Author: Trilies
Genre: Angst, Romance
Word length: 1985
Sypnosis: The Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee used to have a fifth member, for just a while. Years later, they no longer remember her... But a visit during a little Heartless clean up routine will change that. Fuu/Naminé
Yaoi/Yuri/Pairings: Fuu/Naminé, SoRiKai friendship, Disciplinary Committee friendship
Notes: There's a long story to this pairing, which is just vaguely hinted in here. Let's just say that Naminé had her own taste of summer before Oblivion.
To (Not) Meet You Again
"DUCK!"
The second he crouches down, something is whirling over his head, sliding through the air smoothly. It's a scene that almost reminds Seifer of their childhood in Twilight Town, where Fuu would toss around her favorite Frisbee. That Frisbee is nothing like her favorite toy these days, however; her Frisbee never had flames of curling blue and green protruding form its outer edge, was never constructed of sharp metal, and never tore through Heartless as easily as it tore through air. As Seifer straightens up and slicks back his blond hair again, he doesn't bother to look behind him. There's no need to confirm what he already knows. Some might call that hubris, but it's more like trust. Fuu, after all, never misses.
"Nice shot!" he calls as he charges towards her while the chakram returns to her fingers. Fuu returns the gesture as she darts to him before flipping right up and over him. Fingertips press briefly down on his shoulder, but then all Seifer is aware of is the feel of the gunblade in his hand and the strain of his muscles as he slices through a large Heartless. Smirking confidently, he quickly surveys the rest of the battlefield, the area outside of the town and before the forest.
Not too far off to his left are Rai and Vivi, electricity crackling around the pair. The origin is their little friend in blue's hands. He's quite the sight to see, with his hidden face and powerful magic at his fingertips. The thunder spell only seems to make Rai stronger, and the lovable moron is swinging away without a care in the world. Every so often, Vivi squeaks in terror from his perch on Rai's shoulder, balanced precariously. Snickering softly to himself, Seifer turns his eyes to Fuu.
They've all changed a bit, just a part of growing up. He's lost the beanie, Rai has become impossibly taller, Vivi a little more outspoken... But Fuu has changed the most. At first, it's nothing noticeable, since most are distracted by her physical appearance: shorter hair, revealing the gruesome scars she has over her left eye. They all have scars, and none of them can remember how they got any of them, whether it's Seifer's facial scar, the ones littering Rai's back, or Fuu's missing eye. All they have is Vivi's word that he had been sick the day they'd been found unconscious and bleeding in the forest.
But for them, it's all a blank. Their memories are gone. The only thing they feel for sure is that they lost something more than flesh, blood, and a bit of pride.
Besides, none of them are artists, but some one had to have drawn the group picture of them they had found in one of Fuu's drawers... along with an unknown girl included in that picture.
As she stands among all the chaotic black, Fuu carves her own little niche. The chakram whirls around her, and for a moment, she is the eye of a hurricane given physical form. Coolly apathetic, she catches his eye and smirks. Replying with the same expression, Seifer casually drives his blade through a Heartless in mid pounce before fancily twirling his weapon.
"Alright, TTDC!" he yells. "Time to quite having fun and clean up."
"I remember when I used to be surprised that you guys loved to do stuff like this so much," Vivi says with a small laugh, gloved hand pressing harder into Rai's short black hair. With a wave of his free hand, Blizagga consumes a line of Heartless.
"Gets the blood pounding, y'know!" Rai laughs, hefting Vivi further up onto his shoulder. Batting away another Heartless, he gets back to back with Fuu and Seifer. They all grin and-
"FIRAGRA!"
Flames that don't come from Vivi rage across the field, annihilating Heartless. Even as the fire still flickers and glows, a silver-haired figure suddenly appears, smirking and wielding an odd blade with a wings motif. "Mind if we cut in?" he asks smoothly, even as he's joined by another teen. The boy with the wild spiky hair grins at them and waves his keyblade in greeting.
"Hey there!" Sora greets, casually twisting about and defeating a Shadow. "Remember me?"
"Looks like the little punk grew up," Seifer snorts, competitive streak propelling him to rejoin the battle. Giving a whoop, Rai joins in; Vivi, rather helplessly, can only tag along.
Fuu is the only one to stay behind as she shakes her head, vaguely amused. Twirling her chakram in her hand, she looks around for what she knows is the third member of this little group that's joined them. After all, it wasn't a boy's voice that called out that spell. She doesn't have to look hard; a red haired young woman in pink trots up to her, wielding a keyblade in her hand like her friends and a smile on her lips. "Hello there!"
Something in Fuu's chest squeezes tight.
Despite having never seen this other woman, Fuu knows her face almost perfectly. The curve of her face, the tilt of her nose, the blackness of her eyelashes; it's all so achingly familiar, yet wrong at the same time. The red strands of hair and indigo irises aren't right, something in her says. Blonde and pale blue is what belongs, what she doesn't remember.
Once they really come face to face, the redhead's cheerful expression changes. Perhaps it's from how Fuu's expression is twisted into a look of confusion, maybe it's from the scars Fuu wears with pride... Or maybe she has the same feeling Fuu does. Regardless, the redhead slows to a stop, flinching at something. Perhaps it is the scars after all, Fuu muses. For a moment, they just face each other, Fuu trying in vain to remember a name while the other woman shifts in place nervously. It's only when the field falls silent does Fuu look back to her friends.
All the Heartless have been vanquished, now, and their boys are focused entirely on each other, apparently in a heated, energetic conversation. "The guy with the silver hair is Riku," the redhead suddenly says, and Fuu's gaze switches to her. There's such a look of love in her eyes as she stares at her two friends that Fuu begins to really hurt. "And the other is Sora, although I think you guys all met a while back. I'm Kairi."
Kairi, the sea, the sea which makes waves, and waves... and waves become... Unconsciously, Fuu is silently trying to sound out a name she knows she must remember, forgotten symbols on the tip of her tongue. Kairi stares at her sadly, and fiddles with her fingers as if internally arguing with herself. At last, she reaches forward, and it's as if a tsunami has hit her-
-ghosts after them, squeaks when they confront her-
-smiles at them with a shy crescent of teeth and with pale eyes of blue-
-summer will go on forever-
-first love, shy love, a breeze and a soft tide and fingers fumbling to hold onto others-
-"You can't wait," Seifer says with an encouraging grin and a smack to her back so that she stumbles towards the other girl-
-needs a name, so Fuu brings down the old books from her father's homeland and they look together, two girls together-
"Naminé," Fuu and Kairi say at the same time, the name coming out in a breath, and with wide eyes, Fuu feels like she's suffocating-
-Seifer's struggle bat knocks the twisting white monster back, and then they're running, hands linked, Rai following-
"-forest, we know it better-"
-blonde hair and malice, electricity and fire-
"-gonna have to take the lil' miss now-"
-Naminé is crying, it'll be okay, okay but she can't say the words, can't, only seeing red-
-"STOP STOP STOP" screaming, pounding on Rai's arms as he shields them, as things thunk thunk thunk into his back, and Seifer lies bleeding-
-tastes blood as she drives her teeth into the hand which reaches over to grab at Naminé-
And then it all goes black, with Naminé's sobbing being the only sound.
Gasping for breath as if she's been submerged, Fuu stumbles back for a moment, Automatically, she reaches up to trace her scars, staring at Kairi all the while. She returns the stare guiltily, keyblade gone as she folds her hands in front of her skirt. "I'm sorry," Kairi says softly. "I really am. Especially because..." She pauses, nervous. "She... She was my Nobody. So, when we met-"
"Understood," Fuu interrupts, not wanting to hear the explanation aloud. With a shuddering breath, she closes her eye. The memories still barrage her, little details her heart has remembered all this time. Resisting the urge to clutch at that area over her heart, Fuu opens her eyes once again. "Communication possible?" she asks, voice unwaveringly calm even as her heart breaks all over again, for the third time.
One for when she remembered. One for when she couldn't. And now another, after all these years...
Kairi looks thoughtful. "Well... I think so. Anything you say, she could probably hear through me."
That calms her nerves slightly, and Fuu jerks her head in a nod. "Good." She takes a step closer to Kairi. "Deliver this." Then, without a second's hesitation, she takes a hold of Kairi's chin and pulls her in for a kiss.
Off in the distance, Riku squawks in alarm.
Looking rather nonchalant, Seifer just smirks at the reactions of the other men. Both Sora and Vivi are making hilarious squeaking sounds of surprise while Riku continues to flail about in alarm. Ol' Rai, like usual, is rather slow on the uptake, or maybe he just doesn't care as he stands there blinking. And him? Well, he's not too surprised. Fuu must have had the same feeling he had about that girl, and she has her own reasons for what she does.
"Oh, chill out," Seifer snickers as he smacks Riku's back. "I would have figured you'd enjoy the show."
Riku gets over his panic long enough to glare at him. As they both glance back at the two women, Fuu is beginning to walk away from Kairi, casually wiping her mouth with a swipe of her thumb. Suddenly, Kairi jogs up to Fuu, and words are exchanged, although none of the men can hear exactly what is said. All they know is that Kairi is telling Fuu something before she wraps her arms around Fuu's neck and kisses her back.
Raising an eyebrow, Seifer is halfway into a wolf whistle while Riku looks about ready to storm over there, but they both stop. That's all the signal Seifer needs to know that he's not the only one who, for a brief moment, sees a different girl in Kairi's place. Instead of red, there's straw yellow flowing over one shoulder, and she wears a white, plain dress instead of elaborate pink. In an instant, it's over, and Kairi steps back, looking sad. Fuu, on the other hand, is unreadable, and only nods to the other woman before she continues walking to her friends.
Ignoring Sora's look of quiet understanding, Fuu looks right at Seifer. "Clean?"
"Sparkling," Seifer says approvingly, patting her on the shoulder. "Now, let's get out of here, you guys. Later, Sora." That said, they turn back and head home to Twilight Town. As they walk, they all instinctively cluster closer to Fuu. Even if they don't understand, don't yet remember, they offer comfort nonetheless; Rai slings a muscular arm over her shoulders and grins, as if she were a brother and not just a girl. She's always been one of the guys to him. Finally back on the ground, Vivi offers her a small whirling ball of wind which she takes with just a hint of a smile. Tributes to her namesake always seem to amuse her.
Seifer's comfort comes later when they're back home and alone. It takes the form of time spent on a rooftop, legs dangling like their beer bottles dangle from their hands. Glass clinks against glass as they remember a girl of summer with crayon smudged fingers.
