[014] // [Action/Text] // [Backdated to 6 August] // And Another Birthday // [For Axel]

[replicatedaster]

[Xion had honestly never baked a cake before, so getting one ready for Axel's "birthday" was a bit of a challenge. She considered buying the mix from the store, but that wasn't very personal, was it? So she found a recipe for a butter cake and some buttercream frosting -- Axel's favorite, she remembered. It was something about the salty-sweet that

Comments

[action]

[got_it_memorizd]

[The text comes across the screen of his SFC and Axel feels like something has punched him in the kidneys. He's been out for a few hours now, doing his usual daily recon, for lack of a better word. He likes to keep an eye on what's going on around town, as it were.

[The text message sends a lance of alarm through his veins. Come home? Why? Did something happen? Is Roxas gone again? He checks the database almost frantically, and the thudding of his pulse in his ears fades a bit when he sees the kid's name is still there. Okay, one crisis averted. So what's going on, then?

[Rather than bothering to respond with a counter-text of inquiry, he just slices a hand through the air to open a corridor to take him home. Stepping out into the foyer of the apartment, he dismisses the portal and cautiously steps forward into the living room.]

Xion?

[action]

[replicatedaster]

[Xion looks up when she hears him, and calls from the living room.] In here!

[She pulls herself up from the couch, and goes into the kitchen, bringing the cake out for him to see. The plate's not terribly heavy, at least, and she's pretty sure she won't drop it.]

[got_it_memorizd]

[She sounds... happy. Well, that's a good thing, he thinks, but then why the cryptic alarming text message? Stepping forward, she breezes past him and into the kitchen, and before he can ask what the hell is going on she's proudly holding up a plate with a slightly cockeyed cake on it.

[Axel stares at it, then meets her eyes, then looks at the cake again and just starts laughing. He sags against the wall and rubs his hands down his face. Relief--that's relief. He remembers what that one feels like--that instantaneous sensation of absence of pain--having a crick in your neck and cracking it out, the removal of the thorn in your thumb. Maybe one day he'll learn to stop expecting the worst, but for now it's easier that way. Expect the worst and relief is usually the result, as opposed to disappointment.]

Y-you made me a cake? [More laughter--it's just amused, not derisive or snide. Of all the things he could have braced for, cake was not the one he would have bet on. He shakes his head, brushing a hand back through his hair.]

[replicatedaster]

No party. [She gives him a soft smile.] Just...returning the favor, I guess? Because I think people usually get cakes on their birthdays, and I know this isn't your...birthday-birthday, but it's what you think of as your birthday, so it counts. [Xion gives a decisive nod.]

It doesn't look that great, but I've never made one before, so... [With a shrug, she goes to put it back in the kitchen so they can serve it.]

Oh! [She pokes her head back around and grins at him.] It's your favorite. I think.

[got_it_memorizd]

Well, yeah, but only because 'birthday' sounds less morbid than Lost-My-Heart Day. [He remains leaning against the wall a moment, then follows her into the kitchen. He's debating whether or not he feels touched by this--does he feel like questioning whether or not he has a heart today? If ever there was an occasion to wonder he supposes today's it. But if he didn't lose his heart that night he walked through that portal in Traverse Town... what changed? Did anything change? Did he lose his heart to the darkness that day, or had he already lost it somewhere over the course of those nine years spent in that motley world of refugees?

[That isn't something he wants to ponder right now. Xion made cake, and cake is way better than contemplating one's inventory of internal organs.]

Cake doesn't have to look good so long as it tastes good. Besides, I think it has personality. [He grins then, looking somewhat impressed.] Butter? Man, you really did commit it to memory, huh? That was like two months ago we had that discussion.