Disclaimer: I'd love to lay claim to Kingdom Hearts and make you all envy me for bringing the greatness that is KH. But I really can't afford a lawsuit right now, so there you go.

A/N: Here's a little plot bunny that's been hopping around my head for a couple months now. The beginning is slightly rough, because all I really have figured out is the meat of the story and the ending, but I was just kind of like, SCREW IT! And wrote something down. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this on a semi-regular basis (I'm thinking once a week? Maybe twice? But that's pushing it). Anywho~, I hope you all like it

Chapter One: Into the Airwaves

"The L.A. girls were lacing up their sneakers
They run the boardwalks and the beach
This fishbowl life is all they need
It's everything I needed, too
Until I heard the news."

- Jack's Mannequin, 'Into the Airwaves

"And now," Sora said, hand poised on the doorknob and looking as though he was going to explode with excitement. "We come to the most exciting part of the whole tour! Your room!"

Roxas was braced for something childish. Cream walls with a purple comforter on the bed, like when he was a kid because Namine, his best friend, had the same thing. Or maybe blue walls with dinosaurs everywhere like he'd always told Cloud he wanted. Maybe it was a little unfair ('Assuming – it makes an ass outta u'n'me,' his middle school soccer coach used to say), but he really didn't know either of his brothers anymore, and anyways, Sora always had questionable taste when it came to decorating.

But when Sora pushed open the door, Roxas was slightly surprised that instead of anything kiddy or obscenely bright, he was greeted by the sight of beige walls and a blue comforter on a bed tucked into the corner of the little den-cum-bedroom. A small desk squatted over on the opposite side of the room and a dresser t hold his close was right next to the door. Over all, it was a small room, just like everything else in the apartment (the whole 'tour' Sora was so excited about was nothing more then him pointing out the other two bedrooms barely bigger than this one, a living room, kitchen, and the one bathroom they would all have to share), but it would make due, at least until he could get a place of his own…whenever that would be.

A gentle nudge on his back made Roxas start and look back at his so far silent other brother, Cloud. The older blonde nodded into the room and Roxas realized they were both waiting for him to step inside. Hurriedly he crossed the threshold, his brother following closely behind, and shrugged off the one backpack he'd managed to scrounge up from the house before leaving. He took a moment to look around the room, just to make it seem like he was genuinely interested in seeing what, exactly, his new home looked like.

"So?" prompted Sora, eagerness dripping from his voice. "What do you think? Cloud was the one who decorated it, kept saying how I'd make it look really stupid. Personally, I think he made it a little boring, but we can go and pick up some posters or something tomorrow. Unless you don't like posters, or something, because that's cool, you know –"

"Sora," Cloud interrupted. His voice was startling, far deeper than Roxas had ever imagined it would be, and so soft he almost missed it. "Give the kid a second."

Roxas swelled indignantly at being called a kid, but forced a smile on to calm Sora's nerves and said, "It's great. I like it a lot." Maybe not the most sincere-sounding assurance, but it was the best he could do and anyway, Sora seemed to relax a little.

"Cool," he said, stepping around Roxas. He padded across the carpet almost silently and tugged on a lamp string, effectively illuminating the entire room. He stared out the small window next to the bed for a second then turned back around with a grin on his face. "I'm gonna order a pizza or Chinese or something for dinner. That cool? What do you want?"

Roxas shrugged and Sora fidgeted uncomfortably before saying, awkwardly, "So…cool. Pizza, I guess. I'm gonna do that. You stay here, get adjusted, use the bathroom if you need. It was a long train ride, so…yeah."

He rushed from the room and Roxas sagged, rubbing the back of his neck absently, lost in thought. It had been a long train ride from Twilight Town to Hollow Bastion, and one that had left him far too much time to simply think about the reasons he was finally seeing his brothers again after eight years apart. It was so weird, having Sora all awkward around him when they used to sit around and just talk about nothing for hours and hours.

"He's trying really hard, you know," came Cloud's too quiet voice. Once again, it made Roxas jump; he'd forgotten his oldest brother was even there. "He wants to get to know you again."

Roxas desperately wanted to say, "And you don't?" but bit his tongue and nodded. Of course Cloud didn't – he'd left everything behind when he and Sora ran away. He'd made that abundantly clear in the note he wrote to Mom explaining where the two of them were. We're gone and aren't coming back. You were never our mother: that was what he said. Mom cried and cried; that was when she started drinking again, after six months sober.

Mom. The thought caused a pang in his chest. He was waiting for her to call on the disconnected cellphone sitting like a rock in his pocket, for her to pop out of nowhere and shout, SURPRISE! Because all of this was a joke – a really unfunny joke, but one he could come to laugh at in time, albeit grudgingly. His mom loved him, didn't she? He was a good son, not like Sora or Cloud – he never abandoned her. He was always there, cancelling plans with friends when she needed him, moving from house to house and apartment to apartment when her boyfriends dumped her like old cabbage, never ever complaining, not once. The only man I can ever count on, she wrote in a card not two days ago, for his fifteenth birthday. The one thing I love most in the world.

It should have been safe to tell her – three little words shouldn't have destroyed his whole life in less than forty-eight hours, right? But when he'd come home after school the next day and found his sole bag of stuff – which was beyond depressing in and of itself; his whole life was condensed into one stupid, old Nike bag – with a one-way train ticked to Hollow Bastion leaving in an hour and a half sitting on top of it, he discovered just how hard everything around you can fall down because of three little words.

Just three. Just some stupid words that formed together in a stupid sentence he never expected the repercussions of.

"Mom, I'm gay."

Eh. Good, bad, I don't know – I'm leaving it up to you to tell me! I know it's super short, but I just wanna get a feel for what everyone thinks. Reviews = love, which makes the world go 'round! They also increase my ego and make me want to update faster!

PS – can anyone tell me what a 'hit count' is? I'm pretty new to this fanfiction thing and am slightly confused O_o