"Roxas?"

It seemed that he'd been heard, even over the roar of the music that had so conveniently begun to flood the room. Axel saw the blonde's head turn toward him, though their eyes did not meet. The other man's gaze was hazy, weighed down by alcohol and...lust...

Pissed, Axel stormed over and grabbed him by the arm. The gesture earned him a wince, though the redhead was far from caring by this point.

"Roxas, what the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be looking after Kairi!"

Blue eyes blinked at him, trying to clear themselves, but the blonde's body reacted faster, attempting to squirm out of his hold.

"Huh? Whooza heckr yu?"

"Hey," came the brunet standing off to the side, clearly addressing the smaller of the two of them. "This guy botherin you, cutie?"

Roxas hiccuped, blinked, and then began to giggle.

"Nah, is cool. He's pretty hot, huh Terra? Maybe he should come vith us tonight, huh?"

Axel was fuming by now, even as Terra turned to the side and sized him up with an utterly shameless stare.

"Maybe...He doesn't sound too happy though, Blondie. Maybe we shos just leave im out."

"Awwwwww! But Terraaaa- Ow! Hey!" Axel had heard more than enough. He slammed the blonde's back against the wall of the club, just as the bass boomed from the speakers. Many of the surrounding dancers gave a wild cheer.

"Roxas, what the FUCK do you think you're doing?" The redhead had no idea whether to be angry or concerned. In all their time together, the blonde had never done something like this. He'd been a bit quieter lately, more than usual...did this have something to do with it?

"Hey, man! Lay off!" Roxas tried to shove him back but Axel refused to be jostled. He didn't let go. "Hey, stop it! Lemmme go!"

"Hey, dude, what the heck's ur problem? The kid says he doesn't like it."

Axel snorted, unimpressed even as the muscular brunet tried to step between them.

"This is between me and him," he hissed, shooting the man an icy glare. "Go get your booty calls somewhere else."

"Asshole!"

The drunken brunet lunged for him, knocking him away from the wall. Roxas slid down to the ground and dumbly watched them struggle for a minute, before he decided to do something.

"Help! Somebony call securite!"

Axel, meanwhile, tried to maneuver the taller man into a headlock. It was not an easy task though; the man was larger and well built, and his thrashing resembled a rodeo bull catching its rider by the horns. Axel could barely keep him on the ground, and that was only by pressing his whole body weight down on him.

Then Terra threw a punch.

The shot was aimed behind the man's head, straight at Axel, and it hit its target square in the face. Axel fell back, hands clutching at his throbbing, undoubtably bleeding nose. But just as he was starting to register the warm trickle and the dizzy tilt of his head, Terra was on his knees, punching him again. Soon, he shifted to his feet, and began really kicking the crap out of Axel.

The music began to slow as everyone took notice of the tussle. A couple of women screamed as foot met with face, stomach, arms, already leaving bloody or purple marks all over the man.

"You want some more, punk? Huh? Want some more?"

When he wasn't covering his head desperately, or his eyes weren't squeezed shut in pain, Axel looked up to see Roxas just standing there, caught between the haze of alcohol and this growing look of fear. His eyes were beginning to widen, lips parting in a silent cry of horror, as his casual flirt beat the ever-loving crap out of his boyfriend. And Axel wondered to himself: why?

He didn't look horrified for Axel. He seemed...horrified OF Axel...

"Look at me, damn it!"

The wailing wore on, until finally someone got the bouncers involved. Axel coughed and curled in on himself as they pulled Terra away, yelling at the two of them to break it up.

Axel's rage seethed. Break it up? He wasn't even fighting anymore, God damn it! He was taking the full brunt!

With one last effort, just as the brunet had begun to explain to the guys what had happened, Axel was pushing to his feet, raising his fist for one more blow...

It never made contact.

Axel gasped in pain as his wrist was tightly clenched in the fist of a tall, dark skinned man with...sunglasses? At night?

"That's enough, Red."

Another bouncer, a young woman, stepped up to him and smacked him lightly. "Yeah. We don't need you messing up our fine establishment here. Beating up our good customers." To her partner, she quipped, "Let's throw him out, Rude."

"Right." And Axel was dragged out of the place, past his gaping boyfriend, past the self-righteous asshole who'd won the fight.

And still, his friends were nowhere to be found.

The drag of shame was quick, and led to him being shoved out a door. Axel landed with a grunt, bruised face planted in the hard dirt. The girl in the doorway laughed.

"And don't you go trying to get back in! I've got my guys looking for you at both doors!" With that, the two turned away. The door slammed, and seconds later, the music was pumping back up to full volume again.

With a harsh groan, Axel lifted himself off the ground slowly, got unsteadily to his feet, and shot the club one final look. It flowed with so much emotion; shock, betrayal, shame, anger. But his look quickly turned cold and blank, and with a pained shrug, he slowly began to limp away. He never looked back once after that.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

He'd been wandering for a while now. 2 hours to be exact. But Axel still didn't stop. He didn't feel like going home, but at the same time, he didn't really have anywhere else to go but there. There was just no place he wanted to go right now.

Another buzz in his pocket. It was probably Demyx, texting him for the tenth time since he'd been kicked out of the bar.

"Goddamn it..." He knew he should answer, but he just couldn't right now. Didn't want to, didn't have to.

About three blocks later, and the buzzing was becoming a migraine. Begrudgingly, the redhead swore and thrust his hand into his pants pocket, harshly tearing the phone from it.

"God, what is it?" he snapped.

The voice who had just been trying to speak quieted. A few seconds later, it tried again hesitantly. "Axel?"

"This better be damn important, Sora. My night's gone to total shit, and your goddamn brother is an asshole."

"What?...Oh, so you've seen him?"

The redhead blinked. "Yeah, why?"

"Oh thank God! He hasn't been picking up all night! He left a little while ago; he should have been home by now!"

Axel rubbed his temples, breathing a heavy sigh.

"Where is he? Can you put him on the phone?...No, better yet, tell him to get his ass straight home now!"

"Sora, just...fuck off right now, okay?" At the brief silence on the other end, he sighed again. "I'm not his fucking babysitter, okay? He's a grown man. He can make his own decisions."

"But Axel-"

With a snap, the phone slid shut, ending the call. Finally, after hours of turmoil and fighting and wondering, Axel replaced the phone in his pocket, resigned. Finally he turned, and walked all the way home.