Okay, so, first and foremost: guys, I am so, so sorry, especially given the AMAZING response I received from the first chapter (really, you guys blow me away). I really should have known better than to post chapter 1 when I did. I knew my life was about to get crazy, and I irrationally and optimistically reasoned that I always somehow make time to write, and that I would have no problem writing up chapter 2 in a reasonable amount of time. Well. Let me tell you. I wrote most of this chapter in 10-15 minute segments of jotting down a paragraph here or a couple lines of dialogue there. I also wrote about half of it while sitting in bumper to bumper Manhattan rush hour traffic. I would like to say that this is the only time this will happen, but considering the part time job I started in July just morphed into a full-time-nights-and-weekends-included takeover of my soul, I can make no guarantees. If you have no interest in reading a story that gets updated sporadically every six-eight weeks, then I suggest you give up on me now, no hard feelings, I still love you like mad.

If you're still with me, though, then I really love you like mad. I hardly have time to breathe these days, but writing to me is almost on the same level as breathing, so I will do whatever it takes to make time when I can. If you're willing to bear with me and my crazy life I promise, promise that no matter what, I will see this story to the end. I'm already so attached to it that I couldn't not.

Anyway, this was obviously supposed to be ready for akuroku day, but as of last night this chapter was about half the length it is now (today was a GREAT day), so it's a little delayed. In addition to it being late, it's also...not the most exciting chapter. In my defense, it's still the introduction, we are still "meeting" the characters...can't exactly start the game until all the players are in position, yeah? I promise things will start picking up soon. In the mean time, this is just a lot of dialogue.

OKAY SO.

Things I Own: Two Transmit Now CDs, three Downtown Fiction CDs, recordings of all of the songs mentioned here, a brand new Blink-182 2011 tour shirt/baseball tee.

Things I Do Not Own: any of the characters, places, things, or anything else you might recognize from either the Kingdom Hearts series (Square Enix), the credited bands, or Anastasia (Fox, by the way, owns that one. Not Disney. Fun fact).

Songs That I Do Not Own: "Poster Boys" by Transmit Now, "Alive With the Glory of Love" by Say Anything (oh, my wildest dreams), "Lola" by the Kinks, "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow, "As Long As You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys, or any of the other songs or bands mentioned here. I can't write lyrics for shit, and I have negative musical talent.

Note: since I make this world whatever I want, I've abandoned stupid American laws and gone the British route on one particular point: the drinking age in Twilight Town is 18. poor Sora and Roxas, only 17, can't drink quite yet, but almost everyone else in the story is legal. just go with it.

PS. THINGS I DO NOT BOTHER WITH: subtlety. Apparently Sora doesn't either. Seriously though, I'm not trying to trick anyone...all you have to do is read my author's page to know exactly what to expect from this story. To me, the fun part isn't knowing the end result, but seeing how they got there. That is my defense for why some things may or may not be flashing neon signs of obviousness. Right, shutting up now.


Chapter 2: "Feeling This" by Blink-182

"Think there's like, an opening band or something? Or are they the opening band?"

Roxas shrugged. "Dunno. Nam said she'd heard of them, so I guess they're kind of known around here, but I don't know. Do club shows usually have openers?"

Sora shook his head, paused, then shrugged, taking a long drag from the Coke (without the rum, he and Roxas were still a few months shy of their eighteenth birthdays, much to Sora's frustration) in his hand.

He spat the drink right back out barely seconds later, startling Roxas as the blond belatedly attempted to dodge the spray. He turned wide-eyed toward his twin brother: Sora was gaping at the stage, sky blue eyes nearly bulging out of his head. Roxas glanced forward again, trying to see what it was that was giving Sora a "freshly-slapped-across-the-face-with-a-fish" expression.

Admittedly, it was kind of hard to narrow it down to just one shocking thing. Roxas himself barely knew where to start. The lead singer, who, Roxas was pleased to see, was just as gorgeous in real life as he was on MySpace, had done his wild, electric red hair into a crazy array of quivering spikes, which was debatably more or less bizarre than the bass player laughing next to him, tossing a sheet of not gray, not white, but silver hair away from his bass strap. They elbowed each other playfully while the bassist twisted his instrument into place, batting at the redhead's hand as the singer slapped his ass.

"What the fuck," Sora hissed. "What. The. Actual. Fuck." He barely seemed to noticed Roxas standing next to him, eyebrows raised as he studied his twin again. Honestly, the hair was a little weird, but Sora of all people shouldn't be judging someone on funky hair, not with the uncontrollable bedhead look he was usually rocking. The blond looked back up towards the stage again, this time eyeing the other two members of the band.

There was Demyx, the kid from the music store, plugging his guitar into the amp opposite the bassist's. Sure, he wasn't exactly what Sora, or anyone else, would deem normal; he, too, had the weirdest fucking hair Roxas had ever seen, and yeah, the stage lights kept glinting off the little bits of silver pierced through random parts of his face and ears, but none of that warranted Sora's alarm. And the drummer, who despite his lack of shirt and sequin-studded, white skinny jeans had by far the most normal head of close-cropped blond hair in the band, was hardly what Roxas would call terrifying. Really, he was running out of options here.

"Sora?" he tried carefully. "Sor, what's going on?"

"I didn't...fuck..." Sora spluttered uselessly. He couldn't keep his eyes off the stage in front of him. "We should go."

"What?" Roxas hissed.

Sora grabbed his brother's forearm, fingers tight against bare skin. "Come on, let's –"

"Welcome back Twilight Town! We're Melodious Nocturne and, as always, this one's for you."

Both boys turned instinctively back towards the stage, where all four members of Melodious Nocturne had, in well-timed unison, begun playing. They were opening with Roxas' favorite original off the EP, a song called "Poster Boys," and despite the frantic twin still attached to his arm, he couldn't tear his eyes from the redhead on stage. Long, lanky limbs were wrapped around the mic stand, hugging it to him, mic against his lips as he stared down at the audience, and Roxas couldn't help but stare right back when the redhead took a deep breath and made his first entreaty.

"So do you wanna come with me? We could get away and never look back. We can run away and that's a fact, what do you think about that? I think it sounds so sweet that we should start right now."

Sora had started tugging on Roxas' arm, twisting the skin under his fingers. Roxas was only half paying attention; he knew he was being insensitive, something was clearly wrong, but he loved this song already and he even knew the words already and he couldn't help but mouth along quietly as the second verse started with that clever little allusion to only having fifteen minutes of fame.

"We've been your poster boys for maybe ten minutes, so with the five left on the clock I think that we should live it up. So when the record doesn't chart and then the label forgets it we can still jump ourselves in bed with the It boys of the minute."

Roxas froze. On stage the band was moving into the chorus again, a solid half the audience singing along, but the blond standing about mid-way back, one arm still held in a death grip by his pale-faced brother, had fallen completely silent, staring wide-eyed up at the stage. He knew the words to this song. It'd gotten stuck in his head at school yesterday and he'd wound up listening to it a couple times that afternoon, enough times that he learned most of the words, and he knew, he knewthat they were supposed to be jumping into bed with the It girls of the minute, not the It boys.

"Roxas, please," Sora whined, demanding the blond's attention.

Roxas turned a distracted eye on him, frowning slightly. There was definitely something wrong, he didn't need to use his SuperTwinSenses to realize that something was freaking Sora out, but he had absolutely no idea what was making his brother stare at him with such wide-eyed panic.

"We can't leave now they've started," Roxas reasoned. "The stage lights aren't that intense, they'll notice us. If you're trying not to be seen we're better off hiding in the dark corner of the crowd and sneaking out with the masses at the end of the set." This was mostly true, but Roxas knew that really, despite the guilty, selfish squirm in his gut, that he wanted an excuse to stay and keep listening to the red-headed lead singer beg them to run away with him.

Sora, staring at Roxas as though he'd just offered salvation, didn't seem to notice. "You're right. Yeah. Good idea. Just...inconspicuous."

Roxas, in his attempt to honor Sora's muttered wishes, did his level best not to gape like a dead fish at his brother. Who was this person masquerading as his twin?

His curiosity, despite Sora's bizarre behavior, was short-lived. Melodious Nocturne followed their opening song with another original and then a pretty sick mash up of Cute is What We Aim For and The Maine before segueing seamlessly back into more originals. Their enthusiasm as they ran around the stage in the strangest and most endearing performance Roxas had ever seen was infectious. Even Sora crept out slightly from where he'd taken to hiding half-behind Roxas, smirking and shaking his head when the redhead danced across the stage and promptly got hip-checked into one of the amps by Demyx.

"What's up Twilight Town," the lead singer called when they were a little over an hour into the set, coming down from the end of a cover of a Blink-182 song. He grinned widely at the loud response from the decently-sized crowd. "For those of you who don't know us," Sora shrank back behind Roxas again as a piercing stare swept the crowd, "my name's Axel and this is Melodious Nocturne."

Tumultuous applause erupted as he spread his arms wide, gesturing to the sheepishly smirking bassist on his right, Demyx pulling faces on his left, and the drummer spinning his sticks behind them. Roxas was impressed in spite of himself...for a band that spent half their set covering other bands' music, they seemed to have a pretty decent following for themselves.

"Anyway, we slightly overplayed our set, and therefore don't have time to dramatically walk off stage, pretend we're done, and then see how long we can make you guys clap for before we decide to come back out and play the encore that everyone already knows is coming. Instead, we're just going to play and call it one last song, fair?"

Roxas laughed. Sora, one hand fisted in the sleeve of the blond's hoody, tugged sharply. "Perfect, let's go while they're still on stage."

They turned to look at the door, frowning slightly as both boys assessed the layout of the bar. The exit doors were almost level with the backstage area: there was absolutely no way to walk out while still avoiding the stage. Roxas, personally, still thought the best bet was to sneak out with the crowd, even if he had no idea why sneaking out was necessary, but Sora was already biting his lip and pushing in front of Roxas, slipping between two people avidly watching the stage. Roxas followed with a bemused shrug.

And froze.

He would recognize those chords anywhere. He would recognize that intro if he lost all hearing in one ear and the band had forgotten to plug their amps in and a stadium full of people were all screaming different words, and he certainly, certainly recognized that string of notes Demyx was coaxing from his yellow guitar. Sora, from the way his shoulders suddenly tensed, recognized it too.

"No," Sora shook his head, preemptively protesting Roxas' begging. "No, no, nonono. Rox I need...ugh..."

Roxas, guilty feeling gone straight out the window in light this surprisingly awesome band closing their set with a cover of his all time favorite song in the history of ever, recognized defeat when he saw it. He didn't even bother to gloat about it, turning back to the stage just in time to catch Axel open his mouth.

"When I watch you. Wanna do you. Right where you're standing. Yeahhh."

It was pandemonium. The audience had been into the show before now, most of them singing along with the songs that they all knew, and even a solid half of them singing along to the band's original numbers, but this...there wasn't a person Roxas could see not dancing and singing along to the Say Anything cover, jumping up and down and screaming as Axel climbed up onto an amp and held the mic out to the audience.

"No. I won't let them take you,won't let them take you. Hell no, no, oh no. I won't let them take you, won't let them take you. Hell no, no."

And it was spectacular, really, the way the singer fell back and let the audience run with the chorus, the Demyx and the silver-haired bassist offering the repeated support of "Alive. Alive. Alive with love. Alive with love tonight." Roxas could taste it in the air even as the words fell from his own tongue, could see it shining in the redhead's proud expression as he reclaimed the mic in time for the next verse.

"You have that look on your face," Sora, at least, waited for the song to end before leaning into Roxas with a smirk. The blond barely heard his twin over the roar of the crowd, the words drifting lazily over his ears as he clapped harder than he had all night, utterly incapable of wiping away the stupid grin splitting his jaw.

"What look?" Roxas asked, finally letting Sora's statement sink in as the brunet grabbed his wrist and started forcefully tugging. He kept inadvertently stumbling into people as Sora dragged him along, unable, or maybe just unwilling, to drag his eyes away from the stage and break the spell that seemed to have come over most of the audience.

"The dangerous one." Sora didn't elaborate. He'd apparently had enough of indulging Roxas now that the show was really, truly over, and had moved on to fighting his way through the crowd, glancing at the stage every few seconds to check for the band's progress. All four band members had disappeared by now, which was the only reason Roxas had finally torn his gaze away in time to catch the slight droop of Sora's shoulders when he caught sight of the empty stage.

"Hey."

Roxas walked smack dab into Sora's still-droopy shoulders, not noticing in time that his brother had come to a dead halt in the middle of the crowd, staring forward with the ultimate deer-in-headlights expression. The blond shifted slightly, peering around the wild crown of Sora's messy brown spikes, and felt his eyebrows practically disappear into his own shock of hair.

Standing directly in front of Sora, one hand gripping the brunet's arm, seemingly oblivious to the small crowd of chattering girls swarming around him, was Melodious Nocturne's silver-haired bass player, fresh off the stage. And Sora, rather than recovering from his deer-stare with what Roxas expected to be a 'who the hell are you?' expression, was letting go of Roxas' arm to run his free hand distractedly through his hair.

"Hey," he said finally, glancing at the musician out of the corner of his eye. Roxas raised an eyebrow, and the expression was mirrored by the taller teen.

"Don't run off, yeah? Stick around until the crowd dies out a bit."

And Sora, to Roxas' utter bewilderment, barely even glanced back at his twin before nodding, looking the bassist in the eye for the first time. The other boy's lips quirked up in a small smile before he turned away from them, plastering a much wider grin on his face as he was approached by the first group of fans.

"What the fuck was that?" Roxas hissed, blue eyes wide as Sora all but about-faced, dragging Roxas away from the door they had been bee-lining for and instead over to the significantly less crowded bar. Sora frowned at him, waiting until they were both sequestered into the quietest corner he could find before even pretending to offer an explanation.

"Oh that," Sora said flippantly. Roxas snorted: nonchalance was not a look his brother could ever in a million years manage. "Yeah, that's just Riku."

"Riku?"

"He was best friends with Kairi when she lived on Destiny Island. Came up here for school last year and they reconnected. I went with her to a few of his friends' parties over the summer, up at Twilight Tech."

"Uh huh," Roxas, on the other hand, pulled off non-plussed just fine. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared impassively back at his brother, patiently unmoving until, sure enough, Sora began to squirm under the scrutiny.

"What?" he finally whined.

Roxas all but rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath like he didn't even know where to start. Truthfully, he didn't. If he didn't know better he would say that Riku, first with his appearance on stage, then with his arrival in the audience, was the reason behind the trapped look still lingering in the corner of Sora's expression. That didn't make any sense though. Roxas had never even heard Riku's name mentioned before, but if he was a good friend of Kairi's Sora couldn't possibly be that intimidated by him. Besides, Sora made it sound like the two of them had hung out before. "So, seriously, what the hell's going on? Ten seconds ago you were trying to haul ass outta here."

"Huh? No I wasn't."

Roxas gaped at his twin, allowing several silent moments to pass as he studied the very-poorly-faked expression of confused innocence carefully schooled onto Sora's features. "So...are you two...friends then?"

"I – not really."

"Then what the hell does he want us to stay for?"

"I don't know," Sora squirmed uncomfortably under the lie. "I guess he's just wondering what we're doing here? Oh, god, he's totally going to think I'm some kind of creepy stalker now."

There was the edge of panic Roxas had been waiting for, half an explanation for Sora's bizarre behavior. Captain Cool was afraid of looking like a weirdo in front of Kairi's older (and, although Sora probably hadn't noticed, ridiculously hot), badass college friends.

"Because you came to see his show?" Roxas rolled his eyes. "You're twisted. Tell him I wanted to come see a band and dragged you along with me. You didn't even know their name."

Sora worried his bottom lip between his teeth, watching something over Roxas' shoulder. The blond turned, following his brother's gaze to the gaggle of squawking teenage girls huddled around Riku. He didn't blame them, honestly, he wouldn't have minded getting closer to that long silver hair, although truthfully, if he had to choose between the bandmates Riku wouldn't have been his first choice...

"Does that mean you know all of them?" Roxas asked, turning back to Sora.

The brunet shrugged. "I've hung out with them once or twice. Axel's Riku's best friend and roommate, so they're a package deal a lot of the time, but Axel and Kairi don't really get along so it's mostly just Riku. Demyx is chill but he's always either working or surfing down at the shore with his roommate. I've never met the drummer, but I know his name's Luxord and that he's older than the rest of them. Why?"

"Is...do you know...Axel...?"

"Do you have a prayer?" Sora smirked, some of the tension draining from his features. "Told you you had that dangerous look on your face. I'm not sure though...Axel's one of those guys who'll flirt with a brick wall if it gives him the time of day, so it's hard to tell who he's actually hitting on."

"That's not what I meant," Roxas said stiffly, the small smile quirking the corner of his lips shamelessly betraying his lie. "Think the fangirls have stopped mobbing your new BFF yet?"

"He's not – shut up," Sora grumbled, turning to look back over Roxas' shoulder again. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, prompting Roxas to twist around and come nearly nose-to-nose with the bassist himself.

"Whoa," Roxas jumped, taking half a step back. "Sorry."

Riku shrugged. "My fault for sneaking up. Anyway, sorry about that, Axel gets cranky when I'm 'emo and anti-social and not nice to the fans,'" he explained, using proper air quotes around Axel's prognosis. Roxas struggled to restrain his amused snort of laughter. It wasn't hard to picture this kid, with his long hair hanging down into his eyes and his nothing-but-black-and-white clothes, as an anti-social emo kid.
Sora made no such attempt at restraint. "I didn't know you knew how to be nice," he teased. Roxas raised an eyebrow, watching as the same small, genuine smile from before reappeared on Riku's face.

"I can be nice," he said huffily. "Watch." He turned back to Roxas, holding out a pale hand. "Hey, I'm Riku. Sora's apparently lost his manners, but you must be Roxas. I've heard a lot about you."

"It's nice to meet you," Roxas drawled, unable to fully keep the wary confusion out of his tone.

Sora rolled his eyes good-naturedly, doing yet another poor job of schooling his expression. "So you never mentioned your band's name was Melodious Nocturne."

"Bet that was a surprise, then," Riku smirked. Roxas fought back the urge to bang his head against the nearest hard surface. "So you mean Demyx never tried to corner you into coming to one of our shows? I'm shocked, he's normally all about the sneak attack band promotion."

"Worked on him!"

All three boys turned, eyeing the newcomer with various levels of amusement.

"Roxas, right?" Demyx clapped Roxas on the shoulder, grinning. "Should have realized you were Sora's brother. Also should have gotten both of you here ages ago. You like the show?"

"Yeah," Roxas nodded, completely truthfully. "Especially the not-encore."

Demyx laughed. "We always close with 'Alive With the Glory of Love,' when the theme allows for it. It's Axel's all-time favorite and the fans seem to enjoy it so, hey, why mess with a good thing?"

"Because we've gotten shamelessly predictable?" Riku muttered.

The taller blond glared, but there wasn't much force behind the look. "Don't listen to him, he's just bitter that we still haven't covered his favorite song yet. I keep trying to tell him that Axel's voice will never be able to do Britney justice, but Riku's determined."

"I hate you," the bassist growled. Sora laughed. "Go away, Dem."

"Can't," he sighed, "I'm on a very important mission. Poor Axel's loading the van all by his lonesome right now, so I've come to recruit volunteers."

"Don't look at me," Riku insisted. "I loaded everything to bring it here tonight. You do it."

"Unloaded, and set up the stage," Demyx sing-songed. "That gives me official post-performance loafing privileges, as per your rules. And no, I have no idea where Luxord is."

"Over there," Sora supplied helpfully, pointing across the dark bar at the blond blatantly oogling the bartender.

"With Larxene," Demyx sighed. "Should have known. Well, that leaves you, Ri."

"Ow," Roxas hissed, glaring at his twin as the two musicians began arguing.

"Whoops," Sora glanced down, gingerly lifting his foot from where he had stomped down on Roxas' toes. "My bad, Rox." He ignored Roxas' glare, skipping straight ahead to giving his brother his biggest and most pleading puppy dog eyes. Roxas frowned, cocking his head to the side . Sora flicked his eye sideways, staring quickly, but pointedly, at Demyx. Roxas narrowed his eyes. Demyx? How the hell was he supposed to get rid of Demyx? And, for that matter, why the hell was he supposed to get rid of Demyx?

"Come on, Dem, just find someone else to do it. I don't care, pull some rando from the bar," Riku was whining. Sora widened his eyes pointedly, staring meaningfully at Roxas. Roxas glared right back. Sora pouted. Roxas sighed.

"Uh, I can...I mean...I'll help him." Roxas did his level best to keep the resignation in his tone to the bare minimum.

Demyx and Riku both turned mid argument, a wide smile breaking over Demyx' face even as he began shaking his head. "No, don't be silly, it wouldn't be right to make you do that. Besides, you barely even know us."

"Nah, he'd be happy to," Sora cut in quickly.

Roxas hastily stepped to the right, artfully dodging Sora's second sneaker attack. "No, really," Roxas sighed. "It's fine. I'm so pumped up right now anyway, I might as well do something with all the energy. Besides, technically I still owe you for that CD."

Demyx laughed. "Well, if you insist. Come on, I'll show you out back."

"Nice meeting you, Roxas," Riku said, flashing another half-smirk at the blond. Roxas nodded, shooting Sora one last withering glare before turning away, following Demyx through the rapidly thinning crowd towards the backstage area. The taller blond pointed him towards a set of doors leading out to a side-alleyway, waving him off with another cheeky grin and a 'thanks again, Roxas, Riku owes you one.'

Roxas stepped outside and was immediately hit by the cool rush of fresh air. He hadn't realized just how hot and muggy it had been inside until feeling the late summer breeze on his clammy skin, so he allowed himself a moment, breathing it in and surveying the dimly lit alley.

"Whoo – FUCK."

Roxas rushed forward, grabbing onto one end of a particularly large speaker just in time to stop the entire thing, carrier including, from crashing bodily into the pavement. The equipment was large enough to block Roxas' view of the other person's face, but even if he hadn't been sent out here specifically to help Axel, it would have been hard not to recognize the lead singer's voice after spending the last hour soaking up every word.

"Shit, that was close."

"No wonder, this shit's heavy," Roxas grunted, hefting the speaker up as much as possible and bracing it against his hip.

Axel, or so he hoped, gave a muffled snort of laughter from the other side. "Seriously," he agreed. "If we live through this –"

"You can thank me later," Roxas groaned. The side of his thigh collided heavily with what he sincerely, sincerely hoped was the back bumper of the band's equipment van.

"Did you just quote Anastasia at me?" Axel guffawed, heaving up his end of the speaker as he spoke.

Roxas winced. "You started it," he grumbled defensively. He braced himself against the side of the car, waiting for any sign from the musician about when and where they were going to put the monstrosity down.

"Yeah, but I didn't really expect you to get it. I think I love you," Axels sighed, still laughing breathily. "On three we're dropping this, ready? One. Two. Three." They tilted the speaker into the back of the van, both jumping slightly at the loud thud as it crashed to the carpeted floor. Roxas stepped back as Axel shifted forward, crazy red hair finally coming into view as he hunched down in front of the equipment, braced both hands and a shoulder against the machine, and shoved.

"Whew," he sighed dramatically, straightening up and dusting his hands off before running one through his slightly damp hair. He finally turned, an easy grin sliding across his pointed features at the sight of Roxas standing in front of him.

"Hmm," Axel smirked slightly, running an appraising eye over Roxas, "well-versed in classic animated movies and cute. Very nice. I'm Axel." He held out his free hand, and Roxas took it slightly dazedly. He had, it appeared, been wrong about that MySpace picture: Axel's eyes did not need any help from Photoshop to be that vividly green.

"Roxas," he supplied quickly, realizing that he'd been holding the redhead's hand for just a tick too long. "Demyx was trying to talk Riku into coming out here, but somehow I wound up getting roped in instead."

Understanding flashed across Axel's face, but there was something about the way the corner of his mouth lifted in a silent breath of laughter that made Roxas think he'd answered more than just one unasked question.

"You're Sora's brother," Axel accused, green eyes narrowing slightly. He leaned over and grabbed a small milk crate of wires, tossing it unceremoniously into the van.

"How is it that everyone seems to know my brother, but I don't know anything about any of you," Roxas sighed exasperatedly. He followed the singer's lead, hefting up a bag of what looked like crash cymbals.

Axel chuckled. "He's just one of those guys, isn't it?"

"You don't even know," Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Shame, though," Axel teased. "He should have spent less time making friends and more time introducing us to his much hotter twin brother."

Roxas was quite sure he was blushing to the very roots of his blond hair. He cleared his throat, scraping one hand along the back of his neck. "Uh...yeah, anyway. Demyx – Riku – right. Yeah. Demyx wanted Riku to come help you out but I guess Sora wanted to talk to Riku or something, so..."

It was Axel's turn to roll his eyes, doing a very poor job of covering up a snort of laughter with a cough. "Yeah, they seem to have hit it off pretty well. Kairi, at any rate, seems to like bringing Sora along. That way he and Riku entertain each other and then neither of them notice when Kairi's off slutting it up."

Roxas still couldn't help feeling like he was missing something, though admittedly the thought was almost instantaneously waylaid by the comment about Kairi. "Kairi? Slutting it up? No way, she's so innocent. I'm pretty sure there's actually a running bet going about who's going to be the first guy in our class to sleep with her, since she's the only girl in the popular crowd who hasn't been written about on the bathroom wall."

"Really?" Axel sounded incredibly amused, bending down to grab a guitar case. Roxas reached for another one, pausing when Axel shook his head. "Not that one. That one's mine."

"Does yours get special treatment?" Roxas teased, moving instead towards the keyboard stand.

"Of course she does," Axel insisted, staring at Roxas as though this was a patently stupid question. "She doesn't get used that often, I only get play when Demyx has to play keyboard and we need someone to cover the guitar part, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't be well taken care of. Not my fault those other idiots don't take better care of theirs."

"I'll keep that in mind," Roxas rolled his eyes playfully. He gingerly lifted Axel's case and set it aside from the rest of the equipment still waiting to be loaded.

"So does that mean you'll be coming back, then?" Axel asked, cocking his head to side slightly as he studied the smaller blond. Roxas raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what Axel was talking about. "To another show," he clarified.

"Oh, yeah probably," Roxas shrugged, aiming for nonchalance. He had forgotten, as unlikely as that seemed considering what they were doing, that Axel was the lead singer of the band he'd spent the last week obsessing over on his iPod. "You guys were pretty good."

"You think so? Thanks, Roxas."

It was kind of sweet, Roxas realized, the way Axel seemed genuinely surprised, and gratified, that Roxas seemed to like his band. He weighed the pros and cons of gushing the way he might have if someone like, say, Naminé had asked him about the show instead of someone actually in the band. Maybe complete swooning was a bit over the top, but he could probably go with some light praise.

"I like the way you guys seem to split your time pretty evenly between covers and originals. There's something to be said about a really quality cover of an already good song. It was cool the way you guys kind of make them your own too. You know, instead of trying to make your voice conform to the original...I'm rambling, aren't I?" Roxas bit his lip awkwardly. So much for not gushing?

Axel shook his head, grinning. "No, I love it. I'm glad you like the covers. A lot of people say covers are cheap, but I mean, we have a standing Friday night show once a month here, plus the occasional outside venue that'll book us for something. We can't play the same damn show every time, and we only have so many original songs. Don't want to be too predictable, you know?"

"Other than closing with 'Alive With the Glory of Love?'" Roxas teased. "Demyx said you guys close with that whenever you can."

"That's the exception," Axel insisted. "Got a problem with it?"

"Absolutely not," Roxas shook his head. "It's only about my all time favorite song in the history of the world. You could probably just play it on repeat for an hour straight and call it a show and I'd still come."

Axel's grin, if possible, doubled in size. "I knew I liked you," he said enthusiastically. "It's my favorite too. So yeah, we play it whenever the theme allows for it."

"That's the same thing Demyx said. What do you mean, whenever the theme allows for it?" Roxas asked, puzzled. Axel's green eyes gleamed delightedly, like he'd been hoping that Roxas would ask about that.

"It's the same kind of thing with how we play covers because we don't want the show to get too boring. When we do our regular monthly show at Organization here, they're always themed so we have a good excuse not to play the same exact shit every time. Tonight's theme was pretty lame, we just released that EP a few weeks ago so tonight was just 'The Show That Never Was' and all music that was either from or considered for the EP, but we've had some pretty great shows."

"Like what?" Roxas found himself absolutely fascinated by this. It was something he'd never heard of before, a band gearing their performances towards specific themes, and admittedly, if anyone else tried to do it they probably would have failed spectacularly. Melodious Nocturne, he had a suspicious belief, probably pulled it off with aplomb.

"One night we only did songs that started with the letter R, cause it was Riku's birthday. Last Valentine's day we did only bitter, violently angry break up songs...lots of bitter single girls at that show," Axel mused, looking reminiscent. "Told Sora the other day that for his birthday we'd do only songs about getting absolutely wasted. Suppose that's your birthday too, so I guess you'll have to come to that show. Larx already promised to accidentally lose our bill when it comes time to pay the tab that night."

"Exactly how often do you hang out with Sora?" the blond frowned. How was it possible that Sora had never, ever mentioned even going with Kairi to hang out up at the college, but he was apparently there often enough that Axel was promising to dedicate a show to him? According to Sora he hadn't even known the name of their band.

"Not as often as you're thinking," Axel said quickly, holding up a placating hand. "Nah, in this case I'm just capitalizing on a good excuse to use a theme I've wanted to play with for a while. So what do you think," he gestured around them, and Roxas was surprised to realize that other than Axel's guitar propped over by the door, all the equipment was gone.

"Guess we're done," Roxas shrugged. "Look at that. Everything's off the stage inside?"

"Yup," Axel nodded. "The bar has a few stagehands that help us with set up and break down, but only so far as what's in the bar. They carry everything outside and we're in charge of taking care of it from there. Bunch of jackasses," he added, mumbling under his breath.

Roxas laughed. Axel grinned sheepishly, picking up his guitar and pulling the door open for Roxas. "Come on, lets go find your brother and my incredibly lazy roommate."

They stepped inside to a completely different scene than the one Roxas had left. Everyone who had stayed behind after the show was crowded around the bar, all evidence that a concert had taken place hidden under what looked like a perfectly ordinary Friday night at a bar. Roxas spared a second to wonder if he was even allowed in here anymore, frowning when he realized that meant that Sora wouldn't have been either.

"Where's Riku, I have to kick his ass," Axel announced, dropping down into the booth where Demyx was sitting with what appeared to be charcoal gray hair and a single indigo-colored eye. The eye blinked up at him, narrowing slightly at the sight of Roxas trailing along behind Axel.

"He left," Demyx shrugged. "Sorry, Roxas, this is Zexion, our mostly manager but occasional merch girl. Zex, this is Roxas."

The charcoal hair shifted slightly as the person shook his hair back out of his face and sat up, leaning forward out of the dark corner of the booth. Roxas was momentarily surprised by the appearance of a whole person, taking in the pale features, charcoal and black striped thermal despite the summer height, and decidedly emo-kid haircut that covered a solid half of his face.

"Hey," Roxas nodded.

Zexion raised an eyebrow. "Sora's brother," he said dismissively. It wasn't a question.

"Apparently my brother gets around," Roxas sighed. Zexion didn't quite smile, but the smirk that crossed his face was close enough that Roxas wasn't quite as intimidated as he had been a second ago. Axel, who second before had been helping himself to Demyx' beer, choked noisily, slamming the bottle back down onto the table as he coughed.

"Right," Roxas drawled slowly, cocking his head to the side as he studied Axel's red cheeks. "Speaking of, where is Sora?"

Demyx and Axel, still slightly red in the face, exchanged glances. Roxas, who had played this game often enough with Sora, recognized instantly the silent conversation passing between the two band mates. He was definitely, definitely missing something major here, and he was going to find out what it was as soon as he managed to track down Sora and beat it out of him.

"Soooraaa..." Demyx said slowly. "Sora. He...ah..." Demyx trailed off, looking helplessly around the table for several uncomfortable seconds. It was Zexion who finally took pity on him, rolling his eyes and clearing his throat.

"Sora left with Riku," he informed Roxas bluntly. "Riku said something about going to meet up with Kairi, and Larxene was kind of stressing about someone underage here after hours, so Sora went with him. I think they said something about going to...um...Marly's house?"

Roxas heaved an impressively aggravated sigh. "Typical," he muttered. "Well, guess that's my cue then. I better bounce. It was nice meeting all of you, the show was awesome, so thanks for that..."

"Wait," Axel said, pushing himself to his feet and sliding out from behind the table. "I'll walk you home."

"You don't have to walk me home," Roxas felt bad for the slight note of scorn in his voice but, really. "I'm not a twelve-year-old girl, I can make it home alright without my brother."

"I know you're not," Axel said quickly, shooting Zexion a dirty look. Roxas reasoned that it was probably because the dark-haired boy was significantly better than Axel at hiding a snort behind a cough. "And of course you can. But I want to. Besides, I have to pass your house to get back to the dorms, and there's only room for two people in the van, so someone was going to have to walk home tonight anyway."

Roxas decided not to comment on the fact that Axel apparently knew where he lived. "I mean, I guess if you're going that way anyway, beats walking home alone."

"Well, that's settled then," Demyx announced cheerfully. "Axel, we'll see you back at school. Roxas, it was great seeing you again, make sure you tell your brother to bring you along next time he comes out to us for the night. Everyone get home safe, now get out."

"Yes sir," Roxas responded. He couldn't help but get the feeling that Demyx, who he was slowly realizing had now gotten Roxas to do what the guitarist wanted him to do for the third of all three times they'd spoken, was smarter than he looked.

"Hold on," Axel said quickly. "Let me just grab Lola."

"Who?" Roxas asked, twisting around on the spot to watch Axel pick up his guitar. The redhead waved over his shoulder at his friends, walking away from the table without answering. Roxas scrambled after him, hurrying out the door and back into the fresh air. "Seriously, your guitar's name is Lola."

"It's a perfectly good name," Axel insisted. "Appropriate for a cherry red guitar. It's a little bit slutty, has some classic musical history, and rolls off the tongue nicely. Besides, the second choice was Roxanne, which didn't have the same ring. Although," he mused, "it would have been great if I could have said to you, Roxas, that my guitar was named Roxanne."

Roxas laughed even as he shook his head. "Classic musical history?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Obviously," Axel said. "Come on, the song 'Lola' by The Kinks?"

Roxas shook his head.

"I met her in a club down in old Soho," Axel crooned, leaning forward right up into Roxas' face. "Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola. See-oh-el-aye cola. She walked up to me and she asked me to dance, I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola. El-oh-el-aye Lola, la-la-la-la Lola."

"Never heard it," Roxas insisted, pressing one hand against the redhead's face in an attempt to push him away. Axel kept singing even as he laughed.

"Well I'm not the world's most physical guy, but when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine. Oh my Lola, la-la-la-la Lola. Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man. Oh my Lola, la-la-la-la Lola, la-la-la-la Lola."

"Oh my god," Roxas gasped through his laughter, "tell me it's not about a guy who gets tricked by a crossdresser."

"Lola is an absolute queen," Axel argued solemnly.

"In every sense of the word?" Roxas challenged. The redhead grinned.

"How about this one," he tried. "Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl. With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there."

"For the love of all things musical, stop," Roxas begged. "Aren't you supposed to be a good singer?"

"It's all about auto-tune these days," Axel teased. "If it wasn't for that T-Pain app on my iPhone I wouldn't even be able to get up on stage most nights. Thank god for that," he sighed.

"You're absurd," Roxas declared. "Fine, I won't challenge you on Lola's good name." They walked in silence for a few steps, surprisingly companionable silence considering they'd barely pushed the one hour mark on their relationship. "You know, you really didn't have to walk me home. Just because I'm underage doesn't mean you couldn't have stayed with Demyx and Zexion, they looked like they were having a good time."

"Yeah, but I wanted to," Axel shrugged. "Besides, I do have ulterior motives."

"Do you?" Roxas said dryly. He couldn't help but wonder what those were, and as much as he wouldn't mind some of the options, it seemed kind of counterproductive for Axel to share in advance... (really, someone should smack him soon, before this little thread of thought ran away with itself).

"Yeah, I forgot my damn keys, I'm kind of hoping we run into Sora and Riku somewhere near your house so I can bum Riku's keys off him," Axel gave him a hangdog look, and Roxas couldn't help the feeling that this was hardly a first for the redhead.

"That happen often?"

"You have no idea," the redhead sighed self-depreciatingly. "It's fine, if I get home before Riku does I'll just go crash in Demyx' room. Pretty sure Xiggy went home for the weekend though, which takes all the fun out of it."

"Xiggy?" Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"Xigbar. Dem's roommate," Axel elaborated. "Chill guy, not really into Melodious Nocturne, but he and Demyx were paired together last year and got along well enough. He kind of just does his own thing, you know?"

"Which is what?" the blond asked.

"Surfing. The guy goes surfing at least once a day, no matter how cold or rainy or what the hell ever it is. Seriously, when he's not in class he's at the beach. Dem likes to go with him sometimes, but really his one great love is music, so it's not too hard to distract Demyx away from his surfboard for the sake of band rehearsal."

"So if Demyx lives with Xigbar and you and Riku live together, where does Zexion come in?" He had to admit, he was a little bit fascinated by the whole dynamic. It was nice, for one thing, hearing about people he hadn't known for most of his life, and it was good to hear about what he had to look forward to next year. Axel didn't seem to mind telling it either, shoving both hands in his pockets as he opened his mouth again.

"Zex and Demyx have their own weird history. Something about Demyx being a typical asshole freshman last year and drunkenly stumbling into the wrong room. Claims he was convinced the fourth floor was really the sixth floor, but how you screw up by two full flights of stairs is beyond me. Anyway, he apparently tried to climb into bed with Zexion, thinking it was his own, and Zex, in an uncharacteristic display of charity, helped idiot boy out," Axel grinned fondly. "He's kinda been around ever since. He's a cool guy though, good kid. Quiet, but brilliant, and wicked funny once he opens up. He still talks to Demyx more than the rest of us, but they've had a whole year worth of classes together too, so Demyx got a head start on the rest of us."

"They're in the same major?"

"Yup, sound mixing and sound editing. Well, they're both double majoring, Zexion because he's a pain in the ass overachiever like that and Demyx because he can't function if he doesn't get his hands on a musical instrument at least once a day, but there's still a decent amount of overlap," Axel shrugged.

"So I take it you guys are all in the film department at Twilight Tech?" Roxas guessed. Twilight Town was home to Twilight Technical Institute, a college that specialized in the production of both film and performance. Twilight Town itself, being a suburb of the much larger Radiant Gardens, was known in the city proper as the Theatre District, making it the perfect place for such a school. Roxas himself had no interest whatsoever in it, but plenty of people from his high school had gone on to Twilight Tech, enough that he knew at least a little something about it.

"Yup," Axel nodded. "Dem and Zex with their music and editing, Riku's studying something that sounds complicated but is really just lighting effects, and I'm there for pyrotechnics." He added that last part with an endearing flourish of pride, and that was all Roxas needed to know that the singer was obsessed with his craft.

"Pyrotechnics?" he repeated. "Cool. So you get to blow shit up and stuff?"

"Sometimes, yeah," Axel boasted. "Mostly I just like playing with fire. Have ever since I was little, you know, I was always that kid who would get way, way too close to the bonfire for my parent's comfort. Always figured I'd have to do something with fire in order to ever have fun as an adult, and well, I just couldn't see myself as a firefighter. Probably because I'd be so distracted by the pretty flames I'd forget to turn the hose on."

Roxas chuckled, having no problem at all picturing the other teen staring wide-eyed at a burning building.

"What about you?" Axel asked after a few moments of silence.

The blond glanced sideways, eyeing the other boy. "What about me?"

"Well," Axel waved one hand dismissively. "I've more or less given you the basics. Name's Axel Flynn, I just turned 20 a few weeks ago, I'm a sophomore at Twilight Tech Film Academy studying Pyrotechnics. My best friend and roommate is Riku Sefirosu, and he and I and two of our other friends, Demyx Kuso and Luxord Atkin are in a band called Melodious Nocturne that likes to play really ridiculous shows on a monthly basis in hopes of one day getting to ditch all this school shit to go on a totally awesome tour and become fabulously famous and wealthy."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Roxas laughed. "Okay. Um, my name is Roxas Strife, I'm a couple months shy of 18. I'm a senior at Twilight Town High School North with my twin brother Sora, the Blitzball star. I also have an older brother named Cloud who lives in the city and may or may not have a boyfriend that he refuses to talk about." It had been so long since he'd last spoken to someone he hadn't known since kindergarten that he barely remembered how to start. Besides, the conversation had been flowing so naturally up until now that he'd hardly given it any thought.

"If he's not talking about it then they're definitely dating," Axel ventured. "But more importantly, I asked about you, and you told me about your brothers. I want to know about you. Like...where do you want to go to school?"

"Hollow Bastion University is the pipe dream," Roxas sighed. "Whether or not that'll ever happen remains to be seen, but it's a nice thought. Anything to get me far enough away from here that I won't have to see anyone ever again. Hell, I'd go as far as Destiny Islands if there was a decent school there."

"Not a big fan of Twilight Town?" the redhead guessed.

Roxas shook his head vehemently. "No. It's kind of...small."

"You think so?" Axel raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I mean, I've lived here my whole life and I'm almost sure that I've never seen you before."

"Really?"

"Yup, born and raised here. Although I did go to Twilight High East, not North, and I did graduate two years above you," Axel elaborated. "You really think it's small though?"

"Considering the number of people that supposedly live here, hell yeah," Roxas insisted. "Forget six degrees of separation, I'll bet you could play three degrees of separation with anyone in this town, even two people who have never met. Look at us, we didn't know a thing about each other before tonight, but you know my brother. I bet I could name five people off the top of my head and you'd know half of them."

"And how, exactly, do you know half of five people?" Axel challenged teasingly, raising a mocking eyebrow.

"By know of them but never having met them," Roxas counted quickly. "Seriously. Bet you twenty bucks we know at least two and a half of the same people, not counting the ones we've already talked about."

"You're on," Axel agreed. "First five people off the top of your head, aaand go:"

"Naminé Majo, Hayner Dincht, Seifer Almasy, Saïx Claymore, and, uh, Olette Onna," he listed, ticking the names off on his fingers. "Know any of them?"

"Now that's just cheating," Axel scoffed. "Come on, Naminé is Kairi's friend, Kairi's brought her around a couple of times, and everyone knows Seifer Almasy, he's that douchebag always hanging out around the Sandlot."

"Not cheating," Roxas sang, grinning. "How was I supposed to know that Nam's met you? Some best friend she is, not even telling me she'd made new friends. And who was I to know that Seifer's notoriety made it as far as Twilight North?"

"So, so cheating," the singer insisted. "Cheater, cheater, cheater."

"Speaking of, there are still three more names on the list," Roxas reminded him. "Anyone else?"

"Hayner? Never heard of him. And who was that other girl, Omelet?" Axel tried, frowning in concentration.

"Olette," Roxas rolled his eyes, correcting the other teen out of force of habit more than anything else. It'd been a while since he'd heard what used to be the frequent butchering of Olette's name.

"Yeah, don't know her either," Axel shrugged. "Someone should tell her to try to come up with a nickname or something though, otherwise people are just going to start calling her Omelet."

Roxas snickered in spite of himself. Olette passionately despised when people screwed her name up; he was starting to think maybe it would serve her right to be on the receiving end of a few smirks for a change.

"What about Saïx," Roxas asked. "Come on, he's the one to make it or break it."

"You're not...friends with him, are you?" Axel said cautiously. Roxas glanced up at the redhead, surprised at the somewhat cold tone his voice had suddenly affected. It was the first time all night Axel looked or sounded anything other than friendly, and if it hadn't made Roxas panic slightly he probably would have found it somewhat gratifying.

"Me? Friends with Saïx?" Roxas couldn't hold back the loud guffaw of laughter that escaped through his lips, taking a few beats to get his cackles under control before he tried speaking again. Even then his words were laced with the occasional snicker. "Me, friends with Saïx. Oh man. That'd be the fucking day. Hahaha, no. definitely no. A big, huge, extremely loud and resounding oh god, no. In fact, I'm pretty sure Saïx would either kill himself or beat both of us up at the mere suggestion."

The suspicious expression cleared from Axel's face almost instantly, quickly replaced by a look that said all too well that Axel completely understood. "That's definitely a no, then?"

"I'm a little too gay for him," Roxas said by way of explanation.

Axel laughed loudly, glancing sideways at the blond. "Well yeah, that'd do it," he nodded. "He's got a younger brother, same age as mine. Lea and Isa were on some pee-wee sports-whatever team together back in the day and have been more or less attached at the hip ever since. Isa's alright, but his older brother...heh, well, I guess you could say I'm a little too gay for his tastes too."

"So, you're..." Roxas trailed off. It was a little funny, kind of, the way he had no problem blurting it out as a way of labeling himself, but when it came time to applying the label to someone else, even if it was someone who had just more or less said it himself, Roxas couldn't quite spit the word out.

"Gay?" Axel supplied. "Well, I believe the textbook term is bisexual. Possibly pansexual, though I've never had the opportunity to test the full extent of that theory, but really I just like to call myself an equal opportunity employer. I don't really care who you are, where you're from, or what you did, as long as you love me."

Roxas blinked. "Did you just explain your sexuality by way of a Backstreet Boys song lyric?"

"Damn, you're good," Axel grinned. "Two for two."

"Is this a common occurrence for you?" Roxas asked, faking exasperation.

"What, sneaking quotes into everyday conversation, or getting caught?"

"Both."

"Well," Axel's green eyes were crinkled from the force of his grin, the corners bunching up nearly into his eyebrows. "I guess it's kind of a bad habit, although most people only catch it about half the time. Mostly it's left over from when I was younger. My brother and I, Reno, the older one, not Lea, Lea's too young to get half this shit, we used to throw quotes back and forth at each other all the time. Sometimes we'd have entire conversations in movie quotes and no one else would even notice."

Roxas, who knew he should probably have found this to be the weirdest thing the redhead had said to him all night, couldn't help but find it alarmingly charming and endearing. "Well, I accept your challenge," he said. "I'm now going to make it a personal mission to catch as many quotes as possible."
"Then I will have to work on making them as obscure or random as possible," Axel countered.

"Bring it," Roxas grinned.

"Done and done," Axel shot back. "Although we will have to come up with some kind of reward system for us," he mused. "You know, some little token of congratulations for either a successful catch or a successfully sneaky quote."

Roxas blushed, even though he wasn't quite sure he should be. Something in Axel's expression was almost...leering, and something in the way he'd said it sounded almost like...innuendo. Not that Roxas was opposed, of course, but still. Sure, Sora had said that Axel would flirt with a wall if he felt like it, and yeah, Axel himself had said he wasn't opposed to guys, but...

"You're not used to people flirting with you, are you?" Axel asked suddenly. He kept his eyes trained on the younger boy, watching his expression carefully.

If Roxas had been blushing before then it was nothing, nothing compared to what he was doing now. He spluttered on not much more than air for several seconds, trying to gather some way to change the subject without sounding like an absolute spaz.

"It's okay to say no," Axel said gently. "In fact, you don't really have to, that was mostly rhetorical. I'm having a hard time believing it though."

"Why?" Roxas blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Are you kidding? No offense, but you're adorable," Axel laughed. "Seriously, I'm having a really hard time imaging that you don't have little high school gays and girls crawling all over you."

"Me?" and oh god, seriously, if there was ever a time that his voice sounded less masculine and more like a mouse, Roxas would be hard pressed to remember it. "No."

"Why not?" Axel challenged, looking like he still didn't believe Roxas despite the clear evidence to the contrary.

Roxas scraped the blunt nails of one hand along the back of his neck, twisting the short blond strands of hair between his fingers. "I've been out since I was fourteen," he finally explained. "And as far as I'm aware, I'm the only one out in my school. So, you know, that kind of puts a damper on potential attention from guys, and, well, the girls figured out a while ago that I was a lost cause. Not that many of them ever went out of their way to try in the first place."

There was something in the look Axel was giving him now that Roxas couldn't quite read, something that looked like it could be compassion, or maybe a little bit of empathy, or maybe something in polar opposite direction, something a little more calculating, like intrigue.

"I'm sure you're not the only gay guy at Twilight North," Axel challenged.

Roxas scoffed. "They're sure doing a damn good job of hiding themselves, then," he muttered. "All the better for them, really."

If Axel was curious, which, and this one Roxas was sure he could read on the redhead's face, he was, he didn't say anything. "Well then," he teased, smirking slightly at the smaller blond. "I think you better start getting used to it, especially if you want to go off to that big ole' city for school, because trust me, they're going to be all over you."

It was Axel who stopped walking first, Roxas nearly continuing right onto the next block before realizing they were standing outside his house. He glanced up at the navy blue door, then further up into Sora's bedroom window, which was still decidedly dark, before turning back to look at Axel.

"Well, how, exactly, do you propose I do that?" he asked, taking the first few steps up onto his stoop. There was a small huff of laughter from his right, nothing more than a little puff of air, but it was all Roxas needed to know that Axel was smirking at him.

"Guess you'll just have to start hanging out with me more often," the redhead said, raising an eyebrow. Roxas glanced down at him from the top step, eyeing the singer standing with both hands in his front pockets at the foot of the staircase, smirking up at him with those hypnotically green eyes. No, he really didn't think that would be much of a problem for him at all.

"I suppose I could suffer through that," he gave a great, teasing sigh before falling back down into an easy grin. "See you around?"

Axel nodded, taking a few steps back towards the corner without turning his back on the blond. "Yeah, you will. Have a good night, Roxas."

And Roxas, regardless of the voice in his head reprimanding him for behaving like a particularly sappy and lovestruck teenage girl straight out of a romantic comedy, couldn't help but lean back against the doorframe and watch Axel's back until the redhead disappeared from under the streetlights.


Have I mentioned that my ability to string words together in a coherent sentence has all but gone right out the window? Forgive me and I'll love you forever. Promise.