[244 - Into the Woods] Trust Me

[obabscribbler.livejournal.com]

Challenge: [244 - Into the Woods]
Title: Trust Me
Word Count: 598


-

“We’ll be fine.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Trust me.”

 

Kairi didn’t remember everything, but fragments returned over the years: scents, sounds, words she thought were different parts of the same conversation. She tried knitting them together, but there were holes, and she didn’t know the pattern. She hated knitting, anyhow. What tropical islander learned to knit?

 

Once, school ran a field trip off the islands to a mainland museum. One exhibit had cases of dead animals with glass eyes that stared sightlessly. An overwhelming smell of pine assaulted Kairi as she walked past a herd of moose being chased by threadbare wolves.

 

“I didn’t smell anything,” Riku said on the bus.

 

“Maybe it was some kind of cleaning fluid,” Sora suggested.

 

“I definitely smelled pine trees,” Kairi insisted. “I thought they’d piped it in or something. You know, like those air fresheners you plug into walls.” The mayor and his wife always used one called ‘Cinnammmmmmon’ at Christmas. She still thought of them as ‘mayor’ and ‘wife’, never mom and dad, even after they talked about adoption.

 

Riku compromised with, “Maybe your nose is more sensitive.”

 

“It might be a girl thing,” Sora stage-whispered. They were pre-teens. All differences were written off under the mysterious umbrella ‘girl things’. 

 

Another time, they were at the beach, watching Wakka fall off his new surfboard.

 

“This is stupid,” Selphie said. “And boring. Can we go?”

 

“But I haven’t had a turn!” Sora protested.

 

“Boys.” She grabbed Kairi’s hand. “C’mon, let’s find something fun to do on our own.”

 

“C’mon, let’s find something fun to do on our own.”

 

The words sucker-punched Kairi. “Wh-what?”

 

She was lost in her own head. A party. Not home. Weird food called ‘local specialities’. Adults talking about peace treaties and other boring stuff. A hand gripping hers. Pine-scent. Something crashing through the trees behind them.

 

“Keep running! Don’t look back!”

 

“I’m scared!”

 

“We’re nearly there! I can see the guards’ torches!”

 

She tried to look, stumbled, and fell into darkness that smelled like burnt ozone.

 

“Kairi?” Selphie shook her.

 

“I-I’m fine,” she lied.

 

She spent days trying to remember the rest. It stuck like peanut butter to the crevices of her mind. She’d been young. Was this her missing past? A clue to her identity before she was Kairi, ward of Mayor and Wife?

 

When Axel kidnapped her, she wondered why the burnt-ozone smell of the Corridor of Darkness seemed so familiar. Distracted, she didn’t realise she was staring at the metal circles he carried.

 

“Like ‘em?”

 

Her brain bubbled like a cauldron. “What are they?”

 

“Chakrams.”

 

That wasn’t the bubble that popped. “Shu-ri-ken,” she said slowly.

 

“Close, but no cigar.” He tossed and caught one. “Chak-rams.”

 

Whirling metal. Too-small hands. A grunt of effort.

 

“I’m only borrowing. Pop won’t mind. I’m a ninja princess. Ninjas gotta throw shuriken.”

 

“Where’s your crown?”

 

“Don’t be dumb. Not all princesses wear crowns.”

 

“Grandma said to stay in sight.”

 

“We won’t go far. I wanna show you my bestest trick.”

 

“But –”

 

“We’ll be fine.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Trust me.”

 

A sleeping dragon. Or an awake, angry one? Both. Neither. Something else chasing them. Or someone? Everything blended in her head like a half-unpicked tapestry.

 

Nothing made sense until Sora finally took them to Radiant Garden. She and Riku followed him off their gummi ship towards a scarred man and a girl with a giant shuriken strapped to her back.

 

“Hi! Sora told us so much about you both.”

 

Kairi stared. She suddenly smelled pine and burnt ozone.

 

“Trust me.”

 

“You’re right,” said someone else using her voice. “Not all princesses wear crowns.”

 

The girl’s expression was confirmation. This world was special. This world was… home?

 

Fragments remained, but it was one more stitch in Kairi’s story.

Comments

[euphonious-glow.livejournal.com]

Oh yes yes yes! The missing piece to the puzzle. Kairi has a compelling storyline of her own that was never really dealt with in canon. I am SO glad to see this. The overlap of present with past is really well done, and seems like a faithful interpretation of what it's like to have memories coming back to you in pieces. It's also a very cool use of the theme.

♥ Love this so much.