A project for the Tumblr fanzine, kh-worldsconnected!
Inspired by the song 'Won't Go Home Wihout You' by Maroon Five.
Theme: Time, Countdown
Won't Go Home Without You
..
"It's not over tonight
Just give me one more chance to make it right
I may not make it through the night
I won't go home without you."
..
The skyline of Twilight Town had been quiet when Lea arrived, a orange and pink hue that brought back the best and the worst of his memories. Yet in a town where so little changes, when the sunset finished its countdown and allowed the stars to rise, the sky exploded. He was just stepping out of the tunnels when the first volley of fire appeared to hit the moon.
The resulting boom nearly ended him once and for all. Sparks blew out into a dandelion pattern, followed closely by a sharp whistle and crack as another firework painted the skyline. Clutching his chest, newborn heart running its own marathon, Lea let out a laugh that echoed loudly around him.
"This town," he grinned as he straightened. "has always been full of surprises."
Maybe, just maybe, his search would end here.
An accumulation of a year's worth of searching damn near every world that offered even the barest hint of possibility had led him back to this town. Why? Even he wasn't sure.
There was no evidence that Roxas was here, or anywhere. Not even a simple sighting or rumor.
"It's the only place you haven't checked, isn't it." Kairi had told him mere days ago. He had no idea what to do with the understanding look she had given him.
Throat tight and heart heavy, Lea pulled himself up onto the railing surrounding the small train station, carefully peeled one heavy boot off, and tossed it back onto the platform. He leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand. The fireworks were continuing their applause, now bursting above in rapid succession.
The sparks shooting and exploding with great reverie in the sky above created an elaborate painting. With every passing second the time between bursts of fire diminished. Soon, Lea knew, the entire night's sky would burn as multicolored fire danced against the backdrop of the moon.
Not so long ago he wouldn't have felt anything at such a sight.
But, a slow smile crossed his face, I have Roxas to thank for that.
Well, according to Sora he would have regrown his heart eventually, but memories of sandy blond hair and smiling blue eyes told Lea all he needed to know.
Believing in Roxas was the only easy thing he had done lately. Everything else was just a shitstorm. Just thinking about the seemingly never ending, and rather suicidal, battles with Xehanort and his lackeys made his muscles ache. The lengths they had to go to in order to gather the remaining 'guardians of light', well, it damn near gave him an ulcer.
Lea tapped his cheek with his index finger and frowned. An ulcer would have been a piece of cake compared to the end of their search for the guardians. Because finding that last guardian of light, locked up and asleep like a princess in a tower, had knocked him into such a state of grief that even Kairi couldn't drag him out of it- not that she didn't try.
Lea had known at first glance that it wasn't Roxas.
But even so, something deep inside himself had reached out, grasping desperately for a shred of hope. It couldn't have been Roxas, but he wanted it to be.
Ventus didn't understand why Lea couldn't look at him.
"Emotions are a hell of a thing, but at least I'm feeling them," Lea told himself as he gingerly rubbed his feet, repeating words he had spoken to Kairi at the beginning of their journey.
He had been sitting back on the pier in Destiny Islands, basking in the hot island sun, watching Sora and Riku flirt train together down on the beach, when Kairi sat down next to him.
"This is nice," she said with a smile. "Just having a few moments to relax and enjoy ourselves."
Lea hadn't planned on indulging in conversation so he just nodded in response.
Kairi just crossed her legs and leaned forward to draw in the sand with her finger. "We need all the happy memories we can get before…" she shrugged. "Before the fighting starts."
Down on the beach, Lea heard Sora explode in laughter and shout something about tickling being cheating.
Lea merely chuckled but the action couldn't reach his eyes.
"What?" She sighed and dropped her cheek onto her hand, giving him an exasperated look. "It's important to be positive. I think you need to dig up some happy memories now before you are stuck with that expression permanently."
He sat up straighter, surprised by her words. "... What's wrong with my face?"
The moment he spoke, she burst into a smile that could have given Sora a run for his munny. Lea wasn't altogether sure how to react. "You aren't thinking happy thoughts, and it shows. It's a bit of a constipated look."
Amused, Lea smirked. "Emotions are a hell of a thing, but at least I'm feeling them. Besides, good memories are not exactly common for someone like me."
"What about Roxas?"
That name wrapped like rope around his chest.
Lea frowned at her. "What about-?"
"Why can't he be your happiness?" she pressed. Lea opened his mouth to respond, but she was too quick. "Yes, I know, but think about it for a second. You remember him, right?"
Lea slowly nodded, unsure of where this was heading.
Her eyes had brightened visibly. "Then you can think of all the good memories you have of him! In times like these, when-" she looked away, back towards the duo chasing each other up and down the beach- "when we are separated from those we care about, we have to hold onto those times."
"Hold onto them, huh?" he repeated as he dipped his hand into the sun baked sand and let streams of blond spill out through his fingers. When he closed his fist around the sand it merely escaped out the sides. "Well, if you say so."
That conversation, her encouragement, would continuously end up reviving his determination every time it seemed easier to just forget his heart, his promises.
Now, Lea stretched his legs out over edge of the railing as he watched the fireworks, letting the cooling night air soothe the sores on his feet. With every passing minute it seemed to get darker, allowing the fireworks to dazzle overhead. He wondered absently if Roxas had ever seen fireworks before.
"I think," he began. "I think you'd like this."
An idea fizzled to life, a picture of the two of them together again, watching a show just like this one.
He closed his eyes, needing to imagine, to hope.
It would be easy, once he found Roxas. Lea would find out when the fireworks would be set off again, whether a year from now or a month, and ask Roxas to meet him then up on the clock tower, just like old times. On that day, he would step out onto the balcony and see those ocean filled eyes dart to him.
The sunset would light up Roxas' face in all the best ways. It always had before. But was that a memory or a dream?
They would sit together and just talk. After everything they had been through, they would finally just talk until their ice cream was completely forgotten. That is, until it melted.
Lea's laugh was a bit choked as he pictured it.
It wouldn't be long before the sun set and Lea's well kept surprise would burst up over the skyline and explode in a flurry of light and color. He imagined the look on Roxas' face; how the fireworks might paint his features in an entirely new light; how beautiful he would look. It would be so easy to just watch him, soak in every smile, every glimmer of awe. So he would. Because seeing Roxas happy because of something he did, well, it was definitely at the top of his bucket list.
Perhaps the fireworks would crescendo much like they were doing in front of him now. Arching lights rupturing against the night sky. The intervals between each were diminishing as each blast of color built up towards the inevitable countdown. Lea's imagined that they would have the perfect vantage point from the old clock tower, and would hear the distant roar of a crowd calling out the seconds until the finale.
10
Roxas might turn to him, eyebrows raised, and say, "Hey. You going to watch? It's almost over."
9
And of course Lea would know just how to counter such a question. He would grin, glance at the fireworks, and say, "Amazing as it is, I've seen it all before. But you-" his voice would break and he would have to clear his throat before continuing- "You on the other hand..."
Crap. How should he say it?
7
Those blue eyes would probably narrow at him, but they wouldn't lose their softness. "What about me?"
6
"Axel?"
"You..." he would reach the short distance between them to touch Roxas' cheek. It'd feel warm under his touch. "I will never, could never, get enough of."
Would Roxas glare at him, then?
Would he scoff?
...Or would he smile and roll those pretty blue eyes?
Needless to say, Lea would pick the third option.
4
"What's with that? Stop staring," Roxas would say. "You're being weirder than usual today."
"Am I?" Lea would return the look and give an exaggerated eye roll of his own before dropping his hand to rest on top of Roxas'. "Maybe. But only because this is a special occasion."
"Axel!"
3
Lea released the railing and wrung his hands together on his lap. A tightness had nested itself in his ribcage. It squeezed and squeezed until his eyes crinkled in pain. How silly. Getting upset or something completely imaginary, impossible.
He was so focused on his thoughts, on such an impossibly happy moment, that he didn't notice the footsteps approaching him.
Roxas would raise an eyebrow and stare up at him, something like hope planted in his eyes. "That so?" The hand Lea was holding would be tense.
2
"Yeah."
And with the fireworks that would be building up with abandon in front of them, the cheering countdown nearing its conclusion, Lea would finish his fantasy. He would close the short distance between them. Wide eyes would regard him with shock. Then, their lips would meet-
1
The pained smile on Lea's face suddenly had nothing to do with his thoughts. Instead, it had everything to do with the growing red spot on his cheek and the shaking fist pulling away from him.
Lea blinked hard from his place on the cold ground and touched his swollen cheek.
"Now who's the space cadet?" Someone sighed, and every nerve in Lea's heart came alive.
That voice…
He looked up sharply, jaw slack.
Roxas was standing above him, warmth radiating off of his smile, and holding out his hand to Lea.
"Roxas," Lea whispered, unable to blink for fear of this vision fading away. He reached to grab the offered hand. Its steady warmth was like a knife to his gut. Was he going mad? "Is that… you? Are you for real?"
"Yeah," blue eyes sparkled with mirth, and damn; his memory had not done the blond justice. It was like comparing a painting of a long stretch of beach to the actual thing. "It's really me, Axel. His hand closed around Lea's. "It's really me."
"I…" Lea blinked several times before gripping Roxas' hand and standing. He didn't release his hand. With his free hand he began to reach towards Roxas, fingers itching for the contact.
"You're staring," The blond chuckled, flicking his gaze away from their entwined fingers and up to Lea's face. The slight chill that the night had brought them was brushing stray strands of sandy blond across tanned cheeks, and Lea watched, transfixed, as Roxas brushed them away.
Before Lea could process what he was doing, he had grabbed Roxas and yanked him into a desperate, longing hug. The small form squirmed briefly in Lea's tight hold before relaxing, expression melting from surprise to contented bliss.
"It's you!" Lea tightened his hold on Roxas' jacket. "Roxas there is so much that I… All the messed up stuff I've… I just-" The speech he had long since memorized for this day fell apart on his lips.
"I need to apologize-"
"Axel."
Lea pressed his wet face against Roxas' hair. When did it start raining? "Yeah?"
Roxas shifted away and turned his face skyward, and Lea found it next to impossible to not pull him back. His self restraint was dangling on the edge of a cliff, ready to dive.
"Roxas?" he whispered.
"Want to know what that was for?" Roxas turned back to him, face a mix of guilt and untamed sadness, and gestured to Axel's slightly swollen cheek.
Lea didn't have time to respond before Roxas was back in his arms, a motion he accepted eagerly. "That was for letting yourself die. Back then."
Dark impressions of fire and endless pain engulfing him flashed in his mind's eye. Swarming dusks. The red rimmed eyes that belonged to both Roxas and Sora staring down at him. Then, nothing.
"After you did that," Roxas let out a sad chuckle. "I realized... I didn't want any apologies. All I really wanted was to have you back. So don't go apologizing now. It's okay, Axel."
Lea's shoulders relaxed and he let out a long, shaky sigh.
"You really are something special," he whispered into Roxas' hair.
The shorter man stiffened, but his hands came up to grip at the front of Lea's jacket. It grew quiet. There were no fireworks or cheers to highlight the air around them. It was just them.
And Lea couldn't be happier.
At least that's what he thought.
The next moment surpassed every notion of what Lea thought happiness was. A key fit into his heart and unlocked a high of emotion that almost buckled his legs under him. Happiness, crushing longing, and no small amount of shock.
Lea's dreams of a kiss were a cheap imitation compared to this.
Not even a minute into the peaceful silence Roxas had used his grip on Lea's shirt to pull him down and connect their lips in a desperate kiss.
"And that," he breathed against Lea's cheek as they pulled back for air. "That was for searching for me, for keeping your promise."
"Is that what I get for fulfilling promises?" Lea couldn't stop his huge grin. He was sure he looked like a moron, but couldn't find it in himself to care. "In that case, I promise to take you out for ice cream right now."
"I'll hold you to that promise," Roxas smiled warmly as Lea pressed their foreheads together. "But I have one more thing I want."
Lea put his hands on Roxas' shoulders and peered curiously at him. "What is it?"
For a moment he seemed to consider the question, but from the determined gleam in those eyes Lea guessed he already knew.
"I only want you to answer me one thing," Roxas rocked back on his heels and turned a smile on Lea.
Quirking an eyebrow, Lea returned the smile. "Ask away."
"Do I call you Lea or Axel now?"