This Kind of Love

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic series by Raberba girl

Summary: 100 platonic pairings from Kingdom Hearts. For the "Other Kinds of Love" theme challenge on DeviantArt.

Introduction: This fandom has way way way way too much romance. Romance is not the only kind of love, yanno. I decided to combine this undertaking with my desire to write for a 100-theme challenge where I'd do all of my own and my friends' favorite KH pairings (not trios or groups, ftr), request pairings, and crack pairings that are not included on those lists. I won't write pairings involving characters from The World Ends With You or Dream Eaters or, unfortunately, Vincent Valentine; or obviously characters I'm not familiar with (such as those from Final Fantasy VI, etc.). Or anyone from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Otherwise, you can ask for anything KH/Disney/...maybeFF, and I'll try my hand at it; hopefully I didn't forget any other characters I can't write.

There is absolutely no way I should have started this series now, before finishing even a single one of my other challenge series. But I loved this first story so much (when I was drafting it; I don't know how I feel about it yet now that it's complete) that I couldn't resist. I'm setting the goal at 10 for now, but I can't imagine not at least trying for the full 100. *wince*

Heh, I'm already breaking at least one of the "rules," but not the most/only important one, so it's okay.

Weapon (Theme 54) - Axel & Saïx [rough draft]

Summary: This scene has played out before. SPOILERS for Dream Drop Distance.

A/N: Takes place during a theoretical Kingdom Hearts III.

o.o.o

Do you know what it feels like, being forced to fight someone who was once your best friend? It feels like there's a knife sitting in your heart, even if you're not supposed to have a heart. And I do have a heart now, apparently had one pretty much all along, and I can feel it bleeding even more than my flesh is bleeding as I'm fighting for my life against the guy who once had my back.

"You're getting slow, Sai," I taunt. Routine, automatic response to the fact that that last strike of his only missed me by a hair's breadth. "The old man's pace bogging ya down?"

No reaction. I might as well have not said a word. Which means it's definitely not my snarky, always-has-a-snappy-comeback Isa inside that body which happens to still have his face.

Xehanort is going to burn.

...Twelve of them. Twelve of these yellow-eyed clones, and even with those odds, I still get pitted against this particular one. Is it really just coincidence, or are they doing this to twist the knife? Maybe it's nothing more than a battle tactic, better chances of defeating an enemy when you toss the opponent at him who'll be the hardest for him to fight.

It's not going to work. This guy, this not-Isa, I'm going to rip him to shreds, because he's standing between me and the one who took the real Isa from me.

"Axel!" Sora shouts.

Okay, now what is that supposed to mean, exactly? 'Axel, look out behind you!' or 'Axel, I've got a plan!' or 'Axel, I need help!' or 'Axel, duck so you won't get caught in the line of fire when I blast him!' or what?

No time to find out, because that split second of hesitation costs me. Isa - not Isa, Saïx - moves like lightning. What I said earlier was just blowing smoke, because he hasn't slowed down at all, he's gotten faster. I bet he cheats by time-jumping or something, apparently they can do that now.

In any case, he's got me; hand hurts from the Keyblade getting knocked out of it, wrist hurts from the bad angle I'd tried and failed to block that new weapon of his at, back hurts from slamming against the ground, heart hurts most of all because I'd rather be burned alive than die like this. With him kneeling over me, I can't get free fast enough, and the blade's coming down, I can't help shutting my eyes because I don't want the last thing I see to be how perfectly composed my best friend's face is as he bashes my head in.

Earth-shattering impact. I'm dead now. For real this time, I guess. Killed by best friend. The universe hates me.

Except you can't keep raging at the universe when you're dead, so I open my eyes again and wow, he may have gotten faster but his aim kinda sucks, this close range and he missed. I have just enough time for the thought to start forming in my head that I should try to escape before he can lift the weapon again, but now his other hand's slamming down on my right arm to pin me; too late. Universe still hates me. Maybe I at least have a chance to re-summon my Keyblade, maybe I can-

"No," Saïx hisses, the first time I've heard him speak since I became human again. "Not for this."

"Come again?" I ask conversationally. Keyblade handle materializing in my grip. Not so useful now that I can barely move my arm, though. Silver-blue weapon rising again, maybe before it comes down I can punch him with the arm he's not pinning, I start swinging but he's so dang fast, fist meeting nothing but air and another crash that reverberates through my bones-

Thank God for bad aim. Again.

"You won't use me for this!" he screams. And suddenly I couldn't move even if I didn't have a berserker weighing me down. Because he's not completely expressionless anymore.

...Well, he is. Saïx is.

But there's another face looking at me too, now; like Isa's ghost - scarred and older, not the teenager I remember, still Saïx's face except...Isa's green eyes...the horror that the real Isa would be feeling if it really was him trying to do this to me...it can't be. It can't be, I'm not going to hope, I'm not going to hope, because if I'm wrong, if I'm just freaking hallucinating this because I want so much for it to be true-

"Lea," he whispers. "Run."

Um, still can't move, but whatever, I don't care, it's you, you're still in there, flaming Kingdom Hearts you're not dead you're not dead you're not dead I'm going to kill him but first I'm going to try really hard not to cry because it's been so long, I didn't realize how much I missed you, I didn't realize how freaking much I actually, really did miss you until now when it's actually YOU and all along it can't have been you because you wouldn't have hurt me the way Saïx did and you're hurting me now but that's only because I'm just realizing how much everything I'm remembering now must have hurt you all those years if it really was you in there listening to everything I said to Saïx as if I was saying it to you but I wasn't, I didn't know, but I should have known, I should have understood, I hate that-

"So you still exist?" he hisses. Saïx hisses. There's two of them, that blank face now twisting a little in displeasure, speaking in a voice that sounds almost like Xehanort's; the ghostly one of my friend, emotions roiling across it as Isa struggles to hold him back. "Stop resisting, you are at the end of your strength."

"You underestimate me," Isa tells him with a fierce grin, and I realize that he's been saving what was left of that strength, gathering every scrap of it, lying quiet all this time, through everything he had to endure for however long it's been, just so that he would be ready for this moment. So that he could give me this chance.

...He's sacrificing everything so that I can live, and I'm such an idiot that I can't even move because it's taking everything I have to not burst into tears.

You know what, screw it. I won't have to hold back tears if I'm already bawling. So I might as well drop that distraction, because shoving him off me and running like heck is kinda more important at the moment than keeping up the Flurry of Dancing Flames' dignity.

Luckily for my dignity, Riku saves me before I can even attempt to cry, Barrier Surging Saïx to the side so I can jerk free and scramble to my feet. "Axel, the portal's open, let's go!"

"But-" Isa. Isa Isa Isa, he's back, he's still here, he's alive, and now I'm supposed to just leave him?

Except I can't see Isa's face anymore, it's just Saïx now, roaring as he starts going Berserk, oh no you don't I'm beating your stupid face in until you give me back my friend, except, oh, wait, that'd be beating Isa's face in too, hmmmm, how to do this-

"AXEL!" Riku's not the only one shouting at me now. Sora's jerking at me, Aqua's getting in my way, they're dragging me back and no, no, no they are not going to do this to me, not now just when I'm finally, FINALLY so close-

"Lea," Riku growls, catching my attention for a second because these doofs almost never call me by my real name. "Lea. You have to. He wouldn't want to be the reason you stay and die for nothing, when you had the chance to live."

"Come on, Axel," Sora pleads urgently.

I can see King Mickey in the distance, holding off Xehanort but he's having a hard time of it and he won't last for long...

"Get him out of here!" Roxas bellows. Saïx is in full Berserker mode now, completely lost in the moonlight. Even when we were still Nobodies, I was never able to reach him when he was like this. His eyes, swallowed by mindless gold, are fixed on me. The only reason he's not trying to rip me to pieces is because Rox and Xi are blocking him, and he'd have to tear them up first before he can get to me. "MOVE!"

...The days when Isa was my only friend are long over.

The strength drains out of me. "I'm coming back," I manage to say as they're suddenly able to get me moving.

"Of course," Aqua snaps.

"We all are," Sora says in a Duh voice. "Once we've got the last Key."

It's really Riku who persuades me, even though he doesn't say a word; all I have to do is see the pain in his eyes. He knows. He's been through this before. He would rather die than have to watch his best friend get killed because of him, and recognizing that on his face is the only reason I'm able to turn my back on Isa now, the only reason I can run from this battle empty-handed.

I do take one last look, though, before we disappear. The moonlight's at an ebb, Saïx can barely move, slumped there with only just enough strength to look up and meet my eyes. "Isa," I call to him. "I promise. I am coming back for you."

There's a flash of green behind the gold, and he smiles.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: ...I'd wanted to save this for my massive story/chapter update hopefully later this week, but...I felt like I had to post it now. I wrote it last night at, like, 2:00 in the morning because I kept getting eaten by plot bunnies for half the other fics I'm writing and I couldn't sleep, and if I could choose a single scene to have in a future game it would be something like this, but it's stupid fanservice wish fulfillment so I hate it but at the same time I want something like it so much and I hate AkuSai angst and whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy can they never - be - happy and this scene has been playing in my head a lot until I finally realized yesterday that I could actually write it out and not have to wait for it to ever actually happen and I'm coming down with a cold or something but I have to work tomorrow and it seems like I've been constantly hungry the last couple of days but I hate eating and I get too sick to eat and today was supposed to suck because I was going to a horrible school with an upset stomach and only three hours of sleep but it actually went pretty well and I wrote some of a SaiJaz story before school and during conference but now my feet hurt and I'm so tired and I feel awful and I want to go to bed and gaaaahhh, I love my OTP so freaking much and I hate how my fluffy happy-ending version of it seems like it will never be canon and in hindsight I think I recognize what this was probably subconsciously inspired by and Axel refuses to do past tense in first person and I fail at titles and I think this is the first time I've written Saïx, Saïx (not Isa), in a negative light, and it felt weird. *headdesk* *too tired to sit back up*

Complete: 1/10