Axel was trapped in a monotonous sense of being. No feeling. No love. No heart. Without these three essentials, what was the point of being in the first place? Having a sole existence just to be there had never seemed fair.

"Axel. Hey Axel! Anybody home?" came a familiar voice. "Dude. Snap out of it."

That voice was like his own special magic words, and upon hearing them the dark loneliness faded away, and brought back the almost painfully colorful real world.

"Axel are you OK? You were completely spaced out." a spiky haired blonde asked. Axel smiled a cheesy grin and put his hand on Roxas's head, ruffling the blonde hair.

"Just thinking. What, did I worry you?" he teased.

Roxas's sky blue eyes made a sarcastic loop around his eyelids as he rested his cheek on his fist.

"Alright, I get it. You're fine." he hiss in a slight annoyance. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing life threatening. I dunno. I was just thinking about why we even exist."

"Well," started Roxas. "We're nobodies. We're just what happens when someone--"

"Yeah, I get that, but WHY do we exist?" he inquired again putting extra emphasis on the 'why'. "I mean, as far as I'm concerned, we don't serve a single purpose in this world."

Roxas shrugged. "I dunno. Why does anyone exist?" he retorted, trying himself to make some sense out of it. It didn't really make any sense.

"People exist to be loved right? That's why they have hearts." Axel pointed out. "And why we don't..." Roxas sighed.

"I guess..." he said, as sadness crept into his tone.

"Are we really loved?"

"I dunno...do you love me?" he asked, his face devoid of any and all emotion. Axel loved that about Roxas sometimes. During serious conversation, he was always so dead pan, and while maybe that wasn't all good, but it was proof that his friend was a great listener. That's why he was able to have these conversations with him.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"I think so..." Axel replied in hopeful uncertainty. Time was ticking by on the Twilight Town clock, as time itself had ceased motion. "What do we do if it's true that nobodies can't love? What do we do then Roxas?"

Roxas stood up so he was taller than Axel.

"Do you think it's OK to let others decide for us whether or not we can feel everything that our others feel?" Roxas inquired with annoyance. "Why do you just go along with it if you don't believe it? Even Demyx doesn't follow along with everything like you do..." Roxas wanted to cry. "You'll be glad to go along with anything the organization tells you!"

"Roxas, I..." Axel didn't have the heart to finish.

"It pisses me off sometimes!"

"Roxas, please don't cry." soothed Axel. Roxas was hardly aware he was crying at all. "Do you want to go back to the castle?" he asked.

"Anywhere but the castle!" he stubbornly protested. "I want to go some place else. Can we?" he begged as he roughly chased the tears off his face with his sleeve. What a wimp.

Axel showed him a sympathy smile.

" Well, I don't think there's a whole lot to do around here, but we don't have any missions until tomorrow, so I think it'll be OK." Axel got up and gave Roxas a brief hug around the shoulders like an older brother might, and decided to drop the subject of whether or not what they were feeling could even be called love. He decided, if what they were experiencing was all simulated, well, that was OK with him. Anything to see that rare, but so sweet smile that Roxas occasionally slipped out, proof that life was never completely horrible.

"Axel, you're zoning again..." he pointed out. Axel let out a good humored laugh.

"Sorry, Roxas." he chuckled and kissed him on the cheek, as the goldness of the perpetual sunset lit up his warmly tanned cheeks.