Disclaimer: Well, every single one of you knows that I do not own Kingdom Hearts as much as I'd like to. The ownership belongs to Square Enix, Desney and Tetsuya Nomura.

Author's Notes: This is actually my first fic of KH - something I had been planning to write for a long time. This is dedicated to all the wonderful authors here, all the fans of AkuRoku and Zemyx and to my dear friends. I love you all.

I have checked the grammar, but there might be some mistakes, so please point them out if you see such. What else? This is written from Roxas' pov, which should be kind of clear. If something is unclear after you've read this, feel free to ask. Now, onto the fic, I hope you enjoy it.

The Other Life

He knew it was a dream. Nowhere near where he lived was that kind of nature – so green, bright and so utterly beautiful. He was standing in the middle of a field, seeing a lake, some trees and some houses in the corner of his eye. But he paid no attention to them; there was only one thing he had in his mind. To find that man. He ran around, shouting his name. Everything was quiet, and he could hear the echoes of his own voice, being carried over the lake by the wind. And then, all too soon, everything started to fade.

-

The reason why Roxas went down there was the dream. He had heard of the cliff behind the forest before, and he knew why no one ever visited there: it was because of the legend. He had heard it from his best friend, Hiroki, who had told it to him a couple of weeks ago. It was said that whoever went down to the place that the cliff lead to would never come back. Roxas hadn't believed it until Hiroki told him that one guy who was three years ahead of them at school had gone down there; he had never been seen again. Roxas had decided he was never to visit the place – it was better not to know the whole truth than face whatever lied down there.

But after the dream he had no choice. It was like something was calling him. He felt like he was missing something: some parts of his life, or his heart, or something he knew he'd had before but couldn't quite name. His feet had led him to the cliff and over it, with the certainty over the fact he wouldn't hurt himself. He knew it; and he was right.

Roxas landed safely. He stood still for a while, glancing around. He was standing in a deep mud, his shoes all dirty. In his right side there were some houses, and in front of him rose a hill with some flowers and grass-- Something started to ring a bell in his head. This was the exact same scenery as he had seen in the dream. So did that also mean…

The blond didn't waste any time. He started to run around, remembering the place as it had seen it in his mind. He knew he was looking for something; for someone. But as in the dream, the place was empty. Roxas stopped running and took a deep breath. He wasn't supposed to agitate himself with this. For God's sake, he didn't even know why he was there!

You don't? Asked a small voice in his head – a small voice which he knew he should recognize. Who are you? And what am I looking for? Roxas asked, wordlessly, but the voice didn't answer – he was alone again. Sighing, the boy sat under a tree and stared at his reflection in the surface of the lake. He saw himself as he was: blond, a bit messy hair, blue, intense eyes, brows furrowed from thoughts. And then the reflection started to blur. Roxas had to blink a couple of times to be certain it was true. He saw faces he knew in his heart, he just couldn't remember who they were. There was a man with long, bluish hair; a woman with blond hair and angry eyes; a man with silver hair, another man with blond hair – all faces Roxas faintly recognized but didn't remember the names. And then he appeared: a man with long, flaming red hair and green, almost hypnotizing eyes. And Roxas remembered.

Axel.

-

He had searched everywhere, shouted his name countless times, but all the attempts were in vain. There was no answer – only a sound of some birds singing and trees humming quietly along with them. But he knew he wouldn't – couldn't – give up now. Not after all the pain and suffering Axel had gone through when trying to get him back.

Yes, Roxas remembered. He remembered his days back in the Organization, he remembered himself as Sora, fused together with him, seeing his fellow Organization members die in the hands of his Somebody. And Axel... Sacrificing himself, all in order to see Roxas again.

Tears were dwelling in his eyes. Roxas had never been very emotional, but suddenly remembering his past… "life" and the image of his best friend – no, he corrected, more than a friend – losing his life in front of him wasn't that easy.

"What? Roxas crying? Well, this isn't exactly how I imagined us to meet again." A cold but amused voice was heard behind the blond – he stood up and turned around, drying his tears. He was faced with a figure almost as small as his own, dark eyes… or rather, only one dark eye.

"Zexion." It wasn't exactly a greeting, but a statement. The one in question looked at him and then grinned.

"Well, we were waiting for you here. It was about time – Marluxia and Larxene came here almost two months ago already." Zexion's gaze darkened a bit. "Although they left as soon as they could… Not that I'd miss them. But now I must be confusing you – it's better than I start in the beginning."

He led Roxas behind the hill, to a huge tree which had three chairs covered in it. He motioned the younger boy to sit down before he stared his story.

"You see, after we died, we came here. This is a large place – it has all we could ever need, but we are not allowed to go outside of this area. At first there were only the original six: Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus and I. We were never offered the freedom of choosing whether to live here or not – I guess it was the punishment we received in this life. After we had gotten used to having hearts and living, well, as freely and normally as we could, came Saïx. But with him, and all the other ex-members, it was different." Zexion paused for a while to look Roxas in the eyes.

"You are offered a choice. After some hours, you'll hear a bell – or I guess it to be a bell, at least that's what it sounds like. It means that you'll have to leave this place forever unless you're willing to stay and spend your whole life here. Saïx stayed", Zexion rolled his visible eye, "for reasons unknown to everybody. After him came Luxord, but he left."

When Roxas looked a bit surprised to hear that, Zexion hold his hand in the air. "He said he wants to try to get us all free from here… I guess it was a tempting challenge to him. But we've never seen him after that. The next one to arrive was Demyx and, well… He stayed." Zexion paused, looked away as to hide himself and Roxas had a sudden realization – or a revival of some memories he'd had all along.

"So you are still dating him, right?" The blond grinned boldly as he watched Zexion turn even a deeper shade of red. The Cloaked Schemer, for once, seemed to be out of words.

"Yep, and in fact, we're engaged!" A new voice joined the conversation. Demyx laughed at Roxas' surprised expression and sat beside his boyfriend. Zexion, when regaining his composure, shot a deadly glare at the musician.

"Dem! I've told you not to…" He was efficiently silenced by Demyx's lips pressing against his. Roxas just laughed – he was happy for his friends. He knew this was what Demyx had always wanted (oh how many times he and Axel had to listen the Melodious Nocturne whine about how cold Zexion could be) and if he made Zexion happy, then all was well.

When his friends broke the kiss, Roxas decided to get some more answers.

"Zexion, you mentioned Marluxia and Larxene already – they didn't stay. But what about Axel? Is he here?" Roxas watched the two other men look at each other, neither wanting to say anything. At last Demyx broke the silence.

"He isn't here. We thought he came here already, we all thought we saw him right after I arrived… But when we tried to search for him, he wasn't here. We have no idea where he could be. Sorry, Rox." Demyx looked at the younger boy with sad eyes, knowing how much the pyro had meant – and still meant – to him.

Zexion opened his mouth to say something, but before he had the chance, a loud bell rang. The sound was certainly heard in every corner of the place. When the sound died, Zexion looked at Roxas. He didn't have to say anything; Roxas already knew what his answer would be.

"Yes. I will stay. I promised him I'd meet him in the next life, and I'm not going to break the promise." His blue eyes shone with the determination, the absolute certainty of the rightness of his decision. Zexion and Demyx nodded – they had known his answer, too.

"Well, it's decided, then. You'll get your own apartment and Dem can show you the place. I'll return to my experiments, if you'll excuse me." Zexion turned to leave, but stopped after few steps. "Demyx, you know what time I'll finish." And with that, the Cloaked Schemer was gone.

Roxas and Demyx stared at each other for a while, until Demyx said cheerily, "Well, shall we go? We'll have a lot to do!" He quieted for a nanosecond and continued, "And don't be depressed over Axel. I know he'll come for you… You know it too, right?" Roxas nodded and gave Demyx a small smile. Yes, he knew.

-

Some weeks had passed from Roxas' arrival, and the blond was steadily getting used to his new lifestyle. He had noticed the place they were living never seemed to stop surprising him; whatever he wanted, he would find. He had spent some days playing and singing with Demyx, some days wandering around in the forests by himself, some days doing small jobs to gain some money. It was a nice way of living, being free to do whatever he wanted, see his old friends and some new faces (after all, they weren't living there all by themselves) and having an apartment of his own. Of course it brought with it its own problems, like cleaning and cooking, but Roxas found he actually liked to cook. Usually he ate lunch with Demyx or Lexaeus when they had nothing else to do, and sometimes Zexion and Vexen joined them. All the other members Roxas was trying to avoid for the best he could – he hadn't ever liked them very much and didn't feel like dealing with them.

In that day, Roxas had been in the middle of reading one book when he heard the loud noise – the exact same noise he had heard two weeks earlier. It was the bell, ringing and announcing… Roxas stood up, threw his book away and ran as fast as he could to the field he had first arrived.

There he saw Zexion (who was always the first one to notice if someone had arrived because of his ability of identifying the scents), who was talking with someone. Roxas stood still and silent for a while, listening to their voices, until he took a good spurt and launched himself to the young man talking with Zexion. They both flew to the ground, Roxas ending up on top of his best friend. Beside them, Zexion grinned and left the two of them alone.

"Roxas? It is you? Really, really you?" Axel didn't quite seem to believe what his eyes tried to tell him. Roxas smiled widely, got up and helped the redhead getting up, too.

"Yes, Axel, it is me. We promised, right? After all you went through for me, the least I could do for you was wait. You honestly thought I wouldn't?"

Axel grinned. "No." And when he pulled Roxas to a passionate kiss, they both knew they had found what they were looking for: each other.

-

So, there it was. I really hope you liked it - and if you read it, it doesn't take that much time to review. Reviews make me very happy. :3 So now be good and leave me a review, or I'll... make Zexy go after you. Yes. And if you do leave a review, I'll give you Roxas with strawberries and ice cream!

Thank you for reading!