On the same day, every year, he'd receive the same gift along with the same note. Axel x Roxas. –Valentines Day Dedication-
Happy Valentines Day everybody! I love you all! Hugs and kisses all around!
They were laughing as they walked down the foot path towards their favorite ice cream parlor. They'd go there every week, twice a week, maybe three times a week, but never more than four times.
Ice cream was nice as a treat, but not something that one should gorge out on everyday after school or in the weekend.
The four of them brought up the events of their day at school. What they did in class, who got in trouble with which teacher, how much homework they had to go through and finish before tomorrow comes.
And speaking of tomorrow;
"Hey Roxas, tomorrow's that day again. You think it's gonna happen one more time?" the only girl of the group asked as she walked with her hands behind her back, her brunette hair had been done up in pigtails.
It didn't make her look any different, but it still looked ok.
"Who knows? Don't think I care." he lied with a shrug.
And they knew, "Liar." They teased and drawled out altogether, and then the dirty haired blond nudged him, "We know you're hung up about this 'secret admirer'." He quoted in a weird tone, almost like mockery.
It happened every year, every year since he first started high school. On the same day. On Valentines Day.
In his locker, leaning at the back where it stared right out into the world, stared right out at him, was a red rose. And attached to the red rose, was a white card. And on that card, it was hand written;
'I've loved you from the very first moment I saw you, from the very first moment I laid my eyes on you.
Will you love me the same way I love you?
From your secret admirer.'
That was on his freshman year in high school.
Roxas shook his head as they turned the corner and walked closer to their destination. He refused to admit or deny that he, indeed, was sort of hung up about his 'secret admirer'.
It was the same the next year, on his sophomore year. There was the red rose, leaning at the back wall of his locker, and there was the note attached to it.
The calligraphy always different, but the words, always the same.
Somebody called out to him and made him come out of his straying thoughts, "What?" he replied almost dazedly as he turned around to his friends.
"Dude! You walked right past the ice cream shop!" Hayner called out while the other two people laughed and giggled at him.
He laughed at himself, his laughter a mix of embarrassment and shame, and brought a hand up to scratch at his cheek, "Opps, guess I wasn't paying much attention." He only just realized that he had walked a good ten or so feet from the front entrance of the shop.
"Yeah right," the black haired boy started as he waved his hand about, "We know you were too caught up thinking about that 'secret admirer'." He smirked as he spoke in almost the same tone as the other boy. Weird and mocking.
Roxas rolled his eyes, "Shut up." He said in an affectionate way as he pushed past them and went on inside first.
They laughed at him and he laughed along with them. In a way, he couldn't wait for tomorrow, but on the other hand, he almost dreaded it.
He never knew who the one that did it was. The first time it happened, he sort of thought it was a prank. Since, you know, it's not normal for guys to receive presents and roses and love notes on Valentines Day. It was a day that was mainly invented for girls.
At first, he assumed that the sender probably put the rose in the wrong locker and he didn't know what to do with the red rose in the hand until he took a look at the card and found out that it was actually for him.
The second time it happened, he took it a little more seriously and thought that maybe he had a stalker problem. He was wary of everybody who looked at him in a weird way. Even if it was just an accidental passing glance. He decided to get a new locker and change locks.
It helped, until the next year, on Valentines Day.
The third time it happened, he started to wonder who the person was. He started to get curious, and he wondered if his heart was being played around with or not.
Sometimes he'd daydream in his free time in class. Sometimes he'd accidentally zone out when one of his friends were talking. Sometimes, and this happened most often, when they were hanging out in the weekend, sitting atop the clock tower with a sea salt ice cream in hand, he'd lose focus of who was saying what and what was happening the next day or in school, his ice cream would melt, and if he really wasn't paying any attention, his popsicle stick would slip out of his fingers and smack on the entrance roof below with a semi-loud splat.
And then he'd apologize and scratch his head in embarrassment.
What a waste of perfectly good ice cream.
They forgave him though, since it had been his treat and his wasted money.
"Four sea salt ice creams please!" it was Hayner's turn to treat them today. It was their tradition. One person would treat, and then the next person, and then the next person, and then the next, and then the cycle would start anew and repeat. It was a ritual. A small symbol of their friendship.
"Are you gonna try and find your secret admirer tomorrow?" Olette asked without adding that teasing tone in her voice, but there was a glint of curiosity in her eyes.
"There's like…I dunno," he shrugged, "What? At least Five hundred something kids going to Twilight High? There's no way I'd be able to." He reasoned with a pathetic one shoulder shrug.
"You might not know." She smiled as she rocked back on forth on the toe and heel of her shoes, "The person who likes you might just be right in front of you."
He quirked up an eyebrow at her, "Is there something you're not telling me Olette?" he smirked and she retorted with a friendly smack on the shoulder. They laughed at the weird idea.
He wouldn't tell anyone, but he was sort of afraid what tomorrow may or may not bring.
What if there was no gift tomorrow. No rose, no card, no secret admirer and words of love.
He felt depressed and alone all of a sudden, but he brushed the feeling away as Hayner came back with three sea salt ice cream in hand. Pence was already starting on his own blue icy treat.
"And one for you," he gave a treat to the brunette, "And two for me." He smirked and the blond rolled his eyes.
He didn't really mind though, he wasn't in the mood, but he only came because this was their tradition. More or less a tradition.
After an exchange of friendly banter, the ice cream was given to him and they were on the way over towards the park.
Roxas was barely paying any sort of attention to his friends, but he always managed to understand whatever it was they were talking about and answer almost ambiguously. Way after their ice cream was devoured, they continued to sit around in the park benches and talk about anything and everything. Again, Roxas was only barely paying attention and only provided half answers.
The sun was setting by the time they decided to head their separate ways, back to their respective homes.
Roxas had been so lost in thought about his 'secret admirer'; he almost nearly walked right past his house.
This was his senior year. His last year of high school before he graduated and moved onto college. He wanted to find out who it was, who his secret admirer was. No matter what.
Tomorrow was just around the corner, he needed to start planning out his next move. Operation, find his secret admirer.
He set his alarm to go off extra early, he woke up way before it even had a chance to ring, and got to school just as the front doors were being opened by the janitor.
In the previous three years of High school, he remembered that he got a rose once before school started, once during interval, and once during lunch. Roxas wasn't quite sure if he'll end up getting a rose when the bell for school to finish rings.
He walked quietly in the hallways and always double checked if he was being followed or if there was anybody in the next hallway.
When he turned the last corner into the hallway where his locker was located, he spotted somebody standing in front of his locker with a red rose in the mouth, trying to pick at the lock, and Roxas wondered if he was looking at the right person.
In all his years of high school, he never remembered ever seeing a red head before. He should've though, with that shocking colored hair. What was stranger still, was that the red head, was a guy.
'No…way…' he thought to himself and wondered why he wasn't as freaked out as he thought he was supposed to be.
He heard a quiet string of curses echo through the quiet hallway and while the red head was busy concentrating on how to crack into the combination lock, the blond decided to go help him as he quietly walked up to the other.
"It's 21 left, 13 right," he watched as the red head jumped away and hid his hands behind his back, "8 left and then 10." He supplied and watched as the other reached out to grabbed the rose hanging from his mouth then belatedly hid it as well, his face full of guilt of being caught in the act of a property break-in, "Who are you?" the blond asked as he curiously stared at the red head.
"Err…" he guiltily looked away, "Nobody?" he reasoned a little lamely and with a small raise of his shoulders.
"Oh really now…" he didn't look or sound convinced as he folded his arms across his chest.
The other sighed and stared down at the floor, "Look, I'm really sorry I tried to hack into your locker, but I figured since this is the last year and all…" he shrugged, "I wanted to do this one last time." He spoke as he brought his hands back to the front, his fingers holding onto a single red rose.
Roxas stared at the other in mild surprise, "So what? You've been doing this for 3 years and you just want to leave a rose and nothing more?" he wondered why there was a hint of disappointment in his voice. He had sort of expected more from the red head.
"Well…no…but…" he sighed as he raised the rose a little higher for the blond to take, "Well, I was…just wondering if… you'll be my valentine?" he asked almost shyly and peered up to look into the blonds' eyes.
And Roxas scoffed, "Three years of sending me a rose, and a note, and being my secret admirer and all you want is for me to be your valentine?"
The red head looked down in embarrassment and shame and guilt all at once and his hold on the rose faltered just a little bit.
But the blond continued talking, "I want to be more than just your valentine." He surprised even himself when he said those words.
The red head looked up in shock and happiness and surprise all at once, "Really?"
"Well, yeah." He shrugged, and spoke as though it was completely expected, "Three years, three roses? I think that's saying something, don't you?" he said with a slight smirk.
"Four actually." He corrected as he twiddled with the rose stem between his thumb and forefinger.
"Exactly." He smiled and watched as the red head hesitated in taking a step forward with the rose in his hand, "So, 'secret admirer'," he started in the weird tone, but without the mockery in it, "What's your name?" he asked curiously as he met in the halfway point with the red head.
"My name's Axel." He smiled as he reached out for the blonds' hand to put the rose into, "And I hope you'll memorize it the way I memorized yours." He smiled as he finally looked into blue eyes he had always dreamed of seeing up close.
The blond looked away just when he felt a smile tug on his lips, "So, Axel. You've loved me since the first time you saw me huh? Why didn't you say or do anything?" Roxas asked as he took the card and peered into it.
They didn't say the same things as the previous three cards.
"I figured that you…err…didn't swing…that way." He reasoned lamely with a slight nudge of his head and looked away with embarrassment in his green eyes as he brought a hand up to scratch his tattooed cheek.
Roxas scoffed, "Shows how much you know about me." He smirked as he opened up the card and read it.
His eyes scrolled left and right as he read the small card, and when he was done with it, he couldn't help but widen his eyes as he looked up to gaze into green eyes, "Do you mean it?" he asked quietly.
Axel replied in the same quiet voice, "I mean every word of it. Always."
"Good, because I think I like you." He turned away as he smiled and felt his cheeks heat up a little in embarrassment.
The red head grinned, "Good, because I think I love you." He spoke as he leaned forward a little and placed a small kiss on the blonds' cheek.
He got a small smack on the face in return and he gave Roxas an appalled look.
"No kissing on the first date." He merely stated.
It was so damn funny now that he thought back to it. Two years later after that fateful encounter in the hallway in front of his locker on Valentines' Day.
Roxas couldn't stop laughing.
"You were so uncharacteristically out of character that time compared to now." The blond wiped a tear away from his eyes. He would recall the event and laugh his heart out until he was satisfied.
He wiggled his toes and felt sand in between them. He might have to shake the sand out of his shoes later on when they get off the beach. Wouldn't want to get sand in Axel's car now, would he?
"That was a one-time thing babe." The red head scoffed as he swung an arm across the blonds' shoulders and returned his eyes to watch the sunset.
"Still funny." He laughed as he stuffed a hand into his pocket to pull out a slightly wrinkled card.
The red head quirked up an eyebrow at the item and pointed to it, "You still keeping that thing?"
"Why not? I think it's nice." He grinned as he held onto the card and read it again even though it had been imprinted into his heart and soul. "You are the one I love, I long to be with.
I close my eyes and all I see is you, all I think of is you.
I breathe for you, I live for you, everything I do is for you.
I still love you."
"And I mean every word of it." he grinned as he brought a hand up Roxas' chin, turn his head to face him before Axel rested his forehead on the blonds'. "Forever and ever."
Blue eyes lit up in a smile, "Axel, you're a sap."
"I'm a romantic, hunky sap." He smirked, "Admit it." he teased as he poked Roxas' cheek.
"Idiotic too." He smacked the hand away and turned back to the card, a smile on his lips.
"But you love me either way." He spoke as he kissed into the blonds' hair.
He rolled his eyes. "Totally, utterly and completely." And then the blond read the card again, despite the slight groan he got from his boyfriend.
"God, I'm such a sap…" Axel said almost fondly as he smacked his forehead.
"Yeah, but you're my sap." He smiled as he folded the card, tucked it back into his pocket and wrapped an arm around the red head's waist.
"A hunky sap."
"Repetitive too."
"Come on, just admit it."
Roxas laughed instead.
Yeah, yeah…I realized it's not that great and it's totally oozing with sap…But…Happy Valentines Day to y'all! Love you!!! (Hugs and kisses!) Especially to you, you, and YOU!!