I sat alone on the top of the Bell Tower in Twilight Town. I was waiting for either Axel, Xion, or both. I hadn't seen Xion in over a week. I was worried. Every time I asked Axel about it, he always seemed distant and mysterious. He knows something. I know it. He's just not telling me. Every time my thoughts drifted to Xion, I felt this… strange knot in my stomach. That worried me even more, 'cause I had no clue what the hell it was. Oddly enough, the knot gets worse when I worry about it. Sometimes it gets so bad I feel like throwing up. Either way, I had been setting up on the Tower for 5 minutes or so before I heard footsteps approaching from the left. I didn't look up to see who it was. I knew as soon as I heard the voice. Axel has an unmistakable silky voice. "You're early." he said.
I glanced up at him with a slightly disgruntled look. "No… you're just late." I said matter-of-factly. Axel sauntered over and flopped down beside me, flinging his legs over the edge of the Tower. He braced himself then gave me the standard-issue goofy Axel grin. I sighed. I really didn't know where to begin with the conversation, so I just threw out a random topic. "Today makes 255." I stated.
"What's that about?" Axel said with a laugh.
"It's been that many days since I first joined the Organization…. Man, time flies…." I said, my voice trailing off.
"So, you got the number memorized, do ya'?" Axel smarted off with a spin on his usual Got it memorized? comment.
I took no time in responding. "Well yeah. Gotta' hold on to something, right? It's not like I have memories from before the Organization. Don't you remember? I acted like a zombie…."
Axel reached up and laid a hand on my back. "Right… that first week, you could… barely form a sentence. But, c'mon! You're still kind of a zombie!" Axel exclaimed, slapping me hard on my back.
"Oh, thanks!" I said, swatting at him. We both laughed. It got awkward for a few seconds when the conversation trailed off. But, Axel brought up a random topic, more or less just to show off his knowledge.
"Hey, Roxas. I bet you don't know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of all these colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest." he said, extending his arm towards the horizon for emphasis.
"Like I asked, know-it-all!" I huffed. We both laughed heartily and deeply, increasing our laughter when we looked at each other. We both settled down after a minute or two. I glanced behind me, towards the pathway that leads to the edge we were setting on. "Where is she?" I asked with a slight whine in my voice. I was really worried about Xion. I turned back around and saw a very strange look on Axel's face. I gave him a What's up? look. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to hear.
"Roxas… I don't think Xion will be coming back…."