"Let's meet again in the next life."
"Yeah, I'll be waiting."
Those few words haunted Roxas' memories and dreams. They were always shown at the end of his dreams, just before the red head, whose name he remembered as Axel, disappeared into the darkness. Roxas had been having these dreams for as long as he could remember, and his twin, Sora, just thought he was crazy for dreaming the same dream over and over again for almost 13 years.
It wasn't just that one scene though. It was like he was watching himself live an entirely different life; one that he didn't remember but seemed completely familiar with. When he'd first told Sora, Sora had suggested telling their parents about his dreams, but they had just laughed it off by saying he had an overactive imagination and if they weren't causing him nightmares then there was nothing they were going to do about them.
Both twins thought this fair enough and Roxas lived his life normally, until their parents moved because their mother had gotten a new job a few states over; so they'd left Destiny Islands and moved to Twilight Town, where Roxas began to get serious déjà vu about the mansion, that the local people claimed was haunted, the entire towns set up, and when he met Hayner, Pence and Olette he almost fell down the stairs. Sora made friends just as quickly as he did with those in Destiny Islands while Roxas was more of a quiet outsider, willing to participate in everything they did.
It wasn't until about three weeks into the term at their new school that Roxas saw the red head from his dreams. Said red head was walking cheerily out of the library rather quickly and Roxas grabbed Sora's arm, yanked him to a stop and said "that's him," only seconds before the fire alarm went off.
They all vacated to the oval and the twins met up with Hayner, Pence and Olette. Roxas asked them about the red head when he spotted the unmistakable bright crimson hair within the crowds. "Oh, you mean Axel? He's the school trouble maker," Hayner informed haughtily. "It wouldn't surprise me if he was the one that set the fire alarm off."
"Hayner," Olette chastised and Pence shook his head with a sigh.
"You know he's right 'lette. It probably was Axel."
Tuning out his friends friendly banter about the red headed trouble maker from his dreams, Roxas quietly considered the notion of going up and saying hi.
"Go on," Sora urged as he saw the conflict on his brothers face. "I'll even walk up with you."
"It's okay," Roxas murmured back and nodded with a smile. "I'll see you later."
Taking a deep breath, he began walking towards the group of people surrounding the red head and paused just as said red head was approached by a teacher. Waiting off to the side, he bit his lip and glanced around, noticing the red head roll his eyes, and watched those same bright green eyes he'd admired in his dreams, land on him and widen in surprise and shock.
"Rox…as?" the red head asked hesitantly as he ignored the teachers prattling and turned to fully face the blond.
"Axel…" Roxas murmured and felt his expression soften into a smile, relief filling him at the fact that his dream person seemed to remember him.
A few steps later and both he and Axel were in each other's arms. "You remember?" Axel asked quietly in his ear.
"I do," Roxas whispered back and stepped back with a smile. "It's been a while. I've been waiting for you."
Axel laughed and ruffled his hair affectionately. "You have no idea how much I've missed you kiddo."
"I think I can guess," Roxas responded with a laugh. "You're still a pyromaniac I'm guessing."
"To the very core," the red head answered cheekily and winked. "Got it memorised?"
Roxas grinned and shifted his hold on his books. "You have no idea."
"What do you say we get out of here for the day and catch up? You can tell me where you've been hiding for the past 16 years. I'm guessing you're 16 now?"
"Yeah," he answered and turned to wave to his smiling twin as they both walked past the flabbergasted teacher, Axel's laughing, pointing and gaping friends and headed into town, where they both bought a sea-salt ice-cream and sat up on the clock tower.
As the day slowly turned to twilight, the two once again close friends traded numbers and addresses and separated. The next day Axel came over for dinner at Roxas' place and his parents gaped at the likeness between the person their youngest son had drawn almost three years ago, and the person before them.
Six months later, you couldn't separate Roxas and Axel from each other, and every day they ate sea-salt ice-cream up on the clock tower, just for old times' sake.
~The End~