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[soracles]

Who: Sora and you!
What: Like, is any of this for real? Sora emerges from the hospital, a bit dazed and confused and trying to figure out what sort of dream world he's stumbled onto. Or if it's even a dream.
When: Sunday afternoon.
Where: Immediate area surrounding the hospital and probably other areas as Sora wanders!
Warnings: None yet!

The past few days — wait, was it days or hours? or neither? — have not really been all that kind to Sora.

But dreams have a habit of meandering from one point to the next, of managing to appear significant and impotent at the same time, don't they? As he'd run through the sidelong pathways and skewed buildings of The World That Never Was, Sora'd bumped into too many familiar faces — and the ones he didn't recognize, he thought he should have.

And then, "It has to be him." And then, before he could consider it further, he was shuffled along to much less familiar faces. Or were the two who stood before him in place of his best friends really that unfamiliar?

And then he woke up.

Honestly, Sora hadn't really absorbed much about what he'd been told in the hospital. He's pretty sure he had asked questions, maybe he had shrugged his shoulders and commented on how he needed to make sure his friends were okay. That part he remembers well enough, though now, as he stepped carefully down the street, peering into buildings and glancing around corners and maybe stopping along the way to ask passersby for directions, he really had two things on his mind.

Well, all right, two. The first was the fact that his Dream Eaters were missing, curiously. If this wasn't a dream world, where exactly in relation to home had he awakened?

The other was that he had to find Riku.

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[soracles]

Now that he's just a few yards away, and he gets a better look at Xion, he... recognizes terror when he sees it. Sora stops abruptly, hand immediately up as if he wants to reach out to her in concern.

"Wait — I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to talk to you, that's all."

This is awkward. At least, it is for Sora.

"You just look a lot like somebody I know."

[ceded]

You just look a lot like somebody I know.

Fighting off waves of panic so strong and thick she feels ill, Xion ducks her head and tries to think. She absolutely will not meet his gaze. It's too freaky. She wore that face. She is this boy. She's a part of him. That's all she's ever been. That's all she ever will be.

"I know... I look like Kairi." She shrinks back against the wall. "... how can this be? How can you be here if... if me and Roxas are, too? How are you awake?"

Finally, Xion looks up at him, her eyes searching his face. "I don't understand how this is happening."

[soracles]

"I don't... either."

Though his comprehension is far, far away from her own. All he knows is how much his heart suddenly aches with every panicked little movement Xion makes. He hurts, seeing her apparently hurting.

And he doesn't even know her name. And yet...

"You know Kairi?" Asked tentatively. Sora isn't making any other movement toward her; he'd probably actually back up if she wanted him to. "And Roxas?" And... she knows who Sora is, too?

[ceded]

"... I don't really know her. I just know who she is. Roxas ... he's ... a friend." Saying that last part out loud makes her slump a little, for entirely different reasons. He's her best friend, he just -- doesn't remember that, yet. (Maybe he won't ever, says a tiny, traitorous part of her mind.)

"... there's a reason I look just like Kairi. But it's ... it's complicated." Her expression shifts into something almost like a wince, and she bites her lip. "... please don't ask. I don't know how to explain."

[soracles]

For every moment that Sora spends on this world, the more questions about the people around him pile on, weighing on his mind. He's not mad at her, but his posture is... awfully defeated, all of the sudden.

He'll never catch up at this rate.

"Could you at least tell me your name?"

[ceded]

... he looks so sad. Something about it catches at Xion's heartstrings, and she stands a little taller, no longer trying to make herself quite so small.

"... Xion. My name is Xion."

She clasps her hands over her middle, fingers interlacing. "... Sora, are you sad?"

[soracles]

Xion. Huh... Does he know that name?

He straightens a little himself, pulling on a small, but warm smile. He shakes his head.

"No, of course not," he said gently. "I just feel like there's a lot going on, really. Not really sure where to begin figuring it all out, you know?"

[ceded]

Her eyebrows draw together and, perhaps somewhat remarkably, she smiles a little bit. It's a shadow of the one he wears, a cooler and sadder thing, but it's there.

"Yeah, I do. Things have been confusing for all of us. But you're here, now... I think Riku and Lea will be really happy to see you."

[soracles]

It's probably pretty obvious by the way his face brightens that he'll be thrilled to see his best friend, too. Lea? He hasn't put two and two together with that name yet.

But what about Xion? He's only just met her, really, only just gotten her name, but there he is, with a solid desire to ensure her happiness, too. That's why he, very tentatively, reaches a hand out to her again.

"Would it be all right if we figured it out together?"

[ceded]

Her smile disappears in the blink of an eye as she pulls back from him again. She actually starts to edge away, stepping sideways. It makes her heart constrict, knowing how sad it makes him when she looks at him with fear... but she can't help it. There's just too much at stake here. It's just too dangerous.

"... I can't. I'm sorry, Sora. You ... you need to ask someone else. ... I don't know if it's safe for me to stay here... I should go."

[soracles]

She's right, it does rip him up to see someone genuinely afraid of him. What does she mean, it's not safe for her to stay here? It isn't because of him, is it?

Sora does back off, though, letting his hand drop to his side and briefly glancing at some point in the distance. As confused as he is, as frustrated as he might get later when he thinks back to how he has more questions than answers, and as many secrets he seems to be running into, the last thing he wants is finally understanding at the expense of someone else. He'll have to just figure it out on his own. Somehow.

One more question, though. "Are you gonna be all right, Xion?"

[ceded]

"Oh, Sora."

She says it without thinking, and instantly regrets the vaguely sympathetic tone. As if she somehow knows more than he does! What a joke. As if she has any right at all to feel bad for the real thing standing before her... the boy who will save everyone, if Riku is to be believed. She is so much nothing compared to him. A glitch in an otherwise well-oiled machine, a patch of murk clouding a bright horizon. All she does is detract; all she does is make less. Never in her life will she have the right to feel bad for him. Such a feeling belongs to those who are real.

And she never, ever will be.

"... I don't know."

With that unsatisfying answer, she turns her back on him completely, opening a dark corridor and trotting into it. But before it envelops her completely, she spares him one last, sad look over her shoulder.

God, but she looks so much like Kairi.

And then she disappears.