Axel gave her a curious look that asked for her to go on. He sat up next to her, the bed sheets covering their forms.

Larxene stared out the closed window as she prepared herself for the story of Mortica.

"Mortica and I," Larxene began slowly, collecting herself carefully, "grew up together when I was still a Somebody. We both came from powerful aristocratic families. Both got along well together, and even invited each other to the casual banquet or ballroom dance party. Mortica and I were both only childs to our families, so naturally, when we first met..." She looked to Axel.

"You two got along well," Axel finished, looking intently into her blue eyes.

"Exactly," the Nymph replied. "We were almost like sisters, I liked to believe. I remember sometimes lying on a grassy hill, and Mortica would be running along the plains below, always coming back with flowers of friendship for me." Larxene gripped her bed sheets, briefly lamenting over the bittersweet memory. "We always played together, always made sure that the boys from the other families didn't think that they could tread on us, always had each other's back. Mortica was such a good friend, Axel..."

Axel stared at her, and pondered over how such a strong friendship between two childhood friends could be tainted. "What happened that made you two hate each other?" he asked softly.

Larxene closed her eyes and gripped her bed sheets again. "We were the closest of friends until me began to mature. Where I was, the age of maturing in young girls was the time where the aristocrats picked suitors for their daughters."

"Ah, suitors?" Axel couldn't help repeating, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

Despite the situation, Larxene turned to look at him and smiled, amused. "Allow me to finish, love, and you'll see."

"Er, right," he answered, feeling warm.

"Well," Larxene continued, "as things went for the families in general, all that the fathers and mothers were allowed to due was pick the suitors, then let their daughters decide. But it's more complicated than that. See, the suitors were boys from the higher classes; sons of nobles, so to speak. Our heirarchy system had nobles above aristocrats over there. And here's the catch; either the daughter marries one of the suitors, or the whole family is disowned."

"Are you serious?" Axel asked, disbelief evident in his green eyes, which glittered like flame-lit emeralds in the night. "That's absurd! Why in the hell would that occur?!"

Larxene closed her eyes and answered, "To keep the so-called 'nobility' and 'high-class blood' running strong." She sigehd. "So anyways, during our time of maturity, our families could only muster two suitors, one for Mortica, and one for me."

"Did you... marry one of them...?" Axel couldn't help asking.

"Listen to me, silly, and you'll know." Larxene grinned at him, finding his jealousy amusing. However, the feeling evaporated like dew in the morning as Larxene went on to the next part of her tale. "Well, one of the suitors had abolished his status by eloping with a kitchen maid. That left only one suitor, and there was no one else to substitute the other one."

"So he could either go with Mortica or you...," Axel said.

Larxene nodded. "For the first time we were torn. Mortica's famliy was slightly less richer than mine, and thus she wanted to win the suitor's favor, to ensure that he wouldn't change his mind at the last minute and want to go with me. But as things would go, he fell in love with me, not Mortica. He kept following me around like a lost puppy." She grinned sardonically at the analogy. "Mortica was furious; she had hoped to take him so that her family would not be disowned and possibly reduced to life in the slums."

"But," Axel interrupted slowly, carefully, "I thought all you had to do was choose him, and he wouldn't have a choice in the matter..."

"You forget that if one family wins, the other is thrown out," Larxene reminded the pyro. "Mortica and I found it extremely difficult and heart-wrenching. She confronted me one day about it, and told me that she needed the suitor more than I did. I retaliated by saying that it's not just me, but my family that would suffer if I did not choose him. Mortica swung, and the two of us fought in the alley then and there. Then, that blasted suitor -the unknowing cause of all this- split us up. He favored me over the injured Mortica. He reported the actions to my father, and he grew angry, to say the least."

Axel rubbed her arm.

"In a turn of unexpected events, my father and the suitor had convinced the higher class who dictated the rules to have the suitor marry me and not Mortica. Of course, I was shocked. Mortica took it far worse; she threatened to kill me for what I would inevitably do to her family because of this." Larxene nuzzled Axel's neck before saying, "The suitor and I were scheduled to be married after Mortica's family was disowned by the controlling nobles, to ensure that no one from her family would be there."

"And what happened?"

"She and her famly were indeed disowned, and they were forced to live in the vicious slums." The Nymph closed ehr eyes again in lament. "On the eve of our wedding, my husband-to-be tried to lead his bride-to-be to bed." She tightened her hold on the bed sheets. "I would not allow him to touch me back when Mortica was still around; he was the symbol of our lost friendship. A living, walking stigma for it, and he never knew. I would not let him touch me now, much less let him seduce me!"

Despite himself, Axel was glad about that.

"I refused him, and he looked so dejected that I found secret pleasure in his hurt emotions. Head hanging, he left, telling me that he'd be back in the morning. Despite myself, I followed him silently. He came upon a fast-running creek and sat down, staring out into the night sky. And then, the shadows began to move, twist and turn, until they were creatures of shadowy flesh."

"Heartless...," Axel breathed.

Larxene nodded. "His heart and their strong emotions attracted them above anyone else's around. He was unprepared, and I watched, stunned, as they ripped him apart until they reached his heart. I need not tell you the rest of that; you already know what usually happens. They completely devoured him, and his meek shadow melted with their retreating platoon, never to be seen again."

Larxene looked up to the dark ceiling. "I had to tell my father what happened, and he was dumbstruck. But nevertheless, since he was already meant to marry me, our family still kept its aristocratic status."

"What happened when Mortica heard about this?"

"Mortica... She... she was so different, Axel. So much different than the girl I grew up with. The next time I saw her, after the suitor's mourning, she was so rundown and beaten, a shadow of her former self. She called me out on leading her family to the depths of despair, poverty, and death. She lunged for me, but was beaten down by my father. He chased her away, and that was the end of that. But I ermeber her last words to me..."

"What were they?"

"'I'll hunt you down to the life beyond and make you feel the wrath of the darkness you placed in my heart!'" Larxene shook her head slowly. "Perhaps somewhere along the way -I don't know when- Mortica acquired some knowledge and power of the darkness."

"And now she's back, isn't she?" Axel asked.

"All the signs and dreams point to it, Axel." For the first time, Larxene looked fearfully to her son, who was sleeping soundly in his basket, purple blanket covering him snugly. "Mortica will still bear that grudge, Axel," she whispered. "If she finds out about you... If she finds out about Roxas... I dare not fathom it."

Axel held her tightly, rubbing her back. "Right now," the Flurry Of Dancing Flames said slowly, "all we can do is wait."

Larxene sighed an agreement, but her thoughts were on Mortica and her aristocratic reputation for her ruthlessness and merciless ambition.