[GDI ISA WHY YOU MAKIN THIS HARD
i wanted to do both so i kinda re-interpreted the wind waker one symbolically i don't know shut up]
"Back in time?" Axel repeated.
Namine nodded gravely. "That's...that's what it will feel like. I'll be using his memories to build the situation around you, and then I'll use your reactions to modify his memory." The word "modify" made her wince. "I could do it myself, but..." Her fingers tightened around the edges of her sketchbook. "I can't promise you that'd wake him."
Axel looked at the sleeping figure of Isa, whose gloved hands were folded across his chest. Ever since he'd returned from Nobodyhood, he hadn't stirred. It was downright maddening. "Y'know I'm gettin' pretty sick of saving you," he said to Isa's closed eyes, hands sternly on his hips and elbows sticking out behind him like angular handles. "One of these days I'm not gonna want to anymore, and you're gonna be so screwed."
"Hey, at least act like you can hear me!"
Axel shot Namine an exasperated can you believe this jerk? look and straightened, sighing and spreading his arms in a shrug. "Alright. Send me in."
Namine hadn't exactly mentioned the fact that Axel would be going back as a child. It was strange just how small and light he felt, but also how slow and weak. If not for that he could've turned this form into pure speed.
The mirror showed him a tiny version of himself, which probably would have looked precious to him if it weren't him. He patted himself up and down. His head felt huge to him, shoulders narrow, arms like toothpicks. Was this how it felt to be Roxas? Nah--Roxas was more solid, like a miniature Saix.
Namine had spirited him into a bathroom somewhere. From the smell of disinfectant and the folded up metal frame in the corner (with a use Axel didn't care to speculate on), he was probably in Radiant Garden's hospital. The occasional harder bump or scrape had been enough to land him here before.
Carefully, he cracked the door and peered out. He could see Isa, just as miniaturized but a good deal more precious-looking, with his head turned towards the window. Apparently a nurse was just leaving. Good, he thought; gives me time.
He frowned. What was he talking about, of course he had time.
Once the door closed behind her, Axel slipped out of the bathroom and leaned a chair up against the knob. He did this as quietly as possible, which was still very possible in this form--Lea's limbs under him became smooth and graceful instead of the awkward, half-grown things they had been back then--so he jumped at the hissed "Lea!" that escaped the bed behind him.
Turning, he saw that Isa was sitting bolt upright. The boy drew back the covers like he was about to leap out of bed and tear himself away from all the monitoring equipment if he had to to get to Lea, so Axel quickly held up a placating hand and darted over. "No no--don't get up." He was at least used to this reaction in Isa enough to head it off quickly, and he didn't resist when Isa reached out a hand for his. Isa's grip was crushing.
"Lea," he said again, just as hoarsely. "They told me--!"
"I know. Listen, Isa, I haven't got much time."
Isa's grip tightened and a flash of anger came into his eye. "What're you talking about? Lea, I thought you were--!"
They both stared in silence. Isa started to shake.
"No. You're right here, you can't be--you're not."
"I can't, Lea." A tear raced down Isa's cheek like quicksilver, and then another in a separate trail. "I can't."
Axel hugged him, and Isa threw his arms around Lea like it was the only thing that could keep him living. "Yes you can," Axel whispered, rocking Isa just like he would have any other kid under his care. "Because I'll see you again. I promise you I will."
The words were out before Axel realized it was a lie.
He was beginning to glow, and grateful to Namine for it--it was important that Isa see this for the hallucination it was. Isa must have known, too, because his arms clamped down tighter.
"Th-there's something I have to tell you," he whispered, and a weight dropped in Axel's stomach because Isa absolutely could not say those words.
"I know," Axel said, keeping his voice just as hushed; "I always knew."
Axel's grip failed and Isa's arms slipped through Lea until they reached his own chest.
His agonized wail seemed to go on forever.
By the time Axel woke, Namine was gone and Isa was sitting by the cot with his legs crossed. Axel blinked away the short nap with a deep sniff, pinching his eyes and then his nose.
His fingers came away wet.
"You got bored, I take it."
Axel sat up and did a double take Isa's way. It was so strange to go from boys to adults again, in the space of no time at all, but it was a relief to be back in his own properly angular form. "Uh," he said first, eloquently; then, "oh. Yeah. You were taking forever."
Isa snorted. "Do I look stupid to you?"
"Sure you want me to answer that?"
Axel bit his tongue and shifted his jaw.
"I appreciate the circumstances, but if you did anything--"
"I didn't," Axel said. "She didn't even go back that far. That's not where the toxic memory was." But Isa still looked suspicious, so Axel covered one of Isa's hands with his. "I didn't touch them. I promise you."
Briefly, Isa's eyebrows went up and his eyes widened in astonishment, but then it was gone and he was looking at a corner again. He breathed in and then out again, slowly, and closed his eyes.
Axel relaxed with him and a wry grin. Dark rescues like these weren't so bad, he figured.
He could get used to this.
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