Me: Hello. Welcome to chapter three. I hope you had a pleasant flight.
All: (glare)
Me: …
All: (glare)
Me: WhAt!
All: YOU DUCK TAPED US! NOT COOL!
Sora: Even the crazy Pyro agrees with us! This was painful! (pointing to bleeding, chapped lips)
Arlyn: Yeah! That was totally uncalled for! You took off all my lip-gloss! (pointing to bleeding, chapped lips… they are no longer pink and sparkly).
Me: You don't even know what lip-gloss is.
Kairi: (horrified gasp)
Riku: Oh boy…
Sora: Now look what you've done!
Me: What?
Kairi: (backs away with wide eyes) The… the horror… sh-sh-sh-she doesn't know what l-l-lip-gloss is! She- She! (passes out)
Sora and Riku: (each holding one of Kairi's hands) (glare at Arlyn)
Arlyn: What? It's not my fault! She's the one who-
Me: Don't make me take out this duck tape again! The little yellow duck is always eager for more lips! (evil smirk)
Riku: … Get her!
All: (roars dinosaur/monster roar)
Me: EEEK!
Chapter ThreeArlyn waited until she knew the silver haired boy was deep in a peaceful sleep, and then she finally put away her flute, placing it gingerly in her soft, leather backpack and pulling on the straps to close the drawstring around its opening. With gentle, slender fingers she placed the backpack under the bed frame, where it sagged in the ground. She took a few moments then, to study his face. He must have been about sixteen or seventeen, she guessed, from the semi-mature look he had around his face. But there was something about his eyes, his cold, hard aqua eyes that had shown her a past of pain and hard lessons. He had an old soul.
She seemed to be about her own age, perhaps a little older. But it was hard for her to keep track of the time. In this new world, there were no calendars, no moon, no sun, and no other people around her who could help her keep things straight. She didn't know when daytime began and nighttime ended, because in this world, it was everlasting night.
She relied on the stars, which never faded, and their strange patterns across the sky to try and tell when nighttime ended and the day began. She was from an era without watches, and because there was no sun, trying to make a sundial like those she had at home would be useless. It was like she was trapped in an eternity of night. She wondered if she would ever escape.
Pushing her ugly thoughts away, she scanned the almost-empty room, tiredly for a place to sleep. The boy had taken the only bed she had managed to put together, and now she had only the cold, hard earth beneath her to comfort her as she slept.
She didn't want to wake him up and ask him to move over, because firstly the bed was far too small for both of them, and secondly, because she didn't know if she had the strength to play the slumber spell again if he woke up with the same headache. She didn't even know if she would be ready to put him back to sleep if he woke up any less than three hours from now… the slumber spell was exhausting to play.
Arlyn stood up, stretching her lean, limber body in the cool warm night air, breathing a quiet sigh of exhaustion as she bent down and took hold of the stool in her hand.
"Kairi…"
Arlyn felt her heart jump into her throat when she thought he had woken back up again. Snapping her head around to him, all she met was his sleeping face. She held back her urge to brush some of the stray strands of silver hair away as she watched him. His almond shaped eyes were very much shaped like her own, which she had never seen before, his handsome, strong face, while clinging slightly to a few signs of boy-hood declared him a very capable young man.
She had removed his shirt earlier, to check his upper body for bruises or broken ribs from the fall, but had found none. Now, however, she discovered she was helpless from allowing her gentle gray eyes to trace over the shape of body. The muscles in his strong, powerful shoulders and arms were perfectly defined, and farther down below his collarbone, his six-pack, washboard abs seemed as if they had been perfectly fitted together to be underneath his coppery tanned skin. Every aspect of what she saw had been toned to perfection, and now that he was asleep she couldn't help but stare. He had a body of a God.
But there was something about him that bothered her slightly, something that put her on the edge and readied her for a fight. It was something that was much more than skin deep, beneath his hair and muscles and rich tan. Something that seemed to radiate from his core and wrap around her, giving her a small chill. There was something about him, something in him… There was a certain… "Darkness." She whispered softly to herself. A little startled at her discovery. But that was what it was. Buried inside his soul were the slightest traces of darkness.
Finally, she was able to pull her eyes away and try to ignore it. She was probably imagining things again. She had a tendency to let her mind drag her away, even before she had come to this strange new place.
"Kairi," the boy muttered again, his voice was so soft she could barely hear.
She stared at him a little while longer, waiting for him to say something more. She found herself wishing she knew who Kairi was. With a heavy sigh, she decided she would sleep alongside the bed on the floor; it was the only other place. Pushing the stool away to the other side of the room with careful quietness so she wouldn't wake him, she lay down on her side in the cold, firm dirt, trying not to cringe when she felt the gritty dust rubbing into her hair. She stretched out her arm beneath her head in an effort to use it as a pillow. It was far from comfortable.
"Kairi," the boy above her muttered again, "are you scared?" He asked into the darkness.
Arlyn lay still and silent, her misty gray eyes wide as the silence began to press down on her. The stars that never faded still throbbed brilliantly with silver as always, and so she could see with perfect clarity, the wall that she was staring at on the other side of the room. She listened to the suffocating silence as the boy's question went unanswered. She had been alone for so long. She found that suddenly she wanted, almost needed to have a conversation with somebody… anybody, even a perfect stranger. She just couldn't stand the silence. And the boy was asleep anyway, maybe if she pretended that he was talking to her… she wouldn't feel so lonely anymore.
Feeling slightly stupid, but longing for company, Arlyn answered for the girl called Kairi. "Yes." She whispered into the silence, not really expecting an answer from Riku. But she got one anyway.
"Why?" he muttered, still asleep as he rolled over.
She too, rolled onto her back, and stared up at the ceiling. His face was half over the edge of the bed, and blue-tinted silver locks of hair fell inches away form her own face. She watched them as she answered.
"Because," She said, trying to keep the cracking out of her voice. "I've been alone for so long, with no one to talk to… I don't understand what's happening anymore… I've been," She sighed, this was so stupid. She hadn't told anyone her feelings in years. But she supposed that it would be alright, if she just pretended to be whoever Kairi was…just for one night. "I've been so lost." She said quietly, watching the way the starlight tinted his hair. "I don't know where my brother is, or my family. I don't even know if they remember me, or if they're trying to find me… what if-" she fought down the lump in her throat. "What if they've moved on? If they don't even care anymore… I couldn't blame them, it's been so long… I've been so empty lately. I don't understand what the point is anymore. Maybe…" She drifted, thinking in the silence. "Maybe there isn't a point anymore… so why am I still fighting? Can't I just… give up? Wouldn't it be so much easier to just give up?" She asked, holding her fingers up in the silver light, watching the way the moved. What was she doing? Spilling out her feelings like this to some guy?
'Some unconscious guy.' She reminded herself with a bitter smile. She was being an idiot again.
"Don't be sad."
She was almost startled by his whisper. She hadn't been expecting it. She looked up at his face, he was still asleep.
"You're too beautiful…" He said absently. "To be sad."
Arlyn blinked at his sleeping face as something inside her stirred. It was guilt. She felt as if she was doing something horribly wrong. And at the same time she couldn't stop herself from talking to him, and she felt strangely touched by what he had just said. It had been so long since she had heard another voice other than her own. She knew that he hadn't been talking to her when he had said those things. Of course she knew that. He was talking to this Kairi girl. But still… it was nice to hear those things. She could hardly believe that the rude, ignorant boy that she had slapped earlier was capable of saying such things.
Slowly, and without really knowing why, she sat up in the hard-packed dirt and looked at him. His face had had a certain hardness about it earlier, but now it seemed completely gentle, open… almost kind. His handsome face was framed by those beautiful silver tresses of hair, which were still illuminated with touches of blue-gray here and there, like the color of her own eyes. She brushed her fingers against them for a bit, knowing that she wasn't supposed to be fingering his hair like that but strangely not being able to help herself at the same time.
She had been alone for a couple of years now, and human touch was something that was now alien and strange to her. She had first realized that when she had put her hands on his head to check for a broken blood vessel. It had been like a mental shock, to feel warm skin beneath her hands. She had almost cried when she realized that she had forgotten the feeling. She wondered if he had noticed how long she had let her hands linger there, or if he had even cared.
Suddenly, the boy began to move forwards, his face coming closer and closer to hers. She froze, her breath coming short. She was afraid to move, for fear of waking him up, yet the desperation to yank away from his face was screaming at her. If she had jerked back and gasped, like she had had to stop herself from doing, he would have woken up and asked her what the hell she thought she was doing. How would she explain herself to him then? Then, before she could even realize what was happening, his lips were so soft and gentle. She found him kissing her mouth.
Arlyn's gray-blue eyes widened and her body turned to ice as the stranger kissed her. She felt something beneath the thick layers of coldness stir again, and as much as the kiss felt horribly good, it also felt horribly wrong. First of all, she didn't like him, she hardly knew him. And secondly, it was wrong for him. He thought he was kissing someone else, his girlfriend no doubt, possibly the love of his life, probably the one named Kairi. The kiss wasn't meant for her.
Slowly, she pulled back and broke it, gently so that he remained sleeping. She stared at his gentle face, feeling as if things were going into slow motion. She had trouble even registering what her reaction to his kiss was. What was going on? She felt… numb. And confused. Slowly, she lay back down on the ground, and lay still. Perfectly still. Her eyes were still open and staring at his face before she turned on her side again and stared at the wall. They had kissed.
Suddenly the enormity of it slammed into her so hard that it knocked the breath out of her. She had just gotten her first real kiss. 'Oh my God…'
Kari: OH MY GOD!
Arlyn: OH MY GOD!
Sora: HAHAHA!
Riku: … I hate you.
Nani: (lost in silly giggles) sorry, Riku, baby, but it is what it is. I can't help it. (grin)
Riku: (starts strangling and shaking author by the neck) YOU CAN SO HELP IT! FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!
Nani: I can't! (gag) (gag) I already (gag) posted it!
Riku: (releases) (grumble) (grumble)
Arlyn: Besides, you shouldn't be acting like the victim. I mean, you kissed me. I didn't lay a finger on you
Riku: I was asleep, dammit! Its not like I grabbed you and threw you onto the bed or anything!
Sora: Yeah, and besides, he thought it was Kairi!
Kairi: (BLUSH!)
Sora: … (it… sinks…in) HEY! RIKU! Don't think about Kairi that way!
Riku: I WAS ASLEEP!
Sora: THAT DOESN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE! YOU WERE STILL THINKING ABOUT HER!
Riku: IN MY SLEEP!
Arlyn: Hey, who knows, maybe you start liking me
Riku: I barely even know you!
Arlyn: (shrug) Never stopped anyone else before
Kairi: (BLUSH) (BLUSH) (BLUSH!)
Arlyn: Would you stop doing that already! It's getting on my nerves!
Riku and Sora: DON'T TALK TO KIARI LIKE THAT!
Arlyn: (blink) Oh (quiet) I see how it is…
Sora: Damn right that's how it is! (secretly had no idea what it means)
Riku: What? Arlyn, what are you talking about?
Arlyn: You like Kairi more than me, is that it?
Sora and Riku: Yeah
Kairi: (BLUSH!)
Arlyn: Would you STOP DOING THAT ALREADY!
Riku and Sora: HEY! DON'T YELL AT HER!
Arlyn: FINE! (stalks away angrily)
Sora: Ha! Good riddance!
Riku: … (stares after)
Sora: … Riku? What's up with that face?
Riku: (looking a little worried) Sora… maybe we should go after –
(Arlyn returns with her handy flamethrower of doom!)
Arlyn: Can I at least use this, then?
Sora and Riku: (sweat drop)
Sora: W-what were you saying just now?
Riku: … never mind…
Me: Read and review:)
