Epic 26: And the Next Disaster.
Arienn sat legs crossed leaning forward slightly, eyes closed and hair blowing around her face softly. The whole scene might have been more dramatic if it weren't for the black fan whirring away in front of her.
"What are you doing?" I asked leaning in the doorway raising a brow at her back.
"Staying cool. A concept lost to you O Heat resistant one." Arienn said, her voice distorted slightly by the whirring of the fan blades. The season had changed around the months of making sure Ari didn't do anything to reopen her wound or anything, switching round from winter into summer with little pause for spring. Or maybe there had been a spring and I just hadn't noticed.
I narrowed my eyes a little at Arienn's back. Normally she'd be wearing a t-shirt so none of her back would be exposed, but the arrival of summer had brought a change to everyone's wardrobe, accept mine, as Arienn had said my sense of temperature was different than most's. As in I have none. So today she had ditched her usual T in favor of a thin strapped tank top, showing the top two thirds of her shoulder blades, and about the top six inches of the scar that now marred the skin of her back, from her left shoulder to her right hip. I turned my head away. It was, painful to think about.
"Hello!" Dem cheered toeing the door open and, as usual, standing to one side for Naminé.
"We're home." She said sweetly. I leaned back against the faded wing-back chair as the second blond male of the house looked around it.
"Any sign of them?" Roxas asked, Naminé shook her head solemnly, he sighed, though it sounded more like a growl.
I closed my eyes. We'd all been on high alert since both Larxene and Marluxia escaped. I tried not to growl as my finger's dug into the skin of my upper arm.
"They're not that bold." We looked at Arienn. She hadn't moved from her place in front of the fan. The others looked curiously confused, while I narrowed my eyes taking note that her hair was twitching a little differently than it had earlier. She had sat up very very straight and very still her shoulders squared and the muscles pulling across them in tension.
"Ari-nee?" Nami asked.
"They're not gonna just show up again. They really didn't even just show up the first time." I could hear her eyes narrowing at the whirling fan blades. "Marluxia had to have been aware of at least Axel's presence in this world for a while. Enough time to track down where he was, and then get him out in the open." She turned looking over her shoulder at us, the end of her ponytail almost following the path of her scar for a moment. "I did some asking around." The way she said it made my stomach coil. "Marluxia was the collector who bought all my art from Mike's shop." She said eyes narrowing a little again.
My fists clenched tighter. "So he's the one who launched you out of obscurity?" Dem asked shuffling nervously. I wasn't the only one who noticed the shift in the air.
Arienn got to her feet. "He played us. From the very beginning he was using me as leverage. Used me to get to Axel." Her eyes shifted to mine with pointed clarity. "I don't take kindly to being used." She said calmly and turned disappearing into her room.
The rest of us were silent for a long moment before, "Is Arienn mad at you?" Demyx asked me.
My brows knitted together. "I'm not really sure. I don't think so." I sighed running a hand though my hair. "Her feelings haven't been real clear recently. Plus since the incident she's learned how to shut me out to an extent."
"Shut you out?" Roxas arched a brow at me.
"Mainly just so I can't feel her pain anymore. I assume she can still feel all of mine, but I get nothing from her." I sighed.
"Well that's good isn't it?" Naminé asked cocking her head.
I scowled at the worn down mud brown carpet of the house. "Sure. Accept now, if she's ever hurt again, I won't know until later. Maybe not until it's too late."
Arienn spent the rest of the day in her room, while the rest of us continued through the ordinary routine with a sort of strange intensity of ill-ease till the sun had set. I left the house at dusk and just walked. That idle mindless walk where you're just doing something so you don't think to hard but you do anyway.
I wasn't the only one. "Ari?" She looked up at me blinking. I hadn't even noticed that I'd walked all the way to the train station till then, till the humming fluorescent lights created a gleam of streaks down her cheek.
"Axel," She let out a little breath standing. "I know I shouldn't be out by myself, right?" She asked stuffing her hands into the pockets of her bright sweatshirt.
I reached out laying a hand on her cheek, smearing the tracks with my thumb. She pulled her head back instantly, turning away and scrubbing them away herself with the cuff of her oversized sleeve. I felt another twist in my gut that she pulled away so hastily. "Arienn, what's wrong?" I asked. It felt strange. I had never really had to ask her that.
"Nothing." She stated harshly.
I furrowed my brows at her, dropping my hand back to my side. "I may not be an expert in emotions just yet, but I know tears are generally a bad sign." She glared at me, more upset at herself then me. "Arienn…"
She turned her back on me. "I can take care of myself." She hissed.
"What?" I cocked my head at her.
"I can take care of myself Axel." She repeated harshly. "I survived just fine till now. I don't need you to save me."
"Arienn, you're not making sense. I never said you needed me to…" She turned to glare at me coldly.
"Then why do you flinch every time you see my scar?" She asked.
I stared at her in blank shock. In that profound silent moment it started to rain, a heavy, humid summer thunderstorm that had rolled in while neither of us were paying attention. Arienn closed her eyes, slowly tipping her head back so the rain hit her full in the face. I didn't budge, despite the rain.
"I didn't get hurt because of you, Axel." She stated keeping her head tipped back to the sky. "I got hurt because I screwed up. I wasn't on guard like I should have been." She looked back down at me and I got the feeling like there was more that she wasn't saying.
After another moment of silence she shrugged and walked past me back towards home. "How did you do it?" I asked turning to so I could see her again.
"Do what?"
"Shut me out." She looked confused and a little startled, like I had discovered something I shouldn't have. "When you first went down, I felt it, that's how Larxene got away. But when I got there, I only kept that pain for a few seconds before it was gone." I narrowed my eyes a little trying to read her expression. "You were still in pain, but I didn't feel it. What did you do Arienn?"
She turned all the way to face me. "I, honestly don't know." She shook her head. "I just knew that you were…vulnerable, as long as you could feel it." She shrugged again. "I knew, I had to, somehow, find a way to make it so you…" Her eyes had softened severely; I almost thought she was going to cry. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders again. "I just did it." She turned away again waving over her shoulder. "See you at home MBBC."
I stood there in the rain watching her disappear into it. I had a startling realization at that moment. Arienn was scared. It scared her that people wanted me dead and were willing to use her to do it. The question is, was she scared for me, or scared that she'd be used.
A second passed before fingers dug into my upper arm. "I had intended to grab Miss Arienn, but I'll settle for you." She hissed in my ear. A second later her nails pierced my skin and a huge dose of electrical energy screamed through my body. I hit the ground coughing, and trying to restrain the tremors it caused. Her foot slammed down in-between my shoulder blades.
"Larxene…"
"Hello Pyro." She hissed hitting the rain soaked floor with more lightning.