Tabula Rasa: Chapter Four - Radiant Garden
Title: Tabula Rasa
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Word Count: 5,248 words
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is the story of a forgotten replica. This is the story of an awakening princess. This is a story of mercenaries and salvation and fairies. And this is a story of people and growing up. [it all started with a blank slate...]
Disclaimer: The author of this story is in NO way associated with Square Enix, Disney, or anyone else who might be pulling Kingdom Hearts' strings. No money is or will be made off of this story.
Meeting Leon was...awkward, to say the least. First of all, the guy obviously hadn’t had a high opinion of the replica from the start. Maybe it was the clothes - they were perfectly fine clothes, if a little torn up, a little bloodied and a little dirty, a little on the smelly side - or maybe it was that Yuffie introduced him with “and here’s the kid I found running into one of the watchtowers!” The replica figured that that alone would have made this a bad first impression.
Then there was the fact that he openly scoffed at Leon’s insistence at being called, well, Leon. Squall was a perfectly fine name, and the replica had no idea why a sane, intelligent adult would choose Leon Leonhart over Squall Leonhart. Only Leon said he wasn’t Leon Leonhart, he was Squall Leonhart who went by Leon, and that just confused the replica to no end.
After that, there was the inevitable pause while they expected him to give them his name. He frowned, shifted, glanced around, looked at them, shifted again, sighed, and finally looked back at them and asked, “What?”
“What ‘what’?” Yuffie tilted her head. “What’s your name?”
He shrugged. “Don’t have one.”
Leon and Yuffie exchanged looks, and she started in on the replica.
“What do you mean, you don’t have one? Everyone gets one! Even orphans!”
Maybe the replica imagined Leon’s sudden stiffening, but he didn’t think so. So, he’s an orphan? Maybe I can use that...
“Not me.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t need one.”
“Well, what did people call you then? To get your attention?”
The replica started to scowl, but stopped himself. “Just because they called me something didn't - doesn't - make it my name." Especially since someone else already had dibs.
Yuffie frowned. “Why not?”
“Because it doesn't, alright? I don’t want to talk about it.”
Yuffie opened her mouth to respond, but Leon stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Yuffie, enough.” He looked at the replica. “You’ll need a name here.”
The replica sighed. “I figured.” Whatever he picked, it would not be Riku.
Leon nodded. “Decide on one soon. You can’t work until we know what to call you.”
Yuffie huffed. “We still get to give him nicknames, though, right?”
Leon paused, eyeing her. The replica stiffened, shooting a glare at her. He didn’t want any nicknames, not when he’d have to pick a new name and get used to that.
“You can do whatever you want, Yuffie.”
“Awesome!” She smirked at the replica and his stomach sank. He was sure he did not like the look in her eye, either.
Leon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the boy. “Yuffie will show you around town. Yuffie, make sure you take him to Aerith. Maybe she can help with his name.”
Yuffie nodded and mock-saluted him. “Aye aye, sir!”
“Come see me when you have a name. There’s always work to do around here. Can you fight?”
The replica nodded. Yuffie looked him up and down disbelievingly.
“You can fight? You’re like, a stick!” She poked his arm, then his stomach. It growled in response, and his cheeks promptly turned a very bright red. Yuffie giggled. “All right, you’ve got some muscles. When was the last time you ate, though?”
The replica blinked and thought back. He thought back very, very hard, trying to remember both before and after Naminé messed with his memories. He came up with a total of zero meals, ever.
I can’t tell them that. Shit. Instead, he just shrugged. Thankfully, they didn’t press the issue.
In fact, Yuffie’s expression turned mildly horrified. “You can’t remember? Oh gosh, Squally, we’ve gotta get some food into this kid, stat! What if he keels over right now? He does look kinda starved, doesn’t he? If he faints, you have to catch him, Squall, and I’ll go grab Aerith and Cid and you’ll have to do CPR and mouth-to-mouth food transfer like those birds, oh man, I’d take pictures of that if it weren’t so morbid-”
“If you’re done planning his death,” Leon interrupted, “you can take him out for food, right now.”
Yuffie paused, took a breath, and nodded. “All right, I can do that.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re paying, right?”
Leon sighed, reached into his pocket, and pulled a pouch out. Yuffie immediately brightened, although her face fell somewhat when Leon pulled out just a handful of munny. The replica didn’t miss the way her eyes followed the pouch as Leon put it back in his pocket. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, but he didn’t know exactly why, other than that it had to do with Yuffie and it wasn’t good.
Whatever. I’ll figure that out later.
“Make sure you get him a room too,” Leon warned before he handed Yuffie the munny, “and some clothes.”
Yuffie glanced at the replica, and nodded. She eagerly pocketed the munny.
“I will, no worries! He’ll be one-hundred-percent respectable when I’m through with him!” She eyed him, and then Leon. “I might need more cash, though.”
He shook his head. “You’ll manage, I’m sure.” She tried pouting at him, to no avail.
“Fine then. Come on, kid, let’s get you dressed and fed and in a bed.”
She left the house, replica in tow and muttering about how he wasn’t a kid. She ignored him and instead launched into an explanation of the town, the important buildings, and all the important people who lived here.
Behind them was Merlin’s House, the Bailey was over there but it was still a mess, Leon hadn’t had the time or the people to fix it since it had gotten messed up. Up ahead was the shopping center, and beyond that there were more shops and restaurants all mixed up together. None of them were especially important though, because all the good food was expensive and all of it tasted about the same anyways. Past that area was what Yuffie called the low-end side of town, full of thieves and beggars and the refugees who hadn’t found jobs yet. Apparently, Yuffie spent most of her time there, the people were all pretty cool, and there were free food and lodging buildings scattered throughout.
The replica rather thought that the last was Yuffie’s doing. She claimed it was a woman named Aerith’s, though, and said that Aerith had a church down in that section. Somehow, this prompted Yuffie to start telling the replica the entire history of Radiant Garden as she knew it.
Radiant Garden, she told him, was once Hollow Bastion (he flinched when she said that, but he didn’t know why), but it had been Radiant Garden before that. Radiant Garden had started out, from what Yuffie and the others had been able to remember or find out, as an outpost for a group called SeeD. No one knew where SeeD originally came from, but apparently they had gotten rid of the local monsters and set up a nice little colony. By all accounts, it had been prospering, a second generation had been born, and all signs pointed to a long-term, probably permanent, settlement.
Then Maleficent had come. With Maleficent came darkness, though not the Heartless she would later command. Maleficent drove the SeeDs and their children into the far reaches of the world.
According to Yuffie, there was a huge gap in all their information at that point. No one knew what happened to the original settlers, or how Maleficent had been driven off. The next reports were all over ten years later, when a small group of refugees from another world crash-landed on Radiant Garden, found the mostly-intact settlement, and took it over.
A few years later, Maleficent came back, and this time she enslaved the settlers. Again, there were those who fled, and these escapees kept records. They planned a takeover from caves a decent distance away from Maleficent’s castle, and they ended up driving her off.
Around that time, a man named Ansem the Wise showed up. He was a brilliant ruler, very fair and just, and the people loved him. No one knew where he came from, although Yuffie said that Leon and Cid figured he was one of the lost SeeD’s children. The years matched up, Yuffie pointed out, and it would explain how he got onto the planet without any of the second-wave settlers noticing.
Sometime during his reign, more refugees came to Radiant Garden. These were from a world called Gaia, and most of them were children. Yuffie grinned as she told the replica how the pilot had barely managed to land, what with being half-asleep from piloting for forty hours straight.
The replica raised an eyebrow. That was a little more detail than she’d gone into for the rest of the history lesson.
“How do you know that?”
Yuffie’s grin grew wider, as if she’d been expecting that. “I was there.”
The replica learned that Yuffie, a guy named Cloud, another guy named Cid, a third named Zack, and two women named Aerith and Tifa were all from Gaia. A fourth guy, Sephiroth, was as well, but Yuffie said that she wasn’t going to talk about him and that was that.
Cid had apparently been the only adult onboard at that point. Yuffie had been seven - “and I was such a cute kid!” - and the youngest. Next came Tifa at twelve, Cloud at thirteen, Aerith at fourteen, and Zack at fifteen. As the obvious baby, Yuffie said that they constantly underestimated her. From what she said, the replica got the feeling that they tended to ignore her, and she tended to empty their pockets in retaliation.
They had stayed in the same place while she explained all that, but when she finished, she tugged on his sleeve and almost ran away. As she half-ran, she told him names of people and places that she expected him to remember - names such as Merlin’s House, which is where they’d talked to Leon, and Scrooge, the guy selling ice cream. Nevermind that the replica didn’t really know what ice cream was - when he mentioned that, Yuffie suddenly stopped, right in front of him.
He crashed into her, but she didn’t even flinch. Meanwhile, he fell down and scowled up at her.
“What’d you do that for?!”
She turned, hands on her hips. “I didn’t mean to. You’ve seriously never had ice cream?”
He shook his head and pulled himself up. “No, I’ve never had it. I just told you that. Why would I lie?”
She shook her head. “It’s not like that. It’s just - it’s ice cream. It’s universal. I think I remember having some on Gaia, and there was definitely a shop in Traverse Town. How could you not have had any?”
He shrugged. “My world didn’t have any.”
“Well, tomorrow I’ll get you some while we talk names.” She grinned. “I’ll even pick up some baby-name books.”
“You don’t have to...”
“But I want to. Really.”
He eyed her. “...What’s in it for you?”
She smirked and refused to answer. Instead, she dragged him off.
The next few hours could be described as the most unusual of his life. First, there was his first meal, ever. He found out that he rather liked the taste of meat, but absolutely could not stand the smell of ketchup. Yuffie, unfortunately, liked loading her eggs up with the stuff, and so he had had to suffer through it. What little he had of his eggs and pancakes was good, although the maple syrup was far too sweet for his tastes.
After breakfast, which Yuffie paid for with her own munny from what the replica could see, she dragged him down a few winding streets, past a bunch of restaurants, then shops with glass windows displaying what looked like junk, and finally onto a street where the shops displayed clothes in the windows.
They passed several before Yuffie went into one. He followed her, peering around. Half the shop had women’s clothes, half had men’s. Yuffie shot glances at the women’s side, but stayed on the men’s and scanned the racks. The replica poked around, looking at pants and shirts and the occasional hat. Something to cover up his tell-tale silver hair would be awfully nice.
Yuffie found him a while later, her arms full of clothes. He almost gulped as she led him to the changing rooms, handed him the pile, and told him to come out after each outfit so that she could see what they looked like.
He did so dutifully, turning around for her and bending when she said to. It really wasn’t much different from Vexen’s periodic exams, only with those he’d been naked and with this the clothes were the point of it all.
Yuffie nodded every so often, hmmed a few times, and when he came out in the last outfit she told him to put on a specific outfit and open the door for her.
To be honest, he didn’t particularly like the outfit. Baggy, dark green pants that kept falling down, with pockets large enough to stuff Axel’s chakrams in and frayed hems, a black shirt with one long sleeve and one ripped off just above the elbow, and a white band around his wrist just weren’t his things. Nevertheless, she said he pulled the look off and she was the one paying.
She did agree to a compromise, and the rest of his outfits were blue pants or denim jeans with grey or yellow shirts. He told her flat out that he wouldn’t wear anything with holes in it, or anything pre-faded, and she sighed and said fine. That alone had eliminated a quarter of the outfits she’d picked out.
She also managed to sneak some khaki and orange and green into the “keep” pile. He tactfully said nothing about that.
Yuffie ended up using all the money Leon had given her, and then some, on nine outfits. She wouldn’t let him see the price, but he knew it must have been pretty high. He didn’t feel any need to pay her back for it, though.
I’m going to be working for them soon - as soon as I get a name. And Leon never mentioned pay...
He carried the bags of clothes as she led him to Aerith’s church, chattering at him all the way. People stared at them as they passed, but the replica tried to ignore it. This wasn’t Castle Oblivion, they weren’t all out to get him, and damn if he saw another blonde head he was going to snap...
Thankfully, Yuffie walked fast. The church wasn’t all that far from where they’d gotten his clothes, but it was the long, half-bouncing strides that got them there so quickly. He had to jog to keep up with her, but she never seemed to notice and he didn’t complain.
The church was evidently from the first of the settlements, still standing but definitely falling apart. As Yuffie and the replica walked in, he noted a few large holes in the roof and walls. Light streamed through them, completely illuminating what could have been a very shadowed room.
Something about the church soothed the replica, eased the tension he’d been carrying around since meeting other people. The light was nice, in a new and strange way. In fact, the only problem with the place was the large abundance of flowers up ahead.
The replica sneezed. Yuffie giggled. Somewhere up ahead, there was a soft “oh!”
“Aerith! There’s another newbie, and this one’s more messed up than Cloud was!”
He shot her a nasty look, at the same time wondering just how “messed up” Cloud must be if he was their measure of messed-up-ness.
A woman stood up and the replica suddenly noticed her. She was wearing a pink dress, and her brunette hair was tied back with a pink ribbon. Her green eyes reminded him of Axel’s; he sincerely hoped that she turned out to be nothing like VIII, for his own sake if nothing else.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hello,” the replica replied guardedly.
“Aerith,” Yuffie said before either could say anything more, “he needs a name and a place to crash. Apparently he had one but he doesn’t anymore.” She paused. “I meant his name. But I guess ‘place to crash’ works too.”
Aerith tilted her head at him. “You don’t have a name?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“I’m not sure how I can help you with that, I’m afraid.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine, I didn’t expect you to.”
“You need one to work, though,” Yuffie pointed out. “I think Leon just wants to know so he can complain about you. He does it to me all the time.”
Aerith chuckled. “I don’t think that’s it, Yuffie.”
“He asked if I can fight, too...” The replica glanced at them. “Are there Heartless around here?”
They exchanged a look and nodded.
“They’re not too big a deal, really, ‘cause they stay outta town and the defense system kills ‘em if they get too close. But Leon’s building this thing, and that’s in Heartless territory.” She paused then groaned. “Aww man, I’m on cleanup duty tomorrow. Darn it!” The replica half-expected her to stamp her foot.
Aerith patted Yuffie’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Do you want me to come with you?”
Yuffie brightened. “Would you? Squally and Cid won’t gang up on me if you’re there.” She glanced at the replica. “Ever since Cloud and Tifa left they’ve been doing it. I think it’s ‘cause the fairies are around more now. Their masculinity is threatened.”
The replica raised an eyebrow. “Fairies?”
Yuffie nodded. “Yep, fairies! Pests, really, but they mean well. We think. When they aren’t stealing all our stuff!” Considering his suspicions about Yuffie, he thought that that was a little hypocritical. She didn’t seem to notice his expression of disbelief.
Aerith shook her head, smiling. “They’re nice, in their own way. And of course I’ll come with you; the flowers will need to be watered, but they’ve been weeded enough for now, I think.”
Yuffie leaned over to the replica. “Aerith’s idea of weeding is pulling up different-looking plants and sticking them somewhere else. Just FYI.”
Aerith’s smile grew a bit and the replica thought that she had heard Yuffie. She didn’t say anything about it, though.
Instead, she turned to him. “Yuffie said you need somewhere to stay?” He nodded. “Well, there’s always the refugee center. Has Yuffie told you about it?”
Of course, this was the perfect time for said young woman to launch into a description. According to her, it looked a bit run down but not too much, and it was something like nine blocks from here. New arrivals didn’t have to pay until after their second month, and even then it was the cheapest decent hotel in town. It didn’t have much in the way of kitchens so he’d have to eat out a lot, but once he started working Leon would cover that. There was a sink in every room and a bathroom at each end of every hall - the replica didn’t really understand why anyone would want just a sink, but he didn’t bother asking.
Aerith nodded when Yuffie finished. “If you don’t like it there, I’m sure Yuffie and I could think of somewhere else for you to live.”
He frowned at her. “Why are you doing this?”
She blinked. “Helping you?”
“Yeah, that.”
“Because we can.”
“‘Cause you need it,” Yuffie answered at the same time. “‘Cause we’re awesome like that. ‘Cause it’s our job. ‘Cause everyone deserves help when they’re down. ‘Cause you’re cool and we want to keep you. ‘Cause of lots of reasons. Pick one.”
It was his turn to blink. And stare at her. “I...”
No one’s ever said they want to “keep me” before. And besides Axel, no one’s ever really wanted to help me. They always wanted something else... He smiled, ever so slightly. I was right. This place...these people...they’re worth it.
Whatever it takes, they’re worth it.
-/ /-
Yuffie and Aerith ended up talking about things that completely bored the replica - how certain people were doing, what kinds of flowers were growing well this season, whether Cloud and Tifa were doing alright - so he had quietly excused himself.
He was leaning against the wall of the church, staring off into space and trying not to think too much, when something hit his cheek. He flinched, brushed it off with his hand; it was something gooey, partially-chewed, and pink. He hurriedly wiped it off on the side of the building and looked around for the culprit.
Another one hit his forehead before he spotted the person doing it, and a third just barely missed him as he stared. Yuffie and Aerith had told him that there were fairies, yes, but he hadn’t expected them to be...well, to be quite so small.
The one throwing - or rather, spitting, as he saw her spit the fourth one at him in time to dodge it - the stuff at him was yellow-orange, from what he could see. She was at a fair distance, and...and there were two, no, three of them.
The other two seemed to be scolding the spitting fairy, though. Good on them.
After a minute of what looked to be finger-pointing, some flying backwards that was probably in shock or protest, and one of the two good fairies disappearing in sparkles, the remaining two nodded and flew towards the replica. He made sure all the gunk Yellow-orange had spit at him was off as they approached.
The other one was brown-haired, with one blue eye and one green, and dressed in an odd outfit that included a half-skirt and a head-tail with fuzz sticking out the end. Yellow-orange turned out to be blonde and green-eyed, and dressed in mostly yellow and orange.
Head-tail bobbed slightly in what he assumed was a bow. “I’m very sorry for what my cousin did.”
Yellow-orange rolled her eyes and shoved Head-tail. “Yunie, you don’t have to apologize for me! Look, person, I’m sorry I shot gum-spitballs at you. Won’t happen again. Everything’s peachy now, see?”
Head-tail, who the replica supposed was “Yunie,” sighed. “I’m afraid that’s the best you’ll get. She’s very immature.”
Yellow-orange gasped. “Am not! I am too mature!”
Yunie patted her head, but turned to the replica and shook her own exaggeratedly. Yellow-orange gasped and shoved her again.
He watched them do that for a little longer, then shrugged. “I don’t care. If she’s immature, that’s her problem. Next time she uses me for target-practice, though, I’ll hit her back.”
They paused and exchanged a look.
“Seriously? You’re just letting me go? I don’t have to apologize any more?”
He shrugged again. “Why should you? You won’t mean it any more.”
She nodded. “Nope, sure wouldn’t.” She pulled Yunie a short distance away and muttered, still loud enough for him to hear, “I think he’s new.”
“I think you’re right. We would have noticed his hair before now,” Yunie replied at about the same volume.
“Think we should tell Paine?”
“What, that there’s a new person?”
“Yeah. Fresh meat!”
“Rikku,” the replica jerked at the name, “be nice. If he’s new, don’t go after him.”
“Aww, but Yunie! He’s so cute, I’ll bet I can make him blush really easy, too...”
“Rikku, don’t. Remember what Aerith said? Maybe he just lost his world. Don’t tease him.”
“He doesn’t look like he just lost his world.”
“None of us figured out that Sora had either. Lots of people don’t cry when they should.”
“Oh. So I should make him cry?”
“No! Just be nice and help him out.”
“And what’s in it for me?”
“Helping someone?”
“Uhhuh, funny.”
“The reward Leon and Aerith promised?”
“Oooh, that I’ll take! So how do we help him?”
“How am I supposed to know? You’re the one who threw spitballs at him!”
“Spat, Yunie, spat. You don’t throw spitballs, that’d be gross.”
“...Rikku.”
“I know, I know.”
They grinned and flew back over to him.
“Hi, I’m Yuna! And this is my cousin, Rikku. We’re the Gullwings, at your service!”
“Well, Paine’s a Gullwing too, but she left. She’s the one all in black.” Rikku eyed him. “Kinda like you, only the black’s real black, not green-wannabe-black.”
Yuna elbowed her. “Rikku! Be nice!”
Clutching her ribs, the blonde winged away from her cousin. “I was!”
The replica snorted. “And how old are you two?”
Rikku made a show of counting on her fingers before grinning. “Eleventy-six!”
Yuna sighed. “She means seventeen.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? I would have guessed ten at the most.”
Rikku pouted at him. “Yunie, why do I have to be nice to him when he’s not nice to me?”
Yuna darted over and whispered something in her cousin’s ear. The replica figured it was probably “reward!” from the way Rikku perked up after.
“Soooo, what’s your name?” She flew forward and flicked his nose.
He swatted at her. “Still working on that. And it’s none of your business, anyway.”
Both fairies paused. “Seriously?” Rikku asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, seriously. Why would I lie?”
Yuna shook her head. “It’s not that, it’s just...that’s very unusual, not having a name.”
Rikku eyed him. “I’m calling you Shiva.”
For some reason, Yuna found that hilarious. It took several minutes for her to calm down, during which the replica stared at both fairies as if they were insane. As far as he was concerned, they were.
“So...” Yuna said when she was done laughing. “Is there anything you need?”
“Anything you can do to help?” he asked back with a smirk.
Rikku tilted her head. “If you say we help you, we’ll split the reward seventy-thirty in favor of us.”
He snorted and shook his head, and her face fell.
“Well, is there anything we really can do to help?” Yuna offered.
He thought it over. There wasn’t really anything he needed that two fairies could do for him...
Rikku watched him with obvious interest, and he looked back at her. She grinned.
“So, why do you need a new name?” she asked slyly.
“Because I do.”
“Trying to separate yourself from your past?”
He stared at her, gaping a bit. How did she...?
Yuna whistled. “Good call, Rikku! How’d you guess that?”
Rikku shrugged. “Pretty easy to figure out. Why else would someone need a new name?”
Yuna nodded. “Still, good job.” She turned to the replica. “Is there anything we can do to help you with that?”
Rikku poked her. “Yunie, if you keep asking him that, I’m going to start saying it in my sleep.” Yuna smiled wryly at her cousin.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Unless you can change my face, that is,” he added jokingly.
Rikku and Yuna exchanged a serious look and nodded. Yuna popped away with the same sparkles he had seen earlier, and Rikku landed on his shoulder.
“She’s going to grab Paine,” the blonde explained, “‘cause we can’t do big magic without all three of us. And changing another person is big magic.”
“You're going to change my face?” the replica asked incredulously. Now that it was a real possibility, he wasn’t so sure he wanted his face changed...
Rikku giggled. “Nope, we can’t do your face, sorry. We’re going to change your hair.” She tugged on a lock of it. “How’s black sound? You like black, right?”
He blinked and stared at her. “What? Why black? Why my hair? You told Yuna that with just one look?”
She laughed. “Calm down! You’re jittery when you get started up, you know that? Anyway. Black because it’s obvious. Hair because it’s obvious, and we can actually do that. Unless you want pimples or warts or freckles, ‘cause we can do those too.” He shook his head. “Didn’t think so. As for Yunie - she knows all that too. Maybe not the black. She should be back in a sec, though, and then I’ll tell her and Paine that black’s a go.”
Shortly after that, they did appear, and she did tell them that they were making his hair black. He didn’t protest. His face was one thing - it was a good face, and he recognized it. Changing the color of his hair was completely different; it was still a change, but they could always reverse it. Besides, he was very obviously Riku with silver hair. With black, he would be just another good-looking young man.
A few minutes, a few chants, and one bright flash of light later, the replica nicknamed Shiva was suddenly distinctly black-haired. He grinned. The fairies grinned back, except for Paine, who grunted, nodded, and drifted back a bit.
“Oooooh, you can pull off black hair! I mean, duh, you’d probably look good with puke-green or furball-brown too, but you look good with black.” She eyed him. “You’re a little pale for it, though. Huh, hadn’t noticed that before. So, get more time out in the sun and you’ll be one-hundred-percent jailbait in no time!”
He was about to ask her just what ‘jailbait’ was when the church door opened. The fairies vanished in three more sparkly exits right as Aerith and Yuffie came out.
Aerith noticed it first, he thought, because she glanced at him and her smile grew a bit bigger. Yuffie was much more vocal about her discovery.
“What the- How’d you do that? No way you found dye and got that done just now!”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Yuffie. Maybe it’s just magic.”
She frowned at him but let the issue go, for the moment. She said goodbye to Aerith, who smiled and said goodbye back. The replica nodded and said ’bye as well. Aerith smiled and told him goodbye.
All the way to the replica’s new home, or what would be his home for a while at least, Yuffie pestered him about his hair. When they reached the building, she filled out everything that needed filling out, handed him a room key, and went with him to his room.
“...It’s awfully dark.”
“I like it.”
“It’s boring. I’d die if I got a room like this. There’s nothing in here.”
“I like it.”
“The sink’s alright. Not yucky or rusted or anything. That’s good.”
“You expected it to be like that?”
“What, yucky and rusted or broken or something? Sure, why not? This is a free spot for refugees. Refugees aren’t the cleanest people, you know. I sure wasn’t when I was a refugee.”
“There are bathrooms down the hall. And Aerith was probably a clean refugee.”
“Her and Leon, yeah. Cid usually stunk like sweat and oil, but he was working. I think he showered every day. Maybe every other day.”
The replica didn’t respond. He dumped his pile of clothes on his new desk and proceeded to collapse onto his bed.
Yuffie grinned and walked over to him. “Tired?”
He shrugged. “A little, I guess.”
She nodded. “‘Kay. I’ll seeya later then. Hey, maybe I’ll have a name you could use then!”
He looked up at her, at her easy grin, and grinned back. “Yeah, maybe. Thanks.”
She waved a hand. “No problem.”
She started to leave, but he grabbed her wrist. “Yuffie?” She looked down at him. “The fairies did it.”
She paused then nodded. He reviewed that statement in his head later, and congratulated her for making it to the door before laughing.
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Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Word Count: 5,248 words
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is the story of a forgotten replica. This is the story of an awakening princess. This is a story of mercenaries and salvation and fairies. And this is a story of people and growing up. [it all started with a blank slate...]
Disclaimer: The author of this story is in NO way associated with Square Enix, Disney, or anyone else who might be pulling Kingdom Hearts' strings. No money is or will be made off of this story.
Meeting Leon was...awkward, to say the least. First of all, the guy obviously hadn’t had a high opinion of the replica from the start. Maybe it was the clothes - they were perfectly fine clothes, if a little torn up, a little bloodied and a little dirty, a little on the smelly side - or maybe it was that Yuffie introduced him with “and here’s the kid I found running into one of the watchtowers!” The replica figured that that alone would have made this a bad first impression.
Then there was the fact that he openly scoffed at Leon’s insistence at being called, well, Leon. Squall was a perfectly fine name, and the replica had no idea why a sane, intelligent adult would choose Leon Leonhart over Squall Leonhart. Only Leon said he wasn’t Leon Leonhart, he was Squall Leonhart who went by Leon, and that just confused the replica to no end.
After that, there was the inevitable pause while they expected him to give them his name. He frowned, shifted, glanced around, looked at them, shifted again, sighed, and finally looked back at them and asked, “What?”
“What ‘what’?” Yuffie tilted her head. “What’s your name?”
He shrugged. “Don’t have one.”
Leon and Yuffie exchanged looks, and she started in on the replica.
“What do you mean, you don’t have one? Everyone gets one! Even orphans!”
Maybe the replica imagined Leon’s sudden stiffening, but he didn’t think so. So, he’s an orphan? Maybe I can use that...
“Not me.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t need one.”
“Well, what did people call you then? To get your attention?”
The replica started to scowl, but stopped himself. “Just because they called me something didn't - doesn't - make it my name." Especially since someone else already had dibs.
Yuffie frowned. “Why not?”
“Because it doesn't, alright? I don’t want to talk about it.”
Yuffie opened her mouth to respond, but Leon stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Yuffie, enough.” He looked at the replica. “You’ll need a name here.”
The replica sighed. “I figured.” Whatever he picked, it would not be Riku.
Leon nodded. “Decide on one soon. You can’t work until we know what to call you.”
Yuffie huffed. “We still get to give him nicknames, though, right?”
Leon paused, eyeing her. The replica stiffened, shooting a glare at her. He didn’t want any nicknames, not when he’d have to pick a new name and get used to that.
“You can do whatever you want, Yuffie.”
“Awesome!” She smirked at the replica and his stomach sank. He was sure he did not like the look in her eye, either.
Leon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the boy. “Yuffie will show you around town. Yuffie, make sure you take him to Aerith. Maybe she can help with his name.”
Yuffie nodded and mock-saluted him. “Aye aye, sir!”
“Come see me when you have a name. There’s always work to do around here. Can you fight?”
The replica nodded. Yuffie looked him up and down disbelievingly.
“You can fight? You’re like, a stick!” She poked his arm, then his stomach. It growled in response, and his cheeks promptly turned a very bright red. Yuffie giggled. “All right, you’ve got some muscles. When was the last time you ate, though?”
The replica blinked and thought back. He thought back very, very hard, trying to remember both before and after Naminé messed with his memories. He came up with a total of zero meals, ever.
I can’t tell them that. Shit. Instead, he just shrugged. Thankfully, they didn’t press the issue.
In fact, Yuffie’s expression turned mildly horrified. “You can’t remember? Oh gosh, Squally, we’ve gotta get some food into this kid, stat! What if he keels over right now? He does look kinda starved, doesn’t he? If he faints, you have to catch him, Squall, and I’ll go grab Aerith and Cid and you’ll have to do CPR and mouth-to-mouth food transfer like those birds, oh man, I’d take pictures of that if it weren’t so morbid-”
“If you’re done planning his death,” Leon interrupted, “you can take him out for food, right now.”
Yuffie paused, took a breath, and nodded. “All right, I can do that.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re paying, right?”
Leon sighed, reached into his pocket, and pulled a pouch out. Yuffie immediately brightened, although her face fell somewhat when Leon pulled out just a handful of munny. The replica didn’t miss the way her eyes followed the pouch as Leon put it back in his pocket. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, but he didn’t know exactly why, other than that it had to do with Yuffie and it wasn’t good.
Whatever. I’ll figure that out later.
“Make sure you get him a room too,” Leon warned before he handed Yuffie the munny, “and some clothes.”
Yuffie glanced at the replica, and nodded. She eagerly pocketed the munny.
“I will, no worries! He’ll be one-hundred-percent respectable when I’m through with him!” She eyed him, and then Leon. “I might need more cash, though.”
He shook his head. “You’ll manage, I’m sure.” She tried pouting at him, to no avail.
“Fine then. Come on, kid, let’s get you dressed and fed and in a bed.”
She left the house, replica in tow and muttering about how he wasn’t a kid. She ignored him and instead launched into an explanation of the town, the important buildings, and all the important people who lived here.
Behind them was Merlin’s House, the Bailey was over there but it was still a mess, Leon hadn’t had the time or the people to fix it since it had gotten messed up. Up ahead was the shopping center, and beyond that there were more shops and restaurants all mixed up together. None of them were especially important though, because all the good food was expensive and all of it tasted about the same anyways. Past that area was what Yuffie called the low-end side of town, full of thieves and beggars and the refugees who hadn’t found jobs yet. Apparently, Yuffie spent most of her time there, the people were all pretty cool, and there were free food and lodging buildings scattered throughout.
The replica rather thought that the last was Yuffie’s doing. She claimed it was a woman named Aerith’s, though, and said that Aerith had a church down in that section. Somehow, this prompted Yuffie to start telling the replica the entire history of Radiant Garden as she knew it.
Radiant Garden, she told him, was once Hollow Bastion (he flinched when she said that, but he didn’t know why), but it had been Radiant Garden before that. Radiant Garden had started out, from what Yuffie and the others had been able to remember or find out, as an outpost for a group called SeeD. No one knew where SeeD originally came from, but apparently they had gotten rid of the local monsters and set up a nice little colony. By all accounts, it had been prospering, a second generation had been born, and all signs pointed to a long-term, probably permanent, settlement.
Then Maleficent had come. With Maleficent came darkness, though not the Heartless she would later command. Maleficent drove the SeeDs and their children into the far reaches of the world.
According to Yuffie, there was a huge gap in all their information at that point. No one knew what happened to the original settlers, or how Maleficent had been driven off. The next reports were all over ten years later, when a small group of refugees from another world crash-landed on Radiant Garden, found the mostly-intact settlement, and took it over.
A few years later, Maleficent came back, and this time she enslaved the settlers. Again, there were those who fled, and these escapees kept records. They planned a takeover from caves a decent distance away from Maleficent’s castle, and they ended up driving her off.
Around that time, a man named Ansem the Wise showed up. He was a brilliant ruler, very fair and just, and the people loved him. No one knew where he came from, although Yuffie said that Leon and Cid figured he was one of the lost SeeD’s children. The years matched up, Yuffie pointed out, and it would explain how he got onto the planet without any of the second-wave settlers noticing.
Sometime during his reign, more refugees came to Radiant Garden. These were from a world called Gaia, and most of them were children. Yuffie grinned as she told the replica how the pilot had barely managed to land, what with being half-asleep from piloting for forty hours straight.
The replica raised an eyebrow. That was a little more detail than she’d gone into for the rest of the history lesson.
“How do you know that?”
Yuffie’s grin grew wider, as if she’d been expecting that. “I was there.”
The replica learned that Yuffie, a guy named Cloud, another guy named Cid, a third named Zack, and two women named Aerith and Tifa were all from Gaia. A fourth guy, Sephiroth, was as well, but Yuffie said that she wasn’t going to talk about him and that was that.
Cid had apparently been the only adult onboard at that point. Yuffie had been seven - “and I was such a cute kid!” - and the youngest. Next came Tifa at twelve, Cloud at thirteen, Aerith at fourteen, and Zack at fifteen. As the obvious baby, Yuffie said that they constantly underestimated her. From what she said, the replica got the feeling that they tended to ignore her, and she tended to empty their pockets in retaliation.
They had stayed in the same place while she explained all that, but when she finished, she tugged on his sleeve and almost ran away. As she half-ran, she told him names of people and places that she expected him to remember - names such as Merlin’s House, which is where they’d talked to Leon, and Scrooge, the guy selling ice cream. Nevermind that the replica didn’t really know what ice cream was - when he mentioned that, Yuffie suddenly stopped, right in front of him.
He crashed into her, but she didn’t even flinch. Meanwhile, he fell down and scowled up at her.
“What’d you do that for?!”
She turned, hands on her hips. “I didn’t mean to. You’ve seriously never had ice cream?”
He shook his head and pulled himself up. “No, I’ve never had it. I just told you that. Why would I lie?”
She shook her head. “It’s not like that. It’s just - it’s ice cream. It’s universal. I think I remember having some on Gaia, and there was definitely a shop in Traverse Town. How could you not have had any?”
He shrugged. “My world didn’t have any.”
“Well, tomorrow I’ll get you some while we talk names.” She grinned. “I’ll even pick up some baby-name books.”
“You don’t have to...”
“But I want to. Really.”
He eyed her. “...What’s in it for you?”
She smirked and refused to answer. Instead, she dragged him off.
The next few hours could be described as the most unusual of his life. First, there was his first meal, ever. He found out that he rather liked the taste of meat, but absolutely could not stand the smell of ketchup. Yuffie, unfortunately, liked loading her eggs up with the stuff, and so he had had to suffer through it. What little he had of his eggs and pancakes was good, although the maple syrup was far too sweet for his tastes.
After breakfast, which Yuffie paid for with her own munny from what the replica could see, she dragged him down a few winding streets, past a bunch of restaurants, then shops with glass windows displaying what looked like junk, and finally onto a street where the shops displayed clothes in the windows.
They passed several before Yuffie went into one. He followed her, peering around. Half the shop had women’s clothes, half had men’s. Yuffie shot glances at the women’s side, but stayed on the men’s and scanned the racks. The replica poked around, looking at pants and shirts and the occasional hat. Something to cover up his tell-tale silver hair would be awfully nice.
Yuffie found him a while later, her arms full of clothes. He almost gulped as she led him to the changing rooms, handed him the pile, and told him to come out after each outfit so that she could see what they looked like.
He did so dutifully, turning around for her and bending when she said to. It really wasn’t much different from Vexen’s periodic exams, only with those he’d been naked and with this the clothes were the point of it all.
Yuffie nodded every so often, hmmed a few times, and when he came out in the last outfit she told him to put on a specific outfit and open the door for her.
To be honest, he didn’t particularly like the outfit. Baggy, dark green pants that kept falling down, with pockets large enough to stuff Axel’s chakrams in and frayed hems, a black shirt with one long sleeve and one ripped off just above the elbow, and a white band around his wrist just weren’t his things. Nevertheless, she said he pulled the look off and she was the one paying.
She did agree to a compromise, and the rest of his outfits were blue pants or denim jeans with grey or yellow shirts. He told her flat out that he wouldn’t wear anything with holes in it, or anything pre-faded, and she sighed and said fine. That alone had eliminated a quarter of the outfits she’d picked out.
She also managed to sneak some khaki and orange and green into the “keep” pile. He tactfully said nothing about that.
Yuffie ended up using all the money Leon had given her, and then some, on nine outfits. She wouldn’t let him see the price, but he knew it must have been pretty high. He didn’t feel any need to pay her back for it, though.
I’m going to be working for them soon - as soon as I get a name. And Leon never mentioned pay...
He carried the bags of clothes as she led him to Aerith’s church, chattering at him all the way. People stared at them as they passed, but the replica tried to ignore it. This wasn’t Castle Oblivion, they weren’t all out to get him, and damn if he saw another blonde head he was going to snap...
Thankfully, Yuffie walked fast. The church wasn’t all that far from where they’d gotten his clothes, but it was the long, half-bouncing strides that got them there so quickly. He had to jog to keep up with her, but she never seemed to notice and he didn’t complain.
The church was evidently from the first of the settlements, still standing but definitely falling apart. As Yuffie and the replica walked in, he noted a few large holes in the roof and walls. Light streamed through them, completely illuminating what could have been a very shadowed room.
Something about the church soothed the replica, eased the tension he’d been carrying around since meeting other people. The light was nice, in a new and strange way. In fact, the only problem with the place was the large abundance of flowers up ahead.
The replica sneezed. Yuffie giggled. Somewhere up ahead, there was a soft “oh!”
“Aerith! There’s another newbie, and this one’s more messed up than Cloud was!”
He shot her a nasty look, at the same time wondering just how “messed up” Cloud must be if he was their measure of messed-up-ness.
A woman stood up and the replica suddenly noticed her. She was wearing a pink dress, and her brunette hair was tied back with a pink ribbon. Her green eyes reminded him of Axel’s; he sincerely hoped that she turned out to be nothing like VIII, for his own sake if nothing else.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hello,” the replica replied guardedly.
“Aerith,” Yuffie said before either could say anything more, “he needs a name and a place to crash. Apparently he had one but he doesn’t anymore.” She paused. “I meant his name. But I guess ‘place to crash’ works too.”
Aerith tilted her head at him. “You don’t have a name?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“I’m not sure how I can help you with that, I’m afraid.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine, I didn’t expect you to.”
“You need one to work, though,” Yuffie pointed out. “I think Leon just wants to know so he can complain about you. He does it to me all the time.”
Aerith chuckled. “I don’t think that’s it, Yuffie.”
“He asked if I can fight, too...” The replica glanced at them. “Are there Heartless around here?”
They exchanged a look and nodded.
“They’re not too big a deal, really, ‘cause they stay outta town and the defense system kills ‘em if they get too close. But Leon’s building this thing, and that’s in Heartless territory.” She paused then groaned. “Aww man, I’m on cleanup duty tomorrow. Darn it!” The replica half-expected her to stamp her foot.
Aerith patted Yuffie’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Do you want me to come with you?”
Yuffie brightened. “Would you? Squally and Cid won’t gang up on me if you’re there.” She glanced at the replica. “Ever since Cloud and Tifa left they’ve been doing it. I think it’s ‘cause the fairies are around more now. Their masculinity is threatened.”
The replica raised an eyebrow. “Fairies?”
Yuffie nodded. “Yep, fairies! Pests, really, but they mean well. We think. When they aren’t stealing all our stuff!” Considering his suspicions about Yuffie, he thought that that was a little hypocritical. She didn’t seem to notice his expression of disbelief.
Aerith shook her head, smiling. “They’re nice, in their own way. And of course I’ll come with you; the flowers will need to be watered, but they’ve been weeded enough for now, I think.”
Yuffie leaned over to the replica. “Aerith’s idea of weeding is pulling up different-looking plants and sticking them somewhere else. Just FYI.”
Aerith’s smile grew a bit and the replica thought that she had heard Yuffie. She didn’t say anything about it, though.
Instead, she turned to him. “Yuffie said you need somewhere to stay?” He nodded. “Well, there’s always the refugee center. Has Yuffie told you about it?”
Of course, this was the perfect time for said young woman to launch into a description. According to her, it looked a bit run down but not too much, and it was something like nine blocks from here. New arrivals didn’t have to pay until after their second month, and even then it was the cheapest decent hotel in town. It didn’t have much in the way of kitchens so he’d have to eat out a lot, but once he started working Leon would cover that. There was a sink in every room and a bathroom at each end of every hall - the replica didn’t really understand why anyone would want just a sink, but he didn’t bother asking.
Aerith nodded when Yuffie finished. “If you don’t like it there, I’m sure Yuffie and I could think of somewhere else for you to live.”
He frowned at her. “Why are you doing this?”
She blinked. “Helping you?”
“Yeah, that.”
“Because we can.”
“‘Cause you need it,” Yuffie answered at the same time. “‘Cause we’re awesome like that. ‘Cause it’s our job. ‘Cause everyone deserves help when they’re down. ‘Cause you’re cool and we want to keep you. ‘Cause of lots of reasons. Pick one.”
It was his turn to blink. And stare at her. “I...”
No one’s ever said they want to “keep me” before. And besides Axel, no one’s ever really wanted to help me. They always wanted something else... He smiled, ever so slightly. I was right. This place...these people...they’re worth it.
Whatever it takes, they’re worth it.
-/ /-
Yuffie and Aerith ended up talking about things that completely bored the replica - how certain people were doing, what kinds of flowers were growing well this season, whether Cloud and Tifa were doing alright - so he had quietly excused himself.
He was leaning against the wall of the church, staring off into space and trying not to think too much, when something hit his cheek. He flinched, brushed it off with his hand; it was something gooey, partially-chewed, and pink. He hurriedly wiped it off on the side of the building and looked around for the culprit.
Another one hit his forehead before he spotted the person doing it, and a third just barely missed him as he stared. Yuffie and Aerith had told him that there were fairies, yes, but he hadn’t expected them to be...well, to be quite so small.
The one throwing - or rather, spitting, as he saw her spit the fourth one at him in time to dodge it - the stuff at him was yellow-orange, from what he could see. She was at a fair distance, and...and there were two, no, three of them.
The other two seemed to be scolding the spitting fairy, though. Good on them.
After a minute of what looked to be finger-pointing, some flying backwards that was probably in shock or protest, and one of the two good fairies disappearing in sparkles, the remaining two nodded and flew towards the replica. He made sure all the gunk Yellow-orange had spit at him was off as they approached.
The other one was brown-haired, with one blue eye and one green, and dressed in an odd outfit that included a half-skirt and a head-tail with fuzz sticking out the end. Yellow-orange turned out to be blonde and green-eyed, and dressed in mostly yellow and orange.
Head-tail bobbed slightly in what he assumed was a bow. “I’m very sorry for what my cousin did.”
Yellow-orange rolled her eyes and shoved Head-tail. “Yunie, you don’t have to apologize for me! Look, person, I’m sorry I shot gum-spitballs at you. Won’t happen again. Everything’s peachy now, see?”
Head-tail, who the replica supposed was “Yunie,” sighed. “I’m afraid that’s the best you’ll get. She’s very immature.”
Yellow-orange gasped. “Am not! I am too mature!”
Yunie patted her head, but turned to the replica and shook her own exaggeratedly. Yellow-orange gasped and shoved her again.
He watched them do that for a little longer, then shrugged. “I don’t care. If she’s immature, that’s her problem. Next time she uses me for target-practice, though, I’ll hit her back.”
They paused and exchanged a look.
“Seriously? You’re just letting me go? I don’t have to apologize any more?”
He shrugged again. “Why should you? You won’t mean it any more.”
She nodded. “Nope, sure wouldn’t.” She pulled Yunie a short distance away and muttered, still loud enough for him to hear, “I think he’s new.”
“I think you’re right. We would have noticed his hair before now,” Yunie replied at about the same volume.
“Think we should tell Paine?”
“What, that there’s a new person?”
“Yeah. Fresh meat!”
“Rikku,” the replica jerked at the name, “be nice. If he’s new, don’t go after him.”
“Aww, but Yunie! He’s so cute, I’ll bet I can make him blush really easy, too...”
“Rikku, don’t. Remember what Aerith said? Maybe he just lost his world. Don’t tease him.”
“He doesn’t look like he just lost his world.”
“None of us figured out that Sora had either. Lots of people don’t cry when they should.”
“Oh. So I should make him cry?”
“No! Just be nice and help him out.”
“And what’s in it for me?”
“Helping someone?”
“Uhhuh, funny.”
“The reward Leon and Aerith promised?”
“Oooh, that I’ll take! So how do we help him?”
“How am I supposed to know? You’re the one who threw spitballs at him!”
“Spat, Yunie, spat. You don’t throw spitballs, that’d be gross.”
“...Rikku.”
“I know, I know.”
They grinned and flew back over to him.
“Hi, I’m Yuna! And this is my cousin, Rikku. We’re the Gullwings, at your service!”
“Well, Paine’s a Gullwing too, but she left. She’s the one all in black.” Rikku eyed him. “Kinda like you, only the black’s real black, not green-wannabe-black.”
Yuna elbowed her. “Rikku! Be nice!”
Clutching her ribs, the blonde winged away from her cousin. “I was!”
The replica snorted. “And how old are you two?”
Rikku made a show of counting on her fingers before grinning. “Eleventy-six!”
Yuna sighed. “She means seventeen.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? I would have guessed ten at the most.”
Rikku pouted at him. “Yunie, why do I have to be nice to him when he’s not nice to me?”
Yuna darted over and whispered something in her cousin’s ear. The replica figured it was probably “reward!” from the way Rikku perked up after.
“Soooo, what’s your name?” She flew forward and flicked his nose.
He swatted at her. “Still working on that. And it’s none of your business, anyway.”
Both fairies paused. “Seriously?” Rikku asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, seriously. Why would I lie?”
Yuna shook her head. “It’s not that, it’s just...that’s very unusual, not having a name.”
Rikku eyed him. “I’m calling you Shiva.”
For some reason, Yuna found that hilarious. It took several minutes for her to calm down, during which the replica stared at both fairies as if they were insane. As far as he was concerned, they were.
“So...” Yuna said when she was done laughing. “Is there anything you need?”
“Anything you can do to help?” he asked back with a smirk.
Rikku tilted her head. “If you say we help you, we’ll split the reward seventy-thirty in favor of us.”
He snorted and shook his head, and her face fell.
“Well, is there anything we really can do to help?” Yuna offered.
He thought it over. There wasn’t really anything he needed that two fairies could do for him...
Rikku watched him with obvious interest, and he looked back at her. She grinned.
“So, why do you need a new name?” she asked slyly.
“Because I do.”
“Trying to separate yourself from your past?”
He stared at her, gaping a bit. How did she...?
Yuna whistled. “Good call, Rikku! How’d you guess that?”
Rikku shrugged. “Pretty easy to figure out. Why else would someone need a new name?”
Yuna nodded. “Still, good job.” She turned to the replica. “Is there anything we can do to help you with that?”
Rikku poked her. “Yunie, if you keep asking him that, I’m going to start saying it in my sleep.” Yuna smiled wryly at her cousin.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Unless you can change my face, that is,” he added jokingly.
Rikku and Yuna exchanged a serious look and nodded. Yuna popped away with the same sparkles he had seen earlier, and Rikku landed on his shoulder.
“She’s going to grab Paine,” the blonde explained, “‘cause we can’t do big magic without all three of us. And changing another person is big magic.”
“You're going to change my face?” the replica asked incredulously. Now that it was a real possibility, he wasn’t so sure he wanted his face changed...
Rikku giggled. “Nope, we can’t do your face, sorry. We’re going to change your hair.” She tugged on a lock of it. “How’s black sound? You like black, right?”
He blinked and stared at her. “What? Why black? Why my hair? You told Yuna that with just one look?”
She laughed. “Calm down! You’re jittery when you get started up, you know that? Anyway. Black because it’s obvious. Hair because it’s obvious, and we can actually do that. Unless you want pimples or warts or freckles, ‘cause we can do those too.” He shook his head. “Didn’t think so. As for Yunie - she knows all that too. Maybe not the black. She should be back in a sec, though, and then I’ll tell her and Paine that black’s a go.”
Shortly after that, they did appear, and she did tell them that they were making his hair black. He didn’t protest. His face was one thing - it was a good face, and he recognized it. Changing the color of his hair was completely different; it was still a change, but they could always reverse it. Besides, he was very obviously Riku with silver hair. With black, he would be just another good-looking young man.
A few minutes, a few chants, and one bright flash of light later, the replica nicknamed Shiva was suddenly distinctly black-haired. He grinned. The fairies grinned back, except for Paine, who grunted, nodded, and drifted back a bit.
“Oooooh, you can pull off black hair! I mean, duh, you’d probably look good with puke-green or furball-brown too, but you look good with black.” She eyed him. “You’re a little pale for it, though. Huh, hadn’t noticed that before. So, get more time out in the sun and you’ll be one-hundred-percent jailbait in no time!”
He was about to ask her just what ‘jailbait’ was when the church door opened. The fairies vanished in three more sparkly exits right as Aerith and Yuffie came out.
Aerith noticed it first, he thought, because she glanced at him and her smile grew a bit bigger. Yuffie was much more vocal about her discovery.
“What the- How’d you do that? No way you found dye and got that done just now!”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Yuffie. Maybe it’s just magic.”
She frowned at him but let the issue go, for the moment. She said goodbye to Aerith, who smiled and said goodbye back. The replica nodded and said ’bye as well. Aerith smiled and told him goodbye.
All the way to the replica’s new home, or what would be his home for a while at least, Yuffie pestered him about his hair. When they reached the building, she filled out everything that needed filling out, handed him a room key, and went with him to his room.
“...It’s awfully dark.”
“I like it.”
“It’s boring. I’d die if I got a room like this. There’s nothing in here.”
“I like it.”
“The sink’s alright. Not yucky or rusted or anything. That’s good.”
“You expected it to be like that?”
“What, yucky and rusted or broken or something? Sure, why not? This is a free spot for refugees. Refugees aren’t the cleanest people, you know. I sure wasn’t when I was a refugee.”
“There are bathrooms down the hall. And Aerith was probably a clean refugee.”
“Her and Leon, yeah. Cid usually stunk like sweat and oil, but he was working. I think he showered every day. Maybe every other day.”
The replica didn’t respond. He dumped his pile of clothes on his new desk and proceeded to collapse onto his bed.
Yuffie grinned and walked over to him. “Tired?”
He shrugged. “A little, I guess.”
She nodded. “‘Kay. I’ll seeya later then. Hey, maybe I’ll have a name you could use then!”
He looked up at her, at her easy grin, and grinned back. “Yeah, maybe. Thanks.”
She waved a hand. “No problem.”
She started to leave, but he grabbed her wrist. “Yuffie?” She looked down at him. “The fairies did it.”
She paused then nodded. He reviewed that statement in his head later, and congratulated her for making it to the door before laughing.
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