Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

Spoilers: KHII - Second visit to Port Royal.
Warnings: None.
Prompt: 010 - Years

Dim As An Ember

It's strange to see him here, without his black leather skin and gloves. Today he is another man, all white collared shirt, crisp and ironed. Perfectly ordinary they are, a girl in a wispy sundress and (somewhat battered) straw beach hat and her (much) older brother or guardian, set for a walk on the beach.

She decides that this is the right place to start, slips her hand into his. "Now remember," he says, "if you start to feel sick, tell me and we'll go home."

Part of her wants to say, but this is home, but the rest of her remembers who she is and nods.

They start walking down the beach, water sliding over their bare feet and getting sand stuck to the bottom of his pants. In the sky, the sun pauses then travels backs up its path, so far back that it is suddenly nighttime. She closes her eyes as the sun and the moon's backward trade-off starts to climb to dizzying speeds. She concentrates on the sound and the feel of the waves across the sand, which remains oddly constant as years spin away under his will.

She feels an odd prickling in her skin, and knows that he has activated the part of his powers that allow them to go unseen by the people of this time. Nine years previous. Before the Heartless.

She opens her eyes and looks up at him. She's glad that he's already spotted her show-and-tell. The people they now share the beach with.

The sunset paints his hair the same deep gold and their smiles are made all the more similar by the beards. The extra glint of the rings in his ears does not change the shared aura of sophistication. The dramatically different colours of their eyes don't change the wisdom they absorb and emanate. Eyes that have seen too much.

Her mirror image is skewed a little more heavily, due to the age difference and the deep red of the hair. The little Princess's dress is lilac and her hat far newer, but this is her Other Side. The smile is less shy, but hers. Still trusting, still listening. The eyes seem to be a little more purple, but they are the same, full of love for this man, her guardian. Her father.

Suddenly the Princess spots a crab and runs to catch it, dragging her father along by the arm. He laughs and jogs off over the sand with her. The Nobodies stay behind and watch as the Princess and King of Radiant Garden, crouch near the tide pools and try to find their crustaceous friend. Eventually though, she is pointing tiny fingers at the inhabitants of the pools and he pins tiny labels to them for her that she'll struggle to remember, words like "anenemonome" and "stahfish".

The phantoms watch at a distance, peering into a moment they know will never happen again.

"Let's come here again, Naminé", he says, and squeezes her hand.