Ok, welcome to my new story! XD

Some background on it:

This world is based on one I made, for a story that I may someday write out...you never know with me. It's going to be hella confusing at first, because I'm not sure how to filter all the explanations on words into the story. Hopefully they'll slowly iron themselves out through the story. And it'll sound a little weird, perhaps, at first because I'm trying to keep Roxas's little secret a surprise...You'll see.

Here's important stuff:

This is yaoi. Don't read if you don't like (or do read and pretend one of them's a girl, I don't care XP). Rated M for language, violence, blood, and future smut. Oh, and these ... mean a break. Like usually in books where they skip two lines to show either a time skip or a scene change. The main pairings in this at the moment are Akuroku and Soriku with side pairings Zemyx and Cleon.

Thanks for showing interest and I hope you like it!

It was a beautiful morning, or so it seemed. The blond teen stretched, yawning, and examined the coffee in front of him with a blank stare. He didn't really like coffee, it tasted awful to him, but the caffeine was nice. With a sigh, he drank from it again, bright blue eyes scanning the café. He didn't see anything interesting, so he huffed inwardly and resigned himself to another drab day.

"Hey, there!"

Roxas looked up in surprise to see a tall redhead standing over him with a silly, friendly grin, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a plate of food in the other. He found himself examining glowing green eyes, and muscles under a black t-shirt and skinny jeans that hung off ridiculously shapely hips. His hands were fairly large with long, expressive fingers. Roxas looked at his hair again and was fascinated by how it managed to look like red fire, spiking out from the back of his head. He wondered absently how long it took to get it to spike like that.

The guy gestured at the seat across from Roxas, breaking his reverie. "Mind if I sit there?" he asked.

Roxas was tempted to say yes—he didn't really like forcing himself to make idle conversation. But he didn't have the heart to turn down this intriguing person. "I don't mind," he replied and watched as his new tablemate maneuvered around and set his food down.

They sat in companionable silence, the redhead eating and Roxas examining the café, and eventually breaking out a book from his bag and reading.

The tall man stood, startling Roxas from a rather interesting part of the story, and stretched. "Well, thanks for the seat, I suppose," he commented in a voice that apparently just naturally sounded amused. "Bye…Oh, I didn't catch your name."

Roxas again considered blowing him off. But that would be rude. "Um, it's Roxas," he replied, matching those level green eyes gaze for gaze.

The redhead smirked and held out a hand. "I'm Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" Roxas jerked backwards, insulted, and he hastily added, "Don't be offended, I say that to everyone."

The blond glared for a moment, apparently not sure whether to believe him or not. But he did grab Axel's hand and shook it, thinking how weird the guy was.

As the redhead tossed his trash and left, Roxas snorted and thought, Well, at least I'll never have to see him again.

Roxas stood and left, pulling out a pair of headphones and settling them on his head, shifting his iPod in his hoodie pocket. He had felt the chill in the air this morning and put on a long-sleeved black shirt and his favorite thin, pull-over hoodie that was white with black sleeves, but it was getting warmer now and he was beginning to regret it. He tapped his fingers on his denim-clad leg thoughtfully and looked around, trying to remember just what exactly he was supposed to be doing.

He turned and walked down the street, mind on the project he had upcoming for his freshmen Math class. He really didn't want to do it, and so had been slightly procrastinating, but he needed to start planning before he got too far behind. As he mulled the requirements and guidelines in his head, he almost didn't notice that he was about to pass the place he had been headed for: the local park. It was rather run-down, and, at the moment, the entrance was flanked by two rather heavily-muscled men with stern expressions. No human in their right mind would enter the park today.

Roxas passed between the two people unmolested and looked around as he passed through the crowds. Some people were drinking alcohol, a strangely preferred pastime of his kind, and he avoided them like the plague. Alcohol didn't sit well with him—it tasted like shit, after all.

"Roxas!"

The blond turned and smiled at the silver-haired man walking towards him. "Hey, Riku," he said, clasping hands with him. "How's it going?"

Riku shrugged and scratched one of his silver ears, a common habit of their species when embarrassed. "Well, it's good, I suppose…"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "What happened?" he asked in a warning tone.

Riku grinned sheepishly. "I, er, I went hunting the other day—"

"Oh, boy," Roxas sighed, shaking his head.

"Do you want to know or not?" Riku growled. "Anyway, I finally caught the chick and was about to bite her when I heard a hiss. So I turned and guess what?"

"Vampire?" Roxas asked in a faintly nauseated voice.

Riku nodded. "A nasty one, a Renegade. It wanted the blood I was after, and so we had a throw-down over it…and I lost."

Roxas frowned deeply. "A captain fell to a Renegade?" he murmured, concerned.

Riku nodded. "Not only that, but I watched from afar to keep an eye on the prey. He killed the lady. Drank her dry. I couldn't do a thing."

Roxas shivered. "If even the Renegades are getting that strong, the vampires are overbreeding again."

"The vampires have been overbreeding since they were made."

Riku and Roxas turned and nodded at the blonde stalking up to them, arms crossed. "Larxene," Roxas mumbled by way of greeting.

Larxene snorted. "If Renegades are getting that strong, it just means WE are getting that weak."

Riku bristled visibly at the suggestion, baring his teeth. "I'm not weak," he growled angrily.

Roxas winced; Larxene knew better than to touch Riku's one weak point: his strength, ironically. He was strong, truly, but he was rather obsessed with it, since he didn't really have anything else he could do for the Clan besides his magic, and everyone knew Roxas was the best at that, hands down.

Larxene rolled her eyes and retorted, "Of course not, kiddo. The Meet is going to begin soon. See you there." She walked off with a sarcastic wave.

Riku growled audibly while she marched off. Then they noticed everyone beginning to head for the main stage and the silver-haired man stalked off angrily. Roxas sighed and followed, taking off his headphones and switching off the music before shoving his hands into his pockets.

The blond settled near the front, between Riku and Larxene, and looked up at the small stage where a black-haired man stood, blue eyes watching patiently for the crowds of people to settle down. From where he stood compared to his audience, his black cat-like ears stood out starkly against the blue sky, and his black tail waved peaceably. Once everyone was seated, he glanced over them all once more, then said, "My dear Clan…we are in some interesting trouble."

This stirred up the people, and Roxas frowned thoughtfully. Usually the Leader spoke with the captains before he told everyone about a danger…

He was still wearing his characteristic half-smile, but it was diminished. He inhaled deeply and went on. "The werewolves have broken off their pact with us."

There was a moment of dead silence. Roxas thought, What? Then everyone began to murmur again. Riku stood suddenly, attracting attention. "Why?" he shouted, looking as appalled as Roxas felt.

The black-haired man shook his head slowly. "I'm not sure. I tried to speak with the Alpha, but…" Anger flickered across his face, making Roxas feel ill. Zack never got mad. "…she didn't want to listen. They refused to even let me see her."

"We should teach them a lesson!" Larxene snarled from Roxas's side, standing up abruptly. Echoing cries of retribution spread through the crowd.

Zack held up a hand, quieting them all instantly. "No," he replied firmly. "We are going to, and have, spilt more blood than necessary just defending ourselves. I will not spill more attacking." He bared his teeth and hissed as they began to speak again, shutting them up. His ears remained flat as he went on. "We are not going to attack anyone! Yes, we have powerful magic, and powerful captains. But let's face it, my friends…we are a dying breed."

A morbid silence greeted his words. Dismay for his Leader shot through Roxas. What is he thinking? he wondered, mortified. He just absolutely slaughtered our morale. And that, at the moment, was the most important thing they had. Even he knew that, and he was just a former spellcaster.

Zack frowned at them. "I know things look grim," he sighed. "But we will survive. We always have, and we always will. We are far stronger, and far stealthier than either of the other species. We may not kill out our enemies, but we will win, because we are resilient." His eyes lit with a dark fire, making Roxas's stomach clench with a strange sense of pride he hadn't felt in years. "We will survive because we are werecats! Never forget that."

...

Roxas sighed heavily, laying his head down on the table sideways. It was ridiculously hot. It was always ridiculously hot, but today was surely ten times worse than normal. "Why am I here today?" he asked himself in a grumble.

"Good question."

The blond looked up and blinked in surprise. Standing over him, smirking with arms crossed, was the redhead from a couple days prior, the day of the most tragic Clan Meet he had been to yet. Reminded of that day, he let his head flop back down without so much as a grunt of a reply.

The man slid into the booth across from him, a smirk playing across his mouth as he folded his arms again. "I would ask you how life is" he commented in that same, rather enchanting voice "but I think I know the answer."

"Buzz off," Roxas growled, not tempted in the slightest to be friendly today. He maneuvered his head so he was sitting with his chin resting on the table, glaring into glinting green eyes.

"Ouch, it bites," Axel chuckled. He leaned forward, resting his cheek on his palm. "What's got you so worked up, blondie?"

"You're still alive," Roxas replied with a vicious sense of satisfaction. "Blondie, huh? Did you forget my name, red?"

The smirk widened into a relieved grin, surprising Roxas. What the hell? Does he like being insulted? "Well, as a matter of fact, I did forget your name," he replied easily, seemingly pleased that the blond had brought it up on his own. "What was it again? But you forgot mine, too, right?"

Oh, that's why he looks so relieved. "No, I didn't, Axel. And I'm not going to tell you mine if you can't be bothered to remember it." He was tempted to stick out his tongue, but he wasn't that childish.

Axel pouted—actually pouted!—and whined, "But blondie! I have trouble remembering names. Come on, please?"

Roxas growled in his throat like a cat, disinclining. The minute he did that, however, Axel perked up, eyes lighting up with suspicion. He felt panic instantly flood him, but he hid it well. He shot his head up and looked behind him, asking, "What? What is it?"

By the time he had turned back around, the glint was hidden. "Oh, nothing, nevermind," he sighed. "Come on, blondie, if you won't tell me your name, at least tell me what you're so upset about."

"School sucks, I don't have a boyfriend, my best friend moved away, and my brother's been acting strange lately." Roxas let the truths roll off his tongue. That wasn't why he was upset at the moment, but it had been bothering him.

Axel's eyebrows rose, apparently fighting against the urge to smirk again. "That sounds pretty harsh," he finally managed to say. Then he tacked on with further amusement, "Boyfriend, huh?"

Shit, why did I say that? "Yeah, boyfriend," Roxas grumbled, lowering his eyelids to half-cover his bright blue eyes. "If it bothers you, just piss off."

"Hey now." Roxas glanced up at Axel's hurt tone to see him practically pouting again. "There's no need to get hostile. 'Sides…" His gaze caught Roxas's, curiosity shining in them. "…it would be rather hypocritical of me if I was bothered by liking men."

Roxas got the message instantly and closed his eyes completely. I'm being flirting with by a red-haired man in a café I don't even like. Where did my life go? I thought I quit the spellcasters so I could get my life back...He opened his eyes to see Axel staring at him with a calculating gaze, and wondered absently at how expressive the redhead's eyes were.

He didn't realize they were staring at each other until a cellphone went off, and Axel began digging through his pockets for it, breaking the blond free from the spell. Roxas wondered if he had heard that song before while the redhead pulled out his phone, then answered it. "Hello?" the man said, frowning. Roxas was surprised by how different his expression was when he wasn't talking to the blond werecat; he looked a lot less happy, and a tad stressed. "…Alright, Dem, I'll pick you up later." He sighed and closed the phone, looking down at Roxas. "Sorry, Roxy, but I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, got it memorized?" He stood with another smirk and sauntered out as Roxas snapped angrily, "Don't call me that!"

It wasn't until the man was well out the door that the blond realized he had remembered his name.

That little fucker…

...

Roxas slouched into his apartment, shutting the door behind him and slinging his college bag off into the entry way. He meandered in, shouting, "I'm home!"

As he kicked off his shoes under the coat hooks, a brunette came barreling down the stairs and nearly knocked the blond down as he tackled him. "Roxas!" he squealed, wrapping his arms around him.

Roxas couldn't help the small smile that forced it way to the surface at his twin's over-enthusiastic greeting. "Hey, Sora," he chuckled, freeing himself. "How was school?"

The blue eyes widened as he went into puppy-sulking mode. "Riku wouldn't talk to me again today," he grumbled, crossing his arms.

Roxas trailed into the kitchen, casting his brother a surprised glance. "Really?" he replied. "Why not?"

Sora blew a raspberry at him. "How should I know?" he retorted, sliding into a chair at the table. He grinned as a gray fluff-ball attached itself to his shoelace and jiggled his foot, playing with it. "He just ignores me every time I try to talk to him. Come on, Rox, please talk to him? For me? I know you guys aren't terribly close, but I need this favor."

Roxas hid his guilty expression as he shuffled through the pantry for something edible. Poor Sora didn't know that they were actually pretty good friends. "Sora, Riku is closer to your grade. It would be weird if a freshman pulled aside a junior to talk to him, especially about him ignoring someone in his own grade."

"No, it wouldn't!" Sora exclaimed adamantly, distracted from the ball of fur latched onto his shoe. "It's college, Roxas, it's totally diff—OW!" He growled and leaned down to pull the kitten off his shoe, picking its claws out of the material and holding it on the table, earning an angry mewing. "Rox, control your kitten!"

"You brought him into the house," the blond retorted, abandoning his search momentarily to pick up the gray baby cat. It instantly began purring, curling up into a ball in his hands and rubbing its cheek on his thumb. "Be nice, Storm," he rebuked the kit gently, taking it into the living room and sticking into its bed, where it sat and meowed, giving him a kitty look. He sighed and went back into the kitchen, sighing again when he was met with a look from his brother that nearly matched the cat's. "Alright, I'll talk to Riku tomorrow. Why can't you call him, or something?"

"Thank you thank you thank you!" he squealed, jumping up and hugging his brother again. "And I can't call him, I don't have his phone number."

Oh, right. Roxas freed himself again and frowned thoughtfully. "That's really mean of him," he hummed. "Anyway, your room better be clean! Cloud is going to be here in a couple days, and I don't want him to think we can't survive on our own."

"Like he doesn't think that anyway," Sora grumbled as he trudged up to his room, trailed by a happily bouncing kitten.

The blond chuckled to himself as he began to look for something to eat. His ringtone pierced the air and he flipped his phone open. "'Ello?"

"Roxas?"

The blond frowned irritably. "Hey, captain. Why aren't you talking to my brother?"

Riku sounded surprised. "Your brother? You mean Sora? I didn't know I wasn't."

"Well, you aren't," Roxas snapped. "Come on, Riku, be nice."

"Sorry, sorry," the silver-haired werecat replied. "You're overprotective. I can talk to who I want to, Roxas."

"Riku," the blonde growled threateningly.

"Alright, I'll talk to him tomorrow," he grumbled. "Anyway, I was calling to tell you that the Leader decided we need a Meet just for captains soon."

"I'm not a captain anymore," Roxas replied angrily.

"Tell that to Zack," Riku retorted, sounding tired. "Well, I'd better go."

"Good. Get off the phone, I'm starving," he sighed.

They hung up without another word, and the blond continued pillaging the cabinets, looking for a snack. As he parked his seat in a chair, sliding a bag of chips onto the table in front of him, his thoughts were drawn inexplicably back to the redhead. He stared sightlessly at the tabletop, wondering how they managed to keep turning up at the same café. Roxas had gone to there several times before, but he had never seen Axel until that first time, and then suddenly the redhead turns up twice.

The blond tapped his fingers on the table thoughtfully and sighed. It was just his imagination. That look the redhead had gotten in his eyes when he growled, though…He frowned, firm in his belief, and a little dismayed by it. Axel wasn't human. And he wasn't a werecat, either.

That meant he was an enemy.

*whistles* This was difficult to write, actually. The next chapter is worse.

This was meant to be two chapters, but I want to try to write longer chapters for this story.

Umm that's all I can think of at the moment. Oh, I need help figuring something out. While I was writing my Soriku portion of this, I found it was actually a very cute story. So now, either I can put it in a totally different story or switch out pairings. What do you guys think?

Please tell me if you notice any mistakes. Microsoft Word doesn't catch everything *sighs*. And critique it if you can, I need all the help I can get.

Thanks for reading!