Knapps Model of Relationship Development

Uh... *points to Kingdom Hearts*... that's not mine

:3 )~~~

Initiating: Hey there hot stuff!

Roxas tended to be anti-social. Not that he didn't have friends, because he happened to have quite a few. More than most people would assume, even, considering his quiet and reserved outward appearance. He never liked meeting new people, mostly because it took a while for him to warm up to people and in the mean time they would assume he was purposely being cold and stand-offish and would leave.

It was curious then, that Roxas found himself at the local bar, which could be considered a highly sociable place. Though to be fair he wasn't there of his own freewill. No, the blonde had been "dragged" there by his best friend Hayner who only had to pout while reminding him that "Today's my birthday dude, I wanna celebrate with my bestie!", to get him to agree.

But alas Hayners' a bitch and left him at the first sight of a hot slut who walked by.

And that is how Roxas found himself drinking, alone, at a bar. Vaguely he noted movement out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he glanced to his right, eyes widening.

It wasn't the mans height, nor his bold red hair that shocked Roxas. No, sadly it wasn't the tattoos under his eyes or the green eyes themselves that caused it either. It was the fact that the man was staring straight at him with a grin that could only spell disaster and a mischievous glint to his gaze.

"Would you touch me so I can tell my friends I've been touched by an angel?"

Really? Was he for real?

When after a few minutes Roxas hadn't responded the man decided to try again.

"Was you father an alien? Because there's nothing else like you on Earth!"

Well… that was… original.

When Roxas failed to answer again, the man's smile faltered, and the look in his eyes turned downcast.

Now, maybe it was the alcohol running through his system from his several drinks giving him courage, or maybe he was just feeling sorry for the man who had to resort to such horrendous pickup line in order to get his attention, but Roxas found himself replying, and flirting.

And at the end of the night, Roxas left the bar with a phone number and a date for next Friday.

Experimenting: What's your favorite color?

Friday took forever in getting here. Roxas was extremely nervous about this date. In the past he had never dated much, a month with someone here, two with someone there, but nothing stuck. Added to that was the simple fact that the night he met Axel, for that was the man's name, was hazy at best. He only really remembered that after talking for a bit he had taken a shine to the older man.

The blonde spent Friday morning out shopping for a new outfit to wear, and by the time he had gotten home, changed and freshened up, it was nearly time for Axel to pick him up.

There was a knock at the door exactly at 7, the agreed upon time of the date. Roxas's nerves flared up, but he managed to push them back. One last look in the mirror and he was opening the door.

"Wow, Roxas you look amazing." The shorter man smiled at the compliment before returning it. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, just let me grab my coat."

And they were out the door.

The car ride to the restaurant was quiet for the most part, with the exception of a few comments about the weather, but neither found it too awkward.

Once they got to the restaurant, their conversation pick up, each wanting to learn more about the other.

Roxas told Axel how he had a twin brother named Sora, That his favorite color was orange. That he loved the movie Mulan and could watch it ten times in a row and still want to watch it again. How he fell out of a tree when he was little and shattered his arm. He told him all of these things and more.

In return he learned that Axel was an only child. That he was a high school teacher, That he fully understood Roxas's love for Mulan, but was partial to Pocahontas himself. That he had no favorite color because the rainbow itself was his favorite color. He learned all these things and more.

When they arrived back at Roxas's apartment, the red-head walked him to the door.

"I had fun tonight." This made Axel smile.

"Yeah? That's good, I'm glad." He went silent for a moment. "Hey, so, would you want to do this again some time, I mean if you don't that's okay too but-"

He was cut off by Roxas's lips on his. It wasn't very long or deep but sweet, ending after a couple of seconds. When he pulled back he had to chuckle at the taller man's expression, eyes wide and shocked.

"I'd love to."

With that Roxas opened his door and slipped inside, leaning back against it when it was closed. He couldn't help but touch his lips, smile never leaving his face.

For the next several months, Roxas continued to see Axel, and was happy when; somewhere along the line they had agreed that they were in fact boyfriends. Axel was his. Their dates were frequent and fun, each one going further than the last. First longer kisses, then Axel was allowed into the apartment, soon leading to half-naked make out sessions on the couch and a whole lot of heavy petting.

In these months they discovered and noticed new things each and every day, like how the smaller man always had to cut his bananas into slices, and Axel rambled when he got nervous.

Roxas was closer to Axel then he had ever been to anyone else in his life and he was all right with that, because Axel made him happy and that's what counted.

Intensifying: It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes!

Several more months passed and the furthest Roxas had allowed Axel to go was extreme heavy kissing and hand jobs, both giving and recieveing.

Roxas felt badly because he always stopped the red head from going any further, and he knew Axel wanted to go further. But for the blonde, sex was special, only something you did with a person you trusted and loved. Not that he didn't trust Axel, he did, but it was the love part that he was hung up on.

Sure, Roxas liked him, cared for him deeply, but he wasn't sure it was love quite yet, because when you loved someone you didn't have to think about it so hard.

Another month passed and one day in particular found Roxas curled up under the taller man's arm as they watched TV one night. They had been sitting there for several hours now contently engrossed in an I Love Lucy marathon. Well, Axel was watching, Roxas was thinking. Thinking about how happy he had been these last months, how supportive and sweet Axel was, how he didn't think he could ever live without the red head.

That last thought stood out, it was like an epiphany for Roxas. He couldn't ever see himself without Axel.

Roxas couldn't keep the grin off of his face as the next though slammed into him.

He loved Axel. Truly, without a doubt, with all his heart loved Axel.

Axel noticed then the dreamy smile that had settled on the blondes face; never had he seen that look before. "What's with the smile Rox?"

Roxas's grin grew. "I love you."

Initally stunned at the abruptness of the words sat a moment before breaking into a smile just as big, if not bigger the Roxas's own.

"Good, because I love you too."

They kissed then, sweetly, then passionately, and Roxas knew it was time.

It wasn't a birthday, or Christmas or any other special holiday, but that was okay because it was right and they both knew it.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Absolutely."

The rest of the night was spent exploring, touching, feeling, loving, and being one with each other.

Afterwards they lay, Axel on his back, Roxas with his head propped on Axel's shoulder, both covered in cooling sweat.

Axel broke the silence. "Remember the night we met?"

"Hmm" Sleep thick in Roxas' voice, "… yea." He smiled at the memories.

"I though you were the most gorgeous person I had ever seen."

Roxas snorted at that.

"What? You don't believe me? You were so beautiful, I got so nervous."

"You, nervous, I don't think I can even imagine that, your ego's the size of the moon."

Axel's voice grew soft. "I was, and when you didn't answer back, I though I had blown it." Roxas didn't say anything after that, just kept his head on Axel's chest, feeling every breath. They stayed like that for a minute before Axel continued. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't responded, we wouldn't have this, you know."

"Shhh… Don't think like that. Because I did, I did answer, and now I'm with you and I'm so happy it hurts and I love you so much, so don't cheapen what we have, this love, with what if's."

"I love you. I didn't mean to-" Roxas cut off Axel's soon to be ramblings with a kiss.

"I know."

Integrating: From 'I' to 'We'.

The next morning Demyx called.

"Hey Ax, me and Zex are throwin' a party tonight, what do ya say, ya wanna come?"

"Yeah, Rox and I would love to go."

"Great!"

"We'll see you then!"

Bonding: You and me baby, we're stuck like glue!

Axel had been acting very strange recently. First he would begin asking a question, pause, mumble something about never minding and then walking out of the room or finding some other way of effectively ending all conversation. Tonight Axel had told Roxas to look nice because he was taking him out, and Roxas hoped that Axel was planning on spiting out whatever had been plaguing him mind recently.

Roxas was picked up around 6 by Axel who was acting stranger that before. The car ride was relatively quick and they pulled up in front of the same restaurant where they had had their first date.

Dinner was nice, but as they neared the end of the night Axel got fidgety and quiet. Then out of the blue Axel started talking.

"My lease on my apartment is ending soon, I think I'm going to move out."

Roxas stopped eating. "Move? To where."

"Well, I found this nice place, big kitchen, amazing location. The perfect place." Here Axel reached into his pocket and then brought his closed fist to rest on the table in front of Roxas. "And I was wondering… if you would move in with me." His hand opened reveling a key.

Roxas squealed.

"Yes!"

Stagnating: Same old same.

Life was great after Roxas and Axel moved in together. The days were blissful, fun, exciting.

Everyday Axel would come home, they would decided what to do for dinner, always changing it up, frequently make love right in the doorway, or any other flat surface.

Slowly the days went by. Eventually they established a routine. They stopped going out for dinner, instead making the same dinners, weekends were spent cleaning or running errands.

They were no longer moving forward, but standing still. They didn't even realize it was happening until it was too late.

Avoiding: It's not you, it's me.

Their relationship was not like it used to be. They just were.

Roxas slowly began to realize it around the same time as Axel.

"Axel, I think we should take a break." Roxas couldn't look him in the eye.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Roxas couldn't stop the tears that started to run down his face.

"I love you, but I don't know if this is what I want anymore, there's no spark, we've stopped progressing. I don't know what to do." Axel's heart was breaking watching Roxas in so much pain, but he knew he was right.

"Shhh… shhhh... It'll be okay." Trying to comfort Roxas and stop the tears.

"I'm going home for 2 months to look after my mom, we should take that time to think about what we really want."

"Yeah."

And so a decision was reached that all contact would halt and when Roxas returned from his trip they would decide which turn their relationship would take.

Waiting for the bus was the worst, and the good bye was heart breaking. Roxas felt like he was leaving a part of himself behind. But many kisses and hugs later, he boarded and watched as Axel was left behind.

The days became slow and lazy and those 2 months dragged by for Roxas, though he had come to a decision, he only hoped that Axel had reached the same otherwise both of them would end up hurt.

When the bus finally pulled into the station Roxas had butterflies in his stomach. There was Axel, standing, hands in his pockets, shoulder hunched with tension.

He stepped down off of the bus and the staring began. Roxas staring at Axel. Axel staring at Roxas.

Axel only hesitated until he saw the grin that spread across Roxas's face, Knowing they had both come to the same conclusion, :3 )~~~

Gah! We went over this model in my Comm 100 class and it's on our upcoming final so... I figured the best way to study was to relate it to Axel and Roxas. Hope you like it cause I was so excited about this that I wrote the whole thing today so sorry for the mistakes. Enjoy!

-GL