milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It's been a while but Xaldin is back. He's been quite busy and the slightly dishevelled appearance of his dreads gives mute testimony to that. There are little flecks of white in them as well - a side effect of the enheartening and the stress that he acquired when he was able to care about all that he'd done.

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It's all right. Mia didn't think too much on name meanings until now.

"That seems a little cruel to the letter X and anyone who would otherwise be blessed to have such a unique letter in their name," she says. "But if I've learned anything, it's that even a person who has done terrible things is not necessarily terrible."

She holds a hand out.

"Did I ever tell you how I first heard about my husband?"

[ooc: Dear Email, *thwap!* Bitch, why aren't you telling me when I have new tags? No love, the Mun]

He takes her hand gently - he still wears gloves and will until his dying day. "I know that it doesn't, but it reminds me constantly of what I need to atone for. I will never be Dilan again."

"No, I haven't heard that story."

"You only have to atone until you forgive yourself, but you're probably right about the other part. I hope you're not offended, but I don't know if I should be sad about that or not. It would have been nice to met Dilan, but I like Xaldin."

She gives his hand a kind squeeze.

"Not too long after I first came here, I went to Halloweentown to help fight off nightmares that were invading there. Not Heartless, I don't think, just nightmares. But the nightmares played mind games on me, made me think I was reliving a curse I had a few years ago. I had to be carried back here and was left on a couch, fevered, nauseous, and clawing at my ears. That's how Will, my sort-of brother, found me. He carried me to the infirmary so Doctor Tam could treat me."

There's a pause where she presses her lips together.

"Three days later, I was out of the infirmary and Will was out of the cells. He had met Draco the same night he helped me and they got into a fight. Draco used his magic to torture Will, used a curse that is Unforgivable in his world. Draco was the first person here that I was truly mad at."

Xaldin listens to her speech and murmurs; "I don't think you would like to meet Dilan. He will become me, after all."

And she can't stop that from happening.

"I don't know," she says. "Would you believe that, after what I've just told you, the first time I met Draco was very pleasant and didn't end with me setting him on fire?"

"Yes" he says it simply, "because you are you, and you have a great heart."

"My heart isn't that great, it just insists that I use my ears. The reason I love Draco so is because I bothered to listen to him. The more I listened, the more I understood, the more I loved."

She pats his hand.

"If I can do that for Draco, why do you doubt what you were?"

He raises hers to his lips and kisses it briefly "Because I think it would pain you to meet the man who will suffer worse than death in order to birth me."

"Oh I see," she says, finally getting it. "That would be both terrible and wonderful. I would only be sad because I had been happy before, after all. Two sides, one coin. Fire and Ice."

He nods and lets go of her hand at last, "Something like that, yes. Not the best of similes to use around me and Xigbar, however. Or Zexion and Lexaeus."

"Sorry," she replies, smiling. "I was just being selfish and using the one that relates the best to me."

"I understand. However Axel is still alive, and Vexen is dead by his hand." and it hurts to think of Even, sweet Even, dead.

Mia looks vaguely annoyed.

"............dammit."

Clearly, someone never told Mia of this and things make a hell of a lot more sense now.

"Axel was under orders. I understand this. He killed Vexen because Vexen was about to do something Xenmas told him not to do." Xaldin's voice is very, very even because otherwise he'll cry "Ironically the same circumstances with regards to Roxas are why Axel will not tolerate me. I passed on an order. He defected instead because Roxas was his friend. Even - he was sweet. He was innocent in a way the rest of us weren't. He fell farther because he had more to lose. I miss him, worse than I miss the girlfriends who died. I cannot forget that Axel killed him. Personally."

"I don't blame you for that," she says softly. "Any of that."

"I followed orders because I thought it was the right thing to do." softly "Axel did so until he decided he didn't like the orders. He treats me with contempt because he doesn't like the orders that were passed down."

"So Fire and Ice is not my favourite dynamic. Earth and Air, perhaps. Space and Void if you must. Moon and Water. But Fire and Ice will always be the death of Vexen."

"It is sad."

Obvious, but accurate.

Then, to move on to another subject, and because she needs the explanation anyway, "Moon and Water?"

"Saix and Demyx. The moon pulls water, water surges to and from the moon." he lets it drop. The sorrow is still there, is always there, but he lets go and shifts conversational gears.

"The moon pulls water?"

The Magic Guild doesn't really teach things like that.

"Yes. The tides are a factor of the moon's gravity pulling on the water."

"I never knew that."

Suddenly, this strikes her as very funny and she starts giggling so much that she doubles over, trying to cover her mouth to stifle it.

"Pardon?" Confusion is Xaldin.

She straightens herself up and calms down her giggling a little.

"It's just-" she says, catching her breath. "It's just that my home is often called the Moon and Draco-" She wipes a tear of mirth from the corner of her eye. "Draco has an affinity for water magic. So you could say I am a Moon witch with a Water wizard under my sway."

She giggles a little more. She won't mind if he doesn't think it's particularly funny, but it just tickles her.

"Ah." he doesn't get it but that's alright. It makes her happy.

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