AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Well howdy!

Sorry for the wait on this one. It was back to work for me, after posting like crazy over the weekend, and coupled with the fact that I ran out of pre-written content to upload this took much longer than expected to complete.

Quick shout out to the Guest who left an interesting story synopsis in the review section. I won't be taking you up on it, as I just don't know enough about FF characters and lore to do it any justice (and I have my hands tied by this particular behemoth of a story), but thanks for the suggestion. If anyone is looking for a writing prompt, check out the review section.

Please keep the views, reviews and DMs coming! I love getting the chance to hear from you and see what you think.

On with the next chapter!

CHAPTER EIGHT | A DIFFERENT KIND OF LESSON

Isa's words haunted for days after their excursion to Twilight Town, but despite his best efforts Axel found himself unable to do anything about it. Kairi had taken to their training with a single-minded focus, devoting every waking minute to it. In the mornings they trained with Terra, working on strength and skill as they pushed their bodies to their limits. In the afternoons they would work with Aqua, practicing magic and strengthening their hearts and minds.

As if their rigorous training sessions weren't enough, Kairi had taken it upon herself to squeeze every possible minute out of her day. She would rise early and would be done with breakfast before Axel had even begun. When they broke for lunch she would race through her meal before heading back to the arena to practice her hanshas, and when they finished for dinner she wolfed it down before disappearing to her room to rest, ready to do it all over again.

"You shouldn't worry so much," Terra said one evening and Axel watched Kairi wash her bowls before turning in for the night. "Aqua used to be exactly the same. She didn't want to waste a minute of her training."

"What changed?"

"Ven. Turned up with no memories, barely said a word for month, and Aqua started hovering around him like a mother hen. Once she realised that she could take a break every now and then without it affecting her training, she eased off a little."

But Aqua hadn't had the absence of a dear friend lingering over her, nor had she been trying to heal a fractured heart. His thoughts led him to Ven who shrugged awkwardly when Axel tried to question him about it.

"Honestly, I don't really remember the first few months," he said. "Parts of my heart were missing but I had Sora to make up the different, even if I didn't know it then. I don't think that's the same as what Kairi's going through. Maybe…" He'd hesitated then, watching Axel warily, and it had taken several minutes of prompting before he'd finally confessed what was on his mind. "I think she feels weak. After everything that happened to her in the Keyblade Graveyard, I think she's trying to make up for it."

The explanation was closer, but it still didn't quite explain the ceaseless determination with which she attacked every new challenge or her incessant need to always be doing something. It was something stronger than desire – akin, perhaps, to obsession – and that particular train of thought took him towards Roxas and Xion (and, given that he video-called them on Roxas' phone, Naminé).

"Is she eating and sleeping?" Xion had asked.

"Yes. Both. A lot. I don't know where she puts all that food, she's so small." Xion laughed.

"Sounds like she's working it all off again, which would explain why she's sleeping so much too," she answered. "You're overthinking again. She's just working hard." He let out a sigh that was equal parts anger and frustration.

"I know what Kairi's like when she works hard and this isn't it. We spent months training together, remember?" He tapped his temple, more from habit than anything else. Xion arched an eyebrow at the gesture. "This is more than just hard work." Roxas had leant in to view then, leaning across from where he was teaching Namine to fly the ship.

"If she's still eating and sleeping then she's doing better than you were," he said firmly. "I know what you're thinking, Axel, but when you were spiralling it became pretty obvious pretty quickly."

"What do you mean?" Roxas and Xion shared an uncertain glance and he rolled his eyes. "I'm a big boy, I can take it. Be honest with me."

"You stopped taking care of yourself," Roxas answered. "Eating, sleeping… showering… You were a mess."

"Ouch."

"Hey, you wanted honesty." Axel pursed his lips thoughtfully. Kairi was still taking care of herself, even if she was working a little harder than she used to. Then again, she knew what she was capable of now… perhaps it was just a fervent desire to reclaim everything she'd lost.

"Naminé? What do you think?" The phone was jostled as Roxas took control of the ship, allowing Naminé to appear on Axel's screen. Her lips were pursed and pulled thoughtfully to one side (to the right; the same as Kairi). She placed a hand over her heart and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

"I'm too far away to really feel anything, so I can't say for sure," she began, "but I know her heart. She's determined and probably a little frustrated that she's having to start from the beginning again, that's all." Roxas' laugh filtered through the phone's tinny speaker.

"Man, if only she knew how many times Sora had to start over," he quipped. Xion turned to look at him.

"Maybe we should tell her?" she suggested. "If she's concerned about losing her strength and worried about getting it back, maybe hearing about Sora might help."

"Maybe, but we don't want to upset her if we make her think about him." His face appeared in the corner of the screen. "Axel, has she mentioned him yet?"

"Nothing," he answered with a sigh. An idea struck him and he lifted a thoughful eyebrow. "Say, Naminé, do you have any of her memories from after the fight with Xehanort? Do you know what happened to him?" Naminé shook her head slowly.

"I couldn't say," she answered. "I'm sure when Kairi is ready to remember, she'll tell us. Until then, we need to be patient." Axel sat back against his bed with a defeated sigh.

"Maybe we won't mention Sora just yet, but it's worth considering if she doesn't ease up soon. She'll hurt herself if she keeps it up for too much longer." Xion nodded as Roxas and Namine disappeared back to the ship's controls.

"I guess the best thing any of us can do for now is just be there for her," she said. Then, with a small smile: "She'll get through this, Axel. She's going to be okay."

He'd been unable to get to sleep after that, and in the early hours of the morning after several hours of pacing fruitlessly back and forth he'd finally given up. He shrugged his way in to his jacket to stave off the early morning chill and made his way outside, following the familiar path down towards the edge of the world where the grassy plains gave way to a seemingly endless void below. There he sat, watching as the deep navy blanket overhead began to give way to lighter shades of blue as the stars began to fade from view.

"Where are you, Sora?" he breathed, watching the words turn to steam in the pre-dawn air before they faded entirely. When Axel had been with the Organisation it had seemed as though Sora had possessed some inherent knack for turning up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes he'd seemed to pop up out of the blue, suddenly appearing on their radar when they least expected him, and it had been somewhat of a mad scramble to put on a show and pretend that they'd known he was coming the whole time. Axel almost expected him to just appear – half-expecting to turn a corner and to find him just there, grinning that stupid grin of his that looked so much like Roxas it used to make Axel's fledgling heart ache. Axel leant back in the grass, blowing another breath of steam out towards the stars.

"You can come back, y'know," he murmured. "Any time now. Kairi really needs you."

Because if there was one way to get Sora to do something, it was Kairi. Axel had known it well-enough when he'd hunted her down in his search for Roxas. He shouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was a too-way street; that the easiest way to get Kairi to do something was for or because of Sora.

Until now, at least. He'd always been able to get a rise out of her during their training ("Giving up already? What would Sora think…") but now was different. He'd tested the water several times, mentioning his name here and there when it was just the two of them and she might have felt safe to share something – anything – about what she knew. And Axel was convinced that she knew something, however small. Amnesia was a convenient excuse, especially when it took away any obligation to explain her scars or her bruises or the new skills she had mastered since they had last trained together (skills that Axel remembered Sora being very adept at, like sliding dashes and dodge rolls and that twirly thing he did with his keyblade). Over the past few weeks it had been easy to come to the conclusion that Kairi knew more than she was telling them but that she was willing (or, perhaps, unable to share).

Or perhaps she had forgotten, left only with a gut instinct like when Axel had forgotten Xion. He'd always remembered to buy that third ice cream, even though staring at it had brought him no small amount of confusion and an overwhelming sense of loss. Perhaps that was all she had. He thought back to Castle Oblivion and to the tricks the Organisation had been able to play on Sora's memories and the memories of those connected to him. What if… His eyes shot open as a thought bubbled to the surface of his turbulent mind. What if someone had erased Kairi's memories of Sora, leaving behind less than a trace of him. Riku had said that Sora had been obviously missing from her Heart Station, after all; what if-

A distant CRACK brought him from his thoughts and he spent several minutes trying to figure out what the hell it was. The noise was familiar somehow but impossible to place. He heard it again, echoing towards him on a breeze and closely followed by the sound of something (rocks, perhaps?) tumbling to the ground. A third time and he allowed curiosity to get the better of him; he dragged himself to his feet with a shiver and turned towards the sound. As he honed in on it, he heard the distinctive ring of a keyblade and felt a blush of magic in the air. He summoned Heart's Flame, letting the flickering blade illuminate his path as he picked his way back up the bluff in pursuit of the source.

He found himself overlooking the area, and it didn't take him long to find its sole occupant. Kairi was darting around the arena with ease, summoning pillars of ice only to hack away at them. The pillars cracked loudly before they crumbled, though the chunks of ice had barely begun to melt before another erupted beside them. Every now and then she would summon a pillar on the opposite side of the arena which she would strike down with magic. She wasn't quite as strong as she had been before their fight with Xehanort, but in a few short weeks she'd managed to make considerable progress and spells that had been just out of reach were now squarely within her grasp (even if they did take a bit more out of her than they used to).

As the first rays of sun peeked over the horizon he made his move. He darted from column to column, keyblade in hand, and when she finally eliminated his hiding place he was ready. Heart's Flame met Destiny's Embrace with a deafening clang and her eyes popped at the sight of him.

"Morning," he drawled with his best grin. She staggered backwards, her keyblade disappearing in a shimmer of sparks.

"Axel…" she breathed, lifting a hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead. "What are you doing up this early?" He arched an eyebrow and folded his arms.

"I could ask you the same question."

"I like to get up early," she answered. The remaining pillars of ice began to crack and weep, sparkling like diamonds in the light of the rising sun. Kairi turned away from him, waving her hand towards them; they fell instantly with an ominous rumble and began to quickly melt in to the grass.

"There's early," Axel replied, "and then there's up-before-dawn. You did get some sleep last night, right?"

"Of course I did," she said turning back to him with a bright smile. "I've just been so tired lately that I've been going to bed early, and then I just wake up early."

"And it didn't occur to you to just… sleep in?" She rolled her eyes, flashing him the half smile that he'd missed so much.

"It's like you don't even know me," she laughed.

I feel like I don't, he thought, and he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying it out loud. The girl in front of him seemed like a shadow of her former self; a smile here and a laugh there plastered over chapped lips and hollow cheeks. He stretched and knit his fingers together behind his head in an attempt to remain casual.

"You ever think about taking it easy every once in a while?" he ventured. "You've been pushing yourself pretty hard since you got back."

"I have a lot to catch up on," she answered. "You're practically a Master already; I've got a ways to go if I'm going to beat you to the title." He smirked.

"And you think you stand a chance?" She pursed her lips, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"Well if it was anyone else then I might be a little worried, but it's just you." Her lips curled in to a smile and he found himself grinning.

"Oh it's 'just me' huh? Let's see what 'just me' can do!" He leapt at her, hands outstretched, and she jumped to the side. Destiny's Embrace reappeared with a flash and she pointed it towards him as he turned to face her. He tilted his head and frowned as Isa's words circled back through his mind. Even in a friendly tackle, her first response was to reach for her keyblade. "Say, Kairi, did anyone ever teach you how to defend yourself? Without your keyblade?" She watched him for a moment as though expecting another attack. He shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched a little, and she dismissed her keyblade.

"Not really," she answered. "Selphie used to attack people with a skipping rope, so I kind of learned how to do that when I was a kid. The others used to have wooden swords and I tried to play with them a few times but I was never any good."

Weapons. Children's toys though they might have been, they were weapons nonetheless.

That keyblade might as well be worthless if she cannot at least defend herself without it.

Isa had a point, of course. He and Axel used to roughhouse as kids, and whilst Axel wasn't exactly willing to initiate a fistfight with anyone he knew he stood a fair chance of at least walking away from it. Kairi had no such experience.

Isa's right, he thought. None of us should have been able to kidnap her like we did.

"C'mere, I want to show you something." She hesitated and he smiled. "I wanna teach you how to look after yourself without any kind of weapon." She frowned.

"But why? If I have the keyblade I'll be okay." Now it was his turn to frown and he couldn't help but wonder if her memories of her final battle had somehow been affected too. She flushed in the silence that followed and hastily added: "I know I'm not as strong as I used to be but I'm faster now. If I just keep training-"

"Then consider this a part of your training," he said firmly. She gave him a funny look and he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm sorry, it's just… I don't want to see anyone take advantage of you like – like I did." He stopped himself short, wary of stepping on unspoken memories. She lowered her gaze and rubbed at her wrist – the same wrist Xemnas had grabbed and used to drag her through his portal – and after a moment she looked up and nodded.

"Show me."

He started with something simple (if only because he couldn't stomach the thought of holding her like that ever again). After first outlining the most vulnerable places on the body – eyes, nose, throat and groin – he showed her a basic hammer strike. At first she practiced on him, striking his arm, though it was barely more than a light tap.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said when he challenged her to try harder. After a few different ideas they finally settled on summoning more pillars of ice. Kairi winced every time she hit one, though she didn't complain about the cold. By the time the sun had risen fully over the distant hilltops, she could reliably shatter a pillar of ice thicker than Axel's neck.

"We should head back inside," he suggested. "The others will be getting up soon and I don't know about you but I'm starving and I need a shower." With a wave of his hand the remaining pillars of ice fell, and he followed it with a wash of fire to help them melt in to the grass. The ground was sodden, despite the fact that they hadn't had rain in several days, and Axel found a strange sort of pleasure in the satisfying squelch that his shoes made as they traipsed back towards the castle.

Someone was awake and moving around the kitchen. Aqua, most likely, though neither of them stopped to check. Instead they made their way back upstairs. Kairi's room came first, and before Axel could carry on down the hall she had thrown her arms around shoulders and buried her face in his neck.

"Thank you, Axel," she said softly. "You always seem to know exactly what I need."

"That's what friends are for."

Despite bumping in to each other again on the way to the showers, Kairi was still halfway through breakfast by the time Axel arrived. She offered him a small smile, but despite the occasional rubbing of the outside of her fist there was little clue that anything was out of the ordinary. She certainly gave no clue that she'd been up since dawn, while Axel found himself stifling a yawn more often then not. He munched his toast slowly, wondering just how often she'd been getting up early to train. It was no wonder she always went to bed so early.

Eventually they were joined by Ven who apologised for oversleeping (for the third time this week) and wolfed down his breakfast before hurrying to help Terra with the dishes. Aqua meanwhile headed down to start setting up equipment for the day, and Axel volunteered to join her. They made their way to the stairs in silence, though Aqua was quick to speak as soon as the heavy door closed behind them.

"You were up early this morning," she said lightly. He chuckled nervously, feeling as though he'd been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Yeah… couldn't sleep," he answered.

"I saw you training with Kairi," she continued.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to step on your toes on anything-"

"Don't be," she said with a smile. "What you're doing is important and often overlooked. If I'm honest, I think I took for granted what I learned from growing up with Terra and Ven. I didn't even think to include it in any of our plans, and now I see I don't have to." A heat rose in his cheeks and he rubbed at the back of his neck to keep it from spilling in to his ears.

"Thanks… I think?" She laughed and he grinned. They stopped near one of the training dummies and Aqua quickly began uncoupling the existing weights. He stood nearby, ready to take them off her as soon as they were free. "So why were you up so early?"

"I usually am," she answered. She handed the first weight to him and he tried his best not to groan as she lowered it in to his arms.

"Is this some kind of a girl thing?" he asked, if only to cover up how much he was struggling. He lowered the weight down several paces away and picked up a (thankfully smaller) replacement. "Kairi said she's usually up early most mornings too."

"I know," Aqua replied, easily lifting the weight from his arms and attaching it to the training dummy. Axel blinked, surprised at the revelation.

"You do?" She nodded and finished the last fastening before swinging the section around to reach the next arm.

"I've been keeping an eye on her as best I can," she answered. "I mentioned it to Terra but he thought I might be overreacting, so I didn't do anything about it."

"He said the same to me too," Axel said as she lowered the weight in to his arms. He took it to the pile and brought back its replacement. "Roxas and Xion said I was overthinking again."

"But you don't agree." It wasn't a question, and the way she was watching him from the corner of her eyes said she knew the answer already. He sighed and folded his arms, ducking as Aqua swung the dummy around to reach the next arm.

"I just think there's more to it than we're seeing," he admitted. "I mean she's always been determined to the point of being stubborn sometimes but this… I don't know what this is. I mean I know she's gotta be feeling frustrated to be starting over again, but it almost feels like…" He couldn't quite find the right word. Desperation, perhaps? Despair? No, that wasn't it. More like she was racing, working harder than ever to become as strong as she could in the shortest time possible. Aqua paused, her hand settling over the coupling and staying there for several long minutes. Eventually she turned to look at him, though she spent several minutes studying him before speaking.

"Do you think we should worry?" He pursed his lips and folded his arms, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he tried to decide how to answer.

"I don't know," he finally huffed, letting his arms fall heavily to his sides. "I feel like there's something we're missing… Maybe Xion was right and I'm looking for problems that aren't there."

"It doesn't mean we shouldn't look," Aqua murmured. "If Ven and I had been looking more closely at Terra then he might have avoided Xehanort's influence, or maybe we would have at least have seen it coming. There's nothing wrong with looking out for your friends." She uncoupled the weight and lowered it down to him and he quickly exchanged it for another.

"I can't lose her again," he said, handing the new weight back to Aqua. She nodded and opened her mouth to say something but her attention was drawn by the castle door swinging open. Kairi, Terra and Ven appeared on the staircase with Ven walking backwards as he regaled the others with some energetic tale. Aqua turned her attention back to the dummy and fastened the new weight before hopping back down to the grass.

"Leave it with me," she said. "I'll see if I can think of something."

A little shorter than usual, but we're finally addressing something that has been on my mind for a while. Obviously for a video game like the Kingdom Hearts series it doesn't necessarily make sense to have melee attacks when your mystical magical weapon can be summoned anywhere anytime, but from a narrative perspective watching Kairi get dragged through a portal again just made me so mad that I knew I had to address it.

So what do you think? Has Kairi forgotten Sora, or does she remember? And is she just eager to reclaim her strength, or is there something else at work? Place your bets – it'll come to light soon enough.

See you next time!