Sora wailed from the next room over. She moaned, checking the clock. 5:17 AM. She was, she reflected through a splitting yawn, very ready for Sora to begin sleeping the whole night through.

Sighing, she pulled herself out of bed and pushed open the door to Sora's room. He watched, unhappy and expectant, as she flipped on the nightlight and pulled him onto her lap. "Oh, Sora," she murmured sleepily, "what is it this time?"

It wasn't the diaper, or a fever, or a rash, or hunger, she determined after a quick check. No, he just wanted to be held. As she rocked him, Sora subsided into hiccups bursts of tears, interspersed with brief moments of blissful calm. Soothingly, she smoothed down Sora's newly-growing hair and wondered if there was still time to go back to sleep.

"Let's see," she murmured, still rocking Sora, "what story shall we tell tonight?"

It was nearly morning, actually, but so long as the sun was still under the horizon, it counted as night.

"We've already done the dolphin story and the paopu story and the Kiyi story twice each this week," she continued, keeping up a steady stream of words. This, often, was the only thing that could put Sora back to sleep. "What shall we do tonight?"

And there was the first signs of dawn out the window. "What shall we do today?" she corrected with a small sigh.

Sora babbled, slurred with sleep, and she smiled down at him in exhausted, quiet joy. "Yes, I know love, it's morning already, but we still have a few more hours of sleeping to go, yet. That's why we're going to tell a goodnight story now. What shall we tell, Sora my Sora?"

"Ah ma aya," Sora burbled, nestling close.

"I don't think I've told you the story of your name," she mused, surprised. "How could that be? Alright, Sora, listen closely. I tell you the story of your ancestors.

"Ah na?"

"Yes," she said, tapping his nose and humming quietly. "Long, long ago, when the only things in the sky were the sun and the moons, there was one, great, big world. All of the world together, Sora, can you imagine it? They say in those days, you could go from one section to the next as easily as you would go from one island to the next, and the world prospered. The Light in the world was so bright that everyone lived together in harmony."

Sora was nearly asleep now, a still, warm weight in her arms. It would take another five minutes for him to be properly asleep, she knew, so she went on.

"No one knows exactly what happened next, but somehow, a great rift divided the whole land. All sought the power known as Kingdom Hearts, said to be the source of all Light. Everyone wanted this Light for themselves, and a terrible, terrible war began.

Sora twitched, and she rocked him gently into stillness. "Hush, now, and listen. The war was so terrible that it tore apart the beautiful world, and killed everything that tried to stop it. Kingdom Hearts fell into darkness, and the broken world nearly fell with it. But they say that the hearts of the youngest children survived, and the light in their hearts saved the fractured worlds. Now, when you look up in the nighttime you can see every single one of the worlds as a star in the sky."

She jolted out of her half-reverie; she could have sworn she was watching these events unfold. It must have been the early morning and the weighty lack of sleep. Sora shifted and cried out, thin and piercing, as her quiet words stopped.

"Alright, Sora my Sora, I'll keep talking. I'm still here, never fear. Things were broken, but there was hope. There were many prophecies made in the last few days of that terrible, terrible war, and though no one knows what most of them said, one promised that one day, a hero would rise to fix everything that was broken and heal everything that was hurt. It said his name would be Sora, and his heart would be as big and wide as the sky, and as strong and light as Kingdom Hearts itself. That's where your name comes from," she told the sleeping child

She shifted to a different position. Sora didn't stir. "Oh, Sora my Sora. May your heart be as wide as the sky, and as brave as the children who rebuilt the worlds. May your future be as bright as the new day, and as healing as the legend himself."

It may have been, must have been, her imagination, her weary mind aching for rest, but she thought she saw an image as clear as day - Sora, not her baby, but the hero of legend, standing on a broken battlefield, facing down a terrible, terrible darkness. Above it all, the clouds rolled away to reveal a blinding shaft of Light emitting from Kingdom Hearts itself. Behind, off in the near-far distance, a towering door flickered into existence.

She shuddered, and abruptly, she sat in her worn rocking chair, illuminated only by the faint light of dawn. Sora lay deep asleep in her arms, and she was left to wonder if it had been a dream, or a vision, or -

(Or the truth, she didn't dare think.)

Gently, ever so gently, she laid Sora back into his crib and crawled back into bed. The line between reality and dreams in that moment was fragile at best, but, as she fell asleep and the line faded out of existence, she thought she heard a voice whisper to her, from far off, from right beside her.

He will be the one to open the door.

She dreamed Sora grew, and grew, and grew, until he left her for worlds unknown. She dreamed he became a mighty warrior, and fixed everything that was broken and healed everything that was hurt.

She woke up in tears.

This fits into my A Sleeping Heart 'verse, but it's also standalone.