Today's chapter brought to you by dragons. Dragons, every situation can be made better or worse with a dragon tossed in. Also brought to you in part by Shire Folk, for without his help I have no idea when I would have finished this chapter. Thanks a million Shire!
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own anything that isn't original. Nice try though.
Here's a fun game if you're interested: Try and figure out which parts were written by me, and which parts are Shire's writing. Best of luck!
Chapter Thirty-Three: Catching Up
Friday, July 2nd 4794 P.C.
Cynthia's Manor
The hand-carved mahogany doors that served as the entryway to Cynthia's manor were blasted into countless pieces of useless wood as a ball of fire exploded against it. Seconds later, Xanthos strode purposefully through the smoldering remains, the No Name clutched tightly in his right hand, his left holding a ball of dark energy. His silver and gold-veined eyes quickly scanned the entrance hall, and found it deserted. He let out a small huff of irritation.
"Cynthia!" He called out in sing-song tone. "Come out and play!" He waited in silence, listening to the faint traces of his echo dancing down the halls, rapidly fading from earshot. His manic grin slowly slipped until it was nothing more than a grimace of irritation.
"I know you can hear me, you coward!" He roared. "Come and get your due!"
Once again, he was left with only his echoes as a response. The gold in his eyes intensified slightly. If that's the way she wants it, then fine. He strode forward, setting his sights on a faint beam of light slipping out of a partially closed doorway. He raised his hand as he advanced and unleashed the swirling energy clutched in his palm, which blasted the door off of its hinges and sent it clattering into the room beyond.
He stormed into the grand dining hall and quickly scanned it with a glance. The far end of the magnificent table had been blown to bits. Pieces of debris lay scattered all around the room from what had clearly been an explosion. Twelve bodies were lined up along one of the walls, covered by a large tablecloth.
His eyes locked on to a shield made of crystal and a deep growl escaped his throat. The fake Compass hadn't killed her, then. He grunted with a mixture of irritation and relief. While it would have been simpler for Cynthia to have been killed by the explosion, a small part of him wanted to look her in the eyes as the last of her life slowly drained out of her by his own hands.
He glanced at the half-eaten meals on the table, and his curiosity briefly took hold of him. Dismissing his Keyblade, he quickly pulled off one of his gloves and touched one of the un-carved turkeys still sitting on the table. It was still warm.
Faster than the blink of an eye, the No Name was back in his hand and Xanthos was standing in the entrance hall again. He ran from room to room as quickly as he could, kicking down every door that barred his path.
Yet every room remained the same, empty of life and with signs that the previous inhabitants of the manor had left in a hurry. Xanthos felt his anger building up with each empty room. He hadn't been that slow. The fake Compass had sent him the signal and less than five minutes later he had used a dark portal to follow it to this world.
"Where are you?" He shouted as he kicked down the door to a massive library. "Show yourself!" He leveled his Keyblade at the nearest bookshelf and blasted it with a ball of fire. Chunks of wood and shredded, burning books were thrown into the air. The force of the attack caused the now flaming bookshelf to topple onto its neighbor, initiating a domino effect as well as helping to spread the fire. He stood in the doorway, panting heavily as the fire quickly began to consume the library.
"You can't hide from me forever!" He roared, darting back into the hall to head for the only room still remaining in the manor. The only door that had yet to taste of Xanthos' rage was perhaps the most ornately decorated. Carved from mahogany, trimmed with gold and with a stained glass window displaying a pair of crossed Kingdom Key Keyblades and a handle made from ruby, the door was truly a work of art.
Without so much as stopping to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making the door, Xanthos blasted it into oblivion with a quick spell. The room beyond turned out to be a small office, large enough to hold the desk situated in the center of the room. Glass display cases lined the walls of the office, serving as the resting place for countless bits and baubles, as well as several uniquely designed weapons. An entire row of objects vanished if Xanthos so much as looked at it directly, reappearing only when he looked away. To his irritation, the room was empty of any life other than himself.
He turned to leave, his breath coming in heaves as he fought to keep his anger under control. A piece of parchment caught his eye as he turned, nailed into the desk with an ornately decorated dagger. He pulled the dagger from the desk and tossed it aside before unfolding the parchment. Only four words were written on it in writing that Xanthos immediately recognized.
'Better luck next time.'
The parchment burst into flames in Xanthos' hands. The Chaser stared blankly at the room before him for a moment. Then he snapped. With a ferocious roar, he summoned his Keyblade to his hand and swung it through the closest display case. Shards of glass flew through the air, not even having time to hit the ground before Xanthos had already lashed out at the next case.
In a matter of seconds, the floor was covered in the remains of the cases and the objects they had once displayed. Xanthos leaned against the desk, panting heavily. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the remains of a mirror across from him. His eyes were mostly golden now, only faint traces of silver left.
"Is the Darkness really worth losing yourself over?"
The Chaser shuddered and tried to force himself to look away from his reflection as a woman's voice filled his mind; the voice of a ghost from his past.
"I don't really think the golden eyes suit you, you know. What's their real color?"
Xanthos' reflection stared back sadly at its real world counterpart.
"Silver, huh? I bet they're beautiful. It's got to be better than gold."
The silver in his eyes quickly swallowed the gold as the anger inside of the Chaser faded, drowned out by a voice he hadn't heard in almost five thousand years.
With a sigh, Xanthos turned from the mirror and vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving Cynthia's manor behind him to burn.
-LD-
Friday, July 2nd 4794 P.C.
Destiny Islands
Kairi stretched and hummed stretching sounds as she walked just a little closer to Sora than was absolutely necessary through the streets of Fatum. It was a nice day out, and she was beginning to feel a little peckish. Nanaki was beyond excited for the coming day, so much so that it brought an amused smile to Kairi's face, and especially since it wasn't for quite the same reasons why she, personally, was excited.
"It must be tragic," Kairi declared, "living on a world where there are no festivals."
"I knoow!" droned Selphie with an exasperated roll of her eyes. "How could you stand it?"
Nanaki wrinkled her forehead in a frowny-pout at the pair. "I think we might have had time for festivals if we weren't too busy trying not to get eaten by giant sand worms!"
"That I turned to glass," Richard said, pointing a white thumb at his chest with pride. The others stopped and stared at him for a few seconds.
"I'm hungry," Kairi said, turning her head away as a signal the others all took to mean 'we should keep walking now'. "Let's go get something to eat."
"Fine!" huffed Richard, turning his nose and snubbing the group. "Just ignore the warlock. It's not like I have anything better to do with my time. Oh, Naminé, which way would you say would make that boy over there taste better? Braised in garlic butter, or baked with lemon and sage?"
Naminé whirled around, stopping dead and staring at Richard in complete horror. "What!? NEITHER!"
"Hm, you're right," Richard agreed. He turned away from her and opened his right palm while looking at the boy riding his skateboard. The boy couldn't have been older than twelve. Richard's white right hand became encased in rich yellow flame. "Fire-roasted it is, then."
Naminé and Sora lunged forward just as Richard reared his right arm back like a baseball pitcher. "No! No!" they exclaimed, each one grabbing an arm just before Roxas could wrap his arms around Richard's waist and attempt to drag him back. "No killing and eating kids!"
Richard looked at the trio trying to restrain him. "Are you sure?" he asked curiously.
"YES!"
"Not even a little nibble?" he continued. "He doesn't need both legs, and they taste good with a sprinkling of sea-salt after being charred on a spit."
"NO!"
"But that's no fun," Richard argued. "Isn't that right, Lily?" He glanced up at the bunny he'd tied to his head, waving a finger in front of its face with a little flame burning just beyond his fingertip.
'Lily' shivered uncontrollably, terrified out of its mind and unable to escape.
Naminé placed a hand to her head, like she couldn't even believe the depths this warlock would go to. "Just...just come with us and try not to destroy everything in our path."
"Fine by me," Richard said airily, stuffing his hands in his robe pockets and whistling a merry tune whilst walking after the group.
-LD-
"Cities made of steel and homes made of wood." Nanaki let out a low whistle as she drank in the sights around them. "Now I've seen everything."
"You're a pretty strange girl, you know that?" Selphie commented.
"To you, probably," Nanaki replied. "To me, you lot are the weird ones. Where I come from, wood is hard to come by. It wouldn't be wasted on buildings. We need it for fires and to keep our tools functional. Our homes were typically carved into stone to protect us from the Veneschall. It's very strange to see wood used so… commonly. Don't even get me started on steel. I know quite a few blacksmiths that would have a conniption fit if they saw steel used for building instead of tool making."
"Well, I don't know much about the steel, but wood's pretty common here," Selphie awkwardly mentioned. "Most of the smaller islands are covered in thick forests so it's pretty easy to get to."
"Forests, huh?" Nanaki mused. "I'd like to see a forest sometime."
"Maybe we'll get a chance later," Sora said, beaming back at his newest friend. "Stick with us and you'll see all sorts of awesome places."
"I don't doubt that," she said with a laugh. "After all, I'm here, aren't I? We don't have places like this on my world. Just barren landscapes as far as the eye can see and the body can travel. Your world is so much more vibrant. So alive." She inhaled deeply, taking a moment to enjoy the salty scent of the nearby ocean. "It's all so beautiful."
"Was your world really that bad?" Kairi asked, glancing back at the purple-haired teen.
"'Bad' isn't really how I'd describe it," Nanaki said. "It's… boring. Unless you're being attacked by wild animals. You can only stare out at the same, unchanging wasteland and the same, unchanging caves for so long before you get tired of it."
"That sounds depressing," Roxas said.
"It only is if you let it get to you." Nanaki slapped him comfortingly on the back, causing the blond to stumble forward. "Besides, when every day is another battle to survive, who has time to wallow in self pity? I'm free of there now. And that's all that matters!"
Tidus let out a laugh to match Nanaki's. "I like this girl," he said with a grin.
"Duh, who wouldn't?" The purple-haired Wielder gestured at herself. "You see this right here? All awesomeness in a convenient-ready to kick ass and take names package!" She jabbed her fists at a couple of invisible foes. "I'm am just so excited!"
"And she just can't hide it," Kairi chimed in. "Oh, there's the restaurant." She turned her head and grabbed Nanaki by the wrist, preparing to lead her into Destiny's. "Come on, you're going to love it. You've got to try the Spider Sandwich."
"Ew!" Nanaki said. "You guys eat spiders?"
"No!" Kairi exclaimed. "A spider sandwich is deep-fried soft-shell crab in a bun." Sora's mouth started to water and he gripped his girlfriend's upper arm.
"Why didn't you tell me that your mom's place had those?" he asked her, eyes wild with desire. Roxas dashed past him, ignoring Naminé's call for him to wait up. Kairi giggled.
"Well I think I can tell what you and your brother are getting," she said. Nanaki looked between Sora and Kairi, bewildered.
"What's a soft-shell crab?"
Apart from Richard, what was left of the group collectively gasped.
"Oh you are so having a Spider Sandwich," Tidus said, taking Nanaki from Kairi's grip and leading her forward faster than the others.
"But what if I don't want to try it?" Nanaki asked loudly, indignant at having her free will being taken away.
"I thought that you were all about trying new things!" Sora called from behind.
"Do they serve baby?" asked Richard when they reached the doors.
"NO!"
Richard harumphed and folded his arms across his chest. "What kind of an establishment is this?"
"The respectable kind," Naminé muttered. "And I don't think that you're allowed to have 'Lily' in here."
Roxas turned around from where he was waiting by the hostess table and addressed the girl standing there, looking at the party. "Hi, table for," he glanced back and started counting, tapping his finger in the air as he did so, "twothreefourfivesix, eight," he finished. The hostess glanced down at the counter, made a very tiny nod to herself that would have been imperceptible to anyone who didn't have the honed reflexes and attention to details that battle hardened into a person, and started to grab menus.
Once they were all seated around a table she created by combining two, she informed them that their server would be with them shortly and left them to their own devices. Tidus immediately leaned forward and asked Sora, "Did you guys really find a city of gold?" Sora placed his head in his hands and began massaging his forehead with his fingers.
"We did," he moaned. "And we lost almost all of the gold we were bringing back from it!" Tidus groaned into his hand to match Sora, while Kairi and Naminé flaunted the gold earrings they were both wearing. Much to Selphie's delight, the rhombus-shaped jewelry sparkled and glittered in the light.
Tidus gave them a close look, and blew skeptical wind from his mouth. "Yeah, right. You could have gotten those from Lustrous Jewelry at any time. That's no proof that you've been to a city of gold."
"Tidus!" Selphie scolded. "They're gorgeous. Can't you believe them?"
"Pictures or it didn't happen," he replied.
"I've got pictures!" Naminé exclaimed happily, immediately setting to finding the camera to show their friends.
"And I've got this!" Kairi declared, reaching into her purse and placing an object onto the table. All action stopped and every eye at the table (except for Richard's two, as he was busy watching a Coliseum fight with perhaps too much intensity) turned to look at the item while Kairi leaned back and proudly folded her arms over her chest.
A golden goblet stood in front of them. Its base was wide and swooped up into a thick ring before a three-inch stem. Carved into the base were the shapes of jaguars, and around the ring were the twin figures of eagles. The cup was deep and wide, easily large enough to accommodate at least two cups of liquid inside of it, and around the chalice's edges were six ovular stones that alternated between lapis lazuli and carnelian. Each stone was the eye of a different jungle animal amidst the engraved rainforest on the cup.
"Where did you...?" Nanaki asked. She stared at the goblet with her eyes wider than any of them had ever seen them before.
"El Dorado," Kairi said simply, smiling at the dumbfounded expression on Tidus' face. He gawked, mouth goldfishing, at the chalice before him.
"Kairi," Sora began, tearing his eyes away from the cup to gaze in wonder at his girlfriend, "when did you get that?" She turned her head, her proud smile never leaving her face. Her face lit up even more at the look in his eyes.
"Right before we started to sail the boat," she answered. "I saw the cup, knew it was too amazing to pick and choose over when we were out of the city, and grabbed it before Miguel and Tulio could notice it. Smart choice?"
Sora replied to her rhetorical question with a firm kiss on her cheek. It was at that very moment that their server approached.
"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Kyoko and I will be your server today. May I ask how everyone is doing...to...day?" Kyoko stopped, her lavender eyes stuck on the attractive person known as Sora and the equally attractive young woman he was kissing.
Her pen and pad almost flew out of her hands as she jumped Sora. Arms wrapped around his left side and she nuzzled up against him. "Sora!" she squealed. "We meet again my love!" She moved to kiss his left cheek.
Kairi reached around her boyfriend's face and planted her hand firmly on Kyoko's head. "Hey! Back off!" She found herself struggling to push the waitress back, and Kyoko made a pouting face. She continued to cling to Sora's left arm while still pushing against Kairi's palm.
"Aw...now why'd you have to go and bring her here?" she pouted. Her neck muscles were straining as she made slow but steady ground against Kairi's counterattack. A patron at a nearby table got up with a murmur to his partner about getting the manager.
Sora, trying to break out of the vice-grip that Kyoko had his left arm in, gasped in response, but before he could even answer beyond a splutter, Kairi stood up in order to put more force into defending her claim and added her right hand to the server's forehead. "I'm his girlfriend, and his apprentice!" she growled lowly. "Do you have a problem with that?" Richard had somehow procured some popcorn, and both he and Lily were munching on it while watching the debacle. Interestingly enough, both of the participants of the Coliseum match he'd been watching were covered in flame.
"Is Kairi normally this possessive?" Nanaki asked quietly. Selphie and Naminé smiled with more than a little bit of embarrassment.
"I normally wouldn't," Kyoko retorted cheerfully in spite of Kairi's pure hostility and the hands she was mashing into Kyoko's face, "except that he's my boyfriend, so you can just sit quietly over there and let him give me some sugar. Muu..."
Somehow she'd managed to push Kairi back, and had leaned even closer to give Sora a kiss. Her lips met resistance and Kyoko opened her eyes. Sora had pressed the tip of a finger to her mouth. Kyoko blinked twice. Sora looked back at Kairi. "Forgive me," he muttered, "but it's for our own good."
He placed the fingertip Kyoko had kissed to his lips, kissed it, and then pressed it back to Kyoko's mouth. Her entire body, from her currently curling toes to the very crown of her head, turned red after the fashion of a thermometer. Steam piped out of her ears, pink hearts spawned in the air around her, and Kyoko fell backwards with her limbs splayed out, a somewhat disturbing smile on her face. Drool slowly leaked out the corner of her mouth in a string while she mumbled incoherently.
Sora was fully expecting at least a slap to the back of his head. What Kairi did surprised him a little. She sat back down, huffed a sigh, and crossed her arms. "Kairi, you're not killing him," Richard pointed out, looking unhappy with the fact that she wasn't currently slaughtering him. "Would you like me to do it for you?"
She huffed and shook her head. "Fu, no. I'm peeved, but more annoyed at that hussy than I am with Sora." She shot her boyfriend a glance. "You're still making it up to me later."
"Of course," Sora chuckled. "I'll buy you dinner." Kairi cheered up immediately. She picked up her menu, after giving her goblet one more fond look, and began to hum.
"You better be buying her dinner," Selphie told Sora with a small laugh, "she is the birthday girl after all." The brunette glanced at Tidus, giggled, and lightly elbowed him. "Hey, stop gawking at the goblet."
Tidus was just about to retort when a woman in heels yelped a greeting. "Kairi! You're back!" The whole group looked up to see Melissa approaching their table with a warm smile on her face. Kairi jumped up from her seat and carefully rushed around the table in order to hug her mother, and the man who had left to fetch the manager simply stared open-mouthed at the scene he did not expect. Wearily shaking his head, he resigned himself to having to deal with the chattering table and returned to his own.
"Oh, it's great to see you," Melissa crooned while she and her daughter hugged. "How've you been?"
"Great, for the most part," Kairi answered. She wasn't about to tell her mother about the recent combats she'd been in. No way in hell was she going to tell her mother that! "Oh, Mom, check it!" Kairi turned back towards the table, snatched the goblet in her hand, and presented it before Melissa. "I got this when Sora, Naminé, and I went to El Dorado!" Melissa took it in trembling fingers while Kairi continued to talk. "It's the first off-world treasure we've picked up. I'm thinking of starting a collection of mementos for each world we visit so that when Sora and I have our own place we can put them all on a shelf or decorate a room with them. What do you think?"
Melissa needed a few seconds to compose herself and remove the lump in her throat. The goblet her daughter had procured could probably make a considerable dent in their mortgage. She finally managed to get a working smile onto her face and handed the chalice back. "That sounds lovely, Kairi. He's been treating you well?" Kairi nodded her head.
"I'm right here," Sora reminded her, in a jokingly annoyed tone.
"I am too!" Roxas spoke up. "Hi!"
"Hi Roxas," Melissa said. She turned back to Kairi, and then did a double-take. She smiled again. "Hey, nice body. That new?"
"Yes it is."
"And I imagine that you'd like to fill it up with the yummy food that you couldn't last time?"
"Yes please!"
Melissa chuckled and then frowned slightly. "Well, a server should have come around by now. Where is...Sora, why is Kyoko drooling on the floor and projecting hearts?"
It took a few minutes, but eventually they resuscitated their waitress long enough for her to take their drink orders and for a few appetizers. Kairi sent her mother after Kyoko with the goblet, which she intended to have a nice drink of cool ice water from. When Melissa returned, Kairi took a quick sip without even looking into the goblet.
Her eyes widened and her tongue and mouth almost rejected the liquid outright from surprise. She managed to keep it in, though, and swallowed whatever it was that Melissa had poured into the cup. It turned out to be a dark burgundy liquid.
"Um...Mom, what is this?" Melissa set a glass of water down in front of her daughter.
"Don't tell anyone, but I'm allowing you to have a little wine tonight," she explained. "You're sixteen tomorrow, and a goblet like that simply is not allowed to be a vessel for plain water. Now then," she turned to peer at the rest of the table, "thank you for being very patient with my daughter and her boyfriend, but I believe now is the time for introductions."
-LD-
"Mom," Kairi said suddenly as Melissa turned to leave. Her mother had exhausted about as much time as she possibly could to catch up with her daughter and socialize with her friends and Richard, so much so that Kyoko had already left six minutes ago after delivering a large platter of breadsticks and a slightly smaller one of nachos. "I don't think that you should keep Kyoko around."
Melissa frowned at Kairi. "What do you mean? She's a little breezy upstairs, yes, but she's a fantastic employee. If this is just your jealousy and the wine talking then I expected much better from you, Kairi." The red-head flinched at the accusation, but put down her goblet all the same. She'd only had three sips from the cup, three!
"No Mom, she's an Apostle of the Star; she works for Maleficent."
Silence reigned between mother and daughter for several seconds, until it was broken by Richard pulling out his popcorn again and watching with interest. Even so, the eyes of the two women were only on each other.
"Kyoko?"
Answering the summons with disturbing cheer, Kyoko was beside their table in a second. "Yes Melissa?"
"Is it true that you work for my daughter's enemies?" Kyoko placed a finger to her lips and looked up in contemplation for a few seconds.
"Hmm... if you mean Maleficent, then I guess so," she answered. "Yes," she chirped brightly, hands coming down to rest in front of her waist with her round tray covering her lower abdomen, "yes, I suppose I do." Kyoko tilted her head slightly. "Why? Is that bad? It's not going to affect my job, is it?" she gasped.
Melissa shook her head. "So long as you don't start any fights while at work, no." She started to walk away, leaving Kairi too stunned to speak.
Naminé spoke for her. "Uwa! Me-Melissa!"
"Hm?"
Naminé spluttered in protest. "But...but she's our enemy!"
"And she's also a nice girl who does her job well," Melissa answered. "And I'm not about to sack one of my employees on the grounds that she, my daughters, and my daughters' boyfriends have a heavy grudge against one another."
"Oh, I don't have any problems with Sora!" Kyoko clarified with a winning smile. "He's really cool and handsome, though that chick over there does get in the way of our relationship," she pouted.
"Personal relationships are no grounds for dismissal, young ladies," Melissa continued, still directing her attention to Kairi and Naminé, "so I don't want to see you with swords out and magic flying the instant I turn my back. Do I make myself clear?"
Kairi gritted her teeth and bowed her head.
"I said, do I make myself-"
"Yes, Mom. I get it," Kairi retorted. She pointedly snatched up her goblet and took a large mouthful as Naminé sighed and confirmed that she wouldn't be starting any fights with their server.
"Good," Melissa replied, smiling warmly at the pair. "I'll see you when you get home tonight. Don't stay out too late now." She gave Sora and Roxas each a knowing look before walking away.
About six seconds passed.
"What are you even doing here?" Kairi snapped, glaring at Kyoko. "Shouldn't you be in the Castle That Never Was or something, wherever Maleficent's putting her headquarters these days?" Kyoko giggled.
"Normally I would, but the castle's just so boring all the time, and the Heartless creep me out... Besides, I like my job here and I get to talk to lots of people."
"Kyoko! You've got work to do!"
Panic stole her expression for a moment. "Oh crap, I forgot." She bowed to the table. "Excuse me, but I have other tables to attend to, unless I can get you anything else while you wait for your food."
"No, we're all good here!" Nanaki answered eagerly. Kyoko nodded her head and quickly made her exit. Smiling and humming a little to herself, the desert native grabbed a large handful of the nachos from the platter, long strings of melted cheese forming a momentary suspension bridge between the rest and her plate. "You guys don't know how much I'm enjoying these," she said with a small laugh in her voice. "These are absolutely amazing. And what's this wonderful brown stuff in them?"
"Aren't you the least bit worried that an enemy you'll have to fight has an agent serving you food?" Roxas asked her.
"Nope," Nanaki replied. "Now tell me, what is this brown stuff?"
"It's ground beef," Sora answered.
"And what's beef?"
"Cow," Tidus said.
"And what're cows?"
"Bovines," said Richard.
"And what are bovines?"
There was an audible thump as Kairi's head hit the table. "Oh for the love of..." she muttered, "they're four-legged docile herd animals that weigh a huge amount, stand at shoulder-height, eat grass, and say 'Moo'. They're not really intelligent beasts that exist to eat grass, be food for predators and omnivores, and get launched from catapults."
She snorted at her own statement, and then took another small (small) sip of her wine before grabbing a breadstick.
"Don't forget the farting methane bit," Tidus reminded her, completely unsuccessful at holding back a grin. Sora just managed to keep from choking on a nacho, and a few of their heads turned to look at Richard. Who knew what would be going through the warlock's head at the mention of an animal that expelled flammable gas from its rear end? He was suddenly looking away from the group, whistling a tune and feeding Lily a hot ranseed pepper from the nachos. The bunny's facial expression became completely unreadable as it started to gag fire from the purple pepper.
"Quick! Somepony get that bunny some milk!" Roxas chortled.
"Roxas! You're horrible!" Naminé scolded. She turned to Richard, as she was sitting next to him, and grabbed the bunny from his hands. She promptly ignored his complaints and gently stroked the panicking Lily on the head. Fortunately, the rabbit seemed to sense that it was out of immediate danger and did not try to bite her. "Sshh, it's okay. You're okay." Naminé held a free hand out in front of her. "Freeze."
A small ball of ice formed out of the liquid in the air and solidified just above her palm. Naminé crushed it into a tiny handful of snow and softly murmured, "Aero." A gentle wind rippled around her and carried the little snowflakes down from her palm and into the panting rodent's mouth. Lily shivered for a few moments, but her breathing became a bit steadier and what looked like flames stopped emerging from her mouth. "There's a good girl," she cooed. "You're going to be just fine. No more hot peppers for you, though." She selected a nacho that was completely free of meat and brought it before the bunny. Lily appeared to sniff at it for several seconds before biting into the chip.
The bunny rabbit began munching contentedly on chips Naminé selected for it while the others devoured the remaining breadsticks and nachos, keeping up idle small talk about life and their general state of affairs while also planning for what they were all going to do at the festival the following day.
Then their main courses arrived.
Roxas and Sora practically melted into putty in their chairs as they ate their spider sandwiches, with Sora taking a quick potshot at Roxas about him and wanting a burger as soon as he had a body again suddenly not having a burger now that he had a body again. Kairi bit deep into her Island burger, savouring the taste that she just couldn't replicate while on the gummi ship whenever she tried. Nanaki looked a little pensive when her spider sandwich came, still iffy on its name, but as soon as she bit into it her eyes widened to their fullest extent. She swallowed thickly.
"What is this goodness?" she asked.
"So I take it you like seafood now?" Selphie asked. Nanaki nodded her head.
"Ever since I left my world I have been amazed at the things I have seen," she said. "Granted, I haven't seen much but the inside of a gummi ship and now a bit of your home, but...MAN this is good!"
"That's not true, Nanaki. I took you with me when we visited Padosoan," Sora interjected with a mouthful of food. Nanaki shrugged and promptly took another bite of her food, her eyes rolled upwards in pure bliss.
"I think we're going to need to stock up on shrimp, scallops, and crab before we go, Sora," Kairi said with a little bit of good-natured mirth. Sora groaned through a smile and a mouthful of crab. He swallowed.
"You're going to be one expensive tag-along, you know that?" he said. Nanaki lightly punched him in the arm and the table (including Richard) laughed.
-LD-
Satisfied that the door to the alley behind Destiny's was shut, Kyoko whipped out her phone and quickly punched in a number.
She hardly had to wait before a faint click on the other end of the line could be heard.
"What is it, Kyoko?" Charden's voice asked, distorted slightly by static.
"Sora and his friends are back on the Islands," Kyoko said cheerily. "What do I do now?"
"Nothing." Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise.
"Bu-but Charden!"
"No 'but's, Kyoko. The only reason you were sent back to the Islands in the first place was so that we could verify that the Keyblade's Chosen One came back. Shiki and Doctor Kanzaki will be there tomorrow to capture the princess. If they need you, they'll contact you. Are we clear?"
"Yes, but-" Kyoko tried to argue.
"Good. I'll be out of contact for a few days. Maleficent is sending me to finalize her deal with Sidious." Kyoko wasn't even able to get in another word before a click in her earsignaled the end of her call.
With a growl of frustration, Kyoko's shot a fireball at one of the trashcans in the alleyway, reducing it quickly to a twisted piece of ruined metal.
"Why don't they ever let me do anything other than watch people?!" She groaned. "It's so annoying!"
-LD-
"That was a goood meal," Nanaki announced while stepping outside into the light of the sun once again. She stretched and hummed, soaking in the sun's light on her face. There still looked to be quite a lot of daylight left to them.
"What time is it?" Naminé asked her companions.
"Four-twelve," Tidus answered after a quick glance at his watch. He looked at the others. "Anything you feel like doing while you're back for a bit?"
"Let's hit the beach," Naminé said. "I could use a tan. My skin's gotten so pale."
Kairi laughed. "Naminé sweetie, your skin's always been pale." Naminé flushed a little in irritation.
"Well, you try living cooped up indoors or inside your other's heart for most of your life and keeping bronzed skin," she pouted.
"Tell me about it," Richard agreed. "I can sunbathe for five hours four days straight and my skin's still white as bone." He tapped a finger to his chin. "Although, that might be due to having no blood circulation. Do you think I should see a specialist?"
"Are you going to incinerate him the moment he tells you that you're dead?" Selphie asked jokingly.
"Of course not!" Richard replied, revolted.
"Aha!" Selphie declared. "I knew my first impression of you was-"
"I'd rip his head off and then make a hat from his intestines and eyeballs," clarified the warlock.
A greenish tinge touched the cheeks of everyone in the group besides Richard and the bunny that now rested on Naminé's shoulder.
"Spot-on?" Nanaki finished for Selphie.
"Where did you say you picked this guy up again?" asked Tidus.
"From a summon charm," Naminé answered thickly, like she was trying to hold her supper/lunch down, "and he refused to be unsummoned."
"Well...sucks to be you guys," Tidus said.
"Not...quite," said Naminé uneasily as she remembered the situation that had warranted summoning the warlock in the first place. "If it weren't for Richard, I'd probably be dead, or in a coma or paralyzed at the least."
"Naminé?" Selphie asked. "Are you okay? Would you like to talk about it?" The blonde Wielder shook her head.
"Kai and I talked about it a little on the gummi ship on our way here, but I don't really want to think about it right now."
They walked in quiet for about ten seconds, the mood now quite different from the cheerful air about them when they exited the restaurant. Nanaki broke the silence with a twist in front of the group and a shout.
"Hey! Aren't we supposed to be having fun? C'mon guys! This is the first world I've come to after leaving my home and there's a big party going on tomorrow. Let's see some excited faces ready to show the visitor around."
Her rousing speech seemed to work somewhat as smiles slipped back onto the other teenagers' faces.
"Yeah, right," said Selphie. "What are we doing moping? Let's go hit the surf and sand, guys."
"Yeah!" Sora, Roxas, Tidus, Kairi, and Nanaki all shouted. They were prepared to rush off right then and there, if Naminé hadn't first called a stop due to a very, very, important prerequisite that she still needed to fill.
"I don't have a swimsuit yet," she informed them, looking down at her toes with a slight blush filling her cheeks with pink.
Kairi's answer to her dilemma came out slowly. "Wellll I suppose I could let you borrow one of mine for today..."
Nanaki tilted her head slightly to the side. "Swim...suit?"
"...or we could go shopping!" Kairi finished cheerily. She quickly linked her arm around Nanaki's while Selphie did the same with Naminé, the bffs grinning at each other like two girls on a shopping trip. "C'mon girls, let's go swimsuit shopping!"
Selphie noticed the apprehensive looks that the boys were sharing with one another and took a little bit of pity on them. "Don't worry boys. You don't have to come with and we won't take too long. Meet you at the beach in, say, an hour?"
Sora looked at Kairi in astonishment. "You two can finish shopping and get to the beach in an hour?"
"Hey!" Kairi retorted in mock anger. "We can totally do all of our shopping in an hour!"
"I bet you can't," Sora challenged. He snapped his fingers and looked at Tidus. "I bet you three hundred munny that you can't. Hey, Tidus, you agree with me, right? Those two cannot go on a shopping trip and be back in an hour?" Tidus' gaze flickered between Sora and the female duo clinging onto the two who needed the shopping trip more than they for a few seconds, likely appraising his situation.
"I'm in," he said, agreeing with the betting master of their circle. "Three hundred munny that we won't see you on the beach in under one hour."
"Done," Selphie declared. "We meet at Surfin' Sundaes at...five-twenty."
"Agreed." Sora, Tidus, Kairi, and Selphie all shook hands before the girls sprinted off with their 'captives', shouting a guttural "Oooooooo!" as they ran.
"Easiest three hundred munny you've ever made," Sora told Tidus with a small grin on his face.
-LD-
"Welcome, Nanaki," Selphie said with practised pomp and a dramatic wave of her arm, "welcome to the greatest invention of mankind..."
"...the mall!" she and Kairi declared simultaneously.
Nanaki stared at the building in awe and bafflement. Not only were her earlier thoughts about steel being used for building violently bouncing around in her head after just a single glance at the structure of the giant building, she had never seen so much glass in her entire life, let alone in a single place! The building had to have at least two floors with how tall it was, and past the double set of glass push doors she could just make out what looked to be the trunk of a tree. But, that couldn't be a tree, could it? It was inside a building.
"Two floors, one-hundred and twenty-five stores, a food court with fifteen different options, a movie theatre and a petting zoo all rolled into one package of awesomeness," announced Kairi, waving her hand at the mall like it was a game show prize on display. "And you, my lucky new friend, get to experience most of it in a whirlwind shopping spree!"
"Come on now!" Selphie exclaimed. "We're wasting time! Let's go go go." She grabbed Naminé's arm and led the former Nobody inside, and Kairi 'gently' coaxed Nanaki to follow.
It really was a tree. A palm tree gently arched its way to a leafy crown sixteen feet off the ground, with another tree of a similar height planted five feet behind it and both with the bottoms of their trunks surrounded by black iron grates set into the floor above the sand and soil their roots set into. Two wooden benches were on either side, within the shade cast by the trees for the one person sitting down and reading a book. Nanaki didn't even need a full moment to wonder why they were providing shade when she saw a glass dome in the ceiling high, high above her head, and running down the length of the mall. People were absolutely everywhere! Some with shopping bags, some just chatting in groups, and others munching on food or pushing strollers with squalling or sleeping babies.
Kairi and Selphie allowed a minute for both Nanaki and Naminé to stare in awe at the majesty that was the inside of the girls' haunt (outside of Club Vinyl), and then got right down to business.
"Right, so there are six different stores that Selphie and I shop at when we go looking for swimwear. Two of them are close to where we are, but they don't have the greatest selection. The biggest one with the best numbers is on the other end of the mall, but it will take us ten minutes to walk there barring traffic. The other three are scattered around and sometimes have really great stuff on sale. What do you want to hit up first?"
"Uh, why don't we just start with the closest store?" Naminé asked. Kairi and Selphie shared evil grins and quickly grabbed both Naminé and Nanaki. Half a minute later they were standing outside the store.
"Like I said, not the greatest selection," Kairi said, watching as Naminé gulped and blushed a little, and Nanaki's face went completely red, "but there is a small section devoted to them and you could even swim in some of the other stuff instead. It's still not the best for swimming in because they're made for comfort and appearance instead of swimming, but they can work..."
"I...I don't want to go into this store," Nanaki said quickly, turning her head away and putting a hand over her eyes. Even so, she kept sneaking glances at the models on the posters.
"Ugh!" Selphie playfully scoffed, "come on," and dragged Nanaki into Victoria's Secret. Naminé looked at Kairi again.
"Are you sure that a bras and knickers for saucy situations store has bathing suits?" she asked. Kairi giggled.
"Like I said, there's a wall. It's a small wall, but it's there, and don't you want to pick out something for yourself since we're here? Something for Roxas, maybe?" Kairi tapped her nose suggestively, and Naminé blushed but shot Kairi a look.
"And I suppose you've plucked up the courage to show Sora that little number you got on Radiant Garden? The scarlet one with black lace trim, complete with stockings and garter?"
"Touché, dear sister, touché," said Kairi, and both walked into the store.
-LD-
Roxas dipped the red plastic spoon in his hand into the vanilla ice cream that made up his banana split, his red spoon picking up the hardened dark liquid-chocolate syrup-that covered the top of that particular scoop as well as a bit of whipped cream, and the cherry. He almost moaned when he brought it to his lips. The cold treat was exactly what he needed after close to an hour of surfing and wipeouts with Sora and Tidus. Good as both of them were on a surfboard, they'd actually been doing it instead of working with just the memories of someone else, which meant that he still pretty much sucked at it.
He still felt that he'd had some pretty awesome wipeouts though.
"You looked like a pansy out there, Roxas," Kim said, sitting down next to him with a strawberry sundae in her bowl. Roxas frowned at the golden-haired girl, his mental image of himself shattering into a thousand shards at her words.
"Sure, just crush my dreams of world-famous surfing stardom," he muttered. Sora and Tidus came over and sat down, Sora's hair still dripping a little water onto his now decidedly well-toned chest.
"The time," he declared, "is now five thirty-five in the afternoon." Cheerily, he tucked into his chocolate caramel ripple sundae. "They are now fifteen minutes late, and the bet is won." His spoon went into his mouth, and he mimicked the exaggerated moan Tidus was making.
"The sweet, sweet taste of victory," said the blond.
"Told you it would be the easiest munny you ever made," Sora said. "Ah, six hundred munny...what will I do with it?"
"Six hundred?" Roxas asked. "I thought the bet was three hundred?"
"Yes, it was," Sora stated. "Against both Kairi and Selphie. Three hundred from Kairi and three hundred from Selphie to me, and three hundred from Kairi and three hundred from Selphie to Tidus." Grinning at his logic, he dipped his spoon into the cold confection again.
"They're going to fight your ass so hard for trying to get them to pay up six hundred munny," Kim said with a shake of her head.
"Too bad! They lost a bet," Tidus remarked. "If they think it's unfair, then tough! They should have been here on time so we'd pay up." He scooped up another spoonful of his ice cream and brought it up to his lips and into his mouth. Tidus savoured the taste, knowing that he'd be getting back the munny he'd just used to buy it, plus more.
"Something's been bugging me a bit since we got here," Sora said, addressing Tidus, "but now that it's mostly just us guys I feel as though I can ask you."
"Yeah?" Tidus asked with a spoon in his mouth. "And what's that?"
"Were you and Selphie on a date when the rest of us showed up?" Sora drilled.
Tidus almost choked on his spoon. "What-what gave you that idea?"
"Tidus, you two were walking side-by-side with Wakka nowhere in sight. As far as I remember, a situation like that is pretty rare," Sora reminded him with an evil grin.
"Hey, what about all of the times you and Kairi were off in your own world without Riku but weren't on dates? Need I remind you that we had a betting pool on you two?"
"Touché, but that didn't answer my question," Sora admitted. "Did we interrupt a date?"
Tidus grumbled a bit. "Yeah, you guys did, jerks." He took in another scoop of his ice cream.
"Aw, sorry man," Roxas apologized.
"Don't be," Tidus said with his mouth full of ice cream. "It's probably going a lot better this way. She got to go shopping with her best friend and we get to catch up with you guys. Plus this gets her in her swimsuit, which I hadn't planned on today." He gave Sora a lewd grin, and extended his fist. Sora chuckled and bumped it with his own.
"Damn straight," Sora laughed. "I can't wait to see Kairi in a bikini now."
"Haven't you seen her in her underwear?" Roxas asked.
"Shut up!" Kim exclaimed. She looked at Sora and grinned, impressed.
"No I haven't!" Sora denied furiously.
"You bastard," Tidus growled. "What did she let you touch? How far did you get?"
"I think she let him touch them," Roxas passively told them. "He enjoyed it."
"I swear to Kingdom Hearts, Roxas, I will eviscerate you!" Sora shouted, while Roxas calmly ate his ice cream.
"Well then, if she's let you play ball with her boobs then I really say that they're not going to pay up six hundred each without a fight," Kim said.
"They can fight all they want, but they're going to pay it," Sora said, waving his hand dismissively. He shot her a glare. "And that didn't happen!"
"Oh really?"
"Hm?"
Sora, Kim, Roxas, and Tidus all looked up as Kairi and Selphie stood beside their table, arms crossed and triumphant smirks on their faces. Sora couldn't help but eye Kairi's form appreciatively, her shapely curves exposed in a two-piece scarlet bikini, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Selphie sporting a stylish banana-yellow bandeau top tied around her neck by a string around a ring attached to the fabric in-between her breasts. "We may be late and have lost the bet," Kairi said, "but we're each only paying out three hundred to you two. And you'll have to agree when you see the fruits of our labour."
"I think Sora's seen enough of your 'fruits', Kairi," Kim giggled, waggling her eyebrows at Kairi's chest suggestively. Kairi drew an arm in front of herself.
"What do you mean?" she asked defensively.
"Titty time in bed," Roxas said. "You two have it, right?" Kairi's face became as red as her top and hair, and she narrowed her eyes at Sora.
"What have you been telling them?" she asked, her voice dangerously cool.
"What you are witnessing is the product of Roxas' troublemaking and has absolutely nothing to do with me not exaggerating our non-existent sex life," Sora told her. "Feel free to punch him as much as you want."
Sora took one more spoonful of his ice cream into his mouth, and swallowed it down with a smile while the sounds of Roxas feebly defending himself against Kairi's not too vicious assault on his head serenaded Sora's ears. He leaned back on his chair and smiled when he saw Kairi quickly checking him out with Roxas hunched over on the table, pretending to be in severe pain. She deserved to check him out, though. He had given her a good once-over too. "Well, this had better be good, babe, or I'm still gonna just order you to fulfill your end of the bet."
"Oh, don't worry, Sora," said Selphie, "it will be." She turned around and reached her hands for something, or someone, hiding behind Kairi.
"No! I don't want-!"
"Now presenting...Nanaki!"
Kairi twisted away, and the boys and Kim got a good look at the desert native in her very first swimsuit. She was in a one-piece, and stood slightly awkwardly and shuffled her bare feet. The swimwear fit her well, with straps wrapping around her neck from where they came off the bust, and patterned in jagged horizontal stripes of ocean blue and white on a violet background. They could make out ruffles on the section of her bathing suit dedicated to her cleavage. Nanaki was blushing quite profusely, and she glanced up at the table.
"I-if-if any of you laugh, I swear I'll cut you to ribbons!" she spat in a quiet voice. Her eyes flickered between the centre of the table, down at herself, and Kim's chest sporadically, and the boys didn't need to be geniuses to see why.
Kim was beside them in a black bikini top with tiny golden polka dots (and a pair of ridiculously short tan-coloured shorts with frayed legs), and the halter cut on the top was specifically drawing emphasis to her large and luscious DD-cup dumplings. Nanaki, on the other hand, was clearly flat as a board in the boob department. Sora and Roxas had never noticed that her assets were so lacking before, as the clothing she'd always worn had been quite excellent on covering up that she didn't have anything worth covering up.
Roxas and Sora both withheld their moans of disappointment. Tidus didn't quite cover it up so much, and Nanaki stamped. "Shut up!" She took two quick steps forward and launched a wicked punch to Tidus' cheek. The teen went spinning out of his chair and stopped a couple of feet away from where he'd been seated.
"I guess I deserved that," he muttered, and got back into his chair. "Good thing I've got a remedy right here." He spooned another spoon of his ice cream into his mouth and soothed the inside of his aching cheek.
Nanaki was still bright red in the face, and turned on Sora and Roxas with an upraised fist. "Well! Either of you got a problem? Am I not as big as you were hoping for you lecherous perverts!?"
"It looks cute," Roxas said with his eyes closed and a small hand gesture. He was the picture of suave. Nanaki's anger vanished in the blink of an eye.
"I agree," Sora added with a nod of his head. "That looks cute on you, Nanaki."
Her face turned five different shades of pink in the span of a single second and she slid back to where Kairi and Selphie were standing.
"They said I looked cute. No one's ever said I looked cute before..."
Kairi shook her head slightly and Selphie bounded away towards a bamboo wall of the shack. "And now for our next contestant, please feast your eyes upon our very own... the lovely, the beautiful, the precious drop-dead gorgeous-"
"Don't you think you're upselling her a bit much?" Kim asked.
"-Naminé!"
Roxas felt his whole world stop as Naminé entered his field of vision.
She was blushing slightly from nerves, curling a finger up close to her chin. A bright blue flower sat in her hair. Across her chest was a white bandeau with an aqua starburst flower pattern on her left side, and her hips had a wavy pure white skirt that flowed until just a few inches above her kneecaps.
Kairi hadn't spoken near enough to justify just how adorable Roxas felt Naminé looked right now. In fact, he was blushing and placed a hand over his mouth as his face went red.
Sora whistled. "Looking good, Naminé!"
"Ow! Ow!" added Tidus, punching the air.
"See," Selphie whispered to the former Nobody as she led her to take 'centre stage' in front of her small judging panel, "I told you that you looked great in it!" Naminé placed her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly, a smile coming onto her face as she looked directly at her boyfriend.
"Well? Roxas?" Naminé placed her hands out to her side and twirled around once. The skirt flirted with the breeze, flying up and just showcasing the bottom of her white bikini bottom underneath. "What do you think?"
"I think that Roxas has lost the capability of speech," Kairi giggled. "Either that or you..." she stopped as Roxas started to breathe out a few words.
"You look...so adorable," Roxas whispered. Naminé's blush brightened a tad and she swished her skirt with her right hand. She lightly stepped forward and placed her hand against Roxas' cheek, and thanked him for his thoughts with a soft peck on his lips.
Naminé leaned back from the kiss and dragged her tongue around her own lips. She smiled. "I can taste the ice cream on your lips," she purred. Roxas gulped. He never realized just how sexy Naminé could make ice cream sound. Naminé suddenly dumped herself on his lap and stole the spoon from his hand. "Gimme some!"
Roxas blinked, and wasn't able to react until Naminé had already placed a heaping spoonful of the chocolate scoop of his banana split into her mouth. "Hey! Wait! Naminé that's not fair! You know how much I like ice cream!" Naminé simply smiled brightly at him with the red spoon sticking into her mouth. She glanced at Kim, barely making eye contact with her fellow blonde before she quickly looked away, clutching at her head from a sudden surge of pain. Roxas' concern was quick to replace his disdain at her stealing his favourite treat. "Naminé, are you okay?"
She grimaced but nodded her head, forcing a smile onto her face. "Yeah, just a brain freeze is all."
"Well that's what you get for eating my ice cream," Roxas told her definitively.
Kim shifted slightly in her chair.
Sora sighed. "Alright, Kairi, fine. You and Selphie only have to pay up three hundred each. Nanaki, come over here and pull up a chair. I'll buy you an ice cream."
"Um...okay," Nanaki said timidly. She quickly grabbed a chair and sat down, still looking at her feet with a tinge of pink on her cheeks. Her hands went to her bathing suit and she ran them down her stomach a couple of times. "Hey, uh, where's Richard?"
Kairi and Naminé looked around frantically. "Oh shit! Did you guys lose him?"
"He said that he was entering a fishing contest," Sora said with a slight frown on his face.
-LD-
The judges' eyes were as wide as saucers, and they stared speechless at the hooded and cloaked warlock as he stood beside his catch. "Well? Do I win?" Richard asked.
"That's a...a...that's a Vulkna Shark..." the head judge said, pointing at the 'fish' that was strung twenty-five feet high in the air beside Richard. Grey-black bands coloured its otherwise white underside while the top half of the shark was camouflaged a slightly greyed blue. Rows upon rows of sharp white teeth graced its mouth.
"Really?" Richard asked. "It's just what I found when I went out. Is that significant?"
"It's the most dangerous sea-creature that lives within forty miles of these shores!"
"Really?" the warlock said again, looking in surprise at the creature beside him. "He sure didn't put up much of a fight. Are you sure it's dangerous?" The judges nodded their heads. "Well, still, do I win?"
-LD-
A little later, Naminé was lying on a towel on the beach, peacefully enjoying the feeling of Roxas' hands on her back as he spread suntan lotion over her skin. The lotion was cool, which had startled her at first and caused a little bit of shuddering. Now, however, she had her eyes closed and relaxed while Roxas spread the lotion. His hands rubbed gently, but she could still feel the strength within them that could arise at a moment's notice. It made her feel content; safe in their loving care.
Naminé let a soft moan escape her lips and she opened her eyes a little. Out playing in the surf were Sora, Kairi, Tidus, and Selphie. Sora and Tidus had Kairi and Selphie on their shoulders, respectively, and the two girls had their hands locked and were trying to push each other down into the water. Nanaki and Kim watched from the shore, close enough to get their bums wet by the waves as they came breaking up the sand. A few beachgoing boys appeared to be attempting to talk to them, but Nanaki was still far too coy to do more than stutter. Naminé found it endearing in a way that such a strong warrior from a harsh world compared to the Islands was so flustered in a bathing suit and as the object of male attention. Kim, though, was doing a fine job on taking up the boys' attentions. Naminé scowled. Stupid Kim and her stupid boobs.
She turned her eyes from Kim and back to the foursome engaged in their chicken fight. Ever since she'd placed her eyes on Kim that first time in the ice cream shop her temple had begun itching, and the first time was the worst. Something had just felt off. No, off wasn't the right word. Something about Kim felt...wrong; like Naminé didn't actually know who she was. And the worst part wasn't the vibe she was getting, it was that when she had glanced at Kim after stealing Roxas' ice cream she had been expecting to see her with a humoured, or at least a patient but annoyed, expression on her face, and she had.
However, underneath that she also saw a deep scowl.
Selphie and Tidus succeeded in knocking Kairi and Sora into the water. Naminé smiled at Kairi's girlish scream. The blonde then gasped and twittered a giggle when Kairi surfaced and yelped again, and Selphie leapt from Tidus' shoulders to almost tackle Kairi back underwater, hands reaching out wide. She missed, though, and was too late. The brunette had the redhead turn her back while she worked, but Sora had already seen what lay underneath the scarlet fabric that only an instant later had been floating freely in the ocean.
"I guess that Sora's having a really good day," Naminé mused. Roxas knelt down and kneaded his palms into the small of Naminé's back, drawing forth another cooing moan from his girlfriend.
"And why's that?" he asked. Kairi was now berating Selphie while the girl apologized profusely, and utterly failing considering how she kinda did want Sora to see what she had inadvertently shown him, just not at this current time in such a manner as it ended up happening. Sora, on the other hand, had his back turned to them and had dropped down so that only his head was visible above the waves, and Tidus was laughing hysterically and had his hand up for a continuously ignored high-five.
"He just got to see Kairi topless," she answered. "Don't bother looking. Selphie's gotten the top back on."
"Aww...dang," he said, bemoaning his luck. "I guess I'll just have to make do with rubbing lotion on my girl's beautiful back." Naminé turned her head on the orange and yellow towel.
"You are too sweet, Roxas." She could tell he was nodding while he quietly chuckled above her body. His hands paused in their ministrations.
"Uh, Naminé, would you like me to rub the lotion on the skin underneath the band, or just go around it?" Naminé thought about it for a few seconds.
Well, she mused, he has been very good recently, and I am really happy that he has a body of his own now so that we can be together. Today's also going by really good so...sure. Why not let him indulge?
She hummed in her throat before cracking open her smiling lips. "You're allowed to go underneath the bandeau, but your hands are restricted to my back," said the girl. She tilted her head to look up at him suggestively. "The front is reserved for when we're in private."
Oh wow, did I just say that? But...he's so cute when he's flustered!
Roxas went back to work, his fingers trembling on her skin with eager nerves. She could tell as he reached her sides that he was trying very, very hard to not test the boundaries that she'd set. After all, they were in public, and it wouldn't be very good for his reputation with Melissa if-on the day her mother discovered that her boyfriend had a body of his own-she learned that he'd been acting like a horny rascal to her little girl.
Naminé gently repositioned his hands to the centre of her back again with a faint giggle. "Forget what my mother would do to you if she found out you have wandering hands," she said, "just imagine what my dad would do." Roxas laughed weakly above her.
"Heh, heh, right... Okay, stick to the safe spots, got it."
"And I'll do my chest when I turn over," Naminé added, "just to keep you safe from daddy's wroth."
"Wroth?" chuckled Roxas.
"Wrath, ire, fury, take your pick. Wroth just sounded better in my head." Roxas laughed again.
"Ever the artist..." he muttered.
"Well...would you have me any other way?" she asked, her voice light like the gentle breeze blowing in from the ocean with the taste and smell of the surf and salt. Again, Roxas' amused laughter touched her ears, and he felt his hands come out from underneath the back of her top. Suddenly she could feel his breath against her cheek.
"No, I sure as hell wouldn't," he replied, and then he softly pressed a kiss to the back of her neck.
He finished applying the sunscreen to her shoulders and upper back, and Naminé turned around and started to work on her upper chest and abdomen, rubbing the cool lotion in with wide circles until the white cream had integrated with her skin. She finished up on both sides of her legs, noticing that Roxas was trying not to be too obvious in his staring when her hands were going over her recently-shaved thighs. She smiled a little and prematurely congratulated herself on her newfound boldness when she placed a large dollop of the cream into her palm.
"Would you like to tan with me, Roxas?"
"Huh? Oh! Sure!"
Naminé gestured with the hand holding the lotion. "May I?"
"Of course," said Roxas with a nod. Naminé's smile became just a little broader and she shuffled over on her knees. Now it was her turn to massage the lotion into Roxas' shoulders and back, and she realized just how much muscle was hiding underneath that skin of his. Roxas didn't have the visibly buff nature of Riku, but the strength buried beneath his skin was impressively tight. Even so, it melted underneath her fingertips and the blond Wielder relaxed to her soothing application of the sunscreen.
The seconds passed and Naminé could tell that her hands were roving over Roxas' body, yet she just couldn't seem to care enough to stop. Roxas also didn't appear too keen on telling her to cease, either, and his lips were unable to voice any sort of disagreement while her own were keeping them occupied.
"While I'd love to have nieces and nephews, I'd rather not be able to tell them that I was there to witness their conception!"
Naminé removed herself from Roxas at Kairi's shout like she'd been hit with a thunder spell. She and Roxas both sported rather pronounced blushes, and Naminé averted her eyes for a moment. She coughed. "Uhm, why don't you finish with the sunscreen? I'll just...just lie down now."
"Y-yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Roxas agreed, and both of them kept to the act of not looking at one another for a minute or so. Then Naminé glanced at Roxas again.
She sniggered.
Roxas chuckled.
Naminé's giggle increased in volume, immediately followed by the same thing happening to Roxas' laughter, until both of them were sharing a good laugh at moderate volume. Their laughter abated as Roxas brought Naminé into a one-armed hug and pulled her down with her back on his chest, and both of them looked up into the blue sky and started to watch the clouds pass as the sun shone down on them.
Neither of them had to say it, but both of them knew it were true. Life had been crazy recently, but right now it was calm; it was peaceful, and it was soothing for them to just take the late afternoon/early evening, lie down on the beach together, and relax. In short, life was good at the moment, and it promised to get even better tomorrow.
-LD-
There was one thing Keila could always count on to help her think or to even put her mind at ease: a sunset. And the Destiny Islands had one of the most beautiful sunsets that she had ever borne witness to.
The way the sun's light danced across the ocean, dyeing it gold in the last moments before nightfall claimed the world, complete with countless reflections of the life-giving star glittering on the waves was entrancing to look at. The sky above seemed to have been painted by a master artist with shades of violet, gold and crimson blending together in aesthetically pleasing manner. Combined with the gentle lapping of the waves against her bare feet, Keila felt at peace for what felt like the first time in weeks.
She gently rolled the silver egg Devin had given her across her palm. She was slightly intrigued by how it always remained cool to the touch, regardless of how long she held onto it. There was something about the object that she found oddly soothing. Perhaps it was the ocean's calming effect playing tricks on her. She couldn't be certain.
However, Keila's mind refused to relax. A whole day she had spent on this world, and her thoughts had been whirling around in her head like a typhoon such that she'd hardly noticed it passing until now that the sun was setting. Two beings of Darkness, huh? She glanced at the staff of ironwood she had thrust into the ground next to her. A shiver ran down her spine, forcing Keila to look quickly away. Every time she so much as glanced at Oathbreaker, she couldn't help but feel as though it stared back at her, accusing her of something. It did very little to put her mind at ease.
"I'll be glad when Devin has this," she murmured. Another shiver shook her, and she kept her gaze away from Oathbreaker. "I don't like holding onto it at all."
Perhaps it was her imagination, but she could've sworn she felt the air between her and Oathbreaker shiver in retaliation to her words. "Yeah. Definitely creepy."
Quickly losing herself in the gentle motions of the ocean waters, Keila found her mind drifting away from the weapon. It bounced around from random thought to random thought, never finding purchase and never lingering for more than a few moments. Moments like this had been rare in her life, and Keila had every intention of enjoying this one to the fullest.
"I never knew how calming the ocean could be." Keila's voice was barely above a whisper. She kicked her feet absent mindedly, allowing her toes to barely graze the water below the dock she sat upon. A chuckle escaped her lips. "Maybe I was born on an island somewhere."
Not that I would know. Mother has always been so tight-lipped about where she finds all of us. With a groan, Keila allowed herself to fall backward onto the dock, instead turning her gaze to the rapidly darkening sky. It's always about training. Making ourselves the best. Heh. I bet she never thought that maybe a vacation once in a while might've done us some good. It's certainly doing me wonders.
She let out an unnecessarily loud yawn and arched her back like a cat for a moment, savoring the pull of her muscles along her spine as she stretched herself out. That's what this assignment has felt like; one big vacation with a couple of chores on the side. I haven't been this relaxed since before... since before I killed... Keila's thoughts ground to a halt as her train of thought brought up a barrage of images.
The howling of the wind in her ears. Flurries of snow impairing her vision. He stands there, silver hair thrown about in the gale. Her Keyblade flashes into existence as she pounces. He counters half-heartedly. His eyes meet hers. Pleading. Shocked. Hurt. She attacks. He defends. Over and over again. Her armor shatters. Crystal fragments dot the battlefield. "Are you okay?" he asks. She grins up at him. Their lips meet. For a moment, she nearly loses herself to the physical contact. She smirks. The feeling of flesh giving way to crystal barely registers in her mind. Blood soaks through her glove. He steps back, shock on his face. Her Keyblade is in her hand before she knows it. She strikes. He vanishes over the cliff edge.
Keila sat up with a startled gasp. She shook her head rapidly from side to side, willing her memories to leave her alone. Of course, she knew well enough by now that would never be the case.
Eidetic memory had been one of the many things she was unhappy with about herself when it first manifested a few years back. It was the same with many of her brothers and sisters. At least a third of them shared this burden. And their mother never gave them a straightforward reason as to why so many of them possessed it.
And the last thing Keila wanted coming to mind while she was trying to relax was the memory of her first and only kill. "It only gets easier." That's what her mother had promised. But Keila knew that was a lie. Any time she thought about the kill, her body was rocked with a powerful wave of nausea. His body had been a bloody mess at the base of that cliff, like a bug on a windshield, except with bones.
She groaned, leaning over the wooden planks to give her head better access to the water. Her reflection stared back, looking a little green around the gills. At least she knew she wasn't a natural born killer, if the churning of her stomach was anything to go by. Granted, it was only a small comfort in the grand scheme of things.
If it wasn't for mother... I never would've killed him. She used me. Like she'd use a tool. The nausea was beginning to pass. Does she only see me as a tool? Is that all I am?
With a sigh, Keila turned her focus back to the sunset as the star kissed the horizon; but she couldn't enjoy it now. She quickly lost herself in the darkness of her own musings as day gave way to night.
-LD-
Hey look! A new chapter! Don't make any sudden movements. You might scare it away!
In all seriousness though, I hope you all enjoyed reading the combined efforts of myself and Shire Folk. Seriously, this guy is awesome. If you haven't read any of his stories, go do so. I guarantee that they're worth your time.
As I type this, Shire and I are hard at work on thirty four, which was originally part of this chapter. Ultimately, due to the length and obvious splitting point in the original thirty three, I had it split in two.
In case you're wondering, thirty four is past the halfway point in production. Take that as you will.
In other news, Daybreak has broken three hundred reviews! Probably means more to me than you guys, but still! Thanks a million, everyone!
Well. That's it for tonight. Check out the new poll I've put up, if you're up to it.
Back to thirty four I go.
Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.
Shadow Horizons