I'm not sure how to feel about Axel. I've been writing him letters for what feels like my entire life, but I barely know him. I didn't know what he looked or sounded like until yesterday; and here he was, in my house. In my room.

It's a little strange, but... It's not, at the same time.

Though... I really wish he'd quit implying that I was gay. For one, I'm pretty damn sure Axel's straight- guys who're that hot usually are. For two, I have a girlfriend. I guess I've never mentioned her, have I? Her name is Xion. She's been my best friend since day one-she lives right next door to me, after all. She's a week younger than me, as well. We used to have our birthday party together, me, Sora, and her.

People used to think we were triplets when we went somewhere, because we were all attached at the hip, finishing each other's sentences. Then Sora met Kairi, and he stopped hanging out with us so much.

._. ._. ._.

Roxas groaned as he heard the loud buzz of his phone vibrating somewhere in the room and ran around frantically trying to find the cursed thing.

"Hello?" Roxas answered, having found it-where else,-in his closet.

"Hey Roxas!"

"Good morning, Xion," Roxas said into the phone, grinning at the opposite side of his closet. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to go somewhere after I got off work? I have this weird urge to go swimming all of the sudden," she said. Roxas could picture her expression, the way she would have one eyebrow turned up.

Roxas grinned. "Sure, hun. It's supposed to be really nice today, so we could go to the lake if you want. I'll swing by the cafe at-"

"Roxy, come out of the closet, we all know you're gay."

"Roxas, who was that?"

"Sorry, Xi, my cousin Demyx is visiting, and he brought Axel with him," Roxas said, flipping Axel the bird as he stuck his tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes. "He's been making gay jokes since he got here. I should definitely have burned the rainbow boxers you and Nami got me."

"You actually wear those? Oh my god, Rox, you don't have to!" Xion was giggling now, and he could picture her as she wiped at her eyes, which always teared up when she laughed.

Roxas grinned. "Well, unlike some people, I actually wear the things people give me," he said, as he chucked a shoe at Axel, who was prancing around his room with Demyx, both boys wearing their pants on their heads. He didn't even question why Demyx was in his room now.

"Well, sorry, I didn't know you wanted me to be a dyke, Roxas. Is there something you're hiding from me? Hmmmmm?"

"That shirt just says that you like lesbians. Not that you are one. I mean, I wear mine all the time."

Xion muttered something, and then sighed. "I gotta go to work, Rox. I love you," she said.

"I love you too, Xion. I'll see you at one."

"Bye," she said, before hanging up.

Roxas closed his phone, and stood up out of the closet, brushing off his bright pink pants. Axel and Demyx were still at it, and now Sora had joined in, wearing a coconut bra with his spiderman boxers, a pair of red jeans on his head.

Roxas shook his head and walked out of his room-turned-dance-floor.

._. ._. ._.

"Hey, Rox, you wanna take Axel here and show him the town?"

"Um, sure, Demyx," he said, wincing. "That is, assuming he doesn't mind being the third wheel for a while." Roxas glanced over at the red head, who was staring intently at his lighter.

"As long as we go somewhere I can smoke, I don't care," came his response.

Roxas nodded, and gestured for him to follow him. "Uh, we're going swimming, so you might wanna..."

"I don't swim, so no need for swim trunks."

"Oh, okay...you sure you wanna go? I mean, I'm sure Sora wouldn't mind-"

"Sorry, Rox, I gotta date," Sora said, shrugging.

Roxas shrugged, and made his way out the door. Axel followed him, breathing a sigh of relief.

"As much as I love your cousin, he really pisses me off," he muttered, pinching his nose as they walked.

"Me and Demyx never were very close for that very reason," Roxas said, crossing the street and slipping into a small cafe.

"Sorry, we're closing," a girl said.

"It's me," Roxas said, as he took a rag out of the bucket next to the woman and moved to another table. It wasn't quite one, but the cafe closed at twelve-thirty. "How've you been, Yuffie?"

"I've been doing great, how about you?"

"Doing pretty good myself," he replied. "My cousin Demyx-you remember him, right?-just came from Radiant Garden."

"Oh my god, Demyx is in town? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Yuffie asked, chucking straws at Roxas.

Roxas chuckled, dodging a few. "He got in pretty late last night, I was already in bed when they got here," he said.

"They?"

Roxas pointed at the red-head who was looking completely lost.

"Oh, hi there, handsome! You must be really good at camouflage, I didn't even notice you there!"

Axel rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, sure? I'm Axel. Commit it to memory."

Yuffie grinned. "I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, proud owner of this here establishment and world renown ninja! Oh, and uh, I'm Xion's mom, but that's not important."

"Hey, are you saying I'm not important?" Xion called from the kitchen door. She pouted, her midnight blue eyes shining.

Yuffie seemed to melt a little. "Of course not, honey, you're important... I need you for dish washing...and so Roxas brings me hot young men, of course."

"Mom," Xion groaned. "You're probably the reason Roxas is the only guy friend I have..."

Yuffie blinked, and turned back to Axel. "Whoa, you have like...the greenest eyes ever. Does Crayola even make that color? That would be a bad ass crayon, and-"

Shouts of "Mom!" and "Yuffie!" were heard, but ignored, until Axel was being dragged away by a flustered Roxas and Xion.

"NOOOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!" Yuffie shouted, dropping to her knees dramatically.

Xion and Roxas shook their heads, leaving the spunky ninja to pretend-weep on the floor of her cafe. Axel was being dragged by the pair, one adorning each arm.

Needless to say, Axel felt like a pimp when he walked down the sidewalk, an arm around the shoulders of each eighteen year old.

Roxas was first to shrug him off, rolling his indigo eyes at the taller man as he shoved Axel's arm off his woman and wrapped his hand around her much smaller one. Axel rolled his own eyes at him in response, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, popping one into his mouth and slipping it back into his pocket, taking out a silver lighter with a flame on it and lighting the stick.

._. ._. ._.

When they arrived at the lake, the most Axel could do was stare as Xion ripped off her clothing in the middle of the street, Roxas mimicking her, and the pair ran off screaming and giggling and chasing each other like school kids during recess. When they finally reached the water, Xion ruthlessly shoved the blond boy into the water, causing a large splash as he fell off the rock he'd just been king of five feet ago.

Roxas emerged and laughed, splashing Xion with some water. She stood up from her squatting position on the rock he'd previously claimed as his kingdom, and jumped in, belly flopping a few feet from him. She rose to the surface, sputtering and squealing of the cold as she removed soaked coal hair from her face.

Axel sat on the beach, as far away from the water as he could get, and took a deep drag on his cancer-stick, eyes narrowed as he watched the couple. She's not that pretty, he thought to himself. Her body is okay, but her face is kind of... boyish. I don't know what Roxas sees in her.

Xion glanced out of the corner of her eyes, catching the bright green of his, and smiled.

Axel flinched. He didn't know why, but something about that smile just...wasn't right. He'd ask Roxas about it later, he decided.

._. ._. ._.

"Roxas...how long have you known Xion?"

"All my life, why?"

"Well, earlier, I noticed that when she smiles, her eyes aren't with it," Axel said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"She just... she's awkward around people she doesn't know."

Axel nodded, glancing to the side. They were sitting on the roof of Roxas's building, eating sea-salt ice creams, watching the sun set. Axel squinted at the distance. "Hey...Rox?"

"Yeah?"

"You ever been up on that tower over there?"

"Uh, no? Why?"

"I think I have before."

"You've been to Twilight Town before?"

Axel hesitated. "I never told you? I come here at least once a year."

"And you never came to visit me?"

Axel looked away. "I'm only ever here for a night. Then I'm usually off to another town. Part of being like me and Demyx, I guess."

"What do you mean by that?"

He glanced over at the blond, meeting the blue eyes with his green ones. "Roxas, me and Demyx? We're band mates. We do tours. How did you not know that?"

Roxas stared at him. "I don't know. What's your band called?"

"Roxas?"

"Yeah?"

"You're wearing the band shirt."

Roxas gaped at him for a good minute. "I-wha-re-" he said intelligently.

"Eat your ice cream, it's melting."

Roxas clamped his jaw shut and looked back at his ice cream. He stared at it for a second, took a bite, and then glanced from his 'Heartless' shirt to Axel. "So you're-"

"Yes, god damn. Don't you pay attention to these kinds of things?"

"Well I knew their singer was named Axel but I didn't know-"

"That he was a total sex god under those masks?"

Roxas nodded.

Axel, for lack of better terminology, busted out laughing. "You are so gay, Roxy. Worst case of denial ever."

"Hey! I'm not gay!" Roxas shouted, smacking Axel upside the head.

Axel smirked at him, and shook his head. "There's just no way you're straight, I'm sorry."

"Well I'm pretty sure I'm not a man, Axel," came the reply from Xion, who sat down on Roxas's other side. "And trust me, Roxas is definitely male."

Axel stared at the girl. "So, how often do you guys...yah know..."

"Have sex?" Xion suggested.

Roxas pinched the bridge of his nose, before raising both hands to smack the two simultaneously upside the head. "Axel, that's none of your business. Xion, don't tell him, I don't care how much he pays you, he doesn't need to know."

Axel let out a frustrated whine. "But Roxy, I know how often Demyx gets laid," he said.

Roxas snorted. "Yeah, you're probably the one fucking him, aren't you?"

"Wha- No, Roxas. I don't like Demyx that way."

They heard the distinctive sound of Demyx sneezing come from the house.

"Roxas, don't be mean to Axel," Xion said, pouting. "If you're mean to him, he won't come back. You don't want that, do you? I know mom would absolutely hate that."

"Yuffie would just hide in his luggage," Roxas said, shaking his head. "It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't currently in his suitcase."

Xion giggled. "You're right, she'd be all 'I am the Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi,' and hit him over the head with a coin-filled sock."

"Your mom scares me," Axel muttered.

"Your not the only one," Roxas and Xion groaned. Xion sighed and got up, saying something about a tv show and Yuffie breaking tables before leaving the boys alone, once again.

Axel studied the blond, green eyes narrowed. "You know what's weird?"

"Sora's hair?"

Axel shook his head. "You, Xion, and Sora all look kinda alike, you know?"

"Well... Sora is my brother, so naturally we look a like...as for Xion, we're not sure why she looks like Sora. She just does."

"That doesn't weird you out a little, that your girlfriend looks like your brother?"

"Hmm. No, not really. I mean, we grew up next door to each other, so we never really see the resemblance, but people who don't know better usually assume we're all related."

Axel sighed. "It's still really weird. By the way, does Xion have a dad?"

Roxas shook his head. "Yuffie never knew who the father was- she used to drink a lot. I mean, she still does on occasion, but she's not as bad as she used to be, I guess."

"What about you?"

Roxas looked away. "We don't talk about him anymore."

"Oh," was all Axel said, before rubbing the blond's back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "Sorry, Rox. Didn't mean to strike a sore spot."

"It's fine," Roxas said, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. "Sora could tell you, mom could tell you, hell, Xion could tell you, but... I... it still hurts to talk about."

"Well... if you ever need to talk, you know what to do."

"Go bother Xion or Olette, unless it's about either of them, then I go to Hayner or Pence."

Axel pouted. "I meant you could talk to me, Roxy."

Roxas glanced over at the red head, smiling. "Why would I want to do that?" He asked before standing up and dusting his pink skinny jeans off. "Anyways, I'm going to go take a shower and go to bed... don't do anything Demyx would do, got it?"

Axel nodded, and watched the sunset, unlit cigarette hanging from his lips.