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Sooooooo, today I am ALL ALONE in my half of the office; the guy who usually takes the 9-6 shift with me is on vacation and everyone else leaves at 5 at the latest. Plus, they moved the teams who shared our floor upstairs, so ... it really is sort of just me + tech support on this side of things, and they've got their own little section. So I have NOTHING TO DISTRACT ME and today's a slow day so.
Also, so about that loose end from the Happy Ending? I SUCK SO MUCH THAT I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT so uh there may be more forthcoming. In which Stuff Will Happen.
... this is not that sequel, but it's sort of a bridging step. Also because I wanted HAPPY BEACH FUN HIJINKS but got this instead. Which means that it'll make a LOT more sense if you've read the previous fics in this set. Or at least the happy ending, which has links to the others.
First Steps
Kingdom Hearts II -- endgame speculation/spoilers; Roxas/Axel (implied OT3)
1379 words
Settling in, sort of. Maybe.
I mostly wrote this because of ONE IMAGE that would not get out of my head. Guess it and get a prize! Unless you're ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
voodoobob because I already told her, I think.
+++++
It isn't that Alex is an early riser by nature; rather it's that he can't sleep for more than two or three hours at a time anyway, and if anyone asked him (which no one has), he'd say it was force of habit.
Anyway, better some sleep than none.
It leaves him with a lot of free time, at any rate, which would normally mean wandering around and poking for hiding places and backdoor escapes, but Riku is an early riser (and a light sleeper), and after their last argument left him against the wall with Way to Dawn at his throat and Kairi yelling at them both, he figures it's not worth it when it's this early. Riku's attitude is all surface, anyway; scratch him just a little bit in the right way, and all the bad things he's ever done are in his eyes, replaying, and he doesn't like to be reminded of that.
Which is too bad, because Alex kinda gets a kick out of needling him. Sure, he'd stop if he were told, but no one's really told him to yet -- "you should really stop doing that" is more of a suggestion than an order.
He's gotta give the kid some credit, though; he is trying, even if he still looks the other way whenever Roxas smiles at Alex. It's more than Alex really wants to give, 'cause he's not really the sharing type.
And he'd been waiting for a long time ...
It's dawn now, though, and he'd tiptoed past the room where the trio slept, and he'd seen the silver-blonde tangle of Riku's hair still inside, so he could relax.
He makes his way carefully down the creaking stairs, through the narrow kitchen, and opens the porch door. The day outside is still cool, smelling of salt water, and there is a single slim figure on the stone patio, moving in slow measured movements and Alex stops like he's been hit with a blizzard spell.
If Roxas notices him, he gives no sign of it, moving through the slow steps of a kata, and the Keyblade should look ridiculous going through the forms, sleek as it currently is, but it looks natural right now.
(Alex's mind provides: that Roxas would do this in the World That Never Was, surrounding by a ring of sentinel Samurai Nobodies, lost somewhere in his own head and part of Axel had always wanted to interfere even though he never did, to say don't do that, jeeze, it's hard enough to keep track of you as-is but never quite managed because Samurai have no eyes but they can glare pretty effectively regardless.)
Roxas' foot slides against the stones a moment before he tenses, and then he leaps into the air with the sort of grace reserved for raptors and he spins and the training dummies Alex didn't even notice before shiver and then fall, sliced neatly in half. Roxas lands in a neat crouch, then flows back to his feet as neatly as any boneless Dusk. The keychain jingles briefly as he does, the first kind of sound it's made. He opens his eyes and looks up at Alex.
"What," he says.
Alex swallows, but before he can say anything stupid self-preservation takes over and he says, "Still pretty handy with that, aren't you."
Roxas shrugs, rebalancing his weight on both feet. Over the horizon the sun is beginning to rise and it picks out gold in his hair. He lifts the Keyblade again, pointing it at Alex. "I manage," he says. "What about you?"
"Me?" Alex shrugs, stretches his arms up and then folds them behind his head. "I'm not like you. My weapons didn't follow me like lost puppies."
Roxas' expression doesn't change. "Could you, if you needed to?"
"I'm adaptable," Alex says, suddenly cautious. "I can keep myself alive." And he's got knives in his sleeves and one in his left boot and remembers a few particularly nasty pressure points from Larxene. He's not stupid.
Roxas blinks at him, mild and giving nothing away, and then swings the Keyblade aside, pointing in obvious direction.
Alex almost backs up. "Hey," he protests. "Roxas, you gonna hit an unarmed man?"
"You're not," Roxas says calmly. He gestures again with the Keyblade, waiting.
And Alex finally sighs and makes his way down the porch steps, kicks off his house slippers, and stands barefoot across from Roxas. "I can't even do magic any more," he said. "I tried, you know, when I first woke up. Most I can do is stage magic, and that's not anything."
"It's not nothing, either," Roxas says, and then he leaps.
Alex has staged fights in the past, even before he lost his heart, and automatically he moves to dodge, leaning back so that the Keyblade whistles past his face without landing. The stone patio is hard on his shoulder but he still dives out of the way, and as Roxas brings the blade whistling down Alex snaps a knife out of his sleeve and it's not going to be enough damnit and ow this is going to hurt--
The Keyblade connects and clashes with the spiked round edge of a chakram.
Alex blinks in surprise, but Roxas' face is completely calm.
"I thought so," he says, and leaps back when instinct takes over and Alex takes a swipe at him, aiming low at the knees.
"Heh," says Alex, as he gets to his feet -- not quite as graceful as Roxas, sure, but he's out of practice. It'll come back in time. He spins the chakarms thoughtfully, testing out the half-familiar weight. "Thought I'd lost these."
Roxas makes a noncommittal sound and attacks again. It's hard to tell, when he's mostly trying to keep his balance and block and not get clobbered, but Alex thinks he might be smiling.
The porch door opens again and Kairi emerges, in a fluffy pink robe (a birthday present from her father: despite her mortification, it's comfortable and so she keeps it) and blinks at them. She does not seem terribly surprised, but Alex has learned that not a whole lot surprises her, Princess and witch both.
"When you two are done," she says, "Riku is making breakfast."
And for a moment Sora peers through, wide-eyed. "Pancakes?"
"Pancakes," Kairi agrees, and yawns behind a hand. "We'll save some for you. Maybe."
Sora bounces eagerly from one foot to the other and Alex lets his chakrams disappear and pushes his hair back from his eyes. He's about to comment, something maybe a little snide to hide any disappointment, when Sora points the Keyblade at Kairi, in play-threat.
"You'd better save some!" he says. "We're hungry!"
And Kairi, unphased, just sticks her tongue out. "We'll save some if we save some," she says airily. "Have fun, boys."
She closes the door behind her and Sora turns to Alex, grinning. "Okay," he says. "Wanna finish?"
Alex blinks. "Huh?"
"Finish," Sora repeats, and drops into a crouch, Keyblade ready. "You gotta do cool-down when you're done exercising, or else you feel like crap later." And before Alex can answer Sora fades, and Roxas is left in his place again.
"You know," Alex says thoughtfully, though he summons his chakrams again -- it's not so hard, now that he remembers how to do it, though fire still remains just beyond his grasp -- "I don't get your other sometimes."
Roxas snorts, but there's definitely a smile on his face. "It's all right," he said. "You learn to live with him anyway."
Alex meets and matches and spins away, lighter than before across the stones, and he notices something that he'd seen before and forgotten in the challenge, as the sun rises higher and gleams along the edges of Roxas' weapon. "Nice Keyblade."
Roxas pauses and looks down. The Keyblade in his hands has a curved spiked tooth, red and black and silver; the keychain is a miniature version of Alex's chakrams. He shrugs.
"This one's my favorite," he says. He eyes Alex's expression. "Got a problem?"
"... Nah," Alex says, and smirks because otherwise he'd be grinning like a moron. "I like your style."
+++
They don't get any pancakes, much to Sora's disappointment, but Alex considers himself pretty satisfied anyway.
--end--
Also, so about that loose end from the Happy Ending? I SUCK SO MUCH THAT I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT so uh there may be more forthcoming. In which Stuff Will Happen.
... this is not that sequel, but it's sort of a bridging step. Also because I wanted HAPPY BEACH FUN HIJINKS but got this instead. Which means that it'll make a LOT more sense if you've read the previous fics in this set. Or at least the happy ending, which has links to the others.
First Steps
Kingdom Hearts II -- endgame speculation/spoilers; Roxas/Axel (implied OT3)
1379 words
Settling in, sort of. Maybe.
voodoobob because I already told her, I think.+++++
It isn't that Alex is an early riser by nature; rather it's that he can't sleep for more than two or three hours at a time anyway, and if anyone asked him (which no one has), he'd say it was force of habit.
Anyway, better some sleep than none.
It leaves him with a lot of free time, at any rate, which would normally mean wandering around and poking for hiding places and backdoor escapes, but Riku is an early riser (and a light sleeper), and after their last argument left him against the wall with Way to Dawn at his throat and Kairi yelling at them both, he figures it's not worth it when it's this early. Riku's attitude is all surface, anyway; scratch him just a little bit in the right way, and all the bad things he's ever done are in his eyes, replaying, and he doesn't like to be reminded of that.
Which is too bad, because Alex kinda gets a kick out of needling him. Sure, he'd stop if he were told, but no one's really told him to yet -- "you should really stop doing that" is more of a suggestion than an order.
He's gotta give the kid some credit, though; he is trying, even if he still looks the other way whenever Roxas smiles at Alex. It's more than Alex really wants to give, 'cause he's not really the sharing type.
And he'd been waiting for a long time ...
It's dawn now, though, and he'd tiptoed past the room where the trio slept, and he'd seen the silver-blonde tangle of Riku's hair still inside, so he could relax.
He makes his way carefully down the creaking stairs, through the narrow kitchen, and opens the porch door. The day outside is still cool, smelling of salt water, and there is a single slim figure on the stone patio, moving in slow measured movements and Alex stops like he's been hit with a blizzard spell.
If Roxas notices him, he gives no sign of it, moving through the slow steps of a kata, and the Keyblade should look ridiculous going through the forms, sleek as it currently is, but it looks natural right now.
(Alex's mind provides: that Roxas would do this in the World That Never Was, surrounding by a ring of sentinel Samurai Nobodies, lost somewhere in his own head and part of Axel had always wanted to interfere even though he never did, to say don't do that, jeeze, it's hard enough to keep track of you as-is but never quite managed because Samurai have no eyes but they can glare pretty effectively regardless.)
Roxas' foot slides against the stones a moment before he tenses, and then he leaps into the air with the sort of grace reserved for raptors and he spins and the training dummies Alex didn't even notice before shiver and then fall, sliced neatly in half. Roxas lands in a neat crouch, then flows back to his feet as neatly as any boneless Dusk. The keychain jingles briefly as he does, the first kind of sound it's made. He opens his eyes and looks up at Alex.
"What," he says.
Alex swallows, but before he can say anything stupid self-preservation takes over and he says, "Still pretty handy with that, aren't you."
Roxas shrugs, rebalancing his weight on both feet. Over the horizon the sun is beginning to rise and it picks out gold in his hair. He lifts the Keyblade again, pointing it at Alex. "I manage," he says. "What about you?"
"Me?" Alex shrugs, stretches his arms up and then folds them behind his head. "I'm not like you. My weapons didn't follow me like lost puppies."
Roxas' expression doesn't change. "Could you, if you needed to?"
"I'm adaptable," Alex says, suddenly cautious. "I can keep myself alive." And he's got knives in his sleeves and one in his left boot and remembers a few particularly nasty pressure points from Larxene. He's not stupid.
Roxas blinks at him, mild and giving nothing away, and then swings the Keyblade aside, pointing in obvious direction.
Alex almost backs up. "Hey," he protests. "Roxas, you gonna hit an unarmed man?"
"You're not," Roxas says calmly. He gestures again with the Keyblade, waiting.
And Alex finally sighs and makes his way down the porch steps, kicks off his house slippers, and stands barefoot across from Roxas. "I can't even do magic any more," he said. "I tried, you know, when I first woke up. Most I can do is stage magic, and that's not anything."
"It's not nothing, either," Roxas says, and then he leaps.
Alex has staged fights in the past, even before he lost his heart, and automatically he moves to dodge, leaning back so that the Keyblade whistles past his face without landing. The stone patio is hard on his shoulder but he still dives out of the way, and as Roxas brings the blade whistling down Alex snaps a knife out of his sleeve and it's not going to be enough damnit and ow this is going to hurt--
The Keyblade connects and clashes with the spiked round edge of a chakram.
Alex blinks in surprise, but Roxas' face is completely calm.
"I thought so," he says, and leaps back when instinct takes over and Alex takes a swipe at him, aiming low at the knees.
"Heh," says Alex, as he gets to his feet -- not quite as graceful as Roxas, sure, but he's out of practice. It'll come back in time. He spins the chakarms thoughtfully, testing out the half-familiar weight. "Thought I'd lost these."
Roxas makes a noncommittal sound and attacks again. It's hard to tell, when he's mostly trying to keep his balance and block and not get clobbered, but Alex thinks he might be smiling.
The porch door opens again and Kairi emerges, in a fluffy pink robe (a birthday present from her father: despite her mortification, it's comfortable and so she keeps it) and blinks at them. She does not seem terribly surprised, but Alex has learned that not a whole lot surprises her, Princess and witch both.
"When you two are done," she says, "Riku is making breakfast."
And for a moment Sora peers through, wide-eyed. "Pancakes?"
"Pancakes," Kairi agrees, and yawns behind a hand. "We'll save some for you. Maybe."
Sora bounces eagerly from one foot to the other and Alex lets his chakrams disappear and pushes his hair back from his eyes. He's about to comment, something maybe a little snide to hide any disappointment, when Sora points the Keyblade at Kairi, in play-threat.
"You'd better save some!" he says. "We're hungry!"
And Kairi, unphased, just sticks her tongue out. "We'll save some if we save some," she says airily. "Have fun, boys."
She closes the door behind her and Sora turns to Alex, grinning. "Okay," he says. "Wanna finish?"
Alex blinks. "Huh?"
"Finish," Sora repeats, and drops into a crouch, Keyblade ready. "You gotta do cool-down when you're done exercising, or else you feel like crap later." And before Alex can answer Sora fades, and Roxas is left in his place again.
"You know," Alex says thoughtfully, though he summons his chakrams again -- it's not so hard, now that he remembers how to do it, though fire still remains just beyond his grasp -- "I don't get your other sometimes."
Roxas snorts, but there's definitely a smile on his face. "It's all right," he said. "You learn to live with him anyway."
Alex meets and matches and spins away, lighter than before across the stones, and he notices something that he'd seen before and forgotten in the challenge, as the sun rises higher and gleams along the edges of Roxas' weapon. "Nice Keyblade."
Roxas pauses and looks down. The Keyblade in his hands has a curved spiked tooth, red and black and silver; the keychain is a miniature version of Alex's chakrams. He shrugs.
"This one's my favorite," he says. He eyes Alex's expression. "Got a problem?"
"... Nah," Alex says, and smirks because otherwise he'd be grinning like a moron. "I like your style."
+++
They don't get any pancakes, much to Sora's disappointment, but Alex considers himself pretty satisfied anyway.
--end--
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From:
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Oh, darling. You make me so happy! XDDD That was cute, and beautifully, and yay. I loved all of the dynamics, they were beautiful.
And, oh. Why can't I write Sora good like you can? *scowls at self*
From:
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Sora is insanely easy for me to write. XD I kind of worry about it, sometimes, but. Ahaha. XD ♥