Author's Note: Hi everyone. If you're here from Home, which I kind of hope some people are, welcome back. If you're new and just happened to stumble over here, you're lucky because you don't have to experience the month-long hiatuses between updates.

This plot is something that came to me almost at once a few years ago and I've been slowly plugging away at it ever since. Akuroku isn't one of my main ships to be honest, but it just seemed fitting for them. It also breaks one of my cardinal rules of fanfiction, which is to not physically alter the characters in any way. Fun fun.

This first chapter is okay. It's not groundbreaking. I think it picks up in chapter 2. I went through several rewrites and drafts of this, and deciding on this particular one was less "mission accomplished" than "good enough!"

So, enjoy. And Happy New Year.

Before we start, the standard disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters belong to Disney and Square Enix. I am in no way profiting from this. I'm just a bored college student with a computer.

Talk to Me
Chapter 1: Introductions and Arguments

It started out like any other Friday, to be fair.

The bright 9AM sun poured through old, broken blinds which were never quite shut tightly enough to keep out the morning. Despite this unpleasant intrusion from the sun gods, Axel dosed through the rest of the morning, blissfully unaware of his roommate's stirrings-namely, the sound of the shower switching on, pipes protesting, then the clattering of the shower suddenly switching off a good ten minutes later, pipes still protesting. For the next five minutes, he would continue to sleep through the sound of books clattering and papers shuffling; then, finally the door opening and gently shutting as the man left to start his day.

Axel didn't rise for another hour to get to his own first class, and when that was through he had nothing more to do with his afternoon than to slog through three more courses on the longest day of his week. When he made his way back to his apartment in the evening, he did as much studying as humanly possible on a grueling Friday afternoon in which he didn't even feel very productive in the first place. His roommate, of course, had returned and was diligently searching through his textbooks as Axel gave his usual advice: "You need to get out, man."

Still, it wasn't too bad. The comments about how the poor guy needed to get out-slash-laid-slash-exposed to natural light were only half-serious. If you want to know the truth, Axel's last roommate had been a wannabe rocker who dropped out after only a few months into the year and while, in theory, Axel had no objections to coming back from class to find a huge party had kicked off, the excessiveness became exhausting after a while. So coming back to silence was a relief, screw being the "cool guy". That title could go to someone who cared, good for him. Axel was beginning to kind of like the consistency, the reliability.

For now, at least.

The redheaded man's valiant efforts to sit his ass down and read on a Friday night were inevitably crushed by his need to go out and do something (…or someone, hell, that worked too). After all, Axel had always figured that Friday nights were meant to be reckless and crazy; if they weren't, God wouldn't have put them before Saturday, the day for sleeping off hangovers-and college seniors would have been made passionate for sobriety.

After giving his roommate a wave destined to be ignored, Axel bolted out of the door and jumped into his dark red car. It was a beaten up, unreliable old piece of shit, but it got the job done. When it actually felt like starting. "C'mon." Axel muttered, as if speaking nicely enough would motivate the car to sprout legs and rush him over to the club in a somewhat Transformers-like fashion.

The curveball was thrown when Axel stepped inside the building, but he wouldn't realize this until much later.

Casually he slinked in, dark clothes and bright hair in a sea of dark clothes and bright hair ebbing and flowing in the dim light and loud music. He took a step back as the effect of it all hit him—reflex—and supposed that he'd been gone longer than he thought. Taking it in, Axel made his way past the dancers, lovers, and loiterers to the bar in the back. He ordered a single beer as always, debating on whether to mingle or sit back and watch the show. "ID," Said the bartender, as he always did, a mixture of routine disinterest and a sort of, "prove-it-I-dare-you" look painted on his features. Axel flashed his driver's license- birthday August 13, 1987; 21 in the current year of 2008 thankyouverymuch- paid, and began to drink, scanning the crowd for familiar faces.

No, no one there, not really… just that fruity yet oddly tough pink-haired guy from his biology class dancing with a small blonde girl. Just trying to prove something, Axel thought with a smirk, which dropped off his face in an instant. Okay, if someone were to go up and accuse him of being fruity yet oddly tough with something to prove… he'd have to agree. Letting the smile at his thoughts return, he leaned back, one leg casually resting over the other, elbows resting on the counter much to the displeasure of the bartender, and continued to scan. The tenseness in him slowly started to melt away. Yes, it was Friday, and yes, he was off the hook for two days. It was a good feeling.

Looking back, if Axel were to pinpoint the exact moment in which a change took place, this was it: the crowd seemed to part seamlessly for a moment, allowing Axel to lay his green eyes on a young man sitting at a table nearby. With a small, mischievous grin taking over his face, the redhead strode over to him.

"Hi," he said, taking the kid in. With light blue eyes, pale skin, and wild sandy hair, he was oddly sweet-looking to be in a place like this—I mean, it was by no means shady, but he looked so young, so serene in contrast to the drunken grinding going on all around him, it was like he had dropped in by accident. It was no wonder the kid was one of the few club-goers not nursing some sort of alcoholic beverage; he couldn't have been older than nineteen. Actually, it was a wonder he was there in the first place, period. He stared at the boy's face for a moment, watching for curious eyes searching the place for someone, but it seemed as though he was there by himself. Perfect; Axel was far from an angel, had certainly made bad decisions under the influence of alcohol and strobe lights, but hitting on someone who was taken… no details, but that wasn't a mistake a smart man made twice.

Between the strange combination of a youthful appearance and ill-humored expression, and possibility of meeting another gay single, Axel was intrigued. "… Hi!" He said again. Nothing. The boy didn't even look up. No big deal; the music was pretty loud, after all… maybe the kid just didn't hear. Grinning, Axel leaned over and said, loudly but lightly, "Hey."

Nothing. It was as if Axel wasn't even there.

Scowling, Axel spun on his heel and left. Odd. He wasn't usually blown off like that… sure, he had traveled a long way from his high school "playboy" days, but he had, nonetheless, once been the life of the party, the fun, the Cool Hair and Tattoo Guy That Nobody Turned Down, if nothing else. Even throughout his last three years of college, he had been pretty successful in getting the guy. The sudden shift was strange, an unwelcome experience.

Well, there was a first time for everything.

After this strange display (or lack thereof), Axel decided that maybe it was a sign. Maybe it would be best to just head back home. There was nothing there to keep him interested, and he wasn't really one to pursue someone who obviously had no interest in him. Well, not too much, anyway. Besides, at this time of night he could probably find a marathon of some dumb reality show on one of the various television channels supposedly dedicated to music. Nothing heals the painful bruise of rejection, Axel thought with a secret little grin as he climbed into his car, quite like watching some bimbos humiliate themselves on TV.

Arguably, not a bad way to spend the rest of the night.

Dying brain cells be damned.

It turned out for the best after all, he rationalized in his head over and over, as once he got back home he realized how utterly exhausted he was. He was fortunate enough to at least have his own place to go back to at the end of the day without running into a bunch of obnoxious frat boys molesting him with cries of, "I love you, man! I love you!" (The fourth time this had happened was the straw to break the camel's back and led to Axel getting out of the dorms; sophomore year had been a bit scary.)

The remainder of his weekend was the same all-too-brief blur of semi-mundane events as the weekend before that, and before that, and before that.. He spent Saturday out with some buddies, did some work on his car to little avail, attempted to read through his textbooks, and went out with more friends- maybe throwing in a meal or two there somewhere. Sunday was lazier, as all the man had to do was call his parents, something he tried to manage every week. The afternoon and evening were spent playing some mindless shoot-em-up games by himself. Fortunately (and unfortunately), he had no hours at work. He'd probably be paying for it later when his paycheck showed to be rather unsatisfactory, but for now he was just enjoying being able to slaughter zombies. If his roommate had been there at all, Axel had hardly registered it.

Monday was always a little more unpredictable. Again, Axel rose in the late morning to find his roommate already gone but his large morning class, taking the teacher's obvious lack of sanity into consideration, promised to deliver some entertainment.

The small blond he recognized much too well sitting in front of him didn't hurt matters either.

For a moment, Axel couldn't quite believe his eyes. How had he not noticed this guy before? But there he was-same blue eyes, same blonde hair, same bored expression. Axel knew that if he wanted to press the matter further, now was his chance. However, he also knew that he was a mature adult much too old to be playing these games, that this wasn't high school anymore, hadn't been for a long time, and he didn't need everyone to like him. The bottom line was, he knew when an issue needed to be dropped.

"Hey chatterbox, why were you ignoring me the other day?"

Still nothing. Now Axel was getting a little irritated. The silent treatment was bordering on bizarre. "You know, at the club?" At the persistent lack of response, Axel sighed heavily. This was turning into such bullshit he couldn't believe it. At this point, Axel wasn't so sure if blond truly mattered to him- he just wanted to know how he could have possibly managed to mess up so horribly with a person in a space of ten seconds, max.

And, okay, he wasn't exactly one to just let things drop.

Finally, Axel sat back, crossing his arms and sighing as a girl in orange took a seat next to the boy. Axel sighed once more, this time in minor annoyance. No accounting for utter bastards, then. Really, he didn't even know why he was being so persistent in the first place- especially for some little freshman (sophomore, maybe) who he didn't particularly know, had never even seen before last Friday and was showing himself to be a real stuck-up piece of-

The girl turned to Axel and spoke. "I saw you trying to talk to Roxas." So that's his name, the man thought, committing the word to memory even if it didn't exactly seem like they were destined to be best friends. Still, it was better than just referring to him as "blond" or "freshman kid". "I just thought you should know that Roxas is deaf. So if you want to try and talk to him… you may want to rethink your method of conversation."

"…Oh." That could be a problem. Instantly sheepish, Axel offered an awkward apology to the girl.

Okay, then. That was his fault.

It should have occurred to him.

After all, some colleges in the city had a notable population of students from a certain country, or of a certain race. This school had a significant Deaf population and why he didn't even consider that as a possibility was a mystery even to Axel. Of course, they seemed to stay so locked in their cliques-in-cliques-in-cliques that Axel had never even seen one, let alone talked to one.

Or tried to, at least.

Now his interest had definitely been piqued… not that it hadn't been before, a little.

"...it's okay!"

"Huh?"

"Roxas says it's okay," the girl repeated, turning back to him for a moment. They communicated once more, quickly and swiftly, and then she turned back. "And that he tends to tune people out anyway. He says he was really lost in thought."

"It's cool. Seriously, just tell him it's fine."

"You know, if you just look at him when you speak he'll understand you better," she advised cheerfully.

"…Ah." Axel considered himself fairly decent with people, but this was a tad out of his comfort zone. He didn't want to say something completely stupid that would surely offend the little blond freshma- Roxas. Still, he found himself beaming and starting the conversation with a hearty, "You're pretty cute." Roxas said something to the girl, a sudden flurry of hands and amused expressions, before the girl finally responded.

"He said thanks," she said flatly, probably out of reflex for Roxas's sake. Neither of them exactly looked thrilled. Case in point: Roxas was rolling his eyes.

"It's true," the man insisted weakly, the muttered words not completely meant to be heard. Or seen, as it was.

He decided to lay low for the rest of the period.

Axel didn't see Roxas or his friend for the remainder of the week, and that was a fact he didn't really have the time to dwell on. Despite his wild looks and party streak, Axel was smart, his loyalty typically lying with work before play. And though Roxas certainly seemed like a piece of work, that wasn't quite what he had in mind.

"So yeah, I'm Axel." The man finally told them their next class together. He did sit by them almost every week, after all; there was no point in not at least exchanging pleasantries every once in a while.

And, he wouldn't admit it, but he was slightly fascinated with the idea of befriending this kid.

"Roxas, as you already know," the girl said for him, face bright and open once again, the whole "you're cute" incident seemingly forgotten for the moment. "And I'm Olette, thanks for asking." Axel grinned, raring for an apology that didn't seem completely necessary judging from her tone. Before he could so much as open his mouth, she quickly changed topics. "And just so you know, you don't have to talk so slow to him. It actually makes it harder for Roxas to understand you."

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's nice to meet you both."

"Not a problem," Olette and Roxas signed back and forth for a brief moment. By the end of the conversation, her face had fallen and the blond's face became home to a mischievous smirk. "So, yeah. Roxas says that 'Axel' is a stupid name."

Reasonably, said man was a bit startled by this sudden show of hostility. His response was less than reasonable. "…And this is coming from Roxas? Man, that is about one step down from 'Shanaynay'."

"Roxas called you a jerkass."

"Hey, he's the one who attacked me, all right? You attacked me first, buddy."

A deep sigh. "This isn't going well…"

"Then tell him to lay off!"

"No, no, that was me talking, not him."

"Oh, okay." Axel paused. "Tell him anyway."

Olette shook her head with a sigh, grateful when the professor finally started her lecture. Suddenly, this was looking to be a long, interesting, infuriating semester.

An exciting story would probably use this time to talk about how Axel couldn't keep his mind off the blond boy, that he stayed up every night thinking of him, or that he found himself unrepentantly attracted to him and longed for his Classic Literature period day in and day out just to catch a glimpse of Roxas's face. But in actuality, as soon as class ended, Axel was done thinking about anything that had to do with the course, whether it be actual material learned or Roxas and Olette. The class was easy enough to BS his way through, he maybe spoke to Roxas and Olette for a couple of minutes per day, and he simply had other grades to keep up, other friends to waste time with. No, the infatuation came later, slowly, delicately, like a cat stalking its prey, hidden in the grass just before pouncing.

The second week of the boys' sudden discovery of one another resulted in no contact whatsoever, as Axel arrived a few milliseconds late and couldn't get to his normal seat. Such was the disadvantage of an eighty-student class. That being said, the third week went about as smoothly as the first.

"Roxas is asking for you to move your head, he can't see," Olette whispered to the redhead, leaning at an uncomfortable 45-degree angle to reach his ear.

"Sorry."

A beat.

"He says it's your big, stupid hair. Sorry."

"Do you really have to tell me all that stuff verbatim?" Axel asked finally, partially annoyed yet amused all the same. The sole week of peace that had occurred earlier had healed some of the aggravation-wounds caused by stuck-up blonds who have problems with people's names and attitudes. "Can't you like, censor it for the sake of my poor feelings?"

"Roxas just… really likes getting his point across," Olette explained with a shrug. "It's what he said, I can't change that."

"Tell him that this is just how my hair is and he can either deal with it or sit in the front row."

Olette delivered the message, hesitation in translating their bickering long vanished, Roxas rolled his eyes, and Axel sighed, a loud puff of air that earned glares from the people sitting next to him.

Psh. Freshmen.

Oddly, as class let out the third week, Olette tracked Axel down just before he could leave the room. "Roxas said your hair was being distracting again. Also-"

Axel had woken up that morning a half an hour late. He'd thrashed out of bed in a panic, dressing as quickly as possible, and he couldn't even remember if he had ended up with the time to brush his teeth. As he ran to his car, he nearly got hit by some prick who was already drunk at ten in the morning and decided that constantly swerving onto sidewalks spells out, "fun time". After all that chaos and drama, his car wouldn't even start up. Ten minutes later, he finally got it working and by that time, of course, his parking spot had been taken. And he really, really, really meant to take a seat farther away from the blond demon and his friend, but the seat right in front of the kid was the only one left because he hadn't been able to get there early enough.

Axel was not in the mood for this.

"Look," he spat. "If Roxas has such a problem with who sits in front of him, he should sit in the front row and leave me alone. I haven't even done anything to the kid. If I knew he was going to get into a big tizzy over me calling him cute, I wouldn't have said it, got it memorized?"

"…I was going to say that I think Roxas just has a little crush-thing on you."

…That was unexpected. Sour mood replaced by shock, all Axel could manage was a brief, "What now?" To play little-obnoxious-bully to someone you hardly knew because you liked him seemed… oddly second grade.

Well, Axel did think Roxas looked rather young… "Yeah," she continued. "I mean, he hasn't exactly said anything about it or anything, but he keeps talking about you."

"He does?" he asked in disbelief, one eyebrow cocked. "This is kinda sudden. You're really sure?"

"…Well, he keeps talking about how stupid you are."

"Right. And how, exactly, does this translate to 'madly in love'?" Olette's tentative smile broke out into an all-out grin, her shoulders shaking as she laughed her infectious laugh. Axel smiled too.

"Well, I only said 'crush thing'. It's just the impression that I get when he talks about you. See, usually if he doesn't like someone or there's something upsetting him, he won't talk about it. He'll just kind of avoid the problem until it goes away or he'll be super-vague about the whole thing and just confuse everyone who tries to help. I could totally be off about all this but… I get rants about you."

She laughed again, but Axel didn't register it, already mulling over every word she had said. He didn't even realize that he was wearing a giant grin until Roxas himself- speak of the devil- (and yes, actually, he was one) walked by, grabbing Olette's arm and giving her a gentle tug. He got a full glimpse of Axel's unconscious grin-face and frowned, causing the older man to do so as well.

Madly in love, crush-thing, whatever, neither were looking like even a slight possibility if Roxas's face in that brief moment were any indication of his attitude toward the redhead.

The following week brought much of the same. Axel was sure to switch his alarm on every night to avoid the mad rush that he always tried so hard to avoid, to much more success this time around. He arrived extra early to Lit just to make sure his hair couldn't cause any distress to certain easily-distressed classmates, and if he were anywhere near the two, he would say a simple hey, and that was the end of it. This was his senior year of college; he wasn't going to go out looking for drama. He was going to have as much fun and success as possible before the stress of exams and being suddenly thrust into the real world. No one was going to change that for him.

No one.

Still, Axel found himself waiting for the blond and his friend after class let out that day. To apologize, maybe, to set things right. They had pretty consistently argued over every little thing since they met, Axel needling Roxas until the boy said something rude and defensive, Roxas saying something rude and defensive because Axel was needling him, until it became a big, endless spiral of childish bickering. That couldn't be denied. And that Olette was always stuck right in the middle of it was unacceptable.

Really, he hadn't set out to make any enemies. Sometimes he just took a joke too far, and he knew he had completely disregarded the younger boy's unmistakable "keep away- caution" vibe. And just avoiding the situation wasn't going to make things any better; eventually, he would be stuck in front of Roxas again, or he'd see him out in the quad, or they'd get another class together. He might as well nip the problem in the bud before it resulted in too much idiocy. If he simply stopped playing around with Roxas, the man might never know that he really didn't have any bad intentions- or intentions, period.

But then, maybe it was something else, too, that caused Axel to feel the need to apologize; maybe it was that he started noticing how Roxas walked with a casual slouch, making him seem even tinier than he was, how he always struggled to understand what the professor was saying from the his usual seat in the auditorium, how he left the second class ended, how the only person he had seen the boy with was Olette. Sure, the whole deafness thing was probably a factor in this, but he seemed like he wouldn't go up and talk to anyone even if he could.

While Axel himself couldn't exactly be called a social butterfly, the avoidant behavior struck him as odd, the kind of shrinking violet mentality that usually seems to fade after high school is mercifully over and done forever. For the first time in his life, whenever he was around the kid he felt as though he needed to aid him in some way- take him under his wing, show him the ropes, and various other figures of speech.

Of course, it was also possible that he was just more emotionally invested in this kid than he had any right to be so soon after they had met.

Either way, he was going to stay outside the door after class ended to catch Roxas, even if it meant having to wait for every last student to leave, scanning them each individually for that one familiar face. And, at this point, as the rush crowd had left and only those few drifters who probably had no place to be for the rest of the day remained, it became apparent that Axel wasn't going to catch him. He frowned as the last of his classmates made their way out, no blonds to be found.

Maybe he hadn't been looking down far enough.

As casually as possible, he leaned over to sneak a glance into the room just to be completely sure.

Empty. Reflecting upon the situation, he wasn't even quite sure why he waited in the first place- he saw the boy enough during the week. (And once a week was quite enough.) Apologies could be made during that time. Or he could just leave the situation alone. With a thoughtful scowl, Axel crossed his arms and turned to leave.

"Holy shit!" …Not expecting a short brunette to so suddenly materialize right in front of him. Where did Olette come from all of the sudden? "You scared the hell outta me! What's up?" Olette apologized with a warm smile and shrugged. Her yellow laptop bag slipped from its place on her shoulder as she did so, multitudes of bright keychains slapping together as she slid it back into place.

"You like Roxas, don't you?" She asked, apparently unafraid of getting to the point. Probably from extended periods of time translating for Roxas. To this, Axel was unsure how to respond; the question was unexpected, to say the least.

"I've only talked to the guy like, twice."

"I didn't ask if you were going to marry him! I'm just asking… is there really some actual interest in him somewhere?"

"Uh… oh, wow. I don't know." Finally, he settled with, "Yeah, I guess." If he hadn't, then why wait for the boy to apologize to him? Why wait to get him alone? What was the point of getting so enthusiastic over the prospect of Roxas having a 'crush-thing' on him, the few times he reflected on it? That had to equal interest, even if Axel wasn't quite sure what kind of interest it was. At this, the girl frowned and Axel once again found himself unsure of the right thing to say, or what, exactly, he had just gotten himself into simply by choosing to talk to a peer. A peer who just so happened to be… different. In more ways than one.

And Olette was still frowning, brows furrowed in thought. This wasn't a good sign, not from someone who was so upbeat all the time. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just-"

Quickly but unintentionally, Axel squashed her words. "Did Roxas ask? Did he finally say something?" Aside from how stupid he thinks I am? He wanted desperately to add, even if it just meant making the girl laugh. Her stern face was honestly beginning to unnerve him.

"No." Olette responded right away. Oddly- even to him- Axel's face fell.

"Ah."

"To be honest, Roxas doesn't exactly know I'm here. He'd kill me if he knew. I just wanted to let you know before you put any sort of investment into him, that Roxas isn't going to be some quick boink." At these words, these implications, no- accusations, Axel scowled, brows drawn together tightly, green eyes narrowed, arms crossed once again. "He's way too serious for that stuff."

"I'm not looking for a quick boink!" Axel shouted. His outburst caused a group of students passing by to stare, eyes wide, as if they were witnessing a big scandal that would make for a good story. Rapidly, and with much more gusto than he truly felt, he turned to the pod and exclaimed, "That's right, I said 'quick boink'!" They hurried away.

Freshmen.

"I'm not looking for anything." He finished calmly. Axel wasn't looking to attract the word's attention. Especially not when he was getting grilled like this. "It's that… I guess I just thought he's cute and interesting, you know? No big deal." After a moment with no response he grinned gently. "Nothing icky."

Instantly the girl's face lightened, relief almost painfully evident. "Okay. Just wanted to be extra sure."

"…Why?" Axel asked, very unsure.

"Because relationships like that tend to not last very long." For the first time, her face darkened, smile completely vanished. "Especially with people like you two. And the stuff Roxas has been through? I won't go into detail for his sake, but we're sick of his relationships falling apart after a month."

"Um… I'm sorry." Was the only reply Axel could think of. He had definitely not been expecting this.

Olette shrugged once more before turning to leave. "Hey, wait."

"Hm?"

"What do you mean, 'relationships like that'? You mean…"

"Deaf and hearing?" She finished. "Well, yeah. You get together not really knowing each other and already there's this huge difference between the two of you. And then… Roxas is just so serious…"

Right… so the real reasoning came out. "And you think I'm just going to play him."

"I'm sure you really are a great guy, Axel." She placed one foot out in front of her, ready to turn away.

"I hardly even know him!"

"Of course." She replied after much too long of a pause. "He really needs someone who understands him. That's all." A shrill sound suddenly rang through the air, causing both of them to jump. "Sorry, that would be my cell." She pulled the slim phone from her pocket- orange, of course- and answered instantly. "Pence? Yeah, I'll be there in just a sec." As if noticing him for the first time, she turned back to Axel and said, "I gotta go."

"All right."

She was already halfway down the hall when Axel called to her one last time. "Hold on."

"Huh?"

"Can you just tell me something about him? Anything." I am so lost, was the amendment he nearly tacked on, but changed his mind at the last moment. He let the words, those nasty implications, stand on their own. He didn't care if he was contradicting himself- 'I'm interested', 'no I'm not', 'I don't know him', 'I want to', 'I don't'. Even between the distance between them, Axel swore he could see the smallest of smiles grace her features.

"He's a Pisces." She responded finally, swiftly turning on her heel and moving to the door.

"That was helpful." Axel murmured to an empty hall, turning his own way and heading on home.

He still just wanted to know what he had just gotten himself into with one simple, "hey".