Axel was placing books on the shelf at the little book store he worked at, Zexion had started the place with Lexaeus's help, it turned out the 'Silent Hero' was also a rather good 'Silent Businessman'; The two had been kind enough to offer Axel a drop, as means to help distract the depressed red head from his own miserable thoughts. Though it did serve to pass the long hours and days of his new life, it did nothing for his thoughts. Recently he had begun to remember his life before the Organization, back when his name was Lae and he and Isa had been children together in Radiant Gardens. But of all the memories of his past life, he realized he and Roxas had been connected long before the Organization. Lae had once met a boy who looked strikingly like Roxas, an exact copy of the Key of Destiny, in fact the two of them, Lae and Ventus that is, had hit it off quiet well before everything in the worlds went to hell. Axel had realized then that he had loved Ventus or Roxas, who he was very sure had been one and the same, long before he had become a Nobody and forgotten all about his life as Lae.

Axel ran a few long fingers down the spine of a book he had just pushed into place, 'Alice in Wonderland' was its title, the titled brought on a memory from his Organization days; The mission he had gone on to Wonderland with Roxas, the same mission in which he had realized he could feel, the same day he had realized he had feelings for the blonde keyblader. He recalled that day as though it was yesterday, the sun had shown brightly that day, though it was pleasantly cool in the forest of Wonderland. He and Roxas had just completed their quota for the day and retrieved the optimum number of hearts, defeated the rouge Solider Heartless that had been terrorizing Wonderland and were on their merry way home; When it had come from no where, the largest Darkside Heartless the two had ever seen.

He and Roxas had turned to flee, but found their way blocked, they had tried to portal and found it impossible; So they did the next best thing, they attacked the Darkside. The fight was hard too, Axel recalled, remembering how tired he had been getting and they had only just half defeated the Heartless; He recalled Roxas struggling to keep going. The Darkside had been ruthless and struck Roxas at his weakest moment, in mid-air, sending the blonde flying and slamming with a sickening thud against a nearby tree; After which he had layed unconscious at its base.

Axel had felt outraged, a whole new wave of strength had suddenly welled up inside his body and he had attacked the Darkside with vindictive furry. He remembered delivering the final blow and landing behind it, looking back with a satisfied smile as it started to lumber forward and remember the slow motion feeling as he looked past it at the blonde who had found consciousness and was standing right in its path. Axel could practically feel the blood drain from him at the memory of the fear he had felt, the fear of losing the blonde forever. The red head had rushed as quickly as possible between the Heartless feet, wrapped his arms around the smaller, yet slightly more built frame or the blonde Key of Destiny and braced himself for the impact.

They had both been knocked out cold and when they had woken Axel had found himself laying on the ground in the middle of that forest with Roxas leaning over him, face extremely close to his own, though now he could not seem to remember the faces exact details; Which sent a wave of pain through Axel. Was he forgetting Roxas already? With a sickening jolt he found he could not even recall the exact color of the small boy's eyes or the his hair either, could not even recall the sound of his voice. Axel bit his lip hard, drawing blood, though he did not notice it, as hot tears flooded his eyes and raced down his face. Green eyes blinked back the tears, he could not let his friends see him like this, it would only end in unnecessary and tiring questions.

The red head layed down the books he had not yet shelved and rushed to the door that lead outside, "I'm taking a break!" He called back, before racing down the crowded streets of Destiny Island, the evening sun painting the sky a brilliant orange behind him as he raced to that secluded little beach; He's escape from the world.

The next day Roxas stepped off the Gummi Ship, lifting his eyes to the darkening sky of Destiny Island, his new home. Behind him Sora and Riku stepped off the ship, coming to stop on either side of the blonde boy, "Welcome home Roxas!" Sora said, grinning happily, Riku nodded. "Yeah, welcome home Rox." The silver haired boy said, Roxas smiled back at the two in turn as King Mickey stepped up to join them. "We have already found a house for you on the other side of the island from here, its a smaller, much newer community. Or so I was told, it was Cid who picked the place for you." The mouse said, leading the group of teens through the town.

It was not to awfully long before Roxas found himself in a tiny little house, partly secluded from the little community by a forest of palm trees, on a cliff over looking a lovely little white sand beach. Roxas explored the house for sometime after bidding Sora and Riku goodnight, promising to have breakfast with the two once morning came; Sora had kindly given him the address to, not his own home, but Riku's apartment since it seemed the two would be moving in together quiet soon.

The blonde found himself in the upstairs bedroom, which to his surprised pleasure had a balcony over looking the beach below. He was standing out on the balcony, enjoy the light breeze, which ruffled his messy and slightly damp blonde spikes. He had discovered earlier someone had stocked his new home with new clothes and had taking a shower to freshen up, he was now wearing a rather stylish jacket that had black sleeves, a light yellow vest with black and white checked lines running all the way around it, lined in a deep red with a red hood; The jackets base ended just below his chest and the sleeves ended just past his knuckles, just the way he preferred. On his left hand was the familiar black and white rings he had had both in his life as Ventus and his life in Twilight Town, on his right hand was a black half glove with the tips of the fingers cut off. Beneath the jacket was a simple form fitting black beater that came to a stop just past his hips, his legs were clad in a loose pair of green cargo pants, a lighter green skull on the right knee and lastly he wore a simple pair of black and red sneakers.

Though it was late at night Roxas was in no mood to sleep, he had energy to burn after his body had been comatose for nearly nineteen years. The blonde was looking up at the moon when movement on the beach caught his eyes and he looked down to see what it was, to his surprise he found a person was making there way toward the dark moonlit waters of the ocean. Roxas raised a brow, who on earth would be up this late at night, and on the beach no less? Curiosity getting the best of him, Roxas went down stairs and exited the house making his way down to the beach