Autumnal Decay

(Author's note: Aaand this chapter is written in Saïx's POV. Be prepared for lubberly personality swaps. :B)


That hand of his…so strong, firm, and demanding, fit my own paw like a glove. His caramel skin overlapped my own cream complexion in a display of awkward affection as we strode, our fingers laced together like some strange, clumsy mixture.

I knew there were things on that bright mind of his since he kept glancing at me as we walked. His looks were sideways, his beautiful eyes just glancing out of the corners of his lids, but I cannot think of a reason for why he would be looking at me in such a way, with such discreteness that truly lacked any characteristics of the term. His behavior was startling me perhaps the same way that my previous behavior had startled him. I had my own reasons for my growling and glaring at passersby, and it is best that he not know why in order to protect my dignity.

I do not want him thinking that I was protecting him from such harmless creatures as these humans were, although I, in my beastly state of mind, was doing just that. No one touches my Superior and gets away with it.

My irritation grew as the man walking beside me squeezed my hand in such an insistent manner as to call all my attention unto him, and I fell for it, letting out a soft grunt of disapproval as I was forced (by his sun-like gravitation) to look at him. His rust-colored eyes were longing, questioning, but that look was not what made my upper lip curl a little in annoyance. It was the fact that he gave no verbal lead to convey that dumb look he was giving me. He expected me to read him like a book.

Which I did.

But that still does not excuse him from being so presumptuous.

“What is it?” I asked in the gentlest tone I could muster. But a little, partly unintentional growl still followed, which he seemed to disregard.

“Why is it that you hate to come out of the castle? Is it really so hard to interact with what you once were? Is it a form of jealousy that I have yet to experience, and therefore cannot comprehend? I ask, because you have been walking, acting, and behaving rather stiffly ever since I made the portal to come here. And even my promise to let you have me this evening brings you no assurance that I mean well,” he almost whispered. But he didn’t need to, since the only thing that would have interrupted their private conversation would have been the rustling of fallen leaves as the little breezes and dust devils pushed them along the cracked asphalt and into the equally broken concrete gutters.

Without answering, I just gave him a neutral look before tugging his hand in a gesture to let him know that I wanted to keep going in order to get to the café faster, which would, I presumed, result in the day going faster.

Not only did I want Xemnas in the most provocative way possible, but I also wanted to be where I was most comfortable. On the very plateau of nothingness, a direct portrait of my heart. Or lack thereof.

But he was insistent. He remained in the same spot where he questioned me the first time, his grip on my hand tightening just as mine had constricted around his. I growled again.

“Answer me,” he demanded, his silver eyebrows lowering in a threatening leer.

I sized him up, my own amber eyes looking him up and down, before I turned my back to him and resorted to dragging him along. “I will tell you upon reaching our destination,” I said, and was satisfied when he grudgingly walked alongside me once more.

Somehow, I knew that my telling him would lead to more poking and prodding on his part, but perhaps if we came to an agreement on the matter—no. There was no agreeing with this man. He had his ways and his own agenda and he would always try to find out what things were made of and how they worked.

And I guess that curious nature is what makes me deathly attracted to my leader.

Thankfully, he no longer attempted to look at me or stop me until we were in the general facility of the coffee shop, where he immediately sat down at a woven iron table and gestured at the antique-looking furniture with a look that said ‘here we are’.

With a light sigh, I sat down in a chair across from him and glanced up at some people passing by, and I adjusted my coat on my lap before scooting in my chair. I rested my elbows on the tabletop and clasped my hands together, twiddling my thumbs and looking at him with a stare of my own that said ‘what now?’

“Must I repeat the question?” Xemnas said after a moment of exasperation.

“No, I am just—“ I tried to respond, but a young, ponytail-haired girl wearing a black apron adorned with a two-tailed mermaid within a green circular seal, the words ‘STARBUCKS COFFEE’ inscribed around the edge approached us with a little notepad of sorts.

“What can I get for you gentlemen?” she said with a bright smile, her pleasantly round face looking as if the sun had just shown through the partly cloudy sky.

The whole thing disgusted me. In fact, it reminded me of Demyx. The boy was not all that bad, but sometimes his attitude towards half-existence was almost too much to bear. But this girl offered me a moment to collect my thoughts while Xemnas responded first, placing his order.

I watched him from under my brow as he forced a genuine smile, a skill that he, himself, had acquired through many occurrences of human interaction, and he spoke in a warm, friendly tone. “I will have a maple macchiado,” he said, to which the girl promptly responded with her own experience with the beverage, which I, in turn, promptly ignored.

Then, all eyes were on me. I glanced from Xemnas, to the girl, back to Xemnas, and then back up to our waitress, trying a little smile of my own. I knew that I had not made a mistake with my expression, since the blonde female human brightened her smile.

“I will have a vanilla latte,” I said quietly. I ignored her opinion again, of course, drowning it out by choosing to listen to a chirping bird that I assumed had forgotten to go south for the winter.

“I’ll be right back with your drinks!” she said cheerily, and then bounced back within the confines of the brick building beside us.

Watching her leave, my smile left my face when I heard my partner’s voice in my ear, and I turned my head to look him in the eye.

“Well?” he said, one brow cocked while he rested his chin in his hand, his elbow resting against the metal table with a rattling thud. “Or have you forgotten what this whole conversation was about?”

“Getting testy?” I retorted, crossing my arms across my chest, but never abandoning my perfect posture.

He just stared at me.

I hated him in that instance.

“Why are you acting so…so…disagreeable?” he asked for, probably, the millionth time today.

“Why are you being so AGREEable?” I replied, lowering my eyelids in aggravation. I felt my eyebrow twitch.

“Because it is human nature to be sociable!” he almost wheezed out with a toss of his hands in the air. “It is as if you have forgotten our entire cause! In order to obtain our hearts, we must understand them. Don’t you agree?”

“I think that we should begin understanding our hearts once we begin to have something to understand. Don’t you agree?” After that statement, he looked as though I dealt him a slap in the face.

His ivory brows knitted together and he leaned back in his chair in a wide-eyed look of surprise, and his mouth opened and closed a couple times as he sat in a moment of uncomfortable speechlessness. However, he found his purchase once more. “So you feel that you do not need to know about a tool in order to properly use it? Will you pick up a knife and cut out your own brain, although you do not have any prior instruction or knowledge?”

That was an unexpectedly good argument. So I just gave a little snort, a blatant action that I hoped would let the other know that I was being difficult for reasons that he had no part in.

Oh, but he was my reason for being difficult! I just did not want to have to explain it to him!

“That’s what I thought,” he sighed. And then he let it drop.

Awkward silence filled the cool air above and around us as he sat looking troubled, staring at his hands, and I sat watching him. I could hear the gears in his head grinding and the fans whirring as he tried to figure it all out for himself.

But when he caught me staring at him and he looked up at me in utter helplessness, I reached across the table and held both of his hands in my own, rubbing at his fingers in a form of comfort that I had read in books or seen in movies. He seemed to like the touch, and he gave a little happy sigh, which disappeared in a whizzing breeze.

“Why won’t you tell me what is wrong?” he asked quietly, almost vulnerably, his eyes darting around like bright little confused fireflies.

I chuckled, and he glared at me.

“What, I pray, is so funny?” he asked, looking incredibly offended.

I laughed more. In fact, I burst into a fit of the stuff, all the while still holding the other’s hands. It was the most light, free, airy thing that I had felt, ever, and I did not want to let it go. Even as I heard footsteps approaching.

Somehow, my foot had found its way out from underneath the table, and I felt something snag on it. That something turned out to be another foot, a limb belonging to our waitress…who was holding a tray containing our mugs of coffee.

She let out a cry of surprise as she toppled to the ground, the tray going right along with her. But the mugs, which almost remained comically suspended in the air, came crashing down onto Xemnas’ very lap.

He, too, let out a gasp of shock, and then a yell of pain as the scalding mixtures soaked through his coat to attack his thighs. He stood up, his chair falling back against the ground with a loud clatter, looking down at himself to survey the damage. Whether or not he deemed the article of clothing salvageable, I stood up and went to help up the poor girl, since my psyche and Xemnas’ decided to switch places and he looked as if he were out to slaughter.

I held the frightened, apologizing woman in my arms for just a moment before I helped her to stand on her own, brushing her off and making sure she was not hurt. There was a nasty scrape on her hand, which I frowned at, and then kissed, much to both their surprise.

The girl was blushing while Xemnas looked even more angered, and I decided to focus all my attention on the injured blonde. “Go fix yourself up while I take my friend to the powder-room. I apologize for not watching my own two feet.”

“No, no! It was my fault for tripping!” she tried to reason, but I pressed a hand to her cheek and gave her one of my more pleasant smiles. She seemed to calm further.

“Now, do as I say. It was my fault and I will pay for those drinks. Please…fix up replacements to go and I will take care of everything. Alright?”

The girl finally nodded with a little hiccup and immediately ran back inside for two drinks, a tissue, and a band-aid, and I grabbed my colleague’s wrist and drug him inside. He was still fuming.

(Author's note: Heehee, Angry Xemnas. I hope you all thorougly enjoyed this chapter, because there is more to come. I might write smut if I get more reviews. >_>;; *Hurr*)