-A-

It was the first day of the fall semester. Fun, right?

Not for Axel.

Axel was a twenty-one-year old college student, who had already received an AA, and was halfway towards his Bachelors. No one, especially his family, thought that he'd make it as far as he had, especially with the number of tattoos littering his body, but he had, and it wasn't with the lowest scores, either. With a major in engineering, bad grades wasn't something you could afford.

So, why exactly wasn't Axel having fun?

The answer was simple. It was the first day of fall semester. What was wrong with that? Freshmen. There would be so many freshmen, which meant so many idiots who thought they were tough shit because they had made it into college. Granted, Axel had been the same way, but now that he was older and 'wiser', he hated it.

Another annoying thing was that he wasn't in his dorm room, where he would normally be on this particular day. No, poor Axel was out of his room, looking for someone with a lighter.

Tragically, his lovely zippo had run out of fluid, and he had been too lazy to go to the liquor store that was only a mile away. For one, he didn't want to deal with the traffic, so driving was out. And he was just too damn lazy to walk. So where did that leave him? Wandering around campus, looking for another person that puffed on cancer sticks. Or hell, if he could even find someone who was smoking weed, that'd work too.

Luckily for him though, after walking for about ten minutes, he saw his target. It was a red lighter, being used by a small blond kid – freshman – who didn't even look big enough to ride the rides at Disneyland.

However, not being one to judge something strictly on height (he was 6'5, so how could he?), he headed over to the blond. And on further inspection, he knew he was right about the kid being a freshman. It looked like the 'freshman orientation' was on break. Lucky him.

"Hey kid," Axel called from just a few feet away, hoping he didn't sound all that creepy. He knew he sometimes came across that way, but he was pretty sure it was just because of his height and tattoos on his face.

-R-

Even if the guy had been normal height, the way he said "hey kid" would have still sounded creepy.

Roxas debated ignoring him, so many people had already annoyed him today. Ugh, freshmen. Granted, Roxas was one of those monstrosities, but at least he wasn't as annoying as the others were in orientation.

Taking a much needed puff of his cigarette, he decided to acknowledge the strange man approaching him. Although strange didn't quite describe the giant. Sure he had stretched ears, wild hair, and quite a few tattoos, but those things didn't make him strange. They made him stand out, a quality Roxas tended to appreciate in others.

Roxas looked at the man approaching him, curious to find out what he had to say to him.

-A-

It didn't take Axel long to reach the kid completely, and as he looked down at him, he noticed that the kid was pretty cute, considering. Not that he was interested, mind you. He had a boyfriend, one he had been with since he was seventeen, but hey, he wasn't blind. He could appreciate good looks.

"Sorry to bug ya', but I couldn't help noticing that you have a lovely contraption that lights up cigarettes and I was wondering if you'd let me borrow it?" Axel was trying his utmost to be friendly, but he knew this kid just easily say no, and that would be it.

Hell, at eighteen (what he assumed the kid was), Axel was a grade 'A' asshole, and would have said 'no' to someone wanting his lighter, just to be that dickhole. So, he was hoping that blondie wasn't like him, although he wasn't far off, from what he could tell. He noticed the plugs and the way the blond dressed, and it was clearly not far off from Axel's own style.

-R-

Taking in another puff of smoke, Roxas handed the guy his lighter.

Roxas decided he liked him, although his nice guy routine was obviously fake, at least his tattoos weren't . The red head's joy was obvious once he had the lighter in hand, and his dismay even clearer when he couldn't get his cigarette to light.

Roxas began to chuckle at the struggling giant. "Here let me help you."

The red head leaned down as the shorter of the two lit his cigarette. Once lit, the stranger took a step back and exhaled a long drag of smoke with contempt.

-A-

"Ah, thanks man. I owe ya' one," he told the blond, eagerly taking another hit from his cigarette.

Knowing him, he was probably going to ask for a light for a second cigarette when he finished the first, since he could never just have one. He was hoping, however, that Demyx would be calling him soon, and maybe he could get him some lighter fluid.

"I'm Axel," he told the blond, figuring it wouldn't hurt to make acquaintances with the kid. "And no, my parents didn't name me after that god awful singer."

People had actually asked him about that too, if his parents had named him after Axl Rose, which was why he would sometimes mention it first. However, even luckier for him, he had been named Axel because it was his mother's father's name. She liked the idea of 'carrying the family name'.

-R-

"I'm Roxas, and good to know. If you had been, I would have regretted letting you use my favorite lighter," Roxas said, chuckling.

He ran his thumb over the written message on it, suddenly wondering where the person who gave it to him was.

"You new here too?" Roxas pulled out his phone to see if he had any messages.

None. Where was he?

-A-

Axel laughed at his comment, and decided then that he would like the blond - Roxas. Even if they never saw each other again, he was glad that to have met this nice stranger.

"Na, I'm old," he told the blond. "I'm going on my third year." He inhaled more nicotine. "I can assume you're new?"

How I love the way you move, and the sparkle in your eyes*

"One sec," he told Roxas, before pulling out his phone from his back pocket and answering it. "Hey babe. You almost here?"

"Almost. I'm about to pass the liquor store."

"Wanna' do me a huge favor and get me some lighter fluid?"

"Knew you'd run out," Demyx laughed. "Already had some."

"God, you're the greatest."

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'll meet you at your room?"

"Sounds good to me. See ya' in a bit." With that, Axel hung up.

"Sorry about that," he said to the blond. "But apparently my boyfriend is close, so I'm gonna' head over to my room."

A loud voice was heard, calling in the freshmen. "Perfect timing, you gotta' get back to fun freshman stuff, blondie," he said sarcastically.

-R-

Roxas rolled his eyes. He hated being called blondie almost as much as he hated being mistaken for being a minor.

"So fun. Well, I'll see you around I guess." As Roxas walked away, he smiled to himself, happy he had found something to distract him from a certain someone's absence.

It was that moment that his phone buzzed alerting him he got a text.

"Sorry I couldn't be with you during your break, I had to go to a meeting for one of my classes. I'll wait for you where I walked you in."

Roxas's smile grew at the message and put his phone back in his pocket. Walking to the entrance of the auditorium, he repeatedly ran his thumb over the message that was written on his lighter.

When he finally reached it, he saw his favorite sight. A young man in dark clothes reading a book in his lap, with gray hair that hid his beautiful blue eyes. Roxas didn't dare to call out to the other male but decided instead to walk up to him and place a kiss on his head,

"Hey stranger."

The other boy looked up and a small smile played on his lip, "Hello."

Roxas was going to take a seat when the other boy rose, "I'm sorry I didn't get to see you during break, but I'll be back to help you move in once orientation is over. Its better you're not late so I should get going."

Pulling the older yet barely taller boy into his arms Roxas sighed, "I just want this stupid thing to be over."

The other boy chuckled softly, "I know. You're almost done," kissing Roxas on the forehead, ending their embrace. "I'll see you in an hour, I promise."

The two boys smiled at each other and as the other turned away Roxas pulled out his lighter and looked at the message lovingly sprawled on it:

Amour Inattendu (Unexpected Love).

-A-

Axel headed over to his dorm, slightly annoyed that it would take him an agonizingly long ten minutes to get back to his room.

On the plus side, his now ex-roommate would never be there to annoy him again, so he'd had a rather peaceful time. Marluxia, or Marly, was quite possibly the biggest whore that Axel had ever met. That man would sleep with a different person every night, which hey, his friend Larxene wasn't far behind, but when he had to basically deal with it every night, it got annoying.

He had to shake the other man from his mind though; that man could down his mood in seconds.

When he reached his room, there was his cutie boyfriend standing outside his door. "Hey Ax," he said, grinning over at him.

"Mmm, hey cutie," he said back, grabbing his boyfriend in a hug, before pressing his lips to his softly.

Demyx grinned at him, before pulling something out from his back pocket. "For you, my dear."

And there, held by his fingers, was lighter fluid. "You are truly a beautiful human, babe."

He again pressed his lips to his boyfriend's, before grinning as he opened the door to his room. His lips still pressed to Demyx's, he grabbed his boyfriend and pulled him into the room with him.

"You're so weird," Demyx said, though he was grinning too.

"But you love it." Axel took them to the couch, not seeing a point in going to his room since his new roommate hadn't arrived yet.

-R-

About twenty minutes after Roxas entered the auditorium, he was released for the day. Deliriously happy, he took out his phone to alert his gray haired boy that he was out.

"Hey stranger," Roxas looked in the direction of the voice and to his delight saw his boy sitting in the shade with a book.

"Hey I was just about to text you, Zex" Roxas moved to sit next to him.

Once seated he put his arm around his waist and pulled the other blue eyed boy in for a kiss. Zexion chuckled into the kiss and enjoyed the feeling of the younger boy's lips on his.

Roxas was the first to pull away, deciding that maybe a make out session in public wasn't the best idea on his first day.

"Still willing to help me move into my new dorm?"

Zexion grinned. "Yeah, I already went and grabbed your stuff from your car."

Roxas looked on the other side of his boyfriend and saw his duffle bags on the floor. Roxas began to laugh, "So efficient, boyfriend."

Grabbing a bag and his boyfriend's hand, Roxas got up, and accompanied by his boyfriend, headed to his dorm.

It didn't take long for them to find Roxas's dorm since Zexion looked into it for him.

"I love that my dorm room number is 813, you know my thing with thirteen. It's a sign Zex."

Zexion chuckled at this and shook his head with a smile on his face. "Whatever you say, Rox."

Roxas put his key in the door and swung it open, revealing a couple heavily making out on the couch. Zexion turned pink almost immediately, while Roxas, immune to being embarrassed of these types of situations thanks to his brother and his boyfriend, cleared his throat loudly.

Two heads shot up and looked at him, one of them being familiar.

"Oh, hey Axel."


Author's Note: This fanfic is a colab between me and my Roxas. It's something we've been playing around with for a while, and we finally decided to do it. Most chapters will be longer than this, but this being the first chapter, I thought it'd be more interesting to leave it off with a cliffhanger. Maybe people will be more interested?

* The song lyrics that end up being Demyx's ringtone are from Heaven by Warrant.

So, I hope anyone who reads this likes it, and I beg of you to review it. The more we see people reviewing, the faster we'll end up riding this.

~ Mysti