"What do you mean, Roxas?" Asked a man with flaming orange-red hair, his green-blue shimmering eyes focused on the smaller blond with eyes as deep and dark as the ocean.
Roxas shook his head, "I haven't seen anything like it before...like, isn't putting mouths together kinda weird?" He turned to look back at his friend Axel, who was leaning forward with an elbow on his bent knee, a tasty bar of sea-salt ice cream in his hand. He seemed to be staring off into the distance toward the field and forest outside of Twilight Town. He had his lips pursed before he bit off of the sweet treat and swallowed,
"It's...not complicated to explain, but it is at the same time…" Axel rubbed the back of his spiked head, frowning a bit before continuing, "You see, Roxas...that's what Somebodies do when they really like someone. When they…"
He paused for a moment, as if searching for the right word, "...they love each other."
Roxas tilted his head like a curious puppy at Axel, then shifted to face the amber-tinted sunset and furrowed his brow, "Love, huh…? Another emotion I don't get because I...don't have a heart."
He perked a little then turned back to Axel, who had his face turned the other way toward the town below, "Were you ever in love before? Like, when you were a person?"
"Um…" Axel didn't turn back to Roxas and sighed, "I don't think so. I think I might've been too young to feel that kind of thing."
"Too young?"
"Yeah...there's a certain age that comes with feeling those kinds of things." Axel shifted forward again, his ice cream now half-eaten, still not facing Roxas, "Not that it matters, anyway. I mean, I can't feel it even if I wanted to."
Roxas nodded in agreement, "Yeah…" There was silence for a moment before he mumbled, "That seems kinda weird."
He blinked a few times before finishing the last bite of his ice cream and turning to look behind him at his left, "Hey, do you know where Xion is? I haven't seen her all day."
"Beats me," Axel replied, shrugging and sliding the last bit of ice cream into his mouth. "Don't worry about it, okay? I'm sure she's just working hard on her mission."
"Yeah." Roxas stood, smiling at Axel, "Well, I'm gonna head out. See ya, Axel!"
"Don't get in trouble, Mr. Zombie." Axel stood and faced Roxas with a mischievous smirk.
Roxas laughed and shook his head, "I won't."
With that, they both entered their respective, swirling dark portals.
Roxas wandered through the Dark Corridors, the twilight swirling in patterns of dark blue, deep violet, black, with occasional splashes of gray. He was searching for a specific door...one with seashells, sand, and ocean water adorning it…
"Ugh...the doors are always switching places." Roxas muttered under his breath, searching back and forth with his eyes until a door presented itself to his left and he nodded to himself, "There it is."
He approached the door and twisted the knob, letting himself go through an enveloping white light until he stepped out onto unsteady, golden sands which buckled under his light weight, shifting a bit.
Roxas looked up and raised his cloaked arm over his eyes, smiling at the slowly moving clouds, inhaling the fresh brine of the sea and sand, and appraising the green palm trees that swayed in the never-ending summer breeze. Second to the clock tower in Twilight Town, this was becoming one of Roxas' favorite place.
He crossed under a sturdy wooden bridge, welcoming the brief shade for a moment then stepped out onto the other side, and gasped at thing his eyes caught sight of.
Her.
She was just standing there, the hem of her black cloak dancing with the sandy breeze, her hair shifting about her porcelain smooth skin, a smile on her pearl pink, gentle lips. Roxas was stunned at just how beautiful she looked just then, and he couldn't help but stare for a long time. Then, his focus was broken when he saw her bend down, her small, delicate hands digging in the sandbar. The blond felt something clench in his being and his hand met his chest. He swallowed and shook his head, it's nothing new. Stop acting like a zombie! He chided himself, took a deep breath and exhaled as he made quick, confident strides toward the girl, his best friend, Xion.
"Hey Xion!" A frog had tried to croak in his throat and he could feel his face go warm for a second, but she must've not heard it as she turned back to him with suddenly wide eyes, then a small smile, "Hey Roxas."
"Done with your mission for the day?" Roxas stopped when he was at least two paces beside her and she nodded, "Yup. I wasn't ready to go home for the day, so I decided to stop here."
"Yeah...you missed ice cream with me and Axel."
Xion's eyes widened, "I did?! Oh…" Her lips twisted into a slight frown as she turned away from Roxas, "I'm sorry...I just got distracted with this place."
Roxas tilted his head and gave her an accepting smile, "It's okay. You can be there tomorrow. But you know that Axel will give you a hard time, right?"
He strode up to her and punched her slender arm playfully and she attempted to push him back, "I know, I know!"
They both laughed at each other, their dark blue eyes gleaming with the light that was inside of them.
"So, did you find any cool seashells today?" Roxas shifted his weight as Xion presented a small, blue shell to him, "One, so far. Here." The blond took the shell and turned it over in his large fingers, turning his head this way and that to get a good look at it.
"It's pretty." Roxas finally said, handing the shell back to Xion, who smiled at him and put it in her deep coat pocket.
"Hey, I found a spot that we could start hanging out in. Wanna come look?" Xion offered and Roxas nodded, his grin unending, "Yeah!"
"I'll race you!" Xion yelled playfully as she tapped his shoulder gently and Roxas gasped, then said under his breath, "Oh, that's not fair..." Then he shouted, "Wait, Xion!"
"I told you it was a race!" She called back, nearly twelve paces ahead of him, now. Roxas chased after her, bursts of laughter erupting from the both of them as they dashed across the white sands, fighting against the constant shifting and losing balance every so often.
Eventually, Roxas caught up to Xion, his arms and legs pumping to gain momentum and close the gap between them. When he got behind her, he shot his arm out and touched-more like shoved-the small of her back. With a startled gasp, Xion suddenly tripped, sprawling onto the sand, and Roxas, unable to find his breaks, tripped over her and flew ahead of her, rolling into the dunes of sand.
Gasping, Roxas slapped the sand and laughed, "You're...it."
Xion, also panting, chuckled, "Gotcha!"
Propping himself up on his elbows and turning around, Roxas looked back at Xion, who had her eyes locked on him, staring at him from an upside-down position. His being clenched again, but this time, he promptly ignored it.
"You okay?"
"Yeah...I'm just fine. Just fine." Xion reassured him as she rolled over and stood to her feet, dusting her coat off with her hands of the sand that was now clinging to her like a magnet.
Roxas was violently slapping his own coat and gritting his teeth, "Darn it! It'll take weeks to get the sand out of everything!" Xion simply laughed and put her hand on his shoulder, "It'll all wash out."
Roxas sighed, "Yeah, I guess so. Now...are we there yet?"
Xion nodded and grabbed his wrist, pointing with the other hand, "This way." At her touch, Roxas could feel his face warm like a rising summer dawn and his skin seemed to twitch where she had her hand. He followed her lead obediently, unsure of what else to do or what to say.
They made their way to a canopy with tropical greens, swaying palm trees, with one tree bending like a bridge, close to the ground. The place had an open view of the sea with a short beach and wet sandbar. The sea seemed to be running on endlessly, touching the horizon and making the two shades of blue merge at one, fine line outside the field of a person's view.
"Here." Xion climbed up the bridged, low-ground palm tree and gestured for Roxas to sit beside her. Roxas followed and sat close, but not too close, to Xion.
"So, how was work?" The black-haired girl asked him curiously, leaning back a few times and crossing her ankles.
Roxas hummed in hesitation, unsure if he should tell her what he saw earlier that day. He had no problem discussing things like hearts, feelings, and Somebodies with Axel, but for some reason...he had trouble trying to bring them up around Xion. He wondered if it was because she was a girl and girls thought differently than guys, even if they were Nobodies.
"It...was fine. Nothing, um...out of the ordinary." Roxas struggled to sound convincing, but met Xion's confused gaze and neutral frown, "Just…'fine?' That's it? Usually you have something to say about the mission, so…"
"Well-that's, not entirely true...I mean, I did see something...but I don't know how to describe it." Unconsciously, Roxas turned away from Xion and looked out to the ocean. He could hear her sigh gently, like the whisper of the palm leaves in the sunset breeze.
"Then describe it to me, as best as you can." He could feel her hand on his and he instantly snapped to her, his brow furrowing a little. What was this feeling? Why did he sometimes feel like this around her? It didn't make any sense and Roxas could feel his head spinning.
"Oh...okay. Um…" He looked to the sky, trying to recall just what he had seen.
"There were two people. Somebodies, I mean, and...it wasn't anything too abnormal."
"Abnormal? That's a new word for you." Xion didn't mean to interrupt, but she couldn't help it, and Roxas chuckled, "Shut up, let me continue. So," He tried not to concentrate on the fact that Xion had her hand on Roxas' shoulder as he took a breath and continued, "there were two Somebodies, and they were kind of, um...holding hands? Like this," Roxas took Xion's hand, shakily, and opened her palm, threading his own clumsy fingers through it, trying not to look at her now pinking face.
"Like this." He repeated, trying to steady his breathing.
"Hmm…" Xion hummed, "I've seen Somebodies do this before. It's a gesture of affection." She smiled at him, "I learned it from a book I read at a library in one of the worlds I went to, before."
"Oh!" Roxas exclaimed, quickly retracting his hand and bringing it to his side, I don't even think I'm capable of feeling that...I don't have a heart at all. But still, I don't want her to think of me about her like that.
Xion tilted her head, her brow coming together, "What did you do that for? Even friends hold hands, sometimes. That's what the book said."
"Then let me ask you this...because this is the thing I can't explain," Roxas said hurriedly, his gaze dropping to the side and focusing on a small rock in the tropical brush, "Do you know what putting mouths together means?" He was surprised he managed to say it without stuttering or going quiet, and instead blurted it out. Roxas dared not look at Xion now.
Xion was silent for a moment, feeling herself tense as she slowly uttered the next phrase, "It's...called a kiss. Somebodies only kiss the people they really love. It means...they're special. Like...they're closer than friends. More than friends. I don't really know what to call it. Not even the book had a name for the kind of thing they were."
Roxas stifled a tense, nervous sigh before finally saying, "Oh."
"Yeah…" Xion tried to fill the sudden awkward silence that had developed between them.
Roxas puckered, "Axel basically said the same thing. He said love was a thing that...you could feel at a certain age, that is, if you're a Somebody. I asked him if he'd ever felt something like that, since he's the only one with memories out of the three of us, and…"
"And what?" Xion piped up suddenly.
"...He said he was too young and that it didn't really matter since he couldn't feel it now."
"Oh...that's...sad?" Xion turned away, pursing her lips and shifting a bit, "I don't know what to call it."
"I wonder if I was in love before." Roxas mused as he turned to face the ocean, tilting his head ever so slightly and feeling his spiky blond locks move about his face.
"You don't remember, but it's not too hard to imagine." Xion said, her voice failing a bit.
Roxas, detecting the change in her voice, shifted to face her, only to see that she had her head and eyes low. Her expression seemed so...sad. The blond could only describe her face right now as that one word. Sad.
"Hey, Xion…" Roxas reached out and touched her shoulder with a large hand and felt her flinch, her eyes snapping to meet his, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just…" Xion's voice failed entirely, falling to a whisper. Before Roxas knew it, Xion had her arms around his back, grasping him to her tightly. The boy was taken aback with his hands spread out away from him, and he felt his entire body suddenly set aflame, from his toes to his nose. Without thought, Roxas wrapped his strong arms around her, pulling her close to him as well, his head over her slender shoulder.
It was so warm. This moment...it felt...different. It was special. Like a dream.
Roxas rarely had dreams, but the ones he had were pleasant, warm, sandy, sun-filled, and each one had the image of his friends Xion and Axel in them, laughing and eating sea salt ice-cream together, perfect just as they were.
He wondered.
He wondered if Xion felt hurt at the idea that he could've been in love.
He wondered who it was he'd been in love with.
He wondered…
"Xion?" Roxas suddenly said, and she turned to look up at him slowly, a wet substance streaming from the pools of her blue eyes, which made Roxas gasp.
"Hey...I...do you…" He couldn't get the words out. He couldn't quite get what he wanted to say to her, right now, into form. For some reason, his tongue had frozen on the spot.
"...What?" She inquired curiously, rubbing her face into his shoulder then staring back at him.
Roxas finally felt the words form in his mouth and he spoke them before he could lose them again, "Am I special to you? I mean...um...like a Somebody to another Somebody?" He could feel something empty pulsing within him.
Xion looked down, her voice as quiet as the snowfall, "Of course you are, but...so is Axel."
"No, that's not what I mean." Roxas interjected suddenly. His directness surprised himself. "I mean...do you…" He swallowed hard before he said the next word, "...love, me?" What was he saying. Neither of them knew what that was. The question was impossible to answer.
Yet...what else could he call it? The feeling he felt when she touched him, when she smiled at him, when she looked as stunning as she did when fighting, or simply being herself when no one was looking? What else would you call a feeling like that? If it were to be called feeling at all...Nobodies couldn't feel anything.
At least, that's what they'd been led to believe. Axel once put it, "Maybe you remember feeling like that."
Maybe that was it. Maybe...the memories he couldn't remember were coming through. Maybe he had been in love once.
Maybe he'd been in love with her. The girl who resembled him so much. No one, other than Xion, could make him 'feel' like this.
Xion was silent for a moment before she answered Roxas, speaking slowly, "I...I think so. But I don't know. Maybe I was in a previous life." She looked up to him with concentrated eyes, "Only you make me feel like this, and I don't know why."
Roxas chuckled, "Me too."
The girl's expression shifted between indescribable emotions all at once, until her face rested into a sheepish smile and bright eyes. Roxas decided, at that moment, she looked perfect. She always looked that way to him, but in this moment alone...she was as perfect as she could be.
"Roxas." Xion finally said, and all of his focus was on her.
"Kiss me."
Roxas' eyes widened and he briefly nodded, repeating the motion he saw when he observed the Somebodies.
You tilt your head...push your lips out...and make contact. Is that it?
All of his thoughts were a jumbled mess, like spaghetti, until he could feel her lips on his, and instinctively, his hand raised to her soft cheek. He could feel her press against him as well, her fingers threading through his golden hair.
She was warm, soft, tender, and sweet. Her breath tasted like peaches, drowned in sugar with cream on top. The way she ran her fingers through his hair...like a harp player playing a delicate melody. He wanted in farther, but he wasn't sure how.
Briefly, Roxas could feel his chest tighten and he pulled back, breathing in and out deeply, almost desperately. He'd held his breath a little long...and he could feel his cheeks warm. Xion had her eyes half-closed for a moment but then opened, wide and wondering. She breathed, "Are you okay?"
Roxas grinned, watching her cheeks color like the flesh of a rosebud. She was so adorable and perfect, just like this. "I'm fine, but I'm even better with you."
Xion smiled, leaning forward and kissing him again, and he reciprocated with his own, holding her close to him, feeling her entire being in his arms.
"What are you two doin'?" A familiar, cocky voice called out. At that instant, Roxas and Xion both flushed and shifted on their bottoms away from each other at an awkwardly far distance. "None of your business, Mr. Nosey!" Roxas called out, beaming at Axel, who had a knowing smirk painted on his tan lips.
"Uh huh. Asked the guy who asked me if I was in love once!"
"It was just a question!"
"You guys need to stop…" Xion played with a small smile.
Roxas and she exchanged looks and laughed at each other, confident that they could keep this a secret. As if Axel would tell anyone...he would be the only one to know.
If only it would be like this forever, just us three...