It's not true though. About Axel not having a heart, about not deserving his true name. Sora knows this, he knows that the heart can never truly be lost, that Xemnas lied to the Organization the whole time about their lost hearts just to keep them under his thumb.

One can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes.

Axel has a heart. They all had hearts.

Someday he'll tell him that, he wants to tell him now but with everything else Sora's throwing at him today, would this be too much? Would Axel think it all just too good to be true and laugh in his face? Sora doesn't want that. He doesn't want Axel to think that he's laughing at him, he wants him to trust him. Sora nods quietly before he answers.

"Okay. Axel it is then. But I think you deserve it now, for the record."

But then it comes back to Xion again and Sora doesn't know what to do. Axel's flummoxed, he's looking for answers that Sora just can't give him and the look on his face... His own chest aches and he feels his head pounding for a second but it doesn't help. He doesn't know who Axel's talking about.

"I'm really sorry," he says, and his voice feels tight in his throat as he speaks; his tongue feels too thick and clumsy and he can't for the life of him figure out why. "Axel I don't know any Xion. I- huh?"

Something hot slides down across Sora's cheek and his fingertips come up to brush against the path of the tear that's just fallen from his eye.