Author's Note: Alright, this is my first story ever posted here. So, I would appreciate feedback of any sort. Well, except flames. Those will be ignored or used to fuel Axel's fire. This is a three-shot. I am already finished writing the other two parts but I am going to wait to post them at least a day or so, that way readers have time to read the first part.
Warnings: Um... Akuroku. Nothing explicit. That's why it's rated T. But if you don't like the pairing, boy x boy, or for some reason you just don't like me, hit that little back button you have right now.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned... unless you count my collection of action figures...
Anyways, please enjoy the story.
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.:Part I:.
.:What If?:.
He always was different.
Number XIII. The keyblade's chosen one. Roxas.
He might have been a nobody but he could feel. He didn't really understand since he couldn't remember anything of his life when he was Sora, but he could feel. Yet, he always tried so hard to act like the rest of us, "emotionless". He tried to fit in because he didn't want to be different. He wanted to belong.
But he wasn't only different from us because of that. Actually he wasn't only different from us. He was different from anyone I've ever met.
He had this way about him. When I first met him, he was like a zombie. I don't think there was really anything in that blond covered head of his.
After a week or so that started to change. He became the Roxas I knew.
He could be so carefree at times. Laughing at the stupid things I would say while we would sit on the clock tower after our missions, watching the sunset and eating his favorite Sea Salt Ice Cream. The kid was addicted to that stuff.
I was addicted to him.
At other times though, he could be so serious. It was then that he'd ask me these questions. Sometimes they would be so random or out of nowhere that I'd have to really look at him to see if he was serious or just playing around.
The first time, we were in our usual spot.
Everything was pretty normal. We were eating our ice creams and bantering back and forth about this and that.
The conversation eventually faded out and we just sat, watching the sky slowly turn from orange to red to deep purple dotted with little twinkling lights.
The question that broke the comfortable silence was "What if the stars went out?"
He said it so quietly, I didn't know if it was really meant for me to hear. I remember staring at him for a few moments trying to decipher what he was thinking. When I couldn't, I just answered with that cocky smirk plastered on my face, "Well, then it'd be real dark right now and we'd die from falling off this clock tower."
There was a soft sigh followed by more silence. I don't really think that was the answer he was hoping for.
I just sat there and watched him think about it for a long time. I watched his face take on the slightest expression of being troubled. I watched his brows furrow slightly in thought. I watched the way the starlight made his cerulean eyes seem even deeper and bathed his skin in a dull glow.
Then suddenly, he turned to me and smiled that world stopping smile of his, "Tomorrow we should get some more Sea Salt."
Just like that everything was back to normal. I was teasing him about how he was gonna turn into the stuff if he kept eating so much of it and he was threatening to hang me from the ceiling of the Gathering Room by his keyblade, again.
The next time he asked me one of those questions, we were sparring out in one of The Castle That Never Was's forgotten court yards.
Roxas had had a run in with Saïx and needed to blow off some steam, so he came and asked me to spar.
I didn't question him, I just followed. If he wanted to tell me, he would. That's just how we worked.
We sparred for a while, exchanging blow upon blow. Roxas didn't hold back, as he released all his frustrations, and neither did I.
Eventually, when we were both exhausted and out of breath, Roxas dropped his keyblade to the ground where it vanished in a flash of light and darkness. My chakrams followed suit in twin bursts of flame.
We stood for awhile, catching our breath, and then he finally spoke up, telling me about what had happened. "I failed my mission. I didn't collect enough hearts."
I wasn't surprised. He had been sent to Halloween Town to collect 1000 hearts by himself and was only given an hour to do so. We're talking 1000 Search Ghosts and Neoshadows. No one could've pulled that off.
I just looked at him for awhile. Comforting was never really my thing.
That's when I saw the marks on his face. His eye was a nasty shade of purple and his lip was busted open. Now, I knew I hadn't made those marks.
I was just about to tell him I'd go even his score with Saïx when he spoke up again, "What if it always rained?"
My mind faltered for a moment and all the aggression I had felt quickly dissipated and was replaced with confusion.
Then I noticed that it was raining.
I watched the droplets fall and hit the stone covered ground one after another. I could feel my hair starting to droop and stick to my face and neck. I looked back to Roxas and watched his hair dampen and do the same as the water cascaded down from the sky and drench us and the world around.
It was strangely beautiful.
"Well, if it rained all the time, we'd all be wet and cold." My response made him chuckle slightly, the sound so brilliant in my ears as it drown out the pouring rain.
"You're right, only Demyx would be happy."
After that the questions became deeper. I would have a hard time finding a serious answer. Philosophy was never my thing. It was more Zexion's and apparently Roxas' as well.
I could always tell when he was going to ask one. He would stop whatever he was doing and get this real curious look about him.
Once, it was when we were in the Castle Library. He was standing on my shoulders trying to find a book on the top shelf. The kid loved to read.
He was reaching out for a heavy looking book but suddenly just stopped, mid-motion. His arm dropped back down to rest on my head. "What if the worlds, all this, all of us, are just part of one big storybook with pictures?"
I stood there silently, stunned by that question. I had to really think about it. The idea had never really crossed my mind but now that it was there, it was really something to consider.
By the time I had an answer for him, he had already gone back to his book collecting. "I-I think if that were the case, we would deserve a happy ending."
I watched his movements hesitate slightly. I think that surprised him, like he wasn't expecting an even remotely serious answer, if he was even expecting an answer at all.
"That sounds nice. But not all stories have a fairy tale happy ending." That second part came out quieter, an afterthought. But then he washed away the almost depressing thought with one of his gorgeous smiles that made his eyes light up. "Let's go to the beach tomorrow."
I couldn't help but smile at that. His smile was contagious.
The questions stopped for awhile after that. He would still stop what he was doing from time to time and act like he wanted to ask another one but he would stop before the words left his mouth and return to whatever it was he was doing before.
When he finally asked another one, it was the last question he had. The one he'd been trying to ask all along and just didn't know when or how.
It was the only one I knew the answer to, without even having to think about it.
We were up on the clock tower like you would find us any other day. Our ice creams had already been eaten and we were just talking about random things: how our missions went, how Demyx got locked in the bathroom, if Saïx was really a werewolf or something...
Roxas was laughing and smiling like there wasn't a trouble in the world.
I was thinking about how much I loved his laugh, his smile, his cute pout when he got angry, him.
He asked me what I was staring at and without even thinking of the consequences, I blurted out, "You." He looked shocked and taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered and just smirked at me. "Like the view?"
"Most definitely," was all I said before leaning in slowly. He leaned in as well, eyes slipping shut, and met me half way.
The kiss was chaste and soft, but conveyed so much emotion.
That's when I realized, I could feel. I could all along. It was just that Xemnas had drilled it into our heads that we couldn't, made us believe we were just the empty shells of our Somebodies.
Who knows, maybe that had been true at one point, but in that moment I realized that once Roxas came along that changed for everyone, not just myself. When he came into the picture it was like a switch went off and everyone gained back what they had lost.
All because of him, Roxas. The nobody of the keyblade master himself. The Key of Destiny. My best friend and the one I loved.
When the kiss broke moments later, he sat for a few, eyes still closed, and then finally spoke up in a voice no louder than a whisper, "What if we had hearts?"
There was no hesitation, no pause in time before I answered with certainty in my voice, "If we had hearts nothing would change. I'd still love you with all my being."
