QVR: Okay, now Roxas is an official member of the Phantomhive family.

A/N: Anon replies! Thanks so much for reviewing! I love you and all my reviewers! Hence the update on this day.

mockery: I hope the wait was worth it from all the other nonsense i was going through. I'm happy you think I got my characterization right, it's something that's very important to me.

duel wilder 15: Both series are rather angsty and i kinda wanna just joke around before the serious things come (if they ever were to - I am being rather random with this fic).

I beat 3D a week ago… OH MY GOD 3D MESSED UP MY CHARACTERIZATION FOR THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH WTF.

…Whatever.

So it being AkuRoku Day and stuff… Update! Think of this as a bonus thing to celebrate this day since I dropped one of my planned AkuRoku fics, this being the last one of this year instead. What an improvement from last year. It's not a lot (started at 9:15 PM), but I suppose it'll count as a continuation to the story - even if it's rather depressing. My other AkuRoku fics were pretty fluffy, so this'll balance it out.

With about four minutes left as I type this... Happy AkuRoku Day everybody!

Chapter Nine: Dusk in Twilight Town

Roxas couldn't sleep. He felt uncomfortably warm, even with that giant chunk of ice he had cast with his Blizzaga spell he had cast just thirty minutes ago. He twisted and turned in his bed, staring at the clock and watched it chime five times without him getting a wink of sleep in between the hours of eleven and now five. He watched the sun start to rise, making the sky a mix of pink, purple, and light blue.

He could feel it. Today was going to be an awful day.

Ciel tapped the side of his plate with his fork as he watched his newest servant/brother from the corner of his visible eye. Roxas sighed, mixing around the corn around his plate, but not bringing it to his lips. He just poked and poked at it, staring at the yellow bits as if it were the answer and problem to everything.

The Earl couldn't take it any more. He stood up from his seat, slamming his hands on the rosewood table. "Roxas, what is the matter? Your depression is starting to get to me and I'm not liking it one bit."

Roxas blinked, and slowly stood up straight, not expecting for the earl to exclaim such a thing. "I'm…I'm sorry?"

This did not appease the lord. "You will be if you do not tell me what is the matter."

The blond sighed. "It's really nothing, Ciel. Just…" He got up from the table, pushing his uneaten plate of food aside. "I have a lot on my mind. Sorry, Sebastian, but I don't believe I am well enough for any lessons today and will spend the day in my room. No need to send me anything. If you would excuse me." He left without another word.

Ciel sat back in his seat - still hungry but no longer holding an appetite. "What on earth is his problem?" he fumed.

"I think the proper terminology, my lord, would be what isn't on earth is his problem," Sebastian corrected.

The Earl turned to his butler, frowning. "Explain."

"My lord, Roxas hasn't been here for very long. Perhaps he is homesick."

"Home…sick…" Ciel got up, pushing away his own plate of unfinished food. "I suppose I'll just give him his space for today. You as well. I'll go ahead and finish my work then." Ciel left to go back to his study. There wasn't anything the earl could do but wait this out.

Which irked him more than anything.

Roxas sighed as he left the dining room, reaching into his pocket to remove a singular keychain of a flame red chakram he made of various synthesizing resources he had found on his journey and was left over from before he could hand it to the moogle. He closed his eyes and squeezed it tightly, bringing it close to his chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, tears threatening and falling down his cheeks. "I'm so very sorry…Axel."

Axel sneezed, moving his hand to grab a tissue. But before he could do so, someone handed him the box. He looked up to find familiar blue eyes but on the wrong face. "Oh, thanks, Xion." He took one and blew into it, incinerating it when he was done.

"It's…not problem at all," Xion breathed, smiling warmly. "Are you sick?"

She looked pale, but Axel didn't care. He shook his head coldly, not looking at her. "No, someone must be talking about me."

It came out barely audible, but the name still stabbed Axel in the chest. "Roxas?"

Axel froze. "Don't even say stuff like that, it's not funny."

Xion grabbed onto his cloak. "Axel, wait, listen -"

"I've already heard it from Xigbar," the redhead interrupted, holding out his hand to cut her off. "I've seen the grave. I…I was the one who burned him. I would know if Roxas was still alive."

"Axel -"

"Don't want to hear it." He got up from the white bench. "In fact, I don't want to even see you. I only hung out with you because Roxas was so insistent on it. But since he's gone, I no longer have to pretend. If you know what's good for you, you better stay away from me." And he left.

Xion raised her hand to try and stop him, but he was too far and it hurt to even move her arm. She pulled it back to her person. "…You don't mean that," she whispered. "It just hurts because Roxas is gone." She gasped as she held her chest, the pain unbearable. Xion bit her lip as she hardened her eyes on the floor. "Why Roxas? Why would you do this?"

Roxas just lay in his room, not having the strength to do anything today. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't bored, he was just…tired. Tired enough to not do anything but not tired enough to sleep. Which was odd, since he didn't get any sleep last night.

But he just couldn't find the strength to do anything, not even summon a new block of ice to keep in cool in his room.

Honestly, he found himself rather liking the warmth, and yet at the same time he hated it.

It was a horrid reminder of what he had done, of what he had given up.

"Roxas, let's go eat ice-cream together. To celebrate."

He found himself getting up from his bed and pulling the curtains to cover his room in darkness, going to his laundry basket - luckily Mei-Rin hadn't come to pick up his laundry yet - and grabbed the black pajamas he was sure was made from the same material as his Organization cloak. He placed them on before making sure that his door was locked as he stabbed his fingers into his hand, and tried his hardest to do something.

He held out his hand and tried his best to summon a portal.

To his surprise, it actually worked.

Stifling a laugh, he walked through - not even bothering to take any necessary precautions before hand.

When Roxas managed to get out of the Corridor of Darkness, he gave a mass sigh of relief when he recognized his surroundings, the soothing colors of the eternal orange-red sky as he found himself in an alley-way next to a fence.

He let out the laughter he held back in the Phantomhive Manor. "I…I made it…"

He was in Twilight Town.

Axel didn't know why he was here, why he was gazing out into the sunset on the top of the Clock Tower in Twilight Town. Why he wanted to torture himself as he left his untouched ice cream melt in between his gloved hands and fall to the ground several stories below him. He didn't even care if it hit anyone, too emotionless to care.

Heh, what was he kidding? Nobodies didn't even had hearts anyway.

He looked to the side of him, where he should've seen a familiar blond eating away at his ice cream, and the two - maybe three if Xion was around - would talk about their day and mindless chatter.

But it wasn't mindless chatter. At least, not Roxas'.

Roxas' topics would consist of the amazing wonders he had seen on his missions, of the new worlds that were no longer new to Axel but the redhead still found himself rather surprised from what Roxas had seen that particular day.

Axel bit his lip, quickly raising his hand to use the ice cream as a distraction, but found himself biting on the popsicle stick, it having completely melted without him having a taste.

He tossed the stick on the side, before just sighing and summoning a portal to go back to the Castle. It was starting to get pretty late anyway.

"It…just isn't the same without him."

Roxas made his way to the Central Station, about the climb the steps to get to the Clock Tower with his bag of sea-salt ice cream he managed to get in Market Street. Thank Kingdom Hearts that he left his munny pouch in his pocket, or else he would have been in deep trouble. He only had enough for one, Ciel having taken some for study ("What on earth? Diamond-shaped gold?"), but one was better than nothing.

When he climbed the steps up to the Station, he felt something drop in his hair, but didn't bother to check, not caring as he rushed to climb to the top of the Tower.

When he got there, he took his usual spot, where Axel would have sat on his right and occasionally Xion on his left, where they would talk about their day. He sat down, taking the ice pop from the bag and unwrapping it before popping it in his mouth, savoring the flavor. How he missed it so.

But…it was more salty than sweet today. Strange.

Roxas lifted his hands to his eyes to find tears streaming down his cheeks, some falling down into his ice cream but most falling down to the ground. He took out the barely eaten ice cream out of his mouth and stared at it for a few moments, nothing particularly filling his mind.

He dropped the uneaten treat down to his side, next to a slightly damp popsicle stick. Getting up, he stabbed his hand with his fingernails once more and tried his hardest to summon a portal.

At first, it didn't work, and Roxas was just about to go into a panic attack before the swirls came to life. He looked back to the sunset one last time.

"It…it just isn't the same without him."

"Ah, Lord Roxas. What a surprise. You haven't let your room all day. Are you well enough for dinner?"

"Sebastian." Roxas gave a weak smile. "Y-yeah, I think I'll be fine. What's for dinner?"

"Something that was brought from India, just thought it would be interesting. How spicy do you like your food?"

"Spi…cy?" Axel…liked spicy food. Roxas didn't.

"I plan to make a curry dish. I know that the young master dislikes spicy food, but I have yet to figure out your palliate."

"Um…" Roxas smiled, shaking his head before looking up to the butler. "Yeah, I love spicy food. Can't wait to try it."

"Glad to see you're out of your funk, Roxas," Ciel called from the door of his study. "Sebastian, is dinner ready?"

"By the time you get to the dining hall, it will be. If you would excuse me." Sebastian disappeared. Ciel started his walk to the dining hall, Roxas falling into sync behind him but shortly catching up to be beside him.

As they reached the door of the dining hall, Ciel paused. "Roxas, are you okay now?" he asked, showing off less concern than he really felt.

Roxas shook his head. "No." He smiled at the earl. "But I will be."

Xion found herself chucking madly as she got her newest assignment from Saïx, taking the envelope and making sure she had all her belongings as she readied herself for her latest mission.

Direct orders from the Superior himself: Make sure that Roxas was still alive and if he was, to bring him back alive. By any means necessary.

She coughed, a black splatter on her glove.

Before it was too late.

A/N: I have a general idea of where this is going…Kingdom Hearts wise. But really it's the Kuroshitsuji aspect of it so… lol I quoted pokemon. Thanks for reading and happy AkuRoku Day everybody