Author's Note: Re-posting chapter 4. See explanation notes on chapter 5.
Tin Men
Chapter Four
THEN
The first thing that Kairi saw once they stepped foot onto their next world was the ocean.
She breathed in sharp, then darted across a terrain of dark porous rocks, ignoring Axel's call after her. By the time he made it to the edge of the small sea inlet where rock shelf met open water, she was already at the bottom, socks and shoes discarded on a nearby boulder as she waded up to her calves in a large tide pool.
He leaned his weight on one knee, looking down at her from above, backlit by a bright yellow sun. "What's this?"
"Tide pool. You ever been in one?" She was already rolling up the sleeves of her white collared shirt, part of her current disguise for this world. Merlin had insisted they keep up appearances if they chanced on other people.
Axel hummed. "Nope. Haven't had much time to sightsee before." She looked up at him warily to see if he was being sarcastic but his expression was merely curious. "What's in them?"
She paused at that, fingers lingering on one of the buttons of her other sleeve. She bit her lip, then peaked up at him from beneath her bangs. "Why don't you come and see?"
Axel considered her and the foamy blue waters swirling at her feet, then stood up to shuck off his coat.
It had been a week since her solitary fight with the heartless and they hadn't talked much. She'd continued to practice and he'd continued to conveniently disappear and snooze somewhere but there was a different quality in the air between them now. He wasn't exactly telling her his plans, but he wasn't ignoring her anymore and that was a start.
Today, in fact, he'd seemed to be in a good mood.
Maybe that was why she had asked him to join her.
Kairi ducked her head, busying herself with tying her long hair up into a ponytail as Axel made his way down the rocks to her. He'd followed her example, rolling the hem of his black trousers up to his knees. He'd been wearing a sleeveless black shirt underneath the coat. Her eyes darted to his tan, toned arms in the warm sun until she caught herself.
As he approached, his eyes turned to a natural dip between crags on the far end of the inlet, where waves from the ocean occasionally crashed through and fed the pool. A particularly large wave that rippled close to where they stood made his eyebrows raise.
"Should we be worried about that?" He asked, moving to stand beside her.
She nodded. "Just keep an eye on it." She hesitated, then tugged on his shirt. He turned to look down at her and she pointed at the water surface below. "Look."
Below the undulating surface lay two bright pink and purple stars, curled up against the side of a rock. Axel leaned in with interest and Kairi felt something pleased and warm bloom in her chest.
"Star fish," she said. "We call this one an ochre sea star."
Then she pointed to another dark shadow under the water. "Sea cucumber. They're kind of like large sea worms. They are really soft to the touch but I don't recommend squeezing them."
He looked amused, hands on knees as he peered into the depths. "Let me guess - you always wanted to be a marine biologist."
She gave him a dirty look. "I did live on an island, you know. This one is different of course-much colder. But some things are still the same."
He cocked his head at her as she continued to scout under the surface, feeling the soft rock fauna beneath her finger tips.
"Did you do this kind of thing often?" She looked up to find him staring at her. His eyes reflected blue from the ocean waves, intense. "Back home?"
"Yeah," she said, moving to pull herself up out of the water onto a slab so she could get a better look on the other side. "There was a small island that we used to boat over to during the day. We'd spend from dawn to dusk exploring." She smiled to herself, spotting a few hermit crabs scuttling over rocks under the water.
She heard him pull up beside her, moving to lean back on his elbows as he peered down to where she was looking. Even without touching, she felt the warmth of him along her side compared to the biting sea breeze.
"Was it fun?" He asked finally.
She paused her inspection of the sandy bottom for sand dollars to look up at him. He wasn't looking at her, preoccupied with gently touching the purple spikes of a sea urchin close to where they sat. His mouth curled up at the corners and there was nothing ironic about it, a rare sight.
She looked down at the water again, thinking about Selphie, Wakka and Tidus. About Sora and Riku.
"Even then," she said carefully, "I think I viewed it as a kind of wonderful dream. And I was very determined to make as many precious memories as possible, since I didn't remember much of where I was born."
"Radiant Garden?"
She looked up, blinking. Axel was still staring at the urchin, though his smile was gone. "You know of it?" She asked.
His eyes flicked to hers, assessing. Then he made to stand up. "Should we go? Looks like the tide is getting rougher."
She nodded, pushing up to her knees. "We should be careful on these rocks. The moss makes them slippery-"
Her hand slipped to the side and with a squeak she sunk neck deep into the tide pool, barely catching herself on a submerged rock before her head went under. Axel made a noise, eyebrows in his hairline at her ridiculous position.
"Like that," she said weakly up to him.
"Teaching by example now?" He mocked wryly then reached down to help her up.
His arm was a warm band wrapped around her waist as he hauled her up out of the pool and on to her feet. Water sleuthed off her in a cascade, leaving behind sand and particles and an overbearing taste of salt that made her wince when she licked her lips. Laughing just a little, she rubbed her face with the back of her hand and squinted up at him.
"It's not a tide pool trip unless you fall in one," she quipped.
He snorted, picking off a piece of sea weed that clung to her shoulder, his eyes flicking quickly over her. They landed somewhere near her shirt before he suddenly stilled, eyes widening.
With a sense of dread, Kairi reluctantly looked down as well. Her white shirt was wet and entirely see through, clinging to her meager curves and showing off her plain black bra. If he had been merely ogling her she would have found herself at the intersection point between embarrassed, flattered and furious.
But his expression said otherwise. She had a feeling he wasn't looking at her state of dress so much as the tattoo the size of two fists sitting directly over her heart, clearly visible beneath the transparent fabric.
Her mark of a Heartless.
She had never let him see it, Kairi reflected as she looked back at Axel's stunned gaze. It had been too personal, too humiliating. But it wasn't like he hadn't known. He had one too, a red and black one, peeking right out from beneath the gap of his shirt. Only the Heartless could travel through time as they had done, as Xehanort had so succinctly shown. It had been a miracle that they retained their former selves at all. If Kairi and Axel hadn't already been heartless before, Yen Sid would have never let them do it.
Her eyes dropped to his chest. Where his was a mark similar to the one the other heartless bore, a red X in the middle of a black heart, hers looked different. Hers was a white heart, flipped upside down, the prongs pointed up like a crown. She didn't know why it looked different - perhaps because she was a princess of the heart. Or perhaps because while her body was in the past, under stasis that must look like eternal sleep under Merlin's watchful eye, Namine had still not returned.
While the mark was still unmistakably a heart shape, if it had been thinner and longer and bitten through the center, one might mistake it for the stamp of a nobody.
Like perhaps Axel did now, judging by the look on his face.
As she stared up into Axel's face, she wondered if he was thinking similar thoughts to hers. Who was the person locked deep in his heart - the nobody, or the man?
"Axel?" She asked hesitantly, hugging herself. "...Lea?"
A cold breeze suddenly blew through the rocks, making Kairi shiver and lean sharply into the shield he provided from the wind. Axel seemed to jump slightly as her head bumped his arm, dropping the piece of sea weed he had somehow still held in his hand.
"Sorry," he muttered, squinting at the nearby crash of water on the crags. Without a word, he turned to pick his way across the rocks, and she trailed after him. By the time they reached the top of the hill again, the waves were coming more frequently and the basin was starting to fill.
She was rubbing her arms vigorously to warm them, cursing her unfortunate clumsiness, when a heavy coat was suddenly draped over her shoulders.
She peered up from beneath the rim of the hood to see Axel standing in dark clothes beside her, gaze locked not on the tide pool below but the line where sea met sky. The wind tugged at the dark spikes in his hair.
As she stared at his solitary profile, Kairi wondered suddenly what it must have been like for him. Having newly regained the self his nobody had so desperately craved, only to risk it all away again. To put his soul in the hands of former enemies, his heart in the hands of a stranger. And yet he hadn't hesitated for a moment. His mind is already made up, Yen Sid had said.
It had been a flying leap of faith for Kairi, a test in trusting the people who believed in her. Perhaps for Axel, who had no faith in anyone, it had been nothing short of a terrifying free fall.
"How odd," Axel murmured, eyes fixed on the ocean waves. "I'm really craving some sea salt ice cream right now."
The coat was warm, smelling of grass and earth and something, for lack of a better word, masculine. She resisted the urge to bury her nose in it. "Then let's get some," she said. When he turned to her, eyebrow quirked as he took in her bedraggled appearance, she shrugged. "I'll dry up on the way. I would never turn down a chance at ice cream."
He frowned a bit, scratching at his head, then finally shrugged. "What the hell. Why not." He turned to go.
She made to follow then paused, looking down at the hem of the coat dragging already in the sand. "Your coat is getting dirty," she said somewhat reluctantly, already dreading handing it back to him.
He glanced at her, then shrugged. "You're not gonna get it dirtier than it already has been, Princess." He continued on, sand crunching beneath his feet, and she gave one last longing glance at the sea before following him.
NOW
Kairi sat on the lone bench in the woman's locker of the Seventh Heaven. It was a small room, tiled floor to ceiling with dirty grouted sand tiles and a row of blue scratched lockers lining one wall, towels hanging sporadically from open doors. Aside from the lone fluorescent bulb that occasionally flickered above, there was a small window in the hall that led to the showers, allowing moonlight to beat out the shadows.
For the moment, Kairi was alone, freshly showered and dressed in sweats, her wet hair clinging to her neck. A half used writing pad sat in her lap, a pen cap clipped to the old sheets at the top. The blank page stared back at her, spotted with droplets from her dripping hair.
She tapped an index finger on the page, then moved to pull the pen out, removing the cap with her teeth. She wrote the word Dear slowly at the top and then stopped.
She was still contemplating the page when she was startled by a clearing of the throat. She looked up to find the pink haired regular-whose name she still hadn't caught-standing there, shiny with sweat and a towel over her shoulder. She pointed at the locker next to Kairi's. "Do you mind if I squeeze by?"
"Oh, of course." Kairi leaned back, moving her bag out of the way, and the woman stepped by and moved to sit on the other end of the bench, opening the locker two down from hers.
Aside from greetings and casual conversations-from what Kairi remembered, the woman was training for some kind of marathon-they had never really talked, although it was more lack of opportunity than anything. Crossing paths on the way to the showers made it difficult to strike up conversation and the locker room was also far too small to linger for long. Kairi capped the pen and smoothed a hand over the lettered dear for a moment. When she caught the eye of the strawberry-blonde glancing curiously over to her, Kairi smiled. "Nice run?"
The woman nodded. "Hit 15k today without feeling like dying." She gathered her shower things under an arm and Kairi thought the conversation was over, until she added hesitantly, "Are you a writer?"
Kairi blinked in confusion at first, then gestured at the pad. "Oh, this? No, nothing so fancy," she said, as the woman stood, fresh towel in hand, "I sometimes write letters."
"Letters, huh?" The woman put a hand to her chin. "Most people don't do that these days. Sounds nice." Then she eyed the thick number of pages rolled over the top of the writing pad. "You ever send them?"
Kairi smiled faintly, shaking her head. "No. They're mainly for me."
The woman nodded. Then she held out her hand, "I'm Claire, by the way. Figured it was time I introduced myself."
She shook her hand. "Kairi. Was thinking the same."
They parted ways after that, Claire to the showers and Kairi packing up her writing pad and slinging her gym bag over her shoulder. She made her way mindlessly to the front of the gym, nodding at the few regulars still hanging around.
She was passing by the weight rack when she spotted a familiar figure: a tall man, tanned skin and a shaved head, wrapping up his hands with tape at the punching bag. She slowed her steps, hesitating. Today he was without the sunglasses he wore normally all the time, indoors and outdoors, day and night, much to the general teasing of his coworkers. The gym was probably the only place he ever took them off. He also hadn't noticed her yet.
They weren't exactly close, especially given how fractured her friends group had become after her last break up, but they were still friendly. She tucked her hair behind her ear, then made her way over. "Hey Rude."
Rude looked up from inspecting his hands. "Oh. Hey." He made a motion to adjust glasses that weren't there before he caught himself and rubbed the back of his head instead. Kairi suppressed a grin. "Heading out?"
"Yeah, just had a session with Elena." Her kickboxing instructor, who Rude had actually introduced her to. "She kicked my ass, as usual."
Rude nodded, and though he didn't smile, she got the vague hint of amusement in the crinkle of his eyes. He stepped a bit closer, picking up his glasses on the bench and holding them in one hand, though he didn't put them on. "She is a hard ass."
They chatted briefly about his training. Rude did muay thai and so normally went to a dedicated dojo, but occasionally she ran into him here when he was trying to get extra training in, usually in preparation for a tournament. Nice, safe topics that she was honestly interested in, curious about the world beyond casual fitness classes now that she'd been taking exercise more seriously these last months. It helped that Rude was easy to talk to, always had been.
Rude glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's dark out. Can I walk you to the bus?"
"Aren't you going to work out now?" she pointed out. When he shrugged, she rolled her eyes. "First Vincent, now you. I'll be fine, it's just down the street."
Never mind that a heartless had attacked her on that very same walk recently- but no one needed to know that. She'd taken care of herself, hadn't she?
Kairi was about to turn away when she noticed Rude fiddling with his sunglasses. He was a pretty soft spoken guy, and he usually didn't fidget. She paused, curious despite herself. "What's up?"
He grimaced a little and seemed to mull his words over carefully, not looking at her. Then he scratched the back of his head. "He wants to see you."
Kairi slowly straightened, her mouth tucking down. There was no need to specify who he was. "I don't want to see him."
He shrugged. "I told him that. Just thought you should know." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "He's being a pain in the ass right now."
Kairi frowned. She had been the one that prodded him to speak, so she couldn't blame him for bringing it up, but she didn't know what else to add. When the awkward silence lingered, Rude sighed and waved a hand at her, turning to the punching bag.
"I'm not trying to meddle. Take it as you will. Have a good night, Kairi."
She contemplated that as she made her way out of the gym, waving goodbye at Vincent who was busy helping a newbie with the equipment. When she stepped out through the doors, the cold air on her wet hair made her shiver, wishing she'd brought a hat or a hoodie instead of a track suit. She made to hop down the steps when she was stopped short at the sight of someone idly leaning against a lamp post, the light illuminating only the slouched profile and what could have been a toothpick perched in his mouth.
Someone with red hair.
Kairi's blood froze. For a second, she thought it was Reno.
But then the door slammed shut behind her, and when the person turned towards the sound, light from the lamppost illuminating the parts of his face that were in shadow, she realized it was Axel.
Their eyes met across the sidewalk. There must have been some look on her face, because Axel's face creased a little. What she could now see was a cigarette bobbed from his mouth. He made his way over to her, hands in his pockets. He had his black trench coat unbuttoned for once, and underneath he was wearing a pair of black sweats and one of the short sleeved t-shirts from her dresser. Not only was he barely dressed for the cold weather, but the shirt was very tight across the chest, forcing Kairi to avert her eyes, shifting on her feet.
"Yo," he said, stopping at the bottom of the steps. "What's wrong?"
"Hi," she said, not moving. "Nothing. What are you doing here?"
His eyes narrowed unconvinced, but he didn't say anything, just stubbed his cigarette out on the stone railing. "This is where we saw that little heartless bastard, right?" At her hesitant nod, he squinted across the street. "Thought I'd do a little reconnaissance."
She checked her watch. 8 o'clock. "It's Saturday," she deadpanned.
"Exactly. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Then he smiled, all teeth. "Wanna come?"
"What?"
He took one step up the stairs, practically already eye level with her even though she was several steps above. How she could have mistaken him for Reno was suddenly beyond her. "We're just gonna have a look around, no big deal. Plus, you don't have work tomorrow, right?" His eyes tracked up and down her for a moment, and then he smirked, beckoning her with a finger. "Doesn't look like you're busy."
She scowled a little, willing down a blush even as she took a few steps down so that she was only a little shorter than him for once. "Right now? My hair is wet. And I have my bag."
"I can take care of both." He held out a hand for the bag, and after a long suspicious stare, she handed it to him. Her suspicions were proved founded when a small black portal popped open behind him and he chucked her bag right through it.
She gasped. Her bus pass! Her keys!
"Axel!" She gaped at the spot where the portal had been, then back down only to find he had walked away a few paces to look down the street, eyebrows narrowed as he searched for something. She hurried to catch up, looking around hastily and hissing, "You can't just-what about World Order-"
"You lecturing me, Princess?" He said absently, reaching without looking to pat her head and chuckling when she smacked his arm away. "What do you care about World Order these days, anyway?"
She frowned. "That's true, but..."
"Don't worry your pretty little head, I got it all taken care of," he soothed, ignoring her sputtered protest at his word choices as he continued to scan the area around them. His face lit up when he spotted a dark alleyway. "There we go." Two fingers snagged on her elbow. "This way please."
Without a bus pass, she couldn't very well go home now, could she? She let him drag her off the street, peering bewildered first behind them, then down the alley that he took only a couple steps into before stopping. "Why are we-"
When she looked back at him, it was to see Axel take a step directly into her space, eyes half lidded, both hands reaching out to cup her face.
Kairi's mind went white. Thankfully her body moved instinctively, backpedalling so hard she smacked directly into the brick wall behind her. To her horror, Axel merely followed, tutting softly, and oh my god what was happening. At the very last minute, her hands snapped up, grabbing his wrists just before his palms made contact with her cheeks. "Uhh-what are you doing?" she stammered, voice cracking high and unflattering.
Axel's expression was practically bored. "Trying to dry your hair. What did you think I was doing?" When she just stared at him flabbergasted, his nose wrinkled just a little, green eyes dancing-he was fucking messing with her, wasn't he?-but he continued without smiling. "Now stand still and relax. This next part is tricky."
Relax. Kairi bit her tongue and went rigid as an ice popsicle as Axel's hands continued their course, past her jawline and ears to cradle the back of her head. When his fingers began to card through the wet strands, Kairi jerked her chin down, fighting to suppress the head rush of tingles down her spine. She stared at a small stain near the rib cage of his shirt, barely breathing as she felt the skin of his palms bloom with sudden heat not dissimilar to a flat iron. When warm wafts of steam began to curl around her ears and nape, she gaped, stunned at both what was happening and the magnitude of control he must have over his flames. Holy shit.
Her hands were still clinging to his wrists. She tightened her grip on them reflexively, licking her lips. "You better not burn my hair. Again."
He hummed, fingers questing towards the top of her head. "Wouldn't dream of it."
They stood like that for several minutes, him running his hands through her hair. It was hypnotic, the rasp of his fingers over her scalp, and her eyes began to half lid closed before she jumped at the lightning sensation of his nails faintly scratching the cap of her skull. She jerked her head up then, glaring. "Axel."
He cracked a faint smile. "Just seeing if you were awake." His hands slowly fell away from her as he took a step back, cocking his head to survey his work. There was still a single wet strand clinging to her forehead, and when he noticed, he reached forward, pinching it between two fingers. As the strand slid over his knuckle, he curled it slightly around his finger, steam drifting up like the smoke from his cigarettes, until the end slid free and bounced softly against her cheek.
His eyes met hers, gleaming like broken glass shards from the light of the street lamps, and she swallowed dryly. A long lingering moment, his eyes flitting over her face. When he finally took a step back, it felt like the air returned to her lungs in a rush.
"There," he said casually. "Better?"
Clearing her throat, she reached up and touched her hair, marveling at that fact that it was indeed dry and soft to the touch. For a moment she didn't know what to say other than, "You can't do that again, you'll damage it."
He scoffed. "Give me more credit. I know what I'm doing." Then he put his hands in his pockets and grinned at her. "So. Any other excuses?"
If Kairi was a smarter girl, she'd have had a witty retort. Instead she only said, "I better get my keys back."
"In due time," he winked, and beckoned her to follow him into the dark.
THEN
She found Axel hiding in the shelter of tall golden grass, the pages of his paperback book obscuring his face.
Kairi made her way over to him, pausing at his feet. A breeze whispered through the grasses, tugging rampant, flyaway hairs from behind her ears.
Axel looked asleep. His long legs were crossed at the ankle, his arms resting limp at his sides. She watched as the feathery grass stalks gently tickled the palm of his upturned hand. His fingers twitched, a murmur from under the book as it tilted away from her, then nothing but the gentle rise of his chest. Several sun damaged pages gently flicked against his cheek.
Kairi looked up at the blazing afternoon sun a moment, then crouched where she was beside him. The flat fields disappeared into an ocean of gold, pierced by the occasional green weed and peeks of the corn-blue sky. Shielded from the wind, she could hear the creak of stalks rubbing together, smell the thick, loamy soil. She closed her eyes, listening to the gentle susurrus.
"Nice down here, isn't it?"
She looked over to him. His gloved hand lifted to the book, a single finger pushing the bottom of the spine up just enough that she could see the glimmer of green eyes from the shadows. He was smirking at her.
Kairi sniffed. "Pretending to nap?"
He hummed noncommittally. The book lowered again, his hands folding over his stomach in a parody of restfulness. "Why, trying to catch me unawares? Murder me in my sleep?"
Kairi snorted. The likes of her actually catching Axel unaware was preposterous. She tucked her knee under her chin. "Would it even work? You're like a cockroach."
The book wobbled a moment, a bark of laughter that made her jump. "Now you're getting it, girlie," he said humorously. "I have never been more pleased to be compared to vermin. Now if only some other fellas would take a hint and stop trying to do me in."
"Can you blame them?" she grumbled, picking flaky little leaves off a yellow stalk in front of her. "You're not a very nice person."
He was full on grinning now. "I am really starting to like you, Princess."
Her face heated unexpectedly. "Aren't you supposed to be fake-sleeping?"
He chuckled, sitting up and pulling the book off his face. "I wouldn't dare be so predictable." To her surprise, he didn't move to stand, just shifted to rest an elbow on a knee, book dangling from his hand. His thumb held a place in the book open and she spotted some colored highlights on the text. She wondered if he'd been actually reading, or if they were annotations from the previous owner.
Kairi examined the book cover. Four characters walked across a yellow paved road. A girl pointing to something out of the image, a funny looking scarecrow, a metal man with an axe, and an enormous lion. She had no idea how any of those could fit together in a story.
"What's it about?" she found herself asking.
"Hmm?"
She pointed. "Your book."
He looked down, then tapped the open book lightly on his chin, lips pursed. "A girl with a dog gets carried off by a tornado," he said after a moment. "Ends up in a magical world and goes on adventures."
"Really?" she said. At his raised eyebrow, she continued, "I didn't think you read stuff like that."
He winked at her. "To be fair, I was hoping for less skipping arm in arm and more trysts behind the wood shed." At her scandalized look, he grinned. "What kind of books do you expect to find in the bargain bin of a street stall? Fine literature?"
He was baiting her. "Well then why'd you keep it?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. It makes for a nice hat." She tried not to gape. "And there are some good lines here or there."
That was slightly better. "Well is it entertaining, at least?"
He eyed her. "I guess. The main heroine is supposed to be normal, but she's actually the strangest of the them all getting so involved with suspicious characters. In another book, it could have gone very poorly for her."
She nibbled on her thumbnail. She'd known several suspicious characters in her short life, case in point the one in front of her. But even Axel had a soft side, even if it was pretty much only for Roxas. "If you never take a chance, you never give people the opportunity to surprise you. Maybe she was just giving them theirs."
Axel blinked at her, expression odd. He opened his mouth, then shut it with a click, his eyes sliding away from her like water in oil. "Sure," he said easily. "In children's fairytales."
She frowned. "In real life too."
"Maybe for princesses." He stretched his arms above his head, giving a jaw cracking yawn. "The rest of us will have to settle with living our fantasies through fiction."
The clear disinterest in his face signaled the conversation was over. Time to beat a retreat. Kairi got to her feet. "I'm going to go train," she sighed.
"By the way..." Axel's voice stopped her. "What do you think about when you're trying to summon it?"
Kairi paused. Axel was still sitting unmoving in the golden grass, book resting on his knee, though his eyes trained on her had a rare seriousness.
She stared at him warily. "What?"
"Your keyblade." He held up his hand, brow furrowed. After a moment, in a mirage like flicker of heat, Flame Liberator appeared in his hands. He whirled it, then opened his palm, and as it fell it quickly disappeared. He leaned forward on his knee, tapping his head. "I'm asking what you are thinking of when you try."
She had been prepared to blow him off, but his demonstration made her grudgingly face him. He had never been serious about sharing information with her before. She stared down at her own grass stained hand. "A weapon," she said quietly. "To protect my friends." Axel hummed, but his expression was skeptical. Her eyebrows narrowed. "Do you disagree?"
Axel shrugged. "No, at least not the first part. That is certainly what it is to me." An awkward pause, his eyes probing hers. It made her uncomfortable. "Is that what it is to you?"
She fell silent. It felt like a trick question. "I said it, didn't I?" Then, "I don't get why it matters."
He frowned. "The keyblade chooses the master. The keyblade chose you. Of course what you think matters." When she only gave him a guarded look, Axel sighed, rubbing his head.
"Kairi," he said with enough impatience that it took her a moment to realize he had called her by her name. "I'm not going to pretend like I know you well. But are you really doing all of this just for a weapon?" Then without anymore preamble, he lay back down and rolled over with his back to her, the book covering his face once more.
Kairi stared at his prone form for an embarrassingly long minute, then started to walk away. She got a few feet before her steps slowed, then stopped altogether. She turned her gaze back to her hand.
The heart, she remembered Merlin telling her, can not be tricked. It does not work through reasoning or logic, but feels what it feels. In a way, the keyblade too cannot be tricked, as it knows the heart. And the keyblade chooses its master.
Kairi slowly clenched her fist, thinking about the question Axel was really asking.
What kind of keyblade would come to a heart like hers?
Kairi closed her eyes and thought, for the first time in a long while, about the keyblade inheritance ceremonies of the long past. She'd read the text in one of Merlin's old books and it had resonated with her ever since.
In your hand, take this Key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend-no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.
She remembered thinking about the lovely image in those words. How in her own path as a keyblade wielder there would be countless doors that she needed to open to get to her friends. And how now, finally, she had the key.
This time, when Kairi called to her keyblade, the warm metal that materialized in her hand felt like coming home.
She gasped quietly, opening her eyes to the familiar green spirals of Destiny's Embrace. Her hand trembled.
"Axel," she said faintly. No response. Her head snapped up to find him still pretending to nap. She moved quickly towards him. "Axel!"
He grumbled loudly, flipping on to his back and moving to grab the book from his face. "What now? If it wasn't clear, I was trying to-"
He visibly jumped, book falling to the ground when she dropped to her knees next to him. He was in the middle of sitting up, eyes wide, when she thrust her keyblade in his face. "Axel!" She whispered, eyes wild with delight.
He looked cross-eyed at the keyblade, then back at her grinning face.
"Well damn," he said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I guess it starts for real now, huh?"
NOW
Reconnaissance, as it turned out, was incredibly boring.
It mostly consisted of sitting on the fire escapes of old buildings and watching for creepy crawlies skulking in the unseen corners. Apparently Kairi's encounter with the last heartless was the exception to the rule-on worlds like Destiny Islands, with the heart of the world locked tight once more by a keyblade master, the few heartless that remained were vagabonds or strays that didn't bother to come out anywhere near where people frequented, and certainly not try to fight them.
"Why that one then?" she asked, kicking her feet over the edge of the railing as Axel stood beside her, leaning against the rail. He'd pulled out another cigarette not long ago although he hadn't lighted it yet, just flipped it agilely between his fingers like a pen trick.
"I dunno," he said. "You sure you aren't doing something?"
She shook her head slowly. "I haven't seen a heartless in years, not since you came. I'm not-" Her fingers tightened just a little on the metal, "-I don't have a keyblade. And I'm no longer a princess of the heart."
"Hmm." Axel flicked his thumb and a flame lit up the dark, casting shadows on his face. "Does that mean you aren't a virgin anymore or something?"
Kairi nearly catapulted off the railing. "What? No!" At the raised eyebrow he sent her, she scrambled to her feet, wishing for the first time in five years that she could summon a keyblade just to hit him. Sensing her intention, Axel immediately pivoted away from her and headed down the stairs, forcing her to follow. "No as in it has nothing to do with that kind of thing," she sputtered. "It means that the last time I went to Hollow Bastion, the door at the world's heart didn't glow. Yen Sid told us, remember? No one can-"
"-can stay that pure hearted forever," he finished for her, and then sighed dramatically, stepping down to the street and turning back to hold a hand out for her. "Still not seeing where I'm wrong here."
"Oh just shut up," she grumbled, rubbing her arms at the biting chill. "Are we finally done now?" It had been an hour and a half since they'd left the gym and it was a Saturday for god's sake. And wet hair or not, it was still cold.
"Someone's grumpy," he said, wiggling his fingers until she took his hand and hopped down, splashing a puddle onto his coat hem. Served him right. "Do you want a snack?"
"I want my bag," she said.
"All right, all right, I hear you. Have you eaten dinner yet?" When she shook her head, he steered her out to the street, his fingers hot spots on her back until they came out under the street lights and he stepped away to walk into the nearest convenience store.
The store was surprisingly busy for the time of night-a group of teenagers huddled down one of the snack aisles, an old lady toddling next to the open fridges. The bored man chewing gum at the register didn't give them a second glance as Axel strolled with easy familiarity to the back of the store where the chilled food stuffs would be-which was a little weird, now that she thought about it. Both that no one gave a guy in a trench coat a second glance, and also that Axel clearly new his way around a convenience store.
"So," Kairi began as she watched Axel ponder the selection of bentos in an open fridge. He took up a large portion of the aisle even crouched as he was and people were forced to skirt around them, eying them both. "I take it you are getting money somewhere doing something?"
"What makes you think that?" he asked as he picked up a plastic carton and inspected the contents.
"Do you have an exhaustive supply of cigarettes stashed somewhere?" she pointed out.
He flashed her a grin, picking up a second carton. "You'd be surprised."
He hadn't answered the question, she noticed. She was bordering on being nosy, but to be honest she had started to wonder what his plans were. If he had plans at all. It was hard to tell with him. Sometimes she thought he had never made a plan in his life. And then, just because he was so clearly urging people to believe so, that the exact opposite must be true. His inability to be pinned down had not changed in the slightest.
Case in point, as he dangled like bait in front of her, "Don't worry, I've set aside a little compensation for letting me stay at your place."
"Uh, no. I don't want it," she shot back. He merely hummed, moving down the section. She followed. "I mean it, Axel."
"Que sera sera," he called over his shoulder in singsong, which wasn't the least comforting. She mentally took note to watch out for any wads of cash stuffed in her couch cushions.
Kairi nearly walked right into Axel's back as he suddenly paused at the beer selection, rubbing his jaw. She swerved to the side at the last moment, then jumped at the grunt of an annoyed man that she'd clearly cutoff. She hastily stepped aside, and he passed with a huff.
As Axel pondered the wares, Kairi fiddled with the hem of her track suit, searching for another topic. She realized slowly as she stared at his profile, that this was perhaps the first time since he'd started staying with her that they were specifically spending time together. With work and somewhat odd schedules, they too often passed each other by in the hallway. At meals, Axel rarely talked about himself. She ventured tentatively, "So aside from prowling around rooftops and the like, how are things going?"
His finger tapped on the glass door. "Going?"
She glanced absently down the aisle and caught two young teens peering at them from the end caps. Or more specifically, at Axel's tall profile. One whispered and the other giggled. Kairi quickly faced forward, ducking her head. "How is everything else going?" She gestured vaguely. "You know, outside of this. Your life."
He looked at her then, expression surprised. It took her a second to realize that she'd never asked before. Guilt roiled in her gut.
"How are things going?" Axel mused, turning to inspect the label of a beer brand she'd never tried. She marveled at how he was managing to hold the two large bentos and a small bag of hot potato chips in his other hand. "I think...things are moving along nicely." He put the beer back and glanced back where they'd come. "What are you in the mood for?"
What was moving along nicely? She bit her tongue. She wasn't really hungry at the moment, but saying so would be embarrassing at this point. "I'll take a rice bowl, please."
She trailed after him chewing her lip as he picked a second container and continued down the aisle and around the corner. So personal life was clearly a no go. She tried not to feel disappointed about that. "So about the-" she stopped. Old habits died hard. "So about the tin men..."
His hand paused on the door to the ice cream section. She caught several quick flashes of emotion in his profile, though the pervading feeling was one of amusement.
She waited a beat. "You know, the-"
"I know," he interrupted, lips twitching. He looked like he was suppressing laughter for some reason. "I'mthe one who read the book, if you recall."
She arched an eyebrow. "Oh, you actually read it, did you?" He turned away with a roll of his eyes, but not before she saw a smile crack across his face. She pursued him down the next aisle.
"Don't judge me," he said in a lofty tone. "I'm a slow reader."
She shook her head. "Reading slow is fine. Did you ever go beyond the first few chapters?"
He put a hand over his heart. "I tried, though it was difficult when there was this little duckling constantly following me around all the time."
The laughter in his voice gave her pause. She stopped in the middle of the walk way and looked at her surroundings for the first time. She frowned at the row of cosmetic creams and beauty supplies. "Why are we in this aisle?"
He turned to face her and mimed a bang and smoking gun. When she wrinkled her nose at him, he chuckled. "I was going to see if you'd follow me into the adult magazine section next."
She sniffed. "You aren't that funny, you know."
He grinned at that and took a step forward, plopping his free hand on her head so he could lean down to her level. His eyes were teasing. "Course I am. Got it memorized?"
She swallowed, mouth dry, momentarily distracted by the proximity of his yellow flecked green eyes. When the silence got too long, she back peddled quickly, pulling away and clearing her throat. "One day your overconfidence is going to get you into trouble."
His arm fell to his side as he cocked his head at her, green traitorous eyes assessing. Then he brushed past her towards the registers, tousling her hair. "Already has," he said, deceptively casual, except something about the way his carding fingers lingered just a little before he dropped his hand reminded her of the scene a few hours before and had her flush to her hairline.
Kairi blinked at the floor as his footsteps echoed away, heart pounding in her ears and feeling like that stupid, overreacting teenager she thought she'd left behind. How could so much time have passed and yet it still feel like so little had changed?
An old lady nearby muttered, "Kids these days."
That brought her back to reality. Kairi took a deep breath and then trotted after Axel with a hasty, "Let me pay for those."
