Scritch, scratch, scritch, scratch, scratch. That was the theme music of the day as Xadia followed Xigbar around The Land of Dragons writing down an exact report of everything they did. If it were anyone else, it would have gotten on his nerves, but for some reason he didn’t seem to mind it was her. As her pen moved with super-sonic speed over the lined paper, he tried his best not to make any special occasion of this routine watch. But he found himself looking around more corners and listening in on more of the villager’s conversations than he usually cared to.

If only it were Demyx, he thought, then I could yell and scream for a bit. That might knock some sense into me.

Just then, Xadia cried out from behind him. He turned on his heel and began to draw his guns. Adrenaline rushing, heart racing, he was ready for anything.

She was down on the ground, leaves and a twig in her hair. In his absent state of mind, Xigbar had hit her in the face with a tree branch he had moved out of the way.

…Damnitt all…

“Sheesh, sorry ‘bout that.” he said, hurriedly helping her to her feet, “wasn’t even payin’ a bit of attention.”

“No, that’s alright,” she said, brushing dirt of her coat, “it was…it was a…”

She stood there, a finger on her cheek, trying to find the word she meant. He watched as she furrowed her brow, screwing up her little mouth like a child. It was actually kind of cute.

“Oh, what do mean? When someone does something that they didn’t foresee…against their will….a folly…”

“You mean an accident?” he offered, handing her the clip board she was carrying.

Her face lit up with recognition. It was as if he had given her the best news in her whole life. She threw up her arms with joy saying “Yes! That’s what I meant! Accident! It was at the tip of my tongue, all this time!”

He chuckled as she took up her clip board and flipped to a back page. It was full of random words with definitions underneath them. She wrote down her new word with a flourish and smiled proudly.

When she was finished, she looked up at him with her signature smile.

“I never got to thank you before.”

Since he looked so clueless, she continued.

“I remember that you found me. I know that you saved me at Hollow Bastion and you took care of me before taking me to the Superior. I don’t remember too much from then, but I do remember you.”

After that last sentence, she looked a little embarrassed, her cheeks turning a subtle shade of pink. Xigbar sighed heavily, and put a hand on her head, ruffling up her hair.

“Well, that gets rid of the awkward-ness, I guess. I knew you’d remember me, how could you forget my charming mug, anyway!”

He smiled a pointy-toothed smile and tried to make his scarred face as friendly as possible. The two of them began to laugh, as though the whole thing was a great old joke. Thus the ice was broken.

The rest of the day Xadia asked him questions about what one was supposed to do on watch. This time Xigbar was a bit more honest.

“How long does it take you to go through your world?”

“Well, it should take about three hours..or something like that…I don’t really pay much attention to the briefing, but I just glaze over the place in, like… thirty minutes? Yeah, I’d say that. Thirty..or forty, dependin’ how lazy I feel. Wait! Don’t write the whole ‘thirty minutes’ thing, just say…three and a half hours. Yeah, that sounds good!”

“Okay…what do the people here talk about?”

“Rice, ancestors, Huns, dragons, war. Boring stuff. Nothing to do with us.”

They walked and talked for a very long time. Before they knew it, it was already sunset. Xigbar stretched and sighed.

“Well, I guess that’s it! Not the most active place, but it helps pass the time.”

“Is that it?” Xadia asked, peering over her clip board “nothing to do with the keyblade or heartless?”

Before he could answer, a sharp whistling pierced the silence. They watched as a small projectile flew up into the air. After a second, it burst apart, showering the sky with a million multi-colored sparks. Xadia cried out and hid behind Xigbar, grabbing onto his coat for dear life.

He scoffed, not in disgust, but in amusement.

“Hey, it’s alright, kiddo. It’s just fireworks. Just for show, not an attack ‘r anything like that.”

She looked up at him skeptically. “There wasn’t anything like this in any of your reports…”

He took up her hand and led her “C’mon, I’ll show ‘ya! They just do it fer fun. It’s kinda cool, really.”

They made their way up a hill and could look down into the royal court. As soon as they did another firework went zipping up into the inky sky. Xadia watched with amazement and anticipation as it exploded, replacing the stars with their brilliance.

Xigbar grinned mischievously “Didn’t I tell ‘ya? Pretty cool, eh?”

“Do you watch them often?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

As if catching himself, he straightened his back and cleared his throat “As if! I just thought you should, ‘ya know…write ‘em down ‘n tell Xemnas  ‘n stuff…”

To his surprise, she started giggling. She hid her face behind her clip board as her shoulders moved up and down.

“I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing water from her eyes “I don’t know why I’m doing this! It’s just so…well…when someone finds something….jovial?”

“You mean ‘funny’? You better write that one down, it’s kinda important!” Xigbar said, smiling.

“I don’t think I’ll forget this word!” Xadia answered smiling. This time it wasn’t an automatic smile. It was genuine and made the sharpshooter feel happy. There was something about that smile that he wanted to see all the time. He knew he would do anything to see that smile more often.