"Great, now we have no idea where they are anymore. Just. Great," he grumbled at this twin brother, who was currently doubled over, hands on knees, trying to catch his breath.
"It was your dumb idea to follow them in the first place," he responded in between pants.
"And it was your idea to run away."
He glared as he straightened up. "What else was I supposed to do when I was almost frigging impaled by an icicle?"
Crossing his arms, he sneered, "I don't know, have some balls?"
"Hey, you didn't stick around either."
He stuttered, "I, uh... had to follow you and... make sure you didn't do anything stupid!"
Rolling his eyes, he said, "Whatever, man." He turned and began to walk away.
"Hey, where are you going? We have to go back and find her again."
"To get something to eat. I'm starving. This whole mess is your fault, so you're paying."
"Ha! Good luck with that. I don't have any munny."
He halted in his tracks and whipped his head around. "You what?"
Startled, his answer came out weakly, "I… kind of spent all the munny I had to buy our train tickets."
He grabbed a handful of his brother's shirt and shook him. "You dumbass! I don't have any munny either. Forget food, how are we supposed to get back home?"
"Er… call Mom and Dad?"
"And explain to them where we are and why we're here? No thanks. You got us into this, so you can get us out."
"And just how-"
"Pardon me, gentlemen," a new voice interjected. They both froze and turned their heads to eye the stranger that had approached them. A smirk upturned one corner of his lips as he went on, "Sorry to interrupt, but I couldn't help overhearing."
The twin holding the other's shirt narrowed his eyes. "You could have helped it by minding your own business," he growled, releasing his grip as he turned to face the newcomer.
"Touché. But just hear me out, I-"
"Are you deaf? Butt out, pretty boy." The brothers loomed over the other man.
Normally, the stranger would not be considered short by any means, but standing next to the twins practically dwarfed him. He threw up his hands in surrender. "Alright. Got it. Loud and clear." He turned and began to walk away, casually tossing over shoulder, "I was only trying to help with your little dilemma, but I suppose you'll have to figure out some other way to come up with some dough. Good luck with that."
The brothers exchanged a look. One of them started shaking his head, but the other ignored him and asked, "What do you mean?"
Coming to a stop, he said, "Oh, it's practically impossible making a quick buck in this city. And without any munny, you'll probably be sleeping on the streets tonight."
"The streets?"
"Oh yeah." The stranger inspected his nails with a cool eye. "Cold. Damp. Not to mention the disease-ridden rats."
An audible gulp. "...r-rats?"
"And that's only the start. Good thing you two look like you can handle yourself in a fight, because you'll be fending off thugs all night. Big, knife-wielding thugs. A lot of them. And I do mean a lot."
One teenager looked visibly nervous. He glanced at his brother, who seemed considerably less impressed as he shook his head again, this time more rapidly. Again, it went ignored. "You said you wanted to help us… what'd you have in mind?" His sibling smacked himself in the forehead.
A smirk once again tugged at the stranger's mouth. "I knew you'd come around. Trust me, guys, I'll be lining your pockets with cash in no time."
The more dubious brother cocked an eyebrow. "So what, you're just handing out munny?"
"Please, I wouldn't insult you by giving you charity. No, a couple of strapping young gents like yourselves obviously want to earn your keep, and I have just the thing. An… errand, if you will, that you can assist me with. The pay is good, and we'll have you both on a train back to your mom and pop in no time. What do ya say?"
His fingers massaged his chin. "Hm.. I dunno about-"
"Fantastic! It's settled!" He grabbed his hand and vigorously shook it. Moving on to his brother to repeat the gesture, he asked, "So, you two bruisers got names?"
"Uh… Jakob Stabbington." He used a free hand to jerk a thumb towards his face, then pointed at his twin. "That's Josef. You?"
"Flynn." His grin broadened. "Flynn Rider."
They all just stood there. Staring at her. Their faces were blank, expressionless. It seemed they did not know what to think or how to react. If they did, they were certainly doing a good job of keeping it all on the inside.
Elsa's eyes shifted wildly from one stranger to the next before looking at the pointy ice structure almost as tall as she was that she had materialized in a matter of seconds. Her heart was pounding. Her palms suddenly felt clammy inside her gloves. She gulped. She needed to do something. Anything. Soft muttering could be heard and her attention snapped back up, looking for the source. Two of the people in the crowd were having a hushed conversation, eyes still fixated on her. Someone else several yards over started to whisper to their neighbor as well.
She couldn't make out any of the words, but she seriously doubted she wanted to find out what was being said or what would come of it. Taking a hesitant step backwards, she scanned for an escape route, preparing to bolt.
"Lookie! Lookie!" boomed a familiar voice, then suddenly Axel had leapt in front of her, hiding her from sight. His back was to her as he faced the crowd, drawing their focus to him. "Fire breathing!" he exclaimed, before inhaling deeply and expelling a burst of flame skyward from between his lips. The throng of onlookers shrank back with yelps here and there as the fire flew up and dispersed.
He paused momentarily to flash his audience a dazzling smile before puffing up his cheeks again, turning his head and blowing another jet of fire out, this time directed at the mass of ice. The entire thing was engulfed and swiftly began to melt. Shortly, it was nothing more than a puddle on the cement.
He then theatrically outstretched his hands as he addressed the spectators once more. "See? Just all part of the show, folks! Travelling street performers, that's us!"
There was a lull as he waited for something. Then a slow, almost uncertain clapping could be heard ringing through the silence. After a couple seconds, another one joined in. Abruptly, there was an outburst of applause from everyone. With a smirk, Axel took an exaggerated bow, his spiky red locks bouncing with the motion.
As he straightened up, he shouted over the ovation, "Thank you, thank you! But don't give me all the credit! Kindly direct your praise to my lovely partner here as well!" He turned to find Elsa just gaping at him. He reached towards her and she backed away, shaking her head rapidly. Not deterred, his hand whipped out at her faster than she could react, snatching her by the wrist and dragging her stumbling forward to stand beside him. The crowd started cheering and whistling. He held her hand up over her head before he bowed again, pulling her down and forcing her to mimic the action. When she came back up, her eyes were large and unblinking.
"You guys are great! We'll be here all week!" Axel said as the commotion started to die down and everyone around them began to disband. A child broke through the crowd and ran up to Axel, holding up some munny with a huge, admiring grin. "What's this? Oh, don't mind if I do. Thank you!" He took the tip and the kid ran off to return to his mother. Axel pocketed it, asking, "Not too shabby, huh?" When he didn't hear a reply, he turned just in time to see Elsa vanish down a conveniently nearby alley way, the last of her platinum braid disappearing around the corner.
He gave another quick look around. Satisfied that no one seemed to be looking in their direction anymore, he moved to follow her.
He did not spot her right away when he entered the alley. It was small and somewhat cramped; really the only place to hide would be behind the dumpster about midway down that spanned almost the entire width of the lane. Sure enough, he heard a soft sniffle emanate from that area. He walked forward, edging around to the other side of the dumpster and looking down to find Elsa sitting on the ground, head hung and arms hugging her knees to her chest.
A thin layer of ice coated the ground beneath her and was snaking outward, but not far. At least that was all there was. No flecks of ice swirling around her or anything like that. That had to be a good sign, right? He crouched down in front of her and waited patiently. She would talk when she was ready.
"...it was Prom Night all over again," she said finally, her voice wavering.
"Snowflake, on a scale of one to Prom, that scored in the negatives. The situation was defused, people have already forgotten about it and are moving on, and no one got hurt. And hey, bonus: you didn't bury the city under a mountain of snow this time. I call that progress." He added a tiny "Yay!" at the end for emphasis.
She continued to stare at her feet. "It's just… today was going so well… I hadn't thought about that night or Hans or my powers. With you and Sora, I just felt like a normal teenager. I haven't felt that way in… I don't even know how long." She clenched her hands into fists. "And then those two had to show up. What are they even doing here? Are they following us?"
"Who knows. Could just be a coincidence. But if they are tailing us, I'm sure we'll find out why soon enough."
With a sigh, she raised her hands to inspect the gloves. "Why didn't they work this time? They always have before."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you. You don't need them. They don't actually do anything, you just think they do. It's the placebo effect."
She shook her head. "But then this time should not have been different. If it's all in my head, then I still thought they were working and nothing should have happened, but it did. Why?"
"You're changing. Your powers are growing stronger. Your gloves may be able to fool you into believing they work, but they can't fool your abilities." He shrugged. "It was only a matter of time."
Elsa was silent a moment, scuffing her boot against the ground as she thought. "...when we first met, you told me the Organization helped you learn to master your powers. But you also said you were born with them. So you must have had some sort of control over them before the Organization came into the picture. How did you do it?"
He did not answer right away as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, about that…"
She caught something in the tone of his voice. "Have you not actually had your fire powers since birth?"
"That's not it. I was born with them… when I was born as a Nobody."
"Oh," was all she said at first, her voice colored with surprise. She had not thought of becoming a Nobody as some sort of birth. Then again, she had not thought about it much period, so she had no idea what it was like. "...so then, how long have you been a Nobody?"
"A few months. Right when the Organization picked me up."
"And when you became a Nobody, you could control fire? Just like that, when you couldn't before? Why?"
"Not sure," he shrugged. "But it's the same for the other Nobodies who kept a human form. If Organization XIII knew why, they kept their lips sealed on it. Maybe the powers are always there, locked away and dormant, until a Nobody is born. Maybe they go active as some kind of substitution for what we're missing, to fill the void."
She took a few seconds to let his words fully sink in. "So it really was just through the Organization that you learned to control your powers?"
He shook his head as he responded, "To tell the truth, they helped, but not much. Commanding and manipulating fire actually came pretty naturally to me. Never ran into any of the trouble that you seem to. Of course, I don't have any pesky emotions to worry about either, so that could have played a part."
She snorted with a sour twist of her lips. "Oh, okay, so all I have to do is be taken by the Heartless and become a Nobody. I'll get right on that." Her shoulders slumped. "Seriously, what am I supposed to do? Fear triggers my powers, love undoes it, but is there anything that would just… prevent it in the first place? It's not like I'm doing this on purpose... it just happens."
Instead of answering her, Axel reached out, took one of her hands in his and started drawing it towards him. She snatched it back, asking, "What are you doing?"
"Trust me."
"We already had this conversation. I don't trust you, remember?" she said coolly. The fact that she was still refusing to look directly at him seemed to add weight to her words.
He rolled his eyes with a grin. "Well, just suspend your disbelief for a minute, okay?" He stretched out his hand and took hers in his again, bringing it closer to him. Resting it gently in his palm, he started to pull her glove off, lightly tugging at each of the fingers one by one.
"Don't," Elsa whispered, but she did not pull back this time.
"It seems to me that the problem is you're always afraid. Afraid of someone finding out what you can do, afraid they'll think you're a monster, afraid of hurting people. You live in constant fear." He finished freeing one of her hands and went to work on the other as he continued, "But then it's that fear that causes you to do the very thing you're scared of. It's a catch-22... can't control your powers because you're afraid, but afraid because you can't control your powers. But you can't let the fear run your life." His task completed, he held up her gloves. "And to do that, you can start by getting rid of these." With a flick of the wrist, he tossed them into the dumpster.
"Hey!" she protested.
"If you were so attached to them, you should have chosen a better hiding place. Behind the dumpster is just begging me to throw your useless crap away."
She pouted, but it was half-hearted. "Fine. Now what?"
"Hey, give me a break. I'm making this up as I go, I don't have everything figured out yet." He took both of her hands in his. "But we will figure it out, I promise."
"...thank you." She watched as his thumbs traced slow, reassuring circles along the bare skin on the back of her hands. Normally, with how unpredictable her abilities could be, anyone who touched Elsa would be at risk of being frozen into a very lifelike, very solid ice statue. With his fire powers however, Axel was the only person who was in absolutely no danger from touching her. To say that skin contact with another human being was a rare occurrence for her would be an understatement. So this tiny gesture from Axel was far more comforting than it had any right to be. It also left her hands feeling... tingly...
She heard a tiny voice in the back of her mind ask why he even bothered. He didn't care about her or what she was feeling. He couldn't, it wasn't in his nature as a Nobody. So why did he comfort her? Was he just manipulating her? Was it just a means to an end? If so, to what end? What did he want from her?
Elsa banished those doubts from her thoughts with a shake of her head. For the first time since the the start of their conversation, her eyes lifted up to look at him. And then she blinked. "What happened to your face?"
He arched an eyebrow at her. "My face?"
"Yeah, there's stuff on it." There were two new markings, one on each cheek directly beneath the eyes. They were black and looked like upside down tear drops. She raised a finger to touch one and it smeared. When she pulled away, her fingertip was coated with the same black substance. Crinkling her nose, she rubbed her darkened finger and thumb together. "Looks like it's… ash?"
"Oh, that. I threw it on right before distracting that mob from your little frost incident. I figured it would help sell the whole street performing circus act vibe, ya know? Looks like clown makeup, don't you think?"
For a few seconds, she just gave him a blank stare. Then slowly, almost reluctantly, a smile broke out across her face. Then she burst out laughing. "You're ridiculous, you know that?"
"Well well. Aren't you two just simply darling," a new voice said cynically from the opening of the alley. Axel was immediately on his feet, every muscle in his body visibly tensed. Elsa rose as well - though admittedly not as quickly or as smoothly - and studied the newcomer.
A girl that looked to be about Elsa's age, possibly older, stood there. Her eyes were pale blue and her bright blond hair was about shoulder length and slicked back. Two lengthy locks were styled to hover back over her head, looking rather like a pair of antennae. A long black coat hugged her slim figure, adorned with silver chains at the lapels that matched the drawstring on Axel's hoodie. The coat hung open, showing off her yellow tank top with a demented-looking, melting smiley face on it and her black pleated miniskirt. She wore heeled boots that were a sleek black and went up to her knees.
She greeted them with a wicked little smirk. Her hip jutted out to one side and she placed her hand on it. Her other hand came up to cover her mouth, showing off her neon yellow nail polish. Her tone oozing with mock concern, she drawled, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I spoil the moment?"
Author's Note: Oh gosh, so much happened in this wee little chapter!
First off, that's right! Han's older twin brothers are, in fact, the Stabbington brothers from Tangled! Aw snap! …guess that'd make Hans' last name Stabbington too xD With a name like that, no wonder he turned out so evil! Also, Flynn has made his first appearance, yay! What shenaniganry is that tricksy devil going to be up to, hmmmmm?
And we got a bit of a peek into more of Axel's background! We all know Elsa's story from Book 1. This book, I'm planning sharing with you guys more of Axel's life up to this point, as well as insights into what it is to be a Nobody! Also bonus, there was a nod to his teardrop tattoos this chapter xD Don't know if you recall from Book 1, but I never said he had any in the first place. As stated earlier at some point in this story, Org XIII wants its Nobodies to blend in, not draw attention to themselves… kind of hard to do that if you come home one day suddenly sporting facial tats xD
BUT THEN AW SNAP! LOOK WHO DECIDED TO MAKE A GRAND ENTRANCE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER?! Need I even name her? Come on, ya'll know who it is xD Buckle up, kiddos, shits about to get real! Also next chapter... mayhaps we'll find out where Sora disappeared off to, hm?
Special thanks and much love to everyone who reviewed, faved and followed my quirky little story! Thank you all for reading, hoped you liked it, please leave a review and let me know what you think! See ya'll same time next week! :)