A/N: The Axel chapter! This one is with Mumford&Sons' "Little Lion Man". It matches pretty well, oddly enough. His past starts out pretty light. Oh, also random flashback with no warnings beforehand!

You'll never be what is in your heart.

Axel awoke in his room, he had slept alone for the first time in months. He had just needed one night of quiet. His life had changed rapidly, an had ended up...different. So much different then what he would have ever imagined. As a child, he would have probably wanted to be a fireman, much like most little boys.

When he was about seven, he had idolized anything to do with protecting people like police, firemen, and such. He didn't ever think about how harsh the world was, and how his heart could be stolen-literally. He missed the ignorant bliss of innocence some days, on others, he was glad that his life had turned out the way it did. If he could be glad.

You're not as brave as you were from the start

Axel had grown up with his mother and younger sister. He had never known nor met his father, nor even his name. When he got into his teen years he met a boy named Isa, whom he promptly befriended. He was courageous and reckless. He often fought strangers for the thrill of it. Not that he was any good.

Take all the courage you have left

He now lived in a fake sense of fear. Fear for himself, Xembar, and Blaise. Fear for what might happen to them, because, it is well known that memories can come back to haunt a person. They can also distort themselves.

But it was not your fault, but mine.

Lea ran a hand through his hair, "Hey, man"

"Lea, what are you doing here? It's like two in the morning, yeah?" Isa looked up from his pillow.

"Mum's really upset, and I can't sleep." Lea bit his bottom lip.

"Understandably. She has you for a son." Isa rolled over.

"Hey, not funny!" He blinked.

"It was totally funny. Just not to you." He grinned.

"She's upset...about...you know." Lea hung his head.

"That was nearly three years ago." Isa sat up, "Why is she still upset?"

"She hasn't slept well since. Besides...it's pretty understandable. You'd be upset, too." Lea said quietly.

"For a while,yeah. But, then, I'd know when it was time to let go. It's time for her to let go." The blue-haired boy said logically.

"Shut up." Lea glared. "It's not like it was a fish." Isa heard an odd muffled noise, he then noticed Lea had a school bag.

"What's in the bag?" Isa changed the subject.

Lea took off the school bag, set it on the floor, and unzipped it. A small whit cat poked it head out, "Just Fluffy. He didn't want me to leave, he always sleeps in my bed with me."

"Lea...what the hell is wrong with you? Do you just grab your bag and think 'oh, wow, I forgot my over-affectionate cat, I'll just shove him into my schoolbag, 'cause that's totally normal and not creepy at all. I wonder why I'm not popular at school.'" Isa mocked.

"Not normally. You're getting off subject." Lea rolled his eyes.

"You just pulled your cat out of a bag." The blue-haired boy said.

"I noticed that. Now, can I stay here or not?" The red-head asked.

The teen sighed. "Of course."

The red-head set his bag down on the floor and laid down next to it. "Hey, Isa?" He asked.

"Yeah?" The other teen asked.

Lea bit his lip, "I still haven't gotten over it, either."

"You just need to go back to that spot. Bring your mum, you two can talk about it. It's going to be tough, but, you need to do it." Isa sighed.

He nodded and grabbed the cat, pulling it close to his chest. It purred and nuzzled it's head to his chin, "Yeah..."

"She wouldn't want to see you two like this, you know. Yeah, it was bad. But, it's time to let it go. Karma will deal with the person." Isa yawned.

"No amount of punishment could make up for what they did. For what they put us through." He sighed, shaking, and gripping onto the cat tightly. The cat mewled a little before licking his cheek to try and calm the air.

I really fucked it up this time, didn't I, my dear?

Lea left the next morning back home from Isa's. He walked with his head hung low and vision to the ground. He knew the are so well, he could have walked it blindfolded. He reached home, and slipped to his knees in front of the red embers that struck his heart with such a great gravity.

Tremble for yourself, my man, you know that you have seen this all before. Tremble, little lion man, you'll never settle any of your scores. Your grace is wasted in your face, your boldness stands alone among the wreck.

The embers seemed to touch the sky, glowing so brightly even in the day. As if the stars themselves had come to punish him for a crime of nothing. Tears of despair and grief ran down his face. His mother, one of his last living relatives had burned in the embers.

It was your heart on the line.

Axel shook those thoughts from his head. He was a nobody now. He couldn't care anymore, no matter how much he wanted, or pretended, to.

A/N: So, basically to clear all the vagueness: Axel's little sister was kidnapped and sold into white-slavery(for lack of a better term), she was missing for nearly a year before her body turned up in a creek. His mother died in a fire the night he and his cat stayed with Isa. After that, he lived with Isa for a little while, then he and Fluffy left. He joined the organization shortly after the cat passed away from it's elderly age. Also, very long chapter.