STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIED.
close my eyes and lay me to sleep
by: pixie paramount (?/??/??)
Kingdom Hearts, Axel/Naminé & they'll never suspect a thing
Mr. Axel moves in next door one stormy day in October, as her father lies sick on his bed as her mother frets, bites her nails nervously and holding onto her whenever the doctors, the nurses, and the aides can not look her in the eye. "Is he going to be alright? Oh, is he?" Just tell me a lie, if you have to.
And Naminé cowers in the shadows (dressed in frilly, lace dresses and her hair tied up in bows) and doesn't understand any of it. (Why her father won't stand; why her mother cries, constantly; why the nurses slip her candy and warm smiles and kind words. Sweetie, you did nothing wrong.)
And Mr. Axel watches, waits, until the moment is right and weaves himself into their home and their hearts and their lives with his caring, twisting words and sweet lies. He promises that he can save her father that he can make it all better, like how everything was before.
And her mother is desperate, will listen to anything. "Please, anything—I just want him back. Please." I can't live without him.
Naminé plays in the gardens out in the backyard, gets lost in the maze of hedges and lawn gnomes as her mother cements a deal with a devil who promises her anything—so long as she can pay the price when the time comes.
And her mother, so mad-sick with grief and desperation and so afraid of being alone, accepts the price as her daughter stumbles and is kissed by butterflies and wild flowers.
"It's worth it," she says, "It's worth it." She rubs at the tears that slide down, harshly. She takes her husband's cold hand in her own and prays.
And Mr. Axel disappears, quietly, when Naminé slips in, kisses her mother on the cheek, and doesn't understand why she can't look her in the eye after this day on.
Naminé wakes up with her dress crumbled on the floor, her hair in knots, her thighs sticky and her abdomen sore.
There is blood on the sheets; the room smells of cheap thrills and things that won't leave her all too soon; and he sleeps besides her.
(Her father breathes in the next room, guaranteed a long, healthy life without every knowing the price.)