Fulgurites [Kingdom Hearts - Organization XIII backstory]
Title: Fulgurites
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (Organization XIII backstory)
Word Count: 577
Character/Pairing: Larxene, Marluxia
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, and I make no money. Pity, that.
Summary: "The surge of the wind, the lashing of the rain, the lightning strikes more powerful than anywhere she'd ever been; desert storms filled her with something approaching emotion."
She liked it there, as much as "like" could really be applied to any reaction of hers these days. The surge of the wind, the lashing of the rain, the lightning strikes more powerful than anywhere she'd ever been; desert storms filled her with something approaching emotion. It was lust, maybe; hunger; a kind of devastating joy that delighted in finding pieces of sand fused into glass by the sheer power of the storm. She had a collection of them on a shelf in her room. Between storms, she would take them down and look at them, remembering the feel of the rain on her skin.
Seated cross-legged on the desert sand, the fulgurite delicate in her hand, the clouds gathering above her, Larxene watched the bright bolts leaping from cloud to cloud, and wanted them before her, close enough to touch. "Come!" she commanded, reaching up. The wind lashed sand against her skin, and she cried out again, jumping to her feet, pulling with thought and action, until a roar and flash sent her sprawling.
She staggered to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. Her skin was hot, tight, painful; her hair crackling when she moved her head and wrapping around her fingers, wild with static, when she brought her hand up. The world was an empty whiteness.
Impatient, Larxene dropped to her knees and started patting the sand, inching forward, until it became too hot to touch. With ill grace, she settled back down to the sand to wait the return of her vision.
"Larxene?"
She might have been dozing. The rain had stopped, and the desert was warming with the coming of day. "Marluxia?" She turned toward his voice, caught a flash of pink in the whiteness. "What are you doing here?"
Footsteps crunching in the sand, and then the soft scent of freesias. "I could ask you the same question. What happened?" Fingers against her cheek sent a flare of shocking pain across her face.
In other circumstances she would have hit him, but awareness of what had happened made the curiosity stronger. "Is there a fulgurite in front of me?"
"What?" She could practically see the confused look on his face, and she grabbed his arm to pull herself sharply to her feet.
"A fulgurite. In front of me. In the sand, Marluxia."
"There's a hole...," he said, trailing off. She shifted impatiently while he walked a few steps away.
"Tell me, or I'll stomp on every flower in your damned garden. Now."
"Come on, Larxene, there's no reason to be like that. Let's get you home, and into a cool bath...." He was back at her side, hovering in concern.
This time she did hit him. "Would you just focus for one damned second, petalhead? Is it a fulgurite?"
"Yes!" he snapped back. "Yes, Larxene, it is a fulgurite. A really big one. Okay?"
She squealed, and did a victory dance. "I did it! Marluxia, I did it!"
"What did you do?"
"I was standing where the fulgurite is, Marluxia."
"You got struck by lightning?"
She waved aside that part. "I called it down. I called the lightning, and it came for me."
"You got struck by lightning on purpose?"
"No, don't be ridiculous. I called it and it came to me. I just have to learn how to control it." She tossed her head. "Now, help me back to the Bastion. I have to think about this."