Heartless

Chapter 22

I looked down at the blond mop of Roxas's messy hair laying against my chest. "I still love you, Rox, and I want you to know I always will, no matter what happens." I murmured against the strands of his hair. I saw his lips form into a smile, his eyes closed as if he were asleep.

He sat up and rolled over to sit next to me, holding onto my hand. "I-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence before Siax walked over to us, via dark corridor.

"I can be lenient with your breaks after a certain time, but can you at least try to do your job?" he said in a threatening monotone. "Yes, Siax." I said, trying to keep my irritation off of my face. "Where is the rest of your team?" he questioned, looking Roxas and I up and down. "We split up. They're combing the southern end of the beach for heartless, as were we." I semi-lied. "I certainly can see that." he replied sarcastically.

"Have you gotten more information on the heartless?" he asked, glaring down at us. "Well, we know what it looks like. We asked around town and we got some scale samples." I replied, annoyed as hell. "Well I certainly hope you get more than that soon. You are way behind schedule and you know what happens to those who fail major missions such as this one." he said, his tone implying death.

"Yes, I fully understand the consequences of failure. I know we'll get this mission done, Siax." I practically hissed. "Very well. Your ignorance is your demise. But be warned. We will be keeping a closer eye on you. Do your work." Saix said, giving one last glare as he backed into the dark corridor.

"Yikes, we better get on the ball then." Roxas said, standing up and brushing the sand from his clothes. "Yeah. We can hang out later, after all these heartless are gone." I replied, angry that our romantic moment had been interrupted.

*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

I gave my chakrams one strong swirl, ramming the blades into the head of yet another neoshadow heartless.

I let out a sigh as the smaller, annoying shadow heartless dispersed and flattened against the ground. As soon as they reformed, I easily sliced through them, finishing the last of the heartless on this end of the beach.

" Is that the last of them?" Roxas asked, sitting on a huge rock near the shore. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we took care of them all." I said, sitting next to him. Then, came the all consuming silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, but a pleasant one instead.

"Hey, let's go swimming!" I said, standing up excitedly. "Wait, but we don't have anything to swim in." Roxas replied. "We can just go in our underwear." I said, taking my shirt off. "Wait! But what if people see us?" Roxas asked, looking around. "Roxas, the beach is closed." I said with a chuckle, walking to the same isolated cove as before, where Siax had talked to us.

I yanked my pants off and waded into the warm water, stopping about waist deep. I was soon joined by a smiling Roxas who dove down into the waves. Before he could go too far, I reached out and grabbed his ankle, diving down to follow him. I caught him smile in the clear water and swam up to see him face to face. I smirked as he slowly slid his hands up my chest, over my shoulders, and linked them behind my neck as we re-surfaced.

Breath slightly heavy from the water pressure, Roxas brought his body close to touch mine and smiled as I slid my hands around his midsection. I smiled in return and leaned down so our foreheads were touching. I chuckled and gave Roxas a small kiss on the lips. "I love you, Axel." he breathed, closeing his eyes. "I love you too, Roxas." I sighed as Roxas tucked his head into the curve of my neck.

We stood there like that, waist deep in teh water, for a while. Niether of us really wanted this moment to end.

But, then again, neither of us were expecting a wet Demyx to come flying in to bear hug/ maul us.

"AAAAXELLLL AND ROOOXAAAAAS!!!!!!!! Heeeeey, buddies!" Demyx said as he half swam, half flew to hug attack us. "How you guys doin'?" He said, gripping us surprisingly strong for a guy his size, practically ripping me and Roxas apart so he could put his arms around our shoulders.

"Hey, kiddo, I think they were sharing a moment. Maybe we should leave and come back later." Xigbar commented, grabbing Demyx by the shoulders and pulling him back a bit. I sighed as Demyx and Xigbar talked loudly as they began to swim around us.

I rolled my eyes and dove into the water, giving Roxas's hand a squeeze before swimming away.

As I swam deeper each dive, I became interested in the various corals that grew in the bay. I watched as fiery fish darted in and out of twisted columns of green and pink coral.

Then, when I re-surfaced for air, I heard Xigbar calling "Eh, Poppets, come look at this."

I swam over, wandering what was going on. As I got closer, I was confused. He was neck deep in water that shouldn't even be ankle deep, as it was right next to the huge pile of rock. I swam over and sure enough, the water was neck deep. "Look at this." he said, pulling me underwater. Then, He pointed to a gaping hole in the side of the rock and swam through it. I swam through just as I felt Roxas and Demyx come up behind me.

I re-surfaced as I saw there was an air bubble and looked around in amazement. I swam over to the ledge quickly as Demyx and roxas re-surfaced as well and climbed up, taking in my surroundings.

It looked exactly like the caverns Saxion had shown us... no, It was in the caverns she showed us!

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an inhuman shadow flicker across the wall just before it disappeared.