Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

chasing shapeless silhouettes

x

"He's quite the hunk." A slow arpeggio drifted towards her ears in the wake of his voice. She whirled, face flushing in her surprise and her mouth stuttering open with no reply. "But you already knew that, right?" He was smiling at her, sitting cross legged on a rock in the middle of the water and looking for all the world like a child. Talking like it was trivial, nothing. Oh the weather's very nice and who is that human you were so obviously drooling over.

His fingers were climbing lazily down the neck of his sitar in a slow, drawling scale of notes. Ariel felt her stomach sink with them.

His indifference stung worse than anger could have, and she found herself wishing he would get angry. Wishing he would resent that her attention had been drawn to someone else, wishing that it could coax a reaction - a real reaction - out of him.

Wishing, unknowingly, that he could feel. Unknowingly because as far as she knew, the heart inside his chest was as real as hers.

"I... guess so." She looked away from him, didn't see the arch of his brows over blue eyes at her halting reply.

"You guess so?" Ariel could hear the grin in his voice, too good natured to really be mocking her, but still not taking her seriously either. She wasn't brave enough to turn her gaze up and see it.

Because she wasn't a woman that could stand eye to eye with him. Wasn't a human that could stand at all. She was a little fish who had been peeping on a black haired man not of her race. A passing thought suggested that he should be disgusted with her, but one glance - painful and forced - at the blond's face and she knew that he could never be.

Sweet Demyx, angel Demyx. Too kind and too cold to express something that strong for her.

"Yeah, I guess so." The mermaid's voice was strained - why was it that their conversations always seemed to run in circles? - and she turned partially away from him, her arms crossing over her chest awkwardly. A silent threat to shut him out completely that she would never follow through with.

"Your face is starting to match your hair, Ariel." He laughed delightedly when she gave a frustrated huff and stuck her tongue out at him, and the sound tore her into two regards. One that ached to fall at his black garbed feet and beg him to do it again, and one that wanted nothing more than to laugh back and share in the glee that made his eyes shine and crinkle at the corners in that perfect way. Even if his merriment was at her own expense.

In the end she shot him a less than pleased look - fabricated from a shred of self control - and with a flick of her tail she sent a splash of saltwater his way.

"Missed me!"

Ariel stifled a sigh. Yes, she was always missing him, wasn't she?

x

A/N: The pairing won't leave me alone! So this is going to be a small collection of ficlets rather than a solitary piece.

Once again, comments are loved!