{DISCONTINUED} Fire In The Streets ~ Axel x Reader (Kingdom Hearts)

Fire In The Streets ~ Chapter 4

Published: July 15, 2012

Edited December 22, 2016

Dedicated to xxKamixx, for telling me about the missions in KH: 358/2 Days and totally encouraging me to write this story! :D

RECAP:

- Raxmi did Axel's recon job with Roxas, but he sent her away when shadowy creatures appeared

- Raxmi saw Axel and Roxas fighting the creatures and learned that they are the Heartless

STORY STARTS:

  I rested my head against the tree trunk and sighed.  It had been a while since I'd walked in on the fight with the shadowy black creatures, and Axel and Roxas were still arguing about whether or not they should tell me the truth.  Frankly, they didn't have to bother - their argument was telling me all I needed to know anyway.

  "So, let me get this straight," I said finally, interrupting Axel mid-sentence.  "Those shadow things are the Heartless, and they're formed when people lose their hearts.  You're both a part of an organization that's trying to slay as much Heartless as possible.  But..." I paused for a moment, "you don't hearts...?"

  "Who told you?" Axel asked in surprise.

  "You did," I replied, staring at his chest where his heart should be.  'How in the world is he standing in front of me if he doesn't have that cardiac muscle pumping hemoglobin-infused blood around his body in pulmonary and systematic loops?  Hmm, and I tell people I'm not nerdy...'

  "Well...yeah...we don't have hearts," Roxas confirmed.

  I tore my gaze away from Axel to shake my head.  "I don't believe you.  I must be dreaming," I murmured blankly, resting my head on the tree trunk again and closing my eyes.  "Or maybe this whole day been a dream, and I'm dreaming this in my dream - like, Inception: The Twilight Town Version."  I shook my head vigorously, having confused myself.

  "Raxmi..."

   "It doesn't make sense!  Do you realise how insane that sounds?  How are you alive?  How?  How can you not have hearts?"

  Axel sighed and grabbed my hand.  He held it against his chest and said, "Feel anything?"

  I focused as hard as I could, and I could feel the thump of his heartbeat.  Unconsciously, I even felt the side of his neck to see if I could feel a carotid pulse there.  "You have a heartbeat and pulse, and yet you're telling me you have no hearts?" I asked incredulously.

  Axel leaned against the tree next to me and crossed his arms.  "Okay, you already picked up on what Heartless are from our conversation, right?"  I nodded.  "When we say we don't have hearts, it's not like we mean that we have no physical heart.  Of course we can't survive without blood and oxygen and stuff.   The term 'hearts' when we use it means the part of us that contains our feelings and emotions.  Because we don't have hearts, we are called Nobodies.  A Nobody is what remains when a person loses their heart to the darkness, which is what happened to our original selves."  He snapped his fingers, and a swaying, sleek, silver being rose up from the ground, making me jump.  "Don't worry, I won't let it hurt you.  That's a Dusk, the lowest form of Nobody there is.  There are many different types of Nobodies, some having brute strength, some skilled with magic, and some just crafty.  The highest and rarest form of Nobody is one that keeps a form that's almost identical to that of its 'Somebody'."

  "A-and that's the kind that you two are?" I said.  For a moment, I wondered if my friends had set this up as some sort of payback for breaking the promise.