Roxas leaned against the wall and panted hard, his heart pounding in his chest as he stared up at the starless sky above the Castle That Never Was. He wasn't sure why his heart was pounding so hard when he wasn't supposed to have one, but now that he was out of Axel's sight the throbbing sensations were starting to fade. The intensity in his chest when Axel had taken that first step towards him had made him panic and he had fled, but not before catching a glimpse of shocked, hurt green eyes. He slumped against the wall and slid down it to rest on the pavement, his eyes still skyward and somewhat unfocused.
Roxas was confused again. He was supposed to want a heart, so why when it finally kicked into life had he run? Maybe it hadn't been true emotion he had felt, but there had been something there, a shadow of something if nothing else. It had felt real, his heart beating wildly against his rib cage as if it wanted to fly out of his chest and land in the pyro's warm hands.
"Oh Roxie!" Roxas started at the taunting voice, quickly jumping to his feet and taking a defensive stance. All of Axel's warning about getting near the blonde woman he had aptly but quietly nicknamed 'Thundercunt' quickly swam to his head, and he made sure to keep his distance as she approached him with a smug smirk.
"What Larxene?" His voice was sharp and he knew it but he didn't care to hide the fact that he truly didn't like the only female nobody of his acquaintance, if Marluxia wasn't counted that is.
Larxene pouted in a way he was sure was supposed to be attractive and he was sure to some it probably was, but to him it was simply annoying. No matter how fake an emotion his annoyance was it prompted him to turn and run in the opposite direction as fast as he could so that he could escape the aggravating woman, maybe pulling up a portal to lose her in another world altogether. "Way to be rude Roxas. Got a problem with talking to me?"
Roxas bit his lip and decided that was a question he probably shouldn't answer.
Larxene's devilish grin resurfaced and she gave an overly dramatic sigh. "Seems I've stepped on a few toes. Oh well, you'll get over it eventually."
"I doubt it." Roxas scoffed, taking a small step backwards as she advanced on him.
She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Whatever you think I'm here for you can forget it. I don't want a little whelp like you so you can relax."
Roxas frowned and let some of the tension leave his muscles, but not all. "What do you want then?"
"To meddle a bit. You know how much I love to meddle Roxie." She grinned toothily and fluttered her eyelashes at him, a revolting sight to behold if ever there was one. Roxas made sure to keep the distance between them significant, he didn't want whatever she had to undoubtedly have. No one slept with as many men as she did without having some sort of complication.
Larxene's face suddenly dropped its pretense for kindness and was all scorn. "It's about that little bromance of yours with dear old Reno."
Roxas' eyes widened and he felt his mouth gape. "How do you know his-"
He was cut off by mocking laughter, the sound cold and bitter. "Know his real name? I know because we come from the same world and at one point considered each other friends."
Roxas was still on edge, unsure whether he should take Larxene's explanation as truth. "If you two are friends then why do you want to meddle?"
"To make him suffer a little of course." Larxene stated matter of factly, her arms crossing so that one leaned just under her chin, thin fingers resting alongside her cheek as the others curled around her torso. "I said we were friends. We obviously aren't anymore; the little pyro is such a boring stiff nowadays. At least, he is when you aren't around."
Roxas frowned slightly and let his fingers curl and uncurl in fists at his sides. The way she talked about Reno in front of him made him sick and angry for reasons he couldn't quite comprehend. He didn't deign to acknowledge her with words as he didn't know what his unwieldy tongue would try to spit at her.
She smirked, sensing that she had touched a nerve. "He used to be lots of fun, but now he's just a dickhead thanks to you."
"Don't talk about him like that!" Roxas swung a fist at her in his anger, immediately regretting the action as she grabbed his wrist and gave him a debilitating shock that brought him to his knees beside her.
She frowned down at him, triumph in her eyes. "It's more than just a little friendliness between you two isn't it?"
"It's none of your business!' Roxas shouted angrily, knowing that his answer gave her all the evidence she needed to prove her theory correct.
She smirked and gave him another shock, this one pulling a pained cry from his lips as he struggled to free his hand. "I've made it my business Roxie dear. Did you think you could keep your silly little infatuation with each other a secret for long? Even if I can only see it because I've known him for so long, the others will figure it out soon if they haven't already."
"What do you want Larxene?" Roxas heard his voice shake with pain as his oversensitive nerves began to throb and twinge. Of all the feelings that were fake, why did the pain have to be so damned real?
Her lips curled upwards and she leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I want to ruin it for you both, to make you both suffer. I know you two can actually feel around each other, not just these cheap imitations that the rest of us get, you guys get actual feelings. I don't like it. Call me a jealous bitch, but I don't think you should get what I've been denied time and time again."
"Larxene!" Reno's voice was crisp and cold unlike the ash covered and warm chakram level with Larxene's narrowed eyes.
"Good evening to you too Reno." Larxene smirked evilly as she turned to face Roxas, one twitching wrist still held in her grasp as a threat of sorts if Axel even dared to touch her.
Reno winced visibly, his lips growing tight as he listened to Roxas' somewhat labored breathing and watched his small body twitch in pain. "You know better than to bring up the past Elena, it's only brought us pain."
It was Larxene's turn to wince, her hand clenching tighter on Roxas' wrist until he whimpered. She quickly regained her composure and turned her voice silky and sweet. "You don't remember having any fun in Midgar? Was Shinra just completely joyless for you? Don't you miss killing innocents and threatening your friends because someone else says they're your enemies?"
Roxas jerked his head up and stared blankly at the display of open hostility between the two, hoping that Axel would say something to defend himself against such outrageous accusations.
Reno had no choice but to disappoint the small blonde boy however, his eyes narrowing to thin slits as he lowered his voice to a menacing growl. "You did the same thing. You still do the same thing. The only difference there ever was between us was that you enjoyed it. You enjoyed every minute of it."
"And you didn't?" Larxene's voice had turned sickeningly sweet as if she relished the pain she was inflicting on both of them with her words, the wrist trying feebly to pry itself from her grasp getting no attention as she continued to shove a knife in Reno's back like she had longed to do for years. "Dropping the plate and crushing all those insignificant fools waiting beneath so that you could stay alive had no appeal to you whatsoever? Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Larxene's grip tightened on Roxas' wrist until he cried out, his eyes shining with unshed tears of pain as she unknowingly coursed electricity into his body in small jolts to accentuate her every word. "You wouldn't have smiled so much if you hated it. Tseng and Rude hated it and everyone knew it from the look on their faces, but you and me didn't give a damn what our consciences said about what it took to stay alive. You may not have signed up to be a killer for hire, but you certainly seemed to enjoy it." Her piece said, she released the now whimpering Roxas from her grip and stalked off, a pleased smile on her lips and a swagger in her steps as far worse plans formed in her mind.
Roxas let himself fall sideways onto the ground as he waited for the crippling pain that sent his limbs thrashing to stop pounding through his veins. He registered the warm comforting hands on his face and shoulders, the gentle pets trying to soothe the hurt away as his pain-fogged brain tried to comprehend what it had just heard. No one could ever take what Larxene said without a grain of salt, not unless they truly wanted to be considered naïve. So far Demyx was the only one stupid enough to take everything Larxene said for truth and Roxas did not want to end up the way Demyx had, he was already as low on the totem pole as he could get and going lower wasn't an option. Still, as his limbs twitched and ached with cruel pain while Reno scooped him up in his arms and cradled his jerking body against his warm chest he had no choice but to consider what she had said.
As the spasms passed and Roxas grew still and shivering in his arms Reno sighed with relief. The terror that had gripped his whole body slowly started to relinquish its hold when Roxas didn't turn into an insubstantial wisp of smoke in his arms. He rocked back and forth with the abused blonde boy whimpering in his arms, desperate to clench his fingers around the throat of another blonde who swaggered away slowly. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here in time Roxie, so so sorry!"
Roxas blushed as the top of his head was nuzzled by a warm cheek, the sensation sending his heart jumping again and this time not because more electricity than one body was supposed to hold was forcing it to move. He decided then and there that he had a genuine fear of Larxene now, her cruel smirk and unrelenting attacks both verbal and physical giving him reason to shudder violently. While the pain lasted what she had done would matter to him more than what she had said, but the curiosity forced him to be blunt with the man cradling him tenderly against his chest. "Was any of it true?"
Reno sighed and leaned his head back against the wall, Roxas still shivering and panting under his gentle hands. "Yeah, there was some truth in that." He had no intention of lying to Roxas about something so important; the petite blonde was already confused enough as it was without more lies twisting up his thoughts. "I used to be a killer for hire. I was one of the bad guys in my old world. I killed and betrayed more people than I even want to think about. Elena was wrong though. Not once did I ever enjoy hurting people who didn't deserve it. The people who did deserve it; the criminals, rapists, drug dealers, crime lords, and the mad men, they were the only people I enjoyed getting rid of. I did what I had to to stay alive; I had no choice in the matter."
Roxas nodded understandingly as he continued to twitch, a few pained tears finally rolling down his cheeks as his abused nerves refused to stop torturing him. "Why did she get so mad?"
"That's just what she does." Reno set his hand under Roxas' chin and pulled the twitching face up to where he could see it. He smiled kindly and wiped away one thin tear that rolled down a jerking cheek. "How bad does it hurt?"
Roxas choked on words as a warm thumb brushed across his face, the leather glove pressing gently up on his chin making him want to tilt it back still further until his neck was completely exposed to the smiling lips that rested just at eyelevel. "B-bad."
Reno sighed and stood, picking Roxas up in his arms and flicking a portal open with one hand, unable to carry the twitching and jerking body very far. He stepped through the blackness into a different kind; the lights in his room had been extinguished a long time ago. His feet gently guided him towards his bed and he laid Roxas on it before searching for the light switch, the boy's own inner radiance giving his features a soft, ethereal glow. He tucked Roxas into the bed and sat next to him for awhile, joking lightly to bring a smile back to the pained face that made his heart wring itself in a different kind of pain.
When Roxas was finally able to fall asleep Reno stormed from the room, anger clear on his features as he shut the door quietly behind him. There was a certain blonde called Thundercunt who needed fixing, and he was determined to do just that.
A few small snips; that was all it would take to render her a complete and utter recluse for weeks to come. Reno relished the idea of her shriek of horror tearing through the castle the next morning. She would know exactly who had removed the majority of her short blonde hair, the yellow strands slowly smoldering in his hands as he slipped back to his room, but he didn't care so long as it kept her in her room and as far away from Roxas as was physically possible. He knew Roxas wouldn't actively seek her out, not after what she had just done to him, but he had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that no matter what either of them did she would try to reach him again. Reno wasn't sure what he had done to earn her anger, but it had taken only a few minutes for her to earn his for the rest of their miserable, supposedly emotionless lives.
Author's Note: Damn, I just don't update this story as often as I should! I'm not sure what it is, but this story just doesn't demand my attention as much as the others do. I usually spare at least a few thoughts for it while thinking up ridiculous plot lines, but I never seem to actually sit down and write it. Please forgive the horrendously long wait and the other long waits that are to come but I shall endeavor to update this more often from here on out. I've probably said that before, I'm almost 100% sure I have actually, but this time I really think I should consider doing what I say I will.
Thank you to all who read, favorite, alert, or review this story! I appreciate your support more than you know!