If you don't like slash don't read this.

Wrote this like a year or two ago and never posted it... typical.

Enjoy!

Broadway

Roxas wrapped an arm around Namine's waist, and Axel felt his heart catch in his throat. He pushed away the wave of jealous anger that threatened to surface, and chugged his beer.

Sometimes, Axel wished he'd been born a woman. Or straight.

Why had he even come to this damn party? To watch Roxas fawn over Namine and her best friend Kairi, and Kairi's boyfriend... what was his name? Ruuki? Ricky?

Axel snorted. Turns out Kairi's boy was about as good a friend as Roxas is... was. The friend Ruuki (What the fuck was his name?) had arrived with had migrated across the room to drink but had been stopped by a slutty friend of Namine. The boy was glancing toward Ruuki for a helping hand desperately, but his silent pleas were ignored.

Let it never be said that Axel was not a gentleman.

The lanky red-head crossed the room in swift, purposeful strides, and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Get lost, bitch." He shoved her away.

Maybe gentleman wasn't the right word.

But the boy in front of him laughed, and stretched out a hand. "Thanks. I thought I was invisible over here."

Axel grinned. "I guess that makes two of us."

Axel and Sora met three times a week, between work and school. They didn't have much in common at first, and it wasn't easy like it had been with Roxas or Riku. But there was an understanding between them, a common thread where they could communicate a million thoughts in a single look.

Sora was Axel's lifeline; the one person he could call at four in the morning just to talk about anything. Everything. Sora was the one who kept animal crackers in his car just because Axel liked them. Sora was the one who helped him win money playing pool and basketball in their free time.

Roxas had always hated helping Axel scam money off people, said it was dishonest and karma would come back to bite him in the ass one day.

Axel told Sora this, once. Sora had just smiled. "Thought you liked it rough, Ax?"

Axel had told him to go fuck himself, and the two had laughed until they cried.

Sora remembered the last time he saw Riku. The silver haired boy had called him, out of the blue, for the first time in four months. They had lunch at Riku's parents' restaurant, and talked about old times for hours. Sora had gone home, checked his mailbox, and found an extravagant square letter addressed to a Mr. Sora Hikari, from Riku's parents.

Sora knew what it was, but he opened it anyway. He wondered why Riku couldn't have bothered to tell him that he and Kairi were getting married.

He received a second letter a day or so later. Apparently Roxas and Namine were getting married as well, the day after Riku and Kairi did, so that the couples could go on a cruise together for their honeymoon.

Sora had told Axel before the older boy could open his own letters.

Axel had frowned, and softly said, "Do you think it was stupid to expect to be his best man? I mean, I was his best friend. I know that much."

Sora sighed, and handed Axel the animal crackers from the backseat- frosted, for this kind of situation- and replied, "No. I don't think it was stupid at all. In fact I sort of wanted the same thing. If I couldn't be the one marrying him, at least I could... be there for him. One last time."

If Axel had been a stronger man, he would have told Sora that no one in the world understood him like he did, and if Axel had a choice, he would spend the rest of his life with the brunette beside him.

But Axel was a weak, destructive man, and all he could do was grab Sora's hand tightly.

But Sora was Sora, and with a soft look and a whispered, "Let's move in together." Axel knew he understood.