Running in the Shadows // [Navya+Kirito]

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

NAVYA SACHDEVA

The moon had turned from new to old and back since Kirito had left. She had marked its passing as she spent long nights in the warehouse, plucking ripe apricots from moldy ones. The work was too familiar to be distracting. She felt every hour that passed without him, from training, through the arena, to his victory tour. At first, the hours twisted up inside of her, coiling around her spine like a snake. Over the weeks, the threat of venom faded, but still she carried with weight of those weeks. The time apart had aged her more thoroughly than any other experience in her short life.

Every morning, she woke just a few minutes early, to track his progress through his victory tour. Every day brought him a little closer to home, a little closer to her. Strangely time seemed to slow to a crawl, forcing her to acknowledge every tiny detail of the space they had not shared. From District One through Ten, she studied him. His new ears, his glassy eyes, the strange way he smiled at strangers. She told herself she was ready to confront the changes.

But when the tour officially ended and he found his way to the Sachdeva orchard, Navya didn't recognize him.

She was perched in one of the trees, tearing fruit from branches and dropping it into a net. "He's back," her sister said as she shoved the trunk. Navya furrowed her brow, looking down the apricot strewn lane. She spotted many familiar faces, and a boy who could not possibly be her best friend.

Her sisters reached him first, ruffling his hair, slapping him on the back, treating him like one of the farm boys who had found a little bit of gold in the dirt. Navya climbed down slowly, hugging her skirts against her long legs. She dusted herself off, kept her gaze glued to the littered apricots. Only when she found his polished shoes did she stop, and then slowly lift her chin.

Navya's gaze connected with his. She didn't see the new ears, or the still pink scars, or even the ghosts behind his eyes. She forced herself to see Kirito Miristioma, her best friend in the entire world. For him, tears dotted her lower lashes, even as she dug something out of her skirt.

In a dramatic flourish, she dropped into an elegant bow. "For the Victor," she said as she presented him with a perfect apricot. Only the quirk of her lips in a smirk belied the charade. She'd always teased him mercilessly, but this was the first time she offered him a piece of fruit fit to sell. Once it left her fingertips, she swallowed a chuckle and linked her arm through his, leading him away from the prying eyes of her siblings.

When they'd walked sufficiently towards the sunset, Navya brushed her finger over the fuzzy fruit in his hand. "Is your stomach no longer your stomach? Did the Capitol give you a new stomach? Eat!" She admonished him, sounding far too much like her own mother. She wrinkled her nose. A few more steps and they came to the edge of a well. Navya dropped her hold on him, settling herself on the edge of the stones.

She stared off into the sunset, even as she spoke to him. "Once, when we were very small, I asked you to marry me here. Do you remember what you said? You said your heart already belonged to your brother." She paused, the dots of tears turning into sliding drops that tracked through the dust on her cheeks. "Is everything changed? Did they give you a new heart, too?"

table coding (c) ghosty

[Arrows]

kirito

victor of the 70th hunger games

Change was not something Kirito considered his forte. Ever since his victory everything had changed so quickly as through his life couldn't decide if it was Summer, Winter, Spring, or Fall. Constant reminders loomed around every corner, with every passing gaze Kirito felt either fear or admiration, He felt as though the twenty three other shadows that walked beside him were the ones they all saw. To many he was a phantom, to others he was a savior, to himself he was lost. 

The day was aging slowly as the sun continued to beam its rays down upon the beaten soil. Out in the fields the swaying of stalks and the sounds of agony revealed it was harvesting time. Normally Ikaia would have to be out in those very fields helping but this year he didn't have to. This year he didn't have to worry about the cruelty of labor. Yet Kirito knew he was probably out there working anyway.

Of all the shifting things within the complexity of his victory Kirito's relationship with his twin had been the worst. Jealous and bitterness seemed to have taken over Ikaia's body like an unstoppable poison. Vicious words and hateful actions resulted in Ikaia hardly being around and practically ignoring Kirito. From his point of view all Kirito could feel was pain and disbelief. He had suffered through hell and back just to see his brother again and now he has returned and his brother is still lost to him.

Gentle warbler songs pulled Kirito from the chasm of dark memories he was struggling through as the area around him became ever so familiar. If there was one place in District Eleven Kirito truly felt home in besides his own house it was here. However he felt terror beginning to creep up his spine the closer to them he got. The closer to her he got. Years they had spent together and yet Kirito feared they would all be shattered by the vicious wrath of his victory. 

Excited voices bellowed through the trees as Kirito's stare lifted upwards. All of them came running towards him with smiles on their face. All but one of them who lingered far behind sending shrills of sadness through Kirito's chest. Even with the warmth of her family Kirito still felt like he was freezing without her friendship and without her touch. 

Then finally he felt the ice begin to crack as warmth swelled through his body. In only seconds they were off moving swiftly through the canopy as things began to feel more and more normal. After several moments Kirito knew precisely where they were going but alas he didn't release her hand. He didn't ever want to release her hand. Kirito was afraid that if he let go then he would lose her just like Ikaia.

However eventually her hand did leave his as she sat atop the well where they always used to play. Memories of childhood play dates and laughter crescendo-ed through the air as he sat down softly next to her. Still even in such a sacred place as this he could feel her eyes digging deep within his own. She just as everyone else was searching for the boy who once lived, a boy who had changed so much. 

Tears began to slowly climb down her face as Kirito graciously accepted her gift and even laughed slightly at her joke. "Well they replaced a lot of things but my stomach sure wasn't one of them." Then with a weakening smile he bit the fruit and let its taste send spirals of lost happiness through his body. Maybe for just one second he could actually feel wanted again, even if it was just in his mind.

The next question that floats off her lips sends even more memories dancing through Kirito's mind. What he truly wished he could say was how could I ever forget. Yet now he wasn't sure as tears began to stream down his own cheeks. "My...My heart is not my brother's. However the only thing that seems to have changed is the eyes of everyone who looks at me." Then just as many times before Kirito wrapped his arms around her and began to sob. Although it may not have seemed like much to another person, just being able to cry in her arms again made everything feel just a little bit brighter. 

There is a Key to every gate and every exit,
yet every Key has its own cost.

table by anzie

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

NAVYA SACHDEVA

When he bites into the apricot, she can taste it as he does, sweet and succulent and excellent - but maybe not quite as excellent as what he's eaten in the Capitol. Even though she's never tasted an apricot the way Kirito has tasted an apricot, she knows the way the orange flesh moves in his mouth, the way he has to nibble around the stone heart, just the way she's nibbled around his for years.

Except Kirito's heart is no longer stone, and instead of trying to soften it, Navya has hardened her own.

She presses the back of her dusty hand to her cheeks, trying to stem a flood from the middle of a river. Her heart is harder, yes, but it is not yet hardened all the way through. When he begins to cry, her tears come anew. He does not come gently into her arms, but launches himself at her. Were it not for the stacks of stones beneath her, she might have tumbled into the dark well.

Navya wraps her arms around his shoulders, lifts her chin so that his head can rest on her shoulder. She rocks him steadily. "I'm sorry I made you cry," she whispers, although she does not regret the words she needed to say. "Change isn't always a bad thing, Keer. If people have changed how they look at you, it's because you've changed how you look at them, too. You're different." She squeezes him tightly, bruisingly, holding him close against the force of her words. "I'm different too. But we're both here, right?" Her grip relaxes at last, and she leans back enough to look at him, comparing tear streaked cheeks.

There's more - so much more - to be said. But for now she can't push any farther, can't offer him anything else but comfort. So rather than asking him about his journey to Hell and back, she holds his gaze, while her fingers sneak over his own. She lifts the hand with the half eaten apricot until it is level with their faces.

Navya winks at her best friend, and bites off the last of the apricot's flesh. She groans, speaking before she's even swallowed. "That is heaven. You want to make the wish?" She asks, glancing from the stone heart to the deep well. When they were children, eating rotten apricots, they collected the stones. They dropped each one into the well, and made a silly wish. I want school to be canceled, Roger to trip on his face, daisies to grow inside my house. She wonders if his wish now will be silly - if that is still even possible.

She wonders, if she drops his softening stone heart into the well, if there is even enough Kirito left to wish for anything.

table coding (c) ghosty

[Arrows]

kirito

victor of the 70th hunger games

Change. The word itself was so odd and strange yet it had literally become the embodiment of Kirito and the world around him. Kirito had never wanted to change really. Sure he had dreamed of a bigger house and to have more money like all the poor people do. However he never actually thought he would have it, especially not from winning the Hunger Games. Yet now here he stood among the shifting shadows of life, a life that was so different from the one he thought he was destined to live. 

Warmth from Navya's touched seeped through Kirito's skin as it laid a safety blanket over his broken body. However even now as he laid within the sanctions of her embrace he it did not feel the same. He could tell just from the way she sheltered him from the crumbling abyss of the world that she had changed as well. How much of his life had to change just for him to survive another day? Perhaps by the time he was stolen away to mentor the next games everyone he loved would wither away like ash and leave him a clock with no point in ticking. From what he had endured it wasn't impossible. 

As Navya's gentle words cruise from her lips to his ears Kirito could feel his gaze rising to meet her own. Still what he saw surprised him. The woman sitting beside him was exactly that, she was a woman. No longer was she the little girl who worked in the groves. She had grown up just as Kirito had but only in her own way. Kirito felt ashamed though only to see it now within the sullen look in her eyes. Perhaps if he had really looked before he would have realized, or maybe he wouldn't have, but for now he finally had. Which only made him wonder just how much had actually changed. 

With Navya making another one of her light hearted jokes he felt a laugh bubbling up from his stomach as the core of the fruit splashed like a comet into the well. Words quickly filled the air though as Kirito's own voice rang out in response to her own. "Yes, and my wish is that our friendship never fades." Kirito felt his hands wrap hers in his own as he continued to speak in a calm manor. "I just need to know there will always be a constant in my life. I need you to be there for Navya, you may not know it but Ikaia won't even speak to me anymore. My life is slipping through my fingers like sand and I need another pair to help me catch it all. I need your help."

What happens next is the one true test Kirito could think of to determine how much had been altered by his crowning. His lips pushed themselves lightly against Navya's as he searched for any sign of a spark. Yet as their lips remained locked for only several seconds Kirito felt nothing but what he hoped to feel, friendship. They were never bound to be lovers but at least from this short kiss he could confirm that, and at least he dared to take a chance. Now a days it always seemed better to try something before it vanished all together.

A short while after the kiss Kirito finally acknowledged he should probably explain his sudden actions considering Navya looked rather surprised. "Oh... I... I'm sorry. I just had to try that. At least once." Although his excuse was feeble at best he only hoped she would understand just how crippled he was. Just how much he needed a crutch. Just how much he needed Navya Sachdeva in his life. 

There is a Key to every gate and every exit,
yet every Key has its own cost.

table by anzie