(A/N: Holy cow! Chapter 11 is built with over 3,000 words, excluding the A/N. Yep, this chapter is long for a good reason, and let's see if you can figure out why. Again, thank you for reading this story so far and you are going to love this chapter for sure! Or, you are going to hate this chapter and me with a passion when you see what I had done with the ending. Gosh! I feel devilish! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope that you don't hate me as an author after this chapter. xD)
Roxas
Roxas was sitting down at the clock tower that he had always remembered about. He remembered his time with Axel, and the memories of his greatest moments of being at the Organization XIII as they were filling into his mind. He remembered how Axel and he would sit down on the tower as they would relax and eat Sea Salt Ice Cream.
Ever since Roxas had left Naminé, he felt a weird tightness in his chest. That weird tightness was around the center of his chest, where normally the heart would be at. This tightness was bothering Roxas so much, and he couldn't understand why and what was making this happen to him. Roxas was confused and rather hurt about the decision that he had made.
(Is this really me in pain? Or is it…. Sora?)
Roxas waited for a second for a reply but got nothing.
But suddenly, Roxas got an unexpected response.
(Roxas.)
He heard Naminé's voice ring in his head.
(Please be here. I miss you already…)
This made Roxas yearn more, as the tightness in his chest had clamped down on his heart even tighter. Roxas wondered wither he should answer back. Finally, he decided to not answer back to her.
This was a bad choice, because the tightness in his heart had turned into pain. And before he knew it, Roxas couldn't breathe. His lungs had stopped working and he went into a panic. Everything he saw had started to phase out, as his mind started to lose consciousness. Everything started to turn black as he had almost faded away.
"Roxas!" Naminé had shaken Roxas into reality.
Roxas looked at her with a blank stare as he was still stunned on what had happened to him. Finally Roxas had snapped out of his daze and confusion that was clouding his judgement, as he saw Naminé's face in tears as she had slapped him.
After Naminé had slapped him, she had tightly hugged him as she trembled.
Suddenly, his chest had stopped tightening, and it started to relax as Naminé hugged him tightly. Soon enough he realized that he was about to jump off of the tower. He looked back at Naminé with depression in his eyes and he hugged her back.
With his head touching and leaning on hers, Roxas apologized to Naminé, "I'm so sorry Naminé."
All of a sudden, Lea had interrupted their little moment, "Hey! She's not the only one you should be apologizing to as well."
Roxas looked up at Lea with a sad smile, "Ok, fine. I'm sorry to you as well, Lea."
Lea let out a friendly smirk, "That's much better."
Lea started to walk towards both Roxas and Naminé, still to his surprise was still clinging on to him, and sat down next to them both.
Finally, Naminé let go of Roxas, and she started to walk around Roxas quietly to sit down on his left side. Roxas sat down along with her at the edge of the clock tower. He looked at Naminé as she was looking down with her blonde, shiny, and gorgeous hair drooping down over her face. Roxas often felt jealous of her hair and how shiny it looked, and he was ashamed that he was considered "dirty blonde". After inspecting her hair, he looked at her face to notice that it was all covered in red.
(Ah, I get it…)
Naminé had replied telepathically.
(Yeah, this is a first for me. I'm sorry that I slapped you hard.)
(Nah, it's alright. I get it, and I'm glad that you did it. I needed it.)
Naminé looked up at Roxas with a surprised look on her face and eyes that shined bright from the sunset.
Roxas faced her with his classic "no eyes and all smile" face that he had learned from Sora.
(After all Naminé, you did just save my life.)
Roxas opened his eyes to find that Naminé was filled with tears as she had almost cried.
"Great! Now you've gone and made her cry!" Lea said with a disappointed voice, "Here."
Lea gave him two Sea Salt Ice Cream bars.
"Be a responsible boyfriend and cheer her up," Lea acted like an adult.
Normally, Roxas would've been mad at Lea but at the moment, but his concern was towards Naminé as she looked up and happily accepted an ice cream bar with a smile.
"Thank you," Naminé gave him a smile.
As Lea, Roxas, and Naminé sat down at in front of the clock tower eating and enjoying their ice cream staring at the sun, Roxas looked over to Naminé to see her unwrap and take a bite out of0 her ice cream bar.
"How do you like it?" Roxas asked Naminé.
Roxas watched Naminé eat her ice cream bar when all of a sudden Naminé changed into this raven- haired girl in a black coat with metallic chains hanging out.
"It's sweet… but salty," the girl replied as she looked at her ice cream bar.
"But it's good right?" Roxas asked excitingly.
"Um…" the raven haired girl replied uncertainly.
Roxas continued to eat his ice cream bar excitedly, "Axel likes this stuff; it's called Sea Salt Ice Cream."
The girl looked at him as Roxas was eating his ice cream bar.
Roxas continued, "Axel gave one to me after my first mission. He said it was my reward."
After Roxas had said that, she giggled, "You guys are so close."
Roxas looked at her with an embarrassed look on his face and with a bit of blush in his cheeks, "Wha?!"
But then, Roxas calmed down and with a joy in himself he admitted, "… Yeah. Axel is my friend. After missions, we always come here and eat ice cream, and talk about stupid stuff."
The girl replied in an adoring tone, "That sounds nice…. I wonder if I could be your friend…"
Roxas had liked that idea, "Yeah, we could all eat ice cream together."
The girl looked at her with excitement, "Really? I can't wait!"
Roxas had finished his ice cream bar and when he looked at the bar's stick, he had noticed that there were letters engraved into the stick itself.
He thought out loud, "Huh? It says 'winner'."
The girl looked at his stick in a confused manner.
Roxas explained, "If you take it back to the store, they'll give you another."
Roxas looked off into the sunset and with a smile he told her, "I can't wait for Axel to get back so we can show it off."
The girl nodded and replied with a giggle of her own.
(I can't wait for all of us to eat ice cream together…)
"Roxas?" Roxas had heard Naminé's voice calling to him.
"Roxas?" Naminé's voice finally snapped him back to reality as he felt her hand on his shoulder.
Roxas looked at his ice cream bar to find out that the ice cream wasn't there, but all he found was a stick in his hand with the words "winner" engraved in him.
Suddenly, Roxas had felt a sharp pain in his mind. He instinctively grabbed his head in pain and he let out a small groan of pain.
Naminé became worried and he asked Roxas, "Are you ok, Roxas?"
Roxas groaned his answer, "Yeah. He He. Just a bit of brain freeze that's all."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," he replied as the pain had died down, "I'm fine."
"Well jeez Roxas, you need to slow down on eating these things. I know that they're your favorite flavor, but still there's no need to get a brain freeze over it." Lea told Roxas teasingly while he messed his hair up.
"Ok, Ok! I get it," Roxas put on a pouty face while he fixed the mess that Lea had made on his hair.
Then he heard Naminé laugh and Roxas looked at her and gave a satisfied smile.
Lea saw the word, "winner" engraved of the into Roxas ice cream bar's stick and he smiled.
"Well, would you look at that!" Lea had looked at the stick and he put his arm around Roxas as he smiled at him, "It's been so long since we've seen one of these haven't we?"
Roxas looked at the stick, "Heh. I guess it has been too long."
"Yeah, by the way do you still have the pile of "winning" sticks with you?"
"Nah, man. I think all of that was left behind." Roxas replied with a frown on his face.
"Aw, man! But whatever, I guess we'll have to start from scratch all over again." Lea told Roxas with a confident smile.
Lea's smile had made Roxas feel lighter than usual.
He smiled in return and told him, "I guess we do!"
Naminé asked the both of them in a confused tone, "What do you do with these "winning" sticks?"
Lea replied to her, "Well, you keep and collect a certain amount of these sticks and depending on how many you have, you get to exchange them for cool little prizes."
Roxas had continued, "Yeah, it's exactly what he had said! I remembered back when I was in the Organization, that I wanted to save up enough to get this big stone head that was a tissue dispenser. Man, I wanted that so I can give it to Lea so that it could remind him of how much of a hard-head he was."
Roxas had begun to laugh out loud, when Lea had argued in return, "Hey, man! I know that my Nobody was a real air-head, but still man! That person was me!"
Roxas and Lea had started to rough fight again, and they began to stare down at each other. But after at least five seconds of staring at each other, they started to break into a laugh and they both laughed at each other.
Naminé couldn't help but to laugh at the two knuckle-heads as both Roxas and Lea were having a good time in each other's company.
As Roxas and Lea had begun to relax, Naminé, Lea, and Roxas had all stared at the bright, orange, big ball of flame start to disappear as the sun began to set.
Roxas was startled by Naminé when she suddenly leaned on Roxas and hugged his left arm with an affectionate kind of vibe to it. Roxas looked at her and his whole entire body had started to relax. He felt a great joy through his whole entire body and heart, but that feeling soon ended when his mind had returned back to reality. He thought about the whole situation with Naminé and himself and how this whole thing was going to end for the both of them when Sora had started to return to his normal healthy state.
Naminé was reading his mind and was worried when he had thought about that.
(Roxas, we shouldn't worry about that right now. We should relax and enjoy our time right now together.)
(I know, but I worry about this kind of stuff because I want to make more time to spend more time with you in the future. I don't want to just be looking at each other behind a locked door with only a looking glass on it, ya know? I want to be physically with you and to hold you in my own arms as our hearts connect with one another.)
This made Naminé madly blush, but she looked at him and replied back.
(I know, but they need Sora back. He's the destined hero of all worlds.)
(I know, but I talked to Sora and he says that he'll find a way to have both him and me in our own bodies. I also want you to be in your own body as well, and I'll bring it up to him when we get a chance to talk again.)
Eventually the conversation died out, as Roxas started to think about another topic.
(Wouldn't it be great to leave all this all behind us? To just go off, the three of us, and runaway from this kind of thing?)
Naminé responded with an uncertain thought as she began to lean off of Roxas and release his arm from her own.
(Umm….)
Roxas looked at Lea and had asked him the same thought that he had asked Naminé, "Wouldn't it be great to leave all this all behind us? To just go off, the three of us, and runaway from this kind of thing?"
Lea had looked at him, with a relaxed face, "Pfft, hang out all the time? You mean like running away?"
Roxas had realized that he was holding another ice cream bar in his hand, and that next to him was not Naminé but was the same raven-haired girl that was in his other memory and that both she and Lea were holding ice cream bars in their hands.
All of a sudden, the girl replied back at Axel, "Yeah! Well, not the running away part, but if we complete Kingdom Hearts…"
Her dialogue was cut off when Axel had replied back, "That's so out of the blue…"
Roxas had responded to Axel, "I know it's kind of sudden, but then we could eat all of the ice cream like this forever! Doesn't that sound awesome?"
Axel took a few seconds in to adore what they were telling him, and all he could say in return in a solemn tone was, "You guys…"
He then took a look at his ice cream and continued, "Is eating ice cream together forever really the only thing you'd want to do?"
Roxas and the girl looked at each other with a blank but serious look on each other's faces.
Then they both looked at Axel as they had both came up with the same answer and simultaneously responded with, "Yes."
Axel looked at them both with an astonished face as he let out a big sigh of disbelief, but was followed by a big face palm.
Then he explained to them with an adoring face but a serious voice, "Come on, you two, use your imaginations a little! Don't you think we'd get kinda bored if all we did was sit around eating ice cream all day?"
This made Roxas think a little, "Hmm… I guess now that you mention it…"
Axel continued after taking a bite of his ice cream, "Anyways, it's nice a dream, but it's kinda hopeless. 'Cuz we're Nobodies, remember?"
Axel looked at them with a serious face and continued, "We could disappear at any time; we never know. And it sucks, but…"
Axel stopped at his tracks to see both the girl's and Roxas' faces in horror, as they were hit by the undeniable truth that he was letting out.
They're faces looked so dark and gloomy, it's as if they had their pet dog beatened up by a random stranger. Their eyes filled with darkness and their faces were pale from the truth, Axel laughed at how innocent and adorable they were being.
As they both looked down at their legs, Axel told them, "Wh-what's with those looks? I'm not trying to be mean, that's just how it is!"
Roxas, who was still sad along with the girl next to him, started to talk to the girl next to him about how life was cruel and how sometimes things were so unfair in this world. Meanwhile, Axel was looking forward to the sunset, but as well he was trying to hold in his laughter from the amusement that the two of them had given him.
Suddenly, Roxas told Axel as Axel looked back at him, "Well, maybe that's all it is: a dream, but…"
Roxas and the girl started to smile again; they were gaining hope from the dream that they both had shared together.
Roxas continued with determination in his face as he looked at his Sea Salt ice cream bar, "I still want to just be able to hang out with you guys forever."
Axel looked at Roxas with an adoring smile in his face, "Actually, I think it's the best idea I've heard all day."
When Axel had said that, this had made both the girl and Roxas smile with radical joy.
Roxas then took a bite out of his ice cream bar, and he thought to himself.
(I'm glad that I'm friends with Axel and Xion.)
Xion.
When that his forgotten thought had brought up that name; his ears started to ring. Then the ring intensified as the sound had rattled through-out his entire brain. The pain had caused him to snap back to reality as he was sitting next to Lea and Naminé. He then instinctively grabbed his head in pain with both of his hands.
He stood up on the ledge as he let out a sharp yell, as he couldn't hear, feel, or barely see anything. His vision began to blur out and his mind had finally collapsed from the pain that he could no longer tolerate. Eventually, his body became dead weight and his body began to fall forward and off of the edge of the clock tower.
Even though Roxas was unconscious, he could barely sense that he was falling to his doom. His body and heart began to turn cold as his body was quickly falling from the top of the clock tower. He began to think to himself.
(What's happening? Why can't I move? Why is everything beginning to turn cold?)
Eventually, his eyes began to close as he accepted his fate, and he had let go of his ice cream bar Popsicle stick. It was nearly completely snapped in half from the grip that he had from the pain he experienced. Before he completely lost all of his conscious, Roxas had heard a girl's voice. The voice was very familiar and he had realized that it was that girl. The girl who was sitting next to him in his memories.
(Roxas. Please. Remember who I am.)
With those words that had come from her, Roxas had used the last of his conscious and his willpower to respond back to that voice.
(Xion?)
All of a sudden, Roxas felt himself drift away into a deep sleep…
(A/N: Yep! I went there... I guess you'll have to await for the next chapter to see what is Roxas' fate. And don't guess ahead! I'm not afraid to change my story just because you think that I don't have the guts to kill off Roxas. Yeah, I'm not afraid... (o.o) Anyways, please leave a review for this chapter, I would love to see your reactions as a reader! Thank you! And remember, any review is welcomed wither it is negative or positive. I'll release Chapter 12 as soon as possible! So please, relax and wait for it.)