b u Fear in the Darkness, Chapter VIII /u

An OWIL Story /b

i "Come back here!" The redhead said as he ran after a blond, who was carrying two blue popsicles.

"Your going to just have to catch me!" The blond laughed and turned the corner.

"Roxas, wait up!" The seventeen year old sped up, also turning around the corner.

"Not in this life time Axel!" Roxas was so busy looking behind him that he didn't see a large woman standing ahead of him. "Uff…"

"Roxas, Roxas, Roxas…" the woman looked crossly at the blond as she got up. "When are you going to act your age? Your fifteen for Pete sakes!"

"I'm sorry Nana." The blond stud up from the crash, as Axel skidded to a halt behind him.

"And you!" she rounded on the spiky haired teen behind Roxas. "You are soon to legally be a man! You should be much more mature, not gallivanting

thru the corridor like a pervert chasing a girl!"

"Sorry Nana," Axel said thru muffled laughter.

"Now scoot!" Both boys walked away, not speaking until they turned another corner.

"She called you a girl!" The redhead spurted out, now laughing uncontrollably.

"Shut up!" Roxas pushed his brother, who fell to the floor and hit his head on the wall. He stopped laughing. In a panic the blond bent down, "Oh my gawd Axel! Are you ok?"

Axel rolled onto his back to look at the worried blond. His green eyes were watering as he looked into Roxas' deep blue ones. "Nana called you a girl!" The older teen snorted, laughing again.

"Oh shut up Axel! She called you an immature pervert!" Axel moved closer to his brother, there faced were only a few inches apart. The two stared at each other for a moment, before the redhead moved to the blonds ear.

"And what if I am?" Axel whispered, blowing slightly on the other's upper neck, before moving away smirking. "Why are you blushing Roxy?"

Roxas covered his face with his hands, dropping the popsicles. "I'm not blushing!" And with that he ran, Axel not far behind, with the popsicles in hand.

The redhead finally found his brother in their bedroom, the blond was sitting on his bed looking out the window. Axel sat next to him, and handed him one of the melting blue popsicles. Roxas took it without looking away from the window, and began eating the Sea-Salt Ice Cream.

"You gonna tell me what's up?"

"No," the blond said simply, still not turning his gaze away from the window. The two sat in silence, eating their popsicles, listening to a storm rolling in. When they had both consumed the ice cream, Roxas turned to his brother."There's something I need to tell you Axel, but I'm not sure of how you will react."

"I'm your brother, Roxas, you don't need to worry about things like that!" The redhead chuckled, and then noticed that the blond was dead serious.

"What is it Roxy? Is someone picking on you? I'll kick their ass!"

"No, it not that, and besides by now you should know that I can take care of myself."

"Girl trouble?"

"No, not exactly… um… Axel…"

"Yes?"

"I'm gay, or at least I think I am…"

"Oh, um… ok…" The redhead stud up in his shock and walked to the window, silence following. After about ten minutes, Axel walked back over to the blond, and sat down. "So…when did you find out that you were…" he took a deep breath, "gay?"

"A few weeks ago. Dem had tickets to this show, it was at a gay club. He was planning on going with his 'Sexy Zexy', but Zexion had to work. Demyx was really bummed out about it, so I told him that I would go with him. You had a date that night, so I knew that if I were home I would have been alone. I met this guy there… Luxord…. We've been going out ever since." Again it was a few minutes before Axel said anything.

"I had a feeling those two liked each other." The redhead gave a small laugh.

"Huh?"

"Dem and… what did he call him? 'Sexy Zexy'?" The older teen laughed a little harder at the thought of calling Zexion that to his face.

"Yah, they've actually been dating for about a year now."

"Really? Wow!" Axel's face lightened up.

"Yah," Roxas giggled, finally breathing again. He was relieved that his older brother was ok with him being gay.

/i

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Axel woke to a head of blond hair, and the smell of… i Sea-Salt Ice Cream? /i It took him a few moments to realize that his hand was cupped around the soft skin of a naked breast. i Holy Shit! /i he thought as the memories of the previous night came back to him. As quickly and quietly as he possibly could, the redhead got off the floor, threw on a pair of pants, and walked out the door. Naminé only stirred once, but didn't wake up.

"Hey Axel, I was just on my way to…" The redhead spun around to see Demyx happily walking towards him. "Why do you have cake in your hair?"

"Um, cake?" He looked confused at blond for a moment, before he remembered that he had food in his room last night. "Oh, no reason at all! Hay Dem, could I use your shower?"

"What's wrong with yours?" The tall blond eyed Axel curiously.

"Um… the shower head is broken!"

"Oh, well that's no problem, I can have that fixed for you in a jiffy!" He went to open the door, but the dirty redhead stopped him quickly.

"No, no that's ok Dem, I can do it later. Really, I can! So, how about me just using your shower real quick?" Demyx eyed him again.

"Fine, but don't you dare wake up my Sexy Zexy!" The blond said, waving his finger threateningly at Axel.

"Ok, um… how about I meet you in the dinning room in about a twenty minutes?"

"Yah, sure…Oh Axel?"

"Yes Dem?"

"You haven't seen Naminé around have you?"

"No!" the redhead said nervously, before turning and running to take his shower. Once his friend had rounded the corner, Dem's curiosity overtook him, and he opened the door. In the middle of the room was a pile of blankets with clothes thrown around it… i woman's clothes. /i The curious blond walked up to the bundle, and shook it lightly with his foot. It moaned.

"Hey, wake up!" He said, shaking the woman again. The pile of blankets began to rise, then slid down to reveal an extremely naked Naminé.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Both blonds screamed, as Naminé rushed to cover herself from the gigantic eyes of Demyx, who had jumped onto Roxas' bed.

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In the dinning room Axel, Leon, Naminé, Kairi, Zexion, and a still very red Demyx ate breakfast. (Xigbar was watching Roxas)

"Demy," Zexion said turning towards the blond next to him, "don't you have something to tell Axel?" Dem's eye grew large, choking on his food. "Breath Darling, Breath!" the silver-head said, patting his choking lover on the back. Once his airways were clear, Demyx remembered what Zex was referring to.

"Oh, yah, I almost forgot! Hay Axel, Zexy and I figured out what Roxas wrote on the wall in German says."

"Really!? What?" The redhead said anxiously.

"Well, gehe zu dem Platz, wo die Traurigkeit einam lebte, und finde in der Dunkelheit den Anfang zum ewigen Schlaf roughly translates to… um, what did that mean again Zexy?"

"Go to the place where sadness once lived, and in the darkness find the beginning to eternal slumber."

"And what the fuck does that mean?" Leon said looking up from his plate.

"I don't understand all of it," Demyx began "but Naminé said that Roxas was depressed right?" He looked an the blond woman, she immediately turned bright red, and looked back to her plate.

"Y-yes, I believe that he was originally suffering from Major Depressive Disorder, or some other form of Depression." Naminé did not look up from her food the entire time she spoke.

"Well, if Roxas was depressed when he got hit by that car then he was sad right? And since he lives here now, then his old home is a place where sadness once lived!" The blond man seemed to be very proud of himself.

"So someone has to go to Roxas' apartment?" Kairi said looking worried.

"Apartment?" Axel looked at her.

"Yah, when he left the manor he said he had found an apartment in a small town about three hours outside of Twilight Town."

"Ok, well do you know exactly were his apartment is Kairi?"

"I think I have his address, Nana had to send some boxes there once."

"Then I think after breakfast Demyx and I should go check out this apartment." Axel said, a look of worry in his eyes.

"Why do I have to go?" Demyx muttered.

"Because you are the only one here that can understand this gibberish, and if there is more at his house then you need to decipher it!"

"Fine…"

"Shouldn't you figure out what the rest of the message means before going there?" Leon asked looking at Axel.

"Probably, but I want to get Roxas back to normal as soon as possible. If the first part of the message leads us there, then maybe there will be another clue that will help us understand the second part of his message." Axel then got up and left the room.

b TO BE CONTINUED… /b