There were skies that burst open

[whereibelong]

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...

Comments

[travelsthefarthest]

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."