A/N: This chapter is shorter because when I editedit (see that there?) I took out a part that just served no purpose.
So. Whoop, there it is.
(~**~) (~**~) (~**~) (~**~)
The feeling was probably something he should have recognized. It was familiar. And yet…at the same time it was…different too. But surely he had felt something at least similarto it. He grasped at straws, struggling to name it. It was like…after you come off of a really wild roller coaster just after you ate. Or maybe it was like when you read a book while going back and forth on a swing. Or maybe it was like when you were at a birthday party— when you're blindfolded and whirling around and around, trying to hit the piñata or pin the tail on the paper donkey. Was it like any of those? Was it like you were disoriented? When your mind turns foggy and your stomach clenches in on itself and twists into knots?
Maybe he just felt sick. Maybe that was all there was to it.
His mind fuzzy and unclear, Sora's blue eyes slowly began to crack open. But immediately he cringed, shutting his eyes again as the light that met him burned his eyes and made his head spin. While he waited for the pain to pass, the boy gave a small groan, trying to remember what had happened to him. What was going on? Where was he? But a haze of black seemed to be shrouding his thoughts away from him; he wasn't able to think clearly in the slightest. All he could feel was his upset stomach and the absolute pain that was ringing throughout every inch of his limbs. In the back of his mind, he managed to pin down a coherent realization: he was laying down in a bed. But…when had that happened?
Forcing himself to ignore the pain that followed, Sora opened his eyes again, managing to look down at himself without moving his throbbing head too much. And sure enough, he was laying down, white sheets tucked up to his chin snugly. He blinked slowly, realizing that his right arm was splinted and bandaged to his chest. And again, the only thoughts he had were filled with confusion. What had happened? He didn't recognize the place around him; it seemed different.
He started to turn, wondering whether or not he could move enough to let himself take a look at his surroundings better. But as soon as he started to twist to the side, he froze entirely, his pupils dilating in panic as he realized that he could hear voices. They were quiet and muffled; he thought that maybe they were coming up through the floor. Though he strained, he couldn't make out any distinct voices— he was just barely able to make out specific words. "We're just gonna go down to the store." Somebody seemed to be in the middle of talking. "We still need more stuff to put in the stockings. And we're gonna make sure that his stocking is gonna overflow with stuff, so we need to buy like tons more." Hurriedly, almost, they added: "We'll be fast!"
"…What?" Sora managed to speak after a moment, yet he was acutely aware of how rough and scratchy his voice was. It was as if he hadn't used it in ages by the way he sounded. Where was he? And how had he gotten here? And if the voices were coming up from the floor, was he on the second floor? How many stairs separated him and wherever the exit to this place was?
Slowly, he shifted and moved his left arm, wriggling it underneath him with difficulty and tried to push himself up. Immediately, his stomach was wrapped in fire from the slightest movement, the boy gasping sharply through clenched teeth. He managed to get halfway into a sitting position before he stopped short, his face creased over in absolute agony. He fell into a small bout of hyperventilation, trying to get his breath back. His head spun and black dots danced in front of his vision, threatening to slam over his eyes entirely.
And as he tried to recover, he could hear more voices leak up through the floorboards. One eye closed in deep pain, he gnashed his teeth together so hard that it was almost painful, trying to listen accurately through everything else he had to focus on. "We're going to go with them. We have to get more bandages."
Another voice. "Are you sure it'll be alright if you leave me alone with him?" It seemed a little nervous.
"You won't be alone." How…how many different people were here? "Axel should be back any minute now. And you'll have old grumpy-pants here to keep you company too."
"I'm not grumpy," new voice snapped back, sounding irritable.
A quiet voice this time: "Here, I'll stay back here with you guys."
Sora stiffened, his eyes widening. Axel…? Axel was here? H-He had to find him! Hissing shakily, Sora forced himself through the rest of the way until he was sitting up. His stomach was burning and stinging— every movement seemed to cause him a strong lash of pain. But, struggling to focus straight forward, the boy tried to make sense of his surroundings, looking around the room with a sluggish gaze. But he didn't recognize it at all. It was just a large, spacious, empty floor. Nothing much was up here besides the bed he was on, as well as an empty chair sitting at his bedside. Was somebody watching him before? Where was he?
From somewhere below, Sora went rigid as he heard the creak of a door opening, shortly followed by a set of footsteps. His heart immediately kicked into gear, ramming against his chest as the boy could hear blood roar in his ears. Cringing and shifting himself over to the edge of the bed. He felt like his body was just one big bruise, weighted down with burning, molten lead. But the footsteps were almost up the stairs by now, and Sora wasn't going to be sitting down when whoever was coming finally made their way up here. He had no idea who it was or what they wanted, but it couldn't be anything good, right?
What did he last remember? …Rain? That was all that came to mind.
Ducking his head and bracing himself against the pain that was sure to come, Sora pushed himself forward, giving himself no time at all to hesitate or rethink himself. He got up to his feet and shoot up quickly, giving himself no other option besides that. His bad leg immediately refused to support him. As he tried to force weight onto it with absolutely no warning at all, the limb gave a sickening snapping sound and immediately folded forward. Gasping at the pain that was inflicted by the snap, the teenager immediately buckled and collapsed to the ground. As he fell, he could not shield his broken arm from colliding with the ground, and suddenly Sora was starting to think he might regret getting up in the first place. His leg was screeching in pain— he must have done something to it when he tried to stand.
Biting down hard on his lower lip, and tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, Sora scrabbled at the floor with his good arm, straining to get up. He turned and lashed out, grabbing hold of the metal bed frame and literally dragging himself up into a sitting positon, his leg sprawled out awkwardly in front of him. He was going to try and get up further, maybe to go so far as to stand. But before he could even try doing that, the person had reached the top of the steps and had turned around to face him.
The person stopped short, shock flooding their expression at the sight of the boy shaking on the ground. Sora's eyes were narrowed in fury, and at first, he thought that he would meet the person bravely. Maybe with a spit or a challenge. But as he looked at the newcomer, his anger melted away quickly into shock and sheer terror. "No way." His voice came out in the smallest of murmurs as realization dawned over him and horror rooted itself into his stomach. His body broke out into tremors and shakes, and hurriedly, ignoring the agony that was brought upon him, he started to scramble up to his feet, adrenaline and fear blocking out most of his pain.
At this, the man jerked into motion, starting over as he began to reach out for the boy. But immediately, Sora reacted, his keyblade flashing into his hand at once. "Stay back!" He had gotten up to his feet now, but it was more of a sickening balancing act. He had to lean against the bed, his head dipped low as he fought to ignore the bile that was rising up in the back of his throat. The pain…he felt like he was going to be sick. Struggling around it, he let out a thick yell: "I'm warning you! Stay away!"
His left hand wasn't as coordinated as his right, the keyblade came across as more slanted forward rather than aimed threateningly at the man.
"No, Sora, let me explain!" The person refused to back down, still pacing forward.
"Stay there!" Sora shouted, as if he was trying to teach a dog a trick.
"Just let me talk. I promise that—"
Couldn't he ever get a break!? Sora's throat stung, as well as his eyes. It seemed like no matter what he did, he couldn't wake up from this nightmare! He tried to get away from the Organization and here he was, waking up to see that he actually landed in the clutches of Ansem! Was this just going to be his life from now on? Shoved back and forth like a volleyball, unable to get away from his enemies? Where was Xemnas? Was he here too? The thought nearly made him buckle forward once more.
There was a muttering downstairs, Sora realizing too quickly that if he could hear them from where he was, then they could most likely hear what was happening up here. And the thought immediately brought a wave of panic to rush over him. He had to get out of here! He had to go find Axel! Where was Axel!? Jerking forward, Sora blurted out a random magic spell from the fogginess of his mind. In response, a black hole appeared in the far corner of the room. Ansem looked down, his eyes wide as his legs were ripped out from underneath him. Like gravity, he was pulled backwards, leaving the pathway to the stairs clear and open.
Panic gave Sora the drive that he needed to walk. Well— walk was a very loose term. It was more like he was falling forward and managed to catch himself with a cry of pain each time. His bad leg sure wasn't getting any better with how he was going. But he knew that he couldn't just stand around here and wait. He had to go and find Axel! Judging by the commotion, the others who had been alerted by the noise were almost up. He tried to see if he could recognize them, but all this pain was making a red haze to hand over his eyesight. He couldn't make sense of hardly anything.
He could only just keeping 'walking' and hope that he made it around them. But before he knew it, the floor suddenly disappeared out from underneath him. He was left to fall forwards, and as he found himself suddenly barreling forward, Sora slowly came to realize that he had found the stairs. And that he was currently falling down them.
He couldn't stop himself— or at least his mind was too stunned at the moment to try and tell his body what he should do. Slamming around, the boy did not go unscathed in any way, and every single wound on his skin was reduced to a screeching mass of pain as he tumbled and tripped. He was so wrapped up in pain that he hardly noticed when the people coming up the steps earlier tripped over him on their way up. All he could concentrate on was the fact that his chest felt like someone was carving him open slowly with a white-hot blade.
He didn't think that the steps would ever end, but eventually, he crashed flush against a wall. He let out a pained noise, but it was as good a stopper as anything else. Dazed and thoroughly wounded, the only thing that stopped Sora from passing out right then and there was all the yelling behind him. No— he couldn't stop now! He had to find Axel! Nearly blind, the boy reached up with his good arm and felt frantically until he grasped the doorknob in front of him. And when he did, he twisted sharply, throwing open the door and literally falling into the room on the other side.
He didn't stop to look around this time— the people behind him were giving chase. But he knew that he couldn't get back up to his feet, even if he was given a few hours to do it properly. So the boy resorted to crawling, scrabbling at the ground as he was forced to use his one arm to pull himself and his one leg to help push. It was awkward at best and he wasn't going to make much progress at all. He was exerting more energy this way, but at least it was a little easier. He started heading in a random direction, not knowing where he was going. It was getting harder to see, and his head was starting to dip— he wasn't going to last. And what would happen when he couldn't anymore…?
But as soon as the thought occurred to him, the door on the other side of the room suddenly burst open to reveal a familiar figure. He looked disinterested at first, his expression bored as he juggled a few bags of what looked to be groceries. But as soon as the figure saw Sora clawing desperately along the ground towards him, he dropped what he was holding at once, his eyes flying round with shock. Immediately he rushed forward and skidded down to hover over the boy, Sora felling still at once. He was shaking and trembling with exhaustion and pain, and there was a light sheen of ill sweat over him now. Panic surged through him as he could hear the others come forward, and desperately, he grabbed hold of Axel's arm, clinging for dear life. "Axel! Axel, help!" He was nearly screaming.
"What's going on?!" Axel looked down at Sora with outright confusion.
Sora's eyes were half-lidded now, and his head was slowly drooping to the side as he clawed at Axel urgently. "You've gotta…I don't know where…Ansem is upstairs, I can't…" He couldn't finish a single sentence before he relapsed back on himself.
"Sora, calm down!" Axel urged, his expression changing from shock to deep concern. He held a little tighter to Sora as he started to slip, and he tried to make sure that the boy was secure in his arms. "Listen to me: it's okay. Okay? You've just gotta calm down! Look, I can—"
On the other side of the room, Axel looked up as Riku burst into the lower level, followed closely by the others that had stayed behind as well. He was wild with fear and panic and guilt, and he immediately looked over to the brunet, who was gradually losing consciousness in Axel's arms. "Sora!"
At the voice, Sora jerked, grabbing Axel's wrist with a lot more strength than Axel would have given him credit for. "We have to go!" His voice was slurred and weak. It was hard to understand him— he had gone so long without speaking that his throat was having a hard time letting words out of his mouth clear enough. But staring down at the crazed look in the boy's dull eyes, Axel frowned deeply. The poor kid had no idea what was going on. The last thing he probably remembered was…dying. Slowly, as to not frighten him more, he reached over and tried to help calm him down, gripping his shoulder with a firm but gentle touch.
Sora was already starting to fall unconscious again, though. The burnet's head drooped forward, his eyes fluttering open and closed, as if he was struggling to stay awake. And, with the gentlest voice he could muster, Axel tried to explain as best he could, glancing up at the others who were clustered together watching. "You're in Hollow Bastian," Axel explained, looking as though he was fighting a smile from the confused look that crawled over Sora's face. "We managed to bring you back here in one piece. You're safe now. You just have to remember that."
Sora blinked slowly. A ghost of a smile flickered over his numb face. "I…I made…I made it?"
Axel grinned. "Well…you had some help. But just a little bit of it."
The teenager let out a small sigh, another smile twitching his lips upwards as his head drooped forward all the way now. His eyes closed and his face fell once again. It was as if he was sleeping. Alarm wrote itself over his face, and Axel looked up to where Aerith was standing, his eyes immediately clouding with worry. But the brunette seemed unbothered. At the most, she just looked sympathetic. "It's okay. He wasn't supposed to wake up yet I don't think. And he certainly wasn't supposed to get up and run around right after." Her expression was soft as she looked down at him. "He's been through a lot; we should just let him sleep."
"Right," Axel muttered, watching Sora closely until the boy's breathing was deep and even. Until he was sure that he would be okay. "Take him then; I've gotta deal with these groceries." Leon stepped forward as soon as the words slipped the Nobody's mouth, and he took Sora carefully from Axel without a single hesitation. He turned and, holding him with great care, he turned and retraced his steps back to where Sora's bed was. Feeling a small twinge, Axel called after him: "Why don't we move the bed downstairsagain?" He didn't reply, but Axel wasn't really expecting him to in the first place.
It took a while to pick everything up. In dropping the bags, most of the food had spilled out as well. But with Aerith helping, it took less time that he thought it would; it was all back together in less than a few minutes. Turning, Axel tried to remember where Yuffie told him to put the food once he'd gotten back. It was somewhere specific, he could recall. But instead, he stopped short when he saw Riku. The teenager was standing expectantly behind him, supposedly waiting for him to turn around. His eyes seemed shadowed as he stared at the Nobody, and for a moment he wasn't sure at all what to do under the look. But then finally Riku spoke up, his voice softer than normal. "He went to you…" It was barely a mumble. "And not to me…he looked at me like…like I was a murderer that was trying to take him."
There was a few seconds of silence as he groped for something to say. But eventually he gave a small shrug. "Can you blame him?" Axel turned, heading over to the nearest table as he brushed past Riku. "Kid just woke up after dying…twice. You don't look like yourself much either. If I woke up from something like that to see what looked like my old enemy in the corner…I'm sorry to say that you'd be dead by now. Burned to a crisp."
Riku muttered something under his breath.
Trying to lighten the mood, Axel added: "You know. Like bacon."
"I got it," Riku growled. Silence rested between them, and for a moment or two, things were really awkward. Then, more to break the silence than anything else, Riku turned and eyed the Christmas tree that was in the corner of the room. "We still gotta decorate it." Aerith had gone upstairs by now, and Axel sent up a silent prayer that Sora hadn't reopened one of his injuries. So for the moment, the main level was empty. Yuffie and Kairi were off to the store for more stocking stuffing, Merlin and Cid off for more gauze and bandages. Goofy and Donald and Mickey were doing one of their daily security sweeps, so they still weren't back yet. The place seemed empty now.
Axel surveyed the fir but gave yet another shrug. "I don't know. Now that Sora might be coming around, we should probably wait for him," Axel said, turning and stacking the food away tidily. "He seems like the kind of kid to go nuts over this time of year. We shouldn't take that away from him, you know?"
Riku mumbled agreement, sticking his hands into his pockets. "Yeah, he'd like that a lot." The teen pursed his lips, his eyes glazing over a little bit with nostalgia. "It used to be a tradition of ours to spend Christmas together— to have a sleep-over on Christmas Eve. We'd decorate the tree, make cookies…Sora would always pick out cheesy Christmas songs to play in the background of everything." He smirked, shaking his head back and forth slowly. Yet smile faltered and wavered as he added: "We haven't done that in such a long time."
"Then it'll be even more fun this time," Axel replied smoothly, desperate to not have the atmosphere dreary 24/7 like this.
There was another round of silence. But, tragically for Axel's sake, it did not last any longer than the others before it was broken. "Hey…I'm sorry." Riku's voice was slightly flat with the sudden apology. Axel turned, blinking with slight surprise at the abrupt sentiment. "I'm sorry for…implying that I didn't want him to see you. It's just…I haven't seen him in so long. I was such a monster back then and…I never really apologized." His eyes closed a moment. "He probably won't even want to see me when he wakes up fully."
Axel hesitated before answering, pursing his lips a moment. But after a moment he shook his head firmly. "Of course he will. You know Sora. His policy is: 'Forgive and wipe every single scene of what happened from the face of the planet and never think about it again.' It won't be a thing of luck for him to accept your apology. After all, even before now, he wouldn't shut up about you. You or Kairi. Having you two back…it'll be a piece of cake to win him over." He contemplated. "Maybe less. You gotta cut the piece of cake carefully. It's more like you're just shoving your face into the entire cake and just eating it like that."
"I dunno," Riku sighed and turned to look back at the tree. "Luck isn't always on my side most of the time."
Axel chuffed. "Then you're more like Sora than I thought."
This earned itself a smile. "I guess you're right," Riku said eventually. The two smiled at once another for a moment, but then Riku cleared his throat, stepping back and turning for the stairs. "I should probably go and see Aerith…try and find out if she needs any help with—"
"Wait," Axel interrupted, turning to survey the mostly-bare room around them. Apart from the tree, and the decorated wall, the place was mostly the same. It didn't seem like Christmas at all. But maybe it could look like something else…something special for Sora. "I have an idea," he said, a smile coming over his face.