Fire & Moonlight, a Kingdom Hearts fanwork: 101 Theme Challenge by Wishing-Fire, written by Raberba girl
Themes 82-84 (rough drafts)
Summary: Saïx & Axel fight to survive a deadly Game.
A/N: Inspired by- scratch that; this is practically set in the universe of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, though hopefully you won't need to have read that in order to understand these. Um, the end is kind of a spoiler for that book, though. And ftr, I wrote this before the movie came out.
82. Yours
Saïx took off as soon as the signal sounded, racing at top speed for the pile of weapons and beating the other contestants by a good three seconds. He snatched up the first thing that came to hand, cursing even as he hefted the club-like sword. Something that heavy would most likely be a disadvantage. There was no time left, he'd have to just grab something else at random and run, hoping that it was better than-
The fire wheel was in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the other boy's face. They gazed at each other for a tense fraction of a second. "They're yours," Saïx found himself saying, tossing over the spiked weapon and then turning to flee before the boy even caught it.
'Why did I do that, why did I do that, WHY DID I DO THAT? Now he has a matched pair, how stupid can I be and still have a prayer of surviving this? Should've bashed this claymore into his head, not handed over that chakram just because his eyes were the same as Lea's...'
He held the claymore in a reversed grip as he ran, hoping to shield his back, but the impact he was expecting never came. The boy with Lea's eyes had either repaid that moment of stupidity in kind, or he had been cut down by another player, but Saïx wasn't about to look back to see which it was.
83. Mine
So the boy whom Saïx refused to think of as "Lea" had survived after all. Once again, they found themselves exchanging tense stares, frozen with their hands on their weapons. Rainwater was dripping down Saïx's sleeve from the vines he held, but he wasn't about to shift and run the risk of letting the vines fall back down to obscure his sight.
The other boy finally licked his lips and spoke. "This hideout's mine."
"You found it first. Makes sense."
"...Why didn't you kill me at the Cornucopia?"
Saïx blinked. "What?"
The boy's eyes narrowed. "Get lost. If anyone sees you, they'll know I'm here."
Carefully, Saïx slid inside and let the vines fall down behind him, covering the cave mouth again. He held his claymore at the ready, prepared to block an assault from the other boy's long-range weapons.
"Don't come any closer," the boy warned sharply.
"I won't. What's your name?" he asked, in answer to the boy's earlier question.
"What?"
"I'm Saïx."
"...They call me Axel."
"Have you ever been called Lea?"
Axel's eyes narrowed and his stance lowered ominously, his chakrams poised to be thrown. "How do you know Lea?"
"He saved my life eight years ago. And I've only been called Saïx since that time."
"Isa," Axel whispered. His weapons dropped to the floor like they had suddenly grown too heavy to hold.
Saïx deliberately set his weapon aside and sat down.
"Your eyes...so that's what happened to him. To you. I thought he- I thought you were dead."
"I may very well be by the time this is over," Saïx said darkly.
Axel's expression flared. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. Not again."
"That's my line. It seems we have some plans to make."
"Yeah." Axel smiled. "We do."
84. Ours
"Two contestants left. Two survivors remaining to bring this blood-soaked Game to a close. Who will win, and who will lose?" Axel said in a hushed, dramatic whisper.
"Shut up."
"I'm bored."
"I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be bored than have to deal with any of the many, many alternatives I could think of."
"I agree completely."
They sat together at the edge of the lake after having hurled their weapons into its depths. Saïx had forced himself to follow Axel's example by sprawling carelessly, a picture of nonchalance - yet his whole body was still tense, envisioning the unseen cameras that were surely fixed on them at this moment.
"Bored bored bored bored boooored," Axel sang.
Eventually, Saïx was forced to acknowledge what he had been refusing to realize for a long time. "Axel."
Axel, who had been apparently making a determined effort to sing "We Are The Champions" as off-key as he could, abruptly went silent. So he had probably realized it as well.
"They're not going to come for us."
"Aw, come on, Sai, just 'cause they're taking their sweet time sending-"
"They're not going to come for us." This Game was never meant to have more than a single winner.
Axel sighed heavily. "Yeah." He raised his voice, obviously for the benefit of the cameras. "Figures that even when we freaking WIN, they'd never let an actual victory be ours - that'd be too honest and fair and decent of them."
After a moment, Saïx gently reached out and touched Axel's knee. So quietly that Axel had to lean down to hear him, Saïx murmured, "Roxas and Xion are waiting for you at home. There's no one depending on me. It'll make more sense if I'm the one to-"
"Stop talking before I beat your face in."
So much had happened, so much they had endured, yet this was the moment when Saïx came closest to letting tears fall. Successfully fighting them back, his expression was perfectly composed by the time he had withdrawn the poisoned berries. They rested on his open palm, though he could not quite bring himself to hold them in Axel's direction. "...Together?"
"Both or none," Axel said firmly, grasping his share. At the same time, they raised the deadly fruit to their lips.
o.o.o
Author's Notes: And what happens next is what also happened in the book. Otherwise, Xion would probably hold me down long enough for Roxas to murder me. :p And I think...either Axel's pretty confident of the outcome, or he's a bit OOC... DX
I had to post this separately from the other themes on FFN, because some people on this site are control freaks. *sigh*
Sooooo I had a much better idea for this set of themes, but the word count limit took my muse and put it through a SHREDDER. I was not a happy camper for a while, what with muse-gore splattered all over my computer and all. I ended up posting the failed attempts as the first Stepsiblings story, and came up with an entirely different idea for the challenge.
I have NO IDEA why it took so long for me to post this set of drabbles, since they've literally been finished and sitting around on my flash drive for over 17 months, even after I gave up on trying to post the themes in order ._. The first Hunger Games movie came out on 23 March 2012; the first Stepsiblings story was posted even earlier, 14 January 2012, which was some time after I actually wrote it (that was back when I was still taking the time to edit stories before posting them XD). Wow...I know that it sometimes takes me a really long time to post stories after I start writing them, but...wow. XD
Complete: 61/101