sirenspull_ooc | TL;DR relationship/CR meme

because i need to work on my CR chart anyway orz. i will attempt to do this from work!

THE TRUST IS GONE. Not that it was ever really there in the first place, but where Axel may have actually kind of liked Xigbar at one point, his Pal Card has been officially revoked. Even before he went home and learned the awful truth, he was inclined to believe Riku's story, if only because he actually trusts Riku to give him a mostly straight answer. Now that Lea's back and has confirmation that Xigbar's been helping pull the strings the whole time, it is, as they say, on. He'll still be playing nice for the time being--no sense diving into the pool before you know whether or not there's even water in it just yet, after all--but really he's just biding his time.

Really, if it weren't for the fact that Xigbar had strung Demyx along all this time, Lea wouldn't be half as upset about it. He could have believed Xigbar was a pawn, being used by Xemnas and Xehanort like the rest of them, but since he hurt Demyx (more than just that shiner, too), Lea's taking it a little more personally. Hurting the people close to him is a sure way to get your name in Lea's ledger, and now Xigbar's name is underlined twice.

Oh, well at least I'm more tolerable than Xigbar up there...

[But being more tolerable than Xigbar is like being a better love story than Twilight...]

Lea's relationship with Joe is sort of difficult to really define. Before coming to Port Axel really hadn't given the replica of Riku a second thought since that day in Castle Oblivion. If he had known at the time that Xion was a replica as well, he might not have been so quick to view him as a tool, but... well, Axel's hindsight was always 20/20, we all know that. Upon arriving in Port and being confronted with the idea that this "Joe" fellow was calling himself Roxas' best friend, he of course took it too personally and the reunion did not get off to a good start. However, after talking with Roxas about it he decided that he would do his best to be civil. For Roxas' sake.

Over time, the bitterness sort of abated into a begrudging tolerance, and though Axel would never have called Joe his friend, he might have been willing to go with 'person I don't hate with a passion anymore.'

Lea, however, will be reexamining this assessment a bit now that he's gotten his heart back. He'll ultimately have no choice but to really stop and think about what he did, and whereas Axel could assure himself that he had no heart and so he was incapable of feeling guilty about it, Lea doesn't have that luxury. He was always willing to admit that what he'd done wasn't pretty or nice or gentle in the slightest, but it was a means to an end that he had had no choice but to meet, and Joe had simply been a convenient tool at the time. Now, though, he might find that argument leaves a bad taste in his mouth and a heaviness in that rusty old heart of his. He can't condemn Joe for being a replica without condemning Xion as well, after all, and thus he really has no excuse for his actions.

Axel was sorry things went the way they did, but he wasn't sorry he'd done what he'd had to do. Lea... may find he's sorrier than he thought he was.

:|a

Naminé is a bit of an enigma. Axel never knew her very well, but he knew she was more than could be taken at face value. In the end, he didn't regret his decision to be merciful, and his efforts to help her later wound up working in his favor. She may not remember (yet?), but he'll never forget that she saved his life, even if it only gave him the chance to put it to one last better use.

Though they haven't always kept in close touch in Port, the friendship hasn't really suffered for it. One thing Lea supposes he and Naminé have always had in common is an appreciation for things left unsaid: he knows she's there if he needs her help, and he hopes she knows the feeling is mutual. That isn't to say he's not interested in beefing up those bonds a little; she's one of the Bitty Brigade whether she realizes it or not, and Lea wouldn't hesitate to defend her if the occasion called for it.

C:

There are BFFs and then there are BFFs, and then there's Axel and Roxas. For a guy who swore by the idea that he had no heart, Axel sure did give a lot of damn about Roxas, even if he hadn't exactly been very adept at showing it. The fact that he had a heart all along notwithstanding, having his old one back now means Lea is going to find there's a whole new spin to their friendship these days: he doesn't have to tell himself these are just leftover memories of things he used to feel anymore.

Even with his heart back, though, the number of people Lea would willingly stick his neck out for is very small. Roxas easily tops that list anyway; hell, he died once for him, and he really wouldn't hesitate to do it again (though honestly, he would prefer it didn't come to that). Really, Roxas was the one that kept Axel honest here in Port: after sufficiently screwing everything up once, Axel made a promise to himself that he wouldn't keep his friends in the dark anymore, and Lea means to make sure that promise continues to be kept. Roxas forgave him when even Axel didn't think he deserved forgiveness for his sins, and that isn't something Lea's about to take for granted. The sincerity gig has been tough, but he's mostly stuck to it. Hey, old habits die hard, okay? He gets points for effort if nothing else.

Something about Roxas always made Axel think twice about the idea that they didn't have hearts--when Roxas was around, he could laugh like he used to back before he lost his, and somehow the idea of being a Nobody never seemed so bad in that kind of company. Lea would be lying, though, if he said he wasn't a bit abashed by the revelation that maybe they'd had hearts the whole time--maybe it should have been more obvious, but well... there's that hindsight thing again.

After telling Roxas and Xion the truth about his untimely demise back home, he never expected to discover there was more to the story after all. Upon returning back to the Port complete with heart after a horribly-timed trip home, Lea's first priority was to find Roxas and set the whole record straight. And if Lea has anything to say about it, the record will remain straight from here on in. He already made a promise to be better about telling the truth, but he's going to be making a concerted effort to really be the kind of friend Roxas and Xion deserve. Lea might be too embarrassed to admit that he loves those kids with the entirety of that new old heart of his, but he kinda hopes they know it anyway.

bammm

When Axel discovered that Roxas' roommate in the hospital during the Culpa Flu outbreak was a tiny adorable girl with ginger hair and a cavity-inducing smile, he really never figured he would wind up getting a friend out of the equation. Silly Axel, you should have known better--pretty much all of your friends are tiny adorable blue-eyed children, and as it turned out Ahiru was really no exception.

Even as a kid Lea had a tendency to collect people, but Ahiru brings out that quiet big brother complex pretty strongly. She never fails to make him smile, and he finds her frequent bouts of obliviousness endearing and frankly hilarious; she's fun to tease, but he wouldn't dream of taking it too far. Funny the way sometimes all it takes to find someone whose company you can really appreciate is a friendly nod and maybe a cup of soup.

well let's hear it :D

Fish is good for your heart. Hah! Really, Xehanort, Lea almost wishes he could applaud you on your expert trolling skills. However since you are actually a huge douchebag evil Time Lord wannabe, he will instead plot your demise.

No, seriously, Lea would give Xehanort points for being an excellent strategist, having enviable foresight, and being a first-class troll... but he had to go and make it personal. It's Xehanort's fault he lost everything--his home, his heart, Isa--and yes he's definitely taking it personally. When the time for the revolution comes, Lea knows which side of the line in the sand he's standing on, and he's prepared to do whatever it takes to keep his friends safe and take Xehanort down.

let

let me squeeze out a single tear for you here axel

no, no wait, I know I've got one in here somewhere

...

okay give me a few minutes I'll get one for you, no worries

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got_it_memorized - 2012-09-17 12:44 (UTC) - Expand

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capax_infiniti - 2012-09-17 12:45 (UTC) - Expand

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got_it_memorized - 2012-09-18 02:22 (UTC) - Expand

Have yet to meet. YET being key word. Future thoughts, gooo.

YET indeed! It's a good thing Lea doesn't know Eraqus tried to kill Roxas, because good intentions and mistaken identities notwithstanding, that would be enough to put him on the blacklist five-ever. However, given that he does not know this little tidbit, Lea's not likely to take much of an issue with Eraqus. In fact, once he learns this is the guy who trained Ven, he might just be interested in a Keyblade lesson or three, if Eraqus can handle training a guy with a little darkness in him, that is. Not to worry, sensei, Lea's got a pretty good handle on it, so he won't need any speeches about keeping it in check.

For the record, once Lea gets to know Eraqus a bit, he'll be in a better position to understand the whole, you know, ALMOST KILLED ROXAS situation, and it will be less likely to prompt embedding a flaming chakram in his skull.

Demyx might be a bit of a slacker, but Lea knows he's one of the good guys, as it were. He's a little lazy, and definitely prefers flight over fight, but he stands by his friends, which is more than Lea can say for some people he knows. Despite appearances, Demyx is pretty cagey and damn good at recon when he puts his mind to it, so when the subject of shenanigans gets put on the table, Lea knows who to call for backup in a pinch. He wasn't sure how long the arrangement would last when Demyx first offered up the spare bedroom in his apartment, but Axel was pleasantly surprised to discover that despite their opposing elements the two of them got along really well. It was a relatively quick hop skip and jump for Demyx to go from Tolerable Coworker to Pretty Good Roommate to Awesome Bro, and from there to a part of that very guarded inner circle of comrades worth getting in trouble for.

Granted, even the closest of friends have their disagreements, and when Axel had to give Demyx the unfortunate news of Xigbar's alliance with Xehanort and the fact that he was actually a lot more dangerous and less nice than he'd been leading them to believe, Demyx didn't take the news so well. Axel stormed out, got the crap beaten out of him, and returned home only to refuse Demyx's help and then get sent home the next morning. Talk about bad timing.

Upon returning to Port, however, Lea made it a priority to make amends with his roommate. Thankfully Demyx is fairly quick to forgive, and so with a genuine apology and a promise to make a better effort to work things out next time, the bromance was quickly restored (though Lea owes Demyx lunch for a week, so far as he's concerned). Ultimately, Lea wouldn't hesitate to consider Demyx one of those rare 'best friends' he taught Roxas about once upon a time. While Axel was always hesitant to define his alliances in nice neat boxes, Lea won't be so averse to admitting that Demyx is someone he would actively seek to defend, no matter the situation.

B]

GINGERS REPRESENT!

Lea always made friends easily, and though Axel tended to err more on the side of caution on that front, Claire reminded him that it didn't always need to be such a difficult task. He and Claire hit it off right away, and all it took was some destruction of Xino Mao property; the moment the other redhead tumbled through the ceiling to land unceremoniously in the middle of the hall, Axel had known there was something different about this one. It's nice to have someone he can talk to who understands not only the perils of playing the secret agent, but the value of good company who doesn't ask too many invasive questions. Getting to know Axel has never been a quick or easy process, and while Lea may have learned to be a little less stingy with smiles and kind words, he still keeps his cards close to his... heart. The fact that Claire is cut from a similar cloth and doesn't make a big deal about the fact that there's still a lot they don't know about each other is refreshing; he doesn't have to put on an act, but he doesn't have to worry about Claire poking his nose into a history he's not quite ready to talk about yet.

He's also a helpful sort, which is nice. Axel always had trouble trusting his coworkers, after all, and so getting chummy with someone in a similar line of business, as it were, makes it a lot easier to compare relevant notes. More than that he just plain liked him, and Lea will surely be picking up right where Axel left off. He won't really hold it against him that it's technically Claire's fault he got the snot beaten out of him by vampires. One less Hunter in the world is worth a few bodily injuries, after all, and in the end the trip home was a lot more enlightening than he expected.

sup

When Axel received a message from a girl whose name seemed familiar, whose voice rang a bell, but whose face he just couldn't place, he was confused to say the least. When she told him he was her best friend, however, confusion gave way to outright bafflement. After all, Axel prided himself on remembering things--how could he have forgotten one of his own friends? When the truth came to light, that Xion had been thoroughly erased from his memories, and he didn't like the news one bit, and sought to rectify it posthaste. With a little help from Naminé, he was able to retrieve the misplaced memories and it seemed that all was right between three best friends once more, and remains so. Lea knows that she was and is as important to him as Roxas is, and fighting to get those memories back only drove that point home further.

Upon his return from the unexpected trip home that gave him his heart back, Lea knew that the reunion with Xion would be a touchy one. After all, people come and go all the time: the Core is like that, but he knew now that his memories of her back home remained suppressed. Had he shown up to Port with his memories erased, like he had a year before, things with Xion would have had to start all over again, and the fear and sadness on her face had all but screamed that the mere idea of that was horrifying to her. Lea's glad he got the chance to assure her that he hadn't forgotten, and won't be wasting any time picking up the friendship right where it left off.

RIGHT BACK AT YOU :V

ALL THE PUNCHES IN THE FACE.

No, seriously dude, Lea's going to want to have some words with DiZ. Words. After punches in the face. DiZ kidnapped his best friend, treated Naminé like a tool, sought actively to destroy Xion, and frankly without all of his kooky heart research none of this would have happened in the first place! Lea won't be able to bring himself to outright hate DiZ for the fall of Garden the way he does Xehanort, seeing as how Ansem was once the ruler of the world and obviously never wanted to destroy it, but he'll still find it hard to not resent him. He understands that trying to destroy the Nobodies wasn't a personal thing, but boy he kinda hopes you feel like crap when you learn the truth that Nobodies had hearts all along.

That isn't to say Lea is beyond reason, but DiZ will have to show some serious remorse for his actions before he'll be given anything like the time of day.

/o/