Kairi jogs down path from the foyer and past the – now completed – reconstruction sight. She huffs, mentally cursing Sora in her head for being such a great runner.
She'd have to urge him to join the track team if they ever actually settled down to have a normal life.
Kairi almost runs past Sora – she'd barely seen him out of the corner of her eye – and quickly skids to a stop. A few citizens of Radiant Garden cast her weird looks but she ignores them as she backtracks and runs into the alley she'd seen Sora in.
"Sora, what are you doing? Why do you keep running off?"
Sora turns around and gives her a look, "I didn't run off."
"You did!" She argues, "And Riku will back me up on this."
Sora mutters something under his breath and someone laughs behind Sora. Kairi pauses her rant to look around Sora and gasps.
"Hello, Kairi." Roxas waves at her with a small, almost invisible, smile.
Sora realizes her shock so he stands to the side and waves his arms as if presenting a prize, "Ta-da!"
Kairi stares in shock for a bit before sputtering, "But, HOW?!"
"Jeez, it's good to see you, too." The blond smirks.
Kairi huffs out a puff of air – it's not a sigh, it's not – before smiling and giving him a hug.
"It's really good to see you." She whispers, not letting go.
"What are you…"
"It's called a hug. You know what a hug is." Sora teases, "She's not letting go until you hug back."
She gets a half-assed hug in return but she doesn't care, it's a start.
"Oh!" Kairi realizes with a start, turning to Sora, "He doesn't know. You lost contact with him before it happened!"
The other two share a confused look before it clicks in Sora's mind, "Oh!"
Sora grins like a dork and grabs the blond's hand, tugging him along towards the foyer outside their group's makeshift
"What are you doing?!" Roxas asks, not actually protesting.
"Taking you to our base of operations!" Kairi quickly catches up and grabs their other hand, tugging him along as well.
Roxas feels something in his chest; a resemblance to happiness. He remembers Sora feeling like this when he's with his friends.
Is that what Sora is to him? A friend?
His hands tighten around Kairi and Sora's hands. Both look back at him but don't stop walking. Kairi looks at him in confusion, but Sora just smiles and tilts his head, telling him 'I know you miss him' without ever uttering a word.
But there's something else in that look and Roxas tries to smile back at the unknown, unspoken words.
Sora leads them through Hallow Bastion with an ease that shows his time spent here and Roxas knows, with some certainty, that they're heading up to the castle.
He doesn't know what's at the castle that has those stupidly dorky smiles on their faces, but it's…infectious. He tries to control it, go back to sporting a neutral face, but it's difficult with the two in front of him laughing silently.
As they get closer to the outside of the castle, he can hear metal crashing together and the crackling of fire in short bursts.
And it's like he's taken off a blindfold and can instantly see where this could be going and he starts panicking. His chest constricts and he doesn't understand how he can be so afraid when he has no heart. If these are just memories, if this is just fake, he shouldn't feel like he's going to pass out from lack of oxygen.
And they get to the top of the stairs that lead to the foyer and, sure enough, there he is.
He's sparring – or he hopes they're sparring – with Riku and fire is flying everywhere. Riku is dancing away, always just out of reach and Roxas knows his old partner has to be getting frustrated.
Axel isn't wearing their old black coat. He's in…civilian clothing. All browns and tans and greens.
A Chakram goes flying and Riku skirts around it and goes for the obvious opening. But Roxas knows that move and he knows the Chakram is going ricochet off of a wall before it even has a chance. Riku strikes at Axel – which he blocks with his other Chakram – before throwing himself backwards and onto his knees, just barely ducking under the second Chakram.
"It got pretty intense pretty fast." Roxas hears from his left.
"I can tell." Sora chuckles, but Roxas doesn't think he found it very funny.
Roxas wants to run, with his tail tucked between his legs. He'd been…so cruel to Axel in their last meetings and he can't remember why for the life of him. Would they be able to move past this? Would they be able to be friends again?
Riku backflips away from one of Axels' attacks catches a glimpse of them. At first he doesn't pay them any mind, but he quickly does a double take and stares at Roxas like he's got four heads and a tail. He backflips away from Axel and stands, getting rid of his Keyblade.
Axel stands, too, but doesn't dismiss his weapon. Roxas thinks he's calling something out to Riku. Probably something antagonistic. But Riku just shakes his head and nods in their direction.
Roxas feels like he might puke, he's so anxious. Axel stands a bit straighter and turns to look at their observing group. He passes right over Roxas and turns back to Riku.
Roxas wishes he were closer so he could hear the smart ass thing Riku is saying but he also wishes he could be invisible and never have to deal with this. But he wants Axel back in his life – can't remember why he even cut him out – and the only way to do that is to face him.
Axel looks back with an irritated look on his face and he can hear Kairi and Sora snickering. And then Axel sees him. Actually sees him and he stops.
"We'll be over here." Sora stage whispers before tugging Kairi along with him.
Riku meanders over to his friends and that leaves Roxas with Axel and anxiety that makes him want to explode into a million pieces.
They stare and stare and apparently they stare too long because Riku coughs loudly, making both of them jump.
"Rox?"
Roxas gives a small wave, "Hey."
He's expecting yelling and rude words and maybe a bit of physical violence. What he gets is Axel rushing forward and enveloping him in a bone crushing hug. His arms are pinned between their bodies and his feet leave the ground.
"Ax, you're crushing me."
Axel pulls away, "It's L- you know what, I don't care right now." He laughs, and Roxas notices that the tattoo's under Axel's eyes are gone.
"You're really here?" Axel whispers, like he can't believe it.
"Yeah. I think so. I..I can't believe you're here. I saw you -"
"Yeah. I just…woke up. Like this."
Roxas smiles. He doesn't know what 'this' is. He doesn't really care. Axel is here and he's alive.
But he can't just brush this under the rug and pretend those mean words hadn't been said.
"I'm sorry." Roxas blurts, "About what I said. About…you lying and hiding things from me. I don't know where I could have gotten that idea from."
"Don't apologize. I didn't tell you everything, but I told you everything I thought you needed to know and…I'm sorry, too. For thinking…I had the right to control what you know."
Roxas smiles, "So we're good?"
"Of course, partner." Roxas hasn't felt so relieved in…well…ever. Except, maybe when Axel came back from Castle Oblivion.
Roxas' smile falls from his face as tears start falling down Axel's cheeks.
"Axel! You're crying!"
Axel smiles wider and wipes away the tears with the palm of his hand, "Sorry. Ugh, my emotions have been all over the place since I woke up."
Roxas is confused. He thought Nobodies couldn't feel emotions. His mind races in circles and his confusion probably shows on his face because Axel laughs.
"I woke up human." Axel elaborates.
"Oh." The blond throws out dumbly.
"Riku?!" Sora whispers, but he fails at keeping quiet.
Roxas turns to see Riku walking off and Sora trailing after him.
"Where are you going?"
In a normal voice, Riku responds, "I'm giving them privacy. You know I hate PDA's."
Kairi chuckles and trails after Riku, "Like when Sora fell to his knees and started sobbing?"
Sora stops short, "That was! You were! I hadn't seen Riku in two years! There's nothing wrong with crying!" Sora yells, turning red in the face next to…
Roxas doesn't know how he walked right past his…doppleganger? The boy next to Sora looks just like him, albeit with different clothes. He can't look away as Sora runs after Riku and Kairi.
Axel must notice, because he starts dragging Roxas over to him. The other blond notices them walking over and meets them halfway.
Ventus can't really believe his eyes. In front of him is…him. Just…in black coat and a confused expression on his face.
Well their expressions probably aren't that different.
"Rox, this is Ventus. I knew him before I was part of the Organization. Ven, this is my partner," He places both of his hands on the other boys' shoulders, "Roxas."
And everything clicks into place.
"Oh!" He laughs, "You're Roxas? I can see why everyone thought I was you." He holds out his hand for the other to shake.
Roxas smiles back and shakes his hand. It's a nice smile and Ven wonders if his smile looks like that.
Axel takes his hands off Roxas' shoulders and leans his elbow on his head, "For future reference, Roxas kind of acts like a Zombie sometimes."
Roxas rolls his eyes and playfully swats at Axel, "Oh, gee, thanks."
Ven laughs as the three of them talk. As it goes on though, he notices a troubled look in Roxas' eyes.