Cold, Axel thought as his sight faded. He was watching the familiar blue eyes of a stranger as his life left. He knew who it was, and it wasn't the one he wanted to see.

A storm of sensation flooded his mind. Death, he thought, is just supposed to be a load of black and then nothing else, right?

Epiphany.

What if you don't have a heart?

"Like that would matter," A voice said. A warm voice, if apathetic… familiar. Familiar, that word, he clung to that word. "Open your eyes, Axel."

The world spun into focus around him. An infinite sea of stars stretched on for as far as the eye could see. It was a real ocean of stars, however, as the sky above was pure black, a cloak of velvet that occasionally dripped its shadows into the sea below.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Steady, and slow. Each drop for each heartbeat that Axel felt in his throat as he looked upon the figure in front of him.

Axel knew every line of that body. Every wisp of blond hair, every muscle, every glance…

"Roxas!"

The younger Nobody did not turn around; he instead sighed.

"Roxas, I'm sorry, I-"

"Why are you apologizing?"

The slender form began to fade.

"Don't leave me!" Axel cried, forcing words out that he'd forgotten to say aloud before, the last time the blond had walked away from him. "Please, you can't-" He got to his feet and walked to the other, groping for his hand in the semi-darkness. From each of his footsteps, a ripple spread across the surface of the stars. "L-look, we'll, we'll-" He tripped, and hit his knees. "I-it'll be better this time, no Organization, no-"

"There is no 'this time,' Axel."

The single step that Roxas took somehow put a mile between them. As if on a cue, the stars beneath him began to swallow his legs, creeping up in shimmering tendrils, ensnaring him, and pulling him down. The redhead yelled in protest, calling for Roxas, cursing the Nobodies, before finally, Roxas turned around.

Axel felt what little heat was left in his body leave him. Roxas' blue eyes were damp from tears, but they seemed to hold no remorse. They held no love, and little rage.

"We don't get a second chance, Axel."

He turned and kept walking through the infinity, farther and farther from Axel with every step.

"And why not?!" Axel yelled at his back, "Why not?! Is it because we don't have hearts? Is that all?" He reached, fighting against the snare beneath him, but only fell flat on his face, arm extended towards the retreating figure of his friend; of his love. His voice was quiet, his strength leaving. "Don't walk away from me like you have all the answers. Can we have a second chance? Ever?"

The footsteps stopped as Axel felt himself slipping, floating downwards.

And he heard his last thought,

Fire burns in more ways than flame.