I watched the keyblade wielder silently and thought of the setting sun, warm and over-bright with dying light. He smiled and laughed with Axel, as if he had a heart, the assassin's aimless flame serving well to hide his brightness from one who didn't know how to see. Larxene doubted him, doubted that he would be of any worth, but I... I had seen him fight. I had seen how valuable he could be to us, to our cause, if only Axel didn't possess him so determinedly. Eventually, though... eventually Axel would have to leave for a mission and leave him unattended, and then... well, it would be simple enough to "befriend" him, I expected. I smiled to myself, tilting my head back and watching the dull gray ceiling as the day passed by.
My moment came sooner than I might've thought, though not in the way I'd expected. Saix came to me early in the day, assigning me to heart collection with number thirteen in Twilight Town. I inclined my head, and he watched me stand with suspicion bright in the animal gold of his eyes. The others, barring Axel, generally complained about having to work with him, but I saw no reason to pretend at annoyance that I did not and could not feel. He didn't mention it. After that blessing, I suppose I should have expected Axel to take me aside the moment he read the mission assignments and found himself set to work alone in a new world whilst my own name was written neatly by Roxas'.
"Leave him out of it," he bit, voice even and cold to hide the fire glinting in his eyes and sparking across his fingertips.
"Leave who out of what, may I ask? You really must be more specific when accusing someone of something, number eight." He clenched his jaw, and for the barest of moments I cursed my tongue. Axel was fickle, always fickle, and though he had acquiesced to my plans so far I knew that if I stepped too far out of his boundaries now, he would ruin everything simply to get back at me for it. For now, at least, he needed to think that I'd listen to him.
"You know what I mean, Marluxia." Roses burn, he'd always said, and I could hear the thought in his voice. I was willing to wait decades for the thrill of letting my flowers snuff out his flames.
"I do. Apologies, Axel; I only thought that such things were perhaps better discussed in a more private setting. In any case, I have no plans to involve him. We're far too late in the game for that." He stared at me for a moment, expression dripping with venom, until at last he nodded and whipped around, opening a dark corridor and going on his way as if nothing had happened. He would probably be back before Roxas and me. There wasn't much time to turn him to our cause, but I could manage. There was no other choice, after all, not if we wanted to retain our ability to gather hearts once I was at the head of the Organization. Perhaps I could even make him prefer me to Axel, and wouldn't that just be the funniest thing?
Roxas arrived on time, at least, so I supposed Axel hadn't yet been too damaging of an influence on him. He went to Saix with his head down but it shot up as soon as he was told that his mission was with me. I offered him a smile and he looked at me as if I had my scythe against his neck. That was relatively new; he'd shown no fear of me when we'd first gone on a mission together. Axel had poisoned his mind if not his actions then—hopefully it had not yet reached his roots.
"Let me know when you're ready to leave. Ah, and Saix mentioned that our main targets were dire plants. They're weak to fire, which I admit is far from my forte, but I've heard that you manage it well enough. Ah, and here's an ether; I've no use for it on this mission, but it could come in handy for you, especially if we happen upon the zip slasher rumored to be there and can't avoid it." He took it silently, seeming surprised, and slowly, so slowly, the frown on his face tipped into a smile. He was too good at faking emotions. Perhaps it was a byproduct of his Somebody.
"Thanks, I ran out last mission," he said at last. "I'm ready to go when you are." I opened a dark corridor with a flourish and for a moment I didn't understand why he looked so impressed, though I recalled quickly that he had not yet mastered using them, often opening ways to nowhere or worlds other than the ones he intended. I gestured for him to go first and he obeyed without question. He looked very small as he stepped into the darkness and I followed him. He did not worry over a blade in his back while he was turned away. He should have. I almost summoned my scythe just to show him how foolish he was when we stepped into the nigh permanent quiet of Twilight Town, but didn't—I wanted him to trust me, after all, not dig that keyblade of his into my chest.
"Such a nice place, don't you think?" I asked, and he stared at me again, all wide eyes the color of cornflowers and out of place innocence.
"Where do you think the heartless we're after are?" he asked instead of responding, and I tilted my head.
"Who knows? We'll have to walk around for a while, I suppose. Did you have somewhere to be?" He shrugged.
"Not really, I guess."
"You normally go somewhere after your missions." He blinked, cheeks flushing pale, familiar pink. He should have but didn't remind me of his Somebody. His silence was heavy as we started making our way through the town and I thought to say something else that might loosen his tongue a bit more when at last he spoke again.
"Here." It took me a moment to understand, given how long it had been since I last spoke, but when I did, I forced a smile, pretending happiness as best I could.
"So you do like it here! I'd assumed you had good taste, though perhaps you enjoy it for different reasons than I—the gardens here are lovely. Just enough light for the flowers to bloom." He grinned and gestured towards the horizon, where the clock tower was silhouetted against the forever-setting sun.
"I like it up there. I don't remember it too well, but Axel brought me there the first day I joined the Organization, and then again after my first mission. We try to meet up there and have ice cream after all our missions now," he said, bright, happy, false, always false, I had to remember that none of it was real no matter how good he was at pretending. Perhaps no one had yet bothered to tell him that whatever joy those meetings brought him was only a memory. Then again, to Xemnas he was only a mindless pawn, if a very necessary one, and there is no reason to tell the whole truth to one who can be sacrificed. He had too much faith in the replicas that were being made, especially now that one seemed stable enough to join us. I didn't really see the point in them—after all, why settle for a replica when to have the real deal one needs only loyalty, and from one like Roxas, loyalty was an easy thing to gain.
He wanted to trust, to be "friends," and I of all people certainly didn't have the heart to refuse him. I didn't say anything for a moment or two and instead watched the nerves and the doubt overtake his face. Yes, he wanted to trust me badly, probably wished to trust all of the organization, but I knew well enough that few made such a thing simple. All the more reason he'd be ever-more willing to lean on me.
"That's not against the rules, is it? You're not going to tell the Superior?" I laughed. It sounded tinny and strange even in my own ears—it had been a long time since I'd had to fake that. I could only hope that it was passable enough to fool him.
"No, we all have our places. Xemnas doesn't begrudge us that, given that we can't all be lucky enough to have a place within the castle suited to our tastes. I've my garden, myself, and I prefer it to any other, so I spend much of my time there. I think this place suits you as it suits me. Still, perhaps you'd like to visit my garden some time. Change the pace of things and all that, do something different." More confusion. I wondered what all Axel had said about me.
"I wouldn't want to hurt the flowers," he said at last, and I settled a light hand on his shoulder, easy as breathing, squeezing it for the barest of moments before I pulled away again.
"You'd do well with them, I think," I said, then paused and turned him to face me, took his jaw softly between two fingers and bending low so my face was close to his. "As I said, this place suits you—just like it, you are just bright enough." I mustered the kindest smile I could, and his lips parted. He felt fragile under my hands and I could have broken his jaw if I'd wanted, could have slid my hand ever-so-slightly down and pressed my thumb hard against his thin, pale skin until it started bruising brilliant purple and he choked, cornflower eyes still wide and innocent but betrayed instead of trusting. I didn't. He still looked unable to breathe.
He didn't try to move away and I lingered a moment longer than necessary before I stepped back, still holding my lips in a gentle smile. I watched the struggle on his face with ease and supposed that there were advantages to his tendency to pretend, however silly I thought it was. Eventually, though, he seemed to come to a decision, and he nodded lightly.
"Okay. Axel said he might not make it today anyway." So, so simple—I almost wished that he put up more of a fight, but then, fighting was far from conducive to the strict timeline that constrained me. Perhaps later, when the future was more assured, I could give him reason to doubt me and reason to trust me again, play with him a little more. That was later, however. At that moment, it was time to focus on finding the heartless.