AN: Sorry this one took so long to get up. It spent four days in the editing room because I didn't like how I originally wrote it. It's now a bit more detailed and hopeful sounds better. Enjoy.

Once Upon a Midnight Dream

Chapter 6

I walked into the classroom with Sora and Riku, just before the bell rang. Aunt Maylee had dropped us all off together and as I walked through the door Mrs. Dahm gave me a curious glance. Keeping eye contact with the floor, I maneuvered through the desks and sat in mine without looking at the gorgeous redhead behind me. It was going to be difficult to not be friends with him anymore. I really did like him. I felt a tap on my shoulder, "Roxy?" Axel whispered.

"I can't talk, we have class." I dismissed him, as Mrs. Dahm walked out from behind her desk.

"I'll give you ten minutes to prepare you speeches. I want to get through all of them today." Mrs. Dahm announced and I raised my hand quickly, "Yes Roxas?"

"Can I go to the nurse?"

"I suppose." I grabbed all of my books and notebook, leaving our project on my desk before exiting the room. I felt terrible for leaving Axel to do our speech alone but my mom told me not to talk to him anymore and I don't want to be punished for disobeying. I just want her to love me. So I silently made my way down the hallways towards the nurse's office, accepting my decrepit life as it is.

"How can I help you?" The nurse asked when I walked through the door.

"I don't feel well, can I lie down?" I lied, knowing she would say 'yes'. She always said yes.

"Just sign in, and take one of the beds dear." I did as I was told and was almost surprised when I fell asleep almost immediately.

Once again I was on my beach, and like the last two nights, Lae was nowhere o be seen. However, Axel was sitting in my tree, wearing his usual black clothing and smirk. The tattoos under is beautiful green eyes separated him from Lae, being their only difference. I smiled as I walked towards him. Mom couldn't hurt me if I talked to Axel in dreams. I can only assume my guilt is the reason for Axel being here for the first time.

Unlike Lae however, he seemed somewhat less real. He was more like I'd imagine a dream would be. Like I could walk up to him and just go right through him. With Lae I knew immediately that I'd be able to touch him, and when I finally did, he was every bit as solid as I thought. He was also soft and warm. I missed him.

When I reached Axel I did something I would never do in real life. I grabbed him by the face, in both of my hands and pulled him to me for a fierce and passionate goodbye kiss. We went through the motions but as I suspected, the feelings were distant. The kiss didn't feel real, it was just…happening. If I had to make a hypothesis about it I'd say it didn't feel like anything because I've never been kissed before, and therefore don't know what it feels like. When I finally released him and opened my eyes he was smirking at me but there was no meaning behind it. Like the kiss we'd just shared he was just there, an object I could force into playing out my fantasies. But I couldn't do this with the real Axel, so this one would have to work. For now on I would only be able to see him from afar and in dreams. We never even had a first date. I didn't even know if he was gay. And now I'll never know if there ever could have been an 'us'.

Pushing Axel back into a sitting position on my tree, I crawled onto his lap and held him, wondering what it would feel like if it were real. Would he feel soft and warm, like Lae did if this wasn't a dream? Would he want this from me? Would Axel love me, and tell me everything would be okay, and show me I didn't need my mom to love me? Would he make all my pain go away, and love me forever? I'll never know.

Dream Axel began to tangle his fingers through my hair and I couldn't help but cuddle a little closer even though there was no real feeling in it. Then all of the sudden my warm and sunny beach became dark and cold. My body began to shake, while dream Axel didn't even notice the change, he just continued to lace his fingers through my hair. Before I knew it I was surrounded by hundreds of pairs of yellow eyes. It was so dark around the beach that I couldn't even make out their shapes. All I could see were those yellow eyes staring me down, coming closer and closer. As they advanced upon me, my body started to become weak. It felt as if I were fading away. I fell the ground as the weakness became too much to handle. The yellow eyes just continued to advance, while Axel continued to sit on the tree, observing with little interest. What kind of nightmare was this?

oOo

"Zexion!" I heard Xemnas yell over the music blasting from my earplugs. I quickly ripped them out of my ears and looked up to see the towering form of Mansex standing in my doorway.

"Yes sir?" I responded.

"You're in between assignments, yes?" He asked.

"Correct."

"Can you check on Axel's progress?"

"No problem." I leaned back in my bed closed my eyes and began to search out Axel's presence in the dream realm. Yesterday, after hours of listening to music, Axel and I had decided to just let things continue to happen naturally and see where they went. We aren't entirely sure how this new discovery would affect us but I do foresee tremendous difficulties if Xemnas finds out that we know we have emotions.

After ten minutes of not sensing Axel in the dream realm I decided to look for his blond, Roxas, I think that's his name. When I finally found him I was immediately overwhelmed by the presence of heartless and Axel was nowhere to be seen. Well, the real Axel wasn't. But Roxas had apparently been dreaming about him when the heartless surrounded him, because a very spacey looking Axel was sitting on a tree above Roxas, who was lying in the fetal position in the sand.

I swiftly vanished and reappeared in front of Roxas' depleting form, pulling out my weapon, Lexicon. The book felt right in my hands as I scattered pages forming a temporary border between the heartless and Roxas and me. I hoped the illusion would keep them from draining his life anymore.

Axel's assassins would be very helpful right now, where is that fucking slacker? I knelt down next to Roxas, who was becoming stronger now that my illusion was keeping the heartless away, for now. I could definitely understand Axel's fondness for the boy as his gorgeous blue eyes met mine. "It's time to wake up." I said before forcing him into consciousness leaving me to the heartless.

oOo

I woke with a start on one of the beds in the nurse's office. As I sat up in the bed I rubbed my eyes tiredly. What a strange nightmare. The strangest part of the dream had to be the fact that I still felt weak. Maybe I was sick after all. It felt like all the energy had been drained from me. Like I'd had the flu for several weeks and couldn't keep food down or walk, or anything. Despite my weakened state I stood up and walked to the nurse, "What time is it?" I asked.

"Um…" She glanced at her computer, "Twelve thirty-two, lunch time. Do you want me to go get you something or can you handle it?"

"I can handle it." I responded.

"If you feel you need to, you are welcome to come back."

"Okay thanks." I said before walking out and heading towards the cafeteria. As I stood in the line, waiting for my lunch, I began to think about that crazy nightmare. Lae had warned me about those things with the yellow eyes, and suddenly they show up, in mass quantities, in my dream. And when they show up I get incredibly weak, which is still present even though I'm awake. Then another gorgeous, man, with blue, emo styled hair, and a matching blue eye, I've never seen before, shows up with a book, surrounds us in pages, and tell me to wake up. What was with my dreams lately?

Once I get my lunch I find a new table to sit at, away from Sora, Riku, and Demyx, because I wasn't allowed to talk to Axel but I still wanted Axel to have friends and sit with them. It was more important for him to be happy any way. I'm really just an insignificant spec in this world. I watched as Axel looked over at me, tapped Demyx's shoulder, and then asked him something. Even though his back was facing me I could tell Demyx was talking because of his comical hand movements.

When I saw Axel's once happy face turn crestfallen, I couldn't take it anymore, I stood up with my lunch and headed to the nurses office. Before I even got around my table I suddenly stopped in shock as I watched the 'emo' from my dream walk through the cafeteria, wearing the same long black coat from my dream, up to Axel. His blue hair fell over the right side of his face revealing one intimidating blue eye, just like my dream. Is it still a coincidence if it happens more than once?

How could I dream up two men, I've never seen before, who both just happen to show up in my real life. Things are either very fucked up or I got one serious fever. The blue haired man grabbed Axel's arm and dragged him out of the room. I swiftly followed them but by the time reached the exit they had disappeared through, they were nowhere to be seen. Why would the guys in my dreams know each other? This just keeps getting weirder. With my mind processing the new information I resigned myself to the nurse's office again.

oOo

I was starting to get worried about Roxas. He hadn't come back from the nurse's office yet. His emotional distress was already attracting the heartless to him. If he was sick too, he was in some deep shit. Plus, I really wanted to tell him I got us an A on our speech. I'd never been to school before and I must say getting an A was a very gratifying feeling. I wanted to share the moment of my first A with him but he was gone. Not to mention I wanted to test these new found emotions. I'd never really paid much attention to how I acted around him and was very curious to see if I changed at all, because there was something about him that made my stomach do back flips.

I sat down at the table with Sora, Riku, and Demyx, who where all chatting away happily and eating their lunches, while I watched for Roxas. When he finally walked through the doors of the cafeteria he looked quite exhausted. Actually a more accurate description would be that it looked like one or many heartless had been draining the life from him through his emotions. But when would he have been sleeping? I thought we were safe at school because you have to stay awake. I'll have to ask him if he fell asleep in the nurse's office when he comes over here… Where's he going. Instead of coming to our table, Roxas found an empty one all the way across the lunchroom and sat down. Demyx was sitting across from me so I tapped his shoulder to get his attention. "What's up Axel?" He asked.

"Why isn't Roxas sitting with us?" I asked.

"Oh, um…that." Demyx struggled for words. "He…you see, Roxas, more than anything, wants his mom to love him. So when she told him he couldn't be friends with you anymore he obeyed." My face fell at Demyx's words. Roxas and I aren't friends any more. He won't sit next to me or talk to me ever again. Those beautiful cerulean eyes will never look into mine again. Why does my chest hurt so much, like my heart is breaking into a million little pieces? What is this? "He's sitting by himself because he still wants us to be friends with you, even if he can't be." Demyx finished.

There it goes the tiny thread that was holding my heart together snapped. The millions of tiny shards of my heart crashed to the floor scattering everywhere, getting lost and kicked around in the uncaring crowd. Of course that's metaphorical, but that's what it felt like. I could almost scream out in pain. This felt so much worse that the whippings I'd received for misbehaving back in Oblivion. What is this? Am I dying?

I looked up to see Demyx staring, awestruck at someone who had apparently walked up beside me. I turned to investigate our new company. My chest still felt like someone was gouging a never ending hole into it as I looked up to find my blue haired friend. "Zexy? What're you doing here?" I asked. Zexion continued to stare at Demyx for a moment before he turned to me.

"We need to talk." He said simply and grabbed my arm dragging me out of the cafeteria. When no one was around he created a portal to Oblivion and dragged me through with him.

AN: Like I said before, lots of editing. When I originally wrote it, it felt very vague and distant. I think it's now easier to 'see' what's happening with the description I added. So it may have taken four days to get it updated, but I think quality is better than speed.

There will be more information on Dream Guardians and Heartless in upcoming chapters. I also hope to have more action. At least I have plans for some more action; I just haven't figured out how I'm going to get there.

Chapter 7 is about halfway complete, but I don't know how long it will take for me to update it.

Thanks for all reviews, favs, and alerts. I appreciate every one of them.