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minijenn · 2 years

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Keys to the Kingdom Preview

Despite Moving Anxiety and whatnot I am off and on working on the next chapter. Here’s a snippet of it, not focused on the Pooh stuff as I’m not quite there yet, but some soft bonding between Sora and Namine bc everybody can use a little of that in their lives:

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“Could… can you do it?” he asks, the one question she’d been dreading most of all. The fact that this is something he actually wants, something he thinks he needs, when it’s just about the last thing that will ever truly help him. “I don’t… I-I can’t keep dealing with all of this.” His tears come quickly, his hands tightly gripping his mug to the point that his claws scratch its surface. “It’s all so much–too much. Even now that Maleficent is finally gone, I-I can’t stop thinking about what she did to me… I can’t stop thinking about what the master might do to get me away from all of you. I’m so sad and scared all of the time, a-and I just… I hate it! I don’t want to be like this anymore! I just… I… please, Naminé… Just… just take it all away… please…”

Naminé is nearly on the verge of tears herself after hearing all of this. She sighs again, her hand trembling as she reaches across the table to place it overtop of Sora’s. She finally meets his gleaming golden gaze, her voice steady as she tells him the truth, knowing he deserves nothing less and wishing she could give him so much more. “I’m sorry, Sora… but… I can’t…”

“B-but… but you said-”

“I know what I said,” Naminé says, ashamed of such a rash mistake. “And… technically, I can do it, but… I shouldn’t. Vanitas was right when he said wiping your memories won’t change what’s happening to your heart. You’d still look the way you do, you’d still be under Xehanort’s power. You just… wouldn’t know why. And neither would anybody else who wants to help you. But… you know who would remember everything? The Organization would. I can’t interfere with their memories like I can for the lights. If I did this… well, it’d be just like the glamor spell Donald cast on you; nothing more than a temporary fix to a much bigger problem.”

“I don’t care!” Sora protests, rising from his seat. A few stray spikes rise with him, a testament to the anguish that Naminé knows she’s painfully ill-equipped to truly heal him from. “I know I should be happy now that I’m back here with everyone, but I’m not, I can’t be as long as I know what’s coming. But… if I’m able to forget about what’s coming, even for just a little while, maybe I finally can be.”

“You won’t be,” Naminé warns earnestly. “Trust me, Sora; messing with memories only leads to trouble. It did the last time I was forced to do this, and it definitely would if I did it again. Think about it: if the others lose their memories about what’s happening to you, then all of the progress they’ve made in trying to help you will be completely undone. We’ll be no closer to saving you than we were from the very start.”

“W-well… can’t you just erase my memories then?” Sora pleads. “The rest of them don’t have to forget, they could-”

“They do,” Naminé shakes her head. “It’s either all or nothing. That’s just how my powers work, Sora. I can’t just impact your memories alone. And even if I could… I wouldn’t. I know you think that erasing your memories would erase all of the pain you’re feeling, but… that pain would come back sooner or later, it always does. And once it does, it’d be even worse because you wouldn’t even know where it’s coming from. I want to help you, Sora, so much, but… I can’t, not like this.” She stands, a few tears finally slipping down her cheeks as she approaches him slowly, wanting to hug him, though of course, her own nerves hold her back, just as they always do. “The only thing I can do is just… be here to offer you a shoulder to cry on…”

Sora takes that shoulder almost immediately, catching Naminé off guard as he suddenly steps forward and pulls her into a tight, desperate embrace. For as surprised as she is, she gently returns it, doing what she can to provide him the comfort he’s so clearly craving right now. “Sometimes… I wish I had power over time instead of just memories,” she says quietly as she continues to let him pour his grief out. “Because if I did, then I’d go back and undo every horrible thing you’ve been through. What’s happened to you, Sora… it isn’t fair and it isn’t right. I know you might think you’ve done something wrong and that you deserve all of this, but you don’t. Someone as kind and brave and good as you should never have to suffer the way you have. But even if none of us can change the past… at least we can all try to give you a better future…”

“I don’t have a future…” Sora almost says, a miserable thought that’s been lingering at the back of his mind for quite some time now. Because by all accounts, his master has already decided his future for him, a future he doesn’t want, but has no choice but to accept. A future that he’s not even sure his friends, for as courageous and hopeful as they all might be, can even do anything to change.

But instead of telling Naminé any of that, he pulls back, wiping a few of his tears away as he offers her a wavering, largely fake smile. “Thanks…” he says, deciding to accept her final verdict. Realizing that she’s right, in many ways, that taking away his memories wouldn’t do a thing to take away the pain that plagues him inside and out each day. “I… I’m sorry for asking.”

“It’s ok,” Naminé says warmly, patiently. “I shouldn’t have ever suggested it in the first place. I guess that’s something you and I have in common: we both tend to make some… pretty reckless decisions when we’re stressed.”

“You can say that again,” Sora says with a small, yet genuine chuckle, one that Naminé is more than happy to share with him.

#wholesome and sad are my specialties #this chapters themes are mmmm #escapism and grief #loove it #jen writes #keys to the kingdom #keys preview

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eggwishing · 5 months

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