Author's Note: Look, another chapter! Already! Yay! This has been a rather useless author's note...

Disclaimer: ... Yeah. You know, don't you?

Drixana

"Good work," Xemnas told the group at large. They took this as their dismissal. Axel called forth a portal and stepped through it, emerging in his room. It was dark. He crossed to the wall and flicked on wall light before turning back to his bed. He flopped onto it, landing face first in his black comforter. Spiky red hair stuck out behind his head.

He was still very confused.

He thought that the others may have noticed that he was a bit off, especially-

"Hey Axel."

"Hey Roxas." His voice was muffled by his bedspread. He felt the younger Nobody sit down on the corner of his bed.

"What's up?"

For a moment, Axel didn't answer. Roxas could tell that he was thinking, though, so he wasn't concerned. Finally, VIII rolled onto his back. He ran a gloved hand through his fiery hair as he spoke. "I'm just a little lost, I guess."

Roxas didn't quite find this a satisfactory answer. Axel could see it in his expression. A small smile made the corners of his thin lips twitch upward. "It's about Drixana."

"What about her?" The blonde boy tilted his head a little, curious.

Again, Axel paused as he formulated an answer. Roxas hadn't seen him this shaken up in a while. "I'm trying to figure out how I feel about her."

"Axel," Roxas said, with the air of someone who was pointing out the obvious, "you can't feel anything about her. None of us can feel anything about anyone."

"That's the thing though," Axel said, sitting up abruptly. For the first time his green eyes met Roxas's blue ones. "It's almost like I can feel something. I don't get it."

Roxas blinked. "Oh. Um… I really don't know what to say, Axel."

Axel flopped back down onto his back and dropped an arm over his eyes. "That's alright, Roxas. I don't think there's anything anyone can say."

In the short time he had known Number XIV, he had come to like her as a friend. She was funny, smart, and fun as well as a fast learner and a decent fighter. She was a lot of the sort of things that he looked for in friends. There had been something else, too, but he had never quite been sure what it was. Never having been a big fan of not knowing what was going on, he had chosen subconsciously to ignore the fact and pushed it to the back of his mind. Until the other night. Maybe it had been the sudden undeniable reminder that she was in fact female. That had forced his brain make a sudden realization that he wasn't quite ready for. It was something he couldn't really handle without a heart, so he had immediately shut it down.

But it was still bothering him.

Why was it still affecting him when he didn't have a heart? Ah, well. He wasn't one who dealt with why, just what. He had a minor grasp on what was going on, now what was he going to do to deal with it? He had no idea. Nothing at all. He didn't like that, he was used to having a plan of action, something he could work at to accomplish his goals. Throwing oneself into the deep end with no real idea of where you're going or how to get there was a bad idea regardless. Without a heart to guide you…

A small, sardonic smile touched his mouth. "Well, it's not like I've got anything to lose. No heart to break, right?"

"Is that what you think this is about, Axel?" Roxas asked.

"Well," the Flurry replied, "it's my best guess so far."

Roxas, who had been staring at the opposite wall, glanced down again at his friend. He usually looked so much tougher than this. It was rather odd to see him with so much of his usual fire seeming to merely smolder. Instead of his usual smirk there was that sort of ironic self-mocking sneer. "So what are you gonna do?"

Axel laughed. "I have absolutely no idea."

"I'm s- sorry," Roxas yawned.

Axel shifted his arm so as to look at his young friend. There was a touch of the usual mischievous sparkle in his green eyes. "No you're not. You can't be, remember? Go to sleep, Roxas. You need it."

He didn't need telling twice. "Alright then, Axel. 'Night."

Before the Flurry could reply, XIII had stepped through a portal into his own room. Axel sighed. It took rather more effort than usual to get up, cross the room and turn out the lights. For some reason, he felt exceptionally tired. Even so, when he flopped onto his back after removing his cloak, gloves and boots, sleep would not come.