Waiting, Axel thought, is there any worse feeling?
Axel and Kairi had been sitting on the palm tree, staring at the ocean, and talking for about half an hour before he decided to explore the island a bit more.
"I'm gonna go for a walk," he said. He stood up from his seat on the tree and started to make his way across the plank bridge.
"Okay," Kairi responded with faint interest, and didn't bother to look at Axel as he walked away.
When he had reached the beach, he spotted Namine lying on the sand. She was just lying there, hands laced behind her head, not doing much more than Kairi was. Apparently she was in deep thought.
He didn't really want to be seen by her at the moment, though he figured she wouldn't notice anyway, so he decided to check out what was around that big tree house that he always noticed when he came to visit.
Axel chuckled as he reminded himself of a traveling businessman. He came to a beautiful locale like this only to get his job done, never taking any time to just enjoy the scenery.
He walked a little closer up to the enormous tree, and to his surprise, noticed what looked like a secret passageway at the base of it. It wasn't a passageway, really, more like a tunnel. Whatever it was, it captured Axel's curiosity enough for him to crawl inside the hole and discover what was inside.
At first, it was so dark that Axel couldn't see a thing. He had to feel the sides of the walls to navigate through. After about a minute of inching his way around, he came to an area inside the cave that was lighter, and similar to an actual-sized room.
This place was enchanting. He could hear the distant echo of the waterfall along with the occasional drop of moisture from the ceiling of the cave. There were sketches on the wall of tiny people. After a few moments of deliberation, Axel could make out who the people on the wall were supposed to represent. He saw countless pictures of Sora and Kairi scattered throughout the walls of the cave.
No Riku? Axel thought. Riku was the other boy that had lived on this tiny island for years, so why was he not depicted on these walls? To his understanding, there were a few others as well.
Axel wandered around the tiny room a bit longer, and noticed a huge looming door among the drawings. It was a normal door, except that it had no way of using it, such as a knob.
He walked up to the door and put his ear up against it like he was cracking a safe. Then he drew his face away and gave it a few knocks. No response.
Oh well, Axel thought, and then discovered one particular drawing that was different from all the others. This one was closer to the ground, so Axel kneeled onto his knees to get a better look.
The picture was made up of what looked like Sora and Kairi standing opposite each other. What was slightly bizarre was two shooting stars that were between them; one was shooting in Kairi's direction, and the other was shooting in Sora's. Each person and star looked as if they had been drawn by two different people for some reason.
After some thought, Axel remember the odd fruits that he had seen earlier that were growing from the palm tree he and Kairi were sitting at. They were star-shaped, just like the stars in the drawing.
Oh, Axel realized, I get it. This must be some sort of secret place that only Sora and Kairi must have visited. That's why no one else is drawn on the walls…
Axel thought about the countless hours that those two must have spent in this little cave, each of them wanting each other so badly, yet no one saying what they truly felt.
He sighed, and began his exit from the secret place, feeling the walls to help him find his way out.
Once he saw the light from outside, he thought he saw a glimpse of something dark blue and black just off the shoreline. A portal.
Have they finally returned? Axel thought with intense anticipation, Is my Roxy home and safe?
He ran to the beach with all the speed that his long, lanky legs could muster.
When he reached the center of the beach, he saw five figures step out of the portal. It was Sora, Donald, Goofy, a Riku… and Roxas.
Axel was hit with a jolt of relief so big, it almost knocked him to his knees right there on the sand, but instead he began to run with more force even than before.
"Roxas!" he screamed so loud that his voice echoed throughout the island. Each stride felt like an eternity, until he was finally there with his love, wrapping his arms so tightly around him that he worried in the back of his head whether Roxas could breathe.
"I was so… worried…" Axel said though madly flowing tears, "You could've… died…"
Then Roxas gently nudged Axel's head away, still holding his body firmly against his own. He moved his hands up to Axel's face, one hand on either side of it, cupping it with tenderness. "Let's end this nonsense," he said in barely more than a whisper, and pulled Axel's face to his in one brief motion until their lips met.
Disbelief struck Axel with ten times the intensity of the relief, and he stood there, unable to take back control of his body for about two seconds before he finally cooperated with his lips as they moved in perfect harmony with Roxas's. Then he moved his own hands up to Roxas's head, and dug his fingers into his beautiful blonde locks as they kissed.
They soon became a mess of arms, legs, black robes and red and blonde hair as they remained completely oblivious to anything in the universe that wasn't Roxas, or that wasn't Axel.
Axel could feel the heat that was emanating from the blush on Roxas's face and his own. This moment was the most precious he had ever experienced in his life, as a nobody or otherwise, and he didn't want it to end. Whoever said that nobodies don't have feelings? Fuck that. Maybe everyone else just doesn't know what it's like. What it's really like to feel this much passion. How could they ever feel the way that Axel was feeling at this moment? It was impossible. Nobody could.
As much as he valued Roxas above everything else imaginable, he eventually had to breathe. So he grudgingly parted his own lips from Roxas, and took a deep breath.
"You have no idea," Axel said exasperatingly, "how much I've wanted to do that…"
"…ever since I first laid eyes on you." Roxas finished with a chuckle. The blush on his face accentuated the blue in his eyes and the yellow in his hair.
"You look like a rainbow," Axel said with a laugh, still bursting with joy.
Roxas laughed too. "You should see yourself," Roxas replied, "You look like a chili pepper."
That made them both break into hysterics. Axel cut Roxas off mid-laugh and gave him one more tender peck on the lips.
"I think we need to check back into reality," Roxas said with a smirk.
Axel sighed. "Fine…" he moaned, and they released each other's grip just enough to allow themselves to have a look at their surroundings.
Kairi and Sora were off on the side somewhere. They were far enough away that you couldn't hear what they were saying, but you could see what they were doing, much like before at the castle. Except this time, Sora was the one that was saying something that made Kairi looked shocked. He took her hands into his, and said one last thing that made her shocked expression slowly turn into a bright, beaming smile. He then brought his face down to hers, and all of a sudden they were kissing.
"Wow," Axel muttered, "I'm glad they finally got together after all that."
"Yeah," Roxas chuckled. He looked a little embarrassed for some reason, "Actually, we sort of… made a pact."
This surprised Axel. "What kind of pact?" he asked.
"After we beat Xemnas," he began, "we made a deal between the two of us that when we got home, we would tell the people who we loved…" he smiled up at Axel, "…how we felt about them."
"I see," Axel replied with a smirk, and he stole another kiss.
"Yep," Roxas said with that cute "little kid" attitude that Axel loved about him.
They also saw Goofy and Donald standing somewhere else on the beach, just talking to each other. They looked pretty out-of-place compared to everyone else.
Then they were Riku and Namine. They were off sitting on the beach together, also in their own little separate group from the others. Both of them were staring dejectedly out into the ocean, their chins leaning against their hands, the two rejected lovers that they were. You could see their lips moving, so apparently they were talking things over with each other. They would probably have a lot to say.
Something that Riku said must have been funny, because out of nowhere, Namine smiled. That was soon followed by Riku smiling too, and Namine giving Riku a playful push as he pretended to really be knocked over by it. He straightened himself back up, and after some laughter, they settled back into their original positions, but this time with permanent grins on their faces.
"Can we leave reality again?" he said as he pulled Roxas back to his body.
"Whatever you say, Axel," he replied, and soon they were kissing again.
Loving him, Axel thought, is there any better feeling?