binarysky | 2.1; voice

2.1; voice

[Residents of the City who happen to be checking out the network around this time will hear a very loud **thump** as a teenage boy suddenly lands where there was no teenage boy a moment ago.]

Oof...what?

[There are a few moments of silence and shuffling as Roxas feels around to make sure he's solid. He's as surprised to be as he is surprised to be here in particular.]

I'm just me again...

[There's a swift intake of breath as he spots the communication device. When he speaks again, it's something others are meant to hear.]

Hey, City. I'm back. I don't know how long it's been...but it feels like a long time.

My name is Roxas. I guess I should say "it's nice to meet you" if I didn't know you before.

[A brief pause.]

...Sora? Are you still here?

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[That sounds kind of fun.]

Thanks.

Uh...what's your name again?

Really, I'm fine. I'm a little sore on my bu...uh, where I sit. That's all.

Yeah. Got nothing left but time, here. It's kind of nice.

[ Blinking at the pause, Sora thinks to pursue it but then Roxas is mentioning Axel and he pauses himself, mouth still open as if the thought got out anyway even though he hasn't said anything yet.

when we got another vacation day

Something unpleasant twists in Sora's stomach or closer in his chest maybe, where his heart beats in time with Roxas'. He turns his gaze out toward the sea again, draws a hand back and forth in the sand to find a long twig, using it to begin drawing an arc in the wet sand just beyond their feet. ]

When was your other vacation day supposed to be?

[ Where on the timeline, he wants to know but would never think to phrase it that way, has it down to basics - just wanting to know more of Roxas, as he did before, but now there is more to know, and that's rather different. ]

I don't really know.

[ He leans back, looking up at the sky before his gaze drops again to the waves. One after the other in an endless row. ]

We only got one that whole year. Back then, I didn't know what to do with myself when I didn't have a task to complete, so I just walked around Twilight Town and had ice cream with Axel like usual.

[ Something about the memory is hazy, maybe from the heat of the summer or the indistinct good feeling that comes from a happy time. But he knows he liked that day. ]

He said the next time we got one, we should go to the beach. It just never came.

[ One break? Sora's brow furrows and he full-out frowns at the sand, pausing with the arc left by the twig 3/4 of the way toward a full circle. Nothing he might say here seems like the right thing, but he can't say nothing, he thinks, turns his head to peer at the blond and ends up just looking at him for a while, saying nothing after all.

Eventually he turns so that he's completely facing Roxas, his legs folded up underneath him. ]

He helped me get through, Axel did, I mean. I wouldn't have made it without him.

[ Praising Axel seems, somehow, better than just settling for 'I'm sorry', though Sora is, more than he knew to be at the time and he as sorry then as well, but now there are other levels to it. He imagines waking up to a world where he would never see Riku again, never see Kairi, and it hurts like a physical injury, his heart clumsy and heavy at the thought. ]

Taking a vacation from your timestream, huh.

[ The injustice of a single vacation day in an entire year of service is Roxas' last concern. His role as Roxas, Number XIII, the Key of Destiny, seems like it took place a long time ago, even though it hasn't been so long. It's just that a lifetime that was never real took place between then and now. ]

I know. I was sort of...asleep before then, but that woke me up.

[ And somehow, he'd found the strength to rise up from within Sora and test him. Get the answers he wanted directly from the person who had them.

Why you?

Why you and not me? ]

It's okay. [ His voice is thicker, transformed by what he now knows for sure is emotion. ] I don't blame you for what happened.

Because I would have done the same for him. So I can't be mad that he did it for us.

Edited 2011-10-12 15:14 (UTC)

Something like that. I guess this makes the second real vacation I've had. Or third, if I count when I was here before.

It's called mockery, dear love, it... works rather well against those forced to remark they're 'just themselves' once more. Or so I've found.

Oh.

[ =n= ]

Well in this case, I was being literal.

Ah, the... clone time of the year, is it?

Not re—

Wait, there's a time of year for clones?

Well, clones are ever so sad, you see, no life of their own. Sheer Pygmalion's tricks! So sad, as I said, that they're ever blue.

And so, clone day is once in a blue moon, or so.

...right.

Well, it doesn't matter to me because I'm not a clone.

You're still certain of that?

H-hey, ouch, what're you saying? I know people.

—what, ever?

[ Surprisingly clearly, Sora remembers the weird dreams he'd been having at the start of things, when he and Riku and Kairi had still been building the raft, when the world beyond their home. He knows it wasn't the same as what Roxas means, but that's his own connection, his own parallel. He'd rather hear more from Roxas, really, and he does, his brow pinching in again at the way the blond's voice constricts. ]

No, it's not....

[ Sorry isn't enough, nothing is really. Even if Roxas says it's okay. He drops his gaze from Roxas' face to his shoulder.]

...it's not okay, and I know that.

[ But he can't undo it either, he takes a breath. ]

But thanks. I mean, I'm glad you don't blame me. I really am. If I...I wish I could've...

[ Sora's not sure the right word is 'saved' but he wishes Axel had made it, for Roxas' sake and for Axel's own as well.

It's not fair. No one said it would be, but it's different, finally bringing it to the table with Roxas knowing all that he does. ]

[Minus the landing at the end.]

Luke. I'm not sure if we've met... unless you've been to the Hymns of Lorelei. I work there.

It isn't.

[ Even though he's contradicting himself, he does get what Sora means; it's not okay that Axel sacrificed himself, even if it was his free choice. It's not okay that most of the things they've gone through happened at all. ]

It's not okay that he's gone, but it is okay that you got through. It's what he wanted. Neither of us would be here now, otherwise.

Besides... [ He makes a fist and holds it against his chest. ] Maybe Axel didn't have a heart, but there was more to him than emptiness. It's still with me, somehow.

Edited 2011-10-13 04:16 (UTC)

[At the last sentence, Sora can't help but smile. He knows that feeling, the kind of presence you can't get out of you no matter what you do - not even forgetting could manage it, because some part of you, sleeping or otherwise would know. Axel was Roxas' friend, but more than that, Axel still is. Sora believes in friendship with the kind of persistence and fervor that some would call foolish or misplaced, but Sora has never felt out of line in this of all things.

It's true what Roxas says. Axel had more to him than hollowness because he wasn't hollow at all. Neither is Roxas. He never was, in Sora's opinion. ]

He's with me too. I...hope that's okay, that I think that. He just...he helped me so much, and he didn't have to, and he means so much to you.

[ What he's trying to say is that he doesn't want to let that go, that it would seem a disservice to Axel - the choices he ended up making, the loyalty he displayed in his own way. ]

[ A smile slips onto Roxas' face as well. He could blame it on the way they're more in tune than they've ever been before, but he's pretty sure it's more than that.

It doesn't matter, though. It's enough to know that Sora understands. ]

It is. I mean, even if we're not the exact same...

[ On an impulse, he reaches out to squeeze Sora's hand briefly. ]

We kind of are. And he saved both of us.

[ And Roxas will never forget that. Or him. ]

[ Roxas placing his hand over his own makes it natural to turn his over so that he can give it a mutual squeeze, the kind of reassurance better conveyed in small gestures than words and Sora's never been especially eloquent anyway. Withdrawing isn't sudden and there's still a distinct air of companionship here, commonality between them not just because of who they are.

Picking up the twig again, he continues drawing in the wetter sand in front of them, the latest doodle beginning to have a suspicious likeness to what ought to be a person's head. Sort of. With spiky hair, though more like Roxas than Sora.]

He did. You know, before he...

[There's a pause, in his voice and the movement.]

...well, he said...he said you made him feel like he did have a heart.

[The way Sora says it, it's like he believes it's possible he did - just that whole redefinition of what a heart might be.]

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