Akusai Secret Santa 2014

Welcome to Akusai Secret Santa 2014! Feel free to navigate through the links below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! DP Credit Schedule is as follows (all in UTC): current time to Oct 19 @ 23:59: Application Oct 19 to Oct 21 @ 23:59: Release of Matchups Dec 19 @ 23:59: Deadline of submissions Dec 25 @ 12:00: Making public of submissions

[divebattle-blog]

I CRIED FOR YOU ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR an akusai ss fanmix for xnekojenn // m e r r y  c h r i s t m a s ! ♡ ♡ ♡

o1. back to black / amy winehouse o2. honest / the neighbourhood o3. lonely boy / the black keys o4. bloodsport / sneaker pimps o5. drowning / BANKS o6. starring role / marina & the diamonds o7. do i wanna know? / the arctic monkeys o8. angels / the xx o9. glass heart hymn / paper route 1o. you know i’m no good / amy winehouse

[divebattle-blog]

so am I close to you anymore, if it’s over and there’s no chance that we’ll work it out that’s why you and I ended and I said that’s fine but you’re the only one that knows I lied

merry christmas, forever-consigned-to-oblivion!

[akusaisecretsanta]

And that's a wrap! All presents have been posted. =) [Note that divebattle posted theirs on their blog. :D]

Again I'd like to thank all of you participants for joining this event! Thank you for being cooperative, for following the formats I asked for and all. Thank you all so much for submitting your presents !! I'm glad no one was left out. :)

Special shout out to awayandlaughing, dark-lady-devinity and divebattle for offering to back up (for those who dropped out) so quickly!!! And to those who dropped out, I hope you don't feel guilty for doing so.

I also want to take this chance to everyone for participating in this + akusai month last July-August! I hope you all will still participate in the upcoming Akusai events I've got in store for 2015. ;)

Anyhow, as promised to that anon the other day, here are the wishlists of the participants. :) There were some who requested to not post their wishlists, so I won't be posting them here.

Feel free to fill in other participants' prompts. ^^

Merry Christmas to you all!

Tumblr URL: angelswithouthearts Name: Nikki Axel or Saïx: Saïx Prompts/Wishlist: None Other: Message to Santa: Dear Santa, anything you do will do just fine <3 === Tumblr url: awayandlaughing Name: Away, svp Axel or Saix: Hmm. Probably Saix, by a very narrow margin. Prompts/Wishlist: - post 3D Lea/Axel comes up with zany schemes to get Isa/Saix back - retelling of canon done in the style of a fairytail - anything regarding the time between BBS and KH1 - role reversal! Saix and Axel in each other’s rolls for CoM/ 358/2 / KH2 okay yeah pretty much anything goes I can’t lie Others: I’m open to reading/viewing/listening to and writing pretty much anything! Even a little horror, though I prefer fluff, sadness and terror have their places, especially in a Nobody based narrative, and I know the AkuSai fandom does both of those very well. === Tumblr url: bunnyrave1 Name: Katie Axel or Saix: Saix Prompts/Wishlist: Possible KH3 scenarios, teenage shenanigans between Lea and Isa, early days of Axel and Saix in the organization, witty banter, fluff. Others: No blood/gore please. === Tumblr url: cookieraven Name: Raven Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist:  I love the whole angsty between the two, also how adorable they are when they’re somebodies. anything angsty with them is definitely my fav thing, is it au or not, will it be fanfic, drawing, video, graphic, anything really. Also anything with them as somebodies right before they turn makes me really happy cause they’re simply adorable ;u; I hope this is enough but I guess mostly anything will make me happy xD === Tumblr url: dark-lady-devinity Name: Cassandra Axel or Saix: Saix Prompts/Wishlist: Saix is unnorted, final battle, Saix and Axel in Christmas Town, themes of mental illness, Axel getting on Saix’s nerves on purpose cause it’s fun Others: Sexual themes are perfectly fine with me but I don’t care for porn. And please stay as close to canon characterizations as you feel you can. === Tumblr url: demure-nobody Name: Myra Axel or Saix: Axel one on my top favorite characters so Axel Prompts/Wishlist: I just want something really angsty omg please. Maybe an au of hmmm maybe like saix turns abusive towards axel when he norted (kinda happens though lol) or umm a sad highschool or character death or umm an au where uhh idk gosh I have no ideas but I’ll be happy with anything and I’m sure you have better ideas. I just want angst pleaseee on whatever you make whether it’s a fanfic, pic, video, graphic idk. ;A; like the angstiest stuff you can think of omg and I don’t mind triggers or anything you can include things like that, if you want. Also I like Axel more emotional/submissive. So if there was going to be sex (which there doesn’t need to be because I care about the angst really ;w;) I would like Axel on bottom and Saix on Top. Sorry I just don’t think it fits Saix’s personality in my opnion; I think he would always want to be in control. === Tumblr url: heartlessfujoshi Name: either Kat or by my username is fine Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist: Gosh, I can pick up to 10 things?? I’d love to see any of these (drawing/fic/doesn’t freaking matter) - hugs, angst, unrequited love, isa getting his heart back because of lea, axel choosing saix over everyone else (i guess?!), honestly anything you think up will be amazing because we need more amazing akusai things in this world Others: I am cool with anything. NSFW/yaoi/friendship/whatever your heart desires. But these boys are THE otp for me, so yeah. ;) === Tumblr url: kenkumeisu Name: haru Axel or Saix: axel obviously. Prompts/Wishlist: post kh3, axel and saix as kids au. Axel and saix meeting Roxas and Xion; highschool au, rape obviously; au. keep-in-character as much as possible c’: and possibly more„ idk. === Tumblr url: kingdom-kokoros Name: Elizabeth Axel or Saix: I love them both, but Axel. Prompts/Wishlist: AKUSAI IN FLUFFY SWEATERS, sassy banters, flUFFY CUDDLING/SNUGGLING OR JUST LIKE MAKING OUT OR SOMETHING, axel, saix, roxas and xion doing christmas things together, also isa n’ lea being dorks,  angsty crap === Tumblr url: kinkykairi (currently spookytobios) Name: Blake Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist: I like fluff I guess but I prefer angsty akusai a lot more === Tumblr url: i-am-a-drawer Name: Matthew though just Matt is fine Axel or Saix: Axel is definitely my favourite. Prompts/Wishlist: Coffee Shop AU Saix is a barista and Axel is that really annoying customer, Something sappy with stargazing, Vampire AU, Post-KH3 Axel and Saix family-type bonding with Roxas and Xion Other: I am not really comfortable with NSFW and prefer it not to be to sad/angsty. === Tumblr url: monochromeskies013 -- currently forever-consigned-to-oblivion Name: Bre Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist: angst xD Others: nothing xD === Tumblr url: misomilk Name: Lea Axel or Saix: I love them both soooo so much, but Saix has got to be my absolute favorite right now. I just want to hug him so bad. T_T Prompts/Wishlist: wishlist for fics or drawings: format: i expect these are drabble and one-shot prompt-friendly. no need for multi-chaps but IF YOU THINK YOU CAN WRITE IT THEN PLEASE GO AHEAD <3 you can write me a bunch of one-shots inspired by different prompts if you’d like ;) HUHUHU I’M A TERRIBLE DEMANDING WISHER I M SORRY [in order of how much i want them] 1) 12-days of Christmas 12-Christmas-y-drabbles 2) fairytale: replace prince with Saix and princess with Axel 3) snowy day smut. concentrate on themes: hot and cold, steam and snow, under or over the covers ;) 4) Akusai as guards who must protect Prince Roxas/Princess Namine/Xion and end up falling for each other au 5) coffeeshop/barbershop/bakery/(you get the pattern) au 6) KH-events never happened au 7) post-KH3 Axel and Saix spending time together with Xion and Roxas for holidays 8) how Axel and Saix will meet again in KH3 or any of your headcanons prompts for graphics, fanvids or fanmixes: - I specifically love quoting lines Axel or Saix says in-game and then putting them on scenes that relate to those lines - HEADCANONS GALORE - hurt vs joy - past vs present vs future Request: If you’re making a tracklist, describe to me why you think each track is so akusai, like you’re giving me a tour of your tracklist ;) Others: I have great distaste for girly, bashful Saix. Please keep both Axel and Saix in-character as much as possible! NSFW is highly welcomed ;) sass and banter EVERYWHEREEE p.s. i love shower smut pp.s. i love axel kissing saix’s scar (i dont want saix’s scar to disappear post-kh3) ppp.s. saix w/ short hair is good pppp.s. i’m TOO DEMANDING I KNOW AND I AM SOOOOO SORRY Message to santa: regardless of how specific my wishlist is (LOL;;; I’M REALLY SORRY FOR THAT) please know that at the end of the day I WILL BE SO GLAD FOR WHATEVER YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME SANTA !!!!!! :’) the most important for me is that you not stress over what you’re making and that you just enjoy crying over the akusai pain. ahahahaha (or not enjoy. idk) Advanced happy holidays, my Santa~~~ ;) === Tumblr url: mrbenvey Name: Benvey~ Axel or Saix: definitely Axel. Prompts/Wishlist: 358/2 days events (canon or not canon); first days in org; Axel’s or Saix’s death (or both, haha); post-apocalypse au; haikyuu! au; evangelion au; pretty much anything with angsrt, blood and betrayal. Others: I’m okay with nsfw in fanfics, but not in fanarts (if you gonna write nsfw-stuff - please do Saix a seme). if you don’t feel like drawing/writing/editing any bloody/angsty akusais - it’s okay! you don’t really have to do something from my wishlist if you don’t feel like it or find it too strange/difficult/boring. akusai is perfect in any form, and I’m not picky, but please keep in-character as much as possible~ === Tumblr url: mulletbro Name: Danielle Axel or Saix: Saix is my bby. Prompts/Wishlist: The misadventures of Saix: a reluctant warrior/prince/hero/whatever who is on a quest to do something, and Axel: the annoying supernatural helper/tagalong that Saix saved (that Saix isn’t sure if he wants to punch or kiss.) Reverse!verse with Nort!Axel and Normal!Saix (including Saix interacting with Xion and Roxas.) Saix trying to deal with Norted Axel/trying to get him back/how you think that’d work in KH3/Anything else. Genderbent.  Domestic Au, canon, any of the other prompts, but with both of them as female. Seasalt family AU, with Axel and Saix somehow being parents to Roxas and Xion.  (If you can somehow work it that Roxas is Axel’s kid from a previous relationship, and that Akusai adopt Xion together, that’d be awesome.) Others: While I’m okay with receiving NSFW, I’m completely awful at writing it, and would prefer not doing that. === Tumblr URL: saixualhealing Name: Lunatty Axel or Saix: Saix Prompts/Wishlist: Coffeeshop AU, Betrothed Royals AU, Merman AU where Saix is a fisherman and Axel is a merman (or vice versa), AU where Saix is actually blinded by his scar, AU where Axel and Saix grew up as best friends then lovers then got married/entered a partnership together and adopted Xion and Roxas Others: No overexcessive gore. But battles and injuries are absolutely fine. === Tumblr url: tamagopants Name:  Lily Axel or Saix: Urgh, this is cruel.  I’d prefer Axel for Secret Santa I think. Prompts/Wishlist:  stuck in an elevator/shop/building * plane journey with saix in one seat and axel behind with knee defenders * saix queue jumps and axel calls him out on it * trying to walk home but it’s icy and starting to snow * axel asks saix for a lighter, but it’s not for a cigarette * Others:  basically I’d just love a funny, light AU with the two squabbling and arguing.  please hold off the angst (if possible) as I see/write too much of it and it’s Christmas so happy is good :)  thanks!! === Tumblr url: templeofhylia -- currently divebattle Name: Claire/Lola Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist: anything angsty, especially unrequited or char!death prompts! Others: I would prefer non-NSFW, but i’ll take NSFW if that’s what the secret santa wants to do! === Tumblr url: theworldwatchesyou Name: Worldie Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist:  hmm  like Saix and Axel have grown up as kids (which is true lol) but as they get older they start to become distance, Saix barely talking to Axel now so Axel becomes close with Roxas, Saix finds out and abuses Axel telling him it’s his fault they’ve grown apart idk asdfg I really love angsty and sadness between them though  ;u; Anything is fine to be honest c:  just as long Saix is mean to Axel hehe. Others: I’m okay with everything c: === Tumblr url: tsunamine -- currently jollyroxas Name: Orion Axel or Saix: axel (preferably BBS lea) Prompts/Wishlist coffee shop au, high school au, anything involving flowers, breakfast in bed, anything to do with winter/rainy days, them pulling pranks on each other and sass and banter of cOURSE Others: no nsfw please! i’d prefer BBS isa and lea and for them to be in character! === Tumblr url: xlinkslullaby Name: Rebecca Axel or Saix: Axel Prompts/Wishlist: i’d actually prefer something like an au, because i like creative storytelling. i’ll be happy with anything, i’m sure you’ll have awesome ideas. i don’t like blood and gore too much, so please try to avoid that. c: === Tumblr url: xnekojenn Name: Jenn Axel or Saix: Axel, got it memorized~? Prompts/Wishlist: A focus on the BBS scenes of Axel and Saix as Lea and Isa would be awesome. Make it angsty. Angst is goooooooood~ Kind of mostly showing how their friendship(and potential romance) has fallen apart through the years…Yiiisss. Also if you could make Saix super jealous of Xion and Roxas getting all Axel’s time that’d be sweeeeeeet. ouo

[akusaisecretsanta]

To: Lea (misomilk) From: Benvey (mrbenvey)

Message: you are one of the best people I’ve ever met on this site! even if we don’t talk much, it’s always really nice to see you around, to read you tags, to know that you are doing okay. you are so bright, so amazing and beautiful, that you deserve all the nicest things in the world. so, Merry Christmas! I hope the next year will be really, really great and there will be not a single day when you feel sad or lonely. stay as awesome as you are, always smile and just be happy! thank you for existence and all the good things you did (I wish I had some extra hands and time so I could thank you enough, haha). oh, and of course, let there be more akusais in the next year so you’ll always have enough of it (if it’s even possible to have enough of akusais if you know what I mean)~

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling into Place 6/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It’s funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you’ve ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,500 words Notes: Thanks to anyone who's read this far! =) Happy reading.

Chapter: 6/6

Six.

The last three weeks Isa spent at the castle was like an unwinding of the first five months of his stay.

The pair of princes no longer talked. They no longer slept in the same room. Isa no longer attended classes with Lea after he stopped by one last time to bid farewell to the scholar.

Instead, Isa stayed at the library. He didn’t even sit at his favorite place. He stayed at a corner with a window facing the forest, filling his time by reading.But he couldn’t enjoy even a second of it.

Since they weren’t together in classes, Isa was able to time when to have lunch so he wouldn’t have to eat with Lea. If they did chance upon each other, they ate in silence. Neither bothered to look up from their food to acklowledge the other’s presence.

Isa did as much as he could to completely disorient himself from the routine he had fallen into with the redhead.

***

“It’s their first lover’s quarrel.” The castle staff joked. It was the only way they could make light of the situation, in hopes of cheering themselves up. The kingdom’s townspeople had heard of the two princes having a falling out, too. The townspeople whom Lea and Isa spent a lot of time with, like Carmela and Wilbert, were even more worried.

It seemed like the whole Kingdom of the Sun wished and prayed things would turn out for the better between the two princes.

***

Lea busied himself with his studies so he wouldn’t have time to think about Isa. He avoided the library, much like what he used to do before Isa came to their kingdom, and spent more time in his room when he needed to study his lessons. However, it still proved difficult to not think of Isa.

Lea remembered him through his lessons because it was Isa who gave him tips how to remember things easier. He remembered Isa sitting across him in the dining room and the glances they exchanged whenever they ate together. He remembered the way Isa’s boots echoed a steady rhythm through the hallways as they walked around.

Isa was everywhere to him.

Isa was everything to him.

The Sun prince knew he had to figure out a way to tell this to Isa.

***

On Isa’s last night before he went back to the Kingdom of Flowers, Lea stood outside the blue haired boy’s room door. He had tried going there the past few nights. He tried to work up the courage to knock and find the right words to say, but neither came. When he came to that door that night, he had a bouquet of flowers in hand instead of words stuck in his throat. It was a bouquet of the same flowers he tried to give Isa on the day they reunited. A bouquet of sweet, nostalgic memories. Lea hoped it would help melt Isa’s cold exterior again, so that when Lea admitted his feelings, they would go through to Isa.

“Prince Lea!” called a castle staff to Lea’s right. She was holding onto a basket of clothes. Lea could tell from the few pieces of cloth hanging out of the basket that they were Isa’s. “What are you doing here?” She gasped, then leaned in toward Lea to whisper. “Are you coming to make up with Prince Isa?”

“Cheska! I—uhm, uh,” Lea stuttered, his nerves getting to him. He nodded yes when he still couldn't find words to say.

“That’s great! I will just get these inside and then tell him you are here, okay? Please wait a moment.” Cheska reached for the doorknob. Lea’s heart started thumping louder in his chest in excitement to see Isa again and talk to him again. His nerves, however, got the better of him, so before Cheska could turn the door fully open, he blocked her way.

“No, no, no! I-it’s okay. Just—hand him this.” Lea put his bouquet of flowers on top of the basket the staff held. “And uh, tell him I’m—Tell him I can’t see him off tomorrow, and—”

At that moment, they both heard Isa speaking through the door. His steps got louder the closer he walked toward it.

“Cheska, is that you? Have you got my clothes?”

The moment Isa opened his room door, only Cheska stood in front of him, holding his basket of clothes and a bouquet of flowers lying on top of it.

“Good evening, Prince Isa.” Cheska bowed, laughing nervously afterwards.

“Good evening. What’s this?” Isa took the bouquet of flowers off the basket.

“It’s from Prince Lea, your highness.”

“Hmm,” Isa stared at the bouquet. He stepped to the side so Cheska could come into his room and help pack the last of his clothes. “He… didn’t bring it here himself?”

Cheska struggled if she should answer the question or not. She wasn’t sure if Prince Lea would appreciate her revealing to Prince Isa that he was, in fact, standing outside the door with her. That is, until Prince Lea ran away with all his might the moment he heard Prince Isa speak.

Taking pity on Prince Isa’s lonesome face, Cheska replied, “He wanted me to tell you that he cannot see you off tomorrow. I’m not sure why, but I’m certain he has reason to—”

“I see. It’s alright. You don’t have to defend him, Cheska.” Isa commented, his voice monotonous. “If he doesn’t want to see me, he doesn’t have to see me. That’s that.”

Isa left the bouquet on top of a table and didn’t bother to look at it twice.

His plan had succeeded. Lea wasn’t going to see him off, which meant Lea has probably gotten over him by now or that Lea has gotten over Isa no longer having any interest in him. Lea himself will call the engagement off, which would be proper since he was the one who started it in the first place.

Isa wondered if he could ever see Lea again once the engagement was called off.

It hurt to realize he might never see the redhead again. But it was better this way, he convinced himself.

It will hurt less to not see Lea, than see him loving someone else.

==========

On the morning Isa left the Kingdom of the Sun, Lea wasn’t there to see him off. It was just as Cheska said the night before.

Isa didn’t know what he was expecting. He shouldn’t have made himself hope that Lea would still turn up to see him off, despite their squabble these past few weeks. But he wanted to get one last look at Lea before he left.

Perhaps this was for the better, Isa convinced himself. He’d been doing a lot of convincing himself recently that it was easy to convince himself so.

After Isa bid goodbye to the king and queen at the throne room, he rode the carriage and headed home. When the carriage passed through the town proper, he stuck his head and arm out of the carriage to wave goodbye to the people he grew familiar with. He would surely miss spending time with the people in this kingdom. He made a mental note to make sure he would start doing the same with his people once he got back.

Once he got back…

Once he got back, what was he supposed to do?

Isa sighed. Not wanting to feel more lonely than he already was feeling, he forced himself to fall asleep.

***

As with other times Isa arrived home from a trip to another kingdom, he first went to his garden to check on his flowers. He walked toward his destination slowly, not having the energy to do much of anything.

Lea was out of his grasp now. That was starting to sink in. It made him regret not making the best out of his last few weeks with Lea. It made him regret pushing Lea away.

When the blue haired boy took his first step onto the grass of his garden, he froze on the spot. He was shocked to see a tall boy with fiery red hair standing in the middle of his garden. It wasn’t possible for the redhead to be there. Was Isa hallucinating? But he looked so real.

The redhead turned to face him. He looked at Isa with his sincere, emerald eyes as purple flower petals fell from the large tree above him. A huge grin was plastered on his goofy face. It reminded Isa of that day ten years ago when he first saw him. Green eyes that shined like the blue sea he dreamed of seeing. A smile that could rival the brightness of the sun. A hand reached out to him, inviting him out of his lonesome darkness.

“I don’t understand…” Isa shook his head as he approached the person in his garden. “How?”

“Didn’t Cheska tell you?” The redhead grinned, his teeth showing and his eyes squinting. Just the way that made Isa’s heart skip beats. “I wouldn’t be there to see you off.”

Isa scoffed. “Because you’d be here to welcome me back?”

“Exactly.” The person held up a finger, expressing his point. Just like he usually would.

Isa stopped right in front of the redhead that never failed to put his feelings in disarray.

It was Lea.

Isa couldn’t understand how Lea could be standing right here before him when Isa had convinced himself he would never see the redhead again. A lump formed in his throat as his eyes started to sting. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes when Lea reached for his cheek and caressed it with his fingers.  The Flower prince realized then just how much he missed Lea. His smile. His touch. His very presence.

A soft breeze flew past them, making Isa’s hair flow with it. Lea brushed a strand of hair off Isa’s face. He took a flower from a nearby bush and tucked it in behind his ear to keep it from falling back.

“How did you get here before me?”

“I was in the carriage in front of you.”

“Where all my luggage was?” Isa scoffed again, this time in disbelief. “Why do this in this roundabout way?”

“Well, a certain someone wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I did, so I figured I’d play along.” Lea playfully rolled his eyes. He winced in pain when Isa punched his arm, then, grinned again. “I’m kidding. Anyhow, it worked for the best. I had to make you think of how much you’d miss me, right?” He winked.

“You’re so obnoxious.” Isa punched the other on the chest.

“Obnoxiously amazing? Smart? Handsome?”

“No, just obnoxious.” Isa chuckled, trying to not let the tears that stung his eye from falling. Lea had foiled his plans, and his emotions had gone on a roller coaster ride over and over, and yet Isa couldn’t be happier. His heart fluttered in his chest, rather than scratch against his ribcage in pain the way it did the past few weeks. “I hate you so much.”

“I know, I know.” Lea laughed, scratching the back of his neck. He looked to the side once, then looked back into Isa’s eyes as he said, “I’ll just keep loving you until you love me back.”

Lea saw Isa’s face flash one emotion after another: surprise, flattery, then feigned calmness. Lea pulled on Isa’s arm, while a wide grin found its way onto his face. He wrapped his arms around Isa’s waist and pulled the other close. He continued, whispering in the blue haired boy’s ear. “Do you want me to say it again?”

“Say whatever it is you want. I don’t care.” Isa said, feigning anger this time, as he dug his face unto Lea’s clothes. His voice muffled against the cloth. Lea wondered if Isa was smiling against his shoulder.

“I love you, Isa.” Lea whispered directly into the other’s ear. He said it with as much sweetness as he could. “And I’m sorry for taking this long to say it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Isa pulled his head from Lea’s shoulder, though he didn’t pull away from Lea’s embrace. He looked into the other’s eyes as he continued, “It’s only been half a year. How can you be so sure that you love me now? That you’ll love me next year? And the next?”

Lea looked away for a moment, testing the words in his mind before he spoke again. “I won’t say things like that, Isa. I won’t say I’ll love you forever.” He paused then. Noticing the hurt on Isa’s face, he caressed Isa’s cheeks and squeezed them so Isa wouldn’t cry. “But I promise you,” Lea kissed him on the forehead. “Every day we spend from here onwards,” Lea kissed him on the cheek. “I will make sure I show you my love for you.” Lea kissed Isa gently on the lips then, tasting the other’s sweet lips. “I don’t know if I can love you forever, but I want to do my best to. It’s probably not enough of an assurance. I’m sorry. Isa. Is that still okay?”

Lea looked at Isa with so much hope in his eyes, Isa had to look away. He breathed in deeply, and replied, “I’ll do the same.” He looked into Lea’s eyes then. “This isn’t a one-way thing after all. You and me—we’re partners for life.” He wrapped his arms around Lea and hugged him tight. “We’ll work on our problems together, and celebrate all the happy things together, too.”

Lea chuckled, hugging the blue haired tight. “Sounds good.”

Isa couldn’t believe it. After weeks of worrying about this, here the redhead was—brushing away his insecurities, doubts, and fears again. There had to be a catch. Maybe this, too, was a dream.

“This isn’t a dream?” Isa asked a few moments after they hugged. “I won’t wake up to find out none of this is real?”

Lea laughed. The way he always did, more with his heart than with his lungs. Even with just that laughter, with the way it echoed in his ears, Isa could tell this was not a dream. His dreams could never do justice to the reality of Lea’s laughter.

The Sun prince made his forehead touch the other’s as he spoke. “Maybe I should take you to your bed just to check if you’re already lying down on it, dreaming all this up.”

“Stop inviting yourself onto my bed.” Isa said, playfully rolling his eyes in feint irritation.

“Would you rather I invite you to mine?” Lea laughed.

Isa blushed furiously, much like he did every time Lea made such advances. He pushed Lea away so he could punch Lea on the arm again, but this time the redhead successfully evaded it.

When Lea reached his hand out to Isa, Isa took it without hesitation.

“Promise me you won’t try to leave again.” Lea squeezed Isa’s hand tight.

“We can pinky swear to it.” Isa smirked.

Lea grinned wide. “I’d rather seal it with a kiss.”

In the middle of the flower-filled paradise, Lea kissed Isa. The boy whom he fell for ten years ago and made him fall even further in the past six months. The boy who made his heart beat fast, who made him feel so happy. Isa, the boy who made apple tarts that tasted like love. The one Lea loved and loved him in return.

They were wed. The united thei kingdoms. They never let each other go again.

END

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling into Place 5/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It’s funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you’ve ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,500 words Note: It kind gets heavier but rushed here. Sorry. T__T;

Chapter: 5/6

Five.

At the start of Isa's fifth month in the kingdom, there was a huge celebration in town. They were celebrating what they called the Fire Festival, where the town would make a large bonfire at the middle of the town square at night, dance around it, and simply enjoy each other's company. It was to celebrate successful harvest despite the vexing heat of the summer sun and to pray for more luck the next harvest season.

Lea took Isa to town that night in simple thin robes Lea bought from a merchant that came from the far, far east. They were called 'yukata', the merchant explained. It was suitable to wear in the warm heat of summer, and very comfortable, too. Isa's was blue with circular purple and violet designs, with a green sash to keep it in place, while Lea's was orange with yellow squares, the same yellow as the sash that kept his outfit in place. They wore slippers made out of straw.

The King and Queen didn't take part in the festivities. Their only contribution was the supplying of wood for the bonfire and drinks for the men, which the townspeople had to pick up from a neighboring kingdom.

Lea had been attending the festival every year since he was three years old, Isa heard from Carmela, who sat next to him in front of her shop at the Town Plaza. In the past month, Lea and Isa frequented the town more that Isa was able to associate names with faces. Carmela made great pancakes. He and Lea sometimes came to her place for breakfast when they woke up early enough to sneak past the guards.

That night, Carmela told him many stories about Lea, some he'd heard before from others, some he'd just heard from her. Children were giggling behind him as Carmela continued sharing her stories, grabbing her children to wipe the sweat off her children's backs whenever they ran in front of her. She talked about how the prince had always been cheerful—with a smile anyone would expect from a kingdom hailed with the sun's radiance, how lonely the prince was when the King and Queen went away for negotiations though he tried not to show, how friendly the prince had always been with different people despite age or gender. Isa listened intently to every story, watching Lea from across the town square where he was drinking with Wilbert and the others, hoping Lea's was just grape juice and not wine.

Blue-green eyes locked with green for a moment. It sent a ticklish feelingthrough their bodies. Feeling giddy Isa was watching him, Lea threw him a flying kiss. The rest of the boys he was drinking with howled and whistled at the gesture, while Isa felt the need to hide away in embarrassment.

"You didn't catch it!" Lea shouted across the square, over the burning bonfire. "Should I send you another one?"

"Keep your sloppy kisses to yourself!" Isa shouted, a small smile playing at the side of his lips. He was thankful for the bonfire that separated them so Lea wouldn't notice he was blushing again, for the thousandth time, at Lea's embarrassing antics.

"Ayyye, heard that? Our Prince kisses sloppy." One of the men said. Isa wondered if it was Mario, but among the buzzing of various people talking around him, he couldn't tell anymore. Then they all laughed. Lea was protesting that they hadn't kissed yet, which many were shocked about. They continued to kid around, saying things like how modest their Prince Lea was and how he didn't have to be shy to admit that they already had kissed. Isa was just glad they didn't see it as a chance to tease them and make them kiss right then and there.

The party continued even after the mothers sent their children off to bed. Many of the men were still awake, merrymaking and delighting at all the food and booze that was still available.

Isa didn't move from his spot the whole time. Though Lea went from house to house at some point, Isa didn't bother tracking him down. He figured the redhead would have gone all over town that night.

Various mothers and single women alike came up to Isa and talked gladly with him about various topics—Lea, the Kingdom of Flowers, their daily lives. They even complimented him and his beautiful hair, too. The women kept supplying him food and drink when it seemed he was running out, which he thanked each of them for.

Hours passed and the number of people awake dwindled down to a mere handful. Isa still sat at his place in front of Carmela's shop, a cup of warm hot chocolate in hand, given to him by one of the mothers still awake, Laura, who sat beside him. The bonfire was still burning at the center of the square, albeit with less flare than it had hours ago.

Isa watched quietly as Lea discussed seemingly more serious matters with the few men still awake from across the square. They still had drinks in hand. The blue haired boy sighed, wondering how in the world he could get Lea back to the castle at his state. He was glad the festival was held on a Friday, giving him and Lea the chance to catch up on sleep the following day.

The more time passed, the more difficult it was for Isa to stay awake. Staring at the low flame of the bonfire, Isa slowly drifted off to sleep.

***

Isa wasn't sure for how long he was asleep before he was woken up by cold fingers brushing his cheeks.

"You can't sleep here, Isa," said a familiar voice that made his heart skip and his chest feel warm and fuzzy. Isa hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he knew it was Lea.

Lea took the chair beside him, inched it so close he almost slammed it unto Isa's chair, and sat down. He then gently guided Isa’s head so he could lean it on his shoulder.

Isa may not have noticed, but Lea, too, had been watching him the whole night.

He saw how animated Isa's face was as other women talked to him, which made him a little jealous. He saw how kind he was to the children that braided flowers in his hair, thanking each of them with kisses to their cheeks before they ran away to play again, which, too, made him jealous. He saw how Isa was able to keep Lea in his view despite looking somewhere else, how lost Isa looked when he realized Lea was no longer at the bar with the boys and how relief took over his face soon after when he spotted Lea waving at him.

"Then we better head back to the castle soon," Isa said as he let the weight of his head fall onto Lea's shoulder. The redhead moved positions again then, this time wrapping his arms around Isa so the blue haired boy could rest his head on his chest. "I don't think I can hang on for much longer."

"Aww, but the party's just started! We can't go back yet." Lea laughed. He looked down at Isa, who's eyes were still closed, and brushed loose strands of hair off of Isa's face and tucked them behind his ear.

Lea had never been this close to Isa before, even in the past few weeks that Isa started adjusting to his physical displays of affection. That night, Isa was so, so close. He looked beautiful—Isa always was—in the faint, yellow glow of the bonfire's flames. Lea trailed his fingers from Isa's ear, to his cheeks to his chin. He gulped. Isa's lips were so, so close.

Lea wanted to kiss him then and there.

But before he could, Isa laughed weakly, drowsy with sleep, "You'll have to figure out a way to get back to the castle by yourself then."

Though a bit disappointed he couldn't kiss the other, he replied kiddingly, "Says the guy who's already falling asleep right here."

"I'm not—" Isa opened his eyes and tilted his head to look at Lea. He stopped midsentence as soon as he was met with the view of Lea's smile illuminated by the bonfire's flames, his shining green eyes that sparkled in the flames’ glow, and the millions of stars that decorated the night sky. Isa could hear the drumming of his heart beat faster once Lea widened his smile even further, showing his teeth and squinting his eyes.

Isa loved it when Lea smiled like that. It was evident in how Isa’s breath got stuck in his throat, his chest clenching, and a certain, bubbly warmth spreading from his stomach, extending to the rest of his body.

Lea continued to brush his fingers across Isa's cheeks then, and Isa wondered if Lea was going to kiss him. He really wished Lea would. He wanted to feel just how warm, sweet and soft Lea's lips really were, after all these months of wondering. He was once too shy to be physically affectionate with Lea, even though he had wanted to hold hands and do things people who loved each other did. He wanted to grab Lea by the back of his neck to pull him down and kiss him, but Lea spoke again.

"Not what? What is it?" Lea said when he noticed Isa was staring too long at him, shaking Isa out of his thoughts. "Are you cold?"

"Because of your fingers, yes." Isa laughed again, still weakly. He was so tired he hadn’t realized he was no longer holding onto his cup of hot chocolate. Isa took Lea's hands and blew his warm breath on them. When they seemed warm enough, Isa placed the other's hands on his cheeks. "There, much better."

Lea was surprised at Isa's actions. Isa wasn’t normally this hyped with skin contact. He chuckled in delight, then leaned down to kiss Isa on the forehead—though he missed and kissed in between Isa's eyebrows instead. He let his hands slide down from Isa's cheeks, down his neck and unto Isa’s shoulders. He then whispered in Isa's ear, "Would you warm up the rest of my body then?"

Greatly surprised at the terribly embarrassing line and the lustful tone it came with, Isa suddenly pushed Lea away, making the other fall off his chair. Lea laughed out loud as he lied on the floor. He sat up to face Isa, "Was that too much?"

Isa, not able to form a word though he very much wanted to scream at Lea, nodded yes.

"I'm sorry." Lea stood up, a few more tiny bouts of laughter still finding their way out his mouth. He bowed toward Isa and extended a hand toward him. "Shall we go?"

Isa then remembered the time they first met again after a decade spent apart. He remembered the irritation of Lea having mistaken him for a girl all these years, the disappointment that came with it, and the relief of Lea promising to be with him (although as a best friend) despite all that. Months had passed since then, and though they promised to be, both could sense they were no longer treating each other as mere "best friends". Or at least, that’s what Isa had hoped.

Isa breathed, feeling the weight of the hand filled with promises, wishes and dreams, just by looking at it. He wondered if it really was alright to take it, but what consequences could await them if he did, when they were already promised to wed? Brushing his uncertainty away, Isa took Lea's hand. Lea helped him up.

Lea then guided Isa toward the bonfire, stopping at a distance where they could feel the warmth of the low fire.

"You said we were leaving."

Lea held Isa close by the arms, whispering in the other’s ear, "Just one dance,"

Isa dug his face into Lea’s shoulder to hide from embarrassment again. “I—I don’t know how to dance anything except for The Waltz. The guy’s part, mind you.”

Lea laughed softly. “That’s alright. We just need to do this.” Lea pushed Isa away slightly so he could take Isa’s hands in his. He guided them behind his neck, making sure Isa had locked his fingers there. Lea then wrapped his arms around Isa’s waist. This position brought their faces closer to one another, so close that they could feel each other’s breaths on their skin. Their noses almost bumped, but didn’t.

Lea then started swinging his arms. He guided their hips to move in a slow, lulling dance. They stayed in place, just leaning from one foot to the other, swaying their hips to Lea’s rhythm. The pair couldn’t help giggling, a fluffy warmth forming in their chests.

Their foreheads touched, then Isa muttered. “Alright. Just one dance.”

***

"Today was really nice." Isa started.

After one dance, they started to walk back to the castle, just as Lea promised. Their pinkies were intertwined as they walked, swaying their arms slightly back and forth to the rhythm of their steps. "I'm glad you invited me."

"Well, you better look forward to bringing me home like this every year from now on." Lea joked. Although he was kidding, Isa was flattered at the hints of forever in Lea's words.

"I'll prepare myself."

Upon reaching the castle, they both headed toward Isa's room. Lea invited himself to sleep over, claiming he was too tired to go all the way to his room, when in truth he just didn't want to let go of Isa's finger. They lied on bed facing each other, not bothering to change clothes or brush their teeth because they were simply out of energy. Isa lied on the left, Lea on the right. They looked at each other before going to sleep, seemingly waiting for the other to fall asleep first.

"You'll become a great king, Lea." Isa spoke, after a long moment of silence. The overwhelming awe for Lea—how much he loved his people, and how the people love him in return—rushed to him then. He smiled at the glee reflected in Lea's eyes, then continued after a deep breath. "You'll lead this kingdom and its people into a more prosperous, radiant kingdom than it already is."

"You mean I'll be a greater king than King Lee the Eighth? My great, great, great, great. No wait, let me count this." The redhead counted with his fingers with every 'great' he mentioned. "My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather?"

Isa laughed at the many greats Lea had to say, and also at the delight in his chest because Lea did remember his passionate musing about King Lee the Eighth in one of his early days at the kingdom. "Yes, Lea. You'll be the best king there ever was."

Isa soon closed his eyes after, sleep getting the better of him. He was drifting off to the land of dreams when he felt warm breath on his face and something soft touching his lips. He slowly opened his eyes to find a pair of twinkling green eyes staring right back at him, the tip of his nose touching his. Lea's warm breath was on his face. Their closed distance made Isa's heart beat faster.

Lea leaned in again, this time placing his hand behind Isa’s neck, pulling Isa’s face closer to his. He pressed his warm lips on Isa’s cold lips—once, twice, again and again until he lost count, until Isa’s lips had become as warm as his. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, their breaths in perfect rhythm, hearts racing in their chests and drumming in their ears. Lea leaned in one more time. Isa leaned in, too, to meet him half way. He was pulling Lea closer by the hem of his yukata as if Lea wasn’t close enough. They pressed their lips together. Lea tasted Isa’s lips with the tip of his tongue this time. Isa let Lea map out his lips before parting them, letting the red-haired prince explore his mouth with his tongue slowly.

Isa could taste the grape juice in Lea's mouth. He delighted in both its sweetness and the fact that Lea hadn't drunk himself silly after all, despite his worries earlier that night. He relished in the warmth of Lea's body pressed against his and wrapped his arms around Lea, his hands gripping Lea’s back. Lea took pleasure in Isa's chocolate taste. He had imagined this kiss countless times before and never had he thought it would feel this magical. His heart beat louder in his ears as he continued passionately kissing Isa. He was even more enthralled when Isa tightly gripped onto his clothes, hoping that meant Isa was taking pleasure from it, too.

The more they kissed, the sweeter it became—a taste that was neither grape nor chocolate. A certain warmth settled in their chests.

They let each other go only when it was getting too difficult to breathe.

"So... Did I kiss sloppy?" Lea in between ragged breaths.

"Hmm, could do better next time."

"Can I try again now?"

Isa laughed sleepily before pulling Lea into another kiss.

==========

Lea awoke to Isa's sleeping face, a morning glow cast upon it by the few rays of sunlight that came in from the window. Birds chirped outside, and they complimented the smooth, steady pattern of Isa's breathing. While Lea stared gleefully at Isa, he noticed Isa's bare shoulder, uncovered by Isa's loosened clothes. Lea and Isa couldn't get as far as Lea had wanted last night. Isa was very tired, after all, and he didn't want to speed things up too quickly when they were finally making much progress. The redhead figured he was mightily content with last night's bouts of kisses, but the smooth, tempting shoulder made him think otherwise.

Lea wanted to pull the offending clothes off to feel all over Isa's smooth skin, touch Isa in areas no one ever had, kiss him drunk silly, and pour all his love and affection into him. When the redhead was starting to feel uncomfortable in his nether regions, Lea thought it best to leave while Isa was asleep to take care of this morning problem.

What was even more problematic is that now that he'd had a taste of Isa, how can he stop himself from then on?

***

Isa awoke to disappointment. Lea wasn't there beside him when he woke up.

He immediately started formulating his reprimand to Lea about Not Leaving Your Partner After a Wonderfully Good Night (and Kiss). Before he could leave his bed out of frustration, Lea emerged from the bedroom door.

"Oh, Isa. You're awake." Lea beamed. He was still in his clothes from last night, albeit more disheveled than Isa remembered. The redhead looked a bit embarrassed as he rushed toward the bed with a large piece of cloth in hand, and plopped unto the soft mattress. "I was waiting for you to wake up, but you were taking long. I figured you were tired so I thought I should let you sleep. And that when you woke up, we could eat breakfast together in bed!"

The redhead set the cloth on the bed and slowly opened it, hoping no crumbs fall unto Isa's sheets, and revealed a fresh batch of apple tarts. They hadn't had the chance to eat apple tarts in the past month. Isa wondered whether Lea took this without Carla knowing or if Carla gave it to him willingly, but another thought pushed that away.

This was unfair.

Was Isa not allowed to get mad at Lea for even two seconds?

==========

Since the night of the festival, Lea spent every night at Isa's room. Rumors spread throughout the castle about how the two princes started to sleep together. Some claim they hear the bed thumping loud at night. Some claim they wrestled around under the sheets until the wee hours of the morning making love.

The staff’s imagination could run more wild, but the simple truth was that the pair of princes simply slept beside each other, enjoying each other’s company. The thumping noises were caused by Lea jumping on the bed, when he couldn’t fall asleep and tried to keep Isa awake with him. The rustling sheets were, indeed, caused by them literally wrestling on the bed. However, they wrestled not while making love, but for who gets to sneak into the kitchen to get food for their breakfast in bed the next morning.

Most mornings, Isa woke up before Lea did. Sometimes he would wake up to Lea’s sleeping face. Sometimes he would wake up facing the window from which the first rays of sunlight passed through the slits between curtains. When that happened, he tried his utter best to turn himself around without moving the bed too much so he could face Lea. At such times, he would watch Lea sleep until the redhead woke up.

Isa was delighted that Lea turned out not being as much of a loud snorer as he thought he would. Either that or, as Lea predicted, Isa had gotten used to Lea’s snores. Regardless of his snores, Isa loved how peaceful Lea looked as he slept. When awake, the redhead always bustled with energy, but when he slept, he was as serene as the calm setting of the sun. Lea always told Isa he was beautiful, but Isa realized he could say the same about Lea, too.

On one such morning, Isa hadn’t realized he was staring so intently at Lea that he had closed the distance between them. He only realized how close he was to the other when his nose bumped the other’s cheek. The blue haired boy slightly jolted in surprise, in turn shaking the bed, which eventually woke Lea up.

Once Lea furrowed his eyebrows, Isa knew the redhead was about to wake up. He was inching away from the redhead when long arms caught him, wrapping around his torso.

“Don’t,” spoke Lea in a very groggy voice, barely any louder than a whisper. He wrapped his arms tighter around Isa to keep him close. When he could feel that Isa was no longer pulling away from him, he chuckled and grinned. He entangled his legs around Isa’s. “Good morning, Isa.”

“Good morning, Lea.” Isa spoke,  his words muffled. His dug his face into Lea’s shoulder. Their torsos pushed against each other as Lea hugged him tighter and tighter. Although Isa wanted to let Lea keep hugging him since he was delighted at the warmth Lea shared with him, but it was getting difficult to breathe. “C-can’t—breathe…”

The redhead loosened his grip around Isa to give him air to breathe, only to hug the blue haired boy again tightly.

“Isa’s so warm.” Lea whispered into the other’s ear. Then he rubbed his face into Isa’s neck, making the other jolt at the electric waves Lea’s touches sent through his body.

“L-lea,” Isa whined, which came out more like a whimper. “That’s tickling me—“

Lea trailed kisses from Isa’s ear to his cheek, then rained kisses all over the blue haired’s face. He figured he could never get tired of kissing Isa like this. His mind wandered off to how they would be, years from now, years after they had been wed. How much lovelier could his mornings get when he could wake up next to Isa, and show him how he felt, first thing in the morning?

Lea didn’t stop kissing the other until Isa finally gave in to that day’s first sweet display of affection. They briefly pressed their lips together before saying one more “good morning” to each other.

“We should get out of bed soon.” Isa tried to push Lea away so he could get out of bed, but the other still wouldn’t budge. He raised his head to try to see if he could tell the time on the clock on his room, but Lea’s head was blocking his view.

“We’ll get out eventually.”

Isa grunted. Lea lowered his arms down Isa’s torso. “We have classes today.”

“All the more reason to stay in bed. Ow—“ Lea remarked when Isa pinched his cheek.

“We should get out of bed.” Isa repeated.

“Only after a morning kiss from you.”

“Didn’t you get that already?”

“That didn’t count. Only kisses from this point on count.”

Isa chuckled. “Get out of bed, brush your teeth, and fix up for class; then, maybe I’ll give you more than a kiss.”

“Deal.” Lea quickly sat up, making Isa laugh softly at how easily Lea could be convinced by kisses, or more than kisses for that matter, though Isa himself wasn’t sure what qualified as ‘more than a kiss’ yet.

Before Lea got off the bed, he looked back at the side of the bed where Isa lied. The redhead leaned down to kiss Isa one more time on the forehead before he headed to the bathroom to fix himself up.

==========

There had been a full week when Isa refused to have lunch with Lea. The blue haired boy claimed he had some more questions to ask the scholar, Even. Lea offered to stay with him, but Isa convinced him to go on and eat lunch without him.

On the Friday of that week, Isa missed lessons in the morning, which made Lea all the more suspicious.

His doubt cleared, however, come lunch that Friday.

On his dessert plate were apple tarts, but they didn’t look as clean cut as Carla’s usual ones. The apples were unevenly cut, and the tarts weren’t equally shaped. They weren’t even in circles. They were—Were they actually in heart shapes?

Lea looked over at Isa, then, catching the gleeful hint in the blue haired boy’s eyes.

“Did you make this for me, Isa?” Lea spoke with so much glee, eyes wide and lips curved from ear to ear.

Isa smirked at him. “I promised you something more than a kiss, right?”

Before Isa could finish his sentence, Lea had ran around the table to hug him tightly.

“Thank you, Isa! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Lea kissed all over his face, which he had grown so fond of doing. “These are going to be the sweetest apple tarts I’d ever eat.”

“Just eat them up already before I shove them down your throat.”

Lea kissed Isa one more time before heading back to his chair to eat the apple tarts that tasted sweeter than ever before. He had to pause at one point to wonder: was this what love tasted like?

==========

On a certain night near the end of Isa’s fifth month of staying at the Kingdom, Isa was still awake reading a book. He had taken a book that he liked reading from the library. He wasn’t intending to take it out of the library, since he didn’t mind the habit of going to the library every weekend to read a few pages, or read most of the book while Lea was still asleep, but Lea had suggested he take it.

Isa wondered if it was because Lea didn’t want to stay cooped up in the library for too long anymore. The thought distracted him while he was reading through a page. It made him chuckle.

“Is the book that interesting?” Lea asked. Isa turned his head to the left to look at the redhead. Only then did he notice Lea was seated so close to him.

The redhead was leaning on Isa’s left arm, his right arm brushing against Isa’s left. His gaze was affixed on the book, like he was trying to read along with Isa. From the way his eyes were squinted, however, it seemed Lea couldn’t read any of the words from the angle he read.

“What made you ask about the book so suddenly?”

“Well, you always seem so absorbed in reading, particularly that book.“ Lea leaned in closer to whisper in Isa’s ear. “And you didn’t even notice my hand was on your thigh, so—“

Isa quickly pushed the hand on his thigh away once he noticed how close it was getting to his more private parts. “Lea. You really— Why have you gotten so perverted lately?”

Lea laughed out loud, as he always did, like he was laughing more with his heart than with his lungs. “If it’s any consolation, I’m only like that toward you, Isa.” The redhead winked before laughing again.

“Please throw your trash compliments off that cliff outside.”

“Can’t I whisper them into your ear instead?” Isa tried to push him off the bed, a flattered, crooked grin on his face. Lea caught hold of his arms before Isa could successfully push him off the bed. However, Isa continued to use Lea’s grip on his arms to try to push the redhead off the bed. “Alright, alright, alright, I’ll stop.” Lea chuckled once more. When Isa tried to retrieve his arms from Lea, Lea pulled him close and kissed him quickly on the lips.

“I don’t know what to do with you.” Isa whispered against Lea’s lips.

“You can do me instead.” Lea was about to laugh again when Isa hit him with his thick book. “Oww, that hurt.”

“You still weren’t shutting up, so I was trying to make you fall sleep.”

“I can only fall asleep in your loving embrace, Isa.” Lea sang the last syllable. He opened his arms wide to embrace the other, but Isa put his hand on the redhead’s face before Lea could embrace him.

“Your teasing has gotten so much worse recently.”

“Only because Isa keeps getting more and more beautiful every day,” Lea pulled down Isa’s hand from his face, then, smiled genuinely at the blue haired boy. “I won’t ever stop raining compliments on you, Isa.”

Isa couldn’t tell if he was starting to feel hot in his cheeks because Lea was so ingloriously embarrassing or because he was honestly just that flattered.

“Ahh, finally. It’s been a while since you last blushed.” Lea commented as Isa hid his face behind his book. “Aww, come on, let me see your face.”

When the blue haired boy wouldn’t let go of the book, Lea kissed Isa’s knuckles so he would let go of the book. Isa finally obliged tens of kisses later, his face redder than Lea had ever seen.

“I hate you so much.”

The seemingly weightless comment sent a pang to Lea’s chest. He knew Isa didn’t mean it. He’d already said it countless times before, when Lea seemed to be going too far with his jokes. This time, however, hearing Isa say it hurt as if barbwires had tightened around his lungs.

It made it difficult for Lea to say “I love you”, instead, in order to clear the pain away.

In reply, Lea simply smiled, leaned down and planted a kiss on Isa’s lips.

==========

When Isa woke up, Lea was not beside him.

He searched the castle high and low, but he could not find any trace of Lea. Nor of anyone.

He was alone.

He went to the throne room to check if the King and Queen were there at least. There, he saw someone—not King James—seated at the throne of the King. With intentions of telling the person off, he quickly approached the throne. His feet froze, however, when he was only a few feet away from it. From where he stood, he recognized the emerald eyes of the man on the throne that stared at him coldly.

“Lea?”

“Isa,” Lea smiled, though one that was unfamiliar to him. It was a cold smile—flat and unwelcoming. It didn’t fit Lea’s face at all. Isa shuddered at how eerie it felt seeing Lea smile like that. “It’s so nice of you to drop by.”

“W-what is going on? Why isn’t anybody—“ Isa tried to approach Lea. But at the moment he did, at the corner of his eye, he saw the woman that occupied the Queen’s throne. There sat a girl whose face was blotched by static. It was as if she had no face at all.

“This is my queen, Isa.”

Isa’s heart started thundering in his chest, sending pulses to his brain that made his head hurt. It became very hard for him to breathe, like every breath scratched nails against his lungs. It was as if a million people grabbed his lungs and gripped them hard.

This must be a dream. This had to be a nightmare.

“We were wed while you were away.” Lea continued, monotonous. He sat still on his throne. His voice echoed through the empty hall, the vibrations intensifying Isa’s headache. The words bounced off the walls like they had no intention of trailing off.

“No.” Isa shook his head. His sight was blurring. “No, you wouldn’t do that. No.“

“I realized I couldn’t marry someone I didn’t love.”

“Stop.” Isa covered his ears, his eyes. He wanted to shut everything out. Nothing in this dream was good. He wanted to wake up so badly.

“I realized I didn’t love you after all.”

“Shut up! This is a dream!” Isa shouted, his voice becoming hoarse, his throat becoming more painful with every syllable. “Shut up! Shut up!”

Lea frowned. The shine in his emerald eyes slowly faded as he started to disappear into thin air. “I can never love you like that, Isa.”

“STOP!” Isa woke up, screaming. His night robes had stuck unto his skin. Cold sweat covered his body.. His heart drummed fast in his chest, and he could feel acid coming up, like he wanted to regurgitate the poison he could taste deep down his throat.

When he looked to his left, Lea wasn’t there.

Isa wished so badly that Lea would come into the room any moment soon with some apple tarts in hand.

==========

Since the nightmare, Isa couldn’t act the same around Lea. It had poisoned him with doubt and uncertainty.

No matter how sweet the words Lea said to him or how delicate the touches Lea laid on him, he couldn’t hear or feel them as what they were.

From the dream, he concluded that his precious time spent with Lea were times he could enjoy albeit temporarily. These happy moments will all be taken away eventually—when Lea ends up falling in love with someone else.

Someone better. Someone more suited to him. His actual, future queen.

Lea might think he had fallen in love with Isa for now. The redhead might only have been convinced as such because of how much time the two princes spent together these past few months. It was easy to fall for someone one was normally with, Isa figured. With time and distance separating them, it would be easy to fall out of love, too. He couldn’t trust the bond he formed with the Sun prince these past five months. Not when he could still feel the terrifying chills he felt in his nightmare.

Besides, the redhead hadn’t said anything about his feelings, after all. Maybe Isa was just quick to assume they had fallen in love for each other, when it was just him who had taken the fall?

Isa tried not to think too much of Lea’s feelings anymore. He didn’t want to hope anymore.

==========

Isa only had three more weeks left to his stay at the Kingdom of the Sun, and Lea was was starting to panic.

The blue haired boy hadn’t been quite himself this past week. Lea wondered if he had done anything to make the other feel uncomfortable, that maybe he had done something to bring about this sudden change in Isa’s attitude without Lea himself noticing.

Isa had fallen silent, for the most part. He wouldn’t counter any of the things Lea said, no matter how stupid or perverted. Neither did he blush or get infuriated at Lea’s advances. It was very unsettling to Lea, who wanted to enjoy his last few weeks with Isa before they separated for who knows how long? Maybe months. Or worse, years.

Lea no longer wanted to part with Isa, even for a second. It hurt him that Isa had become emotionally distant when they could still enjoy the time they had left with each other.

In order to help Isa feel comfortable again, Lea arranged for a date with him. With his parents’ permission, he was to take Isa to the villa on a nearby island that they frequented on summers. They didn’t get the chance to go there that summer, so he thought it would be a good time to go now. The air had been getting chillier, so it wouldn’t be advisable to swim in the water, but Lea thought that Isa would still appreciate it. Going to the island would mean being surrounded by the sea the blue haired boy loved so much.

Lea had pictured him and Isa getting cuddly on the boat on the way to the island, with the sun shining high above them. Isa’s eyes would sparkle at the beauty of the shimmering, blue sea, then they would make up and have fun at the beach. By night time they would enjoy a candle-lit dinner by the shore, and hopefully do even more romantic things in bed.

But everything worked the opposite way of what Lea had hoped.

The sky was cloudy. The sea was gray. Isa had fixed a distance between them, and slept the whole time Owen brought them to the island. Isa stayed indoors, sitting beside a window in the living room from where he could see the sea. They had dinner in the dining room instead of the beach, and sat far across each other.

Isa still wasn't in the mood for anything. It was starting to get on Lea’s nerves.

***

After eating dinner, Lea found Isa standing at the veranda overlooking the sea. He approached slowly, cautiously, hoping he could take this chance to finally talk about what was bothering the blue haired boy.

“Isa,” Lea said as he approached. He tried to wrap his arms around the other, but Isa inched away. This sent the millionth pang onto Lea’s chest since the night Isa had said he hated him. “Isa, please. Say something.”

Isa responded with silence. Lea moved over to Isa’s right. He placed his arms over the veranda’s railing. He looked at Isa from where he stood, trying to read the emotions in his face, but Lea couldn’t see any.

Lea sighed, scratching the back of his neck as he looked the other way. “Isa, can’t you hear me? Why won’t you reply to me?” He looked at Isa again, and continued when the blue haired still wouldn’t respond. “Isa, please, if I’ve done something wrong, please tell me. I won’t ever do it again.” Lea ran his hands through his hair, trying to think of what next to say. “Was it me touching you too much? Did you not like my kisses? Have I been snoring too loud lately? Do you—“

Do you not like me anymore?

Lea bit his lip to stop himself from prodding further. He didn’t want such thoughts to make him break down and cry in front of Isa, especially when it already seemed like Isa was going through his own emotional turmoil. Lea had to maintain a brave front.

Sighing, he took one of Isa’s hands, kissed it and said, “I’ll let you have some space. Whatever you’re going through Isa, I’ll be here, okay?” Lea kissed the back of Isa’s hand again. “Good night.”

By the time Lea left, Isa’s chest had hurt so hard from the pain of trying to stop himself from crying. His lungs burned. His eyes stung. Every breath he took seemed to further fuel the pain he felt.

The blue haired boy wished Lea would stop being so sweet to him. He’d been trying to give the redhead the cold shoulder this past week. He wanted to make Lea’s sweetness stop. He wanted to undo the past five months and to make himself unlove Lea and say their engagement was a bad idea from the start.

It would hurt less that way because that way, Isa wouldn’t be hurt if Lea ever fell for someone else, regardless if he and Lea were married or not.

The moon shined down on the calm sea that reflected the stars in the sky. Isa had never seen something so beautiful, but the burning pain deep in his heart prevented him from appreciating it.

***

Isa couldn’t sleep a wink that night.

In fact, he couldn’t sleep much since he had the nightmare. He was terrified of seeing it again. He thought his heart would race too fast and that his breath would get stuck in his throat to the point that he wouldn’t ever be able to breathe again.

Giving up on sleep, he sat up. He looked to his left to look at Lea, but he couldn’t see him in the darkness of the room. He reached out, aiming to brush his fingers through Lea’s hair, and listened to the redhead’s calm breathing.

As he played with the smooth strands of Lea’s hair on his fingers, Isa began to think. He thought about how the past five months he and Lea spent together, the five months they got close, were about to fall into naught. He questioned his own actions, too, whether it was alright he was pushing Lea away or not. But he had to be strong, he told himself. The short-lived pain of leaving Lea once would be better than struggling through years of Lea sleeping with different concubines every night, the way his father had done. That had weakened his mother’s heart until she died, suffering from how little love she received from the one she loved.

Isa sighed, disappointed with himself. Even when he knew how painful it was to love someone, taking his mother as an example, he ended up letting himself fall for someone anyway. Perhaps he shouldn’t have let himself fall in the first place.

Isa sighed, and whispered, not realizing he was thinking out loud. “It would’ve been better if we hadn’t met.”

At that moment, a hand suddenly gripped his wrist, making him let go of Lea’s hair. Isa gasped, his eyes widened out of horror.

“What do you mean by that?” Lea spoke from the darkness of the room. His voice was raspy—from sleep or anger, Isa couldn’t tell.

“L-lea, I thought you were asleep.” Isa stuttered as he heard sheets ruffling. Lea sat up, his grip on Isa getting tighter once he had sat up straight.

“What do you mean by that?”

Isa was partially glad for the darkness of the room. He wouldn’t want to see how Lea’s eyes flared with anger to go with the fury in his voice. The blue haired boy’s heart thundered in his chest out of fear of having to explain everything.

“Should I repeat myself again, Isa?” Lea gritted his teeth. “What do you mean by that? What do you mean by ‘it would have been better if we hadn’t met’?”

Isa remained silent though his mind scrambled for something to say. He tried to say something, anything, but nothing came out. He wasn’t ready to admit anything to Lea yet.

“Do you—do you regret being with me, Isa?” Lea spoke, his voice cracking. His voice was tainted with hurt, and it made Isa’s heart sink. “I don’t think I can handle this anymore, Isa.” He took a sharp breath.  “I hate not talking to you, and I most definitely hate you distancing yourself from me.”

Isa still couldn’t find the words to say.

After a few moments of silence, Lea tried again. “Isa,” he called. He kept repeating the blue haired boy’s name, desperately calling out to him. The sweetness of his tone sent pangs of guilt unto Isa’s chest.

“Stop.” Isa pleaded.

“Stop what?”

“Stop saying my name like that.”

“Why? Why do I have to stop?” Lea further tightened his grip on Isa’s wrist. Isa’s hand might have been turning purple. Isa felt it going numb. “Why should I stop touching you? Kissing you? Calling your name? Why do I have to stop all these things when it’s all I ever want to do?”

“Because—“ Isa opened his mouth to start explaining one clear thought he had, but he judged otherwise. How could Lea understand his insecurity? How could Lea know how much he meant to Isa, that he couldn’t even handle the thought of Lea leaving him for someone else? Isa would rather leave before Lea could leave him. However, Isa’s pain blinded him from seeing that maybe Lea wouldn’t like to be left by him either. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t!” Lea spat. He finally let go of Isa’s hand to punch at the direction of the wall instead, wincing at the pain that shot through his knuckles. “You won’t even give me a chance to!”

Isa frowned at Lea shouting at him. The redhead had never used that tone with him before. Isa began to raise his voice as well. “I can’t even give you a chance to because I already know you wouldn’t understand. Your being angry right now is already proof that you wouldn’t!”

Lea grit his teeth. “If you’d just explain to me—“

“There’s nothing to explain.” The blue haired replied curtly, cutting the other off.

Lea clicked his tongue. “How could there be nothing to explain when you suddenly changed your attitude toward me this past week?”

That caught Isa in a bind. He couldn’t respond back because Lea had spoken the truth. Isa was caught red-handed. He had to explain now, or run away. Isa chose the latter.

Isa was thankful for the darkness of the room. Without seeing Lea’s face, he didn’t need to feel so guilty about just walking off. Isa quickly got off the bed and walked toward the door in the dark, feeling his way there with his feet.

“Isa!” Lea shouted after him when he felt the bed shift when Isa got off the bed. “Isa, where are you going?”

“I’m sleeping somewhere else.”

Lea ran his hands through his hair. He grunted when he pulled his hair in frustration. “Please, just stay here and let’s talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Why are you being so stubborn?” Lea shouted again. Isa wouldn’t stop his steps even when Lea continued to shout at him. “I don’t understand why we can’t just talk this through? This isn’t like you at all. Aren’t you the more rational one between us?”

Isa bit his lip. He wanted to turn and scream one more time at Lea. It’s because he was the rational one between the two of them that he was acting this way—or so he persuaded himself. After thinking about their relationship on the long run—that it would benefit neither of them—Isa found it best to end it. The sooner the better.

Isa just couldn’t find the words to explain this to Lea yet. While he still didn’t have the words, he concluded he should simply avoid the redhead. Maybe then things would take their course. Lea would fall out of love with him while they spent time away.

When Isa went out the door, he could hear Lea scream his name one more time.

“Stupid Isa!”

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling into Place 4/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It’s funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you’ve ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,500 words

Chapter: 4/6

Four.

At the start of Isa's fifth month in the kingdom, there was a huge celebration in town. They were celebrating what they called the Fire Festival, where the town would make a large bonfire at the middle of the town square at night, dance around it, and simply enjoy each other's company. It was to celebrate successful harvest despite the vexing heat of the summer sun and to pray for more luck the next harvest season.

Lea took Isa to town that night in simple thin robes Lea bought from a merchant that came from the far, far east. They were called 'yukata', the merchant explained. It was suitable to wear in the warm heat of summer, and very comfortable, too. Isa's was blue with circular purple and violet designs, with a green sash to keep it in place, while Lea's was orange with yellow squares, the same yellow as the sash that kept his outfit in place. They wore slippers made out of straw.

The King and Queen didn't take part in the festivities. Their only contribution was the supplying of wood for the bonfire and drinks for the men, which the townspeople had to pick up from a neighboring kingdom.

Lea had been attending the festival every year since he was three years old, Isa heard from Carmela, who sat next to him in front of her shop at the Town Plaza. In the past month, Lea and Isa frequented the town more that Isa was able to associate names with faces. Carmela made great pancakes. He and Lea sometimes came to her place for breakfast when they woke up early enough to sneak past the guards.

That night, Carmela told him many stories about Lea, some he'd heard before from others, some he'd just heard from her. Children were giggling behind him as Carmela continued sharing her stories, grabbing her children to wipe the sweat off her children's backs whenever they ran in front of her. She talked about how the prince had always been cheerful—with a smile anyone would expect from a kingdom hailed with the sun's radiance, how lonely the prince was when the King and Queen went away for negotiations though he tried not to show, how friendly the prince had always been with different people despite age or gender. Isa listened intently to every story, watching Lea from across the town square where he was drinking with Wilbert and the others, hoping Lea's was just grape juice and not wine.

Blue-green eyes locked with green for a moment. It sent a ticklish feelingthrough their bodies. Feeling giddy Isa was watching him, Lea threw him a flying kiss. The rest of the boys he was drinking with howled and whistled at the gesture, while Isa felt the need to hide away in embarrassment.

"You didn't catch it!" Lea shouted across the square, over the burning bonfire. "Should I send you another one?"

"Keep your sloppy kisses to yourself!" Isa shouted, a small smile playing at the side of his lips. He was thankful for the bonfire that separated them so Lea wouldn't notice he was blushing again, for the thousandth time, at Lea's embarrassing antics.

"Ayyye, heard that? Our Prince kisses sloppy." One of the men said. Isa wondered if it was Mario, but among the buzzing of various people talking around him, he couldn't tell anymore. Then they all laughed. Lea was protesting that they hadn't kissed yet, which many were shocked about. They continued to kid around, saying things like how modest their Prince Lea was and how he didn't have to be shy to admit that they already had kissed. Isa was just glad they didn't see it as a chance to tease them and make them kiss right then and there.

The party continued even after the mothers sent their children off to bed. Many of the men were still awake, merrymaking and delighting at all the food and booze that was still available.

Isa didn't move from his spot the whole time. Though Lea went from house to house at some point, Isa didn't bother tracking him down. He figured the redhead would have gone all over town that night.

Various mothers and single women alike came up to Isa and talked gladly with him about various topics—Lea, the Kingdom of Flowers, their daily lives. They even complimented him and his beautiful hair, too. The women kept supplying him food and drink when it seemed he was running out, which he thanked each of them for.

Hours passed and the number of people awake dwindled down to a mere handful. Isa still sat at his place in front of Carmela's shop, a cup of warm hot chocolate in hand, given to him by one of the mothers still awake, Laura, who sat beside him. The bonfire was still burning at the center of the square, albeit with less flare than it had hours ago.

Isa watched quietly as Lea discussed seemingly more serious matters with the few men still awake from across the square. They still had drinks in hand. The blue haired boy sighed, wondering how in the world he could get Lea back to the castle at his state. He was glad the festival was held on a Friday, giving him and Lea the chance to catch up on sleep the following day.

The more time passed, the more difficult it was for Isa to stay awake. Staring at the low flame of the bonfire, Isa slowly drifted off to sleep.

***

Isa wasn't sure for how long he was asleep before he was woken up by cold fingers brushing his cheeks.

"You can't sleep here, Isa," said a familiar voice that made his heart skip and his chest feel warm and fuzzy. Isa hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he knew it was Lea.

Lea took the chair beside him, inched it so close he almost slammed it unto Isa's chair, and sat down. He then gently guided Isa’s head so he could lean it on his shoulder.

Isa may not have noticed, but Lea, too, had been watching him the whole night.

He saw how animated Isa's face was as other women talked to him, which made him a little jealous. He saw how kind he was to the children that braided flowers in his hair, thanking each of them with kisses to their cheeks before they ran away to play again, which, too, made him jealous. He saw how Isa was able to keep Lea in his view despite looking somewhere else, how lost Isa looked when he realized Lea was no longer at the bar with the boys and how relief took over his face soon after when he spotted Lea waving at him.

"Then we better head back to the castle soon," Isa said as he let the weight of his head fall onto Lea's shoulder. The redhead moved positions again then, this time wrapping his arms around Isa so the blue haired boy could rest his head on his chest. "I don't think I can hang on for much longer."

"Aww, but the party's just started! We can't go back yet." Lea laughed. He looked down at Isa, who's eyes were still closed, and brushed loose strands of hair off of Isa's face and tucked them behind his ear.

Lea had never been this close to Isa before, even in the past few weeks that Isa started adjusting to his physical displays of affection. That night, Isa was so, so close. He looked beautiful—Isa always was—in the faint, yellow glow of the bonfire's flames. Lea trailed his fingers from Isa's ear, to his cheeks to his chin. He gulped. Isa's lips were so, so close.

Lea wanted to kiss him then and there.

But before he could, Isa laughed weakly, drowsy with sleep, "You'll have to figure out a way to get back to the castle by yourself then."

Though a bit disappointed he couldn't kiss the other, he replied kiddingly, "Says the guy who's already falling asleep right here."

"I'm not—" Isa opened his eyes and tilted his head to look at Lea. He stopped midsentence as soon as he was met with the view of Lea's smile illuminated by the bonfire's flames, his shining green eyes that sparkled in the flames’ glow, and the millions of stars that decorated the night sky. Isa could hear the drumming of his heart beat faster once Lea widened his smile even further, showing his teeth and squinting his eyes.

Isa loved it when Lea smiled like that. It was evident in how Isa’s breath got stuck in his throat, his chest clenching, and a certain, bubbly warmth spreading from his stomach, extending to the rest of his body.

Lea continued to brush his fingers across Isa's cheeks then, and Isa wondered if Lea was going to kiss him. He really wished Lea would. He wanted to feel just how warm, sweet and soft Lea's lips really were, after all these months of wondering. He was once too shy to be physically affectionate with Lea, even though he had wanted to hold hands and do things people who loved each other did. He wanted to grab Lea by the back of his neck to pull him down and kiss him, but Lea spoke again.

"Not what? What is it?" Lea said when he noticed Isa was staring too long at him, shaking Isa out of his thoughts. "Are you cold?"

"Because of your fingers, yes." Isa laughed again, still weakly. He was so tired he hadn’t realized he was no longer holding onto his cup of hot chocolate. Isa took Lea's hands and blew his warm breath on them. When they seemed warm enough, Isa placed the other's hands on his cheeks. "There, much better."

Lea was surprised at Isa's actions. Isa wasn’t normally this hyped with skin contact. He chuckled in delight, then leaned down to kiss Isa on the forehead—though he missed and kissed in between Isa's eyebrows instead. He let his hands slide down from Isa's cheeks, down his neck and unto Isa’s shoulders. He then whispered in Isa's ear, "Would you warm up the rest of my body then?"

Greatly surprised at the terribly embarrassing line and the lustful tone it came with, Isa suddenly pushed Lea away, making the other fall off his chair. Lea laughed out loud as he lied on the floor. He sat up to face Isa, "Was that too much?"

Isa, not able to form a word though he very much wanted to scream at Lea, nodded yes.

"I'm sorry." Lea stood up, a few more tiny bouts of laughter still finding their way out his mouth. He bowed toward Isa and extended a hand toward him. "Shall we go?"

Isa then remembered the time they first met again after a decade spent apart. He remembered the irritation of Lea having mistaken him for a girl all these years, the disappointment that came with it, and the relief of Lea promising to be with him (although as a best friend) despite all that. Months had passed since then, and though they promised to be, both could sense they were no longer treating each other as mere "best friends". Or at least, that’s what Isa had hoped.

Isa breathed, feeling the weight of the hand filled with promises, wishes and dreams, just by looking at it. He wondered if it really was alright to take it, but what consequences could await them if he did, when they were already promised to wed? Brushing his uncertainty away, Isa took Lea's hand. Lea helped him up.

Lea then guided Isa toward the bonfire, stopping at a distance where they could feel the warmth of the low fire.

"You said we were leaving."

Lea held Isa close by the arms, whispering in the other’s ear, "Just one dance,"

Isa dug his face into Lea’s shoulder to hide from embarrassment again. “I—I don’t know how to dance anything except for The Waltz. The guy’s part, mind you.”

Lea laughed softly. “That’s alright. We just need to do this.” Lea pushed Isa away slightly so he could take Isa’s hands in his. He guided them behind his neck, making sure Isa had locked his fingers there. Lea then wrapped his arms around Isa’s waist. This position brought their faces closer to one another, so close that they could feel each other’s breaths on their skin. Their noses almost bumped, but didn’t.

Lea then started swinging his arms. He guided their hips to move in a slow, lulling dance. They stayed in place, just leaning from one foot to the other, swaying their hips to Lea’s rhythm. The pair couldn’t help giggling, a fluffy warmth forming in their chests.

Their foreheads touched, then Isa muttered. “Alright. Just one dance.”

***

"Today was really nice." Isa started.

After one dance, they started to walk back to the castle, just as Lea promised. Their pinkies were intertwined as they walked, swaying their arms slightly back and forth to the rhythm of their steps. "I'm glad you invited me."

"Well, you better look forward to bringing me home like this every year from now on." Lea joked. Although he was kidding, Isa was flattered at the hints of forever in Lea's words.

"I'll prepare myself."

Upon reaching the castle, they both headed toward Isa's room. Lea invited himself to sleep over, claiming he was too tired to go all the way to his room, when in truth he just didn't want to let go of Isa's finger. They lied on bed facing each other, not bothering to change clothes or brush their teeth because they were simply out of energy. Isa lied on the left, Lea on the right. They looked at each other before going to sleep, seemingly waiting for the other to fall asleep first.

"You'll become a great king, Lea." Isa spoke, after a long moment of silence. The overwhelming awe for Lea—how much he loved his people, and how the people love him in return—rushed to him then. He smiled at the glee reflected in Lea's eyes, then continued after a deep breath. "You'll lead this kingdom and its people into a more prosperous, radiant kingdom than it already is."

"You mean I'll be a greater king than King Lee the Eighth? My great, great, great, great. No wait, let me count this." The redhead counted with his fingers with every 'great' he mentioned. "My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather?"

Isa laughed at the many greats Lea had to say, and also at the delight in his chest because Lea did remember his passionate musing about King Lee the Eighth in one of his early days at the kingdom. "Yes, Lea. You'll be the best king there ever was."

Isa soon closed his eyes after, sleep getting the better of him. He was drifting off to the land of dreams when he felt warm breath on his face and something soft touching his lips. He slowly opened his eyes to find a pair of twinkling green eyes staring right back at him, the tip of his nose touching his. Lea's warm breath was on his face. Their closed distance made Isa's heart beat faster.

Lea leaned in again, this time placing his hand behind Isa’s neck, pulling Isa’s face closer to his. He pressed his warm lips on Isa’s cold lips—once, twice, again and again until he lost count, until Isa’s lips had become as warm as his. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, their breaths in perfect rhythm, hearts racing in their chests and drumming in their ears. Lea leaned in one more time. Isa leaned in, too, to meet him half way. He was pulling Lea closer by the hem of his yukata as if Lea wasn’t close enough. They pressed their lips together. Lea tasted Isa’s lips with the tip of his tongue this time. Isa let Lea map out his lips before parting them, letting the red-haired prince explore his mouth with his tongue slowly.

Isa could taste the grape juice in Lea's mouth. He delighted in both its sweetness and the fact that Lea hadn't drunk himself silly after all, despite his worries earlier that night. He relished in the warmth of Lea's body pressed against his and wrapped his arms around Lea, his hands gripping Lea’s back. Lea took pleasure in Isa's chocolate taste. He had imagined this kiss countless times before and never had he thought it would feel this magical. His heart beat louder in his ears as he continued passionately kissing Isa. He was even more enthralled when Isa tightly gripped onto his clothes, hoping that meant Isa was taking pleasure from it, too.

The more they kissed, the sweeter it became—a taste that was neither grape nor chocolate. A certain warmth settled in their chests.

They let each other go only when it was getting too difficult to breathe.

"So... Did I kiss sloppy?" Lea in between ragged breaths.

"Hmm, could do better next time."

"Can I try again now?"

Isa laughed sleepily before pulling Lea into another kiss.

==========

Lea awoke to Isa's sleeping face, a morning glow cast upon it by the few rays of sunlight that came in from the window. Birds chirped outside, and they complimented the smooth, steady pattern of Isa's breathing. While Lea stared gleefully at Isa, he noticed Isa's bare shoulder, uncovered by Isa's loosened clothes. Lea and Isa couldn't get as far as Lea had wanted last night. Isa was very tired, after all, and he didn't want to speed things up too quickly when they were finally making much progress. The redhead figured he was mightily content with last night's bouts of kisses, but the smooth, tempting shoulder made him think otherwise.

Lea wanted to pull the offending clothes off to feel all over Isa's smooth skin, touch Isa in areas no one ever had, kiss him drunk silly, and pour all his love and affection into him. When the redhead was starting to feel uncomfortable in his nether regions, Lea thought it best to leave while Isa was asleep to take care of this morning problem.

What was even more problematic is that now that he'd had a taste of Isa, how can he stop himself from then on?

***

Isa awoke to disappointment. Lea wasn't there beside him when he woke up.

He immediately started formulating his reprimand to Lea about Not Leaving Your Partner After a Wonderfully Good Night (and Kiss). Before he could leave his bed out of frustration, Lea emerged from the bedroom door.

"Oh, Isa. You're awake." Lea beamed. He was still in his clothes from last night, albeit more disheveled than Isa remembered. The redhead looked a bit embarrassed as he rushed toward the bed with a large piece of cloth in hand, and plopped unto the soft mattress. "I was waiting for you to wake up, but you were taking long. I figured you were tired so I thought I should let you sleep. And that when you woke up, we could eat breakfast together in bed!"

The redhead set the cloth on the bed and slowly opened it, hoping no crumbs fall unto Isa's sheets, and revealed a fresh batch of apple tarts. They hadn't had the chance to eat apple tarts in the past month. Isa wondered whether Lea took this without Carla knowing or if Carla gave it to him willingly, but another thought pushed that away.

This was unfair.

Was Isa not allowed to get mad at Lea for even two seconds?

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling into Place 3/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It’s funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you’ve ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,500 words

Chapter: 3/6

Three.

In the duration of Isa's first month at the castle, their routine was like this: Lea wakes up first. He goes to Isa's room to invite him out for breakfast. Lea would take Isa around the castle and the town proper, only coming back for lunch and supper. Lea would take Isa back to his room for the night, then retire to his own room and sleep.

As the days passed, however, Lea eventually stopped waking up first to fetch Isa. The routine eventually became like this: Isa wakes up first. He goes to Lea's room and nags Lea to fix himself up, finding out the hard way that Lea was a real heavy sleeper. The blue haired could not figure out how Lea ever managed to wake up before him when he slept this heavy. The first time Isa had come to Lea's room, he tried poking and punching Lea to wake him from his sleep, but the redhead somehow just snored even louder.

Isa wondered once, if he should wake Lea up like a princess: through a kiss. But he simply brushed the thought off, laughing at his momentous idiocy. He tried not to let the impending blush get to him, when he realized he was fine being on the receiving end of the kiss. Frustrated at himself, he pulled the covers off Lea and dragged him forcefully off the bed by his feet. Isa shouted at him until the other woke up.

Lea, however, couldn’t seem to learn his lesson, no matter how forceful Isa woke him up.

One day, Isa gave up on the tremendous ordeal of waking Lea up for the day, and pulled the nearby chair from the dresser. He placed it beside Lea’s bed, and decided to sit there until the other woke up.

***

That morning, Lea woke up to Isa sitting beside him, the other’s head bobbing as he dozed in his sleep. Delighted to see his favorite person the moment he opened his eyes, Lea quickly grabbed Isa's arms and pulled him into bed with him. The sudden pull on his arms woke a disoriented Isa up. A few moments later, Isa realized his upper body was lying on top of Lea's and his knees to the floor.

"Were you trying to tear my limbs off?" Isa spoke tersely, eyes deadpan. The pain on his knees ached, and he tried to get up and back to his chair so he could rub his knees in comfort, but Lea pulled him right back in bed.

Isa ended up lying sideways on the bed, with his back facing Lea. Lea's arms wrapped around his torso, and his legs wrapped around his thighs. Isa would have laughed at this position since Lea was like a koala hanging onto a tree branch, but Lea's breath at his nape was distracting him from forming clearer thoughts.

"Good morning, Isa." Lea spoke in a raspy whisper, not having the strength to raise his voice yet. Isa couldn't tell, but Lea's lips were barely an inch away from his skin.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. Let go of me. Your breath stinks."

Isa tried to get out of the other's grasp, but Lea only hugged him tighter. He still spoke in a whisper, this time right at Isa's ear. "If you were gonna sleep here anyway, might as well stay with me from evening."

"No, thank you! Knowing how loud you snore, I wouldn't be able to sleep." Isa huffed out immediately, still trying to get out of Lea's grasp. He was trying even more frantically now, not wanting the redhead to feel the heat in his body rising because of Lea's own embarrassing antics. Where in the world did Lea find the guts to say something as romantic—no, not romantic—embarrassing as that?

Isa was thankful that Lea couldn't see his face, at least, because he knew—no matter how much he didn't want to admit—he was as red as a tomato.

"Ahh, but you'll get used to it, wouldn't you?" Lea laughed weakly. He let go of Isa a few moments after, rolling to lie his back down on the bed. When he noticed Isa wasn't replying, he lied on his side again, propped on his elbow, and watched Isa as he fixed his hair at the dresser. Lea pondered how Isa made it possible for even the most mundane things to look so elegant, like tying one's hair.

Before Isa could finish tying the ribbon on his hair, the clock on Lea's room struck nine.

"Lea!" the blue haired prince called while adjusting the ribbon on his hair. "Go fix yourself up now, please."

"But I don't want to get up yet. Let me sleep for a while longer." Lea replied, rolling face down on the bed, adding a "please" after a moment.

"Your lessons start again today, don't they?"

Lea explained to Isa some days before that he was given a few weeks off lessons so he could spend time with his princess. (That time, Isa's face turned sour again at the mention of 'princess' and Lea earned a beating—disguised as sparring—for it.)

Today, Lea's break from studying ends, as the scholar that taught him lessons was back in the kingdom.

"That's exactly why I need to sleep some more. Wake me up after class." Lea was about to pull the covers back on top of him when Isa pulled him out of bed forcibly, much like the other day. The redhead stood up slowly, rubbing his bottom as Isa pushed him away from the bed.

"Lea, don't make me explain this to you again. Not everyone has the chance to be taught by scholars. You should be delighted you're one of the very few who could be taught all these things scholars have to offer."

Lea turned to Isa with a sour look on his face. "You sound just like Mother."

"Thank you for the compliment. Now, come on, you have to get dressed."

"Mother, I don't want to." The redhead complained as Isa pushed him to the foldable screen, behind which Lea could change out of his night robes and into his normal apparel.

"Oh, stop being a baby." Isa rolled his eyes despite having a playful smile on his lips. "Now come on.  Hurry up. Change and brush your teeth. We need to eat breakfast before the scholar arrives."

"Mother, help me get dressed." Lea complained, though his voice was muffled by his clothes.

"You can do fine. You're a big boy now." Isa replied, while he made up the bed. After that, he picked up the clothes Lea left lying on the floor the night, rambling to himself again what a difficult king they were to have if he couldn't even wake up properly, make his own bed, and pick up his own clothes.

Isa gathered the dirty clothes and put them on the clothes hamper for the housekeepers to take later. As soon as he had finished, long, lanky arms found their way around his torso for the second time that day.

"Mother, I did it." Lea whispered at Isa’s ear. This time, Isa could smell his minty breath.

Isa wished Lea would stop hugging him from behind and whispering to his ear. It was too much for his poor heart to take.

"Well done, well done, my son. Now let's get to the dining area." Isa replied. He looked unimpressed on the outside, with his eyes deadpan and his lips in a fine line, but his heart was thundering up a storm inside him.

"Not before getting my morning kiss from Mother." Lea quickly pecked Isa on the cheek, then let him go and walked toward the dresser to fix his hair—or, at least, that was his plan. He was thankful for the dresser's mirror through which he saw Isa rushing toward him with a deadly look on his extremely red face, like the blue haired prince had gone berserk.

Lea quickly grabbed a ribbon to tie his hair in and rushed out of his room.

Isa chased him all the way until the dining room.

While they ate breakfast in silence across each other, with Isa giving him a few angry glances now and then, Lea contemplated over what might have caused Isa's sudden rampage. He deduced that, if it was the kiss, he would like to try kissing Isa on the lips, regardless if it would cost him his life.

==========

In the weeks that followed, Lea noticed that Isa got jolty whenever he did such things like pecking Isa on the cheek or touching Isa on any part of his body.

"Stop doing such embarrassing things," Isa would scold him, his mood turning sour the next few moments.

Lea didn't see why Isa got so mad whenever he did. Perhaps Isa wasn't used to such physical contact.

  He would just have to wait for Isa to feel more comfortable with him before he could do such things again.

==========

On the weekend of Isa's second month, after the second week of lessons for both of them, Lea had to take Isa to the library to look for one of the readings he was tasked to read. The library was a spot he missed on purpose when he was taking Isa around the castle simply because, as he told Isa before, he wasn't fond of reading.

Lea, however, quickly regretted not bringing Isa here sooner. He had never seen so much glee on anyone's face as much as Isa had on his once Lea opened the doors to the library. Isa was completely mesmerized by the dozens of bookshelves, filled with books to the brim, which rose from floor to ceiling. The light that came in from the large windows gave the room an elegant ambience.

"My library doesn't even compare." Isa spoke, still in awe as if he had sparkles in his eyes. Lea wondered, if he came closer to Isa, would he have heard the twinkling of the blue-green orbs? "How could you not love reading when you have so many books to choose from?"

"Well, that was a direct hit to the gut." Lea commented sarcastically to deaf ears for Isa was already exploring the nearest bookshelf before he could finish. He smiled to himself as he watched Isa browse through some books, happy that the blue haired boy was this delighted. He approached Isa, catching the other by the arm before he could turn to the next bookshelf. "You know, we could come here more often if you'd lik–"

"I'd love to!" Isa replied quickly, and Lea could swear he saw more sparkles in Isa's eyes.

"Alright then," Lea nodded, making a mental note to bring Isa here more often. "But first, help me find the book I need."

"Alright."

When Isa slipped out of Lea's grip to find the book the redhead was looking for, Lea found himself still smiling at Isa's utmost fascination with books.

Then he found himself wondering, what would it take for Isa to look at him with that much endearment, too?

==========

By the second week of Isa's third month staying in the kingdom, going to the library became part of their weekend routine. Since Isa let Lea sleep in on weekends because they don’t have classes, Lea tended to wake up much later than Isa. At such times, the redhead wouldn’t bother passing by Isa’s room to check if he was still asleep. Instead, he went straight to the library, straight to Isa’s favorite corner.

That was where Lea found him that day.

Isa sat on a table placed between two bookshelves that reached the ceiling, meters up from the ground, his back facing the entrance. If Lea wasn't familiar with Isa's favorite place in the library, it would have been difficult to spot the blue haired boy, for he was hidden from view by the bookshelf behind him. To Isa's left was a huge window similar to the other windows in the room. It started from three feet off the ground and rose up to more than twelve feet. Through the window, one can see the forest on the left side. In the middle, the sharp end of the cliff. And on the right, the calm, blue sea. Of all the windows in the library, the sea was visible only from this one, which Lea believed to be the reason why Isa loved sitting there.

Isa once mentioned to Lea he had never seen the sea before coming here, and the redhead thought it was such a pity when he could see the calm waves of the sea on the small curves of Isa's hair. To Lea, Isa's existence was like that of the sea. Sometimes, it was calm and nurturing, giving him a sense of balance and quiet. Sometimes, it was harsh and intimidating, beating the idle and negligence out of his system, making him learn more about the world with every crashing wave.

But most of all, the sea was beautiful, and it shined radiantly under the bright light of the sun.

"How long have you been standing there?" Isa was snickering when Lea managed to shake out of his thoughts. The blue haired boy was facing him, arm slung at the back of his chair, chin propped on his hand. "Did you get distracted by my handsome face framed by this glorious morning light?"

"Heh. Don't get conceited now. I was..." Lea paused for a moment once he took a seat across Isa, looking down at the table. "I was staring at the sea."

"Yeah," Isa replied. Lea looked at Isa then, and saw the blue haired boy’s lips curved into a small, appreciative smile while he stared at the sea. "It's much more beautiful than I had imagined."

Yes, definitely. Lea concluded.

Isa was the sea.

==========

On a certain sunny weekend, Isa and Lea were reading at the library. They sat at Isa's favorite place, which by then he’d started to call his “little piece of heaven”. While Lea takes a break every after four pages, Isa was able to continuously flip through pages at a steady pace. Whenever Lea took his reading breaks, his eyes automatically lingered toward Isa.

Lea observed how his blue hair framed his beautiful face. Isa usually tied his hair up high, with strands of it coming loose to frame his face, much like the first time he met him again. The sunlight gave Isa’s skin a certain glow, and it made him look more beautiful than Lea could ever think possible. The redhead watched Isa’s facial expressions change, though subtly, every so often at the different lines he read.

Lea could just watch Isa forever, but there were times he wanted to touch him. To feel the other's silky, blue hair, his seemingly golden skin, those soft, luscious lips.

It bothered Lea.

He wasn't supposed to have these thoughts toward his “best friend”. But then again, he was going to wed Isa. So it should be alright to have such thoughts… right?

At that moment, Isa noticed Lea was staring at him.

"What is it?" The blue haired boy asked, cheeks starting to burn red. Lea wondered if it was from the heat of the sun, or because Isa was flustered. Lea so hoped it was the latter.

"It's nothing. Keep reading."

Isa rolled his eyes and gave Lea a crooked, playful smile. He proceeded with reading, cheeks still looking warm and red.

“To have Isa as a wife” the thought made Lea grin to himself. He thought how lucky he was that—despite spending years away from this perfect person and even mistaking his gender—he’d be able to marry the person of his dreams in the end.

==========

During Isa's fourth month in the Kingdom of the Sun, which was getting warmer as the days passed, Lea started taking him more often to town proper, where Isa met the townspeople, who responded well and sweet to Lea's introducing him as his fiancée. The older townspeople held their reservations about them. Both Isa and Lea could sense them tense up when they stood too near each other for their comfort, but they still respectfully gave their blessing, even if it was just at face-value.

Through these trips, Isa was able to experience first-hand just how radiant and bright the people of the Kingdom of the Sun really were. Many people smiled with radiance, even brighter than Lea's at times, and he could sense how united its people were. Isa aimed to have a kingdom like this, and was delighted that he could one day rule this kingdom with Lea. What a perfect life that would be, he pondered, that he would be able to get all the things he wanted.

It was too perfect that it seemed impossible.

==========

It happened when they were on their way to town one day.

They were both wearing short sleeved outfits then. They were walking so close to each other that they kept brushing each other by the arm. It came to a point their hands would brush ever so slightly, and when they did, they felt static in between their fingers.

They laughed at it at first, mumbling apologies for the static. They wondered how it was even possible for that electric pulse to form between them in the first place.

It happened one, two, four more times. Both of them started to wonder if they should just hold hands, but they had never done such things before. Also, in Lea's experience, Isa seemed to be bothered by such things.

Before they entered town proper, Lea stopped and grabbed Isa by the arm, electric waves pulsing through their contact again, making both of them laugh.

"Isa, can I—" Lea paused. He averted his gaze to the side, scratching the back of his neck as he continued. "Can I hold your hand?"

Isa breathed in deeply, then laughed, like he just unloaded tons of weight from his shoulders. He smiled at Lea when Lea looked back at him. "I thought you'd never ask."

Greatly delighted, Lea took Isa's hand, brought the back of it to his lips, and kissed it.

Since then, the amount of their skinship increased greatly. They would hold hands, fingers laced, when walking around, hug each other the moment they see each other in the morning, or lie on each other's stomachs or laps when they spent time in the garden.

Much of the castle staff were delighted at the change, and found delight in how happy their prince was.

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling Into Place 2/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It’s funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you’ve ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,500 words

Chapter: 2/6

Two.

King James and Queen Althea were able to persuade King Charles to continue with the engagement. Lea heard from the Queen what King Charles told King James: The king said that Lea and Isa would make wonderful best friends for life if they ever wed each other, which would become a great foundation for the unification of their two kingdoms to follow.

The fact that he made a decision similar to his father’s made Lea's heart soar. If he thought the same as his Father did, then, that meant he was getting closer to becoming the king he dreamt of becoming.

It was also decided that Isa would stay at the castle for the next six months so he and Lea could get more acquainted with each other. Three days have passed since they reunited, and Lea was touring Isa around the castle.

"You've taken me here at least six times now. Just today." Isa walked behind Lea, back straight and poised, while Lea dragged his boots, back arched, and eyes squinted. It seemed like Lea was looking for something far away, but he couldn't see it no matter how hard he looked. "We've been going around the castle for three days now. Haven't you shown me the whole castle yet?"

Lea remained quiet.

"So much for someone who keeps saying," Isa continued, hoping to gauge some conversation. He cleared his throat to copy Lea's voice. "Got it memorized?"

"Aww, geez, Isa." Lea threw his arm back at Isa hoping to hit the blue haired boy's arm, but the blue haired prince simply evaded the half-hearted attack. "Just stick with me, okay? I know where I'm going."

"Sure you do."

Lea stopped at his tracks and looked back to look at Isa straight in the eye to shut him up. Isa ended up biting down his lip, to hide an incoming smile because he successfully managed to get a reply from Lea and to silence himself. When Lea started walking again, he obediently followed.

After a few turns around the corridors, Isa started speaking again to fill the dull silence.

"You're not really giving me much of a tour, you know." The blue haired boy called out to Lea who stopped in his tracks and looked at Isa grumpily. He is not in the mood today. Isa thought to himself. He then continued the conversation, "Can't you talk about the paintings at least?"

"Okay, then. Here," Lea pointed to the painting that hung on the wall to his right. "This is the painting of King Lee, my great, great, great, great grandfather. He did some great things and bad things."

Isa looked at Lea, dumbfounded at how vaguely the other just described one of the prominent figures of the history of all kingdoms. Was he that clueless of his own kingdom’s history? Isa laughed, amused to find out Lea, despite pretending to be such a know-it-all, didn’t know much about such things after all. "Lea, I feel so sorry for your people."

"Excuse me?" Lea put his hands on his hips, walked toward Isa, and put his face inches away from Isa's. "And why would you feel sorry for them?"

"Because I know more about your family's history than you do."

Lea can't quite place it, but there's a certain sparkle in Isa's eyes whenever he's about to talk Lea down to which Lea couldn’t find himself backing down. Lea took on the challenge. Lea huffed in playful disbelief. "Oh, yeah?"

Isa's lips curved into a bold and arrogant smile. He looked up at the painting Lea just described, drew a deep breath then began, "King Lee the Eighth. The first king of the Kingdom of the Sun, which used to be different villages with different chieftains. It was he who helped found other Kingdoms, like the Kingdom of the Sands in the far west, the Kingdom of Rainbows to the east, the Kingdom of Hearts in the south, even my own kingdom, the Kingdom of Flowers, north from here. It is because of his efforts that peace was finally able to spread through the lands that were once drenched in blood and sullied in war. He is looked up to by many kings-to-be, including myself." Isa paused to look Lea in the eye and make the other acknowledge his defeat. He was almost caught off guard by the amazed sparkle in Lea's eyes. "Also, mind you, he's your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather."

"Whoa,” Lea’s jaw dropped open, amazed at the stream of information Isa just said. He was clapping loudly before he could realize. “How did you figure all that?"

"Easy, I studied it." The blue haired widened his arrogant smile. He puffed his chest out in pride.

At the mention of “study”, Lea laughed at Isa so hard that his laughter echoed through the hallway. Isa looked at him sourly. To Isa, there was nothing wrong with studying. "Well, I'm sure glad you're going to be my fellow king, Isa. I could leave the studying to you."

"You could do some studying yourself, too, you know." Isa said, lecturing in tone.

"Don't get me wrong, Isa. As a matter of fact, I do study." Lea started walking again, this time not as crouched and stressed as he was earlier. Isa followed, his chest feeling lighter now that Lea seemed to be feeling better. At the corner, the redhead looked left and right as if to see if the coast was clear.

"You study lazing about and exploring the castle, you mean?"

"Yes, that, but also," Lea turned to Isa, raising a finger, much like he did days before. Isa noted it was quite a habit of Lea's. "I like listening to lectures more than reading." Lea started down the hall to their right. "Hearing the scholars tell me the stories while they're ignited with passion for whatever they're explaining to me, that's what gets to me. Right" Lea abruptly stopped, making Isa crash into him. Lea looked at the other straight in the eye again, curved his lips to a playful grin, then pointed at Isa's chest, and smiled. "here."

Isa was thankful Lea quickly looked away because he felt his cheeks becoming warm at the sudden contact. Lea hadn't known, but through the ten years Isa had known Lea, he had thought of the redhead to be the perfect king—knowledgeable in his culture, always wore himself with poise, spoke well with people of high authority. Isa studied well and hard in order to become a king good enough to stand by that Lea's side. Isa was greatly disappointed Lea hadn't met his expectations and that his efforts seemed to be fruitless, but it was tiny moments like this that made Isa's heart soar and made him wonder that maybe even this Lea deserved to be given a chance.

Once Isa calmed down, Isa wondered if Lea would remember his ramblings about his grandfather. Before Isa could even think about asking Lea that, he noticed Lea started jumping in place and pointing toward a door.

"Ah! Over here, Isa! I finally found it!" While Lea tried to push the door open, Isa observed it. The door looked like it hadn't been opened in years. He could tell by the cobwebs and moss growing around it. They were at one of the farthest corners of the castle after all. He didn't understand why, after endless halls of paintings, there would be a door here. Isa didn't notice that at the end of the hall to his left was a door that left outside. It was actually one of the secret passages created to give the royal family a quick escape should they ever need it.

"This isn't gonna lead us to the the castle dungeons like yesterday, right?" Isa asked once Lea finally got the door to open. It led to a long, dark tunnel, though Isa could hear voices from the other side.

"No, no, no. This place is gonna be cooler!"

Isa sighed, massaging his temples. "I was afraid you'd say that."

They entered the dark tunnel. Light came from the other end of it, from which a lot of noise echoed through. Isa wondered where Lea was taking him.

"Lea—"

"Don't worry." Lea reached his arm out at the direction he heard Isa's voice and grabbed what seemed to be Isa's arm. "Just follow me."

When they reached the end of the tunnel, they waited for their eyes to adjust to the light. Then, Isa saw before him, the lively, castle kitchen where around thirty (or more, even) people were preparing food for the rest of the Castle staff, and some fancy food for lunch for the royalty.

"Young Master Lea!" A woman called out to them. She was wearing a brown dress made of linen that reached her ankles, a white apron around her wide waist and a white veil to keep her hair from her face. Despite her intimidating size, her gaze and voice were gentle and sweet.

"Carla!" Lea greeted her with much warmth in his voice. "Just the person I wanted to see."

"Ohh, dun' give me tha’ righ’ now, Young Master. Ye shan’t be here! Lunch is in an hour an’ a half. Please dun' spoil yer appetite b’fore then."

"Yeah, I won't." Lea said as he grabbed an apple from a nearby basket and took a bite from it—though Isa swiped it off his hand before he could actually bite it.

Isa watched the rest of the kitchen staff. Some were preparing soup, some plating dishes, some washing dishes in the far corner of the room. Every person in the room seemed to busy themselves while maintaining a cheery look on their faces.

"Oh, Carla, have you met Isa?" Lea pulled Isa by the arm again to get his attention.

"Pleased to meet ye, Prince Isa. We hope our Young Master 'ere ain't too much to handle for ye."

"Yes, he is quite a handful." Isa shot him a side-glance with a smug, little smile on his face.

Lea protested, "Hey!"

"Now move on along, Young Master! We still ‘ave lots o' preparin’ to do! How did ye get in 'ere without Dilan finding out?" Carla shoved Lea toward the main kitchen door, with Isa obediently following them. They evaded a lot of people coming through on their way to the door. "Ohhh, ye've been sneaking around again, ‘aven't you? I'll ‘ave tha’ back door locked, I tell ye!"

"Come on, Carla. Don't lock it." Lea begged. "I promised I'd use it for emergencies, and this is an emergency! See, poor Isa here is so hungry."

"Don't you dare get me involved with this, Lea."

"See? He's so hungry he's as grumpy as" Isa punched his arm. "Ow."

"Prince Lea! You're here!" Some little girls passed by with tins of milk in hand.

"Oh, hey, Daisy, Elma, Dorris." He greeted each of them with a smile, and they waved bye to him as they headed toward one of the people who were cooking.

"'scuse me. Comin' through," said another person carrying what looked to be dough that was big enough that two people had to carry it to one of the floured tables.

"Hey, Horrace. Arthur." Lea greeted them. Isa was starting to wonder, how did he know all their names?

"Move out of the way!" Someone screamed from what seemed to be another back door that led to the horse carriages. Isa saw Lea's face lit up in delight before he headed toward the burly man that came into the kitchen with a fish half his size slung over his arm. Isa heard Carla call out to Lea before she ended up mumbling about he never listens before going back to her work. Isa smiled at how she managed to sound more affectionate than annoyed, despite grumbling about Lea.

"Whoa, that's a huge fish, Owen!" Lea exclaimed, eyes wide at the gigantic fish before him. He spread out his long arms to measure the fish at full length, but his arms still weren’t long enough.

"Mah brother caugh’ it ‘specially for you, Prince Lea." The man called Owen winked then laughed loudly. His laughter was as loud as anyone would expect from a man his size.

"Was it Wilbert or Manny who caught it?"

"Willbill." The older man was laughing so hard Isa could feel the ground shake with his laughter.

Lea laughed as well. "Poor Manny. He just can’t compete with Wilbert, eh? How are they? How are the wife and kids?"

"Tha all doin’ fine." Owen put the fish on an empty table and started walking back to the door through which he came. In Owen’s stead, other kitchen staff came up to the table to slice the fish up and prepare it for that day’s lunch or for storage.

Before Owen went back through the door he came, he wrapped an arm around Lea and whispered to him. Isa tried to strain his ears to hear, but to no avail. "Tha heard about yer lil princess mishap, eh? Ye doin' alright?"

"Yeah. Isa and I are doing great." Lea beamed as bright as he could. He grinned so wide his cheeks hurt.

"Really? Well, as long as ye're happy an’ gettin’ along well, am sure the kingdom’ll be happy as well." Owen gave him a thumbs up before moving back toward the door. "Well, I gotta run and get some more. Ye should stop by mah place again sometime, Young Master! I'll take ye to one of the islands."

"That'd be great!" Lea grinned. "You better get it memorized, Owen."

"Sure will, Young Master!"

Before Owen was out the door, Lea was already with the nearest person he could find and started chatting them up, too. Isa watched Lea's constantly changing, animated expressions from where he stood. When he stood where he was long enough, one of the kitchen staff offered him a chair to sit on the table opposite the large one, where they were kneading huge doughs of bread.

When Lea was taking too long, Isa figured he should leave the kitchen for now and head back to his room. Lea would find him there again anyway. That was when a woman came up to him.

"He really is quite a handful, eh?"

Isa jolted in surprise when he heard the voice. He turned toward the woman beside him and realized it was that woman from earlier. Carla, was it? "He… He really is."

"Yer wond’rin’, ain't ye?" Carla laughed, softly. "How ‘e knows all our names."

Isa replied in silence as they continued to watch Lea interact with everyone else in the kitchen, addressing them all by name.

"’e just has that charm, hasn’t he? Status, gender, he dun' seem to have a care. He wanna be friends with everyone. Says he'll live fore’er in them memories." Isa moved his chair to give way to a kitchen staff carrying a big bucket of water while he followed another person from one cooking station to another. "The lad has no siblings, he's only ever 'ad the castle folk to talk to. Sometimes he'd go down the village, but once he gets found out he gets taken back in again." Carla sighed. Isa intently listened to every word Carla said to him. "Guess he's just that much of a free spirit, ayt?"

Isa nodded. He watched Lea offering to help knead the huge, gigantic dough he saw earlier, and people passing by patted his head. He didn't notice himself smiling at Lea, though he did notice Carla was eyeing him sweetly. "W-what is it? I-is there something on my face?"

"Sure is. It's so blatantly obvious." Carla laughed, spanking some flour off her apron.

"W-what is?" Isa tried to wipe his face.

Carla laughed even louder. "Nuthin', Prince Isa. You take care of our prince, eh? I'm not sure if things will go smoothly for you two, but we're all counting on ye."

Isa’s lips curved into a small smile. "I'll do my best."

Carla then put a piece of cloth on Isa's hand, encasing what Isa guessed to be some pastries. "Don't share it with the Young Master, okay?" Isa watched Carla head toward where Lea was about to try some soup. "Alright, alright, enough is enough! We're pressed for time now, Young Master. Don't make me get Braig to kick you out of the kitchen."

"Yipes, Braig." Lea spoke the name with a shudder. Isa chuckled at the bizarre look on his face as he did. "Alright, alright, I'm heading out." Lea looked around for Isa and saw he was already standing by the door. He ran up to Isa, opened the door for him, then faced the kitchen area and announced, "We'll come back soon!"

Lea couldn't hear Carla's reply after he shut the door behind him. "Let's come back for dessert after lunch." Before he could say the next thing in his mind, he spotted a big, black labrador that sat outside the kitchen. He snickered and patted the dog's head, which the dog seemed to enjoy as it wagged its tail. "Hey Dilan."

Ah, so that was Dilan. Isa pondered.

The redhead started walking again once he was satisfied playing with Dilan. "What was I saying? Oh, yeah. We should come back for dessert after lunch. Carla makes great apple tarts. Oh? What's that you got there?"

Isa still hadn't opened the piece of cloth that laid on the palm of his hand. He stopped in his tracks. Lea stopped as well, eager to see what was inside the cloth. Isa slowly opened the piece of cloth, revealing two pieces of apple tarts.

"A-apple tarts." Lea's mouth seemed to water as the very words left his mouth.

Isa's eyes sparkled at how delicious the apple tarts looked. He took one and ate it, and he squirmed in delight at how good it was. "Wow, these are really good."

The blue haired quickly noticed Lea was about to grab the other piece, so he immediately placed it away from Lea.

"H-hey. Give me some," Lea pouted and tried to grab the remaining piece of apple tart, but Isa was making it difficult to do so.

"Carla told me not to give you any."

"What? Why would she say that?"

"She said it'll ruin your appetite."

"So will yours!"

"I'm an exception. I'm a guest here."

Lea kept trying to swipe the one last tart off Isa's hand, but Isa's reflexes proved too fast for him. With Lea's every attempt, he ended up with Isa's free hand on his face, disorienting him. It was frustrating that Isa could keep his attempts at bay with just one hand.

"Why are you so strong?" Lea tried to catch his breath, supporting himself by placing his hands on his knees. He was worn out by trying to steal the apple tart from Isa.

Isa snickered at Lea giving up on the apple tart. Taking pity on him, the blue haired boy took the redhead's hand and gently placed the apple tart on his palm. It was a miracle it was still intact.

"Smart, strong, and kind, what's there to not love about me, right?" Isa winked at Lea then walked away, not knowing he left a very distressed and flustered Lea in his wake.

==========

Isa didn't believe in Love.

He didn't see how a man and a woman could be so engrossed with each other that they would be willing to share their lives forever. He couldn't let himself believe anymore. Not when his father didn't weep when his mother died. Not when his father continued to lay with different women every night after his mother's death. Not when his mother wasn't there anymore to tell him stories of happy endings and promises.

But his encounter four years after his mother's death with Lea, the boy with hair that shined like the sun and eyes that shimmered like the sea he'd always dreamt of seeing, he figured things might be different with him.

Without knowing the weight of taking Lea's hand, he took it, never forgot the feeling of his fingers entwined with the other’s, and treasured the memory in his heart until they met again ten years later.

Isa never forgot, staring into a paradise of flowers, letting his young heart take the fall.

==========

In the days that passed, Lea was able to take Isa through eight more secret passages, most of them exiting to the forest that surrounded the castle, or the garden where Lea once picked a bouquet for Isa. After that one time they exited through the garden, they started spending time there. They would sometimes spar on the green grass, which usually ended in Lea's loss, and, sometimes, Isa would lecture Lea about the different kinds of flowers in the garden—where they came from, how they bloomed, what they meant when you gave them to someone. More recently, ever since Carla had decided she favored Isa more than Lea, or at least that’s what Lea claimed, they had picnics there in the afternoon.

Under the giant tree in the middle of the garden, they would eat or take naps and talk about the most random things while watching the sky.

Their days passed by peacefully, and they did not get tired of each other's company.

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Falling into Place 1/6

To: Lunatty (saixualhealing) From: Lea (misomilk)

Message: Helloooooooo, Lunatty. <3 I don't remember how it happened exactly, but I know that I am in love with your writing. ;w; In an effort to impress you because I know you write splendidly well, I initially planned to do oneshots for all your prompts. But, uhm, this 'betrothed royals AU' eventually ate me up. By 'me' I mean my soul. AHAHAHAA /cries

I'm sorry you only get one prompt filled from me. ;WWWWW; P.S. I still remember I owe you Axel's side to that Isa-dying-for-Roxas drabble. :'D Anyhow. HAVE A GREAT, GREAT, GREAT TIME THIS CHRISTMAS + NEW YEAR!!!! Happy holidays!! =)

Title: Falling into Place Summary: It's funny how things fell into place, like how a trip to a neighboring country rooted a misunderstanding, that usher to an engagement, that led to the reunion of two souls, which eventually fell in love. The two souls falling into place. Warning: a whole lot of cheesy, fluffy things. cheesier than the cheesiest cheese pizza or mac and cheese you've ever seen/eaten. Maybe. Word Count: ~21,400 words Tracks: Arashi piano albums + AI's FINAL DISTANCE + Eyes on me (guitar) Notes: I tried to keep them as in character as possible, since I, too, hate it when they don't act in-character. But I wonder if I made them too cheesy, ayyye. The story gets a bit rushed in Chapters 5-6 because I was running out of time. Sorry. ;w; Also, super many thanks to Mitzy, my beloved beloved beta, without whom this story would've been 10000% much crappier. Hahahaha.

Happy reading!

Chapter: 1/6

One.

Every direction he looked at, there were flowers of different colors, scents, and sizes—small ones with blue, pointed petals that turned yellow in the middle, gigantic red roses bigger than his closed fist, and trees with huge brown trunks that had violet flowers dangling from their tops. Prince Lea’s short, fiery red hair flowed with the gentle gush of the wind. He was dressed in a light orange one piece made of silk with meticulous embroidery, an outfit befitting a boy of his royal status. However, from all the running around he had done, his shorts, stockings and shoes had been dirtied with mud. But he paid no heed to his appearance for he was engrossed at the beautiful sight before him. His emerald eyes tried to absorb the beauty of it all. He had never seen so many colors all at once. He never knew more colors could exist than what he had already seen before this. The sight before him was, simply put, extremely beautiful for the eyes of a seven-year-old.

In the middle of the flower-filled paradise, he stood beside her. Beside the girl who, despite not knowing her for more than a day, made the prince’s eyes grow bigger when she smiled. Beside her, who made his heart beat fast and uneven like the unsteady flutter of the wings of a young bird trying to fly. She made him feel so happy, he felt like he wouldn’t mind giving his share of dessert to her until the end of time—even his favorite apple tarts.

He stood there with her, small stubby fingers entwined with small stubby fingers.

When a gust of wind blew, petals of different colors danced around them, floating around them as if they jingled to a joyful beat. Then he heard her laugh, which sounded sweet to his ears.

That's when he knew. This was the person he will one day marry. The person he will wake up to everyday, for whom he’d have more love in his heart than he had the day before. The person he would share eternity with. The person who would give him happiness as he would do for her in return.

She will be his wife, and no one can stop it from happening.

==========

On a cliff overlooking the sea stood the castle of the Kingdom of the Sun. The kingdom was small, extending from the shoreline to town proper, to the farmlands that spanned a few miles off the coast. Its people were like one big happy family, and cherished each others' company. It was what the kingdom prided itself for: its people. Everybody knew everybody else, which was why everybody always knew what everybody else was busying their selves about.

Today was a glorious day for Prince Lea will finally reunite with the girl of his dreams after a good ten years. He had been engaged to the Princess of the Kingdom of Flowers, per his request, ten years ago. Although the kings of both kingdoms agreed to the engagement they formalized by letter, they had agreed that the two meet again ten years later when the children have become more mature and had developed into the persons fit to rule the kingdom.

Every household decorated their front windows with flowers of different colors and sizes, shops set up beautiful and elegant bouquets on top of their tables and counters, even the local butcher put a flower necklace around the meat that hung inside his shop. They were all excited for the coming of their beloved prince's future queen.

"They're coming," shouted a boy running toward the village from the farmlands, getting the attention of many villagers. "Old Pops and I saw a blue carriage with the Flower Seal coming toward us!"

Women started gossiping.

"Oh, I wonder if we'll get to see her!"

"She must be more beautiful now that ten years have passed."

"But aren't they too young? Don't you wonder? They're only seventeen!"

"Nonsense. When it's love, it's love!"

"Aye, when I was seventeen, Gladys and I had already five—"

"Oh, shush! They're almost here!"

An elegant blue carriage adorned with silver at its hinges and corners passed by the small streets that led toward the castle. The coachmen were dressed in the Kingdom of Flower's colors—blue and green. The people of the Kingdom of the Sun shouted praises and threw rice grains and flower petals at the carriage as it passed to give their visitors their warmest welcome.

---

Lea saw the carriage coming toward the kingdom before it even entered the farmlands. His heart was beating fast and loud in his chest, and he was afraid he might die out of excitement before he could even meet his dear princess again. He was pacing up and down his room, which was located at the west wing of the  castle’s third floor. His room had two large windows: one that overlooked the sea to the west and one that over looked the farmlands to the east. He tried to stare at the blue ocean and green fields to calm himself down, but the colors only reminded him of blue-green gentle eyes of purity and the feel of his small stubby fingers entwined with hers.

Isa. Oh, his dear, Princess Isa. How much longer must he have to wait before he could lay his eyes on her again?

Thinking he could not waste another minute without her, he motioned to rush out the door to go wherever the carriage, but his mother came through the door and blocked his path.

"Oh, Lea, darling, can you please settle down?” his mother, the Queen of the Sun, Althea, said. She was a queen revered even in other kingdoms, popularly said to have an aura like a blue flame. She may appear calm but within her hides a certain heat, a power that can silence even the most boisterous of crowds. “Look at you! Your clothes are all messed up!"

The Queen was in a dress made of layers of silk in the Kingdom of the Sun’s colors: orange and yellow. It had long sleeves that fell to the floor, embroidered with various elegant patterns. A golden crown sat on top of her wavy blond hair that was covered in a translucent orange veil. Lea was dressed in the same colors as his mother. She tidied the loose yellow cravat on his chest then straightened the creases on her son's shoulders. The Queen stepped back, taking a moment to take in her son’s appearance, and  sighed happily when she was content. "Oh, my sweet, sweet child. Look at how grown up you are now."

"Mother, please." Lea scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes as his mother continued to study him, her keen emerald eyes looking for anything else she needed to straighten up.

"Don't give me that tone right now, I'm trying to cry." The Queen took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped an inexistent tear from the corner of her eye.

"You're trying to?" Lea tried to laugh at his mother’s weak attempt at comedy. He knew she was trying to calm him down. But his laughter came out weak and shaky. Clearly, he was still nervous.

"Ah, there you are." The King came into the room. He had big, gentle golden eyes that told of his wisdom and the same fiery red hair as Lea's, although his carried a crown of red rubies and green emeralds. Among the kings, he was one of the tallest, and of leanest builds, but still one of the strongest. "We should get going. I can already hear the people celebrating. They will be inside the castle soon."

"Father," Lea called, his parents turned toward him as they were about to head out the door. His voice cracked as he continued, "What if… What if things don't work out?"

The King smiled at him, eyes squinting and teeth showing. King James smiled like this in all the other times Lea had been scared, and supported him each time without fail. The King put his hand on his son’s left shoulder and gripped him gently to reassure him things will be fine.  His mother pretended to wipe another tear off her cheek as she watched them. "Don’t worry. It will all be fine, son.”

Lea took a deep breath and let his father’s words sink in. “Okay.”

The King patted Lea’s shoulder before heading toward the door, a huge smile still on his face. “Now, shall we go and welcome our guests?"

==========

While the King and Queen headed straight to the main hall to welcome their visitors, Lea, however, made a detour. He figured he should present a gift to his beloved princess after spending ten years apart. A bouquet of flowers from their garden would be perfect. Perhaps it would remind her of the short but sweet time they spent together in a garden ten years ago when he and his parents visited the Kingdom of Flowers.

He ran to the garden so fast that before he could stop to think about how stepping on grass might soil his outfit, he was already halfway into the garden, looking for the perfect flowers to give his princess. The moist soil due to the morning drizzle made it difficult for him to keep his balance, especially with his heeled boots that sank into the mud with every step. However, he pressed on, heading deep into the garden to look for the more beautiful flowers.

His garden did not have the same variety of flowers as that of the Kingdom of Flowers’. He tried to pick flowers as close to those he remembered from ten years ago as possible. He ended up picking a few red roses and some blue flowers that had yellow centers. He tried to look for purple ones as well but to no avail. After finally being satisfied with his bouquet, he rushed to the main hall and borrowed a ribbon to tie his hair in from one of the castle staff he passed by.

When Lea got to the main hall, the King of the Flower Kingdom was at the foot of the throne, shouting at the King and Queen. He stopped in his tracks, caught by surprise. The shock further heightened his already fast heartbeat due to his running around.

Lea proceeded toward the throne with cautious steps, heartbeat drumming in his ears. His presence was made known to the four people at the throne with the clank of his muddy boots. The foreign King quickly drew his attention toward him.

"You!" The foreign King exploded at once, then, started marching toward the confused prince. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Charles, my old friend, can't we settle this more peacefully?" spoke King James, who stood from his throne to follow the foreign King.

"I, uhm..." Lea gulped. He wasn't sure why the foreign King was so angry, but he assumed he was about to be scolded for coming in late. "II ap–p–pologize deeply for arriving l–late, sir. Uhm, your High Kingliness, sir. King, sir."

At the corner of his eye, Lea saw his mother covering her face as if to hide from the embarrassment of her son's poor etiquette. He sheepishly mouthed an “I’m sorry” to his mother.

The enraged King continued to make his way toward Lea. He was short and stout, and his face almost as red as Lea’s hair as he continued to shout things the prince couldn’t quite make out. The king’s image was making Lea laugh. With the King’s bright red face, and snow white hair, he looked like a gnome.

And as he tried to look away so that he wouldn’t laugh, he saw him. A prince with long, blue hair stood straight and poised at the foot of the throne, unaffected by the King’s shouting. Who was that? Perhaps his princess' brother?

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, young man!" The foreign king’s voice snapped him back to reality.  With the king barely a meter away from him, the king’s red face no longer made Lea want to laugh and, instead, made him tremble in fear, afraid of being scolded. He tightened his grip on the flowers he held behind him as he straightened his posture, unknowingly crushing them.

"I am greatly insulted, young man!" The foreign King threw his arms up. He had to pause a while to catch his breath. Lea was shaking to his knees. "My son—My son is not a princess!”

Son?

While the foreign king continued to catch his breath, Lea’s thoughts swam in confusion. What was he talking about? What son? The boy at the foot of the throne? Yes, clearly his son was not a princess.

At that point, King James caught up to his friend and stopped to catch his breath as well.

"G–great King, sir highness,” Lea started. “I'm not sure I'm following what you are sayi–"

“Isa–“ King Charles huffed. He looked up at Lea before he pointed to his son. "My Isa is a prince. See?"

Isa?A prince?

Lea followed the direction to which the foreign King's finger pointed. There stood the blue haired boy in pants he noticed earlier. Was the King saying that boy was his Isa and not Isa’s brother?

Princess Isa, whose smile made his eyes grow bigger and his heart skip beats, for whom he wouldn’t mind giving his share of dessert until the end of time. Sweet, sweet, Isa, who smelled of fragrant flowers. Who taught his young seven year old heart how to love.

Princess Isa was not a princess?

"The nerve of you to assume he was a girl.” The king said, his voice shaking with anger. “We will not stand for this! What do you have to say for yourself, James?"

"Calm down now, Charles, my good friend. I'm equally surprised you thought our Lea was a girl." King James patted the shorter King on the shoulder to calm him down once he finally caught up to him. "Well, certainly, we should have come up with better, more boyish names seventeen years ago, eh?"

"This is not the time for jokes!" The foreign King gasped for air from all his shouting, while King James's laughter echoed throughout the huge and empty hall.

Then, the sound of claps thundered through the hall, overpowering King James' laughter. The king immediately stopped to let the queen express what she had to say.

"That is enough." Queen Althea’s commanding voice echoed through the hall as if she had shouted from each corner of it. By this time, Lea had completely lost track of what was going on that he didn't realize he let go of the flowers in his hand. "I believe we three should discuss these matters more privately.” She turned to the two young boys. “Lea, Isa, could you two leave us for a moment?"

"Yes, my Queen." Isa bowed promptly, arms at his side. He looked to his left for the nearest exit he could find, and left the room through that door.

"Lea, my dear, could you escort him, please?"

"Y–yes, Mother."

Of all the ways Lea imagined this day would begin, he could never have imagined things would turn out this way.

==========

When Lea stepped through the door he saw Prince Isa exit through, he found the blue haired boy waiting beside the door, eyes to the floor. Lea stood right in front of him to get his attention, but Prince Isa kept his gaze where it wason muddy boots and the rest of the floor. Lea took this as the chance to observe the boy before him.

Prince Isa had long blue hair–a richer blue than what he can remember from ten years ago. His hair was tied high at the back, with a few strands falling loose to frame his face. It made his cheeks stand out, Lea noted. For a prince, he looked pretty. The Flower Prince wore an outfit that wasn't much different from what Lea wore, as is what is customary among princes, but his was light, minty green with silver swirling embroidery. They both wore dark heeled boots that reached their knees, though clearly Lea's was more unclean.

Once he’d stared at him long enough, Lea concluded this Isa was nowhere near the Princess Isa that Lea had dreamt of night and day these past ten years, which disheartened him. Prince Isa was sharp and flat where Lea expected him to be curvy, hard where he thought him to be soft, and polite and distant where Lea expected him to be gentle and welcoming. Lea could continue listing the differences, yet, somehow, Lea can't make himself feel as disappointed as he wanted himself to be.

After all, he couldn't sense any ill intentions from this Isa. This may not be the same Isa he pined for before, but he seemed to be a good and decent guy. Maybe marrying a good guy would be more tolerable than having to marry a girl who was not the one he'd dreamed of all these years.

"Alright." Lea beamed, nodding, having convinced himself the situation was still bearable.

Isa looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. He echoed what Lea said, "Alright?"

Chills went up Lea's spine when Isa looked straight at him with the same blue-green eyes that he couldn't get out of his head this past decade. Lea wasn't sure if the chills came out of fear of Prince Isa's cold glare or out of nostalgia for Princess Isa in his mind. He quickly shook the chills off, cleared his throat and continued, "Now that I've got your attention, it's time to do some introduction."

Isa remained quiet.

"My name is Lea." He extended a hand and smiled at him. "Got it memorized?"

"Memorized? That you're the pathetic, filthy version of the Lea I remember? Sure. I got that memorized." Isa replied curtly, words seething with mockery, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. He looked past Lea, then to his right, where he spotted an arrangement of flowers.

"Oh, so you remember me from before?" The redhead replied, giving no heed to the other's sarcasm.

"Of course, I do." Prince Isa's eyebrows furrowed, eyes glued to the floor again. "What's good about me is that I remember properly: people's names, people's faces, people's genders."

Lea laughed bitterly, rubbing the back of his neck while he looked away. He was too embarrassed by his mistake of ten years to realize Prince Isa had come here to sort out the engagement despite remembering correctly that Lea was a boy for the past ten years. "Sorry about that. I was sure you were a girl because of your name."

Isa glared at him again. He seemed to be mad about something. He locked eyes with Lea for a few seconds before he spoke again, as if hurt by what he was just about to say. "Don't worry. I'm sure my Father is talking his way out of this, and I'll be out of your hair by then."

"Out of my hair?" Lea asked, eyebrow raised in question.

Isa watched the embarrassment flush from Lea's face only to be filled by genuine confusion. The blue haired was surprised how much the other was still an open book when it came to his emotions. Well, that part of him hasn't changed, I guess.

"But why?" Lea continued.

"Do I still need to explain? He's going to call off the wedding, of course."

"Yeah, and that's what I'm asking. Why would you have to go cancel the wedding?"

"You!" Isa almost grabbed the redhead by the cravat. Lea quickly stepped back to avoid being attacked, but Isa had stopped himself before he could move an inch. He kept his arms at his sides. "Why are you taking this so calmly? You mistook me for a girl. Besides, you've probably waited for this day for ten years to see how I've blossomed into the woman you've imagined," he said, the word “woman” leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. "Yet here I am, with a completely different gender. You’re supposed to be disappointed. Well, aren’t you?"

"Well, yeah, sure, I'm lots disappointed that my shining beautiful Isa turned out to be a guy, but," Lea’s voice trailed off as he scratched the back of his neck again, averting his gaze, not noticing the red flush on Isa's cheeks for being called 'beautiful'. "I don't see why we'd have to cancel the wedding," Lea pondered, crossing his arms while he studied the ceiling. He looked back at Isa. "We're being wed to tie our kingdoms together, right? That doesn't mean you and I have to be of different genders to do that, right?"

Only then did Lea notice the red flush on Isa's cheeks. The Sun Prince wondered if the other prince was so angry that it made his cheeks burn red. Much like the foreign king.

The blue haired boy gritted his teeth as he spoke, "I cannot comprehend how that brain of yours processes this situation that you could even think of it that way."

"Ah, then let me shed some light on you, Isa." Lea grinned, raising a finger as he spoke. Isa mentally slapped his forehead since the other boy couldn’t seem to grasp his sarcasm. "See, it’s like this. You and I have to get married to set a good example of bonding and unity for our kingdoms to follow. Correct?"

Isa sighed. Lea was rubbing salt on his wounds without even knowing.

Isa had spent the past ten years waiting for the moment he will reunite with Lea, the one with emerald eyes and sun-like smile. He so badly wanted to be with the one who rescued him from the darkness of his loneliness, who had accepted him, and even wanted to marry him despite being the same gender. For such a kind-hearted boy, Isa was ready to give his everything.

And it hurt Isa, like a million shards tearing his heart apart, when he found out that Lea thought he was a girl. Isa realized he had naively convinced himself Lea could love him, someone of the same gender. Isa could only put up a rude façade to keep himself together.

"But,” Lea continued with enthusiasm, without waiting for a reply from the other. “Instead of you and me getting married so we could be, hmm, how to put it? To be each other’s wives? We'll get married to be best friends for life!" He put emphasis on the phrase “best friends”. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"We're going to be wed… so we could be best friends for life?" Isa echoed the other’s words, trying to let the words sink in.

"Yeah, yeah. Something like that. Be best friends and unite our kingdoms. Isn't that amazing? Two birds with one stone." Lea beamed, crossing his arms at the back of his head and swaying side to side. "I've never really had a best friend. There aren't much other kids my age here, you see."

“Unbelievable,” the blue-haired boy looked down.

Lea was about to defend himself when Isa suddenly sighed. The blue-haired boy then looked to him with a smile of defeat across his face, “But that actually doesn’t sound too bad.”

If thinking about it this way meant he could still live the rest of his life with Lea, Isa didn’t mind. Although Lea may never love him the way Isa did, being promised to Lea forever was a good enough consolation.

Lea let a moment pass for Isa's approval to sink in then beamed at his fellow prince. "Alright. To being lifetime best friends!" Lea put out his pinky finger and pointed it toward Isa.

Isa looked at the finger pointed at him. "What is that?"

"Swear that we'll be lifetime best friends! Have you not pinky sworn before?"

Isa shook his head.

While he shared the story of how the kitchen staff made him promise little things with him like this, Lea took Isa's right hand with both hands. He used one hand to close Isa's into a fist, while the other pulled Isa's pinky finger up. Then Lea wrung his own pinky around Isa's, and Isa did the same.

"Now repeat after me." Lea waited for Isa to nod in approval before continuing. "I promise."

"I promise."

"I will always be best friends…"

"I will always be best friends…."

"With you, Isa."

"With you... Lea."

Lea shook their hands twice then brought their thumbs to press. "And seal it with a kiss!"

The two shared a moment looking at each other's eyes, not quite knowing what to do next, until Lea started laughed out loud and slapped Isa’s back.

“A trait he got from his father,” Isa thought, remembering how King James was slapping his Father's back moments ago.

"You're a good guy, Isa." Lea spoke again after calming down. "This is the start of a great friendship."

"Yeah…" Isa replied softly. They both stared at the bright blue sky, with Lea's arm draped over Isa's shoulders. Isa was trying to keep calm, but his heart betrayed him as it pounded in his chest, the drumming noise echoing in his head.

Isa wondered if Lea ever realized he actually proposed to him right then and there.

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Finding Isa

To: Haru (kenkumeisu) From: Away (awayandlaughing) Message: Hopefully this tickles your fancy for post-KH3, at least until we get more news, and I hope your holidays are pleasant (if busy).

When they were kids and something had gone wrong, Lea had always been the dealer. He who dealt with issues, that was. Isa had always just disappeared, usually literally but sometimes just withdrawing emotionally. It had worked for them. Lea had yelled, pranked or cajoled as needed and Isa had gone off to do whatever it was Isa did alone.

But that had changed, like so many things. Lea had become Axel and Isa had become Saïx and they’d both become monsters or something worse. But now Lea is Lea again – well he is Lea and he is Axel and the latter is what he hears the most – and Isa is gone.

And so Lea is searching.

It isn’t hard, really. Lea has known Isa at his best and at his worst and at all the little points in between. They might not have been friends through it all, no definitely not, but Lea knows Isa in a way no one else could ever hope to. It isn’t fair, however, that he is the one hopping from world to world looking into shadows and scrapping together whispers. A part of him spends the entire time saying give up because he’s spent his whole life, and unlife, doing this. Now he is new and so they should be new.

But he does not give up. Not on Isa. Not again.

Lea finds him on an island in a land where the sun never sets and Lea laughs when he first steps foot here. Isa’s sense of humour is as sharp as ever.

And okay, calling it an island is being generous. It is an oversized sandbar with a tree and some grass on it and apparently is popular for picnics during vacation season. It isn’t vacation season right now. In fact it is unseasonably cold and horrible. Stormy skies and tossing seas and no one had wanted to take him out to the island to the point he’d almost fallen back on old habits and threatened someone.

Almost.

But he remembered himself, and gets through to them with his amazing charm and wit. Because that is who Lea is now. The echoes of Axel-who-was are loud, sometimes, but they aren’t in charge. No one is in charge of Lea except Lea and no one ever will be.

Anyway, the island.

Because it’s so small and barren, Isa isn’t hard to find, even with overcast skies. He’s seated in the shelter of a sand dune, just staring. He doesn’t move when Lea slides down to join him, but Isa ignoring him isn’t new to Lea. Saïx ignoring him isn’t either. He wonders who’s ignoring him now.

“I didn’t think you’d come out here,” he says at last. Calm, measured. Cold. And older, like Lea himself. Older and more hurt and maybe not even wiser for it all. It’s hard sometimes. The not knowing. He spent nine years not knowing and it had lead to terrible things. Loss and regret and pain and hate all while being told none of it was real. “There’s a storm coming.”

“You’re an ass,” Lea says, “for making me come out here while there’s a storm. I got in trouble with the locals, y’know.”

“What a shock.”

So many things have changed since Xehanort’s defeat. So many. But not everything and golden eyes stare back at Lea, distant, but also troubled. An emotion they’d never worn before. Not in that colour, anyway. Lea smiles.

“I am known for my wildcard likeability,” he says, “now come on or that old guy’s gonna leave me here to die of exposure.”

“Then go,” Isa says because that is definitely an Isa thing to do. I need to be miserable, alone and preferably as physically uncomfortable as I am emotionally right now so go away Lea.

Lea is not a natural listener however. Or inclined toward being agreeable.

“Yeah no,” he says instead, “I’ve been to so many weird places looking for you, you’re not committing suicide by natural phenomena on my watch.”

“No one says you had to watch,” Isa says and Lea rolls his eyes so hard he actually hurts himself. Were they this dramatic before? He can’t remember. They probably would have been, if they’d had access to a coast line and a perpetual sunset. Give it to Isa, he has a good sense of drama.

“No one says you had to watch,” Lea mimics, pitching his voice comically low. “You’re a piece of work, Isa. Now go get in the damn boat before I knock you out and have to drag you there.”

————————————————————

Isa isn’t unconscious when Lea drags him to the rowboat but he certainly isn’t willing. Which isn’t uncommon, really, so Lea ignores the fact he is being ignored and fervently hopes they’ll be out of the boat soon.

Water isn’t really his element. ————————————————————-

The resort town does not apparently have a proper name, either that or the boat-owner just hates Lea and his charisma that much. Both are equally possible, given there appears to be a population of ten people, all of whom share a recent ancestor. Several times over.

At any rate, they have an inn and the inn owner is much more friendly than the boat-owner and had bundled them up into a room with two matching, creaky beds the moment they appeared. She had fussed, too. Isa immediately disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Lea to dry himself via slightly more hazardous means, and without the benefit of washing off the sea-salt first.

At least the bedside has lotion, even if it smells like roses and therefor the eighty year old inn owner.

Isa reappears wetter and just as grumpy, and he collapses on the bed in a way that radiates displeased with you and everything ever. Isa is a master of body language and other silent communication methods.

“So are you going to talk to me, Isa or-”

“Do not call me that,” Isa says and Lea blinks.

“Why not? Do you prefer Saïx?” Lea has gotten used to answering to Axel, but he doesn’t think of himself as that person. It is almost like having a movie in his head, sometimes, and everyone keeps referring to him as the character in the film who happens to be an identical stranger. Only sometimes with guilt.

Anyway. The point is, he can’t imagine wanting to be that person, but Isa’s a different breed and also has a history of being contrary.

“No,” Not-Isa says, and he sounds like he thinks it’s the end of the conversation. Lea, not being the one to let someone have the last word stands and settles next to Isa or Not-Isa or whoever, ignoring the death glare sent his way.

“Then what do I call you? You with the hair is a little unspecific,” not to mention Isa’s hair is actually pretty tame compared to some people’s. Constant company included.

“Nothing. I’m nobody, remember?”

Nobody. Lea hates that word. Sitting up, he hauls Isa after him, fist curled into the loose shirt that was left by the door for them earlier. Isa is warm and as stiff as granite, confusion warring with indignation, and Lea doesn’t care. “We were never nothing,” he says. “Never.”

Isa keeps his gaze, doesn’t move an inch. Lea doesn’t either, refusing to back down. He’s never done so before, not in either life and not in this third one. Finally, Isa speaks.

“But then it matters, Axel. All of it.”

The name stings like ice on a bruise. “Sure. But so do we. We always have.”

Isa looks away. ———————————————————

See, the problem turns out to be less that Isa’s pouting and more that he’s having a crisis and doesn’t have any way to cope. Which shouldn’t surprise Lea. Lea died in a blaze of glory and was almost immediately taken under the wing of those he’d opposed and technically terrorized with intent to murder. Sora doesn’t give a man a lot of time to have a crisis, between the world-saving and the violently loving everything.

Isa had died and woken up alone.

That means Isa has Lea to help him now, and only Lea. Which is not the most comforting thought Lea has ever had but it’s true. Before this, he’d poked around Radiant Garden and found it empty of all the familiar faces save those from the Organization. Somehow, Lea doesn’t think what Isa needs in his life is to tell Ienzo or Even about his new and frustrating feelings.

So Lea works with what he has, and forces Isa to work with him. The first order of business is to leave Twilight Town and surrounding environs. It’ s no good here. There are too many memories. Painful memories which are so amazingly wonderful for Lea and not so much for Isa. So he takes him to a place where people are a little less likely to pry and where there are no clock towers to intrude on their lives or psyches.

Traverse Town is grubby, dark and everyone there is probably depressed, which means that they’re all happy to ignore two new additions to their horrible town. Isa steps off the gummy ship and almost immediately balks, nose wrinkling fastidiously.

“This place, really?” he asks, and it’s the first time he’s said something in any way that doesn’t include the adverbs angry or stoic. Lea counts it as a win already.

“Really really,” he says. “Trust me. RG is full of busy bodies these days, you don’t want to go back there,” not yet, any way, and Lea doesn’t think Destiny Islands is ready for the Isa Experience. And Isa really isn’t ready for the Destiny Island experience. Too many hugs involved.

Well and history, too. And attempted heart stealing. And successful heart stealing.

Not the point.

“Anyway, there’s a place here we can crash in. Apparently the restoration committee stayed here and-” he stops because Isa obviously has no idea what he’s talking about. “It’s a free place to crash while we uh,” he doesn’t actually know what he’s doing here, “figure shit out.”

“Charming,” Isa says, watching a rat scuttle across the courtyard. One of the locals walks bye, eyeing them curiously and flashing some skin. Isa takes a step back, right into Lea’s chest. “So charming.”

Lea laughs a little, patting Isa’s arm. “Keep that attitude,” he says, “you’ll need it. Now. Leon says that the locals are weird and tend to lock down the sectors on whims, so we need to find the key to those gates over there before we can get to the place we’ll be staying.”

“I hate you,” Isa says. Lea grins at him, loping off to chat with the man staring at them from a cafe-type place.

“It’s a start,” he says. ——————————————————-

It stays at the start for almost an entire month. Isa and Lea get sort-of jobs helping everyone feel safer by walking around looking punkish and ergo more threatening than anyone else who might show up. They don’t get paid, or any thanks, but they also don’t get their house egged after the first week so. Progress on one front.

On the Isa front, it’s less promising. Whenever Lea tries to talk to him he gets the classic stone wall. So Lea combats it with his most classic attack. Chatter.

Right now, they’re in the kitchen trying to feed themselves. Isa is cutting vegetables very slowly while Lea pokes at an empty pan as it heats up. And talking to fill the silence. “And so that’s basically why fishing is terrible,” he says, “you sit and you don’t make any noise at all or you’ll scare off nature’s most disgusting meat.”

Isa’s response to that story is to slam his knife down, “enough, Axel. Just…stop.”

Lea almost asks if Isa likes fishing that much, but he’s trying to help. “Isa-”

“Don’t,” his eyes are suspiciously shiny. “Don’t. I’m not him any more, why don’t you get that?”

“Well you won’t tell me what else to call you so-”

“Nothing! I shouldn’t be here. I did terrible things,” he’s grasping the counter like it’s a lifeline and Lea does the same to the edge of the stove, least he try and reach for Isa and do…he doesn’t know what. “I shouldn’t be anywhere.”

“That’s bullshit,” Lea says, “you have as much right to be alive as anyone. Why would you possibly think otherwise?”

Isa laughs, bitter and broken and Lea wants to hug him. Which is a dumb impulse but anyway. “Why would I have any right to be alive? I fought against the very concepts of light and love itself. I believed it so much I died for it. I should have stayed dead.”

“Don’t say that,” Lea says and Isa responds very maturely by walking away, head down, shoulders tense. Lea stares after him for a moment, and by the time he collects himself Isa’s disappeared, leaving the door open.

Lea stands in the door way, stomach clenched and throat tight and doesn’t know what to do.

——————————————————

He melts the pan, is what he does. Not on purpose but apparently if you spend a few hours pointlessly wandering around and don’t turn off the stove, that’s what happens. And he’s in the middle of dealing with – namely trying to air out the house – when soft feet pad in. He turns to find Isa there, back lit by the lights of the hall and shivering. Traverse Town is chilly, and Lea is fairly certain Isa wasn’t even wearing shoes. For a long few minutes neither speak, until finally the words burst out of Lea like a terrible, emotionally vulnerable monster.

“Don’t leave me.”

Isa goes very still very briefly, before he walks over to the kettle. He’s silent as he runs the water, silent as he puts it on the stove and silent as he sets the burner to the highest setting. It isn’t until the kettle starts to shriek that he answers, barely audible over the sound of the steam escaping.

“You’re the one who left me.”

————————————————————

They sit in the living room, curled up on chairs and clutching mugs of still steeping tea like those damn things are lifelines. Isa looks very small and unsure, which is basically how Lea is feeling so at least they’re on the same page.

“Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m me,” Isa says, dunking his tea bag nervously. “I’ll reach for something and this…this doubt hits me. Do I real want that thing on the counter or is it some…some echo of him? We were so intertwined for so long I don’t,” he bites his tongue as if to stop the words. “I don’t know who I am.”

He isn’t Saïx, of course. He’s Xemnas, the rat bastard and Lea aches in very tender, technically new places.

“He’s gone,” Lea says and it’s feeble. It doesn’t matter, after all. Your mind can make a lot of shit real. “You’re you.”

Isa looks up and says, “but that doesn’t mean anything.”

Except it does. Because Isa looks up, and Lea swears he sees green. Without thinking he dives across the room, hearing the splash of hot water and Isa is mid-swear when Lea takes his face in each hands and stares. There, surrounding the pupils in a subtle starburst is green. Isa goes cross eyed trying to keep him in focus, which sort of ruins it, but Lea still grins so widely his cheeks ache within seconds.

“It means whatever you decide to make it mean,” he says, leaning back a little. “You are your own person, Isa. You can,” he tries to think of something not keyblade related. “You can be a gummyship engineer or a chef or official rat catcher for Traverse Town,” Isa’s lips tweak upward in a very timid attempt at a smile. “Just, anything. Be or do anything, I’ll help. You won’t be alone, Isa.”

Or controlled. Not ever again.

Isa just stares at him for a minute, that tiny quirk still in the corner of his mouth and then he leans forward and presses a kiss to Lea’s suddenly very slack lips.

“Neither will you, Lea.” ———————————————————-

When they were kids, Lea used to scale the outside of Isa’s house and squeeze through his window into his bed where they’d chat and on occasion swap homework for copying before Lea had to sneak out again in the morning. Back then it had been an innocent desire to keep hanging out with his friend.

Now he isn’t sure what this is, other than better than scaling a wall. Stairs are easier.

Lea lay there, Isa draped lazily over him. Despite movie conventions, they’re not naked. It’s too soon for that. No, they’re just there, intertwined and breathing synced and maybe a little tear stained though if some interloper were to mention that they’d probably die.

They’ve been silent for a while now, and Lea is half asleep until Isa speaks up, voice thick with exhaustion.

“I don’t want to be a rat catcher anywhere.”

“Figured,” Lea says.

“And I don’t want to feed other people. I can’t really cook.”

“Me neither.”

Isa pokes him, and he pries open an eye. Despite his words, Isa’s face is serious. “I don’t know what I want, Lea. Just what I don’t want.”

Lea opens the other eye and smiles, “it’s a start.”

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Comic] Surrender

To: Claire (divebattle) From: Nikki (angelswithouthearts) Message: Dear Claire, Merry Christmas! I hope you got lots of fun stuff this year and that you got to share the holidays with loved ones :)

Pages: 16 Genre: Angst Prompts/Warnings: Unrequited love, character death, angst, canonverse (and there’s blood) Summary: Somewhere along the line, Lea and Isa lose themselves. They grow apart, and left are nothing but regrets. A/N: My second attempt at drawing comics and my first attempt at drawing a comic as long as this one. Apologies to my Somebody for taking this opportunity to be experimental and to challenge myself. I hope it’s to your liking and that my newbieness to comics isn’t glaringly obvious.

Also, thank you Lea for hosting this event! <3

DL: MF [zip] (18MB)

Happy holidays!

[akusaisecretsanta]

To: Nikki (angelswithouthearts) From: Katie (bunnyrave1) Message: Merry Christmas! I hope you like sad Akusai gifsets, haha! I tried a new coloring method on these to make them nice, vibrant, and bright for you :3 ! The lyric in the middle is from the song “Silhouettes” by Of Monsters and Men. Give it a listen if you haven’t heard it, I’ve always associated it with Akusai. Hope you have a happy holiday!

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] (untitled)

To: Katie (bunnyrave1) From: Matt (i-am-a-drawer) Message: Not used to writing, had to get some help. Hope you like it anyway.

Lea worked on filling up another water balloon as Isa watched from the side of the fountain, stifling a yawn. Fighting with the spray of water, he finally managed to get it over the nozzle, drenching himself in the process. Every so often the he would look up at Isa, give him a smile and go back to concentrating on the balloons. Both their mothers had forbidden the boys from filling them up in the house, leaving them to find an alternative.

Isa was fairly certain there had to be a better solution, but what worked, worked, and as long as he wasn’t the one getting wet he didn’t particularly care. Leaning back on his seat he glanced up at the sky, shielding his eyes from the unusually harsh light. It had been warmer than normal for the past few days, which had started them on the idea of water balloons in the first place. He watched a cloud roll by for a minute before straightening back up; only to have a water balloon hit him in the chest.

“What was that for?” Isa demands, flicking droplets off his arms, barely hanging onto his stoic façade.

“Not helping!” Lea yells, wading through the water back to his disgruntled friend. Dumping the balloons in the small bucket they’d brought along, he drops onto the bench, stares up at the fountain, and ignores the remains of balloons that had missed their target. “Now, we are both wet.” he announces, grinning.

A few water balloons later, this time with Isa begrudgingly stomping into the fountain to help, they were ready to go. They left a trail of water behind as they walked to their planned spot, a comfortable ledge overlooking a relatively well traversed side street, bickering amicably along the way.

Staring down over the walkway below, they waited for people to pass by, tossing water balloons down at them.

“Five points a person?” Isa suggests.

“And ten if we get them on the head,” Lea adds, rolling his eyes at Isa’s snicker as he applies another layer of sunscreen. “Hey, I’m not looking to cook myself.”

“And here I thought matching skin and hair suited you.”

The redhead mimes tossing a balloon at Isa. “How about double points if it’s someone really annoying?”

Isa ignores him, casually leaning over the ledge to chuck a balloon down at someone wandering by. “Ten.”

The banter continues as their game goes on, and the bucket of water balloons slowly empties. Except for a few curses and shouts from people they hit, someone has yet to really try and stop them.

Isa reaches back into the bucket for another balloon, getting ready for the next target, but the stream of people is slowing down and leaving more time for talk while they wait for more passersby. They talk idly about school, complaining about classmates and teachers alike. Lea contemplatively tosses a balloon back and forth between his hands.

The topic eventually winds around to their relationship. The two have been dating for a little over a month, though everyone assumes they have been for longer, partially due to their closeness, mostly due to telling everyone they were dating in an effort to discourage a classmate who wouldn’t accept Lea wasn’t interested. Isa had told him being too friendly was going to come back to bite him eventually, and thoroughly enjoyed the ‘I told you so’ when Lea came to him about the problem. Not that it stopped Isa from helping him come up with a plan to get their classmate to leave him alone, or from pretending to date him for a full two months before they began dating for real.

Of all the ways they imagined their plan backfiring on them, ending up in a real relationship had not been one of them.

 ”All I am saying is we haven’t had a date yet. What’s the point of dating if we don’t date?” Lea lets his hand fall to the side, glancing down as Isa aims at the couple walking towards them.

 ”How do you know this isn’t a date?” Tossing the balloon, Isa catches the woman walking closest to the wall on her head. The man jumps when the water splashes onto him as well and starts looking around, while the woman makes incoherent angry noises, brushing at her dress as though she could dust the moisture off. Laughing, the pranksters watch for a minute while the guy yells up at them before losing interest. “Ten points for me. Actually, it should be fifteen, since it also hit the guy.”

"Dude, you can’t just answer my questions with questions. That’s not fair," Lea disagrees, scribbling down the points, dragging the last word out much longer than necessary, "and I am only giving you ten.”

Placing the paper and pencil to the side, Lea reaches back into the bucket, finding they only have three balloons left. Isa notices the pause, and looks into the bucket, frowning. They are going to have to make those few balloons count; he isn’t about to go back into the fountain to fill up more. Lea grabs two of the balloons and nudges him, pointing his elbow at the next person walking towards them. It’s that Braig guy, from the castle. Grinning, Isa grabs the last remaining balloon and lines up the shot.

All three balloons hit their mark, and the two teenagers are almost too busy laughing and trying to catch their breath to understand what Braig is yelling at them. Ducking back out of sight, they argue about who got what points. It is only when Isa looks down again that he notices Braig attempting to climb up after them.

"Shit," slips out, and whacking Leas shoulder, he points to the man attempting to climb his way up the wall. Ditching the bucket, they run a little ways before dropping down to another side street. Only pausing a second to absorb the shock of landing, they take off running without knowing exactly where they are going.

Isa risks a glance back only to nearly burst out laughing again at the sight of the man running. Focusing ahead again, he sees Lea dart around a corner a little farther up. They continue taking as many turns as possible before finally stopping in a niche by the aqueduct. Both out of breath, they stand panting for a minute.

"We lose him?"

Isa shrugs. “Think so” he replies, pushing himself away from the wall “I don’t hear him.”

Turning away, he slowly pokes his head out from their hiding spot, missing the mischievous grin appearing on Lea’s face. Lea pulls out one last water balloon from his jacket as Isa relaxes back against the wall.

"Twenty points for me!" Lea yells, as water explodes against the side of Isa’s head.

[akusaisecretsanta]

To: Matt (i-am-a-drawer) From: Elizabeth (kingdom-kokoros)

[akusaisecretsanta]

[Fic] Brand New Traditions

To: Elizabeth (kingdom-kokoros) From: Away (awayandlaughing) Message: Happy holidays Elizabeth, I hope you have a good December and a wonderful new year coming! I also hope you enjoy this fic, just as I enjoyed writing it for you.

Axel stifled a laugh as Saïx stared at the sweater he was holding in blatant horror. They’d come in from training to find one on each of their beds, and Axel had quickly tugged his own over the sweater he was already wearing, not caring how tight it was or how warm it was when it made Saïx give that eye-roll he used as a substitute for laughter. Now he was watching while Saïx visibly debated what to do with his own sweater.

And it was hilarious.

Granted, they were completely and utterly hideous. Axel’s was red, naturally, but a shade which completely clashed with his hair, and whoever made it was probably not a tailor by nature given the surgical like seams on the arms. The design wasn’t much better. At least it had been done with a more subtle hand. That didn’t stop it from being seven fanged rabbits pulling the world’s most pathetic sled. At least the lead rabbit’s nose blinked, if you pressed the button thoughtfully sewn into the sleeve.

At least it was very soft and warm.

And it wasn’t like Saïx had anything to really complain about. Axel had been gifted vampiric rodents or whatever rabbits are. Saïx had a tree. Granted it was a dead tree, not a vibrant evergreen, but other than that it was tasteful. The blue even went with his hair, if you squinted and cocked your head. Plus, there were even more lights. And none of them blinked in tandem. It was glorious.

“So what,” Saïx finally said, “is it a metaphor or something?”

Axel laughed at that, placing his chin on his hand, ignoring the way his elbow dug into his knee. “It’s a sweater,” he said, “see?” he waved up and down his front, pressing the button for effect. Saïx’s expression shifted, subtly, from repulsion to the even more familiar look that said what you just said insulted not only me, but every intelligence to have ever graced these worlds. Axel’s grin widened further.

“I am serious. Are we supposed to be wearing our inner selves to supper this evening?” He arched an eyebrow as he spoke, but his knuckles were white and Axel thought he saw some tugging at the black seams.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just a gift. A really fucking ugly one, yeah, but a gift all the same,” he unfurled as he spoke, walking the scant inches between the beds to settle on the bed next to Saïx. Saïx’s natural response was to try and pull away, but Axel had a pretty long reach and pulled him back to his side. “And don’t worry pookie, you’re beautiful.”

“I hate you,” Saïx said without any heat. “Let go of me you moron.”

“No,” Axel said firmly. “You can’t honestly think Sora, of all the people to have ever drawn breath, would give us hideous sweaters for any reason other than Christmas joy.”

Saïx side eyed him hard, but did stop subtly trying to pull the arms off his gift. Axel took that as the good sign it obviously was and kept talking.

“So what’s the real problem?”

Saïx snorted, but didn’t push away. He just set the sweater down, smoothing the creases idly. “What are we doing here, Axel?” he asked finally, and though part of Axel wanted to respond jokingly, another part didn’t want to get punched. Or cause Saïx to spiral into depression. Both were bad and had precedence, though the second one was worse.

“Helping,” he said, choosing his word very carefully. “And wearing hideous sweaters.”

“You’re wearing a hideous sweater,” Saïx said, “that thing is not going on my body. Not in this life and not in any other.”

“Oh I don’t know, the Organization’s uniform could really have benefited from some flashing lights,” he said. “Has anyone been bothering you?”

“No,” Saïx said, sounding rather put out about it. “They’ve been disgustingly supportive. I can hardly stand it.”

“You love it,” Axel said with firm and sincere conviction. When he’d woken up, the guilt had been easy to push aside given the fact they were in the middle of yet another crisis. Saïx hadn’t had that. Had no chance to dive into the fray on the right side. And yet, here they were. “If no one’s been giving you shit,” he ignored the muttered as if they could from his shoulder area, “and you have friends other than me for the first time ever,” excuse me I was perf- “then what’s the problem with wearing the sweater?”

“What’s the-” Saïx finally pulled away, eyes wide and nose wrinkled. It did weird things to his scar, but they were charming all the same. “If we had a mirror you’d know what the problem was.”

Axel pressed the sleeve button again. “I don’t need a mirror to know I am sizzling hot in this sweater. I mean I’m sizzling hot all the time but this only brings out the best in me.”

Saïx gave him another eye roll. “I’m not putting this on,” he said and Axel smiled knowingly.

“You really are.”

——————————————————————

Christmas was not a native holiday to Radiant Garden, Axel knew this with complete certainty, but the current inhabitants had embraced it completely. There was a tree in the house which was the home of the technically defunct Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee which had so many lights on it Axel couldn’t actually look directly at it and it looked rather like a tinsel monster had thrown up on every vaguely flat surface.

It was, naturally, Sora’s initiative that lead to all this but Axel did not mind all that much. Especially not at supper since they had eaten stuffing with every meal for the last week and Axel had found the second but possibly greatest love of his life.

Sage was the god of herbs.

Today was the best day of Christmas yet, however. Axel surveyed the dinning room and people sitting there in various states of disgruntlement and trying to hide it. Each and every one – even Saïx’s new buddy in facial scarring – was in one of the sweaters. Each one bore the marks of being created by a depraved mind . They stared back, eyes wide and most not even bothering to hide the awe on their faces.

“How did you get roped into this?” Riku finally asked, and next to Axel Saïx made a noise you could only call disgusted. Which was very much not the noise Saïx had been making about half an hour before.

“We will not speak of it,” he said firmly and Riku just nodded his understanding and shoved the ham at them.

“He just means he’s full of Christmas spirit,” Axel said, sitting down across from a relatively normal looking Kairi. “Nice sweater,” he told her, catching sight of something that looked like a box on a skeletal hand, and she giggled.

“At least it doesn’t clash with my hair,” she said and Axel laughed while next to him Saïx just sighed and shoved a piece of ham into his mouth. ———————————————————————

“I can’t believe you made me do that,” Saïx muttered several hours later. “No. I can’t believe I was convinced by you when everyone had to be coerced by Sora.”

“Are you suggesting I’m less convincing and charismatic then Sora?” Axel asked.

“Not suggesting, no,” Axel tried to dig his elbow into Saïx’s ribs in revenge, only to find Saïx had a better angle. “You’re convincing in the same manner as a used gummy ship salesman,” Saïx said, pretending he hadn’t just maimed Axel who was already the wounded party here. “Sora actually means the things he says.”

Axel tugged a piece of blue hair. “You’re slandering me while using me as a pillow,” he said, “revise your life choices of you’ll have to sleep alone and un-pillowed. And I totally mean the things I say.”

“Whatever shall I do with a pillow not made of ribs,” Saïx said. “And do you really? So when you told Leon you were totally happy to help with plumbing…?”

"Well, I mean the important things. Like, I like you.”

“Is that so?” Saïx shifted, snuggling closer. Not that Saïx would ever call it that. He’d make up a word first. Or throw himself off a roof. “I like you too.”

Axel grinned, and didn’t even care they were on a twin or that Saïx’s knee was digging into his leg or that arm was going numb. Next to them, the clock read 12:01.

Best Christmas present ever.

[akusaisecretsanta]

To: Away (awayandlaughing) From: Jenn (xnekojenn) Message: Merry Christmas Away!!! I hope you are having a wonderful day and you enjoy this video I put together for you! I know it’s not much, but…I hope you really enjoy it. c: I tried to make it a nice little mix of fluff and sad…Mostly focusing on Saix, but only a bit more than Axel, and just them thinking about how they used to be as Isa and Lea, and wanting the closeness that they had to return. c’: Hope you have a very Merry Akusai Christmas~ <3