The Keyblade Nutcracker
Chapter 2
I still don't own either. As a matter of fact, I don't even own a copy of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, though I do own a copy of the original Kingdom Hearts.
Special thanks to Demmmy, HitsugaysGirl, and namibug37 for putting this story on story alert.
Namine woke with a start. She didn't know what she had been dreaming, but she was awake now. Feeling her arms empty, she reached out to grab Sora, only to feel emptiness where he should be. Namine then began to look around. Her bed seemed bigger to her. Then again, so did her room. It was as if she had suddenly drunk from a bottle of a shrinking potion.
Looking down, Namine noticed that she was very tiny, smaller than she should have been.
"Wow," she commented to herself, "Now I really am 'Little Namine'."
"Who are you?" a feminine voice suddenly asked. Namine spun around to see a girl who looked like the doll she lost when she was younger, Kairi, with her red hair, pink dress and violet eyes. Strangely enough, the doll was carrying a crossbow that Namine had never seen before.
"Kairi?" she asked, trying to figure out if it was really her long-lost doll.
"Yes?" the doll asked, looking at Namine with scrutiny in order to see if she knew the girl before her. Before Kairi could react, Namine ran at her and gave her a fierce hug.
"Have you been here this whole time? I thought I had lost you out on the street! I'm so glad that you're here!" the human girl shouted, holding her old toy close.
"Who are you?" the doll repeated, extricating herself from Namine's embrace.
"It's me, Namine," the girl responded, backing up to give the doll a good look at her.
The doll stood there for a moment, staring at the human, until she suddenly hugged the girl and shouted, "Milady! I'm so sorry; I hadn't seen you in so long that I had almost forgotten what you looked like!"
"Don't worry about it," Namine assured her friend, "I'm just so happy to see you!"
"And I you, Milady," Kairi responded, relaxing her posture for a moment, before suddenly regaining the tension in her limbs as she asked, "What are you doing out here at this size! You could get into serious danger if the Mouse King finds out that you're here! We need to get you to the safe house that we have before he finds out you're here!"
"Who's the Mouse King?" Namine asked.
"He's a tyrant who wishes to destroy the kingdom, as well as the Prince," Kairi responded, leading Namine by the hand as they walked to a large dollhouse in the playroom down the hall, "He leads an army of mice and rats that are willing to follow him to the destruction of the Kingdom."
"Who's the Prince?" Namine pressed.
"That must wait, Milady," Kairi responded, "It's easier for you to meet him, as we could get caught if we mention him out here."
With that, both girls went silent until they got to the dollhouse. When they arrived, they heard a voice say, "Who goes there?"
"It's just me, Riku!" Kairi said, "And I brought my liege lady, Namine."
"Kairi?" the voice responded, "Alright. Come in quickly."
With that, the door opened, revealing a worried-looking red uniformed silver-haired boy, wielding a black jagged sword in one hand. He looked at the pair and cheerfully said, "Hi Kairi. I'm glad you're okay. Now what is this you said about a 'liege lady'?"
"This is my liege lady, Namine, who is for some reason much shorter than she originally was."
"I see…" Riku responded, confusion evident in his voice, "How did she get so small?"
"I don't know," Namine admitted.
"Well, all that we can do now is introduce you to the Prince," Riku responded.
"Your Majesty," Riku said, leading Kairi and Namine into the attic of the doll house, "Kairi has returned with someone she refers to as her liege lady, Namine."
"Namine?" a friendly sounding voice responded curiously, "Send her in."
Namine entered the room with Kairi, the doll not leaving the girl's side, and saw an interesting site, indeed. Sitting among a group of tin soldiers was a wooden soldier. Not just any wooden soldier, however. This wooden soldier was tan with brown spiky hair and had a lever on his back and a hinged jaw.
And, to top it all off, he had a golden key in his hand. It seemed that he was leaning on it with the key on the ground while the round end was under both of his hands; much like one would with a sword if they leaned on it.
"Sora?" Namine asked Kairi, "Is that really Sora I see?"
"Yes, Milady," Kairi responded, "The Nutcracker Prince, himself."
"Hello, Namine," Sora said, smiling at his owner, "It's good to see you."
"Hi, Sora," the girl responded, trying to figure out just what to say to her now-living nutcracker, "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing pretty well, seeing as my jaw is back in place," he joked, "Other than having to reclaim the Kingdom from the Mouse King."
"Speaking of which," Riku said, "I saw some of his forces outside of the safe house. He's going to move in on us any day now."
"Let's just go kill them now!" a female tin soldier shouted in a high chipper voice.
"I agree with Yuffie," Riku, said, "The time is right, and we have several new recruits, while his numbers have dwindled. I think that a direct assault of his troops will do us well, as even rats can't have a new army ready that quickly."
"I think we should wait," Sora responded, "We need our troops to be at their top form, and right now, we have some of our troops still recovering. We'll regroup in thirty minutes for a vote on the matter. Meeting adjourned."
With that, the entire group dispersed, leaving Kairi, Namine, and Sora alone in the room.
"So," Kairi said, "How do you two know each other?"
"I was her Christmas present this year," Sora responded, smiling at the blushing Namine gently, "It was amazing. She's a brilliant artist and drew me on a sheet of paper. She's so nice and sweet. She was very gentle with me, and panicked when my jaw popped out of place because someone accidently broke me. Then, she let me sleep in her bed."
"Wow, it's a small world! I was her present last year!" Kairi responded, a slight smirk on her face, "Well, I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone in this empty room, where you can stay with each other alone."
As she left, she noticed that both were turning red in the cheeks, as she laughed mischievously to herself, closing the door.
Silence engulfed the room after the doll had left the room, neither of the occupants looking at the other, until Namine decided to end the silence, asking, "So, you were aware of everything around you the whole time?"
"Yes," Sora responded, "It's part of the curse on me at the moment."
"Curse?" Namine asked, "What curse?"
"I can't say anything else about it, but part of it is I'm aware of everything around me at all times," he responded, "As a matter of fact, you're one of the few enjoyable sights I've seen since my imprisonment."
"That's very sweet, Sora," Namine responded, her cheeks once more red as she hugged her precious nutcracker, leaning in close to him.
"Are you two busy or can we get back to the meeting?" Riku said in an amused voice.
"Oh, right," Sora responded, "Like you and Kairi haven't been caught kissing in every last room in this house. At any rate, I suppose that it's time that we put it to a vote."
"Those in favor of the assault raise your hand," Yuffie said, raising her hand. She was followed by Kairi and Riku.
"Those opposed?" Yuffie continued. Sora raised his hand, while Namine did not vote, as she wasn't sure if she was allowed to.
"Alright," Sora said levelly, "We'll do the invasion."
Suddenly, cannon fire resounded from the other side of the dollhouse. The Mouse King had now launched an invasion.