Hey hey. ;P Next theme, up! -kicks it into place- Heh, heh. I personally don't think it's my best one, but we're all our own worst critics. I'll let you guys
be the judges. xP

By the way, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for everybody who's been reviewing! Special thanks to everybody who read the last chapter (by the way, yes, the 'guy with the freakiest-looking mullet ever' was Demyx).I got a bunch of nice reviews for that one (and apparently it started a lot of laughs on LJ
too xD) and it made me smiiile like a crazy person. :D Hope you all like this one, even though there's a bit of OOC-ness. Kekeke.

Theme: Rumor
Rating: T

"Hey Demyx."

"A-Axel?" Demyx blinked in stupor, looking the redhead up and down. "What are you doing here? We haven't hung out in like...a month."

"Yeah, well, Roxas wasn't around when I got up this morning and everyone else was busy, so I figured I'd come see you. So I'm visiting. Got it memorized?"

The blond's mouth hung open, but he closet it with a snap and let Axel inside. "Uh, well, I was just working on a song. Where is Roxas, anyway?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be here, now would I?" the redhead snarled. "On top of it, this is the fifth time this week he's disappeared like this. Every time I ask him what's going on, he never gives me a straight answer. WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM?"Axel exclaimed, shaking Demyx's shoulders roughly.

"Uhuhuh I-don't-know-quit-sha-king-meeeee."

"Hmph." Axel abruptly let go, sending an unexpected Demyx stumbling. "This is really pissing me off. Seriously, he always said he could tell me anything and now this!"

"Oh, calm down." Ha, easy for him to say; Demyx was always mellow. "If something really serious was going on, he'd tell you."

"Grrr."

"If you're that worried, how 'bout we go around and try to find him? He's gotta be in town somewhere."

"Arrguh." Axel heaved a sigh and started to pace, scratching the back of his head. Spend a day with Demyx, the world's most incompetent human being? However, if it was for Roxas, Axel would do just about anything--though he'd never admit it.

Finally he gave in, slumping his shoulders and plopping on the couch. "Fine. I just want to find Roxas and give him a piece of my mind."

"Great!" Demyx squealed, jumping up and clapping his hands together.

Axel just growled and rolled his eyes, which the blond ignored. "Where do we start?"

--

Their first stop was checking around the local mini-mall where there were a few restaurants, a bookstore, a clothing shop, and a jewelry store. It was actually pretty lame, but it was the closet thing within walking distance, and Axel had noted that every morning Roxas was gone, the car was still in the driveway. So in a nutshell...this would be the first place he would go to.

"So what are we going to do?" Demyx asked once he and Axel reached the parking lot. "Search around in each store, or what?"

"No," Axel answered, biting his lip. "We're going to hide in those bushes—" He pointed towards a line of shrubbery that cut off the parking lot from the street. "—And wait for awhile until we see Roxas. If we do, I'm going to jump up and bitch him out. Got it memorized?"

"Whaa...?" Demyx stuttered pitifully, trying to follow the redhead's plan, but didn't have time to think as he was forcefully shoved behind those stupid bushes.

"Now...we wait."

"Can I get some water?"

"Shut up. This was your idea."

Demyx frowned. Yeah, it was his idea to try and find Roxas, but not to hide in greenery like they were some kind of monkeys...heh, heh...monkeys.

"'Sup, dudes?"

Both guys let out a yelp of surprise and spun around to see a mutual friend, Xigbar, behind them. Xigbar was a totally tubular surfer dude, usually not seen on land unless it was on a beach, preparing to catch some waves. However, he had recently managed to scratch his eye with a plastic drinking straw (how, Axel would never want to know) and was wearing an eye patch until it healed, which kept him from his usual days of surfing.

"Hey Xigbar," Demyx greeted with a grin. "We're on a stakeout! Roxas has been disappearing and not telling Axel where he's going, so we're spying to see if we can find him!"

Axel sighed at the darker-haired man's incredulous look. "Something like that."

"Well dude, if you're looking for Roxas, check that jewelry place. He's been going in and out of there for days now."

Axel's mouth fell open. "What? Are you sure? Why would he go in there?"

"I dunno, but every time I see him, he's with what's-her-name. That one blonde chick."

Green eyes narrowed dangerously. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. He's totally in there right now with her. Are you dudes breaking up or something?"

"...No. Why?"

"Well, last time I saw them, he was having her try on a ring. That chick's got some tiny fingers if you ask me."

"..." Axel was beyond words. In fact, it felt like his heart had stopped; like he didn't have one at all. He knew who Xigbar was talking about—Naminé, one of Roxas' best friends.

He also knew that Naminé had been harboring a crush on Roxas for years.

"I gotta go," the redhead said quickly, jumping through the bushes and making a mad dash for the strip of stores.

Demyx cocked his head and shrugged, deciding to go back home and work on his song some more. He grinned at Xigbar. "Hey, wanna come over and listen to this song I've been working on?"

Xigbar grinned back. "Sure, dude."

--

Axel's heart still didn't feel like it was functioning properly, but maybe that was because he had been holding his breath so long, he was eventually forced to let it out in a big, choking gasp. Ugh.

He was standing right next to the front window of the jewelry store. He couldn't go inside in case Roxas saw him; but he did want to see if his lover was in there with Naminé or not. Hey, maybe Xigbar had been lying—that guy was known for not being totally all there.

Still, Axel had to know. With another shuddering breath, he slowly turned to inconspicuously glance inside the store.

He couldn't see anything at first due to glare, but after his eyes adjusted, he indeed saw Roxas standing at the counter, pointing to something in one of the display cases. Axel frowned. Naminé was nowhere to be found, but that was fine with him.

He had rejoiced too soon. As soon as Roxas moved a bit, Axel caught a glimpse of a petite blonde girl who had been hidden behind the boy. They were talking, but Axel was too busy staring at the scene unfolding in front of him to pay attention to the words.

Roxas was slipping a ring onto Naminé's finger.

--

"Are you sure it was Naminé?" Demyx asked with a frown. He ran his guitar pick through several strings, clearly torn between listening to Axel and going back to his song.

"Yeah." Axel heaved a sigh, burying his face in his hands. After seeing the two back at the mini-mall, the redhead had hightailed it back to Demyx's place, wanting to talk to somebody—anybody—about this whole mess and tell him he was overreacting. Why he chose to go to Demyx, he still didn't know.

However, Xigbar was still hanging out there, and while the guy talked like his brains were permanently sun-fried, he was actually pretty smart most of the time. You just had to get past the totally tubular accent to hear it.

"Well dude, are you going to talk to him about it?"

Except for now.

"What!" Axel was flabbergasted. "Are you crazy? If I ask him about it, he's going to find out I went to spy on him, which will make him think I don't trust him, which will make me look really stupid!"

"Dude, you'd be even stupider if you didn't talk to him about it. You can't just sit around and wonder, yanno?"

"Arrguh." Axel stood up, looking really, really pissed off. He clearly wasn't going to take Xigbar's suggestion even though it was good advice; the redhead was just too thickheaded to think clearly at the moment.

He sighed and made his way out the door. "I'm going home to think about this. This day never happened, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever dude," Xigbar replied, waving his hand nonchalantly. Demyx nodded enthusiastically, and Axel headed for home.

Too bad he didn't know that the musician's record for keeping secrets was zero and none.

--

"Blehhhhh." Axel groaned and flopped his head under a pillow, trying to get comfortable on the ridiculously uncomfortable couch in his apartment. Well, his and Roxas' apartment.

Oi. Roxas.

A week had gone by ever since the 'Oh-My-Gawd-Roxas-and-Naminé-Look-Like-They're-Totally-Together' incident at the mini-mall. During that time, Axel had hardly seen his spiky-haired lover boy at all due to his even more constant disappearances and their conflicting work schedules. The occasional peck on the lips or mumbles of 'g'nite' were hardly enough to reassure Axel that Roxas wasn't having an affair.

ARGUH! This was driving him absolutely mad. He knew he couldn't take Xigbar's advice and talk to him since one look at Roxas sent him melting into a puddle of goo—on the inside, of course. He couldn't really stay mad at the boy if his life depended on it.

"I'm hooome."

Speak of the devil.

Axel quickly sat up, sending the pillow that had been covering his head flying into oblivion. He blinked in confusion, staring at Roxas, the clock, and back and forth and back and forth until he finally managed to spit out a question: "What are you doing home so early?"

"Because...eh, never mind. Why are you being so mopey?"

"I wasn't being mopey," Axel grumbled.

Roxas just smiled and joined the redhead on the couch, picking up his feet and placing them carefully on his lap. Axel raised an eyebrow. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Answer my question first, flamer." Roxas never tired of using that nickname on the pyro.

"Feh."

Roxas sighed. "Well then, if you're not going to answer me, I have to tell you something."

The older man visibly tensed. 'Oh crap, this is it, he's gonna dump me and I'll have to move in with Demyx and listen to his whining all day and why the heck is Roxas smiling like that? WHY!'

The blond was indeed smiling, like something really amusing was going through his head. "So, today at work, my boss comes up to me and congratulates me on my 'new girlfriend'." Blue eyes met nervous emerald ones. "Have you been going outside in a skirt or something?"

"No!"

"And then when I was coming home, I happened to run into Demyx..." Axel's eyes widened and he started twiddling his thumbs nervously. He should've known. He should have known that an incompetent musician couldn't keep a secret worth a damn. "...And Demyx was asking me what was going on with Naminé and I..."

What the hell was Roxas doing? He almost seemed amused by this. Axel certainly wasn't; he still sat glued to the couch, feeling jittery. "He told me he saw me with her when you two were spying on me and he went on to tell Xigbar—"

"Er, Xigbar was with us." Roxas ignored him. "—Who told Vexen, who told Zexion, who told Marly, who told Saix, who told my boss, who told me. So now there's a rumor going around that part of the town's boy couple has gone straight."

How he had managed to follow that, he would never know, but Axel still managed to blink, totally stupefied. "B-but I thought that...you and Naminé...you kept..." Finally he got up from the couch, nearly kicking Roxas in the face in the process, and started pacing around the room. "You were putting a ring on her finger! What the hell was I supposed to think?"

"First of all, you weren't supposed to go and spy on me, you dolt." Roxas stood up and halted Axel in his pacing and placed his hands on the redhead's shoulders. "What happened to trusting me, hmm?"

"I...uh..." Axel could only stutter helplessly, but then jump in surprise as soft lips met his own, drowning out whatever he had been about to stammer.

Before the kiss could progress any further, Roxas suddenly pulled back and stared into those green eyes, a hint of amusement clouding his own blue orbs. "You really are an idiot," he said, pushing Axel back down on the couch. "Naminé's one of my closest friends. I'd never date her."

"She likes you, though," Axel pouted, crossing his arms and staring at the floor. He was starting to feel really stupid.

"Yeah, I know." Roxas flopped down next to his lover boy. "But honestly, no matter what she feels, she's like a sister in my eyes. That's why I asked her to help me."

Insert confusion. "Help you with what?"

"..." Roxas stared at Axel and bit his lip, clearly torn between wanting to laugh his head off or to punch the redhead in the face. He settled for a wide grin and took his boyfriend's, intertwining his skinny fingers with his own. "Seriously, did you have stupid with your breakfast or something?"

"No! What the hell is going on?"

"...Earth to Mr. Brainless." Roxas leaned forward and pecked Axel on the lips again, then lightly bopped him on the forehead. "It's our one-year anniversary."

"..."

"August thirteenth. I remember it like it was yesterday...I saw you in the window of that pizza place you used to work at, and one of the pizzas was in flames. You nearly set the place on fire...and then—"

"—You came in outta nowhere and used the fire extinguisher I didn't know was there," Axel finished, finally smiling a bit. He squeezed Roxas' hand. "Bet you regret it now, hmm?"

"Nah." Roxas tweaked Axel's nose with his free hand. "I haven't this whole year, have I?"

The little smile that had shadowed the redhead's face suddenly disappeared. "No, but...why did it look like you were giving Naminé a ring?"

That was Axel for you. Blunt and to the point.

To his surprise, though, this sudden question caused the blond to look away with a faint red tint staining his cheeks. Roxas definitely wasn't the blushing type, so it provoked Axel to raise an eyebrow in further question.

"I, um..." He scratched his temple sheepishly. "Well...you and Naminé have the same ring size, so I was...err...seeing how the ring looked on someone's finger instead of in a display case."

Axel, for once in his life, was totally speechless. He simply sat there totally stunned, until a light squeeze from their still-entwined hands shook him out of his shock. "You got me a ring?"

"Well, I was going to, but then I realized it was kinda dumb," Roxas explained in a rush. "You're not a ring kind of guy, and plus, most of the stuff in the jewelry store was awful. Real gaudy and all that." He let go of Axel's hand for a moment and reached into his pocket. "So I got you this instead."

A small black box was shoved under the pyro's nose, and he blinked for a moment before slowly taking it. This was all too much to absorb—just a little while ago, he had been convinced Roxas was dumping him for a girl, and now he was getting a gift in celebration of their one-year anniversary. A whole year...

Without another moment's hesitation, Axel flipped the box open. Sitting on a little bed of satin was a small silver charm that appeared to be half of a heart. "What is this?" he asked, picking it up in slight awe.

"An earring," Roxas replied nervously. "I, well..." He pushed a tuft of his spiky hair up, revealing the opposite half of the heart in his pierced ear. "Since I decided you weren't a ring kind of guy and all. So I got you an earring. Ha, ha."

Axel grinned deviously and quickly put on his half, realizing that it had been quite some time since he had worn any earrings. Not that he would need to now; he was never taking this baby off.

"You like it?"

"Hell yeah!" Axel was still grinning. "But just so you know, I'm going to embarrass the crap out of you for the next week."

"Why?" Roxas cried.

"For disappearing and making me worry so much!" Axel jumped off the couch and ran towards the closet, shuffling through several clothing items and finally pulled some out. He scampered towards the door, laughing like a maniac.

Roxas' eyes widened in panic. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh yes I would!"

"Axel! Axel, get back here! AXEL! AXEL! DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THE HOUSE IN THAT HALTER TOP!"

"What about the skirt?"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Heh, heh, heh."

--

Ahahaha. -falls over-

Xigbar is totally tubular. Lyke woah. o.o

Please review because you are all so awesome like that. ;D Hmm...I ran out of cake sooo...brownies for everybody! And I bet you didn't know that I
make the best brownies EVER. Yup. It' s a fact. xP Reviewer special:D