You're Not Him

[ladyoftwili]

Who: Roxas (split_happens ) and Midna (ladyoftwili ) 
When: After this conversation
Where: Roxas' Room
Rating: PG
Summary: Sora's reappearance has caused a few stirs.  Midna's concerned for one very important one.  In her own... special way.
Warnings: ... nothing yet?

Comments

[split_happens]

     No one had ever come to his room before. There had been no need. It had always been him going to Midna's, and... well, her room was the only one he'd ever gone by.

Roxas had been sitting by the computer yet, rereading the lines of text that had been shared between him and Sora. Yes, this was definitely Sora, wasn't it? It was a complete roll-reversal for greetings. Funny, how when you first came, it was him telling you that you'd come back- and now... But then was different... that Sora had been different... painfully different in that there were just things that had thrown Roxas off completely. His disappearance hadn't helped, but neither had his reappearance. This place really does have it out for us...

It was the thump on the door that pulled him out of his thoughts, and the boy looked up and hopped out of his chair. He hadn't any doubts of who it was even as he reached to open the door. "Mid- ah... are you okay?" he blinked

[ladyoftwili]

She had a lot of choice words for that stupid door. It was supposed to open, not just stand in her way like that. How dare it. "Fine," she muttered, rubbing at her forehead irritably. This was not how she wanted things to go. Shaking it off, she focused more on him, bright eyes narrowing.

"How're you holding up?" she asked. After all, he'd been the one running to her when Orihime vanished. It was only fair. Right...? It had nothing to do with those eyes. Or anything else like that. It was just... returning a favor.

[split_happens]

     He knew better than to push the question, so instead he stepped back to let her in, allowing the door to swing shut after, nudging it in place with a foot.

"...all right, I guess. It's hard to say, really..." Roxas stepped back over to the bed and flopped down to sit at a corner of it, his sneakers kicking back and forth one round before coming to rest. "...it's... well, it's like... when they disappear, you don't know where they've gone, so you can only hope they've been returned... hope for the best- but then when they're here, you can feel a little better at ease because you know they're here." It was only one part to his wondering, but it was still hard to really figure out. Should he feel guilty to be relieved he saw people here, now? This place was becoming his reality now, and he hated it now that he realized it. It wasn't too much different from being stuck in a virtual world after all.

"...this Sora's more like the Sora I know," the boy said quietly. "...the one I was a part of."

[ladyoftwili]

Listening to him talk, she drifted in, sinking gracefully onto the bed beside him. Automatically, her hand came to rest on the back of his neck, once again working slow circles into the muscle. "Mm," she murmured, not really knowing what else to say to that. "Orihime too..." She had no one else here. There was him. And there was Orihime. One of which had vanished and returned...

"So I noticed," she said, equally quietly. "If it's any consolation... you're smarter than he is." After a pause, she went on. "You're still yourself. You still feel for yourself, think for yourself..." She looked him in the eye. "I like Roxas," Midna announced. "The one who came to save the princess in her hour of need. Do you really think you did that because you were part of someone else?"

She wasn't sure if that was helpful or not, but... well, it was her opinion.

[split_happens]

     "I..." He didn't flinch at her touch. It was a welcome gesture, oddly soothing. Just like having someone there to talk about this

[ladyoftwili]

She worked her fingers in deeper, going lower down his back.

"Good," she said. "I'd hate to think I wasted all that effort putting you back together earlier..." There was a slight smirk on her lips. "You had me worried for a minute there, when you were speaking with him..."

I wouldn't want you to disappear either... She actually blushed. Faint spots of color appearing on pale cheeks. "You're not just talking about him," she said, ignoring the sudden flustered feeling. It would pass... eventually. Hopefully. "You mean the others you know. The one with the spiky hair, and the dumb one." As she spoke, she was pulling herself a little closer, working her other hand into his other shoulder.

"Your memories and theirs don't match up, do they?" she asked. "And that's what's bothering you."

[split_happens]

     Was she...? Roxas blinked, tilting his head a little as he tried to peer at Midna's face. He eventually shifted his gaze, not wanting to seem rude, but it was a curious thing. Cute, in a way. Midna was always so cool and collected that seeing her calm offset now and then was almost a strange thing. He didn't want to ever see her looking so distraught though, like the time he had come to see her, to sit with her when they'd found out that Orihime had vanished.

A nod. "Yeah..." That was what it all boiled down to, wasn't it? They were all either too early or too far ahead, and all were taken from whence he wasn't. Wasn't really. Or maybe that's just it- he was. The parts in between were all hazy, but then it was because he hadn't experienced them as himself. He wasn't completely one with Sora then either, but all the same... he hadn't disappeared. He had known things... he'd been aware. Otherwise... he wouldn't have woken up to here

[ladyoftwili]

He was looking. She ducked her head, letting the hood and her hair hide her now-brightly tinged cheeks from view. Princesses didn't blush. They were always aloof and calm, they never showed fear, embarrassment...

Crushes.

Annoyed, she dug her thumbs deep into a particularly bad knot. This was not about her. This was about him. About helping him in return for sitting up with her that time--for all his explanations. A favor for a favor--no matter what she'd led Gojyo to believe. He'd wanted to help, so she'd given him a chance to. It wasn't as if she really had a lot on her mind. "Offer to go with him to meet up with the kid...""You're right," she said finally. "It is silly. But..." She looked back up at him, hopefully having recovered enough composure. "Since you know that, there's no sense in dwelling on it so much, now is there?" More slow circles across his shoulders. "If... you need someone to keep your head out of the clouds the next time you talk to the boys," she began, only slightly hesitant. "I'm good at

[split_happens]

     Aw, now she was hiding? At least Roxas didn't laugh, and he bit down a grin, even as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. And when she decided to almost gouge her thumbs into his shoulders, that sufficed to help keep the grin from surfacing at all. "-aah," he winced, listening as Midna continued to speak before he finally relaxed a little once again.

It took him a moment to reply. He wanted to make sure he'd heard right. Slowly he raised his head again, looking at Midna with those blue eyes of his. Would it be easier, that way? Anything was easier when you had someone with you. But shouldn't he talk to Sora by himself? It would be the first time - in person anyway. They'd never met face-to-face back in their...world. Well, not when both were conscious, if that made any sense.

Finally, Roxas smiled. "...thanks, Midna. But I think I should talk to Sora by myself, at least to begin with." He had a feeling it would be easier, at least, than trying to deal with the other.

[ladyoftwili]

"Sorry," she said shortly, easing up on the pressure a little. Still, she worked her hands into tense places, finishing the shoulders, and moving down. It was something to occupy her attention while she thought. And while she got herself back under control.

Unfortunately, all that went to hell when he looked at her like that. They weren't the right color blue. They weren't anything like they should have been... But he's not Link--he's not Sora--are you really that much of a hypocrite? She swallowed, ducking her head away and pretending to examine something that broke eye contact. Since when did she allow anyone to do this to her?

Still, she saw him smiling out of the corner of her eye. "At least this time, he doesn't seem like he'll ask you to hang him," she teased lightly. "Or whatever."

[split_happens]

     He sighed, letting his own gaze fall away from the woman as he noticed her look away. Even so, he could feel his tension melting away at her touch.

"I honestly don't know what was wrong with Sora before. He was nothing like what he was supposed to be..." And nothing like me... Roxas laughed a little, shrugging. "I've...actually never spoken to him in person though, so... should be interesting."

[ladyoftwili]

"He was supposed to be more like you?" she asked. "Saner? Better hair? More brain cells than a common cucco?" Stupid birds. She hated the noisy little things. They didn't even make a pleasant sound.

Shrugging herself, Midna went on, before she could really check herself. "What I said still stands, no matter how your meeting goes," she said. "I didn't like Sora before, and I don't think I will now. He's too dumb. You-" And she broke off here, tilting his chin up towards hers with a real, albeit fanged, smile. "-are what I like."

Her opinion counted for a lot, in her own mind. After all, she was a princess, wasn't she?

[split_happens]

     "I've heard a lot of stuff we're supposed to be. Sometimes they seem to be conflicting so I've found it easier to stop listening." Again he shook his head before leaning back a bit, propping himself up with his hands on the bed.

Once again his eyes met Midna's- well at least she couldn't blame him this time since she's the one that made him do so, and she'd apparently gotten over whatever had bothered her earlier. Eyebrows arching, Roxas blinked at the pale-skinned woman before he smiled back. Smiles were something he handed out with care nowadays. No telling who was real enough to receive them anymore, much less who cared to return them.

"...thanks for coming to listen... and to talk. It means a lot to me." Someone real. Someone here.

[ladyoftwili]

On an impulse--and when was Midna one to ignore her impulses?--she leaned forward, still lightly holding onto his chin, and snuck a light kiss onto the vicinity of his forehead. "You're welcome," she purred. "I owed you... after all..."

And, just as abruptly, she released him, flopping ungracefully backwards onto the bed itself. She stretched out, closing her eyes. "You're boys," she responded to his first statement. "Anyone who says otherwise is obviously blind and stupid." She cracked an eye open, bringing one hand back to rest her head on. "But... I sense there's something more there you're not quite saying~"

[split_happens]

     It was Roxas's turn to blush. He blinked up as Midna leaned in close, pink blanketing his cheeks as her blue lips touched his forehead. He swallowed.

And then Midna pulled away, dropping back against the bed, giving him space to breathe once again. He took a moment before looking over his shoulder at the woman, still feeling his face warm, wondering if it was still as red as he felt. "...there's a lot I haven't said, because I'd rather not have to think about it again, or because it's complicated and there's still a lot I'm not sure about," he admitted. Looking back towards the door, he sighed, then stretched his arms over his head before folding them behind his head as he slowly lay back on the bed as well, staring up at the white, white ceiling.

"...does it matter, though?"

[ladyoftwili]

He was beside her, and before she thought better of it, she'd rolled over, half sprawled across him, looking down at him. Too serious for her liking. The conversation had taken on a darker turn all of the sudden. She'd had enough of darkness and suffering. Especially from him. The last thing she wanted was for Roxas--her Roxas--to start thinking, start speaking, like that other one.

"Fine by me," she said simply. "I'm here to help, not make things worse..." A smile. "It doesn't matter to me. So long as it doesn't keep making you so down..."