Xion x Roxas / RokuShi - Beauty and the Beast (Tale as Old as Time) - A KH Disney Song Story
Tale as Old as Time (x)
This is my very first time trying to write this shipping pair… I hope it works! xD (I reaalllyyy wanted to wait on this prompt because I wanted to watch a playthrough of Days first. However… I’m gonna let this cook and THEN I’ll come back with maybe more prompts if inspiration hits me AFTER I see the full game’s content events xD)
Prompt:
Walking into Beast’s Castle, Xion looks around the large ballroom, surprised that they had to hide in here to keep the… strange, magical staff… from spotting them.
“Roxas?” She lightly calls out, realizing she was mesmerized by the sight just long enough that she was looking up at the ceiling more than checking on him.
“Umm… Here?”
She turned around fully, then held in an involuntary scoff of laughter at him holding back the door.
“Hmm.” She smiled to him, “Do you really think we were followed..?”
“N-No… Beats me.” Roxas looked back at the door… slowly… he unspread himself and sighed in relief. “Can never be too careful though.”
“Right.” She just nodded, understanding that was how his mind worked.
“Now that we have a second…” She turned back to the ballroom, looking up again. “What are those..? Flying… babies?”
“Yeeeahhh… kinda strange, huh?” Roxas walked up beside her, looking with her. “The rest of this place is so spooky… This is the first place that actually looks…”
“... very pretty.” She looked around the large space. “What do you think they do here?”
“Ah..!” Roxas seemed shocked by her question and turned to her, gesturing. “Xion… It’s a ballroom. You know… for… dancing parties… and things?”
“How do you know that?” Xion tilted her head towards him, but he just laughed.
“Somewhere in my noggin’, I guess.” He grinned, leaning his head down to scratch it at his awkward answering of her question, but beaming a beautiful smile she couldn’t resist.
‘It’s the one where he squints his eyes, his cheeks rising so far up they close, not being able to look over them, anyways.’ Xion admired the sunny view. “Maybe you read it somewhere.”
“Yeah… maybe.” Roxas didn’t dwell on it, just watched as Xion lifted her hand to her mouth again, giggling into it as quietly as she could.
‘It’s the kind of thing she does when she’s worried it would hurt my feelings… but that’s just the thing… even if we nobodies had feelings, it wouldn’t. In fact, it’d be more like happiness to see she’s enjoying herself on the mission… If I even knew what that felt like.’ He couldn’t help but study her like she did the paintings above… in an awe he couldn’t describe.
“... Xion.”
She looked back over, only to be surprised at him offering his open hand.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, tilting her head again, but he hooked an arm behind himself and bowed lightly.
“May I..? I just realized… this might be my first dance.” He iconically snickered again, “Come on, Xion… you’re not afraid to give it a go with me, are you?”
She seemed contemplative as her eyebrows lightly bounced on her countenance, then looked to his open hand.
She shook her head lightly, “Em-hmm, not at all. I’d be honored…” She nodded on that last sentiment and took his hand.
He looked behind him, left and right, then lightly pivoted and gestured his head to the center of the room.
She looked, nodded at the silent instruction, and the two made their way to the center…
-Beginning notes of the song begin to play out.-
“I… think we have to get closer… in order for this to work?” He seemed to be guessing, but she didn’t mind.
‘I wouldn’t know, either way.’ She kinda shrugged it off in her mind, not realizing… how much she trusted Roxas’s word.
She didn’t have room for doubt, even if the space was spacious… ‘Even if my body may be hollow, and without a heart,... I’d… still follow him wherever he led me.’
As she stepped up, he chuckled slightly and shook his head. “No, haha. Not like that.”
‘His voice… it seemed… more tender, just now.’ She paused a bit in her thoughts, looking confused with a few blinks and another tilt of her head, before his arm slowly came up to an angle around her.
“Like…” He slowly approached, and in a few steps, waited close to her with his arm positioned to–”This.”
“You have to… hold… me?” She looked at his arm off to the side of her, wanting to take her back. She wasn’t sure why she felt her breath catch a second, but nodded enthusiastically for him to proceed, ‘I don’t know why I’m so… shy… all of a sudden. It’s not like we haven’t fought in close proximity before… I wonder… why this feels… different, somehow.’ She lowered her head, embarrassed by the strange–’No, it can’t be a ‘feeling’. I don’t have a heart to feel anything.’ She concluded and looked back up with a little more reassurance at the oddity of her strange actions. ‘It must be something there that just wasn’t there before.’
No beating heart… no blush on the cheeks…
Roxas simply took a hold of her back, his fingers spreading out as though to secure a permanent place. Residing as a leader, he gently had the tip of his fingers curl to pull the leather jacket tighter and keep his hand from slipping about the material. After seeing her nod and smile, but then bury her face away from him and towards the ground, he tried to maneuver himself to see her face again.
When she looked up, she startled him, and he quickly withdrew his head from dipping down to try to meet her at eye level. His face looked a little flustered by the sudden movement, but his complexion remained unreddened.
‘Woah..! Close one… Kinda… too close.’ He tightened his lips together. “Ehem.” He cleared his throat and, with the hand already holding her own, lifted it up in the proper stance for dancing.
“I believe… I lead.”
“Why?” She asked, innocently.
He froze a second, looking straight out as though ‘awaiting’ the answer to come to him… But, unlike as before, it never came to the front of his mind. “... I’m not sure. I think the man leads the princess around, though… I think I’m right?” He looked down. ‘Why is my memory of this… so hazy?’
Xion suddenly felt a stirring, a memory of a beach… of a boy and a girl laughing, holding hands, and jumping around in a joined circle together…
“Right. I know you’re right.” She felt the need to say it, nodding as her eyes were widened with such a strange… daydream…
Roxas was once again shocked by her validation, but was happy to hear she wanted to go along with it.
“But,... Prin… cess?” She gave a joking smile… However…
Roxas just looked back at her and lightly tilted his head with a brilliant grin of apology, his eyes glistening in the candlelight of the room’s atmosphere.
“It’s not like you wouldn’t be.” Roxas also kid with her, dipping his nose to her own as he whispered, “It’s not like you couldn’t be… Just like me… we don’t know who we were before… Anything is possible then,… right?” His eyes lowered a bit as he explained his reasoning, then flickered back up to her own… before he slowly pulled himself away, but her gaze was fixated on his own azure entrancement.
“Alright, then… I guess… This way… we go?” He began to lightly turn her, and without any resistance, she leaned into the arched swing…
The two… began to slow dance.
Tale as old as time.
She felt his hold remain secure as he lifted and dipped their joint hands with each turn… then, he let the arm behind her go and lifted her hand up, letting her twirl a moment, then catching her again.
Not once disoriented, Xion just let each movement guide her, and followed almost perfectly… as though… trained to be moved upon…
His arm was now on her shoulder, and she felt she had ruined everything by ramming into him, getting a bit lost in the flow of it all. “Oh..! Uhh… Sorry! I must have spaced out!” She squinted her eyes shut, leaning against his chest, worried she had messed up… failed… disappointed someone again…
He gave a sweet, gentle sound of laughter… and she felt the vibrations of shakes against her cheek from his chest. “It’s fine. I didn’t mean to startle you… You alright?”
“How… do you know how to dance?” She asked, curiously looking back up to him again.
“I… Don’t know.” He answered honestly, looking away, “But… it can’t be a bad thing… right?”
She shook her head, “Em-em.” Agreeing that it was definitely not a bad thing.
‘It’s that strange ‘sensation’ again…’ She pulled a little off his chest, and with the night sky outside, her own eyes reflected the faint traces of starlight within them. He smiled warmly down at her, his long eyelashes making her own eyes widen, wanting to see the slit of a window into what he was thinking…
Why did he even want to dance with her? To search whatever triggered this knowledge?
‘Is it… fondness? Or… excitement?’ She questioned in her mind, curiosity brimming to life a new, thrilling awakening in her… ‘What… is this… growing within me? And is it… Also being found within him, as well?’
True as it can be.
She looked left and right with her eyes, blinking wildly at a new instinct to come closer to him, and rest her nose near his other shoulder.
“Oh… ah. You’re getting the hang of this really fast, aren’t you?” He seemed pleased by that gesture, turning his head towards her own, which made her feel the puffs of air from his words against her obsidian hair…
Her eyes batted to him, slightly. She still was seeming so shy… “So… I did… something right?” She loved to hear the praise she was so often not afforded, and glanced back up at his eyes… turning to greet them yet again. “A stunning color…” She admitted, wanting to return the compliment… somehow. “And with the… I think it’s called a chandelier? It’s even more… brighter than normal.” She grinned as though delivering that statement in just the way she had hoped.
Roxas, taken aback yet again, looked down and smiled… acting cute for a second. “Thanks…” He lightly stated, “You know… being surrounded in usual darkness… I’m surprised by how much… your hair takes in the light… and shines so beautifully as it encases and frames your face so well.” Roxas couldn’t help but narrate his thoughts out loud, wanting her to be a part of them.
She took an embarrassed hand and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. Out of rebellion, it slid down back to perfectly do as Roxas stated, and line the shape of her face. This made Roxas hold in a faint chuckle, finding that really charming.
She was too beautiful to ignore, and that same… familiar feeling of an intimate, charming recollection enveloped him.
‘Where… have I seen this before?’
He could have sworn he smelled something like the ocean, just for a moment… coming from her…
Barely even friends-!
His fingers twitched, as though every ounce of him couldn’t bear to part with her again!
Then somebody bends…
He fought it and finally… let her go, bowing to her politely.
Unexpectedly.
She was still holding her earlier position, as though never having been let go of.
Her hands came up in puzzlement, looking to him bowing as though thinking something went wrong…
Something ached in her… her chest began to heave, and without much thought, she spun in a twirl of her Organization cloak right back in front of him.
‘I don’t want to be let go of… Roxas…’ A plea in her eyes, though his were far from her’s now.
In a split second, he had reacted instantly. Leaning up, his eyes caught her form spiraling towards him, and without command, caught her like a shooting star… She was back in his arms… and like her flash of that strange dream, their hands were in one another's…
Again, the memory remained obscure… but the sound of seagulls could be heard… and a ghost wind blew sea salt into their noses within their phantom miming of a moment… long lost in pages within a robbed storybook…
Just a little change…
He felt a pull… so he guided her into it… turning her as she willingly felt like she was following that memory… like a coded software unable to divert from its course, the two spun, and it was suddenly Sora and Kairi.
It was now a tug-of-war, the two fighting over a memory that couldn’t be shared… but either stolen or kept.
Their grasps were unyielding on each other… suffering every time they had to part to spin or twirl, both fighting each other without even realizing it… Thus, a real curse… as they were infatuated with a dream they couldn’t both hold at the same time.
Taking it back… reaching, grabbing it, and having it torn from their hands again… a dueled-duet of tangible beats.
Small to say the least..!
They were back on Destiny Island, just two kids trying to act out what looked like an open storybook in the sand… as the waves rose and clashed to the orchestrated heights of the song..! So did Sora reach to grab Kairi’s waist, and hoist her up over the waves in the distance to be lifted with the crescendo of the lyrics. As the splash sprayed about, the view was obscured in hazy waterdrops once more…
Both a little scared.
As she was brought down in another turn, the scene transitioned back to Xion, being led once again back to the center of the room by Roxas, each having one hand delicately together… before passionately locked as though not wanting to break the entrancing spell they were under…
Both looked a bit frightened, as though the hazy memory the two were sharing wasn’t fully comprehensible to either of them.
But Xion and Roxas turned to face each other once in the center again… and swayed back and forth, never losing sight on each other… and yet… lost in a fleeting recollection neither could quite make out… but both didn’t want to lose.
In a way, were they really looking at each other then? Or something… somewhere… entirely different?
Grasping for it in their minds, they continued in silence.
Neither one prepared.
He looped an arm around her again and dipped her gently as the scene flashed to Sora dipping Kairi on the shoreline, the waves reaching to be closer to the scene, but not able to make it.
Beauty and The Beast.
Their footprints in the sand were washed away… as though that memory wasn’t even there to begin with.
As the two images pulled the girls up… Xion and Kairi let their heads fully back before coming upright, their chins now poised to the men before them… before Sora and Roxas lowered their heads to have their noses crossed… not touching each other’s noses, but clearly sharing the same held breath…
Ever just the same.
Wildly now, the two–just Roxas and Xion–were flung into circling around the center, twirling and gliding as though locked in this joint moment.
Ever…
After spinning her out, Xion closed her eyes as Roxas brought her back towards his chest, and though now backwards, she let him continue to spin her about.
His head came near the crook of her neck… ‘Palm trees..? What did it mean?’ His eyes fluttered, but the intensity of their dance never waned as he pulled his head up and focused on making sure his continual, safe grip on her never faltered.
A surprise!
Xion opened her dreamy–almost not even here–eyes. She looked at his hand now taking a place at her waist, and with her recalling Sora and Kairi in a foggy, misty ocean view of white film… She saw Kairi’s hand overlap with her own, as though a ghost. She moved to hold Roxas’s hand on her side, just as the phantom hand moved–’Another boy’s hand in a similar way…’
Ever… as before.
He sucked in a breath of air, seeing her gesture.
Ever just as sure.
He looked up to her, and like the memory he was swiftly losing… ‘No… No, don’t go!’
He desperately lifted her up like Sora did with the waves crashing at the height of the song.
He gritted his teeth, his eyebrows bent back, ‘Every part of me doesn’t want this to end!’ He couldn’t explain it… ‘I wouldn’t explain it..!’
Thinking she had no idea what he was experiencing, her having the same regards, the two went with the sequence they were playing out… ignorant of the other’s distress. Carelessly unaware of the emotional turmoil the other was exactly going through.
As the sun-! Will risseee~
After putting her back down, he spun her by the waist so she turned to him… and with their eyes once again holding their sweet, lingering yearning together… They pulled back into each other, with equal desperation, going back to a close-quarters dance.
It felt almost like an embrace…
Tale as old as time.
With another soft turn, a sharp cut to Sora and Kairi, holding one another… Sora’s hand came up to Kairi’s head, tilting his own to lean against hers.
Both their expressions out of view.
Tune as old as song.
When they turned again, Xion’s face was the only thing visible, grinning as though she should be crying. She wouldn’t allow herself to cry; a nobody didn’t have a heart that allowed itself to cry… ‘Right?’ She gripped his shoulder, ‘What am I-… are we doing..!?’ Her inner voice almost sounded lost still, as though this wonderful feeling was frightening her… Seh was losing grip of reality… Becoming something else. Thus, she was experiencing this ‘something’ so strongly. ‘What does it all mean? I… I don’t want to part from him…’
Bittersweet and strange-!
Roxas, in deep pining, was not smiling…
Instead, he looked in agony, raising a flinching hand to her head, and finally pulling her in to a deeper spin, bringing her even closer to himself. … Mimicking Sora…
Finding you can change!
Then they suddenly came to a sharp pivot and stop, their coats whipping around their legs as they just… simply held one another.
Roxas… also had no tears to give… he just wouldn’t allow himself to cry either. ‘A nobody couldn’t be left in despair from a heart that wasn’t there to begin with.’ He looked up at the bright ceiling, his memory flashing from the sunny sky to a white as though it was being made into a blank page… So, he didn’t know why he felt the need to try and cry anyway.
‘Don’t go… just please, don’t go.’
Roxas couldn’t help but question it, but kept his thoughts to himself.
Xion’s was left in joy, quickly turning to frightening sorrow… ‘But… why?’
Learning you were wrong…~
He rubbed the side of his head to her own… And she leaned into the affectionate warmth she knew that as a Nobody… she couldn’t possibly be really feeling right now…
‘Right?’ She asked herself again, closing her eyes and opening them slowly in such pained bliss.
Certain as the sun…
Away from the scene… Namine gasped and dropped her colored crayon.
Riku, cloaked in the Organization’s coat–although not associated with the Organization, as the cloak wasn’t necessarily ‘owned’ by them, either–immediately looked up from a stack of her pictures and let them drop from his hold, rushing to her side.
She was gripping her chest, shaking… She lowered her head from having it arched up.
In her eyes… the ceiling of the mansion… white… ‘Oh, Sora… I’m so sorry.’ Her mind’s words held nothing more than pity and self-shame.
Her eye also didn’t shed a tear…She didn’t feel she was worthy or deserving of such sweet sentiments like tears, but something within her pined.
Rising in the east..!
Riku bent down by her white chair, presumably in Twilight Town’s hidden-away mansion, and lifted his hand to the back of her headrest or top back rail.
He tried to gauge her reaction…
But couldn’t.
He looked instead to the picture she was drawing, using his other hand to tilt a corner up for him to see it.
Xion and Roxas… mid-dancing… with Kairi standing behind Xion, and Sora behind Roxas… Both were facing at a profile, as though watching the two live out their desired reunion.
And Namine… once again… was missing it all from the solitary confinement of a white room…
Where she would never dwell in anyone’s heart… not even… Sora’s nobody’s.
Riku moved the picture aside, and under it… Namine… alone in a ballroom of golds and blues.
Tale as old as time!!!
Riku looked up to Namine, but she turned her head away from him and her drawings. She mimed crying buckets of tears that were never going to fall from her nobody body… As Riku just watched… lifting his head to her in concern.
Song as old as rhyme..!
His hand… tenderly, and with mercy, lightly leaped from the chair’s top to her bent backside, placing a small comfort upon her.
Beauty and… The Beast.
Riku looked down, seeing how disheartening everything seemed to be, but not really understanding why… until he picked up a picture that had fallen from her lap.
There… he saw a small Roxas facing a large–’Was it… a Sora Heartless?’
He wasn’t sure… ‘Where was Xion?’
Tale…
Xion and Roxas… faded into the scene as though appearing from papers flying over the image as a transition… With Roxas holding her hand, her upon the ground,… Fading away into nothingness…
As old as time.
Finally… he could cry, digging his cheek and nuzzling his face into her hand… It was turning into crystalized memories she had stolen from him… all this time.
He didn’t care about that right now.
New memories… of clock towers and ice cream… of missions and dancing… places he wanted to go and show her… Neverland… those were the memories that were fleeting… the memories he was trying to reach and desperately hold onto this time.
‘This time..! This time..!’ He didn’t realize how much he didn’t care about Sora… or Sora’s restored memories…
He didn’t even know who that was.
“Xion… Xion..!” The name was starting to disappear from his trembling lips…
And again, Namine’s heart ached, knowing Kairi was returning to Sora… ‘Which is what I promised.’ She told herself. ‘It’s what I must do… I have to… Xion must…’
The scene turned again to flying papers as though doves, flapping past Riku, who looked to the them from the visions of his covered eyes within the room he was still in. He got up, “This is… Sora’s light.” Seeing the flying papers in his vision, turned them into sparkles of light, shining and making their way into Sora’s sleeping pod… forming Kairi’s white silhouette, embracing Sora again… Her hands caressed his face, leaning the side of her head to his forehead. A hug of remembrance and reunion. She was then being absorbed into his being like a glow that slowly dims cold…
Song… as old as rhyme.
Back to Roxas… now holding nothing but scattering light.
Beauty… and…-
Pulling away from the scene… Namine is then found walking towards the curtains by the mansion’s windows.
Light, dainty, and see-through… they move like a ghost’s dress by the faint wind from the outside world. She holds a tentative hand to her heart, mourning silently to herself the tragedy, before looking down to see Roxas with his Data friends from Daybreak… looking up and seeing her… for what she felt was the first time.
She smiled.
“I am-”
The Beast.
She confessed, and left the simulation the second Roxas looked away… leaving nothing but a handprint on the window… never to be found upon anyone’s heart…
As the music concludes…
Roxas steps up to Sora’s pod…
Sora… opens his eyes… grinning widely with tears in his eyes.
The first memory on his sleepy awakening being…
Kairi.
End. (It’s off to the cupboard with me now, Cuties. It’s past my angst time. ^^ I’m kinda sorry… Not really ;p Did you catch the references to other Disney films?)
