A/N: AkuShi Day! :D I got into this pairing just a little too late for it last year, so I'm glad it's finally here again. C:
As in all of my romantic AkuShi stories, Axel is between 17 and 19 in this. It's really too squicky if he's any older… *wince* (you can see my profile for more details on that.) ANYWAY, other than that fact, this story takes place in the canon-verse. I'm actually rather proud of this story; this was one of those times where I could just get in my writing zone and flowed without a ton of extra effort. I love it when that happens.
Also, this was inspired by Jcthegirl's story, "Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion". That's where I got the idea of Axel being a piano player. I've had this plot bunny for a long time. C:
The Castle That Never Was was a dark, dreary, and normally silent place. Normally. So where was that beautiful-sounding music – so different from Demyx's energetic sitar-playing – coming from?
The Castle That Never Was was also a large and confusing place, as Xion found out after wandering the endless halls in her free time after RTCing from the clocktower. Only this time she wasn't wandering, she was searching. What member could make music like that? Or maybe not a member of the Organization, but someone or something else entirely. Xion had no idea, but she was determined to find out.
In some places the melody and harmony faded behind grey walls or fled down cold corridors, but she kept going, searching and picking up the sound again. Ironically, one place she heard it the loudest was the Hall of Empty Melodies, but an examination revealed nothing in there that could be the music's source.
Eventually the music stopped entirely, leaving her stranded at the edge of a balcony overlooking the Dark City. She gazed upwards, frowning at the eerie light of Kingdom Hearts that filtered through the clouds to rest on her.
"You weren't playing that music, were you?" Xion asked the heart-shaped moon in a mumble. There was no reply, not that she expected one. She sighed. "No, I didn't think so."
Frowning in disappointment, she opened a dark corridor to her bedroom and wondered if she would ever hear the beautiful sound again.
XXX
A little over a week later, the soft music found its way to her ears again. It wasn't the same song that had been playing before – this one was smoother, more entrancing, but definitely played by the same instrument.
I've got to know where it's coming from. Her curiosity – if she could feel such a thing – was killing her.
This time, her heeled boots clicked a rapid beat on the hard floor as she ran through the castle in search of the music's source. Unfortunately her footsteps' rhythm was too loud when the music grew softer, so she had to slow down or risk losing its trail.
"Come on, come on…" she muttered under her breath, quickly ascending a twisting metal staircase she'd never come across before. The music was getting louder; she must be close. The smooth melody pulled her forward…
By some instinct she paused at the top of the stairs and silently crept through the arching entryway. Waves of sound poured over her, momentarily making her close her eyes and breathe in deeply, like the music would have a beautiful smell as well. It didn't, but it did give her a beautiful feeling… No, that couldn't be right. Sensation, maybe, but feeling?
After a few moments of standing stone-still and listening to the music weave in and out, its pitch rise and fall, she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a spikey explosion of red hair, the only color in the huge slate-grey dome. Of course she knew who that hair belonged to. He was seated on a bench and bent over some oddly-shaped table, his fingers gliding across something protruding from its front edge.
"Axel?" She gasped in surprise. Loud as the music was from the amplifying acoustics of the dome, he immediately stopped and whirled around on the bench. She felt like she'd intruded when he looked at her with as much shock as if she'd caught him sneaking extra ice cream from the freezer.
"Oh, hello, Xion." He smiled in obvious relief, which turned into an amused grin at her wide eyes and wider mouth. "What, were you expecting someone else?"
She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but the idea of Axel being the source of such beautiful music had never crossed her mind. Was it really that surprising, though? He seemed to be good at everything.
The circular room was huge, so it took her a while to walk to the center where Axel sat at that giant, odd table. Her footsteps echoed in the quiet chamber.
"That was amazing," Xion said faintly, though it came out louder than she expected.
Axel rubbed the back of his head in an uncommon attempt at modesty. "Well, Demyx isn't the only one in the castle with musical talent."
She smiled, sitting backwards on the bench after he slid over to make room. "What's your instrument called?" Now that she was up close, she could see black-and-white keys on the not-table's edge, but she still couldn't identify it.
"Piano," he replied, idly running up and down a C major scale with nimble, ungloved fingers. Was this the first time she'd seen him not wearing gloves? Why did that matter, anyway? "I found this room a while back and figured I'd keep one of my somebody's skills alive."
"Wow… I wish I could play an instrument." She didn't have any hobbies, unless eating ice cream on the clocktower counted, and her only talent was swinging around a giant key. Not that being a keyblade wielder wasn't cool or anything, she just wished she had more skills than fighting.
"Hmm…" A grin stretched across his face. "I might be able to grant that wish."
Her expression seemed to literally brighten – considering her element was light, it would've been possible. "You'll teach me how to play piano?"
"Why not?" Axel shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "It's kind of boring playing for an empty room, anyway."
She swung her legs to the other side of the bench so she could face the black-and-white keys. "Can we start now?"
He chuckled at her eagerness. "You need to know the notes and how to read music first."
"Read?" Xion asked. "What does reading have to do with music?"
She blushed at her ignorance when he laughed again. "That's what I'm going to teach you." He picked up one of the sheets of paper that had been propped upright on the piano. The notes, which looked like the dots and scribbles of a whimsical child to Xion, made her head spin. "Don't worry, you won't be dealing with anything this complicated. Yet." He grinned. "I'll just show you the notes on the treble and bass clefs for now."
Had he suddenly started speaking a foreign language? She already felt lost.
"Trust me, it's not hard," Axel assured her, apparently noticing that her eyebrows were scrunched in confusion. "This is middle C," he pointed to the ledger line between the clefs, then pressed the corresponding piano key. "And this is D… and E… F… G… A…"
By the time Xion returned to her room that night, she felt exhausted but satisfied at her ability to "get it memorized." Axel had been proud of her, too, even though he said she wasn't ready to start playing yet. He agreed to give her lessons every other day after their evening ice cream.
I hope I'll be good at this, she thought as she lay sprawled on her bed.
She wanted to make beautiful music like Axel – well, maybe not that good, it probably wasn't possible. He had so much more experience than her.
And maybe it wasn't just that she wanted to make beautiful music like him… She wanted to make beautiful music with him.
XXX
Despite Xion's worries about messing up, she flew through her first few lessons, which were mostly simple memorization. Which notes were which, how many beats does a quarter note get, and so on. Those things came easily to Xion – her brain absorbed and remembered symbols and the order of keys on the piano like a computer would process data. Axel admitted he was impressed, which made her smile and devote herself even more to her studies.
Axel ruffled Xion's hair when they met at the piano room about a week from her first lesson.
"Congratulations, Xi. You've graduated the first stage in Axel's Brilliant Piano Class of Awesomeness."
She giggled and settled in her usual spot on the piano bench. "You're being even more egotistic than usual today."
Raising his eyebrows and gasping in mock horror, he replied, "You mean you don't think I'm awesome?"
"I didn't say that." She giggled again.
"Good. Better be nice; I am doing this for you, y'know. Out of the goodness of my nonexistent heart." He cracked a grin.
Nonexistent… Yes, it was silly to think their hearts were anything but. Still…
"Thank you, Axel," Xion said, dismissing her thoughts with a smile. "Does that mean I get to play the piano today?"
He laid out a simple piece of sheet music, titled "Dearly Beloved", on the piano's music stand and slid to the right edge of the bench.
"Have at it. You know how, now it's just time for some practical application."
Xion winced at his wording, and he laughed.
"Lexaeus still uses the same script when he teaches limit breaks, eh?"
Her eyes widened. "You mean you got punched in the face too?"
He shrugged. "That's Lex for you. Now go on, we didn't come here to chat about painful experiences with our coworkers."
His easygoing smile told her he wasn't really getting impatient, but she still blushed in embarrassment. I kind of like just talking about stuff like this, without Roxas in between us… What was she thinking? Roxas was her friend, he wasn't in the way!
"Xi? Something wrong?" Axel asked when she sat frozen, letting an uncomfortable silence stretch between them.
She shook her head, not looking at him. "Nothing. I'm fine."
Peeling off her gloves, since Axel said it was impossible to play in them, she scooted to the middle of the bench. Though the piano was huge, the grey bench wasn't, and she ended up pressed to his side. She took a glance at his face, but if he was bothered by their proximity, he didn't show it, so Xion hid the blush flowering in her cheeks and began to play.
For the most part she pressed the right keys. Her fingers tripped over each other a few times, especially when she had to jump gaps with her left hand. She winced at every mistake, feeling awful under Axel's gaze. It wasn't only when she pressed the wrong keys or held out notes for the wrong number of beats; something else was off. It didn't sound as soft and flowing as it did when Axel played it. It was way too loud and harsh, not… not musical enough.
Eventually she grew so embarrassed at herself that she hung her head and let her fingers rest on the keys without pressing them.
"Why'd you stop playing?" Axel asked curiously. She didn't look up at him.
"I keep messing up, and it doesn't sound right." She sighed. "I'm not good enough."
"Hey, it was your first time," he said. She figured he was just trying to cheer her up. "Did you think I expected you to be flawless?"
"Well…" she mumbled, swinging her legs that could barely reach the foot pedals.
"You did great, Xi. Not to sound like I don't believe in you or anything, but I expected you to slip up a lot worse than that. I know I did on my first time."
She frowned, but looked up to see him smiling sincerely. "Really?"
He nodded. "You hit most of the notes, except for those few mistakes with your left hand. It must be hard to reach those with small hands," he mused. "Your main problem is that you're so stiff."
He removed his own gloves and held one of her hands. A tingle rushed up her arm, probably just a side-effect of his fire element, nothing to worry about… "It's like your fingers are made of lead."
His thumb traced the lines on her palm, then ran up and down each of her fingers. She tensed, feeling as if she'd stuck her hand into a burning flame, though it was frozen as if it was coated in Blizzaga.
"See, that's what I mean." A hint of a smile played on his lips. "You've gotta loosen up, Xi."
She tried to move her fingers. His grip on her hand was loose, but they refused to obey her. "How, um, do I do that?"
"Keep trying," he replied, either not noticing or not caring how awkward she felt (forget not having a heart) with her hand in his. It wasn't bad, really, in fact, it would be almost pleasant if she could just do what he said and not be so stiff…
Just when she realized that she might want to hold his hand, he let hers go.
"Right. Practice," she said more to herself than him as he guided her through a finger exercise to "loosen her up" as he put it. She didn't show much improvement.
There goes any chance I have of being a good pianist. How can I relax and loosen up when being close to him makes me all awkward? I'm not like this around Roxas, or when it's all three of us…
She sighed. She was probably just overthinking things; her problem might not have anything to do with Axel at all. It wasn't fair to blame him for making her feel awkward when it could just as easily be because her fingers weren't used to dancing around the keys yet. In fact, that was the more likely option. So why had her thoughts immediately jumped to Axel?
XXX
Xion did get better. Not as quickly as she wanted to, but with all the focus she was pouring into honing the talent, it was impossible not to improve. Even though Axel only taught her every other day, she made nightly visits to the piano room on the days in-between to sneak in more practice. She was almost caught a few times – Xigbar had a habit of lurking and sneaking everywhere, and apparently he was nocturnal, too. When she felt anyone watching her or heard any odd noise, she immediately corridored back to her room.
Axel assigned her harder songs, ones that she stumbled over and butchered the first few times she played them. Sometimes she'd just get nervous from his emerald gaze and epically fail on simple songs, too. Every mistake disheartened her (more than she technically was) and often led to more mistakes. She felt like for all her practice and how good she was when he wasn't watching, she just couldn't relax enough around him to show her true talent. Her slim fingers were less like anvils than before, but still couldn't glide across the keys like Axel's.
"I played this perfectly last night, I promise," she moaned, wanting to bang her forehead on the keys. It would've probably sounded better than her latest failure at "Scherzo di Notte".
"Xi, maybe you're overworking yourself," Axel said softly, almost sounding guilty. "It's only been two months. You're learning crazy-fast already."
"But I want to be better," she protested, frowning deeply. "I want to play like you. I'll never get that good." She sighed.
"Xion." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to his side, startling a gasp from her. "You are pushing yourself too hard. I didn't learn half as fast as you. I don't think anyone in the history of piano players has, actually." He grinned a little.
"R-really?" She stuttered. He nodded, green eyes twinkling down at her.
"I don't know how you find any time to sleep between missions and all this piano practice." That guilty look entered his eyes again. Xion wondered if it was her imagination, since he wasn't supposed to be able to feel guilt. "You don't have to be perfect, Xi. Maybe I've been stressing you out by giving you all those tips on how to get better."
"It's not your fault!" Her voice echoed loudly. "I've been pushing myself." She didn't mention that it was because she wanted to impress him. "Besides, you tell me more of what I'm doing right than what I do wrong, and you give me compliments and make me laugh…" A blush tinged her face as she trailed off.
Axel squeezed her tighter, and she cautiously rested her head on his shoulder.
"So you do like this?" He asked with a smile. For a brief moment she wondered if he meant the piano lessons or sitting together the way they were now, with his arm comfortably around her shoulders… but of course he meant the lessons, those thoughts just kept creeping up on her no matter how many times she dismissed them.
"I like this a lot," she whispered, answering both possible meanings truthfully.
His smile stretched a little. "I don't want this to be extra work. Piano can be fun, if you let it."
"It is fun," she insisted. But had it been? She focused so much on performing flawlessly to impress Axel that she'd forgotten her original goal of just making beautiful music. Maybe she was trying too hard… It should be fun, like he said. And with him, she knew it could be.
"It is if you relax," he said, eyes lighting with an idea. "Maybe this will help."
Xion froze when his warm hands caressed her shoulders. That wasn't normal, was it? To freeze from warmth? He rubbed her taut muscles, but it did nothing to ease her tension.
"Hey, is this… am I making you nervous?" He asked sincerely. Of course she was; he was acting weird. Not that she didn't like it, it was just… well, weird. And confusing. He was confusing.
"No," she lied. Or maybe it wasn't a lie, if she couldn't feel nervousness. She was beginning to think the whole "no heart, no emotions" thing was more of a scam than the moogle shop's prices.
He reluctantly went back to massaging her shoulders. It was comforting, comfortable, but why couldn't she relax? For some reason, in addition to being stiff as a board, she started to shiver. Now that just did not make sense. Maybe it was herself that confused her more than he did.
"Xion, you're not okay." His eyes were full of concern, but he backed off instead of holding her closer. Maybe he thought it was his fault.
"Yes I a-am." Her stutter made the lie even more unconvincing than it already was.
He crossed his arms, raising one red eyebrow in a look that clearly said "do you think I'm dumber than a Dusk?"
She sighed, wrapping her arms tightly around herself in an attempt to calm her shivers. "Maybe I'm getting sick or something. I don't know, I was fine earlier."
Axel moved to reach for her hand, but he let his drop to his side instead. Her spirits dropped with it. "Come on, it's late. You should get a good night's sleep, especially if you're getting sick. I'll try and pull a few strings with Saïx, maybe I can get him to give you a day off."
She grunted, frustrated at how she'd failed to relax yet again, and worse, messed up what would've been a nice moment between her and Axel. He probably wouldn't try to help her relax like that again.
The only plus side was that Axel did manage to persuade Saïx to give her a sick day, so she finally caught up on her sleep.
XXX
During her lessons, Axel praised her efforts more often. Xion wondered how much was sincere and how much was just to cheer her up, but she was thankful that he cared either way. She still practiced every day, but not for as long as she used to because if she did…
"C'mon, you're going to be as much of a zombie as Roxas if you keep this up." Axel had snuck up behind her while she was playing, and he laughed when she jumped visibly at his voice. "You need your beauty sleep."
She turned around and flicked him on the arm. "Are you implying something, Axel?"
He looked away, chuckling to himself. Was it just her, or was that a bit of awkwardness she heard in that laugh? For a moment he looked adorably flustered, but she might've just imagined that as well.
"Just that I don't want you to stop looking beautiful."
He just had to say things like that and make her blush, didn't he? And she never knew exactly what he meant by those things.
She sighed but couldn't keep a smile off her face. "Fine, I'll go get some beauty sleep." For you, she thought strangely afterwards.
She'd given up trying to fight those strange thoughts since that night Axel had tried to help her relax, since that was the source of a lot of her stress. Apparently that was a good call – her fingers flew more freely across the keys than before, and her music sounded more musical. The only downside was that now that she stopped fighting them, the thoughts seemed to show up constantly when she was around Axel. When his bright green eyes were on her, she felt like he could read her mind like an open book. That paranoid thought was the only thing that kept her nervous and unable to relax completely.
Still, she felt better than she ever had before. There was a warmth inside her that grew with every lesson, partially pride at her progress, partially something related to being in Axel's presence. She wondered if he knew what he was doing and whether or not it was on purpose.
XXX
Some days Xion practiced, some days Axel played for her while she drowsed on his shoulder. She liked those days best, although it was also nice when he smiled at her music. Some days one or both of them couldn't make it, just like how some days they and Roxas couldn't make it to the clocktower, with Saïx giving them harder and harder missions. As long as Xion carried that warm feeling with her it wasn't so bad.
This particular day, Axel was playing a song called "At Dusk, I Will Think of You," and despite how much Xion wanted to listen, the peaceful melody was lulling her to sleep. Her head fell onto that comfortable spot on his shoulder, but it didn't stop him from playing. She hummed along sleepily.
This song roused different feelings in her than the other songs did. She didn't know how, but she had come to accept that music could contain emotions. Maybe that was why Demyx liked to play his sitar so much. Anyway, this song brought feelings of dreamy content, and memories of her time spent on the clocktower with her friends.
"Hmm… Axel…" she murmured when she was barely clinging to consciousness.
He didn't stop playing as he replied, "Xi? Feel like heading back now?"
She yawned. "No… not yet, I just wanted to ask… do you feel anything? From the music?" She wanted to see his expression, but she was so tired, and her eyes wouldn't open. He finally stopped playing.
"Do you?" He asked, his tone of voice difficult to interpret.
"I… don't know… but I like to think so…" She probably wouldn't have admitted it under other circumstances for fear of him looking at her oddly, but didn't think about that in her semi-conscious state.
"Hmm. Well, I figure we'll find out soon enough," he replied cryptically.
His answer made her eyes crack open, just barely. "Huh? What do you mean?"
He ruffled her hair and shrugged. "Exactly what I said."
XXX
"Hold me, whatever lies beyond this morning, is a little later on…" Axel sang under his breath (about two octaves lower than the original singer) as Xion's fingers pranced across the piano with ease. She'd been practicing "Hikari" for a while now, and she wasn't about to let her hands turn to anvils and ruin it for her.
As the final note hung crisply in the domed walls, a satisfied smile tugged at the corner of her lips. It had sounded beautiful, despite one or two small mistakes, and she was proud of herself.
Axel clapped loudly, giving her a huge grin. "You're having fun with it."
She beamed happily at his praise.
"Xi, I think you're ready." He dug his hand deep into his pocket, and she tilted her head slightly.
"Ready for what?"
Miraculously, he pulled eight folded pages of sheet music from the black hole depths of his pocket and smoothed them out before propping them on the music stand. Xion gaped. Not only was it eight pages long, but there were so many notes that the whole thing seemed like an ink bottle had thrown up on it. Notes swam on the page just like the first time she looked at sheet music.
"I'm supposed to play that?"
He chuckled. "Nope," he replied mysteriously.
"Then what's it for?" She noticed that the title of the song seemed to have been scribbled out. But why?
"We're going to play that." He rested an arm on the dark black piano behind the keys. "One of us can do the treble, and the other'll do the bass."
Xion smiled. "Together?"
"Yeah, like a duet." He nodded. "This sheet music's not technically meant for two people, but there's so many notes that it helps to have four hands anyway, especially since yours are so small."
Xion picked at the corner of one of the sheets but didn't respond to his unintentional insult to her size. "What's the song's name?"
Was it her imagination, or did he grin for a moment? "Sanctuary," he answered, not quite looking at her.
"That's fitting," she mused with a smile. "Maybe once we get really good, we could bring Roxas here and play it for him, like a show." She felt a little guilty having time with Axel all to herself, however much she enjoyed it.
"Huh?" Axel blinked like he'd been snapped from a daydream, then his lips formed an unreadable line. "Yeah, that sounds good."
XXX
As it turned out, it was going to take more time than Xion thought to get really good. She chose the treble clef (swapping her and Axel's normal places on the piano bench) and though it wasn't overly difficult to play on its own, melding with Axel was a challenge. Their hands tended to get tangled up together, which was enough to make Xion blush and Axel laugh awkwardly at first, but after so many times they got over it and even teased each other about it.
"You must really want to hold my hand." Axel grinned, pulling his fingers from between hers.
She did, actually. It was one of her many weird thoughts. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who crashed into my chord," Xion teased back.
"I dunno, that sounds like denial to me." Axel winked.
There wasn't really anything she could think of to reply to that.
XXX
Three weeks passed, and Xion was getting pretty frustrated at "Sanctuary". And at herself. And just a little bit at Axel.
"You're going stiff again," he told her after she'd been pounding the keys a little too hard. She let a fist drop onto the piano, releasing a painful sound that made them both wince.
"Sorry, Axel…" She shook her head. "I just don't feel like we're getting anywhere with this."
"We are," he assured her, ruffling her hair. "Just think about how much we – you've learned since we started. This'll be cake in no time."
"But it isn't cake," she muttered mostly to herself. She was putting more effort into it than her missions, and it still wasn't getting much easier.
"Well, that's because you have to work around me." He grinned apologetically, rubbing the back of his head. "I've never dueted with anyone before, y'know."
"You haven't?" Her eyebrows quirked.
He shook his head. "I'm just as new at this as you are."
"Oh." She gently rested her head on his right shoulder, which wasn't as familiar as his left. It was odd to think of Axel as learning with her after he'd taught her for so long. "I wonder how we can get better…"
"Work together," he answered simply, sounding like he was just realizing it himself. "With each other instead of around."
"What?" She asked.
"Treat the whole thing like one song, not two songs being played at the same time." He smiled, looking straight into her blue eyes. "Oh, and you can't flinch whenever our hands touch."
Her jaw dropped. "I do not flin-"
He took her hand. She flinched.
"C'mon, Xi, am I really that bad?" He laughed, but there was genuine worry in his eyes.
"N-no… I just…" She took a deep breath, refusing to let what had happened when he massaged her shoulders happen again, and let herself melt against him. "This isn't bad," she mumbled.
Smiling, Axel squeezed her hand in his. "This can be today's lesson. Relaxing."
Xion was perfectly content with that.
XXX
From then on, their performance skyrocketed. Xion worked at memorizing the sheet music because Axel said it would be more impressive when they played for Roxas that way, and besides, it was a pain trying to cram eight pages on even that large of a piano.
Their hands wove around and between each other's, fingers dancing across the keys with skillful agility. Xion half expected the piano to burst into flames from their energy, but since it didn't, they kept playing better than they ever had before. They still had the sheet music up for reference, but Xion tried to avoid looking at it unless she completely forgot a note. She could hardly believe how far she'd come in such a short time.
The melody and harmony melded between them, forming an invisible bond that made Xion press closer to Axel – or maybe that was just him leaning over to reach a higher note, she wasn't sure.
And then, with both of them smiling widely, Xion played the last string of notes while Axel held out the final chord. They exchanged a glance while the sound faded from their ears.
"I'm ready to try it without the sheet music," she told him.
He nodded. "Same here." He took the papers down and shoved them messily into his pocket. They shifted a little to get back into their comfortable positions, Axel cracking his knuckles and Xion pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. One glance at each other to confirm they were ready, and Axel counted off under his breath.
They began softly, almost inaudibly if it wasn't for the amplifying properties of the room. The intro sounded mystical, reverberating from the walls and filling the air.
Then with barely any warning Xion exploded into a flurry of sixteenth notes while Axel complemented her with a less complicated harmony. He'd have his turn in the latter half of the song to string together chains of split-second notes.
Xion felt like her fingers moved of their own accord, all her practice having ingrained piano-playing reflexes into them. It wasn't completely effortless, but it was still amazing. She thought if she played any faster her hands would become invisible blurs.
Axel hit a long whole note of two Cs while she trilled the same melody from the intro. After that her part got easier, and his became slightly more difficult as he pounded out staccato notes. She let off the damper pedal while his deep bass beat a rhythm for her smoother treble.
Xion found herself swaying slightly as she played the melody, and to her surprise, Axel seemed to sway with her. They lost themselves in the music, barely registering the movements of their fingers. Nothing could trip them up, not even how close she was to him, their coats seeming like one black sea.
Crescendo, crescendo, booming chords, his fingers flying over and under hers, sparks seeming to fly from them… It all came together to make a breathtaking sea of sound.
The crescendo peaked. Something stirred in Xion's chest as they wove the most exhilarating part of the song, and she looked up to find Axel's green eyes, glowing with energy, suspended above hers. His smile was more amazing than she'd ever seen.
Without thinking or stopping the melody, she closed the short gap between their lips.
She expected it to only last a moment – but then he froze, cutting off the flowing harmony, and wrapped his arms around her back. He returned the kiss with as much energy as they'd been pouring into the music.
The sudden drop into silence might've sounded awkward, but her fingers played their way from the keys into his hair, and she didn't notice the lack of sound at all. In fact, her heart – what else could it be? – was singing louder than they had ever played.
His warm hands kept her pressed to him, as if she had any intention of pulling away. Ohh, if she could feel like this forever…
But eventually, after how long she couldn't tell, he lifted his lips from hers but left their foreheads touching. She opened her eyes, not having noticed they were closed, and almost gasped at how bright his were, the emerald lit with his internal flame. She stared into them for a long time, smiles present on both of their faces.
"This song has another name," Axel whispered unexpectedly. His breath on her lips felt so good, she really wanted to kiss them again.
"What is it?" She asked instead.
He shifted to whisper in her ear, like the answer was a secret.
""Passion." And I think it's working on you."
"And…" Xion breathed shallowly. "Is it working on you, too?"
His smile widened to near-impossible size. "I'll let you figure that out."
Axel kissed her smiling lips again, and though she had about a million questions, she knew the answer to at least one.
Feelings? Yes, she had them. So did he, and he felt the same way she did. That freed the last bit of nervous tension from her, and she kissed him back blissfully.
When they were done, they exchanged grins and wordlessly finished the song. Nothing Xion had ever heard had sounded so beautiful. And she had helped create it.
Axel wrapped her in his arms again, and he laughed slightly. "Whaddaya say we leave that one bit out when we play for Roxas?"
She blushed a light shade of pink. "That would be a good idea."
He smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I've wanted to do that for a while now. I didn't expect you to do it first."
"You did?" She stared. Had he been having the same strange thoughts she had?
He nodded. "Didn't want to freak you out, though." He looked away, grimacing. "Like I did when I tried to help you relax."
"That was my fault," she murmured, holding his hand. "I was nervous because… I think… I liked it, and I didn't know why."
"Then it's not your fault. You know why now, though?" He held her closer.
She nodded. "But I don't have a word for it." She frowned at her ignorance. "Is it "passion"?" He'd said it was working on her; maybe that was what he meant.
"What you're feeling? I can't tell you for sure, but if it's anything like what I feel…" He shook his head. "Passion is a little different. This is better, though."
"What is it?" She asked. He leaned close to whisper to her again.
"Love." His eyes shone warmly, and she knew instinctively that he was right.
She smiled brightly. "Love… I like the sound of that."
A/N: I think this is my favorite Axel/Xion work, one shot or otherwise, that I've written so far. (That doesn't include BtI stuff I only have dreamed up in my head, though.) C:
…I spelled "piano" "paino" so many times while typing this up. XD
I had to analyze the "Passion" sheet music I have (that I'm a fail at playing, lol) to write the part where they're playing. And listen to it like a gazillion times on YouTube. It really sounds awesome.
In my headcanon, the reason Xion is such a fast learner is because she's a replica and specifically designed to absorb information and pick up skills quickly. That and her obsessive amount of practice.
Random note: While Xion's playing "Hikari", Axel's singing "Simple and Clean". The part he sings is the one part in the song where the lyrics fit both the English and Japanese versions.