(Because of all the Axel pairings I have had the pleasure of beholding, why no AxelXReno? not even a friendship one? Am I the only one who thinks of these things? Really? Really?!!?)

A Study in Similarity

Axel had been sitting on the ledge of his clock tower again. Well, their clock tower. But, there can't really be a "they" if the other wasn't here, can there? Axel sighed deeply. He hated when he defied reality, and felt so….so sentimental. Bleh. Even the word made his skin crawl uncomfortably. Axel shouldn't be sentimental, in any way, shape or form. But, here he was. Moping on a clock tower because his not-really-boyfriend not-really-died. When did his life get so friggin complicated? Used to be, he was happy whiling the day away committing arson.

"Nope. uh-uh. I know where this is goin'. Not today, dammit. I've got funner things to do then spiral downward emotionally. I'm friggin out!"

Shouting to no one in particular, he left his clock tower, to a town with a similar feel to it. Hollow Bastion. Or Radiant Garden. Whichever. Didn't really matter to him, either way. What he came for didn't change. They never do. He came for the heroes. The Good Guys.

Don't get him wrong. Revenge was the farthest thing from his mind. He just liked to watch them. To observe the ones who got to live. Admittedly, Sora was his favorite. Can you blame him? They had nearly the same blue eyes. They were…Similar. Not exactly the same, but close. While Sora was his favorite, the others were interesting to him, as well.

Cloud, with his ridiculous hair, even by Axel's standards. And the whole stoic appearance. Axel didn't know the story, but he was sure that Cloud jacked up big time, or something. He was always so gloomy. And that sword! It was beyond Axel how Cloud even wielded that thing. Cloud wasn't as fun as the others, but he was the kind of guy that you made fun of from a distance. And Axel did that as often as possible.

Aerith was a sweet girl, he supposed. Not like he actually met her. It was the pink dress that told him so. He figured any girl wearing a pink dress must be sweet. And she was quiet! No matter how close he got, Axel still had to really strain her ears to catch her words. Axel, for the life of him, could not figure out what was going on between her and Cloud. He liked to puzzle over it in his head on a slow day. It was almost like a soap opera to him.

Tifa, with her……Uhh……Axel would rather not talk about Tifa, actually. Moving right along….

Cid always made Axel laugh. Crazy old men was high up on Axel's list of likes. Even if he couldn't hear what the old man was saying, his antics were still amusing.

Leon was a fighter, that much Axel could tell. That scar pretty much made that clear. And He also sometimes saw Leon practicing with Sora. He was good. Axel was glad that he had never faced that man in a battle.

Vincent was the more mysterious of the little group. He rarely saw him. And sometimes, it felt like Vincent was watching Axel. That is never a good feeling, whether you be fan girl or innocent bystander. Axel can honestly say that Vincent frightens him. Frankly, he isn't the only one……

Yuffie just annoyed Axel, plain and simple. After spending time with the Organization, he did not care for ninjas in the least.

Axel no longer had a life, so he shared one with these people. He figured that they wouldn't mind, especially since they didn't even know it was going on. "Stalking" would be the ugly word for it. Axel preferred to be called an observer. And one day, he observed something quite out of the ordinary. And anything out of the ordinary for a technically dead Nobody who still pines for his not-really-dead boyfriend, also a Nobody, and who now stalks a group of people that have no idea that he's still "alive", is really, really out of the ordinary. Really.

Axel was lounging about, watching Cloud do something that he wasn't really paying attention to. But, the sudden appearance of a red-head that he had never seen before got his attention. He got closer, silently. Something about that hair. It was……Similar. Similar to his. Similar in the way that Sora's eyes are Similar to Roxas's. That Similarity made shivers run done his back. It was uncanny. And, now that he could hear it, the easy, laid-back way the man spoke, and stood, almost as if he was constantly in a state of relaxation. And the eyes. The shade of green wasn't as intense as Axel's own, but the…the Similarity was there. It struck Axel as so odd, that he made a tiny exclamation of surprise. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get the attention of Cloud, and the other man that was with the red-head. But, of course, not the red-head himself. Axel was out of there quickly, filled with regret. He wanted to know more about this other red-head. He wanted to see the other Similarities that the two men shared.

(Kay….I intended this to be a one-shot, but I guess not. I really don't think that this'll turn out to be romantic. I would really appreciate your thoughts and stuff. I love reviews, did I mention? Okay! Ciao!!)