Chapter three. How's that sound? Really now, for my first KH fanfic…I have to say I've been missing out. This really is a lot of fun to write. I feel horrible for ignoring my other stories (though I have someone to blame and yes, she knows who she is). I've become completely obsessed with KH and…I'm proud.

Disclaimer: I've said this before and I'll say it again. If I owned KH, there would be so many boyxboy pairings it would make Marluxia appear straight.

Happy reading and enjoy!

Heat, sweat, smoke, flames.

The sensations that Roxas felt were unfamiliar. His natural instincts alerted him, waking him from his peaceful sleep and telling him that there was danger.

He climbed out of his bed and approached his door. Hesitantly he opened it and was bombarded with thick smog, smoke easily beginning to choke him. He covered his face with his hand and squinted, the vile fog burning his eyes. Through the dense smoke he could make out flickering, bright lights of oranges and red engulfing the entirety of the downstairs of their house. He never noticed Sora appear next to him, coughing and looked confused. Roxas felt hot, like he was enveloped in dancing flames that were trying to eat at his skin.

He watched Sora drop down to the ground and he fell too, the smoke thinner but not by much. Both boys knew what was wrong. There was a fire.

And suddenly Sora was gone. Roxas looked around him, to his left and right. He looked behind him and down towards the stairs. He had just vanished. The blonde contemplated looking back in his bedroom, wanting to know where he went. Slowly he began to crawl. It seemed now that all of the fire emergency things his parents taught him as a child suddenly went out the window. Go outside immediately and wait for everyone to come out. Wait at the meeting spot and under no circumstances, do you go back into the house. Go to the neighbors if you need help. Nope, instead he was crawling on the floor going to look for his brother.

"Roxas!" His name was hissed and he turned to see Sora standing by the stairs. The brunette turned and began to run down the step and Roxas watched as his twin disappeared into the vast smoke. Knowing he was okay, Roxas stood, using his shirt to cover his mouth and nose and hurried down the steps, determined not to fall. He made it to the bottom and suddenly a loud screech met his ears.

He ran down the hallway towards the kitchen where Sora's yell came from and stumbled into his brother's frozen form.

The smell of charred clothes and burning flesh filled his nose and he did all he could not to gag. The room around them was completely alit with fire, the flames licking their way up the walls. The heat was intense; sweat seeming to pour down Roxas's face, his shirt sticking to his chest and back. Despite the smoke that filled the room, Roxas' eyes were wide with horror. He was paralyzed to the spot as he looked down upon the two burning bodies. He knew, though they were minutes from being burnt into being unrecognizable, that they were his parents.

The heat, the smoke, the flames, the devastation. Roxas didn't know why but the fire that danced around Sora and himself seemed to be resistant to them. It wouldn't burn him. He wanted to reach out, to touch it, just to find out if this was really happening or not. He wanted to know if he would burn, just like his parents.

Just as his hand reached out, the infernal beeping of the smoke detector filled his ears. It wouldn't stop and his hand hesitated, stopping right before he could catch a flame in his palm...

"Shit!"

That one word seemed to break Roxas out of his restless sleep and he jerked awake, sweat dripping down his forehead. His breathing was raged, out of sync. He could feel his clothes cling to him, just like they did in the dream. And as he finally took a look around, he realized that there was smoke everywhere.

Startled, he sat up quickly, hearing the banging of pots and pans. The smell filled his nose and he suddenly felt panic course through his veins. His legs wouldn't move and the image of his parents burning bodies tortured his mind. Roxas grasped his head, willing for the image to go away.

"Damnit!"

The beeping. The beeping of the smoke detector wouldn't cease and Roxas found the sound blaringly loud.

The bedroom door opened and Sora stuck his head out, spikes even more mussed than normal. He wore a tired and confused expression. "Wha-?"

Roxas looked at him and Sora met his look. Sora looked even more confused, seeing the stressed look on his brother face. Roxas looked terrified. "Riku?"

Said boy popped his head out from the kitchen, a sheepish look on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. Sora walked over to the kitchen, peering around into the archway and watching as smoke billowed from the stove, a pan sitting there innocently, obviously fried. "Wow…" was all Sora could muster up to say.

Behind him, Roxas was peevishly peering over the top of the couch, low enough that only his eyes were showing and the ends of his fingers which were curled around the upholstery.

"Um…morning?" Riku said grinning, trying to look as if nothing was wrong. He seemed to ignore the fact that the pan behind him was smoking, that he had flour on his nose and cheeks, that there appeared to be a burnt hole in the apron he was wearing, one that Sora noticed was still emitting a reddish glow as the embers began to die down.

"Yeah…" Sora wasn't sure what he should say or do, whether he should save the man from further embarrassment or say something witty. Instead he jumped as the smoking pan on the stove suddenly burst into a ball of flames.

"Extinguisher!" Roxas cried, watching fretfully from the couch. After his dream, he had no desire to go anywhere near those flames. Sora backed away until his back hit the couch behind him. Riku took hold of the fire extinguisher from under the sink and proceeded to douse the fire until there was nothing left of it. He sighed and hung his head, turning around and smiling at the brothers.

"Um, I have two hours before I have to go to work. Anyone want to go out for breakfast?"

Still in shock, Sora and Roxas nodded.

Roxas was still stunned by his dream and this morning events when he arrived at work.

Axel was already there and waiting for him, attending to customers and avoiding Larxene. When Roxas walked into the café, his face seemed to light up and he grinned. Roxas walked around the counter and to the back. Axel went to greet him and followed the boy into the back room. Roxas went to were he hung up his apron the night before and took the garment off of its hook and slung it around his neck.

"You seem on edge," Axel commented, leaning back against the wall. Roxas ignored him in favor of keeping his thoughts to himself. In the very short time of being around the redhead, Roxas easily found out that he was awfully good at prying into one's mind. And he'd rather keep his mind closed to everyone else around him.

"What are we doing today?" Roxas asked.

Axel raised a brow. "Working obviously." Roxas sighed.

"So that's him?"

Turning, the blond was now looking upon a new face. Hair spiked up in a mohawk-like fashion, the back a bit longer like a mullet and strands hanging down to frame his face. His bright blue eyes were fixated on Roxas and they narrowed slightly. He walked forward; the new café worker took in his band t-shirt and dark snug jeans, converse on his feet, and a black wrist band to finish it all off.

"He's my replacement? Axel darling I didn't think you'd accept a little one to take over my job. Are you leaving me now?" the man joked. Roxas found a great displeasure in being called 'little one' and sent his own glare in the guy's direction. Axel chuckled.

"You know you're my one and only Dem. But you're the idiot who likes to pick pointless fights with our boss."

"That woman is a hag!" Demyx defended.

"Well, it's not such a big loss anyways right? You really did only work here for one thing and now you're free to get the job at the music store that you've been talking about," Axel said with a shrug. Demyx pouted.

"I didn't work here for only one thing Ax. The money was alright, not to mention the free drink. I'm gonna miss not having to pay for one of your yummies." The blond's eyes went distant as he thought of the special drink Axel had created. Roxas now wondered just how good that drink was if it was able to put both of these two in a drunken stupor at just the thought of it.

"And you just loved to drool over little Zexy while drinking it. Now that you don't have to admire him from behind the counter you can always sit with him now," Axel said, mischief flashing in his eyes. Roxas looked between both the men, not sure whether he should wait for Axel or just walk away. Demyx had just jumped, pointed an accusing finger in Axel's direction, and the redhead just put a finger in both ears, claiming loudly that he couldn't, "hear the dimwitted bonehead." Inevitably, Roxas decided to leave the two to their petty arguing.

Walking out of the room the blond found himself walking behind the counter to sit and wait with another blond. Larxene, he thought. She was lounging against the back counter, magazine in hand. "Hey," he said when he approached. "I'm…"

"I really don't care who the fuck you are," the girl said with a casual look over her magazine.

Oh right, Roxas thought, Queen Bitch. How she was able to get a job with that attitude, Roxas would never know. Instead he just slunk away from her and waited for Axel, a good deal away from the morning spawn of Satan.

The redhead emerged with his friend behind him. It seemed like the older blond had a bi-polar disorder, only because he gave Roxas one of the biggest grins and took the poor boy's hand into his own, face awfully close. "So what's your name? I'm Demyx!"

"Uh…" Roxas was taken back by the sudden change in behavior from the man and tried to back away. He would have succeeded too if it hadn't been for the hands clenched around his own. He smiled awkwardly back to Demyx. "I'm Roxas."

"Already knew that, just wanted to hear it from you. I already heard all about you from Axel," he said, causing Roxas to send said redhead a glare. Axel turned his eyes somewhere other than the blond and whistled innocently. "Anyways, since you took my job, I guess there really isn't a reason for me to be here. I have to apply for the music store. Axel, it's you're turn for dinner tonight. Get something good. Nothing burnt."

With a scrutinizing look, Demyx turned away from the two and left the café. Roxas turned to Axel who had given up the innocent act. "You two live together?" he questioned.

Axel sent a look to Larxene out of the corner of his eye when he noticed her look up over her magazine. "Yeah, we've been friends since we were little," he explained easily. The front door opened, customers walking in and advancing towards the counter. Larxene made no motion that she was going to be at their service. Axel rolled his bright eyes and moved to serve them.

Once the couple was all taken care of, he returned to Roxas' side, fully intent on getting back into their game of questions. "What about you? Is it rough living with your parents?"

Roxas had hesitated, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself and having to endure more questioning if he told the older man the truth about his parents. Instead he tried his hardest to put up a smooth face. No lying during this game right? "I don't live with my parents," he answered. Axel's crimson brows rose in confusion.

"So…why do you want your own place? Who are you staying with?" he asked.

Avoiding the green eyes that were watching him carefully, Roxas spoke, "A friend."

"And you want to move out because…?"

Roxas didn't answer. Axel had said that this game was going to get more personal and he wasn't kidding. Getting to know each other seemed to turn into a game of attempting identity theft. "I just do. I feel like I'm invading on his space. His place is small, so it's only right that I take care of myself."

Axel could tell, just from the way the blond answered that there was more to the story than he let on. But it was obvious that Roxas had no desire to share anything with him at the moment. Maybe because they just met? Who knows, but the redhead knew it wasn't his place to continue on the conversation. He simply nodded and said, "Your turn."

Relief flowed through Roxas, glad that they were able to get off the subject and he shifted through questions in his mind.

Struggles. A time when you could let go, release all emotions, taking it out on someone else without horrid intentions. What better anger management than beating the crap out of someone with a foam bat? That's what Roxas always thought and the added bit of competition just made the fighting all that much better. A chance to prove yourself.

The thing was this; people could always tell who was having an off day just from watching them Struggle . Olette and Pence both sat on one of the benches off to the side of the sandlot. Hayner and Roxas were in the middle of a duel and at the moment, Hayner was so fueled along with some frustration that Roxas was taking one hell of a beating.

Blocking an oncoming attack from his best friend, Roxas tried his best to push the teen backwards in order to strike. But Hayner was pushing too, both of them in a deadlock.

"What's your problem man?" Roxas asked, his breaths coming in short pants. They'd been at it for nearly twenty minutes already and he could feel himself getting tired. Hayner showed no sign of stopping though.

"What'd you mean? Nothing's wrong," the sandy blond growled back, teeth gritted together. He shoved Roxas backwards, the boy falling on his behind.

"Something is obviously wrong. You're never this aggressive!" Roxas complained, standing up and rubbing his offended backside. Hopefully there wouldn't be a bruise there tomorrow. Hayner straightened up, rubbed his forehead.

"Just some things on my mind," he sneered, looking away and crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. He refused to look Roxas in the eyes.

"About Seifer?" Olette asked as she walked over to the boys, handing them both water bottles. Pence followed up behind her, taking a large gulp out of his own bottle. Hayner snatched the bottle from the girl, turning his back to his friends and nearly ripped the cap off. He began to chug the contents.

"What about me?" a voice rang, deep and smooth. It echoed slightly off he buildings surrounding the lot. Three pairs of eyes turned to the sound and the last squeezed shut as Hayner started coughing, obviously having inhaled the water.

Seifer, Rai, and Fuu all stood before the gang. The leader, struggle bat in hand, observed the group with a smirk in place. "I'm sure you lamers can't be saying anything bad about me, right?" he questioned.

Roxas glared at him, fist clenching around his struggle bat defensively. Seifer must have found his stance funny, not intimidating like the teen was going for. He laughed and held his own struggle bat, pointing it straight at the blond. "You want to fight shorty?"

Roxas growled at the nickname, blue eyes smoldering. He couldn't stand Seifer or the way the beanie wearing bully thought he was so much better than everyone else. He still questioned Hayner's infatuation with him, but let the thought go. It was Hayner's decision (or not in this case), and from what Roxas had learned, his best friend would most likely rather fall in love with Pence than continue to have mind-boggling feelings for the menace before them. And that was saying something since Pence was still trying to come to terms that his friend's were gay.

"Yeah," 'I want to kick your ass straight to hell and back,' Roxas added in mentally. The smirk on Seifer's face only grew larger. He jerked his head back towards his companions, a silent sign for them to move out of the battle area. Rai chuckled, obviously intent on watching Roxas get beat. But Roxas didn't intend to have his ass handed to him. The other way around was his goal.

Olette glanced at Roxas nervously. She wasn't a fan of violence solving anything, but she also knew that Roxas was too headstrong for negotiation. Knowing that he was going to fight no matter what she said, she touched his shoulder gently and took his water bottle from him. Pence was glancing at him nervously as well, fully aware of the damage Seifer could inflict. He walked off to the side along with Olette, prepared to step in if necessary.

Roxas wanted nothing more than to charge at the guy that had made his younger days a living hell. Screw the struggle bat; what the gang leader needed was to be beat by two hands, just like he had done so many times before.

His mind was clouded and all it took was one touch on his shoulder to draw him out of the haze. He straightened up from his crouch, finding Hayner at his side, knuckles white from clenching his bat so hard, chocolate eyes murderously glaring at the smirking Seifer. Roxas knew what he wanted. He wanted to fight Seifer. And Roxas understood, just from seeing his face. It was something that Hayner had to do. For reasons only he knew.

With a quick nod, Roxas backed away, never turning his back on them. He gave Seifer one last cold look, then finally turned to join Olette and Pence on the sidelines.

"Think you're some hero now? Stepping in to save your friend from humiliation? How touching," Seifer teased. Hayner, one to normally have a snappy comeback, didn't trust himself to speak at this moment. He contented himself with just crouching into position and waiting for Seifer to come at him.

"Get ready loser. I won't stop at anything," Seifer threatened.

"Same here," Hayner responded, not as strongly as he would've like. His emotions were running strong, his heart beating deafeningly in his chest and ringing in his ears. His hands were already sweating as he gripped his bat. His stomach flip-flopped just from the sight of Seifer; standing strong and confident with the smirk that Hayner wanted to rip off his face.

When they started fighting, Hayner wasn't sure. He was sure that his mind was fuzzy and while fighting his enemy, he felt dizzy. He successfully blocked most of Seifer's attacks and did his best to deliver his own. The bat felt so much heavier in his hands than normal. He already had felt a bit tired from fighting Roxas, but he wasn't going to let his best friend fight his battle for him. He had to step in. To prove that he could still fight Seifer with no second thoughts. That he didn't like Seifer. He couldn't like this asshole. Never.

It seemed that their match would go on forever. Hayner did his best to keep his thoughts on beating Seifer and nothing else. But with the constant attack, he found his mind lingering to the burning whenever he came into physical contact with his opponent.

His breaths came out in short pants now and he felt his legs burn. Sweat rolled over his body. He was satisfied, though, to see Seifer the same way. Without indication to his attack, Seifer charged towards Hayner and with swift, expert movements, he swept the younger one's feet, sending him off balance. Hayner stumbled, arms reaching out instinctively to catch himself. He took hold of the collar of the white trench coat and went tumbling to the pavement, his head banging off the hard ground.

Groggily he opened his eyes, blinking the blurriness away. The weight on top of him was heavy and it didn't take him long to realize that it was Seifer, sprawled directly on top of him, head lying just under his chin. He gulped, attempting to push the older man off him. "Seifer!"

"This is bad," Olette gasped from the bench she was occupying. She, along with the other two boys, didn't know whether it would be good to help, or just if that would make everything even more awkward.

Coming to, Seifer groaned as he picked his head up. He noticed the position he was in and sat up quickly on his forearms, still hovering above Hayner. Swallowing once more, Hayner tried to find his disappearing voice. His throat was thick and dry. Here he was, pinned beneath Seifer, both boys dripping with sweat and breathing heavily, nearly panting with exhaustion. This was bad. Very bad.

Both of them seemed to be frozen with no sign that they were going to move. They were just…staring at each other. Seifer's eyes were a deep mixture of emotions, virtually unreadable. Hayner however, he was too easy to read. The dark eyes were hazed with sudden lust and he found himself licking his lips unconsciously. Oh how this day would fuel his fantasies even further. He seemed to forget that they had an audience altogether, seeing only himself and his damned crush. His mind betrayed him, filling his whole body with unwanted need for the guy above him.

And when Seifer leaned down and kissed him, he couldn't do anything else but submit.

It was short, brief, and soon found out to be a one-sided desire. It seemed to be a quick brush of the lips but Hayner wanted more. He pushed himself upward to fully plant his lips on Seifer's but the white-blond pulled back almost instantly.

The weight above Hayner vanished in a flash. He was left with an empty feeling and a stabbing in his chest. He sat up and noticed the almost disgusted and satisfied smirk on Seifer's face.

"You sick fuck."

Hayner stopped breathing, finding it impossible to take in his next breath. If he could drop dead at that very moment, he would gladly accept it. He wanted to shout back, claim that it was he who kissed him.

"Come on, just admit it twerp. You're in love with me aren't you? Why else would you look at me with those eyes." The way he said that last sentence made Hayner's stomach coil. "Why else would you kiss me back?"

Hayner could only sit there in complete shock. He had made a mistake. A grave mistake. And now his secret was out there to the one person he didn't want to know.

"He doesn't have to answer to you about his feelings," Olette said sternly, abruptly kneeling besides her friend. She touched his shoulder and pulled back quickly when he flinched from the touch. Fuu advanced to Seifer's side, face indifferent. She glanced down at Olette and their eyes met, locked in a gaze as though they were speaking to each other with no words. Rai appeared to have gone into shock and was gaping like a fish from his spot on the bench.

"Heh. Protecting the little fag from emotional stress?"

That word. That damn word just sparked Hayner's brain into working again. He was standing in a flash and before anything could stop him, his fist connected with Seifer's jaw, sending the leader stumbling back a few paces. Rubbing his jaw, Seifer clenched his teeth. He stalked forward, grabbed Hayner by the collar of his shirt and sent an unforgiving blow to his stomach. He dropped him to the ground, Hayner curling up into a ball, holding his aching abdomen. His breath had escaped him and he was gasping for air. Roxas and Pence both ran over at this time, Rai as well. It was a stand off between the two groups.

Olette stood between them all, crouching down by Hayner. This time he didn't flinch away from her touch. He moaned in pain. "That was really unnecessary," she called over her shoulder.

Seifer shrugged. "No one hits me without punishment, he should know that by now," he laughed and Olette found the noise terribly annoying now. How in the world could someone throw someone else's feeling to the wind and then cause them physical harm? How could someone be so cruel?

Her mind was blown away and a rare, very strong dislike overwhelmed the girl. She stood up sharply; Seifer's laugh still ringing in her head. She turned to his amused face, marched right up close to him, pulled her arm back and slapped him as hard as she could.

Seifer's head snapped to the side by the force of the girl's blow. He, as well as everyone else, was stunned by her actions. Olette was against violence. She was the motherly type, finding it better to talk things out. And she had just slapped Seifer.

An angry red welt was beginning to make itself known. Seifer felt his ego slip slightly, having just been shut up by a girl. Olette actually. That was a harsher blow.

"Let's go. I'd rather not stand around with them all day. We've got more important things to do," Seifer commanded. Without argument the other two followed behind him, not a word spoken from either of them.

The brunette girl sighed, disappointed by her actions. She had felt such a strong urge to do something. She turned and smiled sheepishly at her friends. They stared at her, wide eyed.

"You rock," Pence said, face completely evident with shock.

"You…my God Olette." Roxas could say no more.

She rubbed the back of her neck, and looked down at the ground. Her grin slipped away and her face sobered when she noticed that Hayner had somehow took off unnoticed.

Has anyone (besides Dylan) noticed that Demyx does have a bit of a bi-polar disorder? In KH2 he was all Demyx! one minute, then the next he was all, "Silence traitor!"

Anyway, sorry for the lack of AkuRoku-ness. I'll get there, next chapter. Since this is my first KH story, those who haven't read my pervious work don't know that I like to get into developing the side couples quickly (sometimes) and the main couple slowly and more thoroughly. It's just how I work.

And I've noticed that plenty of people are reading this (due to the number of alert lists it has been added to) but I'm feeling a lack of reviews. For those who have reviewed, thank you very much. It's a key thing because I need feedback. I need to know if everyone is enjoying the story, of if there is something I should change. Don't get me wrong, I've got a fairly good grasp on KH even though I really only got into just over a month ago, but if there is something wrong with keep a character IC, then I'd love to know. Hell, send me a little smiley or frowny face to tell me if it's good or not. That's all I ask.