Ornament

It happened at a Christmas party.

"His brother works for me," Larxene cooed, snaking one slender, white-gloved arm around Roxas's slim shoulders. "Roxas will be interning for the company next year once he's seventeen." She took a dainty sip of her wine, using the other arm to pull the boy closer to her.

Roxas, in his crisp white shirt that Axel knew his brother had ironed and the slightly worn dark suit Axel knew had not been originally bought by him, fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I didn't know the two of you knew each other. Childhood friends?" A small smile played at the edge of Larxene's small lips. Knowing.

"Something like that," Axel muttered. He was dressed in a shirt as white and crisp as the blond boy's, his black slacks hiding the wine stains from earlier. Stains that had been the result of Axel's mint crystal-green eyes catching sight of that honey-smeared hair and the desert prince skin, making him lose control of the wine glass he might have been holding.

"How quaint," Larxene purred, her voice oozing with amusement at the discomfort in the air. If there was ever a witch that took pleasure in awkwardness such as this, it was Larxene. "I should leave you to catch up. Besides, Zexion probably needs me. I promised I'd help him prepare the hors d'oeuvres." With a sly smile Larxene slipped away, as elegant and evil as the trickiest of cats.

Axel's eyes locked directly onto the blue depths before him that refused to meet his gaze. His body tensed, and he could see Roxas shifting uncomfortably before him. Axel noticed a wine stain near the bottom of his white shirt – so the kid had been drinking a little as well.

"I didn't think it was a big deal," Axel muttered. Roxas looked up, finally meeting his gaze. His expression was curious. "I meant about that night."

"I failed the test," Roxas said flatly. Axel felt a stab of annoyance at the blatant failure.

"You didn't even try."

"I was hungover."

Roxas started to take a few steps back and Axel took a few steps forward in retaliation.

"You didn't speak to me for a year." Another step forward. Roxas was backed up against the immaculate Christmas tree behind him.

Larxene had really gone all out with the tree this year. It was real, and smelled of fresh pine, ornamented in red and gold. The star on the top barely scraped the high ceiling of the huge room, the delicate red ornaments twisted into interesting shapes. The dull light in the room made the tree seem even more beautiful, and in the center of this red and gold was an awkward sixteen year old bathed in red and gold, an ornament outshining even the glittering star that graced the top of the tree. His blue eyes reflected the light, two windows looking out at the summer sky in the midst of the magic in a dark December night.



Axel took a breath, icy with winter when it entered his lungs, hot with youth and heat and passion when it left his lips. Roxas felt this breath, his eyes narrowing.

"What you did was wrong. It was weird."

"I was drunk."

"You're drunk right now." Roxas's glare was accusatory. Axel's breath may have been warm, but it was also scented with the distinct taste of wine.

"You've had some too," Axel smiled, the gold light reflecting off his straight, white teeth. "Does Cloud know you had some?"

"Flipped his lid when he saw me," Roxas muttered, rolling his eyes. "He can be so overprotective. He'd probably kill me if he saw you here, too."

Axel blinked, surprised. "You… told him? About what happened?"

Roxas didn't answer.

Gritting his teeth, Axel grabbed the boy's shoulders. "Why the hell did you tell him? Jesus, I'm lucky I'm fucking alive—"

"No, Axel, shut up!" Roxas growled. People around then had been stealing glances, piecing together bits of the conversation. Among them was Larxene, lingering in the corner with Marluxia and pretending to sound concerned about his monologue regarding the abuse of fir trees when using them as Christmas decorations. "Look, do we have to talk about this h—"

Axel grabbed Roxas and dragged him behind the tree, where the two had about a foot of room between the wall and the tree. The golden light dumped itself on their bodies from the tips of their thick hair to their formal black shoes.

"You didn't have to ignore me. I called you."

"Yeah, and my voicemail was overflowing for days," Roxas muttered. Even with such a sour expression on his face, the warm light gave him soft, almost ethereal quality. Unlike their last meeting, Axel didn't want to kiss and mar this skin with sweat and sin. He wanted to protect it.

"Why was it such a big fucking deal, Roxas?" Axel growled. "I mean, I'm sorry if I freaked you out, but Jesus, don't you think pretending I didn't exist for an entire year is a bit harsh?"

"Axel, you don't understand—"

"It doesn't make you gay to kiss another dude, Rox. We were drunk anyway and I didn't mean it, you know I would never purposely try to freak you out like that—"

Axel never saw it coming.

Part of the reason was that Roxas's hand had been hidden in the tree, closing discreetly around one of those softly glowing baubles. A red one, actually. It matched Axel's hair perfectly as Roxas smashed it against the side of his head with a shrill crunch, little pieces falling on to Axel's fine suit. The inside of 

the ornament had been gold-colored, reflecting off of the dark suit like dying stars in an endlessly black sky. He stared in disbelief at Roxas.

"Listen. To me." Roxas punctuated each word, his teeth gritted together. Wisely, Axel shut up. "Axel, I don't want you to interrupt me for the next minute. Understand?" Axel nodded, his eyes watching as Roxas's hand drifted towards the tree again, just in case.

The boy took a deep breath.

"Axel, the day after the 'incident' I sat down with Cloud and told him what happened. I told him I liked it. He was, er, really mad. At you. I made him promise not to press charges or anything if I agreed to stop communicating with you. And, well… I kept my promise."

Axel stared. He had to wonder how hard Roxas had hit him on the head with that bauble, unless it was just the alcohol.

"You… you liked it," Axel repeated finally.

Roxas nodded, and to prove this, he leaned forward on his tiptoes and closed his eyes. Axel's first thought was to look around stupidly, unsure if this was just a trick or some kind of mistletoe prank gone wrong. But when he felt two hands around his neck, pulling him closer, Axel had to face the facts – that the last year had been one big lie in this stupid kid's life and Axel had been worried damn near sick only to find out the kid had a fucking crush on him.

Whether or not Axel could emotionally take the realization was yet to be decided. His body, however, abruptly rejected the blunt confession in the form of fine wine forcing its way up his throat and spewing out of his mouth all over the picture-perfect Roxas and his glowing skin and golden hair.