You'll find part 1 in chapter 13, and (as of 4/8/13) a part 3 in chapter 66.

Pausing mid text, Axel looked up as a nurse approached him.

"Are you the one who brought in Roxas Strife?" The redhead nodded as he got to his feet, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "He's awake and in stable condition. Doctor Gainsborough says he can take visitors now."

"Is his head alright?"

"Fortunately, he only required a few stitches. It's a relatively standard procedure; he shouldn't sustain any real damage. His arm is more of a pressing concern, however. It should heal in time, but he needs to be very careful to keep it set."

The redhead sighed, feeling beyond relieved. Roxas was going to be fine.

"Would you like to see him now?"

Now that was a trick question.

Axel did want to see him, but he didn't at the same time. He felt like he should see him, should even want to go to his friend and confirm that he was alright personally.

But he dreaded it too. He dreaded facing Roxas again.

He would need a definite answer to give the man. He needed to tell Roxas yes or no, one or the other, and to prepare himself to be firm, harsh like he had been before.

'Before I pushed him down the stairs.'

Axel was shaken now, slightly unsure. How could he hurt this man more than he already was?

"...Yes."

The other man nodded, motioning him to follow. As they walked, the nurse reminded him that Roxas was medicated and could be anywhere from emotional to confused to drowsy because of it, so take what he said with a grain of salt. Axel was only half listening.

They reached the room numbered 813, and the nurse paused, his hand lingering over the doorknob.

"Keep those things in mind when you see him, and try to remain calm if he does react. The doctor will be by soon, and there's a call button in the room, should you need it." The man opened the door a crack, poking his head in to speak to Roxas. "Mr. Strife, you have a visitor."

The blonde looked up as Axel entered, but quickly averted his gaze.

The nurse said that he'd leave them be, and very quickly he was gone. Then the room was quiet.

Axel scratched the back of his head, his feet shuffling awkwardly for a moment. They made a harsh squeak on the shiny tile floor, and he winced at the sound. Stopping the movement quickly, he stood still, almost rigid, looking down at the younger man with the best blank expression he could manage.

Roxas kept his head bowed slightly, eyes firmly on the hand nervously wringing the blanket over his lap.

Finally, the older man cleared his throat.

"Roxas..." When the blonde still didn't acknowledge him, he sighed. "Look, Roxas, I didn't mean for anything like this to happen. Any of it. I'm sorry."

The younger man blinked, his eyes beginning to shimmer with unshed tears. He did not look up.

"Please understand me, Roxas. I never meant to hurt you. You're my friend."

"Am I?" Axel paused, a bit shocked by the hoarseness of his voice. Maybe it was the drugs. Unaware that he had been looking away when he spoke, Axel turned, meeting sad, lonely blue eyes. Despite himself, the redhead noted how gorgeous they were, even now.

"Please don't be this way. Part of it is probably the meds, but I know you feel strongly about this anyway-"

"Do you?" the man accused softly, his gaze never wavering. Axel growled with frustration.

"Roxas, for God's sake, there is nothing I can do about it! I can't control who I have feelings for!" So much for remaining calm.

"So you never had feelings for me?"

Axel looked at the floor. He did have feelings, but how could he admit that? If his friend still had hope for their "relationship," he would cling to it. As much as he didn't want to hurt the man, he couldn't do that either. He chose Namine.

The blonde made a soft sound that Axel couldn't place. It sounded like a sob, but also... like a laugh too...Or was it neither?

"You played me all this time..."

"I didn't know, Roxas!" he shouted back, startling the younger man. "I didn't know you felt so strongly! You know me! I'm dense as fuck! I assumed we were just friends goofing around!"

"I...I told you things...I confided in you, and gave myself to you!" Roxas shouted back, as hot tears spilled down his cheeks. "I gave you my heart, and you thought I was just 'goofing around'?"

"I didn't know! Jesus, Rox, close friends talk about shit all the time!"

"CLOSE FRIENDS DON'T FUCK, YOU ASSHOLE!"

"THEY DO IF THEY'RE FRIENDS 'WITH BENEFITS!'"

Roxas pitched forward and cried into his hand. Stunned for a moment, the redhead watched him, unable to speak or even move. He had known the younger man for years, practically since they were in grade school, but never before had he seen him look so young. Vulnerable. The blonde looked so beaten and heartbroken.

How could he have misread everything so badly? Was he going to lose his best friend?

Or was Roxas only manipulating him? He had to be thinking he was fighting a losing battle. Maybe...was this one last-ditch effort to undermine his friend's happy marriage?

Suddenly, a new person was hurrying into the room. It was Doctor Gainsborough, a young doctor with long, braided brown hair tied back with a pink ribbon. She took one look at the situation and sprang to motion, past the immobile Axel, moving to hold and comfort her hysterical patient. A mother of four, she was never one to stand on ceremony, even with patients.

"It's alright, sweetie. Calm down." Cradling the blonde's head gently against her shoulder, she leveled a harsh look at the visitor, an expression that such a kind woman theoretically shouldn't be capable of.

"Just what did you say to him?"

Taken aback, the redhead looked between the two people by the bed, shocked.

"Nothing! I-I wanted to make him understand! I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"

"Haven't you done enough to this poor boy?" She continued to soothe Roxas, even as he trembled so violently in her arms. "I am told you were the one who injured him. I admired that you would own up to it and stick around to make sure he was alright, but apparently I was wrong to think so highly. I can see now that you are a selfish individual who only acted to assuage yourself of your own guilt."

"That's unfair and untrue!" he urged, taking a step towards her angrily. "I tried to end things peacefully, but he wouldn't let it go! Maybe it is selfish of me to expect things to go back to how they were! I can accept that now! But I don't care how much it hurts; I'm not going to sacrifice my happiness so that he can pretend!"

Roxas went rigid; the quickly following silence so biting that Axel could feel it like it was real. It was almost palpable, the tension in the air, as that all too memorable face turned toward him, now twisted with sadness.

He hadn't meant that to come out that way.

Hollow eyes found his, and Axel shivered. He was alarmed by how lifeless they suddenly looked, so different than the sparkling blue that had so often captivated him.

Now, those eyes looked nothing like Namine's. And the tight feeling that had begun in his chest suddenly throbbed.

He was washed with dread, sorrow, longing, regret, and his own personal emptiness. He vaguely realized that his cellphone was vibrating. No doubt his fiance, wondering how much longer he would be.

He didn't move. His eyes were locked with Roxas's.

"A-Axel..."

The voice beckoned him, but his heart was clenched with an overwhelming need. To run. Run as far away as he could. Screw dinner. Screw anything. He just had to get out of here.

He couldn't face this.

Hastily he nodded to the doctor and began to zip up his coat. "I-I should go. I'm sure other visitors will be here soon. I shouldn't make them wait-"

"T-That's wrong!" Roxas suddenly cried, startling him as he'd been turning to the door. Axel looked back, eyes wide as his friend squirmed out of the doctor's arms. "If you walk out that door, Axel Flynn, i-it's over! All of it!"

"That'd probably be best," he replied softly, resuming his leave.

"N-No! Wait, please! I-If you leave, I'll have no one anymore! W-Where will I go?"

The redhead scoffed as he reached the door. "Home, to move on with your life, like you should."

Roxas shook his head and sobbed. "I have no home anymore!" Roxas sobbed into his hand again. "I have n-nowhere to g-go!"

Axel paused, turning back to look at him. Some of the life was back in those eyes, but that just pained him all the more. He had to go, now.

'But...no. I can't just leave him.' There was so much more to say, wasn't there?

Doctor Gainsborough looked away, as if she was terribly unnerved to be here at this moment. Knowing that she was intruding on something deeply personal, she stood and informed them she would be just outside. If there was any more hysterics, she would intervene again, and Axel would be made to leave. With that, the woman tucked her long, thick braided hair back over her shoulder and left the room.

Reluctantly, the redhead came over to the bed and sat down on the end, not looking but listening.

"Tell me." 'No, don't tell me. Please, please don't tell me.'

Roxas swallowed nervously.

"E-Earlier, I, uh, t-told my parents about you. U-Us." Axel's eyes widened.

"Why?" He knew his friend's parents, but he'd never liked them much. Not much more than his own parents, really.

He had never figured out why Roxas had chosen to live with them after college. Axel had moved out the second he got the chance, though he kept in contact with his folks once in a while. He'd offered to help his friend, let him move in until he found a job and a place of his own, but Roxas said over and over again that he didn't want to trouble him. His parents didn't mince words about it inconveniencing them, though. They were born again Christians, and had always been very critical and manipulative.

"I told them that I was gay, because I just couldn't live like that anymore. Th-they freaked out. Mom was crying, and Dad started shouting." Roxas pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly with his good arm. He began to cry a little.

"H-He threw things at me. He went to my room and s-smashed my pictures. I t-tried to stop him, but he threw some of those at me too. He called me a f-faggot and..." The younger man paused, wiping his nose which had begun to sniffle loudly. Thankfully, he wasn't to the point where his sobs made all the words indistinguishable.

Hesitantly, Axel placed a comforting hand on his knee.

"They k-kicked me out and told me not to come back. I t-tried calling my uncle, but he wouldn't take me. I've been living with S-Sora and Kairi, but they're getting sick of me being around all the time." The redhead winced. Their friends Sora and Kairi had recently gotten married, and they were just starting out together on their own. They were nice, but he could imagine them wanting time alone together and that being awkward with Roxas there.

He patted the blonde's knee until he'd calmed a little. Finally, Roxas sighed.

"I got a hotel in the area, but I don't have much money left. My savings account was set up when I was a minor, and Dad is making it hard to access."

"Roxas, why didn't you tell me it was this bad? I could have helped you."

"You stopped answer my texts and calls, remember?" He winced again at the bitterness his the younger man's voice. "I didn't want to bother you at first, but then when I finally worked up the courage to tell you everything, I couldn't get a hold of you. Then you told me about your engagement, and I just couldn't. Not at first."

Axel was shocked. Not only had Roxas loved him for so long, and his feelings had been ignored, but then all this...

It was too cruel.

He looked up to see Roxas raising the short sleeve of the hospital gown, revealing a few dark bruises over the cast of his arm. The redhead gaped at them.

"Dad grabbed me," he said softly, before crossing his hand over his chest. "I have one or two smaller ones here from him throwing things at me. He missed a lot, but there was one book that got me." He laughed weakly. "Must have been grandmother's bibl-"

Roxas cut off with a gasp as Axel pulled him into his arms, crushing him in a tight hug. The blonde looked up at him, more than a little frightened, but he shook his head, clenching his eyes against the tears and just held him.

"God, Roxas...I'm so sorry," he said softly, starting to sob himself. "I'm so, so sorry." While he'd been off seeing someone else, he had ignored his friend's feelings and hurt him so terribly. Had he known all along, and just told himself it was just Roxas being clingy? Had he hidden from him because he was confused?

Or was he afraid he felt the same thing?

Both of their parents were homophobic, and the more he thought about it, the more Axel wondered if maybe he'd been fighting that label. He didn't want to give in to it, because once he did, everything would change.

It already had for Roxas.

He felt the smaller man slowly hug him back, softer sobs reaching his ears again. They were not his alone.

"I l-love you, Axel. I love you so much..." He pulled back slightly, and Roxas smiled shakily, sadly. "You knew...even when we were little, you cared about me. You were always so kind to me, and a caring friend who stood by me...at least until now..."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I love you, Roxas!" he urged, pulling the other back into his warm embrace. "I do...I guess I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to return your feelings, or to make things...public, you know?" Some of their friends would be supportive, but he was sure they would have lost some. And his family...

"Then why? Why are you getting married?"

"I...I don't know. But I won't. I-I won't, not anymore," he replied, soothing the blonde as he brushed the hair from his face. "I couldn't. Now I know that I denied those feelings outright. I didn't just want to hide them, I wanted to physically push them away. Even if the sex was good, I didn't want to admit that it...it could mean..."

Who was he kidding?

Roxas blushed deeply, raising his eyes beseechingly. They longed to trust his words...

"Y-You said it was good, but then you would be so cold. You never wanted to hold me after we-"

Axel cut him off with a deep kiss. Their tears mingled between them, Axel's moved by his selfishness and his new, overwhelming love for Roxas. How could he have been so blind?

He pressed deeper, trying to be gentle and loving even as he was consumed by passion. He wanted to shove away all of the fear he had caused, replace it with the love and care his friend- no, his lover, so deeply deserved. Axel caressed those chapped lips with his own, hoping he was doing it right. But Roxas responded with fervor, pressing back into the contact and tangling his fingers in dark, red locks.

'Roxas...'

They stayed that way for some time, swept up by the love. The openness and truth of their feelings. It felt nothing like Axel's kisses with Namine, the one had supposedly loved.

Roxas pulled back finally, gasping for breath. Axel was panting, somehow suddenly hovering over him on the bed. Careful not to move his arm, the taller man steadied himself and sat back slowly, scanning that sweet face. Not so like Namine's anymore.

No. So much more beautiful.

"I promise you, I won't be an insensitive ass any more." He firmly gazed into Roxas's eyes, hoping the other man could see how honest and serious and just fucking sorry he was.

"Please," the blonde whispered, reaching his good hand out to clasp their fingers together. "Please don't stay with me, and break another heart, just because you pity me."

Axel gave a soft, dry laugh. His lovers deserved so much better than the likes of him. So much better.

"I may be the worst douchebag on the face of the planet, but I won't do that."