A/N: Whoot! First chappy! Okay, I have a general idea where this one's going, so I hope you'll enjoy it! Yes I know its kinda cliche with the whole college thing but...there's a reason there are cliche's like that! They work! Anyway...no more warnings really than my usual. Language, angst, etc. Usual pairings: main, Akuroku, mentioned Zemyx, Soriku, Cleno, etc.

And as I'm not a college student myself, I may get a few things wrong. Please forgive me these mistakes as I don't mean any offense by them.

And I will be devoting most of my attention to my other fic, Unwinding Cable Car until it is finished. I still hope to update this one though relatively quickly! Now! Onward!

Axel's POV

"Axel! Get your lazy ass out of bed!" I groaned and pulled the dark red blanket over my head, only to have it ripped off the bed a second later. What I saw did not bode well for the rest of the day, which I had been hoping to spend in bed by the way.

My brother. Standing over me. With a frying pan. Which I knew would be used as a weapon against my head pretty soon if I continued trying to ignore him.

"Come on. Up. You're making breakfast while I get ready for class." I glared at him as I sat up, running my fingers through the mess of hair I called mine.

"Why me? You can cook…And it's my day off…" He rolled his eyes, brandishing the frying pan absentmindedly. The sad thing is…his Care Bear pajamas only made him look more intimidating…Did I mention the Guns and Roses t-shirt he wore above them? Weird mix, I know. But that's my brother.

"I know I can. But I gotta get ready. And besides, I need you decent later, which I knew wouldn't happen if I didn't wake you up early." I blinked up at him. The only time he wanted me decent was when his friends came by. And I hated his friends. With a passion. I mean…sure, they were cool I guess…If you were my brother.

Cloud and Rude needed to take a class in emotions, which was odd since Cloud was majoring in communications…, and if Elena tried to touch my hair again…I shivered. I did not want to think about that…I was still finding random pink hairs in my brush. They all had one thing in common though. They didn't like me. And I could never figure out why. All I did was dare to be their best friend's twin…

Aw whatever. I couldn't care less what they thought of me. I had my own friends.

"Forget it. I'm not coming outta my room if your dumb ass friends are here…" Reno rolled his eyes again.

"I wouldn't want you to anyway. I have a tutor coming by. It took me two months to get him to agree so I don't want you fucking this up for me."

"…Two months?" I'd never known my brother to focus on anything for more than a week, and even that was a rare event…

"…so I'm failing a few classes…and this guy's in all of them. With A's. And the reason it took me so long was…well, he's kinda cute so…" He trailed off, shrugging. I ran my hand down my face. I could already guess the reason the guy had said no.

"You hit on him didn't you? And let me guess…he called you a creep and hit you upside the head with a text book?" That's what the last chick did. He glared at me. I just smirked. My brother has a…reputation shall we say of being somewhat of a player. Apparently the guy had heard about him.

"It wasn't a textbook…" he muttered under his breath. "It was his damn fist." With that he shoved the frying pan at me and stormed out. I just laughed and got up. I was awake so why not?

My brother had left a few hours ago, leaving his two bedroom apartment-like dorm all to me. Well…technically it was ours but as I had till the end of the semester…I'd just started calling it his. I had no doubt he'd let me stay after I was officially no longer a college student, but still…

I wandered around idly, ignoring the mess of papers on my desk (I'd almost go so far as to say I made the sign of the cross at them, but that's beside the point) and settled for doing the laziest thing I could do without going back to bed. I sat on the couch, and turned on the TV.

I blinked awake, groaning as, once again, a rather peaceful sleep was interrupted. This time by a loud knock on the door, to which I was giving serious consideration to ignoring. If my brother couldn't remember his own damn keys, a night outside might just well help with that…

Then I remembered the last time I tried to do that. He came through my window. And we live on the tenth floor. The guy below us still claimed Spider Man lived in our building. But…that guy was known for being a crack head so no one really believed him. And if they did, the last person they thought of was my brother. I'm not the only lazy one around here thank you.

I sighed and stood up, unlocking the door before flopping on the couch again.

"Bout damn time, lazy ass…" Reno grumbled as he slipped in, soaking wet, his vibrant red hair plastered around his face. I hadn't noticed it was raining outside…It would definitely explain the glare I was getting from my twin…We both hate the cold. And being wet. Which means rain was a big no in our books. Right under pools and fire extinguishers. Don't ask about that last one. Long story.

"Love you too bro." He snorted.

"Sorry bout him…" I heard a noncommittal grunt from the direction of the door, just now remembering what my brother had said about bringing someone over. Eh, whatever. I was way too comfy with my face buried in the couch to be bothered with moving to see who it was. "Come on, the kitchen's in here…"

I tuned them out when Reno started talking about his courses. Something to do with languages and human studies…no idea. Reno still had no idea what the hell he wanted to do, so he had a class in as many different fields as he could.

Me? I had a job. I was good at it. And we're leaving it at that.

And with that thought, I promptly passed out; face still buried in the couch.

Who wakes up someone by constantly flicking them in the ear? Does anyone besides me?

I whacked Reno's hand away, letting a rather intelligent sounding "Wha-?" slip out.

"He's gone, and I don't want you sleeping on the couch again. You tend to be bitchier in the morning when you do. So come on, get up already." I glanced at the clock as I slowly righted myself. 10 at night.

"…you failing badly enough that guy had to stay over here for six hours?" He glared.

"We both had an evening class, but other than that…yes." I rolled my eyes.

"I told you, you're taking too many classes…"

"Oh shut up, lazy ass." And with that, he went to his room, shutting the door between us. My brother was rather touchy on the subject of his class schedule. Mostly because everyone called him picky and told him to just decide already. I just ragged on him with he let slip he was failing something. I knew I should feel like shit for it but…he ragged on me for almost everything I chose to do with my life so, in my mind, it was more than fair. And it's not like I really meant anything by it anyway…

Whatever he ended up doing, I wanted him to be happy. I'd already decided where my life was going; likely straight down. If not, then it was on a straight line, with no rise in sight. Didn't mean he had to be like that.

But I also had my role as "younger" brother to consider. Only by a few minutes but still, it was a very important position that needed to have its standards met. If I wasn't annoying, I'd be a failure to said position. And we couldn't have that now could we?

"Yo! Ax! Get up! You're gonna be late for work again!" Well…at least he wasn't in my room with a frying pan again…or the Care Bear pajamas…

"I'm up, I'm up!" I yelled back, searching the wreck of a room for a set of clean clothes. Well…the shirt didn't smell and pants weren't too wrinkled. It would have to do. Running a hand through my hair, a futile effort to get it to behave, I grabbed my keys and a Red Bull and headed for the door, ignoring Reno's comment about the bloody porcupine that was my hair.

I slipped out of the elevators and started towards the parking lot, and the old beat up piece of crap, bright green car that was parked in the front.

"Hey baby…miss me?" I love my car. It was my first and only. Who cared if it rarely went a month without needing something fixed? It got me where I needed to go and that's all I wanted and/or needed out of a car. And it's not like I was driving around constantly. I went to work, occasionally to Starbucks, and that's about it. If my friends wanted me to go anywhere, they picked me up. More or less to make sure I didn't just not show up…I've been known to do that on quite a few occasions.

I worked at a tattoo shop across town that was simply called "One". Mainly drawing the designs that people wanted, so someone with a hell of a lot steadier hands could make the permanent additions to the skin.

It wasn't my fault I couldn't really sit still…Unless I was at home. I couldn't explain it. Whenever I was away from the apartment…I just had to move. I couldn't sit still for longer than five minutes normally. Reno said I just got bored too easily…or something about being ADD.

It's never been proven that I have it, so until then, I'm gonna go with my jitteriness being the result of caffeine addiction. I was already on my third cup of coffee of the hour. Now, why it didn't act up at home…you got me there.

"Axel! You got that flower done yet?" I glanced up as Larxene peeked in. She went to the same college I was still technically a part of, but we'd been friends long before that. She joined the group in…sixth grade I think…when she kicked my ass for making fun of her hair.

"Yeah, yeah, cool it." I handed her the paper, which she eyed for a moment before nodding, satisfied, and left in order to make someone's life hell. But hey, they submitted to it willingly so I had no sympathy.

I sighed, glancing at the clock. I only got paid for being here from ten in the morning till six at night. It was five thirty now.

It wasn't normally this boring. Normally Demyx was here but he called in sick right as I arrived. Even if he complained about me being bitchy as hell, he was still fun to hang around with…

I relaxed the minute I got through my own door. That last half hour had been hell. Thirty three different designs for two extremely impatient chicks. Paper was flying off my table at ninety miles an hour…and my hand still ached from it.

I slipped into the kitchen, somehow totally missing my brother and his guest until after I turned around again.

…No I didn't yelp. I just…jumped slightly when I saw both pairs of eyes on me. The ones similar to my own quickly lost interest when they saw that I was still intact and wasn't bitching about something.

The unfamiliar ones though…deep, deep blue orbs, ringed by a thin line of black, stared at me curiously. I stared right back.

Reno's tutor…was a kid…and a not too bad looking one at that. Side swept blonde hair, framing a rather pale, small face, his bangs not quite covering the ring in his eyebrow. Those sapphire eyes hadn't faltered one bit when I realized I was staring rather intently. It's not often you see eyes that blue alright?

I glanced away. He smirked just barely and glanced back down at what Reno was doing.

I left the room quickly, having already made an idiot of myself…

It occurred to me, long after the kid had left, and I was already in bed. I hadn't heard the kid say one word during the several hours he was there.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. They belong to Square Enix regrettably. The title is a song by Savage Garden, and the chapter title is a song by Simple Plan (unintentional by the way...). The tattoo shop however is a figment of my own imagination.

A/N: Yay for first chappy! Yes I know I already said it. Anyways, I hope you liked it! I rather enjoyed writing it and can't wait to see where this story goes! Please review and all that!