A/N: I finally got the story up! Lawd, this has been sitting on my computer for about a month or two and I finally got some motivation to start writing it as well as fix up this chapter.
Anyway, I'm mostly writing this story to develop how Ienzo descended into darkness - how and why, really. The apprentices have always interested me as well, they're actually one of my favorites (and pretty damn mysterious if I say so myself. We dunno' what really happened, still!) And Ienzo interests me the most, because how the hell did a little boy become .. well, Zexion?
This is more or less a prologue chapter - an introduction into his life before everything went to hell. The second chapter is almost done!
A warm breeze lazily swooped in from the east, filtering through the leaves of the enormous trees of the park, who themselves were finished blooming and giving off the last scents of spring. The wind tugged with warm fingers at the boy's light blue hair, making him raise a hand without thinking and shuffling the disarrayed spikes to line them back in place.
Ienzo leaned back into the smooth wooden bench more, rolling his shoulders slightly to get into a more comfortable position. He hated waiting, he really did. Most boys of his age were impatient, and the nine year old was really no exception.
Anxiously, his light blue eyes flickered left and right, eating up any small scene that flitted in his line of vision. The old duck was selling oddly colored ice cream bars as usual, while a blonde woman was laughing at something the older boy next to her had just said – Ienzo presumed him to be her son. Growing bored of watching them the boy glanced to the dizzying amount of flowers to his left, admiring silently the intricate colors.
He reached out to touch the tempting petals, feeling the smoothness of them. Ienzo smiled to himself, wondering if he should get some for his mother… unless, of course, she'd disapprove of him of "stealing" from the park.
"Ienzo!" A voice suddenly rang out through the familiar mull of the thin crowd, and the boy immediately let go of the flower and looked in the direction the voice had come from.
A man, perhaps around his early thirties, parted through two younger boys that had been eyeing the old duck's ice cream. He had smooth, straight hair that, when not tied in a small ponytail, went to his shoulders, and was a very light silvery blue. The older man's brown eyes lit up with a smile as Ienzo waved and, readjusting the extremely thin pair of glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose, he waved back before coming up to the boy.
"I'm sorry I kept you waiting," the man expressed quickly, smiling apologetically. The boy shrugged, looking away from him and then at the flowers again. "Master Ansem needed someone to finish the lab reports."
"It's okay, dad, I didn't really mind," Ienzo lied, and after studying the flowers for the final time, looked back at his father and smiled happily. "Maybe you can take me in the lab again?"
Samuel frowned slightly, straightening up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, it's a bit too dangerous, bud. I don't think it'd be safe."
"You just don't want me to knock over anything."
"Like last time."
"It was an accident!" Ienzo argued, the boyish smile quickly replaced by a scowly huff. "Really, I promise. It's not my fault it fell on Even…"
Samuel fixed Ienzo with a stern stare, eyes sharpening. Ienzo silently challenged back for a moment with his own eyes, but quickly lost the mental battle and looked away. The boy twitched with surprise when his father started laughing in good humor.
"That was pretty funny," Samuel admitted, the grin stretched wide across his face. "Even's face was priceless." The scientist paused, his eyes widening ever so slightly, before looking hurriedly at Ienzo as if he had just had a revelation. "But don't tell him I told you that. That man gets angry so easily."
Ienzo laughed, getting up from the bench. "Yeah. I don't think he likes me a lot," the boy admitted. What he would never admit was that he didn't like Even a lot either, but he figured that his father already had assessed that situation, and had never said anything about it. At any rate, Ienzo and Even's mutual dislike for each other was usually known by anyone who saw the two together – Even would usually snap or glower at the little boy while Ienzo just either wouldn't listen or would purposely do what Even didn't want him to.
Samuel usually ignored the little charade in an attempt to keep some peace.
Samuel's smile twitched, but he shrugged soon after and waved his hand dismissively for further pronunciation. "Oh, Even's only jealous of you. I can't always spend time at the lab because I'd rather spend it with you rather than four other … crazy individuals. Not counting Master Ansem, of course. He's the most sane out of all of us."
"Well, I don't think you're crazy, dad," Ienzo said in his father's defense, and Samuel laughed lightly.
"Thank you, Ienzo. I hope I'm not crazy," the man responded with a small smile. "But it's hard not to be when you're around those guys. I mean, you are who your friends are, as that old saying goes."
The boy said nothing, but indicated he was listening with a small shrug as they started walking out of the park and into the main street. Like the rest of the town, the walls of the buildings were encased with a fine coat of creeping ivy and delicate flowers fluttered in the dying breeze. The duck had left, but the two boys Ienzo had seen earlier were still hanging around, and the redheaded one punched the blue one on the shoulder. The nine year old twitched, looking away. What kind of fun was that?
The boy glanced up at his father, who was looking up at the sky with a wary expression. Curiously, he looked up as well, seeing that the sun was setting and casting a brilliant shiny sheen of reds and violets and oranges cascading over the horizon and filtering over the buildings. Already light was seeping away.
"We better hurry home," Samuel suggested, his pace quickening somewhat. "Don't want to be caught out here in the dark." A swift glance and strained smile at his son heightened Ienzo's sense of suspicion.
"Why? What's wrong with the dark?" Ienzo asked innocently, obviously confused. He thought it was rather peaceful, especially when the moon was full and lit up the trees outside his bedroom. It always made little shadows on his walls, and the boy always imagined them to be the mythical creatures from his stockpile of books.
He didn't see what was so bad about it, but his father's expression seemed odd.
"Oh, nothing, buddy," Samuel said hurriedly, glancing keenly at a darkened alleyway as they passed it with swift steps. "Let's just get home."
"Mom, we're home!" The door swung closed on its own with creaky hinges as Ienzo bolted into the house, Samuel following right behind him. The boy slipped through the small entrance hall, which was cluttered but familiarly decorated with framed pictures of anything ranging from school photos to old newspaper clippings, before taking a right into the widespread living room. The walls were painted a cool gold color, which radiated both a lively and homey feeling to the room, especially, Ienzo thought, when it was daytime out and the paint caught the sun.
Two enormous wooden bookcases stood guard at the back wall, and stacks upon stacks of books were shoved into every available cranny they could fit. Stacks of papers lay from tall, cautious stacks on Samuel's bookcase – research, most likely. His own collection of books was in complete disarray, with absolutely no order or organization in the way they were sprawled about. Ienzo's bookcase – he had staked his claim on it a while ago – was the complete opposite of his father's. On each row the books were placed first by subject – fantasy, science fiction, what-have-you – and then put alphabetically. He cherished every one of them, and furthermore, whenever a visitor came over and somehow ended up by that particular bookcase, Ienzo always watched with hawk eyes to make sure that nothing was touched.
In the middle of the room was a rather large leather couch, and sitting there drinking a steaming cup of tea was Ienzo's mother. She was a petite woman in her early thirties, roughly the same age as Samuel, with straight, light brown hair and grey-blue eyes, and nearly always her lips were curved in a small, kind smile that seemed to be permanently etched on her face. She had a sort of lightheartedness about her, whether if it was by the way she spoke or the way she looked at you, and many people felt she was an easy person to speak to.
"Hi Mom!" Ienzo exclaimed cheerily, flashing a grin before rushing over and embracing her. She quickly moved her hand holding the tea away so it wouldn't spill, as Ienzo had apparently forgotten she was holding it, before smiling and wrapping her free arm around him and squeezing him with an appreciative hug.
"Hi, honey," she replied, ruffling up his hair affectionately before setting down her tea on the side coffee table. "How was school?"
"Fine," Ienzo said quickly, trying to avoid the subject. She fixed him with a suspicious look, and he smiled hurriedly. "I promise."
Hesitantly she looked away and at Samuel, who was standing behind Ienzo. The look in her eyes immediately changed – she raised a brow and leaned more into the back of the couch. She looked somewhat skeptical, really.
"I thought you'd be back by nine, Sam."
The man stared for a moment, shifting his weight from foot to foot uneasily as if he was desperately looking for some viable excuse. "Well, Master Ansem-"
"Master Ansem wanted him to finish some reports so he did because he's a really good scientist," Ienzo said quickly, eagerly hoping to settle the situation as well as show off his knowledge. Samuel glanced at him for a moment, nodded, then looked back at his wife.
"Exactly what I was going to say," the scientist said. The woman hmmed quietly to herself, like she was trying to decipher if they were both bluffing or not, before Samuel laughed good humouredly, went over, and wrapped his arms around her.
"Come on, Evangeline, you know we're telling the truth," he said teasingly, and his wife smiled and laughed, too, before kissing him.
"It's too easy to trick you sometimes, Sam," Evangeline responded, her voice light and humorous.
Ienzo was ignoring their entire conversation and had wandered over to his bookshelf, dreamily scanning the titles and wondering which one to read (again). His eyes focused in on a worn down aged binding that lay loose from the orderly conduct of the rest of the books. The time worn words Alice in Wonderland were scrawled on the side, and as he reached to grab his favorite book, he heard his father walking closer.
"You have to go to bed. It's way too late for you to be up, 'enzo," Samuel said, and Ienzo sighed loudly, his hand dropping to his side with great emphasis.
"It's only nine, dad," the nine year old grumbled, his face lowering into a pout in an attempt to sway his father's decision on the matter. Samuel took one look at time, raised a brow then chuckled in amusement, shaking his head.
"That's not gonna' work on me. And your bedtime is 8:30," the scientist responded cheerily. "So go upstairs."
Ienzo sighed loudly. "'Kay."
Samuel reached out and took a hold of one of Ienzo's shoulders, pulling him closer. With a quick motion the man hugged his son and ruffled his hair good-naturedly.
"Night, kid. Love you."
"Love you too, dad," Ienzo responded, then walked around his father and quickly hugged his mom. "Love you too, mom."
Evangeline smiled and hugged him back. "I love you too."
Ienzo flashed them with a childish smile before turning and walking through the living room while covering a loud yawn with his sleeve. After leaving the room, the boy took a deep breath and trudged a couple paces before pausing before the first step of the staircase. He really did wish he could have read before he had to go to bed.
Oh well.
Ienzo climbed up the stairs with slow, lumbering steps that showed obvious signs of tiredness. The rest of the walk to his room was a foggy blur, and soon enough he found himself opening the door to his room.
With suddenly quick motions, he changed into his pajamas and grabbed the stuffed animal that sat waiting in the large armchair on the side of the room, his precious red fox that he'd had for ages, and flung himself into his bed that lay by the window. As he snuggled into the blankets and let his mind drift, his slowly failing eyes watched the moonlight stream in from the window and shine into his room like wisps of silver.
As he fell asleep, Ienzo thought of how much more he liked the night more than the day. So much calmer… so much more mysterious. It enhanced the imagination – what lurked behind those swirling shadows? What might one find when standing under the moon?
How nice it would be to have it be night all the time, he thought, and then the boy's eyes closed into a deep slumber.