Drabble: Ask No Questions, Hear No Lies
Title: Ask No Questions, Hear No Lies
Word Count: 570
Rating: G
Character: Axel, Lea
Summary: Everything Axel is has the most innocent yet obvious root. Written for Challenge 262 Guilty Pleasures for kh_drabble
Ask No Questions, Hear No Lies
You know you shouldn't, and that is probably why you do.
The hairpin turn to mischief is when Lea's just a boy of ten, and he asks for more money than what Isa's birthday present costs. Mother gives him more than what's needed, and he uses that spare money to buy a pair of frisbees. She asks about them months later - she catches them poking out of his schoolbag - and Lea replies, I found them on the sidewalk - can I keep them please, Mummy?
He grins to accommodate the guilt, and she lets him, and it's that easy.
-x-
Sometimes, you can still see him, when the dark and rain-spattered panes of the Castle distort your face into something forlorn, tattooless and raw.
"Don't look at me like that," you scold him. "You told the first lie."
Your reflection twists into a disgusting smile, and you think to yourself, Yeah, that one.
-x-
Lea has always been singled out.
It's not entirely unfounded (because he does have red hair and fat parents and a disabled best friend) and it's not entirely bad either. Pain is necessary to provide the last feather to tip the scale of reaction, and if what was meant to break him only made him stronger, then can he really be faulted?
It's fun to paint the boring world into a stage, to wrap up his sorry life in glamorous silk and pretend he has a reason to go with that grin. He might argue that the art of manipulation gives him purpose.
Or maybe he's still looking.
-x-
You half wish (and you half don't, because you're a Nobody, and Nobodies simply can't care less) you could push your hands into that windowpane and seize your old self.
This isn't a guilty pleasure where half the thrill is getting caught, you wish you could tell him. In some impossible, self-pitying paradox, you're convinced that by your words, he'll change his ways and save you both. This is an obsession, where a single misplaced strand will lead to your undoing - and when you pull that damning thread, it will be me waiting.
-x-
The truth is, Lea is an accomplished liar because he has nothing else going for him. He's the inattentive thick boy of the class and the disappointing son whose photos are shoved to the back of the mantelpiece.
He never means any harm. It's all just a form of escapism and to be fair, his success is reliant on the weakness and failure of others and even then, it's all for a laugh and nothing more.
He doesn't know he is the seemingly innocent root of all that you are and will go on to do.
-x-
Your smile makes your eyes crinkle with conviction and the world shivers at your mercy. Words come easily - truth and lies and treachery and honesty - and you reek of contradiction.
You're the deceiver, hero, survivor, murderer, the best friend and the old friend.
You step on and crush the one person who might have made it better, you forget why the past is worth returning to, you burn through plans and hurl traitorous knives in plain view, and you let your body explode before you can comprehend you've actually jumped. You don't know if you're even lying any more.
You know you shouldn't (lie or feel or care or exist), and that is probably why you do.