By the end of November, Roxas had gotten used to walking into the loft or looking up when the door opened and finding that Demyx was there for a visit. He modeled for Riku so often that Roxas was starting to wish they were making him pay rent.

It was raining. Roxas had had to trek all the way to work and back when he was told that the weather was too serious for any of the couriers who weren't driving to be working, and that he should just go home and not to worry, he'd be paid for a half shift to make up for it. Roxas was soaking wet when he returned, so he stripped, wrapped up in a towel, and lay down on the bed, waiting to dry out before he put anything else on. There was only one drip leaking through the ceiling so far, plinking musically into the bucket Riku had put out to catch it, and the extra sealant Loz had put in around the windows and in assorted other places that usually hemorrhaged heat was keeping the place at a tolerable temperature. Riku himself was straddling his drawing stool and making weird faces at the big sketchbook.

A knock at the door. Roxas ignored it, preferring to pretend he wasn't there at all. The day already sucked; he didn't want to have to be social on top of it.

"It's oooooopen!" Riku hollered.

"Do you have to do that?" Roxas grumbled. "What if it's a serial killer?"

"It's not."

"But what if it was? Or a Jehovah's Witness?"

"I'm gay and you're naked. We'd scare 'em off."

The door opened before Roxas could come up with someone who would come in after that kind of announcement and Demyx bounded in.

"It's RAINING!" he announced, kicking the door closed and wrestling his shoes off.

"And the roof's leaking," Riku sighed. "We know."

"I'm soaked. Mind if I dry off a little?"

"Go ahead."

Roxas saw part of Demyx's arms raise up to peel his t-shirt off. The wet fabric hit the floor with a sloppy sound. Then came the sound of a belt being unbuckled, and wet denim being unstuck from skin and allowed to crumple to the floor as well. Socks came off with some awkward hopping. Roxas hoped Demyx wasn't going commando.

Several minutes later, Roxas heard skin hitting skin and a very sloppy, wet sound.

He made the mistake of looking up.

Riku and Demyx were twined around each other near the smaller couch, one of Riku's hands sliding down Demyx's very tan back and into his boxers- which were also damp- and one of Demyx's sliding through Riku's hair to remove the tie. They were joined at the mouth, kissing busily.

Roxas wanted to crawl into his dresser and die. He almost began to do just that, but saw Demyx starting to push Riku down onto the couch.

"Not on the COUCH!" he yelped, not wanting to think about ever using that furniture again if he knew that Riku's bare ass had been on it. And maybe his yelling would get them to let go of each other.

They just moved, collapsing onto Riku's bed with a joint startled sound and wrapping up with each other and even more fervor.

In a few minutes, they were both completely naked and there was a bottle of lube lying discarded on the bed. Demyx was on his hands and knees and Riku hovered over him, drawing desperate, needy, delicious sounds out of him.

Roxas dove for his clothes and rushed back out into the rain, already dialing Axel's number.

Ten minutes later, Roxas was perched on the bench outside the coffee shop and watching the rain when Axel pulled up at the curb. Roxas ran for the car, diving inside to escape the rain.

"Thanks," he gasped, trying to get his limbs sorted out after the door closed.

"No problem. This is seriously the first time you've seen them go at it?"

Roxas looked up from trying to get the seatbelt to cooperate.

"This happens often?"

Axel snorted. "They're both sex fiends, squirt. And they're a hell of a lot happier since they've met each other, that's for sure. They're both safe knowing they've got someone they can always go to for a quickie, so they don't get twitchy or anything. Before Riku moved in, you could tell when Demyx hadn't been laid recently."

"Do I want to know how you know this?"

"I've done 'em both."

Roxas groaned. "Why do all the people I know think about nothing but sex?"

Axel grinned. "Because most of the people you know are older than you and not virgins."

"I am not a virgin!"

"Whatever you say, squirt. But it's not healthy to live in denial."

"I'm not in denial! Just because I haven't fucked another guy doesn't make me a virgin!"

"Hey, hey, chill out. You've done a chick?"

Roxas nodded, staring out the window and hoping Axel didn't notice how hard he was blushing.

"Only once?"

"Why does it matter?"

"You're hot, Rox. Seein' you single and never on a date or a hook-up with someone makes a guy wonder what's missing."

"Girls are…" Roxas shook his head. "I don't know. I don't find them as attractive as I used to think I did and dating them without being attracted to them seemed…mean. So I don't date."

"You think guys are attractive, then?"

"Sometimes. More since I moved in with Riku."

"You can't have the hots for Riku."

"What? No! I just…he makes comments and then I have to look and I see…people. Guys. In a better light. He told me to look at people like I'm looking at them through a camera, and I'll see all the things that make them beautiful. It works." Roxas rubbed his face. "I'm not attracted to Riku. That's Sora's thing, and if Riku's going to flirt with him, he should stop fucking his roommate!"

"If he didn't fuck someone, squirt, he'd lose his mind and probably do something to scare Sora off. A least it's Demyx- the guy's a bit of a spaz, but he's clean as hell. Plays it safe, gets tested regularly, and never does anything unless he's sober. You couldn't ask for Riku to have a better boy toy while he tries to find his way into your bother's pants."

"Don't say that!"

When they got to Axel's little apartment, Roxas was handed a very large t-shirt and a very small pair of shorts and told to put it on so his wet clothes wouldn't be soaking into Axel's couch. Roxas changed into them with a thankful groan and sprawled on the couch, watching without paying much attention when Axel walked by without a shirt on.

He'd slept with Riku and Demyx...last Roxas knew, Axel didn't' fit their ideal figures...so why? He supposed that sex addiction could prompt one to sleep with people you weren't attracted to, but the fact that two people he knew had both chosen the same guy and- from the sound of it, had chosen him more than once- suggested that Axel had...something.

"Here." Axel held a heavy ceramic mug over Roxas' shoulder. "I'm gonna shower. Try not to mess with anything."

Roxas shifted to nurse the hot chocolate and continued pondering the strange situation, lost in theories and mental images until Axel strolled back out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and steam billowing around him in great soft clouds, stretching as he made his way into the kitchenette. Without thinking, Roxas looked at him through his mental camera, looking for the parts he'd focus on for a perfect shot.

Roxas had seen Axel's tattoos before. There were the Roman numerals surrounded by flames on the upper part of both of his biceps, the massive back piece of the chakram things he had hanging on his wall, the little comedy and tragedy masks on his foot, and the flock of birds that flew over his hip bone and away to his back. But Roxas had never seen them all together, as he had never seen Axel really...naked.

He really was kind of pretty. Roxas could certainly understand why Riku moaned about never being able to get him to model. For all of his almost awkward lankiness, there was a strange kind of grace in Axel's body, flowing through the long lines of him like a gentle light. His movements were fluid and smooth, flowing easily into each other, step to reach to stretch to slow stirring of a coffee cup, never stopping and never broken into separate motions. His skin was pale, something Roxas was familiar with, but it wasn't the pale tan e sported or the milky white Riku had now that summer was long over. It was a creamy, pure kind of pale, touched with peach and accented with tiny freckles, mostly in places that got more sun than the rest of him. But it leant an almost inhuman quality to his skin, a lack of transparency, and a consistent air of perfection from nose to toes, like he was some kind of a doll.

Not that any doll had ever been like Axel. Tattoos aside, there were the piercings to be considered, and the scars scattered all over him. The slightly knobby knees and the almost comically large, long-fingered hands like grasping tree branches at the end of his wrists. The sharp angles of his collarbone weren't something any dollmaker would sell...and the same sharp boney lines at his hips, making clear lines down beneath his towel. A soft trail of red hair from under his navel...pretty coral-colored nipples with those stupid piercings in them. That way he bent over and folded up like he wasn't made of bone and muscle, like there was rubber in his spine and compression foam in his stomach. He was beautiful.

"If I didn't know better, Roxie, I'd say you were staring at me," Axel said smoothly, padding over to sink down on the other end of the couch.

Roxas squeaked in surprise, yanked out of his reverie without a moment's warning, and nearly spilled hot chocolate all over himself.

"Sorry!"

"What for?"

"For…that."

"What were you doing?"

"...staring."

"Uh-huh...why? At what?"

"At...you." Roxas sipped his cocoa. "You don't...you're not Demyx or Riku's type, you know? They like smaller guys. Ones that are leaner or not as lean as you. Guys who don't tower over them. Softer people. But you said you've done them, and it sounded like you'd done them more tan once, and I was just trying to figure out what it is about you that keeps them coming back in spite of that."

Axel laughed. "Yu were staring at me for that?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what did you come up wit?"

Roxas blushed furiously and tried to hide behind his mug. Axel grinned evilly at him.

"Tell me."

"No."

"You have to tell me."

"No!"

"I'll throw you back out in the rain without your clothes."

Roxas scowled. "I just...realized that you're beautiful. It's not about what 'type' you are...like if you really like horses or cats or something, it's not about their breed. It's about how beautiful they are...or you are. How they move and how they wear their skin and all the little things that make them who or what they are. You're like that...it's not that you're tall or pale or a redhead, it's that you're gorgeous and they're both people who appreciate beauty."

"And you came up with all that just watching me make myself hot chocolate?"

"Yeah."

"In less than five minutes."

Roxas nodded.

"Roxas, babe...there's no way in hell you came up with all that just now."

"What?"

Axel shook his head. "I've seen y-"

His phone rang, and he grabbed for it, cursing under his breath. He talked for a moment, hung up, and stood, walking away from Roxas as his towel slid off.

"I've got to go."

"What? Why?"

"They need me down at the theatre. Some idiot at rehearsals got into something they shouldn't have. You can stick around and wait for me, or wait for the rain to stop or something if you want to. This can't wait."

Roxas watched Axel's bare ass parade across the little apartment to get clothes out of the dresser, then back towards the bathroom. He didn't have much of an ass, but his legs went on for miles and really made up for it...and it wasn't like he was flat, which would have been a crime with hips like his. His ass was simply unremarkable, except for the fact that Roxas wanted to know what it would be like to bite it.

Axel returned from the bathroom and whapped Roxas on top of the head as he passed.

"OW!"

"You're starin' at my ass, squirt. I saw that."

"I was not!"

"You were looking at my ass the way Riku looks at coffee, Rox."

Roxas blushed until his face burned and he wasn't sure how it was possible for so much blood to be concentrated in his face, curling up in a ball on the couch while Axel laughed.

Footsteps on the wood floor. A hand under his chin. Axel tipped his head back so Roxas was forced to look at him.

"I don't mind, you know," he said softly, and lowered his head, kissing Roxas gently. It lasted for a moment at best, and Roxas was left gasping on the couch and trying to figure out what had happened with the remainder of his brain (the rest had apparently vaporized and escaped on the first exhale after the kiss). There had been no tongue, no teeth, just warm, chocolate-scented lips against his, leaving a heat on his skin and an urge to just die on the spot.

"See ya when I get back, if you're still here," Axel chuckled. "Lock up if you decide to leave, and let me know, 'kay? Might stay out a little later if I'm not comin' back to company."

Roxas couldn't answer.

The door closed. It took Roxas a good ten minutes afterwards to collect himself. He fell asleep before Axel returned.