(no subject)
As always, once I am bit with a plot bunny for over a week, I give up and write the damn thing. I am, as you know, obsessed with KH currently.
Have been for a rather long while, actually, which is why I believe it is safe to start this. (Will it end up a one-shot, will it end up longer, who knows!)
Title: Once Upon A Dream (part 1/??)
Genre: Drama/General
Characters: Twilight Town Crew (Hayner+Pence+Olette+Seifer+Fuu+Rai+Vivi), Roxas, Axel. Mentions of others.
Summary: Sora wakes up, but Roxas keeps dreaming. Which part is the dream and which part isn't? He isn't so sure anymore.
:3 good reading~
"Sora. You're lucky. It looks like my summer vacation is... over."
---------
When Roxas wakes up, he doesn't sit bolt upright on his bed, a sheat of sweat on his face. He simply opens his eyes slowly, accomodating himelf to the light in his room. Only when the thought hits him -- his room -- does he sit bolt upright. He takes a look at his hands -- they're ungloved, he thinks -- then, at his clothes -- his sleeping clothes, not Sora's outfit -- and a quick turn to the window let's him see his reflection.
His breath catches in his throat when he sees himself. He passes a hand through his hair -- blond, not brown -- and holds the windowsill with the other. He throws open the window and breathes the air of Twilight Town, sees the everlasting sunset.
"Sora," he calls, breathless, almost a question, and suddenly he feels more awake and he laughs. He laughs, and laughs, and laughs. He feels like dancing.
He's not sure why.
---------
Once he's dressed, the first thing he does is run to the usual spot. He can't help it -- what if that whole ... thing hadn't really been a dream, what if he was stuck in a deserted Twilight Town after having merged in Sora? But his heart is ready to burst, and if that hadn't been a dream, how is it possible? His heart is beating and he feels exhilarated and terrified.
Mostly, he feels, and that's the first proof he has that this is real.
He arrives at the usual spot breathless, shoulders shaking, heart beating -- beating -- fifty times faster than normal, it seems. Hayner turns and raises an eyebrow at him.
"Woah, man, what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost," Hayner says, completely bewildered.
Olette and Pence turn towards him, too. Olette puts an hand on his shoulder as he tries to catch his breathing while grinning like a fool. It's harder than one might think, he decides. His breaths come out in laughs. Pence calls his name tentatively, as if he's gone nuts, and Hayner makes the "cuckoo" motion, which only manages to make Roxas laugh harder. He can't breathe.
"Roxas, you're turning blue," Olette says worriedly, her hand moving in circles on his back to calm him down.
It does. A little. He grins and lifts his head to look at them. They look worried. He realizes he's half bent over, hands on his knees and he gets up slowly, catching his breath. He shakes his head and shrugs, half apologizing, half unsure.
"Sorry. I'm just -- really, really happy right now," he mutters sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head a little.
They still look worried and Hayner is the first to shrug it off.
"What you are is really, really weird, Roxas," he says, crossing his arms and shaking his head, smirking. Olette and Pence laugh and Roxas can't even take offense to it.
They're alive and real and breathing, and so is he. They all laugh and talk together.
It's like waking up from the worst of nightmares, Roxas thinks.
He tries not to think of the part of the nightmare that weren't so bad.
------
He tries not to, but he can't help it, he finds, when the day has ended and Hayner, Pence and Olette are taking him back home. They spent the whole day, the entire town together, trying to find out what had caused the recent case of events. They found nothing, as if it had never happened, and they all shrugged it off. Even if they had found nothing, everyone had had fun.
Except now that the fun has ended, he can't help but think about it all. The memories seem as real as the ones of Twilight Town, even if he knows they're all from a dream. Still, he thinks, lightly licking his ice cream, what of Naminé? What of Axel?
He had promised he'd see them again. Even if only in a dream -- he couldn't have imagined them. Naminé, with her small smiles and mysterious air, her apologizing tone and sad eyes. 'We will meet again', she had said. She had been his only comfort in all that was happening. He really did want to meet her again. And Axel, what about Axel --
"Roxas, I didn't know you were getting new neighbors," Pence's voice sounds out, and Roxas blinks out of his thoughts.
New neighbors? Since when?
"Oh, let's go say hi, guys," Olette says excitedly, licking absent-mindedly at her own ice cream.
But ... the house next door hadn't been on sale, Roxas remembers, and he blinks at the huge truck in front of his neighbors house. Now that he thinks about it, he can't remember who had lived there.
"No way, it's probably just some old geezer," Hayner mutters around his ice cream, looking dejectedly at the moving truck.
He couldn't remember if there had ever even been a house next door. What was going on? He frowns at his ice cream and misses Olette's rebuttal of Hayner and Pence's agreement to see Roxas's new neighbors. There hadn't been a house, was there, and there hadn't been neighbors before, either, and it couldn't have been built in a day --
"Roxas," Olette's voice cuts through his thoughts and he looks up at her, "Come on. We're going."
He nods at her and follows them. He's probably just thinking too much. A house didn't pop out, he probably just never noticed it. He probably had old, quiet, reclusive neighbors and never saw them. There. Explanation found. He nods at himself and looks up, ready to see his new neighbor -- he'll know this one, at the very least -- and stops completely, almost dropping his ice cream.
It can't be, he thinks, it just can't be. He must be hallucinating, it's a trick of the light, it's --
"Axel," he breathes out, and then, shaking is head, tries again, louder, "Axel?"
The other three are looking at him oddly, and Axel -- he's sure, he can feel it, it's impossible -- turns and the shaking feeling is true. It's Axel. Without the coat, but it's the same ridiculously spiky red hair, the same vivid green eyes with dark marks under them, the same insanely skinny frame.
It's Axel, and he's frozen into place after having called out his name. His ice cream drips on his hand and Axel looks wary. Hayner, Pence and Olette share the same shocked look.
"Roxas," Olette finally murmurs, "Do you know him?"
He doesn't respond but forces his legs to advance towards Axel. His steps are small, shaken and slow, but he needs to -- he needs to. ... He's not sure what he needs to do. But he wants to see him.
Does it count as the next life if neither of you are dead, Roxas thinks, and Axel moves the box in his arms. He still looks wary, but he hasn't run away. Yet.
"Axel," he tries again, his voice managing, unlike the rest of him, not to shake.
Axel tilts his head at him and narrows his eyes. Roxas feels his heart clenching -- doesn't he remember him?
"How do you know my name?"
Axel's voice his harsh and very unlike Axel, he thinks. Even if he didn't remember -- Axel isn't the kind to be worried if someone knows his name. Would he?
And why doesn't he remember? I know you, he wants to say and his mouth opens but he stops and closes his mouth. What is he supposed to say? I know you, I dreamt of you once, in my dreams.
Of course Axel doesn't remember and of course he doesn't act the same. He had never known Axel, had he? He looks back up at said man -- he looks definitively wary, and who wouldn't, after a complete stranger shouted their name -- and he smiles tentatively.
Way to look crazy, he thinks.
"Ha, well, um," Roxas tries, muttering, "See, um -- it's written. On the box."
And it is, actually, but Roxas isn't sure since when. Had it been there five seconds ago? Who cares, it's a useful scapegoat, he thinks.
"Okay," Axel begins, still looking wary, "but why the need to shout it?"
He doesn't know what to say, so he turns back and tries to see where his friends are. They're hanging back, unsure what to do -- help Roxas, or ask him the question himself? -- and he licks his hand. It's full of melted ice cream.
"I thought it seemed familiar," Roxas mutters and shrugs, "but I must've imagined it. Sorry."
The tension in Axel's shoulders seem to relax as he accepts the answer and Roxas refrains from breathing in relief. He helds out his hand -- the one not covered in sea-salt ice cream and spit -- and Axel lets go of the box a little to shake it.
"I'm Roxas. I live next door," he says, smiling a little. Axel smiles back.
"Axel, though you already knew that, it looks like," he answers, "Nice to meet you, Roxas."
"Uh... you too, Axel," Roxas says, even if his heart is screaming 'We know each other'. It was just a dream.
He misses the next thing Axel says -- 'see you around', maybe? -- and the other boy leaves, entering his house. Hayner approaches him and puts an hand to his shoulder. Roxas drops his ice cream in surprise. It's half melted on his hand anyway, and he shakes it in annoyance.
"Man, you okay? What was all that about?"
Roxas shakes his head and Hayner's hand off, too.
"Nothing. M'going home. See you at the carnival," he says quickly and all but runs back to his house and to his room.
He at least waves them goodbye on the way.
--------
He drops on his bed, completely clothed, and looks at his ceiling.
He almost feels as if his heart is bursting in tears.
He turns his head in his pillow when one tear does fall, because he doesn't even know what he's crying for.
(You really don't remember? It's me, you know.
Roxas.)
Have been for a rather long while, actually, which is why I believe it is safe to start this. (Will it end up a one-shot, will it end up longer, who knows!)
Title: Once Upon A Dream (part 1/??)
Genre: Drama/General
Characters: Twilight Town Crew (Hayner+Pence+Olette+Seifer+Fuu+Rai+Vivi), Roxas, Axel. Mentions of others.
Summary: Sora wakes up, but Roxas keeps dreaming. Which part is the dream and which part isn't? He isn't so sure anymore.
:3 good reading~
"Sora. You're lucky. It looks like my summer vacation is... over."
---------
When Roxas wakes up, he doesn't sit bolt upright on his bed, a sheat of sweat on his face. He simply opens his eyes slowly, accomodating himelf to the light in his room. Only when the thought hits him -- his room -- does he sit bolt upright. He takes a look at his hands -- they're ungloved, he thinks -- then, at his clothes -- his sleeping clothes, not Sora's outfit -- and a quick turn to the window let's him see his reflection.
His breath catches in his throat when he sees himself. He passes a hand through his hair -- blond, not brown -- and holds the windowsill with the other. He throws open the window and breathes the air of Twilight Town, sees the everlasting sunset.
"Sora," he calls, breathless, almost a question, and suddenly he feels more awake and he laughs. He laughs, and laughs, and laughs. He feels like dancing.
He's not sure why.
---------
Once he's dressed, the first thing he does is run to the usual spot. He can't help it -- what if that whole ... thing hadn't really been a dream, what if he was stuck in a deserted Twilight Town after having merged in Sora? But his heart is ready to burst, and if that hadn't been a dream, how is it possible? His heart is beating and he feels exhilarated and terrified.
Mostly, he feels, and that's the first proof he has that this is real.
He arrives at the usual spot breathless, shoulders shaking, heart beating -- beating -- fifty times faster than normal, it seems. Hayner turns and raises an eyebrow at him.
"Woah, man, what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost," Hayner says, completely bewildered.
Olette and Pence turn towards him, too. Olette puts an hand on his shoulder as he tries to catch his breathing while grinning like a fool. It's harder than one might think, he decides. His breaths come out in laughs. Pence calls his name tentatively, as if he's gone nuts, and Hayner makes the "cuckoo" motion, which only manages to make Roxas laugh harder. He can't breathe.
"Roxas, you're turning blue," Olette says worriedly, her hand moving in circles on his back to calm him down.
It does. A little. He grins and lifts his head to look at them. They look worried. He realizes he's half bent over, hands on his knees and he gets up slowly, catching his breath. He shakes his head and shrugs, half apologizing, half unsure.
"Sorry. I'm just -- really, really happy right now," he mutters sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head a little.
They still look worried and Hayner is the first to shrug it off.
"What you are is really, really weird, Roxas," he says, crossing his arms and shaking his head, smirking. Olette and Pence laugh and Roxas can't even take offense to it.
They're alive and real and breathing, and so is he. They all laugh and talk together.
It's like waking up from the worst of nightmares, Roxas thinks.
He tries not to think of the part of the nightmare that weren't so bad.
------
He tries not to, but he can't help it, he finds, when the day has ended and Hayner, Pence and Olette are taking him back home. They spent the whole day, the entire town together, trying to find out what had caused the recent case of events. They found nothing, as if it had never happened, and they all shrugged it off. Even if they had found nothing, everyone had had fun.
Except now that the fun has ended, he can't help but think about it all. The memories seem as real as the ones of Twilight Town, even if he knows they're all from a dream. Still, he thinks, lightly licking his ice cream, what of Naminé? What of Axel?
He had promised he'd see them again. Even if only in a dream -- he couldn't have imagined them. Naminé, with her small smiles and mysterious air, her apologizing tone and sad eyes. 'We will meet again', she had said. She had been his only comfort in all that was happening. He really did want to meet her again. And Axel, what about Axel --
"Roxas, I didn't know you were getting new neighbors," Pence's voice sounds out, and Roxas blinks out of his thoughts.
New neighbors? Since when?
"Oh, let's go say hi, guys," Olette says excitedly, licking absent-mindedly at her own ice cream.
But ... the house next door hadn't been on sale, Roxas remembers, and he blinks at the huge truck in front of his neighbors house. Now that he thinks about it, he can't remember who had lived there.
"No way, it's probably just some old geezer," Hayner mutters around his ice cream, looking dejectedly at the moving truck.
He couldn't remember if there had ever even been a house next door. What was going on? He frowns at his ice cream and misses Olette's rebuttal of Hayner and Pence's agreement to see Roxas's new neighbors. There hadn't been a house, was there, and there hadn't been neighbors before, either, and it couldn't have been built in a day --
"Roxas," Olette's voice cuts through his thoughts and he looks up at her, "Come on. We're going."
He nods at her and follows them. He's probably just thinking too much. A house didn't pop out, he probably just never noticed it. He probably had old, quiet, reclusive neighbors and never saw them. There. Explanation found. He nods at himself and looks up, ready to see his new neighbor -- he'll know this one, at the very least -- and stops completely, almost dropping his ice cream.
It can't be, he thinks, it just can't be. He must be hallucinating, it's a trick of the light, it's --
"Axel," he breathes out, and then, shaking is head, tries again, louder, "Axel?"
The other three are looking at him oddly, and Axel -- he's sure, he can feel it, it's impossible -- turns and the shaking feeling is true. It's Axel. Without the coat, but it's the same ridiculously spiky red hair, the same vivid green eyes with dark marks under them, the same insanely skinny frame.
It's Axel, and he's frozen into place after having called out his name. His ice cream drips on his hand and Axel looks wary. Hayner, Pence and Olette share the same shocked look.
"Roxas," Olette finally murmurs, "Do you know him?"
He doesn't respond but forces his legs to advance towards Axel. His steps are small, shaken and slow, but he needs to -- he needs to. ... He's not sure what he needs to do. But he wants to see him.
Does it count as the next life if neither of you are dead, Roxas thinks, and Axel moves the box in his arms. He still looks wary, but he hasn't run away. Yet.
"Axel," he tries again, his voice managing, unlike the rest of him, not to shake.
Axel tilts his head at him and narrows his eyes. Roxas feels his heart clenching -- doesn't he remember him?
"How do you know my name?"
Axel's voice his harsh and very unlike Axel, he thinks. Even if he didn't remember -- Axel isn't the kind to be worried if someone knows his name. Would he?
And why doesn't he remember? I know you, he wants to say and his mouth opens but he stops and closes his mouth. What is he supposed to say? I know you, I dreamt of you once, in my dreams.
Of course Axel doesn't remember and of course he doesn't act the same. He had never known Axel, had he? He looks back up at said man -- he looks definitively wary, and who wouldn't, after a complete stranger shouted their name -- and he smiles tentatively.
Way to look crazy, he thinks.
"Ha, well, um," Roxas tries, muttering, "See, um -- it's written. On the box."
And it is, actually, but Roxas isn't sure since when. Had it been there five seconds ago? Who cares, it's a useful scapegoat, he thinks.
"Okay," Axel begins, still looking wary, "but why the need to shout it?"
He doesn't know what to say, so he turns back and tries to see where his friends are. They're hanging back, unsure what to do -- help Roxas, or ask him the question himself? -- and he licks his hand. It's full of melted ice cream.
"I thought it seemed familiar," Roxas mutters and shrugs, "but I must've imagined it. Sorry."
The tension in Axel's shoulders seem to relax as he accepts the answer and Roxas refrains from breathing in relief. He helds out his hand -- the one not covered in sea-salt ice cream and spit -- and Axel lets go of the box a little to shake it.
"I'm Roxas. I live next door," he says, smiling a little. Axel smiles back.
"Axel, though you already knew that, it looks like," he answers, "Nice to meet you, Roxas."
"Uh... you too, Axel," Roxas says, even if his heart is screaming 'We know each other'. It was just a dream.
He misses the next thing Axel says -- 'see you around', maybe? -- and the other boy leaves, entering his house. Hayner approaches him and puts an hand to his shoulder. Roxas drops his ice cream in surprise. It's half melted on his hand anyway, and he shakes it in annoyance.
"Man, you okay? What was all that about?"
Roxas shakes his head and Hayner's hand off, too.
"Nothing. M'going home. See you at the carnival," he says quickly and all but runs back to his house and to his room.
He at least waves them goodbye on the way.
--------
He drops on his bed, completely clothed, and looks at his ceiling.
He almost feels as if his heart is bursting in tears.
He turns his head in his pillow when one tear does fall, because he doesn't even know what he's crying for.
(You really don't remember? It's me, you know.
Roxas.)