Title: life is a magic thing [
Ao3]
Series: Kingdom Hearts/Ferngully
Pairing/Characters: Axel/Roxas
Rating: PG
Total length: 611 words
Warnings: wtf-fusion, Axel as Pips, Roxas as Zak, Xion as Crysta
Summary: He clears his throat nervously, grip tightening on the back of Roxas' hand and whispers, "Can't you feel its pain?"
Author's Note: A quick drabble that I've owed
nthcoincident[ for upwards of a year now.
Axel isn't the mage in training here-he's no Xion. He spends most of his days with a bunch of bugs, wreaking havoc around the forest and occasionally visiting Xion after her lessons. He knows next to nothing about magic-just the tell-tale tickle of it that flows through his veins, same as any other fairy.
He likes music and he likes flying and he's pretty fond of Xion and his boys.
It's also becoming rather apparent that he likes the little blonde human that Xion managed to shrink down to their size.
He's a surly little fucker, too cocky by far, but there's something about him that makes Axel's heart thump double-time-something familiar about the set to his smile or the way he holds himself. It intrigues him, so Axel takes over for Xion's human-sitting duties so she can hopefully figure out from Magi how to reverse the process.
.
He isn't the most in-touch fairy out there. Not like Xion or Magi or half of their more spiritual population, but even a fairy as out of touch with nature as he would cringe at Roxas taking his blade to a tree. "Stop, stop, stop! What are you doing?"
Roxas flinches, blade dropping from his hand to thump against the tree branch at his feet. He looks at Axel, wide-eyed, then glances back to the tree. "I was carving your name?" he says, but it sounds like a question. Axel wonders if this is normal for humans, carving names into trees as if they own them. He shivers.
"No, no, no, look-here," he breathes, taking one of Roxas' hands and placing it over the first letter of his name. Already Axel can feel the throbbing pulse of it, the wood around the cut almost hot to the touch. He glances at Roxas-their faces so close together that Axel can feel the human's breath against his skin. He clears his throat nervously, grip tightening on the back of Roxas' hand and whispers, "Can't you feel its pain?"
Roxas' eyes widen, giving Axel such a look of disbelief that it stings. "It's pain?" he asks, lips curled up into something that's fast becoming a sneer.
Axel glowers at him, looking down at their linked hands. He can still feel a dull throb of pain beneath their combined hands. It hurts. "I'm sorry," he half snarls. "I forgot that humans are numb from the brain down." There's something darkly satisfying in the panicked way Roxas is looking at him now, setting Axel's teeth on edge as the human tries to snatch his hand back.
"Don't leave," he whispers, the hold he has on Axel's hand almost painful. "I'm sorry that I can't feel it, but I won't do it again."
Axel glares at him, holding onto the anger for a second longer before he lets it drain out of him.
.
There's a cave in the heart of the forest that reflects starlight-a place where the world is magic, if but for a moment. A place where you can swim with the stars, feeling your part in the universe more deeply than anywhere else in the world.
That is the place that Axel takes Roxas-the boy's eyes growing soft with wonder as he takes it all in.
They swim with the stars and hover amongst constellations, and it's only when Roxas grins, soft and happy, that Axel kisses him-fisting his hands in wet hair and sealing their mouths together-feeling something inside of him snap back into place.
It feels like magic-like something that's been wrong for eons has been righted again.
It feels, a bit, like love.