paixaorpg | An Old Friend [Completed]

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An Old Friend [Completed]

Character(s): Roxas and Axel, closed
Content: After a bad ending to an outing with Timon, Roxas stumbles into someone who seems eerily familiar.
Setting: Somewhere in the Northeast quadrant of the city
Time: mid-afternoon, immediately after this thread
Warnings: Angst. Tears. Fighting. This...isn't going to be pleasant for either of them.

Roxas stood there, dumbstruck, watching Timon take off. He'd never seen the meerkat get so angry before...if the boy had known that would happen, he would have just told Vyers no. He hadn't meant to hurt Timon's feelings...

He didn't move from the bench for a few minutes, eating his ice cream. Each bite, it got saltier and saltier, until finally Roxas couldn't stand it anymore. He got up and threw it in the trash, not seeing a "W" on part of the stick that had nothing left on it. He looked down the road where Timon had gone, and shook his head. It...probably wasn't a good idea to go back to the apartment right now. Not if the meerkat was still like this when Roxas made it inside.

The other direction, though, didn't really have anything interesting. There were a couple of shops, but none of them sold stuff that Roxas liked. He didn't have any money with him anyway, he'd spent it all on the ice cream. "I'll just have to go somewhere else after a couple blocks," Roxas said to himself. He started down the road that eventually would take him to the apartment, but as he passed the bench he'd been sitting on with Timon the meerkat's words echoed in his mind.

"You might not have feelings, but I do!"

Roxas's breath caught for a second. How could...he not have feelings? He could laugh, he could get angry, he could cry...weren't those supposed to be things that feelings made you do? The boy gave a small sigh, almost a groan, as he continued on his way. Great...more things people were saying about him that he didn't understand. Was it really so hard to just explain everything to him? What were they so afraid of?

The boy was barely looking where he was going anymore, paying barely enough attention to which direction he was going to keep from walking into benches. Unfortunately, people weren't so cleverly avoided, and Roxas found himself bumping into someone he hadn't even realized was there.

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Since his meeting with Xion, Axel had found it nearly impossible to sit still. Since she clearly wasn't going to provide him with Roxas' location, he had taken matters into his own hands, putting whatever pressing matters the Organization had, on hold. This was far more important, anyway.

It wasn't that he didn't believe XIV when she said that he forgot everything. He just... needed to see it with his own eyes to believe it. Of course, he had promised to keep the information that she had shared with him under wraps, as well. Knowing that she was from the future... it was possible that she could provide him with even more useful tidbits along the ride.

So far, he was turning up empty-handed in the Roxas hunting game, and every area he searched, his temper was wearing all the more thin. Encasing himself in a hallway of darkness, he swept over the next location, green eyes floating over the scene for any sign of blonde. Of course, finding a blonde in Paixao was like finding a needle in a haystack...

"You might not have feelings, but I do!"

Hello. What was this? The outburst had caught the redhead's attention pulling his hood over his head, he drifted off into the darkness again, re-appearing right in front of the culprit he was looking for.

Talk about luck.

"Finally." he said, exasperation in his voice, his face still hidden.

"Whoa!" Roxas stumbled back, but didn't lose his balance. This was the second time he'd run into someone in the last month. Well...not really. That Sora guy had run into him. "Sorry, I wasn't...paying attention..."

Suddenly all thoughts of Timon were gone. That coat. What was it about that black coat?! Why did it look so familiar? And the voice, he knew that voice too! But who was it?! Another step back nearly had Roxas falling, dread welling up inside him. Something about this wasn't going to end well.

"Who are you?!" he asked desperately, his frantic gaze trying to find a way out through the crowd. Wait, black coats. "Are you with the Organization?" He took as defensive a stance as he could, but he wasn't holding anything to fight with--and he didn't remember how to fight in the first place.

Why was this guy so intimidating? What was making Roxas so scared of him that he was almost frozen in place?

Somewhere, deep inside of himself, in a place long forgotten, Axel had been clinging to that last bit of chance. The last shred, the slimmest possibility that all of this wasn't true. If he didn't know any better... someone would have maybe told him that... was 'hope.'

As this sensation left him, crushed by the words "Who are you?!" he felt himself beginning to well up with frustration. Who had taken his friend from him?! Who was filling his head with these fantastical ideas?!

"Organization? And just what is it you know about those guys? Huh? Do you remember them?" he asked, irritation beginning to creep into his words.

"Remember them? Why would I remember them?" That was right, Xion had said they were both part of that group! Roxas sought for any faint glimmer of who this voice belonged to, even a hint of a memory, but there was nothing there at all. Whoever had his memories, the only thing he knew anymore was about that ice cream, and that had only made things worse.

That sense that he should be scared wasn't subsiding either. It was getting worse, and the fact this guy was sounding annoyed made Roxas's heart start beating faster. The crowd no longer mattered. It was just Roxas and this stranger in the black coat. A stranger who was getting angrier every second the boy was even near him.

"Man oh man," he shook his head, "Talk about Blank with a capital B." Slowly, at his sides, Axel began to raise his arms to shoulder height. "And to top it off, you don't even remember me!"

From underneath his hood, Axel's eyes narrowed. "Well this time... I'll make sure you've got it memorized!"

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Seemingly from nowhere, his chakrams appeared in his hands, spinning with flames until he gripped them in the middle. He darted forward, his anger influencing his actions now, desperate to land the first blow. As he shot forward, the quick movement was enough to push the hood back, falling from its resting place on his head, revealing his hair and face, all in one swift movement.

Panic. Fire. Light. Impact. The four rushed through Roxas's head so fast he didn't have time to process them until he'd been thrown backward from the force of the blow. He had just enough time to throw up his hands before the guy rushed straight at him, the sound of his shout, and of metal clashing and of sparks flying assaulting his ears hardly milliseconds later.

...Metal? Roxas brought his hands down, and opened his eyes. His right hand held a weird, giant...key...thing? "Huh? What is this?" The heavy object almost pulled him off-balance. He gripped it with his other hand too, and he held it back, standing sideways.

Ready to fight back now, he looked up. There were still embers trailing in the air, luckily none of them coming from him or his clothes. But the bright red that drew his gaze wasn't from the flames. Red hair, green eyes, tattoos right under them...

Roxas knew he wasn't going to win this fight, magical giant key or not.

The Keyblade.

Amnesiac or not, Roxas was still Roxas. Still the Organization's number XIII. The Key of Destiny. "Hahaha!" a trail of laughter followed Axel back to his striking position as he recovered, he seemed to be taking joy in this now. Perhaps it was the appearance of the Keyblade, or maybe it was that look in his friend's eyes. Even if he forgot everything, deep down... yeah... this was definitely still Roxas.

"You remember how to use that thing?" He didn't wait for an answer before lifting his arms high in the air, encasing the two of them in a ring of flames, just in case... Roxas was planning to end the fun early.

"Guess you better learn fast! C'mon!" he shouted, throwing a chakram straight towards the other as a diversion, as he followed quickly behind to deliver a kicking strike of his own.

The chakram was blocked thanks to Roxas's lucky reflexes, but the kick came out of nowhere. The blond was sent reeling with a scream of pain, stars shooting across his vision from the force of the blow. He thrust the key at the ground to keep from falling, and that only barely helped.

But he didn't have time to sit there and catch his breath. He charged forward the instant he regained his balance, and jumped into the air holding the key high. If he wasn't knocked away, it would come down on his adversary's shoulder.

Despite the vehemence of his attacks, there was a silly sort of grin spreading across Axel's lips. He was actually having fun with this. Regardless of this strange desperation within him for Roxas to remember him -- this was the most time he had spent with his friend in a long time. "Hahaha!" he laughed again as the blonde was knocked away, striking a pose as his chakram turned full circle, almost as a boomerang would, returning to the grip of his right hand.

As the keybladist shot forward looking for an opening, Axel spotted his target immediately, and brought up the chakram in his left hand to block the attack with his own weapon. There was another great clang as metal met metal. "That the best you got?" his smile seemed to widen now that Roxas was up this close.

There was a glimmer of excitement in his green eyes. "Burn, baby!" he yelled, his twin blades bursting into large flames, a great deal of energy going into the blast, with the intention of knocking the other away.

The blond's eyes went wide as his attack was blocked so easily, and he was thrown head over heels as the flames hit him full force. He screamed in pain as his body was propelled backward, all of his weight hitting his right shoulder as he slammed into the ground. The key clattered away from him, laying on the ground in the empty space the crowd had left for the two combatants.

He stood slowly, stumbling, then suddenly the key appeared in his hand with another bright flash of light. It dragged him forward with its awkward weight, his sound of surprise echoing between the buildings. He didn't fall, but with his weakened body it was close. He looked back toward his attacker, his face stern and ready, but his chest was heaving up and down with each breath. He wasn't going to last much longer.

As Roxas was shot back, VIII straighted his posture, even going so far as to dust off his shoulders. "You sure are rusty," he commented aloud, shaking his head in disappointment. "Man. You sure are lucky it was me that found you instead of one of the others. Imagine what they'd do to you, heh."

Looking ahead, Axel's eyes narrowed in an almost playful manner. "What's with that face?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. "You wanna try and land another hit?" his smirk widened a little. "Looks to me like you're running outta steam there, Roxas."

"Why do I get the feeling I'd rather not know?" Roxas asked, more to the air than to his sarcastic attacker. The question did nothing to ease the tension, nor did the redhead's amusement. Roxas was about to collapse, and this guy was barely even trying.

"How do you know my name?" he asked, throwing an arm out to the side. "Who are you?!" He hoped repeating the question might actually get him an answer this time, instead of just getting him attacked again.

Shaking his head pitifully, Axel relaxed his stance. "You really don't remember," he stated, more for his own benefit than the other's. There was a pang of something that he could have sworn that he felt, knowing now for certain that his best friend really didn't recognize him. Not even a little.

He frowned, pointing towards Roxas, chakram still gripped in his hand. "The name's Axel. Got it? That's A-X-E-L."

"You're...?" No...why would his friend attack him like that? "You're...Axel...?" Roxas didn't know why he still tried to grasp for the memories that just weren't there anymore. This guy was important, Xion had said they were friends, even, and that they'd eaten ice cream together! But Roxas remembered the treat, and not his friend?

"Aren't we supposed to be..." Roxas couldn't even look at the redhead as he finished his sentence, the last word spoken softly so that it could barely be heard, "...friends?" As he said it, the blond's breath caught, making him almost choke on the word. His voice had already been just barely above a hoarse whisper.

The crowd of citizens around the two were giving them both an extremely wide berth, and the standoff they were witnessing now was only making them back up further and further, for fear that it may end in more explosions of fire. But to Roxas, the only person there was Axel. There were no other sounds but his own voice and the redhead's, and everything else in his vision was blurry and unfocused. He'd never felt so afraid...at least, not that he could remember.

"Bingo," he stated, pointing a finger at the blond for a moment. "So let me guess. Someone's been feeding you little tidbits of info, is that right?" He peered at the other under a hoisted eyebrow. It certainly didn't seem that he remembered these details on his own. But the question now was... who exactly was whispering these things in his ear?

"X-Xion...told me..." There wasn't even an attempt to make eye contact. Roxas couldn't bear to look at Axel's face. Those green eyes were so accusing, so angry...it was like Roxas had taken something important from the redhead, but of course the boy couldn't remember what it was.

"She was the first person I met...when I woke up..."

That certainly didn't make things any better -- the fact that he couldn't even look at him. This was the kid that he trusted more than anyone -- the guy that he shared almost everything with and the first one who had ever -- made him feel somehow complete again.

"Xion," he echoed, somewhat thoughtfully. Even if she was keeping a few secrets of her own, Axel knew that there was no way she would even think of betraying Roxas. But to not be included in these dealings... maybe that stung a little, too.

Not quite as much as being forgotten mind you, but...

"Well, she got that little detail right. So now how's about you just pack up your things, and come back to HQ with your ol' pal, eh?"

"Wha...what?" Back to HQ? Just...like that? Roxas shook his head. "But...I don't remember anything..."

"And everyone...they keep saying really bad things about the Organization..." But...if Roxas had been part of it...and Xion still was...

Xion didn't seem like she was a bad person, though. And Axel...was his friend, and he was part of it too...

Without warning, Roxas clutched his head, the Keyblade clattering to the pavement. "Aaagh...AAAAAGH." All this was too much. Without his memories, Roxas couldn't handle being pulled so far in two different directions. He fell to his knees, catching himself on one arm, but the other still holding his temple.

An eerie, high-pitched noise cut through his ears, making him shout in pain again.

About to counter with, no doubt, another witty retort, Axel was taken aback by the sudden scream emitting from the boy. His green eyes widened, as he could have sworn he felt the sensation of something... panic? No. He wasn't capable of anything like that.

"H-Hey!" The redhead bent down, unsure of what exactly he should do. Hesitating, he eventually reached forward, placing a gloved hand on Roxas' shoulder and grasping onto his friend awkwardly. "Hey, c'mon Roxas! What's wrong? Snap out of it! Hey! Can you even hear me?"

The pain let up a moment later, leaving the boy's breath labored and heavy. Roxas came back to his senses to find Axel's hand on his shoulder, and he quickly jumped back with a small shout and summoned the big metal key.

"Axel..."

Roxas blinked. He didn't even know why he had said that. He let the key...thing...disappear again.

"How could I go back with you...if I can't even talk to you without my head hurting like that? I don't even know what just happened." The blond stared straight into Axel's eyes. "I have to know who I am first." He looked down at the pavement. "Maybe once I know that...I'll come find you."

What...What was he saying? This guy had just attacked him out of nowhere, even though he was saying he was his friend! Why would he ever want to be around him again?

Not good. He wasn't going to come back? Of course, the sight of the Keyblade dis-and-re-appearing this whole time wasn't foreign to him. In fact, he chalked it up as just another fact of the matter. It hadn't really sunk in yet that Roxas didn't remember anything.

Frowning, Axel knew his pal could be just as stubborn as he could. The kid probably wouldn't come back until he'd found the missing pieces, even if returning was what was good for him. If any of the others found him in this state...

"Bad plan," he waved it away with a hand. "If you won't come back 'til you get 'em... Then I'll just have to do some searching of my own,, too. If I find anything, or if you do -- we use the journals. Got it?"

"...Journals?" Roxas had no idea what Axel was talking about. "...What journals?"

No one in the apartment had said anything about any journals, not to him. This was starting to get really annoying, someone bringing up something he should've been told about, but never was...Had it been like this before he lost his memories, too? Was that why everyone was treating him like this?

And a full out facepalm had Axel seeing stars momentarily. "You lost that too? Great, just wonderful..." he trailed off, crossing his arms over his chest. Things were just getting more and more complicated. If that journal wound up in the wrong hands -- well, he didn't really want to think of the possibilities.

"All right. Then this is what we'll do. One week," the redhead held up his index finger between the two of them, "and we'll meet back here. I'll dig up whatever I can, and -- we'll see about finding that missing property of yours, too."

He nodded, cementing the fact. "Keep it under wraps though, or next time -- I won't go so easy on you," the way he said it had a bit of a joking undertone, but one couldn't be too sure by the smirk he sported, or the slight spark in his eyes.

"One week..." the blond repeated. "Right..."

Roxas looked down at his hand, where the metal key suddenly reappeared. It wasn't as much of a surprise this time, though.

"I'll see you then...Axel."

Something about the idea meeting back up with the redhead just felt right, though Roxas couldn't put his finger on just why.

"And DON'T. BE. LATE," each word punctuated with the hand he still held between them, before finally relaxing, and crossing his arms over his chest again. He shook his head, allowing a pool of darkness to take shape behind him, that he seemed to just sink into.

"You're gonna owe me big for this one," he muttered under his breath -- and was gone.

Roxas looked himself over. His shirt was scorched, and there were blisters forming where Axel's fire had made contact with his skin. He had bruises where he'd hit the ground, and he ached everywhere. There was hardly a single part of his body that didn't hurt, and this huge key was steadily becoming heavier and heavier. He closed his eyes, and willed it to go away, back to wherever it had come from. A flash of light with a few trailing sparkles accompanied its disappearance.

For all he tried, Roxas really couldn't understand why he was feeling better now. He was injured, exhausted, and would probably have nightmares of Axel's attacks for a week, but...he was somehow glad that he'd gotten to meet the redhead. Of everyone...Axel felt different. It was almost like how he felt when Xion was around, but not quite the same. He didn't really know how to describe it, but for now his mind was just a little more at ease.

"I'm sorry I couldn't go back with you, Axel..." he said, more than just a twinge of guilt tearing at his voice as he spoke. He looked down at his hand, wondering, now that he had time, what that key thing really was. He didn't know anything more about it than he did about himself.

The crowd, however, didn't share Roxas' sense of calm, and were still keeping far clear of him. The blond was left alone in a large swath of empty space. Scorch marks lined the ground, and a small portion of the cobblestone pavement had been damaged where Roxas had landed from his fall.

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An Old Friend [Completed]

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