The next day, the boy woke again.
Axel nearly jumped when he heard the change in breathing, the soft shift of bedcovers. He'd been staring out the window, trying and failing to recall the land beyond grim, dark woods.
"Who is there?" The boy's voice sounded calm and coherent, but then, it had the day before as well, at first.
"Axel," the prince replied simply. He had decided to keep his status quiet for the time being. Xion seemed to think the boy would find him intimidating, although he sensed another reason behind the suggestion. But it did not please him.
"I am here..." He stumbled for a moment, meeting wide, cloudy eyes. Axel cleared his throat then. "I have been here, tending to you while you rested."
"Oh." A soft smile tugged at the blonde's lips then. It seemed incredibly bright somehow, despite its size. "My name is Roxas. Thank you for your care."
Axel felt himself flush a little, and he quickly looked away, even if Roxas could not see it. Now awake, the boy seemed even more striking than before. Almost beautiful.
'How can any man be beautiful?' The fae were rumored to be ethereally fair to look upon, but the blonde didn't seem quite that beautiful. No, not even close. His look was more ordinary, and yet...
"Have I been asleep long, Axel?"
The redhead blinked out of his stupor.
"Not long this time. You woke yesterday and became very distressed, so we had to make you sleep again."
He certainly hadn't meant to grumble it.
Roxas timidly lowered his gaze.
"I-I'm sorry for troubling you."
Axel hurried to assure him, gruffly though it may be, as he ran a gnarled hand through his hair. What was the matter with him today?
"I understand. You were very sick in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Anyone would have been frightened under those conditions."
"I remember..." The blonde touched his head, as if in pain. "This is a...castle, you said?"
"Indeed, it is."
"I have heard of those before. How...did I get here?"
The prince almost scoffed. "To hell with me if I know. Kairi found you on the doorstep." He paused then, looking over at the boy. "Were you out wandering in that godforsaken forest alone?"
"I went into the forest at the edge of my village, but I didn't go terribly far. This castle must be very deep within...if this is even the same forest at all..." He trailed off there, his expression turning very lonely and uncertain.
"Why would you do that? It's a dangerous place to even the most capable of foresters. There are wolves and rocks and high precipices everywhere." The prince struggled to keep his voice low and his tone neutral. Did this boy have a death wish in him?
Roxas did not answer for a moment, shivering as he looked lost in thought.
Before, Axel would have demanded an answer. There are many things he would have done, but now, he could only grit his teeth, try to gentle his voice, and wait patiently. As patiently as he could, anyway.
'Your last chance,' he reminded himself. 'Be kind. Befriend him, at least...'
"It's a long story..."
"I have nothing but time," the prince replied softly.
The blonde rubbed his throat. "Could I please have some water first?"
Axel blinked, then hastened to obey.
"Of course."
Instead of sending for his servants to fetch it, Axel went himself. He was glad to go; he felt awkward in that room now.
He stopped by the kitchens and told his servants to prepare something nourishing, finding a cup that wasn't enchanted to fill with water. It was difficult to distinguish nowadays, but when the thing neither spoke nor moved once, Axel assumed it was ordinary.
How funny that something so mundane would be so novel in this cursed place.
'Funny,' he thought. 'Those eyes...'
There was something very off about them. He had never met a blind person before, but the prince found the look of Roxas's eyes intriguing, gorgeous, and unsettling, all in one. Was that color natural? Would it be brighter, less hollow-looking, if he had his vision?
Was the boy even blind at all, or was he simply still unwell? Could illness cause that sort of fog about the eyes?
He was almost weary of all this wondering...
When he returned, the boy looked to the door right as it creaked open, his expression hurt and...something else. For a second, Axel was taken aback, but his guest showed no such hesitation.
"What is this?" he asked, pulling the covers aside to expose the cuff and chain around his ankle. His tone did not accuse so much as it trembled
"Just a precaution," Axel said, finally recovering. "You were very insistent upon leaving yesterday, but we could not allow you to move about in the sorry state that you were in."
Roxas did not look terribly reassured by that.
"Will you remove it now?"
Axel bit back a growl. "Not yet. The...master has ordered that it remain in place until you are well."
Roxas looked down, his eyes full of unshed tears. For a moment, he just stared at his lap.
"I don't like it. It frightens me." He looked up at him again, and Axel swallowed heavily. Was the boy bewitching him? "Please, could you ask your master to remove it? I will stay if he wishes, I promise you!"
"I...I will ask him tonight," the prince replied, a bit shocked at himself. He was...actually considering it? "For now, do not let it trouble you. We have not done you harm, I hope?"
The boy shook his head, wiping his milky blue eyes.
"No...I'm sorry. I just..."
Axel said nothing, for his mind went promptly, mercifully blank, but was compelled to move to his side. He placed one hand on the blonde's shoulder, passing him the water with the other.
Roxas jumped a little, but looked up in his direction and smiled.
"Thank you," he said again, fidgeting a moment with the cup."For everything."
For a few moments, they remained that way, quiet as the boy sipped, cooling his sore throat.
"I was born blind." Axel nodded, then realized that it hadn't been seen. He made a small affirming sound, and Roxas nodded, continuing. "My mother died giving birth to me, and my father disappeared not long before. Others might have left me to die in the forest, but my aunt, uncle, and grandfather took me in and raised me in their bakery.
I was never of much use, mind you." Roxas blushed a little. "I'm...clumsy. Too clumsy sometimes. Grandfather always said I'd be even more useless with my sight." He laughed at that, not noticing Axel's bemused look. "He was convinced of it. But Aunt Aerith and Uncle Zack taught me everything they know and let me help as best I could.
One day, Grandfather got sick. We didn't think much of it at first, but it was persistent, and a bit unusual. The chemist told us that he could make a potion, but he was lacking a crucial ingredient. It's a plant called the Lydia. It has 'leaves that are soft and fuzzy, almost purple in color,' and apparently the whole thing smells like sour milk and feet, to hear him tell it."
Axel choked a laugh at the description, then sobered as Roxas looked at him, eyes smiling and hopeful.
"You wouldn't happen to know that plant, would you, Axel?"
"No, I've never seen or heard of it. But then, I haven't left this castle in years!" He added those last words quickly, seeing the blonde wilt considerably.
"Oh...well, Uncle Zack left to go find the plant. There was another village beyond the mountain that the chemist thought might sell the plant; they have a annual fair with all kinds of odds and ends.
I left because my uncle hadn't come back." Roxas looked very troubled now. "The journey was a long one, but he should have been back, and he wasn't. He may not even be now. Grandfather was getting worse, and Aunt Aerith can only do so much, managing the bakery on her own. I tried to be of help, but I'm not stupid. I'm useless to her and Grandfather."
The boy sighed. Axel wanted to protest, but didn't, for fear that he might end up missing an important part of the tale.
"So I came here," Roxas continued. "Lydia is rare here, but it's supposed to grow in dark, cool areas, and this was the only place I could think of."
"And no one came with you?"
The blonde shook his head. "I didn't tell them. They wouldn't have let me go. But Grandfather needs his medicine."
Axel bit his lip, feeling a little guilty as he tried to think of something to say.
"Do you...remember anything after that?"
Roxas furrowed his eyebrows. "Roots. Roots, branches, and rocks, like you said. Everywhere." He lifted his hands and ran them down the length of his arms. "I'm surprised. I should be cut and scraped all over, but I don't feel anything."
"You were asleep for a while," Axel replied, remembering when he'd first seen the boy, soaked and dirty. The injuries could have healed quickly, but he hadn't studied them enough to know for sure. Xion might know.
Realization dawned on the boy's face then. He looked up, alarmed.
"How long?"
The prince felt a stirring of anger at the demand, but he swallowed it. He reminded himself that the boy didn't know to whom he truly spoke.
"About two weeks, yesterday."
He hadn't meant to grumble that, either, but the effect was instantaneous.
Blue eyes grew wider, disbelieving. Roxas breathed quickly, then put a hand over his mouth. To the prince's alarm, his guest began to shake, and tears slowly poured from his empty eyes.
"Roxas?" Axel rushed over to him, worried he might have another fit, but the boy continued to sit still and cry silently, his voice the ghost of a whisper. "What is it? What troubles you?!"
"I'm too late," he murmured. "I'm too late. What if I'm too late?"
Axel wrinkled his brow. "Too late?"
Roxas shuddered. "He was so sick when I left. He couldn't even leave bed...what if...?" Roxas's hand moved up to his eyes, covering them. His shoulders trembled violently. "No..."
Helplessness. A feeling so foreign to him, and yet so suddenly powerful. Like magic, it seemed to have a physical weight all its own, bearing down, crushing, suffocating...
"N-No..."
Axel watched the child in front of him, breaking on the inside and out, and there was nothing he could do. What would his simple words or actions matter now?
He did not know how to hold, or comfort. He had not felt it himself in many years.
These feelings were too close.
Roxas raised his eyes to meet his gaze. Somehow, he found them perfectly, and stayed there.
His instincts screamed for flight.
"E-Excuse me." With that, he walked briskly from the room, accidentally slamming the door behind him. From there, he raced down the hall, his head low and shoulders unbearably stiff.
"Sire, are you-?"
"Leave me be!" he bellowed, leaving a bewildered Kairi behind him.
He couldn't take this.