Down with Love

Description: Sequel to "Dance with Me". Roxas has arrived at college to find romance literally everywhere he turns, and somehow he always ends up playing matchmaker. Cupid has never been so unwilling or so downright grumpy. AU, Amazing Grace crossover.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all the Final Fantasy games belong to Square-Enix. Amazing Grace and its characters belong to me.

Warnings: Language, boyxboy love ... and that's about it. This one isn't going to be as heavy as the original.

A/N: This story is a sequel to DWM. If you haven't read that one, you may be a little confused here and there, but this fic mostly stands on its own. I should warn everyone that this story will not have my usual pairings when it comes to the Organization guys. In fact, most of them are going to be straight (and some with girlfriends). Hopefully that won't deter too many of you from reading it. I think I'll be keeping the chapters short and sweet to promote more frequent updates.

Enjoy!

1. See you in September
The Happenings

I, Roxas Skyhawke, have this to say about the emotion known as love:

Screw it.

No, better yet, tie it up, gag it, throw it on the ground, and back over it with your car a few times. Then douse it in steak sauce and throw it in the shark tank at the aquarium. And if that doesn't work, dress it up like a sea-salt ice cream bar, drop it off in front of Hayner's house, and run the hell away.

Now, I enjoy making out with a good-looking girl as much as the next hormonally-saturated teen, but the whole concept that you have to have a boy/girlfriend at all times or your life means nothing, well, that's just stupid. I mean, get some self-esteem, people. A person's worth is not measured by the hotness of the person he or she is sucking face with. And it is in fact possible for a normal soon-to-be college freshman, like myself, to be happy and content with life as a whole without having a significant other attached to my hip like some accessory.

If I could only convince my older brother of this.

Of course, that's a losing battle considering how ga-ga in love he currently is with his boyfriend. All I can say is he's lucky Riku is so nice, or I would have killed them both by now. I'm happy for Sora, really I am, and I love him with all my heart. But oh dear God, if I have to listen to that "But I just want you to be as happy as I am" speech of his one more time … .

He smothered me with it all summer, going on and on about this girl Naminé and how pretty and nice and sweet she is. Based on the ten minutes I spent talking with her last year, I would be prepared to say that she is indeed all of these things, but come on. I'm supposed to fall madly in love with someone in ten minutes? I don't think so.

Usually after one of these arguments with Sora, I'd retreat to my room and write a long, venting email to Max. Max is Riku's roommate. Well, ex-roommate now since they're both juniors and have single rooms. How I got to be such good friends with my brother's boyfriend's former roommate is a story in itself. Guess I'll explain.

It all started when I decided to visit Sora at Swarthmore, partly to see my brother and partly as a prospective student since I had also been accepted. I happened to visit on Valentine's Day. I didn't have a girlfriend at the time, so I hadn't really paid much attention to the date. Thankfully, Riku and Sora hadn't made a huge deal of it either, and I had been enjoying hanging out with them and their group of friends.

Then we went to dinner. I knew something was up the moment a group of about fifteen people walked into the room together. They were all wearing old-fashioned clothes. Like 1920s. They sat down at a table, and two students wearing waiter outfits began fetching food for them.

Confused, I turned to Sora for an explanation, but his expression told me he had no idea what was going on either. It was clear to me that the upperclassmen did, though. Riku was trying hard not to snigger, and Riku's friend Christian had a big grin on his face. Sora and his roommate Justin both questioned the other two, but neither of them would say anything. "Just wait," Riku advised us, a smirk pulling up the corner of his mouth.

So we did. Twenty minutes passed and nothing happened. I had completely lost interest by then and was talking to Justin about the quality of the chemistry department. Sora had just begged us to stop and talk about something normal - to Sora, nothing that uses numbers is normal - when the back door to the cafeteria flew open with a crash. Dozens of heads flew up, including mine, as three guys in trenchcoats stomped into the room and right up to the table of strangely-dressed people. The one in the lead, a tall guy with blazing red hair that seemed to stick out from his head like spikes, carried a box that could have held long-stemmed roses. The other two kept their hands inside their coats.

The red-head took a moment to let his eyes drift over the people at the table, several of whom had risen to their feet. Then, he said in a loud, clear voice, "Got a message from Big Al. Die, you gravy-sucking pigs!"

The box fell to the floor, revealing a huge gun, and two others appeared from inside the trenchcoats. All three guns erupted into life, and the room filled with screams as the diners fell, their clothes splattered with blood. Once the last body had landed on the ground with a dull thud, the red-head lowered his gun and took a few steps to the table. He picked up a plum from someone's tray and, looking down, nudged the owner of the food with his foot.

"Got it memorized?" he asked lightly and took a bite. Behind him, one of the others, a blond with a mustache, laughed quietly.

I just sat there and gaped. I couldn't believe I had just witnessed a mass murder in a college cafeteria. Sora couldn't believe it either; he was clinging to Riku and whispering, "… ohmygodohmygodohmygod …" over and over. And then, to further add to my confusion, the entire cafeteria burst into applause. The three murderers casually walked back out the door, the blond waving and winking to a nearby girl who giggled at the attention, and everyone went back to eating.

"That was much better than last year," I heard Christian comment. "How did they get the blood to be so realistic?"

"Max," Riku answered him as he pried Sora off of his arm. "Xemnas asked him to help create some liquid capsules that could be easily broken and that would spray like real blood."

"Well he did a fantastic job. And they got better guns this year, too, I noticed."

Slowly, painfully, oxygen returned to my lungs. It had been fake. Staged. I swung my attention back to the bodies on the floor and saw several chests rising and falling. One "corpse" even shifted his position slightly as I watched.

"So what was the point?" Justin asked the two upperclassmen. He had obviously come to the same conclusions I had; Sora still looked freaked out. "Dinner theater or something?"

Christian shook his head. "Not quite. It's a reenactment of the Valentine's Day Massacre. You know, Al Capone. They do it every year."

"Who does?"

"The science-fiction club."

My brother finally let go of Riku. "Oh them," he commented as if that explained everything. "They scare me."

His boyfriend laughed and ruffled his hair a little. "They scare a lot of people," he replied, "but they're generally a decent bunch. A little odd maybe, but not too bad."

"Who's Max?" I asked. Now that my mind had cleared of shock, I had begun to wonder about the realistic blood spray I had seen and consider how I might have approached a similar problem.

"My roommate," Riku answered me. "He's a genius and a half. Bio-chem major."

I perked up immediately. Sora saw my expression and groaned.

"Can I meet him?"

"Sure, I don't see why not."

"I do," Sora griped, sending me a disapproving look. "Once the two of them start talking, we'll never be able to pry them apart. You can be nerdy all you like next year," he stated, emphasizing his point with a fork. "Right now, I'd like it if you could spend some time with me please."

"If I come here next year," I reminded him with a smirk. "I still haven't decided."

"Even more reason to hang out with me and have fun instead of being your usual geeky self."

"Come on, Sora," Riku interjected in my defense. "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"You don't know Roxas like I do," my brother grumbled, stabbing at his food grouchily.

Sora continued to argue and protest through the entire meal, but Riku and I won out in the end and I got to meet Max.

It was awesome!

Like Sora said, I'm a geek and a nerd and I'm proud of it. If I can pipette it, dissect it, or stick it under a microscope, I love it. But that day I learned that, compared to Max, I'm just a weak amateur, not only in regards to knowledge and experience but also in pure drive and passion. After spending an hour with him, I felt like I knew nothing, and I damn near ached with the need to know more.

Max is a pretty unassuming guy when you first meet him. He's a mix of Korean and American Indian, so his coloring is dark and his face is a little oddly-shaped. When Riku and I entered their shared room, he was studying at his desk and didn't bother to look up until Riku addressed him. The gaze he gave us was completely blank as if there wasn't a shred of emotion in him at all.

"Max, this is Sora's little brother Roxas," Riku introduced me. He was clearly used to the empty stare that was boring into him. "He's a spec. Wants to be a chem major."

That put a little life into those dark eyes. Max sat up straighter and gave me a small smile. "I see," he said. "Do you have any questions you'd like me to answer?"

He meant about the school, of course. The classes and the professors. But I chose to take it to mean any questions.

"What did you use to make those exploding blood capsules?" I asked eagerly. "I have an idea of what you might have done for the liquid itself as well as the explosive agent, but I'm having trouble figuring out how you made the capsules strong enough to not rupture prematurely but weak enough that they'd rupture at all."

Max blinked at me for half a second, surprised. And then, he broke out into a grin, and I got to see his true self for the first time. I've found out since that he's pretty shy and rather self-conscious about his high level of intelligence. Around most people, like Riku and Christian and even around J'nel who's a fellow bio major, he tends to be quiet and closed off. But with me, he opened up and let it all come pouring out, and I sat there in utter awe and soaked in as much as I possibly could. Most of what he said went straight over my head, but the little that I did understand blew me away.

By the time Sora showed up and demanded that I spend some time with him, I had made my decision. I would be coming to this school next year. Not for the academics or the professors, although both were top-notch. No, I'd be coming here because Max was here and because I wanted nothing more than to study in the same place where he was. When I told him of my decision - leaving out the star-struck reasoning of course - he smiled at me and asked for my email address so we could keep in touch over the summer. I swear I felt like some giddy teenager who had just been offered an autograph by her favorite movie star.

I'm such a dork.

The rest of my senior year was agony. I just wanted to be out of there already and on to the next stage in my life. It was so tempting to let myself become a victim of senioritis like my best friend Hayner. I kept my grades up, though, and not because of Olette's constant lectures on maintaining our work ethics even though our colleges had already accepted us. It was because I didn't want to have to tell Max, should he ask, that I had gotten lazy at the end of the year and let it all slide. I wanted to make sure that he kept his good opinion of me since that way I would be more likely to be allowed to work with him on his various projects. That was the same reason why, unless I was ranting about Sora and his persistent need to set me up with Naminé before the semester even started, I composed my emails to him with as much care as I would a written assignment for school. I wanted every word to be perfect before I sent it over to him.

Sora teased me like hell when he found out, of course. In fact, more than once he referred to my obsession with the soon-to-be-junior as a crush and threatened to tell Riku that I was lusting after his roommate. I usually responded by pounding on him or stealing his food. My feelings for Max were not romantic or sexual in the slightest. It was hero-worship more than anything else. There was just so much that I could learn from him, not only about science but about how to think, how to approach problems with fresh perspectives and new ideas. Whenever I talked to him, I felt like a wet-behind-the-ears kid kneeling before the wise and all-powerful master. Take the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper; that kind of thing. He filled me with so much intellectual awe.

Did I mention that I'm a dork? Yeah, I think I did.

Eventually, after what felt like three or four eternities, the school year ended, I took my finals, and I graduated. Summer wasn't as bad since I spent most of it hanging out with the gang. Hayner was determined to make as many memories as humanly possible before we all went our separate ways, and I had absolutely no objections. In fact, summer almost went too fast, for before I knew it, I was packing up my things and listening to my parents worry about how they were going to get both my and Sora's stuff over to campus without renting a U-Haul. Sora was fluttering about, all excited to see Riku again, and I was definitely not fluttering but still excited to finally get my freshman year started.

There was only one thing worrying me as we pulled away from the house and began our trip, and that was that Sora would soon be doubling his efforts to get me to go out with Naminé. If I was lucky, we'd get there and find out that she had objections to the match-up, too. Even Sora wouldn't try to put together two people who had no interest in the other. If she didn't, though, or worse if she actually liked me, these first few weeks could be harder than they normally would be. And all because my brother wanted me to be as lovey-dovey as he was.

I sighed and gazed out the window at the passing scenery. I've always felt that love is overrated. It's nice, but it's not necessary to live a fulfilling life. It's not important enough to throw yourself under the bus for or to beat yourself up over if you've lost it. I guess, when it comes to love, if it comes to me I'll give it a try. But I'm not going to go looking for it and I'm not going to let others look for it for me. If that's the way it's going to be, then I'd rather just say screw it.

And that's really all I have to say.