A/N: Hey guys, just letting you know that I can draw, as well! :) I have a full floor plan of Laura's apartment, as well as drawings of her, Lionel, "Marly", Sora's and Riku's new looks (don't worry, they're not all that different. I'm staying within their colour themes, etc.) as well as different aspects of Laura (which you will learn later on). I'll have them updated onto my DA soon, so stay tuned and you may get a link to some drawings! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is not mine.
Laura stirred slightly, delirious. Moving her arms backward, she propped herself up to a sitting position. "My head..." she groaned, clutching her head and crossing her legs. How long have I been lying here? She paused in her thoughts, opening up her eyes, and was completely lost for words.
Partly cloudy skies. Warm breeze. Warm sand. Rustling of the leaves of palm trees. Faint cries of seabirds. The close sound of calm waves. Laura's body took a moment to process the sensations surrounding her, her mind still half delirious, half dumbfounded. "This is... this is the place I had a dream of. I know it..." she whispered, now on her knees in amazement. She brought her gaze down to the beach underneath her, grazing it with the tips of her fingers.
"This is...real. I'm actually here. This isn't a dream." she mumbled, tracing a pattern in the sand as she spoke to herself. Turning herself around to sit and face the other way, she took in every bit of the beautifully pale-coloured ocean before her. She felt her heart flutter, as if it was good that she was here, as if this was what was meant to happen.
However, her mind said otherwise. What about Adam? Lionel? What...happened to me?
She sighed, knowing it wouldn't be easy to get back to her home from where she was - wherever that was. Headache finally settling, she rose to her feet. Turning to the forest on a hill, which consisted of tall, lush, green tropical trees, she took in the smell of the tropical breeze. A makeshift boardwalk along the hill caught her eye. "Hmm..." she wondered, hoping it would lead her someplace other than the barren beach she woke up on.
Walking up the boardwalk onto the hill, an old, decrepit-looking shack caught her eye. It reminded her of hers and Lionel's tree fort from long ago, which made her smile. Walking over to it, the makeshift door - a large piece of bark- was ajar.
Carefully walking in, all smiles, she admired the old drawings pinned to the walls. She then noticed two small wooden swords leaning upright against the corner of the shack. Laura giggled. "These were theirs..." she concluded, leaning down and grazing her finger against the dusty hilt of the larger sword.
Just then, Laura heard voices, and immediately sprang up. "... could've sworn...fell...here!" a muffled voice cried out from inside the forest. Laura froze up on the spot, at a loss of what to do. "Idiot!...ssible...might have...beach!" a closer voice answered back, which was replied by excessive rustling in the bush and forest. "Oh, right," an even closer, boyish voice laughed nervously, and then there was a long pause. Confused, Laura turned around to face the doorway, and was about to poke her head out when-
"Hi."
"Yaagh!" Laura shrieked at the face that was very close to hers through the doorway, jumping up and hitting her head. She fell back on her buttocks. "Oww..." she groaned, rubbing her previously aching head since she woke up. The person that scared her began to crack up. "Not the sharpest crayon in the box, are we?" he laughed, holding out a hand in front of her face. Sighing angrily, she took his hand, and he helped her up. "Well, you're not the nicest- Huh?" Laura paused mid- insult as she was able to perform a proper inspection of his face. Riku.
He smirked. "What, cat got your tounge?" he grinned, crossing his arms. She shook it off, knowing now wasn't the time to be gawking like an idiot. "Watch it, pal." she warned, stepping past him out of the decrepit playhouse, but stopped behind him.
"Besides, where am I? Where is this place? Hawaii?" she asked, looking around her. Riku held the bridge of his nose for a second, sighing. Turning around, he rose a hand to the side of his mouth. "Found it, Sora! C'mon already and stop goofing off in the forest." Sora... Hey, wait a sec! Laura thought, recognizing Sora's name from her dream, but quickly snapped out of it,realising what the guy who looked like Riku had called her. It! IT! I'm not an it! I'm a girl, for crying out loud! Before Laura could open her mouth to shoot back at him, a figure came rushing out of the bush going a mile a minute. "Really?! What is it? Is it big? Shiny? Interesting for once?-" he was cut off by Riku pointing behind him with his thumb. Laura stepped out from behind Riku cautiously.
"Ohhhh..." Sora stood there for a second with a blank expression on his face, while Riku looked between the two, scratching his silver-haired head. He looked completely stupid to Laura, which made her restrain herself from almost cracking up in laughter. "OH!" Sora said quite suddenly, causing both Riku and Laura to jump. "You came by gummi ship, then? So, where is it? What's your name? Where ya from?" he asked excitedly, all at once. Riku sighed, shaking his head. "You ask too many questions." he scolded Sora. Sora nodded, replying with a "sorry" to Laura. Riku turned to her.
"First of all, what's your name?" he asked her. She gulped. "My name's Laura. And you're..." she trailed, off, gesturing to Riku. She knew who he was, but to Laura, what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. "Riku. And this is Sora." he answered quickly, gesturing to Sora as he introduced him. Sora waved with a small "hi!". Laura instinctively smiled and waved back. "So, where's your gummi ship? What's it like?" Sora chirped, excited. Riku seemed to be interested as well, but only mildly. Laura gave them both a confused look. "Gummi ship... yeah. I don't have one. What the heck is it, anyways?" she asked, sort of puzzled. This is weird.
The two boys exchanged glances, almost as if they had a conversation. Sora stepped towards Laura, inspecting her every aspect with his fists resting on his hips, moving his entire torso around as he investigated. Laura had to resist the urge to laugh a second time. After a moment of his awkward inspection, he drew himself back, seeming to come to a conclusion.
"Nope, you don't seem like the Gummi-pilot type to me, But you don't seem like the type to use darkness, either..." he trailed off, hand on his chin comically. He was obviously confused at his conclusion. Riku tensed up, and gave Laura a sharp look. "Then how did she fall from the sky? How did you get into our world?" he asked, more like demanded of her. She looked down, embarrassed, and took a deep breath.
"Well, you see... First thing I know, I'm getting a drink of water in my kitchen, then I hear a voice, talking about how light will guide the way. I look out of my kitchen and then my front door unlocks by itself. There was this shiny...lighty...thing, and it was replacing my hallway. I walked through it, and...here I am." Taking a deep breath after all she had said, she looked at the two boys. Riku laughed, and turned to Sora. "You mean she's the light warrior that the king talked about? You've gotta be kidding."he ridiculed, pointing at Laura with his thumb.
Sora smiled a bit and shook his shoulders. Walking over to Laura, who was now absolutely the most confused she's ever been, he placed his right hand on her shoulder. "C'mon Riku, have a little faith. Can't judge anyone by how they look!" he chuckled, but it seemed to Laura that even he was doubting her a little bit. Waaaait a sec. Doubting what now, again? she thought to herself, still completely confused. Irritated, she shook away from Sora's hand. "Okay, hold up. Now it's your turn to tell me what the heck is going on. What king? And I'm no warrior!" she argued, knowing herself the only 'warrior-like' thing about her was her hand-to-hand combat that Lionel had taught her.
"You're right about one thing. She doesn't look powerful," Riku began, facing the both of them, "but haven't you felt it, too, Sora? The light?" Sora thought for a second, his arms crossed. Laura felt annoyed that they were ignoring her questions.
"You know, you're right. It's been strong since she fell, and even stronger once we reached the island here." Sora concluded, gesturing with his hand to Laura, stating she was the cause. Riku smiled. "Which means the king wasn't wrong." He grabbed Laura's hand, which made her twitch. "Uhh, about this-" she was cut off by him. "C'mon, There's no time to waste. We leave tomorrow!" he declared, and began to walk away at a quick pace. Laura, basically being dragged behind him, tried to wring away from his vicegrip, complaining here and there as he continued walking. "Uh! Riku! What do you mean, leave tomorrow?" Sora cried after him, confused. "We're going to have an audience with the king. Let's go!" He replied happily, ignoring the fact that he was cutting off Laura's circulation. Sora sighed, running after him.
Laura grunted. "You can let go of me, now! I'll just come with you guys, it's not like I have anywhere else to go!" she complained, and Riku snapped out of his thoughts of seeing his king again. "Oh, yeah, sorry." he replied dully, letting go of her hand. Laura rubbed her wrist in attempt to start feeling it again. Grabbing Riku by the arm, she easily spun him around to catch his attention. "Sheesh, I don't get either of you. You just meet me, talk about some light shit and then about your king, and then you start dragging me along this godforsaken beach. Have you ever thought about what I feel about this entire situation?" Riku seemed suprised at her sudden outburst, not knowing what to say.
"Wonder how disoriented I am? I'm in my freaking pyjamas on a beach, that was just so conveniently two steps outside my front door," she complained pointing at her yellow tank top and her orange pyjama pants with white stripes on the outsides. She tapped her foot impatiently, and the look on Riku's face simply implied that he was acknowledging her.
Finally having caught up, Sora stopped beside them, panting. "Yeah, Riku, we don't even know what world she's come from. She has a point." Sora pointed out, backing Laura up. Riku sighed, realizing how ignorant he had been. Laura smiled at Sora, thanking him. "Okay. So, I'm from...well, Manhattan..." she didn't know whether or not to add in "on earth" at the end, but decided not to incase she was still on earth. Riku and Sora thought for a moment. "Can't say I've ever heard of that place." Sora concluded, while Riku nodded. "I bet the king has, though, which is why we need to get back to the village to figure things out." Sora shook his head at Riku's desperation to see the king again. "Yeah, yeah, let's go!" Sora chimed, letting Riku walk down the beach to the dock, where a simple motorboat waited.
Sora glanced over to Laura, bringing his hands behind his head as they walked at a slower pace. "Sorry about Riku. He's really good friends with the king," he explained, looking up at the sky, "but I hope we figure out what's going on. We're just as confused as you are..." Laura nodded. "I'm sorry for over-reacting. Maybe this king of yours can tell me how to get back to Manhattan!" Laura said excitedly. She had so hoped for her theory to be true, so she could just go home.
Sora nodded. "Judging by how you got here, he can probably teach you how. You have a special kind of light in you. It's really strong." he added, the both of them reaching the dock. Laura took in what he had said, but didn't really understand it. A light inside of me? This is just getting strange, she thought, hopping into the small, metal motor boat.
The boat ride from one island to the other, to Laura, felt almost surreal. The sun set on the water, painting the sky of oranges, yellows and faint reds. Laura leaned over the side of the boat, looking back at it. Her mind felt out of place, as if this was all some sort of misunderstanding. Laura Letterwood was never supposed to walk into the light, end up on an some tripical island, meet up with two absent-minded boys talking about the light inside of her -the light!- and wind up sticking around with them for god knows how long...right?
Laura shifted her position to facing the front of the boat. Sora turned to face her, concerned. "You okay?" he asked, placing a hand on her back comfortingly. Laura moved her face into her hands. "I don't know how long it will take to return to my 'world', or if I'll even return at all..." Laura sighed, staring at the dirt-covered bottom of the boat.
Sora gave her a worried look. "Don't think like that, it seems like the light saved you from your world. Your world will come back out of the darkness eventually!" he attampted at comforting her, as if what he had just said to her would reassure him. "Oh, okay, it'll come out of the darkness soon," she replied, to receive a smile from Sora. Suddenly her eyes became wide, realising what he had just said.
"Wha-wha-wha whaddya mean, come back from the darkness? Manhattan's in some sort of darkness now?!" she panicked, grabbing a hold of Sora's shoulders in distress. Sora realised what he had told her so easily, as well, and mentally kicked himself. People who knew nothing of the world order, simply, didn't need to know about it at risk of getting paranoid.
Just then, the boat reached the dock, and they all climbed out of the boat. Laura stared at Sora, wishing he hadn't said what he had said to her. "Uh, well, you see, it's just a figure of speech," he reassured, laughing nervously and waving his hands about, "your world is still there and stuff, it's just-" "The people in your world must have had too much darkness in them. So, it's been surrounded in their darkness. You can't return unless it recovers, which is highly unlikely," Riku corrected Sora, much to Laura's fear and disbelief.
She gave both Riku and Sora a desperate, afraid look before running off up the hill, past the village before them and towards a path surrounded by tall, concealing grass. Sora, mouth still agape at what had happened, then turned to Riku with an unbelievable look. "Riku!" he shouted at his friend, shocked and angry. "Now look what happened! World Order, Riku! For heaven's sake..." he scolded before running off after Laura. Riku scoffed, frustrated at the entire situation, and stormed off to a house up on a nearby cliff.
A/N: :D Review! I'm halfway done the next chapter, so I'll have it ready in a little while.