Love. is. love.

       Kairi jumped at the whooshing noise behind her. She spun around; a tall, unnaturally lean figure stepped from the darkness. She didn’t need him to pull back his hood to know who it was.
        “Axel.”
        “Kairi.”
        She appraised him coolly; she sensed his glinting emerald eyes staring across the beach, tingling on her skin. They stood in prickling silence for minutes. The tension was a noose around Kairi’s neck; she snapped the quiet with a word. “Well?”
        He said nothing, merely yanking back his hood. She flinched at the knives in his eyes.
        “Did you want something, or are you just going to stand there and stare at me?” Her tone was offhand, but adrenaline snuck through her veins.
        He glared at her for a second longer, then spat a single word. “Sora.”
        That surprised her. Sora? “What about him?”
        Axel curled his fists, breathing out a slow gust. He glanced away, looked back – eyes narrowing. Another deep breath. “You…claim to care for him.”
        She frowned, eyelids obscuring irises in animosity. “I do.”
        Axel growled, took a few jerking steps towards her before he could control his body. The fists clenched, unclenched. “How…can you say you… ‘care’…about someone…and not do a single thing?” Volume rising.
        She glowered at him. “What are you implying?”
        He snarled, advancing towards her. “How can you say ‘I miss him’ and ‘I wish he were here,’ and all the shit you spew out, and just sit on your pretty little ass on this goddamn island? You have to be shitting me. There is no way you can ‘care’ about someone and do nothing.”
        Her eyebrows fell heavily. Between clenched teeth – “You have no right to say that.”  
        “Don’t I? Give me a reason.”
       “Well?” she spat, leaning towards him, on the offense. “What have you done?”
        Axel rolled his eyes. “You’re such a brainless bitch. You know what I’ve done. I left the fucking Organization for him. And I’m a dead man because of it. You gonna ‘call me out’ on that?”
        Her anger dispersed. He was right. She stepped closer, looking into his eyes. “You…you really love him, don’t you?”
       “What, Roxas? Of course.”
       “Romantically, right?”
        Axel shook his head. “I don’t think love needs a definition. I don’t believe in putting your feelings into these sterile plastic boxes – love is love. There’s no other word for it.”
        Kairi chewed her bottom lip, pensive. She tried to find a way to empathize with him, but all of her feelings were categorized. Parents – paternal. Riku – platonic. Sora – romantic. She flicked her eyes towards his; maybe it required never having a heart to know the meaning of true love.