Author's Note: I have no idea what to think of this one. Like, really. I really don't know where the idea came from or why the hell I had to do this to Axel. But this is dedicated to Aindel S. Druida because… she gave me this particular plot brick. It just took a bit of work to get it to come out on the paper. Oh, and this is a ONE SHOT. Meaning only ONE CHAPTER, then THE END.

Disclaimer: Erm. I don't own these peeps 'cause I'm a broke college student. Hell, I wouldn't even be able to pay for their lunches.

Other Junk: Oh em gee! I actually put Sora in here as an actual living, talking being! That's a first for me. So BIG DEAL. Read, suckers, and DIE. …But don't really die.

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Two Years

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There was something wrong.

That was the only thing that Axel could come up with to excuse his lover of two years' behavior. There must've been something terribly, horridly wrong that the blond wasn't telling him about. Even lying in bed, as he was mulling over the issue, holding Roxas to his chest, he seemed distant. There was something chilling about the touch and it had nothing to do with the coolness of night.

It was all Axel could do to stop the worst of the assumptions that occurred to him. But still, the questions were endless. Did Roxas think that they were drifting apart? Was he bored? Was the redhead not enough to satisfy him? Maybe he should try something new, Axel decided. He would let his lover top more often. Yeah, maybe that was it. He wanted more dominance.

Axel let sleep take him, and he dreamed of a life without his partner. It was more of a nightmare, really, filled with shadows, doubts, and chests containing no hearts. He woke to an empty bed in an empty rented apartment with a single note on the otherwise empty pillow beside his own.

Gone to the store. Back in a bit. -Roxas

It was exactly an hour and twenty eight minutes until the blond strutted up the pathway and into the house, carrying a single bag of groceries that didn't seem to be very necessary for a whole trip just for that. And neither did it look like it had taken over an hour and a half to pick out and buy. Axel didn't pressure the answers from Roxas, but continued on as if it were any other Sunday.

The next day was the same, except that the note was slightly different. Instead, Roxas had written that he was helping Sora hook up his internet, since it had been on the fritz as of late, along with a little note of 'See you after work' tacked to the end. When he actually did return from work, the details from Roxas' day were limited in their telling. Yet, Axel didn't press for answers.

The following day, there was another note and no Roxas. So Axel decided to go for a little walk before he left for that torture that dared call itself his workplace, just to clear his mind up a bit. And what exactly did he see? The love of his life walking out of a certain Riku's house with a huge smile plastered to his face that was usually reserved only for Axel. It certainly wasn't where the note had told him he would be. The redhead dove behind a nearby hedge as Roxas strolled down the sidewalk to his car. Damn, that felt all too familiar. Axel had thought that he had put all that stalkerish obsession behind him when Roxas had agreed to go out with him. Not that he knew why the blond actually allowed a stalker like him into his life. Maybe he was regretting that decision…

That was when Axel's tingling senses of wrongness started to jab him in the stomach. He flipped open his cell and called Roxas' twin brother.

The brunet answered it in a rather confused tone, "Axel? What's up?" Yeah, not such a frequent caller. It wasn't like Axel actually called to talk to Roxas' halfway psychotic but otherwise loveable little brother on a regular basis. Little brother because blond was older by ten minutes, and damn was he proud of it.

The redhead decided to get straight to the point as Roxas steered away from the curb and drove on. "Hey Sora, was Roxas at your place yesterday?"

There was a pause, then, "Um, no?"

Axel ran a hand down his face, "Okay. Have you seen Riku recently?"

"Yeah," Sora said slowly, then continued in his normal perky voice. "He won't let me go over to his house, though. Something about it being too dirty. But he should know better, 'cause my room couldn't possibly be any better than-"

"Thanks, Sora." Axel snapped his cell shut before the brunet could continue rambling on. He went home and it was empty, as it seemed to be more and more as the days wore on. Axel shoved the dilemma to the back of his mind and made his way to work, where he wasted a good six hours of prime Roxas-stalking time. On his way home, Axel decided, for better or worse, that he was going to bring the topic of 'what the hell was going on between them' up with the blond. After all, they had been together for nearly two years. It would help if they worked on their communication skills. Except Axel had thought that they had worked that out the first week that they had officially been together. It had gone something like, 'You speak, I listen. I speak, you fucking listen.' They'd been pretty good at that ever since then. Or at least up until the most recent turn of events they had been.

He opened the door to the house that the two lovers shared and was met by a cheerful yet slightly out of breath laugh coming from the opposite end of the house in the living room. Axel slowly took off his coat and boots, listening intently to his partner. The TV wasn't on. There were no jokes being told by someone on the radio.

There was a dull thump, and Roxas' tone changed drastically, almost panting for breath, "Ah! No, you're not supposed to- S-stop it, Ri-, that hurts! You can't- don't, stop it!" There was a quiet anguished cry. "Get your slobbery tongue away from me!"

As slow as Axel had been to shrug off his coat and kick off his shoes, he was running a split second later, a savage scream escaping his lungs in pure fury. "Roxas!" He tore into the room, continuing in his deadly tone. "Get your fucking hands off of my…"

Everything melted away in that moment when Axel realized that there wasn't anyone else in the room with Roxas. He simply stared dumbfounded at his lover, who was lying on his back in the middle of the living room, holding a wiggling puppy bare inches from his face. The dog was taking advantage of the sudden stillness of the blond, his happy tongue lapping at Roxas' chin, trying his best to get in a few light nips as well. Wide blue eyes stared up at his only love in the world. Besides the joyful pup in his grasp, apparently. All accusations that Axel had been prepared to launch into were dwindled down to a single question following his unfinished sentence. "…dog?"

A beat passed with Roxas staring up at him from where he lay on the carpet. "Are you claiming ownership already or did you just call me your bitch?" He sat up and placed the dog in his lap, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

Axel stared dumbfounded at what he had been so sure was going to be some kind of rape scene with fucking Riku as the culprit. "W-why would-? I don't own a puppy." He finished lamely.

A grin split across the blond's face. "Well, now you've got two, apparently. I just brought him over from Riku's." Roxas lifted the excitable puppy from his lap and placed it on the carpet, where it bounced around happily, and he stood. He closed the distance between them and hooked his arms around Axel's neck. "Except I'm not so much a puppy, now am I? Happy anniversary, Axel." He looked so pleased with himself as he leaned against his lover of two years, cerulean eyes gleaming up at dumbstruck emerald.

Axel wasn't about to let everything slide by with a simple smile and a… puppy? "But- what was up with going over to Riku's all the time? Sneaking away and- and- being all secretive all the time?"

Roxas' expression melted away to a sly smirk, "You've gone back to your stalker tactics, I see. Haven't seen those since… before we got together. You know, I'm still kind of creeped out by that. But anyway, I had to keep Riona at Riku's because Sora's allergic to dogs and I couldn't keep her with him. What did you think I was doing?" Riona? That's what Roxas was saying? Axel could have sworn it was Riku's name that his partner was about to scream out.

Well, that certainly made the redhead feel sheepish, "You mean you weren't banging Riku behind my back?"

Blue eyes widened. "You thought I was doing what with who?" A light and slightly incredulous laugh bubbled to his lips.

Axel refused to let the issue drop. "But you were being all withdrawn and you've been avoiding me."

Roxas gave one of his trademark pouts. "You know I can't keep secrets from you. I couldn't tell Sora either, because he's even worse than me. Besides, why the hell would I go fucking around with my baby brother's boyfriend when I have you?"

A wicked grin split across the redhead's tattooed cheeks. He wrapped one arm around the small of Roxas' back and other found his partner's rather delicious butt and gave a possessive squeeze. He growled into his lover's ear, "That's what I like to hear. Your ass is mine, got that memorized?"

Roxas drew his body flush to his boyfriend's, "Not the rest of me?"

"That too, but especially your ass." He annunciated that fact by giving another squeeze, causing the blond a hitching breath.

"Thanks for clarifying. But what do I get?" Shit, Axel realized that he didn't have a present to give to Roxas for their anniversary. Hell, he hadn't even remembered that it was their anniversary. Not that Roxas really had to know that.

He stared into bright blue eyes. "A good old fashioned smack upside the head for making me think that you were cheating."

Roxas pulled himself up to eye-level with emerald eyes and breathed, "With a puppy?"

Axel simply rolled his eyes. "Exactly." Roxas' cheeks split into a grin before he leaned in for an open-mouthed kiss, Axel eagerly diving in with his own tongue.

The moment was broken by excited barking coming from their ankles. Blue melted into green, pure adoration with a hint of lust from both.

Roxas pulled away from the embrace and crouched down, scooping up the adorable puppy into his arms. Axel likewise sat down on the rug, drawing the blond into his lap and breathing in his sweet scent. Any suspicions that had accumulated dissipated in that moment when he realized that Roxas was always going to be his and his alone.

"So, you like her?" Roxas asked gently, the puppy curling up in his lap as he likewise sunk into Axel's embrace.

"Of course I do, Rox. She's adorable, just like you. Hey, we need a female touch around here. She could give you some pointers." Axel snickered, rubbing circles with his thumbs in the blond's stomach.

Roxas scoffed. "I think you've got that covered."

"Hey, I'm not the one who baked cookies just for fun last week. But they were delicious." He added on as blue eyes narrowed dangerously at him.

"Riona likes to lick my face." Roxas stated rather bluntly.

A wild smirk crossed Axel's cheeks at that. "Hey, that's my job." He annunciated that fact by dragging his tongue along Roxas' jaw, ending with a light nibble at his earlobe. The blond giggled and tried half-heartedly to force Axel's face from his own, ultimately failing. "You know you love it." Axel breathed into his ear.

"Yeah, but it's cute when Riona does it. You just make everything sexual." Roxas replied in a low voice.

Axel simply hummed in response, long fingers teasing at the hem of the blond's jeans. "You've got a problem with that?" Roxas took a sharp intake of air and shook his head as long fingers dragged enticingly across his skin. Axel chuckled at how, after all this time, he could still make his partner squirm at just the slightest touch. "Hey, you remember last year?"

That gained him a breathy laugh. "How could I forget? I couldn't walk properly for the next two days."

"I'm feelin' the need to claim you as my own after you put me through all this." He knew that the shudder down Roxas' spine was from his hot breath on that fragile-looking but delicious neck.

"You honestly thought that I would go after Riku?" The laugh continued.

"Hey, you were acting strange and I knew you were keeping something from me. The monster of overprotective-boyfriend-Axel came out and made a few assumptions."

Roxas twisted around and gave a wide smirk. "I don't know whether to feel honored for you defending me or extremely pissed off at you for thinking that I would do something like that."

There was a glint deep within the cat-like eyes. "I'd prefer extremely turned on by my overprotective nature."

The blond blushed at that. It wasn't often that he did that, but when the rare occurrence happened, it sent Axel over the edge. "Axel, I love you. Now shut up and kiss me so we can have our special anniversary moment."

Their lips connected as they had done countless times before, whether it was awkward, comforting, lust-filled in the heat of the moment, defiant, or passionate, holding every emotion passing between them at bay except for that pure feeling that they hadn't allowed themselves to believe in before they found it in each other.

Axel held Roxas in a tight embrace as the blond cuddled the dozing puppy in his arms.

It was love, and they were complete.

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End Notes: Let's all give a group "B'DAWW!!" And squirm in our chairs. Hey, everyone needs a dose of extreme fluff and corn every once in a while, yeah? Come ON, you can't have an image of Axel cuddling Roxas cuddling a puppy in your head and not make it rainbow-barfing worthy. At least I put in some angst at the beginning to make up for it, right? Meh.