• Chapter one -- Introduction


    Namine


    I don't really know why I go up by the train station anymore, originally it was to draw, but the scenery got boring to draw after a while. It may be because of him. Let me give a bit more clarification, I had walked up to the train station one day and happened to look at the clock tower. Sitting up on it was this guy, red hair, black shirt and pants. He had one leg up and the other dangled over the edge, one arm over the leg that was up and the other beside him and he just stared at something. I went to try and figure out what he was looking at, turned back and he was gone. So that's probably why I continue to go there, just to see if he's there. He's not always there, every few days he is and sometimes the sun glints off of something around his neck. The more I see him the more I recognize his posture as sad or longing, possibly loneliness. I've tried to see where he goes when he disappears, but a noise will distract me and I'll look for the cause then back and he's gone, no trace of him anywhere. Also, sometimes if I'm up late enough at night I'll see a fire trail across the sky, a phoenix trail. But of course, who would believe me? I don't even believe me sometimes. So here I lay in bed, staring out the window, trying to think of how to talk to him, figure out what's bothering him. As I start to fall asleep the phoenix flies by, leaving it's trail of light for a moment. I smile, putting a question in the back of my mind, why do I never see it coming home?

    Narrator


    Larxene walked home from shopping for groceries, arms full. Something fell in front of her, causing her to stop and investigate, a chain training collar. She looked up at the circling phoenix then sighed, flipped the collar up into her hand with her foot and started for an abandoned warehouse.

    "You've really gotta stop doing this." She slipped the collar around the phoenix's neck after maneuvering the bags off her arms and watched as the phoenix became Axel
    "Do you really think I care?" he pulled the collar as loose as it would go then picked up some bags to carry home. She took the rest and matched pace with him
    "You should." They walked in mostly silence. Axel said most when they were putting the groceries away
    "Why? It's not like anyone else cares anyway." He stuck a gallon of milk in the fridge
    "That's not true, just because you don't care doesn't mean everyone else doesn't either." She took out the contents of a bag of pantry items
    "Are you sure? 'Cause last time I checked everyone hated me." He slammed a box of cereal into a cabinet
    "Everyone doesn't hate you, you cut yourself off from everyone." He put his hands on the counter
    "Because everyone hates me!" he looked at her, she turned around. He decided to leave
    "Where are you going?"
    "My room."
    "No more suicide attempts."
    "Why not?" he shoved his hands into his pockets
    "I don't hate you, I just wanna save you while there's still something left to save." He kept walking, he knew that there was a line in a song that went like that and resisted the urge to say the next line. But he wanted her to take it seriously, but he didn't want to say it. He continued to his room, freezing when he heard his name
    "Axel!" he knew he had to go, but he didn't want to. He went anyway, to the one man here who could get him to show any emotion other than anger, though could not get him to breakdown.