Work Text:
It was foolish to return to the mansion. Dangerous and erratic. Riku nor Axel would’ve approved of the idea, and yet Naminé found herself on the floor of her hauntingly white room once more, tearing away through sketchbooks and stacks of paper.
After being freed by Riku, Axel had hardly stuck around before leaving Naminé to herself in The World That Never Was. She wandered and thought for some time; considered exploring other worlds like Sora and his friends had, or even finding Sora himself and helping his journey.
But no, Naminé couldn’t find it in her to face Sora. Kind and unknowing. Unknowing of their past, unknowing of her sins. Naminé wasn’t even meant to exist, so perhaps it’d be best for her to return to the only place she was meant for: Kairi. She had finally settled that this was her deserved fate, and yet she made no effort to pursue Kairi.
Rather now, Naminé was back in the prison she’d yearned to escape, if only for a moment. To retrieve a drawing. A memory. It didn’t take long to find it as Naminé had dwelled on it numerous times before.
Etched into the paper were three figures, two she knew the name to and one she did not. If she closed her eyes, Naminé could remember the moment it depicted.
She felt a slight breeze and a familiar sun. The taste of something sweet but salty. The sound of a friend’s laughter. She felt something deep inside her; or perhaps she only remembered what it was like to feel something. Naminé could only imagine it was what had been described to her as happiness.
It wasn’t Naminé’s own memory, of course. None of the drawings piled around her were. But this particular one drew her in. It was special.
See, Naminé didn’t know whose it was.
Nearly all of her drawings were from Sora or Roxas, sometimes it was those connected to the two. But this wasn’t Roxas’s memory, nor was it Axel’s. It was a third— a girl. Just the vague idea of this girl stirred something in Naminé’s nonexistent heart.
Nobodies had no hearts, and therefore couldn’t feel, but this feeling of guilt and yearning felt cruelly real.
She couldn’t remember who it was, or why she had the memory removed and unlinked, but she did remember this drawing. It was a purposeful act; a secret defiance. Holding onto this single memory of a girl that made Naminé feel like she had a heart.
She must be tricking herself again as a tear rolled down her cheek. With a deep breath, the witch folded the memory and opened a corridor to leave.
She wasn’t going to Destiny Islands just yet. Naminé finally found a purpose, if even a small one: to uncover the truth of this forgotten girl.
Kairi could wait just a bit longer.