Writer's Note:
Just a note - that Sora, and his friends generally refer to Lea as Axel, despite him no longer being a nobody anymore. So if you're wondering why when Sora refers to Lea as Axel or why I'm writing Axel instead of Lea, it's because it's what the characters refer to him as. Otherwise I use Lea. Sorry if it brings any confusion.
Chapter 2:
"Sora, have you noticed that Axel's been acting kind of strange?" Kairi questions her boyfriend Sora who's focusing so much on his sheet of paper that Kairi is sure his eyes would start watering soon. The couple were currently studying during the weekend for a big exam that was coming up, they decided to study at Radiant Garden's large library since there are rarely that many visitors. "Strange? Axel's always done weird shit though," Sora mumbles his eyes glancing up to Kairi for a moment before glaring at his piece of paper once again.
Kairi sighs, placing a hand onto her temple realizing that Sora won't notice anything unless someone spells it out for him. "Staring at the piece of paper won't help you memorize it any faster; let's just take a break already," Kairi decides with the close of her large Chemistry textbook. Sora gives out a sigh of relief as he pushes the irritating paper away from him.
"Now that you mention it Kairi - he may be up to something," Sora muses to himself, thinking of when he had disappeared when they were told to investigate that room. "Really? I asked him about how his training's been going and he didn't even hear a thing I said. He seems like his mind's somewhere else or something," Kairi states seriously, but her tone is slightly worried. The red haired man despite how cunning he may seem is actually a really nice person. He just takes awhile to warm up to people; Axel is hard to handle but once you get the way he communicates you'll understand him, he's actually pretty nice if you get the hang of it.
"Anyways, did you ask him about the case he said he'd investigate?" Sora questions Kairi, wondering how the whole investigation is going. "What are you talking about? Yen Sid told Riku and I that everything was fine - it was a false alarm according to Axel's report," Kairi replies clearly confused as to what Sora's talking about, her ocean blue eyes stare at Sora's and he can't help but look away with slight blush staining his cheeks.
He scratches his nose, "What are you talking about? Axel told me he'd investigate it without my help - he seemed really riled up about it. Almost like he saw a ghost. The whole room was a mess, there was blood and knife marks everywhere." Kairi's eyes narrow, "Wait, does that mean he lied to Yen Sid about everything being fine?"
"I guess so, unless they turned up empty-handed in the end," Sora mutters, seeming slightly angry that Axel left him out of the exciting case.
"This doesn't make any sense Sora, why did Axel want to do the case on his own, and more importantly why didn't he tell Yen Sid something was up?" Kairi wonders, her hand resting on her chin in deep thought. She abruptly stands stating, "That's it! We're going to find Axel! We'll corner him and ask him about what he saw!" Sora is about to stop Kairi but she grabs his forearm tightly growling, "We're going to raise hell if he lies to our faces again!" Sora mumbles quietly to himself as he's forcibly pulled from the library wondering if maybe he should have studied at home by himself. He's going to get none of the facts on the exam memorized by the end of the day. Not to mention their almost date is going to be ruined by a third wheel.
(^.^)
Lea sighs to himself as he roughly drops the dusty cardboard box onto Even's lab table filled with various potions. "Why am I always stuck with the icky jobs? How many boxes do you have down there anyways?" Lea fumes angrily, his eyebrows furrowing at the older man. Even gives him a evil smirk, "Just ten more to go and you're done for the day. Restocking this lab is the first step to getting this place back to normal." Lea scowls at the scientist and mutters under his breath about damn staircases while stomping down the stairs heading back down to the basement.
"You don't have to hurt the poor guy that much - he'll only whine about it later," Ienzo states with a slight frown at Even, his arms crossed as he leans against one of the counters near the door he came from. The mysterious scientist chuckles at the young blue-grey haired man, "You haven't changed one bit Ienzo - if you're so worried then you should go help him yourself." Ienzo shrugs, "Although I would love to do your dirty work - I do have other things to do, the real question is why Lea is actually putting up with these random jobs you've given him. He'd normally slack off by now, wouldn't he?"
Even frowns in response to Ienzo's inquiries and states seriously, "I agree that Lea has been acting quite strange as of late, I'm not sure why if that's what you're asking. Nonetheless this means I have another lab rat to play around with. It's quite intriguing this change of Lea's behaviour." Ienzo nods in agreement his aqua blue eyes staring at the door Lea just walked out of. "I didn't know Lea quite well when he was human in fact I never even met the boy - so it may have something to do with being back here. This place does bring back a lot of memories, and not just the good ones either," Even continues, and Ienzo sighs while closing his eyes. "Yeah, you're right," Ienzo mutters before turning on his heel to the hallway he came from.
A few moments later, the door to Even's lab slams open loudly, nearly causing Even to drop one the flasks he was holding. "Even! Do you know where Axel is?" Even hears a impatient female voice state. Even sets down his flask and turns around witnessing Kairi crossing her arms impatiently, a frown etched onto her light toned face and Sora waving to Even a large smile on his face. Despite the two teens calling Lea his organization thirteen name, they still use the other former members original human names - he doesn't quite know the reasoning as to why Axel doesn't stop them from calling him incorrectly; he guesses that the teens are just not accustomed to the change yet. Even gives the two teens an amused smile before continuing back to his work, "Ah, you mean Lea. He's in the basement getting some supplies for me." Kairi nods at Even despite him not even facing her direction and begins heading to the stairwell to the right of the room, Sora trails behind mumbling a light thank you before catching up to his currently pissed off girlfriend. He's pretty glad that he isn't Lea at the moment, or else he'd probably be dead.
"Are you sure we should be bothering him now? He's helping out Even!" Sora musters sheepishly, while scratching the back of his head his fingers touching his spiky brown hairs. Kairi suddenly stops causing Sora to blindly run into her, "Oof," Sora mumbles and apologizes to Kairi, who states icily, "We're going to talk with him. Even told us where he is, so he clearly doesn't mind us bothering him a little."
Sora objects, "But this isn't" - Kairi motions for Sora to be quite and turns on her heels, heading down the large staircase once again with the flip of her short silky red hair. Sora sighs thinking that there's no way to win against her or change her mind once she's set on doing something. He can tell by the angle of her eyebrows how determined she is to see that her questions are answered by the fire wielding ex-organization thirteen member.
Kairi and Sora finally reach the end of the staircase, both of them slightly out of breath and hunched over, they hear someone cussing to themselves which Sora assumes to be Axel. It's dark in the basement and Sora can barely make out Kairi's figure's outline in the darkness. The teens see a light emerge from what seems to be a corner and the two witness Lea carrying a large box in one hand and a flame forming in his other illuminating the dark room.
"Fuck - that hurt," Lea mumbles to himself, while shaking his head. His head lifts up and he jumps from seeing the two teens standing there, "Holy shit! You guys scared me - why the hell are you guys down here anyways; the lights still aren't working down here so if you're looking for something," -
"We're not here to search for something - we're here to talk with you," Kairi says coolly her eyes not wavering from Lea's emerald orbs. Lea sighs to himself and begins walking back up the stairs, not even answering Kairi's statement. "Hey! We came to ask you something Axel!" Kairi shouts at the man hastily, her face appearing frustrated in the dark room only lit by Lea's measly fire.
Lea stops walking and states his back facing the teen, "I'll answer your questions when we get upstairs - preferably not in this pitch black basement." Lea's voice sounds like he's taunting Kairi in some way. "No! we're asking you now Axel! So drop the" -
"Unless you want Sora to pee his pants in fear of this dark room, I suggest you start walking back up; cause I'm not answering anything down here," Lea teases with a slight smirk, and Sora is about to retort that he's not scared one bit when Kairi lifts her arm in front of Sora silencing her boyfriend.
She sighs loudly, "Fine, we'll talk upstairs Axel, but you better have some real good answers." Lea continues walking slowly up in silence, and Sora glances to Kairi whispering, "He's definitely being overly cynical, right?" Kairi nods silently before following the lean man in front of her. Sora looks back into the pitch black basement one last time, his eyes adjusting to the darkness around him, he expects someone to appear at the back of his mind but shakes the feeling off, before heading up the long staircase as well.
...
Lea slams the cardboard box on top of the one he brought up beforehand, his mouth etched in a deep frown. His eyes glance around the room suspiciously, Even is nowhere in sight, did he do this on purpose? Lea wonders briefly with a scowl. He was hoping Even would distract them from asking any questions in front of the creepy scientist, but it seems he's out of luck.
"You're not getting out of this Axel, so forget about changing the environment we're in - we're staying here," Kairi mutters, her eyes locking onto Lea's, her mind reeling to understand what exactly has been going on. Afterwards she'll definitely have to explain this to Riku.
"You're here to ask about why I told Yen Sid everything was okay, right?" Lea questions, his back to his companions, and comrades in the new upcoming war that will be arriving. Kairi nods quickly, her aqua eyes seeming serious, "Yeah - why did you lie, Axel!? - I mean Lea?"
Lea scratches his spiky red hair as he turns to face them, his eyes staring to the ground, "Well, I ended up turning up empty so that's what I told Yen Sid - he probably told you guys not to worry because he didn't want you all to get involved."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean? That we can't handle something as simple as this?! You do realize all the shit we did this entire time was far times worse right?! Axel you" -
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DEALING WITH!" Lea yells, his temper bursting completely, flames licking around his hands unconsciously. His fist slams loudly onto the table, his eyes blazing towards the young girl. "You think you can handle this? Please princess - you think you can understand what's going on? - I'm sorry to break it to you but it isn't simple like that, like everything else has been!" Lea continues as he takes a few confident steps towards the teens. Sora grabs onto Kairi's arm, in hopes of calming her down but the girl shakes him off, clearly not backing down.
"You can't just push us away like that - it may be dangerous and it may be hard to explain to us, but we're your friends aren't we Lea?! We can do this together!" Kairi shouts, her voice cracking slightly, seeming slightly hurt by Lea's harsh tone. This wasn't the Lea she was used to, he seems foreign to her - almost lost in some way. Lea's eyes are constantly moving away from her gaze, and his body is shaking in what seems to be anger and impatience, but can even be slightly of fear for something that Kairi and Sora didn't even know of.
"I need to do this on my own Kairi - you just need to trust me on this, I'll tell you everything when I've figured it all out," Lea mumbles quietly, his voice lowering completely, his eyes drifting away form hers. Sora gives the tall man a sympathetic glance, wondering why Lea is distancing himself like this, he's always been helping them out - being friends with Roxas and Xion and all - even being a part of the organization thirteen but still remaining a good guy, acting like this was crazy. He's definitely human now - if he were a nobody he wouldn't be this worked up about them getting hurt.
"How can you handle this alone if it's dangerous, the more numbers the better," Kairi logically musters, her voice lowering to match Lea's level, the former anger involved in their conversation vanishing completely.
Lea chuckles, and pats her head with a joking smile, that seems forced, "I'm Axel remember - God of anything fiery, burning everything I touch - I won't be beat easily. Also, the person isn't going to hurt me, I'm certain of that with all my heart."
"Are you sure you can trust that heart of yours, you're still getting used to it, right?" Sora pipes up from behind Kairi with a large grin.
"Yeah, I don't know about you - but my heart's telling me that this is the right thing to do, and despite how unreliable and unstable it may be, I'm not turning my back on it now. I just have gotten used to the darn thing, losing it now would be pointless," Axel finishes with a grin, this one seems less fake and a little more natural which eases the teens worries slightly. Kairi gives Lea a makeshift smile of her own, gripping onto Sora's hand unconsciously, "You better keep that promise of yours. And we'll help you as soon as you want us by your side - all of us, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and hell even yen Sid can be there!"
Sora turns his head to his girlfriend, noticing her tight grip on his hand, but once reassuring himself she is fine with Lea's response, he turns back to Lea with a grin widening onto his face Lea's grin contagious like laughter. "All of the organization members can help too!" Sora pipes in with Kairi, and she turns to Sora, her heart glad he was supporting lea as well. Lea snorts at the cheesy responses, but keeps his grin plastered onto his face, "Yeah, yeah - you kids should head out before Even starts abusing you as his slaves."
Sora seems to take Lea's statement seriously, his mouth hanging open, while Kairi giggles at Lea's joke, the teens leave after some small chat between the comrades concerning how school was doing, and how the organization members were adjusting. Before long Kairi and Sora were heading back to Destiny Islands, hand in hand, Chemistry still poking at the back of Sora's mind but not evident enough for him not to enjoy the sunset lighting up against Kairi's pale face as the two walk at the shores of the island.
He's glad the two made the trip, despite the lack of Chemistry studying involved, he could care less whether or not his exam goes well; seeing Kairi smiling at the sun, her hair blowing against the wind in the air was better than any A plus he's ever had. He just hopes Lea isn't in too much trouble, all of the organization members who are back seem lost as well - but Lea has always been the bright flame to lead them in optimism without a strand of fear evident in his emerald eyes. Without him leading the way brightly he isn't sure how long this comaraderie can last.