Alrighty so, inspiration is weird, and at about 1 in the morning a few days ago, I wanted to write a oneshot with Kairi and Axel, and what it was like after he kidnapped her. This is what came out of it.
I hope you guys like it!
Obligatory Disclaimer : Yeah, I wish. Its all Nomura's.
Also as a side note, I have no beta except for my spellcheck, so I hope there aren't any glaring errors.
"Let. Me. Go."
Axel chuckled darkly in noncompliance, pulling the girl through the dark portal.
"Sorry Princess, you're not really in charge here." He pulled his free hand through his spiky red hair in exasperation. "I am. Got it memorized?"
"The only thing I have memorized is the image of Sora kicking your skinny little ASS!" Kairi screamed, yanking her wrist out of Axel's grip, and running in the opposite direction they had been heading.
Her heart was pounding in her head, and for a while she thought that Axel wasn't following her, because the only footsteps she could hear were her own. Her surroundings were strange, but if she could do her part and get away from Axel, maybe Sora would find her, and make her safe again. Maybe Riku would appear as if by magic and make her see that there was nothing to be afraid of. But that couldn't happen if Kairi got herself caught again, so she ran harder.
For a few minutes, it was silent, save for her heavy breathing, and loud footfalls.
It would figure that the one time Kairi didn't trip over anything, or just fall down, the person chasing her wouldn't actually have to run.
A dark portal swooshed closed as a long arm snaked around Kairi's waist, stopping her in her tracks. Her body bent over the arm, and Kairi could feel herself beginning to flip over it. Guess I must've been going pretty fast, she thought in retrospect.
She looked down at the unfamiliar ground, glaring at it, wishing it away with all the terrible things that were happening right now. She didn't have to look up to know that the person restraining her now would be Axel, nor did she need to see the smirk she knew would be dangling infuriatingly on his face.
She resigned herself to being good. It would not do anyone any good for her to get lost in this place anyway. Sora could take this character anyday. So for now, she would wait, once again. One more time she would wait for life to give her the go ahead to take control and make things go her way, instead of having life take control of her and making her go any which way it pleased.
Axel sighed loudly, loosening his grip on Kairi slightly.
"Should I say 'Commit it to memory' instead? I tried that for a little bit, not as much zing." He said it with such arrogance that Kairi balled up her fists, and clenched her eyes shut to hide her angry tears. She bit her lip painfully to keep from saying words she knew would get her in even more trouble.
Axel watched her carefully for a moment, evaluating the situation as he had been taught to. Think before you take action, it was a rule that had saved him more than once. Of course, this tiny little girl was no threat to him, she barely came up to his chest.
After coming to this conclusion, Axel released his grip on Kairi completely. She looked up at him questioningly, and the emptiness in her eyes should have broken his heart. Of course it didn't, but Axel was sure that glance would find something to break unless he made her smile.
"Come on Princess, we're gonna find some firewood." He said with some conviction, trying to look enthused. He led her into the forest that was located just outside Twilight Town. He wouldn't let her know that she was only a few minutes run from where he had kidnapped her. But for now, the safest place to be when on the run is exactly where you're supposed to be. Because that's what he was, on the run. He had finally betrayed the Organization, and as a final kiss my ass, he had stolen their bargaining chip.
They spent few silent minutes picking up suitable branches to make a fire. Kairi filled her arms with small short sticks that were nothing more than kindling, while pointing out to Axel the large and apparently heavy (God Dammit Princess, pick bigger ones why don't you?) logs for him to carry back.
She never said a word, and somehow, the silence was comforting, for Axel at the very least.
For Kairi, the silence was painful. It was overwhelming, and somehow, deafening. Everything and nothing, at the same time. She could see both futures in her head. One with Sora and Riku, the boys she loved, on the islands she loved, doing the things she loved doing. Two, with Axel, and whoever the hell else he was working with, being kept in the dark, and alone. And it was quickly becoming clear that the second option might soon become the only one.
When Axel was finished finding firewood, he somehow freed a hand and grabbed her wrist without a word, pulling her back to the small clearing where he had caught up with her. They dumped their find in a collective pile, while Axel kneeled to start putting rocks in a circle, to make a fire pit.
"I thought you could make fire all on your own." She whispered, questioningly. He glanced sharply at her, startled that she had been the one to break the silence.
"Its what I do best." He murmured in answer, trying not to speak louder than she had, lest she give him that terrible, longing, sad, look again.
"Then why do you need firewood?" She asked, louder now. She was standing over him, her hands on her hips. She had an eyebrow raised and Axel highly suspected that maybe, just maybe, she was trying to piss him off.
And maybe, just maybe, it was working.
But rather than let her see his anger, which would surely make her run off again (and make him find her again, god damnit) he answered her question in a quick, clipped tone. "Do you want to be cold tonight?" He asked her, not bothering to look up at her. If he had, he would've noticed the flash of fear across her face.
"We're staying the night here?" She asked, whispering again.
"What? don't tell me you're scared of the dark." He teased, ignoring her blustering response.
He stood swiftly, fluidly. Not looking in her direction, he strode to their pile of firewood and picked up an armful, dumping it in the firepit. With a quick snap of his fingers, there was a blazing warmth coming from the centre of the clearing, and Axel took off his gloves to warm his hands by the fire.
Kairi sat next to him quietly. "I want to know why." Firm, insisting, just what you would expect from a princess.
"You should specify, Princess. For all I know, you're asking why the sky is blue." He answered, just as firm.
"Why did you take me?" She asked with annoyance, as if it were an imposition to have to talk to someone like him.
Axel paused, hesitated. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell this girl anything.
"To be honest with you, it was so that someone else couldn't have you." He hunched his shoulders, rubbing his hands together. He glanced over at her, and she was curious. Of course she wouldn't be satisfied with more than he'd wanted to say in the first place.
"Organization XIII, they wanted you. They want to use you to use Sora."
"And you don't?" She asked him. Cutting, to the point, brilliantly blunt.
"Touche."
Next to him, Kairi pulled her knees into her chest, wrapping her thin arms around them, trying to keep warm. No wonder, the girl was dressed for tropical weather, not exactly the best choice for a temperate climate at sundown. Her timid pose was offset by the ugly scowl on her face.
"What are you going to try to do with him?"
Axel didn't miss the emphasis she placed on the word try, but he ignored it all the same. No reason to give the girl false hope. In lieu of answering the question, he gave Kairi his motivation instead.
"He's holding my best friend prisoner." He answered simply, shrugging when he noticed the incredulous look the girl was giving him now.
"Sora would never do that. He's not like you." She responded with malice, the icy coldness in her voice bringing a chill down Axel's spine.
"Whatever you say Princess." But so sooner than he had finished his sentence, a ringing in his ears alerted Axel to the fact that he had been slapped. Hard. He turned to glare at the cause of his pain, who at the moment was flushing furiously, her face as red as Axel's hair.
He shook his head, not bothering to give the girl the satisfaction of rubbing his cheek, which was throbbing quite persistently.
"I don't know that you should do that, Kairi." He started, almost spitting out her name. "I might decide that you're not worth all the trouble. And trust me, I'm the lesser of two evils here."
"But, you're still evil, aren't you? That's what you're saying right? You have every intention of hurting someone I care about. So I don't know why I should care." Kairi spoke softly, but with intensity. The sincerity and righteousness of her words rang in Axel's empty chest, leaving him with a sense that maybe he should feel at least a little bit guilty.
But he couldn't.
Not while Roxas was with Sora, not while he couldn't see in those brilliant blue eyes the intensity, vigor and liveliness that was Roxas, and not the innocence and naiveté that was Sora.
The two of them, the princess and the pyro, lapsed into an awkward, tense silence. Neither wanted to interrupt the peaceful crackling of the fire that still burned brightly in front of them, and so neither of them did, for a long time. The twilit sky above them darkened to the blackest point of dusk, as close to night as it got in Twilight Town. The faint stars were just beginning to twinkle and shine before the now serene silence was broken.
"Why is he so important to you?"
"He made me feel, like I had a heart."
Axel snorted.
"You have a heart, Princess." He reminded her, poorly attempting to keep the longing out of his voice.
"I know," Kairi murmured, fingers brushing over her wrist, where her pulse was throbbing gently. "But when he's gone, it's like there's a hole in my chest, where my heart should be. I know it won't feel like my heart is back until he's with me."
"Like I had a heart." Axel whispered to nobody in particular. "I like that line, I might use it sometime." He said, with more volume.
"Tell me about your friend." Kairi said, turning to face the now pensive Nobody.
"His name is Roxas. And he, I'm not sure, but there was something about him, that made me, uh, made me feel…-- "
"Like you had a heart." Kairi whispered, her eyes widening slightly in understanding.
"Yeah." Axel agreed quietly, flinching as he felt Kairi's hand on his arm. He squeezed his eyes shut, scolding himself for earning the girl's pity. He shrugged her hand off, scratching at the back of his head.
"Well, it would seem that we are fighting for different halves of the same whole." Axel commented, bringing the unsaid issue into the light. "Only one of us is going to be happy when this is all over."
"I met Roxas once, you know." Kairi said quietly, avoiding answering Axel's statement, still looking at Axel sympathetically, infuriatingly. "He kind of, spoke to me in my head, it was weird."
"Oh really, and what did he say?" Axel asked mockingly, trying to make Kairi stop looking at him like that.
"I don't know. He was telling me about Sora, when I had…forgotten." She admitted, embarrassed. "I talked to Sora then too, it was like, talking to twins, the way that you could barely tell which one of them was talking. It took me a while to realize."
"Yeah, I hear that's how it is when you meet your other. If you get to, that is." Axel replied automatically.
"Axel." The soft whisper of his name drew his eyes to Kairi, who was looking at him with that same sad, empty expression that he had seen earlier, the one that should have broken the heart he didn't have.
"He would want you to be happy. Happy for him, happy for your best friend." Kairi encouraged, standing up to walk restlessly around their campsite.
"I know this will end badly for one of us, I know that for some reason, life screwed" Axel suppressed a grin at Kairi's coarse language "us over so that only one of us could get the good out of this situation. But, for now, I think we can both be happy."
"And how do you figure that?" Axel asked skeptically.
"Well, Sora is with Roxas, and Roxas is with Sora. They are saving the worlds, they are doing the good that they want to do with their lives. They are happy, and they are whole. Maybe they miss us, but they know that we miss them, and I guess that's natural. Maybe, for now, we should be happy because they are happy. For now."
Kairi looked at the stars, knowing that the friends they were both longing for were somewhere among them.
Once again, it was silent for a time, Crickets chirped, and leaves blew softly in the wind. It was a perfect night, as if to compensate for the less than perfect circumstances.
"Maybe you really are the Princess of Heart." Axel spoke softly, breaking the silence.
Kairi blushed, the flush in her skin almost unnoticeable in the twilit sky. She turned back to Axel, who was leaning ever closer to the fire that they had kept burning.
"What makes you say that? Do I make you feel like you had a heart?" She asked with a joking curiousity, looking at Axel in fascination as the fire began the reach towards his outstretched palm.
Axel chuckled to himself as small sparks flew out of the flames to dance along his hand. The fire was his friend, never his pet. Axel played with the fire, never harnessed it, and so they got along well. All too soon, there were countless sparks and Axel's hands appeared to be aflame. He rolled the flickers of light from hand to hand, almost not noticing when Kairi took a seat next to him.
Appearing transfixed, she timidly reached out a hand towards Axel's burning ones. Strange, everyone had heard the age-old: Don't play with fire, you'll get burnt. But apparently that idea was lost on the princess.
Both Axel and Kairi jumped when flicker of flame leaped from Axel's hand to Kairi's, where it sat comfortably. She giggled quietly, rolling it around on her hand. The sound of her laugh startled them both.
Axel was scared by the genuineness of that laugh. Something about the way it sounded made him have no doubts that she was the Princess of Heart, so pure, and so, so real. And he was going to have to hurt that.
It scared Kairi because she didn't want to think that she was enjoying herself. Not here, not with him, not when Sora and Riku are fighting somewhere.
And it scared them together because they knew that at the end of all this, someone was going to get burnt.
So, what did you guys think? Worth the time it took to read? Absolutely terrible? Please please PLEASE let me know, any reviews are welcome.
On another note! SUCCESS! 3rd story posted to FFnet!