Well here's chapter two! Sorry it took so long, but I was grounded for get this – not wearing my coat one day that I walked across town to get home from school! Home's not THAT far from my high school and it wasn't THAT cold outside either… (Sighs exasperatedly at her Mother's antics) Oh well, I worked on this while I was grounded so maybe it's a good thing I was grounded from one point of view.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviews the last chapter! I love you all so much!!! Hee he, reading all those reviews made me feel so super loved and appreciated – and I don't get to feel that way a lot of the time so thank you so much!!! Oh, and if Fae and Brandon are reading this, you two make me feel super loved and appreciated every freakin' day my wonderfully kind perverted little darlings – except for the days when Fae tries to copy my homework or when Brandon doesn't show up at school. (People trying to get answers off me because they think I'm smart, because they were being lazy and didn't feel like doing the assignment, or because they fell asleep during class really ticks me off)

In this chapter, there is mention of 'Friday school'(s). For those of you who don't know what a Friday school is it's when you get in trouble so you have to stay after school on Friday for three hours. You can't talk, you can't get up to go to the bathroom, you can't chew gum, you can't break any school rules including the ones that landed you there in the first place, and you can't have electronics of any form. Sounds bad huh… luckily, I'm a goody two shoes so I've never had one. But my friends have and they told me how much it sucks. Yeah… that's all I have to say about that.

Okay, the winner of the hypothetical picture of Riku in his boxers is… Riku-Stalker! Love ya darling, you deserve it!!! Lol To everyone else who wanted the hypothetical picture, try to leave an awesome review this time and beat her out for this chapter's prize!!! Cookie for reviewers as well as a special prize for the best review!!!

Chapter 2

"Riku! You up and ready yet?" A sweetly girly voice called out suddenly, disturbing my otherwise peaceful slumber.

"Go away." The only answer the voice was going to get for the time being.

"Riku, oh Riku, where for art thou Riku my love? My silver-haired beauty, my pale God of darkness, appear at thy window and reveal my heart's one true desire!" A sniggering male voice shouted over the female still calling my name. "Since poetry has no visible effect on you, I'll try a more direct route. All poetry aside, as bluntly as I can think to put it, get your skinny little ass out here where we can see you right now. I'm serious this time Riku, get out here!"

"Shut the hell up dickhead, I'm trying to sleep here if you didn't notice!" I mumbled sleepily, flipping over with my eyes still tight shut against the annoying beam of sunlight streaming in through the open window and onto my face. I never did shut that damn window did I? The continuous calling of my name persisted making me more irritable than I already was. And believe me, I am NOT a morning person. And having people screaming at me this early in the morning presumably from out of my open window – not the greatest idea, you know, unless you want your head bitten off or for me to rip your face off with my bare hands. "Whoever you people are just go the hell away already damn it!"

"Come on Rik-ki-kee dear! We'll be late if you don't hurry it up!" Another girl, slightly more excited than the other female judging by the tone and sheer volume of her voice shrieked loudly making me growl in frustration as I struggled to shut out the voices calling my name so insistently.

Why do these people sound so familiar? Do I know these people or something? It had been late, very late, before I had finally fallen asleep if you could really call that falling asleep. Technically it was classified closer to passing out unconscious and on the verge of utter exhaustion. For some odd reason I couldn't quite put my finger on, my sleep-logged brain was having trouble connecting the voices I was hearing to a name or a face. All I knew for sure was that I had heard the voices before from somewhere, not that that information helped me narrow down who they were or anything. Useless brain, why do you betray me so? And the day hasn't really even begun yet… Maybe they'll just go away and leave me alone if I don't say anything back to them.

"Damn, what will it take to make you all just go the hell away already!?!" I roared, stuffing one of my pillows over my head and ears to block out the constant shouts of my name now being accompanied by the loud honking of a car horn.

"A restraining order might do the trick but nothing short of that I'm afraid my dear." The male voice said with a small laugh. Noticing how much closer the voice sounded I felt my body automatically stiffen and raising my head just enough to glance towards the foot of the my bed – where my very best friend in the whole world stood smiling at me, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips to wobble slightly when he spoke sending thin wisps of smoke into the air that curled up towards the ceiling of my room, the unlit cigarette behind his ear contrasting sharply with his hair. "Do you think you might be able to get out of bed yourself and dress on your own, because I really don't want to have to go over there and do it for you. I think we can both agree that that would be positively mortifying. We both know I can't match clothes worth shit."

"Calm down Pyro I'm going, that won't be necessary." I grumbled moodily as I flipped off my covers and climbed off my bed like the zombie I felt like. Pyro, the nickname he had rightfully earned over two and a half years ago when he set fire to his own pants just to see what his most precious and beloved element felt like. Not that it was the only reason Axel had obtained this particular nickname of course. With his flaming red hair, the lighter and pack of cigarettes that inhabited the back pocket of whatever pair of jeans he was wearing at the time as well as the alternative sets he kept in the glove box of his car and his locker just in case he ran out, the multicolored flames painted on his junky old car, and the fact that he held a bonfire party ever other weekend or so, just to mention a few things, didn't make any of us consider changing his very appropriate nickname anytime soon.

Yawning widely, I stretched my arms high above my head before going to my closet to find something to wear for my trip to Hell – in other words, my High School. You can't honestly call being locked in a building for seven to eight hours with a few hundred moronic idiots who you don't particularly like the least bit pleasant. I finally found a suitable enough outfit – a pair of tight dark blue jean with rips at the knees, a short sleeved black tee shirt, black and white checked converse shoes, and a white hoodie with a large black skull on the back – and carried it over to my now vacant bed. Axel turned away, face going as red as his hair as my fingers curled around the elastic of my boxers that kept them from sliding down my thin hips, pulling them down just enough so that he got the picture and turned away so that I could have a little privacy as I switched into a clean pair of boxers for school. "Pyro my dear, I do believe you're blushing. Whatever for, I'm afraid I can't see what there is to blush about?"

"Can it, I think I noticed that on my own thanks. I just figured I'd be nice and turn away so that you could have a little privacy, but oh no, everybody pick on Axel instead!" Axel stammered hastily in a high unusual voice, going redder if that was humanly possible in his embarrassment. I smiled to myself making sure that he couldn't see me do so. My friends seem to think I don't smile enough. See, I do smile, just when none of you are watching. "Have you got your pants on yet by any chance then?"

"No, I haven't even had a chance to change my boxers yet, no thanks to this stimulating conversation if I may say so." I told him. He sighed, leaning his forehead against the wall. "Whatever is the matter Pyro? Are you alright, do you need to sit down and rest a moment to catch your breath?"

"Quit teasing me damn it, it's not a nice thing to do especially to your best friend. Don't make me set your pants on fire, because I swear I will if you don't stop teasing me right now, best friends or no." Axel whined, his threat completely empty. Axel could never hurt me no matter what I did, however heartless I was to him and everyone else at times. He sounds so pathetic when he whines like that. I love being evil little me sometimes, it's so much fun!!!

"How am I teasing you Pyro? What did I do to you?" I asked him in a sweet voice as soon as I had switched my boxers and pulled on my pants, zipping them deafly as I stared at the back of his black leather jacket giggling to myself inside my head. Of course, I knew exactly what I was doing to him to make him act like this. No matter how may times I tricked him into explaining it, he did it every time, never catching on to the fact that I did things like this just to hear him explain it to me one more time. I loved how he explained himself, how simple he made it sound. He spun around to look at me, his face set in anger.

"Oh come on, we both know my door swings both ways! Seriously, we all know I'm a peacock stuck in a flock of flamingos! A fruit loop in the bowl of cheerios of life, do you get the picture yet?" Axel's face was pink, his forehead crinkled up in agitation, but strangely enough his eyes betrayed his enjoyment. He enjoyed explaining this to me almost as much as I liked hearing him explain his sexual preferences so comically. Almost as much, mind you. "Seriously Moonbeam, everyone knows I'm bisexual by now. You're the only one who still acts like it's a shock, but now it's old news. Time to move on with you're life and get off my case."

Moonbeam, the nickname had given me when we first became friends all those years ago. My friends decided that with my silvery hair and my intense love obsession with the moon that Moonbeam was a fitting nickname for me, and I must admit that I quite agree with them.

"Really Pyro, I wasn't teasing you. I'm so sorry Pyro, please forgive me." I asked him sincerely. He shrugged off my apology with a frown, turning away so that he wasn't looking at me anymore.

"Well you hurt me Moonbeam, you hurt me inside. You shot a black barbed wire arrow right through my flaming heart inside my chest. I was just trying to be nice to you but oh no! If you'd prefer me to be all over you of course – " And with that he flipped quickly around, grabbing me by the shoulders and pushing me back onto the coverlet on the surface of my bed crawling on top of me so that he was straddling my waist, a knee placed on either side of my slender waist. I reached up my hands to push him off me but he stopped me, his own long fingered hands grasping onto my pale willowy wrists so that I was helpless to escape him as I lay under his long and much heavier frame of a body. What's going on, why is Axel doing this to me? Oh my God, not again! I can't go through this again! I WON'T lose control of myself again, not to anyone!!! He was smiling down on me with his smooth-sexy-Axel-smile, and even though I knew this was Axel sitting in top of me and not some serial rapist like that faithful Halloween night in the city park, it still scared me and made me shiver at the thought of having someone take control over me again. "- I'm sure that could be arranged. I can be all over you if that's what you want me to do Moonbeam. Believe me, no trouble with that on my part."

"Pyro, don't do this to me. Let me go." I said to him in barely more than a whisper as hard as it had become for me to breath in my panic at having him on top of me body. He ignored my words, leaning down slowly so that his face grew closer and closer to mine even as I tried to pull away from him to safety. Axel wouldn't do this to me, what's going on? I can't go through this again, I can't take it! I have to stop this before it's too late for both of us! "Pyro, stop this! You're acting so stupid, let me go!"

"No, Moonbeam, not this time." He smiled lightly down at me, his emerald gaze seeming to pierce my very soul as I looked back at him, worried for my safety as well as his sanity. "You've always been so scared of letting other people get close to you, touch you, care about you. You need to let it go Moonbeam; you need to move on with your life so that those old wounds can heal. Those wounds they left you with won't ever heal until you let it go and learn to love again. By sheltering yourself off from the rest of the world you've let them win, those men who raped you three years ago are still controlling you even now and you're letting them by fencing yourself off! Take control of yourself again, let someone love you for you and not for your body. Let me love you Riku, and let yourself love again. Let yourself love me."

I watched spellbound as he kissed both palms of my hands lightly before kissing his way up to my neck to nibble at my jawbone almost lovingly, the contact from his thin lips on my slightly chilled pale skin making me shudder in fear. This is Axel not Sephiroth and Xemnas - just try to remember that this is Axel. Even so, every time he touches me it reminds me of the hurt and the torment I survived that night and makes me feel scared for my life. The way he's looking at me right now, I can see them shining out of his eyes and it makes me feel so lost and alone inside. I have to get Axel to stop before it's too late...

Axel smiled again, letting go of my wrists as he did so. He leaned down still closer, his face mere centimeters from mine so that I could feel his breath ruffling my hair softly like a warm summer breeze over the beaches I had visited with my parents and Zexion as a child. He trailed one hand up my body while using his other hand to balance over me, his fingers dragging gently over the side of my face as he stroked it. I tired to pull away from him the best I could but it was no use. His fingers continued to touch the soft skin of the side of my face sending shocks of electricity through my trembling body and down my spine. I had forgotten what it felt like, what the human touch was capable of doing to a person and it felt strange to me.

""Stop Pyro, let me go I'm begging you!" I pleaded but to no avail. Then I said the one thing I hadn't said in ages that I knew would make him listen to me – his name. "Axel, please let me go before it's too late and you do something we'll both regret later on."

He suddenly pulled back from me from me while still sitting atop me to stare down into my face with a look of mixed pity and confusion marring his otherwise handsome face.

"Moonbeam… you're crying." He said at last in a small voice, ending the brief silence that had lingered between us. I reached up a hand to touch my cheek, frowning slightly when I found that what he had stated was indeed true. In my panic and need to get away I hadn't even realized that I was crying at all, but I knew it now. And I felt slightly ashamed of myself and embarrassed that Axel had seen me cry. I wasn't supposed to cry, I never cried – not in front of people anyways. No wonder Axel looks so damn confused and freaked out, he's never seen me cry before - no one has for that matter.

"Gee Riku, I didn't mean to frighten you so much, surely you must know that. I care about you. I always have and always will no matter what. You should know by now that I would never hurt you. No one's touched you before now for years Riku since that night…" Axel looked up at me sadly, almost as though he was about to tell me about something that was a big sacrifice on his part. And he did give something up that he treasured – me. He climbed off of me and headed for the window staring out of it with a blank confused stare. "And no one's going to touch you ever again if I can help it Riku, I'll protect you Riku, I'll make sure no one ever does anything like that to you ever again… because I care."

"Thank you Axel." I said shakily as I sat up. "We'd better get going then if what you all were yelling is correct. I don't want to be late and miss a minute of being detained."

"There's no hurry really, we won't be late. We left the house an hour early to come get you because we knew it would take an army to wake you up in time for you to get ready. " Axel smiled at me. I glared at him. "Don't give me that look, I KNOW you aren't a morning's person especially on Monday mornings. However today was a fairly good day, you woke up earlier than normal."

"I wonder why." I smiled to myself as he climbs out of my window and down the picket crossbar siding beside my window ledge. I head for the door to meet him out at his car where the gang was waiting for us. "Time to start another day, I suppose… life sure sucks ass."

"Wow, that was fast! It usually takes forever to get you out of bed and into the car Riku. Good job Axel, I didn't know you had it in you to do something right for once but I guess even you can surprise me every once and a while and do something of value." Kairi smiled sweetly at me from the backseat cheerily after giving her brother a contemptuous glare as I climbed into the front passenger seat. She just loves rubbing it in that their 'parents' think she's oh so perfect and that Axel's the screw up of a child they're stuck with. I wonder if their parents would still think so highly of their darling baby girl Kairi if they found out who she's been sneaking around with behind their backs at basketball games…

Kairi – Axel's preppy blue eyed cheerleader of a little sister; sometimes I swear that if she wasn't Axel's baby sister… I'd probably throw spit wads at her like I do with the rest of the cheerleading squad and the mindless jocks at all those pep rallies the whole student body are forced to attend on pain of death. Well, pain of detention or Friday school anyways.

"Yeah, I'm just awesome like that I guess Kai." Axel smiled at his little sister before turning back around in his seat to put the car into drive and rush down the street. I could see the vein in Axel's neck twitch slightly as I watched him for a reaction to Kairi's words, but he didn't say anything else. Things have always been rough for Axel at home, not that I knew everything that went on with him and his home life, but from the hints he dropped occasionally and the tidbits he willingly told me I guess it wasn't the best home life imaginable.

"So guys, where are we going for lunch today then?" Yuffie asked changing the subject before one of the siblings attempted to strangle the other, sticking her head up between the gap in the seats to exclude Kairi from the conversation and to make sure that Axel and I were both paying attention to her so that she didn't have to talk to Kairi. Yuffie doesn't really… her and Kairi kinda… oh hell, they hate each other! Shit, they worse than hate each other – the LOATH each other! That, of course, made it very amusing for me to see them sitting next to each other in the back of Axel's car smiling like they were best pals all along when I could tell both were just itching to gouge the other's eyes out.

Besides Axel, Yuffie is my best friend in the whole world. Yuffie was nicknamed The Tsunami, and if you've ever met her then you know why – completely spastic and fun but that comes with a bit of a reputation for being out of control. Like the time we all went sledding after dark last Christmas and she wanted to sled down a hill AS cars were coming at her. Needless to say we put her on a leash so to speak after that.

"I don't know, what do you want Moonbeam?" Axel asked me. I shrugged and looked out the window. "Well, what about Pizza Hut? I like pizza, you like pizza, we like pizza, hell everyone likes pizza! What do you say guys, you wanna get the whole gang together for lunch and go out for some Pizza Hut?"

"That sounds fun! Can I come too? I'd love to have lunch with you guys, I don't spend nearly as much time with my dear older brother and his friends as I'd like to." Kairi asked mockingly. Axel clamped his mouth shut tight and didn't say a word. Whenever Axel said anything to 'put down and discourage his adorable sister from having fun or spending time with her older brother' as his parents put it, he got in trouble. Yuffie poked me in the shoulder, deafly telling me to do something before she ripped all Kairi's long red hair out by the roots.

"Sorry Kairi, but if you come we'd need to take separate cars and no body else in our group besides Axel can drive. Maybe next time though, okay?" I said in a, very fake mind you, upset voice. She smiled at me and nodded managing to look genuinely upset. Who's she trying to kid? We all know she only wants to come to dig up dirt on all of us so she can gossip about s with those other preppy cheerleader clones she hangs out with. Give me a break; she's pathetic playing the 'I wanna spend time with my other brother' card on us when we all know that she and Axel are constantly at each other's throats.

"Kay then, we're here everybody out!" Axel shouted loudly as he pulled into a park space in the back parking lot.

"You can't park here, its Marluxia's parking space! Marluxia is the caption of the basketball team and the absolute hottest coolest senior in school and in such you can't just go around taking his parking spot! It's not a cool thing to do Axel!" Kairi tittered indignantly, her hands flying in every direction as she spoke. Axel shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "If you do uncool things, people might not think I'M cool anymore! I have a reputation to upkeep you know!"

"Do I give a shit Kairi? Get out of the damn car!" Axel roared at her as he got out, slamming the door closed with a little more force than was necessary… okay, a lot more force than was necessary. She huffed and climbed out looking flustered. I would LOVE it if one of her preppy friends could see her now – showing up to school with three of the rejects. I doubt they even know she's related to Axel, let alone that she's his little sister.

I stuck my hands in my pants pockets as we walked into the building. It was they same as always, all the preps talking at once and trying to figure out who they wanted to screw around with next, what outfit to wear to that party sometime next week, what she said to him after he said that to her at the movie theater on their date. Chaos, complete and utter chaos as always, my life never changes out of the mundane rut it's stuck in.

"Come on my other wonderful social rejects, let us go and join our other comrades in the in the sanctuary that is solely ours." Axel smiled, his arm slipping into the crook of my elbow so that he was pulling a very reluctant and paranoid me down the hallways, Yuffie holding onto his other hand happily. What is it with him today? He knows exactly how I feel about being touched, and here he is dragging me around by the arm. Does he seriously what me to geek-out in front of everyone and cause a scene? Damn it Axel, why do you have to do things like this to me!?!

"You mean the back staircase that leads up to the band room and the higher levels?" I asked him with a smirk as I pulled my arm out of his loose grasp. He nodded, and thankfully didn't try to take me by the arm again.

"I love our staircase, no one ever uses it except us." Yuffie said with a giggle, skipping behind us. "That's part of what makes it such a good place to hang out. No intrusions not usually anyways unless some band geek took their trumpet home and needs to return it to the teacher or something nerdy like that."

"Watch it Yuffie. I'm a trumpet or did you forget that little fact? Watch who you make fun of from now on Tsunami, or you might just end up getting you head smashed in." Axel said with a jovial poke between her ribs so that she knew he was joking around with her. She blushed and looked at the floor but didn't say any more. We reached the door to our staircase and Yuffie rushed inside. I went to go in after her, but Axel grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

"Hey Moonbeam, can I talk to you for a minute – in private?" He asked me quietly. His voice had changed from a moment ago. It was subtle but I could still hear it.

"Of course you can Pyro, that's what friends are for." I said to him kindly. From the tone of his last statement I knew whatever he had to say wasn't going to be good news. He opened his mouth but nothing came out and he turned away from me finally defeated with a small sigh. "What is it Pyro?"

"It's about my home life, I think it's time I told you what's been going on Riku. I know I should have told you before now, but I just didn't know how." Axel explained slowly, still not looking at me. "It kinda starts out with my dad and something he did that wasn't exactly… well, it was just kind of sickening and horrific, for me especially."

He paused, his head dropping down a few more inches as he looked at the floor.

"You don't' have to say a word if you don't want to Axel." I said softly. What could it be that he seems to think that he can't tell me what it is? He's always been able to tell me everything before now, hasn't he?

"I want to Moonbeam, I do, but it's just so difficult. God, I just don't know what to say or how to explain it to you without you freaking out. You have to promise me this won't come between us as friends and that you'll think no different of me after I tell you, alright? I have to know that you'll be there for me always before I tell you." Axel said in a constricted voice, his hands shaking slightly.

"I promise."

What's Axel have to say about his home life? And for those of you reading my other Kingdom Hearts story 'Without You Around,' Axel doesn't have the same problem in this story as he does in that one… well, maybe a little but not exactly. That's all I'm gonna say about if for now.

Okay, I hoped you liked it!!! The special prize for this chapter is… hmmm, I need to think of a good one this time even if I can't beat out a picture of Riku in his boxers (drools)… Oh, I know! The person who leaves me the best review this chapter gets either one of Axel's cigarettes or Riku's hoodie. Now let me just say – I AM TOTALLY AGAINST SMOKING!!! But if it was Axel's cigarette I'd keep it in a jar and treasure it always as long as I couldn't smell it. Cigarette smoke is really bad for me because guess what – I'm allergic to cigarette smoke and other smoke bothers me and makes me gag! Well there you go, there might be two winners this time because there is two prizes so… leave a good review and state which present you'd like (if you want one, if you don't just leave a review for the cookies I'm baking – they're homemade!)

Until next time!

Oh, and this is a shout-out to my honorary little sister Chris and my 'older brother' Roby Emo!!!! (I'm really an only child but apparently my friends feel it was time I had siblings)

'The World knows not the way in which it spins' – me, the princessOFdarkness