Bread Crumbs
Author’s Note: Last time I wrote a Marluxia/Zexion story was 2007. That needs to change. I wrote this in May (2015 mind you) for Lastaim
It’s been three days since Marluxia left on that mission and I began to wonder. I finished up the work I had kept delaying hoping he would return. I slammed the book closed before me and left the room. At first, my mind believed he was just slacking off, delaying, but then I started to think of other circumstances. What if the mission had been to difficult for him?
As I walked down the hall to the lounge, I imagined him being hurt somewhere and unable to create a corridor back home. I quicken my pace to the lounge getting ready to create a dark pathway of my own to the last place he stated he was going when one formed a few feet before me. I halted my steps and waited, anxiously. To my relief, there stepped out one of us, hooded. Darkness was seeping out of the tears in the coat as he staggered out of the portal. I ran to him immediately knowing he was Marluxia; his height and built was familiar to me.
“What happened?” I caught him as he nearly fell. His weight against my own was staggering but I tried not to falter. “…H-Hey…” He managed to say, ignoring my question and lightening the situation.
“What happened to you, Marluxia?” I asked again.
“I was overwhelmed. Careless of me.” He was trying to walked and I guided him to his room knowing he wanted to go there. But he did not. He kept walking, pushing pass his room. I realized he wanted to be in my room. I helped him to my bed where he collapsed weakly. The darkness that was leaving his body slowly began to stop. He was healing.
“How could you be so careless?”
“I was thinking about you.“
“You are an idiot. What if you were badly hurt?”
Marluxia looked at me. I could see his weakness even though it was shaded by the hood. Lack of strength created small dark bags under his eyes and paleness to his face. “I have you, don’t I? Nurse me back to health.“
What was I suppose to do if he was gone? How am I suppose to function without him? Why did you have to be so careless? I wanted to say all those things but I knew he wouldn’t be able to answer them. My mind was running wild with thoughts of losing him. A heart was no better than the mind, both were fragile. I hated to see him like this, broken and battered. I sat by his bedside and sighed. This wasn’t the first time he came back looking like that. Multiple occasions he returned looking like he walked blind into an arena of Heartless and did not fight back. It bothered me on so many levels it could drive me mad. Poor performance and incomplete missions. If he kept this up, he’d be worse than Demyx. And all the time he would say “I was thinking of you.” It’s almost like he wanted to get hurt so I could “nurse” him back to health. Could it be I ,myself, provided him with a distraction?
I unzipped his coat opened to get a better view of his wounds. He wore scars like badges and his own blood like tattoos. I gave a grimace of pain and placed my hand on his injured chest. His chest rose a bit and he winced at my touch, sucking air between his teeth.
“Please don’t think about me on the field. It’s distracting you."
Marluxia’s eyes focused on me, the pain on my face was obvious. I was hurting for him. His hood slid off his head as he looked slightly down to meet my eye level. "If I hadn’t thought of you, I wouldn’t have made it back, Zexion. Thoughts of you are like bread crumbs to making my way back to you."
I felt myself blush as he reached and touched the side of my face. I could feel the warmth of his hand through his glove.
"Just shut up and be careful next time or I’ll throw bread crumbs at your grave."