The Only Exception
Pairing: Axel/Roxas
Summary: Roxas watches people fall apart because of love. He swears to be alone. Then along came Axel
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or The Only Exception, Paramore, I do own this fic though and if I wan to keep my limbs I better dedicate this to Victoria Dracelle because I dragged her away from the promise of food to sit with me in the common room so I wouldn't be alone while I wrote this.
Enjoy
Sci-fi
When he was younger, around eight Roxas watched as his adoptive parents, Cloud and Tifa, divorced. It was a painful separation for all involved, borne out of anger more than lack of love. When he looked back and mused on the situation, Roxas saw that his parents still loved each other, it was because they loved each other that destroyed them so completely.
Immediately after the divorce Roxas and Sora went to live with Tifa. One stormy night not long after the divorce Tifa was driving home from the grocery store when she was hit by a drunk driver. She did not die on impact. She died on a cold sterile operating table surrounded by people she did not know.
Roxas and Sora lived with Cloud from then on. Roxas watched as Cloud tried to reassemble his broken heart. Cloud's despair was a constant undertone to the broken family's life. It was there when Cloud dropped them off at school, it was there when they ate dinner at the long dining room table, with an empty place right at the end.
By the time Roxas and Sora started High School the twins had found themselves with their separate group of friends. Sora, the socialite of the pair, was friends with everybody, but Riku and Kairi remained his best friends. Roxas had Hayner, Pense and Ollette as his closest companions. The quartet did everything together until uni rolled around.
Ollette was accepted into a fashion school in Madrid, the offer of a lifetime. Pense followed her and went to an engineering school in the next town over, a mere half hour train ride from their apartment. Hayner was picked up by an elite skateboard team and left to travel the world. Roxas attended Twilight Town University to study music alone.
By the end of freshman year he had made a small profit on his CD he'd made for his end of year project, enough to get through the next year. He'd kept himself to himself. Locking himself away in his room or the library trying to study the loneliness away. He convinced himself he was content with being alone. It was ingrained in his soul that loving and being loved by somebody never ended well. He had proof. Tifa left Cloud, his cat, Felix had run away, Hayner had left him in the dust to go and chase his dreams. Countless people leaving nameless faces broken hearted and utterly destroyed.
Three weeks deep into his sophomore year he'd met Axel. The pair's relationship started when Axel, late for class (A developing bad habit), had hurtled into Roxas, who was on his way back from an early morning tutorial. After a rushed apology ad the promise of make-up coffee Axel hurried his way to class. Leaving Roxas on his way only sparing a fleeting thought for the red-head. That was before he found out Axel was in all of his classes bar one.
An unstable friendship was formed. Roxas unwilling to offer his scarred to anyone and Axel determined to befriend the blond. The year flew by with Axel constantly dragging him out for coffee and food, enticing him out to go to this new club or that person's party. Roxas also found himself unknowing friend with many of his class mates. Often he studied furiously with Zexion in the library, jamming with Demyx and Marluxia or just hanging out with everybody. Where ever he went Axel followed, flicking notes over the partitions in the library, watching him play with Demyx and Marluxia or claiming boredom drag everyone away from the promise of sleep for pizza, to be carried to the park no one really used anymore.
Both students, figuring between them they could afford a semi-decent apartment, decided to flat together. This turned out to be the right decision to make. They started dating. Axel had asked him out in the middle of a paint ball game. Shocked, Roxas had frozen leaving himself vulnerable. Axel had sacrificed himself to save Roxas form a paint splattered peril.
A rainy day in the middle of January found the pair sleeping curled up together on the couch. Waking after a distant boom of thunder Roxas rolled over to face Axel. Woken up by the shuffling, acid-green eyes locked onto his.
"I used to be convinced love did not exist. I swore to myself I was content with loneliness because it was never worth the risk. You are the only exception. Now I'm on my way to believing"