Disclaimer: If you were to put all of the things I own the rights to in a box, you would have one empty-ass box, my friend, for I own nothing.

A/N: I know I'm in the middle of a chappie (which I haven't updated in weeks…heh) but I've been on an involuntary hiatus from this fandom, so this is my and my sister's way of jumping back into the fray, as it were. Just a fun little one-shot for fun's sake. I'll work vigorously on ADoM after this. Promise. :D

I will warn you guys: I did that thing where I literally don't sleep at all, and as a result, I was not 100% awake when I finished this. I was barely 25% awake. I can't feel my eyes. I'll go back and fix any severe mistakes later.

Bon à lire!

-Slay

Beautiful

-o-o-o-

"Aw, man…And I was really looking forward to the beach…" Axel leered unhappily through his best friend's bedroom window, where the garish summer sun was bathing Twilight Town in a spectacular mural of color beneath a crystalline, cloudless sky. He slumped where he sat on the floor, plopping his chin into one of his palms and sighing despondently.

"Yeah, well, I can't just leave Sora home sick, so suck it up, princess." Roxas huffed unsympathetically, sprawled across his bed less than a foot away. "Besides, you think I'm not bummed about it, too?" He kicked his leg lazily over the edge of the bed, knocking his foot against Axel's back in an indiscriminant rhythm. "We'll just have to stay here today." He propped himself up on his elbows and grinned wryly. "We could play video games—I bet I'd whoop your ass."

"Ooh, that's some big talk, little man." Axel spun around and prodded the blonde's forehead. "Sure you're up to the challenge?"

Roxas scoffed and sat up, crossing his arms indignantly. "Are you?" He countered, a cocky smirk tugging at his lips.

Without warning, Axel hoisted himself up onto the bed and trapped Roxas against the mattress, leaning in until their faces were dangerously close, a jester's crooked smile sharpening the green in his eyes. "You better watch it, Roxy," he crooned mischievously. "Keep lookin' at me like that, and we might not make it to the game room." He punctuated the remark with a lewd wink that made the blonde's insides coil like a spring.

"You've got to be kidding," Roxas bluffed, smothering the unbidden heat in his gut and turning his head so he couldn't feel the redhead's sultry breath on his face.

Axel staged a pout. "Are you saying you don't want me, Foxy?"

Roxas felt the blood swarming his cheeks and shoved Axel away. "Ch. Sicko." He rolled off of his bed and sauntered toward the door, daring to let his hips swing ever so slightly in an attempt to tease his lecherous friend. He stopped in the doorway, gripping the jamb and cocking his head over his shoulder, one light eyebrow raised. "Think you can keep it in your pants long enough to play, fire-crotch? 'Cause you're sure as hell not getting in mine."

"Ah, you're killing me, babe." Axel smirked and clutched at his heart theatrically before getting up and following Roxas downstairs.

This was normal for them; dancing precariously around the libidinous idea that there was something more between them than friendship when there wasn't, no matter how badly Roxas wanted there to be. Axel was, unquestionably, the most incredible person he had ever met; his most cherished friend in the entire world, his confidant, his partner in crime, his soul match in every imaginable way. He loved Axel to absolute pieces, but had resigned himself to the fact that he might have to do so silently for the rest of his life, because to him it wasn't worth the risk to confess his deepest feelings. He didn't even want to tempt a falling out between them—as long as he had Axel in his life, he was happy.

Axel threw his lanky self over the couch in the den and folded his hands behind his head. "So, what'll it be? Which game would you like to lose embarrassingly at?"

"Ha-ha," Roxas sneered. "You're funny." He knelt down in front of the low shelves of their entertainment center and started thumbing through the spines of the videogame cases stored there. "How about DDR?" He suggested, pulling a colorful blue case from the shelf and inspecting it vaguely before hurling it at the redhead on the couch.

There was a thud and a sputtering as the case nailed Axel in the face. He gathered it up and looked it over, then snorted and said, "A test of physical prowess via classic rhythm game, huh? Alright. Prepare to be pwned." He cracked his knuckles obnoxiously and slid off the couch, launching into a series of half-assed stretches that briefly resembled exercise. "Nose goes on setting up the mats," he declared, already tapping a finger to the tip of his nose.

Roxas rolled his eyes and moved to pull the mats out from a nook in the wooden frame of the entertainment center. "Lazy ass…" he grumbled as he unfolded the crinkling mats and set them out side-by-side before the television, fighting his way through the knotted cables so he could plug the stupid things in. "Hey, can you hand me the disk? Might as well pop it in while I'm here." He thrust his hand back, groping at the air expectantly.

Instead of giving the smart remark Roxas was expecting, Axel actually snatched up the case, snapped it open, pried out the disk and placed it in the blonde's waiting hand—but not before invading his personal space from behind and whispering, "I can think of a few other things we could "pop in" while you're here."

Roxas' immediate response was a violent backwards kick that landed right in Axel's crotch, throwing the randy redhead off of him. He ignored the blush rising up his neck and clipped, "Keep those thoughts to yourself, asshat." He clicked the disk into place and flipped the console shut, turning the television onto the right channel before standing back up. Bright colors flitted to life across the screen, accompanied by up-tempo music and the opening title of the game.

"How…am I…s'posed…to dance…like this?" Axel wheezed from his fetal ball on the floor.

"Not my problem," Roxas sniggered. "Maybe if you knew how to behave, you wouldn't be lying crippled on my living room floor."

Axel grumbled a string of expletives under his breath and lifted himself slowly off the floor, taking his place on one of the mats with a grimace. "Will you come to the sperm bank with me?" He asked randomly.

"What?" Roxas quirked a brow at his friend and jumped into the center of his own mat, tapping the Start button with his foot.

"Will you come to the sperm bank with me," Axel repeated, swinging his arms lazily as the loading animation swirled on the screen. He grunted at the motion, an aftershock of pain bending him at the waist. "'Cause at this rate, I'm gonna be sterile long before I decide to have kids."

"Good," Roxas laughed. "Your kids would be an incurable threat to society. I think it's for the best that you don't reproduce." That, and Roxas didn't even want to try and wrap his head around the concept of Axel starting a family with someone. Someone other than him, of course.

"At least they wouldn't be mouthy little turdballs like you," Axel countered, taking the liberty of stomping to select All Tracks on the screen.

"No, they'd probably just burn their school to the ground or something," Roxas shot back, scrolling through the long list of characters. "Which is so much better."

"Stop talking trash about my unborn children," Axel whined, plucking his favorite avatar from the list.

"Aw, but it's so much fun!" Roxas smiled triumphantly at the displeased look he earned and hopped off of his mat. "Hey, I'm gonna go check on Sora—make sure he's doing okay. I'll be right back, 'kay?" He waved as he left the room, leaving his mat unguarded and his character un-chosen—stupid mistake.

Axel smirked deviously and waited until Roxas was safely up the staircase before leaping majestically onto the blonde's designated mat and taking the steps necessary to assign a character for him. Chuckling to himself, Axel picked out the most voluptuous, scantily-clad blonde female on the list and proceeded through the menu, past the point of no return. When Roxas came trotting down the stairs, Axel was swaying innocently by his own mat, and the screen displayed nothing but the game's track list. "I went ahead and picked your usual character," he explained nonchalantly, stretching his arms over his head.

"Oh…er, thanks." Roxas eyed his friend skeptically, doubting the man's innocence—and rightfully. He stepped back onto his mat and glanced at Axel once more before fixing his attention to the screen. "You can pick the first song, if you want," he offered.

"Mmk." Axel pressed his foot against the appropriate arrow, and left it there until the stippling sound of the menu scrolling drove Roxas to jump up and smack him in the back of the head. "OW. Woman!" After glaring at Roxas, he settled on something random and set his level to Beginner—"Oh, come on, lardass. You can't have it that easy."—and then Light mode. He rolled his eyes. "I wonder if you're this hard to please in bed," he mused, his tone lightening a note at the way his friend's face flushed.

"I'm just going to ignore that last comment," Roxas mumbled, setting his own level at Hard and starting up the song. "And I'm going to play on Hard because unlike some lazy assholes, I actually play to my skill."

"Baby, you don't need skill when you look as good as I do," Axel drawled, sweeping a hand through his extreme blast of hair. He shook out his long legs in preparation. "As for that last comment, I'll take your blatant denial as a hells yeah, and will commence with feeling sorry for the next person you sleep with."

"God, you are so full of yourself." Roxas grit his teeth, desperately trying not to visualize himself sleeping with anyone—especially not Axel. He glued his eyes to the screen as the signal trails appeared and the opening beat began to thump. Not unlike Roxas' heart at that particular moment. "Axel." He sighed, his hormonal problems completely forgotten. "Why in the flying fuck am I a girl?" He spat, pointing angrily at the blonde bimbo hopping excitedly on the screen.

The redhead shrugged. "I just thought you should use a character as beautiful as you are, Foxy."

Roxas clenched his fists, glowering at Axel from behind a loud, crimson blush. "Who said I was fucking beautiful?" He hissed, a hand shooting into Axel's hair and grabbing a fistful, yanking down with aggressive force.

"ACK!" Axel yelped at the painful pulling, doubling over as Roxas' grip threatened to rip the spikes right out of his scalp. "Don't be insecure, Roxy! I've always thought you were drop-dead gorgeous! Honest! It's—OW! It's a compliment!"

Roxas couldn't believe this. He was already upset, and this jackass still had the nerve to screw around like that? He snapped his fistful of red hair again. "Oh yeah?" He growled. "Well maybe if I had tits it would be! But I don't, so it's NOT!" He was too busy chewing Axel out to care about the boo's crying out from the game as they missed every single step.

"You don't need tits to be beautiful," Axel argued, wrestling his poor, abused hair out of the enraged blonde's grasp.

In his attempt to lunge back at Axel's hair, Roxas landed on the two buttons that restarted the game, but he ignored it. All he cared about was grinding Axel's stupid, smug-ass face into the carpet until it was scoured off by rug burn.

Axel yelped and ran for his life, hurling himself over the couch and starting a mad dash around the first floor of the house, spiraling from the den to the kitchen to the foyer and back around in dizzying circles with a furious Roxas on his heels, pleading for mercy the whole time; "C'mon, Roxas! I didn't mean anything by it, really! REALLY! Gah! Please! It was just a joke, man, seriously! Can't you take a joke?" he wanted to bolt upstairs in the hopes of losing Roxas in the hallway, or maybe escaping through a window, but remembered that Sora was up there, sick and probably already disturbed by their yelling. "Being beautiful doesn't automatically make you a girl!" He puffed, reaching the end of his rope after ten laps around the house, his knees aching from the sharp turns and his lungs beginning to rasp.

Roxas, on the other hand, had lost barely any steam. The next time he tailed Axel through the den, he snatched a stapler from the coffee table and unhinged it. He pounced, tackling his prey to the floor of the foyer—mere feet away, Axel noticed, from sweet freedom. Roxas held the stapler aloft threateningly. "I'm gonna staple your fucking face off!"

"Please don't." Axel threw his hands up in front of his newly endangered face when Roxas flexed the stapler at him. "Does it really bother you that much that I called you beautiful?"

Roxas flushed in spite of himself, and fought to keep up a solid scowl. He lowered the stapler and watched Axel mindfully, his lower lip pushing into a pout. He shut the potential torture-device. "Well, pardon me if I don't like being called a girl. I don't like being mocked so openly," he said harshly. "It hurts my pride."

Axel took the opportunity to gently pry the office-supply-turned-weapon from the blonde's hand and set it down safely out of reach. When he sat up, Roxas slid into his lap from the belligerent pose he'd been crouched in, his legs buckling dejectedly on either side of Axel's, arms crossed and pout deepening. Axel brushed a finger under the boy's chin to get his attention. "I wasn't mocking you, though," he murmured, harlequin eyes soft. "Honest."

Roxas averted his eyes, boring holes into the floor beside them and shaking his head. "Whatever. You're just gonna do it again anyway."

Axel brought both hands up to trap his friend's face, thumbs stroking over his blushing cheeks and locking onto those bitter baby blues of his with a determined stare. "Roxas," he said kindly, "if it bothers you that much, I'll stop. You're my best friend, and if I'm crossing the line between teasing and hurting you, I need to know."

Normally, Roxas would have just clung to his frustration and badgered the living hell out of Axel until a lesson was learned, but he found himself suddenly pacified by the compassion in his friends voice. He was so used to the guy bowling past his mistakes like he'd done nothing wrong…it always caught him off guard to see Axel acting so…considerate, and sweet. It caught him so off guard, in fact, that he found his mind straying into a completely new topic of discussion. One he couldn't even believe he was considering.

"Um…Axel?" He whispered so softly, he wasn't even sure it could be heard. His face was so warm, his cheeks growing so dark. He kept his gaze downward, making a point to avoid those piercing harlequin eyes.

"Hm?"

When Roxas didn't budge, Axel dropped one hand and moved the other to the blonde's mess of hair, giving his head an affectionate shake. "C'mon, Roxy, talk to me." The hand he dropped landed over Roxas', and Axel took to rubbing the boy's wrist without even thinking about it, causing Roxas' breath to hitch in his throat. He swallowed hard, staring in awe at Axel's hand on his. "W-Well…" he squeaked, needing to clear his throat before continuing. He couldn't believe he was even saying this. "Um…I…I really like you, Axel." Roxas visibly shrank into himself, slouching away from his friend's touch.

Axel's ministrations on his wrist continued, while his other hand wrapped behind Roxas' neck and gave a friendly squeeze, knocking their foreheads together familiarly. "Aw, I really like you too, Roxy," he said pleasantly, seemingly taking Roxas' confession too lightly. "That's why we're besties, right?"

Roxas jumped a bit at Axel's reply, his heart plummeting into his stomach. He couldn't stifle the tear that pushed past his crestfallen eye, but he quickly brought his free hand up to rub it away before looking back up at Axel, nodding with a pained smile. "Y-yeah…" his voice broke involuntarily, and he almost choked on the next word. "Besties."

Despite his best efforts to conceal it, Axel immediately caught the way his demeanor took a downward plunge—one of the only cons of being "besties" was that he couldn't sneak anything past Axel, which royally sucked in moments like this (not that moments like this had ever really happened before). The smile creasing those bright green eyes vanished as completely as if it had never even been there, and was replaced with the strain of worry. "Roxas! Roxas, what is it?" His hands rushed to the blonde's cheeks again, swiping away a second rogue tear that slipped free. "Roxas…"

When he got no response, Axel panicked and threw his arms around the boy, holding him close and rambling into his flaxen hair. "Shit, Roxas, I'm so sorry—I didn't mean it, really! You know I say stupid shit without even thinking…I'll make it up to you—you can kick my ass at DDR all day if you want! Just—just don't cry anymore…Please…"

Roxas shook his head silently, doing his best not to go limp at the warmth of the embrace. "Axel…That's not it…" he admitted shyly, leaning away. "It's that…" He wasn't seriously going to do this, was he? "I don't just…like you…" Apparently he was. Good God. He took a deep breath, eyes darting everywhere, desperately staying away from Axel's face. "I…really like you, Axel." He fisted the dark fabric of Axel's shirt, breathing in another unsteady wind of courage. "I lo—" The word stuck in his mouth like tar, but he swallowed thickly and tried again, working past the deafening drum of his heart. He let himself relax into Axel's touch and closed his eyes, unable to hide the nervous bend in his brows. "I…love you. Like, love you, Axel. I just…I thought you deserved to know." There. It was out in the open. Let the emotional torture and lifelong abandonment begin.

The hands on his face were deathly still, and the resulting pain in his chest was so sharp, Roxas was amazed it didn't kill him right then and there. The fear was so consuming—he was mere seconds away from making a run for it when nimble fingers gripped his chin, beckoning him to look into the spectacular eyes that he adored, but was currently terrified of. The unreadable expression he found there send another agonizing jolt through him. God, what the hell was he thinking?

"You…You wanna…run that by me…again?" The words made Roxas unbearably nervous, but the shaky voice that delivered them inspired him to say, "I—You heard me…" He even managed to add a treble of sass to it, which was miraculous considering the circumstances. He couldn't really bring himself to meet Axel's eyes, but he did see the uncertain way the man licked his lips before speaking again. Axel leaned back, his hands coming to rest on Roxas' arms, his voice uncharacteristically small. "Do you...mean that, Roxas?"

Roxas straightened up a little, donning a mask of confidence that he barely felt in that moment. "D-Do I look like I'm joking?" Damn, he stuttered. So much for confidence. He bit his lip. Even if Axel would never return his feelings in a million years, there was no hiding from them now. At least he wouldn't have to bear the secret anymore.

The boy was so caught up in his tortured musings that he didn't notice Axel closing in on him, and was genuinely surprised when his best friend, the person he cared for most in the entire world, who he thought he'd just lost forever, pressed a quiet little kiss to his trembling mouth. Axel pulled back, leaving Roxas' lips on fire and giving the term 'pyro' a whole new meaning in his book. "Is that what this was all about?" He hummed, his face settling into a heartfelt smile that was as rare and valuable as gold.

"You…Y-You j-just…" Roxas blinked stupidly. He managed to bring a hand to his lips, touching his fingers to the skin that still burned from Axel's touch. "You just…kissed—I, you, kiss, we, kissed…" He stared dumbly at the redhead while trying to gather his thoughts. "Axel?" He lowered his hand and tightened it into a nervous fist, a raging blush spreading from his neck to the tips of his ears. "Could we, um…do that again?"

A buoyant, charming laugh rippled up from Axel's chest. He bobbed forward and bumped their noses together, grinning from ear to ear and snaking his arms around Roxas' waist. "I'd be upset it we didn't."

He took the shining smile that poured across Roxas' face as a cue to capture his lips again, this time with more character, intimately framing silent words against the boy's mouth. Being a bit more aware of the situation, Roxas slung his arms around Axel's neck, fingers tangling happily in that fantastic mane of red as he met the movements of the kiss with more vigor. Happiness was swelling in his chest like hot air, threatening to lift him right out of Axel's arms—but like hell he was letting that happen.

They came up for air, and Axel snuck a peck onto Roxas' cheek before the blonde buried his face in his friend's chest, hugging their bodies together immovably. He felt the redhead's lips moving in his hair, familiar hands trailing gentle shapes along his back. "I love you too, Roxy," Axel hummed. "And I really do think you're beautiful."

Roxas felt his mouth twitching into a bashful smile. "Y-Yeah?"

"Yeah." Axel nodded, his chin burrowing deeper into the blonde fringe of hair. "You've got this amazing hair that always smells…intoxicating…those gorgeous baby blues that could stop a war—I swear. And don't even get me started on how beautiful you are on the inside."

As Axel spoke, the boy in his arms started to shake with laughter.

"Oh my God," Roxas gasped. "That was so cheesy…I think we should break out the tortilla chips."

The redhead reared his head back, acting offended. "Now how am I supposed to romance you into a stupor when you keep making comments like that?" Axel gave Roxas a loving squeeze and joined in the laughter. "Okay, maybe I laid it on a little thick."

"Just a little."

"Sorry."

"S'okay. It was actually kinda sweet."

"Maybe I'll just stick to wooing you with my out of this world kissing skills."

"Yuh-huh."

It would be a cold day in hell before his pride let him admit it, but Roxas was already a huge fan of Axel's kissing. Of course, he was a huge fan of everything Axel did. So when the flaming pyro flipped them over and pinned him to the floorboards, Roxas did nothing to resist. He welcomed the redhead's red-hot lips against his neck, pulling Axel up by his hair so their mouths and bodies met, melting together until they, and the slim and buzzing space between them, were the only things left in the world—and it was the most beautiful feeling Roxas could ever have imagined.

-o-o-o-

Riku pushed through the front door to the Strife's residence without a second thought. Being a lifelong friend to one of their sons and a constant presence in the family, he hardly felt the need to knock anymore. After hearing that Sora was sick enough to be bed ridden, he had swung by the store and picked up a plethora of the brunette's favorite movies and the makings of an herbal tea that his mother always pumped into him when he was sick, with the intent of keeping Sora company until he was feeling better. He also figured Roxas might appreciate a break from playing wet nurse; this would give him the chance to get out and do something fun.

However, when he stepped into the Strife's foyer, he looked down and decided that Roxas was having plenty of fun right where he was with the aid of a certain pyromaniac, and jumped back outside with a dusting of pink across his cheeks.

"Maybe I'll just climb through Sora's window instead…"

-o-o-o-

A/N: …I don't know what I just wrote. I hope it was good… My brain is SO fried right now.

…Riku wasn't even technically in this one and still I managed to torture him. xD

OH WELL.

Thanks for reading!

Review for a chakram cookie~ Flame for a chakram to the face!

TTFN, ta ta for now!

-Slay