Chapter Seven: Reminiscence
I wasn't startled, it's just that your voice was familiar, but I wasn't expecting you to be right behind me.
Blinking, Axel's eyes widened after the extent of Dawn's words that he read sunk in.
"Oh…oh. You knew it was me?"
Oh….she knew it was him. He didn't know why, but just the fact that she recognized him so easily made him feel
almost warm.
As he snuck a peek behind him, he saw that she was following close behind him. He smiled and turned his head fully,
to look at her.
"So, you're helping out with the store again today, huh?"
She smiled and nodded.
"Do you help out everyday? Isn't it hard?"
She started scribbling in her notebook while walking and Axel put out his hand in front of her. As she walked into his
hand and her forehead bumped into his palm, Dawn looked up.
Axel laughed at her puzzled expression and explained to her,
"We have to turn here."
Her cheeks turning slightly pink, she dipped her head in thanks and held up what she had written.
Yes, but its not that hard. There's not very much that I have to do and on the weekend, we close early.
They began walking down another street.
"Are deliveries part of your expertise as well?" Axel joked.
Dawn smiled.
When Grandmother Grace is too busy. Plus I like to help her out…she's done many things for me.
Axel warmly smiled at the girl.
"You're a soft one aren't you?"
Dawn tilted her head in thought.
I would say you're the kind hearted one.
Axel broke out of his smile and blinked.
Dawn stared up at him in confusion and mouthed his name, 'Axel?'
Axel stopped and shook his head seriously,
"No, I'm not."
Before she could write anything or respond with her gestures, Axel cut her off with a smile.
"We're here."
(/)
What had he meant?
He looked so serious when she had called him kind…did he think she was wrong?
No, but he was…so why did he look so forlorn when she had told him that.
He had been quiet ever since, only straining a smile at her at times. They were on their way back to the Station Plaza
and there was a deafening silence between them.
She didn't know what to do, but seeing a usually cheerful person so quietly detached, scared her.
Maybe she shouldn't have said that about him. After all, she didn't know much about him and maybe he had done
something in the past that he couldn't forgive himself over. Although she couldn't imagine that a person who seemed
so kind in her eyes could do anything unforgiveable, she felt heaviness in her heart for speaking as if she knew him
without knowing any of his circumstances.
She wasn't sure what to do, but she wanted to apologize if what she had said caused any conflict between them.
She reached out and tugged on the sleeve of Axel's organization coat.
(/)
He wasn't mad…nor was he upset. He was just absentmindedly recalling past memories and lost in his own thoughts
of sorts. Dawn's statement of him being kind was what had triggered those thoughts, but he wasn't upset in the
slightest.
He disagreed, yes, but he was more put off by the fact that he was not in reality, the 'kind- hearted' person that she
claimed he was. He was in the middle of pondering this when he felt a very slight tug on his left sleeve.
Snapping back to reality, he turned around to face Dawn who was casting her eyes down on the floor.
He raised his eyebrows, "Something wrong?"
Dawn began to shake her head in reflex then stopped. Biting her lip, she raised her notebook in front of him.
Are you…mad at me?
Taken aback by the words, he blinked at her in confusion.
"Mad? Why would I be mad…oh."
Realization hit him. As he was lost in his thoughts and recollections, he had completely tuned out the rest of the world.
Of course she had misinterpreted it.
"Sorry about that, I guess I was occupied with other thoughts for too long. Didn't mean to dampen the mood," Axel
laughed sheepishly.
Dawn slowly raised her eyes to meet his. Axel could see the hesitation etched out on her face and he smiled in
reassurance.
A look of slight relief appeared in her face and she wrote once more,
I'm sorry… I shouldn't have judged your character so hastily without knowing any of your circumstances.
Axel blinked again and burst into laughter,
"You're sorry that you called me kind-hearted? Man…I don't know if that should be interpreted as an insult or not."
Dawn widened her eyes and frantically shook her head,
I'm sorry! It wasn't meant to be an insult
Axel wiped tears from his eyes and smiled warmly at her,
"Stop being so sorry, you have nothing to apologize for."
Dawn smiled and gave a nod.
Without realizing what he was doing, Axel lifted a hand and rested it on top of Dawn's head,
"Good," he smiled, "How bout I treat you to some ice cream? It's my treat for worrying you."
Later in the Station Plaza, Axel had led Dawn back here after they stopped at the store for Dawn to notify
Grandmother Grace that she would be out for a bit.
As Dawn stood behind him, Axel purchased two sea-salt ice creams from the vendor beneath the Clock Tower.
"Here, follow me."
Axel led Dawn up the stairs to the top of the Clock Tower where one could see the surrounding area of the entire town
and gaze at the sunset.
As he watched her, Dawn widened her eyes and broke into a beautiful smile at the sight that stretched out in front of
her.
He was glad he had made the decision to bring her here. He hadn't brought anyone here since…
Shaking his head from venturing down the lane of less pleasant memories, he sat on the ledge of the Tower and
patted the space next to him.
"Come here."
Dawn eyed the ledge with a hint of worry before slowly stepping towards it.
Axel laughed and offered his hand, "It's fine. If you fall, I'll catch you."
Dawn gently placed her hand on Axel's offered one and carefully swung her legs over the edge as Axel held onto her
hand for balance.
"Here you go," with a smile, he offered her one of the ice creams.
He watched as she curiously stared at it and gingerly bit into it.
"Soo…how is it?"
Dawn smiled,
It's salty, but sweet too
Axel blinked. It was the very same words someone had used to describe it a long while ago.
Hiding a bitter smile, he bit into his own ice cream and gazed out into the horizon.
Trying to change the flow of his thoughts, he spoke,
"I never got around to asking you, but all I know is your name. Where exactly are you from?"
Dawn averted her eyes while looking down into her lap and slowly wrote,
I don't know
"You don't know?", Axel repeated.
She shook her head.
The only thing I remember is that my name is Dawn. Other than that…everything else is a blank.
"Just like him huh?"
Dawn tilted her head in question at his remark and he shook his head,
"Never mind…sorry about that, I didn't know. It was pretty insensitive of me huh."
Laughing quietly Dawn wrote,
It's quite alright, I don't mind. I can't get upset on things I can't change.
Axel smiled sadly, "You're right. No use beating yourself over it."
After a moments silence, he murmured quietly,
"You're pretty strong you know."
Before she could question him. Axel reverted back to his previous self and smiled at her.
"So are you free tomorrow around this time?"
Dawn pondered for a bit and nodded.
"I'll be around tomorrow too, so we can do this again if you don't mind the company."
She smiled back at him and nodded in consent.
Axel winked, "Alrighty then, that's a date for tomorrow. Got it memorized?"
After dropping Dawn back off in front of the store, Axel went back to the Organization Headquarters.
As he was making his way to his room to call it a night, he met with Saix on the staircase.
"Why haven't you reported in Axel?"
Axel shrugged, "Why report the same thing every day? Letting you know that there's nothing?"
Saix narrowed his eyes, "We can't afford any mistakes, nor do we have the time to dawdle."
Axel glanced at the blue headed male, "There's nothing, I've been checking everyday and I think it's safe to say there
will be nothing."
"You-"
Axel sighed and looked away, "I'm not saying that I'll stop looking. It's just to let you know that there might be a
possible miscalculation.
I'll search again tomorrow."
With that, Axel brushed past the other member and continued his way.
Hello hello~ Guess what? I've been on ANOTHER camping trip. Seriously my mom is hooked on camping this year and right after we come back, she just reserves another site and off we go the following week.
Hmm…When I type these chapters on Word, it always looks pretty long because it's around 5-6 pages, but when I post in up on the site, it looks so short OTL.
I think I should let you guys know that although many elements of this story will correspond to events that have happened in the Kingdom Hearts story, but it won't follow the complete storyline of the story, so expect a few deviations (after all, Dawn is a created character for this story). Also, I'm pretty sure you've realized, but this story consists of events that are happening AFTER Roxas left the Organization. Did you detect hints within this chapter? ;)
I'll be writing more soon! Thank you so much for the reviews~ knowing that there are people enjoying this story motivates me to continue.
Feel free to ask questions or leave opinions :)
Happy Reading!
