Over the next few weeks, Axel was uncomfortably aware that Roxas was watching him. It wasn't something too obvious and they still didn't talk, but he could tell the blonde was paying attention to him. It made Axel watch him back and he couldn't help but notice how cute the blonde was when he was really concentrating. And how sick he looked sometimes, which was a bit odd. Axel thought it was likely withdrawal although he couldn't really be sure. Despite the time he spent in the slums, his experience with drugs was limited.

But he was still furious at the blonde and saw no reason to change his mind. At least, until Roxas cornered him in the library.

"Axel, can we talk?" Axel looked up from a book with a frown. He really didn't feel like talking to anyone let alone Roxas. But the blonde looked like he was in the middle of swallowing a bitter pill. "I want to apologize."

"Huh?" Axel blinked. That was a real surprise. He would have guess that Roxas didn't know how to say the words. Then his expression turned sardonic. "What do you want?"

"Huh?" Roxas frowned, a touch confused before Axel patiently explained.

"What do you want from me? There has to be a reason for this." Roxas colored at Axel's all too accurate interpretation of his action. For a moment he was tempted to deny it but that wouldn't have been entirely truthful and Roxas took pride in the fact that he wasn't a liar.

"I do need something from you." He said stiffly before taking a chair. "Mind if I sit?" Axel just shrugged. He was actually feeling a little curious now. "I am sorry I was so… out of sorts with you at first. And I didn't mean to get you in trouble; I thought you couldn't be Reno's brother." Roxas ran a hand through his hair as Axel waited patiently for him to get to the point. "I… would you like to hang out after school?"

"Say what?" That was exactly the offer Roxas had spurned at first. Was the kid bi-polar? "Why?" Roxas sighed and explained.

"Part of the reason you bugged me at first was because my… watchers won't let me hang out with much of anyone. But you're Reno's brother and he seems to think you walk on water. He'll let me hang out with you and I really want to get out of the house." He was starting to go quietly stir-crazy. Even hanging out with someone he didn't particularly like would be better than being trapped with adults in an empty house. And Roxas wasn't sure if he liked Axel or not. The other boy was a mystery and interesting as well as loud and a bit annoying. Axel tilted his head to one side, thinking about it.

"What do I get out of this?" He asked and Roxas frowned. "Not to be mercenary or anything, but I'm still not that fond of you." He didn't see any reason why he should spend his after school time with Roxas. The blonde scowled for a moment, thinking.

"I can buy you some food at a restaurant." He said briefly. He had a debit card although everything that went on it was being closely scrutinized. But treating Axel to supper wouldn't raise any eyebrows. Axel looked like he might refuse for a moment then shrugged.

"I guess… okay. For now." He wasn't that desperate for food. If Roxas proved too obnoxious, he could always call it off. "Just don't mention anything you see to Reno or I'll have to kill you, got it?"

"Got it." Roxas smiled and for a moment Axel saw pure relief on his face. What was the kids' life like, that he was looking forward so much to hanging out with him? "I'll have to ask my watchers but maybe tomorrow?"

"Anytime that works for you." Axel said amiably. "It's not like I'm busy." He only did odd jobs on the weekends, usually, and he was having trouble finding them. It was the off season for construction. Although… "Just not Sunday unless you want to help me carry furniture. I'm getting paid to help a lady move." He added as Roxas looked confused. Roxas blinked and nodded.

"Okay." It would be a lot easier for them to meet up after school than on weekends in any case. Roxas wasn't sure where Axel lived. "Just let me ask Reno." Roxas stood to leave and Axel watched him go thoughtfully. Was he actually looking forward to this? But aside from being a bit of an ass, Roxas really was very cute. That was probably it.

Reno proved to be delighted by the suggestion and Roxas had an idea that the Turks were very tired of babysitting him. They'd already been pawning it off on underlings as much as they could, of course, but Rufus wanted something a bit more certain. Apparently they thought Reno's brother would do just fine. Roxas really couldn't understand how Reno seemed to know nothing about Axel at all yet thought he did. It was very strange, but he wasn't going to question it again. He wasn't sure he believed Axel about the river but it was better not to take the chance.

"So! Want to go to the arcade?" Axel grinned and pulled something out of his bad. Roxas tilted his head as he saw it was a plastic bag filled with arcade tokens. "I did some serious cleaning there once when a kid puked all over the place and didn't tell anyone so it got hard and stuff. They paid me in tokens."

"Ewww. Not worth it!" Roxas couldn't imagine cleaning off dried puke for any price, let alone game tokens. "But sure." He couldn't remember ever going to an arcade in his life. It sounded interesting. They took the school bus to Axel's part of town and Roxas looked around curiously. It wasn't the best neighborhood but it wasn't bad. The arcade Axel took him to was dusty, a little dirty and almost empty. "Want something to drink?" There was a vending machine with sodas and snacks. Axel glanced over and nodded.

"Sure, Dr. Pepper please. And some chips too if you don't mind." Roxas didn't and dug out some change, popping it into the machine. Picking up his purchases, he walked over to Axel who was already playing around on a shooting game. It looked like it had a two player function and Roxas passed him the drink and chips, which actually turned out to be pork rinds. Axel grinned as he ate one and Roxas looked at them dubiously. They'd been the only chip available but he'd never tried them before. "These things are good. Mmm, heart attack in a bag." Roxas laughed and tried his. It wasn't bad at all and he thought he could probably get a taste for it.

The evening passed pleasantly before one of Roxas' watchers came to pick him up. They were constantly tracking him through the leg cuff, so it wasn't hard for them to find him. He waved goodbye to Axel and the redhead waved back with a grin.

"Hmm." He knew he should still be holding a grudge against Roxas. The kid had been a total pip when they met and had indirectly caused him a beating. But… Axel shrugged to himself. He wasn't the type to hold grudges and when Roxas was relaxed he actually seemed like an almost decent human being. And there was another idea lurking in the back of his mind. He'd never had anyone he could share his situation with but Roxas already knew about part of it. Could he trust the blonde with the rest?

He'd just have to wait and see.

"Are we ever going to get rid of this thing?" Reno looked over the body in a tank, unimpressed. He wasn't a scientist but he'd read the reports. This thing had been part of an experiment that interested him deeply. However, the experiment looked to be a complete failure and nothing they'd done since had shown any signs of success. Hojo shrugged then smiled. Reno hated that smile. Professor Hojo was probably the creepiest guy in the universe, in Reno's opinion.

"There's no reason to dispose of it." He said, running a hand over the glass lovingly. The thing inside didn't stir. Reno suspected it was dead although the scientists swore there was still biological activity. "Someday we might find a use for it." Although it wasn't among his favorite specimens. Analysis had been difficult and random experiments seemed to garner nothing at all.

Reno looked intently into the swirling liquid and for a moment it parted a little, revealing the creature within. It looked like a woman and with the burns defacing its skin, he could have thought it was just a mortally injured human. But it wasn't. It had been found buried in ice at the helm of a severely damaged craft. The scientists maintained it was a spaceship although they'd never managed to properly analyze the ore it was made of let alone the internal workings. Whatever it was, it had been keeping this female creature alive in a kind of stasis. At first it had refused to release her but when they injected it with mako and healing spells it had let the female go long enough for them to get it into a stasis pod. The life signs had never changed and the wounds had never healed. Reno's eyes dropped to her left arm and he had to suppress a shudder. It was hard to imagine how that blackened limb could ever heal into something functional. It looked like a charred skeleton.

"Maybe we should get Axel checked again." Reno mused and Hojo just shook his head, his expression showing what he thought of that. "Just to be sure."

"If he were going to show signs of change it would have been more pronounced when he was a baby." Professor Hojo pointed out and Reno could only nod. "I would love nothing better than to have a new specimen, but your brother's experiment was a failure. He's completely normal."

"Just as well." Reno really didn't want Axel under Hojo's care anyway.

The experiment had been simple. Riding high on the success of Sephiroth, Hojo and his father had decided to do a similar experiment on Axel's mother and her unborn child. Reno had been too young to know anything about it but apparently his parents had both volunteered for it. Instead of using Jenova, they had used this unusual being, taking its cells and infusing them with mako before injecting them into his mother.

Nothing had happened. The cells had seemed to be absorbed into his mother's body and the mako had gradually vanished. There had been no signs of increased strength or power in his mother and Axel had been born a normal child. He still had a trace of the mako and it seemed to help him heal faster than he otherwise should, but the scientists hadn't been able to find anything else unusual about him. Reno wished sometimes that it had been otherwise. Jenova's cells seemed to have adverse effects they were only beginning to understand. If only this being could have been an alternative…

But it wasn't. Reno shook his head and turned aside. So he missed strange eyes opening into tiny slits and the twinkle of dark green irises. A hand twitched faintly before the eyes slid back shut.

It wasn't really awake or aware… but it would be someday.

"This is where you live?" Roxas sounded utterly appalled. Axel just nodded, sitting with his back against a brick wall. "Axel, this is horrible!"

"It is what it is." He flicked a pebble away, watching it bounce through the dusty ground. The abandoned lot was full of weeds and dirt but not much in the way of real plants. "Have a seat? I'd offer you a chair but I haven't got any." He hadn't really wanted to take Roxas here but the blonde had wanted to see his home. Axel had finally decided it was easier to just show him.

The lean-to was well constructed out of wood and steel. Axel had a knack for building as well as drawing. Spatial relationships were very easy for him and Axel remembered one IQ test he'd taken that had involved moving and positioning blocks. Most of the test he'd only done okay at but he'd excelled in that one area. Along with practical knowledge of materials and tools, he'd made a pretty decent shelter for himself. It kept the rain off and provided good shelter from the wind in the winter. Although it wasn't warm. Axel had come perilously close to losing a toe or two the previous winter.

"This is crazy." Roxas seemed really dismayed by the sight and Axel just shrugged. "Why do you live like this? Don't you have a home?" Axel grimaced at the thought.

"Yeah… I'm basically a runaway." He shrugged again. "Dolang doesn't care as long as I don't upset his lies to Reno. I figure I've got two years left to go before I don't have to talk to either of them ever again." That made Roxas frown as he took a seat beside Axel.

"Reno seems to care about you." He pointed out and blinked as Axel laughed.

"As if! I haven't seen him for four years. He can't care that much." Roxas wondered about that for a moment. Reno acted like he knew Axel well. If they hadn't been meeting in person how could that be? "Pfh, forget about him. My family is all fucked up."

"So's mine." Roxas admitted, looking away. Axel wasn't terribly surprised by that. How else could the blonde have gotten so badly messed up? "Have you ever done drugs?" He expected Axel would say no and was very surprised when the redhead nodded.

"Kind of. I've tried everything." Axel shrugged as Roxas stared at him. "Shizzle, coke, magic mushrooms, E… I've tried them all. They just don't do anything for me. I get high for maybe five minutes and its over."

"Huh?" Roxas frowned. He knew a lot about the effects of drugs and that was flat out abnormal. "Really? That shouldn't be possible." For a moment he wasn't sure whether or not to believe Axel. But why would the redhead lie about something that weird? Axel scratched his hair for a moment then grinned.

"You think that's not possible? Heh. Whenever I first tried to take stuff, I'd try to take more as soon as the high was wearing off. Well, that was a dumb idea. I ended up puking my guts out. And when I did the same with injection stuff I just wanted to die. You have no idea. It's like my body rejects the stuff." Roxas tilted his head. That was an interesting thought.

"You know, if someone could figure out what your body does that could be the most effective drug rehab ever." He pointed out and Axel looked startled for a moment. He hadn't thought of that.

"Hmm, maybe. I'd rather not have those creepy guys look at me again though." Axel vividly remembered the last time he'd met Professor Hojo. He was like a proctologist with very cold hands and the worst bedside manner in the world. "It's probably not duplicatable anyway."

"Probably not." They sat in companionable silence for a while before Roxas spoke again. "Axel, how can you be so cheerful when you live like this?" Roxas just didn't understand it. He was living on a rubber mattress in a wooden shelter in the middle of a deserted lot. How could Axel be so… so happy? Axel laughed for a moment.

"I should let it get me down? It is what it is, and I like being on my own, doing things for myself. Sure it's a grind and my grades suck but it could be worse. I could be living with Dolang." Axel's tone was very cheerful and Roxas frowned.

"That seems a little… superficial." It wasn't really fake since this seemed to be who Axel really was, not something he put on for other people. But still, it was very much just the surface of things. Axel glanced over thoughtfully.

"You think way too much Roxas." Axel said teasingly and gripped his shoulder. Roxas blinked and stared as the redhead leaned closer. "They say that still waters run deep, but I think they're a lot more likely to have a muddy bottom full of weeds. Which would you rather be, a mucky swimming hole… or a clear, brisk stream with a nice rocky bottom that just invites people to jump in…?" Axel's voice dropped to a seductive, husky tone as he spoke and Roxas swallowed hard, feeling parts of himself stirring. He wasn't a virgin although almost none of his experiences had been positive. But Axel was activating his long forgotten libido. Warm lips touched his…

"Axel, stop." Roxas pulled away sharply and Axel blinked before looking slightly disappointed.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to press." For all he knew Roxas didn't even like guys. But from the look on the blonde's face Axel didn't think that was likely. He'd caught the desire there.

"It's nothing. I just… I'm not ready for that." Roxas had spent a long time in rehab and knew this was a bad time to start a relationship. He needed to be clean for a while before he took up with someone. And that was if he wanted to take up with Axel at all but the redhead did look awfully good. And he knew what it was like to have things rough. Not like most people at his new school. Axel smiled slowly and Roxas was enchanted by the way it made his green eyes sparkle.

"I can wait." Was all he said. Then Axel stretched with a sigh. "Want to go to the burger barn? I'd rather your watchers didn't pick you up here." That might make them start asking questions Axel didn't want to answer. Roxas nodded.

"Sure, I'll get you something." Axel had a massive appetite, not surprising for a growing teenager. It wasn't like there were any limits on his card so Roxas didn't mind funding his new friend at all. Sure, Axel was using him a bit but Roxas was using him right back. So it all seemed to work out.

Roxas only hoped things kept going this well.