Back From the Dead [Braig-Xigbar/reader] spoiler free
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Words: 3399
Warnings: like one swear and some angst
Summary: I can’t write song fics but I tried, and these are the fruits of my labor, the song it was based on is Back From the Dead by Skylar Grey, I totally did not do well on making that clear. Please enjoy the angst anyways. Also, this is my first non-OC piece so be gentle.
I held the funeral the day you left A black umbrella and a sad song in my head Buried your pictures that I loved the most ‘Cause if you survived me I just didn't wanna know
When Braig died you thought that you had too, you roamed around your house alone, crying for days on end and refusing to eat, feeling sick to your stomach just looking at anything that even remotely reminded you of him. When you weren’t pacing the floors of your home, you were laying in bed staring at the ceiling, wrapped up in one of his shirts, unable to feel anything but empty due to the fact that he was no longer there to hold you through the night. You couldn’t sleep, fearing that if you did, you would have nightmares, Braig was always the one to hold you and keep the bad dreams at bay. Now, who was going to hold you and keep you safe?
You had just started to make dinner when one of the castle maids came pounding on your door. The young girl looked distraught and scared out of her wits, her eyes like dinner plates and her mouth hanging open. Within a second you knew what had happened. It felt like someone had pelted you with rocks. You fell to your knees, tears spilling down your cheeks. How could this happen? The castle was supposed to be safe from these sorts of things.
Just like that the world around you began to slowly deteriorate, the once beautiful castle was now becoming more and more twisted every day. To your dismay, the happy and serene world that you once lived in was decaying more and more since the day that Braig died. It hurt you to see your hometown like this, to the point that when you heard that others were leaving you decided it would be in your best interest to try and get out before it got worse.
You barely remember the days leading up to your escape. You had hurriedly packed a bag and thrown on a few layers of clothing so as to not look suspicious to anyone who might ask questions- you just wanted out. You quickly scanned your home one last time for anything you might want. Your eyes fell onto Braig’s favorite shirt, you hadn’t moved it from the laundry hamper where he had left it, afraid that if you did so it would stop smelling of him. Making up your mind you grabbed it, shoved it into your bag and ran out the door, quiet as a mouse.
I'm so confused I don't know what to feel Should I throw my arms around you or kill you for real? ‘Cause I worked so hard to put the past to rest Now it's tumbling down on me just like an avalanche
10 years later you were settled into a nice home with a happy life, you lived in a tiny apartment above a shop in Traverse Town, where you made and sold clothes for a living. Many other people from Radiant Garden had moved here with you, although, you had never met many of them until now. Your life seemed quite nice and it was as if you had never lived anywhere else. Occasionally you would go in your closet to pick out something to wear and see Braig’s shirt, then pick it up and smell it, reminded of how he used to hold you and how you would constantly tell him to stop leaving his clothes around the house. Your favorite memories would always come to mind, but then so would the memory of having to leave without ever knowing what had really happened to him. It would make you tear up and you would thrust the shirt back into the closet, unable to do anything for a few hours.
You constantly berated yourself for letting the dead man still have so much of an effect on you. He was gone, how were you supposed to do anything if you kept crying all the time? You had been asked out by a few men around town, often turning them down because you wanted to focus on your work, or you were busy doing something else that night, but you couldn’t make up that excuse much longer. You were needed some company, someone to talk to and comfort you when you felt like this.
As much as you wanted someone in your life, part of you still couldn’t accept the idea of someone new coming into your life until you knew what had happened. It was a stupid question to ask and you were quite aware of this, but you asked yourself very often what happened. How had he died, and if you could get the answers, would you even want them? You mostly shook it off, but more often than not, you were still stuck in the same rut where you overanalyzed the past and ignored the world around you. That was all true until one day a good friend of yours set up a date for you. Normally you would say no and tell her thank you for the thought, but this time- this time you felt different. You accepted, setting it up at the local cafe and agreeing to meet them the next day at noon. You spent the whole day stress cleaning your tiny apartment, throwing your sheets in the wash and dusting every possible surface and scrubbing the floors until they shined and reorganizing every room from top to bottom. You felt like a whole new person by the time you finished. When you looked at the time you sighed, it was well past midnight and you had a date tomorrow. Part of you felt giddy like a little kid, but somewhere deep inside, you felt a little twinge of regret. Setting that part of you aside, you climbed into bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.
You awoke in the morning to a very cloudy sky and lots of rain. You sighed, water wouldn’t keep you from doing something new and exciting. Getting out of bed, you walked to the shower, stripped and assessed yourself in the mirror. You hadn’t changed much since you left Radiant Garden, you still had the same face, just with a few more wrinkles on your forehead and around your eyes. Your hair was getting a bit long but you had it trimmed a few months back, so it wasn’t really all that bad. The only thing that you minded was how your skin was starting to sag on your body and how your stretch marks were getting longer. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but getting older, you get heavier. Braig loved you for every part of you, even the smallest little detail. He had always told you to stop worrying because it would just add more lines to your face which you would worry about more and then it would spiral out of control. Often you would stand in the kitchen, doing dishes, or cooking and Braig would come up behind you and wrap his arms around your waist, putting his head on your shoulder, and calling you affectionate names. That was all over now, at least with Braig it was.
You quickly showered and threw on some clean clothes, making sure to check your hair in the mirror before stepping out the door. You began making your way to the cafe and felt rather proud of yourself for being so open to new things. It wasn’t until you were about to go round the bend into the main square that you saw something in the corner of your eye. Thinking nothing of it you trudged ahead and walked towards the cafe, entering and sitting down across from your date.
I never thought that you and I would ever meet again I mourn the loss of you sometimes and pray for peace within The word "distraught" cannot describe how my heart has been But where do we begin now that you're back from the dead?
A few hours later you were full of food and eager to head home, your date wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t the best either. The man had offered to pay and you let him, but he had been talking the whole time about his hobby, and when you had tried to ask him questions he would say, “but you’ve don’t understand, this is exactly what everyone wants you to think.” It was like talking to the world’s most annoying two-year-old. You couldn’t understand why your friend had set you up in the first place.
Rounding the bend to your apartment, you saw the shadow in the corner of your eye again. Your hair stood on end as you rushed to the door and into your apartment as fast as possible. It’s true that monsters had been roaming the streets of Traverse Town, but normally if you used caution you could get around them- besides the monsters weren’t sneaky they preferred to be out in the open and attack people. You took some deep breaths and began doing your daily chores while trying to convince yourself that it was just your imagination.
While you were doing your dishes from the day before, you felt a pair of arms wrap around your waist and tug you towards a firm chest. Shocked, you twisted your body, taking the plate you were holding and smashing it with the head of the person behind you.
“Oh jeez, guess I should have knocked.”
You turned around fully, looking at the figure standing in your kitchen. It couldn’t be him, could it? This person had the same face, yes, but so much was different- so much was wrong. To start he had yellow eyes and an eyepatch, where he was supposed to have brown eyes and 20/20 vision. You supposed this could be due to what happened at Radiant Garden, but how? His hair was longer, and greyed in some places, due to age you thought, but then again neither of you were that old. The longer you stared the more you noticed, like the scar on his face and the same age marks that you noticed on yourself yesterday, only much less pronounced.
“I thought you were dead.”
“And leave you behind? As if!” Braig moved forward to hold you, but you took a step back. In all your dreams of having him back, you never imagined that so much would change. You didn’t even know if you wanted him back now. It wasn’t the way he looked so much as the fact that you weren’t the same person anymore. You had accepted his death, albeit you had to move to another world to do so. You couldn’t just welcome him back now with open arms and expect things to go back to the way they were.
“It’s been 10 years Braig,” you sighed and began picking up the pieces of plate that were scattered across the kitchen floor.
“I know, that’s why I’m here,” Braig bent down and began picking up pieces on the opposite end of the room.
“So? Why not come sooner?”
“Because I couldn’t, it wasn’t safe.”
“Not safe?” You squeezed your hands into fists, and stood up quickly, staring down your former lover. “They told me you were dead! I cried for months afterward, I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid that I would have to relive it in my dreams and I couldn’t handle that! After you died Radiant Garden turned to shit, the place you swore to protect turned to a pile of garbage and I had to leave it! I had to leave my home, my family and my friends! Do you know how hard that was? No, you don’t because you were dead!”
Braig stood up slowly, hanging his head in resignation, utterly defeated by your words. He had been so selfish and had had no idea what he had done to you. Was this really what had happened to you while he was gone? Had you truly become so bitter about his death? “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Good, because you didn’t even think to ask if I wanted you back now did you? Maybe next time you’ll think about things before you try faking your death again!” “Well, technically-” Braig began.
You let out a loud groan, and began rubbing your temples, “what now?”
“I’m technically still dead, just with the ability to roam about freely in a body similar to how I was when I was alive. If you want to get even more technical it’s a lot more complicated than that, but for now, let’s just leave it at I’m dead.”
“So if I get really mad and shove a knife through your chest you won’t die?”
“Well-” Braig waves his hand back and forth.
“Well, what? You either can or can’t die Braig, which one is it?”
“It’s not important.”
You glare daggers at him, he couldn’t do this it wasn’t right. 10 years had passed and you had all but moved on, it wasn’t fair, he couldn’t just come back into your life like this and think everything would go back to normal. He was, is, dead. That’s how it was and that’s how it would stay.
So you can't just come back now like a demon uninvited No, you can't just expect me to open my door to you because I never thought that you and I would ever meet again I mourn the loss of you sometimes and pray for peace within
You and Braig stayed like that for a solid minute, staring at each other angry and sad. Braig knew this reunion would be bittersweet, but at the same time hadn’t been quite as prepared for it as he had hoped.
“I’m sorry, and I’ll say it as many times as you want. I know I can’t make up for lost time, but I can tell you that I’m here now.”
“You’re not a sap, so don’t start now,” you chuckled dryly, remembering when you first met Braig, he had wolf-whistled at you as you were on your way home from work. You had thought he was possibly the crudest man you’d ever met. He would wolf whistle and say something lewd and you would continue to walk home for the next few weeks until one day his superior had told him that it was impolite to do say such things to a stranger. After that day there were no more wolf whistles or lewd comments, instead, it was silent as you walked home. You didn’t mind the quiet, but you did miss the indirect complement that Braig gave you by commenting on your outfits or how you were walking. So instead of letting the silence sit, you decided to approach him one day and ask him why he had stopped. When he explained you introduced yourself and told him simply that since you were no longer strangers he could be as loud and obnoxious as he wanted. Within the next week Braig had asked you out and the two of you were quite crazy about each other.
“No, no I’m not,” Braig pulled his ever cocky smirk- it was exactly the same as when you were young, giving you goosebumps like the first time he had flashed you the look. You felt betrayed by your heart, it wanted you to be with him, longed for the days when you two would just laze around the house and pretend that there was nothing outside the word but you two. You wanted that more than anything in the world, but you knew that those days were gone.
You closed your eyes, sighing deeply and rubbing your temples, “So, why are you here?”
Braig’s eyes shifted from you to the floor and back again, “I was in town and thought I’d drop by.”
“Okay asshole.”
“No, seriously. To make a long story short, I have some after lifey business to do here and I saw you earlier so I thought I would drop by and see how you are.” Braig said this as if it was the most normal thing that could possibly happen.
“So you saw that I was on a date and thought it would be okay to just, pop by and see your old lover that thinks your dead?” You said the last part a little bit too roughly and it showed when Braig winced.
“For one, I am dead and for another, I had no idea what you thought.”
You locked eyes, staring at each other, “what are we doing?”
“I don’t know.”
You walked into the main part of your apartment, picking things up and putting them back down in new places as you went along.
“You’re nervous,” Braig followed you into your apartment, he knew you better than anyone else, he had been with you for years and gotten to know all of your little quirks, like the one where you picked up anything near you when you were nervous and put it in the oddest spot possible.
“So? My boyfriend who I thought died ten years ago just came back to life and wants to get back together all nice and normal like. I think I have a reason to be nervous.”
You moved into the bedroom, picking up anything you could have possibly missed from your cleaning spree the day before.
“Again, still technically dead,” Braig sighed, sitting on your bed.
You opened your closet to put something away and your eyes fell onto the only thing that you had left of the man you once knew. Grabbing his old shirt you closed the closet door and sat down next to him.
“This is one of the last things I have from Radiant Garden. It’s the last thing I have of you, I suppose you’ll want it now considering that you’re… well…” You sighed handing him the shit. You didn’t want to give it up, even if there was a chance that the two of you would get back together, it wouldn’t be the same. He seemed too different.
“You kept this?” Braig held the item of clothing and looked at carefully.
“Of course I did, I love you.”
Braig put one arm around you and grinned as if he had just heard the best secret ever. “You know, I’m still the same person, even if I look a little different and some time has passed.”
You lean into him, burying your face into his chest, “I know, it’s just that we didn’t pass that time together and it makes me feel like I did something wrong.”
You had been trying to reconcile with yourself that maybe this wasn’t a punishment and maybe it really was a second chance, not in the best way perhaps, but you could manage to somehow be with Braig again.
“Now look sweetheart, I wouldn’t have come back if I wasn’t absolutely positive that you and I would be okay,” Taking your chin in his hand, he lifted your face to meet his and gave you a quick peck on the lips. It was what you had needed to tell you that he was really there. That Braig was right there with you, holding you in his arms again like he used to.
It was all too overwhelming, your eyes brimmed over with tears and you couldn’t stop yourself. You reached up, grabbing Braig by the back of his neck and pulling him for another kiss. Even if he had hurt you, kissing him was the best feeling you could ever imagine.
“I missed you too, gorgeous,” Braig smirked, pressing you down into your bed and kissing you harder. You pulled him on top of you and wrapped your arms around him as tightly as possible, even hooking a leg around his waist for good measure.
Braig took no time letting his hands wander and feel you again, he wanted to feel and fill every nook and cranny possible on your body. He wanted to let you know that he was there and was not going anywhere anytime soon.
“Please don’t leave again,” you whispered.
Braig held your face in his hands, “I am not going anywhere.”
"Good."