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“Roxas?!”

The sounds seemed to be muffled as the blood rushed to the blond teenager's ears, flooding his vision and coloring his face pink. His head turned to face the being that emitted his name in cold fury, or rather, that was what it sounded like, almost crystal clear. Hidden in that single name was something very close to down right shock, covered up by a darker mask. Was it just him, or did Roxas detect a hint of hurt? That confused him almost as much as the fact that he hadn't fought off the kiss that had just started something bigger than should be.

Axel's arms fell to his sides as his head turned to look at Sora, which only made the blond suddenly look up at him, noticing an equally disturbing look of anger lingering that. Axel had no reason to be angry at Sora at that moment, unless he had noticed something that that brunette's own best friend failed to acknowledge. Diverting his attention back to Sora, Roxas finally noticed Riku, Kairi, and Namine standing slightly behind the brunette, Riku being a bit closer to the other male than the females.

“...Sora?” the blond croaked out, surprising himself at the quality of his voice at that moment, which seemed to be highly lacking. He almost pushed out a question, but somehow the towering redhead managed to beat him to it, his eyes looking none too friendly at that moment. Before, they seemed far more tender while now it was like looking at a man who could one day murder without a saddened glance.

“What the hell do you want?” Axel growled out, surprising Sora slightly, whose face fell slightly before regaining it's angry luster. Red dotted his face from the cold wind that seemed to be upset at being ignored. The three behind the brunette said nothing as they watched, Namine's face giving away her want to step in and stop things right now. Kairi seemed just the same as the female blond, forcing herself to stay back. Riku, however, was as passive as always with his facial features unreadable as Sora's was readable. His hands were jutting into his pockets, black scarf covering up his mouth and flickering slightly in the wind behind him.

Livid, Sora glared at the redhead, hoping to stare him down into submission but it seemed to fail miserable as Axel did nothing but return the look with a fierce one of his own. “Shut your fucking mouth. I wasn't talking to you!” Shifting his embarrassment away from Axel, Sora took a step forward, only one. He looked hard at Roxas, who flinched back slightly, knowing the brunette was going to yell at him. He couldn't figure out what he did wrong though. “Roxas... you told me you could go because your mom asked you to stay! You didn't say anything about having plans with this joker! You said, you said that... you said...” He stopped, making an exaggerated motion with his hands as he scoffed angrily. “That was total bullshit wasn't it, Roxas? Wasn't it!?” He looked hard at Roxas, who couldn't seem to find his voice to answer the accusations, accurate as they were.

“So what if he didn't tell you the truth? Is that a crime?” Axel looked down at the shorter male, smirking at him, mocking him even. “I don't think tha-” He looked down suddenly, noticing the hand that had tugged at his coat rather sharply. Roxas face was in shadows as he looked down at the ground, his appendage clutching at the dark coat.

“Don't... it's not your fight..,” muttered the blond, his lips moving slightly. Then, as the redhead was about to grasp at his hand, Roxas dropped it, stepping away from the car and toward Sora, looking at him hard. “What do you want me to do, Sora? Say I'm sorry and that it won't happen again like some little boy? I know you well enough that something else is totally bugging you so spit it out already. Stop wasting my time!” Sora stopped glaring, gazing off to the side a little. Roxas knew he had hit the nail on the head. Now all he had to do was to drive it further in. “Well? Would you rather I take a guess? How about... you're just upset because I would rather keep a promise to a person you don't like and in order to spare your feelings, I went and lied to you about it. Is that what's bugging you? Is that it?” Sora shook his head lightly.

Behind him, Kairi and Namine looked on, sullenly, though they no longer sought to intervene. Riku, however actually gave a worried look, his scarf having slipped down past his mouth. “..Sora...” He moved forward, placing a hand gently on the brunette's shoulder, but Sora didn't accept it, shaking it off.

“Roxas, I would've been a bit peeved, sure, but you shoulda told me at least. You're supposed to be my best friend, but you can't even talk to me about anything like this anymore, can you? Why won't you trust me?!” Sora said, his voice cracking at the end a bit as his eyes filled with hurt. Kairi bit her lip as Namine clutched her hands to her chest in worry. “Why could you come to talk to me about it?”

Roxas stood there, looking at Sora, who seemed to be hurt, but Roxas had his reason for not going to the brunette for help. He knew already what would have been said and what would've resulted from it. He knew Sora better than that. That's why he couldn't help but let out a secret even he himself shouldn't have known.

“What, so you can go tell Riku as you two screw around when your parents aren't home?” Roxas didn't show a hint of remorse as Sora's face fell to a horrified expression. Even the cloud of vapor in front of his lips seemed colder than before. It was half shock and half confusion. Riku, normally so calm and expressionless, actually gave a fierce look at Roxas. No one would've known this but his hands were clenched pretty damn hard inside his pockets. “Now...what's with that look? Don't tell me I'm right?” Roxas cocked his head, smirking. Axel, who stood quietly and patiently behind the blond snickered, a small laugh escaping his mouth.

“...S-Sora...is he serious?” Kairi voiced quietly from behind them, an almost forgotten figure in this tale. “Riku...he's joking, right?” The redheaded female looked almost desperate for an answer. Namine grabbed her hand as Kairi almost surged forward to get her answer physically. “Answer me, Sora!” Both of their silences seemed to be the answer that she wanted, or rather, didn't. The brunette didn't turn around and the silver haired teen didn't glance back either; both were looking sharply at the two standing before them.

“All those away messages, so ironically well timed, accidentally. Sora, you shoulda done a better job of lying. You had too many projects to do with Riku that it just wasn't school any more, was it? Message, after message said 'Project at Riku's'. It didn't seem to end, did it?” Roxas kept pushing the nail harder and harder, wanting to get back at his best friend for abandoning him when he really needed him. He wasn't going to like the results he'd get from this from all four of them, but he was sick of worrying about what Sora was going to think. For too long had he been a half-shadow, hiding behind Sora to get what friends he had now. He would have never befriend Riku or Kairi had Sora not been there. “How about you tell me why you, 'my best friend' couldn't even tell me about that? Did I ever say I was a homophobe? Why are you even asking me if I trust you if you can't even trust me?”

He knew he had gone overboard, far overboard actually, but he hadn't stopped. Now, victory in his loud tones, he slowly began regretting it. Sora stood their, staring at him with a half-empty look as Kairi kept trying to break free of Namine's hold.

“Do you even know what you're saying?” Finally, Riku spoke up something coherent. His tone was accusatory, aimed directly at Roxas. “Where's your evidence? Got any proof because I do believe you fall a bit short there.” Roxas only smirked, causing Riku to give off a questioning glance at Sora, who happened to be looking down, pretty much giving everything away.

“Stop, Riku..,” Everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the seemingly meek Sora. “He got us, I can't deny that. But I guess we're all gonna pay the price for that.” He looked up at Axel, yes Axel, and suddenly flipped him off, much to everyone's surprise. “It's your fault, you know. If you didn't come here, things coulda been so much better. But you, you fucked things up.” He turned around, finding only Riku standing behind him; Kairi and Namine were walking towards the theater, leaving behind the confused guys to stand on their own.

“Idiot.You're the one who fucked up. Or... you fucked someone and made things like this. Looks like you're just lookin' for a scapegoat. Some friend you are,” Axel looked directly at Sora, who didn't make a move to turn around. “Did you do the same to that redhead chick? Is that why she's run off crying because you fed her some stupid lies?” Axel was on a roll, raising his arms up, palms flat and up, giving off the common questioning pose. “How come she seemed so upset when she found out you two do the nasty?”

“Shut up, Axel. You're just another nobody. Just like him.”

Riku stretched his hand out and Sora took it, moving forward to get to the car they needed. The silver-haired teen gave a quick glance at them, sighing and shaking his head lightly, before wrapping an arm around Sora's shoulder's leading him away. Axel shook his own head in response, snickering at them. “Nobodies. Who're they trying...to..,” he stopped, mid-sentence as he managed to get a clear view of Roxas' face. A few salty drops of liquid dripped off his chin, quickly replaced by a few dangling from his jaw. “R-Roxy?” he said, uncertain. The blond shifted his head to glance up at the redhead, his eyes blurry from the tears building up on his lids.

“W-what did I j-just do?” he stammered, tears running freely down his face. Axel kept looking down at him even as the blond's hands raced up to cover his eyes. “H-how c-could... w-why...” His words were drowned out, halted, by the labored breathing as a few sobs broke past his fingers. Axel frowned, not cruelly, but he didn't exactly look happy. How could such a dumb teenager's words hurt this guy so badly? Moving forward and holding the smaller male in his arms, Axel rested his chin on the blond mess of hair.

“It's okay, it's okay... just calm down.” He could feel the blond shaking in his grasp, eyes shut tight as smaller fingers clutched at the coat. In a few moments, the shaking stopped and silence ensued. Roxas' eyes were open, staring at the material in front of his face. He could feel Axel's hand patting his back softly. Everything in front of his nose smelled distinctly like Axel; even the scarf that was tickling his nose slightly smelled like him, pleasant even. This was getting kind of humiliating though, to cry in another guy's arms in the middle of the street. It was alright for a girl to do that, but no way to deny it, Roxas was a guy through and through.

“... You can let go of me now. I'm...okay,” Roxas muttered, muffled heavily by the coat. Axel gingerly let go, peeling himself away from the blond, who moved back a few steps and looked down, hiding his red eyes. He couldn't believe what just happened. Suddenly, Sora and Riku weren't going to be part of his circle of friends, and no doubt Kairi would be furious at the blond for the outburst. It seemed only Namine remained to be his friend. Cold hands suddenly gripped his face, forcing him to look up. Deep green eyes looked back at his own, forcing him to look straight ahead rather than away.

“Look, I'm sorry I got you into this mess. I shouldn't have provoked him like that. I'm really sorry.” Axel sounded so sincere, friendly even. It really just clicked in the blonde's head; he could always turn to Axel if he needed a friend. Namine was nice, but she was sometimes more cryptic then helpful. “I just... thought I should've helped you somehow...though I guess I didn't do a very good job at it.” He moved his eyes in another direction, but his hold on the smaller male's face didn't end. Roxas lifted his own hands to clasp at the ones on his face, fingers slipping around to rest against the redhead's wrists.

“It's...don't worry about it. It isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself. It would've happened in the end, I think.” He didn't sound too sure, but he didn't want to drag the redhead into this. Axel, seeing past the ruse, shook his head at that, the spiked up hair sagging a little from the light snow flakes that were now falling on them, all around them. “No, please, don't. It's my fault. I lied to Sora.”

“But I'm the one that-”

“No. Stop.” Axel looked at Roxas in surprise at the firm tone. “Stop blaming yourself for my being stupid. It's not your fault so get over it already.”

“...Just tell me how to make it up to you.” Roxas shook his head against the redhead's hands, feeling a pinprick of embarrassed red color dotting his face because of them. He wouldn't let Axel blame himself for this. It wasn't his fault, completely. He just edged on Sora a bit. He wasn't a nobody. He wasn't. “Please, Roxas. Please.” Shifting his gaze to look down, Roxas thought about it for a minute.

“Fine,” he muttered definitively., sapphire eyes shooting up to stare back at the emerald ones. Axel was ready to listen to what the blond said. Though he certainly wasn't expecting what happened next. “Kiss me.” Roxas wanted to see if the same reaction would happen this time around, that funny feeling where memories seemed to be verified, even though they weren't really his memories to verify. Somehow, in those little dream memories, the feelings were hard to tell; it was difficult to feel them there. But these, these seemed to be the delayed feelings that would've been there, some time ago, whenever it was.

“K-kiss you?” He wasn't exactly expecting that kind of way to make it up to Roxas. A quick spot of color flashed into his face, not because of the cold, but because of the thought of being requested to kiss him. “Are..you s-sure about that?”

Roxas only gave a weak smile in response and simply said, “Yep.”

Axel let out a shaky sigh, raising the blond's face with a slight movement of his hands. With Roxas' face slightly higher, Axel could see just how tired he must have felt. But he couldn't help but think that the smaller male looked really adorable all blushy like that. Moving his head in to only a few inches from the blond's lips, the redhead stopped, slightly afraid of being reprimanded about it now. Rolling his eyes, Roxas simply thought to himself 'how troublesome' and closed the distance himself. More surprises for the redhead. Slipping his hand around Axel's neck, Roxas pulled him in closer, unintentionally at first, but then he didn't mind it. Easy to say that Axel didn't either. Feeling color flood his face, Roxas shut his eyes tightly, not able to keep on staring straight at the perceptive green eyes. It was like he forgot about Sora for a moment.

: : : : :

Somehow Axel managed to drive them both home, though they didn't say anything on the way. Roxas had sat in the car, hands clenched in his laps as the awkward silence dragged on between them. The tension in the car's atmosphere was rather heavy, like pea soup, not the bad liquid kind that one finds in a prison either. Neither one of them said anything about what happened nor did they attempt to start up a totally different conversation. It just didn't feel right. Roxas just wanted to get home and go to sleep for hours with no end in sight.

“Look, if you want to talk to me later just call, alright?” Roxas almost jumped at the sudden words that pierced the silent air. He glanced at Axel, who was simply looking forward. Unable to not notice the redhead's knuckles were turning white from gripping the wheel so tightly, Roxas simply gave an uncertainly look before giving off an agreeing sound from the back of his throat. He returned his gaze to the road before them, seeing the familiar street signs on the sidewalks. No one was out; who would be at this hour on such a cold night?

Once the car was safely stalling on the pavement, Axel finally turned to look at Roxas, who now wasn't willing to look at him. “I'm sorry about tonight...” The blond shook his head as he fumbled with the door, mumbling 'it's okay' a few times before he managed to get the door open. Stepping out of the car in his driveway, Roxas slammed the door behind him, looking at the car as it backed out of the paved drive and quickly slid into the one across the street. By the time Axel had gotten out of the car after parking it in the garage, he saw that the blond had already gone inside, leaving the redhead to simply get himself indoors.

Roxas climbed the stairs, ignoring his mother's calls and his father's funny look. Both were sitting in the living room, talking to one another during a commercial. They were probably watching some comedy since after a few minutes light laughter rang out from downstairs. The blond didn't want to talk to his parents now, and they could tell by his meek greeting when he stepped into the house. He had hung up his coat in silence, not blabbering on about how it was a good movie or how annoying something was. Roxas just needed some solitude.

He crashed on his bed, gathering up some of the blanket in his fingers, burying his face into the cloth. He could still smell Axel's cologne, which he only realized moments ago was just that. Axel couldn't shave; he just didn't have the genes to really ever grow a beard.

“He smelled...nice...,” he said out loud, thinking idly. He hadn't heard the footsteps on the stairs, on the landing, or down the hall. He didn't know his mother had been about to knock on his door with a small plate of cut apples for him to eat. She heard him, but she didn't think twice about it. Biting her lip for a second, she wondered what to do. Finally, after a few moments, she knocked on the door, opening it and stepped in, her feet making a slight scoffing sound as socked feet met floor.

“Hey honey. I brought you some apples if you want them.” Roxas looked up from his position in the bed, having twisted to lay down on it properly with his head on his pillow and hands on his chest. The woman smiled, placing the plate on the table next the bed. “I hope that movie was good. You seem kind of out of it. Tired?” she questioned, acting like she was supposed to.

Roxas nodded and answered, “Yeah. It was fine and yeah...I'm just...tired. It was a long one and it's just been kind of a long day.” He didn't continue so that simply meant that he was done talking for now. Sighing, his mother nodded, turning around to leave her son's room.

“Well, sleep well. What do you want for breakfast tomorrow? Bacon? Eggs? Waffles?” Roxas shook his head, for once not requesting something from his mother for his Sunday breakfast.

“No... it's fine. I'll just have some cereal or something.” Nodding, the woman turned and left the room, closing the door behind her with a click. Roxas heaved a great sigh, hearing it echo back at him through the room, weak and muffled. “... I hate this...,” he said to the empty room, referring to his situation with Sora. He didn't want to fight with him, but it looked like it was inevitable. Turning to his side, the blond curled up, pulling his knees closer to his belly as he lay there, not getting up to change. “Why is this so hard... to ... to... gah...” He shut his eyes, forcing half his face into the pillow, trying to shut out his racing brain. He didn't want to think right now. He wanted sleep. He wanted to forget, just for the night.

: : : : :

The sun peaked through the thin red curtains, landing on the redhead tangled in his own blanket on his bed. The light painted the postured walls, small flares of light everywhere where the the angles of the posters reflected the early sunlight. His floor was a mess, as it usually was. Axel's hand was hanging limply off of the bed's edge, fingers barely scraping the gray carpeted floor. The teenager twisted in his sleep, the blanket slipping down past his shoulders, revealing his bare back. No shirt covered his upper body as he slept, his blanket his only guarantee of warmth.

A ringing somewhere in the house roused the redhead from his slowly faltering slumber. Eyes blinking in response to the light, Axel smacked his lips a little, wondering what time it was and how much of his Sunday was wasted. However, before he could even glance at the clock, he heard his mother's melodic tones call out from the first floor.

“Axel! Door! Now!”

It seemed like she had opened the door, saw someone who was there for Axel and returned to the kitchen and on the way had decided to yell up the stairs.

“Goddammit,” he murmured, running his hand over his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. “OKAY!” he hollered back, getting up and not even bothering to reach for a shirt. Why did he need one anyway? It was probably some random person that was returning something he lost or something. Not that he remembered losing anything important recently, though. What time was it?

Descending the stairs, Axel held on to the railing, palm smoothly trailing down it. Suddenly, he slowed down, a single step taking more than a few seconds. Blinking a few times, he thought he was imagining things, but apparently he wasn't, since the vision didn't seem to go away. Why was Roxas standing in his entry hall?

“Uh...hey...there...,” he said, completely uncertain as to what else he could possibly say to the blond that was so innocently standing there. “What're you doing here this early?” It was the blond's turn to give a quizzical look at the redhead, who happened to not be wearing a shirt. Some girls would die for a view like this, especially since the guy's plaid pants seemed to be rather loose. If the fact that he was shirtless didn't make Roxas want to nosebleed, then certainly the barely hanging on pants would've done the job, had the blonde NOT had a good sense of control. Really good, actually.

“...Early? What are you talking about? It's past eleven,” he said slowly, raising an eyebrow at the redhead who kept blinking down at him, completely unaware that he was half naked. Roxas just kept staring after that, even Axel remained silent for a little bit. It seemed like he was trying to get his head around what the blond had said.

A grin pulled itself onto the older teen's face, a smirk with an eyebrow raised higher than the other. Roxas cocked his head to the side, wondering what he was smiling about. “Are you checkin' me out? Cus it looks like you are.” Nice. Just, nice. Roxas' eyes widened suddenly and Axel could have sworn the blond was going through a list of possible responses to use for the situation. Even a light blush spread across his face as he stuttered a bit to find an answer.

“N-no. What makes you think that?” he finally managed to say, trying to clear his throat. Axel only continued to smirk as he put his hand up on the wall and crossed his legs, using that arm on the wall to support himself. Now he was just showing off. Under the clothes that Axel wears, he looks like a really skinny and pretty flimsy kind of guy. Not true at all, as Roxas is learning much to his embarrassment. Muscles. No wonder he could kick Tidus' ass no matter what. He might even give Seifer a run for his money if he tried.

“What, so you aren't half-way to a nosebleed by now?”

“H-hey! No! Don't think things like that...” How embarrassing for the poor guy. Being hit on by a teenager with a fully developed sex drive. Not that Axel's going to admit that.

Putting his hands to his chest innocently, Axel gave the blond an guiltless look. “But Roxy... there's so much more where this comes from. Doesn't that make you want to have a nosebleed?” He batted his eyes for effect. What effect could be the question here. Honestly, Axel's going over the top far too soon.

Before Roxas could give a flustered response, a female voice rang out from the office on the first floor. “How about you guys stop joking around and give me some quiet so I can work? Go upstairs or something.” Good suggestion, just not for the two of them. Axel rolled his eyes, turning around and began to climb the stairs back up.

“Better listen to my dear mother. Besides, guess there's more stuff to talk about in my room then on the stairs...” He disappeared upstairs, leaving Roxas to stare at what he could see of the landing. “Roxas!” Snapping out of his reverie, the blond pounded up the stairs, having shed his outdoor stuff in the hall. As he entered the room, and closed the door of course, Roxas looked around quickly. Still the mess he remembered from a while ago. Honestly, did Axel ever clean the place up? It didn't seem like it since debris still dotted the floor and the closet was still overflowing with clothes. He needed a goddamn cleaning lady just for his room alone.

“So what're you here for?” said the nonchalant voice from a corner. Axel was crouching down beside something. A quiet crack of glass sounded, and the redhead swore, gingerly lifting something off the floor by his feet. Standing over him and looking down, Roxas saw what it was; a broken picture frame. The glass was broken with a few pieces laying on the floor. It was cheap glass since it broke too neatly for delicate, good quality crystal. Roxas leaned over, his left hand on Axel's right shoulder, and pulled out the broken frame and picture from the redhead's grasp. “H-hey, give that back.” Axel grabbed it back, jamming it into a drawer, to be inspected later. Roxas gave him a suspicious look.

On that picture was Axel, naturally, and a few of his friends at some sort of club or something like that. Next to Axel was a blond, dirty blond hair, with a style of clothing that seemed to matched the redhead's. What was interesting about that guy was the fact that he had his arm around Axel's neck and he was snickering into the camera. Plus he had a mullet/mohawk type of thing going on for him. Not that it was bad or anything, but it just seemed kind of odd.

“...Who was that?” Roxas asked, pushing clothes off of a chair, onto which he promptly sat down. He sounded curious, and he certainly was. It seemed like that picture and that guy was an important person in this tale. Axel however didn't really answer that just yet. He sat down on his still warm bed and put his feet up on it, Indian style.

“Don't worry about it. Okay?” He just seemed to want to get off the topic. Roxas was about to press further when the redhead clarified, “Look, I just don't want to talk about him right now. Not till I straighten things out with him. Okay?” Roxas pondered it for a moment before nodding in agreement. Though he wasn't happy about letting it drop, he came here to talk about other things. That guy in the picture wasn't one of those things. Axel leaned back on his bad a bit, propped up on his arms. “So what're you here to talk 'bout.”

Roxas looked down at the floor for a moment. Axel suddenly leaned forward, resting his hands in his lap and supporting himself on his elbows. “Was it about last night and the whole Sora thing?” He made it sound so simply, nothing major. Roxas only nodded. He didn't add that the whole 'making out' thing had gotten to him too. Now that he was looking at the redhead face to face after that, he didn't know if he'd find his voice any time soon, especially since said redhead was shirtless. “Roxas? You there? Or did you fall down the stairs and land on your head?”

Looking up suddenly, a slightly annoyed spark in his eyes, the spiky haired blond stuck his tongue out at the redhead, who laughed at it. “Oooooh so you want to freeeeench. Well, alrighty, Roxy, whatever you want.” He winked devilishly, raising a hand to do the 'come hither' motion with his finger. Roxas winced at that and retracted his tongue back into his mouth, color filling his face again, twice in one day. “Aww...,” went Axel, disappointment showing on his face. “And here I was looking forward to it.”

Shadows came into the blond's face, making the silly look on the redhead's face disappear. Roxas didn't understand how easy Axel made this all seem, all so nonchalant and playful. His own heart was beating fast and he could barely talk. How'd that guy do it all so well? Trying to get a glance at his face, Axel lowered his head, turning it up to try and see what expression was adorning the blond's facial features. “Roxas?”

“How can...how do you...how... Why are you so... calm? Aren't you even a bit embarrassed by any of this?” His head had gone up a bit, his face still tinged pink. “Aren't you having a hard time talking, even a little?” He seemed desperate for a good answer, an answer that made Axel seem like a normal person. That could never be, though. Axel's not normal and neither is Roxas.

The redhead didn't respond; he merely gazed at the blond with a thoughtful look. “What do you think?” was his answer, one that he said with a slight sigh. Roxas didn't answer to that, mimicking Axel. “Well, what do you think?” the redhead repeated, his gaze unwavering. He lifted his hand up again, this time simply waving him over. “Come here and I'll tell you.” Roxas didn't trust this gesture at all. “I'm not going to bite you, idiot.” Axel scoffed, shaking his head at the blond.

Standing, Roxas edged towards the bed, sitting down next to the other male. A sparkle entered Axel's eye and even as the blond caught sight of it, he couldn't escape. Axel suddenly lunged at him, pushing him backwards to rest on the bed with his hands held down. A mere three centimeters separated the blond's head and the headboard, and that meant that the spikes were pressed flat. Wide-eyed in shock, Roxas looked up at the oddly tattooed face of his classmate, who was grinning rather sheepishly.

“A-A-Axel...” Struggle as he might, Roxas couldn't free himself. Axel radiated heat, leaving a tingling sensation on the blond's body, everywhere, but especially where flesh met flesh. Axel's face was too close, too appealing to ignore. The heat was going to his head, making him dizzy as butterflies blossomed in his belly. Goosebumps ran up and down his skin as he felt Axel's lips flutter lightly across his neck. “W-what are you d-doing?”

“Trying to not be embarrassed. Is that a good enough answer?” A strange sensation flowed through the blond's body as he felt pressure against his neck that only meant that Axel was sucking gently on his neck. Closing an eye on that side, he gave a quick moan, his pink face turning even darker because of it. “Oh so you like that, huh?” Roxas couldn't see the face in front of him, but he was pretty sure it was smirking at him. The words had been softer than usual, though they were still so crisp because Axel's lips were so close to his ear. Suddenly the redhead started nipping at the skin, so gently, that Roxas didn't think it were even possible.

Biting his lip to keep his moans from being voice, Roxas clenched his hands tightly against the ones that were gripping his pretty damn well. Wasn't Axel's mother just downstairs?! “A-Axel... s-stop...your mom...m-mom is...” He stopped as he saw that Axel had stopped his own actions and was blinking down at him. “S-she's...downstairs..” Face flushed almost completely, ears red too, Roxas must have looked pretty flustered to the redhead.

“Yeaaaaaah but she doesn't hear shit down there. Can't you hear the music from here?” Axel motioned towards the door with his head, where sure enough a murmur of music was coming past the closed door. “She turns it up pretty load and her door's even closed. She won't hear us.”

Roxas didn't want that to happen though! This was so ridiculasly sudden that he had no idea how he was supposed to react. He knew what this was leading up to but he didn't know how to say 'no' to it right now. “A-Axel, p-please don't! I..!!!” His words of protest were suddenly stopped as he felt the lips against his own, pressing down. Roxas instinctively put pressure back, which only told Axel things were good to go.

Axel's tongue was suddenly pressing against the smaller teen's lips, and he seemed bewildered for a moment, wondering what he was supposed to do in response to that. Then, he parted his lips and teeth a bit, letting the foreign tongue pass though. It tasted odd, but it didn't taste bad. It was just...different. Axel seemed to explore Roxas' mouth like that for a bit before he heard a strange noise coming from the blond; it was an odd type of gurgling protest. He pulled out instantly as he felt Roxas finally push him off.

“The hell are you thinking?!” Roxas screamed at the redhead, who was forced to sit back on his bed like he had earlier. “I..that...ugggh.”

Axel just sort of sneered at him. “And...? Did you like it?” Roxas fell silent as he blushed furiously at the redhead who shook his head at that. “Aah I see. So you did like it.” Standing up, Axel took a few quick steps over to the blond and cupped his chin with his hand. “There's so much more I can do for you, Roxy...”

“Don't you mean to me?” Roxas was surprised at his own audacity. He never said things like that...at least...like this. Axel only laughed.

“Of course. I meant to you.” He bent over, their height apparent now as it hadn't been on the bed. He pressed his lips against the blond's once more, trying to get another pass into Roxas' mouth. The blond, again, instantly replied and let him in, this time even going so far as to push back with his own tongue. But then he realized he was slowly losing his self control. That wasn't good at all.

“Mmffm!” Roxas pulled back sharply, so fast that Axel's tongue was still sticking out of his mouth as he gaped down. “S-stop it already!” he said up into the tattooed face. “I... I ... I have to go!” Roxas didn't like handling this, it was hard to deal with, especially since he didn't want to enjoy it! He was supposed to be sad over his fight with Sora! But then, Axel did make forget about it for a little while. Maybe it was a nice thing. But Roxas was certainly not going to stay to find out more about it. He pulled himself away from the redhead's grasp and shot out the door, after fumbling with the door. He seemed to do that a lot lately in the redhead's presence.

Axel, in the meanwhile only finally managed to put his tongue back in his own mouth and lower his hand, watching the red-faced blond escape. He smiled at the retreating back as he took a few steps backwards and plopped down on the bed. That was interesting. He'd certainly gone pretty far with a guy he know just a bit. It was kind of sad, especially since all of this seemed familiar.

Roxas had gone to grab his coat, which he didn't even pull on. He slipped into his shoes and ran out the door, ignoring the cold that pricked at his skin and the wind that picked at his hair. In a matter of moments he was already inside his own house. He managed to hang up his coat so fast that even his own mother didn't have time to see him climb the steps like a crazy monkey on a rampage.

This was all going too fast for him. He never wanted to go this far with anyone, no matter who they were. But the part that bothered him, probably far more than it did Axel, was the fact that it felt familiar; like they had done it often before. It wasn't fair that somehow this happened to them. Roxas was kind of normal before. Now he was just strange. It wasn't fair. Even more so because he couldn't help but want more himself. He just... he just couldn't stop the feelings he thought were long overdue.

Description
“Roxas?!”

The sounds seemed to be muffled as the blood rushed to the blond teenager's ears, flooding his vision and coloring his face pink. His head turned to face the being that emitted his name in cold fury, or rather, that was what it sounded like, almost crystal clear. Hidden in that single name was something very close to down right shock, covered up by a darker mask. Was it just him, or did Roxas detect a hint of hurt? That confused him almost as much as the fact that he hadn't fought off the kiss that had just started something bigger than should be.

Axel's arms fell to his sides as his head turned to look at Sora, which only made the blond suddenly look up at him, noticing an equally disturbing look of anger lingering that. Axel had no reason to be angry at Sora at that moment, unless he had noticed something that that brunette's own best friend failed to acknowledge. Diverting his attention back to Sora, Roxas finally noticed Riku, Kairi, and Namine standing slightly behind the brunette, Riku being a bit closer to the other male than the females.

“...Sora?” the blond croaked out, surprising himself at the quality of his voice at that moment, which seemed to be highly lacking. He almost pushed out a question, but somehow the towering redhead managed to beat him to it, his eyes looking none too friendly at that moment. Before, they seemed far more tender while now it was like looking at a man who could one day murder without a saddened glance.

“What the hell do you want?” Axel growled out, surprising Sora slightly, whose face fell slightly before regaining it's angry luster. Red dotted his face from the cold wind that seemed to be upset at being ignored. The three behind the brunette said nothing as they watched, Namine's face giving away her want to step in and stop things right now. Kairi seemed just the same as the female blond, forcing herself to stay back. Riku, however, was as passive as always with his facial features unreadable as Sora's was readable. His hands were jutting into his pockets, black scarf covering up his mouth and flickering slightly in the wind behind him.

Livid, Sora glared at the redhead, hoping to stare him down into submission but it seemed to fail miserable as Axel did nothing but return the look with a fierce one of his own. “Shut your fucking mouth. I wasn't talking to you!” Shifting his embarrassment away from Axel, Sora took a step forward, only one. He looked hard at Roxas, who flinched back slightly, knowing the brunette was going to yell at him. He couldn't figure out what he did wrong though. “Roxas... you told me you could go because your mom asked you to stay! You didn't say anything about having plans with this joker! You said, you said that... you said...” He stopped, making an exaggerated motion with his hands as he scoffed angrily. “That was total bullshit wasn't it, Roxas? Wasn't it!?” He looked hard at Roxas, who couldn't seem to find his voice to answer the accusations, accurate as they were.

“So what if he didn't tell you the truth? Is that a crime?” Axel looked down at the shorter male, smirking at him, mocking him even. “I don't think tha-” He looked down suddenly, noticing the hand that had tugged at his coat rather sharply. Roxas face was in shadows as he looked down at the ground, his appendage clutching at the dark coat.

“Don't... it's not your fight..,” muttered the blond, his lips moving slightly. Then, as the redhead was about to grasp at his hand, Roxas dropped it, stepping away from the car and toward Sora, looking at him hard. “What do you want me to do, Sora? Say I'm sorry and that it won't happen again like some little boy? I know you well enough that something else is totally bugging you so spit it out already. Stop wasting my time!” Sora stopped glaring, gazing off to the side a little. Roxas knew he had hit the nail on the head. Now all he had to do was to drive it further in. “Well? Would you rather I take a guess? How about... you're just upset because I would rather keep a promise to a person you don't like and in order to spare your feelings, I went and lied to you about it. Is that what's bugging you? Is that it?” Sora shook his head lightly.

Behind him, Kairi and Namine looked on, sullenly, though they no longer sought to intervene. Riku, however actually gave a worried look, his scarf having slipped down past his mouth. “..Sora...” He moved forward, placing a hand gently on the brunette's shoulder, but Sora didn't accept it, shaking it off.

“Roxas, I would've been a bit peeved, sure, but you shoulda told me at least. You're supposed to be my best friend, but you can't even talk to me about anything like this anymore, can you? Why won't you trust me?!” Sora said, his voice cracking at the end a bit as his eyes filled with hurt. Kairi bit her lip as Namine clutched her hands to her chest in worry. “Why could you come to talk to me about it?”

Roxas stood there, looking at Sora, who seemed to be hurt, but Roxas had his reason for not going to the brunette for help. He knew already what would have been said and what would've resulted from it. He knew Sora better than that. That's why he couldn't help but let out a secret even he himself shouldn't have known.

“What, so you can go tell Riku as you two screw around when your parents aren't home?” Roxas didn't show a hint of remorse as Sora's face fell to a horrified expression. Even the cloud of vapor in front of his lips seemed colder than before. It was half shock and half confusion. Riku, normally so calm and expressionless, actually gave a fierce look at Roxas. No one would've known this but his hands were clenched pretty damn hard inside his pockets. “Now...what's with that look? Don't tell me I'm right?” Roxas cocked his head, smirking. Axel, who stood quietly and patiently behind the blond snickered, a small laugh escaping his mouth.

“...S-Sora...is he serious?” Kairi voiced quietly from behind them, an almost forgotten figure in this tale. “Riku...he's joking, right?” The redheaded female looked almost desperate for an answer. Namine grabbed her hand as Kairi almost surged forward to get her answer physically. “Answer me, Sora!” Both of their silences seemed to be the answer that she wanted, or rather, didn't. The brunette didn't turn around and the silver haired teen didn't glance back either; both were looking sharply at the two standing before them.

“All those away messages, so ironically well timed, accidentally. Sora, you shoulda done a better job of lying. You had too many projects to do with Riku that it just wasn't school any more, was it? Message, after message said 'Project at Riku's'. It didn't seem to end, did it?” Roxas kept pushing the nail harder and harder, wanting to get back at his best friend for abandoning him when he really needed him. He wasn't going to like the results he'd get from this from all four of them, but he was sick of worrying about what Sora was going to think. For too long had he been a half-shadow, hiding behind Sora to get what friends he had now. He would have never befriend Riku or Kairi had Sora not been there. “How about you tell me why you, 'my best friend' couldn't even tell me about that? Did I ever say I was a homophobe? Why are you even asking me if I trust you if you can't even trust me?”

He knew he had gone overboard, far overboard actually, but he hadn't stopped. Now, victory in his loud tones, he slowly began regretting it. Sora stood their, staring at him with a half-empty look as Kairi kept trying to break free of Namine's hold.

“Do you even know what you're saying?” Finally, Riku spoke up something coherent. His tone was accusatory, aimed directly at Roxas. “Where's your evidence? Got any proof because I do believe you fall a bit short there.” Roxas only smirked, causing Riku to give off a questioning glance at Sora, who happened to be looking down, pretty much giving everything away.

“Stop, Riku..,” Everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the seemingly meek Sora. “He got us, I can't deny that. But I guess we're all gonna pay the price for that.” He looked up at Axel, yes Axel, and suddenly flipped him off, much to everyone's surprise. “It's your fault, you know. If you didn't come here, things coulda been so much better. But you, you fucked things up.” He turned around, finding only Riku standing behind him; Kairi and Namine were walking towards the theater, leaving behind the confused guys to stand on their own.

“Idiot.You're the one who fucked up. Or... you fucked someone and made things like this. Looks like you're just lookin' for a scapegoat. Some friend you are,” Axel looked directly at Sora, who didn't make a move to turn around. “Did you do the same to that redhead chick? Is that why she's run off crying because you fed her some stupid lies?” Axel was on a roll, raising his arms up, palms flat and up, giving off the common questioning pose. “How come she seemed so upset when she found out you two do the nasty?”

“Shut up, Axel. You're just another nobody. Just like him.”

Riku stretched his hand out and Sora took it, moving forward to get to the car they needed. The silver-haired teen gave a quick glance at them, sighing and shaking his head lightly, before wrapping an arm around Sora's shoulder's leading him away. Axel shook his own head in response, snickering at them. “Nobodies. Who're they trying...to..,” he stopped, mid-sentence as he managed to get a clear view of Roxas' face. A few salty drops of liquid dripped off his chin, quickly replaced by a few dangling from his jaw. “R-Roxy?” he said, uncertain. The blond shifted his head to glance up at the redhead, his eyes blurry from the tears building up on his lids.

“W-what did I j-just do?” he stammered, tears running freely down his face. Axel kept looking down at him even as the blond's hands raced up to cover his eyes. “H-how c-could... w-why...” His words were drowned out, halted, by the labored breathing as a few sobs broke past his fingers. Axel frowned, not cruelly, but he didn't exactly look happy. How could such a dumb teenager's words hurt this guy so badly? Moving forward and holding the smaller male in his arms, Axel rested his chin on the blond mess of hair.

“It's okay, it's okay... just calm down.” He could feel the blond shaking in his grasp, eyes shut tight as smaller fingers clutched at the coat. In a few moments, the shaking stopped and silence ensued. Roxas' eyes were open, staring at the material in front of his face. He could feel Axel's hand patting his back softly. Everything in front of his nose smelled distinctly like Axel; even the scarf that was tickling his nose slightly smelled like him, pleasant even. This was getting kind of humiliating though, to cry in another guy's arms in the middle of the street. It was alright for a girl to do that, but no way to deny it, Roxas was a guy through and through.

“... You can let go of me now. I'm...okay,” Roxas muttered, muffled heavily by the coat. Axel gingerly let go, peeling himself away from the blond, who moved back a few steps and looked down, hiding his red eyes. He couldn't believe what just happened. Suddenly, Sora and Riku weren't going to be part of his circle of friends, and no doubt Kairi would be furious at the blond for the outburst. It seemed only Namine remained to be his friend. Cold hands suddenly gripped his face, forcing him to look up. Deep green eyes looked back at his own, forcing him to look straight ahead rather than away.

“Look, I'm sorry I got you into this mess. I shouldn't have provoked him like that. I'm really sorry.” Axel sounded so sincere, friendly even. It really just clicked in the blonde's head; he could always turn to Axel if he needed a friend. Namine was nice, but she was sometimes more cryptic then helpful. “I just... thought I should've helped you somehow...though I guess I didn't do a very good job at it.” He moved his eyes in another direction, but his hold on the smaller male's face didn't end. Roxas lifted his own hands to clasp at the ones on his face, fingers slipping around to rest against the redhead's wrists.

“It's...don't worry about it. It isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself. It would've happened in the end, I think.” He didn't sound too sure, but he didn't want to drag the redhead into this. Axel, seeing past the ruse, shook his head at that, the spiked up hair sagging a little from the light snow flakes that were now falling on them, all around them. “No, please, don't. It's my fault. I lied to Sora.”

“But I'm the one that-”

“No. Stop.” Axel looked at Roxas in surprise at the firm tone. “Stop blaming yourself for my being stupid. It's not your fault so get over it already.”

“...Just tell me how to make it up to you.” Roxas shook his head against the redhead's hands, feeling a pinprick of embarrassed red color dotting his face because of them. He wouldn't let Axel blame himself for this. It wasn't his fault, completely. He just edged on Sora a bit. He wasn't a nobody. He wasn't. “Please, Roxas. Please.” Shifting his gaze to look down, Roxas thought about it for a minute.

“Fine,” he muttered definitively., sapphire eyes shooting up to stare back at the emerald ones. Axel was ready to listen to what the blond said. Though he certainly wasn't expecting what happened next. “Kiss me.” Roxas wanted to see if the same reaction would happen this time around, that funny feeling where memories seemed to be verified, even though they weren't really his memories to verify. Somehow, in those little dream memories, the feelings were hard to tell; it was difficult to feel them there. But these, these seemed to be the delayed feelings that would've been there, some time ago, whenever it was.

“K-kiss you?” He wasn't exactly expecting that kind of way to make it up to Roxas. A quick spot of color flashed into his face, not because of the cold, but because of the thought of being requested to kiss him. “Are..you s-sure about that?”

Roxas only gave a weak smile in response and simply said, “Yep.”

Axel let out a shaky sigh, raising the blond's face with a slight movement of his hands. With Roxas' face slightly higher, Axel could see just how tired he must have felt. But he couldn't help but think that the smaller male looked really adorable all blushy like that. Moving his head in to only a few inches from the blond's lips, the redhead stopped, slightly afraid of being reprimanded about it now. Rolling his eyes, Roxas simply thought to himself 'how troublesome' and closed the distance himself. More surprises for the redhead. Slipping his hand around Axel's neck, Roxas pulled him in closer, unintentionally at first, but then he didn't mind it. Easy to say that Axel didn't either. Feeling color flood his face, Roxas shut his eyes tightly, not able to keep on staring straight at the perceptive green eyes. It was like he forgot about Sora for a moment.

: : : : :

Somehow Axel managed to drive them both home, though they didn't say anything on the way. Roxas had sat in the car, hands clenched in his laps as the awkward silence dragged on between them. The tension in the car's atmosphere was rather heavy, like pea soup, not the bad liquid kind that one finds in a prison either. Neither one of them said anything about what happened nor did they attempt to start up a totally different conversation. It just didn't feel right. Roxas just wanted to get home and go to sleep for hours with no end in sight.

“Look, if you want to talk to me later just call, alright?” Roxas almost jumped at the sudden words that pierced the silent air. He glanced at Axel, who was simply looking forward. Unable to not notice the redhead's knuckles were turning white from gripping the wheel so tightly, Roxas simply gave an uncertainly look before giving off an agreeing sound from the back of his throat. He returned his gaze to the road before them, seeing the familiar street signs on the sidewalks. No one was out; who would be at this hour on such a cold night?

Once the car was safely stalling on the pavement, Axel finally turned to look at Roxas, who now wasn't willing to look at him. “I'm sorry about tonight...” The blond shook his head as he fumbled with the door, mumbling 'it's okay' a few times before he managed to get the door open. Stepping out of the car in his driveway, Roxas slammed the door behind him, looking at the car as it backed out of the paved drive and quickly slid into the one across the street. By the time Axel had gotten out of the car after parking it in the garage, he saw that the blond had already gone inside, leaving the redhead to simply get himself indoors.

Roxas climbed the stairs, ignoring his mother's calls and his father's funny look. Both were sitting in the living room, talking to one another during a commercial. They were probably watching some comedy since after a few minutes light laughter rang out from downstairs. The blond didn't want to talk to his parents now, and they could tell by his meek greeting when he stepped into the house. He had hung up his coat in silence, not blabbering on about how it was a good movie or how annoying something was. Roxas just needed some solitude.

He crashed on his bed, gathering up some of the blanket in his fingers, burying his face into the cloth. He could still smell Axel's cologne, which he only realized moments ago was just that. Axel couldn't shave; he just didn't have the genes to really ever grow a beard.

“He smelled...nice...,” he said out loud, thinking idly. He hadn't heard the footsteps on the stairs, on the landing, or down the hall. He didn't know his mother had been about to knock on his door with a small plate of cut apples for him to eat. She heard him, but she didn't think twice about it. Biting her lip for a second, she wondered what to do. Finally, after a few moments, she knocked on the door, opening it and stepped in, her feet making a slight scoffing sound as socked feet met floor.

“Hey honey. I brought you some apples if you want them.” Roxas looked up from his position in the bed, having twisted to lay down on it properly with his head on his pillow and hands on his chest. The woman smiled, placing the plate on the table next the bed. “I hope that movie was good. You seem kind of out of it. Tired?” she questioned, acting like she was supposed to.

Roxas nodded and answered, “Yeah. It was fine and yeah...I'm just...tired. It was a long one and it's just been kind of a long day.” He didn't continue so that simply meant that he was done talking for now. Sighing, his mother nodded, turning around to leave her son's room.

“Well, sleep well. What do you want for breakfast tomorrow? Bacon? Eggs? Waffles?” Roxas shook his head, for once not requesting something from his mother for his Sunday breakfast.

“No... it's fine. I'll just have some cereal or something.” Nodding, the woman turned and left the room, closing the door behind her with a click. Roxas heaved a great sigh, hearing it echo back at him through the room, weak and muffled. “... I hate this...,” he said to the empty room, referring to his situation with Sora. He didn't want to fight with him, but it looked like it was inevitable. Turning to his side, the blond curled up, pulling his knees closer to his belly as he lay there, not getting up to change. “Why is this so hard... to ... to... gah...” He shut his eyes, forcing half his face into the pillow, trying to shut out his racing brain. He didn't want to think right now. He wanted sleep. He wanted to forget, just for the night.

: : : : :

The sun peaked through the thin red curtains, landing on the redhead tangled in his own blanket on his bed. The light painted the postured walls, small flares of light everywhere where the the angles of the posters reflected the early sunlight. His floor was a mess, as it usually was. Axel's hand was hanging limply off of the bed's edge, fingers barely scraping the gray carpeted floor. The teenager twisted in his sleep, the blanket slipping down past his shoulders, revealing his bare back. No shirt covered his upper body as he slept, his blanket his only guarantee of warmth.

A ringing somewhere in the house roused the redhead from his slowly faltering slumber. Eyes blinking in response to the light, Axel smacked his lips a little, wondering what time it was and how much of his Sunday was wasted. However, before he could even glance at the clock, he heard his mother's melodic tones call out from the first floor.

“Axel! Door! Now!”

It seemed like she had opened the door, saw someone who was there for Axel and returned to the kitchen and on the way had decided to yell up the stairs.

“Goddammit,” he murmured, running his hand over his face to rub the sleep from his eyes. “OKAY!” he hollered back, getting up and not even bothering to reach for a shirt. Why did he need one anyway? It was probably some random person that was returning something he lost or something. Not that he remembered losing anything important recently, though. What time was it?

Descending the stairs, Axel held on to the railing, palm smoothly trailing down it. Suddenly, he slowed down, a single step taking more than a few seconds. Blinking a few times, he thought he was imagining things, but apparently he wasn't, since the vision didn't seem to go away. Why was Roxas standing in his entry hall?

“Uh...hey...there...,” he said, completely uncertain as to what else he could possibly say to the blond that was so innocently standing there. “What're you doing here this early?” It was the blond's turn to give a quizzical look at the redhead, who happened to not be wearing a shirt. Some girls would die for a view like this, especially since the guy's plaid pants seemed to be rather loose. If the fact that he was shirtless didn't make Roxas want to nosebleed, then certainly the barely hanging on pants would've done the job, had the blonde NOT had a good sense of control. Really good, actually.

“...Early? What are you talking about? It's past eleven,” he said slowly, raising an eyebrow at the redhead who kept blinking down at him, completely unaware that he was half naked. Roxas just kept staring after that, even Axel remained silent for a little bit. It seemed like he was trying to get his head around what the blond had said.

A grin pulled itself onto the older teen's face, a smirk with an eyebrow raised higher than the other. Roxas cocked his head to the side, wondering what he was smiling about. “Are you checkin' me out? Cus it looks like you are.” Nice. Just, nice. Roxas' eyes widened suddenly and Axel could have sworn the blond was going through a list of possible responses to use for the situation. Even a light blush spread across his face as he stuttered a bit to find an answer.

“N-no. What makes you think that?” he finally managed to say, trying to clear his throat. Axel only continued to smirk as he put his hand up on the wall and crossed his legs, using that arm on the wall to support himself. Now he was just showing off. Under the clothes that Axel wears, he looks like a really skinny and pretty flimsy kind of guy. Not true at all, as Roxas is learning much to his embarrassment. Muscles. No wonder he could kick Tidus' ass no matter what. He might even give Seifer a run for his money if he tried.

“What, so you aren't half-way to a nosebleed by now?”

“H-hey! No! Don't think things like that...” How embarrassing for the poor guy. Being hit on by a teenager with a fully developed sex drive. Not that Axel's going to admit that.

Putting his hands to his chest innocently, Axel gave the blond an guiltless look. “But Roxy... there's so much more where this comes from. Doesn't that make you want to have a nosebleed?” He batted his eyes for effect. What effect could be the question here. Honestly, Axel's going over the top far too soon.

Before Roxas could give a flustered response, a female voice rang out from the office on the first floor. “How about you guys stop joking around and give me some quiet so I can work? Go upstairs or something.” Good suggestion, just not for the two of them. Axel rolled his eyes, turning around and began to climb the stairs back up.

“Better listen to my dear mother. Besides, guess there's more stuff to talk about in my room then on the stairs...” He disappeared upstairs, leaving Roxas to stare at what he could see of the landing. “Roxas!” Snapping out of his reverie, the blond pounded up the stairs, having shed his outdoor stuff in the hall. As he entered the room, and closed the door of course, Roxas looked around quickly. Still the mess he remembered from a while ago. Honestly, did Axel ever clean the place up? It didn't seem like it since debris still dotted the floor and the closet was still overflowing with clothes. He needed a goddamn cleaning lady just for his room alone.

“So what're you here for?” said the nonchalant voice from a corner. Axel was crouching down beside something. A quiet crack of glass sounded, and the redhead swore, gingerly lifting something off the floor by his feet. Standing over him and looking down, Roxas saw what it was; a broken picture frame. The glass was broken with a few pieces laying on the floor. It was cheap glass since it broke too neatly for delicate, good quality crystal. Roxas leaned over, his left hand on Axel's right shoulder, and pulled out the broken frame and picture from the redhead's grasp. “H-hey, give that back.” Axel grabbed it back, jamming it into a drawer, to be inspected later. Roxas gave him a suspicious look.

On that picture was Axel, naturally, and a few of his friends at some sort of club or something like that. Next to Axel was a blond, dirty blond hair, with a style of clothing that seemed to matched the redhead's. What was interesting about that guy was the fact that he had his arm around Axel's neck and he was snickering into the camera. Plus he had a mullet/mohawk type of thing going on for him. Not that it was bad or anything, but it just seemed kind of odd.

“...Who was that?” Roxas asked, pushing clothes off of a chair, onto which he promptly sat down. He sounded curious, and he certainly was. It seemed like that picture and that guy was an important person in this tale. Axel however didn't really answer that just yet. He sat down on his still warm bed and put his feet up on it, Indian style.

“Don't worry about it. Okay?” He just seemed to want to get off the topic. Roxas was about to press further when the redhead clarified, “Look, I just don't want to talk about him right now. Not till I straighten things out with him. Okay?” Roxas pondered it for a moment before nodding in agreement. Though he wasn't happy about letting it drop, he came here to talk about other things. That guy in the picture wasn't one of those things. Axel leaned back on his bad a bit, propped up on his arms. “So what're you here to talk 'bout.”

Roxas looked down at the floor for a moment. Axel suddenly leaned forward, resting his hands in his lap and supporting himself on his elbows. “Was it about last night and the whole Sora thing?” He made it sound so simply, nothing major. Roxas only nodded. He didn't add that the whole 'making out' thing had gotten to him too. Now that he was looking at the redhead face to face after that, he didn't know if he'd find his voice any time soon, especially since said redhead was shirtless. “Roxas? You there? Or did you fall down the stairs and land on your head?”

Looking up suddenly, a slightly annoyed spark in his eyes, the spiky haired blond stuck his tongue out at the redhead, who laughed at it. “Oooooh so you want to freeeeench. Well, alrighty, Roxy, whatever you want.” He winked devilishly, raising a hand to do the 'come hither' motion with his finger. Roxas winced at that and retracted his tongue back into his mouth, color filling his face again, twice in one day. “Aww...,” went Axel, disappointment showing on his face. “And here I was looking forward to it.”

Shadows came into the blond's face, making the silly look on the redhead's face disappear. Roxas didn't understand how easy Axel made this all seem, all so nonchalant and playful. His own heart was beating fast and he could barely talk. How'd that guy do it all so well? Trying to get a glance at his face, Axel lowered his head, turning it up to try and see what expression was adorning the blond's facial features. “Roxas?”

“How can...how do you...how... Why are you so... calm? Aren't you even a bit embarrassed by any of this?” His head had gone up a bit, his face still tinged pink. “Aren't you having a hard time talking, even a little?” He seemed desperate for a good answer, an answer that made Axel seem like a normal person. That could never be, though. Axel's not normal and neither is Roxas.

The redhead didn't respond; he merely gazed at the blond with a thoughtful look. “What do you think?” was his answer, one that he said with a slight sigh. Roxas didn't answer to that, mimicking Axel. “Well, what do you think?” the redhead repeated, his gaze unwavering. He lifted his hand up again, this time simply waving him over. “Come here and I'll tell you.” Roxas didn't trust this gesture at all. “I'm not going to bite you, idiot.” Axel scoffed, shaking his head at the blond.

Standing, Roxas edged towards the bed, sitting down next to the other male. A sparkle entered Axel's eye and even as the blond caught sight of it, he couldn't escape. Axel suddenly lunged at him, pushing him backwards to rest on the bed with his hands held down. A mere three centimeters separated the blond's head and the headboard, and that meant that the spikes were pressed flat. Wide-eyed in shock, Roxas looked up at the oddly tattooed face of his classmate, who was grinning rather sheepishly.

“A-A-Axel...” Struggle as he might, Roxas couldn't free himself. Axel radiated heat, leaving a tingling sensation on the blond's body, everywhere, but especially where flesh met flesh. Axel's face was too close, too appealing to ignore. The heat was going to his head, making him dizzy as butterflies blossomed in his belly. Goosebumps ran up and down his skin as he felt Axel's lips flutter lightly across his neck. “W-what are you d-doing?”

“Trying to not be embarrassed. Is that a good enough answer?” A strange sensation flowed through the blond's body as he felt pressure against his neck that only meant that Axel was sucking gently on his neck. Closing an eye on that side, he gave a quick moan, his pink face turning even darker because of it. “Oh so you like that, huh?” Roxas couldn't see the face in front of him, but he was pretty sure it was smirking at him. The words had been softer than usual, though they were still so crisp because Axel's lips were so close to his ear. Suddenly the redhead started nipping at the skin, so gently, that Roxas didn't think it were even possible.

Biting his lip to keep his moans from being voice, Roxas clenched his hands tightly against the ones that were gripping his pretty damn well. Wasn't Axel's mother just downstairs?! “A-Axel... s-stop...your mom...m-mom is...” He stopped as he saw that Axel had stopped his own actions and was blinking down at him. “S-she's...downstairs..” Face flushed almost completely, ears red too, Roxas must have looked pretty flustered to the redhead.

“Yeaaaaaah but she doesn't hear shit down there. Can't you hear the music from here?” Axel motioned towards the door with his head, where sure enough a murmur of music was coming past the closed door. “She turns it up pretty load and her door's even closed. She won't hear us.”

Roxas didn't want that to happen though! This was so ridiculasly sudden that he had no idea how he was supposed to react. He knew what this was leading up to but he didn't know how to say 'no' to it right now. “A-Axel, p-please don't! I..!!!” His words of protest were suddenly stopped as he felt the lips against his own, pressing down. Roxas instinctively put pressure back, which only told Axel things were good to go.

Axel's tongue was suddenly pressing against the smaller teen's lips, and he seemed bewildered for a moment, wondering what he was supposed to do in response to that. Then, he parted his lips and teeth a bit, letting the foreign tongue pass though. It tasted odd, but it didn't taste bad. It was just...different. Axel seemed to explore Roxas' mouth like that for a bit before he heard a strange noise coming from the blond; it was an odd type of gurgling protest. He pulled out instantly as he felt Roxas finally push him off.

“The hell are you thinking?!” Roxas screamed at the redhead, who was forced to sit back on his bed like he had earlier. “I..that...ugggh.”

Axel just sort of sneered at him. “And...? Did you like it?” Roxas fell silent as he blushed furiously at the redhead who shook his head at that. “Aah I see. So you did like it.” Standing up, Axel took a few quick steps over to the blond and cupped his chin with his hand. “There's so much more I can do for you, Roxy...”

“Don't you mean to me?” Roxas was surprised at his own audacity. He never said things like that...at least...like this. Axel only laughed.

“Of course. I meant to you.” He bent over, their height apparent now as it hadn't been on the bed. He pressed his lips against the blond's once more, trying to get another pass into Roxas' mouth. The blond, again, instantly replied and let him in, this time even going so far as to push back with his own tongue. But then he realized he was slowly losing his self control. That wasn't good at all.

“Mmffm!” Roxas pulled back sharply, so fast that Axel's tongue was still sticking out of his mouth as he gaped down. “S-stop it already!” he said up into the tattooed face. “I... I ... I have to go!” Roxas didn't like handling this, it was hard to deal with, especially since he didn't want to enjoy it! He was supposed to be sad over his fight with Sora! But then, Axel did make forget about it for a little while. Maybe it was a nice thing. But Roxas was certainly not going to stay to find out more about it. He pulled himself away from the redhead's grasp and shot out the door, after fumbling with the door. He seemed to do that a lot lately in the redhead's presence.

Axel, in the meanwhile only finally managed to put his tongue back in his own mouth and lower his hand, watching the red-faced blond escape. He smiled at the retreating back as he took a few steps backwards and plopped down on the bed. That was interesting. He'd certainly gone pretty far with a guy he know just a bit. It was kind of sad, especially since all of this seemed familiar.

Roxas had gone to grab his coat, which he didn't even pull on. He slipped into his shoes and ran out the door, ignoring the cold that pricked at his skin and the wind that picked at his hair. In a matter of moments he was already inside his own house. He managed to hang up his coat so fast that even his own mother didn't have time to see him climb the steps like a crazy monkey on a rampage.

This was all going too fast for him. He never wanted to go this far with anyone, no matter who they were. But the part that bothered him, probably far more than it did Axel, was the fact that it felt familiar; like they had done it often before. It wasn't fair that somehow this happened to them. Roxas was kind of normal before. Now he was just strange. It wasn't fair. Even more so because he couldn't help but want more himself. He just... he just couldn't stop the feelings he thought were long overdue.