Author's Note: Uh. Expected chapter count now up to six or seven.


Tin Men

Chapter Three


THEN

Kairi stood in the middle of a grassy field under the beating sun, feeling the sweat percolate between her shoulder blades. She held out an outstretched hand and called to her keyblade again and again.

No matter how tight she screwed her eyes shut, no matter how much she strained her reach, no matter how loud her inner voice shouted against the back of her eyelids—her hand remained empty.

Merlin had warned them that it would be harder to summon their keyblades in the past. She'd expected some difficulty but not that it would prove thus far impossible.

Despite the heat, it was a beautiful afternoon. The sun hung high, dappling gold on the verdant green leaves of the ancient trees that ringed their camp. Purple daffodils bobbed against her ankles and insects hummed at the periphery of her senses.

Less then two minutes into their practice session, Axel had retreated under the cover of shade against a nearby tree. Kairi glanced over her shoulder and froze at the bare tan slope of his shoulder blades peaking from behind a tree trunk.

Kairi ground her teeth—why did he never wear a shirt! His heavy leather coat lay at his feet and his pant legs were rolled up to the knees. He was reading a tattered paperback he had picked up a few days ago, the cover of a girl, a robot, a straw man and a lion skipping down a road. Based on his sarcastic comments, she didn't think he was even enjoying it. Occasionally he would snap his fingers and ignite his finger tips like a lighter. What little expression she could see of his profile was of long suffering boredom.

He wasn't even pretending to take this seriously.

When he started to whistle some out of tune song they'd heard at the last town they'd stopped at, Kairi whirled on him. "Would you quit that?"

He leaned around the tree trunk to look at her, giving her and all the world a view of smooth, muscled chest. The only thing that marred it was a black and red mark the size of her fist over his heart that she would never acknowledge if she could help it. Hard to do when he walked around shirtless. For her part, Kaori forced her eyes to remain on his face, cheeks red.

He raised an eyebrow at her. Small flames licked across his forearms, shooting sparks. It made her sweat just looking at it. "Quit what exactly?" He asked.

"All of it," Kairi ground out. "I'm trying to concentrate."

Axel rolled his eyes and Kairi wanted to strangle him. "You've been 'concentrating' for hours now. Take a break." His eyes flicked down over her and for all of its lazy disinterest it made her skin prickle with awareness until he added, touching the side of his nose with the back of a finger, "You're starting to sun burn."

Kairi flushed hot and cold and then bit back an angry retort. She wanted to point out how at least she was trying but the truth was he had summoned his key blade twice already in the last week—both times in the middle of a skirmish with some scouting Nobodies. Even if it had been on accident and he had yet to reliably reproduce it, that was still two times more than she had done.

The worst part was, he hadn't even needed to summon a key blade. He'd spent the last part of the battle just flinging pinwheels of fire around like knives, and Kairi, weaponless, had pressed herself against the alley wall and tried to stay out of his way. It had sent a cold shiver down her spine the way he'd ground the heel of his boot into the pale, latex chest of the last Nobody, flames licking his coat tails and just grinning all teeth, like a sated cat licking its chops, never mind that a year ago he'd been the one who had commanded the very same creatures to attack her friends.

There was just no reconciling the many facets of Axel, Kairi reflected. Particularly not now, when he was lounging on the grass glistening that bronze tan of a model from a trashy gossip magazine and her traitorous, hormone-addled brain could not get over how he looked good being such a lazy piece of—

She was saved from having to say anything at all when a sound like a teapot kettle cut through the silence. Kairi straightened, heart picking up a little even as Axel rolled his eyes, tossing his book carelessly on the ground. "Great. Book report time again."

"Answer it," she said, a little too eagerly. At his amused look, her glare returned.

"Fine, fine," he said. "Don't get your panties in a bunch."

She would have thrown something at him—preferably a key blade, although a rock would suffice—except he had reached into his pocket, pulling out a slim bound book. A golden teapot glimmered on the cover, spout puffing off steam in time with the sound of the kettle. A corner of the leather cover was creased and folded over from where it had pressed into the seam of his pants.

Their only form of communication with Merlin and the others, jammed in his pocket like trash. Kairi bit her tongue on a protest of such mistreatment, knowing from experience that Axel would only ignore her and it would only lead to her brooding over stupid little things that didn't matter. For all that Merlin had been cautious towards the former Organization Thirteen member, the wizard hadn't given her the book.

Axel rolled over and set the book on the grass in front of him, flipping it open to a blank page. Gold letters unfurled in beautiful penmanship on the page although from her distance, Kairi could only see the dance of glowing golden light on his face as he propped his head on a hand and leaned in.

Kairi watched him anxiously as he stared with a blank expression at the page. Then he sighed, flipping on his back and looking at the sky between the canopy of trees, leaving the book open.

Kairi waited all of thirty seconds before her patience ran out. "Well?"

Axel glanced at her upside down. She could see gleams of sweat on his forearms, on the bridge of his nose. "Yes?" he drawled.

"What did he want?" Kairi bit out.

Axel shrugged, returning his gaze at the sky "Don't know. Not an emergency, since he hasn't gotten to the point yet. He'll get there in a page or two."

Kairi glanced at the book, golden letters still flowing over the pages in a steady hand. Then she clenched her fist. Instead of engage in a losing battle with her temper and Axel's attention span, Kairi stormed in the other direction.

A long-suffering sigh behind her. "Where are you going now?

"None of your business!" She shouted over her shoulder.

"Don't stray too far, Dorothy," he called amused. It was the name of the heroine from his book and she didn't flatter herself that it was a compliment. "…and watch out for the tin men and the scarecrows!"

Kairi's shoulders hitched, teeth clenched. She'd garnered enough from his commentary to know what he meant. He thought he was so clever.

Trudging through the trees in silence helped to cool her down a little. Eventually she made it to her favorite spot— a cliff that was a brisk walk from their campsite with a vista that stretched green and gold into the horizon. She settled herself against a rock to stare down the drop, knees pulled up to her chin and expression sullen.

Eventually she pulled out a notepad and pen from inside a pocket in her dress. The symbol of the hotel they'd last stayed at sat bold at the top of the page. She ran a thumb over the corner of one tweaked edge, mouth flattening a little.

Then she began to write.


NOW

It was scary how well Axel ingratiated himself into her daily routine.

She thought it would be weird. She had not lived with a roommate in years and while she had camped with him many worlds over, they had never shared a space like an apartment together. She had presumed that like usual, Axel would be loud and nosy and tall.

As it turned out, Axel was none of those things except the latter—tall. Whenever she had to squeeze past him into the bathroom or sit down on the couch next to him, her body swaying into his from the cushions tilting towards him, she was starkly reminded of this. His hands with their long fingers constantly snapping or spouting flames could also span half her back when splayed open. He proved this unintentionally one night when he'd clapped her on the back after she brought surprise take-out home. His touch had been warm. She'd been so shocked at the physical contact that she'd stared at him too long, wide eyed, until she saw his easy smile slip a little, green eyes flicking between hers, and then he'd proceeded to ruffle her hair into a knotted mess that had her in fits and him pleased as punch.

Beyond such occasional bouts of insanity, he was otherwise a perfect roommate. He was up before she woke, a freshly poured coffee already steaming on the table waiting for her. He was still watching whatever show they decided to put on the TV before bed—usually soap operas or reality TV, he had a unsurprising addiction to melodrama— when she finally trundled off to bed. She never heard him in the night and the blankets she laid out for him were always folded in the same spot, only a few wrinkles as evidence that they might have been used at all.

She wasn't convinced he slept, at least not during the night. There were bags under his eyes in the morning and yawns that he tried to cover with jokes and questions. She suspected he slept the moment she headed to work, because he seemed far more alert and easy going once she'd returned.

She still didn't really know what he was doing here or how long he'd stay. But for now it was...nice. Weird but nice.

All this to say that today, for the first time in months, Kairi was running late.

One minute she had been laughing at something obnoxious Axel had been saying, then next she was looking at the clock and practically spitting her second coffee all over her cheap kitchen table.

Twenty minutes later she was dressed and in the hall, trying to juggle her bag, her keys, the remains of her coffee, and one low heeled pump while she slipped the other on a stocking clad foot. Axel watched her from the kitchen entrance, fascinated.

"Please lock the doors and windows if you leave, yadda yadda, you know the drill," she was telling him. She got one heel on, chugged her coffee, then set it down on the small hall table.

"Yes, mom," He said with a roll of his eyes. "When do you come home?"

She paused, tapping the other heel in her thigh. "Probably late, and just to pick up a change of clothes. I've got a workout class at eight, so don't feel the need to stay up—oh! That reminds me." She looked at the things in her hands, then sighed and put them on the ground. She slipped out of her heeled shoe and bustled over to her bedroom, crooking a finger at him to follow.

Axel hovered at the entrance to her room, peering inside. It was as barren as her living room. She flushed a little at the pile of dirty clothes on the side of the bed, but bee-lined towards the bottom drawer of her dresser.

"You've been sleeping in your clothes, haven't you?" She said, falling to her knees and pulling the drawer open. "I may have a few men's things…"

Axel's expression flickered. "You have...?"

He cut off when she pulled a large men's pair of sweatpants from out of the drawer. She held them up to the light, then turned to size him up. The blank expression on his face was hard to read. "Uhh…"

She shook her head, putting it back in the drawer. "Freakishly tall."

"Hey, now," Axel said, mouth curling just a little as she knew it would.

She continued rummaging through the drawer, eventually pulling out several long workout shorts that may fit him and setting them aside.

"You don't have to do this," he said, eyes flicking to the clothes. There was a question there that she was going to ignore, thank you very much. "I can pick up a couple things."

Kairi rolled her eyes, then grabbed an old t-shirt off the top of a stack, throwing it at him. "No you won't. And it's fine. It's not like they're getting much use." And then regretted it instantly, given how much that said about her current love life.

He caught the shirt deftly, chuckling, and then with a whip of the fabric held it up in the low light.

The moment she got a glimpse of the yellow printed wings of a chocobo on the fabric, however, all of the blood drained from Kairi's face. She jumped to her feet, a hand outstretched as if she could snatch it back. Of all the—it was that shirt. The shirt she utterly despised. Why the hell did she even still have the stupid thing.

An awkward silence. Kairi's face burned.

She didn't see Axel's expression from behind the shirt but she didn't have to. It was a typical chocobo racing shirt, the extra slutty variety. A woman with short dark red hair, violet eyes, and breasts the size of watermelons that barely fit into her pathetic jockey outfit was draping herself wantonly over a racing chariot.

It was bad enough the t-shirt was absolutely enormous and would fit Axel just fine—which meant, of course, it dwarfed Kairi whenever she accidentally wore it and begged the question why she had it at all. But what made it one hundred times worse, of course, was the fact that if you looked at the shirt and squinted…there was maybe, possibly, just a little bit of a resemblance. Between the model and her.

So her ex had said, anyway, who wasn't exactly a source she found trustworthy. Maybe if you squinted really, really hard and ignored the gigantic, unrealistic breasts.

When Axel finally lowered the shirt to look at her, gaze unreadable, Kairi abruptly looked away, glaring at her drawer. So many shirts, she bemoaned. So many simple, plain unisex shirts she could have grabbed instead.

"So…" He began, and Kairi broke.

"It's a friend's," she supplied quickly. Which wasn't a lie. He technically had been a friend, her ex, until he'd turned out to be a complete jack ass.

"Hmm." Axel didn't look convinced at all. He glanced at the back of the shirt, which sported the much cuter chocobo racing insignia which she adored and would wear more often if not for its unfortunate reverse side. "So your ex was a fan of the races, was he?"

"Yes," she bit out, then tensed as she realized he'd said ex and he and she hadn't denied it. She shot him a nasty look, which he ignored it in favor of turning the shirt once more to face the front and staring openly at the stupid model with her stupid breasts and that stupid short hair cut that had been ruined for Kairi forever. It looked like…he was recalibrating something in his mind. She wasn't sure what for and she wasn't sure she liked it.

Finally, Axel cleared his throat. "So about this ex-friend—"

Kairi marched right over, intent to snatch the thing out of his hand. To her great annoyance, he easily lifted it clear above her head. "—whoa, whoa. I never said I wouldn't use it."

"Axel," she growled.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He said pointedly, laughter in his voice, holding the shirt above and out of her reach. "Should you be worrying about a t-shirt right now?"

Kairi's head whipped to the clock on her night stand, then she squeaked. She rushed to the door, nearly tripping over the stack of shorts on the ground and Axel flattened against the doorframe to let her through. She paused, eyes snapping to the shirt, which he merely moved behind his back, grinning.

Kairi growled in frustration. She didn't have time for this. "Throw that one out," she said, stabbing a finger into his chest, and then brushed past him.

"Why?" Axel called teasingly after her as she grabbed her things, stuffed her feet into her shoes, and practically ran to the door. "It's a perfectly good shirt."

"Throw it out!" She said, then slammed her front door behind her, cutting off his laugh.


"So," Selphie said once she and Kairi had gotten their coffees—a cappuccino for her, the latest sweet drink concoction for Selphie—and sat down at the coffee shop booth. Their new coworker—Kairi had forgotten her name again—was running late. "…Did something good happen?"

Kairi, who had been staring contentedly out the window sipping her hot drink, blinked and turned to her friend. "What makes you say that?"

"Three reasons. One, you were late this morning. You are never late."

Kairi rolled her eyes.

"Two, you were just humming," Selphie continued with a grin, then gestured at Kairi. "And three, you're wearing your nice blue shirt. You never wear that shirt except on special occasions."

Kairi looked down at herself to find that indeed, she was wearing her one nice silk shirt Selphie had convinced her to buy for interviews or the occasional date. Her neck flushed a little. "I wear this all the time," she started defensively.

"Nu huh. Nope," Selphie said, pointing a freshly painted mustard yellow nail across the laminate table top. "You don't wear that ever cause you hate dry cleaning it. So…" she sucked her mocha latte obnoxiously through her straw, then fluttered her eye lashes. "…So what happened?"

Kairi shook her head. "There is nothing—"

Selphie leaned closer, eyebrows wagging, "Who happened?

Kairi gaped, unsure if she should be offended or embarrassed. Selphie gasped in response, then practically squealed. "No way, really? Finally!" She leaned closer, eyes sparkling. "Tell me absolutely everything and don't leave anything out, I'll decide what's important."

"Lower your voice," Kairi hissed, leaning over the table in a whisper. "Nothing happened and no one happened."

Selphie pouted. "Darn, I thought I had it." Selphie leaned back, swirling her straw in her cup. "Well then what happened?" Then her eyes narrowed. "…its not Reno, is it?"

Kairi frowned—not appreciating at all the reminder of the person attached to that name—but she could tell Selphie wasn't going to drop this. And they weren't going to be alone forever—the new girl was going to arrive at some point. Kairi relented, "Not that this is related at all to why I'm wearing a nice shirt but…I did bump into someone this week." When Selphie bristled, she added with an eye roll, "And no, it wasn't him."

Selphie stared at her for a long moment, then nodded. "Was it Sora?"

Kairi tensed, a flash of anger rising in her that she quickly tamped down on. Selphie remembered growing up with Sora and knew Kairi and him had been close as kids but…she didn't know much beyond that. No one on Destiny Island really knew what exactly had happened to Sora and Riku, other than that they'd transferred to a school across the sea. And no one knew…. Kairi forced herself to relax. "No."

Selphie leaned back, frowning. "Well it can't be Riku. Then who is it?"

Kairi traced a mindless pattern on the table. After a moment, "Someone I used to know a long time ago."

Selphie twirled her straw. "What's his name?"

Kairi resisted chewing on her lip, looking out the window instead. What a complicated question. She'd known him by many names. So many versions of himself. Which one did she choose?

Lea was on the tip of her tongue…"…Axel," she said, feeling an odd sensation in her stomach.

Selphie cocked her head. "Do I know him?"

"No."

"Phooie," Selphie blew bubbles in her drink. "Well, when you gonna bring him around?"

"Who says you're going to meet him? " Kairi teased. When her friend pulled out her straw from her drink, attempting to poke her with the wet end, Kairi fended her off and relented. "Hey—Okay! Put that away! …What I mean is, he's probably not even gonna be around for much longer."

Selphie withdrew, though her eyes were still suspicious. "Why's that?"

Kairi brought her coffee to her lips, wondering how to appropriately phrase things without doing the meddling Donald used to always go on about. "His... job doesn't tend to let him stay in one place long."

"Okay…" Selphie took a long sip from her drink. "Well, do you like him?"

Kairi narrowly missed inhaling her drink. "What?"

Selphie was giving her the look that meant she was crazy overreacting—which she wasn't, thank you very much. "Do you like him?"

The obvious answer was to say no. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Selphie sat back in her seat, smiling with far too satisfied an expression for Kairi's liking. "Because you never know. Maybe that would be enough to get him to stay."

If she'd been expecting Kairi to be moved, she was disappointed. Kairi ugly snorted. "Uh, no." At Selphie's offended look, she continued. "That's just absurd. You would see that if you met him. Besides, he has far more important people in his life than me." Her thoughts drifted to Roxas...and Xion.

But Selphie was shaking her head. "Kairi, you just don't get it. You are a wonderful catch. If I personally hadn't witnessed your atrocious bad luck with men, I wouldn't believe you were single."

"Maybe I want to be single," Kairi grumbled, slouching in her seat.

Selphie clucked her tongue. "Or maybe…you sell yourself far too short."

That was the second time someone had told her in as many weeks. Kari frowned. "…He doesn't see me that way."

Selphie grinned like a Cheshire Cat, then noisily sipped the dregs of her drink. Under Kairi's suspicious look, she eventually said, "You do realize you basically admitted that you see him that way?"

Kairi pulled off the lid of her coffee, holding the foamy end out threateningly.

Selphie held up her hands, giggling, then sighed. "Look, don't get me wrong, Kai. I'm not keen on you jumping back into another relationship after that last raging asshole." She reached across the table, putting a hand over Kairi's and her green eyes were bright and sincere. "But today you just looked happy. And I feel like I haven't seen you happy in a long time."

Kairi contemplated that, then gave Selphie's hand a gentle squeeze. Her friend really was the best.

"I'll think about it," she said, leaning back in her seat.

"Better yet, bring him around," Selphic whined, draping pathetically over the table.

Kairi shook her head, smiling. "I can't bring anyone around you. You'll scare him off."

Selphie's grin turned wicked. "Then he isn't the right one. I'm a package deal, you know…." Selphie trailed off, her eyes flicking over her head, then she sat up abruptly and started to wave. "Oh hey Rinoa... over here!"

Kairi glanced over her shoulder to see their new coworker had just entered the coffee shop. She turned back just in time to see Selphie mouth the word 'Rinoa' with exaggerated slowness, then a wink. Kairi blushed.

"Rinoa," Kairi said loudly as the other girl slid into the booth beside Selphie. "Great you could make it." Over the girl's profuse apologies for being late, Kairi caught Selphie's knowing look and mouthed a 'thank you' back.

Nothing really did get past Selphie.


THEN

The transition from the corridors of darkness to the physical realm was a jarring blast of bright lights and sounds and smells, starbursts of color dancing where there had been only the absence of everything. Kairi still was not used to it despite Axel's regular needling that she should be by now.

There was no witty commentary today, however. Axel's hand was a cold iron on her elbow until she found her footing, and then he dropped it abruptly, face flat. His red keyblade in his other hand de-materialized in a shower of flames and the casualness of it filled her with fierce jealousy. Without sparing her a glance, he turned to walk down a street, tossing a "Wait here," over his shoulder.

They were in a unfamiliar town, neon lights bright and vibrant and casting long shadows on cobblestones. The sky above was dark and cloudy, the scent of ozone and static in the air.

Kairi blinked, confused at why they were here and not back at their camp, but then she realized as Axel strode around a corner that she had no idea where she was and if she didn't follow him she would lose him.

She scrambled after him, bumping shoulders into strangers who hardly acknowledged her. His shock of red hair bobbed already half way down the street and by the time she caught up with him, she was panting.

"Axel, wait," she said, reaching to grab his wrist.

He stopped suddenly and she nearly ran into him. "Lea," he said.

"What?"

"It's Lea. My name."

She furrowed her brow at him. "Well my name's Kairi, not Princess."

He looked at her, those green eyes impenetrable and his mouth ticked down, then grunted. "Fine," he said, turning away. "Call me whatever you want. I need to restock supplies, go back to the plaza and wait for me there."

She clenched her fist. "What is wrong with you?"

He stopped. The sky above gave an ominous crack, and then a few droplets of something cold began to prickle her skin. Of course it was going to rain.

Kairi stared at his back, a lump in her throat. The last week he had retreated more and more in to himself, aggressive in battle and silent and dismissive otherwise. The last day had been torturous; when he bothered to say a word to her at all, it was with that dead look in his eyes, like he was seeing right through her. He was treating her like.. It was like they were back again. To that time when he was her jailer and she was his captive. And she hated it. She was already stuck in the past, she didn't want to have to relive it too.

"I'm sorry," she began haltingly. "You got injured again and it's my fault. If I was better, this wouldn't be so hard. I know that."

He said nothing.

Kairi clenched the hem of her increasingly damp dress. "But...All you have been doing lately is ordering me around," she continued. "You refuse to tell me where you are going or what we are doing. You can't expect me to just obey without—"

"Yes, I do." He whirled on her, face furious as he stalked towards her and god, he was so much bigger than her. He swallowed up her whole vision. Kairi gulped, hands trembling. At her reaction he froze for just a second, then his face flattened again, a blank slate.

"Yes, I do," he repeated deathly calm. "Because I am your ticket in this world, Princess. You need me, not the other way around, and these are the rules you are gonna have to live with."

"Look, I get it. I'm holding you back," she said, the words ripping her innards, "but I am also not just some tool!" His jaw clenched hard at that but she powered on, "You don't want to tell me everything, fine, but at least tell me something. Just talk to me. I can't help if I don't—"

Axel cut her off. "I don't need you to help. This is not a democracy. This is not some field trip or some game. If you don't want to die, you will do as I say."

Kairi opened her mouth wordlessly. He wasn't even hearing her point. "I know that! I am trying here—"

"Do you know? Because I don't think you do. Trying," Axel hissed, "is not good enough, Princess. If wishing something could happen was all it took, I would have found Roxas by now and you would have stopped pretending you can do something you can't."

Kairi jerked back as if slapped. "…what am I pretending?" She whispered.

Axel made a frustrated noise at her expression, rubbing the back of his head. "Now don't do that," he said gesturing at her, though she had no idea what he meant. "This is nothing personal."

"This is absolutely personal!" She took a step forward, glaring up at him. "Just say it. You think I shouldn't be here."

They stared at each other, Axel's mouth flat and eyes a livid green.

"Say it," she whispered.

Axel suddenly leaned close, mouth twisted mockingly. "Have you ever killed someone?"

The question drew her up short. When she said nothing, he snorted. "Exactly. The seekers of darkness aren't waiting for you to save them. And you don't have what it takes to do what is necessary."

Even knowing it was coming, it still felt like a punch to the gut. At the look on her face, he laughed.

"What did you think was going to happen when you finally summoned a keyblade, Princess? Seven guardians of light...what a joke." He shook his head. "I hate to break it to you sweetheart, but no one is waiting on you. We're just a number in a prophecy."

She took a step back, humiliated. Every training session she'd endured, every inch of progress she'd carefully nursed to keep her going, now looked shallow and pitiful beneath his apathetic gaze. "You're heartless."

His smile was cruel. "You did ask."

She turned on her heel and ran.

She barreled back the way they came as the rain began in earnest now, soaking her clothes and her hair until she was drenched. Eventually she was back in the plaza, which was now empty, and she stood in the middle, staring at the ground and breathing hard.

Yen Sid had asked her to take a leap of faith. Had told her she was needed. She had known this would be hard, but how was she supposed to have faith when not even the person she was with believed in what they were doing? Axel was duplicitous and self-serving and could lie at the drop of a hat. But she didn't think he'd been lying now.

Kairi clenched her fist. Sora had practically begged her to give "Lea" a chance, and she hated the feeling that she was letting him down. But it wasn't fair.

Why was it that Axel didn't seem to care about any of this and was doing just fine, while Kairi cared too much and just…wasn't?

Neon lights flickered. Kairi's head jerked up, and she looked around slowly. Lightning crackled and the sign over the fountain went out.

Kairi took a step back and then ran into something.

Some thing.

An ice cold wet grip on her ankle. She yelped, air hissing between her teeth as she turned to look down—and came face to face with a blue and white mask slinking on the ground. A slit appeared abruptly under the mask, revealing white sharp teeth. Yellow predator eyes peered up at her over a grinning, salivating mouth.

Ice stole over her face, over her body. She opened her mouth to scream—

—and then suddenly she was being dragged bodily into a dark alley.

Rough cobble stones and debris dug into her side and hips. Shouting, Kairi scrabbled at the ground finding no purchase, then kicked her legs. Her feet hit what felt like wet mud and her throat closed as the creature merely made a sound, too eerily similar to a high pitched giggle of a child.

As the creature dragged her past a row of boxes, Kairi thrust her hand to the stormy sky, pleading. If her keyblade was going to come, it had to come now. It was now or never.

Nothing but rain water on her palm.

Inevitability closed over her, seizing her throat and lungs. This struggle was futile. She was weak. She didn't know how to fight. She was gonna die in this strange town adrift in time because she couldn't be on her own without needing to be rescued and no one would know what had happened.

Oddly, in this last moment, she didn't think about Sora or Riku. She thought of Merlin.

Merlin cupped a spindly hand under hers as she produced a chunk of ice the size of a grapefruit for his inspection. It melted in her hand, dripping on to his. She grinned at him, gratified by the proud glint in his eyes. "See?" he said. "Magic is belief."

Kairi thrust a second hand towards the creature and ice shot from her fingers, half formed but a brilliant cold blue that had the creature flinch with a shriek. When its grip loosened, she jerked her leg free in a splattering arc of darkness and scrabbled to her feet. The creature turned to her, feral and terrifying, and Kairi backed away.

A rusty pipe lay propped against a cardboard box. She grabbed it, holding it between them.

She swung and hit the creature, but it felt like passing through jello. The thing giggled and lunged towards her but she drew back. Her hand glowed blue and ice sheathed over the pipe. When she hit it this time, it felt more solid and the thing shrunk back with a high pitched keen, yellow eyes spasming.

Her swings were wild but the creature was not much better. They clawed and struggled with each other, skin ablaze of cuts and bruises, hair pulled, an antennae yanked, a mask slipping slime sludge down a damaged face. Each thud of the pipe into its body felt more sickeningly solid, drew away more pieces of darkness like splatters of mud onto her clothes and the cobble stones. Every cry from the thing picked at her skin, every furious shriek drew a lump of terror in her throat, adrenaline spiking.

Two desperate creatures in a macabre dance. It was so pitiful she could cry.

At last the heartless pulled away from her and screamed, deafening and desperate, it's yellow eyes bulging. A pop sounded behind her, the sound of charging feet, and she had just enough time to whip around to see an enormous heartless bearing down on her before it caught her by the throat in an iron grip.

It lifted her up into the air. She scratched at its hand, choking, unable to look away as the heartless behind her chittered and crooned and the one holding her broke out into a horrifying grin.

Then it jerked, a pinwheel sticking from its neck. Flames roared to life around the weapon, a tower of heat and light so hot that Kairi's skin of her arms burned from mere proximity, and then the creature was melting, a sound like crackling glass emitting from its mouth as its eyes sunk back into puddles of blackness and blinked out.

Kairi fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, air rushing back into her lungs, and then Axel was crouched next to her, a hand touching her shoulder.

"You alive?" He asked, distracted, then jerked suddenly, whirling on his knee towards the opposite direction.

More giggling in the darkness.

His hand tightened on her shoulder, then he let go, standing in a swift motion. "Get up Princess," he said, not sparing her a glance. "We have to go."

She struggled to get to her feet, took two steps, and then fell to her knees.

He made an impatient noise, whirling to her. "Do you want to get killed—"

The look on her face made him freeze. And then he was moving to her, his large hands grasping her by the elbows and yanking her up, and though she hated it, she clutched his sleeves. When he opened a dark portal and threw them in, she buried her face into his jacket.

When she opened her eyes next, they were at their campsite again, the campfire dark. She was on her knees, and Axel was crouched in front of her.

She couldn't breathe. Her lungs heaved and yet it felt like there was no air. She tried to disentangle from him immediately but he wouldn't budge.

"You gotta calm down," he said, and the tentative tone of his voice made her jerk back, made her want to bury her head in her knees and hide, but his grip was firm and after only a moment of resistance she looked up at him.

They stared at each other, his eyes flickering over her face, widening at the blood on her lip, at the bruise tight and aching on her cheekbone.

And then she burst in to tears.

His expression caved like popped glass. "Shit," Axel said, gloved thumb rubbing at her cheek, and his mouth twisted as tears immediately spilled over again. "Shit, I…sometimes I forget you're…" He sighed.

He fell silent as Kairi tried to pull herself together.

"Listen to me," he said finally, and she looked up at him, eyes wet. "Forget what I said before. I was mad. I shouldn't have let this happen." His mouth tightened. "I won't let them get you."

There was a look in his eye, like he'd been here before, like he'd made these promises to other people. And while Axel was as much a villain as a hero, she could feel that he meant it.

Anger momentarily pierced through the panic.

"I don't need you to protect me," she said so fiercely that Axel drew back a little, blinking. "Because you were right. I was about to die by that—" her mouth twisted "—by that heartless and yet all I could think about was how it was human once, that something just like it had once been Sora taking me by the hand and how that would make me—" Then she wilted, arms going around herself.

"…heartless," he gently finished for her.

Silence, save for her tortured breathing.

"It's stupid," she forced out.

"...it's not stupid."

"It is." She shook her head. "But it doesn't matter because I want to protect myself." She blinked at him between wet lashes, longing for understanding. "How am I supposed to protect others if I can't protect myself?"

He looked at her for what felt like forever. Then he took one of his gloves off, and brushed the tears from her face with his thumb. His skin was warm.

"Right," he said gently, something thawed in his gaze she had never seen. "Sorry."

She looked away from him, tears still streaming down her face. But she didn't get up.

They sat there for a long time, until she couldn't cry anymore. And then, he said, "I am sorry."

Then she finally let go of him. You're heartless, she had told him, and he hadn't even flinched. He believed it too much. "Me too," she whispered.