[#284 - Nature and Nurture] Two Sides of the Same Coin
Challenge: [#284 - Nature and Nurture]
Title: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Word Count: 480
Summary: Kairi and Naminé grew up in different times and even more different ways.
“Kairi!” Grandma called. “Sweetheart, are you ready?”
“Naminé!” Larxene called. “Stupid girl; where are you?”
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Kairi scurried about her room trying to find her ribbon. She wanted to tie her hair into pigtails but could only find one of her favourite blue ones.
Hearing footsteps outside her door, Naminé scurried about her room trying to find a place to hide. She knew it was useless, but her instinct was still to find a safe place and scrunch herself into it when Larxene was around.
“Kairi?” Grandma knocked before easing the door open. “What’s the hold up?”
“Naminé!” Larxene didn’t bother knocking before slamming back the door with a look of fury. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Kairi paused with her hand still clamped around a hank of hair. “I was just … uh …”
Naminé paused with her hand still on the half-open wardrobe door. “I was just … uh …”
Grandma shook her head, smiling indulgently. “Looking for your ribbon again? Honestly, you’d forget where you put your head if it wasn’t screwed on.”
Larxene narrowed her eyes in a disgusted expression. “Trying to hide again? For fuck’s sake, you can be so stupid sometimes.”
Kairi dropped her eyes and toed the carpet. “I just wanted to look pretty for when we go to the castle today.”
Naminé dropped her eyes and shuffled her feet. “I was just looking for something pretty to wear for our new housemate.”
Grandma crossed the room without hesitation and plucked the lost ribbon off a curlicue on the dresser mirror. The mirror had been a present Grandpa carved with shaking fingers a few months before he died when Kairi was only two. Sometimes she wished she could have known him and her parents, not just their pictures in old photo albums.
Larxene crossed the room without hesitation and smacked the door shut. She towered, taller than she actually was. Naminé hid her shaking fingers behind her back and wished she could go back to the time it was just her and Marluxia here, before Larxene came and spoiled it all. She drew pictures sometimes, imagining a life and family far distant from the one she actually had.
Kairi held still as Grandma tied her second pigtail and kissed her forehead. “You’re pretty as a picture. I’m sure Lord Ansem will think so too.”
Naminé held still as Larxene grabbed her arm and dragged her out into the corridor. “Nobody cares how you look. Trust me; Axel doesn’t give a shit whether you go buck naked as long as you do your job.”
Kairi beamed and took Grandma’s hand as they made their way downstairs. “You really think so?”
Naminé tried not to trip over as Larxene’s iron grip propelled her downstairs. “His name’s Axel?”
“Of course, sweetheart.”
“Shut up, idiot.”
“I love you, Grandma.”
“Sorry, Larxene.”