Kessie's Short Stories

[Kingdom Hearts] Half Sleep

Originally published 8/3/2022

In a haze I followed two lights. It did not belong to my friends, but I knew I could call them one. This is still a dream. I have not yet awakened from my new self. But I miss the light- the genuine one of friendship. Maybe just this once... I'll be a tiny bit outspoken. The love for my friends will never go away.

They are my power.

. . .

The Peepsta Hoo had been acting weird the moment Sora noticed it. And he didn't mean 'weird' in the same way Nightmares behaved. It was a different kind of weird.

It didn't look very different from other Dream Eaters Sora had encountered. The Peepsta Hoo's plumage was mostly blue-ish purple on the body, with the belly and ears boasting more greens and yellows fading into each other. The underwing feathers were a nice soft orange color. Its green eyes looked up at Sora with curiosity as it sat in front of him.

"Hey there." Sora greeted the Dream Eater, getting down to its height. "How are you doing? You seem a little lost."

The Peepsta Hoo made a motion similar to shaking its head, then moved closer to him. It gently bonked its head against his chest. As Sora gently patted the top of the Peepsta Hoo's head, it let out a gentle chirping of approval. Yeah, something was pretty different about this Dream Eater. All the others couldn't contain their joy when he gave them attention.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Sora declared as he stood up. "Let's go play a game! I bet that would cheer you up a bit."

The Dream Eater gave a rather confused sounding chirp before backing away from Sora. It gave him another head tilt. Sora smiled back in return.

"Come on." he offered, waving for the Dream Eater to follow him. It did hesitate for a moment or two, but in deciding that it could trust him, it carefully started to lift itself up and flew close to Sora.

However, in consideration, he should have asked the Dream Eater if it even liked crowds. The moment they stepped inside the Flick Rush lobby, the Peepsta Hoo was overwhelmed. It hung close to Sora and refused to move unless he went first. Realizing that this was a bad idea, Sora got them out of there as quickly as possible. Seeing the Dream Eater almost shake once everything was quiet again made the Keyblade wielder feel bad.

"A Dream Eater that didn't like Flick Rush? That's a surprise."

Sora jumped at the sudden voice, then quickly looked around for the source.

"Joshua!" he exclaimed when he saw said young man sitting on top of the Flick Rush building. The enigmatic young man gave him a nod of acknowledgement before getting down.

Now closer to the Dream Eater, Joshua put a hand to his chin, bending down to study it further.

"Just what I thought." he decided. "This one isn't quite asleep."

"What do you mean?" Sora wondered.

Joshua didn't reply. Instead he looked the Dream Eater over some more before finally standing back up. The young man placed a hand over his mouth as he thought it over some more. To himself he mumbled, "Weird. Very weird indeed."

"Hey Joshua," Sora spoke up. Joshua's eyes immediately flicked onto Sora, to which the latter took as a sign to continue. "If you see Riku again, can you ask him a question for me?"

"If I must." the young man agreed as he started to idly twist a piece of his hair.

"Great!" Sora beamed. "Because I don't think I can help this Dream Eater much, but I bet Riku can."

"That he might, Sora." Joshua agreed- a small smirk etched onto his lips. "That he might."

. . .

It was almost on cue when Riku passed through the fourth district. Joshua was so impressed that he decided to actually walk up to the Keyblade wielder instead of giving him a jump scare.