#coding and keyblades

Ven was alone when Axel walked into the room, although by the looks of it, Roxas hadn’t been gone long. The bed was still mussed and his computer sat locked but awake on the bedside table, a TRON animation idling as it waited for commands. Given that this was Roxas, Axel figured that meant he’d probably only stepped out for a minute, maybe taking a quick walk around the halls to stretch his legs, or maybe today was the day he’d decided to go for it and try walking to the bathrooms down the hall, courtesy of Demyx or some other nurse to babysit his progress. If he planned to be gone longer than a couple of minutes, the place would’ve been tidied. Even drugged-to-his-gills Roxas would’ve made the bed or straightened up a little if he planned to be gone long.

 Roxas might’ve been out, but Ven was awake and upright in one of the chairs by the window, a large book laid out in his lap. He looked up at Axel’s approach and took his legs off the other char, making room for Axel to sit beside him. Axel was less than excited by the prospect of looking out over the parking lot, but Ven had made the effort and Axel could interpret the invitation for what it was, so he dropped his things onto the ground and snagged the chair to settle in and wait.

 “Morning!” he said, leaning over to rummage in his bag for sketchbook and pencil. No sense in sitting idle, right? “Guess I’m a little earlier than planned, huh?”

 “Aerith’s getting another scan, just to make sure the bone’s healed before the cast comes off,” Ven replied. Something in his tone made Axel look up and catch his eye. “I’m glad you’re here, though. I wanted a chance to talk in private.”

 Axel stopped looking for his things and sat back in the chair, giving Ven a thoughtful look before nodding. “Figured you might, sooner or later,” he said. He waited for Ven to start, knowing that this had been a long time in coming, and knowing that it wasn’t going to be sunshine and daisies as they reminisced about the ‘good old days.’

 “He’s 21, Axel,” Ven said, his voice laced with just a touch of sharpness. “You’re 27.”

 “26,” Axel corrected, “and he’s an adult, capable of making his own decisions.”

 Ven gave him a look, the same one Roxas used when Axel added hot sauce to french fries they’d agreed to share. “And you don’t think it’s... unusual for someone our age to be interested in someone who hasn’t even graduated school yet?”

 Axel bit his lip, weighing his words before he spoke. “I think you’re not giving your brother enough credit,” he said at last, trying to soften it a bit. “You’ve been outta the loop for almost a year; Roxas has had to grow up pretty fast. I think you’d realize that if you just asked him. Have you? Asked him? What does he say about all of this?”

 “He’s not in any condition to talk at the moment,” Ven said, waving aside that suggestion. “I plan to talk to him once they’ve lowered his pain meds. But you and I both know he’s not really mature or experienced enough to know the difference between a casual fling and something serious.”

 Axel raised an eyebrow, tilting his head at that phrasing.

 “You think I’ve just been playing with your brother? Is that what this is about? Because--and not that this is any of your business-- I’ve been pretty upfront with him from the get-go about what I wanted in the relationship.” Then it clicked, and he closed his eyes, briefly, before scowling at Ven. “Is the age thing what’s really bothering you? Or is it because we were friends first, and you’re angry that I got close to him, too?”

 “Don’t be stupid,” Ven spat, but Axel could see the tension in Ven’s shoulders, and the thinning of Ven’s lips.

 Axel leaned back, crossing his arms. He could push a little more, he knew; he’d always been good at reading his best bud in school. Better to ask about the elephant in the room, first, and they could work on the smaller complaints after that.

 “Are you pissed he’s gay?” he asked.

 “What? No!” snapped Ven, and that, at least, sounded genuine enough. Still, it had the desired effect. Ven sighed, forcing himself to relax more and fully explain. “I just feel like I don’t know you anymore, and what I remember from school isn’t the most… well, let’s just say I liked you as a friend, but you had a tendency to change interests pretty quickly.”

 “Ok, first off, I was a teenager when we last hung out, so cut me some slack. So maybe I had a new date every month, I was young and impetuous and carefree. I was spreading my wings, looking for a good time and finding it.” He laughed, remembering some of the things he’d gotten up to that Ven wouldn’t have approved of-- probably not before he’d moved, and definitely not now as a cop. Then he shrugged, slouching further back into the chair.

 “The old me would tell you that the new me is boring” he continued. “I have a good, steady job, I’ve been getting bigger in the local art scene, I make my rent on time, pay bills, I know how to cook more than cup noodles… basically, I’m an adult.” Axel’s smile slid into a smirk, and he lifted his eyebrow again. “You’d know that, too, if you’d made an effort to reconnect when you moved back to the city.”

 “...that’s fair,” Ven said after a long minute, and he closed his eyes, rubbing a hand over his face as though he was trying to clear away what he wanted to say next. “I guess I just… didn’t know how. The last time I saw you, I was still angry about Reno. And then with everything going on at work, it didn’t seem like there’d be downtime, and that when there would be, it would’ve been awkward, given how long I’d waited. I dunno, it was a bunch of things, I guess. But mostly it was Reno, I think.”

 “Yeah, I got that when you threw me out of the room that one time,” laughed Axel. That helped, the two of them laughing, and some of the tension left the room as they came to an unspoken truce of sorts. Axel shifted in his seat, managing a shrug, despite his slouched position.

 “Look, I’ll admit that maybe we dove in the deep end and got in over our heads at the start, but I think we’re gonna try again and take things slower this time around.” He paused, remembering Ven’s earlier words, and grinned. “Ah, well, like you said, we’ll talk once he’s a little more coherent. I don’t think we should be planning much beyond dinner plans at this point, he won’t remember anything.”

 They shared a chuckle over that, too, but Axel wasn’t quite done. He looked Ven in the eye, sitting up a bit straighter in the chair and crossing his arms, willing Ven to object. “That said, I like him, and frankly what we get up to is none of your business.”

 Ven returned his gaze, unflinching, but in the end nodded once, apparently satisfied with that response. “I just don’t want him hurt,” Ven said at last.

Another day, another body. It was starting to be a bit of a theme for Hallowed Bastion, the city where hearts decayed into bitterness, corruption didn’t even make the headlines anymore, and dreams went to die.

Scientists too, apparently, if the lab coat was anything to go by. Zack crouched by the body, careful not to touch anything, and called out to the officers who’d arrived on the scene before him.

“Hey, any ID yet?” he asked. He could see what looked like a clip for a nametag peeking out from under the man’s arm, but it was missing the telltale plastic card. Still, Shinra lab coat, pool of MAKO, scattered pages of what appeared to be routine reactor checklists… there weren’t  that many of these guys around, so even if the ID was missing, they had a good place to start.

It also suggested that whoever’d killed him needed the card for access to the more sensitive areas, rather than an attempt to hide the victim’s identity. So, someone who knew the facility well enough to navigate around the cameras and guard schedules, but either lacked the clearance to get into whatever part of the facility they’d intended, or, more likely, they knew they’d need an untraceable way to access the restricted areas.

One of the supporting officers squatted down next to Zack, reviewing the notebook for the facts they’d gathered so far.

“Guards who found him tentatively ID him as Dr. Gast, head researcher of the facility. Dr. Gast was reported missing almost a week ago by his daughter, but missing persons didn’t start a case file until three days ago. Security checked the system and no activity on his access codes or anything until he used his card to activate the pressure locks around 1:30 am this morning, but we’re still waiting on video feeds.”

“What the heck was he doing here that early?” Zack asked, then swallowed a yawn as he thought about the warm, comfy bed he’d left behind for this. “Do they normally have researchers here overnight?”

“The staff we’ve interviewed so far have not indicated that this is a typical occurrence, no.”

Zack rocked back on his heels, then rolled to his feet to stand up in one smooth motion. He crossed his arms, cracking his neck and shifting to a more comfortable position.

“So… was this a terrorist thing? Any AVALANCHE calling cards?”

“Undetermined as of yet, sir,” replied the officer, skimming his notes once again.

“Anything to do with the military?”

“He’s a civilian but most of his work is classified, so it’s a possibility.” The man shrugged, then gestured to the body. “We kind of hoped your team could clarify that, honestly. We’re meeting all kinds of red tape on this.”

Zack leaned back to stretch and let out a satisfied grunt at the comfortable crack in his back, then gestured to the body. “I mean, not that I’m not happy to get up at four in the morning to take a call, but why’d you guys call in SOLDIER? Is there something about this doctor that requires military forces?”

The cop gave a curt nod. “The security team noted that Dr. Gast is not usually onsite, as his research is in biology, specifically the wing focused on enhancement and MAKO regeneration. He’s one of the main brains behind you guys, actually.”

“So, basically we’ve been called in to make sure nothing sensitive leaks?”

“It would appear that way, sir, yes.”

Zack sighed, uncrossing his arms so he could stifle a yawn. “Awesome. I love clean up jobs that involve lots of paperwork. How’d he die, anyway? Best guess.”

The office paused, then looked at the body, specifically, in the region of the chest. “Medical Examiner is still en route, but we’re pretty sure that the removal of his heart had something to do with it.”

Zack resisted the urge to sigh yet again, and took the officer’s pencil. He gestured the man back over to the body, and pointed at the area around the cavity. “You see this?” he asked, and the man nodded, looking a little green. Zack continued, voice calm. “There’s blood, but there isn’t a lot of bloodspray, what does that tell us?”

“...he didn’t resist?”

“The blood had probably coagulated before extraction,” Zack explained, then handed the pencil back. “My guess is that he’d been dead for a while before the heart was removed, but we’ll have to get the ME’s word on that. No sign of a struggle either, so it’s possible he died of natural causes and someone came along after the fact to take the heart.”

“But… why?” the officer asked, looking back at the body again. “I mean, what good is a heart to anyone?”

“Hey, I’m just the hired muscle to cut through the red tape here, you’re gonna have to talk to your lead detective to get answers to the big questions.”

Zack looked towards the doorway and saw the man in question listening to a young uniformed cop, no doubt receiving the same rundown Zack had just gotten. The detective looked over and saw Zack, smirking as he raised his travel mug in salute. Then he headed towards Zack and the body, the cop trailing along behind him. Zack held out his hand, smiling as the older man shook it warmly.

“Fair! Still a low level grunt getting ass-crack of dawn calls?”