Disclaimer: I don't own KH2

Author's Note: This idea stemmed from the following equation: Larxene (sadist) plus Axel (pyro) equals love? Torture has never been sweeter.

Warning: Contains violence (because Larxene likes it that way and Axel can't resist). Minor spoilers if you haven't finished COM, but they are really just vague references. This isn't a lemon, just Larxene relishing in Axel's misery.

Summary: Larxene loves to paint -in blood. And Axel has always been her canvas. Larxene/Axel

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Fingerpaint

Larxene always knows what she's doing.

She can smile angelically and expect the pyro's irritated smirk as she pushes him to the corner and kicks him down. When she rests her hands on his shoulders, she pinches her nails into his yielding flesh and claws down roughly, bringing an electric pulse racing beneath his skin to coincide with her touch. He bites his tongue, tasting blood.

"Scream," she dares him, "I love the sound."

Axel groans like a trembling echo resonating in his throat and feels the sweat like a sticky garment against his chest and back. He never gives in, no matter how many times she breaks him apart and plays with the pieces. After all, Marluxia does the same to her.

The woman loops the chains around his wrists, locking him in place with several kunai lodged between the iron loops and the floor. The first time, he had burned through the rope, and they both knew that it just wouldn't do. The princess must be able to have fun with her slave and objections were not tolerated -although they were quite amusing in a pitiful sort of way.

Axel shifted his wrists; trying for some more freedom between the restraints then sagged against the wall behind him.

It is a different kind of battle that they engage in when everything is said and done, but neither relents without leaving their mark on the other. Despite it all, Axel wouldn't have it any other way, even though Larxene enjoys it far too much.

Crawling to his side, she laid out another set of kunai on the floor in front of her, admiring the blades, and collected one into her hands delicately as if cupping a flower. Her golden hair fell out of the knot she had coaxed it into during their battle, and it shifted a halo across her face, which she brushed aside impatiently. She smiled -a honeyed bow, parted to suggest the sharp teeth and soft tongue that always managed to sting and soothe as it pleased.

"I hope this hurts," she breathed into his ear. He closed his eyes and tensed in expectation when her knees pressed into the ground on either side of him. The edges of her coat fanned around her in a circle, enveloping him partially, adding to the darkness. His own coat had been torn off and the black shirt beneath lay in tatters somewhere across the room where it had been thrown. She never revealed herself to him- after all, this was her game and she would play it as she pleased.

"Lean back", she ordered.

He glared at her through the fire-soaked red of his hair and leaned forward instead. He always made sure to fight back.

Larxene frowned deeply and caressed the side of his face gently, bringing her soft palm to his head then twined her fingers into his hair. "Lean back" she purred gently, then clenched her hand, forcing his head back to hit the wall behind him. Axel grunted, and bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. She laughed softly, the sound muffling against his neck as she whispered a kiss onto his pulse point. "Relax", she said, taking his skin under her teeth, "I haven't even started yet."

The pyro released a shuddering sigh and dug his nails into the chains binding his wrists at his back. The nymph drew the kunai to her fingers and slashed her palm, watching the slanted line of red emerging on her pale skin only seconds later. She cut across the lines of her palm, making new patterns that her body tried to reject with pain. The blood swelled and the princess smiled. Larxene pressed her palm to his chest and dragged it down, sliding slickly with vermilion, then decided against it, and pressed her hand print onto his skin and admired the result. Taking a finger to her palm, she tainted her skin with red amd brought it to his torso. Her living canvas chuckled under his breath and accepted the crude drawing of a key on his ribcage along with the sharp nail crossing an 'x' into it.

"Jealous?" he asked with a smirk.

He winced when he felt the blade tracing thin lines onto his stomach. She caught his pained look and settled into a contemptuous smirk. "You're pathetic," she hissed, driving the kunai into a slant, making the lines thicker. The man held his breath between clenched teeth. "Worthless" she muttered, making quick slashes across his abdomen to form a symbol akin to a bolt of lightning. Axel had learned on his own that she whispered the same words to him that Marluxia had hissed at her only moments ago. The woman knew her worth, but Marluxia was still her superior.

Axel understood. He knew that she was a princess and wanted to be a queen. He realized that he was her lowly subject when she wasn't one to Marluxia, and so they took turns playing the roles.

He laughed a little between a grimace and met her eyes, coming up with the reason for her sudden passion. "Did Marluxia scold you again?"

She slapped him, letting her nails dig into his cheek. "Shut up" she scowled, ignoring his cursing and let her attention fall back to the pattern she was creating on his skin. She drew little curving vines across his abdomen and pressed the kunai into his skin, letting the dots of blood rise as small buds. He observed her through hooded eyes, and noticed the rapture on her face as she clawed at her work of art, clearly displeased with the finished product. Larxene loved to paint, and Axel was her canvas.

He leant back against the wall and the chains rattled. The tip of the kunai was scratching across his skin to leave a chalky line until she curved it in and eased it forward. Axel gasped in a hissing intake of breath and arched forward suddenly. "Does it sting, darling?" She found the scratches on his cheeks and followed the lines with her fingertips, barely feigning concern, and dragged her nails across them again, opening them in a quivering line that bled down his chin. He thrashed violently against the chains.

"Bitch..."

Larxene grasped his neck and shoved him back into place. "Keep quiet" she seethed, letting her nails sink in before she found the kunai again. She brushed her hair back like a young girl teasing a boy, and smiled gently before she cut him again. She made a star and coloured it in with her blood, then kissed the middle. Axel only shuddered and smiled at the sick fascination that the woman held for her sadistic form of fingerpainting.

The nymph brought her mouth lower to his skin and bit down hard, traveling the path of teeth marks with a fingertip when she was done. He growled low in his throat, and was unprepared for the slashes of marks she lavished upon him in retaliation. Through wavering eyes, he felt her lips brush against his and whisper softly, "Don't cry." She cackled and pressed both of her hands against his chest, gathering herself.

"I hate you."

Larxene laughed mirthlessly, bringing a hand to her chest, "You're breaking my heart, Axel."

Taking the kunai in her hands again, she summoned a crackling white light in her other palm. Axel watched her whet the blade through the electricity, anticipating the blow that never came with closed eyes. Larxene loved to tease him, and waited for his eyes to open before she touched it to his skin, sending the sparks jolting into his body. His eyes rolled back in his head and sweat beaded on his skin. The woman only giggled softly and leaned over him. "Shocked?" she asked with a smirk.

"Little sl-"

Her knee met his bleeding stomach with a muffled thud, bone meeting muscle. Larxene settled herself onto him more comfortably (satisfied that her subject had quieted) and pushed aside the red daggers of his hair that lay matted with sweat against his shoulders and the side of his neck. She giggled softly to herself and tilted her head to one side, giving him a stilted smile as she traced a daisy near his right hip. Larxene threw her head back and laughed at his sour expression. With gentle hands, she moved aside her sunflower hair and smeared red across her cheek. Axel allowed her to lean back onto his upraised knees as she twirled the kunai between two fingers, distracted.

"Axel", she murmured with bloodied lips, "What do you want the most?"

She was referring to something else entirely, he could tell. Marluxia had planted the doubt into her head -that man was going to destroy her slowly.

Axel shook the tendrils of hair out of his eyes and glowered at her, distrusting, "Don't we all want the same thing." He said it as a statement, but her eyes glowed with a gentle flicker of anger and something else.

"Ah, yes", she caught herself and brought the blade to hover over his stomach and up his chest, barely touching him. "Some want pleasure, some want pain. Others want both..." She smiled.

The teasing distance made him want to arch forward into it, but he knew better. He settled for the metal kiss against his chest as he panted for breath. "But it all comes down to the one thing you need the most," she whispered.

Larxene draws the heart onto his chest with a nail first, teasing, then uses the blade. Axel lets her because it's where his heart would be if he had one, and it doesn't feel entirely horrible to have the outline of one burning onto his skin, even if it is hollow. The heart is perfect and bleeding, pulsing with pain because that is the only thing that they are allowed to feel as Nobodies -and it is exquisite. He could love her for this, even as the chains sizzle underneath him and a ring of fire dances around them. The iron melts off his wrists and drips onto the floor in a metallic puddle. Now he's the prince and she's the servant.

She flinches her hand away, singed by the heat building inside of his chest. "Bastard" she whimpers, clutching her injured hand with tears summoned into her eyes from the unforgiving pulse of her burnt fingertips. Axel smiles and she relents her position to him, crying purposefully with a smirk (because they could never be true tears) so that she can collect the dewy drops onto her fingertips and spread them onto his make-shift heart. The salt from her tears is enough for the stinging to clutch at his chest, but she only smiles when he quivers from the pain. She takes her choice weapon and engraves an 'L' into his skin near the spot where the waist of his pants hides the rest of him, and traces the marking with wet fingers that claw and scratch with saltiness. Larxene smiles at her handiwork -thinking that Roxas will be very jealous when he sees it- and allows Axel to throw her off of him.

The fire flickers and growls against her back in wandering sparks and violent heat.

"My turn," he says and pushes her to the ground. Larxene can only smile.

Axel never knows what he's doing.

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