I'll Build Your Empires
Opening Note: This fic was written to Vienna Teng's "Lullaby for a Stormy Night", if you'd like to take a moment and youtube the song.
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The rain was everywhere; falling in heavy drops from the sky, clinging to the leaves on the way down, saturating the ground, the very air with its presence. Xion couldn't remember smelling anything before the rain, found it hard to remember anything else existing.
She's been having this problem a lot. It's not blackouts, Roxas has blackouts (she stops here, thinking of her friend makes something twist painfully in the pit of her stomach), but there are moments where she forgets to breathe. It's like a memory scratching at the base of her neck, remember me it tries to tell her, and yet when she reaches for it there's nothing there but a lingering sense of vertigo.
For one breathless moment, she's forgotten where she is; thinks of places she isn't -a beach, warm and dry and sunny with the shift of soft white sand beneath her and the blue sky stretching above her- until his voice breaks through and she remembers the right things. A mission to some far-flung world, just the two of them, they're friends after all, right?
"--never gonna finish our mission at this rate." She can't see Axel, the shack they've taken refuge inside is too dark; but she can hear him move around, pacing like a caged animal. "How many heartless do you have left for today?"
He's drifting closer; Xion thinks she can almost detect his silhouette, black against black, the last smudge of a fire on a moonless night. "Oh, I-I'm not sure," she takes a step away from him subconsciously, until her back meets a wall and she's not sure what's supposed to happen next.
Axel chuckles, a low mirthless sound; it's a puff of warm air against the side of her neck and Xion finds herself shivering in its wake. "What's the matter, afraid of the dark?"
She rests her hands against his chest, not trying to push him away or pull him closer, just feeling the steady inhale exhale of his breath. "N-no, I can't be afraid. No heart."
He laughs again, one of his hands rising from the gloom to brush the wet bangs out of her face. "Someone's been listening to those awful lectures." He's leaning closer, until her hands are caught between their two bodies. "So then, what's eating you?"
He's so far in her space that she can't think anymore, more of that strange scratching at the base of her neck helps in distracting her, until she's babbling. "Will you still be our friend, after we get our hearts back?"
She's left feeling cold and uncomfortable when he steps away from her. "What kind of question is that?"
This is just enough to give her momentum away from the sound of the rain and those half remembered images burning through her mind; she focuses on where Axel's body is, her hands fiddling idly with the tassels of his coat as the words bubble out of her.
"Well, when we're whole again we won't really be us we'll be who we were, or something. I've been thinking, what if when you're Ael or whoever, you don't like us as Osra and Nio?"
She doesn't need light to picture his smile in her mind. "What's with those names?" He's moved in again, closer this time, they're pressed body against body and she's out of places to run.
"Um...Roxas and I don't remember our names, so we're ad-libbing." She doesn't tell him how often they talk about it, how some days it's only those two possibilities that get them through harsh missions that leave them drained and frayed at the edges.
Axel makes some sort of awkward shift so his face is pressed against hers. "I already have a name," he bumps her lips with every syllable, sending a sharp tingle down her spine.
This information sits heavy for a moment, Xion contemplates whether she wants to know it or not. She tries to picture the cemented idea of Axel being someone else, wonders if it'll change what she has here and now. After an agonizing moment, she decides it doesn't matter. "Axel, that's not the point. Say you'll still be our friend, I don't think I'd like having a heart if you weren't there to share it."
He's laughing against her mouth, curls one hand into her hair. "We'll worry about that when we have hearts."
She recognizes this for what it is, his way of avoiding the whole situation. Xion thinks she'll let it slide, for now; the rain is beating unfamiliar against her existence again. "What was your name?" she asks, searching out a final distraction in this dark place.
"You're going to have to earn it," Axel says. He presses their mouths together in a soft kiss.
"How?" Xion asks, sliding her hands around his neck to rest between his shoulders. She gives the spot at the base of his neck a tentative scratch, wondering if it feels like memories knocking for right of way.
"Start by being quiet." There's a tongue slipping into her mouth, Axel's free hand snaking its way between them to tug at her zipper.
Xion thinks this might be the easiest way to get information out of Axel, thinks maybe he won't actually tell her when they're finished doing whatever this is, but maybe that's not an entirely bad thing. She still has forever to find out who he has been, who he's going to be again, for now she'll take her time to explore the being known as Axel.