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[FIC][Kingdom Hearts 2] Things Old and New
OKAY HAPPY ENDING. YAY ROXAS YAY OT3 YAY EVERYONE??
... except that there's a loose end I forgot to tie up, so YAY SEQUEL?
Things Old and New
Kingdom Hearts 2 -- end of game speculations/spoilers; SoRiKai OT3; Roxas/Axel [NOT WORKSAFE]
Also, so I originally said "And a Wreath of Flowers" was the prequel to "The Sound of Memory." I lied. This is the direct sequel. So it goes:
1. No Crowd
2. ...And A Wreath of Flowers His Crown
3. This one, but there's no real need to read the others unless you're feeling, I dunno. Masochistic?
8415 words
Fairytales lead to happy endings. Most of the time.
(P.S. Much thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maho_kiwi, who gave me the launchpoint idea for this, and to voodoobob and harukami for putting up with me screaming, letting me occasionally poll them for WHAT WOULD YOU DO? answers, and for helping name Kairi's Keyblade. TAH-DAH love you all♥)
+++++
The invitation came in a bottle, like the letters from the King; Sora found it washed up on the beach and brought it home to open, barefoot in the kitchen with Kairi peering over his shoulder and Riku rummaging through the fridge for drinks.
The paper inside was made from far higher quality than even the normal letters from the king, held by a seal in metallic-silver wax. Sora had to work carefully to keep the delicate material from ripping as he broke the seal. Inside, the handwriting elegant and scrawling, with exaggerated flourishes and a final signature in golden ink, over the same seal as before. Sora scratched his head.
"Oh," said Kairi, and took the note from him. She squinted for a moment. "Aurora's getting married."
"Er," said Sora. He took the soda Riku offered and said, "Good for her?"
"We're invited," she added. "In official capacity, as Keyblade Bearer and Princess of Heart."
Sora blinked. "What?"
"Says here." She waved the invitation at him. "Princess Aurora will be married to Prince Phillip on the first day of the new year, so that 'the joyous blessings of the new year may be bestowed upon the couple.'" She considered.
"Wait, but," Sora says, "we don't even know Aurora. It'd be one thing if it was, like, Jasmine or Ariel or someone -- Aurora? Why?"
Kairi cleared her throat, drawing herself up a little. "The honored presence of the noble Keyblade Master and the Lady Kairi, Princess of Heart--' do you hear that, 'Lady,' my dad will flip -- 'is humbly requested to this occasion.' So, see, we're invited."
Riku cleared his throat. "Well," he said mildly. "You two will have fun--"
"You're coming too," she said sternly. "All three of us are going."
"We are?" Sora asked, at the same time Riku started to say, "But, Kairi--"
"It says here," she said, pointing, "the Keyblade Master. You count."
"But I'm not really--"
"You WERE," she said, raising her voice to speak over him. "You were, in fact, you were supposed to be, and you're both Keyblade Masters, and I'm the only one mentioned by name. You count."
Riku hunched his shoulders and glanced aside. "I don't know, Kairi," he muttered. "They probably won't be too comfortable with me around."
"You count," she said, her tone steely. "And if you think you can use that as an excuse to get out of this, you're mistaken."
"It's not that," he said, a bit helplessly. "Kairi, I just --"
She reached out and put a cool hand on his arm; he jumped, and Sora leaned back just a little as Naminé peered up at him, with just the smallest of frowns perched on her mouth.
"It's a happy time," she said, and wrapped her fingers around Riku's forearm, as far as they would reach, her skin strikingly pale against his. "It's a time for celebration. They would not begrudge you that."
"Naminé," Riku said, "I--"
"It will be far more troublesome," she said, "if we don't go. They'll be insulted. We should avoid that." She tilted her head, blinking solemnly. "Please."
For a moment he kept his head turned resolutely away, holding himself almost painfully stiff, and then he sighed, shoulders relaxing into a slump. "Fine," he said. "I'll go."
Naminé smiled, and then Kairi was back, outright smirking. "I'm glad you're going to be reasonable," she said. "... And it's a good thing we've got some time, because neither of you two are going to go dress like that."
Sora looked down at himself -- shorts frayed at the cuffs and a ragged T-shirt with one sleeve long ripped off, and tattered sandals. "Er," he said. "Kairi. Dunno if you've noticed, but being a Keyblade Master isn't exactly the best-paying of jobs, and neither is 'student'--"
"That's okay," she said, with a gleam in her eyes that made him take another step backwards. "We'll figure something out."
+++
"Something" turned out to be King Mickey; two weeks after the first invitation, another one arrived, this one summoning the three of them to Disney Castle. Kairi was whisked off almost immediately by the Queen after they arrived, leaving Sora and Riku at the mercies of the King's rabbit-tailor, whose nose tended to twitch violently if anyone looked at him for too long.
Riku submitted to the measuring process with a long-suffering silence, but Sora fidgeted and kept shifting his weight until he heard, in the back of his head, Stop that.
I wish we could've gotten the good fairies to do this, Sora thought back, stretching out his arms obediently for the tape measure. They could've fixed up something in a flash, and there wouldn't be all this standing around.
Aurora is their goddaughter, Roxas pointed out. They've got more important things to worry about.
Sora grumbled and did not deign to answer, and finally after a long eternity, the tailor finished, scuttling back and fleeing the room with a brief mumble; Sora let his arms drop with a sigh. "I think," he said, "I'm going to be scared of what they come up with."
"It's a royal wedding," Riku said. "Of course the clothes are going to look funny."
Sora threw himself down into a chair, yelping when it sank a bit deeper than he expected. It took a moment of flailing for balance before he could sit up and frown at Riku. "And how'd you know? Been to many?"
Riku snorted. "Royalty is ostentatious," he said. "Even the King is, and he's about as humble as kings go. If their everyday life is like this--" he gestured around the room, "then what's a wedding going to look like? Big. Fancy. Probably stuff we'll never wear again."
Sora sank down lower in the chair with a faint groan. "I'm happy for them," he said. "I really am. It just feels weird."
Riku sat down beside him, resting elbows on knees. "Weird?"
Sora flapped a hand. "It's one thing if we get invited to Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding," he said. "They're our friends."
"Your friends, you mean."
"Our friends," Sora repeated stubbornly, and sighed. "They're friends, so it's not weird, wanting your friends there. But this is ... it's all official. It's not because we're 'Sora, Riku, and Kairi,' it's because we're the 'Keyblade Masters' and 'Princess of Heart.'" He thunked his head back. "It feels fake."
Riku snorted, but then reached out and squeezed his shoulder briefly. "There's no way you could be fake," he said quietly. "You shouldn't worry."
Sora made a face, then turned his head towards Riku, a wry half-smile on his face. "... Yeah," he said. "Doesn't make it feel any less strange, though." He reached up and caught Riku's hand with his, their fingers lacing together easily.
"Maybe," said Riku. "But we might need to get used to it. There's still three other Princesses who might be married someday, not to mention a whole lot of regular royalty who have alliances with King Mickey ..."
Sora groaned and thunked his head back. "Ugh."
Riku smiled faintly, and squeezed Sora's hand, leaning back himself; the chairs were almost comfortable enough to be beds on their own, plush and deeply-cushioned, and it was warm enough with the late autumn sun through the windows, and somewhere in the middle of listening to Sora mutter aloud to Roxas in yet another argument, Riku fell asleep.
+++
Kairi had been nervous about showing off her new dress -- it wasn't really that she doubted her boys, but she'd never been in the habit of wearing anything fancy, and certainly not anything that clung almost embarrassingly tight at the bust and flared out smoothly at the hips into a brief train.
However, with the way Sora just gaped and Riku slowly turned an utterly fascinating shade of red, she felt much better for it.
+++
"What do you MEAN," Sora said, with something akin to horror, "that I have to DANCE?"
"You can dance fine," Kairi said. "Fighting isn't that much removed from dancing!"
Riku snorted. "You're thinking about someone else," he said. "You must be. Have you seen Sora fight? He just sort of --" He mimed a swinging motion, like a baseball player with a bat. "Like that."
She pursed her lips. "Er. Well. We'll work on that."
+++
"Are you really sure this is a good idea?" Riku asked, looking at his reflection in the mirror; with his new clothes and his hair tied back from his face, he almost didn't recognize his own reflection. "I'm not really the Keyblade Master they were thinking of ..."
"You'll come as our guest, then," said King Mickey. "You're a Knight of my court. And no one doubts your contribution against the Heartless and the Nobodies."
Riku stared at himself in the mirror a bit longer and sighed. "Your Majesty ..."
"It's a wedding, Riku," said Mickey. "It's the last sort of thing that would separate you from the people you love." He came over and patted Riku's hand. "You'll see. Just relax and enjoy yourself. It's a joyous time."
+++
"They're going crazy," Roxas told Naminé, one night after the trio had fallen asleep; he sat on the windowsill, one leg dangling out, and she perched neatly beside him, legs crossed at the ankles and her hands folded in her lap. "They're not even the ones getting married. We don't leave for at least another month."
Naminé laughed, covering her mouth with one small hand. "They're excited," she said. "Even Sora. Right?"
Roxas made a face and leaned his head back. "... I guess," he said. "He still complains about it a lot, though."
"Of course," said Naminé. She put her hand on her chest, closing her eyes for a moment. "Kairi is practicing right here."
"Huh?" He blinked.
"Seventeen isn't too young to get married," said Naminé. "It's only that she hasn't figured out how to say it right." She put her hands together, palm-to-palm-to-fingers, then smiled faintly. "Or how to tell her parents."
Roxas shrugged, swinging his free-dangling leg in slow easy arcs. "Sora's mother has already guessed," he said. "And Sora's guessed, but he's too afraid to ask. He's mostly been thinking that they should elope. When the time comes."
Naminé giggled briefly. "That might be better," she said. "I don't think there's enough room on the Islands for the guest list."
He sniffed, not quite a laugh, and leaned back. As he did, a star shot across the sky, leaving a brief glowing trail in its wake. One of Naminé's hands touched his wrist, and from the corner of one eye, he could see she was also watching the same fading line.
"Roxas," she said. "Make a wish."
He almost protested, then decided against it and closed his eyes. It felt oddly awkward, almost uncomfortable -- like stretching muscles long out of practice. And well, the only wish he had was sort of ridiculous anyway, two years waiting with no answer, but ...
"Hm," said Naminé. Roxas opened his eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing," she said, drawing a circle on the back of his hand with one fingertip, and then a heart inside of that. "We should go back to bed. It'll be busy tomorrow when we leave."
Roxas nodded and got to his feet. He glanced back once over his shoulder. In the night sky, the the star's path had faded into nearly nothing; if he didn't deliberately look for it, he thought, he wouldn't even notice it. But it was there -- it had existed, for a single undeniable moment.
Comforted by the thought, Roxas returned to the bed, sinking easily back into his shared body, and then into the quiet dark of sleep.
+++
The greeting reception, upon arriving at Aurora's world, was the longest three hours of Sora's entire life. Even Riku's knighting ceremony hadn't even been half as long, even with speeches from Mickey and Goofy and even a short little thing he'd written, which had been easy to recite when he'd focused on Riku instead of the huge crowd--
"Stop fidgeting," Donald hissed, somehow managing to speak without moving his beak from its rigidly bright smile.
"These clothes itch," Sora whispered back. "How do people wear these?"
"They do it all the time, now stay still."
Sora straightened his shoulders, trying not to move too obviously; Riku and Kairi, he noted with some sullen resentment, were holding up way too well, apparently quite comfortable in their fancy new clothes. Even Donald and Goofy were standing at crisp attention, unbending, as King Stefan exchanged greetings with King Mickey. There were brightly-colored banners and tapestries everywhere, and Sora was pretty sure he'd never seen so many well-dressed people in his life.
Aurora stood to her father's left, her hands clasped and her expression demure, but every now and then she would glance over, to Phillip, and her smile would turn warmer just for that fraction of a second. She was very pretty, Sora would admit, in a distant sort of way -- like the dawn she was named for, like fine art, faintly warm and untouchable. Some of the bards in Mickey's court had been singing songs about Aurora's beauty and kindness, and of the bravery and strength of handsome Prince Phillip, one of the few who had fought desperately against Maleficent's rise to power, one of the few whose heart hadn't been taken when their world fell--
Sora glanced aside at Kairi, pretty and proper in her new dress -- courtesy of Queen Minnie's ladies, pale blues and greens and violets -- and flowers braided into her hair, and beyond her was Riku, in dark green and gold, and and he thought that he definitely liked this much better.
+++
Aurora looked at Riku only once during the entire celebration. Her expression gave nothing away, but when she turned away again, he could feel the chill all the way done to the bone.
+++
Kairi glanced both ways before she tiptoed out of her room. It was very nice, certainly, and befitting of the Princess they kept calling her, but they were hers alone, and the boys had been placed somewhere in a different wing. Mickey had promised to speak with Stefan about it, but it would be hours yet until dinner, and she was bored and cold and a little lonely. The two maids she'd encountered since arrival had been nice girls, but they'd spent the whole time gossiping in giddy nonstop glee about the upcoming wedding, until Kairi had pleaded a headache to get rid of them.
She gathered up her skirts -- they were too long, too voluminous, and made a loud swishing sound when she walked -- and made her way to the end of the hallway before she stopped. A rabbit warren of hallways and turns suddenly opened up before her, and while she remembered the boys being led to the right when she went left, she couldn't remember how many other turns her guide had made before showing her the room.
To the end of the next hallway, Naminé whispered. Castles aren't hard to figure out, once you're used to them.
Kairi paused, glancing up and over instinctively -- Sora might have gotten used to arguing with Roxas without letting it show on his face, but Naminé usually didn't talk, and it was rare to hear her say anything whenever Kairi was awake. "Naminé," she murmured.
A little further, Naminé told her again. You should find it -- oh.
Something slim and slithery and white slunk by at the corner of Kairi's vision and she whirled, heart pounding.
"Was that ... a Dusk?" she asked hesitantly.
... said Naminé.
Kairi took a deep breath and summoned her own Keyblade, Heart's Flower. It still felt a bit strange to her, even with the training Riku had been giving her, but -- she could do this. She could do this.
be careful, Naminé whispered. please.
Another deep breath, and Kairi took off running after the fluttering white shape. She saw it disappear around another corner, the end of its sleeve waving briefly before disappearing. She almost tripped over her skirts and ended up kicking off her slippers as she ran, bare feet thudding against the carpet.
She rounded the corner sharply and saw a flash of white. She lifted Heart's Flower, ready to attack--
It clashed down with a metallic clink against the edge of Way to Dawn, and left her and Riku staring at each other in wide-eyed shock.
"Kairi?" he said.
"Riku?" she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow, looking mildly bemused. "Well, yes?" he said. "You know who I am."
"No, I mean --" She backed up, dropping Heart's Flower from its offensive stance. "I swore I saw--"
Riku stood as well, Way to Dawn vanishing. He smiled at her for a moment, then paused at the look on her face. "... Kairi?"
She shook her head, looking at him plaintively. "I thought I saw ..."
He caught her arm. "What's wrong?" he asked softly. "You're pale."
"I thought ..." She let Heart's Flower fade and took a deep calming breath. "I thought I saw a Dusk. In the castle."
Riku stared. "--You what?"
"Maybe I was imagining it," she said hesitantly. "I only saw it from the corner of my eye, but ..."
He said nothing, his expression shadowed for a moment, and then he took her hand. "Come on," he said. "King Mickey arranged it with King Stefan -- you'll be with us."
She blinked at him. "Then you--"
"I came to kidnap you." He smiled, changing his grip on her wrist so that their fingers were laced together instead. "Sora wanted to come, but you know him. He'd insist on leading and we'd get lost."
"Oh." She blinked and squeezed his hand. "That's true enough. You'd think with all his time traveling, he'd be better at finding places!"
"Right," said Riku, and smiled. "Let's go back, before he gets worried enough to come after us."
Kairi let Heart's Flower vanish from her hand and stepped back, crossing her arms. "One thing," she said.
"Hm?"
"One does not kidnap a Princess," she told him loftily. "One may, however, escort her somewhere, if she chooses to allow him."
He blinked, and then he laughed, and swept into a courtly bow that would've put some of the courtiers from earlier to shame. "Then," he said, "my lady, would you do me the honor of allowing me to escort you to your new quarters?"
"You may," she told him, peering down her nose, then broke into giggles. "Oh, but wait, I have to get my shoes--"
"Your shoes?" He didn't straighten from his bow, but he did look up at her quizzically. "What are you talking about?"
"Um. Before." Kairi pointed down the hallway from where she'd come, then down at her skirts. "When I thought I was chasing a Dusk? It was hard enough to run in these so I thought I'd make it easier ..." She hiked her skirts up enough to show him her bare toes, then wriggled them in the plush carpeting.
Riku stared at her feet for a moment and then began to laugh. She held out for a moment longer before she began to giggle as well, and when he offered her his arm, she accepted with a smile.
+++
A servant in King Stefan's colors arrived as the sun began to set, ushering them to dinner. Sora tugged ineffectually at his collar, making faces the entire time until they actually reached the grand hall, at which point Kairi stepped neatly on his foot and Riku elbowed him in the side both without changing expressions.
"Take her arm, idiot," Riku muttered, his lips barely moving. "You're supposed to be her escort."
Sora glared briefly, but when Kairi took his arm firmly -- and then, to Riku's apparent surprise, his with her other -- he didn't protest.
When they were announced, Princess of Heart and Keyblade Masters (and Sora had to wonder, idly, how long Mickey must have argued to get that acknowledgment for Riku as well), they stepped out, and for a moment the entire court went silent. Their presence had been noted as part of Mickey's court earlier, but now it was just the three of them -- three small (or not that small, admittedly, in Riku's case) gangly teenagers, suddenly on the spot for visiting dignitaries of multiple worlds.
He almost froze. It was one thing to be the center of attention when you were too busy distracted by something else, like the end of the world or certain death breathing down your neck; it was another to be in silly clothes and uncomfortable shoes and no actual enemy anywhere in site.
But Kairi kept walking, her head up and her back straight, looking every inch a real princess. Her momentum kept them moving forward, up to the high table, to be seated at Aurora's right.
And then Donald and Daisy were announced, and the crowd's attention swung away from them, and Sora let out a slow sigh of relief. Kairi glanced at him and smiled sympathetically, patting his arm. "You did well," she told him.
"Man," Sora sighed, and looked down at the fancy table settings. "This is crazy."
Kairi glanced at Aurora, sitting next to her, then leaned over and whispered, "That's what happens when a princess gets married," she whispered. "And not just that, a Princess."
"You just said the same thing--"
She shook her head, and for a moment in the light, her hair seemed to shimmer golden. "It's not the same," she said, in a different voice. "This is a sort of magic that comes from the Heart of a world, when it gives up its Princess." She sat up, looking out at the crowd, her profile clean and almost sad. "All sorts of things might happen."
Riku leaned in as well, looking as hesitant as Sora felt. "Kairi ..."
She shook her head, then turned to them and smiled again. "I'm fine," she said.
Sora wanted to say she didn't look completely fine, still a little too pale to be exactly real, but after a moment he shrugged, looking out at the gathered crowd. "Is something going to happen out there?" he pointed to the cleared area in the center of the great hall, framed by rows of tables. "Looks like they're setting something up."
"Oh, that." Kairi leaned towards them, grinning. "I heard that they're going to have an acrobatic troupe performing for the feast. They're supposed to be so good that King Mickey wants to hire them for the next big party at Disney Castle."
Sora rolled his eyes, finally relaxing further. "Please," he said. "Acrobats? That's kid's stuff. Bet I could do better."
"Why don't you volunteer, then?" asked Riku, amused. "They'd probably take you up on the offer."
"No way," Sora said, and to demonstrate he hunched a bit protectively over his plate as servants came around to pour drinks. "I'm starving, and I'm not going up there when I look like this." He pointed at himself, and the fancy cut of his clothes. "I look stupid."
"I think you look very handsome," Kairi protested, though she had to hide a laugh behind one hand. "Now, if we could just do something about your hair ..."
Sora put his hands over his head. "What's wrong with my hair? I like my hair."
"It's cute," Kairi said, "but really, Sora, people sometimes wonder how on earth you get these to stand up." She stretched in her chair, reaching up to run her palm against the upstanding spikes. "You don't even use anything--"
"Hey," Riku said. "The show's starting."
Kairi sat back, and Sora made a brief face at her before he turned back to the line of performers filing out in a straight line, through the center of the great hall. Each one was dressed in a colorful patchwork of colors except for one -- in the dead center of the line was a tall skinny shape all in a long black robe, with a hood drawn over its face.
In spite of himself, he sat up and leaned forward, frowning. The cloak was in the same flowing archaic style favored by this world, but there was something about it that was just--
And then there was a sudden explosion of color and light -- miniature fireworks going off over the heads of the crowd as the line suddenly split itself into sections, with pairs tumbling out so that they fanned around the single shape in black, who stopped in place, arms folded over its chest.
At each of the four points, performers clambered onto each other's shoulders, rising into towers of three that moved smoothly forward; someone produced a set of small balls with streamer tails and began to juggle the set between the four of them.
"See," Sora said, mouth half-full, prodding at his meat with a fork. "Kid's stuff."
The figure in black suddenly moved, slivers of black through the riot of color, and pulled its cloak off. Underneath he was dressed in shades of red and gold, like an ember.
He was a young man, possibly about Riku's age, with ragged dark brown hair that was long enough to be weighed down, but still ended in a series of spikes in the back. His face had been painted white, with narrow black lines under his eyes and above them, and bracketing his mouth in a parody of a smile. His eyes, visible somehow even from a distance, were brilliant bright green.
Sora felt something twist hard in his belly. He clutched hard at his drink; the food in his mouth suddenly tasted like ash.
The final player smiled at the audience, looking around with slow deliberation and Sora wanted to recoil, wanted to hide, and then the guy saw him and
grinned
real wide -- wide enough that it matched where the painted lines around his mouth extended --
and opened his mouth and
Sora got to his feet very quickly. "I," he said in a strangled voice not quite his own. "I'm going -- out."
"Sora?" Kairi turned to him with a small frown, and then her eyes widened in both surprise and concern. "Roxas? What's going on--"
"I'll be outside," he heard himself blurt, and then he fled.
+++
"What the HELL was that?!" Roxas paced nervously back and forth across the hallway, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. "That was -- I mean, you saw him--"
I did, Sora agreed tentatively; he still sounded shocked himself. That guy looked just like--
"This is STUPID," Roxas snapped. "It's a trick, it's a trap -- this was Maleficent's world originally, she must have done something ..." He stopped and looked up at a stained-glass window, dark and angled in the moonlight. "She didn't die when we left her in the World That Never Was ..."
But it was locked, Sora pointed out. I mean. I think it was. We couldn't find it when we went back--
"I know that," Roxas snapped, and started to pace again. "I'm probably just imagining things. This isn't anything -- he's not --"
"Roxas."
Roxas whirled, watching as Naminé walked slowly to him, with Riku behind her. The sea colors that had been so striking on Kairi looked almost washed-out on Naminé, and the last dusky glow of twilight set up a strange halo on her pale hair. "Naminé?"
She stopped, putting her hands together. Her expression was troubled. "You saw him too."
"I--" It was on the tip of his tongue to say of course, and then he wanted to deny that, but then the words dried up, and he just shrugged helplessly.
"We told King Stefan you weren't feeling well," Riku said quietly. "We don't think anyone saw you change."
Roxas blinked, then glanced aside, blinking hard. "... Thanks."
"No problem." Riku's expression was solemn.
"Roxas," Naminé said again, her voice soft. "You shouldn't run away from this."
"I --" He took a deep breath. "I'm not running away. I just wanted to -- I needed some space to think. This is ..."
Naminé crossed the remaining short distance between them and took one of his hands between both of hers and looked up. The dying light seemed to gather and then fade in her eyes, so that they looked wider and darker than normal. "You made a wish, didn't you?"
Roxas stared at her. "What?"
"When we left Disney Castle." She ignored how he tried to tug his hand free. "We saw a shooting star, and you wished."
"It was just --"
"And before that," she said quietly. "I suppose, if you make enough wishes, someone will hear you eventually."
Roxas shook his head. "I ..."
Naminé lifted his palm and placed it against her cheek, leaning into it. "They'll be in the kitchen after the performance," she said quietly. "They'll eat with the servants, and then they'll leave."
He swallowed hard. "I ..."
"Don't tell me you're too chicken to go," Riku said, his voice carefully bland. "After all of that ..."
"I'm not afraid!" Roxas bristled. "Jeeze, what's with you two? Haven't you forgotten?" He yanked his hand back from Naminé at last and backed up, thumping a fist to his chest. "It's not just me here, it's Sora. You can't just expect because you're all so damn happy that you can play matchmaker, and if you're trying to get rid of him, you--"
Naminé's hand cracked suddenly across his face -- not hard, but enough to sting. Roxas blinked, wide-eyed, and touched his hot cheek with light fingers.
"He's the person you've been waiting for," she said softly, apologetically. "If you can let that go without trying ..."
"We told you before, right?" Riku said. "It'll be okay." He shrugged and then glanced aside, eyes tracking up to the stained glass image above them. "Kairi and Sora and I talked about it."
"You did?" Roxas stared. "When did -- I never --"
Inside of him, Sora shifted, as though scuffing a foot in embarrassment. Well, he said, you're not the only one who can hide things from your other.
Roxas gaped.
"We talked about it," Riku said quietly. "It's not fair, if the chance came, to keep you from it."
"So if you say it's about Sora and his relationships," Naminé said softly, "it's just an excuse. This isn't his story right now. It's yours."
Roxas swallowed. "Naminé ..."
"Just don't run off with him," Riku put in suddenly. "Bring him home, instead. After this, none of us really want to go on anther world-hopping chase."
"You two are--"
"Go on," Naminé said softly, smiling. "Say hello for me." She glanced up at Riku, then smiled faintly. "But not from him. They didn't get along very well. Not just because of you and Sora, though."
Riku snorted.
Roxas hesitated; his knees felt locked. "I ..."
Just do it, Sora told him. Promise I won't pay attention. That's more than you gave us!
He looked at Naminé; she nodded. He looked at Riku; he shrugged, but smiled just a little.
Taking a deep breath and flexing his fingers, like he was about to go into battle, Roxas turned and took off running, towards the palace kitchens.
+++
"He ran away like a scared rabbit," Daniel said. "Soon as he saw your ugly face! You're losing your touch, Alex!"
"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," Alex sighed, shaking his head at him. "More likely he kept looking at you, and it finally got to be too much for him." He took a swig of beer. "Who wouldn't fall for a face like this? People love someone who'll make 'em laugh, y'know?"
"Didn't hear too much of that going on," said Lawrence, from the other side of the table. He reached over and shoved at Alex's shoulder. "Probably traumatized by your skinny clown ass."
"Hey, who doesn't love a clown?" Alex drew a line down the side of his sweating cup, then painted wet lines on the sides of his mouth, mimicking the recently washed-off paint. "It's just 'cause I'm with you sorry bastards they run away, that's all."
Katherine giggled. "That's true enough," she said. "Is that what you were doing, when you disappeared those years ago? Charming everyone into giving you a place to stay till you got bored and ran off again?"
Alex's cup paused halfway up. "... In a manner of speaking," he said. "I--"
The kitchen door boomed open. Servants paused and looked up as a young man dressed in bright blue finery began pushing his way over to the table.
Lawrence whistled. "Whadaya know," he said. "Alex hasn't lost his touch after all -- Alex?" He looked as the other man got to his feet. "S'wrong, man?"
Alex finished the rest of his beer, then tossed the cup down onto the table; it rolled until its handle caught. "Later," he said. "Don't wait up for me."
"With that?" Daniel said, a bit disbelievingly. "Kid's got a fancy title, but he's not much more than a scrawny little -- Alex? Hey, Alex, are you listening?!"
Alex ignored the rest of his troupe, sauntering to meet the kid halfway. He was panting and there was a flush in his cheeks, but he stood up straight, meeting Alex's eyes without flinching.
"You know," said Alex, "I think you've grown since I last saw you."
There was a long pause as the kid drew in a sharp, shaky breath. "Ax--"
"C'mon," he said, and put a hand on the kid's bony shoulder; it was shaking rather obviously under his touch. "Let's blow this place."
+++
They walked quietly for a while, not quite touching, through the shadows of the deepening twilight. Roxas kept glancing aside, a thousand possible conversation openings -- most "helpfully" provided by Sora -- running through his mind before being summarily dismissed. And the other man, the man who obviously recognized him, wasn't saying anything, apparently content to enjoy the cooling night air.
And just when Roxas had resigned himself to quiet failure, the other said, "You know, we're gonna cause quite the scandal."
"Huh?" He looked up and blinked.
"They're not gonna know it wasn't Sora," said the other. "I mean, hell, from a distance you two look enough the same, and you're wearing the same clothes." He reached out and tugged Roxas' collar with a nearly painful familiarity. "Course, he apparently showed up with two people anyway, so you know tongues are gonna wag."
Roxas took a deep breath. "... It's fine," he said, with more defiance than he actually felt. "W-- he'll manage. They'll be fine. They--"
"Eh, what do I care?" The other man shrugged and spread his arms wide. "Roxas! It's been a while! Did you miss me?"
He swallowed against a lump in his throat. "How ..."
"Hmm?" The other grinned at him, green eyes bright, almost manic.
"How can you ask me that?" he asked, and was embarrassed at how husky his voice came out. "You -- you died. I -- we saw you. You were ..."
"Hey, hey, Roxas." Long-fingered hands caught his shoulders, squeezing. "Breathe, okay? C'mon, talk to me, I'm all ears."
He let out a shaky breath. "You died," he said. "For Sora."
"Not really," was the answer. "I was kind of hoping you'd show up. Just for a moment, you know?"
Roxas was silent for a moment, head bowed.
"Roxas--?"
"Who are you, anyway?" Roxas' voice was low.
"Oh, there's the loaded question." Those hands squeezed his shoulders again, and then they were letting go as the other man stepped back. "The name's actually Alex. Guess Xemnas didn't want to put another 'x' in my name, huh?" He grinned, a bit lopsidedly. "Alex. Got it memorized?"
"You died," Roxas said again, hating how his voice cracked on the word. "You -- I saw you, you put all of your being into that attack, you just -- how?!"
"Ah, well." Alex stepped back, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Ask the hard questions, why don't you? I don't know."
"You--" Roxas gaped. "You don't KNOW?"
"Hey, don't get mad," Alex protested. "I just live here. Nah, I don't know. I know I opened the gateway for Sora, and I remember being really tired -- it's exhausting trying to do that when you're fading away, you know?"
"No," Roxas gritted through clenched teeth. "I DON'T."
Alex shrugged, apparently unconcerned by Roxas' temper. "I closed my eyes," he said, "and when I opened them, I was back here."
"--Back here?" Roxas eyed him suspiciously. "What does that mean?"
"What, you think you and Naminé were the only ones who had real bodies?" Alex eyed him. "I used to live on this world, you know. Before everything went to shit." He shrugged and tucked his hands into his pockets, cocking his hips to one side. "Looks like my body survived, huh?"
Roxas shook his head, clenching his hands into fists. "But--"
"I couldn't tell you otherwise," Alex said, and he actually sounded apologetic. "But that's what happened. I passed out in that portal area and woke up as ... 'me,' again, I guess. And here I am." He spread his arms, smirking. "Like what you see?"
"..." said Roxas. Alex's smile didn't fade, even as long minutes ticked past.
"... You know," he said eventually, helpful, "that's usually your cue to say something like 'I missed you,' or 'I always knew in my heart we'd meet again--"
Roxas punched him.
+++
To be fair, Alex had been kind of expecting this -- he'd just thought it would've happened earlier, so when it hadn't, he'd let his guard slip enough for Roxas to get the punch in. At least, that was what he told himself as he stumbled back until his back hit a wall, blinking owlishly at Roxas.
"Damn," he said. "Ow. Riku teach you that one?"
"No," Roxas ground out. "That one was all me."
"Heh." Alex straightened, rubbing his face. "Got a pretty mean right hook on you."
"Thanks," Roxas said through his teeth. He didn't lower his fist. "You're a bastard."
"Quite possibly," Alex agreed brightly. "Never knew my parents."
Roxas stalked over to him, glaring. "Shut up. Shut UP. I'm sick of this -- give me a straight answer for once!"
"Okay," said Alex. "About what?"
"Why?" Roxas half-lifted his fist again, shaking. "Why didn't you come find me? Why did you get yourself killed? Why --"
"Those'll be several answers," Alex said, and sighed. "I woke up pretty weak, you know. It's not like you can just suddenly have a body and a heart again, and be one hundred percent right away. This is the first real show I've done since I ... got 'better.'
"As for why I did it in the first place?" Alex stopped, his expression turned suddenly serious. "I told you, didn't I? I did it for you."
"--Why?" Roxas demanded. "We were friends, we slept together, we --"
"Roxas," Alex sighed, shaking his head. "Roxas, Roxas, Roxas. You're not listening." He caught Roxas' chin and tipped it up, smiling a bit wryly. "I did it for you."
Roxas' eyes widened. "You--"
"You made me feel like I had a heart, even when I didn't," said Alex. "I missed you when you left. What else was I supposed to do, if you were in trouble? You should be flattered. I wouldn't do it for just anyone."
Roxas struggled a bit, though not terribly hard. "Axel--"
"Alex," he corrected. "Not quite the same. But I remember enough." He grinned suddenly, still genuine. "Damn, it's good to see you again."
The fight left Roxas abruptly, draining from him until he was left to slump, shoulders drooping and his head falling forward, against Alex's shoulder. "Idiot," he muttered. "Idiot. You're such an idiot."
"Missed you too," Alex said brightly. "Now do I get a kiss?"
Roxas made a rude noise and reached up, fisting both hands in Alex's shirt and dragging him down.
+++
It was different, kissing when you meant it -- Roxas had lingered in the background a few times whenever Sora had kissed either Riku or Kairi, and he'd always wondered at its appeal; it seemed rather messy and rather silly, especially the way Sora did it. Kissing meant love -- or at least affection, which needed a heart to mean anything.
Axel had kissed him a few times -- "experiments," he'd called them, "because Vexen isn't the only one who knows scientific theory" -- but not ever quite like this.
Somewhere along the way one of them buckled -- maybe it was him, though he'd never admit it -- and they were going down, tumbling across the grass until Alex was flat on his back and Roxas was sitting on top of him, blinking down.
"Under the moonlight, huh?" Alex grinned breathlessly. "Roxas! Never knew you were such a romantic!" He put his hands over his chest. "Be still, my beating heart!"
Roxas considered, then reached out, sliding his hand under Alex's, spreading his fingers wide over the material of his shirt, and the solid chest underneath. Under his palm, Alex's heartbeat was a little fast, but reassuringly strong. And he didn't mean to, because it was a stupid little thing, but Roxas found himself smiling.
"No," he said. "I don't want this to stop." He leaned down to kiss Alex again, this time with teeth and more force, his hands still pressed over Alex's heartbeat, and even though the night air was cool, he was utterly, comfortably warm.
+++
Roxas like this was much more solid than he'd ever been before, and Alex was oddly conscious of it, even as they fumbled off the fancy blue-dyed clothes, of the extra weight that Roxas carried with him now -- and probably Alex himself, though it was harder to be aware of it when you were the one in question.
They rolled again, but Roxas still ended up on top, which was cool too; Alex liked the feeling of the grass under his back, cool and a little ticklish, and there was some romantic turn of phrase for the expression on Roxas' face, his body outlined by the full moon overhead, but well. Poetry had never been his thing, so he just reached out again and let his hands talk instead.
+++
It was hot, which was a ridiculous thought; of course it'd be hot, this was Axel, even if he was a little taller and a bit heavier and his hair was dark brown instead of bright red and.
It felt really good, to actually do this himself again, instead of sensing it through a dim filter whenever Sora was occupied with his own lovers. Unexpectedly greedy, he raked his nails down across the pale skin of Alex's chest, grunting when Alex bit his shoulder hard enough to draw blood, unbalancing them again.
Somewhere along the way long fingers managed to undo the stupid lacing on his pants, and there was a hand diving inside and Roxas cried out at the contact of skin on skin and it was really fucking good--
+++
And yeah, he was a bit smug about the whole thing -- Roxas was shaking against him and babbling his name over and over, with all sorts of things that he'd probably be embarrassed about later but meant honestly now --
Alex laughed, the sound shakier than he intended, his mouth against Roxas' ear. "Rooooxas," he sang. "Roxas, Roxas, Roxas--"
"Axel," Roxas growled back, and it was less strange than he thought it would be, to hear that old name again, especially like this, "shut UP."
Plus somewhere in that distraction Roxas had gotten his own pants open and fuck it, he'd better not have learned that from Riku ...
+++
His arm was beginning to hurt a little from the angle, twisted together as they were, but he couldn't stop now, not with Axel's face half an inch from his and that look of almost shock on his face and he
was in that moment just a little bit beautiful
(though Roxas would never admit that aloud)
and Roxas thought, in the last second before everything went white: I [____] you--
+++
"You sure this was a good idea?" Riku asked. He was reclined on their borrowed bed, and Kairi was pillowed on top of him, her back to his chest. She was examining one of his hands with mock-seriousness, idly comparing them to her own smaller, slimmer ones, apparently fascinated. "I mean, this is Axel we're talking about ..."
Kairi kissed his knuckles and looked up, smiling serenely. "They'll be fine," she said in a strange voice -- not quite herself, not quite Naminé, and it still made Riku straighten a little, alert. "It's all fine now." She paused, then giggled, herself again. "We'll have to work out a schedule!"
Riku made a brief face. "I think I'm more disturbed by how eager you sound about that."
"I'm a Princess," she declared and turned, wriggling so that she could face him, seated on his lap. "I'm all about happy endings."
He considered this for a moment, then laughed and pulled her down, so that her head could rest on his shoulder. "Yeah," he said fondly. "I guess you are."
+++
"We should go on a honeymoon," Alex said thoughtfully.
They were lying on their backs, side by side -- but touching now -- in the grass, watching the moon slowly begin to sink.
"A honeymoon?" Roxas echoed. "We're not married."
"Close enough," said Alex, waving a lazy hand. "I died for you. I came back from the dead for you. You cried for me--"
Roxas socked him in the shoulder, though without much energy behind it. "Did not."
"Sora cried, then," Alex said. "Same difference."
Roxas made an annoyed sound.
"All right, it's close enough to count. It's the thought that matters, right?" He stretched, lithe as a cat, then relaxed back again. "How about a vacation, then?"
"... Sora has school," Roxas said, a bit reluctantly. "His grades are bad enough as it is, I don't think they'd survive taking him away from the classes. This is a special exception."
"Well, damn." Alex rolled onto his side, eying him. "So how the hell are we going to get alone time? It's been years, man, I'm not that patient."
Roxas considered. "... you ..."
"Besides, d'you know how much it'd suck to go back to the others like this?" He gestured vaguely at himself. "Lawrence ain't so bad, but Daniel and Jacob and the others, they have girls every night, and it fucking sucks when everyone else is getting laid but you."
"Um ..." Roxas hesitated and turned his head away. "You could always ..."
"God, the noise," Alex said, with disgust. "You think they'd have consideration and at least get a room, but noooo, they have to come back to the wagon and their own bedrolls and set up there."
Roxas took a deep breath, holding it for a moment, then blurted, "You could come with us."
"And I-- huh?" Alex blinked. "I could what?"
"Come with us," Roxas said, shoulders stiff against the ground, still not looking at him. "If you wanted. There's. Kairi's family has. They've got a beach house. The three of them are thinking of moving in, and there's at least two other bedrooms there ..."
Alex was silent for an uncomfortably long moment. And then he said, "Roxas ..."
"Look, if you don't want to, that's fine." Roxas sat up. "You've got a place here, you've got a name and your own world and a heart, and you probably don't want to be set up with my other and his group because they're noisy too and I--"
"Roxas, hey, Roxas." Alex sat up as well, grabbing his wrist. "Sign me up."
"--Huh?" Roxas blinked at him. "Axe-- Alex?"
"Sure, I got stuff here," said Alex, shrugging. "But hell, I'm used to moving around. And I didn't spend all that time chasing after you to just give up now. Remember that whole 'dying and coming back for you' thing? You're stuck with me." He tapped his temple with his free hand. "Got it memorized?"
For a moment Roxas just stared, and then he felt himself smile again, despite his best efforts to stop it. "... Yeah," he said. "Maybe I do."
+++
"Well," said Mickey, "I hope you're happy with yourselves."
Kairi coughed delicately, looking aside; Riku looked embarrassed; and Sora kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Behind them, Alex lounged against the wall, juggling an apple from one hand to the other.
"There are all sorts of rumors going on around the servants," Mickey went on, stern. "Even after we arranged to have the three of you room together, someone matching Sora's description ran off with a stranger from the acting troupe."
"Now that's unkind," Alex called. "We are most definitely not strangers. And I didn't have any candy to offer him."
Mickey ignored him. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"We're really sorry, Your Majesty," Kairi mumbled, pressing her hands together. "We really are, we didn't mean to cause trouble --"
"It was more my idea, anyway," Riku cut in quickly. "Don't get mad at them, Your Majesty, I just--"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Sora added weakly.
Mickey continued to look at them sternly, his hands clasped behind his back. "Then, you three are all right with this outcome? Bringing back a known member of Organization XIII--"
"Former member," Alex corrected. "Former member. I found health benefits with them sucked, so I quit."
"--back to your own world, like this?" Mickey eyed each of them in turn. "Do you?"
Sora, Riku, and Kairi looked back and forth at each other for a few long minutes. Then Sora took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty," he said, in a voice didn't even squeak. "We are."
"..." Mickey continued to stare for a moment, then he shook his head. "Then I have nothing else to say to you ..."
The three of them cringed.
"... but congratulations." And Mickey smiled. "So congratulations, guys. I'm happy for you."
"Your Majesty," Riku said, sounding relieved. He exchanged smiles with Kairi and Sora.
"Bravo," Alex drawled, clapping. "Happy endings for everyone! Isn't this great? Everyone's happy!" He mimed shock. "Even me! Now there's the surprise!"
Kairi glanced back at him; he looked so much like the man who'd dragged her from Destiny Island so long ago, but there were definite differences -- a slight change in posture and smirk, and when he glanced at Sora, there was really no way to hide the affection in his eyes. "Yeah," she said. "Got a problem with it?"
"Nah," said Alex. "I love happy endings!" He tossed the apple into the air one last time and caught it, strolling forward. "When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow," said Sora. "We'll go home tomorrow."
A flicker of surprise crossed Alex's face, and then he chuckled, a bit wry and a bit rueful and even maybe a little happy.
"Yeah," he said. "Home."
--end--
... except that there's a loose end I forgot to tie up, so YAY SEQUEL?
Things Old and New
Kingdom Hearts 2 -- end of game speculations/spoilers; SoRiKai OT3; Roxas/Axel [NOT WORKSAFE]
Also, so I originally said "And a Wreath of Flowers" was the prequel to "The Sound of Memory." I lied. This is the direct sequel. So it goes:
1. No Crowd
2. ...And A Wreath of Flowers His Crown
3. This one, but there's no real need to read the others unless you're feeling, I dunno. Masochistic?
8415 words
Fairytales lead to happy endings. Most of the time.
(P.S. Much thanks to
maho_kiwi, who gave me the launchpoint idea for this, and to voodoobob and harukami for putting up with me screaming, letting me occasionally poll them for WHAT WOULD YOU DO? answers, and for helping name Kairi's Keyblade. TAH-DAH love you all♥)+++++
The invitation came in a bottle, like the letters from the King; Sora found it washed up on the beach and brought it home to open, barefoot in the kitchen with Kairi peering over his shoulder and Riku rummaging through the fridge for drinks.
The paper inside was made from far higher quality than even the normal letters from the king, held by a seal in metallic-silver wax. Sora had to work carefully to keep the delicate material from ripping as he broke the seal. Inside, the handwriting elegant and scrawling, with exaggerated flourishes and a final signature in golden ink, over the same seal as before. Sora scratched his head.
"Oh," said Kairi, and took the note from him. She squinted for a moment. "Aurora's getting married."
"Er," said Sora. He took the soda Riku offered and said, "Good for her?"
"We're invited," she added. "In official capacity, as Keyblade Bearer and Princess of Heart."
Sora blinked. "What?"
"Says here." She waved the invitation at him. "Princess Aurora will be married to Prince Phillip on the first day of the new year, so that 'the joyous blessings of the new year may be bestowed upon the couple.'" She considered.
"Wait, but," Sora says, "we don't even know Aurora. It'd be one thing if it was, like, Jasmine or Ariel or someone -- Aurora? Why?"
Kairi cleared her throat, drawing herself up a little. "The honored presence of the noble Keyblade Master and the Lady Kairi, Princess of Heart--' do you hear that, 'Lady,' my dad will flip -- 'is humbly requested to this occasion.' So, see, we're invited."
Riku cleared his throat. "Well," he said mildly. "You two will have fun--"
"You're coming too," she said sternly. "All three of us are going."
"We are?" Sora asked, at the same time Riku started to say, "But, Kairi--"
"It says here," she said, pointing, "the Keyblade Master. You count."
"But I'm not really--"
"You WERE," she said, raising her voice to speak over him. "You were, in fact, you were supposed to be, and you're both Keyblade Masters, and I'm the only one mentioned by name. You count."
Riku hunched his shoulders and glanced aside. "I don't know, Kairi," he muttered. "They probably won't be too comfortable with me around."
"You count," she said, her tone steely. "And if you think you can use that as an excuse to get out of this, you're mistaken."
"It's not that," he said, a bit helplessly. "Kairi, I just --"
She reached out and put a cool hand on his arm; he jumped, and Sora leaned back just a little as Naminé peered up at him, with just the smallest of frowns perched on her mouth.
"It's a happy time," she said, and wrapped her fingers around Riku's forearm, as far as they would reach, her skin strikingly pale against his. "It's a time for celebration. They would not begrudge you that."
"Naminé," Riku said, "I--"
"It will be far more troublesome," she said, "if we don't go. They'll be insulted. We should avoid that." She tilted her head, blinking solemnly. "Please."
For a moment he kept his head turned resolutely away, holding himself almost painfully stiff, and then he sighed, shoulders relaxing into a slump. "Fine," he said. "I'll go."
Naminé smiled, and then Kairi was back, outright smirking. "I'm glad you're going to be reasonable," she said. "... And it's a good thing we've got some time, because neither of you two are going to go dress like that."
Sora looked down at himself -- shorts frayed at the cuffs and a ragged T-shirt with one sleeve long ripped off, and tattered sandals. "Er," he said. "Kairi. Dunno if you've noticed, but being a Keyblade Master isn't exactly the best-paying of jobs, and neither is 'student'--"
"That's okay," she said, with a gleam in her eyes that made him take another step backwards. "We'll figure something out."
+++
"Something" turned out to be King Mickey; two weeks after the first invitation, another one arrived, this one summoning the three of them to Disney Castle. Kairi was whisked off almost immediately by the Queen after they arrived, leaving Sora and Riku at the mercies of the King's rabbit-tailor, whose nose tended to twitch violently if anyone looked at him for too long.
Riku submitted to the measuring process with a long-suffering silence, but Sora fidgeted and kept shifting his weight until he heard, in the back of his head, Stop that.
I wish we could've gotten the good fairies to do this, Sora thought back, stretching out his arms obediently for the tape measure. They could've fixed up something in a flash, and there wouldn't be all this standing around.
Aurora is their goddaughter, Roxas pointed out. They've got more important things to worry about.
Sora grumbled and did not deign to answer, and finally after a long eternity, the tailor finished, scuttling back and fleeing the room with a brief mumble; Sora let his arms drop with a sigh. "I think," he said, "I'm going to be scared of what they come up with."
"It's a royal wedding," Riku said. "Of course the clothes are going to look funny."
Sora threw himself down into a chair, yelping when it sank a bit deeper than he expected. It took a moment of flailing for balance before he could sit up and frown at Riku. "And how'd you know? Been to many?"
Riku snorted. "Royalty is ostentatious," he said. "Even the King is, and he's about as humble as kings go. If their everyday life is like this--" he gestured around the room, "then what's a wedding going to look like? Big. Fancy. Probably stuff we'll never wear again."
Sora sank down lower in the chair with a faint groan. "I'm happy for them," he said. "I really am. It just feels weird."
Riku sat down beside him, resting elbows on knees. "Weird?"
Sora flapped a hand. "It's one thing if we get invited to Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding," he said. "They're our friends."
"Your friends, you mean."
"Our friends," Sora repeated stubbornly, and sighed. "They're friends, so it's not weird, wanting your friends there. But this is ... it's all official. It's not because we're 'Sora, Riku, and Kairi,' it's because we're the 'Keyblade Masters' and 'Princess of Heart.'" He thunked his head back. "It feels fake."
Riku snorted, but then reached out and squeezed his shoulder briefly. "There's no way you could be fake," he said quietly. "You shouldn't worry."
Sora made a face, then turned his head towards Riku, a wry half-smile on his face. "... Yeah," he said. "Doesn't make it feel any less strange, though." He reached up and caught Riku's hand with his, their fingers lacing together easily.
"Maybe," said Riku. "But we might need to get used to it. There's still three other Princesses who might be married someday, not to mention a whole lot of regular royalty who have alliances with King Mickey ..."
Sora groaned and thunked his head back. "Ugh."
Riku smiled faintly, and squeezed Sora's hand, leaning back himself; the chairs were almost comfortable enough to be beds on their own, plush and deeply-cushioned, and it was warm enough with the late autumn sun through the windows, and somewhere in the middle of listening to Sora mutter aloud to Roxas in yet another argument, Riku fell asleep.
+++
Kairi had been nervous about showing off her new dress -- it wasn't really that she doubted her boys, but she'd never been in the habit of wearing anything fancy, and certainly not anything that clung almost embarrassingly tight at the bust and flared out smoothly at the hips into a brief train.
However, with the way Sora just gaped and Riku slowly turned an utterly fascinating shade of red, she felt much better for it.
+++
"What do you MEAN," Sora said, with something akin to horror, "that I have to DANCE?"
"You can dance fine," Kairi said. "Fighting isn't that much removed from dancing!"
Riku snorted. "You're thinking about someone else," he said. "You must be. Have you seen Sora fight? He just sort of --" He mimed a swinging motion, like a baseball player with a bat. "Like that."
She pursed her lips. "Er. Well. We'll work on that."
+++
"Are you really sure this is a good idea?" Riku asked, looking at his reflection in the mirror; with his new clothes and his hair tied back from his face, he almost didn't recognize his own reflection. "I'm not really the Keyblade Master they were thinking of ..."
"You'll come as our guest, then," said King Mickey. "You're a Knight of my court. And no one doubts your contribution against the Heartless and the Nobodies."
Riku stared at himself in the mirror a bit longer and sighed. "Your Majesty ..."
"It's a wedding, Riku," said Mickey. "It's the last sort of thing that would separate you from the people you love." He came over and patted Riku's hand. "You'll see. Just relax and enjoy yourself. It's a joyous time."
+++
"They're going crazy," Roxas told Naminé, one night after the trio had fallen asleep; he sat on the windowsill, one leg dangling out, and she perched neatly beside him, legs crossed at the ankles and her hands folded in her lap. "They're not even the ones getting married. We don't leave for at least another month."
Naminé laughed, covering her mouth with one small hand. "They're excited," she said. "Even Sora. Right?"
Roxas made a face and leaned his head back. "... I guess," he said. "He still complains about it a lot, though."
"Of course," said Naminé. She put her hand on her chest, closing her eyes for a moment. "Kairi is practicing right here."
"Huh?" He blinked.
"Seventeen isn't too young to get married," said Naminé. "It's only that she hasn't figured out how to say it right." She put her hands together, palm-to-palm-to-fingers, then smiled faintly. "Or how to tell her parents."
Roxas shrugged, swinging his free-dangling leg in slow easy arcs. "Sora's mother has already guessed," he said. "And Sora's guessed, but he's too afraid to ask. He's mostly been thinking that they should elope. When the time comes."
Naminé giggled briefly. "That might be better," she said. "I don't think there's enough room on the Islands for the guest list."
He sniffed, not quite a laugh, and leaned back. As he did, a star shot across the sky, leaving a brief glowing trail in its wake. One of Naminé's hands touched his wrist, and from the corner of one eye, he could see she was also watching the same fading line.
"Roxas," she said. "Make a wish."
He almost protested, then decided against it and closed his eyes. It felt oddly awkward, almost uncomfortable -- like stretching muscles long out of practice. And well, the only wish he had was sort of ridiculous anyway, two years waiting with no answer, but ...
"Hm," said Naminé. Roxas opened his eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing," she said, drawing a circle on the back of his hand with one fingertip, and then a heart inside of that. "We should go back to bed. It'll be busy tomorrow when we leave."
Roxas nodded and got to his feet. He glanced back once over his shoulder. In the night sky, the the star's path had faded into nearly nothing; if he didn't deliberately look for it, he thought, he wouldn't even notice it. But it was there -- it had existed, for a single undeniable moment.
Comforted by the thought, Roxas returned to the bed, sinking easily back into his shared body, and then into the quiet dark of sleep.
+++
The greeting reception, upon arriving at Aurora's world, was the longest three hours of Sora's entire life. Even Riku's knighting ceremony hadn't even been half as long, even with speeches from Mickey and Goofy and even a short little thing he'd written, which had been easy to recite when he'd focused on Riku instead of the huge crowd--
"Stop fidgeting," Donald hissed, somehow managing to speak without moving his beak from its rigidly bright smile.
"These clothes itch," Sora whispered back. "How do people wear these?"
"They do it all the time, now stay still."
Sora straightened his shoulders, trying not to move too obviously; Riku and Kairi, he noted with some sullen resentment, were holding up way too well, apparently quite comfortable in their fancy new clothes. Even Donald and Goofy were standing at crisp attention, unbending, as King Stefan exchanged greetings with King Mickey. There were brightly-colored banners and tapestries everywhere, and Sora was pretty sure he'd never seen so many well-dressed people in his life.
Aurora stood to her father's left, her hands clasped and her expression demure, but every now and then she would glance over, to Phillip, and her smile would turn warmer just for that fraction of a second. She was very pretty, Sora would admit, in a distant sort of way -- like the dawn she was named for, like fine art, faintly warm and untouchable. Some of the bards in Mickey's court had been singing songs about Aurora's beauty and kindness, and of the bravery and strength of handsome Prince Phillip, one of the few who had fought desperately against Maleficent's rise to power, one of the few whose heart hadn't been taken when their world fell--
Sora glanced aside at Kairi, pretty and proper in her new dress -- courtesy of Queen Minnie's ladies, pale blues and greens and violets -- and flowers braided into her hair, and beyond her was Riku, in dark green and gold, and and he thought that he definitely liked this much better.
+++
Aurora looked at Riku only once during the entire celebration. Her expression gave nothing away, but when she turned away again, he could feel the chill all the way done to the bone.
+++
Kairi glanced both ways before she tiptoed out of her room. It was very nice, certainly, and befitting of the Princess they kept calling her, but they were hers alone, and the boys had been placed somewhere in a different wing. Mickey had promised to speak with Stefan about it, but it would be hours yet until dinner, and she was bored and cold and a little lonely. The two maids she'd encountered since arrival had been nice girls, but they'd spent the whole time gossiping in giddy nonstop glee about the upcoming wedding, until Kairi had pleaded a headache to get rid of them.
She gathered up her skirts -- they were too long, too voluminous, and made a loud swishing sound when she walked -- and made her way to the end of the hallway before she stopped. A rabbit warren of hallways and turns suddenly opened up before her, and while she remembered the boys being led to the right when she went left, she couldn't remember how many other turns her guide had made before showing her the room.
To the end of the next hallway, Naminé whispered. Castles aren't hard to figure out, once you're used to them.
Kairi paused, glancing up and over instinctively -- Sora might have gotten used to arguing with Roxas without letting it show on his face, but Naminé usually didn't talk, and it was rare to hear her say anything whenever Kairi was awake. "Naminé," she murmured.
A little further, Naminé told her again. You should find it -- oh.
Something slim and slithery and white slunk by at the corner of Kairi's vision and she whirled, heart pounding.
"Was that ... a Dusk?" she asked hesitantly.
... said Naminé.
Kairi took a deep breath and summoned her own Keyblade, Heart's Flower. It still felt a bit strange to her, even with the training Riku had been giving her, but -- she could do this. She could do this.
be careful, Naminé whispered. please.
Another deep breath, and Kairi took off running after the fluttering white shape. She saw it disappear around another corner, the end of its sleeve waving briefly before disappearing. She almost tripped over her skirts and ended up kicking off her slippers as she ran, bare feet thudding against the carpet.
She rounded the corner sharply and saw a flash of white. She lifted Heart's Flower, ready to attack--
It clashed down with a metallic clink against the edge of Way to Dawn, and left her and Riku staring at each other in wide-eyed shock.
"Kairi?" he said.
"Riku?" she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow, looking mildly bemused. "Well, yes?" he said. "You know who I am."
"No, I mean --" She backed up, dropping Heart's Flower from its offensive stance. "I swore I saw--"
Riku stood as well, Way to Dawn vanishing. He smiled at her for a moment, then paused at the look on her face. "... Kairi?"
She shook her head, looking at him plaintively. "I thought I saw ..."
He caught her arm. "What's wrong?" he asked softly. "You're pale."
"I thought ..." She let Heart's Flower fade and took a deep calming breath. "I thought I saw a Dusk. In the castle."
Riku stared. "--You what?"
"Maybe I was imagining it," she said hesitantly. "I only saw it from the corner of my eye, but ..."
He said nothing, his expression shadowed for a moment, and then he took her hand. "Come on," he said. "King Mickey arranged it with King Stefan -- you'll be with us."
She blinked at him. "Then you--"
"I came to kidnap you." He smiled, changing his grip on her wrist so that their fingers were laced together instead. "Sora wanted to come, but you know him. He'd insist on leading and we'd get lost."
"Oh." She blinked and squeezed his hand. "That's true enough. You'd think with all his time traveling, he'd be better at finding places!"
"Right," said Riku, and smiled. "Let's go back, before he gets worried enough to come after us."
Kairi let Heart's Flower vanish from her hand and stepped back, crossing her arms. "One thing," she said.
"Hm?"
"One does not kidnap a Princess," she told him loftily. "One may, however, escort her somewhere, if she chooses to allow him."
He blinked, and then he laughed, and swept into a courtly bow that would've put some of the courtiers from earlier to shame. "Then," he said, "my lady, would you do me the honor of allowing me to escort you to your new quarters?"
"You may," she told him, peering down her nose, then broke into giggles. "Oh, but wait, I have to get my shoes--"
"Your shoes?" He didn't straighten from his bow, but he did look up at her quizzically. "What are you talking about?"
"Um. Before." Kairi pointed down the hallway from where she'd come, then down at her skirts. "When I thought I was chasing a Dusk? It was hard enough to run in these so I thought I'd make it easier ..." She hiked her skirts up enough to show him her bare toes, then wriggled them in the plush carpeting.
Riku stared at her feet for a moment and then began to laugh. She held out for a moment longer before she began to giggle as well, and when he offered her his arm, she accepted with a smile.
+++
A servant in King Stefan's colors arrived as the sun began to set, ushering them to dinner. Sora tugged ineffectually at his collar, making faces the entire time until they actually reached the grand hall, at which point Kairi stepped neatly on his foot and Riku elbowed him in the side both without changing expressions.
"Take her arm, idiot," Riku muttered, his lips barely moving. "You're supposed to be her escort."
Sora glared briefly, but when Kairi took his arm firmly -- and then, to Riku's apparent surprise, his with her other -- he didn't protest.
When they were announced, Princess of Heart and Keyblade Masters (and Sora had to wonder, idly, how long Mickey must have argued to get that acknowledgment for Riku as well), they stepped out, and for a moment the entire court went silent. Their presence had been noted as part of Mickey's court earlier, but now it was just the three of them -- three small (or not that small, admittedly, in Riku's case) gangly teenagers, suddenly on the spot for visiting dignitaries of multiple worlds.
He almost froze. It was one thing to be the center of attention when you were too busy distracted by something else, like the end of the world or certain death breathing down your neck; it was another to be in silly clothes and uncomfortable shoes and no actual enemy anywhere in site.
But Kairi kept walking, her head up and her back straight, looking every inch a real princess. Her momentum kept them moving forward, up to the high table, to be seated at Aurora's right.
And then Donald and Daisy were announced, and the crowd's attention swung away from them, and Sora let out a slow sigh of relief. Kairi glanced at him and smiled sympathetically, patting his arm. "You did well," she told him.
"Man," Sora sighed, and looked down at the fancy table settings. "This is crazy."
Kairi glanced at Aurora, sitting next to her, then leaned over and whispered, "That's what happens when a princess gets married," she whispered. "And not just that, a Princess."
"You just said the same thing--"
She shook her head, and for a moment in the light, her hair seemed to shimmer golden. "It's not the same," she said, in a different voice. "This is a sort of magic that comes from the Heart of a world, when it gives up its Princess." She sat up, looking out at the crowd, her profile clean and almost sad. "All sorts of things might happen."
Riku leaned in as well, looking as hesitant as Sora felt. "Kairi ..."
She shook her head, then turned to them and smiled again. "I'm fine," she said.
Sora wanted to say she didn't look completely fine, still a little too pale to be exactly real, but after a moment he shrugged, looking out at the gathered crowd. "Is something going to happen out there?" he pointed to the cleared area in the center of the great hall, framed by rows of tables. "Looks like they're setting something up."
"Oh, that." Kairi leaned towards them, grinning. "I heard that they're going to have an acrobatic troupe performing for the feast. They're supposed to be so good that King Mickey wants to hire them for the next big party at Disney Castle."
Sora rolled his eyes, finally relaxing further. "Please," he said. "Acrobats? That's kid's stuff. Bet I could do better."
"Why don't you volunteer, then?" asked Riku, amused. "They'd probably take you up on the offer."
"No way," Sora said, and to demonstrate he hunched a bit protectively over his plate as servants came around to pour drinks. "I'm starving, and I'm not going up there when I look like this." He pointed at himself, and the fancy cut of his clothes. "I look stupid."
"I think you look very handsome," Kairi protested, though she had to hide a laugh behind one hand. "Now, if we could just do something about your hair ..."
Sora put his hands over his head. "What's wrong with my hair? I like my hair."
"It's cute," Kairi said, "but really, Sora, people sometimes wonder how on earth you get these to stand up." She stretched in her chair, reaching up to run her palm against the upstanding spikes. "You don't even use anything--"
"Hey," Riku said. "The show's starting."
Kairi sat back, and Sora made a brief face at her before he turned back to the line of performers filing out in a straight line, through the center of the great hall. Each one was dressed in a colorful patchwork of colors except for one -- in the dead center of the line was a tall skinny shape all in a long black robe, with a hood drawn over its face.
In spite of himself, he sat up and leaned forward, frowning. The cloak was in the same flowing archaic style favored by this world, but there was something about it that was just--
And then there was a sudden explosion of color and light -- miniature fireworks going off over the heads of the crowd as the line suddenly split itself into sections, with pairs tumbling out so that they fanned around the single shape in black, who stopped in place, arms folded over its chest.
At each of the four points, performers clambered onto each other's shoulders, rising into towers of three that moved smoothly forward; someone produced a set of small balls with streamer tails and began to juggle the set between the four of them.
"See," Sora said, mouth half-full, prodding at his meat with a fork. "Kid's stuff."
The figure in black suddenly moved, slivers of black through the riot of color, and pulled its cloak off. Underneath he was dressed in shades of red and gold, like an ember.
He was a young man, possibly about Riku's age, with ragged dark brown hair that was long enough to be weighed down, but still ended in a series of spikes in the back. His face had been painted white, with narrow black lines under his eyes and above them, and bracketing his mouth in a parody of a smile. His eyes, visible somehow even from a distance, were brilliant bright green.
Sora felt something twist hard in his belly. He clutched hard at his drink; the food in his mouth suddenly tasted like ash.
The final player smiled at the audience, looking around with slow deliberation and Sora wanted to recoil, wanted to hide, and then the guy saw him and
grinned
real wide -- wide enough that it matched where the painted lines around his mouth extended --
and opened his mouth and
Sora got to his feet very quickly. "I," he said in a strangled voice not quite his own. "I'm going -- out."
"Sora?" Kairi turned to him with a small frown, and then her eyes widened in both surprise and concern. "Roxas? What's going on--"
"I'll be outside," he heard himself blurt, and then he fled.
+++
"What the HELL was that?!" Roxas paced nervously back and forth across the hallway, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. "That was -- I mean, you saw him--"
I did, Sora agreed tentatively; he still sounded shocked himself. That guy looked just like--
"This is STUPID," Roxas snapped. "It's a trick, it's a trap -- this was Maleficent's world originally, she must have done something ..." He stopped and looked up at a stained-glass window, dark and angled in the moonlight. "She didn't die when we left her in the World That Never Was ..."
But it was locked, Sora pointed out. I mean. I think it was. We couldn't find it when we went back--
"I know that," Roxas snapped, and started to pace again. "I'm probably just imagining things. This isn't anything -- he's not --"
"Roxas."
Roxas whirled, watching as Naminé walked slowly to him, with Riku behind her. The sea colors that had been so striking on Kairi looked almost washed-out on Naminé, and the last dusky glow of twilight set up a strange halo on her pale hair. "Naminé?"
She stopped, putting her hands together. Her expression was troubled. "You saw him too."
"I--" It was on the tip of his tongue to say of course, and then he wanted to deny that, but then the words dried up, and he just shrugged helplessly.
"We told King Stefan you weren't feeling well," Riku said quietly. "We don't think anyone saw you change."
Roxas blinked, then glanced aside, blinking hard. "... Thanks."
"No problem." Riku's expression was solemn.
"Roxas," Naminé said again, her voice soft. "You shouldn't run away from this."
"I --" He took a deep breath. "I'm not running away. I just wanted to -- I needed some space to think. This is ..."
Naminé crossed the remaining short distance between them and took one of his hands between both of hers and looked up. The dying light seemed to gather and then fade in her eyes, so that they looked wider and darker than normal. "You made a wish, didn't you?"
Roxas stared at her. "What?"
"When we left Disney Castle." She ignored how he tried to tug his hand free. "We saw a shooting star, and you wished."
"It was just --"
"And before that," she said quietly. "I suppose, if you make enough wishes, someone will hear you eventually."
Roxas shook his head. "I ..."
Naminé lifted his palm and placed it against her cheek, leaning into it. "They'll be in the kitchen after the performance," she said quietly. "They'll eat with the servants, and then they'll leave."
He swallowed hard. "I ..."
"Don't tell me you're too chicken to go," Riku said, his voice carefully bland. "After all of that ..."
"I'm not afraid!" Roxas bristled. "Jeeze, what's with you two? Haven't you forgotten?" He yanked his hand back from Naminé at last and backed up, thumping a fist to his chest. "It's not just me here, it's Sora. You can't just expect because you're all so damn happy that you can play matchmaker, and if you're trying to get rid of him, you--"
Naminé's hand cracked suddenly across his face -- not hard, but enough to sting. Roxas blinked, wide-eyed, and touched his hot cheek with light fingers.
"He's the person you've been waiting for," she said softly, apologetically. "If you can let that go without trying ..."
"We told you before, right?" Riku said. "It'll be okay." He shrugged and then glanced aside, eyes tracking up to the stained glass image above them. "Kairi and Sora and I talked about it."
"You did?" Roxas stared. "When did -- I never --"
Inside of him, Sora shifted, as though scuffing a foot in embarrassment. Well, he said, you're not the only one who can hide things from your other.
Roxas gaped.
"We talked about it," Riku said quietly. "It's not fair, if the chance came, to keep you from it."
"So if you say it's about Sora and his relationships," Naminé said softly, "it's just an excuse. This isn't his story right now. It's yours."
Roxas swallowed. "Naminé ..."
"Just don't run off with him," Riku put in suddenly. "Bring him home, instead. After this, none of us really want to go on anther world-hopping chase."
"You two are--"
"Go on," Naminé said softly, smiling. "Say hello for me." She glanced up at Riku, then smiled faintly. "But not from him. They didn't get along very well. Not just because of you and Sora, though."
Riku snorted.
Roxas hesitated; his knees felt locked. "I ..."
Just do it, Sora told him. Promise I won't pay attention. That's more than you gave us!
He looked at Naminé; she nodded. He looked at Riku; he shrugged, but smiled just a little.
Taking a deep breath and flexing his fingers, like he was about to go into battle, Roxas turned and took off running, towards the palace kitchens.
+++
"He ran away like a scared rabbit," Daniel said. "Soon as he saw your ugly face! You're losing your touch, Alex!"
"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," Alex sighed, shaking his head at him. "More likely he kept looking at you, and it finally got to be too much for him." He took a swig of beer. "Who wouldn't fall for a face like this? People love someone who'll make 'em laugh, y'know?"
"Didn't hear too much of that going on," said Lawrence, from the other side of the table. He reached over and shoved at Alex's shoulder. "Probably traumatized by your skinny clown ass."
"Hey, who doesn't love a clown?" Alex drew a line down the side of his sweating cup, then painted wet lines on the sides of his mouth, mimicking the recently washed-off paint. "It's just 'cause I'm with you sorry bastards they run away, that's all."
Katherine giggled. "That's true enough," she said. "Is that what you were doing, when you disappeared those years ago? Charming everyone into giving you a place to stay till you got bored and ran off again?"
Alex's cup paused halfway up. "... In a manner of speaking," he said. "I--"
The kitchen door boomed open. Servants paused and looked up as a young man dressed in bright blue finery began pushing his way over to the table.
Lawrence whistled. "Whadaya know," he said. "Alex hasn't lost his touch after all -- Alex?" He looked as the other man got to his feet. "S'wrong, man?"
Alex finished the rest of his beer, then tossed the cup down onto the table; it rolled until its handle caught. "Later," he said. "Don't wait up for me."
"With that?" Daniel said, a bit disbelievingly. "Kid's got a fancy title, but he's not much more than a scrawny little -- Alex? Hey, Alex, are you listening?!"
Alex ignored the rest of his troupe, sauntering to meet the kid halfway. He was panting and there was a flush in his cheeks, but he stood up straight, meeting Alex's eyes without flinching.
"You know," said Alex, "I think you've grown since I last saw you."
There was a long pause as the kid drew in a sharp, shaky breath. "Ax--"
"C'mon," he said, and put a hand on the kid's bony shoulder; it was shaking rather obviously under his touch. "Let's blow this place."
+++
They walked quietly for a while, not quite touching, through the shadows of the deepening twilight. Roxas kept glancing aside, a thousand possible conversation openings -- most "helpfully" provided by Sora -- running through his mind before being summarily dismissed. And the other man, the man who obviously recognized him, wasn't saying anything, apparently content to enjoy the cooling night air.
And just when Roxas had resigned himself to quiet failure, the other said, "You know, we're gonna cause quite the scandal."
"Huh?" He looked up and blinked.
"They're not gonna know it wasn't Sora," said the other. "I mean, hell, from a distance you two look enough the same, and you're wearing the same clothes." He reached out and tugged Roxas' collar with a nearly painful familiarity. "Course, he apparently showed up with two people anyway, so you know tongues are gonna wag."
Roxas took a deep breath. "... It's fine," he said, with more defiance than he actually felt. "W-- he'll manage. They'll be fine. They--"
"Eh, what do I care?" The other man shrugged and spread his arms wide. "Roxas! It's been a while! Did you miss me?"
He swallowed against a lump in his throat. "How ..."
"Hmm?" The other grinned at him, green eyes bright, almost manic.
"How can you ask me that?" he asked, and was embarrassed at how husky his voice came out. "You -- you died. I -- we saw you. You were ..."
"Hey, hey, Roxas." Long-fingered hands caught his shoulders, squeezing. "Breathe, okay? C'mon, talk to me, I'm all ears."
He let out a shaky breath. "You died," he said. "For Sora."
"Not really," was the answer. "I was kind of hoping you'd show up. Just for a moment, you know?"
Roxas was silent for a moment, head bowed.
"Roxas--?"
"Who are you, anyway?" Roxas' voice was low.
"Oh, there's the loaded question." Those hands squeezed his shoulders again, and then they were letting go as the other man stepped back. "The name's actually Alex. Guess Xemnas didn't want to put another 'x' in my name, huh?" He grinned, a bit lopsidedly. "Alex. Got it memorized?"
"You died," Roxas said again, hating how his voice cracked on the word. "You -- I saw you, you put all of your being into that attack, you just -- how?!"
"Ah, well." Alex stepped back, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Ask the hard questions, why don't you? I don't know."
"You--" Roxas gaped. "You don't KNOW?"
"Hey, don't get mad," Alex protested. "I just live here. Nah, I don't know. I know I opened the gateway for Sora, and I remember being really tired -- it's exhausting trying to do that when you're fading away, you know?"
"No," Roxas gritted through clenched teeth. "I DON'T."
Alex shrugged, apparently unconcerned by Roxas' temper. "I closed my eyes," he said, "and when I opened them, I was back here."
"--Back here?" Roxas eyed him suspiciously. "What does that mean?"
"What, you think you and Naminé were the only ones who had real bodies?" Alex eyed him. "I used to live on this world, you know. Before everything went to shit." He shrugged and tucked his hands into his pockets, cocking his hips to one side. "Looks like my body survived, huh?"
Roxas shook his head, clenching his hands into fists. "But--"
"I couldn't tell you otherwise," Alex said, and he actually sounded apologetic. "But that's what happened. I passed out in that portal area and woke up as ... 'me,' again, I guess. And here I am." He spread his arms, smirking. "Like what you see?"
"..." said Roxas. Alex's smile didn't fade, even as long minutes ticked past.
"... You know," he said eventually, helpful, "that's usually your cue to say something like 'I missed you,' or 'I always knew in my heart we'd meet again--"
Roxas punched him.
+++
To be fair, Alex had been kind of expecting this -- he'd just thought it would've happened earlier, so when it hadn't, he'd let his guard slip enough for Roxas to get the punch in. At least, that was what he told himself as he stumbled back until his back hit a wall, blinking owlishly at Roxas.
"Damn," he said. "Ow. Riku teach you that one?"
"No," Roxas ground out. "That one was all me."
"Heh." Alex straightened, rubbing his face. "Got a pretty mean right hook on you."
"Thanks," Roxas said through his teeth. He didn't lower his fist. "You're a bastard."
"Quite possibly," Alex agreed brightly. "Never knew my parents."
Roxas stalked over to him, glaring. "Shut up. Shut UP. I'm sick of this -- give me a straight answer for once!"
"Okay," said Alex. "About what?"
"Why?" Roxas half-lifted his fist again, shaking. "Why didn't you come find me? Why did you get yourself killed? Why --"
"Those'll be several answers," Alex said, and sighed. "I woke up pretty weak, you know. It's not like you can just suddenly have a body and a heart again, and be one hundred percent right away. This is the first real show I've done since I ... got 'better.'
"As for why I did it in the first place?" Alex stopped, his expression turned suddenly serious. "I told you, didn't I? I did it for you."
"--Why?" Roxas demanded. "We were friends, we slept together, we --"
"Roxas," Alex sighed, shaking his head. "Roxas, Roxas, Roxas. You're not listening." He caught Roxas' chin and tipped it up, smiling a bit wryly. "I did it for you."
Roxas' eyes widened. "You--"
"You made me feel like I had a heart, even when I didn't," said Alex. "I missed you when you left. What else was I supposed to do, if you were in trouble? You should be flattered. I wouldn't do it for just anyone."
Roxas struggled a bit, though not terribly hard. "Axel--"
"Alex," he corrected. "Not quite the same. But I remember enough." He grinned suddenly, still genuine. "Damn, it's good to see you again."
The fight left Roxas abruptly, draining from him until he was left to slump, shoulders drooping and his head falling forward, against Alex's shoulder. "Idiot," he muttered. "Idiot. You're such an idiot."
"Missed you too," Alex said brightly. "Now do I get a kiss?"
Roxas made a rude noise and reached up, fisting both hands in Alex's shirt and dragging him down.
+++
It was different, kissing when you meant it -- Roxas had lingered in the background a few times whenever Sora had kissed either Riku or Kairi, and he'd always wondered at its appeal; it seemed rather messy and rather silly, especially the way Sora did it. Kissing meant love -- or at least affection, which needed a heart to mean anything.
Axel had kissed him a few times -- "experiments," he'd called them, "because Vexen isn't the only one who knows scientific theory" -- but not ever quite like this.
Somewhere along the way one of them buckled -- maybe it was him, though he'd never admit it -- and they were going down, tumbling across the grass until Alex was flat on his back and Roxas was sitting on top of him, blinking down.
"Under the moonlight, huh?" Alex grinned breathlessly. "Roxas! Never knew you were such a romantic!" He put his hands over his chest. "Be still, my beating heart!"
Roxas considered, then reached out, sliding his hand under Alex's, spreading his fingers wide over the material of his shirt, and the solid chest underneath. Under his palm, Alex's heartbeat was a little fast, but reassuringly strong. And he didn't mean to, because it was a stupid little thing, but Roxas found himself smiling.
"No," he said. "I don't want this to stop." He leaned down to kiss Alex again, this time with teeth and more force, his hands still pressed over Alex's heartbeat, and even though the night air was cool, he was utterly, comfortably warm.
+++
Roxas like this was much more solid than he'd ever been before, and Alex was oddly conscious of it, even as they fumbled off the fancy blue-dyed clothes, of the extra weight that Roxas carried with him now -- and probably Alex himself, though it was harder to be aware of it when you were the one in question.
They rolled again, but Roxas still ended up on top, which was cool too; Alex liked the feeling of the grass under his back, cool and a little ticklish, and there was some romantic turn of phrase for the expression on Roxas' face, his body outlined by the full moon overhead, but well. Poetry had never been his thing, so he just reached out again and let his hands talk instead.
+++
It was hot, which was a ridiculous thought; of course it'd be hot, this was Axel, even if he was a little taller and a bit heavier and his hair was dark brown instead of bright red and.
It felt really good, to actually do this himself again, instead of sensing it through a dim filter whenever Sora was occupied with his own lovers. Unexpectedly greedy, he raked his nails down across the pale skin of Alex's chest, grunting when Alex bit his shoulder hard enough to draw blood, unbalancing them again.
Somewhere along the way long fingers managed to undo the stupid lacing on his pants, and there was a hand diving inside and Roxas cried out at the contact of skin on skin and it was really fucking good--
+++
And yeah, he was a bit smug about the whole thing -- Roxas was shaking against him and babbling his name over and over, with all sorts of things that he'd probably be embarrassed about later but meant honestly now --
Alex laughed, the sound shakier than he intended, his mouth against Roxas' ear. "Rooooxas," he sang. "Roxas, Roxas, Roxas--"
"Axel," Roxas growled back, and it was less strange than he thought it would be, to hear that old name again, especially like this, "shut UP."
Plus somewhere in that distraction Roxas had gotten his own pants open and fuck it, he'd better not have learned that from Riku ...
+++
His arm was beginning to hurt a little from the angle, twisted together as they were, but he couldn't stop now, not with Axel's face half an inch from his and that look of almost shock on his face and he
was in that moment just a little bit beautiful
(though Roxas would never admit that aloud)
and Roxas thought, in the last second before everything went white: I [____] you--
+++
"You sure this was a good idea?" Riku asked. He was reclined on their borrowed bed, and Kairi was pillowed on top of him, her back to his chest. She was examining one of his hands with mock-seriousness, idly comparing them to her own smaller, slimmer ones, apparently fascinated. "I mean, this is Axel we're talking about ..."
Kairi kissed his knuckles and looked up, smiling serenely. "They'll be fine," she said in a strange voice -- not quite herself, not quite Naminé, and it still made Riku straighten a little, alert. "It's all fine now." She paused, then giggled, herself again. "We'll have to work out a schedule!"
Riku made a brief face. "I think I'm more disturbed by how eager you sound about that."
"I'm a Princess," she declared and turned, wriggling so that she could face him, seated on his lap. "I'm all about happy endings."
He considered this for a moment, then laughed and pulled her down, so that her head could rest on his shoulder. "Yeah," he said fondly. "I guess you are."
+++
"We should go on a honeymoon," Alex said thoughtfully.
They were lying on their backs, side by side -- but touching now -- in the grass, watching the moon slowly begin to sink.
"A honeymoon?" Roxas echoed. "We're not married."
"Close enough," said Alex, waving a lazy hand. "I died for you. I came back from the dead for you. You cried for me--"
Roxas socked him in the shoulder, though without much energy behind it. "Did not."
"Sora cried, then," Alex said. "Same difference."
Roxas made an annoyed sound.
"All right, it's close enough to count. It's the thought that matters, right?" He stretched, lithe as a cat, then relaxed back again. "How about a vacation, then?"
"... Sora has school," Roxas said, a bit reluctantly. "His grades are bad enough as it is, I don't think they'd survive taking him away from the classes. This is a special exception."
"Well, damn." Alex rolled onto his side, eying him. "So how the hell are we going to get alone time? It's been years, man, I'm not that patient."
Roxas considered. "... you ..."
"Besides, d'you know how much it'd suck to go back to the others like this?" He gestured vaguely at himself. "Lawrence ain't so bad, but Daniel and Jacob and the others, they have girls every night, and it fucking sucks when everyone else is getting laid but you."
"Um ..." Roxas hesitated and turned his head away. "You could always ..."
"God, the noise," Alex said, with disgust. "You think they'd have consideration and at least get a room, but noooo, they have to come back to the wagon and their own bedrolls and set up there."
Roxas took a deep breath, holding it for a moment, then blurted, "You could come with us."
"And I-- huh?" Alex blinked. "I could what?"
"Come with us," Roxas said, shoulders stiff against the ground, still not looking at him. "If you wanted. There's. Kairi's family has. They've got a beach house. The three of them are thinking of moving in, and there's at least two other bedrooms there ..."
Alex was silent for an uncomfortably long moment. And then he said, "Roxas ..."
"Look, if you don't want to, that's fine." Roxas sat up. "You've got a place here, you've got a name and your own world and a heart, and you probably don't want to be set up with my other and his group because they're noisy too and I--"
"Roxas, hey, Roxas." Alex sat up as well, grabbing his wrist. "Sign me up."
"--Huh?" Roxas blinked at him. "Axe-- Alex?"
"Sure, I got stuff here," said Alex, shrugging. "But hell, I'm used to moving around. And I didn't spend all that time chasing after you to just give up now. Remember that whole 'dying and coming back for you' thing? You're stuck with me." He tapped his temple with his free hand. "Got it memorized?"
For a moment Roxas just stared, and then he felt himself smile again, despite his best efforts to stop it. "... Yeah," he said. "Maybe I do."
+++
"Well," said Mickey, "I hope you're happy with yourselves."
Kairi coughed delicately, looking aside; Riku looked embarrassed; and Sora kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Behind them, Alex lounged against the wall, juggling an apple from one hand to the other.
"There are all sorts of rumors going on around the servants," Mickey went on, stern. "Even after we arranged to have the three of you room together, someone matching Sora's description ran off with a stranger from the acting troupe."
"Now that's unkind," Alex called. "We are most definitely not strangers. And I didn't have any candy to offer him."
Mickey ignored him. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"We're really sorry, Your Majesty," Kairi mumbled, pressing her hands together. "We really are, we didn't mean to cause trouble --"
"It was more my idea, anyway," Riku cut in quickly. "Don't get mad at them, Your Majesty, I just--"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Sora added weakly.
Mickey continued to look at them sternly, his hands clasped behind his back. "Then, you three are all right with this outcome? Bringing back a known member of Organization XIII--"
"Former member," Alex corrected. "Former member. I found health benefits with them sucked, so I quit."
"--back to your own world, like this?" Mickey eyed each of them in turn. "Do you?"
Sora, Riku, and Kairi looked back and forth at each other for a few long minutes. Then Sora took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty," he said, in a voice didn't even squeak. "We are."
"..." Mickey continued to stare for a moment, then he shook his head. "Then I have nothing else to say to you ..."
The three of them cringed.
"... but congratulations." And Mickey smiled. "So congratulations, guys. I'm happy for you."
"Your Majesty," Riku said, sounding relieved. He exchanged smiles with Kairi and Sora.
"Bravo," Alex drawled, clapping. "Happy endings for everyone! Isn't this great? Everyone's happy!" He mimed shock. "Even me! Now there's the surprise!"
Kairi glanced back at him; he looked so much like the man who'd dragged her from Destiny Island so long ago, but there were definite differences -- a slight change in posture and smirk, and when he glanced at Sora, there was really no way to hide the affection in his eyes. "Yeah," she said. "Got a problem with it?"
"Nah," said Alex. "I love happy endings!" He tossed the apple into the air one last time and caught it, strolling forward. "When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow," said Sora. "We'll go home tomorrow."
A flicker of surprise crossed Alex's face, and then he chuckled, a bit wry and a bit rueful and even maybe a little happy.
"Yeah," he said. "Home."
--end--