Axel didn't know which was more disturbing, the thought of a kid this small getting his heart torn out or the thought of a kid this old still being this small. Had he been really sick before losing his heart? No, he looked more-or-less healthy, just small and skinny...but he ate his ice cream like he wasn't sure when he'd be able to eat again. Maybe he'd been starving, or at least perpetually underfed. To Axel, who was always hungry, that seemed like a horrible way to live.
Or maybe the kid was just a midget.
"So...uh...what world are you from?" He was still trying to wrap his head around the idea of there being more than one world - though obviously there had to be, because wherever the "Castle that Never Was" was located, it sure as hell wasn't Earth.
Edmy looked helpless - it seemed to be his usual demeanor. "...Um...Earth...I guess..."
"Really? Same here...that's awesome..." Judging from the faint accent he still had, he probably wasn't from the same part of Earth, but hey, considering how many other worlds were out there, just being from the same one was pretty impressive. "Yeah, there are a whole bunch of other worlds out there," Axel offered - the odds of Edmy working up the nerve to actually ask seemed pretty slim. "Or so they tell me. I've only been here a couple weeks."
"Oh," was all Edmy said. He was gnawing on his ice cream stick like he was determined to extract all the food value he could out of it.
"Are you hungry? You want another one of those?" So far, Axel had managed to squeeze three sentences at once out of him, and that had been pretty unusual, it seemed - mostly it was a few words at a time, or monosyllables. Maybe he'd open up a little with more food in his system. The poor kid was obviously scared witless - it seemed he hadn't gotten the memo that you weren't supposed to feel without a heart - and Axel felt obligated to protect him, like an older brother. Wait, what? This "no emotions" business was going to take some getting used to. Edmy just nodded, and Axel went and got more ice cream out of the freezer - for himself too. "You really like that stuff, don't you?"
"I'm hungry," Edmy murmured. He ate this one as quickly and as neatly as the other, then started gnawing on the stick.
Axel had always considered himself a fast eater, especially when it came to ice cream, but Edmy was down to the bare stick almost before his stick was even revealed. "Wow, did your parents ever feed you?" Almost as soon as he said it, he wanted to put the newly-exposed stick through his eyeball - Edmy had already told him he'd never known his father; maybe he'd just come from a really poor family who couldn't afford to feed him too well.
Edmy just shrugged. "Never really knew my parents."
Axel was briefly taken aback, but not for long - his own parents had been absolute bastards, not fit to raise children, and he often wondered how his life would have been different if he'd been raised by a decent family. Maybe Edmy's parents had been so terrible he'd been taken away from them as a baby. "Well, then, whoever was supposed to be feeding you didn't do too good a job."
Edmy gave him an indecipherable look. "...That would have been me."
"..." Axel wanted to slap himself. "...Someday, I promise, I will be able to carry on an entire conversation without putting my foot in my mouth even once. Someday." Who the hell left a kid like you alone to fend for himself? he wanted to ask but didn't - he'd already made his major faux pas for the conversation, and didn't feel the need to walk into another one. And, wonder of wonders, it had gotten a slight chuckle out of Edmy - quickly smothered with nervous glances, as if he was afraid Axel was going to hit him for it. Wow, your life must have been shit if you're scared to laugh, he thought. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna sock you for laughing at me." Edmy still looked at him doubtfully. "How'd you get to be on your own so young? Or would you rather not talk about it?"
Edmy shrugged. "After my grandmother died, I didn't have any family."
You are not going out of your way to be easy to talk to, got it memorized? "How long ago was that?"
Another shrug. "Four years."
"Four years?!" Axel could hardly believe it. "How'd you take care of yourself for four years?!"
"I had to."
"How'd you even get any money?!" Add that to the long list of things Axel wanted to take back as soon as he said them. He'd heard stories of kids in Third World countries, or even in the inner cities of the United States, being forced to steal for a living, or sell drugs, or even sell their own bodies, because they needed the money that badly - or because their parents were forcing them into it to feed their drug habits. You didn't have to be his parent to be really cruel to a kid. Maybe his grandmother...No, not if she was dead by then.
Edmy's face actually lit up a little, which was about the last thing he'd expected. "Mostly playing sitar."
Ah. The life of a street musician didn't strike Axel as being an easy one, but it was a whole lot better than any of the other possibilities he'd come up with. It might even be considered a good life, if you had that sort of mentality. "Playing what?"
"Sitar." Apparently someone had told Edmy how to summon his weapon already; he reached into the air, a glowing bubble appeared and burst, and suddenly he was holding a, um, blue thing. With strings and tuning pegs. So that was a sitar - was he seriously going to use that as a weapon? Of course, that sounded pretty rich coming from someone who used spiky Frisbees, even if they were called chakrams. "Wanna hear it?"
Finally. Something that might break this kid out of his shell. "Sure, why not."
"Great." Doubtful pause. "Can we go back to my room first? I don't wanna sit on the kitchen floor."
Axel shrugged. "No reason why we can't, if you'd be more comfortable there."
"Great!" Edmy ran off ahead, somehow managing to carry that big instrument without tripping over it. Axel paced himself so as to stay about ten feet behind, which hopefully wouldn't register as a threat. By the time he got there, Edmy was sitting cross-legged on a pillow, adjusting the tuning pegs.
Axel sat down on the bed, since there weren't many other places to sit. There was a standard-issue desk, but no chair yet. "Is that thing hard to play?"
Edmy shrugged as he pulled a couple wire picks out of his pocket - had he brought them along, or did they come with the instrument? "I dunno. I've been playing it for a long time. It's the only thing I know how to play. I wanna learn how to play more instruments - like guitar and violin."
"So, you really like music, then?"
"Yeah." With his instrument tuned to his satisfaction, and the picks securely on his fingers, Edmy started to play with no further ceremony. Axel listened, at first just to be polite, then for his own enjoyment - this kid was good. Good, hell, he was brilliant. Axel had never heard anything like this instrument before, and he didn't want to stop listening.
"Who taught you how to play?" he asked after the song was over.
While he was playing, Edmy had been relaxed, smiling, too engrossed in his music to be afraid of anything, especially Axel. Now the mask snapped back into place, and his eyes took on that hunted-animal look. "My grandmother," he said warily.
"Well, she was a brilliant teacher. That was excellent."
Edmy stared at him like he couldn't believe his ears. Then, slowly, he smiled.
AN: Hey, I need to get something done.
Warning: Next chapter may be M-rated. Edmy had a really unpleasant life.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, got it memorized?
