AUTHOR'S NOTE: OK, this is probably going to be the most depressing Christmas fanfic you read this year...but, at least the beginning part's happy! :D
I wrote this in 2006, after thinking about how the Bond of Flame Keyblade could've come into existence; for whatever reason, this half-fluffy story came to my mind. Thankfully, I've revised/edited it since then -.-'
Enjoy =)
The holidays had arrived, and even in The World That Never Was, in the castle where the members of Organization XIII resided, people were celebrating in their own unique ways.
Most of the members celebrated Christmas - despite not really having any religious affiliation - while a few celebrated the others.
(Xigbar observed Hanukkah, which entailed each of the other members to get him eight gifts and Axel lighting the menorah every night - Axel swore he did it just to annoy everyone else - and Xaldin celebrates Kwanzaa; no one's asked why)
On Christmas Day, Xemnas would let all the Organization members have the day off from their shifts, rounds, missions and research and let them throw a big party. Some said it was the most fun they had all year. Even Xemnas himself joined the festivities.
On such a Christmas Day, the members were about to exchange gifts in the meeting room.
Axel whispered to Roxas: "Let's go to my room, I'll give you your present there."
"Why can't you do it here?" Roxas asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because I don't want these guys to see it," Axel answered slyly.
"Now come on, let's go before Demyx finishes his song."
Axel led Roxas away to his room as the other members watched Demyx perform a mangled version of "Jingle Bell Rock."
A short time later, they arrived at the door to Axel's room. Axel reached over and turned the knob, looking around the hall before pushing open the door. He quickly entered the stark-white room, and beckoned Roxas to follow. "Come on, Rox, hurry!" he whispered, a tinge of excitement present in his voice.
Roxas entered the room, and Axel rushed over to quietly shut the door behind him.
"Okay, now what is it?" Roxas said.
"Hold on, I've gotta get it," Axel said, turning to search through a similarly stark-white bureau. He dug through the drawers for a few moments, until he came upon a small wrapped box.
"Got it!" he exclaimed triumphantly, holding the box in the air. "OK, here it is," he said, handing the small box to Roxas.
He sat down on his bed, which actually wasn't stark-white - it had black sheets - and looked to Roxas expectantly, yet somehow still casually.
Roxas had no idea what it could possibly be; it was so small, it fit in the palm of his hand. He unwrapped it (the wrapping paper had a shiny, silver swirl design) and lifted the lid on the box.
Inside, he found…
…A tiny silver-and-red chakram on a red-and-black chain, with a fastener on the end.
"Wow, it looks just like yours!" Roxas said, holding it up in the air delicately. "Did you make it yourself?"
"Eh, sort of…" Axel said, ruffling his hair in a bashful fashion.
"But it's not just a charm," he said with a playful smirk. "Here, I'll show ya."
Axel reached for the charm, and Roxas placed it in his hand. He took it eagerly.
"Get out your Keyblade."
"What?" Roxas said in puzzlement.
"Trust me, just get it out," he said in assurance.
Roxas held out his hand and willed the Keyblade to appear in it, and in a flash of light, it appeared. The Kingdom Keyblade.
"OK, now get it over here," Axel instructed.
Roxas pointed the Keyblade in Axel's direction, the blade-end in his face.
"Uh…the other end."
"Oops, sorry," Roxas said, quickly turning the Keyblade around so the handled end faced Axel.
"OK, now I have to do this quickly…" In a flash, Axel took off the chain on the Kingdom Keyblade and replaced it with the new one.
Roxas turned the Keyblade back around to look at the new chain. "That's cool, I like it."
"That's not all…"
Suddenly, the Keyblade began to change form. In a flash of red and black and swirling hot flames, it transformed into a new Keyblade. It had a round chakram on each end, the front one styled to look like the end of a key, and the back one made to be the handle. They were connected by two black and red bars that twisted in the middle.
Roxas was stunned. "What is this?"
Axel grinned. "It's a Keyblade I designed! Pretty cool, huh?"
Roxas was speechless for a few seconds.
"But…how did you do this?" he said, looking over it in awe.
"Remember that Moogle that set up shop in the Dark City a while ago?"
Roxas nodded.
"Well, I was checking it out one night, and I found out that they made Keyblade chains like this for Sora with synthesized ingredients. I asked the guy if he could make one for me if I designed it and provided the materials. He didn't quite believe me when I told him a friend of mine was a Keybearer, so I had to prove it to him first."
Roxas was slashing and swiping the air with his new Keyblade. "How'd you do that?"
Axel gave a sly smirk. "I showed him."
Roxas paused for a moment.
"Oh! That time you took me over to the shop to see what they had!" he exclaimed in realization. "I was wondering why you had me get my Keyblade out before we got there…"
Axel smiled. "Yep. I was worried that he would say something about it, but the little twerp kept his mouth shut. Wait, do they have mouths…?
"Anyway, he didn't ask anymore questions about it, though he did charge me for labor. 'Moogles do it for free only for Sora…Moogle!' he said, so that cost me quite a bit…plus I had to work my ass off to get all the materials they needed to make it, hopefully Xemnas won't be pissed about me icing a few Assassin and Samurai Nobodies…honestly, I would've done it all myself, but I don't think it would've worked."
"Axel…thank you," Roxas said. "You didn't have to do this!" he smiled.
"Hey, I wanted to," Axel said. "I wanted to make sure that whatever happens, you'll have something to remember me by."
"Come on, Axel, nothing's gonna happen!" Roxas said confidently. "And how could I forget someone like you?" he grinned.
Axel was silent for a moment.
"I don't know…it was just a funny feeling I had, that's all."
Roxas paused, looking over the new Keyblade.
"Now I feel bad…all I got you was a tub of hair gel."
Axel laughed. "Hey, it's not like I don't need it," he said, running his hand through his spiky red hair.
"What would the others say about this?" Roxas wondered aloud, examining the Keyblade closer.
"Do they have to know?" Axel said with a sideways grin.
"Oh, okay, it'll be our little secret then?" Roxas smirked.
"Yep. No one has to know except us. Those guys would probably think it's weird anyway."
"I can still take it on missions, right?"
"Of course! With that, you'll be unstoppable," he said confidently.
Roxas paused. "Does it have a name?"
"Yeah," Axel said.
"The Bond of Flame."
"I like that."
Roxas smiled.
"Alright," Axel said after a few minutes passed. "Let's get back down there before they wonder where we got to."
He went up to his bedroom door and pressed his ear against it.
"I think Demyx is finishing up his song…or maybe he's starting a new one…"
He shuddered.
"OK, let's go," he said, gesturing for Roxas to follow him.
"Wait! Change your Keyblade back! Here, I'll show you how…"
Axel showed Roxas how to change the chain on his Keyblade, and it returned to its original form. Roxas took the chain and put it back in the small box and held it tight.
They left the room together, Axel shutting the door behind them. Roxas began to run toward his room.
"Put it in a safe place, Roxas," Axel said as the blonde began to run off. "Don't forget about it!"
"I will!" Roxas called back, "And I won't!"
He sprinted excitedly down the hall, his footsteps echoing in the empty stillness.
Axel returned to the castle, alone.
He had just seen Roxas off. Roxas had left the Organization, and Axel, behind.
Axel walked in contemplative silence, his footsteps echoing in the halls, and Roxas' words still echoing in his mind.
"Why did the Keyblade choose me?…I have to know…No one would miss me…"
Suddenly, a clear thought of his own came to him.
Axel walked to Roxas' room as quietly as possible, since the other members were all still asleep. The door wasn't locked, so Axel silently slipped inside and began searching. He dug in drawers and boxes, looked over every shelf, even on the floor, until he came upon something he was hoping not to find.
A small box, with the Bond of Flame key chain inside.
Roxas had forgotten it. He'd left it behind. Just like how he'd forgotten about his best friend.
Axel was overcome by emotions he had tried to suppress on the way back to the castle; feelings of emptiness, desolation and grief, greater than he had ever experienced before. Feelings he wasn't supposed to have. He sank onto Roxas' bed.
He put his face in his hands, and wept.
He remained there for some time, until another clear thought came into his mind.
He got up off of Roxas' bed, wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, took the small box with the key chain, and left the room.
I will get this back to Roxas, one way or another, Axel thought, as he put the small box in the inside pocket of his coat.
And he carried it with him, from that day forward.
Sora knelt down on the floor. In the swirling tunnel known as Betwixt and Between, where a brave young man had just given his life to save that of the Keybearer's. Just a few moments earlier, he had been lying there in front of him.
Now, he was gone.
Sora looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel, looking for a sign, a ray of light, some indication that the young man was rewarded for his noble sacrifice.
There was nothing there.
He looked back down at the ground again. Then he spotted something lying on the ground where the young man had been.
He reached over and picked it up, and held it in the palm of his hand.
It was a chain for the Keyblade, like many he had collected before. But unlike the others, this one, on the end of the chain, had a charm that looked to be a tiny replica of one of the weapons that the man had used.
"Axel."
Tears formed in his eyes, and he got the distinct feeling that they were not entirely his own.
The end
END NOTE: Who would've thought Axel was so creative? XD
Eh, sorry, the ending of this probably made more than a few people cry...originally, I ended this with Axel putting the box in his coat pocket and vowing to get it back to Roxas. But, when I sent this to one of my two best friends, who is also a writer (but not of fanfics), she told me that that ending wasn't really clear enough, and when I looked back, I had to agree. I wrote the ending with the assumption that the reader would put 2 and 2 together and see the point I was trying to make at the end, but I then realized that I shouldn't try to assume so much of the reader, and that the ending would probably just confuse some people. So I wrote up the more finalizing ending and added it to the end of this story. And to be honest, I like it better.
Anyway, I hope some people liked this, despite its being horribly, beautifully depressing. U.U