I don't own KH.


Life Out of Costume

Part 7


"Hey Mom, I was just calling to let you know that I lost my phone. If you need to get a hold of me just call Dem. – What? – Yes, I'm all right. – I just lost my phone and I'm irritated about it, that's all. – I love you too. Bye." I hung up the phone and handed it back to Demyx.

He looked at me questioningly, "Don't you want to check your voicemail at least? I know you don't want to answer your phone but there could be something important in there."

"I don't think so." I mumbled, sat down at the kitchen table and put my head down.

He stayed silent and shifted; I could tell that I was making him uncomfortable. "I don't know how to deal with things like this. Should I buy you a pint of ice cream and rent you Meg Ryan movies or something?" At least that made me laugh. "Do you want to go egg the girl?"

When I came home from the nightmare that was going to Roxas' house yesterday, Dem wasn't home. I didn't know what to do with myself so I sat down just inside the front door. It had gotten dark outside and I must have been sitting alone on the floor in the dark for hours before he found me.

"Axel, what're you doing?"

"Roxas is engaged."

From there he just sighed and picked me up off the floor.

Demyx's phone started ringing and snapped me out of my daze. "It's Kairi." He said and looked over at me.

"I don't want to talk to her." I mumbled with my head still down and in my arms.

"Hello?" Demyx answered the phone and walked away from me a ways. "No, Axel's not here." He looked over at me. "For the most part." I could tell that he was nodding his head even though Kairi couldn't see him over the phone. I always found it amusing that he used hand gestures while talking on the phone. "I'll tell him that you called. Later." He hung up the phone and put it on the table next to me.

With a sigh he sat down across the table from me. "Kairi says that they've all been trying to get a hold of you and that you're not answering any of their calls. She seemed really worried about you. Apparently Roxas called them when he couldn't get in touch with you and thought that you were ignoring only him."

"Do you think they all knew, Dem?" I asked staring blankly in front of me.

"Knew what? You mean what happened?"

"Do you think they all knew that he was seeing someone else?" I was feeling irrationally pissed off at Kairi, Namine and the rest of them at the moment. I think the only one that I didn't hold any animosity towards was Sora. There is no way that he could have known about Selphie, being in the position that he was and even what he'd said to me, no, he didn't know.

"It's hard to say. I could see them knowing, I mean, they did keep the fact that Roxas wasn't a girl from me for you, so I could see them lying for a friend. Though Kairi always seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of you two getting together, while Namine was quiet about it." He drummed his fingers on the table.

The door bell chimed and Demyx jumped to his feet and I pulled the hood of my sweat shirt up and over my head. Yes, the famous ostrich technique! My stomach knotted in anticipation and fear- I wanted to shoot myself for feeling the way I did. In a matter of moments Demyx came back into the kitchen with Larxene right behind him.

"I'm so sorry, honey." She came over and threw herself on my back and hugged me tight enough to cut off my breathing. I guessed that Demyx had explained to her what was going on.

"I'm fine." I smiled the biggest, cheesiest fake smile that I could at her. "Really."

"You stayed home from work?" She said while examining my face.

Demyx laughed wryly next to me. "His ex-girlfriend brought him up on sexual harassment charges and his office sent him home for the week."

"When it rains, it pours, huh?" She put her hand on my head and gave me a sympathetic look. "Enough of this depressing shit, what are you going to do to break up this engagement?" Larxene smiled and prepared for battle mode.

I looked at her like she was stupid. "Nothing. I'm not going to do anything."

"What? You're just going to let that tramp get your man?" She was actually shocked and turned my 'what are you stupid?' look right back on me.

"I don't know that she's a tramp, she seemed nice actually." I muttered and looked away.

"I offered to help egg her!" Demyx said proudly with a smile.

I pushed my chair back and stood up, "I'm fine, I don't need any help. I should have guessed that he was seeing someone else, I mean come on, I was for half of our relationship. I never asked and he never told me. I have no right to be mad about it."

"Just because you think you don't have a right to be mad, even though you do, he's engaged for Christ sake, doesn't mean that you're not upset about it." Larxene looked at me. "It's ok to be mad and hurt."

I just stared at her. I was hurt, oh my fucking god was I hurt. I had a constant pain in my chest and acid pumping through my body. And I was mad, but not at him, I was mad at myself. I felt so stupid. "Hey Dem, wanna have a horror movie marathon and get plastered?"

"HELL YEAH!" he cheered. "I'll go to the store. Dark or light beer?"

"Dark."

He gathered up his keys and was out the door in a matter of minutes, which left me alone with Larxene. I crossed the room to her and took her up in my arms, and embrace that she returned lovingly. "I'm such an idiot." I spoke into her hair since she was shorter than me.

"I know." She laughed out. "Why don't you turn your phone back on and just talk to him. It sounds like he's been trying to call you from what Dem said."

I shook my head, a motion that I knew she couldn't see but felt instead. "I don't want to."

"Axel, nothing is going to get cleared up unless you try to work through things."

"I don't want to work through things. I'm just going to let it go." I hugged her tighter. "I can't be with him and know that he's with someone else."

"Maybe he'll drop her when you tell him how you feel."

"He's engaged Lark, if he was planning to drop anyone, it was me." I felt the anger and the shame build up in my throat like a nasty lump, "I'd rather just walk away from it without having to face the rejection full on, ya know?"

"So what are you going to do? Change your phone number and hide out in your apartment forever?" We moved apart.

"Not forever." I smiled wryly at her. "I do plan to get drunk and forget about it for a while though. Wanna join me?"

"No." She answered flatly, "I have to get back to work. I don't suppose you'd give me Roxas' phone number if I asked?" I looked at her blankly. "No, I didn't think so." She hugged me one last time. "Take care of yourself and don't do anything stupid, please."

"I won't, I promise not to even leave the apartment." I walked her to the door.


My hangover was impressive to say the least. I slept on the couch amidst ash trays and beer bottles that littered the coffee table. Demyx must have thrown a blanket over me while I slept. I looked at the clock and it said 7:32, the sun should be up by now, but I guessed it was just another rainy gloomy day. Good. Yeah, wasn't I just the ray of sunshine today?

I pushed myself off the couch and wandered into the kitchen in desperate need of water. Demyx and Zexion were there having a discussion about something or other, I couldn't be bothered to pay attention, it was painful. "What the hell are you doing up so early?" I asked Demyx, who was showered and in normal clothes.

"Axel, it's seven thirty at night. You slept all day." Well that explained why it was dark out. Demyx dropped some Alka-seltzer into a glass for me and handed it over. "How're you feeling?"

I pounded the glass and refilled it from the tap. "Probably about as good as I look."

"Do you need anything?" he asked while Zexion just stared at me. I shook my head no and that was a mistake. My head was throbbing. "Kairi's called five times for you today."

"Good for her." I mumbled and filled my empty glass up again from the tap.

"She's wanted me to give her our address so she could come over."

"You didn't, right?" I pinned him with a stare and he just shook his head. "Good. I'm going to bed."

"You just got up!"

"So?" Taking a glass of water with me I shuffled into my room and shut the door.

I heard someone approach my door but they didn't come in. "Axel?" I could tell that it was Demyx even though the door muffled his voice. "Did you stop to think that he might be just as miserable as you are right now?"

"I don't care, Dem."

"Will you at least eat something?"

"I'm not hungry." Honestly I think anything that I put in my stomach other than water didn't stand a chance of staying down anyway. I buried myself in my blankets and was out like a light.


My last day of 'vacation' consisted of me lying in my bed contemplating my ceiling or watching the weather channel. Exciting, I know. It wasn't that I was depressed, alright, I was a little down in the mouth, but I just didn't know what to do with myself. Shit just wasn't fun at the moment. I found myself looking back on events for any clues that I'd missed. It did explain why he wasn't pissed when he found out about Rikku. I figured that it also explained why he'd put up with so much of my shit, it's not like it mattered if I was mad at him or not, he had her to fall back on.

Today was supposed to be my first day back to work, but I couldn't bring myself to get up when the alarm went off and ended up calling in. I probably should have gone, it would have been something to distract me from my thoughts. "I had Lexaeus make you a quiche and some scones." Demyx put a pastry box down in front of me. "And I figured that you were jonesing for some caffeine you fiend." He put a Starbucks cup down next to the bag.

"You're awesome, Dem!" I swear I could have shot love hearts out of my eyes at him at the moment if it was possible.

He took a seat next to me on the couch. "Kairi keeps calling."

"Oh well." I smiled.

"Are you just going to ignore them forever?"

"I'm going to try." The quiche was DEVINE!! Wash that down with a chai latte and it was almost orgasmic. "Other than that, I think I'm done with acting like a girl." I got up and grabbed my phone from my jacket pocket. I flipped it open and turned it on.

"I'm glad that you're getting back to normal, but don't you think you're being immature about the whole 'I'm never speaking to them again' thing?" He started picking pieces off of a scone.

My phone vibrated violently and I looked at my inboxes. I had over twenty voicemail messages and fifty-four txts. I was kind of impressed. I hit delete and wiped both boxes clean without checking a single message. "Pffft, I pride myself on just how immature I am." I knew that it was bothering him, "You don't have to lie to her when she calls, just tell her that I don't want to talk to her. I don't want to put you in the middle."

My phone started ringing and I checked my caller id: Roxas. Yeah right, I quickly pushed that into voicemail and went back to eating my quiche. "Was that him?" Dem asked hesitantly.

"Doesn't matter." I spoke around the mouthful of food.

Roxas txt: I know that you turned your phone on finally because I can tell when you push me into voicemail. PLEASE CALL ME!

I deleted the message after reading it. "Was that him again?" I didn't answer him and kept munching on my quiche. "What are you doing? He's trying to talk to you and you're just ignoring him? Do you think you're punishing him or something?"

"Lexaeus is a god in the kitchen." And I meant that, the man was a culinary genius. He stood up and tried to take my phone from the coffee table but I grabbed it before he could. "Don't."

Roxas txt: I NEED to talk to y- I deleted the message without making it through it and turned my phone off again. Demyx was staring at me with pity written all over his face. "Don't look at me like that."

"What? Right now I think I'm feeling just as bad for him as I am for you. You're being an asshole."

"Thanks for taking my side, Dem." I said sarcastically.

"I'm just saying…"

"Well don't."


Rikku, Aerith and Yuffie all had smug looks on their faces when I sauntered into work. My guess was that they thought I'd been sufficiently cowed and that they'd gotten me. Whatever, I didn't care. Xemnas gave me a knowing nod and stayed in his office for the rest of the day.

By mid afternoon I was more than ready to leave, but settled on going to Starbucks instead. "Hey man! You're back!" Xigbar greeted me when I walked into the mail room. "It's been boring here without you. How was your vacation?"

"Not long enough." I grinned at him.

"Yeah, they never are." We walked out of the building and over to Starbucks. "Hey man, I'm having another party this weekend. You should come by!"

"I'll try to make…" the words died in my mouth and my stomach dropped down to my toes. We were a few feet away from Starbucks and I saw the back of Roxas' head in the window. Shit. "Dude, do me a favor? Get me my latte? I've got to do something."

"What? You're not going to come in?" He looked at me a little disappointed. "Sora's been asking about you, I'm sure he would have been stoked to see you."

"It's, uh, urgent." I gave him a look that clearly said 'do not ask'.

He looked me over for a moment but accepted my money, "OK, I'll see you back in the office."

I watched him walk away and I crossed the street to go back to the office. The kid was pissing me off by fucking up everything else and now he was getting in the way of my caffeine. I stood out in front of our building and sucked down a cigarette so fast that I actually felt a bit light headed from it. I lit another one off the first. It was damn cold outside, but it was better than going to sit with the harpies upstairs.

After what seemed like forever Xigbar finally came back with his coffee and my latte. "Dude, what's goin' on?" He asked as he handed me my latte and a folded up piece of paper.

"What's this?" I asked holding the paper out without opening it. The thing was going to get burned if it was from Roxas.

"It's from Sora, he asked me to give it you." He burnt his mouth, like he always did, on his coffee. "There was some blond kid in there asking about you too. Sora figured that you were back to work since I wouldn't drink that chick drink." He pointed at my latte. "And suddenly this blond kid shot up from his seat and started looking around the place like it was on fire."

"Huh, that's strange." I pretended that I didn't know who Roxas was. I unfolded the paper that Xigbar had given me.

Roxas has been here all day yesterday and now today.

He finally told me what happened and I'm not speaking to him, so you can imagine how comfortable it is to have him here.

I know you turned your phone off, but call me if you need to.

If you want I'll try to poison his coffee.

Don't cut us all off because Roxas is an asshole, please.

Sora

"No idea who he is? He said he knew you."

"Nope, none. Thanks for the latte."

"No problem." We headed back into the office. "Do you think I have a shot at Boobs now?"

"Dude, I wouldn't wish that on anyone." I muttered darkly.


There had to be something wrong with me, I found myself sitting on my couch paying bills and feeling sympathetic towards Rikku. Don't get me wrong, I still thought she was a crazy-ass bitch for doing what she did, but I couldn't hate her for it.

"I made some pasta, want some?" Demyx called from the kitchen.

"Yeah!" I called back and started picking my shit up.

The door bell rang and Demyx came running down the hall. "That's probably Zexion, he said he might drop by before the show."

"Ooo, does Lark know what you're doing with her husband?" I laughed.

I heard him open the door and let someone in as I got up to head down to the kitchen. I'd be damned if I was going to let Zexion get my dinner, Demyx offered me first. "Axel, there's someone here to see you." Demyx said hesitantly when he came back in.

I stood in my own living room staring straight at Roxas. My stomach immediately tied itself in knots and I swear I could feel my hair stand on end. "What're you doing here?" I ground out.

"What? I can't just waltz into your life whenever I please like you do in mine?" He sounded pissed. "Am I screwing your shit up by being here?" He stepped forward and poor Demyx just looked on from the side.

"No, you're just pissing me off by being here." I crossed my arms and watching him seethe at me I fought the urges to punch him, kiss him, and go and hide warring inside me.

"Why, because I'm in your real life now? I bet he", Roxas turned sharply towards Demyx, "doesn't even know who I am. I'm not stupid, Axel, I know why you never invited me over here."

"This is Roxas?" Demyx pointed at him and Roxas just turned to him with wide eyes. I nodded. "Well, I'll leave you two to sort things out." He reached for his jacket.

"Don't bother, Dem, Roxas was just leaving." I said trying to stare a hole into Roxas' head.

"Oh fuck no I'm not! I've been calling and txting you for days without response. I had to sell a week's worth of meal tickets to get a bus here. AND I had to sit in a coffee shop for the past two days because it was the only place I knew that you went."

Demyx proceeded to put his coat on and grabbed the door knob. "I'm sorry we didn't meet under better circumstances." Demyx offered Roxas a weak smile before walking out, effectively leaving us alone.

"How did you know where I lived? I KNOW Sora didn't tell you, and he's the only one that knows."

"Riku." He answered flatly.

I shifted to the side and reached for my cigarettes. "So you're here now. What do you want?"

He took off his jacket and threw it over the back of the chair. "You had no right showing up at my house like you did. You could have fucked up everything."

"Yeah, gee, I'm real sorry." I lit my cigarette, I needed something to calm down.

"Why didn't you answer my calls, or anyone else's?" His tone was softer and I could tell that he was coming down from his initial bout of anger.

"Because I'm done with it, I don't want to do this any more." I continued to smoke.

"So that's it? You just forget about us, about me?"

"Pretty much, and it'd be a hell of a lot easier too if you'd just leave me the fuck alone." Why was it so hard to say this to him? Was it because I knew I didn't mean any of it?

"Why are you so mad at me? Weren't you seeing someone else while you were fucking me? What does it matter if I have someone else in my life too? Or is it a double standard?" He walked up closer to me.

I put my cigarette out, "It's not important. It doesn't matter now."

"Yes it does, it matters to me."

"Roxas, it's not even like you're just seeing someone else, you're engaged to be married to them."

"That's not my fault", he yelled. "I've been trying to explain this to you." His frustration was showing through and he looked tired. "Selphie and I grew up together, our parents are really good friends. We've been seeing each other since we were fifteen because, well that's kind of what was expected of us." He shrugged at the last part. "My mother gave me my grandmother's ring, hinting that she wanted me to give it to Selphie. From what I've worked out my father was talking to Selphie about some movie with a ring in it, probably Lord of the Rings, and my mother heard part of the conversation. She immediately thought that my father had ruined the surprise and Selphie inadvertently found out." He looked at me desperately, "What was I supposed to do?"

"Who knows, it's your mess." I shrugged and walked away from him towards the kitchen.

"My parents expect me to become a doctor and marry Selphie and give them a pile of grandkids." He stalked down the hall after me. "If they found out that I was seeing you they'd kill me or disown me, whichever came first."

"Lucky for you then that you're not seeing me, huh?" I laughed over my shoulder while opening the fridge for a soda.

"Why are you acting like this?" He stood with his arms out in exasperation. "Why can't we keep seeing each other? You can go off and get another stupid girlfriend and we'll be even. It's not like I'm getting married tomorrow! I won't do it until I'm out of school at least and that's four years."

I spun around on him and shut the door with a snap. "Because I fucking love you!" I yelled at him. "I don't want to get another stupid girlfriend and I don't want you to get married!" Before I could carry on more with my rant he crossed the room and threw himself at me. I couldn't keep myself from greedily consuming every bit of him that I could. It felt perfect to have him back with me and soon enough I was walking us down to my bedroom.

We settled into a comfortable tangle of limbs, and it wasn't strange at all to have Roxas in my bed like I would have previously imagined. Our argument was pushed from my mind and all I knew was what was going on in this moment.

"Don't." He said and slapped the tube of lube from my hand.

I looked down at him unsure, "It's going to hurt."

"I know." His face was serious and determined and he pulled me back down onto him. I tried my best to use my pre-cum to coat his entrance, but I knew it still wasn't going to be comfortable. I nearly stopped when I noticed the tears gathering at the corners of his pinched eyes.

"Roxas…"

"Don't stop." He warned me and pushed my ass down with his hands. I was torn between wanting to make it last forever and wanting to finish quickly to alleviate his pain.

When we'd finished he still clung to me with his face turned down and his forehead to my chest. "I love you, Roxy."

His fingers dug into my skin. "I hate you", he spoke quietly. "You ruined everything." And I suppose I did. I understood what he meant and he was right. This whole liaison hinged on the fact that neither of us had wanted to be involved in an emotional relationship. I'd stepped over those bounds when I decided that I wanted him all to myself.

There was no tearful goodbye when he left, he simply put his clothes on, grabbed his jacket from the living room and walked out of the apartment.


"Did he say 'forever and ever' at the end?" I asked before taking a sip of my latte.

Sora shook his head but smiled nonetheless. "It was implied, and that was good enough."

Xigbar was out today and I assumed that he was still recuperating from his party this weekend. I'd extended my break this afternoon and sat with Sora while his trainee took care of the work. He was telling me about how Riku had asked him if they could see each other exclusively. "It's about time."

"I guess I have you and Roxas to thank for it." He fidgeted with his hands in his lap. "When Roxas was up last time he was staying with Riku. After watching what you guys went through I guess it just made something click in him, ya know?"

"I'm glad something good came out of it then." It didn't really bother me to talk about it. Roxas and I couldn't go back to what we were and we couldn't be anything else. There was nothing else to do but to get over it and that's what I was doing. Roxas hadn't called or txt me since he walked out the door and I'd made no attempt to contact him.

"Does this mean that you're not going to come to any more conventions?"

"Probably not, at least not for a while anyway." I wrapped my hands around my cup to soak up its warmth. "That doesn't mean that we won't still hang out though. Kairi and Namine are going with me to my roommate's show tonight, you're welcome to come along if you want."

He shook his head, "Nah, thanks anyway. I've got something planned with Riku."

"Of course" I smiled over at him.


Demyx had been ecstatic when I walked into the bar with Kairi and Namine with me, even though I'd told him ahead of time that they would be there. Larxene was already there sitting at a small table across the room from the bar with Zexion and some pink haired guy. I assumed that he was Zexion's date and briefly wondered how odd it was for Larxene to be out with her husband and his boyfriend. Weird.

"Guys, you remember Kairi and Namine, they helped with your bridal shower." I reintroduced the girls to the 'guys' while moving another small table close to theirs.

As it turned out the only one that knew about Roxas and Selphie was Hayner, though I had my suspicions that Tidus knew as well considering that he'd already told me that he knew them in high school. It wasn't like Tidus knew that Roxas and I were screwing anyway, so it was understandable that it never came up in conversation. I couldn't find it in me to be mad at Hayner for not telling me either.

"Of course I remember them!" Larxene was up out of her seat and gave both of the girls hugs. "It's nice to have other girls here with me for once."

Zexion cleared his throat and motioned to the third person in their group. "This is Marluxia, and this Axel, Kairi and Namine." He pointed to us all in turn.

"Marly." Marluxia corrected Zexion and shook my hand. This guy kind of creeped me out and I was quick to take my hand back. He effectively ignored the girls completely.

"What're you guys drinking?" I asked Kairi and Namine while taking out my wallet.

They looked at each other and then turned to me, "Can we drink? Is it ok?" I forgot that they weren't twenty-one but didn't see a problem with it anyway.

"Yeah sure, I'm buying." I waved off their reluctance.

"Are you sure?" Namine asked and I just nodded. "I'll have a vodka cranberry then."

"I want the same." Kairi said immediately.

Larxene got up from her seat, "I'll come with you."

The place wasn't too crowded, but the night was early yet. I ordered the drinks and waited. "How've you been?" Larxene asked me cautiously.

"I'm ok." I answered with a bit of a smile. "It's been over a week Lark, stop worrying about me."

"I'll never stop worrying about you." She nudged me in the arm.

I accepted my beer and paid for the drinks. "You sound just like my mother." I mocked her.

The night wore on and I was surprisingly having a good time. Kairi was lit and she and Namine were up dancing with Larxene on the dance floor. They looked like a whole pile of retardedness and I had to laugh. "You laugh, you can't dance either." Zexion snorted from beside me.

"You're just sticking up for your little wife up there." I shot back at him.

He laughed and nodded in agreement. "I think Marly has taken a liking to you."

"That's nice. Is he your new boyfriend?" I asked still watching the girls on the floor. It looked like Kairi had enough and was making her way back over to the table. I'd started giving her Sprite and cranberry juice whenever she wanted another drink and she didn't seem to know the difference.

"No, Marly and I are just friends. He works down at the art center and let's me use his studio once in a while."

After he said that, it dawned on me what was going on. "Were you trying to set me up with him?" I turned to face him with a raised eyebrow.

"Set you up with who?" Kairi slurred out as she sat down.

"Maybe, are you interested?" Zexion leaned over towards me with a grin on his face.

"No." I said flatly. "Don't set me up." I looked at him point blank.

He shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes slightly, "I was just trying to help you get your dick wet with a rebound fuck."

"Zexion," I warned.

He moved closer to me and moved his knee between my legs. "What?" He grinned at me.

"Oh my god!" Kairi gasped from across the table. "You're trying to kiss him!" She slurred at Zexion and started pointing wildly at him as well. "He loves Roxas, you can't!"

"Roxas doesn't love him!" Zexion yelled back at her, though whether to shout at her or just to be heard over the music I couldn't tell. Either way, being slightly intoxicated, it was not something that I needed to hear. I grabbed the front of Zexion's shirt, pulled him to me, and kissed him. It was drunk, it was sloppy and but it felt good.

"No, Axel, he does love you, I know he does! He has to." I heard Kairi say from across the table.

We broke apart and I looked at him seriously, "I'm not Demyx."

"Yeah, and I'm not Roxas. I'm glad we're clear on that." He answered returning my stare evenly.

I got up and he stood up to follow me. "And just what the fuck is going on here?" Larxene said, Namine standing just behind her. Kairi slid down in her seat, I'm assuming to try and disappear.

"We were leaving." Zexion answered for the both of us.

"Not together you're not." Larxene came up and smacked me in the back of the head.

"Ow!" I rubbed the spot where she hit me.

"Why not?" Zexion stood defiantly in front of her. "It's not like we're really married or anything."

In a second Larxene was in his face, "I don't care who you fuck, but you're not taking advantage of my drunk and emotionally unstable best friend."

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "Lark!"

I hadn't noticed that Demyx's set ended but it was pretty clear when I found him standing next to me. "What's up guys?" He asked with a smile and stole my beer from the table. "Did Marly leave already?"

"Yeah, he left a while ago." Zexion answered with a smile like nothing was going on- like he wasn't just trying to pick up his roommate.

"Dem, will you take these three home? The two gingers are drunk and I'd hate to leave poor Namine alone to deal with them." Larxene turned to look at me. "You and I will talk tomorrow."

"Yes, mom." I rolled my eyes at her and grabbed my coat.


The next day I got an earful from Larxene about my being selfish and stupid, two things that were always abundantly clear to me anyway. In an effort to not exclude Demyx from the going-ons of my personal life, I filled him in on what had happened. He admitted to not wanting to know in the first place, but also to being glad that it didn't happen. I guess I could see it from his perspective, what if things went bad between Zexion and myself and Demyx got stuck in the middle? Needless to say, nothing ever happened between me and Zexion again.

It had now been a whole three weeks since I'd last spoken to Roxas and things were pretty much back to normal. Don't get me wrong, that didn't mean that I didn't miss him or that I didn't find myself thinking about him numerous times of the day. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into Starbucks with Xigbar in the middle of the week, during our afternoon break, and saw him sitting in one of the over stuffed chairs.

I waved to him politely as we passed, but was ignored, and headed to the counter to see Sora. "Arrrrr!" Xigbar and Sora exchanged their normal greeting while I threw in my customary eye roll. "How're things with the Mrs.?" Xigbar asked.

"Good!" Sora answered with a broad smile. "How're things with…"

"My hand?" Xigbar asked, bringing his right hand up and wiggling his fingers in response? "I never leave home without it."

"One day you're going to come in here and tell me all about some chick you fell in love with." Sora rang us up while his 'helper' made our drinks.

"Yes, yes and I will go on and on about the size of her tits too." He grinned and paid for the both of us. "What's up with Axel's little blond stalker over there?" He signaled with a nod towards Roxas.

"He's not a stalker." I answered and grabbed my drink. "He's my friend, Roxas." Sora looked at me strangely and I caught a whiff of pity in the air.

"Not a very friendly friend." Xigbar said rather loudly while looking directly at Roxas.

"Leave him alone, he's probably just in a bad mood. You're a real dick when you're hung over and pissed off too." I defended him. "Thanks, Sora." I saluted him with my drink and started for the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Sora waved and I could tell that Xigbar was following.

"See ya tomorrow, little dude. Maybe I'll have some new gossip for you then."

When I walked past Roxas' seat again I nodded at him, "Good seeing you, Roxy", he stared straight at me but didn't say anything.

This routine continued for the next three days. Xigbar and I would go to Starbucks for our afternoon break and Roxas would be there to stare at and not speak to me. Every day Xigbar would say something rude to him and every day Sora wouldn't offer any sort of explanation.

On the fourth day however, the routine changed. Just before we got into Starbucks I got a phone call. Looking down at the caller id I didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" I waved Xigbar on without me.

"Axel?" It was a female voice that I didn't recognize on the other end.

"Yes?"

"This is Selphie," my heart stopped for a moment. I looked into Starbucks and saw Roxas sitting in the same chair that he'd been occupying for the past week. "Do you remember me from Roxas' house?"

"I remember. What can I do for you?"

"Tidus gave me your number." Of course he did. "I think we need to talk." Nope, no we don't. "Will you please meet me later?" Fuck.


A/N: Happy Halloween, the one day that cosplayers don't look like complete tools! =B