A small boy wanders an endless plain...
Searching for what? For who?
For where?
For when...?
The past, the memories, the longing trapped behind the terror?
His little heart aches, and he wobbles out a whisper: "M-mommies...Mommy T-Taira...? Mommy Suko...?"
It's no use, of course. They were long gone, and even then, at that age, that time...he'd understood it in his Heart of hearts.
He walks on broken, bleeding feet, until he can't anymore.
He falls, right up against a big rock he hopes he can use for some kind of shelter. To put it between him and back there...between him and...
"Hey there, kiddo..."
He startles upright, whirling to stare at...at a man.
A man in a long black coat. A hood pulled up over it, shrouding his face in darkness.
The boy steps back, raising his hands to clutch at his chest. "W-wh..."
The man sighs, putting hands on his hips and shaking his head. "Right, right...okaaaay..." He slowly kneels down, and holds out his hand, palm up. Gloved. "I'm not here to hurt you," he speaks, slowly and clearly - and gently. "I'm just curious..."
"C-c-cu...rios?"
"Yeah. Curious about what a little guy like you is doing all alone out here." The man's hood tilts to the side. He shakes his hand at the boy, fingers curling. "No? Ah...okay." He rests his hand on his knee, his other hanging at his side. "Soooo...?"
"S-so- w-what?" the boy quavers.
"So...what in the world are you doing all the way out here on your own?" the man asks seriously.
The boy shuts his eyes, closing his fists over his Heart. He shakes his head. But the voices fill his head - his parents screaming, the sounds of those blades slicing everything apart to reach him - and the purple flames and those eyes-
His eyes shoot open, and he begins to wail.
"Okay, okay, look, uh - no need for any of this!" The man speaks loudly, holding up his hands and waving them at the boy. "Just calm down, take a breath, annnnd tell me when you're ready! But let's not get hysterical here, kid. There's no need for that, right?"
The boy continues to cry.
"Oh boy..." The man sighs again. He stands up and stalks forward - the startles - and then he drops down again, and he pulls the boy into a hug. "Here we go...here we go...just calm down, just breathe for me, would you?"
The boy cries and hugs the man back, for lack of anyone else. Or because of the lack of anyone else. The lack of... "M-mommy Taira and m-mommy Suko..."
"Okay - parents - good start! What about 'em?" the man encourages, patting his back now. "Did they leave you out here?" There's an edge to his voice. Sharpness...and concern.
"N-no!" the boy cries out. "T-they...the m-men came and they t-told me to- to hide, and- and then- to run and...and..."
"And you haven't stopped, have you?"
The boy shakes his head, sniffling and burying his face in the man's shoulder.
"Alright, alright - don't go getting my coat all ickied up!" The man grasps him gently and holds him away from himself.
"S-sorry...I j-just..."
Another sigh. The hood raises slightly. The boy feels like the man is studying him now, looking at him closely. "What's your name, kid?" he asks.
The boy stares into the dark shroud of the hood. Somehow, for some reason, he thinks...well, he answers.
"Luxu..."
"Luxu, huh? Nice name! Your parents sure knew how to pick 'em!" The man enthused.
The boy gives a bit of a smile, swallowing hard. He wipes at his nose and ducks his head.
"Tell you what, Luxu. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to - not yet. We can have that talk later. For now, how about I bring you somewhere nice to stay - for as long as you like? Until we find your parents again - Taira and Suko, you said their names were? How's that sound, kiddo?"
Kiddo...
Like the kinds of things mommy Taira used to call him...
With that look in her eyes, with that smile on her face...
Luxu nods. "Ok."
"Okay," the man confirms. He stands tall, and reaches a hand down for Luxu. Holds it out to him.
Luxu takes it.
"You can't do this!" Luxu shouted, letting the heavy black box drop to the floor. "The sacrifice is too great!"
"I told you," the man spoke slowly, a hardness entering his voice now. "not to let sentiment cloud your judgement."
Luxu stands there, listening to the man who had taken him in - given him everything: a life, a purpose, a power and a direction - spew on with more and more unbelievable crap about how it was necessary to throw away everything! Turning the Union Leaders against each other, making all those children fight each other to the death, ending the entire world...inviting darkness into their Hearts just to...
It was too much!
So in the end, Luxu turns his back on that man, and he walks away - dragging that box behind him.
Look but don't touch - watch but don't intervene. Do nothing to save the lives of those kids made new Union leaders...?
Luxu ruminates on it all, as the world he's come to love like a new home is torn apart around him.
He's spent the past few years going through the Master's motions, even still - because it was a direction.
Because maybe there could be a hope...
A hope he decides to make for himself - and for them.
Those kids he vowed to protect, to look after, despite the Master dismissing and dissuading him from his concerns.
So he goes in the chaos, goes to the boy - Brain.
He gives him his keyblade, he tells him the truth of what he attempts to do with the Lifeboats.
And he tells him...
A way to accomplish his mission...without sacrificing this very boy's life. Or any of these kid's lives. Not if he can help it!
Luxu sat up in his bed, his single eye snapping open.
He breathed, his hand going to his chest. His fingers clenched into a fist over his Heart.
He looked down at himself, then threw his legs off the bed and stood up.
He shook his head of long hair and strode for the mirror.
He looked into the face of a man he was now familiar with - too familiar. It wasn't even close to being startling, by now.
It was always like that.
At some point, he just...got used to it.
New name, new face.
Same old direction.
The only way: forward.
On and on, hoping for some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, as they said.
Hoping for...
For what, now? For what, anymore?
That idiot boy who'd left the Master, feeling so cocky and high, defiant chin up!
And some of that had stayed with him, even through the ages - the millennia passing around him. Somehow, that boyhood Heart's determination had stayed with Luxu - that was why he'd taken the first chance he could to help the Union Leader when she'd popped up in his life again, so unexpectedly, after so long. Skuld, the girl's name was; he still remembered it. He remembered all their names. He remembered Brain, the boy he'd made his deal with, and sent off in hopes of sending him to a peaceful, better future...
Sometimes he wondered what had happened to Brain, too.
If he'd found that peace, a life, happiness, maybe even love.
All the things that the Master's plan would have robbed him of the chance to experience.
And then, when Luxu had gone scouting for new recruits to the Organization, and come across an unexpectedly familiar face...
A girl, a wielder who'd once gotten her lot mixed up with the new Union Leaders. Those kids. She'd gone along for the ride, escaping the doomed fate with them.
But apparently, something had gone wrong, because she was here, and had no memories of life beyond ten years ago. Just a few years as a Somebody, alone, struggling to survive, and now she was a Nobody.
A woman who'd never had a chance to live properly.
A woman whose Heart was so scarred and twisted up...
Well, she didn't have that Heart now, and maybe that was a blessing (Luxu often wished he had the same luxury; but he was stuck with not only his own Heart, but a piece of Xehanort's too).
And then had come the other, not even a few months after Elrena - Lauriam. Marluxia, now...
He'd ended up lost in the future too, ended up losing his memories.
A medium to remake him, but no one to remember him. That had to be it, Luxu had surmised.
But he didn't know any way to restore those lost memories.
Sure, there were those experiments done on Skuld by Xehanort, and by Xehanort on himself - but that was a scalpel approach. That was slicing your Heart open and digging in all the mush!
Seeing Skuld in the aftermath of that, whisking her away from that cell...
Luxu would never risk doing that kind of harm to Elrena or Lauriam too. Putting them through that...? The thought was unbearable. It was too much like the Master's plans - sacrifice, hurt, kill, ruin and ravage, and tell yourself it was all for some greater goal and lofty ideal. Excuse it all, wave it away like it meant nothing.
Except to the people you'd used, hurt...it damn well mattered!
Luxu froze as he blinked into the mirror.
His face was twisted, his teeth were bared.
His fist was shaking.
He laughed, letting himself relax again and turning away.
Heh. Yeah, Luxu still had a bit of that boy in him, even after all this time. But he also had...
The weariness and tear of a man's life.
He'd quickly come to realize that there was nothing else for him to do - except the only thing he knew to do, going forward.
The only thing he even had.
The Master's final orders. His last mission.
But not just that. Luxu did agree that the Darkness had to go - that the things that had happened to his parents so long ago needed to be made to never happen again - but he couldn't ever condone acting like them in the name of erasing them. The Master's way of doing things wasn't right. It wasn't the way to win.
But then, what was?
Luxu couldn't find an answer to that one. Not even after all this time.
But maybe...
Maybe if Luxu finished it, he'd finally be free. Free to be free, and...free to rest.
End it all.
Because goddamn was he tired.
He was so tired.
Probably the most tired guy in all the worlds. In all of history, and pre-history!
He just...
He wanted to get back in that bed and sleep again, for god's sake!
But today, he had work to do.
They'd gotten two new members about four days ago - kids, both of 'em.
Both of them keyblade wielders; one of them was the Nobody of the Princess of Heart, Kairi, and other one...he looked like another Union Leader - Ventus.
But he wasn't Ven, weirdly enough: he was the Nobody of some kid named Sora - the best friend of the Keyblade wielding Princess, Kairi. his name was Roxas.
Xikira was the name of Kairi's Nobody. She also had some special powers, evident in all her mutterings and chatterings over the past few days since she was born - probably because she was the Nobody of a Princess of Heart or something. And in the long, long history of the world - and even the previous world - Luxu had never once heard of this happening before. A Pure Heart of Light creating a Nobody? It was literally supposed to be impossible! Against the very laws of nature and the process of a Nobody's creation itself!
Yet, the girl existed nonetheless.
And these kids were...were pieces on the board for Xemnas's plans to gather Hearts for the great Kingdom Hearts. His false Kingdom Hearts...
Luxu's Heart went out to them - it truly did. To be made for a single purpose, to be lied to and used for a single purpose...he knew that well enough. All too well. It was way too close to the Master. How he'd used them all, tricked them all, all in the name of defeating the Darkness. You weren't a person who mattered - you were just someone's pawn.
Well, Luxu supposed the least he could do - the minimum he could get away with, as always - was to watch over the new kids too. Not like he didn't have enough kids to watch already, did he? Hah!
God, he was old...
Trying to straddle a line, find where and what he could get away with, all the while playing his role as best he could...
At least as Nobody he had the excuse of "acting" like he still had his Heart.
If he'd had to spend these last nine years playing some emotionless robot, he would've truly gone insane.
No fun, no humor to be had?
No way. As if!
Fun and humor were really the only things Luxu had left in life to bring his Heart happiness, from moment to moment. Little bursts of levity in all the drab and weariness.
After entering the Grey Room - the lounge in the Castle That Never Was - Luxu threw himself back on the sofa, putting his legs up on the table.
Time to wait for his orders for the day. A new assignment.
Hah...just like old times, wasn't it?
Speaking of old times...
His attention was stolen by the arrival of the newbies.
First it was Xikira, and then it was Roxas.
Xikira was...special. Different, right off the bat.
Only been a few days, and she was already so...
"Hey, Xigbar."
That.
The kid came right over and sat down next to him, her knees together, her hands resting in her lap. She turned her head and gave him a smile.
An innocent little smile. A friendly thing.
Like she was just some kid. Not a Nobody, not even a...
"Hey," Luxu responded, flashing a grin back at her. "Look at you, only four days old and already you're walking and talking like a pro! I'm impressed."
Xikira laughed, hand raising to cover her mouth. Like she could possibly...
Even with the truth Luxu knew - that the Heart was always quick to grow, that the body would try to replace what was lost as soon as it could - was it even possible to have even started to do that in just four days?
Or was this kid just a damn good actress?
Well, again, she was the impossible Nobody of a Princess of Heart, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Yeah, that made sense...
Because compared to Roxas, who was currently standing in a corner like a zombie...Xikira was a wonder.
"What're you thinking about, Xigbar?"
He blinked. He quirked a lopsided smirk at her and threw up a hand. "Thinkin'? What makes you think I was thinking, kiddo? I was just spacing out, is all."
She peered at him intently, blonde hair falling away to reveal those blue eyes of hers. That face identical to Kairi's - except the hair. "Really?"
"Yeah, really. You planning on being a smooth detective someday, kid, or what?" Luxu joked at her.
"Detective?"
Luxu sighed, reaching back to scratch his head of hair. "Ah, never mind. So, what do you want?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why're you sitting here with me like this? What's the deal, what's up, kid?"
She blinked at him, sitting back. "I just wanted to get to know you."
"There's nothing to know," Luxu replied quietly. Damn the fact that he still had a Heart that could twinge.
"I don't think that's true," she retorted.
"You do, huh? What could you possibly be thinking, when you're four days old?"
The girl looked down at her lap, frowning.
Twinge.
"We're in this Organization together, right?" the girl spoke again, lifting her head and fixing him with a look. Determination. "If we're all working together, we should get to know each other. Don't you all know each other?"
Luxu raised an eyebrow at her. He laughed, free and true. "Oh, you sweet little thing, you! Haha!"
She looked confused.
Luxu enjoyed the ripple of warmth while it had lasted. Then he answered her. "Look, kiddo, it's like this: we might all work towards the same goal here, but we're not getting all buddy-buddy with other, capiche?"
"What?"
Luxu rolled his eye. "We don't need to know each other, all right? All we need to know is that we can get the job done. That's it. You get it now?"
She gazed back at him, her frown deepening. She shook her head. "That sounds dumb."
Luxu burst into laughter. True, loud, and uncontrollable. He clutched at his sides as he doubled over, wheezing from it all! "Oooh, whoo! Kiddo, you are just- something else, you know that!"
Some of the others were looking over at them - Saix in particular, the cold jackass - so Luxu quickly fought to get himself back under control. Reign it all in, wiping at his eye and putting hand to his chest as he leaned back in his seat. He slumped down, rested an arm over the back (not on the same side as Xikira, of course).
"That's what people keep telling me," the girl spoke quietly.
"Huh?" Luxu gazed at her.
"Xemnas, the others, I've heard it from them in training sessions," the girl went on. "They keep saying I'm special, even for a Nobody. This Keyblade, and these powers I have...I don't even know how to use them...it just keeps coming to me, filling up my head and..." She fell silent.
"Well, if it's what everyone says, it must be true, right?" Luxu said casually.
"Yes. I guess so." The girl sighed, clenching her fists on her knees. She shifted her legs and sat back with him, staring up at the ceiling. She glanced at him, hesitated - then copied him and put her boots up on the table. "Are pants really all we have?" she added out of the blue.
Luxu almost choked on his own spit. "Eh...yeah...? Why...?"
"I hate these," the girl declared, fixing a glare down at her own stretched out legs. "I want to wear something different. Something...more loose and free. Like the girl in my dreams. The red-haired girl. She had this...it was different. It looked a lot nicer to deal with. My legs feel so..."
"Huh...is that so?" Luxu spoke quietly.
"Yes. Was that my- Somebody? Who I used to be?"
"Yeah. You got it, kiddo. That was her. Kairi. The Keyblade heroine."
"Kairi. That's the name I keep hearing..."
"You know, they say hearing voices in your head isn't a sign of good mental health," Luxu quipped.
The girl frowned at him. "They do? Do you think there's a problem with me, then?"
"It was a joke," he sighed. "Don't take it so seriously."
"Oh...all right. I'm sorry. I'm just...I keep getting distracted. Lost. It's all of this..." She raised her hands to grasp her head, closing her eyes with what looked like pain. "I can't make it stop. Not even when I'm asleep!"
Luxu eyed her a long moment. "So, what were you saying about the pants?"
"What? Oh, well..." The girl shook her head, blonde hair flying everywhere. "I hate these," she girl reiterated, glaring as she drew her legs back and stomped them down on the floor - drawing more eyes. "I want what she had. I want what Kairi wore!"
"That'd be called a skirt," Luxu remarked. "But we don't exactly run a fashion shop here, kid. Sorry the pants are a dealbreaker for you, but you're going to have to put up with it. We can't just go out and get you a skirt."
"Why not?"
"What?"
"Why can't we? Where did you get all these pants from?" the girl spoke quickly.
Luxu grinned. "Oh man. You're killing me, princess!"
"Killing you...that was another joke, wasn't it?" she said, with sudden sharpness in her eyes, laughing.
"Yeah, it was. Good job. Now forget about the skirt talk."
"But if we can get pants why can't we get skirts?" Xikira insisted, jumping to her feet. She faced him with hands on her hips, jutting her chin at him. "I want a skirt!"
"Heh. You're too precious, princess. Seriously, though: drop it."
Xikira ignored him, whirling away to stalk off into the middle of the room. She gazed around at the others, making eye contact forcibly. "Who else wants a skirt?"
"Oh my god..." Luxu wheezed, facepalming.
On one hand, it was entertaining as hell - but on the other hand...
"Ridiculous child," Xaldin uttered, shaking his head at Xikira.
"Who wants what now?" Demyx spoke, abruptly ending his sitar playing and glancing up at her.
"Skirt!" the girl declared.
"A what now?" Demyx repeated, wide eyed. "Um, I'll pass on that one, thanks. Guys don't mix with skirts."
"You think that, do ya?" Luxu spoke up, calling out with a grin as he stood. Stretched his arms high. "What world were you from? I've been to more than I can remember, and in plenty of them, guys and skirts mixed real good." True - but the deeper truth was one he couldn't exactly admit to without giving away this whole game. That he had personal experience at it, over the millennia (sometimes the only opportunity for a new, proper body in front of him had been a woman's).
"If you can't remember, how do you remember that?" Axel spoke up with a smirk.
"Some things stick out more than most in our memories - I'm sure you know that," Luxu responded. "Memories are all we've got left, after all."
"Can we get back to getting skirts, please," Xikira said loudly. "How did all of you get pants? I want to get skirts too."
"Xikira - enough with this nonsense talk!" Saix barked out, closing his eyes. "You will do your duties in the attire befitting one of this Organization - and I will hear no complaining about it."
"But I can't do my duties in these stupid pants," the girl snapped back, whipping toward him. She had her hand on her hip again. "I can't move my legs right, it just feels...wrong. You want me to be able to fight the Heartless, right? I can be more...more..."
"Effective?" Luxu suggested.
"Effective - if I can free my legs from this crap," the girl went on firmly.
"Okay, what's happened this time?" came the yawning, annoyed voice of Larxene as she walked into the room with a hand over her mouth. "What are we all arguing about now?"
"I want a skirt!" Xikira said again, rounding on Larxene like she'd be a new ally. Or someone new to mug to get what she wanted. "These pants suck, I can't fight well in them, and nobody wants to tell me how we even got pants in the first place! If we got pants, we can get skirts, right?"
Larxene lowered her hand slowly, staring at the girl. She blinked. Repeatedly. A flush came to her cheeks. Then her lips curved into a fierce smile, and she let out a shriek of laughter. "Four days and the new girl is lobbying with all her non-existent Heart for skirts?! Oh, I think I might actually come to like this one!" She stalked over to Xikira and put fist on hip, glaring at Saix. "Alright, since you're not a girl, you wouldn't get it - but I'm telling you that she is telling the truth. We'd fight a lot more efficiently if we had combat skirts instead of these constricting snakes over our legs!"
Saix scoffed. "Do you want to take this ridiculousness to Lord Xemnas, then? Petition him for the right to...girlish fashion choices?"
"You know what - yes!" Xikira spoke up fiercely. "He's your boss too, so if he says yes, you have to say yes too." She turned to Larxene, gazing up at her. "How would we...go and see him?"
Larxene stared down at her, disbelief on her face. Then she grinned. "How? Oh, that's easy, kiddo! Just make a little portal, just like this...and you go through and wait in Round Room for him! He'll hear you out, I'm sure of it!"
"Larxene - don't entertain the child's foolishness," Saix said sharply. "Xemnas is not to be bothered."
"Bothered? By what? It's not like he's doing anything!" Larxene snorted. "We do all the work, or haven't you noticed?"
"If you have complaints you wish to take to him..." Saix glowered.
"Mine can wait," Larxene said quickly. She shoved at Xikira's backside, pushing her toward the conjured dark corridor. "Go on, go through - tell me how it goes, okay?"
"Ok!" the girl said brightly, stumbling through.
Luxu sighed, turning away and covering his face with his hand.
This level of individuality, so early in the girl's life...
Was not going to endear her to Xemnas.
Not for what he planned to do with her - with all of them.
So why in the world had Luxu let it all go on? For the fun, or...or maybe a little rebellion by proxy?
Xikira sat in her seat, gazing up at the highest chair in anticipation.
Impatience.
Xemnas appeared in a swirl of darkness almost immediately.
He looked down at her in surprise.
"Xikira," he spoke, in that loud, grand voice of his. "Why is it...that you are here?"
"Because I hate these pants and I want a skirt. Saix said to ask you."
Xemnas blinked down at her. "Pardon?"
"Why do we all wear this crap? It's terrible for fighting in, at least for me! I'd do better in a skirt. And you want me to be able to fight my best against the Heartless, don't you?" Xikira continued. "So: I want a skirt."
Xemnas gazed at her in silence for a full minute.
"I...see," he spoke, drawing out every word as long as he could. "Memories from your true self's life, I presume?"
"I keep getting them. They're just...all the time, in my head. Even in my dreams. And I saw Kairi, and I saw her skirts, and to me it felt right. Better."
Xemnas gave a slow nod, his expression thoughtful. "As all of our memories often do. After all, we are but empty shells left behind - mere remnants of what we once were as complete beings."
"So?" Xikira said. "However we got the pants, can we go get some skirts too?"
Xemnas's lips spread into an indulgent smile. "If it would truly improve your combat capabilities, then of course I shall endeavor to fulfill your request. I will dispatch a Moogle to carry out the order immediately."
"Yes! Thank you!" Xikira exclaimed gratefully. She wobbled as she almost fell off her high throne, grabbing the arms for support.
"Think nothing of it - I wish only for you to be in...top fighting shape." Xemnas raised a hand to her. "Destroying Heartless is our top priority, after all."
"Can you get one for Larxene too?" Xikira added quickly.
Xemnas gave a chuckle of amusement. "But of course." He waved a hand at her, and darkness enveloped her.
A moment later and she was stumbling out of a portal into the lounge area again.
Xikira straightened up, only to find herself staring into the eager face of Larxene. The woman pounced on her, grabbing her shoulders and bringing her close.
"So: how'd it go?! Spill, new girl!" Larxene said, in high, excited tones. But the look on her face wasn't exactly nice. She had this big leer on her face like...
Xikira looked around to see Saix glaring, to see Demyx's curious eyes on her. To see Luxord, too, looking over at her with curiosity. Xaldin had his arms crossed, huffing and turning away from it all. Axel had a smirk on his face. And Xigbar...
Xigbar was casually reclining on the sofa again, both arms stretched out on the back of it. But he was grinning.
"Xemnas said he'd have a Moogle do it for us 'immediately,'" Xikira announced, satisfaction in her voice - and in her chest.
"Whaaaa?!" Demyx yelled out, dropping his sitar.
"Bullshit," Axel laughed.
"Nice joke, princess," Xigbar called to her. "Can't believe you've got jokes at this age, but you do...man, you are something..."
"Okay, don't screw with me please," Larxene said sweetly, gripping Xikira tighter. "Because there is no way in hell that you actually got Xemnas to agree to-"
A loud pop filled the room, and Xikira turned to see a cloaked Moogle floating in the air.
The Moogle held out two folded pieces of black clothing.
Xikira took one in her hands and looked it all over, holding it out.
Larxene snatched the other one up, doing the same. Shock written all over her face. Then wordlessly moved her lips. Then she spun on Xikira and seized her arm again. "What the hell are you, kid?! How in the world did you-? How the- how?!"
"I just told him what I told you guys: that I could fight better in a skirt if I had one."
"And you also...asked him for one...for me as well, huh?" Larxene said slowly, eyeing the clothing again.
Xikira flushed, but smiled and nodded. "You wanted one, right?"
"I mean, I'd never have gone and tried to...and I just wanted to see you get yourself into- but you- you-" Larxene stammered, a pink tinge on her face too as she gazed down on Xikira. "You... Huh." She held the skirt to her chest, spun on her heel, and quickly strode for the exit.
Saix was gazing at Xikira with silent astonishment and fury alike.
Xikira wandered back to Xigbar, a smile on her face. "Look! I got a skirt."
"Haha - yeah, I see that, princess. Amazing!" Xigbar clapped his hands together, flashing a grin.
"Why do you keep calling me that word? 'Princess'? What does it mean?"
"Oh, that? It just means I've taken a bit of a shine to you, that's all." Xigbar shrugged. "You're the hot new thing around here - who wouldn't take an interest in you?"
Xikira raised a hand and put it to her cheek. "Am I hot?"
"...Wh-what?" Xigbar choked.
"You said I was-"
"Figure of speech! We have got to get this one drilled into your skull, kid! And, yeah, that was also a figure of speech!"
"What's a figure of speech?" Xikira asked. She glanced down at her skirt, then let her hands fall to the front of these stupid pants.
"It means that something isn't literal- HEY, WOAH! What are you doing!" Xigbar turned away from her and put his hands over his face.
Xikira paused. "I'm getting out of these stupid things and putting the skirt on!"
"Yeah, I unfortunately saw some of that, kiddo - but you don't do that right out in front of other people! Got it? You save that for your room. Someplace private!"
Xikira sighed and pulled the pants back up onto herself. "Okay. Sorry. I'll go there, then." She turned around and headed for the exit.
It was going to be a long walk.
Why couldn't she have just put the skirt on in the lounge?!
She should have asked Xigbar to explain the why, really.
Well, she'd ask him later, she decided - or maybe all these memories would hold some kind of answer; they seemed to have a lot of them, really. It was all so interesting to her. Far more than anything actually around her in this place.
She would also have to ask him why the likes of Axel, Demyx, and Luxord had all been laughing back in the lounge. Very loudly, too.
AN: So, we begin my 358 days Xikira life story! :D Not that it'll last anywhere near a year lol. It'll be like...two months or so. It's going to go a bit past Warrior Princess 2's ending (the events of Castle Oblivion), but it will be strictly confined to the Organization's perspective, so as not to spoil anything happening in the eventual Warrior Princess 3! xD Welcome back to a new ride, full of drama and emotion and fun and...yeah, I promise no major character deaths this time around. :) Nobody you'd be sad about losing, anyways...
And YES, there IS an explanation for Roxas lol - but that won't get explained on screen till book 3! So for now, theorize! :D It's not that complicated though lol...
