Standard Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and any of their characters don't belong to me. I wish they did but hey, what can you do.

This is in fact my first time writting in a very long time, and my first Kingdom Hearts fic, be gentle please.

Beautiful Letdown

By Keirra Maxwell

The only sounds seemed to eminent from around the silent figure, his legs pulled up tightly against his chest while he watched the moonlight play across the reflective waters of the ocean. Sora closed his eyes slowly, allowing the cool spray of salt water to wash across his face while his thoughts flowed over the events of the past.

…Roxas…

The boy who had been such a large part of his entire adventure who had barely truly lived for a moment of it all. The keyblade master could still feel him, quietly observing life as it passed him by. A aching longing and sadness filling his body like a wildfire as his mind idly whispered over the memory of Axel's sacrifice within the space between worlds

-Flashback-

Axel glanced over with that cocky look that just begged to be knocked down, his charkas spinning in his hands as the nobodies slithered around him, lunging for the redhead's slim body.

"Watch this" Axel's voice floated back to Sora as the flames leaped up around him growing stronger as the power in the air reached unbearable levels.

Something in Sora's mind snapped, screaming out that he should stop the flames now. "Axel knows what he's doing" Sora could barely choke out the reassuring words, the feelings of nearly debilitating sorrow and pain causing tears to slip down his pale cheeks, burned away instantly by the heat of the flames kissing his face.

The battlefield lay like a cemetery, empty and completely silent as Sora couldn't help but gaze around in awe of the emptiness where only moments before held a small army.

Turn around…

Sora obeyed the mental command that seemed to come from a voice deep inside his mind. Axel's prone form was wavering as small specks of energy… Axel's life floated up and away.

"You're fading." Sora looked at the redhead, barely managing to smirk at the sarcasm that came even from the fading man.

"Well that's what happens when you throw your whole being into an attack, but then again, I'm not supposed to exist at all. That is what a nobody is"

"Why did you do it?" Sora barely managed to slip out quietly, a hesitant pause holding in his heart like it needed an answer.

I need to know. Please Axel

Axel seemed to look straight through his eyes searching for and locking onto what he was looking for.

"I wanted to see Roxas again"

You said you would miss me…you didn't lie.

Sora wanted to close his eyes and look away, not allow to let Axel see the tears that threatened to spill out unbidden. Something, someone wouldn't let him and kept his eyes directly on the man laying in front of him.

"See I …liked that guy" Each word coming from Axel's lips seemed like a beautiful letdown to Sora. Each word a stolen away moment or promise unable to be fulfilled.

" When I was with him…. he made me feel like I had a heart too"

We both did then. No matter what they say.

-End Flashback-

The boy's eyes opened slowly, a crystalline tear sliding down his cheek. Dark mousey colored hair fading into a shimmering blonde. Sora had given in, allowed Roxas this moment to feel the air across his skin as his entire body shook with pent up sobs of grief and longing. If to be a nobody was to not feel at all, why did it feel as though his heart was gone, ripped away in an inferno of grief? Why take everything away from him yet give nothing in return? Sora had Riku to chase away the nagging loneness that came from wielding a keyblade, why take away HIS solace.

A gentle hand swept away the tear from the sobbing boy's cheek. Leaving a trail of warm flickers like the kisses of flames along the trail. Roxas lifted his head sharply to gaze into deep turquoise depths.

"Riku?" Roxas's confusion was apparent in his lost look at his other half's lover. Only one person had made him feel like that, like he was on fire and nothing could put out the flames.

"I know you don't love me Roxas" Riku said sadly, his heart wrenching at the other boy's pain knowing that Sora felt Roxas' pain as keenly as his own but helpless to do anything about it. " But I know who you do love…Ansem the Wise knew that you would be in pain knowing what happened to Axel." A small smile crossed his lips, as he crouched down in front of the former nobody.

"They made me a somebody, just for you"

Roxas knew that voice and the heart he wasn't even sure was his own seemed to beat harder at the implication. "Axel…"

"Crazy kid took me in, made me part of him so now make with the saying hello again got it?" Axel smirked in his new other half's body, arms already around Roxas as the keyblader threw himself into the taller man's arms.

Axel tightened his arms around the smaller boy's frame, pressing him tightly to him. The moon seemed to radiate a softer light just for this moment as the lovers looked deep into the other's eyes before their lips met in a long awaited kiss.

"I told you I'd see you in the next life"