Merry Christmas to everyone, or a general Happy Holiday's if that's your thing. In that spirit, I have to warn you that this is a horrible gift, much like that watering can from Aunt Florence, or the mouse traps from Uncle Steve. Maybe not exactly like that, but you get the point. Its angsty and...stuff, which is new for me, but I guess that's the point of this little experiment, isn't it? Enjoy!

Prompt: "A balloon up in the sky, that can't come down unless it shatters, and the child who's stuck on the ground, wishing for it."

Submitted By: The MiSuNdErStAnDiNg

Axel had it all; the looks, the grades, the personality, the edge. He was perfect in every way. Others worshiped him in all his glory, and he knew it. He craved it. He would walk down the halls of the school buildings, acutely aware of the numerous eyes that watched him pass by. He would turn and smirk at the girls crowded around their lockers, high-five the jock that passed him in the hall, stop and chat to the nerd from his chemistry class. He treated them all as equals, but only in comparison to each other. He was above them; he was the idol, and they were the pilgrims bowing at his feet.

Roxas had nothing. He had only ever had one good friend who had moved away two years ago. All Roxas had now were acquaintances, those that he spoke to and acknowledged, and thus acknowledged him in return. But they weren't friends, they were just…people. He was like a mannequin in a store window. They would walk by and look at him, judge him, but then they would turn away and walk on, never really seeing him at all, and forgetting whatever they had seen a brief moment later.

Axel was one of those people, outside the glass looking in, only seeing the outline of Roxas, the shape he presented to the world. Axel never questioned it. After all, he was above the crowds, the squabble, above trying to figure out the true shapes of the people who crowded the halls. He didn't need to divulge their secrets, they would tell them to him. He didn't need to seek out friends; they flocked to him like sheep to a shepherd's call.

Roxas saw Axel, though. He saw the perfection, he saw the flawlessness, the precision of all of his actions. He saw the way Axel would move through the throngs of students, confident in his faultlessness. Roxas would see him smile, see him laugh, see him gracefully navigate around the school as if it was his own personal kingdom. And Roxas loathed him for it.

He wasn't jealous of how popular Axel was, or his looks, or grades. He wasn't even jealous of how easily Axel seemed to make friends. He wasn't even jealous at all. He was just angry. Angry that Axel couldn't see how thin the ice he stood on was, how everything about him was held up by the thin thread of his inflamed ego. He and Roxas were the same, and the only thing that separated them was that Axel believed he was god's gift to earth, and he acted as such. He was subtle about it though, to some extent, so others couldn't see that he was essentially lording his superiority over them. If Axel would ever take a step back and look, really look at his life, he would find that he didn't have any friends, just people who stood around him to be in his presence. And that was the way he treated them.

He and Roxas were so similar in that aspect, that no one really saw them as what they were, only what they wanted to see, what they had been trained to see. And Roxas hated Axel for not realizing this, when he himself was so painfully aware. He wanted to watch as Axel floated high, so high above the others as he craved to do, and then burst, and came crashing down to earth in a flaming wreck.

Why did Roxas want this so badly? Why would he wish for the total and utter desolation of one of his classmate's reputations? He first thought it was simply because he hated the other man. But over time he realized that it was because of another trait that he shared with Axel.

Loneliness.

He wanted Axel to fall, because Roxas knew that when he landed, it would be on the ground that Roxas stood on. His was the level that Axel would crash upon, alone and friendless, his supremacy squashed and those that once stood proudly at his side faded into the shadows. And Roxas would be the only one there to pick him up and clean his wounds.

It was selfish and cruel, but Roxas so desperately wished for it. He was lonely, and he knew that for all his strutting around and confident airs, that Axel was lonely too. Why else would the red-head work so hard to be noticed, to have everyone around him revere him? So, in Roxas craving for Axel to fall from grace, he was really trying to help them both.

Sometimes he would doubt his feelings, his hate and his longing for Axel. Perhaps the older boy was happy with his life, and everything Roxas was seeing in him was a lie. But then, as he would head to his next class, he would catch a glimpse of the red-head, and a stray look in the other's eye would tell Roxas that what he thought was true.

So he waited for the day. The day when Axel realized the perfectly painted lie around him was just that; a ruse, a world sculpted beautifully out of black powder, just waiting for a stray spark. And Roxas would watch as everything blew apart and then burned to the ground, destruction that would leave nothing in its wake except the battered and burnt body of Axel. And Roxas would be there, and together he and Axel would slowly piece that world back together.

That day came when Larxene asked Axel out on a date.

She was in the same year as Axel, and they had known each other awhile. Apparently she thought they were going somewhere, but Axel had laughed her off and said that there was nothing between them. Larxene had been less then pleased, to say the least. She started berating him, demanding that they get serious, but he would never say yes. He had never dated anyone, no one had been up to standard for him, and Larxene was no exception. The problem was, people really liked Larxene. She was one of the school's better athletes for a few teams, depending on the season. She was a good student, got good enough grades, and most of the time she was pretty nice to the other students, if only for civilities sake. She was nothing special, but she was generally known as good person, and thought highly of. So when Axel turned her down, people started to wonder. When he repeatedly refused her, they began to get anxious. And when finally, at an upperclassman's party, Larxene asked why Axel wouldn't go out with her, and he responded that it was because she 'simply wasn't enough', people's nervous anxiety finally erupted into anger.

Roxas heard the rumors spread. Some people said that Axel thought she wasn't smart enough, not pretty enough, not sleazy enough, but Roxas knew it wasn't any of those things. It was exactly as Axel had said, she wasn't enough for him. She wasn't as perfectly god-like as he believed he was, wasn't the object of everyone attention like he was, she simply didn't measure up to his expectation. And his expectation was impossible to measure up to.

So then Roxas simply watched. He watched as Axel fell from his pedestal, as his 'friends' realized that all Axel was and had ever been was a self-obsessed egotistical bastard with no thought for anyone but himself, and rightfully left him to fend for himself. Watched as Axel saw them leave, and believed he had done nothing wrong, and continued to act as if he was still anointed by the heavens. Roxas watched as all the students realized exactly what Axel was; a conceited jerk with no respect for others. He watched as Axel was ostracized from every social group he had ever associated with and looked down upon, which people quickly understood meant the same thing.

And the most beautiful thing, in Roxas's opinion, was when he was able to watch Axel realize that everything he had built up, everything that had kept him floating above the ground, higher that the spires of the tallest building, had been yanked away. He was plummeting to earth now, banished from his heavenly seat and sent in exile to live with the mere mortals. It had happened slowly at first, but then in a rush Axel had realized that everything he had ever held, the glass bubble of his life had been shattered into thousands of tiny slivers, each now imbedded within his skin.

Roxas was delighted.

That wasn't completely accurate. Roxas felt sympathetic for Axel. He too had once been privy to a perfect life. He had friends and happiness. But that had slithered out of his grasp, just as Axel's perfect life had. Roxas was delighted to see that he was no longer alone, that he had someone else who understood his pain, that pain of losing everything that you hadn't realized you cherished. So he would wait. He would wait for Axel to see what he had become, and he would wait for Axel to recognize that he and Roxas were kindred spirits, both having fallen from grace and landed on the cold hard earth, alone in their solitude. But now, that solitude would be banished, for they would have each other.

For now, Axel sat alone, the other students avoiding him as they walked along with their lunch trays and drinks. Axel sat and watched them pass by, those who had once worshipped him so easily, so readily. His eyes gave nothing away, they were cold, hard, and solid, nothing existed within them. But behind them; behind them was a whirlwind of emotion, a tidal wave of hurt and anger and pain and confusion. He watched now, with his pained eyes, the way they whispered and they way they stared, with loathing. He was alone now.

But no, there was one set of eyes that didn't loathe him, a pair of eyes that didn't glare with hatred. Those blue eyes he saw now, they pitied him. And as those eyes recognized they were being seen, the face that held them gained a wicked smirk. That boy, the blond who know looked at him like he knew what was really behind Axel's eyes; his name was Roxas, yes? How could he know? How could he begin to imagine what Axel felt?

Weeks passed. The loathing eyes stopped staring, everyone stopped staring. It was like Axel didn't exist anymore, like he had been forgotten. But that one damn pair of blue eyes kept glancing his way, kept pitying him, kept pretending like they were holding some sort of great secret that Axel needed to know. It was driving him crazy.

"What do you want?" Axel asked him one day, quite out of the blue. Gym class had them running laps around the field, and Axel had pulled the blond menace aside and demanded answers. A sharp whistle blast made them both turn to the instructor, who signaled for them to keep running. Roxas gave Axel a coy smile, and dashed back onto the track. Axel stood stunned for a moment, and then continued his own jogging.

After class, Axel found Roxas quietly standing outside the locker room. The blond gave him a poignant look, and began to walk. Axel followed, intrigued.

"Amazing, isn't it? Roxas asked, and Axel glared at him.

"Isn't what?"

"How quickly life can change. How you were walking on clouds one moment, and the next, everything you know and had is just that; clouds, too high for you to ever reach again."

Axel stopped, and Roxas, a few paces ahead, turned to gaze at him steadily. "Why are you saying this to me? How do you…" Axel's voice faded, and Roxas raised an eyebrow at him.

"How do I what?"

"How do you know?" Axel asked, and Roxas laughed. Axel found that he liked the way it sounded.

"You're not a very vivid speaker, are you?" Roxas teased, and Axel couldn't stop a corner of his mouth from rising in a half smile. "How do I know? I don't know anything. But I can see things, I can see you. I saw what you were, how you changed, and what you've become. And now that you're mortal, I think it's time you started fresh."

"Mortal?" Axel repeated, but Roxas had already continued walking. Axel dashed to catch up with him, and began to walk beside the strange blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. 'Mortal ' he thought to himself, 'Is that what I have become? Have I fallen so far?' But as he looked down at Roxas, he wasn't quite sure why, but being mortal didn't sound so bad.

See, wasn't that angsty? I feel like it was, once again, somewhat rushed, as well as depressing. But I really don't mind, because at least I'm trying new things. Let me know what you think! You're probably a better judge than I am. XD Please leave me more prompts, thanks to The MiSuNdErStAnDiNg for this one! I hope I did it justice, let me know if you think it was too far off topic!

Again, Merry Christmas, or a happy whatever-you-fancy in this holiday season!