onepassingnight | All I want for Christmas is...

[Christmas isn't always a fairytale. It's not always about Santa, or getting presents. Not always about families, not always about togetherness.]

[Sometimes, Christmas equates to isolation. It's something Roxas has gotten used to.]

[Here in the orphanage, plenty of kids are getting excited over the season. It's the season to be jolly-- and the season for couples to feel that little pang of longing, to have a young one of their own bouncing into their room, ripping the colorful paper off presents and beaming up at the camera that will capture them for ages to come.]

[So the orphanage opens it's doors, lets more people in than usual and gives the children a chance to be at their best- playing, fighting, crying; laughing, in front of the many potential mothers and fathers that look their way. Roxas just doesn't understand it.]

[So he stays out of the way, under a tree with his little black book, and writes about far off worlds with disappearing cats and talking caterpillars, because when you don't know what you're missing--]

[How can you want it?]

[OOC: Meet a smaller Roxas than usual- around eight years old and brimming with confusion over the current events. Essentially playing up his lack of understanding to both christmas and family, so-- feel free to pull him from that isolation.]

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[He's relaxed- perfectly fine with things the way they are. He knows Xion won't prompt him to speak; but she'll let him say what he needs to, when he's ready. Ask questions and ponder things that don't make much sense-- she always understands.]

[That's why, for a few minutes there's utter silence between them. He doesn't need to say anything, or push his thoughts to move faster than they have to. Xion gives him the time, gives him the contact that he sometimes needs to calm down and just... relax. Neither of them are really kids, neither of them fit in-]

[They have each other. Roxas wouldn't have it any other way.]

Do you ever want to see the world?

[He shifts, looking at his journal with a small sense of longing. Alice got to go down the rabbit hole; he'd like to do that too. With Xion by his side.]

Maybe even other worlds?

[Xion has to think about that. Do you ever want to see the world? She doesn't think about what she wants very often. One time, the grown-ups told them all to draw what they want to be when they grow up. Some kids drew fire fighters or doctors or spacemen and one kid even drew a farmer, but Xion didn't draw anything at all. She can't imagine growing up. What is it like to be grown up? That isn't a question Xion thinks of very often, and it isn't one she can answer.]

Dunno. [At the very least, she can be honest. What else is there for her to say? She's not clever enough to come up with a lie, and anyway, you're not supposed to lie to friends. Xion doesn't know much, but she knows that much. Friends tell friends everything.

After a moment of thinking about it some more, she adds, slowly:] Maybe other worlds would be okay. Even better.

[Roxas drawing had been a little more elaborate- he'd been a knight, except they'd been out of yellow crayons, so he just put brown hair instead. When the teacher told him he couldn't be that, he'd simply stared at her blankly. Of course he could be a knight; with a mighty sword and armor, too.]

[At least Xion had thought his drawing was good. He knew she wouldn't lie to him about something like that.]

When I go, come with me? We'll see all of them!

[Best friends share everything. And when he was a grown up, no one would try to pull down Xion's hood. They'd find a world with other people who wore hoods, all the time. Maybe he'd wear one, too.]

[When Xion saw what Roxas was drawing, she thought that maybe she should draw a princess, then, but that's silly. She knows she would wait for Roxas to come save her forever, but then they would always be apart. She could've drawn a knight herself, but the teacher told Roxas he couldn't be one, and if Roxas couldn't be a knight, then she couldn't be one, either.

She doesn't have Roxas' imagination.]

Of course. [Xion's tone says there is no other possible answer. She even sounds a little surprised that he has to ask. It's not like she's got anyone else to go with or anything she wants to be when she grows up.]

Edited 2011-12-20 13:13 (UTC)

[As far as Roxas sees it, Xion is already a knight. That's how they met in the first place; when it was storming, and the lights went out. The darkness had terrified him... but she sat with him until they came back on again. Even though it had taken days to speak to each other, afterwards, they'd been a constant to each other every since.]

Okay. [He smiles, relaxing a little and thinking about it. They'd have adventures... and Xion wouldn't leave. She'd be his best friend; they'd always belong somewhere.]

[Which meant they didn't have to belong here, right?]

[Storms aren't scary. She used to be scared of them, too, but she just isn't any more. She hasn't been since she came to the orphanage. Xion guessed that sometimes things just stopped being scary (like after seeing all of the red everywhere after the night full of shouting and screaming and loud noises, like seeing empty eyes that she knows so well and --), so she isn't scared of the dark, either. But when she saw Roxas huddled there behind the couch where he thought no one could see him shake... Something pulled her to him, then. Maybe because she's been there. Maybe because she likes hiding behind couches, too.

Roxas is smiling now, though, so everything's okay. It doesn't matter if she doesn't have anyone else, or if she doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up, or if he's going to be scared of the dark forever. Because they'll be together, always, no matter what, and that's how it should be.

Something inside her stills (again). What if Roxas gets adopted? (In her mind, Xion will never be adopted. It isn't a possibility.) What if some grown-ups decide they like him too much and take him away from her? They won't want her, too, so she'll be left at the orphanage and then there won't be anyone to keep the other kids away or to give her a break or to share dessert with. She'll be all alone again. She doesn't want to be all alone again.]

Roxas, [she says, suddenly, desperately, her hand tightening on his] Roxas, why don't we go right now? Today? Just the two of us? No one would notice. There's too many people. We can just hide in them. And then -- And then, once we're free, we can go see all the worlds you want. It'll be great!

Edited 2011-12-20 13:39 (UTC)

All I want for Christmas is...

your started it squirtle

oh god

lmfaolmfao

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no subject

"nature is so the same rain that draws you near me"