A/N - Because I just HAD to write something with these two, I love them so is based on the 1 Sentence Challenge on Live Journal, with all prompts coming from Set Alpha. I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any of its characters, they belong to Disney and Square Enix. I do, however, own all OCs mentioned here (they are ALL MINE), and Marluxia and Larxene's backstories are mine too. I really should get around to writing those stories too...
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#01 - Comfort
When she wakes up, panicked and shaking, from another nightmare - with the image of her brother's blood-soaked body still clear in her mind - Larxene is grateful that, just like every other time, Marluxia is there to hold her and soothe her back to sleep.
#02 - Kiss
Being as completely focused on finishing his mission reports as he is, Marluxia doesn't realize he's not alone until his desk chair is pulled back onto two legs and Larxene is pressing her lips against his.
#03 - Soft
Marluxia can remember how his older brothers mocked him incessantly when he and Larxene - then still Luraima and Renela - first got together ("Hasn't father taught you anything, little one?Forming attachments makes you vulnerable and weak! We knew it, weakling, you've gone soft!"), and he laughs now because he, unlike them, knows what true love and happiness is like for it.
#04 - Pain
Larxene had always found it better to have no heart; the loss of it had been like numbing medicine, had made her able to remember her lost family without feeling the pain of their deaths - but lately she wonders if the old pain might be coming back, and if Marluxia's theory about their still-existent hearts might be right.
#05 - Potatoes
Bright, confused blue eyes - now the only color visible on Marluxia's ash-covered head - stare at the results of his latest disastrous attempt to cook: ash and charcoal coating the entire room, the scorched and twisted oven door at his feet, and the remains of baked potatoes burning at the back of the over; Larxene, staring from the doorway, sighs and says, "Damn it, Lulu, this is why we can't have nice things."
#06 - Rain
Moving his shiny violet fins, Marluxia swims leisurely on his back, mesmerized by the sight of the rain falling hard and fast on the Atlantican ocean's surface above him, while his partner just rolls her eyes and swims deeper underwater.
#07 - Chocolate
"Marluxia, give it back!" she shouts, thinking that the way her much taller boyfriend grins playfully as he dangles her chocolate bar above her head is infuriating, and he chuckles at her efforts to leap up and grab it from him, saying, "Come on, jump for it!"
#08 - Happiness
Flipping through her photo album, Larxene pauses at her favorite picture - one her uncle had taken about ten years before, with her older brother Shirou throwing one arm around her and their younger brother Haru's shoulders and yanking Luraima into the picture with the other arm, all four of them smiling and laughing - and though it hurts to remember that she'll never see her uncle or brothers again, she likes to remember the time when she was truly happy.
#09 - Telephone
A frustrated Xigbar stalks the streets of Metroville, searching for his two partners and becoming more annoyed by the second at this sudden vanishing act they've pulled, until he notices two pairs of familiar black boots in a nearby phone booth; narrowing his eye, Xigbar goes over and flings open the door - "For Kingdom Hearts' sake, you two! We're on a mission, this is no time to be making out! Let's go!"
#10 - Ears
"You know we can't keep him," Marluxia reminds her, hating to have to be the voice of reason, and Larxene just glares at him and continues stroking the ears of the stray cat in her arms.
#11 - Name
He doesn't know about the other members, but Marluxia welcomes taking on a new name; it's the perfect way to signify his change from Luraima, the obedient pawn of his power-hungry father, into Marluxia, the future Superior who will never again be a piece in another man's game.
#12 - Sensual
"Well, hello, my dear," Marluxia grins seductively at her from where he lounges in the bathtub, holding a rose between his teeth, "Care to join me?", he asks, and she smirks and starts to shrug off her cloak.
#13 - Death
With one final swing of his scythe, Marluxia slices his father open from stomach to chin, and while the man lies defeated and dying on the ground, all traces of his sickening arrogance and smugness gone; and as dark crimson blood pools around the fallen warrior's body, he stares coldly into the eyes that mirror his own, and snarls, "Call me worthless now."
#14 - Sex
Nothing is more perfect, Larxene thinks as she snuggles closer to Marluxia, than nights like this, when both of them are exhausted but content from lovemaking, and holding each other tight, and the last thing she feels and hears before falling asleep is Marluxia stroking her hair and murmuring, "I love you..."
#15 - Touch
Larxene thoroughly enjoys the feeling of Marluxia's hands moving over her body, not just because it's relaxing, but because she knows he is only ever this gentle with her.
#16 - Weakness
"The Organization is weak," Marluxia tells his partner, with bitterness and contempt in his voice, "and Xemnas has lied to us all - once we get rid of them, everything will be better...Just wait and see."
#17 - Tears
Kneeling alone at the graves of her uncle and brothers, Larxene gives in and lets the tears fall, wishing more than anything that she had been able to save them; tracing the cold stone with one finger, she whispers, "I'm so sorry...It's all my fault you're gone."
#18 - Speed
Marluxia is large and powerful, but that doesn't impair his speed or reflexes one bit - he is a fast, deadly blur on the battlefield, easily able to keep up with his small and agile partner.
#19 - Wind
When they first enter the Pridelands, Marluxia is unsteady on his four new lion legs and has trouble even walking at first, but racing around in this unfamiliar body comes naturally to Larxene, and she grins as she feels the wind blowing through her fur.
#20 - Freedom
"You see, Naminé, both of us desire the same thing," Marluxia explains, gently putting a hand on the still and silent girl's shoulder and continuing, "When this is all over, we will both have our freedom."
#21 - Life
When Luraima and Renela were overwhelmed by Heartless and had their hearts torn from them, both of them were certain it meant that they would fade away forever; when they reawakened as Marluxia and Larxene, they welcomed being given new life.
#22 - Jealousy
His older brother Soutarou always resented him for having their father's attention, but - as he had tried to convince his angry brother, who never listened to a word he said - he would have much preferred to be ignored completely by their cold and cruel father, and not have been molded into the self-centered man's weapon and forced to kill people to help clear his path to power.
#23 - Hands
Sparring in the training room, Marluxia is wearing Larxene down and he is sure he will win, but his last powerful punch is met with a block, kick to the stomach, strike to the head, and finishing elbow slam that are so quick he doesn't realize what has happened until he's lying dazed on the floor with Larxene on top of him, pinning him down - "I win," she says, with a self-satisfied smirk.
#24 - Taste
"At least come look at him, Naminé," Larxene coaxes the younger Nobody, but Naminé stays focused on the picture she's drawing, determinedly not looking at her, and Larxene rolls her eyes and looks back out the window at the little Keyblade wielder eagerly approaching the castle; with a sadistic grin she asks Naminé, "Ever hear the phrase, 'Victory is so close I can almost taste it?'"
#25 - Devotion
They are the perfect team, they both think: closer than anyone else in the Organization, never doubting or distrusting each other at all, and unfailingly loyal and devoted to one another.
#26 - Forever
Ten years they've been together , and though Marluxia is painfully aware of the high possibility that they can't, he wishes that they'll stay that way forever.
#27 - Blood
"You idiot," Larxene murmurs, as Marluxia, exhausted and wounded from trying to take on over fifty Heartless on his own, lays his head in her lap and she gently wipes the blood from his face.
#28 - Sickness
Sometimes Marluxia wonders if he might be a little unstable - when he looks into a mirror and sees his father leering back, when he's all alone and swears he can hear his brothers' laughter, when he loses control and smashes the mirror to bits, swings his scythe wildly in the direction of the sounds - but the thought disturbs him, and he just holds Larxene closer and tries to forget it.
#29 - Melody
The seemingly-never-ceasing music of Demyx and his sitar echoes through the castle, and Larxene, deciding that since they'll never get any sleep at this rate they should have some fun with it, takes Marluxia's hand and asks, "Dance with me?"
#30 - Star
He remembers nights back on their home world, where Luraima, Renela, Shirou, and Haru would all lie back on the grass and stay up late looking at the stars, wondering what kind of other worlds were out there, and assuring each other that one day they'd all find out together.
#31 - Home
Staring out the window of their gummi ship, Larxene watches as their home world gets smaller and smaller behind them, and despite all of the painful memories, she wishes that they could go back there to stay, or, even better, that everything could be like it was before.
#32 - Confusion
When Marluxia first felt faint emotions in his apparently heartless state, his confusion lasted only a moment: like hell these are fake or mere memories of emotion, Marluxia thinks furiously, these are real and he has been lied to, and his determination to overthrow the Superior only grows stronger.
#33 - Fear
Larxene will proudly claim that she is not afraid of anything, but, however she fights to keep it down, when they put their plan for takeover in motion, she can't get rid of the underlying fear that she will lose Marluxia, just like she lost her family.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
Moving through the World That Never Was as fast as the lightning bolts flashing through the dark sky, Larxene is in her element in more ways than one, grinning as she slaughters Heartless to the sounds of the raging thunderstorm.
#35 - Bonds
Marluxia heaves a deep sigh as Larxene holds up a pair of handcuffs and looks at him expectantly, and he says wearily, "Not tonight, Larxy," and pulls the blanket over his head as he lays back down.
#36 - Market
It's taken an hour of combing through stores, but he has finally found the perfect Valentine's Day present, and he absently strokes the stuffed lioness' head as he waits to pay for it.
#37 - Technology
"Xigbar, you son of a bitch!" Larxene yells as Xigbar knocks her down to eighth place with a blue shell, and when Xigbar and the six other players laugh and Larxene loudly threatens to castrate them if they don't shut up, Saïx begins to regret buying them Mario Kart.
#38 - Gift
"I drew this for you," Naminé says timidly, and pushes a drawing across the table to Marluxia, and when he sees what it is - a picture of him and Larxene, kissing, with their arms around each other - he smiles at Naminé, and tells her it's perfect.
#39 - Smile
Marluxia listens as Axel tells him about how Roxas makes him feel things he never has before, and how it's almost like he has a heart again (coming to him because no way is he going to Saïx or Larxene about this), and when he's done and looks at Marluxia for an explanation, he smiles and says, "Congratulations, Axel, you're in love."
#40 - Innocence
Larxene remembers how when they first started dating as Somebodies, Luraima had been concerned about preserving the innocence of her little brother Haru, and how it hadn't really been a problem until one day the kid had caught them in bed; Luraima had panicked and told him, "It's nothing, Haru, senpai's just teaching your sister how to wrestle!" and the strange part, she thinks, was that Haru had actually believed him.
#41 - Completion
"Our plan is nearing completion, my dear," Marluxia croons to her, each word dripping with satisfaction, "and soon you and I will be the Superiors."
#42 - Clouds
Marluxia doesn't know why, but he finds cloud gazing to be very relaxing, and when one day he notices that a large one right above his head resembles a crown, he grins as he is reminded of his goal.
#43 - Sky
In the Pridelands again, Larxene looks up at the starry sky, remembering what she'd heard two lions talking about earlier, and she wonders whether her uncle and brothers are still with her somehow, looking over her from wherever they have gone.
#44 - Heaven
A memory surfaces - he is fifteen years old, grinning and laughing like he never has before, as he plays soccer with Renela and her brothers; throughout the whole game Shirou cracks stupid jokes and good-naturedly teases them, Haru opts not to be competitive and cheers on all of them, and Renela keeps flashing smiles at him, and he is happier than he ever thought he could be, because they're his friends, and they are more than he ever imagined having.
#45 - Hell
A memory surfaces - she is four years old, scared and sobbing, and she and her older sister Elena hide in Elena's closet while their raging father storms around the house, screaming, swearing, and throwing and breaking things; Elena, breathing erratically and fighting back her own tears, holds her tight and tries to soothe her, but gives up and just covers her ears when they hear their mother's shrieks and the sounds of metal breaking bones, and the two of them cower in the darkness, terrified at the thought of what their father would do to them if he found them.
#46 - Sun
Trudging through the burning sand and boiling-hot air of Agrabah's desert with the sun beating on his back, Marluxia feels it all searing his body and wonders how he'll fight any Heartless when he's so hot and tired he's sure he's about to pass out.
#47 - Moon
As Marluxia stares out his window at the huge golden moon illuminating their world, he remembers with anger what Xemnas and Xigbar plan to do to the Organization when they have completed it, and reminds himself for the thousandth time of how his plan must succeed, so he can use it for their good.
#48 - Waves
Upon finding her washed up on an island beach, Larxene had assumed that they would either kill or abandon the tiny, timid Nobody, and so she was very surprised when Marluxia took the girl into his arms, saying that they were going to bring her back to the Organization with them, and gave her a name - Naminé, "born from the waves."
#49 - Hair
"Be careful, my rose," Marluxia warns her, "and remember that the Keyblade wielder cannot be underestimated," and Larxene smirks at him, pats his hair and says, "Don't worry your fluffy pink head about it. I'll be fine," before disappearing into a corridor of darkness.
#50 - Supernova
As he crashes to the ground, defeated, all Marluxia can think is that he just can't believe it: he has lost his friends, his love, his chance at finally being the Superior, his life, everything, in one great cataclysmic disaster, and he screams in rage and pain as darkness rises to consume him and erase him from existence.
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A/N - This is my first Kingdom Hearts fic and my first time writing MarLar - so how did I do? Which lines did you like best?
R&R?