As light shined into Roxas' room and hit him in the face the boy groaned, it was Tuesday but he didn't want to be awake- let alone go to school. Rolling onto his side so he could hide from the sun the boy could feel the caked on blood on his wrist, arm, and hand. He'd wrapped his self-inflicted wounds in folded in half toilet paper and simply tied it around his wrist and then went off to bed- no longer wanting to be awake, but during his sleep the wrappings came loose, or ripped and were no longer wrapped snuggly around his arm but instead molded to his arm with the dried blood and stuck in place.

His hand was resting in front of his face and slowly he opened his eyes to see dark rust colors on the white paper- dried blood- and he knew as soon as he pulled off the paper the scabs would rip and little beads of blood would spout. Just what he needed- something else that was annoying to wake up to, he sighed and sat up with eyes still shut, holding on to any amount of rest he could cling to. "You're awake."

Snapping his eyes open and his head up Roxas looked to see a man standing in his room, the man's arms folded as he leaned against the wall by his windowsill, "Who the fuck are you?" Roxas grumbled, standing up. He watched the man but when the man didn't move or say anything Roxas walked towards his bathroom, ripping off the bandages and shoving them in the trash, not taking his eyes off the man for a second.

"It's not important," the man replied simply, Roxas walked back into his room and grabbed his hoodie, his eyes on the man at all times. He took in the man's appearance- which wasn't all that threatening. The man was short, about Roxas' height, with slate colored hair that was styled to get longer and cover the right half of his face.

"Alright," Roxas poked at his teeth with his tongue, pausing from his spot on the floor before continuing to slide his boots on, "Then what is important?" he paused for a second but as the man opened his mouth to speak Roxas cut him off, "Oh I know! Maybe why the fuck you're in my room."

The man calmly shut his eyes for a few seconds before speaking. "Roxas," he began, "I'm here to go over the rules with you," again he was cut off.

"Great!" standing up he threw his bag, the one that had been full of money, at the slate haired man. "I quit," the bag was caught in the man's hands as he collide with his stomach, Roxas moved to walk out of his room but the stranger began talking.

"I'm afraid that's not a choice."

"Sure it is," Roxas turned to look at him, "We both just walk away and forget this ever happened."

"I'm not the one in charge." The man replied, "I'm only here to start your training."

Tipping his head back Roxas stared at the ceiling for a second, "Look," he dropped his gaze back to the man, "I don't really care what all this is about, but I'm not interested, find someone else for your drug cartel and just… get out of my room." As Roxas turned to leave he was stopped yet again.

"Roxas! You do not have a choice in the matter," when the man shouted his name Roxas turned back and faced him, surprised, "You will let me tell you the rules and you will sit and listen to them, after that- you can ruin your life on your own."

The blond waited, he had to get to summer school soon but he knew he wouldn't be able to get away from the man in his room, after a few minutes of silence the man began talking again. "I am not the one who chose you for the job; I'm simply here to tell you the rules and to instruct you on where to go." Roxas sighed and looked around his room. He had no reason to listen to the man, he could just walk away- they were going to ruin his life either way, right?

"After today, you most likely won't see me again," he paused and shifted his weight, "I will give you an address and you are not to tell anyone else of this address, you are not allowed to take a Taxi there, and you must be there on time. Once you arrive you will ask for a man named Saïx, he will be your boss. And no, he's not the one who chose you either- he doesn't know who you are but he's expecting you." The man's hands rested at his sides, as he stared at Roxas who was shifting from one foot to the other and waiting impatiently.

"He will give you his own test, you will take the bag he gives you and take it where he tells you. You will do it in the time allotted to you," the blond butt in again.

"Listen- no, really," he held up his hands, "I don't know what you were expecting but the last thing I'm going to be involved with his drugs, so, I really don't care if you give me shit." He turned and moved to open his door but a hand grabbed the back of his hoodie and spun him around, pinning him to the wall, the man's face in his own.

"You will arrive at this address in an hour and if you have any more problems you tell Saïx." He crumbled a paper in Roxas' hand and let go of him, opening the door and walking out of the house using the front door. Roxas stared at the paper and threw it on the floor and left, making it to the bus just as it was about to pull away. The man was on his mind for most of the day, everyone in school stayed away from him- probably because of his almost fight, not that any of them were afraid of fighting but in summer school fighting is instantly failing. Only 5 days can be missed in total, any more than that and there's no chance of passing, even if the student has straight A's, and since a fight suspended a student for 5 days there was no way to get in a fight and pass summer school.

Near the end of the school day Roxas' mind shifted from thinking about the slate haired man to the red haired one. He hadn't seen Axel since the morning before, but that was only enough time for a brief argument, Roxas was always a pro at pushing people away but he found that after hanging out with the redhead and seeing him more than once was kind of interesting. Though he wouldn't admit it to Axel, Roxas liked knowing someone was caring about what happened between him and his father and what happened when he went to school with bruises, with that entire aside he just liked to know someone was waiting to see him.

He wanted to apologize and fix what he'd done with the redhead without actually sounded like he gave a damn. As he rode the bus to his house he hoped he would see the familiar '94 black Trans Am. Roxas actually thought it was a pretty sweet car but he'd never tell the redhead that, he wouldn't even admit it to himself that it was anything more than 'just a car'. But seeing the black house painted car would fix Roxas' whole day, possibly his whole week.

Climbing off the bus Roxas looked around but he was disappointed when he saw no Trans Am, and no flaming redhead around. And just because the redhead decided to ignore him yet again Roxas was pissed, he kept his eyes on the ground as he cursed the man in his head, he stomped up the steps and loudly shut the front door before walking into his room. Before he could shut his door something stopped and he was forced to turn around in surprise.

"How about you come out and spend some time with your dear old dad," Sephiroth's hand rested on Roxas' door preventing him from shutting it, the blond grumbled.

"I'll pass," he went to shut his door but his father's hand didn't move, Roxas shifted his gaze from his father's hand to his father's face and yelped when the man moved.

"It wasn't a question," his hand enclosed around the back of Roxas' head, gripping and pulling Roxas' hair in a stern grip as he pulled his son from his room and walked him to the kitchen. Once in there he let go of Roxas, pushing him forward so the blond almost fell but he quickly caught himself and glared at the man.

He wanted to say something to the man but the way Cloud wasn't looking at him told him just to be quiet for the time being, so instead he backed up a bit and rested against the kitchen table, staring across the room at Cloud while his father dug around in the fridge and pulled out a beer. "So Cloud has something he'd like to tell you," his father said before taking a sip.

Roxas' gaze had been shifting just a bit but it was brought back to stare at the man and wait for him to begin speaking. "It's not my business to tell…" the older blond said, his voice mellow and slur free of alcohol. Sephiroth tipped his bottle like that wasn't what he was expecting Cloud to say at all.

"Fine," his father said, "I'll tell him," his tone was venomous and meant specifically for Cloud but the other man had to response. "Guess who gets to have custody of you again?" the silver haired man asked, and Roxas dropped his arms from their folded position and stared at Cloud even though his father was the one speaking.

"What?"

"I went to the courthouse a while back, they said if I prove enough I can get custody of you back," Sephiroth was cut off by Roxas.

"Custody? How the hell can you get custody of me? I'm adopted, you can't just get custody of me unless Cloud put me up for adoption!" his father wasn't thrilled with his tone and he could tell but his father smirked nonetheless.

"Cloud is a single parent- which mean's I can fill in. So yes Roxas, I can."

"That's bullshit," the blond's heart was beating out of simple frustration, he wanted his father to say something back just so he could snap a reply and shout at the man, but Cloud caught on and was making that difficult.

Cloud spoke calmly, "He is free to apply for joint custody of you but that's it, I'm not letting him take full custody." Cloud could sense the betrayal in Roxas' voice, he'd promised Roxas the first day he saw him that he'd never let him go back into his father's care but here is was four years later doing just that.

"Letting me?" Sephiroth almost choked on his beer as he laughed, "You're not letting me do anything, like I want full custody of the brat. He's just like you," he said to Cloud, "And I only need him every once and a while."

"Shove off," Roxas replied, he didn't understand completely what his father was talking about but he knew when his father compared him and Cloud that it was not a compliment, "And you don't need shit from me, why can't you just do us all a favor and oh, I don't know, drop off the face of the earth?"

"You'd miss me too much, and besides, everything's always so much cheaper when you're around," the silver haired man dropped his bottle in the trash and walked towards Roxas, pinching the boy's face in his hand, "I wouldn't mind you as much if I could cut that tongue of yours off," the blond shoved his arm away and glared at his father who returned the glare with less hate and more of a bored expression.

"I'll be around some time soon," he opened the front door and turned around, "Oh, and Roxas," the blond turned to look at the man, "Next time your friend decides to talk to me, I won't be so nice." A chill ran through Roxas' body, but as his father slammed the door shut that chill was replaced with anger.

Cloud began talking which pulled Roxas' attention back to him, "I can't deny him custody Roxas, I'm trying but I'm lucky he isn't trying to take full custody."

"Yeah, whatever," he turned to walk back into his room, pissed off at so many things but a hand on his arm stopped him.

"Roxas, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about it," Roxas shoved his arm out of Cloud's grip and continued to walk away.

"Why should I care? It's not like I should expect any different."

"Roxas," he called after the blond and yet again grabbed his arm, "You know I don't want him in your life."

"No, I really don't!" the blond yanked his arm out of his hold and turned, shouting back in Cloud's face. "Because as soon as he comes around you either can't be bothered or you're passed out because of your drinking!" there was too many things swimming through his mind for Roxas to pin point just what he was mad at. "It pretty obvious you don't give a shit so why don't you just let him take full custody?" even though the blond hated that idea he said it out of pure anger.

"Hm? It'd make your life so much easier! You wouldn't have to bother with me anymore, you wouldn't have to bother with him, and you could rot away in your drinking."

"Roxas…" he said in a calm voice.

"No," the blond responded, Cloud was sober and Roxas knew of his mind tricks, and he really didn't want to deal with them, he didn't want Cloud to get in his mind.

"Roxas, they might not even allow him custody," he said in a gentle tone but Roxas just rolled his eyes, and tried to walk away but Cloud stopped him, "It's not set in stone…" the shorter blond stopped walking and looked down, he didn't want to be with his father any more than he already was. They stood in silence for a few seconds before Roxas finally spoke again.

"I just want him to leave me alone." Walking away he quietly shut his door, Cloud didn't stop him and once the blond was in his room he wall broke a little. "Dammit…" he mumbled, he walked into his bathroom and leaned against the wall, sliding down and hugging his knees to his chest as he bawled the ends of his hoodie up in his hands. His eyes were watering from frustration but Roxas just didn't know what to do.

There were problems with his father, which was just too many problems, there were problems with Cloud, problems with Axel, problems with that man in his room that morning, but mostly there were just problems with Roxas. He tried to breathe calmly but his racing heart wouldn't let him, his life was falling back downhill and he could feel it slowly slipping. It was like it didn't matter how hard he tried; he was destined to live a life he hated and live with constant pain.

Something was nudging at Roxas' shoulder, the blond had fallen asleep in his bathroom and yet to move, "Roxas," someone said and all the blond could do was roll over and try to stay asleep even longer. But his natural alarm clock was telling him it was time to wake up so there was no point in trying to sleep more. Sitting up Roxas groaned in pain from the cuts on his arms, even though he couldn't see them through his hoodie he could feel them well enough.

"You didn't show up," Roxas' head shot up to see the man from the day before, leaning against the door frame, Roxas sat back and leaned against the wall again, running a hand through his hair. He didn't respond. "You are to show up today, you have no choice," he handed Roxas the piece of paper from the night before and Roxas looked at it, tipping his head back and resting it on the wall.

"Yeah… fine… whatever…" he said quietly.

As the man had said he wasn't the one who chose Roxas, but someone did. That someone watched Roxas for a certain amount of time, picked up on his habits, on his schedule, and just his overall life, normally disobedience like Roxas' would go punished but the man who chose him laughed instead. Because Roxas had a sharp tongue and an attitude is why the other man chose Roxas, so when the slate haired man came back and Roxas didn't follow through instead of blaming both short boys like he should've it was just a point that Roxas would not be controlled.

And he liked that very much.

"Roxas…" Cloud groaned from some place past Roxas' room, Roxas looked out the door even though the sound was coming from behind him.

"He'll be waiting for you… now I suggest you tend to your adoptive father." Again the man walked out of Roxas' room using his door and Roxas stayed sitting on the floor. Till he heard Cloud curse at everything around him, with a sigh he stood up, tucking the piece of paper in his pocket and grabbing a few tens from the bag of money- just in case.

"Cloud?" he called quietly, but the man didn't respond, when Roxas finally found him he was laying on the kitchen floor, trying to stand up but failing repeatedly. "Here," holding his hand out he waited for Cloud to take it but the man was a lot more drunk than Roxas thought. With another sigh he grabbed the man's upper arm and tried to pull him to his feet but Cloud was pretty much dead weight. "Come on," leading Cloud to his room the man was mumbling a bunch of things over and over again.

"I'm sorry…" he slurred. It was strange- Cloud was never much of a talker yet when he was drunk he repeated the same things over and over and seemed to never shut up, but alcohol does that to people.

"Time for bed," Roxas mumbled, knowing cloud would probably ignore him anyway, but to his surprise Cloud didn't.

"Let go," he tried to pull away but Roxas wouldn't let him, "Let go," he tried to yank his body away from Roxas, even though he was bigger than the boy the poison threw him off and evened the playing field.

"No," the younger blond replied, opening Cloud's bedroom door, he'd shifted his hold on the man to do so and was now facing the older blond.

"I said, let go!" Cloud's hand may have been trying to grab Roxas' collar, it may have been trying to slap Roxas, but what it did do was almost a combination of both. Cloud's finger nails made contact with Roxas' cheek, and his index finger and middle finger nails clawed across Roxas' face, following his jaw line and leaving behind a trail of torn and whitened skin that began to bead with blood.

Roxas didn't react to it, sure he flinched but he didn't stop what he was doing or comment on it, he moved Cloud into his room and sat him on his bed. "I'm sorry," the man told him, and Roxas completely ignored him. There was no way he'd be going to school after that- his face was still bruised because of his father, and now he had claw marks, he didn't want to deal with that shit. He shut the door behind him and left a blubbering with apologies blond in the room.

Pulling out his music player Roxas played Red, the first song to play pulled at his heart and left him walking faster and faster till slowly he began to run. Tears weld in his eyes as he pushed himself further. Everything was hitting him even stronger- he was alone in the world, here he'd been put in a situation where anyone else would turn to someone for help but Roxas had no one. No one cared if he ever came back, no one cared when it came to Roxas and this wasn't anything new, he'd tried so hard to be friendly with everyone when he was younger.

Even if they were strangers he opened his heart and mind to them because he hoped they were as nice as they seemed, he'd ask to move in with them, if they'd take him in and be his mother or father but they all nervously laughed and the subject was thrown away. Running faster Roxas tried to get a handle on his emotions. He'd pushed everyone away- he'd realized no one would ever care about him so the easiest thing to do was shove people out of his life and never encourage the chance that he could be happy. All he wanted was someone to care.

And when he thought he had that his life was ripped from him and everything fell down around him again. He was so tired of putting everything he had into being what someone wanted him to be that he gave up, he didn't want the hurt it brought, and Tifa and Cloud were his last chance. But they'd both left him behind, it didn't matter if Axel ever came around again, Roxas wouldn't know how to accept his concern or care so instead he'd just end up pushing the redhead away.

Pushing his burning joints faster Roxas pushed to run faster, he wasn't ready to give up on himself but he wasn't ready to wait for someone to care and push through his defense. Suddenly Roxas was stopped when an arm strung out and halted the boy's running, "Hey, kid," the stranger said as he set Roxas down, "Careful." As he said the word he walked away and large tracker trailer sped in front of Roxas' face, feet from him, had he kept running it would have flatten him.

He decided he could last a little longer.

Looking at the address again Roxas looked up at the- what seemed to be- an abandoned warehouse, "Whatever…" he mumbled, pulling his hood up and taking his ear buds out and pausing his music. If he was in charge of some drug den he wouldn't have people using the front by the street, so Roxas walked around to find the back door, knocking and when no one answered he opened the door. Quietly he walked through the abandoned place, it was completely cement it seemed, the dark hallway he was walking through opened to a slightly brighter area.

It was dark and the size you'd expect a warehouse to be, except this warehouse had a long couch near the middle with a few recliners around it, a table in the center and the back half was another room but it had a closed and locked door blocking Roxas' view of what it possibly was. "And you are?" someone spoke from the couch; Roxas hadn't even realized there were people sitting on the furniture.

"Well," he looked down at them from his spot across the room, "That depends on who the fuck you are." He glared at the man who simply stared before he chuckled; the man leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor for a second before looking up at Roxas.

"I was told you'd have a mouth," Roxas acted unaffected by the remark- he'd heard them all before, he stood up and walked towards Roxas, "I'm your new boss, Roxas, so I suggest you lose your attitude." He searched Roxas' eyes like he was trying to terrify the blond or something.

Roxas played back, watching the man's eyes and keeping his facial expression the same, till he leaned forward a little and spoke back, "I don't have to do shit for you."

The man tipped his head back and smirked before walking away, "Follow me," he waved his hand towards the room in the back and hesitantly Roxas' followed. Not because he was nervous but because he could tell he already didn't like the man. He stopped in front of the room and turned back to look at Roxas. "I'm Saïx, if you haven't figured it out yet," he attempted to insult Roxas, "You'll work for me from now on, your job is simple."

"Not that this whole thing isn't sketchy in general," Roxas began, looking around him and then back at Saïx, "But how the Hell do you know I won't run straight to the cops and rat on your ass?" the chattering that had been going on behind Roxas stopped and he could feel the men's eyes on him.

"You're not new to me Roxas," the blond didn't understand what the blue haired man was saying but tried to keep his emotions off his face. "I've never seen you before but someone has, and that someone has been watching you for weeks… we need people, people who won't turn us in, and you're perfect. You're like the little boy that cried wolf, no one's going to take your words to heart and if they do we can persuade them easily."

Poking at his teeth with his tongue Roxas watched the man's movements before speaking, "So you're- or someone - is a fucking creeper, that's great to know but I honestly don't give a shit about any of this, so I resign, forfeit, surrender, quit, whatever, bye." He backed away, keeping his eyes on the man but was stopped when the man grabbed the front of his hoodie.

"Where'd you get those cuts Roxas?" Saïx asked, in a tone as if he was asking about the weather. Roxas pushed his hand off his collar and grumbled at him, turning his head and keeping it low so Saïx couldn't clearly see his face.

"It's none of your fucking business."

"You're under my wing now," Saïx said simply, "It is my business…" the blond stayed quiet and blue haired man let the silence linger for a few more seconds. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a simple phone, it wasn't flip and it didn't have a camera, the whole thing fit in Roxas' palm. "The phone is already programed; you can only accept calls and make calls to contacts. The numbers on it have been disabled so don't bother calling anyone else on it- the only things that work are the 'accept', 'decline', and up and down arrows."

The blond raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, Saïx pulled out a small outlet piece that connected the phone straight to a wall outlet to charge, "Don't lose either," he said plainly. Slowly Roxas nodded and put them in his pocket with his music player. "Here's your first test," he knocked on the door and the door opened far enough for a hand to stick out with a black messenger bag. Saïx took the bag and handed it to Roxas.

"I will tell you an address, usually more than one, and you will go to the address- be there on time, wait for the buyer. They won't say anything to you but will instead hand you the money, you are to give them the amount they ordered, nothing less and nothing more. If they give you trouble- even if they shoot you, you are not allowed to call the police; you call any one of your contacts, tell them where you are and explain the situation." Roxas didn't bother to respond but instead took the bag and put it on.

"You will come here every day till the end of next week, then I'll be giving you a weeks' worth, you'll come by every Friday and only on Fridays. Understand?" slowly Roxas nodded, he wasn't confused about anything he said he just wasn't completely sure either.

"So uh," Roxas finally spoke up, "What kind of poison am I allowing people to destroy their body with?"

Saïx chuckled and began to walk away, "The best kind there is," when Roxas turned to follow him he saw the two men sitting on the couch, shooting up, heroin- of course that's what he'd have to deal with. The bag on his back was completely weightless it seemed, Saïx explained that the bag would be a sign to his buyers and Roxas was not to lose the bag or steal anything from the bag. Saïx told Roxas an address, one the blond knew well, "Think you can handle it?" slowly the blond nodded and started to walk away but Saïx spoke up, "Oh, and no Taxi's, cars, or bikes, skate boards are fine but anything else and you'll get busted or easily caught."

When Roxas' didn't respond Saïx spoke up, "Understand Roxas?" the blond raised an eye brow and watched the blue haired man take a seat next to someone else who was clearly tripping on drugs.

"And why the hell do you care?"

"I told you," he sat back and watched Roxas, "You're under my wing now."

Roxas went to the address and after a few seconds of standing on the sidewalk a man walked up to Roxas, he nodded his head to the small cramped space between the house he came out and the next door one, Roxas followed and when they stood facing each other again the stranger handed Roxas folded up cash. Reaching into his bag he found there was only two small baggies, he grabbed them both and handed them to the man, as soon as the man had them he walked away. Slowly Roxas walked way, putting the folded up money in the bag, he walked the distance back to the warehouse and entered to find the men where he left them.

"How'd it go?"

"Why can't you do this?" he unzipped the bag without taking it off his back and reached in to grab the money on the bottom, he handed it to Saïx and the man simply smiled.

"You don't send the king as the messenger."

As Roxas walked back to his house, kicking stones, he thought about what Saïx had said to him. Saïx' false concern that Roxas had at first tried to convince himself was genuine, was everything but. Saïx basically told Roxas he was only using Roxas, so everything he said about taking him under his wing was bullshit. For some reason Roxas was under the impression that Saïx might actually give a shit about him, but this just proved Roxas' own thoughts. No one cared, if they did they would make it known- they would stick in his life like Tifa did, hell- even like Cloud currently was.

The next few days went by easily, Thursday Roxas didn't show up till after school and Friday the run was the only thing on his schedule, in that time Cloud was too drunk to venture further than the bathroom and Sephiroth had enough money to not need Roxas. Before Roxas could go Saturday morning to meet Saïx again, something he wasn't looking forward to but the only thing he had to look forward to, Cloud was having a difficult time trying to get off the ground in the kitchen. Why he journeyed out there Roxas didn't know.

"Come on…" this was another thing Roxas was tired of, he was tired of constantly having to help Cloud on his feet and tired of walking him to his room, he was tired of having to look out for a man that was almost 20 years older than him.

"I don't need your help," Cloud mumbled even though he was leaning his weight on Roxas.

"Well you don't seem to be doing it yourself…" he responded, leading Cloud to his room, but the man shoved Roxas back and leaned against his bedroom door frame.

"I don't need help," the older blond repeated, shoving Roxas back as he moved to help the older one again, "I'm not you."

That struck Roxas- hard- and he didn't know why, with a final shove from Cloud Roxas backed away, "You know what- fine," putting his hands up like he was surrendering Roxas walked away, grabbing his bag that sat on the couch now and opening the door. "I'm so sorry to have wasted your time," he added as he slammed the door. He couldn't place it but for some reason Cloud's statement struck him and instantly upset him.

Meanwhile, through Roxas' new job and life, Axel had been anything but sober. At first his drinking was just to piss the blond off, but then this wave of depression hit him and he couldn't seem to get out of it, he'd started thinking about Roxas again and instantly his depression turned to anger and that anger wasn't pointed at the blond. It was pointed at the blond's father, Axel asked around for the man and came up empty handed but just when he was about to suck up his pride and confront Roxas he ran into the silver haired man sitting at the bar.

The meeting wasn't anything subtle, the man quickly recognized Axel as the one who'd been hanging out with Roxas and stopping him from taking Roxas when he needed him, and since Axel confronted him it made it that much more easier. The man was in a shouting fight with Axel within a few seconds and how it ended was the older man and Axel shoving each other and attempting to punch the other, but eventually security kicked them both out. Since then Axel had been trying to get ahold of his pride and speak to Roxas again, finally he got it together enough and decided to pay him a visit.

He was going to fix everything.

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Uploaded: August 7, 2013