Title: Paper Hearts

Summary: Halloween is their holiday, it has been since they were little snot-nosed brats making mud pies in the neighborhood sandbox. But Axel can't make it this year.

Rating: Teen for language and a slight sexual situation.

Pairings: AkuRoku

Disclaimer: I do not own KH...or anything else I may have mentioned in this story that has a copyright and such. ...The story's mine the rest isn't.

A/N: Wow, it's been a year since I last wrote anything. xD Although I've thought of a kajillion stories, I just haven't written them down yet. I'm a little sad I missed Akuroku day, but I came up with this fic just now and needed to get it out before it became one more of the stories aimlessly floating around in my head but not getting anywhere. Anywho, on to the fic! unbeta'd.

Paper Hearts

Tears sting his eyes, biting and threatening to spill over the edges of those cerulean orbs. Roxas wants to cry, he wants to throw himself on the ground and scream and kick until Axel says he'll stay. He wants to punch him, bite him, kiss him, anything just to make Axel stay, just to see if it's all real. Axel can't be telling him this, it's all a dream, it has to be. Halloween is their holiday, it has been since they were little snot-nosed brats making mud pies in the neighborhood sandbox. But Axel can't make it this year. He can't fucking come to their twenty-sixth halloween celebration.

He was crying. As much as Roxas tried to keep it from happening, telling himself he was a big boy, biting his lip until he could taste copper, digging bloodless crescents into his palms with his nails, he still cried. Axel can't make it this year.

Axel gulped audibly, staring deep into the eyes of his violently sobbing boyfriend. Roxas was staring right back at him, trying to control his body from shaking so much, silently telling him it was his fault he was crying, his fault. Axel wanted to reach out and grab him, hold him until his tears stopped while whispering that he didn't have to go, he could stay here with Roxas. But Axel left his hands limp at his sides, it took everything he had not to grab him, but Axel needed this job. It was what he had wanted and aimed for ever since he was a little kid. It was his dream and he finally had it within his grasps. But the only space open for him to be interviewed was tonight–Halloween night, at 6pm and it was a 5 hour drive to the city he was requested to be interviewed at.

Axel was on the verge of breaking down and you could hear it in his voice. "I-It's just this once Roxas. I don't like it either, but I've worked so hard all my life just to get this chance. And after I'm interviewed I'll come home and be here for you and I won't have to go back. I-I'll be working from home Rox." Axel watched the tears form rivers down his face, rolling down the smooth planes of his cheek bone, then chin, until it fell and was absorbed into the fabric of his t-shirt. He watched snot dribble out of his nose and clump at his upper lip, mixing with spit, tears, and a little blood from where Roxas had bitten into his lip.

"I-I know, I just, y'know, wish it was another time," Roxas whispered in between sobs, struggling to keep his voice steady.

"I know, me too," Axel replied softly.

Roxas ran the back of his hand across his face, smearing snot, tears, spit, and blood in a colorful rainbow of yellows and reds across his cheek.

-------

It had been two hours since Axel had left for his drive. They had both eventually broke down and cried, holding each other and grasping at one another to form a giant sobbing glob on the floor. It had actually been Roxas who had made Axel leave in the end. Axel had decided he should stay with Roxas that night instead, saying he could get another chance for that job, even though they both knew the chance would probably never come again. 'We can be together next year on Halloween,' Roxas had told him, even though it hadn't reassured him even after repeating it over and over again in his head.

Now Axel was in the car he had bought when he was seventeen, driving to his interview and Roxas was curled up on the couch with a blanket watching the Halloween themed movies playing on TV. He mindlessly watched Jack Skellington dance and sing his way across his TV screen, he was somewhere else, trying without success to not think about Axel. Roxas wanted to be anywhere else at this point, anywhere, where it wasn't Halloween and he wasn't missing Axel.

Halloween, these "celebrations," they had together had been around for as long as he could remember. At first it was just their moms dressing them up in cute outfits and taking them trick-or-treating, then it turned into a small party between friends, and so on and so on until it reached their first Halloween in high school, when Axel kissed him. Halloween became so much more after that celebration, it was the day they became more than friends, the day they shared their first kiss, the day they lost their virginities, the day they promised to be with each other forever.

Roxas didn't need his eyes to gloss over with tears to know he was crying, he didn't need the slight tremble of his lip, and the shiver racking through his body. He could tell through the pang of emptiness he felt in his heart, and the way he felt his body loose it's energy at the mere thought of being Axel-less. "I miss you," he whispered, hugging himself underneath the blankets, "I miss you so much."

Roxas remembers the halloween they had become more than just best friends, the night Axel kissed him, and he smiled gently to himself underneath his tears.

----

"Roxas! Wait up!" Axel shouted across the school parking lot. Roxas walked a little slower, laughing because Axel's voice had cracked. He didn't know why he found it so amusing, especially when it happened often and Roxas had gone through the same thing a year or two earlier.

Axel caught up, out of breath and panting. Roxas smirked. Axel looked up and glared when he caught the smirk. "Shut up. I'm not weak or anything...I just sprinted through the hallways to get away from Madame. I swear she looks at me like I'm some sort of barbeque. One of these days she's going to hold me after school, bring out a grill from behind her desk and grab the salt."

Roxas' smug smile grew in size. Axel had chosen to take French even after hearing the rumors about the old senile woman of a teacher, Madame Bordeau. After his first class with her he confirmed all the rumors. She had an ass that you could serve the entire class afternoon tea on, looked like she put her make up on in the dark, and had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

Axel continued to talk animatedly while they walked to Roxas' house. Roxas tuned him out, a skill he had found to be a necessity when being friends with him, and thought about the evening they were about to have that night. Halloween was kind of a big deal to Axel and him.

When they got to Roxas' house they greeted his mom and immediately ran up to Roxas' room to play the newest Nintendo game. The spent the majority of the afternoon and evening up there, absorbed in the flashing lights and pixelated graphics moving across the television screen, not coming down until mentions of cake, soda and candy had them sprinting downstairs to get the largest amount.

The rest of the event went according to tradition, although they didn't get to go trick or treating because the moms decided they were too old, with party games, and a halloween movie marathon, which Roxas' mom had limited to one movie because it was a school night, so it wasn't much of a movie marathon. After the movie ended and the credits started rolling up on screen, the pair made their way outside to spend the rest of their time that night together in the tree house they had finished only the summer before.

"Do you know how much time I have left before my mom comes to pick me up?" Axel asked as he pulled himself onto the last branch before the opening of the tree house.

"I dunno, I guess I'll just glance at my bare wrist and hope it tells me the time." Roxas said sarcastically, laying across 'his side' of the tree house and looking up at the stars above. They say they finished the tree house but really they just had a floor and three walls, but the pair both claim that they like it better that way, even though it's clear that they didn't want to work on it anymore.

"Oh don't start with the sarcasm. I mean really, what time do you think it is?" Axel pulled himself next to Roxas and stared up at the sky just as Roxas was.

"Hmmn, I dunno really. We started watching that movie at like 9 right? So it should be around ten-thirty. We've probably got an hour, give or take a few minutes before your mom comes."

"Oh, thanks."

Mindless chatter about their lives, school, and their parents filled the empty, half-finished tree house for what seemed like minutes to them until a comfortable silence hung in the air. It was nice, just being next to each other and enjoying the crisp Halloween night.

Sometime within the time they had been outside, they had decided they were cold and had moved closer to each other. It wasn't awkward to feel the other's heartbeat against their arm, stomach, back, or whatever, it was just the two of them. Together.

Axel shifted around restlessly to Roxas' left, he seemed nervous. Roxas sighed and sat up, looking down at Axel. He followed suit and sat up as well. They're hands and knees were touching and their breaths mingled against the other's lips. They sat like that for a while, scared to move, but comfortable in it's own sense. Axel made the first move and awkwardly pressed his lips against Roxas' in a quick, chaste kiss. He almost missed the other's lips and Roxas' upper lip was pressed uncomfortably against his teeth.

The kiss was over as soon as it was started, but it made the two painfully aware that their relationship was changing. As soon as it was over they shot to opposite sides of the tree house, blushing furiously and covering their lips with their hands, surprised to still feel the tingly sensation of the other's lips against their own.

It was Axel that acted first once again.

"Roxas?"

"...Yeah?"

"I-I like you. Alot. Like, as in more than a friend."

"...Me too." It came out as barely more than a whisper, but Axel heard it and grinned as wide as he could.

It was still awkward, but they laid back into their original positions until Axel's mom came to get him and take him home, and sometimes the back of their hands would touch.

----

Roxas touched his lips gingerly at the memory. That first kiss had been awkward as hell, but definitely not as awkward as the Halloween two years later.

----

It was the beginning of junior year and Madame still hadn't barbecued Axel, in fact he was one of her favorite students. Axel's growth spurt had finally hit and Roxas had gotten his driver's license. They had been dating for two years and weren't out with their relationship yet, but neither wanted that yet. They were content, happy, and ready to take the next step in their relationship.

Halloween landed on a Friday that night, and the two had gotten permission to use Roxas' mom's car and drive to a hotel to spend the night there. Their parents trusted them enough, and they wanted to have a nice 'adult' party as they put it while Axel and Roxas were out. Axel's dad had even given them a six pack of beer before they left, telling them it was about time for them to experiment with drugs and alcohol and that he wanted to know what exactly was going into the kids if they chose to drink it. Axel thought his dad was the coolest that day.

The night was a complete and udder awkward mess. Neither had any real idea what they were doing and it ended up being a painfully embarrassing moment both wanted to forget in the morning, and they couldn't even use the excuse for their awful performances that they were drunk. The six pack was sitting unopened and alone in the back of the car they borrowed.

Despite all it's embarrassing and awkward moments, Roxas loved that night. After they had finished, re-clothed (which was done with their backs facing each other, both were too red and embarrassed to look at the other), and settled in next to each other in the sheets, they had exchanged promise rings. That moment was one of the happiest in Roxas' life.

----

Roxas spun the very same ring from that night around on his finger, smiling. The tears were gone and were instead replaced with a bittersweet happiness. Sure, Axel wasn't here tonight, but they had so many good memories from Halloweens before.

----

It was the Halloween of the first grade and Axel and Roxas were making Halloween crafts in the classroom dressed in their costumes. Axel and Roxas originally wanted to go as Batman and Robin, but neither wanted to be Robin and they both couldn't be batman. Instead Axel went as a giant from one of his favorite stories and Roxas went as a cow, though the cow was significantly bigger than the giant, which caused for much teasing on Roxas' part. Axel had been shorter than Roxas up until about halfway into high school when Roxas stopped growing and Axel shot up.

At the moment, the class was drawing a picture or pictures to go with the scary Halloween story they had made the day before. Axel wouldn't let Roxas see what he was drawing or tell him the story, even though Roxas had told him all about his story about a ghost who stole all the candy. He told him he'd have to wait until he went up and told the class his story.

Thankfully for Roxas, they went alphabetically by first names, so Axel was up after Aaron. Axel gathered his three pictures and went up to the front of the class, blushing, he began. First he showed the class his picture of a black 'scary' monster from his story.

"There once was a scary monster," he began and the class lit up in giggling shrieks, "an' he was very sad so he stole hearts an' he stole mine and Roxas' heart an' we were sad 'cause we didn't have hearts anymore. So we made ourselves a heart." Axel put down his picture of the monster and pulled up another, it was a crude cut out of a heart. "This is the heart we made an' after we were happy again! An' we were really good friends an' we let the scary monster keep the hearts if he'd stop taking hearts so he'd be happy. The end." Axel held up his final picture, it was Axel, and Roxas holding hands and in the corner, was a happy monster.

Roxas smiled as wide as he could and declared that Axel and he were best friends now.

----

Ring. Riiiing.

Roxas was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the phone ring. He glanced over at the clock, it was almost three in the morning, and with a groan he pulled himself off the couch. His leg had fallen asleep and gone numb while he was sitting there.

"Hello?"

"..." Silence was on the other end.

"...Hello?" He tried again. He counted to ten to decide whether or not he should hang up, and on '4' a voice spoke.

"...Did you check the children?"

"Axel," Roxas smiled with relief. Leave it to Axel to start quoting movies when he called.

"Did you lock the door?"

"Okay Axel, what are you trying to prove?"

"Just go check the door, and when you do, look out the peep hole."

Roxas set the phone down on the kitchen table, it had a cord and couldn't reach the door, and made his way to the door. He jiggled the handle a little and deduced that the door was indeed locked, then he peeked out the peep hole and immediately broke out into a huge grin.

Standing outside was Axel, looking a little green from his car ride but otherwise well. Roxas through open the door in a mad rush to leap at his boyfriend and hug and kiss him senseless. Axel smiled gently at Roxas and whispered, "I got the job," before dragging them both inside.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at a hotel and coming back in the morning?"

"Why, were you planning on cheating you little cutie, you?" Axel asked slyly, chuckling at the end to let Roxas know it was a joke. "I decided that I wanted to be with you tonight, no matter how tired I was. This is our night. It's Halloween."

Roxas beamed. "I love you so fucking much."

"Me too. I love you too, Roxas," Axel said kissing Roxas full on the mouth.

Halloween was their special night, their holiday, and they haven't missed one together since they knew each other.

A/N: And we're done! Hopefully you guys enjoyed this, although towards the end I started to rush a little because I was tired of typing. Roxas is much more of a wimp than I planned him to be....and because I love rambling on. While typing this, I heard a song from the move Treasure Planet and I was on a nostalgia high. I'm pretty sure that main character was the first cartoon character I was ever attracted to...which is really really weird. So now you know a fact about me you probably never wanted to know! Yay!