When Axel dies, there are four pairs of blue eyes watching him.
No, wait, scratch that. There are four pairs of blue eyes, but only three are actually watching him.
It's kind of disorienting and more than a little creepy, seeing these phantom figures leave the original's body. They're ghosts, clones, doppelgangers, the same eyes and the same sad, sad faces. Three pairs of blue eyes are at his level, two boys and one girl crouched down, kneeling next to him. He is surrounded by these kids, these wide-eyed kids that are looking at him like they can't believe what they're seeing. Welcome to the party, guys! Hope you brought your barbecue chips and soda and your stolen booze from your parent's liquor cabinets. It's an impromptu funeral, a wake, a mourning session, and instead of a preacher or a eulogy or whatever the fuck humans get at their lovely organized funerals, he gets this. How morbid.
One pair of blue eyes is not watching him die, he notes. Of fucking course, because seriously, was he expecting anything else? (He shouldn't, after all this time, so he wasn't expecting anything, but maybe he was hoping.) One particular pair of blue eyes and their owner are standing, their back to him, looking down at the ground.
Wincing, (because come on, sure the ground is swirly and colorful and probably more than a little distracting, but he's dying over here, shouldn't that earn him some brownie points or Dying Best Friend points or whatever bizarre point system that fucked-up kid operates on) he decides to suck it the fuck up and concentrate on the only kid who's talking, the only kid able to talk: Sora.
He wants to wave cheerfully at Xion over Sora's shoulder, like, Hey, what's up, how've ya been, all those good buddy-buddy things. Maybe give her a pat on the back, because she's looking pretty down. Her and that kid from way back when, they're crying.
This kid, whatshisface. It was... Goddammit, it'll come to him in a second, and if he were more lucid he'd probably be really pissed off about this, the not-remembering. Shit, it was, a coffee size, he thinks. Venti? Ventus! Right? Fuck, it's just so hard to remember things right now, there's too much to think about and too much to say. Ventus is on the other side of Sora, crying. Seriously? Their friendship lasted about, what, half an hour, and consisted of the blond kid kicking his Other's ass. All in awesome teenaged boy fun, of course, but still. Ouch.
So okay, Ventus is crying because of him. He shifts a little on his back, wanting to make fun of him but managing not to because he is a nice person very very deep down and doesn't make a habit of mocking crying children. Look, it's been ten years. Not that big of a deal, don't waste your time or your tears on me. Definitely not worth it.
"Why'd you do it, Axel?"
This. Sora asks this, confused and sad and oh man, that bluntness is. The way he says his name is just. Same-but-not-the-same.
Sora, he's pretty sure, already knows the answer in his heart or some shit. But what the hell, let's get this over with.
He makes sure to look directly at Sora, only at Sora, when he tells him why he did what he did. He's looking at this kid, but he's really talking to that kid. The one standing up and still not acknowledging him. Some best friend, won't even look at him when he's dying, the little shit. He should be over here and they should be making dumb jokes about how flammable these coats are.
When he finishes his little speech, wow Axel that was so touching, look at these kids they're bawling their big blue eyes out, Sora gets up. And runs away. Xion wipes her eyes, lets go of the hand she was holding, stands up. Goodbye. Ventus somehow manages to make it to his feet, though he'll probably trip over his dorky feet. No one can possibly see through that amount of runny snot and tears.
They leave with Sora.
There is one last pair of blue eyes left, and this is when he realizes that maybe this is actually sort of tragic, because Roxas is finally looking at him, finally finally finally he's next to him with unfamiliar fear in his way too familiar eyes, and Roxas is saying, "No, you can't.
"Don't go."
It hurts so much fucking better than any funeral song, means so much more to him than any fading flowers on his grave. It's beautiful, probably, and he kind of wishes in an off-hand way that he wasn't dying. Because:
This is pretty much the only thing he's ever wanted, this one dumb kid asking him to "Please, Axel, stay."
Axel smiles and closes his eyes.