The icing on the cake - Locked to Lea

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion had spent much of the last month trying to avoid people - and failing miserably - and trying to find a perfect sunset watching spot. Until she could figure out the spell to take away everyone's memories so that she could end herself, as she knew she had to, she had to stay away from people.

But she was still Xion. And still drawn to the same things she always had been. A good ledge from which to watch the sunset, ice cream, and seashells.

Finally, at the start of the month she had found the perfect place. She didn't know how she had missed it, given it was a giant clock tower. But she found it, and for once luck was with her. No one else had been there.

Every day since she'd been buying three ice creams and heading to the top of the tower to watch the sunset. Every day.

Which was where she would be, just before sunset, a small touch of black, a familiar black coat, sitting on the ledge of a clocktower, watching the sky.....

Maybe not something most people would notice. But then most people weren't used to thinking of clock towers that way. Also, Lea really is freakishly tall....

Her hood is still up, so even he couldn't tell who it was, but really...who could he remember that sat with him, eating ice cream at the end of the day?

Comments

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea sighed, stretching a bit as he walked across the courtyard. What a day. He'd managed to find his dormitory and stake out a bunk for himself, then somehow to make it to the cafeteria for dinner without getting lost any further. At least the food had been reasonably good, even if some of the vegetables were unfamiliar. Personally he thought it could use more spice to it to, but then his tastes tended to run a bit too spicy for most people, so he couldn't really complain too much there.

Now though, he wanted little else than to go back to his dorm and crash into bed. Maybe tomorrow he'd be able to figure out what the heck he was going to do. Or maybe he'd get lucky and this would all turn out to have been a weird dream.

When he happened to glance up at the clock tower in the middle of a stretch though, he saw something that drove that thought from his mind quickly enough to set a new speed record. A smallish figure dressed all in black was sitting on the clock tower ledge, apparently watching the sunset. It couldn't be... could it? Lea hurried to the clock tower's entrance and began to climb the stares hoping that the figure would still be there when he arrive and that it hadn't just been his mind and heart playing tricks on him....

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion looked to the three ice creams she held. It was a good thing it was so cold out or they'd have melted already. Still...

She set them down beside herself and leaned back. Her mind was still spinning over everything in the past month, and all the people she had to find a way to make forget her, when she heard someone coming up the stairs.

What.... what was she going to do? She had finally found a place that was right, after all this searching. She didn't want to just leave like she had with the other roof tops...

She gathered the ice creams and stood, trying to find a shadow to press herself back into, but with the full force of the sunset, there wasn't much.

Who was it coming? If it was Webby, she wasn't sure how she'd ever get rid of the other girl. But for all that, still better Webby than someone like Atem who might try and keep her from coming back here for reasons of his own.

She dropped into a crouch, holding the ice creams. If need be, she could at least throw them at whoever was coming and try and make a break for it. Maybe there was a rooftop on the other side close enough for a jump....

[hotheadwarmheart]

As the footsteps got closer it would be clear that they belonged to someone significantly heavier than Webby, and by the sound of them, someone who was wearing boots, so it wasn't who Xion might have been expecting. But it wasn't until that someone made it to the top of the stairs and emerged out onto the ledge that both of them would get a real surprise.

Lea stepped out onto the ledge and saw that he hadn't been imagining the figure. And more than that, said figure was both wearing a very familiar coat and holding three ice cream bars. He couldn't believe it. Could it really be...? "Roxas?", he blurted out in surprise.

But no. Another moment of looking at the person in the black coat, and he realized that his initial assumption was wrong. The silhouette was wrong; this person was a good bit slighter than Roxas, and from what he could see, wore their coat a bit differently. But if not Roxas, then who? No one else in the Organization had been that small. And why, if it wasn't Roxas, did the person feel so familiar? "No, not Roxas...", he said, trailing off slightly as he observed the figure. "Who are you?"

[nobodys_puppet]

She almost dropped the ice creams when she saw him. His face was a little different in a way she couldn't quite place just then but Axel. It was Axel. Here. Somehow...

And then he called her Roxas.

Pain. As if a Heartless had tackled her. No, worse. She wasn't Roxas. No matter what Saïx and Xemnas had wanted, she refused to replace Roxas, and she refused to drain his powers anymore. Her hands tightened around the ice cream bars, pain filling her being.

It was good that he didn't remember her, that the spell had worked. She knew that. And she couldn't let him just drag her home. She had to do this. For his sake. For Roxas. For everyone. She knew what she had to do. And she'd finally been brave enough to do it.

But now she wasn't brave enough to even run. Largely because there was as much in her yelling at her to run forward, as to run back.

Finally she shook her head, small frame shaking. "Not Roxas," she whispered. "Please... just go. Forget you saw me. I... I won't come back," she said quietly. "You can have this spot. I'll.... I'll leave you alone."

Why? Why did this hurt so much?

[hotheadwarmheart]

The person- no, the girl; quiet as that voice had been, it was definitely female- seemed just as startled as he was, so it was obvious that they recognized him. And that voice tugged at the sense of familiarity even more.

But why was she shaking like that? It didn't seem to be from the cold, despite the surrounding temperature and the ice cream. Fear maybe? Did she think he was here to eliminate her? "Hey, it's OK," he said. "You don't have to leave. I'm not gonna hurt you or anything; I'm done doing those kind of icky jobs."

"Besides, you just... you feel really familiar," he said cautiously approaching a bit closer. He didn't want to startle her into bolting, but he had a feeling that if he could just get a good look at the face under that hood, everything would make sense. "I know you're not Roxas, but he and I, we used to do this whenever we could. Sit up on the Twilight Town clock tower after work, have ice cream and watch the sunset. It can't be a coincidence, especially not when you've got three ice creams. Please, just... I need to know who you are."

[nobodys_puppet]

She stepped back as he stepped forward. "N...No, Axel. You forgot me for a reason. It... It has to be this way. Please..." She looked away. "Please just... just go on forgetting me. It's the only way to save Roxas."

She couldn't let Roxas continue to suffer because of her, she couldn't. And if Axel remembered her and had to forget again, it would hurt him too. And...

And she wasn't certain she was brave enough to do this again if he remembered.

No. She knew.... she knew she wasn't.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea just looked confused at that. "How is me not remembering you necessary for that?", he said. "Ienzo's already working on a safe way of separating Roxas from Sora back at Radiant Garden; I might not have all the latest updates on how it's going, but I'm pretty sure Merlin would've told me if there was anything important I needed to do for it to work."

In fact, he'd specifically asked Merlin to let him know if there was anything he could do to help on that front before he'd sent him and Kairi to the 'temporally flexible' forest for training, and Merlin had assured him there wasn't. And he didn't think the Merlin would lie about that or deliberately keep things from him, even out of a desire to not interrupt his training.

[nobodys_puppet]

"Separating Roxas from Sora?" Okay, now she was confused.

"But... We were both split off from Sora... that... that was the whole problem... If we don't go back... if... if people remember me... Sora... can never wake up..."

Right?

Was Axel lying to her to bring her back? No... he didn't know who she was. If he didn't remember her, if he didn't see her as a friend...he'd have no reason to lie...

She stumbled a bit, head hurting. None of this made sense...

[hotheadwarmheart]

Now Lea was even more confused. "Both of you were?" What. No, seriously, WHAT. "Roxas did go back to Sora; I tried to stop him, but I wasn't able to. And Sora's been awake for months now. He's currently off on another quest, trying to get back-"

But then the girl stumbled a bit. Lea moved almost before he realized what he was doing, closing the distance between them and catching a hold of her shoulder to steady her. "Whoah, careful there," he said. "This really isn't a place you want to lose your footing."

Back at the Ka dorm

[hotheadwarmheart]

Thankfully, Lea was able to guide Xion back to the Ka dormitory at the converted Makerion Keep without incident. They entered into the common room, which of all the rooms of the keep, showed the most evidence of its hasty conversion, with the furnishings being somewhat sparser than those in other dorms, and much of what there was looking like it was second-hand. It might remind Xion a bit of the Gray Area back at the Castle That Never Was in its sparseness, but it was more inviting by several orders of magnitude. And was definitely more colorful.

Fortunately the snack cabinet had been installed, tucked away in an corner, and it had a portion that was magically chilled so Lea was able to tuck the extra ice cream bar in there. And the one other major amenity that Lea was very glad they'd thought to install- especially at this time of year- was the big fireplace. It cast the large room in a warm, orange glow, doing a great deal to make what could look like a somewhat drab stone-walled room look homey and lived in.

Lea paused in front of the fireplace, pulling off his gloves and rubbing his hands a bit to get rid of the chill. "Ah... that's better," he said. "Though man, I'm gonna miss being able to conjure up a fireball whenever I need one, especially if this weather holds." He idly wondered if there was a spell for that here. He figured there probably was, though he doubted it would be half as useful- or versatile- as his own fire had been.

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[nobodys_puppet]

She was looking around when they got in, as if seeing it all for the first time. Because let's face it, she was. And since she didn't see beds in this room, she wasn't sure if this was like the castle, or they had made a pitstop or what.

But yeah, she might have been a bit startled seeing him take off his gloves. She stayed near him, saying nothing, because she wasn't sure what to say. But... she did pull her hood back up. Just in case....

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[hotheadwarmheart]

After a moment of warming himself, Lea indicated a hallway heading off from the common room. "The actual dorm room is this way," he said. "This here is just the common room, where everybody gathers when they're not busy. Kinda like the Gray Area back at the castle, but less... well, gray."

Lea noticed her putting her hood up, but didn't comment immediately. Instead he stayed quiet til the got to the dorm room, and if Xion found the common room a bit unusual the difference between the dorm room ans their rooms back at the castle was night and day. The only thing the two had in common, really was that they both contained beds. Five beds were lined up against one wall each covered with snuggly-looking duvet cover in the Ka house colors of red and black (which coincidentally matched Lea's coat and hair nearly perfectly). At the foot of each bed was a storage chest and on either side were individual wardrobes, vanities, and a small set of shelves for each occupant. On the wall opposite the beds were two large desks. It lacked the large window the main dorms would have but several smaller windows higher up the wall had been hung with heavy-looking red curtains. There were even small, round, red and black rugs next to each bed, to prevent students from having to step out of bed onto cold stone floors in the morning.

"My bed is down there," he said, pointing to the far end of the room. There a partially unpacked box and a cage with a rat in it sat on top of the storage chest. "And it looks like no one claimed the one next to it while I was gone, so you're free to claim that one."

As they headed down that way he asked, "What'd you put your hood back up for, down in the common room?", he asked. "I know it might be a little drafty in here but it's not that bad. Especially not compared to outside."

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[nobodys_puppet]

She looked around then spotted three beds together to one end that looked empty. She pointed and looked to him. "One for you, for me, for Roxas?" she asked softly.

She'd answer about the hood after. But her concern right now was that if Roxas showed up... he would know that they were waiting for him. Her other hand slid into her pocket, around the seashell she was keeping there.

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[hotheadwarmheart]

"I think he one on the opposite side of yours is free too," Lea said, indicting the second bed down from the one he'd taken. "Assuming Roxas gets put into Ka too, sure, that one can be his. And if he's not, we'll sneak him in anyway. I don't think anybody goes around checking that everybody's in their proper dorm at night."

Getting him a key might be a bit of a problem in that case, but they'd figure that out when and if they needed to. He was sure no one would mind if they bent the rules a little in the name of friendship.

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[nobodys_puppet]

She nodded, then walked to the bed that was going to be Roxas' and pulled the shell put of her pocket, then stopped and turned to face Axel. "Me.... in the middle?" she asked, momentarily confused by that shock to the status quo.

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[hotheadwarmheart]

"The two of you could switch if you want, when and if Roxas is brought here too," Lea said with a bit of a shrug. "But for now at least, it's just you and me. Probably best to stick together."

And if Xion had been surprised when he took off his gloves, she'd probably be even more so when he took off his coat, hanging it by the hood from one of the bed posts, before sitting down tiredly on his own bed. "So, were you gonna answer my question?", he said. "About the hood?"

Re: Back at the Ka dorm

[nobodys_puppet]

She nodded, accepting that and turned back to the bed and put a seashell on it, next to the pillow. So that if Roxas found his way here without them seeing him, he would know which bed was his.

When she turned back, she was stunned to see him taking off his coat, and her expression was plain even with the hood up. But she struggled to get her mind around the answer. What had he asked again...?

Oh. Yeah.

That washed the shock away some and she shrugged. "I... don't know what people will see when my hood is down. If I am going to be around people who haven't seen my face..." She hesitated, then sat on the bed. "Right before....." she shook her head. "Roxas stopped seeing me," she whispered. "He looked at me.. and saw someone else."

She dropped her head, hooded face resting on the knees she pulled up. Boots on the bed, because she always did that.

The Big Explanation

[hotheadwarmheart]

(OOC: Takes place after all but Sora's threads in this log.)

They were lucky this sunset. It was a reasonably clear, and not too cold. All in all a perfect night for the explanation that Lea knew had to happen.

Though even as they both settled in with their ice creams, Lea wondered where he would even begin?

Re: The Big Explanation

[nobodys_puppet]

She could tell he was turning something over, but was giving him his time as she ate her ice cream slowly, savoring it. One for Roxas was sitting on the ledge between them. She was glad they were able to find their flavour, finally.

Re: The Big Explanation

[hotheadwarmheart]

Finally Lea sighed. "I know I'm going to eventually have to explain everything that's been going on back home between the time you're from and the time I'm from," he said, "but there's so much of it that it's bound to be a long story no matter how I go about it. So before I get into it, is there anything in particular that you really wanted to ask me about on that front?"

Re: The Big Explanation

[nobodys_puppet]

She leaned back and considered. "Lots of things, I think. So many that I'm not sure where to start."

Re: The Big Explanation

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea chuckled slightly. "Well, if neither one of us starts, we're gonna be here awhile," he said. "But I guess, if you can't think of anything to start with either, we'll just start at the beginning and go from there. Sound good?"

Re: The Big Explanation

[nobodys_puppet]

"Alright," she said, watching him. What did he mean by the beginning? But she was as close to happy as something like her could be, just talking with him as they ate ice cream and watched the sunset. If Roxas were with them it would all be perfect.

Her eyes lingered on the ice cream they brought for him, at the space between them where he should be.

Re: The Big Explanation

[hotheadwarmheart]

"OK..." Lea said, taking a bite of his ice cream to give himself a moment to figure out when he was going to say. "We'll start about where you left off then. At some point after you and Roxas both left the Organization, Roxas was captured by Diz- that guy with the bandages on his face that was controlling Naminé. My guess is that he didn't want to risk what had happened with you happening again, so to conceal Roxas and keep him from trying to escape, DiZ altered Roxas' memories and put him into a a digital copy of Twilight Town that he'd made inside a computer."

"The escape preventing part worked," he continued. "While he was there, Roxas thought that he was just a normal kid living in the town; he didn't remember anything about the Organization. For better or worse, though the concealment part didn't work as well, and the Organization figured out where Roxas was pretty quickly. At first, they sent in some Dusks to retrieve him, but you know how Dusks are without supervision."

"And that's where I came in," he said. "Once it was clear that the Dusks weren't going to cut it, I as sent in with orders to retrieve Roxas... or else."

Re: The Big Explanation

[nobodys_puppet]

Okay, that alone was a lot to take in, and she had a few dozen questions already. "Wait, what happened with me that they did not want to risk again? It worked, didn't it? Everyone forgot me, I died, and returned to Sora, didn't I?" she was so confused now. "Why would he need to keep Roxas from escaping?" Alarm then. "Wait, Roxas didn't want to and they forced him to anyway?" Oh Roxas... No. Why? Just....

The digital town and computer stuff was all confusing, she pushed it aside for the moment. As to Axel being sent to retrieve Roxas... "Like you used to bring me back?"