Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Axel, Lea, yadda yadda legal crap and stuff.
A/N: A fanfic written for a roleplaying friend who won my riddles contest awhile back, featuring her OC, Kinuhara, and Axel/Lea.
"Why the long face?"
Kinu looked up from the rosewater fountain, inhaling sharply as she instinctively tensed up at the sound of another's voice. What was it now? Someone else to come and call her "dark child" or make fun of her red eyes? The source of the voice was a taller, lanky young boy with spiky red hair, and her gaze was drawn to the discs in his hands that he incessantly swung back and forth. He was grinning, but in a way that somehow made the girl want to smile back. Energetic. That's what his smile was. Energetic and happy.
"What do you want?" Kinu asked, her voice tentative and soft.
The redhead walked over and bent down to so their eyes were level, wrists cocked against his hips. "Hmm. . . ." He seemed to be thinking, his hair wavering slightly as he tilted his head to one side and then the other. The ebon blinked her eyes, drawing back a bit as he looked her up and down, confusion on her face. Was he looking for something . . . ?
"Um. . . ." Kinu started to speak, but then the youth abruptly stood straight again.
"Nope!" he declared. The ebon just tilted her head, and the redhead grinned happily back. "I don't see any reason why someone so pretty is out here sitting by herself looking all glum. C'mon, smile! I bet you have a nice smile."
She couldn't help herself but to smile shyly at his behest, even giggling softly at this stranger's odd demeanor. "What. . . . You're strange," she said softly. But Kinu liked it. He wasn't teasing her, and he didn't seem so bad, and in fact he seemed genuinely nice.
"Hey, if it makes you smile more, I'll stay strange," the redhead responded merrily. "I'm Lea. Got it memorized?" As if to punctuate the statement, Lea pressed his index finger to his temple and tapped the spot two or three times, his vibrant green eyes sparkling with boyish enthusiasm. Kinu smiled back and nodded. What an odd boy. It was . . . charming.
"I'm Kinuhara, or just Kinu," she said softly. "It's nice to meet you, Lea."
That had been the first time they met. In those days, she had been one to seek solitude, to isolate herself from others, never easily opening up in fear of becoming a target for bullying. But he had helped to change that. Granted, she was still shy and a bit of a recluse, but no longer did Kinu let herself be so easily daunted. If it was bullies or Heartless, she stood up to them all the same, for what kind of friend didn't have the courage to fight for what mattered most?
"Do you remember, Lea? How we met?" Kinu asked in her soft voice, raising delicate hands to brush against the much taller one's cheeks. It had been some time since then, and it showed in Lea's height, his hardened features, and his longer hair. The exact amount of time was difficult to say, but it had been since the darkness had come to Radiant Garden. She could still recall the fear she'd felt when the strange creatures called Heartless had swarmed her home, the desperation as she had searched for her friend. Those days of darkness were over as far as she was concerned. All that time spent learning about other worlds, the Heartless, Nobodies, and so many other secrets was well worth it now, since she had found Lea.
Except he wasn't exactly Lea anymore.
Now, he was Axel.
"Vaguely. . . ." the redhead answered in his deep tenor, his brow furrowing with something akin to guilt. Axel's green eyes were cast downward as he traced what memories he had of his human life in his mind, but frustratingly came up empty. "Sorry Kinu. Kinda sad, really-all my telling people to get things memorized and here I am, forgetting things like this that are really important."
Kinu smiled softly and shook her head, a bit hurt, but understanding nonetheless. "Well, that's why I'm here now-apparently you need someone with a better memory than you to make sure you don't forget again!"
Axel laughed at that, gently chiding her hand away from his face. "What? So I'm gonna have my own personal assistant following me around now?"
"If that's what it takes, you better be able to pay me good munny for all the trouble you are!" Kinu retorted, grinning. Just like old times. Whether or not Axel remembered seemed so insignificant when they talked like this, as if nothing had happened at all. As if home was still there, as if they hadn't been lost from each other for so long, as if he still remembered. When they talked, it was easy to forget the sting of being forgotten.
"And make you grossly overpaid for doing absolutely nothing at all? You sound like Demyx," the redhead shot back, grinning widely at her. His smile made her heart flutter slightly, even if his words brought the question of who this Demyx was to her tongue. There was so much she didn't know about him now, so much time lost.
It was like she knew him and yet not at all. How much of his life had she missed? Did he have new friends now? What were they like? What had he done up until this point? Where had he been? Had he maybe looked for her, too? Not knowing those answers made Kinu feel distant from her old friend . . . and just a little sad. She could still clearly remember the way his eyes sparkled whenever he smiled, the way his lower lip pouted just slightly when he was confused, the way one eyebrow always stayed in its place as the other scrunched down when he was lost in thought. But yet, he didn't remember a thing of her. He didn't remember her name until a week ago. . . .
Something of her sorrow must have shown through, because Axel's grin faltered, and his brow knit with concern. "Why the long face?" he asked, bending down so their eyes were at level, his wrists cocked against his hips in a familiar fashion.
Kinu blinked, surprised, and smiled softly again. "Nothing," she lied. "I was just thinking, is all."
"Hm. . . ." Axel stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully, closing his eyes as he tilted his head to one side in thought. After a moment or two, he spoke, this time with his usual smile fixed back into place, and Kinu could swear she saw that old sparkle in his brilliant green eyes. "Let's go get some ice cream, yeah? This time, I'll really get things memorized," he said. The ebony-haired girl stared at him, lips parted slightly in mild surprise before blooming into a bright, genuine smile, a strange sense of warmth and joy fluttering in her chest at such a simple request.
"Yeah," Kinu said. "That sounds nice."
Maybe he didn't remember everything about before, but that didn't mean they couldn't make new memories-together.