"Windows to the Soul" and the general concept of "Windows to the Soul" is completely copyright Orin Drake 2006. All characters contained within are owned by Square-Enix and Disney.

Background: The tiny fragment of a moment's thought...

Windows to the Soul
by Orin Drake

Those eyes in the dark. Sora remembered... or maybe they were only nightmares. Sometimes... it was hard to tell.

So many eyes, really. Riku's and Kairi's were really the only eyes he'd ever thoroughly searched, before... before he left the island. They were both pretty in their own way, both inspiring protective things in him. But, back then... he'd seen them as simply eyes.

Eyes were the window to the soul, or so he'd heard. He didn't understand that until his journey had begun, taking him far away from familiar gazes. Until he was forced to tell the difference between hurtful and friendly by a glance. And then when he'd seen Kairi's eyes so... empty. When Riku's eyes were so... angry.

It was a glowing amber gaze that really made him understand. Stuff of nightmares. Horror. The very symbol of lives destroyed, worlds torn apart. Suffering. Rage. Cold, cruel... Darkness. The windows of madness. And he'd seen them... through Riku. All of the constants in his life... had been shattered.

Later, he remembered... later, when Riku's eyes had been merely hidden behind the mask of that same amber... he hadn't understood. Kairi's words to him seemed ridiculous, "Talk to him." He'd thought himself talking to an element of the very plague that had caused so much agony for all of them--until he closed his eyes...

He recalled--far too clearly and more often than he honestly cared to--Roxas' eyes, as well. That fight had been in his mind, a battle in his head, but... he could never forget. They were his eyes, and yet they weren't--and, in hindsight, that hurt. Sometimes when Sora dreamed... it was nothing but memories of Roxas looking into fierce green eyes... and it always ended in the nightmare of those eyes fading away.

"Ssssh, Sora..." that soft voice behind him, warm body pressing closer to ease his shivering. He knew that if he turned, he'd see aqua-marine behind a curtain of silver... but he couldn't find it in himself to look.

Do you see him looking back at you sometimes? he wanted to ask. He never did. Roxas wouldn't have wanted an answer... and Sora himself didn't want to invite the possibilities of what may come after.