A/N: Ah, an AU at last, Special thanks to my sister, for bringing her drunken self and even more drunken boyfriend at 2am when I visited her at college. Long story. Enlightening experience. Anyway. Yay.

Oh, and their coop house? It really has those stairs.

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4 - Hate

She hated everything about him, but most of all, she hated how she loved all those disgusting little quirks, and how every time she saw him she wanted to slam him against a wall and drag her nails down his back and chest.

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The car squealed in panic and fear, seemingly dragged into the street by evil unseen forces, then escaping from their grasp and making a desperate flight for freedom. Inside, a blonde college student cursed almost as fast as the speedometer, which was at 80mph and rising.

Hot, furious tears were running down her face, and she barely missed hitting an Asian on a bike as she skidded into the tiny parking lot behind the Thirteenth fraternity. She had made record time getting there, and hoped to do so while leaving, too.

Taking the wooden stairs of the fire escape two at a time - and wondering again at the massive lack of foresight in their creation - and jamming her spare key into the door, she was relieved to find an empty hallway.

Of course. Everyone was off tailgating with the old alums. She never thought she'd be happy to hear about Xemnas coming to town.

She knew the way to the room all too well, and as she leaned against the doorway to it, Larxene let herself have one last good cry.

It was a mess, like it always had been, with three black walls and one white; a lumpy futon, a flat-screen, food and books and appliances shoved into an overflowing set of shelves beside the door, the stained silver carpet peeking out here and there from under trash and papers and clothes. For one, deluded and miserable moment, she identified a pair of jeans - worn and cast aside.

She'd dated Marluxia for, what, two years now? And he banged some random girl - while dead sober - without flicking an eyelash. Of course, she'd heard, and after spitting acid into a voicemail, headed to his room to rape it of everything she'd spent her precious coffee-job money to pay for.

Even the thought of ripping that TV from the wall like an old scab (she may have only put $100 into it, but why not take it?) didn't take away the sting of betrayal, and she sunk to her knees, wiping her eyes and feeling more like a vulnerable, wounded girl than she had in years.

Which was precisely when her ex's roommate Axel decided to appear and trip over her.

She hated Axel. She's hated him since she had first set foot on campus as part of a Fall Preview thing, and he'd been the tour guide for the dorm she now lived in. He used a cheerful sort of caustic sarcasm, paying her insults with the tone of voice he'd use for compliments after she flat out insulted him for wearing a black trench coat and matching boots.

And when she'd met Marluxia in the dining court as he was bitching about the lack of salad to everyone in earshot, the redhead had shown up and tore apart a cheap steak with feral brutality as his apparently vegetarian friend looked on in horror.

As time passed and her friendship deepened, she'd get together to study with the pink haired prodigy for advanced biology. Axel'd often ghost by and point out her mistake on a mock test, offering to tutor her himself, and suggested they start with the reproductive system.

It only got worse when she had started dating Marluxia. They'd be snuggled up together, watching the most painfully scripted almost-porns, and Axel would show up cursing about the rain, peel off his saturated clothes not ten feet away and flop himself down beside her.

More than once, she'd be heating up half a stale bagel for breakfast after spending the night, wearing nothing but an old grey shirt of her boyfriend's, and Axel would offer to rub cream on the teeth marks on her thighs. She'd throw the other half of the bagel at his head, seldom missing, but he'd just smirk and growl appreciatively.

He seemed to have a philosophy in life to piss off as many people as possible, to skate through classes with evidently no effort, to exercise shirtless in public as much as possible, to disturb the peace with bottle rockets at 4am and still be grinning about it for class at 7.

She hated everything about him, but most of all, she hated how she loved all those disgusting little quirks, and how every time she saw him she wanted to slam him against a wall and drag her nails down his back and chest.

So when he rolled over, obviously confused and even more obviously drunk and muttered, "Ohshiiit, it's you," it did not help her temper any.

"My name is not Ohshiiit, you booze bag."

"I know," he nodded sagely. "I've heard Marly scream 'Larxene' enough times to know your name. Um, d'you know where ta find... um..."

Still prone, he flashed a bruised and possibly broken right hand. "Cold stuff for this? I got innna fight. I think."

Wiping a hand across her eyes, she rose to check the mini-fridge, only to have her arm caught by the man on the floor. She tilted her head back to glare down at him with one eye, and was disturbed to see concern in his gaze.

"You're crying?"

Jerking free, she pulled a bag of frozen peas - Marluxia's favorite food and a precious commodity - and was only too happy to throw it in the face of the relatively innocent bystander. Or by-layer, as it might have been, since he was far from standing.

"Aight," he drawled in comprehension to not pursue the subject further, and she almost smiled. His drunken speech was another one of those quirks. He sounded like a southern thug.

His actions, however, were the last thing from submissive, as he hauled himself onto the couch and pulled her down beside him, settling down with his head by her thigh and heaving an almost philosophically weary sigh.

"So, whatch don' here? Marl's out, thank the Kingdom for that, flowery ass." For once, she welcomed his criticism of his roommate, and frisked her manicured nails through his flame-red hair in silent praise.

"I broke up with him. Flowery ass indeed."

Another sigh emanated from her uninvited companion. "Oh, yeah, I knew that. I think."

Silence lapsed between them for a precious few seconds. Then it was brutally broken by another blunt observation from Axel.

"I always hated you, you know?"

Larxene went rigid, murder flashing behind her turquoise eyes as he continued, oblivious.

"You remember, when we met during that one visit? I hated you, because you were moving into my old dorm right after I moved into a frat on the other damned side of campus." He snorted. "By the Hearts, I hate irony."

The blonde felt her pulse quicken, ever so slightly.

"And then when you started hanging around Marly, I'd do fricking handstands to get you to look at me, and you'd treat me like a cat with fleas."

"If you think this is going to stop me from feeding your nuts to rabid dogs, Axel-"

"And then you dated him! A guy should be able to come home and not see that pink haired prick spooning, or hear said roommate having his hot sex all night long and then see his goddamned bites all over your neck and shoulders and getting kicked for pointing it out."

"Axel, I'm serious-"

"It's not fair that you're a sick, cruel, oblivious bitch and every time I see you I want to wrap those legs around me and kiss you senseless. It's just not."

And another pause in the conversation followed, as Larxene trembling from repressed anger, pain and passion and tried to believe all the things he'd just rattled off. It was unlike him to actually string together five words coherently, sober or no, and it bothered her.

It didn't seem to bother him, and he observed the plastic baggy clutched to his hand owlishly. "Hey, are these Marluxia's peas?"

"Yeah," she muttered absently. Axel gave a lone chuckle.

"Cool. And cold, too. So it helps. But, um... I beat the shit out of Marly with this hand." He giggled, seeming very pleased with himself.

She scowled down at him, for once not out of disapproval. "Why did you do that?"

Axel blinked and locked eyes with you, his face as serious and honest as she'd ever seen it. "Because he cheated on you."

With that, he snuggled down deeper into the futon and closed his eyes. As his breathing slowed, Larxene rose from her seat, smoothing her clothes with a sigh.

It was probably just her heart, suddenly broken and floundering for the next love to heal it, but still she planted a gentle kiss on Axel's forehead.

"I'll leave the TV for you," she whispered as she went to work shoving things in an unused backpack.

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