Never Change .:AxL:.

"So long, loser." A young woman giggled to herself as she ran ahead.

Challenging him to a race was one of her best ideas yet. She was EASILY faster, and in her mind smarter, than he was. By now, she couldn't even see her opponent behind her.

Dashing through the empty streets of Hallow Bastion sure did bring back some memories. She could recall the last time the two had raced down those back alleys and side roads, when they where just teenagers. You could even say they had been different people...

"Come on, Lea! You can beat her!"

The voice of a boy, whom was the youngest of their little group at ten-years-old, could still be heard clearly in her head from that day.

"Are you kidding, Edym? He's toast." Lea's best-friend, despite his constant rude remarks, Isa, stated to the younger boy.

She remembered all too well how THAT race had ended.

"HA! I win! Take tha-!" She had stopped mid-sentence once she reached their goal and turned to see, to her ultimate surprise, a boy with spiky red hair standing there.

"You where saying, Arlene?" He smirked.

"B-But...H-how did you?"

The boy simply smiled wider and gestured to a hole in the tall brick wall behind him. It would have taken several minutes to scale such a wall, but he had easily fit through the enormous crack that the city had yet to fill.

"No fair! I didn't know that was broken!" She pouted.

Honestly, she had often wondered why she stayed around such immature boys. Cheating, of all things. Then again, it was probably because most of the girls Arlene knew found her to be too bossy and sometimes down right rude.

"Is so fair."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Not like that will be happening again today." The girl, whom over the years had grown from that teenager to a young woman with a similar personalty, mumbled to herself again. She knew for a fact that that crack in the wall by the alley had been fixed years ago.

Rounding the corner to the same old race finish spot, the girl could have been knocked over with a pin upon finding the biggest shock of her life...For a second time.

"Some things never do change, huh, Larxene?" Despite the years and things they'd all been through, he had never lost that same annoying grin. "No matter what, I will always win these little races of yours. Got it memorized?"

"Axel?" Her jaw nearly dropped as she could hardly believe he was standing there. "But I never even saw you pass me! And that hole in the wall isn't there anymore!!!"

"You never said I couldn't portal to the finish line." Same as it had years ago, the smiles across his face grew wider, more from memories than the actual ability to feel anymore. According to their superiors, they had all lost that "talent" a long time ago.

"Cheater!" She accused, not caring how childish she sounded.

"Am not!" Of course, he didn't care because he almost always sounded childish.

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

In such a way, their other fight over the last race had continued on as well.

"Would you both PLEASE grow up and stop it?" Isa smoothed over his icy blue hair as he approached the bickering pair, with the young blond-haired Edym following closely behind.

Edym stood behind Isa for the most part. He didn't like fighting and was often a bit of a chicken, but admired the two older boys so much that he spent every minute he could around them, his heroes. On the other hand, Arlene, whom was only around from time to time, secretly rather scared him.

"Lea cheated!" Arlene nearly shouted once again, in her own defense.

Before Lea could once again declare that he hadn't, Isa held up one hand and spoke to them both firmly.

"I better get some peace and quiet here soon, or I'm going to have to ask poor Edym here to shield his eyes while I teach you BOTH a lesson!"

"I'd like to see you try..." Arlene complained, while Lea simply rolled his eyes at the comment.

In the present time period, the toll of church bells reminded the now grown rivals that they where running late for completing their mission.

"Who cares, anyway?" Larxene forced herself to say. "If we don't finish up with this dumb recon mission soon, Saïx will have our heads."

"It's not like we don't remember every detail about this place. I only grew up here." The red-head said. "You do remember, right?"

"Of course I do." Was the quick and almost snappy reply. "Look, right here!"

She walked over to the side of the wall Lea had raced through that day. A small something that was forest green and jammed in between two of the rocks sparkled in the afternoon light.

"Hey, what's this?" Arlene questioned out loud, shortly after the race, as she reached down to pick up a small gem stone-looking object off the ground.

"Lemme see it!" Lea, using his height over her as an advantage, snatched the object from the girl's hand.

"Give that back!" She reached after it, to no avail.

"Chill, Shorty," he said, holding it just out of her reach. "It's fake anyway."

"I don't care! It's mine, so give it back!" The more she tried to grab the object, the father away Lea held it, and he found this new game more and more amusing by the second.

"Here we go again..." Isa sighed as he put the palm of his hand to his forehead.


With a quick blast of a lighting bolt, the wall crumbled off a small piece and released its treasure.

"After all these year, it's still here..." Larxene said to herself as she examined the green glass jewel.

"The same one?" Without a thought to it, Axel one again scooped the stone away from her.

"Yeah, and I lost that thing nearly 10 years ago, so if you'll kindly give it back to me now..." Her voice told him that he'd quickly find himself in hot water if he didn't comply.

"So you want it back?" A familiar glint shinned in the pyro's eyes as he held it the stone as high up as he could reach. "You remember this game?"

He only smiled from the memory once again because he had forgotten how the "game" had ended last time.

But Larxene hadn't.

Once again, she introduced his shin to her foot and snatched the fake gem back from him.

Axel bit down hard on his lower lip to keep from exclaiming from the pain.

"Do you always have to be so darn violent?" He hissed.

"Duh."

"Ouch! Isa, she kicked me!"

"Then don't take her things, stupid."

"Thank you, Isa." Arlene gave blue haired boy a friendly nod.

Unfortunately, the victory was short lived, as she held her new treasure up to the sunlight and it slipped from her hand.

Quickly and acting upon foolish act of vengeance, Lea grabbed the object and jammed it between two of the rocks still intact in the wall.

"HA!"

Quick as lighting, a scowl of displeasure crossed the slightly younger girl's face.

"OWW! Someone make this girl quit kicking me!"

Their mission of gathering information continued on peacefully, up until there was one final place to be investigated.

"The old mansion." Larxene said slowly, digging deep into her memories as she did so. "Edy-I mean, Demyx, used to be scared half to death of that place."

Hallow Bastion had always been a calm place. Of course, calm places often lead to rumors for people whom had nothing better to do. A favorite subject of said busy-bodies was the old mansion. Various stories surrounded the place once the obscure elderly man living there had passed on. Especially once none of his relatives ever came to claim the house.

"Edym?" Axel probably would have laughed if he'd had a heart. "A little caught up in the past there, aren't you?"

"Sometimes, memories are a hard thing to forget."

"Well I DOUBLE DARE you to go in there!"

"Not the double dare!" From the way poor Edym squealed, one would have thought it was the youngest of the four that had been dared to go inside the house, rather than one of his older companions.

"Fine, but only if you go too!"

"What, you afraid to go alone, red?"

"The opposite! I think it's YOU who's afraid!"

"Have it your way then! I WILL go!" Arlene stomped her foot.

Not a one of them would have dreamed of admitted it, but deep down, all three of the other youngsters where every bit as scared of the old house as Edym was.

"Stop them, Isa! Before they go in and the ghost eats them!" The youngest boy cried.

"This is going to be interesting to see." Isa leaned against the creaky old fence outside the house, mostly ignoring Edym's plea. "For the record, even if I hear screams of terror, I'm not coming in after either one you."

"We'll be fine, after all, I'LL be there to protect us both."

"In your dreams, Lea." The girl snapped as they approached the front door.

Fear was supposed to be something you lost along with your heart, right?

In that case, what Axel and Larxene where "feeling", but would most certainly have denied, was definitely a mix the memories of two terrified teenagers and good ol' common sense kicking in.

"Ladies first." Axel offered as the two stood as stiff as statues in front of the door.

"I'm good, you go in first and I'll watch for any gho-heartless, coming up behind us."

"What was that?" Arlene found herself jumping and inadvertently attaching herself to Lea's arm as they prowled through the old manor.

"Just the wind." He sighed, shaking the girl off.

Of course, it wasn't half a second later he stepped on a creaking old board and jumped behind the shorter girl as if for protection.

"Calm down, it was only the floor." She said, being the sensible one this time. "Wait, you where going to use me as a shield?!?"

Before Lea could give an answer, a crashing sounds came from the next room.

"That wasn't the wind." Arlene's eyes went wide.

"I-I'll go check it out..." The teenager boy cautiously and quietly tip-toed toward the door.

"I'm telling you, something is in there!" Larxene pointed to the door leading to the parlor.

"And you want ME to check it out?" Axel raised an eyebrow at her.

"No. I just thought you where the one leading this crazy expedition."

"Sure, whatever, Larxene." At first he looked some what put-out, but then added with a typical smirk. "If you need me to, I'LL watch out for you."

"Just shut up and go."

"Nothing. It HAD to be the wind."

For what felt like it must have been the first time since entering the house, the teenager breathed a heavy sigh of relief and allowed their tense young selves to be calm for a moment.

The peacefulness was quickly interrupted by the swirling sound of darkness coming up from the ground behind them.
Followed by another, and another, and another...

"What ARE those things?" Arlene nearly stumbled backward as more dark forms rose from the floor.

For the first time in their lives, they where coming face to face with something that would one day pose no threat to them. Heartless. Or, more specifically, simple Shadow Heartless.

"Isa's never gonna believe this one." Lea said. His eyes quickly widened as one of the small creatures charged at him. In a reaction of survival, he pulled one of the two red Frisbees he so often tossed around from the large pocket on his vest and whacked the Shadow across the room. Once it hit the wall, the black creature faded away into what looked like a puddle that then sank back into the floor. "They seem pretty weak, quick, grab something!"

Arlene's eyes darted around the room in search of something to protect herself with. A handful of large arrow-shaped rocks in a display case caught her eye, and moving faster than most people could, she threw the case to the floor and grabbed the rocks."I don't know what you things are, but you messed with the wrong girl!" She shouted as she threw one of the projectiles at a Shadow.

"Heartless. Of course." Axel was highly unamused by the pack of Neoshadows that had ambushed the Organization members in the next room.

"You'd think these Heartless might ACCTUALLY want to give us a challenge sometime." Larxene nodded and yawned as she knocked down two Heartless with one small lighting storm.

"From time to time, it might actually be nice." One throw of a chakram took down another three.

"Three? Is that the best you can do now?" The Savage Nymph threw four knives from her right hand and pinned down four of the creatures

"Are you suggesting a competition?"

"Are you suggesting you know I'll win?"

"You're on."

"How many of these things are there?" They must have been fighting for at least ten minutes by now.

"I wish I knew! Hey, Lea, watch your back!" She warned him just barely fast enough to allow him time to turn around and crown yet another threat with a Frisbee. "So much for just being a child's toy." He commented.

"I'm up to fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

"You're cheating again, I know it!"

"I...Think they're...Gone..." Lea had hardly allowed himself to catch his breath during the battle, so he attempted to do so now as the calm returned to the room.

Arlene slowly placed the rocks she'd used as weapon on a small table and looked up at the red-haired boy, "I've never seen anything like that."

"Me either." For once in his life, Lea wasn't making any sort of jokes or wise-crack. "Let's get out of here before they come back!" He added as soon as the thought came to his mind, immediately grabbing Arlene by the wrist and running toward the exit.

"What? The fun's over already?" Axel dismissed his chakrams as he realized the last Neoshadow had been banished back to darkness. "I counted fifty. Just how badly did you loose?"

"Fifty-one." Larxene held her head high, it was about time she showed him that she could get her job done without his help, thank you very much. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm pretty sure that wraps up this mission. We've been all over town, so I'm going to RTC." With that, she opened a darkness portal in front of her.

"Without a tie breaker? You know, it's very rude to not even give me a chance to regain my pride. Which you so cruelly wounded." It was clear to anyone that knew him well enough that Axel simply wanted to avoid going back to the castle for as long as possible. There was absolutely nothing to do there, and he knew that was one of the few things Larxene and he agreed on.

"Huh?" Right before entering the portal, the girl carefully looked over her shoulder. "What's the challenge now?"

"We're safe!" Arlene had never thought she'd be so happy to see the outside of the creepy old house."Wait, where are Isa and Edym?"

Lea caught sight of a piece of notebook paper caught between two rocks in the garden. After grabbing the small note, he read it aloud. "Dear Lea and/or Arlene, (Depending on if both of you survived the manor or not.) It got late enough while you two where busy playing ghost-hunters that I had to take Edym home for his dinner-time curfew. After your latest expedition, he was too afraid to go home alone. If you're not here when I get back, I'll assume you where eaten by ghosts. Then I'll probably go eat some ice cream. Your friend, Isa."

"Some friend." Arlene grumbled. "It would serve him right if we where gone by the time he gets back."

"Then let's go get ice cream without him."

"Race to the ice cream shop. Loser buys. No cheat – Er, portaling, this time."

"Let me get this straight, you actually want to have ice cream with me?"

"Well when you put it that way, you make it sound like a date or something else creepy, so not really."

"Okay. And while we're at it, let's have a rematch of that race earlier! No short cuts and loser buys the ice cream!"

"Whatever you say, but I'll just win AGAIN!"

"We'll see about that."

"Start on three?"

"Okay."

"Ready?"

"You know it."

"One...Two..."

"THREE!" Lea shouted and took off with a head start.

"You call that not cheating?" Arlene was so annoyed with him, but found it hard not to laugh at his antics as she raced after him.

"Axel! Starting before I say three is NOT a fair rematch!" Not like it mattered. Larxene knew she'd easily catch him anyway.

Usually, most people mature and loose their childish ways as they grow older. Leaving behind the care-free ways of our younger days.

Thankfully, some things never change.