For Day 15 of the Kingdom Hearts 3 Countdown Challenge - The Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air)

Lea was never really sure how to talk to Kairi outside of their training. The whole "I kidnapped you" thing kinda put a damper on their interactions, and Kairi had every right to avoid him, really. He'd apologized for what he'd done, but if there was one thing he'd learned, it was that all the words in the worlds couldn't change the past.

But that all changed the day she came up to him after practice.

"Axel?"

"Yeah?"

He'd stopped bothering to correct other people when they used his old name. He'd gone out of his way to make sure they all had it memorized, after all. And for whatever reason, he didn't really mind when Kairi called him by it.

"Are you busy right now?"

"Well, unless going to get sea-salt ice cream counts as being busy, no. What's up?"

She clasped her hands behind her back. "I want you to teach me how to use fire magic."

Lea raised his eyebrow. "Merlin's lessons aren't doing it for you? Better not let him hear that. Remember the last time I pissed him off? He turned me into a frog and made me train all day like that."

She giggled, and he cracked a grin.

"That was pretty funny, you have to admit," she said. "Frogs were never meant to have red hair."

"Frogs were never meant to have hair at all."

"No, they really weren't." She paused and fiddled with the necklace around her neck. "Actually, though, I'm asking because I need more practice. I have to be ready when the time comes. Merlin's taught me a lot, but fire magic's your specialty. I figured it couldn't hurt to get some pointers from you."

"Fair enough." She was right, it was his speciality to the point he'd kinda neglected other types of magic.

Speaking of which… while he favored fire magic, she was good with stuff like Water and Blizzard. This could be the perfect chance to round out his skills a little more. He might not be an assassin anymore, but some old habits just died hard. Staying on top of the competition was one of them.

And… he had to be ready for when he saw Isa again.

"In return," he said, "will you show me how to use other types of magic? Like Water, Blizzard…"

She nodded. "Sure."

As they went back to the training room together, Lea couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, this was the first step towards undoing all the hurt he'd caused.

It would be a long uphill battle, but he was on the side of light now, and he was determined to prove he deserved to be there.