And a Happy New Year.

Roxas only fussed a little bit over what he was going to wear. He only changed like twice. He thought a lot more about the things he was going to say. He didn't try to think of topics for conversation, necessarily, just answers to things he thought Axel might ask him, things that are usually asked when trying to get to know someone. He partially hoped he wouldn't even have the opportunity to say them. Conversing with a maybe-more-than-friend should just happen, Roxas thought. It shouldn't feel rehearsed.

"Hey… Rox. You're kicking the leg of my chair."

Jolting from his thoughts, Roxas blinked. "Huh, what?"

Sora rolled his eyes. It was a very familiar, big brother gesture. Roxas observed it at least twice a day. "You, foot. It's kicking my chair."

"Oh," Roxas said blankly, shifting slightly so that he kicked air rather than any chairs. Or the table. Or Sora's foot.

"Stop fidgeting! It's gonna go fine, you'll see. You'll do star-spangled shooters and eat hot wings and embarrass yourself trying to choke down the spicy ones and you'll probably kick yourself over it for weeks even though he'll probably just think it's cute—"

"Jesus, shut up," Roxas groaned. He tried to sound annoyed, but secretly he made a mental note to only go for the mild wings. At least until he was comfortable enough around Axel to pant like a moron. He shuddered to think of what those star-spangled shooters would do to him. Though Roxas liked to think he was tactful enough at the best of times, he was an immensely amiable drinker.

Sora smirked, his eyebrow quirking smugly. "Yeah, okay. You just go have fun, and I'll stay here, all aloooone and lonely. I'll watch xmen by myself, and eat all these jalapeño poppers by myself."

"Damn it Sora, I said I was sorry," Roxas growled. "You would have done the same thing."

In truth, initially Sora hadn't really given him too hard a time about it. At first he was a little surly, but as soon as Roxas mentioned that he had a date, Sora had immediately switched into older brother mode, and had been teasing Roxas ever since.

"Yeah, I would," Sora replied. "I'm just fucking with you. Go, baby brother. Be free. Party, do drugs, get laid."

"I hate you," Roxas mumbled.

~o~

It was agreed that Roxas would leave his car parked on the street outside Nature's Java. Due to its slightly out-the-way location, there was no parking meter, which made it a perfect spot for Roxas to leave his car and eliminate the need for a second designated driver. Although he wasn't quite sure where he would end up or how he would get home, Roxas didn't fret. He'd have the rest of the weekend to figure that out.

He arrived a few minutes after Axel, who was waiting for him in the backseat of a silver SUV that Roxas didn't recognize. On nine bucks an hour and tips, however, Roxas was nearly certain that it didn't belong to Axel.

As he approached the vehicle, Roxas suddenly realized he knew very little about what he was getting into. Did Axel own a car? Or did he take a bus, or the tube to work? Was he a college graduate? Religious? In a shop like Nature's Java, it was difficult to tell. Stuff like that didn't really matter, Roxas supposed. But it unnerved him a little to think that all he really knew about Axel was that he was full to the brim with random facts, he had a guilty pleasure for Dancing with the Stars, and that, to some extent, he was interested in Roxas.

"Hey," Roxas greeted, his breath puffing out in a thin white steam. He climbed into the back seat next to Axel, scooting maybe a little closer than was normal.

The two figures in the front seats turned so that they could get a proper look at Roxas. Roxas wondered what Axel had told them about him.

"Hi Rox! This is Demyx and Zexion," Axel said cheerfully, gesturing to each of them, respectively.

Zexion nodded at Roxas, "It's nice to meet you."

The two of them looked every bit as odd to Roxas as Axel had the day they'd first met. Zexion wore his steely dark hair in a layered fringe, which covered one eye. It was that sort of punkish style that had gone out of fashion years ago, but in a weird way it was becoming to him. Roxas didn't know how he felt about Zexion driving around with his vision obscured, though.

Demyx was another matter entirely. He had light, ash brown hair with highlights, which was styled into a weird mullet-faux hawk hybrid. He sported Mardi Gras colors, all sequins and glitter. Looking between the pair of them, Roxas wondered passively whether the two of them styled themselves that way all the time, or if it was just for the occasion.

Even Axel looked different. He had taken his hair down from its ponytail; well, it might be more accurate to say he released it. It spanned out in all directions, giving Roxas the distinct impression of a large red porcupine. Axel's barista smock was gone, and instead he wore thick purple eyeliner with a hint of glitter. It was New Year's, but on any other day Roxas probably wouldn't have taken him out like that.

Seeing the three of them together made Roxas feel a little underdressed. He wore a purple v-neck, a leather jacket, and jeans. It was form fitting and easy to layer, but it wasn't really celebratory. He wasn't a habitual user of makeup, either. Sometimes he'd get pinned down by his cousins and have no choice, but he'd never actually put it on himself.

Feeling slightly intimidated, Roxas managed a little wave, and then they were driving.

He probably should have been paying attention to where they heading, lest he found himself alone and responsible for getting himself home. But he just couldn't concentrate. Axel was only scant inches from him. There were so many possibilities for what the night could hold. Would there be dancing? Drinking games? Darts? Cards? Roxas hoped they weren't into drugs. He joked about it lightly enough with Sora, but the truth was they really weren't his scene anymore. He hoped at least that the club wouldn't get too loud until later in the night. Roxas really did want to get to know Axel better.

Already he could see what Axel had meant about Demyx and Zexion getting lost in one another. The party had barely been moving for a few minutes, but the pair in the front seat had already plummeted deep into rapid conversation. Roxas wouldn't have been able to get a word in even if he'd been trying to keep up in the first place.

He caught eyes with Axel and got a knowing stare. Their fingers were lying so close. Roxas wished he could skip this step. The first date was always the hardest, because you never know what's what. You don't know what the other person is comfortable with, and vice versa. How eccentric can the conversation get? How sarcastic? Roxas had exactly two settings in a social environment: so shy and reserved he barely said anything, or the alternative, his brain-to-mouth filter didn't exist and he said everything.

Roxas had reached stage two with Axel already, but that was also in an empty coffee shop. The setting was different, the dynamic between them had changed. Roxas needed to gather his bearings.

"Hey Roxas, bet you don't know why the sun sets red."

Roxas opened his mouth to tell Axel exactly why the sun set red, but Axel was already speaking ahead of him. "You see, light is made up of lots of colors, and out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest."

He finished in that same smug tone he always used during the Random Fact of the Day. But Roxas knew better.

"Nope," he replied smoothly.

Axel blinked. "No?"

"No," Roxas repeated. "On the visible light spectrum, red is the longest wavelength. But that's not the reason the sun appears red when it goes down. The moon also appears red when it rises, see?" he said, gesturing out to the night sky, where a blazing orange half-moon sat on the horizon. "It's because the dust particles on the horizon distort the light. Like a filter. A big, dirty light filter."

Axel was grinning. And grinning and grinning like an idiot. "No kidding. Where'd you learn that?"

"Ninth grade geology?" Roxas guessed. "I don't know, I like the sky, and stars and stuff. It's nice to remember that the universe is so much bigger than you and me."

That was probably one of the most personal things Roxas had ever said to him. He'd toss in his opinions wherever he felt like it, and they'd talked about work and their cars and console preferences. But now they were branching into existentialism. And it was far too early in the evening for that kind of conversation.

"I like smoking under the stars," Axel agreed. "Relaxes me."

"You smoke?" Roxas asked. It wasn't a make or break, but on the whole he'd really prefer if Axel didn't.

But Axel shook his head. "Nah, not habitually. Socially, sometimes. And I might go through a pack over the whole of summer, cause it's like I said, smoking on clear nights relaxes me. I might smoke a little tonight cause it's a special occasion. Non-addictive personality, got it memorized?"

Roxas shrugged. "I guess."

On the other hand, Roxas did have an addictive personality and he knew it. Which is why he drank coffee and stayed away from cigarettes whenever possible. It was an expense he felt wasn't worth dealing with if he could help it.

They arrived at a club that Roxas had never heard of. Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't that. Perhaps it was that Roxas had only seen Axel in the context of Nature's Java, but on the whole it seemed so… ordinary. There was a chalkboard out front advertising the 12 cent wings Axel had talked about, as well as other typical diner specials. Inside the bar was dimly lit, filled with the smell of bar food and the sound of music that was slightly too loud for the dull conversations of the early evening.

To start out with, they were seated at a booth. Later, things would get crazy. The glitter would fly, people with blacklight tattoos and colorful weaves would party and dance and play beer pong. The music would turn up and the bass would drop, and Roxas wouldn't be able to hear himself think. But not now. Now was the time for margarita wings and diet coke.

Demyx and Zexion, after everyone was seated, temporarily broke free from their own discussion, and the four of them were able to chat for a while. Roxas learned that Zexion was a freelance graphic designer ("yeah, for my band," said Demyx. He got smacked) and that Axel was going to grad school for anthropology with a minor in art history ("which was kind of a bad decision in hindsight, but now that I'm this far I'm kinda stuck with it").

Roxas also learned that Demyx and his band opened for the Young Veins once and it was the proudest achievement of his young life; Zexion was half Brazilian and the reason Axel got his tattoos was to commemorate his swim across the English Channel. Or, at least, that was the reason Demyx gave him after he woke up from his celebratory blackout.

"So how does an Anthropologist end up on the morning shift of Nature's Java?" Roxas asked. He'd been dying to know, for ages and ages.

Axel ran his hand awkwardly through the hair on the base of his neck. "I don't know… it's just a job," he said. "Gotta pay college tuition somehow. We get a lot of hardcore naturalists and vegans and stuff, but the atmosphere is nice. And I've gotten incense and beads and stuff for my room and stuff now. The zen of it all rubs off after a while."

"Yeah, cause he's a hippie," Demyx commented dryly.

Roxas almost said that he'd like to see Axel's room sometime, but he stopped himself. Too soon, he thought.

"But enough of me" said Axel, waving Demyx away. "What do you do? Six fifteen in the morning, Monday through Friday? With a pressed button up shirt and a tie? Do jobs like that actually exist?"

Roxas stared mournfully at the wood grain of the table. "I'm boring," he admitted. "Helpdesk support, IT. It's… sort of like a step up from consumer tech support. I've never swum the English Channel or played in a band or done anything neat like that."

Axel's hand snuck over to where Roxas' lie. He intertwined their pinkies. "I don't think you're boring."

"Oh god, here they go," said Demyx.

"Is that what we look like?" Zexion mused with mild interest. He perked up, hit by a sudden thought. "Oh! Babe, when did you want to set up those promotional shots with Marluxia? Only cause I had a client call this morning asking about next Wednesday…"

And then they were gone again, leaving Axel and Roxas to themselves again. Roxas was doing his best not to get flustered or show any outward signs of nerve. In truth, his heart was going fast and he was nearly certain that Axel could feel his pulse. This was happening.

Axel never stepped over the line, not once. Not after night hours began, not after they'd had a few shots, not even after they became tightly packed together on the dance floor. Awkward and shy and blushing, they danced more like sims, tripping over their own feet and singing along to Journey like stereotypical white clubbers did.

At ten minutes to midnight, they stepped outside for some air. There were almost as many people gathered outside as there were inside, all balloons and chatter and red plastic cups. But at least outside, the air was cool and the music was muffled enough for them to hear one another.

True to his promise, Axel did end up bumming a cigarette. Roxas found he didn't mind very much. They were both sweaty, quite tipsy, and covered in other peoples' perfumes. What was one more smell?

During the middle of an offshoot conversation about different kinds of cat houses, the five minute warning was announced, and a thought fell upon Roxas like an anvil. The countdown. It might start at 60, or 30, or 10. People would shout, second by second, screaming louder and louder with each number. And then they'd hit the new year and people would blow horns and noisemakers and take shots and start hugging and kissing.

Axel might kiss him.

How had he not thought of that earlier? Axel had probably been considering it since the beginning, since the moment he decided to ask Roxas in the first place. It was so easy.

Warmth spread from the center of Roxas' chest, burning through him all the way to the tips of his fingers. He could barely focus on the conversation, but the pair of shots and long island tea he'd had could account for that.

Roxas hoped he would, god he hoped he would. He liked Axel a lot…

A loud smattering of firecrackers violently snapped him from his daze. Axel too. They both jumped about a mile, laughing along with everybody else. Roxas was starting to hear counting from inside, the sound drawing nearer and nearer as more people joined in.

Fifteen.

When did it begin snowing? Had it been this whole time? It must have been; there were footprints marking the thin powder, forming a clear trail to where they stood. Roxas was hyperaware of it now.

Thirteen…

Axel, who had just noticed the counting, joined in with a doofy smile, muttering at first. Roxas did too. A few snowflakes clung merrily to Axel's eyelashes, occasionally fluttering off in bits as he counted jovially.

"Eight."

By now everyone was counting.

"Seven."

The volume rose and rose.

"Six!"

"Five!"

"FOUR!"

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

A cacophony of sounds exploded from within the club. Cheering, horns, clinking glasses, exclamations of "Happy fucking new year!" and banging pots and pans all filled Roxas' ears. Yet it all seemed fuzzy, distant somehow. As if he were looking through a long tunnel and Axel was at the end of it. Nothing else was really in focus.

Please, do it, Roxas begged silently. You have to know I want it.

In one slow, fluid motion, Axel stepped forward, took ahold of both of Roxas' hands, and kissed him.

Roxas was buzzing, Axel's warm touch a pleasant contrast to the cold he didn't know he was feeling. The lips pressed against his own were warm and soft, pushing and moving ever so gently. It ended too soon, hours, too soon in Roxas' opinion.

Axel was pink in the face and smiling shyly, like he was trying to hold it back. Feeling much braver now, Roxas slid his hands from Axel's and placed them on the sides of his neck. Eyes slipped shut as they pressed fully into a kiss that made them both feel weak, nearly dizzy with excitement.

"Happy New Year," they said together.

~o~

"He really likes you, you know," said Zexion in a matter-of-fact sort of voice as the party sped back toward Nature's Java.

"Oh?" Roxas said with calm, benign interest, glancing at Axel's sleeping form.

It was only around quarter to one, but Axel had knocked out barely five minutes after they left the party. Roxas didn't know how he could possibly do it; he, for one, would be lying awake full of jitters until the sun came up. But then, he supposed, Axel had gotten up at god knows what time to open the shop, it'd make sense that he crash now, especially after drinking.

"Totally!" Demyx chimed in. "'Oh my god, my new customer is so freakin' cute!'" he said in a mock imitation of Axel.

"'He came back again today I think he might like me,'" Zexion added.

"'No, you don't even understand,'" Demyx continued, grinning, "'I would totally have his babies.'"

Zexion cut him off with a sharp glare. "Too far," he said.

But Roxas just smiled, rubbing small circles over where Axel's hand clutched his. He thought it would be uncomfortable, if only a little bit, being with Axel and his friends outside the familiar backdrop of Nature's Java. But it wasn't. He was all butterflies and nerves, but not uncomfortable. It was as if he'd already known how it was all going to end up. Like skipping to a page near the end of a book without having read the context to understand it. Of course, hindsight was always 20/20, so maybe this was just how Roxas wanted it to play out.

"Yeah? What else does he say about me?" Roxas wondered, making it a personal goal to one day be as happy and in sync with Axel as Zexion and Demyx were when they were together.

"Hmm… I don't know," said Demyx. "I mean, it's always 'guess what Roxas said today' 'Roxas is so smart' 'guys, he's so out of my league, I don't even know why I bother.' That kind of thing. Which is funny to me now that I'm meeting you, cause he had me picturing some posh pretentious guy but you seem pretty chill to me. I guess that's just what happens when you like someone."

Roxas grew very hot in the face, feeling that he probably shouldn't have asked. "Why? I'm really nothing special…" he muttered, more to himself than to Demyx.

He was just some computer nerd that was picky about his coffee and just happened to like providing his two cents on whatever random thing Axel talked about day in and day out.

"Funny, Axel said the same thing to me before we went out tonight," said Demyx, with a sort of conclusive tone.

Roxas liked Demyx, he decided. He liked straightforward people. It was one of the things that attracted him to Axel. He had a feeling that, if things with Axel worked out as well as he was hoping, Demyx would probably become a very close friend.

Sneakily as he could, Roxas retrieved Axel's phone so that he could get his number in it. Axel had been doing all the work so far; Roxas felt it only fair that he take the initiative for once. He left Axel with a single text message for the morning:

Thanks for tonight, I had a lot of fun with you ;)

~o~

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE TWICE AS MANY KANGAROOS LIVING IN AUSTRALIA AS THERE ARE PEOPLE? Was what Roxas woke up to on New Year's Day. Exactly like that, in all caps. Roxas buried his head back into the pillow, trying to hide his smile from himself. It was such an Axel thing to do.

Did you know that your eyelids flutter when you sleep? Roxas replied. His phone had received Axel's text at 8:30 that morning. He didn't know if Axel worked Saturdays or not, or holidays. Roxas sighed for him. He was glad those days were behind him.

But it took less than a minute for his phone to ding cheerfully with Axel's reply.

The next time you wake up at ass o'clock in the morning to work 9 hours and don't pass out after three shots of tequila, two beers and the best first kiss of your life, you let me know.

To that, Roxas replied, You know they're having an exhibition at the Met for classic Assyrian art. School me on Ancient History?

It's a date.