Disclaimer: Sincerely not mine.

A/N: Written for Fyretoppaaa on the LiveJournal community KH Request. She asked for Axel/Zexion and the prompt 'a roaring fireplace' in an AU setting, with mentions of strange costumes of some sort. One of the most bizarre requests I've received for this fandom, though I actually quite like how this came out in the end.

From Small Sparks Mighty Flames Do Grow

© Scribbler, August 2008.

Zexion often sat in his study for hours, so absorbed in his work that he forgot the time. He forgot a lot of things in there, especially basic necessities like food and sleep. There used to be a door connecting the study with the castle's massive library, but when he began his studies of the magical arts he removed it so he could just wander from room to room whenever he needed to research something. Partly this was for speed, but mostly it was because he'd walked into the door too many times while reading. When he had a new scroll or spell book he was especially forgetful of the world around him, and if he was disturbed he blinked like someone emerging from hypnotism.

When a fire roared in the grate where before there had been none, he blinked this way. Then he closed his eyes in something too long to be a blink and sighed.

"You're gonna waste away, you know. Me too. When was the last time you put fuel over here?"

"Go away, Axel."

"That's right, tempt the fire spirit into your hearth to heat your big ol' draughty rooms and then get pissy when it shows it has a mind of its own and doesn't just arrive on command like some yappy lapdog."

"Axel, I have no need of you at this moment -"

A tendril of flame flicked towards him, threatening a particular precious tome about soul-stealing ghosts and spiritualism. Zexion snatched it up. The tendril retreated, but chuckling that seemed designed to irritate him filled the room.

"'I have no need of you at this moment'. Yeah, right. That's why you're dressed in that get-up, is it?"

Zexion pulled the layers of cloth and fur tighter around himself. Admittedly, he looked ridiculous, wearing so much outdoor clothing while indoors, but there was a reason for that, and it was staring back at him from the flames. In removing the door he'd made it difficult to heat the two rooms, and leaned on what he'd learned about magic to help him. However, useful as Axel could be, he never just warmed the study and library and let Zexion get on with his work. He always wanted to talk, and was always asking questions about the most trivial things. Really, it was moist distracting. He'd told the spirit several times, but that just made him worse, and so Zexion had been forced to adopt less elegant methods of keeping warm and call on Axel less frequently.

Not that it kept Axel away. Oh no. that'd be too easy.

Zexion sighed, setting aside both books and quill. "Wood or coal?"

"You have to ask?"

"I'll go and fill the scuttle."

The face in the fire grinned. "Ooh baby, you know what I like."

Fin.