Author's Note: Wow, this is the first fic I've written in... like months! Hasn't felt this long orz. Anyway, this is the first time I'm writing for Kingdom Hearts fandom and this is the result of playing way to much Days and BBS and starving for Axel/Saïx 'friendship' fic... I think there may be more to follow. |D

Please enjoy!

Characters: Lea/Axel, Isa/Saïx
Warnings: Some mild spoilers for BBS?
Summary: One Shot, pre-KH - Ultimately they need to decide what to do now, because even if the other six seem to have decided that they belong to this Exclusive Club of Exclusives now, that they are part of this Organisation, it doesn't mean that they'd go along with it just like that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

- Things That Change, Things That Stay The Same -

At first Lea doesn't really notice the difference; he had been to busy freaking out and lashing out at anything dark that moved, Isa beside him, panting and bleeding heavily from a scratch on his face and eyes gleaming in madness and despair just like his own probably. They have no idea how long they have fought the monsters that had overrun the Garden (black and grey, like a shadow – and moving like one too), but it they know exactly that they can't hold out any longer and just the thought makes him mad, makes him hate – there is so much he still wants to do, so many people he still has to meet and surely Isa feels the same.

But, no matter how much they hit and scream and struggle, in the end the darkness overwhelms them – there are just to many… one might as well give in. Except that Lea has never liked bowing to fate, or anything but his own will for that matter and he knows it's the same for Isa, because the last thing he catches before the dark overtakes him is the yellow tint in his friend's usually green eyes. This is not the end.

And it isn't; a moment later the darkness leaves and he is still standing there, panting and Isa bleeding beside him and he raises the arms to fight again… except that the shadows don't seem to be interested anymore. Somehow Lea thinks he should feel confused, but… he just… isn't.

In any case, the shadows have left, Lea isn't sure for the better or worse, but he doesn't care either way right now. He just collapses on the spot, right next to Isa and neither of them says anything, they are too glad to be alive (… or at least they should be. But instead of the relief that Lea is expecting, the only thing he feels is hollowness).

Once they are rested enough to move (somehow it feels like it takes shorter than it should have), they leave, deciding to see whether anyone else had survived the invasion. It doesn't seem like it – at first anyway; the Garden is thoroughly destroyed, the only thing left standing is the castle and the shadows seem to gather there, so they don't quite dare to approach. Instead they wander - they can't be the only ones left standing, right? – though strangely enough the thought doesn't bring the despair Lea thinks it should.

They keep wandering, him and Isa; he doesn't count the days and the hours, but they must have walked for quite a while because in that time that wound on Isa's face heals and leaves behind a large x-shaped scar. They wander; out of the city, out, out, out until they find the border to the world (even if neither of them had known what it was at the time) and when they step through it, wading through the darkness until they finally find themselves on the other side, a dark city and a white castle looking down on it. There are shadows here too, but some of them are different from the ones Lea knows, they are white and instead of clinging to the walls and corners and the ground, they float and hiss as they form a circle around him and Isa, apparently more intent to protect them than to harm them. Weird, but Lea is not about to complain.

Then they reach the castle and stare up to it and somehow for the first time since they have left Lea has to think of the Garden, where they had done this very thing so often, had even tried to break into it once. The more things change, the more they stay to same, it seems.

Breaking into the castle is actually just as easy done as said, and soon enough they are strolling around the endless, white corridor, wondering if this place is just abandoned as everywhere else they have been. Except that it isn't, because then they run into Mr. Tall Black-Coat and Lea can't help the curse that escapes him when the guy draws back the hood and reveals himself to be the very same guy that had kicked out of the castle in the Garden a little more then a year ago.

A second later they are on the run – or they would be anyway, if it wasn't for the floating lances that are suddenly pressed against his neck and then the guy (Dilin? Dalin? Dilan? Something like that…) is dragging them away, probably to throw them out again, muttering under his breath. Even the white shadows seem to have abandon them, they don't make any kind of move against their captor. However Lea's guess regarding Mr. Tall Black-Coat's intentions is proven wrong when they land in this totally white, round room, with chairs in a height that just has to be compensating for something. It somehow makes his head spin as he's starring up to Black Cloak I-VI and funnily enough he recognises all of them as the group of Mr. High-and-Mighties from the Garden's castle (that explains the chairs at least).

They are all staring down, regarding them like some curious lab experiment and really, Lea should find it just downright creepy, but he just… doesn't care. Instead he stares back, meeting their eyes and smirks, it's not like he has much left to lose anyway (far less than he had actually thought in that moment).

Finally Mr Creepy No. I smirks and speaks up, and it's the same guy that had appeared not even a year ago from god-knew-where. "So there are others. I was beginning to wonder…"

What follows are longwinded explanations about black and white shadows - Heartless and Nobodies - and the heart of all worlds that for some reason is relevant if they want to get their hearts back, and somewhere in-between all of that he and Isa are renamed into Axel and Saïx for a reason that Lea hasn't quite caught yet. Not that he really intends to wear that name. His name is Lea, always had been and always would be, so get it memorized. Or is that the lingering memory of his heart speaking? He doesn't know… and does he actually care? He doesn't know that either.

Later that night, he is pacing in his room (white and sterile, it's just unnerving… or would be anyway), restless even though he feels his body's need for sleep. But he can't fall into bed yet, he needs to see Isa before that and when he finds him, his friend is standing before the large window front of the hallway, starring up into the moonless night sky, like he had done so often back in the Garden when they still had been kids. He leans against the wall beside his friend, not even waiting to be acknowledged; he knows that the other is aware of his presence – that he is not ignored, but that Isa just needs to search for the moon, even if one glance should tell him that this world doesn't have one.

"So..." he trails off, waiting for Isa's assessment; ultimately they need to decide what to do now, because even if the other six seem to have decided that they belong to this Exclusive Club of Exclusives now, that they are part of this Organisation, it doesn't mean that they'd go along with it just like that.

Isa still keeps looking up, and in all the years they have known each other Lea has never gotten his friend's fascination with the moon and the sky, but Isa had never understood his interest in fire and flames and everything that burned either and they had excepted that a long time ago.

"Xemnas is planning something." Isa finally speaks up, his voice a little rough, he hasn't said much since they have become like this and neither has Lea, the need for constant sound and noise has ceased with his heart it seemed. Still, Lea snorts, because really it wasn't like Isa to comment the obvious. "Of course he is - he is their leader."

'Their' and not 'our' because they are not part of the group and it has always been Isa and Lea, them against the world and as far as Lea is concerned it always would be. Isa shakes his head, "He claims to be looking for a way to reclaim his heart, but I don't think he is. Whatever he is after, whatever he wants with this Kingdom Hearts, it's something else. If we want to get back our hearts, we need to find out his true objective."

Lea nods, it makes sense; that sort of thinking is far more like Isa and he can go with that. "How do we go about that?"

Isa closes his eyes, expression blank as he turns his head away from the sky. "We will need to become part, to work with them and for them and climb in rank as soon as we can."

He nods again, he has known that answer before even asking the question, just like he knows what Isa is really asking of him. This is the way they work, they have always worked. Who needs words when one look, one moment of silence is enough to convoy a question?

"Alright, I got it." he says with a smirk forming on his face, dangerous and toothy and not quite familiar (he just knows that smirking had felt different back then, back then when he had been still a Somebody), because what they are planning now is far more dangerous than breaking into a castle, but Lea has never worried much about potential risks and apparently Axel worries even less. "I'll get you to the top."

He moves to leave, because there is nothing more to talk and he is tired and it's probably better if they are not caught like this anyway, but then he feels Isa's- Saïx's hand come to rest on his shoulder and when he turns amber eyes lock with his green ones, serious and filled with determination they technically shouldn't hold anymore.

"Bring me to the top, Lea, and I will regain our hearts."

He knows, now it's a pact between the two of them, a promise between the bestest of friends and he grins as he playfully corrects the other. "It's Axel. Might as well get it memorized."

- FIN -

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