A/N: HELLOOOOOO everyone! What a rough month it has been, and it's been killing me not to update but I think I'm satisfied enough to share this one now. Also, I mention someplace called the "Nox Arbore" pretty early on here, and if you go to my facebook fanpage I will be uploading a very rough concept sketch of what that place would look like. The link is in my profile, but here it is again: /shinseikakumeiART - so please LIKE (and share? 3) for cool updates and stuff. Not sure if I'll upload the picture tonight since I'm submitting this at the last second before having to go out somewhere LOL enjoy though!

Chapter VII: Fragility

Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl
Frozen in the headlights
It seems I've made the final sacrifice

"Phew!" Zee sighed with shortened breath.

She had run to the Nox Arbore after putting Sunny down in bed – she was determined to follow up with Zexion. It would be wrong to ditch him without a word of notice, right?

"Hm?"

Zexion looked up from the thick book he had been reading through with a curious hum. He nodded to himself with a slight smile, telling himself "oh right, I agreed to this..." With his face down turned, he took one last glance at his book and he closed it slowly. Once closed the book evaporated into a dark mist, reappearing on one of the shelves that lined the room.

The Nox Arbore was one of the more luxurious locations in the castle, and it was all Zexion's. The members all had their own places in the castle that catered to them, in addition to the standardized rooms. These places would construct themselves after a new member joins, the castle itself reacting to a new presence... or non-presence rather. Funny how spontaneous creation comes from the power of Nothing in their world. These are places that had entrances grouped together in The Proof of Existence, where each marker bore a symbol – typically an image of their unique weapon – related to each member. These markers acted as portals that gave fast access to all members at once, and only Xemnas (and Saix, since he's administrative too) had access to it. See, for the sake of privacy these rooms and the routes to them were protected from undesired invasion by dark corridor, leaving other members to have to travel by foot to get to these places. The member that the room "belonged" to was permitted to warp in there though. Not even their bedrooms had this kind of security! This is why the administrators were the only ones who had the means to enter any of these places via Proof of Existence and travel as they please. But in a case such as this, Zexion had given permission for Xirena to enter preemptively.

For example, Luxord has a reasonably sized casino which he aptly named Lucky Luxord's (what it's "official" name was is unknown). Xigbar is a frequent customer there, along with low-level Nobodies like Dusks and Dancers... it was rare that other members showed up to piss their hard earned cash away. Another brief example is The Void of Reverie, belonging to Xirena. But right now, we were in Zexion's space. His room was almost organic looking – it had a single tree with dark bark and black leaves in the dead center of this circular room – the walls nothing but bookshelves – and the tree was home to the perfect spots for comfortable reading. A single beam of light from above illuminated the high-ceilinged chamber, which constantly offered the ideal amount of light for reading. Most of the tree's roots were seen above ground, dipping under every so often. This created labyrinthine paths which spread outwards and all the way to the walls, the "dipped under" points being the equivalent of doorways. Once they reached the edges of the room, the roots were completely out of sight, which created a good space to stroll along up against the bookshelves. The roots weren't HUGE, but they were sizable enough to make it inconvenient to try and climb over them. They also worked as a categorizing system for Zexion's library... one path leads to (x) type of book, another leads to (y) type of book. It wasn't exactly practical, but it made for a neat aesthetic... there was also the fact that Zexion could summon the books to him, but sometimes he liked to take the manual route and stroll around his library.

It was calming.

"I wasn't sure you'd still be coming." Zexion spoke as Xirena jogged up to him and the tree, "It's getting late, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but I still wanted to!" Xirena chirped excitedly

"Good." He said as he stood up, "I didn't want it to be an obligation, so I'm glad to see you came out of your own interest and desire to learn."

Xirena was nodding her head shortly but quickly, unblinking as she listened to her senior member. He gestured to a good looking spot against the tree.

"Make yourself comfortable and I'll find something to read."

The morning following a late night is punishing enough, but for someone who is most often in bed at the proper time, it was double brutal for Xirena. She hadn't stayed up super late, but Xirena's eyelids were heavy all the same. Regardless, she got off to a bit of an unsettling start... There was a strange weight on her abdomen that certainly was not there when she went to sleep. Her first thought was being sick, but with what? Once her eyes opened she saw the cause... Sunny was sitting on her stomach, equipped with a piece of paper in her mouth.

"Oh hi Sunny... good morning..~!" Xirena said wearily, raising a hand and stroking the pig's back.

Sunny's spring-like tail wagged in delight, but she knew she had a job to do. Sunny rose to her hooves after taking a moment to bask in the affection and let the paper in her mouth fall onto Xirena. With a satisfied oink, Sunny turned and hopped off her master and onto the bed.

"Hm?"

Xirena propped herself up on her elbows and lifted her upper body to see what Sunny had given her. It was a folded over piece of paper – now with a wet spot on it from Sunny's mouth – and it looked like it might have been written on.

"A secret note?!" She exclaimed.

It took less than a second for Zee to propel herself up fully and cross her legs to sit comfortably. She wasted no time in unfolding the paper, eager to see what kind of message she received. Her big eyes scanned the words, slowly and carefully.

Yo,

I forgot to mention last night, the clock tower's a bust so just meet me at home from now on. It's going under construction or something... We can just chill in our rooms until we find a cooler spot. Just knock on my door and if I'm not there, I'll find you.

-AXEL!

This message was the definition of short, sweet and to the point. Xirena nodded at the paper, then proceeded to fold it back up in the same way that she received it. She hopped out of bed with unexpected pep and walked speedily to her desk, where she opened a drawer and carefully placed the note inside. There wasn't much else in there, just that star charm she had when she was found. Seeing it now the shape of a star triggered a flood of longing, as opposed to feeling nothing at all when she saw it. But this wasn't an "emotion" she had "felt" yet in her life. She smiled faintly at the two items that now occupied the drawer, then slowly pushed it closed.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Axel was already out working. He was still making his way through the dark corridor, but in truth he wasn't in a hurry. He stood in poor posture and hands shoved deep into his pockets, and a strained look on his face that indicated his distressing deep dive into his thoughts.

"Tch. You've done it now, man." He spoke to himself, "The BEST view? I never even paid attention to the damn skies enough to know which ones are good and which ones aren't!"

He wished there was a rock, or anything really, to go and kick to take out his frustration on. But no, darkness up, down and all around.

"Great job. A+ work Axel." He continued sardonically. His tone of mocking disappeared when he spoke out again, "I'll never be able to do that... I just c- WAIT A SECOND."

He abruptly came to a halt. He straightened out and pulled his hands out of the deep pockets of his coat, with the purpose of using one to slap himself on the forehead as he shook his head slowly.

"Why am I even worrying about this..." He said darkly.

He tried to dispel the thoughts that haunted him the previous night and every moment that morning. Whenever he made this effort though, Zee's face of grief when he told her they had to get rid of Sunny flashed in his mind – obscuring his efforts at policing his own thoughts. It was a face he never wanted to see again; a face that he didn't want to be the cause of ever again. He huffed and rolled his eyes, trying to move back into his unfortunately desired but contrived state of mind. Part of him knew, however, that he wouldn't be able to let go of his building anxieties as easily as he hoped to.

He was a man on a mission, literally. He couldn't have thoughts as distracting as his were during work hours. As much as he hated work and welcomed the small distraction here and there, this wasn't cool. Axel was so lost in himself that he didn't notice how hard he was clenching his fists, or how tense in general he was. The red head let out a loud grunt and shook himself loose, moving on...

Xirena was thrilled to be sent to Wonderland again. She was determined to find those flowers and pick one up to show Axel. The dancer sprinted out of the dark corridor, followed later by Xigbar – who didn't exactly share her enthusiasm. He was another one late on waking, so he got stuck with the doofus. The scarred man yawned and stretched his arms above his head.

"What's the deal, Bubbles?" He said mid-yawn, and letting his arms fall sloppily back down to his sides.

Xirena stopped and turned to her mission partner, who stared at her with his one eye – looking rather unimpressed, even though she hadn't explained herself at all yet.

"I... I'm looking for something." She answered with an uncharacteristic lack of confidence.

"Are you?" He sneered condescendingly, "Just go get the mission done, then you can go look for whatever you want, I don't care."

"Oh ok." She nodded, "But where will you be?"

Zee had come to understand Xigbar well enough to know that he never does any work. He goes on personal missions to find the best place to take a nap, and given his high rank in the Organization, nobody seemed to care and he never suffered any consequences for disregarding his work.

"Dunno yet." He shrugged.

"Oh ok... But what do I have to do again?"

Xigbar groaned.

"Recon mission, Bubbles. There's supposedly an unexplored part of the forest so YOU gotta go check it out." He reminded her. Xigbar then shooed her with both hands, "Chop chop, get going now."

"Yes sir!" She exclaimed.

She ran off into the wild unknown of the forest, making sure to look for those flowers as she went. Zee planned on going back to where she found them originally – if they were gonna be anywhere, it'd most likely be there – but like Xigbar said: the mission comes first. Xirena was determined to get it done as fast as possible, but kind of neglected to ask Xigbar WHERE she had to be searching. With no idea where to go, the time spent on work just increased. Xirena grew more and more frantic as she went deeper into the forest, parts of the world she herself hadn't been to yet... the fear of the unknown was slowly and steadily rising within her.

She didn't slow down, in fact her anxiety just fueled her as she ran... and with no knowledge of the forest beyond the few spots she'd visited, she REALLY didn't know where to go – everything was new and yet to be explored to her – she had no clue where the mission objective was hidden.

Fatigue slowly began to take her at this point, Zee knew she should stop and take a break for a moment. But she ended up stopping much sooner than she anticipated...

BAM!

Xirena had impacted something and went tumbling across the ground, but it happened so fast that she didn't see what it was. It couldn't have been a rock, she surely would have seen that. Face down in the dirt, the poor girl was filthy after the unexpected rolling across the ground. Dirt and dust clung to her clothes and hair, with a patch of it on her cheek. She carefully sat up and looked around – her vision was blurred, but she saw a purple blob a few feet away from her. She blinked over and over to get the clarity of her vision back, the figure getting clearer and clearer as she did...

"A... monkey?" She murmured.

Yes, a purple monkey, somewhat larger than a "normal" simian – but other than that, there wasn't anything fantastical about the little guy. It's head bobbed up and down, back and forth – with his long tail almost matching his head movements. The monkey cooed quietly and started to approach Xirena.

"Are you who I tripped over?" She asked.

She swore the monkey nodded, but this creature seemed a lot less sentient than Sunny was. Regardless of whether his nod was a true response or not, he was indeed what Xirena tripped over. He had run out of the bushes and right into her path, somehow evading harm unlike the one who he tripped. Perhaps it was the animal's lack of self awareness is why Xirena felt like she was communicating with him. The animal suddenly looked to the left and went stiff and quiet, so of course Xirena followed along. The two were staring at a wall of thick reeds that were as tall as your average tree – there was nothing apparently remarkable, surely the monkey must know something Xirena doesn't. The purple monkey quickly glanced back at Xirena and then darted into the sea of reeds.

Xirena stood up, disregarding her filthiness, and without a thought chose to follow this animal. She stepped in front of the giant plants, forcing her hands between them and parting the reeds enough to pass through. She followed the sound of rustling ahead of her, which she was convinced was due to her monkey friend. It was no easy task edging her way through this thick wall of reeds, and as they went deeper it got darker and darker. Fear brewed within her again, but Xirena trusted her unseen guide. Then, a faint blue light appeared beyond the reeds, getting brighter and brighter the closer she got. After a few minutes, Xirena clumsily stumbled out of the reeds.

This place, it was so dark that it had to be some kind of cave. A very nicely hidden cave, what with all the plant-life guarding it. The source of the blue light was now clear to her; on the other side, the opposite wall of the cave, were what looked like a bunch of butterflies all grouped together. Xirena's eyes lit up with curiosity, completely eliminating any fear left in her. Eyes straight forward, she made her way to the butterflies – which seemed to stir once she got close. The girl stopped a respectable distance away, not wanting to scare them off. But these butterflies were intrigued by this new visitor, evident when three of them broke away from the group and fluttered her way. These shining blue butterflies were of a different size – much like the monkey – bigger than average. Bigger than a hand, possibly the size of a face, it was hard to estimate. The blue light of their wings reflected in Xirena's red eyes, who reached out her hand to invite one closer.

"Woah..." She marveled as one of the butterflies landed and rested on her wrist, "I gotta bring Axel here..."

It seemed like nothing could destroy the utter peace within this cave, Zee liked it a lot. Xirena stared at the bright butterfly on her wrist with happiness, but then...

A sharp sound rang through the cave and the butterfly that had engaged Xirena burst apart. Xirena stumbled backwards and covered her mouth with both hands, mortified. The rest of the colony quickly dispersed, flying into the walls and disappearing into them – taking most of the cave's light with them. The remains of the one butterfly laid on the hard ground in front of Xirena, and she couldn't take her eyes off them.

"So this is the place!" A familiar voice said loudly, "Good work, Bubbles. You did something right for a change!"

Xirena spun quickly and saw Xigbar standing there with one of his guns in hand. Zee may not be too bright, but she could put two and two together in this situation...

"W-Why did you do that?" She said, her voice breaking a tiny bit.

"Eh." Xigbar shrugged, "Thought it was a Heartless. I guess."

Zee was too overcome by this loss to hear Xigbar chortling to himself – that man knew very well it wasn't a heartless. The satisfaction he got from killing a harmless creature in front of the sensitive girl would keep him alive for at least a week.

"Ok, you can go do whatever lame thing you wanted to do now or whatever. I'm going home."

She wasn't interested in replying, or acknowledging him at all. What she "felt" in that moment was awful, it was like when Axel said they had to get rid of Sunny, but with some difference to it.

"Maybe... the flowers will make me feel better..." She murmured softly, her eyes still fixed on the smoking remains.

Xirena tore herself away from it by closing her eyes and turning around quickly, only opening them once she was sure she had shifted enough to avoid the sight of the slain butterfly. She took a deep breath and made her way out of the cave to begin her search for the one thing that could make this all better: the Starlight Roses.

Just as he said he would, Xigbar abandoned his mission partner to go home alone. He fully intended to not deal with anyone's bullshit and just go straight to his mini-fridge, grab the vodka and celebrate his maliciously wonderful day. He had a rather long way to walk down the residential hall, having to pass everybody else's room to reach his own. In his path he saw Axel and Saix talking to each other, and got the impression they were about to wrap up and go there separate ways. Xigbar had no interest in getting caught in a lecture from Saix (especially considering he pulled a Bart Simpson with some cherry bombs the other day and flooded the berserker's bathroom...) But just as he was about to take his journey to the ceiling, he was spotted – and with a look of purpose too. But this gaze didn't come from Saix, no, it was Axel. Saix had chosen to walk away down the same way Xigbar was going, he didn't pay any attention to the freeshooter.

That Axel though, he sure looked like he had something to say.

"Shut up." Xigbar commanded preemptively, just as Axel was opening his mouth to speak.

"Where is Xirena?" Axel said sternly, totally ignoring Xigbar's attempt at dispelling a conversation.

"Eh?" Xigbar stopped and a soured look crossed his face, "What makes you think I know where Bubbles is?"

"I know she was your mission partner today, and she's clearly not back yet..." Axel trailed off, looking off to the side and breaking eye contact.

"The hell, man? You her stalker or something?" Xigbar shot back quickly.

"You shut up!" Axel fired back, snapping his head to stare down Xigbar again. He didn't foresee himself to go from zero to sixty like that...

"Wow, real mature." Xigbar said with an evil smile, pulling an aggravated huff out of Axel, "She's still doing whatever."

"'Doing whatever?' What does that even mean?" Axel probed.

Xigbar shrugged – that evil grin never leaving his face.

"She didn't say." He spoke. Axel didn't believe him and scoffed, "Really dude, I'm actually telling the truth. Ask her yourself when she gets back."

Axel grunted yet again, trying to release his frustration in the most civilized manner he could.

"Fine." Axel spat, moving to leave.

"What? No 'thank you?'" Xigbar taunted as the red head passed by him.

Everything was coming up Xigbar that day, and just as he thought it couldn't get any better, an idea struck him...

"Yo Ginge." Xigbar called.

Axel felt it was best to just ignore him, but against his better judgment his feet planted themselves on the floor. He looked over his shoulder.

"What is it now?" He asked, clearly annoyed.

"So... how did you know I was partnered with Bubbles today anyway?" Xigbar began, "You left before us, and got back before us as well obviously."

"I heard from Saix." Axel simply answered, willing to turn and face his fellow worker now.

"You mean you asked him, right?" Xigbar laughed, crossing his arms, "I'm sure he was happy to share that info, I bet he just loves that gal!"

"Yes, I asked him. What difference does it make?" Axel asked.

"Big difference! Was he happy to share?"

"I don't have time for this..."

Axel was turning to get the hell out of there now, so Xigbar jumped to the main point of his mind game.

"I know who she is." Xigbar spoke, very calmly, "And I'm pretty sure Mr. Moonlight does too."

Axel did his best to resist, but with that little tidbit dropped on him he couldn't just walk away with the burning curiosity he felt. He spun back around and walked quickly with long steps back to Xigbar.

"What are you getting at, old man?"

"I'm not old." Xigbar sneered through gritted teeth, then regained control, "BUT I'm just saying I could tell you a thing or two about the kid."

"You're surprisingly charitable today." Said Axel.

"Yeah whatever," Xigbar dismissed, "But think about it for a second... we picked her up in the ruins of Hollow Bastion... She came to us with an erased memory, didn't someone else here have that problem too? Hmm?"

Axel was taken aback, and he almost slipped out of his poker face with these revelations. He didn't know where she came from, it never came up in conversation, but if that's where she was found... that would mean her home world was Radiant Garden, just like himself – and everyone else in the Organization, right? No-one had come from anywhere else but Radiant Garden, so it would make sense. But whatever Xigbar was getting at with the memory point is what Axel got hung up on here. In his mind he scanned through the rest of the members, because surely there was no-one or nothing else relevant to this unraveling story.

He couldn't figure it out. Everyone was just fine when they got recruited in terms of remembering who they were, but the answer lies where Axel didn't even consider.

Xemnas.

That look of sudden realization flew onto Axel's face – Xigbar laughed loudly. But what could possibly connect their mysterious leader and the naïve young lady? His mind then jumped back to the brief mention of Saix aka 'Mr. Moonlight' as Xigbar referred to him. This screwed with his mind even more – surely if he knew her and lived in Radiant Garden, Axel had to have crossed her path at least once, he was sure he'd remember seeing someone with purple hair running around.

"Moonie may be clued in, but he doesn't know nearly as much as our fearless leader does," Said Xigbar, then added in a quieter and more sinister voice, "He... just doesn't know it yet, you could say."

"What does that mean?" Axel asked, Xigbar shrugging and grinning like an asshole again as he held his shrug.

"Hey man, what makes you think I know everything?" Xigbar cackled.

"Well you're acting like you do!" Axel shot back, his frustration with Xigbar rising.

"Hmm maybe..." Xigbar kept taunting, "Who knows? Maybe even MORE of us know stuff about the lady of the loons!"

"Tch." Axel scoffed, "I'm not gonna play your little immature mind games."

It took considerable focus to take the high road and end this juicy exchange, but secretly he hoped that his feigned indifference would be a good method of reverse psychology to get Xigbar to spill more. But Xigbar was smarter than that – far smarter.

"Aight, BYE." He said obnoxiously, and ditched Axel.

Axel wasn't totally surprised by the response, but that didn't change the fact that he was 100% irritated now. He chose to go back to his room, which was his plan anyway, but decided against a nap. He was too wired to sleep now, which was so strange to him. Instead, he thought a nice, hot shower would do him good.

With hair still dripping and a towel over his shoulders, Axel exited his bathroom – feeling at peace once more. But the poor guy didn't get even a moment to himself – after he absorbed the serenity for a second, he heard a loud knocking at his door. He was mostly dressed, up to the pants and shirt, but he quickly threw his coat on; not bothering to zip it up, but wanting to look as acceptable as he could with as little effort as possible. He adjusted his hair and towel so they sat on the outside of the coat. Dragging his feet to his door, Axel reached out and slowly opened up the door.

There on the threshold was the "lady of the loons" with her fist raised up, looking like she was about to start knocking again if he hadn't answered.

"Oh, hey Z-" He began, but he paused as he took in her appearance, "Yikes. What happened to you?"

Xirena was of course still dirtied up from her mishaps on her mission earlier. Sunny then wiggled up over Xirena's shoulder, so it was clear she had gone back to her room first but didn't bother to fix herself up.

"Huh?" She asked, having momentarily forgotten her appearance, "Oh... I tripped over a purple monkey and fell on the ground and got all dirty."

"Heh. A purple monkey?" Axel snickered, "Was he looking for a dishwasher or something?"

Nothing. Not even a smile. Xirena's face was unchanged after Axel had dropped his bomb of a joke.

"...Oh ok." Was all Xirena could say after a painful silence.

That was absolutely the worst thing I've ever said Axel thought.

"Oh never mind, forget about it!" He tried to laugh it off, "You down to hang out?"

Xirena nodded her head rapidly. Axel stepped aside and motioned for her to enter, and Xirena happily accepted this offer. Axel closed the door once they were both inside... but he wasn't quite sure what to do, she couldn't just hang around with dirt all over her. It wasn't so much on her body, just the bits on her face and in her hair, what with their clothes covering almost every inch of them. And even then, it was just the coat that took a beating, and that could easily be taken care of. With all this in mind, Axel was ready to kick things off.

"Hey, if you want you can use my bathroom to wash your face." He suggested.

"Oh ok." Xirena nodded, "I'll go do that now if that's ok."

"Yeah no problem, go ahead." He assured her.

Xirena flashed a quick smile and ran off to the bathroom, which was still all steamed up from his recent shower. This wasn't much of a big deal for Xirena, as she went in and shut the door behind her without any hesitation.

Xirena shrugged her shoulder, and Sunny appeared. Zee nodded towards the floor and the blue pig gracefully leaped from her shoulder and landed safely on the floor. Xirena then unzipped her coat and wiggled out of it, tossing it on the floor, careful not to throw it on top of Sunny. Surely she would be smart enough to dodge it even if she was in danger of being drowned in the thick black fabric. Zee started to shake her hands wildly to shed off her filthy gloves, but even under them her hands were for some reason a little busted up... Now she was down to her second layer, the under shirt tank top, form-fitting pants and her scuffed up boots.

Gosh, Axel seems really nice. I wonder why Rex doesn't want me to be friends with him. Xirena thought as she continued her washing up.

She pivoted to face the sink, above which a still slightly foggy mirror was. Her image was distorted by the condensation lingering on the mirror, which was fading all too slowly. Regardless she turned on the water, choosing to wash her hands first. She thoroughly scrubbed them with soap under the running water and once satisfied, she went on to wash her face. With a little soap lingering on her hands, she cupped them under the faucet to gather up some water. Xirena lowered her head and splashed her face with the semi-soapy water. She rubbed and rubbed, wanting to be sure she was squeaky clean – well, save for her hair, but she could just take a shower and wash it later on.

She rinsed off any bubbles of soap with another splash of clean water. Xirena leaned on the sink with her hands firmly gripping both sides for stability; hypnotized by the droplets of water that rolled off her face and fell into the sink. But she wasn't done fixing herself up, so this was just a momentary break in the action. In truth, she didn't know where to look for what would move the process along, so the pause was partially to gather thoughts...

Back outside, Axel had taken to his bed to rest in a casual pose: on his back, hands behind his head, with legs bent and one crossed over the other – his dangling foot bobbing ever so slightly. Before getting into bed though, he fixed his coat so it was properly zipped up, and he used that towel to dry off his hair as much as he could. It was still wet, but his red hair was starting to gain it's usual body back, but still rendered limp by the remnants moisture holding it down. Axel took this time to empty his head and just let go, surrender his mind to absolute relaxation – after all, with Zee around he has to use more of his brain than usual to make up for the deficit there.

After about five minutes, he heard his pal emerge from the bathroom. Axel sat up quickly and saw Xirena standing there with her trusty pet at her side. He quickly took notice of how she had shed her coat and gloves, and he swore he noticed something weird on her hands...

"I used some of your band-aids, I hope you're not mad." Zee bluntly blurted out.

That's what it was! She put band-aids on her hands, but for what purpose?

"No, I'm not mad..." He responded, "Why'd you need em, though?"

Xirena and Sunny sauntered out of the bathroom and over to Axel. He could vaguely see the discarded coat laying on the floor in there. Not a big deal right now.

"My hands got a little cut up." She admitted.

"Eh? How's that?"

"Well..." A troubled look crossed her face. Zee looked at the floor and went and sat down there, in front of Axel's bed. Axel was going to protest, but Zee had already begun her story, "I wanted to find those flowers, so I went to where that rose bush was and I started looking through them... It was easier with my gloves off."

"PAUSE." Axel shouted, and Xirena jumped a little, "First of all, get up off the floor Zee... why not just sit on the edge of the bed?"

"Oh ok." She responded, hopping back up and then situated herself on the edge and sat with an absolutely straight posture.

"Second of all... Are you telling me you were sifting through a rose bush with your bare hands?" He asked, but he already knew the answer, confirmed by Xirena's sheepish nod, "Don't you know that they have thorns?"

"Um... Well, I do now!" She replied, "So those pointy things are called thorns..."

She repeated it to herself to burn it into her memory, and the fact that they left a physical reminder would ensure she'd never forget about this.

"So that's why you needed the band-aids..." Axel murmured, looking to her hands that were folded in her lap... It looked like she might have overdid it with how many bandages she had used, but he hadn't seen the cuts or anything so he couldn't really know, "Well, just be more careful next time."

"I will..." Xirena frowned. Axel furrowed his brow.

"What's with that face?" He asked with a slight laugh.

"I didn't find them." She said as she looked over to her companion, "I had to get one, I had to show you that they ARE real!"

Oh no. So this was all HIS fault by extension.

"Zee... You don't have to beat yourself up over just some silly roses. It's not a big deal." He assured her.

"Oh ok..." She said, brushing some of her hair behind her ear, "I'll find them one day though... I promise I will."

"Well don't do it because of me." Axel said sternly, "Making me feel all guilty and st-"

His words cut out as he realized what he just said. That word again – that emotion – guilt. Here he was back at square one yet again, denying himself and fighting his subconscious. This all made him flashback to something he had said earlier in their friendship...

"Xirena, you're a disaster waiting to happen."

Although this wasn't so much of a disaster, Axel couldn't help but wonder how much his words would be proven true in the days forthcoming.

Xirena suddenly felt a chill run up her spine. She shivered and sunk into her body, crossing her arms to hold herself. Axel noticed and raised an eyebrow as he sat up.

"Cold?" He asked simply. Xirena nodded in response.

"Just a little... I don't know why." She added.

Axel thought for a moment about what he could do to remedy this, trying to avoid any hints of creepiness. The best idea quickly presented it to himself though, and it was both amusing as much as it would be effective.

"You could try one of my spare coats." He suggested, the amusement in his voice hardly contained.

Xirena looked to his dresser – she didn't think it was a bad idea, so she hopped up and walked over to it, with Sunny ghosting her steps. She opened it up and pulled out one of Axel's spare coats. She held it up in front of herself, then switching to holding it against her body as she tried to get an idea of the fit. Without a whole lot of thought, she put the coat on. She practically was drowning in fabric until her head poked out of the top. She struggled with the zipper, only getting it about halfway before abandoning the task. Happy enough, she turned to Axel – arms held out so that the size of it was accentuated even more. He was snickering, this looked just as absurd as he had hoped – if not more.

"Any better?" He asked.

"Yeah," Xirena spoke, looking down at herself, "I can't see my feet though..."

Axel laughed yet again, but more openly so now.

"Man I knew it'd be big..." He said, "But I didn't think I was that much bigger than you."

"Yeah, you're a big guy Axel!" Xirena affirmed, laughing as well.

As her giggles died down, the gaping window above Axel's bed stole her attention – that emptiness had such harrowing effect on her. Xirena's wistful stare out the window eventually caught Axel's attention.

"You... see something or... something?" He asked slowly.

Xirena shook her head, but her longing gaze never strayed from the black sky.

"What if..." She began, a weak smile trying to make itself seen, "What if we just pretend we have stars?"

"Zeeeeeeeeeeee..." Axel slurred, "Even if we did get those flowers, I don't think that would work."

Xirena finally turned to face him and shook her head.

"No, not for the flowers, but to make wishes!" Xirena added. She began to explain without any prompt needed, "Zexion started reading Pinocchio to me last night, and he said in the movie version they added a part about wishing on stars. I thought that was really cool! But it's not in the book... But Zexion said the 'theme of a wish coming true' is there."

Of all the ideas he'd heard in his life, Axel hadn't met with one like this. It was pure silliness, but somehow endearing – which was a pretty good way to describe Xirena herself too. The brief period of silence after her explanation felt like an eternity for the red head, but it really didn't take him that long to decide what he thought of her idea.

"...Hey, why not?" He said with a shrug, "Wouldn't hurt to try, eh?"

Xirena's teeming glee was radiating from her so powerfully that it was almost palpable. She hurried back over to his bed, careful not to trip over the dragging fabric. Without hesitation she climbed on and sat in front of the window on her knees, placing her palms flat down on the sill. Axel inched closer, but while Zee had her eyes out the window, he kept his eyes on her. After a moment, Xirena inhaled deeply and opened her mouth.

"I wi-"

Axel never moved so fast in his life. He had flown right next to her and put a hand over her mouth.

"Zee!" He exclaimed, "If you say it out loud it won't come true!"

Man, he surprised himself there with how suddenly invested he got in this whole wishing nonsense. Before long he took his hand away.

"Oh... Oh ok!" She responded with sincere understanding.

Since she obviously already had something in mind, it took Xirena no time to come up with her wish. She moved her hands to grip the outer edge of the windowsill and threw her head back, arching her entire body backwards too, eyes closed and a smile on her face.

Axel watched the girl with, oddly enough, admiration. She was without a care in the world, just living in the moment – and Axel wished he could be just as carefree as his companion. As much as he put up a front of being a lazy, casual guy, he felt like he had the most burden on him at all times – there was always something he had to be putting thought into, not a whole lot of time spent goofing off. It was true that in his down time he would just go take a nap, but he always needed some extra rest with all the shit going on behind the scenes he had to worry about – and now, with all the shit in his head about this silly girl in front of him on top of it all.

Axel sat there, not knowing what he could possibly wish for... but then the light bulb appeared after just a moment of thought – he had already made a wish. He had wished to live a carefree life, not even realizing how well it fit the context of his situation. He chuckled to himself and returned his attention to Xirena. Her expression had changed, but not like she was affected by anything, just as if her jovial expression naturally fell into a relaxed face. Peaceful.

"Hey, don't fall." He warned, speaking of her back stretching pose.

"Wha?" She asked, startled.

In her surprise she accidentally let go of the window and tumbled backwards and all the way off of Axel's bed, landing on her back. Axel cursed under his breath and hopped out of bed to kneel beside her. Now she had a dazed look on her face and Sunny ran over and nudged her momma's face with her wet nose. Axel huffed with disapproval, half of with himself since he didn't act at all to help her before she fell. But despite his frustration he chose not to take a stern tone of any sort.

"Hey, you gotta stop falling all over the place when you're hanging with me." He said calmly, "The others might start to think I'm smacking you around behind closed doors."

"Oh ok..." Xirena replied.

The supreme gentleman that is Axel gently helped Xirena sit back up. Then, as if some strange connection subconsciously compelled them, both Axel and Zee turned to gaze out the window to their starless sky...