A/N: WRITER'S BLOCK TIME! Gah... Anyway, there's a doujinshi of this in the works, it's combined, though. If I don't get too lazy I might get it uploaded right after this fic finishes...if I don't get lazy. Ha.
A note about the ages of the characters. Sora is 14 at the start of KH, right? Then he turns 15 in KH2. In my plot, KH2 takes a year, so in this fanfic he's already 16 (but he's stopped aging anyway, Nobodies and Heartless don't age). Apply to all other characters. When Roxas and Naminé get their own shards, they have two years of catching up on age, since Sora and Kairi were both 14 when they lost their hearts. Riku is 17 years old already. Okay? Okay?
Fluffiness enough to suffocate in ahead, and insane amounts of chapter-longness (this translates to about twenty-five pages of Word)You have been warned.
Disclaimer: No, not now, don't ask me now, I'm about to close that major deal about Materia Unlimited...oh. Oh? Kingdom Hearts? No, I'll buy that after I get ShinRa, yes?
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XIII: Split
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Naminé groaned, a sound halfway between exasperation and indignation. She opened her eyes to find a worried Roxas hovering over her like some kind of overprotective bodyguard. "Did I just faint?"
"No," he said sarcastically. "You just woke up."
She tried to swat a hand into his face, but only succeeded in brushing his hair with her fingers. His face colored immediately and he jerked back. Naminé sat up and shook her head, clearing it of any haziness. Roxas collapsed on the bed beside her, legs swinging over the edge.
"Why did I faint in the first place?"
Roxas stared at her seriously, with seriously blue eyes and his mouth set in a serious straight line. "You saw Sora."
"Sora?" She closed her eyelids, trying to remember.
Walking down the corridor... Hearing someone wail something about a broken mirror...oh. OH.
He chuckled beside her.
"You," she started, poking his chest with a finger, "Have a lot of explaining to do, mister."
Wait. She placed a hand on his chest, ignoring the blush that rushed up his cheeks as she did so. There was a faint thumping motion. Almost like the beating of a heart. That not only sounded wrong, but it was wrong--Nobodies don't have hearts. Her breath hitched as Roxas placed a warm hand over hers.
"Roxas?" she asked faintly.
He tilted his head to the side. "That's why Sora looks like the way he is, Nam. He sacrificed his heart."
Naminé felt like fainting again.
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Axel shuffled through the streets of Twilight Town, not bothering to put his hood up. He was feeling too depressed to do anything except walk. Cripes, when he thought of getting a heart, he didn't expect to feel so damn sad when he did get one.
He, Marluxia, and Zexion called a truce after hours of fighting over a person who wasn't even there; Larxene had yelled at all three of them for being so childish when she came back from wherever room she led Sora to. Huffing, the blonde had stomped out of the meeting room, throwing a few kunais into the wall as she went. Marluxia shot him the glare reserved especially for him, and Zexion just shrugged. They all portalled out at the same time.
Axel made it a point to research each and every bit of past everyone of Organization XIII had (mostly for blackmail material, but sometimes it's easier to manipulate Nobodies if you knew something of their past--and if you knew how Vexen actually looked like before he was Vexen--eww), and he turned up with some interesting stuff. Turned out Ienzo broke poor Arlene's heart...Axel tried to ask Larxene about that, but he almost got a kunai in his face. It was pretty useless to try talking to Zexion back then.
Their past never bothered him since...until now. Gritting his teeth, he kicked a broken piece of pavement, aiming it at a random window. Not surprisingly, it shattered.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and continued walking, angry with Marluxia for acting like the overprotective brother from hell, angry with Zexion for suddenly caring for Larxene, angry with Larxene for, well, for being the object of his unlikely affection, angry with Sora for giving him a shard of heart on such short notice (aw c'mon, there had to be some sort of ceremony or something there, right?), and most of all, angry at himself for getting himself tangled in a very convoluted love...rectangle?
"No, that sounds wrong," he muttered to himself, shaking his head (making passerby stare at him like they'd just seen a freak of nature) angrily.
He stopped suddenly (and no less than three people bumped into him as he did), surprised at where his feet had automatically led him. In front of him hovered the signboard proclaiming that this was the 7th Heaven Bar and Restaurant.
He smiled at the memory. Ever since he had caught wind of what that bastard DiZ had done to his best friend, he had always come here right after Roxas did, drowning his depression in a glass of ginger ale (which, coincidentally, if you add an 'x' to it, spells out Axel), and occasionally spilling his guts out to Rin, the bar owner. Rinoa Heartilly was a cheery brunette who had a knack for making you feel as cheerful as her, but she packed one hell of a magical punch.
Cripes; he'd never ever duel with a sorceress again. He almost collapsed on the ground from exhaustion; the seventeen-year-old didn't even break a sweat, extending a hand and a Curaga at him in apology.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Axel took a deep breath before pushing the glass doors open; a drink sounded very good right now.
"Long time no see, Rin," he drawled, grinning at the shocked look on the young sorceress' (she was young; she'd stay seventeen forever) face as she froze in the motion of wiping the bar. However, she recovered quickly, and her full lips curved into a geniune smile.
"Where have you run off to?" she asked, motioning for him to come over. Axel looked around warily; the place was in its afternoon customer slump; its usual occupants either at work or in school, save for a few stragglers. Nobody would actually recognize him here.
"Oh, same old, same old," he sighed, unable to think of anything else to summarize his nonlife in a few choice words."Got caught up in something." Well, it was true, Keyblade Master getting stabbed earlier today and getting his own shard of heart counted as something. Maybe not an ordinary something-kind of thing, but still. He hoped Rinoa wasn't reading his mind right now.
Clucking her tongue, she watched him perch on his usual (third from the left, in front of the wineglass rack) stool and place his hands dejectedly on the table. "So...what'll you have?"
"The usual," he said, drumming his fingers on the laminated wood of the bar. "You do remember, don't you? Or are you such an old maid now?" He stifled a chuckle as Rinoa's eyelid twitched.
The brunette pouted, her lower lip jutting out in a thoroughly childish manner. "The usual, then. Stop teasing me about my age."
Axel spluttered his laughter. "You don't age," he said matter-of-factly.
"Still."
He chuckled; Rinoa was almost as fun to annoy as Larxene. Axel cringed; why in hell did everything have to remind him of the blonde?
"You're happy today," her voice cut his thoughts short, the thud of a shotglass echoing in front of him as she set down a shotglass of brandy in front of him. A ritual; Axel would have hard alcohol before drowning himself in vast quantities of ginger ale (on which, oddly enough, Roxas had gotten drunk on--the boy never told him how he had managed to do that). He frowned, watching the amber liquid swirl around innocently the tiny glass.
"Actually, it's been a horrible day," he said truthfully.
She clucked her tongue once again, and Axel felt her chocolate-colored eyes boring into his teal-colored own. "Tell Auntie Rinoa all about it, and she might give you a drink on the house."
"Auntie Riinoooa," he grinned, drawing out the last syllable. It sometimes seemed like he was talking to a seven, not seventeen, year-old girl. She was good at hiding her true self.
"C'mon, I want to hear about what happened to you and your bedheaded buddy..." she actually whined. Axel fought the urge to laugh. Bedheaded buddy? That was a very good summary of what Roxas was.
"Later about that," he snorted, blowing a stray strand of fiery red hair out of his eyes. He took the second deep breath. "It's about a girl...I need advice..." There. He said it. He needed help understanding girls. What was the world coming to?
Rinoa raised a mahogany eyebrow.
"I got a heart today, don't look at me like that," Axel paused, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Somehow, that didn't sound right. "Or a shard of heart. Whatever."
"Auntie's listening...!" she squealed excitedly, clapping her hands.
Axel groaned, and laughed all the same.
---------------------
Marluxia wasn't usually the type to spy, yes. Heck, he didn't do the dirty work of surveillance in Castle Oblivion; he had delegated that to a grumbling number Eight, who, by Nobody instinct, betrayed them. Typical.
So he'd call this...uhm. Accidentally-being-behind-the-shelves-and-accidentally-eavesdropping-on-their-conversation. That didn't sound too convincing, but that was the most accurate description of what he was doing now. He pretended to browse a book (never mind that the book was entitled SOLDIER: The Chronicles, and it was amazingly full of grey pages full of text about some guy and his AWESOME long sword and how he kills everybody in a very bloody fashion because of a chunk of extraterrestrial rock...that was something Marluxia's sensibilities were too...refined to read, unless, of course, it involved flowers being used in the slaughter) as he surreptitiously moved closer to the edge of the bookshelf, peering out the corner of his eye.
Bingo. The Emo Kid was silently flipping through some scientific journal, seated across Larxene, who was, as usual, reading Marquis de Sade (in hopes of getting her priestess tendencies under wraps, she confided later). It didn't help that Zexion was stealing glances at her every few seconds, and it didn't help either when Larxene did the same.
He cringed. Larxene trusted him, and he trusted her. He protected her like the sister he never had... or maybe something else. Whatever. Right now all he was interested in was stopping Larxene from reverting; the nymph never seemed fond of Arlene anyway.
Marluxia flipped a page to a particularly gory picture of a spiky-haired guy (which he had the feeling that he had seen before) with the AWESOMELY long sword driven right through his chest. Hm. Somehow, he could picture Zexion in place of the spiky kid, and his scythe in place of the sword.
"Uhm," Zexion cleared his throat. If Marluxia hadn't been so annoyed with the blue-haired scientist he'd be shocked that Emo Kid would actually try to initiate conversation. Or maybe it was his Other talking. Either way, number Eleven didn't like it. "Ah--"
Larxene looked up and tilted her head curiously, a look of innocence on her face and her very long blonde hair (in which she had planned to cut earlier, but was stopped by Zexion himself--another reason to kill him painfully) swaying slightly; a look that in her right mind she'd never use.
Zexion blushed deeply. "Uhm...Ienzo says he's sorry," he stammered.
A few minutes of silence, which consisted of Larxene staring at Zexion, Zexion staring at the marble floor, and Marluxia's fingers itching to summon his scythe and deal with number Six right now.
Larxene coughed. "Arlene says she's happy if you're happy with another girl."
The one visible eye widened. "Ienzo says there was never another girl. He just didn't want you to be in disgrace; priestesses aren't supposed to fall in love."
Marluxia snorted and hurriedly clamped a hand over his mouth; even if he had a heart, he could never get used to the romantic stuff that Somebodies spouted out.
Number Twelve set down her book quietly on the glass table between them. Zexion fingered the page of his magazine nervously, biting his lip as he waited for her to say something.
"Arlene says she'll never forgive you because you lied," she said stoically, staring right into his eye (or it might be his eyebrow, Marluxia's vantage point wasn't the best choice).
Zexion's face fell visibly, and his shoulders slumped. Way to go, Larx! Marluxia cheered silently, doing a little jig with the ancient tome in his arms.
"Ienzo says he knows that, but he wants Arlene to know that she was the last person he thought of before turning Heartless, and that he deserves his becoming Heartless, because he broke your heart. He says he's truly sorry, even if you'd never forgive me."
Marluxia's eyes narrowed quickly; that change in reference from 'him' to 'me' and from 'her' to 'you' was disturbing.
Now Larxene's stoic face fell. "Ienzo...you...you--"
"I loved you too, and I still do. It was stupid of me, really," Zexion told the floor, unable to look straight at the blonde. "I deserved turning Heartless; I was heartless to begin with, to crush you like that."
"Don't say that. Nobody deserves turning Heartless."
Zexion choked on his words. "I-I'm sorry, okay? Words aren't enough--"
"Words are not enough, yes," Larxene's eyes flashed. Was it just Marluxia, or did her eyes look pretty...green as they flashed?
"--never enough, but still..." He said, standing up, pushing the glass table to one side, and falling to his knees in front of an astonished Larxene, head bowed and--what the hell?--tears falling on the marble floor. "Please forgive me, Arlene."
Marluxia felt like throwing up, whether from disgust or from the sheer romanticism of the moment, he didn't want to know.
Silence fell upon them, only interrupted by Zexion's harsh breathing.
"You know the reason why I fell in love with you?" Larxene said softly (and at this Marluxia thought whether she was still Larxene--she obviously wasn't). Zexion snapped his head up, and opened his mouth to speak.
"I--" Larxene put a finger to his lips.
"Just catching a glimpse of you made my day, you know. You were, and are still, one of the persons that strive to make the world a better place to live in..and you have steadfast principles. You're the strongest man I've ever had the fortune to set eyes upon--storng enough to set aside his pride just to apologize..." she murmured quietly. "I'm still mad at you...but I love you too much."
Okay. It took all of Marluxia's self control not to scream in agitation. If he did scream, he'd hopefully ruin the moment and snap the two back to their Nobody personalities--if it didn't, well, the two of them might just kill him and go on with their lives. He needed a Plan (for which he'd search through Superior's trusty filing cabinet later, under 'Nobodies Falling In Love Because Their Others Are In Love With Each Other; Is Love That Much Of A Good Thing?'--Roxas and Naminé had their own folder there, together with Xemnas' laminated lyrics of Kiss the Girl and various cheesy Atlantican songs(a/n: once more, I tell you, do notsue me Disney, you shall get nothing)), a secret Plan in which he'd show them the farce they were actors in.
"Arlene...?"
Larxene knelt on the ground and threw her arms around(and at this point Marluxia had shredded half the book into pieces suitable for confetti) the stunned number Six, crying into his shoulder as she did. A split second later Zexion did the same, only without the bursting into sobs part.
Marluxia 'accidentally' pushed a whole row of books (of no consequence--it was Demyx's manga collection, some of which had disturbing themes not suitable for a kid his age) out of their shelves, ruining what was supposed to be a happy, if not tearful, reunion.
HECK YEAH! WAY TO GO MARLUXIA! "Larxene, I want to show you---cripes!" he faked surprise in a very convincing manner, since he's been faking emotions for the past few years already.
They both blinked and broke away from each other, red sprinkled liberally over their cheeks.
"L-Larxene, I'm sorry, I couldn't keep him under control--"
She shook her head frantically as she backed away slowly. "N-no, stupid Other, sorry Zex..."
"Won't happen again."
"Won't happen again," Larxene squeaked out, before whipping around and grabbing Marluxia's hand and dragging him out of the room, leaving a furiously blushing Zexion behind.
"Larxene, I didn't mean to intrude," Marluxia said innocently.
"Thank heavens you got there!" She interjected in a frightened voice, clinging to his sleeve tightly. "I--She was taking over! Marly! Arlene took over! It couldn't have been me!"
"Larx--"
"I can't love, Marluxia! I'm Larxene, not Arlene! I'm a Nobody!" her voice broke. "I'm Larxene, not her, and I-Im staying that way..."
"Okay, let's talk about whatever happened..." He trailed off as they portalled out together in the general direction of his garden, his mind distracted. Where once sapphire blue eyes stared icily back, brilliant green orbs streamed with crystal-clear tears.
Arlene had green eyes, he remembered.
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"So that's why he looks so...black," Naminé said quietly, fiddling with Roxas' bedspread. It was just then he realized (with scarlet once again spreading across his cheeks) that he had lain down the unconscious girl earlier on his bed, not on hers. And with the paopu-design on his covers (it was on sale; that's why he bought it--never mind that Organization XIII had more munny stored in various banks to count...and never mind that he didn't usually have thrifty urgings to buy paopu-infested bedcovers) made it pretty easy to distinguish his bed from her plain white one. Okay. Moving on to less embarrassing topics.
"And that's why you look so...different," she added, eyeing him up and down.
Roxas scratched his head and lay back (in the space that was occupied by her legs earlier--she had taken to curling her knees and his blanket up under her chin), so that he was lying (it was his own bed) perpendicular to her. "What do you mean by different?"
Well, as far as he knew, he hadn't sprouted horns, and his skin color was the same as before.
Naminé gave an exasperated groan. "You look older."
"As in white-haired older?"
A pillow hit him in the face. "Silly. You look more...sixteen-ish."
He sat back up, bringing his legs up so that he was sitting cross-legged in front of her. "Sixteenish. Is that a word?"
"You do know that Nobodies don't age, don't you?" she asked, tilting her head. "The years must've caught up when you got a shard of heart..."
Roxas leant back and stared at the Nobody symbol engraved on the white ceiling. It reminded him that he wasn't a Nobody anymore--or a full Nobody, for that matter. He still had the ability to portal, and an incredible threshold for pain and fatigue (that he tested, when he had sprinted up earlier the stairs). Whatever. He had a heart...and cripes, he was actually aging!
"Somehow you look..." Naminé giggled. "More handsome than usual, I think. Girls would drool all over you at school on Monday..."
He rolled his eyes, hiding the fact that he only wanted one girl to drool over him, and that she was sitting on his bed and staring at him right now with a forlorn glaze over her cerulean eyes.
Wait; forlorn?
"It's...nice to be sixteen, isn't it?" she asked softly, staring at her hands. "It sucks when you're stuck at fourteen years old..."
Roxas' eyes widened; of course! Since Sora's heart had only shattered into thirteen shards, it had settled into all thirteen Organization members...and inferring from the fact that Naminé still had no shard of her own, he supposed that she had portalled somewhere else. He made a mental note to ask her later, but right now, he was racking his brain on ways to get Naminé a shard...
His eyes lit up suddenly; His and Sora's existences couldn't get any more convoluted than they already were, so he's willing to take a chance. "Did you think I'd allow it that we all have hearts and you don't, Nam?" he asked, bemused.
Her head snapped up and her eyes narrowed. "No way. It's okay for me, you know."
"It might be okay for you, but not for me." He replied. "I hate it when I see you sad."
"What are you planning on doing, then?"
"Doing a repeat of Sora's performa--" He was cut off by another pillow to the face, thrown by a furious Naminé. "What the hell, Nam?"
"I'm not worth that," she breathed. "Besides, I don't think Kingdom Hearts would take it so well if you try and tamper more with its Key's existence."
"Whatever--"
Roxas gulped; in a span of a second Naminé had pounced on him and pinned him to the mattress with her hands, knees besides his waist. He prayed fervently than no other Organization member would suddenly decide to check up on them and portal in. "Get off me, Naminé," he breathed back, although he could have very easily thrown her off--he learnt that girls harbor grudges for far too long periods of time.
"Don't be an idiot." She said sternly, the tips of her bangs hanging down into his forehead, tickling him slightly.
"What do you suggest I do then? Watch you go all moody whenever one of us is around?" he snapped back, his hands automatically reaching up and grasping her waist. Her eyes widened at his gesture but made no other reaction.
"I don't go all moody," she said in a tone of voice that suggested she was being moody right now, but Roxas had the sense not to point it out. "Tell you what. If you're willing, I can split your shard and we can share."
"Somehow, that doesn't sound too safe to me," he answered. "How'll you do it?"
"You told me a certain memory of Kairi is encoded in each shard, right? Well, I've worked with memories for a long time now, and splitting the memory into small pieces is child's play for me (to which Roxas just stared at her blankly; he hadn't the slightest idea what she was talking about). When the memory splits, the shard splits too-- it'll then seek another recipient once it senses you already have a heart-shard." Naminé shook her head. "It isn't safe. Period. So I leave you be then...stop being so stubborn."
Roxas took a deep breath and shut his eyes. "I trust you won't do anything to hurt me on purpose, Naminé. Go on then, split it."
She looked at him skeptically. "You sure? Don't sue me if you end up dead."
"Hurry up before I change my mind," he said through gritted teeth. Being in this close quarters with Naminé made him want to kiss her. Badly. Hey, he's a teenage boy! Hormones were something that came with puberty! But Roxas had learned the art of self-control (which came from being around twelve psychos for long periods of time--especially Demyx and his obsession with bursting into song every few minutes) along time ago--he's not going to lose it.
It didn't help when she gave a mischievous giggle, her big, blue eyes staring straight into his.
Gah! Roxas! Self-control!
"I need physical contact with you," she said. Roxas rolled his eyes; her hands pinning him to the bad was something that definitely fell under 'Physical Contact'.
"On with the splitting thing already; you still have to tutor me in Lifestream Physics--do whatever you have to do."
Naminé shrugged lightly before initiating physical contact--Roxas supposed that was her definition of physical contact. He shivered slightly and his hands involuntarily tightened around her slim waist.
She kissed him for the second time in a span of twenty-four hours.
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"So she has a heart, but her Other's still in love with that creep, I don't know, but Larx's scared, and---" Axel sighed, reaching for the glass of ginger ale that Rino set in front of him. Never mind that he had to have bathroom breaks more than four times the past two hours, in which he had spilled out his entire Nobody-to-Somebody transition to a very sympathetic Rinoa. She was good at that.
"I'm inferring from this that you have a crush on Larxene, yes?" she said innocently, patting him comfortingly on the back.
He couldn't help but choke on the ale--it was a far too uncomprehensible thing for him now; when you have had no real emotions for the past few years things such as crushes and love have far long faded from your vocabulary. He stared as she made the stray drops of liquid clump together and disappear completely. If he wasn't so confused right now he'd watch her miniature display of sorceress power in awe.
"Well?" she asked, impatience tinging her voice.
Axel paused, fingers cool as his gloves wrapped around the glass. "What the hell do you mean by crush, anyway?"
"It means, you admire someone," Rinoa rolled her eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and she continued on scrubbing the bar.
Axel gritted his teeth. Was admiration what he felt (not nonfeel anymore, but real, straight-up feeling) for the blonde girl? Sure, she was definitely a hard opponent (their dueling was a constant source of entertainment for the Organization), and he respected that. But he had a sneaking feeling that admiration went farther than better battle skills--maybe it had to something to do with the way he felt metaphorical butterflies fluttering around in the general region of his stomach?
Emotions, Axel discovered, were a very complicated matter. It made his head hurt.
"If that's what having a crush means, then I guess I have a crush on her," he finally said, truthfully. "Now that I think about it, it's driving me nuts."
"She's driving you nuts," she pointed out. Axel set his ale on fire (how he managed that--he'll find out when Larxene gets out of his thoughts) and watched Rinoa put it out hurriedly with a Blizzard.
"You should learn to control your temper," she told him off, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Whatever...but I think she's..." he paused. Hm. He collected his thoughts for a moment. "--attracted to Zexion, but it's only Arlene who's attracted to Ienzo..."
Rinoa shook her head sympathetically as she set the still-smoldering glass between a pile of dirty glasses in a sink."That's why she's reverting."
Axel snapped out of his Larxene-full thoughts (ignoring the voice in his head that screamed AXEL GET A GRIP ON YOURSELF). "What?"
"She's reverting because somehow, getting a shard of heart awakened Arlene...and Arlene has very deep connections with Ienzo...so it's natural for the both of them to revert," she said thoughtfullly, stroking her chin. She smiled, probably at the blank expression Axel knew he had on right now. "You do get what I'm saying, don't you?"
Axel shook his head. "No."
"Ienzo brings out Arlene, Arlene brings out Ienzo, they finish whatever business they have before they turned Heartless."
He stared at her blankly. No. What the hell did 'finish whatever business' mean? Axel hoped it didn't mean what he thought it meant, because if it did, Organization XIII would be missing a certain number Six at the weekly meeting.
"So..."
She sighed. "I'm sure once that the two fall in love in each other once again, Arlene will refuse to let go. Larxene will be...I dunno, gone forever."
Once again, a blank stare.
Um, hello? Gone forever ring a bell here?
Oh. Gone forever. As in eternity. Oh, okay.
OHMYGOD NO FREAKIN' WAY IN HELL THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
"But I don't want Larxene to go..." he trailed off, something that suspiciously sounded like a sob threatening to burst out of his throat.
"Ah," Axel cringed as Rinoa rapped him smartly on the head. "That's only going to happen if you guys let her."
"I'm sure as hell not going to let that happen," he muttered, mind thinking of the various ways of letting Zexion die a slow, agonizing, torturous, bloody, death. "I'd better get started then--" he cocked his head slightly, remembering he and Roxas had once again stolen number One's hair gel (and an expensive one too--with silvery sparkles), "--and I think the Superior would've found out his hair gel's missing now...I'm gonna warn Roxas..."
Rinoa bobbed her head and smiled, understanding his predicament. She never seemed to get tired of hearing how Organization tried to finish each other off, one way or another. "You know where to portal out, right?"
He rolled his eyes and grinned. "Never forgot. See you around, Rin. Thanks for the advice."
Yawning, he hopped off the stool and raised a gloved hand in farewell. She waved back, smiling slightly as she did. Axel pushed the glass doors open and stepped out into the twilit Market Square, trying to spot the deserted blind alley which Rinoa had pointed out to him long ago. It was where he lost badly to her (and where he swore never to challenge a sorceress again--good thing she she told him she never meddled in their kind of affairs, for fear of being recognized), and it was also where it was the most convenient to open the Corridors.
"I need sleep...I'll kill Zexy the first thing in the morning..." he said aloud, not really knowing why he did so.
Yawning so widely he feared his jaw would dislocate, Axel portalled out.
------------------------
"Tell me again why I have to do this," Naminé said disdainfully, staring at the gleeful (true glee now, kiddies--not borrowed ones) number Nine, whose fingers were poised over his sitar's strings.
He clucked his tongue. "You don't actually. You're only doing this because ever since you woke up this morning, Roxas has been bugging you about teaching him Lifestream Physics," he said, reiterating what she had told Demyx earlier.
She grimaced. Roxas was a pain in the neck when he decided he wanted something...and Naminé had no desire to teach him something when he was too busy annoying her while she did. Ugh. The boy would never learn anything when he was with her.
Naminé blushed unwillingly at the thought of Roxas getting distracted by her. She quickly quelled the thought by remembering that he only felt this way about her because Sora loved Kairi...enough. Think happy thoughts, Naminé. Happy thoughts.
"Congratulations on getting a heart, anyway," Demyx's voice broke her train of thought. Naminé stared at him. He had turned Heartless six years ago at the age of eighteen---now he looked every inch the twenty-four-year-old, but lacked the maturity.
"Thanks...let's get on with this before Roxas gets suspicious."
Demyx flashed her a smile. "Hit the right notes, okay?"
"I always hit the right notes, Demyx," she grinned back, her gaze settling on the bars of music before her. It was an extended version of that song she sang last Halloween (a very memorable one). Taking a deep breath, she sang.
"In you and I, there's a new land---angels in flight..."
She stumbled a bit on the reverse lyrics that followed, wondering why there would be a reverse line in the first place. "My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah..."
She closed her eyes (she had memorized the song anyway, but having the music sheet in front of her looked way more professional--and cool) and her mind wandered...to a topic known as 'The Mystery Of Roxas: Why Do We Like Each Other That Way?'. Ehem. Naminé. Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts! She fought back a groan as she realized her all her happy thoughts had a certain spiky-haired, obnoxious boy in them. Cripes.
"what's left of me, what's left of me now--"
She frowned. Demyx had stopped playing. Snapping her eyes open, she found a grinning Roxas leaning against the wall. Demyx alternated a helpless gaze between her and the Key of Destiny.
Roxas pouted at her. "Tutor me?"
Naminé gritted her teeth; it didn't help that he had repeated those words sixty-seven times since she had woken up today. Taking a deep breath, she proceeded to let him know that no, she had no intention of being stared at for hours on end. ""WHAT THE HELL ROXAS GO AWAY"
He smiled even wider. "You sing good."
She willed herself not to blush. It was then she realized that blushing was something you had no control over. Roxas smirked. "Tutor me?"
"AND NO, I AM NOT TEACHING YOU LIFESTREAM PHYSICS!" she yelled once again. The Organization was awake, anyway.
"But you promised, didn't you?" he asked, giving her the biggest set of puppy eyes she has ever had to bear. She could feel her resolve crumbling.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I--"
"Ah ah ah! You told me so!" he said hastily. "You promised and said alright!"
"Whoa, you never told me you promised, Nam," Demyx said pointedly.
She gritted her teeth (one of these days her teeth will get reduced to nothing as a result of her constant teeth-grinding). "FINE! C'mon Demyx, let's finsh the song already."
Quailing from under her glare, Demyx complied.
"I watch you, fast asleep..."
She squeaked as Roxas suddenly portalled right in front of her, leaning on the black music-notes stand. "Tutor me...now?"
Ignoring him studiously, she continued singing. "All I fear means--"
It was unbearable. When Roxas gave you his puppy-eyes look, it held you and didn't let go until you gave in to whatever demand he had. Yet Naminé was a girl who had determination (Turning traitor to Marluxia did that), and she was NOT giving in. "NO WAY IN HELL RIGHT NOW!"
"Oh c'mon Naminé..." he cajoled further, ignoring the fact that she had yelled just inches away from his ear. "I'm going to flunk Physics if you don't..."
Naminé threw the papers crammed full of notes at the blonde bedheaded boy, irritated beyond the point of reason. "GAH! JUST BECAUSE WE SPLIT YOUR SHARD--"
In a display of Keyblade-honed reflexes and years of dodging indiscriminately fired weapons, Roxas immediately whipped around her and placed a hand (surprisingly glove-free...and Naminé just remembered Roxas had done his laundry today, and his second set of gloves had mysteriously disappeared for the last few days) over her mouth, cutting off her sentence.
"Not so loud, Naminé, if Sora gets wind of this he might go berserk or something," he rasped worriedly into her ear.
Demyx chuckled, watching them bemusedly. As soon as Naminé gets rid of Roxas, she's going to do a little reshuffling with Demyx's memories. She managed to pry off his hand (but not the one around her waist---hey how the hell had she ignored that!).
"OKAY SHUTTING UP NOW," she huffed angrily, spinning around and facing a very calm-faced Roxas. She set about prying his hand off her waist. "GET YOUR--"
She blinked. Roxas had cut her off once again using a way she had never expected (but somewhere in the back of her head was hoping for).
He kissed her, a light peck on the lips. Cripes, he kissed her again. What was wrong with the guy?
"Payback, Naminé," he smiled. "You didn't actually tell me you had to kiss me in order to split the shard."
"I didn't have to kiss you, you know," she pointed out, and his cerulean eyes widened. Oops. She hadn't meant to say that.
Growling, Roxas pressed his lips to hers once again. Naminé swore that never again would she let anything like that slip out...cross her fingers on that. Hey, he was practically asking for a kiss, the way he acted all nervous and blushy when he told her he wanted to share his shard of heart with her.
She closed her eyes and kissed him back, her mind's voice giggling inanely.
-----------------
Axel stared.
Uhm. This was a scene he had never dreamed of seeing.
No, it wasn't Zexion kissing Larxene--he had actually dreamed of that already, but in said dream he---no, too violent to say here. It involved a lot of blood and blue hair, that's for sure.
He had immediately portalled in here as soon as he heard the Wielder scream (most probably, he had just realized that he was a Nobody for good)--Roxas did exactly the same thing when he first arrived here in the Castle That Never Was. Axel expected to find a quivering Sora, but...well, Sora was shaking too, okay. But this was way more different.
The Keyblade Master was kneeling on the floor, head bowed. Now, this wasn't a particularly different scene, if you didn't take into account that the floor he was kneeling on was full of bloody glass shards, some of which looked painfully dug into Sora's bleeding knees.
Okay. Axel. Breathe. He almost choked on the thick scent of blood in the air.
"Wielder, it'd hurt a lot less if you got your knees off the glass," he said in the calmest voice he could manage. Sora looked up, and Axel took an involuntary step back.
Sora had been obviously crying, dried tears streaked the, uhm, normal side of his face. Axel stared at the trail of fresh blood from his Heartless eye. Sure he knew Heartless wept blood, but he never saw one cry. Until now. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to banish thoughts of running away and extended a (fortunately!) gloved hand.
"Come on..."
It was unsettling how Sora stared at him like that, sky-blue eye and yellow Heartless eye fixed on him, unblinking.
"...Aren't you hurt, or something?" He pressed on, wiggling his gloved fingers. "You look just like you did yesterday. With those shards... you should be in serious pain..."
"I'm not hurt, Axel," he suddenly growled, slapping his hand away.
Either he was trying not to make him worry, he was delusional, or Sora had grown immune to pain overnight. First option seemed plausible. Trying to keep the note of disbelief out of his voice, he shook his head. "Don't be stupid; you're bleeding all over."
"I can't feel pain!" He yelled at Axel. "See!"
Before Axel could stop him Sora had lunged for a particularly jagged and large shard of glass, and viciously drove it into his palm. Axel had to close his eyes; although he had dealt more serious injuries before (the sight of his chakram buried neatly into Larxene's side was something he'd never forget), he couldn't bear that ripping sound it made. He waited for the Wielder to scream---none. He opened his eyes to see Sora staring expectantly at him, holding up a bloody palm with the even bloodier shard driven through.
Cripes. And Sora was showing absolutely no sign of excruciating pain...he wasn't joking when he said he couldn't feel pain, obviously.
Cursing under his breath, Axel pulled Sora up (with the non-shard hand, of course) from the floor. "Whatever, I have to get you cleaned up!"
Once again, the brunette (half-brunette, whatever) slapped away his hand from his own (with a strength that almost broke it--ouch).
"What is the matter with you?" He asked, bewildered by Sora's bizaare behavior.
"Why the hell are you here, anyway?" Sora snapped. Axel's eyes narrowed, he didn't like the way Sora was staring at him--it almost looked like he was staring at him with hatred. Hatred? What did Axel do this time?
"I heard you scream." He said, deciding the truth was the best way to go. "Roxas screamed exactly like you did when he first woke up in his room."
He frowned. "So why do you care?"
"Uh, because you gave me a heart?" Axel answered, spreading his palms in gesture. Being the only Nobody (once-Nobody) in the Organization who cared enough to have a best friend made him much, much, more...uhm, caring for others. "And because I want to help you cope with being a Nobody?"
Sora frowned even deeper. He wrenched the glass shard out of his palm, making blood splatter over the floor and Axel's newly laundered coat. At this rate, the kid would be blood-less in less than an hour...not that he seemed to need blood to exist, anyway. "I don't need your help. I'm not even a whole Nobody; for your information I can still feel--"
"...hatred? Anger? That's what Roxas told me," he said in a very calm, un-Axel like voice, hoping to wipe that...snarl off the Wielder's face. Sora was very similar to Roxas in more ways than one--they had exactly the same reaction once they woke up as a Nobody.
"I don't need your help," Sora repeated. "For that matter, I don't need anyone's help; I don't want anyone fussing over me when they've got problems of their own."
"I want to help you, Sora," Axel said firmly.
"No," the brunette crossed his arms. He's going to need a lot of laundry soap to get his clothes unbloody once more...and Marluxia's supply of all-natural stain remover was running out.
"Let me help, just this once," he cajoled, stepping a teeny bit closer (near enough to be convincing, but far enough not to be hurt if Sora decided to lunge)...you won't survive if you walk this Nobody path alone."
"No."
Axel let out an unwilling smile; Thirteen did exactly the same, but he eventually let the pyro help him cope with being memory-less and emotion-less. "Roxas was like that, you know," he related. "But I eventually broke down his walls, and look at him--"
Sora cut him off almost instantaneously."Stop it! I'm not him! Leave me alone!" he bellowed. "Leave me BE!"
"You should know by now that that's not going to work on me, Sora." Axel said, now remembering the technique he used on Roxas--be calm and scare the living daylights out of him at the same time. "Now, Sora--"
His throat went dry. Sora stared at him with a hatred that Axel never knew could actually be felt...was it just him, or was the black...spreading across his face? And why was his sky-blue eye turning--
RUN AWAY, AXEL. NOW. His mind screamed, but his legs didn't seem to be listening.
Sora lunged--Axel had massively underestimated his reach (he really didn't take the Antiform part seriously), and he reflexively summoned his chakram and shot a Firaga at him, covering the boy in fire. And then he remembered--Sora didn't feel pain--
His eyes widened as Sora lunged right through his fireball. "Sora--"
"Axel, are you there--SORA! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!"
The pyro stole a glance from the corner of his eye, not daring to take off his eyes completely from a slowly-turning Antiform Wielder. A very pale Roxas stood at Sora's door, both Keyblades out and ready to kill.
"Ro...xas?" Sora's voice said quietly, and Axel sighed in relief--seeing Roxas seemed to have made him revert back to his half-normal self. The brunette looked unhappily at his forearms--and Axel winced. They were burnt pretty badly.
"Roxas. Don't just stand there with your mouth open--do you have a Potion on you?" Axel said loudly, motioning to the blonde (still mouth hanging open) boy.
He blinked and sprinted gingerly over the glass to Sora. "Curaga."
Axel stared, simply because there was nothing else to do...he had no intention of cleaning up the glass shards--bloody things. The cool green of the spell spread over Sora's peeling skin--and just spread, doing nothing but just...make the room light up with pretty green sparkles.
"Wha..?" Him and Roxas said at the same time, bewildered. Nobodies certainly heal easily...but Sora was Heartless too--maybe Heartless couldn't heal...?
"Uh. Could you please stop staring at me?"
Axel couldn't. It was too unbelievable.
"Man...doesn't that hurt like hell?" Roxas asked in awe, poking the arm gingerly.
Sora shook his head. "Actually, no pain at all."
Thirteen looked ready to faint, unconsciously clutching at Axel's sleeve. His eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Whatever. We have to get you cleaned up."
Sora cringed, blue eye and yellow eye staring up at him pleadingly. "Anyone but Vexen...please?"
OKAY. THIS IS THE KID WHO TRIED KILLING YOU. THIS KID IS NOW GIVING YOU PUPPY EYES. RUN. NOW.
Axel grinned--he really had no choice; Vexen was the unofficial Healer of the Organization (never mind that only happened because he was the only one who had stocked Elixirs that weren't expired). He reached out his gloved hand once more, and Sora clasped it tightly in an icy grip. "Sorry."
Sora gave him a smile--no, a grin. For a while there, all the tiredness from his face faded away, all the pain, all the sorrow...and the original Keyblade Master's goofy grin beamed up at him.
It was a good feeling, to be able to make someone happy like that.
"Axel...Superior found us out again..." Roxas said loudly from behind them. "We're gonna get it when I get back from school tomorrow...I think I'll find a way to land myself in detention or something..."
A/N: Cripes...sorry if it was so long...I got carried away.
For those people asking why Roxas and Naminé were acting all--kissy kissy like, and why Roxas was annoying her so much, and why Naminé screamed right in his face...it's sixteen years' worth of hormones, guys. You ain't got a heart, then bam! You suddenly get one, and you're a boy, and the girl of your dreams just got hers too, and they go...o.O. Whatever.
Why is Sora do darn bipolar? Why is Marluxia so protective? Why does Xemnas have laminated lyrics of Kiss the Girl? How did Roxas actually manage to get drunk on ginger ale?
The world may never now, but right now, I do. Well, except for Roxas getting drunk.
Reviews, reviews.
hikari-aozora(Thanks! Cookies! Chocolate chip this time), Mayab (thanks for pointing that out), Sakura Scout (surprise, surprise on the quote), Maux (glad that was clear), Skitty 2004 (I update twice a week, but on different fanfics...), twilighttries (Now you know how she got a heart. Namine's Plan? Keep on guessing...), Ellie0223 (As I said, it's a very complicated love story -wink- -wink-).
Thanks, guys! Please, review, those people who just read... please?
Next chapter quote:
"You were truly never supposed to exist."
CLUE: No, it's not Naminé.
Ja ne!
