EDITED 7/16/2011

Wow. So, haven't written or worked on any fic in a loooong time. I decided I really want to continue this story, but not with this horrible old writing style. I started this back in high school, and now I'm in college. Hopefully my writing style and English got better!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters associated with it. But if I had the chance to, I would so steal Riku from Tetsuya Nomura and Square. 3

If Roxas Uchimiya were instructed to describe his school in one word, he would choose "white".

It wasn't like he intended it to be a metaphor for the school as being clean, or pure; otherwise, Roxas would've used those words. No, when he chose the word white, he was serious. Everything in Twilight Town Academy was white. The walls, the desks, the floors, and the doors. Even the fluorescent lighting which usually tinted classrooms a horrible shade of yellow, were in fact, white.

If he wasn't sure that he wasn't insane, Roxas would have thought that his parents secretly institutionalized him. There was that Riku guy that Sora always hung out with. Roxas always thought something was off about that kid, but apparently his opinions were wrong because all the girls seemed to like him.

But that was besides the fact, for Roxas had never been asked to describe his school in one word. The real matter at hand was the person that looming over the blonde and obstructing his view of the front of the class. Really now, Roxas had thought that if he sat in the way back row, no one would bother him.

"Can I help you?" Cerulean met emerald.

"You're kind of in my seat." Roxas shifted back in his seat to get a better look at his current annoyance. He instantly recognized the infamous face from the twin tattoos under the eyes.

"Fujiwara," Roxas addressed pointedly. "It doesn't say your name on it does it?" Roxas knew Sora would chide him later for picking a fight on the first day after summer vacation, but he didn't care. Ever since his homeroom teacher called his mother at the beginning of the break, advising her to move Roxas a grade up halfway through the year, Roxas decided he wasn't going to give anyone at the school an easy time. In the back of his mind, he knew it was childish to lash out at the whole school. But summers in Twilight Town were hot, he was separated from his friends, and the object of his hatred was staring down at him.

Roxas gave the upperclassman a once over and almost sneered at his impeccable uniform. The simple white buttondown shirt looked like it had come straight from the cleaners, his black tie was crisp and tied perfectly, the fitted black jacket with their school's emblem on the left breast pocket was wrinkle free and his black slacks had its folds in all the right places.

"Actually, there's a seating chart up front, and it says that this is my seat."

Roxas stared at him for a few seconds with suspicion, but when he didn't see any signs to disbelieve the redhead, his eyes quickly averted from embarrassment as he swore under his breath. Everyone in the class turned to the confrontation taking place. No one had ever picked a fight with their beloved student council president. So much for the plan of not standing out. The blonde quickly gathered his belongings and muttered a brief "sorry".

He was about to walk up to the front to check for his assigned seat until the redhead grabbed Roxas' arm and yanked him back.

"Could you please let go of me, Fujiwara?" Roxas averted his eyes to the floor to control his anger.

"Now now, you don't need to address me so formally." Even thought Roxas wasn't looking at the senior's face, he could imagine the fake smile he had grown to hate. "Just call me Axel, like everyone else."

"..."

Axel let go of Roxas' wrist when he started clenching his fists unconsciously. "Are you okay? Calm down. You actually sit one seat over, no need to go all the way up there and look for yourself."

He hesitated, wondering if Axel was lying to him for a little revenge. The grin that Roxas had grown to hate had not disappeared, but seeing as he was already in a bad mood, he decided to just take Axel's word for it and sit down in the next seat over. Axel opened his mouth, as if to say something, but closed it when another blonde came ambling into the room.

"President Fujiwara! I'm so glad I finally found you! I have some papers for you to sign regarding the fall sports festival. Also, Saix is running off copies of the paperwork you need to fill out for this semester's budget."

As if on cue, a silver haired student with a scar across his face ran into the room. "Ah! President, I have the paperwork for you to fill out. It needs to be in by today's lunch hour."

"Okay, give the papers to me you two." Roxas scoffed at the redhead's obviously fake authoritative tone. He realized that maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, for the two who had just entered the classroom gave him death glares.

"Do you have a problem?" The blonde one squawked as he approached Roxas.

"Vexen, Saix! You may leave now. All I have to do is fill these out and sign them, correct?" Axel raised an eyebrow. They nodded and quickly left the room with small nods of their heads.

When they were gone, Roxas scoffed again and turned to look out the window to his left, discouraging any further conversation from Axel. He made a mental note to tell Sora about his encounter with the president's minions. All Roxas had wanted was a normal school year. But apparently, life hated him and he was forced to be in the same class as him of all people. Roxas just held a deep resentment for the "model student" since the first time he saw him on his high school entrance day. There was something more to that smile that was always plastered onto his face. Sora passed it off as jealousy, and the more Roxas thought about it, maybe it was.

By the time lunch rolled around, Roxas had almost clawed marks into his wooden desk. Just being near Axel made him uneasy. Thankfully, the fourth year usually went to the student council room to eat lunch, and most of the others went to the cafeteria to buy their meals, save for a few groups of fourth years towards the front of the classroom, so he was all alone in the back.

Roxas had just gotten his homemade lunch out of his bag when Sora walked through the door.

"Hey Roxas, thought I'd find you here." Sora smiled at some of Roxas' classmates. They smiled back, probably knowing him from hanging around with Riku. Riku had always been popular with all grades. The brunette had taken off his jacket and had it swung over his left shoulder.

"Ah, hey Sora," Roxas greeted mid bite. He looked up at him quickly, but immediately went back to staring at his lunch.

"Where are the others? No one else thought to find you here?" Sora pulled the chair in front of Roxas' desk closer and straddled it, resting his arms on the chair back.

"Oh, I think they're buying their lunches today. They'll probably be here in a bit."

"Hmm, fine. So, how were your classes? Your senior classes." Sora gave a short laugh and Roxas looked up at him. "Man, Roxas! How could you leave your best friend behind?" Sora frowned at the other, his deep blue eyes locking with Roxas'.

"Are you suggesting that you're my best friend?" Roxas, in return, threw him a skeptical look. Sora gasped in mock shock and brought his hands to his chest.

"You don't have to be so mean Roxas!" The blonde rolled his eyes and took another angry bite of his lunch. Sora furrowed his brow in thought. "Hmm? Something bad must've happened today. You're nastier than usual! What's up?"

When Roxas refused to meet his gaze and focused on eating his lunch, Sora grabbed him by his shirt collar and shook him playfully. "Tell meee!"

The blonde scoffed and put down his lunch. "Nothing really happened." He shifted his eyes away from Sora again.

"Yeah, something did happen." Sora pulled his face close to Roxas', studying the way Roxas' eyes quickly glanced toward the seat next to him. "It has something to do with Axel, huh. I'm right, aren't I?"

Roxas pushed the other away and went back to busily eating his food.

"Come on Rox! Roxas! Roxas Uchimiyaaaaa-!" Said boy put down his lunch and closed his eyes, sighing. "Hah! I knew you would give in. So, tell me what's wrong!"

Roxas' eyebrow twitched at the enthusiasm. Sora was such a nosy person. "He's in this class and he just had to sit right next to me. He just bugs me with his stupid great student council president attitude!" Roxas crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

Sora rolled his eyes. "You gotta get over that grudge man." He chuckled softly. "I don't know what the deal between you two is, but you seriously need to forget about it. Have you ever even really talked to him?"

"No, why would I?"

"Rox, it's not normal to hate someone this much without even knowing them! Are you sure it's not anything else?" Sora waggled his eyes at him.

Roxas scoffed again. "What else would it be? I don't even know. Just something about him... He's just so fake-"

"How can you know it's fake if you don't even know what he's really like?"

Roxas disregarded Sora's question and kept talking. "And all the other kids just fall under his spell or something."

"Whatever Roxas. Just leave him alone, y'know?" Sora's eyes fell when Roxas didn't look like he would give in. "You know actually, I bet you could be student council president. You should run! Then maybe you can beat him out and kick him out of his reign."

Roxas snorted at the proposition. "It's not like I want to do all that work though, it looks like such a pain. And I couldn't care less about the student council."

Sora frowned at his friend's remark. "Well, keep it in mind." Sora propped his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his palms. He started boredly blowing up on his bangs when he suddenly looked up at Roxas. "Actually, you know Vexen? The vice president? I heard that he's moving in a month. You could totally be elected as vice president!"

"Uh... no thanks. Anyways, the school kind of has to vote for you to be that. I don't think anyone wants me to be in the student council." Roxas shook his head in disbelief at Sora's suggestion and went back to staring out the window.

Sora frowned again. "Sure they do! You know, everyone knows you're smart. I mean, and if they didn't before, they should know now. You skipped a grade halfway through the year! Aaaand, somehow, your overall quietness in class translated into you being a polite and nice boy. Go figure." Sora laughed.

Roxas scoffed and opened his mouth to negate Sora's comment when Tidus, Kairi, Selphie, and Namine crashed through the door. The few ckusters of fourth years in the classroom glared at the ruckus caused by their underclassmen and glanced back at Roxas, as if blaming him for the disturbance, but soon went back to eating their lunches.

"Oh great..."

"Hey! How was your guys' first day back?" Tidus hopped onto Axel's desk and took a wrapped sandwich out of the plastic bag he was carrying. Kairi leaned over and grabbed two cinnamon rolls out of the bag and tossed one to Namine.

"Tidus, we still have half of the school day." Selphie pointed out as she settled down in a chair next to Tidus.

"And that is why Roxas shouldn't have switched out. I mean I love being with the girls, but I need some testosterone around me guys! The day feels longer without having you guys in my class." Tidus wailed pathetically as he put his head down on the knee that was propped up.

Kairi threw her wrapper at Tidus' head and Namine giggled. "Hah! Yeah right. Tidus is just upset about Yuna. The whole time, he was just staring at Yuna and writing love notes in his notebook."

"Yeah, and she caught him while she was passing out papers and gave him this weird look before going back to her desk," Selphie added.

"Oh, shut up! Just leave me alone."

"You're still obsessed with her?" Roxas smirked. Tidus still didn't move and grumbled something incoherently that sounded something like "leave the man with a broken heart alone."

"Whatever, I need to go wash my hands. Pence was coughing for the whole second period." Kairi stood up and made her way to the door. The other two girls perked up with a "me too" and followed her out.

Sora watched the three girls leave the classroom and looked back to Tidus. His head was still down, so Sora shook his head and poked Tidus with a pencil. No response. He poked him again, harder. Roxas sighed (how could Sora be so perky with his two friends in such bad moods?) and slouched back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling.

"Hey, where's Hayner?" Tidus just mumbled quietly in response. He kept his head down and really didn't seem like he wanted an answer. Roxas shrugged, still looking up at the ceiling, but wondered that himself. He hadn't seen his best friend the whole morning, which might have explained why he was extra tense.

Seeing Sora was more of a stressor than being therapeutic. Although he and Sora were close, Sora's best friend would always be Riku. Roxas figured that Riku was the obstacle the prevented the two from becoming closer. There was just something Roxas never really liked about Riku, and sometimes, Roxas hated him even more than Axel. He wasn't lying when he said that he wanted to put Riku into an asylum.

As if one cue, the door slid open and all of the people in the classroom turned their attention to the person walking in.

"Of course..." Roxas grumbled.

A smirk danced across Riku's face as he strolled in, the same smirk that always seemed to ruin Roxas' mood.

"Hey guys." The older teen gave a short wave and leisurely made his way over to where the others were sitting, tie loosened, jacket missing, and one hand in his pocket, occasionally giving winks to some girls, and greeting the other boys familiarly.

"Riku! I haven't seen you in forever!" Sora immediately sided up to him like some puppy who waited for his master's return when Riku gracefully plopped down into an empty seat. Roxas didn't know how anyone could gracefully plop down into anything, but if anyone could, it would be Riku. Roxas waved meekly and went back to his lunch.

"Sora, we came to school together." Riku ignored Roxas in return and smirked at Sora with an air of possession.

Seeing Sora so obsessed with the silver-haired demon made Roxas disgusted. He only wished for Hayner and the rest to come back to the classroom before he became physically sick. Maybe trying to talk with Tidus would help-

"Oh, Riku. I don't know what to do for sports this season, I feel like I suck at everything. I wish I was as athletic as you."

On second thought, Roxas decided he couldn't take it anymore and abruptly stood out of his seat. "I'm going to go find Hayner. I'll be back later guys." Sora and Riku nodded and Tidus just kept his head down.

Sighing as he opened the door to the school roof, Roxas thanked whoever was out there that at least he hadn't had any Axel Fujiwara encounters during lunch too. The blonde didn't know how he would get through the school year if he was in this much of a bad mood on only the first day. Roxas shuffled his feet to the edge of the roof, deciding to sit on the ledge that lay behind the poor excuse of a fence that was supposed to keep the students from falling off.

He unwrapped the seasalt ice cream he had bought from the vending machine noisily as he took in the schoolyard below. Because it was still summer, a lot of the students were eating lunch under the trees. A slight breeze blew as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before moving to sit down on the ledge. But his eyes shot open when the faint smell of smoke was carried through the wind. Alert flashed in his mind as blue eyes scanned the roof top for fire. Lunches were already cooked, so there was no need for the kitchen stove's plumes of smoke to be flying up from the chimney. Roxas held his ice cream in his teeth and climbed over the fence to look around the roof. When he stalked around to the other side, Roxas' eyes widened.

"So, is this your hiding spot too?"

Roxas jumped slightly at Axel's low voice. He didn't turn around to look at the blonde, gaze remaining the landscape in front of the school. His tie was loose and his sleeves were rolled up. The uniform's jacket was resting a few feet away from him on the ground. The redhead's arm rested on a bent and propped up leg, as the other one dangled dangerously off the roof. When Roxas walked closer, his eyes narrowed at the object held between two fingers of the school's model student.

Axel held the cigarette up and took a long drag before resting his arm back down on his knee. "Hmm, seems like I've been found out."

His voice wasn't laced with worry or panic like it should've been. It was more bored and sarcastic than anything. He took another drag before sighing.

"Wh-what are you doing?" He knew there really was something behind that fake smile.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm smoking," Axel replied with a small chuckle as he held the cigarette above his head for Roxas to see. He still hadn't turned around. "And before you ask 'why?', because it's bound to happen, I'll tell you why. It's called a nicotine addiction. Got it memorized?" He lazily brought the hand not occupied by the cigarette to his head and tapped a finger to his temple. "Now, do you have any more questions, or do you just want to leave me alone and go alert the teachers that the student council president is smoking on the rooftop?"

Roxas couldn't do anything but stare at the back of Axel's hunched over figure, mouth slightly agape. But when he looked back to the cigarette in the upperclassman's hand, he broke out into a small smirk and started walking slowly towards him.

"Hm? So the great Axel Fujiwara isn't as hyped up as they make him out to be. Where are your little followers? I'm sure they'd be dying if they saw this."

Axel just scoffed. "Don't know, and don't care. It's not like I want them to follow me around all the time."

For once in his life, it seemed real. Roxas would claim later that it was out of shock that he dropped whatever hatred he had for Axel this morning and for the past two years and willingly climbed over the fence to reach Axel.

"Give me one." Axel finally looked up and faced Roxas, who was starting to sit on the ledge next to him. Roxas had a firm look set on his face, so Axel just shrugged and tossed the pack to Roxas.

Axel raised his eyebrow at the blonde when it seemed that Roxas definitely was not going to tell anyone about this. For the second time that day, cerulean met emerald.

"It's not like I care either. Can you give me a light?"

Axel contorted his face in confusion, but soon lit up into a small smile. It was nothing like his smirks that were always laced with a subtle malice. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a lighter, then proceeded to light Roxas' cigarette.

The pair gazed out into the horizon in complete silence until their cigarettes had burned out. By the end of the lunch period, Roxas was beginning to think that maybe there really was a reason why everyone admired Axel Fujiwara, but they admired him for the wrong one. When the bell signaled that class would be starting again in five minutes, Axel stood up and leaned down toward Roxas to take a bite of his long forgotten and melting sea salt ice cream bar. Roxas looked down at the almost empty popsicle stick and back up to the redhead.

"Thanks for that. Forgot to bring something to cover up the smell." He smirked at Roxas' expression. "See you back in class, Uchimiya." Axel raised two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute and lazily sauntered toward the door. Roxas' eyes followed Axel until his figure disappeared through the doors to the school.

Soooo did you like it? Did you? haha please tell me what you thought and hit that purple-ish button at the bottom left... It's like... reminiscent of Zexion's hair color O.o or is that just me? haha regardless, please review! and no flames. (EDIT 7/16/2011: See, this is how long I've been off of ffnet. I was on here back when the review button was a button on the bottom left that was grouped along with the options to favorite the story. Does anyone even remember that? -.-)

General Notes:

This is my first ever "published" fanfic in English. I originally wrote it in Japanese and decided to translate it and share in English! Anyway, my point is that the school setting is kind of Japanese style, with the uniforms and the student council and the ability to go eat lunch on the roof top XD Also, the character's last names are the last names of their seiyu because I didn't really want to be creative.

Oh! This was actually inspired by a short chapter in the manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Hana Kimi). For those who have read it, it was the little short story about Umeda and Ryoichi's past. Actually, it doesn't really follow/ depend on that chapter, but I guess I got the idea from it. So, if it seems familiar. Well, it probably is ;)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and remember to review, because that makes up for not owning Kingdom Hearts... just a little.

~Sei