Roxas woke up abruptly, sitting up on his bed so quickly that he saw spots and his covers flew everywhere. He clutched his head in his hands, breathing heavily trying to calm himself. Flashes of the all too familiar dream came into his mind, his head becoming heavier in his hands.
"Let's meet again, in the next life..."
The all too familiar voice rang through his aching head. Roxas took a deep breath, the pain receding slightly. "Another dream..." He closed his eyes. "Whats wrong with me?" The dreams he had were increasing greatly. The dreams that felt too real to be just dreams. Dreams with mysterious dark shadow creatures, an object called a keyblade, and that man, the one who was always there, the one that haunted his endless dreams.
"Roxas! You're gonna be late if you don't get your ass out of bed!"
The blond was shaken out of his trance. His brother, Cloud, was obviously pissed off at something. Roxas looked around his room quickly, his head no longer in great amounts of pain. He saw most of everything in his room packed up and quickly remembered what day it was. Shit. I move in to college today, and I'm already off to bad start. The blond quickly hopped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face. Not bothering to take a shower, he put on a white sleeveless hoodie with a black hood, black jeans, and his favorite black and white checkered Vans. He fixed his messed up hair, not really doing much other than quickly running his hand through it. Roxas grabbed most of stuff packed in his room and rushed down the stairs, Cloud helped with the rest. They quickly dumped everything in the car and finally started on their way to the University of Twilight Town.
They had been in the car for about thirty minutes. The ride was uncomfortably silent as Roxas listened to his I-pod, paying no mind to Cloud at all.
"So..." His older brother said awkwardly as his looked at the road. "Finally going to college huh?"
The younger blond paused his music, looking up at his brother "I don't really want to have this conversation with you Cloud." Roxas stated simply. "You're my brother, not my father, no matter the age difference."
"Well, I was just trying to make this ride a little less... Uncomfortable." Cloud looked over at Roxas through the corner of his eye. "Unless you would prefer to listen to music the whole time while I'm doing you this favor of dropping you off. Driving isn't as much as it seems, especially when your passenger diliberatly ignores you during the entire ride."
Roxas sighed deeply. "Fine. What do you want to talk about then?" There was no point in asking the question, he already knew what his brother wanted to say. He was going to talk about how college can be a sketchy place. How there will be drugs and drinking and how he should resist temptation and not do any if that crap. Little did Cloud know, Roxas was already more than a little tainted. He had already done a lot of things he shouldn't have, and continues to do some of them still. He has sex with people he barely knows, does drugs occasionally, drinks on a regular basis, and smokes. The has just never listened to his older brother's warnings, and didn't think he'd start now.
"Well, I know things will be more tempting there, like drugs, alcohol and sex, but be careful. Those things will fuck you up bad."
"Yeah I get it Cloud. You say this all the time, don't you think that by now I would already have it memorized?" Roxas smirked at the statement he had just made. Man, if only he knew.
"I know." Cloud turned his head to Roxas frowning slightly. "Its just... We're the only part of the family thats really left, and even though you are only my half brother, I don't want to see anything bad happen to you."
Roxas cringed. This was the reason he didn't want to have this conversation with his older brother. Cloud had always managed says things that make him feel more like crap than he already does. It was the reason he tried his hardest to hide everyting form him, because if Cloud ever found out, he knew he was in for a lot of shit.
His older brother stopped talking, and the ride was silent for the rest of the way.
Cloud helped drop Roxas' stuff off in his dorm. Everything from his favorite posters, to his favorite video games were placed on the only uninhabited bed in the room. The older blond started walking towards the door, he looked back when he reached the doorway.
"Be careful. Call every once and a while. And... Try to visit."
"I will Cloud." Roxas ran his hand through his hair. "I'll try and call tonight when I'm more settled."
Cloud walked through the door, dissapearing when he turned the corner of the hallway. Roxas imediantly walked into the bathroom. He stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower. I can already tell this is going to be a long four years... He stood under the warm water, closing his eyes, a rush of thoughts coming to his head..
The tall redhead entered the room. He noticed that the second bed in the dorm was already occupied by things, which meant that his new roommate was finally here.
"Man." He said looking at the pile of random assortments. "Thats a lot of crap. Wonder if he knows he doesn't need it all..." He walked over to the bed. The redhead looked at some of the random things that occupied the bed. He picked up a bag, ready to explore its contents, but before he could take a close look at anything, he heard the shower in the bathroom stop.
That's funny. He thought. I didn't even hear it running when I walked in. He quickly turned to face the door, and saw a little blond boy stepping out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his slim, yet muscular, waist. He stopped drying his hair with another towel and stared at the tall redhead, his bright blue eyes opening wide.
Roxas stared at the man. Wild fiery red hair, a strong, slim build, teardrop shaped tattoos under his eyes. Those bright emerald green eyes, the eyes that always haunted his dreams. He stared for a long moment brofore finally speaking, his voice barely audible due to the shock of the all too familar man stading in front of him.
"Do I..." The blond hesitated, running his hand through his hair. "Have we met before?"
"Not that I know of..." the redhead carefully studied the other boy, mainly looking at the boy's familar bright blue eyes. "Although, you look terribly familiar. What's your name?"
The blond looked down. "Roxas..." He answered softly. This man, is too familar...
"Roxas... Damn, where have I heard that before..."
"What about you?" Roxas said eagerly, looking back up to the other man's face. "What's your name?"
The redhead smirked, running his hand through his red spikes. "The name's Axel."
"Axel..." Images flashed through his head. Scenes from the dreams he had replayed themselves in that instant.
"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"
"Lets meet again in the next life."
Roxas clutched his head tightly, nearly falling to the floor at the rush of pain that graced him, he closed his eyes tightly as the scenes continued. Axel saw this and quickly ran towards the boy, catching him before he had another chance to fall. The contact made Roxas cringe, more scenes flashed through his mind.
"Get yourself together!" Axel shouted shaking Roxas slightly.
"Get off me!" Roxas pushed the redhead away, supporting himself by clutching the counter tightly. "Don't touch me!" He breathed heavily, the pain in his head finally receding.
"OK, just calm down. What the hell happened to you?"
Roxas slammed to door to the bathroom shut, completely ignoring the fact that Axel was still standing right in front of it. He quickly put on his clothes, running outside of the bathroom when he was done. Her grabbed the bag that Axel was starting to look through earlier, and spirited out of the dorm, unsure of where he was going to go.
Axel stared after the boy, even when he could no longer be seen. He walked back to his bed and noticed a picture, He picked it up a observed it carefully. It was Roxas standing with someone whom Axel assumed was part of the family. The redhead looked at the blond's bright blue eyes, seeing them in his memories. "Roxas... Who are you?"
Roxas sat under a tree outside, watching the almost permanent light of twilight over the town. He held a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. He sighed shakely, still composing himself from what just happened The blond took a long, deep drag of the cigarette.
"What the hell." He mumbled, smoke seeping out of his mouth. "Whats wrong with me?" Roxas took a sip of his beer, scowling as he did so. "Why is that guy so.. Familiar?" He looked out to the horizon taking another deep drag of his cigarette. "Axel... Who are you?" As soon as the name escaped his lips, the pain returned to his head, scenes once again flashing through his mind.
Axel and Roxas were sitting on the clock-tower, like they always did this time of day. Roxas had had one thing on his mind all day, something that he remembered Axel saying a lot. He leaned his head on the redheads shoulder, his eyes half lidded. "Axel, do you really think we have a next life?"
"Who knows. But if we do, I bet we'll find each other." Axel looked down at Roxas, a smirk on his face.
"How can you be so sure?" Roxas asked looking in Axel's bright green eyes.
"I just am Roxas."
Roxas put out his cigarette and took deep breathes. This time, the pain didn't go away, instead it lingered stronger than ever. He dropped his beer and clutched his head in both hands. He tried standing, but the pain was too intense, he fell back to the floor, lying down clutching his head tightly.
"D-damn...." The pain was too much. Roxas could feel himself slipping away slowly. Darkness seeped into his vision as the pain grew more intense, making him cringe. The darkness engulfed his vision completely as he passed out, the pain finally receding as he closed his eyes.