A/N: If anyone actually is still with me after a—o lord—one year hiatus, then congratulations, sir! It doesn't even feel like a year, but if I look back on it, that really happened. But, that's not what's important. What's important is that I finally came out with a story & it's still Akuroku. How silly. But, uh, I actually created this on November 29th, so uh… pfft. I don't even think my writing's improved. But that's okay.

Life wasn't exactly sugar and rainbows for Axel, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy it. He had financial troubles, working as a second-rate handyman for a company his brother started. He didn't even make enough to afford his own place, he lived with his brother ("You'd rather live with the folks?" Reno would ask). He graduated from a third-rate junior college (but just barely), so he didn't have any special talents. The only thing striking about Axel Vier was his hair, but it was all biological, he didn't mean to have such loud, unmanageable red hair. His tattoos, claimed everyone around him, made him look not only like a clown, but unapproachable at first meeting. The price to pay for being a rebellious punk Reno would remind him, who, ironically enough, also had tattoos. Axel was a mundane, nothing special or spectacular kind of guy and didn't have any ambition or prospect to make enormous amounts of money, and, truth be told, he didn't mind it one bit.

He loved his life, he was content. His job also made people happy without compelling them to reward him financially as he never asked for it. His "wage" consisted of food and trinkets, given by grateful customers who couldn't afford much.

Yeah, life was good.

"Excuse me, Axel!" Aerith Gainsborough burst through the door of the shop, panic clearly written all over her. "The store has really gotten crowded, are you able to help us out, just for a bit?"

Axel smiled and hopped down from the counter. "I sure can, m'am," he said cheerily. "Special sale or something today?"

The young woman nodded. "Half off practically everything. I have no idea what Tifa was thinking when she announced it."

The redhead whistled. "No wonder. Lead me to the store Miss Aerith."

"And come back with money this time!" Reno called back as the two walked out the store.

"As if," Axel dismissed as he waved him off.

"Dammit! The store is filling up fast and those two are nowhere to be seen—uh, that'll be 500 gil." As Tifa rang up the customer's purchase, Yuffie was carrying parcels of Elixirs.

"Aerith went and fetched for Axel," the ninja said, dropping the packages from exhaustion.

"Hey, be careful with those Elixirs!" Tifa barked. "And unless Axel sprouted two more pairs of arms since the last time I saw him, we still need two people who are currently MIA."

"No need to fear, no need to worry, Axel Vier is here!" the redhead announced as he waltzed through the store. People greeted the man as he walked past them; those who didn't know him shied away and avoided him. "What's the job, what's the task, Miss Tifa?"

"First, find Leon and Cloud," the woman directed. "I'll give you more orders after you find them."

"They flake?"

"I don't know. I'm ringing up a customer one moment, they're gone the next." She flicked her head to the back of the store. "They're probably screwing around back there, go find them."

"The irony," Axel mumbled, scratching his chin. He saluted. "Yes, m'am."

"Here, the keys," she tossed a chain of keys to the man. "Just in case there're some locked doors that need to be busted down."

"Holy free-holy, look at the surplus of products," Axel commented, marveling at the excess produce. "Tifa probably did something extra special for the person who ships these things." Actually, Axel thought, that'd be one lucky bastard. What I wouldn't give for a… Axel's face grew hot at his musings before lightly slapping his face. "Shut up, you got two guys to find. Now," he stuck his ear up to a door, only to pull away, "if I were two horny dudes in a supply shop, where would I be?" He placed his ear on the door labeled "Storage Room".

"We have mass mayhem going on in the store and you want it now, of all times?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Are you insane? Get off me!"

"Try again. I think the answer is, 'Take me Leon as I want it as much as you do.'"

"Fuck off!"

"…Only on you, dear."

The redhead rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. They're at least twenty five and they've got the libidos of 16 year olds." Turning the knob slowly as slowly can be and finally finding it unlocked, Axel burst in to the room whilst covering his eyes.

"Okay, okay, you two: put your clothes on, pull your dicks out of each other, correct whatever it is that I don't want to see and get your asses back to the shop," he exclaimed fumbling around blindly throughout the room. He heard Leon huff and then him grunt in pain. Axel separated his fingers to see Cloud walking away and Leon rubbing his abdomen. The redhead straightened himself as he saw Leon trailing behind the blond, whispering something in his ear.

"Fine, just don't grope me while we're working," Cloud said.

"Fine with me," the brunet said with a smug smile.

"Those two." Axel shook his head and scratched the back of his neck before exiting the storage room and closing the door behind him.

"Finally! Where have you two been!?" Tifa cried at the couple.

"Futzing around the back room, what else?" Axel interjected.

"Ugh, just get back to your positions."

"So," Reno drawled, "no money?"

"No money," Axel replied as he nodded. "Just Phoenix Downs and some Elixirs." The two brothers sat at a booth table and Axel had all of his "earnings" spread across the table. The shop used to be a small abandoned diner until Reno came in and had him, Axel, and his best buddy Rude clean up the place. Then Axel recruited his friends to be fellow employees. Who said being a handyman involved conventionality?

"Honestly, Axel, when are you ever going to need them?" Reno asked, exasperated at his younger brother's low asking price.

"Hey, I might…" He searched for the hypothetical situation. "I might fall into some terrible pneumonia and might have to have these—hey, don't give me that look, it'll happen one day."

"Are you planning to mooch off me for the rest of your life? What about when you, I, I don't know—start a family, a life, retirement?" Reno slid his hand down his face, as if trying to find Axel a better well-off person, only to be very disappointed. "What do you think this is, Two and a Half Men? Are you Alan and I, Charl—an-anyways; all you receive are gifts. Not wage, not earnings, gifts."

"Yo, it's enough for me," Axel defended, munching on a previous job's "gift."

"That's because all you take on are small jobs," Sora piped in, sliding next to Axel on the bench table and grabbing a piece.

"Oh yeah? What does everyone else do?" the redhead asked, looking to Riku and Kairi, who were at the bar.

"Tour guide for the city," Sora said.

"Flower shop attendee," Kairi declared.

"Nude model for a married women's art club," Riku stated.

"Wa-wa-wait, 'nude'?' Sora reiterated. "I thought you wore your underwear!"

"They said they'd pay me extra if I took 'em off. " Riku shrugged. "What's got you all hot and bothered?"

"Nothing," Sora said quickly. "I just thought you'd tell your best friend, at least."

The two Vier brothers looked at each other and Reno shrugged. "Anyways," he said, changing the subject and getting up from the booth, "I got an e-mail for you, Axel. A prospective client, possibly."

"Fingers crossed that it doesn't involve hard labor," Axel laughed.

"Lazy," Reno commented, accessing his computer.

"Does my sharing of your household bother you that much?" Axel snickered.

"Yo, what if I want a girl over and instead I got my kid brother hanging out being a lump on my couch?" the older Vier brother asked. "Ah, here it is. Hm," Reno pursed his lips in thought as he read the e-mail, "Roxas Melchiorre—I think that's Italian—says: 'I want to talk to you, Axel.' Hm. That's a strange request."

"Well, if it's anything Axel can do well, it's talk," Riku said.

"And talk," Sora added.

"And talk," Kairi also included.

Axel responded to them all with an immature silly face in their direction: his eyes crossed, tongue out, and extended hand with his thumb on his nose. He turned back to the older Vier. "Did he give his address and time when he would like to converse about such ambiguous and mysterious matters?"

"Did you read a SAT book recently or something?" the brother asked, giving Axel an unamused look. "I mean, how else could you've learned words like that?"

"Are you calling me uneducated?" Axel snipped.

"He's calling you stupid, stupid," Riku snickered.

"Says the kid who stands naked for like, two hours for old women." Axel made a face, pointing to his tongue. "Tell me where the smarts are."

"Hey, Riku's plenty smart!" Sora defended, resting his hands on both of his best friend's shoulders. "He actually makes money and is independent." Riku smirked proudly at the praise.

The younger redhead stared hard at the two friends before snapping his head to his brother.

"So, the address?"

I feel so awkward, Axel thought, anxiously adjusting his tie. When he learned this Roxas was a boy (as if anyone knew is "Roxas" was a male or female name) and he was the son of the CEO of Mercury Corp., Axel felt the need to seem professional, so he got a suit. Heck, he even got flowers. But, for all Axel knew, this privileged rich kid could just be sheltered by the outside world and knew nothing of it. Roxas could have called him to ask him about the wonders of being a handyman or an average citizen that converses among the ordinary. Or maybe Axel was just stereotyping, but he wouldn't rule out the possibility.

"Wait, what am I doing with these?" he asked himself, looking at the bouquet incredulously. He was about to throw them away at a nearby trashcan, only to have his arm stopped mid-toss.

"Oh, hey, what're you doing?" A blond boy a few years younger than Axel took the flowers from his grasp. "Come on, throwing away such beautiful flowers. That's such a waste."

Wow, Axel thought, those flowers seem to kinda suit him. As the redhead gazed absent-mindedly at the flower-loving blond, the boy's chuckle knocked him out of his musings.

"I suppose you'd be glad to know I didn't hire you for your philosophical and meaningful reveries." Axel also noted that his smile was kinda nice, too.

"W-wait. You're Roxas Melchiorre?" Axel asked, pointing a weak finger at the blond.

"And that bewildered expression tells me you are Mr. Vier," Roxas said, amused at the redhead's confusion by mimicking his actions. "Won't you come in?" He opened the door and stepped aside to leave Axel room.

"Oh, uhm, sure." Axel bowed his head slightly in thanks before awkwardly stepping in. Looking around, Axel really couldn't say the apartment was exactly luxurious or fancy. It seemed pretty modest, but too big for one guy. He could have a girlfriend, Axel thought.

"Hold on, I'll get a vase for these," Roxas excused himself, walking into the kitchen.

"This is an awfully clean house, even for two people," Axel murmured to himself. He caught sight of a picture in a decorative and unnecessarily intricate frame, as if someone specially picked out that frame for that picture, on top of the TV stand. The redhead picked up the frame; it was Roxas smiling with a pretty young blonde girl next to him. There was another blond in the background, trying to create an optical illusion by being in the far background and seeming to "stand" on Roxas's shoulders and flexing. There were other pictures along the TV stand, possibly family members and friends.

"Okay, Mr. Vier…" Roxas came into the room and saw Axel gazing at the flamboyantly-framed photo.

Axel looked back to Roxas and showed the photograph to Roxas. "Uh, girlfriend?"

The blond shook his head. "Twin sister."

"Hm." Axel was surprised and looked back. "Now that you mention it… But, your place is awful big for a bachelor like yourself." Axel quickly covered his throat. "S-sorry that-that I'm prying…"

Roxas chuckled and motioned his hands. "It's alright. You're… just that kind of guy, right? Why am I to change who you are? And about my place, well, my sister's name is Namine and we lived together in this house until she moved. She was given almost a full scholarship to this really great college and here was too far away, so," Roxas shrugged, "she left. But, Namine told me not to move out; she was going to visit and she needed a room to herself. Now, it's a room for my friends to crash in, various family members to sleep in when they visit, but often, I feel that this apartment is just a little too big for little old me." Roxas smiled reluctantly and chuckled. "Anything else you want to know?"

"Uh, just one more thing." Axel held up a finger. "You said you wanted to talk to me. What-what about?"

"Right," the blond drawled. He motioned to the couch. "Won't you sit down?"

"Okay, sure." Axel looked back and set himself down on the couch. "So, uhm…" He drummed his fingers on his thighs as Roxas sat down next to him. He flinched and yelped when the blond flopped his head down on his lap. His face looked really solemn as he stared back at Axel.

"Mr. Vier—"

"Axel, if you please."

"Axel," Roxas corrected himself. "You know, I really don't think I should work so hard to live up to my family's, my company's, my school's—to everyone's expectations. I'm Roxas Melchiorre, not…" He pressed the bottom of his palms to his eyes, "Superman. And, I don't know, I'm finding myself just stopping and thinking: am I making the right choice? Will I happy with what I'm working for?"

Oh… I get it, Axel thought. When he said he wanted to talk to me, he wanted to talk and for me to listen. These are probably things he just can't say to just anyone; he builds up this façade of sophistication and… business. Can't show weakness in that world, right? Axel smiled. Poor kid.

"Ah…" Roxas looked embarrassed. "So-sorry. Can… May I continue?"

"Oh, ah, sure! Yeah." The redhead smiled at the blond below him. "This is my specialty, after all."

"And I know what you're thinking." Roxas sat up and stared hard at Axel. "'Roxas, don't you have all these friends to tell all this to? Why complain to me, a stranger?' Well, you know—"

"I don't think that. I-I can't say I know how you feel or completely understand since," he laughed, "I'm a second-rate handyman working in my brother's company for a meager wage with a pretty sub-par education. And that's not exactly how your life is. But," he said suddenly, "I can understand why you're not going to your friends. You're the one people rely on, right? You might not exactly lead in everything, but you're really respected and looked up to and relied upon… And you don't want to let everyone down if they find out you're feeling the pressure."

"And if I might add in a personal opinion, I have to say if I were your friends, your family, I'd be proud of you, but I'd want you to open up more." He placed a hand on Roxas's head. "It's hard to tell what you're thinking. But I think you should talk to them about these kinds of things—"

Roxas snapped out of his daze after Axel's flattering observation. "But that's shameful!" he interjected.

"C'mon, I bet they'd like you better for it if they find out that you are, indeed, human." Axel cracked a smile and so did Roxas, who turned away blushing lightly.

Axel casually glanced at his watch, and so did Roxas. "Wow. It's already 9 pm. What time did I get here again?" he laughed.

"N-nine pm!?" Roxas exclaimed, bolting upright and out of Axel's lap. "We-we agreed to stop at eight!"

"Is… is that a problem, Roxas?" the redhead asked, getting up and catching his jacket Roxas threw to him. "Could you not stand me for another hour?" he joked. "I mean, the conversation was just getting interesting."

"No, no! I didn't want to take up all of your time, that's all. You're busy with work, right?" the blond asked, fixing his wrinkled clothing. "Sorry."

"'M not as busy as you think," Axel muttered reluctantly. "But, it can't be helped. Your time is more precious than mine." As he stepped out of the door Roxas opened for him, he smiled and said, "It was nice meeting you and talking with you, Roxas."

"Mm, same," Roxas murmured from inside the house. "I must thank you. After talking with you, I feel a lot better. It feels as though a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders, you know?"

"Hey, hey, it's no problem," Axel dismissed. "I enjoyed listening; it was my pleasure. Call me again anytime you need me."

Roxas hesitated, but then he asked with a half-smile, "It's okay if I pay you via bank transfer, right?"

"Uh, sure, but you don't—"

"And this was… only for today. Goodbye, Axel." And Roxas shut the door.

"What-?" Axel was confused. "We-we were just speaking so intimately and now it's just over? Like that?" Axel let out a tiny whine before turning.

You know, Axel thought as he left the apartment complex, I feel kind of let down. Maybe because Roxas probably felt that I only listened because I was paid to. But... I found that time very valuable. He scratched his head. I also kind of wanted to see him again.

"I'm marching my band out… I'm beating my drum," Reno hummed, pulling out his keys to lock up the building for the night. He stopped, though, when he heard a 'ding'. "What was that?"

"I think it was your computer," Rude replied, leaning against the door.

"Oh," he said, "did I forget to turn it off?" He looked at the screen to see what caused the noise. He took a large sip of his Coke while he clicked his way through. Then, there was choking, then a splash.

Rude ran over to inspect his friend. "What happened?" he asked. Reno was coughing with his sleeve over his nose as he staggered away from his computer.

"I," the redhead coughed, "I think I just chortled Coke through my nose."

"What for?" his best friend asked incredulously.

"Well, j-just look at this!" He pointed to the computer screen. "You see this!?..."

A/N: A lot of people write Axel as this some bad-ass tough guy that plays by his own rules. You know, he wears leather, has-ugh-gauged ears, & listens to... Linkin Park. But-but why can't Axel be a nice guy that doesn't wear an insane & annoying amount of black & chains, huh? ; A; You know, an average Joe that had a rebellious phase. You gotta grow out of black one day, kids.

Or maybe because this story was based off of Yamato Nase's "Mr. Convenience". It's like, the only one of her mangas that I actually read over & over again. XD Pretty cute, I suggest you go legally download it since it's not licensed in English anywhere. Then that'd be called stealing.

As if I need to ask you to review. c: