This was first posted as part of a themeset challenge. The themeset is that you assign character names to numbers, then roll two "AIM dice" to get two numbers. You then write a fic or ficlet based around those two names and a prompt word.
Title: Roll of the Dice
Author: Sketchy Sunshine of OSTOCOM
Email and website: See our profile
Rating: Around G-PG, but there's at least one in there with suggested R.
Spoilers: Lots of KH2 spoilers in this...and this is assuming that people have at least played through the Roxas intro, so I'm not listing those as spoilers. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
#3 - Spoilers through Beast's castle the second time around
#15 - Spoilers through at least four of Ansem's secret reports
#4, #13, #17 - Spoilers through the last world
#6, #8 - Spoilers through the end of the game
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1) Auron and Roxas - Stars
Roxas didn't really believe there were ghosts at the haunted mansion until he finally saw one. On a moonless night as he crept through the woods towards its iron gates, he caught a glimpse of a man dressed in red and shouldering an enormous sword. The man turned and looked him in the eyes before dissolving into what seemed like a thousand whispy-tailed stars.
2) Cloud and Kairi – Heart
While the rest of the kids were out exchanging Valentines, Cloud was busy training. He waved his wooden sword at imaginary foes along the castle parapet, and wished Leon was there to play with him. He was probably too busy getting chocolate from all the girls.
"Valentines are for sissies, anyway," he said aloud to no one. And a tough twelve-year-old like him was certainly no sissy.
"Cloud! Cloud! I drew you sumfing!"
Cloud looked up as a red-headed four-year-old clomped across the cobblestones towards him. She extended a slightly crumpled valentine with a huge heart made of pink construction paper and macaroni.
Despite his best efforts, the blond soldier-in-training couldn't hide a smile. "Thanks, Kairi."
3) Mickey and Xaldin – Ice Cream
Xaldin wanted to be heartless; wanted to tear down the determined mouse monarch that now guarded the near-dead Keyblade Master. But he couldn't shake that stray memory of another lifetime ago, when he walked into his teacher's study and saw him and Mickey laughing over that salty-sweet ice cream. He thought he remembered feeling jealous of that laughter.
4) Riku and Kairi – Castle
He remembered when Kairi first came to the islands, and he liked to imagine that she was a princess locked up in a dark castle. He'd come and rescue her from the clutches of the evil sorcerer, then take her back to his kingdom and court her like all good and chivalrous knights did.
And now she was the princess and here was the castle and there was the evil sorcerer. But as she clung to his black sleeve and begged him not to go, Riku almost laughed at the irony of her rescuing him.
5) Cloud and Mickey – Candy
Cloud had never gotten the opportunity to meet the King, so he once asked Aerith what talking with him was like. She smiled and said, "like eating candy that's good for you."
6) Kairi and Mickey – Clock
The King ambled up to Kairi as she dangled her legs over the edge of the dock. After a brief silence, he finally said, "they'll find their way home soon. I just know they will!"
Kairi wanted more than anything to believe him. "It just feels like someone set the clock back a whole year."
7) Kairi and Donald – Old
"So, Donald...how old're you exactly?"
Donald started, and looked up from his fruit popsicle at Kairi's inquiring smile. "Old?"
Kairi traced lines in the sand with her finger. "Yeah. You must have a birthday. So how many years ago was the first one?"
The duck magician grew red in the face and mumbled, "I dun' remember."
"How can you not remember your own birthday, silly?" Kairi laughed.
He squawked back, "it's easy to forget if it was 72 years ago!" then grew even redder at the slip.
8) Kairi and Sora – Shadows
Years later, when they were grown up, Sora still got chills down his spine on the rare occasions when Kairi moaned Roxas's name while they made love...and he called her Naminé back.
9) Larxene and Naminé – Fireworks
You didn't need to have Vexen's brains to know what happened. Naminé's well-hidden sniffling and the smoking sparrow corpses on the floor of the atrium were as simple as two and two.
Nevertheless, Marluxia still stormed into Larxene's quarters and demanded to know why his witch was crying. Larxene shrugged and sneered, "she didn't like my fireworks show."
10) Riku and Naminé – Yellow
After days and nights spent in the cold, crystal white of Castle Oblivion's halls, meeting Naminé was like getting splashed with a bit of yellow. It wasn't much color, but it was enough for Riku.
11) Axel and Auron – Don't
"They Keyblade Master isn't here. And neither is that skinny musician you sent to fetch him." Auron's voice was low and rumbled dangerously.
Axel regained his composure. "Don't recall asking any dead guys for a news update."
"Don't recall telling you I was dead."
Axel gestured at the bone-sick cavern walls. "Why else would you be here in the Underworld?"
Auron sneered, and Axel's confidence wavered under his deep stare. "Because, unlike you, I don't want to live forever."
12) Mickey and Auron – Frogs
"A mouse? Fight him? That's not a very funny joke."
Auron changed his tune pretty quickly when he finally saw Mickey take on Cerberus, landing hit after hit and hopping like a bullfrog around the battlefield.
13) Xaldin and Axel – Sorry
Saix loathed him for it. Luxord and Xigbar just refused to speak to him again. Demyx kept pestering him over and over again with questions. But Xaldin only had one.
"Aren't you sorry?"
Axel considered the five fresh tombstones in the Proof of Existence; tombstones that were ultimately his doing. He cocked an eyebrow and flicked his finger at the drawstrings on Xaldin's hood.
"Maybe."
14) Naminé and Cloud – Darkness
Cloud ended up being one of the hardest people for Naminé to draw. No matter how many crayons and pieces of paper she went through, she couldn't seem to get him right. Finally, out of sheer frustration, she grabbed the black crayon and scribbled all around her little caricature of him.
When she finally stepped back and looked at the drawing, she felt colder at the realization that the darkness made the drawing complete.
15) Cloud and Xaldin – Young
"I wanna help! I wanna help Mr. Ansem with his science project, too!" Cloud pleaded, tugging on the young man's white lab coat.
Dilan shook him off with a look of distaste. "No. You're too little."
He ignored the teary scowl on Cloud's face as he closed the office door behind him. He had never been good with kids.
16) Roxas and Axel – Mountain
Axel would gladly go and burn down every mountain, forest and city in existence if it meant he and Roxas could sit together on the black beach again.
17) Goofy and Axel – Alone
Goofy wanted to say something; anything that would chase away the look of sleeping horror on Sora's face remaining after Axel evaporated into thorny smoke.
"Y'know, Sora...at least he didn't die alone."
18) Cloud and Auron – Surprise
Cloud considered it his personal duty to welcome new travelers to Traverse Town, even if he'd only been there a few months himself, and even if the other kids thought it was a stupid idea.
So he waited in the alley, ears perked at the sound of unfamiliar footsteps approaching. When they were close enough, he leaped out of hiding, wooden sword bared.
"Halt! No one enters this city except through...me..."
Cloud's reckless preteen bravery recoiled at his discovered opponents: three huge men, all with the appearance of warriors. One carried a staff and wore strange, red-and-white layered robes, another wore red and carried a huge sword, and the third wore no shirt and sported wild, uncombed hair.
The man with the sword just laughed. "Well, well. Isn't this a nice surprise."
19) Cloud and Donald – Pictures
"Take a picture of us, Donald!" Aerith said, and handed an old camera to the duck. She walked back to Cloud and put an arm around his shoulder. "We need a memento for this special occasion!"
Cloud rolled his eyes. "All I did was fix Merlin's roof."
Donald ignored him and held up the camera, crooked. "Say cheese!"
Cloud's nose twitched. "Wait, I'm gonna sn—"
CLICK.
20) Roxas and Goofy – Music
The song popped into his head while he was delivering letters, and wouldn't leave for the entire day. By the time he met up with Hayner, Pence and Olette again, he couldn't help singing it.
"I've been working on the raaail-road, all the live-long daaay..."
Hayner snorted. "Roxas, what on earth are you singing?"
Roxas looked startled. "I dunno. Goofy sang it a lot."
"Who?"
"Oh...never mind."
21) Sora and Roxas – Papers
Roxas brushed his fingers against the slightly textured pages of Naminé's drawings. He wished more than anything that Sora could stay as nothing more than crayon marks in a sketchbook.
But I'm the one that's just crayon on papers.
22) Sora and Auron – Hope
Even after seeing it full and bright in Sora's eyes, Auron wondered if he would ever find his again.
23) Axel and Larxene – White
"This is stupid," Larxene whined for the third time that hour. "If this castle has to be so damn white, shouldn't we be wearing white, too? We stick out like sore thumbs."
Axel looked away from the crystalline roses and grinned at Larxene. "I'm sure you looked simply ravishing in white."
Larxene curled her lip at him. "Save your false flattery, fire boy."
"I bet, before you fell into the darkness, you were engaged to be married," Axel said with a dramatic flourish of his hand. "You had the dress picked out and everything. It was made of satin and lace, and—"
He was stopped short by a sharp slap to the face. Larxene turned and stormed out of the room, muttering only, "To a redhead."
24) Cloud and Roxas – Memories
The first time Sora showed him the picture of Roxas, Cloud scrunched up his face in puzzlement. "He looks like me ten years younger."
25) Xaldin and Auron – Promise
Xaldin loved the taste of breath ebbing away from a living being...but for some reason, this one seemed particularly bitter. His two traveling companions, the summoner and the ball player, had been difficult enough already.
Auron gazed up at him with a hatred that was all too familiar. "I promise...one day I'll make you pay for this."
Xaldin sighed. He had heard such promises before; all of them now broken.
"I'm sure I will."
He sent all six of his spears through Auron's chest, and in a moment it was over.