Ten Ways To Move On - II.

Ain't No Death Like A Silent One

Warning: I didn't read over it! Error galore! (I'm sorry, stomach ache...)

Disclaimer: Do I have to do this each chapter...? Well... I guess since I don't have any money if I get sued, I'll do it anyway. I don't own nor have I ever own Kingdom Hearts or the characters within.

GO!


Roxas sighed as he sat on the floor in front of the television screen watching some pointless comedy about a man who obviously played both himself and his sister. It was based off a children's story, but he didn't really care enough to remember the title. The blonde really couldn't complain about his seating options, he didn't yet know how to solidify his body enough to keep him from phasing through things. It took all his concentration just to keep from sinking straight through the floor!

It was nearing seven in the morning and both Axel and Demyx were knocked out on the couch, tangled in each other limbs as they both tried to fit comfortably on the small piece of furniture. Roxas had then decided that he didn't like the nighttime. He was completely alone, like a soundless being in the darkness of the night. He had used up most of the night watching his family slowly sniffle their way to sleep, a picture of their deceased blonde somewhere nearby to suffice for the one that had supposedly left their world. He tried multiple times to get them to hear or see him the way Axel had, but they hadn't noticed him at all. And taking in account how Demyx and Axel had acted when knowing they were sharing their presence with a ghost, Roxas decided not to put that on their shoulders so soon by leaving them messages or the like. He knew it would just break their hearts further.

"Demyx... move over man..."

Roxas looked up at the mumbling redhead, now dressed in loose sweatpants, and smiled softly. When he remembered that Axel could see him, it made being nothing more than a wandering soul a bit easier to accept. He wasn't completely alone when the redhead was near him and the thought really was his light at the end of the tunnel. But he had to wonder, how was it that Axel could see him when no one else could? It was strange, but so was being dead and earth-bound, he figured.

Hours passed before the two stirred at the morning light. Roxas was slightly agitated at the restless hours of sitting and dwelling on morose thoughts because he, as a ghost, couldn't sleep. He could sleep if he wanted, but he was too afraid of feeling that sense of loneliness in a dark and horrid place if he closed his eyes. He was too afraid that if he went to sleep, he'd wake up by himself in a world where he did not even truly exist but could watch others who did. Any thought of him alone without Demyx and Axel particularly frightened him. Roxas got up from in front of the tv, which was now featuring an 80's sitcom, and retrieved his whiteboard.

'Good morning, guys! Sleep well?' He wrote, grinning widely when the teens groaned as they read it.

"As if." Axel murmured sleepily, scratching at his bedhead unconsciously. "Demyx, it's time for you to go on a diet, my friend."

Roxas laughed, not that Demyx could hear it, as the dirty blonde exclaimed with surprise in his defense. "Oh, so you're saying I'm the reason you took up all the room?" He retorted. Roxas noticed with slight envy that Demyx didn't even have a bedhead, regardless of all the shifting and twisting he did sleeping. That was a bigger mystery than Roxas' own existence there.

Axel snorted and stretched his hands above his head before standing. "Sure, that's what happened. Anyway, next order of business is breakfast."

'It's already 12, Axel.' Roxas pointed out smugly via whiteboard. Axel's face scrunched up as his tired thought process tried to keep up with the new information.

"Oh, well, lunch then? Then afterwards we'll make a trip to Twilight Hospital for a little recon." The redhead yawned. Demyx stood and saluted with two fingers before walking down the hall.

"Aye-aye, Captain."


"Strife, Roxas. He's that little blonde boy that passed away about two and a half weeks ago." Axel said into the front desk window to the receptionist. Said lady arched a fine, blue eyebrow before looking away from her monitor to give the redhead her full attention.

"Is there a specific reason why you need his records? Because, as you know, it is against our policy to elicit private information to just anybody without identification." She explained with a motherly tone, almost scolding the boys for even having the nerve to walk in the front doors and ask such questions.

"I'm just a close acquaintance who wants to know exactly what led to his friend's death. I don't want to confront his parents just yet, they're already broken enough as it is. Why make them relive their son's death when I can get all the technical information right here, hm?" Axel said with a devilishly smooth drawl. The lady at the desk was about to counter when Axel interrupted her with a straight face. "Look- Aqua, is it? This is Roxas we're talking about. Roxas, my friend, who's gone, dead. The least you could do for me is just tell me how he kicked the bucket." The redhead spoke lowly, acid green eyes narrowing.

With a sigh, the receptionist pressed a button on her desk and called for some doctor through the PA system. Roxas felt almost impressed with Axel's acting and tried not to think about how the way he acted could be how others had actually felt the day of his funeral. Before long, a man in a white lab coat and long, pale blonde hair came from behind the door that led to several other halls throughout the hospital building. He looked too cold and stolid to be a doctor in Roxas' opinion.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Vexen. May I help you fine gentlemen with anything?" He greeted with a practiced smile, scaring Axel and Demyx with his unexpected politeness. Roxas would have felt ashamed for labeling the man without getting to know him first had the surprise not been so funny, especially with how the two reacted to it.

"Yes you can in fact." Demyx announced dramatically, sending a mocking glare at the receptionist who just rolled her blue eyes with a deceivingly entertained smirk on her lips. "We need the records for Roxas Strife before he passed away."

Roxas lifted his eyebrows with amusement at the dirty blonde's wording as Vexen seemed quite taken back. "I beg your pardon?"

Axel crossed his arms, his patience slowly and painfully thinning. "Roxas Strife. 16. Died on October 31st. Funeral held on November 16th. Short, blonde, blue eyes, kind kid." Axel eyed the doctor before he was sure they were still on the same page, paragraph, sentence and word. "They tell me his death was undetermined, that he died of no real cause. I want records to prove it. I want his heartbeat, brainwave, sugar levels, oxygen intake, everything. I'm gonna find out the truth."

Dr. Vexen smiled almost sardonically at the redhead's demand. He glanced briefly at the receptionist who shook her head with a hopeless shrug. Although the gesture was highly informal, to which Vexen would deal with later, it let him know that the two teens weren't documented in the blonde boy's contacts. "I'm pretty sure this goes without saying, but it's our policy to maintain the privacy of each of our patients and to keep such records confidential. I sincerely apologize, but you must have the consent of Strife's intermediate family to obtain the information of his death."

Axel glared slightly at the doctor and was about to insist on getting those files, but Roxas stood in front of him and shook his head. This was a lost cause, he was saying. The redhead grit his teeth before scoffing under his breath. "Whatever." Axel didn't understand why this was a problem, technically the records he needed should have no longer been useful to the hospital. Nothing but meaningless paper stored away to collect dust. Dr. Vexen said that he had to keep the information of the patients confidential, but Roxas was already dead. Whatever was recorded in those documents means absolutely nothing now, so why the hassle? What harm was it if he took them?

Roxas was having these same thoughts as he listened to the conversation between the staff and the two teens. If he could, he would have just phased through some walls and bada-bing, bada-boom, his records were his. But in this castle of a hospital, there was no telling where the files were. Plus, Roxas wasn't quite in touch with his inner ghost self yet and he probably wouldn't have even been able to properly hold them until he reached Axel.

"Damn, what now?" Demyx mumbled, shifting his weight to one leg and crossing his arms behind his head. Axel shared a glance with Roxas and shrugged. Roxas noticed out the side of his peripheral something slowly coming their way and turned to face it. When he finally realized it was a person coming his way, he didn't have enough time to brace himself before the person walked straight through him. It stung a little, the reminder that he was dead, truly nothing more than a soul without a body. The person that walked through him, however, seemed unperturbed. But why would he be? Not like he could see the blonde ghost. Only Axel could.

"I don't mean to pry," The person began, summoning the attention from the two teenagers who were plotting their next move. "But did you say Roxas Strife?"

Axel eyed the person suspiciously. He was a short, slender man with a blue-ish tint to his silver hair shading one side of his face like curtains. In his blue eyes, there was curiosity with underlying mischief, but the redhead wasn't going to judge considering this was information handed to him on a silver platter. "Yeah, you know him?"

The silver haired boy nodded briefly. "He was the talk of the entire vicinity for a week, hard not to know him. Also, I've been running constant analysis of his death. As paranormal as it sounds, I've come up with nothing every time. It's like his soul died, but not the body." The silverette looked at Axel with a serious face. "I'm the son of the owner of this hospital, Zexion Maexare. I have the keys to the filing closet if that's what you need, but if you don't mind my asking, what's your motivation?"

Axel looked quickly toward Roxas before rubbing at the back of his neck with an awkward chuckle. "Let's just say his death has been haunting me lately." Roxas bristled at this with another visible blush as he crossed his arms. Axel smirked but the look Demyx gave him told him that, publicly, he looked like a loon smirking at nothing. Zexion watched the two teens with latent interest before waving them after him.

"I can get you all the records we have on him while the doctors were examining him, but I can't say it'll help you much." Zexion told them as he led the two (three) down the hallway. Initially, when hearing their conversation with the doctor, Zexion thought it was just more family or friends asking about Roxas Strife's death, but these two... They didn't seem all that remorseful about the kid's death at all, more like using it as a pawn to get the information. Zexion couldn't really decipher their motives at face value, but when someone caught a hold of his curiosity, there was no stopping him from sticking around and learning all that he could. Call him nosy, but maybe they could all help each other out.

"Because there aren't any abnormalities?" Axel questioned, almost knowing that was the case from the start.

Zexion nodded solemnly. "Precisely."

"So what does that mean for us?" Demyx spoke up as he jogged a little to walk beside the silverette. "I mean, if there aren't any abnormalities with his body after his death, what kind of results can we gather from it?"

Zexion looked ahead for a moment before sighing. "I can't really say if there is anything. Believe me, I've looked."

Roxas frowned. What Zexion was saying couldn't be true could it? Even the doctors couldn't find the answers he needed? The entire situation itself was crazy. It wasn't enough that he was incapable of passing onto the next life, but there wasn't a single clue as to why he couldn't pass on either? It was ridiculous, mind wrecking. Roxas couldn't wrap his head around what was happening to him. What was he suppose to do if he couldn't find answers here? Continue roaming the earth like a silent wind? Live as a bodiless soul for all eternity with no one by his side? A life without others... forever...?

"You okay, Roxas?"

Roxas' eyes snapped forward in attention. Blue eyes fell on the concerned face of Axel and his nerves that were in such turmoil seconds previous started to calm at the warm reminder. The reminder that at this moment of time, he wasn't alone. "Y-yeah. I'm fine..."

Axel quirked a corner of his lips. "Don't worry." He whispered reassuringly, making sure Zexion and Demyx rounded the corner before speaking to the little blonde ghost. "We're gonna help you out."

Roxas stared at the redhead, surprised. He wanted to deny the redhead, make him understand his worries and fears. Make Axel understand that what they're trying to do may be well over their heads. But the words never came. Roxas looked at the glossy linoleum floor and frowned with a sigh when he only saw one shadow. "Thanks..."

Axel could tell the small blonde wasn't yet convinced of a positive outcome in their search, but for now he'd have to let the blonde ghost be. Speeding up in his strides, the redhead caught up with Demyx and Zexion who were arguing about whether or not Zexion was even old enough to be a doctor. They were so enrapt in their argument that they never even noticed Axel's absence, or reentry.

"Age doesn't determine one's knowledge, only limits it. Compared to you, what I know in terms of medical knowledge exceeds greatly of what you would claim to know, though we're the same age. However, what I know compared to what a veteran health care worker of ten years knows differs greatly, not because of age, but because of age difference, because of the experience they've already gained compared to the experience I'm still trying to gain."

"Age and age difference are basically two sides of the same ass." Demyx retorted. "Because you're only 17, it can be automatically assumed that you know less and are less experienced than someone say 31 or something."

"But that's unavoidable, seeings how anyone new to an occupation are less competent than those who have already dedicated most of their life to it. I'm simply saying that despite my youth, I'm as good a doctor as those around me are expected to be."

Axel groaned loudly, putting an end to the lengthy debate of which neither would gain from if winning. "Seriously guys?"

Demyx and Zexion glanced at each other in realization of their bickering before looking away with a simultaneous snort. "He started it." They both claimed.


"131 pounds, 5'6, 85 BPM heart rate, 93 mg/dl blood sugar level, 5.3 umol/L Homo-cysteine, 9,164 red blood cells per minute, 9,262 white blood cells per minute, 13.9 g/dl Hemoglobin, 56% Hematocrit, 79.9 fL Mean Corpuscular Volume..." As Axel read through Roxas' medical records, he could honestly say that his chances of becoming a doctor one day were looking to be zero to negative 1000. All the information on the page was like an entirely different language.

"Okay, stop." Demyx finally pleaded, his head beginning to throb just from attempting to understand what Axel was reading.

Zexion smirked to himself, feeling slightly superior because he understood the statistics. "Basically he shows no signs of irregular health anywhere in his body."

Both Axel and Demyx glanced up in surprise before quickly recovering with a short cough and nodding understandingly. "Right." Axel agreed, reading over the information on the sheet once more in wonder of how the young silverette understood any of that.

Roxas stood by the redhead and read over the information as well. Though Roxas was a great deal smarter than your average sophomore, he didn't understand a word of what was on that paper. But, he was smart enough to get answers elsewhere."Can we take these with us?" He asked Axel, who looked to him in curiosity.

"Sure, but I don't see how that'll help us any." Axel muttered. A spitting sound was heard from where Demyx stood and when Axel peered his way, he noticed Zexion looking at him funny. That's when the redhead finally realized his mistake. "Talking to myself." The redhead smiled carelessly. "Hey, can we take a copy of these papers home?"

Zexion's silver brows furrowed deeper. "I suppose..."

Axel nodded in thanks before looking through the blonde's files again. Roxas, at first, was trying to hold in his laughter, but then he remembered that no one could hear him anyway so he allowed his laughter break free. Axel rolled his eyes, letting his earlier slip up teach him a lesson on when and where he could respond to the snickering ghost.

"I'm so sorry." The blonde giggled softly, finally trying to reign in his chuckles so as not to upset the redhead any further. Axel could only stick his tongue out childishly.

Strange... Zexion thought to himself as he observed the two teens. Axel's little freak moment wasn't going to go unjudged that easily. Especially with how many times the silverette's caught the redhead talking into thin air. It's never a good idea to lead on a scientist and there was certainly something off about Axel and Demyx, Zexion just knew it...

Fin


A/N: So, I got this out within the second week, and I'm just letting you know that this is fast for me. Like, I'm surprised I typed it up this quick. It's because it's the most popular really. But! That also means you have to wait three updates before I come back to this one. Sucks, I know. (Unless you're reading this when it's complete, if so, that's just plain cheating.) I actually cut it in half, so it's shorter than I intended.

Ps: I want to give a giant thank you to those who reviewed. You didn't have to yet you still spared your time to do so. And for that I want to give you my gratitude. A HUGE thank you to Rox123 (You're name didn't have a link, what's that about? I could never thank you personally.) for making my first review ever such a... memorable one. (Seriously, when I read it I laughed so hard I nearly had a lung attack.)

Review/Follow..uh, favorite?, it's totally your call. I write for fun, not for fame.