Seasalt (AkuSai)

Patience

Lea never considered himself a patient man.

Even after everything, though, he still waited. He waited through all of the events during his time with the Organization and everything that happened at Castle Oblivion, which he found himself regretting more and more as the days flew by. He waited through the agonizing demise of Axel and the much more blissful and satisfying end of the Organization. He waited all the way through to his own recompletion. And even though his emotions were stronger and felt like a hot flame in his chest, he continued to wait.

And even with every new turn, he stayed hopeful.

Lea found himself as one of the guardians of light not too long ago, which he immediately decided was extremely ironic. Considering his track record with darkness? He assumed he would definitely be a no go for that kind of a title, especially taking into account how important being a guardian of light was and what crazy, universe saving responsibilities it held. Not to mention, he had only summoned his keyblade not too long before that, making him a completely unexperienced soon to be universe saver. It left him uneasy in a way, specifically because he knew that the words unexperienced and universe saver didn't exactly go well together.

But who else was there to fill in that gaping hole? After all, Yen Sid was beyond dry on his keyblade wielder reservoir. In fact, it was bone dry, what with Sora going off to go restore his powers and Riku leaving with Mickey to try to find Aqua in what he would describe as, for lack of a better term, actual hell. So, he did what the only logical idea would be to do at this point and went to go train with the only other keyblade wielder left, Kairi. Another complete newbie and Axel's ex captive. That last bit, unfortunately, made things unbearably awkward for him at the beginning.

Truly, how was he supposed to react, spending most of his time with her? He had ruined this girl's life for longer than he would like to admit, and hell, no one wants to get kidnapped. Axel had eventually let her go, of course, but the fact still remained that his nobody self had taken her hostage way back when. Kairi was a sweet girl, though.. utterly forgiving and cheerful. Almost immediately when they started training together, Lea had apologized for his actions. She didn't hesitate in telling him that it was alright and that that was all in the past now. And despite all of her reassurance, he wouldn't stop feeling like shit over it. Lea knew that everything was fine now and that he had to focus on his training, but he couldn't help himself from apologizing whenever he saw the chance to. Kairi was patient with him.

That was when he started to lose himself.

Nightmares were.. well, they were more often an issue than not. Most nights, Lea found himself dreaming about Castle Oblivion and the murders he took part in. And of fucking course, now that he was training and needed to be at his peak physically and mentally, his mind had other ideas for him. He felt beyond pathetic in those moments after waking up from one of those god awful nightmares, covered in a cold sweat and panicked. It was his own fault, though, and he knew that. Even when the images of Vexen's silhouette going up in flames and of Zexion getting choked by Riku Replica danced in his mind, he couldn't feel bad for himself. For the trauma he caused himself and the guilt he felt. Because deep down, he knew that it was his fault, no matter how much he regretted it now. Sleep was hard to come by those nights, but he dealt with it. He refused to tell Kairi about it, even on the frequent occasions that she asked about it. Lea knew that she knew something was wrong, but he brushed it off.

Merlin had suggested that they write letters.

Kairi had taken a liking to that idea. It wasn't very hard to tell, when they had been given stationary supplies, that the letters she wrote were mostly for Sora. She never let Lea read them, despite his curiosity. He found it amusing, when he would try to peek at the papers and she would hold them tight to her chest. "They're for Sora," she would say, looking at him through narrowed eyes. "No one else! And yes, that includes you!" He made it a habit to prod, just to get on her nerves. They both knew it was all in good fun, but he still ever got a peek at a single one of the letters. After awhile, he found that the letters she wrote kept piling up. Not that she wrote a ton of them, but he took notice of whenever she set aside a new one. When he asked about it, she said the letters were more for herself. Lea found himself being charmed by the idea. It was utterly romantic, the way she would write to him. And the way her eyes shone when she wrote was something to behold. Powerful, in a way. It was obvious to Lea and everyone and their grandmother that those two loved each other.