Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Roxas had left so little an imprint of himself in the room they had shared. A t-shirt meant for the wash, his toothbrush, the seashell Axel had given him. Those were the only details that remained now. Axel wondered how he had never before noticed the spectral way Roxas went about life in the Organization, present but non-distinct, a step removed from the rest of them.

     It was no wonder it had been so easy for him to leave.

     Axel dropped his coat onto the unmade bed, picking up the seashell in his gloveless hand.

     He could have caught up to Roxas easily. He wanted to know where he had gone, to see this Other with his own eyes, but doing so would have meant there was no excuse for not giving the information to Xemnas. At least this way he didn't have to feign ignorance and risk punishment.

     Warmth built up in the heart of Axel's palm. A red glow emanated from his hand, engorging the seashell. The glow became a blaze without Axel consciously doing it, and in the moment it took for him to quell the flame, the seashell had charred beyond recognition. An ugly black husk sat on his palm, the smell eye-watering.

     His fingers tightened around it, his skin beginning to blister. It hit the wall with enough force to shatter, sharp blackened chunks skittering across the floor.

     A knock on the door, then Saïx came in before waiting for Axel to answer. It was rare of him to even bother to knock first these days.

     'We have lost Twilight Town.'

     There was a hint of accusation there. More than a hint in his amber eyes.

     'Hello to you too,' Axel said, unclenching his hands, 'I'm fine, thanks. You?'

     'You said you had this under control.' Saïx didn't rise to the bait. He eyed the shards of burnt shell scattered across the floor. 'It was foolish of me to believe you.'

     Axel sighed loudly, picking up his coat again as he walked towards the door.

     'Leader wants to see me, then?'

     'Obviously.' They left Axel's bedroom, the door clicking shut behind them. The halls were conspicuously empty despite the morning's quick approach. The other members should have been returning by now. 'I did warn you against becoming attached to the boy. Keyblade wielders are wildcards, no matter which side they're on.'

     'Saïx,' Axel warned.

     'Playing house with him was a silly thing to do.'   

     'Line. You. Crossing it.'

     'Whatever happens, you've brought it upon yourself.' They stopped outside of the tall quartz doors, weighing one another up. Neither much liked what they found. 'You changed once he came.'

     'And you changed a long time before that,' Axel said, entering the meeting room. A part of him wanted to glance back and see if his words had had any effect. He knew they wouldn't have.

     Only Xemnas waited in the room, stood at the foot of the winding stairs. He stared up at the swirling mass of darkness above their heads. There was no visible difference, but Axel knew that there was less darkness captured there now than there should have been.

     Damn it, Roxas.

     'You were instructed to report to us if the boy made contact with his Other.'

     Xemnas didn't even deign to look at him.

     'I wasn't aware he had,' Axel answered, at least somewhat honest, 'His missions were always with me, and to my knowledge, he never left here unaccompanied. If he made contact with his Other, it was in a way that I couldn't see.'

     'In his sleep, Superior,' Saïx cut in, stepping up to Axel's side. 'Axel shared his concerns with me that the boy had taken to sleeping constantly when he wasn't on assignment --'

     'I was only asking whether we could get sick.' It was dangerously close to a snap. Axel reigned himself in, slipping his hands inside his coat pockets, trying to look more at ease. 'We might not need to sleep, but we still can, so I was curious about whether we could get sick too. People sleep a lot when they're sick, or so I hear.'

     Xemnas was hardly listening to them. He had eyes only for the darkness above.

     'In his sleep?' he murmured, more to himself than to them, 'Does the boy dream?'

     Neither of them could answer that. All Axel knew was that he had never dreamt, though sometimes he saw a flicker in the depths of sleep, like a far away door.

     'I believe that being the Other of a keyblade wielder made their connection stronger than we are used to,' Saïx continued, 'The boy's face was injured a short while ago, though there was no discernible cause behind the injury that Axel could ascertain. I believe that the injury was obtained in dream, and it manifested upon his physical body due to the strengthening connection with his Other.'

     Axel hadn't told him that. Not in as many words. He hadn't meant to say a damn thing. It was his usual piss poor luck that had meant running into Saïx right when he wanted to the least, Roxas' blood on his fingers, bordering on hysteria at the very existence of the blood. The truth had just spilled from him.

     'And you didn't think to report this to me?' Xemnas asked quietly, too quietly. Saïx hesitated as he realized the question was directed at him. He was quick to lower his head.

     'My apologies, Superior. I believed Axel to have the situation in hand.'

     'Yeah, yeah, it's all my fault.' Axel's carefree tone belied the shaking of his hands. 'March me off to the gallows and be done with it already.'

     Xemnas finally turned around. There was no obvious anger in him. If anything, he looked at Axel with pity. He glanced to Saïx.

     'Leave us.'

     For a minute, Saïx seemed ready to argue, but ultimately nodded and left. The door slid shut behind him with a soft whoosh of air.

     Axel waited for his verdict, a cold sweat licking at the back of his neck.

     'You'll recover the boy,' Xemnas instructed, nothing close to a request, 'He can be forgiven for straying, so long as he returns Twilight Town to the darkness. We can allow for this mistake, we've all of us been naive at one point. This is your mistake too.'

     'And... what if he won't return?' Axel asked, though his real question lingered between them. What if he has become human? It didn't need to be spoken.

     Xemnas looked down and away, as though contemplating his response.

     'Then you will have failed your mission, Axel. You'll accept the consequences of that without dissent, won't you?' Xemnas began to climb the steps, the one-sided conversation coming to a close. 'You will bring the boy back, whether he consents to returning or not. So long as he exists, the keyblade wielder will not be capable of creating another Other, and so we will be without our keyblade. We don't need Roxas, we just need his power.'

     Axel's blood ran cold.

     'Do what you deem in the best interests of the Organization, Axel,' Xemnas said, 'Even if Roxas himself isn't what is best for us anymore.'

---

The members of the Organization didn't associate with each other all that much. Beyond sniping during meetings, that was. Such a solitary life of going out to kill then returning to wait until they could go out to kill again, Axel had never been content with it, not even before being told about his Other.

     It was Saïx who did that, of course. Discovering the location of Isa had shook Saïx to his core. It wasn't that they didn't know their Others were out in the world somewhere, but their existence was almost unreal, at least to Axel. This conceptual better version of them, ones who shared their faces and lived in the sunlight, who hungered and grew tired and didn't have to play at basic humanity.

     Saïx was consumed by the existence of his Other, and expected Axel to be too. In his mind, a connection had formed between them as soon as he realized Isa and Axel's Other were connected.

     Axel didn't feel it, but having someone talking to him was better than waiting in utter silence for day to end.

     His name is Lea.

     That was the only information Axel would allow Saïx to share. Even that was more than he really wanted to know. Down to his very name, he was a poor mimicry of the human. He couldn't even have a name all of his own. It opened up too many questions.

     Did Axel really like the things he liked or were Lea's preferences bleeding through the connection they had, fooling him into thinking he had even a shred of autonomy.

     The thoughts he had, the opinions he developed, the things that made him laugh; were any of them his own, or was he just copying Lea's personality, a distant and diluted echo.

     Axel didn't have an answer, so he refused to hear any more of Lea. If he found out any concrete facts about him, all the truths he thought he knew about himself would be called into question.

     Axel didn't want to know. Axel didn't want to be a shadow.

     But Saïx did. By the day, Axel watched him become more consumed by the existence of Isa. He would return from his missions with more knowledge about his Other, facts and anecdotes, until Isa was all he spoke about.

     Axel didn't have the capacity to care, or at least that was what he believed at the time, but despite that, he found himself worried for Saïx. The obsession could lead nowhere good. The one time he tried to broach the subject, Saïx had looked him in the eye, almost smiling, and said, 'Lea worries about Isa too.'

     Axel had walked away and never looked back. A short while later, Roxas had joined them, and everything changed.

     It was Axel's desire to have something that Lea couldn't claim to have that led him to approach Roxas. Lea didn't know Roxas. Lea didn't know Roxas' Other. Roxas was an existence entirely separate from Lea's, any connection that formed between them something Axel could call his own.

     It was Axel who spoke to Roxas every day, then joined him on his missions, a friendship forming between them independent of their Others.

     It was Axel who Roxas kissed by the lake, who he shared a room and a bed with, who talked to him and laughed with him every day.

     And it was Axel who had noticed the familiar gleam in Roxas' eye when he began to sleep more than he was awake. A preoccupied look, a sense of being present but mentally being elsewhere, talk of coconuts and beaches and other things that Roxas had never experienced but suddenly knew about.

     It was Axel who watched Roxas walk away, choosing to be a shadow of his Other over his own person, and Axel knew the crushing loss he felt was entirely his own.

     Perhaps it was strong enough that even Lea had felt it.

---

Axel could only travel properly by night. Fortunately, with the other towns and cities the Organization had claimed, he had a lot more room to roam even during daylight hours.

     It would have been easiest to just travel through the shadows directly to Twilight Town. That was surely what Xemnas expected him to do. Well, screw it. He'd walk the whole damn way, give Roxas time to think things through, if he was still even alive. If he wasn't, Axel would find his Other and force him to use the keyblade until Roxas was able to come back.

     No matter what, he was taking Roxas back alive, Xemnas' orders be damned.

     Port Royal. The City of Bells. Traverse Town. Darkness had swallowed their skies, and Axel passed through them with ease, not a human in sight. It was the smaller villages that were the problem. The sky was bright and humans roamed, so Axel hid until night came. It was slow-going, days blurring together into weeks, the old restless monotony settling into Axel once more.

     The monotony was broken after Axel had lost track of the days. The sign of the city read Radiant Garden, a place he had never been before, and yet...

     Axel stood before the sign, fingers running over the engraved letters.

     When he closed his eyes, he could see the streets of Radiant Garden as though he had walked them before. The buildings were as familiar as the layout of the Organization's headquarters. Sweet shops and ice cream stands, toys and accessories and cafés, endless houses surrounding a majestic old castle.

     Axel opened his eyes, pulse pounding in his ears. He could feel a pull. A compulsion to enter the town. There was someone walking the streets despite the Dusks, someone he had never met but knew.

     His gloved fingers twitched in the empty air, his chakrams only a thought away from reality.

     So this was how Saïx and Roxas had felt. Being so close to their Other that they could sense their presence. It almost hurt, that physical pull towards them.

     Axel was striding past the sign before he even realized he'd decided to enter the city.

     Did they share the same features?

     Their eyes, their hair, were they the same colours?

     Was Lea as tall as Axel? Slimmer or brawnier? Exactly the same?

     What about manner of dress? Beneath his black leather coat, would Axel's clothes match the style of Lea's?

     Just how alike were they really?

     He had to know.

     The Dusks watched Axel pass, their heads following after him. Some trailed behind, instinctively falling in line with the more powerful creature, gliding through the shadows.

     They fell back when there was a burst of light. Sudden, bright, inexplicable. The sky was still completely black yet that light was as bright as day.

     Axel staggered back, arm raised to shield his eyes. Terror took him for a moment, a certainty that he was gone, erased by the daylight. But then the terror passed and he was still standing in the street, flinching behind his arm.

     'You okay there, man?!'

     Axel's chest heaved, panic stealing his breath. He heard the footsteps approaching him but couldn't force his body to move. He couldn't blink away the cigarette burns, couldn't see the person's face through the haze.

     But he knew them.

     He was them.

     'Had me spooked there!' A hand clapped against Axel's shoulder, the voice energetic. 'They were right on your tail, didn't you notice?'

     Gradually, Axel's body untensed. His arm finally lowered from his face. His breathing evened out. It was still hard to make out the other person, the light strong behind him, but the fuzziness was fading from Axel's vision.

     Red hair. Green eyes. Same height and build. A mirror image.

     Axel's heart sank.

     Then his temper flared.

     The chakrams appeared in his hands from a burst of red light, not quite flames, but flickering all the same. He gripped them tight, the scarred skin of his fingers stretched taut.

     Lea was quick to pull his own weapon, unclasped from a holster across his back. It... looked like Roxas'. Not the details, obviously, but the basic shape. A keyblade made of wood.

     'Are there more?' Lea looked around them wildly, but they were safe in the circle of light shining across the courtyard. 'No end to the bastards, is there?'

     Axel's stance dropped, though he kept his chakrams with him. He stared at the keyblade, glad that his hood was hiding his expression. He wasn't sure what face he was making right then.

     'You have a keyblade,' Axel said quietly.

     Lea looked down at his weapon with an almost smug grin.   'Ah, this thing? Nope, this is just a practice one. They say I'll be getting a real one soon, though. The Dusks won't stand a chance once I do. This is my training.'

     He nodded over his shoulder towards the source of the light. Now that Axel wasn't completely blinded by it, he could see it was some sort of massive lamp. The kind theatres used, but bigger. It lit up the entire courtyard, insufferably bright.

     'What's it for?' Axel asked, though he already knew the answer.

     'To keep the Dusks at bay, of course!' Lea said, eyeing him like he had said something particularly stupid. 'When everything went to shit, we had to figure out a way to live our lives. Couldn't just hide in our houses forever, y'know. Us trainees man the lights. Pretty important job -- ow! What was that for?!'

     Axel slapped his hand against Lea's face, palm against nose. It wasn't exactly hard, though it wasn't gentle either. Lea seemed more surprised than anything. He ducked away from Axel's hand, a sullen twist to his mouth.

     Lea felt very real. Not that Axel had expected otherwise, but still... He was definitely a real, physical thing. And so was Axel. Axel, who was standing in a sphere of light and not being erased, not even in pain. Axel was there, just as much as Lea was.

     And Axel was significantly less obnoxious. Maybe even a little taller.

     'You wanna go?' Lea demanded, annoyed. He held his keyblade in front of him defensively.

     'Do I wanna...?' A smirk pulled at Axel's lips. His wrist twisted, one of the chakrams swaying slowly at his side. 'You really got time to be playing around when you're on duty, trainee?'

     'I'm not playing!'

     Lea pounced. The air whooshed by Axel's ears as he ducked and side-stepped, catching Lea in the stomach with his arm instead of the chakram. Lea staggered back, winded, but was quick to charge at him again.

     His movement were... clumsy. Not necessarily wrong, but unpracticed. He knew the method behind fighting, but clearly hadn't put it into practice often.

     So there was at least one thing Axel was better at than him.

     Axel ended the fight quick, more for his own gratification than to put Lea out of his misery. A boot to the stomach and a knee to the shoulder had Lea floored, pinned beneath Axel, his keyblade skittering across the ground.

     'Ugh, I give. I give.'

     Axel stared at Lea's throat, chakram heavy in his hand. Would he disappear if Lea did? Could a shadow exist without its light? There was only one way to find out, and at this point, Axel didn't really have anything to lose. Had he ever?

     'Man, you are rough, I didn't stand a chance. And the Dusks aren't gonna hold their blows like that, haha. Those things are cool, though,' Lea chattered away with a grin, admiring the weapon that could easily end his life, 'Not better than a real keyblade, but they look pretty good.'

     For a minute, Axel didn't move, barely even breathed. Then he sighed. His chakrams disappeared with a snap of his wrists.

     'How are you not dead already? Good lord.' Axel knocked his knuckles against Lea's forehead, getting an indignant splutter in response. 'You're damn right the Dusks won't hold their blows. A piddly little key won't do you any good if you don't sort out your footwork.'

     Axel got to his feet, looking down at Lea. A pause, then he held out his hand for Lea to take.

     'You already kicked my ass, man, you don't have to keep going,' Lea laughed, 'Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating a little about getting a keyblade soon. I only got chosen a few weeks ago.'

     'Well, that doesn't sound nearly as impressive, does it?'

     'Just you wait. I'll blow you away next time.'

     Axel's smirk drooped a little.

     'Next time, eh?'

     'You've gotta give me a rematch. You can't just kick someone's ass like that then never give them a chance at redeeming themselves. That'd be too cruel.'

     'Maybe your ego needs a little cruelty.'

     Lea only laughed. Clearly he wasn't the sort to hold a grudge. Axel had never considered himself to be that way either, so maybe it wasn't a bad trait to have gotten from Lea.

     'We'll see. I better get moving --'

     'Wait! Before you go.' Axel jolted as Lea threw his arm around his shoulders. A mobile phone was extended in front of them, the front camera on. Lea's grin and Axel's bemusement was captured with a white flash. 'I always take a picture with new people I meet. Say, what's your...'

     Lea trailed off as he looked at the photo. He looked between the screen and Axel, confusion and maybe even a little fear in his eyes.

     'Goodbye, Lea.'

     Axel tugged his hood more securely to cover his face, a face almost identical to Lea's, and strode out of the dome of light.

     His heart felt lighter than it had in a long time.

     He wanted to see Roxas.

     Axel stepped into the nearest shadow, ready to find the window into Twilight Town.

---

Sora felt the arrival first. His hand stilled, fork hovering over his plate, eyes out of focus as they seemed to search far beyond the kitchen. It wasn't the presence of a Dusk, none could enter Twilight Town anymore, but whatever it was, it had the same sort of feeling to it.

     Roxas watched him, shovelling more rice into his mouth. It was his second helping and he was starting to feel full. Fit to burst. It was a sensation he just couldn't get used to, a hunger fulfilled.

     'What's up?'

     Sora blinked, focus back in the room. He put his fork down, dinner forgotten.

     'Someone's here,' Sora said, not a shade of his usual good humour to be found, 'One of them.'

     Roxas looked down, then nodded.

     'I'm surprised it took them this long.'

     No more needed to be said. They had already discussed the eventuality in more depth than was really necessary considering their very simple conclusion; get them before they get us.

     Sora led the way, a walk itching to become a run. Down Market Street, cutting through the Back Alley, coming out into the Sandlot. It was empty for once, the hour late despite the lingering sunlight. Night never truly came in Twilight Town. But the shadows were long, the buildings tall enough to cast them, and a figure cloaked in black waited for them there.

     'You can still walk away,' Sora called out to them from the Struggle podium, Oathkeeper appearing in his hand, its keychain clinking.

     The person held up their hands in front of them, no weapon to be seen. Roxas put out his arm across Sora even before they spoke, recognizing those threadbare gloves.

     He'd given them to Axel himself.

     'Yep, could hop, skip and jump away too, if I felt like it.' Axel pushed down his hood, wincing at the brightness of the Sandlot, even from the safety of the shadowed edges. 'Relax. I come in peace.'

     'Somehow I doubt that.'

     Sora wouldn't be placated so easily, though he did glance over his shoulder at Roxas, who he thought was unduly calm about the whole thing. That, and the arm stopping him from approaching the enemy. Sora may not have been great at reading atmospheres all the time, but he was getting a pretty good feel for this one.

     'Hi, Axel,' Roxas said with a small smile, 'They didn't kill me.'

     'So I see. You getting a tan? Looking a little bronzer than I remember.'

     'You think?' Roxas held up one of his arms to assess. 'We went to the beach last week. There's one just a few train stops away. I didn't know about sunscreen so I got all burnt. You know you go all red and sore?'

     'See, the sun's not so good for you after all.'

     'It has its pros and its cons.'

     Axel finally cracked a smile, though Roxas could see the trepidation behind it. Though he tried to look only at Roxas, his eyes couldn't help wandering to Sora's keyblade.

     'Did you come to kill me, Axel?' Roxas asked. Sora tensed against his arm, as ready for a fight as he had ever seen him. Roxas pushed him back a little, a gesture to Axel rather than a deterrent for Sora.

     'If the boss asks, yeah. Just between you and me -- and him, I guess. Hello -- I'm here to talk. Just talk. Can we?' Axel was all hesitation and discomfort. It was making Roxas uncomfortable seeing him that way.

     'Rox --'

     Sora shook his head, but Roxas' hand against his was firm, pushing Oathkeeper down until the tip touched the floor.

     'He's not gonna hurt me.'

     'You can't know that.'

     'Yes, I can.'

     They stared at each other, waiting for the other to blink. It wasn't often that it was Sora who gave in first, and the fact that Roxas refused to budge was sign enough that Sora needed to give him some leeway. There was only suspicion when he looked over at Axel, though.

     'Alright. Five minutes --'

     'No time limits, c'mon.'

     'Fine! Just... I'll wait around the corner. Shout me when you're done talking. Or he attacks you. Whichever happens first.'

     As Sora walked away, he pointed to his eyes then at Axel. It may have been more threatening if it hadn't been something a pre-teen would do. Even so, Axel held up his hands, all innocence.

     'So probability that I'm gonna get my skull cracked by that keyblade of his?'

     Roxas hopped down from the podium, entering the shadow of the building with no reservations at all. Though he was human now and at just as much risk from the shadows, he didn't fear them, or Axel, not in the least.

     'One in ten. The other nine are him trying to do a cool throwing move, missing completely, then playing it off as it being intentional. He really can't get the hang of throwing attacks. You could probably teach him a thing or two.'

     Roxas leaned against the building wall, legs stretched out in front of him. Without looking at Axel, he reached out to entwine their fingers. There was a slight pause, probably surprise, before Axel's fingers curled around his.

     'It's all in the hips.'

     Roxas smiled, thumb rubbing over Axel's.

     'So are you really not here to kill me? You can tell the truth now. Promise I won't crack your skull with my keyblade.'

     'Contrary to Xemnas' orders, nope, not got any plans to kill you. I hate to disappoint and all --'

     'Really threw my plans for the day out of whack, to be honest.'

     'Very rude of me. Can't apologize enough.'

     'I'll forgive you. This time, anyway.' Roxas rested his head against the bricks, looking up to scrutinize Axel's expression. Despite his joking tone, his features were stiff, his hand squeezing tight. 'So you're really here to talk. Good. I've missed you.'

     'Yeah?' Axel ducked his head. He wasn't blushing, he wasn't the blushing sort, but it was clear to see he was flustered. 'Well, er, I missed you too. Obviously.'

     'You can be mad at me too, if you want. I'd understand if you were.'

     With his free hand, Axel rubbed tiredly at his eyes.

     'Maybe I am, at least a little. But I kind of understand now. Why you left, I mean. Why you didn't tell me what was going on.'

     'I didn't understand myself what was going on, so explaining it wasn't something I considered. I wanted to tell you a lot of stuff. About here, mostly. I love this town. They have a tram and a train and this big tournament every few months. There was lots of stuff I wanted to tell you about it.'

     'We'll talk about it. You can tell me everything.' Axel exhaled heavily, head knocking against the wall as he slouched. 'I met my Other. His name's Lea.'

     Roxas squeezed Axel's hand a little tighter.

     'When I first started seeing Sora, it called everything I thought I knew about myself into question. Are you okay?'

     To Roxas' surprise, Axel laughed.

     'I am... better than I think I've ever been. You know he was wearing this piss yellow scarf? I'd never wear something that ugly.'

     'It'd clash with your hair,' Roxas said.

     'Clashed with his fucking hair.' Axel's laugh was louder now, more self-assured. 'I'm definitely taller than him. And a better fighter.'

     'It took me a week to figure out that Sora has three of the exact same jumpsuits that he wears all the time. Jumpsuits. So many zips, too.'

     'We're definitely our own people in terms of fashion, if nothing else.'

     'Comforting, isn't it?' Roxas tugged on Axel's hands, pulling him to sit down on the floor with him. 'So we have movie nights, and game nights, stuff like that. I'm not even trying, and I just keep loving the stuff Sora isn't keen on, or hating his favourites. Not even intentionally! He loves horror films. Thinks they're amazing. And you know I can't stand them. And he's the same with games. Anything creepy, stuff with guns, all that. He loves them, I can't see the appeal at all.'

     'You'd think we'd be more like them,' Axel said pensively, 'If we're just... an echo of who they are, you'd think we'd just have a diluted version of their personalities...'

     'But we don't, Axel.' Roxas' eyes were bright, as eager as Axel had ever seen him. 'We're not them. We thought we were, and even they thought we would be too, but that's just not how it works at all. Sora doesn't bite his nails, never has.'

     'I wonder if Lea hates crowded places. Or the ways onions crunch.'

     Roxas leaned forward to meet Axel's eyes, his other hand coming up to cup the back of his neck.

     'That's what I'm saying. It doesn't matter. You hate crowded places. You won't eat anything that has onions in. You like horror movies and those really stupid comedies and you love to swim but you hate getting water up your nose, and those are all you. Lea doesn't matter. All those qualities are yours.'

     Axel shifted closer, touching his forehead to Roxas'. His head hurt. It was all too much all at once. He'd accepted who he was, as illusory and unneeded as an existence could be, and even though it was a cruel truth, at least it was a truth. It had been harder when there had been no answers for him at all. So though the truth had been hateful, Axel had accepted it, internalized it, and believed in it.

     But now the truth he had lived by was wrong.

     Axel wasn't some unfeeling creature, a mere consequence to somebody else's actions. Maybe he should never have come into existence, but the fact remained that he had, and had developed a personality entirely of his own. He shared a face with Lea, and perhaps some characteristics were the same, but no more so than any two people in proximity with one another.

     Axel was, for all intents and purposes, a real human being. That was awfully difficult to reconcile with the life he had been living until that moment.

     'It doesn't feel real.'

     'I know.'

     'Everything's changed, but -- but nothing has either? What happens now? I don't want to go back. I want to stay with you.'

     'You can. You will. It's okay.'

     Axel didn't realize he had begun to cry until Roxas wiped the tears from his face. He cringed, embarrassed, and hid his face against Roxas' neck. Roxas wrapped his arms around his shoulders, nose pressed into his hair.

     Neither of them said any more. They stayed huddled together in the shade of the Sandlot, not pulling apart even when Axel had calmed himself down. It hadn't even been a month that they had been apart, but it had felt like so much longer, for both of them. There were still questions to be asked, a decision to be made, but they lingered in one another's silence for a while. They hadn't been at peace together for a long time.

     'Can you do it for him?'

     By the time they asked Sora that question, Axel and Roxas were completely composed, their hands still joined in the shadow of the building.

     Sora summoned Oathkeeper, his earlier hostility easing.

     'I can, but it can't be undone. You have to be sure.'

     Axel looked to Roxas and imagined what it would be like to feel the warmth of his hand. There was no doubt in his heart.

     'I'm sure.'

     His scream cut through the tranquil quiet of the Sandlot, the darkness cleaved from him with Oathkeeper's power. It rose into the air, fading into nothing in the light of the sun. When Axel found his feet again, fingers still linked with Roxas', he stepped out into the perpetual sunset, feeling the sun's warmth for the first time.

---

One Month Later

It was a steep climb, more stairs than there had any right to be and no thought given to the possibility of installing a lift, but Roxas took the steps two at a time, plastic bag knocking into his side. He was barely out of breath when he reached the top, and in record time too.

     'Hey, man!' Hayner hopped up from the ledge to greet him with a one armed hug and a grin. 'How goes the world saving?'

     'Win me a bet, Roxas,' Pence called, waving a newspaper over his shoulder, 'You were definitely involved with this, right?'

     'No one's arguing that, Pence,' Olette objected. She patted the empty space on the ledge beside her and Roxas sat down. Twilight Town stretched out below them, the view from the Clocktower unbeatable.

     'How much did you bet?' Roxas asked. His eyes followed the train leaving the town, calculating the time before it would return. Half an hour, give or take. Not long now. 'Let me see.'

     Pence passed the newspaper down the line. It was front page news, unsurprisingly. Are The Beasts Gone For Good? A blurry picture of a group fighting Dusks took up most of the page. Leon hadn't succeeded in stopping them printing the picture, then. Not that it mattered. No one could be identified from it, the picture so dark and grainy, unless you knew who to look for.

     Sora and Roxas were the easiest to make out, their keyblades the photographer's focus. Riku had moved out of the forefront when he had noticed the photographer hanging out their window, so he was just a streak of silver in the background. Everyone else was facing the other way, so even Roxas struggled to pick out who was who.

     'Yep, that's us. Not a picture I'd bother framing, though.'

     'Knew it!' Pence exclaimed happily.

     'Who were you even betting against?' Olette asked, 'Neither of us disagreed that it was them.'

     'Fuu and Rai. They said Roxas was, and I quote here, 'too much of a lamer' to fight Dusks.'

     Hayner met Roxas' eyes, pulling a face.

     'Try not to take that too much to heart, Roxas, as devastating a blow to your self-esteem as it must be.'

     'Such harsh words. I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight.'

     'Make sure your eyes aren't too red when you go out tomorrow. Don't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they upset you,' Olette interjected. They all laughed, Roxas shaking his head. He'd certainly been called worse in his time.

     It wasn't long before the trio had caught Roxas up on everything he had missed in his weeks away. The next Struggle tournament date had been announced, there was going to be a festival the following month to celebrate the first day of Autumn, all three had started doing odd jobs here and there to earn a bit of money. They were surprised when Roxas could guess exactly what part time jobs they were doing without being told. He still had the Market Street bulletin board memorized.

     As for Roxas, he filled them in on the work he had been doing as he travelled around the neighbouring cities, as far as Radiant Garden. Returning the skies to their natural state was his primary job, disposing of Dusks on the side. All the major cities had been returned to normal now, and the night lamp method that Radiant Garden had been utilizing was not being introduced in most places, to make the nights safer.

     It had been an exhausting few weeks, but fulfilling too. He had righted the wrongs he had done while with the Organization, or at least made a start to. The group had begun to trust him, and Axel too, and imminent death wasn't as great a concern as it had been before. Even the Organization had fallen quiet, crippled by the loss of two of their members to the opposition, particularly their keyblade wielder.

     'Sounds exhausting, but nothing compared to my mail run,' Hayner said when Roxas had finished talking, 'Gotta go up and down that bloody hill all day. I'll have thighs like Hulk before we know it.'

     'It sounds fun, though. I might get a part time job too.' Roxas looked thoughtful. 'Maybe the ice cream place could use an extra pair of hands.'

     'Go for it. No harm in asking,' Hayner agreed, reaching around Olette to clap Roxas on the shoulder.

     'Yeah, it's always nice to have a little extra money,' Olette added.

     Roxas watched the railway platform, still empty for now, and found himself smiling. It was something to consider. A very human thing for him to do, and maybe he'd even get a discount on ice cream in future.

     Roxas' eyes widened a little. Speaking of which...

     'Here, I grabbed these on the way up.'

     From his now rather damp plastic bag, Roxas pulled out three sticks of sea salt ice cream and passed them out to the others. They took them with thanks, wasting no time in unwrapping them and digging in. They were more than a little melted, the day particularly humid, but there were no complaints.

     'Aren't you having one, Rox?' Pence asked, wiping a drip from his chin.

     Roxas watched the train coming slowly down the winding track, still a bit away from the station.

     'Not yet.'

     Hayner, Pence and Olette went home a short while later with the promise of meeting at the Usual Spot tomorrow afternoon. The wait felt more annoying now that he was alone, no idle chatter to distract from his excitement. He was very aware of the ice creams melting in the bag, that it had been over three weeks since he seen Axel last, that too much could have changed while Axel was spending time with Lea.

     By the time Axel reached the top of the Clocktower, Roxas was pacing anxiously, damn near glaring at the stationary train down below.

     'Someone's antsy.'

     Roxas stilled, glancing over to the steps.

     'What the fuck happened to your face?'

     'Charming. Hello to you, too. I'm fine thanks. Missed you. Et cetera, et cetera.'

     Etched below each of Axel's eyes was an upside down teardrop shape, a vivid purple in colour. The skin around the marks was red and shiny, the edges somewhat raised. The tattoos were fresh, perhaps only days old.

     Otherwise, Axel didn't look any different. He was wearing his hair in a ponytail, and his clothes were new but similar to the style he always wore, sans their old black leather coats.

     But face tattoos.

     'Ow, don't -- still a bit tender, Rox.'

     Roxas gently traced the surrounding skin, hesitant, barely touching.

     'Did it hurt?' he asked, fascinated. It was such a bright purple, too.

     'Not more than Oathkeeper did.'

     'No one'll mix up you and Lea anymore.'

     'I'm not even joking, when he saw them, he started talking about getting matching ones. I coulda hit him, I swear to god.'

     Roxas laughed, fingers stroking down the side of Axel's face. Axel's hand came up to cover Roxas', the two of them just standing there for a long moment. Axel broke the silence first, turning his face to kiss Roxas' palm, and saying, 'Saw the paper. You've been busy.'

     Roxas led Axel to the edge, the two of them crouching down to sit on the ledge. From the bag, he pulled out the last two sea salt ice creams, wet to the touch.

     'We've managed to clear the darkness from the skies the Organization targeted, and without me or someone else like me, they shouldn't be able to do the same thing again. They still have control over the Dusks, so night is as dangerous as it ever was, but with more people being chosen to wield keyblades, the threat gets smaller by the day.'

     'Yeah, Lea was saying that they're implementing the night lamps on a big scale.'

     'Wards off the Dusks and creates jobs. Win, win.'

     The two of them ate their ice creams, mindful of the way they were dripping. Their sleeves were the closest things to tissues they had, so before long, their fingers were sticky and their cuffs stained with blue splotches.

     'I hear Sora is taking off soon,' Axel said, scrutinizing Roxas' reaction.

     'Yeah.' Roxas' smiled was a little sad. 'He likes to travel all over the place, and he hasn't been back to the Island for a while. Twilight Town was meant to be his vacation, after all.'

     'Oh yeah, it's been nothing but relaxation for the guy,' Axel sniggered.

     'They're letting me keep the house,' Roxas said, 'They'll send me off on jobs as and when I'm needed, but otherwise, they said I can stay here, if I want. They'll even put the house in my name officially. Can you believe that?'

     Axel bumped his shoulder against Roxas'.

     'All it needs is a white picket fence.'

     'And you.'

     A pause, then that bark of laughter. It had been a while since Roxas had managed to make Axel laugh just from surprise. It felt like old times, but better.

     'Why, Roxas, are you asking me to move in with you?'

     'We shared a bedroom for ages. Is this not the same thing?'

     Axel took a bite of what little remained of his ice cream, looking down at the town beneath them.

     'Feels different now, though. More real.'

     Roxas ducked down, making Axel meet his eyes.

     'Good real, though, right?'

     'Yeah, Rox.' Axel leaned over to touch his forehead to Roxas'. 'Good real.'

     As simple as that, the decision was made. Then they began to talk about other decisions. A big TV was a must. Clearing out the garden of any furniture so they could have a training area. Having separate bedrooms, at least at first, so they could have a space to call their own, but alternating between them to share a bed.

     'Definitely a dog, but we should probably start off smaller, first. Like, a budgie or a fish,' Axel said, the bare ice cream stick pinched between his teeth.

     'Or a pet rock,' Roxas said, face completely straight, 'Low maintenance, probably won't die, we won't have to clean up after it. There are no downsides.'

     'Probably won't die? What the fuck're you planning to do to the rock?'

     'Rocks aren't immortal, Axel, we need to face that truth before we commit to owning one.'

     'True, true,' Axel said soberly, 'There's always erosion to worry about... Hey, what's that?'

     Roxas blinked, unsure what Axel was referring to. When Axel nodded at him, he looked down and saw what he meant. Printed upon Roxas' finished ice cream stick was the word WINNER in big black letters.

     'Hey, I won.'

     Roxas grinned, holding up the stick in front of him.

     'Yeah? What'd you win? Money, a honeymoon, a car?'

     'Another ice cream.'

     Axel only laughed, 'You'll lose all your teeth at this rate.'

     It was evening before they finally left the Clocktower, taking the long way back to the house. Their house. Roxas held on to the stick. Winner, it said, and he truly felt that he had won. To be human. To be with Axel. To have friends and a home and a life all of his own.

     Roxas slipped the WINNER stick into the pocket of Axel's pants, unable to keep the smile from his face.

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