Here we go, guys! So the story really begins!
And before that… KH3! THAT GAME JUST… OH MY GOSH. I NEEDED MOST OF A DAY TO RECOVER! I want KH4 now! I need to know what happens next!
Kingdom Hearts © to Disney and Square Enix!
OCs © to me!
Chapter 2
"Chihiro and Kouki(1) battled for the light and darkness across the islands. Chihiro sought to bring darkness to the islands, and Kouki worked to stop her. He eventually did, but at the cost of many lives and buildings. That is why people don't talk about Keyblade wielders anymore. They believe they are bad luck, but wielders are light and we should be proud of them."
"One day, I'll be a Keyblade wielder!"
"Me too!"
A little girl with purple hair and bright green eyes jumped up, pulling her friend up with her. "We'd be amazing, wouldn't we, Xay!?"
"Yeah!" Her friend smiled, his golden eyes glittering under silver hair.
The old woman leaned over the side of the bed and patted her grandson's head. "I am sure you would be. You two are such wonderful, shining lights."
"Thank you, Miss Carita(2)."
"Thank you, Grandma!"
The door behind them opened and a thin woman poked her head inside. "Miss Carita, visiting hours are about to end."
"Thank you, Marie." Carita smiled at the children. "Xehanort, Venus, I will see you soon."
"Bye!" The children left the room, allowing Marie to lead them outside of the facility.
Immediately, Xehanort picked up a stick. "What would your Keyblade look like?"
"I would like mine to look like the ocean."
"I would like mine to look like books."
The two swung sticks, pretending like they were Keyblades. They clashed with the sticks as they made their way across town, giggling and laughing just like normal children would.
They made their way up the mountain to a large house with white walls. Orange tiles decorated the slanted roof. A small tower jutted up from the middle of the roof as a balcony, with pillars standing from the roof to the earth, overlooked the soft wooden door at the entrance.
Stones decorated the ground in a sort of patterned walkway up to the house. Sago palms lined the walkway, leading up to a garden, full of plumeria, hibiscus, bird of paradise, and frangipani(3). A man with violet hair leaned over the flowers, chopping off the dead pieces.
"Hi, Father!" Venus giggled.
The man poked his head up. His gray eyes were slightly annoyed and red around the edges, but that was how they always looked. His sallow and pale face followed the two children as they walked by. Xehanort stood back; he never liked being near the man. His breath always smelled like a medical kit mixed with a sickly stench. "Venus," Azazel(4) looked at his daughter, "I'm almost finished. We'll be leaving soon."
"Yes, Father."
Xehanort smiled at his friend. "Well, I will see you tomorrow, Vee."
"See you, Xay."
As the little boy went to go inside, he heard Azazel snap. "Were you with that mad-woman again?"
"Father, Miss Carita is not mad. She tells amazing stories!"
"Shut up!"
Xehanort stopped, turning on the gardener. "My grandmother is not mad! She is smart, wonderful, and tells the best stories!"
"What do you know, boy?" The gardener threw his tools into a large bag before throwing it over his shoulder. "Come, Venus." He grabbed the little girl's arm and pulled her away.
"Jerk…" Xehanort huffed and went inside.
His mother, Undine(5), sat in the drawing room, to the left of the ornate front entrance. Her sea-foam green hair, hanging in light waves around her face. She sat with a notebook on her knee and two infant playmats on either side.
On the mats squirmed two infants, Xehanort's sisters. Identical twins. The boy didn't mind Laura and Lorna, but they did cry a little much for his taste. His mother said that's just what babies did. The two girls shared the Himitsu trait of silver hair, but they had their mother's brown eyes.
He wished he looked more like Mother. Xehanort had the traditional Himitsu features: silver hair and golden eyes. He was the Himitsu heir.
"Oh, hello, darling." Undine smiled and waved her son over. "Did you have fun with Venus?"
Xehanort sat down in front of her. "Yeah. We did. How are Laura and Lorna doing?"
"Your sisters are wonderful! I think they tried to say your name today, well, it was more of their baby-talk, but it sounded like 'Xay', at least to me."
The boy glanced at his sisters, their brown eyes staring up at him curiously, before looking at his mother. "So, what are you writing?"
"Just some more poetry about your sisters."
"Mother, why do people think Grandmother is mad?"
Undine paused, looking at her son. "Darling, Grandma is old and sick, so sometimes she says things that she shouldn't. Some things are just not worth talking about and get people in trouble. Grandma doesn't understand that anymore."
"You mean the Keybl-"
"Sh! Your father will be furious if he hears you talk about that!" She took a deep breath and sighed. "Why don't you go and do your lessons for the day?"
"Yes, Mother."
The little boy climbed the stairs to the upstairs library. In the middle of the room stood a spiral staircase that led up to the small tower. On either side of the staircase stood two desks, one empty and one with a massive dictionary.
Xehanort grabbed a stack of books and paper. He looked at the long list of work his father left for him to do before getting started.
For hours he worked on the list. Math. Reading. Writing. Science. History. For most five-year-olds, this would be far too advanced, but Xehanort had been doing this for a while now.
He finished his work in a few hours and ran for the back bookshelf. If he finished his work, his father wanted him to pick a random book and read it, finding every word he didn't know, before looking up the word in the dictionary.
So he climbed up the ladder for his favorite book in the room. "The Anthology of Binaries" by Sora Mou(6). He opened up to chapter 13: The Dichotomy of Light and Dark and began reading.
"Xehanort."
The boy looked up at the man who shared a similar appearance to himself with the golden eyes and silver hair. The boy smiled, holding up a paper. "Hello, Father! Look at all the words I found in Sora Mou's book!"
"Tell me." Cathel(7) gestured towards a table at the other end of the room, where a chess set decorated the table. The two sat down, Xehanort on the side of the white pieces and his father on the other side.
The boy moved a pawn to E4. "Well, the words Acquiesce, Taboo, Capitulate, Metaphorical, Verisimilitude, and Disambiguate."
"Very good." Cathel moved his pawn to E5.
Xehanort smiled proudly before moving his knight to F3. "Thank you. I heard that we are actually related to Sora Mou!"
"Yes, we are, son." The man moved his knight to C6. "What else did you do today?"
The boy took a deep breath. "I visited Grandma with Venus." White Bishop to C4.
"You know I don't like you visiting her." Black Bishop to C5.
"But, she's your mother and she tells wonderful stories." White Knight to C3.
"Son, she doesn't understand that her stories are taboo. You know what that word means do you not?" Black Knight to F6.
"I do, but I like the stories!" White Knight to G5.
"Do not go see her again." Black Knight to E4, taking the white pawn.
"Why do let them keep her in the nut house? She's your mother!" White Knight to F7, taking a black pawn.
"I was the one who put her in there." Black Queen to F6!
"But why!?" White Knight to H8, taking a black rook.
"Because she is mad and threatens the family reputation." Black Queen to F2, taking a white pawn. "Checkmate(8)."
"But Father…!"
Cathel stood up. "This conversation is over. You lost the game. Go copy the entire section of the dictionary from De to Do. And we will never have this conversation again. Stay away from my mother."
"Yes, Father."
The boy silently copied the section of the dictionary he'd been asked. He thought about dinner, but he just wasn't that hungry. He climbed up the stairs to the tower. His room.
He chose it. It was small with a little balcony, if he climbed out the window that is, and a little bed. He'd painted the walls a soft gray with blue curtains on the windows. A little dresser stood on the other side of the room.
His personal hiding place.
Ok, so he was just a little hungry. Thankfully… he pulled out a small box full of snacks. Perfect for hiding from his parents.
It wasn't like he hated them. He didn't. They just didn't understand him.
The boy climbed out his window and sat on the little balcony, staring up at the glittering stars.
"Xay!" He looked down and saw Venus in a tree. She'd climbed high enough to jump onto the roof.
Xehanort held out a hand, pulling her up to the balcony. "You avoiding people too?"
"My father went to the same place he does every night; he calls it the 'watering hole'. He gets his 'medicine' there. He won't even know I'm gone."
"You can stay here, if you want."
"Thanks, Xay."
The two children sat on the balcony, surrounded by blankets and pillows brought from the house, staring up at the stars. Together, they talked, making up stories of what it would be like to find other worlds.
What would those worlds be like?
Would they have talking animals?
Living elements?
Magic?
The possibilities were endless.
One day, they hoped to be able to see them all. Together.
Here is your first introduction to the two as kiddos.
Please review!
Footnotes:
(1) Chihiro means "thousand; seek" and Kouki means "light; happiness; good luck; hope; brightness"
(2) This is a Swedish variant of the name "Charity".
(3) All the plants listed are island plants
(4) This name means "scapegoat" in Hebrew. It could possibly be a place where a goat was to be sacrificed, or it may be the name of some sort of evil desert demon. And I did misspell it in the VA section of the last chapter.
(5) The name means "wave" and was used for female water spirits.
(6) *grins* This is the child of a warrior from the Keyblade War era.
(7) This is a different spelling of the name "Cathal" which means "battle" and "rule".
(8) I actually looked up a way to make checkmate in a certain number of moves.
VAs:
Carita Himitsu- Kathyrn Beaumont (Alice, Wendy Darling, Kairi's Grandmother)
John 15:4
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."