Hey hi hello! x) This is my second AkuRoku fic! It takes place sort of around 358/2 Days, except it doesn't really follow the same storyline, of course. Enjoy!

"Roxas?"

Axel cautiously stepped into Roxas' room, staring at his friend. The blond boy was staring straight ahead, sitting on the floor with his black Organization XIII coat gathered in a pool on the ground around him, itching at his chest. Axel's eyes trails along the smooth contours of his spine, and he cleared his throat, snapping back into focus.

"Roxas?" He asked again, when his friend didn't reply. "Are you... alright?" He could hear nails scratching skin. Scratch. Scratch, in a steady, rhythmic motion. Slowly, he stepped towards him, regarding the other boy as if he were some sort of beast that might spring on him at any moment. Axel eased his way in front of him, and tried his best to make eye contact. But those blue eyes were staring straight ahead at nothing, and Axel had to look away, feeling like he might be lost in the emptiness there.

It was then that he finally glanced at where Roxas was scratching, over and over. The skin was red, raw, and a few lines were even specked with fresh blood. Alarmed, Axel gasped and ran forward, kneeling down in front of him.

"Roxas! What are you doing to yourself? Stop it!" His voice climbed into a shrill note of panic. "What's wrong?!"

Still, those sad blue eyes gazed through him. Axel grabbed his wrist as firmly as he could, and Roxas let out a loud yell as the rhythm was broken. The two of them struggled against each other for a moment, before finally Roxas collapsed with a sigh, burying his face in Axel's shoulder. He made a noise which nearly sounded like a sob, although Axel knew it couldn't be, considering the fact that neither Roxas nor himself, for that matter, had a heart to feel such pain with.

"Roxas..." He whispered, his voice trembling. Something twisted inside him, burning hot like a fire in his chest. He placed a black-gloved hand on Roxas' bare back as gently as he could to avoid startling him. Once again, his eyes trailed down the path of the other boy's spine, for no apparent reason. He squeezed his eyes shut in a hard blink and pulled Roxas closer to him. "What were you doing?" He asked. It was not concern he was feeling - no, surely he couldn't feel that. But he knew, by instinct, that this was wrong, that he had to help.

"I was trying to look inside..." Roxas moaned, his voice muffled by the fabric of Axel's coat. "I thought maybe... maybe I could have... Maybe I really did have a heart..." He emitted a chuckle that was much darker in tone than his usual laugh. "So stupid of me. I've always thought I'd feel it, if I had a heart... But how do you know? How do you know? I just wanted to see... Just wanted to see... just wanted to see..." he mumbled this a few more times, rocking in an almost manic way. "I just wanted a heart." There it was again - that sound, like a sob. Axel's face contorted with the odd pain he was feeling again.

"Come on... It's alright now... I'm here... It doesn't matter to me if you have a heart or not, Roxas. It doesn't matter. All we can do is live our lives as best as we can, and try to forget our flaws." Even as he said them, he knew the words must sound terribly corny.

"How can I forget? How can you forget?" He lifted his head to stare into Axel's emerald green eyes accusingly. "None of us were supposed to exist..." He trails off into a whisper and lowers his face again, clutching at the fabric of Axel's coat.

"Let's get you back into your coat and get you some rest," Axel says, changing the subject to avoid a reply. What was he supposed to say to something like that? Like he didn't wake up every morning feeling emptier than when he fell asleep, like he didn't feel like he was falling apart and full of some sensation he couldn't even name when he was around Roxas? Nothing. There was nothing of comfort to offer.

He helped lift Roxas to his feet, feeling his cheeks heat up as the other boy stood and his coat remained on the floor, leaving every inch of his perfect skin exposed. "H-here!" He stammered, handing Roxas his coat and helping him get it zipped up again. He then guided him over to the bed, holding his shoulders with a soft grip, easing him into laying down.

"Get some rest, and please... no more scratching," he murmured, turning to leave.

"Axel, wait!" Roxas' arm reached out, grabbing his hand before he could step away. "Please... don't go... Stay with me? I'm scared."

"No, you're not," Axel replied, swallowing hard. "But I'll stay with you." He leaned against the wall by the bed, crossing his arms and staring down at his friend.

"No," Roxas protested, "Be close to me!" He lunged towards him with a frantic urge and let out a pained gasp with the movement, clutching at his chest where the scratches were. He fell back onto the pillow, panting, his blue eyes pleading.

"Alright... for you." Axel grumbled, although he would never admit he did take some sort of pleasure in crawling into that white bed. He let out a loud sigh that he nearly choked off when Roxas curled up into him, clutching his coat like an infant might hold a stuffed animal.

"Stay with me," Roxas whispered.

"I will."

"Promise?"

Axel nodded, relaxing his head on the pillow. "Promise. Nobody else is going to babysit you, like you apparently need. Keep you safe from yourself."

"...Shut up." Roxas pulled the blanket over his head and shivered. "I know I'm a freak. I'm sorry you had to see that. Sometimes I just... break." He sighed. "I just wanted to know if I had a heart..." he spoke the last sentence so quietly, Axel wasn't sure if he was meant to hear it, so he held his tongue and chose not to speak anymore. After a while, he could tell Roxas had fallen asleep by the way his breathing grew more gradual and steady. And, eventually, Axel himself drifted into a dreamless slumber.

He awoke to silence. Slowly, Axel opened his eyes, and sat up with a start upon realizing his arms were empty. He scanned the room, but Roxas was gone. Swinging his legs over the side and jumping to his feet, Axel dashed out of the room, nearly running directly into Saix right outside the door.

"Is your own room not sufficient enough, number Eight?" Saix questioned suggestively, a look of disapproval in his eyes.

Axel felt heat creep into his face. "No, um, do you know where Roxas went?"

"He's out on a mission. Got up early and said he was gathering hearts in Twilight Town."

Axel frowned, "You shouldn't have let him go alone."

"And why not?" Saix crossed his arms.

Axel shook his head, starting to walk away. "It's nothing. I'll go... help him." With a flick of his wrist, a swirling Darkness Door opened up in the air in front of him. He shrugged when Saix gave him a cold stare, and stepped through the portal.

His feet landed on solid ground, and, with another simple gesture, the door had vanished into thin air. He was standing high atop the familiar Twilight Town clocktower, alone. Since the worlds weren't all necessarily in the same time loops, it didn't surprise him to see the dim light of dusk creeping in. With Roxas nowhere to be seen, he let out a heavy sigh and plopped down, dangling his legs over the ledge of the tower.

He closed his eyes and laid back, folding his arms behind his head to act as a cushion. Oh, how some sea-salt ice cream sounded delicious. He could go get some, but he knew he would feel guilty not waiting for Roxas.

He stared up at the reddening sky, lost in thought. Bet cha don't know why the sunset's red... He was just starting to think that Roxas wouldn't show up at all - maybe he didn't want to meet up after his mission today? - when he heard the whirring sound of a Darkness Door opening to his left. He turned his head slowly to see Roxas standing there, Keyblade in hand. The weapon vanished with a flash, but Roxas didn't move.

"Why didn't you wake me when you left?" He finally asked, to break the tension.

Roxas moved his hand up to his chest, scratching at the same area as before through his coat. Axel winced.

"I know you waited for me to fall asleep," he replied. Axel couldn't tell if it was meant as an answer, or if he was just stating the fact.

"So?"

"You didn't have to do that."

"You wanted me to stay with you. You wanted comfort. So I stayed."

"Fine." He lowered himself down, sitting on Axel's left as usual. "Did you bring ice cream?" The look on his face as he asked was so hopeful and - Axel had to admit, adorable - that he felt bad for not bringing any.

"No, sorry," he apologized. "I didn't know if you were coming at all. I didn't want it to melt. It would be a waste - hey, quit scratching," he interrupted himself as Roxas reached under his coat again.

"Sorry..." he muttered. "It really itches now. Hurts." He slouched forward, balancing his elbows on his knees. "That was so stupid of me," he added quietly.

"Just don't think about it," Axel told him.

"Oh, yeah, cuz that's easy," Roxas scoffed.

Axel frowned and sat up, staring at him. "Sorry. Just trying to help."

"Okay."

They sat there in silence for a few more minutes. The sun on the horizon before them blazed a bright red. The town below was eerily silent, save for the distant echo of a train whistle below in the station.

"Axel?" His voice pierced the silence so suddenly it made the redhead jump.

"Yeah?"

"I heard a new word today. Another one I'd never heard before. When I was on my mission, I saw some people talking."

"What word was it?" Axel secretly loved teaching him new words. Since Roxas had no memories prior to the Organization, no life aside from one of work and isolation from society, there was a lot he didn't know. Seeing his friend get excited over a new concept or idea, and trying to describe it to him, gave Axel pleasure. It was something special that only the two of them shared.

"Love," Roxas answered, pronouncing the word a bit strangely because it was foreign to him.

Axel's jaw dropped a bit, but he snapped it shut quickly. Love. He'd heard of it many times. Love was supposed to be an emotion that came from the heart. A feeling. He'd only heard about it here and there, usually in passing conversations himself. He spent the majority of his time with the Organization, and none of them wasted time talking about emotions they weren't even capable of feeling.

"Well... there's a lot of different concepts of love..." he started off slowly, "Usually I've heard it's like... a really big attachment to someone. Or desire. Do you know what that is?"

Roxas shook his head.

Axel sighed, running a hand through his bright red hair. That was kind of an awkward thing to have to explain. "Well... Desire is usually when you want to... um... touch someone.. a lot... in certain ways..." There was that heat in his face again. He swallowed a lump in his throat. What was wrong with him? Was he sick? He turned away, staring at the thin clouds hanging in the sky overhead.

"Certain...ways?" Roxas asked, tilting his head slightly to the side. Oh, the innocence! Axel cringed, cursing the thoughts coursing through his mind right now. Images of Roxas' bare skin yesterday... He shook his head. Lust. Everyone knew that lust didn't come from the heart. But he couldn't describe Desire like Lust. It wasn't the same.

"Um, er, yes," he stammered.

"Like this?" Roxas poked him in the face with his index finger, squishing his cheek. Axel froze, surprised, and then cracked a huge smile, grabbing Roxas' wrist and moving his hand back down.

"No, um, not quite."

"Axel?"

"Yeah, Roxas?"

"Your face is red. Why is it red?"

Axel released Roxas' wrist and buried his face in his hands. "Nothing! It's nothing! I don't know!" Flustered, his turned his back to him, pulling his knees up to his chest. What was happening to him? He'd heard of something like it before - the "normal people" called it blushing. Apparently it was something that happened to your face to show nervousness or embarrassment. But he felt neither of those!... Or did he? All he'd been told as long as he could remember was that he had no heart. And because of that, he couldn't feel any of the same things that someone with a heart would feel.

Confusion - oh, he definitely could feel that. Particularly right now. Everything inside him felt so mixed up. Lately, he'd been having all sorts of abnormal thoughts. Something burned inside of him whenever Roxas would look at him a certain way, or when he would stare off and lick his ice cream popsicle all the way up, slowly, and get some on his chin because he wasn't paying any attention. When he was telling him new words, or explaining new things. And when they sat up here, all alone together, watching the sunset...

Behind him, Roxas yawned loudly. "I'm tired. I wanna go back home," he announced, stretching.

Axel turned back around to face him. "You can go, if you want."

"Come with me," he pouted.

Axel smiled. "I will. Go on. Just give me a minute."

Still wearing a pout, Roxas got to his feet. "Alright. Hurry up, okay?"

He nodded, maintaining his smile. Roxas opened up a Darkness Door and walked through it, disappearing in a matter of seconds.

"Do you remember... when we first met?" He spoke to the empty air. He unzipped the top of his coat a few inches and took off one of his gloves, setting it in his lap. He placed his bare hand inside his coat, on the upper left side of his chest. He held his breath, holding perfectly still. Trying to feel. Wanting to feel, because that would explain everything.

His steady fingertips may as well have been upon the chest of a statue. Nothing. Nothing. No soft pulsing. No heartbeat. Nothing at all. He sighed, placing his glove back on his hand and zipping his coat back up. What had he expected?

Slowly, he got to his feet, and, through a new Darkness Door, followed Roxas back to Castle Oblivion.

Thanks for reading! Please review, it really helps me with my writing when you do :3 Hope you enjoyed. Tell your friends to read it, haha. x) This one will have more chapters very soon I hope!