Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor any of its characters. But hey, a girl can hope, can't she?

Chapter 1: The pickpocket and the nobleman

A young man with fiery red hair sat slumped in his arm chair, legs dangling over one side. He sighed deeply as he ran slender fingers through ruby locks, bright emerald eyes half-lidded. Being a noble had its advantages, it was a luxurious life, he had everything he wanted. He didn't have to do any real work and he could get away with a lot of things. Overall it was a good life. Except at moments like these, moments of pure and utter boredom. Oh how he hated boredom.

With nothing much else to do the lanky red-head stood up from his chair. Too lazy to walk to his chambers to grab his coat he quickly made his way outside. For who knows, maybe he'd encounter something that would relieve him of his boredom, though he doubted it. But hey, a man can hope, can't he.

Most of the time he was glad that his estate was located outside the city, well, except at times like this, now he'd welcome the hustle and bustle and loudness of the city open-armed.

With his hands deeply tucked away in his pant pockets he started to stroll along the small path that would lead him into the forest. If he was lucky he might see a wolf or a lynx, or maybe he would have to jump out of the way of a running deer or so. At the moment something like that seemed very exciting to him.

A sigh escaped his delicate lips as he lazily kicked a stone on the path. He must have walked for quite a while now since a faint orange had started to invade the blues of the sky and the soft breeze had gained a certain chillness. He hadn't bothered to look at his watch even once, after all it was not as if he had to be somewhere.

His attention quickly returned to the presence instead of his daydreams as a golden blur flashed in and out his vision in a matter of seconds, a light tug at his waist accompanying it. He quickly reached forward and grabbed a fistful of fabric. "Whoa there." He said, grinning slightly. His prayer – not that he was religious or anything, but oh well. – had been answered, he was freed from his boredom.

"Let me gooo!" An angry voice shouted, coming from a little blond who was kicking his feet in the air as he dangled from the red-head's grip. "Put me down. NOW!"

The red-head couldn't help but chuckle at this, it was entertaining to see the blond struggle. "Not until you give back what we both know is mine." He said.

"I haven't got anything." The boy yelled, voice getting higher. "Just put me down already." The blond had now grabbed the taller man's hand, clawing at it in an attempt to pry the fingers off of his collar.

"No can't do." The older sang. "Not until you give it back."

The blond huffed in irritation as he crossed his arms his front of his chest. "Fine." He snarled after several moments. He reluctantly reached underneath his jacket and revealed a small leather bag.

"Thank you." The lanky red-head said with a grin as he took the bag. He gently placed the blond on the ground before putting it away. "By the bye, name's Axel, A-X-E-L. And I recommend you not to try and steal something from me again, got it memorized?" He said, leaning forward so that he was face-to-face with the blond, tapping his finger against his temple at the last words.

"Hey." The blond yelped as Axel ruffled his hair, hands shooting up in his spikes to put them back in place. "Roxas." He mumbled before darting into the bushes, quickly disappearing.

A chuckle escaped Axel's lips. The blond, no, Roxas may be a pickpocket but he had to admit that he had been the most adorable pickpocket he had ever seen. That and the fact that he had relieved him of his boredom. Something he was the blond very grateful for. A content smile graced his lips as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed back home.

Damn it, Riku wouldn't be happy if he came back empty handed. That boy demanded everyone to take at least something back with them whenever they went out. He let out a sigh as he strolled through the city gates. He wasn't very fond of the city, it was way too crowded and loud in his opinion, he couldn't quite wrap his mind around why people wanted to come live in the city out of their free will. Nope, he wasn't much of a city person. He would much rather hide in the bushes and wait for some oblivious person he could rob. But today, once more, luck hadn't been on his side. He pinched the bridge of his nose before walking into the ever crowded main street.

His skilful fingers quickly relieved people of some little things they probably wouldn't even miss. A few coins here, a silver bracelet there, he was even able to lay his hands on an emerald and pearl charm that had been dangling from a noblewoman's purse. It wasn't that much but it would be enough to not be scolded by Riku. The boy was very stern about this. If you came back empty handed you wouldn't get anything to eat.

He quickly slipped into a small alleyway, making sure no one would see him before he climbed the side of a house. Roxas' favourite way to move around were the roofs. Running over the rooftops gave him a certain feel of freedom. No one else was there to bother him and it were moments like these he cherished. He liked to be left alone and do things his own way. One of the main reasons why, unlike the others, he preferred to work alone. The rest of their little group of poor, orphaned pickpockets worked in team, one on the lookout or serving as distraction while the other relieved people of their things.

A deep sigh escaped his lips as he entered the poor district of the town. This wasn't the life he wanted to live till the end of his days. Unlike the others he hadn't accepted his current life. There had to be more to life than this, right? Was it too much to ask for a life that would be slightly better than what he had right now?

He gracefully jumped off the roof of a deserted looking house, well, more like the burnt wooden skeleton of a house. He slipped inside and opened the door to a little backroom. In there was a hidden door which he entered. This house was linked to the city's secret tunnels. Something which had been built over a century ago when this kingdom had been at war with a neighbouring one. Practically no one knew about the tunnels these days. Except for a few orphans who had resorted to pick pocking in order to stay alive.

Roxas carefully descended the long stairway that would lead him to the tunnels, his hand against the wall so that he wouldn't fall in the pitch-black darkness.

He felt relieved when he finally reached the tunnels. Due to something unknown to Roxas there was always light in the tunnels. Not like a light coming from torches, more like the light from the sun. Ever since he got here he had been wondering about this but had never found the origin of whatever it was that illuminated the tunnels.

He quickly manoeuvred through the maze of tunnels, knowing precisely where every one of them leaded to.

Only minutes later he reached the door that lead to the place where they all lived. He knocked the secret code, quickly followed by an "Enter." He opened the door and stepped inside the large room. The others were already there, Demyx, who also tried to make some extra money as a street musician, was softly playing his sitar, Riku was going over how much what they got today was worth and Sora jumped up from whatever he had been doing and lunged himself at the blond the moment he entered. "Roxaaaas, you're back." He shouted as he wrapped his arms around him, preventing the other from breathing.

"S-Sora…can't…breath." The small blond managed to get out as he clawed at Sora's arms.

"Oh, oopsie." He giggled as he let go. He then turned around and bounced back to Demyx' side to continue doing whatever he had been doing.

"Roxas." Riku spoke sternly, "What did you get today?" He asked this without looking up. When he wrote the last thing down he finally lifted his head. He liked order, he always wrote down whatever they got and spend. You could say he was the secretary of their little gang.

Roxas emptied the hidden pockets inside his jacket, laying everything in front of Riku. The silveret scanned over the items in front of him, his eyes lighting up a little at the emerald and pearl charm. "Good work, Roxas. We'll probably be able to get a good price for this. Really good craftsmanship."

Roxas nodded at this before going to the corner of the room in which he slept. He felt tired. He quickly crawled under his blanket, the soft tunes of Demyx' sitar lulling him to sleep. He would eat something tomorrow, he wasn't very hungry anyway.

AN: Yay, my first AkuRoku. And I know, the title isn't very original but I've never been too good with finding titles, deal with it.

I'm actually amazed that all of this as well as everything that will come next came to me because of a single word in my history book. The only good thing about school, you can get random inspiration.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this since I enjoyed writing it.

Oh, and want me to tell you something? There's this thing called reviews and I just so happen to LOVE them. They make me very happy. So if you liked this please review.