It was dark in the room when I opened my eyes the next morning. Confused, I tried to sit up to look out the window, but as I moved my arm to prop myself up I felt a weight that wasn't my own on my chest and my left arm. Groggily I looked down to see Roxas tangled up in his sheets and lying fast asleep with his head on my chest and his arms wrapped around my arm.

I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face as I tried as gently as possible to disentangle myself from Roxas. As I moved my arm slightly away he unconsciously held on tighter, which almost made me laugh and made the smile on my face double in size. "Come on Roxas, let go." I soothingly whispered as I attempted to detach my arm from his grasp, and after a little prodding I was finally free.

I sat on the edge of the bed letting Roxas have enough room to shift around in his sleep till he was strewn across the middle of the bed, and I let out a low chuckle. This kid was too much sometimes. A huge yawn escaped my lips and I used one hand to stifle it as my other hand lazily ran through my hair. The clock beside me cast a faint red light around the night table and even though it read 8:13, the room was still fairly dark. I shifted my gaze out of the window to see dark storm clouds rolling in.

Really now? It was finally the weekend, Saturday to be exact, and there were no classes, no mentoring sessions, just a good old-fashioned day off. And of all the days for the weather to be crappy, it was one of my only days off. I sighed and stood up, but apparently too quickly because the movement jostled Roxas in his sleep and he shifted and murmured something. I turned to see him sleepily flutter open his eyes and in a daze turn towards me.

"Go back to sleep, Roxas." I murmured with the remnants of sleep still heavy in my voice as I made my way around the bed and towards the door. Part of me wanted to stay, but a bigger part of me decided it would be a little weird to stay and watch Roxas sleep, especially if he knew I was awake. Actually, it would be very weird.

"Hey…Axel?" My hand stopped mid-turn on the doorknob and I turned my head around with a sleepy smile on my face.

"Yeah, kid?"

There was a slight pause before Roxas continued. He dropped his gaze down towards my feet, and then brought his eyes up to lock with mine and I saw a momentary flash of confidence envelop his features.

"Thanks."

I furrowed my brow in confusion slightly as I kept my gaze locked with his. "For what?"

He shot me a small glare, as though he thought I was messing with him. "Don't be dumb." He chided as he turned over and left his back towards me.

"Ok, well…Ohhh." I replied, realizing he meant thanks for spending the night with him. Thanks for…sleeping with him in the same bed. Oh. Oh my… I mean, he probably didn't mean it quite like that but hey; it was still kind of implied. "No problem k-Roxas." I faced the door again and slowly made my way out of the room.

As I walked back to my room, I had a million thoughts running through my head. One in particular that stood out to me was that I was pretty positive that when I had changed from saying 'kid' to saying Roxas' name, his whole body had tensed up in surprise. With a sigh I made my way to my room, but was caught off guard. I looked around and realized most of the things in my room had been shoved messily into boxes or piled up on top of my bed. Confused, I stared blankly at the pile of my belongings before shrugging and changing into a pair of old slightly worn out jeans and a fitted red t-shirt I was easily able to fish out of one of the boxes.

There were a few paint cans stacked in the corner, which was how I remembered my room was under repair for the weekend, and internally I groaned. Great, not only was it cold and cloudy but now I didn't even have any place of my own to escape to. As I walked out of my room a thought passed through my subconscious and I grinned to myself. Looks like a certain blue-eyed blonde haired kid might have a roommate for a few days. Well, I mean he practically did anyways with how much I was in there with him at night, but this would be the first time I would actually be in his room before he started having nightmares.

I was about halfway to the cafeteria when something strange happened. Well, technically something stranger than what normally happens around here.

One moment I had been walking around, minding my own business, contemplating whether or not to have a blueberry muffin for breakfast, when a flash of brown flew by in front of me and dragged me into an empty room as I passed by.

"What the hell?" I shouted, as I looked around the room, by heart racing in my ears, to see Riku shutting the door and Sora standing close to him with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to be attempting to stare me down to intimidate me, but in the tiny room I still hovered over him by a good foot and his glare looked more like a pained pout.

"For the record, I told him he was being stupid." Riku's voice broke the silence and for a second I was startled and my eyes darted between the two.

"I'm not being stupid! This is serious stuff I need to talk to him about!" Sora sent another pouty looking glare and Riku he rolled his eyes and leaned back against the door as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Then why do I need to be here?"

"We already went over this! You're the muscle in this operation!"

"And apparently the brains too."

"Hey!"

I stood silent throughout their bickering, my gaze shifting from one person to another, getting more and more confused as the argument continued.

"Um…guys?" Both boys, suddenly remembering I was still stuck in this closet of a room with them, looked over at me embarrassedly.

"Sorry." Sora and Riku mumbled as Sora turned to face me and Riku leaned back against the door. "I, well, I just wanted to talk to you without Roxas around." My brow furrowed slightly in confusion as I waited for the brunette to continue.

"It's just, I'm his older brother and well…."

"He's really over protective." Riku filled in for him, and though Sora's eye twitched ever so slightly from the unwanted interruption, he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I am. I mean, we had a rough time a few years back, and Roxas hasn't been the same since. But, when he's around you, he actually seems like his old self. And don't get me wrong, I really happy he's happy, but I don't want to see him get hurt. It's hard for him to grow close to new people, and I just, well, I don't want him to get close to you and then have you fuck it up. Not that you will but I'm just saying." He quickly added in at the end. "I could happen."

It took me a moment to take in what Sora had just spewed out at me, but after a few moments I regained my composure and the ability to talk.

"I want you to know I would never intentionally hurt Roxas. I mean, I haven't known him for all that long but he's, well, he's special to me." I felt my cheeks warm up slightly, and I was glad the closet had bad lighting. "The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt him even more than he's been hurt, and I'll do everything I can to make sure no one else hurts him either as long as he trusts me to do so. Heck, even if he didn't want me to protect him I'd probably do it anyways. He's a good kid."

Sora studied me scrutinizing, and I couldn't read the expression in Sora or Riku's faces. Slowly, a smile spread out over Sora's face until a toothy grin enveloped his face and his eyes shone brightly even in the closet. "You're a good guy, Axel. And I trust you, but if you give me any reason not too…"

"He'll sick me after you." I looked over at Riku about to smile until I saw the dead serious expression and I felt a tiny wave of panic spread over me.

"Don't worry, you won't need to." I replied shakily, running a nervous hand through my spiky hair. Riku nodded and gave me a small, reassuring smile and I glanced back at Sora. He walked towards me with his face still smiling and patted me on the shoulder.

"Alright, now that we've got everything cleared up, you're free to go." He laughed and nudged Riku out of the way. I gave him a small, slightly relieved smile, and hurried out of the room before either of them could remember something else to tell me.

After my adventure in the hallway, I was able to make it to breakfast just in time to snag one of the last muffins and a carton of milk. I sighed, not too happy about my meager breakfast, but I took off anyways out of the cafeteria in search of my blondie. I was extra careful to watch my back in case anyone else wanted to ambush me when I was least expecting it, but for the most part I was safe. It took me a while to find Roxas, and after exhausting my options when his room, the game room, and even Zexion's office were empty, I decided that even though I wanted to find him I didn't want to spend one of my days off aimlessly wandering the hallways. Disgruntled, I figured Roxas's was off with his friends, like any normal sixteen year old would be, and made my way out one of the side exits for some fresh air.

Immediately upon my exit out of the heated building I felt myself involuntarily shiver as a cold rush of air assaulted me. I pulled the coat I had grabbed from my room around me tighter and shoved my hands down into my pockets. As I walked away from the door and towards the park across the street, my fingers brushed against cold metal and flimsy cardboard. My forehead knit together in momentary confusion before I remembered Demyx had borrowed my coat the other day and must have left his lighter and a half empty carton of cigs in the pocket.

I pulled out the carton and the lighter after I crossed the street and tested out the lighter as I walked towards a deserted swing set. It was late fall, and brutally cold, which was why I figured I had the place to myself. The lighter was a bright obnoxious blue, which fit Demyx in my opinion, and the flame flickered to life and fluttered in the cold wind until I recapped it.

With a heavy sigh I plopped down onto the cold plastic swing and shivered when my free hand met the cold metal chains supporting the battered swing. I studied the cigarette carton and lighter that were now sitting on my lap, contemplating whether or not to light up. It had been a while since my last smoke, since Elena and the other staff informed they frown upon smoking in front of the kids, and my job had left me with little down time lately. With a shrug I picked up the lighter and shook a cigarette out of the carton. Just as I slipped the cigarette between my lips and raised the lighter up to light it, I heard the chains on the swing next to me jingle softly and I looked over to find I was no longer alone in the park.

"Smoking isn't good for you." He told me quietly as pushed his feet against the ground so his swing swung slightly back and forth. I raised an eyebrow as blue eyes looked over at me with complete seriousness.

I clicked the lighter shut, but balanced the cigarette between my teeth as I studied Roxas's expression. "So I've been told."

"So stop." His voice was cold, and this time I didn't shiver because of the wind that blew my hair around my face and went through my jacket.

"Ok." I pulled the cigarette out of my mouth, put it and the others back in the carton. I handed him the cigarettes and watched as he walked across the park, threw them in a garbage can with a thud I could hear from the swing set, and walk back to me. "I get the feeling there's something more than my health that's upsetting you." I told him as I pushed my feet against the ground to move my swing.

"My dad…" He whispered so low I barely heard him, but when I realized what he had said I dug my feet into the hard dirt and stopped myself so I swayed gently beside his swing. When he didn't say anything for a few minutes, I was afraid I had accidentally pried too deep into obviously unpleasant memories.

"Hey, if you don't want to talk about it, it's ok." Roxas shook his head.

"No, it's ok…I just haven't told anyone about it before. Besides Sora." My eyes widened as I waited for Roxas to continue. He let out a shaky breath and glanced over at me before returning his gaze to the ground.

"When I was four and Sora was five, our dad died. He smoked, almost two packs a day, and was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was two. When he died, my mom was so depressed she lost her job and we had to move. I spent the next four years of my childhood in a dirt-cheap, disgusting, run-down apartment in the city, the really bad part of the city. We couldn't afford nice clothes and books so I didn't go to school, and neither did Sora. There weren't any kids my age in our neighborhood, and anyone even remotely close to my age was messed up with drugs or gangs.

"Sora wasn't much older than me, but he was always there. We were suburban kids thrown into the middle of the roughest area around, and it wouldn't have been quite as bad, if my mom had actually been there for us. She did a bunch of…messed up stuff to get money, and ended up with this asshole of a boyfriend who practically turned our apartment into a crack house. If he wasn't high half the time, he was drunk, and he wasn't a very nice drunk." He fell silent after this, and when he finally summed up the courage to continue his voice was shaky and barely above a whisper. "He hit my mom a lot, Sora too. When Sora wasn't around to protect me, I got hit too." I gripped the chains on my swing so tight it burned and my knuckles were quickly turning white. How could someone, anyone, hurt a kid like Roxas? Especially when he was so little? I felt my blood boiling, but I told myself to calm down enough to hear the rest of the story.

"O-one day, my mom wasn't home, and Sora was at the store. My mom's boyfriend home and got really, really mad for no real reason. I was the only one home and…and…" My hands unconsciously reached out and wrapped around Roxas's shoulders and pulled his swing closer to mine as the tears started flowing out of his eyes.

"Shh, it's ok. You don't have to say anything else, it's ok." I couldn't hear his sobs, but they made his whole body converse with every painful breath he took in and let out. We sat in silence for a moment before Roxas spoke up.

"No, no I…I have to. I have to finally tell someone else." He pulled away slightly and his swing swung back into place, but as he pulled away he slipped his hand into mine and held on tightly. It wasn't a romantic hand holding even though I did get faint butterflies in my stomach, it was more of a gesture to show he trusted me. I lightly squeezed back.

"He came into my room and started hitting me, and he broke my arm and gave me a black eye. Then…he…well, he raped me." The last sentence was said devoid of any emotion, but the tears pooling in his eyes showed that wasn't completely accurate. "That's why I have nightmares." He took another deep breath in and slowly let it out. "After, Sora found me in our room, and when he tried to tell our mom about it, she wouldn't listen. Sora told the police about it, and then a week later we ended up here. I was eight when I started living here, and weirdly enough, sometimes I can't remember what my old room looked like. All I remember is the one here."

We sat in the park for a few hours, and eventually I bought Roxas and me dinner from some small restaurant down the street. After the initial confession from Roxas, we tried to avoid the topic. I mean, we talked about it for about an hour, but after a while I could tell it was really bothering Roxas, and I didn't want his confession to me to turn into something he regretted.

Now, I was walking down the hallway towards Roxas's room in an old t-shirt and sweatpants, my pajamas, and for once I didn't have to run. During dinner I had let it slip to Roxas I didn't have any place to stay because of my room, and he immediately told me to stay with him. I offered to sleep in the chair or on the floor, but he told me not to be a dumbass.

"Roxas?" I called out as I opened his door. He was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling when I walked in and his eyes fluttered open sleepily when I walked in. I had to help Elena do room checks so I was later than I had told Roxas I would be, but the kid didn't care.

"Who else would be in here?" He laughed as he scooted over so there was enough room for me in his bed.

"…Shut up." I replied childishly and Roxas only laughed louder.

"God, you sound just like Sora. Have you been hanging around him too much?" At the comment about Sora I let out a loud laugh of my own as awkward and slightly ridiculous memories flashed through my mind prompting a curious expression from my blonde.

"I'll tell you about it later, but now it's sleep time." Roxas gave me a curious look but relented and turned the lights off before burying himself under the covers as I followed his move. We laid in silence for a few moments, and as I was about to open my mouth to say a proper goodnight, Roxas cut me off.

"Thanks, for listening to me today. I've…I've never opened up to anyone like that except Sora, and well, it's really easy for me to trust you." The moonlight through his window lit up his smile, and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Any time, Roxas."

"…You can call me kid, sometimes, if you want." He nervously replied after a few moments. I quirked and eyebrow at him in the dark, and my heart raced happily.

"Why, kid, do you think it's cute that you have a nickname from me?" I teased gently. Even in the little light I could see Roxas's cheeks turn bright red and he buried his face halfway into the pillow.

But he didn't argue with me.

Hesitantly at first, but summoning courage I didn't know I had I leaned over and gently pressed my lips to his forehead like I had done last night. The difference was, this time he was awake, and I felt him tense up and draw in a shaky breath. I pulled away and whispered goodnight, and he replied so quietly I could barely hear.

Right before I felt myself dose off, I looked over out of the corner of my eye to see Roxas's eyes closed, but a smile spread out across his face.

This was the first night since I had met the kid that he didn't wake up screaming. For once, it was a nightmare free night.

I took this as a good sign.

A/N: A new chapter! Finally…sorry if the gaps between chapters are kind of long, school is starting to take it's toll on me.

But on a positive note, thank you all SO much for the wonderful reviews! You all have given me such support with your kind and helpful reviews and if it wasn't for your reviews I would never find the motivation to keep writing =]

Thanks again, and please review~!