Return to Heart
My fic contribution to the @kh-worldsconnected
PLEASE go visit my collab partner, @roxasthatisastick and give them props to an ever so lovely watercolor illustration!
it’s a couple days late, but my partner and I had some technical difficulties, but in the end we persevered!
Forgive the writing, I haven’t written anything in so long, and I had major artblock, Especially on this theme. ha.
Unbalanced.
He was too far ahead. He was falling behind.
It didn’t matter how long he walked. Darkness surrounded him. His pathway only illuminated by memories not his own, crafted into stainglass floors. The light pulsing with the rhythm of a heartbeat.
He knew his physical being was fast asleep, in a safe, protected room. She had told him so. She never lied. In fact, if he figured right, he chose that place. But he couldn’t be sure anymore. That had been so long ago.
The rhythm jumbled. He glanced down to the glass tiles he had been treading along. Images blurred and obscure. Faint, dim light flickered. Familiar. He was getting closer. They, were getting closer. That’s right. He wasn’t alone.
How could he forget? The silent shadow following in his wake paced slower than himself.
He had to remind himself to stop and wait every so often, for his other half was falling behind. And he wasn’t about to leave him behind again. There was no way he would, since he had worked so hard to get them on the same side. To cease the fighting that had erupted in the beginning.
Call it a truce. He didn’t know for sure. But the other had not spoken a word since their, “arrangement." Just silently following. Would he bound for the Dark Master’s side as soon as they were to awaken? Or, would the coin have flipped to the other side?
Will he remember the trek they have taken together in this dark void of broken memories?
What will happen when he too steps onto the familiar path of memories. Their memories. And not of the boy’s whom gave refuge within his heart.
Halting, along with his thoughts, he turned to the shadow of himself, far behind in the fading lit path of memory lane. In a face so much like
the boy that ferried them, held so much emotion. Something inside, eating at his mind. He wanted to call out to him, but wasn’t sure words would do him justice. The desire for home tempting him to turn back and abandon the past’s nightmare.
Instead, he walked back, for the second time. The first, to ask his other to join him in this Dive of Heart. Stopping just at the edge of their memories,
the barrier of where glass and heart cracked and intertwined. Fragile and waning as he simply waited for the darkness to catch up.
Eternally instant, they barred eyes at one another, now mere steps away. Taking in each other’s existence.
Without a word, he reached out his hand, offering it to his darker half. A reassuring, genuine smile wedged its way to his lips. His other looked up with his eyes as his head and brow remained in a sullen gesture.
Broken and unsure. He had come all this way, having to look and live a another’s life, without the living. Share memories and feelings. If he just walks a little further, he can have his own again.
The only difference, it’s a lot darker on the other side. He had grown used to this light that had blindsided him. He wondered, if he could truly leave it now, return with his original self.
The different rhythm of heartbeats was disorienting, one beat so brightly and with vigor, the other, like a soft whisper in the wind at night, or a tiny clock on the wall. Only as bright as a single star, whereas the prior was the sun.
Amber and turquoise stared never-ending. The warm light tempted him to stay put. But the outstretched hand. The hand that was once his as well, held an inclination he could not ignore. Reaching out, painstakingly slow. His better half, he could admit now, patiently waited.
Still smiling a beam of pureness. His hand finally rested, fingers clasped together. An a ever so gentle tug pulled him out of his rooted position, and brought him over the the threshold of doubt and weariness.
A brilliant light flashed and broke them away from the sanctum heart. No need for return. He had finally filled the void. The cogs begin to turn again, as the gear sets into place.
In the end, he wasn’t missing a part of himself.
He, was this missing piece.
