Axel was disappointed to find himself standing on Xemnas's office for the second time that day. Demyx was whimpering in the corner, holding his burned arm and sitting carefully. Everything was bruised or broken, curdiest of Axel's rage. Every time Axel even looked over there, Demyx flinched, pleasing Axel very much.
Xemnas stood at the front of the room, pacing back and forth at the front of the office. He did not understand what had happened in the short time between Axel's visits. When he had left, he had been almost meek, very quiet. Now he was enraged and apt for violence, as Demyx had found out the hard way. He could hardly understand the dramatic change, but there had to be a reason. However, Xemnas wasn't sure he even wanted to know the reason.
"Axel…" Xemnas began, sighing deeply, "Why did you beat up Demyx?"
"He pissed me off." Axle said flatly.
"Sounds reasonable enough. Demyx, get yourself someone to clean you up. Axel, I'll decide your punishment later. You'll probably be cleaning up something or other." Xemnas said in a similar tone to Axel's. "No, leave my office, I have work to do."
They left the room together, waiting for something else to happen. Demyx was certain that Axel was going to pound him for getting in trouble, but Axel did not even look at him. He seemed too distracted by something, perhaps the fight with Roxas.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Demyx asked, taking his life in his own hands.
"Nothing you need to know about it." Axel sighed, turning down a hallway towards his room. He wished that he could tell someone, just to see what they thought if nothing else. He wished so bad that he had someone else he could confide in, but not Demyx. They had gotten in too many fights, there was no way that they could ever be anything but enemies. Even if they tried, a timid partnership was the closest that they would be able to come.
"Oh," Demyx's hopes dropped. He had hoped that if he could get Axel to confide in them things might change. He had always been a prime target for his rage, he just really didn't want to get it again.
"Tell you what, if things don't improve, maybe I'll tell you what's wrong." Axel said, trying to find some way to make the annoying nobody next to him calm down. No matter how bad it got, he would never talk to Demyx about his problems.
When he got in his room, he slammed the door as hard as he could and flopped down on his bed. He just wanted to wake up and find out that everything that had happened that day had been a horrible dream. He didn't want Roxas to be mad at him, he didn't want to be in trouble again, and he didn't want to be miserable. He wanted to be back at the tower, sitting with Roxas and watching the dusks move through the city below them. His mind kept drifting back to all of the times he had spent with Roxas, how comfortable they had been together.
After an hour he was certain that he wasn't going to be able to wake up and start the day anew. He moved to the edge of his bed and began to stand up, hating everything in his room. He hated the very air that was in his room for getting in his way. He pushed through the intrusive air and left his room. It was time for dinner.
Every dinner, Xemnas sat at the front of the table. Axel and Roxas sat all the way on the other end, Roxas right next to him. Demyx on Roxas's other side. Today, Axel sat in the same seat as always. Roxas had moved up close near Xemnas, purposefully avoiding his best friend.
Marluxia, who was greatly perturbed to see that his usual seat right next to Xemnas was taken, moved down to sit next to Axel. He couldn't decide just what he wanted to do. He could try annoying Axel into admitting what was wrong, but he had heard what had happened to Demyx. At first he hadn't believed it, but his absence from dinner confirmed the rumors. Then again, he could just sit quietly next to Axel, which might annoy him even more. Axel would just be waiting for Marluxia to say something, dreading the moment when he opened his mouth, at least that was how Marluxia saw it anyway. Axel, on the other hand, hardly even noticed his presence, he was so distracted by the fact hat Roxas was on the other end of the table.
Roxas looked back at him for a moment, infuriated by his very presence. He had trusted him, thought that it was possible that they had felt the same, but apparently not. He just needed to be away from him for a while, clear his head and get everything straightened out. Maybe afterwards they would still be able to be friends, but he doubted it.
As soon as everyone finished eating, Roxas followed Xemnas to his office before Axel could get a chance to talk to him. Even if Roxas was in there, Axel refused to enter that hell hole for the third time in one day. Instead, he waited outside, leaning on one of the walls.
"No, I didn't hear, what did he say?" Marluxia squawked, leaning in close to Larxena. Gossip whore, that was all the two of them were. Larxena was excusable, at least she was a girl, but Marluxia was just too nosy and was still half retarded.
"Well, you know how Roxas was sitting so close to Xemnas, and how he left right after dinner. There is a reason to that you know."
"Will you gossiping school girls go somewhere else! I'm sick of hearing your voices!" Axel shouted, not thinking.
"Well, it is about Roxas" Marluxia sneered, "I'm surprised that you don't want to know."
"Come on, lets go find somewhere else to talk," Larxena said holding her nose in the air.
"No, wait! I take it back! What is up with Roxas?" Axel jumped off of the wall, realizing his mistake. He needed to know more about the situation if he and Roxas were going to talk afterwards.
"He asked Xemnas for a mission, the longest one he had. Apparently there is someone here he wants to avoid. I wonder who that could be?" Larxena said looking directly at Axel.
"Maybe he hates people who talk about him." Axel retorted, knowing that she was right but not willing to admit it to her.
"Either way, you better talk to him soon. It sounds like this mission might be permanent." Larxena warned before turning away and taking Marluxia with her. Axel just made a face at them and went back to leaning on the wall.
There was no way that a mission could be permanent, it was nonsense, wasn't it? Even if it was possible, Xemnas would never give one of those missions to Roxas, he knew how Axel got when he wasn't around, how hard he became to control. No, he would never do that. Larxena had just been around Marluxia too long and had just proved that acting half retarded was contagious. Just incase though, he would ask Roxas as soon as he came out.
After an hour of standing there, the door opened. He was about to jump on Roxas but was surprised when only Xemnas stepped out. The superior explained that Roxas had used a dark portal to get back to his room, having known that Axel was standing out here waiting for him.
"Larxena is full of shit, isn't she? She said that the mission you are sending him on is permanent. Where the hell did she get that idea? Did someone smack her over the head too many times?" he tried to laugh, but nothing would come out.
"Larxena is very perceptive, isn't she?" Was all that Xemnas said before opening a dark portal and leaving Axel there standing by himself.
"No!" He shouted, opening up his own portal and rushing into Roxas's room. "Roxas! What are you doing? He said that this mission is permanent. If you leave, I'll never see you again."
"What would that matter to you?" Roxas asked, pulling numerous black cloaks out of his closet and putting them inside a suitcase.
"Huh?" Was all that Axel could manage.
"You aren't going to miss me. Longing for someone is a feeling, but you cant feel anything, remember?" Roxas sneered shoving the last cloak into the suitcase.
"No!" Axel said, pushing his hands away from the suitcase, "Stop packing, you aren't going! I know what I said, but I was wrong! Give me some time."
"Move." Roxas demanded, getting out his keyblades and dropping that final cloak to the ground.
"Roxas, please, Roxas! What I said was stupid, but don't leave just because I said something dumb." He moved to the bed, reaching out for one of Roxas's hands, trying to get him to join him. "Xemnas, he screwed me up. He made me look at things his way, the official way, rather than what I thought about them. He told me that everything was in my head, I should never have believed him." Axel didnt care how he looked. Pride and dignaty were usless to him if he didn't have Roxas by his side.
"Well you did and it's too late now." Roxas put away they keyblades and picked up the cloak, dusting off the dirt. "I'm leaving tomorrow morning. If you have anything else to say, you had better say it by then."
Axel nodded and left the room, not able to lift up his head. He hurt worse than he ever had in his life, but this was not a physical pain. It felt like someone had jabbed a knife into where his heart had been, but even when he checked under his cloak there was no wound.
Alright, only one more chapter to go folks, so you know the drill, review and what not.
