WARNING READ BEFORE CONTINUEING this story has implied boyxboy, adultxminer rape, and GRAPHIC medical detail, along with talk of things you wouldn't normally talk about in a normal conversation. If this is not your taste than there is that beautiful back button that you can click on.

This is a story of the start of the healing process you go through after a traumatic event (like a rape) I'm not a supporter of yaoi, so don't get any ideas, this is not intended to be romance though you do have the free minds to think of it as more. This is an Axel/Roxas friendship, with a little bit of Demy thrown in there for you AnkuRokuDemy fans.

Red Bandages

If you walked into the Superior's office, you would have immediately noticed the chill that reserved in the still air. The owner of the office stared down at the child that stood before him, in disapproval, "You have disappointed me, Thirteen," Xemnas's voice droned in the usual manner.

"I understand Superior, and I am very sorry," the child, Roxas replied with his eyes downcast, he had completely failed his last mission. What was worse was that he failed because he was not doing what he was supposed to do, and it ended very badly. This was why he was in so much trouble right now. His punishment hadn't been given yet but being called to the Superior's privet office in a lone isolated part of the castle meant that he was in huge trouble.

"I trust you will go through great pains to make sure that this will not happen again?" Xemnas continued the long lecture that had already lasted a half hour; at least he seemed to be almost done.

"I will Superior."

"Very well," At last the older nobody was finished with the lecture, but the down side to that was it was now time for his sentence, "Now, for your punishment …" Xemnas suddenly trailed off. A strange look had formed on his face as he looked the boy up and down, as if seeing him in a new light. This made the blonde feel very uneasy, but he did not dare say a word feeling that it would only make things worse.

Xemnas took a step toward the blonde, "Thirteen, you are still new here, it is time for you to learn what happens when you fail like this." The older man grabbed a hold of Roxas's throat pushing him against the wall.

Roxas gasped as all the air was knocked out of his body, "S-Superior, wh-what are you doing?" he managed to squeak out over Xemnas's hold, on his throat.

"Punishing you in a way that will satisfy me," Xemnas replied.

Unfortunately for Roxas, the Superior's office was too far away from everyone else's room, so no one heard the screams that came from within the isolated room.

Tears fell from his eyes like a flowing river; silent sobs racked his small frame draining whatever strength he had left. Roxas was lying fully dressed under the covers of his bed, soiling the bed sheets of whatever was left on him from being raped senseless. After Xemnas was finished giving him his "Punishment" he was "Kind" enough to take him back to his room and tuck him into bed. The older nobody did not go easy on him at all, his nether regions were so sore that he could barely walk, much less go for a shower.

He wondered if he would ever be the same again. It was so unlike Xemnas to do something like this. He was the unemotional one of the group, more so that the other original six. Saïx wasn't included in them; he was almost as emotionless as Xemnas. Roxas has only been with the organization for six months, but he knew that wasn't the normal punishment given. In fact Roxas was pretty sure that was the Superior's first time at sex since he became a Nobody, though he would never be totally sure. He knew that Xemnas hadn't planned for that to happen, which made it seem all the more worse. What had come over the Superior for him to do something so horrible, something that was so unlike him?

Roxas gagged suddenly, he could still taste the horrible fluids of Xemnas, which only caused the memories of when he was forced to taste his Superior, to come back. He gagged again, wishing for some water to wash the taste from his mouth. His stomach couldn't handle it anymore. With no more strength to even sit up and lean over the bed Roxas ended up vomiting all over himself. This only added to the gag worthy taste in his mouth making the boy feel even sicker.

He felt so tired and weak, wanting desperately to take a shower and wash all the abuse away. The memories also, oh how he wished he could make the memories disappear. That was the only thing that kept him from the dark sanctuary he called sleep. The blond's stomach squirmed uncomfortably, just from the memories.

At least he was able to sit up enough to be sick more on the sheets then himself this time. Dear Kingdom Hearts that smelled so badly. Roxas knew that a shower would make him feel so much better; all he had to do was walk those few yards that would take him to his bathroom. He was so sore and abused from the Superior's punishment, but he had to try.

Very gently Roxas lifted himself off the pillows into a sitting position. Immediately the room started to spin, and he grabbed his head waiting for it to pass. Once he felt that he would be able to stand up without the world tipping, Roxas removed the blankets that were now soiled with vomit and slid out of the bed. Almost as soon as he stood up, his head felt so light that he thought it would float away. The room spun briefly before the world tipped, and the next thing he felt was the pain of landing on sore limbs.

A loud sob escaped his lips, "Help … Help!" he cried out loudly.

Fortunately for the Key Bearer, the Melodious Nocturne just happened to be walking past his room and heard the boy's cries. He looked curiously at the closed door, wondering what there youngest member would be calling help for. Demyx walked over and knocked on the door. "Roxas!" he called.

"Please, please help me, I can't stand up!" he heard Roxas yell muffed by the closed door, and this was followed by definite sobs.

Normally it wasn't wise for anyone to just walk into Roxas's room without permission, for the Key of Destiny could have a temper. But given the circumstances on the way he was crying out for help, Demyx figured that it was probably ok this time. He recoiled almost as soon as he stepped into the room. The stench of vomit was all over the room.

Roxas himself was lying in a heap on the ground next to his bed, looking more than just horrible. The older blonde's forehead creased with worry. When he approached the boy it revealed to him that the bed and Roxas were both covered in the kids vomit. "Roxas you don't look so good," Demyx commented.

Roxas weakly pushed on the ground to turn himself over onto his back, so he could look at the other nobody. Demyx was staring at him with concern evident in his blue eyes, "Do you need me to take you to Vexen?" he asked.

Fear struck through the empty hole in Roxas's chest as he thought of what would happen if Vexen found him like this. He would certainly examine him and found out exactly what the Superior did, "No … no just help me to the bathroom," the younger blonde replied weakly attempting to lift himself off the floor without much success.

Demyx crouched down to the floor and helped Roxas into a sitting position. Roxas put a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes closed as another wave of dizziness came over him. The Melodious Nocturne was kind enough to wait for his dizziness to pass before slinging one of the boys arms over his shoulder and slowly stood up bringing Roxas to his feet as well. He paused briefly to make sure that Roxas wasn't going to pass out, be sick or anything like that, and then led him towards the bathroom at the other end of the room, "What do you want to do in the bathroom?" Demyx eventually asked.

"I just want to take a shower," Roxas replied.

Once they made it to the bathroom, Demyx stopped but didn't make any movement to leave Roxas so he could do his business alone. "Thanks Demyx, you can go now," Roxas said after a moment.

"You don't expect me to let you shower alone in your current conduction? I want to make sure that your not going to pass out and hurt yourself or drown in the bathtub."

"No Demyx please, I'll be alright," Roxas pleaded weakly, not standing the idea of Demyx seeing the abuse that had fallen on him.

The older blonde still looked hesitant, but he eventually nodded, "All right, but I'm going to wait outside the door. Don't take too long, and if I hear anything strange going on in there, I'm coming in."

Roxas nodded gratefully, "Thanks," he let go of the other nobody and stumbled into the bathroom, using all of his strength to stay on his feet. Demyx gave him one more wary look before closing the door. Roxas waited until the door latched before letting his knees give out just enough so that he could slowly ease himself onto the floor. He knew that if Demyx heard him collapsed, he would barge in and never leave him alone. What would he think if he found out, what would Axel think? Would they be able to look at him the same way? Would he be able to look at himself the same way again?

Tears leaked from his blue eyes, as he pulled the zipper on the organization coat down, and then slid it off of his shoulders. Next he peeled off his black shirt, revealing the red bite marks all over his toned chest. After that come the leather gloves. Once he's stripped himself to his waist, he reached to his feet so that he could untie the laces of his boots, and then kicked them off, his socks followed.

He couldn't believe how much energy it was taking him, just to undress for a shower. Roxas didn't have enough energy to stand up and get the black pants off, so he had to lay down on his back to do it. Undoing the button and pulling down the zipper, Roxas then lifted his rear off the floor and pushed his pants and boxers down his legs.

The jeans clung to his skin from the dry crusted blood and other fluids that had come from his nether regions, and had stuck to his legs as he ridded himself of the pants. Now completely naked, Roxas crawled over to the bathtub and pulled the hot water nozzle on as high as it could go, and leaned against the cool porcelain while waiting for the water to heat up. Once he saw steam coming from the water he twisted the cold water nozzle.

When the water temperature was at his liking, Roxas grabbed onto the edge of the tub and climbed into it, closing the curtain and pulling the head on the spicket up so that the shower would start running. The boy had to sit on the floor of the tub while the hot water ran down him washing away the dirt, vomit and abuse. He grabbed the shower scrub brush, lathered it with soap and started scrubbing at his body. It was difficult not to scrub too hard, for it was so easy to do because of the feeling of being dirty and it never washing off. It was especially hard when he reached his nether regions, the part that felt would never be fully clean again. But he knew that he was already sore down there and that scrubbing too hard would only make it more painful.

Roxas hesitantly reached a hand down to his hole, to feel how much damage had been done. It was very stretched and sore to the touch. New tears fell from the key bearer's eyes mixing with the shower water, and a sob strangled its way out of his throat.

"Roxas are you ok in there?" that was Demyx's voice somewhat muffled coming from the room.

Roxas suddenly realized that he had been in there for awhile and should get out soon before Demyx invited himself in; "Yeah … I'm fine," with that he shut the water off and moved the shower curtain out of the way.

It was quite amazing how just a shower could make you feel so much better. Though he still felt sick and achy, he could at least stand up without a dizzy spell hitting him. Stepping out of the tub, he grabbed one of the large towels that hung on the rack and started to gently dry himself off. Once he was dry he dug through the cupboard under the sink and pulled out an extra bath robe.

After he was all dry and the robe covered all of the marks that covered his skin, he realized that he still had the taste of vomit and Xemnas in his mouth. He brushed his teeth for a good five minutes, then used the mouthwash twice. By this time Demyx decided that he was taking too long and let himself in, "Roxas, you doing all right?" he asked.

The Key of Destiny took a moment to spit out the mouth wash before turning to answer, "Yeah." He was still unbelievable tired.

"Need me to help you back to bed?" Demyx asked still looking deeply concerned.

Roxas looked up at him, considering his offer. After a moment he saw no harm in it so nodded yes. Demyx reacted immediately, taking one of the boy's arms and slinging it over his shoulder while wrapping his other arm around the smaller blonde's waist to support him. Roxas had to force himself not to flip and shove the older boy away when he wrapped his arms around him, for it would only cause more suspicion, "What happed to get you so sick," he asked the question I didn't want to answer.

"Nothing," he replied mechanically, "Just a hard mission … and some food poisoning," Roxas figured that he should try and think of an excuse for the vomiting.

It seemed to work, for Demyx nodded in understanding as they made it to his bed, and Roxas collapsed onto it. Going by the way his bed sheets suddenly changed to clean ones he figured that the older nobody changed them for him when he was in the shower, "Sorry man," the Melodious Nocturne replied, "You sure you don't want me to take you to Vexen?"

"No thanks," Roxas replied as he lay down in the bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. He was already feeling himself dosing off.

"All right, if you're sure." The Key of Destiny didn't even hear Demyx leave the room before he was fast asleep.

Roxas was pushed against a wall being held by the throat, "S-Sup-Superior p-please stop," Roxas stammered.

Xemnas only replied by crashing there lips together, the older ones tongue pushing against Roxas's closed lips demanding entrance. But the boy glued his mouth shut not allowing the older man to enter.

The Superior's hand, which had been under Roxas's shirt playing with his nipples snaked down his chest, then went into the boy's pants, grabbing a certain part of him. A moment later the boy let out an involuntary gasp which allowed entrance for Xemnas's tongue.

Roxas awoke with a scream; tears were streaming down his cheeks, and his stomach was churning and flip-flopping in ways that made Roxas almost sick. What pushed him over the edge was when the terrible taste of the Superior came back into his mouth. He grabbed the trashcan that Demyx had kindly left by his bed before he left, and threw up violently into it.

There wasn't much left in his stomach so all he threw up was spit and stomach acid, then continued to dry heave for a few minutes. Once the spasms had stopped, Roxas put the trash can back on the ground and stood up heading for the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and used more mouth wash, in hopes of ridding himself of the taste that didn't seem to want to leave his mouth. He knew that he'd probably regret it later, but did it out of desperation, he swallowed the mouth wash.

When he was sure that he wouldn't be able to taste anything but mouthwash for the next little while, Roxas left the bathroom and glanced at his clock. 8:30am, about breakfast time. He almost couldn't believe it, he'd returned from that mission yesterday around 4:00pm. How long had he slept? Now was the first time he checked the time since … since it happened.

With a sigh he stripped off the bathroom robe he had slept in, being careful not to look down at himself. Searching through his drawers for a fresh pair of boxers, he closed his eyes while putting them on to make sure that he didn't accidently look. He did feel a little better that morning, more so than he did the other night, but he was still very sore in his nether regions, particularly around his anus and rectum. He figured that passing stool was going to be painful for awhile.

Once below his stomach was covered, Roxas figured that it was safe to open his eyes, and finished getting dressed. After he was clothed in the standard organization uniform, he made a portal down to the kitchen for breakfast; though he didn't have an appetite.

"Good morning Roxas," the boy was greeted by his best friend when he entered the kitchen, "Wasn't sure you were going to show up this morning, Demyx said that you were sick."

"I'm feeling better this morning," Roxas replied it wasn't a complete lie, we was feeling better, but still not normal. He sat down on a nearby chair. It was painful to sit, but not unbearable, the boy was able to hide a wince.

"That's good," Axel commented sitting down next to him and ruffling his hair, "Because you and me got a mission in Agrabah today."

Oh Kingdom Hearts, how was he going to be able to handle a mission today? For no reason at all he suddenly felt the urge to start crying, feeling the sting of approaching tears prickle at his eyes. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO you can't cry now that would make Axel believe that something is wrong. He was so happy that it was Demyx that found him last night. If it was Axel that found him than he would have picked up that Roxas was really upset about something and wouldn't let it go until he knew every detail.

While Demyx easily just passing things off with out questions and forgets about it a few hours later. Speaking of which, "Hey Roxas, your looking better today," the Melodious Nocturne commented sitting down on his other side.

Roxas didn't reply, only grabbed a muffin off of the tray with absolutely so appetite and unenthusiastically started picking at it. The boy suddenly gagged when he tried to swallow a piece of the muffin, the taste of Xemnas had come out of the back of his throat and mixed with the flavor of the muffin. Without an explanation he stood up and teleported to the nearest bathroom, bringing up what he just put in his stomach into the toilet.

He didn't understand how he could still taste Xemnas in his mouth; it was like no matter how many times he brushed his teeth and used mouth wash it still never went away. This is when he realized that this was the memories. Remembering what horrible taste was what was making it come back. But how could he stop it.

After washing his mouth out a few times Roxas teleported back to the kitchen where Axel was waiting for him, "Sure you're up for this mission Rox?" he asked concern evident in his voice.

Oh why did I say yes, why oh why didn't I say no. It was amazing what little things could bring back memories of the event. He ended up being a total basket case during the mission, and Axel ended up doing the entire thing, while he watched in the sidelines. At least he was pared up with Axel today and not anyone else. Axel covered for him, telling Saïx that he was sick and wouldn't be able to do any missions for the next few days. Where anyone else would have gone into details that he couldn't do a thing on the mission and ended up not helping at all; Axel was kind enough to leave that part out.

But the down part of having Axel there was that he would eventually demand an explanation. Sure enough as soon as Saïx dismissed them, the red head led the boy back to his room, his hands firmly planted on his shoulders alone the way. He forced Roxas to sit on the bed before asked, "All right, what in Kingdom Hearts name is the matter with you today?"

Roxas didn't know what to say, which only caused him to burst into tears. Axel wasn't impressed, thinking this was only crocodile tears to get him off the hook for. "That's not answering the question Rox."

But the boy couldn't answer, he just couldn't. He was sure that Axel would never speak to him again after finding out that Xemnas had taking his last strand of innocents.

"I'm – I'm sorry Axel – I just – I just – I just – I don't know," Roxas said in-between sobs. This was all the red head could understand before Roxas started sobbing out words that weren't in the English dictionary.

Axel sighed, his face softening. He sat down on the bed next to his friend and started rubbing his back, "All right, calm down kiddo," he cooed softly pulling the smaller boy into an embrace letting the kid bury his face into Axel's toned chest, "I'm sorry, I know you've had a rough day. Is this about what happened yesterday?"

Roxas felt his breath get caught in his throat. Did Axel know, how did he find out, "I know you messed up bad on that mission, and I know that Xemnas wasn't too happy about it; but if you keep dwelling on that, than you'll have more days like today."

The blonde had to force himself not to sigh in relief, Axel didn't know, he was still safe. They sat there for awhile until the boys sobs slowed down to the occasional sniffle, which was when Axel ruffled his hair, told him to get some rest and not worry about today and yesterday, before leaving the room.

Roxas was grateful that he wasn't sent on a mission for the next two day, mostly because health wise he was getting worse. Over both those days he hadn't been able to keep any food down, not that he had the appetite for the desire to do so. He was able to squeeze by Axel and Demyx's worried suspicious looks by choking down as much as his stomach could handle then excusing himself to the bathroom in time to bring it all back up. It was almost like his body was forcing him to become bulimic.

But that wasn't what bothered him the most. What really bothered him, though he hated to admit it, was how badly his anus was hurting. Each day it got worse, this caused other humiliating problems, like the fact that he was having a hard time getting stool out, which caused uncomfortable cramps. Anytime he was able to get anything out, it burned terribly, resulting in it being very painful to sit for the next twenty minutes. And all be damned if he was going to tell anyone this problem. On the morning of the third day since the incident the pain had gotten so bad that Roxas was forced to lie on his stomach, and the rest of his body almost felt just as horrible. So he decided to not even get up, even though he knew that Axel would be in as soon as it was known that he wasn't going to show up for breakfast.

Sure enough about a half hour went by when both Axel and Demyx decided to pay him visit, "Hey Roxas, how come you didn't show for breakfast?" Axel asked.

The boy shifted weakly to look up at his friend with glassy eyes, "I wasn't feeling well," was all his reply before putting his head back down on the pillows.

"I can see that," Axel replied stripping off one of his leather gloves and placing a hand on the boy's sweaty forehead, "Feels like you have a fever also."

Roxas only groaned in response, "Roxas sit up so we can get a better look at you," Demyx ordered gently as he sat on the bed and help the Key of Destiny into a sitting position.

Roxas held back a wince, his anus burned as soon as he sat down on his rear. He couldn't handle this anymore; he had to let someone know. But he couldn't bear the thought of Axel and Demyx knowing. This dilemma caused the blonde to start crying again. Damn-it why couldn't he just stop crying for no reason?

Demyx looked at him sympathetically, "Roxas what's up with you, you've been acting weird for days."

The boy just buried his face in his hand and cried harder, "Tell us what's bothering you, Rox," Axel encouraged.

"I was raped!" Roxas almost screamed through his sobs. That was it, the truth was out now. Axel and Demyx knew and now they would most likely leave the room in disgust.

But this was not true. As soon as Axel processed those words the color of scarlet passed through his vision. The red head never knew that the memory of rage could feel so real. The memories were so strong in fact that he lost track of his actions and grabbed Roxas's forearms squeezing so hard that the poor blonde cried out in pain, "Who was it?" he demanded.

"Ow, Axel you're hurting me!" Roxas cried.

"Tell me who it was!" Axel almost yelled.

"X-Xemnas, it was Xemnas," Roxas cried through is sobs.

Axel roared loudly, pushing Roxas hard so that the boy landed slammed face down on the bed; he made no move to get up only cried harder into the sheets. Axel was so caught up in the memories of rage that he took no noticed of this and promptly stood up and headed for the door.

Demyx stopped him, "Axel wait where are you going?"

"I'm going to kill him!" Axel yelled.

"No Axel he'll kill you!" Demyx grabbed the red head by the arm to stop him from leaving.

"I don't care!" Axel halfheartedly tried to pull out of the older blondes grip.

"Axel, look at him," Demyx demanded motioning toward the boy that was crying pathetically on the bed, "Do you think it's going to help him if you're dead."

Axel didn't answer.

"I think he'll like it better for you to be here to help him through this, then you being dead because you were trying to make Xemnas pay for what he did."

Axel sighed in defeat, knowing that the Melodious Nocturne was right. After a few moments of silence both older men looking at the boy who was still crying hard, "We should probably take him to Vexen," Axel said after a while.

"What the hell are we supposed to tell him, 'Hey the Superior raped him, can you look him over to find out what damage was caused?'" Demyx asked giving the red head a look.

Roxas gasped at hearing Axel's suggestion. It was bed enough that Axel and Demyx knew, if they told Vexen then the entire organization would know. "No, no please don't take me to Vexen," he pleaded hoarsely

"Rox you're not doing very well, you need to get checked out," Demyx reasoned.

"But then … but then Xemnas will know that I told someone, and …" Roxas trailed off as he started sobbing again, would he ever be able to stop.

"Roxas, you're really sick right now, we have to make sure it's not something serious," Axel said.

"What if we don't tell him it was Xemnas," Demyx suggested, "Tell him it happened on a mission, or something and that we don't know who it was."

The two older nobodies seemed to agree on that. Roxas knew that there was no way around this, Axel would drag him there kicking and screaming if he had do. So the boy figured that there was no point making a scene about it and allowed Axel to pick him up and teleport to the Chilly Academic's lab.

The initial exam was anything but alright. Vexen thankfully accepted Axel and Demyx's story about it being a stranger on a mission three days ago. Though the icy man gave him a look that asked, 'Why exactly didn't you fight back, your clearly strong enough.' It was much easier to understand, when it was the Superior that did it. Even Marluxia would think twice about fighting back against him.

Roxas had to be stripped of all clothing for the exam, so he lay on in back completely naked on the cold exam table that felt even colder because of the fever. He kept his eyes shut tightly clinging to Axel who was embracing his upper body, in hopes of helping the blonde stay calm, as Vexen did the physical exam, he starting up by the boys head and went down. Roxas let out a whimper as Vexen ran his cold fingers along his ribs, making sure nothing was cracked and broken. He clung to Axel tighter trying to stop himself from thinking about how Xemnas did something very similar.

Axel started cooing soft words of comfort, when Vexen reached his nether regions because the boy started hyperventilating and unconsciously trying to get away. He felt Vexen check the inside of this thighs, then to make the experience even more humiliating the Chilly Academic grabbed both of the boys legs and lifted them up, pulling his feet back towards his head as if he was about to put a diaper on him. Then the Key of destiny felt two fingers' push his bottom cheeks apart to reveal his burning anus.

He stayed in that position for far longer than Roxas would have liked. The smaller blonde could hear Vexen searching through different drawers, and a moment later he felt something wet and very cold be spread on his anus, which lessened the burning pain, and causing Roxas to let out a sigh.

After that Vexen gently set his legs back down on the table and continued the exam. Once he was finished looking over the rest of the boys body, he announced while taking off his white rubber gloves, "His anus is infected, do to an anal fissure. This is also what's causing the fever."

"So what do we do about it?" Axel asked.

"He'll have to be put on antibiotics and a stool softening, until the tear is healed," Vexen replied handing Axel a white tube, "This should lower some of the pain to his anus while the healing is in progress."

"Thanks," Axel replied accepting the tube, Vexen also handed him a two bottles of pills.

"Thirteen you may get dressed and leave now," Vexen announced then left the room.

Axel helped the blonde sit up on the table, and handed him his T-shirt. Roxas was still consumed on the fact that now the entire organization knew he'd been raped, and the humiliation of the exam he had a moment ago, so his head wasn't on strait. After messing with his shirt for a few moments trying to find the opening to put over his head through, once he found it and tired to slip it on he ended up getting lost trying to find the head hole. He started to whimper in frustration, which Axel took as the signal that he needed some help.

The Flurry of Dancing Flames reached out and helped the boy right his shirt, getting his head through the neck hole, and getting his arms through the sleeves. Once his shirt was on right, Axel placed his hands under the boys armpits and gently lifted him on the table and onto his feet, holding his shoulders when he swayed slightly from being put on his feet. The red head helped keep the boy balanced as he put his boxers and pants back on. Roxas felt relieved that he was now fully clothed again, and Axel created a dark portal back to his room.

"We should probably check your temperature," Axel suggested as he helped Roxas get back under the covers of his bed.

Since Vexen wasn't a normal doctor, he never did the normal routine stuff that doctors do, like blood pressure and temperature unless he feels the need to. And Roxas's fever didn't seem to be high enough for him to be concerned enough to actually take it. But Axel was worried about his friend and wanted to know exact numbers.

He briefly went into the bathroom to grab the thermometer from the first aid kit in all there bathrooms. When he came back into the room a few moments later Roxas was already falling asleep again, "Hey Rox," Axel announced gently shaking the boy, "Wake up."

Roxas turned over and looked at Axel, "Open up," Axel ordered and shoved the thermometer in the blondes mouth.

It was a fast ten second thermometer so when Axel heard it start to beep seconds later, he took it from Roxas's mouth and read the numbers. 102.3 not too terrible bad, at least it wasn't up to Axel's body temperature, which was averaged at 104; Axel than looked at the pill bottles given to him. One of them said Docusate, which was the stool softener and the other wasDirithromycin which was the antibiotic. The directions said to take 1 tablet twice a day. "Rox, I'm going to go get some water, so that you can take the pills," Axel announced and set the bottles down on his bedside desk and teleported out.

Axel reappeared in the kitchen; Demyx was in there eating lunch. "Hey Ax, is Roxas alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's fine. It turns out that the fever was caused by an infection of the anus. I'm sure you can figure out how that happened," Axel replied.

Demyx grimaced visible, "Way to ruin my appetite Ax."

"Hey, you asked, I'm just getting some water so that he can take the medication Vexen gave him."

"You should probably take him some lunch also. I don't think he's eaten very much the past few days," Demyx suggested.

"Good idea," Axel agreed, gabbing a turkey sandwich off the stack of pre prepared sandwiches that had been made for lunch. He also grabbed a ham sandwich for himself, before filling a glass of water and teleporting back to Roxas's room.

Roxas was crying hard into his pillow when Axel returned, hard sobs shook his small frame. Sighing to himself, Axel set the sandwiches and water glass down on the bedside table, and he sat down on the edge of the bed rubbing a hand over the blondes back, "Hey what's wrong kid?"

Roxas pushed his face deeper into the pillow, hoping it would block out the humiliation of all this. He hated how pathetic he was acting, he hated feeling so weak, he hated the fact that now not only Axel knew, but also Vexen and soon the entire organization, most of all he hated Xemnas. It was because of Xemnas that all this was happening to him, it was because of Xemnas that his life would never be the same again.

"Come on Rox, this isn't helping any. Calm down and tell me what's the matter."

"A-Axel, Wh-Why don't you hate me," Roxas asked in-between sobs.

The red head was taken aback, "Of course I don't hate. I could never hate you, especially at a time like this. Why would you even think that I hated you?"

The Key of Destiny looked up to look at his friend mucus falling from his nose like a river, almost glaring at him with red puffy eyes streaming with tears , "Because I'm … because I'm dirty now, you should be disgusted with me."

A sigh fell from Axel's lips, and he reached over to grab a tissue from the box sitting on Roxas's bedside table. The pyro gently wiped away the tears from the boys cheeks as he spoke, "Roxas, I don't hate you and I'm not disgusted with you. Even if you asked Xemnas to do this to you, I still wouldn't be. You're my best friend, and I care about you, so you better remember that."

Once Roxas's cheeks were clean of all salty tear water, Axel handed him another tissue. Which the boys accepted gratefully, and wiped off the white mucus that had ran from his nose and was now stuck to his top lip, then blew the rest of it out. The tears that Axel had just wiped away were replaced with new ones, as he started to cry again.

"Come here Rox," Axel held an arm out, offering a comforting embrace.

The Blonde only hesitated a moment, them scooted over so that he could lean against his friend. Axel in turn wrapped his arm around the boys frame pulling him in closer. Roxas feeling chilled from the fever relaxed against the other's high body heat, and sobbed into his side.

"Shhh," Axel cooed softly, rocking back and forth gently.

Roxas cried himself to exhaustion, and by that time all that could be heard coming from the boy was a sniffle or two. He was so tired that his entire body weight was supported by Axel. The red head handed him another tissue, and Roxas blew his nose again. While he was cleaning his nostrils out, Axel took a pill from each bottle. After the boy was finished Axel offered him the pills one at a time. Roxas put them in his mouth, and Axel held the glass up to his mouth to drink.

"I brought you a sandwich to eat," Axel offered, grabbing the turkey sandwich off the table.

Roxas shook his head insistently, "I'm not hungry."

"Come on Roxas, I know for a fact that you haven't eaten much in that past few days," Axel insisted, waving the sandwich right in front of the kid's mouth.

After a moment, Roxas hesitantly grabbed the sandwich from the other nobody's hand, but didn't start eating it. Axel ruffled his hair in a friendly matter, "Good boy, now eat up. The sandwich isn't that big, you should be able to eat it." Axel picked up the ham sandwich and took a big bite as if trying to set an example to the younger boy.

While Axel ate, Roxas only played with his own sandwich with his fingers, refusing to take a bite. It didn't take long for the red head to notice, "Roxas eat it," Axel ordered softly but still a little firmness in his voice making it know that Axel was serious.

The boy sighed in defeat, and took an unenthusiastic bite of the turkey sandwich. He forced back a gag as he was reminded of the taste of his assaulter and the memory mixed with the flavor of the turkey and mayo, making him want to vomit. He gulped down the bitter fluid that wanted to come up and took another bite of the sandwich, this one tasted worst than the last. By the third bite Roxas's stomach couldn't handle it anymore. He made a horrible gagging noise and his hand slapped over his mouth.

Axel recognized the body language and quickly grabbed the garbage can and let the blond throw up into it. Once Roxas finished emptying his stomach, he started to cry again. Axel wrapped his arms around the boy and held him tightly, whispering soothing words in an attempted to calm him down.

The days passed by slowly, it wasn't long before it was known that Roxas had been raped. The only thing was that only four of them actually knew who it really was that did it, them being Roxas, Axel, Demyx, and of course Xemnas. One good thing was that everyone seemed to be taking pity on the boy other than laugh at him, or think of his disgusting, or a million other things Roxas was afraid of them doing. He was taken off mission duty, and a few of them came by the his room asking how he was doing and if he needed anything. Xigbar even came by and gave him a nice pep talk, and said that if Roxas needed anyone to talk to that he was always available.

The antibiotics seemed to be working, for the fever was gone after a couple of days, and his anus wasn't burning nearly as much. The stool softener helped get out the build up of stool that had settled in his rectum, and made bowel movements much less painful. Axel and Demyx had taken turns sleeping on his floor to make sure that he got sleep, and that someone was there just in case he had a memory relapse in the middle of the night.

Roxas eventually was able to keep down bland foods if he didn't eat that much. But he still refused to talk about what happened, his friends didn't press on it, knowing that he would come around when he was ready. What really confused them was that Xemnas didn't seem to be acting any different, even around Roxas. It was almost like in there superior's mind, it never happened, Roxas really was raped on a mission and not by him. This all made them wonder, what had come over Xemnas to do such an uncharacteristic thing. They may never know.

Two weeks after the event, Roxas was pretty much completely healed physically, though physiologically he had a long way to go. The Key of Destiny finally decided to take the first step in the direction of freedom, "Axel," he started, he and the red head were sitting on Roxas bed playing a board game, "I think I'm ready to talk about what happened."

Axel sighed with relief, and he leaned back against the wall getting comfortable, "I'm your listening ear."

A red bandage is what you put the wound to keep it protected, so that it was not get any worse, but if you keep a wound sealed it will never heal. Time to take off the red bandages and give the wounds some air, and sometimes you need more than just a band-aid.

"Now the healing can begin."

This was written in honor of my deceased mother.

God rest her soul

When I was growing up with my siblings, and we would get a cut, my mom would give us a band-aid. But she would always tell us that we would have to take it off eventually, otherwise the cut wouldn't heal. She always referred to it as taking off the red bandage. I never figured out why she called it that before her early death, but I guess that it meant that the band-aid turns red from the blood that comes from the cut.

"You can never keep anything sealed forever. When are you going to take off your red bandage?"

This is how I'm going to end it. Because I don't know anything about rape therapy; I've never been raped, and I don't know anyone that's been raped, so I don't feel I have the right to write a story about the initial healing process of a rape. I was very nervous about posting this story.

This story has been in the making for months, and months, and months. I wrote it with a vague intention of posting it, but when the rumor's of the game 358/2 days started flying around I was thinking that I would probably never publish it. Then when the game came out, I thought it was never going to see the light of day. So after some pushing from my cousin Crazysnakelover, I decided what the heck, so here it is. Hope you liked it, don't forget to leave reviews.