Saïx didn't take too long to notice that a certain trio was always slightly late to return to the castle. Slightly being an understatement, shot out sarcastically at a randomly-picked proper moment at them when they return.
"So? Here are your reports, Saïx. Not like we'll desert or anything- the couple of zombies couldn't handle it."
The paper is crumpled and stained in a couple of places with blue ice-cream goop. The writing spills off the neat columns in overly large letters- of course; it figured Roxas wouldn't have developed fine motor skills in such a short time.
He does manage a response. A loud yelp, or maybe it was a semi-coherent 'hey', but it doesn't really matter. A popsicle stick drops to the ground, and Saïx glares at them to pick the thing back up.
"Be duly warned that such faults in duty will not be tolerated."
"What, you'll tell on us to the Superior?"
He was supposed to do just that. After the, oh, second attempt.
He gave them a third, each, out of consideration for still being rookies. A good many rookies were lost to Dusk-dom from overwork or inappropriate treatment of injuries sustained in the field.
A fourth to celebrate (as if Saïx could, or any of them) Axel's return from Castle Oblivion, treasons done and buried in white. This one isn't for each of them, but it's still better, since he hasn't locked the puppet in either, much as he wants to.
Now he faces Axel after the younger Nobodies have been sent off to rest or recover. Saïx notes how Axel's face doesn't completely fall into neutrality even when his 'charges' are gone. There's still a ghost of a grin, the popsicle stick is twirled absently without flashy motions of true boredom.
"I won't, since this is a too trivial matter."
Axel beams, he swears, beams brightly enough to be a nuisance. Falls fast as possible into almost-monotone, just to annoy Saïx, or so he thinks.
"But I will take matters into my own hands if this continues."
It does.
Saïx isn't at all mollified by the reports being presented neat and unmarked by sloppily-eaten treats. Nor is he swayed by the convincing pouty eyes Roxas gives him in a last ditch attempt, although he does mark his skill.
He marks the large blue eyes from under the puppet's hood, staring intently at him as it hands over the report. Despite its facelessness, it looks passably happy-
Or rather, it is happy, if what is left of Vexen's data holds true.
Instead of showing off a burst of convincing anger in front of them, he sends them off scot-free.
Saïx makes a point of taking it out on them the following morning with the missions.
He makes an attempt to. The instructions are made insultingly simple, though that is lost on them, since Saïx isn't prone to make instructions cryptic either. The worlds aren't particularly exciting- or as much as they can be for them.
They still return late and blabbering all the while about the new world and similar mindless data. A half-melted popsicle hangs from each of their hands and (pleasantly enough), Axel seems ruffled about the two kids having more energy.
"And we went to the clock tower together- me and Xion- she likes sea-salt too. Although we haven't had anything else-"
"And you won't again, unless you finish the ice-creams off before leaving the Grey Room a mess."
"Saïx, it's not like you have to clean up afterwards."
He lets the Dusks on a sugar high inside Axel's room while he sleeps and shoots a barely-pointed smirk at the redhead when he can barely lift his head enough to eat breakfast.
Axel mumbles some mediocre sarcasm as he hands over the mission reports, punctuating it with a slurred 'and g'bye-'
A pause. Axel turns around to face Saïx, tired despite his small break on the clock tower.
"But thanks for the easier mission. If it even qualifies as such."
"It did, considering simple recon-"
"You picked a world crawling with the heartless. I have never memorized as many pointless clues as I did back then."
"You managed to beat Roxas and Xion to the clock tower, so no arguments."
Saïx doesn't trade missions or goodies like the other members, but he does let Roxas advance a bit easier.
Then he looks at the puppet, still only with the luminescent blue eyes, and decides that just for now, having them in the same rank is a beneficial thing.
The explanation he gives Xemnas isn't truly satisfactory, but it is functional in so far as it goes.
It's become usual to catch the keyblade wielders enjoying some sort of treat in the Grey Room.
It's also become usual to catch Saïx mid-monotone tirade about them being complete nuisances and haranguing them over more effort on the missions.
The latter is false. Saïx will be mid-monologue. But the contents change- from blatant disregard, to neutrality, to something that might be just passed off as praise was the auditor not paying complete attention.
Axel notices the change when Roxas and Xion don't- they are too absorbed on their ice creams to really listen to Saïx once the missions are done. And once they leave- or are dismissed, which amounts to the same thing in so far as anyone cares- Axel saunters over.
"So you might have developed some emotions, after all."
Saïx just glares at Axel, though that does nothing at all. Never did, but Saïx still tries to wipe the wide grin off Lea-Axel's face.
"Learned to pretend. Whatever. Point is-"
"They aren't mindless drones, nor are their results to be desired. Therefore-"
"Therefore you stop being such a glacier. See, I told you-"
"You've told me nothing, Axel."
Thing is, Axel has.
Or more like poured the thoughts into a journal- which he never owns up to using anyways- in which…
In which Saïx is Isa is Saïx and he doesn't have sternness shoved in deep. Has a sense of humor, has an uneasy way of still being friendly despite the sarcasm and somewhat-playful bite.
In which Xion and Roxas are just that, and not eerily melding into the same separate thing.
In which Saïx stops hinting at future plans and just says all he knows- because this is déjà vu like in the old castle and they're getting another blond boy with a key to rally behind and leap over pearly gates.
Axel would go on and on, but this is the limit of not really use, so he snaps it shut. Burns off a couple of the confessions, because Dusks are snoopy things and one of them might just report to Saïx.
He doesn't regret the fact, but Axel does think he could've used a Dusk-telephone chain or two.
The next time Saïx catches Roxas and Xion licking away at their popsicles in the Grey Room, he singles them out.
"Your grasp on simple skills is faulty at best. Understand that this lesson is one-time only."
Saïx motions towards Xigbar, commands him in a steely voice to watch over the pair of them. The shooter takes it in stride, mocking the order as Saïx takes his leave through a portal.
He returns with a sea-salt popsicle, still in the wrapper and a serious expression that Xigbar can't resist making fun of.
He's shunted off to the void before Saïx notices Roxas and Xion.
"Since Axel has neglected informing you of the proper way to eat ice-cream, I'm going to take over. Before you complain, even Demyx is beginning to notice the room looks bluer by the second and I believe that the denizens of Twilight Town might've become aware of the new 'paint job' on the clock tower."
Surprisingly enough, he is maybe close to mildly enjoyable as an ice-cream companion, though that just may be due to the fact that he can't make jabs at the puppet while eating.
He makes a point of asking Axel how the puppet even eats.
"She does have a mouth, Saïx."
"It is still a puppet."
"Xion isn't an it."
"Neither is it a she. For your sake, Lea, accept that fact."
Axel rips out another page of his journal and crumbles it off into ash.
Only Saïx would make threats like those again-
And only Saïx is the other person willing to go through with every single warning.
But Axel hasn't told Roxas or Xion yet that Saïx isn't the only one.
He doesn't plan to.
Saïx's journal receives another entry- the previous one is dated from at least two years before, and beings the same-
Lea, - struck through by a perfectly-straight line that more often than not rips the page.
Then it lapses into ellipsis and small memories. Complaints he gets out of his mind by addressing them to a dead best friend who would've usually done them anyways.
There's the puppet, staring up from between the lines with stolen blue eyes and a stolen friend on her its arm. There's the plan coming along well, except Axel's caught up on the other side and Saïx never was keen on jumping alone at daring prospects.
That was your job, it ends after a note of the assassinations. Axel did them. Axel can still be pulled without breaking in halves-
And half a half of Lea isn't what Saïx wants.
The puppet breaks- again, Saïx says as mockingly as possible and ignores the pained glares from Axel and Roxas.
But Saïx finds himself miscalculating the members available for the entire time Xion is off-duty. He tells himself the only reason he wants the puppet back on its strings is to lessen the workload. Gives them another mercy- because letting them off in a team is seemingly necessary, even when it does nothing to lessen the desperation in the (not his) best friends.
Here, Saïx ignores he misses Axel's easier smile. And ignores the fact that, of all things, he dismissed the spy-Dusks charged with Xion for nearly a week before the fact.
The puppet broke free, as Saïx knew it would. A rescue effort is conducted- he shuts it down during work hours.
But he leaves a neat checklist (written by a Dusk) of all the worlds Axel and Roxas haven't checked yet.
(Of course Saïx slots in Castle Oblivion at the end- whether the puppet has been there or not is another issue, but he finds himself willing to grant them a bit more time.)
Axel fights Xion, fights Roxas and sees everything break off into something he can't fix.
He doesn't seek out Saïx- more like, he ends up stumbling upon his ex-acquaintance randomly while caught up in 'grief'.
"So this is what it was like for you?"
"I did not mope around, since I didn't pretend I had emotions. And I most definitely wasn't…"
Saïx breaks off before admitting someone and Axel knows he'll never wrest it out.
-wasn't torn into three, because we only ever were two.
-wasn't so determined. We both let the other fall without a glance.
-wasn't not blaming you to infinity.
Saïx bites all the statements back and sweeps off into another boring management task.
Xion was truly the hard-worker, Saïx muses, but ultimately it's still easy to do without her.
See, Lea? You might be able to go back yet. And I'll show you that I haven't changed nearly as much.
We really haven't.
Saïx tosses out the delusion along with the journal.
Axel burns off the last pages of his, where he breaks off with Roxas and storms away from Twilight Town still sore from keyblade wounds.
-he can't recall if Xion came along, or if the other black cloak came along, or if he's well and died and is still stuck in this damned limbo-
Axel tosses all away, along with the last jokes of a sarcastic blue-haired boy who didn't make a mess of eating ice-cream.
In the end, the resentment is still all they have.
Towards a blond boy who left and didn't pick up the pieces of Axel glimmering all over the skyscraper's shadow.
Towards a fiery man who stopped howling at the moon to chase after sunsets and cobwebs.
Towards the man taken over by ice and moonlight who just recalls and recalls but does nothing because it would kill them-him-us and he isn't sure why he even bothers with such a thing.
And towards an annoying blank in their memories who refuses to report to missions or perch at a clock tower with sea-salt ice-cream at the ready.
A.N. – belated AkuSaiRokuShi piece… next time the date comes around, I'll not miss it.
It came out sadder than I thought/planned xP And obliterated the timeline too… but it's semi-AU, so I might just get a little loophole there.
And before I forget: aside from the attempt at a plot, nothing belongs to me. Characters all copyrighted to Square-Enix blah blah blah. I'm too bored to go full on legalese.
As always, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!