I've been trying to get through my essay due in Friday all day today (hence why it's now nearly quarter to 12 and I'm only just uploading) didn't finish it so I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow *sigh* anyway hope you enjoy

Autumn was definitely upon them and the days were suddenly much shorter and much colder and, with the threat of potential snow coming, Reno and Roxas went into town one afternoon to stock up on essentials. Roxas had though that this could have waited till December (when it would actually snow) but Reno thought it would be good for him to get out of the house and 'spend some time among the non-fictional for a change'. Roxas had agreed – he really needed a break and it would get Naminé off his back about ignoring his and Reno's almost kiss by burying himself in his work.

"I just want to quickly see if that really nice chocolate shop is still open, then I need to go to that printer shop and get some new cartridges." Roxas stated as they left the butchers.

"Chocolate is not an essential," Reno chuckled. "and that printer place closed down eight months ago. When was the last time you came into town?"

"Shut up," Roxas pouted, his face flushing from embarrassment rather than from the cold. "and chocolate is an essential for me." Reno laughed loudly.

"Whatever you say."

"Shut up!" Roxas pouted again as Reno continued to laugh at him. He turned away and as he looked over at a market stall a very familiar face met his eye. Roxas' heart juddered in his chest as Zexion flicked his long fringe out of his eyes and spotted him. He gave him a radiant smile before nodding goodbye to the stall teller and making his way over to where Reno and Roxas stood. "Oh no!" Roxas whispered to himself.

"You ok?" Reno asked. Roxas cursed himself internally – Reno shouldn't have heard that, this was very bad. His mind was wiring and Zexion was getting closer; he needed to say something to not make himself come off as a complete loser who only left the house when his assistant made him.

"Whatever I'm about to say just go with it." he whispered hurriedly to Reno.

"What?"

"Just go with it ok." he practically begged.

"Ok." Reno shrugged as Zexion reached them.

"Hey you," he beamed, pulling Roxas into a hug. "it's been way too long."

"Hey Zex," Roxas replied as he awkwardly hugged back. Zexion pulled away, his hands still on Roxas' shoulders, and looked him up and down.

"You're looking good, Rox," he stated. "you look like you're actually eating proper meals now."

"Um yeah…" Roxas blushed.

"That would be down to me." Reno grinned proudly. Both Roxas and Zexion suddenly seemed to remember that he was there and Roxas was grateful that he was.

"Sorry," he said shaking his head at his forgetfulness. "Reno this is Zexion, an old friend of mine."

"Hi." Reno grinned and gave Zexion a small wave.

"Zexion this is Reno," Roxas introduced slipping his hand around Reno's elbow. "my boyfriend." Reno felt all the muscles in his body tense but he recovered quickly – this was obviously what Roxas had meant by 'just go with it'. He held out his hand to Zexion who took it.

"Nice to meet you." Zexion smiled before turning to Roxas. "You've been keeping this one quiet, how long has this been going on?"

"A couple of months now, I think?" Roxas asked and Reno nodded.

"About that yeah." he replied. That's how long I've been working for him I'll just go with that, Reno thought. This probably couldn't get any more awkward.

"That's great!" Zexion smiled. "I was hoping you'd find someone nice and stop being such a workaholic." Oh no, Reno realised, it could, especially for Roxas who seemed to be floundering in what to say.

"That's my Roxas," Reno laughed slinging an arm around Roxas' shoulders. "always working hard." Roxas blushed.

"Reno!" he half whined in embarrassment. Zexion chuckled.

"You're so cute together." he observed. Reno and Roxas both blushed at the implication behind that.

"Thanks." Reno tried not to stutter.

"Oh," Zexion suddenly exclaimed as if remembering something. "Dem and I were planning on having a bonfire this weekend – we're going to get some kind of barbeque and fireworks going. You guys are more than welcome to come along if you're free."

"Yeah that would be great." Roxas, not wishing to be rude, said before he could stop himself.

"Great." Zexion smiled, hardly noticing Roxas falter as he realised his mistake. "I'll text you and let you know what's happening."

"Ok cool." Roxas tried to smile. Zexion quickly looked at his watch.

"I better go but I'll let you know about the bonfire." he said pulling Roxas into another hug before turning to Reno. "It was nice to meet you Reno."

"You too." he smiled as Zexion darted off down the street. Once he had gone he turned to Roxas who was staring at the floor, wide eyes, with his hand over his mouth. "You ok?"

"I can't believe I just did that!" he said softly, talking more to himself than to Reno. "There's no way I can get out of this now."

"Hey," Reno's hand gently coming to rest on his shoulder bringing him back to life Roxas looked up, suddenly remembering that he was there. "are you alright?" Roxas shook his head, smiling as best he could.

"Yeah just…that threw me a bit." he replied. "Sorry for putting you in that position."

"It's fine." Reno shrugged.

"No it's not." Roxas sighed. "It was so inappropriate. I just panicked and said the first thing that came to mind."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I probably should explain myself properly." Roxas sighed, resigning to the fact that he would now have to tell Reno the whole story of him and Zexion.

"Let's get some coffee."

"So," Reno began breaking the awkward silence that the waitress had left along with their coffee. "what was all that about?"

"Ok," Roxas sighed putting his coffee mug down; he was so not ready for this. "Zexion is an old boyfriend of mine."

"I thought as much." Reno stated.

"How do you mean?" Roxas blinked, confused.

"Just from the way you were around him." Reno shrugged. "If I had to guess I would say that you've known him since you were at school – he was the first guy you were properly interested in, maybe even the first guy you had sex with. Actually scrap that, the second guy you had sex with. You dated for a couple of years then he said you should probably go back to being friends and a few weeks later you found out that he was seeing someone else and you still haven't really gotten over him. That about the jist of it?"

Have you been talking to Nami?"

"No I'm just really good at reading people." he stated. Roxas sighed.

"And what was behind the deduction that he wasn't my first?"

"My guess it would have been because you thought it wasn't ever going to happen with him so you lost it to either a really good friend who's first time it was too or someone older and more experienced who just used you for sex – that's stupid by the way." Reno told him. "Then you two get together and you never tell him that you'd already had sex with someone else."

"Do you think you should have considered a degree or career in psychology?" Roxas asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sorry." Reno chuckled raising his hands in defence. "I know it's weird and I probably massively overstepped the line but just from the way you were around him it was obvious."

"You got all that from one conversation?"

"Like I said I'm just really good at reading people." Reno shrugged. Roxas sighed again.

"Well you were pretty much right on the money." he stated. "I've known Zexion since we were kids; he was the first guy I fell in love with, when I was thirteen years old. He was still into girls but he knew how I felt about him. I didn't think he was ever going to return my feelings so I started dating this guy called Marluxia, who was about two years older and just saw me as a young, hot piece of arse he could screw around with and I lost my virginity to him when I was seventeen. A couple of years later Zexion told me that he thought he was in love with me and we dated for three years then he said things had changed and we decided to go back to being friends. A month later I found out he was dating Demyx – a guy I used to work with and had introduced him to."

"That sucks." Reno said giving him a sympathetic smile. It was a bit of a lame response but they both knew that there wasn't a better alternative to a story like that.

"We said we'd stay friends but it's still awkward when you run into your ex and they're in a committed relationship while you're a workaholic boarder-lining on being a social hermit so I sort of panicked."

"That was certainly panicking." Reno laughed. Roxas groaned and put his face in his hands.

"I'm so sorry! That was so unprofessional of me." he sighed. "I should have just said nothing and not gotten you into any of this mess." His gaze was fixed on a spot on the table; he couldn't bring himself to look at Reno – he was too ashamed for lying and involving Reno in his lie. He felt something warm close over his hand and he looked up to see Reno smiling at him and he felt his face heat up.

"It's ok," he told him. "I mean it's not an ideal situation but I understand, hell if I ran into my ex I probably would have said the same thing. If you want to keep this going then I'll go along with it and if not then that's ok too. I'll stick to whatever story you want."

"I can't ask you to do that." Roxas stated.

"I'm your assistant," Reno replied. "think of this as me assisting you."

Roxas thought about this for a moment. He had really gone and put his foot in it with this one – telling Zexion that Reno was his boyfriend so that he didn't seem quite so pathetic was definitely not one of his best ideas. He shouldn't have dragged Reno into his messed up past but Reno seemed very willing to help with however he wished to proceed. He then had to ask himself that question; how did he want to continue?

"Ok," he said finally. "if you're happy to go along with it then can we keep the charade up for now? Just in front of Zexion." he clarified.

"Sure." Reno smiled.

"It's not like it matters though," Roxas shrugged. "I highly doubt that we'll run into him again."

"So do you want to try and skip this bonfire thing?" Reno asked and Roxas blanched.

"Oh shit I'd forgotten about that."

"I must be out of my mind!" Roxas muttered under his breath as he and Reno walked over to the crowd of people surrounding the large bonfire. Reno laughed and gave his hand a squeeze.

"It'll be fine," he murmured reassuringly. "don't worry so much."

"Easy for you to say." Roxas muttered. He looked up and felt all the hair on the back of his neck prickle as he saw Zexion coming towards them. Reno felt Roxas' hand trembling in his and gave it another squeeze. He was pleasantly surprised to feel Roxas squeeze his back.

"Hey guys," Zexion smiled as he reached them. "I'm so glad you could make it. Nice to see you again Reno."

"You too." Reno smiled. Roxas had to admit that Reno was taking this surprisingly well considering that this was in no way in his job description and was a weird request to begin with.

"Come on," Zexion said turning towards the bonfire. "grab a seat and some food." Reno and Roxas followed him over to the bonfire where a large number of people were sitting on chairs, drinking and eating. Zexion went over to the tall man with a strange haircut standing next to the barbeque who leaned down and kissed him on arrival. "Dem do you know if we have any more chairs?"

"I'm not sure," the man replied. "I think there's one more round the other side."

"That's ok I can sit on the ground." Reno stated.

"Don't be silly," the man waved him off. "we'll find somewhere for you."

"Dem this is Reno by the way." Zexion stated. "Reno's Roxas' boyfriend. Reno this is my boyfriend Demyx."

"Nice to meet you." Reno said shaking his hand.

"Zex told me Rox had found himself a nice looking red-head but he didn't tell me you were this nice looking." Demyx grinned causing both Reno and Roxas to blush profusely.

"Um thanks." Reno said rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"Aw don't go all shy on me." Demyx teased. "I'm just playing with you. You guys go sit down; I'll bring some burgers and some beer over in a minute."

"So you used to work with him?" Reno asked as they left in search of somewhere to sit.

"Yeah sort of." Roxas replied. "He wrote for a music magazine and used to hang around the publishing house I'm contracted to."

"Is he always…?" Reno began.

"So in your face with the teasing?" Roxas asked. "Yes."

"Ok…" Reno hedged not wanting to say what he was thinking. He hated people like that who teased you even though they barely knew you; he had a cousin who used to relentlessly tease him when he was younger until Reno had taken a swing at him and broken his jaw.

"He wasn't teasing about there being only one chair though." Roxas stated pointing to the one solitary chair that hadn't been commandeered.

"It's fine," Reno smiled. "like I said I'll sit on the floor."

"The ground's freezing," Roxas pointed out. "you'll catch a cold if you sit down there all night."

"I'll go have a quick look round for another chair." Reno shrugged. He turned to leave but Roxas tugged on the arm of his jacket.

"Well there is another way to get around this." he said shyly. He could feel his face heating up and he hoped that Reno thought it was just front the bonfire. "As we're supposed to be a couple and everything I could sit on your lap if you don't mind and don't think it's too inappropriate."

Truth be told Roxas really didn't want to be left on his own in case he got ambushed by Zexion and Demyx asking questions about him and Reno (at least if Reno was there he would have some moral support). He knew he was being pathetic – not to mention wildly unprofessional – and he shouldn't have come up with the idea in the first place but he just couldn't bear the thought that Zexion would pity him because he was a single workaholic who was married to his laptop. He couldn't meet Reno's eye until he felt a hand gently ruffle his hair. He looked up and Reno was grinning at him.

"Sure if it would help." he replied. Reno had an incredibly good poker face and while he could just appear to be happy to help out inside his heart was doing back-flips. The thought of having Roxas sitting on his lap for the rest of the evening was almost enough to make him hard right there and then. Having that wonderfully toned arse sitting just above his cock with only a few layers of clothing between them was going to be abject torture and Reno knew that he should say no but, for purely selfish and filthy reasons, he couldn't.

He took Roxas' hand and led him over to the chair. He sat down and pulled Roxas onto his lap. He shifted slightly and Reno had to bite his lip and use every single ounce of his will power not to just pop a boner. Once Roxas had finished getting comfortable he turned to look at Reno.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Sure." Reno lied, grinning. "Just try not to get too hot and bothered being so close to my fabulous body." Roxas laughed.

"Don't flatter yourself."

The rest of the evening had passed by fairly enjoyably; the food was good, no one got out a guitar at any point and Reno managed to keep himself from sporting a raging erection every single time Roxas shifted slightly above him. They did find themselves bombarded by questions from Demyx and Zexion but Reno managed to deflect most of them by giving them an answer that was half the truth and half how he would have wanted a first date with Roxas to go.

Roxas was so grateful to Reno for this – something that he expressed multiple times during the following days. He was unable to get the night out of his head; being snuggled up to Reno, him pulling him closer to keep him warm when he started to shiver a little and just being able to act like a proper couple, even if it was only an act. Reno had been so sweet when he told the story of their fictional getting together that Roxas found himself wishing that it had actually happened but that was a door he knew he shouldn't open.

Hurray for awkwardness :D