"So,"
We were sheltering from the perishing rain under Marluxia's wide-rimmed umbrella. Below us, the landscape unfolded, saturated by sheets of rain pouring in from the west. The horizon was a haze. It was dusk, midsummer; the air had a kind of humid warmth to it despite the full force of the evening tempest. The poor umbrella looked barely strong enough to cope.
I shifted slightly to lean closer to Marluxia, cowering from the wet. He'd generously given me most of the umbrella's protection; his right shoulder was jutting right out into the rain, his entire right side soaked to the skin.
He didn't seem to mind. Marluxia liked the rain. It energised him.
"So what?"
"Finally getting our sweet revenge on Xemnas,"
I laughed. "Yeah. Serves him right for all those bloody mundane missions. And don't even get me started on the reports!"
Marluxia angled the umbrella into the prevailing wind to keep me dry.
"What do you want to do? Once we've finished with all this nonentity business," He asked.
I gazed out across the landscape. We had a good view from the roof we were perched on the side of, at least, we would have done were it not for the lingering storm clouds. The high castle turrets might not have been the best place to sit, but it held special memories for me and Marluxia. Like Axel and Roxas had the bell tower of Twilight Town, this was our secret retreat, our place to chat and laugh together, ever since Marluxia had come home one evening with the most shell shocked expression on his face, and dragged me out of bed just to take me right here, to this very spot to see the vast, stretching view.
This was Marluxia's homeworld - at least the closest place to a homeworld he'd ever had. But this was the place where he'd grown up - the world he thought had been destroyed when he became a nobody. Somehow - we didn't know how - it had returned, and from then on the little niche in this alcove was ours.
"I dunno," I said at great length. "Get my heart back, I suppose. And my body. I'm beginning to loose track of all the things we've managed to loose,"
"Don't we all?" Marluxia chuckled.
"I don't think Demyx has even noticed he's missing a thing,"
"His brain, for a start," Marluxia muttered sardonically. "What about you?"
Marluxia shrugged, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. Against the cold night air and roof tiles, he was so warm.
I unzipped his heavy Organisation coat to slip my hand inside, and he shivered slightly at my cold touch.
It always surprised me just how warm Marluxia always managed to be. It stood to reason that Axel was naturally hot to the touch, and that, by the same logic, Vexen was always icily cold, but nothing about Marluxia's inner element should have dictated the warm, cosy energy that he always radiated.
"Just as long as I'm with you," I added after a while. He smiled.
"You'd spend the rest of your life with me?"
"Of course," I said, without hesitating. Why would he bother asking such a question?
"Wearing a ring?"
It took me pathetically long to work out what Marluxia meant, and in that time, he'd pulled a little box out of his pocket. Vines held the umbrella over both of us as he opened up the box to reveal a delicate, beautiful silver ring. It was in the shape of a vine, the centrepiece a tiny amethyst rose flanked by emerald leaves and little silver lightning bolts.
I gasped. He was going to propose to me! In all the years we'd been together, I'd never even imagined that possibility.
"I was going to do this as soon as we'd finished with Oblivion, but I didn't get the chance," Marluxia continued. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, but..."
He paused and suddenly I realised that I was holding my breath, tense as a bowstring.
Marluxia took a deep breath and I gazed into his deep blue eyes, willing him on.
"I may not have a heart, but Larxene... I know that I love you. Will you marry me?"
"Of course," I said. I didn't even need to think for the words to tumble from my lips. "Of course I will!"
And I squeezed him tight even as he slipped the ring onto my finger, and I held him tight and didn't let go and at that moment I knew that from then on, I never would.