Chapter II: Color Within A Flame

Let's tie words
'Cause they amount to nothing
Play it down
Pretend you can't take what you've found
But you found me

A flash of red sluggishly traversed the gray halls of The Castle That Never Was. If his gait – which rivaled the speed of molasses – wasn't indicative enough of of how he was feeling, a look at his long face offered further insight. Dark circles sat under vivid green eyes, and just a short distance below his badges of exhaustion were purple reverse tear drop markings on both his cheeks. His lanky frame was clad from head to toe in black – the exact same "uniform" that the other Nobodies wore. The red head walked hunched over as he headed for his room, where he planned to go right to sleep, despite it not being late at night at all.

But first, he had to report back.

This particular Nobody was "lucky" enough to get sent off on secret missions from time to time that spanned over days, weeks at worst, and that evening he has just returned from one of those extended missions. Even though he wanted to rest so badly, he knew he'd get chewed out the next morning if he didn't check back in immediately upon return – sacrificing a few moments of rest was worth it when compared to the alternative. He traveled to where the one who doled out missions could usually be found: a large lounge where an entire wall was just a huge window displaying the dark world surrounding the castle. It wasn't much of a view. In this room were several couches and low-rising tables, along with a large screen tv. When he arrived he saw a few of his coworkers lounging about as usual, but his target was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh." He heard someone say behind him in a catty voice.

The man looked over his shoulder and he could just make our the figure of Rex sitting on a couch behind him. He was leaning towards something, or someone rather, just out of his sight though. Curious to know what the self proclaimed queen was up to, he turned fully to look at Rex, ready to go over and call him out on talking shit – because what else would Rex be doing?

To no surprise Rex was whispering in the ear of a fellow Nobody, so he DEFINITELY was talking shit, and wasn't covert about it at all. But what left him unable to move forward and tell him to shut up was who he was talking to... a new member. A girl. She was staring curiously in his direction, but not at him, it was more like she was looking through him as if he wasn't even there. This unexpected development left him frozen and speechless, all tensed up too since he was readying himself to dish out some nasty words right back to Rex.

"That one's Axel." Rex whispered to Xirena, who blinked her widened eyes as she absorbed Rex's words like a sponge, "You can't hang out with him, he's a lazy loser asshole."

"Oh ok." Xirena replied, as Rex pulled away. He turned to look at Axel and smiled like the little catty bitch he was.

Rex had been going over the social structure of the Organization with her after work that evening. Rex held nothing back in his descriptors of his coworkers, trusting that the dopey Xirena could keep his secrets... or he just was banking on the probability that she would forget it all in ten minutes anyway since he had no gauge of her status as a confidant. However, after all was said and done with his social structure explanation, Xirena was left a bit confused. Being always open to asking when she didn't understand certain things, she quickly leaned in close to Rex and tugged on his sleeve with exaggerated urgency. Rex rolled his eyes.

"Stop that, you're being a pest." He said, perhaps more brutally than he should have.

But Xirena in her social and mental ineptitude didn't register the irritated tone in his voice. She just swiftly and graciously obliged him in his request for her to stop "being a pest." Xirena then folded her hands neatly in her lap.

"Sorry Rex! But um..." She started, trailing off and glancing away, "You said I shouldn't hang out with anybody." She finished after a moment of consideration. Surely he had a reason for telling her this, but she could not figure it out to save her life. Wasn't being with others considered good and actively encouraged?

Rex sighed, his vision falling down to his hands – his nails specifically. He mentally noted that he could use a touch up on his manicure.

"Yes hon I know." Rex replied without missing a beat, or even looking up from his womanly hands, "That's because I'm the only friend you'll ever need here. You should be thanking me, really."

Xirena drew back out of Rex's personal space, looking back in Axel's direction yet still not noticing him. She was too trapped in the confusion that Rex had left her in to really notice anything at that point. Axel himself had been staring the whole time, trying to figure out what Rex was saying about him; and at the same time wondering just when this girl even got here, her name, all that sort of stuff. He was torn out of his daze when he heard Rex say, quite loudly...

"See? He's staring at us like a mega creeper."

It was at that point Xirena noticed she had been looking his way too, her blank expression replaced with her usual sweet smile. With this realization, she thrust her entire arm into the air and waved it enthusiastically – as if Axel was hundreds of feet away and was trying to get his attention, rather than just give a simple "hello" gesture. Rex's mouth dropped open and he nudged Xirena roughly for disobeying his very clear instructions on socializing, causing her to immediately drop her arm, yet her smile remained. All this happening in such a short period of time startled Axel, and his feet were determined to carry him out of the situation as fast as possible – which made for a bit of a sudden, awkward exit. He quickly turned and made for the residential hall so he could get into his room, totally disregarding the ritual of checking in. But as he approached his room, "fortune" appeared to be in his favor. Walking in his direction was the stern looking man with long blue hair and glittering gold eyes, who stopped once he saw Axel heading his way.

"You've returned." He said as Axel slowly approached him.

"Yeah, yeah." Axel replied dismissively, "I'm back. Found nothing. Big whoop."

He spoke quickly and tried to get into his room without doing any more talking, but blue hair wasn't having that. He blocked the path to Axel's door, eyes narrowing.

"That's all you have to report?" He said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Yes, dad." Axel replied, sneering through his sarcasm. He wasn't exactly pleasant when he was tired.

"Fine then." His counterpart replied snidely as he stepped aside, "I will pass your great wealth of information onto Lord Xemnas."

"Fantastic." Axel answered, flatly and simply.

"Don't go thinking you're off the hook, Axel." The other continued, "You'll be sent back again until you find it."

Axel was beyond listening to him and merely grunted in his continued efforts to dismiss him. The man scowled at Axel and decided to take his leave – he had better things to do than bicker with the red head. Axel was quite content with their interaction ending there, but then he remembered the girl. A split second war in his mind raged on whether to keep up the conversation and ask about her, or just let it go and wait.

"...Yo, Saix." He said, almost immediately regretting his choice and slapping himself mentally.

Saix paused and turned his head to look back at Axel, which was all the acknowledgment he was willing to give for him to go on.

"What's the story on the new girl?" Axel continued. He's gone this far, might as well follow through, right?

Now Saix was the one in regret. There was nothing worth talking about with her given what he knew. But, he relented...

"Xigbar found her a few days ago," Saix answered simply, "Number IX. Xirena."

Axel raised a single eyebrow but didn't dare vocally challenge him, but surely he HAD to know more... Before he could probe further, Axel thought to himself that this was good enough for now. At least he knew her name. He could live with that for now.

"Right..." Axel responded.

He knew at this point that is wasn't worth asking Saix anymore about the subject. A tense silence fell between the two scowling men, ended by a grunt from Saix as he turned and began to leave. Axel heaved a sigh of relief, it was such a hassle having the most basic of conversations with Saix at times. He spun around and leaned his back up against his door, running one of his big, clumsy hands through his spiky red locks. Axel sat there for a moment, frozen in place with his eyes closed and hand in his hair – he thought he could fall asleep right then and there.

"Hi!"

Axel jumped and his eyes flew open. Standing there in front of him was the object of his curiosity, Xirena, smiling possibly the most sweetly dopey smile he'd ever seen. When did she even get there? How much of his conversation with Saix could she have heard? How didn't he hear her approach? The more he thought about it, the less it mattered; so he did the best thing he could do and let it go. Instead, he put his limited focus on the girl in front of him, going over her visuals. Xirena was considerably shorter than himself, which wasn't a surprise considering his towering height (which was pretty unusual even among his gender). Her bright, lively eyes were a similar color to his vibrant red hair, and they also even had the color purple in common to an extent: her hair and his facial tattoos.

"Hey..." He drawled tiredly, flashing the best smile he could manage.

"You're name's Axel, right?" Xirena asked, the smile never fading from her full, pink lips. She was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Yep, it sure is." He affirmed with a nod. He crossed his arms over his broad chest casually, "And I hear your name is Xirena?"

"Mhmm!" She hummed, nodding her head vigorously.

Her enthusiasm was a little intense for his current state of being, but she seemed nice. Harmless at the very least, and maybe even a little cute.

"I saw you with Rex..." Axel began, voice trailing off. He wasn't sure how to continue his thought though since he had nothing positive or even neutral to say about Rexvir in that very moment. With his silence lingering, Xirena took this as her cue to keep talking.

"Yeah! Rex is nice. He told me about you. He said you're a 'lazy loser asshole'" Xirena spoke enthusiastically, not realizing those words were negative ones. She certainly wasted no time in selling Rex out though, unaware that what he had said was supposed to remain between them. She then crinkled her nose in confusion and added, "…whatever that means."

Axel's crooked smile faded.

"That's what he said, eh?" He asked dryly. Xirena nodded again.

"He also said I can't hang out with you but that's okay because you look sleepy anyway."

What a strange thing to say. Was she being suggestive and hinting that she'd like to hang out in the future and burying it in a cute comment? No-one would listen to Rex, right? Little did he know, she was absolutely serious in what she just said, and in no way had ulterior motives hidden between the lines. It did seem like she took Rex's instructions as a one time thing that only applied to that night though, but perhaps that was the best conclusion she could come up with for herself. No matter how you looked at it, she sounded kind of absurd... and absurd as she sounded, a smile found it's way back to Axel's face, allowing a small chuckle to escape from him.

"Don't worry about it... and, don't listen to everything Rex says. Or anything he says at all, really." He advised, "But I am tired, you're right about that. I gotta hit the hay."

"Oh ok." Xirena responded. She wasn't exactly sure what this phrase meant or what it had to do with being tired though.

"I'll see you around." He said.

Xirena nodded at him and he gave her a farewell wave before turning his back to her and entering his room. It was dark, but he didn't bother to switch on the lights since he planned to go straight to bed anyway. The tall man hurried over to his bed and collapsed flat on his back, limbs sprawled out around him. His eyes immediately fell shut, but when they did Axel didn't see boring old darkness behind his eyelids, but the imprinted image of the girl he was just talking to. It wasn't all that weird to think about, since it hadn't even been thirty seconds since he saw her. Axel began to tidy up his position, raising his head to put his hands behind them.

Before Xirena, number IX, came Axel and Saix – VIII and VII respectfully. It had been quite some time since the pair had joined too, so long that the thought of someone new showing up never crossed anyone's minds anymore. On top of the initial shock, her being the first female member was jarring too. It was almost odd, in a way.

"She doesn't seem to be all there in the head but..." Axel spoke to himself, "She seems... nice. Yeah. Nice..."

Sleep began to take him as his words trailed off into silence. Once his last word was out, Axel happily surrendered to slumber.