(no subject)

[arclights.livejournal.com]

Challenge: Reflections
Title: Fair Trade
Word Count: 307
Note: Ambiguous referencing of SoraKairi's Others, not really warning-worthy though. I feel bad letting such a good prompt go to waste. >.< It kind of got rushed for fear of missing deadlines (I won't be off work until it's over, I'm sure), and while it maintained the basics of the original idea, it didn't go nearly where I wanted to. Archived at (eventually) karaoke soul, gunners_view.


Fair Trade
(but if you listen
you'll learn to hear the difference
between the halfs and the half-nots)

Since they've come home, Kairi doesn't leave home without a sketchbook. She's become something of a star in school, and on more than one occasion, students and teachers alike marvel at how detailed they are, how she almost seems to bring her pictures to life.

Of course, Sora is her favorite subject. And he is a gracious model -- he has no problem sitting for hours, telling her stories of his end of the adventure while she draws happily, skinny fingers instinctively reaching for the perfect shade here, the complimenting shadow there. She puts a piece of herself in each picture. She draws like she's addicted. Some days it's just a ten-minute sketch, and sometimes he has to remind her to try to hurry because mom had dinner ready two hours ago.

Sora doesn't mind, though. Not even when, more often than not, the finished image is blond and quietly feral.

It's a trade-off.

--

Since they've come home, Kairi has definitely learned to appreciate the way Sora can be so inconspicuous that most people don't even notice him. Even though they're closing out their final year of school, Sora has reverted to his youthful habits of passing notes in class, which both amuses her and worries her, just a little. After all, how would they explain to the instructor that most of those sweetly awkward little notes aren't really from Sora, and aren't really meant for Kairi at all?

She accepts them all gracefully, though. And someone in her heart leaps each time she gets one folded just so. The handwriting is scrawling and sometimes a little difficult to understand, but the message definitely is not -- they are words from the heart, from a heart just starting to figure out what exactly that means.

It's sweet, she thinks. It's a trade-off.

-fin
17.11.06

I blame the rush on my SO. He thought it would be a good idea to pick us each up copies of FFXI so that we could have some together time whut? And then there was the new computer so that I could play it, which I'm still trying to get settled into. Unfortunately, what FFXI does is make me miss WoW. T__T

Thank you for reading!

Comments

[lazzchan.livejournal.com]

:)

This is very cute! Just sorta-barely touching on the Others--which don't get enough love. ^_^

Very nice ^__^

[cybra2003.livejournal.com]

I love how you included their Others. ^^ It makes it extra squeeably cute.

[i-got-spunk.livejournal.com]

ker-SAD. I can't imagine Roxas and Namine just fading into nothing... poor things.

[tabitha-dornoc.livejournal.com]

Not even when, more often than not, the finished image is blond and quietly feral. This drabble has killed me dead with Sweetness and just... gah. GAH. I just love the whole thing, the 'trade-off', and it's like Namine and Roxas are living their love through Sora and Kairi who just seem to shrug and keep on going. It's bittersweet when you think about it but still so lovely.

I really like all your drabbles, do you write longer fic? You shoooould. *poke* *also mem's*

[arclights.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it so well, and am currently blushing madly at work because you have become one of my Ultimate Fic Heroes. ♥

I like the idea of the dual relationships; it's a double-date, every time! :D It is bittersweet (which makes it all the better, hee), but I think that when Sora is with Kairi, Roxas doesn't really see Kairi but Namine instead, and vice versa. Well, it would be a little bit more complicated than that, but still. AWW.

I'm really curious to explore just how much impact Roxas and Namine have on Sora and Kairi, whether they've just become kind of afterimages that surface only by grace of memory (or wishful thinking), or if Sora and Kairi don't end up developing some sort of mild schizophrenia because they've essentially got two different, whole personalities tucked inside. It's a lot to think about, and ambiguous enough in places to be up to interpretation. (Nomura seems to really like doing that -- I keep hearing rumors, supposedly based on a speech/interview he gave, that he made Sora undefined enough to make many pairings plausible? It seemed strange that he would refer to it just so, but maybe that's what I get for listening to those crazy manlove-lovers. XD)

And I do (have?) written longer stuff in the past (unrelated to KH, unfortunately), and I do intend on doing it some more. I'm getting a little bit more comfortable with writing again, so I'll probably start relatively soon. I don't do epics, though; I've tried multiple times, but two or three chapters in and I just can't seem to do anything more.

[arclights.livejournal.com]

I forgot:

1. Thanks for the mem. *__* I'm glad you liked it that much.
2. I hope you don't mind if I friend you. I know I hardly ever check my FL, but ... still. You know. Please? XD