Author's Note: As of the posting of this chapter (01/24/21) I made some necessary revisions to chapter 3 and 4 to smoothen the plot and pacing going forward. If you had read the chapters prior, I would strongly suggest at least revisiting both chapters. Sorry for any confusion, but this should be the last of the major changes to the story. Hope you enjoy!


Tin Men

Chapter Five


NOW

It happened in an instant. One minute she was rounding the corner of the convenience store aisle searching for Axel's tall profile, the next the fluorescent lights above blinked out. Kairi stumbled to a halt, hand falling to the nearest metal rack as several voices shouted in alarm. There was a weird disorienting moment as Kairi glanced quickly out the window to where the street lamps and the lights of the other buildings were still glowing cheerily. What was going on?

She heard the snap of fingers, followed by a pulsing hum roll out from the source of the noise, washing over her and making her skin prickle uneasily. Magic. And just like that, there was the crash of people knocking food stuffs on the floor as they all mad dashed to the entrance. Someone scrambled past in the dark beside her and she heard a yelp as another person bumped into the stacks. Kairi swiftly turned back to help the person-the old lady from earlier, who had fallen to a cower in the aisle.

"Are you all right?" she asked, the lights from outside just visible enough to catch the flash of relief in the old woman's face. She had just leveraged the woman to her feet, however, when a sound like crunching metal ricochetted from the back of the store. The two froze, the old lady's eyes meeting hers wide and silver before she too fled towards the front, leaving Kairi behind.

She would have run too, if not for the low familiar hiss that set the fine hairs on her neck standing on end. Lump in her throat, Kairi turned slowly towards the back of the store.

Small yellow eyes bobbed back at her from the dark.

At first she thought it was a small thing. But then it blinked, shuddering as its body peeled from out of the shadow plane into the real world, its pinprick eyes rising higher, higher, higher, nearing the top of the store ceiling. The shadow of its body ballooned out into a round chest and large meaty arms, cracking the glass doors behind it from the force of the expansion.

Kairi stared frozen, unable to move. The heartless from the other night had been terrifying enough, but this one was somehow larger, close enough she could smell that acrid tang of burning tar that she had never quite forgotten.

Then the thing began to stamp its feet.

Kairi had only a few seconds to throw herself out of the way when the heartless charged head first to where she had stood and hit the metal wrack like a cannon. The sound was not unlike a clap of thunder as the metal immediately buckled, chip bags and cartons popping and flying everywhere. She stumbled back and caught herself against a wall as the thing fell on to its belly, howling in fury and pain that had every instinct in her screaming to bolt.

"Well this was not what I had in mind for dinner." Axel was suddenly at her elbow, a black portal writhing behind him. His trench coat was zipped up and his face was flat as he stared at the creature. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder without looking. "Take the portal, it'll lead you out of here."

She looked at the creature as it began to roll to its feet. A memory surfaced slowly in her mind, like picking at a scab, a picture of the creatures armored chest and then its softer, exposed spine. Her sweaty hands trembled and she moved to wipe them on her pants. "It's weakness is it's back, right?"

Axel's teeth clicked. "What does that matter-," he started, but one look at her face made him cut off, grimacing. Then he rolled his shoulders, turning to face the creature. "Fine. Aim for the legs."

In response, her hands began to glow a pale turquoise.

When the heartless lurched fully to its feet with a bellow, they both moved. Her palms slammed into the ground the same time as he kicked the nearest rack down with a mighty crash, forcing the creature to catch it or risk being caught beneath. There was a rumble, the sound of pipes in the walls creaking, and then several jet streams of water burst towards the heartless from multiple directions. The large body spun like a top and was immediately swept onto it's back just as Axel stalked forward through the spray and grabbed its face with one hand.

Fire exploded upward from his palm like a flamethrower, licking the ceiling in a conical funnel. The creature writhed, arms tossing, a high pitch scream that had Kairi falter, the blue glow puttering from her finger tips and the water jets fizzling to a trickle. But the fire kept blazing until all that was left was the moan like crackling glass of the dying heartless and Axel's expressionless face, illuminated by his own flames, as he pulped its beady eyes with his fist.

It was over in an instant, the body collapsing like a popped balloon into a puddle on the ground. And then, just like that, the fluorescent lights flickered back on, revealing a completely destroyed store, pipes bursting from walls, black tar splattered everywhere, and a silent Axel standing in the middle of it all. The patrons that had been in the store had fled long ago.

Axel stared at the dark puddle for a long moment. He wasn't smiling, but something about the remoteness in his expression sent a familiar thread of unease through her. When he suddenly raised his hand, she flinched just a little, then covered it by folding her hands in her lap.

Axel's eyes flicked to hers at the movement, but he didn't say anything as his thumb and third finger snapped together. His hand glowed gold as a pulse echoed through the room, warm and familiar. A spell of returning she realized, the twin to the magic she had sensed when the lights first shut off. She had seen Merlin use the spell countless times to return objects to their original place after an unexpected scuffle or a particularly raucous tea party. It would take a few hours, perhaps, but by morning the place would be as it had been.

So that was how he'd been mitigating damage during fights. She breathed out a shaky sigh. Donald would have a heart attack if he knew Axel was throwing those kind of spells around. And he clearly knew what he was doing, given his reaction time.

Speaking of which. "I thought you couldn't attack those kind of heartless from the front," she asked, breaking the silence.

He shrugged, making his way over to her. "Always go for the eyes first. If it doesn't kill them, it will at least do some damage." He stopped a few feet away, not close enough to touch, and his eyes seemed greener than they had been before as he looked down at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She clambered to her feet slowly, wincing a little at a scrape on her forearm she hadn't noticed in the rush. He noticed and frowned.

"Sorry."

She shook her head. "I wasn't going to leave you to fight it alone." She put a hand over her scratched arm, as she glanced back at the remains. Its final cries echoed hauntingly in her mind. "Even if I am out of practice."

His next words stopped her in her tracks. "Why is that exactly?"

Her brow furrowed in confusion. He continued, "You said as much, but I guess I had a hard time believing it." His green eyes felt heavy on her. "So you really don't use a keyblade anymore?"

She looked at him slowly. "No. Destiny's Embrace is still somewhere in the graveyard. There were others but well..." she took a breath. "Nothing ever fit quite the same."

Silence.

She could see the start of a question in his eyes, felt it like a rising tide lapping at the base of her throat. But what he said next wasn't what she was expecting. "Mine too."

"What?"

"My keyblade got damaged by Xehonort." He rubbed the back of his head. "After awhile, it just stopped coming around."

They stood there in silence, two former guardians of light who in the end barely made a difference at all. What a joke.

Kairi rubbed her arms in the cold air-conditioned room and abruptly changed the subject, flashing him a weak smile. "I know you said that heartless attacking is not the norm, but you sure do seem to attract a lot of trouble, Axel."

His green eyed stare on her profile was intense, and yet his only response was a faint curve of his lips that like hers, also did not reach his eyes. "So it seems."


For the first time since he'd started staying with her, it got awkward. For the life of her, Kairi could not figure out how to move past it.

To his credit, it wasn't anything Axel was overtly doing. He was lounging on the couch at the moment, watching a string of terrible comedy romance movies since she'd got up this morning. She'd have thought nothing of it if he hadn't been tapping his fingers constantly on his knee to some unheard tune. After her first attempt to engage him in conversation fizzled, she held her tongue and went about her weekend chores, but there was only so much she could do wandering around her apartment with out feeling like she was hovering.

Everyone needed time alone, and Axel didn't even have the luxury to close a door like she did. She'd never thought her apartment as particularly small, but as the morning wore on, she found herself swapping her pajamas for jeans and a turtle neck and heading towards the door.

She was in the hall putting on her parka when she heard Axel get up off the couch. He paused on his way to the kitchen upon seeing her in the hall, gripping the corner of the wall with one hand. His eyebrows raised. "Going out?"

Kairi picked up her thick red scarf, holding it in her hands. "Yeah. Was going to pick up a few things. Get some fresh air." She debated with herself for a moment whether to bother asking, but did anyway, flashing him a quick smile. "Wanna come?"

His green eyes met hers, then flashed away. He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm good. Enjoy yourself."

She was expecting it, but the disappointment that flashed through her was aggravating all the same. She hid it by busying herself wrapping her scarf around her neck, feeling his stare in the awkward silence. When she glanced back up, trying to adjust the scarf so the manufacture tag didn't scratch, Axel was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and his eyes felt like lasers under her skin.

His lips quirked just a little, skating over her form. "Warm enough?"

"Not every one is a natural furnace," she said, and then rummaged in her jean pocket for her keys. She opened the door, then hesitated only briefly on the threshold, and threw over her shoulder. "You look tired. Maybe get some rest?"

He didn't say anything though she heard the faint thump of a head hitting the wall as she closed the door behind her. Her hand lingered a little on the door knob, but then she took a step away, letting the metal slip through her fingers. Wrapping her red scarf more securely around her face, Kairi headed down the stairs and stepped out into the late winter morning.

Her apartment complex was one of a series of dirty buildings all in shades of white and brown that went for several blocks. Across the street was a bare wire fence and the trench of the public transport line that stretched as far as the eye could see, a valley of crossed wires and rails between hills dotted with dead grass and melting ice.

There hadn't been snowfall for a few weeks, which was a good sign that the harshest parts of winter were over, though you never really knew when it came to the weather here. Unlike her hometown several hundred miles to the south, Destiny City was practically a different climate. Today the sky wasn't cloudy per se and yet not really a blue so much as a pale grey, casting every telephone pole or distant tree in stark relief.

She walked the cracked sidewalk, breath pluming in the air, and made her way a few blocks to the nearest park. Very few kids lived in the area and so it was almost always abandoned, just a flat tarmac with a faded yellow slide, the dirty plastic spinning seat that reminded her of the whirling, dancing teacups from Wonderland, and at the far end a set of empty swings.

The swings were wet with dew. She scrubbed one with the elbow of her parka and sat down, holding the cold chain in one hand. From her coat pocket she pulled out her beat up flip phone, the one her parents had got her right after she'd left home to come to the city and had never really bothered to upgrade. She flipped through the messages, noticing a flurry of random memes and forwarded chain text messages from Selphie that had her rolling her eyes. Her most recent message from Selphie was this morning with the eyebrow raising, How do you make scrambled eggs?

Rather than bother trying to painstakingly text her back, Kairi pushed the call button and waited, swinging herself idly with one foot.

Selphie picked up on the third ring. "Kairi!" What sounded like a cacophony of squeals and stampeding feet. "Dear god, save me from my family."

Kairi smiled slightly. "Whose visiting?" Selphie's family had a house in the city that she stayed at and was where initially Kairi stayed too until she found her own place.

Selphie growled. "Mom and Dad brought Rydia and the twins, then went off to do sightseeing a few hours ago." Kairi winced. "Breakfast was a pain, although we managed."

She heard a snort in the background, and then Selphie's muffled, "The eggs weren't that bad."

Kairi smiled. Selphie had an abnormally large family with two crazy in love parents and seven younger siblings. Compared to Kairi's small family unit of her and her adopted parents, it was about as different a family life as one could imagine, and yet the warmth and liveliness of the Tilmitt's had always warmed a soft, lonely part of her. With the end of the year coming soon, it sounded like it was going to b a raucous affair as usual.

"Do you need some help?" she asked. On years she couldn't make it home, it wasn't uncommon for her to spend holidays with Selphie's family.

"I'd say yes," Selphie said over the sound of the sink and clinking of dishes, "but not even I would force you to endure Palom going through his terrible sixes." The radio turned on in the background. "How's your weekend going so far?"

Kairi looked around the empty park. "Quiet right now."

"Sounds fantastic," Selphie grumbled. "Actually Kairi, do you mind if I call you later? I'm afraid if I'm not careful I'm going to-" her voice slid away suddenly, the sound of something falling into water, and then an aggravated scream.

The phone call ended.

Kairi looked at her phone, feeling simultaneously bad for having called but also trying not to laugh. What was this, the third time Selphie had dropped her phone in water this year? Amusement won out in the end as she sniggered into her scarf, stuffing her phone back into her parka and kicking her feet so that the swing she sat on creaked and swayed.

After awhile, she fell quiet, smile slipping from her as she listened to the sound of distant cars, the click of street lights, the few stray birds that made erratic calls. A train passed by, the hum of metal on metal, and she watched the flash of its windows from across the street until her hands were too cold to hold onto the chains and she stuffed them in her jacket pockets. Her right hand wrapped loosely around her phone.

She pondered calling her mom, but there wasn't really much to talk about, at least not anything she wanted to say at the moment. She had not told her parents that a friend was staying with her, mostly she didn't want them worrying about her. Telling them she had broken up with her boyfriend a few months ago had resulted in her father threatening to come to the city and her mother assuring her there would be other fish in the sea, and would you like me to make a few calls? I know this real nice boy from a good family in the neighborhood.

No, she'd told her mother, she did not want to meet a new person. She was perfectly fine being on her own.

Lips pressed flat, Kairi got up and headed to the local market.

An hour later, she was back at the apartment, juggling two heavy plastic bags in her arms as she opened the door. Her eyes flicked to Axel's boots near the door as she slipped her own shoes off-hadn't they been sitting on the other side of the hall?-but when she entered the living room, Axel looked like he'd hardly moved since she left, absorbed in what now looked like a spaghetti western.

"Hey," she said, dropping the bags on the floor next to the couch and flexing her hands to get feeling back in her fingers.

"Yo," he glanced up at her with an easy smile, and she felt her shoulders relax. She opened her mouth to ask him what he wanted for lunch when he added, "I think your phone went off while you were out."

She stopped. Her hand went to her pocket. "My phone?"

He nodded, then jerked a thumb towards her room. "Ring tone went off. Couldn't figure out where it was coming from though."

She stared at him, the thud of her pulse suddenly loud in her ears, then turned and went into her room. She heard him get up and drift into the door way of her room as she quickly opened the top drawer of her night stand and pulled out a gold and red device. The light of the device flickered on to the locked screen with it's obnoxiously on-the-nose heart and keyhole in the center.

"Ah." Axel leaned against the door jam. "Is that one of those gummy phones?"

She swiped in her passcode. 7671. "You don't have one?"

He shrugged. "Didn't think I needed one. If I need to talk to someone, I usually just go find them." A moment of awkward silence as they both paused, clearly thinking about his absence over the past years. He added, rubbing the back of his head, "I guess I should probably get one."

"Probably," she said generously. She opened the menu and flicked through the notifications til she found the one that had likely prompted the ring tone- she'd gotten a text. A brief surge of excitement twisted in her chest before she saw who it was from, and then her shoulders fell. Then she mentally berated herself for that response, guilt twinging her rib cage.

She glanced at Axel, who was looking at her curiously. "It's from Goofy. He sends updates every once in awhile." She skimmed through the message about the upgrades to the castle, about how Daisy and Minnie were doing well, about Max's progress as a knight following in the steps of his father. Then she winced a little. "Apparently...Donald has taken on his nephews as apprentices."

Axel snorted. "Well. Three guesses to what world I'll be avoiding for awhile."

She gave him a half hearted glare but didn't bother to disagree. He went back into the other room as she sat on the bed and typed out a response to Goofy for a few minutes. ...Glad to hear things are going well. I hope you are remembering to take care of yourself too...

A few minutes later, she sent the message off with a gentle ping, and then stared at the messages in her inbox, her eyes drifting down the short list. A few messages down below Goofy and Aerith was her conversations with Riku. She clicked on it, eyes skimming over their last few messages.

Kairi: Happy Birthday, Riku.

Kairi: Come home soon.

Riku: Thanks. Coming home soon.

She stared at the message thread, noting it had already been almost a month since their last exchange. Sometimes the gummy phones didn't always work across great distances. Sometimes there would be long stretches where the messages she sent to him were left unread for weeks, and then almost all at once, a flurry of four word responses from him to all her previous messages.

Calling was even worse. Sometimes she'd get through and it'd be as clear as if they were sitting next to each other, sometimes it was all static and they'd give up trying to talk after a few moments. The worst was when the ringing just went on forever and she waited too long before eventually hanging up.

The blank message box blinked at her. Her fingers moved of their own accord, typing the words How are you doing?

Then she deleted it, and put the phone back in the drawer.


THEN

The weird thing about time travel was that time both accelerated very fast and not at all. Days bled together into a long stream of worlds and sunsets and golden lettered instructions in a teapot journal, marked only when she paid attention to the length of her hair inching down her back. And lately, the stares.

Like today. She caught Axel giving her an odd look as she gave her keyblade a few practice swings. "What is it?"

He blinked, then rubbed the back of his head. "Uhh, nothing."

She frowned, balancing her keyblade on her hip. Sometime in the last few weeks, Axel had started this...staring thing. She didn't know how else to describe it. When he wasn't napping in the brush or beating her into a pulp in sparring matches, she'd find him with this perplexed expression, like she was a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit the picture, and it was too much like how he'd first treated her to not instantly set her on edge. The weird part though was, he didn't seem to realize he was doing it.

Thus far he'd been particularly evasive discussing whatever was going on in that brain of his. Battle was the only time she had his lucid attention, so after a minute she shrugged and leveled her keyblade at him.

At her expectant look, he groaned. "Again? Don't you get tired of being a teacher's pet?"

"No, and if you're not careful, I'll overtake you."

He snorted at that, even as he got to his feet, dusting off his knees. "I could fend you off in my sleep, pip squeak." He held up a careless hand and his own keyblade appeared in a whirl of fire, as easy as breathing these days. They were making good progress.

Kairi took a deep breath. When she blew out, she imagined the well of power inside her like a cup of water just slightly too full, held together by surface tension beneath her skin. She gripped the base of her keyblade in two hands, palms sweaty. "Ready?"

His hand outstretched towards her, two fingers beckoning. "Are you?"

As an answer, she took two running leaps and she swung her blade at him. Destiny's Embrace met the edge of Flame Liberator in a shower of gold and red, each keyblade pulsing and resonating upon contact. The well inside her skin shivered, gold sparks lighting up around her fingertips.

Axel parried the blow, driving her to the side one-handed. She landed on her feet, jumping back as he followed smoothly with a horizontal strike, flames sputtering in short bursts along the edges of his weapon that blew her hair back with billowing heat.

As she withdrew from his long reach, he stood up to his full height, all languid movements, spinning his keyblade with a flourish over his right shoulder once more. "Don't tell me that's all you got," he teased, and though his voice was lazy, his eyes were bright. At least he was looking at her now.

Kairi kept her eyes locked on his, keyblade pointed between them as she minutely adjusted the position of her blade, her hands, the width of her stance. Then with a burst of breath, she lunged towards him again, swinging low into his side.

They traded blows in the hot sun, dancing across the grassy plateau in a series of jabs, feints, and jumps. To a critical eye, it was all very basic. High strike, low strike, whirlwind finisher, rinse and repeat. It was all they'd been doing for awhile now at behest of Merlin's detailed instructions. Fancy keyblade transformations or tightly controlled aerial jumps were for the likes of Sora or Riku, not for the girl who'd summoned her keyblade a few short weeks before. Besides, with an opponent that was taller, stronger, and frankly more skilled, Kairi's goal was less about landing hits and more about maintaining a solid and defensible form.

For Axel, he was supposed to be working on maintaining fire to increasingly higher temperatures. Keyword, supposed to. He'd been getting bored with the rigidity of their routine, and with no heartless or nobodies to take it out on recently, it had started to bleed into their training.

When Axel was bored, he started to, for lack of a better word, play. Unnecessary flourishes and close calls, swings just a little too close for comfort, dodges at just the last second. When he started running his mouth, it was a sign to either beat a hasty retreat or get dragged into a game of cat and mouse that only left her steaming and him smug.

Today was no exception. One minute he was dutifully fending off her advances as their footwork carried them across the field. She'd snuck an uppercut under his guard that should have had him retreating-instead he suddenly flipped his weapon to his other hand. "Let's heat things up a bit, shall we?"

Kairi's eyes widened as his keyblade whipped down towards her exposed shoulder, and she jerked her blade to the left just in time, red sparks skating across her arm. She grunted when suddenly the full brunt of Axel's considerable weight was pressing down on her.

Her feet dragged in the dirt and she grit her teeth, muscles shaking with exertion, feeling herself slowly bending backward. Behind the lock of their blades, his grin was sudden and all teeth.

"Well, well, little girl," he said in a tone that had her nearly bite her tongue in temper, green eyes haloed in fire as his blade licked a searing kiss along her forearm, "You are getting better."

Kairi stomped her foot and ice exploded from the ground into a sharp halo of spikes. The pressure of him disappeared as he was forced to step back to avoid getting skewered.

Name calling was Axel's thing, a creative past time. She'd heard them all: Red, Dorothy, princess, doll face, goody-two shoes, teacher's pet, each one selectively chosen to get under her skin. To acknowledge him was to encourage him.

"Don't call me that," she heard herself say anyway.

He looked from the ice block to her. Something in her face made his eyes crinkle. He started to circle her, head cocked, and she was reminded of her one and only time in wonderland, the cheshire cat grinning at her in a dizzying revolution in the dark.

"Call you what? Little girl?" His blade traced her shape in the air. The condescension in his voice was galling. "You telling me you aren't? You'll have to prove it."

Kairi glared, heart beat picking up. Playing this game was stupid. Merlin would definitely not approve.

But the truth was, she was getting a little bored too.

Kairi threw out her hand and lightning skittered down her shoulder before bursting with a boom from her fingers, a blinding white arc that crackled everything in its path. It hit him like a thunderclap, his arms going up to block the brunt, and by the time the light dissipated, static clinging to his clothes and hair, she was already strafing, her foot steps glowing gold at every boosted jump.

"Now that's more like it," Axel cackled, and then he was charging her.

She kept him at a distance, knowing better than to fall into the trap of locking key blades a second time. Golden shotlocks ricocheted like bullets over grass and air, chasing him in a fireworks display as he dodged and rolled. She didn't have enough speed or control over them to hold off his approach, but a few timed gravity bombs to his face usually halted his momentum, giving her the needed breathing space. At least until he jumped back, hands glowing as pinwheels of fire winked into existence over his head.

"Two can play at that game," he sneered, and then it was Kairi's turn to dodge and slide as fireballs - the ground she stood on, leaving the grass in her wake instantly charred and black. A second volley of explosions had her feet stumbling a little, her own sweat-slick hair briefly obscuring her vision. He was on her instantly, weapon whizzing inches over her head, and then it was just the flash of their keyblades resonating in octaves down an invisible keyboard at every clash of their blades.

It was never going to last. The well in her was sputtering, her arms were shaking, and the sweat was stinging her eyes. All it took was a quick movement from him, too fast for her to catch, and then her keyblade flew from her hand, spinning into the dirt.

Immediately, her eyes glowed green. Vines erupted in the earth around him, tangling up his keyblade and dislodging it from his hand as they snaked up his limbs, but he merely tutted, a blast of fire from his skin forcing the vines to curl back, singed.

"You're gonna need something a little stronger than that to quench my flames, princess," he chuckled darkly, reaching to seize her wrist in the shackle of his hands.

Desperate, she threw the rest of her magic in a call to ice. It came to her in a whisper, unfurling in the center of her chest like a cracked crystal geode, her skin sheathing in blue frost and her breath a cold cloud.

His hand glowed fire, hers ice, and their fingers met in the middle.

What happened next was not magic, although it felt like it. The chilled condensed air dancing over her skin met his flash fire and superheated, expanding in explosive volume. She saw Axel's eyes widen before what felt like a firecracker exploded between them, an invisible shockwave that had her magic barrier zing into existence even as she was sent back pinwheeling to fall flat on her ass. Axel too was knocked back, driven to a knee, arm covering his eyes as ice formed white streaks along his face and hair.

When the dust settled, they found themselves looking at each other across a five foot crater split down the middle, the side nearest to him a sheet of ice, hers of sizzling black grass.

Kairi coughed, rubbing a sooty hand over her face, and then blinked at the ground. "Whoa."

Axel sat down abruptly at that, bits of ash and snow kicked up in a little cloud around him. His fingers touched the ice crystals on his face and then he whistled low. "That was..." he stopped, wincing, as his frozen skin pulled taught when he tried to speak.

She scrambled over to him on her hands and knees as if they hadn't just been at each other's throats minutes before. "That was amazing," she said, eyes shining. "Did you know that would happen?"

He glanced at her and then did a double take. Unease flitted across his face. "Uhh."

"What?"

Wordless, he gestured at her hair.

She looked down, blinking. Her outfit was trashed but more alarmingly, a large chunk of her hair and bangs were smoking, the tips still crackling a dull red. She yelped and clapped a hand on her head, patting at her hair frantically as Axel coughed a ball of fire and then began to steam, the remaining ice on his face boiling into water to darken and wilt the spikes of his hair.

He'd fried her half to a crisp. She'd nearly turned him into a sea salt ice popsicle. "Merlin's going to kill us." Kairi groaned.

Axel snorted, lifting a soggy strand of hair off his face. "He'll have to catch us first."

They looked at each other. And then Kairi burst into laughter. Axel's lips quirked, hair flopping back wetly as Kairi leaned over her knees and held her sides, wheezing.

It felt so good. It wasn't even that funny, but it just felt so good to laugh for once that soon tears started leaking down her cheeks.

Axel propped his chin on his hand, watching as she rolled over on to her back after a bit, the occasional giggle still erupting from her. "Not even sure what you're laughing about." He muttered, though he looked amused.

She wiped at her eyes and smiled up at him. "I was imagining what it must be like, being on the run from Merlin." She lifted a hand to block the light in her eyes, and then waggled her eyebrows. "You know, camping out all the time."

"Ah." Then he chuckled. "What a horrible thought."

"Lots of traveling between worlds."

"Having to carry our stuff around."

"Never visiting the same place twice."

"No refrigerator. No indoor plumbing."

"Training every day."

"No," he groaned. "No more training."

She giggled. "Every other day, then."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sounds like hell."

"Agreed," she squinted up at him. "Though, I guess if I must be stuck with a partner in crime, you're not so bad."

His eyes crinkled just a little. "Oh?" She felt the brush of his fingers against her hair haloed out on the grass.

"You have your uses," she teased.

He opened his mouth. "And you-" Then he blinked, mouth closing with a click. Their eyes snagged, green and blue. She waited for a witty remark but none came. Eventually he dropped her gaze and rubbed his jaw, muttering to himself so lowly that the only word she caught was what sounded like a number. Something that ended in -teen?

She frowned. "What was that?"

"Nothing." He vaulted to his feet, face smoothing into an affable expression, and then held out a hand to her. "We should probably head back." His mouth quirked wryly. "Ready to go, 'partner'?"

He said it casually enough but it was Kairi's turn to click close her mouth as an odd sense of deja vu washed over her. Her heartmark flared with warmth as she slowly sat up. The sky was starting to turn that pale orange of evening. Haloed by the sun, with the water droplets still dripping down his face, he looked like...

Well, Axel. Just Axel.

"What?"

She put her hand in his. "Nothing."


NOW

It was Wednesday and she was in the kitchen making a sandwich when there was three slow knocks on her door. "Kairi?" a familiar voice piped up from the hall.

Kairi froze. Axel frowned from the table, slowly putting down his coffee mug.

"Who is that?" he started but she was already walking quickly towards the door. Her hand lingered on the locked bolt, then the chain, before she sighed. Then she hooked a finger through the chain as she got on her tip toes and peered out the peephole.

Nothing but the empty hall. That was weird...hadn't he just knocked?

Kairi started to back up quietly-and immediately bumped into a wall of Axel, who was standing directly behind her. She hadn't even heard him follow her into the hall.

She yelped out loud-then slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

"Kairi?" came a male voice through the door. The sound of someone standing up from her doorstep. "Is that you?"

Axel tensed against her. "Who is that?" he whispered slowly.

Kairi dug her elbow into his ribs, shaking her head, but he was as immovable as a rock wall. "None of your business, Axel," she hissed in a whisper. "Go back into the living room."

Axel was studying her face intently. Whatever he saw there made him twitch then straighten, expression rippling into smooth affability. It sent a chill through her.

"Aren't you going to open the door?" he said lightly, and Kairi instinctively gripped his shirt to hold him back, even though he hadn't moved.

"Kairi?" the voice outside said uncertainly.

Axel's eyes narrowed. "Please step aside, sweetheart." When she didn't, Axel reached over her head, unlocking the bolt and chain. His other hand ghosted along her bare arm, tugging, and then Kairi found herself staring at his back, one of his hands gently pressing her behind him.

The man standing in front of Kairi's door was dressed in a dark suit, the white shirt unbuttoned and a tie hanging in his hand. He was of average height, taller than Kairi but no where near Axel's height, and the man looked up with surprise when Axel opened the door.

Surprise turned to confusion, however, when the two men got a good look at each other-not just because of the height difference or the fact that it wasn't Kairi who had opened the door, but also because both men shared the same shocking red hair color. Even their faces were vaguely similar, though the other man's eyes were a cool grey and Axel's hair was obviously longer. If one squinted, they might be mistaken for relatives.

A moment of silence, where even Axel was at a loss for words, and Kairi resisted hiding her face in her hands.

The man recovered first. "Uh, hello." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, eyes flicking to the number nailed to the door frame as if to verify he'd got the right number.

Axel's shoulder's relaxed-which sent Kairi's tensing. Relaxed Axel was not a good sign. "Good evening," he said pleasantly, holding the door frame in one large hand, the door in the other. "Sorry buddy, but we don't accept solicitations. Try number fourteen down the hall." Then he started to close the door.

"Uh, wait!" The man jumped, holding out his hand to the door, then seemed to think better of it at Axel's narrowed look. "Sorry," He said, both hands raised. "I'm not a solicitor. I'm looking for Kairi? Does she still live here?"

"Kairi," Axel said, drawing her name out so long that the man shifted uneasily. Then Axel shrugged. "Hmm. Nope. Doesn't ring a bell. Good luck with that-"

Kairi had enough. She elbowed him, cutting him off, then shoved him into the wall so she could step around him. "Why thanks for getting the door for me, Axel," she said sweetly through gritted teeth, then looked at her visitor-and despite herself, felt her heart sink into her stomach. "Uh...Hello, Reno."

The man stared at her, then at Axel who was still filling up the door way behind her and probably looking not the least bit repentant. Reno cleared his throat. "Oh, hey, Kairi. I dropped by to see if you were around..." he paused. "Bad time?"

"Yes," Axel said at the same time as Kairi said, "It's fine." She stepped on Axel's foot behind her. He didn't even have the grace to flinch.

Reno blinked at the two of them. "Umm..."

Kairi snapped her head over her shoulder, glaring up at Axel who was still giving Reno a 'friendly' expression. "Axel."

He looked down at her almost lazily. "Kairi."

Reno made a slight noise. Axel's eyes flicked up, and he smiled ever so slightly. "Oh did you mean this Kairi?"

Kairi ground her heel into his toes. Still no reaction except a slightly raised eyebrow that was the equivalent non-verbal of aren't you cute. She gave him a saccharine smile of her own. "Would you mind giving us a moment?"

His eyes flicked to her at her strained tone. They stared at each other for a long moment, before he finally sighed and stood to his full height, somehow managing to fill up even more of the doorway.

Kairi felt a brief flash of relief as she turned back around-only to bite back a squeak as one of Axel's hand pressed against the flat of her back, unseen and warm. Her heart jumped as he leaned over her shoulder to give Reno a piercing stare. "You be nice to her, yeah?" She was too shocked to resist when he then nudged her gently outside the door frame and shut the door with a soft click.

And that was how Kairi found herself finally alone in the hall way. With Reno.

Her heart sunk even lower into her gut. God, she hadn't wanted to do this in the first place!

Taking a deep breath, Kairi turned to face her ex-boyfriend, who was staring at her like he had no idea what just happened. That was fine-she didn't really either.

"Who was that?" he asked tentatively, rubbing the back of his head, eyes locked on the door behind her.

Kairi frowned. "It's none of your business." When he looked back at her, straightening, she continued, "What are you doing here?"

Reno shifted awkwardly. "I was around this part of town for a job. I happened to walk by and I wondered if you were in..." he glanced at her, seeing no change in her expression, then hurriedly continued "Look, I know this doesn't look great, but you haven't been answering my messages and I just wanted to talk-"

Of course she hadn't, she'd blocked his number long ago.

"Reno," Kairi interrupted bluntly. "I already told you this last time. I'm not going to change my mind. And..." she took a breath. "You can't just drop by anymore."

He fell silent, his face turning crestfallen. Despite herself, she felt her heart twinge a little, but then she steeled herself. He had been the one that left, not her.

"You need to move on," she said quietly, because nothing but brutal honesty was going to get through to him.

She saw hurt, then anger flash into Reno's eyes. He straightened. "I need to move on?" He said, and she braced herself-Reno never went down without a fight. "You telling me redheads are just your 'type' now?"

God, he was so full of himself. "He's nothing like you," she snapped, and then anger got the better of her. "And if we're going to be petty-I knew him way before I met you."

It took a moment for the implication to sink in, but when it did, Reno's face drained of color. It made Kairi really wish that Axel hadn't opened the door in the first place. "What the fuck, Kairi."

Perhaps it was a stupid low blow-and it wasn't exactly true, not really-but she wasn't going to apologize for it. He deserved it for even bringing Axel up in the first place. That didn't mean she had to drag it out though. "Good bye, Reno," Kairi said firmly, turning her back on him and opening the door.

"Did I even mean anything to you?" he asked bitterly.

Kairi froze, hand shaking on the door handle. When she slowly turned to face him, face flat and eyes wet, all the spite wiped from his face. "How dare you," she whispered. "You left me. You don't get to say that to me, ever, when I was the only one who even tried to salvage us."

"Shit." Reno had the grace to look ashamed. "Kairi, I'm sorry, I..."

She didn't let him finish. She opened the door, stepping inside. "Don't contact me like this again, Reno," she said with her back to him, thankful her voice didn't waver. "Or next time I will call the police." Then she slammed the door on his face.

Axel wasn't in the hall way. She found him sitting on the couch, an arm over the back and flicking through TV channels. She sat down next to him, their knees barely brushing.

"Sorry about that," she found herself saying, though it rang hollow.

He shrugged, handing her a plate with the sandwich she'd been making earlier, a big bite missing from the center of it. "No worries, Princess. My foot may never recover, but it's a small price to pay."

They watched an episode of a TV drama in comfortable silence. Thirty minutes in, she put the untouched sandwich on the coffee table and scooted into the crook of his arm, gripping his shirt. He didn't move or look away from the television, just hummed.

"This bastard Hideki," he murmured to her, nodding at the television screen. "Men are all idiots."

Ten minutes later, when Kairi pressed her forehead to his chest, he didn't say anything at all. When she started to quietly cry, he just curled his arm around her shoulder, head falling back on the sofa, and sighed.

"I'm guessing that was the ex-friend then," he said to the ceiling.