I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. If I did, Axel would be the main character and he and Roxas would have kissed by now. Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy and all their characters/worlds/other content belong to Square Enix and Disney.

His heart was pounding against his chest as he made his way silently through the deserted corridor. Some fans of cliché may have said that things were a little too quiet, but that was just the way he liked it; it made his job a lot easier if no-one was around to witness him in the act. That was one of the reasons he'd chosen to attempt this during the night, when most of the mansion's occupants would be asleep.

Staying as close to the wall as he could, he crept closer and closer to his target, adrenaline starting to course through his body as he pushed open a door and slid into the next room. This room was a bedroom. The figure sleeping in the bed at the far end of the room shifted in his sleep, unaware of the stranger who was now approaching.

'Nothing personal, mate,' the hooded man whispered, pulling a dagger from under his cloak. 'Just doing my job.'

-.-.-.-

A cool summer breeze swept through the open classroom window as Mr Rhapsodos tried and failed to get his class interested in Romeo and Juliet. Granted, it wasn't one of his favourites either (he would much rather be teaching them about LOVELESS, but that unfortunately wasn't on the syllabus anymore) but the class was reacting as if the play was somehow going to transmit some horrid disease to them if they read even the first line.

About half of the class had decided that the books were only good as projectiles, meaning the floor was now littered with about fifteen copies that had suffered the unfortunate fate of being flung across the room at either the wall or a student. Mr Rhapsodos was sure that he'd even seen one book fly clean out of one of the open windows.

Speaking of windows, most of the class were too busy leaning out of said openings (for reasons known only to themselves) to even notice there was a book on their desk at all. The rare occurrence of sunshine had rendered most of the class unable to do anything but either long to be outside basking in its rays or complain of the apparently overwhelming heat.

'Sir, it's too hot to read,' groaned Hayner, as if on cue, rocking his chair back onto it's hind legs. 'Why do we have to read this, anyway? It's so boring.'

'At least it's not LOVELESS,' Zidane pointed out, a huge grin creeping across his face as Mr Rhapsodos bristled with indignation. 'That was hell to read; it just droned on and on about heroic crud.'

'Tribal! One more word out of you and you're going to be in detention for the rest of the month!' Mr Rhapsodos snapped, looking like he was fighting the urge to throw his copy of Romeo and Juliet at the impertinent youth. 'Kisaragi, Estheim, Summers, get back inside right now or else I'll push you all out!'

When Mr Rhapsodos started using surnames, it was time to desist. Yuffie, Hope, and Rikku obediently retracted their head from the window and returned to their seats, not doubting for a moment that Mr Rhapsodos would follow through with his threat if they didn't do as instructed.

'Right. Everyone who threw a book, go and get it,' Mr Rhapsodos ordered, a little calmer. 'Everyone, open your books, we're going to read the first scene in Act Three. Hayner, you're reading Benvolio. Hope, Mercutio. Zidane, Tybalt. Sora, Romeo. Olette, Lady Capulet. Pence, Montague. Roxas, Prince. Go.'

Hayner made an irritated noise before beginning to read, clearly unhappy that his relaxing time had come to an end. Reading in a bored monotone, Hayner finished his line as quickly as he could before letting his head fall on his desk, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to die. The only one who seemed remotely interested was Sora, who had that usual look of excitement on his face.

Roxas stared out of the window, watching as tree branches moved gently in the breeze. He could hear a bee humming lazily somewhere and the cool breeze on his face felt wonderful. It wasn't his turn for ages so he didn't have to worry about zoning out like this. He could feel his eyelids drooping, lulled by the rhythmic buzzing. It was too hot to concentrate on Romeo and Juliet anyway, why not just go to sleep?

...

'Roxas? Roxas!'

Waking with a jolt, Roxas found that Mr Rhapsodos was standing over him, looking particularly irate. The whole class was staring silently at the two, most looked like they were holding their breath as they waited to see what would happen next. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he realised that he'd been asleep for about fifteen minutes. Mr Rhapsodos would probably have let this slide if he hadn't been in a particularly foul mood thanks to the rest of the class's antics up until now.

'Did you get sufficient sleep last night, Mr Keyes?' Mr Rhapsodos asked, icily.

'I... erm... Yes, sir...' Roxas said, quietly.

'Then is there any particular reason you felt compelled to sleep during my lesson?'

'... No, sir,' Roxas replied, his voice now barely above a whisper.

'In that case, I'm giving you a half hour detention after school tonight. Now, I advise you wake yourself up and read.'

'Yes, sir,' Roxas hastily picked up his copy of Romeo and Juliet, found his place, and began to read. Thankfully, the rest of the lesson passed without any further incident, mainly due to everyone being too scared of Mr Rhapsodos's murderous glares to do anything else to upset him. When the bell rang for lunch, no one was more relieved than Roxas, who grabbed his bag and practically fled from the room, dreading his detention later that day.

-.-.-.-

'Did you hear about that politician?'

'Yeah, he died last night, didn't he?'

'I heard it was a murder.'

'I heard that, too. Apparently, they have no idea who did it.'

'He was a politician, there must have been loads of people who wanted him gone.'

Axel sat down with his lunch, amazed at how quickly news travelled; this politician had only died last night and it was already public knowledge at twelve thirty the following day.

'Don't they have anything better to talk about than some dead guy?' Marluxia muttered, sitting down opposite Axel and looking around the canteen at the gossiping teens. 'God.'

'You know what people are like when something like this happens,' Axel shrugged.

Marluxia raised an eyebrow as Larxene joined them.

'You're the last person I'd expect to be so relaxed about this gossip,' he said, quietly.

'Gossip isn't going to lead to an arrest,' Axel replied, calmly. 'Let them talk, let them make their wild accusations, because let me tell you this: the crazy conspiracy theories they come up with are never going to be right.'

'Don't get so cocky Axel,' Larxene said, a malicious smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. 'You may just become so blinded by confidence that you end up walking over a cliff.'

'Aren't you sweet to think about me,' Axel sneered, sardonically.

'What are friends for,' Larxene replied, gracing Axel with a derisive smile.

Axel returned the smile before moving his attentions from Larxene to his lunch. The table fell silent as the three ate, each one staring down at their trays. Most people would have started to feel uncomfortable after a while, but for Axel, Marluxia and Larxene, the silence was practically welcomed. Marluxia and Larxene enjoyed talking to each other, but when Axel was around they preferred to simply say nothing at all, which Axel was perfectly fine with, he wasn't overly keen to chat with the two anyway.

Thus passed the next half hour until Axel, having finished his meal and decided he wasn't going to hang around longer than necessary, stood up and went to get rid of his tray.

'One of these days he's going to slip up,' Marluxia muttered, poking his pasta irritably with his fork.

'Oh, yes,' Larxene said, sadistically, 'and when he does, I intend to be there to watch him fail miserably.'

'You've got a mean streak, Larxene,' Marluxia said, raising an approving eyebrow, 'I like it.'

Larxene's eyes sparkled wickedly.

'You haven't seen anything, yet,' she whispered.