Disclaimer: Don't own KH or any of its characters.
A/N: My first KH fic! Okay, that's a lie... It's actually my third by FFnet deleted my first when it was being delete-happy last year, and I haven't posted my second. Muahaha. Anyway, this was done for an LJ fanfiction challenge community called psychunderscore30. The prompt was 'delusion'.
a moth to the flame
The brush of Axel's hand against his is enough to set Roxas's veins aflame, bursting for something, something he doesn't know how to feel. His skin burns as the redhead looks him over carefully, inspecting every inch of his body, leaving him feeling exposed, though Axel's actions are innocent enough. He is searching the blonde for cuts, scrapes, anything he may regret having done later. After all, even if Roxas was lower ranked, Axel would never get away with mortally wounding the Keyblade's Chosen One, even if they were just training.
Roxas can feel something pulsing within his chest, but what it is he does not know because, as a Nobody, he does not have the right to. He insists that Axel didn't hurt him in the slightest, but the taller is an overprotective friend and goes through with his inspection anyway. The blonde boy is all too aware of the heat his friend's gaze brings as it burns it's way around his small frame and he is sure he'll catch fire any second.
Number thirteen watches as his comrade concludes his inspection with a small smile. How can he be so calm? Did he really not know the agony he was putting the younger boy through? Axel's fire was everything and anything within him that he wanted to feel. He was his anger, his frustration, and something else – something else that Roxas couldn't find the words to express, forgotten with most of his memories. Feelings were delusions to him, and it wasn't fair that he couldn't feel them…
… All because of Axel and his fire and how he burned, burned, burned.
So the next day when the tables had turned, Roxas made sure the redhead felt the flame and the red-hot steel of the keyblade pressed upon his chest. He saw Axel's eyes flicker in confusion, wondering just how he'd been bested by a mere child. He wondered if Axel knew now, if Axel knew what it was like to really want -- need -- to put out the fire searing through him. The redhead glared at the blonde, chakrams drawn and ablaze.
Then Roxas drew back, eyes to the floor in self-disappointment. Axel's chakrams vanished as he reached up to the rub the spot on his chest where the keyblade had nearly pierced him.
Roxas threw down the blade angrily, ignoring it as it leapt back into his hand resentfully before disappearing. He wanted to tell him something but he didn't know what it was. The feeling was a memory that he was no longer allowed to enjoy. A mere delusion to a Nobody.
"I can't put you out," he whispered as he walked away from the fire's blaze still licking at the corners of the words he couldn't remember how to say.
So, how was it? Click that little button over yonder and tell me!