Out of Context Snippets

Like Old Times

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Story: An interval between days at the Hills of Progress. Enya and Iliana hang out for the first time in years.
Context: AoR, mid-character chapter

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She's been tossing and turning in this bed for the past ten minutes, rolling back and forth between staring at the wall, the ceiling, then the wall again.

This can't be real... is it? The fact she's here in a place she thought was completely lost. It was gone... right?

Perhaps that's why she hasn't fallen asleep yet. The constant stress and sleepless nights searching for answers couldn't add up to the fear she had that once she closed her eyes, she would awake to be back at her desk, staring endlessly at that board of clues she carefully curated for months. All a dream, none of it real...

She flipped over to stare at the window, pale electric lights casting shadows through the thin curtains of the inn room she picked for herself. This was going to be a long night, she thought. A typical pattern she always runs into before inevitably getting up to take a late night walk.

Most everyone had gone to bed, even the insomniacs were turning in just to comfortably wait the night out. She was alone, in theory. No one around to really reprimand her for potentially sneaking out...

The bed creaked as she sat up to kick her boots back on, not bothering with the laces, too much work. She grabbed her mask off the nightstand, using the momentum to pull her up and towards the door. As she passed, she ran a hand over Caelum's cape, neatly folded in a chair near the door. Should she bring it along? ... Nah. She's off duty for the night, she won't need it. She quietly slipped through the door, silently closing it behind her before she made her way out of the inn and into the chill of the night air.

It's surprisingly peaceful for once, the streets of tile and marble empty and only lit by streetlights. It almost echoed with her footsteps as she dodged and weaved between alleys on her way to the front gate of the City of Shadow.

It's unfamiliar, being back. As if nothing had changed or happened, even. She could swear she could hear echoes of once was, and see flickers of things almost forgotten reflected by the tiles. Past memories, some she shoved aside in her grief...

She couldn't help but run her hands against the walls of buildings as she passed, it almost provided a comfort to the feelings that threatened to resurface. Overwhelming ones, some she shoved down to save face and be professional, as what was hammered into her up until now. Wasn't that part of the job? Was it not important to stay centered despite the stress and torment?

It wouldn't be long before her idle thoughts pulled her further out the gates.

At night, the world's corruption didn't seem as threatening. It almost blended in to the shadows cast by the moon's glow, making them appear as tree roots or patches of bare dirt. It made the walk to the lake less... uncomfortable to focus on. Compared to the warm breeze of the afternoon, the cool air made it feel less as if it were an endless summer, though evening ambience seemed to have all but gone silent since the last she walked this way.

Eventually, trees parted to lake shore, and soon that too passed until she found herself at a tree overlooking the hills. A lone willow with a glass plaque embedded in its bark, etched with the words: In Memoriam for Tobias "To you only I owe my heart."

Her fingertips traced the glass and the bark that threatened to swallow it, pausing to wince as her thumb caught a splinter.

A twig snapped, followed by soft footfalls, and when she spun to see who it was she was pleasantly surprised.