InsaneJournal

[Fic] Nobody's Fool 8/10 (Kingdom Hearts 1930s AU, Axel/Sora)
Title: Nobody's Fool (8/10)
Author: harukami
Prompt: Kingdom Hearts 1930s AU
Pairing: Axel/Sora, Axel/Roxas, some others indicated
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 1936 of total 14948
Summary: A hard-boiled detective gets hired to do a job for a girl who's worried about her sister.
A/N: In ten parts. I'll be posting them twice a day until complete.





The next weeks passed with more Sora than they probably should have, and less genuine work, though when I thought about it like that I could always justify it to myself that I was trying to get ahold of that key. The first time I'd kind of scared him off, after all, so I had to work up to it -- heh, something like that. I visited him almost every day, and each visit seemed about the same -- play and talk like Sora was trying to escape through words instead of through action.

The first time I visited, I went up carefully. Sora didn't seem like the kind to lie well or naturally, but sometimes seeming like that just made them the best kind of liar. Still, I didn't see head or hair of Kairi or Riku as I came up to the room I'd seen Sora in before.

He looked surprised to see me. "You did come back!"

"You didn't tell them about me, huh?" I was pretty sure that if Sora had, Riku'd be there right now.

"Riku'd just worry," Sora said. He swung his legs back inside. "So what brought you here this time?"

"You asked if I'd come," I said. "So here I am."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

We talked for hours about... I don't even know what. Life, and everything. Philosophy. About his life before he'd had to go into hiding, living down by the river, and about where he'd like to go after he was out of hiding again. He told me about Riku and Kairi, who he'd been with for just about forever, and who he seemed to care about even more than he cared about himself, which was a lot.

I told him a bit about myself as well; there wasn't, in the end, that much to say. I avoided Roxas, but I talked about work, about how more and more I was starting to feel trapped by what I'd done and how I'd done it, and how some of my worst decisions in my life were not following the things I'd wanted to, but only following the things other people had wanted me to. He listened intently and nodded and agreed and didn't offer advice -- which I was grateful for. What could he say I didn't already know? Just having someone listen was enough.

*

When I visited the next time, we talked more.

"What are you going to do when you finish working as a detective?"

"Finish working as a detective?" I'd laughed. "I'm never going to finish that. It's what I am. What I do."

"Huh. So you don't have plans for after?"

"I don't have any after," I'd said.

*

After that, I figured I really should do some work, and spent a day in the office not paying anything like enough attention to what I was doing, gathering the threads of information I'd found and Demyx had found and doodling on a piece of paper before I finally clocked out and decided to head home.

"It was almost weird seeing you in today," Demyx told me.

"Huh?"

Demyx wrinkled his nose. "You've been out so often. Did you really find something?"

"Oh haha," I said, feeling strangely guilty. "Yeah, seriously. Goodnight!"

"Hey, wait--" but I was out the door and walking.

I should have gone home, but instead I found myself heading off another direction, like just enjoying the night was enough. About halfway there I was able to admit to myself where I was going, and ended up, some time later, standing in front of the building and looking up.

At this time of night, Sora, Kairi, and Riku were probably in there together, sharing their food and making their plans and living out another night. I shielded my eyes as though that'd make it easier to see in the dark and just peered up for a long time before I just turned and left; I couldn't go up like that.

*

But I couldn't shake the thought of that time, and I visited the next day. For some reason, he seemed deeply interested in my hair, got all up in my face and combed a hand through it. "Huh," he said.

"What?" I asked, though I was kind of unsettled, my heart beating kind of fast.

"It sticks out a lot," he said, "so I thought it'd be kind of hard, but it's really pretty soft."

"That's me in a nutshell," I said.

He'd snorted at me. "Yeah, right," he said.

*

And then, a few visits later, he'd stood up in the window and spread his arms like he could encompass the sky just like that. "I wish I could just leave," he said.

"Where would you go?" I asked, more dryly than I meant to. "Take a step out there and it's a short drop to the afterlife."

"I'm not going to die," Sora said. "Riku's really paranoid, but sometimes it feels like there's nothing out there that could make me disappear. I feel like I could just step out and float on air or something. The sky's so big!"

I shook my head, and what I felt was damn weird at that moment: a combination of nervousness, a sick resignation like I'd been there before, and hope. I said, "That's crazy talk."

Sora turned back and scowled at me. "Maybe I am a bit crazy," he said sulkily. "Is that a problem?!"

"Nah," I said. "It's fine. So, would you do it? Just step out and go?"

He laughed, rubbed the back of his head. "Nah," he said. "I'm not going anywhere if I can't take my friends with me."

*

And finally, one Friday, he said, "Axel, do you ever have weird dreams?"

"All the time," I said; my dreams had definitely been what he'd call weird lately, and I was hoping he wouldn't ask me to go into detail. What I had that weren't nightmares were a bit more intimate than he'd probably like. "Why, do you?"

"Yeah," he said. "Sometimes I dream that I'm someone else entirely."

It was like, for a second, my heart stopped beating. "Who?" I asked, casually.

"I don't know. It's -- really weird. I wake up and feel like I lost time or something."

Truthfully, I didn't know what to think about that, let alone what to feel. I wanted more details. And yet, at the same time-- "I like you just as you are," I said.

He gave me an awkward grin, rubbed the back of his head. "Me too," he said. "I don't want to change, or be anyone else. I'll always just be me."

*

It was a Saturday, the next day -- Demyx's day off and mine as well when I could afford to take it off. This wasn't one of those times; I'd been neglecting my work too much. Instead I came in and opened my inner office door to find the place ransacked. I barely had a chance to step forward to observe the mess before there was a gun at my head.

"I was wondering if you were going to show up today," Larxene said, and boy, did she sound pissed.

"And here I was working for you on my day off," I said, trying to calm my heartbeat. Just because she had a gun to the head doesn't mean she was likely to use it, and anyway, my contrary side made me suddenly want to talk back.

Her lip curled. "I just bet you were," she said. "Where's the key?"

"The key?" I asked. I waved a hand back and forth in denial. "I don't have it."

"I know you've been tracking down Sora," she said. "You have to have found him by now! And if you've found him, you must have the key."

I had to be careful here; if I gave too much away my movements would be tracked more closely than they already were, and it'd been a lot of work to keep people off my trail while visiting Sora. I said, "I've been looking. I haven't found him yet."

"We'll see about that," she said. "I didn't find the key anywhere in the office, but--"

"Search me, if you want," I said, dismissively. "No amount of threatening's gonna turn up something I don't have."

She did, taking her time to pat me down and search me way more closely than I'd have liked at the best of times, then picking back over my office before she finally gave up. "It seems like you're telling the truth."

"You're one hell of a picky client," I said. "Who the hell do you think I'm working for?"

Larxene looked at me, long and hard. "I don't know," she said. "And isn't that the trouble?"

"I'm gonna make you charge extra for the room," I said. "Cleaning it up will take time I coulda spent working."

"I can afford it," she said, and backed out, keeping her gun between me and her.

I did clean up, mostly to kill time before heading out again; at least she'd given me an excuse to finally organize my files. When I did finally go out, a few hours later, I had the taxi drive me around up and down and back and forth before finally letting me out some blocks away. Even then, I cut through a few alleys and doubled back now and again; I didn't think I was being followed but that was the last thing I wanted to risk right then.

He was sitting in the window this time, facing outwards, legs swinging. Not the best time to startle him. I knocked on the door lightly.

Twisting, he turned back to look at me. "Axel? Back sooner than I expected!"

He looked great when he smiled, like it lit up his entire face. The kind of guy who wore his heart on his sleeve, it looked like. I came over to lean on the wall beside him.

When I kissed him he went very still; his brows drew down and his nose wrinkled slightly but he didn't pull back. His mouth was soft and non-resisting and I could feel his breaths gusting over my lips, making it feel like they were catching fire. A good feeling, too much of one. I broke it first, looked at him.

"Ew," he said.

I laughed, short. "I bet," I said, and tried not to think about how I was feeling, the churning inside my stomach between disappointment and elation.

"...You can try it again if you want," Sora suggested, and I looked at him and wondered if he knew what he wanted.

"Maybe," I said, and kissed him, this one quick and hurried and almost apologetic, then rose. I felt lost, suddenly, like I didn't know why I'd come, and for once I didn't have anything to say. "I should go."

"Already?"

"Yeah," I said.

He hesitated. "Axel," he said, and then dug into a pocket and held something out. "You wanted this, right?"

It was a key.

Suddenly, I wasn't thinking about the kiss at all. I stared at it, then looked at him.

Sora shrugged. "...I'm tired of this," he said. "You're not bad, so you might as well have it."

"Do you have any idea what it is?" I asked. "Because I don't."

"Nope," Sora said.

I looked at it again for a long moment. "When did you find it?"

"October, two years ago" Sora said. "I remember 'cause it was around a week until halloween. It was also next to a boat called Nobody's Fool. That was ... a weird name, you know?"

I nodded. "...Thank you," I said.

Sora shrugged and turned away. "Come back soon, okay?" he said.

I stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. I wanted to say something, as our eyes met, something like nothing could keep me from you, but it sounded trite and not worth saying, let alone believing.

Instead, I just nodded to him, and left.