I have absolutely no good excuse for taking over a month to update. I'm really sorry. I'll try a few excuses though. Let's see…after I got back from my trip I had to unpack, get ready for school, and chill out. Then school started, which required at least two weeks to get used to. Because typing is like work, I avoided it, craving as much fun as possible.

So school sucked away my life and some other bad things happened. A girl at my school died and I got sick.

But here I am! I got a small influx of reviews and felt kind of guilty, so I typed this up and here you go!

Enjoy!

-----

There is an amazing rushing feeling one gets when doing something seamless, something right. Whether it's belting out a song perfectly or swinging your hips in flawless, unstoppable beat to a song or owning so much at a game that you can't even believe how good you are, the feeling creates a swell of pride and power. There are moments when one accomplishes something much more easily than they expected, like nervously stepping into a boss fight only to win two minutes later by some unexplainable force.

All these examples bled into one within Riku. He'd done and said the right thing at the right time in the right place. Mission accomplished times one thousand. Sweet, bouncy little Sora gave him a high, and said drug was melting under his touches and even giving his own.

The DDR machine, oblivious to their kissing, went on with its default beats, the loud and annoying clips it plays for attention when it isn't getting any. What a whore, considering it had gotten plenty of attention the last few weeks.

When Riku's fingers were numb from gripping the hand bar and he was positive Sora wasn't going to run away, they strayed into cinnamon locks and a soft cheek, rubbing the pad of a thumb over the soft skin while Sora subconsciously rocked to the machine's erratic beats, pulsing their tongues in time.

Contrary to popular belief, people rarely ever taste like any pleasant food. They taste like people. But Sora didn't have to taste anything to feel it, because to him Riku felt like darkness and mist and glowsticks and the crash of an aqua sea against navy shores. Riku tasted like the treasure hunt he'd been on since he saw the silver-haired boy dancing, wondering what it felt like for muscles to work like that, longing for a beat and a dance floor, even if the floor was only four arrows that glowed momentarily when you touched them.

Riku's fingers were like feet on the arrows, pushing into his face and neck, leaving behind heat that he wished could begin to shine pink and blue. And there was a fifth arrow, the space between their hips, and he found himself latching on to Riku's hip bones and pulling them towards him so it was more like a dance. His world shrunk into a dark pinpoint: the mouth hooked on his, until it fell away and reattached onto the sun-kissed skin of his neck, pulling, nipping, and teasing like Sora was spiced meat, but meat no one had bothered to kill before eating, as strained sounds were spilling from his lips.

"Nngh…"

The vague thought crossed his mind that if he ever had an opportunity to go to a rave with Riku, he would take it immediately.

"Sora, we have to stop."

"No." The simple answer was pleading. Don't stop this. There were patterns bursting behind his eyelids that he knew would fade if he opened his eyes, but he had to. Riku's were half-lidded, aqua smoldering. He felt luminous.

But the feeling, though shattered like a piece of blazing glass, lingered. There was skin on skin and buzzing in his lips.

Riku 'hmm'd in a 'you see? We had to stop' sort of way. Riku knows best.

"You kissed me."

"Thanks for noticing," Riku replied, friendly, letting a silky piece of Sora's hair fall from his fingertips. "Is that a problem?"

Sora shook his head numbly, eyes wide open. No it was certainly not a problem. "You did all this just so…"

"Yup. Think of it as a reward for dancing so well." Sora knew he would be dancing a lot more often if this was the reward.

Was this how Roxas felt when he was with Axel?

"You'd better go home and get some rest. You'll need it for tomorrow." Tomorrow?

"DDR practise?" Sora asked, following Riku to the door dreamily. Think floating Sora with bubbly little hearts around his head.

Riku locked up the back door and checked it with one last, hard jerk. "Nope," he said with a grin. "I have other plans."

--------

School would be starting very soon, as Roxas reminded Axel. The tall redhead groaned and looked up at the blond with disdain. Roxas's knees shifted under his head as the younger of the two said, "I don't want to be reminded of it either but it's coming and there's nothing we can do."

"Mph."

Axel's eyes drooped in his sleepiness. (His body's only defense against the mention of school was to fall asleep.) Roxas jerked him awake with a rough grope.

"Whoa boy!"

"Just listen for a second! We've got a week and a half from today, and we're going to cram as much junk in that week as possible, which means no more watching TV at my house." There is no time like summer to make you feel guilty about watching TV. You know you should be outside having fun but…

"Alright, then I'll—"

"No watching TV at your house either." Axel's comfy pillow suddenly stood up and his head collided with the soft but not soft enough sofa. He groaned again and stretched out his impossibly long limbs. Roxas was pacing when he lifted his head, and he followed the motion with his eyes.

"I know there are Labour Day fireworks next Monday, and that's a week from now. So we'll be doing that."

"Who's 'we'?"

"All of us," Roxas answered condescendingly, because it should have been obvious. "We can even take Xigbar and Demyx."

"Demyx, yes. But Xigbar…?" The last person Axel wanted to spend recreational time with was that man. He was downright scary and now that Demyx was added to the mix Xigbar was also pretty much a pedophile, or maybe that was giving Demyx too little credit; after all, Demyx was eighteen and he may have been fun but he wasn't simple-minded. But he digressed.

"Xigbar's been doing a lot of cool stuff for us lately."

"Yeah…" The phone suddenly rang, cutting Axel short. Roxas darted off, his stocking feet sliding along the linoleum on his kitchen floor and he grabbed the phone off its hook as he slid past. While the blond made small talk with whoever was on the line Axel rolled off the couch and went in the same direction (sans sock/floor action) and leaned against the counter behind Roxas. When the latter rested against it, Axel leaned forward enough to hear what the voice in the phone was saying.

"I know mom definitely wouldn't let me or you go, but if we cover for each other it should be fine. If anyone asks we can just say Xigbar's our guardian."

"It's not like we're going to get drunk or anything," Roxas replied, rolling his eyes and effectively making Axel more interested in the conversation than he was before. "Party," Roxas murmured to him, cupping the phone in his hand. Oh, the redhead mouthed.

"And how did you find out about this thing?"

Axel didn't catch the reply but he heard Riku's name and the word "dude". It was then that he noticed Roxas's neck was bare and unprotected, its owner distracted, so he nibbled on it a bit, making Roxas's start and shudder. Besides this initial reaction Roxas ignored it, but Axel was more persistent than that. Much, much more persistent.

A tongue licked the shell of Roxas's ear and there was an exhale of hot breath. As if that wasn't enough, that was when the dirty talk began.

"I should just take you right here," Axel whispered. "Right now, while you're on the phone."

Ooh, ah. This was making Roxas very hot and bothered and he mentally willed Sora to shut up and hang up. So he did the next best thing—lied.

"Sora, I left a thing in the thing. In the oven! Gotta go. I'll get back to you on the party thing." There was a minor squeak of protest before the line faded into a dial tone, which was shut off violently when Roxas tossed the phone over his shoulder, grabbed Axel by the collar, and pushed their lips together, hungrily devouring the insides of his boyfriend's mouth.

"Don't you dare do that to me again," he hissed lustily. He tugged Axel so hard that the redhead had no choice but to climb on top of the counter. Roxas pulled him by his hips and even though Axel was much taller than Roxas (especially while sitting atop a counter) the older boy was more than willing to bend down and keep tying knots in the string of kisses passing between them. Roxas's warm body was between his legs, his tummy pressing into Axel's crotch. It was soon replaced with a hand, massaging in the way only Roxas could. He would only let Roxas do this from now on.

He wasn't exactly thinking about it (heaven knows any trains of thought had been stopped for the time being) but every time he and Roxas had gotten down and dirty, Roxas was the dominating one. In public the boy was an island, all stern brows and curt replies. Alone with the skinny, redheaded object of his desire, the blond took on a new persona, becoming a pent-up little sex god in a boy's body, hands teasing until Axel couldn't take it anymore, teasing to the point where Axel had to take a dominant position to get any sort of release.

And they hadn't even had real sex yet.

That was the amazing part of the relationship; Axel wanted to tell his friends, especially Riku, "Sex with Roxas is the best thing ever." But it wasn't sex, it was just playtime. Hardly innocent but undoubtedly playful kisses, touches, orgasms.

It wasn't going to reach that heavenly point today on Roxas's kitchen counter. Today was the day Sora wanted to show off his DDR skills and had also mentioned an end of summer party that Roxas was interested in, so it was in everyone but Axel's favour for them to show up to Arcanum and get the scoop.

While Axel drove the Jeep to the mall, he complained loudly and tirelessly about how he hated driving with a hard-on and Roxas told him that maybe he would do Axel a favour, right there in the car, if the redhead would shut up and drive. Axel called him a liar, Roxas groped him roughly, and finally Axel quieted, hoping for his sexual reward. A reward which, may it be noted, never came.

The mall was bustling with customers who were likely shopping for school clothes and supplies. Children were using the very last of their pixie stick energy to bother their mothers, who were wishing that school would start the very next day and get these bundles of joy out of their faces. Teens looked half anxious and half depressed (and perhaps a fourth happy, if you disregard the fact that this makes more than one whole. The author admits a deep hatred for math), comparing clothes and frowning about how the peach shirt definitely makes them look fat compared to the mauve one.

The sight that greeted them inside the arcade was both a different one from the usual and rather familiar; Xigbar had moved some of the machines around for the fall season (it made no sense, but people like variety) and Axel noted where all his favourite games were located. It'd been a while since he'd actually played a hardcore game. Now that Roxas was around, there were different hardcore things to be wanting.

The familiar aspect of the view was Demyx, swaying his hips with an MP3 player tucked into his pants and apparently his boxers as well, as the light blue plaid band of them stuck out. He moved as one who is not only used to body movement but very aware of it, always conscious of how they are positioned and how it looks, but knowing enough of it that it doesn't take effort for them to keep track of it.

Demyx gave them a smile and wave and a rude comment about the hickey on Axel's neck (a matching one was on Roxas but in a naughty place we won't name). He was sweeping the floor, as it was his chore, and please ignore the fact that this sentence rhymes a lot.

At the counter was a gloomy Xigbar, staring at the unaware Demyx with a look of pure devotion and frustration.

"I sense some tension!" Axel declared, resting an elbow on the counter and his chin in his hand. He cast a sidelong glance to the ruffled employee. "Wanna talk about it?"

Roxas, in the meantime, bounded off to see Sora. Sweaty and excited Sora who was about to have a heart attack from the strain of exercise but looked as though it was the most blissful way to hurt.

"Not with you, no," Xigbar gruffly replied. He flicked the string of his eye patch in agitation.

"Just go for it, man. You want it; it's in your sights. All you gotta do is go out there and claim it," Axel explained with a smooth movement of his hand (picture the 'good to go' gesture from Taco Bell). There was a sigh from the older man that told Axel exactly what he knew: he was right. Xigbar was suffering from a familiar thing called low self-confidence. Sometimes he felt ugly, like it was impossible to even want to look at someone so battle-scarred as he, and sometimes he thought he was desirable for the same reason. But Demyx was a young, soft boy with blue eyes and feather-soft hair and an attitude so lax it could give turtles a run for their money. And Xigbar was a beaten in old bat suffering from a Lolita complex. Only Demyx wasn't twelve, and he wasn't a girl.

Roxas, at the DDR machine, was surprised that there was no Riku in sight. Since he and Sora had met Axel and Riku, it was rare for him to see the brunet without a splash of silver by his side. It was obvious to the blond that Riku thought Sora was the most wonderful thing to walk the earth (Roxas had felt that way himself once upon a time until he grew out of it and decided best friends was better) and it was weird that he wouldn't be taking this opportunity to 'school' Sora. Even more obvious that Riku's affection was the fact that a lot of his teachings were useful only for allowing him to touch the brunet boy without complication.

Then again, Sora probably only stuck around for the lessons because Riku paid so much physical and otherwise attention to him.

Once more again, Roxas was digging far too deep into it. When Axel finally returned to his side, a wry grin on his face, Roxas made certain to quickly wrap an arm around his boyfriend's waist and ignore Axel's surprised glance. It felt good to have someone to love.

------

Was that good for you? It was definitely good for me. I can't guarantee updates every night like I used to do, but I will try my best! Please, PLEASE, bug me if I don't update for longer than four or five days. Seriously. My AIM screen name is poisonedtea13. Just send me an IM saying "YOU GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS AND UPDATE, HOBAG."

:D

And omg, why isn't the cool break line thing working? D: