A/N: Yes, I'm alive. I still do not own anything Square Enix. Sad, I know. Anyways, this potentially could be the long awaited (by me at any rate) last chapter. It can be taken that way. Or you can wait for the optional epilogue, read it, and then most likely slaughter me in a messy and violent mass of carnage. Onwards ho though.

Roxas wanted to kill something.

He really hadn't needed to hear details about bat guano. He really really could have lived without learning about Demyx's encounters with strange items found in the trashcans of various bathrooms. With all the horrors his ears had been exposed to in the past hour, his stomach should not have been growling to rival Cid when some security guard under him skipped shift.

And he was bored again. After proposing their whole truce and causing all the planets to skid to a halt in their orbits in order to prevent ennui, Axel had gone and fallen asleep. Well, ok, granted it was some time after one in the morning now according to his watch. But that still did not solve the problem of Roxas's rapidly declining mood. Again.

Soft rhythmic breaths, not his own, paced his thoughts. Roxas found his eyes lingering on the redhead's slumped figure or, more specifically, his face. Axel did look rather sweet asleep. Awake, he possessed an air of suspicion, both directed towards others and by them towards himself. The tracing of his eyes and jaw were sharp and angled. Asleep, his strut and smirk turned up absent and Axel became more than capable of inducing maternal instincts in those of either gender. Taut muscles released and expression softened from cocky to calm.

Regardless of the reader's pace in finishing the above paragraph, these contemplations rushed through Roxas's brain and obliterated his boredom for approximately five seconds. Left once again with nothing new to do or think about, Roxas's eyes drifted and locked onto the music player clutched loosely in Axel's lap. He stared at it for a few moments before realizing how close his gaze was to a certain part of Axel's anatomy. Roxas blushed, but his hand still darted out to tug at the small black device. It switched owners readily but Roxas was still forced into a half-crouching position in order to not pull the still humming earphones away from Axel's ears.

He nearly snorted out loud at the song title on the glowing screen. "Seriously?"

RAPE ME, the black letters retorted. The steady drum beats of Nirvana played mutedly in the background to support the claim. Roxas stared at the title, artist, album that sat as miniature letters, ran his eyes over them a second time, then found there was very little else to stare at. Tentatively, ever so gently, he pressed down on a shiny button with an arrow pointing towards the left and prayed that nothing would alter the sound. The screen dissolved into a pulsing menu. Axel stayed asleep.

Silently expressing a wry sense of gratitude that something had gone right so far, Roxas scrolled through Axel's playlist absently. It was a very long list and inevitably, the words began…to…blur…

-

Axel cracked open one eye, noted that it was too bright, and closed it again. Both eyes then immediately flew open when he realized that his shoulder should not naturally have something heavy upon it. There was a faint scent of lavender and ivory soap as well. And not that he had ever claimed to have Zexion's freakish bloodhound nose, but that smell had definitely not been present earlier.

All his questions subsided when a mess of blond strands and tufts came into view. And then a new dilemma reared its mischievous head and winked at him. He found his arm lifting to wrap around Roxas of its own accord and immediately snapped it back down. There was no guarantee that Roxas was in a slumber deep enough to not immediately awaken upon feeling an arm encircle him. And there was no way in the deepest dankest pits of hell that Axel was risking dissolving whatever sense of camaraderie they had finally built up. One seriously lacking thus far, in his opinion, but still a mile further in the right direction than it had been a day ago.

Now that's more like it.

-

What's going on?

Roxas opened his eyes and saw nothing. His vision was filled with black no matter how hard he blinked or where he looked. Wait. Wasn't I with… "Axel?" he called out tentatively and his voice didn't echo, just cut out in an abrupt silence, which was somehow disturbing. "Anybody?" After that, he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to hear the lack of noise that made up the nothingness.

"Roxas?"

He turned around, startled, and stared when the same pitch black met his eyes. But he had heard… "Naminé?"

"Over here." And Roxas turned his head and nearly jumped when he saw the girl standing where he had previously been looking. "What's going on?"

She didn't seem to hear him, but merely began walking forward without replying. Her blond hair was slightly longer, brushing just against her shoulders, and the ends more ragged. Also, her white dress was unlike anything Roxas had ever seen her wear before. But, in any case, she walked towards him until he could make out the finer details of the jagged edges of her dress and the delicate fabric flowers sewn into her sandals. She walked past him a short distance, paused, and looked over her shoulder.

Roxas stepped back in bewilderment. For he had a brief glimpse of Naminé smiling sadly at him, eyes wide and blue, before her face changed, lengthened and tanned, and droplets of green coloring fell into her eyes and they were now sea green. Blond hair darkened, swept upwards into a messy gathering upon the head. She was taller, stance cockier, before she—he shrank again, hair darkening even further into an ever changing shade of dark blue, lilac, and grey, locks falling forward to obscure half of the paler face. Ice blue eyes sharpened into yellow, glowed into orange, and the changes were blurring into one another. Roxas clutched his head, but his eyes remained fixed on the rapidly transforming figure, retinas aching at the multitude of flashing colors. Orange, blue, green, blue again, grey, yellow, but black, predominantly black.

And one color suddenly jumped out at him, a shade achingly familiar by now. "Axel," he mouthed.

Poisonous green flashed and stayed and so did bleeding spikes of hair and pale skin, abnormally stilted and stretched figure. Axel grinned at him. Roxas frowned because for the third time since entering this blank blank place, he was unnerved. Axel's grin was slightly distracted, definitely not a smirk, and was that misery he saw? The redhead, unaware of the confusion he was wreaking in the boy, turned his entire body to face Roxas, hips swaying with his unnaturally natural grace. His grin softened at the corners. So smiling now, a grave sad smile, his lips moved and Roxas heard the husky voice too intimately considering the literal distance between them.

"Don't worry; I'll save you, Roxy. Don't think I won't."

Wait! Tell me what's going on.

-

Axel, in a miraculous change of habit, did not blink one eye hazily at the sudden light beyond his eyelids nor did he swear and throw the closest available item at it, but kept both eyes shut instead. The light burned at his retinas behind the fuzzy veil of his lids. His restraint was wasted when the iciness of the water dumped over him for the second time that weekend made him jump. Jump as much as he could, that is, with Roxas curled against him, and swear colorfully. He awoke completely with a snarl. "Damn it, Demyx! I'm gonna kill you! Got it memorized?"

"You two look so adorable!" was his only reply and he scowled, flicking the bird at the musician, before glancing to his side. Roxas had been shocked awake by the bucket of cold water as well and was glaring blearily at the shadowy figures in the doorway. It took him a moment to realize the doors were open and Axel had to smirk at the sudden transition from Roxas's do-you-have-a-death-wish grumpiness to oh-my-god-we're-saved shock.

"Oh my god. We're saved." Roxas's eyes were wide for a moment longer before a connection was made in his brain and they narrowed into annoyed slits. "Wait. You're Demyx, aren't you?"

"And you're Roxas, nice to meet you at last, how'd you do?" Demyx paused in his exuberance and took in the dangerous gleam in the smaller blond's eyes. He squeaked and hurriedly disappeared from the doorway, metal bucket he was carrying clanging loudly against the wall.

The elevator doors began sliding shut and both occupants sitting on the plush carpet lazily watched it do so. Eyes the color of envy and sorrow met and twin smiles curved beneath the respective orbs. Let them close.

And they did. Were. Until a pale hand caught the edge of one of the doors and the mechanism paused, then obediently slid open again. The reason Demyx had aborted his plan poked his head into view, indigo-tinted hair not quite obscuring the exasperation on Zexion's face. "Could you two continue your silent conversation outside? I need to drag this moron home."

"I'm not a moron!" came the retort from beyond the doors. Zexion's one visible eye rolled heavenwards but he said nothing else, gazing expectantly at Roxas and Axel.

"Aw, and here we were getting to be such good friends." For Zexion and Demyx's benefit, Axel's tone bordered on sarcasm, but the wink he tossed Roxas was not. Roxas acknowledged it with a twitch of the lips before pushing himself off the ground. He was not halfway up before the redhead beside him jumped up and extended a hand. Roxas stared at it, balanced precariously on one palm, and decided there was no harm in grasping the offered appendage firmly and pulling himself up. Axel held on a beat too long. "Guess I'll see you around then, Roxy?" A question in those green green eyes.

Roxas nodded and those eyes sparkled.

Zexion cleared his throat and Axel turned his head with a wicked smirk restored. "Zexy, they have tampons for that sort of thing, you know?" Ignoring the irate splutter, Axel tossed a mocking two-fingered salute and dragged a slightly resistant Roxas out of the elevator.

-

Guess I'll see you around then, Roxy?

Yeah. I'll be waiting.