Clear blue eyes slowly fluttered opened as yet another sleep was disturbed by the warm sun's rays seeping through his bedroom window. Roxas cleared his vision by a simple stretch and eye rubbing. He winced at how bright the morning's sun's rays were today. Roxas turned to face the little calendar on his bed side table. Clearing aside the empty sea salt ice cream wrappers and his phone, his calendar read Sunday, September. His eyes widened for a moment. It wasn't because it was Sunday, ((though how scary the word Sunday is .0)) it was because around Sunday was a giant red circle with the words enclosed: CLEAN ATTIC OR ELSE!
"Damn you Sora" he thought. His twin had been swapping or bargaining chores with him for this year's family garage sale. The final dreaded chore was always the attic clean and this year Roxas had lost to Sora in a battle of scissors, paper, rock.
Roxas let out a groan and pulled the bed sheets back over his head. It was too early to do ANYTHING. Sleep soon found its way back to him.
"ROXAAAAASSS! GET UP YOU LAZY NOBODY!"
A violent shaking and a strong tug of the sheets off sent shivers up Roxas's spine.
"AH! OK OK OK OK SORA! I'm getting up! Take a chill pill would you!"
"Oh, believe me you're gunna need to take a chill pill once you've seen the state of the attic" sniggered Sora.
"SORRRRAAAA" fake moaned Roxas as he clutched his head painfully. "I dooooon't feeeeel well…I think….ughnnnn….I've caaaaaught…something…real…..baaaad"
Roxas opened one eye to look up at Sora giving him one of those I'm-not-going-to-buy-it looks. Sighing, Sora grabbed Roxas by the ankles.
"HEY! Wadda you…" Roxas was cut short as Sora dragged him from the bed and across the floor to the bedroom door.
"OW OW OW OW! Caaaaaaaaaarpet BURN! Ok Ok Ok I'll get up! Keep your frilly knickers on"
Sora shot Roxas an evil glare. He abruptly let go of Roxas's ankles, picked up the glass of water on a nearby shelf and poured it contently over his stunned twin's face.
"There's your shower for starters" laughed Sora as he made a dash down the hallway before Roxas could retaliate.
A few hours later, Roxas made the dreaded path to the attic's ceiling entrance. Looking up he made an attempt to grab hold of the cord dangling from the ceiling. He failed. Again Roxas tried, until finally he ended up in a jumping and flailing of arms fit.
"Who the heck gave me the short gene in this family?"
Finally after all his attempts he managed to grab hold of the cord and use his body weight to pull the door down, revealing a set of stairs from the ceiling. Looking around the attic was creepy. Old memories flooded back to him. Memories of holidays, school days, parties and family events were all present.
Plonking down the heavy cardboard box, he was ordered to fill with unwanted attic goods, Roxas realised how dark it had become in the attic. Two orbs of blue searched for a window of some sort. His eyes finally met a round framing of a window hidden behind an old shelf. Shifting it, the sun soon filled the dull space. Warm golden rays touched objects that had never felt the light until now. A mouse scurried behind a box, dust flew up and Roxas sat himself down in an old chair.
"This.is.soooooo.boring." he complained. A faint noise from the window got his attention. Outside he could see Sora in the front yard talking to Kairi and Riku. In a matter of seconds he was walking away with them.
"THAT NO GOOD SON OF A …!" Roxas bit his tongue just in time.
"ROXAS! Watch your mouth!" shouted his mother from below. "Hurry up and get that box filled please"
"But mum! Sora is…"
"NO BUTS!"
The sound of his mother's shoes dying away signaled she had finally left. Roxas sighed and turned to face his torture. But no sooner had he taken a few steps he'd hit the floor hard. Wincing he turned to face what he had tripped over.
A thick book's edge was protruding from the bottom of a pile of boxes. Roxas, shuffled closer to the object. Grabbing hold of it he slowly wedged it out from underneath the boxes. The big, dark, tattered edged, book read clearly in gold lettering on the front: Memories.
Roxas smirked, hoping to open the book to a humiliating picture of his twin he could show people at school as revenge, but his eyes widened with awe, when he took sight of the first photo on the page.
The photo was a picture of him, Hayner, Olette and Hayner laughing while building a sand mound over a sleeping Seifer. Underneath a caption in what appeared to be Olette's handwriting read: "It's moments like these we'll never forget". Roxas had forgotten. Delicately, he brushed a hand over the picture as if it would bring back the experience. Slowly, a shaking hand reached to flip through the album. More pictures of Olette, Pence and Hayner appeared. Ever since Roxas had left Twilight Town nobody's of his memories were vanishing. Now, with each flip of a page, it was like his memory was being adjusted.
Finally, Roxas stopped at a page with a photo of Sora, Riku and Kairi in sunnies and swimmers. Roxas squinted harder at the picture. Sora was very young and it looked like it had been a hot Summer, with Sora and Kairi in the foreground giggling at the words written on the snoozing sun burnt Riku. Roxas looked closer at the words on Riku.
"Hot…stuff?" whispered Roxas. A grin spread across his face at the antics of his brother.
He sighed and flipped through the album's pages once more. Until suddenly he flipped to a page that made him drop the album to the floor all together.
Eyes widened in shock, he gazed upon the picture of him and a fiery red headed boy laughing their heads off at something. He knew this person well, but couldn't remember his name. It was like as if this boy was right next to him, screaming his name out at him.
Roxas took in a few breaths. "Calm down, Roxas, it's only a picture"
Collecting up the book again he took up his seating back on the floor. What was it with this guy? Why was he so strangely familiar and so dear to Roxas? Carefully, Roxas traced a single finger over the picture as if trying to collect some secret message. He closed his eyes, quietly collecting his memory for this person, until the word shot through his mind.
Opening his eyes once more he quietly said that word that danced upon his lips. "Ax…Axel?"
He flipped to the next page. Again, it was that red head, this time looking stunned at getting his photo taken.
Flipping over, again there was Axel but little. Roxas's eyes danced upon the page frantically. His brain, draining all the memories of this Axel, memories flooding back of, parties, arguments, good times, bad times. Until that one memory hit his memory. Something made his conscious turn to the last page of the album. The last picture was of himself and Axel sitting on a beach jetty looking out to sea while eating, what looked to Roxas, sea salt ice cream. As happy and calming did this photo look, the memory in Roxas's head made the picture look painfully heartbreaking.
The memory was of those last moments of Axel's life. This memory was not through Roxas's own eyes but through Sora's. Axel words drove deep into Roxas's non-existing heart. "I wanted to see Roxas…he made…me…feel like I had a heart"
Deep down, Roxas knew he wasn't able to ever reply to Axel. He was no longer alive in this life time. Roxas was never able to see this, now newly remembered friend.
Tears were forming in the blonde's eyes.
"I'm sorry Axel…I was never able to get it memorized" he whispered. Slowly, a single tear splashed onto the photo. It wouldn't bring back his best friend, but where ever this Axel was, he wished that he would remember him too.
xXx
In another place, in another time, a slender young red headed man sat towering over a photo album too. The triangular tattoos on his face each led to, two glistening emerald eyes.
If Roxas would have gazed upon this red head he would not have noticed him at first glance. Instead of a long black robe and fiery hair splayed out everywhere, he wore loose jeans and a plain black long sleeve shirt. His fiery strands tied into a spiky mess of a ponytail. The room which he sat seemed to be completely white. A bright light shone from every angel, illuminating the presence of this man even more.
Slowly a hand brushed over a photo of a blonde haired and red headed boy viewing a sunset off a beach's jetty while in total happiness of sea salt ice cream. A single sparkling tear made contact with the photo's surface and slowly it made its silvery trail downwards.
"Roxas…I won't ever…forget" sighed the red haired man. Quietly, a pale hand in both worlds closed the photo album shut.
Axel was still alive. He had not simply faded into nothingness. Was he real or an angel? No matter what for he was, one thing was for sure, he had passed onto the next world, but this time, with a heart.
THE END!