Axel; Ⅷ; The Flurry of Dancing Flames (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
got_it_memorized) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
million_points_of_light2013-05-27 09:26 pm
got_it_memorized) wrote in million_points_of_light2013-05-27 09:26 pm
maybe we'll turn it all around
Who: Axel, Sheena, and later Riku
When: 21May2013, after this
Where: House of the Rising Tsun
Warnings: additional pain and suffering and aftermath of death.
It was dark by the time he got back to the apartment. They had been pulled back to Exsilium fairly early in the afternoon, but he hadn't gone home. He had already experienced the Empty Room phenomenon when Xion had gone home, and he wasn't prepared to do it again right away. Xion's fate had been no less tragic than Riku's, really, but she hadn't slipped away right in front of him, and he hoped wherever she was now she was giving Xemnas hell.
He didn't want to think about where Riku might have been. He wasn't sure he even believed in next lives, but they were a nice idea.
Axel had heard about death being impermanent in this place, but he wasn't quite sure how that worked. No one could really come back from being dead, right? That was ridiculous. Cure could work wonders on grave injuries (in the hands of a capable white mage, that is), but there was no magic that could return life. This wasn't one of the computer games he'd played with Isa: there was no soft reset when you borked your attack and blew the mission and died for it in real life.
He had wandered about the ruins outside the city for a while, where no one would see the blood on his hands and the scratches on his face and the way his coat was torn. He had burned his arm somewhere along the way, as he'd torn through the ranks of soldiers in Paris, and he'd forgotten how much that hurt. He hadn't burned himself on his own fire in years. Stupid, sloppy--why was this bothering him so much? It had been Riku's own choice, after all! He hadn't asked him to save his life, let alone to die in the process.
Stupid United Earth. Stupid Riku. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
When he realized it was getting dark, he headed back toward the Hold. He could have easily used a Corridor to get there in no time, but he wanted to walk. The rain misting down over his head was chilly and uncomfortable, making his hair stick to his face and neck and sliding down his spine in icy rivulets, but he only pulled his hood up and kept walking.
He had cleared his head a bit by the time he reached the apartment, and the rain had swept some of the blood off his hands and face, but he still looked rather like he'd been dragged backwards through a holly hedge. Pushing the door open, he peeked inside almost timidly. Part of him hoped Sheena hadn't returned yet--he didn't want her to see him looking like such a wreck--but the rest of him hoped she would be there, if only so he would know he wasn't about to be all alone in an empty apartment all over again.
The problem with learning how to have friends again... was remembering how much it sucked to be alone.
When: 21May2013, after this
Where: House of the Rising Tsun
Warnings: additional pain and suffering and aftermath of death.
It was dark by the time he got back to the apartment. They had been pulled back to Exsilium fairly early in the afternoon, but he hadn't gone home. He had already experienced the Empty Room phenomenon when Xion had gone home, and he wasn't prepared to do it again right away. Xion's fate had been no less tragic than Riku's, really, but she hadn't slipped away right in front of him, and he hoped wherever she was now she was giving Xemnas hell.
He didn't want to think about where Riku might have been. He wasn't sure he even believed in next lives, but they were a nice idea.
Axel had heard about death being impermanent in this place, but he wasn't quite sure how that worked. No one could really come back from being dead, right? That was ridiculous. Cure could work wonders on grave injuries (in the hands of a capable white mage, that is), but there was no magic that could return life. This wasn't one of the computer games he'd played with Isa: there was no soft reset when you borked your attack and blew the mission and died for it in real life.
He had wandered about the ruins outside the city for a while, where no one would see the blood on his hands and the scratches on his face and the way his coat was torn. He had burned his arm somewhere along the way, as he'd torn through the ranks of soldiers in Paris, and he'd forgotten how much that hurt. He hadn't burned himself on his own fire in years. Stupid, sloppy--why was this bothering him so much? It had been Riku's own choice, after all! He hadn't asked him to save his life, let alone to die in the process.
Stupid United Earth. Stupid Riku. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
When he realized it was getting dark, he headed back toward the Hold. He could have easily used a Corridor to get there in no time, but he wanted to walk. The rain misting down over his head was chilly and uncomfortable, making his hair stick to his face and neck and sliding down his spine in icy rivulets, but he only pulled his hood up and kept walking.
He had cleared his head a bit by the time he reached the apartment, and the rain had swept some of the blood off his hands and face, but he still looked rather like he'd been dragged backwards through a holly hedge. Pushing the door open, he peeked inside almost timidly. Part of him hoped Sheena hadn't returned yet--he didn't want her to see him looking like such a wreck--but the rest of him hoped she would be there, if only so he would know he wasn't about to be all alone in an empty apartment all over again.
The problem with learning how to have friends again... was remembering how much it sucked to be alone.
pretend it's Riku in the icon k
"Nothing I haven't dealt with before," he said, since it was fairly obvious he hadn't escaped Paris unscathed. He took a step back when Riku's rainbow sorbet bat pillow creature flapped her wings and headed straight for him. There was an instant of panic--TRAINED ATTACK BAT COME TO SEEK VENGEANCE--and then Axel just sort of deflated where he stood as Stellaluna fell into her usual holding pattern around his head. He would never really understand why animals liked him so darn much.
When Riku held up the plastic bags and said he'd brought dessert, however, Axel's face settled into a stern expression. The pain of the day's injuries mostly forgotten for the moment, he marched over to Riku and took the bags from him, setting them down on the floor beside them. Then he stared down at him stoically.
"Y'ain't injured anymore, right?" he asked. "They... did some crazy voodoo and fixed you right up?"
Riku stared (perhaps apprehensively) back up at him and nodded slowly without speaking.
"Good." With that, Axel reached out and made a fist with one hand, lifting it into the air above Riku's head and dropping it unceremoniously on his crown. Not really hard enough to hurt, but enough to make a point. "You lunkhead, what kind of idiot comes back from the dead and buys dessert?" He gestured toward the kitchen then. "Especially when he knows darn well there's ice cream in the freezer at home?"
Well, of course, Axel had made it very clear that that ice cream was his and was not to be eaten without permission on penalty of fiery death, but he figured he could make an exception for the occasion.