Author's Notes: This is just a bunch of drabbles written while playing KH2. Mostly this is me getting a handle on the characters before writing anything else with them. Spoilers abound.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Various implied
Written: 2006
Darkness has a taste to it. It's a flavor that lingers in the back of his throat. It reminded Riku of steel and licorice, orchids and blood. For Riku, it served as a reminder of what he'd let happen, of what he'd done to himself, in order to try and save the worlds.
Forget that. He'd done this to try and save Sora.
He didn't need the taste to remind him. Every time he walked past a mirror, Riku was reminded of what he'd given up. After all this time, it still shocked him to see someone else's face where his should be.
______________________________________
The problem with being a lion cub was that Sora had all the instincts that went along with it. He wanted to chase his tail or attack flower petals being blown by the wind or lay in the sunlight on a tall rock when really, he needed to be concentrating on important things like finding Riku.
It was even worse when Sora had instincts that went against his other instincts. Sora knew Donald was a field. Knew it in a way only people who have been through everything together can know. Donald was not prey.
That didn't stop him from crouching belly-low to the ground, interest sharpening every sense until the world narrowed down to fluttering white feathers. Sora found himself stalking Donald, stalking his friend. One of these days he wasn't going to stop himself in time.
And when he pounced, Sora was absolutely sure that Donald was going to fry him with lightning.
______________________________________
Sora was the one who had shown Kairi the Ansem report about herself. The paper was slick to the touch even as wrinkled and smudged as it was from Sora's pockets. She'd laid the paper flat against the floor, using her hands to smooth out the creases. Riku and Sora were off in some corner talking. Still trying to figure out how they fit together after gaining so many sharp edges over the years. Still it gave her plenty of time to try and make sense of the words she read by the heart shaped moon.
It wasn't the part about Naminé that had bothered her. That she understood. Kairi didn't even find it that surprising. "Trust yourself," Naminé had said and Kairi had. Her heart told her to take the girl's hand and step with her into the darkness, unafraid.
Even if her mind hadn't grasped what was going on, her heart had recognized part of itself.
Her heart was free of darkness? Okay, she could accept that. It was the implication that Sora and Riku had darkness in their hearts that bothered her. Sora had become a heartless, and had produced a Nobody. Darkness had grown in Riku's heart until he no longer wore his own face.
How could her heart be free of darkness while their hearts had it?
After she'd given Sora back the Ansem report, Kairi had thought about it, really thought about it. Finally she had to concede that she'd known about the darkness in her friends' hearts even when they were young. Riku had fear and anger. Fear that she and Sora would leave him and anger over actions they hadn't actually done. Sora had pride and jealousy. It was part of the reason he competed against Riku for her attention.
They loved each other, but there were other emotions in the way.
Kairi wondered if they would ever realize that the reason she had no darkness in her heart was because she loved and accepted them both. No other emotions needed.
______________________________________
Roxas wondered what it was he didn't want to remember.
There was something off about everything. He knew Twilight Town and while this was Twilight Town, at the same time it wasn't. There was something off about his friends as well, but every time he became aware of it, Roxas chose to ignore or forget it again.
He'd been doing that a lot lately. Forgetting, that is. Roxas didn't know how he knew. He just... knew.
If he remembered what he was trying to forget, Roxas knew that everything would make sense. But someone would lose... something if he did. Something important. Roxas wasn't sure if he would be the loser or if it would be someone else.
Which didn't make sense. How could he possibly lose if he gained?
That didn't stop him from fighting the memories that came back, even though there were times in the eternal twilight of town when he wanted to remember. There was someone who had once been important to him. Or maybe he had been important to that person. Roxas didn't want to forget completely about him, but he didn't want to remember either. Memories always triggered other memories, but forgetting everything completely was not an option.
To remember... or to forget.
It was enough to make his head hurt.
______________________________________
Axel had once heard the phrase "You can't run with the hare and hunt with the hound." He didn't remember who had used it. Maybe Xemnas. It seemed his style. Who else would use something like that but a man who named parts of the castle Hall of Empty Melodies and the Brink of Despair? Melodramatic much?
At the time, Axel had thought it was a stupid saying. Who'd want to both run and hunt? Now though, he thought he understood it better. He'd played the hare running from the rest of the organization. He'd played the hound chasing Sora to get Roxas back. Doing both had stretched him thin. Too thin.
Exhaustion kept catching up with him, leaving him tired and out of breath as he fought. He kept having to take a breather, panting and hunched, whenever there was a lull in the fighting. Axel didn't like it. It made him even more determined to win.
The problem with dogs was that they were single-minded creatures. They saw their goal and that was it. Nothing else mattered.
This entire time Axel had been focused on bringing Roxas back. It had seemed so simple too. Sora had already turned into a heartless once. How hard could it be to get him to do it again? It wasn't until he realized that Sora was going to go between worlds, into to darkness...
It was like the world had dropped out from underneath him. Axel hadn't felt like that since he realized Roxas was gone. Not just no longer with the Organization, but... gone. It made the emptiness where his heart should have been seem insignificant in comparison.
He'd hated Sora when that had happened. Sort of. And it wasn’t until he was dissolving, fading away in front of Sora's eyes, that Axel realized it didn't matter. Call him Roxas or Sora, the effect on him was the same.
In the end, the problem was that since he hadn't been born with a heart, Axel didn't recognize that he'd given it to someone else until it was too late.