Author's Note: Hey! JAY ES ME! Jayrin Paige. Yep. Well.. I hope I didn't PHAIL too badly... Terra changed some stuff around, so it's better than it originally was. LUVHS JOOO TERRAA! YOU MAKE MY WRITING AWESOME n.n Anyway... I love the idea of Axel messing with Roxas' mind. Teehee~ Buhbai now. Jay.

terra: this is super awesome! :3 Jay is epic! She's bringing you all the laugh! I love you too, Jay! Enjoy! :3

Chapter 2

Paranoia

"I'm Axel, and I believe… you're the one that killed me."

--

Roxas just gaped. His mouth opening up and his jaw dropped into a mind-breaking length. There, in the ghostly flesh, or spirit, or ectowhasit, or whatever Axel was made of, was the man he had killed. He had killed him, right?! He's DEAD!!! He's just dead and it was over! How come the man was standing right in front of him? Smirking in all his possible ghostly glory? That was mindfuckage on so many levels.

"Hello?" The redhead waved a hand in front of the shocked blonde's face, smirking all the while.

Roxas jumped out of his bed, seeing that it wasn't safe for him to continue hiding under the warmth of his blanket.

"W-what?!" Wide-eyed and confused, Roxas attempted to slap the hand out of his face, only to find it was intangible. He took one step away for precautions, but then he came up with the idea that one step was not enough to keep him safe from the crazy…whatever…in front of him. He took another step back and another and another…

"Oh my God!" Roxas went pale and backed away even more from the man, "What the hell?! Who are you? Why are you here?! You're supposed to be dead!!" he yelled, clearly not excited with the idea of the 'dead' man standing 'alive' in front of him.

Axel merely looked at him with a look of exasperation, "Well, I am dead…if that makes you happy," he paused, watching the blond's expression cautiously and he smirked. "I'm a ghost if you haven't noticed that either, and could you be a little quieter? You're going to wake up everyone within a five-mile radius!"

"I noticed, and I'm not happy you died!...or…or 'alive' at that!" Roxas vehemently replied, pointing his index finger to the being in front of him, stuttering, for a second forgetting his shock in favor of the defense against his personality.

Axel opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when the blonde groaned, "Wait a minute. This is probably some messed up dream. I'm probably stressed," Roxas growled, raking his hair violently with his hand—in fact, the blond was pulling his hair.

"Shit, soon I'll fucking start seeing chocobos," he whispered to himself, cerulean eyes glued to the floor, still couldn't believe that all of that was happening.

"Hey, hey, hey! I resent the messed up par-"

"Hey, dream person. Shut up, and let me sleep." Roxas was officially in denial, as he stood up and fell back to his bed and covered his head with his pillow, trying his best to block any sound or anything from travelling into his little ears.

The redhead stared, unsure whether to wake the boy up and somehow imprint it in his mind, or let him sleep. Then again, the young blonde didn't seem ready to accept it just yet.

'I'll give it a day to sink in.'

Axel wasn't sure he could wait a day.

--

The ghostly redhead's previous assumptions were correct. He could not, in fact, wait a whole day. Axel had lasted through one school day, and cracked while Roxas walked home. Cloud, after the little 'incident' that was never talked about at the dinner table, had stopped driving altogether. The older blonde had resorted to catching rides in his friend, Leon's car. Thus, it caused our younger blonde to walk to and from school, since he was without a way of transportation.

"Hey!" Axel appeared out of nowhere, a cheeky grin on his face. The unsuspecting blonde, as predicted, squeaked and fell over. His school books spilled out of the cheap bag and onto the sidewalk, papers flying everywhere at his outburst.

"W-Wha?!" Roxas stared wide-eyed at the thin, lanky, slightly see-through man.

"Hey blondie! What's up?"

"T-That's not possible?! You're a dream!" Roxas scrambled backwards, and away from the 'dream', not even bothering to pick up all the scattered school papers and textbooks that were on the ground.

"In looks? Why yes, I make a fantastic dream, but that's not the point. The point is…" Axel pointed to his chest with his thumb, "I'm dead. You're not dreaming. Got it memorized?" Axel touched one translucent-seeming finger to his temple.

--

Oh, hell. This was not happening. That was all a dream, right? It was all stress from the car crash! Right!? Then if all that was a dream, why was the man Roxas had killed standing right in front of him?! Sure, Roxas should be happy in seeing that the man he had killed was alive. Yes, he should be happy, right? But he was dead, he killed him! That's the whole point! It was all simple and easy. Roxas killed him. Period.

The man had vivid redhair, and pale white skin that only seemed translucent in a certain light. Hell, if Roxas had seen the man on a normal day, he would have thought him to be some weird person that had dyed his hair. Well, maybe more than that. Roxas would see the man as someone who had just ran out from the insane asylum. The red was just crazy. The only other strange seeming thing about the man was the tattooes. Even in the light that made the man semi opaque, they starkly stood out in contrast.

"Holy shit," breathed Roxas.

"Have you accepted my awesomeness yet? If not, I can wait." Axel stated calmly and playfully. His grin remained glued on his transparent face. The redhead was about to take back what he had said, but later, he decided otherwise. "Hell, now that I'm dead, I've got all the time in the world!" he added, raising up his hands and looking into the sky with exaggerating motions.

"Okay, sure. I guess I can accept the fact that a ghost is following me aro-HOLY SHIT! I'm going insane!!!" Roxas gulped and crawled backwards, pulling his hair all the while. The translucent being in front of him remained floating and it seemed that the figure was blown by the win as he kept coming closer and closer to the messed up blond.

Axel smirked. "It's awesome to be insane and it's also brilliant to let the whole world know," the redhead smiled deviously, raising his arms again, letting Roxas know that there were people walking pass them and casting Roxas with the most peculiar glances ever. The blond mirrored the glances and stared back at the people. He was still sitting on the cold asphalt road. "I am not crazy!" he snarled at a kid who was staring at him, eating a huge rainbow colored lollipops.

Tears welled in the kid's eyes and big drop soon came down her chubby cheeks. "Mommy!!!" she ran away, shouting, crying, and screaming.

"Nice move, sunshine," Axel smirked, watching as the kid's figure disappeared out of sight.

"Shut up," Roxas growled. He gasped when he returned his attention to the transparent figure in front of him. For a while there, he had completely forgotten about the whole craziness that was happening in his life. Roxas finally took in a deep breath, calming his racing heart down. "Okay…okay…I guess, it's not totally insane to accept the fact that a see-through being is following me aro- HOLY SHIT!!!" Roxas immediately leaped to his feet. Axel laughed, feeling déjà-vu all over again. "You're haunting me, aren't you!"

Axel looked dubiously at Roxas with his arms crossed, "Well, yes, dear mortal. That's why I'm following you around while I'm dead-"

Roxas interrupted him with a dramatic finger point, much like the one last night, "-You're like one of those ghosts that want revenge! You're going to KILL me!!"

"Not exactly, I'm not that kind of gu-"

"Holy shit! Holy, freaking, shit! I'm only eighteen! Get the hell away from me!" Once again, Axel was interrupted. The ghostly redhead remained silent for the rest of Roxas' rampant accusations.

"-You're going to kill me! Possess me! Make me become your slave! Eat me whole! Drink my blood! Drive me insane with your ghostly powers! You're going to take my soul so you can come back to lif-"

"Hey, I doubt that's possible," Axel put up a hand to stop the panicking blonde, and mock seriously added, " But if you keep talking, there's a chance I'll have to try that."

He tried to hold back the laughter as the look of complete doom rose to the blonde's face.

"WHAT?!"

"It's a joke, sparkles. Take a chill pill." Axel let the laughter he had been holding out, as he bent over clutching his ghostly stomach, "Geez, paranoia much? Besides, are ghosts supposed to eat mortals and drink blood? What book are you reading?"

"It's…!" the blond found himself speechless and he paused. He shifted his gaze that was just now glued to the ghost to the floor. The blonde pouted, biting his lower lips, calming down slightly at the strange sound of a ghost's laughter. It sounded like any normal person's laughter, except it had a hollow feeling to it. As if it was coming out of his mouth as a sound, nothing more. He felt a slight tinge of guilt forming inside him, only slightly. It was his fault, isn't it? That the laughter became hollow?

Still, sparkles? What kind of weird nickname was that?

"So, now that you've stopped ranting like Larxene when she's PMS-ing and watching Titanic… What's your name? I never actually heard it, and by the look on your face, you don't enjoy being called sparkles." Axel smiled widely, as if he hadn't just referred to Roxas as some unknown woman, "Unless, you actually do, and just dislike the term 'paranoia…'"

"It's Ro-" The blonde faltered, what if this was some magical way of stealing his soul?

"No, I'm not stealing your soul." Axel deadpanned.

What the heck? Was the redhead reading his mind?! Some weird ghostly power that gave Axel the power to look inside his deepest personal thoughts? Learn what Roxas was afraid of? His weaknesses? His strengths? What he was thinking? What he did at his friend Pence's last birthday party? What happened to Mr. Cid's cat?! Roxas didn't want anyone knowing what happened to that cat.

Holy shit, was Axel controlling his thoughts? Making him think about weird shit?! Holy cra-

"No, I'm not reading your mind either." Axel looked bored, placing one arm against his translucent hip, and extending the opposite arm, so he could examine his nails. He floated calmly, up and down, up and down, as if he was one with the calmly blowing wind.

How could Axel possibly know that too?!

"Your face says everything." The redhead still studied his nails, as if they held the answer to something important. Like the meaning of life. Or the entire value of pi.

His face?

"Geez, talk about blank with a capital B." Axel waved the previously examined hand through the air, as if to say 'Wow, you're dense.'

The blonde flushed angrily, fists clenched at his sides, "What! Am I supposed to be the most articulate person when the man I've supposedly killed is standing right in front of me? And who's Larxene?"

Axel tensed for a minute, his relaxed air replaced by a guarded, more cautious aura, "She's no one, just someone from my past."

Roxas wondered if Axel had been bipolar before he had killed him, because said redhead's aura had just changed from relaxed, to tense, and back to relaxed within the span of thirty seconds, "So, do I get your name, cutie?"

With a flirtatious wink from the bipolar redhead, Roxas blushed a faint pink.

"R-Roxas." Roxas stopped, shut his eyes tightly, and waited. He wondered if he was suddenly going to feel pain of some sort, maybe the feeling of life being sucked out of him. There was nothing. No pain, no wind, no life-suckingness. Just some awkward silence as Roxas was frozen in place. Relaxing his stance, he opened one eye and glanced at the man… who was not there. The heck?

He snapped his neck violently and turned around in a speed that he didn't know he possessed. No, the redhead was not there. The ghost—thing, was not creeping behind him. He looked at the roofs the houses, threw his glances at the whispering trees…no, not a slight sign that the translucent figure was there.

He was gone? Where'd he go? Was Roxas really going crazy?

Oh my god. He was insane. Soon his dad was going to find out, and all his friends would isolate him, and then the people in white coats were going to come get him and then he would never see the light of day again and he would never get married or date or do anything relatively norma-

"Boo!"

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

Out of absolutely nowhere the redhead had appeared, inches away from Roxas' own face, scaring the life out of him. No, not literally, that would be weirdly unfortunate.

"Don't fucking scare me like that you freaking… whatever you are!!" Roxas shrieked, yes- like a girl, as he stumbled and fell back onto the ground. Again.

Axel cracked up at the furious pouty look on the blonde's face, "Yeah, yeah. You should've seen your face! Priceless! If I had a camera, I would have so totally taken a picture!"

"Y-you…" Roxas glared icily at the laughing redhead. Axel was shaking with laughter. Roxas felt his left eye twitch.

To castrate the ghost, or not to castrate the ghost?

"No, that wouldn't work either.." Roxas mumbled to himself, still glaring at the redhead, as if that would suddenly make him disappear.

Roxas blinked when he came upon a realization. Exorcise maybe? An exorcist! The brilliant idea sprang up out of nowhere from Roxas' brain. Roxas grinned. Yes! That would do! He would rid himself of the ghost.