A/N; So, that went pretty fast! My friend is inspiring me with great ideas. As promised, chapter two is Axel/Roxas! Which is the vampire here I will leave for you to read and find out. This turned out a little more serious than cracky, but I have to admit I quite like it. The second Axel/Roxas will come tomorrow, to be followed by surprise vampire!Axel/Kairi in chapter four! Again, if you have any OTP's you'd like me to attempt under this theme, just say the word.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Or Twilight, for that matter. Thank god.

(Also, I have got to stop writing fic at 4 in the morning. You did not see that terrible typo!)

"Hey, Roxas?"

"Yeah, Axel?"

"You've read the Twilight series, right?"

Roxas arched his brow over the top of his copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, but did not look up. "Sort of," he murmured, licking his thumb to turn a page. Axel watched his movements intently, green eyes sliding across Roxas's fingers, the back of his book, the crinkle in his brow. "My aunt is crazy about them, and I decided to pick them up for myself. Out of scientific curiosity," he added, finally looking up over the top of his book, blue eyes challenging Axel to contradict him. Axel merely put his hands up in a surrender gesture.

"An experiment in purple prose."

"Yeah." Roxas let his eyes slide back down to the pages. His thumbs drifted over the corners of the pages, dog-eared and well-worn with many readings. "Just wanted to see what the big deal was, you know? It was like a train wreck. Once I started, I just couldn't stop."

"Like potato chips," Axel grinned, voice quiet.

"Something like that," Roxas murmured in response, tone laced with quiet amusement. "Junk food for your brain is just as hard to ignore as junk food for your stomach. I mean, the books were all pretty terrible. I think I'd pay money to get very specific amnesia where they're concerned."

Axel snorted a laugh, lifting his head off the pillow of his arms and sitting back in his chair. He pushed back on the chair legs, propping his knee against the kitchen table they shared, and stretched his arms high above his head. Roxas marveled silently over his ability to keep his balance without falling over backwards. Normally he'd have gone tumbling. "Axel?"

The red head let his chair legs crash back to the floor with a bang, bracing his hands on his knees as he did so. He smirked at the look on Roxas's face and shrugged. "What? Even I can keep my balance sometimes."

"You're about as graceful as an elephant on a skateboard, Axel." Roxas sighed through his nose and folded the book's page, setting it cover-side down on the table and pulling his body up in a stretch of his own, face scrunching up as he did so. He didn't feel Axel's gaze on him, sharp and wondering. "Last time you tried that you went right over backwards and cracked your head on the floor. You got a concussion. Just be careful, okay?"

"Yes, mom," Axel muttered, rolling his eyes as he pushed to his feet. His fingers trailed along the edge of the table, and he didn't totally step away. Instead, he started to circle around, moving towards his slightly younger roommate.

"Rox?"

Roxas hummed a yawn, face scrunching up again. Axel reached out a hand, fingers poised to brush along the edge of Roxas's face, but he froze halfway and let his hand drop just as Roxas opened his eyes. "Yeah, Axel?"

Axel stopped just in front of him, standing next to the table, all his movements stilling as he looked Roxas direct in the eye. The kid didn't know it, but he was ... striking. You couldn't really call Roxas beautiful -- his features were too angular, his eyes too unearthly a blue to be normal. He was skinny and bony and short, his hair always a mess and his features tugged down in a frown more often than not. But in moments like this, when he looked ruffled and sleepy and his eyes were a cool, calm hue instead of icy or angry or blank, Axel felt a draw towards him as powerful as gravity. It was all he could do to keep away from the blond and not leap all over him.

"I was just wondering," he murmured, not making another move, expression strangely soft as he continued to stare down at the other. "How long have we been living together?"

Roxas tilted his head to the side, just slightly, expression going a little strange. "Two years now. Since our freshman year, remember? That's how we met. When they roomed us together. What, you telling me you forgot?" It was rare for Roxas to joke so easily, since normally his humor was sharper, more subtle, hidden underneath deadpan words and in secretive smiles he kept tucked away. But now he had an open, awkward grin on his face, an unconscious reaction to the sudden tension in the room.

Sighing out a quiet breath, Axel gave into his impulse and reached out, letting his fingers brush over Roxas's cheekbone. The other man froze, eyes going wide in his head. "Axel?"

"I have something I need to tell you, Rox. Something you might not like."

Roxas's heart was jumping in his chest, pounding painfully against his rib cage. Something he might not like--? The way Axel's fingers held his face, the look in the other's eyes, dark and serious ... Roxas wanted to like this. Roxas wanted to like this very badly. Because truth was, Roxas had always liked--

"I have a secret, y'see. A pretty big one. You sure you hated Twilight? Every little thing about it? You never found the vampires, I dunno, interesting? Fun? Iiiintriguing, maybe?"

Roxas's heart dropped from his throat back to its normal spot in his chest, expression souring with his hidden disappointment. "No, Axel. Not really. There are better depictions of vampires in better books. Even Anne Rice does a better job. Look, if this is some kind of joke--"

"It's no joke." Axel's fingers suddenly tightened on his chin, and Roxas felt his heart flop painfully in his chest. There was a long, tensely silent moment between them, one where it seemed the whole world held its breath. Then Axel cocked his head, one eyebrow creeping up his forehead. "You didn't even find the glittering interesting?"

With no warning Roxas shot out of his chair, scowling furiously at his roommate-slash-best-friend-slash-maybe-something-more-only-in-his-dreams. "No, Axel! The whole thing sucked! Bella was the worst, most insipid heroine ever, and if I had to read one more time about Edward's perfect this or Edward's perfect that, I might have thrown up! Stop making a big deal out of it!" He spun away, fingernails digging bright red crescents into his palms as he stalked into their cramped living room, which was really in the same room as their kitchen and no more than a few feet away, but the urge to stalk off had been too strong to ignore. He planned on making the sharp left straight into his bedroom, intent on ignoring Axel until whenever he stopped being stupid, which could be days, and had almost made it when he felt a grip on his shoulder. "Axel--" he grated, tone full of warning, and he turned around--

Only to be brought up short, eyes widening in his head. Axel was close, so close, very quickly, and staring him right in the eye once again, using his superior height to loom over Roxas and stare piercingly into his eyes. "Roxas," he murmured, voice half-whisper now, his expression as serious as Roxas had ever seen it. The blond could do nothing but gape, breath taken away by the sudden gravity of Axel's presence, suffocatingly strong in the small space of their apartment.

"I need to show you something." He took Roxas's wrist in a surprisingly strong grip and dragged him across the apartment, towards the door. Roxas barely had time to grab his jacket (which thankfully had his student ID and keys to get back into their room) before Axel yanked him out the door and towards the stairwell. "Axel--"

"Don't." Axel tugged him right down the stairs and out the building, only stopping when he hit fresh air. He took a deep breath, momentarily shutting his eyes. Roxas was quiet, simply watching him, not removing his hand from Axel's grip. It was warm and comfortable and a small piece of what Roxas had always wanted.

Because the truth was that Roxas had been in love with Axel almost from the first week they had spent together in their freshman dorm room. He'd been instantly drawn to the red head's gregarious way, the open and honest and laughing way he dealt with everything and everyone in his life. Not to mention Axel was smart - blazingly, blindingly smart, much moreso than he was given credit for in their circle of friends. But none of them ever saw Axel bent over his books at night; none of them ever listened to Axel and Roxas's drawn out conversations that rambled over all aspects of academia. Roxas, so used to a quiet, withdrawn sort of life, one where he smiled now and then and maybe laughed sometimes but never gave 100% of himself to anything, felt like a fish out of water in Axel's explosively colorful world. Holding himself apart had become a suffocating yet comfortable habit he couldn't and didn't really want to break -- because it kept him safe and ensured that he wouldn't get hurt by caring too much. His old friends had drifted away as a result, all but loyal, determined, sadly smiling Namine, unwilling to ever give up on her closest childhood friend, but slowly Roxas had left the rest all behind. It wasn't that he didn't care -- merely that he drifted off into his thoughts and only came crashing back down to earth when it was too late to fix the damage his inattentions had done.

Axel had changed all of that. Axel had forced him to be involved. Axel had forced him to open his eyes and sit up and pay attention. Rather than passing life by floating in a bland haze, Roxas had been forced to let the sun blaze into his life and burn all the mist away, opening up vistas he hadn't known existed. Axel had brought music with his two acoustic guitars and Axel had brought noise with his crazy ass older friends and Axel had brought life. And Roxas had loved him almost instinctively, reactively, a little bit desperately.

He'd never had the courage to say a word. Roxas, quiet Roxas, expectant and hoping and not daring Roxas, hadn't been able to admit his feelings to his new best friend. He didn't want to do anything to risk the best thing that had ever happened to him, and if he pushed Axel away ... he couldn't push Axel away. So he loved his best friend and roommate quietly, underneath the surface, and tried to make himself content with friendship.

But the memory of Axel's fingers on his face burned like a brand, and the tightness of Axel's grip on his wrist sent a quiet, electric thrill through Roxas's limbs. This had to be something. Maybe. Please God please.

"Axel, what are you doing?"

Axel opened his eyes for the first time in two minutes of silence, and looked back at his friend with a bright, half-insane grin. "You don't even want to know."

All of a sudden he twisted, turning so his back was to Roxas and gripping both of Roxas's wrists in his hands. With a yank he pulled Roxas's arms over his shoulders and crouched down. "Get on."

Roxas made a choked noise, thrown off balance and stumbling towards Axel's back before he could help himself. "Wh-what?!"

Axel made an exasperated noise and rolled his eyes. He cinched Roxas's arms around his neck and finally let go of his wrists, instead reaching his arms back to loop them around the back of Roxas's knees. Without giving the other a choice he lifted Roxas bodily into the air on his back, shifting a little to make the burden of Roxas's frame more comfortable across his shoulders. Roxas, for his part, clung hard enough to choke. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Showing you the world?" Jovially, he hummed a few bars of the famous Disney tune he was referencing, setting off in a jaunty walk down the street, headed for the park located at the end of their block. "Shining, shimmering, spleeeendiiiiid?"

"Axel," Roxas grated out through closed teeth, "You better have a good plan or so help me God--" He yelped like a girl when Axel abruptly loosened his grip, clinging to his shoulders to keep from falling off. He scowled at Axel's immediate and raucous laughter and pressed his arms into the other's throat in retaliation. "Axel--"

"Calm down, blondie," Axel rasped around the too-tight-to-be-comfortable grip on his throat. "I just have something I need to show you. And since you were being such a stick in the mud before about Twilight, I decided to show you rather than tell you. Like in kindergarten when you had to bring shit in for the other kids to see! No one would believe you had the coolest Batman figurine on the block unless you brought it in and showed them, you couldn't just talk about it."

Roxas had loosened his grip if only to hear the other talk a little more clearly, too baffled to do anything else. "What," he deadpanned, "are you talking about?"

"Roxas," Axel sighed in a satisfied way as he stepped into the park, "I have a biiiiig secret to tell you. I've kept it hidden all of this time because I didn't know how you'd react. That's why I planted the Twilight books. Your aunt? Pfft. You forget, but I brought them home first. Told you they were a gift from my younger sister. Roxas, you've met Kairi. You've gotta know she wouldn't touch tripe like that with a ten foot pole and rubber gloves." Axel cast a grin over his shoulder, sharp and knowing. Roxas just stared at him.

"So?"

"Sooooo ... the powers Meyer talks about in those shitty books aren't too far off the mark. I mean, we aren't porcelain-skinned gods, and for the love of fuck, I definitely don't glitter like diamonds in the sunlight. Ugh." He shook his head, making Roxas want to sneeze as the bright red hair brushed over his face. "But she did get some things right. Like this."

"Axel, this is ridiculAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH." Roxas had started to chastise his apparently batshit insane best friend when Axel abruptly launched off the ground like a human rocket, leaping a dozen, two dozen feet into the air to land lightly on a big, broad tree branch. Roxas was now clinging to his best friend like a barnacle, arms and legs constricting as his eyes went wide as saucers in his head. "You -- you -- you --"

"Can jump really high, yes," Axel supplied smugly, and leapt again, to another branch in another tree another twenty feet up.

"You'renotaclumsyidiot!" Roxas gasped, clinging all the harder. Axel barked a laugh, shaking his head gently. "That was all an act, Rox. Playing up the clumsiness helps in the moments when I accidentally lift something I shouldn't be able to or something like that."

It came back to Roxas in a flash - those times Axel had hauled crates full of heavy textbooks up the stairs without seeming to break a sweat, lifting one end of the couch a little too easily and a little too high when they moved out of their last dorm...

"Are you saying ... are you saying that--"

Axel leapt again, to another tree, dropping ten feet and making Roxas's stomach fly up into his eyeballs. This time he landed on the broadest, thickest branch of all, in the biggest tree in the park. There he knelt down, letting Roxas unsteadily unclench from around Axel and get his feet under him, though he kept a vice grip on the other's shoulder for balance. Once they were untangled, Axel stood to his full height and looked down at his friend again. This time his expression was relaxed, even happy, though it was a little hard to tell when they had only the silvery light of the moon to see by. They were far above the street lights lining the perimeter of the park with their meager orange light. In the crisp spring air, with the moon directly overhead in its midnight zenith, Roxas found himself momentarily transfixed. Axel ... Axel was ...

"An idiot. You are an IDIOT." Roxas punched Axel a little harder than was strictly necessary in the chest, though he kept his grip on Axel's shoulder. Axel wheezed out an "oof," but merely grinned at his buddy, reaching out to ruffle the other's hair.

"You are a complete idiot," Roxas gasped through sudden laughter, unable to help the smile that broke over his own face. "Of all the ways to tell me, you decide leaping into trees and scaring me half to death is the answer?"

"Leaping into trees is always the answer," Axel replied with a completely straight face. He snickered, though, when Roxas punched him again, eyes glinting with amusement.

"Stupid. So what, you're telling me you're a vampire?"

For just a second, the smile on Axel's face faltered, but Roxas knew the other well enough to catch it. His bravado suddenly false, Axel gave an exaggerated shrug, rolling his shoulders easily. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"You sure you don't glitter in the sunlight?"

A marginal amount of the tension bled out of Axel's shoulders. "Yep."

"Okay. Are you going to eat me?"

Axel actually chuckled this time, an honest, half-rueful sound. "No, Rox, I'm not gonna eat you."

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Roxas's face was serious now, quiet, more open and vulnerable than Axel had ever seen it. Axel was startled enough that he had to take a step closer, closing what little distance there had been between them in the first place.

"Yeah," he replied quietly, returning to the solemn tone he'd had in the apartment. "I'm" -- he swallowed hard -- "in love with you."

There was silence for a moment, neither of them speaking as a breeze whispered through the leaved around them, making shadows and silver light ripple across their faces. Then, abruptly, Roxas grinned like the sun, grinned so hard his face hurt, and reached up, one hand going behind Axel's neck as the other tangled in and gently tugged on his hair.

"Good," he murmured. And then he kissed Axel hard and full on the lips like he'd been wanting to for two years. He swallowed Axel's surprised mmph and kept on grinning into the kiss, laughing into the other's mouth when he felt Axel smile in return.

"I should sue Stephanie Meyer for defamation of character."

"You couldn't get away with it, you know."

"Yeah. But it's a nice dream."