Entertainment - Axel/Xion - NC-17
Title: Entertainment
Writer: Cy Fur
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Possible spoilers for 358/2 Days.
Characters/Pairings: Axel/Xion
Notes/Continuation: Written for 30_lemons. Has someone dying, at the end of it.
“So we’re going to a… movie?” Xion smoothes her skirt over her thighs. “And why do I have to wear this?”
“Because it’s our day off and we stand out if we go in uniform.” Axel checks his hair in the mirror, although Xion personally can‘t tell what he‘s actually checking it for, since whatever it does, it just goes back to being all spiky. “Don’t you like looking pretty?” He casually wraps an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll like this movie. It’s a classic.” He opens a dark portal into an alleyway, and bows. “After you, my lady.”
Xion giggles, covering her mouth with both hands. True, they can’t feel anything, but she wants to at least pretend she’s a real person, and at least part of that is imitating the real girls she’s seen. And, well, Axel is awfully silly, even if she can only judge it on an intellectual level.
“So what’s a movie, anyway?” Xion takes his hand when he offers it, squeezing his fingers.
“It’s a story, told on the screen.” Axel begins to walk towards a big building with a large white overhang with words written on it. “With people pretending to be other people.”
“…Oh.” Xion tries to piece this together in her head as Axel leads her towards the building. She’s more caught up in the smells of the theater - salt, butter, sweetness…. She doesn’t pay attention to Axel buying the tickets, because she’s trying to identify all of the smells.
“Xion!” Axel taps her shoulder, and Xion nearly jumps out of her skin.
“Um?” She stares up at him with a confused face.
“Do you want popcorn?” Axel asks, rolling his eyes for the benefit of anyone watching. “My sister is such an airhead, I swear.” The pimply boy behind the counter grins. Apparently he knows from airhead sisters.
“Yeah,” Xion says, not sure she knows what popcorn is. She ignores the “airhead” comment.
“Come on,” Axel says, and hands her a bucket filled with… stuff. Puffy white and yellow stuff.
“What is it?” Xion cautiously leans down and sniffs. Butter and salt….
“It’s popcorn,” Axel says, and steers her towards the nearest open door.
“Oh.” Xion follows after him, blinking in the dimness. “So you eat popcorn while watching movies?”
“Usually, yeah. Lets sit in the back.” Axel tugs Xion over to a pair of seats on the side in the very back.
“Won’t it be harder to see the movie that way?” Xion sits next to him, her head on his shoulder, or his arm, in this case, seeing as how she was so very short and he was so very tall.
“Nah. The farther back you are, the easier to see the screen.” Axel takes a handful of popcorn and nibbles on it.
Xion relaxes against him, feeling his arm wrap around her shoulders and his hand rub her side. “I thought you said that there would be a story,” she says, taking a handful of popcorn and nibbling on it. It tastes… like butter and salt, with something else underlying it, although she isn’t sure how to describe the underlying taste. Enjoyable enough, although she still thinks she prefers sea salt ice cream.
“There will be, soon enough.” Axel tells her. “In the meantime, pig out on popcorn and watch the people and the ads.”
“’kay,” Xion says, then pauses. “Axel, what’s an ad?”
“It’s an advertisement. Companies print them or show ‘em to make you buy stuff.”
“’kay,” Xion says, and stares up at the big screen, where ads are being projected.
It doesn’t seem to be a very popular movie. There aren’t many people in the theater. Axel and Xion, and few other people, although most of the other people seem to be in twos as well.
“What’s this movie about?” Xion asks, twirling on of Axel’s spikes around and around her finger.
“Vampires,” Axel says, and grins, because the lights are starting to go dim.
“What’s a vampire?” Xion whispers, cuddling up closer to him. She doesn’t like the dark that much - she half expects heartless to come creeping out.
“Evil bloodsuckers,” Axel says, and tries to tug her closer. Seeing the armrest in the way, he grunts and lifts her up and into his lap, her back snug against his belly.
Xion squeaks. “Axel, what’re you doing?” She manages to mumble, sitting primly in his lap.
“Getting comfy,” Axel says, and puts his chin on top of her head. “It’s a scary movie. You might want to hide your face in my chest when it gets scary. I just made it easier.” They both know that neither of them can actually get scared, but they also both know that they have to pretend this isn’t true, if only to keep from going insane.
“Oh.” Xion leans back against him and takes a handful of popcorn, nibbling on each individual piece instead of eating it a handful at a time the way Axel is. She stares up at the screen and jumps when the first commercial starts up and the music starts playing. If she had a heart, it would be jack hammering, but she settles with shaking, because it is scary, in a startling sort of way, especially when you’re not expecting it.
Axel chuckles and pats her belly, kissing the top of her head. “Calm down,” he says in a slightly condescending voice.
“Hmph.” Xion squirms, spreading her skirt over her knees and leaning her head back again.
Axel shifts as well. Whenever she moves like that, certain parts of his anatomy take notice. He bites back a groan and tugs her a little bit closer, pressing her skirt covered bottom against his crotch.
Xion doesn’t notice - she’s too engrossed on the giant pictures flickering on the screen in front of her. She’s never seen anything like this before, and it has her transfixed. She probably wouldn’t notice if Axel set off a bomb near her, let alone gently skate his fingers along her belly over her shirt. It isn’t until he slips his fingers between the buttons of her shirt to gently drum on her bare belly in time with the music on the screen that she makes a surprised noise and presses down on his hand. “Axel,” she mumbles. “We’re in public.”
“This doesn’t count as public,” Axel murmurs in her ear. “We’re in the dark and everybody is concentrating on the movie, not on us.” He nips her ear, gently. “And we’ve done stuff in more public places then this, you know….”
“But…” Xion blushes, squirming as his hand moves up from her belly to her breast, “before we were hidden by a bush or something, not where anyone could look and see us.”
“But everyone can’t look and see us,” Axel points out, his other hand letting go of her belly to palm her between the legs, where she’s already starting to get damp. “We’re in the dark, and they would only see us doing anything if they were looking over at us, and it would serve them right anyway.”
Xion shudders and squeezes her legs together, trapping his hand between her legs. “Axel,” she mumbles, but it’s a weak mumble, because now the heel of Axel’s hand is grinding against her clit through her panties, and her clit is sending desperate little Morse code messages to the rest of her body, making her skin get tighter and the dampness between her legs increase, until she isn’t just damp, she’s full on wet, wet to the point where she can feel his fingers collecting the fluid and smearing it on her thighs and making the front of her panties slimy and cold.
“You sure you don’t want this, baby girl? ‘cause if you don’t want me to, I’ll just go take care of myself in the bathroom.” Axel diddles her clit with the tip of one long, bony finger. “But it sure feels like you want it….”
Xion gasps quietly and whimpers, staring up at the screen to avoid Axel’s acid green eyes. The couple near the front of the theater are kissing, kissing in that special way, with their whole mouths, the way Axel does with her, sometimes. Her lips tingle, and she turns her head to get Axel to kiss her, but he shakes his head.
“I took you here to see the movie, Xion,” Axel says, his voice admonishing even as he hooks his fingers under her panties to pull them down around her thighs. When his hand goes between her legs again, it touches her directly, stroking her clit and teasingly along her slit with just his fingertips, liking the way it makes her squirm and wriggle.
“But you’re….” Xion strives to indicate without saying anything that he is… distracting her. Really, really, really distracting her. She can’t concentrate on the movie, with his hands doing wriggly-twisty things that make her insides flip-flop.
“So? That doesn’t require your eyes, now does it?” Axel lets go of her to fiddle with his belt. “Whereas when you kiss me, you can’t see the screen.” He pulls his pants down around his thighs, pulls his boxers down with them, until his cock is nudging her through her skirt, staining it with pre-come.
Xion gasps and whimpers. “Th-that isn’t fair,” she mumbles, biting her lip and pressing her hips into his hand.
“What isn’t fair?” Axel lifts her skirt up, so that the head of his cock is brushing against the cleft of her bottom, getting her wetter and stickier, albeit somewhere else.
“I l-like kissing you,” Xion mumbles, and gasps. It feels so very… it feels, period. She feels a stirring in her belly and the empty place in her chest twitches. Kissing him feels… right, in a way that she can’t put in words except that it does. But Axel won’t kiss her. She’ll get back at him some other time, when she’s the one in power, although now she has to ensure that at some point she’ll be in power and that rather distracts her from thinking about what Axel is doing, until he’s got her skirt hitched up in the back and is tugging on her hips to get her to get up on her knees, at least enough for him to position himself to enter her.
“I’m going in now,” Axel whispers into her ear, while, onscreen, the characters walk about a cave, cheering on the main character, who is drinking from a jewel encrusted bottle. “I can, right? You want it, don’t you?” His mouth is hot on the back of her neck, and his teeth nip her, gently.
“I…yes,” Xion mumbles, and lets him tug her down, until she’s fully seated on his cock, her bony little knees splayed out on either side of his legs, where he’ll no doubt have marks. She feels so very full, and she squeezes down on him and whimpers, biting back any other noises. She lolls her head back onto his shoulder and takes his hands, pressing them to her breasts.
Axel groans as well and leans down to mouth at her neck, nibbling along it gently. He leaves hot, open mouthed kisses along it, liking the way she shudders and tightens around him. It’s a bit hard for him to thrust like this, with his legs pressed close together, but he manages, short, shallow jerks of his hips that go deep into her, making her clench around him. He takes her breasts in his hands, and marvels (as much as something with no sense of wonder can marvel) at how tiny they are, barely across his palm. He presses against her nipples with his thumbs, then pinches them between two fingers, nipping the soft, tender place right under her ear.
Xion has to bite her hand to keep from making any noise, rising and falling on his cock. She actually squeals around her hand when his fingers twist and pinch her right nipple, while his other hand goes down to thumb her clit, circling it and pressing down. She feels the little shockwaves starting from her clit and moving around to her hips, to her ribs, racing up and down but not yet sparking. She wonders if this is what Larxene feels like before she attacks - the energy that builds and builds and builds, until it has to break, before she does.
“Gonna come for me, baby girl?” Axel hisses in her ear, grinding down on her clit with his thumb, working as hard as he can to make her come first, because he knows from past experience that when Xion comes, she clamps down, hard, and he wants to feel that, wants to come inside of her, because it brings back the faintest shadow twitch in the empty place where his heart once was, and like any Nobody, he’ll do anything, absolutely anything, for that.
Xion bites her arm as she feels her orgasm start up, tilting her head back-back-back, curling her toes and shaking all over. She spasms around Axel, her whole body going rigid and getting wetter, so much wetter, until she can feel her own fluids dribbling down her thighs. She finally goes limp, sagging against him, and she’s lost in that spacey, hazy place where your bones are made of melted rubber and your brains are made of clouds.
Axel presses his gasp into her neck and then he’s coming as well, pulling her as close as he can as he can, shooting inside of her, his big hands clutching at her hips tight enough to leave bruises. He clutches her and presses a kiss to the top of her sweaty head, mumbling nonsense, sweet nonsense that neither of them ever talk about. He lets go of her hips to lift her bangs up and kiss her temple, as close to contentment as a Nobody ever can be.
Xion leans back into him, not even thinking about the stickiness that’s dripping down her thighs. She feels herself drifting into a daze, and is just about to close her eyes when a bright light is shining in them, so strong that she needs to cover them with one hand.
“You’re a sick fuck, you know that?” The owner of the bright light sounds nonchalant, even if he’s saying something so very insulting. “How old is she? Thirteen? And how old are you?” But the man doesn’t sound angry. He actually sounds kind of amused. “I really don’t give two shits about what people do on their own time, but don’t fuck in my theater.” He indicates Xion with his flashlight. “If you and your boyfriend ain’t gone in ten minutes, I’m calling the cops. Got that, sweetheart?”
Axel raises a pale red eyebrow. “You’ll call the cops on little ol’ me?” Something in his voice is… dangerous, and Xion tenses up. She feels him wince, and she guesses that maybe he’s still sensitive, down there, the way she can be.
“You got a problem with that, buddy?” The owner of the voice sounds a bit… unnerved, because usually a person in this type of situation is offering money and other such favors. A grown man with a little girl on his cock should not sound so cocky.
“In fact, I do.” Axel looks around the place, then at Xion. “What do you say, baby girl? Get an early start on this world?”
Xion is in such of a daze that she’d agree to anything. She nods, shifting.
“Well, I gotta agree with my girl,” Axel says lightly, and snaps his fingers.
The man bursts into flame. He screams, and the scent of burning flesh fills the theater. In the flurry of frenzied activity, nobody notices the two figures slipping away in the darkness.
Writer: Cy Fur
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Possible spoilers for 358/2 Days.
Characters/Pairings: Axel/Xion
Notes/Continuation: Written for 30_lemons. Has someone dying, at the end of it.
“So we’re going to a… movie?” Xion smoothes her skirt over her thighs. “And why do I have to wear this?”
“Because it’s our day off and we stand out if we go in uniform.” Axel checks his hair in the mirror, although Xion personally can‘t tell what he‘s actually checking it for, since whatever it does, it just goes back to being all spiky. “Don’t you like looking pretty?” He casually wraps an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll like this movie. It’s a classic.” He opens a dark portal into an alleyway, and bows. “After you, my lady.”
Xion giggles, covering her mouth with both hands. True, they can’t feel anything, but she wants to at least pretend she’s a real person, and at least part of that is imitating the real girls she’s seen. And, well, Axel is awfully silly, even if she can only judge it on an intellectual level.
“So what’s a movie, anyway?” Xion takes his hand when he offers it, squeezing his fingers.
“It’s a story, told on the screen.” Axel begins to walk towards a big building with a large white overhang with words written on it. “With people pretending to be other people.”
“…Oh.” Xion tries to piece this together in her head as Axel leads her towards the building. She’s more caught up in the smells of the theater - salt, butter, sweetness…. She doesn’t pay attention to Axel buying the tickets, because she’s trying to identify all of the smells.
“Xion!” Axel taps her shoulder, and Xion nearly jumps out of her skin.
“Um?” She stares up at him with a confused face.
“Do you want popcorn?” Axel asks, rolling his eyes for the benefit of anyone watching. “My sister is such an airhead, I swear.” The pimply boy behind the counter grins. Apparently he knows from airhead sisters.
“Yeah,” Xion says, not sure she knows what popcorn is. She ignores the “airhead” comment.
“Come on,” Axel says, and hands her a bucket filled with… stuff. Puffy white and yellow stuff.
“What is it?” Xion cautiously leans down and sniffs. Butter and salt….
“It’s popcorn,” Axel says, and steers her towards the nearest open door.
“Oh.” Xion follows after him, blinking in the dimness. “So you eat popcorn while watching movies?”
“Usually, yeah. Lets sit in the back.” Axel tugs Xion over to a pair of seats on the side in the very back.
“Won’t it be harder to see the movie that way?” Xion sits next to him, her head on his shoulder, or his arm, in this case, seeing as how she was so very short and he was so very tall.
“Nah. The farther back you are, the easier to see the screen.” Axel takes a handful of popcorn and nibbles on it.
Xion relaxes against him, feeling his arm wrap around her shoulders and his hand rub her side. “I thought you said that there would be a story,” she says, taking a handful of popcorn and nibbling on it. It tastes… like butter and salt, with something else underlying it, although she isn’t sure how to describe the underlying taste. Enjoyable enough, although she still thinks she prefers sea salt ice cream.
“There will be, soon enough.” Axel tells her. “In the meantime, pig out on popcorn and watch the people and the ads.”
“’kay,” Xion says, then pauses. “Axel, what’s an ad?”
“It’s an advertisement. Companies print them or show ‘em to make you buy stuff.”
“’kay,” Xion says, and stares up at the big screen, where ads are being projected.
It doesn’t seem to be a very popular movie. There aren’t many people in the theater. Axel and Xion, and few other people, although most of the other people seem to be in twos as well.
“What’s this movie about?” Xion asks, twirling on of Axel’s spikes around and around her finger.
“Vampires,” Axel says, and grins, because the lights are starting to go dim.
“What’s a vampire?” Xion whispers, cuddling up closer to him. She doesn’t like the dark that much - she half expects heartless to come creeping out.
“Evil bloodsuckers,” Axel says, and tries to tug her closer. Seeing the armrest in the way, he grunts and lifts her up and into his lap, her back snug against his belly.
Xion squeaks. “Axel, what’re you doing?” She manages to mumble, sitting primly in his lap.
“Getting comfy,” Axel says, and puts his chin on top of her head. “It’s a scary movie. You might want to hide your face in my chest when it gets scary. I just made it easier.” They both know that neither of them can actually get scared, but they also both know that they have to pretend this isn’t true, if only to keep from going insane.
“Oh.” Xion leans back against him and takes a handful of popcorn, nibbling on each individual piece instead of eating it a handful at a time the way Axel is. She stares up at the screen and jumps when the first commercial starts up and the music starts playing. If she had a heart, it would be jack hammering, but she settles with shaking, because it is scary, in a startling sort of way, especially when you’re not expecting it.
Axel chuckles and pats her belly, kissing the top of her head. “Calm down,” he says in a slightly condescending voice.
“Hmph.” Xion squirms, spreading her skirt over her knees and leaning her head back again.
Axel shifts as well. Whenever she moves like that, certain parts of his anatomy take notice. He bites back a groan and tugs her a little bit closer, pressing her skirt covered bottom against his crotch.
Xion doesn’t notice - she’s too engrossed on the giant pictures flickering on the screen in front of her. She’s never seen anything like this before, and it has her transfixed. She probably wouldn’t notice if Axel set off a bomb near her, let alone gently skate his fingers along her belly over her shirt. It isn’t until he slips his fingers between the buttons of her shirt to gently drum on her bare belly in time with the music on the screen that she makes a surprised noise and presses down on his hand. “Axel,” she mumbles. “We’re in public.”
“This doesn’t count as public,” Axel murmurs in her ear. “We’re in the dark and everybody is concentrating on the movie, not on us.” He nips her ear, gently. “And we’ve done stuff in more public places then this, you know….”
“But…” Xion blushes, squirming as his hand moves up from her belly to her breast, “before we were hidden by a bush or something, not where anyone could look and see us.”
“But everyone can’t look and see us,” Axel points out, his other hand letting go of her belly to palm her between the legs, where she’s already starting to get damp. “We’re in the dark, and they would only see us doing anything if they were looking over at us, and it would serve them right anyway.”
Xion shudders and squeezes her legs together, trapping his hand between her legs. “Axel,” she mumbles, but it’s a weak mumble, because now the heel of Axel’s hand is grinding against her clit through her panties, and her clit is sending desperate little Morse code messages to the rest of her body, making her skin get tighter and the dampness between her legs increase, until she isn’t just damp, she’s full on wet, wet to the point where she can feel his fingers collecting the fluid and smearing it on her thighs and making the front of her panties slimy and cold.
“You sure you don’t want this, baby girl? ‘cause if you don’t want me to, I’ll just go take care of myself in the bathroom.” Axel diddles her clit with the tip of one long, bony finger. “But it sure feels like you want it….”
Xion gasps quietly and whimpers, staring up at the screen to avoid Axel’s acid green eyes. The couple near the front of the theater are kissing, kissing in that special way, with their whole mouths, the way Axel does with her, sometimes. Her lips tingle, and she turns her head to get Axel to kiss her, but he shakes his head.
“I took you here to see the movie, Xion,” Axel says, his voice admonishing even as he hooks his fingers under her panties to pull them down around her thighs. When his hand goes between her legs again, it touches her directly, stroking her clit and teasingly along her slit with just his fingertips, liking the way it makes her squirm and wriggle.
“But you’re….” Xion strives to indicate without saying anything that he is… distracting her. Really, really, really distracting her. She can’t concentrate on the movie, with his hands doing wriggly-twisty things that make her insides flip-flop.
“So? That doesn’t require your eyes, now does it?” Axel lets go of her to fiddle with his belt. “Whereas when you kiss me, you can’t see the screen.” He pulls his pants down around his thighs, pulls his boxers down with them, until his cock is nudging her through her skirt, staining it with pre-come.
Xion gasps and whimpers. “Th-that isn’t fair,” she mumbles, biting her lip and pressing her hips into his hand.
“What isn’t fair?” Axel lifts her skirt up, so that the head of his cock is brushing against the cleft of her bottom, getting her wetter and stickier, albeit somewhere else.
“I l-like kissing you,” Xion mumbles, and gasps. It feels so very… it feels, period. She feels a stirring in her belly and the empty place in her chest twitches. Kissing him feels… right, in a way that she can’t put in words except that it does. But Axel won’t kiss her. She’ll get back at him some other time, when she’s the one in power, although now she has to ensure that at some point she’ll be in power and that rather distracts her from thinking about what Axel is doing, until he’s got her skirt hitched up in the back and is tugging on her hips to get her to get up on her knees, at least enough for him to position himself to enter her.
“I’m going in now,” Axel whispers into her ear, while, onscreen, the characters walk about a cave, cheering on the main character, who is drinking from a jewel encrusted bottle. “I can, right? You want it, don’t you?” His mouth is hot on the back of her neck, and his teeth nip her, gently.
“I…yes,” Xion mumbles, and lets him tug her down, until she’s fully seated on his cock, her bony little knees splayed out on either side of his legs, where he’ll no doubt have marks. She feels so very full, and she squeezes down on him and whimpers, biting back any other noises. She lolls her head back onto his shoulder and takes his hands, pressing them to her breasts.
Axel groans as well and leans down to mouth at her neck, nibbling along it gently. He leaves hot, open mouthed kisses along it, liking the way she shudders and tightens around him. It’s a bit hard for him to thrust like this, with his legs pressed close together, but he manages, short, shallow jerks of his hips that go deep into her, making her clench around him. He takes her breasts in his hands, and marvels (as much as something with no sense of wonder can marvel) at how tiny they are, barely across his palm. He presses against her nipples with his thumbs, then pinches them between two fingers, nipping the soft, tender place right under her ear.
Xion has to bite her hand to keep from making any noise, rising and falling on his cock. She actually squeals around her hand when his fingers twist and pinch her right nipple, while his other hand goes down to thumb her clit, circling it and pressing down. She feels the little shockwaves starting from her clit and moving around to her hips, to her ribs, racing up and down but not yet sparking. She wonders if this is what Larxene feels like before she attacks - the energy that builds and builds and builds, until it has to break, before she does.
“Gonna come for me, baby girl?” Axel hisses in her ear, grinding down on her clit with his thumb, working as hard as he can to make her come first, because he knows from past experience that when Xion comes, she clamps down, hard, and he wants to feel that, wants to come inside of her, because it brings back the faintest shadow twitch in the empty place where his heart once was, and like any Nobody, he’ll do anything, absolutely anything, for that.
Xion bites her arm as she feels her orgasm start up, tilting her head back-back-back, curling her toes and shaking all over. She spasms around Axel, her whole body going rigid and getting wetter, so much wetter, until she can feel her own fluids dribbling down her thighs. She finally goes limp, sagging against him, and she’s lost in that spacey, hazy place where your bones are made of melted rubber and your brains are made of clouds.
Axel presses his gasp into her neck and then he’s coming as well, pulling her as close as he can as he can, shooting inside of her, his big hands clutching at her hips tight enough to leave bruises. He clutches her and presses a kiss to the top of her sweaty head, mumbling nonsense, sweet nonsense that neither of them ever talk about. He lets go of her hips to lift her bangs up and kiss her temple, as close to contentment as a Nobody ever can be.
Xion leans back into him, not even thinking about the stickiness that’s dripping down her thighs. She feels herself drifting into a daze, and is just about to close her eyes when a bright light is shining in them, so strong that she needs to cover them with one hand.
“You’re a sick fuck, you know that?” The owner of the bright light sounds nonchalant, even if he’s saying something so very insulting. “How old is she? Thirteen? And how old are you?” But the man doesn’t sound angry. He actually sounds kind of amused. “I really don’t give two shits about what people do on their own time, but don’t fuck in my theater.” He indicates Xion with his flashlight. “If you and your boyfriend ain’t gone in ten minutes, I’m calling the cops. Got that, sweetheart?”
Axel raises a pale red eyebrow. “You’ll call the cops on little ol’ me?” Something in his voice is… dangerous, and Xion tenses up. She feels him wince, and she guesses that maybe he’s still sensitive, down there, the way she can be.
“You got a problem with that, buddy?” The owner of the voice sounds a bit… unnerved, because usually a person in this type of situation is offering money and other such favors. A grown man with a little girl on his cock should not sound so cocky.
“In fact, I do.” Axel looks around the place, then at Xion. “What do you say, baby girl? Get an early start on this world?”
Xion is in such of a daze that she’d agree to anything. She nods, shifting.
“Well, I gotta agree with my girl,” Axel says lightly, and snaps his fingers.
The man bursts into flame. He screams, and the scent of burning flesh fills the theater. In the flurry of frenzied activity, nobody notices the two figures slipping away in the darkness.