(A/N): Here the characters get to relax in a nice castle. For those who care about my OCs you'll get a glimpse into their past at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Square Enix and defiantly not Disney.
Chapter 8: Beast's Castle
The five warriors stood outside of a bright castle. Kairi and Luna stood away from the boys both of them still mad and embarrassed at what Sol had done to them. Luna hadn't let him off the hook for changing her clothes. There was a visible bump on Sol's head where Luna's fist had connected with him.
"Sora I thought you said that Beast's Castle was a gloomy place." Riku said pointing to the white castle.
"It was the last time I was here, but hey it's been a year." Sore replied. "We aren't going to find out what happened out her though so let's head in."
Sora had started walking to the large oak doors a when they opened up. Out walked Belle and a man that Sora had never seen before. Belle was in her blue and white dress that Sora had seen her in the last time he was here. The man wore a white shirt with golden buttons and a pair of black pants. A rapier was strapped to his waist. His black hair was kept neat and his eyes were a deep brown color. Belle and the man were deep in conversation and Belle walked right into Sora.
"Oh" Belle gasped and looked to find what she had bumped into. "Sora is that you?"
"Yeah Belle it's me. Good to see you again."
Kairi walked up to stand next to Sora. Figuring he'd be too distracted talking to Belle to blush. She was dead wrong though. The second she intertwined her fingers with his, his cheeks turned a slight shade of red. Belle introduced the man next to her as Prince Alan. He was Beast but the spell had been broken thanks to Belle and so everyone and everything in the castle returned to normal.
"Nice to meet you Prince Alan," Kairi said with a curtsy "I'm Kairi, Sora's girlfriend."
"Nice to meet you to Kairi, but please don't curtsy and just call me Alan. That goes for the rest of you to."
"Sorry Prince Alan, my world taught me to always add titles." Sol said as he approached Alan. "Old habits die hard, especially when then been drilled into you." The prince just nodded his head in understanding.
"We were just heading into town to get see my father." Belle told the group of off-worlders. "You're more than welcome to stay here though. We should be back tonight."
The little girl inside of Kairi was ecstatic to be staying inside of a castle. When she walked through the great doors leading in she let out a small gasp at the beauty of the castle. It was marble in appearance but when she looked closely she could tell that it was stone polished to give the look of marble. A red carpet went through the middle of the room leading to a twin staircase that headed into the separate wings of the castle. Smack dab in front of her was at the top of the stairs was another set of giant doors. She asked Sora what those doors led to and he told it was to the ballroom.
"Bye guys," Sol said as he went up the stairs leading to the west wing. "A place like this should have a great library."
Kairi was appalled that Sol was in this beautiful castle and he was going to go find a dusty old library. Didn't he have enough books back on the ship? To her left Luna giggled at Kairi apparent disgust at Sol.
"He's read almost all the books on the ship. The prospect of new material was just too much for him to resist. Me and you could parade naked in front of him and he'd still be looking for a new book." Luna whispered to Kairi.
"You can't be serious, he'd ignore two naked women for a book?" came the voice on Naminé. In a ghostly form standing next to Kairi was the Nobody Naminé in her white dress. She must not have realized that she had projected herself out of Kairi because she completely ignored the shock look on everyone's face.
"Uh Naminé, your visible." Kairi whispered in shock.
Naminé then looked at herself. She then proceeded to jump up and down in excitement. "I can project myself out into the world!" Instantly the first thing she did was to touch Kairi. Her hand though went right through her Somebody. "Oh well, at least you all can see me now. And no offense Kairi, but now I can talk to other people!"
"No offense taken Naminé I'm too stunned" Kairi responded.
"Ok someone want to fill me in on who the blond haired blue eyed chick is?" Luna asked pointing at Naminé.
Naminé raised her hand into the air. "I'm Naminé, Kairi's Nobody. Didn't King Mickey tell you about me when he told you Sora's story?" Naminé explained with a hurt expression.
"Yeah, but aren't you supposed to be well… dead or something?"
"Nope when I merged with Kairi I still retained my sense of self and have been living in her head for the past year. Roxas is living in..." Naminé about faced and stared right at Sora "Roxas get out here. If I can project myself then you can to."
Sora started to glow a golden color and the aura started to move forward. When it left Sora it took on the form of Roxas. He was dressed in the same outfit that Kairi had seen him in at on the top of The Castle That Never Was.
"Roxas" Naminé shouted running over to the spikey haired blonde pulling him into a hug. Luckily the two ghost-like Nobodies could interact with one another. Roxas looked shocked at the hug attack he had gotten form the female blonde. He recovered quickly and returned the affectionate hug. Kairi and Luna let out a little aw sound at the two Nobodies. The sound caused Naminé and Roxas to break apart from each other.
"So how did you manage to get out of Kairi?" Riku asked the question that was plaguing the minds of everyone present.
"Well I was just shocked at the information the Luna told Kairi and I guess my intense feeling of shock brought me out of Kairi." The female Nobody turned to her fellow blonde. "How did you get out of Sora exactly?"
"I just willed myself out and a door inside his head opened up. I walked through it and the next thing I know I'm being hugged by a pretty girl." Roxas informed her with a grin. This caused Naminé to blush, Roxas had called her pretty. She playfully swatted his arm.
The sounds of a door shutting loudly echoed through the halls causing the two Nobodies to glow and return to their Somebodies. Two men, one a bit pudgy and dressed in a brown coat that had the chain of a pocket watch dangling from it. The other was tall and lanky and wore a brighter outfit. The two men spotted the group of teens and the taller man rushed over to Sora.
"Sora it is good to see you again."
A look of remembrance went of the Keybearer's face "Lumiére!"
"Oui who else would I be?" the candlestick of a man said. "Surely you remember this stick in the mud." He continued pointing to the man walking up from behind him. While Lumiére had rushed forward the other man had taken his time to greet the guests of the castle.
"You must be Cogsworth"
Cogsworth nodded his head yes, "How have you been Sora and what have you been up to recently?"
"Pretty good, traveling worlds, fighting the Heartless, you know the normal stuff for me."
Lumiére walked over to Kairi he took up her hand and kissed the back of it. "And who is this lovely mademoiselle?"
"That's my girlfriend Kairi," then pointing to Riku and Luna, "that's my best friend Riku and that's my friend Luna."
Riku did a slight wave at the mention of his name. Luna added a smile with her wave.
"Well aren't you a beauty?" Lumiére said as he slid over and kissed the back of Luna's hand.
"Lumiére what would you do if Fifi caught to talking like that to these women?"
"Ah Cogsworth, I knew there was I kept you around. If you all would excuse me I am actually my way to see said beauty." With a bow Lumiére left leaving behind Cogsworth.
"If you four wouldn't mind I could show you around the castle while you're here" Cogsworth offered to the group. At the moment Sora's stomach decided to let itself be known with a loud grumble. "I think we'll start off at the dining room."
Cogsworth led them into the west wing and though the halls. Kairi thought that even the halls looked beautiful. Painting of landscapes and people lined the walls. Expensive looking vases and other trinkets stood on podiums as if to show off the castles wealth. She didn't think that Alan was like that, at least not anymore from what Sora had told her. When she entered the dining room she was led to the table and sat next to Sora. Riku and Luna sat across from them.
"The food will be along shorty." Cogsworth said with a bow as he headed to the kitchen. The four friends talked amongst themselves as they waited for the food. Mostly about the things they missed from home, or in Luna's case about Destiny Islands. They even talked about where to go after they left this world. It was decided to visit a world that Sora had never been to.
Then came the smells from the kitchen. Sora's stomach grumbled once more but this time it was accompanied by the sounds of three more. Servant finely dressed walked out of the doors that led to the kitchen. There were four servants each carrying two silver trays. When they reached the table they placed the eight trays on the table and lifted the silver lids. Kairi's mouth started to water at the feast in front of her eyes. There was lasagna, spaghetti, fish, chicken, steak, three kinds of bread, a dish that looked like pudding, and four bowls of tomato soup. Kairi thanked the servants before she helped herself to the chicken and steak dish. Luna had plate was nothing more than a giant pile of spaghetti with a few slices of bread. Riku took some of the meat dishes, saying he needed to cover the basic man food groups. Sora, being Sora, took a heaping chunk out of each dish.
About halfway through the meal Luna gasped. "Sol's still in the library, he's missing out on all this food." Kairi felt a little guilty, she had forgotten all about the fifth member of their little group. She was quickly over it though, it was Sol's choice to have gone and wondered off to the library rather than stay with them. Luna looked really worried though. In fact Luna got up and headed to the kitchen to see about getting Sol food. Kairi could hear a heated argument between the raven haired woman and a servant. Luna wanted to personally deliver the food to him, but the servant argued that it was his job to see to the needs of the master and his guests.
"Do you guys think Sol knows how much Luna worries about him?" Kairi asked the two boys.
"Probably not, he seems about as dense as Sora here." Riku said after swallowing a bite of his steak.
"Hey" mumbled Sora through a mouthful of fish. Kairi smacked him on the head and told him to finish his food before he spoke.
"Though he does have better table manners then Sora." Riku continued antagonizing his friend even more.
The doors to the kitchen burst open and out walked Luna holding a silver tray like the ones that the servants had brought out. She was followed by a male servant who was continuing to argue that it was his job. Luna turned around to face the man, her face set in anger.
"Listen hear you, I'm taking this food to the library! If you have a problem with it TO BAD cause it is happening. Now if you want you could lead me to the library and save me from wondering the halls."
The forceful voice that came out of Luna shocked the three sitting at the table. While they had really only known Luna for a little while she never raised her voice or got angry. She was the voice of reason for the group the one who was calm and ladylike, except in battle where her apparent aggressive nature came out. Luna stared the man following her down dagger in her eyes, daring him to try to take the tray from her. The servant made the smart move and offered to lead the young mistress to the library. Luna smiled and once again looked like the calm lady that Kairi was used to seeing.
And you thought I was bipolar.
Shush Naminé, she might hear you.
I'm safely in your mind, if she could hear me you should be worried about her reading your thoughts.
Sol was in heaven. He was in a room that had more books then he'd ever be able to read in his life. He realized that his life was too short, if only he could extend it so that he could read each and every text that lay before him. Making his way to the closest shelf he started reading the titles. He had never heard of any of them! He chose a book at random and opened it. The language that lay on the pages was most certainly not English. This presented a problem to the young scholar. Well it would have had he not spent that last few years practicing magic. He called forth his power and laid it over the book. The words leapt off the page into the energy and swirled around in it before going back to the pages. Sol absorbed the energy and once again looked at the pages before him. Thanks to his magic he now understood the words before him. Magic was such a wonderful thing, it allowed him to learn a new language in a matter of seconds. He took another book of the shelf, since he had magically read the other to learn the language. With the new book in hand he made his was over to a red chair and sat down.
After a few pages the doors to the library opened up. Sol wanted nothing more than to ignore whoever it was that had come in. The woman though came up to him and introduced herself as Mrs. Potts and asked if he'd like tea while he was reading. Unlike Lumiére and Cogsworth she had noticed the group come in after talking with Belle and Alan. Sol declined saying that he'd yet to find a tea that tasted good. Mrs. Potts took this as a challenge though and brought him six different kinds. Much to the dismay of Mrs. Potts Sol didn't like a single one of them. Sol thanked the gods when she left him to his reading. At least one god must have been annoyed with him because the doors to the library burst open not long after Mrs. Potts had left. With a sigh Sol put down the book and stared at the intruder. He blinked to make sure his eyes were functioning correctly. Standing before him holding a silver tray loaded with his favorite food, ravioli, was Luna.
"You missed lunch," she said putting the platter of food down in front of him.
(A/N): I know a lot of the dishes weren't exactly French dishes, but I really wanted pasta when I wrote this chapter. So the characters were forced to eat it.