Genre: Fluffy friendship
Ships?: Hinted Axel/Xion
→Familyships?: hinted Lexaeus&Zexion&Vexen&xion
→Friendships?: Axel&Xion
Characters: Xion, Axel
→Mentions: Zexion, Lexaeus, Vexen, Saix
Rating: PG-13 for Axel's mouth
Spoilers: No
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Music: A Light from the Eternal Sonata soundtrack
Notes: Written for a roleplay where Xion kind of came before Roxas but still wasn't a proper member of the Org. Shows how she and Axel became friends.
Picture Perfect Memories
For all that Vexen's easily been the most emotional bitchy b*****d out of all of them, Axel is pretty sure he's never seen the scientist give this much of a damn for someone before, even his previous colleagues. This little sick girl must be something special. That's what the redhead muses as they dash through the darkened streets of some huge city which reminds him vaguely of Dark City. The Darkness here is as thick as anywhere, yet strangely enough, New York City hasn't fallen apart at the seams. Little beacons of light even exist in the strangest places, like little children helping little orange tabbies, or a woman with piercings laughing and trying to bake a cake for their boyfriend.
Xion, their little possibly-new-member, had even knelt in front of a fire hydrant, gray and gloomy in the night and holding a single blooming rose within its chains.
There's a lot of strange things in this contradiction of a city, but Axel thinks Xion may be one of the strangest of all. For one thing, she's definitely the youngest out of the entire Organization; everyone who's joined before, with the exception of possibly Zexion (nearly eighteen when he'd lost his heart), has been an adult, yet here's this little kid running around with them. That hood of hers never comes down either. Any attempts to see under it, like Luxord had tried, just result in her shying away and ducking her head all the further. It's like dealing with a mute, and it's not the first time that Axel wonders if maybe this is someone who lost more than their heart and a bit of skin when the Heartless came a-knocking on their world.
Still, he has to admit that she's turning out pretty useful so far. Whatever sickness or injury she'd gained that had Vexen keeping her under lock and key in perfect paranoid worry is gone now as she leaps and jumps through Heartless, Keyblade shining deadly gold and iron in the flickering lights of streetlamps. She has a real strange style, obviously self-taught and with not an ounce of finesse. She does what works, and you know what? That works for him.
"Not too bad for your first time," he says to the night sky, hands on his hips and his head thrown back. Either Vexen's a really good doctor (something he doesn't doubt) or this girl is just a real quick healer. If the elders weren't all too busy watching as the Keyblade Wielder gets closer and closer to a confrontation with Maleficent, maybe they'd see that this kid can take care of herself just fine. When he looks back down at her, however, she's not paying attention to what he's saying. Instead, she's near this little booth which is somehow still active in the dead of night, one gloved set of fingers pressed daintily against the pictures on its sides. "It's a photobooth," he says when he's close enough, and tries to ignore how she jerks at the sound of his voice. ********, he's not Saix, he can't be that scary. "Haven't you ever seen one before?"
A quick shake of her head answers him and Axel sighs. Right, amnesiac. Vexen had told him that little bit. "You give it a bit of munny," he explains, because he's not that much of a d**k, "and then you sit inside. It takes pictures of you. Normally, you go in with friends."
The entire time during his explanation, Xion looks up at him, eyes hidden in the shadows of her hood but just her lips visible, parted slightly as she takes in all he says. When he finishes, she looks back at it and traces her fingers over the plastic-plastered faces of smiling and laughing people, fascinated. Slowly with her free hand, she reaches into one of her pockets and takes out a shining little glow of green. Silently, she looks at it before glancing up at the booth hesitantly. Maybe she's thinking of Zexion, who Axel's seen her cling to like he's a liferaft before, or Lexaeus, who often keeps one hand on her shoulder in that protective manner Axel's only seen him use with that sneaky little partner of his. Hell, she could be thinking of Vexen for all he knows; the scientist certainly acts like her mother.
So, really, he's only joking when he puts on a grin and says, "Wanna take a picture with me?"
Her head snaps up so fast, he thinks she'll get whiplash but then the thought is gone as the green of the munny piece catches her eyes for a fleeting moment. Luminous green reflects off of something dark and deep, but then it's gone again as Xion ducks down her head. The munny is rolled in her fingers before she nods, and Axel has to blink in surprise. That's how he finds himself in a cramped little photobooth, long gangly legs stretched out as best as they can be and Xion sitting besides him, stiff as a soldier with her hands in her lap. That's what the camera first captures, all awkward and lonely and in their separate worlds.
snap
Second time, and he's leaning over her, fingers jabbing at her sides just to get a reaction besides this doll-like stiffness, and her hood is half-down, blending in the dimness with her black hair but finally showing that child's face she has, all wide eyes with a blue he could drown in and almost does and-
snap
Zexion obviously has a protege, because that next freeze in time on paper has her getting sweet, sweet vengeance, face flushed and eyes brighter, alive, as she clambers all over him, fingers poking into his ribs in a mimicry of what he'd done to her-
snap
All wrapped up in those too-long arms of his and with her head nudged beneath his chin, she smiles and points at the camera, beautiful and living and breathing emotion they all say they don't have while his face remains caught in that strange mix of smiling laughter and surprise as her knee digs into her stomach in their excitement.
Later, they walk opposite ways; she has to tug on Lexaeus' sleeves to get him to bend down so she can whisper into his ear, flanked by two other elders, her strange mimicry of a family, and Axel just goes the other way, trying not to glance back over his shoulder as he tells Saix their recovering soon-to-be-member will do just fine. He doesn't tell his old best friend about the two matching sets of little pictures a photo booth in New York city spat out, or that one of them is hidden inside his room. He doesn't even tell him when they get all that power from Kingdom Hearts, and he has his own world to rule.
He just hides that little set of pictures inside a paperback, The Secret Garden, and flicks through it with the faint traces of a smile when the Agrabah nights get too long.
