hello! this is the first fanfic that I have ever written. I took a lot of influence from stories and fanfics that I loved from this side and tried to put my own twist on it. I hope yall enjoy it and are able to give me constructive feedback to my future chapters better! thank you in advance fellow readers!

Chapter 1: Secret Authors

Book in hand, Roxas made his way home after a long day at work. The blazing sun at 5 pm was not helping his case as it caused him to sweat through his office attire. He untucked his shirt and made his collar hang loosely from his neck to get any form of cool air in to make his walk from walk to home more bearable. The most annoying part of it all for him was removing the round spectacles that made people call him the blond Harry Potter, to wipe his sweat dripping from his forehead. Internally, he was cursing the gods above for giving him such a god awful time after a long day of dealing with bullshit from his co-workers and the amount of work he had. He just wanted to get home in one piece, without drowning in his own sweat. Then a familiar car pulled up beside him, it was his best friend from work, Sora. He rolled down the window and his brown-haired friend called out to him.

"Yo Rox! Need a lift?"

He looked at the back of the car and saw three other people sitting there. People from his work that he hated. Terra, Larxene and Namine. To be fair, he hated everyone there besides Sora so it wasn't fair to say it was only them. As Sora offered Roxas a lift, you can see Larxene roll her eyes, Terra sighing in disappointment and Namine just keeping quiet. He got the message. Not like he wanted to be in an enclosed space with them anyways.

"I'll pass. Thanks for the offer anyways."

They exchanged their goodbyes and Roxas continued on till he got home. Once arriving home to his two-story home, he took off his shoes and tore off every single piece of clothing off except his underwear. Since he is the only living in the house, he didn't see a problem prancing around his house nearly butt-naked. Okay, maybe a small problem. The reason he never stripped butt naked in his home is due to one time where he caught the neighbour sneaking some pictures of him after he showered. Apparently, she was obsessed with him and it freaked him the hell out. After that, he never opened his curtains and the only form of sunlight he ever got is when he goes outside or has a smoke on his balcony. Which coincidentally was facing stalker girl's house. That girl lived with her sisters and one mother but never even got interested to know their names after living here for years. Roxas went to take a shower to cool down his body after having to walk through what he thought was Destiny Island's equivalent to a drought. Summer was a pain and he never understood why people enjoyed this scorching heat. The shower was well needed after the kind of day he had. Getting verbally analled by his boss for something his underlings did and getting judged for apparently scolding a customer on the phone when the customer was his friend, Axel, prank calling him at work to try to cheer him up. Axel was a weird one. Red spiky hair dude that has his own sense of humour and is a pain to hang out with. But it is still one of Roxas's closest friends and is one of the people he trusts with his secrets. After getting out of the shower, the doorbell rang and Roxas quickly put on a random shirt he picked out of his closet without looking and his sweatpants and made his way to the door. It was Axel.

"Hey Rox. You up for dinner?"

"Can I really say no when you are already here?"

"Exactly."

Yup, that was Axel for you.

"I'm too lazy to change so let's not go anywhere that requires me too, please."

"We can just get some tacos. Nice shirt by the way. Never seen you wear it before."

He didn't even know what shirt he put on so he looked down and noticed it was a 'My Chemical Romance' band T-shirt.

"I'm going to change the shirt. This isn't mine."

"Then whose is it? That person has good taste."

Roxas didn't make eye contact and just looked down at the ground. Axel knew who it was.

"Oh sorry. I didn't know."

"Give me five minutes."

Axel stepped into the house while Roxas went up to change. Axel maybe an insensitive asshole at times, but he knew what are lines set by people and never crosses them intentionally. After changing, the two took Axel's car and went into town to Axel's favourite Taco place, Squall's Taco. It was a pretty small place at the corner of where Roxas works at but people rarely visit it due to the other options there. Not for them. They loved it there as the food and people working there are the nicest people in the world. When they entered, they were greeted by loud hellos and where've you been by the staff. They used to come here every day till Roxas became extremely busy with his work and other projects. They both sat at their usual seats at the corner near the kitchen door and placed their ass down with a huge sigh.

"Been awhile, right Rox?

"Yeah, it has been. I need a break from my busy schedule. Thanks for bringing me out even though this will put him behind schedule."

"You'll live."

They both had a good laugh before the waitress gave them their food. They didn't need to order and everyone knows what they are going to order.

"Two large tacos with coke and a side of potato salad for Roxas. Two large tacos, extra spicy with sprite and fried for Axel. Enjoy boys."

The waitress was Aerith. One of the bosses wife. She has been working here for years now and knows Roxas and Axel as they were one of the first few customers.

"Thanks, madam. Will do"

Roxas replied with a smile before both he and Axel started on their meal. They talked about their lives and Roxas scolded him for the prank call which Axel apologised for, of course. They had a nice long conversation till topic went to his other work.

"So Roxas, how's the book going? Going to get another best seller?"

Roxas sank back down on his chair.

"I'm not sure I can even complete it. I'm stuck. Most of my stories are the same. I have no more interest in writing anymore."

Axel was actually shocked by it. Roxas was a best selling Novelist which received critical acclaim from the public on his views on sensitive topics and opening the world's eyes to the issues that normal people face. But there was one catch. Nobody knows it is Roxas. He went by an alias. Jes.

"Wait why? I thought you loved writing?"

"At first, it was just a way to help me get my feelings out and after a while, I began to love it. But now. I don't have any more motivation to anymore."

Roxas earn quite a large sum of money from his novels and actually had a large following awaiting his next one. But he could never see the bright side and is very negative about everything. Even with the money, he earned from the novels, he still chose to work a normal day job in case something like this happened where he lost the interest to write and needed a backup. So he also rose up the ranks in his outsource programming company to ensure that he had a future. As you can tell, Roxas is a workaholic and can't live without keeping himself busy, even though he hates being busy. It was a contradiction he had to live with.

Axel scratched his head and he thought of ways to help Roxas but in the end, he decided that whatever Roxas chose, he would support it. It was the only way he could help. They finished up their food and Axel send him home. They played rock music which Roxas dislikes while Axel was basically headbanging while driving.

"You are going to get us killed Axel."

Roxas said emotionless

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

"What doesn't kill you makes you crippled."

Roxas shot back and they had their usual back and forth of insults till Axel became super serious.

"Hey, Roxas. Are you going tomorrow?"

The atmosphere died. It was cold and silent for a solid minute as the music switched to some slow and emotional song.

"I don't think I can handle it yet."

"Alright. I'm not going to force you. But she would love to see you again."

"The dead can't see, Axel."

Roxas was mad. Not at Axel, but at himself and life in general.

"Sorry, Axel. I'm really not ready yet."

They arrived at Roxas's place and they went their separate ways. Roxas slowly made his way back into the house. It was quiet and suffocating. He went up to his room and grab his medication before heading down once more to grab some water in the dining room. He needed it after the day he had today. He pops the pill and started to feel the numbness in his body which helped kept him sane during the toughest days. He decided he was not going to write anymore and went straight to bed.

"Roxas! I need your help with this report!"

Roxas just entered the building and already someone needs something from him. He walked over to his table and there were the people there.

"Yes, what do you want?"

It was Sora and Namine. Apparently, waiting for him to arrive at work.

"We need help with this report. We have a lot of things that we need to do for our clients and no extra hands. Do you mind?"

If it wasn't for Sora, he would have downright declined. He accepted what Sora asked for but with a twist. He had to explain it to Namine since she was new and needed to get up to speed about stuff like this. Everyone else is busy doing something else while Roxas's client was done with the day before. Great. Leaving me with someone else. Thanks, Sora.

Namine sat right next to him silent. She worked her for almost a month and he has never heard her voice. Not even once. And they sat like two tables apart. He was beginning to think she was a mute. After doing everything and slowly explaining stuff to her, all she did was nod when she understood and pointed at the part she didn't understand about the report. She learned fast and was able to do the second report on her own, a few mistakes here and there but nothing major. Come to think of it, it was their first interaction with each other and Roxas took a good look at her. Blond girl with hair slightly longer than shoulder length, well dressed in a nice white office attire and the same round specs that Roxas wears. She was actually really attractive to him. After the report was done, Namine stood back up and moved back to her seat. Not before saying a very soft 'Thank you' which Roxas caught. She has a really nice voice as well. Work went on as usual with clients calling in for some outsource work and Roxas negotiating with them on what they can offer and a lot of other stuff. As the day ended, Roxas got a call on his phone. It was from Zexion. His agent for Jes.

"Hey, Jes. How's the latest novel coming?"

He turned and looked around while he left the office to make sure nobody was nearby before responding.

"Novel might be slightly delayed. No creative energy these few days."

"No problem. Anyways I called you today to offer you something."

He seems unusually formal today. Usually, he and Roxas are pretty chill and talked like as if they were friends but today was different.

"Yeah sure. What's up Zex? You seemed unusually formal today."

"Don't mind me. It's just the praying thing today kinda tired me out."

Roxas licked his dried lips.

"Look I'm sorry I didn't go today, it just that-"

"No no. Don't worry about it. Axel told me about it."

Roxas heaved a sigh of relieve. He didn't have to explain once more how he wasn't ready to visit her family yet. Xion. Roxas's late girlfriend who died on their anniversary as they were about to go out. When Roxas heard the news, he was sent into shock and was placed under medication after he could not get over her death.

"So what did you want to offer?"

"I know its hard for you to juggle your workload now and I'm not asking you to quit your day job. I'm offering someone to be your assistant."

Roxas was confused. An assistant? If he had an assistant then his identity will be on the line.

"The name is Chris. The only known thing about this person. Have you heard of him?"

Chris. Similar to Roxas, he is an author only known by name. No one has seen or heard of him besides what he writes. The difference is the genre and writing style. Roxas is more on down to earth and having very relatable characters and narratives. Chris is known for well, everything else. Ranging from Fantasy, War and even Erotica. Which made him famous amongst the community of readers. Both of them were placed on the same level and Roxas could not think of why he would want to be an assistant when Chris himself is doing so well so he asked Zexion.

"Apparently, he wants to learn from you as he too has no creative juices following through. After his last book flopped trying to do your genre, it kind of hit him hard. People thought it was insensitive and offensive so he asked if he could work with you to help broaden his horizon or something like that."

"But my identity."

"His identity is also on the line. It's basically both of you have equal amounts of shit on each other."

I could use more time offs. Ah, fuck it why not.

Roxas thought to himself and told Zexion that he was on board. Zexion was really happy. Roxas assumed the reason why Zexion is so happy about it is due to the fact it might help his mental state. Zexion and Axel are the two he trust to know his secrets and what he is going through. They wish the best for him and he is very grateful for it.

"You prefer to meet at your place or some cafe?"

"I prefer the comfort of my own home."

The plans were set and they will be at his house in an hour or two. This was enough time for Roxas to get home and prepare dinner for the three of them. Lucky for them, he loved to cook when he wasn't tired. He got home and started to cook his favourite dishes. Good old steak with some fries and butter rice with mixed vegetables thrown on the side. After the cooking was done, the doorbell rang and Roxas went to open it.

"Hey, Zexion. Where's Chris?"

"Apparently tied up at work. He is on the way now."

So Zexion made himself comfortable and Roxas could hear his stomach growl as he smelled the food.

"Shit man. It's been long since I ate your cooking."

They sat in the living room and chit chatted while they waited for Chris to arrive. Roxas asked how he got to know Chris.

"His agent knows me. The agent is Riku and he asked me if Jes was looking for an understudy. I said an assistant will be better and we just discussed plans after. I haven't met Chris personally."

Make sense. People like us don't do business and let the agents do it for us.

Soon the doorbell rang. This must be Chris. Roxas went up to do the and opened it. It was Namine. Eyes opened wide when she saw him.

"Namine? What are you doing here and how did you get my address?"

Zexion walked up behind Roxas.

"Ah, you must be Chris. I thought you were a dude."

Namine nodded.

Roxas was shocked. Namine is Chris.