Notes

If anyone knew Kairi, they knew it took the world and then some to break her perpetual, cheery demeanor. 

And that's why when Kairi came bursting into Ienzo's room in absolute hysterics, needless to say, he was alarmed. 

"Kairi." He stated calmly, despite the inner concern nagging at his emotions. He motioned for her to sit on the window seat beside him. "Look at me. What's wrong?"

His hands on her shoulders, she felt obligated to look him in the eyes, despite her own being teary and mascara stained. 

Without missing a beat, she replied "Grandma died."

Suddenly everything made sense, and collapsed all at once. He understood why she was completely breaking down, despite knowing she does her best to make sure no one ever sees her cry. 

Kairi's grandmother was the mother she never had, raising her for years on her own until she became too weak to properly care for the young red headed girl. Thankfully, a young man that had been best friends with Kairi's father from childhood until his death had become aware of the situation, and offered to care for both her and her grandmother, even going so far as to later legally adopt Kairi into their family, and move into their home despite it's smaller size, so they could be allowed to continue their lives as they always had. 

Kairi was closer to her grandmother than anyone in her entire course of existence, far closer than to the adoptive mother she now had, despite loving her just as much. They did everything together, and she trusted her with more secrets than even he, her adoptive sister Namine, or Sora, her long-term boyfriend. 

And now everything was gone in just the blink of an eye. And she didn't know how to cope. 

He knew she was fairly sick, as learned by many nights of playing brother to his sensitive friend, but he had no idea she had gotten this bad so quickly. And now she was gone, and he could practically feel Kairi's heart breaking into a million pieces. 

The problem was, he never knew how to put them all back together again. 

And it hurt him almost as much as it did her. 

But he tried nonetheless, and he guessed he was okay enough at it, since she always came back to seek his help or comfort. That's what happens to people when they've been neighbors all their lives, he guessed. 

But it was more than just being neighbors. 

She was his absolute, best and closest friend. 

He could remember the very first, true spark that lit the fiery friendship that still burned strong today. Despite knowing each other since infancy, and often playing together as small children do, he had always been a really quiet child. Sort of shy, but in general, just genuinly an untalkative person. 

Kairi was kind of shy at times, but usually friendly and accepting of anyone she met. She was obsessed with picking flowers, and making new friends, and often made new friends by picking flowers. For a while, it confused him, but he soon got used to her unique charisma. 

They were almost, but not quite four years old at the time, both talking way advanced than the other kids their age, which often made him even quieter, while letting Kairi talk even more. They were worlds different in personality. 

He guessed that's what caused it. They say opposites attract, and that was honestly the only explanation he had for their friendship. 

Kairi had already befriended everyone in their class and then some, while he sat in the corner, alone and reading, another skill he had possessed earlier than other children. Whether they pressured him or not, he still felt like the outcast looking in to a world he couldn't quite figure out how to fit in. 

So when Kairi suddenly sat beside him during freetime, he didn't know how to react.

///

"Ienzo" she smiled, sitting beside him. 

"Kairi" he replied, not looking up from his reading. 

"Whatcha doin?" She questioned curiously, kicking her feet back and forth in the little, blue chair. 

"Reading a book." He replied again, absentmindedly turning the page. 

He expected her to ask a million questions about his book, or to play a game, or if he was as excited for summer as she was, but her next question caught him off guard.

"Ienzo, why do you always sit by yourself?"

He wasn't expecting that one. He wasn't even sure he really knew the answer. It was just what he had always done. 

"I like being by myself" he lied. 

And she saw completely through it. "No one likes being by their self, Ienzo." She pouted, putting emphasis on the syllables of his name. "Why are you always by yourself?"

Because I'm weird, because nobody likes me, are the reasons he wanted to give. But he couldn't really bring himself to do that, so he just sat in silence and tried to read his book that he couldn't focus on anymore. 

"Why don't you come play with your friends?" She questioned, honestly confused at the young boy's lonely actions. 

"I don't have any friends." He replied before he realized, and then he mentally wished he had kept his mouth shut. 

"Lies. You've had me since we were babies. I'm your friend."

Ienzo suddenly looked up from the page and toward the red haired girl, his eyes almost as wide in genuine shock as hers were always in pepetual happiness. "What?" He asked, making sure it wasn't all a mean joke or a dream. 

"You heard me, Ienzo" she emphasized his name again. "I'm your friend. I've always BEEN your friend, and I'll always BE your friend. So you don't have to sit all alone anymore. You can come play with me."

Before he could even respond, he was latched onto by the hand and dragged across the classroom to where the other children were. He was suddenly introduced to a dozen kids, including her two close friends Sora and Riku, and a strange boy named Demyx, who later became his second best friend, despite his hair, and weird obsession with water. 

///

He half smiled at the memory, despite the sober situation the two were currently facing. They had been best friends since that day, doing anything and everything together, usually at the  stubborn expectancy of Kairi. 

Which is why listening to her cry her heart out into his tear-soaked shirt hurt him way more than he was letting on. She was the happy friend, the one who always encouraged him when he was down, and now when it's her turn to be picked up, all he can offer is a shoulder to cry on. 

It doesn't feel like enough. 

"What can I do?" He asks, allowing a hint of his raging helplessness to lace his tone. 

She sniffles, and clasps her hand on the fabric of his sweater a little bit tighter. "Just hug me."

And he does, with one arm around her shaking frame, and one stroking her red hair as soothingly as he can manage. 

"I just...can't believe she's gone..." She breathes before breaking down again. She's soaked right through his sweater and underneath shirt, but he doesn't care, as long as it's helping her in some way. 

But it's when she says that, when he's hugging her, and everything is put into perspective, that he actually realizes what all is happening. When he registers beyond how upset Kairi is, and how much he wants to make it better but can't, and actually let's the cause of everything sink in, he can't help but feel... empty.  

He'd never known his grandmother; she'd died years before he was ever born. But as he and Kairi grew up and spent so much time together, he too had spent a great deal of time with her grandmother. She was the most kind and thoughtful lady he had ever met beyond his own mother, always smiling and being there whenever you needed her.

He'd went to her a lot with schoolwork, and social problems, when he started getting to that stage of discomfort with her parents. She was both intelligent, and wise beyond her years, often knowing exactly what needed to be done, despite making us figure it out on our own sometimes, and always knowing exactly what to say no matter what.

She always was an amazing story teller, creating stories from her own imagination, as well as accurate, historic events, able to make both come to life in such a way they couldn't get enough as young kids.    

She was always creating adventures for them to play out, even going as far as to have a treasure chest created and buried on the beach, and giving them a map that lead to it, after telling them a story about a pirate from long ago buring his treasure right here on the coast of Destiny Sands.

They'd followed the map and found the treasure, which ended up being filled with chocolate gold coins and books and toys, things that they both liked and treasured at that age. It wasn't the money they had expected, but it was a far greater treasure, because it had been created from the care of someone they both adored.

She was the grandmother he had never had. 

And now she was gone...

It was then Ienzo had let his guard down during his reminicing, and he didn't know that he had until he felt tears roll down his cheeks. His own tears. 

He was crying. 

He never cried. 

But it felt...okay. Because it released some of the heavy weight that had replaced the emptiness in his chest, and somehow, it felt okay to shed tears over the loss of someone close to you. Because they were suddenly ripped away from your life book, and it just doesn't feel like you read that page enough. Like you ever truly appreciated the words it had to say, or ever really finished reading it to begin with. And now it's too late, because it's gone, and the only thing you have left are the few precious words in your memory. 

He never got to say goodbye. 

Neither of them had. 

So there they were, both in mourning, but comfortable silence, content to have each other during this hard time. And both lost in thoughts and memories of way back when, wishing they could slip back into the past, one last time.

It helped when thoughts became voices. 

And voices became teary laughter and serious expressions, trying to remember all the good times, and the bad, and all the while remembering how they had gotten through everything together. From the period where Riku had gotten caught up in the wrong crowd and run away, to when Sora had to move away for over a year, to when both returned, better, stronger people coming out of the storm than going in. From when Kairi's kitty had died, to when Ienzo had gotten his first D- on a paper, to when they buried both in the backyard, promising themselves they'd do better next time. 

It felt good to relive the memories. Even the bad ones. They agreed that if the could, they wouldn't go back and change the past. It helped define them, their friendship. It made them who they were today, and they figured they didn't turn out too bad in the long run. 

And they knew that grandmother would be proud of them. 

"Thank you for helping me feel better, Ienzo." Kairi smiled gratefully, albeit tiredly; the aftermath of a good, long cry. 

"That's what best friends do." He replied with a nod of affirmation. Then, curiously, he asked "Why did you come to me, though? Why didn't you call Sora, or Namine?"

"Namine's out looking at colleges with Riku, and hasn't been paying attention to her phone or left it in the car or something, I don't know. But she doesn't know... And I'm not looking forward to her finding out... She was gone when... You know..."

"Mmm.." Ienzo replied, gravely. She knew that Namine would take it just as hard as Kairi, despite being in her life for much shorter a time. Thankfully, she had both Riku and Kairi to help her get through it. "And Sora?"

Kairo sighed. "He wasn't answering either. I don't really know what's going on with that...I hope he's okay..."

"I'm sure he's fine, Kai." He answered her unquestion-like question, reassuringly grabbing her hand with a squeeze. "Sora often goes off on last minute trips with his parents before he can even get to a phone. I'm sure he would answer or call you as soon as he could humanly manage if he could get to a phone right this second."

"Yeah...I guess you're right..." Kairi nodded, still slightly unconvinced but helpless to do anything about it. 

"I'm always right." Ienzo said, a hint of a smirk on his face. 

"Are not." Kairi argued.  

"Are too." He insisted. 

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are. Not."

"Are. Too." Ienzo replied, smugly, knowing his friend would easily get bored of the banter, whereas he had the attention span to continue for hours, despite it's entirely childish fabrication. 

"Ugh, why do you have to be so mean, Ienzo." She huffed, putting emphasis on th syllables of his name, just as she used to as children. 

"It's my in my emo job description." Ienzo replied, making a nod towards middle school and early highschool when everyone who didn't know him honestly believed he was emo, and most of those who did know him weren't even completely sure he wasn't. 

"Lies." Again, much like childhood. "You're not emo, thus, no job, thus, no description." She stated matter-of-factly, nodding her head in self approval. 

"Whatever." He replied, flipping his blue-silver hair over his eye to visually argue his emo existence.

Which, as hoped for, made Kairi burst out in giggles, a humored groan adding to it all "Ugh, you're hopeless."

"You love me anyway though."

"Yeah, yeah, Zexion." Kairi rolled her her eyes, a large smile still plastered on her face. 

Ienzo felt a surge of nonstalgia kick in with the use of his old nickname. When they were in the first grade, he had been reading a little paperback dictionary he had gotten from his uncle Vexen, anticipating all the knowledge of the new words he was going to learn. 

He had been in the X's when Kairi came up to the table, ready to complain about him having his nose stuck in a book all alone all day instead of coming to play. When she saw what he was reading, she immediately became intrigued, also loving the excitement of learning new words. 

She had asked about several of the words in the section I was in, and after a while, she decided that my name should have an x in it. 

///
"Kai, how will that even work? My name is Ienzo, no room for an x there. Ienzox. I don't like it."

"No, silly, not Ienzex." Kairi shook her head at the ridiculous idea. She then proceeded to get several plastic, magnetic letters out of the plastic tub they were in. "We'll do the word trick."

"Word trick?" Ienzo asked, confused. 

"Yeah. It's where you take all the letters and scramble them around. Sometimes they make new words. Like DOG," she created the word, and then scrambled the letters. "Becomes GOD. And CAT, becooomes..." She scrambled the letters. "TAC. Like Tic-Tac!" She giggled at her own joke.

"I don't know, I think you're in over your head with my name, Kai." He scratched his head, watching her collect all the letters of his name from the bin, plus the extra X.

"Just watch me." She grinned, beginning to rearrange the letters. 

After several tried and failed attempts, Ienzo went back to his reading, and Kairi frowned at her lack of progress. 

"Give it up, Kairi. My name just doesn't have room for an X, no matter which way you scramble it." He replied, not looking up from his book. 

"I'm not giving up so easily." She looked down at the letters, and then it hit her. "Of course!"

She scrambled the letters as Ienzo watched, due to her sudden outburst. "Tada!"

The letters spelled Z-E-X-I-O-N. ZEXION.

Which, in all honesty, he found to be really cool. But he wasn't about to humble his pride just yet. 

"That's not my name." He stated bluntly. 

"It is now." She smirked. 

And she continued to call him that from then on out.

///

So many forgotten memories flooded back to him. Little pieces of his life he had tucked away for a rainy day. 

In fact...     

"You know what, I just remembered something." Ienzo said suddenly, snapping his fingers at the realization. 

"What?" Kairi questioned, both confused and curious at her friend's sudden outburst. 

"I'll be right back. Don't move." He repled, putting up his index finger in a hold on gesture, and rising from the floor they had somehow slid to from the window seat at some point or another.

"Oookay, but last time you told me not to move I ended up covered in paint." She replied, watching him head to his walk in closet. (Which, ironically, was larger and more stuffed with junk than hers would ever be. A fine source of teasing.)

"Lies," Ienzo called from inside the closet. "Last time I told you not to move it was because you had gotten your tongue stuck to the flag pole at 10 degrees when we were 7."

"That wasn't me, that was Sora!" Kairi cried, her blue eyes wide that he even remembered that.  

"Not true." Ienzo replied, shuffling through some old, well, everything. All of his neatness kind of ended at the closet doorway. 

"So true!" Kairi pouted, thankful Ienzo was in his closet and not out here where he could see both her uncontrolable grinning and her red, embarrassed face.

She continued to sit there, half-patiently waiting for her friend to emerge from the great unknown. "Umm, did you wind up in Narnia or something?"

"Yes. I met the white witch. She told me to tell you she wants her personality back."

"RUDE." Kairi cried again, ready to throw her shoe at him should he ever return to planet earth. 

...Not that that was going to happen anytime soon. 

"Ahah! Found it." Ienzo stated in victory that didn't last long as half the shelved disaster began falling on top of him. 

Kairi jumped up at the sound of the crash, once again wide eyed. "Ienzo, are you okay??" She questioned frantically. 

Ienzo stepped out of the closet swiftly, slamming the door shut as items continued to crash to the floor on the other side. "I got out with my life and with the object I was looking for. Yes, I think I'm alright. 

Kairi raised a suspicious eyebrow at the object her friend was obviously trying to hide from her behind his back. "What is it?"

"You'll see." Ienzo walked up to her, hands still behind his back. She tried to see around him, but even being book smart rather than athletic, he was still fit and an obnoxious 6' over her own 5'5". Gosh, how she hated being short.

"What is it, Ienzo?" She demanded impatiently, fully aware her friend was enjoying this.

"Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

"I don't trust you." She narrowed her sapphire orbs suspiciously, keeping her hands at her side.  

"With good reason." He shrugged. "Do it anyway."

"Last time you told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands you put the class snake in them." Kairi whined. 

"A. He was harmless. B. I was attempting to show you how cool he was, but my expectations of your intrigued were poorly founded."

"Yeah, I was not amused." Kairi clicked her tongue in disgust. 

"Also you beaned me with my own hard cover copy of Gulliver's Travels." He rubbed his head at the memory. 

"Which you totally deserved." 

"Meh." He shrugged. "Now just do it."

Kairi let out an exasperated sigh. "Ugh, fiiiine. But I swear if anything furry or scaley or slimy touched my flesh I with personally take it and shove it down your throat."

"I'll make a note of that." He nodded. 

Kairi closed her eyes and hesitantly held out her hands, anxious to see what exactly it was Ienzo was making such a fuss over. A moment later, something cool and rectangular touched her skin, and just as soon she felt it's weight weighing down on her palms. 

"You can open now." Ienzo cued, a full blown smile actually existing on his face.

"Oh my gosh." Kairi gasped, having not seen the box she was holding since the fifth grade. "It's your jewelry box, awww" She giggled, knowing fully well that he would argue with her. 

"Its not a---! Oh, nevermind." Ienzo sighed in defeat.

Kairi grinned as she looked it over. It was a medium, rectangular box, make of cherry wood. He had made it in a woodshop class he was taking with the older kids, and had made it to house his collection pocket watches. But it ended up being too small to hold them all, so he had pushed it aside to try again. 

Well, that and he was tired of Kairi insisting he had made himself a jewelry box. 

"Look inside." Ienzo broke through her train of thought. 

She did, and laughed when she saw what was in it. 

All the friendship bracelets she had made him since the first grade. 

Most of them were incredibly girly, with little flowers and hearts and smiley faces. It made her both amused, and incredibly touched to realize all these years later that despite their appearances, He'd worn them anyway, because he cared about her feelings and their friendship that much.

"You always called it a jewelry box...Might as well use it for one, heh."

Kairi giggled. 

"And though I'm keeping all of these, despite all their girlified glory" He scooped up the bracelets as Kairi continued to grin. "I want you to have this."

"What?" Kairi asked, slightly bewildered. "You do?"

"Yeah, I do. Since, you know, jewelry boxes are more of a female thing anyway..." He trailed off jokingly. 

 Kairi rolled her eyes. "Dork." She grinned. 

"Anyway, It has a lot attatched to it, and you've been giving to me so much over the years... It's not much, but I figure it's better to give something small than not at all. Especially when you've already lost so much."

"It's... It's perfect, Ienzo. Thank you." Kairi put down the jewelry box and hugged her friend tightly. Ienzo was slightly caught off guard by the sudden embrace, but it didn't take long for him to embrace it as well.

"I love you, nerd." 

"Love you too, tomato top." 

He rested his chin on top of her head as he hugged her, remembering the times she had complained when he did that because it made her feel short. He smiled to himself.

Yeah, Sora had pegged a good one. 

He better treat her right.