Author's Note: So... morbid. Yeah, sorry. Not sure why these keep coming out that way, but hope you enjoy it anyways. I just saw 'blue' as in the sky after Roxas had fallen, jumped, or been pushed off of a cliff... for some reason, and Axel as his angel of death (or mercy, depending on your take on things.

Reviews are always appreciated.

Word Count: 1,118

Disclaimer: Axel and Roxas Property of Square Enix and Disney. This story property of me. Give credit or come up with your own ideas. Got it?


Blue filled his vision; it was all he could see. Blue, and tufts of blurry white things drifting across the clear blue. He was having a hard time inhaling, but he couldn't figure out why that was. Had he fallen? That was it! He must have fallen. Like the time Sora had playfully pushed him, resulting in a tumble off of the jungle-jim. He'd landed flat on his back, and been unable to inhale properly for what felt like far too long not to have enough oxygen. How long had he waited then? Had it been this long by the time he could breathe again? He couldn't remember.

The buzzing in his ears was probably normal too, right? His whole body felt too heavy; then again it felt too light, at the same time. And everywhere he could see there was blue. It was a world of blue, like a roiling ocean of water hung above his head ready to crash down upon him, and the rushing noise that his ears made the whole thing more real than he wanted it to be.

A tinkling noise trickled towards him from somewhere else, but he could not turn his head to see where it was coming from. Had the whole world shifted just then? Again, he couldn't tell.

And then the blue was gone.

Suddenly, it was green and red filling his vision, and his eyes began to water, though he didn't know why just yet. His mind hadn't caught up with his body.

"Roxas," breathed a surprisingly soothing voice, overpowering the rushing sounds and touching him in a way that made him feel more at peace. He wanted to respond too, but without any oxygen he just couldn't. Trying to nod his head instead, a tear finally fell free from one blue eye as he realized he couldn't even make that simple gesture. And here were those green eyes, so beautiful that he had to respond!

"Shh, no. Don't even try," the voice belonging to those green eyes came back to him, speaking through the rushing around him, and seeming to sink directly into his thoughts. "Your body won't respond now. Try to relax. I'm here to take you away from here."

He didn't know why, since it wasn't as though he even knew this man, but those words did sooth him, causing the tension that had been building against that rushing, buzzing noise in his ears to seep out of his muscles. Roxas closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the world around him looked vastly different from just the second before. There was no ocean, just a large towering cliff above the spot where he lay, and a blue, nearly cloudless, sky above that. All around him were rocks and dirt and plants that looked remarkably like dead things, though he knew for a fact that the strange looking things were alive.

Then there was him… and his heart jolted at the sight because that was in fact him; himself. He was lying right there, at his own feet, broken and bleeding on the ground.

"Why are my eyes closed," he gasped, though why that question came forward before any others he didn't know. He didn't even know who he was asking, or why he'd said it out loud until the breathy voice from before answered him.

"You fell asleep before you died," it told him. "It was the only mercy I could offer you."

Roxas spun around to face the speaker, intending to shout or fight or plead or… he didn't know what he intended, but the sight of the man before him froze him where he stood. How was he standing there if he was on the ground… broken… dead… he couldn't process all of this, right now.

Those green eyes stared back at him, and they held a sadness that not even he could match at that moment even though he had just died.

"I-I," he began, but faltered. He felt like he would be crying just then if his eyes would behave like they were supposed to. However, for the first time in his life, even though he was frustrated and in pain, they wouldn't come. Roxas felt a knot in his throat as though he were crying, though.

"I'm not r-ready to d-d-die," he finally choked out.

Those green eyes just looked at him, through him, into him, and smiled sadly. "Few are ready for their time when it comes, Roxas."

Staring into those green eyes didn't seem to help him then, like they had before. Before they felt peaceful, comforting; but now he wanted to run, hide, to escape this harbinger of bad news. He stood there frozen in place, staring.

"I'm here to guide you away from here, if you'll let me," the tall figure cloaked in black continued, raising one hand towards Roxas, but without taking a single step closer.

Once blue, blue eyes assessed the situation, darting first to his own body, broken on the ground, and to the eyes behind the offered hand. He couldn't explain it, but it was those eyes that made him want to reach out and take the offered hand. They spoke to him of some kind of deep, pained love that he couldn't imagine.

The tall, green-eyed man shuddered almost imperceptibly when their skin touched, causing Roxas to hesitate just slightly before closing his fingers around the long, thin fingers, but only slightly. Then a sad smile slid onto a frail looking face, and Roxas imagined beautiful features that had been starved until they resembled this emaciated body in front of him.

"I've been waiting for you to meet me here for a very long time, Roxas," the tall figure said to him, turning away from Roxas's body and leading his new companion along with him. "I only wish that your first chance to see me didn't have to come as a result of your death." The tall man paused here, reaching his free hand around to brush it against Roxas's cheek. It felt strange, like being touched hard, inside of his skin, and yet barely being touched all at the same time; like a feather had brushed against his face.

He didn't know what to think, so he just followed and listened. Did he have a choice though, really? Roxas didn't think so. His body was without question dead behind him. The only thing he could really do now was follow this tall, green-eyed being wherever he led, and see what happened next. And, he thought as they continued walking, if this is who I get to spend the afterlife with, death might not be so bad, after all.