Of Water and Flames
Note: Alex is what I conjecture to be Axel's name before he lost his heart. Note the similarities between Sora and Roxas, etc. This also takes place in what I presume to be the time before Axel became a Nobody. By my theory, he was learning magic at the time (kind of how I presume Vexen to have been a chemist in his past life).
Note II: This is a single interconnected story, but few, if any, of the sentences are in order, for those new to the 1sentence game. Included before each entry/sentence/whatever you choose to call it, I've included the prompt that inspired it.
Note II: This was written for Kya, who, slightly miffed that the only pictures we could locate of Axel involved him kissing Roxas. In retaliation, I gave Axel a girlfriend...and this is their story...
#01 – Motion: He couldn't quite get the hang of swimming; there were too many directions to move, and every motion could change anything.
#02 – Cool: Sitting on that rock, he looked good, and she knew it, and no matter how taboo it was, she thoroughly enjoyed staring up at him from the water's edge.
#03 – Young: He was still the apprentice to the lousy old sorcerer, and just being around the old crone made him feel furiously young and naive.
#04 – Last: "So...this is goodbye," he said, and he would have said more if she hadn't kissed him quickly on the lips.
#05 – Wrong : What she expected to see was a handsome young merman, just like he'd always been; what she saw was a good looking human, staring a silent apology at her through his fiery hair.
#06 – Gentle: The sharkskin had left his hands raw and bloody, but when Ariel wrapped them, the touch of her fingers was more soothing than any salve could have been.
#07 – One: Of all the spells he wanted to show her, it just had to be the one that shot a stone at the nearest shark; and of all the sharks that he could have hit, this one just had to be as irritable as it was hungry.
#08 – Thousand: A storm erupted, and he learned very quickly what it meant to worry—each one of the thousand thrashing waves might have dashed her against the merciless rocks, and each crash of thunder gave rise to a new swell of terror for her safety.
#09 – King: As the giant merman approached, scepter in hand, Alex wasn't really focused on bowing or anything like that; he was too stunned to hear the crab address Ariel as Princess.
#10 – Learn: He loved teaching her things—but mostly it was just showing off his spells and listening to her gasp when he created a tongue of flame above the water's surface.
#11 – Blur: He felt oddly numb, and after a moment's confusion he realized, horrified, that he was changing back.
#12 – Wait: He swam as fast as he could, but she swam faster, wondering what she had said or done to make him flee so desperately.
#13 – Change: The incantation was complicated and difficult, but nobody else his age would have learned a shapeshifting spell yet; that was enough to make him keep trying until, after literally hundreds of obstinately failed attempts, he had managed to (instead of turning into an octopus, as expected), transfigure his feet into a scaly red tail.
#14 – Command: With a single word, Triton sealed Alex's fate—and as the finned soldiers approached, all the boy could do was to flee and pray that he could remember some kind of spell that could save him.
#15 – Hold: His arms were strong, and even though he was holding her against him in the dry air, she had never felt more safe.
#16 – Need: It took Ariel a moment to realize, as Alex clutched at his throat, that though she didn't need to breathe dry air, he did.
#17 – Vision: Red seeped into his line of sight, and at that moment, he wasn't sure if it was blood or death—if the soldiers had caught him or if the spell had destroyed him by itself.
#18 – Attention: "Is there something wrong?" she wondered, but he was too distracted to answer: she was pretty—extremely so—and wearing nothing but a clamshell brassier.
#19 – Soul: There was something incredible about her voice—it had a magic about it, something that completely enchanted him (and being a wizard's apprentice, this was quite a feat).
#20 – Picture: He thought he'd been keeping his feelings for her a secret, but his (poor) doodles in the margins of all the sorcerer's books made the old man suspicious.
#21 – Fool: "You lied to me," was her accusation; "I never said I wasn't human," was his pathetic reply.
#22 – Mad: Perhaps he'd lost his mind, but when she raised her hand to slap him a second time, he pulled it close and kissed it.
#23 – Child: "I'll take him away from her," the wizard promised Triton, "Just don't hurt the boy—he's like a son to me."
#24 – Now: The more time he spent with Ariel, the less his old concerns mattered to him; past and future seemed to lose their reality and became sleepy dreams to be played with and spoken of, but never again worried over.
#25 – Shadow: Despite her efforts to keep Alex a secret, it soon became common knowledge that Ariel had a new shadow with a red fin.
#26 – Goodbye: The Nobody named Axel wandered along the edge of a beach in an out-of-the-way world, looking for signs of Roxas (or Sora, if necessary) but when he saw the pretty red-head in the arms of the foppish looking man, he suddenly lost interest in his quest; he couldn't be sure why he felt so much pain just then.
#27 – Hide: She fled into the shadows of the kelp, attempting to disguise her face, "Please don't tell daddy I'm here," she begged; but she didn't flee quickly enough to keep him from learning that she was absolutely beautiful.
#28 – Fortune: What he finally showed her was a meager divination spell: "You will live a long life and overcome all your problems, and end up marrying the man you love..." and perhaps it was only wishful thinking that made him add, "And he will be human."
#29 – Safe: Even after he left, and she kept collecting trinkets from his world—the world above the surface of the sea, where humans walked on the sand—and someday, she dreamed, she would find him again and he would explain every one of them to her, just like he used to.
#30 – Ghost: He had barely gone a league before he saw it: a shape flitting through the seaweed below him and a flash of red like fire beneath the sea.
#31 – Book: Concentrating on his studies and spells had been difficult before, but now he sliced through them with a lover's passion—anything to impress Ariel.
#32 – Eye: As friendly as she was to the rest of her father's kingdom, there had always been a swift respect for her; it intrigued her that this green-eyed young merman was brave enough (or bold, or friendly) to look her in the eye.
#33 – Never: "I never wanted to hurt you," he said, kissing her hand again, "That's why I couldn't tell you the truth."
#34 – Sing: He made sure not even Roxas could hear him before he started to hum that tune from a time he couldn't remember.
#35 – Sudden: "We're leaving on a journey," the wizard said, and Alex felt his heart drop from his chest; "Pack your things, we won't be coming back after tomorrow."
#36 – Stop: She had been gazing childishly at the night sky beside him when she drifted to sleep, and suddenly he ended his reverie, realizing that she was draped over his shoulder and, even among the sea-tumbled rocks, he had never felt more comfortable.
#37 – Time: As the years passed, Ariel grew up, saw another human, and fell in love with the one named Erik—and the day she did, Alex lost his heart and became Axel.
#38 – Wash: The old wizard, though wise in the affairs of magic and mystery, was having a difficult time understanding why Alex was suddenly so meticulous about his appearance.
#39 – Torn: He wasn't sure he could explain to her, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to; she was a mermaid, and he wasn't.
#40 – History: At that point, Alex didn't care about guards or soldiers or Triton's lethal commands; he was going to see Ariel, and nobody—not even his diligent history of close calls—was going to stop him.
#41 – Power: Sora didn't understand why Ariel was so curious about a red haired man with green eyes, but when he related that Axel was dead, he wasn't sure he wanted to know why there were tears in her eyes.
#42 – Bother: "Doesn't it...you know...bother you, that I'm not a merman?" he asked, looking meekly up at her; she ruffled his flame-red hair and kissed his cheek, and he promptly forgot what he had asked her.
#43 – God: The sharks approached, and for the first time in his life, Alex prayed.
#44 – Wall: As he rode away from her for what he thought would be the last time, the sea seemed as flat and unyielding as a wall of stone, and he resigned himself never to see Ariel again.
#45 – Naked: When the spell wore off and he was human again, Alex was suddenly very glad that Ariel was long gone: mermen, as it turned out, weren't known for wearing pants...and suddenly, neither was he.
#46 – Drive: Hot water, he realized after a shameful pause, is very painful; a moment later he turned this discovery against the shark, and watched with pride as it fled from his fusion of fire and water.
#47 – Harm: All he wanted in that moment was to keep her safe, and so when the shark had her cornered, it was his body in front of its massive teeth and his fist pummeling its serrated skin.
#48 – Precious: He gave her a candle of her very own, along with a little spell—that the fire would burn as long as he lived to love her—and she kept it as her most prized possession.
#49 – Hunger: "Alex, what have you—" the wizard wondered, after the boy had spent another day (this would be the fifth in a row) floundering about in the ocean; his apprentice sheepishly lifted a dead fish from behind his back (hoping that the wizard wouldn't see Ariel's hand shove it into his hands from her hiding place beneath the waves) and mumbled: "I was…er…hungry…"
#50 – Believe: She listened with rapt attention to every word he said, and for the first time he was trusted absolutely; he could tell her anything and know it would be accepted as truth...and so it hurt him even more to know that she was still being lied to.
