Title: Stars Fading
Author: WonkasChocolate
Rating: PG-13 to very soft R
Pairing: Axel/Kairi
Disclaimer: I am no king, therefore I own no Kingdom.
Warnings: Some language, mentions of character death and sexual situations, and complete abuse of grammar.
A/N: My second entry for the 1sentence community on LJ with the Axel/Kairi pairing. I may do all the theme sets with this pairing, but we'll see. These are kind of all over the place emotionally with mixed AU and in-game situations, and some are IC and some are OOC, so I wish you good luck trying to follow them haha. I hope you enjoy them anyway :)
1. Motion
The flutter of her pulse beneath his fingertips is something he doesn't understand anymore; his chest has been hollow for longer than he cares to remember and he has nothing left but empty memories of emotion.
2. Cool
"Stop trying to play it cool, princess," he says, taking the cigarette from her lips.
3. Young
She is about to protest when he takes a long drag and blows a smoke ring in her face, "You're not a big girl just yet."
4. Last
The last time he sees her, she is running through the darkened streets, leaving him behind; he tries not to see anything at all ironic in this.
5. Wrong
It is probably wrong to think she is beautiful now, when she's all stitches and staples and her skin is black and blue, but Axel thinks so anyway – at least he would, if he were a romantic sap like the rest of the world.
6. Gentle
Their first kiss isn't gentle or sweet – it comes in a fit of rage and they both fight for dominance and end up with bruised lips, necks, cheekbones – and Kairi can't forget the burn of his lips.
7. One
Her left arm is covered almost entirely with a shiny, pink burn, and Axel thinks it's not right that one stupid mistake on his part, one second of lost control, resulted in something that will mar her for the rest of her life.
8. Thousand
Kairi counts backwards from a thousand and tells herself she's not going to cry; by 973, tears are leaking slowly from under her eyelids; when she reaches 800, she can smell ash and smoke, and feels the comforting pressure of Axel's arm around her shoulders; she loses count at 794 when his lips brush over hers.
9. King
Kairi may be a Princess of Heart, but her father was no king, and she never wanted a throne; Riku thought she was some sort of delicate flower – Axel knows she's not.
10. Learn
"How did you learn to do that?" she asks, watching as a hundred little fire birds fly off in every direction; Axel blows the smoke from his palm and says with a wink, "Natural talent, princess."
11. Blur
There is a wall of fire between them, and he is being devoured by darkness, and she can do nothing but scream his name as his figure is blurred by smoke and tears and shadow.
12. Wait
Kairi knows waiting here isn't going to help Sora or Riku; when Axel appears and offers his hand, she takes it willingly and follows him into the darkness, hoping that somehow she will find them.
13. Change
Kairi knows better than to try and change him, because she knows he won't – not for her or for anyone; he'll do it on his own, if he does at all.
14. Command
His orders are clear: kill the girl or be eliminated, but Axel's never been one for respecting authority, so why start now?
15. Hold
What started out as a trip to see the snow in Halloween Town, ends with Kairi's arms wrapped around Axel, and their breath swirling up toward the moon as he wraps his coat around them both.
16. Need
Sora wasn't supposed to die, Riku wasn't supposed to fade into shadow, and her heart wasn't supposed to break, but Axel picks up the pieces because he's all she has left.
17. Vision
Out of the corner of her eye, she swears she sees him, leaning against the bricks and smiling crookedly at her, but when she turns to look, he is gone – though he was probably never there in the first place.
18. Attention
"Kairi? Kairi? Kairi!" Axel snaps his fingers in front of her face and she looks blearily around until her eyes finally focus on him, "Are you alright?" he asks, to which she only nods automatically, because it's all she can do without falling apart.
19. Soul
"So, how does it feel to have two people sharing heart and soul?" Axel asks her offhandedly, and after a moment she says slowly, "There's room for one more."
20. Picture
"Did you love him?" Kairi asks, staring down at the photo of he and Roxas laughing on top of the clock tower, and Axel replies with the only answer he trusts himself to give: "Nobodies can't love."
21. Fool
The first thing he hears is a sort of strangled cry and the next thing he knows, small fists are pounding on his chest over and over and over, "Kairi? Will you stop fucking hitting me already?"; he takes her wrists and she slumps against him, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, mumbling something into his coat that sounds suspiciously like, "You idiot!"
22. Mad
When Kairi is angry, her eyes burn like fire; when Axel is angry, he is fire.
23. Child
Childhood innocence was stolen from them both, she thinks, but she learns not to complain – after all, if she hadn't been thrust into the war, and he hadn't been taken over by darkness, they wouldn't have met at all.
24. Now
"Why live for the future when you can live for the here and now? The future's never guaranteed, anyway," Axel says.
25. Shadow
The first time she escapes, she nearly drowns in the darkness that comes alive and grabs at her ankles; when she is sure she won't see light again, a ring of flame pushes the Heartless back and she can hear Axel saying, "Maybe now you'll think twice before running away."
26. Goodbye
"You're letting me go?" she asks, surprised, and Axel glances at her, "I fucked up," he says quietly, and almost looks sad, but when she blinks his expression is hard and his eyes piercing, commanding her to leave; she does, and somehow she knows she will never see him again.
27. Hide
"Why don't you ever take those gloves off?" she asks, and tugs on one of them; "Kairi, don't," he says sternly, trying to hold it in place, but she manages to remove it anyway and gasps at the sight of the thick, crisscrossed scars etched across his hand and up into his sleeve.
28. Fortune
The gypsy holds Kairi's hand in both of hers and closes her eyes, "I see…flames, everywhere," she says, and when she opens her eyes again Kairi simply smiles; Esmeralda's delicate brows furrow in confusion.
29. Safe
Riku shoves Axel roughly against the wall, with one hand around his throat and the other tightly grasping his weapon, aiming it where his heart used to be, and hisses, "The only reason you're alive right now is because of her."
30. Ghost
"What's the matter, princess? You look like you've seen a ghost;" she hesitantly brushes her fingers across his arm to make sure he is really there, and when they find purchase on the rough leather of his coat, she throws her arms around his neck and laughs triumphantly.
31. Book
Axel is lounging in a chair with a book spread across his lap and Kairi asks curiously, "What're you reading?" and when he smirks deviously and holds it up for her to see, her eyes widen and she cries, "Axel!"
32. Eye
"You're crying," Kairi says weakly, running the pad of her thumb over his cheek, and at first he doesn't believe her, but when he rubs his own hand over his face he is surprised to feel moisture; he shakes his head slowly and tries not to linger on the stitches stretching from her collarbone and down into the grey hospital gown or the bruises around her eyes, "I can't cry," he lies, "no emotions, remember?"
33. Never
"That's never going to work," Kairi says, half amused, half exasperated, as Axel tries to melt the lock off of a small chest they found in Atlantica, but no sooner do the words leave her mouth than the lock liquefies and he pulls open the chest triumphantly, "Never say never, princess."
34. Sing
He leaves her alone most of the time – to keep his sanity intact – but sometimes, when she sings old lullabies to herself and the melodies echo through the empty corridors, it draws him back to listen silently from the shadows.
35. Sudden
Axel leaps backward, grimacing, and his hand flies to his side, while his opponent sneers and launches toward Axel again, weapon poised; "Stop!" Kairi cries, screwing her eyes shut.
36. Stop
Axel is frozen in place, wincing and clutching a gash in his side, his opponent is paused mid attack, fire beginning to blossom and lick at his boot heels, and Kairi realises with a start that she has stopped time; Namine speaks somewhere in the back of her mind and understanding dawns on her.
37. Time
When they come to Radiant Garden ("A new home, and a new start, for both of us," Kairi had said), Kairi stumbles over the unfamiliar ground and Axel doesn't quite know what to do with himself, but the war is over, and time – to waste and heal and learn – is something they have in abundance.
38. Wash
They wash the dark ashes from their skin, the sweat from their brows, and the blood from their hands, but they know they will never be clean; Axel never was, but Kairi was pure once, and he feels what he thinks must be guilt, blossoming at the edges of a non-existent heart.
39. Torn
Axel tears the photo in half and, resisting the urge to set it on fire, lets the pieces fall to the floor; when Kairi walks into the room, she finds the pieces and mends them with tape, placing it in a drawer for him because she knows he'll want it later.
40. History
He remembers much more than he ever wanted to about the day he died, and when Kairi asks about his scars, he finds himself telling her the story of what happened to him when he lost his heart; it is only much later that he realises he's never told anyone the truth about it before – not even Roxas.
41. Power
When Kairi can suddenly summon a Keyblade ("You too?" Axel groans), he decides to teach her how to fight; he is surprised at how strong she is from the beginning, and finds himself wondering about the nature of hearts yet again.
42. Bother
Axel is outside on the balcony and when she begins to hear the intermittent crackling of flames, she rolls her eyes, "Axel, are you setting bugs on fire again?"
43. God
Axel was never the type to believe in god – what happens, happens, and there's nothing and no one that can suddenly make everything right in the world; he believed in what he could see and feel, like the fire burning in his veins (and her eyes), and the soft weight of the darkness around his body (like the weight of her hand in his).
44. Wall
Walls sheltered her until she learned to build her own, strong and tall, to keep the villains and the darkness out; when she built them, she never knew he was going to appear in her life and make her reconsider everything she thought she feared.
45. Naked
She walks in on him naked once, and they simply stare at each other for a moment before she turns away, blushing furiously and stuttering apologies, while Axel laughs as he wraps a towel around his waist, saying teasingly, "You know you liked it."
46. Drive
"Axel, are you sure you know how to drive a stick?" Kairi asks, eyeing him nervously as he tries to manoeuvre the gearshift, "Yes, Kairi, now will you shut up?"; when the engine makes a horrible grinding sound she gives him a pointed look, "Maybe we should catch the bus instead."
47. Harm
Axel is dangerous and sarcastic and completely infuriating, but Kairi likes him that way (she doesn't dare say love because of the damage it could cause) and doesn't want anything to change.
48. Precious
She finally stops struggling when they reach his hide out, and when he dumps her unceremoniously onto the ground she demands, "Why the hell are you doing this?"; Axel leans casually against the wall and watches her, "Because, princess, you're what's most important to Sora, and I need Sora to get back what's most important to me."
49. Hunger
They both rub their growling stomachs, searching Axel's nearly bare cabinets for food and Kairi manages to scrounge up graham crackers and marshmallows and Axel finds some chocolate in the fridge behind a box of week-old pizza; they spend the night laughing and making smores in the dark, melting chocolate over Axel's fingers and wiping marshmallow off their faces.
50. Believe
The sun is creeping over the horizon and the stars are fading into bright blue, but one of them continues to shine and she wants to believe that it will stay no matter how high the sun gets, that it won't fade away (dontdisappeardontdisappear); Axel appears at her side and glances at her, "What are you looking at, princess?" and as the star slowly fades, she fakes a smile and says, "Nothing."