then we reached the tea party, and she complained about how no one wished her a happy birthday right away. After that she complained about how everyone was talking in riddles and how I was just plain not talking. I couldn't take this much longer. Why hasn't Yumi come to save me from this torture yet?!
"Sora? Sora why aren't you listening to me?" Alice asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I can't believe you! It's my birthday and you aren't even paying attention to me! I bet you're thinking of that Kairi girl. Why are you thinking about her on MY birthday?"
"Alice, I'm not thinking about Kairi," I told her, just wishing for her to be quiet.
"Oh. Well why not?"
"Because I'm wondering where Yumi is," I responded.
I instantly regretted it.
"Why are you thinking about her? Aren't you with Kairi? Why is Yumi more important than her? Or me! It's my birthday after all Sora and you're my date. You should be worried about making me happy!"
Oh god...this chick never shuts UP.
"Sora...answer me!"
"Uh...what do you want me to answer first?"
She tapped her finger against her glass.
"Well, what happened with you and Kairi? I thought you loved her...or do you still? It's hard to tell when you don't talk to me Sora."
As much as I didn't want to talk to Alice about this, I figured maybe if I talked I could get her to be quiet for a little bit.
"Kairi and I just drifted. She started to have feelings for someone else and I just lost interest. She's one of my best friends, don't get me wrong. But it just wasn't there anymore."
Alice nodded, feigning interest.
"Hmm, I see. Well, now that we've talked about all your issues for so long, maybe you can focus on me!"
I didn't really know what to ask her, so I took a random stab at something that might be interesting to hear.
"How did you come too Wonderland?"
She tapped her finger to her chin.
"Well...one day I was lying in a field of flowers. I was wishing for my imagination to come true and I saw the while rabbit hop by. Curiosity got the best of me and I followed the rabbit and came to Wonderland!"
The white rabbit looked over and nodded.
"I was told to find the girl who was just as crazy as the rest of us. To see if she'd want to join us. And here she is today!" he said.
"I am not crazy!" Alice said, acting quite offended.
I rolled my eyes.
"Keep telling yourself that..." I muttered under my breath, taking a sip of my tea.
Yumi's POV
I walked into the bizarre room after exhausting all my other ideas. I climbed up the table and ate a crumb from the cookies. In a flash I was my normal size again, sitting on the table.
"Why is this so hard?! Riku...I wish you could help me with this," I said to no one.
Riku and I used to tell each other riddles all the time. It was one of the dumb things we did together. That boy better be taking care of himself...
I got up off the table and walked towards the door of a million doors. I figured I would go back to the ship and take a hot shower. Maybe that would help me think better.
As I walked into the room Sora and I had entered the world in, I realized I had no idea how I was going to get to the ship. I started looking around the room for a ladder or something I could stack to climb up. While I was looking I saw a light near a grandfather clock on the wall. Curious about what it was I moved the clock to reveal a rabbit hole.
'Wonder where this leads...'
I thought about going to get Sora before venturing somewhere new, but I knew he probably just wanted to relax and not deal with any nonsense I would run into. Besides, I was a big kid. I can handle anything by myself! I crawled through the hole and was pretty much blinded the whole way through. Once I reached the end of the tunnel I stood up and brushed myself off.
"Where am I?" I asked out loud, noticing the field of flowers in front of me.
Something didn't feel right, but I wasn't quite sure of what it was. I kind of felt like I was in the Wizard of Oz, which freaked me out. You know the scene where Dorothy walks through the field of red flowers and passes out? It's kinda like that. If you don't know, you need to go watch that right now or you'll probably think I'm crazy.
As I walked through the field I started to feel like I was being watched, but I shook it off. I was in a flower field; if anyone was watching me it was probably some creepy old lady who was picking flowers for her table...right?
I heard s noise behind me and tensed up. Why couldn't I be right, just this once?
Sora's POV
The longer I sat here the more I began to worry about Yumi. What was she doing? Had she found the Queen? Why didn't she come get me to help her? Was she ok? Why didn't I help her? Oh god...what's happening with her?
The Mad Hatter looked at me with his goofy grin and asked, "My dear boy, what's wrong with you? You seemed to have lost your smile."
Everything seemed to happen so fast after that.
"He lost his smile!? Well be better start looking for it then," the March Hare responded, lifting up random tea cups.
"He's just misses his girlfriend," Alice said in a bitter tone.
"Maybe she has the boy's smile!" the March Hare suggested.
"Oh? I figured she had his heart," the Mad Hatter said.
"Without a heart, how can you smile?" the little mouse said, popping out from a tea pot.
The Mad Hatter nodded and pulled me up.
"Well you had better go find her then. Get back your lost things before you lose your mind as well."
The March Hare got up and well and pushed me towards the Lotus forest.
"We all know once you lose that you'll never be the same."
Alice was protesting in the background. She was complaining about how I was her date and she decided when I would leave. I could barely hear her over the two behind me yelling out alternating goodbyes.
I was in the middle of the Lotus forest before I even knew what was happening. After I had processed the whole scene in my head I blushed.
"She does not have my heart..." I whispered, as I started to walk.
I wasn't really sure where I was going, but my heart seemed to be pulling me in a certain direction.
I ended up in the bizarre room. I thought it was kind of weird I hadn't seen Yumi along the way but maybe that's where this strange feeling was leading me. That's what seemed to happen last time. Maybe that was our special bond. I'd have to talk to her about it later.
I climbed up to the table and ate a bit of the cookie and grew back to my regular height. I walked into the room Yumi and I had first been in and looked around. I noticed the clock had moved and was a bit confused, but then I noticed a bright light in the wall I had never seen before.
'Hmmm...wonder where that leads...'
Yumi's POV
"You know, you Organization members really need to learn you can't sneak up on me. You all really suck at it," I said, turning around.
There was a figure in a black trench coat was standing at the other end of the field.
"Oh really? Well I'll be sure to let the other members know once we head back."
'Dude or chick...duuuude or chiiiiickkk...'
"Too bad I won't be heading there with you. Not sure if you've heard but I've got some worlds to save. If you wanna just let me know where you're keeping my friends though I'd appreciate it. It would save me some time."
Cue mysterious chuckle.
"Well, if you won't join me willingly, I'll just take you by force," the dude...chick?...dude chick said, summoning a scythe.
"Go ahead and try!" I snapped back, drawing my keyblade.
'Sora...where are you?!'
There was a tug and my heart, but I ignored it. It was kind of familiar to the tug I felt in Hollow Bastion, but I wasn't going to read too far into it right now. I was way too concerned about living.
Before I could even register what was happening, rose petals began to fall from the sky. I tried to stay focussed on what was happening, but I suddenly felt tired.
'This is exactly like Wizard of Oz...'
"What...what's happening?" I questioned, trying to keep focussed on the stranger's weapon.
"What's wrong? Are you sleepy?"
My eyes began closing. What was happening?! I hadn't even been here for three minutes and I was already going to be captured...not cool.
I suddenly felt something smash against my back and I flew forward into the flowers. As soon as I had hit the ground I was picked up and hit in the stomach, flying backward and falling hard on my back.
"I can't believe you beat the big oaf. I knew he wasn't too smart, but to get defeated by a little girl like you?"
"Don't...don't underestimate me..." I stuttered, getting up.
Once again, evil chuckle.
"AERO!" a familiar voice shouted.
Once I managed to stand up I noticed all the flower petals were gone and Sora at my side.
"Ah, so I see you brought your little boyfriend," dude chick said.
"Not my boyfriend," I shouted back.
The stranger ran at Sora and I. Sora stood protectively in front of me as dude chick swung their weapon at us. Sora successfully deflected the attack. I jumped up from behind Sora and landed a hard hit on our enemy. Dude chick swung back and me and landed a nice hit cutting up my shoulder really bad. Sora came up behind dude chick hit him...her?... hard in the back, causing their weapon to fall to the ground. Dude chick made it rain thorns on Sora and I. They didn't hurt too bad, but Sora cast Aero again before they could do any real damage. Dude chick wasn't too tough, but he was persistent. The fight from that point on consisted of thorns raining from the sky and attempts from the stranger to try and get his weapon. I was mostly just healing Sora, making sure he was ok. I was eventually running out of magic, and Sora was beginning to look tired, so I decided to intervene. When dude chick ran to get his weapon again, I stuck my foot out so he tripped.
"TAKE THAT!" I screamed, suddenly feeling exhausted.
Sora walked over and picked up dude chick.
"Where are Riku and Kairi!?" he asked in an angry tone.
Dude chick was silent. This caused Sora to growl, which made me make a weird face.
"Hey, Sora," I said, walking over. "Down boy."
Sora relaxed from his tense position, but didn't let go of dude chick.
"You can keep looking, but you'll never find them until you're captured," dude chick said.
"And why's that?" I asked.
Dude chick smiled.
"You need an invitation to get there. And frankly, unless you surrender, you won't get one."
More friggen riddles...I was so sick of this!
Before anything else could be said dude chick pushed off Sora and flew backwards and landed on his scythe.
After dude chick faded away there was an awkward moment of silence.
"This is getting weird," I said, walking up beside Sora.
"Yeah, I'm getting a little tired of riddles," he responded.
"And this suicide pact once you get caught? Seriously...a soldier's death is only honourable if you die protecting your country...not some stupid Organization to take over the world."
Sora nodded.
"...so...I hate to break the mood...but was that a dude or a chick?!" I asked, causing Sora to shake his head at me.
"Marluxia? He's a dude" he said.
"No way, that's a chicks name. And he had pink hair and used ROSES as a weapon...something isn't right here."
"Yeah well - YUMI, your shoulder!"
Sora looked like he had seen a ghost.
"What are you talking about?"
I looked at my shoulder, remembering what had happened. At that moment, I felt like I hit a brick wall. That shit hurt...
"Oh yeah...that. No worries!" I said in a nonchalant tone.
"That's a huge deal! You're still bleeding! Are you okay?!"
"Really Sora, I'm fine. Let's go seal the key hole and get outta here ok?"
He hesitantly nodded and I lead us back through the rabbit hole. Crawling on my hands and knees was extremely painful for me, but I knew Sora couldn't see me and make a big deal about it because of the blinding light. So I bit my lip and tried not to make any noise. Once through the hole Sora got up to move the grandfather clock back into its original place when both of our keyblades appeared. We allowed them to touch, creating the keyhole for the world and Sora sealed it.
"So should we go say goodbye to everyone?" I asked once the light show was done.
"NO!...I mean, nah. We'll see them again sometime soon."
I raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"...what happened at the tea party?"
Sora just shook his head.
"Lookie here blade boy, we said no secrets. So spill the beans," I said in an old timey accent.
"Just...Alice..." he said, shivering. "She was just so...annoying and needy. Just like a...a..."
"A teenage fan girl. Got it. Now let's get back to the ship," I finished for him.
He came over and grabbed my hand. I was a bit confused, but Sora snapped his fingers and we were suddenly floating up.
'How come he can do that and I can't?'
It took us a few minutes, but we were back on the ship. I started to walk towards the cockpit when I felt a tug on my hand.
"Sora...do you think you can let go of my hand please?" I asked timidly.
"O-oh! Sorry," he whispered, letting go.
I decided I wasn't going to show how much it hurt me to let his hand go, so I spoke in as much of a normal tone and I could create.
"Listen, you looked pretty tired out there. Why don't you rest up and I'll steer the ship onto the next world."
He silently agreed and went to his room. I walked over to my chair and sat down, getting the ship ready to lift off. I had a little bit of trouble because of my shoulder, but I wouldn't let it get to me. All I had to do was get the ship in the air so I could fix myself. I would be fine once I was in the air.
It was a shaky lift off, and I was scared that Sora knew I was having issues, so as soon as I could I put the ship on auto pilot to make it seem like I was steering and everything was peachy keen. I pretended to drive for a few minutes just in case Sora walked in on me, but it seemed like my plan was working. I turned over to my iPod and put some music on, just as another safety precaution, and Everything is Alright by Motion City Soundtrack came on, and I couldn't help but smile.
'Oh irony...'
I turned the music up so that it drowned out all other noise and decided it was time to fix my shoulder. I walked to the bathroom as quietly as I could and I grabbed some bandages and some disinfectant. Anything I would need to tend to my wound. I walked the same way back to the cockpit and sat down on the floor. This was going to hurt...
Sora's POV
I walked to my room with my head bent down. I felt a little bit embarrassed about the whole hand holding thing, but I felt even more embarrassed that I kind of liked it. I don't know what it was about Yumi, but whenever she was around me I just felt like everything was going to be ok. I wasn't quite sure if I was feeling this way about her because I was missing Kairi or if maybe it was something more. My feelings for Kairi had faded away quite some time ago, so I couldn't tell. Maybe it was just nice to have a girl's company? ...nah.
Before I could over analyze anything I heard music coming from the front of the ship. I let out a light laugh, knowing full well that Yumi was probably sitting up there dancing in her seat... Wait, how is she driving so well when she's still injured?
I walked towards the cockpit as quiet as possible. I didn't wanna freak her out and make her crash the ship, so I figured this was the best solution. As I got closer and closer I heard random yelps that went along with the music. Was she really that tone deaf?
I made it to the door and peaked around the corner. Yumi was sitting in the middle of the floor trying to wrap bandages around herself.
"Give me AAA reason, to end THIIS discussion..." she tried to sing.
It pained me to see her like that, and I knew I needed to help her.
"Yumi..." I spoke, causing her to jump a little bit and drop the bandage wrap she was holding.
"S-Sora! I thought you were going to take a nap..." she trailed off, trying to hide her shoulder.
"Well, I was going to until you're awful singing kept me up," I teased.
She blushed.
"I promise you, I'm not that bad of a singer," she mumbled.
I walked over and kneeled in front of her. Her head was bent down so I couldn't see her face, so I looked at her shoulder and gasped.
"Why does this look so much worse than before?!" I asked, in a shocked tone.
"I may have tried to use disinfectant on it. And that may or may not have made me jump up in pain and smash it on the table."
I sighed. This girl just doesn't get it.
"Let me heal it," I said, getting ready to cast the spell.
"No! Sora you can't waste your magic on something small like this," she said.
I rolled my eyes at her.
"I'll have enough magic by the time we get to the next world. Don't worry about it."
She looked up at me with big puppy dog eyes.
"Sora, please. Just let me wrap it up."
'Damn her beautiful eyes...wait...what?!'
"...Fine. At least let me help," I said, caving in.
She nodded, and I picked up where she had left off. It was kind of hard to wrap her, since I had to wrap the bandages around her chest a few times, which was really awkward. When I was done I made her drink a potion to help speed up the healing process.
"I didn't need to take that," she said after downing the drink as fast as she could.
I knew how gross they tasted, so I wasn't going to make fun of her.
"Well you wouldn't let me heal you, so at least this will help," I responded, standing up.
She sat down at the wheel and I made a face at her.
"How are you expecting to drive?" I questioned, taking the seat beside her.
"Autopilot will help me!" she said with a smile.
I smiled back. I wasn't sure why, but I had a good feeling inside me. My heart felt light and happy. I could get used to this; I would fight for this.
