-A-

So it's been about a week since that new kid had become Axel's roommate.

Shockingly, he had been having some fun with the kid. He was real fun to tease, although Demyx didn't seem to agree, but hell, Demyx wasn't around the kid much anyway. Roxas apparently has this issue with being called anything but his name, so, Axel being Axel, made it his job to call him everything except his name.

Turns out, he and the freshman also had a class together – History of Rock n' Roll. It was a class that Axel hadn't realized he needed for an elective, or to fill out for an art requirement. Who knew? Either way, Demyx told him to take it since it had been easy as hell for him, which meant it should be even easier for Axel. But Demyx was the more musical one between the two. Of course, Axel was clearly a music junky as well, but he was much more selective than his boyfriend.

Anyway, the two had that class every Monday and Wednesday. Axel felt nice enough to take him to class on the first day since it made sense, but on Wednesday, Roxas had apparently left before Axel even got up. Axel just thought he was PMSing.

Axel had also gotten to learn a little about the blond, from being his roommate and from Riku.

Apparently, he and his equally short boy toy had been together since high school. He also quickly found out that said boy toy – was it Zexion? – was Riku's roommate, and the reason why he'd never met the short guy was because he hardly left his room.

As Axel learned about Roxas, there was a part of him that sort of wondered why the two were together. They didn't really make much sense, but then again, who was Axel to judge? Many people didn't think he and Demyx fight right either, but they had been together for the better part of four years.

Actually, wasn't there four year anniversary coming up?

-R-

Roxas's first week flew by quite quickly; the small blond always had trouble keeping track of time. It didn't take long for him and the psychotic redhead to fall into a comfortable routine. They'd fight over something stupid just to end up on the couch playing video games or, in mostly Roxas's case, eating the other's food. Roxas would never admit it but, he enjoyed fighting with Axel. Everyone who knew the blue-eyed boy did their best to not upset him. But Axel purposely pissed him off, and for Roxas, that was a nice change.

When his weekly call from Sora came on Friday, he told him about his classes – mainly History of Rock n' Roll. Sora wasn't into the same music as Roxas for the most part, but he enthusiastically listened and questioned him endlessly on it. Sora questioned his brother endlessly on everything, actually. He even asked a few questions about Axel, making sure he hadn't set him on fire or anything like that.

Roxas saw Zexion for at least half an hour every day. It would normally be him who would show up at his dorm after a class, just to be in his boyfriend's presence. Zexion had massive amounts of work to do every day, but always assured his blond that he had time for him. Whenever Roxas would return to his own dorm after being with his boyfriend for as long as he could, he would find Demyx over or Axel gone – probably with Demyx.

The two blonds got along fine. Demyx treated Roxas how his other friends treated him: very sensitive to his emotions. Roxas liked Demyx, he really did, but he just didn't fully understand how the two giant males dated. They just didn't fit together in Roxas's mind. They seemed better as best friends, but he couldn't share his thoughts about that with anyone. Zexion seemed off whenever Roxas talked about Axel, and his brother would blab to Riku. Roxas couldn't help his thoughts about the two, though.

It appeared that the two were happy but, it just seemed...off.

-A-

The first thing Axel noticed as he slowly woke up was light peeking through his blinds. The second thing he noticed was that some song by David Bowie was blasting into his ears. It wasn't his fault really, but Demyx liked to change Axel's ringtones, and Axel just didn't care enough to change it.

He groaned, scratching his head, before reaching to turn off his phone. But as he grabbed it, that's when he noticed the time...

"What the fuck!" he shouted.

It was 7:50 A.M. Know what that meant? That meant his phone hadn't woken him up eighty minutes ago like it was supposed to. So now instead of having a leisure morning as always, he would have to bust a mission to his first class of Monday.

So immediately, the redhead jumped from his bed and grabbed the first shirt and pants he could find - a black band shirt, and the black pants from yesterday. His shoes were next, and instead of tying those, he just shoved his feet in and decided to tie them later. His bag, thankfully, had already been ready thanks to last night Axel.

He looked at his phone again to check the time, and saw that only three minutes had gone by.

Another groan for the morning escaped him. He decided to just fuck normal hygiene, grabbed a Monster and ran like the Devil was at his feet - but then of course he tripped because he hadn't tied his God forsaken shoes.

"Stupid fucking laces," he growled, before getting up and running again. Luckily for him, he only tripped that once, and he had ended up being only two minutes late.

However, that apparently was too late still for the annoyingly strict professor. Come on, how could a professor that taught about rock n' roll be so strict?

"Thank you for joining us, sir," the professor said to him, clearly sarcastic.

"Yeah, yeah," Axel said, rolling his eyes as he sat near Roxas.

-R-

Roxas chuckled the moment he saw the distraught redhead enter the class. The sleep was still in his eyes and his hair was sticking up crazier than usual.

Rather than poking the already clearly agitated bear, Roxas just finished taking the notes that were on the board – then he started poking the bear. Quite literally actually, he started poking Axel with his pencil since he seemed to have fallen back asleep within the few minutes he had been in class.

"Wake up sleeping beauty; we have to start planning our stupid project."

Roxas watched as Axel slowly opened his eyes, and for the first time, saw how green they truly were. Even shadowed by grogginess, they were the most unique shade of green Roxas had ever seen. The blond slid his notes over to Axel that explained what they had to do for their project. Axel read it over, seemingly unaware of the slight pink in the blond's cheeks.

Why does my face feel hot all of a sudden, what the hell?

The younger of the two took a drink of the mocha frappuccino he had gotten before class started, figuring that the heat on his cheeks was due to the slightly warm classroom.

-A-

"Was not sleeping," Axel whined. "I was just resting my eyes."

Before actually taking a look at the notes Roxas had passed him, Axel finally took the time to open up his Monster. And the second the liquid hit the back of his throat and practically burned it, he felt like moaning. The stuff was liquid heroin; it was so damn addicting and so damn good.

After a few good swallows, he finally put down the drink and looked at the notes on his desk. It was some weird project and it looked like there would be pairs. He realized very quickly that he and Roxas would be pairs since everyone else was obviously paired off. It wasn't really a bad thing, and he knew Roxas had at least decent taste in music. So hell, it could turn out fun.

When he was done looking over the project, he turned to say something to Roxas, before noticing that the boy had already been looking at him. Is there something on my face? Axel thought to himself. Maybe the kid isn't used to seeing me without eyeliner? That definitely was a possibility, considering Axel hadn't had the time this morning to do all his usual stuff.

"I'm sorry, is my lack of makeup that distracting?" Axel asked him, clearly sarcastic. "Or am I just that good looking that you couldn't resist?" And that's when Axel's typical grin appeared on his face.

-R-

Roxas blinked and rolled his eyes so hard they practically disappeared into his skull. "Like your lack of guyliner even registered to me. I zone out whenever I'm not entertained, not my fault you read slow."

Roxas took another sip of his frappe, before continuing to talk to his annoying, God he was annoying, roommate turned classmate.

"Anyways, since you walked in late this morning I volunteered to be your partner before you got stuck with some random ass hat here. You owe me, bean pole."

The blond started to regret making Axel his partner. The two of them would only fight the whole time and probably not get any work done. The last thing the freshman needed was to fail his favorite class because of the ass hat he had saved.

Correction, the seemingly ungrateful ass hat he saved. The blond got up and walked away from the redhead, all the way to the trash can at the front corner of the room and regretfully said goodbye to his beloved coffee cup, now empty. If there was one thing Roxas loved, it was coffee.

Returning to his seat, he took back his notebook and turned it to a fresh page. "So what exactly do you think we should do for this stupid project, partner."

-A-

"You know, you're cute when you're annoyed," Axel said, grinning at the blond.

He really didn't know what it was about the blond that he loved teasing. It was just a different reaction from everyone else, he guessed. Most people would ignore him, but Roxas - Roxas reacted and got angry or annoyed. And it was weirdly charming.

If Axel didn't know any better, he'd say he was flirting with the freshman. Actually, he probably was flirting, but he didn't see the harm in it since he wasn't serious. Like Axel, Roxas seemed to be loyal to his boyfriend, so he knew that Roxas probably wouldn't take it seriously. And besides, what was the harm?

Axel took another few gulps from his energy drink, feeling a recharge from every swallow. Monster was seriously nectar from the heavens.

Getting back to the project, though. "Well we gotta' do a debate, right? So we could always do one on who our favorite band is or something? Or," he took a look at the notes again, "since we're trying to focus on more oldies it looks like, we could debate who the most influential band of the...sixties or seventies was?"

Axel knew that those decades weren't really considered "oldies," at least not to him, but Axel didn't like much before the mid-sixties.

-R-

The blond suppressed the urge to roll his eyes again at Axel's usual flirty comments, and instead just glared at him. Then he turned his attention back to the blank sheet before him, nodding as Axe talked half listening, half doodling in his notebook.

"Yeah that works, oldies...Okay umm...Oh! I got mine – Zeppelin."

Maybe the project wouldn't be as hard as Roxas thought; maybe he and Axel could be serious for two seconds and get it done. Hey, maybe this project could even bring them closer together as friends.

Roxas smiled at his doodle of his number, '13'. Maybe working with Axel wouldn't be so bad.

The suddenly positive blond looked up to see the look on his partner's face. Roxas could already tell he was partially right about what he had been thinking. The project wouldn't be so bad with Axel – it'd be horrible.

-A-

The second Roxas mentioned Led Zeppelin, Axel felt like rolling his eyes. Of course another Zeppelin fan.

Axel wasn't necessarily against the old band, but to him, it was like everyone who was into rock associated the band as 'rock gods' or 'legends'. He had the utmost respect for the band, and if he was asked to not be biased, who could say that they were definitely an influential band, but he had never understood the appeal. They were practically soft rock. He'd admit to liking maybe one or two songs, but not enough to say they were amazing.

Now, if we were going on 'rock gods', Axel would say The Doors. The band influenced him the most, and Robby Krieger, the guitarist, is the reason he even learned guitar.

For Axel, no band was more influential.

"I'll do mine on The Doors," Axel said simply, not willing to get into a debate that very second. They would have plenty of time for that.

However, something did catch Axel's eye. "Why do you always write down thirteen?" he asked. He'd noticed it the previous week, and would randomly notice it here and there, but Roxas seemed to be obsessed with that number or something.

-R-

Roxas's eyes went wide the second he heard Axel's question. He ran his hands threw his hair, trying to hide the fact they were trembling.

Thirteen was Roxas's number for a few reasons.

The first reason not being anything too personal, the number just followed him around. Big moments in his life just happened in thirteens. On his thirteenth birthday, he went to his first concert, on every Friday the thirteenth he always finds money, once when he was the 13th person in line for a meet and greet security cut the line off right after him. Thirteen was his lucky number, his friend, but also a reminder of a pretty low point in his life.

The blond's past was filled with a large amount of self-hate. He was just an insecure kid who didn't like himself very much, and before he knew it, after a break up, he fell into a nasty habit.

His depression was in full swing at this point, and that – that bitch broke up with him because everyone was calling him a cutter. She laughed at him and told him that she deserved better than a loser who wanted to kill himself. Mind you Roxas never cared about what people around his old school said about him, but his ex rubbing it in his face made something inside him snap.

His depression consumed him, and he started harming himself. It wasn't until his thirteenth mark that anyone noticed what he was doing. Sora walked in on Roxas as he was tugging on his shirt one day and saw three marks on his arm. Sora questioned him until he broke down. Roxas admitted to harming himself and tried explaining to Sora that he did it because he deserved the pain. He made Sora swear that he would never tell anyone, and he didn't, but a few days later, Sora barged into Roxas's room and saw the ten marks on his left hip.

That's when it was Sora's turn to cry.

The twins stayed up all night, talking and crying. Sora begged him not to do it anymore, and Roxas finally gave into his brother's pleading. The two of them came up with a plan to help the blond stop.

No one but his brother, Riku, and Zexion knew the extent of what Roxas had gone through back in high school, and he wanted to keep those memories in the past. The bitch had been out of his life for four years now, and Zexion has been in it for the last three, encouraging him to kick the ugly vice. It was a rocky battle but Roxas did eventually stop for good, the summer right before coming to college, actually. The blond still had about thirteen scars on his body, faint but visible if pointed out.

Roxas blinked hard before answering Axel. "It's my lucky number."

-A-

"Gotta' be a little more than a 'lucky number' if you draw it everywhere, but whatever," Axel said, shrugging his shoulders. "Yours is thirteen? Mine's eight."

The number 'eight' followed him around since birth. Axel had been born on August 8, he met his best friend July 8 (which was funny since his best friend's number was seven), he was always the eighth person in line for anything and everything, etc. It was always weird stuff, sometimes sucky stuff, but he'd come to expect it in his life. Hell, he would probably die at eighty-eight.

Actually, now that he thought about it... "Whoah! I just realized how fucking weird fate is," he said aloud, not realizing just how loud he was.

"I do believe I told everyone to talk quietly," the professor said.

"Sorry," he said to the older man, before looking back to Roxas. "I'm assuming you know our dorm room is '813', right? Both our numbers, blondie. That's freaky."

Axel had never questioned the '8' part of the room number, but it was a little freaky how 'thirteen' had also been there. Almost like it was fate that the two would become roommates.

How cute, he thought to himself. He didn't think it was anything romantic by any means, but hell, he believed in fate, and that stuff could work in mysterious ways. Maybe he and the blond were destined to be friends - something cheesy like that.

-R-

"Oh yeah!" Roxas smiled at Axel realizing he was right about their dorm number. "That is totally creepy." The younger of the two decided to let the "blondie" comment slide, mainly because the teacher made a comment before he could.

It didn't take long for the two males to get their outlines down for their project and before they even had a chance to fight, the teacher announced the end of class.

As the two walked out of the classroom, Roxas started digging in his backpack for his pack of Marlboro Reds. "Honestly I like this class, but the professor needs to chill."

Once he found his pack he took his lighter from his pocket, before lighting his own cigarette, he held the pack out to Axel offering him one.

-A-

"I'm good," he said, pulling out his own pack of Camel Crush. "But seriously, that prof needs to chill the fuck out. He's the only one I got this semester that even cares about me showing up."

Ah, the splendor of college. Not all professors cared if you showed up to class; they only cared about their paycheck. Although Axel did show up to his classes, and was very rarely absent, he liked that he could be absent in case it was just a bad day or something. He noticed that it was like that more with the junior/senior level classes. Whereas for the freshman, the poor souls had to deal with professors that would consider it an absence if they were late. He did not envy that life.

Axel took out one of his cigarettes, before putting the pack back in his back pocket, and took out his zippo lighter. It was simple - black, with 'VIII' engraved in it.

He lit his cigarette easily, before putting the zippo also in his back pocket. He inhaled deeply, and as he exhaled, an almost happy sigh escaped him as smoke came out from his mouth.

"Man, cancer sticks are seriously a way of life. I could probably write a fucking sonnet on how beautiful they are."

Yeah, Axel was definitely tired, even with the Monster flowing through his veins. He couldn't help it, though. Sleep hadn't come easy to him last night.

-R-

The blond laughed at his companion's comment. "Man you really are tired."

He lit his own cigarette, savoring the taste the second it was in his mouth, the slight burn in his lungs being a feeling that brought him instant comfort. "And quit calling them cancer sticks, Zex does that too and it's annoying."

Inhale. Savor. Burn. Release.

"He tried to get me to quit once, needless to say that didn't last long." Roxas smiled at the memory, it was just another victory he easily won.

Roxas loved to win, but he loved the fight just as much. Zexion didn't fight with Roxas much at all; the two of them usually just talked out their issues, whenever they actually had one, that is. Roxas unconsciously ran his thumb over the words written on his lighter when thinking about his silver haired boyfriend.

-A-

"What's so annoying?" Axel asked, taking in another puff. "You know it's true, and it's not like I'm not sucking on em' with you. It just sounds better than 'cigarettes'."

Hearing Roxas talk about his little boyfriend trying to get him to quick smoking made him laugh a bit. "Yeah, Dem tried to get me to quit, too. But that was before we were even together. By the time we got together, I figure he didn't really mind."

That was definitely far from the truth, but Axel wouldn't admit that. But Demyx had stopped bugging him about the cigarettes pretty early on. His exact words to Demyx were actually, 'Either I smoke these, or that.' And Demyx had known what 'that' referred to. By now, he knew Demyx was pretty much over it, just like he was over Axel drinking.

Mind you, Axel definitely wasn't an alcoholic. Never really had been, but of course being a sweetheart of a boyfriend, Demyx was worried sick. But, he actually made a promise to Demyx to not get drunk unless Demyx was around, and he hadn't broken that promise. It wasn't hard to keep it, though, since the only time he really ever drank was at his friends' parties, and since Dem was also in that group of friends, he was always there.

As they neared their building, Axel walked towards the elevator, rather than the stairs. No way in hell was he going to climb the evil stairs of apocalypse.

-R-

"I think it sounds stupider than cigarettes. Totally defeats the badassness that is smoking."

Roxas rolled his eyes at his own comment; he always hated when people in high school had picked up smoking because "it was cool". His stupid ex-girlfriend started smoking when they were dating so she'd look older. Needless to say, Roxas didn't have the best taste in women.

The blond nodded as the ginger spoke. He could see Demyx just shrugging off Axel's habit; it seemed like that was how their relationship went. Axel being in charge and Demyx complying, but who was Roxas to judge? His and Zexion's relationship was mainly him making his silver haired boy come out of his shell.

Roxas looked between the stairs and the elevator. "Come on lazy ass, let's take the stairs."

-A-

"Fuck no, short ass," Axel said immediately.

No way in hell was Blondie making him walk up those God forsaken stairs. They would take forever to walk up, whereas the elevator had no line even, so yeah, he was definitely taking the easy way up.

No shame.

"If you wanna' give yourself a heart attack, you can do that," he said, pressing the button on the elevator to go up. "However, I quite like living, and plan on doing it for a long time – which is precisely why I call cigarettes cancer sticks. Nothing like putting something that can kill you right between your lips."

And that was the main reason why Axel called them 'cancer sticks' more than he referred to them as cigarettes. He liked being reminded that the very thing he was addicted to could very well kill him. And it didn't even have to do with suicide; Axel had never been the suicidal type. But he liked playing with fire, and fire burned until everything in its path was destroyed, much like cigarettes.

-R-

Roxas just shook his head. "Whatever you say, Ax. Personally, I prefer the harder way of things."

Turning away from the ginger, the younger blond started the journey up to their dorm room. Hands in his pockets and humming one of the newer Fall Out Boy songs, Roxas felt pretty content. He liked walking placed because it gave him space from the people around him and made it easier for him to think.

By the time he reached his floor, he had already decided what he was going to do for his half of the project and that he was going to get Chinese for lunch.

Roxas had three favorite C's in life: coffee, cigarettes, and Chinese food.

-A-

Axel of course reached their dorm room quickly - the elevator was only two rooms away from theirs. Once he got inside, he didn't bother re-locking the door since Roxas would be there soon, anyway. He dropped his bag near the couch, before heading to the kitchen to get some form of food.

Since they had only one class, it wasn't even 10 A.M. yet. However, Axel hadn't even had breakfast, so by this point, his stomach was screaming at him to fill it with fat.

Mondays and Wednesdays were his more lax days, thankfully. He had the one early class, and then another class at 1:30. However, Tuesdays and Thursdays were annoying as hell this semester. He had three classes back to back, starting at 9 in the morning.

Whatever. He had been the idiot to sign up for it, after all.

As for his project with the small blond, Axel wasn't worried. He already figured he'd do something on how The Doors influenced any and all good bands that had been around since, and how Jim Morrison's death had been tragic, yet beautiful in its own right. Then of course he would have to go against Roxas, and since he personally wasn't a fan of Zeppelin, he felt like it wouldn't be very hard at all.

"Pancakes sound so fucking good right now," he said to himself, almost moaning at the thought of fluffy pancakes.

He pulled out his phone, immediately ready to call his cutie boyfriend.

"Axel, I was sleeping," Demyx complained.

"I'm making pancakes," he said easily, knowing exactly how the blond would react.

"I'll be there in twenty!" And that was the end of that conversation.

-R-

Roxas opened the door to the dorm and saw a foreign site. Axel was in the kitchen with ingredients all around him.

"Uh what are you doing?" Roxas was genuinely confused. In the time he has lived with the giant, he had never seen him even near food that was not microwaveable. "Should I be concerned, should I call someone?"

The blond was doing his best not to laugh at the dirty look Axel shot him, instead he focused on the ingredients around the bean pole. Eggs, milk, pancake mix – that could only mean one thing...

"Oh you're making pancakes? I should call Zex he's an amazing cook."

I'll get the Chinese tonight with him, he thought. As for now, pancakes sounded awesome. It was honestly a miracle the blond wasn't a thousand pounds with how much he ate.

He pulled out his phone to text his multitalented, genius boy toy.

Hey babe, are you busy?

Hey, I could take a break from my paper, what's up?

Wanna come over and make me pancakes? I'll owe you a favor c;

That winky face seems very suggestive Rox, whatever could it mean?

Roxas laughed at his boyfriend's text and probably started blushing a bit too. He tended to do that when Zexion was being well cute.

Take from that what you will~

I'll be there in ten minutes. We'll talk about that favor later. ;)

Mmkay 3 ;3

The blushing blond looked at Axel. "Zexion will be here in like ten. Trust me, his pancakes are to die for. There are no others like his. I choose his over IHOP or Denny's whenever I get the chance.

-A-

Axel laughed as he heard Roxas talking about Zexion's pancakes. Please. Axel couldn't cook for the life of him, and that's why Demyx being able to was an amazing thing for him. However, there was one exception to the rule, and that was pancakes. Axel was a mastermind.

"I don't doubt your little boyfriend's skills, Blondie," he said, mixing the ingredients inside a good size bowl. "But trust me when I say that you don't understand what Heaven is until you taste my pancakes." He grinned. "Demyx is the cook between us, but even he will tell you that my pancakes beat all others."

Contrary to theory, Axel technically could cook, but it tended to be messy and/or burnt - except for his pancakes. He didn't know why, but as a child, that was the one thing he wanted to master. And he had. As a child, he would actually go through their ingredients to make the perfect pancakes. He'd even learned how to flip the damn things.

"And Demyx is gonna' be here in probably around the same time, so I guess I'll just make loads more." He looked over at the stove, making sure all the settings were right, before getting started on his godly pancakes. "And if you can't finish em' all, we can eat em' tomorrow."

-R-

"I'll believe it when I eat em', Ginger."

Roxas flopped on the couch and turned on the TV, curious, and slightly afraid, of Axel's pancakes. Flipping through the channels, Roxas was desperate to find something to distract him for an hour or two. His English class started at 1, so he had time to kill.

He decided to leave it on a movie channel and was instantly consumed by the cheesy horror flick on the screen.

-A-

Axel simply rolled his eyes, before focusing solely on his yummy pancakes.

When the time came, Axel had something to show Roxas. "Hey Rox, look over here for a sec, ya'?" And when Roxas turned his head to look, clearly not enjoying being interrupted from whatever he was watching, Axel flipped a pancake, and caught it perfectly - the way they did in movies.

"Can your little Zexy do that?" he asked, grinning widely.

Axel knew he was a show off, and definitely saw nothing wrong with it, especially around people who didn't know about whatever thing he was showing off. However, his pancake flipping thing was absolutely a talent he relished to show anyone and everyone.

"You can get back to your show now," he said in an almost sing-song voice, sarcasm dripping from every word.

-R-

Roxas grudgingly tore his eyes from the screaming female who was running down a dark alley. He never understood why girls were portrayed so stupidly in horror movies, why would you be screaming down the dark alley? Wouldn't you be quiet so you can control your breathing, which will help you run better, and possibly save you from the psycho who has an idea where you are but doesn't know for sure? In the blond's opinion, that just made more sense.

When Roxas gave the red head his full attention, Axel flipped the pancake he was cooking and made a sarcastic remark.

Before turning back to the movie, the blond smiled broadly at his roommate. "Good boy! You didn't fuck up the pancake!"

Roxas chuckled at his own cooing he aimed at the older male. Satisfied with his remark, he returned to the female who apparently had gotten caught by the psycho. Who saw that coming?

-A-

Axel pouted. He actually pouted at Roxas not being impressed with him. Well now I feel put off, Axel thought to himself.

"Well maybe you just don't deserve pancakes," Axel said loudly as he continued to make them. "I'll make some for me, Dem and Zex - but none for you, because you're a little bitch."

He was clearly joking, but he was actually a little disappointed. Everyone was usually impressed with his random skill, since he wasn't exactly good at much else.

"What movie you watching?" he called, noticing that it suddenly sounded familiar.

-R-

Roxas heard the change in Axel's voice and felt his heart give a small twinge. He hadn't meant to hurt the giant's feelings, he was joking, but Roxas has been known to be inconsiderate of other's feelings. He wasn't going to apologize because well, that would be weird. Instead, he'd find a way to make it up to the red head eventually.

As he turned to respond to the older man's question, Roxas couldn't help but smile. Axel had ingredients everywhere, the kitchen was a complete mess, but he looked so focused; it was kind of cute. There was no harm in admitting to himself that Axel looked cute at that very moment. People could find other people cute and it meaning nothing. After all, he had his Zexion, his little silver haired fox whom he had happily spent the last couple of years with.

Roxas silently thanked whatever God was out there for making sure Axel didn't look up while the younger blond straight out stared at him.

"To be honest, I have no fucking clue what I'm watching, but it was the only thing on."

-A-

Axel let out a laugh when Roxas said he had no idea what they were watching. Since it was only Monday morning, it would make sense for nothing good to be on. The two didn't usually spend these mornings together, since Roxas would still be out probably, or he would, or both would be in their rooms. It was almost...nice, in a way, for both of them to be out of their rooms and interacting with each other. After all, Roxas was definitely a better roommate than Marluxia had been.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought of his crazy ex-roommate.

"You could always put on a movie," Axel suggested, knowing that he and Roxas had a large movie collection, especially when combined. Their movie interests didn't seem to be too off, so putting on at least a decent movie, rather than a boring 'scary movie', sounded a hell of a lot better.

He, of course, continued on with the pancakes. A couple of said pancakes were done already, and he had a decent amount left to do - not that he minded. Cooking was a weird sort of release for him, especially since it wasn't something he did often. It was nice.

-R-

Strangely enough, Roxas found that he was enjoying his time with Axel. He enjoyed fighting with the extremely taller male, but he was finding that he was also enjoying this lazy atmosphere.

"That's not a bad idea, got anything in mind? I'm thinking something with action. Nothing says good morning like shit blowing up while eating pancakes."

The blond got up from the couch and grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator and noticed the small stack of pancakes. He leaned against the counter and practically started salivating directly over the delicious cakes that Axel had made.

"Those look really good." No sarcasm, no harsh undertone; Roxas was being genuine.

The blond noticed that the ginger jumped when he made his statement, which made the smaller male wonder if he had surprised the other that he could actually talk without being sarcastic, or could it be because the two were so close together? Or, he thought, it could be simply all in his imagination. The blue-eyed freshman did tend to see things when they weren't actually there.

Roxas took a sip of his water and stared at the shitty TV movie on the screen from his new vantage point.

"Wanna watch Guardian of the Galaxies?"

-A-

Axel definitely agreed to the action movie idea. Nothing shouted male bravado like a good movie with shit blowing up. Add in pancakes, and it was a 'bro-fest' to the extreme. He was thinking Death Race would be good, or maybe Crank. Shit, anything with that bald guy sounded good.

Clearly he hadn't been paying attention, because the next thing he knew, there was Roxas, practically drooling over the pancakes near him.

He actually jumped.

He tried to play it off, still just making the pancakes. "Get a plate and you can take those," he told his roommate. "I see no point in waiting for the other two."

It wasn't like Axel was a polite sort of person, so he saw no reason in waiting for their boyfriends to get there. They would when they would.

"And yeah, that sounds good," he said in regards to Guardians of the Galaxy. It was definitely a good enough movie - lots of explosions and what-not. Plus, the redneck from the Walking Dead was in it. That definitely made it better.

-R-

Roxas eagerly grabbed a plate and started stacking pancake after pancake on it. When he was finally satisfied, he put on the movie and jumped on the couch.

The second the blond took a bite of his pancake, he felt bad for the two missing males.

When Axel joined him on the couch he realized he had two options. He could be an asshole or be nice; one of those was incredibly easier than the other, but Roxas always gave props when they were deserved.

"Dude, your pancakes, they're – they're heaven."

Axel laughed at Roxas's statement and the blond couldn't help but laugh too. The two males ate their pancakes and watched the movie.

The absence of their boyfriends wasn't even noticed by either of them.


Author's Note: So we're starting to think that the chapters are going to be a lot longer than we anticipated. We just get rally into it, I guess. Hope no one minds.

But we just wanted to thank everyone who's reviewed/favorited/liked our story!

And as always, we hope you continue to review, as it refuels us and makes us write more. :D

Also, the next chapter will kind of be like a side chapter. It will be shorter, and it'll basically be why Dem and Zex didn't show up.