pullsheavendown | ♚ IC Contact for Sirens' Pull ♚

[He hadn't said a word to Roxas on the walk over that morning, and had skipped out absent on ice cream time, the evening before.

...and the cold shouldering and the shake offs of 'its nothing' took on immediate clarity when terse, accusatory voice message finally blinked onto Roxas' NV.]

So I hear you've been keeping someone from me.

What? I didn't—

[And maybe it shouldn't technically exist, but Roxas still has a sinking feeling accompanied almost immediately by a twisting sensation, like he ate something bad.

He knew, or should have known this was coming. Even if it was easier to let Riku or Zexion himself handle it.]

...I didn't mean to.

Edited 2010-05-17 19:07 (UTC)

That's a pretty big 'didn't mean to', Roxas.

Did you forget? Think it wouldn't be important? That it was better if I didn't find out?

I didn't know who it was at first! I thought—that I was just imagining things, and it would be stupid to say anything, and then when I did know I thought you guys wouldn't let me find out what they wanted, and I had to.

And after Riku found out, I—can we talk? In person? It's weird like this.

Edited 2010-05-17 19:19 (UTC)

The match is almost over anyway. [grumbles]Tennis is so boring. I'll meet you at the west lot.

[And he's there after clocking out of the short shift, seated sulleny on the curb and skipping small chunks of gravel across the pavement with sharp flicks of the wrist, watching them bounce away.]

I'll be right there.

Thanks.

[As convenient as it would be, Roxas doesn't take a portal to the lot. He walks it the long way around, wanting to get there and wanting to never arrive at the same time.

He deserves Joe's anger, but he doesn't want to lose another friend. Not again.]

Hey.

[The replica narrows his eyes at the last spinning pebble, avoiding Roxas' eye. Huffing a sigh, he stretches out his legs and folds his arms across his chest.

Was it right to feel this betrayed, knowing his friends had found out about Organization members in the city before he did?

Before he might have known to protect Namine from them. Or not walk into a set-up.]

When were you going to tell me you knew? Or did you think it was better for me to just find out on my own?

[Then, in a quieter tone, an even more dangerous reproach.]

...like Axel did to you.

I don't know.

[It's not the answer Joe wants to hear, he's pretty sure, but it has the benefit of being honest. Roxas takes a seat on the curb, but not too close. Joe could lunge for him and grab him, but he couldn't reach out and touch him.]

I did tell Riku, but he already knew. He always acts like he knows what he's doing, so I thought it would be better to let him decide when and how you and the girls would know, too. But I can't blame it on him. It was my decision to wait.

[He picks up a pebble and rolls it around his fingers. He may not have reacted to the comment about Axel, but it hit all too close to home.]

And I shouldn't have.

You shouldn't have.

[He agrees bluntly, allowing a long silence to fall until he finally speaks up again, in suppressed upset and frustration.]

What if they tried to use Namine again? Or Kairi? When you said you'd quit that group, I thought you'd meant it. I thought you knew about the kinds of stuff like they did in Castle Oblivion.

Did you know that I killed that one, Zexion, because Axel told me to?

So what side are you really on? Can I trust you to be my friend?

I did mean it. But this place is different and if they find out about Nobodies—

[He wants to explain everything to Joe, how he doesn't want anything to do with the Organization but it's not that simple, when the rest of the replica's words catch up to him and Roxas whips his head around to stare in shock.]

You did—what? Axel what?!

No one told me any of that!

You said Axel didn't have much to say about the castle mission. So I guess I wasn't anything worth mentioning, at least to him.

[Yeah. Someone's still a tiny bit bitter against the redheaded nobody. Or maybe still intimidated by the notion of anyone else rivaling for friendship with his new friend...

His new friend that kept stuff quiet from him too.

Not even Riku would keep him clued in on everything, it seemed. Joe leaned his head into his arms, sighing heavily. ]

...Did they think that Sora and Riku took them all out by themselves?

Axel didn't tell me about you, or Sora, or Riku, or—I told you, anything.

I guess now I know why.

[Roxas pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his chin between them, hiding his expression.

He and Axel were friends. He knows that. But there's so much more he doesn't know—does it even matter anymore?]

How should I know what they thought? It was easier for them back then if I was clueless—and I was.

Before the team left for Castle Oblivion, I was only there for three weeks. Axel and me were kind of friends, but it was different. I could hardly even talk my first day, and I barely knew my own name. A week after I arrived, I couldn't remember having ice cream with Axel—just seven days later. By the time he came back, I was just glad he was there at all. I didn't ask questions.

[He really had been a zombie then. More than that—he'd been a baby, a newborn infant who walked like a teenager but wasn't really one. What would he have been like if Sora hadn't gotten his heart back? Roxas figured he'd never know for sure.]

I would have told you if I knew Zexion had personal business with you.

Edited 2010-05-17 21:00 (UTC)

[He needed to remind himself that Roxas had been as new as he was, not so long ago. Even more so, without the one he was copying to watch, or the false memories of someone else to be.]

I didn't think he'd ever show up. I didn't think you'd want anything to do with any of them, besides maybe Axel. And since...I had the feeling that Zexion and Axel didn't exactly get along...

[He shrugged, the anger diffusing slightly at that...only an uncomfortable pit of curiosity]

...He asked you to meet with him? Did you go?

[It's a lot to say, to get out, but he feels a little better once he has. His own frustration has built up even longer than he was aware. At least Joe doesn't seem to mind that part.

If Axel came...Roxas doesn't know anymore, if he ever did.]

Yeah. I met Zexion and we went to some apartment where Lexaeus was, but I don't think they live there all the time. Before I saw them face to face, I almost didn't believe they were really here, even though I'd heard him. Stupid, huh?

They're not my friends. They were never going to be. But this city...you know how SERO experiments on abnormal people? Nobodies aren't normal. And that's the one thing I'll always have in common with them.

That you and Riku have keyblades is probably more important to SERO than you being a nobody, or even me being a replica.

[His eyes finally lift to meet Roxas warily, as he points out with a slight note of envy in his voice, but also cautioning.]

Even if you have what you are in common...that's doesn't mean you should trust them.

I'm not so sure. Using a Keyblade...that's something we can do. But being Nobodies--that's what we are. It's in us. Riku thinks SERO might even try to make more of us if it figures us out. If the Nobodies I used to command wouldn't listen to me after I quit, new ones definitely wouldn't.

[He looks back at Joe, not knowing how to show he's being sincere, but instinctively trying to do so anyway.]

I won't. But it's true that fighting them is pointless if people just come back anyway. If we end up having the same enemy--I wouldn't go help them just because we used to be in the same group. But if it was better for all of us, and would protect my friends, too? Maybe then. It would depend on the situation.

So we stay out of SERO's reach. That's been our plan all along

[He agrees with a suppressed shudder, not wanting to end up any kind of experiment either.]

That doesn't mean we've gotta go anywhere near them, Lexaeus and Zexion.

I'd rather pay attention and know what's going on with them than ignore them and be surprised. But that doesn't mean we're going to hang out after work.

[He pauses for a moment, trying to work out what to say next, until he realizes that the right thing to say is also the simplest.]

I'm sorry.

[It's...all back in his hands now. He can hold the grudge, or let the curdling anger go, let the darkness coiled ready in his muscles, the tense and agitated feeling release in a slow exhale instead of exploding out or pulling back.

He likes Roxas, and so the choice is not so hard.]

It's okay.

[His hand claps briefly to Roxas' shoulder, then reaches up to scruffle a little at the back of his hair, and then the replica stands, holding his chin in defiance to the city skyline beyond the parking lot.] ]

...Race you back?

[His eyes go a little wide at the shoulder touch and hair scrunch, and he wants to ask--really? Is it just as simple as that?

But he already knows that it is, and it isn't...and maybe moving forward is a better way to get past this than sitting around poking at the injury.]

You'll never beat me.

[And he's off, grinning and sure that Joe won't let him get far ahead.]

♚ IC Contact for Sirens' Pull ♚

[voice] Monday Morning, probably at some lulled mid-point in their stadium shift.

[voice] Monday Morning, while Roxas is filing alone in a back office because there's no game on

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice] Tennis is awesome :|

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