A/N: My first attempt at something action-y!
Heat of Battle
Sweat was trickling down Roxas' back.
Behind him, he could feel the heat of Axel's flames, devouring his share of Heartless.
"I think I like working with Demyx better," Roxas growled, slicing through the umpteenth shadow. "At least the water isn't so fucking hot. These coats really aren't meant to be worn with so much heat."
A chakrum spiraled into his line of vision as Axel circled around. "Don't be such a little bitch, Thirteen. It's not my fire making you hot."
"It's fire, Eight, of course it's what's making me hot." A grunt from the shorter Nobody as an unchecked enemy barreled into him. "Dammit, that one was yours!" The shadow had already cut a long claw along his thigh before he dispatched it with a backhanded slash. A moment later a line of flame shot up, bare inches from the blond. He danced back with a hiss. "Watch it!"
"It's yours if it comes within a meter of you," the redhead chuckled, striding toward a fresh rush of yellow-eyed monsters. "Maybe I'll just burn you next time."
Blue eyes snapped to the lanky other, as he levelled the light keyblade at him. "I dare you." With a casual flick, the blade crushed another incoming enemy.
Axel only laughed, sending more flames in his direction. "Look out behind you."
Roxas jumped aside as the fire overtook the Heartless that had been about to lunge at him. "You're aiming at me now, aren't you," he accused.
"Don't be so narcissistic. I'm trying to kill more of them than you so I can put it in the report. 'Eight takes out more Heartless than the protégé Thirteen.' You know, you've been putting me to shame," here the tall Nobody sent another fire attack to ward off a straggler, "with those ruthless blades of yours."
"I'm just doing the assignment," Roxas huffed. He glanced around the smoldering alley, nothing left now but pools of darkness and ash, interspersed with the occasional flicker of fire.
Axel's long legs carried him to the other in just a few steps. "Sure, if you say so. Looks to me like you're trying to prove something. Anyway, the name's Axel. Got it memorized? I'm not going to say it again."
The blond held out his keyblade again, stopping the redhead just outside his one-meter space. "Call me Roxas and I'll call you Axel." He gestured with the blade. "Everything within one meter is mine, remember?"
Axel smiled and crossed his arms, chakrums dismissed for the moment. "Yeah, I remember." He leaned forward into the space. "It won't burn you, you know, if I don't want it to. The fire. You shouldn't even feel any heat. So stop blaming me. If you're hot, it's from something else." The smile turned into a smirk. "So, what's making you hot, Roxas?"
Roxas dismissed his own weapons, feeling the ache of tired muscles. He'd sworn that Axel's flames had been a sweltering heat as the redhead fought beside him. He hadn't felt it on his first few missions, the ones with Demyx or any of the other members of the Organization. This was the first assignment with the eighth member, and he'd been overwarm the entire time.
Roxas ignored the redhead's question and made to open a dark portal.
Axel tutted at him. "Come on, you can't just run out on me." A few more steps and he'd pinned the blond against the wall of the nearby building, slender fingers wrapped around his upper arms. Roxas could feel the warmth radiating off of him. "What's making you hot?"
"You're within the one meter," Roxas muttered, glaring into the space beside him.
Green eyes danced in amusement as Axel bent so that he was at eye-level with the blond. "What are you going to do about it?"
A black-gloved hand darted out and grasped the front of the redhead's coat. Roxas leveled the glare at him. "I'm going to fuck you up," he bit out.
Axel only laughed again before capturing Roxas with a fierce, bruising kiss. The blond looked startled, but once he realized what was happening, it became a battle, lips and tongues clashing, teeth cutting into the exchange.
It was hot and violent, when their bodies met, a parody of the fight they'd just finished. Somewhere in the confusion of it, Roxas' hisses and curses gave way to wordless groans, and even Axel's teasing melted into helpless pleasure sounds, as they both reveled in the feeling of it. It wasn't feeling, not like what they coveted, what they went on the missions to find, but it was something.
Later, as they shrugged back into their long black coats, Roxas muttered, "Whatever comes within a meter is mine." He ran a hand through his mussed hair with a huff.
Axel shook out his own mane of spikes. "Don't forget it." He was grinning before his face was lost in the shadow of a black hood.
As he drew open the dark portal, Roxas decided he liked the aches from the fight. From both fights, he amended internally. And he felt reassured by the hot presence of the redhead at his side, and the flames that wouldn't match the body heat of their wielder.
Roxas looked forward to his next assignment with the Nobody known as the Flurry of Dancing Flames.