"I love you, I love you, I love you," he babbles it like a mantra, believing every single word, every single time.

And Roxas wants to shove him away, tell him, no, no he doesn't, he can't-- but he's looking at him like that; like he's the only thing keeping Axel on this plain of sanity. So he lets the eighth Organization member shower his face with kisses. Lets him spill the lies he so swears are true. And he wants to cry, he thinks, because the man only ever looks more broken when he leaves in the dark-light of dawn.

X

"Where do we go when we die?"

X

He imagines death, for a Nobody, would be painless. He imagines feeling lighter as he watches himself turn to ash and drift away. Black smoke, black smoke, like demons. Just like demons. Everything about them - just like demons.

X

"I feel like I'm not supposed to be here; like I'm not supposed to exist..."

X

She opened his eyes to the "memory of feelings" he'd be experiencing. The hunch and the vibe that maybe he really wasn't supposed to be here. That when his heart was ripped from his old-self, his conscience should have faded and he should be more of a nothing than he currently is.

X

"I can't stay here anymore. I have to know! ... Come with me?"

X

The petite Nobody, the girl he thinks he would love if he could, is gone. She fled sometime in the night, Axel tells him. Looking for her purpose, or to prove she doesn't have one.

And Roxas knows Axel killed her.

X

"No one would miss me."

X

He hears the exclamation, the deny to his claim, but he doesn't let the other know. He's spent too much time here, letting himself be strung along by the entire Organization. He's sick of it, he's tired, and maybe he really does just want to fade, fade away.

He's taking the coward's way out, he knows, because he won't really be nothing in nothing, if he goes back to Sora. He's being nothing in something, and he accepts that's the best he'll ever be able to do.

X

"Looks like my summer vacation is... over."