Chapter 11: Love wasn't meant for me

Kairi and Esmeralda were walking along the outskirts of Notre Dame with Brian slowly behind them, trying to avoid patrols from the Heartless and Frollo's men. There had been an announcement from Frollo for the capture of Esmeralda and Kairi, leading the judge to turn most of Notre Dame into ash. Brian wondered why he wasn't being looked for considering that he did the most magic out of the group but he knew that he couldn't leave them on their own because they would get caught without his help and if he went back to the cathedral; he'll get double beating from Sora and Quasimodo. It had been five days since the three of them had managed to escape from Notre Dame, with a worried expression from Kairi as they fled, and continued to find a way to stop Frollo. As the three of them, including the goat, walked along, the cocky mage halted his actions as he knelled to the floor, trying to catch his breathe from the distance and his previous injuries that he had endured. How...much...LONGER! He watched a shadow cast over him, making him look up to the familiar Princess of Heart. "Come on, Brian." She tried to encourage him as she knelled beside him. He should see Esmeralda and her 'goat of pain and evil' as he put it continue up to the farm house in the distance. "We have to keep going."

Brian panted slightly as he tried to get up before collapsing on the floor out of pure exhaustion, "Can't...go on." He gasped fakely, seeing Kairi shake her head. "Leave...without me!"

"Oh no!" Kairi played along, getting up to her feet as she placed her hands on her hips, smiling at the plan that was forming in her head. "What ever should I do to get him up?"

Brian placed a weak expression across his face ashe looked up at Kairi. "Can you kiss me on the cheek so I can at least say a cute girl kissed me tonight?" Brian chatted up. Kairi smiled to herself before she started to lean closer to Brian, making the mage closed his eyes. I cannot believe that actually worked. Brian cheered in his head.

Well it didn't.

Kairi softly kissed her hand and then smacked it against his cheek, making him jump up in pain. "If you can flirt with me and jump up in pain." She told him with a stern tone, watching him hold his cheek from the slap. "Then you can walk for a few more minutes."

"Well you been saying different if you was the one getting beaten by a Billy-goat and a princess." Brian whined, watching her walk off without him. "Hey! Wait up!" He sighed as he watched her move on, making him stuggle to catch up.

Apart from the terrible chat up line, the way that Brian had acted was in a similar way to Sora a couple of years ago in Kairi's mind. If he didn't flirt with her every chance he could get as well as have brown hair instead of red then she could have easily mistaken Brian for Sora. She shook her head at the thought, Brian and Sora are two completely different people, there's nothing similar about them.She halted her actions as she looked up into the night sky once more, seeing all of the different worlds that shun like a thousands lanterns within the darkness. An adventure that the three of us have been waiting for. When Sora gets better, our adventure can truly start under one destiny.

"Ohhhh. You decided to wait then. That's reeeaaalllll kind of you." A sarcastic comment came from behind her, being her sight away from the stars, ones that were slowly being covered by think clouds from the burning of Paris, to face the cocky mage herself. "Did I really deserve the slap? Really?"

"You should think about others before your own needs, Brian." She told him before placing her eyes on the old mill house in the distance, "C'mon! We have to catch up with Esmeralda!" She turned her back to him as she began to walk again.

"Yes, your highness." He muttered.

She halted once more, "Will you stop that?"

"Stop what?" He simply shrugged.

"Stop referring to royalty!" She commanded.

"Well, when you give commands like that and slap those that disobey, how can I not?" He smirked at her. Another slap proved his point.

BOWBOWBOW

Kairi and Brian slowly came up to Esmeralda, who was using Djalias part of her get up so that she didn't get spotted, having a cloak over her similar to the ones that Kairi and Brian were wearing. When the two reached her, they saw her watching Frollo and some knight in golden armour fall into an argument after Frollo locked a family of four into their house.

"What's going on?" Kairi whispered to her.

Esmeralda turned around and smiled at them both before answering, "Frollo has put the miller's family under house arrest for no reason and now Phoebus looks like he is refusing to follow Frollo's commands." She updated them.

"Phoebus?" Brian raised an eyebrow at this, how did she know the knight's name.

"He's the reason I managed to stay safe in the cathedral in the first place." She looked over to Brian to see the huge red mark on his face."What happened to you?" Esmeralda asked quietly.

"Got slapped." He replied sadly, only to pout as he watched Esmeralda turned to Kairiand congratulated her for the act she had committed. I should had stayed back at Notre Dame with Big foot and hunchback. He turned his sight back to the judge and the captain just as Frollo had clicked his fingers, summoning small Unbirths shaped as a flame to jump on the straw-like house to set the entire burning on fire. "What the-" He looked back at Kairi and quickly grabbed her before she blew their cover. "Wait."

They watched as Phoebus, the captain, had quickly kicked down the front and bursted intothe burning house before reappearing again with a pair of frightened children in his arms, the parents following as the house collapse behind them. While he handed back the children to their parents, a Shadow Heartless formed from behind him and swiped at the captain, knocking him down to the ground. The shadow casted from Frollo's horse covered the knight as Frollo looked down at him, "Defining orders will senescence you to death. Pity. You threw much a promising career away" Frollo informed him as the Shadow Heartless appeared to jump the fallen knight once more.

"Consider it my highest honor, sir." Phoebus commented, earning an angered glare from his former commander.

Before Brian had the chance to tell the gyspy to stop, Esmeralda had got out of her way to find some rocks and swing them towards Frollo's horse, making it jump up in pain and fright, knocking Frollo off. The Shadow had jumped as the horse shrieked, but the distraction that was caused allowed Phoebus to kick the Heartless away before jumping on Frollo's horse in a attempt to flee. It didn't take long for Frollo to summon Archer-like Heartless to shot Phoebus off his horse and watch as he fell into the river, darken arrows following his trail.

As the three outcasts began to sneak their way over to the river to help Frollo, the Princess of Heart's sight noticed a number of Unbirth being summoned to search the river, as well as heading their direction. They needed to get to Phoebus to a safe place without the worried of Unbirth and possibly Frollo following them. She quickly made her decision as she halted her actions towards the river, "You guys help Phoebus." She told them, "I'll be the distraction." She quickly turned around and headed to the top of the bridge.

"Kairi! Wait!" Brian shouted, failing to grab her in time as he watched her jump on the bridge, waving her arms around like a crazy woman to grab Frollo's attention. It didn't take long for all of the Unbirths to follow her, watching her flee deeper into the outskirts. "Sora's gonna kill me." Brian simple muttered.

BOWBOWBOW

Sora's injuries had not passed much since the attack five days ago but he was strong enough to move around and fight again, only for him to see the state of the city of Paris. It had only been a short while since Sora had managed to speak to the gargoyles freely, getting to know them as Hugo, Victor and Larverne, as he toldQuasimodo about the experience of the outside world, as well as other worlds. He watched the scene sadly as he heard the sound of hopping stone on the edge, hearing the gargoyles join him. He felt useless being copped up in the bell tower, unable to help his friends in need because of one meanless Heartless bite. He looked down at his newly bandaged arm as the thought came into mind, their was still alot of pain coming from the arm, it looked like it wasn't going to go any time soon. He had asked his Nobody if he had come across anything like this, only to receive unreliable responses.

"This doesn't look good." Larvernespoke, knocking Sora out of his thoughts to see that she was talking to the taller gargoyle, Victor.

"You're telling me." The three turned their heads around to Hugo playing poker with some random birds, "I'm losing to a bird!" Hugo moaned, slamming his cards down, making the bird take off.

"I hope Esmeralda is all right. Quasi is really worried about her." Laverne said with concern.

"Hey Sora. How come you're not worried about that Kairi girl?" Hugo asked as he shuffled the desk of cards and started to set them out again.

An sad expression hit him as he looked away from the gargoyle."I am worried about her. More than anything." Sora said in a low tone voice, looking down at the entrance of the cathedral where Riku was still in the stock sleeping. "But I know that no matter where she goes, I'm always with her…" he then turned to face the three gargoyles, "…In here." Sora finished pointing to his chest.

Victor and Laverne understood what Sora was trying to say but Hugo just had a blank face. "Your stomach?" questioned Hugo, resulting him to get jabbed in his stone chest by Laverne.

Laverne suddenly heard footsteps coming as she turned to the others, "Now don't metion anything thing to Quasi. He worried enough as he is."

"Got it! Sora? You wanna play?" Hugo asked him as he played with his cards.

"I think I'll pass." Sora smiled gentle before going back to his own thoughts about his friends once more.

"Not a word." Victor said strongly just as Quasimodo joined them to watch the burning site of his home world.

"Any sign of them?" He asked.

Victor was next to him, trembling like mad until he burst in to tears. "Oh there properly fallen in the grasp of Frollo and had their hearts pulled out and left in the stone cold dungeon and there is no hope for us all." Victor sobbed negatively and was pulled into a hug by Quasimodo, patting his back. Sora was kinda hurt after what Victor said but just shook it off.

"Way to keep it zipped, Victor." Laverne said sarcastically.

Sora pushed himself away from the sight of the burning city and went up to Quasi. "Don't worry." Sora assured, "I know that they are alright."

Hugo put his cards away but keeps one card in his hands as he hopped to Quasimodo and Sora. "Yeah. Considering that you both have your heart set on it." Hugo pointed out, Victor and Laverne nodded in agreement.

Sora placed his hands behind his head and grinned innocently, trying to hide the blush on his face, while Quasimodo just laughed nervously and blush a little. "Oh no. She wouldn't want a guy like me." said Quasimodo.

"Of course she would Quasi." Sora replied

"You're one of a kind." Victor added

"You're unique." Laverne said

"A guy like you, she would love." The three gargoyles said.

"And you would have better luck with this." Hugo said as he handed Quasimodo a card that was the ace of hearts.

Quasimodo smiled at them all for their support. "Thank you. All of you." He looked down at the card, smiling at the chance that was staring at him in the face.

"Quasimodo?" a sweet voice quietly called through the bell tower.

As the gargoyles turned to statues again and Quasimodo went downstairs, Sora turned back to looked at the view, looking down at his sleeping friend once more before turning around as Quasimodo came back up the stairs. He watched as he was followed by Esmeralda, Djali and Phoebus, who was being held up by Brian. While Quasimodo pointed to the bed that Sora had been resting in after his blackout, The Keyblade Master walked over to the cocky mage after he had rested Phoebus down. Before he could question why they had brough the captain of the guard back, slightly remembering about the way he had spoken to Kairi, he had noticed that his cheek was bright red. "What happened to you?" Sora laughed, forgetting about his thoughts before.

Brian rolled his eyes at the laugher before answering, "Kairi slapped me for chatting her up." He sighed, backing away slightly.

Way a go, Kairi he said happily in his head as he looked around for his best friend, only to notice the missing red-head. A worried and panicky emotion struck him as he turned to Brian. "Where's Kairi?" Sora asked, hoping he would say something that will relief him.

Brian started to fiddle with his fingers as he thought of an answer, throwing all chance of relief out the window. "Well…you see…." Brian spoke nervously, "I've kinda…..misplaced her."

"MISPLACED HER?" His anger has now returned. "HOW CAN YOU MISPLACE HER? SHE NOT AN ITEM!"

"It would be a lot easier if she was." Brian muttered aloud, recieving a deadly expression from his teammate. "I didn't mean it like that." He added quickly.

Roxas? As you are a part of me, I feel that I should ask you if murder is against the law in this world? Sora tensed up slightly as he tried to hold his anger.

Yes it is and calm yourself down! Roxas told him, You should be asking where she could be, not getting into another fight. We don't want the same thing happening like before.

I guess you're right. Sora sighed with anger as he looked away from the so-called comrade that lost his best friend to whatever. "You know, I don't know why you worry about that chick." Brain casually said.

Chick? Kairi is not just some chick? Sora's right arm was shaking as he summoned his Keyblade, Brian's eyes widened in fear.

"Oh... you can summon that stupid key again." Brain said nervously with a nervous laugh after, he looked at Sora before placing his arms in front of his face. "Please don't hurt me. I'm too cute to die." He begged.

Sora was about to swing his Keyblade around Brian's head when he saw something out the corner of his eye. He looked in that direction to make sure he wasn't mistaking what he was seeing. Ohh no...I can't believe it. He faced Brian again, watching him cowering as he calmed himself and put his Keyblade away, making Brian confused.

"Wait. You're not gonna hurt me?" Brian questioned, Sora didn't answer. "Wow. You must like me better than I thought." A sudden fist smaked him around the jaw, making him lose balance a bit and grab his jaw in pain. "Owwwww... Or not." He simply said.

Sora rolled his eyes and pointed to where Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Phoebus and Djali were."Look." He simply said and soon Brian understood what he meant.

Esmeralda was kissing Phoebus passionately, not noticing that the hunchback was watching the scene, his heart breaking in the process. A few tears formed in Quasimodo's eyes as he walked over to Sora and Brian. "Quasi. I'm sorry." Sora apologized.

Quasimodo looked down and took out the ace of hearts Hugo had given him early. He cried as he slowly ripped it into pieces. "Love wasn't meant for me." Quasimodo muttered to himself.

Kingdommad