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Not That I Care
14
Scorpion and Frog
But when they got about halfway across the river,
the scorpion stung the frog. The frog asked,
"Why did you sting me? Now we shall both die."
The scorpion replied, "Because it is my nature."
--Aesop
Roxas is concentrating, eyes closed, hands out at his sides and slightly raised. It's early morning—at least as "early morning" as can be in a world without sunlight—and Roxas is alone in a darkened practice room.
Two Keyblades. One dark and heavy, the other light and warm.
He thinks about the Keyblades, about their appearances, about how they felt in his hands. He remembers what it was like to wield them, how he suddenly felt powerful, capable of anything and everything. His fingers curl around empty air as he screws his face up, concentrating harder.
Two Keyblades…
There's a slight puffing sound and a weight appears in his hand—only one hand. He opens his eyes and looks down. It's a Keyblade, but it's the one he always uses, gleaming vaguely in the faint moonlight.
"Damn," Roxas mutters without much feeling. He didn't expect it to work. He has been trying to summon the two Keyblades, the ones he summoned while in Wonderland, for awhile now. It doesn't make any sense. Summoning the regular Keyblade is easy—all he has to do is think about it and it comes. It should work the same with the two more elaborate Keyblades, but so far it hasn't. No matter what he does, he can't summon them.
Maybe I'm distracted, Roxas thinks, running a gloved hand through his hair. It's been a busy few weeks. Never mind Axel's rather calamitous return and all the reports and rumors flying about Castle Oblivion; recently, the workload has reached exhausting extremes. No one ever accused the Superior of being anything less than a slave-driver, but lately he's been all but dumping missions on them all. Xaldin and Xigbar have been gone on separate missions for four days straight. Demyx comes back to the castle each night looking like he's been dragged through a thresher. Roxas hasn't even seen Axel in two days, which is the big indicator of how busy things are, since Axel usually goes out of his way to hunt Roxas down and bother him. Axel seems to be the only one actually enjoying the heavy workload, which means that something must be very wrong.
Roxas can understand. There's over a dozen worlds now, and only eight members left in the Organization. The old worlds are locked and only a handful of Heartless have appeared there, but not a single Heartless can be left alive—Xemnas is more determined than ever to complete Kingdom Hearts. The newer worlds have had a steadily increasing trickle of Heartless for the Organization to deal with. That's on top of dealing with the locals and doing research back home. The residents of Hollow Bastion in particular have been rather hostile toward the Nobodies. The few outsiders who know of the Nobodies are starting to think of them as no better than Heartless. The only good point of the past few weeks is that Roxas hasn't had a single headache. They've completely disappeared.
Roxas stretches his arms above his head. It's been busy, and it's going to get a lot busier. The unlocked worlds will start to get more Heartless, now that Sora is asleep. The Organization has to pick up the slack while Sora naps away.
Sleeping on the job. Some hero.
Roxas disappears his Keyblade and starts concentrating again.
Oathkeeper. Oblivion. Those are their names. I don't know how I know, but I do. I can do this. Just think about them, remember them. Think about Kairi.
Roxas hates clichés, but Kairi's face and name have literally been haunting him ever since the day in Wonderland. He dreams about her—little snippets of conversation, little flashes of her beneath palm trees on a golden beach. Yet the dreams are always strange. It's as if he's never really there with Kairi, as if he is floating outside of his body, watching himself with her. He doesn't know anything about her except for her name and appearance—but he knows somehow that he cares about her, deeply.
Roxas feels weight in one hand again and opens his eyes with a sigh. The old Keyblade again.
"If ever I could use your help, Kairi…" Roxas mutters, swinging the Keyblade around in front of him. "Dammit. I wish I knew how I did it that time."
"Whoa, this is a rare sight. Roxas in a freaking practice room," says a voice, and Roxas turns to see Axel stepping through the doorway. He looks as if he hasn't slept in awhile, hair matted, eyes rather dim.
Roxas disappears the Keyblade somewhat quickly.
"What're you up to?"
"Practicing," Roxas says quickly. "That's why it's called a practice room. Got it—?"
"No, no, you're not allowed to say it. That's my catch phrase, understand? I have it under copyright. You can make up your own. Commit that to memory."
"Shut up."
"I don't think I've ever seen you in a practice room. I mean, there's nothing to kill here. Usually you're practicing on actual Heartless down in the city."
"I wanted the peace and quiet, but then guess who showed up?"
Axel snorts. "Peace and quiet are vastly overrated," he says, and blows a hole in the wall with a fireball to demonstrate.
"It must have been a dangerous wall," Roxas says, too used to Axel to be fazed.
"The worst kind. It's actually only pretending to be a wall. Lucky I killed it before it could hurt anyone." He puts his hands on his hips, surveying Roxas. "We've got a mission in the Pride Lands all day today."
"Us two?" Roxas grins despite himself. "Good, I've wanted you to see that place. You're gonna love it there."
"Does it have monkeys? It's like Africa, right? Africa has monkeys, doesn't it?"
"You'll see," Roxas says.
"Or we might run into a lion. That'd be sweet."
"Yep. We might. Never know."
Axel yawns and cracks his neck. "We've got time to kill before the Boss sends us off into the wide worlds. Hey, I have an idea. We haven't sparred in, like, a zillion years."
"You want to spar?"
Axel summons his chakrams and spins them lazily in his hands. "Sure, why not?"
Roxas looks at him strangely. "Well, just that you never want to practice. You're usually setting up elaborate schemes so you don't have to do work. You've been unusually gung-ho lately."
Axel grins at Roxas. "Roxie, Roxie, you should know by now that I'm anything but usual. Sometimes the fire burns hot, yanno? Feel free to construe that as a sexual innuendo."
Roxas makes a face. "I think everything you say can be construed as a sexual innuendo. And don't ever call me Roxie." Roxas considers for a moment, then summons his Keyblade. "Alright, we'll spar. Just don't blame me when I wipe the floor with you."
This might give me a chance to summon the two Keyblades. Maybe I need to be in an actual fight? This is only practice, but it might be enough…
Axel gives a rather evil smirk, spinning his chakrams. "Don't count your lizards before they hatch."
"You never make any sense," Roxas says, and charges. Axel leaps backward to avoid Roxas's swing and summons his fire to one of his weapons. Roxas dodges as Axel throws the other one; it whistles as it arcs past Roxas and returns to Axel's hand.
Axel sends a stream of fire at Roxas and Roxas dives and rolls, then scrambles back to his feet just behind Axel. Roxas swings and Axel whirls around; there's a clang as chakram meets Keyblade. Axel doesn't hesitates and slashes with the flaming chakram, but Roxas ducks just in time and leaps away.
They circle each other, eyes locked, weapons ready.
This time Axel moves first. He feints to the right and then darts left, throwing the blazing chakram in the same motion in the opposite direction. The chakram comes at Roxas from one side while Axel comes from the other. Roxas takes a flying leap into the air and lands further away, just as Axel catches the free chakram and snuffs the flames.
Second Keyblade. Come on, second Keyblade...
"Whoo! Speedy as ever, shorty."
"Sparrows can outmaneuver big hawks," Roxas says, grinning.
"Yeah, but the hawk always wins in the end," Axel says, and charges, both chakrams in his hands. Roxas slides one foot backward, brings his Keyblade up and parries. The blade catches between two points on one chakram and Axel wrenches backward, pulling Roxas off balance. Axel swings with the free chakram, but then Roxas drops under Axel's guard. With a roar he swings his Keyblade, knocking one chakram from Axel's hand and sending it clattering to the floor. Axel raises his other chakram as Roxas swings again and they freeze with their weapons at each other's throats.
They stand there for a moment, panting, both of them surprised.
"You've gotten faster," Axel mutters, eyes flicking down to the metal pressed against his neck.
"You've gotten…" Roxas searches for a word and frowns. "Trickier."
As one they step away from each other. Roxas heaves a sigh and disappears his Keyblade. Only the one again; Roxas will have to try harder. Axel calls his lost chakram back to his hand, not taking his eyes off Roxas.
"You fight a lot like him," Axel says at length.
"Like who?"
"Like Sora," Axel says, and now he looks away. "Other than that, you're nothing like him."
Roxas stares at Axel, confused.
"Okay…"
Axel suddenly grins, perking up. "Hey shorty, who do you think would win if the two of us fought for real?"
The question catches Roxas off guard for a moment, but then he grimaces.
"You would. You'd pull some kind of cheap shot when I was least expecting it."
Axel laughs. "Nice to know you hold me in such high regard."
Roxas just shrugs. "We've killed enough time. Let's get going."
-------
"Dude."
"I know."
"Dude. You are a fucking lion."
"I know."
"But you're a fucking lion!"
"Yes, I noticed."
"Okay. Okay, right. Yeah, perfectly normal, you turning into a lion and all, right, no reason to be a little, I dunno, freaked out."
Roxas finally lets out the laugh he's been holding in and rolls onto his back, waving all four paws in the air.
"Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you this place was awesome?" Roxas says, gasping from the laughter.
"Did I get short? I swear I'm shorter. Oh my god, I have paws! Dude, I'm all furry! Holy shit I can smell everything! Roxas, I can smell what you had for breakfast, you had eggs and toast didn't you?"
Roxas rolls up onto his feet, still laughing. "This is the Pride Lands. Everyone becomes some kind of animal here. Demyx becomes a wild dog, I become a lion, and you…oh."
"What? What 'oh'?" Axel turns his squarish, brown muzzle every-which-way to try and see the rest of himself. He stumbles slightly, not used to going on all fours. "Am I a lion? I can't tell. I don't smell the same as you do."
"No, you're not a lion…" Roxas frowns in a lion-like way, looking Axel over for the first time.
Axel is a hyena. He could pass as a normal hyena if it weren't for the mop of spiky red fur sprouting from his head and the back of his long neck. His fur is brown and spotted and he has a somewhat short tail. His face is ursine in shape, heavy and squarish like a pit bull's, with rounded ears. The eyes haven't changed, though—still green, still Axel.
A hyena…Roxas thinks, and suddenly he's uncomfortable. Every time he has been to the Pride Lands he has seen the hyenas, always lurking in the shadows, watching Roxas from a safe distance. Always ready to rush in if it looks like Roxas or Demyx is going to lose a fight. Roxas has never liked them.
"You're a hyena," Roxas says finally.
Axel laughs, that eerie hyena laugh. "Wow, well it's not a lion, but hell, it feels great! I feel powerful, man. Like I could run a thousand miles or kill a gazelle or…"
Roxas tunes Axel out, going over this new development in his head. Hyenas aren't really the notorious scavengers that stories make them out to be, but it's true that they're opportunistic. They'll wait for another predator to make a kill, then steal it while the other is exhausted. They're the thieves of the Serengeti, the opportunists. They're vicious—they're the kind of animal that attacks when your back is turned, when you're least expecting it. They can't be trusted.
And they do not get along with lions. If the local lion pride caught Axel wandering their territory they'd no doubt kill him. Things are always tense between lions and hyenas, but lately, locally, it's tenser than ever. And on the flipside, hyenas have been known to eat lion cubs, which is why Roxas is always wary when he's around the places where they live.
Roxas thinks grimly of what he said to Axel only a few minutes ago, when they were sparring:
"You'd pull some kind of cheap shot when I was least expecting it."
Everyone who comes here takes the shape of an animal that best suits them. Demyx is a wild dog because they're generally pretty friendly. Saïx is a leopard because he's scary and powerful. And I guess…Axel is a hyena because he's…but come on. It's not like he's a complete asshole. True, I don't completely trust him, but I know he'd never betray me or anything, not for real.
Roxas shakes out his meager mane. But that doesn't really make me feel any better.
"…and is it normal that I'm really craving zebra right now? Hey, are you even listening?"
"Right," Roxas says, turning away and listening to Axel stumbling around on his new paws. "We'd better get going. Most of the Heartless appear in the shadowy place where the hyenas—your buddies—hang out, but some have been appearing around Pride Rock lately. We can patrol between them."
"What's Pride Rock? You're gonna have to show me around, shorty. Man, I feel like I could crush someone's skull in my teeth."
"You probably could," Roxas mutters. "Pride Rock is that rock formation over there, see? It looks like…fingers or something."
Axel grins, and with the teeth he suddenly he looks fearsome. "Stupid Axel. What else could be Pride Rock but the humongous rock? Alright, lead the way. Dammit…how long does it take to get used to walking like this?"
"Awhile," Roxas says shortly, and starts trotting across the savanna. Axel follows as best he can. Roxas barely notices the herds of gazelles and zebra or the occasional cheetah or pack of jackals, but Axel lets out a yelp every time he spots something. Roxas is lost in his own thoughts.
"Okay, I'll admit it," Axel says once he's caught up to Roxas, tripping over his feet a bit less now. "You picked a good place here."
"It's still dangerous," Roxas says, eyeing a handful of jackals that are watching the two Nobodies. "We're animals out here, and we're animals encroaching on their territory. Listen, if you spot any of the lions—"
"There are lions? More of them?"
"Yes, Axel," Roxas snaps, getting impatient and not really knowing why. He was about as excited as Axel is when Roxas first came here; why is he getting so annoyed? "There is a pride of lions living at Pride Rock. Look, just ignore them and don't get too close. Try not to let them see you. Same thing with the hyenas."
"I suppose they'd smell the whole Nobody thing on us," Axel agrees. "But lions go with lions and hyenas go with hyenas, right? Why would we have a problem?"
"Because we're strangers here. I'm not part of the lion pride. You're not part of the hyena pack. That makes us invaders. They'd kill us if they got the chance. And well, lions and hyenas really don't get along."
Axel snorts. "Makes us the exception, huh? We must be an odd herd. Man, you spend way too much time in the library, knowing all this crap about animals."
Roxas doesn't say anything, but he picks up the pace, forcing Axel to trot to keep up. It's a rather nice feeling; usually Roxas is the one who has to practically run to keep up with the long-legged Axel.
They loop around the front of Pride Rock and head deeper into the savanna, toward the shadowy place. The lions are all out of sight; it's midday, and they are no doubt inside Pride Rock to escape the heat. Roxas keeps his eyes and ears out for Heartless and other animals, ignoring Axel behind him, who keeps muttering to himself about the animals and the landscape.
"So who pissed in your soup?"
"What?"
"See, that, exactly. Usually you're showering me with your devotion and attention. I get four legs and suddenly I'm chopped liver?"
"It's not that," Roxas lies. "I'm just keeping an eye out for—"
Suddenly there's a roar that seems to split the world in two. Roxas whips around to see a huge male lion charging them from the direction of Pride Rock. He lets out a snarl.
"Dammit. Mufasa."
"Moo-what?"
The king of the savanna rushes up to them like a freight train with fur and claws and snarls down at the two animal-Nobodies. Roxas moves quickly between the huge lion and Axel, while Axel stares up in awe.
"I heard that there were hyenas in the Pride Lands," the lion says in a rumbling baritone, "but I did not expect it to be accompanied by a lion. And one so strangely scented as you. Who are you, young one?"
"Roxas, who is this guy?" Axel hisses at Roxas.
"Mufasa, the king of the pride. The guy in charge," Roxas says through his teeth. Axel whistles and it comes out with a hyena's chuckle. The huge lion glares past Roxas at the hyena behind him.
"We're both travelers. He's a friend of mine."
"You are not from my pride. You may be young, but you should know the rules of our kin. Lions do not enter one another's territory without permission. And they do not go about with hyenas," Mufasa adds, his deep eyes flashing toward Axel. "They are low creatures; they are not to be trusted."
"Hey now, haven't you ever learned not to judge people when you first—?"
Roxas stomps on Axel's foot before he can finish. Mufasa bares his teeth.
"I'm sorry, sir," Roxas says, ducking his head in a show of submission. "We come from afar and I did not know the laws of this land. And this hyena is not like the others; he is my friend."
Mufasa glares between the two for long enough that Roxas starts wondering if he should be drawing his Keyblade. Axel, thankfully, makes no sound.
"Because you are so young…I shall let you get away with trespassing just this once. I can understand the folly of youth—I have a son about your age." Mufasa allows for a faint smile, though the alertness and harshness never leave his brown eyes. "But you must leave now; go to the shadowy place, where the hyenas are. I will not allow hyenas to be gallivanting through my Pride Lands. Their mere presence is an insult."
"Thank you, sir," Roxas says, bowing his head again. He stomps Axel's foot again and they both trot out of the way, making sure not to turn their backs on Mufasa. He watches them the whole time, until Roxas finally turns and takes off across the savanna toward the shadowy place, Axel on his heels. When Roxas looks back again, the king lion is gone.
Axel whistles again once they're safe. "Damn, you weren't lying about this whole 'animal kingdom' shit," he says, chuckling.
"What, you thought I was?" Roxas snaps. "Damn it."
"See? Piss in the soup, I rest my case."
"Just shut up, Axel, for once, could you please just shut up?" Roxas lets out a snarl that is all lion and not at all Roxas.
Axel does shut up, to Roxas's surprise. He doesn't say a word until they reach the shadowy place and meet their first group of Heartless, and then he only speaks to shout challenges and battle cries. They fight there in the shadows among the rocks, while the hyenas watch from above.
-------
"Never fought with an audience before. Except the Organization, of course. Hyenas. It was kind of eerie."
It's the most Axel has said since they got back. Both of them are a little banged up, but it's nothing serious. Roxas is just glad to be back on two feet. They're in the cafeteria, their usual hangout, and Roxas is sipping coffee over an open book.
"Hyenas are like that," he mutters. Like Axel, he hasn't spoken much except to give his repors to Xemnas.
"No wonder you don't like them," Axel says, eyes flicking toward Roxas. "I don't get this whole hang-up with lions and hyenas."
Roxas sighs. The anger has mostly run out of him, and now he's left confused and upset. He doesn't know what has gotten him so annoyed. Somehow he thinks it has nothing to do with his inability to bring out the two Keyblades.
"It's just the way things are," he says. "They're constantly fighting. They never get along. It's just one of those things. Lions take up lots of space and lots of the food, but hyenas are just nasty."
"Well, I'm a hyena apparently, so they can't be all bad."
Roxas doesn't answer.
There's a clank as Axel sets down his coffee mug hard. Roxas looks up at him. Axel is glaring at him, his green eyes sharp.
"It's not like I can control it, you know. It's not my fault I became a fucking hyena."
"I know you can't control it," Roxas mutters back, looking away. "You become what best suits your nature."
"Oh, so that's it," Axel snaps. "We're back to this now? You don't trust me? You think because I show up as a hyena in some crazy world, I must be some kind of traitorous scumbag?"
Roxas looks at him again, carefully. That isn't it, Roxas realizes. Axel has an untrustworthy streak as wide and deep as an ocean, but somehow Roxas trusts him. No completely—Roxas doubts he could ever trust someone completely—but enough. Axel has never let him down before. He's the only one, the only one, who bothered to try and befriend Roxas, when Roxas was completely alone.
He still doesn't talk about Castle Oblivion. Something must have happened there. But I don't care. That doesn't concern me. As long as he doesn't betray me, I don't care.
"No, I'm sorry," Roxas says finally, shaking his head. He combs his hair with his fingers. "I trust you. It just bothered me is all. I spend weeks out there learning not to trust hyenas, and suddenly you show up as one. It just bothered me. That's all."
Axel snorts, but his eyes soften and he waves a hand at Roxas as if to brush the comment away. "Mistrusting your dear old friend Axel. It pains my heart, truly it does, and I don't even have one. Who else would go looking for monkeys with you? Who else would face the evil Keyblade Master for you? All these things I do for you, and yet Axel is still so unappreciated. Ah, 'tis a sad and lonely existence I lead."
"Oh, shut up," Roxas says, though he can't hide a smile. "Still, though. We probably shouldn't go to the Pride Lands together anymore. It's just too out of the ordinary, a lion and a hyena wandering around. If Mufasa catches us again he really will kill us."
"In the wild, the lion is proud and strong, a powerful hunter and merciless defender of his territory," Axel says, putting on a bad British accent. "Watch as he stalks his unsuspecting prey. Ah, the lion truly is a magnificent creature."
Roxas laughs and Axel drains his coffee.
"What's the deal with the Mufasa guy, anyway? He's the king or whatever?"
"Yeah. We've been doing some research…need to know what's going on out there, after all," Roxas says. "He's got a really strong pride, lots of members, and he has one son who's probably going to take over for him when he croaks. Simber or something. Though things aren't looking too good for the pride right now—Mufasa's brother isn't exactly happy about not being king, so there's a lot of political strife and whatnot."
Axel chuckles. "Who know lions had politics? Is nothing sacred?"
"Apparently not," Roxas says. "If anything happens to the pride, like if the brother tries anything, then we'd all probably have to stay out of that world for awhile until things blow over. And in the meantime, you and I shouldn't go there. The lions and the hyenas are fighting harder than ever; it'll just make things worse if we were seen together."
"But darling, I want to take you out at night, see and be seen!" Axel says, fluttering his eyelashes.
Roxas makes a face. "Nice. Seriously, Axel, we can't go there anymore, not together."
Axel sighs. "Fine, fine, ruin the good times. Still, it's awesome there, isn't it? I mean, the feeling of being an animal, being that powerful…it's amazing."
"I know," Roxas says, smiling. "I love it there."
"I still haven't been permanently assigned anyway. As long as I can kill loads of Heartless, I don't really care where I go. I've actually already taken another mission to Hollow Bastion—leave tomorrow."
"You're taking three missions in a row?" Roxas shakes his head, staring at Axel. "And you say I'm acting weird. I mean, I know our caseload is heavy, but you've been working practically nonstop."
"Hey, I figure it's time to start stepping up, you know? Kingdom Hearts isn't going to complete itself."
Roxas tilts his head. "I thought you didn't believe in Kingdom Hearts."
"You look like a confused puppy," Axel laughs. "I don't know if I do believe it—I mean, I'm no zealot like the higher-ups—but hey. It's our only chance, right? I've spent too much time just fucking around, not getting work done. No more. Brand new Axel and all that." Suddenly he grins. "But we're still taking the off-time to hang out in Twilight Town and looking for monkeys."
Roxas smiles, deciding to think about all this later. "We haven't gone monkey-hunting in awhile. I wonder how that baby monkey is doing."
"In the wild, the young ape will eventually grow to be—"
"Axel, shut up."
-------
Roxas knows it's a dream as soon as it begins.
He is sitting on a beach under a giant palm tree. Kairi sits on one side, and a silver-haired boy that Roxas only faintly recognizes sits on the other. All three of them are staring out at the ocean, watching the sunset.
"We'll explore. Find new worlds. Maybe we can even find my home," Kairi says, grinning. Her pink hair drifts in the breeze, and her blue eyes are catching the last of the sun's rays. She looks beautiful; utterly beautiful.
"Once the raft is complete, we can go anywhere we want. We can finally get away from this island," the silver-haired boy agrees fervently. His eyes are on the horizon.
"It'll be great," Roxas agrees, though it's not Roxas. His voice isn't even the same. "The three of us together, always."
"Always," Kairi agrees, and then the dream changes.
It's night, and the island is being torn apart. Heartless are everywhere. Roxas is only carrying a useless wooden sword, dodging to avoid the Heartless. His heart is pounding; he's scared. He can't find Kairi. The other boy, his friend, is already gone.
Kairi, Kairi, where are you?
"The Keyblade…use the Keyblade…"
The Keyblade is suddenly in his hands and he swings it clumsily, so scared, so scared. Kairi is nowhere in sight and the entire world seems to be breaking into pieces.
There's a door. Roxas fights his way through and opens it. Inside is a quiet place beneath the island, and there he finds Kairi. He calls her name, but she doesn't seem to hear. Her eyes look dead. And then without warning another door blasts open and darkness pours out. Kairi vanishes before Roxas can catch her. And then the darkness is entangling him as well, pulling him apart, pulling him into the blackness. Kairi's voice is still ringing in his head.
"Don't ever change. Don't ever change."
Roxas snaps awake and sits bolt upright in bed, panting, drenched in sweat. His eyes feel wet and he blinks furiously, trying to clear his vision. The island is gone, Kairi is gone; Roxas is alone in his room, in the Castle That Never Was.
Roxas forces himself to calm down, forces his breathing to slow. He wipes away the tears and presses his hand to his forehead.
Kairi's gone. She's lost. She disappeared into that blackness. Is she still there, lost, alone, scared? But then why did I see her that time? Dammit, dammit, why don't I remember?
"Why can't I just fucking remember?!" Roxas yells, slamming a fist on the bed. He digs his fingers into the fabric, grasping at it as if holding on tightly enough will bring his memories back. Will bring Kairi back.
He gets to his feet. No more sleep tonight.
He opens the door to his room and goes out to wander the halls, the way he always does. He passes the doors to Number Eight and Number Nine. Axel and Demyx, no doubt asleep and happy, at least as happy as a Nobody can be.
It's not fair. They all have their memories. None of us have hearts, but at least they can fucking remember. I can't even…I can't see any of it. Even Kairi. I loved her, but she's gone and I have no idea who she was, where she is now, what happened to her. I can't remember anything.
Roxas almost punches a wall as he passes but stops himself. He grits his teeth.
Calm down. Getting worked up doesn't help anything. I've got to work things out. The memories do seem to be coming back to me in fragments. But one thing's for certain—I've got to find Kairi. I don't care about the rest of it, I just have to find her. What the hell have I been doing, running around as a lion and all this bullshit? It doesn't matter. She's the answer to everything.
He paces the halls and stairways, thinking, planning, going over it all in his head. Nothing he can think of sounds like it will work; he doesn't know where Kairi is, wouldn't even know where to start. Eventually he finds himself at the cafeteria and he steps inside, suddenly craving coffee. Axel is inside, as if he never even moved from earlier today. Not asleep either, apparently. He's sitting at a bench, looking morose, already with a mug of his own. He looks up at Roxas's approach.
"Bad dream?" he asks in a rather hollow-sounding voice.
"Yeah," Roxas answers.
Axel nods gravely. "Yeah," he repeats, and pours a second cup of coffee.
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Well this one took me longer than I would have liked, and I'm not completely satisfied with it. But as someone once said, done is better than perfect. I've kept you waiting long enough, my dear chicks. This was supposed to be up a week ago—I know I said it would be, but a whole lot of crap happened and it ended up being postponed. But here it is at last, posted at about four in the morning. Hope you enjoy it. Sorry again for the long wait.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. Definitely not as long away as this one, though I have a little bit of research concerning KH to do until I can go further. Between that and real life stuff like getting a job and writing, it might be a little while, but when I say awhile I mean maybe a week and a half. I'm going to try and update more regularly now that summer is in full swing.
Anyway, here it is. Now I is tired and I must make sleeps.
Feedback is candy for my soul!
NOTE: is being a bitch with the formatting, so if this looks funny, I'm very sorry and I'll try to fix it later. If it looks funny, let me know, because it might look different on different computers.