Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.
Title: Waiting For A Prince's Kiss
Rated: PG-13
Word Count: 2,072
Romance: Roxas x Sora
Notes: This takes place in those last few minutes before Sora and Roxas merge. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.
Summary: Just how did Roxas merge with Sora to wake him up?

I've never been kissed. Roxas stopped before he had taken more than a single step towards Sora. The thought rang almost hopelessly in his mind. It was true, he realized a heartbeat later. There was a lot he hadn't ever done. There was a lot he would probably never have the chance to do, either.

He stared up at where Sora slept on so soundly. Roxas still wasn't certain entirely of the bond between the two of them. What DiZ and Naminé had said only confused him even more. Heknew they were linked somehow. But all of their talk of Nobodies and being whole again had went right over his head. He was somehow half of Sora? He still didn't entirely get that.

Had Sora ever been kissed by someone? Had he even wanted to? Roxas thought perhaps he had. Some of the memories that flickered through his mind in ghostly half-images indicated that. But Roxas wasn't certain of if, of who, or of when. Only that it hadn't happened yet. He was as sure of that as he was of the fact he hadn't kissed anyone himself.

Roxas took another step, then stopped again. It wasn't right. It wasn'tright that he had to give up everything for someone else? Why couldn't they both live? Sora had to have lived without him before, and he'd lived without Sora, so they weren't necessary to each other, right?

As much as it felt like the right answer, it also felt like the wrong one. He couldn't be sure anymore. Everything he'd thought that he'd known about himself had been wrong. He didn't even have the life that he'd thought he had. It had all been a lie…all for someone else's benefit. For Sora's. For the worlds. Both. Neither.

He wanted to scream and hit something. But he'd already done that to the computer, and that hadn't accomplished anything. I wish some of those weird silver things would show up. Or even Axel again. For a moment, he could almost feel the weight of two Keyblades in his hands. Oathkeeper. Oblivion. The names rang true in his mind.

God, he hated this. His mind was a jumbled mess of true and false memories, of delusions and deceptions. He had no idea of what was real anymore.

The Keyblades. They were real. That he'd been a part of Organization Thirteen, that was real as well. He remembered that much, though it wasn't as clear as he hoped it would have been. And he knew that Axel was…had been…was…he didn't know anymore…his friend. His best friend.

A half-formed memory flickered by, of someone with shimmering silver hair, but a name escaped him. The sense that whoever it was, was also his best friend, didn't. No. Not my friend. His. Sora's.

Couldn't he have anything without it being tainted by Sora first? He glared up at the crystal flower with Sora in the heart of it. Was this even the real Sora? It hadn't been the real DiZ. But he also felt it didn't matter. What he had to do, what he would do, would affect the real Sora the way it was supposed to.

A third step, once more a halt. He could probably jump up to Sora from where he was. It was as easy as a breath. He'd always been athletic…well, Sora had been. He got that from him, too.

There was nothing that he could call his own. Not even his friends. They'd been another lie and a deception, a cheat. Just something to keep him satisfied and out of the way, unquestioning of the limits and boundaries of his…nonexistence. He wasn't sure why, but the word felt right. Like so much else that he didn't understand but accepted anyway.

His eyes stung a little, as if he were holding back tears, and he wiped at them unthinkingly. This was getting stupid of him. Did it make that much of a difference? He knew one thing that was true, above all the rest: he was Sora. Sora was him. He. Whatever. They were the same person, just a little…bisected. It was time to end that division.

A quick jump was all it took and he was there in front of Sora. The other kept on sleeping, breathing deeply and quietly, without a single flicker to indicate he was aware of anything outside of his closed eyes. Roxas stared at him and licked his lips a bit uncomfortably. Despite the ill-fitting clothes and the air of innocence that hung around him, there was something unbelievably attractive about Sora.

There also had to be something really sick about that. This was supposed to be another part of himself. The original him. And here he was thinking about how good he looked. Roxas had never thought he thoughtthat much of himself.

But the facts were, Sora was pretty good-looking and Roxas couldn't take his eyes off of those lips or stop himself from wondering if that spiky brown hair would feel quite the same as his own did when he touched it. There were other difference between them, weren't there? They weren't twins. They were like a coin that had been flipped. One heads, one tails…

And right now, he wasn't sure which of them was which.

He reached out gently and touched Sora's cheek. Warm. He'd somehow expect it to be cool, as if Sora were made of glass or wax. Instead, living flesh met his questing fingers. If it wasn't real, it was the best duplicate that could be imagined.

His fingers dropped down briefly towards Sora's lips, and his heart skipped a beat or two as those lips parted ever so softly at his touch. Was Sora going to wake up without him needing to do anything? What would happen if he did? How to explain anything…everything to him?

But nothing more happened. The eyes (Roxas knew they were the blue of the sky behind their closed lids) stayed closed. The breathing kept on being as regular and even as could be. Roxas relaxed a little himself. What had to happen was only a few moments away, but he wanted to savor his remaining freedom as much as he could.

What are you going to do when you wake up? He wished there were some way that he could leave Sora a note or something. Anything that would mean Sora would know about him and what had happened. But there was nothing. Maybe he should have asked Naminé for a spare piece of paper and something to write with. But he suspected that might not have done any good either.

He kept on staring at Sora. The minutes began to tick by slower and slower. How was he to do what he had to? A few more explanations and a few less taunts might've done DiZ good.

I wonder… He touched Sora's lips again and once more they parted briefly, almost as if Sora were waiting for something. For a kiss.

He recalled what he'd thought only moments earlier. That he'd never kissed anyone before. Maybe…it was strange but who knew? And even if it didn't work, who would know? It was just the two of them in here, and Sora was asleep!

He swallowed a little, nervous despite all of that, and remembered the story of Sleeping Beauty. Princess Aurora, a part of Sora's memories whispered to him, along with a flash of a beautiful girl in a magnificent gown. She'd been awakened by love's first kiss. Roxas scarcely knew what love was. It had vaguely existed in his mind as a concept, something he'd thought he'd have to think about when he grew up.

At least it wasn't something he'd have to worry about anymore.

Roxas clenched and unclenched his fists, then started to lean forward a little. He could do this. It wasn't that difficult. It was just a kiss. It didn't mean anything. Only an experiment, just to see if this was what it took to reunite them. What he'd do if it didn't work, he had no idea.

Was that Sora's breath he felt on his lips? Real or imagined, it sent chills down his spine. He reached forward and touched Sora's shoulder with the tips of his finger for a moment before he actually clasped it, pulling the other…his Other…that was the right word, he thought…closer to him. Sora made no real response. Roxas hadn't expected one.

What would Axel think of this? The question danced through his mind, and he hesitated. As far as he could tell, Axel wouldn't have cared one way or the other. Faintly stirring memories of their time in the Organization together weren't enough for him to make any sort of decision about it. And in the long run, it didn't matter. That was all the past.

He knew why he'd wondered, though. Some part of him didn't want to do this. He didn't want to give up being separate. So anything and everything that could delay him would crop up in his mind.

He couldn't keep this up forever. He had to do it. There was the faint, almost unnoticeable feeling that time was running out. There were things that Sora had to do, not the least of which was just wake up so he could start to do them.

Roxas's grip tightened on Sora's shoulder just a little, and he moved in again, feeling that soft breath one more time. He'd read about how someone's breath was fragrant or sweet or like honey or any number of extravagant descriptions. Sora's breath was just…air. No scent, nothing. But it was the breath of life itself: life suspended.

He didn't think he'd ever had so many questions. At the start of the week, everything had been perfect in his life. All he'd been worried about was summer drawing to a close and the upcoming Struggle match. Then everything had begun to happen and now that seemed about as important as the meanderings of a cloud across the moon. All because of Sora. Because of him.

Find out the answers, Sora, he silently asked the sleeping figure as that breath drew in and out so close to him. He hesitated again on closing the minute distance between them. "Find out. Don't let yourself be lied to," he whispered out loud. "Don't be me all over again."

He could only hope that Sora heard him somehow. He probably hadn't. He knew that Sora trusted people as naturally as he breathed. That had caused him trouble in the past. It would continue to do so. But Sora wouldn't be Sora if he wasn't like that.

Now. It had to be now. The feeling of right washed over him, and he moved in quickly, sealing his lips on Sora's. A kiss of love, a kiss of need, a kiss of promise, it was all of those and more. He wanted to be one with Sora, to be whole again. It was what he had wanted since the first time he'd awakened, whether he remembered it or not, and now it was something he was claiming with both hands. He might've said with all of his heart as well, but that might have been a bit much.

Both of his hands were on Sora's shoulders now, and he kept on kissing, even as something else began to happen. Was he fading? No, it was more than that. His eyes were closed, though he didn't remember closing them, and when he cracked them briefly, he could see his hands melting into Sora. They were becoming one.

He couldn't have lifted his lips from Sora's if he'd wanted to, and he didn't. This beat every kiss he'd ever heard of completely hollow. It was everything he'd ever wanted and then some. Parts of him he'd never dreamed of were being filled. He was becoming Sora, Sora was becoming him. Naminé had been right all along.

He could never have told someone else when it ended. Perhaps it never did.

In a mansion outside of Twilight Town, the real Twilight Town, Sora opened his eyes to the sound of his friends calling his name, and for the briefest of moments, less than the span of a heartbeat, he thought he saw a pair of blue eyes, and felt the touch of something soft on his lips. Almost as if he'd been kissed...

The End