I had intended this to just be a random little fluffy one-shot I wrote while having writers block with a different Axel/Roxas story of mine, but i've decieded to continue it for a little longer! hope you like this one, please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own any Kingdom hearts characters

I learned a long time ago a lesson about love that would retain meaning and importance in my life for various reasons. The main reason, though, would always be that flaming red head with the bright emerald eyes, the one who would glance over at me when he thought I wasn't looking and just smile, the one who made my heart beat faster when it was just us too alone, the one I was unequivocally in love with.

His name was Axel. Just let that name sink in for a minute. It seems exotic and unique at first glance, and all glances after that, even though it's only four letters. Like Axel himself, the name has a sense of mysteriousness, almost an underlying feeling of dangerousness, just like Axel. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not really one to fall for the tall, dark, mysterious, and handsome men. In fact, I'm not really one to fall in love with men to begin with, but Axel was different. Axel was the butter to my bread, the sunshine to my day; he was the one that made my life enjoyable and added that much needed boost of happiness. It didn't matter to me that he was a guy; all that mattered was that I loved him, and if I was lucky, he loved me too.

But wait; let me jump back to reality for a second. Axel was most definitely not into me. He liked the whole blond hair blue eyes thing, but with someone who had curves and a nice rack. Sure, Axel could be a pig some of the time and was known far and wide as some sort of legendary sex fiend, but to me he was the Axel most people never got to see.

To me, Axel was the guy that had the biggest and happiest smile in the world, rivaled only by my hyperactive brunette cousin. Axel was the guy who could make me laugh no matter what, who could make the best French toast this side of the universe, and who's favorite way to kill time was watching Spanish soap operas without the subtitles and make up his own plot. He was also amazingly sweet and kind, but feared that any relationship he got into would get to serious to fast, which was why he was currently untaken. Axel had his darker side too, just like everyone else. He could rip you a new one in the blink of an eye if you insulted him, had a temper that could ignite into a forest fire after just a spark set him off, and was the biggest smart-ass I knew, but all those things made up the Axel I knew and loved. I had my good days and my bad days too, which was why I was always careful not to judge someone until I got to know them, my golden rule for life.

Axel and I were living together as roommates. We had been struggling with rent and student loans after college when we lived on our own so Axel had had the brilliant idea for us to move in together, innocently naïve to the fact that this made it harder on me not to snap on a daily basis. The way he would run around the apartment on Mondays, late for work as usual, with no shirt on and his hair all messy and chaotic, the way he insisted on cooking me French toast every Saturday morning, the way he would fall asleep when we were watching T.V. late at night and look so cute, with his feet propped up on my lap cause he was always insisted on stretching out on the only couch and was just so damn tall. Those were just a few of the things he did that drove me crazier than usual. Those, in their entirety, were all things that Axel did that drove me crazy in a good way, but there were also things that Axel did that made me want to shrivel up into a ball in the corner they made me hurt so much.

The way he talked about me to someone on the phone or a friend who was over when he didn't think I was listening made a pain in my heart grow stronger and hurt deeper. 'Oh yeah,' he'd say, shrugging off the question of who his roommate was. 'Just this friend, it's no big deal. I can't wait to get a place of my own.' Some times, when he talked like this, I wanted to burst out of my room and just tell him to fuck off then, if I was no big deal to him, if he wanted to leave so bad, he should just do it already, but I could never do that to Axel. That wasn't as bad, though, as what he did ever Friday night without fail. A different girl every time, normally a blond, with blue eyes, who was short and skinny and innocent looking. It was like staring in a mirror some nights when I saw them walk in, just instead of seeing myself as a guy I saw what I would look like as a girl. That, by far, was the most insulting thing about Axel's sex life. Was he trying to mock me, trying to make me feel hurt and angry all at the same time, or was he really that dense that he couldn't see the longing I had, even though it was buried deep down beneath the surface of my being, raising it's obvious head every now and again. Yet Axel still brought these girls home, and I could still hear them every night through our paper-thin walls. And in a weird way, these thin walls were what finally made the truth come out, because of something truly shocking I heard through the walls.

On that particular night I had heard them at it for a while, and my ipod had died so I had no way to protect my ears from those stomach-turning sounds. I flipped over away from Axel's room, a pillow over my head, hearing now how they were almost done. And that's when I heard my name.

"Nnn- Roxas!" It was none other than my wonderful Axel that cried out my name, and I was about to go see what he wanted when it finally hit me. They had been having sex, they were almost done, Axel shouted out my name, and then they were quiet. Oh. My. God. Axel had shouted out my name, while he was having sex, with a girl who looked just like me. My head was spinning as I quickly sat up in bed, trying to figure out if what I had heard was true, but then I heard them talking.

"Who's Roxas?" Her voice was tired and slurred, but I could still make it out.

"N-no one, it's n-not important." I had never heard Axel stutter in all our years of being friends.

"I think it is… I think he is." She paused. This girl, in a weird was, was different from all the others. She actually wanted to talk after sex, about Axel, not herself. "Why do you do this then, sleep around, when you're obviously pretty hung up in this Roxas fellow?"

"Just drop it… what's your name again?"

"It's Naminé, and fine, if you're going to let it eat away at you until you crack, then fine. I was just trying to help." I heard the bed move and the rustling of clothes.

"Hey, wait up, come on Naminé." I heard Axel get out of bed and pull on some clothing, but by the time he walked past my room to the doorway the girl was long gone. I heard him sigh and walk back towards his room, not even trying to go after her. I quickly lay back down, turning away from my door, trying to pretend I had been sleeping the whole time. Axel's steps were slow and heavy as he passed by my doorway, but when he stopped and I heard him turn back around my breath hitched in my throat as I sensed him standing in my doorway. "Roxas?" I stayed still and quiet, not wanting him to know I was awake and had heard everything that had happened. He let out another sigh and walked over, sitting down slowly and gently on the end of my bed.

"Roxas, are you awake?" There was still silence from my end of the bed. "Man… I don't think you understand how confused I am Roxas." I wanted to sit up and tell him that was a lie, I knew how he felt. "You're my best friend Rox, I shouldn't feel this way about you, but the weird thing is it just feels so natural." It was taking all my will power not to say anything, to not spring up and jump into his arms and tell him I loved him. He was whispering, and out of the corner of my eye I could see him sitting on the bed with his hands in his long hair, leaning forward and hunched over. "Roxas…" His voice was almost pleading with me, begging me to help him figure out his life, but I still couldn't move. I just didn't know the right words to tell him yet.

I couldn't see the tears running down his face, but I could hear the sniffling and one sad, quiet sob that escaped his beautiful lips. I had never had anyone care this much about me before, and the fact that it was Axel made it all the more unbelievable. Before I knew it, Axel got up and slowly walked out of my room after whispering goodnight to me. I didn't sleep that night. How could I, with all the thoughts in my head.

I knew the next day he would get up extra early and make me French toast, his silent apology for having a girl over the night before. I knew that I would have to pretend that I had never heard the things that Axel told me last night, but that was ok. Like usual, I knew we wouldn't say anything as we ate our breakfast, and I knew what casual words we would exchange would hold no true emotional value. However, I knew tomorrow would be different in a way too, because I knew that tomorrow the silence and the act of him making me breakfast would mean something different, all because of one simple fact. It was a fact about love I had learned a long time ago that always brought me back to Axel.

Love doesn't need words, but they're nice,

Love doesn't need action, but that's nice too.

Love is just a presence, you can't see it, hear it, or touch it,

But you always know it's there.

Hope you all liked it, please review and tell me what you think!