Kingdom Hearts: Dream Team

Chapter 9: "Does He Like Me?" 💜

It was Saturday again, which meant I had to get ready for work. Once I had put on the outfit I had picked out and was through with my morning ritual, I felt like I could take on anything. I was doing laps around the house so that I could be fully awake when I heard B.B.
a voice from above me. "Morning, Aislynn!"

I looked up. Joshua was sitting in the tree branches high above my head (no, he wouldn't have been able to climb that tree.) "You look lovely today," he said. It was hard to tell from where I was standing, but I think he was batting his eyes. "You know you can come down here to talk," I pointed out. Joshua sighed and jumped from the tree, practically floating before he hit the ground.

Suspicious, I asked him what he wanted while I dusted of my dress pants. "It's a lovely morning," he said,"And I just wanted to see you." I glared at him, causing him to reveal his true motives. "OK, I wanted to go to work with you." Shocked, I asked why.
"I'm curious," he said. "I want to know what you do there." I glowered at him and abruptly refused his offer.

~~~~~~~~~~

After mom drove me to work, I got checked in. However, I hadn't realized until it was too late that Joshua had followed us to Andrea's. I groaned and thought to myself, This guy is relentless. "Come on, Aislynn," he told me, "please let me stay."

I caved. I just didn't want him to be disappointed. "But don't try to distract me," I said. He listened... I think.

For most of the time while I worked, he was talking with someone on his phone about the situation. "It's a friend of mine," he would say whenever I asked who it was. Occasionally, though, he did hinder my progress. He wanted to buy a dress shirt that cost a lot of money ( money that he didn't have), because he liked it. Again, I caved and let him put it on my tab (well, there went that week's paycheck).  When two o'clock finally came, I couldn't have been happier to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I visited the clubhouse after work to check on everyone and see how they were doing. Neku unexpectedly took me aside and told me something that caught me off guard. "Something's wrong with Joshua," he said. He looked serious.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

Neku looked annoyed like he usually does when he has to explain himself. "He's been acting weird lately."

He told me that Joshua seems to talk about me a lot. He shows a lot of concern towards me. So I asked, "Does he like me?" Neku said that he didn't deny that the possibility existed. "But there's no telling what it is," he said. I left after that, feeling very confused.

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About a week later, after I had the dream again, I awoke to a scary surprise. I wasn't in my bed, I was... flying! I screamed at the top of my lungs, and that's when a voice above me told me to calm down. When I looked up, I saw Joshua holding me in his arms; his wings were spread, feathers brushed by the breeze.

Remember when I said that Joshua isn't a normal kid? Well, this is what I meant. He's a special angel who watches over the players in the Reaper's Game. That's how he can get to high places so easily and how he's so knowledgeable about the Game as well as other things. I was about to scream again, when he stopped me.

"Please, don't," Joshua said to me. I shut my mouth... briefly. I said, "What are you doing?"

He smiled down at me. "I wanted to get to know you a little better." 

I stared straight forward, trying to avoid his gaze... and the ground. "Well, here's a nice piece of information: I'm afraid of heights!!!"

Under my breath, I started humming the tune to "Unwell" by Matchbox Twenty to calm my nerves. I looked up at Joshua, who looked concerned. "Do you want me to put me down?" I immediately stated how bad that idea was.

"My legs have turned to jelly. I wouldn't be able to stand up."

I felt like he could see right through me. "You know what," said Joshua, "let's just talk."

So, we talked about ourselves while Joshua tried to keep us both up. He told me about how he loves to crunch numbers. I told him about how I love music. It was really nice and helped soothe my nerves. Sometime later, Joshua said, "I'm going down now. Do you want me to take you to your room?" Longing for more sleep, I said yes.

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Laying me on my sheets, Joshua put his hands on the side of the bed and asked me to tell him something. "Only if you answer a question that I have," I told him. "You could've just flown away when you arrived in this world. Why didn't you?" Joshua put his hands in his pockets and looked at me.

"I had broke a wing," he stated.

I gasped. "Joshua, I'm really sorry. How did it happen?"

He sighed. "I don't remember how it happened. I assume it happened  while I was traveling through the portal. Anyway, don't be sorry. It wasn't your fault." A faint glimmer of mischief appeared in his eye that kinda bothered me. "So Aislynn, the other day, someone came to the door. Who was it?"

Ah boy, I thought to my self, here we go. "She said her name was Cyrena," I told him. "I don't entirely trust her." Joshua cocked his head to the side and asked why. "Do you remember the man in the black coat from Traverse Town?" 

He nodded. "Yes," he said.

"Cyrena was wearing a similar coat," I stated. "I didn't tell you guys because I didn't want you to freak out."

Joshua stared at me with his beautiful lavender eyes, but the staring contest we were having was broken when he suddenly blinked. "I think I knew someone named Cyrena," he admitted. I grabbed his hand.

"It doesn't matter," I said, reassuringly. "We will probably never see her again." To be honest, I was trying to reassure myself more than Joshua.

After our conversation, he headed back to the clubhouse to sleep. Once he was gone, I was left alone with my thoughts. I thought mainly of Cyrena and how she related to the current situation my new friends were in (if she was part of it at all). But my thoughts kept drifting back to Joshua and the effort he was making to get to know me. Over and over, I asked myself the same question: "Does he like me?" But I had another question on my mind as well: Could it be possible that I like him too?