Ch. I A Rainy Game of Tag

"So Ax, what you gonna do over Christmas break?" Roxas asked, playing with the small brightly wrapped gift box in his hands. Axel scratched his head, thinking. "I dunno, probably lay on the couch and kill some Templar scum, I'm really loving Assassin's Creed III. Other than that, I might catch up on all the sleep I haven't been getting." He said, then snatched the present from Roxas' hands and took off. "Hey! Ax give that back, you know damn well that's Xion's Christmas gift," he started "Axel, get your scrawny ass back here!" Roxas yelled before taking off after him.

Xion, having heard the commotion, chased after her gift as well. The boys had managed to get out of her sight when she heard quite the large thud. She hurried forward to find Roxas holding his sides laughing and asked what happened. "The oaf tripped over his shoelaces!" He said, walking away, gift in hand. Xion walked over to where Axel was sitting in the dirt, tying his shoes. "Hey, you okay?" she asked, crouching in front of him. He nodded, then smiled. "Ya, it's not like it hasn't happened before. But shouldn't you be getting out of the rain? You might catch a cold or something." He said, finishing his shoes. He looked up and caught her gaze, and couldn't help but admire how beautiful they were. "I'm not a flower Axel, I won't die in the cold. However I do need to get to class, so I'll catch you later!" She said after checking her watch, running off to avoid being late.

Axel stands up and brushes himself off, I know better, she's his girlfriend. He thinks as he walks off the school's campus. I can know better all I want, I can't stop it. There is no way I can deal right now. He walked home, and flopped down on his bed. "Why did this have to happen? She had to be my best friend's girlfriend?!" He said to himself before rolling over and passing out.

He woke up to someone knocking on the door, he rolled over and checked the clock: 3:27 p.m. He reluctantly crawled out of bed, ran his fingers through his hair and grapped an Oreo before answering the door. He pulled the door open, Oreo in mouth, and then wandered off. His usual 'come in' to his friends. He went back to the kitchen and grapped the Oreo package and a can of grape soda before going to meet his guest in the living room.

"So how was your day? You make it to class? Oreo?" He said, holding out the package and lazily looking over to the loveseat. "It was good enough. No, silly, I was five minutes late, and thank-you!" Xion said, happily taking a handful of Oreos. Smiling as she starting pulling them apart. Axel chuckled, "Milk's in the fridge, as always. Help yourself." He offered, knowing that she was about to ask. She giggled and shook her head before jumping up and walking to the kitchen. Her smile, is perfect. He thought, a grin on his face. She came trotting back into the living room with a glass of milk and sat it down. He looked over at her just in time to catch the seriousness in her expression as she asked, "You weren't in English today, what's wrong? Did something happen?" He shook his head, "Nothing happened, I just didn't feel like sticking around for an hour of 'dead guys wrote this 101.'" He said, however she knew him well enough to ignore what he said, his facial expression was pained, something was wrong. "Axel, you can tell me anything, what's wrong?"