Disclaimer: El videojuego de Kingdom Hearts 2 no es mio.

Warning: Rated T for language, innuendos, and boyloves. :D

Chapter 1

It was nearly two in the afternoon when Sora woke up. The sun was streaming mercilessly through the windows and directly into his face. He took a moment to stare at the empty spot next to him in longing.

There was a crash from downstairs, followed by a soft curse. The night before flashed through his memories and he let out a small sigh.

Pulling himself out of bed and out of his room, he started down the hall. He momentarily wondered if he should change, but dismissed the idea when he realized he would only be seen by family and that he really didn't care that much anyway.

"Roxas?" he called for his twin, wondering what had been broken. When he received no reply, he tried his brother-in-law instead. "Axel? Are you here?"

Roxas and Axel were newly married, only about six or seven months in. They'd first met at Sora's own wedding, and though Roxas had originally denied it, sparks flew the moment they set eyes on each other. They'd only dated for a few months before they decided to take the plunge, but it seemed to be working well for them.

Axel poked his head around the corner, the brilliant red of his hair making Sora momentarily blink in shock. It was still kind of hard to get used to.

"Hey Sora!" he greeted cheerfully. "Feeling better this morning?"

Sora shrugged. "Not really." Axel frowned for a moment before his grin picked up again.

"Roxas went shopping," the redhead said conversationally.

"Shopping?" The word seemed strange in his mouth.

Axel smirked. "Yeah…shopping…you know, that thing where you go to the store and buy things to sustain your life?" he paused, looking thoughtful. "I suppose it's possible that you might've forgotten. From the looks of things, you haven't bought any food since Riku…" he trailed off, casting a sidelong glance at Sora as if worried he might have set the brunet off. When Sora didn't say anything, he straightened up and continued. "Anyway, the only thing you had in your fridge was baking soda. I didn't know people actually put baking soda in their refrigerators. What's it supposed to do?"

Sora shrugged. "Riku put it there," he offered as an answer. Axel nodded slowly. "Right."

Sora could tell the redhead was uncomfortable with his lack of attempts at conversation. He felt a bit bad about it, but he was stuck in a funk and he couldn't just pull himself out of it.

"You don't have to, you know," he said quietly. Axel perked up slightly at an actual completed sentence, even though he looked confused at the subject matter. Sora turned and focused his eyes on the pool in the backyard. The water was clean, which was surprising considering the fact that Sora hadn't even entered the backyard in a few months. He figured his twin was behind it somehow.

"Don't have to what?" Axel asked, eyebrows drawn in confusion.

"You don't have to try and force a conversation with me. I know I'm not the best person to talk to anymore. I'll tell Roxas that you tried." Axel's confused look turned to one of anger.

"You think I'm sitting here pulling teeth trying to get you to talk to me because Roxas wants me to?" he demanded, leaning back against the countertop and glaring. Sora blinked, now the one confused.

"Aren't you?"

Axel let out an exasperated sigh, running a hand through his spiky crimson locks. "No, Sora. I'm trying to talk to you because you're my friend, my brother. I'm just as worried about you as Roxas is. That, and Riku would kick my ass from here to hell if he knew I was letting you wallow away in depression." Sora blinked a few times in shock. He hadn't known Axel really cared about him so much. He knew the redhead was a nice enough guy, but he wouldn't have imagined that he thought of Sora as his brother.

Faced with this fact, all he could think of to say was "sorry". It didn't seem like quite enough, but Axel took the apology gracefully.

They were both silent for a very long time after that. Sora continued to watch the water in the pool and Axel leaned his head back against a cabinet, staring at the ceiling. It was a good half hour before Axel let out a low chuckle, turning his head back to look at Sora.

"Do you remember when we were helping you two move in here?" he asked. Sora nodded mutely.

"Riku was so damn excited, even though he absolutely refused to show it. He broke a hole in the ceiling when we were carrying your bed up there because he wouldn't stop jittering." Axel laughed again, a lazy smile overtaking his face. Sora did remember that. Riku had been so sheepish, but it hadn't taken much to patch up the hole.

"When we painted our room," Sora started, "first of all, we just couldn't agree on a color. We finally settled on blue because we both liked it well enough." Axel listened attentively and Sora laughed at the memory. "I was painting around the top because I was being stubborn. So there I was, on the ladder with the paint tin on the top step. Riku was keeping the ladder straight, griping at me because I wouldn't let him do the top. I can't remember why, really," Sora said thoughtfully. "Well I, being the clumsy person that I am, knocked the paint tin down off the top step and it landed all over him. His hair was blue for a week."

Axel laughed. "Oh, I'll bet he was pissed." Sora nodded, remembering that cute pout that Riku would sometimes adopt, though he always insisted it wasn't a pout. "Men don't pout!" he'd argue.

"Yeah," Sora nodded. "He was pissed. He wouldn't talk to me for three days." Roxas hadn't completely refused to talk about Riku since his death, but it was still strange to think of his late husband and laugh. Maybe it was knowing that Axel had been just as close, maybe more, to Riku as Sora had been.

"He was always such a bitch about his hair," Axel sighed with a grin. "When I first met him, we were rooming together in college. I just wanted to see what he'd do…so one night during the spring semester I dyed his hair pink." Sora's jaw dropped at just imaging what Riku would have done to him. "Dyeing hair is quite a process, you know, and he slept through the whole thing. I was really impressed."

"What did he do to you?" Sora asked eagerly. Axel laughed and shook his head. "Oh hell. When he woke up, at first he tried to kill me, but I managed to avoid him until he had to get to class. I made the mistake of falling asleep. When I woke up, I was hanging upside down out our window by a rope tied to my ankles. Naked." Sora laughed, possibly his first real laugh in a long time.

"How long did he leave you there for?" he gasped through his laughter.

"Long enough to take a shower in a desperate attempt and realize I'd used temporary dye. He then left me there until he washed his hair enough times to get it all out. Still, it was worth it, considering his hair had a faint pink tint to it for the rest of the year," Axel said wistfully. The more Sora thought about his late husband, the more the smile faded away, until finally he was left with a slight frown. Axel looked at him, knowing the problem without even having to ask. Still, Sora spoke aloud anyway.

"I miss him," he sighed.

"Me too," Axel agreed.

"Do you ever think about getting the band back together?" Sora asked quietly. He wasn't sure why he had asked, but he'd just had this sudden compulsion to know.

Axel's eyebrows quirked and then he shook his head. "I did, once or twice, but I always come to the same conclusion. It just wouldn't be the same without Riku." Sora nodded to show that he understood.

Riku had been in a band with Axel and three of their other friends. They'd been really famous and really good. They'd taken a year's hiatus just after Riku and Sora had gotten married. It was their return concert, the night that Riku died. The very next day, they'd announced their break-up and that was it. The end of the Organization. The band lived on in four of its members, the fans, and the multi-platinum records hanging in Riku's music room, but mostly, it lived on in Sora's nightmares.

"He certainly had an astounding vocal range. I don't think we could get anyone who sang that well if we wanted to," Axel said thoughtfully. "What can I say? The boy had a gift." Sora didn't know if he might have said something, because right as Axel finished his sentence, his cell phone rang. The redhead dug the phone out of his pocket, and flipped it open with a snap of his wrist.

"Hey, what's up?" A smile spread over his face and Sora knew instantly that it was Roxas on the phone. No one else could make Axel smile like that. He politely ignored the conversation going on in front of him, returning his gaze to the swimming pool. Maybe he would go in there tomorrow. He'd basically avoided it over the last year because it had really been Riku's pool. That had been his condition on their house. It had to have a pool and that was all he cared about.

"Love you, too." Axel closed his phone, toying with it in his hands. "That was Roxas. He says to get ready to go because he's decided on a whim that he's taking us out to eat." Sora shrugged, turning back toward the stairs. He was almost halfway up when he stopped.

"Axel!" he called.

"What's up?" the redhead called back.

"Thanks…for talking to me."
There was a moment of silence and then Axel's reply. "No problem. Any time."

Sora made his way upstairs, preparing for the worst. It was hell every time he went in public, considering that the media was under the impression that Sora was a celebrity. No, he was the widow of a celebrity, which actually made it so much worse. He couldn't go out without being hounded by at least one person with a camera. It was definitely going to be a long day if Roxas was determined to get him out of the house. He headed toward the bathroom to prepare for daylong torture.

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A/N: Yeah…so that whole conversation with Axel? You know the one that was like…five pages long and made up the entire chapter? I totally didn't plan that at all, it sort of just happened. Sora and Axel were fighting me for it so I had to let it happen, otherwise everything would have been forced and gross. Okalie Dokalie, peoples. We're rooting for ten reviews before we update again!