binarysky | 2.1; voice

[ FEED comes back on and he adds,]

'Finally made it'?

It's...I'll tell you about it when you get here.

[ Is that tone in his voice wistful or bittersweet? ]

[ Sora arrives as quickly as he can running, which all things considered is pretty fast, sand scattering everywhere under his soles as he looks around for Roxas, and it's not hard to spot him. He turns to hurry toward him, waving an arm a little wildly as he goes. ]

Hey!

[ Coming to an awkward stop, he almost over balances, but his eyes are the sort of wide and bright that have everything to do with new chapters, reaching crossroads it's a gratification to learn aren't just wishful thinking. ]

[ Roxas could probably have come to Sora faster—he thinks so, anyway, even though he hasn't tested his ability to create dark corridors—but it was good to have to extra time. To think, and center himself. ]

[ Once he hears the sound of Sora's feet pounding on the beach, though, he hops to his own feet, dusting the sand off his pants. Tan on black—different, this time. Everything's different. ]

Sora!

[ He trots forward, then slows. It's silly, be he almost feels shy. He knows things now, he understands. He's just not sure where to start. ]

Hey.

[ In a way part of Sora knew time between speaking and arriving might be something Roxas could do with - to orient or something, to...well Sora isn't sure specifically but he had an idea of it. Roxas' clothing is immediately more familiar or, maybe the word should be more normal, but then that sounds wrong too even in his head. This is more how Sora had thought of him though, not cloaked and lost or dissimilarly cloaked and angry, but the last time he saw him to his own knowledge - standing half see-through and seeming okay, not that he'd had the chance to ask.

The mirrored greeting makes Sora laugh though, a brief slightly sheepish thing accompanied by the raise of his hand to the back of his head, gesturing with his other one. ]

You know I sort of thought I'd never see you again. [ His smile flickers, something unhappy there with the thought but he smooths it out again. ] I'm glad I was wrong.

I'm glad, too. [ He ducks his head, scratching at his hair in a sheepish gesture. ] I wouldn't have left on purpose...one minute I was here, the next I was back where I came from. And when I came from.

[ He looks at Sora steadily now. To Roxas, his other half looks different, even though nothing has changed except his perspective. ]

[ And his own memories. He can remember looking back at Sora from the inside and the outside even as he was part of him. They'd switched roles—Sora had been the one to be surprised and confused, and Roxas had known more than he had time to say. Maybe now, finally, they can stand on equal ground. ]

Sorry if I kept you waiting.

[ There are, unfortunately, still a fair number of details missing for Sora, perhaps now more than Roxas because Sora's journey though long, held back from him many things, important truths and pieces of the puzzle designed above his head in more ways than one. Peering at Roxas now, he can't think of him as a Nobody even if the technical term applied, even if that's what others would say. He'll think of him as Roxas, period, and that's right too anyway, he thinks.

Taking a step forward, he can't stop staring, like he's looking for new things about Roxas or old things now familiar but mostly he's just glad to see him and it's that particular kind of reined in brightness harbored in his smile and the way he shifts his weight from foot to foot. ]

You don't have anything to be sorry for. [ He says first, shaking his head vehemently and raising both hands as if to say seriously, before adding, ] --but...you really are...glad, I mean?

[ It's not that he doesn't trust Roxas, far from it, but he's wondering why Roxas is glad, and guessing that has more to do with the when of his story now. ]

Well...yeah. This place can be a pain sometimes, but I finally started to figure things out...and we were finally getting to be friends. Right?

[ It's not a question of whether Sora wanted to be his friend. He'd wanted that all along. But friendship was something Roxas had only experienced with someone more like him, and after so many months of misunderstanding here—slow and tentative had been the way. But still worth it. ]

[ Sora's eyes are wide, his gaze searching and unsure—it's not hard to figure out what else he's wondering about. ]

Hey. I thought I told you to look sharp.

[ He can't help but feel a wash of relief run through him. His smile makes that shift from hopeful to downright pleased, something more like a grin really - because Roxas hasn't forgotten his time here and the repeated words help to send another sentiment home - understanding, maybe. ]

You did. I wouldn't forget that.

I was just thinking it'd be nice if we'd had more time. And now we do.

[ Part of what had held Sora back from divulging everything he knew was that he simply didn't know as much as felt right. There are details he knows he's missing but he doesn't know what those are, wonders if Roxas did - does. He wonders too if it's strange to want to hug Roxas, so he settles for poking his shoulder, experimentally considering the last he saw Roxas in his own timeline he'd hardly been solid. But this Roxas is, and he's relieved by that too. ]

Better not.

[ It wasn't so long ago that he was there, part of Sora yet still able to speak to him, and Roxas almost feels like two different people. There's the Roxas who was angry and determined and finally able to understand, back there, and there's the quieter one who spent a year here figuring things out all by himself. ]

[ How could he have forgotten any of this? Forgotten Sora? But it doesn't matter now, he tells himself. Because of the deities or whatever other reason he's here, they have another chance, and he'll pull his two selves together. ]

We've got plenty of time.

[ He chuckles when Sora pokes at him—and he can't blame him for doing so—and before he can stop himself, he pushes Sora's hand aside, slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls him into a close hug. ]

[ If Sora pays very close attention, he might feel that their hearts are beating in time with one another. ]

Edited 2011-10-11 00:07 (UTC)

[ Since Roxas arriving the first time, Sora didn't know what to think, and over time he'd gotten it into his head (not for the first time but more thoroughly, more repeatedly) that there was more to this idea of a Nobody than anyone might know or have the ability to know, that maybe lacking a heart wasn't as simple as lacking the kind of heart he knew, the kind he had. He'd thought of Axel and then how angry too Roxas had been (rightfully) and thought there was no way to feel so much without some semblance of feeling, all the strings a heart seems to be made of.

He's surprised when Roxas pulls him into a hug but gladdened and he slips his arms around him in return, the very sort of hug reserved for close friends, which makes sense. They haven't the history or the time that he and Riku and Kairi have, or that Axel and Roxas had - and the other he'd mentioned who still confuses Sora for not knowing of them - Xion. He smiles and hooks his chin on the other boy's shoulder, noting that it's not only his heart beating out a lifeline.

When he withdraws it's not really withdrawing, considering that his hands find rests on either of Roxas' shoulders as he stares at him. ]

Your heart...

[ It would sound silly to most other people but to Roxas, he thinks, it won't sound silly at all because it's acknowledgment of what he possesses, what is his. They are synchronized uncannily but unmistakably there are two pulses at work here. He wants to ask 'how', but he wants to ask a lot of things - what Roxas would like to do first, if he's tired, if he's really okay since that landing sounded tough, and what made him smile back then.

Look sharp.

What brought him to that point? ]

[ Roxas had figured out that they were two halves of a whole when he was in the City before, but this is the first time all of him has believed it completely.

With anyone else, this would be awkward, a little embarrassing, but with him and Sora it's right. He holds the hug for a while, perfectly content, and when it ends, the connection is still there. Probably always will be. ]

Yeah. [ He lifts one hand to rest palm-down on the city of his chest. ] Funny. All this time, I thought I didn't have one.

[Sora can't help but beam at the other boy, gesturing a little too enthusiastically perhaps as he speaks, but he's excited not just to see Roxas but to see Roxas again like this. ] That's one of the things that bothered me most! I kept thinking, I mean, I still think you have all kinds of feelings. And I didn't get to talk to him a whole bunch but Axel too.

And even Demyx. I mean, I don't think...it made me wonder if there was more than one kind of heart.

I couldn't think of you guys as 'Nobodies'.

[ He admits this last thing almost guiltily because he doesn't even like to say that word in this context but it's not like they aren't both aware of it. ]

I never knew what it was like...to feel. I didn't remember. So I couldn't tell the difference.

[ His smile fades a little at the mention of Axel; while Roxas had found some peace and maybe even something resembling happiness as part of Sora, Axel is still gone. And that hurts.

But not all of him. They'd been there together on that clock tower, their friendship still real and intact when almost all else was lost. See you, partner. He tucks that thought away, something to hold and treasure in quiet hours. ]

I don't know about them. I don't even know about me. Maybe it's because of you. [ He taps Sora's just this time, once. ] Or maybe not.

[ The tap makes Sora blink and he pauses for a moment.]

Maybe.

[ He feels bad for mentioning Axel what with the way Roxas' smile dims, can't imagine what it would be like to think of Riku or Kairi gone forever. In a way, he thinks, it's my fault, and stares at the sand, arms folding behind him absently. ]

I wish there was a way to know. More than we do, I mean.

If there is, we'll probably find out eventually.

[ He steps back and scuffs at the sand with one foot. Despite the sad memories, it feels like some tension has eased, even if it wasn't a bad tension. ]

A little at a time's okay with me, though. I feel like my head's overstuffed as it is—remembering everything like that.

Yeah...I guess we can start with the things you know now...[ Is what he says at first but then he's adding quickly, ]but we don't have to right now. Like you said, we have time.

[ Peering at him a while longer, Sora, takes the step or two to stand right beside him, facing the same direction so he can bump his shoulder against the blond's as if to say hey. ]

No rush. Tired? If you're not, we could get ice cream. It's gonna start getting cold soon.

[ Not immediately but season wise, and even now it's noticeable that what with the hour and being on the shore, it's cooler. ]

I'm okay. We can talk. Just shake me if I start to zone out or something.

[ He grins at the shoulder bump, then looks back at the sea. There's something peaceful about the waves. ]

Actually, I'd like to stay here a little longer.

Oh....yeah, okay.

[ Blinking, he hooks their arms as if they've been doing it for years and turns them around again, moving toward where the water laps up over the sand. Overhead the moon casts its light in all the familiar shattering quality across the 'ocean', and Sora does think of it like that, even if some people say it isn't a real one. It's real for this place.

On the last foot or two of sand he slips his arm away before nodding at the ground and sitting, legs splayed out in front of him. ]

I like it here too.

[ He admits with the soft, honest kind of happiness that speaks loudly of memory as much as anything else. ]

[ It's a little odd to walk arm in arm, but not in a bad way, and Roxas only stumbles a little before falling into step with Sora.

It's really nice here. There's a sense of nostalgia here, maybe from Sora and maybe from his own wants. He doesn't feel the need to examine further to decide which it is as he sits down. ]

Me and H—

[ No, it hadn't been Hayner, not Pence or Olette. Not real, none of that real. ]

Me and Axel were going to go to the beach when we got another vacation day. But this is the first time I've ever been.

[ 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. ]

[ 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)

[ 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. ]

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