When you wish upon a star...

[vacationisalie]

Characters: vacationisalie and you!
Location: In the streets, in the park- this boy is on the move.
Time: Midday
Style: Anything's good
Status: Open!

[Recon. It seems like the right thing to do, so Roxas is going to do it. The idea is somewhat of a blur, a poignant lesson from way back when he first began, but disassociated from the Organization or not, some lessons

Comments

[got_it_memorizd]

[Rooftops aren't quite the same as clock towers, but one makes do with what one has and so sometimes Axel just sits on the top of his apartment building and watches the rest of Vatheon go by below. There's no ice cream today; Axel's laying on his back with one ankle propped up on his opposite knee and his hands threaded behind his head. Watching the water is sort of like watching the clouds, but it's just not doing it for him today. With a heavy sigh, Axel sits up and leans forward to peer over the ledge. He hasn't been sleeping well. It's not anything new, really--Axel doesn't really sleep; catnaps are about as close as he gets--but it's been especially bad lately. He refuses to think it has anything to do with Roxas' absence

[vacationisalie]

[Vatheon somehow seems to hold the same sense of...peace that Twilight Town had. After looking around, questioning the natives, he has a fairly clear idea of what's going on- but not what to expect. But the location is quiet, serene; it has that taste to it, the type where you could easily just spend your days eating ice creams with friends, lazing around, doing the odd job, here and there.]

[The type of place you hope to come back to after a really big adventure, not so quiet as Destiny Islands, which is, in Roxas' mind, a good thing. He's far more used to a city-life style than the seafaring escapades of Sora and his friends, always having a mainstay, a place to come back to and sleep, every night.]

[For now though, he's happy with the location, with just- being alive. There's a lot to see, a lot to do, and he's just moving with the crowds, a subtle force and constantly moving tide that has him going one way or another, at least until there's a hand on his shoulder, and a voice in his ears that makes him tense up completely.]...

[got_it_memorizd]

[His eyes widen as Roxas speaks his name. He remembers? He really remembers? He faked it once before, and Axel remembers well how that stung. Or, well... remembers how sharply he remembered what it felt like to be stung. Or something like that. There's a beat of silence, and his hand falls away from the boy's shoulder as they just stare each other down. Torn between being relieved to see him and suspicious of whether or not he's being honest (as much as he hates to admit he's suspicious at all), Axel hesitates, his jaw working soundlessly a moment.

[And then Roxas continues, and Axel's face twists into something like confusion.]

I... yes? [He presses his fingertip into his own cheek a couple times then, like he's making sure he's awake.] Last I checked, anyway. [He shakes his head and steps back, folding his arms, still looking a bit suspicious.] Shouldn't I be?

[vacationisalie]

[He'd almost say it was amusing, to see Axel gaping like a fish. He'd almost say it hurts, to see the suspicion on his face. But that just- wasn't how things worked between them. Axel was a warm fire on a cold night; comradeship, stupid jokes spattered here and there. Or at least, he had been before Roxas had up and left.]

[At least he knows the right thing to say in answer, this time.]

Xemnas. [Seems strange to call him that, rather than the Superior.] Our bosses name was Xemnas.

You wanted to see me again, right? [The part that comes after that will remain unsaid, for now. At another point, another time when its less important to wipe that look off Axel's face and see if there's any chance of things being better, again. A chance that they're still partners, just like Axel had said.]

[got_it_memorizd]

[The suspicion is swept away and replaced with brief shock that is just as quickly replaced by the relief he wanted to think he felt the last time he asked Roxas that control question. If Roxas knew to answer before even being asked, that meant he not only remembered who he was, it meant he remembered what had happened. How much did he remember? The last time Axel had seen Roxas--really seen him--Roxas had beaten the crap out of him. Did he remember that? (Damn, there would be no living with him if that was the case.)

[But what Roxas says then catches Axel genuinely off-guard. That surprise is back on his face, but he quickly schools it into something like benign perplexity before he reaches out to poke Roxas in the forehead.]

Well duh. We're still best friends, right?

[... Right? There's been something genuinely frightening about encountering Roxas each time he's come to Vatheon and... reset, as it were. Their friendship was truncated on a decidedly sour note and Axel hasn't forgotten that fact, or that he was partly--no,