Cover by Huvus.

Return to Sender

Chapter 1:

Betrayal by Mail

Sometimes, the Secret Forest was a little too adept at keeping its secrets.

"Where are you...?" Kairi murmured as she pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I know I left you around here somewhere."

The petite redhead crouched by the boulder that served as her usual perch, scanning the shifting green shadows for any sign of it. Every shadow that came up empty filled her with an increasing sense of dread. The steely determination that drove her search all afternoon was about to give way to dismay.

She could have sworn she left it here. She'd stake her Keyblade on it. But there's no way it could have moved on its own, unless —

"Looks like I'm not the only one forgetting something."

Kairi turned, and rose so quickly she collided with the towering figure leaning over her. "Ow!" She took an unsteady step back, rubbing her forehead. Total Sora move. When she shook her vision clear, she saw Lea was the one who had discovered her. Who else? The man's hands hovered near her, almost as if he had expected to catch her in a fall. Now that she had regained some of her composure, he planted one on his hip and gestured vaguely to her brow with the other.

"Knock something loose?" He grinned sharp enough to take a bite out of more inferior smiles. Kairi shook her head again. "So, what'd you lose?"

"My notebook," she explained. She sank down unhappily on the boulder and drew her knees together. "Axel, I could have sworn I left it here. You haven't seen it, have you?"

She was half-expecting him to come to her rescue then, to draw it from behind his back with the same sleight of hand he used to produce ice cream, puffs of flame, and the occasional encouraging thumbs-up. Instead, the man averted his eyes, and raised a sheepish hand to scratch the back of his head.

Her own eyes narrowed a fraction. She knew that tell all too well after growing up with Sora. "Axel?" she prompted. With more desperation than she had been conducting her search with, she now desperately wanted to be wrong.

"I told you to use that name, not to wear to out."

"Where are my letters?" Was this some sort of game he was playing? Did he intend to keep them from her for her to win back from him during their next match?

"I sent them for you." He turned back to her now, a willing party to her interrogation. "I gave them to Merlin to get to Sora. May take a while, but he said he knows a courier the king trusts."

"You what?" Kairi sprang up from her boulder and braced like a startled cat. "Axel, please tell me you didn't!"

"I'm not in the habit of lyin' these days," he said coolly.

"But you are in the habit of stealing other people's personal possessions?"

"You wrote those letters to Sora, didn't you? How much of a personal possession are they really?" Lea crossed his slender arms and looked at her. Her temper seemed to have enflamed his own; still, there was the ghost of guilt hovering about his eyes. He knows, Kairi thought. He knows what he did was wrong, but he still won't cop to it. "The way I see it, I'm doing you a favor."

"Is that so?" she exclaimed. "Well, the next time you think about going out of your way to do me a favor — don't!"

"What's with you?" Lea demanded as his posture fell apart. "Don't you get it? If those are the true feelings of your heart, you shouldn't hold any of them back! Sora could disappear at any moment, forever! You think you'd ever forgive yourself if that happened?"

The clearing froze over in a stunned silence. Lea stood poised like he was about to attack: shoulders humped, arms flung wide, chest heaving in the wake of his outburst. He blinked, and his eyes appeared to switch settings. He straightened. There was too much pain to process, too many hard truths, but Kairi's focus was overridden by a sudden, terrible suspicion.

"Did you read them?" she asked quietly.

"I…" He had the grace to look guilty again. "Only the first one."

"You're unbelievable!" she cried.

His eyes narrowed. "Which reminds me: if you're scared of me, you should just tell me. I'd try not to hang around so often."

And there it was: her private words, her private feelings, flung back in her face. Maybe the explosive side of his temper wasn't as dangerous as the one he kept hidden from her. But her temper, so rarely earned, could be dangerous, too.

Kairi picked up a rock and hurled it at his head. Lea dodged out of the way, but the wind of its passage ruffled his hair. All those long lonely days skipping stones on Destiny Island proved practicable after all. She seized another and flung it full-force. This time, Lea caught the missile one-handed. He let the stone drop when she moved to stalk past him.

"Kairi! Wait!" He snagged her by the arm. "I'm..."

She wanted to shake him off and flee to the beach. She wanted back all that was familiar: the sand, the sea, the sky, and a sunset that, when it ignited the horizon, didn't remind her of a man she thought she had come to know.

"Don't," she said. "I told you, I don't want any more apologies."

He had held her like this against her will once before. She knew he remembered. Lea let go of her arm. Leather creaked as his fingers curled into his palm.

"I know you aren't a bad guy, Axel," she whispered. "You've proven that. But sometimes, you just aren't a very good friend."

His intake of breath told Kairi her words had stung worse than any stone. She almost wished she could take them back… but Lea was the reason she couldn't take any of it back. How could a man who had risked everything to protect his friends still hurt the last one he had left? She gripped the spot over her heart, then raised her chin and started forward. She quit the clearing without a backward glance.

Her letters were out there now, her secret words and sentiments cast into the black vastness of space. It was a little like sending off a message in a bottle; only this time, she had no idea where the moon-pulled tides might take them...

Or where they might wash up.

Damn, top ten anime betrayals.