It was the caterwauling of the alarm clock that had him peeling his eyes open, ripping himself from sleep. How unpleasant. He stifled a groan, pushing himself up from the sanctity of his bedsheets, the cool air rushing over him making his skin crawl. Such were things like waking up. He stifled a yawn and lurched forward, propelling himself from his bed. His feet dragged over the carpet as he stumbled to find the bathroom in the darkness of his bed chamber.

The alarm had been blaring for at least twenty minutes, but pillows made wonderful mufflers for blocking things out. Unfortunately, it had already seeped into his slumber and it could no longer be ignored. With a grunt, he forced himself up. His hand coming down on top of the alarm until his fist found the proper way to bring silence to the perpetual morning annoyance.

Soft illumination filled the hallways of the boys dormitory, those inside all waking to the same morning routine that they had last year. The first day of classes always seemed harder than the rest. How was one to give up freedom so they could force themselves awake even before the sun had risen to comport themselves in an orderly manner and worst of all, dress in the selected boys uniform that someone had obviously suggested? It was a sick joke. The boys uniforms were awful. Of course it had to be a joke. But the joke was on the students. Short sleeve button down white blouse, black slacks, a neck tie, black shoes, like real dress shoes and a dark maroon sweater vest with the school's symbol emblazoned upon it. The school's symbol looked like an upside down heart with a cross melded into it. On each prong of the cross appeared to be arrowheads. The emblem was of course in one of the three school colors, those being dark maroon, light maroon, and black. How could there ever be a lovelier selection? Right.

He didn't even see him as he shuffled down the hallway. But his stomach was growling and he had to keep his eyes on the floor in case of those rogue staircases that just happen to appear under your feet sooner than you expected. Or boys who found it rather entertaining to trip you in the morning when you're still quite asleep. So it was quite normal for him not to see his lanky counterpart pressed against the wall, waiting patiently for his own shorter counterpart to emerge. But Roxas was always a little late to start in the morning. Axel had to learn to account for that.

"Hey Shorty, where are you going?" The smooth, snide voice said melodically, the question hanging in the air. Roxas stopped, his dress shoes sliding on the carpet as he stopped abruptly.

In a zombie-like fashion, Roxas jerked his head up, his bright blue eyes hazily staring through Axel. "...Did...did you really just call me Shorty?" He frowned, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he turned and straightened up a little. "Did you hit your head, Axel? Seriously." Roxas frowned, scratching the blonde mess that was his hair. Morning, noon, or night, it looked like he'd been standing in a wind tunnel- and that was on a good day.

"Well, yeah..." The tall red head said, a grin on his face. "What better a nick name for my vertically challenged buddy, Roxas?" He asked with a disgustingly chipper laugh that had Roxas' skin crawling.

"Too early... it's much too early to be dealing with you." Roxas grumbled as he rolled his head, his neck cracking. He'd slept funny last night and he was all sorts of tense.

"Come on. I'm dying for some breakfast." Axel said, shoving off from the wall. He gracefully made his way to the staircase, not too much farther down from where they had convened.

"Riiight." Roxas sighed, following with much choice. But he was happy to accompany him. Axel was his best friend. They always hung out, inseparable for the most part.

In a flash, something, or rather, someone, came rushing down the hallway. He bumped into both Axel and Roxas in his rush down the stairs. But in those few seconds, it was déjà vu as Roxas fell back towards the wall and Axel looked momentarily outraged. Enough for the tiniest wisp of flame to lick over his fingertips as he tried to move out of the way.

"Sorry! Oh, ah, I'm sorry!" The young blonde said quickly as he spun around from the collision between the two other boys that had been walking down the hallway.

It was the first year that any of the boys had been in the freshman dormitory. The Freshman dorms were a little different than the normal dorms.They quarantined the freshman keeping them away from their upperclassman for safety reasons. That, and most everyone, teachers included wanted nothing to do with the freshman. It was just a nuisance to watch them running around the school, corralling they freshman was much easier.

"Ah, slow down, jerk." Roxas growled brushing himself off. Not one for being shoved around he was fairly irked but not nearly as much as Axel

Axel gave the blonde a shove, pushing his back to the wall.

He squirmed awkwardly, "Oh! I, I really am sorry." He whimpered a little appraising Axel's aggressive stance. His body pressed into him, uniforms askew. Axel ripped the glasses off of his face, his green eyes glaring flames down at Demyx.

"I...I'm sorry." Demyx swallowed hard his cheeks flushed, his blue eyes ripping away from Axel's raging green pair, to his tense jaw, to his throat, to his collarbone and down to crest of the other's chest that was in broad view being unbuttoned near the top.

Axel gave Demyx another hard shove. "Hey! Watch it kid, or next time you won't be so lucky, got it?" He growled shooting him one more pointed look before slowly easing off him. "C'mon Roxas..." Axel said with a smooth gesture leaving Demyx looking a little shocked.

Demyx smiled looking to his friends, "Sorry, just like last year eh? You gonna rough me up Axel." Demyx smiled tilting his head a little, his blue eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Oh definitely Dem, you can count on it." Axel smiled crookedly as he turned giving Dem a playful little shove as they three headed downstairs, though Dem soon found that his tie was smoking a little.

"Dammnit Axel!" He sighed summoning some moisture from the air to staunch the smoldering fabric. "Such a dick."

"Yeah." Roxas nodded as they headed down to the cafe for breakfast with all the other prospective Order members.

The three boys made a grand entrance, Axel leading the way of course.

"Well look who had decided to join us this morning." A soft masculine voice drawled just to their right.

"What's that? Does anyone else smell pansies?" Axel announced loudly, and by loudly I mean drawing the attention of everyone in the café.

Marluxia looked displeased as he glanced around making note of all the watching eyes but before he could make a comment, Larxene jumped to his aid.

"Shut it, Axel, no one asked for your foul opinion." She scoffed stepping from behind Marluxia and there for taking the stage with Axel as the rest of the students watched the drama unfold.

"Ohh, that's nice Marly, have your boyfriend defend you.." Axel chided and yawned, but he was over acting and it was obviously out of boredom that he yawned. A few of the onlookers chuckled.

"We're not dating!" They both chimed in unison.

"Think they missed the fact Axel just called Larxene a man?" Roxas whispered to Demyx as they let Axel keep his role as ringmaster.

"Nah, I think they both know its true. Her dick is bigger then any man's here." Demyx said with a knowing nod.

Marluxia growled at Axel advancing on him, and despite his feminine hair color, Marluxia made up for it with vicious cunning and a slightly disturbing desire to destroy those in his way.

"Now, now, children, there will be none of that." a soft voice crooned, it was chilling in that way you just didn't feel comfortable hearing no matter how brave you were.

"Good morning Professor Saïx." The boys and Larxene chimed in unison.

His did not smile, but merely frowned looking over them with beastly eyes. A characteristic he had no matter the time of day. "...Eat your breakfast. Get to class." He frowned walking away from the hostile situation that he did expect to be resolved. They weren't willing to chance it. Seeing Saïx berserk was not the kind of early morning ritual anyone prayed for.

Marluxia and his crew went off minding their own, while Axel and the rest of them took a seat at their table while Axel loudly made conversation about a certain pink-haired someone. The energy in the room was still hostile but none the less uneventful.

Demyx cleared his throat looking up at the large clock that hung on the wall for the entire student body to see. "Ah well, I have an appointment with one of my professors this morning, I'll catch you guys later at first period." He slipped off leaving Axel and Roxas to themselves.

"Dem is so strange. He's always running off to talk to teachers. I bet he gets straight A's."

Roxas watched Demyx disappear, his face neutral. "Yeah...I bet."