Flashback
[Waking up every morning might have been the hardest part, because he was waking up alone. To make it worse, it was his fault. He was a murderer. What he'd done... It was unforgivable. He'd spent the first few days hoping he would be brought back. That one of them would be brought back. He didn't care which, at this point. He could hope for Roxas, but at least if Sora was alive again there was always that chance... He had their heart! Why would this place leave it to him if it didn't want it to belong to someone anymore. It was almost morbid, that he was keeping it. What else was he supposed to do, though? He couldn't just let some Heartless have it. By the time a week had passed since the incident, Axel had given up on their return and resigned himself to the guilt.
He stayed in his room, most of the time. When he did go out to socialize, it was only briefly. It was probably a good thing they didn't have too many friends. It was hard enough not telling the ones he did have. If Roxas had made any that Axel didn't know, they hadn't come looking for him. Though, considering the nature of this place, disappearances weren't surprising. Maybe that's what he'd tell them, if it came up. Roxas disappeared... Technically, he had. It was Sora Axel had killed, not Roxas... So it was no surprise that Riku was giving him Hell.
Axel deserved it, so he couldn't actually justify fighting back, but he did anyway. It was something to take out his anger on. Sometimes he thought it was unfair, it wasn't his fault, Sora had gone after Roxas, so even if Sora was still alive, he'd still be alone. It wasn't fair. Those arguments always died before they even reached his tongue around the silver haired menace, though. Riku had every right to be angry, but lying back and taking it was not something Axel could allow himself to do, so the anger Axel felt towards himself was turned outward.
Which worked fine when it came to the actual confrontations, but afterwards... Axel just hated himself a little more. And resented Riku for bringing that out of him....
Having fallen into a routine, the next few weeks went by in a blur. Sleeping, avoiding people, accidentally running into Riku. He was taking care of himself because he didn't know what else to do, but he'd still probably lost a bit of weight from stress, and even after sleeping, he felt and probably looked tired all the time.
This, though, was one of his better evenings. He was feeling a little better about it, and even risked taking an extra trip to the kitchen for something to drink. He was at the sink rinsing out his glass when Riku found him.]