One Change - A KH "What If?" (DISCONTINUED/MOVED)

358(9)

Day 179

"Wonderland again." Roxas sighed happily. "Something about this world just makes me happy."

"Yeah, though this is only my fifth time being here." Ikrux responded.

As they walked into the forest, heartless appeared.

Roxas and Ikrux both summoned their weapons.

They did their X symbol, and got to work.

Roxas threw some tracking pillars of light at them as they tried moving, and then sent more throughout the forest, searching for more heartless.

Ikrux hacked and slashed, and then jumped in the air. When his hand met the ground, purple lightning flashed. It caused the heartless to fly back near Roxas, and he slashed at them.

Ikrux took a step back as he landed. Roxas approached him, and he said, "I'm fine. It just takes more effort to do that than a regular attack. But I'm still learning how to trigger certain attacks. So I just use at random."

"I'll see if I can figure out how to cover that in training."

"Hey look!"

Ikrux took off towards a small flower bed.

When Roxas followed, he saw that the flowers weren't alive in a sense that they talked, but they were alive in a normal way.

"White roses." Roxas crouched down next to Ikrux. "I believe they represent partnership."

"Oh wow. So it's nice how we ran into them." Ikrux mumbled. "We are partners."

Roxas was tempted to tell Ikrux that it wasn't what that meant, but he decided otherwise.

He picked up one of them and handed it to Ikrux.

Ikrux stared down at it with a blank expression. "...what do I do with it?"

"Dunno. Whatever you want, I suppose."

Ikrux blinked at him with confusion.

Roxas chuckled. "We can plant it again, if you'd like."

"Sure?"

Roxas and Ikrux took the small rose and replanted it in the flowerbed.

"So, heartless hunting?" Roxas asked.

"Let's go!" Ikrux jumped up energetically.

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Roxas put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair.

He couldn't care less about reporting back.

Ikrux was doing most of the work by going into immense detail about their mission.

Though Roxas noticed he left out when they stopped and looked at the roses.

"And that should be it." Ikrux finished.

"Well, I see you both managed to go over your set number of heartless." Said Marluxia.

Roxas snickered. "Like it was hard. We've changed our fighting styles to include our powers. The numbers you give us are easy when we use our skills."

Ikrux stuttered as he tried to elaborate. "W-well, what he says is correct, b-but, it's only because we train a lot."

"Well, if you want, we can have you do more. It would speed up the process." Larxene mumbled the last bit.

"Or." Roxas sat up straight for once, staring them in the eye. "Give us the same amount. That would help more, wouldn't it? Both of us are plenty capable of doing at least forty."

"But Ikrux-"

"Ikrux is fine. There isn't anything wrong with him. Sure, he may be learning how to activate certain attacks, but there isn't anything wrong with learning."

Larxene slammed her hand down. "You will not speak to me with such tone."

"And you will stop underestimating my friend." Roxas stood up and dragged Ikrux to the door. Before they left, he said, "this concludes the meeting."

When he shut the door, Ikrux blurted out, "why did you do that?"

"Because. They're seeing you for your insecurities, and not your performance ability. It's stupid. I've seen you fight perfectly fine."

"They're our leaders, Roxas! You just rehashed them."

"Sorry if I can't stand seeing them disrespect you."

For a while, they just stood in the hall and stared at one another.

Demyx walked by, but as he caught eye with Roxas, he scampered away.

"I'm sorry." Ikrux mumbled. "I think I misunderstood."

"I'm probably just tired. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? And I'm sorry too."

"Night, Roxas."

"Goodnight, Ikrux."