A soft tendril, touch, against his cheek. Roxas opened his eyes slowly. There were voices speaking, an echo in the darkness around him.
"That's nothing, watch this!"
He rushed to his feet, looking around wildly. There was a roaring sound, then sudden emptiness and Sora was talking to someone. Talking to him. He could hear VIII now, snickering quietly and making a stupid joke about hearts. That moron.
"I wanted to see Roxas."
The blonde's frenzied expression fell from his face.
"He was… the only one I liked."
Roxas released a breath. Quiet. It was quiet now. There was a sudden emptiness and he heard Sora gasp gently.
"He faded away." Roxas whispered.
--
"See, I told you we'd meet again."
"Yeah." Roxas smiled. It was good to be outside again – even if it was The World That Never Was and not the beach like he had hoped. Namine – or was it Kairi, now – stood in front of him, the same forced smile on her face that he knew must be on his.
"I guess we'll always stay together as long as Kairi and Sora are together."
"We will be," the redhead smiled brightly and turned to Roxas' Other. "Right, Sora?"
Roxas knew that he was the only one who felt the flash of uncertainty that ran through Sora, the sudden willingness to look back at Riku standing beside the ledge.
"Yeah." The brunette said finally.
Namine returned to Kairi, and Roxas stood in front of Sora for a moment. He wanted to say something. He wanted to say 'thankyou' or 'it's all your fault!'.
'I hate you!' or 'I am you!'
"Look sharp." He said glumly. Sora blinked and smiled. A sudden tugging feeling, a tingling along his arms, and he returned once more into the darkness.
--
There goes Xemnas. Roxas sighed. That's all of them. No more. Sora was beside Riku on the Dark Beach, and they were finally telling each other what they didn't have the change to during their journeys. They were going to return home, to the beach, to the light and the water and the sun and the Paopu fruit.
Roxas snorted. Paopu fruit. He guessed that stupid legend wasn't right after all.
The two boys were murmuring quietly in the back of Roxas' mind, gentle laughs, and half whispered confessions. Then the door, and Roxas was suddenly blinded with light. He saw Namine, but what thrilled him more was the white of sand and the large leaves swaying gently in the breeze. He grinned, and Namine grinned back.
Time to go, her face seemed to say.
Yeah, Roxas thought. Time to go.
Darkness, once more. Roxas lay back gently and rested his head against the ground.
Silence rested over him but there was something else that wasn't there before. A comforting feeling, a feeling of something else being there, something to fall back on. Sora was there to listen, now that he understood why everyone had been calling him a traitor.
There were sudden footsteps behind Roxas. He sat up, whipped around, froze.
"Hi." He said quietly.
"Hi." Axel replied.