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Kingdom Hearts Final Mix+ short story: Axel/Roxas lol
A while back, a few people on my flist were interested in this. Har. It's a translation of the short story that Nomura included in the Final Mix+ package. This has been done for roughly FOREVER, but I decided at the end that I didn't want it to be in present-tense, and I was too lazy to go back and fix it until someone asked about it, so. Enjoy?
All stiff phrasing and awkward paragraph spacing is to be blamed on the fact that the Japanese don't write prose very well.
He started to wake up, the dim world slowly clarifying as he opened his eyes. Inside his dreams it was dim, and in this castle between worlds it was also gloomy and dim; not so different from the dreams, Roxas thought to himself.
In the last few days he had been having a lot of dreams. But he couldn't remember the contents of his dreams very well. It seemed like some of them were fun dreams, and others of them were truly terrible. But in the end the only thing he could recall was that every night, he dreamed. Of course, with busy day after busy day going by, it was natural for him to have forgotten some of them.
Maybe because the dreams left him sleeping poorly, he woke up with his head feeling fuzzy and heavy. Just as he started to get up from the bed, suddenly someone's face appeared above his to peer down at him.
"Ow~!"
Roxas jerked up instinctively and their heads crashed together hard. The redheaded man squatted over him, rubbing his injured forehead. Roxas sighed wearily.
"That's what happens when you appear suddenly above someone, Axel."
"What, no apology?"
The redheaded man -- Axel -- was already getting to his feet while he spoke, and he sat on the edge of the bed to look down at Roxas.
Roxas said, "I don't need to apologize. It was your own mistake, getting in my face when I was just waking up."
"After I went through all this effort to finish my long mission and get back here to my best friend, that's the greeting I get?"
"I don't remember being best friends with you."
Roxas got off the bed and turned his back on Axel, putting on his black coat and ignoring him.
Axel called them best friends. But that sort of thing was just an illusion of left-over humanity, something that didn't exist for the heartless Nobodies. Still, of everyone within the Organization, Roxas felt like he and Axel had a special closeness-- No, he definitely felt a closeness to Axel, different than the other members of the Organization, but he didn't have any idea how to describe that relationship.
"So, what do you want?" Roxas asked.
"Xemnas is calling," Axel told him, still sitting on his bed.
"What about Marluxia and the others?" When Roxas glanced back over his shoulder to look at Axel. Axel was frowning, his gaze slightly downcast. "Didn't they came back with you?" Roxas asked again, and Axel slowly raised his head to watch him intently. Uncomfortable under that stare, Roxas glanced away.
For the last several months, Axel had been assigned to a mission in a place called Castle Oblivion. Marluxia, the leader of the expedition, and Axel were assigned there, along with several other members of the Organization. It was a unique castle, with countless white rooms stretching out in all directions. The Organization wanted to conduct research there. Roxas didn't know anything about what they were researching, and he didn't have any intention of finding out. But if Axel had returned, didn't that mean that something had happened there?
"Anyway, we should go find Xemnas," Roxas said.
"That's right," Axel answered, standing up and stretching to his full height. Then he stepped up to Roxas and bumped into his shoulder. "When we're done, wanna get some ice cream at Twilight Town?"
"That doesn't sound bad." Roxas looked up into Axel's face and he smiled, just a little.
Eating ice cream in that town... It wasn't bad.
* * *
Roxas listened intently to Xemnas's tale from his cold marble seat. Xemnas had just told them that five of the Organization members under Marluxia's command had been destroyed by the keyblade hero.
"So the keyblade hero's progress has stopped?" Xaldin folded his arms.
"Losing Namine is a great blow. How do you plan to take responsibility for that, Axel?" Saix asked.
Axel retorted, "I was in a life or death situation, I came here running for my life! How does that make me responsible?"
"Well, it doesn't matter-- Why don't we hear what our own keyblade master thinks about this?" Xigbar said, staring at Roxas.
"I don't care..." He didn't really have an opinion. The keyblade-- the key of worlds.
Roxas could also wield this special key, but the keyblade hero possessing that same ability was the only way they were connected, nothing more and nothing less. Roxas only joined the Organization because he had nowhere else to go, and wasn't even sure he wanted to recover his lost heart.
"Sora," Xigbar murmured unexpectedly, and Roxas lifted his head.
Sora? He felt like he'd heard that name before somewhere.
"What's that?" Demyx asked, his shoulders hunched.
"Haha... That's right, you don't know anything," Xigbar said, smiling and chuckling. Saix snorted quietly and Axel frowned, while Demyx tilted his head uncertainly. Luxord and Xaldin, and Xemnas, all remained expressionless.
Their different reactions were troubling.
"If the keyblade hero plans to go to sleep, he has no impact on our plans. We must keep making progress towards our ultimate goal," Xemnas spoke up. His words seemed to return the atmosphere to normal after the strain created by Xigbar's comments. "Axel, take Roxas and go to Hollow Bastion. It seems that there is activity near the keyhole."
"But I just got back!" Axel protested.
"Consider it your atonement for allowing Namine to escape."
And with those parting words, Xemnas vanished.
* * *
Roxas and Axel walked through the darkness between worlds. Their destination was Hollow Bastion. The Organization had the ability to use dark corridors to travel the darkness between worlds.
"Come on-- I just wanted a break!" Axel complained as he walks along, while Roxas followed behind him with his hood up.
Sora -- the keyblades -- He was worried.
"When this is done we'll definitely go get ice cream, Roxas! Got it memorized?" Axel turned around to look back at Roxas.
"...Sora."
Axel raised his eyebrows at Roxas's murmured words. "You still thinking about what Xigbar said?"
"It's not like I want to think about it, it's just-- on my mind," Roxas told him, and stopped walking. "Axel-- you know about Sora, right?"
For a split second Axel looked worried by Roxas's question. He peers into Roxas's face.
"I don't know anything, and if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Why?"
"--Because you don't need to know," Axel told him, and then turned his back on Roxas. Right now there was no need to tell Roxas about the connection between himself and Sora -- no, Axel didn't want him to know.
Roxas, a special Nobody -- and the keyblade hero.
He wondered if he would have to lie to Xemnas.
And, would he have to keep lying to Roxas, too?
"Axel!" Roxas called tightly.
"What is it?" Axel looked back over his shoulder at him.
"I want to know."
"About what?"
"...I don't know." Roxas ducked his head again.
He was empty -- and he didn't know anything. Something inside him was responding and he didn't know what it was, and it seemed to be making him worried, and uneasy.
"Why does the Organization exist?" Roxas asked.
"To obtain hearts," Axel answered, his answer so smooth and easy it was as if he had been prepared for it. But Roxas kept his head down.
"Well, thinking about it isn't going to do anything... C'mon, let's go. Ice cream will be waiting for us when we're done." Axel reached out and put his hand on Roxas's shoulder, turning him to face forward.
Ahead of them, the darkness opened up, connecting them to Hollow Bastion.
* * *
Axel and Roxas walked within the crumbling castle.
"Is there really anything in a place like this?" Axel murmured, but at that moment the atmosphere around them began to stir.
"...The Heartless." Roxas gripped his keyblades in his hands.
As if they had been waiting for a signal, a swarm of Heartless rushed out to surround Roxas and Axel.
"What a headache, huh?" Axel moved to stand behind Roxas, their backs touching as he held out his chakrams.
"No way this little extermination could be our mission, right?"
"Dunno!" Roxas cried in response to Axel's question, and then he leaped out, keyblades flashing. Axel whistled appreciatively.
"Niiice, Roxas~"
"Stop chattering and get moving."
"Okay, okay." Axel rushed the swarm of Heartless as well.
Between the two of them, they made a clean sweep of their enemies in no time at all. Just like that, the castle lost its dangerous aura.
"Maybe that really was our mission?" Axel wondered, tilting his head dubiously. Just as he said it, there came a sudden rustling overhead, the sound of a bird flapping its wings.
"What's that?"
There was a single birdcage hanging from the ceiling. It seemed like the rustling of the bird's wings was coming from in there.
"Shall we set it loose?"
Roxas gave a nod of assent, and then Axel tossed a chakram at the birdcage, which fell. A single crow flew out.
"So, time to go back?" Axel asked, watching the bird fly off with satisfaction.
"...seems like it," Roxas said, staring at the broken birdcage.
* * *
In Twilight Town, the setting sun sank down beneath the horizon. From somewhere far off, the sound of children playing carried to their ears. They bought two ice cream bars and started to walk slowly in the direction of the station.
"Over there?"
"Sure," Roxas said, nodding at Axel's question, and took a bite of his ice cream.
"Don't start eating before me, Roxas," Axel complained.
At that moment, a ball came rolling underfoot and bumped against Roxas's boots.
"Sooorry!" A boy rushed up to them.
"Hayner, honestly!" From behind him a girl also rushed up, and then a slightly overweight boy. Roxas picked up the ball at his feet and tossed it over to the boy and his friends. The three ducked their heads quickly in appreciatoin and then ran off with their ball.
"...They're about the same age as me."
"Eh?" Axel asked, apparently not hearing the murmured words.
"Nothing." Roxas shook his head very slightly and began walking again. A pigeon ahead of Roxas suddenly took flight, and Roxas watched it go.
The castle where the Organization lived was just like that birdcage. He just did whatever they asked him to do, without being given any information, and let the days pass by...
Yes -- without knowing anything.
Is it really okay for me to be here?
"Stop drifting off and sit down."
"Huh-- oh, okay."
They finally made it to the clocktower above the Twilight Town train station. From there they could look out over the whole town. Roxas and Axel met they ate ice cream there the first time they met, so it had become a very special place for the two of them.
"Your ice cream's melting," Axel said.
Flustered, Roxas lifted the ice cream to his mouth.
"I don't get why that mission was important at all."
"Yeah." Roxas ducked his head.
"And what was up with that crow?"
"Yeah..."
Failing to get anything more than vague responses from Roxas, Axel let out a huge sigh. "Could it be that you're still thinking about what Xigbar said?"
"Not really..." A pigeon flew by as Roxas rubbed his nose. "I wonder if it'd be fun to fly like that."
"...I guess it would be," Axel replied, eating his ice cream.
"I wonder how long we can stay like this."
Axel turned to stare at Roxas intently.
It felt like every day they just repeated the same missions. And in reality, every day the missions Roxas received were just to kill Heartless. But Axel thought that couldn't be helped. Roxas was special. He was important to the Organization, and important to Axel. And just like the Organization had decided not to tell Roxas anything, Axel himself had chosen not to tell him anything.
Wasn't that betraying Roxas?
"We might not always be able to be together." He didn't mean to say it out loud.
"Eh?" This time, Roxas stared at him.
"What, don't make that scary face at me." Axel turned away from Roxas and took a bite out of his ice cream. Roxas didn't know what he was going through. And he didn't know about what Roxas was going through, either.
"Might not always... be able to be together, huh...?" Roxas repeated.
"So we've gotta make lots of memories," Axel said, laughing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked. He was also laughing, like it was contagious.
Weren't creatures like them, without hearts, an existence of memories to begin with?
"Nothing, just..."
Just-- just that when he thought about Roxas going away, Axel thought he felt something in his chest tighten, even though he wasn't supposed to have a heart.
"Memories, huh..." Roxas said, murmuring, watching the sunset. Axel turned as well, taking another bite of his ice cream; and just like Roxas, he watched the sun go down.
All stiff phrasing and awkward paragraph spacing is to be blamed on the fact that the Japanese don't write prose very well.
He started to wake up, the dim world slowly clarifying as he opened his eyes. Inside his dreams it was dim, and in this castle between worlds it was also gloomy and dim; not so different from the dreams, Roxas thought to himself.
In the last few days he had been having a lot of dreams. But he couldn't remember the contents of his dreams very well. It seemed like some of them were fun dreams, and others of them were truly terrible. But in the end the only thing he could recall was that every night, he dreamed. Of course, with busy day after busy day going by, it was natural for him to have forgotten some of them.
Maybe because the dreams left him sleeping poorly, he woke up with his head feeling fuzzy and heavy. Just as he started to get up from the bed, suddenly someone's face appeared above his to peer down at him.
"Ow~!"
Roxas jerked up instinctively and their heads crashed together hard. The redheaded man squatted over him, rubbing his injured forehead. Roxas sighed wearily.
"That's what happens when you appear suddenly above someone, Axel."
"What, no apology?"
The redheaded man -- Axel -- was already getting to his feet while he spoke, and he sat on the edge of the bed to look down at Roxas.
Roxas said, "I don't need to apologize. It was your own mistake, getting in my face when I was just waking up."
"After I went through all this effort to finish my long mission and get back here to my best friend, that's the greeting I get?"
"I don't remember being best friends with you."
Roxas got off the bed and turned his back on Axel, putting on his black coat and ignoring him.
Axel called them best friends. But that sort of thing was just an illusion of left-over humanity, something that didn't exist for the heartless Nobodies. Still, of everyone within the Organization, Roxas felt like he and Axel had a special closeness-- No, he definitely felt a closeness to Axel, different than the other members of the Organization, but he didn't have any idea how to describe that relationship.
"So, what do you want?" Roxas asked.
"Xemnas is calling," Axel told him, still sitting on his bed.
"What about Marluxia and the others?" When Roxas glanced back over his shoulder to look at Axel. Axel was frowning, his gaze slightly downcast. "Didn't they came back with you?" Roxas asked again, and Axel slowly raised his head to watch him intently. Uncomfortable under that stare, Roxas glanced away.
For the last several months, Axel had been assigned to a mission in a place called Castle Oblivion. Marluxia, the leader of the expedition, and Axel were assigned there, along with several other members of the Organization. It was a unique castle, with countless white rooms stretching out in all directions. The Organization wanted to conduct research there. Roxas didn't know anything about what they were researching, and he didn't have any intention of finding out. But if Axel had returned, didn't that mean that something had happened there?
"Anyway, we should go find Xemnas," Roxas said.
"That's right," Axel answered, standing up and stretching to his full height. Then he stepped up to Roxas and bumped into his shoulder. "When we're done, wanna get some ice cream at Twilight Town?"
"That doesn't sound bad." Roxas looked up into Axel's face and he smiled, just a little.
Eating ice cream in that town... It wasn't bad.
* * *
Roxas listened intently to Xemnas's tale from his cold marble seat. Xemnas had just told them that five of the Organization members under Marluxia's command had been destroyed by the keyblade hero.
"So the keyblade hero's progress has stopped?" Xaldin folded his arms.
"Losing Namine is a great blow. How do you plan to take responsibility for that, Axel?" Saix asked.
Axel retorted, "I was in a life or death situation, I came here running for my life! How does that make me responsible?"
"Well, it doesn't matter-- Why don't we hear what our own keyblade master thinks about this?" Xigbar said, staring at Roxas.
"I don't care..." He didn't really have an opinion. The keyblade-- the key of worlds.
Roxas could also wield this special key, but the keyblade hero possessing that same ability was the only way they were connected, nothing more and nothing less. Roxas only joined the Organization because he had nowhere else to go, and wasn't even sure he wanted to recover his lost heart.
"Sora," Xigbar murmured unexpectedly, and Roxas lifted his head.
Sora? He felt like he'd heard that name before somewhere.
"What's that?" Demyx asked, his shoulders hunched.
"Haha... That's right, you don't know anything," Xigbar said, smiling and chuckling. Saix snorted quietly and Axel frowned, while Demyx tilted his head uncertainly. Luxord and Xaldin, and Xemnas, all remained expressionless.
Their different reactions were troubling.
"If the keyblade hero plans to go to sleep, he has no impact on our plans. We must keep making progress towards our ultimate goal," Xemnas spoke up. His words seemed to return the atmosphere to normal after the strain created by Xigbar's comments. "Axel, take Roxas and go to Hollow Bastion. It seems that there is activity near the keyhole."
"But I just got back!" Axel protested.
"Consider it your atonement for allowing Namine to escape."
And with those parting words, Xemnas vanished.
* * *
Roxas and Axel walked through the darkness between worlds. Their destination was Hollow Bastion. The Organization had the ability to use dark corridors to travel the darkness between worlds.
"Come on-- I just wanted a break!" Axel complained as he walks along, while Roxas followed behind him with his hood up.
Sora -- the keyblades -- He was worried.
"When this is done we'll definitely go get ice cream, Roxas! Got it memorized?" Axel turned around to look back at Roxas.
"...Sora."
Axel raised his eyebrows at Roxas's murmured words. "You still thinking about what Xigbar said?"
"It's not like I want to think about it, it's just-- on my mind," Roxas told him, and stopped walking. "Axel-- you know about Sora, right?"
For a split second Axel looked worried by Roxas's question. He peers into Roxas's face.
"I don't know anything, and if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Why?"
"--Because you don't need to know," Axel told him, and then turned his back on Roxas. Right now there was no need to tell Roxas about the connection between himself and Sora -- no, Axel didn't want him to know.
Roxas, a special Nobody -- and the keyblade hero.
He wondered if he would have to lie to Xemnas.
And, would he have to keep lying to Roxas, too?
"Axel!" Roxas called tightly.
"What is it?" Axel looked back over his shoulder at him.
"I want to know."
"About what?"
"...I don't know." Roxas ducked his head again.
He was empty -- and he didn't know anything. Something inside him was responding and he didn't know what it was, and it seemed to be making him worried, and uneasy.
"Why does the Organization exist?" Roxas asked.
"To obtain hearts," Axel answered, his answer so smooth and easy it was as if he had been prepared for it. But Roxas kept his head down.
"Well, thinking about it isn't going to do anything... C'mon, let's go. Ice cream will be waiting for us when we're done." Axel reached out and put his hand on Roxas's shoulder, turning him to face forward.
Ahead of them, the darkness opened up, connecting them to Hollow Bastion.
* * *
Axel and Roxas walked within the crumbling castle.
"Is there really anything in a place like this?" Axel murmured, but at that moment the atmosphere around them began to stir.
"...The Heartless." Roxas gripped his keyblades in his hands.
As if they had been waiting for a signal, a swarm of Heartless rushed out to surround Roxas and Axel.
"What a headache, huh?" Axel moved to stand behind Roxas, their backs touching as he held out his chakrams.
"No way this little extermination could be our mission, right?"
"Dunno!" Roxas cried in response to Axel's question, and then he leaped out, keyblades flashing. Axel whistled appreciatively.
"Niiice, Roxas~"
"Stop chattering and get moving."
"Okay, okay." Axel rushed the swarm of Heartless as well.
Between the two of them, they made a clean sweep of their enemies in no time at all. Just like that, the castle lost its dangerous aura.
"Maybe that really was our mission?" Axel wondered, tilting his head dubiously. Just as he said it, there came a sudden rustling overhead, the sound of a bird flapping its wings.
"What's that?"
There was a single birdcage hanging from the ceiling. It seemed like the rustling of the bird's wings was coming from in there.
"Shall we set it loose?"
Roxas gave a nod of assent, and then Axel tossed a chakram at the birdcage, which fell. A single crow flew out.
"So, time to go back?" Axel asked, watching the bird fly off with satisfaction.
"...seems like it," Roxas said, staring at the broken birdcage.
* * *
In Twilight Town, the setting sun sank down beneath the horizon. From somewhere far off, the sound of children playing carried to their ears. They bought two ice cream bars and started to walk slowly in the direction of the station.
"Over there?"
"Sure," Roxas said, nodding at Axel's question, and took a bite of his ice cream.
"Don't start eating before me, Roxas," Axel complained.
At that moment, a ball came rolling underfoot and bumped against Roxas's boots.
"Sooorry!" A boy rushed up to them.
"Hayner, honestly!" From behind him a girl also rushed up, and then a slightly overweight boy. Roxas picked up the ball at his feet and tossed it over to the boy and his friends. The three ducked their heads quickly in appreciatoin and then ran off with their ball.
"...They're about the same age as me."
"Eh?" Axel asked, apparently not hearing the murmured words.
"Nothing." Roxas shook his head very slightly and began walking again. A pigeon ahead of Roxas suddenly took flight, and Roxas watched it go.
The castle where the Organization lived was just like that birdcage. He just did whatever they asked him to do, without being given any information, and let the days pass by...
Yes -- without knowing anything.
Is it really okay for me to be here?
"Stop drifting off and sit down."
"Huh-- oh, okay."
They finally made it to the clocktower above the Twilight Town train station. From there they could look out over the whole town. Roxas and Axel met they ate ice cream there the first time they met, so it had become a very special place for the two of them.
"Your ice cream's melting," Axel said.
Flustered, Roxas lifted the ice cream to his mouth.
"I don't get why that mission was important at all."
"Yeah." Roxas ducked his head.
"And what was up with that crow?"
"Yeah..."
Failing to get anything more than vague responses from Roxas, Axel let out a huge sigh. "Could it be that you're still thinking about what Xigbar said?"
"Not really..." A pigeon flew by as Roxas rubbed his nose. "I wonder if it'd be fun to fly like that."
"...I guess it would be," Axel replied, eating his ice cream.
"I wonder how long we can stay like this."
Axel turned to stare at Roxas intently.
It felt like every day they just repeated the same missions. And in reality, every day the missions Roxas received were just to kill Heartless. But Axel thought that couldn't be helped. Roxas was special. He was important to the Organization, and important to Axel. And just like the Organization had decided not to tell Roxas anything, Axel himself had chosen not to tell him anything.
Wasn't that betraying Roxas?
"We might not always be able to be together." He didn't mean to say it out loud.
"Eh?" This time, Roxas stared at him.
"What, don't make that scary face at me." Axel turned away from Roxas and took a bite out of his ice cream. Roxas didn't know what he was going through. And he didn't know about what Roxas was going through, either.
"Might not always... be able to be together, huh...?" Roxas repeated.
"So we've gotta make lots of memories," Axel said, laughing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked. He was also laughing, like it was contagious.
Weren't creatures like them, without hearts, an existence of memories to begin with?
"Nothing, just..."
Just-- just that when he thought about Roxas going away, Axel thought he felt something in his chest tighten, even though he wasn't supposed to have a heart.
"Memories, huh..." Roxas said, murmuring, watching the sunset. Axel turned as well, taking another bite of his ice cream; and just like Roxas, he watched the sun go down.
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But, damn you Axel. You always make me cry~. D8
Organization XIII is so emo. They all need hugs.
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ahem
Thank you for posting this. ♥ Oh, Axel. OH YOU WOOBIE BOYS.
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(Anonymous) 2008-10-31 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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Even though for some reason Xion gets a free pass to their special spotno subject
It's possible it's all one scene and Xion just happened to be there with her own ice cream when the boys arrived. That clock tower must be really easy to get into. *laughs*no subject
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This made me lol very hard... and then agree. But man, reading this was actually kind of painful even if all the ideas are awesome. I AM SO PICKY.
They're such dorks. Oh man.
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I forgot how good the ideas in KH are.
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Thanks!
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Also, Axel, so frikin' GAYno subject
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...frikken memories...
and they wonder where we get our crazy "theories" from. :P
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Silly Nomura.
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A line that amused me: but he didn't have any idea how to describe that relationship.
How bout: "20 something man has slightly creepy dependence on 14 year old boy, with homoerotic undertones and lots of phallic metaphors (popsicles?). Lots of angst all around."
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And Axel did all that manipulation and killing there for Roxas, in my opinion.That's a good description. Someone should pass that on to Roxas. XD
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Once again, many thanks, I was so happy to read this!
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Go Nomura! He's like... a fanboy for his own characters.
Thank you so much for translating!
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I love you.
This totally made my weekend. I've wanted to read this for months!
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ZOMG, Axel is so twee (in the most masculine way possible) that I'm sure it's entirely intentional that he was given fire as an element.
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axel is a THE ultimate woobie and nomura is the in the cloest fanboy
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i agree about the prose, it's somewhat hacked off. but then again, it makes sense, with what them being nobodies, being supposed to feel nothing, so the blank writing style fits well.
and, omg!!!!:
"Just-- just that when he thought about Roxas going away, Axel thought he felt something in his chest tighten, even though he wasn't supposed to have a heart."
It's clear that Axel likes Roxas a lot, friendship or slash, but what always makes me sad is that Roxas doesn't seem to like him AS much, sniff.