Open Interaction Post!

[chakramkeyblade]

[Permanent, open interaction post for Lea (and Axel). Let me know if you'd prefer me to do a starter, or just jump in with whatever!]

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For Aeleus

[chakramkeyblade]

Way too much stuff to go through. Books, rubble, debris, everything useless and irrelevant. A lot of the furnishings had been broken, smashed, or looted. Kind of a bang-up job, really. Restoring a city without any kind of leadership? Not even Radiant Garden was perfect. Plenty of people were like Lea and Isa when they were growing up, too busy being jealous of what the castle had to see what they had.

Too much to think about. Too much to regret.

Lea pulled off his gloves, sick of how the stuff he grabbed would just slide right out of his hands, earning a frustrated curse. Better. More feeling. Like being anchored.

He wanted new clothes, too.

Lea discarded the rubble in his arms and glanced at Aeleus. The bigger man was still plodding along, saying nothing, just doing his job as quiet and methodical as Lea remembered. He smiled to himself. The energy of his new keyblade warmed his hand. Aeleus didn't know. Neither did the others.

"Hey. Aeleus. How about a break? We've been going at this how long, now?"

[abidingstoic]

Once upon a time, there had been a happy family living here. Five friends, brothers one and all, and a proud and adoring father to teach and guide them as they grew. He had watched over them all, and while he there might not have been enough time in the day for him to do all he wanted for all the people he wanted to do it for, there was always enough love in his heart to go around. Once upon a time, he had opened his doors and his heart to another, and they had all welcomed a new young man into their family in his hour of need.....

.....They had not, however, welcomed two boys into their homes, or their hearts--not the boys that had tried to sneak in, rather than ask to be invited.

Aeleus wondered, sometimes, what life would have been like if they had done so. If they had stopped to talk to them and really listen, rather than catching them and tossing them out the gate, if he'd concerned himself more with why they wanted into the castle so badly, rather than worrying only about how badly they would hurt themselves and the equipment if they managed to run wild in the laboratories..... If they had brought Lea and Isa into the fold instead of Xehanort, or perhaps in addition to him, how would things have changed? Could things have been better--for Lea and Isa, for all of them, for Radiant Garden and all the worlds as a whole? Would it have made any difference at all?

Could they have all been happy together, maybe? Maybe Lea would have worn a guard uniform with pride, and Master Ansem would have smiled just as fondly at Isa as he had at Xehanort, as the boy knotted an ascot around his neck and slipped into a crisp new lab coat for the first time. Maybe he could have taken them both under his wing, and shown them the world inside these castle walls, where they'd once had nothing to be ashamed of or hide.

It was harder these days to look at Lea without seeing double, so to speak--the child that once was, and the man that child had become. A mischievous, rambunctious, passionate boy, laughing and shouting to Isa as he raced down the hall..... And the unreadable, unpredictable, steely assassin who had looked his two best friends in the eye, cold and calm as he burned them alive and arranged to have the life strangled out of them. One, he'd owed a debt of duty and responsibility to, and failed him in the most profound way possible, in more ways than he can count. The other..... the other, if he had actually survived to witness his deeds, had murdered his strongest links to Light and humanity, the only people left he'd felt he could truly trust, (all that had truly mattered in his world anymore) without so much of a flicker of conscience.

Aeleus wasn't sure how he felt about Lea these days, let alone how he should feel, but he knew one thing for certain--t was a Herculean effort to hold onto the clarity he needed to actually see Lea as he truly was now.

For everyone's sake, though, he had to come to understand him in the here and now, if he was going to work alongside him--just like he had to make himself sleep so he could work, when nightmare-rattled and insomniac visits from Ienzo, Dilan, or even Even have been nightly occurrences. Just like he had to work just as tirelessly as he could, because there simply weren't enough hands to do all that needed to be done, in a castle this big and damaged this gravely..... and almost all the people available to do the work were just as damaged and in need of being taken care of as the castle. If nothing else, he was good at working hard, good at settling into a rhythm and not needing to think or feel, as he cleaned and sorted through the ruins of everything that had been important to him.

Aeleus kept his own gloves on for the work--and one of Braig's bandanas knotted around his neck, no matter how sick at heart it made him to have to use it. But it wouldn't be advisable not to--not when he was left to shatter the larger fallen chunks of debris by pure force so they even could be carted away, and haul away the heavier burdens that still could be carried or wheeled in carts. That was brutal work, too much to reasonably ask Lea to handle; the man simply wasn't built for it. He took a moment to just lean on Skysplitter's handle and wipe the grime of stone dust and sweat from his face, tugging his makeshift mask down as he glanced at the intact clock they'd brought in while they worked. "Almost two and a half hours. Do you need anything to drink? I can see what we have in the kitchen."

[chakramkeyblade]

"Water's good enough for me." Lea brushed at a trail of sweat running down his nose, leaving a smudge of dust in the wake of his thumb. He paused, thinking about his own words. He had to laugh. "Wow. Having to drink water and take a break. We haven't had to do that for a while."

He brushed some of the dust from his black coat, tempted to shuck it to keep cool while he worked. As Axel it had been a constant comfort. As himself, it was heavy, bulky, something that clung to him like guilt. Still. It would be a shame to throw that much fabric away. A waste.

"...wonder if there's any spare munny around somewhere. I could use some less intimidating clothes."

[abidingstoic]

"No, I suppose not..... But then, human bodies have more needs than those of Nobodies. It's a lesson we'll all do well to remember." Aeleus arches an eyebrow at Lea, tone pointed; don't you go off and overextend yourself on his watch, Lea. He had enough to do preventing that with the others, he didn't want to see Lea collapse from forgetting his own needs and limits. As hard as Aeleus pushed himself, he still remembered that he was human, now--he ate and drank, he took breathers, (even if they weren't always as often as they should be) he slept. It was probably significantly less likely for the others to sleep if he didn't, to be honest--his bed hadn't been empty of someone seeking the protection and reassurance of his company since they'd awoken here at the Castle.

If he forgot to take care of himself--if even Lea found it difficult to remember they needed to stay rested and hydrated--then who would remember themselves, let alone the others? If he wasn't grounded and secure enough to sleep, how would the others feel safe? He was the strong one, the rock-solid unshakable one, the one who could endure and outlast anything. They needed him.

He was just heading for the door to go fetch them some water when Lea started musing about clothes; Aeleus half-turned to glance back at him, one hand still resting on the doorframe. He gave the younger man a quick once-over, trying to estimate his height and build, and search his memory to try and recall anyone at the castle who might have roughly shared it. "Chances are good the castle treasury has been ransacked, of course. The purser and quartermaster's offices in the barracks may have been as well, but there are better odds that they might have survived. Failing that....."

Aeleus spread his hand in an expansive gesture; it would take time and effort, scrounging around like this, but it might well pay off in the end. "it's far more likely that we would be able to find some tucked away cache of Munny a former guardsman or servant hid in their quarters, given that the bedrooms have sustained some of the least damage in the Castle. We can surely find some clothes that fit you here, too, even if they're a uniform."

[chakramkeyblade]

"Uniform?" Lea laughed as he fell into step behind Aeleus. "You clearly don't know me very well at all. I don't need much, just a pair of scissors and a thread and needle. The rest I can pick up for next to nothing."

He glanced down at his knees, at the sleeves of his coat. "After all, it would be a waste just to throw it out." He could change it. Just like he could change himself. He could do this. "It's time for a change. In more ways than one. Heck, they're already changing."

Lea grinned up at Aeleus. "After our break...I want to show you something useful I picked up ruining Xehanort's week."

[abidingstoic]

"We never had much opportunity to get to know each other, I'm afraid." Even though it was an agreement, his tone was still mildly apologetic. He never had taken enough time to talk to Lea as a child, and as Axel? Well, there was little enough time after missions to socialize, between sleeping, training, and taking care of personal affair. That Xemnas and Saïx had discouraged it hadn't helped at all, either; they were supposed to focus on their work, on pursuing the great and glorious goal they had set for themselves--Kingdom Hearts. Humanity. Like any good guard and loyal soldier, he had worked hard and done his duty.

Even their missions hadn't provided much time together, though--they were simply too different, and their skill sets too divergent, to often be placed as partners. Axel had been quick and agile, more suited to long-distance and mid-ranged combat than toe-to-toe melee, and his skill in magic wasn't inconsiderable. Lexaeus, on the other hand, hadn't often relied on magic; he was far more suited to getting in close and overwhelming his foes with sheer power. Putting a specialist with a generalist, quite frankly, was a waste--his skills could be better put to use with another specialist who covered his weaknesses, and Axel was well-rounded enough that he could be paired with almost anyone to fair effect. Besides.....

He hadn't trusted Axel. (For good reason, as it had turned out; he believed Ienzo and Even's accounts of how actively he had participated in their downfalls.) Axel had truly been a wildcard, an unpredictable variable, a man who couldn't be read and therefore could never be trustworthy or dependable, not when it was so hard to suss out his motives. Lexaeus had understandably been wary of just how dangerous Axel could be--he had spent far more time watching him than actually talking to him. He still wasn't sure if he trusted him now, now that he was Lea once more; old habits were hard to break, and both Ienzo and Even were incredibly wary and uncomfortable still. Even's words were nothing but venomous, even now, when talking about the man in private.

There's no choice but to try and force it these days, though. They needed all the help they can get, so everyone needed to pull together and do what they could--which meant he needed to consciously extend his trust to someone he knew fully well could just as easily turn on him as he had his friends. At least his intentions were far more clearly spelled out now, as well--help Radiant Garden, and Sora and his friends. Stop Xehanort. Save Isa. All logical, worthy goals..... just as worthy to be true as they were to be a cover, in whole or in part, for other things. Who would claim anything different, if they had malicious intentions and wanted to get close to people while lowering their guard? But no--no, he had to give Lea the benefit of the doubt. He had to. If they didn't rely on each other with war looming on the horizon, then there would be no hope at all, and no betrayal would matter, real or imagined.

So Aeleus simply chuckled quietly, leading the way to the kitchen and glancing back to see Lea's grin. (It really does make him seem more like the child he used to be, grinning that impishly; half the time he'd seen Axel wearing the expression, it had set him on edge. It usually meant trouble--the question was always for who.) "In that case, you can borrow my sewing kit, and see what we can find for the rest. They're too valuable as protection to not keep on hand, altered or intact." Aeleus still had his own coat hanging in his closet, untouched and waiting to be donned as the magical armor it truly was. No matter how many bad memories were attached, the way they shielded the wearer from Darkness was something he suspected they would direly need in times to come--and kept unaltered, they provided almost full body protection, save face and hands. He wasn't going to waste time reducing its effectiveness by changing it, not when he had so many other important jobs to do. He could deal with feeling a little unsettled, when the time came.

Not the time to think about that, though; he could easily fetch his sewing kit later, and once he heard what else Lea needed, they could scrounge something up to make it work. "Who exactly do you mean? And what is it you picked up?"