Non-challenge drabbles

[isabeau1025.livejournal.com]

So I challenged myself to write ten drabbles using past prompts from this community, and ended up with nine plus the current challenge. I wont torture you with all ten (they’re posted in my journal), but these are the three I thought came out the best.

 

Just as a general note, I haven’t played KH:COM, so anything that takes place in-between games I’m making up. There are spoilers if you haven’t finished KH and KH2.

 

Challenge: In Darkness

Word count: 396

 

By the time he found his keyblade, Riku had been wandering in darkness so long he had gone blind. He probably wouldn’t have found the keyblade otherwise. The king had walked right by it.

 

Mickey seemed unaffected by the darkness. He was strong and bright and the shadows cowered away from him as he passed. Maybe it was his hope that kept the darkness at bay, or maybe it was his queen. He talked about her more then he talked about anything else, even saving the worlds.

 

When Riku thought about Sora and Kairi, thought about the little island that used to be home, it only hurt. He looked at memories of warm sand under his feet and laughter, of wooden swords clacking together in endless sunlight, and barely recognized them. They were someone else’s memories, someone else’s home and he felt like a peeping tom for seeing them, like a thief come to steal something precious that he had no right to. The darkness seemed preferable to that.

 

Maybe Mickey had been right when he had told him so very gently as he examined eyes gone blind, that he had to choose to leave the darkness, he had to choose to see.

 

But Riku did see.

 

He saw the world with out color or light, but he saw it in immaculate detail. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know why, but he saw everything. He saw the desperate hunger of the heartless that trailed after them always, longing for hearts that were too strong to be stolen away. He saw the king’s strength and courage, and he saw how he glowed when he talked about his wife.

 

And he saw the keyblade, buried under layers of darkness and forgotten years, lost to the endless depths of Kingdom Hearts. It pulsed like something living, the first heartbeat that wasn’t the king’s or his that he had found in this place.

 

He didn’t realize he had strayed from the king’s side until he heard Mickey calling for him, but by then his hands were already wrapped around the hilt, and the weight of the blade had settled in his heart, like a heavy blanket on a cold night.

 

He didn’t believe that he would ever see daylight, or color, or home again, but with his keyblade firmly in his grasp, Riku could see the road to dawn.

 

Challenge: Conspiracy

World Count: 299

 

“But I don’t want you to!”

 

Riku looked at the pale girl from under his hood, surprised by the sudden outburst.

 

“I have a will.” Namine was fierce in her smallness, unflinching as she scowled up at him. “That might be all I am, but if I have a will I can want things, and I don’t want you to catch him.”

 

“Sora needs him.” Riku said slowly, pulling his hood back.

 

“Not yet.” Namine’s small fists shook. “Sora isn’t ready for him yet. Diz will take him and unmake him and make him something different, and it’s not fair!”

 

“Namine…”

 

“I’ll make you a deal.” She said evenly.

 

“What deal?” Riku watched her thoughtfully, seeing her despite his blindness, or maybe because of it.

 

“Diz told me to change Sora’s memories.” Namine radiated defiance.

 

Riku went rigid.

 

“He told me to make Sora hate. He told me to make him think Xemnas had killed you so he would go after him.” Namine said.

 

Riku stood very still. He could smell lies as well as he could smell darkness, even in nobodies, and Namine only smelt of light, hollow and airy, but light all the same.

 

“I haven’t changed anything yet.” Namine flexed her small fingers. “If you protect Roxas, if you keep him safe for as long as you can, then I wont change any of Sora’s memories. Diz wont know until it’s too late.”

 

Riku didn’t think he would ever make it back to Sora and Kairi, so it didn’t matter if Sora thought he was dead, but he couldn’t stand the thought of someone changing Sora. And Namine was right. It wasn’t fair.

 

“You have a deal.” Riku extended his hand to her.

 

Namine’s hand was tiny in his, but her grip was just as strong.

 

Challenge: Kodak Moment

Word count: 505

Note: This takes place a decent amount of time after the second game.

 

The queen would always remember the first time she saw him, stepping uncertainly from the shadows of the promenade into the sunlit inner garden. He had been wary and tense until Mickey called him over to help him sort Dalmatian pups from their pile of spots and yelps.

 

He had smiled then. It was like a summer night that smile, warm and clear and easy.

 

Minnie would come to learn that that smile was a rare thing. Half-smiles that never reached his eyes, self-deprecating laughs that covered over what hurt, he gave out freely, but that one smile only the patient and the persistent saw. It became Minnie’s own little quest to catch that smile somewhere it wouldn’t fade.

 

She tried to draw it first, thinking she could freeze it in charcoal and paint, but Riku always moved at the last instant, turned away just before she could lay the last line that would lock it into place. Mickey laughed at her sketchbook full of unfinished smiles, and picked his favorite to keep on his desk, next to the photo of their wedding day and a very worn crayon drawing of a lollipop Minnie had given him when they were ten and she hadn’t had the pocket change to buy him a real one. He had written her back a little note she still kept in her jewelry box that said she was sweeter then any candy.

 

Next she tried the camera, thinking it would be fast enough to catch him, but it wasn’t. She ended up with piles of photos of the back of his head, the fall of his hair, and the just missed edges of his laugh. She framed a photo of him sitting on the garden wall with Sora and Kairi, heads bowed over the heavy book in Kairi’s lap, his eyes just shy of that smile, and put it on their nightstand next to the photos of Minnie’s nieces and Goofy with his son.

 

Mickey snatched the photo of Riku leaning on their balcony railing, peaceful in the twilight, his hair the color of starlight in the falling dusk. It was months before Minnie found it, a bookmark in the king’s favorite book.

 

By the time the queen and king’s first child was born, Minnie had all but given up on ever catching that smile, and had resigned herself to only enjoying rare fleeting glimpses of it. She had had her camera in hand the first time Mickey had placed the tiny baby in Riku’s arms only because she could not take enough pictures of her husband and child together. She didn’t know what she had caught until the developed photos came back to her.

 

And there it was. That summer smile as Riku gazed down in adoration at the tiny life in his arms and Mickey beamed at them both.

 

Minnie framed the photo and hung it above the fireplace in their sitting room, and Riku smiled every time he saw it, like star shine on a summer night.

Comments

[splatonthefloor.livejournal.com]

These are terribly sweet. "Kodak Moment" is amazing, definitely my favourite of the three, although "In Darkness" is a very close second. Conspiracy seems just a tad OOC for Diz - but he's also a man with very little screen time, so everyone interprets him differently.

I might have to check out your other stuff a bit later. But first - laundry. Nothing's more important than clean underwear. XD

[isabeau1025.livejournal.com]

Kodak Moment actually ended up being my favorite too. I'm glad you liked it.

Yeah, Diz is just hard to write. He always seemed a little twisted to me, but that could just be because I'm kind of sympathetic to nobodies.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Have to agree with you on the underwear :)