Vanilla
"Do you think Ven likes ice cream?"
Lea breathed an airy sigh, twirling a stray lock of unruly strawberry hair between the slender knuckles of his bony fingers. Isa scowled, pulling his thick woolen sweater tighter around his trembling figure, glowering venomously at the hidden sun and the discolored leaves that danced gracefully about them in the chilly autumn air.
The naked skeletons of the blackened trees swayed to and fro in the breeze, seemingly mirthful, as if poking fun at the azure-haired teen's sour mood.
"I don't know, Lea. Why does it matter?"
He spat irritably, eying the other male, who lay sprawled upon the blue and silver cobblestone pathway of Castle Town, emerald eyes closed as a dreamy grin settled upon peach-colored lips. Isa wondered fleetingly if the rosy flush that colored his cheeks was from the cold or something else entirely.
"I bet he'd like Sea Salt ice cream! Everyone likes it, right?"
His sing-song tone reverberated in Isa's ears like the screeching of nails on a chalkboard. His scowl deepened, brows drawn low as his jaw clenched and unclenched.
Why was he friends with this idiot again?
"You've only met him once, why do you care?"
He hissed, mood dropping dangerously as the redhead seemed unaffected by his obvious discomfort. He sighed audibly, reminding himself that Lea didn't intend to be so utterly unbearable, deciding to take a moment to calm his rampant nerves before he lost control and strangled the irritating teen.
Why did he care if Lea had been chattering incessantly about Ventus for nearly two weeks anyway? Regardless of how unorthodox the teen's musings had been about the many shades of Ven's eyes, or 'That cute way he chewed on his lips while he was concentrating on fighting' (Isa had been rather amused by that one actually, wondering if Lea would have had a better chance at winning their miniature sparring match if the red haired boy hadn't been so distracted by Ven's eyes, of all things.), they shouldn't have made him so angry. It wasn't as if he cared who Lea decided to obsess over or anything.
Of course not.
Scoping the leafy area around them, he counted the steady pulsing of his heart; a habit that helped soothe his nerves in times of Lea-induced-rage.
The moogles were closing shop for the day, fuzzy crimson puffballs bouncing excitedly as they discussed their daily sales in bouts of unintelligible squeaks and purrs.
Merlin twirled and flicked his ancient, wooden want, charming his broomsticks to clear his front steps of fallen leaves and scattered dirt. Isa wondered if the effort the old man put into casting the spell itself was truly less than that of simply sweeping his own front porch. He was positive that the wizard hadn't done anything without magic in decades.
He chuckled softly before meeting the liquid gold eyes of a man he hadn't seen before, with shoulder-length, spun-silver hair and skin like that of milk chocolate. He felt his heart clench for some reason that he couldn't quite decipher, icy tremors running down his spine and springing goose pimples under the clammy flesh of his arms.
The stranger sent him a curt nod before sauntering off in the direction of Ansem's laboratory, leaving Isa to contemplate his sudden, unspoken arrival in such a small, gossiping world, and the striking chill that he'd left in his wake.
He felt suddenly the inklings of preceding doom, as if something terrible had happened already and was bound to engulf their simple little world in tragedy as well.
And he thought of Ventus, the innocent, endearing blonde with whom Lea was so smitten, and he wondered, taken by horror and gut-clenching terror, what had become of him. The light that seemed to illuminate from his very soul hadn't been... put out, had it?
"Lea, I don't think he's coming back."
He spoke finally, lips trembling, voice low and husky, as if the weight of his realization had cracked and broken it.
Lea sent him a strange look then, vexed almost, and it took everything he had not to avert his eyes.
"He'll be back."
The redhead drew out slowly, voice cutting through the stale air between them.
"One way or another, he'll come back eventually."
Isa wanted to ask how he could be so sure, but the emerald fire that burned within depths of the redhead's eyes kept him silent. Then, Lea smiled, and laughed, pulling himself to his feet and stretching his tired limbs, fingers extended as if reaching for the sky, smile wolfish as if he knew some divine secret that he was decidedly not letting his best friend in on.
"And when he does, I'll buy him all the Sea Salt ice cream he can eat!"
Isa pulled his gaze away from him then, staring down the path that the stranger had taken before sighing, broken and defeated, and forcing himself to look his friend in the eye.
"If that's the case,"
He croaked, struggling to stand on suddenly weak legs.
"I guess I'll just have to hold you to that promise."
Fin.
My eighteenth birthday is in... three days, so even though I already posted something yesterday, I wanted to get this story finished before I'm old. (lol?)
At first, the idea that Axel liked Roxas because Lea liked Ven sort of irked me, but it's definitely grown on me since I've finished Birth By Sleep. I like the idea of a love-struck Lea, and an adorably confused and jealous Isa.
Thank you so much for reading, and please review and tell me what you think!