Interweaving (Kingdom Hearts; Kairi/Namine)
Title: Interweaving
Author: kasoku
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (II)
Pairing: Kairi/Namine
Rating: PG
Request: Kingdom Hearts: Kairi/Namine - Skin - misuse of mirrors
Summary: It's a strange thing, she's discovered, to be two.
Notes: 1317 words. The mirrors thing is borrowed from Terry Pratchett.
Interweaving
Summer is long since over, and they are all weeks late for the start of school. Riku treats the year's worth of make-up work like a penance, grim and silent, while Sora complains that they ought to get extra credit for saving the world. While they wrestle with algebra and history and the theory of synthesis, Kairi spends her evenings sitting on the edge of the pier and watching the sun set behind their island. Sometimes she threads shells together into chains and charms, or fishes with a hand line. Mostly, though, she talks with Naminé.
It's a strange thing, she's discovered, to be two. Sometimes when she sleeps, the edges blur and she dreams in pieces of memory that are not hers, scraps and fragments that are sometimes murky, sometimes dark and incomprehensible. Kairi thinks she recognises Sora's memories, and Riku's, but Naminé is always silent and withdrawn on those nights, a stillness within.
Slowly, Kairi is becoming used to the sensation of her Nobody living beneath her skin, looking out of her eyes. Naminé rarely separates from her entirely, though they have seen Roxas sitting alone and translucent on the beach sometimes, when the setting sun turns the sea to fire. She seems content to watch the world, safe and hidden within Kairi's heart, though sometimes Kairi worries whether the situation is entirely fair.
"I am a part of you," Naminé murmurs through her lips, hands folding neatly together in her lap. "This is all I could have asked for."
"But is it what you want?" Kairi wonders, lifting a hand to smooth back strands of hair that are whipping in the wind off the sea. For a moment, she sees flecks of colour beneath her short nails, wax and paint forever caught in time.
"I exist, now." Kairi feels Naminé smile, through and with her. "I, you, we - this, I think, is my happy ending. Or, at least, as close as a Nobody may come."
"You're not a Nobody any more, though." The wind has cooled with sunset; Kairi pushes herself to her feet, picking up her schoolbag and starting for home. "You were expecting to fade away, but you never had any darkness, Naminé. Neither of us do."
This time, Naminé's smile remains on the inside, for Kairi alone. "You are the Princess of Heart, yes. I am merely your shadow, and content so, after so long apart."
Bowing her head with a smile, Kairi waves a greeting to her father, who is entangled in a discussion with a group of fishermen, and slips through the front gate before they can notice and detain her. "Was it so bad?"
To be without a heart? Naminé says silently, a hum in the back of Kairi's throat as she hops up the porch steps. It is as if - as if one is screaming into the wind, forever unheard and unfelt, even by oneself. A Nobody stands on the edge of nothingness; not darkness, but void. Non-existence. Kairi cannot tell whether the shiver that hunches her shoulders is hers alone, or her Nobody's.
"What would have happened to me, without you?" she wonders aloud as she rounds the corner of the house, heading for the side door so that she won't get accosted by the school board if they're using the front meeting rooms tonight.
"I do not know," Naminé murmurs. "Your light was strong enough to sustain you, while Sora slept."
"And now I have you." Kairi smiles, shaking her hair back as she pushes the door open and steps inside. Almost immediately, her eyes are drawn to the new and unfamiliar: the enamelled mirror from the front hall has been moved in here, hung opposite its shell-framed mate so that Kairi can see herself reflected back and forth endlessly into the distance. It's unusual, but not alarming, and she's startled to feel Naminé recoil almost violently, withdraw and burrow inwards until Kairi cannot feel her presence at all.
Naminé? she calls, trying to reach into herself, find her Nobody. There is no reply, only an empty silence, and Kairi stares at her own face reflected in the glass, seeing only her own sky-blue eyes and ruddy hair.
"Naminé?" she whispers, clutching at the strap of her bag; she jumps when her mother speaks from the kitchen door.
"Who's that, dear?"
Nobody. My Nobody. Myself. "A friend." She smiles for her mother, hands automatically transferring her bag to its peg by the door. "I just remembered something, that's all. Hi, Mom."
"Well, it can wait, can't it?" Her mother pats her hair back, stepping back into the kitchen. "I've got dinner on the table, and it's bad enough that your father's always late…"
"Sure, Mom." Kairi clasps her hands to hide the way her fingers are twitching, wondering at how strange it is to be without Naminé now. Even when they separate themselves, she can still feel her Nobody there, emotions that echo her own in different colours. She's grown so used to being an us…
Dinner is quiet and slightly strained, and even though she's hungry Kairi finds it difficult to eat. She keeps catching herself staring blankly at her plate, waiting for Naminé's voice, her presence, the warm shadow of another beneath her skin. She's grateful when her father wanders in, grumbling to himself about fishing rights, because it gives her an excuse to slip away upstairs, giving the paired mirrors in the hallway a wide-eyed and uneasy glance as she passes.
Shutting her door firmly behind her, Kairi stares into her own mirror, at her face framed between familiar photographs of Sora and Riku, the children they had been. Usually, the pictures make her smile, but she can see worry in her own eyes.
"Naminé?" she whispers, uncertain; it's a relief to feel her Nobody stir, slowly, within. "What's wrong?"
Naminé is silent, but Kairi thinks she can see her peering out through her eyes. Nodding slowly, she turns and sinks down onto the bed, stretching out along the wall so that there is space for another beside her. After a second, she feels Naminé settle back into her accustomed place beneath her skin, as close as her own heartbeat.
"DiZ said that a witch should avoid mirrors," Naminé murmurs through her mouth at last; it is so clearly part of a story that Kairi remains silent, waiting.
"He was accustomed to using them to amplify magic - paired mirrors, which reflect many times. Either he did not mind the price, or a Nobody simply has too little self to spare."
"I'll ask Mom to put it back in the front hall," Kairi promises, turning onto her side and pillowing her head on her arm. "If it hurts you."
"It is not painful." Naminé slides out of her, curling up beside her on the bed; Kairi reaches out to take her hand, ignoring the way their fingers merge slightly as they twine them together. "Only stretched - as though I could fade to nothing, or be lost among my reflections." I am not real enough, in myself, to step outside my mirror.
"You won't fade." Kairi squeezes her hand, tucking it close between their breasts, against her heart. "You're part of me, now, remember?"
"Yes." Naminé smiles, laying her forehead against Kairi's and closing her eyes. This close, Kairi can see the faint outlines of room and furniture through her; she closes her own eyes, kissing Naminé's cheek, then the corner of her mouth. There is no need to fear, and she can't tell whose words they are but she holds her other self close anyway, cocoons them into a shared world of reflected emotion and warmth.
"I am where I belong," Naminé murmurs against her lips, and Kairi smiles acknowledgement as they melt slowly back together, Naminé settling beneath her skin, behind her closed eyes. She has enough heart to share, after all.
Author: kasoku
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (II)
Pairing: Kairi/Namine
Rating: PG
Request: Kingdom Hearts: Kairi/Namine - Skin - misuse of mirrors
Summary: It's a strange thing, she's discovered, to be two.
Notes: 1317 words. The mirrors thing is borrowed from Terry Pratchett.
Interweaving
Summer is long since over, and they are all weeks late for the start of school. Riku treats the year's worth of make-up work like a penance, grim and silent, while Sora complains that they ought to get extra credit for saving the world. While they wrestle with algebra and history and the theory of synthesis, Kairi spends her evenings sitting on the edge of the pier and watching the sun set behind their island. Sometimes she threads shells together into chains and charms, or fishes with a hand line. Mostly, though, she talks with Naminé.
It's a strange thing, she's discovered, to be two. Sometimes when she sleeps, the edges blur and she dreams in pieces of memory that are not hers, scraps and fragments that are sometimes murky, sometimes dark and incomprehensible. Kairi thinks she recognises Sora's memories, and Riku's, but Naminé is always silent and withdrawn on those nights, a stillness within.
Slowly, Kairi is becoming used to the sensation of her Nobody living beneath her skin, looking out of her eyes. Naminé rarely separates from her entirely, though they have seen Roxas sitting alone and translucent on the beach sometimes, when the setting sun turns the sea to fire. She seems content to watch the world, safe and hidden within Kairi's heart, though sometimes Kairi worries whether the situation is entirely fair.
"I am a part of you," Naminé murmurs through her lips, hands folding neatly together in her lap. "This is all I could have asked for."
"But is it what you want?" Kairi wonders, lifting a hand to smooth back strands of hair that are whipping in the wind off the sea. For a moment, she sees flecks of colour beneath her short nails, wax and paint forever caught in time.
"I exist, now." Kairi feels Naminé smile, through and with her. "I, you, we - this, I think, is my happy ending. Or, at least, as close as a Nobody may come."
"You're not a Nobody any more, though." The wind has cooled with sunset; Kairi pushes herself to her feet, picking up her schoolbag and starting for home. "You were expecting to fade away, but you never had any darkness, Naminé. Neither of us do."
This time, Naminé's smile remains on the inside, for Kairi alone. "You are the Princess of Heart, yes. I am merely your shadow, and content so, after so long apart."
Bowing her head with a smile, Kairi waves a greeting to her father, who is entangled in a discussion with a group of fishermen, and slips through the front gate before they can notice and detain her. "Was it so bad?"
To be without a heart? Naminé says silently, a hum in the back of Kairi's throat as she hops up the porch steps. It is as if - as if one is screaming into the wind, forever unheard and unfelt, even by oneself. A Nobody stands on the edge of nothingness; not darkness, but void. Non-existence. Kairi cannot tell whether the shiver that hunches her shoulders is hers alone, or her Nobody's.
"What would have happened to me, without you?" she wonders aloud as she rounds the corner of the house, heading for the side door so that she won't get accosted by the school board if they're using the front meeting rooms tonight.
"I do not know," Naminé murmurs. "Your light was strong enough to sustain you, while Sora slept."
"And now I have you." Kairi smiles, shaking her hair back as she pushes the door open and steps inside. Almost immediately, her eyes are drawn to the new and unfamiliar: the enamelled mirror from the front hall has been moved in here, hung opposite its shell-framed mate so that Kairi can see herself reflected back and forth endlessly into the distance. It's unusual, but not alarming, and she's startled to feel Naminé recoil almost violently, withdraw and burrow inwards until Kairi cannot feel her presence at all.
Naminé? she calls, trying to reach into herself, find her Nobody. There is no reply, only an empty silence, and Kairi stares at her own face reflected in the glass, seeing only her own sky-blue eyes and ruddy hair.
"Naminé?" she whispers, clutching at the strap of her bag; she jumps when her mother speaks from the kitchen door.
"Who's that, dear?"
Nobody. My Nobody. Myself. "A friend." She smiles for her mother, hands automatically transferring her bag to its peg by the door. "I just remembered something, that's all. Hi, Mom."
"Well, it can wait, can't it?" Her mother pats her hair back, stepping back into the kitchen. "I've got dinner on the table, and it's bad enough that your father's always late…"
"Sure, Mom." Kairi clasps her hands to hide the way her fingers are twitching, wondering at how strange it is to be without Naminé now. Even when they separate themselves, she can still feel her Nobody there, emotions that echo her own in different colours. She's grown so used to being an us…
Dinner is quiet and slightly strained, and even though she's hungry Kairi finds it difficult to eat. She keeps catching herself staring blankly at her plate, waiting for Naminé's voice, her presence, the warm shadow of another beneath her skin. She's grateful when her father wanders in, grumbling to himself about fishing rights, because it gives her an excuse to slip away upstairs, giving the paired mirrors in the hallway a wide-eyed and uneasy glance as she passes.
Shutting her door firmly behind her, Kairi stares into her own mirror, at her face framed between familiar photographs of Sora and Riku, the children they had been. Usually, the pictures make her smile, but she can see worry in her own eyes.
"Naminé?" she whispers, uncertain; it's a relief to feel her Nobody stir, slowly, within. "What's wrong?"
Naminé is silent, but Kairi thinks she can see her peering out through her eyes. Nodding slowly, she turns and sinks down onto the bed, stretching out along the wall so that there is space for another beside her. After a second, she feels Naminé settle back into her accustomed place beneath her skin, as close as her own heartbeat.
"DiZ said that a witch should avoid mirrors," Naminé murmurs through her mouth at last; it is so clearly part of a story that Kairi remains silent, waiting.
"He was accustomed to using them to amplify magic - paired mirrors, which reflect many times. Either he did not mind the price, or a Nobody simply has too little self to spare."
"I'll ask Mom to put it back in the front hall," Kairi promises, turning onto her side and pillowing her head on her arm. "If it hurts you."
"It is not painful." Naminé slides out of her, curling up beside her on the bed; Kairi reaches out to take her hand, ignoring the way their fingers merge slightly as they twine them together. "Only stretched - as though I could fade to nothing, or be lost among my reflections." I am not real enough, in myself, to step outside my mirror.
"You won't fade." Kairi squeezes her hand, tucking it close between their breasts, against her heart. "You're part of me, now, remember?"
"Yes." Naminé smiles, laying her forehead against Kairi's and closing her eyes. This close, Kairi can see the faint outlines of room and furniture through her; she closes her own eyes, kissing Naminé's cheek, then the corner of her mouth. There is no need to fear, and she can't tell whose words they are but she holds her other self close anyway, cocoons them into a shared world of reflected emotion and warmth.
"I am where I belong," Naminé murmurs against her lips, and Kairi smiles acknowledgement as they melt slowly back together, Naminé settling beneath her skin, behind her closed eyes. She has enough heart to share, after all.