Notes: Man, I am on a roll with this fic. Which is kind of awesome, kind of sad because that means the fic will be over soon, and kind of strange given that I wrote this entire section, read back through it, and decided it sucked. So this is actually Part VII 2: Electric Boogaloo... wait, wrong movie. Anyway, it's not sad like the last one (or, really, most of them), but it is kind of... frustrating, I suppose. I have to say, though, I'm kind of digging worldly, sophisticated Roxas. Who, disregarding canon, is older than Axel for once.

Disclaimer: Even though it has absolutely nothing to do with anything, Needle in the Camel's Eye is a song by Brian Eno. It's used in one of my all-time favourite films, Velvet Goldmine. I needed a title and was listening to the VG soundtrack while finishing this up, so... there you have it.

VII. Needle in the Camel's Eye

There's never anyone in the waiting room on Tuesday mornings (and he would know, having had the 11:30 appointment slot for eight months, two weeks and counting), so Axel feels he's justified in watching the blonde kid sitting across from him and one to the left.

He's kind of... pretty, in a pale and pointy sort of way, and he must have been sitting outside because his blonde hair is dripping rain water down the side of his face. He also must be bored out of his fucking skull because he's been flipping through a backdated copy of Time since before Axel came in and sat down seven minutes ago. Axel knows it's been seven minutes because he always gets to the waiting room thirteen minutes before his appointment starts. It used to be a compulsion, now it's just a habit he doesn't feel like breaking.

"Your name's Axel, yeah?" the kid says abruptly, flipping the magazine shut and setting it aside. Judging from his voice, he's older than he looks. Judging by his accent, he's English.

It takes Axel a second to respond because he meets the kid's too-blue gaze and it's kind of like staring down forever. "How did you know that?"

He shrugs. "I've heard Doctor Clark say something about Axel's appointment a few times as I was leaving. Given that you're the only other person here, I assumed that's you."

"So you have, what, the 10:30?" It's the first time Axel's ever spoken to another patient and it's a little weird, but not necessarily a bad thing.

"10:25, actually." He flicks his left hand dismissively. He has very long fingers and could stand to cut his nails. "I'm usually long gone by now, but my ride called to let me know that he's stuck in traffic, so I came back inside. The weather's spectacular."

Axel honestly can't tell if the kid's being sarcastic or not, so he overlooks it. "Yeah, it's pretty wet."

"I'm Roxas, by the way." His pale lips twitch in a quirky sort of half-smile. Everything about him is pale and, taking him in more directly, Axel notices that his right hand is bandaged up.

"Nice to meet you." He nods towards his hand. "What happened?"

"I put my hand through a picture window." The smile shifts into a smirk. "Not to worry, I've done stupider things."

Axel knows how that goes. "Me, too, man."

"Solidarity in insanity." He smirks again and Axel knows he's being sarcastic now. "So, what have they got you for?"

"Bipolar, type II, with a side of OCD. You?" There's something familiar about this, in an unhealthy sort of way. It reminds him of his brief stay in psychiatric care his freshman year of high school.

"Major Depressive Disorder." He's got the same sort of nonchalance about his personal variety of fucked up. It's a good indication that he'd been admitted at some point, too.

"Fun stuff." Axel leans back in his chair.

"Oh yeah, a riot." But the sardonic little smirk is back. "How long have you been seeing Clark?"

"Eight months, two weeks," he replies instantly. It's probably a sign that his OCD isn't quite as under control as he claims that he keeps track of things like this so carefully.

"That's a long time to see the same doctor." He nods thoughtfully. "I've only been coming here since March. I was living elsewhere before that."

March. About three months, then. "Kinda crazy that this is the first time we've seen each other, huh?"

"I usually leave pretty quickly." Another shrug. He flexes his bandaged fingers in a way that looks reflexive.

"Understandable." It's Axel's turn to nod. He certainly doesn't stick around long after his own painfully long sessions of talking shit out. He doesn't feel like he needs this anymore, really, the Lamotrigine keeps him pretty stable, but no one really trusts him. Not after the second time he tried to kill himself, anyway. But that was when he was being misdiagnosed and given Zoloft, which hadn't done shit, so he's reasonably sure he's no longer in such a bad place that he needs weekly therapy to cope.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Roxas flashes him another thin smile. "Or a euro, since I don't have any domestic currency on me."

"Why do you only have foreign currency?" It sounds a little weird, and when Axel can say that it's kind of bad.

"Well, I spend domestic currency, but no one around here takes euros or yen, so I never get rid of them. Left-overs from various holidays and all that. You want one?" He fishes a slim leather wallet out of his back pocket and pulls a coin out of it. "Here, you get... ten yen." And he deftly flips the coin across the distance between them for Axel to catch.

Axel turns the coin over in his hands thoughtfully. It's kind of pretty, sort of like Roxas is. Not really, but a little. "Thanks."

He waves his uninjured hand negligently. "Don't mention it."

"No, it's cool. I've never been to Asia." He tucks it in his pocket.

"You should go. Japan's pretty fun - I was there with my S.O. last summer. Hotter than hell, and humid like you wouldn't believe, but I enjoyed it. The parts when I wasn't sitting in meetings, anyway."

"Meetings?" He tilts his head slightly to one side curiously.

"Yeah." He shrugs again. It seems to be his gesture of choice. "I was interpreting. That S.O. I mentioned? He isn't fluent and I am, so it all works out out. It was more business than pleasure, but it usually is." He's rolling his eyes now, as he crosses his arms loosely. "What can you do? It gets me out of the country every once in a while and that's more than most people can say, yeah?"

"Yeah," Axel agrees. Roxas' life sounds way more exciting than Axel's and he's not really sure what else to say. He's also upping Roxas' potential age the longer the conversation goes on. His initial estimate of eighteen or nineteen has turned more to twenty four or twenty five.

After a pause that's surprisingly comfortable, Roxas stands. He's short and very thin, his grey pinstripe shirt hanging a little loose. "Well, he should just about be here, so I should probably get going." He smiles again, flashing teeth that look slightly nicotine-stained. "It was nice talking to you, Axel. Today was my last appointment with this doctor and a conversation with someone who's with me in the crazy boat was a good send-off."

Axel's left even more at a loss. He was starting to get into the conversation and the revelation that he'll probably never see the guy again is a little sad. "It was cool, yeah."

"You take care, okay?" He shrugs into a black duster and pulls a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket, which is a little odd given the weather, but Axel isn't really in a position to judge quirks. "Don't let the doctors get you down. They like to think they know all the secrets, but I've been around the block a time or two and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that they don't really know much more than you. They're just doing the best they can to make us functional members of society. And, hey, that's the most we can really ask of them, you know?" He smiles again and it's a little warmer than before.

"Yeah, thanks," Axel replies, standing, too, because it feels like the right thing to do. "You take care, too. And thanks for the yen, I'll keep Japan in mind next time I can take a vacation."

"Do." He nods. "See you around, kid."

"Axel," the receptionist calls out, "the doctor's ready to see you."

Axel turns his head to look at her. "Okay, just a sec."

But by the time he turns back around to look at Roxas and say goodbye, the door's already swinging shut.