Disclaimer: you flatter me, , with your accusations of me owning KH and Fairy Tail, but I don't really.

Chapter V: Wounds That Might Heal

The grey fog caressed the ground and the two graveyard visitors. The dark night approached the sky, trying to take control of its azure complexion. The wind picked up subtly and while the rest of the people thronging around other gravesites were growing rather lethargic and dreary, Kairi and Sora were both feeling mixes of stronger emotions. Kairi was afraid, of their surroundings, of the way the owl perched on the oak looked at her, of her father finding her out, and of the overall impression she had about what she was doing. Sora was mournful, reading the epitaph over several times before accepting it was his sister that rested a few feet under the ground. His fingers lingered on the indentions that could only be the byproducts of something written in stone.

Written in stone. That made it official. She was dead, in complete actuality.

"She had blonde hair, like my brother and father," Sora began brusquely, cutting through the silence that encased Kairi's ears, the sound of his voice making her a little less afraid, "But her eyes were dark, unlike anyone else from my family. Lucy had the most amazing laugh, even if she was a baby when I knew her, her voice still sounded blissful, like the chirping of birds." He glanced at the red rose in his hand and with a brush of his hand, it changed to blue. He placed it at the base of the grievous stone, where it met the sallow grass. He looked up to the sky and closed his eyes, breathing in the air as if it was as sweet and as savory as cake.

"I'm done," he sighed, "If you want to come with me, we have to leave now. I risked enough time here as it is." He stuffed his hands into his crimson stomach-pocket and began walking away hastily. After a minuscule trip, Kairi sped up to catch up with him,

"Where are we going?" she inquired. There was a pause and the only sounds that could be heard were the whispers of the wind and the crunch of the leaves beneath his flamboyant shoes, and of course the muffled sobs of the other mourners.

"Do you trust me?" he finally asked, never averting his gaze towards her, just looking at the road ahead and focusing on what came next.

"Of course." she replied.

"Then you wouldn't mind me telling you it's better that you don't know. They'll definitely catch you. I'm mean, someone of your beauty is sure to be recognized as the runaway princess. If they do then, well, they might question you and– um, I…" he stuttered as he took his eyes off the grass for a second and flickered his attention to the monarch to his left for a moment.

"You think I'm going to tell them where to find you? Don't you trust me?" it sounded more like an imperative sentence rather than an interrogative one. They reached the curve where people filed in and out of the train station and Sora gave the man operating it there tickets and boarded the train.

"I like you Kairi, maybe even love when I think really hard. But I don't trust anyone." he looked out the window of the moving vehicle and watched glumly as the front of the train ate away at the track in front of it, "I haven't for awhile."

A~*~X~*~E~*~L~*~I~*~S~*~A~*~W~*~E~*~S~*~O~*~M~*~E

"RUN!" the throaty whisper slivered down his neck and sent an alarm going off in his head. He began to, but it was dark.

No, not dark. It was blank. Everything was blank.

He continued to run despite it all, despite the growing fear that knotted in his stomach and welled in his throat, making him want to scream or cry or maybe even choke with emotion, despite the people he knew he would never see again. The muscles in his legs were aching and dying to stop and his lungs were on fire as they supported the elongated run and his stifled cries for help. But he had to keep going, and for some reason, he wanted to. He wanted to run until his mortal form gave out and by default was sent back to whatever hole he had crawled out of. Running seemed like the only option, and in the midst of the terror and fear, he never felt so alive. In his chest the myocardium-thumps thrust themselves out and gutted back in, going faster than even his swift legs could take him. And during that moment of pure content with just running because it felt good despite the pain, is when he fell off the blank world. Everything was pitch-black, but his red-inflamed skin seemed fluorescently sticking out next to the dark and void world, and he knew where he ended and the darkness began. But when he fell, all he could see was the darkness. It was cooling, pressing, coursing through his own veins, causing him to feel it with in himself, trying to take control. And the numbness he felt put any frost bite to shame. And with that came somewhat ease, like the weight of the dark and shapeless world had been lifted off his shoulders. He was falling, simply falling as if it was something he did everyday, and, in a way, it felt like that, it was as if he was drifting off to sleep in the dry air that blew past him and enveloped him in a soft wind-cocoon. One in which he never wanted to leave. He closed his eyes and felt himself dissolve into it, succumb to the billowing darkness that soothed him into unconsciousness. That was, until a burst of light scorched him and when he opened his eyes again, he was somewhere different, someplace new and exotic. There was soft emerald grass and a wide azure sky that stretched on and never seemed to end, laced with white, puffy, cumulus clouds. But the most surprising thing he saw, the newest of all of these foreign concepts, was the cyan-haired maiden who shook his shoulders and brought him back with the living as she muttered another foreign term, one he had never heard before and could not even grasp its theory,

"Heal," there was a jaded gust of wind that ignited from the word and brought alleviation to the wounds he didn't realize were his.

"What was that?" he asked, his lips finally finding the right syllables he seemed to have forgotten amidst the plunging darkness.

"It's a cure spell I know." When he gave her a funny look, she elaborated, "I healed you."

Hmm…he thought, that's a first.

"Ventus!" Aqua called into the lonesome cottage, the voice of the cyan-haired maiden from his vision reverberating throughout the small building.

"Over here…" he murmured, holding up his hand in recognition of being present.

"Vanitas thinks he may have found something that'll help with your fever."

"What?"

"You have to go see Roxas."

"No way." he retorted, rolling over in his bed to face away from Aqua.

"Ven, you knew this was going to happen…" she gulped, kneeling by his bedside, "You have to go or you'll die. For real this time."

"I'd rather die."

"You don't mean that, Ven."

"You remember last time I tried to see him," he sighed, reflecting at the involuntary flashback he had just witnessed, "Aqua, you've been saving me since the day we met. But you can't save me this time; it's fate."

"Screw fate," she spat, "if you're not going to go and see him, I'll just have to bring him here to see you."

"That's against the rules!" gasped Ven.

"I've already broken one rule today getting this," she held up his key, Gate to Daybreak, "I don't mind breaking another one if it'll keep you safe."

AN:

Short chapter again today. Sorry. But I know you love the gruesome detail in this one. I was going to add an actual Roxas scene, but I'm tired and I also have to work on Election Day. That's a lot for a twelve-year-old, believe it or not. My teachers have me up to my eyes in homework, so the next update may be a little delayed and, again, I'm going to Momocon, so I have to get my costume ready. I was going to go as Xion, but both pieces of my costume are coming in the mail days after Momocon, so I'm going as Marcilene from Adventure Time.