Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru. And yes, you should know this song. It was in Kingdom Hearts. If you don't remember it, go look it up on youtube now. NOW.

Author's Note: Oh gosh, resubmitting chapters 3,5,6,7, and 8 because they were removed by ffnet for "violating the guidelines" on the upload page. Chapters have been edited, a more detailed author's note about this can be found on chapter 8 :)

Sugar and Spice

Chapter Four: The Spring Fling...Thing



Running a brush through his hair, Roxas watched himself in his bedroom mirror in annoyance as the spikes on his head sprung right back up. Why was he cursed to look like he had chronic bed-head? Seriously. He could never get his hair to look any different.

That's it hair. You're going down!...Literally.

Roxas took another bite of the pop tart he was eating, then clutched the brush in both hands and pressed it down on his head hard, slowly moving it once more to try to get his hair to lay flat. When he removed it he grinned happily at himself. Yes! He got it to lie flat! But one second later, the spikes sprung right back up to their original place. Argh! Roxas threw the brush across the room and his backpack made an angry buzzing sound at him.

He turned to look at his backpack and raised an eyebrow. Huh? Was it mad at him for disrespecting inanimate objects? As if to answer his question, the backpack buzzed again. Roxas set his pop tart down and cautiously shuffled over to the book bag, afraid it might attack him at any moment. He poked it with his foot and it buzzed at him again and he jumped back. Was it alive? Roxas wondered if he was in some sort of tragedy where he fell in love with both a woman and a man but never got a chance to be with either of them because he was viciously eaten by a book bag. He slowly backed away, trying not to make any sudden moves. Maybe it was like that T-Rex in "Jurassic Park" and could only sense movement. After a minute Roxas noticed that it had stopped making noise and he realized how ridiculous he was being. His backpack wasn't going to eat him…hopefully.

Roxas stepped forward again and unzipped his backpack, searching through it to try to find what had caused the buzzing. He found his cell phone was glowing at the bottom of the bag and grabbed it, flipping it open and seeing that it said: "New Text Message. From: Axel".

Ah, that must have been the source of the buzzing. Silly Roxas. Well, he had never received a text message before so this was new. He clicked the "okay" button to see what it said.

"Hey Rox. I'm on my way, should be there in 15."

It was the night of the Spring Fling dance and apparently Axel was going to be arriving to take Roxas there very soon. Roxas had been trying to get ready for the past two hours. He had taken a shower and made sure to scrub everywhere really good. What if Naminé noticed a grimy spot on him? He couldn't have her thinking he was gross. Axel also had recommended to him to buy a can of "Axe" body spray for men. Axel had said, "How could you go wrong with cologne with a name so similar to my own?" So apparently girls liked it when you smelled like an axe. The mysteries of women. So Roxas had bought a can and sprayed an unhealthy amount on himself. This caused him to go into a choking fit from inhaling it and he had to take another shower because the smell was much too strong. After learning his lesson, he sprayed only a small amount on himself later. Ah, yes. Now he had the perfect amount of the smell of an axe on his body. Then it had come down to choosing the perfect casual outfit. Naminé had only ever seen him in his school uniform, so he had to make sure to impress her with a dashing outfit. After going through his whole closet and trying on all combinations of clothes he had finally settled on khaki cargo pants, a blue shirt to bring out his eyes, and an emo-ish black and white checkered wristband. That emo crap was all the rage now, right? Hopefully Naminé would think he was quite stylish.

It took Roxas about five minutes to figure out how to text Axel back since he had never done it before. Then it took him another five minutes just to text him back the message: "OK." Lame. He wished he had the courage to type something like "Can't wait!" or "What are you wearing?" maybe even "You better be naked when you get here.", but he could never get the guts to do something like that. Roxas wondered how Naminé was so quick at this texting thing. Seriously, it took him forever.

The doorbell rang and Roxas jumped up, feeling his heart jump along with him. That must be Axel. He quickly glanced at himself in the mirror, trying out different poses to make sure he looked okay.

"You look pretty damn hot, if I do say so myself," Roxas Devil complimented, popping up on his shoulder. "Simple, yet sexy. You don't want to overdo it. Then you'd just look desperate."

"For once I'll agree with that jerk face. You do look quite dashing." Roxas Angel nodded when he appeared.

Roxas grinned. It must be true if these two were agreeing. He did a little sexy hip wiggle in front of the mirror as an experiment to see how he would look dancing.

"Very nice!" Roxas Devil commented in a Borat-type manner, wiggling his hips along with Roxas. "Axel won't be able to resist you."

Angel Roxas cleared his throat. "Um, don't you mean Naminé?"

"Yeah, yeah, her too." Roxas Devil sighed.

The bell rang again and the devil turned to Roxas, "Well, have fun, and remember: it's not rape if you shout surprise!" and with that he disappeared in a cloud of blackness.

Roxas Angel just stared at the spot where the devil had previously been, looking appalled. "Roxas, don't listen to what he says, rape is-"

"I know." Roxas assured him. "I don't plan on raping anyone, don't worry."

The angel smiled at him. "Good. Have a nice night, make good choices!" He then disappeared in his cloud of white.

Roxas shoved the rest of his pop tart in his mouth, ran down the stairs excitedly and opened the door just wide enough to find Axel standing before him. And he almost came in his pants right there, Axel looked so hot.

It was the first time he had ever seen Axel out of the school uniform. He was wearing a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The top part of the shirt was unbuttoned and Axel's chest was exposed. Roxas wanted to touch it. But he resisted, his eye twitching as a sign of a mental struggle. Axel also was wearing a really nice fitting pair of washed out blue jeans. Really nice fitting. As in, makes-it-easier-to-picture-him-naked nice fitting. And Axel was so tall and so mature for his age. Well, mature looking, not personality wise. For being only eighteen he really didn't look it. He could pass for a teacher if it weren't for the student uniform and the common knowledge that he was a trouble maker. Oh, and those tattoos on his face. No teacher could get a job at his strict private school if they had that. And apparently Axel had almost gotten expelled when he got them, too.

"Heh-doh," Roxas said with a mouthful of pop tart. Shit. Shoving the whole thing in his mouth probably wasn't the smartest thing, since what came out of his mouth was completely inaudible. Axel probably thought he was an idiot now.

As expected, the redhead gave him a weird look. "I'm sorry, I don't speak Swahili. Once again in English please?"

Roxas swallowed and translated; face turning red, "I said 'hello'."

He opened the door the rest of the way and saw Axel look him over. His heart skipped a beat. Whoa! Axel just checked him out! ...At least, that's what Roxas hoped Axel did.

"Well. Hello to you, too. You look good," Axel said casually, but his eyes traveled up and down Roxas' body again. "Ready to go?"

Roxas blushed like a little girl and muttered, "Yeah…" Why was Axel able to make him blush so much? At this rate, Axel would probably think he just naturally had a red face.

They made their way into the car and Roxas noticed it was already running. The music playing was surprisingly not Oblivion, and he heard:

"When you walk away, you don't hear me say, pleeeeeeeaaase, oh baby!"

He looked over at Axel and raised an eyebrow. "…the hell Axel?"

Axel grinned sheepishly and said, "What? Everyone knows this song." And to Roxas' horror, Axel began to sing along as he pulled out of the driveway, "'You're aaallllll I neeeed, ohh! You smiled me and said'…something something… 'But does that mean I have to meeeeeet your father? When you get older you'll unnnnnnderstand'- Come on, Roxas, I know you know the words too!"

Roxas laughed. "It sounds to me like you don't even know the words."

"Like that matters," Axel snorted. "Come on, Roxas, sing with me! Have some fun! Besides, this is Naminé's ring tone, so you'll have to get used to hearing it if you wanna date her," he said, turning to Roxas with a wink. Then he began to sing horrendously again, "'Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feeeeeeel tonight!'"

Roxas laughed and joined in, "'It's haaaaard to let it go! The'…something something 'that keeps us all busy are confusing me, that's when you came to me and said, wish I could prove I love you, but does that mean I have to walk on water?'"

After the song ended Axel skipped past it on his CD player, "Alright, that's enough of that crap," and Oblivion began to play, like normal. He then turned towards Roxas again, "You know, you were way off key."

Roxas' grin faded and he crossed his arms, "Well, so were you," he said indignantly, turning his nose up at Axel.

"I'm sure I was. But it was good to see you relax and let loose. That's what you gotta do when you dance, too," Axel told him, eyes focused on the road.

Blinking, Roxas thought about this for a second. Huh. He did feel a little more relaxed now. And he never sang in front of other people either, considering he sounded like a dying animal when he did. He was surprised he was able to do something like that in front of another person, especially one who he liked.

After Roxas was silent for a few moments, Axel asked him, "You're not still nervous, are you?"

Roxas bit his lip. "Yeah, a little bit," he admitted.

Axel sighed. "There's really nothing to worry about. You're a cool kid, you're smart, attractive, what more could Naminé want? I'm sure she'll be happy to have you as her date."

Taken aback that Axel had said those things about him, Roxas stared at the redhead. His heart did a little flip flop. Then a few somersaults. Perhaps a couple of other gymnastics moves. Did Axel really think those things about him?

"Besides, I'll be there the whole time, if you ever need me," Axel continued. "Just remember, 'What would Axel do?' W-W-A-D. Got it memorized?"

Roxas burst out laughing, "Now you're stealing Jesus' catchphrase?"

"Genius isn't it?" Axel said cockily. "It's not like its trademarked or anything. I should make tee-shirts. Hopefully Jesus won't beam down and smite me for it."

Roxas continued to laugh and shook his head. He was starting to feel a lot more comfortable around Axel now. It was…nice. He really felt like he had a friend. Now, if only he could stop picturing doing more than just friendly acts to Axel, he would be all set.

Axel mentioning that he would be there the whole time reminded Roxas of something. "Axel, are you meeting anyone there?" He'd been wondering this ever since Axel said he was going to go to the dance, too. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he wanted to know now. He wasn't sure how he'd react to seeing Axel dancing with someone else…if he saw some girl all over Axel who knows what he'd do. Possibilities included: jumping on them and ripping them off of Axel, pulling their hair out, slamming them to the ground and grabbing the nearest fire extinguisher and spraying the life out of them. Screw that rule that guys can't hit girls. The rule could easily be broken when wanting to protect their sexy friend, who they also wanted all for themselves.

To Roxas' relief, Axel replied, "Nope." But then he said, "I don't like to be tied down." Roxas cursed inwardly upon hearing this. Dammit. There go all of his bondage fantasies about Axel out the window…

"For me, having to stick to just one person is boring," the redhead continued, and Roxas realized that he previously wasn't talking about kinky sex. Axel grinned and said, "So I get to dance with whoever I want to whenever I want to."

Roxas felt his good mood explode into a million tiny bits. Shit. Axel was going to be dancing with a bunch of different girls? Now he wished that Axel was just meeting a specific person there. How many girls would Roxas have to resist fire-extinguishing?

They arrived at the school, Axel pulled into a parking spot and the two classmates got out of the car. Axel walked around and wrapped an arm around Roxas, pulling him in close against his side and giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Roxas stumbled and looked up at the older boy.

"Here we go," the redhead said, looking down at Roxas and keeping his arm around him as they walked into the building. "Naminé's waiting for you." Roxas gave him a nervous smile, and his heart started beating rapidly due to being so close to Axel's body and also because of the anticipation of seeing Naminé. They walked into the gym where the school dances were always held. The music was already pulsing and some people were already dancing, while others were at the refreshments table. Roxas spotted Naminé from across the room at the snack bar, amongst a crowd of friends. He felt his palms instantly begin to start sweating. She looked amazing. She was wearing a sparkly black and gray shirt that could be seen by everyone because it was reflecting all the disco lights in the room, along with come kind of black mini skirt thing. Roxas didn't really know his fashion too well, so he wouldn't really know.

"Well, there she is. Go sweep her off her feet," Axel encouraged, shoving the blond forward. He turned away to head towards some really slutty looking girls who were already grinding each other to the music, but Roxas reached forward and grabbed his arm. Axel turned towards him again and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Come with me," Roxas pleaded, half because he wanted someone to be there with him when he approached Naminé and half because he didn't want to see Axel with the group of sluts. "Please."

Axel gave him a kind smile. "Okay."

They walked over to where Naminé was, together, and she smiled when she saw them.

"Hey, Roxas, Axel!" she greeted, sweetly.

"H-hi..." Roxas said shyly, in unison with Axel saying, "Hey there."

Roxas studied the people Naminé was hanging out with, not really knowing what to think. She had her usual gang of girls hanging around her, but there were also two guys that Roxas had never seen before. One had long, silver hair, which looked really girly. He was wearing an all-black outfit, with some emo-looking accessories. The other boy had a peppy expression on his face, had on a white wife-beater, jeans that were way too big for him and sagged all the way down to his butt and exposed his boxers, which had little keys all over them. Roxas wondered if that was some type of sexual innuendo or something. He was also wearing a visor sideways on his spiky brunet head. Axel and Roxas both exchanged glances.

"Who are you guys?" Roxas asked, and immediately regretted it, realizing how rude it sounded. But he couldn't help it. Who were these kooks who thought they could hang out around Naminé?

"I'm Riku…" the emo looking one replied blandly.

"Yo! I'm Sora, son!" the ghetto-looking one practically screamed and Roxas jumped back at the other kid's outburst. Sora then did some kind of weird hand motion and crossed his arms in front of himself in a ghetto pose. "Wazzup?" he asked, inclining his head in the air at Roxas.

"Um…" Roxas mumbled, looking at the Sora kid with an expression that suggested he thought the kid belonged in an insane asylum. "Not much…"

A song began to play that was apparently popular since all the girls began jumping up and down and singing along. They seriously needed to learn to stop doing that. The boobs bouncing up and down were so distracting.

"Yo, this song is totally off da hook!" Sora exclaimed, and proceeded to drop down to the floor and break dance. Roxas stared. Wow. Why couldn't he do something like that?

"Go Sora! Go Sora!" Naminé began chanting, and her friends joined in. Roxas glanced over at Axel again, and saw that his friend was not looking impressed.

Sora finished doing some kind of awesome spin and paused, sitting on the ground. "Yo, Riku, why don't you dance?" he asked.

"I don't dance," Riku replied. "The…darkness won't allow me. It's too strong…darkness." Roxas noticed the silver haired guy twitch.

Sora made a face and whined, "Aw, come on, son! You've got to stop all that darkness crap. It's all in your head."

"Yes…" Riku said, eyes widening. "In my head…darkness. I cannot escape it…darkness."

Naminé giggled, and Roxas happily stopped staring at the two freakish kids he just met to look at her. Unfortunately, her shirt was at a certain angle and reflected the gym lights right into his eyes, blinding him.

"Ahh…my eyes…" Roxas groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Naminé apologized frantically, stepping towards him and touching his arm. "Are you alright?"

Roxas removed his hands and looked down at her hand upon his arm. "I-I'm fine," he stammered.

Naminé pouted. "I shouldn't have worn this shirt…"

"Oh, no, no!" Roxas protested, trying his hardest to not picture Naminé without a shirt, bravely placing a hand on her opposite arm. "You look great!"

Naminé smiled widely at him. "Thank you!"

At the moment, the pulsing dance song faded away, and a slow, cheesy one, began. Roxas and Naminé kind of stared at one another for a couple moments before Naminé hesitantly asked him, "Would…you like to dance?"

A slow smile crossed Roxas' lips and he said, "Yes!"

The boy tried to remember what Axel had taught him and carefully placed a hand on her waist and held her hand with his opposite. They began to dance and Roxas pictured himself dancing with Axel, imitating how they had danced a few days ago. To Roxas' delight, he was able to dance just as well, swaying to the music with Naminé.

"You're hands are really sweaty…" Naminé stated the obvious. Like Roxas didn't already know that.

"Um…I'm sorry?" Roxas wasn't sure if she wanted him to apologize for this or not. Axel had said that she shouldn't care about it…

"…That's okay," Namine said after a moment's hesitation. "It's kind of gross…but you're a good dancer."

Well, she had insulted him and complimented him in one breath. Roxas wasn't sure whether he should be happy or upset, so he just continued to focus on the dancing. Towards the middle of the song, Naminé pressed up closer to him and laid her head against his chest. Roxas was startled at first, but then he was filled with glee. Wow! Maybe she did like him, too!

After another minute, Roxas looked up, wondering where Axel had gone. He saw that Axel was dancing with one of Naminé's friends. The girl looked totally smitten and in awe that she was dancing with Axel and Roxas felt a stab of jealousy. Which totally wasn't fair…Axel was allowed to dance with other people. And Roxas was dancing with Naminé. Why should he be jealous?

Axel took notice of Roxas looking at him and he smiled at him. Roxas looked down at Naminé who was still lying against his chest, and he took his hand of her waist to give Axel a thumb's up. Axel's grin widened and he winked at Roxas. The two went back to dancing with their partners until the song ended.

Naminé pulled away and smiled, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "You're a really good dancer, Roxas. Most guys are so clumsy," she complimented.

Roxas was about to thank her, when all of a sudden a loud scream filled the whole gym, causing everyone to turn and stare.

"AXEEEEEEEEELLL!!"

All eyes turned to the redhead, who was standing, frozen, looking dumbstruck. Suddenly, something that resembled a female stormed across the gym, right up to Axel. Roxas noticed that she looked somewhat like a cockroach; her hair was like two antennae. He wondered why anyone would even want to style their hair like that. She looked like a bug. Bugs were not attractive. Bugs were creepy and gross. Why would she want to look like one? His thought process, however was interrupted when he saw her grab Axel and growled into his face, "How dare you dance with another girl?!"

Roxas felt his heart sink. What? Was this chick Axel's girlfriend or something? For some reason, Roxas doubted it. Axel could do much better. For example…he could go out with Roxas.

Scowling at her, Axel pushed her hand off of himself. "Don't make a scene, Larxene…" he warned quietly, glancing around at the faces who were staring at them.

"But I'm pregnant with your child!" she screamed, grabbing him by the collar again. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Roxas' eyes widened. Pregnant? Did she mean…pregnant? As in, the act of semen traveling through the uterus and fertilizing the egg? (He had just learned that in biology the other day.) The act that came from getting down and dirty? Doing the mattress jig? Knocking boots? Fornication? Inserting the penis into the vagina?! Oh, dear Lord! This could not be happening.

"We never even had sex, you psycho bitch!" Axel yelled back at her, trying to push her off again. Roxas felt relieved at hearing that, and the redhead was able to escape her grasp and run away from her.

"I'm gonna castrate you!" she threatened and chased Axel out of the gym.

Roxas and Naminé stared after them until they disappeared from view; then Naminé grabbed Roxas and spun him around towards herself.

"Let's dance again!" she said excitedly because another slow song was playing.

Roxas glanced nervously from her to the gym door. He wanted to dance with her again…but then he wanted to see if Axel was okay.

"I'm sorry, Naminé, I want to, but I want to see if-"

"Axel will be fine. He's a big boy," Naminé interrupted, and Roxas hated the fact that she called Axel a 'big boy'. "He can take care of himself. I came to this dance to dance. And you wanted to go with me didn't you? So let's dance," she whined, pulling at his arm.

"Yo, Naminé, if Roxas wants to see if his homie is okay, you should let him." Sora said, walking up to them and lacing his fingers behind his head. "That ho was scary!"

"Yeah. Darkness." Riku agreed. What the hell was up with this guy and 'darkness'? It's like he just had to say it whenever he spoke.

But Naminé just ignored them and looked into his eyes sweetly. Her eyes were like big, shiny, hypnotizing wet things. They were beautiful.

"You smell good," she commented.

Yes! She likes the smell of axes! Roxas thought happily, and gave in and danced with her, completely forgetting about Axel.

As soon as the song ended, Roxas snapped back to reality and pulled away from her. Axel! His balls could have been removed by now! Oh no! "Look, I'll be right back, okay Naminé?" he told her, and quickly ran away before she could protest.

Roxas stepped out into the hallway and glanced around. He didn't see them anywhere. He walked down towards the cafeteria, then suddenly, he felt a hand grab his arm and he was pulled into a janitor's closet.

"Ah, what the- hmf!" Roxas' mouth was covered by a hand as the door was closed, leaving him in darkness.

"Shhh!" The other person hushed him, and once Roxas' eyes adjusted the dark, he saw that it was Axel.

"Axel, what the hell are you doing?" he hissed, once the other student removed his hand.

"I'm hiding, isn't it obvious? Look, you've got to help me, Roxas," Axel whispered desperately, "She's crazy. She won't leave me alone!"

Axel looked like he was actually…scared. "Okay, wait a minute. Who is she?" Roxas asked, trying to use a calm tone. In reality, he was extremely nervous. Why? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that he was alone in a dark closet with Axel, inches away from his face.

Luckily, Axel prevented Roxas from picturing all the dirty things they could be doing in this small, dirty, space by saying, "She's this fucking psycho who wants in my pants." Now Roxas' eyes widened into big blue orbs. "Don't worry; she's never actually been able to," Axel reassured him once he saw Roxas' expression.

"So…what do we do?" Roxas asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Axel laughed as quietly as he could. "You are one of the top students in your grade aren't you? I'm sure you can think of something."

"Axel, I-" Roxas said a little too loudly, they heard footsteps outside of the door and Axel tried to silence him again with his hand, but it was too late. To their horror, the closet door suddenly flew open, exposing them to the light in the hallway. They looked up in terror to see Larxene standing before them, an expression of blood lust on her face.

"There you are!" she cried triumphantly. Then she actually noticed Roxas, pressed up against the wall of the closet with Axel's hand over his mouth.

"What the hell is going on here?" she asked quietly, but her tone was so cold it gave Roxas chills.

Axel and Roxas looked at each other, eyes wide, and then the redhead leaned back, removing his hand from Roxas' mouth.

Axel's expression quickly changed from one of immense fear to…something like…sexy calmness. If that made sense. "Oh, you seemed to have caught us, Larxene," he said smoothly, but Roxas could see he was still a little tense.

"…What?" Larxene hissed.

"Me and Roxas here were just about to get kinky in the closet," Axel replied, and Roxas gaped at him. If it were physically possible, his mouth would have dropped to the floor. Axel wrapped an arm around the blond's waist and nuzzled his cheek against Roxas' hair as he said, "Mmm…isn't that right, Roxy?"

Roxas could only stand stiffly and try not to squeal. What the hell? Was Axel…?

Axel stopped nuzzling him, drew back and looked into Roxas' eyes. The blond stared back, his heart pounding, thinking Axel was going to kiss him. Roxas was about to close his eyes and lean in, but then the older boy winked and reality gave Roxas a good, hard smack across the face. Oh. Axel was just pretending so Larxene would leave him alone…

Roxas swallowed nervously, and glanced at Larxene, who looked like she was going to explode at any moment. He figured he better go along with this, since Axel's body parts were on the line. And Roxas wanted everything on Axel to stay intact just in case he ever got the chance to touch those body parts. He raised his arms up, trembling slightly and wrapped them around the redhead's neck. "Yes, that's right, Axel," he said as convincingly as possible.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Axel said, grinning. "But you see, I can't be with you. Cuz I'm gay."

Larxene lunged towards them, filled with fury. Roxas yelped and pulled himself in closer to Axel on instinct, squeezing his eyes shut and burying his head into Axel's chest, anticipating pain. None came though, and he cracked an eye open to see that some guy with pink hair had caught Larxene's arm and was holding her back. What the hell? Where did he come from?

"Let go of me, Marluxia!" Larxene screamed, trying to shake him off.

Marluxia just grabbed her other arm and pulled both of them behind her back. "It's time for your medication now, Larxene."

"Nooo!" she cried as she was dragged down the hallway. She called out threats to them, her voice getting harder and harder to hear as she got farther away. "I will kill you, Axel! I will force feed you barbed wire, shove it through your ass, and floss you to death! And your little boyfriend better watch out too! I'll break every bone in your body, skin you, and make you into a pair of pants!"

She continued to yell threats and once both figures and disappeared, Axel let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that was a close one." Roxas looked up at him and smiled. He was so happy to be able to help Axel out; the fact that Larxene had threatened his life didn't even bother him. Axel smiled back and said, "Um, you can let go of me now, Roxas. She's gone." Roxas realized that he still had his arms around Axel's neck and quickly let go.

"S-sorry," he stuttered awkwardly. Crap. Why hadn't he realized he had been clinging onto Axel in a death grip? It was probably totally obvious that he liked Axel now!

Axel just continued smiling and ruffled Roxas' hair. "It's okay. She is scary as hell after all."

Oh. Roxas relaxed a bit. Axel thought he had only clung to him because he was afraid…

"Well, let's go back to the gym then," the redhead stepped out of the closet and Roxas stared at his butt as he walked away. Hot damn. Roxas suddenly got an unexplainable urge to jump out of the closet and smack it. Luckily, Axel turned towards him again, causing Roxas to quickly advert his eyes back to Axel's face. He hoped Axel didn't realize that he was examining his tushie.

The other boy gave no hint of noticing though and said, "You don't want to keep your date waiting, Roxas."

Oh yeah! Naminé! Roxas had forgotten all about her. What with being in a dark closet with Axel, almost getting castrated by a cockroach and all. He quickly ran past Axel and into the gym, just in time to hear a very familiar song start to play. A wide grin crossed his face and he turned around to see Axel walking into the gym behind him.

"Axel! It's Oblivion!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Axel grinned as well and started to bob his head along to the beat. "Alright! Finally they're starting to play some good music."

They made their way over to where Naminé was, at the refreshments table and Roxas said, "Hey Naminé, sorry to have run off on you."

Naminé was about to say something when Sora interrupted, "Yo, dawg! So what happened? We heard that ho screamin' bloody murder down the hallway, isn't that right, Riku?"

Riku only nodded. Roxas thanked the heavens that he didn't open his mouth, because he might punch the guy if he mentioned 'darkness' one more time.

Suddenly Roxas felt Axel sling an arm over his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It was nothing me and Roxas couldn't handle."

Roxas looked at Axel's smiling face from the corner of his eye and he smiled too. It was like the guy's grin was contagious. He was feeling so happy. He didn't know if he had ever had this much excitement before. And it was the non-horny kind of excitement too, which was better because it made things less awkward.

Naminé smiled too…but something was off about it. Like, it seemed forced. "Um, Roxas want some punch?" She asked him, and grabbed him and pulled him away from Axel. She leaned over the table and scooped something out of a bowl that looked like liquid boogers into a cup. Ew…

"What it is?" Roxas asked her hesitantly, scrunching his nose up in disgust.

"It's cucumber melon! It's soooo good!" she said enthusiastically.

"Cucumbers? Bleh." Roxas stuck out his tongue, repulsed. Cucumbers…he shuddered. "I hate cucumbers."

"Really?" Naminé asked, her expression dropping. "Why?"

Roxas was about to respond when Axel walked up and said, "Hey, Roxas, it's the best part of the song."

"The sick guitar solo!" Roxas cried happily, and imitated playing the guitar along with the music, and the redhead laughed. Axel was right, this was the best part. It was so awesome how he and Axel shared the same favorite band. The two of them broke out into a crazy air guitar solo with each other, laughing. At the end of the song, they both slid on their knees on the ground and pretended to smash their invisible guitar on the floor. The music faded out and they were left in silence, everyone around them looking at them. A few people clapped awkwardly and a new song started.

"Ugh, you like that band?" Naminé sighed, setting her cup full of icky-ness down on the table and crossing her arms.

"Hell yeah!" Roxas and Axel both said in unison.

Naminé made a face. "They're just a bunch of noise to me."

Roxas stared at her in disbelief. How could she say such a thing? Roxas was an Oblivion fan for life! They were so much more than just noise to him.

"It's pretty cool how they sing about darkness a lot," Riku said, putting in his two cents. The only reason why Roxas didn't slap him was because he was supporting Oblivion.

"Nah, son." Sora said, shaking his head. "They ain't my style. I prefer rap. It's more fun to make a song about smacking some bitches around and getting high than about darkness." He stressed the last word on purpose, poking fun at Riku. Roxas wondered why those two were even friends.

The rest of the dance went really well (except for when Roxas got all flustered when "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake played when Axel returned from going to the bathroom. Roxas cursed the heavens. Why did that song have to play at that exact moment?). Naminé and Roxas danced to a few more slow songs. She continued to act sweet and cute. Riku continued to be emo. Sora continued to be ghetto. Axel continued to be sexy. Sora even mentioned that he would invite them over to his house next time his parents were out. Something about throwing a party that was "off da hook, fo shizzle". Whatever that meant.


After the last song, Roxas walked Naminé out to the parking lot to say goodbye.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked her bravely.

"Yeah!" she answered happily.

"So…" Roxas grinned and scratched the back of his head.

"So," she repeated, smiling up at him.

Roxas bit his lip and tried to think of what to say next. Suddenly, an image of Axel looking smug and spelling out "W-W-A-D. Got it memorized?" popped into his head. Oh yeah! What would Axel do? "Um…would you like to hang out again sometime?" Roxas asked in a confident Axel-like voice.

"Sure! What's your number?" she asked, pulling out her phone.

They both exchanged numbers, and she waved at him cutely before she got into her parent's car and they drove off.

A smile slowly made it way across his face. Roxas stood there stupidly and people walked by and gave him weird looks. After a few minutes, what happened finally hit him and he jumped up into the air, "WOO-HOO!" he cried, not really caring about the fact that people were avoiding walking near him like he had the bubonic plague or something.

"Someone sounds excited," a voice said behind him and he whipped around to see Axel. He ran up to his friend and shoved his phone into Axel's face, making the redhead flinch a little and blink.

"She gave me her number!" Roxas exclaimed gleefully.

Axel laughed and gently pushed Roxas' phone away from himself. "That's great, Roxas. I'm happy for you."

The two began walking out to Axel's car and Roxas was so happy he felt the urge to skip over to it, jump on top of it, rip his shirt off, spin it around above his head and dance. Luckily, he was able to control himself.

When they got into the car, Axel started the ignition and said, "I'm sorry about the whole thing that happened with Larxene, by the way."

Roxas looked over at him. Suddenly he remembered being caught in a closet with Axel and he flushed. "Um, how come?" he asked innocently, though he had a pretty good idea where Axel was going with this. He probably didn't want Roxas to think that he liked him. Roxas sighed. If only Axel knew that that was exactly what Roxas wanted to hear.

"Well, I know you weren't expecting me to…um…act like that." Axel suddenly seemed nervous. He was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.

"That's okay!" Roxas said quickly. "I wanted to help."

Axel gave him a small smile and said, "Well, thanks for going along with it."

"You're welcome…" Roxas replied quietly. Secretly he wished that it would happen more often, so he could be all over Axel again. Except, maybe next time it would be better if he wasn't scared enough to almost pee his pants. Yeah. That'd be nice.

"I think she might finally leave me alone now. There's not much she can do if I'm gay, right?"

Roxas was silent for a moment and finally said, "…she could get a sex change…"

Axel looked over at Roxas and they both wore equal expressions of disgust on their face.

"Ew!" They cried in unison, and began to laugh.

Once a comfortable silence settled between them, Roxas devil popped up on Roxas' shoulder, making him jump. "So, Axel thanked you for helping with Larxene, tell him to pull the car over so you can thank him properly for helping with Naminé!" he demanded.

"Can't you just leave me alone? I was in such a good mood!" Roxas whined in his head. "And what do you mean anyways?"

"Oh, you know." The devil grinned mischievously. "A little continuation about what you two were pretending to do in the closet. Only it'd be real this time. Just think. You. Him. Naked."

"You really are disgusting, you know that right?" Roxas angel sighed when he appeared.

"It's not disgusting to want to get it on. It's natural." Roxas devil stuck out his tongue at his opposite.

"Yes it is! Roxas is far too intelligent to succumb to such vile thoughts, isn't that right Roxas?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Roxas asked him, snapping out of the daydream he was currently having about Axel and himself.

The angel sighed and rubbed his forehead in aggravation.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Roxas devil commented on Roxas' fantasy. "Do it Roxas! I'm sure Axel will totally appreciate it if you thank him in that way."

"Stop corrupting his innocent mind!" Angel Roxas whined. "Just thank him quickly when you get to your house, okay, Roxas?" he disappeared, clearly fed up with the devil.

"Yeah, thank him with a quickie! Bwahahaha!" Devil Roxas laughed evilly once the angel was gone, and vanished as well.

Axel pulled into his driveway and Roxas sighed in relief that his two guardians had left him alone.

After parking the car, Axel looked over at Roxas. "Well…goodnight."

Roxas stared at him and bit his lip. He really should thank Axel for everything he had done for him so far. But he didn't want to do it either of the ways that had been suggested to him. Just thanking Axel quickly would seem like he didn't mean it. And, um…Roxas highly doubted Axel would accept his sexual advances. So instead, Roxas threw himself at Axel and wrapped his arms around the older teen in a hug.

"Thank you for everything!" he said gratefully.

He felt Axel tense and heard him say, "U-um…you're welcome, Roxas…" After a moment, Axel brought his hands up to hug him back. Roxas was in heaven. He could have died happily right there. Who cares if hugging someone while you were both in car seats was uncomfortable? Axel was hugging him!

Eventually Roxas pulled away from him and smiled up into his friend's face. Axel was looking flustered and…was there a little bit of a blush on his face? Roxas figured it was probably just a shadow, since it was dark outside.

"'Night," he said, and got out of the car, leaning down and giving Axel a friendly wave goodbye before closing the door.

Axel kind of just stared at him, mouth slightly open and gave him a slow wave before pulling out of the driveway.


End note: Okay, so. My interpretation of Larxene is that she's a sadistic psycho bitch who wants Axel, but he does not want her. She was all touchy-feely with him in Chain of Memories but I really didn't get the impression that he liked her at all. Riku says darkness in the game pretty much every other sentence. So I just had to make fun of him for it. And Sora...I don't know why I made him all gangster really. It was funny to me. I can picture him being a wanna-be rap star. THIS IS JUST A PHASE FOR HIM, HE IS NORMAL-SORA ON THE INSIDE.