Roxas has always liked to over-do things. I have a feeling, a thought I routinely shove to the back of my head, that the kid's a little bit suicidal. The two of us would go on missions together and Roxas would throw himself into the fray with the fury of a man on the edge. I always, always worry about the little blondie when he goes on missions with other Nobodies, ones who don't care about Roxas as much as I do. Of course, nobody in the Organization cares about Roxas at all, much less as much as I do. We're a pair, the two of us; all scathing sarcasm and raunchy jokes. Occasionally Roxas is able to make me get serious, and occasionally I can get Roxas to crack a smile, and both of us go home happy, or at least as happy as Nobodies can be without 'real' feelings. Which makes me wonder how Roxas and I can be best friends. I don't remember if I had any friends in my past life, and sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the whole 'friend thing' wrong, but based on Larxene's obscene jokes I'd guess I'm doing it right. I still wonder in those quiet moments together when I get the urge to just be closer to him. But that's not the point.

Today I had the sinking feeling that neither of us would go home happy. In fact, I was starting to worry that neither of us would go home at all. But we should start at the beginning, the exposition. I was never one for exposition, but they say that's how the story should start, so let's rewind to yesterday, around 11 am in the kitchen of the Castle that Never Was.

It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. You think about it for all of 30 seconds, and somewhere in the back of your head you know it's going to end badly, but the benefits always appear to outweigh the consequences beforehand. Contrary to popular belief, there was no buffet in the Castle, no huge dining room and nobody cooked meals for the whole group to gather and eat like some sort of family, or more likely like students at a school who don't really interact but spend their lunches crowded into the same room on uncomfortable benches with tables attached that aren't as clean as they look and would probably smell pretty bad if anybody used their noses, but they all know better. If you survived that sentence, you're probably wondering what it was really like, and sorry to disappoint you but it's a lot like any other kitchen. There's a table and a few places to sit, but nobody eats at the same time so there's not much need for places to sit. I had somehow gotten Roxas into a troublemaking mood to match my own, and he had actually gone along with my idea. In fact, it may not have been so much a troublemaking mood as his faith in my ability to not set things on fire, which I can assure you now was completely misplaced.

I'm sure by now you have a pretty clear idea of exactly what happened. I had decided to cook lunch for us with my powers instead of the oven or toaster. I was going to make some toast for a sandwich, grill some hot dogs, and for some reason had the craving for grilled pineapple. Surprisingly enough there was actually some pineapple in the fridge. I don't actually know who stocks the refrigerator, but I think it probably has something to do with magic so nobody has to actually venture into human grocery stores, which all things considered would be pretty weird and more than a little bit awkward.

I'll skip all of the in-between little details and tell you straight up that we set the whole kitchen on fire. Well, okay, so it was just me that set the kitchen on fire, but Roxas was sitting there at the counter watching me make a mess of everything and not saying a word. He was probably trying to teach me a lesson about making trouble, but if you've ever had grilled pineapple you know that it would have been completely worth it if it hadn't been burnt to an inedible crisp in the fire.

Demyx brought the situation under control with a little help from Vexen, but Xemnas was pretty upset about the whole ordeal. Which is why we were currently in Oriental China World, as I like to call it, on a snowy mountain top facing a million and one little yellow heartless interspersed with giant electric tower heartless that can do a surprising amount of damage if you don't kill them fast enough. Of course when he gave us the mission Xemnas made it sound like it was a very important job that he was giving us because he trusted us to get it done, and in all honesty with this many heartless around it was a very important mission, bringing us a good jump closer to completing Kingdom Hearts. I'm sure he was confident that we would survive the ordeal, but I'm also sure that there was a part of him that hoped we wouldn't. Our great leader has never been known for his kindness or loyalty. He was caring enough for us, not the tyrannical dictator outsiders would take him for, but he was far from being a loving father figure. The relationship was something akin to the president of a club: he was self-appointed, but we let him do it because he had earned the position and didn't abuse the privilege often enough to warrant a mutiny.

In any case, he sent us to this war-torn world full of hate and fear and death, spawning unholy numbers of heartless, which brings us to the important part of the story. Because Roxas was in the middle of the horde swinging his swords like a madman, paying little attention to his defenses or surroundings, and it was only a matter of time before he slipped on some drift of snow that was deeper than his current position.

I was fighting as hard as I could to reach him without getting myself killed, but it was slow enough going that I was in the middle of a circle of dry rock, not a drop of snow or even water on the ground around me. My way was currently blocked by one of those big towers. I was a few hits away from ridding myself of the nuisance when I made the mistake of glancing over to where Roxas was fighting and saw him struggling with an injury on his left shoulder. I got zapped by the stupid thing and had to catch my breath before I could finally take it out. If I hadn't been careless, if I hadn't wasted those few seconds, I might've been able to prevent the whole thing, but I was, I did, and I couldn't.

In the next few seconds everything seemed to move in slow motion. There was a sound at first, a low rumble that was almost indiscernible from the noise the heartless were making. Next I saw it, snow tumbling from the cliff above Roxas' head. Last came the pang of fear as I realized that he couldn't see it, that it was falling too fast and he would never hear me yell. There was no time for me to grab him, only time to make a portal and step through it saving myself, and I knew I would never be able to forgive myself for leaving him there. I reappeared a moment later at a higher vantage point, far enough away from the avalanche that the snow beneath my feet was firm and unmoving. Looking down I could see nothing but moving snow, a wave of dense, heavy, frozen water rushing down the mountain at terrible speeds.

It wasn't enough to crush Roxas, I knew, but I knew other things too. Like how it would smother him, and disorientate him, so that even if he could dig himself a tunnel he would never know which way was up until he hit solid ground or suffocated. Like how he wouldn't be able to make himself a portal unless he could find something to focus on in the white nothingness around him. Or worse, the possibility that rocks had fallen with the snow. I didn't even want to think about that. All I could do was watch and wait, and hope. After what seemed like ages the avalanche finally stopped and the snow came to a stop. I knew from the hearts floating to the sky that only some of the heartless had been killed in the torrent of snow. The others must have gone through their own portals, or whatever it is that heartless do when they disappear.

It was the first time I truly felt like an emotionless nobody since I had befriended Roxas. I was numb, unable to feel fear or even worry or despair. I leaped from my spot on the mountain and rolled as I hit the snow beneath. My feet sunk a good foot as I stood, and I knew that there was even more snow beneath me. In a day or so the snow will have re-settled in a more reasonable depth as animals and heartless and even the weather wears it down, but at that moment it must have been at least four foot deep, if not more. A ridge in the mountain had caught the snow as it fell. Below that ridge it would have been shallower but up here it was unknowably deep. As gently as I could manage I spread a circle of fire around me to melt the snow. If I let it sink too deeply I would risk burning Roxas, assuming he was still here and hadn't fallen off that ridge along with the snow. One foot down and there was nothing in sight. No hand, foot, or tufts of hair to let me know that my best and only friend was still here. I let the fire sink another foot hesitantly, because if he was here there would have to be some part of him at that depth. The fire had finally reached two feet below its previous level when a hand touched my shoulder and I swear I jumped at least a foot.

I spun around to find a slightly disheveled and very wet Roxas trying to smother a laugh beneath one gloved hand.

"Did you miss me?"

For a moment I could only stare. Finally my thoughts caught up with me and I was torn. I could have hit him, kicked him, burned him; I could have cried, screamed, yelled; I could have burst into laughter. I ended up hugging him. He tensed up at first, but once he realized that I wasn't planning on letting go for a while, he hugged me back. We just stood like that for a while, me heating him up and hopefully drying him off at least a little bit, him getting me wet. In that moment, I felt another of those urges to be closer to him, which was strange because I was holding him so tightly already that I couldn't think how we could get any closer, but I squeezed him anyway and kept the other thoughts in my head to myself. He squeezed back and we shared the moment for a bit before I pushed him away and kicked him in the shin, hard.

"Ow! What did you do that for, you idiot?!" He yelled at me, grabbing his shin and hopping around on one leg.

"Don't you fucking scare me like that," I scolded him coolly, then smiled widely, gesturing around us at the empty snow.

"I think this counts as finishing the mission."

He just leveled me with one of those stares of his and summoned a portal back to the castle. Turning and walking through it, he responded, "You're probably right."

I laughed weakly and waited for him to disappear completely before running a hand through my hair with a relieved sigh. We'd have to have a talk about this habit of his sometime before he really gets himself killed, but at the moment I was just relieved to have found him alive and well. I followed him through the portal, knowing that one day... he wouldn't return.

Roxas, Axel, and other characters copyright Disney and SquareEnix.