A/N: This is a crazy!Axel story to semi-match my crazy!Roxas story ('Little Piece of Heaven'; I posted it last night. It's AU, unlike this one).

So, um... enjoy? I guess? If, y'know, you're like me and enjoy this kind of twisted stuff, although this isn't all that twisted. I wish it was; I wish it was like Axel's Ashes's stuff. Now that girl can write~ ;D

"Dammit, Axel!" Roxas growled as he entered Axel's room and saw the mess. "Did you cut yourself again?"

"I just don't understand why we bleed black," the pyro murmured as he stared down blankly at his ebony-covered hands. Not too far off, blood dripped from the sharp-edged tips of one of Axel's chakrams. "Every other human bleeds red… so why is my blood black?"

"You should know by now that you're not human, Axel," Roxas retorted as he tore off part of one of the many extra t-shirts Axel has lying in a drawer. He stooped next to the redhead and began tying a tourniquet around his wrists to stop the flow of the charcoal blood pooling in the gashes in the palm of Axel's hands. "You're a Nobody, which means you don't have a human body with human innards. You're hollow, like me and everyone else in the Organization."

"But I look human!" Axel roared, his bloody hands tightening into fists. "And I feel human! I love you, don't I? And isn't that a human emotion? Sometimes, Rox, I need to make sure. I need to check what's under my skin to make sure that I'm not human, or else I forget and think that I am. I forget about being nothing and think that I'm…"

"Real?" Roxas finished for him as he uncurled Axel's other hand and started to wipe away the gruesome puddle. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're not real. And nearly killing yourself all the time from blood loss is a bad way to come back into contact with reality." He shook his head and reached for Axel's chakram, whose tips were stained with the redhead's blood. "Look, I'm going to go clean this down in the bathroom. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, okay? And when the blood clots, take this and bandage your hands." He handed Axel the remainder of the white tee as he stood and exited.

Left to himself, Axel mused that the grand castle around him wasn't there. He pretended for a moment that he and Roxas could be someplace else, like a real couple without an organization to live by. He imagined a beach with palm trees and white sand and little crabs flitting about… And one of the crabs would get in his way while walking, and he would step on it lightly, irritating it. And it would snap it's claws at his feet, and his toe would be cut, and he would feel real pain, different than the dull pain he felt now. And from his small wound dark, wine red would sprout and he'd bleed like someone who had their own DNA and red blood cells and muscle tissue and bones and internal organs such as a beating heart.

When the fantasy finished with Roxas putting a small band-aid on Axel's toe, the door of his room burst open and the fantasy melted away. A different, inhuman, grumpy-looking Roxas entered, and dropped the cleaned chakram at Axel's feet. "I can't keep covering for you like this, Axel. Sooner or later someone else is going to find out and they might think you're a senseless as a Dusk. And if they do, then you'll be booted from the Organization, and… and I'll be left alone."

"I thought you wanted to leave? If I get sacked, then you can leave with me."

"It's not that simple, Axel. If Xemnas was the one to find out about your, uh, instances of mental instability… well, then he might kill you. And then I would have no one," the keyblade wielder said in a hushed voice.

"Oh…" Axel replied softly. He brought the younger boy into his arms. "I'm sorry, Rox," he soothed as he ran black fingers through golden hair. It temporarily dyed it a muddy brown shade, but Roxas hardly noticed. He was used to the bloody touches by now; Axel has done this enough for him to be. "I promise I won't cut myself again. And if I slip up, I'll clean u straight away so that no one knows about it. Alright?"

Roxas grunted something akin to an acceptance, but Axel couldn't tell. All the blonde cared about was having Axel alive and somewhat sane; he was content so long as things remained in that condition. If they changed, he would probably leave. Even now the comfort was wearing thin, because many members of Organization XIII were getting restless and careless and in short, diminishing in number. Even before Roxas joined he was told of the members who were destroyed at Castle Oblivion. The knowledge made shivers run down his spine.

"Drip, drip, drip…"

"Huh?" the blonde asked around Axel's whispers.

"Drip, drip… Can't you hear it, Rox? It's the sound of water leaking from a spout. The sound of time running out," Axel lamented as his grip around Roxas tightened to a suffocating degree. "Dripping blood, like grains of sand. I've been thinking about it for a while now: one by one, we get eliminated by either fighting Sora or fighting ourselves. Soon, it'll be my turn."

"And what about me?"

"You?" Axel repeated with a small grin. "Nah, you're fine, Roxas. You're safe. Sora won't fight you; he is you, isn't he? So you'll just join up with him when the time comes. As for me… well, I dunno what I'm going to do. I mostly work for myself, so who knows where the hell I'm headed. I'll just get there when I get there."

"Yeah, that's all good and fine, so long as you don't end yourself before you get there. Got me?" Roxas reprimanded sternly, his finger poking Axel's firm chest and his lips inches from the other's.

"I got it memorized, Rox," the redhead whispered before kissing Roxas. He knew he should be tasting Roxas at first touch, and yet all he tasted was charcoal blood empty of life.