Ignorance is Bliss
They didn't have hearts, and Axel accepted that fact. He didn't like it, but he accepted it. Everybody knew about it. Everybody but a certain Melodious Nocturne. He would go on rants about how everybody had a heart, but just wouldn't accept it. Sure, that had brought up painful memories and slashed open old wounds, but Axel just ignored him. He ignored him, that is, until a certain day when it seemed Demyx went into overdrive on his heart rants. He stopped Axel on the way to his room and talked a mile a minute about things Axel had heard a million times before. The Flurry planned to ignore him like he always did, but something inside Axel snapped.
He pushed Demyx into the cold castle wall and put his hands on either side of his head. Demyx's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, shocked that anyone would actually call him out like that. "What's your problem?" Axel practically yelled into his face. "Don't you get it? We don't have hearts and we never will. Kingdom Hearts is a sham. It'll never work." Demyx was really scared now and close to tears, but Axel wasn't done yet. "Are you really that ignorant? We don't have a heartbeat! We bleed black smoke! We can't feel emotion! Hell, we can't even feel temperature change!" By then, Axel was shaking, a murderous look in his eyes, sweat pouring from his temples. Demyx turned pasty white as he tried feebly to wriggle from Axel's grasp.
In his head, Axel knew Demyx didn't deserve this. He was just being optimistic. If anything, a little optimism was needed in this depressing world with its black skies and endless rain, but Axel had already started something and he planned to finish it. "If you can give me even a sliver of evidence that any of us have hearts, I'll let you go and pretend this never happened," whispered Axel his voice getting quieter with each word, eyes softening, guilt seeping into his pores.
Demyx was silent for a moment, then looked to the ground and muttered something incoherent. "Sorry, Dem, didn't hear that" Demyx looked back up, tears trickling down his face, and stared Axel right in the eyes.
"I said 'I love you'."