[ Author's Note: This fic is in an AU setting. Reflects the actual game itself and a little of Loveless. o.o

"Let go of me! Who the hell are you!?"

"Axel. I'm Axel, your boyfriend! What happened to you? Can't you remember me?"

"No, I can't! I don't remember anything at all! Leave me alone!"

"Roxas!"

The room was dark, with all the curtains drawn and the door closed, except for the light from a single table lamp. A lone figure was sitting by the desk, a photo album in his hands. Blue eyes focused in on a photo where a blond and a redhead were smiling gaily at the camera. Another picture was at the beach, with the same people and same happiness.

The happiness that was lost to him ever since the day he was involved in a car accident and lost his memory.

He could not remember anything. His parents and his elder twin treated him very well. Almost too well, for he had the impression of being a fragile glass doll. Especially his elder twin, Sora. The boy with the aura of the sun was always careful around him, and at moments, his light dimmed with something like guilt in his eyes.

He was uncomfortable with that situation, and once he noticed that as long as his condition was improving, the family that he was unfamiliar with would act more naturally around him, he forced himself to recover faster. He paid careful attention to everything, committing even the smallest detail to his memory so as to fill the void that was his past. He quickly began to resemble the person he used to be, even though it was all just a mask. He just could not feel like he belonged there.

Until that day he saw him. Riku. According to his parents, Riku was a childhood friend and best friend of Sora and Kairi, a girl who had always visited him with an expression that reminded him of the guilt in Sora's eyes. According to Sora and Riku, the silver-haired teenager was Sora's boyfriend. Kairi, whom his parents had hoped was going to be Sora's future bride, had confirmed the truth with a gracious smile that held a pained edge that Sora never noticed.

Something about Riku calmed him down and he was able to react like a character in a story, instead of somebody who was merely playing the part. There was a scent of familiarity that he had never felt around those who claimed to be closest to him. For once, he felt that he found his place and he opened up to Riku in ways that he had not been able to. Riku became his best friend, shared by Sora and Kairi, but even though he wanted to be more than that, he knew that he could not. But he was happy, for the first time since he woke on the plain white sheets of the hospital.

Then came Axel. The tall redhead had approached him one day, running towards him with a wide grin and open joy in emerald eyes. The image clicked in his mind like puzzles finding the perfect edges and the tumble of emotions in his heart frightened him into freezing on spot. Even with Riku, he had not felt like his inside were counting down with a frenzied beat towards touching physically. When long arms wrapped themselves around him, he panicked and ran.

After he had calmed down, he remembered the honesty, hurt and shock that he heard in the man's voice. He confronted his family about the stranger that made butterflies dance in his stomach, and found out about the one person they forgot to tell him about. No, they did not forget. The uncomfortable shifting and disapproving tone that they displayed told another tale. They did not want to tell him. Even Sora, who was like a puppy who approached all, was trying to hide the obvious dislike he felt. They intended to hide the existence of the person who mattered most from him. And they tried to pass Axel off as just his 'friend', until his twin said something that did not add up correctly.

More furious that he had ever remembered, he retreated to his room and began searching for photos. He had not done that before because he did not particularly wanted to look at things of his past. But now, it was different. Flipping through them, some of his memories came back to him for the first time. And then he understood the reason behind his family's reaction. Axel was like a loud boisterous firecracker. He would go on and on noisily, making a nuisance out of himself to everyone in the area. And it did not help that he was an orphan and an ex-gang member, and now, an expert in explosive. He was the type of people that no respectable parents would want their daughters to be with.

And unfortunately for his parents, their son fell for such a guy and was willing to leave home for him. He could not understand why his family, even his twin, refused to try and understand the person under the fiery hair and face tattoos. The gentleness, quick mind and wacky humor that attracted him to Axel, as well as the insecurity and darkness of the man's past had all contributed in drawing him to the man like moth to fire. Even if Axel did hang around with the misfits of the society, being vaguely one himself, Axel was just like any other person. Like Sora, Riku, or even Kairi.

He remembered the upset and hurt he felt by the rejection of his family, and he realized the source of the distance he had felt from them. And he did leave home, if his memory serve him right. He was just about to go to the airport and join Axel in some foreign lands, when Sora jumped in front of a car to save Kairi, and he leapt after his elder twin without thinking.

The bitterness he felt was almost edible, as he stared at the carefree happy face of his twin grinning from a picture, and the taste soured. From what he knew, Sora got away from the accident with only a scratch on his knees and the shock of seeing his twin lying there in a pool of blood. Even if the emotional harm was fair greater than the physical, it was nothing compared to his own amount of damage. Thankfully, he remembered that he had wanted to surprise Axel and did not tell the older man, but if he had... no, that was a horrible thought.

His mind automatically brought itself back onto the redhead, and he stopped, feeling the flying bugs in his stomach flutter around restlessly. The man that he had wanted to spend his life with obviously knew nothing about the dreadful event, and Axel's reaction to seeing him was enough proof. Not particularly wanting to think about telling the fiery-haired man about it or even to contemplate his reaction, he absentmindedly wondered how long would Axel take to find him again. If the shreds of knowledge he have of Axel is true, the redhead must be frantically trying to get to him by now, and god bless whatever got into his way.

It was as though his thoughts were summons, he heard the familiar yet foreign voice yelling from the doorway, agitation apparent even through the distance. Without wasting even a second, he dashed out to where Axel was barricaded outside the door by his family. By the sound of it, his mother had insisted that he did not want to see Axel and the reaction to that statement was not a pleased one. Then Sora spotted him approaching and came forth to stop him.

A quick flash of anger sparked within him, and he pushed past his twin and parents brusquely to stand before the green-eyed young man that he would call his boyfriend had he not lost his memory. Upon seeing him, Axel's tirade trailed off to nowhere and he just stared at Roxas with those wide emerald eyes that were submerged in intense relief.

"Roxas..."

"A-Axel." He could not help but feel a little nervous, as the winged insects wrecked havoc within him again. The sense of isolation quietly crept away and was taken over by a rush of impulses and a sense of awkwardness. He knew the man. His every move, every touch, every breath even. Yet at the same time, he was as foreign as a stranger on the bus.

But as he succumbed the powerful urge to embrace the man he knew he loved, felt that he loved, remembered that he loved and feel Axel's arms shook as they held him tightly, Roxas knew where he wanted to be. Even if everything was not the same anymore. Even if his world changed and might change again. He made a choice once. He was going to make it again.

"Mom, Dad, I'm leaving with him."