So I rushed home from work today to post this for you guys!! Sorry it took a little longer than last time to post this. I had writer's block for a little while.... But I got over it!! So here's Chapter 5!! It's a little shorter than a few of the previous ones, but I really like it. It's a different kind of chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it!

And again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to ALL my reviewers. I really do appreciate every little word you write in appreciation of this story. You guys are AMAZING. And soooo good to me. :D Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

As usual, I can't claim KH or GI as my own. Too bad, huh?

Heeeeeere's....Chapter 5!

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Life, Interrupted – Chapter 5

For an entire week, Axel was not seen anywhere in the ward. The morning after the incident with Riku, Roxas practically scrambled out of bed, and sprinted out the door towards the cafeteria half-dressed and still pulling on his shirt. He raced with a pounding heart to see Axel. He desperately wanted to talk to him, to thank him, to just see him and finally have Axel see him, too. But Axel wasn't there. Nor was he anywhere the rest of the day. Or the day after, or the day after…

If having Axel ignore him had made Roxas nauseous, having Axel completely missing was making him sick to his stomach. At first, he questioned his attachment to someone he didn't exactly know very well. But then he realized that Axel had been the only person in his life to ever defend him, fight for him…protect him. Not even his parents had given that big of a damn about him. After all, they'd rather stick him in a nuthouse than deal with him.

And now, not a single person could provide an answer for him about where Axel was. All the nurses told him to stop asking questions about other patients and to focus on his own recovery. Even Aerith had replied in somewhat the same way, though she couldn't hide the faltering in her voice, nor the anxiety in her eyes.

"But I thought you took him with you after what happened!" Roxas protested a little too loudly, but lowered his voice when he realized how angry he sounded. "Shouldn't you know where he is then?"

Aerith let out a quivering exhale. "Roxas, I apologize, but this is out my hands right now. I keep trying, but…" She stopped herself here, her furrowed brow evidence she was reprimanding herself for saying too much. Instead of attempting to finish her sentence, she quickly walked away from Roxas without saying another word.

Demyx wasn't much help either, although at one point, Roxas was sure he was about to get his answer.

"This has happened before, this is not good…" Demyx murmured more to himself than anyone else when Roxas tried to bring up the subject during their nightly bedtime conversations.

Roxas almost fell out of his bed as he lifted himself off his pillow and leaned as far as he could towards his roommate. "What do you mean not good? What's happened before??"

"Umm…nothing. I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. It's not my place to make up things that aren't true. That's what got me into the loony bin to begin with," Demyx responded nervously, his attempt at a joke failing, as Roxas was simply becoming more irritated.

"Demyx, if you know something, tell me now," Roxas hissed harshly, but then his voice broke into a pathetic beg. "Please…"

"I'm sorry, Roxas, but we should really go to sleep before we get in trouble," Demyx answered after a few moments.

"Demyx!" Roxas exclaim in a sharp whisper, but his roommate wouldn't reply and promptly began to snore.

Roxas rolled on his back, letting out an aggravated groan as tears of frustration and annoyance pooled in his eyes. 'Damn it! Where the fuck are you, Axel?!' Roxas screamed in his mind. He turned on his side and punched into his pillow, wishing desperately his fist were connecting with Axel's chest. But deep down, he knew that if Axel were in fact next to him, the last thing he'd want to do is punch him.

--

One night, a week after Axel's disappearance from the ward, Roxas was laying awake in bed as usual, his mind too busy and overflowing to clear itself long enough for him to fall asleep. All he could do every night was replay the incident with Riku and see Axel's untamed eyes, filled with rage and passion. And it was Roxas who had elicited these emotions in the redhead. Knowing this only made the desperation in Roxas's heart more intense.

As he lay with his weary, sore eyes fixed on the flecked plaster ceiling, Roxas could suddenly hear two voices arguing heatedly in the hallway. One was masculine while the other was distinctly feminine. Springing from his bed, he crept lightly towards the door, managing to open it just a crack without making a single sound.

Aerith and Vexen were standing only a few feet down from his bedroom speaking in low, but abrasive tones.

"You have to stop this, sir! It's really taking a toll on his body!" Aerith protested, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides.

"He is under my care. I am his doctor. I decide what kind of treatment he receives, not you!" Vexen's tone was like blades of ice, making Aerith cringe, but not surrender.

"But my counseling was starting to work on him, until you decided you couldn't have him simply talked to. Do you really want to torture him with shock therapy all week? He's never had so much in such a short amount of time! And you raised the voltage even higher. One day his body won't be able to take it anymore and he'll—" Aerith choked on her words here and she was unable to continue as tears rose to her eyes.

"I've been doing this to hopefully knock some sense and sanity into the boy," Vexen stated rather calmly, ignoring the tears of the woman in front of him. "I will not let him form another unhealthy attachment. We don't want another Sora situation on our hands. The last thing we want is another suicide because of Axel's manipulating and conniving behavior."

A small sound of astonishment and disbelief escaped Aerith. "Sir, are you blaming Axel for Sora's suicide?!"

"You, Ms. Gainsborough, need to learn to keep the amount of care you give and have for the patients strictly professional," Vexen reprimanded her severely, his tone growing increasingly more irate. "They are, after all, patients; not friends, not family…patients. And we are here to help them recover by any means necessary."

Aerith stared at Dr. Vexen for a few moments with furious tears in her eyes, her nails digging deeper into her palms. Then she turned on her heel and stalked away.

Roxas closed his bedroom door and crawled back into bed. The anxiety in the pit of his stomach rose into a golf ball-sized lump in his throat. He swallowed loudly, almost choking in the process, but could not draw in anything but a strangled, painful breath. Vexen was slowly killing Axel. One day the flames in Axel's eyes would be extinguished, and there would be no one with life left in the ward.

That night, Roxas did not sleep.

--

The following evening, Roxas was sitting outside on a bench in the courtyard. It was something he'd been doing during most of his spare time, opting not to spend any time in the recreation room with the others. He honestly resented them all for not providing any answers for him, and some he knew were lying to him.

But now he had his answer, and it made everything in the ward seem tainted, deceitful, a lie. Roxas breathed in. Winter was already overtaking fall. He could feel it in the minty coolness that coated his aching throat as he took in the air. The biting breeze swirled the fallen leaves around his feet. Looking across the courtyard, he caught the gaze of Yuffie, who was also sitting at a bench, assigned to supervise him while he was outside the ward. She smiled and waved, but he could barely return it. He shifted his eyes down at the ground again and began toying with a stray leaf with his toe. Surprisingly, it was still green, the only green leaf amongst all that was dead and decaying. It was bright, vivid…enticing.

"Roxy…" a tired voice spoke from behind him. Though it was weak, the voice was tinged with a familiar playfulness. It made Roxas's heart jump to his throat.

He whirled around to see Axel standing a couple of feet behind the bench, clad only in his usual tank and jeans, his frail frame shivering against the breeze.

"Axel!" Roxas exclaimed, unable to keep the happiness and excitement from filling his voice as Axel slowly walked over to gingerly seat himself next to the younger boy.

"How are ya, kid?" Axel asked, a feeble smile making its way onto his lips. Roxas was taken aback upon really looking at Axel. His body, though still hard and lean, seemed delicate and brittle, almost undernourished. Thin shoulders hunched slightly over a hollow chest that held bony ribs, which were jutting out a little. As Roxas's gaze traveled to Axel's face, his eyes met emerald green orbs. There was definitely a fire to them, but the flames were struggling. Deep shadows cradled them. His eyelids seemed heavy, for they quite often drooped halfway as he fought to draw labored breaths.

"I'm…I'm fine," Roxas replied through his astonishment. "But how are you?! Where have you been? You've been gone all week!"

Axel turned his head to look straight ahead. He let his eyes close and a wry chuckle escaped him after a moment. "I was being punished…"

"What?! What did they do to you?" Roxas already knew the answer, but he wanted Axel to say it out loud.

"You don't wanna know, Roxy," Axel replied, his eyes still closed.

"Yes I do! I mean, you look like—"

"—like shit?" Axel cut him off, finally opening his eyes and turning to Roxas with a raised eyebrow. "Believe me, I know."

Roxas was caught off guard for a second, but relaxed when a smirk began tugging at Axel's lips. "I was gonna say you look like you've been to hell and back…"

"Well, this is true, too. I—" Axel began, but his words were interrupted as he suddenly hissed and gripped the sides of his head. He bent down, as a loud moan of pain seemed to tear out from inside him.

Yuffie was crossing the courtyard and crouching next to Axel in seconds. "Axel, honey, look at me. Are you okay?"

Axel's body was rigid with pain and he was still moaning, seemingly unaware of Yuffie's presence.

Roxas sat paralyzed, unable to do anything, feeling completely helpless as he watched the older boy suffer next to him. One of Axel's hands left his temples and gripped the edge of the bench just next to Roxas's leg. Roxas wasn't quite sure how he knew to do so, but he put his own hand over Axel's, silently messaging it with his thumb.

After a few seconds, Axel's pain seemed to subside. His other hand let go of his head and he looked up at Yuffie, who grabbed a hold of his wrist immediately and began taking his pulse.

"I'm fine, Yuffie, really, it was just a bad headache," Axel stated weakly. "It passed."

"You're not fine. You better come with me to be completely checked out," Yuffie countered sternly, pulling at his arm to get him to stand up.

Axel retracted his limb easily. "Alright, can I please just have a moment with Roxy first?"

"Fine," Yuffie huffed, walking away, but only a couple of yards.

Roxas realized his hand was still sheltering Axel's and quickly withdrew it, blushing.

Axel smiled. "Alright, kid, listen. Tongue your meds tonight. Our lovely jailor over there," he motioned to Yuffie with a tilt of his head, "takes a little coffee break just after 1 a.m. every night. That's when you'll know to make a break for it. I want you to meet me in the exercise room. The door will be unlocked."

"Okay, I'll be there," Roxas responded, exhilaration rushing through his blood.

As Axel stood to follow Yuffie, Roxas caught his wrist, stopping him. "Why?"

"I wanna know you, Roxy." Axel winked and turned to disappear into the building after Yuffie.

Roxas sat for a while, unmoving. Then he looked up to the slowly disappearing sun on the horizon and smiled.

--

Butterflies were doing circus acrobatics in Roxas's stomach as he crept down the dark hallway, almost stumbling on his own feet. He constantly kept his back against the wall, feeling like some sort of spy as he peered around corners ever so carefully before making mad dashes to the exercise room.

By the time he reached the door of the designated meeting spot, he felt lightheaded and realized he'd been holding his breath. Exhaling, he twisted the knob and slipped into the room.

Axel was leaning against the opposite wall, twirling a set of keys around his index finger. He greeted Roxas was a devilish grin. "What took ya so long, squirt?"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't often sneak around in the dark like some kind of wanted fugitive, thank you," Roxas countered sarcastically, resting his fists on his hips.

This made Axel burst into restrained laughter. "You know, I told you I liked you before, and I really meant it."

Roxas couldn't help but blush at this comment.

Axel relaxed and then held a tempting hand out to Roxas, his long fingers beckoning him ever so enticingly. He cocked his head to one side and produced a devastatingly gorgeous crooked grin. "Take my hand?"

Roxas complied and Axel led him out of the room and down a few hallways. Every once in a while, Axel would give Roxas's hand a quick squeeze then glance back at him as if paranoid the younger boy would disappear, even if he held his hand in his own. After turning quite a few corners and descending a couple of flights of stairs, Axel final pushed open a door and they both stepped out into the cool night air.

"You seem to like being outside, so I figured that's where we'd go tonight," Axel explained, smiling back at Roxas.

Roxas returned the gesture and then looked down, flushed again. He smiled to himself this time as Axel led him through the side of the courtyard and then into a thicket of bare trees. He couldn't help but feel a flutter in his stomach. Axel had really put thought into this, and considered Roxas in the process.

After a few minutes, they reached a steep hill and after ascending it together, Axel pointed down behind them. "Look," he directed. "It overlooks the entire forest and the hospital."

Looking around him at the breathtaking view, Roxas stood in awe. "It's beautiful…"

"It's my favorite spot. I come here late at night all the time. Even psychos need their time to think. You know, plotting their next crazy move," Axel explained teasingly, rolling his eyes then winking at Roxas. He let go of Roxas's hand as the younger boy took a seat at the very top of the curve.

There was a lone section of an old wooden fence behind them. Axel darted towards it, quickly climbed on top of it, and began balancing his way across it. As he stepped expertly, he grinned to himself, proud of his talent.

Roxas watched with wide blue eyes. If Axel fell, he'd tumble down to the bottom of the hill, breaking countless bones in the process.

"Do you have a death wish or something?" Roxas blurted out, gaping at him.

"Well, I am insane, you know," Axel replied, reaching the end of the fence and leaping off to land lightly like a cat on both his feet. "As for a death wish…we all have them. It's the sad truth, Roxy."

The taller boy walked over and plopped himself down next to the blonde. Roxas could see there was definitely more life in Axel than there had been earlier in the day, and he mentioned this to him.

"They gave me uppers," Axel joked, but his half-hearted laugh never reached his eyes.

"Axel, what happened to you?" Roxas asked, almost afraid to hear the answer aloud, though he already knew it. "What did they do to you?"

Axel gazed down at the ground under him. He picked a blade of dry, dying grass and began tearing it to bits as he spoke. "They did to me what they've been doing to me for eight years. Electroconvulsive therapy."

"You mean, shocks, right?" Roxas asked quietly. "Does it hurt? What do they do?"

"Well," Axel began, taking a deep breath. "They attach wires to your temples and induce a seizure by sending electric currents into your brain. They paralyze your muscles beforehand so you don't jerk around or bite your tongue or whatever, but they can tell you're having a seizure because your fists clench and your chest heaves. They say it's not supposed to hurt, but its scary, and the side effects are horrible."

Roxas was watching Axel with a strained expression. His stomach turned as he pictured Axel going through what he had just explained. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for the older boy. "What happens?"

"Well, you saw, you get these unbearable headaches. Not to mention the nausea, temporary memory loss, muscle stiffness and soreness, and sometimes, I check out completely afterward and almost go catatonic. That happens when they use a high voltage. They've been doing that a lot to me lately. They just keep increasing it."

Axel turned to stare at Roxas full on. Roxas didn't realize this, but tears had risen in Axel's eyes while he was talking. Now watery green was gazing into doe-eyed blue. "I can't take it anymore, Roxy. They're going to kill me one day."

Before Roxas could react, Axel had swallowed back his tears and evened his tone. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this," Axel stated. "You probably think I really belong in the funny farm now."

"No, actually, I don't," Roxas responded. "But…why are you telling me?"

Axel lay back and stared up at the dark starry night sky, the dry grass crunching softly under him. Roxas followed suit.

"You look like him," Axel whispered, his eyes still fixed on the shimmering stars above.

"Who?"

"…Sora."

Roxas swallowed hard. "Was Sora your…"

"…boyfriend? Not exactly. I can't explain what our relationship was like. We had a strange love for each other. He was completely unlike me, but I loved him. I was hoping I could help him by running, even if he didn't. I thought he'd eventually follow me, but…" Axel choked on his words here and turned his face away.

"So you didn't tell me because you like me?" Roxas asked, attempting to change the subject to make Axel a little more comfortable, and also to get him to turn towards him.

It worked. Axel's gaze snapped to Roxas. "I told you I wanted to know you," he stated firmly, twisting his body to lie on his side, facing Roxas. "I also want you to know me…and all the shit that comes with it."

"Then why did you ignore me for an entire week?" Roxas questioned bluntly. He couldn't help it. This was a question he had to have answered and had wanted it answered for quite some time.

Axel struggled to begin. "I…I wanted…to protect you from me. I made a mistake with Sora. I let him get too close and he couldn't handle it when I left. I was scared we had gotten too close that night I slept next to you. So I tried to push you away for your own good. But I was stupid for doing that. If I hadn't pushed you away, I could have been there earlier to stop that fucker Riku. Or prevented it all together." His jaw clenched as he said Riku's name.

Roxas contemplated this for a long moment. He never expected this to be the reasoning behind Axel's behavior. He'd been harboring an anger that suddenly dissipated upon hearing what Axel had to say. It almost made sense. Almost.

"Why did you protect me from Riku?" he wondered allowed.

"Because…I feel myself…strangely drawn to you." Axel face was now only inches from the blonde. Roxas could feel Axel's hot and heavy breath against his face.

"I…feel it too," Roxas admitted, feeling his own breath grow heavy as well and his heart began to race.

"Maybe…we knew each other in a past life…"

The distance between them was closing.

"Maybe we did. And maybe we were…best friends. Or maybe we were…"

And there, under the protective gaze of the twinkling stars in the velvet night sky, Axel and Roxas found each other's lips. It felt like the first kiss between them, though they'd shared one before. Axel supported Roxas as much as Roxas knew he was supporting him. Roxas's lips tingled and burned marvelously. It was like he was kissing fire.

And he loved it.

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So what do we all think? This chapter had more sweetness in my opinion. I really wanted to further Axel and Roxas's relationship, but not push it too far.

I hope you guys liked it. Tell me in a REVIEW please!!! Chapter 6 will have more humor in it so get ready. :D

Until then...LOVE YOU ALL!

xoxo

P.S. - As always, I must thank my lovely beta Jess who keeps me going late at night when the going get tough. Love you girlie!!