Namine & Axel.

"AXEL! P-please! Tell me what's going on!"

Axel cringed when the shrill screams of a girl held captive pierced his eardrums. What was wrong with women? They just bitched and kicked and moaned and screamed until they got their way, shattering a few eardrums and burning bridges in the process...the little ones were especially troublesome, what with their utter uselessness and easily persuaded minds. The one wriggling in his arms was a perfect example of such traits... "Sssshhh, Namine, I wouldn't want you to alert the dust mites lounging about the castle. And aside from that, I think that you wouldn't want to know anyway..."

"But I-!" Axel clapped a hand encased in black leather over her glossy pink lips and stroked a tangled mess of silky blonde hair back with his other hand.

His fingers forced their way through the strands and painfully broke the tangled knots, Namine shrieking and sobbing behind his safety bar of an arm. Axel smiled with pleasure. The muffled squeals were like the delicate strumming of a violin. His fingers curled into claws and caught in her hair, tightening into a furious knot of knuckles pressing against her skull. Axel yanked back suddenly on Namine's scalp and she released a wail that would have brought Roxas running straight to the long abandoned dungeon–were he still there. Lovely...SO lovely... "STOP IT! IT HURTS!"

"Guess what, witch: I don't care."

"Y-you're insane! This isn't like you at all, Axel!" His lips curled into a grin at her naivete. "Hmph...that's only as far as you know."

He dragged her over to a tall wooden pole set in the middle of a circle of iron fencing by her platinum locks of hair. A strip on the white bottom of Namine's dress tore off on the jagged edge of the only opening and her porcelain face flushed with the apple-red color of embarrassment. A cluster of oil drums were gathered just inside the cage and a foul smell filled the room. Namine understood instantly and clawed desperately at the fiery red spikes sprouting out of Axel's head even through a veil of tears, to which he responded with a sharp slap across the face. "AXEL! You...you wouldn't dare-!"

"Shut up." He slapped her again, only this time with a sadistic smile parting his lips. His eyes glittered as he watched a pink mark begin to form on her cheek...he wanted nothing more than for her to die ugly and terrified. The crystal tears running down her cheeks made his heart explode with joy.

He threw her against the wooden pole like a useless rag doll, swooping down to unravel a coil of rope lying beside it. "Don't move." As if Namine had anywhere to go. Even if she did, her strength and will had left her with the inevitability of a horrid fate. She remained completely limp even as he hoisted her up by the arm and knotted her hands together behind her back using the rope, pressing her against the wooden pole as he wound it round and round her tiny body. She didn't even look up at him, which sent a sudden stab of disappointment through his corrupted heart. Or, at least...it would've, if he had a heart.

"There...nice and tight, so that the witch doesn't escape." He secured the knot with a final tug and moved over to the drums of oil, splashing their contents out all over the floor with mechanical movements. He might as well have been watering the garden. It was only when he stepped back from the dark scene and retrieved his chakrams that Namine spoke again. It was barely a whisper, and he would have missed it if not for the sudden chill that blew her words his way.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" He ignored her at first, aiming instead to prolong the agony by shining down the spikes of his weapon on his Organization XIII coat. "WHY? Why are you doing this?! Answer me, Axel! I'm not your pawn anymore!"

"You're the only thing standing between me and Roxas, damn it!" His reply was sudden and fueled by fury. Namine screamed and cracked the back of her head against the pole with sudden animation. "Th..that's it? THAT'S your best answer?"

"If it weren't for you telling him ridiculous things all the time, he wouldn't want to leave the Organization! He would want to stay HERE, with me! He would want to stay WHERE HE BELONGS!" Spit flew out of his mouth and his eyes shined with frenzied madness. Namine stared at Axel's deteriorating state in horror, his cold and broken laughter echoing through the dungeon when he saw her expression. "You're crazy..you're insane..."

"SO WHAT?! Even if he finds out, he'll forgive me eventually! Screw you, screw Marluxia, and screw everyone else in this stupid castle...I just want Roxas back!"

Axel spun the red chakrams around in his hands and they ignited instantly, deep orange and red flames throwing shadows on the walls and making Namine's skin sweat with fear and anticipation. "AXEL! DON'T–!" He threw the weapons down at the ground and the oil burst into flames. Pulling his hood over his head, he turned his back on the screaming girl and walked out of the flaming dungeon without looking back.

The fire was so lovely..so, SO lovely...