paixaorpg | Happy Birthday? [Active]

Entry tags:

Happy Birthday? [Active]

Character(s): Nina and Repliku
Content: It's Nina's birthday. Pity she has to spend it locked up.
Setting: experiment prison
Time: week two
Warnings: none

Nina sat in a corner of her cell, curled tight and silent. She had said very little to the others since her last visit to Marluxia, not trusting the others not to hurt her later. But there was Repliku, and surely he was nice? He had to be. She tried to remember where he was relative to her cage, but she wasn't sure. She tried to smell for him, like Alexander would, but her nose wasn't near as good. She missed Alexander, and whimpered as she was again reminded she was without him.

Finally, she called out. "Repliku?"

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Repliku was pretty much in the same state. Silently sitting in the back of his prison as he thought about everything he and Marluxia had agreed upon. Of course he wouldn't go back on their deal but he still had to wonder if he had made the right choice. This whole thing could just be history repeating itself...but still he had taken that chance. Just to be real.

Be his own person, that was all he ever wanted.

He had ran out of ideas and options a long time ago - probably since dying back in Castle Oblivion - and now Marluxia had presented him an offer that he couldn't refuse. He'd taken it because that was the only thing left he could do, he reasoned with himself.

This inner conflict had gone on for quite a while until suddenly a small familiar voice brought him back to reality. The replica wasted no time in getting to his feet and moving closer to the bars.

"Yes, Nina?"

"Did you know..." she began, inching closer on hands and knees to the sound of Repliku's voice as if it alone could comfort her here. He was the only one she could trust that was here right now, but she was glad he was there at all, even if she hoped he hadn't been hurt.

"Did you know I'm five now? I was four but it's my birthday, so--"

So she missed her father, and her brothers, and Alexander, and it was her birthday and she was all by herself in a cage. She tried not to cry and failed.

Repliku gripped the bars as he listened carefully to her, the grip growing tighter and tighter the more he listened until his knuckles were white beneath his gloves. He still didn't get it, would never get it, why they needed Nina. Marluxia wouldn't say a thing and now the poor kid was stuck in here on her birthday.

It was frustrating and Repliku had to take a few calming breaths before allowing himself to speak.

"It's okay, Nina. I'll...I'll get you the biggest cake ever once we get out of here, so don't cry." Please.

She tried to choke back tears, tried to imagine the cake she would get, tried to be good for Repliku, but every once in a while a choked sniffle would escape and she would shiver uncontrollably until she repeated the process all over again.

"I want to go h-h-home," she choked out. "I w-want to go home!"

And then she started sobbing.

"I know, Nina, I know." The strain in Repliku's voice was obvious and he wouldn't have been able to hide it even if he wanted to. He'd take her home this instant, probably would've done so the first moment he had met her, if it was in his power to do so but it wasn't. His helplessness now was more frustrating than anything he had ever felt before.

He could do nothing but listen to her and show her he understood. He probably would've wanted to go home if he had one too.

Nina wished she could see Repliku, or better, run to his arms for comfort, but just knowing he was there helped somewhat. She wanted to keep talking, to keep reminding herself he was there, as if as soon as she couldn't hear him he would vanish into the mist.

"I wish that man was here to help," she said.

Repliku frowned and almost didn't dare asking. Obviously whoever Nina was talking about had to be one of the Organization members otherwise she would have used a name. He knew her brothers after all and she wouldn't call them 'that man' or anyone else that she was familiar with.

"What man?" He asked suspiciously.

Nina paused to collect herself for a second before she kept talking. "The man with pink hair. He--he said he would help, but there are lots of bad people here and--and it's sc-scaryyy."

Her words trailed off into sobs once more.

"Marluxia." For a moment Repliku was overcome with rage as he muttered the name with intense venom in his voice. To think he would manipulate a four-year-old like Nina...though it was hardly a surprise, it still angered him.

Unfortunately there was nothing he could do now but he was sure to bring it up the next time he was going to meet Marluxia. Whenever that would be.

He had to take a calming breath before speaking again. "There are plenty of good people here, don't be scared."

Nina shivered at the tone--had Marluxia and Repliku fought over something? But then who was right? Maybe it was a misunderstanding. That happened to Nina sometimes. So--so they were both nice, right?

"B-but there are monsters and I don't know who," Nina whimpered. "They could be anyone and then they'd eat me up like in the stories!"

Repliku finally let go of the bars, instead choosing to lean against the wall with his back and slowly let himself slide down until he was in a sitting position with a defeated sigh.

"No one's going to eat you up. What stories did he tell you?"

"Stories about monsters," Nina said, simply. "He said he'd tell me more stories later, though. So maybe those won't be about monsters. They'd be more fun because they wouldn't be about real stuff."

Repliku would've liked to say monsters weren't real but he knew better than that. After all, they were in the hands of monsters right now. It would be naive to deny their existence. Especially since he knew plenty of them and those were definitely real. Still, that didn't mean a child had to know about them.

"What kind of stories do you want to hear?"

"Happy stories," Nina said, and her voice was very quiet, barely above a whisper. She hadn't heard a happy story in a while. She missed happy stories. "Do you know any?"

Repliku could still hear her, thankfully. Though his cynical mind nearly made him give the prompt answer of 'no' but when he thought about it, really thought about it, he could vaguely recall stories. Stories that weren't actually his but they were stories, happy ones.

"I do..."

"Can you tell me one?" Nina asked, curling herself up against the wall closest to where she could hear Repliku and hoping the story was a really happy one, because it was dark and scary in here and she didn't want to think about that.

Repliku considered this for a moment. He wasn't exactly the best to be telling happy stories...but it was Nina's birthday and if he couldn't even get her out of here it was the least he could do. He made an affirmative noise.

"Is there anything in particular you want it to be about?"

"About a princess," Nina said, picking up her tone a bit as she pondered a good story. "A princess who saves everyone, and is happy. It has to have a happy ending, it has to!"

"Alright." The stories from back at Destiny Islands wouldn't fit that description. He had to think of something else and improvise. So he did, after pondering it over for a while and clearing his throat.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived happily on an island. Every day she would play with her two friends who had both sworn to protect her. They were her knights. They would often compete for the princess's affection and she would sit nearby and draw them for the princess loved drawing very much."

He was smiling without realizing it.

"With the three of them they always had great adventures, from beating dragons to hunting treasures." The drawings inside the Secret Place. "But one day the princess suddenly disappeared..."

Nina was quiet, listening, imagining the story in her head. And perhaps the princess had brown hair and a dog, and the dragons were the chimeras in the basement, and the treasures were too, and her friends were a blond boy and another in a metal suit, and while it wasn't perhaps exactly what Repliku was thinking of it kept Nina calm, kept her from thinking about her situation.

"What happened then?" she asked, her voice expectant.

It didn't matter to Repliku what Nina would be imagining, as long as it worked he was content enough to keep on telling the story he was thinking up on the spot.

"Her knights didn't know what to do but they had to find her. So they built a raft and with that raft they left the island together. Leaving everything they knew behind - their parents, the safety - without looking back to go find the princess.

They thought they would be fine but at sea a storm struck and one of the princess's friends was swallowed up by the darkness of the sea while the other got stranded in a place that was like a new world to him. Lost and alone without his friend and still not knowing where the princess was or what had happened to her."

Nina listened with rapt attention, making occasional noises at interesting bits.

"What happened to him? Is he okay? What about the princess? Is she okay?"

"The boy who got taken by the darkness of the sea was saved by the Captain of a pirate ship who took the boy to see the witch. The witch offered her help and the boy couldn't refuse, he would be granted the power that would help him look for the princess. In return he had to stay with the monsters in the darkness and so he did. For the boy was not afraid of the darkness."

Never had Repliku suspected he would end up telling his...no, his original's story like this. It was somewhat ironic but at least it was working.

"The other boy was more lucky, he found new friends to travel with. But as he journeyed he started forgetting about the princess. Until he stumbled upon a strange castle. A castle that made you remember and at the same time forget things. It was the castle where the princess was being held by the Evil King."

"Oh no, he shouldn't help the monsters," Nina said with all the conviction of a four-year-old to whom choices were black and white. "He should go save the princess some other way." Not that she knew how.

"Does he defeat the king?"

Repliku couldn't help but grimace a little.

"Perhaps he shouldn't have but thanks to the monsters he got to the Castle too. However to get to the Evil King they both had to go through thirteen floors that were protected by the King's knights and monsters. It was difficult but the boy who had chosen the path of darkness managed to get around some and found the princess first."

"When the boy learned that his friend was also here and that he had forgotten about the princess, he got angry. Angry enough to go see his friend and challenge him to a duel."

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