Author's Notes: For Kris, half of the CrazyArtist121 duo.

Disclaimer: I don't own. But neither do you.

Side note: Title based off Roadhouse Blues, by the Doors.

Summary: The first time Roxas saw Axel, well, you could say that it hadn't ended all that well. Akuroku. Rated T.

o.O.o

Coffeehouse Blues

o.O.o

The first time Roxas saw Axel, well, you could say that it hadn't ended all that well.

There had been an accident of some sort involving sea salt ice cream, a coffee pot, and lighter fluid. It wasn't pretty and Axel just prefers to pretend that he hadn't met Roxas on that particular day in late September.

Instead, he marks the anniversary of their first encounter on October 1st, the day after he was released from the hospital.

And as he stepped into the Twilight Town Coffeehouse, saw the blond angel of his dreams standing there, the light filtering in from the window and illuminating Roxas' bright, bright eyes, he knew he'd found the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

Actually, he wouldn't go that far as he isn't that much of a sappy romantic. But he had found a person that sent pleasant sensations from his brain to a certain other organ of his anatomy. He took a seat in a booth by the window in the section of the cafe Roxas' was working. He waited patiently, knowing the boy would eventually see him.

Axel just wasn't quite prepared for Roxas' reaction when the blond finally did spot him, a coffee pot in hand. He saw the blond's eyes widen, saw them narrow. He saw Roxas' finish pouring a fifth cup for a balding, middle-aged man and briskly walk to where he sat, waiting patiently for his order to be taken.

"Well, hello there," Axel said as Roxas simply stared down at him, venom in his eyes. "How are you?"

Roxas chose to remain silent, instead focusing all of his hatred for the redhead in his Gaze of Indisputable Doom. Sadly, said Gaze needed some work as Roxas had never met anyone he loathed quite so much as he loathed Axel.

"This is the part where you are supposed to say 'I'm fine' or 'good' or some other quaint little response before you ask how I'm doing."

Again, Roxas refused to open his mouth.

Axel sighed, his green eyes growing just the slightest tinge impatient. After all, wasn't he the one that had spent the last two nights in the hospital?

"Well, you'll be happy to know that I am on the mend. The doctors told me that I'll be just fine after a few months of physical therapy. And hell, they even said I can take the eye patch off in a week or so."

Roxas fought hard to refrain from grabbing the back of Axel's head and slamming it repeatedly into the table.

Steadying his breathing, he asked laboriously, "What would you like to order?"

"You know what I want," Axel said simply, grinning as flirtatiously as he possibly could without his face cracking.

"If it isn't on the menu, then I can't help you out," Roxas replied, turning on his heel.

Axel grabbed the boy's arm with his good arm and stopped the boy in his tracks. "Wait, Roxas, I'm sorry."

After a long, rather constipated moment, Roxas turned back around. "You're sorry?" he asked evenly, a steely glint in his blue eyes. "Just what exactly are you sorry for, Axel? Say it out loud. Please, I'd like to hear just what you're sorry for."

Axel would have cringed then if he was capable of bringing himself to do so. He sighed yet again, his hand dropping from Roxas' arm. "I'm sorry for paying Demyx twenty bucks for your name. I'm sorry that I made nice to worm my way to you. And I'm sorry that I followed you outside and asked you out."

"Asked me out?" Roxas spat at the boy. "Is that what you call it? Asking me out?"

And he did cringe then. "I recant," he added after a moment. "I'm sorry that I, well…propositioned you after your shift the last time a saw you. I do, admittedly, find myself attracted to you, but I would also like to get to know you better. Believe it or not, I'm a bit socially retarded according to my brother, and I'm just…just sorry."

Roxas felt the angry lines in his face smooth just the slightest as he looked at the genuine regret on Axel's face. Sighing himself, he replied, "And I'm sorry for poking you in the eye with my ice cream and hitting you in the arm with the coffee pot. I imagine it took the doctors quite a while to pull all the glass from your arms-"

"—nearly two days-"

"—but it most definitely wasn't my fault that you tripped over the gas can and broke your head open on the pavement. You really shouldn't have been lurking out in the alley after my shift."

"I know that now," Axel mumbled before adding, "I just want to apologize and start over. I'm Axel, you're Roxas. Now what?"

"My shift ends at eight," Roxas said, his eyes glinting again, but filled with something much, much different this time around.

Axel felt a spark of hope. "Really?" he asked, almost too eager.

"Yes," Roxas replied, grinning down at the redhead mischievously. "Make sure your back here by then."

"Back here?" Axel asked, confused, before Roxas dumped the pot of coffee on his lap, squelching whatever sensations he had been feeling there prior.

o.O.o

This trip to the hospital was relatively short. It seems they took their burn cases seriously.

They gave Axel a giant (and very uncomfortable) bandage that served no purpose really and a bottle of super-healing lotion, and sent him on his merry little way.

When he made it back to the coffee shop, it was 8:08 and Roxas was leaning casually against the window next to the door.

Whatever nasty thoughts he had been thinking about the blond before he had made it back to the coffee shop flew right out of his head upon seeing the scowling blond look up at him.

Yep, it was definitely love.

End.