cinderlea | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ Riku disappears first. Vanished in her sleep, in the middle of the night, collapsing in on herself in a shimmer of starlights. This isn't like last time. No warnings, no chances to say goodbye, no hesitation or resistance. She just isn't there.

Lea goes minutes after Riku, in the same way. But she's awake, lounging on her couch, having a conversation as she flips through her phone. Here and then gone, like a flame. This isn't the first time either of them have gone home, but it's the first time it's so abrupt. At least it isn't death. The last time Riku went home was seven years ago. She was gone for a month, and she came back with shorter hair and the Mark of Mastery. The last time Lea went home, no one really noticed. She thought she was used to it by now.

Things are different this time. Disorienting. Lea meets Kai in the training, for real this time. Riku has her memories, or at least most of them. They're hazy, dreamlike, but real. She has them all. She remembers how old she really is and how long she's been gone. She remembers everyone she cares about, and everyone that won't change here. She keeps her ice magic and takes what she's learned here to use there. But time is fluid. She doesn't feel like she's been gone for seven years.

Lea's are gone, for now. She lives everything new and fresh, with the dressing room appearing only in dreams vivid enough to unsettle her.

Things aren't the same for every world.

Things go better than expected.

The core story is the same. The heroes rescue the ones that need it, they bring everyone back, they defeat the darkness, and they go home. How and when and who — these things vary, but they do it all together and they go home together. And then their story is over, at least for now, and they come back.

Unlike how they went out, Lea and Riku reappear together on the beach. Coming back is just as disorienting, and neither has their phone, so they get their bearings and confirm memories with each other, of the dressing room and of home, and then separate to find their friends.

They've been gone two months. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[something something lord of the rings quote about keeping things. anyway. Axel's gonna condense plates and heap the used napkins on top because he's finally in the habit after all this time.]

You won't be struck by the sads later, that way. Ready for ice cream?

[ What a good kid. Kai's done a great job with that, huh— ]

Definitely. Know what you're getting yet?

[yeah, he eats veggies now, too. time to stand up and stretch!]

Nope. Something fruity, maybe.

I want peanut butter.

[ It is her favorite. Fruit would be the better choice after all of that meat, but she's back in a place where she can get any food she wants whenever, for free, so it's time to indulge. She'll follow him, dusting her hands off on her jeans. ]

[off we go then, out of this meat palace, with Axel holding the door for Riku again.]

You might regret that, but okay. I'll carry you home if you do.

Piggy back, fireman, or bridal?

[ One would be bad, the other acceptable, and one ideal, but she won't say which is which. Ugh, walking in general. She feels warm after all that meat, and wants to tie her hair back. At least she doesn't have the dumb hairstyle the male 'kus ended up with. ]

Hmm, probably piggy back. Your stomach isn't affected that way.

[not that he's super familiar with such problems, obviously. also he laughed for like twenty minutes over Riku getting a haircut from Heartless in the game.]

Deal.

[ No, it's fair. It's awful. Her hair is a little shorter than it had gotten before she left, even though she's the right age, but it's not as short as her Dream Eater look. She's gonna bump her shoulder against his. ]

Thanks for taking care of things while I was gone.

[the Dream Eater look was worse, canonly, but iirc this Riku was pretty cute. Axel's oblivious, anyway.]

Which things? Besides your dog, I mean, before Isa adopted her.

Well, definitely Serein, but in general? I guess I feel a responsibility to this place, like any other world. I made peace with it, or whatever.

[ She waves a hand. Riku does her best to knock out heartless and get bad guys to fuck off, even know. ]

Nothing's exploded, no one took over, no one's in hibernation...

Oh, pff. Not like there was any trouble or anything. Isa and I came over to a different part of Radiant Garden and we saw one Heartless in that one sketchy-looking alleyway. It didn't even stick around to get beaten up.

[you know the alleyway, Riku, if you've followed Axel's advice and/or directions to that one place we've discussed in the past that everyone in a healthy physical relationship should visit periodically. also sorry, Riku's trying to be serious and grateful or whatever and Axel's being Axel.]

Huh. Wonder what it was doing.

[ Totally deadpan. Was the Heartless taking sex toys. Good thing she's already her actual age again, because this conversation would be aging her if not.

Did he take Isa there. Christ. ]

[dammit, nothing? he misses when that would've flustered her all to hell. :( and yes, he did, just to show her where it was in case she wanted to get anything to accost Lea with at some point once everyone was back. did Isa actually go back and get something? who knows.]

Probably just looking for some shade, it was a nice sunny day.

I bet it was.

[ No, she's too old and she's had too much sex to get flustered over that. Now, if he tried to take her there as an outing... She's not going to ask if he took Isa, but she's assuming he did. ]

So nothing happened at all?

Not a damn thing, unless you count Riku willingly socializing with someone outside the family something.

[which IS pretty noteworthy, but. here we are at ice cream place, since i think it was just up the street.]

I mean, that's pretty remarkable.

[ Even Riku thinks so! Also hell yeah, time to get fucked up. She's gonna go inside and right up to the counter. Is this the same ice cream joint that Kairi and Axel went on a date to? ]

It is, yeah. He wasn't talkative or anything but he didn't avoid her or anything, I was really impressed.

[it is the same place, yes. what's Axel getting, i've forgotten already. he's looking at sherbet now, w/e. henlo shadow people, you're pretty cool.]

He's changed a lot since he first showed up.

[ Hello indeed. Riku doesn't get the creeps from these guys anymore, at least. She's gonna point at a flavor called Double Nutty Peanut Butter. ]

Waffle cone, two scoops.

Thank god, right? Just let me know if you're gonna hurl, I'll find you a bush. Waffle cone, one orange, one mango.

[ <3~ if mango sherbet doesn't exist irl it definitely does here.]

I'm not gonna hurl, I'll just give you what I can't finish.

[ Look at you with your tropical and refreshing scoops, you walking garbage disposal. The peanut butter has delicious pb chips in it, and chunks of peanut butter brittle stabbed into the top. She has zeroed in on it. ]

You know what I really wanted when I got back? Halloween Town food.

Gross, why? Or was that a euphemism, you know you don't have to spare me from the idea of you and Red, I don't mind.

[she's lucky he eats everything, even though peanut butter isn't high up on his list of flavors he likes.]

[ There you go, Axel, that one got her flustered and putting the cold waffle cone to her cheek after it's handed to her. ]

No! The food! What is it you're wanting to hear?

[ Implying he's a deviant who wants illicit details. ]

[i mean, he wouldn't say no to knowing if any of his specific tips have come into general use. /what. Axel laughs and leans over to kiss her other cheek at that, reaching with a long arm for the cone a shadow person is holding out for him. he'll stop now, that was all he wanted.]

Would you believe it, I honestly think Red's more palatable than a lot of the food he prefers.

You say that, but I've never been poisoned by pumpkin soup.

[ Is Riku implying that she, personally, has been poisoned by Red, or that Red is poisonous in general? She's going to sullenly crunch that brittle, since he's teasing her. ]

[just for that she's getting an arm around her shoulders. r we leavin this place or what.]

Good, you shouldn't have been. What's your guilty pleasure for Halloween Town food? The one super weird gross thing that you really like.