Treading on Holy Ground

By: Lily

Rating: PG

Summary: Roxas and Axel are sent on a mission to Notre Dame, but Axel is being rather difficult.

A/N: This is for a challenge, as many of my drabbles are, I just figured I would acknowledge it now. It is an AkuRoku claim, but this doesn't have to be taken as the pairing, but merely the two talking.

Roxas sighed and checked the map. If Vexen had told him correctly, the Heartless were lurking somewhere near the cathedral, if not in it. Roxas groaned to himself. He certainly didn't want to go inside and be expected to pray. He wanted to whip out his Keyblades, destroy the little bastards, and then go home. Axel, for whatever reason, was preventing him from doing just that. He was rooted on the spot, staring up at the stone gargoyles.

"Come on," Roxas urged him, his expression one of annoyance. "Let's get this over with and go home."

"You go ahead," Axel told him. "We don't belong in a church."

"You're kidding, right?" Roxas asked, almost hopefully. Axel glanced over at him and grinned.

"Really," he said. "They'd throw us out. We'd get nothing done. It's just not a place for us to be."

"It's not a place for the Heartless either," Roxas told him, rolling his eyes. "If the Heartless can be in there, so can."

"Maybe the Heartless went to pray," Axel suggested.

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Roxas groaned. Of course Xemnas would send him on a difficult mission with a difficult Nobody.

"Probably," Axel agreed, leaning back against a wall. His eyes fell on a female gypsy. He only watched her for a second before turning back to his partner. "But I don't want to go."

"Why the hell not?" Roxas snapped, whirling around to glare at him.

"This place was special to my Other," Axel explained. "I think. It might be why this is so weird."

"I don't care," Roxas told him immediately.

"Neither do I," Axel told him. "I just can't bring myself to go in. Sorry, Rox." Roxas groaned.

"Fine. Wait here. I'll be back." He started off, but Axel's hand shot out to grab his wrist.

"I don't think the Heartless are in there. The place is protected," Axel said. Roxas paused and looked back at him.

"You know I don't believe that," Roxas said, frowning at him and attempting to wrench his arm away.

"I don't care," Axel said, opening a portal. "Let's just go back and say we couldn't find anything."

"I'm not leaving until the job is done," Roxas snapped, finally pulling his arm away. "Just stay here and give me five minutes."

"I don't have five minutes," Axel told him, grabbing Roxas' arm again and dragging him toward the portal. "If there really were Heartless there, I'll take the fall for it." That surprised Roxas, but he rolled his eyes and pulled away, though this time, he followed Axel.

"Fine." He didn't believe him, but it would have to do for now. Besides, the thought of going inside the church made him uneasy anyway.

END