Chapter Eight
After being with the Organization for some time, Roxas realised there were some things you didn't do, some things you didn't talk about. He also discovered that there were some places you weren't allowed to go.
Roxas wasn't stupid, he knew, after leaving the area of the basement with a swollen cheek and a newborn suspicion, that there was something down there that Organization member XIII most certainly was not allowed to see.
It was an unfortunate fact that he had already seen it.
A beautiful egg, delicate, fragile, mysterious, and large enough – Roxas concluded – to hold something equally mysterious. He ended up thinking about it for the whole day, when usually trivial thoughts passed fleetingly through his head and then stored into a file of information.
Later, when Axel dropped unceremoniously into his room without knocking (Considering he slipped in through the balcony window), he found Roxas sitting on the floor of his bedroom, keyblade resting on his lap and staring at the opposite wall.
"What, do you have a grudge against armchairs or something?" Axel asked, tossing himself lazily into the said chair. Roxas didn't answer, apparently unaware to his presence. Axel frowned and tossed a cushion at him.
"Yo. Blondie."
Roxas caught the cushion with one hand; only looking at Axel until after the offending material was safely stowed away under his bed.
"What?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Don't do that listless shit with me," Axel snorted, standing up and dropping onto the bed beside where Roxas was sitting. "Something's on your mind."
XIII raised an eyebrow. "What's this, Axel, The Flurry of Dancing Flames is actually concerned?"
A mouth curled into a lazy smirk and one emerald eye winked down at him.
"I wouldn't say concerned," Axel replied. "Dutifully interested, more like."
"Well I'm sure the Superior and his lackeys will be grateful that you're respecting your civic… duty." Roxas snorted. "I, however, would prefer it if you took on the role of the civilian who 'saw nothing.'"
Axel's smirk dropped a notch.
"See… anything?" he prompted, if only a little unsettled.
"It's nothing." Roxas stood, tossing the Keyblade at a wall where it disappeared into obnoxiously bright sparkles. "I'm going for a walk."
He raised his hood.
"Watch out for Heartless, I hear they go after pretty young maidens like yourself."
The cushion slammed into the wall only seconds after Axel disappeared through it into the darkness.
--
"Are you sure nothing's going on?" Axel asked curiously, following Roxas down the dimly lit street. The blonde rolled his eyes and waved a hand for the elder of the two to leave. Axel naturally ignored him.
"Why do you need to know?" he asked with exasperation and Axel grinned at him, looping a long arm around his shoulder.
"Y'see Roxie. I have a reputation here, you know? I need to know things because I like knowing things. And usually when I know things I use them to my advantage." He winked. "Savvy?"
Roxas
shrugged him off. "You want to know?" he asked. "You really
do?"
Axel grinned. "Sure thing cutie pie."
He managed to
dodge the first punch but Roxas' knee managed to hit its mark in
between the taller of the two's legs.
"You
know…" Axel grumbled, getting to his feet. "That didn't only
hurt my pride."
"I thought they were your pride. Or is
it your hair? Should I die all your hair products pink then?"
After
a few minutes of glowering at each other, Roxas turned and continued
walking, dispatching an unfortunate Heartless that had wandered
across their path.
"The dreams are getting worse." He said quietly. "They even come at the daytime now. I'll be training with Lexaeus in the arena and suddenly I'd have a strange feeling…"
Axel listened to him silently, finished whimpering and guarding his respective manhood.
"I'd… I'd get really woozy. And suddenly I wasn't fighting with Lexaeus anymore; I would be fighting a huge muscled man with golden hair. And the other day I went swimming at the island, and when I turned around I suddenly imagined me with a tail, and I was swimming through the darkness of the depths with a beautiful girl with red hair… but it wasn't a girl. She had a green tail, and-"
He heard Axel start to snicker and huffed.
"Fine. Never mind then." He began to stride off, but Axel grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Alright,
alright. I'm sorry, keep going."
Roxas sighed and turned away.
"I…" he began, and stopped, faking a smile. "It's nothing."
Axel nudged him.
"Nah, go on. I like these stories of mermaids and heroes."
Roxas didn't answer for a long time.
"Roxas?"
"I…"
Roxas glanced once behind them into darkness and shuffled closer to Axel.
"I'm afraid of my own shadow."
