Roxas pressed his hands against the shield that he couldn't see, yet knew was there. When a black gloved hand reached out to meet his, curling up as if holding it through the impenetrable invisible barrier, Roxas bit his lip, his own hands balling into fists. Why did it have to end this way? There was so much that had been left unsaid, left undone. Their time was being cut short; but then, as a Nobody, you're living off of borrowed time to start with.
The red-head on the other side of the wall smiled contentedly but wryly, bright green eyes half-closed, as if in a fond thought. Black flecks made their way up past his face, his cloak disintegrating away, which both Axel and Roxas knew would be followed by his body.
As the taller Organization member's arms began to grow translucent, Roxas felt his eyes well with tears, before he found himself silently crying, the tears streaking down past his cheeks. He didn't sob; he made no noise and didn't even move. He sat there, knees on the hard ground, lower arms and hands against the wall that was keeping him from saying goodbye.
Axel shook his head, a hand rising to his mouth, as if to say 'Ssshh… don't say anything. Let's let this goodbye not even be a goodbye.' After that, his eyes closed all the way, eyelashes almost brushing against the triangle tattoos under his eyes. He remained smiling, doing his best not to let the fact that he was dying get to him.
Roxas did his best to smile as well, just for Axel, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly, but the expression was threatened to become overrun with tears.
The pyro opened his eyes, slumping almost against the barrier, little bits of himself floating away like ash. He was almost completely transparent, like a ghost, now, clinging to his existence only by a single thread that was threatening to snap and send him off into the unknown.
The younger of the pair looked up at him, able to see into his face; Axel was still smiling and Roxas wasn't. Axel was dying and managing to smile about it, but Roxas wasn't about to be happy for him; happy, about losing Axel?
"Don't cry," Axel spoke up, hands clenched painfully, now. "If you do, this'll be the last thing you remember about me. I don't want you to end up with this memory." His eyes were closed again, his cloak billowing out behind him, vanishing more rapidly now.
"But I have to cry sometimes… and if I can't cry when I'm losing you, when do I have the right to cry?" Roxas demanded, tears still making a silver path down his face. "When? If I don't cry now, I'll never be able to."
"Then never cry," Axel offered simply, falling to his own knees now, only a bit taller than Roxas. "Don't cry for me. I don't deserve it." He shook his head, red hair falling into his face as he began to laugh softly.
Roxas stared up at him, still crying silently. "Then could I follow you?"
"Follow me? No. You don't want to go where I'm going. Where I'm going, there's no room for the likes of you, Roxas," Axel shook his head regretfully. "Those who deserve to die go where I'm going. With luck, you'll never see me again."
"Then we would have never said goodbye," Roxas whispered back, wanting an explanation for everything; why Axel was dying, why he couldn't cry for him, why he, too, couldn't go wherever Axel was going.
"Roxas, some goodbyes last forever; sometimes they take that long to say. Just…keep me in your mind; after I'm gone, you can start saying goodbye to me," Axel answered, gritting his teeth, almost completely gone. His chakrams dropped to the ground as the hand that had been holding them relaxed, his entire build relaxing in the same way. Kneeling on the ground, he smiled once more, a color-less hand waving. "See ya later, Roxas," he murmured, before giving up the fight to remain there. Soon, there was nothing left of him but the chakrams, which had clattered to the ground only to sit there, the only part of Axel left.
Roxas slumped to the ground this time, still unable to fully sob. "Goodbye, Axel."
-This was just a short little oneshot I wrote when I was supposed to be writing chapter 2 in We're All Out to Prove Something. It's based on a favorite Akuroku picture of mine. that's all. -