route_1065 | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Marluxia and Larxene
Where: Halfway between New Bark and Cherrygrove
When: now!
Summary: Partners in crime reunite
Rating: uhhhhh probably not more than PG-13?
Log:
Marluxia hadn't quite been lying when he'd said he'd need to pick a few things up. True, he had been planning to start along the way to the next town beyond the one he'd been to, but he hadn't quite picked up the things he'd thought he might need just yet. Not that he couldn't manage without, but even he wasn't going to make it appear as if he was particularly desperate to see her again. Interested, yes, but not desperate.

It was likely for that reason that as he found himself nearing the mid point between the two cities he didn't pick up his pace. There was nothing to hurry for. His Bayleef, on the other hand, didn't quite share his feelings on the matter, bounding ahead of him despite the snow.

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Murkrow, flying ahead of his trainer, spotted them first and as usual darted over to investigate.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Larxene didn't bother trying to run after it. He'd been doing that all day and it was always just a shiny rock or something, and anyway walking in the snow was annoying enough.

The first answer came from Nasturtium, ever eager to meet a new pokemon, and there was a cheerful "Leeef~" as she greeted the Murkrow in her own way. Clearly she either didn't have much of a problem with her natural type-weakness or simply didn't care about them.

"He's not troubling you, I hope?" he called back in the general direction of where the Murkrow had come from. He knew very well that Murkrow weren't found in the wild out here, and that alone left very few options about the whole affair.

"You're late, Marluxia!" Larxene called out, still walking along at the same leisurely pace. Why look excited about this? If anything she should be mad at him, after how his plan ended.

It sure is nice seeing a familiar face that she doesn't want to punch in, though.

To be quite fair, his original plan hadn't involved Axel backstabbing them all and using the witch against them. But he knows far better than to bring that up now. Axel's treachery will be dealt with in due time, and that's all that matters.

"I would have thought that would be my line," he answered, with a touch of humor coloring his voice.

"And just what do you mean by that?" she asked, pouting at him.

What did he mean? He would have thought that much had been obvious. After all, he couldn't have walked farther than she had in a day or two, but no. For now he would be 'nice' even if a note of irritation crept into his voice when he answered.

"I've been here for two months."

Leave it to Marluxia not to get a joke. Larxene shook her head.

"This timeline stuff... So fill me in on what I missed."

Meanwhile, Rafale flew in circles a foot or so above the Bayleef's head, cackling at it as if daring it to do something.

By all appearances, Nasturtium mostly seems to find this much more fun that she's had in a long while - Rafale may be cackling at her, but she's treating it more like a game than anything, bouncing as best she can to get at him.

"Nothing much. However, it seems that Axel has managed to sway both Sora and our witch. He even had the gall to try to attack me."

"You won, right?"

It doesn't take long before Rafale gets bored of circling and flies ahead of her instead, looking back and crowing in an invitation to chase.

"Of course."

Axel had barely even been trying from what he'd seen of the fight, so he'd quite naturally come out the victor. Anything after that, well. That remained to be seen, and largely depended on if Axel had the good grace to get himself properly killed or not.

Meanwhile, Nasturtium quite happily bounds after Rafale. It's fun!

"Good. Come on, let's not just stand here." They were closer to Cherrygrove now than to town, Larxene thought, and she was impatient to get there. Sure, she wanted to go back and check out that lab Snake mentioned too, but this was more important.

There had better be a clothes store. She didn't plan to wear that pink thing if she could help it.

"Not finding the snow to your tastes?"

It was nothing more than simple conversation, really, but he didn't much intend to let the return journey be nothing but silence broken only by the cries of their pokemon. It would be terribly boring, after all.

Larxene was totally fine with simple conversation. Antagonizing people over the PGC was fun and all, but when was the last time she got to have just an ordinary conversation with her partner?

"It's not too bad. Kind of reminds me of my old world."

How long it had been depended entirely on whether you counted things by her perspective or by his. But either way, he'd agree that it's been longer than it ought to have been since they'd had the chance for a simple conversation.

"I don't believe you've mentioned it before."

"It was pretty boring. Hey, you never told me about yours."

From the look of the clouds overhead, the weather was fixing to get unpleasant again. Larxene pulled up her hood.

"It wasn't anything special, as worlds go."

Yes, it had it's own sort of bizarre logic, but one did get used to that. Besides, it had been just as good a place as any to live, and it had the convenient advantage of teach one to expect what most might not and that, in turn, had become surprisingly useful, after the loss of his heart.

"Figured as much."

Rafale returned squawking to his Trainer's side as the first drops of rain began to fall.

"What, you can't handle a little water?" Larxene said derisively as he tried to shelter between the two Nobodies.

Marluxia's only answer was a shrug. If she felt particularly liked pushing for details he'd likely give them, but his general position was that who had been didn't matter all that much. He wasn't who he'd been, so why bother over much about it?

"In this weather I wouldn't entirely blame him."

Rain was lovely, but a chill rain boded no good for anyone, least of all pokemon - for all that Nasturtium didn't seem too bothered by it.

An opinion with which she fully agreed.

"Touché."

Rafale had started pecking at the ball clipped onto her jacket.

"Okay, okay, get in."

There was a moment of silence following that, before Marluxia called Nasturtium back to her ball as well. He wasn't sure if pokemon could catch colds, but he'd much prefer it if he didn't have to find out. Not with her.

"I'm afraid it's only likely to stay cold for a while."

"Yeah yeah. I know how winter works."

Marluxia offered a faint smile at that. One of his nicer ones, thankfully. He knew quite well that she knew winter. Who wouldn't have, really, when missions could send one anywhere?

"It could have been nearing spring."

Larxene paused, frowning thoughtfully. "True. It's not like all the worlds are in the same time..."

After a while in Never Was, she had stopped keeping track. You couldn't tell there, anyway, not when the castle itself was in a perpetual night and the time of year on any given world might vary.

"So what have you been up to without me?"

In Never Was it had been quite possible that the only person who truly knew the time had been Luxord, and Marluxia wouldn't have put it past him to falsify his answers if it had suited him. And as for Castle Oblivion, that had scarcely been better, given the overall lack of windows.

Needless to say, it had been quite a relief to find himself in a world with proper days.

"I've been looking into acquiring new allies. Our old ones seem to have left us."

Read: he's been acting perfectly harmless.

Her frown became a scowl. "What old allies?"

Axel had never been on their side, and the witch? A tool, not an ally. She'd been all too happy to desert them when she got the chance, too.

"Precisely," Marluxia answered, expression flattening out until it could nearly match hers. Axel had betrayed them, and none of the others had been on their side. The only allies they'd had were themselves.

But here, ah, here he meant to change things. The Keybearer didn't even seem to know who he was, and that in turn meant he had all but free reign to work his wiles.

The power structure here seemed pretty closely tied to this Pokemon League thing. If they could make a name for themselves in that, then maybe they could do something with it.

Larxene fell silent for a couple minutes, huddling into her coat against the freezing rain. Then she asked, "Hey. Did you lose your power?"

"I think we all have."

When he'd tried, he'd certainly been unable to return home by the simple method of stepping through the darkness. Nor had Graceful Dahlia answered him when he'd willed it to arrive. It was more than a little irritating, to say the least.

"Perhaps we're meant to not upstage the pokemon?"

"I guess. It's still stupid."

Larxene hoped she could buy some new clothes in town. That dress her "mom" packed for her was not going to be suitable for traveling if the weather stayed like this.

"I would have said irritating, myself."

But the point was about the same either way. They were Nobodies. It was cruel indeed to ask them walk as most did, even if he couldn't truly complain about what they'd been given in exchange.

"That too."

Larxene wasn't as bothered by the loss of their dark portals as that of her lightning. It was like a part of her was gone... besides the obvious one, that is.

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