Master Yen Sid's Mysterious Tower:
"Do you have to go?" asked Kairi.
"Yeah, sorry," apologized Riku. They were on the lawn outside, and Riku was kneeling over a duffle bag making one last check of his supplies. "Mickey needs my help with something. I didn't ask for details, but I'm sure it's important. Sora's still in Traverse Town; doing what, I have no idea. But Master Yen Sid and the Three Good Fairies are here, so you should be fine. Don't worry; if you start missing us, just train harder. I'll be back to check in on you as soon as I can, alright?" he asked as he stood up and stretched his arms.
"Yeah, sure," Kairi muttered.
"Hey. It's going to be okay," Riku insisted, clapping a hand on her shoulder. "For now, just focus on catching up with me and Sora. Soon as you do, maybe we can all go home and relax for a while?"
That made Kairi smile. "Alright, I'll do my best. Get back soon, Riku." She gave him a hug, and a peck on the cheek for good luck. Riku blushed and mumbled something, and then they heard Mickey call for him.
"Stay out of trouble, butthead," he said teasingly as he hoisted his bag and headed over to where the King awaited him, Star Seeker in one hand and the Star Shard in the other.
Kairi blew a raspberry after him and then waved. "Good luck, guys!" she called. Riku and Mickey waved back; Riku put his hand on the Star Shard, and the two of them began glowing. Riku frowned, remembering that there was something he had meant to tell Kairi but uncertain as to what it was. He didn't remember what it was until after he and Mickey shot off into the wild blue yonder, and then he really wished he had given her a heads-up.
Blissfully ignorant of the unpleasant turn her day would soon take, Kairi headed back into the tower.
Thirty minutes later:
A corridor of darkness opened up in the kitchen while Kairi was fixing herself a tuna sandwich for lunch. Lea casually strolled out of it, and if the sight of the portal had caused her to freeze with shock then the sight of him caused that shock to be melted by righteous fury. Having a pure heart and all of its shortcomings, Kairi couldn't feel hatred per se, but damn if she couldn't feel all kinds of furious indignation at the sight of her erstwhile kidnapper dropping into Master Yen Sid's Tower like he owned the place! As he had entered the room with Kairi to his left, right on the edge of his peripheral field of vision, and seemed to be lost in thought about something, he didn't notice her right away. This did not go unnoticed by the seriously perturbed Princess of Heart, who smiled a devilish smile as she dropped to a crouch and started to quietly open up cupboard and seek out the heaviest frying pan she could find. Lea, unaware of the imminent threat to his cranial integrity, peeled off his Black Coat and draped it carelessly over a chair at the dining table. Under the Coat he wore a Bomb tee-shirt he had picked up in Twilight Town last week, and he had also swapped out his old leather pants and boots for a much more comfortable pair of black jeans and orange and red sneakers. The shirt was a size too big in the shoulders and hung loosely on him, but it was big enough to hide his embarrassingly bony ribs so he was cool with it. He stopped in front of the refrigerator and had a brief mental debate. Did he want to get a soda out of the fridge, or an ice cream out of the freezer? He wished Sora was around to share the ice cream with; it wasn't quite the same as having one with Roxas, but it was as close as he was going to get. Finally, he decided on the soda. He opened the fridge, and found himself confronted with a new dilemma: cherry-cola, or orange flavor?
In the meantime Kairi had successfully located Master Yen Sid's biggest cast-iron skillet, seven inches deep and almost an even twenty inches in diameter, and had begun to slowly creep up behind Lea. Kairi remembered how helpless and ashamed of said helplessness she had felt as he had dragged her off by the arm from Twilight Town. Vengeance wasn't in her nature (again, heart of pure Light) but she sure as skippy couldn't let his transgression go unpunished. Just as Kairi had gotten close enough, and was just about to jump up and clobber him on the head as hard she possibly could, Lea turned around with a bottle of cherry-cola in hand, muttering curses about the cap being too tight and wondering which drawer the bottle opener was in. Then Lea noticed Kairi, and the two of them stared at each other in surprise. Kairi didn't figure herself for a scaredy-cat, but the prospect of giving Axel (as she still knew him) a well-deserved clobbering seemed like a lot less of a good idea now that he was facing her. They had an awkward sort of impromptu staring contest for a moment until, at last, Lea extended the bottle towards her and said, "Hey, think you can open this for me, Squirt?"
Now, there's a long list of offensive things that you shouldn't call a girl, and if 'Squirt' is anywhere on that list at all it's probably not very high up. For some reason, however, having 'Axel' address her as such made Kairi's blood boil. Maybe it was that he seemed to think he had any right to use such a pet name on her, or maybe it wasn't the word itself so much as his nonchalant tone or overly-familiar attitude. Maybe it just chafed her that after kidnapping her he had the nerve to steal a soda from Master Yen Sid's refrigerator and then ask her to open it for him, and being called 'Squirt' was just the icing on the Rage Cake.
Whatever the reason, Kairi's reaction to Lea's innocent question was pretty dramatic and, to an uninformed outside observer, extremely disproportionate. She screamed at the top of her lungs–causing Lea to flinch backwards, almost making him tumble into the still-open fridge and drop his pop–and swung the skillet at his head. She fully intended to lay about fifty-or-sixty-ish pounds of cast-iron across his face, but his years of combat experience accrued under the banner of Organization XIII kicked in and he ducked before he had even fully processed that he was being assaulted by a fifteen-year-old girl armed with heavy cookery. It was like his home economics class all over again. Kairi realized she had completely missed and tried in vain to reign in the runaway momentum of her weapon, but alas the skillet flew out of her hands and crashed through a window. Staggering and wobbling in place, Kairi struggled to reclaim her balance and cast her eyes about for another viable weapon. Then she remembered, duh, she had that now.
In a burst of light, Destiny's Embrace materialized in her hand and she held it at the ready. "Alright Axel," she said without even trying to mask her hostility, "Tell me what you're up to and maybe I won't show you what I can do with one of these."
'Axel's reaction…wasn't what she expected. "Geez, Kairi! Were you trying to knock my block off? That was pretty frigging rude of you, Squirt. Never mind, I'll just look for the bottle opener," he said as he stood up and walked right past her.
It should go without saying that if being called 'Squirt' had burned her up, then being so casually dismissed by an enemy was making Kairi feel outright incendiary. If a Princess of Heart was truly incapable of feeling complete, unreserved hatred for another living thing, then Kairi was getting pretty damn close regardless. She howled again and ran after Lea, swinging her Keyblade at his shoulder this time.
Ten minutes later:
Master Yen Sid, venerated sorcerer and retired Keyblade Master, a man who had saved the universe a dozen times in his day on adventures way too epic for this humble writer to describe, walked into his kitchen with intentions to grab a snack. He had been stargazing for the last four hours straight–he'd been doing a lot of that since Xehanort's return, hoping to divine any clue as to when and where he and/or his cronies would next make mischief–and was feeling a bit peckish. He could have sent a Broomstick to get him something, but he honestly wasn't sure what he wanted and so decided to look around. Imagine his surprise when he walked in to find Lea frying some quesadillas and heating tomato soup on the stove, whistling a tune while absently dodging the increasing sloppy swings of a Keyblade by an incandescently fuming Kairi. 'Riku forgot to tell her, didn't he?' Yen Sid thought dourly. He sighed, and with a casual wave of his hand made Destiny's Embrace fly out of its mistress's hands. "That will be enough of that, young Princess," he said sternly.
Kairi whirled about-right in surprise and gasped, "Master Yen Sid! It's Axel! He broke in–" she started, pointing rather unnecessarily at the highly conspicuous man whistling 'Steamboat Willy' as he flipped a quesadilla. However, he interrupted.
"Name's Lea," said Lea, turning off the burner and moving the skillet. "And I live here. Kind of. Mostly-sometimes. You wanna quesadilla?" he asked as he got down a plate and took a sip from his pop.
"Huh?" asked a bemused Kairi, "You told me your name was Ax–you what?!" She whipped her head back to stare at Yen Sid again, her eyes screaming the question she was too stunned to ask aloud.
Yen Sid only nodded gravely. "Young Princess…did it even occur to you to ask what he was doing?" he asked her.
"Well, she kind of did," admitted Lea, "But she was threatening me with her Keyblade at the time so I didn't really feel like answering." He turned to Kairi again and said, "So, about that quesadilla; yea or nay?"
Kairi looked utterly stricken, as if her entire world had been flipped on its head. Yen Sid discreetly telekinesis'd a chair to move behind her, catching her when her knees gave out a moment later. "So…" Lea tried again.
"Lea! Not now," said Yen Sid.
"Yeah, yeah, fine…how about you, then?" he asked, offering up a plate with a couple of piping hot quesadillas on it. Yen Sid contemplated the greasy, cheese-caked tortillas for a moment, and then contemplated his cholesterol. Then he just shrugged and thought, 'Why the heck not? Life is too short, even when you get to be as old as me.'
He nodded and accepted the plate with a solemn, "Thank you, Lea." He and the spiky-haired borderline-pyromaniac took their seats at the table. Yen Sid once more employed his telekinetic magic to fetch himself a cream soda from the fridge and a fork and napkin for both himself and Lea, who poured some of the tomato soup into two saucers and passed one to the old master. They ate in companionable silence while Kairi continued to stare off into space and generally BSOD-ing.
After he had finished his food and Kairi still showed no sign of…anything…Yen Sid spoke up, "Did Riku not inform you of what transpired during his and Sora's Mark of Mastery examination?"
It took a moment for Kairi to register that he had spoken, and only then did she snap out of her fugue. "Uh…kind of? He mentioned some sleeping keyholes and dream eating spirits and a smart-aleck kid named Joshua and that a time-traveling teenaged version Xehanort was running around causing mayhem, but he kind of glossed over the details. Why?"
'He must not have wanted to worry her by mentioning how close we came to losing Sora,' Yen Sid deduced. Or induced? Who knows, that whole thing confuzzles me something fierce. "Well, what he didn't mention–and please don't judge him too harshly, I'm sure he just didn't want you to worry–was that our enemies captured Sora and almost turned him into a thirteenth vessel for Xehanort."
"He WHAT?!"
"Riku and Mickey intervened, of course, but between Master Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Heartless Xehanort, Xemnas, Braig, and…" Yen Sid caught Lea's downcast look and trailed off, "Er, that is to say, they were sorely outmatched. It was Lea here that came to their rescue."
"Really?" asked Kairi, turning to Lea and giving him a critical eye, as if only just now truly seeing him for the first time.
"Oh, it wasn't that big a deal," Lea downplayed, rubbing the side of his nose and grinning widely. Unlike the smiles he had given her in the past, Kairi could see nothing sinister in his expression. In fact…his smile reminded her–just a little bit, mind you–of Sora's. "I mean, I totally saved your boy Sora's bacon, and I did look pretty awesome doing it, and I got off some really cool lines while I was at it, but we still might have been boned royally if Donald and Goofy hadn't shown up and knocked out Heartless-Xehanort's Shadow Guardian. That and I didn't get to use my Keyblade; just my luck that I didn't materialize it until after it was too late."
"Wow…but–wait, Keyblade?" Kairi asked. Poor girl, she was having knowledge-bombs dropped on her left, right, and center.
"Oh yeah. You showed off yours, guess it's only fair that I return the favor," said Lea. He held out his hand and willed his Keyblade to materialize. "Boomshakalaka!" he exclaimed.
Kairi dropped her jaw, and for a moment it seem she might BSOD again, but then she shook her head clear and asked, "But why?! Last time I saw you, you kidnapped me in the name of the Organization that was trying to hurt Sora, and now suddenly you're a good guy and a Keyblade wielder?"
Abruptly, Yen Sid stood up. "You two…should have this discussion between yourselves. If you need anything, I will be in my study. Please try not to get into another altercation; if you really cannot help yourselves, at least be kind enough to take it outside." And with that, he disappeared in a puff of stardust. He could have just used smoke, like Merlin, but that old rascal Yen Sid just couldn't help showing off, just a little.
Awkward silence reigned like a very quiet tyrant in the kitchen for a moment. Then Lea picked up his and Yen Sid's dishes and carried them to the sink, where a Broomstick was standing by to wash them. He drained the rest of his cherry-cola and got into the fridge for another. "Want a pop?" he asked.
"I'll take a lemonade…thanks," said Kairi, hoping he would start explaining before the awkwardness got out of hand. Lea handed her a bottle of lemonade while he got himself an orange pop. He returned to his seat, and Kairi moved into the seat across from him.
"Let's see…it all started…gosh, it's almost been eleven years now, hasn't it?" Lea asked himself out loud. His tone was unusually somber; even Kairi, despite their limited interactions, could tell that much. "Anyways, I lived on a world named Radiant Garden. My name was Lea. I had a best friend, Isa, and boy did we get into all kinds of trouble. Mostly trying to sneak into the castle so we could see what they were up to, maybe even find treasure. Well, I got into all kinds of trouble, and Isa…he was mostly just there so he could make sure I got back out of trouble. That's the way he put it anyways. He was a good friend, whether he wanted to admit it or not," Lea recalled wistfully. As he spoke, though he kept his voice steady, a stray tear spilled out of his eye. He didn't bother to wipe it away or try to save face. "Anyways, about ten or eleven years ago we did manage to sneak into that castle, and we got as far as the computer room. Man do I wish we hadn't. We were there when Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo–Lord Ansem the Wise's six apprentices–became Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion. The six founding members of Organization XIII. That's when I became Axel. See, the eight of us, we all lost our hearts. Usually, that just creates a Heartless, but some people, if their will is strong enough, the rest of them comes back as a Nobody. Most Nobodies are those silver thingies you saw back at the Castle That Never Was; Dusks, Creepers, and so on. But the strongest Nobodies, like the ones who made up the Organization; we were strong enough to keep our human appearances. But we didn't have hearts, so we didn't have any feelings. We could use our human memories to fake emotions pretty darn well, and our memories also meant that we knew very well how to injure the heart. That's what made us 'special' as Saïx liked to put it. Anyways, not having your heart stinks, let me tell ya. You can't feel happiness, you can't feel anger, you can't feel fear–so a good horror flick really loses its point–and after a while you even start to miss being able to get sad, too. Or you would, if you actually had the emotional capacity to 'miss' anything. Seriously, it's a nightmare. Xemnas told us we could have our hearts back if we all helped him get at Kingdom Hearts so that's what we worked towards, day in and day out for the next ten years. Then your boy Sora and that Mouse King went and locked Kingdom Hearts away, so we had to settle for a substitute Kingdom Hearts. But doing that meant gathering a frigging ton of hearts; fortunately, when Sora released your and his hearts from his body, he gave us the best tool we could ask for to gather those hearts."
"What would that be?" asked Kairi.
"Sora's Nobody. Roxas. He became the thirteenth member of our Organization, and since he had the Keyblade he could release the hearts captured by Heartless, which was by far the fastest and easiest way for us to gather them for our Kingdom Hearts knock-off. Now, since Sora was only a Heartless for a little while before you…did whatever it was that you did to change him back, Xemnas kind of skimped on the details; anyways, cuz of that Roxas didn't have any memories, and so he didn't know how to fake emotions. He was pretty much a zombie the first week he was with us, never said anything unless you asked him a question and even then he was mostly just one-word replies and ambiguous grunts. So I got put in charge of looking out for him, making sure he didn't get lost on his first few missions, taught him what he needed to know to be a proper Nobody, stuff like that. I introduced him to ice cream, taught him not to play with fire and what gravity is, told him why it's a bad idea to talk to Larxene before she has her first five cups of coffee in the morning…uh, I'm getting off track," said Lea, blushing. "On the flip side, I was under orders to keep an eye on him in case he started to regain Sora's memories start to get heroic impulses that might be problematic for the Organization. Three guesses what I was supposed to do if that happened," he added grimly. Kairi's eyes widened and she gasped into her hands. "Yeah…pretty much. Then I got sent to Castle Oblivion, where I met your Nobody, Naminé; we had lured Sora there and were using her to rewrite his memories, making him forget you and everything else he cared about and replacing it with Naminé so we could use her to control him; then we'd have two Keyblade wielders in our corner and one less hero out there to get in our way. Pretty ruthless stuff, I know. Anyhow, one of our guys, Marluxia–you really wouldn't have liked him–wanted to use Sora to overthrow the Organization, so I threw a monkey wrench in that plan and let Sora clean up that pick-haired mess of a non-person, but by then his memories were so messed up that Naminé had to put him to sleep for a year and rechain his memories into their proper order. That's, uh, why you and everyone else forgot he existed for a while."
Kairi snapped her fingers. "That's right! I remember now, Naminé told me about that when we…uh…rejoined, I guess? It kind of went over my head."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Naminé's in you now, isn't she? Hey, Naminé, how's everything going?" Lea asked. "Uh, sorry about almost killing you to get to Marluxia…and also that time in the digital Twilight Town…yeah, I was kind of an ass back then. No hard feelings?"
"Tell him we're cool, seeing as he's pretty much literally a different person now," Naminé spoke up in Kairi's mind. Kairi relayed the sentiment, which seemed to greatly relieve Lea. "So…you were saying?" Kairi prompted.
"Oh, right. Let's see…after Castle Oblivion, I went back to palling around with Roxas, but then…things changed, somehow. I don't know how to explain it, but the little doofus started growing on me. Somehow…he managed to make me feel as if I had a heart, almost. I started seeing him as the little brother I'd never had before. Then he started getting moody. Started asking tough questions about why the Keyblade had chosen him and stuff. Finally, he left the Organization to find answers on his own, and then your boy Riku ran into him–"
"I know that story," said Kairi, "Riku had to immerse himself in darkness to take Roxas in so DiZ–or Ansem the Wise, rather–could make him rejoin with Sora so he could wake up."
"Right."
"And that's what you meant when you said you needed me so you could see someone you cared about," said Kairi, who finally understood. "You needed me to bait Sora, because Sora had Roxas. But how did you go from that to caring about Sora's wellbeing? How'd you escape the Organization's destruction and how did you get a Keyblade?"
"Well…actually, I was…that is, Axel died before Sora even got to the World That Never Was. I–as Axel, that is–sacrificed myself to make sure Sora got there at all. I guess I realized that if I couldn't get Roxas back, the next best thing I could do was keep Sora safe. In the end, I realized that he made me feel the same way Roxas did, and that's when I accepted that, in a way, Sora is Roxas. Or part of him, at least. Or vice versa…man, that whole thing is just crazy. Anyways, after the Organization's fake Kingdom Hearts exploded and all its captive hearts were freed, the Nobodies that were destroyed–all of us, in other words–were recompleted and woke up wherever we had came from. Me, Ienzo, Aeleus, Even, and Dilan all woke up in the computer room of the castle in Radiant Garden. Xehanort–the one that was older than Young Xehanort but younger than Master Xehanort and split into Heartless Xehanort and Nobody Xehanort, aka Xemnas–and Braig and Isa…they wound up somewhere else. I decided to go out and look for them–as much of a pain as Isa had been as a Nobody, he was still my once-upon-a-time best friend and I felt an obligation for him, plus I felt kind of guilty for blowing him off to be buddies with Roxas–and that was what brought me here, to Yen Sid's place, while Sora and Riku were in the Realm of Sleep. While I was here, Merlin and the Three Good Fairies used their magic to accelerate the time it would take for me to become a Keyblade wielder. Still wasn't able to materialize it during the big throwdown, though," he added with an air of melodramatic bitterness. Realizing he was kind of parched from talking so much, he started chugging his pop. "Then when all that was over I went back to Radiant Garden to check in on the guys, went on a little mini-vacation hopping between worlds, and now I'm back her to continue my training. I've gotta make Keyblade Master before Sora does, just so I can show that I'm as good a Keyblade wielder as Roxas. Be cool if I could figure out that dual-wielding trick of his."
"Yeah, how does Sora do that?" Kairi wondered aloud.
"Oh, that's not Sora. That's Roxas's power. It was weird, he just started dual-wielding out of nowhere the last time we fought in the Twilight Town simulation."
"Why were you fighting him?"
"Oh…well, I was still under orders to bring him back to the Organization…though by that point I was starting to care a lot less about the Organization and just wanted him back so I could have him back. Heh, didn't work out that way though. Little dork almost wasted me," Lea said proudly.
"So…so, like, you really are on our side, now? You haven't somehow bamboozled Master Yen Sid?"
"Ha! If I could do that, you'd have never caught me toadying around for Mansex!"
"For what now?"
"That's what me and Larxene and some of the others called Xemnas behind his back. You know…X-E-M-N-A-S, M-A-N-S-E-X? It's an anagram. Funny thing is, it was actually Saïx's idea, way back when the Organization was just starting out. That was before he became Xemnas's loyal little bi–…uh, pet…"
Kairi remembered Saïx; that creepy scar-faced wolf-eyed blue-haired creep. As intensely as she had disliked Axel for kidnapping her, at least he was more personable than that human-shaped glacier. "Say, whatever happened to your friend Isa?" Kairi asked.
Lea laughed hollowly. "You haven't got the naming scheme memorized yet? Let me spell it out for you. Somebody Sora, S-O-R-A; Nobody Roxas, R-O-X-A-S. Somebody Lea, L-E-A; Nobody Axel, A-X-E-L. Ansem, the name Xehanort stole, A-N-S-E-M; Xemnas, the name he adopted as our Superior, X-E-M-N-A-S. Isa is spelled I-S-A; move the 'I' after the 'A', crown it with a rocking umlaut, and stamp the obligatory 'X' on the end of that, and you get…?"
"Saïx," Kairi gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth once again. "Oh, Lea…your best friend became that?"
"Yeah. It gets even better! He still works for Xehanort, even though Sora destroyed Saïx so Isa should have been recompleted. Meaning that even with his heart back where it belongs…yeah." Lea lowered his head, looking as heartbroken as he sounded.
'Poor guy,' thought Kairi. Despite their history, her heart went to him; first he'd lost his heart, then he'd lost two dear friends. Another silence followed, more grave than awkward this time. At length, Kairi spoke, "You know…I was from Radiant Garden, too." Lea looked up at her, a surprised look on his face.
An hour later:
Yen Sid tore his eyes away from his crystal ball, through which he had been observing Mickey and Riku on their mission. He rubbed his weary eyes and got up from his seat, moving over to the window to let some fresh air in. He stood there for a moment and welcomed the gentle breeze, stretching out his arms and back. He turned back towards his desk, but stopped when the sound of metal clanging on metal drifted up to him. He turned and leaned out the window, looking down on his lawn. Sure enough, there were Kairi and Lea, Keyblades out and going at it. He briefly debated between disarming them telekinetically again or letting them work things out for themselves, but then he heard their voices.
"Too slow, Squirt! C'mon, are you even trying to hit me anymore?" Lea taunted as he jumped back out of her reach.
"You haven't hit me either, Urchin! For a guy who's so good with fire you're not so hot with that Keyblade, are you?" Kairi retorted as she parried one of Lea's blows.
"Urchin? Hell's that s'posed to mean?" Lea demanded as dived aside to avoid Kairi's attempt at a Strike Raid.
"Your hair, it's all red and spiky, like a sea urchin!" she explained as she reversed behind him and swung at his legs.
'They aren't fighting…they're sparring,' Yen Sid realized. He smiled, not surprised in the slightest. It was plain for anyone to see; Kairi's heart glowed with compassion and empathy like a tiny Sun, and Lea's heart burned with charisma, passion, and infectious energy. Once they got past their initial issues, it was inevitable that two such as them would become fast friends. 'The more our hearts connect to each other, the better our chances against Xehanort.'
Twenty minutes later:
Kairi laid out on the grass, gasping for breath as sweat poured off of her like a sheet of rain running down a window. She was utterly spent; she didn't even have the motivation to roll aside in spite of the twig that was poking her in the back. Lea, who hadn't even worked up a sweat, had gone inside to get something, acting obnoxiously nonchalant. Kairi was lucky if she had landed so many as two hits on the older man. "Don't be embarrassed, Kairi. Axel was one of the Organization's best fighters. After Xemnas, Roxas, and Marluxia, he and Saïx were tied for fourth strongest," Naminé informed her.
"All the same, I regret just cheering on Sora and Riku instead of joining in on their swordplay for all those years. Maybe if I had, I'd be a more capable fighter now," Kairi thought back.
Soft footsteps approaching her told Kairi that Lea was back. She looked up, and saw that he was back in his Coat and had another one draped over his arm; he was also armed with a pair of ice cream pops in plastic wrappers. Holding the sticks in one hand, he offered her the second Coat. "Put it on, quick; we've got somewhere to go," he said with a vibrant grin. It really was a lot like Sora's smile, but less childish and more wildish.
"Don' wanna…" Kairi groaned.
"Hmm…no ice cream for you, then," said Lea, sticking his nose into the air.
"Fine…bully…dumb Urchin…" she grumbled as she struggled to stand up on shaky legs. She reluctantly put the Coat on, surprised to find that it fit her almost perfectly. "Did the Organization have a girl my size in it?"
"Not that I recall," said Lea, "I found it in Vexen's lab. I figured it must have been Zexion's old ones, from back when he was still little."
"You went back to the Castle just now?"
"Nah, I was poking around there about a week ago. Wasn't even sure why, honestly. Not sure what made me grab this thing, either; it just kind of seemed to call to me, in a way. Weird, right?"
"That's okay. Almost everything about you is weird, Axel," said Kairi with a grin.
"That's Lea. Get it memorized," he ordered with mock-severity as he pulled the hood up over her head, and then flicked her between the eyes.
"But Axel sounds cooler," said Kairi, reaching for one of the ice creams.
"Ah-ah-ah! Not here," said Lea. He put up a hand and a corridor of darkness opened. He offered Kairi his free hand and said, "Keep your head down and your eyes closed and move quickly. It's a little bit risky, but still faster than even the Magic Train, and we gotta get there before these babies melt."
After a brief grapple with apprehension, which was resolved when Naminé prompted her to go for it, Kairi took his hand and followed him through the portal. A moment later, she found herself standing beside Lea on the ledge of Twilight Town's Central Station Clock Tower. They were right on time, too; the sunset had just hit its 'magic hour'. It was so beautiful, even more so than the sunsets back on the Islands, that it almost made Kairi want to cry. She lowered her hood as Lea held out an ice cream for her. She accepted it and sat down next to Lea. She unwrapped her ice cream, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the light blue color. 'Could it be?' she wondered. She gave it a tentative lick, and her heart nearly exploded with joy. She starting squeeing and kicking her legs up and down in giddy excitement, narrowly resisting the temptation to cram the salty-sweet treat in her mouth. This was too good a moment to ruin with brain freeze. "Sea-salt ice cream! This was my favorite when I was a little girl; I haven't had one in years!" she squealed rapturously.
"Somehow, I knew you'd like it," said Lea, who licked his pop more calmly. It was the first one he'd had since Roxas had left the Organization, and the raw nostalgia of the taste almost made him tear up again, but he held it in; he'd already made enough of a sap of himself today, he thought. "Y'know, the first time I had one of these was the same day I met Roxas, more'n a year ago. Honestly, I really didn't care for the saltiness that first time, but Roxas must have loved it because he kept asking for it every time we came here. Don't know why I kept getting it for myself; maybe I just wanted to prove that I could handle the saltiness as well as the newb could. And then, just like Roxas, the flavor grew on me. Now it seems like it's the only ice cream I care for. I can't even remember what my favorite flavor used to be. Isa probably remembers, if he even still cares about that kind of thing."
"Hey!" said Kairi, standing up and backing away from the ledge a bit before doing a little twirl. "How's this coat look on me?" she asked, hoping to distract him from his 'Best Friend Betrayal' angst.
Thankfully, Lea took the bait and his morose expression was replaced by a teasing smirk. "Isn't that something you should ask your boyfriend?"
Kairi blushed so hard, so fast, you'd think she had just been slapped by a hand the size of her whole face. Still, she sure as heck wasn't going to let her one-time adversary get the better of her, and shot back, "Sora's got more pressing concerns than my wardrobe, like saving the universe and stuff. You, on the other hand, appear to have nothing better to do than hang out with kids half your age."
"Hey! I'm not even close to thirty yet, you twerp! Anyhow, it fits you well enough, but it clashes with that long red hair of yours," said Lea dismissively.
"Excuse me? Your hair's a lot longer and redder than mine, mister," said Kairi with her arms folded. Then she remembered the ice cream in her hand and started hastily wiping it off of her sleeve, and sat back down and resumed eating it.
"Yeah, but my hair is brighter, more cherry than auburn, and you're not rocking these spikes; don't diss the Sea Urchin 'do. Seriously," he said, gesturing at her with his half-eaten ice cream, "Look at me, and Sora, and Roxas. Heck, even Riku's got a little spike-age going on. If you wanna be a world-saving darkness-vanquishing Keyblade Master, you've gotta spike those locks up, Squirt."
Kairi huffed. "Not all of us feel like walking around looking like hedgehogs."
"Oh-ho, how scathing," said Lea with an eye-roll. "You've got a point, though. You know what would really make you look good, though? If you cut your hair short and dyed it black. Then that coat would fit you like a glove; you'd look a lot more hardcore, too."
(Okay, that's the last Xion reference, I swear!)
Kairi just laughed and shook her head. The two went back to watching the sunset and finished their ice creams in a silence that, for once, was neither awkward nor solemn. It was actually kind of companionable, for a change. Once the Sun was gone and the last ruby rays of sunlight were fading away into the thickening night, Lea stood up and opened up a new corridor. "Better get back, before the old man gets it in his head that I kidnapped you again."
"As if I'd let you get away with it a second time," said Kairi.
"Damn, I'm shaking in my sneakers all of a sudden," Lea said dryly. "C'mon, Squirt."
"Lead the way, Urchin," said Kairi as she took his hand.
A moment later, they were back in the tower's Chamber of Stars. Here, Yen Sid had recently magicked into being four new rooms; one for each of the young Keyblade wielders who would be passing in and out of his tower for training. Lea yawned and stretched before pulling out his own key. "I think I'll turn in for the night. Got a big day tom–huh?" he asked in surprise as he felt Kairi grab him. She was pressed against his side, her arms wrapped tightly around his middle and her face buried in his chest. Just a bit awkwardly, Lea curled his left arm around her and patted her head with his right hand. "Hey…uh…hi, there."
"You've been through a lot. I'm sorry you lost Isa and Roxas…and I'm glad you found your way back into the Light, Lea," Kairi said. She let go of him and took a step back. "And…I forgive you for what you did as Axel. I might have done the same, if it was the only way I could save Sora or Riku."
Her words shot a warm and fuzzy feeling straight into his heart that spread out and created a hot and prickly sensation in the corners of his eyes. A light blush tinted his cheeks and he glanced to the side, scratching his neck. "Yeah, well, I never really asked you to forgive me…but…you know…thanks." He risked glancing back at her and regretted it immediately. She was beaming at him, and it nearly blinded him. "You know, you're pretty cool, for a twerp," said Lea with a chuckle. "Now I feel like serious crap for messing with you before…friends?" he asked, sticking out his hand.
Kairi put on a show of thinking it over for a moment, then smiled again and accepted the handshake. "Friends. And rivals, too; Sora and Riku push each other to their limits, so we'll have to do the same if we're ever going to catch up to them."
"Ha! I'm already way ahead of you, Squirt. I actually know how to fight," said Lea cheekily.
Kairi didn't seem to be bothered by his dig. "Maybe, but I have a feeling I'll catch up before too long. I may have forgiven you, but I still have to pay you back for kidnapping me. And Urchin, you'd better believe that I will." With that, she removed the Black Coat that Lea had lent her and handed it back to him. "So yes, we will have a big day tomorrow. Better get your rest. Good night, Axel~" she said in singsong voice as she retired to her room.
Lea shook his head and entered his room. He hung up the Coats, kicked off his shoes, pulled off his stinky socks, tossed his shirt away to his side, put on a fresh pair of socks, and changed into a pair of boxer shorts. He flopped down on his bed and crawled under the covers. He reflected on the day's unexpected events; this morning he had been knocking about Halloween Town, wishing he had taken Roxas trick-or-treating at least once, and now he had made a new friend. He smiled to himself, a simple and honest smile that lacked his usual barely-restrained energy but was sincere all the same. He drifted off into sleep and dreamed up a long forgotten memory of a little girl that used to follow him and Isa around town…
Fin.
A/N: I'll be honest, I feel like a little bit of a cruel bastard for those little Xion references. Never forget…er, you know what I mean.
I originally intended for Lea to call Kairi 'Princess' and for Kairi to call Lea 'Porcupine', but when it came time to actually write it down my brain threw up 'Squirt' and 'Urchin' instead. I don't know why, but I decided to roll with it. I might still use 'The Princess and The Porcupine' as a title for a future Lea-and-Kairi-centric fic. So what do you think? Did I get their characters right? Did Kairi forgive too easily? Did the story have a good flow? Were you annoyed to listen to Lea rehash his messed-up life story? Was the pacing good? These and many other questions plague my insecure mind, so please write me some reviews to allay or confirm my fears; either one will help me grow as a writer. All our hearts must join together to make us stronger!
I don't know, but lately the AkuKai Friend-Ship has become my newest pet obsession. I'll probably write more in the near future. I'm already spinning an idea for a pre-BBS Lea/Isa/Kairi friendship fic in my head, as hinted at by that parting line. I might also elaborate on that mission Riku and Mickey went on, if I can only decide what it was! I'd also like to write a little something for the Lea/Sora friend-ship, if I can do it without breaking my own heart all over my keyboard, and I'd also like to write a post-3D character study fic for Isa. I wanna know how that guy's getting along now that he has four and a half Xehanorts in his life! (In addition to possibly being half-or-more Xehanort himself.)
So many ideas, so much to write, but not nearly enough time in a day!
Author Out.