A/N: Attack of the two-day hangover coupled with some brutal night shifts made this a bit delayed! This one was so hard to control on word count. I was trying to keep all of these little stories under 1500, but this one is just over 2000. Ah well! I got to the end of writing this and thought – God damn, this is depressing. I'M SORRY! The happy ending is coming :)

Nine.

Axel huffed and flicked off the wireless, shaking his head slowly in sheer disbelief. What the hell was the world coming to these days – when kids were booting other kids down two flights of stairs? Unbelievable! Back in his day, things like that just didn't go on.

Luckily for him, Axel was on his way out. He had reached the wizened, old age of 87 and now, more than ever, he was certain that this was the year he'd be knocking on the big, pearly gates.

He wasn't sad about it though – his age and all of the lovely limitations that went with it, providing him with a lot of time spare to come to terms with his impending mortality. There wasn't much for him to get upset over these days, butif the nurses placed one more meal in front of him that was solely comprised of carrots and beans, so help him God, he'd be gladly helping himself get there sooner, rather than later. Even at his age, he still loathed vegetables. It might not sit so well in his stomach anymore, and the mozzarella would get all stuck in his dentures, but Axel would gladly take a meat lover's pizza over that mundane, healthy crap any day of the week.

Axel had been a resident at Everybody's Home for going on seven years now, which was a care facility for the elderly. May as well have been called The Nobody's Home, as Axel was all but certain his family had moved on with their lives without him. He hadn't had anyone come to visit him in two, long years. He couldn't help feeling a little dejected, but his three children were old themselves now, too, and his grandchildren had all grown up into fine, young adults. They had their own lives to live, and Axel couldn't fault them for enjoying their time to the fullest; especially when that was something he'd already experienced.

No, at the end of the line he found himself content with the fulfilling life he had lived and all it had offered him. He was still genuinely happy and somewhere, hidden underneath all of his wrinkles, and his tired, aching bones, there was still that charismatic 21-year-old, confidently making his mark on the world. The home wasn't really that bad a place to live out the rest of his days, and they always treated him with respect and looked after him. Despite being content with his current situation, Axel was still ready to go on to the next adventure – no matter what that might entail for him.

Already so late in the game Axel rarely bothered himself with entertaining any of his past grievances, but recently, something had really started troubling him…

One, last, lingering regret – and that regret just so happened to be living six doors down the hallway, in a room similar to his own.

Back in the 1950's, when Elvis was still king and the best cars weren't foreign made, Axel was a cool, young thing with charming good looks and long, wild red hair. He'd taken to the greaser style effortlessly; his leather jacket and sunglasses, two items on his person he never left the house without.

One, fine, warm evening, he'd taken his girlfriend at the time to the yearly county fair. They had happily wandered through the fairgrounds, her small, petite hand on his arm as they took in all the familiar sights and tried their luck at a few carnival games. When they stumbled upon a small, purple tent wedged between the toilet block and a shoddy, children's merry-go-round, his lady had stopped them outside the front of it instantly, her interest obviously piqued. Axel had always operated under the impression that all psychics were scammers but to appease his squeeze, he'd agreed to let the gypsy woman inside read his fortune.

His girlfriend had pushed him in on his own and he still distinctly remembered feeling uncomfortable. The way the older woman had looked at him with her piercing amber eyes had easily unnerved him. She'd gazed hard at his palms and deep into his eyes before spinning him an elaborate tale of a life he had once lived and lost, where he'd been a good man named 'Lea', but through no fault of his own had fallen prey to the machinations of heartless monsters. Despite becoming a heartless man, the gypsy told him he had found his saviour – a boy with no heart himself, who had blond hair like spun gold, and eyes the colour of tropical seas. This boy had made him feel whole again, and their destinies had become forever intertwined. A tragedy had befallen them but they had promised each other to always meet again in their next lives and find happiness – no matter how long that might take.

The gypsy urged him to look for the boy, that they were meant to be as one. She felt a resonance inside of him and said his heart, and the heart of the boy were calling out to each other – he didn't have time to waste. The heartless boy, who had loved him despite all odds, was waiting, and Axel would surely know him when he saw him.

Although he'd been severely creeped out, Axel hadn't bought into the gypsy's fairy tale at all. If anything, he'd been mostly irritated at the woman seemingly questioning his sexuality. He'd stepped out of the tent and breathed a rather large sigh of relief before laughing and shoving a comb through his wayward spikes. He'd found his girlfriend again and then simply forgotten all about it. Years passed and he'd never once spared another thought for the gypsy and her little purple tent.

That is, until the day he met Roxas.

Roxas Halliday was five years Axel's junior, but had been living at the care home a lot longer than him. The short, quiet man mainly kept to himself and rarely ventured outside of his room, so a few years easily managed to sneak past them before their paths finally crossed.

Axel would always remember that it had been a coolish day in early October, when he walked into the dining hall and found his eyes instantly drawn to a small, shrunken man sitting off to the side against one of the far walls. A young girl sat beside the man with shoulder length, pale blonde hair.

There wasn't anything remarkable about him, or the girl for that matter, but Axel had paused in the doorway, unable to tear his eyes away. Feeling perplexed he ventured closer. Even in his old age, Axel had never been a shy person. The young woman was talking quietly, but as he approached she broke off abruptly and turned to him, a curious expression on her face. Axel paid her no mind, moving to stand directly in front of the smaller man who was sitting silently and staring down at his wrinkled hands resting in his lap. The man's boyish, good looks had long since faded, his blond hair now pale white, but as soon as he looked up at Axel, all he could see was brilliant, sapphire blues, and almost as if a switch had been flicked he found himself recalling the old gypsy's shabby, purple tent and her ridiculous tall tale.

Sensing someone standing over him, the man had wordlessly raised his head. There was a brief moment of hesitation as they stared at each other, a subtle widening of the smaller man's eyes, and then he was speaking.

"Axel?"

Axel reeled back in shock, almost at the same time that the young woman did, too. His memory was flawless – he was positive he'd never met this man before in all of his life, and yet he was drawn to him; those fathomless blue eyes drinking him in, as if they were looking into his very soul. The man's voice was fluttery and paper thin, but he still heard the raw truth in it. Underneath all those wrinkles…he was still that golden-haired, heartless boy.

"R-Roxas!?" He'd gasped, the young woman beside Roxas now bracing a hand against the smaller man's forearm. She was trying to regain his attention, but he was still staring up at Axel, a look of confusion slowly bleeding across his face.

"Yes…that's me," Roxas mumbled up at him, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Who…who…are…y-you?"

Axel had finally found the boy he'd forgotten about and now it was a little too late to be making amends. Roxas was in the final stages of Alzheimers, his crippling dementia stealing his memories, and robbing him of his basic motor skills. He needed help getting around and suffered from aphasia, the two main reasons for his hermit-like existence at the home.

Namine, Roxas' granddaughter, came to visit him regularly, and Axel and she became good friends. She was the one to explain to him that Roxas had more bad days than good days, hence her initial shock at hearing her grandfather speak so clearly. When he'd spoken to Axel, that was the most coherent Roxas had been in months. She asked if they had been old friends? Axel had just smiled and said – "Something like that."

After that first meeting, Axel began to spend a lot of time with Roxas, even if the quiet man never remembered him. On some level, Axel was sure that Roxas sensed some sort of familiarity between them because he would often shuffle his way out of his room in search of his friend, and his smiles always seemed to be wider whenever the taller man was by his side.

Roxas was like a child trapped in an old man's body. Sometimes he would laugh with Axel or sing to him, other times he'd just sit and cry, or scream out hysterically. It was a scary thing – being a stranger in your own head. The nurses were always patient, and so was Axel. Every now and then he would have periods of lucidity where he could interact with Axel on a more understandable level. In his quiet, slow speech, Roxas would tell him about his family and friends, or his travels when he was younger – anything he could recall; all precious memories that still lasted for him. Axel would share with Roxas the same, even when the smaller man wasn't quite there; he still told him everything about his life – the life Axel thought they really should have spent together.

On particularly hard days for Roxas, Axel came to realise that whenever his friend's mind was distant he almost seemed to exist in an alternate reality. He would mumble things about 'heartless' or 'Sora', and long winded grumblings about going on missions. Axel could only assume that this was all from the past life they had shared together.

He never questioned what his friend was seeing, he only wished he could remember more of it, too. One, terrible morning he'd come across Roxas crying quietly in his room. The smaller man had immediately pulled him into a fierce hug, his frail shoulders shaking.

"I…killed her…Ax. I…kill…killed h-her…" Axel had held him close for a long time, willing his friend's heartbreak away. Come midday, Roxas had forgotten the entire thing, but Axel knew he never would.

"Hurry…Ax, we'll…be…be late…for…the…the superior," Roxas had told Axel one day, retrieving his coat from its hanging position by the door and handing it to him. Axel had just taken the offered coat and smiled before leading Roxas outside. They sat out in the garden looking over what they could see of the town in front of them, the sun slowly slipping beneath the horizon. It all felt rather nostalgic…

Roxas, in a rare state of lucidity had been mostly silent, but then suddenly, he'd turned towards Axel with his eyes mischievously bright.

"Hey…Ax?" He stuttered, Axel squeezing his hand reassuringly, giving his friend time to find the words. "B-bet…you…d-don't know…why…the…the sun…sunset is…red?"

Axel wasn't really sure why he reacted the way that he did, but one minute he was staring at Roxas with wide, surprised eyes, and the next he was pulling the smaller man into his arms; mournful sobs wracking his slender frame.

He made up for lost time as much as he could, but deep inside, his heart still ached. Roxas' condition was rapidly deteriorating, and he was literally dying right in front of Axel's eyes. Their time had run out again.

Axel stopped eating.

-0-

Axel stared up at the ceiling and drew in a long, deep breath. His time had finally come, but everything was going to be okay…because Roxas was right beside him.

Closing his eyes, Axel slowly turned his head to the side, only to open them again as he looked over at the man lying in the bed beside him.

Feeling his gaze, Roxas turned to look at him, too. They were both silent for a time, just quietly studying each other's faces. The room around them seemed to melt away then, and suddenly, Axel could see past all the wrinkles and the taxing effects of old age, to the golden-haired boy underneath, whose sapphire, blue eyes still shined out at him. All he could see was the boy he should've had the chance to love. He wondered if Roxas could see him the way he used to be, too – with his long, spiked, red hair, the sharp tattoos on his cheeks, and the vivid, daring light in his emerald, green eyes.

As he watched, Roxas, still eternally young, slowly brought one of his arms up towards his chest. The look in his eyes was intense as his gaze never wavered from Axel's own. He pressed a hand unweathered by the ravages of time over his heart, his words only just above a whisper.

"Do you…feel…that…?"

Axel instinctively raised his own hand to his chest and pressed through the soft fabric of his shirt until he could easily feel the slow, calm beating of his heart resonating against his trembling fingers.

He gave Roxas a weak nod, his expression solemn. He knew what the heartless boy was referring to…what they had gained in this life, and now…what they had lost.

Roxas looked so sad. All Axel could see was his own regret mirrored back at him from Roxas' sorrowful eyes. "I…waited…a long time, Ax."

Axel slowly reached across the gap separating them, silently asking for Roxas' hand. "I know…I'm sorry I found you too late."

Roxas extended his hand, too, and his bony fingers clutched tightly around Axels. They squeezed as hard as they could, just finding comfort in knowing that at least at the end they were together.

Roxas looked so tired then, and the memory of him as a youthful boy slowly faded until all Axel could see was a frail, old man again.

"Again…we'll…try again…" Roxas smiled, looking over at Axel one last time, his eyelids lowering.

Axel felt his own eyelids fluttering closed, his breaths long and deep as if he was simply falling asleep.

"Yeah…see you…partner…"

They closed their eyes for the last time.