Note: First AkuRoku fanfic. First one I've ever posted ever. ;-; I'm sorry, please don't be mad when it sucks.....

Warnings: There is yaoi. It's boy on boy love! If you don't like it, I'm sorry but go read another story.

Disclamer: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS.....as much as I wish I did.

Oh and some of the last names were taken from fayesilo with permission! Actually, she helped me with the only two that are on there so far. *nodnod* ......*bows* Thank you Faye!!

Summary: Roxas has a hard time at home with school being his only means of escape. He's very axious about his new school, not wanting to make any new friends, but that's hard when you're dragged into a school club by a couple of guys you just met.... AkuRoku main. SoRiku, Zemyx, and MarVex side parings.


Join the Club

Fuck. Could he really do this? He had never changed schools in his life and all he ever had to lean on was his friends. Now that he was leaving them, he was sure that he would never see a single one of them again. Not for a very long time, at the least. Sure, normal people could visit their old friends. Sure, normal people would have a phone number or an address to hand out…something to keep other people in touch. Roxas didn't even have that. He wasn't like normal people. No, he would never be like normal people. Not until next year….

The boy nervously ran trembling fingers through his soft, blonde hair, which, in his opinion, looked horrible. The spiked parts didn't exactly feel like cooperating earlier. Then again, Roxas thought he looked terrible every day, not that he cared what other people thought about his looks. The other hand rested inside a large pocket in his baggy, black shorts, balled up into a tight fist to keep his arm from flailing around relentlessly. God damn it! Why did he have to be so nervous about this today?

Thankfully, his brother was there, unusually walking with him to their new school. Sora didn't speak to him, other than maybe a few reassuring gestures to be positive his little brother was okay. There was a concerned look in the eyes of Roxas' sibling, but there wasn't much the older boy could do at the moment.

Sora, to Roxas, was just another person in their household. Albeit, the closest one to him. The two never talked much at home. Not on purpose, of course. They just weren't allowed to. It was against the rules made by their parents. Only every once in a while could they make any sort of contact at home. These interactions were things such as comforting quick-hugs, sympathetic glances, or one-word whispers that went unnoticed by the parentals, but surely would have gotten the brothers into trouble had they found out. The pity always came from Sora and was directed at Roxas, never the other way around.

Today had been different though. Today, their mother had told Sora to walk his brother to school. This was extremely out of the ordinary. Normally if they were caught so much as looking at each other, there would be seriousconsequences.

Sora was the perfect one and Roxas was nothing more than a burden to his family. Their parents expected everything good to come from Sora. Grades, sports, college, his career and being one of those rich, handsome men all the women want to marry. Expectations were held to an all-time high for the boy, and what was expected from Roxas? Nothing. Of course they wouldn't expect anything from the ugly, tainted imperfection they received as some sort of punishment from a divine being who obviously loathed them and showed their hatred by gracing them with such a misfortune.

Roxas had already grown accustomed to the sad truth that he was not, nor would he ever be, loved. True, there was his tiny group of friends, and he was grateful to no end for having them as a vacation away from home. More or less, the few acquaintances he had were distractions, but they wouldn't be anything but that. If he had told them, they wouldn't have understood and probably would have left so they wouldn't have to deal with Roxas' problems on their conscience. Like they could help him anyways. No one could. The boy didn't have one person he could go to when times were hard, and he was okay with that. He didn't want anyone to worry over him. He didn't need it.

The one thing Roxas wanted more than anything was to get the hell out of the house as fast as he could. Next year. He'd be able to get out next year. When that time arrived, he would turn eighteen, and on that particular day, freedom awaited the blonde boy with open arms. Until then, he could only count the days.

Which made him wonder why Sora was still there. He was older, and joined school a little later for his age. Their father said he had to be "well prepared before heading to school" or some stupid shit like that. As of right now, he was an eighteen year old senior and had never been held back before. The boy always got straight A's, had loads of friends, got showered with acceptance from his parents and excelled in absolutely everything he did.

Roxas, on the other hand, struggled to keep straight B's, and didn't favor sports much. In fact, he was into creative things such as writing, drawing, arts, crafts and music. Though he never thought he was good at any of them. Not like he got the chance to practice the things he liked. The younger sibling was always doing something for his parents. If he wasn't doing something, …well…. other things were happening. Things Roxas would rather not think about since they were the things that made the past twelve years of his life a living hell.

As the siblings made it to the front of the school, Roxas' stomach churned and knotted as if everyone already hated him. This year, he knew he didn't want many friends. In fact, he didn't want any friends. It would make life a whole lot easier on him, so he aimed to be the unusually quiet one sitting in the back of the classroom doing his work and not talking to anyone.

His cerulean spheres glanced down at his clothes, straightening out his white t-shirt lined with black and white checkers and pulling down the long-sleeved black undershirt he was wearing. The long-sleeved shirt really wasn't in the boy's taste, but he would not leave the house without one. He also noticed one of his black and white tennis shoes were untied, but he was too lazy to do anything about that now and just fiddled with the strap of his extreme hand-me-down book bag that dug into his shoulder blade.

Roxas watched as Sora turned and began to walk towards the central office. The boy followed his older brother like a lost puppy, keeping his head down and not daring to look at anyone.

After the brothers had finished talking to the counselor regarding some lunch break issue they had regarding times interfering with classes, it was time to head off to first period… ten minutes late. Roxas hated that. If he had gotten there first, he wouldn't have to feel that unbearable awkwardness you get when you walk into a room full of people who all just absolutely must look up at you. To his demise, that was unavoidable now. The blonde held two sheets of paper in his hand (one that contained his schedule and the other being a pass that excused the tardy) keeping a death grip on them as if he'd spontaneously combust if he didn't have it with him.

"Have a good day." A voice had graced Roxas' ears. To his surprise, Sora had spoken, but before anything could be replied his brother was running off to class without looking back. A heavy, disappointed sigh escaped the blonde boy as he turned towards his own classroom. Not that he wasn't happy for the words, but he wished he had been able to say something back. "You too," he whispered to no one before dragging himself to class. That was undoubtedly the most the two boys had spoken to each other in a very long time.

B-320. That was the classroom he was looking for. It was Roxas' least favorite subject, and it just had to be the first class he was going to on the first day of his new school. When he reached the classroom he saw a sign on the door. It read: Welcome to Mr. Amari's Algebra II Class! It looked so cheery, but that didn't help Roxas at all with his nervousness. The boy drew in a deep breath and let out an elongated sigh and extended one of his arms out towards the doorknob, turning it slightly and hesitatingly opening the door. Low and behold, nearly everyone in the classroom looked up at him, which made Roxas want to shrink and hide under a rock for the rest of his life. After a moment, he forced his steps through the doorway, keeping his gaze away from the class and towards the teacher, handing the older man his pass. The taller, blonde man took the pass, examined it and simply pointed to a seat in the back of the class. The very back, left-hand corner near the wall. Perfect. That's exactly where he'd want to sit. With his head lowered and his face and gaze buried in the ground right in front of his shoes, he made his way to his desk, sliding into the seat and pulling off his worn-out book bag in the process, setting it down on the floor next to him.

As soon as he was sure the attention had been diverted from him when the teacher began to speak about assignments and other things Roxas wasn't really listening to at the moment, he got into his bag and pulled out things that he might need during the class period. A pencil, blue and black pens, a highlighter, a giant eraser, and two notebooks were what he placed on his desk. You could never be too prepared, right? After a minute he began to nervously re-arrange the items on his desk. What order should they be in? Which order would make it easiest on the blonde if he were to need any of them? The items were probably arranged a good six times before he was poked on his shoulder, causing him to flinch sideways, nearly tipping over his desk and looking over at the perpetrator with a petrified look on his face.

"Heey, you okay?" Roxas heard the redhead who poked him on his shoulder say; a few other people around the boy were also looking over at him. Great. Just, great. And here he was trying to not get noticed, but obviously that wasn't working out too well already. Couldn't people just leave him alone?

"I'm fine," the blonde spat at the others and looked back down at his school supplies, trying to avoid human contact as much as possible. The notebooks were in the center of the desk, beside them on his right side were the pencil and eraser, and on the left side the pens were laying diagonally, pointing towards the notebooks. Last but not least, the highlighter rested itself on the top of the desk in a thin crevasse designed for holding writing utensils.

"Just makin' sure," the perpetrator started, "you seem frantic over there."

Roxas just shook his head and opened his notebook, doing his best to pretend to be busy with something, even though there wasn't much to be busy with. The whole time he did, however, he could still feel gazes on him…or maybe that was his paranoid mind playing tricks on him. He wasn't in any mood to talk anyone, plus he had already decided it was best to not talk to anyone, anyways.

When the teen glanced back up, no one, to his surprise, was staring at him anymore. The redhead had turned to the side, holding a conversation with stoic looking, light-blue haired boy, whom didn't seem to be much into what the other boy had to say. More so, it looked like he was concentrating on a book and giving "uh-huh's" or other things related to that line. His bright blue eyes scanned the taller boy who had poked him not too long ago. Just a small mental note, he was gorgeous. Roxas never really paid much attention to other people's looks, but goddamn it that boy was… Not that it mattered. He wasn't looking for a relationship with anyone and who would want him anyways? Who would want a filthy, tainted soul like him? …

Soon he found himself gently opening the top notebook and writing, though he should have been paying attention to the teacher more. If he was ever going to get out of his hellhole of a house, he needed to graduate. Which, of course, required paying attention to the lesson being explained. Thing was, this class was ahead of what he was being taught now at his old school and some of the stuff his ear had caught every now and again had gone way over his head. If it were up to him, he would have chosen against moving schools in the middle of the year. The blonde knew he would need to talk to the teacher about that after class, but he felt like bad things would happen if he interrupted the lesson… so he decided to wait, passing the time with writing.

Whenever Roxas got the chance to write, he never finished it. In fact, his writings were more along the lines of brainstorming. He would just write about a random subject and normally that random subject would morph several times. One time, he had started out writing about an artic tundra and somehow got all the way to tap-dancing dinosaurs. How he pulled that one off was beyond him, but it amused him and made him glad that he at least had some imagination left inside him.

As his pencil scribbled away at the page, carelessly throwing together strands of words that may not have been able to be classified as sentences, he felt the awkwardness that threatened to drown him begin to fade away. Namely because he was distracted, but it was pulling back some as he became more comfortable and familiar with the environment around him.

Soon enough, he heard the boy sitting beside him speak again, but disregarded it as him talking to someone else. Of course he wasn't talking to Roxas. Who would want to talk to Roxas?

Moments afterwards though, he felt his shoulder poked again, and again, he flinched sideways, nearly dragging the desk with him, saving the day by swinging his left leg out and catching both himself and the furniture. When the long finger connected with his arm, he felt a sharp pain jolt up into his shoulder blade. It wasn't like the other boy had known, but there just so happened to be a giant fucking bruise there. Again, anxious cerulean eyes glanced at the redhead, meeting enticing emerald ones.

"Didn't you hear me?" the redhead spoke after a moment, and to this, Roxas shook his head slightly, still in shock. Why did the boy insist on bothering him at the moment?

"I asked if you had a piece of paper I could borrow," the taller boy frowned as he spoke. "You sure you're okay?"

Roxas just looked down at his desk, down at the organized pile of junk he had arranged. With a sigh, he ripped out the top sheet of paper without realizing what it was and handed it over to the other boy.

"Uhh," the redhead spoke and didn't take it, noticing that the paper already had writing on it. The blonde's eyes widened and cheeks flushed a bright red before snatching the paper back, crushing it in his hand slightly and holding it against his chest.

"S-sorry," he apologized, embarrassed and tore out a blank sheet of paper, handing it over.

"Don't worry about it," the boy replied and took the paper, swiftly setting it down on his desk and writing something on it, his friend peering over at it as soon as he had begun letting his pen dance around the page.

Still embarrassed, Roxas felt like he could die then and there. He knew it wasn't as big of a deal as he was making it out to be, but it was really bothering him for some reason, so he folded his arms on his desk and buried his face in them, trying to hide from the world.

After what seemed like decades, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. The blonde couldn't tell if he had fallen asleep or not. He knew his train of thought had been shut off, but he couldn't tell if he had just woken up or if he had been awake the whole time, staring into space.

With a sigh, he sat himself up, shoving his things into his bag and throwing it around his shoulders as he got out of his seat and walked towards the front of the classroom.

"Mr… Hikari, was it?" his teacher's voice sounded, causing Roxas to turn around and face the older man. That's right, he needed to talk to him about the lesson. "I'll let it slide this time, seeing as you're new, but I don't normally allow kids to sleep in my class."

There was his answer to earlier. He had fallen asleep.

"I'm s-sorry…I just…" the student spoke, throwing his gaze back at the ground in front of his feet.

"Save the excuses, just don't let it happen again," the older man ordered and gestured for the boy to get to class.

Roxas didn't have the chance to respond before Mr. Amari sat back down at his desk, fiddling with a deck of playing cards. With that, he gave up. He'd ask later…he shouldn't pester the teacher anymore with his problems. A sigh escaped his lips before he walked out the door, conjoining himself with the sea of students out in the hallway, the noisy atmosphere giving him a rather painful headache.

The next few classes had gone by rather quickly. No one had bothered him, surprisingly, not that he was complaining. He enjoyed being isolated and alone without anyone interfering so he could lose himself in his thoughts and his studies.

Lunchtime had brought a new sort of awkwardness to the playing field though. Yes, he sat down at the end of a table, alone, and felt very strange about it, as if everyone's eyes were on him, but they weren't. No one really cared. Why would they care?

Roxas decided that he wouldn't eat lunch today. He normally didn't eat at this time, anyways, and he never had money in his account. His parents never gave him any, which made him surprised that they didn't completely starve him to death by now.

His mind had slid into a dream-like state, causing the blonde to become a space cadet. Thoughts were centered on nothingness, to where everything around him had become unimportant blurs while he stared into the dark that clouded his senses.

"Hey look, the new kid's a loner." One of the blonde's ears caught someone speaking, causing him to snap back into reality. It took every ounce of willpower he had to not turn around to see who had spoken, but just as suddenly as he heard the voice, someone sat in front of him.

"Hey, why are you sitting alone?" the mullet-haired boy whom seated himself asked and as he did, Roxas could feel that uneasy feeling knotting his stomach again and he found himself unable to answer, shifting nervously and staring down at the table.

"Are you shy?" the boy asked, and Roxas grew annoyed. Wasn't it obvious?

"Hey, Dem, leave him alone. He obviously doesn't want to speak to us," another voice chimed in, one that sounded familiar to the short blonde. He figured it was the redhead from earlier, and that was confirmed when the awe-striking, beautiful boy walked around the table to the one referred to as Dem's side.

"Aw, come on, Axel. He's alone. No one should ever be alone like that. Is something the mater?" the boy spoke to the taller one and then direction the question at Roxas.

"I'm just fine," the nervous boy replied, feeling himself start to shake. Wow, he really wasn't good with people…he never realized how bad it was before.

"Then what's wrong, blondie?" the one called Axel spoke, or at least that's what Roxas had assumed his name to be.

"N-nothing's wrong," the shorter blonde spoke, his bright blue eyes glued to the wooden table below him.

"Are you really that nervous?" the redhead started, "I know a first day at a new school can be unnerving, but you were pretty worked up first period. With that, the boy slid into the seat next to his friend.

"I know…I'm sorry." For some reason, Roxas felt like he needed to apologize.

"Don't be sorry about it! Being nervous is perfectly normal!" Axel's friend had spoke with a wide grin on his face. "I'm Demyx! What might your name be?"

For a second the lighter blonde boy had to let that register in his brain for a moment before answering, leaving a small, cumbersome silence buried underneath the cafeteria noise.

"Roxas," he finally answered, "My name is Roxas." His voice was wavering and he continued to lock his gaze onto the table below him as he gripped at the table, his knuckles just barely starting to turn white.

"Roxas? Cute name," Axel laughed and smirked afterwards. "I'm Axel."

At that, Roxas blushed, trying his best to hide it by resting his head in his hands.

"So why are you sitting all alone?" Demyx questioned, causing Roxas to have to think carefully about his answer.

"Don't know anyone," the shorter blonde muttered out, still not looking up.

"You haven't made any friends yet?"

"Dem, it's his first day at school. He probably hasn't talked to many people yet," Axel suggested.

"You know what, Axel?"

"What?"

"We should totally be friends with him! Would you want to?" Demyx gleefully spoke.

Roxas nearly choked on air as his eyes widened. They wanted to be friends with him? It was pity, he knew it was; that's all it ever was.

"Thanks, but no thanks," the nervous teen started, "I don't…" He was interrupted before he could finish.

"You know what?! We could take him to…" the taller blonde had started, but, he, too, was cut off.

"Don't you even say it, Dem. We have enough already as it is," the redhead practically demanded. This particular conversation puzzled Roxas. What were they talking about? However, he just watched in silence as they talked as if he weren't here.

"I thought there was always plenty of room in the club…. for people who qualify of course, but I think we could make one exception! The kid doesn't have any friends yet. Come on! Pleeease?" Demyx begged.

"We can take him there, but I'm not sure what everyone else would say…" Axel gave in.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll love him!"

"Right. Right after they have tea with the Easter bunny."

"Are you saying he's not a likeable person?"

"No. I'm saying most the people in there hate everything."

Roxas only sat thinking, drowning out the perplexing conversation going on in front of him. What were they talking about? Whatever it was, the blonde wanted no part of it. He was aiming to not make friends, or even talk to people if he didn't have to for that matter.

Reality slapped him in the face again some time afterwards when he noticed a hand waving right in front of his face, causing him to nearly fly backwards out of his seat.

"Earth to Roxas!" Demyx stated rather loudly, making the shorter blonde want to cover his ears for a moment.

"What? What is it?" Roxas asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Would you want to make more friends?" Demyx asked enthusiastically.

"No," he replied harshly, not realizing how rude he sounded.

There was a moment of silence before Axel spoke up. "Why not?" When Roxas peered up at him, he noticed the confused look on his beautiful face, just now noticing the upside-down teardrops on his face. Were those real tattoos? They seemed to add perfectly to thin face and bright red hair. Was that his natural hair color? Whatever, it looked amazing on him.

"I just…don't." the lighter blonde admitted, glancing back down at the table.

"Shame," the redhead started, "Alright Dem, let's get going then."

"Absolutely not!" Demyx said, slightly angered. "I will not stand for this. Being so alone is not healthy at all!"

"Some people just don't like having friends, Demy…" Axel tried to convince the taller blonde, but wasn't able to finish his sentence.

"Unacceptable!" Demyx insisted and looked at Roxas, determined.

Roxas did not like the look in his eye.

"We must take you then! It's a must. There is no ands, ifs, or buts about it!"

Axel looked at his friend and shook his head in pity. "We shouldn't force him if he doesn't want to."

"Yes, yes we should, Axel!"

"Where?" the shorter blonde choked out, causing the other two to fall silent. "I mean….where are you…wanting to take me?"

"The Organization, of course," Demyx explained, causing Roxas to give him a weird look.

"It's a school club," Axel shrugged. "For teachers and students, but only if you meet certain requirements. Which is something I don't get at all. Do we even do anything important in there?"

"No," the mullet-haired man answered. "Not really. Well, we do things for the school, sometimes. To get in you have to have some form of talent. Mine would be music, you see, and I do concerts when the school needs 'em."

Talents? Roxas didn't have a talent. Even if he wanted to get into their stupid club, there was no way he'd be able to. There was no talent. He never had the chance to practice anything. Cleaning, maybe. Could that be considered a talent?

"I'm more or less a stuntman," Axel added in, "I do shows that normally have to deal with fire…for charity things or fundraising for the school. Only, my things are limited, even though I could do so much more than the school allows me too," Roxas noticed he sounded annoyed as he spoke, but then his voice softened as he continued, "Not all the talents have to aid the school though. You just have to be good at what you do."

"I'm not good at anything," Roxas admitted, cutting into their explanation, wanting this conversation to end as quickly as possible.

"Lies!" Demyx accused, "Everyone is good at something."

"Well, not me…" the shorter blonde looked off to the side. Just go away now people. Can't you see I want to be left alone?

"Then you just haven't found what you're good at yet!" he persisted. "Maybe we could persuade them to let you in."

"No, I…"

"Come on," Axel finally began to insist as well, "We were just heading to a club meeting. You should come!"

Roxas was about to yell in protest, but one look in his enchanting emerald eyes and he was at a loss for words. No, he couldn't have a crush. It was pointless. He barely knew the guy. Nevertheless, he stood up, staring at the ground the whole time.

Before the boy knew it, he was following his new acquaintances to said club. He was stopped at the doorway, getting a "Wait here," from Demyx as the other two boys walked inside. He sighed and leaned back on the wall. What was he getting himself into?

Fiddling with the end of his over-shirt, he began to think of the consequences that may come from this. A school club? His parents would never allow it. Not in a million years. They wanted him home as much as he could be so he could do things for them…or…

Why wasn't his brother in this spot? His brother had all sorts of talent. Sora wouldn't disappoint this club like Roxas knew he would end up doing. He could see it now. He'd walk into that room, they'd ask him to do something, he wouldn't have anything and they'd kick him out. So really, this was pointless. There was no reason for him to be standing here waiting for the verdict he already knew was coming, and yet, instead of walking off, he stood there, holding onto a small hope he knew would be crushed soon enough. Sad, really.

It seemed like ages, but Axel finally walked back out, laughing his head off.

"What's so funny?" Roxas forced himself to ask, feeling suddenly very insecure with himself.

"They said," the redhead tried to get out, but he was laughing to hard.

"What is it!?" the blonde nearly yelled, but then pulled back and took a step behind himself, looking down at the ground.

"Sorry," Axel began to suppress his laughter and regain his composure. "Well, we've come to the conclusion that, if you are to join the club and you don't know what your talent is yet, you'll have to be our personal janitor until you figure it out. Says so the leader himself."

"Wh…why?" Roxas questioned, confused.

At that, the redhead shrugged. "None of use feel like cleaning up after ourselves?" The taller boy then again started to laugh, and at that, Roxas found himself flushed. Not only because it was a stupid job, but also because the guy he had concluded but denied he had a crush on was laughing at him.

"Welcome to the Organization," Axel smirked after re-gaining his composure a second time.

So cleaning was a temporary talent, then?