Lea's room was in a state of disarray. After taking Isa up to his room after the combat demonstration, Lea became distraught. Seeing his friend physically change had thrown him for a loop and had scared the crap out of him. He had headed back to his room and unleashed his frustration in the only way he knew possible - he made his room into a complete mess.
"What happened in here?" Isa said, as Lea had let him into his room.
Not wanting to meet his eyes for fear of seeing yellow, he looked down at the ground and shrugged. "I was a bit upset last night."
"You were upset? Why?" Isa asked quietly, looking at him. "Lea, look at me."
Slowly raising his eyes, he looked into blue ones. He felt his shoulders relax, and felt a breath that he had been holding in release. His eyes began to water. "Isa...what happened to you out there?" He turned away from his friend, not able to stand his gaze any longer.
"I don't know, Lea. But you know what?" Isa walked over to where Lea was standing. "Please don't freak out. I didn't freak out when you went through something similar."
"Something similar? Isa - I just had fire come out of my palms. Yes, that's odd in and of itself. You physically changed. Your body changed and you were floating. FLOATING." Lea felt himself collapse and sat down on the chair, still not looking at Isa. "I don't know what to say. I don't know what's going on."
"Would you rather I go away?" Isa said. Lea could hear the heartbreak in his voice. Stop pushing him away! The more you push, the more likely you are to do something stupid. "I can leave you alone if you would rather I do that. I think that I'm going to be working with Xehanort more often very soon."
Lea looked up. "What? No. Why?" He was grasping at strings. "Instead of working with myself and Ansem? No. I want to stay with you, Isa. We have to stick together." He walked over to where the bluenette had stayed standing.
"But I disgust you. Why would you want to stick around with me?" Lea felt his heart break at those words. He lifted Isa's head and looked at him.
"I love you." He leaned down to place a sincere kiss on his lips. "Nothing will ever change that." Another kiss. "I'm sorry that I can't handle this information in the same way you can." Lea bit Isa's lower lip playfully, putting his arms around him. "I should have stayed with you last night."
Lea became startled when Isa jerked up and looked him in the eye, shaking his head. "No, it's alright. I was fine last night." What is he hiding? Ugh, I need to stop being so paranoid. Lea nodded his head. "Come on, we should head down to breakfast."
The two made their way down to the dining hall. Lea looked over and saw Myde was talking to Ienzo, and saw that both Ansem and Xehanort were in a dialogue together. The two of them began to head in the opposite direction.
"Lea! Isa! Can the two of you come over here, please?" Lea heard Ansem say to his back. He sighed and looked at Isa. He saw his friend give a slight nod and the two of them turned back and headed to where they had seen the two of them. They walked over and stood by their table. "Please, take a seat." Nodding, the two of them sat down.
"I wanted to inform you that as of today, I'm going to be splitting the two of you up. Isa, after your morning studies, you are to begin to report to Xehanort's lab. The two of you will be working together, occasionally with the help of Even and Ienzo, but mostly the two of you will be working alone. Lea, Myde will begin to join us in the afternoons as I begin to teach you about the experiments that Xehanort has been conducting. We've made significant improvements in our research, and now it's time to place them into action." Ansem sat back in his chair, looking at the two of them. "Any questions?"
There were hundreds that Lea could rattle off, and yet none were making their way to his mouth. He shook his head, understanding finally dawning. How Isa knew that this was going to happen this quickly was beyond him. Perhaps when they were practicing last night, Xehanort had conveyed it to him. There wasn't any other possible explanation.
"Fine. The two you should go get something to eat. Lea, I'll see you later this afternoon." The two of them stood and walked towards where the food was. Lea quickly grabbed some food and headed to a table, not quite knowing what was happening. It all seemed to be moving so fast.
When Isa sat down, Lea looked at him. "How did you know that we would be splitting up so soon?" He eyed him carefully. "This isn't about what happened with me, is it?"
Shaking his head, Isa replied. "I don't know why it's happening now. I knew it was a possibility. Xehanort wants me to study under him. That's the way it was always supposed to happen. As to what's going to happen between us, I thought that 'when we're in our rooms, it's just the two of us'. Is that no longer going to be the case?" Isa's tone became angry.
Lea looked at him. "No, don't say that. Please. You're making my heart hurt too much when you say those things. You know you don't mean them. Just stop, Isa." He felt the tears threatening to spill from his eyes once more. He was tired of all these emotions. He wished that he could just switch them off and no longer care. After finishing his food, he stood up. "I'm going to head to class. I'll see you there, alright?" He began to walk away and then stopped when he felt Isa's hand on his own. He looked down and smiled sadly. "Please, don't. Not right now. I...I need to be alone for a bit." Lea gently removed his hand and walked away.
He wandered to the gardens, where only a few hours before his life changed once more. When he closed his eyes, he could see Isa's transformation occur. What had they gotten themselves into by becoming apprentices? He felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. He recognized those fingers anywhere. "Hello, Myde."
"How'd you know it was me?" The blonde walked around and stood in front of him.
"Your hands." Lea shrugged. "So, did you hear yet?"
"About the two of us being partnered with Ansem? Yeah. I knew about it last night. But, seeing your distress already, I didn't want to add to it. Don't worry, it'll be fun!" The blonde had a way of looking at things that made Lea smile. Even though he had wanted to be alone, he couldn't complain too much when Myde was around. The blonde always made his mood lift.
Lea grinned. "Myde, you sure do know how to make a person feel better."
"It's a gift," Myde twittered as he walked back around Lea, placing his hands back on his shoulders. "How about I give you a fabulous back massage before we have to head to class?" Before Lea could say anything, Myde began to work on his shoulders. He felt his head lean forward and just accepted the kindness. "Is that too hard?"
Biting back a childish giggle, Lea shook his head. "It's perfect, thank you." He was grateful that he had someone other than Isa to talk to. He felt awful, but he needed his space from him. Too much was going on that he didn't understand. A part of him wished that they could go back to two months ago, before they had become apprentices and before their lives had changed. He felt Myde lift his hands off his shoulders and he felt a sigh escape his lips.
"Did you want to me to continue?" Myde said in a hushed voice. Lea shook his head.
"It's probably better if we made our way to class. I left Isa alone and I don't know how he'd feel about it if he knew what the two of us were doing out here." Lea felt his guilty conscious kick in. He knew that he was starting to have feelings for the blonde, but was doing his best to ignore them and concentrate on salvaging what he had with Isa. Not being able to spend time with him this afternoon was probably going to kill Lea.
They made their way to the classroom and saw Isa sitting at his desk. Lea placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "I'm sorry about earlier." He sat down next to him.
"No more talking. Get to work." Braig hollered from the large desk he sat behind. He was reading a newspaper, not really paying attention to them. Lea sighed and pulled out his workbook, beginning to review his assignment.
"Sir, when will we be practicing combat again?" Myde asked after about an hour of silence. Lea looked over at him with a question in his eyes. Why would he want to train again after that freak show last night? He looked over at Isa and saw the fear race through his eyes.
"I believe soon. Don't know. I think Ansem has something up his sleeve. Anyway, get back to work. You only have another hour before lunch break." Braig adjusted his eye patch and went back to reading the newspaper.
Leaning over, Lea whispered into Isa's ear "Are you okay? You seemed to become upset when he mentioned combat." He watched his lover shake his head nervously.
"I don't care. Let me do my work. I don't want to get into trouble," Isa looked back down at the paper. Lea couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.
The hour passed by quickly. The trio made their way to the dining hall, looking forward to a nice, quiet lunch. As soon as they got their food, they sat at a table and were joined by Ienzo.
"Isa, Xehanort is requesting you head down to the lab right away," Ienzo said as he set his tray down. "Take your food with you. He knows it's lunchtime, but would like to begin immediately." Lea glared at Ienzo, upset with him that he was making Isa disappear. He stood up at the same time as Isa and walked out of the dining hall with him.
"We still need to talk," Lea said quietly. He sighed when Isa's blue eyes stared dully back at him. "Stop, Isa. You're killing me."
"I'm not doing anything, Lea. Is that the problem? That I'm not doing anything?" Isa choked back a sob. "I can't do this right now. Meet me later tonight, alright?" Lea nodded his head and let his friend slip through his fingers once more.
He headed back into the dining hall and saw Myde and Ienzo being lovey-dovey with one another. How does he do that? How does he act one way with him, and then is a completely different person with me? Sighing, he grabbed some of his food and headed down to Ansem's lab. He approached the door and heard two people talking. He stood there and listened.
"Do you think he'll be alright?" He heard Ansem say.
"He's perfectly fine. I've run a few simple tests without his knowing and everything seems to check out fine." The other voice sounded a lot like Xehanort's. Is he talking about Isa? "I'm going to insert him into the machine I use to connect to him in his dreams. I want to see what's inside of his head."
"You sure this is safe?" Ansem queried.
"Absolutely. Besides, we're not ready to move on to those types of experiments. The "questionable" ones, as it were." Xehanort chuckled. Lea could not believe what he was hearing. "Thank you for letting me use Isa to the best of his ability. He has a lot to offer to our cause."
He didn't hear anything for a bit. "Very well, Xehanort. I expect a progress report by the end of the month. Should I hear anything about the boy coming into harm's way, you better believe that the only one you'll be working with is you and myself." He heard Xehanort approach the door. He jumped back, acting as if he was just coming up to the lab.
"Good afternoon, Xehanort." Lea did his best to keep his voice normal. He heard the white haired man grunt at him. He walked off and Lea stepped into the lab. "Good afternoon, sir."
"Lea! You're early, aren't you?" Ansem looked down at his watch. "No matter. How are things?"
He shrugged. "Sir, I was wondering if I could ask you a question."
"Anything you would like."
"Sir, what happened to Isa last night? Why did he physically change like that?" He was hoping that Ansem would be able to give him an answer.
The man looked thoughtful for a moment, stroking his blonde goatee lightly. "Lea, you're aware that fire came out of your body and surrounded you, yes?" Lea nodded. "The moon has an affect on Isa now that wasn't there before he came here. His weapon has become tuned to his natural reactions to it. He's almost wolf-like, which is why we think his body changed physically."
"Wolf? Really? Isa?" He shook his head, not believing it. "Sir, there are some very strange things happening here." Lea couldn't hold it back. He was about to go on when Myde entered the lab.
"Welcome, Myde. Pick a seat and sit down." Ansem smiled. "Lea, are we finished with our discussion?" Ansem had a finality in his tone that made Lea nod his head, even though he was nowhere near being done asking questions. "Excellent. Today, I want to discuss a new creature Xehanort and I discovered."
Both Lea and Myde looked at him with wide eyes. "New creature, sir?" Lea asked, with a bit of panic in his voice. "Should we have our weapons?"
Ansem chortled. "No, no. It's fine, Lea. I'll just be showing you a hologram today. We've already taken care of this being, but we decided to study its data." He pulled up the hologram. There, on the table, was a black creature with long antennae and yellow eyes.
"What is it, sir?" Myde asked in a hushed voice. The two of them stared at it, watching it twitch and move around in place on the desk. It moved awkwardly, as if it didn't realize how to walk on its own two feet.
"We believe that it came from the darkness. We think that it may not have a heart." Ansem said, as he too watched the hologram twitch.
"No heart? You mean it's heartless?" Lea asked him. He was fascinated by the movements, not able to predict when it was going to twitch, and when it was going to just bob its head.
"Perfect, Lea. Heartless. Yes, that's what it is." Ansem smiled and jotted down something in his notebook. "This is the first one we've encountered. Similar to those Unversed that were around a bit ago. However, these appear to be different. I'll see if I can get one to appear for us, perhaps later in the week. How does that sound?" Ansem looked at the two teens.
Lea nodded his head vigorously. This was the type of experiments and research he had been hoping to come across. "We'll be safe with you, won't we?" He looked up Ansem, eager to actually see a Heartless in front of him, rather than a hologram.
"Of course you will." He turned off the hologram and placed the object back inside of his desk. "Now then, shall we discuss its traits? The more we study it, the more we can bring to the table for other things."
And so the afternoon wore on. Question after question, both from Lea and Myde. The two did their best to siphon the material out of Ansem's head. Lea looked at the clock and saw that it was well past 9pm. "Oh crap! It's so late!"
"So it is. Why don't you two call it a night? Since we were here late, I give you both permission to head to Braig's class around 11 instead of 9 in the morning. Does that sound fair?" Ansem asked, tilting his head to the side to pop the vertebrae in his neck.
"Thank you, sir!" Both teens said as they got up from their desks. They made their way to the lift. In the distance they could hear metal clanging. Lea wanted to go in the direction of the sound, almost positive that he would find Isa, but decided against it. He needed to let Isa be on his own for a bit. Even if it hurt his heart to do so.
He stepped into the lift with Myde. "Are you hungry?" He asked Myde. He saw the blonde shake his head. "I think I may grab something." When they arrived at the main floor, Lea walked towards the dining hall and saw that Myde was following him. He didn't pay any attention and went over and grabbed a few snack items. He turned around and almost knocked Myde over. "Whoops! Sorry, didn't realize you were that close."
"Lea, there's something I'd like to ask you." Myde said as they stood in the lift going back up towards their living area.
Feeling a bit nervous, Lea looked at him. "Oh yeah? What's that?" The lift opened onto their floor and they made their way down the hall.
"Will you come to my room?" Myde asked softly. Lea shrugged and followed him. When they arrived at his room, Myde opened the door and let Lea walk in first.
"What did you want to ask me?" Lea turned around and saw Myde once more standing in front of him. "Myde!" He fell backwards, landing on something soft. The rooms were not all the same, it seemed. Myde's bed was the object that he had fallen on. He did his best to sit up, but soon Myde was straddling his hips. "Myde?" He asked softly. "What are you doing?"
The blonde's aqua eyes stared into his own. "Do you want me to get up?" Myde rubbed his hips against his own, causing him to moan. Lea closed his eyes, breaking eye contact. Part of him wanted to throw Myde off of him, but another part wanted to feel his touch and to see what it would feel like. He sighed, feeling his devious side win out and decided to not let the guilt get to him. He opened his eyes and reached up.
"No," Lea said softly, pulling the blonde down towards his face. "I don't."