Until that last year, Axel's smiles meant little. The corners of his mouth would twitch into a sly smirk, teeth bared and eyes narrowed beneath the shadow of his hood. A dangerous, empty facsimile of a smile. He was capable, on occasion, of reducing the curve of his mouth and widening his eyes: his expression cordial, perhaps even friendly. It was just a pretense, however. A deadly sneer for his opponents, a loose grin for his 'friends' – there was no real difference. Just another mask, dyed red by the setting sun. Until it wasn't. Until the word 'friends' meant something again. Until they came to him with secrets, for advice, for the simple joy of being with him. As time went on, his grins began to soften into something else entirely. Light entered his eyes, and he laughed freely, and soon Axel's smiles became more than an imitation.
Roxas understood little when he first joined the Organisation. This showed in his vacuous stare and the unsure curl to his lip. As the days passed, and he settled into his new life, and became comfortable with his new friends, his smile began to form. He had a broad, happy grin, and eyes that shone whether squeezed shut in mirth, or darting between his friends. He had a smile for the ice cream vendor, for his victories, for a report swiftly written. And unless he was truly upset, or angry, the smile lingered in the curve of his lips, the tilt in his eyebrow, the light in his eyes. Never far away, never gone completely – until that day. The day when one of his best friend's abandoned him, and the other betrayed him. Roxas' smile was never quite the same after that day. It surfaced occasionally, and looked the same, but it was missing its joy, its light, its surety. His heart just wasn't in it.
She saved her smiles for her friends. A shameless, delighted beam, a grin that grew from her usual shy smile. She would sit to Roxas' left, leaning around him to take in her friends' fellow smiles, drinking in the image as if she might never see it again. She clung to the moments when she could truly smile, cherished them as her dearest memories, and thought back on them in her darkest moments. Her smiles became lesser, somehow, towards the end – lips pressed together into a vague, absent-minded simper. Her thoughts were altogether too dark to allow for a proper smile, and their time together had become tainted by outside forces. Nevertheless, she allowed herself one more proper smile. A shadow of her bright grin, but genuine nonetheless. One proper smile at the very end – a smile to mark that cherished moment; her last; as she faded away in her best friend's arms.
So, for those of you who are interested in my story Fragmented Hearts; Shattered Reflections, please consider this an interlude of sorts. User DPSS was kind enough to notify me of some structural and grammatical errors in the first three chapters of the story, and I have revisited these chapters and addressed the issues. They'll be re-uploaded, along with chapters four and five, in the next two weeks. (I might actually be using this weekly planner thing properly now!)
I may also upload an occasional story from the 100 themes challenge, but I am not restricting myself to fanfiction alone for its duration, and most of the few KH-centric pieces so far contain spoilers for later chapters of my Fragmented Hearts story.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Any and all reviews, likes and watches are my cherished memories.