Author's Note: Yeah. YEAH. AkuRoku's back. :D

Countdown to Kingdom Hearts 3 starts now, my dolls. Also this is your opportunity to unsubscribe if you're not into this anymore and forgot you were following me. But if you are still reading, love and kisses and enjoy!

Oh PS this starts out AkuDemy, but rest assured it's really AkuRoku, promise. :3

It was the first day of student teaching. Axel was nervous and uncomfortable in brand-new professional clothing, and he wasn't sure what to do with himself—the real teacher was too focused on getting the year started off right to give very detailed instructions to his student teacher. As each bell rang, the class rosters filled with endless names brought streams of little bright-eyed cherubs and devils. Which are which? Oh, he'd know soon enough. The recently-turned-twenty-one-year-old did the only job he'd been given, for now—he stapled syllabuses quickly, struggled to put names with faces, smiled confidently as he introduced himself to each class when the cooperating teacher told him to, and wondered why the hell he'd ever picked this profession.

"Hello class. I'm Mr. Michaels. I'll be your student teacher for this semester. Welcome to the seventh grade…" By fourth period, he was already getting tired of his own speech. Not to mention overwhelmed. A hundred and fifty-seven students—the prospect was intimidating, but somehow not quite real until you were halfway through a hundred and fifty-seven faces, and they were already all blending together, you couldn't tell one from another, and you had sixty-eight more faces to see yet.

That was when he saw him. Twelve years old, natural golden-blond hair, enormous blue eyes, so innocent and happy and perfect—Roxas Martin. Axel learned that name by heart in an instant, and never once forgot it.

He was the cutest little seventh grader Axel had ever seen.

That evening, the college senior collapsed on the ratty old couch in his cheap apartment, utterly drained from a nerve-wracking day and in mental shut-down from the amount of work he was going to have to do as a student teacher. He only opened his eyes when a heavy weight plopped down beside him and thin fingers began running through his hair.

"So…how was the first day of school?" Demyx's voice was gentle and smiling. Axel just groaned in response, reaching for his boyfriend and wrapping needy arms around his waist. Chuckling, Demyx allowed himself to be pulled down onto Axel's chest. "Need a little…re-energizing?" The sandy-blond softly asked, pressing slightly moist lips to Axel's jaw line.

Sighing heavily, Axel groaned again. "I wish…but I really shouldn't, babe. I have to be up so early...ugh, it's hell."

Demyx made a small, sympathetic sound. "Oh, those six a.m. mornings. Better get used to them; you'll be living like this for the next forty years, after all."

"I'm so glad you're here," Axel all but growled, sarcastically. "You're such a comfort to me in my suffering. You're my fucking angel, Demyx, I swear."

A lopsided grin and a one-shouldered shrug accompanied the answer. "Not fucking at the moment though." Axel snorted. Demyx changed the subject. "So, what are the good parts so far?" He poked once at Axel's chest. "You know everything will seem better if you focus on the good things."

Rolling his eyes back in thought, Axel hummed. "Well, my co-op is nice guy, although kinda disorganized…and I'm worried he's gonna just take a semester-long siesta on me while I bust my ass doing his job without getting paid like he still will…"

Demyx cut in, tutting, "Good things, sweetheart, good things. You're complaining."

Axel sighed again. "Right…well, the material in their curriculum is no sweat, and I even have that unit I planned for class last year on geology that my co-op says I can use for that section of the semester…you know, when we do earth science." Demyx hummed and nodded encouragingly. "And," Axel continued, the slightest smile beginning to twitch his lips upward, "the kids are cute. I mean…there's so many of them I don't know if I'll ever learn their names, but they seem like pretty good students on the whole, and some of them are just so adorable."

Demyx tugged teasingly at a strand of red hair. "I thought you didn't think kids were cute. Thought you were pissed you had to student teach at a middle school? 'Brats,' isn't that what you called them?"

Axel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, maybe I'll make an exception or two. Especially this one kid…Dem, if he didn't have a perfectly nice family already, I'd be trying to adopt him. Screw that, I might try anyway. I wanna keep him." A silly grin had spread all over Axel's face, much to his boyfriend's amusement.

"Huh…didn't think we'd have to have this discussion, but…Axel." Demyx's serious expression was already half cracked with humor. "I'm not ready to have children with you."

Both students burst into laughter at this, and when they had finally calmed down somewhat and green eyes met watery aqua-blue with a smile, they both decided to forgo further discussion. Instead, Demyx shifted toward Axel's face, which was lifting to meet him, and they kissed softly, lips moving gently, still smiling a little.

And then the smiles faded, and the breathing got heavier, and wet tongues collided, and hands started moving. But they kept the touches above the belt, allowing them to make out heatedly for a few minutes and then reluctantly stop because Axel had dinner to eat and materials to prepare for tomorrow and rosters to memorize as best he could, trying and trying to learn names.

He had a hundred and fifty-six to go.

~o~

Two weeks later, Mr. Axel Michaels was the man in charge of every session of seventh grade science, his co-op having disappeared as feared, and the students began coming to him with questions.

"Mr. Michaels, what are we doing today?"

"Mr. Michaels, I wasn't here yesterday. What did I miss? Did we have homework?"

"Mr. Michaels, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, what are we gonna be doing in class?"

"Hey Mr. Michaels, I don't get this!"

Axel almost started hating his own last name.

And then one day Roxas came to see him during study hall.

"Mr. Michaels, I couldn't figure out number five in the homework. Can you show me?"

Smiling and melting like a popsicle in an oven, Axel sat the boy down and began to carefully instruct him, bending over his school desk and pointing at sections of text. And since he knew the subject so well—had to, after all, he wrote the lessons on it—his eyes found lots of time to stray sideways, glancing at the adorable child who frowned in concentration. Roxas was the cutest thing that ever lived.

~o~

After the first month, Demyx had a comment to make.

"Christ Axel, the way you talk about this Roxas kid every day makes me wonder if you really have more than a hundred students. You sure you're not tutoring just one kid?"

Green eyes only rolled. "I don't talk about Roxas that much."

Demyx raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah? Maybe you don't realize it, but I swear to God, Axel, if I didn't have firsthand information to the contrary, I'd think you were a pervert who went in for twelve-year-olds."

That got Axel's attention. He didn't really talk about Roxas that much…did he? And he certainly didn't look at him like that. Oh, no way in hell. That was a line Axel was never, ever going to cross.

Sure, there were teachers who did. It showed up in the news from time to time, and Axel had always thought it was sick. When they had studied the ethics of education in one of his classes, the professor had taken plenty of time to thoroughly regale the young, would-be teachers with the evils of this particular error. What was more, everyone made a very big deal about how surprisingly easy it was to slip into this mistake without realizing it.

Yeah, maybe for some people. But not me…I just can't even imagine looking at a kid that way.

That had been Axel's feeling. That was his feeling even now, and it shocked him to the core to realize that maybe he was paying a bit more attention to this boy than he should…maybe he was playing with that line.

It took him a week to decide that he wasn't—a mentally stressful hell that lasted seven long, self-scrutinizing days. After that, he felt more confident. He had decided that he didn't look at Roxas like that. He didn't…want him. He only noticed the boy's potential, his sweet personality. He only thought that someday, when Roxas was all grown up, he was going to be a fine young man. And…the girl he married one day would be lucky. Very, very lucky.

But that was different from wanting the boy for himself. It wasn't like that.

And anyway, he had Demyx. And he was happy with Demyx—crazy about him, even. Demyx was…his sunshine. He had this way of making things okay. And even though it was a secret—they were only roommates, and publicly that was all they'd ever be, for the sake of Axel's career—somehow it didn't bother him to hide his sexuality. He credited Demyx with that.

If Roxas was maybe a little bit of a ray of sunshine too, it was a different kind of light. It was more of a "My job is going okay," feeling than "My life is going okay."

Yeah. That's it.

~o~

Axel handed the class back over to its paid teacher a few days before his last day, then spent his final days at the school grading science fair projects and finalizing the semester's grades. There was about a month left of middle school before summer vacation, during which his co-op would finally earn his paycheck a little, and Axel would desperately work as a day-to-day substitute as much as possible, putting his brand-new teacher's license to good use. Funds were tight after earning nothing for student teaching all year.

It was Friday, his last day, and Axel had finished up almost everything except giving grades back in all the classes. Demyx had promised a special celebration that night, but he wouldn't tell Axel what. He had his suspicions though.

Before that, however, it was time to bid one hundred and fifty-nine faces goodbye—two had moved into the district during the year. He knew every single one, and none of them looked the same anymore. Some had made him want to smash things, and some had made him feel like a failure, and some had made him smile or laugh, and some had made him feel like he was born to do this job, and one was his absolute favorite.

But Axel didn't have favorites. No way. He was a fair teacher. His co-op even said so.

No, he didn't have favorites…but Roxas was still his favorite.

Each class had made him a thank you card, signed by all of them, sweetly thanking him for being "the best student teacher ever." Axel was not going to cry. He smiled and wished them all well.

And he read the cards on the way out. And Roxas had written that Mr. Michaels was the best teacher he'd ever had.

Axel got some dust in his eyes on the way home or something. Yeah. Dust. That's what this is.

~o~

Axel's mom, dad, and little sister Kairi couldn't stop taking pictures at graduation, and Demyx was in most of them—Axel's best friend, after all. Demyx's mom, big sister Larxene, and little sister Naminé took pictures too, and Axel was in most of them—Demyx's best friend, after all. The whole group of their many mutual friends hung out after the ceremony, taking pictures together with flowers and balloons declaring "Class of 1996!" and "Congrats!" and introducing family members and saying farewells.

Most of their friends lived in the dorms and had to get moved out, so they left first, while Axel and Demyx could hang around the longest. They weren't moving right away. They were keeping their current apartment at least for the summer. Axel was going to be a substitute teacher for the last month and a half of public school, mostly in the district where he had student-taught. Demyx was going to be practicing with his band. Then they'd both be working summer jobs to pay the bills, and hopefully Demyx's gigs at the local clubs would turn into a performing career and Axel would get a full-time teaching position by fall.

First, however, there were hugs and kisses and well-wishes and goodbyes to their friends and then goodbyes to their families, and endless, endless smiles for pictures.

By the time Axel and Demyx had seen their families off and were finally alone in their apartment again, they had no energy left for anything except collapsing on their couch.

"Dem…I need a beer."

"So get me one while you're up."

A pause. "I can't move."

"Ungh." Demyx could only agree.

A few minutes passed. "It's too fucking hot," Axel groaned.

"It's the regalia," Demyx agreed. There was a pause, then both young men began to strip off the flowing black nylon robes, tossing them aside and turning their attention to dress shirts and slacks and belts and shoes and ties. Demyx cranked the fan up and Axel grabbed two beers, and somewhere in the process…warm aqua eyes slid sideways to Axel in his white beater, then slid down and up again.

Taking a long swallow from his beer, Axel noticed. Smirking and setting down the half-empty bottle, he sidled up to the shorter blond with a little wink.

Voice low and standing close, Axel grinned down at his boyfriend. "Let me help you with that," he murmured, proceeding to slowly push Demyx's button-down shirt from his shoulders—not a task the young man needed any help with.

Demyx smiled slyly, his delicate fingers slipping under the skin-tight beater Axel wore. "You too. Arms up." Axel obeyed with a broad grin, allowing Demyx to strip his upper body. Then, as thin arms wound around his slightly-sweaty torso, Axel pounced.

Demyx tasted like beer, but Axel did too so he hardly noticed. What he did notice was the way the blond hummed softly and moved his tongue against Axel's.

When they parted, open mouths still so close, Demyx panted, "It's way too hot to be doing anything sexy."

"Yeah," Axel breathed in agreement, slipping his hands down Demyx's body and into his pants, stripping them away and leaving Demyx in his boxers.

Pretty soon, it was too late to argue. Demyx was stroking them both together and groaning as Axel mouthed the familiar sensitive spots on his neck and groped his ass.

"Ax…ah! How about…shower sex? At least?"

"Yeah okay," Axel breathed huskily. They stumbled to the bathroom, into the shower, and turned the water on temperate—not hot, not cold. Axel went down on his knees. Demyx's voice echoed off the tile walls, and the water ran in rivulets down their skin, making them both glisten.

When Demyx's legs were too weak to hold him up anymore, he slid down too, kneeling with Axel behind him. Before Axel pressed forward, he leaned over his boyfriend to whisper in his ear.

"Congratulations, bachelor of arts." His tongue traced the shell of Demyx's ear.

"Congratulations, bachelor of sciences." Demyx gasped, reaching behind himself to clasp Axel's hand tightly as the redhead pushed in, entering him slowly, carefully. It had been a while, after all. They'd both been busy.

And Axel was pretty damn sure that he had never been happier, and everything was perfect, and as long as he had Demyx, everything always would be.

~o~

More A/N:

This is actually one of the first fics I started writing, omg, like ten years ago. It sat on a shelf a lot, and it got a complete rewrite three times because so much time had passed that my writing style had significantly changed. But I always wanted to try a story that deals with the age difference (which I usually just ignored in my other fics) and I also wanted to go into a taboo relationship (in a not-PWP way) so this is the result! There will be no pedophilia in this story. However, there will be characters struggling with situations that could be interpreted that way (see above, we've already started) but no horribleness.

Really, this story ended up being a very realistic study of the sometimes-miserable process of growing up and how life changes us in ways we wouldn't have thought possible.

Weekly updates until KH3, assuming that KH3 doesn't move their release date AGAIN. :P