Chapter Five: Tipping the Equilibrium
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Square-Enix and Disney. I've created the situations, but they are based off of a chronologically parallel story which belongs to the aforementioned creators.

Author's Notes: I feel a little weird since I've already written five chapters in a seemingly long-runnings story, and yet I've only just crossed into the second day with this chapter, but rest assured.. we do cross over into the second day here.

Regarding Reviews: yeah yeah! Keep them coming. I demand reviews openly.

DiZ stared impatiently into the crystal pods that were digesting Donald and Goofy. "They're nearly finished, aren't they?"

Namine nodded plainly.

"Excellent. I think they'll want to retrieve Sora themselves. I'm just finishing up a direct route to Organization 13's headquarters. It's been distracted work, but I'm quite confident in its accuracy. I just hope that they will be willing to use the dark paths that connect all worlds. This world specifically lies in a plane between existence and non-existence. It's all very strange." His voice held an air of triumph.

Namine knew very little about their headquarters. She had not been kept there long. She was almost immediately moved to Castle Oblivion. She ached to be more useful, but DiZ seemed satisfied with his knowledge already.

"Where's Riku?" Namine had not seen him very much.

"He's helping me keep an eye on Roxas. Namine, you realize that in order to foil the organization, Roxas and Sora must be rejoined."

Namine nodded.

"Donald and Goofy should be able to help us with that necessity." He continued jabbing away at his keyboard. "By the way, Namine, try not to wander near the curtains too much. There's a ludicrous rumor spreading around Twilight Town that sometimes a blonde girl appears in the manor windows. Quite ridiculous considering that the manor has been vacant for some time now."

Namine smiled embarrassed, and glanced at Donald and Goofy.

93 percent completion.

Axel began surfacing through his delirium. Layers of sleep peeled off of him. Roxas. He had been with Roxas. It was wonderful. And then the dream ended. Axel blinked stupidly trying to piece something together. For one, he was naked in the shower. When had the water been shut off? Why was he lying down.. on.. on.. towels? He struggled to comprehend his situation while noticing
that his skin was powder dry.

"I was taking a shower.. and.." Axel remembered turning around. "Sora!" He hadn't meant to shout that out loud.

The door squeaked open. "Um. Yes?" Sora looked nervous and ashamed. Axel had been unconscious for an hour and a half. Sora thought briefly that maybe he had killed him.

Axel stunned expression softened. He felt remorseful, but it quickly melted into affection. Axel wrapped a towel around his waist, and staggered out of the tub.

Sora looked a little frightened. What the hell had he been thinking? What? What? He felt insane. Uncontrollable. Stupid. Axel was surely going to kick his ass.

Axel, who stood a handful of inches above Sora, tipped up Sora's downcast chin. It was the explosive duration between
realization and kissing. Time was destroyed.

Axel's lips sank toward Sora's, but not all the way. They stopped within millimeters. His breath tugged at Sora's skin. Sheer magnetism would be the bridge between them. They were creatures designed to be connected. The biological strain could not be resisted. The electric impulses took the reigns.

Sora's mouth opened just barely, and then it connected with Axel's. The kiss was fervent. Their tongues sank into each others' mouthsalmost instantly. Both heads registered slightly to the right instinctively. Sora used the very minuscule bit of his brain not completely dedicated to his tongue and lips to move his hands up around Axel's sides. They smoothed the skin up and down. Axel's build was thick and warm. It was very real and very much like he thought it might feel. He was slender and strong, and Sora's hands rolled over his ribs. Axel didn't quite expect the sudden contact, and he trembled. Axel was secretly ticklish. Sora relished the tremors in Axel's torso. Their bodies exchanged such a heat. Flares licked at eachother's skin. Suddenly the kiss became more restrained, and their tongues receded. It was soft and dry. Axel was suffocating the kiss. Sora's tongue yielded out of embarrassment. Had he done something wrong?

Axel was the one to break it, panting. Sora hardly appeared lucid, and his eyes opened. He looked confused, and his body shook. Sora's eyes were pleading so badly. They were unrelenting, and Axel was drowning in them. They relinquished Sora's body. Here, take him. Take him. Take him! Axel had to stop it all.

That's all he was willing to share just yet. He wanted to progress very slowly. It was almost his duty to do so. He couldn't affordto slap a relationship together that might bind Sora to the organization. Hold on, what was his brain doing? He was slightly disgusted to be thinking about the motivations of the organization. Conscience was a bit of a burden. It had been a stupid move to put that stimulant in Sora's tea.

He hadn't meant for Sora to see him naked in the first day.

But why is that?

Because I want a meaningful relationship to blossom slowly?

Because I want to be a secure anchor to the organization for Sora?

No the first!

You're deluding yourself. It's clearly the second.

The first!

The second!

Sora bit his bottom lip. His ears burned, and his throat was parched. Oceans swelled in his eyes. Strange oceans that pulled, pulled, pulled at Axel.

"Let me show you to the room you'll be staying in tonight." Axel paused, wondering if he had phrased that correctly.

Sora's blinked stupidly. What had they just shared? He was so excited. What just happened?

"Uh! Well.. er.. the room you've been staying in."

Axel was a little too eager to put walls between Sora and himself. He nearly led Sora into the hallway in a loose towel. That would surely draw attention from any Organization member who happened to be passing by.Axel quickly slipped on his cloak without bothering to put on any clothes beneath it. If he wasn't careful, the cloak would peel back and reveal quite a length of his bare thighs. He guided Sora just across the hallway to the vacant bedroom. As Sora, bloated with happiness, clumsily made his way to his own bed, Axel felt another stab of remorse. This one was for having to leave Sora's side. Axel was so out of practice with emotions. Remorse came in different flavors? These feelings were so complex. They were so confusing.

"G'night Axel." Sora's voice chased after him, and it was vaguely mournful. Sora's comfort was ebbing away, but Sora held a hope it would return when he woke up.

Axel shut the door behind him, and headed back to his bed. Xaldin scowled at Axel, but the scowl remained unnoticed. The Castle Oblivion investigation had just closed. It was a simple, and somewhat mundane chore that they hadn't taken more than a handful of hours. Axel slipped into his bedroom, and immediately fell asleep.

"No one would miss me."

"That's not true.. I would."

After the dialogue ended, the all too frequent dream crashed. Axel was sent reeling into a state of awareness. It was very early in the morning he suspected. The atmosphere which the dream had been battling against wasted no time in superseding the fog of sleep. The room was cold. Axel hadn't felt cold in his dream; At least not in an external way. The cold permeated him. It stabbed at him.

Why was Roxas gone? What hadn't he found within the organization? Roxas could be a real person if he had just stayed.

"Why did the keyblade choose me?"

It didn't matter. Why didn't Roxas see that it didn't matter?

Once Sora had fallen asleep he dreamed of Axel. The dreams were vague and impossible. He wouldn't remember them once he woke up, but then the dreams changed.

This world has been connected.

This world has been connected.

It's a kingdom. Kingdom Hearts.

There will always be a door to the light.

Don't lose sight of it.

Sora jolted up-right. He woke in a cold sweat. The dim concepts that were reborn in his sleep had confused him. "What is Kingdom Hearts?" The right side of his brain failed to scoop up the ghosts of the past it had conjured. It pleaded with the left side of the brain. The left side simply shrugged. It was suffering a similar dilemma. It had quickly gone to work to decode the meanings of the poorly recovered memories, but the answers it had put together were fading as well. So most traces of the dreams, and the memories, faded. Sora's own disembodied voice rang clearly through the room.

"...without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts is light!"

Sora repeated as though he understood, "Kingdom hearts is light. That's what it is." As he digested this discovery it became worthless as time passed. That didn't make any sense. Kingdom Hearts was light? What was that supposed to mean? Maybe he could ask Axel. Sora squinted at the clock on the wall.

It claimed that the time was 4:38.

Sora's eyes widened with surprise. He had woke up far too early to expect a conversation with anyone, let alone Axel. Sora feared that he would forget in the morning, but couldn't find anything to write down his discovery. He agreed to just repeat it in his head until he fell asleep.

Kingdom Hearts is light Kingdom Hearts is light Kingdom Hearts is light KingdomHearts islight Kingdomheartsislight kingdomartslie ingdomrtslie...

It was very perceptive of him to fear forgetting all about it, and this is because he did forget. His body sank into a dreamless and restful sleep.

"Let me start by stating that I am aware of your wisdom. Still, I'm very confused that you are assigning Axel to deal with the keyblade master."

"Does that mean you mistrust my judgment."

"I have to be honest. It seems counter-intuitive. Of all the members..."

"Let me assure you that I have very good reasons for having Axel primarily interact with Sora."

A third voice squeaked out. "He trusts Axel a lot. I think it must have to do with being the other half of Roxas."

"Yes, the other half of Roxas. I think it would be better if everyone but Axel, and perhaps you since he's already talked to you

quite a bit, were around Sora minimally. We can reveal ourselves to him more once he's deeper in the organization."

"I- b-but.. What about Sora's two friends. And DiZ."

"What about them? We have the keyblade master. He doesn't remember anything about them. We'll have his sympathies, and as we've learned from watching him, nothing binds his heart like empathy. He won't remember anything about them, and he'll be fully devoted to our needs by the time they've arrived. He'll be a stranger to them."

There was a silent pause. It was an uncomfortable pause, and then three sets of shoes clacked down the hallway.

"Why haven't you come back to us Roxas? This is stupid of you. Why haven't you come back to me?"

Roxas smiled serenely. There was no guilt or realization.

"Why can't I make you understand?"

Roxas remained comfortably smiling. It was a smile that indicated Axel was not even present.

"Why.."

Suddenly the face changed, and so did the lighting. "I don't owe you any answers, Axel."

"Yes you do you sonofabitch!" Axel's heart was breaking. His body was made of ice. The blood seeped through andhis body crackled as it deteriorated. It was painful. It was horrific. He was dying.

Roxas laughed. "No worries, eh Axel. This is just a nightmare."

Axel fell out of bed. He stared wide-eyed at a clock that read 8:36. Everyone else was probably already up.

The sickening emotions paled almost instantly. Everything re-aligned within him. His emotional equilibrium always rested at natural indifference. This was one of the primary rules for non-existence. This was one of the keys to half-existence: no feelings, no conscience, no morals.. nothing. Except..hunger. There was always a hunger to be complete again. At least, that was how the real Axel worked. The real Axel?

"Dammit.. can't my subconscious give me a fucking break? Two nightmares in a row.." Axel slipped out of his room in his black night robe. It was just a robe with a very low collar and a zipper. This was usually not the case with robes. They usually were just loosely tied around a person with a sash. No zipper. Axel figured that everyone else would have had breakfast already. This was an interesting assignment. It was so unrestricted. He could wake up when comfortable, but his body was conditioned to wake up at a brisk 7:00. He was surprised he had managed to break that habit so soundly. Still, 8:30 seemed like an ideal time for him to go wake up Sora.

Axel nudged open Sora's door. Sora was peacefully asleep still, and his breathing was heavy. Heavy with life.

Axel's indifference melted away, and the equilibrium went awry as he drew over to Sora's bedside.

"Um. Sora. It's time to get up." His voice came out so soft. He hardly recognized himself. He had no experience in waking people up. He hoped he was doing it all right.

Sora's eyes opened drowzily. They were so blue. They were an impossible color. Axel's breath hitched. Roxas's eyes were an impossible color too. They shared the same eyes. They shared many things, but this was so prominent. Axel's core swooned with affection. Sora's face was radiant, gorgeous even.

"Mmm..g'morning." Sora tried to reach for the skin the robe bared. Sora had was so trusting. Axel tried to hide the rising tent way down in his robe.

Axel knee-jerk reaction was to stop Sora from getting up with his hand. It smashed awkwardly into Sora's face. He didn't know what he might be capable of doing if Sora..touched him.

Sora's immediate thoughts were depressing. He had imagined what had happened yesterday.

But.. he wanted Axel so badly.

Billboard: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING DAY TWO. ABOUT FUCKING TIME, AMIRITE?