A Nobody (or Two) with a Heart
Chapter One
DISCLAIMER: I own only my ideas.
Hmm… Well, I have recently discovered AkuRoku Day. As a tribute to one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts couples (even if it's not canon – when have I ever cared about canon? :P), I'm gonna whip up something for them.
It may have been done before, and I didn't really weed through all the not-exactly-well-written fics to find it. Sooo, don't give me any crap about "You just copied so-and-so's fic! You're just a copy-cat writer!" because I don't want to hear it.
For the slash haters, there's a back button up there. For the AkuRoku and slash lovers, enjoy!
EDIT: WHY CAN'T I WRITE A FUCKING ONESHOT! WHY DO I HAVE TO MAKE ALL MY FICS INTO CHAPTER FICS? *blows raspberry* …Not like you people want me to make just a simple oneshot, right?
(-)(-)(-)
'No one would miss me.' Axel grit his teeth as the sentence passed through his head over and over. His lackluster, quiet response incensed him even further, and being so silent about his protests was quite a feat for a pyromaniac with an equally-flame-like temper and attitude. I can't believe I just let him walk away… I may be out for myself, but Roxas… Roxas, you changed all that when you came in here like a whirlwind of light…like a Nobody with a heart… He grumbled as he practically threw himself off of his bed.
With a growl, he fondly snarled, "Where are you, you little brat…? I'm gonna drag you back here by your ears if I have to…" and opened a portal to the last place he'd seen the wayward Number XIII, the 'WINNER' stick gripped tightly in his hand.
(-)
"I'm going to set Kingdom Hearts free! Then Axel, Xion, and I can have ice-cream on the clock tower again!"
There he is! Axel smiled, feeling like his 'heart' – Hey; if Roxas can have one, I can, too, he figured – leapt into his throat. He watched carefully from the corner as the blonde thoroughly wailed on the imposter the Organization had been after. Heh, heh… That's my Roxas, he praised mentally, his smile widening into a grin before blinking as it fell from his face. …My Roxas? Since when did he become my Roxas…? A grin, more of a silly variety, curved his lips then. I don't know…but I like the sound of it.
He snapped back to attention when Roxas was suddenly flung across the ground, landing hard enough to knock him unconscious. His 'heart' leapt into his throat again, but for a much different reason. The redhead was fully prepared to jump in and save his best friend at that moment, his chakrams already in his hands, but Roxas stood again and summoned a Keyblade in his left hand, leaving the pyromaniac speechless for a moment, and took down the silver-haired teen again.
A grimace crossed his face as the blonde finally found out that he was Sora's Nobody. …I wish I could've told him… His head jerked up at the wave of darkness that nearly knocked him down. With wide eyes, he watched as his best friend – his Roxas – was beaten by the other teen after a strange transformation. …I still can tell him! Roxas matters more to me than this stupid Organization! It's all a farce, anyway! A way for Xemnas to make us think we have somewhere to belong!
A circle around Roxas lit in a pillar of fire as the Organization imposter bent to pick him up.
"You're not taking my Roxas anywhere," Axel hissed, his voice sounding much like the fire he commanded, "Got it memorized?"
"And just who are you?" a man with red bandages wrapped around his head questioned.
"Who do I look like, ya mummified freak?" the redhead retorted, widening the column of flame so that only he stood near it. He stepped inside of the flame, flinging one of his chakrams at the darkness-personified creature that tried to reach his best friend. "You're not taking him… He wants to free Kingdom Hearts and make everything right again."
"How can a Nobody have a sense of right and wrong when it has no heart?" the 'mummified freak' questioned, his head raising as though he were looking down on the tall redhead.
"Put that nose up any higher, and you'll drown when it rains," Axel stated, a grin curving his lips as he watched the man's eyes narrow. "And what makes you think a Nobody has no heart. Sora's got a strong heart…maybe it made way for one in Roxas…and he made way for one in me. Who knows? I don't, and I don't care. He's my best friend, and you're not whisking him away when I'm so close…"
"You speak nonsense, Nobody."
"I speak nonsense; you are nonsense," Number VIII retorted before his face dropped all cheeriness at being able to antagonize someone, and the fire intensified around him. "Enough!" he snarled, giving a strangled yell as he poured more of his strength into the fire and caused it to nearly explode. Picking Roxas up, and knowing that the blonde would give him a fit over the 'bridal style' pose, he disappeared into a dark portal that definitely did not lead back to the castle.
(-)
Roxas groaned as he woke, putting a hand to his head and feeling like something was hammering out a wicked drum solo on his brain.
"You're finally awake…!"
Very-blue eyes snapped open, locking with minty-green. "A-Axel…?" he questioned, taking note that the redhead's voice had an awfully-relieved note to it. "What…? I was…fighting the imposter…" He jerked into a sitting position, nearly knocking heads with the other, and growled, "You're not taking me back!"
"No, no, no! You got it all wrong, Roxas!" Axel assured quickly, waving his hands in front of his face defensively before running a hand through his spiky hair. "…You…want to set Kingdom Hearts free… For Xion, right?"
"You remember her?"
"Heh," the redhead laughed softly, "Kinda hard not to when seeing those eyes of yours. B-but, uh-"
"What…do you mean by that? And why is your face all red?" the blonde wondered, his head tilted to the side in confusion. "It…kinda looks like Bell's cheeks when the Beast told her that he cared about her and wanted to protect her… She got all embarrassed… And it was right after that when Xaldin told me about 'love'."
Axel's face became an even darker red at Roxas's next question.
"I asked you about what 'love' is, but you kept dodging my questions! I'm not letting you dodge them this time!" Roxas, even though he was sitting on the ground and just realizing that he had been using Axel's coat as a pillow, put his hands on his hips in determination to get his answers.
"Er… Well…" Axel rubbed a hand over the back of his head, letting the blood in his cheeks recede before even trying to answer that question. Besides, if I don't have a heart, how can I feel embarrassment? A small, secretive smile curved his lips. 'Cause my Roxas makes me feel like I have one.
"Axel," Roxas called in a warning tone.
"Um, well… Love is, eh… Remember me saying that it's not quite what best friends have for each other? At least, not the kind that the Beast and Bell have… For them, ah…" He paused as his face started to heat up again, getting a little laugh out of the blonde. "It's, ah… They want to always be together…ya know, do things for each other, protect each other… They want to take care of each other and make sure the other in the relationship has everything the other can give…"
"Really…?" Roxas wondered, putting a hand to his chin in thought. After a moment, he said, "Then I can say that I love you, Axel, because that's how I feel about you. I want you to be safe and cared for like that…"
Face warming again, Axel stuttered over his next words, "Ah, R-Rox… I, um…don't think you get what I'm saying… Lea, my 'Somebody'… I got a few memories of it from him, I guess… The way he looked at it was a fuzzy feeling, like 'butterflies in your stomach,' and your heart speeds up when you're around the person you 'love'…"
Roxas put a hand to his chest, feeling the 'babumpbabumpbabump'. "Yeah, I'd say mine's beating pretty quick," he mentioned. "I don't know what butterflies are, but my stomach's a little fluttery right now, if that's what you meant."
He…really does…love me? Axel questioned mentally, a sense of wonder coming over him that he'd never felt – no pun intended. "Hmm… What about when I mention Xion?"
Roxas put a hand over his chest as he thought of the girl who was as much a part of Sora as he was and felt as the beating of his heart slowed a bit. "Nope. It's a bit slower, but still quicker than usual. …The fluttery feeling's gone, too."
He really loves just me? Axel added to his previous thought. "Then… Tell me what this makes you feel like, alright?" After a nod and a curious look from the small-framed blonde, the taller male leaned forward and pressed his lips to Roxas's.
A slight shudder, more of a shiver, made its merry way down his spine, and Roxas let his eyes close to take in more of the soft touch. "So warm…and so soft… It…reminds me of a small, warm fire that you can get real close to without getting burned…"
Axel gave a little smile but asked, "And what did it make you feel? More fluttery? Warm? Your heart beating faster?"
Roxas felt a slight blush heat his cheeks as he answered, "I wasn't really focusing on it… Um, can I feel it again?" He even leaned forward slightly in anticipation, ignoring the smirk curving his best friend's lips as they pressed against his own again. "I… Not really fluttery, but more like a warm rush. And yeah, my heartbeat sped up really fast now… It… I wanted to…melt?...into it…"
"You…really do love me... How?"
Number XIII gave a little smile. "My heart beats, doesn't it?" he asked, reaching over to place a hand over Axel's chest. "So does yours. We have hearts, Axel… Anything's possible if you believe in it strongly enough. …That's what I've gleaned from Sora's memories…and there's some pretty ridiculous stuff he's believed in," he said, adding the last part with a laugh.
Axel laughed with him before tapering off into a small smile. "I'm going to kiss you again, Roxas," he warned as he leaned forward.
"What's a…kiss? And you're going to…kiss me again? When did you the first time?"
"Heh… You're still so naïve, Rox," the redhead murmured before answering with, "This is a kiss."
Roxas nearly melted into the touch again before his best friend pulled away. "…" He touched his lips lightly. "I like your…kisses… Can I kiss you?" He leaned forward and did so at Axel's nod, but he gave a soft gasp as deceptively-thin arms wrapped around him, pulling him to an equally-deceptively-thin chest. A strange sound that came from the bottom of his throat escaped him as what he was sure was Axel's tongue brushed against his own. …So hot… he thought distantly as he let the touch override everything else. "Wh-what…was that…noise?" he wondered between gasps as he had forgotten to breathe.
Axel grinned. "That, my dear Roxas, was a moan…and I really like the sound of yours… Let me hear it again," he requested, lowering his head to reach the shorter male.
Roxas was so wrapped up in the redhead's kisses that he almost forgot about his self-set mission…almost. "A-Axel…!" he gasped, pulling away to stare into mint-colored eyes. "My…my mission… Free Kingdom Hearts… Meet Sora…"
Axel sighed. Should've known… he figured, I can't make Roxas forget that easily… He kept his arms wrapped tightly around the blonde. "Roxas… Sora is… He's in a deep sleep right now… Naminé got him out of C.O. after screwing with his memories… That was when you fell into that coma, remember?"
Roxas nodded but didn't say anything, so Axel continued.
"Right now… Well… They're trying to wake him up so that he can continue fighting the Heartless threat…and the threats that we Nobodies pose, too."
"But we're not-"
"You said so yourself that you have to believe you have a heart to have one, right? Most of us believe we don't…and the ones that don't will stop at nothing to get Kingdom Hearts, which is what Sora fights to protect. …He's already sealed the Door to Darkness and many of the worlds' Keyholes, remember?"
Roxas gave Axel a bland glare as he answered, "No, I don't remember. I'm the one whose Somebody isn't either a Heartless or dead, like all of you. …Maybe that's one reason why I'm so special, too…other than being the Keyblade Master's Nobody…"
Axel smiled and kissed the golden-peach-colored nose. "You're special, Roxas…because you're my Roxas," he stated, getting a little smile before the blonde looked away.
"…I can't stay here…wherever here is. I have to free Kingdom Hearts for Xion... It was her last request, Axel. I can't ignore it." Roxas sighed and bit his lip. "Riku, the guy I was fighting before you saved me… He's Sora's best friend-"
"Ooo… Wonder who he thinks about in the shower-"
"Shut up, you pervert," the smaller male quickly interrupted, though there was an amused glint in his very-blue eyes. "He said that he couldn't let me to do anything crazy and jeopardize Sora's awakening…Sora's memories that are inside me… He couldn't let me go through the castle and try to take out Kingdom Hearts because the Organization would destroy me…
"…He only cared about Sora… Sora this, Sora that… I'm getting tired of hearing his name without having a face or a person to tie it to…" the blonde half-whispered.
Axel tightened his arms and looked up at the moon that was just beginning to rise. "…I won't let the Organization hurt you, Roxas… I care about only you. Sora can sleep and stay asleep for all I care. You're mine: my best friend, my Roxas. The only one who's gonna lay a hand on you is me," he vowed, looking back down at the shocked eyes that gazed at him. He gave a grin. "Trust me…"
"I told you… The person who gives me the answers… I'll trust that person…" Roxas smiled. "You just gave me those answers." He bit his lip, however, and added, "But if all they need to awaken Sora is his memories that are inside of me… They can have those memories… They're not mine, and I won't accept them as mine. I am me, and I want only my memories… I don't want Sora's or anyone else's. …My memories of you and Xion are too precious to have someone else's come in and screw them up."
Axel blinked in shock as, with that statement, Roxas promptly passed out.
(-)
A contented hum heralded Roxas's return to the land of consciousness that time.
"Hey, sleepyhead… How're you feeling?" Axel asked softly, reaching over to run his fingers through the blonde spikes.
The younger Nobody blinked before a smile overcame his face. "I have the memory of having Sora's memories…but I don't actually have his memories! This is awesome!"
Axel wasn't exactly unprepared for the way Roxas tackled him to the ground and proceeded to smother him with happy hugs and kisses, but he wasn't complaining. "Wait… Just because you refused to accept them as your own?" he wondered, sitting up with the small blonde in his lap. He's not really that small… He's just, what…technically fifteen? he thought to himself, almost missing his best friend' s answer.
"Yeah, I guess so… That means I'll actually be able to meet Sora!" Roxas smiled again, starting to think that he was doing that too much. "At least…I hope so. I'm not going to return to him, though. I'll never do that."
"Why not?" Axel asked, his question having a guarded tone to it that he tried to keep out of it. "Being able to rejoin with your Somebody… Isn't that where a Nobody belongs? Why wouldn't you want to go back to where you belong?"
Roxas's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his redheaded friend. "Axel… I have a new place to belong…and it's with you," he answered after a moment of trying to figure out why the pyromaniac was distant all of a sudden.
"What if you can't help going back to him?"
"I won't be going back to him. It has to be of my free will… I remember Xion mentioning something like that one night…before she disappeared completely," the blonde replied and added, "I won't be rejoining Sora. Instead… I'm going to travel with him and help him…"
"Why would you risk it, Rox?" Axel finally asked, his shoulders slumped at the thought of losing his little blonde.
"…I can't free Kingdom Hearts by myself… And Sora can't do it with only half of himself. It doesn't matter that he has all of his memories back, and that they can put him back together again… I'm still the dark side of him…the part of him that's neither afraid to do what needs to be done nor too naïve to misunderstand what needs to be done."
Axel simply listened to Roxas, surprised that a Nobody – a person with no heart – could speak from the heart so deeply. "…You really do have a heart, Roxas," he murmured against an ear, grinning a bit at the shiver that raced down his Roxas's spine.
"I told you, Axel… All you have to do is believe."
(-)
Seven days, multiple accounts of world hopping, and countless dodges of Organization XIII (and one joke on how they couldn't use that number any longer), and Roxas froze before a smile came over his face.
"What is it, Rox? We can't sit here. They'll catch up to us!" Axel stated, standing beside his best friend.
"Sora's awake."
"Can you sense him?"
"Yeah. Let's go to Twilight Town. Hurry!"
(-)
"Heh…" Roxas chuckled softly. "He must've gotten something from me if he feels a connection to those three," he added, watching as Sora, Donald, and Goofy interacted with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. "Come on, Axel," he murmured, turning to the purple train car.
"You want them to know we're helping? We're not supposed to let anyone see us or know about us, remember?" Axel asked but followed his best friend anyway.
Roxas smirked up at him. "You once told me 'Orders, shmorders.' So I say, 'Organization, shmorganization.' That's their lame rule anyway. I want as many people as we can find to remember us. That way, we'll never disappear into nothing." He took a seat at the far end of the car as the redhead continued to laugh but follow him. "And besides, I want to see Sora and Riku reunited… Riku may have royally ticked me off, but I could sense such a longing for his best friend… Sora is Riku's light."
Axel raised an eyebrow before grinning. "You're turning into a sappy teenager on me, Roxy!"
Roxas tensed up, his eyes opened wide, his eyebrows slanted downward, and his face turned red as he growled, "Don't call me that!"
Axel grinned even wider. "You know you love it, my little Roxy."
Sora and company stepped onto the train to see a blonde teen tackle a redheaded man to the ground and proceed to playfully beat the crap out of the man. "Uh, guys…? Are you sure we're on the right train?"
Roxas looked up and smirked when the train's door closed. "Too late to find out if you aren't," he stated before standing, giving a little smile to the brunette as he gazed into eyes the exact same blue as his own. "I'm Roxas… It's a pleasure to meet my Somebody, Sora," he greeted as he held his hand out.
"Good to meet you, too, Roxas…but… What's a Somebody? Am I yours?" Sora wondered, taking the hand of a complete stranger before even thinking that the teen before him could seriously do some damage if he wanted.
Donald, Goofy, and even Axel all rolled their eyes at the boy's naïvely-trusting nature.
Good thing I know my Roxas will never hurt the kid, Axel figured and motioned to a seat. "You might want to sit down. This is a long story."
"What's your name?"
"Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"
"Committed to memory and written on three sticky notes," Sora answered before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Where did that come from?" he wondered as Roxas laughed.
"What do you feel like when I'm sitting next to you, Sora? What does your heart feel like?" the blonde questioned, toning down his mirth at an answer that he always gave the redhead's trademark question.
Sora put a hand to his chest and closed his eyes for a few moments. "It feels like…like I'm next to my long-lost twin…"
Roxas smiled. "You kinda are," he replied before going into an explanation of Nobdies, Somebodies, and how the difference between them was not having a heart and the emotionless that it causes. "But Axel and I are different from 'regular' Nobodies."
"How so?"
"Sora… What happens if you really believe in something?"
"Like how I believe with all my heart that I'll find Riku?"
"Yeah."
"I'll find him."
Roxas smiled and said, "Axel and I believe with all of our being that we have hearts… We know we're different…but could you tell that we didn't have hearts when you first stepped on the train?" At the shaking heads of the small group of three, he said, "It's because we do have hearts… Our emotions are genuine because we believe."
Sora grinned at an idea but looked at Donald and Goofy, getting an immediate nod from the taller. He produced the 'puppy eyes' on Donald and received a sigh before a nod followed.
Axel and Roxas blinked at the interaction. "Mind readers…" Axel stage-whispered into Roxas's ear. "They'll eat our brains in our sleep, I betcha."
Roxas's eyes rolled skyward before coming down to glare dryly at the redhead. He obtained a cheeky grin for his efforts.
"You guys wanna come with us?" Sora asked. "We'll be a whole lot stronger with five of us instead of just three."
Axel smirked and said, "We were intending to help you anyway, whether or not you wanted us to."
"Yeah, let's do it," Roxas answered, taking his Heart Twin's hand with a grin. "But another thing… Well, we'll tell you about Organization XIII-"
"More like Organization VI-"
"-when we start traveling," Roxas continued as though Axel had never interrupted. "First, though… Wherever we're going, I hope there's a clothes shop for you, Sora."
Sora looked down at his clothes, just realizing that they were so small. "Eh heh heh… Yeah… No wonder those guys looked at me so funny."
Roxas shook his head and took his coat off, holding it up for Sora to slip into easily. "There… Now, you won't have to worry about that."
"Don't'cha wear those coats to protect yourselves from the darkness?" Goofy wondered, remembering part of the Nobody's explanation.
"Yeah…but that's only because most Nobodies don't have hearts," the blonde answered with a nod. "Besides, see these clothes I got on under it? They're made the same way. We have multiple layers of protection against the darkness so that we're not swallowed by it. And besides," he held up a finger and pointed at Sora, "I think he needs it a bit more than I do."
Laughter echoed at Roxas's statement, and he grinned at his Heart Twin.
(-)(-)(-)
End Chapter One
Did anyone read my EDIT up there? Yeah… I can't make a oneshot to save my life. Sooo… Here goes another fic, but don't expect updates to come blazing through at the speed of a bullet, alright? I'm posting this first chapter for AkuRoku Day, which is what this ONESHOT was originally intended for.
Oh well… Guess I'll have a Kingdom Hearts fic under my belt, now. I wanted to write one, anyway!
Reviews make me happy!