AN: I apologize for not updating in a while... I'm not going to make excuses. I was lazy, end of story :) But here you are.

He was the first one to break the kiss, disconnecting his mouth from mine to stare into my eyes once more. His face was flushed with blood, his eyes ablaze with intensity. It was quite the sight.

Oh, but my dear Roxas, I wasn't quite done yet. I growled and grabbed his jaw line once more to tilt it in my direction. Our lips met again, sloppier this time… hungrier… more passionate. Saliva-coated lips brushed against each other again and again as we deepened the previous kiss, desperate to taste one another's essences and commit them to memory.

He moaned slightly in my mouth and moved his lips against mine fervidly. Next thing I know, he's trying to worm his tongue into my mouth. I happily comply by opening it and meeting his tongue with my own. As we kissed, we hastily rubbed our tongues together. I couldn't quite tell whose tongue was whose, and in which mouth they were in. But none of that mattered, really. It was at the back of my mind. The hunger was finally becoming satiated.

I was happy, just sitting here and making out with Roxas.

All of a sudden, I remembered the events of today in a wave. Naminé being torn apart. I quickly became horribly soft and felt like I was going to throw up.

I pulled away from Roxas. "No…"

He stared at me with a heart-breaking look on his face. "Axel?"

"I can't… not right now…" I gasped, feeling a wave of nausea curl my stomach.

"Did I do something?" he asked, a sad expression on his face.

"No, of course not!" I said. "It's just, I was remembering today…"

He sighed and his face softened from sad to sympathetic. "You okay? You need to throw up?"

I shook my head. No, I can't throw up right now. I felt despair, demise. "Ergh, sorry, Roxas." I ruined the moment we were having.

He gave me a small smile, filled with understanding. "It's okay, don't worry about it. I'm guessing you want a rain check?"

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. I reached out and ruffled his hair. "We should hit the hay."

He nodded and pecked me on the lips again. "G'night, Axel," he whispered.

I grinned. "Night, Rox."

He didn't yell at me.

†

When I woke up, I was stifling hot. And I don't mean toasty warm, I mean full-on burning heat, threatening to burn my innards toast the skin off of my bones. Beads of sweat rolled down my face; my arms were drenched and I felt as if I didn't get out of it, I was going to have a panic attack.

I had to do something about it. I detached myself from a hot object that was clinging to my side and yanked off my coat as quick as I could, leaving my sweaty body covered in my dark red turtleneck. A rush of cold air penetrated through my sweater, leaving me gasping in final relief.

I felt the object that was attached to me move around against my back. What? I turned my head around to take a look at what it was. I was met with the sight of a black coat, mussed-up blond hair, and a peaceful sleeping face.

Oh, that's Roxas. Right.

The memories from last night came rushing into my groggy head.

He moved around a little more in his sleep. I smiled and patted his head a little before snuggling back under the blankets, deciding to follow his example and attempt to fall back asleep. It didn't take long. Soon, I began to nod off again…

†

When morning came, I was still exhausted beyond belief. My legs were extremely sore, my brain felt like melting ice cream on a hot sidewalk, and my arms felt as if I had gotten a tetanus shot in each one. My left arm in particular hurt like a bitch, for obvious reasons.

Larxene shook us awake… okay, more like she slapped us around until we woke up. But I was groggy, Roxas was grouchy, and it was not turning out to be our morning.

Our group loaded our guns with bullets, cleaned our melee weapons, and prepared ourselves to travel to the lower floors below. With Riku's help, I changed my bandages around my left shoulder.

"I'm really worried," he said, cutting through my old and bloodied bandages with a pocket knife.

"Me too, Riku," I answered as I unrolled some gauze with my right hand. "I don't think it's going to be good, you know… what we find."

He shook his head in agreement and bandaged my arm up tightly.

The thing was, was that we found absolutely nothing. Nothing. We scoured the entire building—split into groups—but found not a trace of life. Most of the zombies were killed last night, and not many more had gotten inside, so we weren't met with any obstacles. But the eleven of us looked everywhere, and came up with jack shit.

What the fuck happened?

That question was on all of our minds as we searched through the Capitol.

After an hour, we met back in the top floor room with heavy hearts.

I particularly hadn't been close with anyone except Riku, so although I was sad, I wasn't absolutely heartbroken. I had a couple of acquaintances, but that was about it. Riku and Kairi weren't terribly upset either. I could tell Leon and Cloud were, however. Their police buddies had disappeared without a trace, leaving them behind with somber faces and torn hearts. They must have been friends with a couple of the guys and girls. However, they didn't necessarily seem to the point of breaking, like Kairi was. They both put on strong faces after quickly mourning their losses.

I admired them, I truly did. Having bravery after losing your friends and being able to put on a strong face… it was admirable. However, I also was slightly appalled that they didn't spend more time mourning the loss of their friends. I guess it was good, though, to have that attribute in a hellish world such as the one we live in.

Not but an hour after we searched the building, Leon's voice called across the room, notifying us to meet in the center of the room. Not long after our group met in the same area the fire was last night. The piano windows toward the top of the walls let in enough light, and I noticed the black ashes that were on the floor… remains from our endeavors from last night.

Leon, Cloud, and Demyx proposed an idea that they had come up with last night. They had talked together, and realized that this Minnesota winter was just too damn cold to survive in anymore. It was hard to grow food, we were always freezing our asses off due to the fact that heating ourselves via electricity wasn't an option anymore, and it was slowing our movement speed down by a tenfold. They proposed to the group that we 'borrow' the cars Elena and Jonathan kept for long-distance trips in order to travel to a warmer state.

We agreed whole-heartedly… hell; we had nowhere to go and nothing to lose by moving to a warmer area.

They proposed we move to Texas, Xigbar wanted to move to Utah, and after a lot of arguing and close-to-physical assault, we decided to move to California, the one-golden state.

Demyx told us to get our things together.

†

Riku and I walked past the paintings that Marlene used to make in her spare time on our way up to our old room; they were covered with splotches of neon paint decorating the blank white canvas. They were her pride and joy, and I was more than lucky enough to have received one. I knew how important they were to her. She was always so excited to show me and Riku what she had made.

The one she gave me was a picture of a lime-green and blue gradient horse standing in front of an electric yellow barn with a hot pink chicken on its back. It's still leaning against the wall in the room Riku and I used to share. It was a beautiful picture, despite its painter being a small girl. Honestly, it even made me jealous.

I promised one day I'd give her something in return, but I never really got around to it. Guilt snuck into my system as I saw it gathering dust in the corner of our room, but I was forced to ignore it as Riku called for me to 'hurry my scrawny ass up'.

I grabbed my bound sketchbook and my packet of lead pencils and stuffed them into my backpack hastily.

We were finally leaving our home of ten months. I felt the same way I did when I was leaving my mom's house almost a year ago; a small tinge of nostalgia mixed in with a whole lotta sadness and guilt.

After we cleared the Capitol from zombies yet again, we stuffed as many of our supplies as we could into the two cars that Leon and Cloud brought to the front gates. The cars were located within the perimeter of the black, fenced-in area near the northern side, to the eleven of us made the journey there pretty easy.

One car, a 2006 Honda Odyssey, was a passenger minivan. The other, a Ford pickup of some kind, carried the majority of our supplies in its bed. It was full of food, gas, water, blankets, winter gear, medicine, clothing, agricultural tools, and many other various yet needed items.

Most of the people piled into the minivan, leaving me, Riku, Leon, and Cloud for the Ford. Leon and Cloud climbed into the hub of the car, leaving me and Riku for holing ourselves in with the supplies on the bed. Riku and I bundled ourselves in our heavy winter wear in order to brave out the freezing winter winds: jackets, mittens, scarves, hats, and an extra pair of pants.

After Riku and I clambered in the trunk of the pickup, scooting our backs against the rear window, we pulled a scraggly, old blanket over our heads and shivered profusely… despite being huddled together.

Our car started up with a rumble and a roar, and it began to follow the minivan our of the Capitol's borders. Another home, gone in the blink of an eye.

We drove on for a while at a steady yet incredibly bumpy pace, as it was difficult to find a good path through the stream of upturned cars and zombie hordes. But we managed to drive on snow-covered paths, heading south.

Across the whistling winter breeze, the two of us huddled together under the blanket, which was shielding our faces from the cold.

"So, you and Sora?" I teased through clinking teeth and nudged my friend's elbow. Was that a blush I saw? No, couldn't have been. Almighty Riku never blushes.

"Yeah? What about us?" he answered, either ignoring the question or really not understanding what I was hinting at.

"What do you think, man? You were doing the… uh—the sex."

He burst out in a fit of laughter, a rare sight to see.

"Was that funny?" I asked.

"We didn't have 'the sex'," he said.

I scoffed. "It sure sounded like it! If I didn't know any better, I would've thought you two were hackin' up a zomb… you know, 'cause of all the moaning and groaning that was going on over there!" I smirked, hoping to the silver-haired man's face scowl at me. It was fun to tease him.

Unfortunately for me, his face remained impassive and impossible to detect any hints of emotion from it.

"Well, we did… stuff," Riku mumbled, his voice quiet enough I could barely hear it over the wind's whistling tune.

I grinned. "Aw, is widdle Wiku a big boy now? Doing all sortsa grown-up things?" I teased him in a cooing voice.

He punched my good arm. "Shut up, you dork."

I laughed and decided to leave him alone… for now. Plus, I couldn't really make fun of him when Roxas and I were about to do the same thing. Only if I hadn't thought of the earlier events of yesterday when we were 'talking', maybe we would've kept going.

But how far would we have gone? Would I have completely succumbed to his shimmering eyes, soft hair, and melodic voice… and go all the way? Would Roxas have let me?

My head began to spin, so I tucked it between my legs, pants rubbing harshly against the side of my face.

…

I wonder what Roxas thinks of me…

AN: So other pairings will include obviously Sora x Riku, but also Demyx x Xigbar (I really love this pair, sorry to all Zemyx fans). Maybe others but I'm not sure yet.

Thanks for supporting, you all are dah best :)