kh_drabble | Challenge Drabble (Reply)

Challenge: [069] Hero
Title: Against Tradition
Word count: 329
Spoilers: For Chain of Memories
Notes: Naminé and Axel have a little chat as Sora grows closer to his ‘goal’.

The hero I've longed for...

Naminé sat in her cage, clutching the drawing pad to her chest.

It was almost full- just a few more pages, a few more memories to steal, to change.

Then it would be over. Sora- who he had been- would be over. He’d be a puppet, dancing on Marluxia’s strings.

Just like her.

This isn't right, but I... it's too late. I can't-

"Boring."

She flinched, turned to look over her chair as Axel walked into the room. He wasn’t looking at her- but at the book in his hand.

Fairytales: Stories of Childhood.

Axel flipped a few pages, read a few, walking towards her all the while. “Boring,” he said again, dismissively. He flipped a few more pages, started reading again.

“Boring... boring... boring... boring- damn.” He sat down in the chair across from her, shaking his head at the book. Naminé stared at him mutely, wondering why he was here.

Axel finally closed the book and shook it, one-handed, near his head. “Forty-two stories in this thing and they’re all about the same thing,” he told her.

He seemed to be waiting for a response, so she gave him one. “...What?”

Axel threw the book on the table beside them, then pointed at it. “Guy meets chick- chick gets captured by assholes- guy goes to rescue chick-” by this time, the narrative was accompanied by hand gestures, “assholes threaten guy- guy beats their asses- guy rescues chick. It’s always the same thing.”

Naminé bit her lip- as if she were nervous. She was pretty sure she knew where he was going with this.

“Why doesn’t the chick just save herself sometime? Or, hell- better yet- save him.”

She looked away so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes.

Naminé heard the scrape of wood on stone as Axel scooted his chair closer and put his face close to hers. “You're all he's got left. If you don't stop this, no one will....”