"Fire and Light" and the overall concept of "Fire and Light" are copyright Orin Drake. The characters and worlds contained within are from Kingdom Hearts, owned forever and ever by Square-Enix and Disney.
Background: For TheWonkamatic at LiveJournal for being kind and helpful and writing really hot stuff. I'd been wanting to write something with Xemnas and Axel, so this was an awesome chance.

Fire and Light
by Orin Drake

"I have noticed that you are quite... rebellious, VIII."
Axel smirked, pushing the thought that he had absolutely no idea where the conversation was heading to the back of his mind. He'd been called to the meeting room, alone. In some ways, that was all he'd needed to know. "Oh, Superior?"
Xemnas was in no mood for the fire wielder's games, and he made that clear with a look that Vexen would be jealous of. "The Key was supposed to report to me separately after the end of the last mission." He took a step closer, staring the neophyte down. "You do remember the last mission, don't you? That... debacle?"
The redhead only shrugged, keeping a tight control on his nonchalant grin. "It happens. Some worlds just chase us out successfully. So we go back when they least expect us."
"It doesn't just happen, VIII." The Superior growled, each word drawn out into verbal daggers. "That is a young, cocky, new-comer mistake. One that, albeit surprising, you have not made in quite some time." Another step found him mere inches away from his subordinate, eyes gleaming with what could almost be rage if they weren't so glossed. "I believe it to have been XIII's fault."
Axel thanked his quick thinking, expression never shifting. "With all due respect, sir. You weren't there. It was a no-win situation and I sent Roxas back before me due to his lack of experience."
"It is odd, then..." Xemnas' voice was just too soft, too smooth as he turned away, "That Saix saw the two of you emerge from the same portal in your hallway."
"Oh, that was afterward." The pyro explained away easily.
Too easily, of course. By that point in time, Xemnas was familiar. "You knowingly 'saved' him from his rightful punishment, VIII. Which, in turn, brings the punishment upon yourself."
The left corner of his mouth twitched downward, just once. Only once... but Axel felt it. He knew even though the other man's back was turned, somehow that it had been witnessed. Acknowledged. He tried, anyway. "It was my fault, Superior. My doing alone."
"But then your story changes." Xemnas' tone was nearly... amused. "From an unwinable situation to... you admitting fault." He began to walk around the suddenly serious fire starter, brutal and dictatorial and intimidating as his words continued with a sadistic almost-enjoyment. "Therefore, either you are lying to protect XIII, or you are truly at fault. Either way, you bring punishment upon yourself."
Axel's breath caught. So soon after that last little "incident"... he still had bleeding gashes on both sides of his wrists. That had been for a joke; lying was thought to be a traitorous action. They all knew the penalty for traitors.
"I won't kill you." The Superior announced smoothly, having walked full-circle around the redhead and come to a stop before him. His eyes held something more awful than cruelty--they held a dead, solid nothing. Silence, for a moment. "Remove your coat."
"Superior..?" It wasn't as if he didn't expect what was to come. He simply hadn't expected it from Xemnas.
Louder, but the tone never changed. "I said, remove your coat."
There was a defiant shrug on Axel's part... then slid both zippers all the way down and let the coat fall to the floor behind him. He saw no reason to wear clothes beneath it, always retaining a perfect body temperature with or without the uniform. He rather wished he'd had a shirt underneath, though... something, anything to keep those golden eyes from boring quite so deeply into his flesh.
"Pants." Issued like an order to kill.
The fire starter did not particularly appreciate that tone. He let that dazzlingly fake grin splash over his face, giving his eyes a cold gleam that could almost be real. "Are you sure you don't want to take you ti--"
"You will obey." Words that echoed off the walls, even if they weren't shouted. "Or the Key will suffer your punishment. I'm rather certain it would be harder on him."
There was nothing underneath. Axel had no more defenses, and... that look. That look of dead hunger. Something about that look... He swallowed bile and a sound that may have been suspiciously like one of disgust, then unbuttoned and let his pants drop with one motion.
Xemnas appeared as pleased as the man ever did, nodding to indicate he wanted the garment completely removed. That much done, he ordered, "Gloves."
"No." The redhead responded immediately.
"Aren't you in enough trouble, VIII?"
"I keep the gloves." Axel insisted, trying to keep an awkward note of desperation out of his voice.
"Fine." Xemnas stepped forward. "I shall remove them myself."
Chakrams appeared--then were knocked away promptly by the sheer force of the Superior's control of his element. Axel felt his back make a very solid impact with the wall, not even managing an instinctual yelp before hands grasped his wrists and tore the gloves from him.
A long moment of careful inspection. "I see that you still bear the marks that I gave you."
Axel growled as his wrists were squeezed harshly, the large, half-healed puncture wounds through both wrists aching terribly. He would not react. He would not give Xemnas the satisfaction.
But give and take came easily to the Superior. He released the redhead's wrists, taking two very slow paces back. "On your hands and knees. Like the little slut you are."
That one stung. Not that he'd ever allow himself to show it, not that he'd ever admit it even to himself...
When his orders were not immediately followed, Xemnas felt the need to repeat himself a little more effectively. In one swift, fluid motion, he swept forward and took hold of that pretty red hair, fisting his hand in it and yanking. At the cry of pain and surprise, he gave a mild kick to the backs if the younger Nobody's knees that send him straight to the floor in a painful kneel--fist still firmly grasping spiky red hair. "I said," Xemnas growled with a lack of emotion so severe that the sound itself was hollow, "On your knees. Now I'll be forced to make sure you don't defy me again."
Axel opened his mouth for some retort--a laugh, a curse, anything--but found his cheek pressed firmly against the cold stone floor, open and vulnerable and exposed--
Two fingers thrust inside him harshly, causing the ever-smirking Flurry of Dancing Flames to shriek. The searing, stretching pain was sharp and spreading, making it impossible to take a breath. There wasn't rhythm, there wasn't sense to be made, there was no warning given and certainly no mercy granted; fingers were removed from his body, but not from his hair.
One. Two. Three. That was all it took to for Xemnas to force himself inside. Seated absolutely, completely, within. Had Axel ever actually believed in a higher power, every potential ounce of faith was crushed beneath the agony. His legs gave out beneath him, but Xemnas would not let him fall--strong hands moved to clamp around the redhead's waist, pushing him forward just before yanking him back.
Axel knew he'd screamed--the Superior really liked screaming, sick bastard--but he couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything over the ringing rush of blood in his ears and his own constant reminders that Roxas would be safe from this.
He was called back to full, hearing consciousness by a vicious slap to the side of his face. "Pay attention, VIII." Xemnas hissed into his ear, rhythm increasing ever so slightly. "Do not make me call VII to... assist me."
He would not rise to the bait. He would not. Instead, he managed an angry growl between thrusts, "The least you can do... is call me by the name... that you gave me..."
How a man's voice--even a Nobody's--could be so fucking calm while committing such a brutal and viciously sexual act was beyond anyone's explanation. "Oh, but VIII. That would be to acknowledge your existence. And you, pathetic thing, do not exist."
What in all of existence or non-existence prompted Axel to speak was immediately an abandoned mystery, left to people with hearts and lesser creatures with more time on their hands than tasks to accomplish. "Roxas knows I exist."
Laughter. So cold it seared the flame right out of the body beneath. "Of course Fire and Light would be drawn to one another. They are... curious about the nature of the other."
All at once, the world felt like it was collapsing in on them. Axel could only slump forward, wasted and spent in every way but the one that the Superior was seeking. Every thrust was a new spike of agony, aimed specifically for the purpose. He only knew because of the words. Because of the voice so still and quiet he couldn't not hear them echo in his skull.
"But surely you have heard that expression of curiosity and the cat?" Not really a question. Never really wanted the answer. "Curiosity killed the cat, VIII." And then the Darkness leaked in, drawing Nothingness along with it. "And then it destroyed his world. Everything he'd ever known or loved or wanted or needed or understood, gone. Eternally gone, with no hope to repair it. Even his own heart. Leaving the cat an empty, barren shell. Curiosity does not pay."
Axel couldn't figure out if Xemnas was talking about him... or himself. He was just glad that his body was already shivering with pain, so the odd quiver of something far too close to terror was entirely hidden. He felt a shudder deep inside, then a jet of aching, wet heat with the last rough thrust. Finally. Finally he could wash this all away.
That voice interrupted. That too-calm, too smooth, hypnotizing melody of emptiness breathed across the fire starter's ear. "The Key does not belong to you. He never will."
Not strength enough to move, no. But strength enough, conviction enough, to respond. "He sure as hell doesn't belong to you."
"You will learn, VIII. Everything belongs to me. Even Nothing."
Left alone, and empty, and cold. He would send a Dusk to get him a potion in a moment. Fire and Light... yeah. Curiosity killed. But it was worth it, wasn't it? Besides... they were already dead.

---

I was having a bad day. This helped enormously. Plus, Xemnas' little retelling of "curiosity killed the cat" makes me so happy. Guy's a nutjob. That's why we love him.