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Naminé rises with the drum of a heartbeat and breathes in one, single life.
A beautiful blue sky is shining when she walks out from the shadows and into the light. The morning sun bathes her in a warmth that is soft and golden, a sparkling kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, and it’s so bright that she wonders if this is another dream. If she is just a star in the heavens again, where the sea meets the sky.
But the earth blows with the crisp aroma of flowers and spring mornings, and in the distance she can hear the steady hum of waterfalls, the sweet tune of birds from the mountain trees. As if the universe is singing her gifts, all around her. As if miracles are blooming, just to celebrate her awakening. A wish for happiness, wrapped in the spark of a birthday candle: it illuminates the darkness, melts it all away...
Naminé breathes out, shakily, before gazing up at the sky.
—and so with one tiny step forward, she begins her descent.
Naminé begins her journey home.
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Kairi’s heart was an ocean.
A sea of crimson flowers at sunset, wreathed in starlight.
She remembers falling asleep in that budding warmth, smiling. She remembers dreaming of seashells in the sand and windswept leaves, meteor showers and shooting stars. She remembers the sound of waves.
Naminé was born from the waves.
So when Kairi braves a feathered smile for her that first night, tears shining—Naminé reaches for that girl’s hand.
“Aren’t the stars beautiful?” Kairi says, laughing gently. Her palm is soft, and Naminé can see once more how her heart is set ablaze by the setting sun, the way it waxes and wanes like the moon. The ebb and flow of a twilit shore, a lullaby of twinkling stars.
“Yes…” she whispers. In the moonlight, her own skin seems so pale. So fragile.
Because in the end, all she’s ever really done is hurt other people. Sacrificed with so many white lies, because she was afraid of the dark. Because she was so afraid of her own ugliness, every time she looked into the mirror.
Kairi just smiles brightly at her, though. She smiles as if Naminé is a crown of stars, beautiful just by being. Her eyes sparkle like fireworks as she tugs Naminé into a warm embrace. And Naminé remembers this sanctuary, too. A heart of pure light that shines with simple, perfect love.
Can I love others like this, too? Naminé hesitates, wrapping her arms around Kairi gingerly. There's a subtle tremble in Kairi’s shoulders that makes her want to nestle closer, to tighten the embrace. I want to try. I want to become someone who can love herself.
Naminé smiles, closing her eyes.
“We’ll be okay.”
She can hear the waves.
“Yeah.”
The pulse of a beating heart.
A warm breeze harbors the scent of citrus flowers to the bedroom, and the curtains flutter around them like dancing petals. Kairi leans back, laughing now with her heart wide open.
You’re a sea of flowers at sunset, she thinks. You’re like stars in the night sky that guide my way home.
“Naminé, thank you for existing. Thank you for always, always saving me.” Her tears glimmer and fall away in the moonlight. “I’m so glad we got to meet. I’m glad you were born…”
So Naminé will fall asleep that night to fairytales and bedtime stories that she’s never heard before, that Kairi’s yet to tell Sora in these warm, sleepless nights. She’ll fall asleep to the distant sound of waves, to the steady rhythm of a heartbeat. She’ll fall asleep, and wonder.
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( ( “Thank you.” ) )
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Naminé’s heart was a lullaby.
She remembers it was a warm melody, reminiscent of home—like how a seed unfurls into a sprout, or how blossoms flourish from buds. It was a song about rebirth, and illusion-like memories. A song about beginning to walk again, together with the wind.
Naminé had always been a caged bird, after all. She yearned to see the outside world, just as much as she yearned for a place to call home. So perhaps it was strange, to dream of singing in her heart. Strange to return home to this old mansion, where twilight always steeps the shadows in a golden warmth. Because Naminé had spent so many quiet hours in this white room, lost in dreams of color. Always drawing pictures of other worlds and other people, without ever drawing for herself.
But she also loved all these colors. The window stained by the twilight’s afterglow, the flowing white-laced curtains. The vase of silver flowers that decorates the table; her favorite rainbow crayons. She loves it all.
Naminé smiles now into the cool, summer breeze.
The blank page in her sketchpad opens before her.
She’s only dreamed of singing that warm, blooming melody once before. But maybe now, she’ll be able to draw for herself. Maybe now, she'll fall in love with the light and beauty in her own heart.
I want to change.
I want to love myself.
If Naminé were to look inside her heart, she might see a gleam of sunlight, shining on the waves. She might find pencil sketches and white edges, colors blurring and lines smudging. For she is as much the colors as she is the spaces in between. All the shapes that have already been drawn, and all the possibilities that are still yet to be seen.
She’ll come home to her own heart. She’ll learn to fall in love with herself.
That will be my homecoming.
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One day, she’ll know why the ocean sings.
Someday, she’ll find her way home to the waves, and fall asleep.
But today, Naminé just enjoys a warm afternoon at the beach. The ocean sparkles beneath the endlessly blue sky, shining till the ends of the earth. Seashells glisten in the sand, and palm trees sway in the wind. The waves shine the color of sea glass. Beside her, Roxas gazes out into the distance with bright crystalline eyes.
“Let’s talk,” he says, in that laidback way of his that always makes her smile.
“All right,” she replies. “What would you like to talk about?”
“Everything. Anything.” Roxas shrugs, breaking into a grin. “You promised, right?”
Naminé laughs. “I did.”
Over the cliffs where the cove lies, she can hear their friends all laughing, too. She wonders if they’re fighting with wooden swords, or challenging each other to a race. Perhaps searching for seashells to make a wayfinder or good luck charm. And still yet, maybe they were building a raft to sail out to sea.
“I’ve always wanted a home to return back to,” Naminé murmurs. “I wonder why Sora and the others wanted to leave this island so much.”
Thinking, Roxas stares up at the sky.
“Maybe they were searching for answers,” he says. “But for you and me, we just wanted to know ourselves, right? We just wanted a place to call home and go back to. We wanted to be whole. So…”
Roxas stops. His eyes are deep and clear, like a window’s reflection on a sunny day.
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “I say all that, but I guess it’s not like I really know the answer.”
Naminé glances out at the horizon, smiling. “We might never find the answer.”
And when Roxas smiles back, she thinks how that’s okay.
“Yeah,” he says, a little breathless.
They can be alive, and keep on existing just like this.
Naminé was born from the waves, after all—and every wave is born from the sea. Perhaps each time the waves ebb and flow, they return home to the ocean just to be reborn again. A little wave this time, a roaring tide the next.
And now, Naminé thinks how she wants to see it all for herself, too. She wants to chase the horizon. Even if she leaves, she’ll be okay. Because Naminé has a place to call home now, and friends in her heart that she deeply loves. Friends who are always thinking of her, and will await her safe return.
So tomorrow, she’ll map out all the worlds in the galaxy, all the stars and constellations. She’ll paint wildflowers in the lanterns at night, and waltz through snowflakes in a never-melting ice palace. She’ll hunt for treasure aboard a black pirate ship, and glide down skyscrapers in the scrawling cityscape. She’ll make a lifetime of memories to call her own. She’ll embrace it all.
Roxas lifts his head. His eyes shimmer now with sunstruck wonder.
“So, what do you wanna do now?”
Naminé laughs—smiling, she takes another step forward.
“I want to go on a journey.”
A beautiful blue sky is shining. The ocean sparkles like a rainbow as it sings a gentle melody. The breeze kisses her in the sunlight, and the waves shine the color of sea glass. Each grain of sand is a treasure, every leaf a precious memory. Naminé breathes in the universe; breathes in life. And when she falls asleep that night, she finally understands why the sound of the waves is so familiar—
It’s the drum of her own heartbeat.
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( ( “Welcome home.” ) )
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