Woohoo, my first AkuRoku fanfic! 'Tis my little baby. -pets- Anyway, the idea for this story actually came from an icon, haha. I messed around with what happens when you join with your Other a tad, but I don't think anyone'll mind, ne? Thanks for reading and reviews are greatly appreciated!
Scattered raindrops began to pelt against the cracked pavement. Neon lights fluttered and faded in the dank dark. Heavy footsteps made their way up the street and stopped suddenly at a recognized voice.
No one would miss me.
"That's not true!" The eighth member pleaded. "It's never been true…I would."
But the boy kept walking as a steady downpour drenched the World that Never Was. The world that never was supposed to be. Just like him.
Axel simply stared at his hands in disbelief. Roxas was truly leaving him. Forever. His greatest fear really was coming true. After so many years of nothing, finding something, something that gave him emotions and a sense of hope, had been unbelievable. But now everything Axel had ever dreamed of was rushing away in search of his destiny.
Destiny…What a cruel thing it was. Destiny had surely brought them together and now it was ripping them apart. Memories came flooding into his mind and he couldn't stop them. Each one was bittersweet, a memory that would be lost when Roxas finally found his Other. He would be happy, rightfully joined to live the complete life he deserved, forgetting everything about being incomplete.
Forgetting everything they had done together.
Forgetting everything they had cherished.
Forgetting him.
Axel simply couldn't bear to think of it. Tears dripped from his eyes and his body shook with painful sobs.
So this is what heartbreak feels like, he thought. Well, I should be glad I don't have a heart. It'd be ten times worse than it already is…
His thoughts quickly raced back to the night before. The conversation hadn't been pleasant and Axel's final coaxing hadn't worked to make Roxas stay with the Organization. But Axel suddenly realized the depth of what he had said.
This time, he would try.
The empty shadows rose up from the ground. He quickly and skillfully used his Keyblades to banish them back to the shadows once more. But he was only aiding in their plot, freeing hearts to help the Organization that chained down his.
I won't stand for it anymore.
"Where's Sora?" Roxas yelled out to the looming sky above.
"Geez, you're always so hasty, Roxas. Can't you just enjoy being lazy for once?"
The familiar voice brought a pang to Roxas' "heart." Why…Why does he have to come now? Now…the time when I need him the most is the time I have to push him away. He didn't hear the approaching steps until they had stopped directly behind him. But still, Roxas did not turn around. He would not lose the battle he had desperately tried not to fight.
"You're the one who said that if you have a dream, you should act. One of life's little rules, you know?" He scoffed, trying to hide the pain in his voice, but against his wish, it was obviously there.
"Well…rules are meant to be broken. That's another one of life's rules."
"Axel…why are you here? I told you not to follow me."
"Just…just saying goodbye. You ditched me pretty bad back there. You wouldn't even listen to what I had to say! Talk about rude with a capitol 'r.' I thought I taught you better manners than that, Roxas."
A smile crept across Roxas' lips, thankfully hidden from Axel. "Yeah, well, it's not like you were ever a great teacher in the first place. To tell you the truth, you really weren't much of anything. To me."
"Ahh, c'mon Roxas, we both know that's not true…We were always the best duo in the Organization. Nobody could stop—"
"I stopped us. You never meant anything to me. You were only a tool to get what I wanted from the Organization."
It was to be the last night Axel would ever see him again. But it was just another ordinary night. Nothing seemed different, except for the lingering feeling of regret and hurt over the two.
"So…you're really gonna go, aren't you?" Axel sighed.
"Yeah…it's all I have to do with my life, anyway. The Organization is only using me. The only way I can fight against them is if I'm whole, with my Other."
"But Roxas…why do you need to fight? Why do you really…need to be whole?" Axel stared at the young boy, whose eyes held so much feeling that it hurt to look into them.
"Why?" Number XIII jumped up angrily. "Why, Axel? Because I'm nothing! I've never been something! This is my chance to find out who I really am, and you'd rather that I didn't have that? That I didn't have a heart and that I didn't try to destroy this Organization we both hate?"
"Roxas, you're not nothing…You may be incomplete, but… you're not nothing to me." Axel stood up and crossed to place a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Liar!" He screamed and threw off the hand. "All I've ever been is nothing and all I ever will be is nothing! I've never had anything and no one has ever cared for me! How could they, when there's nothing to care for? I just want to stop it all, and you're in my way!"
"If it's what you really want, Roxas, I'll never stop you." The whisper echoed in Roxas' head. Empty silence came over the room.
Axel stared at him with sad expectation. Suddenly, sharp blue eyes meet bright green ones in a fierce gaze.
"Stop trying, Axel. It doesn't mean a thing to me." He turned and rapidly walked across the room, placing his hand on the door handle.
"Well, Roxas, commit this to memory, then…I'm just a guy that never tried."
Roxas paused, letting the words sink in, before ripping open the door and slamming it shut.
The pain of Roxas' words seeped into Axel's "heart" and ripped at his false emotions for a second time. The feeling of heartbreak.
"Roxas…do you remember what I told you last night?"
Once again, a weighty silence drifted down upon the two.
If this is really the last time…The boy thought. "Yeah, I do."
Thin and shaking arms encircled his waist. Roxas turned around questionably as he felt Axel place his head on his shoulder. But if this is really the last time…
"I'm a guy that never tried. Got it memorized?" The redhead whispered into his ear. Roxas nodded. "Well…I tried for you, Roxas. I really tried."
"Axel—" A slight squeeze from Axel shushed him.
"If it's the last thing you remember when you're whole, Roxas…just remember…that I loved you."
"Axel—!" The young boy spun around to face the only person who had ever truly cared for him.
But he had already disappeared within a pathway of darkness.
A solitary tear slid down Roxas' cheek as he turned to face his destiny. He stared up at the top of Memory's Skyscraper and saw the lone figure, waiting patiently at its top.
"I love you, too."