Certainly it wasn't easy being a member of Organization XIII, but certainly the rewards of joining were more than incentive to get certain beings to perk up and follow in suit, for if you followed orders and completed missions, certain beings that were incomplete would once again become whole. For those beings, the Nobodies, who existed with no Hearts to speak of, the promise of becoming a complete being in exchange for their hard work was enough to keep even the most easily distracted members on task. Not Larxene, however. She wasn't inattentive like Xigbar or Demyx; Larxene always followed her orders to the letter, especially missions that involved eliminating an enemy of the Organization (Perhaps something that she enjoyed a little too much).
Ah, but it was all for its own sake. While other members were in it for their hearts, Larxene really had no idea what the hell she had gotten herself into when she first joined. Xigbar's quick recruitment of the blonde haired vixen was enough to grasp her attention and focus on what the Organization wanted: The Hearts of humans to make themselves whole beings once again, though the magnificent power of Kingdom Hearts. Larxene would take these missions, follow their orders, chant the Organization credo, but whenever she did so, it did not seem as real as it should be. Where other members felt fervor for their cause, Larxene simply felt the missions as something to occupy massive amounts of time that would otherwise be spent bored out of her skull.
This dispassionate view of her line of work had started as soon as she had joined. Initially assuming that the Organization would be more cooperative than it turned out to be, Larxene found nothing but cold shoulders amid the members, save for the few that replaced the phrase "cold shoulders" with "gaping morons."
Because of these so-called comrades, Larxene quickly developed a rebellious attitude, one that led her down a rather ghastly road to be sure. The Savage Nymph had underestimated her superiors, and after a few missions disregarded because she found them "boring," the subsequent beatings and other forms of punishment produced the angry woman that we all know and love, and with a lack of entertaining assignments, Larxene turned to people, or the verbal and physical assaulting thereof, for her amusement.
Although Larxene felt little for the cause of the missions, she still took the aftereffects of the missions just like any of her comrades. Exhaustion from doing several missions straight in a row with no time spent at home would be just as taxing on a brick wall like Lexaeus as it would be for a curvy tease like Larxene. Regardless of her grace, her lithe, supple body, and her devastating skills in combat, nearly getting killed every week was something that certainly called for a break.
Downtime is something that most people value greatly. It's that special period in which you can forget about whatever you're supposed to be doing and get around to things that you want to be doing. For Larxene, what she wanted to be doing was lying in her room alone, turn on some music, maybe read a magazine, and drift off from the troublesome lifestyle that she led.
As soon as she heard that her next slew of missions was being taken by the new kid, Rocksis or whatever the hell his name was, she was as ecstatic as someone who still had a heart. The new kid taking her score of assignments meant two full weeks of time off with no ire from the Superior, who, quite frankly, could care less about what his subordinates did in their downtime as long as they delivered where he required them to. It was the perfect opportunity to relax and enjoy indulge herself. At least, that's how it should have gone.
You see, Larxene's colleague Marluxia had his share of missions to complete, and as such he would be pulled away from his more regular duties around Castle Oblivion. Normally Larxene would be more than happy for Marluxia to be as far away from her as possible. From the moment they first met Marluxia had been making fruitless advances towards Larxene, something that she found insufferable after the umpteenth freaking time it happened. Passing winks, love notes left her bedroom, attempts to get as close to Larxene as possible, whenever possible. Sure enough Castle Oblivion was huge, but living as the only female amid eleven males and a Marluxia? Things tend to get a bit claustrophobic.
Furthermore, with Marluxia gone, it meant that someone in the chain-of-command had to assume his duties while he was gone.
The foremost of those duties being guarding the Prisoner.
Namine, a young witch that was formed from a strange conglomeration of the body of a girl named Kairi, and the heart and soul of Sora, a child that Larxene was aware was of particular interest to the Superior. For one reason or another, that meant that Namine was also of his particular interest, supposedly pivotal to his plans for making the members of Organization XIII whole once again. More boring speeches and lectures about the nature of the universe and something else long winded that Larxene didn't particularly care about. Either way, now that Marluxia was absent from the Castle, it meant that someone was going to have to keep an eye on Namine.
Marluxia was intelligent to be sure, perhaps even one of the smartest members of the Organization next to Vexen, Zexion, and the Superior. Strangely however, his intelligence was lacking in a certain, very important field: He couldn't take a freaking hint. For some reason he assumed that his romantic inclinations, hell, even inclinations of friendship were reciprocated by the Savage Nymph. No such luck, Pinkie. No matter how many times Larxene turned him down, Marluxia would always be back the next day as if nothing had happened. Of course, this meant that Larxene was the first person that Marluxia asked to cover his duties, and with him being even just one rank higher than she was, Larxene was forced to begrudgingly agree.
Great. Half of all that downtime meant having some kid in tow, lest she draw the attention of other members for shirking her duties. If she was anything like the last young member that had joined, the following week was going to be a royal pain in the ass.
As Marluxia was leaving, he directed Larxene to Namine's cell near his quarters. After a few instructions that you would easily gather if your brain was located inside your skull, Marluxia departed. He handed her the room key, and, with a blown kiss and a flirtatious wink, he vanished into a Corridor of Darkness. After the last wisps of darkness had evaporated, Larxene stuck out her tongue in the direction of the portal.
"Douche." She muttered, still annoyed that she was being forced into such a remedial task. Larxene flipped the key around on her fingers with the grace of an acrobat, a bored tick that she had developed when lacking the presence of her signature vermillion kunai. She slid the key into the iron lock and opened wide the door.
The room looked incredibly sterile, to say the least, with nothing in it being any color other than white. The only noteworthy feature was a petite blonde girl that sat off at a small desk, feverishly scritching and scratching a drawing onto a sketchpad.
Larxene made her way over towards Namine, taking in the simple features of the blank room. As she approached, Larxene couldn't help but notice the strange beauty about this girl. Her hair was the same color as Larxene's, as were her eyes, the ocean blue and light blonde mixing together with delicate and gentle facial features to form an overall pleasing, if not down right beautiful face. Her clothing was about as diametrically opposed to Larxene's as one could get: A simple white dress with an infantile feel, running halfway down her thighs as opposed to Larxene's ensemble of an ankle length black hood and cloak, with black tights and boots worn underneath the mysterious garment, all capturing the blonde vixen's figure in a most stunning fashion.
Larxene shook her head at the thoughts, her otherwise pale face showing the ever slightest tint of light pink. Why was she thinking about the apparent beauty of the person that was taking away her free time? Larxene would have to think about this matter later, for doing so now further prevented her from going back to her room and figuring out ways to get back at Marluxia for this nonsense.
"Namine. Up, now," Larxene ordered, her voice suddenly breaking the silence of the room. The girl at the desk looked as though she'd just been shot, falling backwards off of her chair, sketchpad and pencils going flying. The look on her face was that of silent humiliation, like that of a student who just landed in an awkward position with their token crush, as she clamored about to collect her scattered medium and tools. Larxene couldn't help but think the scene was cute in a sort of messed up way. She thought that if Lexaeus were here, he would have a word for it. "Moe" thought Larxene, "From that manga that he's always reading about those four girls in high school." She wondered for a moment why the main character had blue hair, and furthermore why she grew it nearly as long as Sephiroth, but was jolted from her inane inward debate when Namine spoke for the first time.
"He-hello, Miss Larxene. Marluxia said that you were coming by for some reason?" She was trembling, but not enough for it to be from terror. Larxene knew that kind of trembling, so often she induced it in people herself. The fall, she decided, when she tipped her chair backwards.
"Yes, he might have mentioned that. Not that I particularly want anything to do with you, of course. Thanks to you, my time off has just been thrown out the window, so you had better not…" Larxene trailed off when she noticed that Namine seemed like she was making quite the effort to conceal the contents of her most recent drawing. Perhaps she could have some fun tormenting this burden after all.
"What have you got there?" Larxene said with a sadistic smirk. After a second or two, Namine realized that the Nymph was talking about her sketch pad, and made even more of an effort (And an increasingly obvious one at that) to hide the fact that she held anything.
"I haven't got anything; no idea what you're talking about!" The girl said with a nervous smile. Surely she couldn't think that Larxene was that stupid, could she? Namine was hoping for Marluxia's impatience with trivial matters to be shared with her new caretaker.
No such luck, as always. Larxene had been called fast before, in fact, she could easily outrun and outmaneuver any other member of Organization XIII. Even Xigbar, who could defy gravity just as easily as he defied the ability to think, found himself outclassed by Larxene's grace and agility. It was in less than a second that Larxene had closed the short distance between them, moved behind Namine, and grabbed her sketchpad. The short girl had little time to react as Larxene started to examine her drawings.
"No, give that back! You can't see that!" She cried, grabbing for the sketchpad that Larxene held aloft, just beyond the grasp of her delicate fingers.
"Ooo, what do we have here?" Larxene commented, looking over the drawing. It was a tad crude, but with a charm that was quite appealing to Larxene, and the scene depicted even moreso. It seemed to be a drawing of Namine eviscerating Marluxia with the very same pink scythe that he used in combat. If the idea wasn't funny in itself, satisfying all the same, then the crude, yet expressive faces drawn on the characters were. Larxene couldn't help but release a string of satisfactory laughter, "Oh Namine, do you have any idea what Marluxia will do to you if he finds this little masterpiece?" Larxene continued admiring the simple drawing, laughing once more when she noticed that Namine had even included speech bubbles containing some very colorful language. Even though it was clear that her artwork was well received, in a strange, sadistic sort of way, Namine continued to claw for the sketchpad, knowing full well the kind of punishment she would recieve from Marluxia if he scanned the pages of her sketchpad.
Although her efforts were to no avail, the mad grasping managed to cause one of the "antennae" that Larxene so meticulously styled her hair into every morning to come loose, accidentally being pulled down by Namine's stray hand. The following minor discomfort of her hair being pulled was nothing compared to the following back hand that Namine received. Larxene twirled her former masterpiece impatiently around her forefinger and middle finger, looking as irritated as ever.
"Now see what you've done?" She asked to the stunned girl, still holding her cheek, "I already have to put up with enough bullshit from all the moronic men around this place that I think another girl would at least…" Larxene was cut off again once she had begun to read Namine's expression.
Rather than shock or grief, anger or sadness, or any other emotion that Larxene would normally have solicited by slapping someone across the face, Namine's eyes showed what seemed to be a lack of emotion altogether. Moreover it seemed that Namine was expecting more strikes, the look in her eyes even going so far as accepting the inevitable beating.
Larxene bit her lower lip at this defiance, finding it both aggravating as all hell and intriguing as the girl was attractive. This hesitation caused Namine to speak up, this time in a very meek tone.
"Aren't you going to hit me again?" She said, not even trembling as she did so. Larxene had gathered that in her time spent as a prisoner under Marluxia's guard had probably given her some kind of tolerance to this abuse. It was a strange feeling, but for a moment the Sadistic Sprite felt a surge of sympathy for the girl in white. Indeed, she brought her hand down to Namine's face again, but this time she caressed her cheek instead of striking it. Larxene had never felt this strange sensation when dealing with someone. It seemed that, if only for a moment, the Savage Nymph cared about someone's problems other than her own. Namine's expression was one of confusion and anxiety, for she knew full well that the members of Organization XIII were masters of manipulation and subtlety, so she was cautious to the possibility of a trap.
"No, no. I'm not going to hit you again, Namine." Larxene said, taking her hand away from the girl's face.
"Why not?" Namine asked, clearly puzzled. Seeing an Organization member show mercy was a rare sight indeed. Namine's tone stuck with Larxene at that statement. Larxene loved to torture and interrogate prisoners, it had even become one of her permanent positions on the Organization job chart, but for some reason, she felt that Namine was, well, different. A strange connection between the two seemed to spark for a moment, before hiding itself away.
"Because, I suppose I can understand what you've been subject to here," Larxene said, casually, bringing up her gloved hand to examine her fingernails as if they weren't covered by black fabric, "I can sympathize, at least somewhat. Neither of us seems to be very well treated around here. I'm kicked around by every other member of the Organization, and you're kicked around by Marluxia, that annoying cunt." Larxene paused a moment to look angrily towards the ceiling, imagining Marluxia becoming a permanent storage container for her kunai, "So I guess that means that we need to stick together, or so the cliché goes." Larxene finished, looking at Namine with a wry grin. In most situations like these, if Larxene ever said anything like this to some annoying brat that she had just met, it would most certainly to manipulate the hell out of them for one reason or another, to toy with their emotions. This time however, if even just the tiniest part, it was genuine.
Namine herself brought a small smile to bear. Was Larxene actually being nice to her? Offering the hand of friendship? Namine lit up at the thought. Anyone within the cold walls of Castle Oblivion that wanted more than to beat and manipulate her was good enough to be given a chance in Namine's book. Namine wandered in the thought for a few moments. That is, before she was quickly cut off when Larxene was again upon her. This time the girl was in a headlock, Larxene's rogue length of hair dangling down to Namine's cheek. Larxene took Namine's arm at the wrist and twisted it around to her back, suppressing her in a painful police-hold. Larxene kept her here for a moment, long enough to whisper "You still owe me, however." Into the sweet witch's ear.
Namine was visibly in pain when Larxene released her, her knees buckling slightly and her free hand busied with rubbing her left arm in its entirety. Looking up with the eye that wasn't watering from the pain, she saw Larxene holding herself victoriously, staring intensely at the fragile girl.
"We may be alike, but that doesn't excuse you from stealing my free time; don't expect some kind of special treatment just because I like you, kid." She said with a gentle bite in her voice, "Now get your crap together and follow me. If you're going to be staying in my quarters, we need to find some place for you to sleep."
Namine complied, the noogie now losing its effects as she busied herself collecting her sketchpad and pencils. While doing so, she couldn't help but steal a glance at Larxene, her slightly haughty walk causing her hips to sway in a flirtatious manner. Larxene was strange, alien almost in her sadistic charm, thought Namine. She was a being of so many conflicting emotions, ironic to the fact that, if what is said is true, Nobodies weren't supposed to have emotions in the first place.
Larxene was a strange creature in every sense. That was the best description Namine could put together. Naturally distrusting the abusive and genuinely malicious intentions of most Organization members, Namine was flustered. The Savage Nymph was as sadistic as they come, wearing a shell of malevolence and spite, taking joy from Namine's suffering and annoyance, and feeling victorious from giving her a dead-arm. But underneath this shell, Namine mused, was that sympathy that Larxene held out to the blonde girl.
Namine could tell that in their respective situations, Larxene was no better off. The young witch was very good a reading people, and although she had just twisted her arm almost to breaking point, Namine felt that wasn't acting out of genuine animosity, rather, she was acting on this power. Larxene was finally in control of someone, so of course she was going to savor that position. At least, this is what she hoped for.
Namine wanted to believe this, that there may be at least one decent member of the Organization in the castle, that amid all of the dark figures that fate imposed upon her, Larxene may not be as much of a bitch as she makes herself out to be.
Namine walked through the door, meeting Larxene with as much of a friendly smile as she could muster. The Sprite was surprised, considering her assault on Namine only minutes before. The look on Namine's face was inviting, friendly almost. Not understand exactly how to approach this foreign situation, all Larxene could do was brush her slightly flushed face with a gloved hand and as she closed shut the iron door behind her, angrily motioning for Namine to follow, an order that she complied to with a smile.
Wait, she wasn't dreading having to spend time with the person that had so clearly shown that their ideal use for Namine was more along the lines of "punching bag?" Larxene shooed away her questions, deciding to simply see how the events before her were to fold out with the strange young girl beside her.
"This is going to be an interetsing week," both girls thought simultaneously, their footsteps unknowingly falling in sync as they walked the distance through the castle corridors, both wondering exactly what was in store for them over the next few days.