Somewhat early today. I have a reason. I just don't feel like telling you guys.

I'm still being a lazy son of a bitch.

So, reviews... No, Ven isn't Tifa's kid, he is Sephiroth's but neither of them know that and it's a long story, Seph is a huge creep, that was my intention, yes, I am a cruel person- I have to be, I'm a writer- Axel would have won if they completed the game... Roxas would never use the 'dumb blonde' excuse, and finally, Roxas' parents are only hiding one more thing from him, but you don't find out about it in this story and it's not important so... XD

:D

I'm sick of fanfiction. I've decided after Something about the Rain is done, I'm not going to write any more... So basically, you get the rest of Elephant, Something about the Rain, and my one shot that I need to finish for the person who got all the words right for chapter... I wanna say 30. Then I'm done. For now. Instead, I'll be working on my original trilogy. Yay.

Um... I probably have something else to say, but I can't remember... Oh yeah! Vote in the poll! I need to know who you guys want to learn more about in SATR.

Thanks for the reviews, please enjoy, review, and I'll see you guys next week.

~Sunechirei

Full Chapter Title: Are you going to kiss me, or do you need a written invitation?

It amazes me how little stuff I have. It only took two hours for me and Axel to pack everything I owned and move it to my new apartment. Actually, it really only took an hour, but no one was in the house at the time and Axel was being a stupid horny jerk.

Er... not really a jerk.

But that doesn't matter.

What does matter, is that I had finally packed up all my stuff and was finally moving out of my parents house. For the first time in my life, I was going to be completely independent. Well, as independent as you can get working for your father.

"Roxas, are you sure you don't want to live with me?" Axel asked, breaking through my thoughts. Sighing, I set down the last box I needed to move on my new apartment floor.

"Why do you keep asking me that? I'm not some pathetic kid. I can live on my own," I snapped, irritated. Axel had been acting so protective recently. I mean, he's normally protective, but ever since he found me an apartment, and I got it, he's been all over me. Pretty much every second of every day, Axel's been checking up on me, or been in the same room as I have. As nice as it was to be with my boyfriend, it was getting kind of annoying.

I did like my space.

"Well, sometimes you act like some pathetic kid," Axel muttered. "Especially when you were trying to find this place. You had no idea what to do."

"So, because I don't know how to look for an apartment, you've decided that I need to be baby sat?"

"I'm not babysitting you."

"Then what are you doing?"

It's like everything I say is taken in by Axel, twisted around in the weird ass mind of his, and inferred in some messed up way. Like, that last question I asked. I wanted to know what he would call being around me all the time other than stalking, and yet he somehow managed to make it seem like I was asking something else.

I have no fucking idea what he made it sound like I was asking, but the next thing I know he's kissing me. Except, it wasn't his normal, calm, dominate type kiss. It was more like he was telling me that he was going to keep me safe.

It only lasted a second.

"Ready to unpack?" Axel whispered, pulling me close to him. "It's going to take a long time."

All I could do was nod.

"Wow, Roxas has finally moved out of his house. I am amazed."

Ellie had this annoying teasing tone to her voice when she walked into my apartment later that day. I honestly didn't even know why she'd bother showing up. It wasn't like torturing me brought her any joy.

Oh wait. Yes it did.

And Riku joined her as well. I had a feeling the two of them had just come so they could make fun of me for having to unpack everything. It was just like them to strike as soon as I sent Axel away. As Riku had put it earlier this week at work, when he asked me a shit ton of random questions about Sora; the best predators wait until the danger is gone.

Yeah, Riku said that. Then he kept asking me questions about Sora, completely ignoring my own questions about why the two of them were fighting so much.

It was nearly impossible to get a straight answer out of the two. Or an answer, for that matter. Neither were talking, and it was really pissing me off. Axel too. He kept saying he couldn't figure out what happened between them. Ellie wasn't talking, Kairi didn't seem to know, and the two involved shut their traps whenever the subject was brought up...

Probably, Axel and I would never know what happened.

"What do you two want?" I asked, tempted to slam the door in their faces.

"Oh, just to see where you live." Was Riku's vicious reply. "I don't want to have to search through half the city looking for you next time I happen to become a kidnapper."

That caused me to close the door. And lock it. And never want to open it again.

"Hey! Roxas, he was kidding! Open the damn door! I need to talk to you."

"Only if you send that away," I told Ellie, with absolutely no intention of following through with my suggestion. On the other side of the door, I heard Riku let out a growl, irritated I'd called him a "that," and then Ellie scolding him.

"He's gone."

Honestly, I didn't believe her. Yeah, Ellie was normally honest, but she wasn't always, and she was also a lawyer. Lying was her specialty. But, I felt that I owed her for some strange reason. Maybe I still felt like I hadn't payed her back for telling me Axel was gay, or her telling me that he really loved me, which in the end, was the reason I realized I liked him.

So, I opened the door.

She'd been telling the truth. Riku really was gone. But, it didn't mean he wasn't hiding or anything, so I didn't waste any time grabbing Ellie's arm and yanking her into my apartment, then slamming the door shut.

Safe.

"Wow. Do you really hate Riku?" Ellie seemed to be on the verge of laughter for some odd reason. I rolled my eyes.

"No. I'm just currently worried for my life." If Riku was actually pissed because I'd called him a 'that', then I was completely screwed.

"You do realize that if he really wanted to kill you, a door's not going to keep him from getting at you."

"Thanks. Real assuring."

"You're welcome."

I became pretty lost in my thoughts as I led Ellie to the small kitchen to get her something to drink. I wanted desperately know what it was she wanted to talk to me about, and why she brought Riku along to talk to me. It was actually possible that Riku just followed her, but it was impossible to know with the two of them. Normally, I was pretty good at reading people, but not them. Especially not Ellie.

I think she and Axel are actually aliens from outer space who're here on a mission from their leader to castrate me and bring me back on a platter like some piece of meat.

That would explain why Axel was always so determined to get in my pants whenever he and I were alone.

Hm...

"No, Roxas, Axel and I are not aliens, and I honestly don't care if you have balls or not."

I blushed, not realizing that Ellie would guess what I was thinking, or be so blunt about it. But, it was in her personality to act that way...

"What do you mean?" I decided to feign innocence. You know, throw her off her course a little, make her doubt her annoyingly good people reading skills. The ones I think she stole from me. But, it didn't work, and she just laughed.

"Never mind. It's not important anyway." I could only watch as she sat down on the floor of my kitchen. It made me wish I had a table.

"Okay, then why are you here?" I finally managed to ask after a while, joining her on the ground. "Is there some reason why you just come here randomly with Riku then say you need to talk?"

While she sat there, completely silent, I began thinking about all the things she could talk about. The two of us hadn't really had a conversation since the hospital back in March, so there were a shit ton of things. First, she could question me about Axel, then lecture me, and so on. Another thing would be how work was going, though she seemed to sad and serious for that to be an issue. Of course, she could actually be here to tell me the reason Riku and Sora were fighting.

"Axel told me you ran into Terra and Ven when searching for an apartment."

Yeah... I wasn't expecting that. Why would she care if I met them or not?

"Uh huh. I did. Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

Ellie looked down at her hands, like she was hiding tears or something. "Did Axel tell you who they were?"

I was so confused. There was really no reason for her to be asking me this, and yet... Man, women are weird. "Kinda. He and Terra kind got into an argument, and I found out Terra tried to kill you, then Ven told me he was schizophrenic and that you didn't get along with them because they took Terra's side and-"

"Okay, okay. You know." She laughed quietly, shaking her head. "Damn. I told Axel not to let you know."

"Why would you do that?" I was hurt, to say the least. Why couldn't I know?

"I don't want you guys to know," she muttered. "Kairi and Sora don't know, and Riku just found out, right before Axel was released from the hospital. I don't like people knowing, even though it's really hard to hide."

Ellie was acting weird. Beyond weird. It was like she had been possessed or something. She was actually acting like some kind of human being, rather than a cocky freak of nature. I even think she was about to cry.

"Why is it so hard to hide?"

Then, she did the one thing I would never have expected Ellie to ever do in her life.

She took off her shirt.

Immediately I could feel heat rising in my cheeks, and I turned away, stuttering, "W-w-what the h-h-h-hell? W-why a-a-are you d-d-doing that?" Either she was coming onto me, or she was on something. Either way, Riku would kill me.

"Look at me, Roxas."

Hesitantly, I did what I was told, and what I saw shocked me.

Covering her stomach, upper arms, and parts of her chest were pale scars, going on all directions. Axel had said Ellie had been cut on her stomach and stabbed once, but he never said the wounds had been all over her upper body and that there was so many. It was eerie to see.

"Ellie..."

"I'm ashamed of these scars, Roxas. Every time I look in the mirror and see them, I'm not afraid of Terra; I'm ashamed that I wasn't able to see the signs. I look and I think I'm ugly, and deserving of them. So I try and hide them. I never go swimming, I won't wear tank tops or really anything revealing... I can't even look Riku in the face sometimes."

It was weird. The strong, hard ass Ellie I knew, and had kinda become friends with, wasn't really that strong at all.

"Why are you showing me this," I asked as she slipped her shirt back on. "It seems kinda random-"

"Because you know what happened to me, Roxas. You know what Terra did to me, and you know that Ven thinks I hate him. I don't hate him. Or Aqua. I can't be their friend, but I don't hate them."

Okay, Ellie wasn't making any sense. "What do you mean? If you don't hate them, then being their friend should be easy. Right?"

"That's what Terra told me. He said I should just forgive him for what happened," she sighed. "But, I can't forgive a person I've never blamed."

"What?"

"I've never been mad at Terra. A little scared of him for a while, maybe, but never mad." Like I said. No sense. "I can't be around the three of them because they expect things to go back to the way they were before Terra went nuts. Ven in particular, wants me to get back together with Terra, be part of their little group, move back to Departure, and just act like nothing ever happened. But that can't be like that. Things can never be normal for the four of us again."

Huh. I was seeing a side of Ellie I didn't know existed. I didn't realize that she could be so deep and thoughtful. Then again, I've never really had a serious conversation with her, other than in the hospital.

It was weird, knowing all this about her. She wasn't really a mystery to me anymore. It was more like she was just a person with issues, just like the rest of us. That was really nice to know.

"Hey, Ellie, I didn't know you and Roxie were so friendly." I jumped when Axel said this, so not expecting him to show up again after I kicked him out earlier. Ellie didn't seem phased at all.

"I'm just here to talk to him a little. But I'm leaving now." She stood, and I followed suit, saying I would walk her to the door while silently yelling at Axel for disobeying my orders and showing up again. His shrug let me know he wasn't sorry.

At the door, I said goodbye to Ellie. "See you tomorrow then," I muttered, feeling Axel's eyes on my back. Suddenly, Ellie's hands were on my shoulders, and she reached up to kiss my cheek. I heard Axel gasp, but my mind was pretty much gone. It reminded me of the first couple of months after I started work, where I was convinced Ellie had a crush on me. Why else would she just randomly kiss me? Even if it was on the cheek.

"Thank you, Roxas, for listening to me," she whispered, trying not to let Axel hear. "It's a shame you're an only child. You'd make such a good older brother."

I saw tears in her eyes as she bolted out the door, but I was in too much shock to chase after her. Plus, Axel had come up behind me and I was facing him.

"Roxas? Hello? Earth to Roxie! Wake up!" I could hear his voice, but it was really distant. Ellie had probably been on something. On a lot of things. Maybe drunk. Because there's no way Ellie in her right mind would take her shirt of randomly, then kiss me on the cheek. In front of my boyfriend. Who's her best friend. And cousin.

While thinking this, I looked up at Axel, then smirked, not sure what had come over me.

"Are you going to kiss me, or do you need a written invitation?"