[fic] Kingdom Hearts, "Like You Do"
Second springkink!

Like You Do
Marluxia/Axel
Kingdom Hearts
Safe for work, CoM spoilers.
"I'm sorry it's like this/Do you see what I see?"



Marluxia's sitting in front of the banks of consoles as if hard at work, but the consoles are turned off and the lights are dim; Axel approaches from behind, waits for Marluxia's acknowledgement -- and gets none -- and then drapes over the back of Marluxia's chair, elbows brushing Marluxia's shoulders.

"I'd rather you didn't do that," Marluxia says from the depths of his hood, sounding unsurprised.

Despite himself, Axel grins at the air. "Oops," he says. "Sorry about that." He leans up again, putting his hands on the back of Marluxia's chair. "Whatcha doing? Meditating on the state of nothing?"

"I'm thinking, Axel," Marluxia says, with a mock-strained patience. "Something I'm sure you're unfamiliar with."

"Oh, absolutely," Axel says. "What're you thinking about?"

"Personal things," Marluxia says.

"You say that like I haven't been all up in your business before," Axel says. He grins, knocks Marly's hood back, and drags his fingers through Marluxia's hair.

Marluxia leans away, just a little, glances back at Axel with a mild smile. "You say that like you have," he says.

*

Castle Oblivion is Marluxia's domain; he rules it, Axel has found, with an iron fist he likes to pretend is soft and gentle. Very few of them keep up the pretense; Zexion and Lexaeus stay out of the way when they can, Vexen reacts with rage to the smallest slight, having been made used to greater ones, and Larxene's Marluxia's partner in crime.

Axel plays along most of the time, stays quiet when he must or joins in the taunting when that's best suited to it. Other times, unable to leave due to Xemnas's orders yet not wanting to stay, he takes himself off to one of the higher distant rooms and stares out over the night sky. It's a long way from home, he thinks, but home is nowhere, just where the heart is. He thinks, it wouldn't be that bad to go back with Roxas waiting. The thought tastes bitter in his mouth. He's got a job to do here. It's not even that he dislikes Marluxia, it's just that the longer it takes to trap him the longer he has to stay away. Here.

*

He catches Marluxia after a general discussion one day, stalks around and leans an arm on the table, blocking Marluxia as he'd turned to get up. The others are gone already. He'd have tried to box Marluxia in with his arms if he could have, but he can't; Marluxia, for all his airs, is a tall, broad man, a solid man, and Axel slight beside him. Axel grins at him, slow and lazy. "Hey Marly. Since we were talking so much about the research--"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any dreams?"

Marluxia's eyelids lower slightly, a parody of a demure expression, the one he gets when he's thinking intensely about something. "Do you mean in the literal sense?"

"Sure," Axel says. "I mean, dream is all about memory."

"I dream of someone I do not want to be, and who I never was," Marluxia says. "I dream of someone else's life, and hope to find a way to separate those memories from my own and grow from there. Do you not?"

"I've got lots of dreams," Axel says.

"Ah. You did mean metaphorically, then."

Axel laughs. "Whichever. Don't take it so seriously. I'm just... interested in your dreams, Marly."

"Is that so?" Marly asks, eyes half-closed and sleepily content. "I think my dreams are fairly normal."

Axel forces another laugh. He can feel his lips stretched over his teeth threatening to turn into a grimace and turns away, unblocks Marluxia's path and flips his hand to the side in a dismissive wave. "Nothing about you's normal."

*

He thinks: shit, shit shit. This is taking too long; he's going to be forgotten, overwritten -- something, memory's not that strong, he's not all that memorable. He needs to be Marluxia's idea of a perfectly vicious submissive trustworthy little bitch because they're not going to get anywhere like this; caution is all very well and good but it's time to go a little wild.

*

Axel stands over Marluxia as he sleeps and matches his breathing to Marluxia's. Lying on his back on the bed with his hood pulled up to shadow his face, he could be any of the others, practically unidentifiable except for the little touches of style and body type. Axel kind of wishes he could end it here without proof of treason. Instead he reaches for Marluxia's hood.

Marluxia's breathing catches and his hand comes up quickly, nudging Axel's aside. A moment later Marluxia sits up, hesitates, pushes his hood back. He's frowning a bit. He says, "I don't recall asking for a wake-up call."

"If you'd stayed asleep that'd be fine by me," Axel says, and laughs. He slings himself onto the bed, stretches lazily. "But it's more fun with you awake."

"Oh?"

"I'm bored," Axel says, and tilts his chin up, smirking down at Marluxia from beneath him. "Fuck this, Marly, fuck this bullshit; let's have some fun."

"You say that," Marluxia says, "like you know what fun is."

But he's leaning over anyway, eyelids lowered, smug and content like the asshole he is; of course Marluxia would expect people to come crawling to him. Of course he'd expect to be the centre of movement, so that if they wanted anything, he'd be their thought. You're a funny guy, Marly, Axel thinks, and laughs lightly. That's right, expect me to meet your expectations. Let me in, you son of a bitch, let me past your defenses, let me sort through you and trust me, trust me already, tell me your secrets; I can't betray you until you do.

"What fun is? My bad," he says. "But wanna see if we can find out?"

"Oh," Marluxia says, leaning his length alongside Axel. "Indeed."