Title: The Next Life

Author: Digimon Empress Yaten (de yaten)

Notes: This will be continued eventually, but it's not my top priority. I hope you enjoy it and reviews are welcome! note: the dialogue at the end came from a translation of this scene in the novels, not from the English script of the game. It's slightly different, but I like it better for this story.

Warnings/Pairings: Axel/Roxas implied, nothing else.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters, and I don't claim to own them.

It was a lazy summer night, and after the completion of their new raft, it was decided that they should christen it with a new name before nightfall. It was bad luck to leave a ship unnamed, they said, so they gathered on the dock next to the floating raft and began the debate.

"So," Kairi began, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the dock, "what should we name it this time?"

Riku sighed. "Dunno." He glanced at Sora, wondering if this raft's name was worth racing for. "What do you think, Sora?"

Sora lightly tapped a finger against his chin. "Hmm..." He gave a sudden start and clapped his hands together. "I've got it! Let's name the raft after one of our new friends. Someone we haven't seen in a while, and we can't wait to see again, y'know?" He clasped his hands behind his head and clucked his tongue. "But who…"

Kairi thought for a moment, then grinned. "Donald?"

Sora shook his head.

"Goofy?"

Another shake.

Riku paused. "King Mickey?"

"Nah," Sora said, leaning an elbow onto his hand. "Someone we have to see again, like... like..."

"Leon?"

"Ansem the Wise?"

"… Pooh Bear?"

Sora shook his head again, and his friends sighed in exasperation.

"Well then who—"

"Axel. Let's name the raft Axel."

"Axel?" Riku said, hoping his friend was making another of his way-out-there jokes.

He and Kairi exchanged looks before turning to face Sora with matching raised eyebrows.

Sora had since raised a hand to his mouth, and looked as shocked as they did. He returned their look: Did I just say that?

All three had encounters with the Nobody, and none of them were exactly pleasant.

The way Axel spoke and leered at him (but not really him) had left Sora with a strange squirming feeling in his stomach, and Riku had wanted to beat the man senseless when he talked about ripping Sora's heart out with that grin still on his face, and although she had never divulged all the details to the rest of them, Kairi's encounter was quite unpleasant as well.

She was now wary around fire, spiders and redheads because of Axel, so it was her turn to be shocked when she felt her lips tingle and curl into a smile. She became vaguely aware that it wasn't her smile. She never smiled with her lips tight and feeling strangely timid. She certainly hadn't ever smiled timidly at Sora (she only gave him goofy grins) and he certainly hadn't ever returned that smile with a slight one (he always grinned open-tooth back) and they certainly didn't nod their heads in unison for no clear reason.

Riku bit his tongue to keep from crying out when Sora and Kairi suddenly fell backwards, hitting the dock with matching thuds. A strange heaviness held Riku down, and he couldn't manage so much as a lurch when the hazy forms of Naminé and Roxas rose from his friends unconscious bodies.

"It's a perfect name," she said.

"I know."

"Because you really miss him."

"Yeah, I do. We were... partners. And we always will be, even in the next life."

Naminé tucked a blonde-red lock behind her ears. "Is this the next life, Roxas?"

Roxas considered it for a moment, and nodded. "I think so."

"Then don't you have a promise to keep?"

Roxas nodded again, a bit more hesitant this time. "Yeah, I do..." He looked up at the setting sun, thinking of Twilight Town and sea-salt ice cream and a Struggle Tournament that he never won. He sighed and prepared to return to Sora's body. He nodded to Naminé and they fell backwards.

"Let's just hope Sora will keep it for me."

Riku's eyes squinted against the sudden flash of white light, and he started forward as the weight was lifted from him.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Sora and Kairi rubbing their eyes and looking slightly bewildered.

"R-Riku...?" Kairi's hand instinctively went towards her lips. "The last thing I remember is my lips feeling weird and then just... white! What happened?!"

Sora groaned shook his head, brown spikes shuffling with the movement. "I don't know, but..." He screwed his face into a grimace rubbed his tongue with his teeth. "Why does my mouth taste like sea-salt?"

Their thoughts on the situation were interrupted when Sora began to lick furiously at his sleeve, trying to get rid of the taste on his tongue. "What did you do, Riku? Knock us out and pour salt into my mouth?!" He made another face and considered diving for the beach and licking at the sand. The taste just wouldn't go away!

Riku shook his head and tightened his jaw. He wanted to tell them what had happened, what had been said, but... Sora had always been a bit bristled by the idea of somebody - Nobody, he corrected himself - inside of him, and revealing that both of their Nobodies had simultaneously knocked them out, appeared, and talked of possibly trying to find Axel (wherever he was) would probably put them in a less-than-happy mood.

He decided to steer the conversation to Sora's ocean-tasting tongue, and both Kairi and Sora were happy to oblige with the distraction... for a while, and Riku sighed in resignation at their demand that he tell them exactly what happened.

Before the night was through, Riku told them everything.

He began by recalling the footage he watched of the basement in the digital Twilight Town…

Let's meet again in the next life, okay?

Yeah… I'll be waiting.

Silly.Just because you've got a shot at a next life…