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When Isa is recompleted for the second time, he wakes up in Radiant Garden, his third chance at humanity feeling almost too good to be true. The image of Lea’s face—inches from his before he died—felt like it had come from a dream. But when Even found him and said, “Oh, good. I’ll let the others know you’ve made it back,” Isa could only assume it was real. Ienzo had provided him a spare room and a change of clothes, and it wasn’t much longer till Lea’s uncanny gait was echoing outside Isa’s door. There was a knock, but before he could answer, the door creaked open.
Lea stood in front of him wearing a new set of clothes, not the stuffy Organization robe they had both grown so used to. Lea’s eyes were wide, his expression caught between laughter and tears. It brought a lump to Isa’s throat and an uncomfortable weight to his chest.
“Lea…” he started. Before Isa could say anything else, he found himself crushed in the warmth of Lea’s arms. Lea held him for a long time, longer than he expected.
“I told you I’d bring you home didn’t I?” Lea pulls away and grins at him, his face wet with tears.
Isa glances at the room around them, thinking of the old Radiant Garden they had grown up in, and of their years in the World That Never Was. Neither really felt like home.
“I suppose you did,” Isa said, and it sounds cold even to his own ears.
Lea gives a start. He seems to realize that he’s still locked around Isa’s shoulders and he breaks away, crossing his arms. Isa regrets the space between them. The two stand awkwardly in the quiet room, neither sure of what to say. Isa wants to explain how being home doesn’t like feel home, but he’s not sure how to begin.
“So…are you feeling okay, now that you’re a whole person again?” Lea asks.
“What’s home for us now, Lea?” Isa answers. He was never one for small talk, and he doesn’t plan to change things now. Lea’s tight expression softens.
“Well, I got a place in Twilight Town. Scrooge gave me a job at his restaurant, and the apartment is right above it. It’s…it’s not really a place to call home just yet, but I’d have more than enough space if you wanted to live there. With me.” Lea looks down, waiting for a rejection. Isa refuses to give it to him.
“Okay,” he says and Lea looks up in surprise. His expression is doubtful. Saix would have never given in so easily, without compromise. He’s not going to argue with Isa now though, not when he had only half expected him to return in the first place.
“Do you have anything here you need to take?” Lea asks.
After a pause Isa gives a decided, “No.”
There’s a hesitation between them. The things Isa wants to say keep getting jumbled around in his thoughts, so he stays silent, expecting Lea to be the one to draw him out like he always did when they were children. Lea takes a step, looking unsure.
“I don’t want to burden you,” Isa’s quiet voice fills the silence. Lea looks ready to start but Isa continues, “I don’t want to get in the way of you and your friends either. The way I behaved in the Organization...wasn’t right. After being recompleted the first time, I think I realized that. I tried to bring Roxas back, then Xion. I didn’t want to be the one who stopped you from having the life you deserved. Even if it meant losing myself to Xehanort in the process. We already lost one of our friends to him, I wouldn’t let that happen to anyone else. There wasn’t any way I could let you in on it without seeing you hurt, or Xehanort finding out about it.”
Isa stops and realizes the tears are streaming down his face. His heart feels like a needle in his chest.
Lea comes up to him again, hesitation gone. He places a hand on Isa’s arm and the other wipes away the moisture on Isa’s cheeks. There’s an understanding in his eyes that Isa didn’t expect.
“It’s funny. When I saw you with Xemnas and the others when I went to rescue Sora, I couldn’t believe it. I think I expected your eyes would be green again the next time I saw you.”
Isa opens his mouth, but Lea brings his thumb down on his lips, shushing him.
“Part of me thought maybe it was my fault. If I had gotten to you first, I could have taken you with me...brought you home sooner,” Lea gives a strange laugh. It sounds almost bitter. “I was really afraid Isa,” Lea says quietly, like it hurts to get the words out. “And angry. I thought you’d finally decided to give up on us. I was angry at myself, too, for not trying harder. But you always just do what you want, don’t you?” Lea finishes with a small smile. His eyes are shining, but the tears don’t spill over.
“There’s never been much I’ve done that didn’t have you behind it,” Isa says simply. Now that he’s crying he can’t seem to stop. Lea pulls him in again—Isa’s head to his shoulder—and somehow he finds that despite everything they’ve done to each other, this is enough. It’s enough to let their days in the Organization go, and enough to remind them of when they were kids playing in Radiant Garden, teenagers sneaking into Ansem’s castle. There’s more to say, Isa and Lea both know it, but now is not the time for it.
“Everyone knows I came back to take you with me, so don’t think you’ll be a burden, alright?” Lea says into the back of Isa’s hair. Isa laughs into his shoulder.
“After all this time, you’re still picking up strays?”
“You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to keep.”
“Take me home, Lea,” Isa says.
Lea leads them out of the old Castle, to a gummi ship Cid had built for him, and finally takes his best friend home.