Chapter 40: A Word Away from Despair
I read Kairi's letter again…
She said she was lonely.
I guess I would be too, if I was on the Islands, and there was no one else there.
The Islands are pretty boring when you don't have someone to pass the time with…
Sora lazily pushed his food around his plate, to busy thinking to eat. Plus, it was eggs and bacon for breakfast, and he wasn't that fond of eggs. He was trying to eat them, so he wouldn't be rude, but…
She also said she wanted to talk to me…
I suppose I... COULD go back home.
Wait, no I can't! My darkness isn't under control. Besides, my Shadow… well… I don't particularly want him anywhere near home. It doesn't matter if I'm the only one who can see him…
He still TECHNICALLY exists.
He might hurt Kairi…
Sora shook his head, not at all liking that thought. He stabbed some of his eggs with his fork. After a second of glancing at the eggs he stuck them in his mouth and did his best not to grimace at the taste.
Maybe I'll write her a letter.
She wants to hear from me, right?
But… I've only seen one of her letters, and she made it sound like she sent a ton. What are the chances of ONE letter I send her actually reaching her...?
He frowned at his eggs, and then grabbed a piece of bacon.
Thankfully, the bacon tasted just fine.
I feel bad though… with her being lonely.
It is sort of my fault…
But how am I supposed to fix it?
I know I can't go home and see her.
If she even WANTS to see me…
I know her letter said that she does, but-
It just doesn't make sense.
"Sora, is something wrong?" Aerith asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You've hardly eaten."
"Oh," Sora muttered. "Well-"
"He's just tired from yesterday's Heartless killing!" Cid laughed. It wasn't clear if he was joking or not, but Aerith took it as a valid answer.
"Yeah, tired…" Sora said.
Even though that's not really it…
I'm just… thinking…
"Well, eat up!" Aerith said with a grin. "There might be more Heartless today!"
Sora nodded, and quickly finished his food. His eggs had gotten cold, so forcing himself to eat them was even harder than it had been before. However, he drowned out the taste of the eggs with plenty of bacon.
Aerith got up after a minute, going around the table and gathering the dirty dishes. Everyone handed her their plates and thanked her. Well, all except Cid, who was currently examining the mug he was holding.
"Hey, Aerith," he said after a moment. "What happened to my other mug?"
"I dropped it," Aerith replied simply, taking his empty plate.
"Well what did you go and do that for?" Cid asked.
Aerith shrugged. "Sorry," she muttered, moving around the table to grab Cloud's plate.
"We were… talking about Zack…" Cloud explained quietly.
"Oh," Cid said, eyes widening with understanding. "Right. I love this mug!" he called after Aerith as she headed to the kitchen.
Sora couldn't help but notice that her hands were trembling as she walked past him. He frowned, confused. "Who's-" he began, but Leon silenced by shaking his head.
"Not now," he said simply.
"Yeah," Yuffie added as soon as Aerith was probably out of earshot. "We just found a set of plates that matched after she dropped the last set. We don't want her to drop this one."
"Be nice," Leon warned.
"She's only complaining because she had to pay for most of it," Cid called across the table.
"Am not! And I offered to buy!" Yuffie retorted.
Leon sighed.
Great… another mystery… Sora thought. Now I'm going to have to stay here even longer. A smile played on his lips at the thought of that. But… this one's even more curious… Aerith's always so calm.
So who's Zack, and why does Aerith always get so… weird… when he's mentioned?
Sora glanced over at Cloud, who was staring intently at the table, as if trying to pull some sort of answer out of it.
Cloud said we were talking about Zack the other night.
But I've just heard his name today…
Maybe that's where the conversation WOULD have gone, if it had continued.
"Sora, come on," Leon said, rising to his feet. "We should continue with your magic training."
"Yeah," Sora muttered, getting up himself.
"Hey!" Aerith shouted suddenly, causing everyone to turn. "Out," she commanded firmly, glaring at one of the cabinets (or rather, what was in it). There was no heard response, but the frown on her face deepened after a moment. "Don't give me that!" she said. "You can climb on down yourself! You obviously got yourself up there!"
Everyone stared at her with varying levels of shock. Yuffie was gaping, Leon was rubbing his head, Cid had paused with his mug halfway to his mouth and looked as if he was questioning Aerith's sanity. Cloud wasn't gaping at all, but was giving Aerith a confused and concerned expression. Sora wasn't sure what face he was making, though it was definitely confused.
After a moment Aerith sighed and reached into the cabinet and pulled out a small Heartless of the Shadow variety. She set it carefully on the ground, where it wriggled it's antenna for a moment before glancing back up at her.
Cloud was on his feet within seconds, hand flying to the hilt of his sword. Sora watched him do this, and was quickly reminded of Riku. It was certainly something that Riku would do if it had been Namine standing there and not Aerith.
"Oh don't kill it!" Aerith exclaimed. "These ones are so cute!"
"You are not keeping one as a pet," Leon said simply.
"I wasn't going to ask!" Aerith replied. "I just don't want Cloud to kill the poor thing!"
Cloud raised his eyebrows at that, though slowly moved his hand away from his sword.
"Are we just going to leave it here?" Sora found himself asking.
"I'll take it outside," Aerith said, picking the Heartless up again and heading out with it.
Everyone slowly returned to what they had been doing previously.
"Really!" Aerith exclaimed suddenly. "One of you I don't mind, but I don't need ten of you hanging around at my front door. I swear, you're as bad as cats!"
The varying levels of shock returned to everyone's faces.
"Guys, we've got a Heartless problem!" Aerith called after a moment. "More of them keep showing up!"
Leon quickly helped Cid get his cannon out onto the street, and Cloud had already taken out quite a few random Heartless. Yuffie was frantically looking for her shuriken, which she had apparently misplaced. Sora just sighed and summoned his Keyblade, heading outside to kill some Heartless.