Well this didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, and I'm glad for it cause I really liked how this one turned out! To be honest, I think the dynamic between Kairi and Lea in KH3 is really cute, though I kinda wish the game had explored it a bit more (namely how it got started) so I figured that's what I'd use this chapter for. So yeah, its a bit of an interval chapter, though it will be important for development and such later on (because believe me, I plan on utilizing both Kairi and Lea a LOT more than they were in 3 (hell, ESPECIALLY Kairi like... seriously... wtf happened there?) Anyway! With that outta the way, I see no reason to not get started! Enjoy! ^_^


Chapter 7: Destiny's Embrace

You're only everything I've ever dreamed
Ever dreamed of, ever dreamed of

For as long as she's been able to remember, whatever life Kairi might have led prior to her arrival on the Destiny Islands has been a complete and utter mystery to her. Her memories of her birthplace, the first few years of her life in general, had been washed away by the very same tide that had landed her on the island's sunny shores. The only piece of fleeting knowledge she had carried with her there had been her own name. And for the longest time, the absence of those essential memories, of a home, a family, friends, anything else she might have once known, had created a deep, almost aching emptiness within her heart. An emptiness that, in time, had been filled by new memories from the new life she's come to lead. By the sound of the surf washing onto the sand, by the way the pale glow of the moon would illuminate the small, peaceful village at night, by the seagulls and sand crabs and paopu fruit hanging from the lofty palm trees. By the mayor and his family, who had kindly taken her in and lovingly raised her as their own. By Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. And most of all, by Riku and by Sora.

And yet… the moment Kairi steps foot into the shining city known as Radiant Garden, she knows. This is exactly where she had come from.

A sudden, strong spark of familiarity that ignites inside her heart within seconds of stepping foot into the city's central plaza is undeniable. Though the memories of her childhood here are still distant shadows locked away in the back of her mind, Kairi is confident that she's walked these cobblestone streets before. She has a connection to this place, to her home, her real home. And the suddenness in realizing that connection is more than enough to rattle her to her core. She lets out a shallow breath, her eyes wide as she presses up against one of the courtyard's shorter walls, a hand pressed against her head as she tries to remember something, anything else about her former home.

And yet… the only memory that stirs is that of a woman's voice, kind and gentle, followed by a burst of warmth centered around the very same pearl necklace Kairi still wears to this day. "I just cast a magic spell on you," the woman's voice says, her image all but indiscernible in Kairi's practically faded memory. "One day, when you're in trouble, the light within you will lead you to the light of another. Someone to keep you safe."

Kairi's gaze drifts down to the charmed necklace, her fingertips grazing it ever so slightly. She still has no idea who the woman in her memory is, but she can't help but feel as though her spell had rung true. Because for some reason or another, it had led her away from this place and to the Destiny Islands instead. To Sora and Riku. To someone who had kept her safe.

"Excuse me, are you all ri—oh! Kairi?! Is that you?"

"Huh?" Kairi is broken out of her thoughts, realizing that she'd slid down to sit against the wall. Focusing on the present once again, she notices a young woman, clad in pink, with long, braided brown hair, her face filled with concern as she kneels down in front of her. A face that, after a moment or two, Kairi recognizes from her rather brief stint in Traverse Town well over a year ago now.

"Aerith!" she exclaims with a surprised smile, not hesitating to embrace the older girl. "It's great to see you again!"

"Same to you," Aerith chuckles warmly, returning the hug before extending a hand to help Kairi up. "Look at how much you've grown! What brings you here to Radiant Garden?"

"I'm actually here to train to use my Keyblade under Merlin the wizard," Kairi informs.

"Oh, so you're the other pupil he mentioned earlier!" Aerith grins. "Well, in that case, it'll be great having you around here for a while."

"Thanks," Kairi returns her smile. After all, it's comforting to know that there will be familiar faces around to help, even in some small way, ground her amidst the uncertainty she's still facing in the daunting new regiment she's about to undertake. "Actually, Aerith, could you maybe point me in the right direction to Merlin's house? I… don't really know my way around here anymore…"

"Say no more. I'm actually heading there myself," the older girl turns to head off, beckoning Kairi to follow. "The other members of the committee will be finishing their own rounds soon, but we'll probably still be the first to make it back."

"Committee?" Kairi asks as she walks alongside Aerith through the calm city streets.

"The Radiant Garden Restoration Committee," Aerith explains. "For over a year now, we've all been working hard to rebuild our home to the way it used to be. There's still plenty of work to be done, but for now, Leon says we've been making pretty good progress."

"What exactly did Radiant Garden need to be restored from?" Kairi wonders, eager to learn more about her former home.

Aerith's expression turns sad at this as her gaze drifts over to the castle towering high over the city's smaller homes and shops. "Several years ago, this world was overrun by Maleficent and her endless army of Heartless."

"Maleficent?" Kairi interjects, familiar with the name. "Isn't she that witch who captured me and the other princesses?"

Aerith nods gravely. "She came here completely without warning. We fought to protect the town the best we could but… it wasn't enough. She took over, and Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and I were some of the only survivors that made it out alive. It wasn't until Sora and his friends defeated Maleficent that we were able to take our home back and start rebuilding it."

"Oh," is all Kairi says, even though her thoughts are practically exploding upon hearing all this. She isn't positive, but she has a strong suspicion that the fall of Radiant Garden is somehow tied to the reason why she'd been inexplicably cast out of her former home in the first place. She doesn't know how exactly, or why her memories would have been stripped away from her when Aerith's seem to be completely intact, but it makes sense, given that it had been enough to drive most of the city's other residents out. Still, that doesn't explain how she'd ended up in the Destiny Islands in the first place, but she figures that's a question for another time. Another question she has to add onto the countless others she has about the place she used to call home.

For now, their brief travel through the town comes to an end as they reach a seemingly small home tucked away between several others. However, upon venturing inside, Kairi is surprised to see that it's much more spacious than it appears to be from the outside. A large computer mounts the wall on one end of the main room, a round meeting table filling out the center and still leaving ample space for several bookshelves and other collections of various items. She marvels in silent wonder at the almost impossible space as she follows Aerith into it, realizing that aside from the two of them, no one else seems to be there. Until….

"Ah, Aerith, there you are! First to arrive back, as usual. I trust your patrol went well?"

"Yes, it did, Merlin," Aerith responds dutifully to the wizard's apparently disembodied voice. Confused, Kairi looks all around for any signs of him, though sure enough, Merlin himself soon materializes before them in a burst of colorful magic.

"There, that should do it!" the wizard exclaims, mostly to himself as he brushes a bit of sparkling dust off of his shoulder. "Forgive me for the abrupt appearance, my dear, I was just putting the finishing touches on the training grounds for our soon-to-be Keyblade trainees."

"Speaking of trainees," Aerith smiles as she steps out of the way. "I happened to find one of them while I was out on patrol."

"Well, what a spot of good luck that was!" Merlin excitably exclaims as he steps forward to shake his newest pupil's hand. "You must be Kairi. I've been expecting you for quite some time now, though I don't blame your relative tardiness on you. Yen Sid does have a terrible habit for rambling for far longer than necessary, which I'm sure was exactly what he did before sending you off here."

Kairi almost laughs at the wizard's bout of witty humor, though she holds it back in favor of maintaining the proper respect for her new teacher. "I-I'm very glad to meet you, Master," she says with a humble bow. "It's an honor to be training under someone as wise and powerful as yourself."

"Oh, huff to all that puffery!" Merlin scoffs with a wave of his hand. "You don't have to be so formal around me, my dear. Just calling me Merlin will suffice."

"R-right," Kairi nods, somewhat embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Now, now," the wizard says with a good-natured smile. "I can tell you're feeling a bit anxious about this undertaking, but fret not. It's been quite a while since I've taken any pupils under my tutelage, but I can assure you that I am nothing if not a fair and competent teacher. And from what I've heard of you thus far, Kairi, I'm sure you'll be quite a receptive, model student. Why, by the time we're through, I guarantee you'll be well on your way to becoming a true, bona-fide Keyblade Master!"

This assurance does the trick in finally setting Kairi at ease. Ever since Yen Sid had tasked her with training, she can't deny that she's been awash in worry over it for far more reasons than one. She only has the barest knowledge of how to use her Keyblade, and even then her abilities with it are basic at best. She's nowhere near the level that either Sora or Riku are on, of that much she's certain. And though she wants to strive to accomplish the strength they both know, she can't help but fear that she never will. After all, she's already so far behind both of them, weak and under-skilled, a novice through and through. She'll certainly have her work cut out for her to even just become competent with her Keyblade alone, much less capable of matching either of them in a fight. But to hear Merlin voice his vote of confidence in her so early on gives her just enough hope to think that maybe starting from the bottom and working her way up to the top might not be so difficult after all.

And yet, before she can thank the wizard for his kind words, Kairi is all too quickly reminded of the other major misgiving she has when it comes to training. And that misgiving arrives the moment the door suddenly bursts open behind her.

"Alright, gramps," Lea trudges into the house, shooting Merlin a disgruntled glare. Kairi winces the second she sees him, realizing he's hardly changed from his Nobody days, to the point that he's still clad in the Organization's uniform black coat and all. "I've been looking all over town for that portal you opened up, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere! What gives? Is this some sort of a secret test or something?"

"No, actually, it wasn't," Merlin points out patiently. "The errand I sent you on was for the sole purpose of finding and bringing your fellow pupil here."

"But…" Aerith interjects with something of a wry grin. "It looks like I beat you to it, Lea. Sorry."

Lea prepares to fire back a sarcastic retort, though he immediately stops short the moment he spots Kairi standing stiffly beside Aerith. Surprise flashes across his features, and it's enough to make Kairi think that maybe he hadn't been informed of who he'd be training with. She finds it grimly amusing, just how caught off guard he seems to be, and if the circumstances weren't what they are, she might have even laughed. But instead, she regards him stoically, her face a mask of apathy to hide the rush of dread merely standing in the same room as her former kidnapper alone brings her.

When Lea finally speaks, his usually cool tone falters into something that, if Kairi didn't know any better, she might have mistaken for anxiety. "Oh… Uh, hey, Kairi," he greets with a small, somewhat halfhearted wave. "Long time no see, huh?"

Kairi takes in a deep breath, her lips pressed into a thin line as she keeps a cold, scrutinizing gaze on him. She knows that he isn't a Nobody anymore, nor does he carry any further ill will towards her or her friends. But as far as Kairi is concerned, that's all just hearsay. Because when she looks at Lea, she still sees Axel, the man who had kidnapped her, who had dragged her away from her home again, all for the sake of hurting one of her closest friends. And even if all that's all said and done and in the past now, Kairi still can't help but harbor some mistrust towards him all the same. Mistrust that won't be put aside so easily, even if they're expected to work together now. "Yeah," she answers flatly before pulling her sights away from him altogether.

Lea seems to start at this, almost as if he wants to say something else to her, though he doesn't get much of a chance to before Merlin intervenes. "Well, it's good to know the two of you are already acquainted with one another!" he exclaims brightly, clearly not knowing exactly how they're acquainted in the first place. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check over the area I've prepared for the two of you to train in one final time. In the meantime, the two of you can take this opportunity to catch up with each other. Be back in a jiff!" And with a simple wave of his wand, Merlin disappears in a puff of magical smoke to do just that.

"And I should probably go out and find Leon and the others," Aerith remarks as she begins to head out herself. "They're usually back by now, unless they got held up by something. Either way, I'll see the two of you around!"

Kairi almost speaks out to ask Aerith to stay out of nerves alone, though by the time she decides she doesn't particularly want to be left alone with her former kidnapper, the older girl had already stepped out the door. An uncomfortable silence fills the room almost immediately, with Kairi quickly diverting her attention towards a nearby bookshelf in an attempt at distracting herself away from Lea. She hopes that the next several minutes until Merlin's return can pass in that silence, but of course, Lea can't just leave her well enough alone like she would have preferred.

"So…" Lea begins, leaning against the nearby wall as he tries to put on a casual front. "How ya been?"

"Fine," Kairi answers tersely, forcing both her expression and her tone to be steady and unyielding. Even if that's essentially the exact opposite of how she's feeling right now.

"You feel like you're up for this whole training thing?"

"Mm hm."

"You really think that crazy old coot can actually teach us anything when it comes to Keyblades?"

"Yes."

Lea's coy smile finally drops as even his attempt at reaching Kairi through humor fails. In fact, his attempts at striking up an actual conversation in general seem to be getting him nowhere as she barely even spares a single glance over at him. So instead, he decides to go with a route he isn't entirely used to taking: being genuine. "Ok, look," he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna be completely honest here; nobody told me the two of us were gonna be training together. If they had, then… Well, maybe I might be more prepared to try and tell you what I already told Sora awhile back: I… I'm sorry."

Kairi's frigid manner is finally broken through at this, mostly from just how much it surprises her. "W-what?" she asks, finally looking over at him fully.

"I said I'm sorry," Lea huffs once more, clearly swallowing his pride. All the same, his expression is earnest, perhaps even a bit remorseful as he expands on his initial apology. "Ya know, for the whole… capturing you thing. To be honest, I've sorta been sorry about it ever since I did it."

If you really had been sorry, then you wouldn't have done it in the first place, Kairi thinks crossly upon hearing this, though even so, she says nothing as he continues.

"But since I can't really undo any of it now," Lea frowns, scratching the back of his neck as he looks down. "I want you to know that… I regret a lot of things that I've done in the past. And what I did to you is pretty close to the top of the list." He pauses for a beat as he crosses his arms, still clearly not satisfied with what he's struggling to say. "Just figured I'd lay all that out on the table before we get the ball rolling here. So… are we good?"

Of course, Kairi doesn't answer right away as she continues staring at him, trying to wrap her head around everything he'd just said. In her few, brief past encounters with Lea—or rather, Axel, at the time—she'd only ever seen him act callous and arrogant and cunning, a personality befitting one of Organization XIII's cold-hearted cronies. And yet here he is now, standing before her showing guilt, remorse, sincerity—things that, even despite her still-lingering uneasiness, Kairi can't truly doubt the genuineness behind. Yet even so, she still isn't sure if she has it in her heart to forgive him, especially when she remembers exactly why he'd kidnapped her in the first place. The fear and danger he'd brought to her was one thing; but the fact that all of it had happened simply out of Axel's malicious attempt to use her to get to Sora, to hurt Sora, is what Kairi can't look past after just a few mere words of supposedly earnest regret.

And she's more than prepared to tell him exactly that too, with all of the honest, pent-up frustration and anger she has to give. Or at least she intends to… until both of them suddenly disappear into thin air entirely without warning.

They reappear just as quickly, though when they do, they find themselves in what feels like a different world from the wizard's house entirely. The pair now stand within a vast, dense forest, with large, lush trees stretching scattered for as far as the eye can see, their wide branches reaching up towards a cloud-speckled blue sky. The entire wood is drenched in silence, no birds singing or crickets chirping as only the gentlest of breezes rustles the leaves of the trees. It's quite a beautiful place, though all the same, something about it feels strange, ethereal almost, and their abrupt arrival is more than enough to leave both Lea and Kairi with plenty of curious questions right off the bat.

"What in the world…?" Lea mutters incredulously as he looks around.

"Where are we?" Kairi wonders, though her question doesn't hang in the empty air for too long before it receives an answer.

"A marvelous question, my dear!" Merlin's voice suddenly breaks through the otherwise quiet wood. The wizard himself is nowhere to be found, something that only bewildered his two new pupils even more as he begins to explain. "Behold! Your very own training grounds, created by yours truly, of course. In this magical realm, time stands completely still, which means that you'll both be able to hone your skills and abilities with almost no time at all passing in reality itself. It's quite brilliant, don't you agree?"

"So what? We're just supposed to hang out here, knocking our Keyblades against a bunch of trees until you decide we're pros at it, gramps?" Lea asks, flashing a sardonic smirk as he calls back to the unseen wizard.

"I'd watch that sharp tongue of yours if I were you, my boy," Merlin says, far from fond of his student's playful teasing. "You'd be much better off saving that cutting wit for the battlefield instead. Let that be your first lesson."

"Excuse me, Merlin," Kairi cuts in much more politely. "But I'm afraid I don't really understand either. What exactly do you want us to do here?"

"Why, I figured that would be quite obvious," Merlin says. "Training grounds are for the purpose of training, are they not? So here, you'll both have ample time and space to do just that. In fact… I see no reason to not give the two of you a… running start, so to speak…"

The pair exchange a quizzical glance as the wizard's tone turns almost ominous. They quickly realize what he means, however, when out of nowhere, a sizable horde of Shadows springs up from the ground, surrounding them both instantly.

"Are those… Heartless?" Kairi gasps as she takes a frightened step back away from the twitching creatures.

"Mirages of a weaker subset of them, yes," Merlin muses from wherever he is. "But still, they should prove to be a suitable test for me to gage the level of your current abilities. So, let's see what tricks both of you have up your sleeves! And remember: I'll be watching!"

"Greaaat…" Lea deadpans as the Heartless begin to move in. "As if this whole thing couldn't get any more creepy. But no problem; this is just a little case of pest control." He smirks as he calls forth his pair of chakrams, hot sparks already bursting around them in anticipation for the battle ahead.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Before Lea can lash out, his usual weapons suddenly disappear in two puffs of smoke almost as soon as Merlin speaks out. "I'm afraid there is a strict policy against using any weapons ASIDE from Keyblades in this realm. After all, that's what you both are here to learn how to wield in the first place, correct?"

"Ugh… you've gotta be kidding me, old man…" Lea groans, exasperated as he takes up a weaponless defensive stance instead.

"Keyblades…" Kairi repeats thoughtfully to herself as she looks between the pair of Heartless inching towards her and her own hand. Slowly, she reaches forward, recalling the same movement she's seen Sora and Riku pull off to summon their own Keyblades many times before. And yet, despite pulling all of her focus into getting her own weapon to materialize, for some odd reason, it refuses to appear.

Lea faces a similar issue, for much like Kairi, he's only ever summoned his own Keyblade once before. The effort and subsequent lack of a response frustrates him even further, to the point that he ends up simply kicking one of the Heartless that leaps at him first away with his boot. Still, it hardly keeps the creatures as bay as they persist towards the pair, neither of whom really have any actual means of defending themselves against them without their Keyblades coming to them.

"This is stupid!" Lea finally shouts, glaring up at the sky. "How are we supposed to fight these things if both of our Keyblades are no-shows, huh, gramps!?"

Surprisingly, Merlin doesn't offer a response, not giving either of them any sort of hints on how to proceed through this perilous exam. So instead, Kairi decides that there's only one immediate option left for them now: running.

"Forget it!" she exclaims, pushing her way through the horde of shadows to break through their wriggling line. "Just come on!"

Lea doesn't argue as he follows after her, effectively fleeing from the Heartless as they run deeper into the forest. Of course, the creatures make sure to give chase, diving into the shadows and speeding after them, forcing them to run even faster just to outdo them. Neither of them have the faintest idea as to where they're going, and even if they did, the forest itself seems to constantly shift and change all around them, disorienting them even more. Eventually, the trees maneuver themselves in such a way that it ends up cutting their escape off, trapping them between a tight thicket of trees on one side, and the encroaching group of Heartless on the other.

"Tch, cornered," Lea scoffs, scowling the Heartless down as they both cautiously back away from them as much as they can. "Got any more brilliant ideas over there?"

"Hey, at least I had an idea!" Kairi counters harshly. "I guess we're just… gonna have to fight them with our Keyblades!"

"Oh, yeah," Lea rolls his eyes as he holds his hand out. "Because summoning a Keyblade out of thin air is just soooo easy and-" He cuts himself off with a gasp when, completely out of the blue, his fiery Keyblade suddenly flashes into his grip just in the nick of time. "Well, I stand corrected," he remarks, a brazen grin crossing his features as he poises his weapon to attack. "Now we're talkin'…"

Without any further hesitation, Lea rushes forward, haphazardly swinging his Keyblade at the opposing Heartless. There's little skill or finesse to his movements, but his brute-force attacks still manage to get the job done in downing several of them, even if still more come to take their place. All the while, Kairi simply stands by, watching Lea fight with an increasing sense of rising frustration. In truth, she finds she's angry at several things all at once: at Lea for being able to summon his Keyblade with such ease, at herself for not being able to so much as even call upon hers, at this test as a whole for proving just how much of a disadvantage she's really at. In that anger, her hand twitches for a Keyblade that won't come to her, for strength she's never really had to begin with. For a chance she knows it is all too swiftly starting to slip away from her completely.

Her anger does little but serve as a distraction, however, as one of the Heartless suddenly rams right into her legs. Its claws sink into her skin, leaving long, painful cuts just before the creature shoves her to the ground. She gasps when she sees it reeling back to go in for another attack, one that she can only narrowly shield herself from when her Keyblade still won't come to her, despite her silent, desperate pleas for it to appear.

In the end, though, the Heartless' swing never hits her as a flaming Keyblade slices cleanly through it just in time. Kairi's heart sinks when she glances up at Lea, only to notice the broad, infuriating grin on his face as he extends a hand out to help her up. "You ok?" he asks.

It's a question she refuses to even acknowledge, however, as she picks herself up off the ground, brushing the dust off her skirt as she glares away from him. As she realizes even more how unfair every single part of this situation is, how unfair it is that she's here, training with someone like him, someone who already has experience in a fight where she has none, someone who caused her and her friends so much unnecessary distress. Someone who's already excelling where she's stuck in the same place, just as she always seems to be.

Her face is hot, her hands clenched in tight fists at her sides and her bitter glare set down at her feet, to the point that she doesn't even see the new flock of Heartless rising up all around them. Nor does she pay Lea much mind when he readies his to take care of them. "Aw, c'mom, gramps, you could at least give us a second to catch our br-"

Lea stops, shocked, when he hears Kairi let out a furious shout behind him, one that echoes across the entire forest. In a flash almost too quick to catch, a colorful weapon appears in her hands, and with that weapon, she doesn't think, she acts. Her fury and resolve pushes her onward, her deep desire to prove that she's far more than someone always in need of rescuing guiding her swings. The most Lea can do is stand by and watch, jaw dropped, as Kairi cuts through the crowd of creatures with a sort of savage severity he could have never expected from her. Severity that's more than enough to wipe out just about every last Heartless unfortunate enough to get caught up in her furious path.

As for the stragglers, Lea decides to take them on as soon as he shakes his surprise off. He falls in line alongside Kairi, both of them staying back to back as they round out what's left of the surrounding Heartless. They don't communicate a single word to each other in the ensuing brawl, but they still manage to cover each other quite well, even if their swings are uncalculated and their maneuvers unskilled. And after what feels like ages, they finally wipe the pestering horde out completely, marking the end of their first, admittedly arduous test.

"Well now, I'd call that a wrap!" Merlin announces across the wood as the pair finally pauses to rest. "For beginners, I must say that you both performed admirably, though you certainly have much to learn in the art of the Keyblade. Fortunately for you, that's what I'm here for! All the same, I'll give you both a generous pass on your first exam. And might I add that you two make a surprisingly handy team! Training together will do both of you a great deal of good, I can already tell. For now, you may return to my house at your leisure. I look forward to seeing you both there!"

A bright portal soon appears just a few feet away from the pair, one that's no doubt meant to take them out of the forest and back into reality. Kairi absently turns toward it, though her focus is largely set on the weapon resting lightly in both her hands. She stares down at Destiny's Embrace with a bitter frown, hating it's frustrating stubbornness, hating its fragile appearance, hating how she doesn't feel like she deserves it to begin with. For Sora and Riku and even someone like Lea, wielding a Keyblade seems to come so naturally. So why isn't it anywhere near as easy for her?

"Hey," Lea speaks up, stepping in between her and the portal with a small grin. "Nice moves back there. I guess that save I lent you before you leapt into action finally makes us even from before, don'tcha think?"

Kairi lets out an appalled scoff at this, her still palpable fury practically skyrocketing upon hearing this. In her rage, she can scarcely even think of anything to say to her former kidnapper. She wants to tell him just how wrong he is, how nothing he can say or do will ever make up for what he put her through in the past, to scream at him with the simple message that she'll never, ever even think of forgiving him. But in the end, she's far too furious to even put any of that into words, so she does the next best thing instead. She slams her Keyblade into his gut as hard as she possibly can, throwing him back into a nearby tree in the process. The blow doesn't leave a cut, but it does knock the wind out of him as much as the suddenness of it outright scares him.

And as Kairi turns on her heel and heads through the portal without sparing him another word, Lea can only think two things: that Kairi is not one to be underestimated and… that he has a long way to go before he can even begin to fix the mess he'd been foolish enough to make with her.


Kairi's grateful for the few hours of solitude she's given following that first bout of training. It gives her not only a chance to settle into the room Merlin gives her to stay in, but a much-needed chance to simmer down as well. She's always had something of a temper, a temper that's sometimes even been enough to put Sora and Riku's infamous stubbornness to shame. It's something she knows she needs to work on, especially after the kind of outright violent outburst she'd had today. But each time she thinks about who that outburst had been aimed at, she can't help but think that he might have deserved it after everything he'd done.

In an attempt to finally get her mind off of anything even remotely related to Lea, Kairi decides to get some fresh air. She discovers a way up onto the roof of Merlin's house through an open window, and decides to climb up to the top of it to enjoy the sight of the sun setting over the city. It's mid winter, yet the weather here is far from cold, something Kairi is grateful for as she finds a suitable spot to watch the sun's dying glow hang over the streets and buildings down below her. It's only as she lets out a small, tired sigh that she quickly realizes she isn't alone.

"Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting to get any company up here," Lea says from his spot atop the dormer behind and just a few feet below Kairi. She jolts when she glances back to see him, a flicker of frustration sparking within her as she prepares to get up and go back into the house. At least until Lea rushes to stop her. "You don't have to leave," he insists, his tone steady and calm. "I was about to head back inside anyway. I just wanted to get a good look at how much things have changed around here. It's been years since I've been back home. You could say I'm sorta nostalgic, as weird as that sounds."

"...Home?" Kairi speaks up, unable to keep her curiosity quelled. "This… is where you're from?"

Lea nods, the smallest hint of a bittersweet smile on his face. "Yeah. I barely recognize it now though. I heard it's been through a lot since I lived here. Looks like that's something I have in common with the old place."

"...So do I," Kairi mutters in spite of herself. "This used to be my home too…"

"No kidding?" Lea glances up at her. "I thought you were from the Destiny Islands."

Kairi shakes her head. "Sora and Riku are, but this is where I was born. Not that I really remember much from when I used to live here."

"Tch, you aren't missing much," Lea turns his sights back onto the city just as the sun sinks below the horizon. "This place is a major bore. Least that's what I always used to tell Isa."

"Isa?" Kairi asks, curious.

Lea jolts at this, clearing his throat as he rushes to change the subject for some reason. "Er, uh… n-never mind."

Kairi raises an eyebrow at his sudden discomfort, but she doesn't push the question any further. A brief beat of somewhat awkward silence passes between the pair, though Lea doesn't waste too much time when it comes to filling it. "Y'know, Kairi, I'm still pretty sore where you swung at me earlier," he begins, mustering a small, somewhat wry smile as he holds a hand over his torso. "If I'm being honest, I didn't really know you had it in you to hit someone so hard."

Though he lets out a light chuckle, Kairi's expression darkens, a small burst of her former frustration briefly filling her as she crosses her arms and scowls in the opposite direction. "If you're expecting me to apologize, then I'm not going to," she asserts, her tone serious and stern. "In fact, I'd say you deserve even worse after what you did."

"...Ouch," Lea flinches, rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess I had that coming. But you might wanna flip the script there. I don't want you to apologize. I want to apologize to you."

"...Oh really?" Kairi retorts, trying to mask her surprise behind cynicism.

"I know, I know," Lea raises his hands. "You don't think I'm serious. But I am. I know what I said before the old man so rudely interrupted us earlier wasn't the best attempt I could've made, so I figured I'd give it another go. I really am sorry about what I did to you. I know it's not bound to be easy for you, but… I still hope you might forgive me for it eventually, even if that's not any time soon."

Silence settles between the pair once more as Kairi tries to take all this in. She doesn't look at Lea, instead focusing on the stars appearing in the dusky skies above. When she does speak, her words come out calmer than she expected them too, her tone slow and calculated as she takes in a deep, steadying breath. "You're right," she begins curtly. "It won't be easy for me to forgive you. Not after you chased me away from my home and tried to use me against my best friend. I sat alone, confused and afraid in some dark and empty cell for days because of you! And now, you just… turn around and act like none of that means anything anymore!" Her tone turns uneven at this, her anger starting to rise again, despite her best efforts of keeping it under control. But she can't help it, not when she knows everything she's saying is something he deserves to hear. "Everyone says that you've changed and that you want to help us and that you're a "good" person now, but why would I ever buy that?! How do I know you mean it when you say you're sorry?! What makes you think I'd ever even want to forgive you after how much everything you did hurt me?!"

Lea finds himself stunned, to the point that he can't even speak in the seconds that follow. Kairi takes a moment or two to catch her breath, brushing a few stray scarlet locks behind her ear as she stands to take her leave. "You know what? Forget it," she mutters coldly, crossly. "I thought I'd be able to deal with this, but I can't. I'm going to tell Merlin to send me home." She hangs her head, shame slipping into her tone as she prepares to head back inside. To leave the one and only chance she's ever had to make an impact behind, all because she knows she isn't strong enough to handle it. Because she knows she's never been strong enough to do anything.

"Whoa, hold on," Lea quickly counters, standing as well. "You're really gonna quit on the first day? Over this?"

"Might as well," Kairi shoots back, not even sparing him another glance. "I'm sure you'll make a much better Keyblade wielder than I ever could anyway."

"Says the girl who left a huge bruise across my stomach," Lea argues, an edge of fierceness in his tone. "Look, I get that you're mad, and that you probably hate my guts, but that's no reason for you to give up when you've clearly got a ton of potential. Heck, if it's really gonna bother you that much, then I'll go."

"W-what? No!" Kairi exclaims, every bit as flustered as she is annoyed. "I-I don't-that's not what I want!"

"Then what do you want, Kairi?!" Lea huffs, quite frustrated himself by this point. "Whatever it is, I'll do it. Just give me a chance to try and set this right already, will you?!"

"Why should I?!" Kairi's practically yelling now, not caring about anyone down on the streets below that might hear her. "Why should I give you any kind of chance when I don't even know why you decided to just come along and uproot my life in the first place?!"

"You wanna know why? I'll tell you why!" Lea's tone is harsh, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, fists that are only a few short seconds away from bursting into fury-fueled flames. "I wanted to get Roxas back, ok?! That's all I've ever wanted, ever since I let him run away…" His anger quickly burns itself out into dull embers of remorse. He runs a hand through his crimson locks as he morosely looks away. "Not that any of that means anything to you. I mean, you don't even know who Roxas is, so-"

"I know Roxas," Kairi interrupts, not adding that she doesn't know him particularly well. Outside of one brief, chance conversation, the most she knows of him is that he's Sora's Nobody, but she could have never guessed that he might have had history with someone like Lea. A very close history, from the sound of it. "But… I still don't understand what you wanting to get him back had to do with me…"

"...Now that you mention it, it really doesn't make much sense, does it?" Lea sighs, sitting back down on the dormer once again. "Then again, sense wasn't something I had much of back then. I'm pretty sure losing that kid drove me half crazy. Crazy enough to come up with a hairbrained scheme that, if I'm being perfectly honest, probably wouldn't have even worked. See, Roxas is Sora's Nobody, so, I thought… I thought that if Sora lost his heart…"

"…I-it would bring Roxas back?" Kairi finishes, shuddering at the thought of Sora losing his heart again. Even so, her tone starts to soften as soon as she hears the sheer longing in Lea's voice when he speaks about his lost friend. This is a side of him she's never seen before, a despondent, downright vulnerable side that she finds she can't truly be angry with, no matter how much she wants to be.

Lea nods, though he shakes his head soon after. "It was a dumb plan. The only reason I got you involved was because I knew you'd be more than enough to lure Sora in. But then Isa—I mean, Saïx had to go and stick his nose where it didn't belong and—everything just got screwed up from there. Though I guess, looking back, the whole thing was pretty screwed up in general, huh?"

"I can't argue with that…" Kairi frowns, rubbing her arm as she returns to her spot on the upper edge of the roof.

"Wanna know the worst part of it all?" Lea asks, setting his sights upward to the now night sky. "For the longest time, I tried telling myself that what I was doing was what Roxas would have wanted. It was the only real way I could justify it all to myself. But… knowing what I do now, I don't think that could be any further from the truth."

Kairi once again finds herself at a complete loss for words, without the slightest idea of how to respond to any of this. She'd never really considered any sort of personal motivation behind Axel's actions before, and until now, she'd never cared to. She had always just assumed he had been acting on the orders of the Organization he had been a part of, a loyal servant to their twisted ends through and through. And yet… what he'd done hadn't been for any of them, but for Roxas instead, for a friend he'd lost and had been so distraught and desperate to get back that he'd been willing to go to any lengths to make it happen. When Kairi tries to mentally put herself in his shoes, when she tries to imagine what she'd do if she were to lose Sora or Riku in an equally awful fashion… she can't say she wouldn't have gone to similar lengths to see them again herself.

And as the thought dawns on her, so too does another. She still isn't willing to go as far as outright excusing the slights Axel or Lea or whoever he is now made against herself or against Sora for that matter. But she is willing to admit something she couldn't have imagined coming to terms with before now. That perhaps, in all her close-minded anger, she's been believing that she's been dealt an unfair hand in having to train alongside him, without even realizing that she's been treating him unfairly all the while.

And really, all he's asking for is a chance. Is she really so petty, so stubborn, so heartless to deny him something as simple as that?

"Ax—Lea," Kairi quickly corrects herself, her tone even and sincere. "To be honest, I… I'm still not sure if I'm ready to forgive you just yet."

Lea lets out a small sigh at this, his tone forlorn, yet accepting all the same. "Kinda figured that much. I can still leave if you-"

"I already told you, I don't want that," Kairi cuts him off. "I just… I think what I really want most is to just… move on. I've always been the one Sora and Riku have had to save, and I'm so sick of that. I want things to be different this time; that's why I'm here. To learn how to be strong enough to save not just myself, but my friends if they ever need it."

"Well, for what it's worth," Lea begins, offering her a genuine grin, pointing to his midsection one more. "Based on that bruise I mentioned earlier, I think you've already got a pretty good head start."

Kairi isn't able to hold back the brief laugh this sparks, one that she surprisingly doesn't recant on, much to Lea's slight surprise. "You know, Lea, I hate to admit it, but… you aren't really that bad when you aren't going around trying to kidnap people."

"Gee, thanks," Lea deadpans with a wry smirk.

"I mean that," Kairi insists, her tone turning a touch more serious. "Still, just because I'm not forgiving you yet, doesn't mean that I'm not willing to meet you halfway. Which means… I'm willing to be part of the 'handy team' that Merlin said we make," she extends a hand out towards him, offering him a small, if not somewhat reserved smile. "That is, if you're up for it."

"One thing you should know about me," Lea's grin widens as he meets her hand in a solid, solidifying shake. "Is that I'm up for anything. Got it memorized?"

"Yeah," Kairi chuckles, amused. "I do."

Lea is all but ready to share that laugh with her, though his levity quickly fades out as their handshake ends and he looks up at her again. An odd sense of concentration fills his expression as he stares at her in newfound, scrutinizing silence, almost as if he's searching for something in her face. Kairi catches onto his tight focus rather quickly, to the point that it doesn't take long for it to make her uncomfortable and prompt her into speaking up about it.

"Um… what are you looking at?" she asks with a confused frown.

"H-huh?" Lea blinks, shaking his head. He quickly regathers his bearings, tearing his gaze away from her as he clears his throat. "Uh, i-its nothing. I just… I could have sworn I saw…" he trails off, his brow furrowing in thought before he shakes his head once more. "Huh. Guess I forgot, whatever it was. I'm sure it'll come to me later."

"Uh, ok then?" Kairi raises an eyebrow as Lea stands once more.

"It's getting late," he says, stretching as he lets out a yawn. "I dunno about you, but all that training has me beat. I'm turning in for the night. See ya in the morning. Unless… you really aren't up to staying after all…?"

The air of playful teasing in his tone isn't lost on Kairi as she decides to take the hand he offers to help her up this time. "One thing you should know about me," she quips, matching his coy manner quite well. "Is that I'm also up for anything."

"I'll make sure to get that memorized then," Lea laughs as he leads the way back into the house. Kairi can't help but hold her newfound smile as she follows after him, finally easing up a bit for the first time since she left the islands. It's strange really, to think that she'd started this day seeing Lea solely as a past member of Organization XIII, as someone who couldn't be trusted and didn't deserve to even be associated with. But now, through some twist of fate or stroke of luck or something else entirely, they've reached something of an amicable armistice, a place that's both peculiar and peaceful all at once. In truth, she isn't sure how she fully feels about her former kidnapper turned training partner, at least not yet. Only time will tell if she'll ever truly allow herself to be completely comfortable around him, but in the meantime, what they've established for now is enough. For the sake of their all-important training, for the strength she still strives to gain, and for her own peace of mind, it has to. And maybe, just maybe, somehow it actually will.

They're not friends, and they're not enemies, but some bizarre middle ground between the two. A middle ground that Kairi can't quite fully figure out as she trails after the same person who had once chased her, captured her, and caged her. A person who now, seems truly repentant for all that at more, a person who's ready to make amends, who's come to her seeking forgiveness she's still not sure when or if she'll ever give.

But for now, what she is willing to give him is the same thing he's given her: a start. A small start, but a meaningful one all the same. One that she's ready to do her very best to get memorized.


So yeah! Sorta kicking things off between these two! Fun stuff! I do plan on going back to them every so often to see how they're progressing, so in those chapters we'll get to see not only more interactions, but more of the Restoration Committee for any of ya'll who are into those FF character (idk I don't know anything about FF lol) Anyway, I was gonna make this chapter a good bit longer by cutting back to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but I figured I'd keep the focus on Kairi and Lea here, so we'll see what they're up to next time around, perhaps even take a little trip to Twilight Town? ;) Please don't forget to leave a REVIEW letting me know what you think. Until next time! :)