Thanks again to Bri333865 for taking time to review. The unknown is supposed to be Marluxia when he was whole. I left the 'castle' up to the reader's imagination (though I have my own headcanon for that) and I especially like Lexaeus' too. Hope you enjoy these as well. =]
Vexen—470
He never wanted friends. Never desired company or companions. So therefore it was odd when he found himself allowing Naminé to find small sanctuary within his labs. He supposed he couldn't blame her. The looks Marluxia gave her were enough to send anyone going very fast in the opposite direction. He remembered coming back from a mission and finding the small girl in a corner, shaking uncontrollably and clutching her sketchbook so hard her knuckles were white. He speculated that at a different point in time he might have asked what was wrong and spared some sort of comforting words, but in this life he was a Nobody so he simply threw her a blanket from the closet and started setting up equipment and chemicals.
The next time he saw her, she quietly opened the door to his lab, this time her hair stood slightly on end, and gave him a hopeful look. At the time he said he let her stay because the emotion she showed perplexed him and was an excellent premise to start an experiment. Much later, he though it might have been because she reminded him so much of Ienzo and through the remnant of some lost emotion he let her stay. Towards the end, he began to realize that he just liked her company.
The time she spent with him was more often that not composed of being treated like a lab rat. She was an enigma that he wanted to crack. Her very existence questioned everything he had postulated and proved about Nobodies. It also said a great deal about his presence that even through the experiments she chose him over others. When asked why, she had said that of those who weren't the Neophytes, he at least talked to her, which was quite strange since when he wasn't experimenting on her, the only sounds in the lab were of him working and of her crayons scratching on paper.
In the few hours before the keyblade master was lured to the Castle, she sat in the corner drawing some childish image or another when Marluxia knocked ever so perfectly on the laboratory door. He had half a mind not to let the pompous fool in, before deciding the quicker he was dealt with the quicker he could go back to perfecting his replica.
She stiffened in what he imagined was fright when Marluxia informed her "It is time, Naminé" and cast him a pleading look, but he had no heart and therefore no push to save her from him. As she walked slowly to leave she stared at him, her expression indescribable, and he felt a tugging somewhere he couldn't name. But it was gone as quick as it came, fleeting out of his mind as he turned his focus back to his replica.