Axel hadn’t noticed at first.  On the one hand, it made sense: since coming back, they hadn’t had a second to breathe besides that single hug, overcome with a sense of relief and desperation to know they were all really here, all three of them Nobodies who were always someone to each other, that it wasn’t a dream.

But on the other hand, Axel couldn’t stop himself from thinking he should have noticed anyway.

“Axel,” Roxas said, trying to pull his hand back. But he didn’t make eye contact, and that was more than enough for Axel to start putting the pieces together.

“I did this,” he said flatly, thumb running across Roxas’s wrist, just under his palm.  There it was, a seam on the skin where the leather of his glove suddenly lost all traction, slipping like ice on skin that was new and stark and empty.  A burn.  “Didn’t I.”

Roxas shook his head, and for a second, Axel was afraid he was going to lie.  “It’s not bad.  And besides, it was a lifetime ago.”  Axel pulled on his wrist, and Roxas followed this time with a sigh as Axel raised both their hands to look at it more closely.  “It’s not even a scar,” Roxas said, almost at the same time Axel realized it. “I think that I got my body back in exactly the same state it was when I…”

Axel traced the edge of the burn again, feeling a little better knowing it would heal, but still feeling like he couldn’t breathe.  Inhaling smoke—it happened a lot when he was training with his powers originally, careful enough with the fire not to burn himself but too careless to avoid the fallout.

“Still,” he said, briefly meeting Roxas’s eyes before he had to blink, like staring at the sun.  “Sorry.”  Even if the mark faded, Axel was sure he wouldn’t forget.  He winced.

“Hey,” said Roxas.  Axel looked up just in time to see Roxas moving to flick his forehead, but not fast enough to dodge.  “No sorries, or I might start thinking you didn’t want me back that bad after all.”

And that was so twisted that for a second, Axel wondered if it was possible for a heart to pop like his joints did.  “Roxas,” he whispered.  The rest of the words wouldn’t come, trapped somewhere in between his heart and his throat that were now both knotted up.

Instead, he took Roxas’s arm in both hands and lifted it until it was level with his face.  Roxas followed the motion, settling his hand on the side of Axel’s face. Encouraging, since it wasn’t like they’d ever really done this before, even if the feelings weren’t new.  But rather than indulge in that, Axel turned his face and leaned forward, just enough to brush his lips over the patch of too-smooth skin.

“I always,” he said, feeling Roxas shiver as his skin broke out into goosebumps from that simple touch, “want you here.  And I missed you, even when I screwed up.”  He kissed the spot again, and a weight lifted from his chest as the words Roxas hadn’t heard before were finally, finally out in the open.  Roxas’s eyes were wide, full of wonder as he stared at their hands, before they crinkled into a smile.  “Got it?” asked Axel.  His smirk slid right back into place on his lips.