"Roxas, I'm trying to understand but you know… it would help if you talked to me!" Namine shouted through Roxas's closed bedroom door.

"Nams not right now."

"Why are you so upset? So Axel is dating Demyx. He has been for a couple weeks now. What is the big deal all of a sudden?"

The door suddenly opened and Namine, leaning against it, started to fall but Roxas caught her. He sighed. "Namine, haven't you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

"Axel's pretty popular. People clearly don't like that he's gay."

Namine crossed her arms. "Roxas, why do you care? So he's gay, I guess it's a good thing he's got all of his friends who are kind and understanding."

Roxas suddenly looked anxious. "Nams don't misunderstand me, it's not like I have a problem with him being gay, I'm just worried about him. Can you name one other person who's gay in this school?"

"No… but so what?"

"Almost the entire school knows he's gay. He gets really nasty notes in his locker sometimes, and Dean's threatening to get him kicked off the team."

"Then he'll need us. Especially you, Roxas, you're his best friend."

"Yeah I know, and I'll be there for him as much as possible but I can't stick to his side all the time. I mean I only even have gym with him. What about all his other classes?"

"Well I think you're overreacting, but we'll figure something out if it comes to that."

"If you say so."

"I do," Namine said suddenly much more stern, "but there's something else I wanted to talk to you about. Xion has some questions about your art project and she wants you to text her."

"I already texted her."

Namine looked surprised. "You did? When?"

Roxas shrugged. "About half an hour ago."

"When I was pounding on your door trying to get you to talk to me?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "I just sent her a text saying I would talk to her at school, it's not like I was carrying on a conversation with her and not you." He crossed the room to his bed where his phone was laying. "Look, a new text from her just a couple minutes after I sent mine. I haven't even read it yet."

Namine looked at Roxas's phone and sighed. "Fine, but next time you're having a crisis talk to me. I'm your girlfriend you know, you're supposed to be able to talk to me about this kind of stuff. Now come on or we'll be late for school."

Demyx had just finished gelling his hair when there was a knock on his door.

"Dem, Axel's here for you."

"'Kay mom."

His door opened and Axel walked through, looking more nervous than Demyx had ever seen him.

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know about this, Demyx."

"What's changed your mind?"

"What if I do something wrong?" He plopped down on Demyx's bed. "What if I say the wrong thing?"

Demyx joined him on the bed. "Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. We'll be fine." He grabbed Axel's hand and looked sincerely into his eyes. "It's just a presentation, I thought I was the one who was supposed to be nervous about these things."

Axel smiled. "Yeah well, the subject being your forte and all, I just don't wanna mess it up for you." He looked at Demyx's serious face. "You're really not nervous?"

Demyx rolled his eyes. "Of course I am! But it'll be over and done with before you know it."

"For the record, I'm not nervous about the presentation." He pulled Demyx to him and kissed him. "I'm nervous about letting you down."

Demyx kissed him back. "You could never do that."

Riku said goodbye to his mom as she dropped him off for school. He walked up to the building lost in thought. Ever since Demyx and Axel had gotten together it had occurred to him that he and Xion were now the only two of their group that didn't have a significant other. Though Riku wasn't really looking. Kairi was the only one he cared about in that way, and she was obviously taken. At one point he had almost managed to convince himself he didn't like her anymore, but then her and Sora had become more serious and she had started hanging out with them more often. He had gotten a chance to see sides of her he'd never seen before, despite being friends for so long. This only caused him to like her more, unfortunately.

He sighed as he put his books into his locker. He had thought about dating someone just in the hopes of getting Kairi out of his mind, but he didn't think that would be very fair to whoever he tried to date. But who knew, maybe he would end up liking whoever they were. Demyx had suggested forewarning them before it went too far, but Riku thought that would be an odd thing to bring up on a first date. The idea did have a sort of appeal, though, and he was almost desperate to get the thought of Kairi out of his head.

"Hey, Riku!"

Riku stifled a groan. Speaking of which, he thought to himself as he turned around to see Kairi and Sora walking up to him. "Hey guys."

"Have you seen Roxas?" Sora asked. "Namine called me last night and asked me to talk to him."

"No I just got here. What are you supposed to talk to him about?"

"I guess he's having a hard time dealing with Axel and Dem."

"Still?"

Sora shrugged. "I guess. He seems fine whenever I see him, but Namine says he's been acting weird since they got together."

"They've been fighting a lot recently," Kairi added, eyeing Riku pointedly.

Riku looked at Kairi curiously. "Have they?"

Sora rolled his eyes. "They've always had a rocky relationship," he said brusquely, not looking at either of them.

"Hey guys!" Xion was calling out to them. "I just got invited to this party." She handed them a flyer that advertised a party, most of the words were in all caps. "This guy outside is handing them out, I guess there's this guy named Owen who's having a birthday party -"

"Yeah he does every year," Axel interrupted, walking up to them with Demyx. "He's on my soccer team. He's a senior this year and it's his last birthday here, since he'll be going off to college next year, so he's having this big celebration."

"We should go!" Xion said excitedly.

Kairi nodded. "Yeah it'll be fun!"

Axel shrugged. "What the hell. I went last year after I got on the team. It was pretty cool. Lots of kids from the public school show up too, since he went there for a year and made a ton of friends."

Roxas walked into math and sat down next to Sora.

"Hey, man, we didn't see you this morning."

"No, Namine and I were almost late. We were fighting. Again."

Sora frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It seems like that's all we do now," Roxas said with a sigh.

"Well," Sora began hesitantly, "I almost don't want to bring it up, but I promised Namine I would talk to you."

Roxas looked at him curiously. "About what?"

"She's hoping I can get you to tell me why you're upset about Axel and Demyx."

Roxas groaned. "Seriously? She asked you to talk to me about that? I told her I did not have a problem with them. It's everyone else that I have a problem with." He looked at Sora seriously. "Has Dem told you how many threats he's gotten in his locker?"

"A few…"

"Yeah? Well Axel's gotten a hell of a lot more than 'a few'. And I'm sorry, Sora, but it just makes me angry. These people that I attend school with, that I've gotten to like over the years, are now just pissing me the fuck off."

Sora remained silent. He hadn't really known what reaction to expect from Roxas, but this certainly wasn't it. Sora couldn't recall ever seeing the blonde so angry before. "Hey, Roxas, I'm sorry I brought it up. I had no idea that's why you were having difficulty with this."

"I know, but it kinda makes me angry with Namine, you know? I told her exactly the same thing I just told you, but she insists there's more to it. You know why? Because Axel, the one getting these notes, acts like it doesn't bother him. And, hell, maybe it doesn't, but it sure fucking bothers me and Namine thinks that if Axel doesn't care then I shouldn't."

"But you can't help how you feel," Sora interjected.

"Thank you," Roxas sighed. "Finally, someone agrees with me."

"I do… mostly. I do think you need to calm down a little, though. I understand you're worried about your friend, but if he's not worried there's nothing you can really do. Just be happy for him, hope for the best, and if something bad happens just be there for him. There's no point in worrying all the time, you'll make yourself sick."

Roxas was silent for a while, thinking about what Sora had said. True, worrying all the time like this had impacted his sleep, and if he carried on he would probably end up sick. Of course he would be there for Axel if anything happened, so that was all he could do for now. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He chuckled a bit. "Namine's gonna be thrilled when I tell her you convinced me with the same argument that she failed to convince me with."

Sora laughed too. "Hey, so since you were late you don't know about the party, do you?"

Roxas shook his head. "Party?"

"Owen, from the soccer team, is throwing his annual birthday bash tonight, but since it's his last year here it's gonna be huge."

"Sounds fantastic, we're going, right?"

"You bet!"

AN: currently on hiatus. Sorry guys, blame school. It's been sucking up all my free time and motivation to write. I really want to finish this story, but an update may not come for a while ._.