paradisalost | [thread] the next next life?

Entry tags:

axel,
roxas

[thread] the next next life?

Who: Roxas and Axel
What: Walk!
When: After this.
Where: Outside the castle.
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe.

Venting his feelings on the journal he had been given had eased Roxas' frustration. He wasn't the one everyone thought he was. It was sad, in a way--what had happened to their Roxas?--but he had to tell them, once and for all, that he was not him. Sure, it was weird that people kept insisting, but... no. Roxas was certain. Three days ago he had been in Twilight Town, running around with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

A walk had seemed like a good idea, and that Axel guy didn't seem half bad. At least he hadn't been one of the people insisting Roxas had forgotten himself.

Taking in a breath of the cool air outside of the castle, Roxas put his arms behind his head. So this guy had red hair, right?

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Axel gave himself some credit. He thought he was taking Roxas' memory loss quite well. Yeah, when he first heard, random items in his room almost lit on fire (he really needed to find ways from keeping his fire in tune with his emotions), but overall, not a burn to the castle or the civilians. Though it probably helped that he didn't remember the last time Roxas had forgotten him. Memory loss could be good for something.

Oh, he wanted to laugh outloud at the cruel irony, but instead took a step outside the castle. Roxas said meet him out here, right? His green eyes scanned carefully, not that he really needed to. Even if Roxas forgot, Axel knew who he was looking for.

"... Heh, I take it you're Roxas." Axel grinned and met up with the blond once he found him, remembering to play the part.

Roxas visibly jumped. He had gotten distracted by the sheer height of the castle, craning his neck back so much it was a wonder he didn't fall over. Once he remembered he was waiting for someone, he calmed and offered the man before him a sheepish smile.

"Oh, yeah, that's me," Roxas confirmed. He looked at Axel, no hint of recognition in his eyes. In fact, Roxas was trying not to let himself look surprised. He wasn't kidding about the red hair.

The boy offered his hand. "Axel, right? Nice to really meet you."

"Make ya nervous kid?" Axel chuckled at Roxas' unusual antsy posture. The blank, unknowing stare hurt him, more than he'd anticipated, but Axel knew how to hide such an crutch from view.

He grinned and took the offered hand, giving it a firm shake. "Nice to meet you," he half-lied, and straightened then. Damn, the kid looked so happy and... free. No hint of the colder, apathetic Roxas remained. Axel almost wondered if he was dreaming this. Then again, maybe this entire place was a dream and...

No, best not think that again.

"So, where we headed? Stroll around the castle?"

He laughed in return. "Sorry, you just startled me, but at least I've got you... memorized?" The line sounded quite pathetic and very uncool, and Roxas laughed a bit more at that. After releasing Axel's hand, he shrugged.

"You can lead the way. I didn't really have any destination in mind." All he had wanted was out. He was surprised to find out that while other doors had name plates on them, his looked like it was missing.

... as if someone had removed it.

But he guessed that was okay. He didn't really want any strangers trying to visit him, anyway.

Axel snorted at his catchphrase being tossed in his face. "Wow, you make it sound so lame when you say it."

He began to lead the way, circling around the castle and toward the forest which rested on the land's boundary. Axel didn't have much of a destination in mind either, but decided if he didn't know where he going, he'd get there faster.

For the first few moments he said nothing, letting the silence do the talking. Finally he spoke, softly, to the point Roxas might miss his words. "So, how you like the castle so far?"

"That's an improvement, then," Roxas grinned, displaying perhaps more teeth than he ever had before in Paradisa. All thoughts of other people accusing him to be someone else had left his mind by now. He wasn't going to let himself brood over it more than he already had.

Roxas followed after Axel, catching up with the tall redhead and walking beside him. He looked at him from the corner of his eye, and then away. And then again. And away. And one more time back again, when he thought he heard Axel say something.

"Hm? Oh... yeah. It's something else. Guess I know what to write about for my homework assignment," he said. He still believed he'd be able to go back to Twilight Town.

Well, this version of Roxas certainly had quite the sense of humor. Axel snorted again but didn't throw back a rebuttal. He liked the calmness between them right now. Ever since he'd arrived at Paradisa, he'd noticed... almost resentment from the boy, though it lessened the more they talked. This was the first time only friendliness stood between them.

Like best friends.

Axel quickly shoved that thought away too.

"... Homework?" The word sounded foreign to his ears. Axel turned slightly and gave Roxas a quizzical look.

Roxas mirrored the look on Axel's face.

"... yeah," He said hesitantly, not sure if Axel was just messing around with him. He seemed the type to like jokes, and Roxas didn't want to come off as some idiot that couldn't tell when someone was kidding. "I've had all summer to write a paper, but of course I waited until the last few days of vacation to do it..."

He could almost hear Olette reminding him to get it done. He sighed, shoulders heaving forward. "Hayner knows my pain."

"... Huh." Axel still didn't get it. Damn his backwards world. To save face and possibly understand what Roxas spoke of, Axel asked another question. "So what's your paper supposed to be about?"

At the mention of a familiar name, Axel's interest peeked more. "That's right, you said you knew Hayner..." He'd only ran into the boy maybe once or twice, so Axel held no distinct feelings for the kid. Still, he didn't know if Hayner presented a problem to Roxas' absence of memory.

It was strange, how much Axel just wanted him happy. If his hunch turned out to be correct, Roxas would need this time of relaxation... very, very much.

"Anything interesting that we've seen, pretty much," Roxas nodded to himself, remembering how Olette and Pence had been thinking up topics so that they could all work on it together. "We were going to write about weird things in my town. Haunted mansion kind of stuff," he chuckled. Haunted mansions... sounded so crazy. "But this place is way better than any of that."

Roxas' eyes brightened at the mention of Hayner. "Yeah. Feels like I've known him forever." But he really only had him, here. Roxas was content, however. He was glad he had his friend with him, and that he was making new ones. "You seem to have a lot of friends in this place, Axel."

"Oh, if that's the case, you'll have some good material." If Paradisa was the subject, Roxas could very well write a book. Something new and potentially dangerous seemed to happen everyday.

Axel grew quiet, and part of himself iced over though none of this showed on his face. The conversation with that little bastard exorcist. It took willpower not to go into a fit of anger. "I really don't have that many," he chuckled, and rubbed the back of his neck with downcast eyes. "A few but..." He shrugged.

Way to go, Roxas. The blonde raised his hands in a saving manner--he didn't mean to say something too intruding, and he felt bad even if Axel had laughed.

"O-oh, I didn't mean to, ah, sorry," Roxas felt his face heat up with something like shame. He should have known: many people in the castle didn't seem happy to be there. Not all of them were like him. He stuttered, trying to lighten what he thought was a dark situation. "But hey, we're friends, right?"

Not for more than a few days, but it was a start, right?

"It's fine," he said with another grin, and roped in any excess feelings still lingering inside. No point in throwing a fit right now. Walking was meant to calm him.

"And yeah, I guess we are." His throat closed up on him and no other words came out. Irony... such a bitch. So this was how Roxas probably felt around him ever since he'd come to Paradisa. At the very least, Axel gained a newfound respect for everything Roxas went through.

"Does this mean I get to call you Rox?" he teased.

Roxas raised an eyebrow, but he had no reason to question Axel. He let the eyebrow and the subject drop as he smiled again.

Rox? "Eeeeh... sure, why not?" They were friends, after all. And it was better than something like... Rox Ass. He recalled the nickname with a small frown. Man, if Seifer ever learned that one...

"... Ax?" Roxas blinked, noticing something. "You know, until I came here, I never knew anyone else with an X in their name. Guess I'm not so special anymore!"

At first Axel thought Roxas came up for a nickname for him - Ax made him sound like some serial killer, really - but understood what Roxas was getting at. "Oh, there are... quite a few people here with an X in their name," the redhead told him with a laugh and shake of the head. He knew for sure at least six.

"There's Saix, Zexion, Xemnas, Marluxia, Larxene..." he trailed off as he recalled any Organization member names, or at least the ones he remembered learning. "So yeah, guess neither of us must be that special."

With each name, Roxas' eyes widened until they looked like they might just pop out of his head. "Whoa! That's a lot. They kind of sound like a cul--"

Roxas almost bit his tongue off in effort to stop himself from saying it. Cult. Organization. The names, when listed, gave him a bad feeling. The X that he thought sounded pretty cool in his name and Axel's... didn't.

For a few moments, Roxas was silent, an unguarded look of thought on his face. "... they sound weird."

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[thread] the next next life?

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