The six heroes had been traveling for about an hour now, fighting off heartless and nobodies as they tried to reach the ultimate goal of arriving at the top of this mysterious castle.

Sora and Riku were determined to save Kairi's life, the girl who held both of their affections. Neither boy ever admitted to how they really felt, but it was obvious: they didn't exactly try to hide their feelings.

Donald and Goofy didn't seem to have much motivation except for helping King Mickey. Axel would never understand why talking ducks and dogs would follow the orders of talking mice in the first place, but he was pretty apathetic about most subjects that didn't involve Roxas or himself.

Axel knew that Roxas had become friends with Sora, and that he was only going through all this trouble because he had decided to return to him, to complete him or something. Axel didn't totally understand why he would do that, but he sure as hell didn't like the sound of it.

Axel watched Roxas as he walked along the white floored balcony. He seemed so innocent. Sure, he had been through some rough shit in the past, but it turned out that nothing could change the true core of what Roxas was: a good, beautiful person that wouldn't give up on the good in people.

An added bonus to the beauty within was his utter gorgeousness on the outside. That spiky blonde hair, those deep blue eyes, that brilliant smile... not to mention every other body part he had.

Even Roxas's flaws added to the perfection. The only clear one that Axel could see was a bit of angst, but really; who could ever call that a flaw? It just added to his level of adorableness.

Oh, what he wouldn't give to just smother him into his arms, draw his boyish face up to his and--

"Axel?" he stopped daydreaming at the sound of Roxas saying his name.

"Mm?" he brought his eyes farther up from their current position to look Roxas in the eyes instead.

"Uh… do I have something on me?" he asked, completely oblivious.

Axel laughed nervously. "Um, yeah I thought I saw some type of… tracking device on your robe. I guess it was just the moonlight."

"Okay," Roxas went back to walking normally.

Axel turned back in the right direction too, and he noticed Donald peering over his shoulder at him. After Axel saw him, he swiftly looked away and whispered something to Goofy. After a few seconds, they both sneaked a peek at the red head again, then went back to their normal pace.

Perceptive little guys, aren't they? Axel thought with some contempt.

Then a depressing realization overshadowed that slight annoyance: Roxas really didn't have any idea about Axel's feelings. At all. Nor did he return them, obviously. Axel frowned, losing almost all of what was left from the courage he had recently.

Sora and Riku were prattling to each other about what they had been doing for the past year when they were apart.

"Ok," Sora said to him, "I get why you look so ugly like that, but what's with the blindfold?"

Riku smacked him in the back of the head.

"OW!" Sora exclaimed, "Not cool, man… not cool."

"You're so gay, dude." Riku replied.

"Hey," a girl's voice chimed out from behind, "don't you guys know that it's offensive to use that word out of context?"

She was a small blonde girl wearing a tattered white dress who looked briefly at Riku, but then smiled over at Roxas. Axel knew this chick; he didn't like her.

"Namine!" Roxas ran and threw his arms around her as fast as he could, "I'm so glad you're okay! Did they hurt you?"

Apparently he acted like that for everyone; not just Axel. You know, after coming back from the dead and everything.

"You've been watching too many Hilary Duff infomercials, Namine," Axel mumbled out of jealousy.

Nobody appeared to have heard him due to all the excitement. Axel was a bit pissed about being ignored, but then was relieved about not being caught saying something stupid that would just make Roxas angry at him.

After a few minutes of reminiscing, they were now a group of seven as they headed up the castle.

Roxas and Namine walked slightly farther back then the rest of them, and Axel guessed that they were still chatting. He watched them for a long part of the journey.

Namine giggled. She looked off towards the sky, then sneakily laced her fingers between his. He looked surprised, then looked at her as her face filled with blood. He blushed a little too, and smiled, but looked then away. His face seemed… off, somehow. The smile had faded from his lips, and his eyes stared off into the distance as he appeared to be contemplating something.

He then caught Axel spying on them from further up the path, and met his gaze. Axel was embarrassed, and looked away. When he couldn't feel Roxas's eyes on the back of his head anymore, he looked back to see Namine resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed with a smile on her face.

Tears started to well up inside Axel's eyes, and he looked away for a final time.

Axel didn't see that Namine slipped open her eyes to see Axel's tear stricken face. She stopped smiling and looked up at Roxas, and saw that he wasn't really happy either, though he tried to hide it.

Concern leaked though her features. Then came a demented look in her eyes that said, Back off, he's mine.

That was slowly but surely concealed with lovey-dovey eyes once more, and she settled herself back onto Roxas's shoulder without him noticing any of what she had just done.

I guess it's official. Axel thought sadly, I'm going to die alone while Roxas lives happily ever after with that bitch. Now I'm starting to wish he never even saved me from those damn dusks.

A girl screamed in the distance. Sora and Riku looked up, attentiveness returning to their features.

At last, we had finally found the damsel in distress. There was Kairi, being jostled around by a bunch of ants. Yeah, they were heartless, but come on: who couldn't defend against those weak little things?

"Kairi!" the two love struck heroes shouted up at her.

"Sora! Riku!" She screamed. "Help me!"

Without hesitation, they ran together up the stairs to save their beloved Kairi.

It turned out that the ants brought company, and soon, the other five of us were stuck to fight a crowd of their friends while Sora and Riku fought off the stragglers that were up higher with Kairi.

That didn't take them long, so they came back down to help us fight the rest off.

"Hey, look," Riku said as he found an odd, flowery keyblade on the floor, "You can use this, Kairi." He tossed it to her.

"Gee…" she murmured in forced appreciation, "thanks, Riku." She was offended by the fact that Riku didn't think she was capable of handling any more than the most girliest of weapons.

As Axel was watching this, a heartless swiped him on the leg. "Gah!" he moaned in the surprising pain that he felt, "Just pick up the damn weapon and help us!"

"Yeah!" Goofy added with a frown.

So she did, and eventually they had killed all the remaining heartless.