Precipitation
A/N: I'm sick, and I want to make a one-shot for my AkuRiku club on deviantart.
http : / / akuxriku . deviantart . com /
Take out the spaces (9) and please join.
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"Axel, take the fucking trash out." An indecent groan came out of his new roommate. He was forced to grimace. It made him miss his old one.
Demyx, that lucky bastard.
"I took it out last time, Xig, take out your own fucking trash." He called in a scratchy voice. He's been sick for the better part of the week. It was calming down a bit, though he's still sick. The rain outside isn't going to help any. Sometimes he wished that Xigbar would get a fucking girlfriend and learn how to be clean.
Regardless of these facts, he inattentively took the trash up after a long moment of silence, and left the white room with a soft smack of the door.
--
Of course, he expected it to be raining. Of course, he expected the clouds to leave a dark, foggy shadow along the tall buildings that were fabricated by his superior. But he didn't expect the dumpster to suddenly disappear.
"Fuck!" he yelled to no one in particular, sending 'the finger' up to the sky, hoping to point it to whatever room he and Xigbar shared. He sniffled and pulled his hood over his head, making his way back from behind the castle.
But as soon as he reached the door, he found that he didn't particularly want to return to the ever-so-blank room-with-Xigbar provided by the organization, and went a one-eighty, walking off instead. Surely, he could get even sicker so that the superior would have to turn him into a Dusk for being useless. He snorted and coughed before stomping off nonchalantly.
It wasn't until he'd reached memory skyscraper did he finally regret what he had done.
He took a seat under the shade of the building, avoiding the rain as he hacked out the gunk that had somehow generated itself in his throat. If there was even one doubt in his mind, it had to happen.
Figuring he was too sick to walk back in the rain, he sat there until it calmed, trying to stop his nose from pouring out a waterfall of snot. But after what seemed to be the fiftieth sniff, something white and grainy took its place in front of his blood-shot vision.
It was a handkerchief?
He backed up a bit and craned his head to look up at the visitor, staring blankly into the hooded figure, trying to find out who it was. "Uh, thanks?" He said, still carefully watching the man as he acquired the handkerchief and brought it to his nose. The figure silently nodded and walked off, leaving as Axel blew hard into the cloth, the waterfall of snot leaving him with relief.
But he hadn't time to thank the man again, for he was suddenly gone.
--
When most of the rain had subsided, he kicked the large bag of trash over the edge of the castle, laughing whole-heartedly at the fact that the heartless have new food to eat, since they obviously won't be receiving many hearts there.
He wanted to laugh when Xigbar wasn't in his room when he had returned.
Frowning instead, he walked into their stink, shared bathroom and took out the handkerchief. He shook a bit of the overwhelming snot into the sink and ran the water warm. At the same time, though, he had to breathe through his mouth. Not just because his nose was clogged, however, but because the bathroom stenched of something of the unknown. He mentally noted scolding Xigbar about personal hygiene.
Carefully, he fingered soap through the soft fabric, covering it in a coat of soap before rinsing it thoroughly. When proud of himself, Axel hung it on the towel holder, having to (somehow) use his feet to throw off the dirty towels before doing so. He wanted to be extra careful with the cloth, he wanted to return it with a thank you. After all, who knows when the boy might show up?
But Axel found himself also mystified by one other thing…
…who was that boy?
Surely, he wasn't from the organization. Sometimes, nobodies can sense other nobodies and heartless, both give out some sort of aura. But this boy gave out both, which meant he was neither, but both. He was whole, he wasn't from the organization.
But he did let his mind wander about the fact he had a black cloak. Did the organization have posers already?
He laughed and dismissed that weakly before hacking a little more and walking outside the disgusting bathroom.
He kept his vision straight towards the kitchen, heading there for some medication for the cold. It wasn't until he heard a crack of an old soda can did he turn to see a cloaked figure.
He opened his mouth to yell the other out about personal hygiene, but he stopped himself when he noticed that the figure couldn't have been Xigbar… too short.
Not Roxas either, too tall.
"You!" he immediately said, stumbling over trash towards the other. The child only glared, giving Axel a first time encounter of those determined turquoise eyes before he jumped down into the deep abyss, disappearing like the first time.
Axel slouched over the window sill, yelling, "Wait, I just want to say…" but the boy was gone, vanished in thin air.
"Axel?" The red-haired Nobody made a one-eighty into a broad grin on his dear roommate's face.
But as soon as he saw it, he knew the rumor about him yelling 'wait' to an imaginary unicorn was going to spread about the organization.
--
Surely, such occurrences did happen. He frowned at Demyx, who was trying to coax him.
"Axel, we all go crazy sometimes, you don't need to lie." He gave him a weak, (fakely) sympathetic smile.
"You're all stupid and don't listen to me, how many times do I have to tell you that it wasn't a unicorn?!" Roxas shifted on the dirty cushion and sighed. He was the only one in the room who actually thought Axel was sane.
"It wasn't? Then what was your imaginary friend?" Axel's eye twitched while Demyx' turned into magnificent starts of curiosity.
"IT WASN'T AN IMAGINARY FRIEND!!" Axel yelled out, making everyone in the room but Roxas jump up. He coughed a bit because of the over-use of voice.
Roxas shook his head disappointedly. "I'll take care of Mr. Crazy, guys, can you all get out for a second?" Everyone immediately stood and went out silently, well aware of what happened last time they ignored Roxas' orders.
When the door shut closed, Axel smiled at his best friend, "Thanks." He said simply, he watched as Roxas made his way towards the seat next to him, now unoccupied as Demyx had left.
"Don't mention it." The blonde laughed, "anyway, do you mind telling me what's really going on?"
Axel knew this was coming, and he opened his mouth, but shook his head in a no quickly.
Roxas closed his eyes in a mother-like way and stood up, "Well, you can't clear your name of this embarrassment if you don't have an actual reason why you yelled wait 'down to an imaginary unicorn.'" Axel didn't know if he should cry or laugh. He took the latter, though.
"But you believe me, right?" He was glad when he got a smile back.
"Of course, why wouldn't I? In fact, you're probably saner than anyone else here. You don't have a reason to own an imaginary unicorn." He laughed at the horned-horse part before moving over to the simple gamestation at the corner of the room. "Let's play Monkey Ball."
"If you're okay with catching the cold because of me, then so be it." Axel chuckled as he took a seat next to Roxas and turned to the screen, "And as long as you can accept getting your ass whooped."
"Pu-lease, Axel, no way you're beating me this time." The red-head laughed. Roxas had always been so determined.
And even with the mysterious black-cloaked figure in his mind, Axel won fourty-four out of fifty games.
--
When Axel's cold had subdued for good, he took a nice, long, refreshing walk around TWTNW.
That was just what he called it, because he was too lazy to say the entire name. (Not really, I'm just too lazy to type the entire name –shot-)
But besides his lack of mental-presence, he found himself lost. How he got lost within' five minutes of a walk will forever be lost to him.
Of course, he had his dark-portal, but he saved that for when he was actually done walking. So despite his lack of idea to where the hell he was, he walked on.
He kept the handkerchief stashed safely in the pocket of his cloak, just like he always had, hoping to see that boy one more time.
And he didn't even fail to admit it to Roxas that he was looking for someone when he told him that he was going for a walk. The whole organization had finally forgot about the unicorn incident, and if he told anyone else why he was going for a walk, the stupid rumor would probably just return, tenfold.
When he had passed what looked like the same building for the twentieth time, he sat against the cold wall of the alley, letting the rain fall on him. Surely, he was going to get sick again. He and water never really mixed, so he and rain water were mortal enemies in TWTNW. But the water always won because it would make Axel sick.
The red-head wanted to laugh again, for no reason.
"Hey." A voice muttered, Axel snapped up at the other.
"Hey…?" He asked, examining the silver hair that was spilling from the man's hood. It looked as slick as silk, yet as rough as steel. Axel finally let out a laugh. He never uses similes.
"You're going to get sick again." He hovered over him with an intense frown, one that reminded him of a dog.
"I'm well aware of that, sir." That was when it hit him… this was the kid who gave him the handkerchief. But as he realized this, the man was leaving, just like the last two times. But this time, he had learned his lesson, "Wait!" He cried this out and grabbed the younger's shoulder before the kid could disappear into a dark portal.
The mix of purple and black faded into smoke as the boy turned around, "yes?"
Axel carefully took the edges of the hood and pulled them down, coaxing the new-found silver hair with his gloved hand. "You're him." He said, smiling, "Riku, right?"
It took a moment for Riku to adjust to the fact that the man had known his name, "Yeah, I am, how did you know?"
"Castle Oblivion." He said simply, "But it's the first time I've seen the real one." The silver-haired teen didn't even try to understand, only glaring up with his turquoise eyes.
"Look, I have to go." He said, rather quickly, jerking away from Axel's grasp.
But Axel was too frozen by the graceful way the boy moved to stop him. He disappeared for the third time.
Then he had remembered that he forgot to return the handkerchief again.
--
"Did you meet someone special?" Axel snapped back to reality, to where Roxas threw down a card into the pile, "You've looked lovestruck all week." The red-head scoffed about his best friend reading him so easily.
"And you mean by this…?" He asked, pulling a card out of the deck and slipping it into his hand.
"I mean," coughed the younger, pulling a card also, "did you meet someone special or something? It's easy to tell. You're not really one to love, or maybe it's just that I haven't seen you really in love. But, I digress, you just look like you found that person or something. You've been blanking on me all week with a blush." Axel felt his cheeks heat up again.
"What do I do that makes me so easy to read?"
Roxas laughed at him, "everything, Axel, everything."
Later that day, he had to go for a mission with Roxas. Another heartless killing spree. It was held in hallow bastion, though, because there were wads of heartless there. But Axel never left a moment to explore unhandled. He went inside the castle when the two were done.
Roxas had to return half-way through due to a second mission with Saix.
Axel had perched himself in the library and was reading gratefully, trying to forget what Roxas had said earlier.
But it was unforgettable, Riku was unforgettable.
"You're not really reading." Axel shot his head up to Riku. He dismissed it as a mirage and flipped the page quietly, "Is there something wrong?"
"I don't know, am I in love with you?" He told the 'mirage'. He wanted to take his words back, but then again didn't. He didn't know if this was really the boy or just something caused by the huge hit in his head earlier that day.
It was silent afterwards, though. The mirage probably disintegrated in the time he was saying that. Proud at himself for distinguishing a mirage from the real, he looked up.
But he found that he was horribly wrong.
A once pale and apathetic face was blushing a deep, dark red. He stared down with confused turquoise eyes, eyes that showed the innocence of a still child in almost every way.
"W-what?" The boy said after a long while. Axel mentally smacked himself… multiple times.
"Sorry, I'm going crazy." He said, looking back down. When he looked up, though, the boy was gone.
He felt heartbroken in rejection (in the way his mind remembered it), and almost instantly felt that he would never see the boy again. He discontinued holding the handkerchief in his pocket.
--
Roxas had disappeared.
They were in a meeting, and the superior was muttering nothings about his 'most needed member's kidnapping.
But no matter how much the others declared their sadness for the loss, he knew none of them would actually 'care' as much as he did. Roxas had made him feel worthy, like someone instead of no one. He was determined to take Roxas back into the organization, even before the superior had told him to do it.
He stuffed random supplies in his pocket, potions, ethers, and accidentally, the handkerchief.
--
Axel wanted to cry. He doesn't know how many times he's wanted to cry or laugh. He finally thought about it, and he understood now that it was just a trick of his mind. Either way, he felt like sobbing indecently at the fact that his best friend… has forgotten about him.
Everytime he sees Roxas laughing with his 'new friends', tell Hayner that he's his best friend, and enjoy his new life, he found his determination to bring Roxas back weakening. If Roxas was having such a great time, why bother trying? He gave himself a depressed sigh and walked off.
On his way back, however, he bumped into another object… or person.
"Watch it." He said coldly before looking straight at the man. He had dark-tan skin, and glared with golden eyes that seemed to pierce the center of the earth. But Axel knew.
Somehow, he knew too well.
"Riku?" he asked, making the taller man twitch at the name.
"I'm Ansem." He said in his deep voice, making the red-head get fooled for a second.
But that second lasted too short for the taller man.
Axel silently dug into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief and set it in 'Ansem's hand. Tears finally ran down the red-head's face. They may have been fake, but they were real to him. And that was all that mattered, "Thank you, Riku." He said, watching as golden eyes never left the soft cloth in his hand as he backed away into a dark portal.
He finally felt relieved of everything in his life. He was ready to go home.
--
Riku sat perched upon the Paopu Tree, attempting to listen intently on Sora and his oh-so-enormous stories about his life around the worlds. But the silver-haired boy only found himself snapping back into reality every few seconds when the name 'Axel' was mentioned.
"And so we left the fake Twilight Town and were surrounded by a horde of nobodies!" He said dramatically, raising his hand in the air, one in which was occupied by a keyblade. "Then Axel came to the rescue." Riku was zapped back again, and couldn't help but notice how depressed his best friend suddenly got at that point. "He died trying to save us. He used his entire 'being' into an attack and killed all the nobodies, but also he himself."
Riku's turquoise eyes widened in fear. He jumped off the tree and ran off, yelling back, "I'm going to go for a jog."
Feeling abandoned, Sora reached for him, but didn't run after. He felt Kairi's soft hand perch on his shoulder, the other one massaging him gently. "He'll be fine, Sora. I think that was just a shock to him."
"What was?" The brunette asked innocently, making Kairi laugh.
"Couldn't you tell? Riku's been in love."
Sora clamped his mouth shut at this and watched as Riku disappeared into the sunset.
Riku found a spot near the collection of pine trees in the back of the island. He made sure no one was around as he carefully sobbed to himself. He should have never run away, he should have never lied, he told himself. When they had met back in the library, he regretted getting selfish and afraid when Axel had confessed to him, because desperately, he wanted to confess too.
"I love you, Axel." He said to the wind.
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A/N: LOL, ANGST MUCH? AHAHAHAHA. I'll edit this and post it on both the deviantart club page and fanfiction for you convenience. I hope you liked. Please join the club!