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miss-tc-nova · 4 years ago

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A Garden for the Lost - Marluxia

Hey! Most of my zine work is coming to a close, meaning I can post this one here! Written for the @disorganizine. It was a blast to be part of such an awesome project.

~~~~~

Lord of Castle Oblivion: the man takes immense pride in his position, even if it’s been handed to him by the very person he seeks to ruin. Nevertheless, between overseeing the castle and plotting his take over, there’s little time to recoup. Despite his ambition and drive, Marluxia still needs those moments in which he can forget obligations and goals and focus on something he wants to do.

So he made time. With Vexen as acting lord for a day, Marluxia has taken to another world.

Upon his first visit, only dirt greeted him. However, when no inhabitants had been found to be a bother, the barren plot was claimed as his own. Since then, the dusty, drab lot has transformed into a lush, expansive garden. Everything inside has been grown by the Graceful Assassin himself; even the little toolshed and bustling greenhouse had been put up with his own hands. Flowers of all sorts comfortably thrive here from roses to snap dragons—there’s even a cactus patch in its own sandy enclosure. This is his sanctuary—the only place he has ever felt complete. It’s absurd to say he enjoys this hobby seeing as he has no heart, but for as long as he can remember, peace only finds him when he indulges in gardening.

The hefty black coat is shed, sloughing off the woes of work with it. Boots scrape the dirt path as he makes his way towards the greenhouse; there are some seedlings that require his attention.

And that’s when he notices it: shuffling among the vegetation is something unknown. As it makes its way through the rose bushes, Marluxia begins to stalk the rustle. Every now and then, the top of a silver head bobs above the leaves, a pair of folded ears bouncing and a ring of flowers perched between them.

The shifting halts at the end of the shrub line causing the assassin to freeze. The intruder is feline in its characteristics but is clearly no ordinary house cat. A cape sits across small shoulders and a large, pink coin purse hangs from its neck. A crown with the most intricate weaving sits atop its head, made of flora from this very garden.

Before the animal is a previously empty patch Marluxia had not yet designated, though that seems to have changed. Little paws lift a watering can over the freshly planted foliage. The flower looks like a flock of ridiculous birds on alert. Green and ruby “beaks” jut out at the top of the stalk with a vibrant crown of gold and violet. A twinge in his chest causes Marluxia to act.

“Excuse me,” he sneers, having long lost his sense of sympathy—if he ever had one.

The watering can clatters to the ground with a shocked gasp. Blue eyes peer up at the gardener before a puff of smoke engulfs the feline.

“Hey!” But the strange cat is already gone.

A closer look at the plant reveals an orange ribbon tied around the stem of the brightest bloom.

No warning brings about the pain that suddenly surges through his skull. With a snarl, Marluxia stumbles back, but no amount of grasping or wincing eases the agony. Unprovoked, it swells and spreads until it overwhelms the man, bringing him to his knees. The blinding ache only fades when he blacks out.

~~~~~

“—r—m. L—ia—”

What happened?

“L—m.”

Eyes flutter open to a brilliant sky. Blue, yellow, and every shade of pink frames his vision, the soft petals occasionally grazing against him as they sway in the breeze.

“Figures you’d be snoozin’ here.”

Pushing from the flowers, Marluxia glances back, finding a crowd of blurred faces strolling closer.

Who are they?

Without consent, his lips pull back in a smile—a real smile without all the insincerity and secrecy he’s become so skilled at. “You caught me.”

“That makes this my nappin’ spot now. Scram.” A hand meets his shoulder in a teasing shove, provoking light laughter from the confused man.

“Oh come on, _____,” a feminine voice scolds. High pitch ringing and static consumes her voice for a moment but no one acknowledges the anomaly. “We caught you asleep in the library like an hour ago.”

The first stranger, clad in black, flops into the flowers. “Aw, well now you went and blew my secret.”

“Did I miss a meeting or something?” Marluxia asks.

The third, a blur sitting above a crimson scarf, reassures him, “No. We were just worried about you; haven’t seen you all day. Only ______ seemed to know where to find you.” Again, the name is drowned out in a blaring mesh of noise.

He looks to the man beside him, somehow finding this normal. “You knew, huh?”

A finger points to a looming tower not far off. “Yep. Could see you from the window.”

“Really?” interrupts the girl. “You couldn’t have just told us that instead of dragging us all the way out here?”

“What fun would that have been?” He lies back, his hat tipping forward to shade his face. “Besides, why would you wanna miss this view?”

“It is pretty,” admits the one in the scarf.

These people, regardless of who they are, have managed to bring out a lightness that Marluxia can’t recall ever feeling. With no memories of who he used to be, he can only assume that this is what happiness must feel like to somebodies. It’s as warm as the sun, as light as the breeze, and as beautiful as the flowers; he can’t imagine how he’s gone so long without knowing something so wonderful could exist.

A fourth voice, the last stranger, speaks, “Hey, did you ever find _____?”

This time, the cacophony is far more extreme, picking at his brain like needles. They sink in, allowing this oozing pain to seep through. Whatever spell gave him this bliss is broken, freeing Marluxia and allowing him to grip at the stabbing in his head.

Clouds roll in, bringing threats of a storm and snuffing the serenity for good. Carried along by a sudden gust is a chill that sweeps over the field. The first three strangers disintegrate in the wind, leaving behind the last. His face clears, revealing someone Marluxia is fairly familiar with.

Roxas?!

Blue eyes, usually full of innocent curiosity, are empty, as if dead. Curled around him, waving menacingly, are tendrils of darkness. He’s a threat.

“—iam.”

What is this?!

Foreboding shadows engulf the boy as they reach for their new victim. From within, a pair of violent, yellow eyes pierce through to leer at the man. That gaze antagonizes the ache that paralyzes him.

“L—r—.”

What’s happening?!

With the impending darkness looming above, he cannot fight the inevitable, only brace for the end.

Shrieks of scraped metal fill the air. Peering past the pain, Marluxia peeks just in time to see the shadows and the boy fading away on the other side of a massive scythe—his scythe. The weapon towers over him, wielded by a Nobody he’s never seen before. Wings splay out behind the female figure with swaying vines. Beneath the pink mask is her empty, tormented face with golden eyes that seem to pity Marluxia.

“_____.”

His attention drops to the ground; there’s a girl there, clad in white as if to mock his usual black coat. Her face is entirely veiled with only two strands of red hair giving her any defining features.

Immediately, Marluxia’s mouth produces a word he can’t hear. Everything in his body is pushing him to approach but as he reaches for her, something repels his advance. Sound pours from his mouth but he can’t decipher a single syllable. He’d give anything to reach her but he doesn’t know what’s driving this desire—he doesn’t understand why she’s so important.

A flurry of petals blasts at the man and his feet begin to drift—he’s losing ground.

“No! Wait! _____!” Screams tear from his throat even if he can’t hear them. “_____!”

The gale grows stronger, sending him flying back. The robed figure grows farther and farther out of reach as the darkness consumes him.

~~~~~

Coming to, Marluxia clears his bleary eyes. The sky above is tinted in pink, the sunset warning him of lost time. Rubbing at his face as he sits up, he struggles to remember his dream. It ends in failure as every frame is forgotten, despite the feeling of importance it holds.

Rising to his feet, the assassin immediately rediscovers the tall blooms he’d been suspicious of earlier.

The Bird of Paradise. Its name slips from his mouth: “Strelitzia.”

The colors of the flowers suddenly bleed together. A hand lifts to clear his vision but comes away with smears of water. Just the thought of shedding tears perplexes the man, let alone actually crying. Regardless of what Xemnas likes to pretend, Nobodies cannot have emotions. So Marluxia chalks it up to his body having some sort of reaction to the flowers—they need to be disposed of.

Reaching out with the intention of tearing off the blossom, Marluxia snags the vermillion ribbon. Another spasm of pain wracks his brain while a strange twinge ripples in his chest. The backlash causes the man to stumble, the fabric coming free in his grip.

Once recovered, he glares but this plant still has some sort of spell on him. The cloth is crushed in his fist in spite of the futility. Releasing the pent-up tension in a huff, he turns away; it’s too late to be worrying about some pest of a plant.

“I’ll deal with it later,” he grumbles.

But Marluxia never does. Days turn to weeks and then months and the plant thrives. It grows taller and releases more blooms of the exotic flower. He makes a point not to, but there are clear signs of it being tended to: his tools move, fresh dirt and fertilizer are taken, and the ground around it is disturbed with stolen equipment and paw prints. Clearly, the creature visits often.

The strange thing is Marluxia’s waning hatred for the flower and its caretaker. In his usual upkeep of his garden, extra supplies are purchased to account for the invasive plant. He even picked up a smaller watering can he’d spotted while passing through the market. The cat still refuses to reveal itself, but there are signs of its presence—including the occasional flower crown waiting for him. By the third, he finds these little gifts not at all annoying, often pressing them in books kept on a shelf in the greenhouse.

As for the ribbon, Marluxia keeps it—something about the strip of material compels him to. Hardly a day goes by without it on his person. It reminds him of his precious garden and the little gardening creature in it, but at the same time, it reminds him of his task. He can’t exactly say why, but that piece of fabric pushes him towards his goal.

Even if it completely consumes him, there will be no stopping Marluxia until he reclaims what he’s lost.

~~~~~

Nova’s Kingdom Hearts Masterlist

#marluxia #chirithy #kh zine #zine feat nova

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disneydreamlights · 4 years ago

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Seashells

AO3 | FFN

Summary: While cleaning her room, Xion finds a box of shells and decides to make something for her friends.

A/N: Written for @disorganizine. Writing for this zine was an absolutely incredible experience and I am so thankful to Alias for letting me in!

Xion set down the box she was carrying next to the closet and began digging through for items that could be deemed as "useless clutter," to be gotten rid of on Xemnas's orders. After a certain member (Demyx) had been found with his room covered with music books all over the floor, the boss had ordered that they all clean out anything they didn't need. Admittedly, she didn't have much in her room to get rid of since she'd only been around for a little over one hundred days, but it still meant at least cleaning out her closet of everything that Xemnas would probably demand get tossed out.

"Alright, let's get to work." She nodded to herself before going through her belongings. Her Organization robes were hung up neatly, with the pants hung up underneath the cloak and her boots in the corner. The single casual outfit she owned (Vexen had bought it for her before he left, she thought) was kept folded in the corner and out of the way on the off chance she needed to go undercover. She almost decided then that there was nothing that she needed to clean out at that moment, but stopped when she saw a small box on the top shelf. She summoned her Keyblade and used the blade portion to push the box forward, hooking the key onto the back to pull it towards her and off the shelf. The box slid easily, and as soon as it fell off the shelf she sent away her Keyblade to catch it.

Box in hand, she sat down on the bed and opened it up. When she saw its contents, a soft smile fell upon her face. Inside the box were shells of all different colors from her early missions, back when she'd been sent frequently to the beach. Admittedly, it hadn't been the best time of her life; she'd collected some of those for Roxas in hopes that he'd wake up to see them, but she'd kept some for herself as well simply because they were pretty. And now that Roxas was fine, she could appreciate them just as they were.

As she picked up one shell, a plain white one that looked as though it had a mouth and teeth, her head began pounding.

"S–! R–!" a small girl with red hair approached two boys, a smile wide on her face. It felt like static was blocking their names, and their faces felt hard to make out.

"K–! What's up?"

"I wanted to give you these." She gave the two boys bracelets made up of the same shell. One was painted a bright yellow, and the other a bright red. On her wrist, she had a pink one that matched.

"You made these!" One boy looked at his bracelet with awe. The second boy looked over his own with a small smile as well.

The girl nodded. "They're friendship bracelets! That way no matter what happens, you'll always have something of me with you."

There was a slight feeling of sadness at the statement, and despite not feeling anything more there was a feeling of fear as though being taken from her friends was something that had happened to the girl once before and that she was afraid of happening to her again.

Before any elaboration could be given, Xion was pulled from the memory of her time before the Organization abruptly, leaving her confused as she glanced down at the shell in her hand once more.

"A friendship bracelet…" She couldn't keep the shells in the box in her closet anymore, not if she didn't want Xemnas mad anyways, but if she could get a few more shells like these, then maybe she could make bracelets like those for her current friends too.

-x-

It was about a month later, with the shells locked away in her drawers away from Xemnas's eye, that Xion finally managed to finish a mission early enough to go to the beach in her off time, so she took advantage of the opportunity almost as soon as it appeared. Her eyes skimmed the white sand for the ones from her memories. She could picture them in her head still, small and rounded, with a small opening that looked like teeth that would easily hold a string without allowing it to slide off.

She skimmed her hand over the sand, ignoring the feelings of familiarity as she searched, knowing that they belonged to a life she could no longer remember.

"You're looking for shells?" Xion turned around at the sound of a new voice, surprised to see a girl with dark red hair behind her. She almost summoned a corridor of darkness in panic, as they were never supposed to be noticed in the worlds they visited. The girl had evidently picked up on this, because she raised her hands in an attempt to show she had nothing on her to hurt Xion with. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to know." She smiled.

Deciding that, for now, she could at least answer the question, Xion nodded. "I am. I'm hoping to make bracelets for my best friends."

The girl nodded, and knelt down, her eyes skimming the area in front of her, much to Xion's confusion. "I used to do that all the time when I first got here," she said, her voice soft as though thinking of a good memory from her past. "I stopped a few months ago, when I lost my best friends."

Kind words full of reassurances almost escaped Xion's mouth, but there wasn't much more she could say. She didn't know the girl's best friends, even if she once had. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I know they're out there somewhere." The girl picked up a shell, and passed it over to Xion, reminding her once more of the search she'd been intending. "And I'll be here waiting for them when they return."

Xion nodded, unsure of what to say, and returned to her initial search for shells as she grabbed a few more that she managed to find. She expected them to continue to search in silence when the girl spoke up again. "You're from another world, aren't you?"

"I am." She could have lied to her, but given the girl's pre-existing knowledge, perhaps it wouldn't matter if she mentioned the other worlds after all. "You've been to other worlds?"

"A couple," the girl said. "My friends are on other worlds too."

"If I see them, I'll let them know you're looking." Something deep in her told Xion that she wouldn't manage to find the girl's friends, but there was a part of her that felt a connection with the girl. A vague inkling that maybe, before she'd become a Nobody, she and the girl had been close. "Maybe I could have my friend's search too?"

The girl shook her head, a sad smile forming on her face. "Thank you. I have a feeling they're not ready to come home yet, but I'll see them again soon." She held out the shells she'd collected to Xion, who took them. "Do you know how to make the bracelets? I can help if you don't."

"I'd appreciate it." Xion smiled, the help appreciated given her memories had never supplied the steps to make them.

The girl grabbed her hand. "Let's go to my house then, my parents won't mind, and I can show you how and lend you paint!"

She spent the rest of the free time after her mission working on the bracelets and making a new friend.

-x-

It was late when Xion had arrived back in the castle, late enough that even Saïx had turned in for the night. She hadn't intended to stay on the islands that late, but the girl (her name had been Kairi) kept her late and she hadn't been ready to leave. As it was, she was probably going to be in trouble for not turning in a mission report, but had she stayed any later she wouldn't have left until morning and that would have gotten her a worse punishment than the one she was already looking forward to.

As she started to walk the corridor to her room, she heard her name and turned around to face a very worried Roxas, followed by a concerned Axel. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"You have?" Xion asked.

Axel rubbed a hand through his spiked hair, as though embarrassed. "Well not everywhere, but we were already worried when you didn't show up at the clocktower, and then when Saïx said you never rtced…"

They'd gone looking, which was probably why they were still up at this hour. Xion couldn't help but smile. Even if she'd felt bad for causing them to be so worried, it meant that she could give them the bracelets now instead of waiting for tomorrow. "I'm sorry, if I'd known I'd be on the beach this late, I would've found a way to let you know."

"You were at the beach?" Roxas tilted his head slightly, waiting for an answer as to why an impromptu beach trip was even taken, let alone one that would take hours.

She pulled out the two extra bracelets she'd made, one now a bright red and the other a light blue. "I had a memory of who I was before. I used to make bracelets like these for my friends then. Now that I remembered, I wanted to give them to you too."

Axel and Roxas both were caught off guard, though Axel recovered faster, giving Xion a big grin. "So you wanted to surprise us? Well, I'd say this is a pretty good surprise, right Roxas?"

Axel nudged Roxas with his elbow, pulling him from his thoughts. "Right." He nodded. "Did you make one for yourself too?"

She nodded, and lifted up her wrist to reveal the purple shell bracelet she'd made herself. "Of course. They're meant to connect us together, I couldn't just not make one for me."

"Axel and I could've made one for you, right?" Roxas asked.

At that comment, Axel laughed, though he disguised it as a cough. "I suppose we would've, it might have been made out of ice cream sticks instead of sea shells though, knowing Roxas."

"I could've gone to the beach and collected shells!"

At Roxas's protest, Xion held back a giggle. "Even if it was made out of ice cream sticks, I would've loved it anyways." And she would've. It would've been a gift from her friends and that would've been priceless.

She watched them share a grin, before Axel turned to face Xion once more. "Anyways, it's getting late, and after spending so much time searching. I'm beat." He started down the hallway, beginning the walk to his room. "I'll see you both tomorrow before our missions."

"Of course." Xion smiled. "And Roxas, Axel, I promise, next time I'm late, I'll let you both know, so you don't have to worry about me."

"We'll hold you to it."

As Axel and Roxas left down the hallway, Xion went to her own room, a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

Sure, she still had some paperwork to do, but she'd given her friends something to show her love for them, and their smiles made all the trouble that she'd be getting into the next day worth it.

#Kingdom Hearts #Xion #Axel #Roxas #Kairi #Heather Writes

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vannahfanfics · 3 years ago

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Obscurity

Category: General Fluff

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Characters: Demyx

Hi, hi, everybody! I am happy to present the story I wrote for the @disorganizine, focusing on none other than the Melodious Nocturne. I hope you enjoy!

The waves washed against the shoreline with rhythmic pushes and pulls. The frothing water flooded in to soak into the light, spongy white sand before receding just as quickly, leaving clumps of green seaweed and a few Thalassa shells in its foamy wake. Then they would swoop back in to reclaim their treasures, writhing at the audacity that someone would dare claim its bounties for their own.

As Demyx lounged in the crook of a curved palm tree, watching the water rush and recede continuously, he wondered why he was sent to a backwater island like this. It was uninhabited, only a playground for the children across the bay evidenced by the clumsily built shack slowly being swallowed by the jungle vegetation in the corner of the island. The waves continued to beat their symphony upon the shore, but they only brought seaweed and seashells, not the secrets to the world that Demyx was supposed to be discovering.

He yawned and scratched his belly through the leather of his black coat.

“What a chore,” he whined to no one in particular. He had discovered that the seagulls and hermit crabs made for poor conversationalists.

What a dreadfully lonely place. I wished they’d sent someone with me, like one of those cute newbies I could boss around, he lamented. It would be so much easier to send Roxas or Xion to peruse the island while he took a nice nap in the bough of this palm tree. The rough bark was uncomfortable at first, but his makeshift hammock was growing more comfortable as he continued to idly lounge.

“I suppose I should get to work,” he told himself. His body was not keen to comply, as it continued to drape him over the curve of the palm tree for several more minutes.

While Demyx summoned his willpower to move, he debated abandoning the mission altogether and just lie. The realization that just wouldn’t do finally forced him to slowly push himself down from the tree. If Saïx or Xemnas discovered he’d shirked his duties, he’d be in for an earful.

If there was anything Demyx hated more than work, it was receiving lectures for not doing his work.

“Okay, feet. Start movin’,” he encouraged under his breath.

Obediently, his legs moved to carry him over the small boardwalk and back onto the main island. The grainy particles of sand crunched under his feet as he disinterestedly nosed around, half-heartedly inspecting things. For a while, the most interesting things he discovered were a congregation of hermit crabs feasting on some fermenting coconuts. He later discovered a stick and started smacking the greenery, disgruntling a cormorant and disturbing her nest-sitting beneath some fronds of a fern. He skipped along the cliff wall framing the backside of the island, filling the air with smacks as he whapped the waxy surfaces of the big fern leaves, with full intention to just call it quits. When he discovered a large crevice in the rock wall beside a small, trickling waterfall, he stopped.

“Well, hello, there,” he hummed as he dropped the stick, abandoning it now that he had found something more entertaining.

Demyx ducked his head to keep his blond hair from scraping the low ceiling of the entrance as he ducked into the spacious crack. The warm sun vanished, replaced by damp gloom chilled by the water saturating the purple-gray stone. Drips echoed through the small cavern as droplets plummeted from the stalactites to crash on the smooth, water-worn floor below. Demyx blinked rapidly as he struggled to adjust to the murk, slowly creeping further into the cave.

He whistled appreciatively when he came upon a door at the back wall. It had been sealed shut, with a Keyblade, by the looks of it. The heart of this world, he appraised as he ran his gloved hands over the smooth expanse of its threshold and simple wooden structure. Such a quaint-looking thing, for something that literally held the fate of this world in its metaphorical hands.

As Demyx considered giving a good whack with his sitar just for the hell of it, he spied a splash of white disfiguring the gloomy atmosphere of the cave.

“Well, what do we have here?” he wondered aloud as he shuffled a few paces to the sidewall. A childish rendition of two people decorated the surface, etched with a sharp stone. One had spiky hair and big bright eyes, while the other was a young girl, smiling contentedly.

“Well, hi there, Sora. I didn’t know you had a little girlfriend!” Demyx teased the spiky-haired drawing, squeezing a small cleft of stone as if he were pinching the boy’s cheeks.

How did he know it was Sora? Well, who else could it be? Spiky-haired brat and a Keyblade-sealed doorway? Even Demyx could surmise that this was the proclaimed Hero of Light’s childhood stomping grounds.

Demyx studied the drawing in amusement, but then narrowed his eyebrows when he inspected the part between the two children. Two star-shaped objects linked them; no, they were feeding each other star-shaped fruits. Demyx craned back to peer out the entrance of the cave, where he could spot a cluster of them bouncing in the fronds of a nearby tree in all their succulent glory.

“Interesting,” he wheedled with a big grin.

After giving the cavern one last look-over, Demyx sauntered back out into the sunshine, prepared to call his investigation a success and report back to Xemnas. The sooner he related his findings, the sooner he could curl up somewhere and catch a nice, long nap. Before he could materialize a Corridor of Darkness, however, he caught girls’ voices floating on the salty breeze. Demyx ducked into the shadows of the jungle, observing with interest as two girls in school uniforms strode into view.

“Kairi, we haven’t been to the island in months,” complained the girl with summery orange hair. She crossed her slim arms and pouted at her friend. “We have a paper due at the end of the week, you know. Couldn’t this have waited until then?”

“I’m sorry, Selphie,” the other girl— auburn-haired and blue-eyed— apologized with a troubled smile. She paused at the edge of the surf, clasping her hands behind her back as she gazed at the horizon with much discompose. “I just… I have the feeling that I’m forgetting something important.”

Her words were but a sigh, and Demyx only heard them because the breeze carried them into the depths of the jungle as if to hide them away. Little did the winds know that Demyx lurked like a beast on the prowl— on the prowl for useful information, that is. His eyes glittered as he watched the teenagers. He had no doubt that this redhead was the girl inscribed on the cave wall, and thus very precious to Sora in some way. He crouched low within the broad leaves, light dappling over his body as he watched them with all the keenness of a hawk.

“Kairi,” he whispered as he watched her slip off her loafers and wade a little into the surf.

“It’s been nagging at me a while now— the memory I just can’t seem to bring to the surface,” she smiled woefully at the horizon line glittering with the refracted sunlight.

Demyx twitched, actually discomfited; she looked so dismally sad, so lost. Something strange inside of him stirred, giving him the oddest sense to both flee the odd sensation bubbling up inside of him and stay, desperate to see where that feeling was headed.

After a moment of back-and-forth, he decided to remain rooted to the spot, but only because he didn’t want to risk the girls discovering him.

World order, and all that jazz.

“It’s so strange,” she murmured. “I have no idea what I’ve forgotten, but I feel like… Like I’ve lost the most important thing to me.”

Kairi dipped down to scoop up some of the seawater. It slipped through her fingers to sprinkle back down into the waves, vanishing into the endless abyss— like the memories dripping from the sieve of her mind, lost in obscurity. Once the water had streamed from her palms, her hands dropped to her sides. She tipped her head back to stare up at the sky crowning the lower atmosphere.

“I thought if I came here, I would remember something— anything. But all I can seem to remember is that I’ve forgotten.”

Selphie crooned emphatically and stepped forward to place a hand on Kairi’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Kairi. If it is that important, it will come back to you, in time,” she reassured with a sweet, encouraging smile. Kairi looked to her with forlorn eyes and pouty lips, clearly unsure. Selphie’s smile widened as she gave her shoulder an inspiring squeeze. “Really! You can never truly forget something. Sometimes, it may be deep, deep down, but with the right trigger, it will come to light eventually.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right, Selphie,” Kairi nodded, immediately reassured.

As Selphie took her hand to guide her back into the surf, Demyx was amazed at how quickly the girl was able to renew her faith in something completely recondite at the moment. He watched with wide eyes as they retreated back to the docks, climbing into a small canoe to paddle back to the distant city gleaming on the horizon.

Demyx was still staring at the place the girls had just been as he edged out of the shadows and back into the light. A strange hollowness had taken up residence within him after hearing Kairi lament her lost memories. It wasn’t the usual emptiness of being a Nobody; no, this was different. He, too, longed for the things he didn’t remember— for a few heartbeats, anyway.

For a few heartbeats, he thought of Sora traveling blissfully unaware through Castle Oblivion with his memories being washed away with every wave of magic from the resident witch— and pondered on how lonely that must be, to be stuck between the borders of real and unreal, fiction and reality, sure and unsure.

He exhaled deeply as he sidled back up to the crashing waves. He dipped down to pick up one of the Thalassa shells, inspecting the hues of pink and blue and yellow with curious eyes. He tucked it into the pocket of his coat and opened a Corridor of Darkness. He melded into the swirling black and purple without looking back.

Saïx and Xemnas greeted him almost as soon as he stepped foot back into the castle.

“Well?” the blue-haired man quipped. “Did you find anything of use in Sora’s home world?”

Demyx snorted at his requisition, not pleased to have his feathers ruffled so soon as he had returned to the comforts of his black-and-white home. He couldn’t even get a “hello?”

Demyx flashed them both a sardonic grin.

“It’s his home world, all right. Unfortunately, the gulls and crabs make for poor conversationalists,” he shrugged. “Nothing major to report this time, boss.”

Saïx growled disapprovingly, looking like he was going to challenge Demyx’s dismissiveness, but Xemnas interrupted before he could begin nagging.

“Very well,” he droned in his deep baritone voice. “That’s all for today, then.” Saïx looked displeased with his superior’s casual dismissal, but Demyx strolled away as soon as he was given the all-clear. As soon as the two vanished beyond the corner, Demyx pulled out the Thalassa shell and admired it with a self-satisfied smirk.

“I’m interested,” he purred under his breath, “if we’ll get to remember what we’ve lost. Your move… Sora.”

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#kingdom hearts #demyx #organization xiii

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