destinystrings | There were skies that burst open

Entry tags:

There were skies that burst open

Who: Xion and Lea

travelsthefarthest
Where: Kitchen area of Lea's apartment, then Xion's apartment so as to avoid waking the bitty
Summary: Xion and Lea have a lot of things to talk about still, things they couldn't talk about while a certain too-young-to-understand someone was awake.
Warnings: Standard Kingdom Hearts is Suffering disclaimer - possible mentions of being speared by Heartless and nearly self-sacrificial tendencies

There'd been several clues that not all was as it seemed. In addition to all the things they hadn't talked about simply because Roxas was too young and knew too little to understand - her not being a Nobody least among them, there was also the factor of the name change Ax- Lea had requested. Xion knew as well as he did that the "because I left the Organization" reasoning was more for Roxas' benefit than either of theirs. It made for a good excuse, but something else was going on here. He hadn't changed his name in all the time they'd been fugitives. Why start now?

Had something happened when they'd found Aqua?

There was also the matter of certain things they just... hadn't been able to discuss with Roxas there. Things that... would really be too much for him right now, having just arrived in Hinoto-Ri, having just found out Ax- Lea was still alive... She didn't want to burden him with all the knowledge of things that were going to happen - of what she was, what might happen... especially with what Riku remembered.

She hadn't found a chance to bring it up though, even though she was thinking about it. They were jammed all together in Lea's room, her and Roxas curled up on the bed and Lea taking a corner of the bedroom - maybe not the smartest of ideas, but... they'd figure something out soon. She could sleep in her room if they really needed to work something out. For now though, they were sleeping, or at least trying to in her's and Lea's case. Roxas had already clearly dropped off a while ago, if his slow, steady breathing was anything to go by.

Lea had gone to do... something out in the kitchen area, and he wasn't back yet. Hm...

Careful not to disturb Roxas, Xion slipped out from under the covers and tiptoed to the door out into the kitchen area, slipping out and shutting it behind her. That done, she turned around, looking for her friend.

"Ax- Lea?" she called out quietly, silently berating herself for the slip-up. This was going to take some getting used to...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lea was good at a lot of things. He was excellent with extempore and a master of manipulation, he could turn a phrase on a dime and had impeccable aim, and boy you should have seen him cut a rug when the occasion called for it. Unfortunately, sleeping had long ago fallen off his list of key skills--after Radiant Garden had fallen to darkness, he could count the number of times he'd slept through the night on one hand. It wasn't a fear of the dark, exactly; he'd never managed to quite put a finger on why, to be honest, but he'd quickly developed a knack for functioning on four hours of sleep (and stealing a nap whenever he could). Well, necessity was, after all, the mother of invention.

He always slept better when the kids were around, but tonight he was preoccupied. He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around what had happened--as if waking up after believing he'd died hadn't been enough of a headscrew, turning up here, in this weird city, and then not only finding Roxas and Xion but discovering they were apparently not all from the same point in time? What the hell was he even supposed to do with that information? His mind had been running a hundred million miles an hour since Xion had first contacted him on the network, and even now he just couldn't seem to quiet it. He had stared at the ceiling for two hours before finally just giving up and getting up.

Lea moved silently from the bedroom, making sure to do everything possible not to wake Roxas and Xion where they were squashed together on the bed. Closing the door softly behind him, he stared at the empty walls of the tiny apartment, his hands on his hips.

Suddenly his whole world had been turned on his ear and he just really wasn't sure what to do with it. Suddenly he had a second change to start fresh with Roxas, do the right thing, say the right thing, and he wasn't sure he even could. Was he just going to make the same dumb mistakes again? Keep the kid in the dark for his own good only to be caught in a lie later?

But did Roxas even need to know the truth here and now? Sora wasn't even here! And he'd be damned before he let the Organization get their hands on him or Xion now--the subject of the Keyblade and precisely what the Organization had needed it for wouldn't even come to the table if he had anything to say about it. Besides, Roxas had already thought he'd died once, he wasn't about to tell him that he actually had, and Light help them if he found out what Xion had almost done.

There was no couch. Yeah, they were definitely gonna need to change that. He definitely needed a couch to sit on right now. Instead he moved to the little window by the front entrance. The glass was rippled and frosted, so he couldn't even see outside. Damn. With a sigh, Lea let his head list forward, his forehead knocking against the cold glass with a dull clunk.

Why did it seem that as soon as things got better, they just got more complicated all over again?

He must have been really lost in his own thoughts, because he didn't even hear the bedroom door open. When Xion's voice quietly broke the silence he gave a vicious start and whirled, snapping his hands up reflexively in defense before her silhouette registered in the semidarkness. Her face was softly lit by the light beyond the window with the watery wobbly glass, but her eyes were always bright, even in the dark.

As the sour adrenaline faded from his blood, Lea exhaled exaggeratedly and splayed a hand over his chest.

"Tryin' to give me a heart attack?" he quipped, and then chortled softly. "Ah... I guess that's what I get for making everyone memorize 'Axel'. Never expected to really have a reason to change names again."

Xion had had that kind of startled reaction far too many times to be entirely surprised when Lea reacts the way he does to her surprising him. They'd lived on metaphorical pins and needles far too long, it seemed.

Also the fact that she trusted that he wouldn't hurt her, as soon as he'd realized who it was. There was something... off, though. Something about what he'd said, though she couldn't put her finger on what it was. She puzzled with it for a few moments, then let it go. There were more important things to think about, and if it was really important, it'd come back to her.

"Sorry," she said, sheepishly, "I guess I'm surprised too, though. Um..."

She wanted to ask why, but there was a certain hesitance. For something that big, that it warranted him changing his name entirely... there was some sort of quiet implication there that left her worried.

Finally, she settled for something safer, "I really missed you. While I was here by myself. And Roxas too, of course." True, she hadn't been quite by herself, but... it'd certainly felt that way at times.

Edited 2012-11-18 08:37 (UTC)

He shook his head quickly.

"Nah, don't be sorry," he said with a wave of one hand; "I shouldn't let my mind wander after dark--I'm not always sure it'll find its way back." Folding his arms and leaning back against the wall (but not before pointedly moving so the back of his head wasn't in line with the window), Lea gave Xion a small smile. "I missed you too," he said without pomp or circumstance. Honesty like that somehow came more easily now that he didn't have to think it was foolish to admit to such sentimental things. What did beings without hearts know about missing the people they cared about, right? Lea didn't have to wonder anymore. Whether or not Axel had had a heart, he knew now that there was no denying its presence.

He knew the admission would evoke more questions, though. After all, she'd been the one here without them; how could he have missed her? He knew better than to think she would be satisfied with the name change excuse, but he hated to have to tell her the truth. And he had to--no more lying, he'd promised.

Lea had a feeling the biggest question would wind up being what to do about informing Roxas, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

"I don't think you stayed up just so you could tell me that in private, though," he accused gently, lifting his chin a bit. "Can't sleep?" He snorted. "You really have been hanging out with me too long."

Xion's mouth twisted slightly, a half-exasperated sort of grimace. "It's not the first time I've had trouble sleeping," she pointed out. There'd been a few other times, several even. After they'd broken out of the Digital Twilight Town, when she'd found out she was absorbing Roxas again...

She preferred not to think about those times, but on nights like this one, where she couldn't sleep? It was like she couldn't stop herself.

"You're right though. There's... probably other things we should talk about. I would've brought them up earlier but..." she trailed off, glancing over her shoulder at the door to the bedroom, where Roxas was probably still sleeping. This was hard. She didn't like not being able to talk to him about these sorts of things, and yet... She didn't want him to have to cope with all the knowledge, the things that had happened and almost happened...

He was still so young, so innocent and she can understand a little now why Lea had wanted to shelter them, keep the safe for as long as he could.

"We probably don't want to wake him up though," she added, "We can... go out to the living room maybe... or back to my apartment."

He knew it wasn't the first time. He remembered. That didn't mean he wasn't allowed to try and lighten the mood. ~~Gosh, Xion.~~ Lea's eyes followed her line of sight to the door, and he nodded. It seemed they'd had the same idea regarding Roxas' education. At least for the time being, it was probably best he didn't know all of the unpleasant things in his future. Hell, it didn't have to be his future anymore, did it? If he was here now, then that had already altered the course of events in his life. Maybe Lea could get things right this time. Maybe he could actually protect Roxas this time. It was going to be tough to find the right balance, though, and he knew it. Knowing how badly he'd almost screwed everything up last time, despite his good intentions, meant keeping this unsavory truth from him left a bad taste in his mouth.

Well, he didn't have to shoulder the decision alone this time, at least.

Shifting a bit where he stood, Lea sucked on his teeth briefly.

"I vote your apartment," he said. "Call me paranoid, but I'd rather talk someplace we won't have to make a hasty exit stage left to avoid a potential audience."

It didn't matter that it was the middle of the night; he didn't like the idea of anyone having the ability to eavesdrop on what promised to be a very painful and personal conversation.

Edited 2012-11-18 09:16 (UTC)

Xion didn't quite have Axel's experience in a mentor role, not enough to realize that this would be a good place to perhaps apply some lessons from her own life. Regardless, that's a discussion for when they're in her apartment, given that they don't want to wake Roxas up with their late night discussions. Especially given the subject matter - if they didn't want Roxas to find out about all this yet, then they should at least make sure he didn't eavesdrop on it accidentally.

"All right," she said with a nod. She raised a hand, making a corridor down to the kitchen area of her apartment. It wasn't that far of a walk at all - her apartment was only two floors down. She walked through it, trusting Lea to follow.

Once she arrived, she pushed her way through the open door to her bedroom. If they were going to do this, they might as well be comfortable. It's a little messy - she hadn't really thought to clean it once Lea'd arrived earlier that day. She'd only stopped by to grab her pajamas and an extra pillow for herself. It didn't really matter though, seeing as he wasn't here to evaluate how clean her room was or anything.

She turned and sat on her bed, pulling one knee up and resting the side of her face on it while she considered where to start.

Finally, she asked, "Should... I go first? Or... I don't know..." She sighed and looked up, "Why... why did you change your name?"

He watched as she opened a corridor and stepped through it, and something caught in his throat. "Er..." He was just wearing his black pants and sleeveless shirt--his coat was on a peg near the front door. His hand swam unbidden to his chest and something in his spine tightened, like a string was pulling at the small of his back. Logically he knew that such a short trip through the corridor wouldn't be dangerous, but he couldn't quite get his feet to move toward it. He'd just gotten that old heart of his back, and he wasn't about to risk losing it again.

"Damn."

With a sibilant noise he turned on his heel and grabbed the coat from the peg by the door, swirling it onto his shoulders and tugging at the zipper as he stepped into the portal. Xion was going to wonder, but this discussion was inevitable anyway. Emerging from the portal in her apartment he gave her a slightly sheepish look as she frowned briefly at his tardiness, but he just shook his head. Following her into the bedroom as the corridor closed behind him, he sighed.

He wished there was a chair for him to sit backwards in.

Instead he just sat down beside her and waited until she spoke. Then he smeared one hand down his face.

"You would start with the hard question," he muttered. His hand slid to his chest again, scratching at the spot over his heart absently, like it was an old wound that itched. "Well, I wasn't lying when I said that I decided to go back to my old name because I wasn't part of the Organization anymore," he said, "but... that was only half of it." This he knew she knew, but a preface of sorts was kind of necessary for this revelation. "S-so... you know the deal with names: anagram, throw an X in it, wham bam welcome to the fold, and all..." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "But I kept going by Axel even after we defected because even if I wasn't Number 8 anymore, I wasn't magically Lea again just for leaving, you know?"

If only it had been so easy.

He had a feeling she was going to connect the dots that he'd gotten his heart back fairly easily at this point. The tricky part was going to be telling her how.

Edited 2012-11-18 23:38 (UTC)

The coat had surprised her just as much as the pause it took for him to follow her. Xion had frowned, in puzzlement more than anything, but she let it pass when Lea shook his head. If it was important... well, it'd probably come up in their discussion.

Xion listened as he explained, frowning as she puzzled it out. It was indeed not taking her long to put the pieces together.

"But you are now." It wasn't a question.

So what was the difference? If he was Lea again... when he'd turned from Lea into Axel was when he was inducted into the Organization, and to be inducted into the Organization... he'd had to lose his-

"Y-you got your heart back? But how?" There was a sudden flash of panic in her eyes. "Was it... did we mess up? Did the Organization get Kingdom Hearts?"

Her own heart siezed up at the possibility. Not that she begrudged Lea getting his heart back. It was wonderful for him, she was sure, and she would have been so happy for him (would be, once she realized the truth). But the idea of the Organization getting their hands on Kingdom Hearts, despite all the efforts they'd made to the contrary... Not to mention they'd been under the impression that the Organization getting Kingdom Hearts was a bad thing. If they had... why would they give Lea his heart back, veritably rewarding him for what had happened?

Unless they couldn't control it?

It never occurred to her what had actually happened because... well, to someone who'd never heard the idea, it didn't make sense.

Oh. Well he hadn't expected that reaction from her. Waving his hands frantically for a second, he then reached out and grabbed her shoulders.

"Xi--Xion, stop," he said with a helpless sound that wasn't quite a laugh. Shaking his head and looking her straight in the eye he blew a sigh up toward his hairline. "Sheesh, you act like everything that has ever gone wrong is your fault somehow..."

That's my gig.

He released her shoulders and shook his head again.

"You... you didn't mess up, okay?" He wanted to make sure she understood that. "During the trip to the dark realm when we managed to find Aqua, we... kinda got ambushed."

He hesitated, then shifted where he sat, folding his legs up and putting his hands over his ankles. There was really no easy or painless way to tell her what had happened: they'd been ambushed, and ultimately he hadn't survived the impact. The fact that he'd taken the hit for her was only going to make this harder--she already thought they'd done something wrong.

"So you know how Nobodies are created," he said, because he knew she knew this. "I guess it never really occurred to anyone to attempt reverse-engineering. As it turns out, when both the Nobody and the Heartless are destroyed, the, ah... the original person is restored."

Again, he expected the dots to be connected quickly.

He found himself bracing for it.

She got it.

She doesn't visibly register immediately, but that's because her thoughts are busy racing. The words seem to hit her one at a time, only the big ones actually sticking in her brain - 'ambushed,' 'Nobody and Heartless are destroyed...'

'Restored.'

She... she doesn't know what to think at all. Or how to react. He seemed to be okay, but... if she was reading what he said correctly, he'd been destroyed even if he was okay now.

"You... you're okay, right?" she asked, her voice tentative. She glanced up and down him, as if looking for some sort of obvious injury or... something. Something to mark the difference, maybe explain what'd happened, foolish as it seemed.

"Wh-who... what was it?" she asked, belatedly realizing that in the Realm of Darkness, they could have been ambushed by more than just Organization members. Her voice is still a little numb as she looks up at him, eyes wide.

She took it a little better than he had expected her to, especially after the initial panic. He puffed a helpless half-chuckle as her eyes scanned him quickly as if for residual injury and he impulsively reached out and closed one long hand over her smaller ones.

"I'm fine," he said, squeezing her hand before releasing it to lean back again. "Better than I've been in more than ten years, you could say."

When she asked what had done it, though, he frowned a bit.

"Mm, I dunno, actually," he admitted. "I mean I dunno what it was, exactly." Sitting up again, he made a wide gesture with his arms. "Big sucker," he said; "it... wasn't a Heartless, I don't think. If it was, it wasn't like anything we'd encountered before." He let his arms fall to his sides again, then sighed and sat forward, his elbows on his knees. "I thought we'd taken it down," he said, shaking his head. "It was... it was my own fault. We thought it was over and dropped our guard."

He met her eye briefly, then glanced away again. He didn't want to tell her this part. It was fine that she knew he'd died, because he was okay now. It was fine that she knew he was taking ownership of the fact that he'd died, because he'd been working on that whole Taking Responsibility thing. But he wasn't sure it was okay for her to know that if he hadn't pushed her aside she would have been the dead one, because he knew she wouldn't take that nearly as well as she'd taken the rest of this news. Xion had always had issues believing she deserved much of anything, and he had a feeling she wouldn't have an easy time swallowing the idea that he'd taken the hit to save her life, even if things had worked out for the better in the end.

The squeeze was reassuring, as were Lea's actual words. Xion's shoulders unconsciously eased a little. He was still her friend. He was still okay. It was... it was okay. Really.

She still doesn't know how to really feel though, but she'll take not bad or worried or upset for now.

Instead she listened as he described the creature that had destroyed him. So it was ... something from the Realm of Darkness. They hadn't gotten caught by the Organization, or anything. When he glanced away though...

Lea wasn't as easy to read as Roxas. Roxas frankly wore his "heart" on his sleeve, oftentimes. But there were enough tiny signals. The not being able to meet her eyes more than a moment, the hunched shoulders... After two and a half years of constant being in his company... she could pick up enough to tell there was something going on.

She leaned forward, trying to catch his eyes with her own again. "Did something else happen?" she asked quietly, the tone of her voice suggesting she already knew the answer, and was more asking what had happened, rather than if something did.

He all but flinched at her words, silently damning her perception and the fact that he'd let himself become so easily read by his friends. Lea was still a top-notch liar... just not when Xion and Roxas were involved. They were like frigging truth serum or something, and he couldn't even get his face to lie around them anymore. He fought the sudden childish urge to just cover his face with his hands and shake his head, like maybe if he just said no the whole situation would go away.

It was over and done and no amount of grief or shock or horror would change what had happened. Did she really need to know?

Yes, a little voice piped up in the back of his head, and he sighed defeatedly. That stupid little voice was right, of course. Nothing could have changed the fact that Xion herself was a replica, or that Roxas was Sora's Nobody, and not being up front about those things had only dug his proverbial grave deeper.

Turning to meet her eye, Lea inhaled to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. How could he tell her this? It would absolutely wreck her! It had absolutely wrecked her--the look on her face when they had found him, already fading back into that darkness he'd been created from, it had been like talons closing around his insides. She had blamed herself and he could hardly stand the idea of her doing it again. He couldn't bear to see that look on her face again. Not now, not when he could no longer deny that he had a heart to feel pain and guilt with.

The guilt would be worse if he didn't tell her, though. He had learned his lesson. Now all he had to do was figure out how to get his words to cooperate.

"It all just kinda happened so fast," he said, and his tongue felt like it was made of wood. "It, ah..." He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Well, you know, Aqua's pretty hardcore," he said, trying a different avenue. "I mean, I've got a feeling you two could really wreak some magical havoc together, you know?" He paused, pressed his lips together, then continued, "We'd worn it down pretty well, the... whatever it was. She knocked it aside with some high-level meteor-kinda spell, and we figured it was over."

And they had. And in retrospect, he should have known better.

It was never that easy.

"We just stopped for a second," he said, shaking his head and frowning at his hands. "Just a second, really; just to regroup, to make sure nobody was missing any limbs." He glanced at her sidelong. "You'd turned your back to where it had fallen, I think you were fussing over Roxas cuz he'd torn his sleeve on something. And then it just kinda... happened."

What happened? he could just hear her ask, and so he pushed forward.

"Its tail came out of nowhere," he said, "and you didn't see it. Aqua and I did. She moved, but I was faster, and I shoved you out of the way." He cleared his throat again, giving a half-shrug. "It sent me flying, and..."

He trailed off then. She didn't need to know the gory details of what happened then. This was enough, right? He helplessly wrung his hands and then sort of hunched forward, scowling.

"But I couldn't just stand there and let it..." He shook his head with a frustrated noise then and clamped his jaw closed. Why was this so hard?

The flinch was the first bad sign. Axel- Lea... he virtually never reacted like that, unless something was really wrong. The rambling on a related but still not... direct part of the topic wasn't a good sign either - though she did take a moment to smile wistfully. "Yeah... a couple of weeks ago, we were fighting these scorpions together, and... she knows so much," she said quietly, falling silent as he continued.

When he finally got to it, though... it felt like the floor was dropping out from underneath her. Her. He'd... he'd done it to save her.

"It was my fault," her voice was numb.

At the same moment there erupted a kind of frustrated, helpless fear and anger inside of her. Why, why had he done it? She never... she'd never deserved... And sure, things had turned out okay now but... but what if they hadn't? He hadn't known he would come back! He... he could have been gone forever and-

Her vision swam with tears and she looked down at her hands, clenched into fists in her lap.

"Why?" she said, her voice cracking and raising in volume, "Why?"

A part of her knew why, though. She just... she didn't care, because he was her friend and finding out he'd died for her sake just left a sour pit in her stomach.

His spine stiffened as she said the exact four words he'd been expecting her to say. Her voice cracked and he could practically feel her shrink beside him, and let made a sibilant exasperated noise.

"Dammit, Xion, it's not like I stood there weighing the pros and cons," he said, getting to his feet and leaning forward in front of her, taking her shoulders. "It isn't like I thought to myself, 'gosh, I wonder why I have this overwhelming urge to push my friend out of harm's way? I can't imagine what that means...' Seriously? Come on, why would you even ask me why?"

He knew, because he would have asked the same thing, but he was trying to make a point.

"I didn't do it because I thought about why I was doing it," he said, taking her chin in one hand and forcing her to look at him. His eyes were bright with determination. "I just did it. And if you try and tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing for me or Roxas then you're a bigger liar than I am."

He was right. He was right and she knew it and she'd already tried it. She'd already tried killing herself for her friends sake, without any regards to the personal consequences. And if Axel and Roxas hadn't stopped her then... Then the future would have gone... just like the Riku here had said. Sora would have woken up and she would've been forgotten and...

Her eyes were overbright as they stared back at him for a few long moments, before she finally squinted them shut, screwing her face up and letting out a hiccuping sob. Tears worked their way down the sides of her face.

She wanted to cling to him, to curl up and to cry, even completing as much of the motion as she could when he had a grip on her chin and shoulder.

Finally, she managed to work out, in a choking sob, "I know."

With a gusty sigh, Lea let go of her and sat down heavily on the bed next to her again. Well, he hadn't really meant to be stern with her, and the last thing he'd wanted to do was make her cry... but he needed her to understand that there had been very little actual thought to his actions. It had been almost pure reflex, now that he thought back on it, and while he wasn't exactly surprised, given all they had gone through together. They had all made a promise to look out for one another, hadn't they? Maybe he'd never been the hero type, but that didn't mean he let his friends die when he could do anything about it. He'd already lost Isa long ago, and that hurt him still... the thought of losing Xion and Roxas was frankly unbearable.

He was quiet for a moment as she fought to keep her sobs quiet, and then he just reached over and silently draped an arm around her shoulders. Tugging her gently against his side, he shook his head.

"Xion, come on, don't cry," he said, "you know I never know what to do you when you cry, right?" He ruffled her head with his free hand and smiled faintly, though her head was still bowed so she didn't see it. "Really, I should be thanking you. Now... now we've all got hearts, right?"

Lea would never be convinced that Roxas hadn't had a heart all along. And Xion, as a replica and not a Nobody at all, had always been exempt. They were complete now, weren't they? This was a good thing! And though he hadn't known it would turn out this way when he'd made his decision, the risk had been more than worth it.

"Xion, listen to me," he said, ducking his head and waiting for her to look up at him. "If you'd been hit... if you'd been the one to die, we'd have lost you for good," he said. "Maybe even memories and all. You know that, right?" His face was pinched with discomfort, but not of a physical nature. "Me, I wound up better off than I was when we started this whole mess, and really I have you to thank for it. I mean, if you hadn't been such a darn great friend, I never would have put my life on the line tryin' to keep you safe, and if I hadn't done that, well, I never would'a gotten my heart back."

Leaning down a bit and knocking his forehead against her crown, he gave her a serious look.

"I don't gamble with my life unless the stakes are too high not to, kiddo," he said, "and the sooner you commit that to memory the better."

Xion sort of relaxed against him and listened, an odd, tentative expression on her face as he spoke. Her lips quirked in the shadow of a smile when he described them all being complete now, and then her whole face tightened into a mixture of realization and guilt as he reminded her that... yes, if she'd died... they really would have lost her. Possibly completely.

After he finished, she didn't didn't say anything, but she turned and wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him tightly. He was solid. He was real. Even if he had died, he was back.

"I'm really really glad you're here," she said, a little wetly. Now more than ever.

She wasn't going to cry any more, but she comfort of having her friend there right next to her, where she could touch him and feel he was real, meant so much. He was real. She was real, there... That was all that mattered for now.Besides... the talk of them losing her possibly was reminding her of something important.

At last, she leaned back, wiping her eyes. "There's something else that's happened here, before you got here," she began. Well, to say it happened maybe wasn't the best way of putting it, but... it would work for now.

All this time and he still wasn't sure he would ever get used to hugs. To his credit, he didn't jump at the action--he'd sort of been expecting it. He just ruffled her hair and sighed softly, leaning back on one hand mostly content to just let her take as long as she needed. He was still sort of reeling himself, honestly; he wasn't sure how he would have reacted had the roles been reversed.

He didn't want to think about it.

A short laugh dusted over his lips as she spoke, and he nodded.

"Me too," he said, removing his hand from her head and shifting a bit to lean back on both of them now. "It's not exactly the ideal situation I might have asked for, but I'll take what I can get." So long as she and Roxas were here, even if Roxas had forgotten everything that had happened over the past two years, he could handle it.

Lea glanced down when she pulled away then, watching as she swiped at her eyes, and his brow knit together.

"Happened?" Uh oh. He hadn't been expecting a Bad News Counterattack.

"Well..." she hesitated. How to explain this? Hinoto-Ri was complicated in so many ways... and this was one of the more difficult ones.

"You know how Roxas doesn't remember what happened for the past two years? And how I don't remember as much as you?" she started, "The city here, Hinoto-Ri... it does other strange things too. Riku is here too, but..."

She'd tried not to let it bother her so much but the fact was that it had. He was the only person here whom she'd actually known, and for him to not really... know her at all...

"He doesn't remember me. Almost all. He knows you and Roxas but... he only knows me because he saw "me" in someplace called Promenade. Promenade is a lot like here, I think. People come from different times and not everything makes sense. But... back home... he remembers things really differently. He doesn't remember me and... and he says Sora's been awake for a while now, and he was only asleep a year. It's almost like..." She bit her lip before continuing, "It's almost like he remembers what might've happened if you and Roxas hadn't stopped me."

Back on that day, a year and a half ago. That very near miss.

Nodding as she spoke, Lea's eyes widened at the revelation. He knew Riku was apparently from a different reality than the one he was familiar with, but they hadn't really discussed the gritty details of just how they differed. The gears in his head turned quickly and his eyes lowered to his lap, his brow furrowed as he tried to process all of this.

"Promenade," he echoed, chewing briefly on the inside of his lower lip. "That's the same place Aqua mentioned." Were they from the same 'version' of the universe, then? No, that couldn't be right; Aqua was from a point in time about six years ago, but... Riku would have only been about ten years old then, so he couldn't have known Xion then anyway! But... if people came to these worlds from different points in time, like he and Xion had, then it was still possible, right? Light, this was confusing.

His thoughts went down the exact road Xion mentioned next, that somehow, wherever and whenever Riku had come from, they hadn't been able to stop her, and she'd vanished without a trace. His eyes snapped to hers, clouded with dismay.

"But..."

It was like he suddenly forgot what words were; his jaw hung ajar and his throat was dry. He had spent so long trying not to imagine what would have happened if they'd been too late, and now he had no choice but to wonder if that wasn't precisely what had happened in the series of events Riku knew. With a blustery exhale he sort of sagged further back on his hands, like maybe his spine just decided it didn't want to do its job anymore.

"Damn."

Not exactly the articulate response he'd been going for, but accurate all the same.

So Aqua had told Lea about Promenade too. Certainly it seemed to be a common link between the way Aqua and Riku remembered things. Was Aqua from the same universe that Riku was then? Where... where she...

Xion didn't really swear, but the word fit her sentiments on the matter exactly. She was still struggling with it on some level, even now. Less than she used to, but... still.

"He's... he's still nice to me, and he helped me out in a fight once." Nevermind that she'd dove into said fight to help him but details. "He doesn't... think I'm an enemy or anything like that. I wasn't wearing the coat when I first met him so that might've helped."

The idea of being seen as an enemy by someone who was supposed to be one of their closest allies would proably have made her feel a whole lot worse. As it was... it still wasn't that comfortable, but at least they could still be friendly. At least... she thought she could still count on him to help her if she really needed it. She had no idea how bad things could get in a world like this... where they were trying to save humanity in this universe. It wasn't all taking care of puppies and learning how to shop entirely for herself, as the guys who'd tried to mug Riku and the night with all the scorpions had proven.

Maybe they could still be friends eventually.

"We talked a little while back. About some of the differences between our memories," she added. She didn't like to think about what would've happened if she'd been forgotten but... she'd had to, a little.

"What kinda blew my mind was that he knew who I was," Lea admitted. "Not... I mean of course he knew who I was, but I mean, he asked if it was 'Axel' or 'Lea'." His eyes widened and he touched his temples, then splayed his fingers out: mind. blown. "That means that even though he's from some other reality..."

His hand swam to his chest again, fingertips pressing against the front of his coat. It was still so strange to think about it... he'd spent so long with no goal other than to get his heart back, and now that he'd succeeded (albeit through unorthodox means), he wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

"I mean, however I got my heart back in Riku's world, it can't have been through means that were too shady, or he would have, you know, tracked me down to kick my ass instead of being friendly," he reasoned, "but still. S'kinda wild to think that I'm in a comparable place in that universe too."

He gave her a sad smile then.

"For the record, though, I'm... glad I'm not in that universe."

He didn't like the idea of existing in a universe where Xion didn't, even if his road led to a similar destination to the one he'd arrived at in this one.

Xion nodded at his words.

"Yeah," she admitted, her voice soft as she curled up next to him, "Me too. I know... I know I wouldn't acutally be there, but..."

But that was the point. In that other world... there was no her. No one for him to remember. And all the things they'd done together, they wouldn't have happened. And all those times on the clock tower... How much would have been lost? And what about all the things that had happened since they'd gone on the run? The times she and Roxas saved Axel, the sparring she'd done with Kairi and Riku, them helping to find Aqua and her friends... what would've happened to that?

It's such a huge step for her. Before she wouldn't have thought she'd had enough worth to be worth saving. Now... she's glad she's not gone, even if there is a part of her that's guilty for all the problems it's caused.

For a little while, she doesn't say anything more, content to just... let things be quiet.

"I have a job here," she said finally, "At a pet store." It's not the same as Pluto, but...

He gave a helpless chuckle at that, but there was an undertone of bitter sadness to it. He reached over and ruffled her head fondly, sending her long bangs askew. He had to think he knew what she was thinking: in a world where she didn't exist anymore, things would have been pretty different, for all of them. Whether they would be different for better or for worse, though... that was sort of in the eye of the beholder, wasn't it? He knew for certain that his life probably would have been pretty different, and a life lacking in Xion wasn't one he wanted to contemplate. He knew she'd never had a very high opinion of herself, but her presence had affected his life in a way that he wouldn't have undone for anything.

Not that he was going to say it in as many words. She probably would have worried he'd caught a fever if he did that.

Oh look, a handy subject change.

"Job?" He crinkled his nose. "Wait, seriously?" He shook his head. "I mean, that's... good for you, I guess, but... man, I didn't think about that. Munny doesn't seem like a valid currency around here, and there's no Heartless to get it from anyway." He waved a hand. "Not that I'm really complaining about that last part, but..."

But the idea of getting a job is pretty lame. Ew, respectable employment?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There were skies that burst open

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Someday I'll have enough expressions on the AU account I won't need to do this /)~(\

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject