runespoor | [Kingdom Hearts] Witch of Pure White

Title: Witch of Pure White
Character/Pairing: Seifer, Naminé (Seifer/Naminé)
Rating: PG
Summary: Seifer thinks of ghosts, but there's just a girl in the old mansion.

Notes: Written for

31_days. My CrackyTP, I'm so happy to write it, you can't know.

When he stood in front of the mansion, Seifer commenced contemplating the idiocy of his plan.

Pence was always going on about aliens and ghosts, and Hayner was always quick to anger. Just because Hayner had been more abrasive than usual when he'd cut his best friend off didn't mean in any way the thing would escalate to 'yeah well then prove it' levels.

If Seifer knew his brother at all, though, today would be the day Hayner snapped once and for all that there was no such thing as ghosts. And what better way to settle it than to drag Pence to the local abandoned house and brag when there was nothing out of the ordinary? The mansion was the closest thing Twilight Town could provide as a haunted house.

Well, when Seifer was done, he definitely intended for the house to be full of oddness.

He ignored the passing thought that wondered if Hayner's gang and his hadn't already explored the house. He hadn't walked past the gates since the old man had moved away.

The portal's lock was surprisingly not rusted. The guy must have used that anti-rusting paint. He'd been less eccentric than Seifer had taken him for, then. Still, it wasn't going to make breaking in any easier—

The portal opened without a struggle, as soon as he gave it an experimental push with one hand. Lucky the Disciplinary Committee did such a good at keeping robbers at bay. The screeching wasn't so much ominous as it sounded like a tortured wail – Seifer let go of the door as if it had burned him. Even after he did, the vibration seemed to echo against the garden's hedges, resonating against his bones.

Well. That was one instance of spookiness he wouldn't have to worry about, then.

There were sculpted trees in the garden that must have some point been decorative. Now, they mostly reminded Seifer of the illustrations of a fairytale book he'd had as a kid. The watercolors used to scare him so badly that for years he would shut his eyes when his mother got to that page when she was reading the story to him.

He forced himself to walk through the garden very slowly, detailing the trees as he went. There was no-one to see him but himself, and his pride meant enough to him that he wouldn't have hurried even if flesh-eating skeletons had clawed their way out of the bushes. In fact, skeletons would've probably made the whole thing less sinister.

The heavy wooden door at the end of the garden didn't resist any more than the portal had. The handle was so big he had to strain his fingers to fit his hand around it.

When he stood in the middle of the entrance hall, he found himself cursing Pence under his breath.

The place was huge. It'd take him hours to decorate the house at his convenience. Hours he didn't have. Hayner would definitely want it over with before lunchtime.

He started moving through the hallway before his eyes grew fully accustomed to the shade. Slowly, eerie shapes emerged from the emptiness – sudden rays of light piercing through the dark at irregular intervals, catching his eye. The glass case in the middle of the room had been smashed; a case of armor had fallen to the ground and was now lying, its members dislocated. When he stepped for the first time over a glass shard and felt it breaking under his sneaker, the shattering almost immediately smothered in the darkness, he couldn't repress a shudder.

“O-kay,” he said. Nice echo. “This is creepy. But it's more the 'a bunch of delinquent youths had a blast of a party, literally' creepy than the 'look a ghost' creepy.”

And frankly, while Hayner's gang were troublemakers, Seifer didn't think they were bad enough to— Seifer frowned as he tried to remember. For a moment, something hovered just out of the reach of his memory, before it dissipated away. Ah well, it was nothing important anyway.

He was wondering how he was going to creepify the place and wishing for Rai and Fuu's presence. Not because he was scared, but because he could already feel the next few hours were gonna be damn lonely. Not to mention that at least if they were there, if Hayner and the others didn't turn up after all, they'd still be able to have a laugh. If Seifer did all that on his own and for nothing, he'd be pissed.

But Rai was in Remedial Maths, and Fuu would end anyone dared wake her up before noon, so...

A soft giggle broke through his distraction.

“I don't think there are ghosts here.”

Seifer whipped around before the end of the sentence had the time to reach him, braced for--

But there was nothing threatening behind him. Just a girl in a white dress standing on top of the stairs, in a splash of light.

He'd never seen her before.

“Who're you?”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them; reflex.

“I mean... sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed and wanting to make up for his rudeness. He was the one who'd broken in. “Do you live here?”

“In a way.”

She had a nice voice. Quiet. Nice.

“I've never seen you in town before,” Seifer said from his spot. He tried to keep the accusation out of his voice, but it crept in the echoes anyway.

“I don't go out much.”

“Ah, okay.”

Not okay, Seifer thought; it didn't make any kind of sense. She may not go out much, but the Disciplinary Committee spent all of their free time on the streets; they knew everyone in town, even the tourists. Twilight Town wasn't so big that you could lose yourself in the crowd. Seifer liked that about his hometown.

...Why was he acting so meek all of a sudden and not calling her out on it?

“I saw you at the Struggle Tournament,” she said. Her voice, soft like velvet, sliced through the silence.

She tipped her head, pale blond hair falling to the side, revealing a fragile, thin neck. She was watching him with wide, careful eyes.

He swallowed, nervous without knowing why. “Yeah?”

“Yes.” He couldn't decipher her expression – didn't even know if she was smiling or not. She was soft, and careful, and it made him want to apologize and he didn't know why. “I... was in a hurry, but I caught your name – Seifer?”

His chest puffed up and warmth ran through him, his unease evaporated. She was smiling this time, even if it was a tiny, interrogative quip of a smile.

“Yeah, I'm Seifer,” he confirmed, with an aplomb that would've made Hayner call him out on his arrogance. He didn't care. The girl's smile widened, drawing crescent-like dimples around her small mouth.

“My name's Naminé.”

“Naminé,” he echoed.

It didn't sound like any name in Twilight Town. It didn't sound like any tourist's name either. It was unfamiliar to his tongue, but the syllables flowed as if they wanted nothing more than to be said often.

Naminé nodded, and he wondered if smiles, like butterflies, could be pressed and kept forever.

“So, Seifer...”

She started walking down the stairs as she talked to him, putting her fingers together. Her head had to tilt back the closer she came, until she was looking up at him. She was so small.

“Why did you come? I mean,” she was smiling to soften her words; her eyes crinkled up, the eyelashes of her upper and lower eyelids touching, “you never came before today. So... is there a reason?”

She waited, her head turned up toward him and her eyes almost closed, expecting. Seifer's heart did something like a flip that ended at about the level of his navel once the content of Naminé's question sunk in.

“Damn—yeah—sorry about that—I was going to play a joke on Hayner's gang,” he explained. “They're going to come here. Pence thinks there are ghosts.” He sneered.

“Oh.” There was a hint of concern in her voice; the shadow of a frown hollowed a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

His weight shifted so it rested on his left leg, and his hand went to his hip. He'd noticed he tended to carry himself that way whenever, as leader of the Disciplinary Committee, there were decisions to be taken.

He didn't like that she looked unhappy.

“I could keep them out if you'd like,” he said.

Her pursed lips smoothed into a bow-like smile, almost as small as the first one, almost secretive. Well, that was alright with him. As a resident of Twilight Town, she was entitled to her secrets and he would keep Hayner's nose out of them. He'd do no less for anyone else in town. That was his job.

“No, that's alright. I don't think they'll get here, anyway,” she added.

“You think?”

He sounded skeptical, he was aware, but he knew Hayner a whole lot better than most other people in town, and he knew his brother could be incredibly stubborn for someone with such a short attention span.

And if they got here, well... best put it this way: Hayner's inability at keeping his nose out of other people's business would be the least of Naminé's troubles. Olette'd probably be overjoyed to get a girl friend and Pence... just thinking about it made him want to groan. A girl living alone in the abandoned mansion? She'd never get a moment of peace again.

“I have ways,” she murmured.

If it'd been someone else, he'd have snorted. Ways. But here he mulled it over – watched how her birdlike shoulders had hunched and how her head had bowed – and nodded sharply.

“Okay.”

Her blue gaze caught him straight in the face, and he fumbled over his next words. “If—if you ever need me, though, you can count on me.”

Naminé stayed silent for a very long time. His body had gone taut, his jaws had clenched, and, he was surprised to realize when he tried to move his head, his neck and shoulders had locked and he couldn't turn away.

“Thank you, Seifer.”

She spoke with great care, as if she didn't know what to make of the fact he'd want to help her; which made no sense. Anyone would want to protect her.

Seifer was thinking about how she'd look if he gave her his coat. It would trail on the floor and she'd be able to wrap it around her.

Her limpid eyes were full of regret.

“But I don't think I'll be staying very long, this time.”