The Stranger.
Naminé didn't know how she managed to wake up in the morning (or whatever time it was, she couldn't tell) without an alarm or some sort of reminder. Hearts served as an internal rhythm; if they didn't have to get up at a specific time people woke according to whenever their hearts felt was right. If she didn't have a heart, how did she know when to wake up?
She showered and changed, much like the day before, and the day before that, and the days preceding that. She parted her curtains and sat at the head of her white table like she always did, scribbling on another piece of paper. Today she was drawing a picture of a large library with long windows and bookshelves stacked with old, thick tomes - the image came to her in the shower.
As she reached for a purple crayon a soft click from the door was heard. She raised an eyebrow; it felt a little early for today's exercise. The door swung open and in walked Marluxia, followed by Larxene (who looked a little more frustrated than usual). Naminé's free hand began to reach upwards towards her flick of hair.
"It's too early for this," Larxene grumbled, forcing herself down on a chair and resting her head in her arms, "I need my beauty sleep!"
Marluxia scoffed. "Beauty sleep? More like a beauty coma."
The blonde's head immediately jerked upwards. "Watch it." She spat through gritted teeth.
"Don't pull on that," The coral-haired man strode over to the smaller blonde and smacked her hand away from her hair, "It's not good for the roots." He shook his head, clearing the bangs out of his eyes. "Now, you're probably wondering why we're here so early."
"How could she know what time of the day it is? She doesn't have a clock."
"Take a nap, Larxene." Marluxia grumbled, but he recomposed himself and smiled kindly down at the young artist, who was gripping the hem of her dress. "We have a lot of work to do for the Organization today, which is why we're here now." He bent over to examine the half-finished drawing of the library. "Oh? What's this?"
"Er," Naminé's hand was itching to tug on her hair but she tightened her hold on her dress instead, "A library?"
"Nooo...really?" Larxene rolled her eyes, her voice saturated with sarcasm. Marluxia shot her a glare.
"Have you seen this library somewhere before? Does it hold any sort of familiarity to you?"
The young girl shook her head. "N-no…" Her eyes lingered on her drawing and the corners of her mouth pulled downwards, "Well, I've never seen it before but...but for some reason it feels like...it feels like I've been there."
"Hm," Marluxia stroked his chin, "So it's familiar to you, somewhat."
"Yes…"
"What about the other places you've drawn?" Marluxia gestured towards the other pieces of paper stacked beside her crayon boxes, "You've drawn castles and towns and jungles...do you have the same feeling towards them as you do with the drawing of the library?"
Naminé shook her head again. "N-no...I don't feel the same towards anything else...except that library."
"Great," Larxene barked out in dark laughter, "Now we're getting somewhere."
"Your pessimism was only charming the first time around." Marluxia hissed.
Naminé shrunk in her chair as Larxene stood up, her gloved hands balling into fists. "I don't get how you do it, Marluxia," The older blonde shook her head, crossing over to where the younger one was sitting, "This kid's only going to get you running in circles. Why can't you or Superior see that you won't get anything out of her little art projects?"
"Do I have to explain everything again? She's different from the rest of us; she's got a power-"
"Different?" Larxene bent over a little to peer into Naminé's face; the younger girl shrunk farther into her chair, attempting to avoid the chilling green glower that was boring holes into her. Larxene's pixie features relaxed into a calm smile as she reached forward to stroke her cheek with the back of her leather-clad hand. "Yes, she is something, isn't she? All petite and delicate and fragile - a pretty little girl holed up in this room all day with only a few pieces of paper and some crayons to pass the time." Her hand stiffened for a moment and Naminé flinched; the older woman suppressed a laugh.
"Enough, Larxene…" Marluxia muttered, but his words fell on deaf ears. Naminé felt her eyes burning and she sniffled; this only further entertained Larxene, who gaped in mock surprise.
"Oh? The Nobody's sad." A tear slipped down the girl's cheek and the older woman watched it drip off the end of her chin. "She's hurting, Marluxia. Look."
"I know," The coral-haired man sighed, "It's one of the reasons why she's different."
"It hurts to be stuck here all day with nobody to keep you company, doesn't it?" Larxene's eyes narrowed. "I bet you don't even know what you're really feeling at the moment. How can you - you don't remember what it's like to have a heart!" Her words hardened at the end and the back of her hand swiped at Naminé's cheek, sending the younger girl tumbling off her chair and onto the floor. Larxene straightened up and glared down at her. "Look at her - no fighting instinct whatsoever...doesn't even know how to defend herself…"
Naminé felt the tears flowing freely now; her cheek burned as much as her eyes did and she touched the sore skin with her fingers. Through her tear-filled vision she saw Marluxia's blurry outline stepping in between her and Larxene.
"Now's not the time, Larxene." His deep croon warned.
"Just look at her!" Larxene pointed a finger at the crying girl, who was still rubbing her cheek. "How can Superior put so much faith into that - this weak, useless little-"
"Running your mouth off a little early today, are we?" Said a voice Naminé did not recognize. She turned her heard towards the source of the sound; purple and black fog swirled in a circular motion by the farthest wall. A man stepped through; he was around Marluxia's height, with spiky, fiery red hair and a mischievous smirk on his face. There were peculiar black markings underneath his vivid green eyes.
Larxene huffed and crossed her arms. "What are you doing here?"
The stranger chuckled. "I could hear you from the other end of the hall. Thought I'd see why you were so worked up." His eyes darted to the girl on the floor with her hand patting her cheek, and he frowned. "Tsk, tsk, Larxene - Superior won't like it if he hears what you've done to poor Naminé."
"He's not going to hear it!" The blonde growled. She stomped all the way to the door, casting one more dirty look towards the red-haired man before slamming it shut behind her.
"There's no need for you to be here." Marluxia said calmly.
The stranger chuckled again. "Why don't I take things from here, Marluxia? I'll keep tabs on little Naminé here - you can go babysit Larxene for awhile."
The coral-haired man's brow scrunched together. "Why the sudden generosity?"
The stranger shrugged his shoulders. "Is it a crime to be kind to my fellow Nobodies?" His gaze drifted over to Naminé, who was slowly rising to her feet. The smirk returned to his face. "Who knows - maybe we'll end up becoming good friends."
The young girl returned to her seat, her cheek still stinging. Marluxia brushed his hair over his shoulder and made his way towards the door.
"Very well then," He reached for the handle. "But just what exactly are you up to?"
The redheaded man raised a fiery eyebrow. "Dunno what you're talking about, Marluxia." The door closed with a soft click. When he was sure Marluxia was gone the stranger turned around to face Naminé, who was rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. He gave the girl a wry smile and brushed his fingers through his long red spikes. "You better get used to it, kid - it's not gonna get any easier from this point."
His voice was blunt, almost dry; she pulled her fists away from her red-rimmed eyes and blinked up at him. She wasn't sure if he was trying to be nice or not. "T-thank you…" She trailed off when she realized she didn't even know his name, and she lowered her stare to her lap.
"The name's Axel," He tapped his temple with an index finger, "Got it memorized?" When Naminé nodded he continued. "I was around when Superior brought you here but it's natural to forget your first few days."
That was only partially true, but she nodded anyway and reached for her crayons. She could hear the rustling of his leather coat and the clopping of his boots as he moved to stand behind her; he leaned over to peer at her drawing and gave out a low whistle, surprising her a little bit.
"Huh, you're better than they give you credit for." He smirked.
A strange tingling sensation bubbled up in Naminé's stomach; her face began to feel uncomfortably hot, and her mouth curved upwards in a small, shy smile. Furrowing her brow in confusion, she slowly reached upwards to softly pat her face; her smile immediately turned into a frown when she realized how high her temperature was.
What was going on? Was there something wrong with her? Was she getting sick?
"Heh," Axel's deep voice cut her reverie short, and she glanced over her shoulder to look at him, "They also weren't lying when they said you were different."
The warmth in her face didn't leave yet. "W-what...what's happening to me?" She asked, her voice slightly shaky with fear. She didn't like this feeling, and the fact that this strange man was amused wasn't really helping.
"You were embarrassed," Axel's smirk returned, and his arms moved to cross over his chest, "It's a feeling, an emotion," His smirk immediately disappeared, replaced by a contemplative frown, "Which is something you shouldn't be expressing - actually you shouldn't be expressing anything at all."
Her head tilted to the side. "Why not?"
The redhead raised an eyebrow. "I thought you already knew."
She reached for her hair. "Um…"
He sighed and shook his spiky head, and her face began to warm up again. "Didn't Superior or someone tell you how we don't hearts, therefore we're unable to express emotion?"
Another strange sensation washed over her, but this time it felt like she just ate a sack full of bricks. Her eyes were staring at her lap again, and her fingers were absently fiddling with each other. "Xemnas...Xemnas told me about that, but he never really went into much detail." She shyly glanced up at her companion. "Were we...were we always like this? Did we ever have hearts to begin with?"
"Once upon a time, yeah," Axel smiled grimly, "But somehow we lost them - lost them to darkness. Usually when that happens you turn into a mindless dope, but if you had a strong heart you retain a human form - much like you and me. Anyway, when we lost our hearts our bodies formed a life of their own, thus creating us. We were never supposed to exist, but we do anyway." He sighed and rubbed his neck again. "Without hearts we're void of all emotion - the closest things we have to actually feeling are our memories of when we had a heart, when we were capable of feeling," He turned to look at her and the heat returned to her face, "But for some reason it seems you're able to feel real emotions, which is pretty interesting."
Naminé reached upwards to tug on her hair. "What makes you say I'm capable of doing that?"
"Well, for one thing - you can't remember your past so you don't know what it's like to feel in the first place. Your confusion over your embarrassment is plain proof of that." Axel's eyes drifted off to the side for a moment, chuckling darkly to himself. "In a sense you have more of a right to exist than any of us do. Frankly I'm a little jealous - or at least pretending to be."
A painful lump had grown in Naminé's throat during Axel's lengthy explanation, and it was hard to swallow it down. She wondered what kind of emotion she was feeling now, but she thought it might be a little strange to ask him. "Marluxia...he said that you and the others are searching for something."
"We're trying to find a way to be whole again." The redhead was now staring at the white flower vase. "We want to find our hearts; we want to complete ourselves. Without a heart you're only half of a person - maybe even less."
The lump in her throat grew, and her eyes began to well up again. That wasn't exactly very uplifting.
Axel noticed her dismal expression and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "It's a hard truth to take, I know, but it is what it is, right?" He gave her a small smile, "Besides, remember what I told you? You're different than the rest of us - you can blush, you can have that unexpected tickly feeling inside and you can smile without forcing it. If you can feel without a heart, then it must mean you're more than just half, right?"
How did he know about the tickly feeling? "More than...half?"
"Yeah," He shrugged his skinny shoulders, "I dunno. That's just the way I see it." He stood up and straightened his coat. "Anyway, it was nice meeting you."
Her head jerked upwards. "You're leaving?"
The redhead smirked and brushed his cheek with his thumb. "Ah, y'know - you gotta do what you gotta do. The boss man's nailing us left, right and centre with missions so I better check in and see what he has for me." He extended an arm and the strange purple and black fog reappeared.
The heat in her face - embarrassment, was that what he called it? - returned and she resumed playing with her fingers. "W-will...will you come back?"
Axel stepped closed towards the portal; it looked like he was going to go all the way inside but he swerved around on his heel at the last minute and gave her an ambiguous smirk. "If I have the time." He walked halfway in. "Later."
Naminé blinked as the portal vanished into thin air. She shook her head and reached for her drawing, which still needed to be completed.
Why couldn't he just give her a straight answer?