Axel didn't belong here.
Where did he belong? He belonged on a different world, as a different person. He belonged somewhere where he was different and no one else was different, not that different. He belonged back in the days when all people knew of magic were pools filled with Mako and coloured orbs. Where SHINRA and SOLDIER were words often graced through the lips of the little people, and TURK, more quietly.
Axel didn't belong in this castle of people who were different, even if he was different (even if he knew better).
Speaking of which-- at home, on the streets or on assignment, difference was a thing to be discouraged. It stood you apart from the pack and got you needless attention.
Reno always was a rebel.
Axel wasn't, only because Reno was. He couldn't be, here, anyway. It could get him killed. (Never stopped him before.)
Axel was nothing like Reno. He fought with chakrams. (Reno never liked Cissnei's chakrams-- what was she, Wutainese? Chakrams were for old ninja wannabies and SOLDIERs who couldn't shoot properly.) He didn't speak or hold himself similarly. (His accent was gone because his voice was different, duh. Same for the latter: another body, another posture.) He took life seriously, read and often recited, poetry (as Genesis degraded Axel disintegrated, anyone else catch that alliterative irony?) about colours and light and other deep little things that Reno would never have the depth to catch, let alone procreate.
It was hard, sometimes, to deal with the fact that his whole world was gone. (Didn't he have bigger things to worry about?) Axel let it be his excuse for venting that he wasn't the only one: Demyx could often be heard moping through his music – once, "no, Nobody knows/the pain I feel/when I think of you/the hurt is real" (Lemme guess, called the Knowbody Nos? Heh, I made a Knot Phunny), Zexion, through his endless days in the library-- he was almost sentimentally attatched?, Roxas, through scraping of his keyblades and infrequent questions for Sora, how is Sora doing, where is Riku…
Numerous times Axel had considered contacting Cloud at Olympus Coliseum, so the breaks in the chains of his memory could be reconstructed, so he wouldn't have to be different different alone and so he'd have a net to fall back on (Sarcastically: "But not for a shoulder to lean your head and cry on, I--") was he pushed over the edge some point near future.
But what would he do? What would he say to him?
Hey, what can you say; names can be changed and words be differed, hearts broken.
Axel once knew of a Lea. Reno (and, and Cloud most certainly--) didn't.
Not anymore.
Author's note: the bits in brackets are supposed to be Reno, or memories of Reno, or something. Yeah, sorry about their and the other punctuations' overuse. I know it gets a bit confusing after awhile. (As if this wasn't confusing enough, yeah? :)