A/N: Time for angst, everybody! As I forewarned, there shall be violence. Terribly sorry, but that's the way it goes. I think I've said before that I like angst because it makes a happy ending all the more happier. Next chapter shall contain the most wonderful Namine. Enjoy!

You can always tell when it's nearly November – dark red leaves form a layer on the ground that is a foot high in some places, and you can't stop yourself from kicking up swirls of leaves as you walk through the piles. It doesn't occur to you to just walk on the pavement. Where would be the fun in that?

Two sixth formers, one dirty blonde, one with hair the colour of honey, walked side by side across a field, to get the full effect of Autumn's leaf-harvest, dragging their feet through the leaves and watching them scatter in all directions, aided by the wind. The boys are close enough to take each other's hand, but they remain far enough apart that they never touch.

"You should just drop Maths." Demyx was saying. What's the point in doing a subject you hate, just to get shit grades at the end of the two years?"

"I know." Roxas replied, "But you've met my parents."

The older boy knew them well enough to get an idea of what their reaction would be. Shrugging one shoulder to stop his guitar strap from falling down, he nodded in sympathy. He is wearing a long sleeved red t-shirt underneath a top he borrowed from Paine – black with a gold Heartagram – the logo of their favourite band. Over the past month, the two of them had found that they had a lot in common, more than Demyx had with Zexion, which made him wonder why he'd been friends with him in the first place. It seemed to him that the three of them – Zexion, Demyx and Axel – had been drifting further and further apart since they started secondary school. While Demyx explored his creativity and sexuality, the other two started bunking off lessons and drinking on school nights. Perhaps it was inevitable that they'd end up as they were now – two tough kids and a victim.

"Are you coming over today? I've been training my Pokemon and I think I can beat you this time." Demyx smiled hopefully at the younger boy.

Roxas made a face. "Can't. Parents being complete and utter twats again. They think I'm not spending enough time at home, want to spend quality time, blah blah blah."

"Oh." The musician's face fell. "That sucks."

"Yeah." Roxas scowled. "All they're gonna talk about is how I'm not trying hard enough at school, and it's not healthy for me to be friends with so many girls, and maybe I should join the football team."

"Uh huh."

"Then my dad will go on a rant about my appearance, and how I used to be so well dressed." The younger boy grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt, which had a skull with flaming eyes and daggers instead of crossbones. Although he wasn't wearing the ripped jeans today, the ones he was wearing dragged along the floor, so the bottoms were tattered and frayed.

"I think you're cute." Demyx grinned, ducking as Roxas tried to smack him around the back of his head.

"I'm aware of that." He replied, sticking his tongue out at the musician. "But I don't think my dad would be impressed by your opinion."

Shrugging, Demyx kicked at a pile of leaves and shoved his hands into his pockets. Their relationship hadn't progressed much further since the day before the sleepover, when they'd held hands. Sometimes Roxas allowed the musician to kiss him briefly on the lips before he went home, but he never so much as touched the older boy when they were in public. Demyx wasn't even sure whether they were a couple.

"I'll come over tomorrow and kick your arse then, if you want." Roxas promised.

"Take a beating from my superior Pokemon fighting force, you mean?"

"Yeah. That."

"Yay." The musician took Roxas's hand and squeezed it, briefly. The younger boy glanced around to check that they weren't being watched, and squeezed back, before letting go.

"D'ya think we should head back to school?" He asked, glancing at his watch.

"I guess so." Demyx sighed, wondering what it would be like to have a normal relationship. Probably not all it was cracked up to be.

Despite it being autumn, the air wasn't too cold for the four girls to sit outside, although Yuna didn't understand how Paine could wear a short-sleeved t-shirt without so much as shivering. Having a Yuffie on her lap probably warmed her up a little.

"Where's Roxas and Demyx?" Rikku wondered, holding a red-gold leaf up to the sun, and watching the light shine through the thin papery surface, showing the veins that ran all the way through.

"Probably on one of their walks." Paine guessed, gently nuzzling her girlfriend's ear.

"Do you think they're secretly having sex and they're just really, really good at covering it up?" Yuffie wondered. "It's not healthy, two guys going on walks together and not even making out behind a tree."

Rikku snorted, dropping her leaf in a fit of giggles. Paine and Yuna glanced at each other and smiled.

"What's so funny?"

All four of them turned, their smiles vanished. Axel was standing behind them, leaning against a tree and smoking a cigarette, a smirk on his face.

"Where's your shadow?" Paine scowled, referring to her brother, who never seemed to leave the redhead's side.

"Silly fucker got detention. For once, I had nothing to do with it." Taking a final drag of his cigarette, Axel flicked it at the goth. It landed a metre to her left. "Damn. Need to improve my aim."

"Leave us alone." Rikku spoke up. "We're just talking."

Shrugging, the redhead started to walk off. "I'm bored of you losers anyway."

Silence descended over the four girls; Axel's appearance had stopped their conversation. Rikku found another leaf and began twirling it in her hand, Yuffie leaned back against Paine and sighed heavily, Yuna stared at the graffiti on the bench. Someone had written, "Life sucks", under which someone else had scrawled, "Fuck off Emo." Why had they bothered? It seemed pointless and meaningless to get a pen out of your bag just to write an abusive reply to someone you didn't know, who probably wasn't even going to read it.

"Who died?" Demyx asked quizzically, appearing from behind Paine and Yuffie. Roxas wasn't far behind; he sat down next to Rikku and was forced to feign interest in her leaf, which she'd named Vincent.

"Hi guys." Yuna greeted, making room for the musician to join her on the bench. "How was your walk?"

"We met a squirrel. Demyx scared him away. It was so manly, the way he jumped a foot into the air and screamed like a girl."

Demyx glared at him. "He was gonna jump on my face."

Turning to the older boy, Roxas raised an eyebrow. "It was a squirrel."

"A rabid squirrel that wanted to eat my brains."

"What brains?"

Demyx poked his tongue out at Roxas.

"Never underestimate the humble squirrel." Paine said solemnly.

"We're awful vicious." Rikku added, grinning widely. She knew full well about the goth's strange method of analysing people, and liked the idea that she had been attributed to a squirrel. It made sense, what with her feisty personality and habit of collecting things. Take her new friend Vincent, for example. Two weeks later she was bound to find him dried up on the windowsill, forgotten and left to decompose.

"It's time for Biology." Roxas said, having glanced at his watch and realised that they were five minutes late.

"Oops." Yuna said, grabbing her bag and waiting impatiently for the others to follow. Yuffie and Demyx had art, so they were going in roughly the same direction.

"Hey Roxas." Demyx said as the younger boy picked up his backpack (Axel still had his old one) and put his arms through the straps.

"Yeah?"

"Meet me by the front gates after school."

"I told you, I can't come over. Family time, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. I just want to walk you home, that's all."

Smiling, Roxas nodded. "Alright then."

As soon as he saw the red car in his driveway, Roxas's heart sank. His dad was home already, which meant that he was taking this "family time" thing seriously. He wasn't going to get any time to himself all evening, and, what's worse, he would be forced to talk to his parents.

"This is not gonna be fun." He moaned.

By his side, Demyx smiled at him in sympathy. "Just imagine me naked for the entire evening. It'll make things a lot more interesting."

"Not helping." Roxas grinned, shoving his friend into a neighbour's bush, which ran around the edge of their garden and was taller than he was. "I'm so gonna have naked images of you, now you've said that."

Grinning up at him from the foliage, Demyx grabbed Roxas's arm and pulled the younger boy towards him, stopping him when he was inches from the musician's face.

"Cut it out." Roxas protested, pulling himself free. Shrugging, Demyx pushed himself away from the bush, picking a stray twig out of his hair. The two of them stood facing each other, neither wanting to leave.

"This is my stop." Roxas said softly.

"I know." Demyx replied. "I was leaving."

The musician looked down at the pavement, studied a leaf that stuck out of the gutter, far from its tree, then looked back up at Roxas.

"Leaving means going away." The younger boy told him, a smile creeping into his face.

"I'm getting there." Demyx said. Reaching out tentatively, he took Roxas's hand.

"Demyx." The younger boy warned. The musician ignored him, reaching out his other hand to push the hair back from his face. Roxas opened his mouth to say something else, but whatever it was, he didn't get a chance. Demyx had pulled him close and was kissing him with every fibre of his being, his right hand resting in the small of his back, his left hand still closed around Roxas's.

Trying to push him away at first, Roxas succumbed when the musician broke away and started to plant a trail of soft kisses down his cheek, moving on to his neck and nuzzling him affectionately. Breathing in deeply, the younger boy threw his arms around Demyx's neck and sighed happily into his hair.

"That was very, very bad." He murmured, running one hand through the short, blonde tufts that stood straight up from Demyx's head.

"Spank me later." The musician replied, moving up to Roxas's ear and kissing it briefly, before pulling away. He winked at the younger boy and walked away backwards, turning when he got to the corner and leaving a rather dazed Roxas behind him.

Sighing contentedly, Demyx leaned his head back into his pillow and closed his eyes, picturing the kiss he'd shared with Roxas earlier that day. The beautiful blonde boy had tasted of the orange he'd eaten at lunchtime, peeling away the segments and popping them into his mouth, biting down sharply to puncture the skin, then sucking the juice from the hole he'd made. Watching Roxas eat was better than porn.

Today was the first time they'd kissed properly since the day four months ago when the younger boy had run out on him. This time he didn't seem to mind, which must be an improvement. After four weeks of getting nowhere, Demyx felt like his luck was changing. Who knew, maybe Roxas would finally decide to make their relationship official. They could go on dates, hold hands in public, sit in each other's laps like Paine and Yuffie did. He could imagine the look on Axel's face as he saw the two of them kissing, right in front of him.

A loud knocking jolted Demyx from his thoughts. Someone was banging on his door. Who in their right minds would bang on his door at 11 o' clock at night? Pulling on a pair of jeans, Demyx wiped the sleep from his eyes and stumbled over to the door, which opened up to the outside of the house. This way, people could visit him in his basement-bedroom without going through the house, which was handy for sneaking people in at 11 o' clock at night.

"Who is it?" He yawned, opening the door a fraction to see what kind of weirdo would knock on his door at this hour. Before his eyes had a chance to focus, the door was thrust open and Demyx found himself shoved backwards until his back hit the wall. Struggling against the hands that pinned him, the musician stared up into blue eyes, narrowed in anger and realised who his attacker was.

"Roxas?" He asked, confused.

"No, shit-for-brains, I'm his evil twin." The blonde growled.

"You look angry."

"Yeah." Roxas pushed him, squashing him against the cold, hard concrete. "Wanna know why?"

"That would be – ow!" Demyx whimpered as the younger boy dug his nails into his bare arms, leaving red marks. "That would be nice."

"Some fucking idiot kissed me right outside my house, which has windows by the way, so you can guess what happened when I went inside." Roxas hissed, bringing his face closer to Demyx's so that the musician had no choice but to stare into those furious eyes.

"You parents saw us? Shit Rox, I'm so sorry."

"You're fucking sorry? I have nowhere to sleep tonight."

"They threw you out?"

"They made it pretty clear that I wasn't to come back." Demyx wished he would shout. As bad as it would be to hear the anger in Roxas's voice, anything would be better than the cold, hard tone he was using. It was as if the emotion had been drained out of him, leaving him empty.

"That's… I'm… Roxas, you're hurting me." Demyx gasped as the fingernails sank deeper into his flesh, drawing blood.

"Good."

"What are you…" Demyx gasped in pain as Roxas sunk his teeth into his shoulder, pulling at the flesh to tear it. "Ow."

"No more talking." The younger boy warned, drawing back to glare at him, fist raised. He slammed the fist into Demyx's stomach, making him cry out in pain, then raked his fingernails across the musician's face. Blood dripped down Demyx's cheek as Roxas leaned in and seized his bottom lip between his teeth, pulling at it and biting down hard. A whimper of pain escaped him, causing him to open his mouth enough for Roxas to slip his tongue inside. Responding involuntarily, the musician pushed against him with his own tongue, and Roxas yielded, allowing Demyx inside his mouth, only to bite his tongue. Drawing back with a cry of pain, Demyx tasted blood in his mouth and saw Roxas licking his lips smugly, ridding them of their sticky red coating.

Pressing his body close against the older boy's, Roxas slipped his hand inside Demyx's trousers and seized his balls. Squeezing tightly, he saw a mixture of pain and pleasure cross Demyx's face.

"If you come anywhere near me, ever again," he said slowly, gripping the musician tightly and watching him gasp for breath, shuddering as waves of pleasure spread through his body. "I will remove your testicles and force you to eat them."

Swallowing hard, Demyx nodded, whimpering slightly as Roxas squeezed again. His hardened cock strained against his jeans, begging for release. The younger boy's eyes moved downwards, lip curling upwards in disgust, and he released Demyx's balls, brushing his fingers lightly against the tip of his cock as he removed his hand.

He couldn't hold it any longer. With a sharp intake of breath, Demyx came, panting heavily as he closed his eyes tightly and tilted his head back to rest on the cold surface behind him. Hearing the door slam and the sound of angry footsteps walking away, he tried to tell himself that this wasn't happening. Without Roxas to hold him up, his legs gave way beneath him and he slid down the wall until he collapsed in a pathetic heap on the floor. Various parts of him ached, and he knew that he'd have bruises tomorrow, but the part of him that cared about this felt dulled and numbed as he lay there, the cuts on his cheeks stinging as they filled with salty tears.

"Roxas? I got your text. What's going on?"

"I need somewhere to spend the night."

"Can't you stay at Demyx's?"

"No."

Yuna's face was etched with concern, but she didn't ask any more questions, simply opening the door and allowing the tired, miserable blonde into her home.

"Quiet. We can't wake my parents, they'd wonder why I was sneaking a boy into my room at midnight."

Roxas said nothing as he followed the brunette upstairs. Yuna pulled a spare mattress out from under the bed, gave Roxas a blanket to keep him warm, turned out the light and got back into bed.

After a few minutes she heard muffled sobs from underneath the blanket. Reaching out a hand, she stopped halfway, having second thoughts. Whatever was troubling her friend, he probably didn't want to talk to her about it. Maybe it was best to leave him for a while, until he was ready to tell her.

Sighing softly, Yuna lay back on her bed, heart fluttering with worry every time a sob reached her ears. Eventually they stopped and she heard heavy breathing. Roxas must have cried himself to sleep.