25.

"Axel, where are we?" They had been driving for little over an hour. Roxas didn't notice they weren't in Markham anymore until highway 401 where they were passing by Toronto. He never really stepped outside his own city, so his fair sense of direction was completely shot to hell.

"Why, am I making you nervous?"

"Yes." Why lie?

He laughed. "Well, currently we are in the city of Etobicoke (pronounced Eh-toe-bi-coh), a quaint little city part of the Greater Toronto Area."

"As is Caledon!" (The north-most-west city of the GTA. In other words: far, far away from home) "Where are we going?" Roxas looked somewhat like an impatient child. He might as well have been asking 'are we there yet?' But Roxas just wanted to know what was going on. His butt was not falling asleep.

"Come on, Roxy. Don't you trust me?" Axel pouted and blinked repeatedly, reminding Roxas of a chibi version of the redhead. Ergo, how could he not trust him?

Roxas crossed his arms and slouched in his seat and mumbled, "I guess." Axel smiled as the blond fumbled with the hem of his loose black t-shirt. "OH MY GOD!" Roxas shot up and pressed his face to the window. "What did that sign say? It said something like 'International' and 'Airport!' You really are kidnapping me!" He wailed, leaving streaks of condensation on the passenger side glass.

"You're so paranoid."

"I'm DOOMED!" Roxas slid off the window and buried his hands in his hair.

"Oh my God, FOOD!" His eyes lit up when Axel placed the steamy cheeseburger in front of his face. Usually he'd never eat this time of day but Roxas was up early and wasn't being distracted by school; his stomach was about to cave in.

"Hehe, eat up." Axel leaned against the open door of Roxas' side of the truck, smiling around his fries as Roxas stuffed his face. Roxas with puffy cheeks was just too cute!

They were at the Hamilton Waterfront Trail. It was kind of like a boardwalk with a couple of vendors here and there, joggers with antennas, people walking their dogs and others just watching the water in the cool March day.

"I grew up here, you know." Roxas desisted all chewing motions and looked up at Axel. He was in the city Axel started off in. He was learning more about him; something he'd forgotten to do what with keeping up appearances.

"Really." Don't sound too excited, he told himself. "Up until when?"

"Ten, I think? That's when Reno found us." He said all too casually. Roxas was very careful. Asking people about their families wasn't always such a harmless gesture. Especially when you automatically assume that everyone has one mommy, one daddy and they just had sex to have kids. Riiight…

But Axel spoke offhandedly, so Roxas just built his next sentence recycling his words. "What do you mean 'found us'?

Axel seemed to understand. Everyone in his posse knew about his history, but he had forgotten that Roxas was a new person in his life. The way they've been seeing each other, he could hardly realize they've only known each other for two weeks. "Oh, yeah. Reno's my half brother. Apparently my dad didn't know about him for fourteen years of his life and by then I was already riding bikes, reaching the light switch and stuff. Reno had been looking for him for a while, but when he found out he had me…" he shrugged his broad shoulders and pursed his lips. "M'not sure. I think I was too young to understand what actually happened." Axel turned wistful, looking out towards the steel mill across the harbour.

"Zack tried to be a good father to both of us after that. That's why we moved out of here; he took a job back home and everything. But after my mom died, Reno just, I dunno…" Axel scratched the back of his head as if trying to remember. "…up and left. Moved out at eighteen and started his own life down in Toronto." Axel looked back at Roxas; wide blue eyes staring at him like someone whose puppy had just died. He chuckled and ruffled Roxas' blond hair. This boy is way too sheltered. Was that a good thing? Or a bad thing? "Don't go feeling sorry for me now."

"I'm sorry!" Some people hated it when others felt sorry for them. Not good. "I just never knew, you know… that you had such an," what's the word? "intricate…past." Oh for fuck's sake. Talk about socially retarded. He wouldn't be surprised if Axel threw the pop can placed in his hand at his head and left him there in that strange city.

Axel guffawed. Roxy's so adorable when he's nervous! Even more when he's looking up at you with confusion as to why you're currently laughing. "Don't worry. I'm cool with it. I'm not one of those people who break down about their past once someone mentions it." He briefly recalled a Friends episode, season six, episode 21. "Plus, I'm pretty good with the way things turned out." He nodded seriously. "Dad met momma Aerith, the sweetest woman you could ever imagine, Reno got married and I think is expecting a little one of his own," he grinned. "I adjusted, made cool friends and," he tapped a finger on Roxas' nose. "met you." Roxas stared, quite dumbly at the redhead.

"I couldn't be happier." Axel whispered flirtatiously and kissed the boy. Roxas wondered, 'how did a couple of anecdotes turn into something…sexy?' Maybe Axel was just cool like that. He brushed away the thought, closed his eyes and returned the kiss. Mmm, Axel…

He smiled when they pulled apart. "Thanks for taking me here." It was nice to think Axel brought him to such an important place.

Axel laughed at the blond's assumption. "This isn't it."

"What?" He looked at him disbelievingly.

"This was just a pit stop." He closed the door and walked around to his own seat. "And I could hear your stomach over Jimmy Urine." Axel shook his head, turned on the ignition and drove out into the street.

"Oh! Please! No more MSI." Roxas begged. "I'll scream if you keep singing along to 'having been denied ultra sex.'" He rolled his eyes at Axel's choice of music.

Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon-Lon

"But my dear Roxy," he cooed and pinched the boy's cheek. "That's the point."

London Bridge! London- London Bridge! London- London Bridge ya muthafucken-shit.

Roxas narrowed his eyes and flicked the fingers off his face and pulled out his iPod. Just as he unravelled his earphones, Axel grabbed the device, stuck his iTrip in it and pressed play.

UH, UH, UH
(UH OH) YO nega gurido jar hejwogonman
gunyonun tonasso gujo barabogo isso nan
(YOU KNOW~) janin hage narur borigo odiro gani
gurido shwibge uso we irido bicham hanji

"Big Bang?" Axel looked back and forth from the road to Roxas with horror etched on his face. "Are you kidding me?"

(JUST KNOW) yogiso nan urosso nar jugyosso
ne yonghon majo burtawosso
(LET'S GO~) dwesso miryon thawin boryosso
(OOH~) nonun ugo issosso gu namja phumeso WOO

"What? They're a lot better than Mindless Self Indulgence." Roxas countered. "At least you can understand what they're saying."

Axel turned onto highway 403. "How the hell do you understand Korean?"

"You just memorize the English translation and link it to the common Korean words." DUH.

"And you'd rather do all that work than rock out to MSI?"

"At least they stick to one idea, one key and one beat!"

Axel just snorted and focused on the road. "Whatever. To each his own…"

"Clearly." Roxas started bobbing around in his seat, making shooing motions with the flick of his wrists. "Goodbye, goodbye baby, gujo gujo gujo gujo henbog hejwo nar chajimargo ~" Axel just grinned and admitted to himself: Roxas was a cuter version of G Dragon (especially now that his hair was blond).

The driver endured the next hour and a half of Number 1, This Love, Lies, Haru Haru, Strong Baby and the whole Heartbreaker album; most of which Roxas sang along with elaborate dance moves.

"OH… MY… GACKT…" Roxas pushed his nose up to the window. Water. Blue and white, misty water. People were taking pictures in front of it. People were looking down the cliffs where sprays dispersed. People were on a dinky boat getting close to it.

"Roxas, have you ever been to Niagara Falls?"

OMG I'M SO SORRY D:
I don't really have a good excuse for my absence.
Other than summer school and well.. writer's block ;-;
I got a 95 in math :D ?

Sorry for the wait. Hope you liked this chapter :]
Ho ho~! I've added more to my master plan D
Hopefully, you guys still love me :J

YHS
xDelfin