Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom of Hearts: Noble Nobody ❯ Chapter 3: Revelations ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Revelations

 

It had been several weeks since Leo Banes had become a fixture in the Burrow. Merlin, who had come to visit for a month, had taken pretty well to the young nobody. Often asking the young nobody to fetch him materials and using Leo's powers to try and create experimental magic. Yuffie seemed also to be much happier and more exuberant than before, if that were physically possible…

 

However, not all were happy with the new arrangement. Leon kept staring at the kid as if he was expecting him to grow horns and start killing everyone in sight. Cid, not the most tact of people, would often make excuses to check up on the kid while he was asleep. It seemed that the pilot had turned himself into the unofficial jailer of the young man.

 

Leo kept quiet for the duration of these events. He wasn't sure as if he should leave or not, these people seemed to keep giving him weird signs. The guys were obviously in open distrust and hostility to the grey headed child while the women seemed to just look at him with a combination of pity and kindness. It was truly with Merlin that Leo felt the most normal, the man remarked at having never truly met a Nobody before. The old wizard seemed very interested with the young man, often asking him to help him out with experiments.

 

Leo understood that what the old man was really after was information on nobodies, probably in an effort to try and understand what he really was. The look of the scholar and examiner was often on the old man's face and more often then not the look was directed at Leo. The one known as Aerith seemed to become quite angry with Merlin when he tended to look at the young boy like that.

 

“Merlin you are scaring him,” scolded the pink dressed lady as she tapped her foot. Merlin jumped when Aerith said this from behind him, “Oh I'm sorry dear it's just that I've never met a Nobody before,” explained the old wizard as he dug in his ear. “Well stop looking at him like he's some test experiment,” said Aerith as she went over and grabbed Leo's arm to drag him away.

 

“I don't mind,” said Leo as he was dragged off by the woman, “and what is this scaring thing? Does it have something to do with emotions again?” asked Leo questioningly. Aerith and Leo were on the steps leading down into the main hut of the Burrow when she suddenly stopped at the question and again looked down at the young boy a strange expression on her face. She then seemed to hesitate and then nod leading Leo away.

 

In the following weeks spent with these people Leo had trained himself to try and spot certain emotions, the one Aerith had on now indicated pain and worry. At least that was what he was able to determine, the young Nobody had tried distorting his face in a mirror to try and show emotion. He hoped that maybe he could try and understand these emotions that these people felt.

 

Ultimately he was still no closer to figuring out why they acted the way they did, often times he wondered why they kept doing the strange things they did. For instance, he noticed that Aerith and Leon would often be at each others throats on day to day means and yet he once caught the two of them kissing each other in the moonlight one night when he was having trouble sleeping.

 

He asked Yuffie what the two of them were doing and what that action meant, the young woman just giggled and ruffled his hair saying, “it's kind of hard to explain buddy, but it basically means they like one another.” This left Leo even more confused than before, how could they like each other and show such anger to one another? It was just another sign that he was different from these people.

 

~The sun set gently on Hollow Bastion, the golden and red rays painted a sharp contrast on the buildings and strange structures that dotted the landscape.

 

Leo sat on top of one of the buildings overlooking the Hollow Bastion. He was now wearing a black shirt and jeans that were rather baggy for him, but he had to deal with wearing hand me downs from Leon's old clothes from a few years back. He was told by the others earlier that week that they were actually renaming the place Radiant Garden because of the renovations that were undertaken after the defeat of the organization. For some reason Leo could not find himself able to think of the place as anything other than Hollow Bastion. When he had told Cid as much the man remarked that he probably felt more at home with something that was Hollow than something beautiful. When Leo asked him what that meant Cid just sighed and told him to go play.

 

As Leo continued to gaze over his temporary home suddenly he felt a flash of pain race through his head, he gripped his head as suddenly the world faded away and left him in a memory.

 

~Memory

 

Leo was standing at a strange place, a market of some sort. The words Twilight Town flashed over his head in a neon banner sign. As he looked over the bright and strangely beautiful lights, suddenly a dark portal opened behind him. Leo just waited still staring out at the lights, “So who are you?” questioned the grey headed nobody of the short figure wearing another dark cloak with the hood covering their face.

 

The figure pushed back the hood revealing a smiling face, the teen was about the same age as Leo, he had yellow spiky hair with kind blue eyes and an affable smile. “My name is Roxas,” explained the young man, “and I'm here on the behest of Organization XIII.”

 

Leo sighed as he stood up and faced the young man, “I told Ansem that my answer was no, I'm not interested in reclaiming my heart.” “Why not?” questioned the blonde nobody as he cocked his head to the side in wonder, “don't you want to at least learn who you originally were?”

 

“No,” spoke Leo coldly as he looked the young man in his eyes, “it won't make any difference on who I am now, why would I care about what I was then?” “Aw, come on!” said the Roxas with a smile, “it will be fun to find out about yourself. After all, no one can be alone in this world.” Leo looked at the young man his eyes studying the other nobody before him, “why do you do that?” he asked pointedly at the teen.

 

Roxas looked at him strangely, “do what?” Leo then pointed at the young man, “Why do you do that with your face? You look like those people with hearts when they have something good happen to them.” Then Roxas thought about it for a second as it suddenly came to him as to what the other nobody was talking about. “Oh! You mean why I am smiling!” said the young man as he broke out into laughter. Leo again stared at the young man awaiting his answer.

 

When Roxas finally stopped he started trying to catch his breath, then he stopped laughing when he realized that the other Nobody was completely serious. The man's face then suddenly broke off into a look of concentration as he brought up his finger and placed it under his chin, “I suppose I'm smiling because I'm happy,” explained the young man thoughtfully.

 

Leo snorted, “if you are a nobody you can't feel anything,” said the young man as he looked to the side. “That maybe true but it's what I feel like doing now,” explained Roxas as he put his hands behind his head and tilted his head back and smiled even wider. Suddenly Roxas became serious, “there was also something else Xemnas wanted for me to do,” said Roxas as he looked at Leo darkly. Suddenly two strange blades appeared in his hands, they strangely resembled keys, and “I'm to force you to come with me even if you didn't want to.”

 

Leo turned around, “I'm not interested in fighting,” said Leo as he turned his back on the young Roxas. “It's not a request,” said Roxas as he held out his hand, suddenly Leo found himself falling down into a dark portal. When he awoke he was in a strange place, it was completely dark except for the light of the full moon. Looking around him Leo could see that he was at a beach of some sort, he felt strange, as if he had been here before. He held out his hands as the two blades formed in his hands, suddenly he heard a scuffing sound and he turned around. Roxas was now standing before him holding the two strange blades from before.

 

Before Leo could really react Roxas rushed him and drove his two blades at Leo's mid-section, Leo parried the two blades by flicking his blade to the side parrying the blow and then he brought down his other blade trying to slash Roxas. Roxas simply rolled to the side and continued his attack, the two parried and attacked the clash of their blades could be heard echoing throughout the silent beach. The two continued their dance the light of the moon flickering from their blades, the occasionally flash and sparks were seen in the dark night.

 

After a few minutes the two parted from a particularly deadly clash and stood panting facing each other. “Come on, I know you are holding back,” cried Roxas angrily as he brought back his keyblades behind his back to try and use a Limit Break. Suddenly he jerked his blades forward and found that they couldn't move, he looked and saw that a pair of thick roots had tangled up the blades and prevented him from moving them.

 

“I told you that I wasn't interested in hurting anyone,” said Leo as his two blades vanished in his hands a tumble of leaves fell to the ground and were swept away by the tide. Leo walked calmly forward as Roxas continued jerking at the blades in vain the young gray headed nobody's foot prints were being erased as he made his way over to the loud Roxas. Roxas suddenly let go of the blades and panted staring fervently at the other young man. “So Xemnas was right, a Nobody who has the power to challenge a Keyblade wielder.”

 

“Xemnas? Who is that?” asked Leo in question, Roxas came forward and walked up to Leo and spoke clearly, “The one who calls himself Ansem is really a Nobody named Xemnas,” explained Roxas, “he just calls himself Ansem to throw off people who are not in the organization.”

 

“Why are you telling me this?” questioned Leo, “because I've already won,” explained Roxas. Suddenly the two Keyblades disappeared causing Leo to gasp in surprise, the two blades then appeared in Roxas's hands and he drew the blades in a sweep stopping only when the two blades had come within a hair's breath of cutting into Leo's neck.

 

Roxas just stared at Leo who looked back at him, though there was sweat on Leo's head there was absolutely no fear in his eyes. “Be sure that you don't hold back next time,” said Roxas with a smile as the blades suddenly disappeared in his hands. Roxas then stepped away from Leo and then held up his hand as he formed a dark portal behind him and began walking toward it. “I thought that you were to take me back to Xemnas,” said Leo looking at Roxas, “I'll just tell him I couldn't find you,” said Roxas dismissively as he walked into the portal and looked back and gave a wave to Leo.

 

“Thanks, Roxas,” said Leo gratefully as he gave Roxas the thumbs up, “and next time I won't hold back.” Roxas returned the thumbs up as the portal closed sealing off Leo on the beach, or so it looked. Leo suddenly felt himself smiling, he then held out his hand and a dark portal opened up as well, looking one last time at the strange beach Leo stepped forward. When he stepped out again from the darkness he had found himself in Hollow Bastion. It wasn't long after that that he met the others …

 

~Real life

 

Leo gasped as he found himself coming back to reality, he soon regained his breath. When he wondered what that was all about he suddenly heard a call from behind him. He turned and was suddenly beamed by something cold and sticky, “Oh sorry!” said Yuffie as she ran up to him as Leo peeled off the ice cream bar from his forehead. “I thought that you would catch that!” explained the ninja with a slight laugh.

 

“What is it?” said Leo as he rubbed the spot where he was beamed, “It's called sea salt ice cream.” Explained the young ninja as she licked the ice cream, “try it, you might like it,” Leo shrugged and bit into the ice cream. His mouth was flooded with a sweet-salty taste he gasped at the flood of taste and gripped his mouth from the cold. “Watch it!” said Yuffie as she laughed at the young man struggling with brain freeze. When Leo had finally gotten over the worst of his brain freeze he began to really enjoy the ice cream.

 

The two sat down and just admired the scene before them as they ate their ice cream in silence. Suddenly Leo stopped licking the frosty treat and asked Yuffie something that had been bothering him. “Yuffie,” he spoke softly causing the ninja to turn to look at the boy, “why did you cry that day that I was hurt?” Yuffie suddenly begin to choke on the ice cream, as she coughed she managed to sputter out an answer, “I…was…just worried is all, why is that a crime?” she demanded accusatorily.

 

“No!” said Leo in surprise, “I was just wondering why you were so worried that I was hurt, it wasn't like I was in any real danger or anything...” Yuffie calmed down and finished off her ice cream and threw the stick at him, “I was worried about you because…” said Yuffie looking down at her feet and turning away from Leo. “You were somebody I thought that I could really get along with, a friend I could have and could play with.”

 

Leo looked at her questioningly as Yuffie turned around with an embarrassed look on her face, “But aren't you friends with the others” questioned Leo, “don't they hang out with you or let you have fun?”

 

Yuffie shook her head, “Cid is always doing something on that computer of his, always trying to make a new and better ship. Merlin is a nice enough guy, but he is so old! And all he cares about are those weird experiments of his. And Aerith and Leon are so caught up in each other that Aerith no longer has any time to spend with me anymore,” said Yuffie as she sat down and pulled her legs under her chin and pouted. “And Cloud is never any fun, when he bothers to come around that is,” said Yuffie sarcastically as she looked at Leo.

 

“When you showed up at the door, I thought to myself that maybe I finally found someone I can truly be myself around. Someone I can get along with and have fun,” said the ninja as she looked at Leo with the embarrassed look still on her face. She then sighed, “but I guess you can't understand what it's like to be alone, you are a nobody after all,” said Yuffie throwing her hands into the air. She then gasped, “I'm sorry I didn't mean that Leo!” said Yuffie quickly spinning her arms in the air as if she was preventing herself from falling.

 

Leo found himself for the first time laughing at the sight of Yuffie's reaction to her own bluntness. Yuffie stared in shock as Leo continued laughing as tears ran down his face dropping his ice cream as he bowled over in laughter; “whoa, I think I might have broken the kid,” said Yuffie as she stared at the Nobody who was cracked up on the ground. Leo picked himself off the ground still chuckling, “it's ok, Yuffie I don't have feelings remember?” said Leo as he walked up to the ninja.

 

Yuffie suddenly found herself blushing as the young man stood beside her, she was surprised to find that the young man, despite being two years younger than her, was almost as tall as her. Suddenly Leo reached out and gently placed his hand on her arm looking into her eyes, “you've been kind to me Yuffie and I hope that I can pay you back for all the kindness you and the others have given me.”

 

Yuffie blushed even further at the touch then pushed his hand away with a smile “if you want to pay me back why don't you and I have a spar one day?” said the young ninja. Leo returned the smile and then gave her a two finger salute, “you bet,” said he as he took his leave from the scene.

 

Leo walked back into the Burrow smiling at the fact that he now understood what Roxas was saying when the two of them had fought together. For now he knew what it was like to have a friend, someone to care about you…

 

Yuffie leaned up against the side of the building and started pounding on the wall behind her, “Idiot, idiot!” said the female ninja. “He's a nobody he wouldn't be able to tell you how he really feels, heck he wouldn't understand how I feel if I told him.” Said the ninja as she looked out again at the sunset, she then found herself touching her arm which was still tingling from Leo's touch from earlier. She then stared at the ground and found Leo's sea-salt ice cream melting on the ground before her. She then smiled and just turned and went back into the Burrow still touching her arm.