Fire & Moonlight, a Kingdom Hearts fanwork: Drabble challenge by Wishing-Fire, written by Raberba girl

38. Laugh (ROUGH DRAFT)

Summary: "It's necessary, fine, I get it. But do you have to act like you're enjoying it so much?"

A/N: This is their first week or two in the Organization. Also slightly AU to my other stuff as far as mechanics.

o.o.o

"You know," Lea coughed, feeling like some of his ribs had been broken, "I seriously don't mind you torturing us For Science - because I CAN'T - but can you at least not make that creepy pedo laugh while you're doing it?"

"I thought I already explained to you the purpose of these exercises, stupid boy," Vexen huffed through the speakers. He himself was sitting smug and safe at the control panel on the other side of the transparent wall. "If you're gong to be a useful member of this Organization, you're going to need a far more efficient way to store and keep track of the physical damage that befalls you. I should note that our restorative items will have no effect on you otherwise."

"I get the whole 'LOL we're gonna give you HP bars!' thing," Lea wheezed resentfully, climbing to his feet with difficulty.

"Then you understand the purpose behind this," Vexen sniffed. "I'm not doing it for my own enjoyment."

"Could've fooled me," Lea growled. He glanced over into the other room where Isa was trapped, the two of them separated by another transparent partition. His best friend was slumped in the middle of the floor, eyes closed, breathing labored. "Vexen, it's been hours. Why the freak do we need to get this done in one sitting? Isa can't take much more of this."

"Number VII's name is Saïx, and he'll be fine once I open the window again," Vexen said dismissively, reaching for the controls.

"You IDIOT!" Lea shouted, causing the scientist to pause and stare at him in outrage. "The moonlight's not energizing him, it's draining him! It makes him go Berserk and then he comes out of it even more exhausted than before! His recovery time's taking forever now, are you blind? You're gonna turn him into a frickin' zombie if you keep this up!"

"Don't you dare speak to me that way, Number VIII," Vexen thundered, and slammed his hand against a lever.

More ice monsters. Lea gritted his teeth and hefted the chakrams again, which seemed to be getting heavier and heavier the longer this nightmare went on. He glimpsed Isa struggling to his feet, but then the place was flooded with moonlight, and the berserker's wordless roar drowned out all thought.

o.o.o

The cold seemed to fill him until he became it. Unable to move or scream, he wondered if maybe Vexen had killed him and this was hell, but then the ice that encased him finally shattered.

Lea was flung to the floor, and his head knocked against the partition alongside which Isa had also ended up sprawled. Two sets of agonized green eyes met and held. "Vexen," Lea heard himself whimpering distantly, "please..." He had no strength left. If another monster appeared, he'd have to just lie here and let it finish him off.

"You know," Vexen lectured mercilessly, "you both could make this a lot easier on yourselves if you put some effort into figuring out how to summon your lesser Nobody servants."

"Please..."

Isa slowly reached up and touched his fingertips to the barrier. Lea pressed his palm against it as well, as if they could somehow break through to each other.

"Oh, stop whining, we're nearly there. HP installation is 87% complete, so pull yourselves together and keep it up for just a little longer..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Because if you think about it, KH characters can be down to 1 HP and still run around and fight like normal. Outside of cutscenes, they only show pain when they're in the actual act of taking damage.

Long complicated boring origin story: Okay, so you know how the "No" story was originally written for the "Flawed" theme? This story, "Laugh," was what I was actually aiming for (Vexen experimenting on young Axel and Saïx), so I'm glad I finally managed to write that plot bunny properly. The HP bar stuff occurred to me last-minute, though. My original plunny for "Laugh" was actually a cute (and platonic) Saïx/Olette story, which meant I obviously couldn't post it as part of F&M. (Coming up with an AkuSai version was much harder.) Now that Taliax inadvertently helped me figure out how to flesh out the SaiLette, I'll be able to write and post it separately.

Complete: 38/101. Next: "Torture."