Title: Fairy Tales
Theme: o20. Fantasy
Word Count: 1,085 (O.O I swear I didn't mean it to be that long.)
Rating: T; heheh boys making out…-shot-
Spoilers: …I wouldn't think there were any…wait. If you don't know the identity of no. XIII, then yeah.
Disclaimer: I don't own. –pout-

Note: -whine- I attempted to write fluff and ended up with an angsty ending. –glare- I tells ya, AkuRoku isn't meant to be fluffy! D:

Axel didn't like to read stories with happy endings. It made his nonexistence seem all the more tragic.

Yet he was sitting there in the Organization library, reading a book of fairy tales of all the books he could've chosen.

But even if said happy endings depressed VIII, something about it allured him and caused him to pick it up and begin reading.

Roxas had walked into the library, hoping to entertain himself with a book, but saw the redhead lounging on the couch with his neck and head on top of the armrest, a rather large book in his hands.

"Fairy Tales," Roxas read the gold lettering of the book's title aloud, then raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you read children's literature?"

Axel ignored Roxas' comment, still reading the current story he was on. He didn't care if all of them were about a beautiful princess being locked up by an evil being and a prince rescuing said princess. They were still entertaining.

Roxas walked over to the couch and almost-smiled, "Read me one."

Axel sighed, then took the book into one hand, held it, and motioned Roxas to lay down with him. The blonde snuggled up to the fire-controlling Nobody, and Axel again held the book open with two hands.

The book opened up to the story Rapunzel, a story that both Nobodies had heard already, but Axel read it for him anyway.

"Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman, who got married. They wanted a child very badly, and sought help from the witch who had lived next door to their shabby hut. And indeed, after they had talked to the witch, the found that the next day, they were to bear a daughter.

"While the woman was carrying the child, the small village had been hit with a great famine, and the only garden bearing food was the witch's. The man, worried about his wife, begged the witch to give them some food so that the woman and the baby would live, but the witch refused."

Axel paused longer than usual as Roxas began to nuzzle his face into the redhead's neck, but the Key of Destiny whispered, "Keep going…don't mind me."

Axel could only obey.

"Hungry and desperate, that night, the man had stolen some vegetables from the witch's garden to feed his wife.

"Unfortunately, the next morning, the witch had gone out to tend to her crops, only to find some of it missing. She peered through her neighbors' window to find them ravenously wolfing down on food, and immediately knew where they had gotten it.

Angered, the witch stormed down to the man and the woman and commanded them, 'For stealing from a witch as strong as I,
Once your child is born she shall be mine!'

"In time, their baby daughter was born. And indeed the witch had kept her word. She had raised the girl as her own, giving her the name Rapunzel.

"But the witch knew this girl would grow to be a very beautiful woman, so once Rapunzel had grown of age, the witch had locked her in a giant tower with no entrance or exit; just a room for the girl and window behind a balcony.

"Alone for many years with just enough food to keep her healthy, Rapunzel's golden hair had grown very long, and the only thing to keep her company were songbirds who taught Rapunzel to sing.

"In time, the prince had come to the village in pursuit of a suitor. At night, Rapunzel had begun to sing, and the prince had heard her. Lured by her beautiful song, the prince had arrived to the tower to see a beautiful girl standing in the balcony.

"The prince called up to her, 'Fair maiden, what is thy name? For thy song is just as beautiful as thee!'

"Rapunzel immediately stopped singing, shocked as the prince had heard her.

"She replied, 'My name is Rapunzel, your young Majesty!'

"'How might I see thee closer? I wish to stand just in front of thee!' the prince asked, enthralled by Rapunzel's beauty.

"'I am afraid I have no ladder for thee, but my hair may as well be just as fine,' Rapunzel called back.

"'Then Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down thy fair hair!'

"And Rapunzel did so.

"The prince and Rapunzel immediately fell in love upon seeing each other's faces clearly for the first time.

"For a fortnight, the prince and Rapunzel met in the tower as the witch slept in her hut, but the witch soon got wind of the secret meetings they had at night.

"'I raised thou as my own and thou repay me by letting a man defile this place by pulling him into this tower I had built for thy safety? For punishment, I shall cut this hair of thee, the very hair thou used to pull a man into this very tower!' the witch yelled at Rapunzel.

"And the girl cried so, until the prince had arrived.

"'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down thy fair hair!' came the prince's familiar cry.

"Rapunzel replied sadly, 'Oh how I wish I could for thee, but the wicked witch, she has cut my hair.'

"'Then let us run away together! I shall kill the wicked witch for thee, then surely we can marry and live in peace?'

"The girl nodded sadly, 'Do as you must.'

"And that night, the prince slew the witch in her sleep, and returned to Rapunzel.

"'Shout for joy, for the wicked witch is dead! I wish to marry thee, Rapunzel!'

"'But how shall I escape from this tower she has imprisoned me in?'

"'Jump, Rapunzel, and I shall catch thee!'

"And trusting the prince on his word, Rapunzel jumped, and indeed, the prince caught her.

"Returning to the prince's castle to receive the king's and queen's blessings, Rapunzel and the prince married.

"And th–"

Before Axel could read "And they lived happily ever after," he found himself ambushed by a flurry of kisses from Roxas, immediately cut off.

Somewhere between the beginning of the kisses and when they had decided to do the tango with their tongues and stick them down each other's throats, Axel finally figured it out.

Axel was the princess in need of rescuing in this story, and Roxas was the prince who was to save him from all his feelings of emptiness that a Nobody was doomed to be plagued by.

But this fairy tale had no happy ending.