Notes: A couple of things. First of all: updates will be slightly irregular because I only have internet access when on my university campus, which means nothing on the weekends. Second: as you will see, there is an OC in this fic, on loan from one of my novels. Consider him something of a plot device, yeah? He's not by any means the focus of the story – that's AkuRoku and (maybe!) Demyx – but he's useful for furthering my plot.

Disclaimer: I now own four Kingdom Hearts games. I saw Final Mix in a used game store for ¥1900 and bought it. One step closer to franchise ownership!

II

The guy stared at Roxas for another moment with the same awe-struck expression, his grip on Roxas' wrist, if anything, tightening ever so slightly. Then he very abruptly let him go, crossed his lanky arms loosely across his chest and grinned, self-assured and almost cocky.

"I don't know, kid, do you?"

Roxas frowned sharply, the spell broken. Apparently, the guy was an asshole who just wanted to waste his time. As though the morning hadn't been going badly enough already.

"You know what?" he said irritably. "Forget it. This was stupid. I'm sorry for wasting your time." He hoisted his backpack a little higher over his shoulder and moved to push past the guy and get back to what he should have been doing all along. Fiercely, he told himself not to think about it too much. Catching the train was very important, standing around talking to assholes wasn't.

"Hey, hey, wait!" The same warm hand that had been around his wrist snagged his upper arm, more gently. "Don't be like that."

"Don't be like what?" Roxas snapped, frown deepening to a scowl. "Look, I'm sorry for running into you and then being all weird about it. I made a mistake, thought you were someone else." This is stupid, Roxas, you don't just randomly run into the guy from your crazy dreams. This isn't some weird movie - that sort of stuff doesn't happen in real life. Stop being an idiot and move.

"Bullshit," the guy said easily, the grin returning. "There's no one like me, kid, I'm one of a kind." He was still holding onto Roxas' arm, though his grip was loose enough that Roxas could have pulled away had he wanted to. "The name's Axel. Got it memorised?"

"Axel's a weird name," Roxas said flatly. "And mine's Roxas, not kid, so don't call me that." His name had just sort of slipped out; he hadn't meant to introduce himself. It was almost embarrassing how easily the guy, Axel, had got that much out of him.

"Ro-xas," Axel said slowly, drawing it out, almost like he was tasting the syllables and liking the flavour very much. "All right. Well, Roxas, we seem to find ourselves in an interesting situation."

"Really?" His voice was so flat it was barely a question. "Seems pretty straightforward to me - I ran into you going around the corner, thought you were someone you're not, now we're wasting each other's time. The end."

"Uh-uh," Axel said, wagging the index finger of his free hand. "You're not getting off that easily. I saw the way you were staring at me."

"Well, what about you?" Roxas demanded, face heating up again. "You can't just pin this whole thing on me."

Axel shrugged carelessly, finally letting Roxas have his arm back. "Fair enough. So, as I was trying to establish: weird shit abounds. Now, I don't know about you, but I think this calls for further consideration. How does breakfast sound?"

"...What?" Roxas asked blankly, staring again, less awe-struck now and more confused. When had the conversation, if it could even be called that, turned around to going for breakfast? And why did he want so badly to go? More importantly, why did he want the guy (who was a stranger, damn it) to touch him again?

"Breakfast, Rox, breakfast. You, me, cheap and greasy food - a little chance to figure out what just happened. Because I don't think this is something you should brush off so easily, Roxas, I really don't." And, suddenly, he sounded very sincere, very earnest. Like Roxas coming with him and talking it out was the most important thing Roxas could do. Like there really was something between them. And that was weird and crazy and stupid and sounded like the best idea in the world.

Except for the fact that he was already definitely late for calculus and getting himself in more trouble by the second.

"I... I can't. I have to get to school." And, no, he didn't sound disappointed or apologetic at all, thank you very much. "I'm already late." Well, maybe he did, just a little.

Axel paused, some of his momentum stolen by the appearance of an obstacle. Then he recovered, grinning again and pulling out a pen. "Give me your hand." Without waiting for Roxas to respond, he grabbed it and wrote his number on the back. "Give me a call when you're not on your way to class, all right? Don't let me down now, Roxas." And he tossed him another grin, a wink and a little wave as he hoisted his black and red messenger bag and stepped around him. Then he paused for a second to squeeze his shoulder and give him a quick, complicated sidelong look before disappearing into the crowd.

Roxas stared after him blankly, hand and shoulder tingling, expression slightly lost.

"Well, fuck."

-

Ultimately, he walked into calculus twelve minutes before it ended, which was almost worse than not having shown up at all. His teacher frowned at him as he tried to quietly slip to his seat.

"Let me guess, Mister Strife, the train was late?"

Roxas sat down next to his friends, face warm for the third time that morning. "No, sir, I missed my station."

"I see. Talk to me after class."

He managed to suppress his despairing groan, nodding shallowly instead. Next to him, his best friend, Hayner, raised his eyebrows questioningly, but didn't try to ask so soon after Roxas had got himself in trouble.

When the bell rang, Hayner, Pence and Olette shot him sympathetic glances as they left the classroom. He hoped they'd wait for him - after the morning he'd had, he really didn't feel like walking to class alone.

His teacher gave him a look. "Well, Mister Strife, start talking. What happened to you this morning?"

"I told you, sir, I missed my station. I fell asleep on the train and, when I woke up, I'd gone three stations too far. I had a little bit of trouble getting back." Roxas rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"What sort of trouble?" The man's eyes narrowed slightly with what was probably concern, though it was hard to say for sure.

About six feet tall, greenest eyes I've ever seen in my life and wearing a trench coat. Very ho-not going to finish that thought. No. Definitely not. "I ran into someone. I mean, literally, I walked into him. So I missed my train because I stopped to apologise." It was kind of true. He had run into Axel, after all. And he hadapologised. That was where the whole thing started.

"I see." Roxas hated it when teachers said that. It usually meant that they either saw too much or not nearly enough. "Well given that, despite your questionable attendance, you're one of my better students, I'm going to let you off again. But bear in mind, Mister Strife, there are only so many more late entries to my class that I can allow before giving you detention."

Roxas winced. "I know, sir. Thank you. I won't fall asleep on the train again."

"Well, get going, then. I don't want to make you late to another class today. One, I think, is more than enough." And he waved him on, smiling thinly, which Roxas decided was better than nothing.

Outside in the hall, his friends were faithfully waiting. Roxas really appreciated it. Lately, he hadn't been clicking with them quite as well as he had in the past, something felt off all the time, but that didn't mean they weren't still his friends, weren't still the people he hung out with more than anyone else. Even if he felt sometimes like maybe he was outgrowing them a little. He told himself it was just because he was getting jittery with the approach of true adulthood and the end of twelve years of public education. Everything would be fine again once the stress of senior year was over. Or maybe once (if) the dreams let up a little.

But the dreams made him think of Axel again, so he shoved the thought away.

Hayner cocked his head the right. "What happened to you this morning, man? I mean, you've been late a few times recently, but never more than ten or fifteen minutes. You practically missed the entire class."

"I know," Roxas said, rubbing his eyes. "But I wasn't lying - I fell asleep on the train and went a few stations too far. It was an accident." He didn't tell them about Axel. He couldn't put his finger on why, but it felt... wrong, somehow, to tell them.

Olette frowned slightly, looking worried. "Are you feeling all right, Roxas? You seem so tired all the time. Have you thought about seeing a doctor?"

Roxas shook his head firmly. "I'm fine, Olette, I've just had some trouble sleeping lately. Stress, you know?" It was just true enough not to be a lie. Somehow, that didn't make him feel much better.

Hayner snorted. "What have you got to be stressed about? Compared to me, your grades are gold."

"Well, maybe, if you did more work, your scores would look more like Roxas'." Olette put her hands on her hips and glared at him. She could be a bit of a nag with all of them, it was her way of showing she cared, but Hayner had got the brunt of it ever since they'd started dating. Roxas couldn't say he was sorry about that.

"I do plenty of work!" he protested. "Pence and Roxas will vouch for me. Won't you guys?"

"Sure," Pence said, always the most easygoing of their foursome. "Of course we will. Lay off a little, Olette, it's not like he's failing yet."

"Yeah, it's not - wait. Pence, you bitch." Hayner made a casual swipe at Pence's head, but his scowl was only half-hearted.

Roxas smirked. "You two fight it out. Olette and I, at least, are going to go to class. Right, Olette?"

"Right," she agreed. "Don't blame us if you're late!" Her teasing was softened by the kiss she darted up to drop on Hayner's cheek. Sweet, slightly innocent. As far as Roxas could tell, that summed up the physical part of their relationship, much to Hayner's obvious frustration. Olette wasn't the kind of girl who'd go very far with a guy, even a guy she'd known since first grade, after only two months.

And this... this was normal. This was safe. This was the world Roxas belonged to, full of people he'd known for most of his life, classes he found boring, teachers who alternated between indifferent and overly concerned. No outrageous, cocky redheads who may or may not have been the focus of most of Roxas' dreams since he was twelve years old, no chance encounters in train stations resulting in a phone number scribbled on the back of his hand. This was Real Life.

But, glancing down at his hand, he hesitated, then made a quick, rash decision and pulled out his phone, entering the number quickly into the memory. Before his friends could notice what he was doing, he'd slipped it back into his pocket, done.

Maybe Real Life wasn't quite all it was cracked up to be.

-

Across town, as he walked down the sidewalk in the cold winter sunshine, Axel pulled out his own phone, hands shaking from excitement and maybe a little bit from nerves. He flipped the little device open and hit the first number on speed dial.

It only rang twice before a soft, languid voice answered. "Hello?"

"I found him, Neric!" Axel said by way of introduction, voice trembling like his hands.

"You found who?" Neric sounded vague, distracted, his vowels drawn out even longer than usual. The call was obviously coming in second to whatever else he was doing.

"Roxas, who else?" Axel grinned broadly, even though Neric couldn't see it. "He was just... there, Neric. Right there in the train station. Beautiful and breathing and solid and real and, oh god, it was so hard not to just sweep him up and carry him home right then."

"Wait, slow down a little." Neric sounded slightly more alert suddenly. All background noise had stopped. "You actually found him? Did he remember you?"

Axel paused. "Well, not exactly, but..."

"What do you mean not exactly?"

"I mean, he kind of did, but mostly didn't. When he ran into me, Ner, he was staring at me like... like... I can't even describe it. He looked so surprised and-and happy, like his world had just got a little better or something. And then he said, 'do I know you?' and I wanted to say yes, but I didn't because he's not quite there yet. You know? So I tried to prompt him a little, sort of teased him, and he glared and got all offended and it was the cutest thing in the world, and I would be taking him to breakfast right now and trying to get a little more out of him, but he had to get to school. So I gave him my number and I think he'll call. He looked interested enough, anyway." He cut himself off abruptly, taking a deep, steadying breath.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "He had to get to school? How old is he, Axel?"

Axel waved his hand negligently, another wasted gesture given that the other half of the conversation was in another part of town. "Seventeen at the youngest, Neric. I swear, it's okay, he's not a little kid or something. A little younger than me, yeah, but not too much."

"I can't believe you just found him like this. It never happens this way." Axel couldn't tell if Neric was pleased or annoyed by this development.

"Well, it did this time. And, anyway, this is different - it's me and Roxas, not just anyone."

"Hmm," Neric replied non-commitally. "I hope he calls you, then. And, more to the point, I hope he's a candidate. It might be hard for you if he's not, if the vague impressions are all he ever has."

Axel shook his head firmly. "Doesn't matter, Ner. Even if he's not a candidate, I'm going to do my best to get him to fall in love with me right here and now. Everything will be great, you'll see."

"All right, Axel." Axel could just barely hear the sound of typing start up again. "As long as you don't let your hopes get too high too soon. But right now, I'm working, as you should be, so fuck off and let me be productive."

"What are you doing, anyway? It sounds tech-y."

"There was a system error, I've been dealing with it since about a quarter past four." Now that he called some attention to it, Axel couldn't help but notice that he sounded tired, not just distracted.

"Ooh, ouch. Wasn't there anyone else who could do it? I know Zexion knows his way around the system well enough. Seems a little... beneath your classification, up before dawn to fix the computers."

"Not this time." And Axel could picture the restless way Neric was rubbing the side of his nose right then. "Sometimes I'm the only one who can deal with this sort of thing. It doesn't matter how well someone knows the system if they don't have the right access codes. And only I know all of them."

"You ever thought about changing that?" Axel frowned slightly, concerned at Neric's total disregard for his own well-being. The man would get sick if he wasn't careful and he was way too important for that. Moreover, he was Axel's friend. He wasn't allowed to risk his health like that. It was just against the rules.

His friend laughed wryly. "Only every time I have to do shit like this at four in the morning. But, seriously, go away. The sooner I finish this, the sooner I can go back to bed. Only call me if there's a Roxas-related development, yeah? If nothing changes, conveniently lose my number for awhile."

Axel smirked. "Will do, Ner. Hurry up and get some sleep - you sound like hell."

"Sigh, what a charmer. I wonder whatever possessed me to let you go." And with that, Neric disconnected the call, ending their conversation and making Axel chuckle.

Unfortunately, the sudden lack of distraction meant that all he had to do was wait around like some kind of fucking lovesick schoolgirl for Roxas to call. And he would. Axel was sure of it.

But it was still going to be a long day.