I'm pretty much writing this for my own amusement and for a fanfiction contest that a Facebook page (Ventus) is having. (I'll try to include a link when I'm not in school.)

I'm so stoked to see how this story will play out and I hope you all enjoy it.

This is my first Kingdom Hearts fanfic and hopefully it won't be my last!

I based this off of a book I read once called "Message in a Bottle", I believe.

If you don't like yaoi, turn and run away now. I will not tolerate hate on my story just because you don't like the pairing.

I only own the story; everything else is not mine :(

Review if you will, I'd love constructive criticism..

Thanks.

Messages in a Bottle

I - The Letter

Roxas Strife wiped the sweat from his forehead as he ran along the beach.

It was early in the morning in the bustling city of Twilight Town and it was quiet along the beaches.

The twenty-eight year old man was getting his morning jog in. Lately the blonde man had noticed that he was getting flabbier with his age and had decided to lose some weight.

His friend, Sora Hikaru, told him not to worry about losing weight. That was easy for him to say; Sora was a naturally skinny man with a high metabolism.

He had a husband; his name was Riku. (Gay marriages were very common in Twilight Town.)

Riku was a quiet and rather angsty man with silvery long locks. Though most would find Sora and Riku to be an odd match, Roxas thought that they were rather sweet together.

Sora was lucky, unlike Roxas.

Roxas had been married once, to a charming man named Xemnas. They had adopted a little girl named Namine. Their marriage had ended once Roxas found out that Xemnas had been cheating on him and Xemnas was all too willing to give Roxas custody of Namine.

It always made Roxas pissed to think about it. How could Xemnas do this? To him? And Nami?

A soft sigh escaped Roxas' lips as he stopped for a moment, his legs aching.

I'm over it, Roxas thought, looking out at the ocean. He could hear Sora saying that 'That man wasn't worth your time' or something.

Roxas chuckled. He was truly lucky to have Sora and Namine to be around. Though right now, he really only had the hyper brunette; his daughter was currently on a water park weekend with Xemnas and his boyfriend Saix.

The blonde man took a step forward and blinked when he stepped on something.

Cerulean eyes glanced down at the ground under his feet and saw a rather nice looking green bottle with a cork in it. Within the bottle, a faint outlining of a rolled up sheet of paper could be seen.

A message in a bottle?

Curious, Roxas managed to get the cork out of the bottle and pulled the rolled up paper out. There was a note written on a beautiful piece of stationary with a blue sailboat on it. The handwriting was rather nice, but Roxas could tell that it was a male's.

It read:

'My dearest Xion,

Oh it has been so long since we've been together. I miss you and your beautiful cerulean eyes and how they could always see through me and my soul.

I miss running my hands through that alabaster colored hair of yours; it was always smooth like the surface of the smoothest conch shell.

I miss you, my darling, but today is hard because the ocean has been calling to me, and singing to me the song is that of our life together. I can almost feel you and sense you beside me as I write to you and I can smell your strawberry shampoo. But at this moment, these things don't give me satisfaction.

Your visits have been coming less often, and I feel sometimes as if the greatest part of who I am is slowly slipping away. I am trying, trying so hard..

You are beautiful, I think as I see you in my dream, a vision I can never find in anyone else. You are on the pier on our island within the Destiny Islands. It is late at night, in this dream, and we are alone. You try to speak, but no words leave your lovely lips. I step forward as you begin to fade, but you shake your head because you know that I'm not allowed to come with you.

I long to say: "I'm here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to protect you! I'm here to learn from you and to receive your love in return. I am here because there is no other place to be!"

But you fade away before I can say a word. And I awaken, saddened at the loss of your sweet prescence.
I find myself straining to remember everything about you as I sit here on this pier. Even though others are present here, I do not care what they may think as I bow my head and cry and cry and cry.

Axel'

Salty tears peeked out of the corners of Roxas' eyes as he finished reading the letter.

He somehow felt emotionally connected to this man and his struggles.

Roxas found himself curious as to who he was and what had happened to this 'Xion'.

With shaky fingers, Roxas slipped the note back into the bottle and placed the bottle in the pocket of his sweatpants.

He'd have to show this to Sora.

As soon as Roxas got back home, he showered and got dressed. He had about twenty minutes before he had to head to work.

Whilst drying his hair with a towel, Roxas hit a button on his home phone so that he could hear his voice mails.

"You have two new voice messages," the machine chimed in a computerized tone. "First voice message,"

"Hey Roxas, this is Tidus, Sora mentioned that you-"

Roxas rolled his eyes and hit the delete button.

Damned Sora and his matchmaking shit.

"Message erased. Second voice message."

Roxas perked up when he heard the soft voice of Namine.

"Hey mommy! I'm having a great time with Daddy and Sai-Sai! Don't worry about me and tell Auntie Sora that I said hi! Love you!"

"End of voice message. To erase the voice message then press-"

Roxas ignored the machine from there. He hadn't realised how much he had missed Namine. She had only been gone for a day or two and already Roxas was pretty lost without her.

Roxas sighed. "I'm hopeless, aren't I?" Then he shook his head, not wanting to douse himself in his self pity right now. He had plenty of time for that when he got home.

Grabbing his satchel and laptop case, Roxas placed the bottle in the satchel and headed off to work.

It took him about ten minutes to get to his place of employment; the office for the most popular magazine in Twilight Town; The Twilight Town Journal.

Roxas usually wrote advice columns on parenting and such other topics.

As the blonde man entered, he was glomped by a certain brunette editor.

"Roxyyyyy!" Sora squealed, hugging his friend tightly.

Roxas sighed and pat his friend's head. "Hullo Sora."

"Hiiiiiii. You got that article yet?"

Roxas nodded. "And I also have something else I want you to read... I found it on the beach today."

Sora looked excited and guided the blonde to his office. Sora's office was something out of a bad Disney film; the wall was littered with vintage Disney movie posters and Disney figurines lined the shelves and parts of his desk. For a hyper being, Sora's office was rather organized as well, papers were neatly stacked and filed in their proper places and it was just clean overall.

"So?"

Roxas looked confused for a moment and blinked. "So what?"

Sora huffed impatiently. "The thing you wanted me to read?"

"O-oh right," Roxas stuttered as he pulled the bottle out of his pocket and handed it to his friend.

Sora eagerly pulled the note out of the bottle and his eyes began skimming over the letter. The smile on his face slowly faded and tears filled his eyes as he read on.

Roxas knew that he was finished when Sora covered his mouth and had tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Oh god... Roxas, we need to publish this."

"WHAT?!"

The thought of publishing the letter had never crossed Roxas' mind. It just seemed too personal... to deep to ever be released to the public.

"Think about it," Sora said. "This will be so popular with all of those women out there... I can just see a woman taping it to her refrigerator and just waiting for her husband to come home and read it. This would be great for the magazine!"

Roxas sighed. "I don't know..."

"We can change the names and everything! PLEASE?" Sora begged, blue eyes pleading with Roxas'.

"...Fine," Roxas muttered hesitantly, crossing his arms. "But only if you change the names..."