Welcome to Gaia! ::

Day One

Once again, Rufio had snatched a mission off the Mission Board and rushed off without so much as eating breakfast. This young man was always so incredibly eager to get out and work that he never seemed to have any time to do anything else. Melody always worried about him, and rarely got to spend any time with him except for at night. This time, it seemed that he was to visit Aegis, a world that was very familiar to him, but one that he did not truly know or understand.

Meanwhile, a unique, pink-haired individual was wandering the marketplace of Aegis, happily picking out fruits that she was unfamiliar with and placing them in her bag. “I bet I can make all kinds of different dishes with these. Now let’s see what kinds of meat they have for sale.” Giggling happily to herself, Alexa practically skipped along as she skimmed over the various delectable eatables hanging about in the marketplace. At least, she did until she accidentally bumped into somebody. As she went to apologize, the person grabbed her roughly by the arm and forced her to look up into his eyes.

”Ye’re a cute one. Buying food fer yer granny are ya? Not anymore, ye’re comin’ along home wi’ me lady. I’m makin’ ya my servin’ wench!” The man laughed loudly for a moment as he started dragging Alexa along. At least, he was trying to. Alexa quickly aimed a kick at a vulnerable point in his leg, hoping to bring the jerk down. Sadly, two of his buddies noticed this and quickly interfered with her, keeping her from bringing the punk down. Now, under normal circumstances, this rather incredible woman could bring these jerks down without even batting an eyelash. Unfortunately, at the moment, she wanted to keep the food she had purchased from being damaged, dirtied, or ruined in any way.

Without warning, they lifted her up and started trying to carry her off. The one in charge just stopped dead in his tracks after a moment though, staring ahead in horror. In fact, it looked as if he had just seen a ghost. The others slowly released Alexa and shoved her away from them, curious to see what it was that had caught their buddy’s attention. As soon as they saw what it was, they began to panic. ”N-No. You, you’re supposed to be dead! Rufio, what’re you doin’ here?!”

Rufio clenched Zenith tight in his right hand while sparks flew from his left hand’s fingertips. ”You three. I recognize those tattoos. Black Star. That name seems to flash in my mind when I look at them. I don’t recognize the three of you, so that means you’re new aren’t you? You should know that I remember something. I found and beat two of your leaders. Now if only I could remember their names or what happened to them.” Tapping his sword on the ground, Rufio glared hatefully at the three of them and shook his head. ”I can’t even remember everything. I’ve lost so many memories, and yet when I’m here, I feel like I’m at home. And what do I find when I come here on my day off? Your gang attacking another innocent person!”

Before the Black Star gang members could flee, Rufio was upon them. A Thunder spell had been cast, striking all of them viciously, and at the same time, the guy that had taken Alexa first was now pinned to the ground, Zenith pressed hard against his neck. The other two had been rendered unconscious from a mixture of fright and the lighting magic. ”You’re so lucky I don’t believe in killing without reason. Take your friends and get lost. If you ever attack another person again, you’ll have me to answer to!”

As soon as Rufio released him, the larger man gathered up his friends and rushed off screaming in fright. Turning around, Rufio walked over to Alexa and knelt down, picking up a few of the fruits that had dropped from her bag. ”Here you go Miss. Sorry about the trouble. I don’t remember much, but I know this much: their gang isn’t exactly friendly.” After handing the fruits over, Rufio rubbed the back of his head and sighed. Oh, how he wished he could remember everything already.

Grumbling, Rufio turned away and took a few steps, only to receive a punch to the back of his head. Sighing, he turned around only to receive another punch to his face. Blinking a few times, he reached up and caught the pink-haired woman’s fist in his hand and began to chuckle. ”That’s actually a pretty good right hook. I’m impressed.” Releasing her fist, Rufio dismissed his keyblade and thrust his hands out and quickly struck her in the chest and gut, sending her stumbling backwards a few steps until she caught her balance. Afterwards, he turned to walk away again.

Alexa was furious with him. First he interferes when she would have been fine, and then he simply tried to walk away without so much as letting her thank him! But, worst of all, she recognized him as the Rufio that Lorelei had been so upset with. The Rufio that hurt her friends. The Rufio that Virule so despised! ”Why did you save me?! Aren’t you Rufio? You keep upsetting Lorelei! You did something to upset Virule! They’re my friends you stupid jerk!” The strange woman looked as if she was about to cry, but nobody around quite understood why.

The woman’s words struck him and Rufio quickly turned around, staring at her inquisitively. ”You’re with the Guild? I never would have guessed it. I saved you because…well, I don’t know. I can’t even truly remember who I am or what kind of person I was in the past. I guess, to me, it just feels like the right thing to do. Saving people is the right thing to do. As for those two you mentioned, I can’t remember the history between Virule and myself, other than the fact that he tried to kill me. And Lorelei? I assume she’s the purple-haired woman obsessed with Heartless? I’ve killed some of her Heartless friends, but I’ve never once attacked her. As for those Heartless, they’re normally attacking people when I encounter them. Soooo, I’m sorry, but I do what has to be done.”

With a shrug, Rufio turned to walk off, only to have Alexa slip around in front of him and glare up into his eyes. Grumbling, he stared down at her and smirked a bit. ”You know, you already know my name, but I don’t know yours. Just because we’re on opposing sides doesn’t mean we can’t be friends or something. You don’t give off that same ‘evil’ vibe I get from some of the others in your group. You actually seem kinda, I dunno, nice.” Shrugging again, he held out his hand and smiled.

Alexa grumbled and shook his hand, wishing she could understand this strange individual before her. After a moment, she just smiled up at him and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. ”Thank you Rufio. Maybe if we meet each other again, I’ll give you my name okay? Just, stop upsetting my friends and there won’t be any problems between us. Now, I have to get back. I’m going to try out a new dish tonight!” Giggling happily, Alexa skipped off and exited the area through a Dark Corridor.

As Rufio watched her leave, he reached up a hand and touched his cheek. What just happened? What’d she just do? The poor, confused Rufio simply stood there absolutely baffled for a good, long while before he finally did something. Not quite sure what to expect, Rufio began to wander Aegis, trying to find more clues that might reveal more of his past and who he was. Little did he know that this wouldn’t be his only meeting with that strange girl.


Day 2

To others in the Guild, Alexa’s sudden change in behavior was extremely noticeable. Sadly, it appeared as if the young, pink-haired girl didn’t even realize that she was acting differently. She believed she was acting as she always did. Actually, to anyone who didn’t truly know her, Alexa would have appeared the same. She enjoyed her time in the kitchen, and that was a fact that would never change. But last night, and this morning, the others had easily noticed something was different about her.

Today, the cute young lass found herself back on Aegis, though this time she was here without truly understanding why. She had bought plenty of food last night to last a while, and she didn’t need any spices or the like. So, why was she here? That was the question she was currently trying to answer as she wandered the Slums of the city. I wonder which one of the buildings here is where Virule lived in with his brother and sister? He’s let it slip a few times during his rants that he used to live here…

As she looked around, Alexa spotted that same violet-haired man from the day before and quickly hid behind a stack of crates. Peering out from behind them, she watched as Rufio entered a large, old-looking building. Curious, Alexa followed him inside and looked around. She could hear him moving around upstairs, but she didn’t want to go up there just yet. Instead, she entered another room and saw a small gathering of pink flowers laying on a nightstand next to an old, rusty bed. Reaching out to touch them, she heard footsteps from behind her and quickly turned around, panicking as she saw Rufio enter the doorway. ”I-I’m sorry!”

”What are you doing back here? And, for that matter, what are you doing in my house?” His question took Alexa by surprise. Turning around, she picked up the flowers and held them out for Rufio to see. ”These flowers, I’ve seen Virule trying to link some together. Do they belong to your sister or something?” Yeah, way to try and change the subject Lexi. Giggling nervously, she watched as Rufio came closer and snatched the pink flowers away from her rather roughly.

Alexa was about to lower her head when Rufio slipped the flower necklace around her neck and fastened the string there. Not quite sure what was going on, she found her cheeks growing warm and she quickly tried to shake the blush away. It was too late however, the violet-haired man before her had obviously already noticed what was going on, as he began to chuckle and even poked her cheeks. ”Yes, they belonged to my sister. Melody gathered a bunch of those, a little more than necessary actually. She wanted to help me, and, seeing as how she had quite a few left over, my sister made more necklaces. She kept one for herself, and then there was this one for our brother. I’m amazed that it’s still here…”

With a shrug, he turned around and started to leave the room. When Alexa began to speak again, Rufio froze and turned to glance over his shoulder, listening to what she had to say. ”I really don’t understand. You seem really nice, and yet people hate you. And, umm…you said yesterday that you can’t remember things? Is that why you’re here again? Are you trying to remember?” In response to the young woman’s questions, Rufio simply nodded and turned to face her. Without speaking a word, he took a few steps and leaned back against the wall, simply watching her. ”I know it probably doesn’t mean much, but I hope you regain your memories soon. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to remember who you are or who your family is. Then again, my family pretty much consists of my wild Heartless. Must sound pretty strange to you huh?”

As the girl giggled nervously, Rufio shrugged and shook his head. ”Regardless of what you might think, I have no problem with you people living with Heartless. I just have problems with Heartless being used as weapons the way they are. I highly doubt that all of them are as evil as Sano claims.” Nodding his head towards the door, Rufio sighed again and closed his eyes. ”Come, I’ll go ahead and treat you to some lunch. I know a good place.”


Day 3

”And then he took me to the castle! He introduced me to the king of his world, and I got to eat lunch with the entire royal family and Rufio too! I think I learned a bit more about how to prepare some of these dishes I learned about on Aegis.” Giggling happily, Alexa didn’t even notice how she was making some of the guys around her feel. Eventually, one of them stood up and slammed his fists down on the table. ”JUST GET IN THE KITCHEN AND COOK US UP A MEAL DAMMIT!!!” This, of course, resulted in Virule receiving a rather powerfully thrown frying pan to the side of his head. Turning away from him, Alexa puffed and stormed into the kitchen to begin cooking them something nice for brunch.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Departure, Rufio found himself standing outside Kaleido’s room. For a good while, he just stood there staring at the floor, trying to decide exactly what he wanted to do. Do I go in there and ask him to help me figure out what this is I’m feeling? Or do I just ask him to help teach me how to make something pretty for her? Ah jeez. Grumbling, clearly irritated at his own indecisiveness, Rufio just shoved the door open, stepped inside, and stared hard at Kaleido. ”Y’know what? Just draw something pretty for me!”

”Gah! R-Rufio? My door was l-l-locked!” Stumbling out from where he had fallen off his bed, Kaleido brushed himself off and looked at his friend. Kaleido watched curiously as his friend walked over to some of his art utensils and began digging around through them. Horrified by this, the usually shy man quickly rushed over and snatched his things away from Rufio, shielding them from his grasp. ”What do you want Rufio?! Please don’t take these away from me!”

At Kaleido’s response, Rufio merely shrugged and looked around at everything with a slight smile. ”Like I said, please just draw something really pretty for me okay? Please? I-It’s for a girl. I was thinking about asking you for advice, but I dunno. Just please, please paint something really nice for her okay?” When Kaleido simply stared at him blankly in response, Rufio grumbled and smacked himself in the face. ”Just do it. Please? Gah!”

Later that day, Alexa found herself standing in the Castle District staring up at the statue of Rufio. She had glanced at it the day before and had found herself becoming ever more curious about it as time went on. Now that she was here, waiting on that mysterious, handsome man to show up for what she considered a date, Alexa found herself studying the statue, wondering just what it was Rufio had done to earn such an honor. When she felt somebody tapping her on her shoulder, she merely went ”Mmm?” and reached up her free hand to touch the rather large statue.

Rufio sighed and reached out, clasping Alexa’s hand in hers. ”Okay, you might not want to touch that. People seem rather protective of it. I don’t even feel like I deserve it. I failed to protect their queen, and yet here this thing is.” Sighing, Rufio turned away and motioned for her to follow him. Without speaking a word, he disappeared down a side alley. Alexa simply shrugged and hurried along after him, figuring he knew some shortcut to wherever it was he was taking her today.

After a while, and after having to bust in a few gang member’s heads, the two of them were out in the wilderness, sitting in a field of wildflowers. Glancing around at their surroundings, Alexa felt as if she was floating. Her heart was beating rapidly against her chest and she wondered just what it was Rufio had intended for their date today. Locking her eyes with his, Alexa found herself blushing furiously. Why is he looking at me like that? The young woman found all kinds of things running through her mind at this point, a lot of which made her want to blush worse and burst out into a fit of cute little giggles.

I knew it. She looks so beautiful sitting out here amidst all these flowers. I kind of want to…y’know what, just do it Rufio! Looking away from Alexa, Rufio gathered up a few of his favorite flowers and moved closer to the pink-haired beauty. Reaching up his left hand, he gently brushed her hair with the back of his fingers and smiled warmly at her. Without saying anything, he began placing flowers in her hair. When he was done, he moved back a bit and nodded. ”I knew it. You look radiant today. I really wanted to bring you out here. I’ve read, and, well, heard about spots that couples share together. Special spots I guess? Whatever you call them, I really wanted this to be our spot. I knew you’d love it here, and just as I thought, this place really brings out your inner beauty. Mixes well with your outer beauty.” Rufio chuckled a bit and leaned in close, giving her a soft kiss on her forehead.

The pink-haired woman was blushing tremendously at this point. She didn’t expect him to be such a romantic, especially considering that he hardly remembered anything about who he was! From talking with him these past few days, she knew how focused he was on regaining his memories and finding out more about himself. And yet, here Rufio was wooing her! When she could finally think again, Alexa opened up her bag and brought out the lunches she had prepared for both of them. ”H-Here Rufio. I made this for you.” Giggling happily, she felt so great when his hands touched hers when he went to take the lunch from her.

A truly happy smile was on Rufio’s face as he looked at Alexa. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a rather thick sketchbook and handed it over to Alexa. ”I tried to get my f-friend to help me make something for you, but I don’t think he understood my request. So, after taking a look at some of his artwork, I figured I’d try and draw some stuff for you. I really, really hope you like it. I couldn’t think of anything to really get you.” Frowning, he watched her take the sketchbook. When she began flipping through the pages, looking at all the pictures, Rufio quickly began scarfing down his lunch. He was so nervous that after a very short while he began to choke, thus ruining the romantic, sweet moment.


Day 4

Today, Rufio was sitting with Colm on the sole bench up on the Summit, the two of them staring up at the night sky. ”You’re a self-proclaimed ‘ladies man’ Colm. Tell me: just how badly did I screw up yesterday when I choked?” Colm looked at his friend and couldn’t help but chuckle. ”Rufio, if this girl really, truly feels something for you, you’ve got nothing to worry about. So what if you choked and began turning blue? At least you didn’t spit it all back up on her…right?” Colm looked into Rufio’s eyes and realized that that is exactly what the violet-haired man had ended up doing.

When Colm began laughing again, Rufio sighed and rose from the bench and he promptly left the area. As he was leaving, he bumped past Shay, hardly even noticing him and never even apologizing for bumping into him the way he did. When Shay sat down next to Colm, he glared at his friend and punched him in the arm. ”Dammit Colm, what did you say to him? Rufio was crying when he left!” When Colm began spilling the beans, Shay’s expression turned from that of anger to pure confusion. ”Wow, I didn’t even know. Rufio does a good job hiding these kinds of things from most of us doesn’t he?”

Alexa was in her room just sobbing. Various Guild members were outside, pounding on her door either demanding that she come out and cook for them (Virule and Mathis being two of them) and others were simply trying to check on her and see if they could help her in any way. Finally, Lorelei and Nik just let themselves in, closing and locking the door behind them. The two of them made their way to her bedside, and while Lorelei began running her fingers through Alexa’s beautiful pink hair, Nik began to speak.

”Okay, Rufio, what’d he do? We know he did something. You wouldn’t be this upset otherwise. So spill, we’re here for you Alexa.” I would also really like some damn dinner. She hasn’t cooked a thing for us all day, and Rei’s cooking is making us all SICK! When Lorelei glared up at him, Nik sighed and simply turned away, glaring at a random tree. ”Alexa sweetie, you can talk to me. Did Rufio do something to you? Did he hurt you? Why are you crying?”

”I think my food almost killed him. And, when I went to help him…he ended up spitting it on my cheek and in my hair. We both panicked and ran away. What if he doesn’t want to see me again?” At this, Nik began to laugh and Lorelei just stared at her blankly for a good moment. When she could finally speak, she hit Nik in the back of a head with a Blizzard spell and smiled sweetly at her friend. ”Alexa honey, just go and wait for him again. You won’t know anything until you do. If he’s there waiting for you, just try and talk things out okay? I bet it was all one big accident, that’s all.” When Nik finally decided to do something helpful and opened a Dark Corridor for her, Alexa smiled, hugged them both, and rushed through.

When the two of them saw each other, both standing in that glowing field of flowers, their hearts began to flutter. Unable to find the words to speak to one another, they both just stood quite some distance apart, shuffling their feet and doing various other things to express just how nervous they both were. After some time, Rufio finally broke the ice. ”Alexa…I’m sorry. I was nervous yesterday, and when you began looking through those horrible pictures, I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing and I…”

”Horrible? I thought they were beautiful! You put your heart and soul into those pictures! I really loved each and every drawing, no matter what you might think of them. You didn’t need to do something like that for me, and yet you worked so hard to make me such a beautiful present. Thank you.” At this, Rufio blushed furiously and she hurried over, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tight. Unsure as to what he should say or even do at this moment, the violet-haired man held her close and rested his head atop hers.

Finally, when they pulled apart, Rufio spoke again. ”Alexa, I don’t really understand these feelings. I’m still learning about myself, and I really don’t remember ever feeling anything like this before. When I’m with you I feel so incredible. When we have to part, it hurts. I, umm…I wish we could spend every day together.” Alexa blushed furiously at this comment and leaned up on her tiptoes and placed a quick, soft kiss on his lips. ”Rufio. Oh Rufio, I feel the same way. I think about you all the time. I really never want to be apart from you. I’m sorry for running off like that yesterday! I missed you so much.”

Without even understanding what it was he was doing, Rufio gently brushed his fingers along her chin to get her attention. Leaning closer, he gently brushed his lips against hers. This kiss turned into a soft, passionate kiss, and the two lovebirds held each other tight until they finally separated again. For at least tonight, the two would be together. Laying down in the field of flowers, they cuddled up together, sharing the occasional kiss and ”I love you’s.” as they stared up at the stars together. It was a truly perfect night, and the two of them hoped that at some point in the future they would no longer have to be apart. At some point, they would figure out a way to truly be together forever.