Last Name, a kingdom hearts fanfic

Just a short one-shot to switch it up a bit. Working too hard on one thing for a long time will get me bored, so I wrote this. Yup.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Summary: He'd been in the background all my life, going unnoticed as a leaf blowing in the wind. I never bothered him, and he never bothered me. I never even knew his last name.

It must be toward the beginning of the alphabet. His last name, I mean, because he always sat across the room from me, Sinclair-Comma-Axel, or that's how the teachers read it off. I don't know what prompted the thought, or why I was even feeling the surge of curiosity. It had just occurred to me that he'd been in my classes since kindergarten, and I'd never bothered to speak to him, let alone learn his surname.

It was rather odd that I never spoke to him, too. I knew everyone; I was greeted with head nods and fist bumps every time I turned a corner. I was arguably the most popular guy in school, and I was only in 11th grade. I wasn't cocky about it by any means, so there was no reason he'd have any sort of grudge against me. In fact, the only people who refused to communicate with me, aside from him, were the girls I'd broken up with, but that's a different matter entirely.

I suppose I could have rectified the problem by going over to him and starting a conversation; it's not like I didn't have the confidence or the charisma. But that would have been too simple. So I sat silently, torturing myself wondering why this one kid didn't seem to like me. I was a likeable guy, for chrissake, he had no right ignoring me like he was. I began staring at him each period, willing him to turn around and at least roll his eyes at me, something to at least acknowledge my presence. But he sat there, as usual, listening attentively to the lecture.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. Not by making conversation, that was still too easy. I'd decided that the best idea was to bump into him, trip, and drop all of my belongings.

"Excuse me," he said, stepping around me.

I grinned as I picked up my books. Now that was progress.

I made it my mission to get the elusive kid to talk to me. I 'accidentally' knocked his lunch out of his arms in the cafeteria, hoping for some sort of response, but he just sighed and went back to the end of the line to try again. I walked over to his desk to ask him if I could borrow a pencil. I even said please. He just ignored me as I stood by his desk until the teacher told me to return to my seat.

So that's what it had come to. One step forward, two steps back. But I wasn't deterred in the least.

I decided that maybe my not-so-subtle tactics weren't working much at all, so I tried a new approach. Eye-contact. All the time. Of course he usually just looked away, but on the brief occasions that his eyes stayed with mine for more than a few seconds, I'd throw him a smile. I'd always been told my smile was the best part of me; the part that drew people in. Call it the main aspect of my boyish charm. But he seemed completely immune to it.

That ticked me off.

It wasn't until I tripped him in the hall that he spoke to me again. And maybe "spoke to me" isn't quite the correct way to put it, because it was more like he spoke in my general direction.

"Knock it off," he threw over his shoulder before picking himself up and walking off.

I realize tripping someone isn't the best way to get them to like you, but it was all I could think of at that point. If the damn kid had stopped being difficult and just spoke to me, it wouldn't have come to that.

I know it's a poor excuse, but the kid should really just talk to me.

Instant gratification. Or, instant in the grand scheme of things, at least.

"Hi."

I looked down at him, shocked, because since when did he say hi to me as I walked in the door? At a loss for words, because I really hadn't expected my plans to work, I grinned at him and waved. He pulled a face and looked down.

What? Why say hi if you're going to be awkward afterwards?

Since he already said hi, and therefore initiated a conversation - sort of - I felt it was well within my right to randomly speak to him whenever I wanted to, which just so happened to be after that class. So I walked up behind him as he packed his bag and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hi," I said. Brilliant, really, it was.

"Hey, Axel, what's up?"

'Hey Axel what's up?' He was acting like he hadn't been pointedly ignoring me for the better part of the year. 'What's up?' like we're old friends.

"Not much," I answered, eyeing him suspiciously.

Then he said something that knocked me on my back – figuratively, of course, I'm not that odd. "Wanna go out after school?"

I spluttered on an imaginary drink - maybe I am that odd - and stared at him. "Do I want to what?"

He just laughed and slung his messenger bag on a shoulder. The left one.

"Do you wanna go out with me? Today?"

Well that was damn forward, and if I wasn't as awesome I would have said something dumb, or jumped at the chance way too enthusiastically. But I was awesome.

"Fuck yes. I mean, uh, sure, whatever."

So maybe I was thrown off balance a little. Still awesome.
0

I found out that the words "go out" meant something different to him. While I was expecting a trek across the street to the coffee shop kids from my school frequented, he dragged me to the park and plopped on a swing. That wouldn't have been too bad, swings are cool, but then he didn't say anything - just stared at the ground while swaying back and forth.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Smooth, I know.

"Why aren't you?" He shot back.

I was quickly growing weary of this weird game he was playing. Maybe there was a good reason I never spoke to him. "This was your idea."

He didn't answer me vocally; he just shrugged and pushed off to start swinging.

"Whatever." And I started swinging myself as well.

And so it was that I swung with him for two hours. It wasn't that bad.

He gave me his number a few weeks later, but he never answered when I called. I guess that was a good thing, because I never had anything worthwhile to say anyway.

I told him that I knocked his lunch down on purpose that one time. He didn't get mad; he just got a confused look on his face and demanded I buy him lunch that day. I didn't argue; I was just glad he wasn't angry. There was no way I'd admit to purposely tripping him though.

He waved at me every once in a while. I think I was the only one he waved at. I loved it.

Somehow, we ended up on the ledge of the clock tower in town. I don't remember now whose idea that was, but it doesn't really matter. We ate sea salt ice cream, which he loved and I tolerated. We watched the sun set and the sky changed colors in front of us. Then he got up to leave.

After he left, I realized I was scared of heights. So I left before I could fall.

He was in my bedroom. He was on my bed. And I was leaning on the door frame, wondering how he'd ended up there. Usually, when there are people in my room, on my bed specifically, there's some tongue action going on at least. But as it was he sat on my bed looking around at my room, and I stood there staring at him.

We didn't speak much, but I like to think we had conversations anyway. I wonder if he ever felt that way.

"Axel, do you wanna go to Sunset Hill with me?"

I had no idea why he was asking me that, because that's where people went to hook up and that wasn't what was going on. Instead of trying to figure anything out, I just shrugged and nodded. I'd been there plenty of times before, so there's no reason I shouldn't go with him.

Other than the obvious fact that we were just barely friends.

We were much more than friends. I realized as we sat next to each other in a corner of the Hill, that I felt something for him. So maybe leaning over and pushing my tongue between his lips was a bit much, but stranger things had happened. He didn't push me off, so I kept at it, pushing him back on the ground and crawling over him. My hands roamed over his body, and he kept one hand in my hair, the other to his side.

I don't know if that's what he was expecting, but the Hill does something to a person.

He avoided me for a while after that, and it annoyed me because I seriously thought we were past all that nonsense. So I decided that if he wanted to revert to old way, two could play that game, you know? So I tripped him again. This time though, he gathered his stuff slowly and turned to look at me when he'd finished. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the empty auditorium.

"What do you want?"

"I want you," I started "to stop ignoring me. I hate that."

He sat in a seat and I sat in the one beside him. "Why?" He asked, looking up at me.

I shrugged, and kissed him for the first time since that night at Sunset Hill. "I don't know." He kissed me back.

I have to say that I had the best sex of my life that night. It was sweaty, rough, passionate, and loud - I'd never heard him make so much noise in my life. I don't really know how it happened, but we wound up back at that park, and he'd looked at my strangely. I started at his neck and he went wild. I've never again seen that much emotion in his face. We laid on the hard ground, under the slide, and I could practically taste the tension that was the lack of (proverbial) pillow talk. So to fill the silence, I curled an arm around him and said something I'd been holding back for weeks.

"Hey. I love you."

I don't know what possessed me to say that, or what made me think that'd be a good idea. It's not like it was a lie, but it was way more than he needed to know.

And he realized that, because he stood up, adjusted his pants to their proper position, and walked away from me.

I was really sick of whatever the hell this kid was playing at. The avoidance game was more monotonous than a two person game of monopoly and I was tired of playing. So when he asked to be excused to the bathroom during class, I followed him out, ignoring the teacher's glare.

I stood behind him as he washed his hands, and he obviously saw me in the mirror but made absolutely no move to acknowledge me. He barely even flinched when I spun him around and pressed my body against his, pinning him to the sink. He didn't moved when I leaned down and pressed my lips to his.

"I love you," I murmured indignantly against his mouth.

He stretched up and kissed me, then muttered "No," against my lips. The bastard.

He pushed me away from him and got his hand on the door before I regained my senses.

"Wait," I ordered, running a hand through my hair. "'No' what?"

"No to this. I don't want it. I never did."

"But, Roxas-"

"Bye, Axel."

Then the door closed behind him.
0

Summer came and went uneventfully, and when senior year rolled around, he wasn't in school. He'd transferred. I don't know what the hell was up with that kid. I don't know why he invited me to the park that first time. I don't know why he'd asked me to Sunset Hill. I don't understand why he'd had sex with me, or why he'd kissed me, or why he'd spent all that time with me for so long. I don't know what he was expecting, or if he'd just expected me to pocket my inevitable feelings.

And I still don't know his last name.

So that's that! Hope you enjoyed it!

Please review!