The courtroom was eerie as Roxas sat in the witness booth. He was staring at the surface in front of him with somewhat sorrowful eyes. Axel was in trial for having raped him, despite what Roxas had been told, he wanted to belt out that Axel really hadn’t touched him inappropriately without having been provoked.

Roxas was in love with Axel, and when he saw the red-haired, pyromaniac staring at the table he sat at with shining eyes, he almost felt his heart shatter. Roxas stared at the man standing in front of him.

“Is it true, that when you were in your room that night, you heard creaking and ignored it without a second thought?”

“Yes…” so far he had been telling the truth.

“And what forced you to wake up was the feeling of Mr. Flynn sexually assaulting you?”

“…”

The man interrogating him rose an eyebrow, he placed his hands on the witness stand and leaned in, glaring at him in the most dangerous way. Axel looked up to meet Roxas’ gaze, shaking his head every now and then and mouthing, “Don’t tell the truth. You have to lie…”

Roxas had promised Axel he would lie in court. It was for a good reason. If Axel was sent to jail, then he said at least one of us would have been happy.

“Y…yes…”

Roxas forced himself to look into the man’s eyes. His voice quivered painfully at the lie. Axel had never raped Roxas. It was love-making and he knew it. Even though Roxas was under-aged…

“Thank you Mr. McCartney.”

Roxas looked up at the judge who sent the jury in, Roxas continued to sit there since he didn’t feel mentally able to move to the seat again. He hadn’t been the one to sue Axel. His mother had, and he felt almost compelled to be murderously angry towards her. But right now he was over powered by sorrow.

Within a few minutes, the jury came back. The judge smacked his small hammer on the desk.

“The jury has found the defendant, guilty.”

A burst of murmuring was sent through the courtroom.

“No…” Roxas whispered.

Axel had his face buried in his palms as he shook his head. His lawyer patting his shoulder, trying to calm the distressed man.

“No…” he repeated to himself.

“For rape of a minor, break in, and vandalism, I sentence you, Mr. Flynn, to death.”

“No!” Roxas yelled, standing in the witness stand with tears lining his eyes.

Axel was grabbed by the arms, as he limply went with the guards without a struggle. His head lulled almost painfully motionless in front of him as his feet somewhat dragged on the ground.

“No you can’t kill him!”

Axel looked up and shook his head, tears had somehow managed to streak his own face. Even though it sparkled with the symbols of sadness, he still looked beautiful to Roxas.

“Roxas, you won. You won’t have to worry about him anymore,” the judge reassured the fifteen-year-old.

“You can’t kill him!!”

Roxas’ mother came up the stand, caressing his hair and holding his head slightly, letting the teenager watch his first love leave the courtroom.

“I love him!”

Everything in time seemed to slow down, Roxas’ mother looked at him in horror, almost shocked to hear her son say such a thing. Roxas leapt over the stands and ran after, but Axel was out of his reach as he was pulled into a back room. Roxas grabbed the door knob, pulling it open with an uncontrollable terror.

“You can’t kill him! I’m in love with him!”

Axel lifted his eyes and looked at Roxas, his face still glistening with tears. His mouth forming more words, “I love you too…”

He was enclosed in a glass room. This was a very unique courthouse in a very unique world and town. He was slammed into a chair, strapped in as Roxas slammed his fists, his mother running into the room and restraining him from doing so. Pulling him back as Axel tried to escape from his leather prison.

“Get me out of here!” he growled furiously.

His arms tensed as he pushed against the straps. He froze for an instant as two men held him down. Roxas struggling to get out of his mother’s grasp.

“Roxas!” Axel said loudly, his voice echoing through the room. “Help me! Don’t let them—“

Roxas flew the door open as soon as he had gotten out of his mother’s grasp. Axel’s face was frozen in horror and stunned. Almost as if he…

“Axel…?”

Roxas had his hands on top of Axel’s. This place was quick to enforce their sentences. Axel’s eyes drained of color and life. Dulling to a small gleam which soon disappeared. The once cocky glow that seemed to grace this man was now gone. When Roxas looked after resting his chin on the pyro’s knees, he saw a needle in Axel’s back.

“What…?”

“Instant affective lethal injection.”

Roxas buried his face in the man’s legs. He crawled onto his lap and kissed the deceased’s head. Lifting his chin he placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and then passionately kissed his slowly chilling lips. Then wrapped his arms around the lifeless body and felt tears fall down his face.

“I’m so ashamed…” his mother whispered. “My son’s in love with the rapist… Who took his virginity… And continued to rape him even after…”

“Mom…” Roxas whispered, never taking himself away from Axel’s lifeless body.

* * *

Axel’s eyes shot open as he looked around the blank area. His hands clutched together in a desperate way. His breathing was sharp and painful to his lungs. He blinked and looked around for a sign of life.

“Hello?”

“Hello Axel Flynn.”

“Where am I?” he asked the mysterious voice.

“Your next life.”

Axel sat up in a slight panic, unsure of what they were talking about.

“I died...?”

“You were sentenced to death for the rape of an adolescent. Yes.”

Axel looked around in an extreme nervousness.

“I can’t believe it…”

“Watch…”

In front of Axel and within the endless white, he saw something slowly come into vision.

“Mom… It wasn’t  rape… I was in love with Axel, and I asked him to take my virginity…”

Roxas bit his lip and kissed Axel’s ear gently, he snuggled up to the dead and lifeless body that was once Axel.

“And he loved me… You were just so blind to that fact… Did you ever even once think I might love another guy…?”

His mother was in shock and silenced herself. She had assumed her son was straight.

“He loves me…”

“You’ll meet him again… In his next life,” the voice spoke.

“If he’s still in love with me then…”

“I’ll love him forever… Even in his death…”