Falling Dusk
Fandom: KH2
Summary: When Namine hijacked the system, she left something.
Pairing(s): Axel/Roxas. Or any combination of the OT5 (or is that OT6?) Srsly.

I've been given these icky orders…

Wait a sec! You remember now?!

…Can't believe this…

Sora jerked awake, vague memories of a different time, a different life inhabiting his thoughts like fled dreams, before they slipped away.

Axel. It had been something important about Axel. Something…important….

Riku. Sora threw off the covers and got out of bed.

The twilight sun lit a brilliant trail as it made its descent down the darkening sky. Riku stood on the beach, watching it, but that wasn't what had his full interest at the moment.

"Roxas." Riku turned around.

Brown hair, turned lighter, with faint vestiges of blonde. A different slouch from the one he was used to; more dangerous, less welcoming. A closed expression on a face that usually displayed so much. Definitely Roxas. Always at twilight, where Roxas was at his strongest.

Riku thought he could relate. He himself drew his power from dusk, though dawn was beginning to lend its power to him, as well. But Roxas wasn't here about that.

"You know something," Roxas started. Confrontational. And something Roxas thought Riku knew. Then most likely it was about—

"Axel."

Roxas tensed, anticipating his answer.

"When Namine hijacked the system," Riku started, walking slowly forward toward Roxas, "she left something." Riku stopped walking when he was right next to Roxas, shoulders not touching, Roxas' gaze remaining resolutely ahead. "Something for you. The two of you. A key."

Then he deliberately turned his head to speak directly into Roxas' ear, "I'm sure you remember it."

Riku took a quick step forward and turned, barely avoiding Roxas' fist as Roxas whirled around, bristling.

"She left a key for you," Riku repeated, all joking and almost sadistic amusement gone from his face. "An opportunity for you to escape. But you didn't take it."

"You sound like you wanted me to," Roxas shot back, finally trusting his voice enough to speak. "That wasn't what you would've wanted, right? Not what the man holding your leash would've wanted—"

Roxas stepped back, avoiding Riku's grasp as it would have grabbed his shirt front.

For a moment, neither spoke, glaring daggers at the other.

It was Riku who finally broke the silence, "Because Namine believed in you. It would have freed her, too, freed the two of you from DiZ's machinations. But you didn't take it." With those last bitter words, Riku turned and stalked away, stepping with unnecessary force, as dusk fell around them.

"We're…best friends….right?"

"Wait a sec! You remember now?!"

"…I can't believe this."

Axel raised his chakram in a gesture Roxas knew so well, from nearly a year of fighting with him. And then time froze, and Axel stood like a statue, arm still raised.

Roxas, to the mansion! The time has come.

For a moment, Roxas stayed where he was. Then he moved, taking a step toward the frozen Axel.

He really was just like a statue, Roxas thought.

Step.

A very life-like one.

Step.

If Axel was frozen, did that mean his time was frozen, too?

Step.

Roxas was directly in front of Axel now, just a step away from what Roxas had always thought of as kissing distance.

Roxas took that step, and pressed his lips to the frozen Axel's.

Ice cracked and fell away, warm arms wrapped around him in answer. Twilight Town dissolved around them, falling into a pattern of ones and zeroes. Teasing green eyes looked into his.

"So you really do remember," was muttered into his mouth.

A tear slipped from clear blue eyes.

"I remember," Sora whispered.

Axel looked up at him with an expression neither of them had seen before, but which was familiar to one, as if Axel had waited forever and a day to express it.

"You make me feel like I had a heart." Those soulless green eyes closed, a rebellious last breath escaped from Axel's lips, and on an impulse, Sora moved forward, pressing his lips to Axel's cooling ones.

"I remember. I remember," he said over and over, until there was no more of Axel left to kiss and all he could taste was the salt of his tears.

A tear slipped from stormy blue eyes.

"I remember," Roxas whispered, and fell to his knees to grainy sand, made purple by the falling dusk.

He wrapped his arms around himself, as if to ward off the chill, and wept.