I hadn't done a whole lot in the past...however long it had been since the accident except eat, sleep, and wonder what was going on. So when Axel showed up in my room, I was automatically thrilled. I didn't particularly care that he was on crutches - I was just happy he was alive, and functioning. He looked pretty happy too, on the outside; he smiled when he saw me, but...I could tell there was something else behind it. "Axel - nice to see you; I was worried - how are you?"

"I survived. Glad to see you did too. Even if it's not exactly what you'd call intact. My insulin pump survived, which is a real shocker."

I nodded - well, there went my first guess about what was bugging him. No, if his insulin pump was broken, he'd be pissed, not worried. "What's wrong?"

"How's your hand?" He lowered himself into the nearest chair, with one leg stuck almost straight out in front of him. "It looked pretty messy at the accident scene." I held out my hand as best I could, with my arm in a cast. He whistled. "Wow. Damn good thing they managed to put you back together."

I couldn't help but shudder a little. "Don't remind me." It was still unbearably creepy to me - were those my actual fingers, or had they been somehow regrown? I felt a little sick just thinking about it. "How are you?"

"Well, according to my way of thinking, I shouldn't be on my feet yet. But, here I am. Broken hip and all."

He sounded so casual, so unconcerned - but I could tell there was something really bothering him that he wasn't going to come out and volunteer. That left it up to me to guess. "How's Demyx?" If he was dead, Axel would never have bothered pretending everything was all right...

That was it. His face just sagged. "I...I dunno. Looked pretty bad to me," he murmured.

I swallowed hard. "How bad?"

Axel shrugged, not really making eye contact. "Dunno. He's...out of it, I guess. Dunno when he's gonna wake up."

He will wake up, though, right? I wanted to ask but didn't. Just in case he said "no". "So...head injury?"

"Yeah. I guess so." Axel was staring at his hands now. "I wonder what happened. Why we crashed."

"Maybe Demyx can tell you when he wakes up."

Axel just glared at me like...like...I can't think of a comparison, but he wasn't happy. "Maybe he won't remember. Maybe when he wakes up, his brain's gonna be so fucked up he won't be able to feed himself. Maybe he won't even wake up," he snapped. Then he sighed. "Sorry. It's not your fault."

I was scared now, and not of Axel. "Could it...really be that bad?"

"Could be even worse. He could survive, but spend the rest of his life a vegetable. That's pretty damn bad."

Dear, sweet Kingdom Hearts. I thought about that for a moment, then didn't want to anymore - but I just couldn't stop. The idea of being technically alive, but functionally dead...no more than a body with tubes stuck in various orifices so you wouldn't starve to death or make a mess of yourself all the time...and here, I thought Nobodies had it pretty bad to begin with, as far as being real people went.

Axel was still talking. "It seems so...random. Like one second we're all on this mission and doing pretty well, and the next second...bam." He gestured with his hands. "Our lives are now permanently fucked up, for no apparent reason."

"Axel..."

His hands were clenched into fists. "Yeah. We didn't have enough problems to begin with. Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!"

"Axel, the chair...!" It was starting to burn, without him noticing.

"Sorry." The chair stopped smoldering, and Axel sagged. "At least you're gonna be okay." He looked back at me, and his eyes suddenly widened. "Wow, where'd that come from?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but looking down, I found a long scar running up the side of my chest - a surgical scar, apparently, not something I could blame on broken glass. "Wow...I...where did that come from? How didn't I notice that before?" Don't say it - Axel doesn't have a monopoly on obliviousness.

He looked like he wanted to cry. "Well, if it didn't hurt enough for you to notice it before, I guess it can't be so bad..." There were definitely little clouds of steam forming around his eyes.

Seeing Axel cry...it's kind of like seeing your parents cry, or your super-protective older brother, would be a better comparison. The person you rely on to protect you in any and all circumstances, the tough one who never breaks down and always knows what to do in a crisis, just can't hold it together anymore, and what does that mean to you? Are you supposed to protect him now? Granted, Axel can be a complete idiot sometimes, definitely doesn't always know what to do in a crisis, and it's not like I can't take care of myself, but... "Ax, what's wrong?"

He just gave me this tragic look. "Rox, what's not?"

AN: Poor everybody.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, got it memorized?