Tied to Fire

An Ever Change Zero Production
Written by The Simply Mad

Epic 1: Don't Play with Fire is Good Advice, Why Didn't I Listen To It?

When I first got the idea to give him a heart, by way of anchoring it to mine, it seemed like a good idea. I mean, it wasn't fair to him to not at least try it, and really one little sliver of my heart wasn't going to do that much damage right? Wrong!

Everyone warns you against playing with fire, but tying…no chaining yourself to it, is worse. I'm not even sure how he came to land in my lap in the first place! I just, sorta, stumbled upon him one day, literally!

Our meeting really should have been a warning to me I suppose. When you're in the middle of a desperate fight for your life against a sudden infestation of Heartless the last thing you really want is to suddenly find yourself staring up at the sky because you tripped over some moron in a big black coat laying face down on the ground. My instant reaction was to yell at him for being, as noted above, a moron in a big black coat laying face down on the ground. The~n I noticed he wasn't moving and the Heartless were getting a touch to close for comfort, so now there was a decision before me. To run like hell and abandon him, or to stay and protect the MBBCLFDG [I've said it twice people figure it out!] I will tell you all now, I am an incredibly decisive person; I am the most decisive person in the world! Give me an option I'll answer you quick, prompt, and without a doubt.

You may now drown in the river of sarcasm I just created. Yes, all that was sarcasm, I use it a lot. In reality I am just about as decisive as a… really, undecisive-thing. Fear my creative metaphor. However, what I lack in decision making skills I make up for in an annoyingly loud conscious, which proceeded to inform me, that if I just left the MBBCLFDG to die, I would feel horribly, horribly guilty. So, I proceeded to stand my ground and defend him, reducing the barrage of Heartless to little puffs of black soot-stuff, rather, noisily I might add. Which is why I began to wonder if I had just defended a corpse. He hadn't even twitched during the little scrap.

I crouched down beside him, scowling over my knees, and my hands resting on top of them. He didn't seem to be breathing. I poked him. He wasn't stiff like a corpse. I shuffled up to his head and proceeded to search his hood for the side of his neck to check for a pulse. There was none.

"Great." I sighed. "What am I gonna do with a corpse?" I sighed in frustration, sitting back on my heels and biting the pad of my thumb.

"Normally you bury them." Normally I am not a jumpy person, but when someone that is dead, which a lack of heart beat generally indicates, starts talking? I'd say that's good reason to be spooked; even more when they start moving. Which he was. I reacted by falling backwards and scooting back a little ways. He sat up pushing the hood back off his face.

"Ouch! What are you trying to do, blind people!" Apparently the idea of a living corpse wasn't enough of a fright to scare me out of making a comment about the color of his hair. It was red, a shade of red to end all shades of red. I think tomatoes would turn green over that brilliant of a shade of red! "Okay, zombie with the blinding hair…" I squinted at him; he was looking at me, right in the eyes with a little arch of one brow. His eyes made me lose my train of thought. Not like that's a monumental accomplishment, butterflies make me lose my train of thought. But, they were, are, whatever, this beautiful shade of green; however, there was something, um, off about them, like something was missing. "Ba…umm…" I stuttered. His brow lifted a little more. "Stop staring at me!" I snapped pressing my back into a tree. "It's unnerving!"

One corner of his mouth curled up into a smirk. "Pretty girl, alone, with a stranger, yeah that would be unnerving." He said, but obliged my command to stop staring and got all the way to his feet.

"Da…um…" I stammered pulling one knee up to my chest as I looked up at him.

He snickered, apparently amused by my lack of vocabulary, and held a gloved hand out to me. "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

I accepted the help he offered taking his hand, one much bigger then mine I might add. "Okay…" I trailed off not sure how to answer that. Come on how many people ask you that right off the bat? He pulled me to my feet easily, really easily, I don't think I did anything, just suddenly I was on my feet, and he was still towering over me. "Moron, Zombie, Tomato-Axel-person," I waved my hand a little in a dismissive nature. "How are you rhythmless and still vertical?" I asked looking up at him.

Again he raised one brow at me. "You know the polite thing to do when someone gives you their name, you give them yours." He stated.

I snorted. "You are crazy if you think I'm gonna give some Zombie person my name just because he gave me his." I sneered folding my arms over my chest.

He smirked. "Smart little girl." My eye twitched. Little? Okay, yes, admittedly when it came to him I was lacking in the height department. If he had meant it that way I would accept it gracefully, but it did not sound like he was talking vertical measurement here.

"Just answer the question Tomato Zombie." I ordered flatly.

"Nobody." Was his answer, and regrettably it took me several moments to process. Then it clicked. I took a step backwards.

Nobodies, as in the white husks that were left behind when a person lost their heart. Nobodies, were a more recent addition to the threats invading my world. I had only run across the ones called 'Dusks', but there had been rumors of a group of humanoid Nobodies who commanded the lesser ones called Organization XIII, and that these Nobodies were working towards some goal or another, and were pretty means-to-an-end about it.

He must have sensed my sudden change in emotion from agitation to fear, 'cause his eyes softened, an amazing feat given what he was. "Don't worry, I'm not part of the Organization anymore. Got no reason to hurt you." He smiled, scaringly convincingly, with a shrug.

"Please tell me you're not psychic." I murmured the sound of my voice much thinner then I wanted it to be.

"Nah, just very good at reading body language." He chuckled.

I nodded slowly, and said words I really wish I had considered more carefully. "Okay, Axel, I'm Arienn." I said holding my hand out to him. Those simple words would pull me into a relationship that was just impossible to anticipate.