Pairing: AkuRoku

Words: 8,319

Rating: M

.o.O.o.

With nowhere else to go – and no one else who might protect him from the rabid insanity of this shadow realm – Roxas obediently, if silently, fell into step with Axel. The redhead surreptitiously put an arm around him, to help him limp along, his lower leg burning with pain and the heat of the blood soaking into the towel. His breaths coming shallowly, Roxas fought to keep himself together, well aware that he had no luxury for bemoaning his various agonies right now. Maybe later.

Maybe with Lea, if he ever managed to return.

A quick glance at Axel, though, didn't fill him with hope. The man's gaze was set doggedly forward, his sights purely focused on getting Roxas to the 'safe place', after which…

Well, Roxas didn't even know what. And he was rapidly losing the ability to continue fighting. Each encounter in this godforsaken place was pushing him to utmost.

Eager to make sure there wasn't going to be another one any time soon, conscious of how exhausted Roxas had become, Axel hurried him as fast as his leg would allow along the long, white hallway. Whenever they heard someone coming, footsteps echoing along the stretching corridors, he would whisper a curse and quickly sweep them around the next corner, a hand on the back of Roxas' head to keep his face down. Their path was random, though Axel did appear to have an ultimate destination in mind he was attempting to steer them towards. Roxas, meanwhile, lost all sense of where they were, if ever he'd had even the slightest inkling in the first place. He noticed, some way along, that a trail of red spatters was being littered in his wake, the weakness in his body mounting. He couldn't stop shaking.

When the shadows around them started growing thicker, it happened gradually at first, Roxas hardly noticing a difference, since everywhere he looked was steeped in that persistent, grey-washed gloom. But soon they took on a crowding quality, seeming to – shift with a mind of their own, like maggots writhing out of the corners of his eyes. When he turned his head, clutching automatically at Axel's sleeve, the redhead frowned and followed his gaze, his steps faltering as he saw what Roxas had detected. He whirled, looking back the way they'd come, Roxas turning as well and discovering that all along the trail of blood droplets, the shadows were stretching, roiling, taking shape: small, black figures emerging unlike any creature Roxas had ever seen. If he had to liken them to something, he would have chosen insects – their antennae and swarming mindset placed that image in mind, along with a shudder of revulsion at the realisation that they were attracted to his blood.

Axel's face grew heavy, an arm passing instinctively in front of Roxas in a protective gesture as more and more of the little things formed and started cluttering the hallway. They scratched with black claws at the dotted blood – then, several at a time, seemed to sense the presence of the being that had shed them. Roxas felt a chill as their blank, yellow-eyed attention found him, with still more of them coming from the shadows.

"What are they?" he asked, horrified.

"Sh!" Axel hissed, but too late – at the sound of Roxas' voice, the creatures bristled, and, as one, surged forwards. Axel cried, "Run!" and suddenly, neither of them cared a damn about Roxas' stabbed calf. They sprinted along, Axel with a hand twisted firmly into the back of Roxas' coat so that he couldn't stumble and fall behind, pushing him so that he was always half a step ahead.

As they approached a junction, Axel barked, "Left!" and they swerved around it, passing a startled, black-clothed figure, who uttered a mystified, "Axel?"

"Demyx, run!" he yelled back, the guy barely hesitating before taking off in the opposite direction, managing to dodge the black wave of creatures at the junction by a bare second. Roxas gasped for air, fighting to keep his feet, knowing that the slightest stumble would mean – what, exactly? He didn't want to find out. Axel's terror was enough.

He felt the towel slipping from around his leg, dislodged by all the running despite how tightly Axel had tied it, and several flapping steps later it dropped away, nearly tripping him up, forcing him to hop over it, Axel staggering slightly beside him at the abrupt change in gait. Roxas chanced a look back, and wheezed out, "Axel!"

The redhead glanced over his shoulder, still running, and saw what Roxas had spotted: the towel, soaked as it was in Roxas' blood, was acting as a temporary beacon for the surging creatures, which circled around and crashed down upon it like a wave. "Keep going!" Axel urged, and they continued on, Roxas' right foot stamping red prints with every step now that there was nothing to hold back the blood.

At last, Axel yanked him bodily down one final passageway and threw a door open, shoving Roxas ahead so that he fell to his knees, slamming the door shut and grabbing two large, bladed wheels from beside it. Backing up rapidly, Roxas following suit and dragging himself along until he hit a bed, Axel gripped the wheels tightly and waited for the black creatures to follow them through. Their heavy breaths filled the room, Roxas with his head tilted back against the end of the bed, chest heaving, wide eyes glued to the door.

They both went still as what little light showed under the door went suddenly dark, like a black cloud had descended. Then came the scratching, the scrabbling of claws against wood, growing in volume and insistence until Roxas clamped his hands over his ears, certain he'd be hearing it in his nightmares for years to come. Several bony claws attempted entry under the door, but Axel was ready, slamming his weapons down the second anything appeared, slicing them clean off. Roxas watched in horrified fascination as they wriggled around for several seconds before disintegrating into nothingness.

Noticing that they were still aiming for the blood that Roxas tracked everywhere, including a long line of it that stretched from the doorway over to the bed, Axel, in a fit of quick-thinking, unzipped his coat and threw it down over the red gleam, stomping down so it would absorb it, as if this would put them off the scent. Astonishingly, it did in fact do the job – slowly, the scratching lessened. With Axel continuing to annihilate anything that tried coming under the door, and the creatures' inability to claim high enough mental function to operate a door handle, their numbers dwindled until, at last, light returned under the door.

"…They're back in the shadows," Axel finally concluded, still standing wary at the door, but relaxing enough to look over at Roxas. "You're safe here. This is my room – nobody will come barging in this time."

"What were those things?" the boy demanded, voice jumping, fingers trembling against the sides of his face.

Axel gave a weary sigh, dragging a wrist over his perspiring brow. "Heartless. They exist in the shadows. The only thing that draws them more than darkness…" He cast an apprehensive eye over Roxas' bleeding form. "…is light."

Roxas' mouth went thin. "…So they're going to keep coming after me, is that what you're saying?"

Axel paced away from the door. "No! No – well, maybe, I guess. They must have sensed you in the blood. Before that – maybe I was keeping you shielded, being near me… Now, though…" He was talking more to himself than to Roxas, trying to figure it out aloud, breaking off to shake his head in consternation. "I don't know," he repeated, agitatedly. "Let me think." He was breathing unsteadily, still recovering from the pursuit, his gaze raking Roxas' prone form with frustration. "It's – it's all that light inside you that's the problem. If it wasn't for that, you'd be fine, no one would even notice you, you'd fit right in." His eyes darted back and forth, head twitching, before he came to a bleak conclusion: "We have to get it out of you."

Roxas' eyes flared wide. "Excuse me?"

Axel discarded his weapons with a clatter that made Roxas wince, stalking to where he slumped against the bed and grabbing fistfuls of his borrowed black coat. With a grunt, he hauled Roxas upright, then tossed him onto the bed. Bouncing on the mattress, Roxas cried out, pain bursting through his leg. "Axel, wait – I'm still bleeding!"

"I don't care," the man snapped, hands passing over him impatiently, as if seeking something in the folds of his coat. "If we don't get that light out of you, you're dead anyway." He located Roxas' zipper and dragged it roughly down, exposing his bare chest, fingers now probing their way across his belly and chest, digging uncomfortably into his flesh. "It's got to be in here somewhere," Axel muttered, eyes narrowed. Pressing a hand onto Roxas' sternum, he wondered, "The heart, maybe?"

"What are you planning to do?" Roxas demanded, with a spike of fear. "Tear out my heart? Because I don't think people survive that."

"I have to find it," Axel snarled back, loud and hoarse, nearly punching Roxas in the chest as he spoke. "The Heartless will keep coming if I don't, and Demyx – Demyx saw me with you! If he comes and sees you like this, I'll have to kill him, too! I'll have to kill all of them, and I don't think I can manage that."

"Then, don't!" Roxas frantically suggested, hands on his wrists, trying to push him away. Axel slapped him away, pinning his arms above his head with one hand, Roxas' injured shoulder searing.

"I don't have a choice!" he cried. "Damn it, Roxas, if you don't want to die, you have to let me find it and take it from you! If I don't, they'll all find you, and you won't be able to stay here!"

Roxas glared up at him, teeth gritted through the pain, and with dwindling strength but rising anger declared, "I don't want to stay!"

"You don't mean that," Axel frenziedly told him, fingernails digging into the skin above his heart. "You were supposed –"

"I don't care where I was supposed to be!" Roxas bawled up into his face, turning pink with the effort of the volume. "I care about where I am, and I don't want to be here! I want to go home, back to the people I love! I want to go back to Sora, and to Lea!"

Anger flaring in Axel's features, he snatched the edges of Roxas' unzipped coat and gave the boy a hard shake. "Lea!" Even as his face was contorting with his rage, though, there appeared a glimmer of something else that caused him to hesitate. "Wait – you said you want to go back to the people you love," he said, trepidation creeping through his bearing. "Then, you said Lea – what does that mean? Do you – love Lea?" Roxas stared up at him, throat shifting as he swallowed. A pause passed, into which he hadn't the nerve to speak, that silence conveying all the answer Axel required. He all but dropped Roxas back to the bed, as if burned. "No," he thickly muttered, followed by, "Shit." He then roared it, the tendons standing out on his neck: "SHIT!" Slamming a fist to the bed, close enough to make Roxas jump, he hung his head so that it touched against Roxas' chest, the boy awash with bewilderment, heart pounding at the violence of Axel's reaction.

"A-Axel?" he worked up the courage to query, after a short while.

It took him a little longer to respond, his eventual mutter being that of, "Love." He shifted atop Roxas – the moment suddenly so reminiscent of when Lea had fallen asleep on him that the déjà vu was dizzying in its intensity – then pulled himself off, sitting on the edge of the bed with rigid shoulders and a heavy head. "I can't compete," he eventually said, tone bitter. "You love Lea. As Axel… I'll never be enough. If it's him you love, with all his light, then I was beaten before I even started."

Seeing him sitting there, looking so wretched, and – so very like Lea, more than ever right now – Roxas couldn't help but feel a pang. "Axel…" He ran a hand over his weary face and eyed the man's melancholic profile with his fingers across his lips. "You know, it isn't just Lea," he offered awkwardly, the man's head twitching towards him. "I mean, you and Lea – technically, you're the same person, right?"

"We're not the same," Axel growled. "Are you the same as your brother? Because he's the one who would have been your other, if everything had happened like it should have."

"All right, not the same, then," Roxas corrected. "But – I mean, comparing me and Sora is different to comparing you and Lea. He and I are brothers, but you – you and Lea, you're just opposite sides of the mirror, right?" Axel scowled, but didn't argue. "Doesn't that mean," Roxas carefully suggested, "that by loving Lea, there's a part of you that I love, by extension?"

Axel stiffened. He looked over at Roxas at last, frowning. "…Do you mean that?"

Roxas shrugged a little. "You'd never met me before I turned up here, but even so, you wanted to keep me here forever. That means that you and Lea are connected, don't you think? Otherwise, I'd just be another nobody to you. I mean, how did you even know that the witch had me?"

"Because… because Lea –" Axel cut himself off, lapsing into thought. "Lea went looking for you, and you weren't there. That's when I knew you had to be on this side, and went searching for you." He gave a small, humourless laugh. "I thought it was my big chance. That things were righting themselves, but it was all just… the stupid witch, being crazy and dragging you over here."

"But if it wasn't for Lea, you wouldn't know me at all," Roxas pointed out, shifting restlessly, voice growing tired. "That's what I'm trying to say, Axel. The two of you – you're not just two separate entities. You are connected. So doesn't it stand to reason that if I'm in love with Lea, then – there's a little bit of you in Lea who is loved, as well?"

Axel was silent for a long while, processing this. Roxas closed his eyes and willed him to believe it. He didn't know if he did, necessarily – a lot of this was simply an attempt to calm the guy down, and stop his talk of removing Roxas' heart while he slowly bled out across the bedcovers. But he couldn't help but be the slightest bit moved by the seriousness with which Axel was considering his words. Was Lea – really somewhere in this guy? Were they one and the same, separated by nothing more than… shadows and circumstance?

"Am I just… supposed to let you go?" Axel asked at last, quiet and resentful.

Roxas sighed. "I'll die over here if you don't," he bluntly reminded him. "And you can't just remove my light, either. If you try, I'll never forgive you." When Axel looked like maybe he could handle a lack of forgiveness if it meant he still had access to Roxas, he pointedly added, "Not to mention you'd probably kill me in the process." Swallowing hard, gaze tracking over the ceiling in an unfocused sort of way, he mumbled, "As it stands, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, anyway."

These were the words that finally reached Axel, slapping some sense into him. Looking over at Roxas' leg, he muttered, "Shit." The bed sheets, once white, were now stained with red in a slowly blossoming halo around Roxas' leg. "Wait here," he said.

A rough, whispering laugh left Roxas' lips. "That's the easy part."

Axel returned after a couple of minutes of rustling around the room, toting a fresh towel, another bowl of water, and a roll of bandaging. Blue eyes wandering blearily around the room, Roxas observed in a murmur, "This looks… the same as where Larxene died."

Axel glanced up from where he was carefully pulling the blood-soaked leg of Roxas' jeans up. "Yeah. They're all the same. It's what Castle Oblivion looks like, I guess. We're part of the same Organisation."

"Organisation…?"

Axel shrugged lightly. "Just a collection of us over here that go around keeping the peace, more or less."

Arching a brow, Roxas incredulously echoed, "Keep the peace?" Axel looked over, meeting his gaze for a moment. "You don't seem like much of a peacekeeper to me."

The man lifted his chin, pride in his features. "I left a trail of blood behind me, until they recognised that I was meant for the job. Life as an Organisation member is full of perks. Well worth the hard work it takes to get here."

"You murdered your way to becoming a peacekeeper," Roxas dully summarised, wondering if Axel was even capable of comprehending the awful irony, or feeling the faintest flicker of remorse for his actions.

"Hey, if it wasn't me, it'd just be someone else," Axel flippantly replied, taking the towel and starting to wipe the blood from his leg.

Hissing with pain, Roxas asked through his teeth, "And what happens to the people on the other side? When your other dies – then what?"

"They get sick," Axel answered, without missing a beat, as if they were discussing the lunch menu at a restaurant rather than people's lives.

Aghast at this information, and the utter casualness of Axel's attitude, he demanded, "What?"

Axel darted over a faintly annoyed look. "What? It's better than being dead, isn't it? They can recover. They don't always, but it's not like they don't have a chance – which is more than you can say for the ones over here. We just dissolve into shadows."

Roxas blinked at this, gaping at the man, who was still working at gathering all the blood, the towel looking gory. Axel couldn't have cared less about either the people he'd killed or the ones who got sick as a result on the other side. He was just – concerned with his own progress, his own power. What was worse, he didn't seem to consider this unusual, as though it was the way they all were over here. And he – he expected Roxas to want to remain?

Brow furrowing, Roxas looked at the ceiling, swallowing his opinions of this dark, twisted side of the mirror and just… hoping it would all be over soon. He had to consider the possibility of escaping from Axel, somehow, if he proved uncooperative. But – then what?

And… what would happen to Sora, if Roxas somehow – died? If he was supposed to be Sora's other, born into the world of light only by sheer luck, did they or did they not share that same connection? If one of them died – would the other fall ill? If Roxas allowed himself to die over here because he charged off on his own – a likely scenario, all things considered – would Sora then get… sick?

He shut his eyes, a low breath escaping him, experiencing a flutter of despair for the first time since arriving in this place. It had all been so violent and fast he hadn't had time to properly consider things yet. That he had the same psychic abilities as Sora gave him the slightest edge, in that he already knew that things like other worlds existed, so he wasn't a gibbering mess like he might have been if he was otherwise normal. But still – his ability to keep his cool was at breaking point.

Axel chose this moment to pause in his ministrations. He had mopped up the blood, the bowl beside him a deep red, much the same as the towel. Now, Roxas' flesh was, for the moment, damp and golden, pale around the edges of the knife wound, which was already starting to overflow again. Axel's hands trailed down the length of his calf, brushing softly along with a reverent expression on his face. "Every part of you is so warm and soft," he murmured, smearing a trickle of blood with his thumb.

"Axel," Roxas snapped, lifting his head from the bed to woozily glare at the man. "Finish the damn job. I feel sick from all the blood I've lost. You need to wrap it up, and then I need a hospital."

Axel's face fell, that same darkness from earlier returning to his eyes. His hands tightened briefly around Roxas' leg… but then, with reluctant obedience, he picked up the bandaging and started unrolling it. "A hospital. So – your world, then," he supposed, the bitterness back in full swing. "With Lea." Glowering down at Roxas' leg, hands moving to wrap the bandaging around, he gritted, "He was never meant to have you in the first place. This… this is supposed to be mine. You are supposed to be with me."

"Ah, cut the shit, Axel." Roxas irritably dropped his head back to the pillow, patience run beyond its limit. "Use your damn brain, would you? If I can figure it out with blood loss, you should have realised it ages ago: if I'd been born into this world, you'd have never so much as known I existed. I'm Sora's other, according to you, right? Well, Sora's got a boyfriend – and he'd never have met Lea, which means you would not, in fact, be with me. It'd all be different."

Axel's hands faltered, his face rising from his task, eyes wide at the revelation. "No – wait… Then… But maybe Lea would have met him later on…?"

"No," Roxas answered curtly, "he wouldn't have. Sora's been dreaming of the same guy since we were kids, and he found him recently. Now that they're together, there's no way he'll ever have eyes for anyone else. So whoever that guy is, that's who I would have ended up with in this place. Technically, he's the one getting stiffed. Get it, now? If it wasn't for me being a twin, neither you or Lea would know a damn thing about me, let alone be 'fucking' me. So take that for whatever it's worth to you, Axel."

Axel looked like he'd been punched. He pulled the gauze tight, a sharp, knee-jerk reaction, causing Roxas to grunt with the pain of it, before he resumed wrapping it around. "So… If you had been over here like you were meant to…"

"We would never have met." Idly, Roxas remarked, "You probably would have preferred that – at least then you'd have had a chance with someone else."

"No." He blinked, twisting his head on the pillow to look down at Axel, bent over his leg, once again pausing in the bandaging. "I wouldn't want that," the redhead hotly said. Before Roxas could comment, he continued wrapping the gauze, making it snug and tight. Though the blood continued to seep through, it was slowing with the added pressure.

"What are you, a masochist?" Roxas softly asked.

"I want you," Axel said, words strained, eyes focused burningly on Roxas' leg. "I wish it was me and not Lea, but if it has to be like this, then – fine. At least I still know we're connected, somehow. But the thought of you not even existing in my life, of you being with someone else entirely?" He shook his head fiercely, giving another sharp, wince-inducing tug. "That's not what I'd prefer," he muttered.

"…So, what are you saying?" Roxas cautiously asked, Axel heaving an impatient sigh as he finished the bandaging effort and stuck the gauze in place. He scowled down at it for a long moment, then lifted his eyes to Roxas'.

"I'm saying – I'm saying that at least you being with Lea is better than nothing. And yes, you need a hospital. This knife wound isn't going to close on its own. You need help."

"You're – going to help me get home?"

"I'm… going to help you get help," Axel replied, glancing away with obvious displeasure and, perhaps, some disappointment. "You can't stay here, or you'll die. And… hell, if keeping you with Lea is the closest I'll ever get to you…" He sighed again, scrubbing a hand at the back of his head. "I don't know. Maybe I am a masochist. But – this is better than nothing. I think." He grimaced. "It's better than you dying, or never knowing about me and Lea at all." He stood, gathering up the bowl and soiled towel. As he turned away to dispose of them, he said, a little ominously, "I've got conditions, though."

Expression becoming shuttered, Roxas asked neutrally, "Oh?"

Axel disappeared behind the change screen and tipped the water out, gurgling down a sink out of sight. When he reappeared, wiping his hands on his shirt, he wore a sly, crafty look. "Two things. Two requests." Approaching the bed, he stood over Roxas, hands on hips, and stared for a moment. "First, I want a kiss."

Roxas' eyes narrowed. "Didn't you already kiss me? You know – when I was screaming in pain?"

"Then," Axel amended, "I want you to kiss me." As Roxas considered this, he coaxed, "Come on, it's not that bad, right? I mean – you're the one who said that Lea and me are basically the same."

"Lea hasn't killed people."

"Lea," Axel said silkily, "just hasn't had the chance yet." His gaze bore into Roxas', a splinter of hunger within his expression that sent the smallest of shivers down Roxas' spine.

Finally, he conceded. "Fine. But I'm not sitting up. My leg hurts like a bitch."

"Fine with me," Axel answered, and climbed onto the bed, depositing himself on Roxas' abdomen, just north of his hips. With a hand planted either side of his head, Roxas found himself staring up at a thoroughly serious Axel. They regarded each other for a long moment, Roxas making the first move when it became apparent that Axel wasn't going to, true to his 'you kiss me' demand.

Reaching a hand up, Roxas first, hesitantly, touched a thumb against one of the marks beneath his eyes. Tattoos, he now realised. Permanent. Other than that… there was literally no other physical difference between Axel and Lea. Roxas thought that the blazing green of Lea's eyes – especially when he was aroused, or focused on Roxas, as Axel currently was – to be entirely unique to him. But Axel was making the breath catch in his throat just like Lea did. There was such an intensity to it. The way that Axel was looking at him was – achingly familiar.

Roxas swallowed. Wrapping his hand around the back of Axel's head, he tugged the man gently downward, lifting up from the pillow a short way to meet him. As their lips neared, warm breaths mingling, he felt Axel tense with anticipation, hands tightening on the bed. When their mouths connected, softly at first, Axel exhaled, his tongue coming out to seek entry beyond Roxas' chastely closed lips. When Roxas didn't immediately grant access, he groaned quietly against him, begging quietly, "Please. Please…"

Taking pity on him, Roxas parted his lips, allowing the kiss to deepen, Axel's tongue meeting his own gratefully. When Roxas thought about it, barring any other unforeseen attacks by witches, if he managed to get out of this place, he'd never be back again – which meant that this was the only kiss Axel was ever going to get from him. Suddenly, he understood a little better why it was one of Axel's conditions. He wrapped his other arm behind Axel, drawing him down as he lowered back to the pillow, before moving his hands to cup the sides of the man's face. For several minutes – far longer than Roxas had initially planned – their lips met and parted, tongues touching and sliding, breaths slow, much like the kiss itself. Axel was surprisingly restrained; Roxas had been expecting him to push his luck, considering how he had behaved initially. But he was just – taking what he could get, it seemed. There was a crease between his brows that looked… almost pained.

He really – did care about Roxas. He was as dark and warped as this place could make a person, but even so, there was… love in his heart. Or as close to such a thing as he could get.

Eventually, before either of them could get… carried away… Roxas, with an internal acknowledgment of some regret, ended the kiss. Axel, reluctant to stop, pressed a few damp pecks against Roxas' chin and jaw… but when the blond didn't respond, he forced himself up, meeting Roxas' gaze hazily. He swallowed hard. "…Thanks."

Roxas shook his head slightly, dismissing the idea of needing to be thanked for such a thing. He was feeling… confused, to be perfectly honest. Axel and Lea were beginning to blur together inside him.

"Now," the man said, his voice hoarse, "my second condition."

Roxas went still, wondering warily what it was going to be. If it was sex, would he refuse? Could he? Not simply out of needing Axel's help, but – out of desiring, more than he liked to admit, this dangerous extension of Lea? Even knowing he was a killer, even knowing how violent he could be, and how cold towards others' lives – Roxas couldn't deny the flicker of a flame that Axel lit within him.

Maybe Roxas really was meant to have been born into this world, after all.

As Axel lowered himself back down, lips beside Roxas' ear, the boy felt a spark of anticipation mixed with nervous unease. He didn't want to have sex with Axel, not here, not now, not under these conditions – but the attraction was there, damn it, and not justbecause he was the mirror-image of Lea.

Axel licked his lips, the sound, right next to Roxas as he was, sending the slightest of shivers through the boy. "When you get back to Lea," he huskily whispered, "do me a favour… and get him to fuck you in front of a mirror."

There was a beat of silence, into which Roxas burst out laughing. Axel drew back and eyed him with a smirk, despite the fact that he was still being utterly genuine. That just made Roxas laugh harder. Lying on his back on a strange bed, in a strange world, with a strange man seated on his stomach, a stabbed leg, a good quart of blood lost along the way, it was pretty much all he could do at this point.

"You want me to," he chuckled, wiping leaking eyes, "get Lea to fuck me in front of a mirror?"

Eyes gleaming, Axel nodded. "Hard. Rough. And when he does – you won't be able to help but think of me."

Roxas drew a deep, unsteady breath, trying not to show how much that idea affected him. Eventually, once he had settled down a little, the giggles fading away, he sighed, "Okay, Axel."

The man squinted suspiciously. "Really? You're not just saying it?"

"Really. Sex in front of a mirror."

Leaning down, eyes intent, Axel promised, "I'll be watching."

As Roxas suppressed the resultant shudder those words brought – not a negative sensation – Axel, unaware of the impact he was having, accepted Roxas' word and swung off him, returning to his feet. Trying to sound normal, Roxas asked, after a moment, "So, now what?"

Axel had gone to the door, was picking up his coat from the floor, dragging it on despite the blood it had absorbed. As he pulled his hair from under the hood, he said, "Now, you stay here and rest. I'm going to go and find some things out."

Tensing, Roxas lifted his head from the pillow. "What? You're leaving me here? What about the Heartless? And anyone else who might come along?"

"You're safe here," Axel assured him. "The rooms are sealed to the Heartless, that's why they couldn't just manifest out of the walls in here. But, as much as I like the idea, I can't just keep you in here until you die." The way he said it suggested that he really did like the idea, and the chill that adhered to Roxas' skin from the blood loss reached deeper, cutting a little into the dizzy affection he had started feeling for the man. "I need to go and ask a few careful questions, confirm some things, and then I'll be back. I'm going to get you out of here, Roxas." His tone was clipped – determined, now that the decision had been made, and the 'conditions' agreed to. But it, and his expression, softened a little at the lingering alarm on the boy's face. "…Just use the opportunity to rest while you can. I won't be too long. No one will come in uninvited. You're still my secret."

Inhaling slowly, Roxas nodded. Axel watched with a hand on the door handle as he sank back onto the pillow, blinking at the ceiling.

"Close your eyes, Roxas," Axel quietly advised.

The boy did so, and heard the door open, then click shut again.

Exhaustion crashed over him the moment Axel was gone. All the tension that kept him alert and untrusting dissolved, making him realise just how on edge the man had him at all times. He dozed fitfully, not even noticing that he had slipped beneath consciousness until he was woken by Axel some indeterminate length of time later.

"Roxas."

His eyes popped open, muscles tightening at the sight of the man bending over the bed, his face mere inches away. "What?" he demanded, sucking a breath.

"Get up. It's time to go."

Feeling flustered by the abrupt announcement, he wiped his face clumsily, asking, "Did something happen?"

Axel pressed his lips thin. "Not exactly. But I don't it's wise for us to stick around. I asked a few too many questions, and made some people suspicious." He stepped back, allowing Roxas to sit up and lower his legs over the side of the bed. "Take your time," Axel warned him. "You'll probably be dizzy."

As advised, Roxas took several deep breaths and simply sat there for a few minutes, allowing his body to adjust to being upright again. When he was ready, he nodded at Axel, who held out a hand to help him up. Roxas stood carefully, not completely trusting of his ability to remain that way, but finding that it was, some swaying notwithstanding, doable. Axel zipped his coat back up, closing his chest off from view, and swept the dark hood back over his hair. Roxas' leg throbbed achingly, the pain like acid on his flesh, but he could hobble, barely, with Axel's support. He wasn't finished just yet.

"So?" he asked, a little breathless from the effort. "What's the plan? What sorts of questions were you asking?"

"Questions about magic mirrors," Axel grimly answered, turning him around so they could start moving towards the doorway. He paused to pick up the spiked wheels Roxas had seen him use on the Heartless, attaching them to low hooks on his belt, covering them up with his coat so that his hips looked extra wide. He glanced at Roxas' blank expression. "That's how you were brought here. The bitch in the tower used a magic mirror to drag you over. It was in her tower room – that's how she manages to move around, between this world and yours. It's the only movement she's allowed, since we sealed her up in that room."

"Why did you?" Roxas asked nervously.

"Dude, you've met her," Axel responded archly. "Would you let her run around, trying to rule the world? She thought she could take control of this place, and she got locked up for her troubles. She's bad news."

That Axel thought someone else was bad news really was saying something. Roxas felt a little weak – weaker – at having been in her presence.

"But it's the mirror that's key," Axel went on, turning to him and giving him a once-over, checking that he looked the part, even if his light gave him away if anyone got too close. "If you were brought here by a magic mirror, stands to reason that it's a mirror that's your ticket back out. But they don't exactly grow on trees, you know?"

"Are we going back to her tower?" Roxas asked, feeling a thrill of apprehension at the prospect.

"Not while you're still here and injured." Axel shook his head, to Roxas' relief. "I'll be going back there – believe me, she won't get away with this – but you'd just trip me up. I don't want her getting near you again. We're heading for a different mirror."

"So, there's more than one?"

"Yeah, but only one." Axel's expression showed his frustration."It was hell trying to get the location of it out of Zexion, too. He's way too fuckin' sharp, all like 'Why the sudden interest, Axel? Why do you seem agitated, Axel? Is it just me, or does something seem different about you, Axel?'" He gave an angry sneer. "If he'd actually come right out with the word 'light', I'd have killed him."

Roxas felt his pulse quicken. "Light?"

Axel darted him a flat look. "The blood in my coat. He could sense it, I guess, just not strongly enough to start throwing accusations. So, we need to get moving before anyone comes investigating – especially if they notice Larxene missing." He opened his arms, gesturing for Roxas to enter into them. "So, come on. I'm going to carry you. We're hopping a corridor out of this place, and I do not trust you to not trip and get lost in the darkness." Roxas hesitated, lifting a brow. Axel rolled his eyes. "I'm not trying to trick you, Roxas. If I wanted a hug, I would have made it a condition. I'm serious. One misstep in the corridor, and you'd find out a lot more about the darkness than you were ever planning to know."

Roxas grimaced at this less than comforting notion, and stepped into the circle of Axel's arms as requested. They closed immediately around him, holding him close, tightly, Roxas' face pressed into his shoulder, and, again, the sense of being held by Lea was overwhelming to the point where Roxas almost held him back. He stopped himself at the last moment, merely twitching in Axel's grasp, who, not noticing, closed his eyes and drew a breath.

Almost at once, darkness sprang about them like long, black tendrils of flame, creating a portal so opaque it was almost reflective. Axel's grip tightened further, and a moment later Roxas was being dragged again, the gasp freezing in his chest as the darkness swallowed them whole. He squeezed his eyes shut, a moment too late to avoid seeing the near-maddening vastness of the abyss Axel had drawn him into. Time stretched and contorted, so that it was impossible to know how much or little of it passed. When they arrived at their destination, and the terrible darkness dispersed to make way for bitumen and the cold night air, Roxas felt like he'd lost a year of his life, in the span of a heartbeat.

He swayed sharply, Axel clutching at him, exclaiming, "Whoa – hey, Roxas? You holding up?"

"I'm – okay," he mumbled, the vertigo slow to fade, his fingers tightening on Axel's sleeve. "Just give me a moment."

Slowly, he raised his eyes to their surroundings, hoping to ease the disorientation. They were outside; he had figured that much out by the fresh air, and the breeze. Night had fallen, but was lit by the neon signs attached to nearby buildings – tall, forbidding structures that lined the street they had emerged onto. A gigantic structure loomed at the top of a nearby hill: a castle, its lit windows staring like blank eyes into the night. The area was otherwise – strikingly empty. There wasn't a single soul about, except for Axel and Roxas.

Unnerved, Roxas asked, "Where are we?"

"Halfway across the country," Axel informed him, looking around. "I guess they've got a curfew. The ruler of this place has what we're looking for."

"A… magic mirror?" Roxas dubiously said, still trying to wrap his head around that one.

"Your ticket home," Axel confirmed, a glum weight to his tone.

Roxas sent him a long look, opening his mouth to speak, when a burst of motion nearby caught their attention. Heads jerking around, they watched as, on the concrete awning over a move theatre, one of the dark portals swept in and out of existence, leaving behind a black-clad young man.

Axel immediately stepped in front of Roxas, expression hardening. The young man stared down at them – or, Roxas was pretty sure that's what he was doing. It was hard to tell, since he was wearing a strip of black cloth over his eyes, tied behind his head over long, silver hair.

Calling out to them, the newcomer said, almost casually, "It's about time. I figured you must be Organisation, since Roxas dropped right off the map after the witch's tower. Castle Oblivion's the only place you could hide him that effectively."

Axel's eyes narrowed at the knowledge this guy wielded. Aggressively, he demanded, "Excuse me? Who the fuck are you, and what do you know about Roxas?"

"I know he doesn't belong with you," was the young man's swift rejoinder. Then, to Roxas, he called, "It's okay, Roxas; I'm here to take you away from him."

If Axel had been aggravated before, it was nothing compared to the way he swelled now. He took a step towards the interloper, hands forming fists, and snarled, "The hell you are! Roxas is mine!"

"Actually, if you want to get technical, he should be mine," the guy delicately corrected, Axel's eyes widening with realisation, "since his other and mine are destined soul-mates."

At this, Axel was practically foaming. Thrusting back the sides of his coat, he unhooked his weapons. "Destined? Hah! Come down here and I'll show you just how far your destined soul-mates bullshit gets you."

"All right, then. I will."

A black portal once again engulfed the young man, opening a split second later beside Axel, who spun to meet the threat just in time to stop a jagged-edged sword from carving into him. He knocked it aside with a clatter of steel on steel, the two of them leaping apart, Axel dragging Roxas with him so roughly the boy lost his footing and stumbled to the road.

Axel didn't pause to apologise, was already lunging forward again, a flash of red-and-black meeting the newcomer with a loud clash of weapons. Roxas rolled onto his knees, watching with alarm as the two fought. The interloper, he saw with mounting dread, was an effective swordsman; he and Axel swung at each other with absolute abandon, aiming to maim, possibly even kill. Knowing Axel, it would be to kill.

Frantically, Roxas tried to piece it together in his head – if this guy claimed to be the other of Roxas' other, then that meant Sora, right? Which meant Sora's boyfriend – right? So this guy was the mirror image of Sora's boyfriend, whose name was… shit, what was it?

He flinched as Axel sustained a slash to his arm, the redhead roaring and swinging with his twin weapons, the young man leaping back, then scrambling further still as Axel's charge continued, fuelled by rage and possessiveness. No time for thinking! Roxas shoved himself to his feet, sprinting as well as his leg would allow. Axel was a storm of vicious slashes with his weapons, keeping the newcomer persistently on the back foot now that his blood had been shed, and if Roxas didn't do something, he really was going to kill the guy. That was the guy that Sora had been dreaming about all his life, damn it – or his other was. He couldn't stand by and let this incarnation of him be killed, because then the other one would get sick – and there was no way in hell he was going to let that happen to Lea, either. Both of these morons needed to be stopped.

Reaching Axel, Roxas extended a hand, yelling, "Axel, stop!" He snagged a handful of his coat and yanked, swinging the redhead around, reversing their positions, Axel very nearly slashing at him reflexively, halting himself at the last possible second from swinging one of the bladed wheels straight across his throat. His wild eyes went cold at the sight of Roxas suddenly standing between the two of them.

"Roxas!"

Even as he shouted the warning, Roxas suddenly discovered the hard way why it was bad to throw yourself into an armed fight with only your body. He jolted, both attackers letting out cries of anguish as the newcomer's blade thrust partway into the meat of his left shoulder. It slid free a moment later, Roxas groaning. A familiar warmth flooded his back, accompanied by an even more sadly familiar stench: the overwhelming scent of his own blood.

"Roxas!" The guy lowered his sword and reached for him, only to be stopped sharply by Axel thrusting one of his weapons out threateningly, keeping him at bay.

Eyes ablaze, he snarled, "Don't you come near him!" His other hand dropping the second wheel, Axel protectively wrapped an arm around Roxas, who leaned against him heavily, in shock.

"I didn't mean to," the guy lamented. "I'm sorry – Roxas, I'm sorry, I tried to stop but I didn't have time."

"Yeah, sure," Axel snapped, savagely unforgiving. "You'd probably prefer that he was dead rather than with me – you sick fucking freak."

"That's not true," the newcomer returned angrily, "and you damn well know it."

"Shut – up!" Roxas growled. He was recovering slowly, still stunned by the new injury but not yet able to feel anything but the curious, buzzing heat of it. He shoved Axel away with an elbow, glaring first at him, then back at the silver-haired guy. "You – what's your name?"

"Riku," he answered. "I've taken the name of my other, in the hopes that by doing so –"

"Yeah, yeah, walk into the light, blah, blah, blah,"Axel interrupted scornfully, Roxas sending him a glowering stare.

"What?"

"This guy is part of some order that chooses to try and ignore their darkness, follow the true path to light, blah, blah, blah. That's why he's wearing the blindfold; it's supposed to symbolise his 'disconnection from this realm'." Axel couldn't have sounded more poisonously derisive if he'd tried. He positively hated the guy.

Roxas was unimpressed. "There's an order that emphasises that," he said, regarding Axel severely, "and you didn't join it?"

Axel's mouth opened and closed a couple times, the man searching for the right words. "Well, I mean – why deny who you are, right?"

"You could be," Roxas stressed, anger starting to rise, "like Lea." Axel glared, but fell silent. Turning now to the one calling himself Riku, he demanded, "You know who I am?"

The guy gave a quick nod. "Yes. You're Roxas. The second you arrived in this realm, I sensed you. I did what I could to track you down before you fell into the wrong hands." Voice turning chilly, he added, towards Axel, "Evidently I was too late."

"At least I haven't stabbed him." Axel's words were acidic, Riku scowling back.

"Axel." Roxas shot him a warning look, before turning his attention back to Riku. "Look, you need to back off, okay? I appreciate whatever this – 'following the true path to light' thing is – but I'm doing just fine without you, and, in fact, I'm not planning on sticking around."

Riku went still. "What?"

"Axel's busting me out of this place," Roxas said, taking a step backwards towards the redhead.

"He's – choosing to? To help you?" His scepticism was vast.

"Better than seeing him end up with the likes of you," Axel muttered, radiating hostility.

"You believe him?" Riku asked Roxas. "You trust him?"

"I know him pretty well, more or less," Roxas warily said.

"He's in love with my other," Axel volunteered, with a middle finger.

Through his teeth, Roxas snapped, "Axel!"

Riku absorbed this, considering the new information. "…Then, good. In that case, I want to help."

This time, it was Axel's turn to demand, "What?"

Roxas observed him carefully. "You want to help me – get out? Back to my world?"

"Forget it," Axel declared, Roxas cutting him off with an impatient hand.

"I never intended to try and keep you for myself, if that's what you're thinking," Riku said. "Maybe that's what he tried," he resentfully added, a suggestion with which Roxas couldn't exactly argue, "but I'm well aware that to remain here would kill you. You grew up in that world – whatever might have been between you and me doesn't exist. It's enough for me to know that my other has Sora, over in that world. You, though – you don't belong here, Roxas. Maybe under other circumstances you would have, but you're of that world. You need to return. I don't want you to die here."

Roxas blinked, taken aback by the guy's grave sincerity, and the fact that this was absolutely the opposite of Axel's original behaviour. Riku had connected the dots before they'd even met – he wasn't going to try and force Roxas into anything, and, what's more, he recognised straight away that Roxas' life was in danger.

"Uh. Roxas…"

Sighing irritably, Roxas turned to Axel, ready to silence him again, his arguments petty and self-interested – until he saw what Axel wanted to mention, and his blood ran cold.

Or, more specifically, his freshly spilled blood had called out the Heartless.