genessia | Movin' on up

Entry tags:

Movin' on up

Who: Lea and Xion
Where: Their new apartment at Sunset Summit
When: Today, mid-late afternoon
What: Moving in and discussions.
Warnings: Probably none except maybe some feelings and angst.

It was moving day. Not that they really had that much to move; a knapsack each containing a change of clothes, a week's worth of socks and underwear, and a few small personal items like combs and toothbrushes. But regardless, it felt somewhat momentous. It was really the first time he'd had his own place; in Radiant Garden he'd lived with his parents, in the Organization, he'd had his room at the castle, but this place was his. Well, his and Xion's really.

Which was why, when he'd found there was an apartment complex named Sunset Summit, it felt perfect. It was even one of the nicer apartments he'd looked at too! Comfortable, but nothing too big or fancy; just right for two friends. "Well, what do you think?", Lea asked as they stood outside looking up at the building."Sunset Summit; home sweet home for the foreseeable future."

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Xion looked up at it, hood down so that she could see without it in the way. He still wouldn't have been able to convince her to swap out the jacket, most likely. She stared at it for a long while, wordlessly, then looked to him. "Home?" she asked softly. That had only ever meant the castle, but somehow that word had always felt wrong. Like calling a hand a foot. Even if she called it a foot her whole life, she was sure some part of her would know that was the wrong word. So while she knew the word home.... she felt almost like she didn't.

She moved a little closer to him as she looked up at it again. Already she was picturing silver walls and a simple silver bed where she would sit whenever she wasn't needed or wanted. Xemnas and Sïax really did a number on her, especially considering that she was meant to be Sora's memories of Kairi... two of the most resilient people ever when it came to being stubbornly cheerful in the face of hardship, and never giving up.

From the outside at least, the building looked nothing like the castle they'd spent so much of their lives in. A tall building covered in white wood paneling, with a balcony for each apartment. And like most properly existing buildings and worlds, it was also missing the slightly off-kilter geometries that most of the World That Never Was boasted. The difference was at once hard to pin down and extremely obvious to anyone who'd seen both places.

"Yep," Lea said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "For both of us. I think you'll like it."

"C'mon," he said as they started inside. "We're on the top floor; figured that'd have the best view. It's a bit of a climb, but I think it's worth it. And once we know it well enough, we can just teleport up if we don't feel like taking the stairs; that takes a bit more power here than it did back home, but it shouldn't be a problem."

She nodded, moving with him so hw wouldn't have to take his hand away. She looked around as they walked, and... and she smiled. "The top floor..." she repeated in a whisper. She had seen those jutting balconies. And they'd be on the top one. "We could sit on the railing..." Safety? What was that? She didn't mind the stairs. Still less effort than missions. Though about halfway up, she was reconsidering thinking the steps weren't that big a deal. But she wasn't about to complain. Not for anything,.

Lea shook his head regarding the idea of sitting on the railing. "Nah, I already tried that, just to test it out; it's too narrow to be comfortable," he said. "But we can put a couple chairs on the balcony itself." To someone who regularly threw themselves at large monsters, sitting on a narrow railing didn't even ping the 'potential hazard' radar that much. Though that didn't make it any easier on the backside.

It wasn't too long though, before Lea noticed that Xion was starting to lag behind a bit on their climb up the stairs. Glancing over at her, he noticed that she seemed to be somewhat struggling to keep up and guiltily realized that in his excitement he'd been in something of a rush to get to their new apartment. That, plus his longer legs was probably making it difficult for his smaller friend to keep up.

With a somewhat guilty smile, he slowed down a bit to a pace that would be easier for Xion to keep up with. "Sorry about that," he said. "I forget sometimes that not everybody has legs as long as mine." Then, after a bit of a pause, he added, "You know, if you're having trouble with something, you can tell me. I promise I won't bite."

"Could we just rip the railing out then?" Wouldn't the rail spoil the view if they sat behind it?

She did her best to keep up and felt bad when he had to slow down. She shook her head. "I'll find a way to keep up. You don't have to slow down for me." She didn't want him to get tired of slowing down for her, and decide she wasn't worth it, now that he had a heart, and a world full of other people to make friends with. She didn't want to be a burden, didn't want him to ever be sick of taking care of her. He was always taking care of her back home, but now he didn't even remember being her friend, so probably would get tired of it.

"Somehow, I doubt the landlord would approve," Lea said. "But I can ask." It hadn't looked like it would be an issue from his perspective, but then, Xion wasn't as tall as he was. They'd have to see.

"Now what kind of friend would I be if I let you potentially hurt yourself over something as simple as climbing some stairs?", he said. "You don't have to force yourself to try and do things that you physically can't just for my sake, whether it's something like this or taking on an enemy you know is too much for you to handle alone. I'm your friend; I'd rather you ask for my help than see you get hurt because you didn't."

Landlords. Weird concept. Being afraid of ticking off someone like Xemnas, she could understand but she still wasn't FULLY clear on what a Landlord was. Sounded more like a heartless than anything else, some sort of big boss. Not a thing to be afraid of, just a thing to destroy.

She looked up at him from the shorter height and lower step. "I'd rather not have help then have you start to see me as useless or broken too," she said, bluntly, but quietly. "I just need to work harder." Not that it's ever helped, but now that her doing better wasn't going to make Roxas work, she'd just have to keep trying.

If it were pointed out to him Lea would explain what a landlord was. But also realize that it does sound weirdly like the name of a Heartless, though thankfully was no such thing.

"Hey... I'm not ever gonna think of you like that, alright?", he said. "Get it memorized. Working hard is fine. But I'd be way more upset if you got hurt trying to do certain things I can do than if I had to slow down a bit or help you now and then. Understand?"

She hesitated, then nodded softly, looking down. Roxas and Axel were the only good things ever to happen to her. An now this place and a chance to spend time with Axel as Lea... to get to know the version of him with a heart. She couldn't mess that up like she messed everything else up. She couldn't. "I'll try to remember that," she said, softly.

Lea smiled gently, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "I care about you," he said. "Not the things you can do. You don't have to do anything to impress me; just be Xion. That's enough."

"Now then... we're almost to the top floor," he said. "All set to get a look at the place?"

She looked up at his pushing her hair back, startled by the action, and the words that followed. He cared about her. He had a heart, and she had a place in it. That... That was more than simply huge and she almost staggered from the impact of it. It was one thing to know he was protecting her and they were friends, but somehow putting it so plainly as that... She wanted a heart. She wanted to be able to honestly say that she loved him and Roxas. She wanted to know what that felt like. To be able to... to care. And for it to be enough for her to just be her? Not because she was a copy of Roxas, or.... oh. Maybe because she was a copy of Roxas. Yes. That made sense. Made it easier to accept.

She wanted to nod, but somehow couldn't bring herself to move her head away from the gloved tips of his fingers. It was odd. "Alright," she said, quietly.

Of course Xion had a place in his heart. Both her and Roxas. Even with his memories of her lost and disconnected, that much was still there and would always be.

Lea, though, had no idea how much he'd just floored his young friend and returned his hand to her shoulder after a moment as they reached the sixth floor, and from there it was only a short walk down the hall to their door. "Here we go," he said. "Apartment 610." He pulled out the key to unlock the door.

"I'll have to get you a key too," he said. "No sense in you needing to use the Keyblade to get in. But for now..." He pushed the door open. "Welcome home."

The inside of the apartment looked nothing like the Castle that Never Was. Thick slate-blue carpet covered the floor of the spacious apartment. The walls were a soft, neutral cream color, and the place was overall well furnished and comfortable looking. They came into what was a combination living area and small kitchen with three doors on the right hand wall. Directly across from them, a sliding glass door led out onto the westward-facing balcony.

"Pretty nice, eh?", Lea said, grinning. "The bedrooms and bathroom are over there. You can pick which of the two bedrooms you want." He indicated the doors on the right hand wall. "Then we can get settled in."

She walked with him, head still spinning a bit at that and wondering if he used some magic she missed to explain why she felt so warm inside.

"610," she repeated, dutifully.

She stared when he opened the door, and her head moved from side to side as he lead her around, trying to take it all in. Trying to absorb all the... "colours," she breathed in a surprised gasp. She actually knelt to get closer to the carpet. To look at it better. She almost hated to walk across it. "It... It looks like the ocean, just before a storm," she whispered, running a gloved hand over it. It was soft. Floor that was soft? It didn't slide like sand, but it had give.

She made herself stand to follow him again, but when she saw the balcony through the doors... she stepped towards it, not even aware that he had gone towards the bedroom, hardly aware he was still talking. She put her hands on the glass of the door, to look out at the view.

Lea smiled as she took it all in. "Hmm... it does, doesn't it?", he said as she commented on the color of the carpet. "I liked the color, but I didn't think to compare it to that before."

It only took him a moment, though to realize she wasn't following him. Chuckling slightly, he set his knapsack down next to the sofa and joined her next to the glass door. "You want to go out on the balcony?", he asked. It wasn't sunset yet, but they could still check out the view.

Edited 2017-08-07 02:13 (UTC)

Only the slightest of hesitations before she nodded, unable to pull her eyes from the view.

Edited 2017-08-07 02:21 (UTC)

Lea unlatched the glass door and slid it open allowing them to go out on the balcony. He leaned on the railing, looking out over the city. "Not quite the clock tower," he said. "But I think it's about the same height at least. I know the clock tower looked taller, but that was just because it was at the top of a hill; made everything around it look smaller."

She followed him out and leaned against the rail next to him. She was a little too short to mimic his posture, however.

"It's still a nice view," she said softly. She wasn't fully aware that what made it nice was who she was seeing it with.

"Yeah." Lea shot a warm smile her way. "Nicer with you around though. Most things are nicer with a friend there to share it. Even ice cream's not as good when you're eating it alone."

He sighed slightly and straightened up, stretching a bit. "Though if we want to be all ready in time for our first sunset in our new place, we need to get settled in," he said, gently ruffling her hair. "C'mon back inside. You can pick which bedroom you want and we'll go from there."

"Really?" she asked, looking at him. Was that true? She didn't think he was lying, it's just... not something she would have realized on her own. "So.... this view would be even better... if Roxas were here?" She was trying to figure this out, and it was weird without having Roxas around to ask the questions for her.

"We could just stay out here until after..." she murmured. But... he wanted to go in, so reluctantly she pushed away from the rail and headed inside.

"Really," Lea confirmed. "And it probably will be. Though you would know better than me about that at the moment; I still can't remember doing anything with you and Roxas together to judge whether more than one friend multiplies it."

"We could, but we'd have to go inside if we wanted to get the ice cream anyway," he said. "I took the liberty of stocking the freezer up with a few bars for us to celebrate with. And if we're settled in we'll just be able to relax and eat them and not have to worry about getting anything else done before bed." He smiled, clearly pleased with his planning.

"Besides, I wanted to give you first pick of rooms," he said, gesturing to the two bedrooms along the right hand wall. "I think you'll like them; they're a lot nicer than the ones back at the castle."

She thought about it, then nodded. "Usually when it was only two of us, we were wondering where the other one was, and worrying. Roxas worried about you a lot when you were gone. He'd even count the days sometimes. When we thought you were..." her words broke a moment, and she took a deep breath. "When we were told everyone who went to Castle Oblivion was gone...." another breath and she swallowed... "The ice cream didn't taste as good, the sunsets were almost hard to look at. I don't know why, though." She almost did. Sort of. Mostly. Maybe. She wasn't sure if she was right, though.

Her mood picked up a little at the thought of ice cream, but she was also acutely aware that from where she saw him last, Roxas was apparently going to go through a lot of hard times before he rejoined Sora... and her. And there was nothing she could do to help him. Or to help Lea.... her friends were going to suffer, and had suffered, and she couldn't help. That hurt. More than it had hurt even when Roxas was sleeping like she had, and couldn't wake up. Why did it hurt?

She looked up at Lea, expecting him to have an answer, not even thinking about rooms just then....

Lea nodded looking thoughtful. "Yeah, I remember," he said. "He had every day counted. Said he had to hang on to something, since he didn't have any memories from before his time with the Organization."

There was a slight smile on his face when she looked up at him. "You missed me," he said. "And you were worried." He rested a hand on her shoulder. "When you miss someone, or you're really worried about them, it hurts like that. And doing things that you used to do with the person you miss can hurt too, because it reminds you of them."

"But you know what?", he said. "You can't feel those things without a heart. So the fact that you could feel them means that you're developing a heart of your own, just like Roxas and I were starting to back then."

"Then Roxas had one too, back then. Because he was even more upset than I was, I think. And the first time, I didn't even know you yet..." But her hand went up to her chest and closed. She.... She had been developing a heart? Even back then? "I.... It's the same now, thinking about Roxas...." she said softly. But less, because she knows that he'll wind up with Sora eventually, that he'll be okay. At least... she thinks that's why...

Lea nodded. "I think he did, yeah," he said. "Maybe being connected to Sora made it happen faster for the two of you than it did for the rest of us; he's got enough heart for about twelve people, I think. Or maybe you guys always had hearts and no one knew. I mean, there's no real way to look inside and check, so..." He shrugged.

"But yeah," he said. "I know what you mean. Even if Roxas is as safe has he can get as part of Sora, I still worry about him too. I worry about you sometimes too, even though I know you can take care of yourself if it comes down to it. That's normal, worrying about your friends."

"If we had hearts... wouldn't we be...happy?" she asked, softly. Then she looked up at him. "Worrying about friends," she repeated carefully, testing out that concept. Worrying about friends. Summer vacation. There was so much to learn... about friendship and hearts. And she was selfish enough to hope she and Lea could stay long enough for her to learn it all.

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While I die from squealing.

<3

I love their friendship, so much.

I know, me too. <3

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