Author's Note: Okay so this is going to be a long one! First I just wanted to say to all of you: I am so sorry I haven't updated! I really really really am. I didn't mean to keep you waiting so long! I feel awful about it! I just had to take a break from writing. I really needed it. I hope I haven't lost anyone with this long wait! I promise it won't happen again! Though, out of the long wait came an uber long chapter. So unbelievabley long that I have to split in two. I don't want you guys to be thinking "Ohmygod, it's never-ending!" XD So you'll be getting two chapters this week! Yay! Also I'd like to thank you all for reviewing/alerting/and favoriting! All your kind words and such really pushed me along! I really appreciate it! I'd also like to thank you for getting me to 40 reviews in total. That's a ton for me! I am utterly grateful! So thank you so much again!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warning: AkuRoku. SoRi. Don't like that sorta stuff, then don't read it.

Enjoy!

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Chapter 9.

All throughout the morning I could feel the dream festering in the back of my mind. I felt myself worrying about it as I got ready for school. It's odd too, because I knew it was just a dream and nothing more. But for some reason it wouldn't let me forget about it, as if it were out to get me, waiting for a chance to show itself again and have me embarrass myself at the worst moment.

As I made my way to school, I deeply considered talking to someone about it. I mean, I figured it may help get rid of it if it were shared out in the open, so it wasn't just known by me. I used to do it with the nightmares I used to get when I was younger and it always helped. Why wouldn't it now? I quickly ran through my list of friends to see who would be suited to know this terrible dream. Demyx and Zexion were definitely out. Demyx who certainly blab it to someone and I hardly know Zexion so why would I trust him with this type of thing? Axel was definitely out because of obvious reason.

I came to Sora on my list and stopped at him. He seemed like the best person to talk to about things such as this dream. After all, we are very close and I am always helping him with his issues. And he could be helpful at times. Besides, I know I could always scare him into secrecy with all the blackmail I have...

So Sora seemed to be the most plausible answer and I was all set on entrusting him with my dream...that is, until I actually got to school and found Sora. That is when my whole plan on telling my cousin went down the drain. Yeah, I chickened out. When I saw him, I immediately decided to keep the dream to myself. Just telling myself it was only a stupid dream will have to suffice until I can think of a better solution because there is no way I can tell Sora now. So as my mind worked towards putting the dream out of my thoughts, I placed my best smile on my face and walked, chin up, over to Sora.

"Hey Sora." I greeted my spiky-haired brunet cousin at his locker. He turned around and gave me a tired smile. "Wow, you look really tired."

"Thank you Mr. Obvious," he snapped. Whoa, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...

"Sorry." I apologize, even though I wasn't really sure why.

"Eh, it's not your fault. I should apologize. You didn't do anything wrong." Sora smiled. "So... sorry."

"It's okay." I replied. "So why are you so tired?"

"I went to bed really late last night and didn't get enough sleep," he told me.

"Wow, you're starting to be like me..." I mumbled. He quirked an eyebrow up at me in curiosity. When I realized he didn't understand what I was talking about I waved it off and said, "Care to tell why you were up so late?"

"Well I couldn't sleep so I went down to the secret cave Riku, Kairi, and I always hung out in when we were little and I ended up staying there for the rest of the night 'cause got caught up in my thoughts and lost track of time. I think I fell asleep around 4 and the only reason I woke up this morning was because I heard a lot of noise near the entrance of the cave. I barely got any sleep." Sora explained before yawning.

"Wow...that sucks." I pointed out to him.

"Ya'think?" He opened his locker with a yank. "...Sorry," he apologized again after he realized how rude he sounded.

"S'okay." I waved it off. "So Sor," I paused and leaned against the locker beside his. "Why haven't you told Kairi yet?" He looked over at me with half-lidded eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." I told him. He stared at me blankly until I saw a light bulb go off above his head.

"Oh...right...Well the thing is, right moment hasn't come along yet." Sora shoved a few books in his bag. I nodded even though I knew he was stalling. I looked around and caught sight of Kairi making a beeline towards us.

"Well maybe this moment will be the right one." I suggested.

"Huh?" He asked looking very confused. I nodded my head towards Kairi and he looked behind him. He gave a small groan and turned back to his locker. Sora was about to slam his head against his locker when Kairi popped up next to and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. He looked at me helplessly before turning to her with a fake smile on his face. I decided then that it would be best if I left so I whispered, "good luck" in his ear and started walking away.

Faintly I heard Kairi ask what I was wishing him luck on and then before I was officially out of hearing range, I heard Sora start off with, "Kairi, I need to tell you something..."

I sighed, hoping he wouldn't chicken out, as I made my way to my own locker. Before I was even remotely close, I saw bright red hair amid the duller colors and stopped in my tracks. Axel. The dream I had finally managed to hold back flooded into my head. I felt my ears grow hot and knew I definitely could not face him just yet. Not after that dream. I really shouldn't have had the noodles last night! Damned noodles!

I turned on my heel and sprinted down the hallway to find a new route to my homeroom, ignoring the stares I was getting. I'd have to get my books before class.

I made a gigantic square in order to get to my homeroom undetected by Axel or anyone associated with him. When I slipped into class I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I whipped my head around to see who it was to find Sora smiling slightly at me.

I let out a breath, relieved.

"Hey Sora." I finally said.

"I finally told her, Rox," he immediately told me.

"Who? Kairi?" He gave me a look that clearly said "Duh."

"How'd she take it?" I asked.

"I don't really know. She was just very silent and ...I don't know," he sighed. "Don't be surprised if she's not sitting with us at lunch today."

"Okay," was the only reply I gave to him. "Let's go sit down." He nodded and we walked over to our regular seats. We were silent for a little bit until Sora turned around to look at me.

"I almost forgot to tell you; that guy....what's-his-face? Axel is it? Yeah, Axel...well he was looking for you," he informed me.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he needed to talk to you about something. He wouldn't say what, but it seemed important. He looked a little...worried. I don't know." Sora shrugged. 'Axel...worried? I wonder what about...' I thought curiously. I quickly shrugged it off when the announcements came on. Once again Rikku and Selphie reminded us about the Talent Show along with all the other school news that we had to hear every morning. I easily tuned them out as I rested my head on my arms, hoping I'd be able to take a very small cat-nap in the 15 minutes we had left of homeroom. But that didn't happen, of course, because as soon as the intercom became silent, someone was poking my head, trying to get my attention.

I picked my head up, an annoyed grumble slipping out of my mouth, as my eyes locked onto the blue ones of my cousin.

"What, Sora?" I asked.

"Guess what Rox!"

"...what?"

"I'm trying out for the Talent Show!" He was grinning at me.

"Really?"

"Yupp! I'm going to sing!"

"Oh Gods no! Why?!" Sora looked surprised with my reaction.

"So I can confess to Riku that way, but by being much more subtle then outright saying it to his face."

"You can't find any other way?" He shook his head. Of course not. "Well good luck with that, I guess..." Sora grinned at me. I hope he doesn't make everyone's ears bleed...

"Thanks!" I placed my head on my arms again and sighed. "Oh, I think I might go to the music room to start practicing during lunch, so if I'm not at our table, you know where I'll be."

"Mhm...right." I mumbled into my arm. The people around me suddenly started moving around, including my cousin. I looked up and saw everyone starting to file out of the room. School had finally begun for the day.

--

Have you ever had one of those days when you try so desperately hard to avoid someone you'd usually enjoy seeing and in the end nearly bumping into him or her at the turn of every corner? If you answered no to this then I envy you. But if you answered yes, then you understand how exhausting it can be trying to hide yourself from that one person, right? Now you may be asking 'Roxas, why on Destiny Islands would you be bringing this all up?' and my answer is very simple: it's because I am having one of those unpleasant days.

Everywhere I turn I see Axel. Even in places I don't ever see him on any other day. It's so tiresome, having to avoid him like this, but I feel like I won't be able to function properly if I speak to him. Every time I catch even a glimpse of him, my dream comes back to the front of my mind to haunt me. It's awful and embarrassing, even though I am the only one who knows about it. My mind keeps tricking me into thinking that if he even looks at me he'll know right away about my dream and humiliate me in front of the entire student population. So my best bet is to stay far away from him.

And that plan was working semi-well and I was able to finally let my guard down -once I quickly checked to make sure Axel was no where to be seen- when I reached my locker to do the tedious switching of books before lunch. Giving a sigh of relief, for Axel had yet to pop up beside me, I shut my locker door, slung my backpack over my shoulder and proceeded to turn away from my locker...only to slam right into Axel's chest. And how do I know it's Axel? His scent, of course, gives him away. Not only did he smell of campfire smoke, but this time it was mixed with cinnamon. It actually burned my nose when I breathed it in, but even so, I enjoyed it.

"Uh, hey Roxy," he greeted me, pushing me back gently so he could see my face. I avoided his eyes as he studied my slowly reddening cheeks and looked at the lockers on the other side of the hallway. "What a familiar scene this is, except it didn't involve you falling on your ass." He chuckled and I readjusted my backpack. When he realized I wasn't laughing with him and his laughter ceased. "Roxas? Something wrong?" I shook me head, now glancing at my feet, willing myself to keep the dream from seeping into my thoughts once more. It was hard keeping my thoughts clean when Axel was standing right in front of me. Axel crouched down a bit and turned his head upward so he could look at my face.

"DidI do something to upset you yesterday?" He asked.

"No it's nothing. Really. I have to go Axel. I'll see you later, okay?" I got my feet moving and brushed past him. I felt bad for treating him like that, but I had my mental health to think of, and standing there chatting with him was not doing me any good. He was kind of the problem, I guess. I was feeling a bit better as I got farther and farther away from him, but unfortunately it didn't last long because before long I heard another set of steps echoing mine. He was following me, again.

"Roxas, if something's wrong tell me! What did I do?" Axel's voice echoed in the empty halls. He sounded closer to me. Next thing I knew, a hand was on my shoulder and he stopped me in my tracks. Spinning me around quickly, my eyes met his; this was the one thing I didn't want to happen and yet it did anyway. I stared at him as my dream came back. His low, husky drawl, his piercing green eyes studying my face carefully, his lips on mine...It was too much. My head was fogging up; the part where he was kissing me filled my head until that was all I saw in my mind. I shook my head fiercely, and pushed him away. I turned on my heel and broke into a dead run. Lockers, classrooms, and halls were passing by me in a blur. I didn't know where I was going and I didn't care. I let my feet carry me as fast as they possibly could, until I had to slow down to catch my breath. I leaned against a locker and closed my eyes, taking in deep breaths, filling my lungs with much needed oxygen. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. My mind began to clear as I instructed myself to just keep breathing.

Finally, my heart was beating at its normal pace and my breathing had steadied too. I started to walk myself down the hall slowly, not really eager to get to the cafeteria. I sighed and thoughts about what had just happened came back to me. I suddenly felt terrible for what I had done. I had actually run away from Axel. I had never done that before, overreacted the way I had, I mean. I left Axel there in the hallway, alone and most likely confused. I wanted to slam my head against something. And I did. Right against a locker. And few times too until my head hurt too much to continue. I sighed again. I knew hurting myself wouldn't make these horrid feelings go away so I continued to walk to the hall. As I turned the corner, I almost crashed into Sora, who apparently had been coming my way.

"Hey Rox!" He greeted me cheerfully at once.

"Hi Sora." I replied. "I thought you were going to go practice in the music room during lunch?"

"Oh! I was just there, but I desperately needed to go to the bathroom. And that's where I was headed just before I bumped into you," he grinned.

"Ah." I tried smiling back, but it must have looked very forced since Sora's grin faded and he asked, "Gee Rox, is something wrong? You look depressed." I shrugged.

"I guess I could be better."

"Ya'wanna talk? 'Cause we could while we take a walk to the bathroom." Sora offered. I nodded. I really needed to tell someone about what was going on. Sora was allowing me to open up to him and I had to take this opportunity because I felt that it would never be offered to me again.

As we walked, Sora stayed silent while I gathered my thoughts together. When I was ready to talk, I took a deep breath and began hesitantly.

"I ran away...from Axel few a minutes ago." I started. Sora looked at me.

"Really? Why would you do that?" He questioned. I shrugged. "Well there must have been a reason. People don't normally run away from others unless there is a reason behind it."

"It's a stupid reason though."

"You can tell me," he said. I sighed. I knew that without him telling me. 'Come on Rox...' I urged myself before gulping and saying, "I ran away because of a dream I had."

"A dream? What kind of dream?" He asked. I looked at him.

"Well...it was an embarrassing dream about...uh..."

"Axel?" Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I nodded. "And it was embarrassing..." I nodded again. "What happened that was so embarrassing?"

"I'd rather not say." I said. I was hoping he'd use his hidden deductive reasoning skills to figure it out. And he eventually got it. Sora's eyes widened a little bit and he chuckled.

"That bad?"

"Kind of, yeah."

"Okay so let's see, you two kissed in your dream, didn't you?" Sora guessed. I widened my eyes at Sora.

"Yeah...how'd you know?" I wondered.

"Well Rox, your definition of 'bad' isn't exactly my definition of bad. You think kissing is 'bad', and well my definition is a lot worse." I raised an eyebrow. What exactly is he saying? Does Sora, my seemingly innocent cousin, have riskier dreams? He smirked at me, as if he was reading my thoughts. Yes, that is exactly what he is saying! Wow, I never knew Sora was like... that.

"Well honestly, it is bad, especially since it was about a guy I JUST MET! It's understandable for you to have dreams about...Riku...but I mean you've known him for an unbelievably long time."

"Don't pull me into it Rox, and try to force the subject onto us. Anyway, me thinks you have a crush on this guy," he said with this tone he gets when he knows he's right.

"But I barely know this guy! I can't like him. Besides he's a guy. All the people I've dated in the past were female. Kairi when we were younger, Olette, that girl that used to live down the street from me." I counted off. "That alone says I shouldn't like guys." Sora rolled his eyes.

"Hello! I dated Kairi for Gods know how long, but I still ended up falling for Riku. 'Sides Rox, love knows no boundaries. It doesn't care that you are 'supposed' to like girls. It more 'goes after' the people who make you happy, no matter what sex they may be." He makes a very good argument and I'm having trouble disagreeing with him.

"I never said I loved him..." I decided to protest a minor detail. He sighed and stopped, making me stop too.

"Roxas, you get my point! You can't stop liking something just because you think you shouldn't. Or society says you shouldn't. It doesn't work like that. Your heart tells you what to do, and you should follow it. That's what I'm doing."

"Yeah? And how's that working out for you?" I replied. Sora took on a hurt expression when I said that, and I sighed. "Sorry Sora. I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, yeah Rox," he waved me off, shrugging. "I know it must seem like nothing's happening, but I'm planning out my steps with great caution so nothing happens that may ruin things forever." He said, smiling at me. I shrugged and we became silent for the rest of our walk.

We finally arrived to the bathroom and entered. Sora went to relieve himself and I hung out at the sinks.

"So, do you think you like him? Never mind what everyone else says, what do you think? What does your heart tell you?" Sora called out. I shrugged my response again before realizing he couldn't see me, and then I called back, "I don't know..."

"He's a great guy and a great friend to me. I don't know if I want to let myself like him as more then a friend in fear of ruining the relationship we already have." I feel like a girl...

"Yeah I can understand that dilemma." Sora replied as he flushed and made his way over to me to wash his hands at the sink. After doing that, we left and began walking back.

"But like I said before, follow your heart, it'll tell you what to do. Then things will just...fall into place." He smiled softly at the thought. I stared at him. He's being unusually insightful and deep today...

"I guess, but what if my heart is wrong?" I questioned. Sora shrugged.

"You win some, you lose some. If things don't work out with Axel, you'll find someone new," he replied. Bye-bye insightful Sora! I sighed; disappointed I didn't get a more fulfilling answer from him.

"Great, thanks Sora." I sighed again. I guess I'll just have to think about it more.

"You're very welcome!" He replied, oblivious to my sarcasm. I stayed silent and walked him back to the music room. After we had parted, I decided to make my way to the library. I had about 10-15 minutes left of lunch so I had time to sit somewhere to have some quiet time. The school library was always the best for that.

I walked into the library a couple minutes later and plunked myself down on a nice plush chair. I took out a book and opened it to the page I was currently on, except I didn't end up reading. Instead, I completely spaced off, becoming deep in thought.

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Author's Note: Okay, so I know it ends abruptly, but there is a good reason for it! It's 'cause the chapter was too damn long! XD As I previously stated. I had to cut it off somewhere. Also, I fear I maybe rushing Roxas' feelings for Axel even though it's already the ninth chapter. Maybe that's just me. :shrugs: Well I hope you enjoyed it! And I hope it was worth the wait.

Constructive criticism, encouragement, etc is appreactiated! Tell me what you liked/disliked/what I can change/Anything to make this better..

Thanks for sticking with me!

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